58 DUTCH AND ENGLISH ON THE HUDSON

the Doubter," we must turn again to the testi-
mony of Knickerbocker, whose mocking descrip-
tions have obtained a quasi-historical authority:

This renowned old gentleman arrived at New Amster-
dam in the merry month of June. ... He was exactly
five feet six inches in height and six feet five inches in
circumference. His head was a perfect sphere and of
such stupendous dimensions that Dame Nature, with
all her sex's ingenuity would have been puzzled to
construct a neck capable of supporting it: Wherefore
she wisely declined the attempt and settled it firmly on
the top of his backbone just between the shoulders. . . .
His legs were short but sturdy in proportion to the
weight they had to sustain so that when erect he had
not a little the appearance of a beer barrel on skids. His
face, that infallible index of the mind, presented a vast
expanse, unfurrowed by any of those lines which dis-
figure the human countenance with what is termed ex-
pression. . . . His habits were regular. He daily took
his four stated meals, appropriating exactly an hour to
each; he smoked and doubted eight hours, and he slept
the remaining twelve of the four-and-twenty.

A later historian, taking up the cudgels in behalf
of the Director, resents Knickerbocker's impeach-
ment and protests that "so far from being the
aged, fat and overgrown person represented in
caricature Van Twiller was youthful and inex-
perienced, and his faults were those of a young