CHAPTER IX

LEISLER

THE story of the so-called Leisler Rebellion illus-
trates the difficulty of sifting conflicting historical
testimony. Among the earlier chroniclers of New
Netherland there is the widest difference of opin-
ion about the chief actor in the drama. Leisler
was "an illiterate German/' says one authority.
Another says: "He was the son of a French clergy-
man driven into exile, and making his home in
Frankfort where the little Jacob was born. The
boy was taught to write and speak Dutch, French,
an4 German; but being unskilled in the English
tongue he was unjustly charged with illiteracy.'*
By one party he was branded as a vulgar dema-
gogue ready to ally himself with the mob against
the conservative citizenry. By another he was ac-
claimed as the champion of the people's rights and
religion when they were threatened with invasion
by the minions of the perfidious Stuarts.

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