226 HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.

to draw the curtains of the window at the hour he fixed to rise. There was generally one room in which all the guests were received, and where there was a pleasant reunion in the evening, and all the visitors ate, drank, and smoked. It had in one comer a closet, which, when opened (and, honestly, it was not unfrequently opened), disclosed sundry decanters, glasses, and black bottles; and, on one side of the room, a rack in which were suspended, by their bowls, a score or two of very long pipes, each one inscribed with the name of a neighbor, its owner. This was the room of Mynheer, the landlord, who found all his occupation here in attending to the pleasure of his guests. He had no care beyond this: his vrow was the head of the house; she attended to all the wants of the gues's, and gave them the information which they might desire. She was always on the spot, as when, with a ‘wel te rusten,’ like a good mother, she bade you good-night, and when, with a ‘hoo-y-reis,’ like an old friend, she bade you good-by.”

A very interesting description of the manner in which the old farmers of Breuckelen lived, is given by the Labadist travellers, who visited this country in the year 1679. Among others, they visited Simon de Hart, whose old house is yet standing near the Gowanus Cove, at the foot of the present Thirty-eighth street.

“He was very glad to see us, and so was his wife. He took us into the house and entertained us exceedingly well. We found a good fire, half-way up the chimney, of clear oak and hickory, of which they made not the least scruple of burning profusely. We let it penetrate us thoroughly. There had been already thrown upon it, to be roasted, a pail full of Gowanes oysters, which are the best in the country. They are fully as good as those of England, and better than those we eat at Falmouth. I had to try some of them raw. They are large and full, some of them not less than a foot long, and they grow sometimes ten, twelve, and sixteen together, and are then like a piece of rock. Others are young and small. In consequence of the great quantities of them, everybody keeps the shells for the purpose of burning them into lime. They pickle the oysters in small casks, and send them to Barbadoes and the other islands. We had for supper a roasted haunch of venison,