68 WASTE-LAND WANDERINGS. 



other colors. All, like the Assyrian's cohorts, were gleam- 

 ing with purple and gold. But if not flowers of other 

 hues, there were stately trees in abundance, and here 

 the lindens and hornbeams gave place to sycamores, wil- 

 lows, swamp white-oaks, birch, sumac, locust, butternut, 

 and hickory. A greater contrast in foliage could not 

 well be imagined than these trees afforded. 



Passing through a small forest of the trees mentioned, 

 I came to the scanty remaining traces of a once busy 

 place. Two hundred and one years ago Matthew Wat- 

 son, having spent two years in the village of Burlington, 

 after his arrival from England, came to the south bank 

 of the creek and finding it a " goodly spot, well worthy 

 of settlement and cultivation," did purchase the same 

 forthwith ; builded a " most comfortable and generous 

 house," and put under cultivation " rich acres on every 

 side, excepte where the Creek runneth, on my north- 

 bounds, and here have I builded of stout oaken logs a 

 most commodious and well appointed wharf ; and from 

 it, there is dispatched each weeke a shallop of 40 tons 

 burthen, also builded of oaken timber, cutte from my tim- 

 ber tract." So runs the record, and in 1703, when Mat- 

 thew died, there was no busier site on this same creek. 

 But prior to this the spot had not been a forsaken wil- 

 derness. An Indian trail from the Delaware, across the 

 State to the sea, crossed the creek quite near, and the 

 narrow path was marked at the top of the " bold north 

 shore" by an enormous tulip -tree, which reaching far 

 above the surrounding forest growths, was a landmark 

 to be seen for many miles. The bluff here was less 

 steep than usual, and for an acre or more was covered 



