Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Chapter II. Youth of Philip Schuyler.—The French and Indian War. SCHUYLER had only Dutch blood in his veins. Fourth in descent from Philip Pieterse, he was grandson of Captain Johannes and son of Johannes, Jr., Indian Commissioner and Mayor of Albany. Born November 1 1th, 1733, he lost his father when eight years of age and was brought up by his mother, Cornelia Van Cort- landt, partly at her house in Albany and partly at The Flatts, where Aunt Schuyler's model household was a second home to him. The surroundings of his boyhood were such as to develop the practical and hardy qualities necessary for success at a time when there was no specialization of activity, when a leading man had to be an adept not only in one but in various employments. Shooting and fishing were the natural amusements of the boy; to handle a horse or a canoe, to sail a sloop, to tread alone without fear the forest paths, became matters of course. Of moral training he had the best kind in the example of the simple and high minded lives which were lived about him in the family circle at The Flatts; and the religiousYOUTH OF PHILIP SCHUYLER impressions then made upon his youthful character were strong enough to endure as guides of conduct throughout a long life. Of the education to be derived from books, young Schuyler received a share unusual at that time, and equalled only by the advantages of the few graduates of Yale College in the province. A Huguenot tutor taught him until he was fifteen years old, when he was sent to New Rochelle, the home of the Huguenot refugees, and placed in charge of the Rev. Mr. Stouppe, the pastor of the French Protestant church. There he remained for three years in close application to study and learned to speak French, then an unusual accomplishment for a provincia...