accomplishment of great deeds under adverse circumstances, I hasten to notice, though briefly, an individual who long bore a conspicuous part in the affairs of our active population, and whose life and trials may be set forth as an instructive instance of personal warfare against conflicting elements. I allude to
There must still be among us some few old Knickerbockers, whose recollections of some thirty-five years ago may bring him before them. The young men of the present day may have heard their fathers talk of the little weather-beaten old man, small in stature, and attenuated in frame, of weight some one hundred and ten pounds avoirdupois, who existed by his telegraph on the Government-House at the Bowling-Green, and his telescope in the Park.
Colles was by birth an Irishman, and, losing his parents when quite young, accident placed him under the care of the renowned Richard Pococke, the oriental traveller, and afterward Bishop of Ossory. The pursuits of Pococke led the mind of his adopted student to physical investigation, and, it would appear, that to considerable attainments in languages he added a fair acquaintance with mathematics, mineralogy, climate, antiquities, and geographical science. Shortly after the death of his patron, in 1765, inspired with the travelling propensities of his instructor, he set out a wanderer from his native land, and we find him about the year 1772 engaged hero in delivering a series of lectures on the subject of lock navigation. He was the first person who suggested canals, and improvements on the Ontario route. In November, 1784, according to the records of the Assembly, he presented a memorial on the subject, and, in April following, a favorable report was had thereon. Colles visited the country, and took an actual survey of the principal obstructions upon the Mohawk river as far as Wood Creek. He published the results of his tour in a pamphlet from the press of S. Loudon, 1785. "The amazing extent of the five great lakes," says Colles, "to which the proposed navigation will communicate, will be found to have five times as much coast as all England; and the countries watered by the numerous rivers which
