CHAPTER VII.

THE DUTCH SETTLERS AND LATER COLONISTS.

TH

HE attempts of the Dutch to colonize the New World were but an episode in its history, for the Dutch supremacy in New Amsterdam lasted only seventy years, and that brief period was interrupted by nine years of English rule. The Dutch claim to any portion of the country rests on the discoveries made by an English navigator, temporarily in the employ of the Dutch East India Company, Henry Hudson, referred to by Dutch writers as Hendrick Hudson. This discoverer was unknown until 1607, when he was first employed by a company of London merchants to search for the northwest passage to the lands of the Grand Khan, which Columbus also had sought. He made unsuccessful voyages, in 1607 and 1608, and the merchants did not engage his services again. He therefore made his third voyage under the auspices of the Dutch East India Company, intending to find China by the northeast passage which Sebastian Cabot had sought in 1553, about half a century before. The climate proving too severe for Hudson's men, he crossed the Atlantic to the coast of Maine, which he explored, and on the second of September, discovered the mouth of the river that has since borne his name.

Flow fair beside the Palisades, flow, Hudson, fair and free,
By proud Manhattan's shore of ships and green Hoboken's tree;
So fair yon haven clasped its isles, in such a sunset gleam,
When Hendrick and his sea-worn tars first sounded up the stream,
And climbed this rocky palisade, and, resting on its brow,
Passed round the can and gazed awhile on shore and wave below;
And Hendrick drank with hearty cheer, and loudly then cried he:
""Tis a good land to fall in with, men, and a pleasant land to see!"

Hudson sailed up the river with a hope of finding the passage to China, and when he had arrived at the head of navigation, went some miles farther in a small boat. He afterwards explored Delaware Bay, and returned to Holland. In 1610, he set out on his fourth voyage. He found the strait and bay that bear his name, and was preparing to winter, when his seamen mutinied and abandoned him in an open boat. He was not heard from. Like La Salle and De Soto, Hudson gave up his life in the steady pursuit of daring schemes of discovery.

MANHATTAN ISLAND PURCHASED.

127

Very little was done by the Dutch in the way of colonization for some years. In 1610, a few traders. had operated on the river, and in 1613, four small houses were erected on Manhattan Island. The Dutch West India Company was chartered in 1621, and in 1624, or thereabout, entered into possession. The first colony that was actually established was composed of Walloons, Protestant refugees, who sought an asylum in the New World. They were aided by the West India Company, and established themselves on the western shore of Long Island, in 1623-24, naming their settlement Walloon Bay. In 1623, a fort was built where Albany now stands and another on the Delaware.

In 1623, Manhattan Island was bought of the Indians for twenty-four dollars, and under the direction of Peter Minuit, the first Dutch Governor, small settlements were begun on Staten Island, Long Island and Manhattan Island. In 1629, more extensive movements were made. The company granted large tracts to persons called Patroons, who were endowed with feudal rights. One of these was Kiliaen van Rensselaer, whose territory was twenty-four miles by forty-eight in extent, comprising the territory of sev eral counties around Albany. Other Patroons were Samuel Godyn, Samuel Blomaert, and Michael Pauw, who like van Rensselaer, were directors of the Amsterdam chamber. The two first mentioned began a settlement in Delaware, in 1631.

Before the capitulation of New Amsterdam to the English under the command of Colonel Richard Nicolls, acting for the Duke of York, afterwards James II., there were four Dutch Governors, the last of whom

was the renowned Peter Stuyvesant. The territory was all the time claimed by England, and there were troubles between the colonists representing the two nations; especially was this true in the case of the settlers in Connecticut. The Dutch traders penetrated both Connecticut and Massachusetts, and in 1627 the Governor of New Amsterdam was asked by Governor Bradford of Plymouth to restrain his people from trading in the neighborhood of the English. The

boundary question was not settled until 1650, when one half of Long Island was conceded to the English, and on the mainland the line between Connecticut and New York was drawn about where it now exists.

Stuyvesant ruled New Amsterdam with rigor and arrogance, but he was the greatest of the Dutch governors. It was in 1652, during his time, that New Amsterdam received its charter, and became the

THE FIRST AMERICAN CITY.

first city organized in the United States.

129

The fashion

of regulating religion was not confined to New England, but in New Amsterdam, also, Lutherans we e fined and imprisoned, Baptists were fined and banished, and Quakers were tortured. It is to the credit of the powers at home that when they heard of the actions of Stuyvesant in this respect, they censured him and restrained him from further oppression of dissenters. The sufferings in the Netherlands from the Spaniards who tried to force Romanism upon them may have had its effect in this case, though it is not always true that those who have suffered in this way are ready to pity other sufferers who do not agree with them.

Meantime a settlement was planned with more generous aims than any yet formed. Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, before his premature death on the field of Lutzen, had been filled with grand thoughts regarding the opening for the progress of Protestantism presented in America. He looked upon the settlement that was to be, as the brightest jewel of his kingdom, and his minister, Axel, Count Oxenstierna, founded Fort Christina (near Wilmington, Delaware) in 1638. The colony was unfortunate in having for its director, Peter Minuit, who had been sent away from New Amsterdam in 1632, and in being composed largely of convicts from the prisons of Sweden and Finland. It was also immediately involved in difficulties with the Dutch, who claimed the territory on which it was situated. The colony was increased from time to time, but its life was not robust, and in 1655, it succumbed to the superior force of Stuyvesant, and many of the settlers returned to Europe. The city of Amsterdam