ageous companion. Mey had gone farther south and had explored Delaware Bay.1 The Dutch Trading Company.-When the discoveries of Block and his associates were made known to the company, that body asked for a charter guaranteeing to them a monopoly of trade. The grant gave them exclusive trade rights for three years in New Netherland, a region defined as "between New France and Virginia." The charter was renewed from time to time till 1621. The company was very active in commercial lines, but did little for agricultural settlements. Christiansen is said to have made "ten voyages "" to Manhattan. He was followed by other agents. Year by year the value of these trading expeditions increased. In 1617 another fortified storehouse was built near the ruins of Fort Nassau. Treaty with Indians.-There, in 1618, the Dutch made a famous treaty with the Iroquois, who “buried the tomahawk at a spot where the Dutch promised to build a church so that it could not be dug up." In their greed for furs the whites traded firearms and fire-water for them. These children of the forest danced with glee and loudly boasted that the scalps of every Frenchman and every Algonquin in Canada would soon be dangling at their belts. This friendly relation lasted during the Dutch period (1664) and was continued by the English. The Iroquois were always the warm allies of England-even in the American sen's men who had gone up the Mohawk, crossed over to the Delaware and were descending it. 1 One of the two capes guarding the bay still bears his name. Revolution and formed a barrier against attack from Canada. The English Puritans who had been driven to Holland by persecution soon heard of the fine valley of the Hudson. James I. refused them permission to settle on English soil in America, with a guarantee of religious liberty, so they turned to the Dutch fur-dealers for aid. Early in 1620, however, the States General refused them permission to settle in New Netherland. This was because the Dutch government feared an English colony in the midst of their new province might strengthen the claim to that region already made by England. Therefore the Puritans went to New England instead of to New Netherland.1 CHAPTER IV.-NEW NETHERLAND RULED BY A The West India Company.-The great wealth of this new land led to the formation of the West India Company in 1621. In addition to extensive trading rights, it was clothed with an exclusive and almost unlimited power to plant colonies and to govern them.2 Until the company organized and began to act in 1623, voyages were made to New Netherland under special permits from the States General. 1 The grant given by King James to the Council for New England in 1620 included all of New Netherland. By accident the Mayflower, intended for Delaware Bay, reached Cape Cod. 2" It could make alliances and treaties, declare war and make peace. It was invested with the exclusive privilege to traffic and plant colonies on the coast of Africa from the Tropic of First Permanent Settlements.-The first attempt to establish a permanent colony was made by this company in 1623. About thirty families of Walloons, who, like the Puritans, had fled from religious persecution to Belgium, were sent over to serve the company, under Captain Mey. Eight persons were left at Manhattan, where Fort Amsterdam was begun. Another party settled on Long Island where the Brooklyn navy yard is now located. The rest went up the Hudson and built Fort Orange where Albany now stands. Eighteen families under Adrian Joris were left to make a permanent settlement. A fourth colony was established near Gloucester, N. J., and a second Fort Nassau built there. This was the beginning of real colonization in New Netherland. First Directors.-Captain Mey's ship returned to Holland laden with furs, but its commander remained in the province as its first director or governor. After a few months, however, he was succeeded by William Verhulst. In 1625 horses, cattle, swine, sheep, seeds, and other things needed for farming arrived. The population numbered about two hundred. New Netherland was now definitely founded. By 1626 samples of "wheat, rye, barley, oats, buckwheat, canary-seed, beans, and flax" were sent to Holland, together with 7,246 beaver-skins, 853 otter-skins, 81 mink-skins, 36 wildcat-skins, and 34 rat-skins, and some samples of oak and hickory timber. Peter Minuit was the first governor appointed by the company (1626). To assist him he was given a Cancer to the Cape of Good Hope, and on the coast of America from the Straits of Magellan to the remotest north." council invested with all local, legislative, judicial, and executive powers, subject to the supervision of the Chamber at Amsterdam." He found a village of thirty families on Manhattan, and bought the island of the Indians "for the value of sixty guilders," or about twenty-four gold dollars, in beads and cloth.1 The southern part of the island was marked out for a "battery," and there Fort Amsterdam was built. From the settlements at Fort Orange and New Amsterdam small groups went forth to colonize New Netherland. Brooklyn was probably settled as early as 1625 at Walloon Bay. In 1636 a house was built at Gowanes, on Long Island, and ten years later a town government was organized. Land Titles. Minuit began a correspondence with the Puritans at Plymouth, shortly after his arrival, to establish friendly relations. In 1627 a trade treaty was made, but William Bradford, the Puritan governor, warned the Dutch "to clear their title " to New Netherland without delay. England's eye was on New Netherland, which she claimed as hers by right of discovery, and which she was to conquer in just thirty-seven years. Meanwhile some Dutch traders had bought of the Indians land at the mouth of the Connecticut River. When their trade was threatened by the Puritans, they purchased another tract sixty miles up-stream, and built Fort Good Hope in 1633. Governor Winthrop of 1 At the same time Governor's Island and Staten Island were purchased. The 22,000 acres on Manhattan are now the most valuable in the world. Had the amount paid for the island been put on interest at six per cent (compound), it would now amount to about $122,500,000. Massachusetts Bay told them that these were English lands and refused to arbitrate the question. Soon the English had a colony at Windsor, and within twenty years they were in complete possession of the Connecticut Valley. Patroon System.-To increase the income from the fur-trade, the company planned to people the fertile lands. The population was only about two hundred and seventy in 1628. To encourage emigration, a charter, granted in 1629, gave to any member of the company, who bought a piece of land from the natives and planted a colony of forty-eight persons on it within six years, a manor six miles along the coast, or on both sides of a navigable river," 1 with the title of patroon. These lords were to have feudal rights over their tenants, trading privileges along the seacoast, freedom to fish and to make salt, and a representative in the governor's council. 66 1 Van Rensselaer and Pauw. The offer produced immediate results. In 1630 Killian Van Rensselaer, a director of the company, bought a tract on the Hudson at Albany. In 1637 Rensselaerwyck was forty-eight miles long and twenty-four miles wide and covered nearly three counties. When the first patroon died. (1646), over two hundred colonists had been sent to his estate. Michael Pauw secured Hoboken and Staten Island. Others settled on the Delaware. Of the eight patroons in the company only one, Van Rensselaer, made a success. The system was a hindrance to the colony's prosperity. The patroons quarreled with their These are Dutch miles, which are equal to four English miles each. Docs. rel. to N. Y. Col. Hist., VII., 334. |