the commerce of New Netherland. In the first year of the new administration this monopoly was abolished, and regular export duties were substituted. The benefit of the change was at once apparent in the improvement of the Dutch province. In one of the letters written to Stuyvesant by the secretary of the company, the remarkable prediction is made that the commerce of New Amsterdam should cover every ocean and the ships of all nations crowd into her harbor. But for many years the growth of the city was slow. As late as the middle of the century, the better parts of Manhattan Island were still divided among the farmers. Central Park was a forest of oaks and chestnuts.

In 1650, a boundary-line was fixed between New England and New Netherland. The Dutch were fearful lest the English should reach the Hudson and cut off the fur-trade between Fort Orange and New Amsterdam. Governor Stuyvesant met the ambassadors of the Eastern colonies at Hartford, and after much discussion an eastern limit was set to the Dutch possessions. The line there established extended across Long Island north and south, passing through Oyster Bay, and thence to Greenwich, on the other side of the sound. From this point northward the dividing-line was nearly identical with the present boundary of Connecticut on the west. This treaty was ratified by the colonies, by the West India Company and by the states-general of Holland; but the English government treated the matter with indifference and contempt.

Stuyvesant had less to fear from the colony of New Sweden. The people of New Netherland outnumbered the Swedes as ten to one, and the Dutch claim to the country of the Delaware had never been renounced. In 1651, an armament left New Amsterdam, entered the bay and came to anchor at a point on the western shore five miles below the mouth of the Brandywine. On the present site of New Castle, Fort Casimir was built and garrisoned with Dutch soldiers. This act was equivalent to a declaration of war. The Swedish settlement of Christiana was almost in sight of the hostile fortress, and a conflict could hardly be avoided. Rising, the governor of the Swedes, looked on quietly until Fort Casimir was completed, then captured the place by stratagem, overpowered the garrison and hoisted the flag of Sweden.

It was a short-lived triumph. The West India Company were secretly pleased that the Swedes had committed an act of open violence. Orders were at once issued to Stuyvesant to visit the Swedish colonists with vengeance, and to compel their submission or drive them from the Delaware. In September of 1655 the orders of the company were carried out to the letter. The old governor put himself at the head of more than six hundred troops-a number almost equal to the entire population

of New Sweden-and sailed to Delaware Bay. Resistance was hopeless. The Dutch forces were landed at New Castle, and the Swedes gave way. Before the 25th of the month every fort belonging to the colony had been forced to capitulate. Governor Rising was captured, but was treated with great respect. Honorable terms were granted to all, and in a few days the authority of New Netherland was established throughout the country. Except a few turbulent spirits who removed to Maryland and Virginia, the submission was universal. After an existence of less than eighteen years, the little State of New Sweden had ceased to be. The American possessions and territorial claims of France, England, Holland, Sweden and Spain will be best understood from an examination of the accompanying map, drawn for the year 1655.

How hardly can the nature of savages be restrained! While Governor Stuyvesant was absent on his expedition against the Swedes, the Algonquin tribes rose in rebellion. The poor creatures were going to take New Amsterdam. In a fleet of sixty-four canoes they appeared before the town, yelling and discharging arrows. What could their puny missiles do against the walls of a European fortress? After paddling about until their rage, but not their hate, was spent, the savages went on shore and began their old work of burning and murder. The return of the Dutch forces from the Delaware induced the sachems to sue for peace, which Stuyvesant granted on better terms than the Indians had deserved. The captives were ransomed, and the treacherous tribes were allowed to go with trifling punishments.

For eight years after the conquest of New Sweden the peace of New Netherland was unbroken. In 1663 the natives of the county of Ulster, on the Hudson, broke out in war. The town of Esopus, now Kingston, was attacked and destroyed. Sixty-five of the inhabitants were either tomahawked or carried into captivity. To punish this outrage a strong force was sent from New Amsterdam. The Indians fled, hoping to find refuge in the woods; but the Dutch soldiers pursued them to their villages, burned their wigwams and killed every warrior who could be overtaken. As winter came on, the humbled tribe began to beg for mercy. In December a truce was granted; and in May of the following year a treaty of peace was concluded.

Governor Stuyvesant had great difficulty in defending his province beyond the Delaware. The queen of Sweden and her ministers at Stockholm still looked fondly to their little American colony, and cherished the hope of recovering the conquered territory. A more dangerous competitor was found in Lord Baltimore, of Maryland, whose patent, given under the great seal of England, covered all the territory between the

Chesapeake and Delaware Bay, as far north as the latitude of Philadelphia. Berkeley, of Virginia, also claimed New Sweden as a part of his dominions. Connecticut pushed her settlements westward on Long Island, and purchased all the remaining Indian claims between her western frontier and the Hudson. Massachusetts boldly declared her intention to extend her boundaries to Fort Orange. The indignant Stuyvesant asked the agents of Connecticut where the province of New Netherland could shortly be found; and the agents coolly answered that they did not know.

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Discord at home added to the governor's embarrassments. many years the Dutch had witnessed the growth and prosperity of the English colonies. Boston had outgrown New Amsterdam. The schools of Massachusetts and Connecticut flourished; the academy on Manhattan, after a sickly career of two years, was discontinued. In New Netherland heavy taxes were levied for the support of the poor; New England had no poor. Liberty and right were the subjects of debate in every English village; to the Dutch farmers and traders such words had little meaning. The people of New Netherland grew emulous of the progress of their powerful neighbors, and attributed their own abasement to the mismanagement and selfish greed of the West India Company. Without actual disloyalty to Holland, the Dutch came to prefer the laws and customs of England. Under these accumulating troubles the faithful Stuyvesant was wellnigh overwhelmed.

Such was the condition of affairs at the beginning of 1664. England and Holland were at peace. Neither nation had reason to apprehend an act of violence from the other. In all that followed, the arbitrary principles and unscrupulous disposition of the English king were fully manifested. On the 12th of March in this year the duke of York received at the hands of his brother, Charles II., two extensive patents for American territory. The first grant included the district reaching from the Kennebec to the St. Croix River, and the second embraced the whole country between the Connecticut and the Delaware. Without regard to the rights of Holland, in utter contempt of the West India Company, through whose exertions the valley of the Hudson had been peopled, . with no respect for the wishes of the Dutch, or even for the voice of his own Parliament, the English monarch in one rash hour despoiled a sister kingdom of a well-earned province.

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The duke of York made haste to secure his territory. No time must be left for the states-general to protest against the outrage. English squadron was immediately equipped, put under command of Richard Nicolls and sent to America. In July the armament reached