or two small trading forts were erected on the river; and four houses were built on Manhattan Island, under the superintendence of Hendrick Corstiaensen, who visited with his trading boats every creek, inlet and bay in the vicinity, for the purpose of securing for his employers, the furs and produce of the country.

On the 29th of March, 1614, the States General of the United Netherlands passed an ordinance, granting to all original discoverers of lands in North America, the exclusive privilege of making four voyages to such lands as they had discovered, for the purposes of trade. Under this ordinance, five ships were despatched, by a company of merchants, the same year. The command of these vesse's was given to Adriaen Blok, Hendrick Corstiaensen and Cornelis Jacobsen Mey. They explored extensively the coast near New York.

Blok discovered and named Block Island, south of Rhode Island, and also the East river, to which he gave the name of Hellegat, from the Hellegat river in East Flanders.

Captain Mey proceeding southward, discovered and named Capes May and Henlopen, or Hindlopen. On the return of these ships, a Capt. Hendrickson was left on the coast, to prosecute discoveries.

The tract of country extending from the Connecticut to the Delaware river, received the name of New Netherlands; and the exclusive right to trade there for three years from that date, Oct. 11, 1614, was granted to the discoverers by the States General.

The discoverers, upon the passage of this grant, formed themselves into a company, called the United New Netherlands Company. This company erected, the same year, a fort and a trading house at an island, near the head of navigation on the Hudson, just below the present city of Albany, and garrisoned it with ten or twelve men. Another fort was erected at the southern point of Manhattan Island; and men were despatched in every direction among the Indian tribes, to induce them to trade with the company.

In 1618, a flood in the North river, or Mauritius, as it was called, injured the company's fort at Castle Island, near Albany, so much that it was deemed best to remove it to another position. Accordingly, a site was chosen on the Normanskill, or creek, a few miles below. Here they made a treaty with the Five Nations. The charter granted to the New Netherlands Company, by the States General, having expired this year, (1618,) they petitioned for its renewal, but in vain. Private traders, principally the former partners of that company, continued, however, to visit the country for the purposes of traffic.

At this period the attention of the Puritans, who afterwards settled at Plymouth, was attracted to this fertile and beautiful country. Having in vain applied to England, for grants of territory in the New World, they intimated, in the beginning of the year 1620, to the prominent individuals concerned in the trade to the New Netherlands, their desire to emigrate thither. This intimation was readily and willingly received by these traders, and a petition presented by them to the States General, for their approval of the project. War existing, however, between the States General and Spain, that body thought best, not to approve this proposition.

In June, 1621, was passed the charter of the Dutch West India Company, an armed Mercantile Association, which was designed to extend the fame and power of the Netherlands; and to render them formidable upon the seas to Spain, their old and sanguinary enemy. This charter, though not particularly favorable to freedom, was as liberal in its provisions, as that of any other commercial association of that period.

The West India Company having been fully organized, sent out a ship called the New Netherlands, on the 20th of June, 1623, to their newly acquired possessions, under the direction of Capt. Mey already noticed, and Adriaen Joriszen Tienpont. The former of these, proceeded immediately to the Delaware, then called the South, or Prince Hendrick's river, and there established a fort, near the present town of Gloucester, which he named fort Nassau. The same year a fortified post, called Fort Orange, was erected within the limits of the present city of Albany, a few miles above that erected in 1618, on the Normanskill.

DIRECTOR MINUIT'S ADMINISTRATION.

In 1624, Peter Minuit, of Wesel, in Westphalia, having been appointed director of New Netherlands, arrived in the country, bringing with him several families of Walloons, inhabitants of the frontier between Belgium and France.

These settled on a bay of Long Island, near Manhattan Island, called from them Wahlebocht, or the bay of the foreigners, a name since corrupted into Wallabout. Here Sarah de Rapelje, the first child of European parentage, whose birth occurred in the colony, was born in June, 1625.

The government of this newly established colony was vested in the director, and a council of five, who possessed supreme executive, legislative and judicial authority in the colony. The only other important officer of the government was the Schout Fiscal, who filled both the offices of Sheriff and Attorney General. Under the superintendence of these authorities, the trade of the colony prospered.

In 1626, Staten Island was purchased of the Indians; and in the same year, the island of Manhattan was bought for the sum of twenty-four dollars. The fort, upon this latter island, received the title of Fort Amsterdam, and the colony that of New Amsterdam.

An affray occurred between some of Minuit's farm servants and an Indian, in which the latter was killed. No attempts were made to punish the murderers; and this outrage afterwards led to serious consequences. The exports of the colony this year amounted to about $19,000.

In the ensuing year, 1627, amicable correspondence was opened between the Dutch authorities at New Amsterdam, and the Pilgrim settlers at Plymouth. In this correspondence the English authority was set up by the Plymouth colonists over the region watered by the Connecticut, and denied by the Dutch.

Up to the year 1629, no colonies, properly so called, can be said to have been established in the New Netherlands. The settlements were simply trading establishments, in which the traffic in furs was the principal employment; and the soil was hardly cultivated in sufficient quantities to supply the wants of the traders.

In Sept. 1628, Admiral Heyn, who had charge of the West India Company's fleet, captured the Spanish Plate ships, containing gold, silver, &c. to the value of five millions of dollars. The directors of the company, elated by such unexpected good fortune, were disposed to yield to any measure apparently calculated to increase their wealth; and at the meeting of the company's council (commonly known as the XIX,) on the 7th of June, 1626, a measure was adopted, the effects of which are yet felt in the state.

This measure was, the passage of a grant to certain individuals, of extensive seignories, or tracts of land, with feudal rights, giving them power over the lives and persons of their subjects. Certain restrictions and limitations were made in this grant, which was called "The Freedoms and Exceptions, granted by the Assembly of the XIX, of the Priviliged West India Company, to all such as shall plant any colonies in New Netherlands."

Under this grant Samuel Godyn and Samuel Bloemmaert purchased, soon after, a tract of land, thirty-two miles long, and two miles wide, on the south-west side of Delaware Bay; and on the 18th of April, 1630, Kiliaen Van Rensselaer, a pearl merchant of Amsterdam, secured a tract on the west side of the North river, embracing the site of the present city of Albany. By subsequent purchase, in this year and in 1637, Mr. Van

Rensselaer became proprietor of a tract of land, twenty-four miles long, and forty-eight broad, now composing the counties of Albany, Rensselaer, and part of the county of Columbia.

In 1630, Godyn and Bloemmaert also secured a tract, on the opposite shore of the Delaware Bay, making a territory of sixtyfour miles in circumference. Another of the company's directors, Michael Paauw, purchased Staten Island, Jersey City and Ahasimus, now called Harsimus, with the lands adjacent.

This colony was called Pavonia: that on the Delaware, Zwanendal, or the valley of swans, and Mr. Van Rensselaer's, Rensselaerwyck.

Active exertions were forthwith made to colonize these vast estates. Colonies were sent to Rensselaerwyck and Zwanendal; and fortifications erected. Anxious, however, to participate in the very profitable trade in furs and peltries, the Pa troons, in the opinion of the other directors, soon transcended the limits prescribed, in the bill of Freedoms and Exceptions. Hence difficulties arose between the two parties, which materially embarrassed the prosperity of the infant colonies. Minuit the director, was recalled, partly probably from the machinations of Wouter Van Twiller, who, in the capacity of agent of the company, had visited the colony two years before, (1632.)

On his way home in March, 1632, Director Minuit was forced, by stress of weather, to put into the port of Plymouth; England. The vessel was immediately seized, on her arrival, on a charge of having traded and obtained her cargo in countries subject to Her Brittanic Majesty. Considerable diplomatic correspondence ensued between the State officers of England and the Netherlands; and finally, the object of the English government, (the assertion of their title,) having been attained, the vessel was released.

During this period the dispute between the Patroons and the colony continued. In the latter part of the year, the Indians in the neighborhood of the Delaware Bay, considering themselves injured, came suddenly upon the colony of Zwanendal, and butchered in cold blood all the colonists, thirty-four persons in number. The next year, Captain de Vries, the founder of the colony, returned from Holland, and, finding himself unable to punish the treachery of the Indians, made a peace with them.

DIRECTOR VAN TWILLER'S ADMINISTRATION.

In April, 1633, Wouter Van Twiller, a relation of the Patroon Van Rensselaer, having been appointed director of the settlement, arrived at New Amsterdam. About this time also Rev. Everardus Bogardus, the first minister, and Adam Roelandsen, the first schoolmaster, arrived in the colony. Van

Twiller seems to have been ill calculated to govern the colony, at so stormy a period as this. Addicted to the use of intoxicating liquors, he only resorted to heavier potations, when the emergency called for sober and vigorous action.

In the early part of his administration, the Dutch settlements, on the Connecticut, were established. In 1614, Adrien Blok, one of the most enterprising captains in the employ of the New Netherlands Company, had discovered this river, and named it the Fresh Water River.

In 1632, Hans Encluys, one of the servants of the West India Company, had set up the arms of the States General at Kievits Hoeck, now Saybrook Point, thus formally taking possession of the river. He had also purchased a tract of land, at that point, for the company, from the Indians.

On the 8th of June, 1633, Jacob Van Curler, under the direction of Van Twiller, purchased territory along the Connecticut river, embracing most of the site of the present city of Hartford, and several of the adjacent towns, of Tattoepan, chief of Sickenam (Little) River. On this territory he erected a fort or trading post, which he fortified with two pieces of cannon.

On the 16th of September following, a vessel commanded by Capt. Wm. Holmes, and sent by the Plymouth Colony, who had settled about Massachusetts Bay, ascended the Connecticut. On passing the fort, Capt. Holmes was ordered to stop; but being in stronger force than the Dutch, he persisted; and proceeded, (though not without repeated protests from the Dutch authorities at New Amsterdam,) to erect, a little above, the frame of a house which he had brought round in his vessel. During this and the succeeding year, the contest between the Patroons and the Company continued to the manifest disadvantage of both parties.

In 1635, the English at Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay, sent several new colonies to the Connecticut river, one of which, under the command of Governor Winthrop, landing at Saybrook Point, tore down the arms of the States General, and carved a iuffoon's face in its stead. They also refused to let the utch lan, on the tract they had purchased in 1632; and erected on the very same tract, Saybrook fort.

At the present site of Springfield, Mass., Mr. Pynchon established a trading house and a plantation: and the next year, 1636, Hooker and his followers located themselves in Hartford.

DIRECTOR KIEFT'S ADMINIS "I ATION.

In 1637, the mal-administration of Director Van Twiller having come to the ears of the company, William Kieft was