Hope, and in America, from the Straits of Magellan to the remotest north.

CORNELIS JACOBSEN MEY, 1624-5. Under this charter an organization was effected in 1623, and vigorous efforts at colonization were made. In that year the ship New Netherlands, carrying about forty families, chiefly Walloons, Protestant fugitives from Belgian provinces, - was dispatched to America under the direction of Cornelis Jacobsen Mey and Joriz Tienpont. Hitherto the sole object of the Dutch in acquiring territory in the New World had been to secure a lucrative trade; and even now the purpose of colonization seems to have had no higher motive than the holding of the territory securely against the encroachments of the English in Virginia and New England.

By the terms of the Company's organization, the chief power throughout all the New Netherlands territory was vested in a Director. The first person to exercise this power was CORNELIS JACOBSEN MEY. Attracted, doubtless, by the roseate reports of the country on the Delaware, Mey,. soon after his arrival at Manhattan,-now the site of the city of New York, and where the seat of government of all New Netherlands had been established, - proceeded thither, and ascending the stream about forty-five miles, debarked upon a tongue of land between Big and Little Timber creeks, on the eastern side of the river, near the site of the present town of Gloucester, where he built a fort, which he called Nassau, and thus secured a first foothold upon the soil. He was accompanied in this enterprise by several men with their wives, and evidently intended to effect a permanent settlement. The following testimony of Catelina Tricho, given in 1684, at the age of eighty, affords curious confirmation of this intention:

"That she came to this Province either in the yeare one thousand six hundred and twenty-three or twenty-fouer, to the best of her remembrance, an that fouer women came along with her in the same shipp, in which the Governor, Arien

Jorissen came also over, which fouer women were married at sea, and this they and their husbands stayed about three weeks at this place, and then they, with eight seamen more, went in a vessel by orders of the Dutch Governor, to Delaware River, and there settled. This I certifie under my hand and ye scale of this Province. THO. DONGAN."

It was soon found impracticable to support and protect this feeble colony, and the fort was abandoned after a few months, the settlers returning to Manhattan. Communication, however, was kept up with the natives in the locality of the fort, by sending a vessel thither for purposes of trade. This weak attempt at settlement, thus speedily abandoned, has little importance in itself, but possesses a marked significance as being the germ of future commonwealths upon the Delaware.

WILLIAM VAN HULST, 1625-6.-In the spring of 1625, came two ship-loads of cattle, horses, sheep, and swine, and Mey was succeeded in the Directorship by William Van Hulst. "Just then," says Bancroft, "Jean de Laet, a mem⚫ber of the Chamber of Amsterdam, in an elaborate work on the West Indies, opportunely drew the attention of his countrymen to their rising colony, and published Hudson's own glowing description of the land."

PETER MINUIT, 1626–33.—In 1626, the West India Company being determined to establish more firmly its authority in the New World, ordained a more formal government with enlarged powers. The Director was assisted by a council of five, and a Schout Fiscal, an officer who combined the duties of Sheriff and District Attorney. Peter Minuit, of Wesel, in the kingdom of Westphalia, was vested with the power of Director, and by him a vast tract of land, embracing all the southern part of the Island of Manhattan, twenty-two thousand acres in extent, now the most thickly peopled part of the city of New York, was purchased of the natives for the sum of sixty gilders, equivalent to twenty-four dollars. During the administration of Minuit, which lasted until 1633,

little is recorded of note beyond the regular course of trade, which was considerable. The ship that bore the news of the purchase of Manhattan to Holland was freighted with seven thousand two hundred and forty-six beaver-skins, eight hundred fifty-three and a half otter-skins, eighty-one mink-skins, thirty-six wild-cat skins, and thirty-four rat-skins, with a quantity of oak and hickory timber. A due proportion of this trade came from the Delaware, and though no fixed habitations had yet been established there, ships regularly plied between its waters and the Hudson.

DAVID PIETERZEN DE VRIES, 1632-3. — In 1629, a charter of privileges to patroons, a sort of feudal lords, was granted by the West India Company. Any one who should plant a colony of fifty souls became the ruler and the absolute possessor of lands sixteen miles in length, if on one bank of a stream, and if on both, half that distance, and extending "so far into the country as the situation of the occupiers would permit." In the same year, Samuel Goodyn and Samuel Bloemaert purchased a large tract of land of the natives at the mouth of Delaware Bay, embracing the shoreline of what became the two northern colonies of Delaware, which purchase was confirmed in presence of the savage chieftains, by the Director, Minuit, and his Council, at Manhattan. As soon as the above recited charter of privileges was enacted, Goodyn gave notice of his intention to occupy his purchases as Patroon. Goodyn and Bloemaert were joined by David Pieterzen De Vries, "a bold and skilful seaman," and subsequently by six others, all members of the West India Company, and on the 12th of December, 1630, two vessels, with a number of people and a large stock of cattle, were dispatched by De Vries under the command of Peter Heyes, to occupy the new possessions upon the Delaware. The smaller of these vessels was captured, before leaving the Dutch waters, by Dunkirk privateers. The other, the Walrus, of eighteen guns, proceeded on its course, and arriving in the Delaware, a settlement was made on Lewes Creek, a short distance from

its mouth, its commander calling his little fort, which was well beset with palisades, Fort Optlandt, and the lands by the poetic name of Swanendael (Valley of Swans).

The chief purpose in acquiring possession of the soil and effecting a settlement here, was to cultivate grain and tobacco, and, in connection therewith, to carry on the whale-fishery along the coast, it appearing from various reports that during the winter season whales frequented these waters in great numbers. It was one of the arguments which Goodyn had used with De Vries to induce him to embark in the enterprise, that the whale-fishery could be readily established, and that the oil, at sixty gilders a hogshead, would yield a good profit. Heyes was accompanied on this voyage by Gillis Hosset, as commissary of the ship, and on the 5th of May, 1631, they together purchased of the Indians, in behalf of the Company which they represented, a tract of land on the northern shore of the bay, sixteen English miles square, having nearly an equal shore and bay coast line, which purchase was confirmed at Manhattan on the 3d of June. Heyes did nothing by way of prosecuting the whalefishery, though he secured a specimen of oil from a dead whale which he found on the shore, and leaving Hosset in charge of the little colony, which consisted of but thirty-two men, he returned to Holland, arriving on the 31st of September.

The result of this enterprise was anything but satisfactory, the stockholders having anticipated great profits from the prosecution of the whale-fishery. It was accordingly determined to fit out another expedition, and that De Vries should go in person as commander of the vessels and Patroon of the colony. Having been supplied with a large vessel and a yacht, De Vries set sail on the 24th of May, 1632. At the moment of starting he received the mournful and disheartening intelligence of the massacre by the savages of the settlers who had been left at Swanendael, and the destruction of all their possessions. It was not until the 5th of December that he reached the mouth of the Delaware, where the cry of "a

whale near the ship" was well calculated to stimulate the cupidity of the commander, and suggest "royal work- the whales so numerous, and the land so fine for cultivation." But the site of the former settlement, which was visited on the following day, displayed a mournful spectacle, the skulls and bones of the colonists, and the heads of the horses and cows which they had brought with them, lying scattered about on every side, sad witnesses to the savage natures of the men of the forest by whom they were surrounded. From a native whose confidence was gained, the following account of the massacre was drawn: "He then showed us the place where our people had set up a column, to which was fastened a piece of tin, whereon the arms of Holland were painted. One of their chiefs took this off for the purpose of making tobacco-pipes, not knowing that he was doing amiss. Those in command at the house made such an ado about it that the Indians, not knowing how it was, went away and slew the chief who had done it, and brought a token of the dead to the house, to those in command, who told them that they wished they had not done it, that they should have brought him to them, as they wished to have forbidden him not to do the like again. They then went away, and the friends of the murdered chief invited their friends as they are a people, like the Italians, who are very revengeful to set about the work of vengeance. Observing our people out of the house, each one at his work, that there was not more than one inside, who was lying sick, and a large mastiff who was chained-had he been loose they would not have dared to approach the house-and the man who had command standing near the house, three of the stoutest Indians who were to do the deed, bringing a lot of bear-skins with them to exchange, sought to enter the house. The man in charge went in with them to make the barter, which being done, he went to the loft where the stores lay, and, in descending the stairs, one of the Indians seized an axe and cleft his head so that he fell down dead. They also relieved the sick man of life, and shot into the dog, who was