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Catskill landing. Here he found a very loving people, and very old men.'

4. The friendly natives flocked on board the yacht as she remained lazily at anchor the next morning, and brought the crew 'ears of Indian corn, and pumpkins, and tobacco,' which were readily bought for trifles. In the afternoon Hudson went six miles further up the river, and anchored one night near the marshes which divide the channel opposite the flourishing city which now bears his name. Early the next morning he set sail again, and, slowly working his way through the shoaling channel and among the small islands which embarrassed navigation, anchored toward evening about eighteen miles further up. Here the Half-Moon remained at anchor all the next day. With the flood-tide on the following morning the vessel ran higher up, and anchored in deep water near the site of the present city of Albany.

5. The people of the country came flocking on board, and brought grapes and pumpkins, and beaver and otter skins, which were purchased for beads, knives, and hatchets. Here the yacht lingered for several days. Everything now seemed to indicate that the Half-Moon had reached the head of ship navigation. The downward current was fresh and clear, the shoaling channel was narrow and obstructed; yet Hudson, unwilling, perhaps, to abandon his long-cherished hope, dispatched the mate, with a boat's crew, to sound the river higher up. After going eight or nine leagues, and finding but seven feet of water and inconstant soundings,' the exploring party returned, and reported that they had found it to be at an end for shipping to go in.' Hudson now reluctantly prepared to return."

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6. The Dutch made no more attempts to find a northwestern passage from ocean to ocean, but they sent ships to the country which Hudson had discovered settlement. for them, and explored the coast from both sides of Delaware bay to Massachusetts bay. To a company of mer

1614-47

Growth of the Colony.

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chants was given the exclusive right to trade for three years with all this territory. In the grant thus made the region was named New Netherlands (1614)1. Previous to this grant, however, little fortified trading houses had been built in the province, one of them on the island of Manhattan. Another was built just south of the present city of Albany, which brought he Dutch in friendly relations with the Mohawks, the most easterly tribe of the Iroquois (ir-o-kwoiz'), or Five Nations.

7. A few years later thirty families arrived from Holland. Several of these settled at Orange, now Albany, while "a party under the command of May, who has left his name on the southern county and cape of New Jersey," ascended the Delaware river and on its eastern bank built a fort. In 1626, Peter Min'-u-it came as the governor of New Netherlands. He soon contracted with the Indians for the purchase of Manhattan island, giving beads, buttons, and other glittering trinkets, to the value of about twenty-four dollars, for more than twenty thousand acres of land. Fort Amsterdam was built, and about this centre wooden huts, with roofs of straw and chimneys of wood, soon began to cluster.

Growth of the colony.

8. The growth of the colony was not rapid, although every individual who succeeded in forming a settlement of fifty persons had a large tract of land granted to him. These land-holders were called patroons; and in quite recent times the claims of their descendants to rent, led to the anti-rent troubles in the State of New York. Minuit was succeeded by the renowned Wou ter Van Twil'-ler, and he, in turn, by Kieft (keeft); and all this time there were disputes with the English settlers on the Connecticut. The Dutch had first explored the river, and even occupied its banks. There were disputes, too, with the Swedes, who had planted a colony in the southern part of New Netherlands. There were als, troubles with the Indians.

9. The prosperity of the colony dates from the arrival, ir

1 Brodhead spells the name Now Netherland, in the singular form.

1647, of the brave and honest Peter Stuyvesant (sti-vesant), the last of the Dutch governors. In his early military career he had lost a leg, which was replaced by a wooden one

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with silver bands, giving rise to the tradition that he wore a silver leg. As governor of New Netherlands he made peace with the English settlers in Connecticut and with the Indians; he subdued the Swedes on the Delaware (1655); and tried in every way to encourage trade and agriculture, as well as to induce people to join the settlement.1

DUTCH HOUSE.

In 1698, the Earl of Bellamont became governor. As commerce was greatly disturbed by pirates, he sent out a bold captain named Kidd, to capture their vessels; but Kidd was a bad man, and knowing that Kidd. there were very many Spanish ships carrying across the ocean gold, silver, an other treasures from America, he determined to turn pirate himself. He continued on this career for several years, and is said to have obtained immense quantities of gold and rich treasures, some of which is reported to have buried on

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New Netherlands Lost.

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10. These dangers were scarcely settled before a new and greater one appeared; for Charles the Second, caring nothing for the claims of the Dutch, granted to his brother, the Duke of York, all the country from the Connec- The ticut river to Delaware bay; and a fleet was sent English take to take possession of it. When the fleet appeared Netherlands. before New Amsterdam, the citizens, hoping for greater priv ileges under English rule, were unwilling to make any defense. But Stuyvesant, faithful to his trust to the last, reluctantly, and not till the English were in actual possession of the town, was compelled to march out of the fort and surrender New Netherlands. With this change of masters, New Amsterdam, having a population of fifteen hundred souls speaking eighteen different languages, changed its name to New York, and Fort Orange was presently called Albany (1664). In less than ten years after, while England was at war with Holland, the Dutch regained their former possessions, but, after fifteen months, returned them to the English.1

11. In the course of its colonial history, New Jersey passed through many ownerships. The claim of the English king Henry VII. came first, by reason of the discoveries of the

Long Island and in other parts of the country. At last he was seized and sent to England, where he suffered death for his crimes (1701). His buried treasures have been sought for at various places.

and Milborne

1 In consequence of the arbitrary conduct of James II., a revolution took place in England; the king fled to France, and the English crown was bestowed upon William and Mary (1688-9). The news of these proceedings was received in New York with demor strations of satisfaction. Jacob Leisler, aided by several hundred armed men, and with the general approbation of Leisler the citizens, took possession of the fort there in the name of the new sovereigns. He continued at the head of affairs, managing with prudence and energy, for more than two years, his son in-law, Milborne, acting as his deputy. On the arrival of Governor Sloughter, bearing a commission direct from William and Mary, Leisle surrendered all authority. This would not satisfy his enemies; they were bent upon his destruction. So he and Milborne were arrested, tried on a charge of treason, and condemned to death. Sloughter, while drunk at a feast, signed the death warrant, and oth men were executed

younger Cabot. Then, as part of New Netherlands, it was a Dutch possession. Then, by a gift from King Charles the Second, it, with New York, became the property

New Jersey. of the Duke of York. It was next sold to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret,1 receiving its name in honor of Sir George, who, as governor of the little island of Jersey, in the British channel, had defended it for the king's father, Charles I., during that monarch's contest with the parliament. Then, Berkeley selling his interest to two Quakers, New Jersey was owned by three persons. Again, for a period of thirteen months, the Dutch were in possession; and then the English. English proprietors effected a division of the territory into eastern and western portions, one of the parts being called East Jersey, and the other West Jersey. By purchase (in 1682), the province became the property of twelve Quakers, of whom William Penn was one; but twenty years of rule were twenty years of strife and trouble, and the Quakers finally surrendered their powers of government to the crown. New Jersey, as a royal province, was united to New York, and so continued for thirty-six years.'

12. We have seen that the Dutch built a fort on the east bank of the Delaware, in New Jersey. A number of families, Dutch and Swedes, also made their homes in the province, the former in the eastern part, the latter in the southwestern part. But the actual colonization of New Jersey did not commence before 1664. In that year, some Puritans

1 Berkeley and Carteret were already the proprietors of Carolina. 2 In 1674, Sir Edmund Andros was appointed governor of New York and received its surrender by the Dutch after their fifteen months' repos session of it. In 1680 he seized the government of East Jersey, depriv ing the governor, Philip Carteret, brother of the proprietor, of his office. In 1681 he was recalled to England. New England having been consoli dated, he was appointed its governor in 1686. In 1688, New York and New Jersey were added to his jurisdiction. (Brodhead's History of New York, and Palfrey's of New England, treat the story of the rescue of the Connecticut Charter and its concealment in the hollow of a tree as a "tradition." Palfrey says: No writing of the period alludes to this

remarkable occurrence.

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