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silence of the dwellings forewarned him of misfortune. Bones and skulls lay bleaching on the shore. The Indians, with whom he was soon in friendly intercourse, informed him, with all the circumstances, of the murder of his countrymen.'

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In 1633, Minuit was replaced in office by Wouter Van Twiller, under whom Fort Amsterdam (the settlement at Mannahata) continued to increase. Wind-mills, in emulation of the mother-country, were built, and negro slaves were imported. A church and a species of state-house were also erected. Minuit, deposed from office, entered the service of Christina of Sweden. Her father, the great Gustavus, had already planned the foundation of a settlement in America, and had devoted a large sum ($400,000) to the object. Oxenstiern, the Swedish minister, prompted by this circumstance, and by the persuasions of Minuit, readily came into the scheme; and, about the year 1633, an expedition was dispatched to the Delaware, which erected a fort, called after the queen, Christina, and made a settlement near Wilmington. The footing thus obtained by the Swedes was afterwards a source of no small trouble and uneasi ness to their Dutch neighbours.

GOVERNOR KEIFT.

CHAPTER IV.

-GOVERNOR STUYVESANT: HIS CHARACTER: HE SUBDUES THE SWEDES.-UNTENABLE CLAIMS OF THE ENGLISH.-GRANT BY CHARLES II. TO THE DUKE OF YORK. -NEW AMSTERDAM TAKEN BY COLONEL NICOLLS: RETAKEN BY THE DUTCH.-FINAL CESSION TO ENGLAND.

IN 1638, William Keift, in place of Van Twiller, was appointed governor of the New Netherlands, and was speedily involved in difficulties with the gradually encroaching English. He forbade them to trade at the fort of Good Hope, (a small Dutch post in Connecticut, where the city of Hartford now stands,) and broke up by force a settlement which they had made on Long Island. In 1643, the English colonies, now greatly superior in strength to their neigh· bours, entered into a league against them. The horrors of Indian warfare were soon added to the other troubles of the country. Keift,

* Discoverers &c., of America.

on suspicion of hostile intentions, had attacked a party of the natives, and had massacred nearly a hundred of them. An Indian war, lasting for two years, and effectually checking the progress of the settlement, was the result; but was finally terminated by treaty. "To Keift, in 1647, succeeded Peter Stuyvesant, the last and most famous of the Dutch governors. His memory, immortalized by the more comic muse of Irving, always presents itself in the shape of a weather-tanned, fierce-looking, silver-legged old warrior, with an air of obstinate determination, quite sufficient to justify his popular sobriquet of Hardkoppig Piet, or Peter the Headstrong. He became speedily embroiled with all his neighbours; but justice must admit that the right was on his side-that the Dutch were the aggrieved party-and that in the contests which troubled his administration, he displayed all the qualities of a gallant soldier, an energetic magistrate, and a faithful servant of his employers." By his wise and humane government, he maintained peace with the Indians; and by removing oppressive restrictions on commerce, greatly forwarded the interests of his colony. The company, with a liberal and farsighted policy, in advance of the age, prohibited all religious persecution, and sought to make the New Netherlands a refuge for the exiled believers of any creed. "From France, the Low Countries, the Rhine, Northern Germany, Bohemia, the mountains of Piedmont, the suffering Protestants flocked to this trans-atlantic asylum."

The new governor, a man of quick temper and of military ardour, was not likely to submit to aggression from his neighbours; and a piece of treacherous violence, committed by Risingh, the Swedish governor, afforded him an opportunity to wrest back the territory which the latter had gained by a species of encroachment. On the Delaware river, where Newcastle now stands, the Dutch had planted a post, named Fort Casimir-an object of much jealousy to the Swedes. Risingh, with thirty men, under pretext of a friendly visit, had entered this fort, and had been hospitably entertained; but treacherously seized it, with all the houses and other property of the company, which it protected. To avenge this outrage, the sturdy governor, with a force of six hundred men, sailed up the Delaware, and, after rētaking Fort Casimir, marched into "New Sweden," as the country was called, and laid siege to Fort Christina itself. Risingh was compelled to surrender, and the whole settlement was incorporated with the Dutch province-most of the settlers remaining and submitting peaceably to the rule of the new government

The lustre of this triumph was soon overshaded by the successful rapacity of a more formidable foe; and the little province, so peacefully settled, and, for the most part, so moderately and wisely govcrned, was destined to be absorbed in the overwhelming progress of a people the most active, aggressive, and retentive of conquest which the world has ever seen. The troubles with the eastern English colonies had, for a time, been settled by a treaty, which admitted the latter to a share of Long Island. "But, as the importance of the trans-atlantic possessions became more obvious, these questions of priority of settlement were merged in the more decisive contest between the arrogant assumption of the British crown, and the just, but feebly-defended rights of the states-general. There could hardly be a claim more untenable than that advanced by England to the possession of the little settlements which the Dutch, with such patient and persevering industry, had reclaimed from the wilderness. The whole country which they occupied had been unquestionably first explored by Hudson, sailing in the service of the Dutch East India Company, and had immediately afterwards been settled by Hollanders in advance of any other nation. Purchase and treaty with the natives had added confirmation to their title. These perfectly unassailable grounds of possession the English attempted to invade, by claiming that Hudson was an Englishman, whose discovery must therefore enure to the benefit of his own country, and that Cabot, sailing by these coasts an hundred and fifty years before, had thus secured the right to the whole to those who employed him. This proposition, it is needless to say, was of a self-stultifying nature, for, if Hudson was an Englishman, Cabot was a Venetian, and, according to this rule, the whole country must have belonged to the little republic of Venice. Moreover, there was no evidence that Cabot had ever even seen the inlets and recesses which the Dutch had selected for the site of their settlements."*

Charles II., of England, not long after his restoration to the throne, prompted by enmity to Holland, and a desire to extend his terri tories in North America, made a grant to his brother, the duke of York and Albany, (afterwards James II.,) of a vast tract of land, including all the Dutch settlements. To put the grantee in possession, a fleet, carrying three hundred soldiers, under command of Colonel Richard Nicolls, with Sir George Carteret and Sir Robert Carr, was dispatched to America; and in August of 1664, came to

* Discoverers, &c., of America.

anchor before the little capital of New Amsterdam. The governor, demanding the purport of this armament, was informed by Nicolls that his orders were to take possession of the town and country, and offered the fairest terms in case of surrender. Stuyvesant, without a force sufficient to repel the hostile squadron, and beset by the clamorous cowardice of the council and the citizens, remained for some days in a state of great perplexity and irritation, refusing to consent to a capitulation, and keeping the town in grievous suspense and agitation. Compelled by circumstances, he finally signed a surrender on the most honourable terms, and then, disgusted with foreign aggression and domestic pusillanimity, retired in wrath to his country-seat in the Bouwery, where he passed the remainder of his days. The English, taking undisputed possession of the country, in honour of the proprietor, changed the name of New Amsterdam to New York, and that of Fort Orange to Albany. In compliment to the family of Carteret, which came from the isle of Jersey, the southern portion of the New Netherlands received the title of New Jersey.

The new rulers of the country, Nicolls and his successor, Lovelace, governed in an arbitrary manner, admitting no authority except such as was lodged in their own hands and in the officers of their appointment, and imposing grievous and unreasonable taxes on the original colonists. The latter governor, it is said, even avowed the policy of exacting such burdensome imposts, that "the people migh have no leisure to think of any thing except how to pay them." The greatest discontent, consequently, prevailed, and remonstrances so vehement were sent in, that they were condemned to be burned, as treasonable, by the common hangman. Hostilities being resumed between Holland and England, in 1673, a small Dutch squadron, under command of Evertsen, appeared before New York. Through the treachery of John Manning, who commanded the fort, it was surrendered without a shot being fired; the country was regained with the same facility with which it had been lost; and a council of the Dutch being called, Antony Colve was chosen as colonial governor. Early the next year, however, a treaty of peace was con. cluded, by which each party agreed to surrender conquests made during the war; and the New Netherlands falling within the scope of this agreement, were accordingly at length formally relinquished to the English aggressors.

VOL. III.-25

PART V.

The French in America.

CANADA.*

CHAPTER I.

EARLY FISHING VOYAGES. -GIOVANNI VERRAZANO.-HIA
VOYAGE IN THE DAUPHIN.-ARRIVES AT NORTH AMERICA.
-DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY. ITS INHABITANTS.
VERRAZANO COASTS NORTHERLY.-KIDNAPPING,

-THE GREAT HARBOUR.-FRIENDLINESS OF THE
INDIANS.-VERRAZANO SAILS TO LABRADOR.-

RETURNS TO FRANCE. HIS SUBSEQUENT FATE.

FOR Some time after the discovery of the New World, no national attempt seems to have been made by the French to secure a foothold on its shores. The Basque and Breton fishermen, the most hardy and enterprising of their day, not long after the memorable voyage of Cabot, discovered and turned to account that mine of wealthmore certain and enduring than those of Potosi or Mexico-the

* The origin of this word is uncertain. "In 1525, one Stephano Gomez sailed from Spain to the island of Newfoundland, and, it would seem, entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and traded on its shores. According to the Spanish accounts, his people, disappointed in their expectations of treasure, frequently repeated the words ‘Aca nada,' ('here is nothing,') and thus conferred on the whole province the name of Canada. This title, however, is more probably derived from the Iroquois word, 'Kannata,' signifying a cluster of cabins."

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