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much alike, and so continues through the towne unto the arme of water on the Easter-side of the Towne: by help of this descent they have made a gut almost through the Towne, keyed it on both sides with timber and boards as far in as the three small bridges: and near the coming into the gut they have built two firme timber bridges with railes on each side. At low water the gut is dry, at high water boats come into it, passing under the two bridges, and go as far as the 3 small bridges.1 In the country stand houses in several places.

The bay between Long iland and the maine [sea] below the town and Southwest of Nut iland [Governor's Island] within the heads,2 is 6 mile broad, and from the towne unto the heads 'tis 8 mile...

The towne lyeth about 40 deg. lat., hath good air, and is healthy, inhabited with severall sorts of trades men and marchants and mariners, whereby it has much trade, of beaver, otter, musk, and other skins from the Indians and from the other towns in the River and Contry inhabitants thereabouts. For payment give wampen and Peage many of the indians making, wch they receave of them for linnen cloth and other manufactures brought from Holland.

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From Long iland they have beef, pork, wheat, butter, some tobacco, wampen and peage. From New England beef, sheep, wheat, flower, bisket, malt, fish, butter, cider-apples, tar, iron, wampen and peage. From Virginia, store of tobacco, oxhides dried, some beef, pork and fruit, and for payment give Holland and other linnen, canvage [canvas], tape, thrid [thread], cordage, brass, Hading cloth, stuffs, stockings, spices, fruit, all sorts of iron work, wine, Brandy, Annis, salt, and all useful manufactures....

From Amsterdam come each year 7 or 8 big ships with passengers and all sorts of goods, and they lade back beaver

1 The gut, or canal, ran through the present Broad Street, continuing north nearly to Beaver Street. It was constructed in 1657-1659 to drain the swamp on the east side of the town.

2 The "heads" are the headlands (Dutch, Hoofden) of Staten Island and Bay Ridge just above the entrance to New York harbor, at the Narrows.

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3 Wampen and Peage wampumpeag or wampum, the polished shell beads which the Indians used commonly for money.

and other skins, dry oxehides, and Virginia tobacco. Tis said that each year is carried from thence above 20000 sterl. value in beaver skins only.

The Governor of Manados and New Netherland [so called by the Hollanders] is called Peter Stazan [Stuyvesant]. He exerciseth his authority from thence southward [towards Virginia] as far as Dillow-bay [Delaware Bay], being about 40 leagues. The Suedes had a plantation in Dillow-bay formerly; but of late years the Hollanders went there [1655], dismissed the Suedes, seated themselves there, have trade for beaver, etc. He exercises also authority Eastwards towards New England unto West Chester, wch is about 20 miles and inhabited by English. Also on Long iland inhabitants as far as Osterbay [Oyster Bay]. ... The said iland is in length 120 miles east and west, between 40 and 41 deg. lat., a good land and healthy. The other par of the said iland Eastward from Osterbay is under the authority of the New England Colonies, as it stretches itself on their coast. The christian inhabitants are most of them English.

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In the early days of the Dutch settlement at New Am- 18. Rivalry sterdam kindly feelings existed between them and the Pilgrim settlers at Plymouth, as the following extract from English in Governor Bradford's "Letter-book "1 attests, written in ticut valley, answer to a letter from Isaac de Rasieres, Secretary of 1627-1650 [60] the Colony at New Amsterdam, March 19, 1627.

To the Honourable and Worshipful the Director and Council of New Netherland, our very loving and worthy friends and christian neighbours.

The Governour and Council of Plymouth in New England wish your Honours and Worships all happiness, and prosperity in this life, and eternal rest and glory with Christ Jesus our Lord in the world to come.

1 This letter book like the manuscript of "Plimoth Plantation" (see No. 13, p. 34) disappeared from its place of deposit in the tower of the Old South Church, Boston, at the time of the American Revolution. It was found in a mutilated condition in a grocer's shop in Halifax, in 1894, and published by the Massachusetts Historical Society.

We have received your letters wherein appeareth your good will and friendship toward us, but is expressed with overhigh titles, and more than belongs to us, or than is meet for us to receive: But for your good will and congratulation of our prosperity in this small beginning of our poor colony, we are much bound unto you, and with many thanks do acknowledge the same. . . . It is to us no small joy to learn that it hath pleased God to move his Majesty's heart to confirm that ancient amity, alliance and friendship, and other contracts formerly made... the better to resist the pride of that common enemy the Spaniards, from whose cruelty the Lord keep us both, and our native countries. Now forasmuch as this is sufficient to unite us together in love, and good neighborhood in all our dealings; yet are many of us further tied by the good and courteous entreaty [treatment] which we have found in your country; having lived there many years with freedom and good content. . . . Likewise for your friendly proposition and offer to accommodate and help us with any commodities and merchandize which you have and we want, either for beaver, otters, or other wares, is to us very acceptable, and we doubt not but in short time, we may have profitable commerce and trade together: But you may please to understand that we are but particular colony or plantation in this land, there being divers others besides, whom it hath pleased those Honorable Lords of his Majesty's Council for New England to grant the like commission and ample privilege to them (as to us) for their better profit and subsistence. . . . Yet for our parts, we shall not go about to molest or trouble you in any thing. . . only we desire that you would forbear to trade with the natives in this bay and river of Narragansett and Sowames which is (as it were) at our doors.

May it please you further to understand, that for this year we are fully supplied with all necessaries, both for clothing and other things; but it may fall out that hereafter we shall deal with you, if your rates be reasonable. . . .

Thus hoping that you will pardon and excuse us for our rude and imperfect writing in your language, and take it in good part; because for want of use [practice], we cannot so

well express that we understand; nor happily understand everything so fully as we should. And so we humbly pray the Lord, for his mercy's sake, that he will take both us and our native countries, into his holy protection and defence. Amen.

By the Governour and Council, your Honours' and Worships' very good friends and neighbours

New Plymouth, March 19th

"After this," as the historian Bradford writes, "ther was many passages between them both by letters and other entercourse, and they had some profitable commerce together for diverce years till other occasions interrupted the same." The "other occasions" were signs of rivalry between the Dutch and the English for the valley of the Connecticut River. The Dutch built Fort Good Hope (on the site of Hartford), but did not have sufficient men to hold it. The English then

invaded and usurped the entire Fresh river, and finally sunk so low in shamelessness that they seized in the year 1640 the Company's land around the Fort . . . beat the Company's people with sticks and clubs . . . forcibly threw their plows and other implements into the river... and impounded their horses.

In July, 1649, the Dutch of New Netherland sent a Remonstrance to the States General in Holland, recounting these outrages and asserting the claim of the Dutch. to the Fresh River.

In the beginning, before the English were ever spoken of, our people, as we find it written, first carefully explored and discovered the northern parts of New Netherland and some distance on the other side of Cape Cod. And even planted an ensign on, and took possession of Cape Cod. Anno 1614, our traders not only trafficked at the Fresh River, but had also ascended it before any English people had ever dreamed of

coming there; the latter arrived there for the first time in the year 1636, after our Fort Good Hope had been a long time in existence, and almost all the land on both sides of the river had been bought by our people from the Indians, which purchase took place principally in the year 1632: and Kievits hook [Saybrook Point] was purchased at that time also by one Hans Eencluys, an officer of the Company. The State's arms were also affixed at this Hook to a tree in token of possession, but the English, who still occupy the Fresh River, threw them down, and engraved a fool's face in their stead. Whether this was done by authority or not we cannot say: such is probable and no other than an affirmative opinion can be entertained; this much has come to pass — they have been informed of it in various letters, which have never produced any result; but they have in addition, contra jus gentium per fas et nefas,1 invaded the whole, because, as they say, the land lay unoccupied and waste, which was none of their business, and, besides, was not true; for on the river a fort had already been erected, which continued to be occupied by a garrison. Adjoining the fort was also a neat bouwery [farm] belonging to the Dutch or the Company; and most of the land was purchased and owned. . . .

All the villages settled by the English from New Holland or Cape Cod unto Stamford, within the Dutch limits, amount to about thirty, and may be estimated at nearly five thousand persons capable of bearing arms; their goats and hogs cannot be stated. . . . There are divers places which cannot be well put down as villages and yet are the beginnings of them. Among the whole of these, the Rodenbergh or New Haven is the principal; it has a governor, contains about thirteen hundred and forty families, and is a province or member of New England, there being four in all. This place was begun eleven years ago, in the year 1638, and they have since hived further out and formed Milford, Stratford, Stamford and the Trading House already referred to.

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Contrary to the law of nations, and right or wrong."

2 That is, the New England Confederation, formed in 1643 by the colonies of Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven.

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