mills, used to grind the grain necessary for the garrison, on the southwest bastion of the fort. African slaves were the laborers principally engaged upon these improvements. At a subsequent period, when these slaves had grown old, they petitioned the authorities for their freedom, and recounted their services at the time mentioned in support of their application, in proof of which they presented a certificate, given them by their overseer: "That, during the adminstration of Van Twiller, he (Jacob Stoffelsen), as overseer of the Company's negroes, was continually employed with said negroes in the construction of Fort Amsterdam, which was finished in 1635; and that the negroes assisted in chopping trees for the big house, making and splitting palisades, and other work." The "big house" here referred to was the Governor's residence.. It was built of brick, and was, no doubt, a substantial edifice, as it is found to have served for the residence of successive chiefs of the colony during all the Dutch era, and for a few years subsequent.

In respect to the walls of the fort, they were in no wise improved by the incompetent Van Twiller, except the northwest bastion, which was faced with stone. The other parts of the walls were simply banks of earth without ditches; nor were they even surrounded by a fence to keep off the goats and other animals running at large in the town. When Governor Kief arrived, in 1638, as Van Twiller's successor, he found the fort in a decayed state: "opening on every side, so that nothing could obstruct going in or coming out, except at the stone point." Nevertheless, there is no doubt that the fort exercised a very salutary influence in keeping the Indians at a respectful distance.*

In 1633, the commercial importance of New Amsterdam was increased by the grant of the "Staple Right," a sort of feudal privilege similar to the institutions of Fatherland. By it, all vessels trading along the coast, or sailing on the rivers, were obliged either to discharge their cargoes at the port, or pay certain duties. This soon became a valuable right, as it gave to New Amsterdam the commercial monopoly of the whole Dutch province.

A short time before the arrival of Governor Van Twiller, De Vries, whose little colony at Suaaendael, Delaware, had been cut off by the

*In 1641, an Indian war broke out, and raged for many months, resulting in the complete devastation of most of the farms and exposed settlements, even those lying within a stone's-throw of Fort Amsterdam. The frightened settlers fled to the fort; but the accommodation in the fort not affording them an adequate shelter, they established their cottages as close as possible to the protecting ramparts. Thus it was that two or three new streets were formed around the southern and eastern walls of the fort. After the danger had passed, these buildings were allowed to remain, and grants of land were made to the possessors. Thus was formed that portion of the present Pearl street west of Whitehall street, and also a portion of the latter street.- Valentine's Manual,

Indians, returned to America on a visit, in the mammoth ship, New Netherland. A yacht, about this time, also arrived-the English ship, William, with Jacob Eelkins, who had been dismissed as 'supercargo by the Company, in 1632. Enraged by this dismissal, he had entered the service of the English, and had now returned to promote their interests in the fur trade on the Mauritius (Hudson) River.

This was a bold act, and contrary to the policy of the West India Company. Accordingly, Van Twiller, who, though an inefficient Governor, was a thorough merchant, and understood the important monopoly of the fur trade, refused permission for the vessel to proceed further on its way. His demand upon Eelkins for his commission was refused by the latter, on the ground that he occupied British territory, and would sail up the river at the cost, if need be, of his life. Thereupon, the Director, ordering the national flag to be hoisted, and three guns fired in honor of the Prince of Orange, forbade him to proceed further in the name of his master, the Dutch Government. But, far from being daunted by this prohibition, Eelkins answered by running up, in his turn, the British colors, firing a salute for King Charles, and coolly steering up the river in defiance of Fort Amsterdam. The amazement of Van Twiller at the audacity of the ex-Dutch Agent may be easily imagined. Astonished, as he was, at this daring act, the Director, nevertheless, proceeded very philosophically: First, he summoned all the people in front of the fort, now the Bowling Green; next, he ordered a cask of wine, and another of beer; then, filling his own glass, he called on all good citizens who loved the Prince of Orange to follow his patriotic example, and drink confusion to the English Government. The people, of course, were not slow in obeying this reasonable request; indeed, what more could they do, for the English ship was now far beyond all reach, safely pursuing her way up the Hudson. Still, while they drank his wine, they were deeply mortified at the Governor's cowardice. De Vries openly accused him with it, and plainly. told him, if it had been his case, he should have sent some "eight-pound beans" after the impudent Englishman, and helped him down the river again; but it being now too late to do this, he should send the Southberg after him, and drive him down the river. The effect of this advice was not lost upon the Governor, for in a few days after, Van Twiller screwed up his courage sufficiently to dispatch an armed force to Fort Orange (Albany), where Eelkins had pitched his tent, and where he was found busily engaged in trading with the Indians. The Dutch soldiers quickly destroyed his canvas store, and, reshipping the goods, brought the vessel back to Fort Amsterdam. Eelkins was then required to give up his peltry; after which, he was sent to sea, with the warning never again to interfere with the Dutch Government trade.

Meanwhile, the settlement at Fort Amsterdam-the New York embryo continued to increase and prosper, men of enterprise and wealth

often arriving. Most of these came from the Dutch Netherlands, and thus transferred the domestic economy and habits of Holland and the Rhine to the banks of the Hudson. Ships were loaded with bricks, burnt in Holland; and at first, every dwelling was modeled after those they had left, and with store-rooms for trade, like those of Amsterdam. and other trading towns in Fatherland. Thus, at New Amsterdam and Fort Orange (Albany), rows of houses could be seen built of imported brick, with thatched roofs, wooden chimneys, and their gable ends always toward the street. Inside were all the neatness, frugality, order, and industry which the inmates brought from their native land. A few of these original, venerable Dutch homes were to be seen, till within a year or two, in this city; but we do not know of a single one now. Several yet remain in Albany; and it is almost worth a trip there to see these striking relics of "ye olden time." Until the year 1642, city lots and streets were unknown, adventurers and settlers selecting land wherever most convenient for their purpose. Hence the crooked courses of some

of our down-town streets.*

Cornelius Dircksen owned a farm by the present Peck Slip, and ferried passengers across the East River for the small price of three stivers, in wampum. At that time, Pearl street formed the bank of the river. Water, Front, and South streets have all been reclaimed for the purpose of increasing trade and commerce. The old wooden, shingled house, one of the last venerable relics of the olden time, on the corner of Peck Slip, was so near the river, that a stone could easily be thrown into it. Pearl, it is thought, was the first street occupied, the first houses being built here, in 1633. Bridge street came next; and a deed is still in existence for a lot on it, thirty-four by one hundred and ten feet, for the sum of twenty-four guilders, or nine dollars and sixty cents. This is the earliest. conveyance of city property on record. Whitehall, Stone, Broad, Beaver, and Marketfield were opened soon after. In the year 1642, the first grant of a city lot, east of the fort at the Battery, was made to Hendricksen Rip. During the next year, several lots were granted on the lower end of “Heese Straat,” as Broadway was then named. Martin Krigier was the first grantee of a lot in this section, opposite the Bowling Green, which contained eighty-six rods. There he built the well-known "Krigier's Tavern," which soon became a fashionable resort.†

Nor during all this time did the fur trade fail to keep pace with the growing local prosperity of the place. During the year 1635, the Directors

*Pearl street, for instance.

+ Upon the demolishment of this tavern, the " King's Arms' Tavern" occupied its place, which in after years was the headquarters of the British General Gage. Subsequently, it became the Atlantic Garden," No. 9 Broadway, where it long remained one of the striking mementoes of the olden time.

in Holland received returns from this province to the amount of nearly 135,000 guilders. But the traffic in furs was not the only source of gain. Besides that monopoly, they had commenced a profitable commerce with New England. Dutch vessels brought tobacco, salt, horses, oxen, and sheep from Holland to Boston. An old account says they came from the Texel in five weeks and three days, "and lost not one beast or sheep." Potatoes from Bermuda were worth two pence the pound; a good cow, twenty-five or thirty pounds; and a pair of oxen readily brought forty pounds. In Virginia, corn rose to twenty shillings the bushel during the year 1637; a shepel, or three pecks of rye, brought two guilders, or eighty cents; and a laborer readily earned, during harvest, two guilders per diem. These were high prices for those times, and were probably caused, in a measure, by the sanguinary war which the New England Puritans were carrying on with their Indian neighbors. The Pequods, failing to deliver the murderers of Stone, according to treaty, had tendered an atonement of wampum, but Massachusetts demanded "blood for blood"; and they obtained it in the wars that followed. Winthrop says: "Scarcely a sannup, a woman, a squaw, or a child of the Pequod name, survived.' An aboriginal nation had been exterminated. It is the fashion to indulge in much panegyric about these ancestral doings, but here we can calmly trace the first attempt of the white race to extirpate the red men from their ancestral birthright of the northern regions of America.

Notwithstanding, however, the large prices obtained for its wares, the year 1638 found the condition of New Netherland very unpromising. Although its affairs had now been administered for fifteen years by that powerful body, the West India Company, still, the country was scarcely removed from its primitive wilderness state, and, excepting the Indians, it was inhabited by only a few traders and clerks of a distant corporation. Its rich, virgin soil remained almost entirely uncultivated, and the farms did not amount to more than half a dozen. Doubtless, the Directors of the West India Company governed New Netherland chiefly to promote their own special interests-to advance which, large sums had been expended. But no efforts had been made as yet to introduce, on a large scale, a sound and industrious emigration. The patroon system also, to which reference has already been made, greatly retarded the settlement of the colony. A monopoly, its patroons neglected their most important duties as planters, and used their energies and means to compete with the Company in the Indian trade; consequently, misunderstandings and disputes followed which became almost fatal to the prosperity of the new settlement.

* Puritans, not Pilgrims. These terms, though generally used synonomously, refer to two entirely different classes of men. The Pilgrims never practiced religious persecution; the Puritans did. The Pilgrims came over some fifteen years earlier than the Puritans.

At this critical moment, William Kieft, the third Director-General and Governor, arrived March, 1638, as the successor of the weak Van Twiller. His first step was to organize a Council, retaining, however, its entire control. Dr. Johannes La Montagnie, a learned Huguenot, was appointed by him a member of this new board; Cornelis Van Tienhoven, from Utrecht, one of the oldest settlers, was made Colonial Secretary, with a salary of two hundred and fifty dollars per annum; while Ulrich Leopold continued as Schout-Fiscal, or Sheriff and Attorney-General. Adrian Dircksen was made Assistant-Commissary, because he spoke correctly the language of the Mohawks, and was "well versed in the art of trading with them." The Rev. Mr. Bogardus continued the Dominie, and Adain Roolansen the Schoolmaster.*

The new Governor found the town in an extremely dilapidated condition. The fort, rebuilt only three years before, under a government contract, had lasted about as long as work generally does that is performed by army or government contractors, either of the past or present day. It had fallen completely into decay; all the guns were off their carriages; and the public buildings, as well as the church, were all out of repair; only one of the three wind-mills was in operation; and the Company's fine farms had no tenants-not even a goat remaining upon them. But the new Governor came charged with more onerous duties than simply the repair of houses; he was the bearer of a decree that no person in the Dutch Company's employ should trade in peltry, or import any furs, under a penalty of losing their wages, and a confiscation of their goods. Abuses also existed in all the departments of the public service, which Kieft vainly attempted to remedy by proclamations. Death was threatened against all who should sell guns or powder to the Indians; after nightfall, all sailors were to remain on board their vessels; no persons could retail any liquors, "except those who sold wine at a decent price, and in moderate quantities," under penalty of twenty-five guilders (ten dollars), and the loss of their stock. Tobacco, then as now, was greatly in demand, the rich, virgin soil about New Amsterdam suiting the plant well; consequently, plantations for its cultivation increased so fast, that the plant was now also subjected to excise, and regulations were published by the Director to regulate its mode of culture, and check certain abuses which was injuring "the high name" it had "gained in foreign countries."+ But the new Governor did not confine himself to correcting official abuses solely; he issued also, proclamations to improve the moral condition of

*Here are some of the salaries of that early day, which we give for the benefit of some of our city officials: La Montagnie, as Member of the Council, fourteen dollars a month; book-keeper, fourteen dollars and forty cents, with eighty dollars for his yearly board; the mason, eight dollars; joiner, six dollars and forty cents; carpenter, seven dollars and fifty cents, and forty dollars a year for board!

Albany Records, II., 3-12.