The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1883-04-29
The Dutch Colony in New
York.

York.
Hudson's Dutch employers were
not slow to avail themselves OF the
commercial advantages
offered by the situation OF Manhat-
tan Island. In 1614-the year in
which Smith was surveying the
coast of New England-the COM
pany of the New Netherlands re-
ceive6 its charter, authorizing it to
control and colonize all the territory
between Virginia and Canada.
Whether from a commercial or
military point of view, this noble
region occupied the most command
ing position in North America. 1t
is that part of the continent which
sends streams flowing in divergent
courses into the Gulf of st. Law
renee, the Atlantic Ocean and the
Gulf of Mexico. Through deep
cbasms in the Alleghenies which
run irregularly across it, those SUI
perb rivers, the Hudson, Delaware
and Susquehanna, flow into the
Atlantic; while the Mohawk, COM
ing from the west, serves to join the
valley of the Hudson with the great
lakes; and in like manner the
lovely Juniata, rushing down to
join the SusQuehanna, has its head
waters not far from the spot where
the currents of the Allegheny and
Monongahela unite to form the
Ohio. With such pathways in
every direction, whether for peace
or fer war, the New Netherlands
Curious misnomer for region so
mountainous commanded the con-
tinent; and could the Dutch settle
ment there have been adequately
supported, it would have threatened
or prevented the ascendency Of
England in the NeWWorld. 1t was
no doubt largely owing to this adj
vantage of position that the League
of the Iroquois had been enabled to
domineer over the greater part of
the country between the Atlantic
and the Mississippi: and through
the divergent river valleys and
across the chain Of mightylakes these
ferocious but long-headed barbarians
in their bark canoes established those
lines Of trade which modern civil
cation, with it's steamboats, and
railway, has simply adopted and i'm
proved. For a century after its
conquest by the English, New York
with Western Pennsylvania, served
as a great military bulWark to
New England and to the southern
colonies. The hardest fighting done
in the war of Independence was
the struggle for the possession of
this underground; and in the
second war with England the glorl.
Gus victories of Perry and MacdOn-
ough maintained on the Lakes Erie
and Champlain the sanctity of the
citadal of America.
The colony thus founded by the
Dutch in such an imperial position
remained in their hands just fifty
years, and at the end of this period
the population had reached about
eight thousand. The "city" Man
hatten Island, lying entirely to the
south of the site of Canal
street grit with an earthen wall
some ten feet in heighth,
and numbering at that time
some fifteen hundred inhabitants,
had already acquired the cosmo-
politan character which has ever
since distinguished it. In the New
Netherlands the Dutch maintained
their national policy of unlimited
liberation, and consequently in that
cruel age Of religious turmoil they
drew settlers from all parts OF
Europe. There were Hugenots
from Rochelle, Waldenses from
Piedmont, Catholic Walloons from
French Flanders, Scotch, Presby-
terians, English Independents
Moravians, Quakers, Anabaptists
and Jews. 1t is said that in 1850
eighteen different languages were
spoken in New Amsterdam and its
environs. Though the settlers
were grievously annoyed by the
Algonquins in the neighborhood
they found it for this reason all the
easier to conciliate the Mohawks
and so they soon began to compete
with the French of Canada for thu
| fur trade.-HGTpe1'S Magazine.