The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1883-07-04
THE DUTCH IN NEW ..Rk.

Hudson's Dutch employers were not slow
TO avail themselves of the unrivalled COM
mercial advantages offered by the situation
of Manhatten Island In IG14-the year
in which Smith was surveying the coast OF
New England-the company of the New
Netherlands received its charter, authorizing
It TO control and colonize all the territory
between Virginia and Canada. whethel
from commercial or military point Of
view, this noble region occupied the most
commanding position in North America. 1t
% that part of the continent which sends
streams flowing in divergent courses into
the Gulf of st. Lawrence, the Atlantic
Ocean, and the Gulf of Mexico. Through
deep chasms in the Alleghanies, which run
irregularly across il. those superb 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 cur
rents of the Allegheny and Monongahela
unite to form the Ohio. With such path
ways in every direction, whether for peace
or for war, the New Netherlands (curious
misnomer for region SO mountainous com.
handed the continent; and could the Dutch
settlement there have been adequately sup
ported, 1t would have threatened or prevent
ed the ascendency Of England in the New
World. 1t was no doubt largely owing to
this advantage of position that the League
of the Iroquois had been enabled to domi.
neer over the greater part of the country
between the Atlantic and the Mississippi;
and through the divergent river valleys and
across the chain of mighty lakes these Zero.
cious but long-headed barbarians in their
bark canoes established those lines of trade
which modern civilization, with its steam-
boat and railway, has simply adopted and
improved. For century after its conquest
by the English, New York, with Western
Pennsylvania, served as great military bull
wark to New England aud to the southern
colonies. The hardest fighting done in the
War of Independence was the struggle fol-
the possession of this vantage ground; and
in the second war with England the glorious
victories of Perry and Macdonough MAIN
tanned on Lakes Erie and Champlain the
sanctity of the citadel of America.
The colony thus founded by the Dutch in
such an imperial position remained in their
hand for just fifty years, and at the end of
this period the population had reached about
eight thousand. The "city" on Manhattep
island lying entirely to the south of the
site of Canal Street, grit with an earthern
wall some ten feet in height, and number.
ing at that time some fifteen hundred in.
habitants, had already acquired the cosmo-
polisan character which has ever since dis
tinguished it. In the New Netherlands the
Dutch maintained their national policy of
unlimited federation, and consequently in
that cruel age of religious turmoil they drew
settlers from all parts of Europe. There
were Huguenots from Rochelle, Waldensea
from Piedmont, Catholic Walloons from
French Flanders, Scotch Presbyterians, Eng.
hsh Independents, Moravians, Quakers,
Auabsptists, and Jews. It is said that in
1910 eighteen different languages were
spoken in New Amsterdam and its environs
Though the settlers were grievously annoy
ed 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 the fur trade.-John Fiske, in
Haspe,'s Magazine.