New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1892-04-24
NETWORK CITY.
GENERAL WILSON'S MEMORIAL HISTORY

Company.
The firSt volume of the memorial history OF
New-York, edited by General James Grant vii.
son, aided BY large corps Of distinguished
writer's. fully Justilies the claim that it Is to be
an exhaustive work, and in all respects worthy
the Importance OF it's subject. No pains or OK
pense have been spared in the preparation Of this
book 1t is printed on heavy laid paper in large
type and is illustrated with fine steel full-pagc en-
cravings, hundreds of wood-cuts in the text, and
a large number Of fac-simies, maps and plans.
Many of these fac-similes, and many also OF the
historical documents which appear in the work,
are now published for the first time. The
archives of Holland have been ransacked 10
furnish new material for the history OF the
Dutch occupation, and many interesting and i'm
pOrtant facts have been ascertained through
search among the family papers which have been
preserved for generations by the descendants OF
distinguished early colonists, both Dutch and
English.
AT such distance in time, and after so many
laborious inqucsts as have been made into the
beginnings of New-York, it might lie thought that
the last word must have been said on every really
important event and question But this is not The
case. The rescaI cbee of General Wilson and his
contributors have resulted in the discovery OF much
new evidence materially affecting the con-
illusions 10 be drawn in several matters of con-
sequence so that an element of novelty enters into
this history which dinerentates it from all It's
predecessors. The work opens, as such a work
should do, with review of the explorations OF the
North American coast previous TO the voyage OF
Henry Hudson Here are presented sketches OF
the Northmen's voyages 1.-THE writer being be-
lever in the story of "Ninland the Good'), the
VOYAGES of the Welsh of the Zeno brothers,
Coba hot AyllOO he
Verrazano Gomez-from whose time 1929 the
situation of the Bay of New-lork was known
and closes with an examination Of the question
whether the Dutch were on Manhattan Island
in 1898. Whether they were or not is not indeed
vital DOR does it seriously interfere with the claim
of Henry Hudson as discoycrer In all such
cases period of reconnaissance precedes the
period of practical and fruitful work. IL Is creil-
bic that the Bay Of New-York was entered by
score Of navigators before the keel Of The Half
Moon furrowed its waters But all these early
explorers were looking for passage TO Cathay
and had 20 eyes for anything else. IIudson's
voyage was the first TO have effects of historical
significance, for it was followed almost immedi-
ately by trade and settlement.
The second chapter of the memorial history
treats of the rative inhabitants of Manhattan and
its Indian antiquities. 1t contains an inter,s in,
Manhattan Indians and the origin and meaning
Of the name Mahattan. In the third chapter the
tecedents of Northumberland and the Dutch West
India Company are carefully and thoroughly dis
cusscd, with correlated subjects having direct
or indirect bearing upon tie Dutch occupation.
TIE account of the strange vicissitudes Of the
Dutch West India Company is but another illus
ratiOn of the sic vOS non vobis' tendency Of hui
man affairs: OF the manner in which the crops sown
by one hand are often gathered by another. This
tendency in fact appears again and again in the
history of New-York, and more than once it has
been helped by what can only be characterized as
deliberate disregard of equity the part Of the
Stronger disputant. The present. histori n exhibits
perhaps not unnatural satisfaction in the circum-
stance that the Puritans of Massachusetts, though
preeminent stcklers for integrity and Just deal
ing, were far less scrupulous than the compare
lively unregenerate people of Ncw-York in their
land transactions with the natives, andtin their
general treatment OF the latter. In truth, it must
be said that the Pilgrim Fathers were as worldly
as their neghbors when il came to questions of the
kInd, and that none were more eager to acquire
possession of land, in particular
The editor contributes the chapters on Henry
Hudson's voyage and its results in trade and
colonization, and on Peter Mnuet and Walter
Van Twiller, who ruled Northumberland from 1926
to 1887. In beginning the direct history Of the
Dutch occupation he pays "a tribute to Irving in
observing that since Diedrich Knickcrbocker's
veracious history appeared it has been difficult to
treat this period with the proper seriousness The
comic view of the Dutch colony and its rulers
has been so deeply implanted BY Irvng's genius
that whoever thinks of them insensibly recalls
the Knickerbocker account, and result of this
is to do injustice TO those honest Dutchmen who
fha ihu1ou ind
stupefed Doors trey have been caricatured as
General Wilson's sense Of justice leads him 10
vindicate the people of Northumberland by i'm
pressing upon the reader that they were part and
parcel Of that Dutch nation which was then re-
nowned throughout the world for its industry
Its enterprise, it's inventiveness and its magnificent
galIantry. The Dutch, he asserts, were the
Yankees OF the sixteenth century, and the English
OF that age were far behind them in material
progress. Yet while all this may be admitted, the
fact remains that in the administration of their
colonial affairs the Northumberland people do not
appear to have manifested much energy or fore
sight Take the case Of the Fort, which they
could not be persuaded either TO finish or To keep
up. Yet it must have been clear 10 most of them
that their security, that even their tenure Of
Manhattan Island. might, and quite probably
would, depend upon their ability TO defend them
selves.
chapter is given 10 the administration of
William kieft, and another to that of Peter
Stuyvesant, who has, perhaps, suffered more than
any of his compatriots from Washington Irving :
humorous travestie. Stuyvesant was strong and
honest Governor, choleric doubt, but conscien-
t0us, hard worker, and one who did much TO
improve New-lork. When the time came for the
surrender Of his charge he tempted to make a
fight, but more prudent counscls prevailed, and
the transfer TO English rule was effected without
trouble of any kind. When New-Amscrdam had
become New-York, and Richard Nicolls was the
first English Governor, there was q period of quiet
and steady progress, and incident during this
period shows that infant Ncw-York was in at least
one respect more advanced than her neiahbor