The age-herald., 1898-01-23
THE BEGINNINGS OF NEW YORK

when the fdalf Moon. bearing denurlck Hudson and his Dutch navigators. entered the upper harbor in 1609. Manhattan Island was inhabited by a branch of the Lenni Lenape or Algonquin nation the great fam fly of sayages who roamed the gloomy for ests from the Penobseot to the Potomac. The island has been built out on either river front but at that time continuous marshes extended along the shores of the North and East rivers, and at Canal street turned inward, almost meeting from either side. There was a fresh water pond or collect on the site of the old Tombs. swamp at Beekman street, marsh Of some seventy acres north of Canal street and a range of high sand hills in the neigh borhood of Charlton, Lewis and Greene streets. To the northward was the un- broken forest, the haunt .of the bear, the wolf, the panther and the deer.
 In the pursuit of these animals and in fishing, clamming and oystering, the abor- iginal citizens of the metropolis gained precarious livelihood. They dwelt in com munal villages of bark tenements, some times whole villege under a single roof. The Manhattoes were the most warlike of the Algonquins hereaboutS, and were en- gagged in frequent struggles with their Nns- men, the Raritans and Hackensaeks in New Jersey, and the Massapequas, Mon tauks, Shinnecocks, chincoteagues and other clans in Long Island, as we'll as with the fierce Mohaws, who upheld the power of the hostile Five Nations in the region west of the upper Hudson
 The Dutch got along fairly well with their savage neighbors. For considera- ton equivalent to S2i Gov. Minuit pur- chased the island from their chiefs. The colony was founded to trade for furs with the Indians and until the English conquest that was the sole source of its revenues. There were several wars with the natives, after one of which the rampant was built, from. which Wall street has derived It's name. For a century after Hudson's day drunken Indians were a familiar figure or the streets.
 New Amsterdam was founded as pro- prietary colony by a trading company hold ing charter from the states-general. Un- like the New England colonies, there was no intent to establish a permanent settle ment. A dozen bark huts surrounded by stockade were built at the toe of the island. In 1594 a group of Hollanders engaged in the fur trade for Greenland company had encamped in the same place, and, two generations before their day, Verrezano had entered New York bay with an expe- dition from the king of France. It was not until 1924 that any families were brought over. In 1928 the Dutch West Indian com pany inaugurated its grants of lands to colonists who would bring fifty persons with them. Thousands of square miles of territory along the Hudson were ceded to single patrons of the manor, as they were called, from whom in later genera tions descended the great historic families of the state.
 Dutch Rule.
 Dutch rule in the little dorp lasted but single generation. The governors of the province of New Netherlands, of which New Amsterdam was the leading colony, were appointed by trading company, in-. stead of by the central government, ,-dlIo their functions were tsoo--fetIIn revenue, not to preside at the beginnings of a state. li.e people elected their burgomasters ana schepens, who roughly corresponded to the two chambers of the municipal assembly, and also schout-hscal, with many or the powers of a high sheriff. With sturdy Dutch spirit they resisted any arbitrary conduct on the part of their governors.
 The first director, Peter Minuit, Swede, was the most just and equitable of the colonial executives. Wouter Van Twier, who followed him, was good natured, jovial and heavy wine-bibber, not averse to getting rich by devious ways-a sort of Dutch Tweed, without the latter's energy William Kieft called "The Testy," who followed him, was irascible narrow and arbitrary. His successor was Peter Stuyvesant, the last of the four Dutch gov ernors and perhaps the strongest char acter that Holland gave to the colonial New York. He was just and kind hearted, but naughty and aristocratic. His admin istration and Dutch rule ended when an English fleet, in 1864, trained it's guns on the fort at the Battery.
 When New Amsterdam became New York it was by no means n typical Dutch colony Of its 1,5OO inhabitants, the Eng fish contributed a considerable portion. and at least one-third were neither Dutch nor English. This was exclusive Of the negro slaves, In which profitable frade had just been begun. In the trst Datch or families to reach Manhattan Island were a number of Walloons. The Huguonots were nearly as numerous as the English. There were a few Swedish and German sailors, and it is said that seventeen Ian guages were spoken in the village. Wfth its successive accretions or immigration from the north and south of Europe, New York today is no more cosmopolis than was the New Amsterdam Of Peter Stuyve- sant. Indeed there has never been time when the majority of New Yofkers were native-born.
 The mixed nature of its population ex- plains the fact that there was no real break when the colony pasced from Dutch to English hands. Party politics did not follow racial lines. The cleavage was on issues of popular rights, the patroons and wealthy merchants, with the Episcopalians and the wealthicr Huguenots siding with the crown and the Puritan English and the artisans of all races joining the popu- lar marty. When tine colony returned in 1864 for a brief period to the sovereignty of Holland 1t had 5000 inhabitants.
 Large Trade.
 Under the Dutch governors New York was essentially a trading colony, and Its activities and revenues lay inland. Under the English governors it became what 1t is still, a seafaring community. The major ity of it's citizens gained their livelihood on the waves of the ocean, as pr,vateers, slavers, Red Sea traderse as pirates. pure and simple. Their swift boats were upon every sea and the protracted continental wars permitted them as privateers to prey in turn upon the commerce of all nations. The African slave trade was enormously profitable, and before long the blacks formed almost majority of the popua- ton. Piracy ended with the hanging of William Kidd execution dock, but be- fore that time the sea stealers had made this port notorious throughout Chrlstcn- dom.
 From the forcible suppression cf piracy by the Earl of Bellomont to the outbreak of the revolution, the growth of the city was unbroken In ITO 1t had co Q0c illhabi-