The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-03-27
LITTLE OLD NEW YORK BEGINS CELEBRATION OF TERCENTENARY.

Little ola New York-aS such of the 7,ssS.s71 inhabitants of the met ropolitan district as can speak Eng fish or can speak at all delight to call twill begfn today the celebration of it's 30oth birthday. Today is the ter centenary of the granting of the first general charter by the States General of the United Netherlands for trading to New Nether1and. The arrange ments for the public celebration of the 3o0th anniversary of the regularly chartered commerce of what is now the city and State of New Yorl<'' were commenced about two years ago. and Gaynor appointed a committee to car ry the plans to completion. at the re- quest of various commercial organiza- tions of New York.
 Religious exercises today will mark the inaugural of the tercentenary ob- servance, which will continue to Oc- tober 11th, the 30oth anniversary of hthe first special charter for Dutch trading to New Netherland- Tn April and May there will be exercises in the public schools and other insti- tutions of learning, designed to fa- miIiarize the young with the history of the American metropolis and the Unions Empire State. One of the aims of the tercentenary committee is to establish scholarships by which pu- pills may be exchanged between the commercial colleges of Europe and America
 All of the States of the Union will be asked to participate in the exhi- bitions of material resources to be held in New York during June, July and August. Leading museums, and historical, commercial ande technical societies will hold exhibitions There will be parades and pageants in the latter part of September. There will also be music festivals. naval and ma rine displays, illuminations, observ- ance of the opening of the Panama canal, scommemoration of the centen- ary of peace between the United States and Great Britain, in which prominent Englishmen and Canadians will be asked to participate, and other features to make New York's tercen- ,tenary year a memorable one. Other cities in New York will also hold cele- brations on a smaller scale. On the whole, the celebration will be com mercial in character, since New York's prosperity and greatness is due to it's being the great commercial gateway to the New World.
 In1614 the future city of New York consisted of four rude huts occupying a site at what is now. Al Broadway. These were the only habftations of white men on Manhattan Island. The first ships trading to Manhattan were the Fortune and the Tiger. Amster- dam vessels brought over by Hen drick Christiansen and Adriaen Block The Tiger was accidentally burned at Manhattan in 1613 Block then con structed the first vessel built on the island. the Onrust, ofseighteen tons. which was launched near the Battery in the Spring of 1614.< In this tiny ship he passed Hell Gate and coast ed along as far as Nahant Bay. In 1914 Christiansen went up the Hud- son to Castle Island. below Albany, and built Fort Nassau, a trading house 36 by 26 feet, in a stockade 5s feet square, with moat IS feet in width.s In October. 1914, the Dutch States General gave the name of New Netherland to the country around Manhattan island, and granted it's trade by special charter to Amster- dam merchants. Christiansen was killed by Indians in 1915. In 1923 thirty families of French Protestants refugees arrived, twenty-two families settling on Long Island. at the WaIIa-
 bout, Brooklyn, and the remainder near Fort Orange. Three years later Peter Minuit arrived. and completed that famous deal by which Manhattan 1 Island, rocky and full of trees,'' was 1 ceded by the Indians to the Dutch for | $25 worth of trfnkets