Our first century . 86 OUR FIRST CENTURY In 1614, or perhaps a year or two earlier, the Dutchbuilt a fort at what is now the Battery in New York,and called it Fort Amsterdam. And as traders andsettlers afterward came out they built a little town aroundthat fort, thus making the beginning of New York—thelargest city in America, and the second largest in theworld. At first the Dutch sent out nobody but traders. Itwas not until 1622 or 1623—two or three years afterthe establishment of the Plymouth colony, that they be-gan sending out permanent colonists. They settled someof them at Fort Orange—no
Our first century . 86 OUR FIRST CENTURY In 1614, or perhaps a year or two earlier, the Dutchbuilt a fort at what is now the Battery in New York,and called it Fort Amsterdam. And as traders andsettlers afterward came out they built a little town aroundthat fort, thus making the beginning of New York—thelargest city in America, and the second largest in theworld. At first the Dutch sent out nobody but traders. Itwas not until 1622 or 1623—two or three years afterthe establishment of the Plymouth colony, that they be-gan sending out permanent colonists. They settled someof them at Fort Orange—now Albany—and others atthe Wallabout, in what is now the borough of Brooklynin New York City. It was not until 1626 that the Dutch sent out PeterMinuit as governor of New Netherland. As yet theDutch traders had no title to Manhattan Island on whichthey had located their fort and on which New York City. The earliest picture of New Amsterdam, about 1650. (From an origi-nal copy of Van der Duncks map.) now stands. Peter Minuit bought the island from theIndians for twenty-four dollars worth of trinkets. The Dutch were enterprising traders and having es- MAINE AND NEW HAMPSHIRE 87 tablished themselves in America, with no other claim topossession there than that which rested upon the explo-rations of Henry Hudson, an Englishman temporarily intheir employ, they set themselves to work to build up apermanent colony in the New World. As an inducement to this the Dutch West India Com-pany established the system ofpatroons. It decreed that spe-cial privileges should be given toevery Dutchman who shouldplant settlements in America athis own expense. It was orderedthat every member of the DutchWest India Company who shouldtake fifty persons, above fifteenyears of age, to America to set- Dutch ^vomen of old times,tie there should become the proprietor of a tract of landextending for sixteen miles
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