purchase for them treasures of civilization of almost priceless worth,
redoubled their zeal in hunting and trapping.

A small Indian settlement sprang up upon the spot. Quite large cargoes
of furs were collected during the winter and shipped to Holland in the
spring. The Dutch merchants seem to have been influenced by a high
sentiment of honor. The most amicable relations existed between them
and the Indians. Henry Christiænsen was the superintendent of this
feeble colony. He was a prudent and just man, and, for some time, the
lucrative traffic in peltry continued without interruption. The Dutch
merchants were exposed to no rivalry, for no European vessels but
theirs had, as yet, visited the Mauritius river.

But nothing in this world ever long continues tranquil. The storm ever
succeeds the calm. In November, of the year 1613, Captain Argal, an
Englishman, in a war vessel, looked in upon the little defenceless
trading hamlet, at the mouth of the Hudson, and claiming the territory
as belonging to England, compelled Christiænsen to avow fealty to the
English crown, and to pay tribute, in token of his dependence upon
that power. Christiænsen could make no resistance. One broadside from
the British ship would lay his huts in ruins, and expose all the
treasures collected there to confiscation. He could only submit to the
extortion and send a narrative of the event to the home government.

The merchants in Holland were much alarmed by these proceedings. They
presented a petition to the States-General, praying that those who
discovered new territory, on the North American continent, or
elsewhere, might enjoy the exclusive right of trading with the
inhabitants of those regions during six consecutive voyages.