thousand Dutch ducats.

The Company immediately erected a trading-house, at the head of
navigation of the Hudson river, which as we have mentioned, was then
called Prince Maurice's River. This house was on an island, called
Castle Island, a little below the present city of Albany, and was
thirty-six feet long and twenty-six feet wide, and was strongly built
of logs. As protection from European buccaneers rather than from the
friendly Indians, it was surrounded by a strong stockade, fifty feet
square. This was encircled by a moat eighteen feet wide. The whole was
defended by several cannon and was garrisoned by twelve soldiers.

This port, far away in the loneliness of the wilderness, was called
Fort Nassau. Jacob Elkins was placed in command. Now that the majestic
Hudson is whitened with the sails of every variety of vessels and
barges, while steamers go rushing by, swarming with multitudes, which
can scarcely be counted, of the seekers of wealth or pleasures, and
railroad trains sweep thundering over the hills and through the
valleys, and the landscape is adorned with populous cities and
beautiful villas, it is difficult to form a conception of the silence
and solitude of those regions but about two hundred and fifty years
ago, when the tread of the moccasoned Indian fell noiseless upon the
leafy trail, and when the birch canoe alone was silently paddled from
cove to cove.

In addition to the fort in the vicinity of Albany, another was erected
at the southern extremity of Manhattan Island at the mouth of the
Hudson. Here the company established its headquarters and immediately
entered into a very honorable and lucrative traffic with the Indians,
for their valuable furs. The leaders of the Company were men of