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Peter Stuyvesant, the Last Dutch Governor of New Amsterdam by John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot) Abbott
page 59 of 288 (20%)
trebled, amounting, in the year 1632, to nearly fifty thousand
dollars.

We come now to a scene of war, blood and woe, for which the Dutch were
not at all accountable. It will be remembered that a colony had been
established near the mouth of Delaware Bay. Two vessels were
dispatched from Holland for this point containing a number of
emigrants, a large stock of cattle, and whaling equipments, as whales
abounded in the bay. The ship, called the Walvis, arrived upon the
coast in April, 1631. Running along the western shore of this
beautiful sheet of water, they came to a fine navigable stream, which
was called Horekill, abounding with picturesque islands, with a soil
of exuberant fertility, and where the waters were filled with fishes
and very fine oysters. There was here also a roadstead unequalled in
the whole bay for convenience and safety.

Here the emigrants built a fort and surrounded it with palisades, and
a thriving Dutch colony of about thirty souls was planted. They
formally named the place, which was near the present town of Lewiston,
Swaanendael. A pillar was raised, surmounted by a plate of glittering
tin, upon which was emblazoned the arms of Holland; and which also
announced that the Dutch claimed the territory by the title of
discovery, purchase and occupation.

For awhile the affairs of this colony went on very prosperously. But
in May, 1632, an expedition, consisting of two ships, was fitted out
from Holland. with additional emigrants and supplies. Just before the
vessels left the Texel, a ship from Manhattan brought the melancholy
intelligence to Amsterdam that the colony at Swaanendael had been
destroyed by the savages, thirty-two men having been killed outside of
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