All of this country was included in the patent granted the Virginia
Company, and it was for the mouth of the Hudson that the Pilgrims had
sailed in the Mayflower. The charge has since been made that their
captain had been bribed by the thrifty Dutch to land them somewhere
else, and at any cost, to keep them away from the neighborhood of the
Dutch trading-posts. From whatever cause, this was certainly done, and
many years were to elapse before there came another English invasion.

In 1626, Peter Minuit, director for the Dutch West India Company,
purchased Manhattan Island from the Indians, giving for it trinkets and
merchandise to the value of $24, and founding New Amsterdam as the
central trading depot. From the first, the settlement was a cosmopolitan
one, just as it is to-day, and in 1643, it was said that eighteen
languages were spoken there.

The most notable figure in this prosperous and growing colony was that
of Peter Stuyvesant, an altogether picturesque and gallant personality.
Born in Holland in 1602, he had entered the army at an early age, and,
as governor of Curaçao, lost a leg in battle. In 1646, he was appointed
director-general of New Netherlands, and reached New Amsterdam in the
spring of the following year. So much powder was burned in firing
salutes to welcome him that there was scarcely any left. His speech of
greeting was brief and to the point.

"I shall govern you," he said, "as a father his children, for the
advantage of the chartered West India Company, and these burghers, and
this land."

And he proceeded to do it, having in mind the old adage that to spare
the rod is to spoil the child. There was never any doubt in Stuyvesant's