him, and resumed his work. Negro slaves were sold in New Amsterdam almost from its beginning. They were domestic servants, and rarely field-hands as in Virginia.

For books and reading, the patroon did not care, but he was not wholly an illiterate man. His arithmetic was all practical. He measured and weighed with accuracy, and if by chance he put his foot on the scales when he bought of an Indian, his conscience did not trouble him. The Indian was a shiftless wretch at best, he thought, but he lived in peace with him. The Mohawks and their brothers of the Five Nations got their guns and ammunition from the Dutch, and many a keg of powder and many a pound of lead received in barter at Fort Orange played havoc with the Hurons and the French in Canada, and with the English in Connecticut and Massachusetts. For sixty years New Netherland prospered as the Dutch wished; then came a brief contest, and the name disappeared from the map forBut these were quiet years which tradition has filled with quaint characters and legends. Rip Van Winkle is more real to us than Captain John Smith or Miles Standish, though he owes his immortality to Washington Irving and Joseph Jefferson.

ever.

By the terms of their charter, the West India Company received the Connecticut Valley, and they early began to explore it. Game of all kinds abounded; it was an untouched wilderness and a tempting region to the Dutch fur traders. The Indians liked the Dutch better than the English, for the Dutch willingly sold them guns, powder and ball, and in no wise interfered with them. Unlike the English, they did not attempt to govern the Indians, or to enslave them, or to seize their lands for nothing, or to convert them to Christianity. All the Dutch wanted of the Indians was more fur-skins. Whatever increased the supply they willingly sold to the savages. The English, on the contrary, were ever seizing the Indians' land without compensation, and cared little for their furs. Thus it soon came about that the English began to suffer from Dutch guns in the hands of the savages, and the Puritans classed the Dutch and the Indians together as the most dangerous foes to New England. To the north, the French in Can

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ada had the same feeling toward the Dutch for selling the firearms that kept New France in constant terror. By 1633 the Dutch were pretty well acquainted with the Connecticut Valley. Their trading-posts were scattered along the river, and where Hartford now stands they had built a strong fort. As was their custom, the Dutch bought the land on which their fort was built, in this instance from the Pequots. When this powerful tribe rose, with fearful slaughter, against the English, not a Dutchman was in danger. What few guns the Pequots had were of Dutch pattern.

Though the Dutch knew nothing of popular education, they early made provision for church schools, as in the establishment of the School of the Collegiate Reformed church in New Amsterdam in 1633. This was two years before the founding of the Boston Latin School and three years before Harvard College. The Dutch cared almost solely for trade, and the West India Company sternly repressed any signs of discontent or liberty among the settlers. It held its governors to strict account. In spite of the urgent demands of the company, the Dutch gradually withdrew from the Connecticut Valley and the English took possession. The New England Union of 1643 made it practically impossible for the Dutch to regain the valley. At this time New Amsterdam contained about a hundred houses and about five times as many people, who then, as now, were of various nations. English, Dutch, French, Spanish, and German might be heard in the city, and Indians of various tribes frequented the place. Already the harbor was the most famed on the Atlantic coast. The West India Company's policy was shortsighted, for it denied rights in New Netherland which were commonly exercised in Holland. Therefore the better class of settlers would not come from Holland. The home government soon detected the obstacle in the way, and opened up the country on easy terms to all who chose to come. This meant the death of the patroon system. New Netherland now began to gain rapidly in population. The Indians parted with their land freely, and that along the Hudson from New Amsterdam to Fort Orange, and along the larger tributary streams, was mostly taken up in private ownership by 1647,

[1664 in which year Peter Stuyvesant was appointed governor. By this time the settlers were earnestly demanding some form of representative government. With this demand the governor had no sympathy, but to keep the peace he allowed the land-owners to elect eighteen councilors, from whom he chose nine to act as an executive council. Through their efforts, the home government and the West India Company made concessions, though not very willingly. The export taxes were reduced, and the wealthier of the land-owners were permitted to elect magistrates. However, Stuyvesant did not think the government or the company in earnest, and took the choice of magistrates into his own hands. In like manner he repressed religious toleration by expelling all Quakers from New Netherland and by imposing fines and otherwise terrifying all who did not accept the teachings of the Dutch Reformed church, the established Protestant church of Holland. extended the authority of New Netherland southward as He vigorously far as Delaware Bay, in 1655, reducing the Swedish colonies to submission. In these years, 1696-97, the Puritans were persecuting Quakers, Lutherans, and Episcopalians in New England; they were persecuting Roman Catholics in Maryland, and Episcopalians were intolerant of Puritans in Virginia. Governor Stuyvesant was quite in the fashion, after all. The poor Quakers and Roman Catholics were in trouble in every colony. However, the Dutch government did not approve of Stuyvesant's imprisonment, fining, scourging, or flogging of Quakers, and at last ordered him to retract his fiery proclamation; to free his prisoners; to remit his fines, and to conduct himself in a more Christianlike fashion. But he behaved under protest.

The trials of Governor Stuyvesant now came thick and fast. In 1664, England put forward a formal claim to all New Netherland on the ground of Cabot's discovery of North America nearly two centuries before. stroke, sustained by a powerful nation. Holland protested, It was a bold but in vain. New Netherland lay between New England and Virginia. If it became English territory, all the vast region from New France in the north to New Spain in the south would be bound by a compact chain of prosperous

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English colonies. Without consulting Holland, Charles II., by charter, suddenly gave all New Netherland to his brother James, then Duke of York and Albany, and soon afterward James II. In 1664, a fleet in command of Colonel Nichols was sent to take New Amsterdam. Stuyvesant was furious, and strove to awaken resistance. He declared that he would rather be carried out dead than surrender the fort. The West India Company had lost its opportunity, and nobody loved it well enought to fire a gun in defense of New Amsterdam. The people believed that they would be happier and more prosperous under English rule. So the Dutch flag came down and the English flag went up, amidst the roar of English cannon in the bay. Then followed a change of names. Fort Orange was called Albany; New Amsterdam, New York City, and New Netherland, New York. Thus for a time New York included the present state of that name, also New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and portions of Massachusetts and Connecticut.

The change brought the common law of England to New York. In 1665 a code was drawn up, known as the Duke's Law, which guaranteed the rights of trial by jury; freedom of worship to all Christians, and equality in taxation. All able-bodied men were liable to militia duty. The people wanted an assembly, like that of the Virginians. The Duke of York promised a charter and an assembly with the usual powers, but on becoming king he refused to allow the charter to issue. An assembly had been elected, but the duke, now James II., ordered the governor to dissolve it. Thus as early as 1685 the struggle for popular government began in New York. With the accession of William and Mary the people were allowed to have an assembly. James had consolidated New York with New England and New Jersey, under Sir Edmund Andros as governor. With the accession of William and Mary this union ceased.

The intrigues and wars of Europe were felt in the forests of America, and powerful Indian tribes were persuaded to league themselves with the French against the English and with the English against the French. Louis XIV. tried in every way to make North America New France. He sent his emissaries among the Five Nations, and won all,

except the Mohawks, to take arms against the English. Frontenac, governor of Canada, planned the conquest of New York. A French fleet should attack New York City. A co-operating force of French and Indians set out for Albany, but it was too strong for an attack. They burned Schenectady and spread alarm through the frontier settlements. While this expedition was ravaging the northern part of the colony, no assembly was in session. News of

the accession of William and Mary had reached New York, but Nicholson, the governor, would not acknowledge the authority of the new monarchs and remained true to James II. At this crisis, in 1689, Jacob Leisler, the captain of a military company, proclaimed William and Mary, and called a colonial Congress to assemble in New York City to consider the state of the country. Delegates came from Plymouth, Massachusetts, and Connecticut and met in the first American Congress. It decided to send an army against Canada. While Leisler was directing affairs, an English ship arrived. Its captain claimed that he represented Colonel Sloughter, whom King William had appointed governor of the colony, but the captain showed no commission for his demand. An insurrection followed and several people were killed. Early in the spring of 1691, the new governor arrived, and Leisler promptly surrendered the fort to him, but he seized Leisler and accused him of high treason. Public opinion was divided. Leisler was hanged, as his followers claimed, because he stood for liberty. This was fifteen years later than Bacon's rebellion in Virginia. The event was long remembered. New York was obliged to defend herself against the French. From this time on, for sixty years, the entire colony west of the Hudson was in constant danger from invasion. The governor of New York was usually at Albany and much engaged in military affairs. It was clear that a great contest between France and England was at hand, and it looked as if New York would be the battle-ground of a war for the continent. During all these years the assembly and the governor were in constant struggle. The governor insisted on more liberal appropriations. The assembly, after 1739, made all appropriations specific; thus the governor could not pocket any of the