Mrs. Sigourney.
ISTORICAL associations of the deepest interest, colonial and revolutionary, cluster around the city of New York and its immediate vicinity. Here was planted one of the earliest of the European settlements in the New World; and during the march of progress for more than a century and a half, from the advent of the Half Moon1609 before Manhattan, until the departure of the last vestige of foreign dominion from its shores,1783 the events of its history bear important relations to the general structure of our republic. Here, when the colonies lifted the strong arm of resistance against an unnatural mother, the military power of the latter first raised a permanent standard. Here was the central point of that power during almost the entire period of the conflict which ensued; and here it lingered longest when the conflict was ended. Here the last great act of the drama of the Revolution was performed, when the first President of the United States was inaugurated, and the machinery of our Federal government was put in motion. Liberty in America was born at Plymouth, cradled in Boston, and baptized in Philadelphia; in New York it was inaugurated Pontifex Maximus, and its Liturgy—the Constitution—accepted as the expression of the common sentiment of a free people.
Volumes have been written concerning the colonial history of New York; I shall devote only a few pages to the same theme, in addition to that which has already been given in this work. We have glanced at colonial and revolutionary events north of the Hudson Highlands; let us now open the chronicles of the city and vicinity.
A few months after the return of Henry Hudson to Europe, with intelligence of his discovery of the beautiful island of Manhattan ** and the river bearing his name, some Dutch traders sailed up the bay and planted their tents near the spot where now flourish the stately trees of the Battery. Hudson, being in the employment of the Dutch East India Company, the States General of Holland claimed political and territorial jurisdiction over a vast extent of country more than that watered by the river discovered by Hudson. Ship followed ship with adventurers from Holland, and as deep in the wilderness as Albany they planted trading stations. A Dutch West India Company was formed,1621 clothed with all the elementary powers of government, and furnished with a charter giving them territorial dominion over the shores of two continents, without the least regard to the
* While the Dutch possessed the city, after its recapture in 1673, it was the duty of the mayor to walk round the city every morning at sunrise, unlock all the gates, and then give the keys to the commander of the fort. The walls or palisades extended from the East River, across Broadway to the corner of Grace and Lumber Streets, along the line of the present Wall Street. From the most westerly point, they continued along the brow of the high bank of the Hudson to the fort, near the present Battery.
** According to Heckewelder, this Indian word signifies place of drunkenness, a name given to the spot fourscore years before, when Verrazani landed there, and at a council of the natives gave them strong liquor and made them drunk. The place and the local tribe were afterward called Manhattan and Manhattan.
The Patroon System.—Government Established.—Trade of the People.—Governor Stuyvesant.
existing settlements of the English, Spanish, and Portuguese. The history of this company is instructive, but we must forbear.