The Colony was planted at this time, on the Manhates where a Fort was staked out by Master Kryn Frederyeke, an engineer. It will be of large dimensions....

The government over the people of New Netherland continued on the 15th of August of this year in the aforesaid Minuit, successor to Verhulst, who went thither from Holand on 9th January, Anno, 1626, and took up his residence in the midst of a nation called Manhates, building a fort there, to be called Amsterdam, having four points and faced outside entirely with stone, as the walls of sand fall down, and are now more compact.

The population consists of two hundred and seventy souls, including men, women, and children. They remained as yet without the Fort, in no fear, as the natives live peaceably with them. They are situate three miles from the Sea, on the river by us called Mauritius, by others, Rio de Montagne....

After the Right Honble Lords Directors of the Privileged West India Company in the United Netherlands, had provided for the defence of New Netherland and put everything there in good order, they taking into consideration the advantages of said place, the favorable nature of the air, and soil, and that considerable trade and goods and many commodities may be obtained from thence, sent some persons, of their own accord, thither with all sorts of cattle and implements necessary for agriculture, so that in the year 1628 there already resided on the island of the Manhates, two hundred and seventy souls, men, women, and children, under Governor Minuit, Verhulst's successor, living there in peace with the natives. But as the land, in many places being full of weeds and wild productions, could not be properly cultivated in consequence of the scantiness of the population, the said Lords Directors of the West India Company, the better to people their lands, & to bring the country to produce more abundantly, resolved to grant divers privileges, freedoms, and exemptions to all patroons, masters or individuals who should plant any colonies and cattle in New Netherland, and they accordingly have constituted and published in print (certain) exemptions, to afford better encouragement and infuse greater zeal into whomsoever should be inclined to reside and plant his colonie in New Netherland.

THE SWEDES AND DUTCH IN NEW JERSEY AND DELAWARE

(1627)

BY ISRAEL ACRELIUS[[1] ]

After that the magnanimous Genoese Christopher Columbus, had, at the expense of Ferdinand, King of Spain, in the year 1492, discovered the Western hemisphere, and the illustrious Florentine, Americus Vespucius, sent out by King Emanuel of Portugal, in the year 1502, to make a further exploration of its coasts, had had the good fortune to give the country his name, the European powers have, from time to time, sought to promote their several interests there. Our Swedes and Goths were the less backward in such expeditions, as they had always been the first therein. They had already, in the year 996 after the birth of Christ, visited America, had named it Vinland the Good, and also Skrællings Land, and had called its inhabitants "the Skrællings of Vinland." It is therefore evident that the Northmen had visited some part of North America before the Spaniards and Portuguese went to South America....

From that time until 1623, when the West India Company obtained its charter, their trade with the Indians was conducted almost entirely on shipboard, and they made no attempts to build any house or fortress until 1629. Now, whether that was done with or without the permission of England, the town of New Amsterdam was built and fortified, as also the place Aurania, Orange, now called Albany, having since had three general-governors, one after the other. But that was not yet enough. They wished to extend their power to the river Delaware also, and erected on its shores two or three small forts, which were, however, soon after destroyed by the natives of the country.