Page 52. The Praise of New Netherland. The full title, in English, is "The Praise of New Netherland: wherein are briefly and truly shown the excellent qualities which it possesses in the purity of the air, fertility of the soil, production of the cattle, abundance of game and fish, with its advantages for navigation and commerce." It was printed at Amsterdam "for Jacobus Van Der Fuyk, bookseller in the Still-Alley, Anno 1661." Steendam had returned to Amsterdam, it is thought only on a visit, at the time of the publication of this poem. It is dedicated to "The Honorable Cornelis van Ruyven, councillor and secretary of the Hon. West India Company there. Faithful and very upright Promoter of New Netherland."
Page 54. Noch vaster. A play upon words, a whimsical device adopted by Steendam. Steendam means "stone dam," and noch vaster, "still firmer." Notwithstanding which he seems to have been "a man of very unsettled purposes of life."
Page 58. Bartholomew Gosnold's 'headlands.' Gosnold commanded an expedition which, in 1602, discovered Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard, both of which were named by him.
Page 63. The Expedition to Wessagusset. Mr. Longfellow has followed the account of this expedition given in Winslow's Relation of "Standish's Expedition against the Indians of Weymouth." He has, however, turned the incident of Standish's killing of the chiefs, Pecksuot and Wituwamat, into a much more open and heroic piece of conduct than the chronicle admits. The killing really occurred in a room into which Standish and a few of his men had enticed them. This was the first Indian blood shed by the Pilgrims. A general battle followed in the open field, from which the Indians fled and in which no lives were lost.
"Concerning the killing of those poor Indians," wrote Robinson of Leyden (December 16, 1623), "of which we heard first by report and since by more certain relation, O how happy a thing had it been, if you had converted some before you had killed any!"
Page 65. New England's Annoyances. These verses are undoubtedly of a very early date, probably about 1630. Rufus W. Griswold, in his introduction to "The Poets and Poetry of America" (Philadelphia, 1854), calls them "the first verses by a colonist," a statement which is, of course, impossible of proof. They appeared originally in the Massachusetts Historical Collections, with the statement that they were "taken memoriter, in 1785, from the lips of an old lady at the advanced age of 96."
Page 73. Anne Hutchinson's Exile. The basis of the famous Antinomian controversy, as it was called, was the promulgation, by Mrs. Hutchinson, of "two dangerous errors: first, that the person of the Holy Ghost dwells in a justified person; second, that no sanctification can help to evidence to us our justification." The words are Winthrop's. To these two doctrines Mrs. Hutchinson attached so much importance that she undertook the public ministration of them. Sir Harry Vane, the young governor of the colony, was one of her converts, but in May, 1637, Winthrop was chosen governor instead of Vane, and at once took steps to suppress the Antinomians, which resulted in the banishment of the more prominent among them.
Page 73. The father. William Hutchinson, who had accompanied his family from England.
Page 73. The boys and girls. There were fifteen children, so that Portsmouth, which they founded, started off with a larger population than most towns of the period.
Page 75. In the ruler's seat. Underhill was chosen governor of the "Passataquack men" in October, 1638.