254

THE YOUTH’S CABINET.

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NY
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Ni} ey !

eTeR Stuyvesant, a portrait of
whom is here presented to the
reader, is somewhat famous as

being the last Dutch governor of

New York, or more properly of the island
of Manhattan. You are all aware that
this part of the country was first settled
by emigrants from Holland. It was in
the year 1609, that the Indians on this
island, in a state of the deepest barba-
rism, were assembled, in great numbers,
near what is now called the Battery, to
witness one of the most astonishing sights
that they ever beheld. It was the ar-
rival of the bark Henry Hudson, then
in the employ of the Dutch East India
company. This vessel, on a voyage in

 

] AA i
Early History of New York.

search of a north-west passage to the
East Indies, entered the harbor on the
third of September; and as the white
faces from the vessel landed on the
shores of Manhattan island, you may be
sure the natives were astonished beyond
measure.

Well, the Dutch soon effected a set-
tlement on the coast, and began to build
on the lower part of the island. They
established a form of government; they
made laws, and were getting on finely.
Washington Irving, in his humorous
work called “Knickerbocker’s History
of New York,” tells a great many sto-
ries about the early Dutch governors,
some of which would make you laugh