INTRODUCTION.

HE Story or tHe DutcH or New AMSTERDAM

has often been told in scholarly prose, but the

picturesque feature of romantic fact has seldom, if

ever, received the acknowledgment which it seems to
deserve and require. |

As a nation of sea-farers and traders, the Dutch
acquired an enviable reputation, and for them to
have so successfully founded a commercial colony
was but to have been expected.

The history of the city of New York has been
ably and exhaustively treated by many notable writers,
and to them, as well as to other prolific sources, we
are indebted for the verification of our facts.

The arrangement herein follows no_ previously
conceived plan or outline, except that it supplements
the first book of the series, ‘The Voyage of the
Mayflower,” but forms in itself a true chronicle of
the events of the early Dutch occupation of Man-
hattan Island from its beginnings to its final reversion
into English hands.

Personalities have been avoided, except so far as

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