The History of Our Country from the Discovery of America to the Present Time Volume 1; Including a Comprehensive Historical Introduction, Copious Annotations, a List of Authorities and References, Etc (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1900 Excerpt: ... designated name of the land lying between the parallels of 40 and 45 north. This grant, it will be noted, included all of New England, a claim which Great Britain was certain to dispute. A settlement was made in 1615, on a small island below Albany, where a post was erected called Fort Orange. The cabins on Manhattan Island increased in number until it gave promise of soon becoming a town. The Dutch who began penetrating the Mohawk valley showed their wisdom by making a treaty of peace with the Iroquois or Five Nations, the most powerful tribal league that ever existed. The Dutch West India Company was formed in 1621, and was one of the most important trading enterprises, if perhaps we except the East India Company, ever known. It was a colossal monopoly, with imperial powers that were to last for twenty-two years, and which gave it the exclusive right to colonize, govern, and trade on the coast of Africa, from the tropic of Cancer to the Cape of Good Hope, and over the entire unoccupied coast of America from Newfoundland to the Straits of Magellan. The fleet of this enormous corporation consisted of thirty-two vessels of war, eighteen armed sloops, and many merchant ships. New Netherland, naturally, fell under the administration of the Company, and in March, 1623, it fitted out a vessel, named the New Netherland, designed for trade in the country of the same name. It was a staunch, well-found ship, like the people who launched her, and took out as colonists one hundred and ten men, women, and children, comprising thirty families. They were plentifully provided with domestic animals and agricultural implements. These settlers, known as " Walloons," had been driven from Holland by cruel perse Period II Coloniza-Tion AND SETTLE-MENT 1602 TO 1758 PU...