The Story of Manhattan | Page 6

Minuit was himself accused of aiding the patroons to make
money at the expense of the West India Company, and of taking his
share of the profit; and finally, the Company ordered him to return to
Holland. The ship in which he sailed was wrecked on the coast of
England, and Minuit was detained and accused of unlawfully trading in
the territory of the King of England. This was not the first time that the
English had laid claim to the Dutch lands in America. Charles I. was
king then, and he said that England owned New Netherland because an
English king, more than a hundred years before Hudson's time, had sent
John Cabot and his son Sebastian in search of new lands, and they had
touched the American shore.
But the Dutch called attention to the fact that it had been held, time out
of mind, that to own a country one must not only discover it, but must
visit it continually, and even buy it from any persons who should be
settled there. Even if the Cabots had discovered the land in America,
the Dutch had occupied it ever since Hudson's time and had paid the
Indians for it.
Matters were patched up for the time, and Minuit was permitted to
return to Holland. But he was no longer Governor of New Netherland,
for his place had been given to another man whose name was Walter
Van Twiller.
[Illustration: Old House in New York, Built 1668.]
CHAPTER IV
WALTER VAN TWILLER, SECOND of the DUTCH GOVERNORS
Now this Walter Van Twiller was a relative of Kiliaen Van Rensselaer,
one of the patroons. You will see why the West India Company's
choice of him for a Governor was not by any means a wise choice. For
he was soon doing exactly what Minuit had done. The only difference

was that Governor Van Twiller favored Van Rensselaer more than he
did the other patroons.
Van Twiller was a stout, round-bodied man, with a face much the shape
of a full moon. He was a sharp trader, having made two voyages to the
Hudson River in the interest of Van Rensselaer, but he knew nothing of
governing a colony.
The ship that brought the new Governor to the Island of Manhattan,
had also on board a hundred soldiers, and these were the first soldiers
ever sent to the island. There was also on the ship Everardus Bogardus,
the first minister of the colony, as well as Adam Rolandsen, the first
school-master. This school-master had a hard time of it in the new
country, for not being able to make a living by his teaching, he was
forced to do all kinds of other work. He even took in washing for a
time!
By this time negro slaves were being brought to the colony from Africa.
They did the household work, while the colonists cultivated the fields
These slaves did most of the work on a new wooden church which was
set up just outside the fort, for the new minister.
Governor Van Twiller began improving the colony by having three
windmills built, to take the place of the horse-mill. But he had them
placed in such a position that the building in the fort cut off the wind
from their sails, and the mills were almost useless.
The Governor did not neglect his own comfort, for within Fort
Amsterdam he built for himself a fine house of brick--finer than any in
the little settlement--and on one of the bouweries nearest the fort, he
erected a summer-house. On another bouwerie he laid out a tobacco
plantation, and had slaves paid by the Company to look after it.
[Illustration: Van Twiller's Defiance.]
When Van Twiller had been Governor three years, he gave to one of
the colonists a farm on the western side of the city along the Hudson
River. The colonist died the year after the farm was given him, leaving

his widow, Annetje Jans, to care for the property.
Years after, when Queen Anne ruled in England, and the English had
come into possession of New Netherland, she gave the Annetje Jans
farm to Trinity Church. That was almost two centuries ago. What was
once a farm is now a great business section, crossed and recrossed by
streets. Trinity Church has held it through all the years, and holds it
still.
Close upon the time when the Jans farm was given away by Governor
Van Twiller, a sailor of note, who had visited almost every country in
the world, founded a colony on Staten Island. This sailor was Captain
David Pietersen De Vries. Staten Island attracted him because of its
beauty. After the colony was well started, De Vries travelled between
New Netherland and Holland, and he will be met with again in