12 HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.

(occupied by Block and his companions during the winter of 1613-1614, while they were engaged in building a small yacht to replace their vessel which had been destroyed by fire), were the only visible signs of occupation; while, as to cultivation of the land there was not even a commencement. Amid these untamed solitudes, secure in the good-will of the surrounding savages, and unmolested by European rivals, the plodding but honest Dutchmen pursued a lucrative traffic in peltries, sending home to Holland vessel after vessel richly freighted with furry treasures, which brought golden returns to the coffers of their owners.

By the spring of 1614, however, attention seemed to be directed towards placing affairs in the new country on a more permanent basis. Factors were appointed to reside at certain designated points in the interior and manage the growing peltry-trade; while, at Castle Island (now within the limits of the present city of Albany), was erected a small fortified warehouse, garrisoned with ten or twelve men and named “Fort Nassau” To that post resorted the Mohawks and Mohicans, and from thence went scouting parties, exploring the country in every direction, and always carefully maintaining the most amicable relations with the natives whom they met. Not less active, also, were the hardy Dutch sailors. Numerous minute explorations of the surrounding coasts were inaugurated by the captains of the various vessels which came out from Holland. Adriaen Block, in his little yacht the “Restless,” which he had built at Manhattan during the preceding winter, explored the East River and the Sound, discovering the Housatonic, Thames, and Connecticut rivers, the latter of which he ascended to the head of navigation. Then crossing over to the eastern extremity of Long Island, the insular character of which he determined, he gave his name to an island near Montauk Point, and following in Verazzano’s track, entered Narragansett Bay and coasted along northward as far as Boston harbor and Nahant Bay. Here meeting with his old comrade Christiaensen, he returned in the latter's vessel to Holland, leaving his own little craft in charge of Cornelis Hendricksen, who explored the coast further south. Cornelis Jacobsen May, meanwhile, was sailing along the southern shore of Long Island, passing southward to