HISTORY OF BROOKLYN. 13

Delaware Bay, where Capes Cornelis and May still preserve the memory of his visit.

Upon the announcement of these discoveries at home, the enterprising merchants of North Holland, under whose auspices they had been made, united themselves into a company, according to the provisions of the ordinance of March 11th, and were favored by the States-General with the grant of a special trading-licence or charter bearing date on the 11th of October, 1614. This document, in which the name “New Netherland” first appears officially in the world's annals, invested the “United New Netherland Company,” as it was styled, with the exclusive right of visiting and trading in “the newly discovered lands lying in America between New France and Virginia, the seacoast whereof extends from the fortieth to the forty-fifth degrees of latitude, for four voyages, within the period of three years from the first of January next ensuing, or sooner.” This specific, limited, and temporary monopoly, with which the enterprise of these associated merchants was thus rewarded, conferred upon them no political powers—their objects being simply trade and discovery, and their servants armed traders in forcible possession of an unoccupied country. As might have been expected, no attempt was made, during the term of their charter, to effect any systematic colonization of the new country. While the peltry trade increased famously, agriculture was neglected, and civilization could scarcely be said to have gained even a foothold in New Netherland. Upon the expiration of the charter, by its own limitation, January 1st, 1618, the company sought a renewal, which the government saw fit to refuse. It continued, however, to grant every facility to private trading enterprises to the North River; a new fort was erected there on Norman's Kill, in place of the former one, which had been seriously damaged by the spring freshets, and a treaty of peace and alliance was formally concluded with the famous Iroquois or “Five Nations.”

The time had arrived, however, when the necessity of a peranent colonization of this distant colony became so apparent that its consideration could no longer be postponed. The StatesGeneral were meditating large and ambitious designs relative to their Western possessions, and they had already taken alarm at the