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Written Expressly for Rapid Reference: Dutch

Henry Hudson, an English navigator in the Dutch service, in 1609, in the hope of reaching the Pacific ocean, entered New York harbor and sailed up the river which now bears his name. Hudson is usually regarded as the discoverer of the Hudson river. This, however, is erroneous. It is certain that Verrazano, when he explored the North American coast in 1525, saw the noble stream; and nearly a century previous to Hudson's voyage, two Spanish expeditions sailed up the river, one of them as far as the present city of Albany. One of these expeditions named the river "Rio de las Montanas," or River of the Mountains, from the lofty Palisades that overlook the stream.

The commander of the other expedition named it Rio Santo Antonio, or St. Anthony's River, as the expedition entered the bay of New York on the feast of that saint.

Hudson, failing in his enterprise, was sent by a Dutch company, in 1610, on another voyage, when he discovered the great bay, which also bears his name. In virtue of Hudson's discovery, the Dutch claimed the country extending from the Delaware river to Cape Cod. They gave it the name of New Netherlands, and in 1610 founded several stations on the island of Manhattan. Three years later a settlement was founded, and a cluster of cottages was built in the lower part of the present city of New York.

1614-Captain John Smith explored the coast from Penobscot to Cape Cod, drew a map of it, and named the country New England.

1619-Governor Yeardley called together at Jamestown the "first legislative body that ever assembled in America," July 30. Its laws had to be ratified by the company in England, but on the other hand the company's order possessed no binding force unless ratified by the colonial assembly. In 1621, these privileges were embodied in a written instrument, the first "written constitution" in America. 1619-In this year occurred an apparently trivial episode, but which was destined to be fraught with terrible consequences, namely, the introduction of negro slavery. The captain of a Dutch trading vessel, having purchased twenty negroes, • sold them to the planters, and their labor having been found profitable on the tobacco plantations, a traffic in slaves soon succeeded.

1620-The Plymouth Company, excited by the glowing description of New England, given by Captain John Smith, obtained a new patent under the name of the Council for New England. In the same year, December 22, the Mayflower, carrying 102 "pilgrims" landed at Plymouth Rock. The pilgrims were Puritans, who were forced to flee from England on account of the religious persecution to which they were subjected on the part of the established church. They settled in Holland, whence they sailed for America, and were called pilgrims on account of their wanderings.

After landing in New England they suffered severely, and encountered such privations that in the spring of 1621 their number was reduced to between fifty and sixty souls. At one time there were only seven persons strong enough to take care of the sick. But they never lost heart. They persevered, and in the spring of 1624, they numbered 180 souls. Their numbers continued to increase, and in 1630, fifteen hundred settlers arrived from England. At the outset the Indians did not disturb them, but when the whites increased they became involved in war with the Indians. The Indians were finally subdued, but the wars arrested in a great measure the progress of the colony.

In 1643, Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, New Haven and Connecticut were formed, under the name of the United Colonies of New England, as a common protection against the Indians on the one hand, and the Dutch and French settlers on the other.