The daring fishermen of France sought the shores of Newfoundland in the pursuit of their vocation, and were followed into the St. Lawrence by the flag and arms of their country, where they so tenaciously remained. England waited for the reign of Elizabeth for the enterprise that developed her greatness in every direction and planted colonies in North Carolina and Virginia, and later, showed her energy and colonizing power in the planting of New England. It was reserved for the people of the youngest nation in Europe to occupy the territory between the Euglish settlements which Hudson had first discovered, and here to trade in equity with the aborigines, and to form a set-

THE DISCOVERY AND .SETTLEMENT.

tlement of sturdy ami intelligent people whose descendants and institutions still remain. In making their settlements, Spaniards, Frenchmen and Englishmen made lofty professions of their desires to convert the heathen to the Christian faith, and, with the utmost inconsistency, they employed the musket and the sword to accomplish their purposes. The Dutch professed only a desire for trade with the Indians, with the same propriety that the most Christian nations to-day seek to extend their commerce, and hy treating them with a reasonable show of justice, they found no severe difficulties in their enterprise, while they put to shame the hollow i)retensions of their ambitious neighbors.

The long and harassing war by which the Netherland provinces achieved their independence of the j Si)anish crown had been one of the most remarkable in the world's history. The wealth and power of Spain were considered almost boundless. The revolting )jrovinces were small in area and in population. The ' contest seemed most unequal, but the same energy, persistence and skill that had wrested their fertile land irom the sea defeated the armies of Spain and wore out the endurance of her sovereigns, until, on the 9th of April, 1609, the protracted struggle ended and the independence of the Netherlands was practically acknowledged.