They send thence samples of summer grain ; such as wheat, rye, barley, oats, buckwheat, canary seed, beans, aud flax.

The cargo of said ship is ; --

7,246 Beaver skins. 178J Otter skins. 675 Otter skins. 48 Minck skins. 36 Wild cat skins.

33 Minckes.

34 Rat skins. Considerable oak timber and hickory.

Herewith, High and Mighty Lords, be recommended to the mercy of the Almighty. In Amsterdam, the 5th of November A. D. 1626. Your High Mightinesses obedient,

P. Schagen."

It is endorsed, " Received 7th November, 1626."

This action of Director-General Minuit and the Council of New Netherland marku the beginning of the policy of the Dutch nation in its treatment of the Indians of America in the matter of their lands, and also its Christian character. This policy and all the dealings with the natives pursuant to it was based on

1 The Dutch so named the Hudson after Maurice, the then Prince of Orange.

- A morgen, or Dutch acre, was two English acres ; " CO guilaers " was 24 dullais of our money.

the principle, that the Indians were the lawful proprietors of their native land by original right of occupancy, and that it could only be alienated by their own act, and not taken from them by right of cotiquest, or by rapine. Of no other of the nations of Europe which colonized America, except the Dutch, can it be truly said that this wise and Chiistian principle always governed them in their dealings with the Indians. Much has been written about AVilliam Penn as being the first to purchase their lands by treating with them. But Director Minuit on the banks of the Hudson preceded him in this honorable and Christian treatment of the Indians by more than half a century.