One of the strange results of this truce, was the voyage of Hudson in search of a western pas.sage to Cathay, and his momentous discovery of the Bay of New York and the magnificent river which has immortalized his name. Another remarkable result, was the establishment in the same year of the Bank of Amsterdam, which so long ruled the exchanges of Europe, and through which, the financial transactions of the first merchants and Patroous of New Netherland were subsequently carried on.
During the whole period iu which these different Princes, Kings, and Emperors, possessed the Netherlands, they ruled the provinces of Holland and Zeeland, which together comprised about five-eighths of the area of the "United Provinces," not in their royal capacities, but as " Counts of Holland." These two Provinces with, Friesland, Groningen, Utrecht, Guelderland, and Overyssel, comprising the other three-eighths of the Netherlands, formed the " Seven United Provinces" of the Republic, which founded Christian government and Christian civilization in New York.
What was the nature and constitution of this Republic? A Republic which not only established its own independent existence as one of the nations of Europe, but humbled forever the pride and power of Spain then one of the greatest of those nations. A Republic which founded in the New World a system of government, the principles of which to-day form
1 Maasilorp's Introduction to his translation of Grotius" treatise on I)iitcU Jurisprudence, p. iv.
the [basis, upon which rests the constitution of that greater Republic which under the name of the United States of America dominates the Western Hemisphere.