AVhich was provt-d in tlie year 1621, when the late King directed his ambassador to urge upon their Lordships, the States-General, to prevent the departure of certain vessels which were preparing to proceed to the aforesaid country, •and to forbid their subjects to settle in that plantation ; for their answer was that they knew nothing of said enterprise. That anj' who will submit themselves to his majesty's government, as his majesty's subjects, may settle there ; that if they do not consent, his majesty's interest will not permit him to allow them to usurp and encroach upon one of his colonies, which he has great cause to cherish and maintain in its integrity.

" By these replies to the aforesaid complaints, their Lordships, the States-General, will understand how little ground they have to eitter on their neighbor's territory in defiance of any alienation thereof by his majesty."

The vessel was subsequently released ; but her detention had accomplished the end the government had in vievv, which was to assert a title that undisputed possession might possibly impair.

The condition of New Netherland in the year 1638,^ when Governor Kieft arrived, was but a step removed from its primitive state of wilderness. It was uninhabited save by a few traders and clerks, and, except for half a dozen farms around Fort Amsterdam and an equal number about Fort Orange, was wholly uncultivated. No towns or villages had been planted, and of the few settlers introduced by the company, the greater part had returned, leaving a few isolated traders in the solitary forts -which served only as a rendezvous for lazy Indians. Had the Dutch filled the land with an energetic and determined race, seeking to build houses and churches and to found commonwealths, as the English were doing, they might have stemmed the tide of New England encroachment, which, a few years later, washed against the very shores of Manhattan Island.