This condition was not complied with, and the scheme fell to the ground. It is a coincidence, and very presumably no accidental one, that this offer was volunteered in the same year that the Pilgrims sailed from Holland in the "Mayflower" and landed at Plymouth. Indeed, it is well known that the original intention of the " Mayflower" company was to proceed to New Netherland, and their landing on the New England coast instead was the result of a change of plan almost at the last moment. It will heme be observed that it was by the merest circumstance offortune that our State of New York did not become the chosen seat of the Puritan element. Yet New Netherland as originally settled was just as distinctly a place of refuge for persecuted religious sectarians as New England, the Walloons who came to New York Bay being no less pilgrims for reasons of belief than the much-sung passengers of the " Mayflower." If should be borne in mind that the confines of New Netherland, as that territory was understood by the Dutch government, were not limited to the shores of the Hudson River, New York Bay and its

To

HISTORY

WESTCHESTER

COUNTY

estuaries, and Long [sland Sound. Henry Hudson, in his voyage of and discovery northward from Chesapeake Bay in 1609, had entered region that followed which explored Delawa.ro Bav, and in the years It was emreceived the occasional attention of ships from Holland. India West the to made grant the in course, of matter a braced as is still known ( :ompanv The name North River, by which the Hudson the Delaware at its mouth, was first given to it to distinguish it from Dutch. River or South River, as that stream was called by the of our readers We have shown, in perhaps greater detail than some that the dehistory, mav think is necessary in the pages of a local Company termining consideration m the creation of the West India view ot the m provide, to en statesm ands Netherl the of was the desire e and defensive naval impending war with Spain, for a strong offensiv of the company were s energie the that and >cean; ( c Atlanti arm in the to the realization of success signal with devoted on a great scale and functions of the cial commer and ing coloniz l peacefu The this aim company ' on the other hand, were not outlined with any degree of in the charspecial formality ter, but were rather left to the nai ural course of events.