Anno 1655." The book was probably first published in 1653, the copy from which the above translation is made a later edition. It was Van der Donck's intention to enlarge of being the director-general's upon his facts by consulting the papers on file in office at New Amsterdam, to which end he obtained the necessary permit from the company. But upon his return to America, which occurred in the summer of 1653, Stuyvesant, who still harbored resentment against him, denied him that privilege. Van der Donck's book, despite its formidable title, is a volume of but modest pretensions, clearly written for the sole object of spreading information about the country. Considering the meagerness of general knowledge at that time respecting the several parts of the broad territory called New Netherland, and remembering that the writer peculiarly lacked documentary facilities in its preparation, it is a remarkably good account of the whole region. Especially in those parts of it where he is able to speak from the results of personal observation or investigation, he is highly instructive, and is thoroughly entitled to be accepted as an authority. His description of the Indians, though quite succinct, ranks with the very best of the early accounts of native North American characteristics, customs, and institutions. While he makes frequent allusion to his residence at Kensselaerswyck, there is no special mention of that part of the country where his own patroonship was located-- our County of Westchester,-- a circumstance which may reasonably be taken to indicate that he never had made it his habitation for any length of time. Some of the statements which appear in Van der Donck's pages belong to the decidedly curious annals of early American conditions. For example, he relates that in the month of March, 1647, "two whales, of common size, swam up the (Hudson) river forty (Dutch) miles, from which place one of them returned and stranded about twelve miles from the sea, near which place four others also stranded the same year.