Three tracts of land were chosen, one in Delaware, one in New Jersey (at Pavonia), and the third in the immediate neighbourhood of Fort Orange. The last-named tract became in time the site of several thriving cities and villages, among which Albany, Troy, and Lansingburg are the most important. Under the act of 1629, styled a "Charter of Freedoms and exemptions," Van Rensselaer secured his title as patroon and proceeded to send colonists to settle his land. Previous to that time the settlers had been traders, but not colonists. The earh^ history of Beverwyck, or Albany, does not furnish us with any of the thrilling stories of Indian cruelty and Dutch retaliation that we read in the chronicles of New Amsterdam. While the settlers near the mouth of the river suffered from the arrow and the tomahawk, their brethren a hundred and forty miles to the north were serenely planting, building, and rais-

An Old Dutch Town 521

ing families. The scriptural injunction to be fruitful and multiply was not neglected, and as every child was expected to set out a sa]jling to mark its birthday, in course of time the town became a vernal bower. There was something very modern in the way that Van Rensselaer built uj) his domain. While other colonies were either maintaining an ai)athetic silence or else comi3laining bitterly of the hardships of their lot and the difficult}^ of sustaining life without aid from the company or government that i)lanted them, the long reports of the great advantages and rich fertility of Rensselaerswyck stirred the imagination of many a seventeenth-century Boer. Other shi])s might bring ]3ro\4sions and encouragement for those alread}' on the ground, but those of our patroon brought colonists, with implements for the farm, the forest, and the mill. The documents that have been preser\'ed would i)ut to shame most modern advertisers.