WEST INDIA COMPANY'S HOUSE BUILT IN 1641.-VIEW FROM THE OUDE SCHAUS. CITY OF AMSTERDAM.

came now apparent to the West India Company that it could take measures for settling New York without English interference, and it proceeded to plant a little colony-that was not self-supporting--and to establish a system of government that was as contrary to modern ideas of republicanism as an absolute monarchy could have been. The West India Company was never a success in developing plantations. The spoils of war were more to its taste; the small trade in furs at Manhattan Island looked meagre indeed in comparison with the capture of gold by the ship-load. One hundred and four prizes were recorded between 1626 and 1628. In fatuating wealth poured into the company's treasury. Its dividends doubled and trebled. It invested in costly buildings, and its directors lived in elegant and luxurious homes.

But something must be done with that mismanaged and unprofitable property at the mouth of the Hudson and inland. Some extraordinary inducement must be offered before people, who, like the Hollanders were content in their own homes, would voluntarily cross the ocean to dwell in a wilderness among savages and wild beasts. Neither did Holland farmers, as a rule, possess the means needful for emigration. If private capitalists could only be interested so far as to initiate beginnings it was thought the difficulties would be in a measure overcome. Finally, after much study and discussion, a charter of Freedoms and Exemptions was invented, which was expected to stimulate systematic and extended colonization; real estate in Holland outside the towns was in possession of old families of the nobility who were unwilling to part with any portion of it, and there were unquestionably many who might desire to become extensive landholders elsewhere. The charter received the sanction of the States-General in 1629. It was printed in pamphlet form, and circulated through all the towns and cities in the Netherlands. It promised to confer the title of patroon upon whoever should found a colony of fifty adults in the new province, one of the conditions being that he should purchase of the Indians a tract of land not far from sixteen miles square, and settle his people upon it provided with all the necessaries of husbandry. He was to be invested with full property rights and granted freedom in trade-except the fur trade, which the West India Company reserved to itself--and protection “against all outlandish and inlandish wars and powers." The corporation reserved for its private use, as the emporium of trade, the island site of our metropolis, upon which a fort was to be kept in order and garrisoned. Each patroon was to support a minister and schoolmaster, and would be supplied with negro slaves.

Such were the chief features of the West India Company's famous effort for the agricultural colonization of its American province. In every instance (by a clause in the instrument) the great feudal chieftain must be a shareholder in the corporation. And the colonists under him were naturally subjected to the double pressure of feudal exaction and mercantile monopoly. The spirit of the charter was defaced by its details. The machinery was unwieldy and couid never be made to run smoothly. Some of the directors were on the alert, and secured the most valuable localities in New York for themselves as soon as the bill became a law. Their alacrity filled their less active associates with deadly anger. A quarrel followed among the directors in Holland that has had few parallels in bitterness or length in the history of such corporations. But while the wrangling went on, shiploads of colonists reached our shores. To secure the confirmation