settled in New Amsterdam. Others went
to Long Island, where Sarah de Rapelje, the first white child born in the
province of New Netherlands, saw the light.

In 1626, Peter Minuit, the first regular Governor, was sent over from
Holland. He brought with him a _Koopman_ or general commissary, who was
also secretary of the province, and a _Schout_, or sheriff, to assist him
in his government. The only laws to which he was subject were the
instructions of the West India Company. The colonists, on their part,
were to regard his will as their law. He set to work with great vigor to
lay the foundations of the colony. He called a council of the Indian
chiefs, and purchased the Island of Manhattan from them for presents
valued at about twenty dollars, United States coin. He thus secured an
equitable title to the island, and won the friendship of the Indians.
Under his vigorous administration, the colony prospered; houses were
built, farms laid off; the population was largely increased by new
arrivals from Europe; and New Amsterdam fairly entered upon its career as
one of the most important places in America. It was a happy settlement,
as well; the rights of the people were respected, and they were as free
as they had been in Holland. Troubles with the Indians marked the close
of Minuit's administration. The latter were provoked by the murder of
some of their number by the whites, and by the aid rendered by the
commander at Fort Orange (Albany) to the Mohegans, in one of their forays
upon the Mohawks. Many of the families at Fort Orange, and from the
region between the Hudson and the Delaware, abandoned their settlements,
and came to New Amsterdam for safety, thus adding to the population of
that place. Minuit was recalled in 1632, and he left the province in a
highly prosperous condition. During the last year of his government New
Amsterdam sent over $60,000 worth of furs to Holland.

His successor was the redoubtable Wouter Van Twiller, a clerk in the
company's warehouse at Amsterdam, who owed his appointment to his being
the husband of the niece of Killian Van Rensselaer, the patroon of
Albany. Irving has given us the following admirable portrait of him:

"He was exactly five feet six inches in height, and six feet five inches
in circumference. His head was a perfect sphere, and of such stupendous
dimensions, that dame Nature, with all her sex's ingenuity, would have
been puzzled to construct a neck capable of s