is but six weeks' sail from Holland. It is fertile in the
extreme. The climate serene and temperate, is the best in
the world. The soil is ready for the plough, and seed can be
committed to it with scarcely any preparation. The most
valuable timber is abundant. The forest presents in
profusion, nuts and wild fruit of every description. The
richest furs can be obtained without trouble. Deer, turkeys,
pigeons and almost every variety of wild game, are found in
the woods, and there is every encouragement for the
establishment of fisheries."

Having presented this view of the region, to which emigrants were
invited, and having also announced an exceedingly attractive charter
of civil and religious privileges which would be granted them, in the
following terms the invitation to emigrate was urged:

"Therefore if any of the good Christians, who may be assured
of the advantages to mankind of plantations in these
latitudes, shall be disposed to transport themselves to said
place, they shall have full liberty to live in the fear of
the Lord upon the aforesaid good conditions and shall be
likewise courteously used.

"We grant to all Christian people of tender conscience, in
England or elsewhere oppressed, full liberty to erect a
colony between New England and Virginia in America, now
within the jurisdiction of Peter Stuyvesant."

Twenty-three families, most of them French, established a settlement
on Long Island, at the place now called Bushwick. The village grew
rapidly and in two years had forty men able to bear arms.

The proclamation issued by the Company, inviting emigrants to settle
upon the lands between the Hudson and the Delaware, attracted much
attention in Europe. Committees were sent to examine the lands which
it was proposed thus to colonize. The region between New Amstel and
Cape Henlopen, being quite unoccupied, attracted much attention. A
company, the members of which may be truly called a peculiar people,
decided to settle there. An extraordinary document was drawn up,
consisting of one hundred and seventeen articles for the government of
the association. In this singular agreement it is written:

"The associates are to be either married men or single men
twenty-four years old, who are free from debt. Each one is
bound to obey the ordinances of the society and not to seek
his own advancement