into hay, it is not so
nutritious for the cattle as the hay in Holland, in
consequence of its wild state, yet it annually improves by
culture.

"On the east side there rises a large level field, of about
one hundred and sixty acres, through which runs a very fine
fresh stream; so that land can be ploughed without much
clearing. It appears to be good. The six farms, four of
which lie along the river Hell-gate, stretching to the south
side of the island, have at least one hundred and twenty
acres to be sown with winter seed, which, at the most, may
have been ploughed eight times."

There were eighteen families at Fort Orange, which was situated on
Tawalsoutha creek, on the west side of the Hudson river, about
thirty-six Dutch miles above the island of Manhattan. These colonists
built themselves huts of bark, and lived on terms of cordial
friendship with the Indians. Wassenaar writes, "The Indians were as
quiet as lambs, and came and traded with all the freedom imaginable."

The Puritans had now been five years at Plymouth. So little were they
acquainted with the geography of the country that they supposed New
England to be an island.[1] Floating rumors had reached them of the
Dutch colony at the mouth of the Hudson. Governor Bradford
commissioned Mr. Winslow to visit the Dutch, who had sent a ship to
Narragansett bay to trade, that he might dissuade them from
encroaching in their trade upon territory which the Puritans
considered as exclusively belonging to them. Mr. Winslow failed to
meet the Dutch before their vessel had sailed on its return to
Manhattan.

Soon after this the Dutch Governor, Peter Minuit, sent secretary De
Rassieres to Governor Bradford, with a very friendly letter,
congratulating the Plymouth colony upon its prosperity, inviting to
commercial relations, and offering to supply their English neighbors
with any commodities which they might want.

Governor Bradford, in his reply, very cordially reciprocated these
friendly greetings. Gracefully he alluded to the hospitality with
which the exiled Pilgrims had been received in Holland. "Many of us,"
he wrote,

"are tied by the good and courteous entreaty which we have
found in your country, having lived there many years with
freedom and good content, as many of our friends do this
day; for which we are bound to be thankful, and our children
after us, and shall never forg