d
into one company they might not have to give so many. So they did
combine, and called themselves the United New Netherland Company. It
was in this way that the name New Netherland first appeared.

When the first ships of the new company reached the island, a house was
built for the use of the fur-traders, just south of where the Bowling
Green Park is. This structure was called Fort Manhattan. It was of
wood, and did not take long to build because the traders did not intend
to live in it a great while. They felt quite sure that all the furs
would be collected in a few years, and that then the island would be
abandoned. No one thought at that time that the little wooden stockade
was the commencement of a great city.

But after a few years it was found that the new country was a much
richer place than had been supposed. Shipload after shipload of otter
and beaver skins were sent across the ocean and still there were otters
and beavers without number. The fur-traders were growing rich, and after
a few years there came a decided change, when a new company was formed
in Holland; a great body of men this time, who had a vast amount of
money to build ships and fit them out. This organization was the West
India Company, and was to battle with Spain by land and by sea (for the
Netherlands was at war with Spain) and was to carry on trade with the
West Indies, just as the East India Company carried on trade with the
East Indies. As the West Indies included every country that could be
reached by sailing west from Holland, you will see that all the Dutch
land in America, which land was called New Netherland, came under the
control of this new company.

The territory called New Netherland was the country along the Atlantic
Ocean which now makes up the States of New Jersey, New York, and
Connecticut. But its limits at this time were uncertain as it extended
inland as far as the Company might care to send their colonists.

Within a few years, the seventy ships sailing under the flag of the West
India Company, fought great battles with the Spaniards, and won almost
every one of them. There were branches of the Company in seven cities of
Holland, and the branch in Amsterdam had charge of New Netherland. So it
will be only of the doings of this branch that we shall read. Colonists
were to be carried to New Netherland from Holland; farms were to be laid
out and cultivated; cities were to be built, and the West India Company
was to hav