e was that
Governor Van Twiller favored Van Rensselaer more than he did the other
patroons.

Van Twiller was a stout, round-bodied man, with a face much the shape of
a full moon. He was a sharp trader, having made two voyages to the
Hudson River in the interest of Van Rensselaer, but he knew nothing of
governing a colony.

The ship that brought the new Governor to the Island of Manhattan, had
also on board a hundred soldiers, and these were the first soldiers
ever sent to the island. There was also on the ship Everardus Bogardus,
the first minister of the colony, as well as Adam Rolandsen, the first
school-master. This school-master had a hard time of it in the new
country, for not being able to make a living by his teaching, he was
forced to do all kinds of other work. He even took in washing for a
time!

By this time negro slaves were being brought to the colony from Africa.
They did the household work, while the colonists cultivated the fields
These slaves did most of the work on a new wooden church which was set
up just outside the fort, for the new minister.

Governor Van Twiller began improving the colony by having three
windmills built, to take the place of the horse-mill. But he had them
placed in such a position that the building in the fort cut off the wind
from their sails, and the mills were almost useless.

The Governor did not neglect his own comfort, for within Fort Amsterdam
he built for himself a fine house of brick--finer than any in the little
settlement--and on one of the bouweries nearest the fort, he erected a
summer-house. On another bouwerie he laid out a tobacco plantation, and
had slaves paid by the Company to look after it.

[Illustration: Van Twiller's Defiance.]

When Van Twiller had been Governor three years, he gave to one of the
colonists a farm on the western side of the city along the Hudson River.
The colonist died the year after the farm was given him, leaving his
widow, Annetje Jans, to care for the property.

Years after, when Queen Anne ruled in England, and the English had come
into possession of New Netherland, she gave the Annetje Jans farm to
Trinity Church. That was almost two centuries ago. What was once a farm
is now a great business section, crossed and recrossed by streets.
Trinity Church has held it through all the years, and holds it still.

Close upon the time when the Jans farm was given away by Governor Van
Twiller, a sailor of note, who had visited almost