f money.
Some of their captains explored the coast northward and southward as far
as Boston harbor and Delaware Bay. Their principal trading-posts were on
Manhattan Island, and near the site of Albany. In 1614 some of the
leading traders obtained from the Dutch government the sole right to
trade between New France and Virginia. They called this region New
Netherland.

[Sidenote: The Dutch West India Company, 1621. _Higginson_, 90-96;
_Explorers_, 303-307; _Source-book_, 42-44.]

[Sidenote: The patroons, 1628.]

60. The Founding of New Netherland.--In 1621 the Dutch West India
Company was founded. Its first object was trade, but it also was
directed "to advance the peopling" of the American lands claimed by the
Dutch. Colonists now came over; they settled at New Amsterdam, on the
southern end of Manhattan Island, and also on the western end of Long
Island. By 1628 there were four hundred colonists in New Netherland. But
the colony did not grow rapidly, so the Company tried to interest rich
men in the scheme of colonization, by giving them large tracts of land
and large powers of government. These great land owners were called
patroons. Most of them were not very successful. Indeed, the whole plan
was given up before long, and land was given to any one who would come
out and settle.

[Illustration: THE DUTCH COLONY OF NEW AMSTERDAM.]

[Sidenote: Governor Kieft.]

[Sidenote: Kieft orders the Indians to be killed.]

[Sidenote: Results of the massacre.]

61. Kieft and the Indians, 1643-44.--The worst of the early Dutch
governors was William Kieft (Keeft). He was a bankrupt and a thief, who
was sent to New Netherland in the hope that he would reform. At first he
did well and put a stop to the smuggling and cheating which were common
in the colony. Emigrants came over in large numbers, and everything
seemed to be going on well when Kieft's brutality brought on an Indian
war that nearly destroyed the colony. The Indians living near New
Amsterdam sought shelter from the Iroquois on the mainland opposite
Manhattan Island. Kieft thought it would be a grand thing to kill all
these Indian neighbors while they were collected together. He sent a
party of soldiers across the river and killed many of them. The result
was a fierce war with all the neighboring tribes. The Dutch colonists
were driven from their farms. Even New Amsterdam with its stockade was
not safe. For the Indians sometimes came within the stockade and killed