132                                          NOTE.
doer op de custe om vorder te handden. It does not appear, if they erected temporary huts to live in, while building the yacht, or in which to store their goods, where they were put up, and from the claim being set forth by a Long Island chief, of aid by his people during the period, it is quite as probable that they were erected on Long Island, or elsewhere than on Manhattan Island, as on that Island,
After the expiration of the three years of exclusive privilege to the company of merchants, voyages continued to be made to the Hudson river on private account until the establishment of the West India Company, for the purposes of trade, to the post at Castle Island. * The first vessels sent out by that Company went up the river with some colonists, who built Fort Orange above the Fort of Castle Island, in 1623. In one of these ships, called the New Netherland, were a number of families of Walloons, some of whom, according to tradition, settled on Long Island, at the Bay, from them called the Waaleboght; but whether at this time or not, is quite uncertain. Wassenaar states that the colony on Manhattan Island was planted, and Fort Amsterdam commenced to be built on it in 1625-6, which is the earliest period which we have seen mentioned of any settlement on that island, by any reliable authority; and it is to be remarked that the same annalist, in speaking of the supplies sent out by the West India Company in the year 1625, says that they were sent to the colony near the Maykans (Mohicans) on the river Mauritius, or, in other words, to Fort Orange; and is entirely silent as to any other colony already established on that river.
Such, succinctly, is the history of the progress of the Dutch, as given by themselves, in the territory of the State of New York, until the first settlement on Manhattan Island. It is entirely silent as to the alleged building of houses in 1613 on that island, and is strong negative testimony against the statement. There is, besides, a circumstance derived from another source, corroborative of the view here presented of the point under examination, also of a negative character, but equally strong. It is the visit of Captain Thomas Dermer to New York Bay in 1619. This person had been despatched by the Plymouth Company in England, with a ship, to the coast of New England. Leaving his ship at Mon-hegan, on the coast of Maine, he set out on the 19th of May in that year, in a small pinnace, to explore the coast to the south, for the purpose of discovering a passage to the South Sea', and, " in my way," says he, " I discovered land thirty leagues in length, heretofore taken for mayne, where I feared I had been embayed, but by the help of an Indian I got to sea again, through many crooked and straight passages. * * * * Once the savages had great advantage of us in a streight not above a boweshot, and where a multitude of Indians let fly at us from the banke; but it pleased God to make us victours; neere unto this we found a most dangerous catwract amongst small rockie islands, occasioned by two uneqaul tydes, the one ebbing and flowing two hours before the other : here we lost an anchor by the strength of the current, but found it deepe enough; from hence were wee canjed in a short space by the tyde's swiftness into a great Bay (to na so appearing), but indeed is broken land, which gave us light of the sea; here, as I said, the land trendeth southerly. In this place I talked with many salvages, who told me of two sundry passages to the great sea on the west; offered me pilots, and one of them drew mee a plot with chalke upon a chest, whereby I found it a great island parted the two seas; they report the one scarce passable for shoalds, perilous currents, the other no questions to be made of. Having received these directions, I hastened to the place of greatest hope, where I purposed to make triall of God's goodnesse towards us, and use my best endeavour to bring the truth to light, but wee were only shewed the entrance wherein seeking to passe, wee were forced backe with contrary and overblowing windes, hardly escaping both our lives. Being thus overcharged with weather, I stood alongst the coast, &c." f    Here we have his passage through Long Island Sound,
* Holl. Doc. L 91. Dermer, in Gorges' Brief Narration, 11 and 30, 31. De Laet, in Nieuwe Wereldt, 93. Wassenaar, tub anno 1626. Letter of Sir Dudley Carlton in Los. Doc. I. 9.
t Purchas, IV. 1778-9. This letter of Dernier waB dated at Captain Martyn'e plantation in Virginia, 27 Dec, 1619, and was published by Purchas in 1626. In the above extracts, he furnishes a remarkably accurate description ot our rivers rad bays.