1645.

Dutch Colony at New Amsterdam.

139

The Indians of that region made common cause against the dangerous strangers. All the Dutch villages were burned down. Long Island became a desert. The Dutchmen were driven in to the southern tip of the island on which New York stands. They ran a palisade across the island in the line of what is now Wall Street. To-day, Wall Street is the scene of the largest monetary transactions ever known among The hot fever of speculation rages there incessantly, with an intensity unknown elsewhere. Then, it was the line within which a disheartened and diminishing band of colonists strove to maintain themselves against a savage foe.

men.

Peter had been a

He was a brave and
When his subjects.

The war came to an end. For twenty years the colony continued to flourish under the government of a sagacious Dutchman called Peter Stuyvesant. soldier, and had lost a leg in the wars. true-hearted man, but withal despotic. petitioned for some part in the making of laws, he was astonished at their boldness. He took it upon him to inspect the merchants' books. He persecuted the Lutherans and "the abominable sect of Quakers."

It cannot, therefore, be said that his government was faultless. The colony prospered under it, however, and a continued emigration from Europe increased its importance. But in the twentieth year certain English ships of war sailed up the bay, and, without a word of explanation, anchored near the settlement. Governor Peter was from home, but they sent for him, and he came with speed. He hastened to the fort and looked out into the bay.

There lay the ships, grim, silent, ominously near. Appalled by the presence of his unexpected visitors, the Governor sent to ask wherefore they had come. His alarm was well founded; for Charles II. of England had presented to his brother James of York a vast stretch of territory, including the region which the Dutch had chosen for their

settlement. It was not his to give, but that signified nothing either to Charles or to James. These ships had come to take possession in the Duke of York's name.

A good many of the colonists were English, and they were well pleased to be under their own government. They

CHARLES II.

would not fight.

The Dutch remembered the Gover

nor's tyrannies, and they would not fight. Governor Peter was prepared to fight single-handed. He had the twenty guns of the fort loaded, and was resolute to fire upon the ships. So at least he professed. But the inhabitants begged him, in mercy to

them, to forbear; and he suffered himself to be led by two clergymen away from the loaded guns. It was alleged, to his disparagement, afterwards, that he had "allowed himself to be persuaded by ministers and other chickenhearted persons." Be that as it may, King Charles's errand was done. The little town of fifteen hundred inhabitants, with all the neighboring settlements, passed quietly under English rule. The future Empire City was named New York, in honor of one of the meanest tyrants who ever disgraced the English throne. With the settlements on the Hudson there fell also into the hands of the English those of New Jersey, which the Dutch had conquered from the Swedes.