English settlers on Long Island
were much better disposed toward Stuyvesant's government, and were
treated by him with more favor.

Van der Donck's two companions returned to New Netherland before long.
He, however, remained in the old country until the summer of 1653,
occupied with the business of his mission, with legal studies, taking
the degree of doctor of laws at he University of Leyden, and with
the preparation of his _Beschryvinge van Nieus-Nederlant_. The States
General gave him a copyright for it in May, 1653, but the first edition
was not published till 1655. In that year the author died, leaving to
his widow his estate, or "colonie," which he called Colendonck. The name
of Yonkers, where it was situated, perpetuates his title of gentility
(Jonkheer van der Donck).

The original manuscript of the _Representation_ is still preserved in
the archives of the Netherlands, and a translation of it was printed
in 1856 in _Documents relating to the Colonial History of New York_,
I. 271-318, and reprinted in _Pennsylvania Archives_, second series, V.
124-170. A translation of the printed tract, the text of which differs
but very slightly from that of the manuscript, was made by Hon. Henry
C. Murphy and printed in 1849 in the _Collections of the New York
Historical Society_, second series, II. 251-329. It exists also in a
separate form as a pamphlet, and, combined with the _Breeden Raedt_,
in a volume privately printed in an edition of 125 copies by Mr. James
Lenox. It is this translation which, revised by Professor A. Clinton
Crowell, is printed in the following pages.

THE REPRESENTATION OF NEW NETHERLAND, 1650

The Representation of New Netherland concerning its Location,
Productiveness, and Poor Condition.

AMONG all the people in the world, industrious in seeking out
foreign lands, navigable waters and trade, those who bear the name of
Netherlanderse, will very easily hold their place with the first, as
is sufficiently known to all those who have in any wise saluted the
threshold of history, and as will also be confirmed by the following
relation. The country of which we propose to speak, was first discovered
in the year of our Lord 1609, by the ship Half Moon, of which Hendrik
Hutson was master and supercargo--at the expense of the chartered
East India Company, though in search of a different object. It was
subsequently called New Netherland by our people, and very justly, as it
was first discovered and