by the
great abundance of grain and vegetables found in the possession of the
Indians, a still more enticing prospect was held out to the view of the
merchant, in the abundance of valuable furs observed in the country,
which were to be had at a very little cost.

Hudson had, therefore, scarcely made publicly known the character of the
country visited by him when several merchants of Amsterdam fitted out
trading-vessels and despatched them to this river. Their returns were
highly satisfactory, and arrangements were immediately made to establish
a settled agency here to superintend the collection of the furs and the
trade with the Indians while the ships should be on their long journey
between the two hemispheres. The agents thus employed pitched their
cabins on the south point of Manhattan Island, the head man being
Hendrick Corstiaensen, who was still the chief of the settlement in
1614, at which period an English ship sailing along the coast from
Virginia entered the harbor on a visit of observation. Finding
Corstiaensen here, with his company of traders, the English captain
summoned him to acknowledge the jurisdiction of Virginia over the
country or else to depart. The former alternative was chosen by the
trader, and he agreed to pay a small tribute to the Governor of Virginia
in token of his right of dominion. The Dutch were thereupon left to
prosecute their trade without further molestation.

The government of Holland did not, however, recognize the claims of
England to jurisdiction over the whole American coast, and took measures
to encourage the discovery and appropriation of additional territory, by
a decree giving to discoverers of new countries the exclusive privilege
of trading thither for four successive voyages, to the exclusion of all
other persons. This enactment induced several merchants to fit out five
small ships for coasting along the American shores in this vicinity. One
of these vessels, commanded by Captain Block, soon after its arrival on
the coast, was accidentally destroyed by fire. Block immediately began
the construction of another, of thirty-eight-feet keel, forty-four and a
half feet on deck, and eleven and a half feet beam, which was the first
vessel launched in the waters of New York. She was called the Unrest, or
Restless, and ploughed her keel through the waters of Hell Gate and the
Sound, the pioneer of all other vessels except the bark canoes of the
aboriginal inhabitants.

The sever