en, in goodly
groups, as did the animals of yore from the ark, and formed themselves
into a thriving settlement, which they called by the Indian name
Communipaw.

The crew of the Goede Vrouw being soon reinforced by fresh importations
from Holland, the settlement went jollily on, increasing in magnitude
and prosperity. The neighboring Indians in a short time became
accustomed to the uncouth sound of the Dutch language, and an
intercourse gradually took place between them and the newcomers.

A brisk trade for furs was soon opened: the Dutch traders were
scrupulously honest in their dealings, and purchased by weight,
establishing it as an invariable table of avoirdupois that the hand of a
Dutchman weighed one pound and his foot two pounds.

It is true the simple Indians were often puzzled by the great
disproportion between bulk and weight, for let them place a bundle of
furs, never so large, in one scale, and a Dutchman put his hand or foot
in the other, the bundle was sure to kick the beam--never was a package
of furs known to weigh more than two pounds in the market of Communipaw!

The Dutch possessions in this part of the globe began now to assume a
very thriving appearance, and were comprehended under the general title
of Nieuw Nederlandts, on account, as the sage Vander Douck observes, of
their great resemblance to the Dutch Netherlands; which indeed was truly
remarkable, excepting that the former were rugged and mountainous, and
the latter level and marshy. About this time the tranquility of the
Dutch colonists was doomed to suffer a temporary interruption. In 1614,
Captain Sir Samuel Argal, sailing under a commission from Dale, governor
of Virginia, visited the Dutch settlements on Hudson River and demanded
their submission to the English crown and Virginian dominion. To this
arrogant demand, as they were in no condition to resist it, they
submitted for the time, like discreet and reasonable men.

Oloffe Van Kortlandt, a personage who was held in great reverence among
the sages of Communipaw for the variety and darkness of his knowledge,
had originally been one of a set of peripatetic philosophers who had
passed much of their time sunning themselves on the side of the great
canal of Amsterdam in Holland, enjoying, like Diogenes, a free and
unencumbered estate in sunshine. His name Kortlandt (Shortland or
Lackland) was supposed, like that of the illustrious Jean Sansterre, to
indicate that he had _no land_; but