e privilege of erecting a town and governing
themselves, by magistrates of their own election. The application was
referred to the Virginia Company,[1] but its conditions seem to have
been too republican, and many of these Walloons looked, toward
New-Netherland, where some arrived in 1624, with the Dutch Director,
Minuit.

[1: Lond. Doc. 1, 24.]

At first, they settled on Staten Island, (1624,) but afterward removed
to _Wahle Bocht_ or the 'Bay of Foreigners,' which has since been
corrupted into Wallabout. This settlement extended subsequently toward
'Breukelen,' named after an ancient Dutch village on the river Veght, in
the province of Utrecht; so that Staten Island has the honor of having
presented the first safe home, in America, and on her beautiful shores,
to the Walloons or Huguenots. The name of Walloon itself is said to be
derived either from Wall, (water or sea,) or more probably, the old
German word _Wahle_, signifying a foreigner. It must be remembered that
this is a part of the earliest chapter in the history of New-Netherland,
which the 'West-India Company' now resolved to erect into a province. To
the Chamber of Amsterdam the superintendence of this new and extensive
country was committed, and this body, during the previous year, had sent
out an expedition, in a vessel called the 'New-Netherland,' 'whereof
Cornelius Jacobs of Hoorn was skipper, _with thirty families, mostly
Walloons, to plant a colony there_.' They arrived in the beginning of
May, (1623,) and the old document, from which we quote, adds:

'God be praised, it hath so prospered, that the honorable Lords
Directors of the West-India Company have, with the consent of the
noble, high, and mighty Lords States General, undertaken to plant
some colonies,'[2] ... 'The Honorable _Daniel Van Kriecke-beeck_,
for brevity called _Beeck_, was commissary here, and so did his
duty that he was thanked.'

[2: Wassemaer's Historie Van Europa, Amsterdam, 1621-1628.]

In 1625, three ships and a yacht arrived at Manhattan, with more
families, farming implements, and one hundred and three head of cattle.
Hitherto the government of the settlement had been simple, but now,
affairs assuming more permanency, a proper 'Director' from Holland was
appointed, and Peter Minuit, then in the office, was instructed to
organize a provincial government. He arrived in May, 1626, and to his
unfading honor be it recorded, that his first