[
2]
In November, 1618, a few weeks after the first acts
of violence, the
States General gave a limited incorporation to a company of merchants; yet the conditions of the charter were not inviting, and no organization took place.
In May of the following year,
Grotius, the first political writer of his age, was condemned to imprisonment for life; and by the default of the stadtholder, Olden Barneveldt, at the age of threescore years and twelve, the most venerable of the patriots of
Holland, the founder of the republic, was conducted to the scaffold.
These events hastened the colonization of New Netherland, where as yet no Europeans had repaired except commercial agents and their subordinates.
In 1620, merchants of
Holland who had thus far had a
trade only in Hudson's River, wished to plant there a new commonwealth, lest the king of
Great Britain should first people its banks with the
English nation.
To this end it was proposed to send over John Robin-
Brodhead's Documents, i. 23.
Hist. of N. Y. 125. |
son, with four hundred families of his persuasion; but the pilgrims had not lost their love for the land of their nativity, and the States were unwilling to guaranty them protection.
A voyage from
Virginia to vindicate the trade in the
Hudson for
England, proved a total loss.
The settlement of
Manhattan grew directly out of the great continental struggles of Protestantism.
The Thirty Years War of religion in
Germany had
begun; the twelve years truce between the Netherlands and the
Spanish king had nearly expired;
Austria hoped to crush the reformation in the empire, and
Spain to recover dominion over its ancient provinces.
