New York,
One of the original thirteen States of the
United States, is separated from
Canada on the north by the eastern portion of
Lake Erie,
Lake Ontario, and the river
St. Lawrence; on the east lie
Vermont,
Massachusetts, and
Connecticut; on the south, the
Atlantic Ocean,
New Jersey, and
Pennsylvania; on the west
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New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, lakes
Erie and
Ontario, and the rivers
Niagara and
St. Lawrence.
Its greatest length, north and south, is 312 miles, including
Staten Island, while east and west it is 412 miles, including
Long Island.
It contains 49,170 square miles, in sixty counties.
Population 1890, 5,997,853; 1900, 7,268,012.
It is the “Empire State” of the
Union in wealth and population.
Capital,
Albany.
Giovanni da Verrazano, a Florentine, under commission of Francis I.
of
France, with a single caravel, the
Dauphin, enters the bay of
New York......April, 1524
Half Moon, eighty tons, leaves
Amsterdam;
Henry Hudson, an Englishman, commander......April 4, 1609
Samuel de Champlain, coming from the north with a war-party of Hurons, discovers
Lake Champlain......July, 1609
Defeats the
Iroquois near
Ticonderoga; hence dates the enmity between the
French and
Iroquois; fire-arms first seen by the Indians......July 30, 1609
Half Moon enters New York Bay......Sept. 11, 1609
Anchors just below
Albany......Sept. 19, 1609
Despatches a boat to sound the river farther up......Sept. 22, 1609
Sails out of the Narrows......Oct. 4, 1609
Hendrick Christiaensen and Adriaen Block sail
Amsterdam vessels, the
Fortune and the
Tiger, to
Manhattan Island......1611
Tiger accidentally burned at
Manhattan......1613
Christiaensen builds “Fort Nassau,” a trading-house, 36×26 feet, in a stockade 58 feet square, with a moat 18 feet wide, on
Castle Island (below
Albany)......1614
Block builds the
Onrust (Restless), of 18 tons, at
Manhattan; launched near the
Battery......spring of 1614
In the
Onrust he passes
Hell Gate and coasts along as far as
Nahant Bay......1614
States-
General of
Holland name the country about
Manhattan “New Netherland,” and grant its trade by charter to
Amsterdam merchants......October, 1614
Christiaensen killed by
Indians......1615
Champlain, with ten Frenchmen, joins a party of Hurons and allies moving against the
Iroquois......Sept. 1, 1615
Lands from
Lake Ontario near
Henderson, Jefferson county......October, 1615
They attack the
Iroquois castle at
Onondaga Lake, near
Liverpool, Onondaga county, and are repulsed Oct. 10-16, 1615
A trading-post fortified at the mouth of the Tawasentha (Normans Kill) Creek, near
Albany, by
Jacob Eelkins; first formal treaty between the Indians and the
Dutch......1615
New Netherland charter expires; not renewed by the States-General......Jan. 1, 1618
Fort Orange built (South Market Street,
Albany)......1623
New Netherland a province under the
Amsterdam chamber......1623
New Amsterdam settled......1623
New Netherland brings from the Texel thirty families, chiefly Walloons (French Protestant refugees)......March, 1623
Reaching the
Hudson, some eight families settle near
Fort Orange; the rest on
Long Island at the Wallabout,
Brooklyn......May–June, 1623
Cornelius Jacobsen May, first director or governor of New Netherland......1624
Sarah Rapelje the first known white child born in New Netherland......June 7, 1625
Peter Evertsen Hulft fits three vessels, each of some 250 tons, for New Amsterdam; lands at Nutten (
Governor's) Island......July, 1625
William Verhulst succeeds May as director......1625
Peter Minuit, director, leaves
Amsterdam in
Sea-Mew......Jan. 9, 1626
Arrives at
Manhattan......May 4, 1626
Manhattan Island, “rocky and full of trees,” ceded by Indians to the Dutch West India Company for sixty guilders ($23)......1626
A block-house built surrounded by a palisade of cedar posts, at the extreme southern end of the island and called Fort Amsterdam......1626
Six farms, or “boweries,” laid out on the island, and specimens of the harvest sent to
Holland to show the fertility of the soil......1626
Dutch in friendly relations with the
Plymouth colony of
New England......1627
Dutch inform
Plymouth of the “Fresh” River (
Connecticut)......1627
Population of
Manhattan estimated at 270......1628
Kiliaen Van Rensselaer, a merchant of
Amsterdam, purchases land of the Indians
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around
Fort Orange through his agent, becoming patroon of the manor of Rensselaerwyck......1630
Michael Pauw purchases of the Indians the site of
Jersey City (
Pavonia) and
Staten Island......1630
New Netherland (800 tons) built at
Manhattan......1631
Mohawks receive fire-arms from the
Dutch......1631
Peter Minuit, director, recalled......March, 1632
Ship
Eendragt, from
Manhattan, attacked in
Plymouth Harbor,
England, on a charge of illegally trading......April 3, 1632
British ministry claim New Netherland as English territory......1632
Eendragt released......May 27, 1632