[
275]
months in
Dartmouth by the jealousy of the
English,
did not reach
Amsterdam till the middle of July, 1610, too late, perhaps, in the season for the immediate equipment of a new voyage.
At least no definite trace of a voyage to
Manhattan in that year has been discovered.
Besides: to avoid a competition with
England, the
Dutch ambassador at
London, that same
year, proposed a joint colonization of
Virginia, as well as a partnership in the
East India trade; but the offer was put aside from fear of the superior ‘art and industry of the
Dutch.’
The development of a lucrative fur-trade in Hud-
son's river was therefore left to unprotected private adventure.
In 1613, or in one of the two previous years, the experienced
Hendrik Christiaensen of
Cleve ‘and the worthy Adriaen Block chartered a ship with the skipper
Ryser,’ and made a voyage into the waters of New York, bringing back rich furs, and also two sons of native sachems.
The States General still hesitated to charter a West India Company; but on the twenty-seventh of March, 1614, they ordained that private adventurers
might enjoy an exclusive privilege for four successive voyages to any passage, haven, or country they should thereafter find.
With such encouragement, a company of merchants, in the same year, sent five small vessels, of which the ‘Fortune,’ of
Amsterdam, had Christiaensen for its commander; the ‘Tiger,’ of the same port, Adriaen Block; the ‘Fortune,’ of Hoorn,
Cornelis Jacobsen May, to extend the discoveries of
Hudson as well as to trade with the natives.
The ‘Tiger’ was accidentally burned near the
