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restless colonists, almost as they landed, and even the
soldiers of the garrison, fled in troops from the dominion of
Amsterdam to the liberties of English colonies.
The province of the city was almost deserted; the attempt to elope was punishable by death, and scarce thirty families remained.
1
During the absence of
Stuyvesant from
Manhattan,
the warriors of the neighboring Algonquin tribes, never reposing confidence in the
Dutch, made a desperate assault on the colony.
In sixty-four canoes, they appeared before the town, and ravaged the adjacent country.
The return of the expedition restored confidence.
The captives were ransomed, and industry repaired its losses.
The
Dutch seemed to have firmly established their power, and promised themselves happier years.
New Netherland consoled them for the loss of
Brazil.
2 They exulted in the possession of an admirable territory, that needed no embankments against the ocean.
They were proud of its vast extent, from
New England to
Maryland, from the sea to the
Great River of
Canada, and the remote north-western wilderness.
They sounded with exultation the channel of the deep stream, which was no longer shared with the Swedes; they counted with delight its many lovely runs of water, on which the beaver built their villages; and the great travellers who had visited every continent, as they ascended the
Delaware, declared it one of the noblest rivers in the world.
Its banks were more inviting than the lands on the
Amazon.
Meantime the country near the
Hudson gained by