Excerpt from Documents Relating to the History and Settlements of the Towns: Hudson and Mohawk Rivers (With the Exception of Albany), From 1630 to 1684, and Also Illustrating the Relations of the Settlers With the Indians Netherland, adopted J unc 7, 1629, says: 'whosoever shall settle any colony out of the limits of Manhattan Island shall be obliged to satisfy the Indians for the land they shall settle upon.' The numerous Indian deeds in this volume go to show how this rule was, as I stated above, always strictly enforced, and the tradition of the purchase of Manhattan Island proves that even at their first coming the Dutch had no intention of acquiring the land they coveted by any other means than by purchase. It is needless to refer to the Massachusetts statute of 1633, which confirmed to the Indians the little 'patches of land around their wigwams, where they raised their corn and beans, and declared the rest the property of the whites on the authority of chapter 1, Genesis, and the invitation of the Indians. It is further needless to speculate on the consequences if a like policy had been adopted by the Dutch, for the result of the policy pursued by them, based upon Chris tian virtue, commercial morality and the true ethics of civilization, is enjoyed by us every day as citizens of the State of New York and of the United States. The English, after the conquest of 1664, followed in the footsteps of the Dutch in their treatment of the Indians, either because they acknowledged it to be the best policy or influenced by the preponderating Dutch element, who were still the majority of the population of the province. During the century of contention with France the friendship of the Five Nations, in possession of the great mountain barrier between Canada and the upper Hudson, turned the scale and counterbalanced the great advan tages which lay on the side of France. But for this, the whole course of our history might have been changed. New York might now belong to France and the other States might still be colonies of England. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.