Excerpt from The Story of New Netherland: The Dutch in America To understand the Dutch people, we must not inquire of aliens in speech or temper, or of belated tradition. T 0 get the truth one must see the Dutch homeland, go into the archives for the past, and let those long dead speak in their own defense. He must live among the Hollanders, and with their descendants, to know the real character of the people who laid the foundations of our four Mid dle States. Then the student, who, like the author, is not of Dutch blood or inheritance, can emanei pate himself from old wives' fables, distorted views, and damaging traditions. 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.