To Their New Homes : 179 



the Indians and founded the settlement of New Amsterdam. The 

 Dutch settlements were not restricted to New York or New Eng- 

 land — settlements were also established in New Jersey, Delaware and 

 Pennsylvania. The Dutch empire on the American continent was not 

 of long duration. New Amsterdam and Fort Orange were sur- 

 rendered to the English in 1664. Dutch control over New York, 

 Albany and New Jersey was briefly re-established during the war 

 between England and Holland in 1673 but this was terminated in the 

 peace of 1674. 



The Dutch influence on American life was, of course, more pro- 

 found than this political history suggests. The Dutch families in 

 Manhattan and on Long Island remained in possession of their lands 

 and of their other interests. They continued to be a most important 

 element in the communities long after the English took over. Both 

 because of their numbers and their abilities they continued to shape 

 the history and customs of New York City and New York State. 



The Dutch were also indirectly responsible for another strain in 

 the pattern of American development. A Dutchman by the name of 

 William Usselinex withdrew from the Dutch West India Company 

 and began to interest King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden in the 

 possibility of a Swedish colony in America. The intention was to 

 establish a settlement on the Delaware. Usselinex failed in several 

 attempts to organize such an enterprise but two other Dutchmen, 

 Samuel Blommaert and Peter Minuit, continued to encourage this 

 venture. As a result the New Sweden Company was organized in 

 1637. Two Swedish vessels with colonists arrived on the Delaware 

 in 1638 and established the colony of Fort Christina. The colony was 

 successful but it aroused the hostility of Peter Stuyvesant, the gov- 

 ernor of New Netherland. The West India Company, acting on his 

 complaint, assumed control over New Sweden in 1655. 



This almost completes the list of nations that tried to establish 

 political control in the North American continent but it by no means 

 completes the list of nations whose colonists came in large numbers 

 and thus began establishing lines of travel and communication across 

 the Atlantic that have persisted and have knit from shore to shore a 

 fabric of common interests. 



From the very beginning the joint process of settling and popu- 

 lating the North American continent had an international character. 

 Captain Newport was in command of the vessel that established the 

 colony at Jamestown in 1607. The very next year, on his second voy- 

 age, he brought to the colony Germans and Poles to the number of 



