THE LURE OF KARTABO 11 



the rivers, naming it Kyk-over-al. To-day the 

 name and a strong archway of flat Holland 

 bricks survive. 



In this wilderness, so wild and so quiet to-day, 

 it was amazing to think of Dutch soldiers doing 

 sentry duty and practising w^ith their little bell- 

 mouthed cannon on the islet, and of scores of 

 negro and Indian slaves working in cassava fields 

 all about where I sat. And this not fifty or a 

 hundred or two hundred years ago, but about 

 the year 1613, before John Smith had named 

 New England, while the Hudson was still known 

 as the Maurice, before the Mayflower landed with 

 all our ancestors on board. For many years the 

 story of this settlement and of the handful of 

 neighboring sugar-plantations is one of privateer 

 raids, capture, torture, slave-revolts, disease, bad 

 government, and small profits, until we marvel 

 at the perseverance of these sturdy Hollanders. 

 From the records still extant, we glean here and 

 there amusing details of the life which was so 

 soon to falter and perish before the onpressing 

 jungle. Exactly two hundred and fifty years 

 ago one Hendrik Rol was appointed comman- 

 der of Kyk-over-al. He was governor, captain, 



