214 



THE FEENCH BLOOD IN AMERICA 



The French 

 Dispersed 



A Happy Set- 

 tlement 



near what is now Albany. Of the other families, eight 

 remained on Manhattan and took possession there for the 

 West India Company ; four newly married couples went 

 westward and established a little post on the Delaware ; 

 while two families pushed eastward through the wilds of 

 Connecticut find built homes on the banks of the Hartford. 



There is no list of names of these first Huguenot set- 

 tlers, but by comparing the names affixed to Jesse de 

 Forest's petition to the Virginia Company with the 

 records of Manhattan about fifteen years after the settle- 

 ment (no records being kept during the first fifteen years 

 of the colony), the following names are gleaned : Rapalie, 

 De la Mot, Du Four, Le Ron, Le Eoy, Du Pon, Chiselin, 

 Cornille, De Trou, De Crenne, Damont, Campion, De 

 Carpentier, Gille, Catoir, de Croy, Maton, Lambert, Mar- 

 tin, and Gaspar. 



II 



The settlement was prosperous from the start, and the 

 colonists happy. A ship which returned to Holland car- 

 ried glowing accounts of the new country. An extract 

 from one of the letters is as follows : 



Extract from a 

 Letter 



We were much gratified on arriving in this country. Here we found 

 beautiful rivers, bubbling fountains flowing down into the valleys ; 

 basins of running waters in the flatlands, agreeable fruits in the woods, 

 such as strawberries, walnuts, and wild grapes. The woods abound 

 with venison. There is considerable fish in the rivers, good tillage 

 land ; here is, especially, free coming and going, without fear of the 

 naked natives of the country. Had we cows, hogs, and other cattle 

 fit for food— which we expect in the first ships— we would not wish to 

 return to Holland. 



Peter Minuit 

 Huguenot 



The effect of such accounts was to bring over new 

 colonists, among whom were many Huguenots. A 

 Huguenot, Peter Minuit, was the second director or gov- 

 ernor of the settlement. He reached Manliattan Foi-t in 

 1626 when tlie colony comprised about thirty houses 

 closely grouped about the block-house, and tenanted by 



