264 THE FEENCH BLOOI) IN AMERICA 



Planning a 

 Colony 



Henry and 



Isaac 



De Forest 1636 



the records of Leyden in 1615, and three years later we 

 hear of him as a resident of the Hague. His fortunes 

 were at a low ebb at this time and the records show that 

 he was in the direst poverty, pledging his household 

 goods and the tools with which he prosecuted his trade as 

 dyer. He was not alone in his poverty, however, for 

 there were many scions of noble French houses begging 

 for their daily bread in the streets of Amsterdam and 

 other Dutch cities. Of this period of distress Mr. J. W. 

 De Forest writes as follows : " Perhaps there is no more 

 sublime spectacle in history than that of a man who 

 knows not where to lay his head, stepping forward to 

 guide and save his fellow creatures, with a perfect confi- 

 dence that he can do it. The thought of our exiled an- 

 cestor, with his ten young children and his haunting debt 

 of fifty florins, planning and petitioning and recruiting 

 for a Protestant colony in America, is a remembrance 

 which ought to fill his descendants with pride, and to 

 stimulate them to courage of soul and energy of deed." 



Jesse de Forest did not himself affect a settlement in 

 North America, but joined a band of colonists who were 

 bound for the coast of Guiana, the ''Wild Coast," as the 

 Dutch called it. It was left to his sons Henry and Isaac 

 to carry the family fortunes into New Amsterdam. These 

 brothers sailed from Amsterdam in the tiny ship Re^issel- 

 aerivick in October, 1636, with the intention of setting up 

 as tobacco planters. " The upper portion of New York 

 island was then a mere wilderness of virgin forest and 

 natm-al clearing, iuhabitated by bears, catamounts, 

 painted Wickasqueeks and other savage creatures, and 

 giving small promise of the vast civilized population 

 which now loads the soil of Harlem." 



To the brothers de Forest belongs the distinction of 

 being the first white settlers in this wild region. To live 

 there meant exposure to many hardships and dangers, 

 but land was abundant and cheap and the young men 

 (Henry, the married brother, was thii'ty and Isaac was 



