THE LURE OF KARTABO 1r 
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 with 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, 
