extraordinary franchises; and two years thereafter the company sent out the ship New Netherland with thirty Walloon families; a part of them settled in what is now the borough of Brooklyn, and a part at Fort Orange on the site of Albany. Colonization was a fact. In 1626 Peter Minuit was made Director General with residence in New York, and purchased Manhattan island from the Indians for 60 guilders-$24. Thus Dutch estates, usages and institutions were introduced into New Netherland, and these remained even after the English conquest in 1664. Their influence is still felt in New York.

It would be beyond the limits of this article to enlarge upon the influence of the Dutch in molding our State. A few words must suffice. First of all it is to be noted that New Netherland was the child of the Dutch Republic, then the most intelligent, the freest and the most enterprising nation of Europe. The founders of the new state brought with them the principles of the old; and they also opened wide the door to the refugees of all nations from either political or religious persecution. New Amsterdam was cosmopolitan from the beginning. It is said that 18 languages were spoken there before 1650. The Swedes came to Manhattan, the Waldenses to Staten island, the Walloons and English to Long island and the Huguenots to Ulster county. The Dutch originated the vital principles of our institutions, municipal and township organizations, and the idea of local self-government. To these they held firmly in their representative bodies - the "twelve men men” and the "eight men." They uniformly opposed arbitrary taxation. Above all else, it is to be remembered that on the Hudson in 1633 the first public school in the land was established. If it be said that the feudal powers granted to the patroons on their manorial estates did not correspond with the general prevalence of popular government, it may be replied that for these the West India Company, and not the States General, was responsible; that in 1638 and 1640 the prerogatives of the patroons were materially restricted and the rights of free settlers materially enlarged, and that wherever the numbers in the settlements were sufficient the company was bound to guarantee them local selfgovernment.

The Hudson, the second of any river of considerable size on the continent to be explored, the St Lawrence being the first, is 300 miles in length, and is navigable by vessels of the first class for about 150 miles. Its general direction is southerly-due south in its navigable portion. It drains an area of about 30,000 square miles above the entrance of the Mohawk. Among its tributaries are the Schroon,

Batten kill, Hoosic, Wappingers and Croton on the east, and the Sacandaga, Mohawk, Wallkill and Esopus creek from the west. There are longer rivers in the land, but few with fuller flow. There are those along which nature is tossed into more weird and awful shapes, with deeper chasms and loftier cataracts, but there is none upon which there is a greater variety of scenery, from the beautiful to the sublime, as there is none more serviceable. During its entire course there is no spot which is not invested with interest, either natural, legendary or historical, from the silken skeins of mist and the bubbling springs at its sources in the Adirondacks, to the magnificent bay upon which the navies of the world may ride, where the queenliest of cities

receives tribute from the commerce of all the zones. Especially notable are the series of rapids and cascades at Glens Falls, the water rushing over ragged masses of black marble through a descent of 80 feet; the Catskills, a wonderful procession of peaks and slopes, and recesses; the picturesque Highlands; the solitary grandeur of Storm King and Cro' Nest; the majesty of the Palisades, battlements rock-ribbed and perpendicular, sheer from the water's edge to hights of 250 to 500 feet; the broad expanse of the Tappan Zee, and the noble sweep into the Atlantic. The Hudson is a peerless stream. It is often com

pared with the Rhine, but the Rhine is not so uniformly fascinating in its natural features as the Hudson, and is admired less for these than for the castles and ruins on its banks. The Hudson is lined by princely

estates, thriving villages and prosperous cities. Of the latter there are in New York State eight-Cohoes, Albany, Hudson, Kingston, Newburgh, Poughkeepsie, Yonkers and New York, already the second and soon to be the first market place in the world; and in New Jersey are Hoboken, Jersey City and other populous communities. Over 5,000,000 people reside on, or contiguous to, the banks of the Hudson a multitudinous host, an imperial domain.

There is no section of the country that is of larger historical significance than that of the Hudson. It has witnessed its own exploration and colonization by one people and its surrender to another; a portion of the conflict between two great European nations for the possession of the continent; the first congress of the colonies for mutual protection; the provincial struggles for popular rights; the battles of the Revolution most intimately related to its successful issue; the organization of the federal government; and the evolution politically and economically of the foremost commonwealth of the United States. Some of these events have already been referred to and but a glance at others may be indulged in.

The Dutch held sway in New York for about 50 years, the last Dutch governor being Peter Stuyvesant, a very hard-headed and hotheaded, one-legged man, who stumped New Amsterdam in unavailing rage when on August 29, 1664 Richard Nicolls sailed up the bay and demanded in the name of his sovereign, Charles II of England, then at war with Holland, the surrender of the "towns situated on the island commonly known by the name of Manhattoes, with all the parts thereunto belonging." English rule began September 8th, the transferred province being renamed New York after the Duke of York, subsequently James II, and continued with an interval from August 1673, when the Dutch under Captain Colve seized it and administered its affairs, until November 1674, when it reverted to England under the treaty of Westphalia. From 1674 until 1683 Sir Edmund Andros, the ablest and most energetic of the crown governors, was at the helm, returning in 1688 as governor in chief and captain general of all the northern colonies. He strengthened defenses, increased trade, augmented the revenues and beautified the city. In 1683, Thomas Dongan being governor, the "Charter of Liberties" was declared, by which the supreme legislative power was vested in a governor, council and the people met in a general assembly- the first recognition of the people in any American constitution. In the same year the first 10 counties, six of which-Albany, Dutchess, New York, Orange, Ulster

Erected at Albany by Gen. Philip Schuyler in 1761. Here, on Dec. 14, 1780, Alexander Hamilton and Elizabeth Schuyler were married.

Erected at Albany by Stephen Van Rensselaer in 1765; remodeled in 1843 and removed to Sigma Phi

place at Williams College in 1893.

and Westchester-are on the Hudson, were erected. Kings on the East river may also be classed as within the territory of the Hudson, while the remaining counties Queens, Richmond and Suffolk - it may not be proper to claim. In 1735 the liberty of the press was vindicated in New York in the celebrated case of John Peter Zenger, acquitted on a charge of libel by the eloquent plea of Andrew Hamilton. In 1754 a congress of the northern colonies was held in Albany, at which a plan of union drafted by Benjamin Franklin was adopted. It was not carried, but it was the herald of their future cooperation. On the 18th of October 1764 the New York Assembly authorized a correspondence with other colonies concerning the acts of Parliament relative to trade and upon the danger of being taxed unreasonably by the mother country-the first official proposition in behalf of American union for American interests, anticipating by two years the action of Massachusetts at the instance of Samuel Adams, to the same purpose.

The Hudson bore the brunt of the Revolution. It was the scene of its most stirring incidents, of its crucial conflict, and of the evacua tion of the country by British troops, November 25, 1783. There Washington revealed his consummate military genius by withdrawing his shattered troops in the face of overwhelming numbers to win the victories of Trenton and Princeton. On its lower shores was the debatable ground where patriot and tory were in constant feud. On the 17th of October 1777 at Schuylerville Burgoyne surrendered, as the outcome of the battles of Bemis Heights, generally known as the field of Saratoga. The story is a familiar one-the scheme to separate New England from the other colonies by uniting the troops of Burgoyne and Howe on the upper Hudson; the failure of Howe to ascend; the advance of Burgoyne by way of Lake Champlain; the well devised plans of Schuyler to meet the invasion; his cruel retirement from command and the succession of Gates; the fall of Ticonderoga; the retreat from Fort Edward to an advantageous position; the breaking of British communication with the Canadian base; the cordon drawn about Burgoyne; the sharp engagements and the laying down of arms. Nowhere on American soil is there a spot more sacred than that of Saratoga. There was the signal American triumph, and there the signal British discomfiture, presaging ultimate British defeat. "The Revolution,” says Senator Lodge, "was saved at Trenton: it was established at Saratoga." On the 15th of July 1779 "Mad Anthony" Wayne captured Stony Point, the "Gibraltar of the Highlands," as Irving calls it- one of the most brilliant exploits of the war, distinguished alike for