New Amsterdam - 1656 T-Shirt

In 1609, Henry Hudson, an English sailor in the service of Holland was sent to find a northwest passage to India. He rached our coast not far from Portland, Main, and abandoning all suggestion of discovering a passage, sailed alongshore to the southward as far as Cape Cod. Here he put to see and again sighted land off Delaware Bay. He attempted to sail up the bay, but his ship, the Half-Moon, grounded and Hudson turned about. Running along the Jersey coast, he entered New York Bay, and sailed up the river, known to the Dutch as the "North River", now known as the "Hudson". By 1614 a rude fort had been erected near the site of Albany and some trading huts had been erected on Manhatan Island. Trade proved so lucerative that the merchants organized a company and in 1615, obtained a trading charter for three years from the States General of Holland. this trade was carried on from Albany to the Delaware River. Upon expiration of the charter in 1618, it was not renewed, but a new corporation, known as the Dutch West India Company, was created in 1621 and granted almost absolute political commercial power over all Dutch Domains in North America, which were called New Netherland. In 1624, the company began sending out settlers. some went to Albany (then called Fort Orange). others were sent to the South or Delaware River, where a trading post, known as Fort Nassua, was built on the site of what is now Gloucester, New Jersey. Some went to the Connecticut River; some settled on Long Island, and others on Manhattan Island where they founded New Amsterdam, which later became New York city. Source: "School History of the United States", John Bach McMaster 1897