The Great Round World and What Is Going On In It, Vol. 1, No. 60, December 30, 1897

Many people are, however, opposed to this. They think that the first thing in people's minds should be the glory of the great new city which is to be born, and declare that anything else would only amount to holding funeral services over the old city.

This view seems hardly the correct one to take. There is so much of the nation's early history wound around the old city of New York, that it seems only fit and proper that some suitable exercises should be held, to impress upon the younger generation the importance of the old city, before it passes away and loses its identity in the larger city.

If Boston was the scene of the beginning of the War of Independence, New York witnessed its close.

On November 25th, 1782, the British finally evacuated the city of New York, their last stronghold, and the long and painful war was over.

The history of New York begins in 1524, when Giovanni Verrazano, an Italian navigator, entered the beautiful bay of New York, with his vessel, the Dauphine. Gomez is said to have sailed along the coast as far as New York the following year.

Fifty years later, Hendrik Hudson sailed up New York Bay, and discovered the beautiful river which flows by the city, the river which still bears his name.

This is the same Hudson who searched for the Northwest Passage—the passage which was to make a short cut from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific, along the north shore of America, and afford a highway between Europe and Asia, saving the long trip around the Cape of Good Hope, which had just been discovered by the Portuguese. South America and Cape Horn were as yet undiscovered.

On this search for the Northwest Passage, Hudson's sailors mutinied, and put their great commander and eight companions ashore in an open boat in the bleak, ice-bound Hudson Bay.

For this cruel deed the spirits of the crew of Hudson's vessel were supposed to wander up and down the shores of the Hudson River, unable to find rest even in death.

In Washington Irving's fanciful tale of "Rip Van Winkle," Rip encounters a strange, ghostly company of seafaring men, and it is often supposed that Hudson's crew was intended by the author.

When Hudson went back to Holland after his voyage up the Hudson River, he told such wonderful tales of the friendliness of the Indians, the number of fur-bearing animals he had seen, and the wonders he had met with, that the Hollanders became much excited and determined to send out and claim the newly discovered country.

In 1610 a vessel was sent out, and the Indians proving friendly and the trade satisfactory, a colony was finally established in 1613 on the southern point of Manhattan Island.

This was near where the Battery now is.

The first permanent settlement was made in 1622, the Dutch having taken possession of the country around the Hudson River, calling it New Netherlands.

In 1626 the West India Company sent out a settlement under Gov. Peter Minuit.

He landed on the island of Manhattan, and soon entered into a trade with the Indians, buying from them the entire island of Manhattan, fourteen thousand acres in size, for twenty-four dollars' worth of scarlet cloth, brass buttons, and other trinkets.

The Dutch gave the island the name of New Amsterdam, and established on it a settlement consisting of a fort, a stone warehouse, and a cluster of log-huts.

After the Dutch had established their colony of New Amsterdam, they endeavored to colonize it on the Patroon system.

By this system, any man who undertook to bring fifty settlers to the colony within five years was given the title of Patroon, and was allowed to lay claim to and hold all the land he desired and could properly cultivate.

It was in this way that the Van Rensselaers, the Schuylers, and the Van Cortlandts became important families in New York.

In 1647 Peter Stuyvesant came out to New Amsterdam as governor. He was the last governor of the province.

He was familiarly known as "Old Silverleg," because, having lost one limb in battle, he had it replaced by a sturdy wooden leg securely bound with silver.

Many of our traditions date back to the time of this hot-tempered, headstrong, and fine old gentleman.

His estate was called the Great Bouery, and there was a long and beautiful lane leading from the city to it, which was known as Bouery Lane—our present Bowery.

The Governor's house is supposed to have stood near Tenth Street, a little east of Third Avenue, now called Stuyvesant Place.

Beyond Governor Stuyvesant's Great Bouery stretched swamps, woods, and clearings, until a little village was reached at the junction of the Haarlem and East rivers, which was called New Haarlem.

Peter Stuyvesant made many improvements in the city of New Amsterdam. In order better to protect it, he built a high and strong wooden palisade on the north of the town; in time houses grew up along this wall, and the street which they formed was called Wall Street.

The Wall Street of to-day, where so many fortunes are made and lost, stands on the site of the old wall built by Peter Stuyvesant to protect the city.

The first windmill was built in 1662.

In 1664 Charles II. of England, jealous of the productiveness of this Dutch colony, determined to secure it.

In 1621 James I. had claimed it by right of first occupancy.

In 1632 Charles I. reasserted this claim; and in 1654 Cromwell ordered an expedition for the conquest of the New Netherlands.

The treaty with Holland stopped these proceedings, and the colony was left in peace until 1664, when Charles II. granted the entire territory to his brother, the Duke of York.

In August of that year an expedition arrived to capture the city, which surrendered to the English fleet without resistance. The name of the city was then changed to New York, in honor of its ducal owner.

In 1673 the Dutch recaptured the city, and christened it New Orange. The following year, by a treaty of peace with Holland, it was restored to the English and again called New York.

In 1702 Wall Street was paved, and in 1711 a regular slave market was established.

In 1775, at the beginning of the war, New York declared for independence, but in 1776 it fell into the hands of the English, who retained possession until 1783, when they finally evacuated it.

In 1788 New York celebrated the adoption of the Constitution—the great Constitution under which we live to-day and enjoy our freedom. A ship, representing the Ship of State, was drawn through the streets of the city by ten milk-white horses.

Alexander Hamilton had done so much to convince the State of the wisdom of adopting the Constitution, that in recognition of his great services the platform upholding the Ship of State was inscribed in large letters with his name.

New Yorkers must never forget that it was in their city that the first President was inaugurated, and that that President was George Washington. To New York belongs the greatest honor any American city can boast, in having placed the sceptre of government in the hands of the greatest man the country has ever produced.

On March 4th, 1789, the new Constitution went into operation, but it was not until April 30th that the President took the oath of office.

Standing on the balcony of a building in front of Federal Hall, where Congress met, and in the presence of an immense multitude, George Washington took the following oath:

"I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States; and to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Then, amid the ringing of bells, the firing of cannon, a great shout went up, "Long live George Washington, President of the United States."

It was the streets of New York that first resounded to this glorious cry!

Federal Hall was the old City Hall. It stood on the northeast corner of Wall and Nassau streets, on ground now occupied by the United States Sub-Treasury.

New Yorkers have much to be proud of in their city.

    G.H. Rosenfeld.