Peter Stuyvesant: Director General of New Netherland
Because of his vision of New Amsterdam as the most important city on the Atlantic seaboard, writes Arnold Whitridge, Stuyvesant stands out in American history as the most memorable of the colonial governors.
The island of Manhattan was discovered, but not occupied, by Henry Hudson on September 2nd, 1609. At five o’clock that evening, the Half Moon, five months out from Amsterdam, anchored just south of Sandy Hook. “This is a very good land to fall with.” wrote Robert Juet, Hudson’s English mate, “and a pleasant land to see.” Hudson sailed up the river, which one day was to bear his name, as far as the site of Albany and then, convinced that there was no passage to the Orient that way, reluctantly retraced his steps. Once more he passed the pleasant land, “which the natives call Manahatta,” sailed through the Narrows and headed for Europe.
Famous discoveries have a way of turning out to be rediscoveries, and so perhaps it would be more accurate to say that Hudson only rediscovered the island of Manhattan. Eighty-five years before he cast anchor off Sandy Hook, another famous explorer, Giovanni da Verraz-zano, a Florentine sailing in the service of the King of France, had coasted along the entire shore of North America from North Carolinanto Newfoundland.
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