In 1629, the West India Company being desirous of promoting colonisation, a charter was obtained by what was styled “the College of Nineteen,” which offered to any one who would emigrate as much land as he could cultivate; and any person who should within four years plant a colony of fifty souls, to become lord of the manor, or patron, with absolute possession of all land so colonised, to the extent of sixteen miles, or if on a river, eight miles on each bank, and as far interior as the situation might require; all lands, however, were to be purchased from the Indians; towns and cities were to depend upon the patron for the form of government; yet it was recommended that a schoolmaster and minister should be provided. No manufactures of linen, woollen, or cotton, were permitted, lest the mother-country should suffer. The company, as a sort of boon, engaged to furnish the manors with negroes, provided—stipulated the wary traders—that the “traffic should prove lucrative.” This charter favoured the appropriation of the best situations for trade by speculative individuals, rather than colonisation. Nevertheless, one of the patrons having purchased the southern portion of the present state of Delaware, a colony was taken out by De Vries, the historian of the voyage, and settled on Staten Island. The Dutch now occupied Delaware, and their claim extended from Cape Henlopen to Cape Cod. After a year’s residence, De Vries returned to Holland, leaving Osset as his deputy; but the new commandant having excited the resentment of the Algonquins, De Vries, on his return, found the fort deserted, the scattered bones of his murdered countrymen testifying of Indian vengeance; and De Vries himself would have perished, had not an Indian woman warned him of his danger. Delaware was once more in the hands of the natives, and before the Dutch could re-assert their claim, they found a competitor in Lord Baltimore, who claimed it under his patent. De Vries, leaving the melancholy scene of his former labours and hopes, proceeded to Virginia for provisions, and the following spring, on arriving at New Amsterdam, found Peter Minuits, in consequence of quarrels which had broken out, superseded as governor by Wouter van Twiller. A few months before the arrival of Van Twiller, the Dutch had purchased land from the natives on the Connecticut, and as we have already mentioned, established there their trading station of the House of Good Hope. The English, however, claiming the country, colonists from New England poured in, and in defiance of the Dutch, settled themselves down at Windsor and Hartford. The Dutch company retained for many years a feeble hold on the Connecticut, but finally were overwhelmed by the New Englanders, who, carrying with them the very principles of organisation, took forcible and natural root wherever they planted themselves. And now another competitor was within their borders.