During the Patroonship of the Van Rensselaers—a period of about 150 years—many important events occurred, changing the relations of nations, the forms of government, and affecting Patroon interests. The Patroons were reputable men of affairs and some of them of superior abilities and generally discharged their duties creditably. To trace their acts through their rule would now be not only tedious but useless. There arose a controversy between the Dutch West India Company and the Patroon concerning the territory surrounding Fort Orange (in Albany) built by the company, which was finally decided in favor of the Patroon, as the territory surrounding the fort and the fort itself was within his patent. The fur trade early was very important and as the English, claiming the territory under the right of prior discovery, sought this trade, their vessels sailed up the Hudson and set up trading posts. The Patroon attempted to prevent traders from coming to his colony to deal with the colonists and Indians and with that object in view ordered one Nicolaas Coorn to fortify Beeren Island (about eleven miles below Albany), a commanding position, and there demand of each skipper of a vessel passing, except those of the Dutch West India Company, a toll of five guilders ($2) as a tax and also to lower his colors in honor of the Patroon. Govert Loockermans, sailing the vessel “Good Hope” up the river in 1644, was ordered, as he was passing the fort, to lower her colors, which he refused to do and Coorn gave him three cannon shots. In pursuing this course the Patroon virtually said, I own not only the territory on both sides of the river but the river itself for that distance. The Patroon was compelled to back down and pay damages. The Netherlands, an ancient kingdom, formerly included Belgium (now a separate kingdom, Brussels, its capital) and ten provinces besides North and South Holland, its largest and most important ones, with Amsterdam and The Hague as the capitals. Frequently the name of Holland is used when Netherlands should have been. The Lords States General (in many respects like our Congress, composed of the Senate and House of Representatives) was the legislative body of the Netherlands, and in June, 1621, granted a charter to the Dutch West India Company, giving it the exclusive privileges, for a period of twenty-four years, as follows: To traffic on the coast and in the interior of Africa from the Tropic of Cancer to the Cape of Good Hope; in America and the West Indies with the power to make engagements, contracts, and alliances with the rulers and people designated in the charter; to build forts, to appoint and discharge officers, to advance the settlement of unoccupied territory, to enlarge the channels of commerce, and to multiply the sources of revenue.