The Netherlands primarily based their claim for the territory called New Netherlands on Henry Hudson’s discovery (so called) of five degrees of north latitude, viz.: from 40° to 45° or from Delaware bay and river to Cape Cod, where he touched or explored in 1609. Great Britain claimed under the Cabots’ discoveries, in 1497 and 1498, the whole stretch of the North Atlantic coast from Florida to Newfoundland. The French claimed a portion of northern Florida, which subsequently became a part (the sea coast) of Georgia, and the Spanish the rest of Florida. Virginia, under the English, late in the sixteenth and early in the seventeenth centuries, extended from Cape Fear up to what later became the southern boundary of Pennsylvania, and New England extended from Virginia to Nova Scotia. From 1609 until 1664 the Dutch held the New Netherlands and then were compelled to surrender the territory to the English under the grant of Charles II to James, his brother, the Duke of York and Albany, who, in 1685, became King of England under the title of James III. Great Britain never recognized the Dutch claim—always protested against it—but being engaged in wars almost constantly did not use force to obtain possession before. “It had become important to dislodge the Dutch to prevent the smuggling of Virginia tobacco into England at a loss to that government of some $50,000 in customs, and also to have an unbroken line of English colonies from Florida to Nova Scotia.” The Dutch did not rely solely on Hudson’s voyage on the Hudson, but none of their claims had validity and the colony of New Netherlands passed under British rule and the Patroon took the oath of allegiance to the English King, and English laws instead of Dutch henceforth prevailed in the colony. As soon as the Patroons began to plant colonies in New Netherlands the directors of the Amsterdam Chamber of the Dutch West India Company became jealous and opposed the Patroon system. In 1634 they bought off the two Patroons, Samuel Godyn and Samuel Blommaert (partners of Kiliaen Van Rensselaer), who had secured a tract on the shore of the Delaware bay making a territory of sixty-four miles in circumference, and also Michael Pauw, who had obtained Staten Island, Jersey City, and Harsimus, with the lands adjacent. An effort was made to buy off Patroon Van Rensselaer, but he refused to sell.