[Illustration:  Landing of Dutch Colony on Staten Island.]

Although Governor Van Twiller did not do much for the colonists, he was very careful to look after his own affairs.  He bought from the Indians, for some goods of small value, the little spot now called Governor’s Island; which was then known as Nut Island, because of the many nut-trees that grew there.  There is little doubt but that Governor’s Island was once a part of Long Island.  It is separated from it now by a deep arm of water called Buttermilk Channel.  The channel was so narrow and so shallow in Van Twiller’s time that the cattle could wade across it.  It was given its name more than a hundred years ago, from boats which drew very little water, and were the only craft able to get through the channel, and which took buttermilk from Long Island to the markets of New York.

[Illustration:  Governor’s Island and the Battery in 1850.]

Van Twiller bought the islands now known as Randall’s and Ward’s Islands, and these, with some others, made him the richest landholder in the colony.  On his islands he raised cattle, and on his farm tobacco.

Many of the colonists did not take kindly to Governor Van Twiller’s methods, and among them was Van Dincklagen, the schout-fiscal.  He told the Governor that it was very evident that he was putting forth every effort to enrich himself at the expense of everybody else, just as Minuit had done.  The Governor became very angry.  He told the schout-fiscal not to expect any more salary, that it would be stopped from that minute.  This did not worry the schout-fiscal much, as he had not been paid his salary in three years!  But Van Twiller did not stop there.  He sent the schout-fiscal as a prisoner to Holland, which was a foolish thing for him to do.  For the prisoner pleaded his own cause to such good effect that before the end of the year 1637, Van Twiller was recalled to Holland, after he had governed New Netherland for four years, very much to his own interest, and very much against the interest of the West India Company and everybody else.

[Illustration:  Dutch Costumes.]

CHAPTER V

William Kieft and the war with the Indians

A dreary winter came and went, and just as the first signs of spring showed in the fields that closed about the fort, a ship sailed up the bay, bringing a stranger to the province.

This was William Kieft, the new Governor of New Netherland.

He was a blustering man, who became very angry when anyone disagreed with him, and who very soon was known as “William the Testy.”  He made no effort to make the Indians his friends, and the result was that much of his rule of ten years was a term of bloody warfare.