In the fall of this year, 1652, war was declared between England and Holland.  Stuyvesant, fearing that the English in New England, which was on the borders of New Netherland, would attack the city, set about fortifying it.  The fence that Governor Kieft had built so that the cattle could not wander away was changed into a wall that extended from river to river.  The fort was repaired, and a strong body of citizens mounted guard by day and by night.  Everything was prepared for an attack.  But the enemy did not come after all.

Matters went along quietly enough for three years, until some Swedes on the Delaware River began to build houses on Dutch lands.  Then Stuyvesant, with 160 men, in seven ships, sailed around to the Delaware River, and conquered the Swedes.

It was quite ten years since the Indian war, and Stuyvesant, by his kindness, had made friends of the savages, and had come to be called their “great friend,” But soon after he left to make war on the Swedes, one of the colonists killed an Indian.  In a few days there was an uprising of Indian tribes.  In New Jersey and on Staten Island they murdered colonists, burned houses, and laid farms waste.  Stuyvesant hurriedly returned.  He made peace with the Indians, treating them kindly, as though there had never been any trouble.  He gave them presents, and used such gentle measures that the war which had threatened to be so serious ended abruptly.

In the calmer days that followed, attention was given to improvements in the city.  By this time there were a thousand persons on the island.  Streets were nicely laid out, and the city of New Amsterdam grew, day by day.  It was a tiny place still, however, for it all lay below the present Wall Street.  Some distance beyond the city wall was a fenced-in pasture for cattle, which was later to become The Common, and still later City Hall Park.  Farther on there was a wide lake, so deep that it was thought to be bottomless.  On its banks were a vast heap of oyster-shells, where an Indian village had been.  This place was called Kalch-hook, or Shell-point.  Afterward it was shortened to The Kalch, and in time was called The Collect.  The lake was called Collect Lake.  There is no trace of it to-day, for it was filled in, and the Tombs Prison now stands upon the spot.

The entire province was in a flourishing condition, but danger was near.  The English had long looked with covetous eye upon the possessions of the Dutch in America.  The English, it must be remembered, claimed not only New Netherland, but a great part of the American continent, on the plea that the Cabots had discovered it.

After all this long time, when the Cabots had been forgotten by most persons, in the year 1664, Charles II. decided that the English claim was just, and gave New Netherland to his brother James, Duke of York.  The Duke of York at once sent four ships filled with soldiers to take possession of his property.