xii                            PREFACE

fellow alumni of Rutgers College, to Mr. Irving
Elting, Mr. Dingman Versteeg, Professor P. J.
Blok of Leyden, Mr. G. Beernink of Nijkerk, the
scholarly translator and editor of the Van Rens-
selaer-Bowier Manuscripts, Mr. E. van Laer, at
Albany, and to many archivists in Holland, I am
greatly indebted. I invite the student to scan also
the list of authorities at the end of this volume.

I shall attempt to tell who the settlers of the
Middle States and the founders of the Empire
State were, what ideas and customs they brought
here, how they struggled, first against a selfish
corporation and next against English dukes and
kings, for the rights of the Fatherland, and won;
how, happily for us Americans, they resisted all
English attempts to fasten a state church upon
the people; how and why their descendants were
so loyal to the Continental cause and Congress,
and how large are our inheritances from Dutch
law, order, freedom, culture, and from those achieve¬
ments for civilization and humanity in which the
Netherlands so long led the world. Avoiding in
the text, as far as possible, any ostentation of learn¬
ing or research, I have tried to show my fellow
Americans how worthy of serious study are our
national origins other than English, and how rich
is our inheritance from the Netherlands.

W. E. G.

Ithaca, N. Y., March 2, 1909.