CHAPTER IV

peter MINUIT, FIRST CIVIL GOVERNOR

In the new domain, the favorite seat of ad¬
ministration seems at first to have been on the
Delaware, rather than on the Hudson.

Captain May, after one year, was succeeded by
William Verhulst, whose name happily no English
map-maker has rubbed out, for it is recalled in
" Verhulsten Island," and perhaps in " Hollanders'
Creek" near Philadelphia. This colony seemed
so promising that it was determined to have a
director-general for New Netherland. He was to
be advised by a council of five members. Besides
these, who were not Walloons but Hollanders,
there were to be a secretary and a treasurer.

In other words, here was a civil government,
which was a miniature of the Dutch municipal
system, and a manifestation of the Netherlands
genius for city organization. It came to pass that
all the cities in the American colonies up to the
time of the Revolution were Dutch; and, except
Albany, all these cities lay along a line stretching
from New York to Philadelphia. All the other
settlements in the thirteen colonies, from Georgia
to New Hampshire, were towns or villages.

Let us see who it was that the Company se-