72  THE STORY OF NEW NETHERLAND

settlement. He named the pretty creek, or kill,
Hoorn Kill, for his native town; but long after¬
wards Englishmen changed the word in form and
spelling, thus giving the stream an offensive name,
besides inventing a bad story to fit the vile and
false word that long disfigured our maps.

The prospect of making a fortune from whales
proved a delusion, and de Vries later abandoned
Swaanendael. For nearly twenty years, except in
an occasional trading ship, the Dutch were absent
from the Delaware River.