THE RECAPTURE OF NEW YORK BY THE
DUTCH IN 1673

New Amsterdam was the title by which the Hollanders
distinguished their little dorp or village, the nucleus of
which had been formed by a few huts erected as early as
1613, for sheltering their fur trade and whale fishery, on
the point where it is supposed Hudson had landed. By
that name it was known for more than forty years, as the
capital, during the administrations (1625 to 1664) of
Minuet, Van Twiller, Kieft and Stuyvesant, the successive
Directors or Governors-General of Novum Belgium or
New Netherland, a province which embraced portions of
the present States of Delaware, New Jersey, New York
and Connecticut.

The administration of the Governor-General, Stuyve¬
sant, who for seventeen years (1647 to 1664) had ruled
the province with singular address and ability, was termi¬
nated by his reluctant surrender of the city to an over¬
powering fleet from England in 1664. The city and
province from that date assumed, and until 1673, retained
the name of New York. During the intervening nine
years, it was governed as an English province by NicoUs,
and his successor, Lovelace.

It was during the administration of the latter, while he
was devising plans to ameliorate the condition and extend
the commercial intercourse of the city, (for he had just
ordered the "Great Dyke" or Broad street Canal, to be
improved, the streets to be paved, and the first mail known
to the citizens to commence New-Year's-Day,  [1673,] its

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