[E.B. O'Callaghan (ed.) (1856)] But there was found a few years ago among the papers of Governor Bradford, of the Plymouth Colony, a correspondence between that functionary and the Dutch authorities of New Netherland, on the Island of Manhattan, bearing date in the year 1627; and Bradford, in a letter written at that time, says of the Dutch, ' that for strength of men and fortifica-tions they far exceed them and all others in the country.' Until the reception of these fruits of the Agency, we were thus indebted to another Colony for the first notice of the coloniza-tion of our own State. It is true, a few trading houses had been established, and forts erected, both on Manhattan Island and at Albany, several years before; but no accounts of a regular settlement of the country by families from Holland at that early date have reached us. GENERAL INTRODUCTION. xxxix " The document alluded to, although brief, enables us to show the existence of the Colony-still earlier than the correspondence with Governor Bradford. The attention of the Legislature has already been called to it, in a report made to this body during the last session, but for a very different purpose, and in an incomplete and inaccurate translation; it is therefore reproduced here. It is a letter written from Amsterdam by Mr.