persons. Curiosity on such a point is natural, considering how many of the families now socially prominent in New York trace descent from them. Let us in the first place remember that the scholarly men and those whose lives are passed amidst luxurious surroundings seldom make colonists. To strike into the wilderness for anything more than a dash of ad- venture usually indicates that one has more to gain than to lose, and that his habit is active rather than contemplative. If noble families are represented in any colony, it is apt to be through their needy cadets, and they will usually be found in company with those Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Early Settlers of the Hudson Valley 95 who possess the advantage of energy and are un- hampered by the obHgations of pedigree. Oloflfe Stevanson Van Cortlandt was in the miUtary service of Holland, and became afterwards commissary of cargoes for the West India Company. His descent is said to be from a noble Russian family. Subsequently to his employment by the company, which occupied ten years, he amassed a fortune as a brewer. He mar- ried a wealthy wife, and became, by purchase, the proprietor of the Van Cortlandt Manor on the river. Van Cortlandt 's neighbour, Philipse, began life (ac- cording to Chief- Justice John Jay) as a carpenter. The experts in heraldry have also accommodated him with noble ancestors — this time of Bohemian blood. By shrewdness and energy he won a fortune, and be- came not only one of the most influential, but also the wealthiest man in the colony. These able men were sufficiently distinguished by their own remarkable qualities, and it is difficult to comprehend the persistent effort to decorate them with superfluous pedigrees. The Schuylers appear to have been of gentle blood, and Robert Livingston, the father of all the Livingstons, was the son of the Rev. John Livingston, a Scotch dissenting minister, who was banished to Holland for contumacy in 1663. The remainder of the colonists, from Patroons to tenants, seem to have been of that race that has always fur- nished the best colonisers in the world, and they have left a record of pluck and persistence that is part of the Digitized by Microsoft® 96 The Hudson River heritage of the country they settled and of the national character they helped to mould. The first of the Van Rensselaers was a man of prominence and wealth in Holland, but he was not a resident upon his American estate. The later comers, of whom Livingston was a shining example, were three quarters of a century behind the first, and enjoyed their manorial rights under new patents or confirmations of old ones, granted by the English Crown. We find Charles II. in the year 1660 appointing a " Councill of Forraigne Plantacions" with power to investigate all questions of government or trade relating to the colonies, and to recommend measures beneficial to all parties, but particularly to the Crown. Four years afterwards Stuyvesant sur- rendered New Amsterdam to the commander of the British fleet. For the enlightenment of his masters, the States- General, and incidentally for the instruction of pos- terity, the careful Secretary Van Tienhoven in 1650 wrote a report that contained a section relating to the conveyance of farmers and handicraftsmen, the charges and responsibilities for which were assumed by the Patroon or land patentee. A large flyboat of 200 lasts, which would be chartered for the voyage out for fi. 6000. A vessel of 200 lasts would probably carry over 250 persons exclusive of the ships crew : they would require for food, for the voyage at least 30 guilders, A. 7500. Every 250 farmers would require a superintendant. Digitized by Microsoft® Early Settlers of the Hudson Valley 97 A clergyman, or in his place provisionally, a comforter of the sick, who could also act as schoolmaster. A surgeon, provided with medicines. A blacksmith who is conversent with the treatment of horses and cattle. Three or four house carpenters who can lay brick. One cooper. One wheelwright. Other tradesmen such as tailors and shoemakers, follow with time. A necessary supply of the munitions of war, for the de- fence of the Colonists, in case of misunderstanding with the natives. In a colony the necessary stock for beginning was provided to each tenant by the landlord. This stock- ing included one pair of draught cattle, two cows, and one or two sows. " If in the course of time, with God's blessing, the stock multiply, the bouweries can be fully stocked with necessary cattle, and new bouweries set off with the remainder, as is the practice in Rensselaer's Colonic and other places, and so on, de novo, so as to lay out no money