History of Westchester County, New York — Passage 27 (part 2)
[Frederic Shonnard & W.W. Spooner (1900)] DISCOVERY AND PRELIMINARY VIEW <;:> On the 1st of January, 1018, the charter of the New Netherland Company expired by time limitation. Application for its renewal was refused, and from that date until July, 1621, the whole of New Nether-land was a free field for whomsoever might care to assume the ex-pense and hazard of enterprises within its borders. This peculiar con-dition was not, however, due to any flagging of interest in their Ameri-can possessions on the part of the Dutch government, but was an in-cident of a well-considered political programme which was kept in abeyance because of the circumstances of the time, to be launched in the fullness of events. The twelve years' truce between Holland and Spain, signed in 1609, was now drawing to its close. The question of the continuance of