William Elliot Griffis

“ The presents from Manhattan, consisting of three kinds of cloth, a chest of white sugar, and some small wares, were offered and received. The Plymouth people gave in exchange some of their own home-grown tobacco, for the new Yankees were ahead of the "Knickerbockers" in the tobacco business. But far greater than any gifts of food, or wear, or ammunition for pipe-smoke, was the enriching lesson in practical economics which the skilled traders from the foremost commercial country in Europe taught the Pilgrims. ”

“ At this time there were still living at Leyden many English colonists who later went to America and joined the company of the Pilgrim Fathers, and the Walloons in New Netherland knew them.
As fellow Christians, it was meet that the Manhattaners and Plymouth folk, neighbors, on both sides of the Atlantic, should be friends, especially since both professed to have crossed the ocean and come to America to convert the savages to the doctrines of the Prince of Peace. ”

“ As was very proper for one who was to have a good deal to do with Walloons or French-speaking Belgian colonists, he could talk and write French. He had the pen of a ready writer, and to him we owe a unique and picturesque account of the Pilgrim settlement at Plymouth.
Governor Minuit purchasing ManhattanA fort must be built for defense, as the ships of any nation could easily enter the river from the sea, a fact which made New Amsterdam from the very first a cosmopolitan place, filled with visitors and sailors speaking many languages. Dutch army engineers had then no superiors in the world. ”

“ In return more emigrant vessels from Patria, with hopeful planters and fresh cargoes of necessities for field, house, and garden, crossed the Atlantic. The frames of not a few buildings and frequent loads of brick taken as ballast were sent to take the places of the temporary bark structures or log cabins. ”

“ It was seen that the colony could be made the basis of offensive naval war against the Spaniards.
Yet the fur trade was the main source of immediate wealth, and next to securing the comfort and safety of the colonists, this was Minuit's chief concern. Many were the ships loaded with peltries which he dispatched to Amsterdam. In 1630 the imports amounted to 113,000 guilders, while the exports, chiefly furs, were 130,000, making a handsome profit to the Company. ”