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A token of possession

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'In November of this year [1635], Governor Winthrop dispatched a bark of 20 tons from Boston, with about 20 armed men, to take possession of the mouth of the Connecticut. It will be remembered that the Dutch had purchased this land of the Indians 3 years before, and, in token of their possession, had affixed the arms of the States-General to a tree. The English contemptuously tore down these arms, "and engraved a ridiculous face in their place."'

(From Peter Stuyvesant, the Last Dutch Governor of New Amsterdam by John S. C. Abbott.)


Tags: quote, netherlands
Authors: ag