Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Peter of New Amsterdam A Story of Old New York
    Peter of New Amsterdam A Story of Old New York
    Peter of New Amsterdam A Story of Old New York
    Ebook227 pages1 hour

    Peter of New Amsterdam A Story of Old New York

    By James Otis

    ()

    Read preview
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateNov 25, 2013
    Peter of New Amsterdam A Story of Old New York
    Author

    James Otis

    James Otis Kaler (March 19, 1848 — December 11, 1912) was an American journalist and author of children’s literature. He used the pen name James Otis.

    Read more from James Otis

    Related to Peter of New Amsterdam A Story of Old New York

    Related ebooks

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      State Guide Washington, DC

      Feb 18, 2020

      State Guide Washington, DC
      4 min read

    • Article

      Steely Dan’s 20 Greatest Songs – Ranked!

      Oct 20, 2022

      Charming is seldom an adjective applied to Steely Dan’s patent brand of sardonic pessimism, but it fits the relatively simplistic, acoustic guitar-driven Any Major Dude Will Tell You, on which a depressed friend is apparently unironically encouraged

      4 min read

    • Article

      Saved By A Miracle

      Dec 19, 2019

      Saved By A Miracle
      10 min read

    • Article

      Cid Rim

      Nov 23, 2021

      Cid Rim
      3 min read

    • Article

      Hunting Heroines

      Dec 31, 2020

      Hunting Heroines
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Gentleman’s Magazine

      Feb 11, 2020

      From the 1730s to the 1830s the Gentleman’s Magazine provides us with an excellent way of confirming the births, marriages and deaths of middle-class and aristocratic families. The title also offers a fascinating insight into the world of 200–250 yea

      3 min read

    • Article

      The War Without An End

      Apr 16, 2020

      The War Without An End
      9 min read

    • Article

      Wightwick Manor

      Dec 7, 2023

      Wightwick Manor
      5 min read

    • Article

      My Irish question

      Aug 21, 2022

      My Irish question
      11 min read

    • Article

      Back To The Future

      Nov 12, 2019

      Back To The Future
      8 min read

    • Article

      The Modest Man

      Oct 17, 2019

      The Modest Man
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Wisdom Of Voltaire

      Sep 7, 2022

      YEARS ago, in a happy London interlude, we lived in Covent Garden, above Rules. Over the pavement opposite, fixed to the brickwork at the back of the Vaudeville Theatre, a plaque stated that Voltaire had lived in Maiden Lane. It was 1728, and he was

      2 min read

    • Article

      Your LETTERS

      Dec 10, 2021

      Your LETTERS
      6 min read

    • Article

      Winston Churchill

      Feb 5, 2020

      Winston Churchill
      8 min read

    • Article

      Can’t travel? Read!

      Jun 2, 2021

      Can’t travel? Read!
      1 min read

    • Article

      The High And Low Roads

      Apr 24, 2022

      The High And Low Roads
      2 min read

    • Article

      Trading In Tragedy

      Jul 28, 2020

      Trading In Tragedy
      5 min read

    • Article

      Pictures From The Past

      Sep 21, 2021

      Pictures From The Past
      6 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Apr 4, 2023

      Email wdytyaeditorial@ourmedia.co.uk Write to WDYTYA? Magazine, Eagle House, Bristol BS1 4ST WIN an AncestryDNA test kit from ancestry.co.uk WORTH £79 The writer of our star letter wins an AncestryDNA test worth £79-so drop us a line and share your t

      5 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Apr 3, 2024

      Books
      16 min read

    • Article

      Readers’ Letters

      Feb 9, 2022

      The Oldie, 23-31 Great Titchfield Street, London, W1W 7PA letters@theoldie.co.uk To sign up for our e-newsletter, go to www.theoldie.co.uk SIR: Like Gyles Brandreth, my husband and I are great fans of Bargain Hunt. As well as enjoying the banter betw

      6 min read

    • Article

      Prevarication Jones

      May 1, 2019

      Prevarication Jones
      16 min read

    • Article

      Commonplace Book

      Dec 1, 2021

      The light from the full moon lent a silky, glacial sheen to the towering front of the cloud, which stretched off to the horizon in both directions. I stood transfixed as it made its way down the street toward me at a little over the town’s speed limi

      3 min read

    • Article

      You Can Go Home Again

      Mar 7, 2023

      I'm having this dream. I'm in a field, gazing up at the ruins of an old castle. My father is there. We head for the tower through the wind and tall grass, but all of a sudden we're surrounded by the castle guards. They're on all fours, staring at us,

      9 min read

    • Article

      When Irish Eyes Weren’t Smiling

      Nov 17, 2021

      When Gyles Brandreth honoured the splendid Leslie Caron for her Oldie of the Year Award at the Savoy, he remarked that the song Maurice Chevalier sang in the 1958 movie of Gigi might nowadays be cancelled. It begins, ‘Thank heaven for little girls/Fo

      3 min read

    • Article

      A Carolean Paean

      Apr 13, 2023

      A Carolean Paean
      7 min read

    Reviews for Peter of New Amsterdam A Story of Old New York

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Peter of New Amsterdam A Story of Old New York - James Otis

      The Project Gutenberg EBook of Peter of New Amsterdam, by James Otis

      This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

      almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or

      re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

      with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

      Title: Peter of New Amsterdam

             A Story of Old New York

      Author: James Otis

      Release Date: March 13, 2013 [EBook #42327]

      Language: English

      *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PETER OF NEW AMSTERDAM ***

      Produced by David Edwards, David K. Park and the Online

      Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This

      file was produced from images generously made available

      by The Internet Archive)

      PETER OF NEW AMSTERDAM

      A STORY OF OLD NEW YORK

      BY

      JAMES OTIS

      NEW YORK-:-CINCINNATI-:-CHICAGO

      AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY

      COPYRIGHT, 1910

      BY

      JAMES OTIS KALER

      ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL, LONDON

      W. P. 4.

      FOREWORD

      The purpose of this series of stories is to show the children, and even those who have already taken up the study of history, the home life of the colonists with whom they meet in their books. To this end every effort has been made to avoid anything savoring of romance, and to deal only with facts, so far as that is possible, while describing the daily life of those people who conquered the wilderness whether for conscience sake or for gain.

      That the stories may appeal more directly to the children, they are told from the viewpoint of a child, and purport to have been related by a child. Should any criticism be made regarding the seeming neglect to mention important historical facts, the answer would be that these books are not sent out as histories,—although it is believed that they will awaken a desire to learn more of the building of the nation,—and only such incidents as would be particularly noted by a child are used.

      Surely it is entertaining as well as instructive for young people to read of the toil and privations in the homes of those who came into a new world to build up a country for themselves, and such homely facts are not to be found in the real histories of our land.

      JAMES OTIS.

      CONTENTS.

      PETER OF NEW AMSTERDAM

      WHERE I WAS BORN

      If I ever attempted to set down a story in words, it would be concerning the time when I was much the same as a slave among the Dutch of New Amsterdam, meaning a certain part of the world in that America where so many of my father's countrymen came after they left England, because of the King's not allowing them to worship God in the way they believed to be right.

      It sounds odd to say that an English boy was ever held as slave by the Dutch, and perhaps I have no right to make such statement, because it is not strictly true, although there were many years in my life when I did the same work, and received the same fare, as did the negroes in the early days of New Amsterdam.

      Before I was born, my father was clerk to the post-master of Scrooby, one William Brewster, and perhaps thus it was that when, because of troubles concerning religion, Master Brewster journeyed to Leyden with a company of people who were called Separatists, my parents went with him.

      And so it was that I was born in Leyden, in the year of our Lord, 1612, but I never knew what it was to have a mother, for mine died while I was yet in the cradle. Thanks to the care of a loving, God-fearing father, however, I could do very much toward looking out for myself by the time I had come to the age of eight, when I was left entirely alone in the world. I love now to think that during the years of my life while the good man remained on this earth, I did not cause him any great anxiety, and required little care.

      Within two months after my father died, which was in the year 1620, many of the congregation in Leyden set off with Master Brewster for the New World, there to build up a city where men might worship God in whatsoever fashion they pleased.

      Those of the Separatists who were left behind, cared for me as best they might until a year had passed; but none of them were overly burdened with this world's goods, and, young though I was, I realized, in some slight degree, what a tax the care of a lad nine years old was upon them.

      ALONE IN HOLLAND

      Later, those who had in charity taken charge of me also set off to join Master Brewster's company in America, and I, an English boy, was left much the same as alone in Holland. I could speak the Dutch language, however, and was willing to work at whatever came to hand, so that I earned enough with which to provide me with food; as for clothing, I wore the cast-off garments of the Dutch boys, whose mothers, taking pity upon an orphan, freely gave them to me.

      Among the few English then left in Leyden was Master Jan Marais, a professor in the University, whom my father had known; and he, so far as lay in his power, kept a watchful eye over me; but this was only to the extent of inquiring for my welfare when we met by chance, or in recalling my name to those among his Dutch friends who were in need of such services as so young a lad could render.

      Now it seems, although I knew nothing concerning it at the time, that there had been formed in Holland, among the merchants, what was known as the West India Company, whose purpose was to make a settlement in that part of the New World which they had named New Netherland, claiming to own it, and there trade with the savages, or engage in whatsoever of business would bring in money.

      Master Peter Minuit—whom I should call Heer Minuit, because such is the Dutch term for master, but the odd-sounding title never did ring true in my ear—had been appointed by this company, which had already sent out some people to the world of America, Director of the settlement that was to be made. He came on a visit of leave-taking to Master Jan Marais, and it so chanced, whether for good or for evil, that while the two were walking in the streets of Leyden, they came upon me, standing idly in front of a cook-shop, and saying to myself that if the choice were given to me I would take this or that dainty to eat.

      AN IMPORTANT INTRODUCTION

      It may have been in a spirit of fun, or that perhaps Master Marais had in mind to do me a good turn, but however it came about, he said as gravely as if I were the burgomaster's son:

      Heer Peter Minuit, allow me to present to you Master Peter Hulbert, who has had the misfortune to lose both his father and his mother by death.

      Master Minuit was not unlike many others whom I had met, save that there was in his face a certain look which bespoke a kindly heart, or so it seemed, while he gazed at me much as he would at a young calf that he had in mind to purchase.

      I never did lay claim to being comely, either as boy or man; but yet it must have been that this sturdy visitor saw something about

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1