22 DUTCH AND ENGLISH ON THE HUDSON

West India Company; but throughout this period
the air was electric with plans for occupying and
settling the new land beyond the sea. Finally in
March, 1623, the ship Nieu Nederlandt sailed for
the colony whose name it bore, under the com-
mand of Cornelis Jacobsen May, of Hoorn, the
first Director-General. With him embarked some
thirty families of Walloons, who were descend-
ants of Protestant refugees from the southern
provinces of the Netherlands, which, being in
general attached to the Roman Catholic Church,
had declined to join the confederation of northern
provinces in 1579. Sturdy and industrious artisans
of vigorous Protestant stock, the Walloons were
a valuable element in the colonization of New
Netherland. After a two months' voyage the ship
Nieu Nederlandt reached the mouth of the Hudson,
then called the Mauritius in honor of the Stad-
holder, Prince Maurice, and the leaders began at
once to distribute settlers with a view to covering
as much country as was defensible. Some were
left in Manhattan, several families were sent to the
South River, now the Delaware, others to Fresh
River, later called the Connecticut, and others to
the western shore of Long Island. The remaining
colonists, led by Adriaen Joris, voyaged up the