54 DUTCH AND ENGLISH ON THE HUDSON

it reached Mm in Amsterdam, wrote in 1626 that
Pieter Barentsen was to be sent to command Fort
Orange, and that the families were to be brought
down the river, sixteen men without women being
left to garrison the fort. Two years later he wrote
that there were no families at Fort Orange, all hav-
ing been brought down the river. Only twenty-five
or twenty-six traders remained and Krol, who had
been vice-director there since 1626.

Minuit showed true statesmanship by following
conciliation with a show of strength against hostile
powers on every hand. He had brought with him
a competent engineer, Kryn Frederycke, or Fred-
ericksen, who had been an officer in the army of
Prince Maurice. With his help Minuit laid out
Fort Amsterdam on what was then the tip of Man-
hattan Island, the green park which forms the
end of the island today being then under water.
Fredericksen found material and labor so scarce
that he could plan at first only a blockhouse sur-
rounded by palisades of red cedar strengthened
with earthworks. The fort was completed in 1626,
and at the close of the year a settlement called
New Amsterdam had grown up around it and had
been made the capital of New Netherland.

During the building of the fort there occurred