Honor Where
Honor is Due
New insights and new truths about the origin of
New Netherland, New Amsterdam, and New York
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Hubert de Lee
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Part I: 1609 –16
In mid- September this year, the historical pamphlet “Honor Where
Honor is Due” will appear, which presents a new vision of the
establishment of New Netherland, New York, and the unique DutchAmerican relationship. “Honor Where Honor is Due” is the first part of
Deel I: 1609–1
a two-part series that focuses on the years 1609-1614 when free Dutch
maritime and merchants laid the foundation for the settlements
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In addition, the pamphlet examines Henry Hudson’s famous
1609 journey to the east coast of the new world in his Dutch
supported ship, the Half Moon. Part two explores the period from
1615 to 1624.
Honor Where Honor is Due - A preview
This brochure is a preview of the first part of “Honor Where Honor is Due”. If reading
this preview is intriguing and you would like to know more, go to
www.nieuwnederland.org and add your email address to the mailing list. We will let
you know when the pamphlets are released.
Honor Where Honor is Due
ew
vi
A pre
The new truth about the origins of New Netherland and New York...
Ask any Dutch person what he or she knows about
the origin of the city and state of New York, and
the answer will have about this effect: “Uh yeah, it
started with Henry Hudson, who discovered a river
which they then named after him, and at one point
the Dutch bought Manhattan from the Indians for
sixty guilders, they built New Amsterdam, which
was later called by the English New York, right?”
The answer might even include the name of Peter
Stuyvesant, but that will be about it. Is that random
Dutchman to be excused for knowing so little about
the history of the largest city in the United States
and the state that bears its name? Does it count
against that individual in regard to the ignorance
of history which contains a number of pertinent
errors? Honestly, no. Dutch history books do not
contain much information about the history of New
Netherland, New Amsterdam, and New York, and
what has being written followsAnglo-American and
English interpretations of historical events. in many
cases these interpretations omit details or state
facts that may be inaccuarte.
The English and Anglo-American distortion of history has several different causes. The first cause is
the changing nature of history. It was not until the
nineteenth century that the discipline of history got
a scientific basis in which historians presented ideas
as descriptions of events as they happened, in a
manner that was as objective as possible and rose
1
above partisanship . Prior to that, the writing of historical events had mainly been a means to enforce
or justify religious or political beliefs in texts where
subjectivity and partiality were the norm rather
than exception. In that light, it is not surprising that
the English demanded, in 1664, the province of
New Netherland on the grounds of, inter alia, the
historical fact that the area was discovered by an
English-man in 1609, and disregarded the fact that
the Englishman sailed on behalf of the Dutch East
India Company under the Dutch flag. In the same
light, it is not surprising that the English version of
history neglected the fact that Giovanni da Verrazzano, an Italian explorer in the service of France,
had arrived in the new world of North America over
three-quarters of a century earlier, in 1524, and that
Europeans had been trading and conducting business in the region prior to Hudson’s historic arrival.
But it is a little strange that the English even left out
of consideration the doctrine of their own Queen
2
Elizabeth as to when a newly discovered area was
to be claimed as property. According to that doctrine, Henry Hudson’s one-month stay in the North
American river valley seems insufficient to claim any
property right.
1 The Belgian Professor Johan Tollebeek in his book Fruin’s gown. Thinking about history in the Netherlands since 1860 (Wereldbibliotheek,
Amsterdam 1996 (Second Edition), p 5.): “Our starting point 1860 can be considered the beginning of the scientific process of Dutch
historiography. In that year, Robert Fruin in Leiden became the first professor of Dutch history in The Netherlands.” Fruin was a
“follower” of the German historian Leopold von Ranke (1795 - 1886) with his critical-philological method is considered the founder of
modern historiography.
2 The doctrine Queen Elizabeth followed was Prescriptio sine Possessione haud valeat, which translates to “Prescription without possession is not valid” and means “who merely states that a newly discovered region is his without actually occupying, thus does not acquire the right to that area.”
Fort Nassau, 1614. Courtesy of Len Tantillo, www.lftantillo.com
It is a classic example of historical distortion.
Through a selective set of facts Henry Hudson
could become the English founding father of New
York. Through the river which he ‘discovered’
being named after him and the regular and festive
celebrations of his feat. Hudson, in the course of
time, was instilled in the collective memory as the
indisputable justification for the English claim to
New Netherland.
A second cause of the distortion by Anglo-American
historians has to do with sources on which their
versions of history were based. It was not until the
nineteenth century that, for the first time, an American historian, John Romeyn Brodhead, traveled to
Europe to seek, various European archives, documents, primary sources, that detailed the history of
city and state of New York written by the Europeans
who had traveled, traded, and lived there. Until
then, American historians had relied on the resources that were present in North America itself. The
first written sources about New Netherland created
in North America, were not published until 1624,
when the West India Company became involved
in trade. . During the previous period of 1609 to
1623, no documents were available, therefore it is
dismissed as an insignificant time when a handful of
unruly, conniving Dutch traders surreptitiously traded with “savages,” and a period whenviolence was
the rule rather than the exception. The period 1609
3
- 1623? ‘A bloody cutthroat period’. Only when John
Brodhead returned from Europe to North America
in1849 with a wealth of source material — including
the minutes of the States General from the very
beginning of the seventeenth century — and those
materials were researched and transcribed, that
American historians began to realize and recognize
that the early Dutch presence in the Hudson Valley
could have been more important than had been
assumed.
The question of why the Netherlands in general and
the Dutch historians in particular did not appeal the
Anglo-American historians’ distortions — which is
3 Was there absolutely no blood shed? Unfortunately, no but these events generally took place after 1619 when the States General’s
trade license no longer governed the mariners and merchants. Competition between rivaling Dutch merchants often became
murderous. The time prior to the license was a relatively peaceful period.
Honor Where Honor is Due - A preview
a perfectly legitimate question — can be answered
with one word: pragmatism. The Dutch simply chose
good trade and prosperity above eternal historical fame. The proclamation of New Netherland as
a new overseas province in 1624 was not based
so much on a desire for a permanent settlement,
but rather based on the need to perpetuate the
commercial possibilities offered by the area and its
residents. Illustrating the fact that the administrative authority of the new province was granted to a
trade association, the West India Company (WIC).
The same pragmatism explains why the English
acquisition of New Netherland in 1664 could have
happened without a fight (the only one who tried to
4
supress this was governor Peter Stuyvesant ). The
WIC was almost bankrupt, the Netherlands did not
need to preserve the area , and the British promised
in their Articles of Capitulation that the Dutch colonists
would not lose their economic and religious achievements — nothing would actually change, only that
the Dutch would now be free citizens of England. The
choice was made quickly. Patriotism is not naturally
something the Dutch really own, and certainly not
if it might ruffle the feathers of those who help to
ensure Dutch trade opportunities and prosperity.
The English and Anglo-American historians depiction of history and the pragmatic attitude taken by
the Netherlands significantly contributed to this lack
of acknowledgement of the achievements of the
independent Dutch mariners and merchants who
laid the foundation for New Netherland.
Make deals, not war
Writing the (Anglo-American)
history of New York only really
began in the nineteenth century.
This image is one of the many
depictions of those early years. At
the Library of Congress, the
illustration is archived as “Henry
Hudson descending upon the
Hudson River”, but whether that
is true is debatable. This could
just as easily be an image of
Dutch merchants engaged in
pragmatic and diplomatic
negotiations with the Indians
about a mutually-beneficial trade
agreement. This depiction would,
moreover, be one of the only
‘realistic’ images of Dutch
merchants and their native
counterparts. Many Anglo
American images of Dutch
merchants and natives are
caricatures — stereotypes that
‘The Dutch’ are depicted as
jocular, portly, pipe-smoking,
arrogant traders and the
indigenous population as a dirty,
poor, humble wretches.
4 This wording is perhaps somewhat unfortunate, given that Stuyvesant, during the time he was commander of Aruba, Bonaire,
and Curacao, lost a leg in a battle with the Spaniards at St. Martin and, as a result, went through the remainder of his life with a
prosthesis.
In Honor Where Honor is Due, it will be made clear
that the Dutch pioneers in North America deserve
credit. Indeed, they deserve more, much more historical credit than Henry Hudson.
This is the first of three positions that are the starting points for the new vision.
The second position is that the Dutch pioneers,
particularly Hendrick Christiaensen, Jacob Eelkens,
and Adriaen Block, formed an alliance with the
indigenous population (particularly the Mohicans
5
and the Mohawks) known as the Kaswentha Treaty .
This alliance led to stability and security in the
region and paved the way for the emergence of
New Netherland. The conclusion of that agreement
is commemorated by the Haudenosaunee, the
umbrella name for a number of Iroquois tribes,
6
including the Mohawks, even today.
The third position is the result of the second. The
entente which arose from the Kaswentha Treaty
— also between the rival Mohicans and Mohawks
— made it possible, in 1614, to build the trading
post Fort Nassau and establish the first permanent
European settlement in the Hudson Valley. Later
that year, a number of Dutch merchants joined the
New Netherland Company, a company selected
by the States General who held an exclusive trade
license for the area “liggende in America tusschen
Novam Franciam ende Virginiam, […] gelegen op den
Polushoochte van veertich tot vijffenveertich graden,
7
alsnu genaemt Nieu Nederland” (the area in America
between New France and Virginia, located between
the latitudes of forty and forty-five degrees, and
known as New Netherland). In other words, New
Netherland was founded in 1614, a date marked
in history by the construction of Fort Nassau and
the official designation as a province by the States
General.
Currently, the historical distortions seem to turn
against the North Americans themselves. On July
14, 2008, The New York Times published in the NY /
Region section an article with the headline “For New
York’s Birth Date, Don’t Go by City Seal.” The author
of the piece, journalist Sam Roberts, explains why
the town seal cannot be used to determine the
establishment of the city: “For decades, the proud
seal of New York City, with its depiction of a sailor and
a Manhattan Indian, of beavers and flour barrels and
the sails of a windmill, has celebrated 1625 as the
year the city was founded. There’s just one problem:
Most historians say the year has hardly any historical
significance. [...] And the most notable event of 1625?
Dutch settlers moved their cattle to Lower Manhattan
8
from Governors Island.” In the story that follows,
Roberts details the political motivations behind the
selection of 1625 and the alternate, more accurate
years of birth: Most say 1624, perhaps 1623, the
year the first Dutch ships carrying settlers arrived.
Others cite 1626, the year Peter Minuit “purchased”
Manhattan from the indigenous population, while
others still suggest 1653, the year the Netherlands
granted the first charter and thereby formally
recognized New Amsterdam as Dutch city.
Four years later, in early October 2012, Roberts
wrote an article in response to the news that a
nearly five-kilometer section of Broadway in Upper
Manhattan has received an official second name:
Juan Rodriguez Way. The co-naming of the section of
Broadway is a tribute to the man who is considered
the first non-Indian to have, in 1613, settled in New
York. Apart from the liberties that Roberts permits
himself in his story, it is remarkable that he assumes that New Yorkers, by paying tribute to Rod9
riguez — yet again — would begin to rethink the
birth of their city. In the introduction he writes that
5 In the traditional native oral history, as well as in several Anglo-American written sources, the convention and the treaty that resulted have been noted by a number of different names. Three of them have a geographic base: Tawagonshi and Tawassgunshee
refer to the hill on which the contract was concluded and Tawasentha refers to the creek which overlooks that hill. Kaswentha
Treaty has a conceptual basis: kaswentha is an Iroquoiaan’s understanding that roughly represents a mutual agreement between
the allies, despite their interdependence, to remain independent. Honor Where Honor is Due includes a separate chapter, Association, dedicated to understanding and exploring the alliance between the First Americans and the Dutch.
6 See footnote 12.
7 The quote comes from the transcription of original license of October 11, 1614, created by Eric Ruijssenaars, Dutch Archives
historical research bureau, Leiden. The full text of the license is included later in this brochure.
8 Roberts, Sam. “For New York’s Birth Date, Don’t Go by City Seal,” The New York Times 14 July 2008: B1. Print.
9 In the course of its history, New York has had a few different official birth years. See “Paul O’Dwyer and Changing New York History” by
Leo Hershkovitz, de Halve Maen - Magazine of the Dutch Colonial Period in America. Winter 2008: 79 ff.
Honor Where Honor is Due - A preview
“...the honor may prompt a debate about when to start
celebrating New York City’s 400th birthday” and he
closes the story with “The city seal proclaims 1625 as
the year when New York was founded by the Dutch. But
with Rodriguez now fresh in the memory as the man
who became a New Yorker twelve years previously, the
candle in honor of the four-hundredth anniversary of
10
New York City might be lit in 2013.”
With these two articles, Sam Roberts points out
that the city of New York is still struggling with
the question of which historic event is the most
accurate marker of its inception . The largest city in
the United States is eager to celebrate its four-hundredth anniversary, this research seeks to determine
its precise date. . Roberts’ articles represent the
complications inherent in the way the United States,
in the year 2016, relates to the history of its origins.
There is an inherent tension between the desire for
historical accuracy which exploits historical events
for political purposes — claiming fringe figures as
historical heroes to support a popular position.
Or, as Dr. Heriberto Dixon, professor emeritus at
the State University of New York at New Paltz put
it, “America tries so hard to be authentic, but in the
11
process they create the ultimate fake.”
Native role underexposed
In the Anglo-Saxon historiography, the original inhabitants of North Eastern America play only a walk-on role:
they are portrayed as “savages”.
However, the (trading) relationships maintained by the
“savages” with the Dutch merchants show that the
opposite is true. By agreeing to, and probably even
helping with, the construction of a trading post, known
as Fort Nassau, within their territory, the indigenous
peoples have significantly contributed to the founding of
City and State of New York.
The Mohican chief, Etow Oh Koam, was immortalized in
this painting by the Dutch painter Jan Verelst in 1710
when he was visiting Queen Anne, along with three
Mohawk chiefs, in London. This visit, by four chiefs in
London, was as significant as the visit paid by two native
sons, Orson and Valentine, to the court of Prince
Mauritius in the Netherlands a hundred years earlier
according to the new interpretation of Hubert de Leeuw.
In Honor Where Honor is Due, it will be shown that
not only the founding of the Big Apple, but also
the entire history of the City and State of New York
needs to be revisited. It will be apparent that too
much historical credit has been attributed to Henry
Hudson and too little to the independent Dutch
mariners and merchants who, in the years “after
Hudson” did business with the locals on equal
terms. This revision also brings the indigenous
people, the First Americans, to the forefront as
characters within the story, and not, as previously
recorded , ‘props’, which help to set the scene as
anonymous members of the background. Finally,
we will see that the foundations of New Netherland, and thus that of the State of New York, were
established in 1614 after the Dutch mariners and
10 Roberts, Sam. “A Broadway Honor for a Very Early New Yorker Largely Lost to History.” The New York Times 3 October 2012: A24.
Print.
11Dr. Heriberto Dixon made the statement in his lecture “The Association of Native Americans (ANA) of the Hudson Valley, 1972-2014”
presented during the 35th Conference on New York State History, during Session 402 held on Friday, June 13, 2014 at the Marist
College in Poughkeepsie, NY.
Oldest map of Manhattan
The map created by Adriaen Block in 1614 of the area between the French Nova Francia and the English Virginia is considered the first detailed map of New Netherland and the middle of North East America. In addition, the map is considered to be
the first document which refers to the name ‘New Netherland’ (Niev Nederlandt).
Map 1614, source: National Dutch Archives
Honor Where Honor is Due - A preview
Transcription of the trade license granted by the States General in 1614
to the New Netherland Company
HOLLAND DOCUMENTS: I. 11
Grant of Exdusive Trade to Neio Netherland.
[ From the Mioute on a half sheet of paper, in the Eoyal
Arohieves in the Hague ; File, Loopende. ]
The States General of tlie United Netherlands to all
to whom these presents shall come, Greeting.
Whereas Gerrit Jacobz Witssen, antient Burgomaster
of the City Amsterdam, Jonas Witssen, Simon
Morrissen, owners of the Ship named the Little Fox
whereof Jan de With has been Skipper; Hiins Hongers, Paulas Pelgrom, Lambrecht van Tweenhiiyzen,
owners of the two ships named the Tiger and the Fortune, whereof Aedriaen Block and Henrick Corstiaenssen were Skippers; Arnolt van Lybergen,
Wessel Schenck, Hans Claessen and Berent Sweertssen, owners of the Ship named the Nightingale,
whereof Thys Volckertssen was Skipper, Merchants
of the aforesaid City Amstelredam, and Pieter
Clementssen Brouwer, Jan Clementssen Kies, and
Cornells Volckertssen, Merchants of the City of
Hoorn, owners of the Ship named the Fortuyn,
whereof Cornells Jacobssen May was Skipper, all now
associated in one Company, have respectfully
represented to us, that they, the petitioners, after
great expenses and damages by loss of ships and
other dangers, had, during the present year, discovered and found with the above named five ships,
certain New Lands situate in America, between New
F’rance and Virginia, the Sea coasts whereof lie
between forty and forty five degrees of Latitude, and
now called New Netherland: And whereas We did, in
the month of March last, for the promotion and
increase of Commerce, cause to be published a
certain General Consent and Charter setting forth,
that whosoever should thereafter discover new
havens, lands, places or passages, might frequent, or
cause to be frequented, for four voyages, such newly
discovered and found places, passages, havens, or
lands, to the exclusion of all others from visiting or
frequenting the same from the United Netherlands,
until the said first discoverers and fiuders shall,
themselves, have completed the said four Voyages, or
caused the same to be done within the time prescribed for that purpose, under the penalties expressed
in the said Octroy &c. they request that we would
accord to them due Act of the aforesaid Octroy in the
usual form :
Which being considered. We, therefore, in Our
Assembly having heard the pertinent Report of the
Petitioners, relative to the discoveries and finding of
the said new Countries between the above named
limits and degrees, and also of their adventures, have
consented and granted, and by these presents do
consent and grant, to the said Petitioners now united
into one Company, that they shall be privileged
exclusively to frequent or cause to be visited, the
above newly discovered lands, situate in America
between New France and Virginia, whereof the Sea
coasts lie between the fortieth and forty fifth degrees
of Latitude, now named New Netherland, as can be
seen by a Figurative Map hereunto annexed, and that
for four Voyages within the term of three Years,
commencing the first of January, Sixteen hundred
and fifteen next ensuing, or sooner, without it being
permitted to any other person from the United
Netherlands, to sail to, navigate or frequent the said
newly discovered lands, havens or places, either
directly or indirectly, within the said three Years, on
pain of Confiscation of the vessel and Cargo wherewith infraction hereof shall be attempted, and a fine
of P’ifty thousand Netherland Ducats for the benefit
of said discoverers or finders; provided, nevertheless,
that by these presents We do not intend to prejudice
or diminish any of our former grants or Charters;
And it is also Our intention, that if any disputes or
differences arise from these Our Concessions, they
shall be decided by Ourselves.
Map 1616, source: National Dutch Archives
Proclamation by the States General leads to New
Netherland Company
The competition between free mariners and merchants
for trading rights in the valley of the River Mauritius
during the period of 1611 to 1613 was found to cause
both national and international problems. It was not
good for business. This prompted the States General, in
an effort to regain some control of the traders, to
proclaim, in March 1614: Anyone who discovered a new
country, a new port, a new passage or a new location
could get an exclusive license to conduct business in that
area. To qualify for such a license, competing operators
united in various companies: The Australian Company,
the Nordic Company, and the New Netherland Company.
Unlike the two other companies, the New Netherland
Company received a license for a relatively short period
of three years. This decision was probably due to the
political sensitivities surrounding New Netherland: it was,
after all, a territory that included land claimed by the
English and, therefore, may not be considered as “newly
discovered land.”
The license in this picture is the original business license
the New Netherland Company was awarded on October,
11 1614, by the States General, which was put into effect
on January 1, 1615.
Transcriber Eric Ruijssenaars
The Two Row Wampum Belt
merchants made a covenant with the indigenous
12
people which ensured sufficient security and stability toward further development of the northeastern
North American region. New York City is contemplating a change to the officially recognized year of the
City’s birth to one that is more historically accurate.
The State of New York faces a similar opportunity to
make a change and correct the wrongs of recognized history.
According to the native oral tradition, the belt is the treaty
that the Mohicans, Mohawks, and the Dutch mariners and
merchants sealed with a band of wampum (tubular beads
made from American clams and whelks) around 1613 in
the Hudson Valley. This “Two Row Wampum Belt”
symbolizes the river of life (white beads) to which the First
Americans in their canoes and the Dutch in their sailing
ships said together as equals, peaceful and fraternal (the
purple cords), embracing each other’s values and
respecting each other’s laws, without imposing either on
each other. In the words of the Haudenosaunee, “In one
row is a ship with our White Brothers’ ways; in the other a
canoe with our ways. Each will travel down the river of life
side by side. Neither will attempt to steer the other’s vessel.”
http://honorthetworow.org/
12According to the oral tradition of the Haudenosaunee (formerly the Iriquois Confederacy), that covenant, called Kaswenta Treaty,
was recorded in wampum in 1613. The Haudenosaunee commemorated this historic event in 2013. There were undeniably political motives at the heart of the commemoration - the Haudenosaunee wanted to draw attention to their environmental concerns
and the sovereignty of indigenous peoples.
Honor Where Honor is Due - A preview
About the Author
Twenty years ago, Hubert de Leeuw started
researching and studying the history of New
Netherland and New York. He has discovered
primary sources written originally in Dutch that
have not been considered by or are not consistent with the interpretations presented in the
Anglo-American historiography. By placing those
primary sources in historical context and interpreting them in relation to that context, de Leeuw
has been able to reconstruct an early period in
the founding history of New Netherland — and
thus, the founding of the city and state New York
— which has otherwiseremained underexposed
in formal documented history, and whose events
are significantly more important than assumed
thus far.
His research led him to the set up the New Nether13
land Beginnings project in the United States. That
Hubert de Leeuw.
project now has a Dutch counterpart named Het
14
Ontstaan van Nieuw Nederland/New York (ONN/NY),
which translates to the Genesis of New Netherland
/ New York (GNN/NY). The aim of the Dutch project
is twofold.
The Half Moon enters Hoorn.
13 The New Netherland Beginnings project, started in 2013, had its origins in the Adriaen Block & Hendrick Christiaensen Historic
Working Group, established in 1994. Since 1994, Hubert de Leeuw has initiated several projects: the reconstruction of Fort Nassau
(1995), the construction of a replica of the yacht the Unrest (1999), and the publishing and release of a series of English-language
pamphlets (2013) in which the period of 1609 to 1624 is reconstructed as faithfully as possible to the events as noted in primary
sources written in the Dutch of the period to accurately represent the events that occurred when the area known as New Netherland, the predecessor of New York, began to take shape. A series of pamphlets in Dutch, as well as a documentary and feature
film, in which this new vision of history is told, are currently in the works.
14The project GNN/NY includes the website http://nieuwnederland.org, a series of presentations in the Netherlands (which can be
ordered via the website), and the publication of the pamphlet Honor Where Honor is Due, which is the first of a two-part series.
The first is to inspire the Dutch historians to, more
intensively than it has in the past, investigate and
map out, the events that took place in the Hudson
Valley of North America in the first two decades of
the seventeenth century. To date, Dutch historians — with a few exceptions — have, in de Leeuw’s
opinion, unquestioningly followed the Anglo-American interpretation of history as the correct history,
ignoring the willfully false and incomplete elements
that are included solely to justify English and
Anglo-American historical claims, judgments, and
behaviors. It is the time for a fresh interpretation of
the historical facts by the Dutch; an open-minded
interpretation that is detached from the colonial
tendencies of academia and other motives. It is
time to enrich our national history with the focus on
acknoweldging the story of the true founders of the
City and State of New York first, taking ownership
of the Dutch story of these men of the first hour
who, driven by pragmatism and the desire for trade,
made lasting contacts with the indigenous tribes of
North America and, in doing so, anchored the Dutch
and more broadly the European presence in the
Hudson Valley.
The second aim of the project is to draw broader
attention within the Netherlands to this neglected,
yet significant piece of founding history, in particular
the key roles played by independent mariners and
merchants Hendrick Christiaensen, Jacob Eelkens
and Adriaen Block in the creation of a Dutch province in the New World. This is a story that deserves
to be told and the European and native protagonists
deserve recognition, to receive the historical credit
to which they are entitled. Honor Where Honor is Due.
Hubert de Leeuw pretends in no way to have a
monopoly on the truth, but from the new evidence
he presents he concludes that the presently recognized historical “truths” are largely founded on falsehoods. “It is time to come to terms with history,”
says de Leeuw, “so our decisions about the future
will no longer be based on lies about the past. Are
Dutch Consul General in New York to commemorate
alliance with First Americans
On August 9, 2013, Consul General of the Netherlands in
New York, Rob de Vos, greeted the two hundred paddlers
who, in the context of the Two Row Wampum Campaign,
had paddled from Onondaga Lake through the Mohawk
and Hudson Rivers to reach Manhattan in thirteen days.
In his moving speech, de Vos thanked the Haudenosaunee for welcoming the Dutch four centuries earlier, and
for teaching them how to survive in the New World. By
smoking a pipe of tobacco with some Haudenosaunee
chiefs, the Consul General paid respect to the oral history
of the Native American people which includes the story of
an agreement finalized in 1613 that, according to their
tradition, is recognized as a treaty between the Dutch
and the First Americans, despite the assertion of
academic historians that these statements contains a
number of controversial elements.
you an academic historian? Then I heartily invite
you to use the positions that I take in Honor Where
Honor is Due as hypotheses for a honest, objective
research. Recognize that you can fill a space , which
15
has for too long existed in our history books. If
you are holding the pamphlet in your hand as an
‘interested layperson’, I hope you enjoy reading, and
I further hope that you will agree, after reading, that
the story I have told is too good to end up in the
book of oblivion.”
15 See: Mr. S. Muller Fz., History of the Nordic Company, Utrecht 1874. p. 5.
Honor Where
Honor is Due
For over twenty years, the Dutch entrepreneur
Hubert de Leeuw has been researching the history
of New Netherland, a 17th century Dutch province in
North America that we know today as the City and
State of New York. During his research, de Leeuw
discovered numerous gaps and half-truths in the
existing descriptions of that history, in particular
the history of the free traders of this period whose
actions have long been overlooked.
In mid-May 2016, the first part of a two-part series
entitled Honor Where Honor is Due, in which de Leeuw
explains his findings and the newly discovered
truths about the history of New Netherland, New
Amsterdam, and New York, will be released. This
brochure is a preview of the content covered in that
pamphlet.
If you would like to be notified of the exact release
date of Honor Where Honor is Due, visit
www.nieuwnederland.org and add your email address
to the mailing list. On the site you can also read more
about Hubert de Leeuw and his exciting new vision
for this period of Dutch-American history that has
been wrongly neglected for far too long.