Customer Reviews

A Description of New Netherland (The Iroquoians and Their World)

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Adriaen van der Donck's account of mid-1600s New Netherlands (NYC etc) is remarkable in its detail, precision, and care for separating fact, fiction, and hearsay. Van der Donck was more a man of the 21st century than the 17th. Here and in other of his writings he gave shape to America as a melting pot. He may be the most important, relatively unknown person in American history. This book provides a fascinating description of every aspect of flora, fauna, and life in New Netherlands, with a tolerance and appreciation for the Indians' culture not seen again for several centuries. It is a book not to be missed. Read it along with Russell Shorto's Island at the Center of the World.

As a native New-Yorker and historian of New-York City, I have found the amount of information on the original Dutch colony extremely lacking. Russell Shorto's "Island at the Center of the World," which chronicles Mr. Gehring's work of over 30 years, was nothing short of a gold mine in this respects--overlooking one or two research mistakes. This new work of Mr. Ghering's (editor) is sure to become a staple in the library of all of us academics in New York City. Bravo Mr. Gehring. Thank you Mr. van der Donck!

I normally devour books of this type, but this one left me cold. If you are looking for an account of life in New Netherland, forget it, you will not find it here. Half of the book is a lengthy discourse on the climate, flora, and fauna of the area -- generally with an eye toward what might best be cultivated -- but nothing about the settlements themselves. The next section is a not particularly informative or penetrating account of the Mohawk Indians. (Although I did find it interesting to learn that apparently Mohawk women, upon giving birth to a baby son, would straightaway immerse it in frigid stream water, to innure it to a later life of hardship). The last section is a curious and not always factual description of the habits of beavers. In short, this book was basically a promotional tract for old Netherlanders to encourage them to emmigrate to the new country, and only if read in that light does it sustain interest. Not worth the money.

A substantially briefer but better account can be found in H. M. van den Bogaert's: A Journey into Mohawk and Oneida Country, 1634-1635.

(Note: Easily the most enlightening tidbit I was to encounter was the judgment that deer and elk could be readily domesticated and cross-bred with cattle).

Van Der Donck's descriptions are among the earliest and fondest of Manhattan and the native peoples who traded with the Dutch settlers after Henry Hudson first found the harbor in 1609. A wonderful companion read is Russell Shorto's "The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and The Forgotten Colony That Shaped America." Together, they depict (in rich and readable form) how it all happened for better and worse. Van Der Donck was born in Breda, Dutch Republic, and trained in law at Leiden University. Leiden was the refuge of the Pilgrim Fathers whose puritanism made them unwelcome in England. Leiden was where they could print their philosophies freely and then sneak them into England. Leiden University was where Hugo Grotius was teaching and Van Der Donck was influenced. It was the 1600s and there was a tide in history away from church authority or at least Catholic hierarchy in favor of one's individual relationship with the divine. There was a tide for more social equality away from the rigidly top-down structures that more characterized the thinking of royal families and Popes . . . much of the change took place in Holland. There, people had to help one another and cooperate to preserve their land from the sea. The pilgrims who left Leiden for Plymouth Rock wanted to preserve their purity of being even from those open-minded Dutch whose free printing presses were so valued. The Dutch West India Company settled what we now call New York mostly to hold their claim on the fur trade. Van Der Donck's descriptions were written when he had a period of exile and was not allowed to return to "New Netherland." He writes beautifully and lovingly (in Dutch) of the land he later returned to. Shorto's view is more comprehensive and he tells the whole story, so to speak, and a wonderful story it is. Too long lost and so wonderfully written. Van Der Donck, in the 1600s, himself wrote beautifully. Prof. Gehring's excellent translation makes it especially accessible in English. Shorto's work is contemporary and masterfully told. Am highly recommending both works for the vital history and insights they offer.

This account was first written in the sixteen hundreds. It was fascinating to read an account of the country written in the early days of the European settlement of the land. The translation was done well. All in all it was an interesting read.

Fundamental work of early New York history by one of the key persons in Dutch Nieu Nederland; replaces obsolete translation with a more accurate and complete one.

Very interesting read. After my genealogy research unveiled that my ancestor was Laurens Duyts, one of the original settlers in New Netherlands I bought this book. The descriptions of the plants and animals and of the native Indians was fascinating. This book, written in the 1600's gives the reader a clear picture of what Dutch life was like. Anyone interested in the true founding of America will find this book invaluable.

Adriaen van der Donck gives a contemporary view the Dutch and the peoples they encountered in the early 1600s. His description of the Mohawk's form of self-governance in this period could be substituted in tact for what Francis Parkman, Jr. described 200 years later when he spent a year with the Lakota Sioux on the northern Great Plains and Hamalainen descibes in "The Commanche Empire" that flourished until the 1870s on the southern plains.

Dan Higgins
Tulsa, Oklahoma