"'Peter Stuyvesant' leads us to the Hudson, from the time when its
majestic waters were disturbed only by the arrowy flight of the birch
canoe, till European colonization had laid there the foundations of one
of the most flourishing cities on this globe." --John S.C. Abbott,
Preface, 1873
American historian John S.C. Abbott wrote Peter Stuyvesant: The Last
Dutch Governor of New Amsterdam (1873) as part of his American Pioneers
and Patriots series. Peter Stuyvesant (1592-1672) served as the
director-general of all Dutch possessions in North America and the
Caribbean, including the colony of New Netherland from 1647 until 1664.
At that time, it was ceded to the English and renamed New York. He spent
the rest of his life on his farm, "the Bouwerie" (currently known as the
Bowery in New York City).