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"'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).