Excerpt from The Dutch West India Company on the Hudson<br><br>Oliver Wendell Holmes tells us that if we are to educate a boy properly, we must begin with his grandfather. It is even more true to say that if we are to understand the conditions in the midst of which we live, we must study not so much these conditions as they exist to-day, as their origin in a remote past. As far back as we can trace our an oestral tree, just so far in the past do we find the influences that have helped to make us what we are. The history of America does not begin with the adoption of the federal constitution that made possible a united country, or yet with the Declar ation of Independence that made possible a new nation, or even with the discovery of America, whether that discovery be attributed to Columbus or to the Norsemen. Its beginnings are in Europe, and where the history of Europe begins, there be gins our own history.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.