EARLY SETTLEMENT AND THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE 53
With its selective detail and pictorial appearance,
the map reveals little about the colony itself. But
there are a few clues to life on Manhattan: the
governor’s house is marked at the southern tip of the
island. Made of white stone, it eventually gave name
to “Whitehall” Street, which persists to this day. In
1643, the Dutch West India Company retreated to
the southern end of the island and erected a wall
of protection against Native American attacks. This
barricade eventually became “Wall Street,” matched
by a protective “Battery” to the right, which would
become Battery Park. In 1664 these Dutch defenses
made little difference, for the island was taken
without a shot. The river along the lower (west) side
of the island bore twenty different names before
English control entrenched the name as the Hudson.
By the end of the seventeenth century the influx
of English and French settlers had changed the
character of New York. Yet, like Wall Street and the
Battery, the Dutch persisted, reasserting their ethnic
identity rather than being absorbed into the larger
English culture. In fact, their presence—like that of
a sizable African American community—made for an
unusual level of colonial diversity. English toleration
of Dutch culture included respect for religious
practices as well as for property claims. Stuyvesant
himself chose to remain in New York until his death in
1672, and the quaintly rendered windmill at the lower
right corner of Manhattan anticipates this enduring
Dutch presence. If the bold narrative of the map
symbolizes the larger shift of imperial power toward
the British, it also reveals the underlying pluralism
and limited ethnic tolerance that would come to
define the colony.