It was good medicine.
They adopted it far back in those beginnings of American history of which we know nothing.

When you go down to the waterfront to see the ships steam away, you are probably standing where the braves and squaws had their forest home overlooking the river.
But their day passed.

Peter Minuit--who really was a worth-while man and deserved to be remembered for something besides his thrifty deal in buying Manhattan for twenty-four dollars--cast an eye over the new territory with a view to developing certain spots for the Dutch West India Company.

He staked out the Sappokanican village tentatively, but it was not really appropriated until Wouter Van Twiller succeeded Minuit as director general and Governor of the island.
Van Twiller was not one of the Hollanders' successes.

R.R.Wilson says of him, "Bibulous, slow-witted and loose of life and morals, Van Twiller proved wholly unequal to the task in hand." Representing the West India Company, he nevertheless held nefarious commerce with the Indians--it is even reported that he sold them guns and powder in violation of express regulations--and certainly he was first and forever on the make.