Hell Gate

"Most New Yorkers know that our city used to be Dutch. Few realize, however, that the first Europeans to settle here were actually 30 families of Walloons, French-speaking refugees from what is today Belgium. Their leader, Jesse de Forest, does not live to reach Manhattan, but three of his children, Hendrick, Rachel, and Isaack, succeed. They build a house eight miles north of town in the middle of the hunting grounds of the fierce Weckquasgeek tribe. At first the Indians are friendly, but a series of wars is provoked by a new Dutch govenor [sic] ... It is also the story of the first twelve African slaves sent by the Dutch West India Company."--Page 4 of cover