Hudson had scarcely made known the results of his voyage in Holland, ere trading vessels were fitted out by the enterprising merchants, and despatched to these shores to reap the golden harvest held out in the valuable fur trade. These experiments were highly successful, and agents were stationed here to continue the business during the absence of the ships. These agents established their headquarters on the southern point of Manhattan Island. The "United New Netherland Company," composed of a number of merchants, was chartered in 1614, for a brief period, and in 1621 the "West India Company," larger and richer than the former, was permanently incorporated. This great company was invested with nearly all the prerogatives of a general government. They were allowed to appoint their own governors, settle the ends and forms of administrative justice, make treaties, enact laws, and were granted the exclusive control of trade on the whole American coast. In 1623 a stanch vessel (the "New Netherland," which continued her trips regularly for more than thirty years) brought over thirty families to begin a colony These were landed at Albany, and a settlement began. Two years later (1625) another company came over in two ships, bringing horses, cattle, sheep, swine, agricultural implements, and seed grain, and began a settlement on Manhattan. The first fort was erected in1615 by the traders, and stood in the rear of the present Trinity church, on the bank of the river, the tides then reaching where the western wall of the churchyard now stands. In 1751 some workmen digging in the bank in the rear of the church, discovered a stone wall which was afterwards ascertained to be the remains of the long-forgotten fort. In 1623 a new fort, a block-house, was constructed a little south of what is now the Bowling Green, which served the matter of defence for ten years.