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Editorial Note Over the years, translators have struggled with how to render the terms New Netherlanders used for Native Americans. Nineteenth-century translators gave the most common term, “wilden,” as “savages,” since both words share a connection with wildness and are not reserved geographically for the people of the Americas. Indeed, “savage” is the only word that can help readers make sense of phrases like “alwaer zy eenighe meest wilde menschen . . . hebben ghevonden, doch niet al te wildt,” that is, “where they found some mostly savage people, . . . but not entirely savage,” as Gerrit de Veer wrote about Willem Barents’s encounter with the Sami people of Arctic Eurasia in his 1598 travel narrative Waerachtighe beschryvinghe van drie seylagien, ter werelt noyt soo vreemt ghehoort, since reprinted in 1917 as Reizen van Willem Barents, Jacob van Heemskerck, Jan Cornelisz Rijp en anderen naar het Noorden (1594– 1597) (36). Most present-day translators prefer to give the word “wilden” as “Indians,” because “savages” in today’s English carries heavy negative connotations that the original writers might not have intended. Translators of French documents similarly struggle with the word “sauvage.” I worry, however, that using the word “Indians” could be misleading. The Dutch did have the more neutral cognate “Indianen,” but they employed it less commonly for the residents of the Americas than “wilden.” Also, some writers, such as David Pietersz de Vries, spent time in both America and Asia, and readers should be aware when they chose different terms to name these two very different groups of people. For example, in De Vries’s 1655 narrative, Korte historiael, ende journaels aenteyckeninge, van verscheyden voyagiens in de vier deelen des wereldts-ronde, he referred to the residents of India as “Indianen” but usually called Native Americans “wilden” (126). To avoid the risk of whitewashing racial terms from the past, I have chosen not to translate “wilden.” The singular masculine, “wilt,” and the singu- xviii Editorial Note lar feminine, “wildin,” also appear in this text. I reserve the term “Indians” to stand only for “Indianen.” When I have been forced to rely on translated sources, the word “Indians” appears more frequently. Readers will also find that seventeenth-century Dutch naming practices differ considerably from our own. Spellings of given names varied widely, and diminutives and nicknames were common. Most people used first names and patronymics, not surnames. For this reason, husbands and wives do not always appear to have the same “last” name; their fathers’ names were different . Patronymics were commonly designated on paper with abbreviations, with no standard spelling predominating, even within a single document. A woman whose father was named Jan, for instance, might appear in the records as Anna Jans, Jansz, Janse, Jansen, or Jansdochter. However, many upper-status people also had surnames that they used on occasion or consistently . Since a person’s status could change over their lives, some people were designated by a surname only later in life. Also, a man who became a surgeon or minister, for example, might take or change his surname to reflect his Latin education. Women were sometimes known by their husbands ’ surnames and sometimes not. Furthermore, the Netherlands’ many immigrants brought their own naming practices with them, meaning that lower-status immigrants or the children of immigrants could be known by surnames rather than patronymics, and regional practices in the Netherlands varied. In general, I have tried to use the form that I saw appearing most often or prominently for a particular person, and, for well-known individuals , I have tried to use the received form, but readers should be aware of the many variations possible for a single person. Translations from Dutch-language books and manuscripts are my own unless otherwise noted. Passages in quotations marked by parentheses and a caret represent marginal or superscript additions in the original manuscripts. I have silently expanded the many abbreviations found in seventeenth-century sources. I have also used published translations when circumstances required. ...

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