The city was gayly decorated in honor of his coming. Women looked from
their windows and waved their handkerchiefs. Men crowded the streets and
loudly shouted their welcome.
Soon after, he married the daughter of a leading merchant, and so
identified himself at once with the city's interests. He became the fast
friend of Chief-Justice Lewis Morris. Another friendship was that he
formed with Dr. Cadwallader Colden. We shall hear more of this man
later. Besides being a physician of note, he had a world-wide reputation
as a writer on many scientific subjects.
Along about this time the French were trying hard to get all the trade
with the Indians, not only in the province of New York, but in all the
lands as far west as the Mississippi country that was then wild and
unexplored. By this they could make a great deal of money, but, better
still, would make friends of the powerful Indian tribes. Then the French
hoped that the Indians would join with them against the English and that
they could conquer all the English lands in America.
The New York merchants were quite content to let the French do the
trading with the Indians, for the French traders bought all their goods
in New York, and the merchants in selling to them did not run the great
risk of being murdered, as they would in trading with the Indians in the
forests.
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