This is a story packed with strange adventures of the Hollanders who established themselves along the silver stream of the untamed Hudson, where the little colony of New Netherlands was founded.
The story revolves around Kaspar de Selle, a falconer of old Netherlands. Kaspar pledged his services for seven beaver skins to pay for his voyage to the new land, and took along a falcon as a gift for the patroon, Jeremias van Rensselaer. Thus, the sport of falconry was brought to America, plus a valuable knowledge of beaver skins and other pelts.
Kaspar and his cohorts described in this story are fictional, but Peter Stuyvesant, the doughty old warrior of the wooden leg, the van Rensselaers, and others, are straight from history.
This, the first story in The Land of the Free series, is a tale of beginnings in a new world; the beginning of America.
—From the dust jacket
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