Since the start of the Eighty Years’ War, the Dutch army kept central stores of gunpowder within the city walls of Delft. In the late morning of October 12, 1654, the city was rocked by a massive explosion in the Doelenkwartier, between Geerweg and Doelstraat in the northeast section of the city.

For readers of the Marcurius there’s probably only one association evoked by the name “New Amsterdam,” and that’s “Nieuw Amsterdam,” the Dutch settlement that became New York City. Although the name has not been in official use for more than three centuries, since the English took over the Dutch city, for some reason it seems to have created a strong emotional response, for there were and are quite a lot of other New Amsterdams in various guises all over the world. Here are a few.

Cape Horn, the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago, became notorious as a “sailors’ graveyard” because of its strong currents, gales, and frequent storms. It is named for the city of Hoorn in the distant Netherlands. How this came to be is a story that begins in the 16th century.

Anthony or Antonius Van Diemen (1593–1645) would doubtless have faded into unremembered history were it not for his fateful decision in 1642 to send the seafarer and explorer Abel Janszoon Tasman (1603–1659) in search of “The Great South Land.”

In the March 2009 edition of the Marcurius (vol.25 no.1) we told you of the adventures of Olivier van Noort, the first Dutch explorer to circumnavigate the world.

We just missed the 400th anniversary, but here’s the information. It’s worth a look as it’s yet another example of the often understated but important role of the early Dutch in the history of the world.

The name Dirk Hartog sounds as if it belongs to the swashbuckling hero of a Rafael Sabatini adventure novel or a similar Hollywood epic, and perhaps that’s fitting, for this Dutch sailor and explorer certainly led such a life.

Numerous myths and misapprehensions have developed around the so-called Dutch "purchase" of Manhattan.

On March 29, 1911, the New York State Library, then in the Capitol, burned, and with it went some half a million books and 300,000 manuscripts, among them priceless colonial documents. In charge of the state archives at the time was a Dutch immigrant called A.J.F. van Laer (1869–1955), for whom that day’s destruction was a particularly hard blow.

Anyone searching for information about Cornelis Evertsen must be careful; there are three seventeenth century Dutch admirals with this name, and they are all related. Our interest lies in Cornelis Evertsen the Youngest (1642–1706).

He has been described as not only a military genius but also as a charismatic leader, and an honest, modest, and devout man. He is certainly the man upon whom the fledgling Republic of the United Provinces relied at a crucial time in its history, defending its newly gained independence and assuring its future.

“The Awful End of Prince William the Silent: the First Assassination of a Head of State with a Handgun,” by Lisa Jardine (Harper Collins, 2006, 176pp, $21.95, pbk $12.95).