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Beeren Island
Beeren Island (''Beeren Eylandt'' in the original Dutch), also known as Barren Island or Bear Island, is an island in the Hudson River within the town of Coeymans, New York. It lies south of the city of Albany, and is at the border of four counties, Albany, Greene (to the south), Columbia (to the southeast), and Rensselaer (to the east). Beeren Island was once referred to as ''Mach-a-wa-meck'', which may come from ''mashq'' (bear) and ''wamock'' (enough), meaning "place of many bears" and would make it in agreement with the Dutch name. History The island was claimed by the Patroon Kiliaen van Rensselaer as the southern border of his patroonship of Rensselaerswijck, it was from the start of the New Netherland colony chosen as a fine site for fortifications to protect the patroon's lands. In 1643 a fort named Rensselaersstein was built and garrisoned, and included mounted cannon; Nicolaes Coorn was appointed watchmaster. Every ship passing the island had to lower its flag in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dutch (language)
Dutch ( ) is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language spoken by about 25 million people as a first language and 5 million as a second language. It is the third most widely spoken Germanic language, after its close relatives German language, German and English language, English. ''Afrikaans'' is a separate but somewhat Mutual intelligibility, mutually intelligible daughter languageAfrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch; see , , , , , . Afrikaans was historically called Cape Dutch; see , , , , , . Afrikaans is rooted in 17th-century dialects of Dutch; see , , , . Afrikaans is variously described as a creole, a partially creolised language, or a deviant variety of Dutch; see . spoken, to some degree, by at least 16 million people, mainly in South Africa and Namibia, evolving from the Cape Dutch dialects of Southern Africa. The Dialects of Dutch, dialects used Dutch in Belgium, in Belgium (including Flemish) and Surinamese Dutch, in Suriname, meanwhile, are all guided by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
