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"Those Dutch Captains, with their fur-ladened vessels and newly drawn maps, finally reversed directions in June of 1614. They traversed the waters of the Mahicanittuck to cut through the tidal sweeps of what the Netherlanders now called the treacherous "Hellegat" on the eastern side of Manhatta Island, then maneuvered up the ever-widening Manunketesuc (Long Island Sound) and out upon the vast Atlantic ocean. They left no word concerning the fate of Juan "Jan" Rodrigues.

Did he indeed, as he'd fought so hard to avoid, perish from the wounds inflicted by those battling Netherlanders, possibly becoming the first African buried near the Manhatta Circle Village of the Lenapes, close to their revered Lake Manhatta in an area that would become a significant North American burial site? Or did he survive to wander and wonder among the Unami and Delaware

"They left no word concerning the fate of Juan "Jan" Rodrigues."

Lenape of the Mid-Atlantic region, working his way ever-southward towards Spain's Florida Territory? By his conspicuous absence, the records seem to indicate that he was never again seen, or heard from, by anyone -- Lenapes, Dutch, or English, in the former pastoral paradise that would soon become the Dutch/English Colonies of New Netherland/New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

But the Black Spaniard Juan Rodriguez had walked the land a free and proud man, in friendship, with an entrepreneurial spirit and flair which the Natives and Dutch both found useful and beneficial. In twelve short years, other Africans would again walk the wooded trails of the Manhattan Islands, battle and befriend the Natives, and work with and for the Dutch. But their beginnings would be significantly more humble, and the road to success for them and their descendants would be even tougher than that of Juan "Jan" Rodrigues."

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