On the Delaware, however, Van Twiller was more fortunate. A fort (Nassau) had been early established on this river to command its trade, and then temporarily abandoned. A party of Virginia cavaliers seized this fort early in the summer of 1635, pretending that it came within the confines of their territory. A deserter bore the news to Fort Amsterdam, and the Director at once despatched a body of troops to capture the invaders. They returned in due time with the crest-fallen cavaliers as captives. There was great rejoicing in New Amsterdam-fanfare of trumpets, and toasts in honor of the victors,—but the Director was sorely puzzled to know what to do with his prisoners. At last he hit upon a plan, and calling them before him, he first soundly lectured them for their thievery and trespassing, and then shipped them “pack and sack" to Virginia-—which was certainly a very wise thing to do.

He

In the management of his internal affairs, Governor Van Twiller was much more fortunate. had some trouble with the powerful patroons who abated no whit of their pretensions, but otherwise affairs ran smoothly. An honorable peace was concluded with the Raritan Indians. New farms and villages were continually being opened in the vicinity. De Vries purchased Staten Island and founded a colony there. East of the Walloon settlement, on the present site of Brooklyn, Jacob Van Corlear bought a large tract of the Indians and founded a plantation. Andries Hudde, of the Governor's Council, in company with Wolfert Gerritsen, bought a large tract next to Van Corlear's, and the Gov

ernor himself purchased another adjoining them on the east, the whole forming the present town of Flatlands. Van Twiller also bought for himself Nutten, now Governor's Island, Blackwell and Great Barn islands. Under him, too, was given another grant to which we shall later refer; that to Roelof Jans of sixty-two acres, which was later incorporated into the King's Farm, and now forms a part of the estate known as the Trinity Church property. In the erection of public buildings, and the giving in general a substantial and civilized air to the crude little town Van Twiller had an honorable record. Fort Amsterdam was completed, and a substantial guard-house of brick was erected within it for the Director, with barracks for the soldiers on the East River shore above the fort, and near by a parsonage and stable, to which Domine Bogardus soon added a fine garden. A country house of brick was also built, "on the plantation," for the Governor. A barn, dwelling, brewery, and boat-house "to be covered with tiles" on Farm No. 1, a goat's stable "behind the five houses," several mills, and dwellings for the smith, cooper, corporal, and other officials. All this was done at the expense of the West India Company, which had now become a wealthy and powerful corporation, owning one hundred and twenty vessels fully armed and equipped, and employing an army of nearly nine thousand men. The furs annually exported from Manhattan had reached a value of one hundred thousand guilders, and Van Twiller reasoned correctly that a part of this revenue should be expended in making his capital more pre

sentable. The company, however, did not agree with him, and partly for his action in this respect, but chiefly because of charges by such responsible persons as De Vries and Van Dinclage, the Schoutfiscal, that he was diverting the company's moneys to his own enrichment, they decided to remove him. Van Twiller left the colony under a cloud. Wilhelm Kieft, his successor, took the oath of office at Amsterdam, September 2, 1637.

THE good barque Blessing, bearing Kieft and his party, arrived on the 28th of March, 1638, but the new Director did not receive a very hearty welcome from the motley throng gathered on the quay to receive him. Tales not at all to his credit had preceded him. He had failed as a merchant in Holland, it was whispered, and his portrait had been affixed to the gallows-a lasting disgrace; and, when later, through the influence of friends he had been appointed Minister to Turkey, and funds for the redemption of Christians held by the heathen had been placed in his hands, he had turned the money to his own use, and the poor captives had continued to languish in bonds. Such were the popular tales. His personal appearance as he stepped ashore was not well calculated to win love or confidence. He was a little man with sharp, pinched features, a cold gray eye, a suspicious look, and the air of an autocrat. A man of good natural abilities, but of little education; a shrewd trader, austere in morals-in happy contrast to Van Twiller,-of a fiery, peppery

temper, conceited, opinionated, and tyrannical; the very man to embroil himself with his people, and his people with their neighbors. The citizens soon found that the new Director was bent on establishing a despotism-one that chafed all the more because of the lax rule of Van Twiller. The company had

given him authority to fix the number of his council. He chose but one, and further curtailed the power of that one, by adopting a rule that in conducting the government his council should have but one vote, while he had two. His powers in other respects were so extraordinary as to create him a despot. His will was absolute. He erected courts, appointed all public officers, except such as were commissioned by the company; made laws and ordinances and executed them, imposed taxes, levied fines, incorporated towns, and had every man's property at his mercy by his power of raising or lowering the price of wampum, then the chief circulating medium of the country. He extinguished Indian titles to land at his pleasure; no purchases from the natives were valid without his sanction. No contracts, sales, transfers, or engagements were of effect unless they passed before him. He not only made and executed the laws, but construed them as judge. He decided all civil and criminal cases without the aid of a jury. He was the highest court of appeal in the colony.

The council had heretofore been the only check on the governor's action, and this abolished, he became at once an absolute monarch. Having arranged matters to his liking, Kieft, in his shrewd, business