to borrow on interest through the medium of said Commissioners and Directors, the moneys at present required both for the passage of the new colonists and for other necessaries and for the purchase of slaves and the cargoes of goods to be sent off, &c., according to the foregoing Proposals and as far as the share of this city amounts to. And the Commissioners are thanked for the trouble they have taken.

Remonstrance of the West India Company.

[ Aitzema, Saken van Slaet en Oorlogh, folio, IV., 1121; 4to., X., 858. ]

To the High and Mighty Lords States-General.

The Directors of the General Incorporated West India Company respectfully remonstrate against the unreasonable and unjustifiable proceedings of the English in America, who not only have forcibly settled themselves on many districts first discovered and taken into possession by the Company, as appeared by the tokens thereof which had been specially set up, and had still been standing at the time of this forcible entry of the English, but also invaded several places which had been brought under cultivation, and where towns and villages had been organized under their own governments in the name of your High Mightinesses. As a ground for their unrighteous conduct, they perverted merely vague patents from the King of Great Britain, conveying to them (as was reasonable) those lands which were not occupied by others. The Company not being able, as they were taken by surprise, to prevent these proceedings, in every instance at first attempted means of reconciliation before recourse would be had to force. For this end, they used, from time to time, many efforts to procure a settled boundary line between the possessions of the two nations, agreed upon either here in America or else in Europe, believing that by this means all future difficulties might be prevented and requesting the aid and influence of your High Mightinesses for the attainment of that end. The Company advanced so far in the matter in America, that, in the year Sixteen hundred and fifty, there was established at Hartford a Provisional boundary line, subject to the approbation of the supreme governments on both sides, and your High Mightinesses insisted, through your Ambassadors in England, either that a boundary might be concluded on here, or that the one of Hartford might be approved, or else that some persons in America might be authorized on both sides to draw up a Boundary line. Still, this had no influence in favorably disposing the English towards this object, but it appeared evident that they were moving onwards in their proceedings, in order, as it seems, being elated by their first successful commencement, to make themselves masters, righteously or unrighteously, of the whole Province, to turn the Company out of the cities, towns and entire country; and to reduce all New Netherland under England, to the humiliation of your High Mightinesses, to the great injury of the commerce of this State, to the incalculable loss of the Company and the ruin of many inhabitants in those parts. For, passing by the previous violences, of which a full account has been given in Remonstrances heretofore presented

to your High Mightinesses, they sent, on the twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth of July, one Captain Talcott, with sixteen or eighteen men on horseback to the town named Oostdorp, under your High Mightinesses' authority and government, who, on his arrival, absolved the inhabitants from the oath of allegiance taken to the government there, displaced the Magistrates appointed by the Company, appointed others in their stead, and thus made themselves masters of the town. Not content with that, but proceeding in this unheard-of course, the same Captain Talcott, on the twenty-fourth of December, sent to the town of Gravesend, under your High Mightinesses' authority, one James Crisp,' to read an address to the inhabitants to induce them, like those of Oostdorp, to acts of sedition, and thus bring them under the British government. The intention was to proceed, for the like object, to Flushing, Heemstede and Rustdorp and the village of Gravesend, all being places under your High Mightinesses. This was prevented by the arrest in Gravesend of the aforesaid person in very season, for, on the twenty-fourth of December, in the evening, one hundred and fifty English, on horseback and on foot, came into the town, surrounded the dwelling of Lieutenant Stilwell, demanded him dead or alive, broke into the house and committed much violence. The Company, in consideration of the close alliance between the Crown of Great Britain and the States-General, have not dared to offer any opposition, until the matter be first communicated to your High Mightinesses, and your assistance and direction be invoked, which the Directors aforesaid hereby request. Praying, moreover, that your High Mightinesses, in consideration of the unrighteous acts of violence committed by the English against the Company, would be pleased to adopt the most suitable and effectual measures in the case.

Fol. 862.

Company.

Boundary.

New Netherland.

Resolution of the States-General.

[From the Register of the West India Company's Affairs, 1652-1663, in the Royal Archives at the Hague.]

Thursday, 20th December, 1662.

Read at the meeting the Remonstrance of the attending Directors of the West India Company of these parts, respecting the boundary in New Netherland, and the wrong done them by the English nation. Which being considered it is resolved and concluded that the aforesaid Remonstrance shall be placed in the hands of MessTM Huygens and other their High Mightinesses' Deputies for the affairs of the West India Company, to examine, investigate and report.

Chamber at Amsterdam to the Director and Council of New Netherland.

[From New-York Colonial Manuscripts, XV., in Secretary of State's Office, Albany, N. Y.]

Honorable, Prudent, Worthy, Beloved, Faithful.

In our last, of the 16th and 30th October and November, of this year, whereof the duplicates to which we refer, accompany this letter; the two former being dispatched by the ship St. Pieter, and the last by the ship Gideon, which first went to Guinea for slaves, we promised your Honors, among other things, an answer to your letter of the 23d August last. As the ship Bontekoe has arrived here since, bringing a letter from the Director-General and another from the Council dated 13th September and first of October of the aforesaid year, the answer to all of them, as far as we have deemed necessary, will be conveyed to you hereby. The first thing, then, that attracts our attention therein is, that we have been very incorrectly informed here relative to the fortification or defensible condition of the mouth of the river, both on Staten and Long Island, which, according to your representation, will be labor in vain. We shall not discuss this, but willingly admit it to be the case on the representation of persons who, being there on the spot, are, therefore, by experience and knowledge in the premises, better qualified to see and determine everything. But you must also be aware that our instruction in this matter was by no means intended to have forts or redouts erected on both sides of the mouth of the river in order to effect that security, but such proper and suitable means adopted as might be considered best and advantageous to at least prevent the English occupying those places, which could well be accomplished by planting Colonies, or settling people, there. Certainly, if the land thereabout be anywise good and adapted to agriculture; and, in case it fail somewhat to be so and, consequently, no person were disposed to take it unless some additional privileges were granted, further inducements could be held out according to discretion; if by that means the object we have in view could be effected. Your Honors are to judge of this, and are seriously recommended to bestow on it all that attention the importance of the subject deserves.

We have already anticipated your Honors' opinion as to whether our proposed scheme to attract specie into the country ought to be put into practice, under its present circumstances and poor condition; and therefore have intimated in ours of the 27th September last, that it should be suspended for the present in order to prevent trade being diverted. With regard to the next point, viz.: that on attempting to give the Company's servants there the benefit and enjoyment of the equivalent of the specie promised them here in Fatherland, you had found it impracticable on account of the depreciation of the Wampum, being, therefore, of opinion that it was best and most proper, that whoever was engaged in Fatherland, ought, at the close of the year, when the books are balanced, be credited not only one-third for the Wampum received, but also one-fourth for the accepted Beavers. On further examination and investigation of this matter, we have discovered that we had heretofore, and recently, provided for this case, inasmuch as we had ordered, by our previous letter of the 27th September aforesaid, that the monthly wages of such servants there shall henceforth be liquidated and paid in Beavers valued at 6 instead of 7 guilders a piece; whereby we consider that we have afforded them sufficient satisfaction herein, the rather as the Beaver, for which there was so little demand here, is now again beginning to improve and rise, and from all appearances, will

To Director-General Petrus Stuyvesant and Council of New Netherland.

advance further. In regard to the Wampum, as its depreciation is on the increase, we have resolved and accordingly consent that the account of such persons as have been engaged here, shall, at the end of the year, be credited one-fourth in order to afford them satisfaction herein also, and to obviate all just causes of complaint. Your Honors can, therefore, regulate yourselves accordingly.

The chief thing in your Honors' letter that took us by surprise was the illegal, yea, sufficiently hostile proceedings set on foot by the English neighbors of Hartford Colony, and especially put into practice and carried out anew in the purloining of a place unquestionably within the Company's bounds, viz., the village of Westchester, otherwise called Oostdorp, having even afterwards also endeavored, as we have noticed by the Council's letter of the first of October last, by sinister means, to reduce and bring within the jurisdiction of Hartford, other villages on Long Island. All this, we acknowledge, must be a matter of strange and dangerous consequence, which, on account of the peace the Crown of England hath concluded and effected with our State here, was not expected by us from that quarter, for we cannot well suppose that they are encouraged from this side. We shall soon ascertain the fact, as we have presented our complaints on this subject fully to this government, which we finally requested to make renewed application, at least that the Provisional Boundary concluded at Hartford aforesaid in the year 1650, may be at once ratified by the Crown of England. And, as great hopes and promises of assistance are held out to us, that our request will be complied with on the earliest and most fitting opportunity, we must wait patiently for that time, to shorten which we shall, by continued perseverance, do all in our power. Meanwhile, we are anxious to learn how Director-General Stuyvesandt fared at the General Court at Boston, having seen that he had gone thither in order once more to attempt the ratification of the Provisional Boundary, and, at the same time, to remove existing troubles about Westchester and the further encroachments of neighbors; whereunto we are somewhat encouraged to hope by the favorable inclination manifested by Governor Winterop. As you are especially requesting our categorical answer, on the supposition that we be disappointed herein, and those people continue their unjust proceedings, before even the said division of the Boundary be completed here, we therefore say, as we have stated in our preceding and annexed letters, that such intolerable proceedings, of such dangerous and far-reaching consequences, are not to be endured, but must be opposed in every way; certainly, if such can in any wise be accomplished with the men and means at your disposition there. Of this, you, who are present and in loco, can judge better than we here. The subject is then absolutely referred to you to act therein, in such manner and way as you will judge best for the safety of the State and its inhabitants. It will, in our opinion, not be without advantage, were you, in such a conjuncture, first of all, by written manifest, to explain and make known the improper and hostile proceedings of the neighbors, in order to demonstrate to all the world there the righteousness of our cause, which has been frequently done under similar circumstances. This, then, is for your Honors' information.

We have observed, from the Conditions and lease to the farmers of the Revenue (verpachtinge), that goods and household commodities, such as English cloths, stockings, provisions and whatever are imported there by the English neighbors, are for the most part burthened with such duties as are paid here in Fatherland, by the same articles; and therefore resolve, on account of the difficulties which you represent against the augmentation thereof, that such duties shall remain provisionally unaltered. But in regard to wares, and especially the Beavers which the English receive in exchange and are carrying out of the country, as the principal

returns which come thence consist of these Beavers, and as they are more and more in demand, and are beginning to advance in value, it is our opinion that the toll or duty on such Beavers as are exported to New England, ought, without affording any dissatisfaction to the inhabitants, be indeed increased at least 3d or one-fourth. We hereby, then, submit this to your further consideration, in order that if you agree with us, as we trust you will, it may be put in operation.

We regret to learn that so little advantage is to be expected from the free people who, from time to time, have been conveyed thither at the Company's expense; in regard that the third part are not what they represented themselves here, namely, agriculturists and such like. And, although we shall in future pay more attention to this, and have more care observed on that head, yet we must remark that such inexperienced, lazy and indolent fellows, if they know no other handicraft, ought not only be taught farming, but be held and constrained thereto, at least until they shall have worked out and paid the disbursement which the Company hath incurred in conveying them thither, &c. We refer to your own judgment and knowledge the best and properest manner of accomplishing this.

The complaints which may have been mutually made by the government of the city's Colonie and yourself, ought henceforth to cease on both sides, and a good neighborly correspondence be maintained with one another. We hope that it will in future improve, inasmuch as we believe, the cause for caviling and bickering will, for the most part, be removed, as since that time the entire river is conveyed and made over to the city of Amsterdam. And, as your Honor requests our advice in this conjuncture, on some points which you submit in writing, viz: To whom shall the Tenths be then paid by the Swedes on the South river? Who shall have the selection of their Magistrates? and various other points. Your Honors can remark, by the contract in this case concluded with the Worshipful government of this city, and sent you herewith in form of our resolution, that everything is now conveyed to the city or its officers in that quarter, on condition that such and other inhabitants must remain in the enjoyment of the privileges they may have obtained from the Company. And as regards the difficulties you mention, in case the common people along the entire river are exempted from the subsidies and general taxes which may be imposed by you in the Company's name, we cannot see herein such consequences or difficulties; certainly, none that can counterbalance the expenses and danger to which we might be exposed from those of Merrilandt, &c., by the maintenance and occupation of that river; as experience hath heretofore sufficiently shown. Therefore was it thought safer and better to commit the protection and preservation of that river to the city, and to have it consequently, as a partition wall between both, than to have the English Merrilanders, or no better, for neighbors. The Company have enough on its hands with the English at the North, as your Honors find but too well. Neither is it apparent, for these and other alleged reasons, that people will run hence to the South river, certainly not so long as the city hath reserved the trade there to herself, to the exclusion of all others. This, alone, is sufficient to deprive every one of all desire to go thither as your Honors will, we trust, find by experience. We wish further to charge and recommend you punctually to regulate yourselves agreeably to the aforesaid concluded contract.

As we heard, with sorrow, the deceitful and treacherous conduct of the Esopus Indians in surprising our inhabitants there, so were we afterwards rejoiced to learn, by the Council's despatch dated the first of October, the victory which our people have gained over them. In this connection we must praise your Honors' vigilance in establishing such speedy and