a "burgher government" in Manhattan, which should approach as nearly as possible to the custom of "the metropolis of Holland." At the time that the colonists had obtained this concession (1652) of the long-desired burgher government, New Amsterdam numbered a population of seven hundred or eight hundred souls.

At last, a naval war, long brewing, broke out between England and the United Provinces, and, without warning, Dutch ships were arrested in English ports, and the crews impressed. Martin Harpertsen Tromp commanded the Dutch fleet. His name has no prefix of "Van," as many writers insist. Bancroft and Broadhead are among the few who have not adopted the common error. The Dutch Admiral was no more "Van Tromp" than the English was "Van Blake," or our brave American "Van Farragut." Tromp, in a few days, met the British fleet, under Admiral Blake, in Dover Straits, and a bloody but indecisive fight followed. Brilliant naval engagements ensued, in which Tromp and De Ruyter, with Blake and Ayscue, immortalized themselves. But the first year of hostilities closing with a victory, Blake sought refuge in the Thames, when the Dutch commander placed a broom at his masthead—an emblem or token that he had swept the British Channel free from British ships. These hostilities between Holland and England encouraged pirates and robbers to infest the shores of the East River, and perpetrate excesses on Long Island and the neighborhood of New Amsterdam. Several yachts were immediately commissioned to act against the pirates. A reward of one hundred thalers was offered for each of the outlaws, and a proclamation issued prohibiting all persons from harboring them, under the penalty of banishment and the confiscation of their goods. Forces had even been collected to act against New Netherland, but the joyful intelligence of peace sent them to dislodge the French from the coast of Maine; and thus, for ten years longer, the coveted Dutch-American province continued under the sway of Holland. The peace was published "in the ringing of bell" from the City Hall, and the 12th of August, 1654, appointed, piously, by Stuyvesant, as a day of general thanksgiving.

During the same month, 1654, Le Moyne, a Jesuit father and missionary to the Indians, immortalized his name by a discovery which afterward formed one of the largest sources of wealth in our State. Reaching the entrance of a small lake, filled with salmon-trout and other fish, he tasted the water of a spring, which his Indian guides were afraid to drink, saying that there was a demon in them which rendered it offensive. But the Jesuit had discovered " a fountain of salt-water," from which he actually made salt as natural as that of the sea. Taking a sample, he descended the Oneida, passed over Ontario and the St. Lawrence, and safely reached Quebec with the intelligence of his wonderful discovery. To the State of New York it has since been more valuable than a mine of silver or gold.

During the year 1654, the Swedish and the Casimir colonists on the Delaware had taken the Dutch fort there; soon after, Stuyvesant had an opportunity of retaking the Golden Shark, a Swedish ship, bound to South River, which, by mistake, entered Sandy Hook, and anchored behind Staten Island. His error discovered, the captain sent a boat to Manhattan for a pilot, when the Governor ordered the crew to the guard-house, and dispatched soldiers to seize the vessel. The Shark's cargo was removed to the Company's magazine, until a reciprocal restitution should have been made. The Swedish agent sent a long protest to Governor Stuyvesant, complaining of his conduct.

In the year 1656, there were in New Amsterdam one hundred and twenty houses and one thousand souls. A proclamation now forbid the removal of any crops in the town or colony, until the Company's tithes had been paid. The authorities of Rensselaerswyck refusing to publish this notice, the tapsters were sent down to New Amsterdam, pleading that they acted under the orders of their feudal officers. This defense was overruled, and one fined two hundred pounds, and another eight hundred guilders.

The cities of Holland, for a long time, had enjoyed certain municipal privileges, called "great" and "small" burgher rights. In Amsterdam, all who paid five hundred guilders were enrolled "great burghers," and they monopolized all the offices, and were also exempt from attainder and confiscation of goods. The "small burghers" paid fifty guilders for the honors, and had the freedom of trade only. This burghership became hereditary in Holland, and could pass by marriage, and be acquired by females as well as by males. Foreigners, after a year's probation, could also become burghers; and the burghers were generally the merchants and tradesmen. The various trades and professions formed separate associations, or "guilds," and their members were bound to assist each other in distress or danger. In fatherland, each guild generally inhabited a separate quarter of the town, was organized as a military company, and fought under its own standard, having its own "dekken," or dean.

In the year 1657, "in conformity to the laudable custom of the City of Amsterdam in Europe," this great burgher right was introduced into New Amsterdam. This was an absurd imitation of an invidious policy, and the mother city herself was soon obliged to abandon it, notwithstanding Governor Stuyvesant attempted to establish in New Amsterdam this most offensive of all distinctions-an aristocracy founded on a class, or mere wealth.

In Mr Paulding's "Affairs and Men of New Amsterdam in the Time of Governor Peter Stuyvesant," we find a list of the recorded GREAT

CITIZENSHIP, in the year 1657. As a rare matter of the olden time, it is here given entire :

Joh. La Montagnie, Junior, Jan Gillesen Van Burggh, Hendrick Kip, De Heer General Stuyvesant, Dominie Megapolensis, Jacob Gerritsen Strycker, Jan Virge, The wife of Cornelis Van Teinhoven, Hendrick Van Dyck, Hendrick Kip, Junior, Capt. Martin Crigier, Carel Van Burggh, Jacob Van Couwenhoven, Laurisen Cornelisen Van Wel, Johannes Pietersen Van Burggh, Cornelis Steenwyck, Wilb. Bogardus, Daniel Litschoe, Pieter Van Couwenhoven.

These twenty names composed the aristocracy of New York two hundred and nine years ago, when umbrellas and carriages were unknown. In our Fifth-Avenue-day of stocks, petroleum, and " shoddy," happy is the man who can possibly trace his pedigree to this pure, unadulterated Dutch-blooded stock!

We have also before us the names of the "small" citizenship, which number two hundred and sixteen. In a few short years it was found that this division of the citizens into two classes produced great inconvenience, in consequence of the very small number of great burghers who were eligible to office. It now became necessary for the Government to change this unpopular order. The heavy fee to obtain it frightened most foreigners away, so that it was purchased but once during a period of sixteen years. In the year 1668, the difference between "great" and "small" burghers was abolished, when every burgher became legally entitled to all burgher privileges.

During the year 1659, it was discovered that the Dutch colony had as yet produced no returns, and was already seven thousand guilders in arrears. It was therefore determined that, to prevent further loss, such colonists only as had left Holland before December, 1658, should be supplied with provisions. Goods were to be sold only for cash, and exemptions from tithes and taxes were to cease several years before the original stipulated period, and merchandise thereafter was to be consigned to the City of Amsterdam exclusively. The colonists remonstrated against this new restriction of trade, which had the appearance of gross slavery, and of fettering the free prospects of a worthy people. This remonstrance was well-timed, and the City Council consented that all the *traders on the South River might export all goods, except peltry, to any place they wished.

In the year 1660, a second survey and map of New Amsterdam was made by Jacques Cortelyou, and the city was found to contain three hundred and fifty houses. It was sent to the Amsterdam Chamber, in case it should be thought "good to make it more public by having it engraved." This early map has probably been lost.

The restoration of Charles the Second, in 1661, did not produce in England more friendly feelings towards the Dutch; and the two nations

now became commercial rivals. The Act of Navigation had already closed the ports of New England, Virginia, and Maryland, against Holland and its Colony of New Netherland. Such at that time was the narrow spirit of British statesmen; and many Independents and Dissenters desired to seek new homes, where they would be alike free from monarchy, prelacy, and British rule.

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Nor were these considerations overlooked in Holland. The West India Company now determined to invite emigration to New Netherland by larger inducements; accordingly, a new charter was drawn up, which granted to "all such people as shall be disposed to take up their abode in those parts," fifteen leagues of land along the sea-coast," and as far in depth in the continent as any plantation hath, or may be, settled in New Netherland." Emigrants were also to have "high, middle, and low jurisdiction," "freedom from head-money" for twenty years, property in mines, freedom for ten years from taxes, the right to use their own ships, and freedom in the fishing trade. Therefore," added the Company, "if any of the English, good Christians, who may be assured of the advantage to mankind of plantations in these latitudes to others more southerly, and shall rationally be disposed to transport themselves to the said place, under the conduct of the United Provinces, they shall have full liberty to live in the fear of the Lord, upon the aforesaid good conditions, and shall be likewise courteously used." A proper act, under seal of the Company, was issued at the Hague, which granted to "all Christian people of tender conscience, in England or elsewhere oppressed, full liberty to erect a colony in the West Indies, between New England and Virginia, in America, now within the jurisdiction of Peter Stuyvesant, the StatesGeneral Governor for the West India Company." How many "Christian people of tender conscience" availed themselves of these advantageous offers, does not appear; but the metropolis prospered. A better currency was now found to be indispensable, and the burgomasters wrote to Holland for authority to establish a mint for the coinage of silver, and to constitute wampum (needed for trade with the savages) an article of sale. But the Amsterdam Directors refused to grant this improvement of the colonial currency.

A number of breweries, brick-kilns, and other manufactories, carried on a successful business; and the potteries on Long Island, some persons esteemed equal to those of Delft. Dirck De Wolf having obtained from the Amsterdam Chamber, in 1661, the exclusive privilege of making salt for seven years in New Netherland, began its manufacture upon Coney Island; but the Gravesend settlers, who claimed the spot, arrested the enterprise; and this, too, notwithstanding Governor Stuyvesant sent a military guard to protect him.

In the year 1664, the population of New Netherland had increased to "full ten thousand," and New Amsterdam contained one thousand five

hundred, and wore an appearance of great prosperity. English jealousy evidently increased with the augmenting commerce of the Dutch. James, Duke of York, was the King's brother, and also the Governor of the African Company, and he denounced the Dutch West India Company, which had endeavored to secure the territory on the Gold Coast from English speculators and intruders. England now resolved to march a step farther, and, at one blow, to rob Holland of her American province. The King granted a sealed patent to the Duke of York for a large territory in America, including Long Island, and all lands and rivers from the west side of the Connecticut to the east side of the Delaware Bay. This sweeping grant embraced the whole of New Netherland.

The Duke of York, that he might lose no time in securing his patent, dispatched Captain Scott, with one hundred and fifty followers, to visit the Island of Manhattan, the value of which was now estimated at three thousand pounds. On the 11th of January, 1664, the valorous Scott made his appearance at "Breuclen Ferry Landing, and, with a great flourish of trumpets, demanded submission to the English flag. Governor Stuyvesant, dispatching his Secretary, politely asked Captain Scott, "Will you come across the river?" and the reply was, "No; let Stuyvesant come over with one hundred soldiers; I will wait for him here!" "What for?" demanded the Secretary. "I would run him through the body!" was the Captain's courteous answer. "That would not be a friendly act," replied the Governor's deputy. Thus they parted; Scott retiring to Michout (Flatbush) with his forces, with drums beating and colors flying, while the people “looked on with wonder, not knowing what it meant." Scott told them that they must abandon their allegiance to the Dutch, and promised to confer with Governor Stuyvesant. But when he reached the river, on his way to New Amsterdam for this purpose, he declined crossing it. Still he felt very brave, threatening to go over, proclaim the English King at the Manhattans, and "rip the guts, and cut the feet from under any man who says, 'This is not the King's land."" This was, certainly, very bloodthirsty; but the good people of Manhattan all escaped with whole feet and bowels. The valiant Captain then marched to New Utrecht; ordered the only gun of which the block-house boasted to be fired in the King's honor; and continued his triumphant march to Amersfort, for another bloodless victory.

Governor Stuyvesant now ordered a new commission to confer with Captain Scott, at Jamaica, and Cornelis Steenwyck*-one of the fathers of New Amsterdam, residing on his farm at Harlem-was one of the commission. It was here agreed that the English captain should hereafter desist from disturbing the Dutch towns. The latter, however,

* There is a portrait of Mr. Steenwyck in the collection of the N. Y. His. Soc.