We are sorry, that your Honors are so displeased, as your expressions make us presume, with the preachers here, whose zeal in teaching, admonishing and punishing, whose peaceable, and edifying life and conduct, agreeable not only to ourselves, but also to the whole community, compels them and us to pray, that God may give them long life for the best of his infant church here and to assure your Honors, that neither of them can be suspected of any leaven of innovation or turbulence. In consideration hereof, we have so far withheld your expressions and shall continue, to do so, in order not to discourage them in their good and faithful service. We shall however not fail, to communicate to them your wishes, while it would help much in observing and carrying out your orders, if some psalmbooks or special liturgies of the Reformed church or formularies of baptism could be found somewhere and be sent over, in which the words "here present" are not used. * * * The last point in your Honors' letter, requiring a reply, is your repeated instruction concerning the heirs of Cornelis van Werckhoven. As yet we can only state, what we have already said and written, that as soon as somebody appears, who shall sue Jacques Corteljou in their behalf, we shall administer the law equitably and fairly, after having heard the parties. ORDERS OF COUNCIL ON PETITIONS TO BE RELIEVED FROM THE OPERATIONS OF THE ORDINANCE FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF VILLAGES, PASSED FEBR. 9, 1660. April 26th 1660. (See Laws and Ordinances of New Netherland, p. 368.) Received and read a petition from Nicolas Stillwell, a farmer living on a bouwery between Gravesend and the village of New Utrecht, who asks for permission to remain living by himself and to be excused from moving his honse, pursuant to the placat, stating, that with his four farmhands and three sons he is able to defend his bouwery. It is answered: Petitioner shall appear before the Director-General and Council with his sons and farmhands. Date as above. Received and read the petition of Joris Rapailje, who requests, that for the present he may let his house remain standing upon his land, and not be compelled to move it, as ordered by the placat against separate farms, published on the 12th of February. It is answered: Petitioner must obey the published orders, without troubling the DirectorGeneral and Council about it. Date as above. COUNCIL MINUTE. APPOINTMEnt of MagistrATES FOR LONG ISLAND TOWNS. NEW PLANTATIONS NEAR BROOKLYN. CHURCH AT MIDWOUT. May 3d 1660, Monday. Sille. Present his Honor, the Director-General Petrus Stuyvesant, and the Honble Nicasius de The Director-General and Council of New Netherland have selected from the list of names delivered and submitted to them and have confirmed as Schepens for the village of Breuckelen on Long Island, in place of those, whose term has expired: Joris Dircksen Willem Bredenbent Done at Fort Amsterdam in New Netherland. Date as above. From the list of names delivered and submitted to them the Director-General and Council of New Netherland have selected and confirmed as Schepens for the village of Midwout Jan Snediger for the village of Amesfoort Peter Cornelissen Done at Fort Amsterdam in New Netherland. Date as above. Jan Strycker The Director-General and Council of New Netherland herewith appoint and commission Jaques Corteljou, the Surveyor, Albert Cornelissen * and Jan Evertsen Bout, to make upon the first convenient occasion a personal inspection of the situation and quality of the land in the vicinity of the village of Breuckelen; what quantity of land there has not yet been disposed of and how the granted portion is being cultivated and used; how many plantations might be located there yet and which in their opinion is the best locality for new farms. Having completed their inspection, they are to make a plot or small map of the land and deliver it with their report to the DirectorGeneral and Council. Date as above. Petition of Auke Jans for payment for his work on the Church at Midwout. May 11th, Tuesday. Present the Director-General, Petrus Stuyvesant, and Councillor Nicasius de Sille. To the Very Worshipful, Honorable Director- Shows with due respect Auke Jansen, carpenter on Long Island, that he agreed with D° Polhemius and Jan Strycker to build pursuant to the accompanying plan a church at Midwout on Long Island, which work he has not only completed in accordance with the said plan, but by order of the aforesaid he has done also some other outside work, not covered by the plan; and whereas his employers now fail to pay to petitioner his well earned wages under various frivolous pretexts, whereby they excessively wrong your petitioner, burdened with a large family. Therefore he is compelled to turn to your Honors, humbly praying and asking, that expert arbitrators be appointed, to hear your petitioner and the other parties in this case and, if possible, bring about an agreement on the account and payment; if not, to report to your Honors, that the matter be settled, as it ought to be. Awaiting your Honors' favorable reply he remains Your Honors' obedient servant * Wantenaer, - B. F. It was answered: The Director-General and Council of New Netherland request, appoint and authorize herewith Abraham Martensen Clock and Frederick Philipsen, carpenters, to proceed, pursuant to the petitioner's prayer, to the village of Midwout, to inspect the work, spoken of in the petition, and to examine, what the petitioner did more, than was called for by the plan and how he did it. They are then to appraise the pay, earned by the petitioner. and make a full report of their proceeding to us. Amsterdam in N. N. date as above. COUNCIL MINUTE. HEMSTEAD AND THE INDIANS. Lovinge Friends. Whereas we by the bearers hereof two Indians of Reckomacki and Marsepin were jnformed that you & the Indians jn a good number have been jn armes & neere lycke to fall out one against an other, these few lynes are only to Require both you and the said Indians, not to procyde further before both partyes have made their appearance before Vs, wee vppon the propositions of the Indians beeinge in hoops to settell the matters without further troubles So after our love we Rest Amsterdam jn the N. Netherlands the 13 May A° 1660. May 25th Your lovinge Friende & Gouvernour This day appeared in the Council Chamber Mr. John Hick and Mr. Jackson, Magistrates of Hemsteede, on the one part, and savages, deputed by the chief Meautinnemin, on the other part. Messrs. Hick and Jackson complained, that the savages would not remove from the land, which they had bought, and that the savage dogs did much damage to the animals of the English. The savages answered, that they had not sold the land, but only the grass upon it. Having heard both sides, it was decided, that the savages should be allowed to harvest their corn this year, on condition of enclosing their fields and killing their great dogs. Meanwhile we should see, how they would behave henceforth. Date as above. ORDINANCE PROVIDING FOR THE SAFE TRANSMISSION OF LETTERS TO HOLLAND, PASSED JUNE 2a, 1660. (See Laws and Ordinances of N. N., p. 379.) LETTER FROM DIRECTOR STUYVESANT TO THE DIRECTORS IN HOLLAND: POSTAL ARRANGEMENTS; ENGLISH ENCROACHMENTS; SHERIFF OF BROOKLYN; CURRENCY.* Your directions in regard to the forwarding of letters have been published and posted here and we have placed for this purpose a box or chest in the Secretary's office; the letters deposited in it will be sent to you together with ours, as you desired. * * * * * The requests made and the invasions threatened by the English of the South as well as of the North are of much greater importance. We had expected and desired, that upon our ample and repeated reports you would have given us broader advice and assisted us by counsel and deed on so pregnant an occasion. You have declared formerly and also declare now your title to both rivers indisputable by virtue of purchase and possession and we share your opinion, but if more powerful and stronger neighbors maintain the same and besides exhibit a royal patent, expressly describing the limits, while we cannot do it in your name, will they be satisfied by our bare assertion? We must leave the final issue to time. You have on previous occasions and again now recommended and directed us, to inform and warn our neighbors, that they must desist from such usurpations, and in case they do not heed us, to attack, stop and dislodge them. Probably they would only laugh at the first, anyway they would pay but little attention to our warnings; for the second we request once more your assistance by counsel, deed and means. In answer to our request for a well-equipped frigate to keep the rivers and streams free, you have been pleased to order here the slaver "St. Jean"; it is unnecessary now to discuss the question, whether this vessel would have served our purposes, as it is reported, that it was lost on the Island of Rocas, to our regret and your Honors' loss. We can therefore make no use of it conform to your good intentions and our present need. We request you therefore once more most respectfully, to send us in its place another well-equipped vessel at the first chance. The English frigate, spoken of before, which remained at New Netherland and in that neighborhood during the winter and obstructed the navigation between the two places, has sailed for Barbados in the beginning or middle of April, so that it would be useless now to collect information against her captain, the more so, as the injured parties have sued him before the Governor and Magistrates of Hartford and New Haven and received sentence against him, also some indemnification. The quantity of provisions, lumber and other commodities, sent to Curaçao at the request of Vice-Director Beck in the galiot and by other vessels, has been stated in our last letter by the Lieffde" and may also be learned from the enclosure. 66 We shall not say anything concerning the trade between these two places and your recommendations in regard to it, because while on this point we are just now informed by a fisherman, that the galiot "New Amstel" and another fly-boat with horses and negroes from Curaçao are below, and we desire to wait for the news brought by them, which will be sent you with the next or if possible with this ship, the "Trouw." Meanwhile your directions concerning the sale of negroes shall be observed. ** Thus far in answer to your favor of March 9th, received by the "Moesman." The following. must briefly serve as answer to your last letter by the "Bontekoe," wherein we first come upon * See for the omitted paragraphs Col. Doc., Vol. XII, p. 317, and XIII, p. 176. ** Concerning the capture of the Dutch colony at Cape Verd by the privateer, commanded by Captain Beaulieu. your order concerning the preachers and the appointment of Peter Tonneman to the Schouts office of this city. Your orders and recommendations shall be obeyed, as it is proper, but in regard to Resolved Waldron we must submit, that he had been appointed substitute to the Fiscal and Naval Officer (Schout by Nacht) for this place, the duties of which offices he has performed with vigilance and faithfulness to our and the Magistrates' satisfaction; that his services cannot well be spared by either the Company or the Fiscal and that further he is not as fit to serve as Schout for the villages, mentioned by you, because he cannot quite easily use the pen. We shall therefore continue him in his present position until your further orders and request, that he be confirmed in it, allowing at the same time, that for the advantage of the Company and of the three villages the Schout's duties be performed by Peter Hegeman, who has already attended to them provisionally in Tonneman's absence and still acts as Schout there to our satisfaction. His behavior and fitness are such, that we have no reason to reject him or pass him over: we await your Honors' decision. * * * * You say in your letter by the " Trouw," that you will send us with the books and other stationery some clothing for the soldiers, as per invoice. As however neither the "Trouw” nor the following ships have brought us the invoice, much less the clothing, and it is not mentioned in the following letters, we are very much disappointed and troubled, because the poor soldiers, stationed at the Esopus, here and at the South river, make many marches now and are completely without socks, shoes, shirts and other necessary pieces of clothing. Relying upon your promises we have waited from ship to ship, but if the required articles do not arrive in the "Otter," we cannot delay any longer and shall be compelled, to purchase them from dealers here at extravagantly high prices, at least one and one half per cent higher, than they would cost, if sent from the Fatherland. To charge the difference against the pay of the soldiers would be doing them a great wrong, as their monthly pay would not buy the necessary socks, shoes and shirts. If we were to reduce the price of these articles to Holland valuation and add 50 p. ct. to it, conform to orders and old customs of the Company, our treasury, consequently also the Company, would lose 70 to 80, if not 90 p. ct. and besides great disorder, at least great trouble, would arise in the bookkeeping. The precautionary order, which you add while writing about this matter, to wit, that these articles should be issued only to poor and needy soldiers and not to other servants of the Company, who, as your Honors were informed, take advantage of it, compels us to say, that we wish, you had been more explicit, so that the abuse might be corrected. We cannot help believing, that you have been misinformed in this matter by some disaffected persons. The second point in your letter per "Trouw," which is not yet answered, is your order concerning the reduction of beavers from 8 to 7 guilders, in order to do justice and give satisfaction to your Honors' servants. This measure can and must be received and carried out with grateful heart and faithful service and although it is not the equivalent of what is due to them, their pay being stipulated in Holland money, your order concerning this matter will be obeyed and observed, as far as it regards your employes, when the new books are opened. We desire heartily, that we were able or might be placed in such a position, as to obey also your next order, to wit, to pay all debts and salaries of officers here, excepting the two months' advance pay. Under the present condition of affairs in this province, caused by the low market prices, war with the Indians, fear of invasions by our neighbors, complaints of the military and other burdens, which we have to bear, it is impossible to do it here, as time and the ledgers will prove. When you have been |