The enclosure of your letters have informed us of the occasion, the reasons and causes, which led you to send Commissary Nicholas Varleth and Captain Lieutenant Brian Newton to the Governor of Virginia. We find them quite in order and approve your action, as being an endeavor on your part for promoting the welfare of the country; as the concession of an unmolested trade with that nation can only benefit our places and their inhabitants, we shall be pleased to learn from you, what has been done and agreed with the Virginians about this matter, that we may make proper use of it. We were sorry to hear of the death of so many horses, sent from Curaçao in the "Eyckenboom," but as it has happened and there is no help for it, we must bear it in patience. We hope the remainder have regarded their former strength and sold at good prices, also that the ship may find a good cargo for this market, so that it may help to pay the hard earned wages of the As to the slaves, arrived there in the same ship, they must be sold at public auction there, as we directed in our letter of the 9th of March, under the express condition, secured by a sufficient bailbond, that they shall not be exported from there, but be used for the cultivation of the soil, the country and in consequence also the Company may then perhaps reap the imagined and hoped for fruits. crew. * * * * The desired paints, oil and a new halsstert (?) for the mill there are sent herewith, as per enclosed invoice. As to the upper millstone, asked for by you of 4 feet and 3 or 4 inches diameter, we do not know what you mean, nor do several millers, of whom we inquired, understand it. You must therefore express yourselves a little clearer. Before the Council appeared D' Johannes Theodorus Polheym, preacher at Midwout, on Long Island, and Jan Strycker, elder and churchwarden of the same place, who informed the Council, that the church at Midwout was almost completed, except the windows, and requested that the Director-General and Council would present the said church with one or two windows. After considering the request, a window for the church was promised on behalf of the Company. Date as above. To the Noble, Very Honorable, Very Pious Director-General and Council of New Netherland. Show with due respect we, the undersigned, that for the building of our church at Midwout we have collected in the communities of Fort Orange, New Amsterdam and here on Long Island the sum of fl 3437.12.—of which amount we have expended fl 3433.9.-but we still owe To Jacob Lourens, carpenter.... A 230 "117 "Isaac Foreest for nails and hinges... "Tyde Syricks, mason. "Sander, the skipper, for freight of boards... "Aucke Jansen, carpenter, for outside work as appraised by arbitrators. There is is still due us from Claes Notelaer on a note... so that we are still indebted.... "100 fl 743 "119 fl 624 In the name of our whole community we therefore humbly request, that on behalf of the Noble Lords-Directors of the Priv. W. I. Company, our high masters and for the support and propagation of the holy gospel in this country the above stated sum may be supplied as a present. Which doing we shall always remain Your Noble Honors' obedient and faithful servants The foregoing petition was received and read and the annexed statement of the moneys collected in the community and of the expenses having been examined, it was found, that the receipts did not cover the expenses. Whereas on behalf of the Company as yet nothing has been contributed towards building said church, it is resolved, to disburse to the petitioners on behalf of the Company for the present for completing the work fl 400, cominon currency, and the following answer was given : When the treasury is in funds, four hundred guilders shall be advanced to the petitioners on behalf of the Company for completing the work. Date as above. PATENT FOR LAND IN BROOKLYN, L. I. Petrus Stuyvesant, etc., etc., have given and granted to Jan Martyn a lot situate upon Long Island near the Ferry on the eastside of the East river, west of the land of said Jan Martyn and north of Joris [Rapalje], the northside measuring 15 rods 7 feet, the eastside 18 rods 4 feet, the westside 12 rods 3 feet, the westside 18 rods 7 feet: with the express condition, etc. Fort Amsterdam in New Netherland, the 19th of October, 1660. LETTERS FROM STUYVESANT TO THE DIRECTORS IN HOLLAND: POLITICAL CONDITION OF THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES; REVENUES; TRADE; CURRENCY; ENGLISH VILLAGES ON LONG ISLAND WITHOUT PREACHERS; PLAN AND SKETCH OF NEW AMSTERDAM; MANUFACTURE of Pot and PEARL ASHES. Honorable, Wise, Prudent and Very Worshipful Gentlemen. Since our last general letter, of which the original was sent in the "Trouw" and the duplicate in the "Moesman," nothing worth reporting has occurred here after the peace with the Esopus Indians had been made and the conditions of it submitted to you in our letter by the Cataryna" and subsequently in a letter from the Director-General by the " Bever," to both of which we refer. We hear little or nothing about the threatened invasion by our English neighbors and trust, that the change of government in England has turned their minds from it or at least postponed it for the present. Meanwhile we learn, that the restoration of the King has caused less commotion and change among the people of New England, than we and many others had expected; as a rule they are now as good Royalists, as they formerly were Cromwellians or Parliamentarians. We are told, that the three Colonies of New Plymouth, Hartford and New Haven have proclaimed the King and do all business in the King's name, which they never did in the old King's time: Quantum mutatus ab illo Hectore. The Colony of Boston alone, it is said, remains faithful to its old principle of a free state, depending only upon God. We must leave to God the future results of this new state of affairs, but we also hope and trust, that you will take advantage of it and of the probable new alliances between the King and our home government and see, that the boundaries be at last determined; after this question is once settled, the population will cultivate the soil with increased vigor and zeal and we shall not fail to contribute thereto what we can. We have partly left unanswered by our last letter, what you were pleased to say and order concerning the payment of salaries here in beavers at 7 fl. Although the equivalent in the stipulated Dutch money is not obtained by this method of payinent, because of the duties and other taxes, placed on beavers, yet your officers would be satisfied with it, if in due time they could pay them out at the same rate. Experience and the ledgers, now transmitted, show, how impossible it is; your servants have all learned to their own disadvantage, how it was before. The heavy burdens, which we had to bear on account of the threatened invasion by our English neighbors, the aggressive and defensive wars with the savages, the support of about 250 soldiers and everything else required from us,-further the bad condition of our market, make the profit from beavers so small, that after balancing our accounts and paying old debts no or only few beavers find their way into the treasury. Even if all had come there this year, they would not have been sufficient to pay the salaries. The following statement proves it: according to clearances and invoices about 25,000 to 30,000 beavers have been handled here this year, of which the duties, a beaver skin valued at 7 fl, amount to about 16,000 fl. The groundrents brought in about 5,000 fl. It is easy to calculate, how far these sums will go in paying the abovementioned soldiers alone. The other revenues from tobacco and the farming of the excise do not bring in as much, as the duty on beavers and for want of silver money or another and better circulating medium the latter is paid in wampum at 10 pieces for a stiver, according to the rules of the treasury. Before the wampum is reduced to the valuation of beaver, at 7 fl, it suffers a depreciation of 50 p. ct., because beaver, calculated at the usual rate of 8 fl, is bartered and valued at public sales at the rate of 15 to 16 fl in wampum, which amounts to almost 18 fl, if the beaver is rated at 7f; wampum, therefore loses 50 p. ct. in value. This shows, how much your officers have so far lost by not receiving their salaries at the rate of Dutch money, and to what further losses they will be subjected, if for want of beavers they are compelled to take wampun or to buy the needed commodities from merchants on credit. We must say to you on this subject: if you were inclined and in the position, to send us at once one good cargo, amounting to about 24,000 or 25,000 guilders, which would bring here * See Vol. XII, p. 327. about 40,000 guilders in beavers, or if such a cargo were distributed here at that rate in payment on account to the officers of the Company, it would wipe out so much of our debts and then the duties would be paid in beavers only, your officers could henceforth be paid in beavers, conform to your order, or else a fresh capital might be called for for the beavers every year. Without such a measure we see no chance, how to avoid making debts among the merchants and to pay beavers to the officers in accordance with your order. If you are not inclined or in the position to make such an advance, then we hope, under correction, that with your consent some persons may be found, who would loan the required capital at a reasonable yearly interest of 5 to 6 per cent; but we leave this to your wiser judgment. Our general and the private letters of the Director-General have already spoken of the loss, which not only the Receiver, but also individuals, officers as well as inhabitants, suffer by the receiving and paying out of wampum, because for want of some other kind of money or coin it is a legal tender between individuals. Whatever orders, rules and reductions may be made and carried out, they do not prevent its depreciation and further losses. The lower it is reduced, the more the trader gives for a beaver, going, as we said before, as far as 15 or 16 fl. To reduce the price of wampum to 12 or 16 for a stiver, as we reduced it from 8 to 10 in receiving it at our offices, will remedy the evil only for a brief period; the trader would give the length of one hundred hands, instead of fifty and he, who receives it at so much a guilder, would lose so much more time and have so much more trouble in counting it. To declare it absolutely bullion and not receivable at so much a guilder, would endanger the beavertrade and lead it into other channels; nor can it be done as long as we have no other currency here for the retail trade. On the other side we are taught by experience, that if we let it go, as at present, wampum will depreciate more and more every year, the inhabitants grow poorer and houses and lands go to ruin. We would therefore request you once more, to consider measures by which coin or some sort of currency may be brought into this country: we have repeatedly submitted to you our plans on this subject, namely, that beavers and other furs should be reduced in price and kept under the market price in the Fatherland; all merchants, Scotchmen and traders, be warned to pay their duties for tobacco and beavers at our office here and to make the calculations accordingly. We hope and believe, that such a method would bring specie into the country and request you to recommend to Vice-Director Beck, that he pay in coin for the provisions and other material required from here, for which he has to pay in money, when obtained from the Fatherland or elsewhere, and that as often as he receives from here goods for account of the Company they be accepted at Holland valuation and cash remitted for them. This would afford great facilities to the trade, but we submit our limited knowledge cheerfully to your superior wisdom. Copies of the representations and requests made by the English villages, which have been deprived of religious instruction for some time and now take advantage of the departure by the "Bontekoe" of a minister from New England, Mr. William Leverets, are sent herewith and will inform you of their wishes. We have no doubt you will reply as favorably as possible. The two preachers, lately arrived, Dos Blom and Selyns, had been placed conform to your directions and their call. In the meantime three or four other villages still need preachers and are deprived of religious services, namely New Utrecht and Gravesend on Long Island, New Haerlem on this Island and a newly planted village of about thirty families across the North river. Necessity therefore requires, that two pious and learned candidates be sent over besides the desired English preachers. * Fort Amsterdam in N. N., the 6th of October 1660. Honorable, Wise, Prudent and Very Worshipful Gentlemen. After closing our letter the Burgomasters have shown us the plan of this city, which we did not think would be ready before the sailing of this ship. In case you should be inclined to have it engraved and publish it, we thought it advisable, to send you also a small sketch of the city, drawn in perspective by Sieur Augustin Heermans three or four years ago or perhaps you will hang it up in some place or the other there. For the present we have no other wish, than that the place may gradually increase. October 6th 1660. Sent by the hands of Michael Muyen via New England. Honorable, Wise, Prudent and Very Worshipful Gentlemen. Although since writing our last general and private letters by the ships which left here last last summer, little or nothing worth reporting has occurred, I neither could nor dared to let escape this good opportunity of writing to you by Mr. Michael Muyen, who goes over Boston and thence over Old England, to give his master a better verbal report concerning the discovered test and the great hopes for making pot and pearl ashes. If it can be continued on a larger scale at a future time, we may hope, that it will help to make the country prosperous by increasing trade, population and navigation. We have no doubt therefore, that you will encourage him and others as much as you think that the advantage of the Company and the interests of the country require. December 9th, 1660. * * LETTER FROM THE DIRECTORS TO STUYVESANT: BOUNDARIES; MINISTERS FOR THE ENGLISH VILLAGES ON LONG ISLAND; ENGLISH SETTLERS IN NEW NETHERLAND; CHURCHBELL FOR BROOKLYN; STATEN ISLAND. The 24th of December 1660. Honorable, Prudent, Dear, Faithful. Our answer to your letters of the 21st of April, 25th of June and 26th of July, received by the "Lieffde," "Trouw" and "Sta Catarina," is contained in the enclosed writing of the 10th of September, which we had dispatched in the private ship "Lieffde," but as she met with an accident near the Texel and was injured, which prevented her proceeding on her voyage, our said answer has been detained until to-day. Since that time the ships "Bever," "Moesman,” "Bontekoe," "Eyckenboom" and "Gulden Otter" arrived here, by which we received your general letter of the 6th of October. We shall answer it now as briefly as possible. That you hear no mention made of the threatened invasion by the English neighbors, is in accord with our opinion, expressed in our last letter, here enclosed. We are still more confirmed * See Vols. XII, p. 332 and XIII, p. 190. |