Noble, Honorable, most Esteemed, Valiant, Wise and very Prudent Lord:
My Lord, your most welcome letter of the 31st of March was delivered to me by the Maquas on the 13th of this month. I was happy to hear of your success at the Esopus. May God grant further blessings, and endow you with doubled wisdom and courage, together with desired victory.
Michiel Karman arrived here several days ago from above where he had been trading with the Indians. He said that eleven Menissing Indians had been killed with the Esopus Indians, and for this reason they are behaving very strange and are all inclined to go against the Dutch.
I made your order known to the various Swedes and Finns, but I was not able to persuade them to go to the Esopus. They say that they would be somewhat inclined to go if there was peace with the Indians; therefore, you should expect none, as I mentioned in my last letter.
The people who want to move to the colony give as a reason that they cannot have enough contiguous land: the small parcels scattered here and there are too difficult to fence in.
On the 14th of this month I informed Mr. d'Hinojosse by letter of your instructions concerning the people who wanted to move into the colony, provided they took the oath dictated by you. He replied to this on the 15th, saying that the oath was contrary to the capitulation concluded by you and Governor Ryssingh,[1] and that in the meantime he would have them swear an oath which acknowledges equitable obedience to the highly esteemed Lords-Mayors of Amsterdam as promoters and patrons of the colony together with their appointed director and council for the colony.
Sergeant Andries Lourens returned from Maryland on the 16th of this month. He met few fugitives who were still free. He brought along a certain Jan Tonissen with his wife and child only after presenting your safe-conduct pass. Their goods returned on Karman's yacht and fell into Mr. d'Hinojosse's hands who has valued them and will not release them until I have signed for them on your behalf. The aforesaid carpenter or Jan Tonissen will not go to Manhattan without his tools or goods, but would rather return to the English because there he had the use of the tools of a certain Jan Barentsen who was killed by the Indians and whose wife died at Colonel Utie's or Jacop myn Vrient's place. The sergeant also brought back their child about whom I had written expressly to Jacop Claesen (alias Myn Vrient) on the request of Jan Barens's sister who is the wife of a soldier here. This child still has due him there 821 pounds of tobacco and 200 pounds from the aforesaid Jan Tonissen. A few trifles brought back by the sergeant have been inventoried and provisionally delivered to our soldier's wife together with the child. In addition, Jacop Claessen has taken along to Holland from the child's property, according to communications from his partner Franc Wryght, two silver key-chains and two or three knife-handles. This child was born upon Mr. Alrichs departure in the ship. Prins Maurits, and at the request of the Lords-Mayors was baptized Amstel Hoop.[2] May you be pleased to issue orders about whether I should turn the child over to the orphan-masters at New Amstel or elsewhere.
All the horses have been turned in here at Altena; they are seven in number. I shall await your further orders concerning them.
Some of our soldiers are completely destitute of shirts. I request that you may be pleased to send some, together with stockings and shoes.
We are busy fitting the fortress with gabions and shall cut the decayed points down obliquely. We urgently need a guardhouse of about 12 or 15 feet in size. The guard is now held in the quarters, and the returning sentinels can often undress and lay in their bunks because we have no guard-bench; we cannot put one in because the house is too small. Therefore, a guardhouse is urgently needed. The men also have frequent arguments over the fires first it's the guard's wood, then it's the quarter's wood so that there is always a dispute. We have enough squared timbers for construction of one from the dilapidated house on the island.[3] Therefore, the only expense would be for the chimney and roof.
Among the Finns at Oplant there is a married couple both of whom live very miserably together. She is severely beaten and daily chased out of the house like a dog, and this has continued now for several years. No one hears of the wife, but he on the other hand has committed adultery. Therefore, the priest, the neighbors, the schout and magistrates and many others have urged me, at the couple's request, to allow them to become divorced and divide up the few animals and movable property. I replied that I would inform you of it and await orders.
Pieter Rambouw, one of our magistrates has petitioned several times to be discharged and requests that you be informed of it.
Oele Stille clashed with me strongly last court day because I made the accusation that he had illegally authorized himself to permit the priest in his presence to marry a young couple without posting banns in church, and against the will of their parents.[4] Therefore, I fined the priest 50 guilders; to which Oele Stille objected, saying that it was not in our province to judge such matters but that it had to be done by the Consistory of Sweden, and that we had nothing to do with the priest. Mr. Laerssen is also of the same opinion because he told our messenger on the 26th of November last year, concerning a summons from us, that he had nothing to do with the court of Christina; consequently, he did not appear. The case was such that Mr. Laerssen had complained to me of assault and battery committed by Pieter Mayer - he had been severely beaten and marked in the face more than I have ever seen before. Therefore, both were summoned, but before the session convened, they had settled the matter between themselves, claiming that the judge had nothing to say about it.
At the August 19th session, we had at least 14 or 15 defaults from the Swedish and Finnish nation who had been summoned by De Jager and other Dutchmen from the Colony. Therefore, I issued an order that henceforth for each default; willfully and deliberately committed, without the hindrance of sickness and God's wind and weather, should be paid ten guilders so that no one's claim would be delayed, since I was holding ordinary sessions only three or four times a year according to the load of cases. At the December 7th session the priest and Mayer were again summoned by the schout, van Dyck, in the aforesaid case; also, because Pieter Mayer had since then severely beaten one or two others in the same manner. However, Pieter Mayer deliberately defaulted and paid the assessed 10 guilders upon the eighth summons, on the 26th of this month, to Jacop van der Veer, to whom the schout and commissioners had assigned it for liquor consumed. Pieter Mayer then came to me and requested a receipt. He caused quite a commotion, saying that I attended well to such trifles, but that I should also see to it that he received his patent. He continued by saying, with harsh words, that new commissioners should be appointed every year as in the custom in Holland; whether he and other freemen are always to be treated as boys; that they would always be governed by such clowns who can neither read nor write, ignoring him who is skilled in the letters; and that he wanted other people appointed; and that it had to be done if he were to continue living here - together with many other angry words. I listened patiently to this in our house and refuted him with sound reasoning. He desires to go before you to remonstrate everything. Several days ago when I told him to deliver the horse, his wife came and made a great commotion, saying that they could not spare the horse; that they were accustomed to carrying wood on their backs; that they had as much right to the horse as I; that she would respectfully have nothing more to do with my order; and that they would soon move away from here. Whereupon I threatened to put her in the guardhouse, but I did not want to upset her because she was in advanced stages of pregnancy; so, I let it pass. All in all the people are quite cantankerous. Even if he should break up and go live in the colony or elsewhere, I shall demand from him the fine for selling brandy to the Indians, of which the evidence of his own confession has been sent to you.
I have been informed that most of the inhabitants living separately and some Finns intend to move in the late summer to the Sassefras River in Maryland.
I allowed Sander Boyer together with two Maquas and a Raritan or Nevesink Indian to travel to the Minquas country because he, Bouyer, was destitute with three children. They all returned yesterday. Sander Bouyer reported that the Maquas have asked the Minquas to allow the Indians living near Manhattan to come live by them, out of fear that they might be killed by you; and they gave the Raritans a present of 14 or 15 very large black and white belts of sewant. He could not find out what answer they had received except that it was delayed because the principal sachem was away. Upon closing this I have learned from a soldier that a sloop has come in; I went there at once overland because of the flood. It was Captain Cryger who had just arrived. I received your letter and shall regulate myself in all ways according to its tenor. I copied and sealed the letter to Mr. d'Hinojosse, and forwarded it to him at once. He was amazed by the demeaning salutation and sharp contents. He said that you could be assured that he would show it to everyone, large and small, even to the States-General. He stated further that he would do nothing contrary to your instructions or orders, but would patiently let everything pass and remonstrate to his superiors. He tried to learn from me whether the colony had been conveyed back to the Company; I could easily deduce from your letter that a change was imminent.
My Lord, I returned to Altena during the night because the Indians wanted to depart this morning. Therefore, I must close by wishing you a long life and prosperous administration, and commending you to God's protection, remaining after cordial greetings. Noble, Honorable, most Esteemed Lord,
Willem Beecqman
