Document: Letter from William Beeckman to director Stuyvesant

Holding Institution

Document ID

NYSA_A1878-78_V18_0092

Description

Letter. William Beeckman to director Stuyvesant; arrival at New Amstel of a vessel from the West Indies in distress; efforts in Holland for the maintenance of the city's colonie on the Delaware.

Document Date

1660-09-04

Document Date (Date Type)

1660-09-04

Document Type

Letter

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Translation

Noble, Honorable, highly Esteemed, Wise and very Prudent Lord:

My Lord, since the occasion now offers itself, I find myself obligated to inform you that a small ship named den Groenen Arent arrived at New Amstel on the 11th of this month. It came from the West Indies loaded with logwood[1] and is very leaky. Those aboard need both water and provisions which will be provided by Mr. d'Hinojosse. They are now discussing whether they want to careen it here. The owners are the sons of the schout, Grotenhuysen, at Amsterdam. They are trying to continue on their voyage there as soon as possible. The aforesaid ship was at Curacao last December and it is now 16 months since it left Holland.

On the 8th of this month one of our runaway soldiers returned here; the other one is still in the Minquas country and dares not to present himself (so this one says).

The other day, after the galliot departed, Mr. d'Hinojosse assembled the community and read aloud a letter from the Lords- Mayors (so he says), stating that the aforesaid lords were busy raising money for the support of their colony here; that they had never considered abandoning the colony nor conveying it to the Company; that they would now earnestly take this place again by the hand, together with many other details.

Pursuant to your order received on 14 June, I herewith send an abstract of the conduct and behavior of the Swedes.

My Lord, we require before winter some more matches because much is consumed for the [ ]. Concerning other necessities, I refer myself to my previous letters. In closing, I wish to commend you to God's protection, with wishes for a long life and a prosperous administration, remaining, after cordial greetings,

Willem Beeckman
Petrus Stuyvesant

Translation Superscripts

[1]: i.e., compesy hout, (haematoxylon campechianum) a very hard wood from Central America and the West Indies which contains the coloring principle haematoxylon and is used to dye wool, silk, cotton and leather, esp. for producing blacks; also called campeachy wood.

References

From the collections of the New York State Archives, Albany, New York. https://www.archives.nysed.gov/

Translation link see: http://iarchives.nysed.gov/xtf/view?docId=tei/A1878/NYSA_A1878-78_V18_0092.xml

Published bound volume is also available: Translation: Gehring, C. trans./ed., New York Historical Manuscripts: Dutch, Vols. 18-19, Delaware Papers: Dutch Period, 1648-1664 (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc.: 1981).

Copyright to the published bound volume is held by the Holland Society of New York.
A complete copy of this publication is available on the New Netherland Institute website.