have been to put a stop to smuggling, which had sprung up and was becoming a serious evil. Upon his return, he reported the irregularities which he had discovered to the West India Company, and recommended that some competent person be appointed to have complete supervision of the revenues arising from imports and trade, both in the City's and the Company's colonies. Accordingly, William Beekman,* an alderman and an elder in the church at New Amsterdam, was appointed to this office, with the title of viceDirector and Commissary.

The year 1658 was one of great distress in the colony. A prevailing sickness, short crops, and an unsettled state of affairs in the government, bore heavily upon it. "Continued sickness," says Alrichs, "curbed us so far down that all the labor in the field and agriculture was abandoned;" and adds, "Winter, early, long, and unexpected, caused great distress.” To increase this distress, emigrants arrived without supplies. In January, 1659, the wife of Alrichs died. The Amsterdam Company, not satisfied with the profits of its investment, made new and exacting conditions of settlement, which caused much discontent among the colonists, and these con ditions being imposed at a time of grievous afflictions, many

*"Wilhelmus Beeckman was born at Hasselt, in Overyssell, in 1623; served the West India Company on board The Princess; settled as a merchant in New Amsterdam, in 1647; was married to Catalina De Booghs, a native of Amsterdam, on the 5th of September, 1649; was appointed Lieutenant of the Burgher Corps, in 1651; one of the Schepens of New Amsterdam, when that city was incorporated, in February, 1653, in which office he was continued in 1654, 1656, 1657, and 1673; Commissary of South River, in July, 1658; Vice-Director of the same Colony, in October, 1658; Commissary at Esopus, in July, 1664; Burgomaster of New Orange, in 1674; and an Alderman of New York in 1679, 1680, 1682, and 1685; and Alderman of the East Ward of the city, from 1691 until 1695; and died in 1707, aged eighty-four years, leaving six childrenMarie (wife of Nicholas William Stuyvesant), Hendrick, Gerardus, Cornelia, Johannes, and Jacobus.

"He was engaged in business as a brewer, as the successor of Thomas Hall, in Smit's Vly [Pearl] near Beekman Street, 'where William and Beekman streets still bear his name;' and his descendants, widely scattered over the country, are among the most respectable and respected of its inhabitants."HENRY B. DAWSON, Hist. Mag., 1867, 358.

fled to the English settlements in Maryland. Learning from these visitors that sore distress prevailed upon the Delaware, and judging it to be a favorable time to acquire possession of the territory, which had always been claimed by the English on the plea of discovery by De la War, Lord Baltimore, Proprietor of Maryland, sent commissioners to demand its surrender, or the submission of the settlers to English rule. This demand was vigorously resisted by Stuyvesant, to whom it was referred, who sent commissioners to the Chesapeake to defend the Dutch claims by argument, while he dispatched a company of sixty soldiers to the Delaware, to maintain his power by force. This vigorous policy had the desired effect, and Lord Baltimore allowed his claim to rest.

Towards the close of the year 1659, Alrichs, after having administered the affairs of the colony for a period of a little more than two years, during which his people and his family had been visited by dire afflictions, was relieved by death. It would appear from the complaints made against him by those most intimately associated with him in the government, that many of the evils under which the colony grieved, were due to his own maladministration.

ALEXANDER D'HINOYOSSA, 1659–64. — COLONY OF CITY.-Previous to his death, Alrichs had recommended the appointment of Alexander D'Hinoyossa, in whose hands he left the government, as his successor. This recommendation was approved and confirmed by the commissioners. The administration of D'Hinoyossa was little less turbulent than his predecessor's had been. Conflicts of authority between

himself, who represented the City's colony, and Beekman, who had charge of the revenues of the West India Company from all the settlements on the Delaware, were frequent, and many complaints were made to their respective masters in Holland. D'Hinoyossa refused to recognize the authority of Stuyvesant over him, as his predecessor had done, claiming that his only source of power, and consequent accountability

to, was the commissioners of the Company of the City of Amsterdam. The West India Company claimed jurisdiction over the commerce of the entire district, and insisted upon a strict collection of the revenues, while the City's colony sought to evade the payment. Tired of these conflicts and petty strifes, negotiations were entered into for the retransfer of the Nieuer Amstel Colony to the West India Company. Not succeeding in this, the commissioners of the city effected a new loan, with the determination of infusing fresh enterprise into its colonial affairs. D'Hinoyossa seems to have been more successful than his predecessor in securing the peace and internal quiet of his little kingdom, and in making such regulations in relation to trade and settlement as to attract the Swedes from the territory above to his dominions. The Finns, who, as we have noticed, had gone to Maryland to settle, became dissatisfied, and meditated a return, and their friends who visited them with the purpose of joining them there, came back with evil tidings, and more firmly resolved than ever to abide in Nieuer Amstel. Encouraged by the favorable turn in affairs, the commissioners of the city negotiated a transfer of all the territory on the east side of the Delaware to their dominions. Attracted by the liberal offers of aid to settlers which were made by the commissioners, a new impulse was given to emigration. A community known as Mennonites resolved to emigrate in a body. By the terms of their association, clergymen were not allowed to join them, nor any "intractable people- such as those in communion with the Roman See; usurious Jews, English stiff-necked Quakers; Puritans; foolhardy believers in the Millennium; and obstinate modern pretenders to revelation.”

Negro slaves had been early introduced into the New Amsterdam colonies, the use of which had been commended by the home companies. At about this time, Beekman made an urgent application to Stuyvesant for some slaves, and D'Hinoyossa, in a formal paper addressed to the commissioners, requested that a contract be immediately made for fifty head of slaves to till the rich valleys along the Delaware.

Intent on securing the greatest prosperity for his colony, and tired of the constant clashing of interests between the jurisdictions of the double authority, D'Hinoyossa visited Holland in 1663, for the purpose of securing for the City Company the entire government of the settlements upon the Delaware. In this he was successful, and upon his return in December, Stuyvesant made a formal transfer of authority.

By this action Beekman was left without jurisdiction, and soon after returned to New Amsterdam, where he was appointed by Stuyvesant commissary at Esopus, upon the Hudson. "While the two colonies were kept up," says Acrelius, "Beekman had a share in the administration; but he was little considered. This made him envious of D'Hinoyossa, whom he aspersed in frequent letters to Stuyvesant."

The Swedish West India Company was not disposed quietly to submit to the loss of its possessions upon the Delaware. Vigorous remonstrances were made against the attitude which the Dutch Company had assumed, and demands were made for the restoration of their territory. But the Dutch, having taken forcible possession, would yield nothing. Until 1664 the Swedes allowed their claims to rest; but in that year vigorous measures were planned for punishing their assailants and repossessing their colony, and a fleet bearing a military force was fitted out for the purpose. It appears that this force set sail, but meeting with misfortunes upon the sea, was obliged to return, and the project was finally abandoned.

From the time of the transfer of the entire settlements on the Delaware to the Company of the City of Amsterdam, D'Hinoyossa held undivided authority until the conquest of all New Netherland by the English, a period of nearly ten months. Upon the downfall of Dutch rule, D'Hinoyossa returned to Holland, and entered the army of the States. He served in the war between Louis XIV. and the Republic, and he is mentioned as one of the garrison of a fortress which surrendered to the French. He ended his days in Holland.

CHAPTER IV.

ENGLISH RULE, 1664–73.

COL. RICHARD NICHOLLS, 1664-67.—Conflict between

Dutch and English rule in the New World was early developed. Virginia and Maryland had repeatedly claimed the territory upon the Delaware; Massachusetts insisted on the ! right of an indefinite extension of its territory to the west; and Connecticut not only claimed the islands to the south, but that, by the terms of its charter, its western boundary was the Pacific. Against these pretensions on all sides, Stuyvesant protested vigorously, significantly asking, "Where, then, is New Netherland?" In September, 1663, seeing the New England colonies marching steadily toward the Hudson, Stuyvesant made a voyage to Boston, where he met the delegates of the United Colonies, and entered his complaints; but he could secure no concessions or guaranties, -the New Englanders pointing to their grants from the British crown, and relying upon its power for their vindication.

The English Government had always claimed the territory which the Dutch had been permitted to occupy; and Cromwell, in his time, had planned its recovery. The purpose had been renewed in the time of his son; but in neither reign had forcible measures been adopted. Had the plan of Dutch colonization been more vigorous, and its system of government not been beset with fatal inherent evils, its conquest would have presented serious difficulties. But the almost utter lack of educational facilities, the exorbitant demands of government, and the denial of popular participation in public policy, left little for which the subjects were willing to fight.