Contents ▼▲
Front Matter Where I Was Born Alone in Holland An Important Introduction I Go My Way The Bargain Sailing for the New World A View of New Netherland The "Brown Men" or Savages Summoned to the Cabin Toys for the Savages Claim of the India Company Making Ready for Trade Braun and Gildersleeve Gathering the Savages Going Ashore Buying Manhattan Boats Used by the Savages Wandering over the Island The Homes of the Savages Master Minuit's Home Beginning the Work A Strange Kind of Craft Building a Fort In Charge of the Goods The Value of Wampum Buildings of Stone The Government A Prosperous Town Quarrelsome Slaves A Brutal Murder A Village Called Plymouth I Go on a Voyage A Lukewarm Welcome Two Days in Plymouth Forging Ahead The Big Ship Minuit's Successor Trouble with the English Van Twiller Discharged Director Kieft Unjust Commands Minuit's Return Revenge of the Savages Kieft's War Director Petrus Stuyvesant Time for Sight-Seeing How the Fort was Armed Village Laws Other Things about Town A Visit of Ceremony New Amsterdam, a City Stuyvesant Makes Enemies Orders from Holland Making Ready for War An Unexpected Question With the Fleet Driving out the Swedes Uprising of the Indians An Attack by the Indians Back to New Amsterdam Coaxing the Savages Religious Freedom Punishing the Quaker Other Persecutions Dull Trade Charge Made by Hans Braun Dismissed by Stuyvesant English Claims Idle Days On Broad Way Looking after the Ferry Coming of the English A Weak Defense Stuyvesant Absent Disobeying Commands Surrender Demanded A Three Days' Truce English Visitors Stuyvesant's Rage The End of Dutch Rule The City of New York

Peter of New Amsterdam - James Otis




Orders From Holland

We had settled down to the belief that while Director Stuyvesant ruled us with an iron hand, neither allowing the people nor the West India Company to interfere with his wishes, he was improving the city, when orders came from Holland which aroused us all to the highest pitch of excitement.

The West India Company had sent positive commands that the Swedes, whom Master Minuit had settled on South River, were to be driven out from their posts, and there was not a Dutchman in New Amsterdam who did not burn with the desire to have a hand in the driving; as if this big country of America were not large enough for all the Swedes and the Dutchmen that might want to live in it.

Now you must know that when Master Minuit was made governor of the Swedish people on South River, there had already been built there a fort by the Dutch, which was called Casimer. This the Swedish people captured and changed its name to that of Trinity. When Master Minuit came, he built a fort on the river above Trinity, and named it Christina, in honor of the Swedish Queen.

They were not bad neighbors, these Swedish people whom the Queen had advised to make a home in the NewWorld. They minded their own business far better than did either the Dutch or the English, and were at peace with the savages, dealing honestly by them and treating them as if they were equals; therefore, why the West India Company should want them driven out of the New World was more than I could then, or can yet, explain to my own satisfaction.

However, the order had come that these people, who had been harming no one, be deprived of the homes which they had built in the wilderness, and there was in my mind the belief that Director Stuvvesant was only too well pleased to receive such commands.