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To the Right Wor. Peter Syvesant Esq. Gouernor of the Dutch plantation att Manhatans.

Sir

By your agent Mr. Gouertt I recd two paps from yow, the one sealed, the other open, but neither of them written either in Lattin, as your predecessour vsed, or in English as your selfe haue formerlie done, both to me, & to the Collonys, but in Low Dutch, whereof I vnderstand little, nor would your messenger though desired interpret any thing in them, soe that in pte att least they must lye by mee, till I meete with an interpreter.

In the meane tyme, as formerlie wee were sensible of sundrie wrongs, & protested against your predecessor Mounsr Will. Kieft, soe I hereby witnes against your vnneighbourlie & iniurious course, in seuerall writings which I haue seene. Without groun[ d ] you pretent title to the land in these ptes, one while from Deleware, to Connecticut Riuer, & another while you extend your limits further, euen to Cape Cod, from whence drawing any line landward North or West, yow wholy take in, or trench farre in to the limits of all the Vnited English Colonies, who by lycence & auntient pattent from King James, of famous memorie, since confirmed by his Maiestie that now is, first came into these ptes, & vppon due purchase from the Indians, who were the true proprietours of the land (for we fownd it not a vacuum) haue built, planted, & for many yeares quietlie, & without any claime or disturbance, from the Dutch or others, posessed the same.

And now latelie in a ship belonging to Newhauen, as bought by Mr. Goodyeare, yow haue sent armed men,^[1] & (without lycence, not soemuch as first acquainting any of the magistrates of this Jurisdiction with the cause or grownds thereof) ceised a shipp within Ol,lr harbour, and though Will: Westerhowse, the Dutch merchant,^[2] & without our knowledge, before treated with yow, & then offered the recognition, which in a former writing to him, yow seemed to accept, yett your agent refused it, & protested he would carrie away the ship. Whereuppon I did first protest against him, & the Generali Court considering how highlie they were considered in the premises, though they would not meddle in a controuersie which belongs not to them, much lesse defend any knowne vnrighteousnes, & though they desire to keepe peace (as farre as may bee) with all men & particularlie with theyre neighbours of the Dutch plantation, yet they fownd it necessarie, & resolued by all iust meanes, to asist & vindicate theyre right, in Newhauens lands & harbour, & theyre

iurisdiction of both, that themselues & posteritie be not, (through theyre neglect,) inthralled & brought vnder a foreigne gouerment,^[3] by a ceisure

made in theyre harbour vppon such an vnjust claime, the court conceuing it free for them, according to the laws of God & nations, to entertaine trade brought vnto them, wheather by land or sea, without enquiring into the priuilidges of forraigne companies, or examining wheather recognition be due, or paid in another countrie, nor is propable that your selfe, if an English ship or vessell bring necessarie prouisions to the Manhatans, will be sollicitous wheather custom be pd in England.

[ Wherefore, ] wee haue protested, and by these presents doe protest, against yow Peter Styvesant, Gouemor [ of the Dutch att Manhataes ] etc, for disturbing the peace betwixt the Engl: & Dutch in these partes, which hath bynne [ soe long & so hapilie ] maintained betwixt the two nations in Europe, for obstructing & hindering those passages [ of justice ] & neighbourlie correspondencie, which yor selfe haue propownded & desired betwixt the Engl: Collonies & the Dutch plantations, by making vniust claimes to our lands & plantations, to our hauens & riuers, and by [ taking a ] ship oute of our harbour, without our licence, by your agents

& commission, & wee hereby professe [ that what further ] inconuenience may hereafter growe, yow are the cause and author of it, as we hope to cleere, [ & proue before ] our superiours in Europe.

Dated in New Hauen in New England this 8^th day of October 1647. stil: vet:

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