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Letter from the directors at Amsterdam to the Director General and Council

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1654, 30 July.

Honorable, Prudent, Pious, Beloved, Faithful.

Our last letter was sent on the 7th of this month (with the ship, the Peereboom, (put to sea 11 to 12 days ago) of which a duplicate hereby goes, to which we will still refer, and because also being sent among the papers of the Company is an enclosed letter intended for Lucas Rodenburg, vice director on the island of Curacao, which your honors are to dispatch there at the first opportunity. Therefore, we have not considered it inappropriate to send your honors hereby a copy thereof (together with the duplicate) so that your honors will not be uninformed about the instructions and orders which we have given to the aforesaid Rodenburg in writing, and are thus better able to regulate themselves accordingly.

The reason why so few items needed by the aforesaid island of Curacao could be sent over with the ship, the Gelderse Blom, is because it was filled to capacity so quickly and could not take on anymore supplies; and because all the requested supplies are urgently needed there, we, therefore, have deemed it beneficial hereby to order and command your honors to observe the present opportunity (such as it still may be) and to supply what is needed as much as possible from your honors' place and send it off with the ship which is to be sent from there to Curacao to take on wood. For which reason both lists are going along with this: one with the intended provisions, as well as one with those items sent to the aforesaid island, so that your honors can regulate themselves accordingly. In the meanwhile your honors can expect at the first opportunity such goods from here as might have been sent to Curacao, because the same are already here at our place and the Verbruggens are completing preparations for sending a ship to New Netherland.

We have noticed that the clause, inserted in the printed passports granted here to freemen sailing to New Netherland, namely that they shall be obliged to remain there a certain number of years, is offensive to many people, and because the practice and execution thereof (unless the country should fall suddenly into unexpected danger) isboth not possible nor equitable or reasonable, contradicting the freedom of free peoples; therefore, we have resolved hereby to order your honors not to constrain or have contrained any free persons, merchants, or others for a specific term of residency there, as we understand that it would be more of a hinderance there for the population than a promotion, by which your honors are then to govern themselves.

Among the freemen going over with this ship is also a certain Jacob Stevensen with his wife. Because he seems to be needy, we have, upon his request, assumed their expenses for the passage up to the sum of 72 guilders, to be paid to the owners here, provided that he, Jacob Stevensen give us fifty guilders on account, according to his offer, as the same has also done, so that the remaining 22 guilders is collected by your honors, or otherwise earned by him for the Company there, being a cooper by trade, by which information your honors are to govern yourselves.

We have also consented and agreed to pay the passage money of Catarina Everstyn, wife of Hendrick Jansen Sluyter, drummer, departed with the ship the Peereboom, who also is coming over on this ship with her two children (the one nursing and the other 3 years old). Your honors are to take care that her husband's account is charged with the aforesaid passage money, so that the Company suffers no loss.

Herewith go the manifests of the goods and merchandise loaded in the aforesaid ship the Gelderse Blom, for whose unloading the fiscal is commanded to pay special attention there.

Herewith,
Honorable, Prudent, Pious, Beloved, Faithful, we commend your honors to God's sacred protection and remain,
Your honors' good friends,
The Directors of the West India Company, Chamber at Amsterdam,

Abr. Wilmerdock
David van Baerle

Amsterdam,
The 30th of July 1654.

REVERSE: ]

Recently we received a communication from the honorable commissioned councilors at the admiralty in Rotterdam, concerning certain women and mothers whose men and children, as they now claim, would be detained in New Netherland for the debts of other persons. Whereas this is unknown to us, we therefore have decided hereby to send your honors the copy of the aforesaid last letter of the commissioned councilors, as well as the request submitterd by the aforesaid wives and mothers to the same, sothat in case this matter is found to be as claimed, to release the aforesaid innocent persons there, or otherwise to dispose of the matter in a manner appropriate to the situation. Whereupon we shall await your honors' writ at the first opportunity.

Ab. de Decker de Jonge

Dated 1 August 1654.

References

A complete copy of this publication is available on the New Netherland Institute website.