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Letter from Jacob Alrichs to director Stuyvesant

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

My Lord, your letter dated 3 July has been duly received by one. I am pleased to learn of the approval of A. Hudde's request to switch his allegiance.[1] This he resolved to do quite suddenly. He was at first quite upset that others were coming with commissions similar to his and that afterwards he would be pushed aside, because a message was received here that his orders were not be obeyed but that everything was to be referred instead to the sergeant and clerk, at which time and according to his own desire I recommended to you his request for discharge. Since he is an old servant and a resident here, I let him transfer to the City's service after he was discharged from the Company's service, in the same capacity; temporarily at the same salary, ration and position, with the condition that he also provisionally take care of and administer the office of deputy schout when it is left vacant; this without orders from my superiors until such time that the honorable lords-mayors shall be otherwise disposed.

The two soldiers, namely Henrick Willemsz and Jacob Bagyn, who were sent there, are still unsettled in their accounts. I inquired about their bolsters, blankets, skirts and [      ] but find that they left nothing behind except for debts still outstanding in the tavern...

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...but from time to time they send men and merchandise into the Minquaas' country under the pretext that everything relating to trade was permitted and is contained in their liberties. Consequently, a certain Sander Boeyer and Lourens Hanssen, quartermaster-sergeant, from Cristina now called Altena, were recently there to trade for their other superiors; but upon their return Lourens Hanssen was treacherously shot and killed by an Indian who took some sewant and other things which he had on his person. Afterwards a Minquaas Indian, who commands at the nearest fort from here in the Minquaas country, came into this colony with many other Indians. They brought some sewant and other things that they had taken from the Indian who had committed the crime, which they wanted to leave with me. I thought it proper to have the sewant and other items sealed up and entrusted to A. Hudde adopus jus habenti (in their presence and in the presence of witnesses) in order to notify you of it in the meantime. Since the goods brought in here belonged to the deceased Lourens Hanssen, and since he was stationed at Fort Altena in your service and garrison, I await your disposition and order.

We eagerly await here the arrival of the ship, de Waegh, since we are running short of one thing or another here...

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J. Alrichs

[ Addressed: ]

To the Honorable Lord General Stuyvesant at Manhattan in Fort Amsterdam.

[  First page of this letter is lost.  ]

...Cors Jansz, the former steward, is coming over with this. He used the magazine much too freely and is being deported because of it; his wages have been declared forfeited to the City and he has been banished from this colony for three times seven years.

I have just received your letter of the first of this month. Because of lack of time I cannot reply except to say that I have received a note dated 10 April from the honorable directors, in which they report that de Waegh and a new galliot are to depart from there for these waters 15 or 16 days after the date of the aforesaid letter, and that many families, colonists and free tradesmen are coming over with it, between two and three hundred people. I await their arrival with anxiety and eagerly desire to see them here. In addition, I have comprehended and accepted your farsighted and well-founded advice that I should store some grain, peas, bacon and meat for the winter, for which merchandise would be received. After considering everything, I have found it advisable (since the magazine is almost exhausted) to request that you buy for me 2000 lbs. of rye [      ] or grain if it cannot be obtained already ground, but I prefer [      ]; likewise, 1000 lbs. of good meat and 1000 lbs. of bacon [      ] and 100 skipples of peas...

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[ 17 August 1657 ] [2]

[ P.S. ] The accounts of H. Willemsz and J. Bagyn are enclosed.

[ Addressed: ] Noble, Honorable, Esteemed, Wise and very Prudent Lord, My Lord Petrus Stuyvesant, Director- General of New Netherland, Curacao Aruba, etc. Residing at Manhattan in Fort New Amsterdam.

Mr. Lourens, May God Protect.

Notes

The verb here is hertrouwing, i.e., "to remarry." It is quite possible, however, that the term was used in the sense of "altering one's allegiance," i.e., Hudde's decision to work for the City of Amsterdam's colony on the South River. Since he had been an employee of the WIC, it would have been necessary for him to swear a new oath of allegiance, and to receive permission from the director-general in New Amsterdam.

This date has been recovered from 18:32 in which Alrichs refers to this letter.

References

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