Document: Declaration of Jan Warrensen and Hans Nelisen, two soldiers, respecting an attack made by Indians on the colony of Achter Col

[ Before me, Cornelis van Tienhoven ], secretary in [ New ] Netherland appointed [ by the General ] Chartered [ West India ] Company, appeared Jan Warrensen, aged twenty years, and Hans Nelisen, aged thirty years, both soldiers in the service of the above mentioned Company, who at the request of Mr. Johannes Winckelman and Cornelis Jansen Coelen, attest, testify and declare, in place and with promise of a solemn oath if need be and required, that it is true and truthful that they, the deponents, (being five soldiers strong), having been commanded by the Hon. Director Willem Kieft to defend the colony of Achter Col, a very heavy attack was made on the house by the Indians in the night between the seventeenth and the eighteenth of September. We, the deponents, being strong five soldiers, five boys and one man who belonged in the colony, defended ourselves until the Indians shot the house, in which we were obliged to defend ourselves, on fire over our heads, when we were forced to abandon the house in consequence of the heat and were only barely able to save ourselves in a canoe, taking with us, of all the goods that were there, only our firearms. All [ of which they declare to be true ], offering to confirm the same on oath. Done the 30th of October anno 1643, in Fort Amsterdam in New Netherland.

[ Jan ] Warrensen
Hanns Niellszen
Cornelis van Tienhoven