30 August anno 1656. Present at the session the lord director general Petrus Stuyvesant, the lords councilors La Montagne and Brian Nuton, captain lieutenant. Having heard and read the indictment and decision of the fiscal about and against Dirck Smith, ensign, presently prisoner, and having read the defense of the aforesaid ensign, he, the aforesaid Dirck Smith, was summoned and appeared at the session and asked who had allowed him to bring 4 to 5 guns into the country. He answered that the lords Bontemantel and Witsz allowed him to take 2 to 3 guns along.[i]
Further he was asked who [ ] the soldiers’ small chest [several lines lost]
The above answer of the prisoner having been submitted and read, he was personally summoned and ordered to the session and the charge of the fiscal was read aloud to him. He said at first that the lords directors allowed him to take along four snaphances and one on his wife’s passport, being five altogether, that the lords had allowed him to do so, because of the difficulty that he had had in gathering the soldiers at Deventer, Utrecht, Harderwijck and elsewhere together, and in addition they had given him two ankers of brandy, free of recognition fee. Which five guns he sold and traded as follows: one to Gerrit van de Nut; one to Jan Caljou that he had earned for work on his, the prisoner’s, land; one sold to Medes de Vries who came with the lord general from Curaçao for 18 guilders; one to the foreign wilden named Sinnekens when they were last here; the fifth he says is still at the gunstock maker’s on the South River. He acknowledges to have bought two above the aforesaid five; namely, one from Abrahan van Linthout for linen, one from the cook’s mate of the Peereboom for a pair of stockings and 6 guilders in sewant, which two guns he declares to have delivered to the French, who went along [ ] on the Southern expedition [ ] received one or the other again in their place, which have now been taken out of his quarters and stacked with the honorable Company’s arms.
Regarding the two snaphances sold to the wilden, he says, as previously, that only the one was his and sold to the Sinnekens wilden for six beavers, and the other one was Hans Jong’s, the hide preparer [velleberijder], being a soldier, which was sold in his, the prisoner’s, presence, to southern wilden; however, not by him but by the drummer Hendrick Sluyter for two beavers and three fathoms of white sewant.
Concerning the sword traded to the wilden, he, prisoner, declares that it was an old outmoded small sword belonging to a soldier, not worth picking up, which he, prisoner, hadn’t traded but which a Sinnekes wild took up at his, prisoner’s, house, throwing down a half or a small piece of beaver for it, about which he, prisoner, informed the lord fiscal two days later, and brought the piece of beaver to the secretary’s office. [several lines lost]
The ensign [ ] denied such, persisting [ ] to say and showed the deponent [ ] Jan Mast to this end [ ] attested [ ] notary and witnesses, saying further to be ready to confirm such by oath.
Velthuysen answered that he would not be able to swear the ensign to an oath because he was an oath breaker, having been betrothed to a woman in Holland, from whom he had also taken eight anckers of wine, and married another woman here; also, that the ensign had sold a Company’s gun to a soldier named De Vries for eighteen guilders, which he said he could prove with Hendrick Jansen Sluyter, tamboer, and Jan Warnaers, adelborst.
The ensign responds that it would never be proven that he was an oath breaker or that he had taken wine from a woman; further, that he had not sold a Company gun but one of his own guns, as he responded at the interrogation of the lord fiscal. He requested that the witnesses be heard as to whether it was a Company gun.
[several lines lost] well known [ ] the ensign had [ ] a snaphance for eighteen guilders [ ] to know whether it was a Company snaphance.
The ensign rejects this witness because he (so the ensign says) had committed burglary in England.
Jan Warnaers, soldier, summoned to the session to attest to the truth of the above witnesses, answers that he is aware that the ensign sold a gun to De Vries for eighteen guilders, but that it was done in the open and that it was a long gun, declaring not to know to whom it belonged.
The director general and councilors order the fiscal to find out more about the above. Dated as above.
