Document: Letter from Andries Louwerensen to Petrus Stuyvesant

My Lord General Petrus Stuyvesant, Greetings.

Will it please your honor to send me quickly orders, by which I can govern myself, because the Indians here are becoming very arrogant and spiteful and have already killed a beautiful mare of Jacob Jansen; they are very angry that your honor had challenged twenty of their men to fight against us and those, who have now returned from the beaver hunt, say that, if they had been here, they would have accepted the challenge; they talk about it a great deal everyday and today about 500 Indians are assembled; their number is constantly increasing, God only knows what their intentions are. Nevertheless, may the Almighty Father grant us our salvation. I therefore ask that your honor will please to send orders quickly, for Thomas and all the people from over the kil have not yet come into the Fort with their dwellings and I cannot well compel them. I pray that your honor will please to send orders about it as quickly as possible, for I am of the opinion that it is necessary that we should all be together and further that the honorable General will please to provide us as quickly as possible with a much needed supply of ammunition, upon which I rely, and commending your honor to the protection of the Almightly, I am and remain,

Great Aesoposthe 8th of August anno 1658.

[ ADDRESSED: ]

To the HonorableRigorous, His Honor,Lord Petrus Stuyvesantin the city of Amsterdam.

Andreis Louwrensz Rights: This translation is provided for education and research purposes, courtesy of the  New York State Library Manuscripts and Special Collections, Mutual Cultural Heritage Project. Rights may be reserved. Responsibility for securing permissions to distribute, publish, reproduce or other use rest with the user. For additional information see our Copyright and Use Statement Source:New York State Archives. New York (Colony). Council. Dutch colonial administrative correspondence, 1646-1664. Series A1810-78. Volume 12, document 86, side 1.