[Text from NYC-RNA_v1_bk4_482, 483, 484 presented here for continuity. NAHC]
Honourable, Beloved, Faithful!
This serves as accompaniment to the enclosed Placards which are sent to your Honors, that they may, pursuant to ancient usage, be published by your Honors, which expecting we shall commend your Honors unto God's protection and Remain, Your Honors' Affectionate friends, The Director General and Council of New Netherland.
The Superscription was :—Honorable, Beloved, Faithful, the Schout, Burgomasters and Schepens of the City of Amsterdam, in N. Netherland
Whereas* Sorrowful Experience has made manifest, from time to time, that in consequence of the dwelling of the outside people apart, (in direct opposition to the order and good intent of the Honble Company and their Supreme government here) as well on the flat lands as on various Hooks and places, many and divers murders of men, slaying and destruction of cattle and burning of houses have been committed, both now and again, by the Indians, natives of this country, which might, for the most part, be prevented and avoided, with God's help, if the good inhabitants of this Province had settled themselves together in the form of towns, villages, and hamlets, in imitation of our neighbours of New England, who, in consequence of their combination and dwelling together have never been subject to such so multitudinous and general dangers, as we and our Nation, through God's righteous chastisement towards us, whereunto the barbarous savages have been encouraged by the isolated dwellings of the outside people, attacking the one after the other, as in time of need they could not be aided in consequence of the distance of the places, and it was impossible for the Honble Director and Council to provide every separate isolated house with a safeguard; whereby, then, besides the preceding murders, losses, and destruction of divers persons, bouweries and plantations, the last notorious damage and insult to this country and the good people thereof has been caused: And as what has heretofore occurred is to be dreaded and expected hereafter as well as now, unless the good inhabitants be taught and rendered provident both by their own and other people's misfortunes, and allow themselves to be disposed, in good order, as they are bound to do, to establish villages in suitable places in manner and form, as the Director General and Council or their Commissioners shall point out to the inhabitants, when the Director General and Council shall be better enabled to second and maintain their subjects with the power, which God and the supreme authority affords them, which, that it may for the future be better practised and observed, the Director General and Council, therefore, nor only Warn but order and beseech hereby their good subjects to combine together in form of towns, villages and hamlets before the approaching Spring, so that they may be better protected, maintained and defended against all assaults and attacks of the barbarians, by each other and by the military commissioned by the Director General and Council; Warning all such as hereafter shall, contrary hereunto, remain on their separate plantations, that they do so at their own peril, without the Director General and Council being able to help them, in time of need; and in addition hereunto shall they be fined in the yearly sum of 25 gl. for the public use; The Director General and Council further ordain, so as to prevent a sudden conflagration, that from now henceforth, no houses shall be covered with straw or reed, nor any more chimneys made of clapboards or wood. Thus done, resolved, resumed and concluded at the Assembly of the Director General and Council held in Fort Amsterdam, in New Netherland the 18th January 1656. Was signed,
P. Stuyvesant.
Under Stood; By order of the Honble Director General and Supreme Council of New Netherland
C. v. Ruyven, Secretary.
* See Laws and Ordinances of New Netherland, p. 208.
