Document: Motion of the fiscal for the confiscation of gunpowder and other articles brought by lieut. Alexander d'Hinoyossa

[Copy. 12 April 1657, Thursday.

To the noble, very worshipful honorable director general and councilors of New Netherland.[i]

Whereas Alexander d’Hinoyossa, lieutenant, has had brought out of the ship Prins Mauritius] and had brought on board the Bever here, two small kegs of gunpowder with a barrel of rice and some Spanish wine, now seized by the fiscal, as one is contraband and the other (as appears on the skipper’s bill of lading a small barrel, so called, for provisions) has been found to weigh over 300 lbs., in addition to all the spices concealed in it; and because no proof has so far been offered whether they were declared or admitted by manifest or by the honorable lords directors, the fiscal demands that in pursuance of the placards of the years 1645 and 1648, the seized articles must remain confiscated, and in addition that the fine fixed thereto must be paid. Done at Fort Amsterdam, the 12th of April 1657. Was signed: Nicasius de Sille.