Document: Ordinance against persons going into the country unless in large groups

Whereas the director general and council learn [ with regret ] that in these dangerous [ times some ] Christians do not hesitate to go into the country in small parties, or when going out in stronger force, to separate from each other, or are not as they ought to be, on their guard, nor do they mind their guns, by which carelessness and negligence it has already happened, more than once, that some Christians have been taken prisoner by the Indians and others killed. In order then to prevent this, the director general and council of New Netherland do hereby command that no person, of whatever capacity he may be, shall henceforward undertake to proceed or to go inland without first having applied for and obtained the special consent of the director general or their deputy. When the consent of the director general to go inland with a party is obtained, the director general and council order that no person belonging to the troop or party shall run off, on pain of arbitrary correction to be inflicted on whomsoever will have acted contrary hereunto, and moreover, no ransom shall in anywise be solicited or paid, except at his own cost and charges, for any such person, who, against this prohibition and warning, has, without permission or contrary to order, gone inland or separated from the troop and party, and is consequently taken prisoner. Thus done at the assembly of the director general and council held at Fort Amsterdam in New Netherland. Ady ut supra (was signed:) P. Stuyvesant, La Montagne, Cor. van Tienhoven.