Document: Ordinance against runners trading in the Mohawk or Senecas country

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. . . The director and council [ ] expenses in the aforesaid judgment deposited with Mr. Willem Beeckman [ ] for the security for which the judgment was guaranteed, and that [ ] of the petitioner's wife [ ] the sum of 400 guilders [ ] attached for Jacob Corlaer's fine.

Whereas the director-general and council have been positively informed that some of the inhabitants in and around Fort Orange and also those residing in the Colony of Renselaerswyck, to the great hindrance and obstruction of trade, think nothing of roaming through the Mohawk country with quantities of goods and sewant in order to acquire, at their option, beavers at a cheaper rate, from which it will follow, in time, that the Indians, as in the south and elsewhere, will be encouraged in their laziness, and instead of producing an increase of trade, serious mischief is finally to be expected from the running into the Mohawk country with goods, because the Savages might decide, for the sake of the goods, to take the lives of those carrying them, as has frequently happened before to others; therefore, the aforesaid director and council, for the public safety, for the prevention of all new difficulties, and for the preservation and benefit of their honors' subjects, and the promotion of trade and commerce, have considered it extremely necessary seasonally to prevent the running with goods to the Indi an settlements or Mohawk country; wherefore the director-general and council interdict and forbid, as they hereby do, all and everyone, regardless of his agreement or contract, from now henceforth, or after the publication or posting hereof, from [ going, riding or resorting to the aforesaid Mohawk or Senecas country with any goods or sewant however these may be called, without special order and permission of ] the director- general and council or their representatives; all on a penalty of fifty pounds Flemish, to be applied as usual. Dated as above.