Document: Remonstrance addressed to the directors of the West India company chamber at Amsterdam

Plain and true account of the bad treatment that the Dutch nation received from the barbarous natives during our time; submitted in the form of a petition to the honorable, prudent, and highly esteemed lords, the lords directors of the West India Company, chamber at Amsterdam.[1]

We have considered all this thoroughly, also the present situation of your honors, which is too precarious to send us such a relief, as the present general distress and circumstances of the country require and have concluded (in order to avoid exceptions being taken on account of neglecting to report to the higher authorities) to send first and above all this humble petition to your honors and besides, but with you honors knowledge and approval, to their noble high mightinesses and the esteemed magistrates of the city of Amsterdam or else your honors must instruct there our deputy, Cornelis Jacobsen Steenwyck in regard to the assistance, with which, under God’s guidance and help, we hope to subdue the aforesaid barbarous nations and to possess afterwards the country in peace and without fear from them. We require (with due submission to your honors’ wise judgment 3,000 to 4,000 good soldiers,[2] one half with matchlocks, the other half with flintlocks of 3 and 1/2 feet length and 16 balls to the pound[3] and not more, who after having helped us to attain our ends, are willing to settle in the country and increase the population; in addition to this, a supply of needed commodities for clothing and feeding the military force, to the value of 30 to 40,000 guilders; also, some very much needed ammunition according to the annexed list. Highly esteemed gentlemen and patroons, we, your honors’ subjects and petitioners, pray humbly, that this our respectful remonstrance and petition may be taken into serious consideration by your honors and favorably recommended to others, so that we may speedily get good advice and help from your honors or somebody else, before more misfortune can befall your honors’ subjects either here or at the now conquered South River. Your honors will thereby bring us and all other subjects of your honors under obligation continually to pray for your honors’ success and prosperity and to remain.

Honorable, prudent, highly esteemed gentlemen, your honors’ humble subjects.

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 Netherland. Council. Dutch colonial council minutes, 1638-1665. Series A1809. Volume 6.