At the session, present: the honorable director general Petrus Stuyvesant, the honorable lord Nicasius de Sille, the lord La Montagne, together with the magistrates of the village of Middelborch: Mr. Coo and Mr. Hazard, in whose jurisdiction the prisoner (heretofore stated) Jan Smith was apprehended.
The aforesaid written charge against Jan Smith having been read and submitted by the lord fiscal Cornelis van Tienhoven, (after everything was considered worth considering) the lord director general and councilors each for himself recommend the following:
I recommend that the charge of the lord justice of the peace be permitted, and that the prisoner, Jan Smith, because of his own confession of having stolen hogs in the countryside and his evil intentions, although (so he says) seduced by others, to kill Negroes and also to commit theft of tobacco, shall be hanged until dead as an example to others.
Recommendation of the [ ] [ ] Sille, first councilor:
Nicasius de Sille, first councilor, [ ] upon die charge made by the fiscal [ ] from the alleged facts confessed by the prisoner, that the prisoner should be hanged until dead as an example to others. (Was signed:) Nicasius de Sille.
Recommendation of the lord councilor La Montagne:
Having seriously examined and considered all the papers concerning the criminal proceedings brought at the request of the fiscal of New Nether- land in the case of thievery and enormous outrages against Jan Smith, presently a prisoner, my recommendation is (under correction of a better) that the same Jan Smith, although according to the law he deserves death, but because of his youth and because he has never been previously in trouble with the law, that he shall be whipped, branded and banished. Was signed: La Montagne.
Recommendation of Mr. Coo:
Although the prisoner, Jan Smith, has earned death according to the law, however, considering that he is a young man and that he could still reform himself, the recommendation of Mr. Coo is that he ought to be whipped and banished from the country.
Recommendation of Mr. Hazard:
Mr. Hazard gives the same recommendation as Mr. Coo.
Petrus Stuyvesant
P. Stuyvesant
