[several lines lost] Received [ ] statements produced by [ ] Jacob Barsimson, Joode, and is [ ] in the capacity of attorney for [ ] Huys, skipper on the ship the Peereboom [ ] appellant in the judgment of the burgomasters and schepenen of this city, dated 25 September 1656, on the produced papers.[i]
The director general and councilors of New Netherland having read, reread, and examined the produced documents and statements, and having deliberated on and considered other pertinent material, find in the produced papers insufficient evidence to whom the goods belonged that Jacob de Aboaff (as alleged) took out of the chest, namely, whether to him, de Aboaff, or to the plaintiff, Jacob Barsimson, his associate; there was produced to this end only one simple declaration of the plaintiff himself, done for his own case, which in law can or ought to have no place concerning an absent defendant; more so, because at best it can be believed and presumed of the absent defendant, and also, subject to customary legal practice, assumed and believed (at least until the contrary is sufficiently proven by the plaintiff) that the demanded goods (though proven to have been taken out of the chest in such quality and quantity) [several lines lost] have together [ ] as they were in company together, as appears by the general [ ] letter of the lords directors and from the shared space of the chest and by the consequent commonality of the goods in the chest, at least the common access for the same. Therefore, the aforesaid director general and councilors, pronouncing and declaring the judgment wrongfully proclaimed and successfully appealed, condemn and sentence the plaintiff, Jacob Barsimson, first and foremost, to sufficiently prove, whether by declaring the goods in the manifest on his name or by reliable witnesses, lawfully acceptable that the goods claimed lost or taken by Jacob de Aboaff, were in the chest; having been therein, that they were his, plaintiff’s, own goods or only consigned to him and that they did not belong to Jacob de Aboaff or to them together, and that the same were taken out of the chest and carried away on the day of his complaint and protest made against Jacob Jansz Huijs, in his capacity as skipper, and that they were not taken out of the chest and carried away by Jacob de Aboaff before, which having been done, then to proceed further [several lines lost] shall deem [ ] shall be found to be appropriate [ ] in the law [ ] discharging the seizure done by the [ ] on the goods in the hands of Allard Anthony, in his capacity of attorney for Jacob Jansz Huijs, and condemn the [ plaintiff ], by provision, for the costs and expenses of the court. Thus done at the session held in Fort Amsterdam in New Netherland. Dated as above.
P. Stuyvesant Nicasius de Sille Pieter Tonnemans
