Document: Indictment of Francis Allard, cadet, for receiving stolen goods

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My lords the honorable lords high councilors of New Netherland. Whereas Frans Allard, having been sent by our lords superiors as cadet in the service of these lands, has not hesitated, against all laws, to harbor thieves and to shelter them with whatever they had stolen and to receive the goods in his house and to benefit therefrom and to enjoy the stolen goods with the thieves, I request that the aforesaid Frans Allard shall be brought to the place where it is customary to do justice and to be punished with the rope until death follows; for such [ people ] deserve to be punished as well as the thieves themselves, because as the proverb says, “If there were no customers, there would be no thieves.”

Ady ut supra. Amsterdam in New Netherland. Was signed: Your honors’ servant Cornelis van Tienhoven.