Document: Resolution that the director-general proceed to the Esopus

[28th May anno 1658, Tuesday, Fort Amsterdam in N. Nd.

Present at the meeting the honorable director general Petrus Stuyvesant and the honorable councillors, Nicasius de Sille, Pieter Tonneman and Johan] de Deckere.[i]

The director general and councilors of New Netherland having examined and taken into further and [ serious ] consideration the letters received from the Esopus on the 2nd and 18th of this month, by which we are informed, in the first [ letter ], how the wilden shot dead there one Harmen Jacobsz, alias Bamboes, set two houses on fire, and behaved and showed themselves very insolent and malicious. In the second letter [ we are informed ] that the wilden continued their aforesaid unbearable boldness, forcing our inhabitants there to plow for them, and upon refusal [ they ] threatened with the fire in hand to set their houses ablaze, calling them dogs, and treating them in other similar unbearable evil ways. The oral statements of the people coming from there agree with this, and therefore, the inhabitants of the Esopus, numbering about 60 to 70 souls, ask for assistance from soldiers. Having considered the request, it is resolved that the lord director general shall go there as soon as possible with 50 or 60 men for his protection, in order to make such arrangements as shall be found necessary and appropriate, and as shall be required for the best interest of the Company, this province, and its inhabitants. Dated as above.