Document: Sentence of Michiel Tadens

Whereas Michiel Tadens van Holstijn,[i] inhabitant of this city, presently a prisoner, has not spared himself selling strong drink to the wilden contrary to the strict prohibition and in contempt of the frequently published placards emanating from the director general and councilors of New Netherland [ ] was infamous [ ] caught in the act [ ] matter of very serious consequence from which many harmful acts, as the deplorable experience sufficiently demonstrates, have redounded and still more are to be expected, if the sale of strong drink to the wilden is tolerated and allowed and not severely punished as an example to others; therefore, the director general and councilors of New Netherland, together with those supplemented from the magistracy of this city, after invocation of God’s name, having seen the charge made by the fiscal ex officio against the aforesaid prisoner, and heard the confession and acknowledgment of guilt voluntarily made by the prisoner without pain and shackles, and furthermore having looked at everything to look at in this matter, administering justice in the name and on behalf of the esteemed high and mighty lords States General of the United Netherlands and the lords directors of the Chartered West India Company, before having taken into consideration the prisoner’s voluntary confession and in addition the humble plea for mercy and no justice, and therefore his well-earned punishment mitigated, have condemned the aforesaid Michiel Tadens van Holsteyn, as they hereby do condemn, [ to pay ] a fine of five hundred guilders, to be applied according to the tenor of the placard, and to remain in confinement until the fine with costs [ ] director general and councilors held in Fort Amsterdam in New Netherland, the 3rd of August anno 1656.