Whereas the director general and councilors of New Netherland are to their regret informed and told of the censure and blame under which they are lying among inhabitants and neighbors on account of the non-execution of their previously enacted and frequently renewed edicts against the importation of articles of contraband and the sale thereof as well to Christians as wilden, some not only presuming that the director general and councilors connive with the violators, but even publicly declaring that the director general and councilors aforesaid have made free the importation and trade in contraband, which for that reason is carried on with uncommon licentiousness and freedom. This has moved and again moves the director gener al and councilors to revive and renew the previously enacted edicts against the importation and sale either to Christians or naturellen of any kind of munitions of war; which aforesaid edicts, in order to prevent all ignorance and exception in the premises, they do hereby revive and renew, thereunto adding the following amplification, and have resolved, enacted, and ratified, with the previous knowledge and approbation of the directors of the Chartered West India Company, that henceforth no person, of what nation or quality so ever he may be, shall be at liberty to bring into the country for his own or ship’s use any sort of snaphance or gun barrels, finished or unfinished, not even on the Company’s permit, save only, according to order, one carbine, being a firelock of three to three and a half feet barrel and no longer; on the penalty as before.[i]
Furthermore, whereas daily experience proves that notwithstanding the general prohibition, considerable munitions of war are imported not only from patria by the arriving return ships, but also from other places and especially from Virginia, which cannot well be properly remedied unless these vessels as well as the Netherlands ships and barks are closely inspected and visited; and, whereas the frauds and smuggling which they carry on cannot, according to the general complaint, be more rigorously remedied and prevented so long as such ships and barks do not load and unload in accordance with the regulation and order heretofore enacted on that subject, the director general and councilors do hereby resume, renew and enlarge said regulation as follows:
1.
All private ships, yachts, barks, ketches, sloops and vessels, whether of [ Dutch ], English, French, Swedes [ or any ] other nation, desiring to anchor about the island of Manhattan and this city, shall not seek or select any other roadstead than in front of this city of Amsterdam, on the East River between the pier and the city gate, and on the North River in front of and near the beavers’ path and at no other place, on pain of paying 25 guilders for the first time; 50 guilders for the second time, to be forfeited after they have been warned.
2.
All ships, yachts, barks, ketches, sloops and other craft, as aforesaid, being thus anchored before this city, and at no other place, shall, before discharging and loading any goods or merchandise, be obliged to give in an account or invoice of their cargo to the director general or his deputy, the fiscal, and submit to his visit both on their arrival and departure, and if he finds any more goods that appear on the rendered inventory, bill or invoice, such goods, charged by the fiscal, as prosecutor and protector of the law, shall be subject to confiscation, and five times the value of the imported smuggled contraband shall be exacted in addition on pain of arbitrary correction according to the printed placard.
3.
The receipt or delivery of all goods and merchandises which are delivered on shore or received from shore shall be made and take place, without any exception of persons, or fraud, within the limits of this city and in no ways beyond the same, and that during daylight, on the penalty, for the first time, of the fourth part of the overtaken goods, and in addition, for the second offense, the forfeiture of the scow, boat or vessel wherewith they are discharged.
4.
No skippers, traders or any persons sailing with ships, yachts, barks, ketches, sloops, or vessels, shall take with them or transport any of the Company’s servants, any freemen or inhabitants of New Netherland, of what nation or quality so ever they may be, without the consent or handwriting of the director general or his deputy, on the penalty of 600 guilders for each person.
And, in order that no person may pretend ignorance hereof, the director general and councilors order and command that this ordinance [ shall immediately be announced, proclaimed, published and posted there where such announcements, proclamations, publications, and postings are commonly done ]. They further charge and command the fiscal and all other officers to prevent and arrest the importation and sale of the aforesaid goods and to levy execution on the same, in conformity to this our ordinance, proceeding against the contraveners and violators thereof without favor, connivance, dissimulation or fraud, for such we have found to be for the service of the country and the inhabitants thereof.
Thus done in the session held in Fort Amsterdam in New Netherland, the 11th of August anno 1656.
