Document: Letter from Jacob van Curler, Anthony Jansen and other Dutch inhabitants to director Stuyvesant

Holding Institution

Document ID

NYSA_A1809-78_V06_0115b

Description

Letter. Jacob van Curler, Anthony Jansen, and other Dutch inhabitants, to director Stuyvesant, praying protection against the Indians; twenty men sent to them.

Document Date

1655-10-20

Document Date (Date Type)

1655-10-20

Document Type

Letter

Minutes

Document Type Unlinked

Letter

Full Resolution Image

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Translation

[ 20th October 1655 ]

[ Copy ]

My lord [ general ]

We are presently surrounded here by Indians, of whom some have been permitted to come in by the English. They say that the English are their nietappen[1] [ ] will have nothing to do [ ] It may well be that our turn will come soon, or at the latest this evening. We request assistance as soon as possible, for the English let the Indians go in and out. It shall undoubtedly fall on our heads. We trust that since they move about freely we will be offered no help, so that everyone with wife and children wait in great anxiety. Therefore, we all, young and old, humbly request assistance. (Below was written:) On behalf of all of us (Was signed:) Jacob Swart, Jan Tomassen, X the mark of Antony Jansen, Lauris Jansz, X the mark of Pieter Ebel, J. v. Curler.[2]

[ RESPONSE OF THE COUNCIL TO THE FOREGOING REQUEST ]

The honorable lord director general and councilors having seen and taken to heart the submitted request, have resolved to assist the inhabitants of Gravesande with twenty soldiers and to order them to secure the safest place.

Adi ut supra, New Amsterdam. (Was signed:) P. Stuyvesant, La Montagne, Cornelis van Tienhoven.

Translation Superscripts

[1]: The widely used trade jargon word for “friends” has been previously misread as Dutch niet tappen “not to tap” and mistranslated as “They say that the English never give them anything to drink.”
[2]: See NYCD, 13:47, for other translation.

References

From the collections of the New York State Archives, Albany, New York. https://www.archives.nysed.gov/

Translation link see: http://iarchives.nysed.gov/xtf/view?docId=tei/A1809/NYSA_A1809-78_V06_0115b.xml

Published bound volume is also available: Translation: Scott, K., & Stryker-Rodda, K. (Ed.). New York Historical Manuscripts: Dutch, Vol. 4, Council Minutes, 1638-1649 (A. Van Laer, Trans.). Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc.: 1974.

Copyright to the published bound volume is held by the Holland Society of New York.
A complete copy of this publication is available on the New Netherland Institute website.