Document: Letter from the States General to Petrus Stuyvesant

[1]To the Director in New Netherland, 28th April, 1648, and mutatis mutandis to the government in New Netherland.

The States General, etc.

Honorable, etc. We have this day heard and considered the report of Messrs. our Deputies, who, pursuant to our previous resolutions of the xi January last, and of the 9th instant, have investigated and examined the several petitions presented unto us in the name and on the behalf of Jochum Pieters Cuyter and Cornelis Melyn; also the papers thereunto annexed; and after previous deliberation have, consequently, granted the petitioners provision of appeal, with the clause suspending the respective sentences pronounced against them, on the 25 July, of the year 1647,[2]t with the advice of his Council, by Peter Stuyvesant, Director of New Netherland, within the limits of the West India Company; and We have, moreover, granted to and allowed the petitioners liberty, pending the case in appeal, to return hence to New Netherland aforesaid, and free and unmolested to enjoy and use their property there, the same as other Colonists and inhabitants; of all which We have resolved hereby to advise you, and to order and charge you, that you shall allow the aforesaid petitioners to act unmolested and peaceably to enjoy the full effect of these, Our good designs and intentions, without failing in any way therein. Done 28th April, 1648.