ent for a great body of land in America, lying between the west bank of the Connecticut river, and the east side of the Delaware, the inland line being drawn from "the head of the Connecticut river to the source of Hudson river, thence to the head of the Mohawk branch of the Hudson, and thence to the east side of Delaware bay." This was New Netherland, the colony which the Dutch had been promoting almost since the voyage of Hudson, but Charles assumed that it was English territory, and that the Dutch for half a century had simply been intruders upon it.

Such a claim, if pressed, meant of course war with the Dutch Republic. For that the English King and his brother were ready, if not prepared. Though their sister had married one of the chief of the Dutchmen, William, Prince of Orange, and the son of this marriage, William, now a lad of fourteen, was their nephew, neither King nor Duke loved Holland.1

The Duke of York was the Lord High Admiral of England. Ships to seize the Dutch territory were thus at his command, and four of these were at once fitted out for America. Four commissioners went on board, to take charge of the new territory when it should be seized-Col. Richard Nicolls, Sir Robert Carr, Col. George Cartwright, and Samuel Maverick. The last-named had been some time in the Massachusetts colony, an implacable opponent of the ruling people there; the other three were officers in the British army. Nicolls was the brains of the commission, an able and sagacious man.

James, Duke of York, with whom we must now concern ourselves more or less for a quarter of a century of this narrative, was in 1664 thirty-one years old. He had married in 1660 Anne

'As this narrative of Pennsylvania will presently have to do with this nephew of Charles and James, William of Orange, who became the son-in-law of James in 1677, and King of England in 1688 (William III.), a few facts of interest may be mentioned here. William's father died in 1650, of small-pox, eight days before his

(the son's) birth, and his mother (Mary, daughter of Charles I., and sister of Charles II., and James II.), going to London, in 1660, at the Restoration, died there, of small-pox, so that William was left an orphan at ten years. He succeeded his uncle and father-in-law, as King of England, in 1688.

Hyde, daughter of that distinguished, if not altogether honored figure in English history, the Earl of Clarendon. As his brother the King had no legitimate children-though many othersJames was heir presumptive to the English throne. The grant of the American territory to him would therefore, if he became king, merge in the Crown possessions, and the settlements upon it become a Crown colony.

Sailing from Portsmouth England, on the 15th of May (1664), the Duke's ships were at Boston late in July, and on the 19th of August had reached the waters around Manhattan Island.

Showynne

Signature of Thomas Wynne, member of the Assembly, 1683

The four were the Guinea, the Elias, the Martin, and the William and Nicholas, carrying altogether eighty-two guns. They had on board about four hundred and fifty soldiers. It was a force so overwhelming that resistance by Stuyvesant was manifestly impracticable. He would, however, have made a defense, if his councillors had not overborne him. They preferred to yield and accept the assurances of Col. Nicolls, rather than resist and be worse used. On the 29th of August the fort of New Amsterdam was surrendered by Stuyvesant, and the English flag was raised over it.

The South river colony was promptly visited, also. It did not lie that part of it which had importance-within the King's grant to the Duke, for it was on the west side of the Delaware, but it was part of New Netherland. Sir Robert Carr was therefore sent, September 3, with the Guinea and the William and Nicholas, and as many soldiers as could be spared from the Manhattan fort, to "reduce" it to submission. The other three commissioners gave him a letter of authority. It began: "Whereas, we are informed that the Dutch have seated themselves at Dela

ware Bay, on his Majesty of Great Britain's territories, without his knowledge or consent, and that they have fortified themselves there, and drawn a great deal of trade thither; and being assured that if they be permitted to go on, the gaining of this place will be of small advantage to His Majesty, we"-etc., etc.

Caleb Pusey House, near Chester

Oldest building in Pennsylvania, having been built in 1683. Occupied by William Penn during occasional visits. Photo by Louise D. Woodbridge.

Once more, then, a hostile fleet came inside the capes and up the bay. The voyage from New York-as henceforth we shall know it had been tedious, and it was not until the last day of September that the two warships reached New Amstel, and Carr summoned the place to surrender. He had, he says, "almost three days' parley" with the Governor and the burghers; the latter agreed to yield, but the Governor and soldiers refused. He therefore landed his men, and the ships fired two broadsides upon the fort, after which it was stormed. The assailants sustained no loss, but the Dutch had ten wounded and three killed. This is Carr's account, and all we have. If we may trust it, D'Hinoyossa appears as a more resolute defender of the post he held than his