with the Swedes (which is of little moment) but
especially with the English, who have already entered upon and seized a
great part thereof, it is necessary to speak of each claim in particular
and somewhat at large. But because this matter has been treated upon by
various ingenious minds in its length and breadth, and as those claims
are so absurd as to require only a few reasons in answer to them, we
will be as brief as in any wise practicable.

After Their High Mightinesses, the Lords States General, were pleased,
in the year of our Lord 1622,(1) to include this province in their grant
to the Honorable West India Company, their Honors deemed it necessary to
take into possession so naturally beautiful and noble a province, which
was immediately done, as opportunity offered, the same as in all similar
beginnings. Since the year of our Lord 1623, four forts have been built
there by order of the Lords Directors,(2) one on the south point of
the Manhatans Island, where the East and North Rivers unite, called New
Amsterdam, where the staple-right(3) of New Netherland was designed to
be; another upon the same River, six-and-thirty Dutch miles [leagues]
higher up, and three leagues below the great Kochoos(4) fall of
the Mohawk River, on the west side of the river, in the colony of
Renselaerswyck, and is called Orange; but about this river there a been
as yet no dispute with any foreigners. Upon the South River lies Fort
Nassau and upon the Fresh River, the Good Hope. In these four forts
there have been always from the beginning to the present time some
garrisons, although they are all now in a very bad condition, not only
in themselves but also as regards garrisons.

(1) 1621.

(2) Heeren Majores, the managers or directors of the
Company.

(3) Staple-right is a privilege granted to the inhabitants
of a place, whereby the masters of vessels or merchants
trading along their coasts are compelled to discharge their
cargoes there for sale, or else pay duties.

(4) Cohoes.

These forts, both to the south and north, are so situated as not only to
close and control the said rivers, but also to command the plantations
between them, as well as those round about them, and on the other side
of the river as far as the ownership by occupation extends. These the
Honorable Company declared they owned and would maintain against all
foreign or domestic powers who should attempt to seize them again