ttler in New York State,
having come to Manhattan as a deserter from George Holmes's abortive
expedition of 1635 against Fort Nassau on South River. Elbert Elertsz
was a weaver, Hendrick Kip a tailor. Govert Loockermans, on the other
hand, brother-in-law to both Couwenhoven and Cortlandt, was the chief
merchant and Indian trader of the province, often in partnership with
Isaac Allerton the former Pilgrim of Plymouth. Lastly, Jan Everts
Bout, a farmer, had formerly been superintendent for Pauw at Pavonia.
Characterizations of these men, by an unfriendly hand, may be seen at
the end of Van Tienhoven's _Answer_ to this _Representation_.

Three of the signers, Van der Donck, Couwenhoven and Bout, were deputed
to go to the Netherlands and present the _Representation_ to the States
General, while Stuyvesant sent Secretary van Tienhoven to counteracat
their efforts. The Voluminous papers which both parties presented to
their High Mightinesses were referred to a committee, which in April,
1650, submitted a draft of a reformed and more liberal government for
the province. The delegates caused their _Representation_ to be printed,
in a pamphlet of forty-nine pages, now very rare, under the
title, _Vertoogh van Nieu-Neder-Land, Weghens de Ghelegentheydt,
Vruchtbaerheydt, en Soberen Staet desselfs_ (Hague, 1650), i.e.,
"Representation of New Netherland, concerning its Location,
Productiveness and Poor Condition." Much discussion was aroused. "The
name of New Netherland," wrote the Amsterdam chamber of the Company to
Stuyvesant, "was scarcely ever mentioned before, and now it would
seem as if heaven and earth were interested in it." So effective an
exposition of the colony's value and of its misgovernment could not fail
to awaken consideration and sympathy. Nevertheless, the company, aided
by the _Answer_ which Van Tienhoven submitted in November, 1650, were
able to ride out the storm, and to temporize until the outbreak of the
war of 1652-1654 with England put a new face on colonial affairs. A few
concessions were made--the export duty on tobacco was taken off, and a
municipal government allowed to New Amsterdam, now a town of 700 or
800 inhabitants (1653). But no serious alteration in the provincial
government resulted. "Our Grand Duke of Muscovy," wrote one of
Stuyvesant's subordinates to Van der Donck, "keeps on as of old."
Disaffection among the Dutch settlers never ceased till the English
conquest, though on the other hand the