e, gave great offence. It was
deemed an insult to his own countrymen. There was a general
disposition with the colonists to repudiate a treaty which the Dutch
had had no hand in forming. Complaints were sent to Holland that the
Governor had surrendered more territory than might have formed fifty
colonies; and that, rejecting those reforms in favor of popular rights
which the home government had ordered, he was controlling all things
with despotic power.

"This grievous and unsuitable government," the Nine Men wrote,

"ought at once to be reformed. The measures ordered by the
home government should be enforced so that we may live as
happily as our neighbors. Our term of office is about to
expire. The governor has declared that he will not appoint
any other select men. We shall not dare again to assemble in
a body; for we dread unjustifiable prosecutions, and we can
already discern the smart thereof from afar."[8]

Notwithstanding these reiterated rebukes, Stuyvesant persisted in his
arbitrary course. The vice-director, Van Diricklagen, and the fiscal
or treasurer Van Dyck, united in a new protest expressing the popular
griefs. Van Der Donck was the faithful representative of the
commonalty in their fatherland. The vice-director, in forwarding the
new protest to him wrote,

"Our great Muscovy duke keeps on as of old; something like the wolf,
the longer he lives the worse he bites."

It is a little remarkable that the English refugees, who were quite
numerous in the colony, were in sympathy with the arbitrary
assumptions of the governor. They greatly strengthened his hands by
sending a Memorial to the West India Company, condemning the elective
franchise which the Dutch colonists desired.

"We willingly acknowledge," they wrote,

"that the power to elect a governor from among ourselves,
which is, we know, the design of some here, would be our
ruin, by reason of our factions and the difference of
opinion which prevails among us."

The West India Company, not willing to relinquish the powers which it
grasped, was also in very decided opposition to the spirit of popular
freedom which the Dutch colonists were urging, and which was adopted
by the States-General. Thus, in this great controversy, the governor,
the West India Company and the English settlers in the colony were on
one side. Upon the other side stood the States-General and the Dutch
colonists almost w