Stuyvesant dispatched a messenger to Boston, with a letter containing
a very full reply to the grievances of which the New England colonists
complained. In this letter, which bears the impress of frankness and
honesty, he says,

"What your worships lay unto our charge are false reports
and feigned informations. Your honored messengers might, if
they had pleased, have informed themselves of the truth of
this, and might also have obtained more friendly
satisfaction and security, concerning our real intentions,
if they had pleased to stay a day or two with us, to have
heard and considered further of these articles."

On their way home, the New England agents stopped at Flushing,
Stamford and New Haven, to collect all the evidence they could against
Governor Stuyvesant. The hearsay stories of the Indians they carefully
picked up. Still the only point ascertained, of any moment was, that
Governor Stuyvesant had told an Englishman, one Robert Coe, that if
the English attacked him, he should try to get the Indians to come to
his aid; and that he had said the same to William Alford.

This was all the evidence the agents could find against the governor.
He had made these declarations without any purpose of concealment. He
had been instructed to pursue this course by the Amsterdam Directors.
The New England colonists had in their Pequod war, set the example of
employing Indian allies. This repulsive feature in the British
colonial administration continued until the close of the war of the
Revolution.

Captain John Underbill, an Englishman, who had obtained considerable
renown in the Pequod war becoming dissatisfied with some
ecclesiastical censure which he had incurred, petitioned Governor
Stuyvesant for permission to reside, with a few other families in New
Netherland, under the protection of the Dutch, offering to take the
oath of allegiance which was required of all foreigners. His request
was promptly granted. It was the liberal policy of the Dutch
government not to exclude foreigners from any privileges which the
Hollanders themselves enjoyed. Underhill was now residing at
Hempstead, Long Island. His restless spirit, ever eager for change,
seized upon the present moment as a fitting opportunity to wrest from
the Dutch their portion of Long Island, and pass it over to his
countrymen. In violation of his oath he issued a treasonable
proclamation, in which he said,

"You are call