La Grange has
not proposed to purchase the island again of Mr. Otto, although he
could do it very favorably, notwithstanding Mr. Otto asked so much for
it. Ephraim told me that Mr. Otto had said to him, confidentially,
that in case he could obtain for it what it had cost him, he would let
it go, as he had other land lying elsewhere, and that he had asked so
much for it, merely to hear what he [de La Grange] would say, and in
order to scare him. Should you lay out three hundred guilders in
Holland for merchandise, and sell it here, which usually yields an
hundred per cent. profit, or is so reckoned in barter, you could have
this island almost for nothing, or at least for very little. But there
is better land to be bought cheaper. De La Grange has let this slip
by, and it seems as if he had not much inclination to stir the subject
any more. He has given me to understand that he disregards it, or at
least regards it as little now, as he formerly prized and valued it;
as indeed he shows, for he has now bought land on Christina Creek,
consisting of two or three old plantations, which, perhaps, are not
much better than this island, and cost him enough. He has obtained
another piece from the governor, lying between Burlington and the
falls, on the west side, but will not accomplish much with it. I
forgot to mention that de La Grange, four years ago when he was in
Holland, gave one Mr. Peter Aldrix,[209] who now resides on the South
River, and is one of the members of the court, authority to make this
man deliver the island to him, which Aldrix refused, and advised him
that he was well assured he could not accomplish anything with it. Yet
to satisfy La Grange he laid the matter before Mr. Otto, who gave him
the same answer he had given La Grange. As I understand and have
heard, La Grange bases his claim under the English law, that the son
is the heir of the father's possessions; but the possession of the
father being disputed, and he himself disinherited by two courts, the
claim is null and of no value.[210]

[Footnote 201: Here and in many other places the diarist spells the
name Grangie.]

[Footnote 202: Built by Governor Printz in 1646.]

[Footnote 203: This sketch is not preserved with the manuscript.]

[Footnote 204: Papegoia returned to Sweden in 1656, but did not die
till 1667.]

[Footnote 205: This suit of Madame de La Grange against Madame
Papegoia took place at New York in 1672.]

[Footnote 206: The Scanian Wa