t, which he neither
refused nor granted, but said he would take it into consideration.
Meanwhile we inquired after vessels, of which there were plenty going
up at this time of year.

APRIL _2d [3d], Wednesday._ We went again to the lord governor for
permission, who received us after he had dined. He inquired for what
purpose we wished to go above; to which we answered, we had come here
to see the country, its nature and fertility; and that we had heard
there were fine lands above, such as Schoonechten, Rentselaerswyck,
and the Hysopus.[315] "Those are all small places," he said, "and are
all taken possession of; but I am ashamed I did not think of this." He
then requested us to come some morning and dine with him, when he
would talk with us. We thanked him, and took our leave, reflecting
whether it would be advisable to trouble his Excellency any more about
the matter, as it was not of such great importance to us, and he,
perhaps, considered it of more moment than we did. We then felt
inclined to leave the country the very first opportunity, as we had
nothing more to do here, and it was the very best time of year to make
a voyage. As we had some of our goods left after we were forbidden to
sell any more, we went to see if we could get rid of what we had kept
for Ephraim. As there was no prospect of seeing him, we proposed to
do the best we could with one of our neighbors, named Cornelius van
Kleif, to whom my comrade had spoken, and who was inclined to trade.
He entered into negotiations, but was a little timorous. We offered to
let him examine the bills of the persons from whom we had bought the
goods, and also of the freight and custom-house duties, and he should
give us an advance of thirty per cent. on their amount; or, he might
see what they were worth, and could be sold for, and we would divide
the profits equally with him. After he had looked at them, he did not
dare to take them himself alone, but said he would bring another
person, in order that with the two of them they might make it safe. He
did not say he had no means of payment, though he did remark he had no
peltries, which we would willingly have taken in payment. The other
person had the means to pay. We told him we would wait until de La
Grange returned from the South River; that I had spoken to his wife on
the subject, and that he was expected back every day; at all events,
that we would wait until we had spoken to some other person. Van
Kleif's wife,