as not bloody, nor was it offensive to the Dutch
themselves, who in the matter of liberties could not lose. King Charles
had granted the conquered tract to his brother, the Duke of York,
subsequently James II., and it was in his honor christened with its
present name of New York.

The Duke's government was not popular, especially as it ordered the
Dutch land-patents to be renewed--for money, of course; and in 1673,
war again existing between England and Holland, the Dutch recovered
their old possession. They held it however for only fifteen months,
since at the Peace of 1674 the two belligerent nations mutually restored
all the posts which they had won.

The reader already has some idea of Sir Edmond Andros's rule in America.
New York was the first to feel this, coming under the gentleman's
governorship immediately on being the second time surrendered to
England. Such had been the political disorder in the province, that
Andros's headship, stern as it was, proved beneficial. He even, for a
time, 1683-86, reluctantly permitted an elective legislature, though
discontinuing it when the legislatures of New England were suppressed.
This taste of freedom had its effect afterward.

[1690]

When news of the Revolution of 1688 in England reached New York, Andros
was in Boston. Nicholson, Lieutenant-Governor, being a Catholic and an
absolutist, and the colony now in horror of all Catholics through fear
of French invasion from Canada, Jacob Leisler, a German adventurer,
partly anticipating, partly obeying the popular wish, assumed to
function in Nicholson's stead. All the aristocracy, English or Dutch,
and nearly all the English of the lower rank were against him. Leisler
was passionate and needlessly bitter toward Catholics, yet he meant
well. He viewed his office as only transitory, and stood ready to
surrender it so soon as the new king's will could be learned; but when
Slaughter arrived with commission as governor, Leisler's foes succeeded
in compassing his execution for treason. This unjust and cruel deed
began a long feud between the popular and the aristocratic party in the
colony.

[Illustration: Sloughter signing Leisler's Death Warrant.]

[1700]

From this time till the American Revolution New York continued a
province of the Crown. Royal governor succeeded royal governor, some of
them better, some worse. Of the entire line Bellomont was the most
worthy official, Cornbury the least so. One of the problems which