Certain of the colonists also sent a report to Holland. Theirs being
much nearer the truth, carried such weight with it, that the West India
Company decided on the immediate recall of Governor Kieft, who had done
so much injury to the colony, and had shown himself to be utterly
incapable of governing.

Kieft returned to Holland in a ship that was packed from stem to stern
with the finest of furs. The ship was wrecked at sea. Kieft was drowned,
and the furs were lost.

In the same ship was Everardus Bogardus (the minister who had married
Annetje Jans), who was on his way to Holland on a mission relating to
his church. The people of New Amsterdam mourned for their minister, but
there was little sorrow felt for the Governor who had plunged the colony
in war by his obstinate and cruel temper.

[Illustration: Smoking the Pipe of Peace.]




CHAPTER VI

PETER STUYVESANT, the LAST of the DUTCH GOVERNORS


It was a gay day for the little colony of New Amsterdam, that May
morning in the year 1647, when a one-legged man landed at the lower part
of the island, and stumped his way up the path that led to the fort. Not
only everyone that lived in the town gathered there, but everyone on the