Massachusetts offering to submit to him and the governor of Plymouth
the matter in dispute. He then wrote home for instructions, and as
diplomatic relations between England and Holland were suspended, the
West India Company bade him make such terms as he could with his
English neighbors.[23]

Accordingly, in September, 1650, Stuyvesant visited Hartford while the
federal commissioners were in session there. The discussions were
carried on in writing, and Stuyvesant dated his letter at "New
Netherland." The federal commissioners declined to receive this
letter, and Stuyvesant changed the address to "Connecticut." This
proving satisfactory to the commissioners, Stuyvesant set out his
territorial claim and the imputed wrongs suffered by the Dutch from
the English, and the federal commissioners rejoined in a similar
manner. Then Stuyvesant proposed to refer the question in dispute to
four arbitrators, all Englishmen, two to be appointed by himself and
two by the federal commissioners.

The offer was accepted, and after a full hearing by these arbitrators,
Thomas Willet, George Baxter, Simon Bradstreet, and Thomas Prince,
declined to decide upon the wrongs complained of by either party and
rendered an award upon the territorial question only. They decided
that the Dutch should retain their fort on the Connecticut, and that
the boundary should begin at a point on the west side of Greenwich
Bay, about four miles from Stamford, and run due north twenty miles.
From that point it should be extended as the Dutch and New Haven might
agree, provided that the line should not come nearer the Hudson River
than ten miles. The English obtained most of Long Island besides, for
in that quarter the line was declared to be a meridian drawn through
the westernmost part of Oyster Bay.[24] If these terms subjected