arms to the Indians, and on regulating with a strong hand all
the doings of his small body of subjects. But such a policy
costs money, and to obtain it by taxation he found himself
compelled in August, 1647, like many another arbitrary ruler,
to summon reluctantly the representatives of the people.
Carefully as the functions of the Nine Men were limited, they
constituted a permanent element in the governmental system, as
the Twelve Men and Eight Men had not. It was inevitable that
sooner or later they should become the mouthpiece of popular
discontent, which was rapidly increasing under the unprosperous
condition of the province and the burdensome taxes, customs
and other restrictions imposed upon its economic life.

In December, 1648, the board was partly renewed. One of the
new members, Adriaen van der Donck, a lawyer from Breda, who
from 1641 to 1646 had been schout for the patroon at
Renssellaerwyck, soon became the leading spirit of the new
board. Their sense of popular grievances increasing, they
planned to send a deputation to the mother country to
remonstrate. Stuyvesant opposed, arrested Van der Donck,
seized some of his papers, and expelled him from the board.
Nevertheless, a bold memorial to the States General was
prepared, and was signed on July 26, 1649, "in the name and
on the behalf of the commonalty of New Netherland," by Van
der Donck and ten others, present or former members of the
board of Nine Men. In this memorial, which is printed in
_Documents relating to the Colonial History of New York_, I.
259-261, the representatives request the Dutch government to
enact measures for the encouragement of emigration to the
province, to grant "suitable municipal [or civil] government,