day to the North River and back again, if one knows the
Indian path. The English of New Haven also have a trading
house which lies east or southeast of Magdalen Island, and
not more than six leagues from the North River, in which
this island lies, on the east bank twenty-three and a half
leagues above Fort Amsterdam.<1> This trading post was
established for no other purpose than to divert the trade
of the North River or to destroy it entirely, for the
river is now quite free. They have also endeavored several
times, during eight or nine years past, to buy of the Indians
a large quantity of land, (which would have served more
than any other thing to draw off the trade), as we have
understood from the Indians; for the post is situated not
more than three or four leagues from the eastern bounds of
the colony of Renselaerswyck.

<1> See De Laet, p. 37, supra. The words in square brackets
appear in the manuscript, but not in the printed pamphlet.
<2> Magdalen Island is in the Hudson near Annandale. It
appears that the nearest post to the lower Hudson possessed
hitherto by the New Englanders was that which the New Haven
people established in 1646 on the Housatonic near the
present Derby, Connecticut; and that their nearest post to
the upper Hudson was that which Governor Hopkins, of
Connecticut, set up in 1641 at Woronoco, now Westfield,
Massachusetts.

This and similar difficulties these people now wish to lay
to our charge, all under the pretence of a very clear
conscience, notwithstanding King James, of most glorious