Michiel Jansz and Thomas Hall were farmers, the latter, the
first English settler in New York State, having come to
Manhattan as a deserter from George Holmes's abortive expedition
of 1635 against Fort Nassau on South River. Elbert Elertsz
was a weaver, Hendrick Kip a tailor. Govert Loockermans, on
the other hand, brother-in-law to both Couwenhoven and
Cortlandt, was the chief merchant and Indian trader of the
province, often in partnership with Isaac Allerton the former
Pilgrim of Plymouth. Lastly, Jan Everts Bout, a farmer, had
formerly been superintendent for Pauw at Pavonia. Characterizations
of these men, by an unfriendly hand, may be seen at the end
of Van Tienhoven's _Answer_ to this _Representation_.

Three of the signers, Van der Donck, Couwenhoven and Bout,
were deputed to go to the Netherlands and present the
_Representation_ to the States General, while Stuyvesant sent
Secretary van Tienhoven to counteracat their efforts. The
Voluminous papers which both parties presented to their High
Mightinesses were referred to a committee, which in April,
1650, submitted a draft of a reformed and more liberal government
for the province. The delegates caused their _Representation_
to be printed, in a pamphlet of forty-nine pages, now very
rare, under the title, _Vertoogh van Nieu-Neder-Land, Weghens
de Ghelegentheydt, Vruchtbaerheydt, en Soberen Staet desselfs_
(Hague, 1650), i.e., "Representation of New Netherland, concerning
its Location, Productiveness and Poor Condition." Much discussion
was aroused. "The name of New Netherland," wrote the Amsterdam
chamber of the Company to Stuyvesant, "was scarcely ever
mentioned before, and now it would seem as if heaven and earth
were interested in it." So effective an exposition of the