represented by one Jochem Pietersz Cuyter and Cornelis Melyn,<1>
we will dispose of this point as briefly as we possibly can.

<1> Stuyvesant, soon after his arrival, at the instance of
Kieft, condemned Kieft's chief opponents, Kuyter and Melyn,
for lese-majesty, and banished them, forbidding them to appeal.
On reaching Holland, however, after their dramatic escape from
the shipwreck of the Princess, they appealed, and secured a
reversal of their condemnation.

Before the time that Director Kieft brought the unnecessary
war upon the country, his principal aim and endeavors were
to provide well for himself and to leave a great name after
him, but without any expense to himself or the Company, for
this never did anything remarkable for the country by which
it was improved. Thus he considered the erection of a church
a very necessary public work, the more so as it was in
contemplation to build one at that time at Renselaers-Wyck.
With this view he communicated with the churchwardens--of which
body he himself was one--and they willingly agreed to and
seconded the project. The place where it should stand was
then debated. The Director contended that it should be placed
in the fort, and there it was erected in spite of the others,
and, indeed, as suitably as a fifth wheel of a wagon; for
besides that the fort is small and lies upon a point of land
which must be very valuable in case of an increase of population,
the church ought to be owned by the congregation at whose cost
it was built. It also intercepts and turns off the southeast
wind from the grist-mill which stands close by, for which
reason there is frequently in summer a want of bread from its