to the damage, injury and ruin of the country. If the
inhabitants or we ourselves go to the Director or other
officers of the Company, and speak of the flourishing condition
of our neighbors, and complain of our own desolate and ruinous
state, we get no other answer from them than that they see and
observe it, but cannot remedy it, as they follow the Company's
orders, which they are compelled to do, and that if we have
any thing to say, we must petition their masters, the Managers,
or Their High Mightinesses, which in truth we have judged to
be necessary. It is now more than a year since the commons-
men deemed it expedient, and proposed, to send a deputation
to Their High Mightinesses. The Director commended the project
and not only assented to it but urged it strongly. It was put
well in the mill, so that we had already spoken of a person to
go, but it fell through for these reasons: When it was proposed,
the Director desired that we should consult and act according
to his wishes; which some who perceived the object would not
consent to, and the matter therefore fell asleep. Besides,
the English, who had been depended upon and who were associated
in the affair, withdrew till the necessity of action became
greater, and the Nine Men were changed the next year,<1> when
Herr Stuyvesant again urged the matter strongly, and declared
that he had already written to the Company that such persons
would come. After the election of the Nine Men, and before
the new incumbents were sworn in, it was determined and resolved
verbally, that they would proceed with the deputation, whatever
should be the consequences; but it remained some time before
the oath was renewed, on account of some amplification of the
commission being necessary, which was finally given and recorded
and signed; but we have never been able to obtain an authentic