that is our wages and thanks for our devotion to the public interests. Yet we still trust in God, etc.
As one of the Nine Men of New Amsterdam, Herrman had occasion to write to Van der Donck a few months previous:[1]
His Honor (Stuyvesant) has been to the North and there entered into a treaty respecting the boundary, etc. but keeps everything concealed from us and from his council. We fear the news from New England (a translation whereof is annexed) which was secretly brought and thrown into a certain house here, is too true, inasmuch as ’tis confirmed by daily rumors. We at least hope and request that you will be particular in calling the attention of their High Mightinesses our Sovereigns thereto, whenever the Treaty between the Director and the English comes up for ratification.
The News from New England is a satirical account of Peter Stuyvesant’s mission there. It runs in part:
“The governor of New Netherland has been received and treated like a prince wherever he passed; for which he expressed himself very gratefully... They finally drew and got him so far along by a sweet and right subtle line, in order howbeit, to reach the matter itself, that they have mutually referred their differences about the boundaries, etc. to four Arbitrators.”[2]
The letter continues telling how the arbitrators (two of whom were Dutchmen) finally wrested every point from Stuyvesant’s favor and how he in the end agreed with their decision. However:
