Report of Committee on Historical Tablet 35 



I submit to your Honour's judgment after all that had befallen 

 me and I being in such a sorrowful and miserable condition, my 

 children and people murdered by the savages, the houses, racks, 

 barns to the number of 25, burnt, the people, cattle and farms de- 

 stroyed, my goods stolen, and in place thereof debts incurred for 

 my ransom, and retaining the bitter hatred of the Director, I have 

 resolved to quite the Menatans, in order not to perish absolutely 

 with wife and children and for the time being to put myself under 

 the protection of the English; and consequently departed with 

 my family for New Haven." (The New York Historical So- 

 ciety Collections 1913. Melyn Papers 109-115). 



1660. An ordinance of the Director General and Council of 

 New Netherland for the establishment of Villages passed Febru- 

 ary 9th, 1660, provided that all isolated Farmers at latest by 

 middle of April, should remove houses, goods and cattle, to the 

 village or settlement nearest and most convenient to them, "or, 

 with the approval of Director General and Council, to a favorably 

 situated and defensible spot in a new palisaded Village to be here- 

 after formed, on pain of confiscation of all such goods as shall be 

 found after the aforesaid time, in separate dwelling and farm- 

 houses." (O'Callaghan Laws and Ord. 369.) 



March 6th, 1660 a treaty of peace is made with the Indians. 

 Mettano formerly chief of Najeck is now chief of Staten Island. 

 (Col. Doc. 13 : 148.) 



The 20th November 1660 Baron Frederick van der Capellen ter 

 Budelholf, as Executor and Co-heir of the late Hendrick van der 

 Capellen tot Ryssel, surrenders to the West India Co. " such a por- 

 tion as the aforesaid Baron van der Capellen pretended to be his 

 property, in Staten Island, situated in New Netherland, with the 

 Patronage, the Mansion, Outhouses, Tools of husbandry, Stock," 

 etc. (O'Callaghan Hist. 2: 576; Albany Records vol. 8.) 



1661. Extract from letter of Stuyvesant to the Directors, 21st 

 July 1661, which refers to claim of Melyn to the ownership of 

 2/3 of Staten Island and his claim on the other 1/3 against the 

 heirs of van der Capelen : 



" This is the reason why these suitable lands are not settled and 

 cultivated and they will be settled and cultivated only slowly, as 

 long as the aforesaid Melyn makes claim to be owner of either the 

 whole or part of it." (Col. Doc. 13 : 206.) 



