58 OLD-FASHIONED GARDENING 



proval of the Company's Director-General and Coun- 

 cil, "as they shall be able to improve." These inde- 

 pendent colonists were to be taxed, but no tax was 

 to be paid for ten years by the tenants of the Patroons, 

 who came bound to them for a term of years; and in 

 addition to this the Patroons themselves were promised 

 "blacks" by the Company. 



Emigration from Holland under this Charter, so 

 little calculated to the taste of Dutch independence, 

 was slow. A few came, to be sure, but not many; 

 there was no stampede of eager Hollanders — not by 

 any means. Trust these wary people to take better 

 heed than that. They staid obstinately at home, and 

 went about their business, the rank and file of them, 

 disdaining to notice the great West India Company at 

 all — and obstinately the great West India Company 

 waited, for eleven long years; waited while the few 

 traders in furs who were already resident in the 

 Colony, misbehaved among themselves more and more 

 persistently, and wrangled and quarreled. These 

 would not work, when they might, but spent most of 

 their time in complaints and contentions against the 

 Company and each other — and things got into a 

 dreadful state. 



Then at last the Company and the States-General 

 capitulated; and in 1640 a new Charter was granted, 

 whereby any emigrant who should go to New Nether- 



