CHAPTER III 



UNDER THE LORD PROPRIETOR, 1664-1685 



IN the last chapter, there have been stated the causes of 

 the dissensions which arose between the English and 

 the Dutch : first, the explorations of the earlier naviga- 

 tors of both nations; secondly, the active spirit of settlement 

 of the English and their encroachments upon the territory of 

 the Dutch. At no time did the population of New Netherland 

 exceed ten thousand souls; and a feeble and scattered colony 

 of traders was bound to go to the wall in a conflict with its 

 energetic and pushing neighbors, not only on the east but to 

 the south. The influx of English on Long Island and other 

 parts of the colony, even in New Amsterdam itself, had, by 

 1664, raised the ratio of foreigners to Dutch as six to one. 

 Long and bitter as were the disputes between New Netherland 

 and her neighbors, and voluminous as were the reports and 

 complaints to their high mightinesses, the States-General and 

 the Company, the mother countries were not embroiled in 

 the contentions of their offspring; while a war of two years, 

 1652-1654, between the Commonwealth and the Netherlands, 

 did not involve their American settlements. 



In 1660, came the Restoration, and Charles II. ascended 

 the English throne. A war with Holland was decided upon, 

 partly for commercial and partly for political reasons, the 



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