46 The Story of The Bronx 



chief of the latter being the intimate relations which existed 

 between the French and the Dutch. Before the war had begun, 

 on March 23, 1664, Charles, by royal patent, vested in his 

 brother, the Duke of York and Albany, the Dutch province 

 of New Netherland. The grant made the Duke proprietor of 

 the province, "to be holden of the crown in free and common 

 socage, as of the manor of East Greenwich in the County of 

 Kent, " and not in feudal, or knight service. It took the new 

 proprietor but a short time to buy out the other English 

 claimants and to collect commissioners and troops to take 

 possession of his new property. The expedition consisted of 

 four ships of war and four hundred and fifty land troops, 

 the whole under command of Colonel Richard Nicolls, who 

 was accompanied by Governor John Winthrop of Connecti- 

 cut. The expedition was not a national one in any sense, but 

 was entirely individual and personal to the Duke of York. 

 In fact, it was at first disavowed by the English Government ; 

 but by the Treaty of Breda, in 1667, Holland was obliged to 

 submit to the loss of her province. 



The fleet appeared off New Amsterdam on September 6, 

 1664, and demanded the surrender of the province. Governor 

 Stuyvesant wished to resist the English demand, but his 

 councillors, perhaps seeing an end to the oppressive rule of the 

 Company and its representative, pointed out to him the lack 

 of forts, guns, troops, and other necessaries of war, the superi- 

 ority of the English, and the futility of attempting to stay 

 the inevitable; so that the doughty and fiery old soldier was 

 compelled to accept Nicolls's terms of surrender. These 

 were exceedingly generous; the Dutch were promised the free 

 exercise of their own religion, their laws of inheritance, and 

 their trade and intercourse with Holland; in fact, the former 

 state of affairs was interfered with as little as possible, except 



