1913.] SIR EDMUND, HIS SON. 53 



or incapacity. In witnesse whereof I have hereunto putt my 

 hand and seale this 17th day of August 1674. 

 E. Andros, 



in the presence of 



Ra : Marshall, Win. Craven, Samuel Gagnepain, Caesar 



Knap ton. (1) 



On November 1st Edmund arrived at New York in the 

 Castle Frigate, accompanied by his wife and personal staff. 

 It is impossible in this limited space to recount in detail all 

 the difficulties he met with in this new command. He was 

 hampered by very stringent orders from England, which he 

 promptly enforced, thereby causing much friction between 

 himself and the Dutch merchants, who were then the principal 

 inhabitants of the colony. Mr. Woodrow Wilson, the 

 American President, describes him as being " a bluff 

 soldier, as honest as he was direct and determined, not a man 

 to originate a policy of his own, but sure to do what he was 

 commanded to do very absolutely, without tact, or scruple, or 

 hesitation, with the rough energy of a man who was no 

 politician, only a soldier. < 2) 



While at the Hague in his boyhood, Edmund would 

 probably have had some experience of Dutchmen and their 

 ways, for then as now : — 



" Tn matters of business the fault of the Dutch, 

 Is giving too little and asking too much ! " 



And we know, from his own letters to Secretary Blath- 

 wayt (3> that his chief difficulty lay in the reluctance of the 

 Dutch Colonists to agree to the Revenue Laws, upon which 

 Blathwayt, as one of the Lords Commissioners of Trade, was 

 naturally very insistent. 



After six months of office the Duke of York wrote to 

 him (April 6th, 1675), that he was "well satisfied with your 

 proceedings hitherto." < 4) On November 17th, 1677, Edmund 

 Andros and his wife left New York and proceeded to Eng- 

 land on a short visit. Before sailing they stayed a night with 

 Governor Carteret in New Jersey. They did not arrive in 

 England until 1678, and Edmund was then knighted by King 

 Charles as a token of approval of his administration. On 

 May 27th Sir Edmund and Lady Andros again set sail for 

 New York in the ship Blossom, Richard Martin of New 

 England, Master. They were accompanied by the Rev. 

 Charles Woolley, A.M., as Chaplain, William Pinhorne, 



(1) Guille MSS. 



(2) " Colonies and Nation," Harper's Magazine, 1901. 



(3>" 'An Old Time Colonial Secretary."— Fortnightly Review, Sept., 1910. 

 (4) New York Colonial Documents III., p. 227. 



