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RICHARD NICOLLS, by the right of conquest, became Governor of New York, on the 29th of August, 1664. He was welcomed by the Dutch civic authorities whom he retained in in office, and his first act was to direct that the city should henceforth bear its new name; it was no longer "New Amsterdam," but "New York," and the fort was named "Fort James."

Richard Nicolls

Thus our city perpetuates the memory of the last of the Stuarts. But it also recalls the York or Eboracum of the Roman period in Britian, of the historic city whose libraries and schools in the days of Alcuin and Charles the Great began the civilization of modern Europe.

Richard Nicolls, the new Governor, had been the confidant and faithful follower of the royal Stuarts. He

1664-1668.

was born in 1624 at Ampthill in Bedfordshire; his father, a lawyer, had married a daughter of Sir George Bruce. Nicolls studied at the university, was a good scholar, but in the civil war joined the royalist forces and commanded a troop of horse. He fled with the Stuarts to the continent, became attached to the service of the Duke of York, and fought by his side in the French armies. He came back to England at the Restoration, was a member of the duke's household, and was trusted by him in his most important affairs. Of Nicolls's private character we know little. It is difficult to see how any honorable man could have remained the friend and follower of James Stuart, or could have joined in an expedition so plainly dishonest and piratical as was that against the Dutch in New Amsterdam. But Nicolls seems at least to have been

*From "The Memorial History of New York."

more humane and prudent than most of the dependents of the royal court. He gave to the Dutch the most liberal terms of surrender. He neither robbed nor massacred; he seems to have made little profit from his conquest; and he returned to Europe to die in the service of his master the duke, in the second Dutch war, faithful to the end. To the Dutch inhabitants Nicolls proved a gentle master, and evidently won their good. will. No one was injured in person or property. The Court of Burgomasters and Schepens met on the day after the capitulation, and the business of the city went on as usual. The Dutch officials wrote an account of the surrender to the West India Company, in which they very plainly complained of the little care it had taken for their protection, and Stuyvesant sent a defense of his own conduct and a representation of the helpless state in which he had been left. The ship Gideon carried away the Dutch garrison, together with these memorials of disaster, and, provided with a pass from Nicolls, bore the evil tidings to the directors. Their utter neglect of the defense of New Amsterdam is certainly almost unaccountable. Had they sent a few frigates to its aid, and some Dutch troops, its fall might have been delayed but not averted. Nicolls, too, dismissed the troops from Long Island and the east, who had been so eager for the plunder of the city and whose loud threats from the "Ferry"

on the Brooklyn side had carried terror to the quiet citizens. He promised rewards to all who had taken up arms for "their King and country;" he thanked the Massachusetts delegates, and he declared that he would soon summon deputies from the Long Island towns to discuss matters relating to its peace and prosperity. The government of the province was renewed by the appointment of English officials. Captain Matthias Nicolls, of Islip, Northamptonshire, a lawyer, who had come with him from England, was made secretary of the province. The council was composed of Englishmen; Delavall, an Englishman, was made collector of the port, but the Dutch city officials were to retain their places for six months or more and administer justice as usual.

The city of New York as it was now to be called, embraced the whole of Manhattan Island. Its population at the surrender was about fifteen hundred, chiefly Dutch. An engraving remains of the appearance of the small town, and a contemporary description of New Netherland, explains and illustrates the picture. The island was covered with woods, meadows, fens, and lakes, and some lofty hills. What is now the Battery was then only a reef of numerous rocks often covered by the tide. Broadway, an Indian path, ran over the highland from the Battery to the Park. The river on the west came up to the hill on which stands Trinity Church. The East River flowed

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dale to the marshy fields where Stuyvesant hid in his gloomy retirement. A pleasant refuge from the cares and toils of his European home must New Amsterdam have seemed to the Dutch immigrant accustomed only to his native fens and level lowlands, his narrow fields slowly won from the stormy sea by incessant labor and guarded by his patient vigilance. Here in Manhattan and its neighborhood he seemed to live in luxurious plenty.

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The fertile soil, the chronicler tells us, produced all the fruits and vegetables of Holland in unrivaled excellence. Apples, pears, peaches, plums, cherries, quinces, medlars throve better than at home. Vines grew wild everywhere, and there was an abundance of blue and white grapes; a wine was already made from them equal to any Rhenish or French. All the vegetables known to the Dutch filled the gardens of the settlers; corn grew rapidly; the virgin soil was suited every kind of plant or tree, and flowers of pleasant odors and rare beauty adorned the scene. The picture of ease and plenty drawn by the early travelers to New Netherland must have seemed almost an earthly paradise to the less fortunate Europeans. It was so real as to win back Stuyvesant to his bouwery and to console the Bayards, Beekmans, and their Dutch contemporaries under the rule of their alien governors. No one was willing to go back to the Fatherland.

It was Nicolls's aim to soothe and win the support of his new subjects by a perfect religious toleration. The Dutch ministers were allowed their stipends and their pleasant homes on Beaver and Pearl streets undisturbed. The usual services were performed in the church built by Kieft in the fort. But it was arranged that after the Dutch service was over, the Episcopal should be read by the chaplain of the English forces; and for thirty years, we are told, this practice was observed, the two religious bodies occupying the same building. But the governor had more difficult duties to perform: he was to secure the submission of the wide tract of territory reaching from the Hudson to the Delaware, over which he was expected to enforce the English rule. To assure the control of the Hudson an expedition was sent up in September, under Colonel Cartwright, to reduce to obedience the Dutch settlements at Esopus, Fort Orange and Rensselaerswyck. In our golden autumnal days the English for the first time sailed up the broad river, beside the Palisades, through the deep shadows of the Highlands, and reached after a weary voyage the Dutch fort and settlements. No resistance was made; the town was named "Albany," a garrison was placed in it; Van Rensselaer was not disturbed in his possessions, but was required to take out a new title, or to prove his claim in New York.

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