A feud, or fief, (these terms are synonymous) is thus defined in the Dutch law, "an hereditary indivisible use over the immoveable property of another, with a mutual obligation of protection on the one side, and a duty of homage and service on the other." ^ Such a fief, under the law, "was not divisible, except by charter and passed only per capita, or by stipulation in cases of intestacy, to the eldest male amongst the lawful children, or further descendants, of the last possessor; to males sprung from males, the nearest degree taking precedence of one more remote."^ These, the old fiefs of the Fatherland, were termed "recta fenda,'' right fiefs, and were the fiefs referred to in both the New Netherland charters of "Freedoms and Exemptions" and the above translations of them. As they were indivisible and passed of right to the eldest male representative of the last possessor, and did not depend upon the intestacy of a son, they were termed "undying" fiefs, as opposed to fiefs where the succession might be changed by stipulation at the time of the investiture, or afterwards, which last were also hereditary. These "old fiefs" were not transplanted to New Netherland by the charters of Freedoms and Exemptions, but the new fiefs created by virtue of those charters had merely the same rights of jurisdiction, hunting, fishing, fowling, and milling, as the old un-

1 This means "political and judicial," the original being badly transl.ited. See Art. X, in the charter of 1629, where the language, " is aa well in the political as the judicial government."