After careful deliberation, an elaborate series of provisions to this end was drawn up, entitled " Freedoms and Exemptions granted by the Assembly of the XIX. of the Privileged West India Company to all such as shall plant any colonies in New Netherlands which in June, 1G29, received the ratification of the States-General. As this document was the the patroonbasis upon which the celebrated patroonships, including ship of Yonkers, were founded, a brief summary of it is in order. y who should settle a " colAny member of the West India Compan and onic » (i. e., a plantation or landed proprietorship) in New Xetherlons, was entitled to become a beneficiary of the Privileges and Exempti counbut that right was withheld from all other persons. The whole

HISTORY

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try was thrown open under the otter, excepting " the Island of Manhattan," which was reserved to the company. A colonic, within the meaning of the document, was to be a settlement of " fifty souls, upwards of fifteen years old," one-fourth to be sent during the first year and the remainder before the expiration of the fourth year. Everyone complying with these conditions was t<> be acknowledged a patroon of New Xetherland. The landed limits of the patroonships were extensible sixteen English miles " along the shore -- that is, on one side of a navigable river, or eight miles on each side of a river -- and so far into the country as the situation of the occupiers will permit"; and the company waived all pecuniary consideration for the land, merely requiring settlement. Upon the patroons was conferred the right to " forever possess and enjoy all the lands lying within the aforesaid limits, together with the fruits, rights, minerals, rivers, and fountains thereof; as also the chief command and lower jurisdiction, fishing, fowling, and grinding, to the exclusion of all others, to be holden from the company as a perpetual inheritance." In case " anyone should in time prosper so much as to found one or more cities," he was to " have power and authority to establish officers and magistrates there, and to make use of the title of his colonie according to his pleasure and the quality of the persons." The patroons were directed to furnish their settlers with " proper instructions, in order that they may be ruled and governed conformably to the rule of government made or to be made by the Assembly of the XIX., as well in the political as in the judicial government." Special privileges of traffic along the whole American coast from Florida to Newfoundland were bestowed upon the patroons, with the proviso that their returning ships should land at Manhattan Island, and that five per cent, of the value of the cargo should be paid to the company's officers there.