In the spring of 1G49 he was selected a member of the advisory council of the " Nine Men," a body chosen by the popular voice to assist in the general government. In this capacity he at once took strong ground against the tyrannical conduct of the new director, Stuyvesant, and, in behalf of the Nine, drew up a memorial, or remonstrance, reciting the abuses under which the people of New NethStuyvesant at first treated this action of his counsuffered. erland cilors with arbitrary vindictiveness, and caused Van der Donck to be arrested and imprisoned. After his release, continuing his course of active protest against misgovernment and oppression, he prepared a second and more elaborate memorial, and, with two others, was dispatched to Holland by the commonalty to lay the whole subject before the States-General. In this mission he had the moral support of the vice-director under Stuyvesant, Van Dincklagen, who wrote a letter to the States-General promotive of his objects. But upon arriving in the mother country he found himself opposed by the powerful influences of the company, which not only succeeded in defeating the

HISTORY

WESTCHESTER

COUNTY

principal reforms that he sought to secure, but eventually directed against him the persecution of the government, and prevented him, to his great inconvenience and loss, from returning to New Netherland for fully four years. Yet Van der Donck's earnest and commendable efforts for the public weal wore not wholly without result. An act was passed separating the local functions of the principal settlement on Manhattan Island from the general affairs of the province. By this measure the settlement formerly known as Fort Amsterdam became an incorporated Dutch city, with the name of New Amsterdam; and thus to the labors of Van der Donck the first municipal organization of what is now the City of New York is directly traceable.