iu safety to that country, as he made every preparation to execute his purpose, by coniuiencing to Iniild ou that spot and cultivate the soil ; so becau.se he is dehghled witli that situation, as because it shall enable him to reap all the advan tages of the aforesaid valleys, without which all his great expenses which he made at the saw kill, would be in vain and his prospects iu future profits would be obscured, while all his toils and labors would have been rendered useless with respect at least to himself, and whereas the supplicant is informed that son-.o greedy land speculators arrived in 1652, to obtain a grant of these lands iu a clandestine manner; so it is that the supplicant now addresses himself to your honors, with great lesnect that it may please them to resolve that the supplicant shall not be dispossessed of these lauds and valleys, by any iudividual under any pretext ■whatsoever, by which doing, &c. , &c." °'

On the 26 ]May, 1652, occurs an octroy, granting to Adriaen Van der Donck, Patroon of the Colony of Colendonck, power to bequeath his said fief of Colendonck : --

"The States General of the United Netherlands, to all who shall see or hear these presents, send health. Be it known, that we, at the humble request of Adriaen Van der Donck, of Breda, Patroon of the Colony of Xepperhaem, called by him Colendonck, situated in Xew Netherlands, within the limits of the priviledged West India Company, and having taken into consideration the 5th article of the freedom granted by the assembly of the nineteen of the said company, to all those who shall plant in New Netherlands, aforesaid, have granted, consented and priviledged, grant, consent and privilege, out of our sovereign will by these our letters, that he may dispose, bequeath and order the aforesaid, his fief named Colendonck, either by codicil by form of testament, or last will, before a notary and witnesses, superintendence within the property situated in the same, as or otherwise as it shall please him, to the profit of his children, if he have any, or other strangers," &c., &c.^