I have met with great opposition from many of the ill disposed Inhabitants, who dayly insinuated that there were better lands for them on the Fronteers, and that they were ill used in being planted there ; being informed from all hands that these Suggestions had been of iibrce enough to make the people idle and backward, and sometliing worse, on my returne from the Jerseys I visited them againe, having remained Some days amongst them, to appearance convinced them of the ill intentions of those who had misled tliem, that they could not follow the work they were destined for, there being no Pine on these lands on the Frontiers, which they had a mind to, besides they must lay their account of labouring there as tlie Israelites did of old, with a sword in one hand and the axe in the other ; having by these meanes to my thinking quieted them I left them, but v/as overtaken a few miles off by an Express wWch aapainted me that they had been in a mutinous manner with their officers, declaring they would

6G2 PAPEllS RELATING TO THE

not settle these lands but would hare others, upon which I returned and ordered them to send Deputies from each Village next morning witli their demands, but they tlien came in a body, and when I found I could prevaile little with reasoning, and was thinking of some more effectual method to keep them to their duty, I ordered the contract wliich they had all signed to be read to them in High Dutch, and asked then whether they were resolved to keep to tlie terms thereof or noe, that I might take my measures accordingly. After some small deliberation they returned me for answer that they were resolved to keep their contract and would for the future be directed entirely by me, soe wee parted good ffriends.