90 NEW-YORK COLONIAL MANUSCRIPTS. the said Patroons, communicated in writing to your High Migiitinesses, they say in reply to it As the foundation of the suit which they may institute, in proper time, against the above named Directors, for indemnification of such damages and losses as they respectively shall happen to have suffered, because the aforesaid Directors have not allowed, nor suffered, them to realize the full effect of the granted Exemptions and Freedoms, mainly depends upon the force and tenor of said Exemptions and Freedoms ; and your High Mightinesses would be uselessly detained by the deduction of the damages and losses suffered by the Patroons in the planting and continuance of their respective Colonies, and the consequences thereof,

in case the above named Directors are not bound to make good the aforesaid losses and damages, for having failed to carry out the aforesaid granted and accepted Exemptions and Freedoms therefore, in order that they may not rashly enetr into a dispute with the above ;

named Directors, about the aforesaid indemnity, they have deemed it necessary and essential to the despatch of business, first and foremost, to request your High Mightinesses (to whom, by resolution of the 27"" March last, adopted in the Assembly of the XIX., the differences of parties on both sides are referred ) to determine the force and tenor of the aforesaid Exemptions as ;

the Pretension and Claim of the Patroons is directed to that and to no other end; in order that such judgment being delivered, the act being one of wrong and affecting all the Patroons in common, then the Patroons will have to state their respective losses and damages, and adopt pertinent conclusion thereon; the rather as, after the rendition of the aforesaid judgment, they shall have conjointly to determine upon the continuation or abandonment of their Colonies, and as there is no reason for postponing the said judgment until the decision on the Patroons' respective losses, which by reason of instruction and the distance of place, will experience some delay; meanwhile the Patroons, in their view of the aforesaid Exemptions and Freedoms, remain injured and would be further damaged in their means.