Which being considered, it is resolved and concluded hereby to request the Mess" van der Capellen tho Ryssel and the other their High Mightinesses' Deputies in the matter of the reform of the direction and management of the affairs relating to the West India Company, with what appertains to, and depends on, them, to inspect and examine the same and report thereupon.

Resolution of the States General on a Petition from New Netherland.

[Frcm the Register of Weal India Affairs, 1638--1651, in the Eoyal Archives at the Hague. ]

Saturday, 11"" January 1648.

Folio 806. I"'^^ petition presented to their High Mightinesses in the name and on the cm't'rand''comen" behalf of Jochcm Pietersen Cuyter and Cornelis Melyn, inhabitants of New "°'^°" Netherland is, after consideration, placed, with the papers thereunto anne.xed, in the hands of the Mess" van der Capellen tho Ryssel and others their High Mightinesses' deputies in the matters concerning the Redress of the decline of the West India Company, for inspection

and examination, to look into what has been done thereupon, to hear the Directors of the aforesaid Company, and to make a report of the whole.

PAPERS RELATING TO THE CONDITION OF NEW NETHERLAND, And, the -proceedings against Cornelius MJyn and his adherents; marked from letter A. to letter R., 1643--1647.

[ From .the anlhenticatcd Copy in the Eoyal Archives at the Hague ; Loketkas of the States General ; Division Wea IndUche Compagnie, No. 25. ]

Excise Law of 1644. A. Whereas, the General war which we have been forced to wage against the surrounding Savages hath obliged us, in order to preserve the country, to employ an