their "High MiphT "^"st petition their masters, the Company, or your High Mightinesses, which we nesses or the Com- ^j^^ ^^^^ Considered, in truth and in deed to be necessary. It is now more than a year since the select men concluded and considered it proper to send a deputation to your High Mightinesses. The Director approved it, and not only assented to The resolution as to it, but stronglv Urged ° it also. It was well advanced in the mill, so that already ' drlegalion ap- ° -' _

rector'^ '"' ""^ ^" "Mention began to be made of a delegate, but, however, nothing came of it. For this reason: When a commencement was about to bemade, the Director required that the proceedings should be according to his pleasure, and to this some who perceived the object, would not consent; the affair went to sleep in consequence. In addition to this, the English, on whom reliance had been and who were associated in this business, withdrew from it at the placed, time when the affair began to be more urgent, and the Nine men were changed our. the following year, when Mr. Stuyvesant again urged the matter strongly, and

declared that he had already written to inform the Company that some persons v.'ereabout to come over. After the election, then, and before the new incumbents were sworn, it was verbally, or orally resolved and concluded, that

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HOLLAND DOCUMENTS : IV. 315

the deputation should be proceeded with, whatever the consequences. Some time elapsed before the Nine men were sworn in anew, on account of some enlargement of the commission, which was at last issued, recorded and signed ; but we have never been able to obtain an authentic transcript of it, though the Director frequently promised it to us, and we have frequently applied for it.