In place of Lampoon makers being punished and instead of search being made, as it ought to be, to discover them, the Director believes, on the contrary, that the Lampoons are of use to him, as in this case, so as the better to play his card. The Director observes indeed here, that I have wounded him in his honor and reputation, of which he has long since been bereft but ;
he does not say that it is demonstrated to him or proved to me, so that his usurped sovereignty really smacks of force and violence, and the Lords can judge how matters go here.
' whioli he, Van Djck, calls a Lampoon. New -York Cvlonial liecords, V. -- Ed.
512 NEW-YORK COLONIAL MANUSCRIPTS.
Letter of the Hon'''' Directors of the West India Company Chamber at Amsterdam, to Hendrick van Dyck, Fiscal.
Honorable, Valiant, Beloved, Faithful. We are in receipt of your letters of the 28"" December 1G50, LS"" and IS'*" September of this last year, wherein you complain on the one hand of Cornells Melyn in these express words: -- that he hath grossly slandered the Hon*"'' Directors and that it were desirable that such rascals had never come there; and, on the other hand you complain of the Director's anger against you. We shall state briefly in answer, that the Directors are very little surprised at the calumnies of dishonorable men, and it makes little ditterence whether bad men are there or here, but we had wished that as you had such opinion of those people, that you had performed your duty, and had in season a strict watch at Stalen Island on the ship in which he went over, as that was the place where you could fall in with all the contraband goods that he hath run on shore there during the night and at unseasonable times; and we cannot put such smuggling on any other than your shoulders.