by Adriaen van der Donck;' pursuant whereunto the same accompanies tliis letter, that your High Mightinesses make such disposition thereon as you in your profound judgment shall deem proper. Herewith, High and Mighty Lords, we shall pray God Almighty for your High Mightinesses' persons and prosperous government, and remain, your High Mightinesses' humble servants, The Directors of the General Incorporated West India Company, Chamber at Amsterdam. Amsterdam the 19"' May, ) ,„,„ „.,„,-. Received 21 May, > 1653. (bigned) v Abr. Wilmerdonx. & / j

' Adeiaex VA^ DER DoxcK, was, as he himself states, a free citizen of Breila, and a lineal descendant of Adriaen van Bergen, part owner of the famous turf-boat in which a party of Dutch troops were clandestinely introduced, in the year 1699, into the castle of that city, whereby that stronghold of Spanisli tryanny was reduced. After graduating at the University of Leyden, and pursuing a course of legal 8tud3', Van der Douck ^-eceived the Degree of Juris ntriitsque Doctor, that is of the

civil Ue was subsequently admitted to the practice of an Advocate in the Supreme Court of Holland, and and canon law. enjoys the distinction of having been the first lawyer in this country. He came here in tlie fall of 1641, as Slieriff of the Colonic of Rensselaerswyck, and during his term of office, evinced always a disposition to protect the colonists. A few years afterwards he made an unsuccessful attempt to purchase a tract of land at Catskill, and in 1647, his term of office having expired, he removed to the Manhattans, where, in consideration of the assistance he had afforded in negotiating a treaty with the Mohawk=, and in return for advances he had made to enable the government to purchase presents for those Indians, he obtained a grant of a large tract of land in Westchester, now known as Tonkers.