And as the Governor of Fort Christina, named John Rising, so unjustly filched the possession of the aforesaid fort in the year 1654, from this State and the Company, as already narrated, and as nothing was to be expected but that he would undertake a similar attempt after the departure of the aforesaid Director-General, the latter, therefore, summoned the aforesaid Fort Christina, and obtained possession thereof in like manner, without any bloodshed, on the So"" of the same month, according to the capitulation hereunto annexed, N" 11. And though the aforesaid action, according to the law of nations and for divers reasons, could be maintained and defended, the Company, nevertheless, in order to show and to declare before all the world that it does not seek enmity with any one, nor ask aught belonging to another, but only endeavors to maintain and defend its own, allowed on the same day an offer in writing to be made, to restore the said surrendered Fort Christina to the said John Rising on honorable and reasonable conditions to be sworn to and solemnly fulfilled by him and his officers as Agents on the behalf of her Royal Majesty of Sweden on the one part, and the

592 NEW- YORK COLONIAL MANUSCRIPTS. Director-General and Council, as Agents of this State and the Company, on the other. But this offer was rejected by said John Rising, on pretence that the matter was not within his attribute, and he preferred to adhere to the Capitulation which had been concluded.