Extract of the letter written by the Hon"' Peter Stuyvesant, Director-General in New Netherland, to the Directors of the West India Company, Chamber at Amsterdam. Dated 27"' July, 1654.

A ship arrived last May, in the South River of New Netherland, said to belong to the Crown of Sweden, with some considerable reinforcements; about, as is stated, three hundred souls, with a new Governor; who lying in front of our Fort Casimier fired two (^ three guns as a salute. Whereupon 20 @. 30 armed soldiers landed from the ship and were duly welcomed Vol. I. 76

602 NEW- YORK COLONIAX MANUSCRIPTS. on shore, in front of the gate of the fort by our Commandant there, named Gerrit Bicker; thereupon conducted through the gate, which stood open, into the fort, where being come, they immediately divided themselves, so.ne to the bastions or bulwarks of the fort, others overpowered the few men belonging to the Company, being at the time 10 or 12 soldiers, and in this manner made themselves masters of the fort. Seven or eight of the Company's soldiers have come hither with Adriaen van Tienhoven. The remainder, with Commandant Bicker and almost all the freemen, have remained there, and taken the oath of fidelity to the new Swedish Governor. The fuller details of this scandalous surrender of the abovementioned fort, and the truth thereof, your Honors can deduce from the annexed copies of depositions and unsigned letter of the abovenamed Bicker in answer to mine, which we have received overland, etc.