While other colonies were either maintaining an ai)athetic silence or else comi3laining bitterly of the hardships of their lot and the difficult}^ of sustaining life without aid from the company or government that i)lanted them, the long reports of the great advantages and rich fertility of Rensselaerswyck stirred the imagination of many a seventeenth-century Boer. Other shi])s might bring ]3ro\4sions and encouragement for those alread}' on the ground, but those of our patroon brought colonists, with implements for the farm, the forest, and the mill. The documents that have been preser\'ed would i)ut to shame most modern advertisers. Of course, the growth of the up-ri\'er colon)' could not be effected without rousing the jealous opposition of the Company's director at New Amsterdam. The patroon 's director, Van vSlechtenhorst, if he did not exceed the original patent, at least stretched it to its uttermost limit. The fortification of Beam Island, undertaken with a view to controlling the commerce of the river, called forth a most energetic protest from Stuy^'esant. With singleness of purpose he gave his undivided attention to reducing this "government within a government," and finally succeeded in tem-

522 The Hudson River

porarily separating the village of Beverwyck from the manor of Rensselaerswyck. But though the Company had backed the Go\'ernor in his action, the States- General, before whom the matter was finally brought, decided that Fort Orange stood within the limits of the patroon's estate, while the corporation did not own a foot of land in that part of the country. The second patroon, also a non-resident, was Johannes Van Rensselaer, whose half-brother, Jan Baptist, succeeded Van vSlechtenhorst as agent. Johannes visited his possessions on one or two occasions, but returned to Holland. It was not till the third proprietor of this princely estate came to his own that the people of Rensselaersw}xk enjoyed the novelty of ha\4ng their landlord make his home among them.