**** Because of his honorable treatment of the natives, and their attachment to him, the New Englanders charged him with a design to exterminate the English by Indian instrumentality.
* (v)See vol. i., page 386.
New Netherlands seized by the English.—Disappointment of the People.—Governor Stuyvesant.—New Jersey.
A crisis approached. Charles the Second, without any pretense to title, gave the territory of New Netherlands to his brother James, duke of York.March 1664 The duke sent an English squadron under Richard Nicolls to secure the gift, and on the third of September, 1664, the red cross of St. George floated in triumph over the fort, and the name of New Amsterdam was changed to New York. * It was an easy conquest, for the people were not unwilling. Stuyvesant began to make concessions when it was too late, and his real strength, the will of the people, had departed from him. Although they disliked him as a ruler, they loved him as a man, and in his retirement upon his Bowerie farm, ** near the city, he passed the remainder of his days in quiet, honored and respected by all.
Nicolls, the conqueror, assumed the functions of governor. *** He changed the form of laws, but the despotic spirit remained. The people were disappointed, and felt that they had only changed one tyranny for another. Nicolls filled his pockets from the people's purses, departed, and was succeeded by Francis Lovelace, who developed new schemes of taxation, that the people should "have liberty for no thought," as he expressed it, "but how to discharge them." The people did think of something else, and were on the verge of open rebellion, when the clouds of national war overshadowed local difficulties. England and Holland were at variance, and in July, 1673, a Dutch squadron sailed up the Bay of New York, and, without firing a shot, took possession of the fort and town. The easy con-
* The fort was built of Holland brick, and was finished in 1635. It stood on high ground on the site of the row of brick houses southeast of the Bowling Green, and was capacious enough to contain the governor's house, a small church, and to accommodate three hundred soldiers. It was called Fort Amsterdam. On its surrender to the English, it was called Fort James; during the Dutch occupation again, in 1673, it was called Fort William Hendrick; then again Fort James; on the accession of William and Mary, it was called Fort Orange; and finally, it was named Fort George, when Anne, who married Prince George of Denmark, ascended the English throne. It retained that name until it was demolished in 1790-91.
** Governor Stuyvesant retired from active life after the surrender to the English, and lived in quiet dignity upon his "Bowerie" estate, a short distance from the eity, during the remainder of his life. * Stuyvesant was a native of Holland, born in 1602, and was forty-five years of age when he came to rule New Netherlands. Soon after his arrival, he married Judith Bayard, daughter of a Huguenot, by whom he had two sons. After the capture bv the English, he went to Holland (1665) to report to his superiors, and this was his last ocean voyage. With his little family he enjoyed the repose of agricultural pursuits, within sight of the smoke of the city, which curled above the tree-tops along the "Bowerie Lane." Upon his farm (on the site of the present Church of St. Mark's), he built a chapel, at his own expense, and dedicated it to the worship of God according to the rituals of the Reformed Dutch Church. He lived eighteen years after the change in the government, and at his death was buried in his vault within the chapel. Over his remains was placed a slab (which may still be seen in the eastern wall of St. Mark's), with the following inscription: "In this vault lies buried Petrus Stuyvesant, late captain general and commander-in-chief of Amsterdam, in New Netherlands, now called New York, and the Dutch West India Islands. Died in August, A.D. 1682, aged eighty years."
*** The dismemberment of the New Netherlands speedily followed the English Conquest. James sold to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, the domains included within the present limits of New Jersey. Many privileges were offered to settlers, and the new province flourished. Berkeley finally sold his moiety to a party of Quakers, among whom was William Penn. The province was divided into East and West Jersey. The latter was assigned to the Quakers. In 1682, the heirs of Carteret sold his share to Quakers, among whom, again, was William Penn, and all the territory became an asylum for the persecuted. The ownership of the Jerseys proved a bad speculation, and in 1702 the proprietors surrendered them to the crown. They were united, and for a while were under the jurisdiction of the governor of New York, yet having a distinct Legislative Assembly. New Jersey was separated from New York in 1738, and remained a distinct province until she assumed the position of a sovereign slate in 1776.
