Many a one threatened, in private, to do what he might toward teaching the Director a lesson, if a fitting chance came his way, and I have been told that a dozen or more Dutchmen, who had friends in power in Holland, sent to the West India Company many complaints concerning Master Stuyvesant, praying that he might be deprived of his office.
It was during these idle days that I learned, because of asking many questions, much concerning the village of Hartford, which had been begun by the preacher Hooker, and all who went to his church in New Town of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
These people wanted a village of their own, therefore entered the forest with but little of goods, suffering much in the battle with the wilderness, but coming out victors owing to their industry.
While we of New Amsterdam had built a city, we could count no more than fifteen hundred people in it, and this settlement on the Connecticut river, which was by this time made up of three villages, boasted of more than eight hundred persons.
It was to Hartford I would first go when a fitting opportunity came, so I said to myself after hearing all that could be told concerning these people, and to such an end I began to make plans.
Wherever I might go, however, I could not find so much to please the eye as in New Amsterdam, for the English people in this New World are much more prim and sedate, both in manner and dress, than are the Dutch.
ON BROAD WAY
It was indeed a brave sight to see the people of quality walking on Broad Way, or strolling to and fro upon the Bowling Green, of a summer evening, and although I so disliked the man, I must confess that Director Stuyvesant and his family went far toward adding to the fine array.
The ladies dressed exceeding gay in high-colored gowns of silk, satin, or some other such stuff, open up and down in front of the skirt that their petticoats, ornamented with fine needlework, might be seen. Their hose were of bright colors, and the low shoes, with very high heels, had bows of ribbon, or buckles of silver, even of gold, which added much to the looks of the wearer. It was the silken hoods which I disliked, for those ladies curled or frowzled their hair in a most bewitching fashion, afterward covering it with powder, and the hood concealed far too much of it.