21. The English flag was hoisted over the fort and town, and the name of New York was substituted for New Amsterdam. The remaining Swedish and Dutch settlements soon capitulated. The supremacy of Great Britain in America was finally established. From Maine to Georgia, every mile of the American coast was under the flag of England.
CHAPTER XV.
New York Under the English.
English Governors.
THE Dutch had surrendered themselves to the English government in the hope of obtaining civil liberty. But it was a poor sort of liberty that any province was likely to receive from Charles II. The promised rights of the people were evaded and withheld. The old titles by which the Dutch farmers held their lands were annulled. The people were obliged to accept new deeds from the English governor, and to pay him therefor large sums of money.
2. In 1667 Nicolls, the first English governor of New York, was superseded by the tyrannical Lord Lovelace. The people became dissatisfied and gloomy. The discontent was universal. Several towns resisted the tax-gatherers and passed resolutions denouncing the government. The only attention which Lovelace and his council paid to these resolutions was to order them to be burnt before the town-house of New York. When the Swedes, a quiet people, resisted the governor's exactions, he wrote to his deputy: "If there is any more murmuring against the taxes, make them so heavy that the people can do nothing but think how to pay them."
3. In 1672 Charles II. was induced by the king of France to begin a war with Holland. The struggle extended to the colonies, and New York was for a short time revolutionized. But the conquest was only a brief military occupation of the country. The civil authority of the Dutch was never reestablished. In 1674 Charles II. was obliged to conclude a treaty of peace. All conquests made during the war were restored. New York reverted to the English government, and the rights of the duke of York were again recognized in the province. Sir Edmund Andros was now appointed governor. On the last day of October the Dutch forces were finally withdrawn, and Andros assumed control of the government.
