FOOTNOTES:
[1] The original Nine Men were selected by the Director-General from eighteen delegates chosen by the people, and composed of merchants, burghers and farmers. Six of the nine retired annually and their places were filled by appointment from twelve of the "most notable citizens." Their powers were advisory and limited, as they were only to give advice on such propositions as the Director or his council might submit to them. The object of establishing such a Board, and as rehearsed in the colonial charter, was: "That the colony, and principally New Amsterdam, our capital, might continue to increase in good order, justice, police, population, prosperity and mutual harmony; and be provided with strong fortifications, a church, a school, trading places, harbor, and similar highly necessary public edifices and improvements; that the honor of God and the welfare of our dear Fatherland to the best advantage of the Company and the prosperity of our good citizens be promoted; and that the pure reformed religion as it is here in the churches of the Netherlands may be inculcated and preserved." For further account of the Nine Men and the part taken by Arnoldus van Hardenbergh in the affairs of the colony, see Col. Hist. N.Y.I, 258, 261, 270, 305, 310, 318, 324.
[2] Col. Ritzema was a Hollander by birth, and educated as a soldier in the Prussian army. Being refused the advancement to which he deemed himself entitled, he left the American service, but not before he was suspected of disaffection, if not of treachery. During the battle of White Plains, where his regiment was engaged, he was some four or five miles away, and was shortly after displaced from his command. He subsequently joined the British army.
[3] Col. Van Courtlandt gives the following account of the manner of his appointment: "This commission was sent by General Washington, by express, and was of his own direction, having been furnished with blanks from Congress signed by John Hancock, President, for him to fill up as he thought proper, appointing me Colonel of the Second New York Regiment, dated November 30, 1776." Autobiography, &c. The Magazine of American History for May, 1878.
[4] Autobiography of General Van Courtlandt.
[5] Mss. in possession of Mr. John H. Osborne, of Auburn, N.Y.
[6] Some accounts make the number even less.
[7] This house was pillaged about the same time, and large quantities of clothing and vegetables taken by the Indians. One Indian, a chief, emerged from the scene of plunder, mounted on a horse taken from the stable, profusely arrayed in stolen apparel, with silver bands about his arms and a bunch of some forty silver broaches hanging about his person. He was discovered by some soldiers who were on the alert to get a shot at the invaders as they were leaving the place, when one levelled his rifle at him and fired. He was seen to lay over on his horse, but turning into the woods, disappeared. Some time after, his body was found near the place where he was shot with his plunder still about him. Narrative of Massacres and Depredations in Wawarsing, &c., &c., Rondout, 1846.
[8] Stone's Life of Brant. Narrative of Massacres and Depredations in Wawarsing, &c., &c., Rondout, 1846.