George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 2, 17th edition.

[295] danger that the New England men would stretch their

Chap XV.}

settlements to the North River, intercept the navigation from Fort Orange, and monopolize the fur-trade.¹ The commercial corporation would not risk a war; the expense would impair its dividends. ‘War,’ they declared, ‘cannot in any event be for our advantage; the New England people are too powerful for us.’ No issue was left but by negotiation; Stuyvesant himself repaired as ambassador to Hartford, and was glad

1650 Sept. 11

to conclude a provisional treaty, which allowed New Netherland to extend on Long Island as far as Oyster Bay, on the main to the neighborhood of Greenwich. This intercolonial treaty was acceptable to the West India Company, but was never ratified in England; its conditional approbation by the States General is the only Dutch state-paper in which the government of the republic recognized the boundaries of the province on the Hudson. The West India Company could never obtain a national guaranty for the integrity of their possessions.²

The war between the rival republics in Europe did

1651 to 1654

not extend to America; we have seen the prudence of Massachusetts restrain the colonies; in England, Roger Williams³delayed an armament against New Netherland. It is true, that the West India Company, dreading an attack from New England, had instructed

1652 Aug. 15.

their governor ‘to engage the Indians in his cause.’⁴ But the friendship of the Narragansetts for the Puritans could not be shaken. ‘I am poor,’ said Mixam, one