The affairs of the Company had been sadly neglected by Governor Van
Twiller, and Governor Kieft, in a nervous, testy, energetic fashion set
about remedying them. The fort was almost in ruins from neglect. The
church was in little better condition. The mills were so out of repair
that even if the wind could have reached them they could not have been
made to do their work properly. There were smugglers who carried away
furs without even a thought of the koopman, who was waiting to record
the duties which should have been paid on them. There were those who
defied all law and order, and sold guns and powder and liquor to the
Indians, regardless of the fact that the penalty for doing so was death.
For guns and liquor had been found to be dangerous things to put in
savage hands.
Governor Kieft rebuilt the houses, put down all smugglers, and set
matters in New Amsterdam in good working order generally. The patroon
system of peopling the colony had proven a total failure. So, soon after
Kieft came, the West India Company decided on another plan. They
furnished free passage to anyone who promised to cultivate land in the
new country. In this way there would be no patroons to act as masters.
Each man would own his land, and could come and go as he saw fit.
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