[Illustration: The Old Stadt Huys of New Amsterdam.]
With the appointment of these officers, New Amsterdam became a city.
But as Governor Stuyvesant named the officers and as he plainly told
them that they must not interfere with his orders, and as he still had
his own way, regardless of what the officers said and did, the colony
was little different as a city from what it had been before.
In the fall of this year, 1652, war was declared between England and
Holland. Stuyvesant, fearing that the English in New England, which
was on the borders of New Netherland, would attack the city, set about
fortifying it. The fence that Governor Kieft had built so that the
cattle could not wander away was changed into a wall that extended from
river to river. The fort was repaired, and a strong body of citizens
mounted guard by day and by night. Everything was prepared for an
attack. But the enemy did not come after all.
Matters went along quietly enough for three years, until some Swedes
on the Delaware River began to build houses on Dutch lands. Then
Stuyvesant, with 160 men, in seven ships, sailed around to the Delaware
River, and conquered the Swedes.
It was quite ten years since the Indian war, and Stuyvesant, by his
kindness, had made friends of the savages, and had come to be called
their "great friend," But soon after he left to make war on the Swedes,
one of the colonists killed an Indian.
Pages:
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45