e west and two Dutch villages--Breuckelen
and Amersvoort,(1) not of much importance--and some English villages, as
Gravesande, Greenwich and Mespat, (from which(2) the people were driven
off during the war, and which was afterwards confiscated by Director
Kieft; but as the owners appealed therefrom, it remains undecided.)
There are now a very few people in the place. Also, Vlissengen, which
is a pretty village and tolerably rich in cattle. The fourth and last
village is Heemstede, which is superior to the rest, for it is very rich
in cattle.

(1) Brooklyn and Flatlands.

(2) I.e., from Mespath or Newtown. Gravesend had been
settled by Lady Deborah Moody, Greenwich in 1639 by Captain
Daniel Patrick and Robert Feake, Mespath by Francis Doughty
in 1642, Flushing and Hempstead by other English in 1645 and
1644.

As we are now on the subject of Long Island, we will, because the
English claim it, speak of it somewhat particularly. The ocean on the
south, and the East River on the north side of it, shape this island;
and as we have said, it is, on account of its good situation, of its
land, and of its convenient harbors, and anchoring places, a crown of
New Netherland. The East River separates it from Manathans Island as
far as the Hellegat. It is tolerably wide and convenient; and has been
inhabited by our freemen from the first, according as opportunities
offered. In the year 1640 a Scotchman, with an English commission,
came to Director William Kieft. He laid claim to the island, but his
pretension was not much regarded; for which reason he departed without
accomplishing anything, having influenced only a few simple people.
Director Kieft also afterwards sent and broke up the English who wished
to begin a settlement at Oyster Bay, and thus it remained for a long
time.(1)

(1) James Farrett, as agent for Lord Stirling, made grants
at Oyster Bay to a company of men from Lynn, who began a
settlement there. Stirling had received a grant of Long
Island from the Council of New England in April, 1635.

In the year 1647, a Scotchman came here, who called himself Captain
Forester,(1) and claimed this island for the Dowager of Sterling, whose
governor he gave himself out to be. He had a commission dated in the
eighteenth year of King James's reign, but it was not signed by His
Majesty or any body else. Appended to it was an old seal which we could
not decipher. His commission