ivulge our
sentence, or bring it before their High Mightinesses, I would have you
hanged at once, on the highest tree in New Netherland."

Again he said, with characteristic energy, "If any one, during my
administration, shall appeal, I will make him a foot shorter, and send
the pieces to Holland and let him appeal in that way."[7]

Melyn and Kuyter being sent to Holland as criminals, did appeal to the
home government; their harsh sentence was suspended; they were
restored to all the rights of colonists of New Netherland, and
Stuyvesant was cited to defend his sentence at the Hague. When Melyn
returned to Manhattan with these authoritative papers, a great tumult
was excited. Anxious that his triumph should be as public as his
disgrace had been, he demanded that the Acts should be read to the
people assembled in the church. With much difficulty he carried his
point. "I honor the States and shall obey their commands," said
Stuyvesant, "I shall send an attorney to sustain the sentence."

The Indians loudly, and with one accord, demanded the right to
purchase fire-arms. For years they had been constantly making such
purchases, either through the colonists at Rensselaerswyck, or from
private traders. It was feared that the persistent refusal to continue
the supply, might again instigate them to hostilities. The Directors
of the West India government therefore intimated that "it was the best
policy to furnish them with powder and ball, but with a sparing hand."

Stuyvesant ordered a case of guns to be brought over from Holland.
They were landed openly at fort Amsterdam and placed under the care of
an agent of the governor. Thus Stuyvesant himself was to monopolize
the trade, which was extremely lucrative; for the Indians would pay
almost any price for guns, powder and shot. This increased the growing
dissatisfaction. The Indians would readily exchange skins to the
amount of forty dollars for a gun, and of four dollars for a pound of
powder.

"The governor," it was said,

"assumes to be everything. He establishes shops for himself
and does the business of the whole country. He is a brewer
and has breweries. He is a ship-owner, a merchant, and a
trader in both lawful and contraband articles."

The Nine Men persisted in their resolve to send a remonstrance to the
fatherland. The memorial was signed and forwarded the latter part of
July. In this important document, which first gave a brief account of