nnecticut, while the
towns on western Long Island should remain under the government of New
Netherland. To this the Hartford commissioners replied:

"We do not know of any province of New Netherland. There is
a Dutch governor over a Dutch plantation, on the island of
Manhattan. Long Island is included in our patent, and we
shall possess and maintain it."[11]

Thus repulsed at every point, the Dutch agents commenced their return.
They bore a letter to Stuyvesant from the General Assembly, in which,
withholding from him the title of governor of New Netherland, they
discourteously addressed him simply as "Director General at
Manhattan."

As we have mentioned, there were many English settlers in the Dutch
towns on the western end of Long Island. In some of them it is not
improbable that the English element predominated. In the letter sent
by the General Court to Governor Stuyvesant, it was stated that
Westchester and Stamford belonged to Connecticut; that, for the
present, the General Court would forbear from exercising any authority
over the English plantations on Long Island; but that, should the
Dutch molest the English there, the Connecticut authorities would use
all just and lawful means for their protection.

The situation of the Dutch province was now alarming in the extreme,
and Governor Stuyvesant was environed by difficulties which no mortal
sagacity or energy could surmount. His treasury was exhausted. The
English settlers in the Long Island villages, were in determined and
open revolt. And his English neighbors, whom he was altogether too
feeble to resist, were crowding upon him in the most merciless
encroachments.

Under these circumstances, he called a Convention, to consist of two
delegates from all the neighboring villages, to meet at New Amsterdam
on the 22d of October, 1663. Eight towns were represented.

The Convention adopted an earnest remonstrance to the authorities in
Holland, in which the disastrous situation of the province was mainly
attributed to their withholding that aid which was essential to the
maintenance of the colony.

"The people of Connecticut," the remonstrance stated,

"are enforcing their unlimited patent according to their own
interpretation, and the total loss of New Netherland is
threatened. The English, to cloak their plans, now object
that there is no proof, no legal commission or patent, from
their High Mightinesses, to sub