be
preserved by Him with small forces as well as by a great
army."

CHAPTER XIV.

THE CAPTURE OF NEW AMSTERDAM.

The Approach of the Fleet.--The Governor Unjustly
Censured.--The Flag of Truce.--The Haughty Response.--The
Remonstrance.--The Defenceless City.--The Surrender.--The
Expedition to the Delaware.--Sack and Plunder.--Change of
Name.--Testimony to the Dutch Government.--Death of the
Governor.--His farm, or Bouwerie.--War Between Holland and
England.--New York Menaced by the Dutch.

The only response which Colonel Nicholls deigned to make to the
remonstrance of Governor Stuyvesant, was to put his fleet in motion. A
party of soldiers, infantry and cavalry, was landed on Long Island,
and they advanced rapidly through the forest, to the little cluster of
huts which were scattered along the silent and solitary shores of
Brooklyn. These troops were generally volunteers from Connecticut and
from the English settlements on Long Island.

The fleet then ascended through the Narrows, and two of the frigates
disembarked a number of regular troops just below Brooklyn, to support
the volunteers. Two of the frigates, one mounting thirty-six guns, and
the other thirty, coming up under full sail, passed directly within
range of the guns of the fort, and cast anchor between the fort and
Nutten or Governor's Island.

Stuyvesant stood at one of the angles of the fortress as the frigates
passed by. It was a critical moment. The fate of the city and the
lives of its inhabitants trembled in the balance. The guns were loaded
and shotted, and the gunners stood by with their burning matches. A
word from the impetuous Stuyvesant would have opened upon the city all
the horrors of a bombardment. There were but about twenty guns in the
fort. There were sixty-six in the two frigates, whose portholes were
opened upon the city; and there were two other frigates just at hand,
prepared to bring twenty-eight guns more into the fray.

As Governor Stuyvesant stood at that point, burning with indignation,
with the word to fire almost upon his lips, the two clergymen of the
place, Messrs. Megapolensis and son, came up and entreated him not to
be the first to shed blood in a hopeless conflict. Their persuasions
induced the governor to leave the rampart, and intrusting the defence
of the fort to fifty men, to take the remainder of the garrison, one
hundred in number, to repel if pos