ou commissioners
met at the Red Mount (New Haven) as against breakers of the common
league, and also infringers of the rights of the lords, the states,
our superiors, in that you have dared, without our express and
especial consent, to hold your general meeting within the limits of
New Netherland."[22] At the close of Kieft's administration in 1647
the whole province of New Netherland could furnish not more than three
hundred fighting-men and contained a population of not more than two
thousand. Compared with the population of New England these figures
seem insignificant enough, and render highly improbable the story
popular with some New England historians that the Dutch were enlisted
in a great scheme of uprooting the English colonies.

In 1647 Peter Stuyvesant was sent over as governor. He had the sense
to see that the real safety of the Dutch consisted not in bluster, but
in settling a line between the possessions of the two nations as soon
as possible. The charter of the West India Company called for the
territory between forty and forty-five degrees north latitude, but to
assert the full extent of the patent would have been to claim the
jurisdiction of Massachusetts. Accordingly, Stuyvesant, soon after his
arrival, addressed a letter to Governor Winthrop, asserting the Dutch
claim to all the land between the Connecticut and Delaware and
proposing a conference. But it is evident that in claiming the
Connecticut he was actuated more by a hope of deterring the further
aggressions of English settlers than otherwise. The federal
commissioners returned a polite reply, but showed no anxiety to come
to an accommodation. Soon after a fresh quarrel broke out with New
Haven, and in March, 1648, Stuyvesant wrote to the governor of
Massachusetts offering to submit to him and the governor of Plymouth
the matter in dispute. He then wrote home for instructions, and as
diplomatic relations between England and Holland were suspended, the
West India Company bade him make such terms as he could with his
English neighbors.[23]

Accordingly, in September, 1650, Stuyvesant visited Hartford while the
federal commissioners were in session there. The discussions were
carried on in writing, and Stuyvesant dated his letter at "New
Netherland." The federal commissioners declined to receive this
letter, and Stuyvesant changed the address to "Connecticut." This
proving satisfactory to the commissioners, Stuyvesant set out his
territorial cla