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[305] soil. But they went in the middle of September on new grass, as good and as long as could be desired. The colony was planted at this time on the Manhates, where a fort was staked out by Master Kryn Frederycke, an engineer. It will be of large dimensions. The ship which has returned home this month [November] brings samples of all the different sorts of produce there. The cargo consists of 7,246 beavers, 675 otter-skins, 48 minx, 36 wildcat, and various other sorts; several pieces of oak timber and hickory. The counting-house there is kept in a stone building, thatched with reed: the other houses are of the bark of trees. Each has his own house. The director and koopman1 live together. There are thirty ordinary houses on the east side of the river, which runs nearly north and south. The Honorable Pieter Minuit is director there at present; Jan Lempo, sheriff; Sebastiaen Jansz Crol and Jan Huyck, comforters of the sick, who, whilst awaiting a clergyman, read to the commonalty there on Sundays, from texts of Scripture with the comment. Francois Molemaecker is busy building a horse-mill, over which shall be constructed a spacious room, sufficient to accommodate a large congregation; and then a tower is to be erected, where the bells brought from Porto Rico will be hung. The Council there administered justice in criminal matters as far as imposing fines, but not as far as capital punishment. Should it happen that any one deserves that, he must be sent to Holland with his sentence. . . . There is another there who fills no public office: he is busy about his own affairs. Men
Boston, 1877. Lee and Shephard.
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