...s effigy had been hung upon a gallows. De Vries, an active mariner, who knew him well, ranked him among the great rascals of his age. He was energetic, spiteful, and rapacious—the reverse of Van Twiller , his immediate predecessor. Kieft began his administration by concentrating all executive power in his own hands; and he and his council possessed such dignity, in their own estimation, that it bec...