Page:Augustine Herrman, beginner of the Virginia tobacco trade, merchant of New Amsterdam and first lord of Bohemia manor in Maryland (1941).djvu/49

 temper of the governor himself. When she saw the conditions of things and what she had to face she determined to spend the winter of 1651–1652 in New Netherland regardless of the rigorous climate. Her brother-in-law’s enemies instituted one law suit after another against her, but she was able to win every one. By the spring of 1652 conditions had become greatly changed. Just exactly what occurred that winter in the house on Pearl Street, likely we shall never know all the details. But it seems that Herrman and Anna Hack met their creditors and changed them from bitter enemies into fast friends. Perhaps Stuyvesant, harsh and rough, tempestuous and vindictive, as he undoubtedly was, finally succumbed to the graces of the Virginia lady, proving then as it does so often now that one can accomplish more by gentle rather than by rough ways. At any rate the Stuyvesants, Herrmans and Hacks remained staunch friends and allies. In May 1652 Stuyvesant stipulated that Herrman’s creditors abide by the valuation to be fixed by Pieter Wolphertsen, Van Couwenhoven, Schepen and Frederick Flipsen on his property in New Amsterdam.