Page:Augustine Herrman, beginner of the Virginia tobacco trade, merchant of New Amsterdam and first lord of Bohemia manor in Maryland (1941).djvu/62

 been for the fact that he was found living with the daughter of a basketmaker in Amsterdam as man and wife and was arrested for bigamy. In 1650 he was released from the charges and proceeded with his consort to New Amsterdam. On his way across he was fortunate enough to capture a Portuguese ship, which prize he conducted to the Dutch village and was received by Stuyvesant almost in triumph, regardless of the fact that he had utterly failed in his mission.

The rebuke of the States-General did something to lessen the arbitrary rule of Stuyvesant. Under the advice and influence of the subtle Van Tienhoven, the Director General turned his vengeance from the populace and concentrated his thoughts in a determination to ruin financially Herrman and Govert Loockermans. In order to accomplish his ends he used a most effective expedient. In 1648 the English colonies of Connecticut and Rhode Island had forbidden both their citizens and the Indians to trade with the Dutch. At first Stuyvesant had strongly objected to this measure and determined to use force in order to defend Dutch commerce, inasmuch as he found that his own personal trade interests were undergoing much damage. Among others who insisted upon the free rights of the seas were Herrman and Loockermans, whose business dealings with the northern colonies were more extensive than those of the governor. Stuyvesant thereupon turned the weapon which he formerly had disliked so much toward the destruction of the commerce of these two merchants; and for a while he was quite willing to see his own trading transactions decline in an effort to level the fortunes of his two avowed enemies.

Regardless of the laws of the New England colonies, Herrman continued to send his ships to their harbors. In May 1651 he was caught trading with the Indians at Saybrooke. His ship