Page:Augustine Herrman, beginner of the Virginia tobacco trade, merchant of New Amsterdam and first lord of Bohemia manor in Maryland (1941).djvu/74

 likely met the Custises and the Scarburghs, the Lees, the Carters and the Randolphs and other great landowners of the Eastern Shore and the mainland.

At any rate it appears reasonably certain that when the winter of 1660 had hardly begun he resolved never again to make New Amsterdam his permanent home. He had during the past few years become reasonably well-to-do again and he turned his attention toward buying an estate in either Maryland or Virginia. That he made up his mind to settle among the English colonists early in 1660 is shown by the fact that on January 14 of that year he received his letters of denization from Maryland that permitted him to own property though he did not become a naturalized citizen until 1669. We know that he did not entirely alienate himself from New York as he served on a jury there in 1666. It is quite probable, too, that during his early years as a resident of Maryland he made frequent trips back to the Dutch province. It would seem that when Herrman left New Amsterdam in 1659 on his diplomatic mission with Governor Fendall that he then had no serious intention not to return when his work was finished. He had, apparently, become entirely reconciled with Peter Stuyvesant who, at least, was paying him obvious marks of respect by appointing him to dignified and responsible posts. He certainly left considerable property in the Dutch town and his various business connections would have demanded his presence part of the time there after 1660.

Yet, on the other hand, when we examine more minutely Herrman’s character, his breadth of mind and vision; when we recall how shamefully he had been treated by the capricious Stuyvesant, we must wonder whether Herrman did not have