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12 DUTCH MUG OF 1653.

The Dutch made some advances toward a peace, and were severely snubbed by that haughty assembly of English statesmen whose determination was to increase national expenses until it could compel the disbanding of the army. Meanwhile rumors reached New York in March, 1653, of war and tumults to be expected from the Puritan colonies of New England, who, it was said, longed to make New Netherland a trophy of the strife. Stuyvesant had more than once been warned by the West India Company to keep a watchful eye on the English inhabitants of North America, lest they incline to take a hand in the European game. He was, therefore, in a measure, prepared for this new alarm, and hastened to call a joint meeting of the provincial council and city magistrates, to consider the perils of the situation, and agree upon some energetic course to pursue in the emergency. The meeting promptly resolved that the citizens should mount guard every night, and that the fort should be repaired. But the citadel was not large enough to contain all the inhabitants of the city in the event of a siege, therefore it was decided "to wall the city in;" and to defray the expenses the city government proposed to borrow some six thousand guilders (or $2,000) from the principal citizens of the little miniature city, to be repaid by a tax on the commonalty. Within two days upward of five thousand guilders had been subscribed; and every able-bodied man was required, under penalty of fine, or