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16 and finally was conceded in November by the unwilling and conquered governor, on condition that the city fortifications be supported together with the civil and ecclesiastical officers of the city. About this time the shores of the East River were infested with pirates and robbers, such as always abound in times of war; and some of the English residents of Long Island were suspected of aiding the freebooters in their depredations. The winter was one of serious tribulation, and spring brought only a renewal of complications and terrors. Stuyvesant fitted out several yachts to drive away the pirates, and these movements were quickly misconstrued by the watchful English settlers into "treacherous expeditions of cruel warfare." The agents of Connecticut in England finally obtained Cromwell's ear, and an armament of four ships for the reduction of Dutch New York. Major Robert Sedgwick and Captain John Leverett were placed in command, with instructions to take the Dutch capital "by surprise, open force, or otherwise." Isaac Allerton, returning from Boston on the 29th of May, informed Stuyvesant of spirited preparations in New England for his downfall. A troop of horse and nine hundred foot were actually ready to march by land upon New York, and a fleet of vessels were to co-operate by sea. The governor was quickly in counsel with the city officials, and all were in trepidation. It could not be expected that the people scattered through the country would assist much in case of an attack; and as for the English settlers, they were sure to join the enemy. "To invite them to aid us," exclaimed Stuyvesant, "would be bringing the Trojan horse within our walls." It was resolved to enlist some sixty or seventy men, "in silence, and without beat of drum," to man the wall of the city; and money was again borrowed of the wealthy citizens to defray the cost of preparing for a siege. To repay this loan, an annual tax of twenty stivers per morgen on tillage land was to be levied, with the hundredth penny on each house and lot in New York and in Albany; a guilder on each head of horned cattle over three years old, and the tenth of all merchandise to be exported during the season. The Dutch, old and young, wielded the spade and the pickaxe, and the public defenses soon assumed comparative strength. Meanwhile the English residents talked treason, and began to send away their goods and furniture. This brought a sharp proclamation from the governor declaring all persons, "of whatever rank," found removing their property, subject to banishment and the confiscation of their effects.

At this critical moment a London merchant ship entered the port of Boston with a copy of Cromwell's Proclamation of Peace between England and Holland; also an order restraining all English subjects from