32 HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.

himself, was to be recognized as a ‘master or colonist;’ and could occupy two hundred acres of land, with the privilege of hunting and fishing. If settlements of such colonists should increase in numbers, towns and villages might be formed, to which municipal governments were promised. The magistrates in such towns were to be appointed by the director and council, 'from a triple nomination of the best qualified in the said towns and villages.' From these courts, and from the courts of the patroons, an appeal might lie to the director and council at Manhattan. The company guaranteed protection, in case of war, to all the colonists, but each adult male emigrant was bound to provide himself, before he left Holland, with a proper musket, or a hanger and side-arms. The commercial privileges, which the first charter had restricted to the patroons, were now extended to all ‘free colonists,’ and to all the stockholders in the company. Nevertheless, the company adhered to a system of onerous imposts, for its own benefit, and required a duty of ten per cent. on all goods shipped to New Netherland, and of five per cent. on all return cargoes, excepting peltries, which were to pay ten per cent. to the director at Manhattan, before they could be exported. All shipments from New Netherland were to be landed at the company’s warehouses in Holland. The prohibition of manufactures within the province was, however, abolished. The company renewed its pledge to send over ‘as many blacks as possible,’ and disclaiming any interference with the ‘high, middle, and lower jurisdiction’ of the patroons, reserved to itself supreme and sovereign authority over Now Netherland, promising to appoint and support competent officers ‘for the protection of the good, and the punishment of tile wicked.’ The provincial director and council were to decide all questions concerning the rights of the company, and all complaints, whether by foreigners or inhabitants of the province; to act as an Orphan's and Surrogate's Court; to judge in criminal and religious affairs, and generally to administer law and justice. No other religion save that then taught and exercised by authority, in the Reformed Church in the United Provinces, was to be publicly sanctioned in New Netherland, where the company bound itself to maintain proper preachers, schoolmasters, and comforters of the sick.”