122 HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.

until the tithes had been collected by Sheriff Hegeman. The same thing had occurred before; and in the following year, “some of the country people” of Breuckelen, having neglected to pay their tithes, were ordered to pay them within twenty-four hours, on penalty of execution. These tithes, probably, were not raised for church parposes exclusively, but for government. According to the laws of that day, lands were usually exempt from taxation for ten years, after which time they were taxed one-tenth of their produce.

But, to return to our narrative of the public events which were agitating the colony of New Netherland. Ear ly in January, 1664, Captain John Scott, an adventurer of unsettled life and principles, acting under the quasi authority of the Duke of York, visited the discontented English villages on Long Island, stimulated them to the formation of a distinct and independent government, of which he was declared the temporary President, and proclaimed Charles the Second as their king. Having made this fair beginning, he set out with about 150 followers, horse and foot, to subjugate the neighboring Dutch towns. Coming first to Breuckelen, he raised the English flag and addressed the citizens, affirming that the soil they occupied belonged to the King of England, and absolving them from their allegiance to the Dutch Government. But his appeal fell dead upon the ears of the listening crowd, and the only answer made was a courteous invitation from Secretary Van Ruyven, to visit and confer with the Director-General. This Scott declined, saying: “Let Stuyvesant come here with a hundred men; I shall wait for him and run a sword through his body.” Turning next to a lad near by, the son of Burgomaster Krygier, he commanded him to doff his hat to the royal standard. Upon the boy's refusal to do so, he struck him, whereupon one of the Dutch bystanders remarked that he ought to strike men, not boys. This speech provoked the ire of Scott's followers, four of whom fell upon the man, who was finally obliged to flee, after making a brief resistance with an axe. The English thereupon left, threatening to burn the town if he was not delivered up.1 Passing next to Midwout, Scott repeated the scenes of Brooklyn; but the stolid Dutchmen, alike unmoved by seduc-

1 N. Y. Col. Doc., ii. 394, 399, 482, 483, 404.