HISTORY OF BROOKLYN. 125

but such a course would have been pure madness. Help from abroad, or even from the neighboring Long Island towns, was utterly out of the question; the city was unprotected by 'proper defences, the fort quite untenable, and though the Burgomasters showed spirit, the people were hopeless and disposed to yield. For two days, the brave old man assented neither to the reiterated summons of Nicolls, nor to the murmurings or entreaties of the citizens. Finally, wishing to bring matters to an end, the English fleet moved up towards the city, two of the vessels lying broadside towards the fort, while others disembarked troops on the Long Island shore, just below Breuckelen, where, at "the Ferry," the New England and Long Island volunteers had already encamped. Even then, the lionhearted Director could only answer the crowd of men, women, and children who surrounded him and implored him to submit, ÒI would much rather be carried out dead." The next day, September 5th, he reluctantly yielded to a remonstrance, signed by all the prominent men of the city, and on the 6th articles of capitulation were signed. On the 8th, occurred the final act in this political tragedy-briefly described as follows, in a letter from Secretary Van Ruyven to the town of Boswyck:1

“Anno September 8, 1664, N. S.
ÒIt has happened that the Nieuw Netherlands is given up to the English, and that Peter Stuyvesant, Governor of the West India Company, has marched out of the Fort, with his men, to Beur's Paeet (Beaver Lane) to the Holland shipping, which lay there at the time; and that Governor Richard Nicolls, in the name of the King of England, ordered a corporal's guard to take possession of the Fort. Afterwards the Governor, with two companies of men,(2) marched into the Fort, accompanied by the Burgomasters of the city, who inducted the Governor and gave him a welcome reception. Gov. Nicolls has altered the name of the city of Nieuw Amsterdam, and named the same New York, and the Fort, “Fort James.”

“From your friend,
Cornelis van Ruyven.

1 Similar letters were undoubtedly addressed by the Secretary to the magistrates of Brooklyn and the other Dutch towns.

2 The New England and Long Island volunteers were kept at the ferry, on the Brooklyn Bide, “as the citizens dreaded most being plundered by them .