HISTORY OF BROOKLYN. 339

writing an insolent letter to the magistrates of Bushwick, was sentenced to be fastened to a stake at the place of public execution, with a bridle in his mouth, a bundle of rods under his arm, and a paper on his breast bearing the inscription: “Lampoon writer, false accuser and defamer of its magistrates.” After this ignominy he was to be banished, with costs.1

On the same day, William Jansen Traphagen, of Lemgo, for being the bearer of the above insolent letter to the magistrates of Bushwick, as well as for using very indecent language towards them, was also sentenced to be tied to the stake, in the place of public execution, with a paper on his breast, inscribed “Lampoon carrier.” His punishment, also, was completed with banishment and costs.

In the general assembly which convened in April, 1664, to consider the state of the country, the town was represented by Messrs. Jan Van Cleef and Gysbert Teunissen. And although in common with the neighboring towns on Long Island, the citizens of Boswyck yielded a docile submission to English authority, it is probable that their supineness was due to the natural apathy of their race, rather than to any particular satisfaction with their new masters. If, indeed, they had imagined that any benefit was to accrue to them from the change, they were soon undeceived, for they found that the rule of British governors was, to that of their petulant and arbitary director, Stuyvesant, as the little finger of Reboboam was to the loins of his father; and that they had gained but little, either in regard to civil or religious matters. The records of Boswyck, from this time forward, present little of interest to the general reader, being mostly occupied with council orders, etc., whose chief value is to show the more than paternal care with which the English colonial authorities regulated the affairs of their provincial subjects.

In the Hempstead convention which framed the Duke's laws, this town was represented by Messrs. Jan Stryker and Gysbert Tunissen.

By these presents, beloved friends, you are authorized and required, by plurality of votes, to cause to be chosen by the freeholders of your town,

1 Dutch Manuscripts, X, part II, 215.