New York - The Novel

where English troops were gathering by the ferry. And somebody pointed down toward the narrows, and said that to the west of them, on the big hump of land the Dutch call Staten Island, the English had landed more troops.
    Meinheer Springsteen was there.
    “We’ve a hundred and fifty men in the fort,” he said to the Boss, “and we can muster maybe two hundred and fifty capable of fighting in the town. Even with some slaves, that’s five hundred, maximum. The English colonel has twice that number of trained troops. And they say the English settlers on the long island have mustered troops as well.”
    “We’ve cannon in the fort,” said the Boss.
    “Short of powder. And ammunition,” he says. “If the English gunshipscome close, they’ll blast us to bits.” He took the Boss by the arm. “The word is, they’ve demanded we give them the town, and that Stuyvesant won’t budge.”
    After Meinheer Springsteen moved on, Jan asked the Boss if the English would destroy us.
    “I doubt it, my son,” he said. “We’re worth far more to them alive.” Then he laughed. “But you never know.” Then he went to talk to some of the other merchants.
    When we got home, he told the Mistress that none of the merchants wanted to make a fight of it, and she was angry and said that they were cowards.
    The following day, Governor Winthrop of Connecticut arrived in a boat. I saw him. He was a small, dark-featured man. And he had another letter from Colonel Nicolls. He and Governor Stuyvesant went into a tavern to discuss it. By now all the merchants were down by the waterfront wanting to know what was going on and the Boss went there too. When he came back he said that some of the merchants had discovered from Governor Winthrop’s men that the English were offering very easy terms if Governor Stuyvesant would give them the town; so after Winthrop left, they demanded of Governor Stuyvesant that he show them the English letter. But instead of showing the letter, Governor Stuyvesant tore it up in their faces; and they were mighty angry. But they took the pieces of that letter and they put them together again. Whereat they found the English were ready to let them keep all their Dutch customs and all their wealth, and let everything go on just exactly the same as before, so long as Governor Stuyvesant would give them the town without any trouble. So that’s what they all wanted to do. Except Governor Stuyvesant, that is.
    The Mistress was all for Governor Stuyvesant.
    “He did right,” she cried. “He’s the only man among you all.” And she called the merchants a pack of mongrel dogs and some other things I won’t repeat.
    Just then someone in the street started shouting, “The English are coming.” And we all ran out and sure enough down at the waterfront we saw the English gunships coming across the harbor toward us. And by and by they lay off the town, with their cannon pointing at us; and they stayed there, just letting us know what they could do if they had a mind to.
    Well, the next morning the merchants all signed a petition to the governor telling him to surrender. The Mistress asked the Boss, did he meanto sign, and he said, “I do.” Even Governor Stuyvesant’s own son signed it, which must have been a bitter blow to his father. But still he wasn’t giving in. And we all went down to the fort, and we saw the governor up on the ramparts alone, standing by one of the cannons, with his white hair flying in the wind, and the Boss said: “Damn it, I think he means to fire the cannon himself.” And just then we saw two of the dominies go up and plead with him not to do it, for fear of destroying us all. And finally, being men of God, they persuaded him to come down. So that was how the English got the place.

    Back across the ocean, the English were so pleased with their victory that they declared war on the Dutch, hoping to get more of their possessions. But soon the Dutch paid them back by taking some of their rich places in the tropics. The next year they had a terrible plague in London, and then that city burned down in a great fire; and the year after that, the Dutch sailed right up the River Thames to London, and took the King’s best fighting ship and towed it away, and the English were so weakened, there was nothing they could do about it. So then they agreed to a peace. The Dutch took back the places the English had taken from them in the tropics, on account of the slaves and the sugar trade. And