The Dutch made some advances toward a peace, and were severely snubbed by that haughty assembly of English statesmen whose determination was to increase national expenses until it could compel the disbanding of the army. Meanwhile rumors reached New York in March, 1653, of war and tumults to be expected from the Puritan colonies of New England, who, it was said, longed to make New Netherland a trophy of the strife. Stuyvesant had more than once been warned by the West India Company to keep a watchful eye on the English inhabitants of North America, lest they incline to take a hand in the European game. He was, therefore, in a measure, prepared for this new alarm, and hastened to call a joint meeting of the provincial council and city magistrates, to consider the perils of the situation, and agree upon some energetic course to pursue in the emergency. The meeting promptly resolved that the citizens should mount guard every night, and that the fort should be repaired. But the citadel was not large enough to contain all the inhabitants of the city in the event of a siege, therefore it was decided "to wall the city in;" and to defray the expenses the city government proposed to borrow some six thousand guilders (or $2,000) from the principal citizens of the little miniature city, to be repaid by a tax on the commonalty. Within two days upward of five thousand guilders had been subscribed;[1] and every able-bodied man was required, under penalty of fine, or ban-
- ↑ The names of the subscribers to this fund, with the amount contributed by each, will interest the antiquarian, as well as the numerous descendants of those leading men of 1653, who invested in the original wall:
(Gl)
The Hon'ble Cornells Werckhoven 200
Johannes de Peyster 100
Johannes Van Brugh 200
Johannes Van Beech 200
Cornells Steenroych 200
Govert Loockermans 150
Oloff S. Van Cortlandt 150
Jacob Schelling 200
Pieter Prins 100(GI)
Antoine Van Hardenberg 200
Johannes Nevius 100
Gulian Ways 200
Pieter Bays 100
Paulus Schrichs 100
Jacob Gerrits Strycker 200
Francois Fyn 100
Matheus de Vos 100
Adriaen Blommaert 100
