This enlightened body promptly shortened the days of tribulation by a letter to the superserviceable Stuyvesant, conceived in a most commercial spirit.

It suggested to him that it was doubtful whether further persecution was expedient, unless it was desired to check the growth of population, which at that stage of the enterprise ought rather to be encouraged.

No man, they said, ought to be molested so long as he disturbed neither his neighbors nor the government.

"This maxim has always been the guide of the magistrates of this city, and the consequence has been that from every land people have flocked to this asylum.

Tread thus in their steps, and we doubt not you will be blessed." The stewardship of the interests of the kingdom of Christ in the New Netherlands was about to be taken away from the Dutch West India Company and the classis of Amsterdam.