LARGELY as the loss of New Netherland was due to their
own supineness and want of attention to its necessities, neither
the directors of the West India Company nor the States General
were willing to accept the blame for what had happened.
Expostulating with England and presently declaring war, the
States General summoned Stuyvesant home, to give an account
of his stewardship, and particularly to explain the facts of the
surrender. Arriving in Holland in October, 1665, the un-
happy governor presented to them the following report,
accompanied by many affidavits and other justifying docu-
ments. The original is in the National Archives at the
Hague. The translation, which appeared in Documents relat-
ing to the Colonial History of New York, II. 365 - 370, has been
carefully corrected for the editor, by comparison with the
original manuscript, by Professor William I. Hull of Swarth-
more College.

In 1667 the treaty of Breda confirmed the English in pos-
session of New York. Stuyvesant soon returned to the
colony, and lived there on his farm called the Great Bouwery
till his death in February, 1672.

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