was seized and he was ordered to pay fifty pounds for its release.[1] Herrman, knowing that it was useless to appeal to Stuyvesant, paid the fine. At the end of the year, as we have heretofore pointed out, he bought large tracts of land in New Netherland and in New Jersey, much of it apparently for his friend Govert Loockermans.[2] But as it happened Loockermans was as unfortunate as Herrman in his business dealings. In September 1651 Herrman wrote the following letter, apparently to Adriaen Van der Donck who was still in Holland:[3]
I wish I felt authorized to advise you of better news. The Redress remains still behind, contrary to our expectation. We are not only threatened and affronted, but shall also be totally ruined. Govert Loockermans is totally ruined, because he will not sign that he knows and can say nothing of Director Stuyvesant, but what is honest and honorable. I fear we, too, shall experience a like fate; whether we have safeguards from their High Mightinesses or not, ’tis all alike; the Directors have written not to pay any attention to their High Mightinesses’ safeguards or letters, but to theirs; and everyone can see how prejudicial that is to us. We are turned out and dare not scarcely speak a word, etc. In fine, matters are so situated, that God’s help only will avail; there is no trust to be placed in man. That infernal swaggerer (blasegeest) Tienhoven, has returned here and put the country in a blaze. Things prosper, they report, according to their wishes, to which I know not what to answer, etc.
The basket maker’s daughter of Amsterdam whom he seduced in Holland on a promise of marriage, coming here and finding he was already married, hath exposed his conduct even in the public court, etc. Your private estate is going all to ruin, for our enemies know how to fix all this and to attain their object. There is no use in complaining; we must suffer injustice for justice. At present,