It seems to me, as I look back upon it, that at about the time Master Stuyvesant was hunting down with such a heavy hand those people who did not come regularly to the Dutch church, preferring to hear some other preacher, that our trade in furs fell off in a manner to cause alarm.
As a matter of course we did not reckon that time when the savages were bent on killing us, and, therefore, remained away entirely; but as compared with what we took in when matters with the Indians were most friendly, we were losing ground rapidly.
With the Swedes driven out of the land, it surely seemed as if the West India Company should have been able to get, by trading, all the pelts taken by the Indians, and yet, from all I could hear, I knew that not more than one half were coming our way. In addition to this, the savages were bent on driving keener bargains, as if there were people close around who were offering bigger prices than we of New Amsterdam.
All this caused me no little trouble of mind, for although it was not my concern to go abroad urging the Indians to come in for trade, I knew that more than a fair share of blame would attach to me when the profits of the year were reckoned.
Kryn Gildersleeve and I had many a talk regarding the matter, until on a certain day he came with word which aroused me in no little degree, for he claimed to know that Hans Braun had been to the Director with the charge that I was neglecting my work, thus causing a falling off in our take of furs.
It had for some time been in my mind that at the first good chance I would bid good-bye to the Dutchmen of New Amsterdam, and go to the English, my countrymen, either in Boston or Salem, for I had laid by sufficient of money, not having squandered my wages, to set me up in fur-buying on my own account. I had been told, by those who knew, that in the English colonies there was no Company with the sole right to deal in pelts.
In addition to all that, the Englishmen had begun to rule the land themselves, save as their king might interfere, and such government pleased me far better than to be under the iron hand of a single man like our Director.
Therefore it was that I went straightway to Master Stuyvesant, determined to know if he believed what Hans might have said; and, if you please, it was three long hours that I cooled my heels at the entrance to his chamber of business before I, the keeper of the storehouse and a regular officer of the Company, was allowed to enter, such kingly airs had he taken upon himself.