THE DIRECTORS 61

The principal service which he had rendered to
the Company in his term of office was the estab-
lishment of "staple right" at New Amsterdam,
compelling all ships trading on the coast or the
North River to pay tolls or unload their cargoes
on the Company's property. But on the reverse
side of the account we must remember that he
allowed the fort to fall into such decay that when
Kieft arrived in 1638 he found the defenses, which
had been finished only three years before, already
in a shamefully neglected condition, the guns dis-
mounted, the public buildings inside the walls in
ruins, and the walls of the fort itself so beaten
down that any one might enter at will, "save at
the stone point/'

The hopes of the colonists rose again with the
coming of a new governor; but the appointment of
Kieft reflected as little credit as that of Van Twiller
upon the sagacity of the West India Company.
The man now chosen to rule New Netherland was
a narrow-minded busybody, eager to interfere
in small matters and without the statesmanship
required to conduct large affairs. Some of his
activities, it is true, had practical value. He fixed
the hours at which the colonists should go to bed
and ordered the curfew to be rung at nine o'clock;