CHAPTER VIII

THE EARLY ENGLISH GOVERNORS

THE English Government was fortunate in its first
representative after the surrender of Stuyvesant,
Colonel Richard Nicolls, who had enforced the
surrender with all the energy of a soldier, afterward
displayed all the tact and wisdom of a statesman.
It is true that the towns and forts were rechris-
tened, and New Amsterdam, Fort Amsterdam, and
Fort Orange became respectively New York, Fort
James, and Albany in honor of the King's brother,
James, Duke of York and Albany, to whom as
Lord Proprietor the new English province was
now granted; but the Dutch were not interfered
with in their homes, their holdings, or their re-
ligion, and for nearly a year the city government
at New Amsterdam went on as of old under the
control of burgomasters, schepens, and schouts.

In the following year Nicolls, according to in-
structions from the Duke of York, abolished "the

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