[E.B. O'Callaghan (ed.) (1856)] and proper means of justice and legal evidence, against rules and order to you well known. In like manner I do declare null, void, and of no effiict all acts, proceedings, affidavits and declarations whereof I have not obtained copies here, and of which use shall hereafter be made against me, being utterly unworthy of consideration on account of the suspicion of being acknowledged in bad faith; and, thirdly, against you, Petrus Stuyvesant, Director, individually, and against all the members of the Court generally, do I protest for and on account of all damage and losses already suffered or yet to arise, from the omission and neglect of orders and instructions to do what is right; and their High Mightinesses command and expressly order you, in case you do not repent, to wit, sincerely and indeed, and not in fine phrases, as has hitherto been your case. Dated Manahatans, New Netherland, this 29"' July, 1649. (Signed) Cornelis Melyn. Answer to Cornelis Melyn's disrespectful Protest handed to my Wife, as she says, by Adriaen van der Donck and A. Hardenbergh. We hear and see, but protest against the disrespectful discourtesies contained in the protest, especially against the seditious service of the Mandamus, at an unsuitable place, in the Church, and with much disparaging language in presence of the entire Commonalty. Nevertheless, we esteem the service valid, and say, as before, that we shall honor and regard whatever our Sovereigns will decide.