Documents Relative to the Colonial History of New York, Vol. I — Passage 244
[E.B. O'Callaghan (ed.) (1856)] of the case, agreeably to the practice and uses of this country. An appeal shall lie, conformably to the custom of these countries, to the Company's Director and Council in New Netlierland, or to such government as shall be established there, from all definitive judgments pronounced by the courts of the Patroons, exceeding the sum of one hundred guilders, or such as attach infamy; and, also, i'rom all judgments, in criminal cases on ordinary prosecutions. Whosoever, whether Colonists of Patroons for their Patroons, or Freemen for themselves, or other individuals for their masters, shall discover shores, bays or other places suitable for fisheries, or for the erection of salt-ponds, may take possession thereof and work them as their own absolute property to the exclusion of all others. And the Patroons of Colonists are allowed to send ships along the Coast of New Netherland for the fishing of cod, and to proceed with their catch directly to Italy or other neutral countries, on condition of paying the Company in such case six guilders per last duty; and should they touch here with their cargo, they shall be free [to continue their voyage] but they shall not, under pretext of this, or the Company's consent carry any other wares to Italy on pain of arbitrary punishment, the Company remaining at liberty to place a supercargo on board of each ship.