[J. Thomas Scharf (1886)] Kieft and Stuyvesant and boldly insisting upon re-forms. Their petition being unheeded, they renewed a demand "foragood and wholesome government, '' and the company found it needful to defend its course, but steadfastly opposed the spirit of liberty shown by their Dutch colonists. Van Cortlandt was chosen Schepen in lfi">4, with a -salary of two hun-dred and fifty guilders, and was sent to confer with the Indians at Esopus, who bad risen and slaughtered the settlers in that region, and a treaty was made with them. In l(ili.'{ he was one of the commissioners appointed to treat with the authorities of Connecticut to decide on the disputed boundary line, but the conference ended without coming to any decision, and the same year he, with several others, was sent to Jamaica, L. I., to meet Scott, an Englishman, who was striving to secure Long Island for England. Some agreement was reached, but Scott left for home, threatening that ere long the Duke of York would possess the country. The end was near and an English squadron appeared in the Narrows summoning the town "on the Island-of-Manhattoea to surrender." The Director-General Stuyvesant was furious, but the citizens urged the uselessness of resistance, and six prominent men, among them "Old Burgomaster Van Cortlandt," met in conference with Colonel Nicolls, and the town capitulated. All magistrates kept their places, old Burgomaster Van Cortlandt with the rest, and things went on quietly.