[Frederic Shonnard & W.W. Spooner (1900)] oft lie council and a schout-fiscaal. The latter performed the com-bined duties of public prosecutor, treasurer, and sheriff. There was THE EARLIEST SETTLERS 75 no provision for representative government, although it was custom-ary in cases of considerable public moment to call in some of the prin-cipal citizens as advisers, who in such circumstances had an equal voice with the members of the council. Of this custom the directors sometimes took advantage in order to place the responsibility for serious and perhaps questionable acts of policy upon the citizens. The conduct of Director Kieft in entering upon his course of violent aggression against the Indians, which resulted in great devastation in our county, was given the color of popular favor iu this manner. In the early months of Minuit's administration the Island of Man-hattan was purchased from the Indians " for the value of sixty guilders," or $24. The same ship which carried to Holland the news of this transaction bore a cargo of valuable peltries (including 7,246 beaver skins) and oak and hickory timber. The first year of Minuit's directorship was also signalized by the dispatching of an embassy to New England, partly with the object of cultivating trade relations with the Puritan settlers, but mainly in connection with the rival English and Dutch territorial claims. Thus at the very outset of