Page:Acadiensis Q5.djvu/390

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
284
ACADIENSIS.

And after we had made ourselves masters of St. Johns, Mathyas and Gamseake (Jemseg) and several other places of fortification and trading houses of the French, and brought away the plunder and principal persons prisoners, we did not only bury in two glass bottles at Penobscot and St. Johns under ground a true Copia of our Captain's commission and a Breviate of the manner of taking the said places by the swords of the Prince of Orange subjects for his highness use, but also left both at Penobscot and Jamshoke (Jemseg) some men of the poorer sort of our captives, the former inhabitants, whom had submitted to be subjects to our Prince, to whom we gave liberty to trade and ordered to keep possession for his highness till farther order or some of us returned thither.

Rhoade and some of his associates were found guilty of "piracy" for the seizure of New England vessels and were sentenced to be hanged, but later on were reprieved and ordered to leave the colony. Thus Boston guarded its own.

Mr. Tuttle thinks that some of the buccaneers afterwards figured in King Philip's war.

The Dutch government did not quickly realize the importance of the new conquest made on its behalf, but, as time passed and when it was too late endeavored to assert its sovereignty over the country. August 5, 1675, the Dutch ambassador presented a letter to the King of Great Britain asking for the punishment of those who had attacked subjects of the Prince of Orange in New Holland, "for the prompt release of the said prisoners and the restitution of the said forts with full indemnity." More than a year later, on the 11th of September, 1676, when New England was occupied with King Philip's war, "The Directors of the Privileged General West India Company of the United Netherlands" issued at Amsterdam a commission to John Rhoade authorizing him to "take possession of the aforesaid coasts and countries of Nova Scotia and Acadie." This was followed up by the