HE new régime in New-York, under Edmund Andros, her first Governor after the retrocession by the Dutch, dates from the year 1674. Andros was a public officer of ability; and, while pure in life and of spotless integrity, has been known in history for an imperious and despotic disposition. He was born in London, England, on the 6th of December, 1637, and married in 1671 Mary, daughter of Sir Thomas Craven and a sister of Sir William Craven of Appletrenick in Yorkshire, and of Combe Abbey in Warwickshire. His family, for many years, had held a distinguished position in the Island of Guernsey. His father was an officer in the royal household; and the son, as a reward for his family's fidelity to the house of Stuart, was made a gentleman-in-ordinary to Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia, and had been brought up at Court, in which he had become a favorite of the king, Charles II., and his brother, the Duke of York. At an early age he chose the profession of a soldier, in which capacity he served in the regiment of foot sent to America in 1666, and in 1672 was commander of the forces in Barbadoes. The same year he was made a major in the dragoon regiment of Prince Rupert,-the first regiment in the English army to be armed with the bayonet,-and two years later, on the death of his father, he became Seigneur of the Fiefs of Sausmarez and succeeded him in the office of Bailiff of Guernsey, the reversion of which had been granted him by his Majesty in his father's lifetime.

He was, withal, a thorough linguist, especially versed in the French and Dutch languages, to which qualifications he added one of supreme importance to his rising fortunes-that of being an accomplished courtier and warmly attached to the royal family.

It is, therefore, not strange that upon the retrocession of the Island of Manhattan by the Dutch, the Duke of York should have selected his young friend, who already had the reputation of being skilled in American affairs, to represent him in the territory which had again been granted him by his royal brother, Charles II. Accordingly, as soon as the treaty which gave the Dutch possessions in America to the English had been signed, on the 9th of February, 1674, and ratified at The Hague a few weeks later, Andros and his retinue set sail in the frigates Diamond and Castle, and anchored off Staten Island, October 22d of the same year. As soon as their arrival was known in the city, the Dutch Governor, Anthony Colve, having first taken the advice of his Council, asked of Andros to be allowed eight days in which to make arrangements for formally delivering up to him the insignia of his office. Meanwhile Cornelius Steenwyck, Johannes Van Brugh, and William Beekman were sent as a committee on board the Diamond for the purpose of obtaining certain privileges for the Dutch inhabitants of New Amsterdam. The new Governor received the delegation with courtesy and hospitality. He insisted upon their remaining to dine with him on board the vessel; treated them, as the old chronicle expresses it, "to ye best of victuals and drink," and dismissed the committee with the assurance that "every Dutch citizen should participate in all the liberties and privileges accorded to English subjects." In order, likewise, that there should be no misunderstanding regarding the matter, Andros, the next day, issued from his vessel a proclamation in which it was distinctly stated that if any one had any doubts as to the intentions of the king he would, once for all, say "that all former grants, privileges or concessions heretofore granted, and also all legal and judicial proceedings, during the late Dutch Government, are hereby confirmed, and the possessors by virtue thereof shall remain in quiet possession of their rights." These "privileges" related chiefly to the settlement of debts during the Dutch administration, the maintenance of owners in the possession of their property, and the retention of Dutch forms and ceremonies. The promises which Andros then gave that these privileges should be continued were afterwards fulfilled to the letter.

At length, on the 9th of November, Governor Colve, having completed the preliminaries for delivering, in a formal manner, the keys of the city to the representative of the Crown of England, called together at the City Hall all the officers of the municipal government and, having officially released them from their oaths to the States

General and the Prince of Orange, informed them that, on the following day, he should deliver the fort and the province to the newly appointed Governor and Commander-in-chief. Accordingly, at the time set (the 10th of November, 1674), Andros, accompanied by his wife, landed and, amid much ceremony, received the welcome of the Dutch ex-Governor, who, still further to show his good will and sincerity in the matter, presented him with his own coach and three richly caparisoned horses. The colors of England were then, amid salvos of artillery, run up on the flagstaff of Fort William Henry,— the name of which was at once changed to Fort James,- and the Dutch city of New Orange once more received, at the same time, the name of New-York, a name which it has ever since retained.

Before entering upon a history of the administration of Governor Andros, it may be desirable to acquaint the reader with the limits of New-York at the time the Dutch surrendered it to the English. As a guide we will take a map of the "Towne of Mannados, or New Amsterdam, as it was in September, 1661,"1 a copy of which now lies before the writer. This is, so far as known, the only plan of the city executed in the early Dutch times, and was found in 1863, in the British Museum. The town windmill stood on a bluff, within the present Battery, opposite Greenwich street. On Water, between Whitehall and Moore streets, was the "Government House," built by Director Stuyvesant of stone, and the best edifice in the town. When Governor Dongan became its owner he changed its name from the "Government House" to "Whitehall," and hence the name of the street. It was surrounded by a large inclosure, one side of which with the garden was washed by the river. A little dock for pleasureboats ran into the stream at this point. Here, also, was located the Governor's house, between which and the canal in Broad street was the present Pearl street (so called from having been originally paved with oyster-shells), then the great center of trade, and known as the "Water-Side" and sometimes as the "Strand." Near the Governor's house was the "Waegh" or "Weigh House," at the head of the public wharf at the foot of the present Moore street. A very short distance off, and parallel with Pearl, ran the “Brugh straat" (the present Bridge street), so named from the fact of its leading to the bridge across the canal in Broad street. This canal was but a narrow stream running towards Wall street for a quarter of a mile. Both sides were dyked with posts at the distance of twelve feet from the houses. This canal originally went up to "Verlettenberg Hill" (the present Exchange Place). This was the head of tide-water; and here the country people from Brooklyn, Gowanus, and Bergen brought their marketing to the center of the city. Further along the East River, at the head

1 See illustration on page 307.

2 See illustration on page 280.