The Petition of Jacques de la Motthe. pointments, sufferings and strivings. He was earnest and eloquent and persuaded the learned Court to grant time; for the judg ment was: "That the Jews shall, within twice twentyiour hours after date, pay acording to con tract what they lawfully owe, and in the meantime the furniture and whatever the petitioner has in his possession shall remain as security, without alienating the same." To whom did the Jews look for aid? On what promises did they rely? Surely there was some hope when Solomon Pietersen, the eloquent, brought joy to his fellows by "twice twenty-four hours" delay wherein they might strive to save their household goods they had carried so far. But what ever hopes and promises the Jews may have had failed them. "Twice twenty-four hours" passed away. When the Court assembled early on the following Thursday morning, Captain de la Motthe had his case called first. He read the Jews' contracts and counted out their debts to him before the learned Court. They came to just 1,567 florins. He showed a list of their property, and in answer to all this the Jews said not a word. The Court hesitated about what to do. Able bodied men were wanted in New Neth erlands and the Burgomasters and Schepens felt they should do all they could to en courage immigrants. It seemed rather hard to them for Captain de la Motthe to press so fiercely for the very letter of his bond. Still the law was plain, and so they were forced to give judgment that the Jews "shall first be called upon, and their goods sold for pay ment, and if these shall not be sufficient to make up the full sum, then, according to contract each one for all, in solidum, shall be called upon, until the full amount shall be paid." They did, however, soften this judg ment by a further delay of four days, and if the debt should not then be paid, they authorized the captain "to cause to be sold, by public vendue, in the presence of the officer, the goods of Abram Israel and
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Judica de Mereda, being the greatest debtors, and these not sufficing, he shall proceed in like manner with the others to the full ac quittance of the debt and no further." The four days passed and still no ship came for the Jews. The passage money was not paid. So early on the morning of the fifth day Captain de la Motthe unloaded the goods of the Jews and offered them for sale publicly in the market place. The good-natured New Netherlanders bid in the property of the Jews at nominal prices, and gave it back to them. Therefore, the worthy captain found the sale progressing unsatisfactorily and stopped it. He pondered long and hard. It was a difficult problem. It was time to call a lawyer into the case. Straightway he went to Jan Martya, and together they schemed for the undoing of the Jews. Early in July of that year it was decreed by the Worshipful Court of Burgomasters end Schepens that upon the payments "for each member of the Council, five guilders; for the Secretary a like five guilders, and for the Court messenger two guilders" a litigant might have a Court held out of the ordinary court days. So Jan, crafty and learned in law, drew his pleadings, paid his guilders and demanded a special hearing. On Wednesday the sixteenth of Septem ber an "Extraordinary meeting" vas held at the Stadt Huys." The council chamber over Jan Pietersen's tap room, where "beer was sold by the whole can, but not in smaller quantities," was crowded by the townspeo ple. There sat the Heeren Arent Van Hattem and Martin Crigicr, mighty Burgomas ters and the Schepens, Pieter Wolfertsen, Van der Grift, Oloff Stevenson, citizens of "Good naem and faem staen,"1 and Herr Cornells van Tienhoven, Councillor and Fiscal of New Netherlands, and Schout of the Stadt of New Amsterdam, to harken unto the complaint of "Jacques de la Motthe, Master of the Bark called St. Catrina, Plain tiff contra David Israel and the other Jews, according to their signatures, Defts; touching 1 " Good name and standing."
