Whilst England and Holland were yet at peace, three ships, with one hundred men, were despatched from England to take possession of New Netherlands in the name of the Duke of York, afterwards James II., to whom his brother, Charles II., disregarding all previous chartered claims, had granted a vast extent of territory, called New York, including the country between the St. Croix and the Pemaquid, and on the east the region between the Connecticut and the Delaware, with all the islands south and west of Cape Cod, completely swallowing up New Netherlands, and encroaching on Massachusetts and Connecticut. Under the conduct of Sir Richard Nichols, groom of the bedchamber to the Duke of York, the English squadron, having first touched at Boston, where they demanded a levy of forces for their expedition, anchored before New Amsterdam, which was totally unprepared for defence. In vain Stuyvesant endeavoured to rouse a spirit of resistance in the inhabitants; the town was at the mercy of the English, and the people were prepared for nothing but surrender. It would have been madness to have striven against such odds. Winthrop, now governor of Connecticut, and a true friend of the Dutch, was on board the English fleet, and acted as mediator. Stuyvesant, almost heart-broken, pleaded that “a surrender would be reproved in the Fatherland;” and when the principal inhabitants, who had assembled in the town-hall, demanded to see the letter which the English commander had sent, he indignantly tore it to pieces; the burghers, angry at this, drew up a protest against the governor. The next day, a deputation waited on Nichols, but he declined the conference, informing them that on the morrow he should be at Manhattan, and would see them there; and on a slight show of dissatisfaction added, “raise the white flag of peace, for I shall come with ships of war and soldiers!” The flag of peace was hoisted; and on September 8th, the life, liberty, religion and property of the inhabitants being secured, New Amsterdam surrendered, and the people and the magistrates being all agreed, Stuyvesant reluctantly ratified the capitulation. New Amsterdam was no more; the Dutch dominion in America was overthrown by a flagrant act of injustice, and yet the change seemed to produce in the colony itself great satisfaction. Very few of the settlers removed to Holland, and their wounded national pride found its consolation in the enjoyment of English privileges and liberties. On the submission of the capital, Fort Orange, now called Albany, from the Scottish title of the Duke of York, quietly surrendered, and the Dutch and the Swedes of Delaware shortly afterwards. The league with the Five Nations was renewed. The whole extent of coast, from Acadia to Florida, was now in possession of the English.