The survivors began the work of reconstruction and defence. Every able-bodied man became both citizen and soldier, ready for service at home or on scout or picket or skirmish duty, wherever the approach of the enemy was to be feared. Schenectady became a military camp where the provincial troops, reinforced by detachments from New England and by their Iroquois allies, made good the safety of Schenectady and thus kept watch and ward over the English dominion in North America. They recognized Governor Leisler’s authority and sent a representative to the two sessions of his Assembly held in April and October, 1690.[18] The warlike state of things existed from 1690 until after the peace of Ryswyck in 1697. Upon the return of peace, Schenectady began to resume its former state and prosperity. The people rebuilt their church and called the Rev. Bernardus Freerman as their pastor. How dear he became to them the many children named in his honor attest. The Dutch population was sprinkled with a few English-speaking soldiers who chose to make it their home. Its importance increased as a centre of trade, not only with the Indians, but with those hardy pioneers, who, attracted by the fertile lands, or the desire to join the friendly Indians in their hunting expeditions, pushed farther up the valley. The traders at Albany protested against this invasion of their monopoly, and also against the exercise of milling, weaving and tanning privileges, but in a famous law-suit in the Supreme Court of the province, the Albany monopolists were beaten, and Schenectady’s full right to freedom of trade and manufacture was established. Then came Queen Anne’s War with the French, lasting from 1701 to 1713, and Schenectady was again in peril, and again garrisoned, for the same reason and much in the same way as before; but, the Iroquois having made a treaty of peace with Canada, the brunt of the war fell upon New England and Schenectady passed safely through it.