Governor Stuyvesant, in high bluff, journeyed to Hartford in 1650 for a meeting with the Commissioners of the United Colonies. He offered a valiant front, opening the negotiations with a letter of considerations signed at Hartford but dated “in New Netherland.” When the New England commissioners took exception, Stuyvesant explained that, as the substance of the letter was agreed upon in Council at Manhattan, it was so dated. However, if the commissioners would cease speaking of Hartford “in New England,” he would not date his letters “in New Netherland.” This was not to be his only retreat. His territorial claims east along the coast retreated from Cape Cod to Greenwich in the face of accomplished fact. And he could only agree to a stabilization of the border between New England and New Netherland at about where it had been fixed already by English traders. Roughly, this was a line running northerly from the vicinity of Greenwich that was at no point to come within ten miles of Hudson’s River. The only Dutch reservation east of that line was the Fort Good Hope trading post. It was all very humiliating. However it appeared to have the redeeming feature of halting by treaty any further encroachment on the heart of the Dutch trading preserves. The all-important Iroquois trade was saved. But only for the time being, as it turned out. Significantly enough, although the treaty signed at Hartford was eventually ratified by the States General in Holland, the English government never did get around to doing so. It wasn’t necessary. England planned to take all of New Netherland, in due time. Meanwhile, the pressure on New Netherland was renewed, while the treaty itself was violated, even repudiated, by the New Englanders. To begin with, Cromwell’s Navigation Act was passed in 1651. It decreed that goods imported into England must come in English ships or ships belonging to the country in which the goods were produced. Since this was specifically directed against the Dutch carrying trade, it soon plunged England and Holland into a naval war, from which England may be said to have emerged the victor even though she was soundly thrashed at sea. But, although the British fleet had to take refuge in the Thames while an exulting Dutch admiral sailed up and down the Channel with a broom tied to the masthead of his flagship, the Navigation Act was maintained in force. While all this was going on overseas, New Haven and Connecticut clamored for the conquest of their “noxious” Dutch neighbors. So alarmed was Peter Stuyvesant in 1653 that he made last-ditch preparations for the coming English onslaught. It was at this time that the famous wall of palisades was built along the line of what is still called “Wall” Street. This pale was intended to hinder any possible land envelopment of New Amsterdam by the English. But once again Massachusetts held back. She prevented outright war in America by refusing to join in a military offensive against New Netherland.