Sidenote: The colonists struggling for political rights. Up to this time the people had been obliged to rely chiefly on petitions as a means of presenting their political grievances. In 1641 Kieft had been forced by popular opinion to call a council of twelve deputies from the several settlements to advise him in regard to treatment of the Indians, and again in 1644 to consult as to taxes; but he rode rough-shod over the deputies. The public outcry over this arbitrary conduct led to his recall and the institution of some minor reforms. Under Stuyvesant there was formed a council of nine, the members being selected by him from a list of popular nominations. The board was so arranged as to be self-perpetuating, and the people, after the original election, ceased to have any hand in its makeup. In an important struggle between Stuyvesant and the residents of New Amsterdam (1651) relative to an excise tax, the director general was obliged to yield. Sidenote: A heterogeneous population. A source of anxiety to the rulers of New Netherland was the heterogeneous character of the population. The first permanent settlers had been the Walloons. The Dutch themselves soon followed. Besides these were several bands of Protestant reformers who had fled from persecution in Europe, and numerous sectaries from New England who had found life intolerable there. There were so many French-speaking people in the district that public documents were often printed both in French and Dutch. In 1643 it was reported that eighteen languages were spoken in New Amsterdam. Sidenote: Encroachments by the Swedes. The South Company of Sweden sent out a colony in 1638 under charge of Minuit, formerly employed by the Dutch West India Company. He built Fort Christina, on the future site of Wilmington, Del., and called the country New Sweden. The Dutch governor at New Amsterdam vainly protested against this occupation of territory claimed by his employers. Two years later (1641) a party of Englishmen from New Haven built trading-houses on the Schuylkill, and at Salem, N. J., near Fort Nassau, but were soon compelled to leave. The Swedish enterprise went unchecked until Stuyvesant's rule, when a fort was built (1651) on the site of Newcastle, Del., below the Swedish fort; and four years after this (1655) the South Company was obliged, upon display of force, to abandon its enterprise. 85. Conquest of New Netherland (1664). Sidenote: English interference.