2-710-082 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

'Governor Stuyvesant Destroying The Summons To Surrender', (1877). Dutch soldier and colonial administrator Peter Stuyvesant (c1612-1672) was the last Director-General of the Dutch North American colony of New Netherland. (A cannonball had crushed his right leg during an attack against the Spanish in 1644, and it was replaced by a wooden peg). After he arrived in the colony in 1647, he oversaw the expansion of its main settlement, New Amsterdam. After the English took control of the area, Sir George Cartwright handed Stuyvesant a summons to surrender and cede the area to the English. Stuyvesant refused to obey and tore the letter to pieces. The colony was captured by the British in 1664 and the city was renamed New York. From "Our Country: a Household History for All Readers, from the Discovery of America to the Present Time", Volume 1, by Benson J. Lossing. [Johnson & Miles, New York, 1877]