PREFACE.

A large ornamental woodcut initial 'W' features a foliate design with vines and leaves inside a rectangular frame.

Worthy Reader, it is clear and true enough for everyone, at the very least for those who have some small knowledge of God and human affairs, that nothing exists without a cause, except for God alone. And thus we also find daily that, just as one action or operation is the cause of another, so too, no less, one thought is caused by another, and in turn, through one another, one operation is found to be the cause of a thought, and again this thought the cause of an operation, etc. Toward the end of the year 1661, I had not the slightest thought of ever bringing to light or publishing a single letter of writing on political matters, until the opportunity arose, as unexpectedly as it was unlooked for, to request for certain few and distressed people a worthy expedient for Nieuw-Neederland New Netherland from the Chamber of Colonies assigned to this state. And look, this small undertaking, of merely conceiving and submitting a petition, has subsequently caused me to write books and papers, some of which writings, through various insights and impulses in the year 1662, I was moved to make public through the press, under the title or heading of Short account of N. Netherland, etc., and later under the title of certain free proposals and requests, etc. Since that time, I must confess here, I have been unable to divert my earnest thoughts to other matters while left to myself. Wonderful, or at least in my own mind, wonderful experiences have come my way on that occasion from almost every sort and condition of people, and which have stimulated and sharpened me to such a degree that I now firmly convince myself that I have become involved in a work from which I will not be able to escape before my death, and which also, at this point, does not grieve me at all; but rather, it generally provides my greatest pleasure in life. I have then, my Reader, made my obligation known to you before, and allowed a second part on the same subject to come to you in hope. Now you may thus contemplate, for the time being, a First Part of still two more to follow (which together will be able to form the proposed second part quite richly), until the Printer, upon finding profit, shall be encouraged to print the two remaining parts for you, which were as good as ready this past summer. In