HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
 

CHAPTER  XII.
 

THE EBSTOBATION.

The Restoration. — Charles II. — The Connecticut Charter. —Sir George Downing.

— George Baxter and John Scotf. — Progress of the City. — The Antiquarian
Map.—The Quakers.—Destruction of Esopus. ^ The Indian War of 1663.—
Governor Stuyvesant in Boston.—Thomas Benedict.—The Embassy to Con¬
necticut. — STARTLiNfi Condition of Affairs. — John Scott. — Hon. Jeremias Van
Rensselaer. — The Convention of 1664.—Mrs. Dr. Kiekstede. — Planning of
Charles II. and his Ministers. — An Unfriendly Expedition. ~ New Amsterdam
in Danger. — Preparations for a Siege. — Winthrop's Interview with Stuyve¬
sant. — The Letter. — The approaching Storm. — The Crisis. —The Surrender.

— New York. — Consequences of the Conquest. — Stuyvesant at the Hague. —
The Stuyvesant Pear-Tree. — The Stuyvesant Family.

ON the 8th of May, 1660, Charles II. set out on his triumphal journey
from Breda to London. He was magnificently entertained at the
Hague, and parted with the States-General and other officers of the
Dutch government with the most profuse pledges of friendship. On
1660. the 29th of May, he entered England, welcomed and escorted by
May 39. triumphal processions. A spirit of extravagant joy seemed to per¬
vade the whole nation. London was in raptures. He remarked dryly,
" that he could not see for the life of him why he had stayed away so
long, when everybody was so charmed with him now that he was at
length come back."

For a time, he was more loved by the EngUsh people than any of his
predecessors had been. The calamities of his house and his own roman¬
tic adventures rendered him an object of tender interest to all classes.
His return bad deUvered them from what had become an intolerable
bondage. Entertainments were the order of the day. Eresently dmnk-
enness overran the kingdom and corrupted the morals of the people;
and, through pretenses of reUgion and profane mockeries of true piety,
grave disorders prevailed.

The king was a young man (then about thirty years of age), of pleas-