that I, as well here as elsewhere, have deserved better than this, and would rather go on an East India or West India voyage than burden any one while able to do any thing better. I have still too much courage for that, though if sick I would make a virtue of necessity; and my age has become so great that in any case it cannot last much longer with me.'

333

This letter of June 13, 1645, is the last of the brave and resolute old man's letters that we possess. But his activity was not quite ended. The next year we hear of three memorials from and about him, of two further statements, and an exposition. The States General incline to recompense him for his services, and promise to try to find some way. The direct payment of a small sum of money does not seem to have occurred to the representatives of the richest country in Europe. On January 10, 1647, the States of Holland refer him to a committee; on February 28th the States General appoint a committee in regard to him; on August 8th, the pensionary informing the States of Holland that Sieur Willem Uselincx had that morning given him some papers, in which he said he had written some considerations of his for the good of the West India Company and concerning the present constitution of the state, the papers are referred to the committee on the West India Company." This is the last notice we have of the unwearied projector.

Usselinx must have died not long after this, though no record of his death or burial has yet been found." Had he lived until the conclusion of peace with Spain in the next January, we should be likely to find, in the proceeding of the States General, the evidence of some remonstrance or memorial from him. Probably, then, he died in the year 1647, at

333 Letter to Jan Beyer, June 13, 1645. Bibliog., II., No. 94.

334 Resolutions of the States General, April 13, May 3, July 11, 1646, Feb. 28, 1647. Resolutions of the States of Holland and W. Fr., Jan. 10, Aug. 8, 1647.

335 Professor van Rees, ii. p. 143, note 2, says that he caused the registers of burials at the Hague to be searched from their beginning in 1651 down to 1660, without finding any trace of his burial; I have not succeeded in finding any information of the time of his death.

the age of eighty years; and we may feel sure that he died with unabated courage and confidence in all his great plans. His life was exactly conterminous with the eighty years' struggle of the Netherlands for independence; for he was born in the year of the arrival of Alva, and the last hostilities occurred in December of this year 1647. In this same year, too, the States renewed for twenty-five years the charters of both the two companies, making, however, some of those very amendments which Usselinx had recommended." The character of Usselinx, the lesson of his laborious and checkered career, will have been revealed in the process of narrating his life. Or, if they have not, it is vain to expect to accomplish that result by the few words of a closing paragraph. Yet because he achieved in the end little personal success, and because the last years of his life were less and less prosperous, it is well at the close to revert for a moment to his earlier years, and to fix a juster impression by recalling to mind not only the excellent service he had rendered to his own time and to ours, but also the unselfish and public aims by which he had made it impossible, despite all personal disappointments, for his life to be a failure.

836 Arend, iii: 5, pp. 773, 774. Van Rees, ii., pp. 209, 210.-It does not appear from any of the writings of Usselinx that he was married or had any children. G. Brandt, Hist. der Reformatie en andere Kerkelyke Geschiedenissen in en ontrent de Nederlanden, iv., pp. 168, 176, mentions one Jan Willemszoon Usseling, a zealous Remonstrant of Amsterdam, who in 1619 was compelled to flee thence. Mr. Berg van Dussen Muilkerk, in De Gids, 1849, i., p. 709, followed by Mr. J. Bouman, in the Navorscher, ix., p. 165, has raised the query whether this may not be a son of the projector. One would wish, if possible, to spare him the pain of having, with all his other calamities, a Remonstrant for a son, In the list, drawn up in 1657, of the farmers and others sent out to Staten Island since 1650 by the Jonkheer Henrick van der Capellen tot Ryssel, it is mentioned that the widow of one of them, named Jan Wesselinck, has since married an Englishman who is a carter, and lives with her three children at the Manhattans. N. Y. Col. Docs., xiii., p. 75. It is barely possible, therefore, that some of the blood of Usselinx may not be in America. But the only kin that we really know of are the clerkly sister's-son and the niece Elisabet ter Nelbeurch.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

I. PRINTED WORKS.

In the following bibliography titles have been taken, in all cases where practicable, from the books themselves. The bibliographies briefly referred to in parenthesis are: G. M. Asher's Bibliographical Essay on the Dutch Books and Pamphlets relating to New Netherland, Amsterdam, 1854-1867; the bibliography at the end of É. Laspeyres' Geschichte der volkswirthschaftlichen Anschauungen der Niederländer, Leipzig, 1863; F. Muller's Catalogue of Books on America, Amsterdam, 1872 ; J. Sabin's Dictionary of Books relating to America, New York, 1867-1886; P. A. Tiele's Bibliotheek van Nederlandsche Pamfletten, Amsterdam, 1858-1861; J. K. van der Wulp's Catalogus van de Tractaten, etc., van Isaac Meulman, Amsterdam, 1866-1868; C. G. Warmholtz's Bibliotheca Historica Suiogothica, Stockholm, 1782-1817.

Of the capital initials following the parenthesis B indicates the presence of a copy in the John Carter Brown Library at Providence; H, in the library of Harvard University; L, in the Lenox Library at New York; N, in the library of the State of New York at Albany; P, in that of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia; S, in that of the Department of State, and W, in the Library of Congress, at Washington.

1. Bedenckinghen/Ober den stact bande beree-/nichde Nederlanden: Nopende de Zee-/baert, Coop-handel, ende de gemeyne Neeringe inde sel-/ be. Ingeballe den Peys met de Aerts-hertogen inde aen-/staende Vredehandelinge getroffen wert. Door een lief-hebber eenes oprechten ende bestandighen / Vredes voorghestelt. / Gedruckt int Juer ons Heeren. 1608.

Title + 14 printed pp. (Asher 29, Laspeyres 13, Tiele 646). B. L. S. W. 349]

201

2. Grondich Discours ober desen/aen-staenden Vrede-handel.

Half-title. 15 printed pp. (Asher 30, Muller 1542, Tiele 647). W.

This pamphlet is identical with the preceding, excepting the title. The two editions of the Grondich Discours, not distinguished by Asher, differ only in spelling. This one begins “Alzo ic dagelijcx,” etc. Tiele first discriminated between them.

3. Grondich Discours ober desen/aen-staenden Vrede-handel.

Half-title. 15 printed pp. (Asher 30, Tiele 648). S. This edition differs from the preceding in spelling only. It begins "Alzoo ick daghelijcks," etc.

4. Naerder Bedenckingen, /Ober de zee-baerdt, Coop-/handel ende Neeringhe, als mede de verse-/keringhe banden Staet deser bereenichde Landen, in-/ de teghenwoordighe Vrede-handelinghe met den/Coninck ban Spangnien ende de Aerts-her-/toghen. / Door een lies-hebber eenes oprechten, ende bestandighen/vredes voorghestelt. / Ghedruckt in het Jaer ons Heeren 1608.

Title + 34 printed pp. (Asher 32, Laspeyres 14, Tiele 649). B. S. W.

5. Naerder Bedenckingen, / Ober de Zee-baerdt, Coop-/handel ende Neeringhe; alsmede de berse-/keringhe van den Staet deser bereenichde Landen, in-/de teghen-woordighe Vrede-handelinghe met den/Coninck ban Spangnien ende de Aerts-her-/toghen. / Door een lief-hebber eenes oprechten, ende bestandighen / vredes voorghestelt. / Ghedruckt in het Jaer ons Heeren 1608.

44 pp. (Asher 31, Muller 1543).

This edition I have never seen; I take the title from Asher.

6. Vertoogh, hoe nootwendich, nut ende pro-/fÿtelick het sy voor de vereenighde Nederlanden/te behouden de Vryheyt van te handelen op West-/Indien, Inden vrede metten Coninck/van Spaignen.

Half-title, 20 printed pp., n. p. n. d. (Asher 33, Laspeyres 15, Muller 1544, Tiele 650). B. L. W.

7. VERTOOGH, HOE NOOTWENDICH, NVT EN-/de profÿtelyck het zy voor de vereenichde Nederlanden te behouden /de Vryheyt van te handelen op West Indien, Inden vrede met/ den Coninck van Spangien.

Half-title, 20 printed pp. (Asher 34, Tiele 651). L..S.

Of this, Asher knew only the copy in the "Witte Collectie" in the Royal Library at the Hague.

8. KORTE / Onderrichtinghe ende ber-/maeninge xen alle liefhebbers des Vader-/landts, om liberalycken te teeckenen/inde West-Indische Compagnie :/ In de welcke / Kortelyck wort aenghewesen, de nootsaeckelyckheyt, /doenlyckheyt ende nutticheyt van de selbe. / Door een liefhebber des Vaderlandts inghestelt, ende / tot ghemeyne onderrichtinghe in druck/vervoordert. / TOT LEYDEN: / Inde Druckerye ban Isaack Elzevier, Boeck-drucker / bande Universiteyt, Anno 1622.

Title + 18 printed pp. (Asher 98, Laspeyres 39, Tiele 1934). B.

9. Korte/Onderrichtinghe ende ver-/maeninghe aen alle liefhebbers des Vader-/landts, om liberalÿcken te teeckenen/in de West-Indische Compagnie. / In de welcke / Kortelyck wort aenghewesen, de nootsaeckelykheyt, doenlyckheyt ende nutticheyt van de selve. / Door een liefhebber des Vaderlants inghestelt, ende/tot ghemeyne onderrichtinghe in druck/vervoordert. /Tot Leyden / In de Druckerye van Isaak Elzevier, Boeck-drucker/ vande Universiteÿt, Anno 1622. / Men vintse te Koop tot Rotterdam, by Jan van Waes-/berghe op 't Marct velt.

Title + 18 printed pp. (Tiele 1935, Sabin 38260).

The copy in the Muller collection catalogued by Tiele did not come to the library of the University of Ghent. I have therefore had to take this title from Tiele and Sabin, and cannot give the typography of the original.

10. POLITIICQ DISCOVRS, / Ober den wel-standt ban dese / bereenichde Provincien, nu wederomme/met haren Vyandt ghetreden zände/ in openbare Oorloghe;/ Ende of voor de selve de Vrede of de Oorloghe/dienstigher is. / Waer inne kortelück werden beantwoordt berschepden/bracgh-poincten, die de selbe Fanden schönen te raden tot / Vrede ofte Bestandt: midtsgaders waerachtich berhael/ van de bruchten, welcke den boorgaenden Trebes heeft/boort-gebracht: Ende met eenen aenghewesen de mid-/delen waer door by onse waerde bryheyt teghen den/ Spangjaert sullen beschermen; bestaende insonderhept/in het borderen ban de West-Indische Compangje, by/de Hooch-Moghende Heeren Staten Generael gheoc-/tropcert. / Ghetrouwelijck in-ghestelt by een Lief-/ hebber van het Vaderlandt. /T.L.B.I.E.D.V.V./In 't Jaer ons Beeren 1822.

Title + 26 printed pp. (Tiele 1929).

I know of no copy of this in this country; for the above, taken from the copy in the library of the University of Ghent, I am indebted to the unfailing kindness of Professor Paul Fredericq, of that university.