Volume XIII of the New Netherland Documents series includes the surviving correspondence of New Netherland's director general Petrus Stuyvesant and council from 1659 to 1660. These records reveal the broad range of issues with which the director general and his administration had to deal, including illegal trade, relations with Native Americans, appointments of ministers and other officials in various places in New Netherland, the discovery of copper and minerals, agriculture, and the critical situation in the city of Amsterdam's colony of New Amstel on the South River. Stuyvesant and council were expected to follow policies stipulated by the directors of the West India Company in Amsterdam, whose insights and motivations greatly depended on the situation in Europe and the financial situation of the company. This firsthand account shows the often competing visions of the Company directors and that of Stuyvesant and council, giving scholars valuable access to the issues that faced the New World colonies.

"Beverwijck explores the rich history and Dutch heritage of one of North America's oldest cities--albany, New York. Drawing on documents translated from the colonial Dutch as well as maps, architectural drawings, and English-language sources, Janny Veneman paints a lively picture of everyday life in colonial America. In 1652, Petrus Stuyvesant, director general of New Netherland, established a court at Fort Orange, on the west side of New York State's upper Hudson River. The area within three thousand feet of the fort became the village of Beverwijck. From the time of its establishment until 1664, when the English conquered New Netherland and changed the name of the settlement to Albany, Beverwijck underwent rapid development as newly wealthy traders, craftsmen, and other workers built houses, roads, bridges, and a school, as well as a number of inns. A well-organized system of poor relief also helped less wealthy settlers survive in the harsh colonial conditions. Venema's careful research shown that although Beverwijck resembled villages in the Dutch Republic in many ways, it quickly took on features of the new, "American" society that was already coming into being.