monthly salaries, as the accounts of New Netherland will show.

<1> In 1644 the Bureau of Accounts of the West India Company
reported that since 1626 the company had expended for New
Netherland 515,000 guilders, say $250,000. At the time of
the report the company was practically bankrupt.

Had the Honorable West India Company, in the beginning, sought
population instead of running to great expense for unnecessary
things, which under more favorable circumstances might have
been suitable and very proper, the account of New Netherland
would not have been so large as it now is, caused by building
the ship New Netherland at an excessive outlay,<1> by erecting
three expensive mills, by brick-making, by tar-burning, by
ash-burning, by salt-making and the like operations, which
through bad management and calculation have all gone to
nought, or come to little; but which nevertheless have cost
much. Had the same money been used in bringing people and
importing cattle, the country would now have been of great
value.

<1> A ship of eight hundred tons, built in the province in
1631.

The land itself is much better and it is more conveniently
situated than that which the English possess, and if there
were not constant seeking of individual gain and private
trade, there would be no danger that misfortunes would press
us as far as they do.