But at the moment when no precaution should have been relaxed, a dispatch from the West India directors, who appear to have been misled by advices from London, announced that no danger need be apprehended from the English expedition, as it was sent out by the King only to settle the affairs of his colonies and establish episcopacy, which would rather benefit the company’s interests in New Netherlands.  Willett now retracting his previous statements, a perilous confidence returned.  The Curacao ships were allowed to sail; and Stuyvesant, yielded to the solicitation of his council, went up the river to look after affairs at Fort Orange.

The English squadron had been ordered to assemble at Gardiner’s Island.  But, parting company in a fog, the Guinea, with Nicolls and Cartwright on board, made Cape Cod, and went on to Boston, while the other ships put in at Piscataway.  The commissioners immediately demanded the assistance of Massachusetts, but the people of the Bay, who feared, perhaps, that the King’s success in reducing the Dutch would enable him the better to put down his enemies in New England, were full of excuses.  Connecticut, however, showed sufficient alacrity; and Winthrop was desired to meet the squadron at the west end of Long Island, whither it would sail with the first fair wind.

When the truth of Willett’s intelligence became confirmed, the council sent an express to recall Stuyvesant from Fort Orange.  Hurrying back to the capital, the anxious director endeavored to redeem the time which had been lost.  The municipal authorities ordered one-third of the inhabitants, without exception, to labor every third day at the fortifications; organized a permanent guard; forbade the brewers to malt any grain; and called on the provincial government for artillery and ammunition.  Six pieces, besides the fourteen previously allotted, and a thousand pounds of powder were accordingly granted to the city.  The colonists around Fort Orange, pleading their own danger from the savages, could afford no help; but the soldiers of Esopus were ordered to come down, after leaving a small garrison at Ronduit.

In the meantime the English squadron had anchored just below the Narrows, in Nyack Bay, between New Utrecht and Coney Island.  The mouth of the river was shut up; communication between Long Island and Manhattan, Bergen and Achter Cul, interrupted; several yachts on their way to the South River captured; and the block-house on the opposite shore of Staten Island seized.  Stuyvesant now dispatched Counsellor de Decker, Burgomaster Van der Grist, and the two domines Megapolensis with a letter to the English commanders inquiring why they had come, and why they continued at Nyack without giving notice.  The next morning, which was Saturday, Nicolls sent Colonel Cartwright, Captain Needham, Captain Groves, and Mr. Thomas Delavall up to Fort Amsterdam with a summons for the surrender of “the town situate on the island and commonly known by the name of Manhatoes, with all the forts thereunto belonging.”