“over his children”
That’s how he was going to treat everybody under his command.
MAKE NO MISTAKE, by God he meant it.
“A tough, sturdy, valiant, weather-beaten, mettlesome, obstinate, leathern-sided, lion-hearted, generous-spirited old governor” was his description.
And they, “his children,” wouldn’t lift a hand in the end. No appreciation for his service — yeah, he wasn’t the nicest stern taskmaster around. He had made too many enemies. Ok, he was a downright Serious Jerk — but who doesn’t have some kind of fault.
Even though he essentially SINGLE-HANDILY had turned the colony around from a backwater, third rate fur trading post to a thriving jewel of a port, rich from the slave trade, such that the British couldn’t resist — they had to have that colony: New Amsterdam.