170          THE  DUTCH AND  QUAKER  COLONIES
ships. The money collected as revenue was placed within Jacob the fort for safety, and the new receipts after May-refus'I to dav were to be applied to building new fortifica-pay duties tions. At this juncture a cargo of wine arrived from Europe, consigned to a well-known wine-merchant, Jacob Leisler. The duty was about a hundred pounds-sterling, and Leisler refused to pay it, on the ground that Matthew Plowman, collector of the port, was a Roman Catholic, and that since King James's flight no duly qualified government existed in New York.
This Jacob Leisler was a German of humble origin, born at Frankfort-on-the-Main. In earlier days he had been a soldier in the pay of the West India Company, and had come to New Amsterdam a few years before its capture by the character English. A residence of thirty years had made of Leisler hjm one of the most prosperous and conspicuous citizens. Through his marriage with Elsie Tymens, a niece of Anneke Jans, he had become connected with the aristocracy, but was not cordially welcomed among such people. One can imagine that Van Cortlandt and Bayard might not feel proud of such a connection, and that occasions would be afforded for Leisler to cherish resentment. Indeed, there had been a bitter quarrel, with one or two lawsuits between Leisler and these two gentlemen, so that their families were not on speaking terms. Leisler was a man of integrity, noted for fair and honourable dealing in matters of business. We hear, too, that he was kind-hearted and generous with money. But he was evidently of coarse fibre, ignorant, stubborn, and vain, — just the man to be seized and dominated by a fixed idea. His letters are those of a man with too little education to shape his sentences correctly. He seems to have had something of the heresy-hunting temper, for we have already met him once in this narrative as deacon of Nieuwenhuysen's church, bringing charges of "false preaching " against Dominie Van Rensse-laer, losing his suit, and getting saddled with the costs of it.    But his ruling passion was hatred of Popery, and his