The Project Gutenberg eBook, Peter Stuyvesant, the Last Dutch Governor of
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Title: Peter Stuyvesant, the Last Dutch Governor of New Amsterdam
Author: John S. C. Abbott
Release Date: October 20, 2004 [eBook #13811]
Language: English
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PETER STUYVESANT, THE LAST DUTCH
GOVERNOR OF NEW AMSTERDAM***
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PETER STUYVESANT, THE LAST DUTCH GOVERNOR OF NEW AMSTERDAM
by
JOHN S. C. ABBOTT
Illustrated
PREFACE
It is impossible to understand the very remarkable character and
career of Peter Stuyvesant, the last, and by far the most illustrious,
of the Dutch governors of New Amsterdam, without an acquaintance with
the early history of the Dutch colonies upon the Hudson and the
Delaware. The Antiquarian may desire to look more fully into the
details of the early history of New York. But this brief, yet
comprehensive narrative, will probably give most of the information
upon that subject, which the busy, general reader can desire.
In this series of "_The Pioneers and Patriots of America_," the reader
will find, in the "Life of De Soto," a minute description of the
extreme south and its inhabitants, when the Mississippi rolled its
flood through forests which the foot of the white man had never
penetrated. "Daniel Boone" conducts us to the beautiful streams and
hunting grounds of Kentucky, when the Indian was the sole possessor
of those sublime solitudes. In the "Life of Miles Standish, the
Puritan Captain," we are made familiar with that most wonderful of all
modern stories, the settlement of New England. "Peter Stuyvesant"
leads us to the Hudson, from the time when its majestic waters were
disturbed only by the arrowy flight of the birch canoe, till European
colonization had laid there the foundations of one of the most
flourishing cities on this globe.
In these Histories the writer has spared no labor in gathering all the
information in his power, respecting those Olden Times, now passing so
rapidly into oblivion.
JOHN S. C. ABBOTT.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
DISCOVERY OF THE HUDSON RIVER. 13
The Discovery of America.
Colonies.
The Bay of New York.
Description of the Bay.
Voyage of Sir Henry Hudson.
Discovery of the Delaware.
The Natives.
The Boat Attacked.
Ascending the Hudson.
Escape of the Prisoners.
The Chiefs Intoxicated.
The Return.
The Village at Castleton.
The Theft and its Punishment.
The Return to England.
CHAPTER II.
THE PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY. 33
Value of the Territory Discovered.
Fate of Hudson.
The Conspiracy.
Aspect of Manhattan Island.
The Trail which has Widened into Broadway.
The Opening Commerce.
The Fur Trade.
Visit of the English Man of War.
Exploring the Sound.
Commercial Enterprise Receives a New Stimulus.
Erection of Forts.
Character of the Fur Trade.
CHAPTER III.
THE COMMENCEMENT OF COLONIZATION. 54
The Puritans.
Memorial to the States-General.
Disagreement of the English and the Dutch.
Colony on the Delaware.
Purchase Of Manhattan.
The First Settlement.
An Indian Robbed and Murdered.
Description of the Island.
Diplomatic Intercourse.
Testimony of De Rassieres.
The Patroons.
The Disaster at Swaanendael.
CHAPTER IV.
THE ADMINISTRATION OF VAN TWILLER. 77
Friendly Relations Restored.
Wouter Van Thiller New Director.
Captain Elkins.
Remonstrance of De Vrees.
Claims for the Connecticut.
The Plymouth Expedition.
A Boat's Crew Murdered.
Condition of the Colony in 1633.
Emigration to the Connecticut.
Emigrants from Holland.
The Red Rocks.
New Haven Colony Established.
Natural.
Indian Remonstrance Against Taxation.
Outrage upon the Raritan Indians.
Indian Revenge.
CHAPTER V.
WAR AND ITS DEVASTATIONS. 100
Approaching Hostilities.
Noble Remonstrance.
Massacre of the Natives.
The War Storm.
Noble Conduct of De Vrees.
The Humiliation of Kieft.
Wide Spread Desolation.
The Reign of Terror.
State of Affairs at Fort Nassau.
The Massacre at Stamford.
Memorial of the Select Men.
Kieft Superseded by Peter Stuyvesant.
CHAPTER VI.
GOVERNOR STUYVESANT. 121
New Netherland in 1646.
Early Years of Peter Stuyvesant.
Decay of New Amsterdam.
The Germs of a Representative Government.
Energetic Administration.
Death of Governor Winthrop.
Claims for Long Island.
Arrogance of the Governor.
Remonstrance of the Nine Men.
The Pastoral Office.
Boundary Lines.
Increasing Discontent.
Division of Parties.
Dictatorial Measures.
CHAPTER VII.
WAR BETWEEN ENGLAND AND HOLLAND. 144
Action of the Patroons.
Settlements on the Hudson.
Alarm of the Home Government.
Recall of Stuyvesant.
His Escape from Humiliation.
Difficulties between England and Holland.
The Breaking Out of War.
Directions to Stuyvesant.
The Relations of the Colonies.
Charges Against the Dutch Governor.
Their Refutation.
Efforts of Stuyvesant for Peace.
Noble Conduct of the Massachusetts Government.
The Advocates for War.
CHAPTER VIII.
ANOTHER INDIAN WAR. 167
Conflict Between the Governor and the Citizens.
Energy of the Governor.
His Measures of Defence.
Action of the English Colony.
Claims of the Government of Sweden.
Fort Casimir Captured by the Swedes.
Retaliation.
Measures for the Recapture of Fort Casimir.
Shooting a Squaw.
Its Consequences.
The Ransom of Prisoners.
Complaints of the Swedish Governor.
Expedition from Sweden.
Its Fate.
CHAPTER IX
AN ENERGETIC ADMINISTRATION. 191
New Amsterdam in 1656.
Religious Intolerance.
Persecution of the Waldenses.
The New Colony on South River.
Wreck of the Prince Maurice.
The Friendly Indians.
Energetic Action of the Governor.
Persecution of the Quakers.
Remonstrance from Flushing.
The Desolation of Staten Island.
Purchase of Bergen.
Affairs at Esopus.
The Indian Council.
Generosity of the Indians.
New Amstel.
Encroachments of the English.
CHAPTER X.
THE ESOPUS WAR. 213
Outrage at Esopus.
New Indian War.
Its Desolations.
Sufferings of Both Parties.
Wonderful Energies of the Governor.
Difficulties of his Situation.
The Truce.
Renewal of the War.
The Mohawks.
The Controversy with Massachusetts.
Indian Efforts for Peace.
The Final Settlement.
Claims of the English Upon the Delaware.
Renewed Persecution of the Quakers.
CHAPTER XI.
THE DISASTROUS YEAR. 234
Purchase of Staten Island.
The Restoration of Charles Second.
Emigration Invited.
Settlement of Bushwick.
The Peculiar People.
Persecution of John Brown.
The Governor Rebuked.
Cumulation of Disasters.
The Outbreak at Esopus.
The Panic.
Measures of the Governor.
The Indian Fort.
The Expedition to Mamaket.
Capture of the Fort.
Annihilation of the Esopus Indians.
CHAPTER XII.
ENCROACHMENTS OF THE ENGLISH. 257
Annihilation of the Esopus Tribe.
The Boundary Question.
Troubles on Long Island. The Dutch and English Villages.
Petition of the English.
Embarrassments of Governor Stuyvesant.
Embassage to Hartford.
The Repulse.
Peril of New Netherland.
Memorial to the Fatherland.
New Outbreak on Long Island.
John Scott and his Highhanded Measures.
Strengthening the Fortifications.
CHAPTER XIII.
HOSTILE MEASURES COMMENCED. 279
John Scott and his Movements.
Losses of the Dutch.
The First General Assembly.
Action of the Home Government.
Peace with the Indians.
Arrest of John Scott.
Governor Winthrop's Visit to Long Island.
Sailing of the Fleet.
Preparations for War.
The False Dispatches.
Arrival of the Fleet.
The Summons to Surrender.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE CAPTURE OF NEW AMSTERDAM. 301
The Approach of the Fleet.
The Governor Unjustly Censured.
The Flag of Truce.
The Haughty Response.
The Remonstrance.
The Defenceless City.
The Surrender.
The Expedition to the Delaware.
Sack and Plunder.
Change of Name.
Testimony to the Dutch Government.
Death of the Governor.
His Farm, or Bouwerie.
War Between Holland and England.
New York Menaced by the Dutch.
CHAPTER XV.
THE FINAL SURRENDER. 324
The Summons.
The Bombardment.
Disembarkation of the Land Force.
Indecision of Captain Manning.
The Surrender.
Short Administration of the Dutch.
Social Customs.
The Tea Party.
Testimony of Travellers.
Visit to Long Island.
Fruitfulness of the Country.
Exploration of Manhattan Island.
CHAPTER XVI.
THE OLDEN TIME. 346
Wealth and Rank of the Ancient Families.
Their Vast Landed Estates.
Distinctions in Dress.
Veneration for the Patroon.
Kip's Mansion.
Days of the Revolution.
Mr. John Adams' Journal.
Negro Slavery.
Consequences of the System.
General Panic.
PETER STUYVESANT.
CHAPTER I.
DISCOVERY OF THE HUDSON RIVER.
The Discovery of America.--Colonies.--The Bay of New
York.--Description of the Bay.--Voyage of Sir Henry
Hudson.--Discovery of the Delaware.--The Natives.--The Boat
Attacked.--Ascending the Hudson.--Escape of the
Prisoners.--The Chiefs Intoxicated.--The Return.--The
Village at Castleton.--The Theft and its Punishment.--The
Return to England.
On the 12th of October, 1492, Christopher Columbus landed upon the
shores of San Salvador, one of the West India islands, and thus
revealed to astonished Europe a new world. Four years after this, in
the year 1496, Sebastian Cabot discovered the continent of North
America. Thirty-three years passed away of many wild adventures of
European voyagers, when, in the year 1539, Ferdinand de Soto landed at
Tampa Bay, in Florida, and penetrating the interior of the vast
continent, discovered the Mississippi River. Twenty-six years more
elapsed ere, in 1565, the first European colony was established at St.
Augustine, in Florida.
In the year 1585, twenty years after the settlement of St. Augustine,
Sir Walter Raleigh commenced his world-renowned colony upon the
Roanoke. Twenty-two years passed when, in 1607, the London Company
established the Virginia Colony upon the banks of the James river.
In the year 1524, a Florentine navigator by the name of Jean de
Verrazano, under commission of the French monarch, Francis I.,
coasting northward along the shores of the continent, entered the bay
of New York. In a letter to king Francis I., dated July 8th, 1524, he
thus describes the Narrows and the Bay:
"After proceeding one hundred leagues, we found a very
pleasant situation among some steep hills, through which a
very large river, deep at its mouth, forced its way to the
sea. From the sea to the estuary of the river, any ship
heavily laden might pass, with the help of the tide, which
rises eight feet. But as we were riding at anchor, in a good
berth, we would not venture up in our vessel without a
knowledge of the mouth. Therefore we took the boat, and
entering the river, we found the country, on its banks, well
peopled, the inhabitants not much differing from the others,
being dressed out with the feathers of birds of various
colors.
"They came towards us with evident delight, raising loud
shouts of admiration, and showing us where we could most
securely land with our boat. We passed up this river about
half a league, when we found it formed a most beautiful lake
three leagues in circuit, upon which they were rowing thirty
or more of their small boats, from one shore to the other,
filled with multitudes who came to see us. All of a sudden,
as is wont to happen to navigators, a violent contrary wind
blew in from the sea, and forced us to return to our ship,
greatly regretting to leave this region which seemed so
commodious and delightful, and which we supposed must also
contain great riches, as the hills showed many indications
of minerals."
In the year 1609, a band of Dutch merchants, called the East India
Company, fitted out an expedition to discover a northeast passage to
the Indies. They built a vessel of about eighty tons burden, called
the Half Moon, and manning her with twenty sailors, entrusted the
command to an Englishman, Henry Hudson. He sailed from the Texel in
his solitary vessel, upon this hazardous expedition, on the 6th of
April, 1609. Doubling North Cape amid storms and fog and ice, after
the rough voyage of a month, he became discouraged, and determined to
change his plan and seek a northwest passage.
Crossing the Atlantic, which, in those high latitudes, seems ever to
be swept by storms, he laid in a store of codfish on the banks of
Newfoundland, and, on the 17th of July, ran his storm-shattered bark
into what is now known as Penobscot Bay, on the coast of Maine. Here
he found the natives friendly. He had lost his foremast in a storm,
and remained at this place a week, preparing a new one. He had heard
in Europe that there was probably a passage through the unexplored
continent, to the Pacific ocean, south of Virginia. Continuing his
voyage southward, he passed Cape Cod, which he supposed to be an
island, and arrived on the 18th of August at the entrance of
Chesapeake Bay. He then ran along the coast in a northerly direction
and entered a great bay with rivers, which he named South River, but
which has since received the name of the Delaware.
Still following the coast, he reached the Highlands of Neversink, on
the 2d of September, and at three o'clock in the afternoon of the same
day, came to what then seemed to him to be the mouths of three large
rivers. These were undoubtedly the Raritan, the Narrows, and Rockaway
Inlet. After careful soundings he, the next morning, passed Sandy Hook
and anchored in the bay at but two cables' length from the shore. The
waters around him were swarming with fish. The scenery appeared to him
enchanting. Small Indian villages were clustered along the shores, and
many birch canoes were seen gliding rapidly to and fro, indicating
that the region was quite densely populated, and that the natives were
greatly agitated if not alarmed by the strange arrival.
Soon several canoes approached the vessel, and the natives came on
board, bringing with them green tobacco and corn, which they wished to
exchange for knives and beads. Many vessels, engaged in fishing, had
touched at several points on the Atlantic coast, and trafficked with
the Indians. The inhabitants of this unexplored bay had heard of these
adventurers, of the wonders which they brought from distant lands, and
they were in a state of great excitement, in being visited in their
turn.
The bay was fringed with the almost impenetrable forest. Here and
there were picturesque openings, where Indian villages, in peaceful
beauty, were clustered in the midst of the surrounding foliage. The
natives were dressed in garments of deer skin, very softly tanned,
hanging gracefully about their persons, and often beautifully
ornamented. Many of them wore mantles of gorgeously-colored feathers,
quite artistically woven together; and they had also garments of rich
furs.
The following morning a party from the vessel landed, in a boat, on
the Jersey shore. They were received with great hospitality by the
natives, who led them into their wigwams, and regaled them with dried
currants, which were quite palatable. As they had no interpreters,
they could only communicate with each other by signs. They found the
land generally covered with forest trees, with occasional meadows of
green grass, profusely interspersed with flowers, which filled the air
with fragrance.
Another party of five men, was sent to examine the northern shore of
the bay. They probably inflicted some gross outrage upon the natives,
as the crew of the Half Moon had conducted infamously, at other points
of the coast, where they had landed, robbing and shooting the Indians.
The sun had gone down, and a rainy evening had set in, when two canoes
impelled rapidly by paddles, overtook the returning boat. One
contained fourteen Indians; the other twelve. Approaching within arrow
shot, they discharged a volley into the boat. One of these
keen-pointed weapons, struck John Coleman in the throat, and instantly
killed him. Two other Englishmen were wounded.
The Indians seemed satisfied with their revenge. Though they numbered
twenty-six warriors, and there were but two white men left unwounded,
the savages permitted them to continue their passage to the vessel,
without further molestation. The journalist, who records this assault,
is silent respecting the provocation which led to it.
Hudson was alarmed by this hostility, and expected an immediate attack
upon the ship. He promptly erected bulwarks along the sides of his
vessel as a protection from the arrows of the fleet of war canoes,
with which, he supposed, he would be surrounded the next morning.
But the night passed quietly away; the morning dawned, and a few
canoes approached from another part of the bay, with no signs of
hostility. These peaceful Indians had manifestly heard nothing of the
disturbance of the night before. They came unarmed, with all friendly
attestations, unsuspicious of danger, and brought corn and tobacco,
which they offered in exchange for such trinkets as they could obtain.
The next morning, two large canoes approached from the shores of the
bay which was many leagues in extent, one of which canoes seemed to be
filled with warriors, thoroughly armed. The other was a trading boat.
It is probable that those in the war canoe, came as a protection for
their companions. It is hardly conceivable that the Indians, naturally
timid and wary, could have thought, with a single war canoe containing
scarcely a dozen men, armed with arrows, to attack the formidable
vessel of Sir Henry Hudson, armed, as they well knew it to be, with
the terrible energies of thunder and lightning.
The Indians were so unsuspicious of danger, that two of them
unhesitatingly came on board. Sir Henry, we must think treacherously,
seized them as prisoners, and ordered the canoes containing their
companions, to keep at a distance. Soon another canoe came, from
another direction, with only two men in it. Sir Henry received them
both on board, and seized them also as prisoners. He intended to hold
them as hostages, that he might thus protect himself from any
hostility on the part of the natives.
One of these men upon finding himself a captive, leaped overboard and
swam ashore. Sir Henry had now three prisoners and he guarded them
very closely. Yet the natives, either from policy or from fear, made
no hostile demonstrations against him.
The half Moon remained in the outer bay nine days. Several exploring
tours had been sent out, visiting what is now known as the Jersey
shore. None of these, with the exception of the one to which we have
alluded, encountered any hostility whatever from the natives.
On the 11th of September, Hudson sailed through the Narrows, and
anchored in the still and silent waters of New York harbor. These
waters had never then been whitened by a sail, or ploughed by any
craft larger than the Indian's birch canoe. The next morning, the 12th
of September, Sir Henry again spread his sails, and commenced his
memorable voyage up the solitary river, which has subsequently borne
his name. Only here and there could a few wigwams be seen, scattered
through the forest, which fringed its banks. But human life was there,
then as now, with the joys of the bridal and the grief of the burial.
When we contemplate the million of people, now crowded around the
mouth of the Hudson, convulsively struggling in all the stern
conflicts of this tumultuous life, it may be doubted whether there
were not as much real happiness in the wigwam of the Indian as is now
to be found in the gorgeous palace of the modern millionaire. And when
we contemplate the vices and the crimes which civilization has
developed, it may also be doubted whether, there were not as much
virtue, comparatively with the numbers to be found, within the bark
hut of the red man, as is now to be found in the abodes of the more
boastful white man.
Sir Henry Hudson hoped to find this majestic river, inviting him into
unknown regions of the north, to be an arm of the sea through which he
could cross the continent to the shores of the Pacific. It was not
then known whether this continent were a few miles or thousands of
miles in breadth. For the first two days the wind was contrary, and
the Half Moon ascended the river but about two miles. The still
friendly natives paddled out from the shores, in their bark canoes in
great numbers, coming on board entirely unarmed and offering for sale,
excellent oysters and vegetables in great abundance.
On the third day a strong breeze sprang up from the southeast. All
sail was set upon the Half Moon. It was a bright and beautiful
autumnal day. Through enchanting scenery the little vessel ploughed
the waves of the unknown river, till, having accomplished forty miles,
just at sunset they dropped their anchor in the still waters which are
surrounded by the grand and gloomy cliffs of the Highlands.
The next morning, the river and its shores, were enveloped in a dense
fog, so that one could see but a few yards before him. Taking
advantage of this, the Indian captives, whom Sir Henry Hudson had so
treacherously ensnared, leaped out of one of the port-holes, and swam
ashore. As soon as they reached the land, they raised loud shouts of
hatred and defiance.
The sun soon dispelled the fog, and the voyage was continued, and by
night the Half Moon reached a point supposed to be near the present
site of Catskill Landing. The natives were numerous, and very
friendly. They came freely on board, apparently unsuspicious of
danger. It was noticeable that there were many very aged men among
them. The river seemed full of fishes, and with their hooks they took
large numbers. The next day the Indians came on board in crowds,
bringing pumpkins and tobacco. The vessel's boats were sent on shore
to procure fresh water.
Early the ensuing morning, they pushed up the river five miles, to a
point probably near the present city of Hudson.
Sir Henry Hudson does not appear to advantage in the account
transmitted to us of this exploration. Mr. Sparks, in his American
Biography, gives the following extraordinary account of one of his
procedures.
"It is evident that great distrust was entertained by Hudson
and his men towards the natives. He now determined to
ascertain, by intoxicating some of the chiefs, and thus
throwing them off their guard, whether they were plotting
any treachery. He accordingly invited several of them into
the cabin, and gave them plenty of brandy to drink. One of
these men had his wife with him, who, the Journal informs
us, 'sate so modestly as any of our countrywomen would do in
a strange place.' But the men had less delicacy and were
soon quite merry with the brandy.
"One of them, who had been on board from the first arrival
of the ship, was completely intoxicated, and fell sound
asleep, to the great astonishment of his companions, who
probably feared that he had been poisoned; for they all took
to their canoes and made for the shore, leaving their
unlucky comrade on board. Their anxiety for his welfare soon
induced them to return; and they brought a quantity of
beads, which they gave him, perhaps to enable him to
purchase his freedom from the spell which had been laid upon
him.
"The poor savage slept quietly all night, and when his
friends came to visit him the next morning they found him
quite well. This restored their confidence, so that they
came to the ship again in crowds, in the afternoon, bringing
various presents for Hudson. Their visit which was one of
unusual ceremony is thus described in the Journal:
"'So at three of the clock in the afternoon, they came
aboard and brought tobacco and more beads, and gave them to
our master, and made an oration and showed him all the
country round about. Then they sent one of their company on
land, who presently returned; and brought a great platter
full of venison, dressed by themselves, and they caused him
to eat with them. Then they made him reverence and departed,
all save the old man that lay aboard.'"
It was now manifest that no northwest passage to the Indies could be
found in this direction, and it was not deemed expedient to attempt to
ascend the river any farther in the ship. The mate, however was sent
with a boat's crew, to explore the river some distance higher up. It
is supposed that the boat ascended several miles above the present
site of the city of Albany, Hudson probably going a little beyond
where the town of Waterford now is. Upon the return of the boat, the
mate having reported that it was useless to attempt any farther ascent
of the river with the ship, Sir Henry commenced his return.
Carefully descending the winding channel of the stream, he was so
unfortunate as to run the ship on a mud bank, in the middle of the
river nearly opposite the present city of Hudson. Without much
difficulty the vessel was again floated, having received no injury.
But contrary winds detained him upon the spot two days. In the
meantime several boat parties visited the banks on both sides of the
stream. They were also visited by many of the natives who were
unremitting in their kindness.
A fair wind soon springing up they ran down the river eighteen miles,
passing quite a large Indian village where Catskill now stands, and
cast anchor in deep water, near Red Hook. Baffled by opposing winds
and calms, they slowly worked their way down the stream, the next two
days, to near the present point of Castleton. Here a venerable old
man, the chief of a small tribe, or rather patriarchal family of forty
men and seventeen women, came on board in his birch canoe. He gave Sir
Henry a very cordial invitation to visit his little settlement of
wigwams, picturesquely nestled upon the banks of the river. Distance
lends enchantment to the view. The little hamlet in a sheltered cove
where fertile meadows were spread out, was surrounded by fields waving
with the harvest. From the deck of the ship the scene presented was
one of peace, prosperity and happiness. The smoke ascended gracefully
from the wigwam fires, children were sporting upon the beach, and
birch canoes, almost as light as bubbles, were being rapidly paddled
over the glassy waves.
[Illustration]
The good old chief took the English captain ashore and led him into
his palace. It was a very humble edifice, constructed of bark so
carefully overlapped as effectually to exclude both wind and rain. It
was from thirty to forty feet long and eighteen feet wide. There was a
door at each end, and ample light was admitted by an opening extending
along the whole length, through which the smoke of the fires could
escape. The interior was finished with great care, and very smoothly.
Under certain states of the atmosphere and of the wind the smoke
freely ascended, causing no embarrassment to those within. The ground
floor was neatly covered with mats, except in the centre where the
fire was built. The whole interior as Sir Hudson entered it, on a
serene autumnal day, presented a very cheerful aspect. One might
easily be pardoned for imagining, in that hour, that the life of the
American savage, free from care, was apparently far more desirable
than that of the toil-worn European.
Sir Henry, with the few who accompanied him, was received with great
hospitality. Some Indians were immediately sent into the forest for a
dinner. They soon returned with some pigeons which they had shot with
their arrows. A nice fat puppy was also killed, skinned with a
clam-shell, and roasted in the highest style of barbaric culinary art.
Thick mats were provided as seats for the guests at this royal
festival. Hudson was urged to remain all night. He was evidently a man
of very cautious, if not suspicious temperament. He could not, or did
not conceal, from the Indians his fears that they were meditating
treachery. These artless men, to convince him that he had nothing to
apprehend, actually broke their bows and arrows, and threw them into
the fire. But nothing could induce Hudson to remain on shore through
the night. He describes the land here as very fertile, bearing
abundantly, corn, pumpkins, grapes, plums, and various other kinds of
small fruits.
Availing himself of a fair wind, he again spread his sails, and on the
1st of October, cast anchor at the mouth of Haverstraw Bay, in the
vicinity of Stony Point. He had scarcely furled his sails, when a
large number of natives came paddling out from the shore in their
little birch canoes. They were entirely unarmed, bringing apparently
in a most friendly manner, furs, fish and vegetables for sale. Soon
quite a little fleet of these buoyant canoes were gliding over the
water. One Indian, paddling beneath the cabin windows, and seeing
hanging out certain articles pilfered a pillow and a jacket. As he was
making off with his treasures the mate caught sight of him, and
seizing his gun mercilessly shot him dead. A severe punishment for so
trivial a crime in an untutored savage.
All the Indians on board the Half Moon as they heard the report of the
gun, and saw their unfortunate companion fall dead in his blood, were
stricken with terror. Some rushed into their canoes. Others plunged
into the river to swim ashore. The vessel's boat immediately put off
to pick up the canoe with the stolen goods. As it was returning, a
solitary Indian, in the water, probably exhausted and drowning,
grasped the gunwale. The cook seized a hatchet and with one blow,
deliberately cut off the man's hand at the wrist. The poor creature,
uttering a shriek, sank beneath the crimsoned waves and was seen no
more.
The next day, the Half Moon descended the river about twenty miles
through Tappan Sea, and anchored, it is supposed, near the head of
Manhattan island. Sir Henry Hudson was apparently oppressed in some
degree with the unjustifiable harshness with which he had treated the
simple-hearted, yet friendly natives. He was continually and
increasingly apprehensive of treachery. A single canoe containing
several men approached the ship Hudson's eagle eye perceived that one
of these men was one of the captives whom he had seized, but who had
escaped from his imprisonment by plunging into the river and swimming
ashore. The sight of this man alarmed the captain, and he refused to
allow any of them to come on board.
It seems to us rather absurd to suppose that half-a-dozen savages
could think of attacking, from a birch canoe, with arrows, a European
ship with its well-armed crew. It should be borne in mind that we have
the narrative from the white man only. The Indians have had no
opportunity to tell their story.
Mr. Brodhead, in his valuable history of New York, gives the following
account of the untoward scenes which immediately ensued, compiling
from the most ancient records:
"But Hudson, perceiving their intent, would suffer none of
them to enter the vessel. Two canoes, full of warriors, then
came under the stern, and shot a flight of arrows into the
yacht. A few muskets were discharged in retaliation, and two
or three of the assailants were killed. Some hundred Indians
then assembled at the Point to attack the Half Moon, as she
drifted slowly by; but a cannon-shot killed two of them,
whereupon the rest fled into the woods. Again the assailants
manned another canoe and again the attack was repulsed by a
cannon shot which destroyed their frail bark; and so the
savages went their way mourning the loss of nine of their
warriors. The yacht then got down two leagues beyond that
place, and anchored over night on the other side of the
river in the bay near Hoboken. Hard by his anchorage and
upon that side of the river that is called Mannahatta,
Hudson noticed that there was a cliff that looked of the
color of white-green. Here he lay wind-bound the next day,
and saw no people to trouble him. The following morning,
just one month after his arrival at Sandy Hook, Hudson
weighed anchor for the last time and coming out of the mouth
of the great river, in the which he had run so far, he set
all sail and steered off again into the main sea."
It is very evident that Sir Henry Hudson was by no means a good
disciplinarian. The authority he exercised over his crew, was very
feeble. A mutinous spirit began already to prevail, and we are told
that they threatened him savagely. It would appear that Sir Henry and
his mate wished to repair to Newfoundland, and after having passed the
winter, which was close upon them, there to resume their voyage, in
search of a northwest passage, through Davis's Straits. But the
turbulent crew would not consent. They compelled the captain to turn
the prow of his ship towards Europe. After the voyage of a month the
Half Moon cast anchor in the harbor of Dartmouth, England, on the 9th
of November, 1609.
It will be remembered that Sir Henry Hudson was an Englishman, though
he was sailing in the service of the Dutch East India Company. When
the Dutch Directors heard of his arrival in England, and of the
important discoveries he had made, they sent orders for him
immediately to repair to Amsterdam. At the same time the Dutch
government claimed, by the right of discovery, all that portion of the
North American continent along whose coasts Hudson had sailed and upon
whose shores he had occasionally landed, taking possession of the same
in the name of the Dutch government.
The English government, jealous of the advantage which had thus been
gained by the flag of Holland, peremptorily forbade Hudson to leave
his native country; and for several months the Half Moon was detained
at Dartmouth.
CHAPTER II.
THE PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY.
Value of the Territory Discovered.--Fate of Hudson.--The
Conspiracy.--Aspect of Manhattan Island.--The Trail which
has Widened into Broadway.--The Opening Commerce.--The Fur
Trade.--Visit of the English Man of War.--Exploring the
Sound.--Commercial Enterprise Receives a New
Stimulus.--Erection of Forts.--Character of the Fur Trade.
The Half Moon was detained in England eight months, and did not reach
Amsterdam until the summer of 1610. The Dutch Directors, though
disappointed in not finding in the region they had explored the much
hoped-for Northwest Passage to the Indies, were somewhat elated by the
magnificent discoveries which had been made. The territory they
claimed, by virtue of these discoveries, extended from the mouth of
the Delaware on the South, to Cape Cod on the Northeast. The grand
river of Canada, the St. Lawrence, was deemed its northern frontier.
Its western boundaries were unexplored and unknown.
This was indeed a princely territory to be owned by any power. The
climate was as favorable as any to be found upon the globe. The soil
was fertile, the landscape being picturesquely diversified by
mountains and valleys. Vast forests, of the most valuable timber,
covered immense portions. Wild fruits and nuts in great variety were
found in profusion. The territory was watered by several truly
magnificent rivers. The region was filled with game; and furs, of the
richest kind and apparently in exhaustless quantities, could be
purchased of the natives, at an almost nominal price.
It may be worthy of notice, that Sir Henry Hudson never revisited the
pleasant region which he had discovered, and which he had pronounced
to be 'as beautiful a land as the foot of man can tread upon.' In the
summer of 1610, Hudson entered the service of a London company and
sailed from the Thames in the "Discovery," in search of either a
Northwest or Northeast passage to the Indies. Passing Iceland,
appropriately so called, he gazed with astonishment upon Hecla in full
eruption, throwing its fiery flood and molten stones into the air.
Doubling the Cape of Greenland, he entered Davis's Straits. Through
these he passed into the gloomy waters beyond.
After spending a dismal winter, in the endurance of great privation,
exposed to severe Arctic storms, his mutinous crew abandoned him, in
the midst of fields of ice, to perish miserably. The following artless
account of this tragedy, which is taken from the lips of one of the
mutineers, will be read with interest. The ship was surrounded with
ice and the crew in a starving condition.
"They had been detained at anchor in the ice," says Pricket,
"about a week, when the first signs of the mutiny appeared.
Green, and Wilson the boatswain, came in the night to me, as
I was lying in my berth very lame and told me that they and
several of the crew had resolved to seize Hudson and set him
adrift in the boat, with all on board who were disabled by
sickness; that there were but a few days' provisions left;
that the master appeared entirely irresolute, which way to
go; that for themselves they had eaten nothing for three
days. Their only hope therefore was in taking command of the
ship, and escaping from these regions as quickly as
possible.
"I remonstrated with them in the most earnest manner,
entreating them to abandon such a wicked intention. But all
I could say had no effect. It was decided that the plot
should be put into execution at daylight. In the meantime
Green went into Hudson's cabin to keep him company, and to
prevent his suspicions from being excited. They had
determined to put the carpenter and John King into the boat
with Hudson and the sick, having some grudge against them
for their attachment to the master. King and the carpenter
had slept on deck this night, but about daybreak, King was
observed to go down into the hold with the cook, who was
going for water. Some of the mutineers ran and shut down the
hatch over them, while Green and another engaged the
attention of the carpenter, so that he did not observe what
was going on.
"Hudson now came from the cabin and was immediately seized
by Thomas and Bennet, the cook, who had come up from the
hold, while Wilson ran behind and bound his arms. He asked
them what they meant, and they told him that he would know
when he was in the shallop. Hudson called upon the carpenter
to help him, telling him that he was bound. But he could
render him no assistance being surrounded by mutineers. The
boat was now hauled along side, and the sick and lame were
called up from their berths. I crawled upon the deck as well
as I could and Hudson, seeing me, called to me to come to
the hatchway and speak to him.
"I entreated the men, on my knees, for the love of God, to
remember their duty. But they only told me to go back to my
berth, and would not allow me to have any communication with
Hudson. After the captain was put in the boat, the carpenter
was set at liberty; but he refused to remain in the ship
unless they forced him. So they told him he might go in the
boat and allowed him to take his chest with him. Before he
got into the boat, he told me that he believed they would
soon be taken on board again, as there was no one left who
knew enough to bring the ship home. He thought that the boat
would be kept in tow. We then took leave of each other, with
tears in our eyes, and the carpenter went into the boat,
taking a musket and some powder and shot, an iron pot, a
small quantity of meal, and other provisions.
"Hudson's son and six of the men were also put into the
boat. The sails were then hoisted and they stood eastward,
with a fair wind, dragging the shallop from the stern. In a
few hours, being clear of the ice, they cut the rope by
which the boat was towed, and soon after lost sight of her
forever."
The imagination recoils from following the victims thus abandoned,
through the long days and nights of lingering death, from hunger and
from cold. To God alone has the fearful tragedy been revealed.
The glowing accounts which Sir Henry Hudson had given of the river he
had discovered, and particularly of the rich furs there to be
obtained, induced the merchants of Amsterdam in the year 1616 to fit
out a trading expedition to that region. A vessel was at once
dispatched, freighted with a variety of goods to be exchanged for
furs. The enterprise was eminently successful and gradually more
minute information was obtained respecting the territory surrounding
the spacious bay into which the Hudson river empties its flood.
The island of Manhattan, upon which the city of New York is now built,
consisted then of a series of forest-crowned hills, interspersed with
crystal streamlets and many small but beautiful lakes. These solitary
sheets of water abounded with fish, and water-fowl of varied plumage.
They were fringed with forests, bluffs, and moss-covered rocks. The
upper part of the island was rough, being much broken by storm-washed
crags and wild ravines, with many lovely dells interspersed, fertile
in the extreme, blooming with flowers, and in the season, red with
delicious strawberries. There were also wild grapes and nuts of
various kinds, in great abundance.
The lower part of the island was much more level. There were
considerable sections where the forest had entirely disappeared. The
extended fields, inviting the plough, waved with luxuriant grass. It
was truly a delightful region. The climate was salubrious; the
atmosphere in cloudless transparency rivalled the famed skies of
Italy.
Where the gloomy prison of the Tombs now stands, there was a lake of
crystal water, overhung by towering trees. Its silence and solitude
were disturbed only by the cry of the water-fowl which disported upon
its surface, while its depths sparkled with the spotted trout. The
lake emptied into the Hudson river by a brook which rippled over its
pebbly bed, along the present line of Canal street. This beautiful
lake was fed by large springs and was sufficiently deep to float any
ship in the navy. Indeed it was some time before its bottom could be
reached by any sounding line.
There was a gentle eminence or ridge, forming as it were the backbone
of the island, along which there was a narrow trail trodden by the
moccasined feet of the Indian, in single file for countless
generations. Here is now found the renowned Broadway, one of the
busiest thoroughfares upon the surface of the globe.
On the corner of Grand street and Broadway, there was a well-wooded
hill, from whose commanding height one obtained an enchanting view of
the whole island with its surrounding waters. Amidst these solitudes
there were many valleys in whose peaceful bosoms the weary of other
lands seemed to be invited to take refuge.
Indeed it is doubtful whether the whole continent of North America
presented any region more attractive. The salubrity of its clime, the
beauty of the scenery, the abundance and purity of the waters, the
spacious harbor, the luxuriance of the soil and the unexplored rivers
opening communication with vast and unknown regions of the interior,
all combined in giving to the place charms which could not be exceeded
by any other position on the continent.
The success of the first trading vessel was so great that, within
three years, five other ships were sent to the "Mauritius river" as
the Hudson was first named. There was thus opened a very brisk traffic
with the Indians which was alike beneficial to both parties. Soon one
or two small forts were erected and garrisoned on the river for the
protection of the traders. Manhattan island, so favorably situated at
the mouth of the river, ere long became the headquarters of this
commerce. Four log houses were built, it is said, upon the present
site of 39, Broadway.
Here a small company of traders established themselves in the silence
and solitude of the wilderness. Their trading boats ran up the river,
and along the coast, visiting every creek and inlet in the pursuit of
furs. The natives, finding this market thus suddenly opening before
them, and finding that their furs, heretofore almost valueless, would
purchase for them treasures of civilization of almost priceless worth,
redoubled their zeal in hunting and trapping.
A small Indian settlement sprang up upon the spot. Quite large cargoes
of furs were collected during the winter and shipped to Holland in the
spring. The Dutch merchants seem to have been influenced by a high
sentiment of honor. The most amicable relations existed between them
and the Indians. Henry Christiænsen was the superintendent of this
feeble colony. He was a prudent and just man, and, for some time, the
lucrative traffic in peltry continued without interruption. The Dutch
merchants were exposed to no rivalry, for no European vessels but
theirs had, as yet, visited the Mauritius river.
But nothing in this world ever long continues tranquil. The storm ever
succeeds the calm. In November, of the year 1613, Captain Argal, an
Englishman, in a war vessel, looked in upon the little defenceless
trading hamlet, at the mouth of the Hudson, and claiming the territory
as belonging to England, compelled Christiænsen to avow fealty to the
English crown, and to pay tribute, in token of his dependence upon
that power. Christiænsen could make no resistance. One broadside from
the British ship would lay his huts in ruins, and expose all the
treasures collected there to confiscation. He could only submit to the
extortion and send a narrative of the event to the home government.
The merchants in Holland were much alarmed by these proceedings. They
presented a petition to the States-General, praying that those who
discovered new territory, on the North American continent, or
elsewhere, might enjoy the exclusive right of trading with the
inhabitants of those regions during six consecutive voyages.
This request was granted, limiting the number of voyages however to
four instead of six. In the meantime the Dutch merchants erected and
garrisoned two small forts to protect themselves from such piratic
excursions as that of captain Argal. In the year 1614 five vessels
arrived at Manhattan to transport to Europe the furs which had been
purchased. Just as Captain Block was preparing to return, his ship,
the Tiger, which was riding at anchor just off the southern point of
Manhattan island, took fire, and was burned to the water's edge.
[Illustration]
He was a very energetic man, not easily dismayed by misfortune. The
island abounded with admirable timber for ship building. He
immediately commenced the construction of another vessel. This yacht
was forty-four and a half feet long, and eleven and a half feet wide.
The natives watched the growth of the stupendous structure with
astonishment. In the most friendly manner they rendered efficient aid
in drawing the heavy timber from the forest to the shipyard. They also
brought in abundant food for the supply of the strangers.
Early in the spring of 1614 the "Restless" was launched. Immediately
Captain Block entered upon an exploring tour through what is now
called the East River. He gave the whole river the name of the
Hellegat, from a branch of the river Scheldt in East Flanders. The
unpropitious name still adheres to the tumultuous point of whirling
eddies where the waters of the sound unite with those of the river.
Coasting along the narrow portion of the sound, he named the land upon
his right, which he did not then know to be an island, Metoac or the
Land of Shells. We should rather say he accepted that name from the
Indians. On this cruise he discovered the mouths of the Housatonic and
of the Connecticut. He ascended this latter stream, which he called
Fresh River, several leagues. Indian villages were picturesquely
scattered along the shores, and the birch canoes of the Indians were
swiftly paddled over the mirrored waters. All else was silence and
solitude. The gloom of the forest overshadowed the banks and the
numerous water-fowl were undisturbed upon the stream. The natives were
friendly but timid. They were overawed by the presence of the gigantic
structure which had invaded their solitude.
Continuing his cruise to the eastward he reached the main ocean, and
thus found that the land upon his left was an island, now known as
Long Island. Still pressing forward he discovered the great
Narragansett Bay, which he thoroughly explored, and then continued his
course to Cape Cod, which, it will be remembered, Sir Henry Hudson had
already discovered, and which he had called New Holland.
Intelligence was promptly transmitted to Holland of these discoveries
and the United Company, under whose auspices the discoveries had been
made, adopted vigorous measures to secure, from the States-General,
the exclusive right to trade with the natives of those wide realms. A
very emphatic ordinance was passed, granting this request, on the 27th
of March, 1614.
This ordinance stimulated to a high degree the spirit of commercial
enterprise. The province was called New Netherland, and embraced the
territory within the 40th and 45th degrees of north latitude. All
persons, excepting the United "New Netherland Company," were
prohibited from trading within those limits, under penalty of the
confiscation of both vessels and cargoes, and also a fine of fifty
thousand Dutch ducats.
The Company immediately erected a trading-house, at the head of
navigation of the Hudson river, which as we have mentioned, was then
called Prince Maurice's River. This house was on an island, called
Castle Island, a little below the present city of Albany, and was
thirty-six feet long and twenty-six feet wide, and was strongly built
of logs. As protection from European buccaneers rather than from the
friendly Indians, it was surrounded by a strong stockade, fifty feet
square. This was encircled by a moat eighteen feet wide. The whole was
defended by several cannon and was garrisoned by twelve soldiers.
This port, far away in the loneliness of the wilderness, was called
Fort Nassau. Jacob Elkins was placed in command. Now that the majestic
Hudson is whitened with the sails of every variety of vessels and
barges, while steamers go rushing by, swarming with multitudes, which
can scarcely be counted, of the seekers of wealth or pleasures, and
railroad trains sweep thundering over the hills and through the
valleys, and the landscape is adorned with populous cities and
beautiful villas, it is difficult to form a conception of the silence
and solitude of those regions but about two hundred and fifty years
ago, when the tread of the moccasoned Indian fell noiseless upon the
leafy trail, and when the birch canoe alone was silently paddled from
cove to cove.
In addition to the fort in the vicinity of Albany, another was erected
at the southern extremity of Manhattan Island at the mouth of the
Hudson. Here the company established its headquarters and immediately
entered into a very honorable and lucrative traffic with the Indians,
for their valuable furs. The leaders of the Company were men of
integrity, and the Indians were all pleased with the traffic, for they
were ever treated with consideration, and received for their furs,
which they easily obtained, articles which were of priceless value to
them.
The vagabond white men, who were lingering about the frontiers of
civilization, inflicting innumerable and nameless outrages upon the
natives, were rigorously excluded from these regions. Thus the
relations existing between the Indians and their European visitors
were friendly in the highest degree. Both parties were alike benefited
by this traffic; the Indian certainly not less than the European, for
he was receiving into his lowly wigwam the products of the highest
civilization.
Indian tribes scattered far and wide through the primitive and
illimitable forest, plied all their energies with new diligence, in
taking game. They climbed the loftiest mountains and penetrated the
most distant streams with their snares. Some came trudging to the
forts on foot, with large packs of peltries upon their backs. Others
came in their birch canoes, loaded to the gunwales, having set their
traps along leagues of the river's coast and of distant streams.
Once a year the ships of the company came laden with the most useful
articles for traffic with the Indians, and, in return, transported
back to Europe the furs which had been collected. Such were the
blessings which peace and friendship conferred upon all. There seemed
to be no temptation to outrage. The intelligent Hollanders were well
aware that it was for their interest to secure the confidence of the
Indian by treating him justly. And the Indian was not at all disposed
to incur the resentment of strangers from whom he was receiving such
great benefits.
The little yacht "Restless," of which we have spoken, on one of her
exploring tours, visited Delaware Bay, and ascended that beautiful
sheet of water as far as the Schuylkill River. Runners were also sent
back from the forts, to follow the narrow trails far into the woods,
to open communication with new tribes, to examine the country, and to
obtain a more intimate acquaintance with the manners and customs of
the Indians.
In the spring of 1617 a very high freshet, accompanied by the breaking
up of the ice, so injured Fort Nassau that the traders were compelled
to abandon it. A new and very advantageous situation was selected, at
the mouth of the Tawasentha Creek, subsequently called Norman's Kill.
This name is said to have been derived from a native of Denmark,
called the Norman, who settled there in 1630.
In this vicinity there was a very celebrated confederation of Indian
tribes called the Five Nations. These tribes were the Mohawks,
Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas. They were frequently known by
the generic name of the Iroquois. When the Dutch arrived, the Iroquois
were at war with the Canadian Indians, who, though composed of
different tribes, were known by the general name of the Algonquins.
The Iroquois had been worsted in several conflicts. This led them
eagerly to seek alliance with the white men, who, with their wonderful
instruments of war, seemed to wield the energies of thunder and
lightning.
The Algonquins had, some years before, formed an alliance with the
French in Canada. The Iroquois now entered into an alliance with the
Dutch. It was a very important movement, and the treaty look place,
with many surroundings of barbaric pomp, on the banks of the Norman's
Kill.
Ambassadors from each of the five tribes graced the occasion. Leading
chiefs of several other tribes were also invited to be present, to
witness the imposing ceremony. The garrison furnished for the pageant
the waving of silken banners and the exhilarating music of its band.
The Indian chiefs attended with their decorated weapons, and they were
arrayed in the richest costume of war paint, fringed garments, and
nodding plumes.
The assembly was large. The belt of peace, gorgeously embroidered with
many-colored beads, on softly-tanned deer skin, was held at one end by
the Iroquois chieftains, and at the other by the prominent men of the
Dutch Company, in their most showy attire. The pipe of peace was
smoked with solemn gravity. The tomahawk was buried, and each party
pledged itself to eternal friendship.
The united nation of the Iroquois, in numbers and valor, had become
quite supreme throughout all this region. All the adjacent tribes
bowed before their supremacy. In Mr. Street's metrical romance,
entitled "Frontenac" he speaks, in pleasing verse, of the prowess and
achievements of these formidable warriors.
"The fierce Adirondacs had fled from their wrath,
The Hurons been swept from their merciless path,
Around, the Ottawas, like leaves, had been strown,
And the lake of the Eries struck silent and lone.
The Lenape, lords once of valley and hill,
Made women, bent low at their conquerors' will.
By the far Mississippi the Illini shrank
When the trail of the Tortoise was seen on the bank.
On the hills of New England the Pequod turned pale
When the howl of the Wolf swelled at night on the gale,
And the Cherokee shook, in his green smiling bowers,
When the foot of the Bear stamped his carpet of flowers."
Thus far the Iroquois possessed only bows and arrows. They were
faithful to their promises, and implicit confidence could be reposed
in their pledge. The Dutch traders, without any fear, penetrated the
wilderness in all directions, and were invariably hospitably received
in the wigwams of the Indians.
In their traffic the Dutch at first exchanged for furs only articles
of ornament or of domestic value. But the bullet was a far more potent
weapon in the chase and in the hunting-field than the arrow. The
Indians very soon perceived the vast advantage they would derive in
their pursuit of game, from the musket, as well as the superiority it
would give them over all their foes. They consequently became very
eager to obtain muskets, powder and ball. They were warm friends of
the Europeans. There seemed to be no probability of their becoming
enemies. Muskets and steel traps enabled them to obtain many more
furs. Thus the Indians were soon furnished with an abundant supply of
fire-arms, and became unerring marksmen.
Year after year the returns from the trading-posts became more
valuable; and the explorations were pushed farther and farther into
the interior. The canoes of the traders penetrated the wide realms
watered by the upper channels of the Delaware. A trading-house was
also erected in the vast forest, upon the Jersey shore of the Hudson
River, where the thronged streets of Jersey City at the present hour
cover the soil.
We have now reached the year 1618, two years before the arrival of the
Pilgrims at Plymouth. Though the energetic Dutch merchants were thus
perseveringly and humanely pushing their commerce, and extending their
trading posts, no attempt had yet been made for any systematic
agricultural colonization.
The Dutch alone had then any accurate knowledge of the Hudson River,
or of the coasts of Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Long Island. In
1618 the special charter of the Company, conferring upon them the
monopoly of exclusive trade with the Indians, expired. Though the
trade was thus thrown open to any adventurous Dutch merchant, still
the members of the Company enjoyed an immense advantage in having all
the channels perfectly understood by them, and in being in possession
of such important posts.
English fishing vessels visited the coast of Maine, and an
unsuccessful attempt had been made to establish a colony at the mouth
of the Kennebec River. Sir Walter Raleigh had also made a very
vigorous but unavailing effort to establish a colony in Virginia.
Before the year 1600, every vestige of his attempt had disappeared.
Mr. John Romeyn Brodhead, in his valuable history of the State of New
York, speaking of this illustrious man, says:
"The colonists, whom Raleigh sent to the island of Roanoke
in 1585, under Grenville and Lane, returned the next year
dispirited to England. A second expedition, dispatched in
1587, under John White, to found the borough of Raleigh, in
Virginia, stopped short of the unexplored Chesapeake,
whither it was bound, and once more occupied Roanoke. In
1590 the unfortunate emigrants had wholly disappeared; and
with their extinction all immediate attempts to establish an
English colony in Virginia were abandoned. Its name alone
survived.
"After impoverishing himself in unsuccessful efforts to add
an effective American plantation to his native kingdom,
Raleigh, the magnanimous patriot, was consigned, under an
unjust judgment, to lingering imprisonment in the Tower of
London, to be followed, after the lapse of fifteen years, by
a still more iniquitous execution. Yet returning justice has
fully vindicated Raleigh's fame. And nearly two centuries
after his death the State of North Carolina gratefully named
its capital after that extraordinary man, who united in
himself as many kinds of glory as were ever combined in any
individual."
CHAPTER III.
THE COMMENCEMENT OF COLONISATION.
The Puritans.--Memorial to the States-General.--Disagreement
of the English and the Dutch.--Colony on the
Delaware.--Purchase of Manhattan.--The First Settlement.--An
Indian Robbed and Murdered.--Description of the
Island.--Diplomatic Intercourse.--Testimony of De
Rassieres.--The Patroons.--The Disaster at Swaanendael.
In the year 1620 the Puritans founded their world-renowned colony at
Plymouth, as we have minutely described in the History of Miles
Standish. It will be remembered that the original company of Puritans
were of English birth. Dissatisfied with the ritual and ceremonies
which the Church of England had endeavored to impose upon them, they
had emigrated to Holland, where they had formed a church upon their
own model. Rev. John Robinson, a man of fervent piety and of
enlightened views above his times, was their pastor.
After residing in Holland for several years, this little band of
Englishmen, not pleased with that country as their permanent abode,
decided to seek a new home upon the continent of North America. They
first directed their attention towards Virginia, but various obstacles
were thrown in their way by the British Government, and at length Mr.
Robinson addressed a letter to the Dutch Company, intimating the
disposition felt by certain members of his flock, to take up their
residence at New Netherland.
The proposition was very cordially received. The intelligent gentlemen
of that Company at once saw that there was thus presented to them an
opportunity to establish a colony, at their trading post, which it
would be wise to embrace. They therefore addressed a memorial upon the
subject to the States-General, and to the Prince of Orange, in which
they urged the importance of accepting the proposition which they had
received from Mr. Robinson, and of thus commencing an agricultural
colony upon the island of Manhattan. In this memorial they write under
date of February, 1620:
"It now happens that there resides at Leyden an English
clergyman, well versed in the Dutch language, who is
favorably inclined to go and dwell there. Your petitioners
are assured that he knows more than four hundred families,
who, provided they were defended and secured there by your
Royal Highness, and that of the High and Mighty Lords
States-General, from all violence on the part of other
potentates, would depart thither, with him, from this
country and from England, to plant, forthwith, everywhere
the true and pure Christian religion; to instruct the
Indians of those countries in the true doctrine; to bring
them to the Christian belief; and likewise, through the
grace of the Lord, and for the greater honor of the rulers
of this land to people all that region under a new
dispensation; all under the order and command of your
princely Highness and of the High and Mighty Lords
States-General.
"Your petitioners have also learned that His Britannic
Majesty is inclined to people the aforesaid lands with
Englishmen; to destroy your petitioners' possessions and
discoveries, and also to deprive this State of its right to
these lands, while the ships belonging to this country,
which are there during the whole of the present year, will
apparently and probably be surprised by the English."
The petitioners therefore prayed that the request of Mr. Robinson
might be favorably regarded; that the contemplated colony should be
taken under the protection of the Dutch government, and that two ships
of war should be sent out for the defence of the infant settlements.
The Dutch government was then upon the eve of a war with Spain, and
all its energies were demanded in preparation for the conflict. They
therefore quite peremptorily refused to entertain the petition of the
New Netherland Company. Thus the destination of the Puritans was
changed. Though they were not encouraged to commence their colonial
life at New Netherland, still it was their intention when they sailed
from England, to find a home somewhere in that vicinity, as England,
as well as Holland, claimed the whole coast. A note, in the History of
New Netherland, by E.B. O'Callaghan, contains the following
interesting statement upon this subject:
"Some historians represent that the Pilgrims were taken
against their will to New Plymouth, by the treachery of the
captain of the Mayflower, who, they assert, was bribed by
the Dutch to land them at a distance from the Hudson river.
This has been shown, over and over again, to have been a
calumny; and, if any farther evidence were requisite, it is
now furnished, of a most conclusive nature, by the petition
in behalf of the Rev. Mr. Robinson's congregation, of Feb.
1620, and the rejection of its prayer by their High
Mightinesses.
"That the Dutch were anxious to secure the settlement of the
Pilgrims under them, is freely admitted by the latter.
Governor Bradford, in his History of the Plymouth Colony,
acknowledges it, and adds that the Dutch for that end made
them large offers.
"Winslow corroborates this in his 'Brief Narrative,' and
adds that the Dutch would have freely transported us to the
Hudson river, and furnished every family with cattle. The
whole of this evidence satisfactorily establishes the good
will of the Dutch people towards the English; while the
determination of the States-General proves that there was no
encouragement held out by the Dutch government to induce
them to settle in their American possessions. On the
contrary, having formally rejected their petition, they
thereby secured themselves against all suspicion of dealing
unfairly by those who afterwards landed at Cape Cod. It is
to be hoped, therefore, that even for the credit of the
Pilgrims, the idle tale will not be repeated."
There were many indications that a conflict would ere long arise
between the Dutch and the English. The English repudiated entirely the
Dutch claim to any right of possession on the Atlantic coast. They
maintained their right to the whole American coast, from the Spanish
possessions in Florida, to the French posts in Canada. The English
government founded its claim upon the ground of first discovery,
occupation and possession. Various companies, in England, had, by
charters and letters patent from their sovereigns, been entrusted with
these vast territories. It was quite evident that these conflicting
claims between England and Holland must eventually lead to collision.
The Dutch merchants continued to push their commercial enterprises in
New Netherland with great energy. They were preparing to send quite a
large fleet of merchant vessels to the extensive line of coast which
they claimed, when the British merchants composing what was called the
Plymouth Company, took the alarm, and presented a petition to James
I., remonstrating against such proceedings. The British government
promptly sent an ambassador to Holland to urge the States-General to
prohibit the departure of the fleet, and to forbid the establishment
of a Dutch colony in those regions. The diplomacy which ensued led to
no decisive results.
In the year 1623, the Dutch sent a ship, under captain May, and
established a small colony upon the eastern banks of the Delaware,
about fifty miles from its mouth. The settlement, which consisted of
about thirty families, was in the vicinity of the present town of
Gloucester. A fortress was erected, called Fort Nassau. This was the
first European settlement upon the Delaware, which stream was then
called Prince Hendrick's, or South River. Another fortified post,
called Fort Orange, was established upon the western banks of the
Hudson River about thirty-six miles from the island of Manhattan.
Very slowly the tide of emigration began to flow towards the Hudson. A
few families settled on Staten Island. Not pleased with their isolated
location, they soon removed to the northern shore of Long Island, and
reared their log cabins upon the banks of a beautiful bay, which they
called Wahle-Bocht, or "the Bay of the Foreigners." The name has since
been corrupted into Wallabout. The western extremity of Long Island
was then called Breukelen, which has since been Anglicised into
Brooklyn.
The government of these feeble communities was committed to a
Governor, called Director, and a Council of five men. One of the first
Governors was Peter Minuit, who was appointed in the year 1624. The
English still claimed the territory which the Dutch were so quietly
and efficiently settling. In the year 1626, the Dutch decided to make
a permanent settlement upon Manhattan island, which was then estimated
to contain about twenty-two thousand acres of land. The island was
purchased of the natives for twenty-four dollars. It was all that, at
that time, the savage wilderness was worth. In that year the export of
furs amounted to nineteen thousand dollars.
The colony soon numbered about two hundred persons. The village
consisted of thirty log houses, extending along the banks of the East
River. These cabins were one story high, with thatched roof, wooden
chimneys, and two rooms on the floor. Barrels, placed on an end,
furnished the tables. The chairs were logs of wood. Undoubtedly in
many of these humble homes more true happiness was found than is now
experienced in some of the palatial mansions which grace the gorgeous
avenues of the city. About this time three ships arrived, containing a
large number of families with farming implements, and over a hundred
head of cattle. To prevent the cattle from being lost in the woods,
they were pastured on Governor's, then called Nutten's Island.
And now the tide of emigration began pretty rapidly to increase. The
Dutch transported emigrants for twelve and a half cents a day, during
the voyage, for both passage and food. They also gave them, upon
reaching the colony, as much land as they were able to cultivate. With
a wise toleration, which greatly honored them, the fullest religious
freedom of speech and worship was allowed.
A strong block-house, surrounded with palisades of red cedar, was
thrown up on the south point of Manhattan Island, and was called Fort
Amsterdam. This became the headquarters of the government and the
capital of the extended, though not very clearly defined, realm of New
Netherland.
An unfortunate occurrence now took place which eventually involved the
colony in serious trouble. An Indian, from the vicinity of
Westchester, came with his nephew, a small boy, bringing some beaver
skins to barter with the Dutch at the fort. The narrow trail through
the forest, led in a southeast direction, along the shore of the East
River, till it reached what was called Kip's Bay. Then, diverging to
the west, it passed near the pond of fresh water, which was about half
way between what are now Broadway and Chatham streets. This pond, for
a century or more, was known as the Kolck or the Collect.
When the Indians reached this point, they were waylaid by three white
men, robbed of their furs, and the elder one was murdered. The boy
made his escape and returned to his wilderness home, vowing to revenge
the murder of his uncle. It does not appear that the Dutch authorities
were informed of this murder. They certainly did not punish the
murderers, nor make any attempt to expiate the crime, by presents to
the Indians.
"The island of Manhattan," wrote De Rassieres at this time,
"is full of trees and in the middle rocky. On the north side
there is good land in two places, where two farmers, each
with four horses, would have enough to do without much
grubbing or clearing at first. The grass is good in the
forests and valleys; but when made into hay, it is not so
nutritious for the cattle as the hay in Holland, in
consequence of its wild state, yet it annually improves by
culture.
"On the east side there rises a large level field, of about
one hundred and sixty acres, through which runs a very fine
fresh stream; so that land can be ploughed without much
clearing. It appears to be good. The six farms, four of
which lie along the river Hell-gate, stretching to the south
side of the island, have at least one hundred and twenty
acres to be sown with winter seed, which, at the most, may
have been ploughed eight times."
There were eighteen families at Fort Orange, which was situated on
Tawalsoutha creek, on the west side of the Hudson river, about
thirty-six Dutch miles above the island of Manhattan. These colonists
built themselves huts of bark, and lived on terms of cordial
friendship with the Indians. Wassenaar writes, "The Indians were as
quiet as lambs, and came and traded with all the freedom imaginable."
The Puritans had now been five years at Plymouth. So little were they
acquainted with the geography of the country that they supposed New
England to be an island.[1] Floating rumors had reached them of the
Dutch colony at the mouth of the Hudson. Governor Bradford
commissioned Mr. Winslow to visit the Dutch, who had sent a ship to
Narragansett bay to trade, that he might dissuade them from
encroaching in their trade upon territory which the Puritans
considered as exclusively belonging to them. Mr. Winslow failed to
meet the Dutch before their vessel had sailed on its return to
Manhattan.
Soon after this the Dutch Governor, Peter Minuit, sent secretary De
Rassieres to Governor Bradford, with a very friendly letter,
congratulating the Plymouth colony upon its prosperity, inviting to
commercial relations, and offering to supply their English neighbors
with any commodities which they might want.
Governor Bradford, in his reply, very cordially reciprocated these
friendly greetings. Gracefully he alluded to the hospitality with
which the exiled Pilgrims had been received in Holland. "Many of us,"
he wrote,
"are tied by the good and courteous entreaty which we have
found in your country, having lived there many years with
freedom and good content, as many of our friends do this
day; for which we are bound to be thankful, and our children
after us, and shall never forget the same."
At the same time he claimed that the territory, north of forty degrees
of latitude, which included a large part of New Netherland, and all
their Hudson river possessions, belonged to the English. Still he
promised that, for the sake of good neighborhood, the English would
not molest the Dutch at the mouth of the Hudson, if they would
"forbear to trade with the natives in this bay and river of
Narragansett and Sowames, which is, as it were, at our doors."
The authorities at Fort Amsterdam could not, for a moment, admit this
claim of English supremacy over New Netherland. Director Minuit
returned an answer, remarkable for its courteous tone, but in which he
firmly maintained the right of the Dutch to trade with the
Narragansetts as they had done for years, adding "As the English claim
authority under the king of England, so we derive ours from the States
of Holland, and we shall defend it."
Governor Bradford sent this correspondence to England. In an
accompanying document he said,
"the Dutch, for strength of men and fortification, far
exceed us in all this land. They have used trading here for
six or seven and twenty years; but have begun to plant of
later time; and now have reduced their trade to some order,
and confined it only to their company, which, heretofore,
was spoiled by their seamen and interlopers, as ours is,
this year most notoriously. Besides spoiling our trade, the
Dutch continue to sell muskets, powder and shot to the
Indians, which will be the overthrow of all, if it be not
looked into."
Director Minuit must have possessed some very noble traits of
character. After waiting three months to receive a reply to his last
communication, he sent another letter, reiterating the most friendly
sentiments, and urging that an authorized agent should be sent from
Plymouth to New Amsterdam, to confer "by word of mouth, touching our
mutual commerce and trading." He stated, moreover, that if it were
inconvenient for Governor Bradford to send such an agent, they would
depute one to Plymouth themselves. In further token of kindness, he
sent to the Plymouth Governor, "a rundlet of sugar and two Holland
cheeses."
It is truly refreshing to witness the fraternal spirit manifested on
this occasion. How many of the woes of this world might have been
averted had the brotherhood of man been thus recognized by the leaders
of the nations!
A messenger was sent to Plymouth. He was hospitably entertained, and
returned to Fort Amsterdam with such testimonials of his reception as
induced Director Minuit to send a formal ambassador to Plymouth,
entrusted with plenipotentiary powers. Governor Bradford apologized
for not sending an ambassador to Fort Amsterdam, stating, "one of our
boats is abroad, and we have much business at home." Director Minuit
selected Isaac De Rassieres, secretary of the province, "a man of fair
and genteel behavior," as his ambassador. This movement was, to those
infant colonies, an event of as much importance as any of the more
stately embassies which have been interchanged between European
courts.
The barque Nassau was fitted out, and manned with a small band of
soldiers, and some trumpeters. It was the last of September, 1629,
when earth and sky were bathed in all the glories of New England
autumnal days. In De Rassieres' account of the excursion, he writes:
"Sailing through Hell-gate, and along the shores of
Connecticut and Rhode Island, we arrived, early the next
month, off Frenchman's Point, at a small river where those
of New Plymouth have a house, made of hewn oak planks,
called Aptuxet; where they keep two men, winter and summer,
in order to maintain the trade and possession."
This Aptuxet was at the head of Buzzard's Bay, upon the site of the
present village of Monumet, in the town of Sandwich. Near by there was
a creek, penetrating the neck of Cape Cod, which approached another
creek on the other side so near that, by a portage of but about five
miles, goods could be transported across.
As the Nassau came in sight of this lonely trading port suddenly the
peals of the Dutch trumpets awoke the echoes of the forest. It was the
4th of October. A letter was immediately dispatched by a fleet-footed
Indian runner to Plymouth. A boat was promptly sent to the head of the
creek, called Manoucusett, on the north side of the cape, and De
Rassieres, with his companions, having threaded the Indian trail
through the wilderness for five miles, was received on board the
Pilgrims' boat and conveyed to Plymouth, "honorably attended with the
noise of trumpeters."[2]
This meeting was a source of enjoyment to both parties. The two
nations of England and Holland were in friendly alliance, and
consequently this interview, in the solitudes of the New World, of the
representatives of the two colonies, was mutually agreeable. The
Pilgrims, having many of them for a long time resided in Holland,
cherished memories of that country with feelings of strong affection
and regarded the Hollanders almost as fellow-countrymen.
But again Governor Bradford asserted the right of the English to the
country claimed by the Dutch, and even intimated that force might soon
be employed to vindicate the British pretentions. We must admire the
conduct of both parties in this emergency. The Dutch, instead of
retaliating with threats and violence, sent a conciliatory memorial to
Charles I., then King of England. And Charles, much to his credit,
issued an order that all the English ports, whether in the kingdom or
in the territories of the British king, should be thrown open to the
Dutch vessels, trading to or from New Netherland.
The management of the affairs of the Dutch Colony was entrusted to a
body of merchants called the West India Company. In the year 1629,
this energetic company purchased of the Indians the exclusive title to
a vast territory, extending north from Cape Henlopen, on the south
side of Delaware Bay, two miles in breadth and running thirty-two
miles inland.
The reader of the record of these days, often meets with the word
_Patroon_, without perhaps having any very distinct idea of its
significance. In order to encourage emigration and the establishment
of colonies, the authorities in Holland issued a charter, conferring
large extents of land and exclusive privileges, upon such members of
the West India Company as might undertake to settle any colony in New
Netherland.
"All such," it was proclaimed in this charter,
"shall be acknowledged _Patroons_ of New Netherland, who
shall, within the space of four years, undertake to plant a
colony there of fifty souls upwards of fifteen years of age.
The Patroons, by virtue of their power, shall be permitted,
at such places as they shall settle their colonies, to
extend their limits four miles[3] along the shore, and so
far into the country as the situation of the occupiers will
admit."
The patroons, thus in possession of territory equal to many of the
dukedoms and principalities of Europe, were invested with the
authority which had been exercised in Europe by the old feudal lords.
They could settle all disputes, in civil cases, between man and man.
They could appoint local officers and magistrates, erect courts, and
punish all crimes committed within their limits, being even authorized
to inflict death upon the gallows. They could purchase any amount of
unappropriated lands from the Indians.
One of these patroons, Kiliaen Van Rensselaer, a wealthy merchant in
Holland, who had been accustomed to polish pearls and diamonds,
became, as patroon, possessed of nearly the whole of the present
counties of Albany and Rensselaer, in the State cf New York, embracing
the vast area of one thousand one hundred and forty-one square miles.
Soon all the important points on the Hudson River and the Delaware
were thus caught up by these patroons, wealthy merchants of the West
India Company.
When the news of these transactions reached Holland, great
dissatisfaction was felt by the less fortunate shareholders, that
individuals had grasped such a vast extent of territory. It was
supposed that Director Minuit was too much in sympathy with the
patroons, who were becoming very powerful, and he was recalled. All
were compelled to admit that during his administration the condition
of the colony had been prosperous. The whole of Manhattan Island had
been honestly purchased of the Indians. Industry had flourished.
Friendly relations were everywhere maintained with the natives. The
northwestern shores of Long Island were studded with the log cottages
of the settlers. During his directorship the exports of the colony had
trebled, amounting, in the year 1632, to nearly fifty thousand
dollars.
We come now to a scene of war, blood and woe, for which the Dutch were
not at all accountable. It will be remembered that a colony had been
established near the mouth of Delaware Bay. Two vessels were
dispatched from Holland for this point containing a number of
emigrants, a large stock of cattle, and whaling equipments, as whales
abounded in the bay. The ship, called the Walvis, arrived upon the
coast in April, 1631. Running along the western shore of this
beautiful sheet of water, they came to a fine navigable stream, which
was called Horekill, abounding with picturesque islands, with a soil
of exuberant fertility, and where the waters were filled with fishes
and very fine oysters. There was here also a roadstead unequalled in
the whole bay for convenience and safety.
Here the emigrants built a fort and surrounded it with palisades, and
a thriving Dutch colony of about thirty souls was planted. They
formally named the place, which was near the present town of Lewiston,
Swaanendael. A pillar was raised, surmounted by a plate of glittering
tin, upon which was emblazoned the arms of Holland; and which also
announced that the Dutch claimed the territory by the title of
discovery, purchase and occupation.
For awhile the affairs of this colony went on very prosperously. But
in May, 1632, an expedition, consisting of two ships, was fitted out
from Holland. with additional emigrants and supplies. Just before the
vessels left the Texel, a ship from Manhattan brought the melancholy
intelligence to Amsterdam that the colony at Swaanendael had been
destroyed by the savages, thirty-two men having been killed outside of
the fort working in the fields. Still DeVrees, who commanded the
expedition, hoping that the report was exaggerated, and that the
colony might still live, in sadness and disappointment proceeded on
his way. One of his vessels ran upon the sands off Dunkirk, causing a
delay of two months. It was not until the end of December that the
vessels cast anchor off Swaanendael. No boat from the shore
approached; no signs of life met the eye. The next morning a boat,
thoroughly armed, was sent into the creek on an exploring tour.
Upon reaching the spot where the fort had been erected they found the
building and palisades burned, and the ground strewn with the hones of
their murdered countrymen, intermingled with the remains of cattle.
The silence and solitude of the tombs brooded over the devastated
region. Not even a savage was to be seen. As the boat returned with
these melancholy tidings, DeVrees caused a heavy cannon to be fired,
hoping that its thunders, reverberating over the bay, and echoing
through the trails of the wilderness, might reach the ear of some
friendly Indian, from whom he could learn the details of the disaster.
The next morning a smoke was seen curling up from the forest near the
ruins. The boat was again sent into the creek, and two or three
Indians were seen cautiously prowling about. But mutual distrust stood
in the way of any intercourse. The Dutch were as apprehensive of
ambuscades and the arrows of the Indians, as were the savages of the
bullets of the formidable strangers.
Some of the savages at length ventured to come down to the shore, off
which the open boat floated, beyond the reach of arrows. Lured by
friendly signs, one of the Indians soon became emboldened to venture
on board. He was treated with great kindness, and succeeded in
communicating the following, undoubtedly true, account of the
destruction of the colony:
"One of the chiefs, seeing the glittering tin plate,
emblazoned with the arms of Holland, so conspicuously
exposed upon the column, apparently without any
consciousness that he was doing anything wrong, openly,
without any attempt at secrecy, took it down and quite
skilfully manufactured it into tobacco pipes. The commander
of the fort, a man by the name of Hossett, complained so
bitterly of this, as an outrage that must not pass
unavenged, that some of the friendly Indians, to win his
favor, killed the chief, and brought to Hossett his head, or
some other decisive evidence that the deed was done."
The commandant was shocked at this severity of retribution, so far
exceeding anything which he had desired, and told the savages that
they had done very wrong; that they should only have arrested the
chief and brought him to the fort. The commandant would simply have
reprimanded him and forbidden him to repeat the offence.
The ignorant Indians of the tribe, whose chief had thus summarily,
and, as they felt, unjustly been put to death, had all their savage
instincts roused to intensity. They regarded the strangers at the fort
as instigating the deed and responsible for it. They resolved upon
bloody vengeance.
A party of warriors, thoroughly armed, came stealing through the
glades of the forest and approached the unsuspecting fort. All the men
were at work in the fields excepting one, who was left sick at home.
There was also chained up in the fort, a powerful and faithful
mastiff, of whom the Indians stood in great dread. Three of the
savages, concealing, as far as they could, their weapons, approached
the fort, under the pretence of bartering some beaver skins. They met
Hossett, the commander, not far from the door. He entered the house
with them, not having the slightest suspicion of their hostile intent.
He ascended some steep stairs into the attic, where the stores for
trade were deposited, and as he was coming down, one of the Indians,
watching his opportunity, struck him dead with an axe. They then
killed the sick man. Standing at a cautious distance, they shot
twenty-five arrows into the chained mastiff till he sank motionless in
death.
The colonists in the field, in the meantime, were entirely unaware of
the awful scenes which were transpiring, and of their own impending
peril. The wily Indians approached them, under the guise of
friendship. Each party had its marked man. At a given signal, with the
utmost ferocity they fell upon their victims. With arrows, tomahawks
and war-clubs, the work was soon completed. Not a man escaped.
CHAPTER IV.
THE ADMINISTRATION OF VAN TWILLER.
Friendly Relations Restored.--Wouter Van Twiller New
Director.--Captain Elkins.--Remonstrance of De
Vrees.--Claims for the Connecticut.--The Plymouth
Expedition.--A Boat's Crew Murdered.--Condition of the
Colony in 1633.--Emigration to the Connecticut.--Emigrants
from Holland.--The Red Rocks.--New Haven Colony
Established.--Natural.--Indian Remonstrance Against
Taxation.--Outrage upon the Raritan Indians.--Indian
Revenge.
De Vrees very wisely decided that it would be but a barren vengeance
to endeavor to retaliate upon the roaming savages, when probably more
suffering would be inflicted upon the innocent than upon the guilty.
He therefore, to their astonishment and great joy, entered into a
formal treaty of peace and alliance with them. Any attempt to bring
the offenders to justice would of course have been unavailing, as they
could easily scatter, far and wide, through the trackless wilderness.
Arrangements were made for re-opening trade, and the Indians with
alacrity departed to hunt beaver.
A new Director was appointed at Manhattan, Wouter Van Twiller. He was
an inexperienced young man, and owed his appointment to the powerful
patronage he enjoyed from having married the niece of the patroon Van
Rensselaer. Thus a "raw Amsterdam clerk," embarked in a ship of twenty
guns, with a military force of one hundred and four soldiers, to
assume the government of New Netherland. The main object of this
mercantile governor seemed to be to secure trade with the natives and
to send home furs.
De Vrees, having concluded his peace with the Indians, sailed up the
South river, as they then called the Delaware, through the floating
ice, to a trading post, which had been established some time before at
a point about four miles below the present site of Philadelphia. He
thought he saw indications of treachery, and was constantly on his
guard. He found the post, which was called Fort Nassau, like a similar
post on the Hudson, deserted. The chiefs, however, of nine different
tribes, came on board, bringing presents of beaver skins, avowing the
most friendly feelings, and they entered into a formal treaty with the
Dutch. There did not, however, seem to be any encouragement again to
attempt the establishment of a colony, or of any trading posts in that
region. He therefore abandoned the Delaware river, and for some time
no further attempts were made to colonize its coasts.
In April, 1633, an English ship arrived at Manhattan. The bluff
captain, Jacob Elkins, who had formerly been in the Dutch employ, but
had been dismissed from their service, refused to recognize the Dutch
authorities, declaring that New Netherland was English territory,
discovered by Hudson, an Englishman. It was replied that though Hudson
was an Englishman, he was in the service of the East India Company at
Amsterdam; that no English colonists had ever settled in the region,
and that the river itself was named Mauritius river, after the Prince
of Orange.
Elkins was not to be thus dissuaded. He had formerly spent four years
at this post, and was thoroughly acquainted with the habits and
language of the Indians. His spirit was roused. He declared that he
would sail up the river if it cost him his life. Van Twiller was
equally firm in his refusal. He ordered the Dutch flag to be run up at
fort Amsterdam, and a salute to be fired in honor of the Prince of
Orange. Elkins, in retaliation, unfurled the English flag at his
mast-head, and fired a salute in honor of King Charles. After
remaining a week at fort Amsterdam, and being refused a license to
ascend the river, he defiantly spread his colors to the breeze,
weighed anchor, and boldly sailed up the stream to fort Orange. This
was the first British vessel which ascended the North river.
The pusillanimous Van Twiller was in a great rage, but had no decision
of character to guide him in such an emergency. The merchant clerk,
invested with gubernatorial powers, found himself in waters quite
beyond his depth. He collected all the people of the fort, broached a
cask of wine, and railed valiantly at the intrepid Englishman, whose
ship was fast disappearing beyond the palisades. His conduct excited
only the contempt and derision of those around.
DeVrees was a man of very different fibre. He had, but a few days
before, entered the port from Swaanendael. He dined with the Governor
that day, and said to him in very intelligible Dutch:
"You have committed a great folly. Had it been my case, I
would have helped the Englishman to some eight pound iron
beans, and have prevented him from going up the river. The
English are of so haughty a nature that they think that
everything belongs to them. I would immediately send a
frigate after him, and drive him out of the river."
Stimulated by this advice, Van Twiller prepared, as speedily as
possible, three well armed vessels, strongly manned with soldiers, and
sent them, under an intrepid captain, in pursuit of the intruders.
They found the English ship, the William, about a mile below fort
Orange. A tent was pitched upon the shore, where, for a fortnight, the
English had been pursuing a very lucrative traffic for furs. The Dutch
soldiers were in strength which Elkins could not resist.
They ordered him to strike his tent. He refused. They did it for him;
reshipped all his goods which he had transferred to the shore, to
trade with the Indians, and also the furs which he had purchased. They
then weighed the anchors of the William, unfurled her sails, and, with
trumpet blasts of victory, brought the ship, captain and crew down to
fort Amsterdam. The ship was then convoyed to sea, and the discomfited
Elkins returned to London. Thus terminated, in utter failure, the
first attempt of the English to enter into trade with the Indians of
New Netherland.
The Dutch were now the only Europeans who had occupied any part of the
present territory of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware.
They were also carrying on a very flourishing trade with the Indians
on the Connecticut river, which was then called Fresh river, and this
"long before any English had dreamed of going there." The Value of
this traffic may be inferred from the fact that, in the year 1633,
sixteen thousand beaver skins were sent to Holland from the North
river alone.
To strengthen their title, thus far founded on discovery and exclusive
visitation, the Dutch, in 1632, purchased of the Indians nearly all of
the lands on both sides of the Connecticut river, including Saybrook
Point, at the mouth, where the arms of the States-General were affixed
to a tree in token of possession. A fort was also commenced, near the
mouth of the river, and a trading post established some miles up the
stream, at the point now occupied by the city of Hartford.
About the same time, Lord Warwick, assuming that a legitimate grant of
the region had been made to him by the king of England, conveyed to
Lords Say, Brook and others, all the territory running southwest from
Narragansett river, to the distance of one hundred and twenty miles
along the coast, and reaching back, through the whole breadth of the
country, from the Western Ocean to the South Sea. The geography of
these regions was then very imperfectly known. No one had any
conception of the vast distance between the Atlantic Ocean and the
shores of the Pacific. The trading post, which the Dutch had
established on the Connecticut, was called Fort Hope.
As soon as it was known, at Plymouth and Boston, that the Dutch had
taken formal possession of the valley of the Connecticut, Governor
Winslow hastened to confer with the Massachusetts Governor respecting
their duties. As it was doubtful whether the region of the Connecticut
was embraced within either of their patents, they decided not to
interfere. But through diplomatic policy they assigned a different
reason for their refusal.
"In regard," said Governor Winthrop,
"that the place was not fit for plantation, there being
three or four thousand warlike Indians, and the river not to
be gone into but by small pinnaces, having a bar affording
but six feet at high water, and for that no vessel can get
in for seven months in the year, partly by reason of the
ice, and then the violent stream, we thought not fit to
meddle with it."[4]
Still Governor Winthrop looked wistfully towards the Connecticut.
Though he admitted that the lower part of the valley was "out of the
claim of the Massachusetts patent," it could not be denied that the
upper part of the valley was included in their grant. In the summer of
1633, John Oldham, with three companions, penetrated the wilderness,
through the Indian trails, one hundred and sixty miles to the
Connecticut river. They were hospitably entertained in the many Indian
villages they passed through by the way.
They brought back early in the autumn, glowing accounts of the beauty
of the region, and of the luxuriant meadows which bordered the stream.
Governor Winthrop then sent a vessel on a trading voyage, through Long
Island Sound, to Manhattan, there to inform the Dutch authorities that
the king of England had granted the Connecticut river and the adjacent
country to the subjects of Great Britain.
In most of these transactions the Dutch appear to great advantage.
After five weeks' absence the vessel returned to Boston to report the
friendly reception of the Massachusetts party at Manhattan, and
bearing a courteous letter to Governor Winthrop, in which Van Twiller,
in respectful terms, urged him to defer his claim to Connecticut until
the king of England and the States-General of Holland should agree
about their limits, so that the colonists of both nations, might live
"as good neighbors in these heathenish countries." Director Van
Twiller added, with good sense, which does him much credit:
"I have, in the name of the States-General and the West
India Company, taken possession of the forementioned river,
and, for testimony thereof, have set up an house on the
north side of the said river. It is not the intent of the
States to take the land from the poor natives, but rather to
take it at some reasonable price, which, God be praised, we
have done hitherto. In this part of the world there are many
heathen lands which are destitute of inhabitants, so that
there need not be any question respecting a little part or
portion thereof."
At the same time the Plymouth colony made a move to obtain a foothold
upon the Connecticut. To secure the color of a title, the colony
purchased of a company of Indians who had been driven from their homes
by the all-victorious Pequods, a tract of land just above fort Hope,
embracing the territory where the town of Windsor now stands.
Lieutenant Holmes was then dispatched with a chosen company, in a
vessel which conveyed the frame of a small house carefully stowed
away, and which could be very expeditiously put together. He was
directed to push directly by fort Hope, and raise and fortify his
house upon the purchased lands. Governor Bradford, of Plymouth, gives
the following quaint account of this adventure:
"When they came up the river the Dutch demanded what they
intended, and whither they would go? They answered, 'up the
river to trade.' Now their order was to go and seat above
them. They bid them strike and stay or they would shoot
them, and stood by their ordnance ready fitted. They
answered, they had commission from the Governor of Plymouth
to go up the river to such a place, and if they did shoot
they must obey their order and proceed; they would not
molest them but go on. So they passed along. And though the
Dutch threatened them hard yet they shot not. Coming to
their place they clapped up their house quickly, and landed
their provisions, and left the company appointed, and sent
the bark home, and afterward palisaded their house about,
and fortified themselves better."
Van Twiller, informed of this intrusion, sent a commissioner,
protesting against this conduct and ordering Holmes to depart, with
all his people. Holmes replied, "I am here in the name of the king of
England, and here I shall remain."
Matters soon became seriously complicated. A boat's crew was robbed
and murdered by some vagabond Indians. The culprits were taken and
hung.
This exasperated against the Dutch the powerful Pequods who had the
supremacy over all that territory. Open war soon ensued. The Pequods
sent an embassy to Boston, and entered into a treaty of alliance with
the Massachusetts colony, in which they surrendered to that colony the
Connecticut valley.
In the meantime, Van Twiller having received instructions from the
home government, dispatched a force of seventy well armed men to drive
Lieutenant Holmes and his men from their post. The English stood
firmly upon their defence. The Dutch, seeing that a bloody battle must
ensue, with uncertain results, withdrew without offering any violence.
In many respects the Dutch colonies continued to enjoy much
prosperity. Mr. Brodhead gives the following interesting account of
the state of affairs at the mouth of the Hudson, in the year 1633:
"Fort Amsterdam, which had become dilapidated, was repaired,
and a guard-house and a barrack for the newly arrived
soldiers were constructed within the ramparts, at a cost of
several thousand guilders.
"Three expensive windmills were also erected. But they were
injudiciously placed so near the fort that the buildings,
within its walls, frequently intercepted and turned off the
south wind.
"Several brick and frame houses were built for the Director
and his officers. On the Company's farm, north of the fort,
a dwelling-house, brewery, boat-house and barn were erected.
Other smaller houses were built for the corporal, the smith,
the cooper. The loft, in which the people had worshipped
since 1626, was now replaced by a plain wooden building,
like a barn, situated on the East River, in what is now
Broad street, between Pearl and Bridge streets. Near this
old church a dwelling-house and stable were erected for the
use of the Domine. In the Fatherland the title of Domine was
familiarly given to clergymen. The phrase crossed the
Atlantic with Bogardus, and it has survived to the present
day among the descendants of the Dutch colonists of New
Netherland."
The little settlement at Manhattan was entitled to the feudal right of
levying a tax upon all the merchandise passing up or down the river.
The English were, at this time, so ignorant of this region of the
North American coast that a sloop was dispatched to Delaware Bay "to
see if there were any river there." As the Dutch had vacated the
Delaware, the English decided to attempt to obtain a foothold on those
waters. Accordingly, in the year 1635, they sent a party of fourteen
or fifteen Englishmen, under George Holmes, to seize the vacant Dutch
fort.
Van Twiller, informed of this fact, with much energy sent an armed
vessel, by which the whole company was arrested and brought to
Manhattan, whence they were sent, "pack and sack," to an English
settlement on the Chesapeake.
The Plymouth people had now been two years in undisturbed possession
of their post at Windsor, on the Connecticut. Stimulated by their
example, the General Court of Massachusetts encouraged emigration to
the Connecticut valley, urging, as a consideration, their need of
pasturage for their increasing flocks and herds; the great beauty and
fruitfulness of the Connecticut valley, and the danger that the Dutch,
or other English colonies, might get possession of it. "Like the banks
of the Hudson," it was said, "the Connecticut had been first explored
and even occupied by the Dutch. But should a log hut and a few
straggling soldiers seal a territory against other emigrants?"[5]
Thus solicited, families from Watertown and Roxbury commenced a
settlement at Wethersfield in the year 1635. Some emigrants, from
Dorchester, established themselves just below the colony of the
Plymouth people at Windsor. This led to a stern remonstrance on the
part of Governor Bradford, of Plymouth, denouncing their unrighteous
intrusion.
"Thus the Plymouth colonists on the Connecticut, themselves
intruders within the territory of New Netherland, soon began
to quarrel with their Massachusetts brethren for trespassing
upon their usurped domain."
In November of this year, Governor Winthrop dispatched a bark of
twenty tons from Boston, with about twenty armed men, to take
possession of the mouth of the Connecticut. It will be remembered that
the Dutch had purchased this land of the Indians three years before,
and, in token of their possession, had affixed the arms of the
States-General to a tree. The English contemptuously tore down these
arms, "and engraved a ridiculous face in their place."
The Dutch had called this region, Kievit's Hook. The English named it
Saybrook, in honor of lords Say and Brook, who were regarded as the
leading English proprietors. Early the next year the Massachusetts
people established a colony at Agawam, now Springfield. Thus, step by
step, the English encroached upon the Dutch, until nearly the whole
valley of the Connecticut was wrested from them.
About this time Van Twiller issued a grant of sixty-two acres of land,
a little northwest of fort Amsterdam, to Roelof Jansen. This was the
original conveyance of the now almost priceless estate, held by the
corporation of Trinity Church. The directors, in Holland, encouraged
emigration by all the means in their power. Free passage was offered
to farmers and their families. They were also promised the lease of a
farm, fit for the plough, for six years, with a dwelling house, a
barn, four horses and four cows. They were to pay a rent for these six
years, of forty dollars a year, and eighty pounds of butter.
At the expiration of the six years the tenants were to restore the
number of cattle they had received, retaining the increase. They were
also assisted with clothing, provisions, etc., on credit, at an
advance of fifty per cent. But notwithstanding the rapid increase of
the Dutch settlements, thus secured, the English settlements were
increasing with still greater rapidity. Not satisfied with their
encroachments on the Connecticut, the English looked wistfully upon
the fertile lands extending between that stream and the Hudson.
The region about New Haven, which, from the East and West rocks, was
called the Red Rocks, attracted especial attention. Some men from
Boston, who had visited it, greatly extolled the beauty and fertility
of the region, declaring it to be far superior to Massachusetts Bay.
"The Dutch will seize it," they wrote, "if we do not. And it is too
good for any but friends."
Just then an English non-conformist clergyman, John Davenport, and two
merchants from London, men of property and high religious worth,
arrived at Boston. They sailed to the Red Rocks, purchased a large
territory of the Indians, and regardless of the Dutch title, under the
shadow of a great oak, laid the foundations of New Haven. The colony
was very prosperous, and, in one year's time, numbered over one
hundred souls.
And now the English made vigorous efforts to gain all the lands as far
west as the Hudson river. A village of fifty log huts soon rose at
Stratford, near the Housatonic. Enterprising emigrants also pushed
forward as far as Norwalk, Stamford and Greenwich. The colony at
Saybrook consisted in 1640, of a hundred houses, and a fine church.
The Dutch now held, in the Connecticut valley, only the flat lands
around fort Hope. And even these the English began to plough up. They
cudgelled those of the Dutch garrison who opposed them, saying, "It
would be a sin to leave uncultivated so valuable a land which can
produce such excellent corn."
The English now laid claim to the whole of Long Island, and commenced
a settlement at its eastern extremity. In the meantime very bitter
complaints were sent to Holland respecting the incapacity of the
Director Van Twiller. It was said that he, neglecting the affairs of
the colony, was directing all his energies to enriching himself. He
had become, it was reported, the richest landholder in the province.
Though sustained by very powerful friends, he was removed.
William Kieft was appointed in his stead, the fifth Director. He was a
man of very unenviable reputation, and his administration was far from
successful. Mr. Brodhead gives the following true and very interesting
account of the abundant natural resources of the Dutch settlements on
the Hudson at this time:
"The colonists lived amid nature's richest profusion. In the
forests, by the water side, and on the islands, grew a rank
abundance of nuts and plums. The hills were covered with
thickets of blackberries. On the flat lands, near the
rivers, wild strawberries came up so plentifully that the
people went there to lie down and eat them. Vines, covered
with grapes as good and sweet as in Holland, clambered over
the loftiest trees. Deer abounded in the forests, in harvest
time and autumn, as fat as any Holland deer can be. Enormous
wild turkeys and myriads of partridges, pheasants and
pigeons roosted in the neighboring woods. Sometimes the
turkeys and deer came down to the houses of the colonists to
feed. A stag was frequently sold by the Indians for a loaf
of bread, or a knife, or even for a tobacco pipe. The river
produced the finest fish. There was a great plenty of
sturgeon, which, at that time, the Christians did not make
use of, but the Indians ate them greedily. Flax and hemp
grew spontaneously. Peltries and hides were brought in great
quantities, by the savages, and sold for trifles. The land
was very well provisioned with all the necessaries of
life."[6]
Thus far, as a general rule, friendly relations had existed between
the Dutch and the Indians. But all sorts of characters were now
emigrating from the old world. The Indians were often defrauded, or
treated harshly. Individuals among the natives retaliated by stealing.
When caught they were severely punished. Notwithstanding the
government prohibited the sale of muskets to the Indians, so eager
were the savages to gain these weapons, so invaluable to them on their
hunting-fields, that they would offer almost any price for them. Thus
the Mohawks ere long obtained "guns, powder and bullets for four
hundred warriors."
Kieft endeavored to tax the Indians, extorting payment in corn and
furs. This exasperated them. Their reply, through one of their chiefs,
would have done honor to any deliberative assembly. Indignantly the
chief exclaimed:
"How can the sachem at the fort dare to exact a tax from us!
He must be a very shabby fellow. He has come to live in our
land when we have not invited him; and now he attempts to
deprive us of our corn for nothing. The soldiers at fort
Amsterdam are no protection to us. Why should we be called
upon to support them? We have allowed the Dutch to live
peaceably in our country, and have never demanded of them
any recompense. When they lost a ship here, and built a new
one, we supplied them with food and all other necessaries.
We took care of them for two winters until their ship was
finished. The Dutch are under obligations to us. We have
paid full price for everything we have purchased of them.
There is, therefore, no reason why we should supply them
with corn and furs for nothing. If we have ceded to them the
country they are living in, we yet remain masters of what we
have retained for ourselves."
This unanswerable argument covered the whole ground. The most
illiterate Indian could feel the force of such logic.
Some European vagabonds, as it was afterwards clearly proved, stole
some swine from Staten Island. The blame was thrown upon the innocent
Raritan Indians, who lived twenty miles inland. The rash Director
Kieft resolved to punish them with severity which should be a warning
to all the Indians.
He sent to this innocent, unsuspecting tribe, a party of seventy well
armed men, many of them unprincipled desperadoes. They fell upon the
peaceful Indians, brutally killed several, destroyed their crops, and
perpetrated all sorts of outrages.
The Indians never forget a wrong. The spirit of revenge burned in
their bosoms. There was a thriving plantation belonging to DeVrees on
Staten Island. The Indians attacked it, killed four of the laborers,
burned the dwelling and destroyed the crops. Kieft, in his blind rage,
resolved upon the extermination of the Raritans. He offered a large
bounty for the head of any member of that tribe.
It will be remembered that some years before an Indian had been robbed
and murdered near the pond, in the vicinity of the fort at Manhattan,
and that his nephew, a boy, had escaped. That boy was now a man, and,
through all these years, with almost religious scrupulousness, had
been cherishing his sense of duty to avenge his uncle's unatoned
death.
A very harmless Dutchman, by the name of Claes Smits, had reared his
solitary hut upon the Indian trail near the East river. The nephew of
the murdered savage came one day to this humble dwelling, and stopped
under the pretence of selling some beaver skins. As Smits was stooping
over the great chest in which he kept his goods, the savage, seizing
an axe, killed him by a single blow. In doing this, he probably felt
the joys of an approving conscience,--a conscience all uninstructed in
religious truth--and thanked the great spirit that he had at length
been enabled to discharge his duty in avenging his uncle's death.
Kieft sent to the chief of the tribe, demanding the murderer. The
culprit Indian sent back the reply:
"When the fort was building some years ago, my uncle and I,
carrying some beaver skins to the fort to trade, were
attacked by some Dutchmen, who killed my uncle and stole the
furs. This happened when I was a small boy. I vowed to
revenge it upon the Dutch when I grew up. I saw no better
chance than this of Claes Smits."
The sachem refused to deliver up the criminal, saying that he had but
done his duty, according to the custom of his race, in avenging the
death of his kinsman, murdered many years before. Kieft was
exceedingly embarrassed. He was very unpopular; was getting the colony
deeper and deeper into difficulty, and was accused of seeking war with
the Indians that he "might make a wrong reckoning with the Company."
In this emergency, that others might share the responsibility with
him, he reluctantly sought the counsel of the community. Twelve
"select men" were chosen to consider the propositions to be submitted
to them by the Director. To them the question was propounded:
"Is it not just, that the murder lately committed by a
savage, upon Claes Smits, be avenged and punished? In case
the Indians will not surrender the murderer, is it not just
to destroy the whole village to which he belongs? In what
manner, when, and by whom ought this to be executed?"
The result of their deliberations was, in brief, as follows:
"Our harvest is still ungathered; our cattle are scattered
in the woods. Many of the inhabitants, unsuspicious of
danger, are at a distance. It is not best to precipitate
hostilities. In the meantime let two hundred coats of mail
be procured in preparation for the expedition. Let our
friendly intercourse with the savages be uninterrupted, to
throw them off their guard. When the hunting season
commences, let two armed bands be sent out to attack the
Indians from opposite directions. Let as many negroes as can
be spared, be sent on this expedition, each armed with
tomahawk and half-pike. Still let messengers be sent once,
twice and even a third time to solicit the surrender of the
murderer."
The Governor had the reputation of being an arrant coward. It had
often been said, "It is very well for him to send us into the field,
while he secures his own life in a good fort, out of which he has not
slept a single night in all the years he has been here." They
therefore shrewdly added, "The Governor himself ought to lead the van
in this attack. We will follow his steps and obey his commands."
The hunting season soon came. Still it was decided to delay
hostilities. The savages were on their guard. A very general feeling
of unfriendliness pervaded the tribes. The Dutch settlers were widely
scattered. A combination of the Indians against the colonists might
prove an awful calamity. Thus, for a time, the war which was evidently
approaching was averted.
CHAPTER V.
WAR AND ITS DEVASTATIONS.
Approaching Hostilities.--Noble Remonstrance.--Massacre of
the Natives.--The War Storm.--Noble conduct of DeVrees.--The
Humiliation of Kieft.--Wide-Spread Desolation.--The Reign of
Terror.--State of Affairs at Fort Nassau.--The Massacre at
Stamford.--Memorial of the Select Men.--Kieft Superseded by
Peter Stuyvesant.
The year 1643 was a year of terror and of blood in nearly all of the
American colonies. New England was filled with alarm in the
apprehension of a general rising of the Indians. It was said that a
benighted traveller could not halloo in the woods without causing fear
that the savages were torturing their European captives. This
universal panic pervaded the Dutch settlements. The wildest stories
were circulated at the firesides of the lonely settlers. Anxiety and
terror pervaded all the defenceless hamlets.
DeVrees, rambling one day with his gun upon his shoulder, met an
Indian "who was very drunk." Coming up to the patroon, the Indian
patted him upon the shoulder, in token of friendship, saying,
"You are a good chief. When we come to see you, you give us
milk to drink. I have just come from Hackensack where they
sold me brandy, and then stole my beaver skin coat. I will
take a bloody revenge. I will go home for my bow and arrows,
and shoot one of those rascally Dutchmen who have stolen my
coat."
DeVrees endeavored in vain to soothe him. He had hardly reached his
home ere he heard that the savage had kept his vow. He had shot and
killed an innocent man, one Garret Van Voorst, who was thatching the
roof of a house. The chiefs of the tribe were terror-stricken, through
fear of the white man's vengeance. They did not dare to go to the fort
lest they should be arrested and held as hostages. But they hastened
to an interview with DeVrees, in whom they had confidence, and
expressed a readiness to make atonement for the crime, in accordance
with the custom of their tribe, by paying a large sum to the widow of
the murdered man.
It is worthy of notice that this custom, so universal among the
Indians, of a blood atonement of money, was also the usage of the
tribes of Greece We read in Homer's Iliad, as translated by Pope,
"If a brother bleed,
On just atonement we remit the deed;
A sire the slaughter of his sons forgives,
The price of blood discharged, the murderer lives."
At length, encouraged by DeVrees and accompanied by him, the chiefs
ventured to fort Amsterdam. They explained to Kieft the occurrence,
and proposed the expiatory offering to appease the widow's grief.
Kieft was inexorable. Nothing but the blood of the criminal would
satisfy him. In vain they represented that he was the son of a beloved
chief, and that already he had fled far away to some distant tribe.
Our sympathy for these men is strongly excited as we read their
sorrowful yet noble remonstrance: "Why," said they,
"will you sell brandy to our young men? They are not used to
it. It makes them crazy. Even your own people, who are
accustomed to strong liquors, sometimes become drunk and
fight with knives. Sell no more strong drink to the Indians,
if you will avoid such mischief."
While this question was being agitated, the Mohawks from the upper
part of the Hudson, came down in strong military bands, armed with
muskets, upon the lower river tribes, attacked them with great
ferocity, killed quite a number of their warriors, took the women and
children captive, and destroyed their villages.
The lower river tribes all trembled before the terrible Iroquois.
Large numbers of these subjugated tribes fled from the river banks,
and from the region of Westchester, to Manhattan and to Pavonia, where
Jersey City now stands. Here, stripped and panic-stricken, they
encamped, "full a thousand strong."
The humane and judicious patroon, DeVrees, in whom the Indians seem to
have reposed great confidence, had a beautiful estate several miles up
the river, at a place called Vreesendael. It was a delightful spot of
about five hundred fertile acres, through which wound a fine stream
affording handsome mill seats. The meadows yielded hay enough
spontaneously for two hundred head of cattle.
DeVrees, finding his house full of fugitive savages, on their retreat
to Pavonia, at the mouth of the river, paddled down in a canoe through
the floating ice to fort Amsterdam, to confer with Director Kieft upon
the emergency. He urged upon the Director that these poor Indians,
thus escaping from the terrible Iroquois and grateful for the
protection which the Dutch had not denied them, might easily be won to
a sincere friendship. On the other hand, some of the more fiery
spirits in the colony thought that the occasion furnished them with an
opportunity so to cripple the Indians as to render them forever after
powerless. They sent in a petition to Kieft, saying,
"We entreat that immediate hostile measures may be directed
against the savages. They have not yet delivered up the
assassins of Smits and Van Voorst, and thus these murders
remain unavenged. The national character of the Dutch must
suffer. God has now delivered our enemies into our hands.
Let us attack them. We offer our services, and urge that
united parties of soldiers and civilians assail them at
several points."
These views were in entire harmony with the wishes of the sanguinary
Kieft. He was delighted with the prospect of a war in which victory
seemed easy and certain. Disregarding the remonstrances of DeVrees,
and of the Christian minister Bogardus, he made efficient preparation
for the slaughter of the helpless savages.
He sent his secretary and a military officer across the river to
reconnoitre the position of the Indians. There were two bands of these
trembling fugitives, one at Pavonia, on the Jersey side of the river,
and one at Corlaer's Hook, on the Island of Manhattan, just above fort
Amsterdam. Secretly, at midnight of the 25th of February, 1643, the
armed bands advanced against their unsuspecting victims. They were
sleeping in fancied security when the murderous assault commenced.
"The noise of muskets," writes Brodhead, "mingled with the
shrieks of the terrified Indians. Neither age nor sex were
spared. Warrior and squaw, sachem and child, mother and
babe, were alike massacred. Daybreak scarcely ended the
furious slaughter. Mangled victims, seeking safety in the
thickets, were driven into the river. Parents, rushing to
save their children whom the soldiers had thrown into the
stream, were driven back into the waters and drowned before
the eyes of their unrelenting murderers."
"I sat up that night," writes DeVrees,
"by the kitchen fire at the Director's. About midnight,
hearing loud shrieks, I ran up to the ramparts of the fort.
Looking towards Pavonia, I saw nothing but shooting, and
heard nothing but the shrieks of Indians murdered in their
sleep."
With the dawn of the morning the victorious Dutch returned from their
scene of slaughter, bearing with them about thirty prisoners, and the
_heads_ instead of the _scalps_ of many warriors. Kieft welcomed these
blood-stained men with "shaking of hands and congratulations." The
tidings of this outrage spread far and wide among the Indian tribes in
the valley of the Hudson and on the Long Island shore.
Private enterprise, relying upon the protection of Kieft, had sent out
a foraging expedition upon Long Island. Kieft assumed that he saw
signs of hostility there. The unsuspecting savages were plundered of
two wagon loads of grain. These Indians, who had thus far been the
warmest friends of the Dutch, were now justly roused to the highest
pitch of indignation. They immediately made common cause with the
river tribes, who were almost frenzied with the desire to avenge the
midnight massacres of Pavonia and Manhattan. The storm which thus
burst upon New Netherland was sudden and awful. The savages, in their
rage, developed energy and power totally unanticipated.
Eleven tribes combined in the most furious and merciless attacks upon
the lonely farm-houses. Everywhere the war-whoop resounded, and the
plumed and painted savages emerged from swamps and thickets, and
assailed every unprotected dwelling. The farmer was shot in the field,
his dwelling burned, and his wife and children were thrown into the
flames. Many women and children, their lives being spared, were
carried into captivity worse than death. Houses, haystacks and
granaries were fired. Cattle were slain or driven off, and crops
destroyed.
Terror held high carnival. From the banks of the Raritan to the valley
of the Housatonic, over a region of hundreds of square miles, not a
plantation was safe. Men, women and children, haggard with hunger,
exposure and woe, fled from their deserted homes to fort Amsterdam.
Despairing of ever again finding peaceful residence in this new world,
with one voice they demanded a return to the fatherland. The Dutch
colonies were threatened with immediate and entire depopulation.
Kieft himself was terrified in view of the frightful storm he had
raised. He was compelled to enlist every able-bodied man as a soldier.
There was an end to all traffic, to all agriculture, to all the arts
of industry. Even the plantation of the humane DeVrees did not escape
the undiscriminating wrath of the savages. The outhouses, cattle and
crops were utterly destroyed. Quite a number of the terrified
colonists had taken refuge in the manor house which DeVrees had
prudently built very strong, and constructed with loopholes for
musketry.
The Indians were besieging the place, when one of their tribe came,
whom DeVrees had assisted to escape from the massacre at Manhattan. He
told the story of his escape and said that DeVrees was a good chief
whom they ought to respect. The Indians held a short consultation, and
then the grateful savages deputed one of their number to advance
within speaking distance of the manor house. This man, whom we call a
savage, cried out:
"We are very sorry that we have destroyed the outhouses, the
cattle and the crops. We now know that chief DeVrees is a
good chief and our friend. If we had not destroyed his
property we would not do so. We will not harm the brewery,
though we all greatly need the copper kettle to make barbs
for our arrows."
These noble red men, for we must think they exhibited a noble spirit,
then departed. DeVrees was, at the time, in the manor house. He
hastened down the river to fort Amsterdam and indignantly addressing
the governor, said: "Has it not happened just as I foretold, that you
are only helping to shed Christian blood? Who will now compensate us
for our losses?"
The wretched Kieft had not one word to reply. He however, made a weak
and unavailing attempt to appease the wrath of the Long Island
Indians. But the roaring tornado of savage vengeance could not thus be
divested of its terrors. The messengers he sent, approaching a band of
Indians, cried out to them, "We come to you as friends." They shouted
back contemptuously, "Are you our friends? You are only corn thieves."
Refusing all intercourse they disappeared in the forest.
During all these scenes the infamous and cowardly Kieft ensconced
himself securely within the walls of the fort. The bewailings of
ruined farmers, and of widows and orphan children rose all around him.
To divert public clamor, he fitted out several expeditions against the
Indians. But these expeditions all returned having accomplished
nothing.
"The proud heart of the Director," writes Brodhead,
"began to fail him at last. In one week desolation and
sorrow had taken the place of gladness and prosperity. The
colony entrusted to his charge was nearly ruined. It was
time to humble himself before the Most High, and invoke from
heaven the mercy which the Christian had refused the savage.
"A day of general fasting and prayer was proclaimed. 'We
continue to suffer much trouble and loss from the heathen,
and many of our inhabitants see their lives and property in
jeopardy, which is doubtless owing to our sins,' was Kieft's
contrite confession, as he exhorted every one penitently to
supplicate the mercy of God, 'so that his holy name may not,
through our iniquities, be blasphemed by the heathen.'"
The people still held the Director responsible for all the
consequences which had followed the massacres of Pavonia and Corlaer's
Hook. They boldly talked of arresting and deposing him, and of sending
him, as a culprit, back to Holland. The Director, panic stricken,
endeavored to shift the responsibility of the insane course which had
been pursued, upon one Adriansen, an influential burgher, who was the
leading man among the petitioners who had counselled war.
Adriansen was now a ruined man. His own plantation had been utterly
devastated. Exasperated by his losses, he had no disposition to take
upon himself the burden of that popular odium which had now become so
heavy. Losing all self-control, he seized a sword and a pistol, and
rushed into the Director's room, with the apparent intention of
assassinating him, exclaiming, "what lies are these you are reporting
of me."
He was disarmed and imprisoned. One of his servants took a gun, went
to the fort and deliberately discharged the piece at the Director, but
without hitting him. The would-be assassin was shot down by a sentinel
and his head exposed upon the scaffold. Adriansen was sent to Holland
for trial.
After terrible scenes of suffering, a temporary peace was restored
through the heroic interposition of DeVrees. He was the only man who
dared to venture among the exasperated Indians. They watched over him
kindly, and entreated him to be cautious in exposing himself, lest
harm might befall him from some wandering Indians by whom he was not
known. But the wrongs which the Indians had experienced were too deep
to be buried in oblivion. And there was nothing in the character of
Kieft to secure their confidence. After the truce of a few weeks the
war, without any imaginable cause, broke out anew.
All the settlements at Westchester and Long Island were laid waste.
Scarcely an inhabitant, save the roving Indian, was to be found in
those regions. The Dutch were driven out of the whole of New Jersey.
The settlers on Staten Island were trembling in hourly expectation of
an assault. War's devastating surges of flame and blood swept nearly
the whole island of Manhattan. Bold men ventured to remain well armed,
upon a few of the farms, or _boweries_ as they were called, in the
immediate vicinity of the fort, but they were continually menaced with
attack, night and day. A _bowery_ was a farm on which the family
resided. A plantation was one of those extended tracts of land, which
was partly cultivated but upon which no settler dwelt. There was no
protection anywhere for the trembling population, save in and directly
around fort Amsterdam. Mr. Brodhead, alluding to these scenes of
terror, writes,
"The women and children lay concealed in straw huts, while
their husbands and fathers mounted guard on the crumbling
ramparts above. For the fort itself was almost defenceless.
It resembled rather a mole-hill than a fortress against an
enemy. The cattle, which had escaped destruction, were
huddled within the walls, and were already beginning to
starve for want of forage. It was indispensable to maintain
a constant guard at all hours, for seven allied tribes, well
supplied with muskets, powder and ball, which they had
procured from private traders, boldly threatened to attack
the dilapidated citadel with all their strength, now
amounting to fifteen hundred men.
"So confident had the enemy become, that their scouting
parties constantly threatened the advanced sentinels of the
garrison. Ensign Van Dyck, while relieving guard at one of
the outposts, was wounded by a musket ball in his arm. All
the forces that the Dutch could now muster, besides the
fifty or sixty soldiers in garrison, were about two hundred
freemen. With this handful of men was New Netherland to be
defended against the implacable fury of her savage foe."
For a time the war which had desolated the region of the lower valley
of the Hudson, did not reach fort Nassau, now Albany. The tribes
resident there were at war with the lower river tribes. As these
Indians still maintained apparently friendly relations with the
whites, the patroon, Van Rensselaer, allowed his agents freely to sell
to them fire arms and powder.
This distant and feeble post at this time consisted only of a wretched
little fort built of logs, with eight or ten small cannon or swivels.
A hamlet of about thirty huts was scattered along the river. A church,
thirty-four feet long by nineteen wide, had been erected in a pine
grove within range of the guns of the fort. Nine benches accommodated
the congregation. A very faithful pastor, Domine Megapolensis,
ministered to them.
The red men were often attracted to the church to hear the preached
gospel, and wondered what it meant. Megapolensis writes:
"When we have a sermon sometimes ten or twelve of the
Indians will attend, each having in his mouth a long tobacco
pipe made by himself, and will stand awhile and look.
Afterwards they will ask me what I was doing, and what I
wanted, that I stood there alone and made so many words and
none of the rest might speak.
"I tell them that I admonish the Christians that they must
not steal or drink, or commit murder, or do anything wrong,
and that I intend, after a while, to come and preach to them
when I am acquainted with their language. They say that I do
well in teaching the christians, but immediately add, 'Why
do so many christians do these things?'"
This was several years before John Eliot commenced preaching the
gospel to the Indians near Boston. Kieft very earnestly applied to the
English colony at New Haven for assistance against the Indians. The
proposal was submitted to the General Court. After mature
deliberation, it was decided that the Articles of Confederation
between the New England colonies prohibited them from engaging
separately in war; and that moreover "they were not satisfied that the
Dutch war with the Indians was just."
The Dutch Director, thus disappointed in obtaining assistance from the
English, was roused to the energies of desperation. The spirit of the
people also rose to meet the emergency. It was determined to commence
the most vigorous offensive measures against the savages.
We have not space to enter into the details of this dreadful war. We
will record one of its sanguinary scenes, as illustrative of many
others. The Connecticut Indians, in the vicinity of Greenwich, had
joined the allied tribes, and were becoming increasingly active in
their hostility. Ensign Van Dyck was dispatched with one hundred and
fifty men in three vessels. The expedition landed at Greenwich. The
Indian warriors, over five hundred in number, were assembled in a
strongly palisaded village in the vicinity of Stamford.
It was midnight in February, 1644, when the expedition approached the
Indian village. All the day long the men had toiled through the snow.
It was a wintry night, clear and cold, with a full moon whose rays,
reflected by the dazzling surface of hill and valley, were so
brilliant that "many winter days were not brighter."
The Dutch, discharging a volley of bullets upon the doomed village,
charged, sword in hand. The savages, emboldened by their superior
numbers, made a desperate resistance. But in a conflict like this,
arrows are comparatively powerless when opposed to muskets. The
Indians, unable to reach their foes with their arrows, made several
very bold sallies, recklessly endeavoring to break the Dutch lines.
They were invariably driven back with great loss. Not one of them
could show himself outside the palisades without being shot down.
In less than an hour the dark forms of one hundred and eighty Indian
warriors lay spread out upon the blood-crimsoned snow. And now the
Dutch succeeded in applying the torch. The whole village, composed of
the most combustible materials, was instantly in flames. The Indians
lost all self-possession. They ran to and fro in a state of frenzy. As
they endeavored to escape they were, with unerring aim, shot down, or
driven back into their blazing huts. Thus over five hundred perished.
Of all who crowded the little village at nightfall but eight escaped.
Only eight of the Dutch were wounded; but not one fatally.
The conflagration of an hour laid the bark village in ashes. Nothing
remained. The victors built large fires and bivouacked upon the snow.
The next day they returned to Stamford, and two days afterward reached
fort Amsterdam.
War is generally ruin to both parties. In this case neither of the
combatants gained anything. Both parties alike reaped but a harvest of
blood and woe. Scouting parties of the savages prowled beneath the
very walls of fort Amsterdam, ready at a moment's warning, to dart
into the wilderness, where even the bravest of the Dutch could not
venture to pursue. For the protection of the few cattle which
remained, all the men turned out and built a stout fence, "from the
great bowery or farm across to Emanuel plantation," near the site of
the present Wall street.
During the whole summer of 1644, the savages were busy carrying the
desolating war into every unprotected nook and corner. The condition
of the colony became desperate, being almost entirely destitute of
food, money and clothing. The utter incompetency of Kieft was daily
more conspicuous. He did nothing. "Scarce a foot was moved on land, or
an oar laid in the water." The savages, thus left in security to fish
and gather in their crops, were ever increasingly insolent and
defiant. One of the annalists of those times writes:
"Parties of Indians roved about day and night, over
Manhattan island, killing the Dutch not a thousand paces
from fort Amsterdam. No one dared to move a foot to fetch a
stick of firewood without a strong escort."
Kieft, in his overwhelming embarrassments, had found it necessary to
convene eight select men to advise him and to aid in supporting his
authority. These select men decided to demand of the home government
the recall of Kieft, whose incapacity had thus plunged the
once-flourishing colony into utter ruin. They also urged the
introduction into New Netherland of the municipal system of the
fatherland.
In their brief but touching memorial they write,
"Our fields lie fallow and waste. Our dwellings are burned.
Not a handful can be sown this autumn on the deserted
places. The crops, which God permitted to come forth during
the summer, remain rotting in the fields. We have no means
to provide necessaries for wives or children. We sit here
amidst thousands of savages from whom we can find neither
peace nor mercy.
"There are those among us who, by the sweat and labor of
their hands, through many long years and at great expense,
have endeavored to improve their land. Others have come with
ships freighted with a large quantity of cattle. They have
cleared away the forest, enclosed their plantations, and
brought them under the plough, so as to be an ornament to
the country and a profit to the proprietors after their long
and laborious toil. The whole of these now lie in ashes
through a foolish hankering after war.
"All right-thinking men here know that these Indians have
lived as lambs among us until a few years ago, injuring no
man, offering every assistance to our nation, and when no
supplies were sent for several months, furnishing provisions
to the Company's servants until they received supplies.
These hath the Director, by several uncalled-for proceedings
from time to time, so estranged from us, and so embittered
against the Netherlands nation, that we do not believe that
anything will bring them and peace back, unless the Lord,
who bends all hearts to his will, propitiate their people.
"Little or nothing of any account has been done here for the
country. Every place is going to ruin. Neither counsel nor
advice is taken."
After giving an account of the origin and progress of the war, they
warn the home government against relying upon the statements which the
Director had sent over to them. "These statements," they said,
"contain as many lies as lines." The memorial was concluded with the
following forcible words:
"Honored Lords; this is what we have, in the sorrow of our
hearts, to complain of. We shall end here, and commit the
matter wholly to our God, praying that he will move your
lordships' minds, so that a Governor may be speedily sent to
us with a beloved peace, or that we may be permitted to
return with our wives and children, to our dear fatherland.
For it is impossible ever to settle this country until a
different system be introduced here, and a new Governor sent
out."
In response to this appeal Kieft was recalled. Just before he received
his summons peace was concluded with the Indians, on the 31st of
August, 1645. The war had raged five years. It had filled the land
with misery. All were alike weary of its carnage and woes. A new
governor was appointed, Peter Stuyvesant. The preceding account of the
origin of the Dutch colony and its progress thus far is essential to
the understanding of the long and successful administration of the new
governor, whose name is one of the most illustrious in the early
annals of New York.
It may be worthy of brief remark that a few weeks after the arrival of
Governor Stuyvesant, Kieft embarked in the ship Princess for Holland.
The vessel was wrecked on the coast of Wales Kieft and eighty-one men,
women and children sank into a watery grave. Kieft died unlamented.
His death was generally regarded as an act of retributive justice.
CHAPTER VI.
GOVERNOR STUYVESANT.
New Netherland in 1646.--Early Years of Peter
Stuyvesant.--Decay of New Amsterdam.--The Germs of a
Representative Government.--Energetic Administration.--Death
of Governor Winthrop.--Claims for Long Island.--Arrogance of
the Governor.--Remonstrance of the Nine Men.--The Pastoral
Office.--Boundary lines.--Increasing Discontent.--Division
of Parties.--Dictatorial Measures.
It is estimated that the whole population of New Netherland, in the
year 1646, amounted to about one thousand souls. In 1643, it numbered
three thousand. Such was the ruin which the mal-administration of
Kieft had brought upon the colony. The male adult population around
Amsterdam was reduced to one hundred. At the same time the population
of the flourishing New England colonies had increased to about sixty
thousand.
On the 11th of May, 1647, Governor Stuyvesant arrived at Manhattan. He
was appointed as "Redresser General," of all colonial abuses. We have
but little knowledge of the early life of Peter Stuyvesant. The West
India Company had a colony upon the island of Curaçoa, in the
Caribbean Sea. For some time Stuyvesant had been its efficient
Director. He was the son of a clergyman in Friesland, one of the
northern provinces of the Netherlands.
He received a good academic education, becoming quite a proficient in
the Latin language, of which accomplishment, it is said that he was
afterwards somewhat vain. At school he was impetuous, turbulent and
self-willed. Upon leaving the academy he entered the military service,
and soon developed such energy of character, such a spirit of
self-reliance and such administrative ability that he was appointed
director of the colony at Curaçoa. He was recklessly courageous, and
was deemed somewhat unscrupulous in his absolutism. In an attack upon
the Portuguese island of Saint Martin, in the year 1644, which attack
was not deemed fully justifiable, he lost a leg. The wound rendered it
necessary for him to return to Holland in the autumn of 1644, for
surgical aid.
Upon his health being re-established, the Directors of the West India
Company, expressing much admiration for his Roman courage, appointed
him Governor of their colony in New Netherland, which was then in a
state of ruin. There were also under his sway the islands of Curaçoa,
Buenaire and Amba. The Provincial Government presented him with a
paper of instructions very carefully drawn up. The one-man power,
which Kieft had exercised, was very considerably modified. Two
prominent officers, the Vice-Director and the Fiscal, were associated
with him in the administration of all civil and military affairs. They
were enjoined to take especial care that the English should not
further encroach upon the Company's territory. They were also directed
to do everything in their power to pacify the Indians and to restore
friendly relations with them. No fire-arms or ammunition were, under
any circumstances, to be sold to the Indians.
Van Diricklagen was associated with the Governor as Vice-Director, and
ensign Van Dyck, of whom the reader has before heard, was appointed
Fiscal, an important office corresponding with our post of Treasurer.
Quite a large number of emigrants, with abundant supplies, accompanied
this party. The little fleet of four ships left the Texel on Christmas
day of 1646. The expedition, running in a southerly direction, first
visited the West India islands. On the voyage the imperious temper of
Stuyvesant very emphatically developed itself.
Holland was then at war with Spain. A prize was captured and the
question arose respecting its disposal. Fiscal Van Dyck claimed, by
virtue of his office, a seat at the council board and a voice in the
decision. The governor rudely repulsed him with the words,
"Get out. Who admitted you into the council. When I want you I will
call you."
When they arrived at Curaçoa, Van Dyck again made an attempt to gain
that place in the Council to which he thought his office legitimately
entitled him. Stuyvesant punished him by confining him to the ship,
not allowing him to step on shore. All the other officers and soldiers
were freely allowed to recruit themselves by strolling upon the land.
Upon reaching Manhattan, Stuyvesant was received by the whole
community with great rejoicing. And when he said, "I shall reign over
you as a father governs his children," they were perhaps not fully
aware of the dictatorial spirit which was to animate his government.
With wonderful energy he immediately devoted himself to the reform of
abuses. Though he availed himself of absolute power, taking counsel of
no one, all his measures seem to have been adopted, not for the
advancement of his own selfish interests, but for the promotion of the
public good.
Proclamations were issued against Sabbath desecration, intemperance
and all quarrelling. No intoxicating liquors were to be sold to the
savages under a penalty of five hundred guilders. _And the seller was
also to be held responsible for any injury which the savage might
inflict, while under the influence of strong drink_. After the ringing
of the nine o'clock bell in the evening, intoxicating drinks were not
to be sold to any person whatever.
To draw a knife in a quarrel was to be punished with a heavy fine and
six months imprisonment. If a wound was inflicted the penalty was
trebled. Great faults accompanied this development of energy. The new
governor assumed "state and pomp like a peacock's." He kept all at a
distance from him, exacted profound homage, and led many to think that
he would prove a very austere father. All his acts were characterized
by great vigor.
New Amsterdam, at that time, presented a very dilapidated and
deplorable appearance. The fort was crumbling to ruins. The skeleton
of an unfinished church deformed the view. The straggling fences were
broken down. The streets were narrow and crooked, many of the houses
encroaching upon them. The foul enclosures for swine bordered the
thoroughfares.
A system of taxation upon both exports and imports was introduced,
which speedily replenished the treasury. Governor Stuyvesant was a
professing christian, being a devout member of the Reformed Church of
the fatherland. He promptly transferred his relations to the church at
fort Amsterdam. He became an elder in the church, and conscious that
the christian religion was the basis of all prosperity, one of his
first acts was the adoption of measures for the completion of the
church edifice. Proprietors of vacant lots were ordered to fence them
in and improve them. Surveyors of buildings were appointed to regulate
the location and structure of new houses.
The embarrassments which surrounded the governor were so great that he
found it necessary to support his authority by calling public opinion
to his aid. "Necessity," writes Brodhead, "produced concession and
prerogative yielded to popular rights. The Council recommended that
the principle of representation should be conceded to the people.
Stuyvesant consented."
An election was ordered and eighteen "of the most notable, reasonable,
honest and respectable persons" in the colony were chosen, from whom
the governor was to select nine persons as a sort of privy council. It
is said that Stuyvesant was very reluctant to yield at all to the
people, and that he very jealously guarded the concessions to which he
was constrained to assent. By this measure popular rights gained
largely. The _Nine Men_ had however only the power to give advice when
it was asked. When assembled, the governor could attend the meeting
and act as president.
Governor Stuyvesant, soon after his arrival at fort Amsterdam,
addressed courteous letters to the governors of all the neighboring
colonies. In his letter to Governor Winthrop, of Massachusetts, he
asserted the indubitable right of the Dutch to all the territory
between the Connecticut and the Delaware, and proposed an interview
for the settlement of all difficulties.
An Amsterdam ship, the Saint Benino, entered the harbor of New Haven,
and for a month engaged in trade without a license from the West India
Company. Stuyvesant, ascertaining the fact, sent a company of soldiers
on a secret expedition to New Haven, seized the vessel on the Lord's
day, brought her to Manhattan, and confiscated both ship and cargo.
Emboldened by success, Stuyvesant sent a letter to the authorities at
New Haven claiming all the region from Cape Henlopen to Cape Cod as
part of the territory of New Netherland, and affirming his right to
levy duties upon all Dutch vessels trading within those limits.
Governor Eaton, of the New Haven colony, sent back a remonstrance
protesting against the Dutch governor as a disturber of the public
peace by "making unjust claims to our lands and plantations, to our
havens and rivers, and by taking a ship out of our harbor without our
license."
Three deserters from Manhattan fled to New Haven. Governor Eaton,
though bound by treaty obligations to deliver them up, yet indignant
in view of what he deemed the arrogant claim of Governor Stuyvesant,
refused to surrender them, lest the surrender should be deemed as
"done in the way of subordination." The impetuous Stuyvesant at once
issued a retaliatory proclamation in which he said:
"If any person, noble or ignoble, freeman or slave, debtor
or creditor, yea, to the lowest prisoner included, run away
from the colony at New Haven, or seek refuge in our limits,
he shall remain free, under our protection, on taking the
oath of allegiance."
This decree excited strong disapprobation at home as well as in the
other colonies. The inhabitants of Manhattan objected to it as tending
to convert the province into a refuge for vagabonds from the
neighboring English settlements. After a few months the obnoxious
proclamation was revoked. But in the meantime Governor Stuyvesant had
bribed the runaways, who had been taken into the public service at New
Haven, to escape and return home.
As a precaution against fire, it was ordered that if a house were
burned through the owner's negligence, he should be heavily fined.
Fire-wardens were appointed to inspect the buildings. If any chimney
was found foul, the owner was fined and the sum was appointed to
purchasing fire-ladders, hooks and buckets. As nearly one-fourth of
the houses were licensed for the sale of brandy, tobacco or beer, it
was resolved that no farther licenses should be granted. It was
ordered that cattle and swine should be pastured within proper
enclosures. And it was also ordained that, "from this time forth, in
the afternoon as well as in the forenoon, there shall be preaching
from God's word." Many of the Indians were employed as servants or day
laborers. They were often defrauded of their wages. A decree was
issued, punishing with a fine those who neglected to pay these debts.
In January, 1649, Charles I., of England, was beheaded in front of his
own banqueting hall, and England became nominally a republic. The
event created the most profound sensation throughout all Christendom.
The shock, which agitated all Europe, was felt in America. The prince
of Wales and the duke of York, escaping from England, took refuge in
Holland with their brother-in-law, the stadtholder, William, prince of
Orange. A rupture between England and Holland appeared imminent. The
Puritans in America were well pleased with the establishment of a
republic in their native land. A war between the two European nations
would probably bring all the Dutch colonies under the control of
England. The West India Company, in view of these perils, urged
Stuyvesant "to live with his neighbors on the best terms possible."
On the 24th of March, of this year, the venerable Governor Winthrop,
of Massachusetts, died, at the age of sixty-one. Governor Eaton, of
New Haven, proposed to Stuyvesant a meeting of the Governors, at
Boston, to discuss the affairs of the colonies. The meeting was held
in August. It was not harmonious. The Dutch were forbidden from
trading anywhere with the Indians within the territory of the English
colonies, and Stuyvesant was very emphatically informed that the
English claimed all the territory between Cape Cod and New Haven.
Lady Stirling, widow of Lord Stirling, determined to maintain her
title to the whole of Long Island. She sent an agent, who announced
himself to the English settlers at Hempstead, on the northern portion
of the island, as governor of the whole island under the Dowager
Countess of Stirling. Intelligence of this was speedily sent to
Stuyvesant. The Dutch Governor caused his immediate arrest, ordered
him, notwithstanding his "very consequential airs," to be examined
before the council, took copies of his papers, and placed him on board
ship for Holland. The ship put in at an English port, the agent
escaped and was heard of no more.
The council, much displeased with the absolutism assumed by
Stuyvesant, resolved to send one of their number, a remarkably
energetic man, Adrien Van Der Donck, to Holland to seek redress from
the home government. The movement was somewhat secret, and they
endeavored to conceal from the governor the papers which were drawn
up, containing the charges against him. The spirit of Stuyvesant was
roused.
He went in person, with some officers, to the chamber of Van Der
Donck, when he was absent, seized his papers, and then caused him to
be arrested and imprisoned.
The Vice Director, Van Diricklagen, accompanied by a delegation from
the people, protested against these proceedings, and demanded that Van
Der Donck should be released from captivity and held on bail.
Stuyvesant refused, saying that the prisoner was arrested, "for
calumniating the officers of government; that his conduct tended to
bring the sovereign authority into contempt." Van Der Donck was
punished by banishment from the council and from the board of Nine
Men.
Just before this, two prominent men, Kuyter and Melyn, demanded an
appeal to the people in reference to some act of Kieft's reckless
administration. Stuyvesant took the alarm. If the people could judge
of Kieft's administration, his own might be exposed to the same
ordeal. Convening a special council, he said,
"These petitioners are disturbers of the public peace. If we
grant their request, will not the cunning fellows, in order
to usurp over us a more unlimited power, claim even greater
authority against ourselves, should it happen that our
administration may not square in every respect with their
whims. It is treason to petition against one's magistrate
whether there be cause or not."
The unfortunate petitioners were now arraigned on various charges. The
Governor and his subservient Council acted both as prosecutors and
judges. The prisoners were accused of instigating the war with the
savages, of counselling the mortgaging of Manhattan to the English,
and of threatening Kieft with personal violence. The case was speedily
decided and sentence was pronounced. Stuyvesant wished Melyn to be
punished with death and confiscation of property. But the majority of
the Council held back the Governor's avenging hand. Still he succeeded
in sentencing Melyn to seven years' banishment, to a fine of three
hundred guilders, and to forfeit all benefits derived from the
Company. Kuyter was sentenced to three years' banishment and to a fine
of one hundred and fifty guilders. They were also denied the right of
appeal to the fatherland.
"If I were persuaded," said the Governor, "that you would divulge our
sentence, or bring it before their High Mightinesses, I would have you
hanged at once, on the highest tree in New Netherland."
Again he said, with characteristic energy, "If any one, during my
administration, shall appeal, I will make him a foot shorter, and send
the pieces to Holland and let him appeal in that way."[7]
Melyn and Kuyter being sent to Holland as criminals, did appeal to the
home government; their harsh sentence was suspended; they were
restored to all the rights of colonists of New Netherland, and
Stuyvesant was cited to defend his sentence at the Hague. When Melyn
returned to Manhattan with these authoritative papers, a great tumult
was excited. Anxious that his triumph should be as public as his
disgrace had been, he demanded that the Acts should be read to the
people assembled in the church. With much difficulty he carried his
point. "I honor the States and shall obey their commands," said
Stuyvesant, "I shall send an attorney to sustain the sentence."
The Indians loudly, and with one accord, demanded the right to
purchase fire-arms. For years they had been constantly making such
purchases, either through the colonists at Rensselaerswyck, or from
private traders. It was feared that the persistent refusal to continue
the supply, might again instigate them to hostilities. The Directors
of the West India government therefore intimated that "it was the best
policy to furnish them with powder and ball, but with a sparing hand."
Stuyvesant ordered a case of guns to be brought over from Holland.
They were landed openly at fort Amsterdam and placed under the care of
an agent of the governor. Thus Stuyvesant himself was to monopolize
the trade, which was extremely lucrative; for the Indians would pay
almost any price for guns, powder and shot. This increased the growing
dissatisfaction. The Indians would readily exchange skins to the
amount of forty dollars for a gun, and of four dollars for a pound of
powder.
"The governor," it was said,
"assumes to be everything. He establishes shops for himself
and does the business of the whole country. He is a brewer
and has breweries. He is a ship-owner, a merchant, and a
trader in both lawful and contraband articles."
The Nine Men persisted in their resolve to send a remonstrance to the
fatherland. The memorial was signed and forwarded the latter part of
July. In this important document, which first gave a brief account of
the past history of the colony, the administration of Stuyvesant was
reviewed with much severity.
"In our opinion," said the remonstrants,
"this country will never flourish under the present
government. The country must be provided with godly,
honorable and intelligent rulers, who are not very indigent,
and who are not too covetous. The mode in which this country
is now governed is intolerable. Nobody is secure in his
property longer than the Director pleases, who is generally
strongly inclined to confiscating. A good population would
be the consequence of a good government. Many would be
allured here by the pleasantness, situation, salubrity and
fruitfulness of the country, if protection were secured."
Three of the signers were deputed to convey the remonstrance to the
Hague and lay it before the authorities there. The pastor of the
church at Manhattan, Domine Backerus, returned to Holland with the
commissioners. He was greatly dissatisfied with the regime of the
governor, and upon his arrival in Holland, joined the complainants.
Domine Megapolensis, who had been pastor of the church at
Rensselaerswyck, having obtained letters of dismission from his
church, was also about to sail to the fatherland. The colonists,
generally religiously disposed, were greatly troubled, being
threatened with a total loss of the gospel ministry. By the earnest
solicitation of Stuyvesant, he consented to remain at Manhattan, where
he was formally installed as pastor of the church, upon a salary of
twelve hundred guilders, which was about four hundred dollars. At the
same time the energetic governor manifested his interest in education
by writing earnestly to Amsterdam, urging that a pious, well-qualified
and diligent schoolmaster might be sent out. "Nothing," he added, "is
of greater importance than the right, early instruction of youth."
The governor was sorely annoyed by the action of the States-General,
reversing his sentence against Melyn and Kuyter. He wrote that he
should obey their decision, but that he would rather never have
received their commission as governor, than to have had his authority
lowered in the eyes of his neighbors and friends.
The three commissioners, bearing the memorial of the Nine Men, reached
Holland in safety. The States-General received their memorial, and
also listened to the reply of the agent, whom Stuyvesant had sent out
to plead his cause. The decision of the States was virtually a rebuke
of the dictatorial government of Stuyvesant, and several very
important reforms were ordered. This decision displeased the West
India Company. Those men deemed their rights infringed upon by this
action of the States-General. They were therefore led to espouse the
cause of the governor. Thus strengthened, Stuyvesant ventured to
disregard the authority of the States-General.
The Dutch at Manhattan began to be clamorous for more of popular
freedom. Stuyvesant, hoping to enlist the sympathies of the governors
of the English colonies in his behalf, made vigorous arrangements for
the long projected meeting with the Commissioners of the United
Colonies.
On the 17th of September, 1650, Governor Stuyvesant embarked at
Manhattan, with his secretary, George Baxter, and quite an imposing
suite. Touching at several places along the sound, he arrived at
Hartford in four days. After much discussion it was agreed to refer
all differences, of the points in controversy, to four delegates, two
to be chosen from each side. It is worthy of special remark that
Stuyvesant's secretary was an Englishman, and he chose two Englishmen
for his delegates.
In the award delivered by the arbitrators, it was decided that upon
Long Island a line running from the westernmost part of Oyster Bay, in
a straight direction to the sea, should be the bound between the
English and the Dutch territory; the easterly part to belong to the
English, the westernmost part to the Dutch. Upon the mainland, the
boundary line was to commence on the west side of Greenwich bay, about
four miles from Stamford, and to run in a northerly direction twenty
miles into the country, provided that the said line came not within
ten miles of the Hudson river. The Dutch were not to build any house
within six miles of said line. The inhabitants of Greenwich were to
remain, till further consideration, under the Government of the Dutch.
It was also decided that a nearer union of friendship and amity,
between England and the Dutch colonies in America, should be
recommended to the several jurisdictions of the United Colonies.
Stuyvesant reported the result of these negotiations to the Chamber at
Amsterdam but, for some unexplained reason, did not send to that body
a copy of the treaty. Upon his return to Manhattan he was immediately
met with a storm of discontent. His choice of two Englishmen as the
referees, to represent the Dutch cause, gave great offence. It was
deemed an insult to his own countrymen. There was a general
disposition with the colonists to repudiate a treaty which the Dutch
had had no hand in forming. Complaints were sent to Holland that the
Governor had surrendered more territory than might have formed fifty
colonies; and that, rejecting those reforms in favor of popular rights
which the home government had ordered, he was controlling all things
with despotic power.
"This grievous and unsuitable government," the Nine Men wrote,
"ought at once to be reformed. The measures ordered by the
home government should be enforced so that we may live as
happily as our neighbors. Our term of office is about to
expire. The governor has declared that he will not appoint
any other select men. We shall not dare again to assemble in
a body; for we dread unjustifiable prosecutions, and we can
already discern the smart thereof from afar."[8]
Notwithstanding these reiterated rebukes, Stuyvesant persisted in his
arbitrary course. The vice-director, Van Diricklagen, and the fiscal
or treasurer Van Dyck, united in a new protest expressing the popular
griefs. Van Der Donck was the faithful representative of the
commonalty in their fatherland. The vice-director, in forwarding the
new protest to him wrote,
"Our great Muscovy duke keeps on as of old; something like the wolf,
the longer he lives the worse he bites."
It is a little remarkable that the English refugees, who were quite
numerous in the colony, were in sympathy with the arbitrary
assumptions of the governor. They greatly strengthened his hands by
sending a Memorial to the West India Company, condemning the elective
franchise which the Dutch colonists desired.
"We willingly acknowledge," they wrote,
"that the power to elect a governor from among ourselves,
which is, we know, the design of some here, would be our
ruin, by reason of our factions and the difference of
opinion which prevails among us."
The West India Company, not willing to relinquish the powers which it
grasped, was also in very decided opposition to the spirit of popular
freedom which the Dutch colonists were urging, and which was adopted
by the States-General. Thus, in this great controversy, the governor,
the West India Company and the English settlers in the colony were on
one side. Upon the other side stood the States-General and the Dutch
colonists almost without exception.
The vice-director was punished for his protest, by expulsion from the
council and by imprisonment in the guard-room for four days. Upon his
liberation he took refuge with the Patroon on Staten Island. The
notary, who had authenticated the protest, was dismissed from office
and forbidden any farther to practice his profession. In every
possible way, Stuyvesant manifested his displeasure against his own
countrymen of the popular party, while the English were treated with
the utmost consideration.
In the treaty of Hartford no reference was made to the interests of
the Dutch on the south, or Delaware river. The New Haven people
equipped a vessel and dispatched fifty emigrants to establish a colony
upon some lands there, which they claimed to have purchased of the
Indians. The governor regarded this as a breach of the treaty, for the
English territory terminated and the Dutch began at the bay of
Greenwich. The expedition put in at Manhattan. The energetic governor
instantly arrested the leaders and held them in close confinement till
they signed a promise not to proceed to the Delaware. The emigrants,
thus discomfited, returned to New Haven.
At the same time Governor Stuyvesant sent a very emphatic letter to
Governor Eaton of New Haven, in which he wrote: "I shall employ force
of arms and martial opposition, even to bloodshed, against all English
intruders within southern New Netherland."
In this movement of the English to get a foothold upon the Delaware
river, Stuyvesant thought he saw a covert purpose on their part, to
dispossess the Dutch of all their possessions in America. Thinking it
not improbable that it might be necessary to appeal to arms, he
demanded of the authorities of Rensselaerswyck a subsidy. The
patroons, who had been at great expense in colonizing the territory,
deemed the demand unjust, and sent a commissioner to remonstrate
against it. Stuyvesant arrested the commissioner and held him in close
confinement for four months.
The Swedes were also making vigorous efforts to get possession of the
beautiful lands on the Delaware. Stuyvesant, with a large suite of
officers, visited that region. In very decided terns he communicated
to Printz the Swedish governor there, that the Dutch claimed the
territory upon the three-fold title of discovery, settlement and
purchase from the natives. He then summoned all the Indian chiefs on
the banks of the river, in a grand council at fort Nassau. After a
"solemn conference" these chiefs ceded to the West India Company all
the lands on both sides of the river to a point called by them
Neuwsings, near the mouth of the bay.
The Swedes were left in possession only of a small territory
surrounding their fort, called Christina. As Stuyvesant thought fort
Nassau too far up the river and inconvenient of access, he demolished
it. In its seclusion in the wilderness it had stood for twenty-eight
years. A new fort called Casimir was erected, on the west side of the
river near the present site of New Castle, four miles below the
Swedish fort Christina. Having thus triumphantly accomplished his
object, Stuyvesant returned to Manhattan.
CHAPTER VII.
WAR BETWEEN ENGLAND AND HOLLAND.
Action of the Patroons.--Settlements on the Hudson.--Alarm
of the Home Government.--Recall of Stuyvesant.--His Escape
from Humiliation.--Difficulties between England and
Holland.--The Breaking out of War.--Directions to
Stuyvesant.--The Relations of the Colonies.--Charges against
the Dutch Governor.--Their Refutation.--Efforts of
Stuyvesant for Peace.--Noble Conduct of the Massachusetts
Government.--The Advocates for War.
Governor Stuyvesant having removed the obnoxious vice-director, had
another, Johannes Dyckman, who he thought would be more subservient to
his wishes, appointed in his stead. The commissary of the patroons,
whom he had imprisoned at Manhattan, secreted himself on board a sloop
and escaped up the river to Beaverwyck. The enraged governor seized
the skipper of the sloop on his return, and inflicted upon him a heavy
fine.
The patroons were now fearful that the governor would fulfill his
threat of extending his authority over the extensive territory whose
jurisdiction the Charter of Privileges had entrusted exclusively to
the patroons. They therefore, on an appointed day assembled the
freemen and householders who bound themselves, by an oath, "to
maintain and support offensively and defensively the right and
jurisdiction of the colony against every one."
Among the persons who took this oath we find the name of John Baptist
Van Rensselaer. He was the younger half-brother of the patroon, and
probably the first of the name who came to New Netherland. It was now
reported that Governor Stuyvesant himself was about to visit fort
Orange, and that a new gallows was being prepared for those who should
attempt to thwart his wishes. The governor soon arrived and, with his
customary explicitness, informed the authorities there, that the
territory by the Exemptions, allowed to the patroon, was to extend
sixteen miles on one side of the river, or eight miles if both banks
were occupied. He called upon them to define their boundaries, saying
that he should recognize the patroons' jurisdiction only to that
extent. These limits would include but a small portion of the
territory which the patroons claimed by right of purchase from the
Indians.
The authorities were not prepared to act upon this question without
instructions from Holland. Stuyvesant would admit of no delay. He sent
a party of fourteen soldiers, armed with muskets, to the patroon's
house, who entered the enclosure, fired a volley, and hauled down the
flag of the patroon. He then issued a decree that Beaverswyck, which
included the region now occupied by the city of Albany, was
independent of the patroon's government, and was brought under the
jurisdiction of the colony of fort Amsterdam.
Van Slechtenhorst, the patroon's bold and efficient Commissary at
Rensselaerswick, ordered the governor's placards, announcing this
change, to be torn down, and a counter proclamation, affirming the
claims of the patroon to be posted in its stead. The governor arrested
him, imprisoned him for a time in fort Orange, and then removed him to
New Amsterdam, where he was held in close custody, until his
successor, John Baptist Van Rensselaer, was formally appointed in his
place.
At this time, 1652, there were no settlements, and but a few scattered
farmhouses between the island of Manhattan and the Catskill mountains.
Thomas Chambers had a farm at what is now Troy. With a few neighbors
he moved down the river to "some exceedingly beautiful lands," and
began the settlement of the present county of Ulster.
Stuyvesant returning to Manhattan, forbade any persons from buying
lands of the Indians without his permission. The large sales which had
been made to prominent individuals were declared to be void, and the
"pretended proprietors," were ordered to return the purchase money.
Should they however petition the governor, they might retain such
tracts as he and his council should permit.
By grant of the governor several new settlements were commenced on
Long Island, one at Newton, one at Flatbush. The news had now reached
the Directors of the Company in Holland, of the governor's very
energetic measures on the Delaware, supplanting the Swiss, demolishing
fort Nassau and erecting fort Casimir. They became alarmed lest such
violent measures might embroil them with the Swedish government. In a
letter addressed to Stuyvesant, they wrote:
"Your journey to the South river, and what has passed there
between you and the Swedes, was very unexpected to us, as
you did not give us before so much as a hint of your
intention. We cannot give our opinion upon it until we have
heard the complaints of the Swedish governor to his queen,
and have ascertained how these have been received at her
court. We hope that our arguments, to prove that we were the
first possessors of that country, will be acknowledged as
sufficient. Time will instruct us of the design of the
new-built fort Casimir. We are at a loss to conjecture for
what reason it has received this name. You ought to be on
your guard that it be well secured, so that it cannot be
surprised."
The States-General were more and more dissatisfied with the measures
of Governor Stuyvesant. The treaty of Hartford was severely censured.
They said that the Connecticut river should have been the eastern
boundary of New Netherland, and that the whole of Long Island should
have been retained. Even the West India Company became convinced that
it was necessary to make some concessions to the commonalty at
Manhattan. They therefore communicated to Stuyvesant their consent
that the "burgher government" should be established, which the
committee of Nine had petitioned for in behalf of the commonalty, in
1649, and which the States-General had authorized in 1650.
By this arrangement the people were to elect seven representatives,
who were to form a municipal court of justice, subject to the right of
appeal to the Supreme Court of the province. The sheriff was also
invested with new powers. He was to convoke and preside at the
municipal court, to prosecute all offenders against the laws, and to
take care that all the judgments of the court should be executed. The
people at Manhattan had thus won, to a very considerable degree, the
popular government which they had so long desired.
Quite to the amazement of the Directors of the West India Company, the
States-General recalled Stuyvesant, ordering him to return immediately
to Holland to give an account of his administration. He had been in
the main the faithful agent of the Company, carrying out its wishes in
opposition to popular reform. They therefore wrote to him, stating
that the requirement was in violation of their charter, and requesting
him "not to be in too much haste to commence his voyage, but to delay
it until the receipt of further orders."
It so happened, however, that then the States-General were just on the
eve of hostilities with England. It was a matter of the first
importance that New Netherland should be under the rule of a governor
of military experience, courage and energy. No man could excel
Stuyvesant in these qualities. Yielding to the force of circumstances,
the States-General revoked their recall. Thus narrowly Stuyvesant
escaped the threatened humiliation.
The English government was angry with Holland for refusing to expel
the royalist refugees, who, after the execution of Charles I., had
taken refuge in Holland. The commerce of the Dutch Republic then
covered every sea. England, to punish the Dutch and to revive her own
decaying commerce, issued, by Parliamentary vote, her famous "Act of
Navigation," which was exultantly proclaimed at the old London
Exchange "with sound of trumpet and beat of drum."
This Act decreed that no production of Asia, Africa or America should
be brought to England, except in English vessels, manned by English
crews, and that no productions of Europe should be brought to England,
unless in English vessels, or in those of the country in which the
imported cargoes were produced. These measures were considered very
unjust by all the other nations, and especially by the Dutch, then the
most commercial nation on the globe.
The States-General sent ambassadors to London to remonstrate against
such hostile action; and at the same time orders were issued for the
equipment of one hundred and fifty ships of war. The States-General
had not yet ratified Stuyvesant's treaty of Hartford. The ambassadors
were instructed to urge that an immovable boundary line should be
established between the Dutch and English possessions in America.
The reply of the English Government was not conciliatory. The English,
it was said, had always been forbidden to trade in the Dutch colonies.
The Dutch ought therefore to find no fault with the recent Navigation
Act, from which measure the Council did not "deem it fitting to
recede." As to the colonial boundary, the ungracious reply was
returned,
"The English were the first settlers in North America, from
Virginia to Newfoundland. We know nothing of any Dutch
plantations there, excepting a few settlers up the Hudson.
We do not think it necessary at present, to settle the
boundaries. It can be done hereafter, at any convenient
time."
A naval war soon broke out. England, without warning, seized the ships
of Holland in English ports, and impressed their crews. The Dutch war
fleet was entrusted to Admiral Tromp. He was enjoined to protect the
Dutch vessels from visitation or search by foreign cruisers, and not
to strike his flag to English ships of war. The instructions of the
commanders of the British men of war, were to compel the ships of all
foreign nations whatever, to strike their colors to the British flag.
England thus set up its arrogant claim to "its undoubted right to the
dominion of the surrounding seas."
The English fleet, under Admiral Blake, met the Dutch fleet in the
Strait of Dover, on the 29th of May, 1632, and a bloody but undecisive
battle ensued. A series of terrible naval conflicts followed, with
victory now on the one side and now on the other. At length Blake,
discomfited, was compelled to take refuge in the Thames. Admiral
Tromp, rather vain-gloriously, placed a broom at his masthead to
indicate that he had swept the channel of all English ships.
In this state of affairs the Directors wrote to Governor Stuyvesant,
saying,
"Though we hope that you have so agreed with the colonists
of New England about boundaries that we have nothing to fear
from them, still we consider it an imperious duty to
recommend you to arm and discipline all freemen, soldiers
and sailors; to appoint officers and places of rendezvous;
to supply them with ammunition; and to inspect the
fortifications at New Amsterdam, fort Orange and fort
Casimir. To this end we send you a fresh supply of
ammunition.
"If it should happen, which we will not suppose, that New
Englanders incline to take part in these broils, then we
should advise your honor to engage the Indians in your
cause, who, we are informed, are not partial to the English.
You will also employ all such means of defence as prudence
may require for your security, taking care that the
merchants and inhabitants convey their property within the
forts.
"Treat them kindly, so that they may be encouraged to remain
there, and to give up the thought of returning to Holland,
which would depopulate the country. It is therefore
advisable to inclose the villages, at least the principal
and most opulent, with breastworks and palisades to prevent
surprise."
Looking into the future with prophetic eyes, which discerned the
future glories of the rising republic, the Directors added,
"When these colonies once become permanently established,
when the ships of New Netherland ride on every part of the
ocean, then numbers, now looking to that coast with eager
eyes, shall be allured to embark for your island."
This prophecy is now emphatically fulfilled when often one or two
thousand emigrants, from the old world, land at the Battery in a day.
When the prophecy was uttered, New Amsterdam was a small straggling
village of one story huts, containing about seven hundred inhabitants.
The whole island of Manhattan belonged in fee to the West India
Company. A municipal government was soon organized, which about the
year 1653, gave birth to the city of New Amsterdam.
Holland and England were now in open and deadly warfare. It will
hardly be denied by any one, that England was responsible for the
conflict. The New England colonies wished to avail themselves of the
opportunity to wrest New Netherland from the Dutch, and to extend
their sway from Stamford to the Chesapeake. Governor Stuyvesant
perceived his danger. He could be easily overpowered by the New
England colonies. He wrote very friendly letters to the governors,
urging that, notwithstanding the hostilities between the
mother-countries, commercial intercourse between the colonies should
continue on its former peaceful footing. At the same time he adopted
very vigorous measures to be prepared for defence should he be
assailed.
Rumors reached New Amsterdam of active military preparations in
progress in New England. It was manifest that some hostile expedition
was contemplated. Fort Amsterdam was repaired. The city was enclosed
by a ditch and palisade, with a breastwork extending from the East
river to the North river. The whole body of citizens mounted guard
every night. A frigate in the harbor was ready at any moment to spread
its sails, and its "guns were kept loaded day and night." The citizens
without exception, were ordered to work upon the defences, under
penalty of fine, loss of citizenship and banishment.
Thus barbaric war came again to mar all the prosperity of the colony,
and to undermine all its foundations of growth and happiness. The
Mohican Indians, on the east side of the North river, and whose
territory extended to the Connecticut, were allies of the English.
Uncas, the chief of this tribe, declared that Governor Stuyvesant was
plotting to arm the Narragansetts against New England. At the same
time nine chiefs from the vicinity of Manhattan, sent a messenger to
Stamford, who said:
"The Dutch governor has earnestly solicited the Indians in
these parts, to kill all the English. But we have all
refused to be hired by him, for the English have done us no
harm."
The New England colonists were by no means satisfied that these
charges were true. Veracity was not an Indian virtue. Cunning was a
prominent trait in their character. An extraordinary meeting of
commissioners was held in Boston, in April, 1653. Two messengers had
been previously sent by the Massachusetts council, to interrogate
three of the principal Narragansett chiefs, respecting the conduct of
Governor Stuyvesant. They reported at the meeting, that the
Narragansett chiefs utterly denied that Governor Stuyvesant had ever
approached them with any such proposition. One of them, Ninigret,
said:
"It was winter when I visited the Dutch governor. I stood
the great part of a winter's day, knocking at his door. He
would neither open it nor suffer others to open it, to let
me in. I found no proposal to stir me up against the
English, my friends."
Mixam, another of these chiefs, replied, "I do not know of any plot
that is intended by the Dutch governor against the English, my
friends."
The third of the chiefs, who was conferred with, Pessacus, was still
more emphatic in his denial. "Though I am far away," he said, "from
the governor of the Dutch, I am not willing for the sake of pleasing
the English, to invent any falsehood against him."
The result of these investigations led some to suppose that
individuals among the English had originated these rumors, and had
bribed some of the Indian chiefs to false charges that they might
instigate the governors to send out an expedition for the capture of
New Netherland.
Still the Council was unsatisfied, and retained its suspicions.
Governor Stuyvesant. hearing of the charges against him, wrote at once
to the governors of Massachusetts and New Haven, unequivocally denying
the plot, and offering to come himself to Boston "to consider and
examine what may be charged, and his answers." Should the Council
prefer, he would send a delegate to Boston, or they might send
delegates to Manhattan to investigate the whole affair.
The Council decided to send three commissioners, men of note, to
Manhattan. At the same time an army of five hundred men was ordered to
be organized "for the first expedition," should "God call the colonies
to make war against the Dutch."
The New England agents were hospitably received at New Amsterdam. They
urged that the meeting should be held in one of the New England
colonies, where Stuyvesant "should produce evidence to clear himself
from the charges against him." He was to be regarded as guilty until
he proved himself innocent.
The Puritan agents appear to great disadvantage in the conference
which ensued. "They seem to have visited the Dutch," writes Mr.
Brodhead,
"as inquisitors, to collect evidence criminating the Dutch
and to collect no other evidence. And, with peculiar
assurance, they saw no impropriety in requiring the
authorities of New Netherland, in their own capital, to
suspend their established rules of law in favor of those of
New England."
Governor Stuyvesant repressed every expression of impatience, and
urged the most friendly overtures. It may be said that it was
manifestly for his interest to do so, for the Dutch colonies were
quite powerless compared with the united colonies of New England. The
New England agents ungraciously repelled his advances, and at length
abruptly terminated the conference without giving the governor an
opportunity to prove his innocence. At nine o'clock in the evening
they suddenly took leave of New Amsterdam, declining the most friendly
invitations to remain, and "cloaking their sudden departure under
pretence of the day of election to be held this week at Boston." They
left behind them the following menace:
"The Commissioners conclude their negotiation by declaring
that if you shall offer any injury to any of the English in
these parts, whether by yourselves or by the Indians, either
upon the national quarrel, or by reason of any differences
depending between the United English Colonies and
yourselves, that, as the Commissioners will do no wrong, so
they may not suffer their countrymen to be oppressed upon
any such account."
The morning after this unfriendly retirement of the agents, Governor
Stuyvesant dispatched a messenger to Boston, with a letter containing
a very full reply to the grievances of which the New England colonists
complained. In this letter, which bears the impress of frankness and
honesty, he says,
"What your worships lay unto our charge are false reports
and feigned informations. Your honored messengers might, if
they had pleased, have informed themselves of the truth of
this, and might also have obtained more friendly
satisfaction and security, concerning our real intentions,
if they had pleased to stay a day or two with us, to have
heard and considered further of these articles."
On their way home, the New England agents stopped at Flushing,
Stamford and New Haven, to collect all the evidence they could against
Governor Stuyvesant. The hearsay stories of the Indians they carefully
picked up. Still the only point ascertained, of any moment was, that
Governor Stuyvesant had told an Englishman, one Robert Coe, that if
the English attacked him, he should try to get the Indians to come to
his aid; and that he had said the same to William Alford.
This was all the evidence the agents could find against the governor.
He had made these declarations without any purpose of concealment. He
had been instructed to pursue this course by the Amsterdam Directors.
The New England colonists had in their Pequod war, set the example of
employing Indian allies. This repulsive feature in the British
colonial administration continued until the close of the war of the
Revolution.
Captain John Underbill, an Englishman, who had obtained considerable
renown in the Pequod war becoming dissatisfied with some
ecclesiastical censure which he had incurred, petitioned Governor
Stuyvesant for permission to reside, with a few other families in New
Netherland, under the protection of the Dutch, offering to take the
oath of allegiance which was required of all foreigners. His request
was promptly granted. It was the liberal policy of the Dutch
government not to exclude foreigners from any privileges which the
Hollanders themselves enjoyed. Underhill was now residing at
Hempstead, Long Island. His restless spirit, ever eager for change,
seized upon the present moment as a fitting opportunity to wrest from
the Dutch their portion of Long Island, and pass it over to his
countrymen. In violation of his oath he issued a treasonable
proclamation, in which he said,
"You are called upon to abjure the iniquitous government of
Peter Stuyvesant over the inhabitants residing on Long
Island. His rule is too grievous for any brave Englishman
and good Christian to tolerate any longer. All honest hearts
that seek the glory of God and his peace and prosperity, are
exhorted to throw off this tyrannical yoke. Accept and
submit ye then to the Parliament of England; and beware of
becoming traitors to one another for the sake of your own
quiet and welfare."
This proclamation did not meet with a cordial response. Underbill fled
to Rhode Island. Here he received from Boston a commission, "to take
all Dutch ships and vessels as shall come into his power, and to
defend himself from the Dutch and all enemies of the commonwealth of
England."
The report of the agents who had visited Manhattan was such that the
General Court at Boston voted that they were not "called upon to make
a present war with the Dutch."
There were eight commissioners from the New England colonies in
Boston. Notwithstanding this decision of the General Court, six of
them were in favor of instant war. They sent back to Governor
Stuyvesant an abusive and defiant reply, in which they said,
"Your confident denials of the barbarous plot with which you are
charged will weigh little in the balance against the evidence, so that
we must still require and seek due satisfaction and security."
The Connecticut colonists were ever looking with a wistful eye to the
rich lands west of them. The Court at New Haven and that at Hartford
sent messengers to Massachusetts to urge that "by war if no other
means will serve, the Dutch, at and about the Manhattoes, who have
been and still are like to prove injurious, may be removed." The
General Court nobly replied, "We cannot act in so weighty a
concernment, as to send forth men to shed blood, unless satisfied that
God calls for it. And then it must be clear and not doubtful."
"In speaking of these events Mr. Brodhead says,
"At the annual meeting of the Commissioners, Massachusetts
maintained her proud position with a firmness which almost
perilled the stability of the confederation. A bitter
altercation, between the representatives of the other
colonies and the General Court, was terminated by an
ambiguous concession which nevertheless averted hostilities.
"The Connecticut governments seemed animated by the most
vindictive feelings; and their own recent historian laments
the refusal of the Massachusetts authorities to bear part in
an offensive war against New Netherland, as an 'indelible
stain upon their honor as men, and upon their morals as
Christians.'"
There was a strong party in favor of war as the only means of wresting
the magnificent domain of New Netherland from the Dutch and annexing
it to the New England possessions. The majestic Hudson was greatly
coveted, as it opened to commerce vast and unknown regions of the
interior.
Hartford and New Haven discussed the question if they were not strong
enough without the aid of Massachusetts to subdue the Dutch. Stamford
and Fairfield commenced raising volunteers on their own account, and
appointed one Ludlow as their leader. A petition was sent to the home
government, the Commonwealth over which Oliver Cromwell was then
presiding, praying
"that the Dutch be either removed or, so far, at least,
subjected that the colonies may be free from injurious
affronts and secured against the dangers and mischievous
effects which daily grow upon them by their plotting with
the Indians and furnishing them with arms against the
English."
In conclusion they entreated that two or three frigates be sent out,
and that Massachusetts be commanded to assist the other colonies to
clear the coast "of a nation with which the English cannot either
mingle or set under their government, nor so much as live near without
danger of their lives and all their comforts in this world."
To fan this rising flame of animosity against the Dutch, a rancorous
pamphlet was published in London, entitled,
"The second part of the Amboyna Tragedy; or a faithful
account of a bloody, treacherous and cruel plot of the Dutch
in America, purporting the total ruin and murder of all the
English colonists in New England; extracted from the various
letters lately written from New England to different
merchants in London."
This was indeed an inflammatory pamphlet. The most violent language
was used. The Dutch were accused of the "devilish project" of trying
to rouse the savages to a simultaneous assault upon all the New
England colonists. The crime was to be perpetrated on Sunday morning,
when they should be collected in their houses of worship. Men, women
and children were to be massacred, and the buildings laid in ashes.
The Amsterdam Directors had this "most infamous and lying libel,"
translated into their own language and sent a copy to Governor
Stuyvesant and his council, saying: "We wish that your honors may see
what stratagems that nation employs, not only to irritate the
populace, but the whole world if possible and to stir it up against
us."
The position of Governor Stuyvesant had become exceedingly
uncomfortable. He was liable at any day to have from abroad war's most
terrible storm burst upon him. And the enemy might come in such force
that he would be utterly unable to make any effectual resistance. On
the other hand the Dutch settlements were composed of emigrants from
all lands. Many Englishmen, dissatisfied with the rigid rule of the
New England colonies, had taken their residence in New Netherland.
The arbitrary rule of Stuyvesant was obnoxious to the majority of his
subjects, and they were increasingly clamorous for a more liberal and
popular government. On the 16th of December, 1630, a very important
popular convention was held at New Amsterdam, composed of delegates
from eight towns. There were nineteen delegates, ten of whom were
Dutch and nine English. Unanimously they avowed fealty to the
government of Holland. But they remonstrated against the establishment
of an arbitrary government; and complained that laws had been enacted
without the consent of the people.
"This," said they,
"is contrary to the granted privilege of the Netherland
government and odious to every free-born man; and especially
so to those whom God has placed in a free state in
newly-settled lands, who are entitled to claim laws not
transcending, but resembling as near as possible those of
the Netherlands."
There were several minor offences enumerated to which we need not here
refer. The memorial was drawn up by an Englishman, George Baxter. The
imperious Stuyvesant was greatly annoyed by this document. To weaken
its effect, he declared that the delegates had no authority to act or
even to meet upon such questions. He endeavored to rouse national
prejudice against the document by saying:
"The most ancient colony of Manhattan, the colonies of
Rensselaerswyck and Staten Island and the settlements at
Beaverswyck and on the South river are too prudent to
subscribe to all that has been projected by an Englishman;
as if among the Netherlands' nation there is no one
sagacious and expert enough to draw up a remonstrance to the
Director and council."
CHAPTER VIII.
ANOTHER INDIAN WAR.
Conflict Between the Governor and the Citizens.--Energy of
the Governor.--His Measures of Defence.--Action of the
English Colonies.--Claims of the Government of Sweden.--Fort
Casimir captured by the Swedes.--Retaliation.--Measures for
the recapture of Fort Casimir.--Shooting a Squaw.--Its
Consequences.--The Ransom of Prisoners.--Complaints of the
Swedish Governor.--Expedition from Sweden.--Its Fate.
There was a brief but bitter controversy between the governor and the
convention, when the governor ordered the body to disperse, "on pain
of our highest displeasure." "We derive our authority," said he, "from
God, and from the Company, not from a few ignorant subjects. And we
alone can call the inhabitants together." These decisive measures did
not stifle the popular voice. Petitions were sent to the Company in
Holland, full of complaints against the administration of Stuyvesant,
and imploring its intervention to secure the redress of the grievances
which were enumerated.
An able man, Francois le Bleuw, was sent to Holland with these
documents, with instructions to do everything in his power to procure
the reforms they urged. Though the citizens of New Amsterdam had, for
a year, enjoyed a limited municipal government, they were by no means
satisfied with what they had thus far attained. What they claimed, and
reasonably claimed, were the larger franchises enjoyed by the cities
in the fatherland.
The condition of New Netherland, at the commencement of the year 1654,
was very precarious. The troubled times, as is ever the case, had
called out swarms of pirates and robbers, who infested the shores of
Long Island, inflicting the most cruel excesses upon the unprotected
inhabitants. The English residents in the Dutch colonies were
numerous, and they were ripe for revolt. The Dutch themselves were
uttering loud murmurs. The governor acted with his accustomed energy.
Several vessels were fitted out to act against the pirates. Many of
these pirates professed to be privateersmen, serving the Commonwealth
of England. It was suspected that the English residents were
communicating with the freebooters, who were chiefly their own
countrymen.
A proclamation was issued prohibiting all persons, under penalty of
banishment and the confiscation of goods, from harboring the outlaws.
Every third man was detailed to act as a minute man whenever required;
and the whole population was pledged for the public defence. At the
same time, to prevent any misunderstanding, messengers were sent to
Connecticut to inform the colonial authorities there, that these
measures were adopted solely for the protection of their commerce and
the punishment of robbery.
In February of this year, a church was organized at Flatbush. Domine
Polhemus was chosen pastor, with a salary of six hundred guilders. A
cruciform wooden church was erected, sixty feet long and twenty-eight
feet wide. This was the first Reformer Dutch Church on Long Island.
The Lutherans had now become quite numerous in New Amsterdam. They
petitioned for liberty to organize a church. Stuyvesant, a zealous
Calvinist, declined, saying that he was bound by his oath to tolerate
no other religion openly than the Reformed. In this intolerance he was
sustained by the Company in Holland.
Oliver Cromwell now decided to carry the war against Holland into the
New World. He sent word to the governors of the New England Colonists
that he was about to dispatch war ships to the coasts of America, and
he called upon them to give their utmost assistance for gaining the
Manhattoes and other places under the power of the Dutch.
Four armed ships were soon crossing the Atlantic. The expedition was
entrusted to Major Sedgwick and John Leverett. They were directed to
enter some good port in New England, where they were to ascertain
whether the colonial governments would join in vindicating the English
right and in extirpating the Dutch.
"Being come to the Manhattoes," wrote secretary Thurlow,
"you shall, by surprise, open force, or otherwise, endeavor
to take the place. You have power to give fair quarter in
case it be rendered upon summons without opposition. If the
Lord give his blessing, you shall not use cruelty to the
inhabitants, but encourage those who are willing to remain
under the English government, and give liberty to others to
transport themselves to Europe."
Governor Stuyvesant received early intelligence of the projected
expedition, and immediately convened his council. The danger was
imminent. The Dutch alone could oppose but feeble resistance. The
English in the Dutch colony, though they had sworn allegiance, would
probably join their countrymen. "To invite them," Governor Stuyvesant
said, "to aid us, would be bringing the Trojan horse within our
walls." After much anxious deliberation, it was decided to enlist a
force of seventy men, "silently and without beat of drum," and to lay
in supplies to stand a siege.
The danger roused the spirit of patriotism. The Dutch rallied with
great unanimity and, spade in hand, worked heartily on the
fortifications. They were all conscious, however, that treason lurked
within their walls.
Several of the New England colonies responded quite eagerly to the
appeal of Cromwell. New Haven pledged herself to the most zealous
efforts Connecticut promised two hundred men, and even five hundred
rather than that the enterprise should fail. Plymouth ordered fifty
men into the service, entrusting the command to Captain Miles Standish
and Captain Thomas Willett. It is worthy of notice that the Plymouth
people made an apology for this action, saying: "We concur in hostile
measures against our ancient Dutch neighbors only in reference unto
the national quarrel."
Massachusetts gave a reluctant consent that five hundred volunteers
against the Dutch should be raised within their jurisdiction.
Just as the fleet was about to sail from Boston, on this expedition,
the result of which could not be doubtful, a ship entered the port
with the announcement that peace had been concluded between England
Holland. This of course put a stop to any farther hostile action. The
welcome news was soon conveyed to Governor Stuyvesant. He was quite
overjoyed in its reception. The glad tidings were published from the
City Hall, with ringing of bell and all other public demonstrations of
satisfaction.
The 12th of August was appointed as a day of general thanksgiving to
God for his great goodness. In his proclamation, the Governor devoutly
exclaimed:
"Praise the Lord, O England's Jerusalem and Netherland's
zion, praise ye the Lord! He hath secured your gates and
blessed your possessions with peace, even here where the
threatened torch of war was lighted, where the waves reached
our lips and subsided only through the power of the
Almighty."
From this moral conflict, which came so near being a physical one,
Stuyvesant emerged very victorious. The Company had ever been disposed
to sympathize with him in his measures. The delegate Le Bleuw, who had
carried charges against him to Holland, was almost rudely repulsed,
and was forbidden to return to New Netherland. The Directors of the
Company wrote to the Governor:
"We are unable to discover in the whole remonstrance one
single point to justify complaint. You ought to have acted
with more vigor against the ringleaders of the gang, and not
to have condescended to answer protests with protests. It is
therefore our express command that you punish what has
occurred as it deserves, so that others may be deterred in
future, from following such examples."
To the citizens they wrote,
"We enjoin it upon you that you conduct yourselves quietly
and peaceably, submit yourselves to the government placed
over you, and in no wise allow yourselves to hold particular
convention with the English or others, in matters of form or
deliberation on affairs of state, which do not appertain to
you, or attempt any alteration in the state and its
government."
A ferry was established to convey passengers from one side of the
river to the other. The licensed ferryman was bound to keep suitable
boats and also a lodge on each side of the river to protect passengers
from the weather. The toll established by law, was for a wagon and two
horses one dollar; for a wagon and one horse eighty cents; a savage,
male or female, thirty cents; each other person fifteen cents.
When Stuyvesant was preparing to defend New Netherland from the
English, he encountered another great annoyance. It will be remembered
that the Swedish government claimed the territory on the South, or
Delaware river, upon which the Dutch governor had erected Fort
Casimir. Gerrit Bikker was in command of the fort, with a garrison of
twelve men. On the morning of the first of June, 1654, a strange sail
was seen in the offing. A small party was sent out in a boat, to
reconnoitre. They returned with the tidings that it was a Swedish ship
full of people, with a new governor; and that they had come to take
possession of the place, affirming that the fort was on land belonging
to the Swedish government.
Bikker with his small garrison, and almost destitute of ammunition,
could make no resistance. Twenty or thirty soldiers landed from the
Swedish ship, entered the open gate of the fort and took possession of
the place. John Rising the commander of the ship, stated that he was
obeying the orders of his government; that the territory belonged to
Sweden, and that neither the States-General of the Netherlands nor the
West India Company had authorized Governor Stuyvesant to erect a fort
upon that spot.
The garrison was disarmed, two shotted guns were fired over the works
in token of their capture, and the name of the fort was changed to
Trinity, as it was on Trinity Sunday that the fort was taken. A
skilful engineer immediately employed many hands in strengthening the
ramparts. The region was called New Sweden, and John Rising assumed
his office as governor. Courteously he sent word to Governor
Stuyvesant of his arrival and of his capture of the forts. He also
summoned the chiefs of the neighboring tribes and entered into a
treaty of friendship with them. Within a month he announced to the
home government that the population of New Sweden had risen to three
hundred and sixty-eight. "I hope," he added,
"we may be able to preserve them in order and in duty, and
to constrain them if necessary. I will do in this respect,
all that depends upon me. We will also endeavor to shut up
the river."
Governor Stuyvesant was very indignant, in view of what he deemed the
pusillanimous conduct of Bikker in "this dishonorable surrender of the
fort." It was in vain for him to attempt its recovery. But with an
eagle eye and an agitated mind he watched for an opportunity to
retaliate.
About the middle of September, a Swedish ship, the Golden Shark, bound
for the Delaware river, under command of Captain Elswyck, entered
Sandy Hook and anchored behind Staten Island. The captain had made a
mistake and supposed that he had entered the mouth of South river.
Discovering his error, he sent a boat up to Manhattan for a pilot.
Stuyvesant's long-looked-for hour had come. He arrested the boat's
crew, and sent them all to the guard-house. He also seized the Shark
and transferred her cargo to the Company's magazine on shore. He then
sent a courteous message to Governor Rising, at New Sweden, inviting
him to visit New Amsterdam, "to arrange and settle some unexpected
differences." He promised him a hospitable reception, but declared
that he should detain the Swedish ship and cargo, "until a reciprocal
restitution shall have been made." Governor Rising declined the
invitation, not deeming it judicious to place himself so effectually
in the power of his impetuous antagonist.
Upon the capture of fort Casimir, Governor Stuyvesant had immediately
sent word of the occurrence to the Amsterdam Directors. In November he
received their reply. It was, in brief, as follows:
"We hardly know whether we are more astonished at the
audacious enterprise of the Swedes in taking our fort on the
South river, or at the cowardly surrender of it by our
commander, which is nearly insufferable. He has acted very
unfaithfully, yea treacherously. We entreat you to exert
every nerve to avenge that injury, not only by restoring
affairs to their former situation, but by driving the Swedes
from every side of the river. We have put in commission two
armed ships, the King Solomon and the Great Christopher. The
drum is beaten daily in the streets of Amsterdam for
volunteers. And orders are given for the instant arrest of
Bikker."
Stuyvesant adopted vigorous measures to cooperate with the little
fleet upon its arrival, in its warfare against New Sweden. The 25th of
August, 1655, was set apart as a day of fasting and prayer,
"to implore the only bountiful God, that it may please him
to bless the projected enterprise, undertaken only for the
greater security, extension and consolidation of this
province, and to render it prosperous and successful to the
glory of his name."
Enlistments were pushed with great energy. Three North river vessels
were chartered, pilots were engaged and provisions and ammunition laid
in store. A French privateer, L'Esperance, which chanced to enter the
harbor of New Amsterdam at this time, was also engaged for the
service.
It seems hardly consistent with the religious character of Stuyvesant
and with his prayers for the divine blessing, that the Lord's day
should have been chosen for the sailing of the expedition. But on the
first Sunday in September, after the morning sermon, the sails of the
little squadron of seven vessels were unfurled and the fleet put to
sea, containing a military force of about seven hundred men. Governor
Stuyvesant in person, commanded the expedition. He was accompanied by
the Vice-Governor, De Lille, and by Domine Megapolensis, as chaplain.
On Friday morning they entered the Delaware river, and with favoring
wind and tide, sailed up beyond fort Casimir, and landed their forces
about a mile above. A flag of truce was promptly sent to the fort,
demanding "the direct restitution of our own property." Some parleying
occupied the time during the day, while Stuyvesant was landing his
batteries. The next morning the Swedish commander, convinced of the
folly of any further attempt at resistance, went on board the Balance
and signed a capitulation. The victor was generous in his terms. The
Swedes were allowed to remove their artillery; twelve men were to
march out with full arms and accoutrements; all the rest retained
their side-arms, and the officers held their personal property.
At noon the Dutch, with pealing bugles and flying banners again
entered upon possession of the fort. Many of the Swedes took the oath
of allegiance to the New Netherland government. The next day was
Sunday. Chaplain Megapolensis preached a sermon to the troops. But a
short distance above fort Casimir there was another Swedish fort
called Christina. It was not denied that the Swedes had a legitimate
title to that land. Indeed after the Company in Holland had sent
directions to Stuyvesant to drive the Swedes from the river, they sent
to him another order modifying these instructions. In this dispatch
they said:
"You may allow the Swedes to hold the land on which fort
Christina is built, with a garden to cultivate the tobacco,
because it appears that they made this purchase with the
previous consent of the Company, provided said Swedes will
conduct themselves as good subjects of our government."
But the Swedish Governor, Rising, having lost fort Casimir,
re-assembled his forces and strengthened his position in Fort
Christina, which was two miles farther up the river. This fort was
about thirty-five miles below the present site of Philadelphia, on a
small stream called Christina creek. The fleet anchored at the mouth
of the Brandywine, and invested the fort on all sides. The Swedes
outside of the fort were ruthlessly pillaged; a battery was erected
and the fort summoned to surrender. Resistance was hopeless. The
articles of capitulation were soon signed between the victor and the
vanquished.
"The Swedes marched out with their arms, colors flying,
matches lighted, drums beating and fifes playing; and the
Dutch took possession of the fort, hauled down the Swedish
flag and hoisted their own."
The Swedes, who to the number of about two hundred had settled in that
vicinity, were allowed to remain in the country, if they wished to do
so, upon condition of taking the oath of allegiance to the Dutch
authorities. Thus the Swedish dominion on the South river was brought
to an end. This was the most powerful military expedition which had
ever moved from any of the colonies. The Swedes had held their
independent position on the Delaware but about seventeen years.
Leaving an agent, as temporary commandant, Stuyvesant returned
triumphantly to fort Amsterdam.
And now for ten years there had been peace with the Indians, when a
gross outrage again roused their savage natures to revenge. The
Indians, ever accustomed to roam the forest, and to gather fruits,
nuts and game wherever they could find them, had not very
discriminating views of the rights of private property. Ensign Van
Dyck, the former treasurer, and one of the most noted men in the
colony, detected an Indian woman in his orchard gathering peaches.
Inhumanly he shot her dead. This roused all the neighboring tribes,
and they united to avenge her death. There was certainly something
chivalrous in this prompt combination of the warriors not to allow,
what they deemed the murder of a sister, to pass unpunished.
Taking advantage of the absence of Governor Stuyvesant, with nearly
all the military force he could raise, on his expedition to the South
river, sixty-four war canoes, containing nineteen hundred armed
Indians, were at midnight on the fifteenth of September, stealthily
paddled into the waters surrounding fort Amsterdam. They were picked
warriors from eight tribes. The night was dark, and the sighing of the
wind through the tree tops and the breaking of the surf upon the beach
added to the deep repose of the sleepers.
The Indians landed and stealthily crept through the silent streets;
and yet, from some unexplained cause, they made no attack. Gradually
the inhabitants were awakened, and there was a rapid assembling of the
principal men within the fort. Several of the chiefs were called
before them. They gave no satisfactory account of the object of their
formidable visit, and uttered no threats. On the contrary they
promised to withdraw before night, to Nutten Island, as Governor's
island was then called. Still, watching their opportunity, one of the
warriors pierced the bosom of Van Dyck with an arrow.
The cry of murder rang through the streets. The inhabitants were
prepared for the not unexpected emergency. The military rushed from
the fort, and a fierce battle ensued. The Indians, leaving three of
their warriors dead in the streets, and having killed five white men
and wounded three others, were driven to their canoes, and crossed
over the North river to the Jersey shore.
And now their savage natures burst forth unrestrained. The flourishing
little villages of Pavonia and Hoboken were instantly in flames. A
general scene of massacre and destruction ensued. Men, women and
children fell alike before the bullet, the arrow and the tomahawk. The
inhabitants of fort Amsterdam in anguish witnessed the massacre, but
could render no assistance. Nearly all their armed men were far away
on the Delaware.
The savages, elated with success, crossed over to Staten island. The
scattered settlements there numbered about ninety souls. There were
eleven farms in a high state of cultivation, and several plantations.
The settlers had received warning of their danger, perhaps by the
flames and musketry of Hoboken and Pavonia, perhaps by some messenger
from fort Amsterdam. Sixty-seven of them succeeded in reaching some
stronghold where they were able to defend themselves. The rest,
twenty-three in number, were cut off by the savages. The buildings of
twenty-eight farms and plantations were laid in ashes and the crops
destroyed.
For three days these merciless Indians had free range, with scarcely
any opposition. During this time one hundred of the Dutch were killed,
one hundred and fifty were taken prisoners, and more than three
hundred were deprived of house, clothes and food. Six hundred cattle
and a vast amount of grain were destroyed. The pecuniary value of the
damage inflicted amounted to over eighty thousand dollars.
Such were the consequences which resulted from the folly and crime of
one man in shooting an Indian woman who was purloining peaches from
his orchard. Terror spread far and wide. The farmers with their
families, fled from all directions to fort Amsterdam for protection.
The feeble settlements on Long island were abandoned in dismay.
Prowling bands of savages wandered over the island of Manhattan,
burning and destroying. No one dared to venture to any distance from
the fort. An express was dispatched to South river to inform Governor
Stuyvesant of the peril of the colony, and to implore his return. This
led to the hurried close of the transactions on the Delaware, and
probably secured for the Swedes more favorable terms of capitulation
than they would otherwise have obtained.
The return of Governor Stuyvesant with his military force, reassured
the colonists. In such an hour his imperious nature hesitated not a
moment in assuming the dictatorship. The one man power, so essential
on the field of battle, seemed requisite in these scenes of peril.
There was no time for deliberation. Prompt and energetic action was
necessary.
The governor sent soldiers to the outer settlements; forbade any
vessel to leave the harbor, forced into the ranks every man capable of
bearing arms, and imposed a heavy tax to meet the expense of
strengthening the fortifications. Several persons, who were about to
sail for Europe, protested against being thus detained. Governor
Stuyvesant fined them each ten dollars for disrespect to the
established authorities, and contemptuously advised them to "possess
their souls in patience."
The savages found their captives an incumbrance. Winter was
approaching and provisions were scarce. They sent one of their
prisoners, an influential man, captain Pos, who had been
superintendent of the colony on Staten island, to propose the ransom
of those captured for a stipulated amount of powder and balls. As
captain Pos did not return as soon as was expected, another messenger
was sent, and soon one of the chiefs returned to Governor Stuyvesant,
fourteen Dutch men, women and children, as a present in token of his
good will, and asking that a _present_ of powder and ball might be
forwarded to him.
The governor sent in return some ammunition and two Indian captives
and promised to furnish more ammunition when other Christians should
be brought in.
Three envoys from New Amsterdam visited the savages bearing these
presents. They were received with the courtesies which civilized
nations accord to a flag of truce. In this way twenty-eight more
captives were ransomed. The promise was given that others should be
soon brought in. Governor Stuyvesant inquired at what price they would
release all the remaining prisoners en masse, or what they would ask
for each individual. They deliberated upon the matter and then replied
that they would deliver up twenty-eight prisoners for seventy-eight
pounds of powder, and forty staves of lead.
The governor immediately sent the amount, and hoping to excite their
generosity, added as a present in token of friendly feeling,
thirty-five pounds of powder and ten staves of lead. But the savages
did not appreciate this kindness. They returned the twenty-eight
prisoners and no more.
The governor of the Swedish colony on the Delaware arrived at New
Amsterdam with a numerous suite, awaiting their transportation to
Europe according to the terms of the capitulation. He was in very ill
humor, and Governor Stuyvesant found it impossible to please him. He
entered bitter complaints against the governor, declaring that the
articles of the late treaty had been grossly violated.
"In Christina," said he,
"the women were violently driven out of their houses. The
oxen, cows and other animals were butchered. Even the horses
were wantonly shot. The whole country was desolated. Your
men carried off even my own property, and we were left
without means of defence against the savages. No proper
accommodations have been provided for me and my suite at New
Amsterdam, and our expenses have not been defrayed."
With much dignity Governor Stuyvesant vindicated himself. "I offered,"
he said,
"to leave fort Christina in your possession, but you refused
it. I am not responsible for any property for which I have
not given a receipt. On account of your high station, I
offered more than once to entertain you in my own house. As
this did not satisfy you, you were induced to reside in one
of the principal houses of the city. There you indulged in
unmannerly threats that you would return and destroy this
place. This so annoyed the people of the house that, for
peace sake, they abandoned their lodgings.
"The rumors of these threats reached the ears of the
captains of the small vessels, and the passengers with whom
you were to embark. They did not deem it safe to take you
and your suite, with such a large number of dependents. They
feared to land you in England or France, unless they should
chance to meet some English or French vessel in the Channel.
We entered into no obligation to defray your expenses or
those of your unusual suite."
Soon after this Governor Rising and his attendants were embarked for
Europe in two vessels. A narrative was, at the same time, sent to the
fatherland of the recent Indian troubles. The defenceless condition of
the country was explained and assistance earnestly implored.
There were still a number of captives held by the Indian tribes who
dwelt among the Highlands. The question was anxiously deliberated, in
the Council, respecting the best mode of recovering them. One only,
Van Tienhoven, was in favor of war. But Governor Stuyvesant said,
"The recent war is to be attributed to the rashness of a few
hot-headed individuals. It becomes us to reform ourselves,
to abstain from all that is wrong, and to protect our
villages with proper defences. Let us build block-houses
wherever they are needed and not permit any armed Indian to
enter the European settlements."
The Long Island Indians sent a delegation to New Amsterdam declaring
that for ten years, since 1645, they had been the friends of the
Dutch, and had done them no harm, "not even to the value of a dog."
They sent, as a present, a bundle of wampum in token of the friendship
of the chiefs of the Eastern tribes. But the up-river Indians
continued sullen. With their customary cunning or sagacity they
retained quite a number of captives, holding them as pledges to secure
themselves from the vengeance of the Dutch. There was no hope of
liberating them by war, since the Indians would never deliver up a
white captive in exchange for prisoners of their own tribes. And upon
the first outbreak of war the unfortunate Dutch prisoners would be
conveyed to inaccessible depths of the forests.
The Dutch settlers had scattered widely, on farms and plantations.
Thus they were peculiarly exposed to attacks from the Indians, and
could render each other but little assistance. As a remedy for this
evil, Governor Stuyvesant issued a proclamation ordering all who lived
in secluded places in the country to assemble and unite themselves in
villages before the ensuing spring, "after the fashion," as he said,
"of our New England neighbors."
In Sweden, before the tidings of the fall of fort Casimir had reached
that country, an expedition had been fitted out for the South river,
conveying one hundred and thirty emigrants. Stuyvesant, on learning of
their arrival, forbade them to land. He dispatched a vessel and a land
force, to capture the Swedish ship the Mercury, and bring it with all
the passengers to fort Amsterdam. Having disposed of her cargo, the
vessel and all the Swedish soldiers it bore, were sent back to Europe.
In obedience to orders from home, Stuyvesant erected a fort at Oyster
Bay, on the north side of Long island. In the instructions he received
he was enjoined, "to maintain, by force, if necessary, the integrity
of the Dutch province, the boundaries of which have just been formally
confirmed by the States-General."
The Directors added,
"We do not hesitate to approve of your expedition on the
South river, and its happy termination. We should not have
been displeased, however, if such a formal capitulation for
the surrender of the forts had not taken place, but that the
whole business had been transacted in a manner similar to
that of which the Swedes set us an example when they made
themselves masters of fort Casimir."
CHAPTER IX.
AN ENERGETIC ADMINISTRATION.
New Amsterdam in 1656.--Religious Intolerance.--Persecution
of the Waldenses.--The New Colony on South river.--Wreck of
the Prince Maurice.--The Friendly Indians.--Energetic Action
of the Governor.--Persecution of the Quakers.--Remonstrance
from Flushing.--The Desolation of Staten Island.--Purchase
of Bergen.--Affairs at Esopus.--The Indian
Council.--Generosity of the Indians.--New
Amstel.--Encroachments of the English.
War would doubtless have arisen, between Sweden and Holland, in view
of transactions on South river, had not all the energies of Sweden
been then called into requisition in a war with Poland. The Swedish
government contented itself with presenting a vigorous memorial to the
States-General, which for eight years was renewed without
accomplishing any redress.
The vice-governor resided at fort Orange, in a two story house, the
upper floor of which was used as a court-room. This station was the
principal mart for the fur trade, which had now become so considerable
that upwards of thirty-five thousand beaver skins were exported during
the year 1656.
A survey of the city of New Amsterdam was made this year, which showed
that there were one hundred and twenty houses, and a population of one
thousand souls. A man like Stuyvesant, the warm advocate of arbitrary
power, would almost of necessity, be religiously intolerant. Zealously
devoted to the Reformed church, and resolved to have unity in
religion, notwithstanding the noble toleration which existed in
Holland, he issued a proclamation forbidding any one from holding a
religious meeting not in harmony with the Reformed church.
Any preacher, who should violate this ordinance was to be subjected to
a penalty of one hundred pounds. Any one who should attend such a
meeting was to be punished by a penalty of twenty-five pounds.
This law was rigorously enforced. Recusants were fined and imprisoned.
Complaints were sent to Holland, and the governor was severely rebuked
for his bigotry.
"We would fain," the Directors wrote to Stuyvesant,
"not have seen your worship's hand set to the placard
against the Lutherans, nor have heard that you oppressed
them with the imprisonments of which they have complained to
us. It has always been our intention to let them enjoy all
calmness and tranquillity. Wherefore you will not hereafter
publish any similar placards, without our previous consent,
but allow all the free exercise of their religion within
their own houses."
But Stuyvesant was a man born to govern, not be governed. He was
silent respecting the instructions he had received from home. When the
Lutherans informed him that the Directors of the Company had ordered
that the same toleration should exist in New Netherland which was
practiced in the fatherland, he firmly replied that he must wait for
further explanations, and that in the mean time his ordinance against
public conventicles must be executed.
At Flushing a cobbler from Rhode Island, a baptist, William Wickendam
by name, ventured to preach, "and even went with the people into the
river and dipped them." He was fined one thousand pounds and ordered
to be banished. As he was a poor man the debt was remitted, but he was
obliged to leave the province.
It will be remembered that thus far nearly all the operations of the
Dutch, in the New World, had been performed under the authority of
Dutch merchants, called "The West India Company." Their chartered
powers were very great. Only in a subordinate degree were they subject
to the control of the States-General.
At this time there was a very cruel persecution commenced by the Duke
of Savoy against the Waldenses. Hundreds of them fled to the city of
Amsterdam, in Holland, which was then the refuge for the persecuted of
all nations. They were received with the most noble hospitality. The
city government not only gave them an asylum, but voted large sums
from its treasury, for their support.
Carrying out this policy, the city decided to establish a colony of
its own in New Netherland, to be composed mainly of these Waldenses.
The municipal authorities purchased of the West India Company, for
seven hundred guilders, all the land on the west side of South river,
from Christina kill to Bombay Hook. This gave a river front of about
forty miles, running back indefinitely into the interior. This region
was named New Amstel. The colonists were offered a free passage, ample
farms on the river, and provisions and clothing for one year. The city
also agreed to send out "a proper person for a schoolmaster, who shall
also read the holy Scriptures in public and set the Psalms." A church
was to be organized so soon as there were two hundred inhabitants in
the colony.
[Illustration]
The Company wrote to Stuyvesant saying,
"The confidence we feel about the success and increase of
this new colony of which we hope to see some prominent
features next spring, when to all appearance, large numbers
of the exiled Waldenses will flock thither, as to an asylum,
induces us to send you orders to endeavor to purchase of the
Indians, before it can be accomplished by any other nation,
all that tract of land situated between the South river and
the Hook of the North river, to provide establishments for
these emigrants."
On Christmas day of 1656, three vessels containing one hundred and
sixty emigrants, sailed from the Texel. A wintry storm soon separated
them. The principal ship, the Prince Maurice, which had the largest
number of passengers, after a long voyage, was wrecked on the South
coast of Long island, near Fire island inlet, in the neighborhood of
the present town of Islip. It was midnight when the ship struck. As
soon as it was light the passengers and crew succeeded in reaching the
shore in their boats through the breakers and through vast masses of
floating ice.
They found upon the shore a bleak, barren, treeless waste, "without
weeds, grass or timber of any sort to make a fire." It was bitter
cold. A fierce wind swept the ocean and the land, and the sea ran so
high that it was expected every moment the ship would go to pieces.
These poor emigrants thus suddenly huddled upon the icy land, without
food and without shelter, were in imminent peril of perishing from
cold and starvation.
Their sufferings were so terrible that they were rejoiced to see some
Indians approaching over the wide plains, though they knew not whether
the savages would prove hostile or friendly. But the Indians came like
brothers, aided them in every way, and dispatched two swift runners
across the island to inform Governor Stuyvesant of the calamity. Some
sails were brought on shore, with which a temporary shelter from the
piercing blast was constructed, and enough food was secured to save
from absolute starvation.
The energetic governor immediately dispatched nine or ten lighters to
their assistance, and with needful supplies proceeded in person to the
scene of the disaster. Thus nearly all the cargo was saved and the
passengers were transported to New Amsterdam. There were one hundred
and twenty-five passengers on board the Prince Maurice, seventy-six of
whom were women and children. Another ship, the Gilded Beaver, was
chartered at New Amsterdam which conveyed them all safely, after a
five days' passage, to South river. The other vessels, with soldiers
and a few settlers, also soon arrived.
It is said that at this time the "public," exercises of religion were
not allowed to any sects in Holland except the Calvinists. But all
others were permitted to engage freely in their worship in private
houses, which were in fact, as if public, these places of preaching
being spacious and of sufficient size for any assembly. Under this
construction of the law every religion was in fact tolerated.[9]
The Lutherans in Holland sent a clergyman, Ernestus Goetwater, to New
Amsterdam, to organize a church. The Directors wrote,
"It is our intention to permit every one to have freedom
within his own dwelling, to serve God in such manner as his
religion requires, but without authorizing any public
meetings or conventicles."
This tolerance, so imperfect in the light of the nineteenth century,
was very noble in the dark days of the seventeenth. Upon the arrival
of Goetwater at New Amsterdam, the clergy of the Reformed church
remonstrated against his being permitted to preach. The governor,
adhering to his policy of bigotry, forbade him to hold any meeting, or
to do any clerical service, but to regulate his conduct according to
the placards of the province against private conventicles. Soon after
this the governor ordered him to leave the colony and to return to
Holland. This harsh decree was however suspended out of regard to the
feeble health of Goetwater.
On the 6th of August, 1657, a ship arrived at New Amsterdam with
several Quakers on board Two of them, women, began to preach publicly
in the streets. They were arrested and imprisoned. Soon after they
were discharged and embarked on board a ship to sail through Hell
Gate, to Rhode Island, "where," writes Domine Megapolensis, "all kinds
of scum dwell, for it is nothing else than a sink for New England."
One of the Quakers, Robert Hodgson, went over to Long Island. At
Hempstead he was arrested and committed to prison, and was thence
transferred to one of the dungeons of fort Amsterdam. He was brought
before the Council, convicted of the crime of preaching contrary to
the law, and was sentenced to pay a fine of six hundred guilders,
about two hundred and forty dollars, or to labor two years at a
wheelbarrow, with a negro.
After a few days' imprisonment he was chained to the wheelbarrow and
commanded to work. He refused. A negro was ordered to beat him with a
tarred rope, which he did until the sufferer fell, in utter
exhaustion, almost senseless to the ground. The story of the
persecutions which this unhappy man endured, is almost too dreadful to
be told. But it ought to be told as a warning against all religious
intolerance.
"Not satisfied," writes O'Callaghan,
"his persecutors had him lifted up. The negro again beat him
until he fell a second time, after receiving, as was
estimated, one hundred blows. Notwithstanding all this, he
was kept, in the heat of the sun, chained to the
wheelbarrow, his body bruised and swollen, faint from want
of food, until at length he could no longer support himself
and he was obliged to sit down.
"The night found him again in his cell, and the morrow at
the wheelbarrow, with a sentinel over him, to prevent all
conversation. On the third day he was again led forth,
chained as before. He still refused to work, for he 'had
committed no evil.' He was then led anew before the
director-general, who ordered him to work, otherwise he
should be whipt every day. He was again chained to the
barrow and threatened, if he should speak to any person,
with more severe punishment. But not being able to keep him
silent, he was taken back to his dungeon, where he was kept
several days, 'two nights and one day and a half of which
without bread or water.'
"The rage of persecution was still unsatiated. He was now
removed to a private room, stripped to his waist, and then
hung up to the ceiling by his hands, with a heavy log of
wood tied to his feet, so that he could not turn his body. A
strong negro then commenced lashing him with rods until his
flesh was cut in pieces. Now let down, he was thrown again
into his loathsome dungeon, where he was kept ten days, in
solitary confinement, after which he was brought forth to
undergo a repetition of the same barbarous torture. He was
now kept like a slave to hard work."
His case eventually excited so much compassion that Stuyvesant's
sister interfered, and implored her brother so importunately that he
was at last induced to liberate the unfortunate man. Let a firm Quaker
resolve that he will not do something, and let a Governor Stuyvesant
resolve that he shall do it, and it is indeed "Greek meeting Greek."
Henry Townsend, of Jamaica, ventured to hold prayer-meetings in his
house, in defiance of the ordinance against conventicles. The governor
sentenced him to pay a fine of eight pounds and to leave the province
within six weeks, under pain of corporeal punishment. This sentence
was followed by a proclamation, fining any one fifty pounds who should
entertain a Quaker for a single night, and confiscating any vessels
which should bring a Quaker to the province.
The inhabitants of Flushing, where Townsend had formerly resided, and
where he was very highly respected, issued a noble remonstrance to
Governor Stuyvesant against this persecution of their former townsman.
The remonstrance was drawn up by the town clerk, Edward Hart, and was
signed by all the adult male inhabitants, twenty-nine in number. The
memorial said:
"We are commanded by the law of God to do good unto all men.
The law of love, peace and liberty, extending in the state
to Jews, Turks and Egyptians, forms the glory of Holland. So
love, peace and liberty extending to all in Christ Jesus,
condemn hatred, war and bondage. We desire not to offend one
of Christ's little ones under whatever form, name or title
he may appear, whether Presbyterian, Independent, Baptist or
Quaker. On the contrary we desire to do to all as we could
wish all to do to us. Should any of those people come in
love among us, we cannot lay violent hands upon them. We
must give them free ingress and egress into our houses."
This remonstrance was carried to New Amsterdam by Tobias Feake, and
presented to the governor. His indignation was roused. Feake was
arrested and committed to prison. The sheriff was sent to Flushing to
bring Hart and two of the magistrates, Farrington and Noble, to the
presence of the enraged governor. It was a fearful thing to fall into
his hands when his wrath was inflamed. They were imprisoned for some
time, and were then released upon their humbly imploring the pardon of
the governor, expressing their deep regret that they had signed the
remonstrance and promising that they would sin in that way, no more.
The town itself was punished by the prohibition in future of all town
meetings, without the permission of the governor. Indeed the mass of
the settlers were no longer to decide upon their local affairs, but a
committee of seven persons was to decide all such questions. All who
were dissatisfied with these arrangements were ordered to sell their
property and leave the town.
It is not necessary to continue the record of this disgraceful
persecution. The governor was unrelenting. Whoever ventured to oppose
his will felt the weight of his chastising hand.
New Amsterdam consisted of wooden houses clustered together. The
danger from fire was very great. The governor imposed a tax of a
beaver skin, or its equivalent upon each householder to pay for two
hundred and fifty leather fire buckets and hooks and ladders, to be
procured in Holland. He also established a "rattle watch" to traverse
the streets from nine o'clock in the evening until morning drum-beat.
Stuyvesant would allow nothing to be done which he did not control.
The education of the young was greatly neglected. Jacob Corlaer opened
a school. The governor peremptorily closed it, because he had presumed
to take the office without governmental permission. To establish a
place of amusement the governor formed a village called Haarlem, at
the northern extremity of Manhattan island. He also constructed a good
road over the island, through the forest, "so that it may be made easy
to come hither, and return to that village on horseback or in a
wagon." A ferry was also established to Long Island.
Staten Island was a dreary waste. It had not recovered from the
massacre of 1655. Efforts were made to encourage the former settlers
to return to their desolated homes, and to encourage fresh colonists
to take up their residence upon the island. To promote the settlement
of the west side of the North river, Stuyvesant purchased from the
Indians, all the territory now known as Bergen, in New Jersey.
This purchase comprised the extensive region,
"beginning from the great rock above Wiehackan, and from
there right through the land, until above the island
Sikakes, and from there to the Kill van Col, and so along to
the Constables Hook, and thence again to the rock above
Wiehackan."
The settlement at Esopus, was in many respects in a flourishing
condition. But it was so much more convenient for the farmers to have
their dwellings in the midst of the fields they cultivated, instead of
clustering them together in a compact village, that they persisted in
the dangerous practice, notwithstanding all the warnings of the
governor. There were individuals also who could not be restrained from
paying brandy to the savages for their peltries The intoxicated
Indians often committed outrages. One of the settlers was killed. The
house and outbuildings of another were burned. The Dutch retaliated by
destroying the cornfields of the Indians, hoping thus to drive them to
a distance. At this time, in May, 1658, there were about seventy
colonists at Esopus. They had widely extended fields of grain. But the
Indians were becoming daily more inimical, and the alarmed colonists
wrote to Govern or Stuyvesant, saying,
"We pray you to send forty or fifty soldiers to save Esopus, which, if
well settled, might supply the whole of New Netherland with
provisions."
The governor ordered a redoubt to be built at Esopus, sent an
additional supply of ammunition, and taking fifty soldiers with him,
went up the river to ascertain, by a personal investigation, the wants
of the people. He urged them strenuously to unite in a village, which
could be easily palisaded, and which would thus afford them complete
protection. The colonists objected that it would be very difficult to
remove from their farms, while their crops were ungathered, and that
it would be impossible to select a site for the village which would
please all. The governor refused to leave the soldiers with them
unless they would immediately decide to concentrate in a village. In
that case he would remain and aid them in constructing the palisade
till it should be completed.
In the mean time messengers were sent to all the neighboring chiefs
inviting them to come to Esopus to meet "the grand sachem from
Manhattan." Sixty of these plumed warriors were soon assembled, with a
few women and children. The governor, with two followers and an
interpreter, met them beneath the widespread branches of an aged tree.
One of the chiefs opened the interview by a long speech, in which he
recounted all the injuries which he conceived that the Indians had
experienced from the foreigners. The governor listened patiently. He
then replied,
"These events occurred, as you well know, before my time. I
am not responsible for them. Has any injury been done you
since I came into the country? Your chiefs have asked us,
over and over again, to make a settlement among them. We
have not had a foot of your land without paying for it. We
do not desire to have any more without making you full
compensation. Why then have you committed this murder,
burned our houses and killed our cattle? And why do you
continue to threaten our people?"
There was a long pause, as though the chiefs were meditating upon the
answer which should be made. Then one of them rose and, with great
deliberation and dignity of manner, said, "You Swannekins," for that
was the name they gave the Dutchmen,
"have sold our children drink. We cannot then control them,
or prevent them from fighting. This murder has not been
committed by any of our tribe, but by a Minnisinck, who now
skulks among the Haverstraws. 'Twas he who fired the two
houses and then fled. We have no malice. We do not wish to
fight. But we cannot control our young men after you have
sold them drink."
The best of the argument thus far, was manifestly with the Indians.
The irascible governor lost his temper. "If any of your young
savages," said he, "want to fight, let them come on. I will place man
against man. Nay, I will place twenty against forty of your hotheads.
It is not manly to threaten farmers and women and children who are not
warriors. If this be not stopped I shall be compelled to retaliate on
old and young, women and children. I expect of you that you will
repair all damages and seize the murderer if he come among you.
"The Dutch are now to live together in one spot. It is
desirable that you should sell us the whole of the Esopus
land and move farther into the interior. It is not well for
you to reside so near the Swannekins. Their cattle may eat
your corn and thus cause fresh disturbance."
The Council was closed with professions of friendship on both sides.
The Indians promised to take the suggestions of the governor into
careful consideration. The settlers also decided to adopt the counsel
of the governor. They agreed unanimously to form themselves into a
village, leaving it with Governor Stuyvesant to select the site. He
chose a spot at the bend of the creek, where three bides would be
surrounded by water. Two hundred and ten yards of palisades formed the
sufficient enclosure.
All hands now went to work energetically. While thus employed a band
of Indian warriors, in their most showy attire, was seen approaching.
It was feared that they were on the war path, and the soldiers
immediately stood to their arms. It is undeniable that the Indians
seemed ever disposed to cherish kindly feelings when justly treated.
These kind hearted savages fifty in number, notwithstanding all the
wrongs which they had endured, came forward and one of them,
addressing the governor, said,
"In token of our good will, and that we have laid aside all
malice, we request the Grand Sachem to accept as a free
present, the land on which he has commenced his settlement.
We give it to grease his feet, as he has undertaken so long
and painful a journey to visit us."
The labor of three weeks completed the defences. The buildings were
reared within the enclosure. A strong guard-house, sixteen feet by
twenty-three, was built in the northeast corner of the village. A
bridge was thrown across the creek, and temporary quarters were
erected for the soldiers. The energetic governor having accomplished
all this in a month, left twenty-four soldiers behind him to guard the
village, and returned to Manhattan.
In 1658, the little settlement of New Amstel presented quite a
flourishing appearance. It had become a goodly town of about one
hundred houses, containing about five hundred inhabitants. As many of
these were Waldenses, Swedes and emigrants from other nationalities,
they seemed to think themselves independent of the provincial
authorities at New Amsterdam. The governor therefore visited the place
in person, and called upon all to take the oath of allegiance.
There was great jealousy felt by the governor in reference to the
encroachments of the English. They were pressing their claims
everywhere. They were establishing small settlements upon territory
undeniably belonging to the Dutch. English emigrants were crowding the
Dutch colonies and were daily gaining in influence. Though they
readily took the oath of allegiance to the Dutch authorities, all
their sympathies were with England and the English colonies.
The Directors of the Company wrote to Stuyvesant recommending him
"to disentangle himself in the best manner possible from the
Englishmen whom he had allowed to settle at New Amstel. And
at all events not to admit any English besides them in that
vicinity, much less to allure them by any means whatever."
There were many indications that the English were contemplating
pressing up from Virginia to the beautiful region of the Delaware. The
Directors urged Stuyvesant to purchase immediately from the Indians
the tract of land between Cape Henlopen and Bombay Hook. This
contained a frontage on Delaware bay of about seventy miles.
"You will perceive," they wrote,
"that speed is required, if for nothing else, that we may
prevent other nations, and principally our English
neighbors, as we really apprehend that this identical spot
has attracted their notice. When we reflect upon the
insufferable proceedings of that nation not only by
intruding themselves upon our possessions about the North,
to which our title is indisputable, and when we consider the
bold arrogance and faithlessness of those who are residing
within our jurisdiction, we cannot expect any good from that
quarter."
In the autumn of this year a very momentous event occurred. Though it
was but the death of a single individual, that individual was Oliver
Cromwell. Under his powerful sway England had risen to a position of
dignity and power such as the nation had never before attained. A
terrible storm swept earth and sky during the night in which his
tempestuous earthly life came to a close. The roar of the hurricane
appalled all minds, as amid floods of rain trees were torn up by the
roots, and houses were unroofed. The friends of the renowned Protector
said that nature was weeping and mourning in her loudest accents over
the great loss humanity was experiencing in the death of its most
illustrious benefactor. The enemies of Cromwell affirmed that the
Prince of the Power of the Air had come with all his shrieking demons,
to seize the soul of the dying and bear it to its merited doom.
Scarce six months passed away ere the reins of government fell from
the feeble hands of Richard, the eldest son and heir of Oliver
Cromwell, and Monk marched across the Tweed and paved the way for the
restoration of Charles the Second.
To add to the alarm of the Dutch, Massachusetts, taking the ground
that the boundary established by the treaty of Hartford, extended only
"so far as New Haven had jurisdiction," claimed by virtue of royal
grant all of the land north of the forty-second degree of latitude to
the Merrimac river, and extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific
ocean. The forty-second parallel of latitude crossed the Hudson near
Red Hook and Saugerties. This boundary line transferred the whole of
the upper Hudson and at least four-fifths of the State of New York to
Massachusetts.
In accordance with this claim, Massachusetts granted a large section
of land on the east side of the Hudson river, opposite the present
site of Albany, to a number of her principal merchants to open
energetically a trade with the Indians for their furs. An exploring
party was also sent from Hartford to sail up the North river and
examine its shores in reference to future settlements. The English
could not enter the Hudson and pass fort Amsterdam with their vessels
without permission of the Dutch. This permission Stuyvesant
persistently refused.
"The Dutch," said the inflexible governor,
"never have forbidden the natives to trade with other
nations. They prohibit such trade only on their own streams
and purchased lands. They cannot grant Massachusetts or any
other government any title to such privilege or a free
passage through their rivers, without the surrender of their
honor, reputation, property and blood, their bodies and
lives."
CHAPTER X.
THE ESOPUS WAR.
Outrage at Esopus.--New Indian War.--Its
Desolations.--Sufferings of both Parties.--Wonderful
Energies of the Governor.--Difficulties of his
Situation.--The Truce.--Renewal of the War.--The
Mohawks.--The Controversy with Massachusetts.--Indian
Efforts for Peace.--The Final Settlement.--Claims of the
English upon the Delaware.--Renewed Persecution of the
Quakers.
The exploring party from Massachusetts, which had ascended the North
river, found a region around the Wappinger Kill, a few miles below the
present site of Poughkeepsie, which they pronounced to be more
beautiful than any spot which they had seen in New England. Here they
decided to establish their settlement. Stuyvesant, informed of this,
resolved to anticipate them. He wrote immediately to Holland urging
the Company to send out at once as many Polish, Lithuanian, Prussian,
Dutch and Flemish peasants as possible, "to form a colony there."
It would seem that no experience, however dreadful, could dissuade
individuals of the Dutch Colonists from supplying the natives with
brandy. At Esopus, in August, 1659, a man by the name of Thomas
Chambers employed eight Indians to assist him in husking corn. At the
end of their day's work he insanely supplied them with brandy. This
led to a midnight carouse in which the poor savages, bereft of reason,
howled and shrieked and fired their muskets, though without getting
into any quarrel among themselves.
The uproar alarmed the garrison in the blockhouse. The sergeant of the
guard was sent out, with a few soldiers, to ascertain the cause of the
disorder. He returned with the report that it was only the revelry of
a band of drunken savages.
One of the soldiers in the fort, Jansen Stot, called upon some of his
comrades to follow him. Ensign Smith, who was in command, forbade them
to go. In defiance of his orders they left the fort, and creeping
through the underbrush, wantonly took deliberate aim, discharged a
volley of bullets upon the inebriated savages, who were harming nobody
but themselves. One was killed outright. Others were severely wounded.
The soldiers, having performed this insane act, retreated, with the
utmost speed to the fort. There never has been any denial that such
were the facts in the case. They help to corroborate the remark of Mr.
Moulton that "the cruelty of the Indians towards the whites will, when
traced, be discovered, in almost every case, to have been provoked by
oppression or aggression."
Ensign Smith, finding that he could no longer control his soldiers,
indignantly resolved to return down the river to New Amsterdam. The
inhabitants of Esopus were greatly alarmed. It was well known that the
savages would not allow such an outrage to pass unavenged. The
withdrawal of the soldiers would leave them at the mercy of those so
justly exasperated. To prevent this the people hired every boat in the
neighborhood. Ensign Smith then decided to send an express by land, to
inform Governor Stuyvesant of the alarming state of affairs and to
solicit his immediate presence.
A party of soldiers was sent to escort the express a few miles down
the river banks. As these soldiers were returning, they fell into an
ambuscade of the Indians, and thirteen of them were taken prisoners.
War, horrible war, was now declared. The war-whoop resounded around
the stockade at Esopus from five hundred savage throats. Every house,
barn and corn-stack within their reach was burned. Cattle and horses
were killed. The fort was so closely invested day and night that not a
colonist could step outside of the stockade. The Indians, foiled in
all their attempts to set fire to the fortress, and burnt ten of their
prisoners at the stake. For three weeks this fierce warfare continued
without interruption.
When the tidings of this new war, caused by so dastardly an outrage,
reached Manhattan, it created a terrible panic. It could not be
doubted that all the Indians would sympathize with their outraged
brethren. The farmers, apprehending immediate attack, fled from all
directions, with their families, to the fort, abandoning their homes,
grain and cattle. Even many villages on Long Island were utterly
deserted.
The administrative energies of Governor Stuyvesant were remarkably
developed on this occasion. In the following terms, Mr. O'Callaghan,
in his admirable history of New Netherland, describes the difficulties
he encountered and his mode of surmounting them:
"Governor Stuyvesant, though laboring under severe
indisposition, visited in person all the adjoining villages,
encouraging the well-disposed, stimulating the timid and
urging the farmers everywhere to fortify and defend their
villages. He summoned next the burgomasters, schepens,[10]
and officers of the militia of New Amsterdam, and laid
before them the distressing situation of Esopus. They
proposed to enlist by beat of drum, a sufficient number of
men, and to encourage volunteers by resolving that whatever
savages might be captured should be declared 'good prizes.'
"Stuyvesant, however, was opposed to this mode of
proceeding. It would cause, in his opinion, too great a
delay, as those at Esopus were already besieged some nine or
ten days. He was left, notwithstanding, in a minority. Two
more days were thus irretrievably lost; for at the end of
that time only six or eight had enlisted, 'such a terrible
horror had overpowered the citizens.'
"Captain Newton and Lieutenant Stillwell were now dispatched
to all the English and Dutch villages, and letters were
addressed to fort Orange and Rensselaerswyck, ordering out
the Company's servants, calling for volunteers and
authorizing the raising of a troop of mounted rangers. The
half-dozen servants in fort Amsterdam, every person
belonging to the artillery, all the clerks in the public
offices, four of the Director-General's servants, three of
the hands belonging to his brewery and five or six new
comers, were put under requisition."
"Nothing could overcome the reluctance of the burghers. The
one disheartened the other; the more violent maintaining
that they were obliged to defend only their own homes, and
that no citizen could be forced to jeopardize his life in
fighting barbarous savages.
"Discouraged and almost deprived of hope by this opposition,
the Director-General again summoned the city magistrates. He
informed them that he had now some forty men, and that he
expected between twenty and thirty Englishmen from the
adjoining villages. He therefore ordered that the three
companies of the city militia be paraded next day in his
presence, armed and equipped, in order that one last effort
might be made to obtain volunteers. If he should then fail
of success, he announced his intention to make a draft.
"The companies paraded before the fort on the following
morning according to orders. Stuyvesant addressed them in
most exciting terms. He appealed to their sense both of
honor and of duty, and represented to them how ardently they
would look for aid, if they unfortunately were placed in a
situation similar to that in which their brethren of Esopus
now found themselves. He concluded his harangue by calling
upon all such as would accompany him either for pay or as
volunteers, to step forward to the rescue.
"Few came forward, only twenty-four or twenty-five persons.
This number being considered insufficient, lots were
immediately ordered to be drawn by one of the companies and
those on whom they fell were warned to be ready on the next
Sunday, on pain of paying fifty guilders. 'However,' said
the governor, 'if any person is weak-hearted or discouraged
he may procure a substitute provided he declares himself
instantaneously.'"
In this way the governor raised a force of one hundred and eighty men.
Of this number one hundred were drafted men, sixty-five volunteers,
twenty-five of whom were Englishmen, and there were also twenty
friendly Indians from Long Island.
With this force the governor embarked on Sunday evening, October 10th,
after the second sermon, for the rescue of Esopus. Upon his arrival at
that place he found that the savages, unable to penetrate the fort,
had raised the siege and retired beyond the possibility of pursuit.
They had doubtless watched the river with their scouts, who informed
them of the approach of the troops. The governor, leaving a sufficient
force to protect the village, returned with the remainder of the
expedition to Manhattan.
During the siege the loss of the Dutch was one man killed and five or
six wounded. The Indians also succeeded, by means of burning arrows,
in firing one dwelling house and several stacks of corn within the
palisades. As the troops were re-embarking the governor witnessed an
occurrence which he declares "he blushes to mention." As all the
troops could not go on board at once, a portion waited until the first
division had embarked. Some of the sentinels hearing a dog bark, fired
one or two shots. This created a terrible panic. The citizens, whose
ears had been pierced by the shrieks of their countrymen, whom the
Indians had tortured at the stake, were so terror-stricken that they
lost all self-possession. "Many of them threw themselves into the
water before they had seen an enemy."
The most friendly relations existed between the Mohawks and the
settlers in the vicinity of Albany. A very extensive trade, equally
lucrative to both parties, was there in operation. The Indians, being
treated justly, were as harmless as lambs. When they heard of the
troubles at Esopus they declared that they would take no part in the
war. They could not but feel that the Indians had been deeply
outraged. But with unexpected intelligence they decided that they
would not retaliate by wreaking vengeance upon their long-tried
friends. To confirm their friendly alliance, the authorities at fort
Orange sent an embassy of twenty-five of their principal inhabitants
to the Indian settlement at Caughnawaga. This was about forty miles
west of Albany on the north bank of the Mohawk river and near the site
of the present shire town of Montgomery county.
A large number of chiefs, from all the neighboring villages, attended.
The council fire was lighted, and the calumet of peace was smoked. One
of the Dutch delegation thus addressed the assembly!
"Brothers, sixteen years have now passed away, since
friendship and fraternity were first established between you
and the Hollanders. Since then we have been bound to each
other by an iron chain. That chain has never been broken by
us or by you. We hope that the Mohawks will remain our
brothers for all time.
"Our chiefs are very angry that the Dutch will sell brandy
to your people. They have always forbidden them to do so.
Forbid your people also. Eighteen days ago you asked us not
to sell any brandy to your people. Brothers, if your people
do not come to buy brandy of us, we shall not sell any to
them. Two days ago twenty or thirty kegs came to us, all to
be filled with brandy. Are you willing that we should take
from your people their brandy and their kegs. If so, say
this before all here present."
With this speech there was presented to the chiefs several bundles of
wampum, seventy pounds of powder, a hundred pounds of lead, fifteen
axes two beavers worth of knives. The chiefs were highly pleased with
the presents and eagerly gave their consent that the Dutch should
seize the liquor kegs of the Indians.
The authorities at fort Orange, having secured the friendship of the
Mohawks, endeavored to obtain an armistice with the Indians at Esopus,
and a release of the captives they had taken. Several Mohawk and
Mohegan chiefs, as mediators, visited Esopus, on this mission of
mercy. They were partially successful. An armistice was reluctantly
assented to, and two captives were liberated. The Indians, however,
still retained a number of children, they having killed all the
adults. Those who had agreed to the armistice were not the principal
chiefs, and the spirit of the war remained unbroken.
Under these circumstances Stuyvesant wrote to Holland for aid. In his
letter he said,
"If a farmer cannot plough, sow or reap, in a newly settled
country, without being harassed; if the citizens and
merchants cannot freely navigate the streams and rivers,
they will doubtless leave the country and seek a residence
in some place where they can find a government to protect
them.'"
The Directors wrote back urging him to employ the Mohawks and other
friendly tribes against the Esopus Indians. The governor replied,
"The Mohawks are, above all other savages, a vain-glorious,
proud and bold tribe. If their aid be demanded and obtained,
and success follow, they will only become the more inflated,
and we the more contemptible in the eyes of the other
tribes. If we did not then reward their services, in a
manner satisfactory to their greedy appetites, they would
incessantly revile us, and were this retorted, it might lead
to collision. It is therefore safer to stand on our own feet
as long as possible."
The governor had a long controversy with the Massachusetts authorities
in reference to its claim to the upper valley of the Hudson. In this
he expressed very strongly the title of Holland to the North river.
"Printed histories," he writes,
"archives, journals, and registers prove that the North
river of New Netherland was discovered in the year 1609, by
Hendrick Hudson, captain of the Half Moon, in the service
and at the expense of the Dutch East India Company. Upon the
report of the captain several merchants of Amsterdam sent
another ship, in the following year, up the said river.
These merchants obtained from the States-General a charter
to navigate the same. For their security they erected in
1614, a fort on Castle Island, near fort Orange New
Netherland, including the North river, was afterwards
offered to the West India Company, who, in the year 1624,
two years before Charles I. ascended the throne of England,
actually and effectually possessed and fortified the country
and planted colonies therein. The assertion that the Hudson
river is within the Massachusetts patent granted but
thirty-two years ago, therefore, scarcely deserves a serious
answer."
Notwithstanding the undeniable strength of his argument, Governor
Stuyvesant felt very uneasy. To his friends he said,
"The power of New England overbalances ours tenfold. To protest
against their usurpations would be folly. They would only laugh at
us."
As hostilities still continued with the Esopus Indians, Governor
Stuyvesant again visited that post, hoping to obtain an interview with
the chiefs, and to arrange a peace. Ensign Smith, with a very strong
party of forty men, had utterly routed and put to flight two bands of
Indians, one containing fifty warriors, the other one hundred. He took
twelve warriors prisoners. They were sent to fort Amsterdam. In the
mean time Stuyvesant had succeeded in renewing a treaty of alliance
with the Indian tribes on Long Island, Staten Island, and at
Hackensack, Haverstraw and Weckquaesgeek. The Long Island Indians
consented to send some of their children to fort Amsterdam to be
educated.
The Esopus Indians were now left in a very deplorable condition. Their
brethren, on the upper Hudson, had refused to co-operate with them.
Their routed bands were being driven across the mountains and many of
their warriors were captives. To use the contemptuous language of the
times, "they did nothing now but bawl for peace, peace."
There had never been a more favorable opportunity to secure a lasting
peace, and to win back the affections of the Indians. By universal
admission the colonists were outrageously in the wrong in provoking
the conflict. They had given the Indians brandy until they had become
intoxicated. And then half a dozen drunken soldiers had discharged a
volley of bullets upon them as they were revelling in noisy but
harmless orgies.
Had the governor frankly acknowledged that the colonists were in the
wrong; had he made full amends, according to the Indian custom, for
the great injury inflicted upon them, they would have been more than
satisfied. Even more friendly relations than had ever before existed
might have been established.
But instead of this the governor assumed that the Indians were
entirely in the wrong; that they had wantonly commenced a series of
murders and burnings without any provocation. The Esopus chiefs were
afraid to meet the angry governor with proposals for peace. They
therefore employed three Mohegan chiefs as their mediators. They
offered to cease all hostilities, to abandon the Esopus country
entirely, and surrender it to the Dutch if the Indian captives, whom
the Dutch held, might be restored to them. These very honorable
proposals were rejected. The Mohegan chiefs were told that the
governor could not enter into any treaty of peace with the Esopus
Indians unless their own chiefs came to fort Amsterdam to hold a
council. And immediately the Indian captives received the awful doom
of consignment to life-long slavery with the negroes, upon a tropical
island, which was but a glowing sandbank in the Caribbean sea.
"On the next day," writes Mr. O'Callaghan,
"an order was issued, banishing the Esopus savages, some
fifteen or twenty, to the insalubrious climate of Curaçoa,
to be employed there or at Buenaire with the negroes in the
Company's service. Two or three others were retained at fort
Amsterdam to be punished as it should be thought proper. By
this harsh policy Stuyvesant laid the foundations of another
Esopus war, for the Indians never forgot their banished
brethren."
It was ascertained that several miles up the Esopus creek the Indians
were planting corn. It was the 20th of May, 1660. Ensign Smith took a
party of seventy-five men and advanced upon them. The barking of dogs
announced his approach just as his band arrived within sight of the
wigwams. They all made good their retreat with the exception of one,
the oldest and best of their chiefs. His name was Preumaker. We know
not whether pride of character or infirmity prevented his escape. It
is said, however, that he received the soldiers very haughtily, aiming
his gun at them and saying, "What are you doing here, you dogs?"
The weapon was easily wrenched from his feeble hands. A consultation
was held as to what should be done with the courageous but powerless
old chief. "As it was a considerable distance to carry him," writes
Ensign Smith, "we struck him down with his own axe."
At length the sufferings of the Esopus Indians became so great from
the burning of the villages and the trampling down of their
cornfields, the loss of their armies and the terrified flight of their
starving women and children, that they were constrained to make
another effort for peace.
On the 11th of July, Governor Stuyvesant left New Amsterdam for
Esopus. Messengers were dispatched to summon the Esopus chiefs to his
presence. Appalled by the fate of their brethren, who had been sent as
slaves to the West Indies, they were afraid to come. After waiting
several days the governor sent envoys to the chiefs of other tribes,
urging them "to bring the Esopus savages to terms."
At length four Esopus chiefs appeared before the gate of the village.
Delegates from other tribes also appeared, and a grand council was
held. It is very evident from this interview, that many of the more
delicate feelings of the civilized man had full sway in the hearts of
these poor Indians. Instead of imploring peace themselves, the Esopus
Indians employed two chiefs, one of the Mohawk and the other of the
Mingua tribe, to make the proposition in their behalf.
Governor Stuyvesant assented to peace upon condition that the Mohawks
and the Minguas would stand as security for the faithful observance of
the terms exacted. The chiefs of these tribes agreeing to this, in a
formal speech admonished the Esopus chiefs to live with the Dutch as
brothers. And then, turning to the Dutch, in a speech equally
impressive, they warned them not to irritate the Indians by unjust
treatment. The Indians were compelled to yield to such terms as
Stuyvesant proposed.
All the lands of Esopus were surrendered to the Dutch. The starving
Indians were to receive eight hundred schepels of corn as ransom for
the captive christians. The Indian warriors sent as slaves to the West
Indies, were to be left to their awful fate. The mediators were held
responsible for the faithful execution of the treaty. Should the
Esopus Indians break it, the mediators were bound to assist the Dutch
in punishing them. No spirituous liquors were to be _drank_ near the
houses of the Dutch. No _armed_ Indians to approach a Dutch
plantation. Murderers were to be mutually surrendered, and damages
reciprocally paid for.
Thus were the Esopus Indians driven from their homes, deprived of
their independence and virtually ruined. Having thus triumphantly
though cruelly settled this difficulty, Stuyvesant went up to fort
Orange, where he held another grand council with the chiefs of all the
tribes in those regions.
A clergyman was sent to Esopus and a church organized of sixteen
members. In September, 1660, Domine Selyus was installed as the
clergyman of Brooklyn, where he found one elder, two deacons and
twenty-four church members. There were, at that time thirty-one
families in Brooklyn, containing a population of one hundred and
thirty-four persons. They had no church but worshipped in a barn.
Governor Stuyvesant contributed nearly eighty dollars annually to the
support of this minister, but upon condition that he should preach
every Sunday afternoon, at his farm or bouwery upon Manhattan Island.
The last of May, Charles the Second, the fugitive King of England, was
returning from his wanderings on the continent to ascend the throne of
his ancestors. He was a weak man, of imperturbable good nature. On his
way to London he stopped at the Hague, where he was magnificently
entertained. In taking leave of the States-General he was lavish of
his expressions of friendship. He declared that he should feel jealous
should the Dutch prefer the friendship of any other state to that of
Great Britain.
At that time Holland was in commercial enterprise, the most prosperous
nation upon the globe; decidedly in advance of England. The British
parliament envied Holland her commercial supremacy. "The Convention
Parliament," writes Mr. Brodhead,
"which had called home the king, took early steps to render
still more obnoxious one of England's most selfish measures.
The Navigation Act of 1651 was revised; and it was now
enacted that after the first day of December, 1660, no
merchandise should be imported into, or exported from any of
his majesty's plantations or territories in Asia, Africa or
America, except in English vessels of which the master and
three-fourths of the mariners at least are English."
Immediately after this, Lord Baltimore demanded the surrender of New
Amstel and all the lands on the west side of Delaware bay. "All the
country," it was said by his envoy,
"up to the fortieth degree, was granted to Lord Baltimore.
The grant has been confirmed by the king and sanctioned by
parliament. You are weak, we are strong, you had better
yield at once."
A very earnest and prolonged discussion ensued. The Dutch Company
said,
"We hold our rights by the States-General. We are resolved
to defend those rights. If Lord Baltimore will persevere and
resort to violent measures, we shall use all the means which
God and nature have given us to protect the inhabitants and
preserve their possessions."
This was indeed an alarming state of affairs for New Amstel. Various
disasters had befallen the colony, so that it now numbered but thirty
families. The garrison had been reduced, by desertion, to twenty-five
men; and of these but eight or ten were in the principal fort. The
English were in such strength upon the Chesapeake, that they could
easily send five hundred men to the Delaware. Very earnest diplomatic
intercourse was opened between the States-General and the British
Parliament upon these questions.
Governor Stuyvesant, whose attention had been somewhat engrossed by
the Indian difficulties, now renewed his persecution of the Quakers.
Notwithstanding the law against private conventicles, Henry Townsend
at Rustdorp, who had been already twice fined, persisted in holding
private meetings in his house. He was arrested with two others, and
carried to fort Amsterdam. Townsend and Tilton were banished from the
colony. Two magistrates were appointed as spies to inform of any
future meetings, and some soldiers were stationed in the village to
suppress them. Whatever Governor Stuyvesant undertook to do he
accomplished very thoroughly. The following paper was drawn up which
the inhabitants were required to sign:
"If any meetings or conventicles of Quakers shall be held in
this town of Rustdorp, that we know of, we will give
information to the authority set up by the governor, and we
will also give the authorities of the town such assistance
against any such persons as needs may require."
A few refused to sign this paper. They were punished by having the
soldiers quartered upon them.
Fort Orange was, at this time, the extreme frontier post, in the north
and west of New Netherland. Though the country along the Mohawk river
had been explored for a considerable distance, there were no
settlements there, though one or two huts had been reared in the
vicinity of the Cohoes Falls. This whole region had abounded with
beavers and wild deer. But the fur trade had been pushed with so much
vigor that the country was now almost entirely destitute of peltries.
The colonists wished to purchase the fertile lands in the valley of
the Mohawk, and the Indians manifested a willingness to sell them.
CHAPTER XI.
THE DISASTROUS YEAR.
Purchase of Staten Island.--The Restoration cf Charles
Second.--Emigration Invited.--Settlement of Bushwick.--The
Peculiar People.--Persecution of John Brown.--The Governor
Rebuked.--Cumulation of Disasters.--The Outbreak at
Esopus.--The Panic.--Measures of the Governor.--The Indian
Fort.--The expedition to Mamaket.--Capture of the
Fort.--Annihilation of the Esopus Indians.
In the year 1661, the Company purchased of Melyn, the patroon, for
about five hundred dollars, all his rights to lands on Staten Island.
Thus the whole island became the property of the Company. Grants of
lands were immediately issued to individuals. The Waldenses, and the
Huguenots from Rochelle in France, were invited to settle upon the
island. A block-house was built which was armed with two cannon and
garrisoned by ten soldiers. Fourteen families were soon gathered in a
little settlement south of the Narrows.
Upon the restoration of Charles the Second, in England, the Royalists
and churchmen insisted upon the restoration of the hierarchy. The
Restoration was far from being the unanimous act of the nation. The
republicans and dissenters, disappointed and persecuted, were disposed
in ever increasing numbers, to take refuge in the New World. The West
India Company of Holland being in possession of a vast territory,
between the Hudson and the Delaware, which was quite uninhabited, save
by a few tribes of Indians, availed themselves of this opportunity to
endeavor to draw emigrants from all parts of Europe, and especially
from England, to form settlements upon their lands.
They issued proclamations inviting settlers and offering them large
inducements. The country, which embraced mainly what is now New
Jersey, was described in glowing terms as if it were a second Eden.
And yet there was no gross exaggeration in the narrative.
"This land," they wrote,
"is but six weeks' sail from Holland. It is fertile in the
extreme. The climate serene and temperate, is the best in
the world. The soil is ready for the plough, and seed can be
committed to it with scarcely any preparation. The most
valuable timber is abundant. The forest presents in
profusion, nuts and wild fruit of every description. The
richest furs can be obtained without trouble. Deer, turkeys,
pigeons and almost every variety of wild game, are found in
the woods, and there is every encouragement for the
establishment of fisheries."
Having presented this view of the region, to which emigrants were
invited, and having also announced an exceedingly attractive charter
of civil and religious privileges which would be granted them, in the
following terms the invitation to emigrate was urged:
"Therefore if any of the good Christians, who may be assured
of the advantages to mankind of plantations in these
latitudes, shall be disposed to transport themselves to said
place, they shall have full liberty to live in the fear of
the Lord upon the aforesaid good conditions and shall be
likewise courteously used.
"We grant to all Christian people of tender conscience, in
England or elsewhere oppressed, full liberty to erect a
colony between New England and Virginia in America, now
within the jurisdiction of Peter Stuyvesant."
Twenty-three families, most of them French, established a settlement
on Long Island, at the place now called Bushwick. The village grew
rapidly and in two years had forty men able to bear arms.
The proclamation issued by the Company, inviting emigrants to settle
upon the lands between the Hudson and the Delaware, attracted much
attention in Europe. Committees were sent to examine the lands which
it was proposed thus to colonize. The region between New Amstel and
Cape Henlopen, being quite unoccupied, attracted much attention. A
company, the members of which may be truly called a peculiar people,
decided to settle there. An extraordinary document was drawn up,
consisting of one hundred and seventeen articles for the government of
the association. In this singular agreement it is written:
"The associates are to be either married men or single men
twenty-four years old, who are free from debt. Each one is
bound to obey the ordinances of the society and not to seek
his own advancement over any other member. No clergyman is
to be admitted into the society. Religious services are to
be as simple as possible. Every Sunday and holiday the
people are to assemble, sing a Psalm and listen to a chapter
from the Bible, to be read by one of the members in
rotation. After this another Psalm is to be sung. At the end
of these exercises the court shall be opened for public
business. The object of the association being to establish a
harmonious society of persons of different religious
sentiments, all intractable people shall be excluded from
it, such as those in communion with the Roman See usurious
Jews, English stiff-necked Quakers, Puritans, fool-hardy
believers in the Millenium and obstinate modern pretenders
to revelation."
While the Company in Holland, were inviting emigrants to their
territory of the New World, with the fullest promises of religious
toleration, their governor, Stuyvesant, was unrelentingly persecuting
all who did not sustain the established religion.
A very quiet, thoughtful, inoffensive man, John Brown, an Englishman,
moved from Boston to Flushing. He was a plain farmer, very retiring in
his habits and a man of but few words. From curiosity he attended a
Quaker meeting. His meditative spirit was peculiarly impressed with
the simplicity of their worship. He invited them to his house, and
soon joined their society. The magistrates informed Stuyvesant that
John Brown's house had become a conventicle for Quakers. Being
arrested, he did not deny the charge, and was fined twenty-five pounds
and threatened with banishment.
The next week a new proclamation was issued, saying,
"The public exercise of any religion but the Reformed, in
houses, barns, ships, woods or fields, will be punished by a
fine of fifty guilders; double for the second offence; and
for the third quadruple with arbitrary correction."
John Brown, either unable or refusing to pay his fine, was taken to
New Amsterdam, where he was imprisoned for three months. An order was
then issued announcing his banishment.
"For the welfare," it was written,
"of the community, and to crush as far as possible, that
abominable sect who treat with contempt both the political
magistrate, and the ministers of God's holy word, and who
endeavor to undermine the police and religion, John Brown is
to be transported from this province in the first ship ready
to sail, as an example to others."
He was sent to Holland in the "Gilded Fox." Stuyvesant wrote to the
Company, "The contumacious prisoner has been banished as a terror to
others who, if not discouraged by this example, will be dealt with
still more severely."
The Company in Holland, was not at all in sympathy with its intolerant
governor. The exile was received by them respectfully. The following
dispatch, condemnatory of the severe measures of Stuyvesant, was
forwarded to him:
"Although it is our cordial desire that similar and other
sectarians may not be found there, yet, as the contrary
seems to be the fact, we doubt very much whether vigorous
proceedings against them ought not to be discontinued;
unless indeed, you intend to check and destroy your
population, which, in the youth of your existence, ought
rather to be encouraged by all possible means.
"Wherefore it is our opinion that some connivance is useful,
and that at least the consciences of men, ought to remain
free and unshackled. Let every one remain free so long as he
is modest, irreproachable in his political conduct, and so
long as he does not offend others or oppose the government.
This maxim of moderation has always been the guide of our
magistrates in this city. The consequence has been that
people have flocked from every land to this asylum. Tread
thus in their steps and we doubt not you will be blessed."
From this time persecution ceased in New Netherland. Either Governor
Stuyvesant was convinced by the argument in the above dispatch, or he
was intimidated by his rebuke. After two years of absence John Brown
returned to New Netherland, and it is said that the governor received
him as though he were ashamed of what he had done.
The year 1663 was a year of many disasters. Early in the year an
earthquake shook severely the whole of New Netherland and of the
adjacent regions. The melting of the snow in the spring, and the
falling rains caused a desolating freshet, which inundated all the
meadow lands of the rivers, utterly destroying the crops. This
calamity was followed by the small-pox, which spread with a like
rapidity and fatality among the Europeans and the Indians. Of the
Iroquois Indians over a thousand died. In addition to these calamities
came, worst of all, war with its indescribable horrors.
At Esopus the hand of industry had been very successfully employed.
Quite a crowded population filled the houses, within the palisades,
and the rapidly increasing numbers had rendered it necessary to
commence another village, which was called Wildwyck, on a fertile
plain at a little distance from the fort. Under the blessings of
peace, wealth had increased. The church numbered sixty members. Most
of the garrison had been withdrawn as no longer needed.
But the Indians could not forget their brethren sent to life-long
slavery at Curaçoa. It was increasingly evident that the peace, into
which they had entered, was not cordial. It was a compulsory peace. An
unendurable outrage had driven them into the war. And by the terms of
peace, while they had been compelled to return all the captives they
held, fifteen of their warriors were doomed to perpetual slavery.
Murmurings were heard which foreboded an outbreak. Some of the
settlers became alarmed and communicated their fears to Governor
Stuyvesant. He sent word that he would soon visit Esopus, to
investigate the state of affairs. The Indian chiefs, hearing of this,
returned the message, that if he were coming to renew their treaty of
friendship they should expect him to come unarmed and they would be
happy to meet him in council, according to their custom, in the open
field outside of the gate.
It was a pleasant morning of the 7th of June. The governor had not yet
arrived. The settlers, thrown off their guard by the friendly message
which the chiefs had returned, were scattered about in the fields
engaged in their daily avocations. Between eleven and twelve o'clock
at noon, an unusual number of savages spread themselves through the
villages and entered the dwellings. They were apparently, as usual,
entirely unarmed, though it afterwards appeared that they had
concealed weapons. They brought corn, beans, and other trifling
articles for sale.
Suddenly the war-whoop was uttered from one savage throat as a signal,
and was instantly re-echoed by a hundred others. Tomahawks and knives
and battle-axes gleamed in the air, and the work of extermination was
instantly and energetically commenced. The settlers were taken
entirely by surprise. Every Indian had marked his man. Neither women
nor children were spared. Those who could not easily be captured were
struck down. Many of the Indians speedily regained their guns which
they had concealed in the grass. Houses were plundered and set on
fire.
But the colonists did not submit to their fate without valiant
resistance. For several hours the most deadly battle raged. The yells
of the savages, and the shrieks of wounded women and children,
devoured by the flames which consumed their dwellings, were awful
beyond any power of the pen to describe.
Roelof Swartwout was entrusted with the municipal government at
Esopus. His office of Schout somewhat resembled that of a mayor in one
of our modern cities. He displayed much presence of mind and bravery
on this occasion. Rallying a few bold men around him, he at length
succeeded in driving the savages from within the palisades and in
shutting the gates. Several hours of this awful conflict had now
passed. Evening had come. Devastation, ruin, death surrounded them.
The outer village was in ashes. The fields were strewn with the bodies
of the dead. The half-burned corpses of women and children were to be
seen amidst the smoking cinders of their former homes.
The village within the palisades had been set on fire. A few houses
had been burned, consuming the mangled remains of those who had fallen
beneath the tomahawk and battle-axe of the Indian. Fortunately a
change of the wind had saved most of the village from destruction.
Swartwout and his brave little band, protected by the palisades, were
able through the loop-holes, to strike down any Indian, who should
appear within reach of their bullets. They were now safe.
But this awful storm of war, which had passed over their beautiful
valley had, in three short hours of a summer's afternoon, converted
the whole scene into a spectacle of almost unearthly misery. Every
dwelling outside of the palisades was in ashes. Several within the
enclosure were consumed, and the charred bodies of the dead were
intermingled with the blackened timbers. Twenty-one of the settlers
had been killed outright. Nine were severely wounded. Forty-five,
mostly women and children, were taken captive, to be carried into
bondage more dreadful than death.
A night of woe ensued, during which the yells of the savages, in their
triumphal orgies dancing around their captives, and probably exposing
some to the torture, fell appallingly upon the ears of the sleepless
survivors within the gates. Was this God's allowed retribution for the
crime of sending the Indians into slavery? It certainly was the
consequence.
The intelligence of this dreadful calamity was immediately transmitted
to Governor Stuyvesant at New Amsterdam. Through all the settlements
the tidings spread, creating universal panic. Mothers and maidens
turned pale as they thought of another Indian war. The farmers and
their families, abandoning everything, fled from all directions to the
forts within their reach. Every able-bodied man was put to work in
strengthening the defences.
The governor promptly dispatched forty-two well-armed men to Esopus.
Large bounties were offered to all who would enlist. Forty-six
friendly Indians from Long Island offered their services and were
accepted as auxiliaries. Ample supplies were forwarded to the
devastated village. Scouting parties were sent up the river to search
out the savages in their hiding-places. The Mohawks interposed their
friendly mediation in behalf of peace, and succeeded in recovering and
restoring to the Dutch several captives.
They also informed the governor that the Indians had taken the
remaining captives to one of their villages about thirty miles
southwest of Esopus, and that they refused to release them unless the
governor would send them rich presents and make a peace without any
compensation for what had transpired at Esopus. It seems that the
Indians regarded the massacre there simply as the just atonement which
they had exacted for the enslavement of their brethren, and that now
their rude sense of justice being satisfied, they were ready to enter
into a solid peace. But the governor was not at all disposed to regard
the matter in this light. He deemed it necessary, under the
circumstances, that the Indians should feel the full weight of the
white man's avenging hand.
Just then a woman, Mrs. Van Imbrock, who had succeeded in effecting
her escape from the Indians, reached Esopus, having traversed the
wilderness through a thousand perils. She was a woman of great energy,
intelligent and observing, and her heart was bleeding in view of the
friends she had left behind her in captivity. She was eager to act as
a guide to lead a war-party for the rescue of her friends in the
retreat of the savages. She estimated their number at about two
hundred warriors. They occupied a square fort, very strongly built of
timber. And still they adopted the precaution of sending the prisoners
every night under strong guard, to some distant place in the
mountains. The Indians had a very clear appreciation of the value of
their captives as hostages.
Governor Stuyvesant sent a force of two hundred and ten men, under
Captain Crygier, to attack them. Forty-one of these were Indians and
seven were negroes. They took with them two small cannon, with which
at a safe distance, they could soon open a breach through the Indian
ramparts, which were merely bullet-proof. A garrison of about seventy
men was left behind for the protection of Esopus.
At four o'clock in the afternoon of the 26th of July, this little band
commenced its march through the trails of the wilderness, towards the
setting sun. The path was a rugged one over high hills and across
mountain streams. They had traversed but a few miles when night came
on and they bivouacked until daybreak. The next morning they pressed
forward with all vigor until they were within about six miles of the
fort. One hundred and sixteen men were then sent forward to attack the
Indians by surprise, while the remainder prudently followed close
after as a reserve.
But the wary Indians, through their scouts, had ascertained the
approach of the foe and had fled with their prisoners to the
mountains. The Dutch were astonished at the strength of the fort and
at the scientific skill with which it was constructed. The Indians had
evidently learned not a little of military art from the Europeans.
Three parallel rows of palisades enclosed a large square, with
loopholes through which unobstructed aim could be taken at assailants.
Within the palisades there were strong block-houses, provided also
with loopholes, to which houses the warriors could retreat, as to
citadels, in case the outer works were taken. Between the houses and
the outworks there was a creek. The whole fortress would have been no
disgrace to an European engineer.
The party found very comfortable quarters in the fort for the night,
and an ample supply of provisions. An Indian woman, not being aware
that the white men were in the fort, came back for some article she
had left behind. She was taken prisoner and informed her captors of
the direction in which the Indians had fled. As it is necessary for
such a party of two or three hundred, to keep together and as the
trail through meadows, across streamlets and over mountains is narrow,
it is not difficult having once found their track to follow it.
It was determined, after a brief consultation, to pursue them. The
next morning at daybreak, the pursuit was commenced. Twenty-five men
were left to keep possession of the fort. After several hours of very
fatiguing travel, they reached the spot, on a high mountain, where the
squaw supposed that the Indians had established their camp. But not an
Indian was there. They had probably left their spies on the path, who
had informed them that the foe was at hand.
The woman now said that they must have gone on to another stronghold
they had, at the distance of about six miles. The march was continued
through great difficulties. But it was fruitless. Not an Indian was to
be found. They had another stronghold about twelve miles farther on.
It was possible that they might be found there. But all were fatigued
and discouraged, and were disposed to give up the hopeless chase. At
one time they caught sight of nine savages in the distance, but they
fled like deer.
Captain Crygier, deeming all further attempt to overtake the savages
hopeless, decided to return to the Indian fort. Having reached it, all
hands engaged in the work of destruction. The savages had collected
there a large supply of provisions for the approaching winter. The
colonists took all they could carry away with them and destroyed the
rest. They then utterly demolished the buildings and palisades,
committing all to the flames. The works must have cost the Indians an
immensity of labor. There were two hundred acres of corn, waving
richly in the summer breeze, giving promise of an abundant harvest.
All was trampled down. It was a fearful calamity to the wretched
Indians. Probably not a few perished of famine the next winter. There
was by no means a sufficient supply of game in the forest to meet
their wants. Their main reliance was upon their cornfields.
While they were engaged in this work of destruction four savages
appeared upon a hill near some of the colonists, and cried out to them
"To-morrow we will come and fight you, for we must all now die of
hunger."
The next morning the colonists commenced their return. They showed
their respect for the prowess of the savages, by forming their little
army in strong military array, with the advance, the centre and the
rear guard. At nine o'clock in the evening of August 1st, 1663, they
reached their anxious friends at Esopus, without the loss of a man.
Ere long news reached Esopus, that the savages were building another
fort, which they called a castle, about thirty-six miles southwest of
Esopus, probably near the present town of Mamakating, Sullivan county.
An expedition of one hundred and twenty five men, under Captain
Crygier, was immediately organized to destroy the works. A young
Indian guided the party. Several horses were taken with them to bring
back those who might be wounded.
At one o'clock in the afternoon of September third, the party set out
from Esopus. A march of nine miles brought them to a creek, which was
so swollen by recent rains, that they were delayed for several hours
until they could construct a rude bridge across it. In the meantime
the rain was falling in torrents. It was not until four o'clock in the
afternoon of the next day that the party effected its passage across
the stream. They then pressed forward twelve miles farther and
bivouacked for the night.
At daybreak they were again upon the move, and about two o'clock in
the afternoon emerged from the forest in view of the fort. It stood
upon an elevated plain. Like the one we have already described, it
consisted of a square enclosure, surrounded by two rows of strong
palisades, and a third had already been commenced. These posts,
pointed at the top, were firmly planted in the ground, and were of the
thickness of a man's body, and rose fifteen feet into the air.
Captain Crygier, after carefully scrutinizing the works, divided his
force into two sections for the attack. He was well aware that he had
a foe to encounter who would fight with the utmost desperation behind
his intrenchments. One party of the assailants crept cautiously along,
beneath the covert of a hill, until, coming to the open plain, they
were discovered by a squaw, who uttered a terrible cry which roused
the whole garrison of Indians.
A sudden onslaught was then made by both parties pouring, like an
inundation, through the unfinished works into the fort. The savages,
taken by Surprise, and many of them without their arms, were thrown
into a panic. Many of them rushed out of the fort, leaving their guns
in the houses behind. The Dutch followed close upon their heels,
shooting them, and with keen sabres cutting them down. Just beyond the
fort there was a creek. The terrified Indians precipitated themselves
into it, and by wading and swimming forced their way across. Here they
attempted to rally and opened fire upon the pursuing Dutch. The fire
was returned with so much vigor that the Indians were driven with loss
from their position. The assailants soon crossed the creek, and the
discomfited Indians, in hopeless rout, fled wildly into the trackless
wilderness.
In the impetuous assault the chief of the tribe, Papoquanchen, was
slain, and fourteen of his warriors with four Indian women and three
children Twenty-two Christian prisoners were recovered, and fourteen
Indians were taken captive. The Dutch lost but three killed and six
were wounded. The houses were all plundered by the victors. There was
found in them eighty guns, and "bearskins, deerskins, blankets, elk
hides and peltries sufficient to load a shallop." Forty rolls of
wampum and twenty pounds of powder were also taken. The colonists
loaded themselves with such plunder as they could carry. The rest was
destroyed.
The return of the victors with the rescued Christian captives, gave
great joy at Esopus. We regret to record that, on the march home,
there was one of the Indian prisoners, an old man, who refused to go
any farther. Captain Crygier had him led a few steps out of the path
and shot. In unfeeling terms the captain writes, "We carried him a
little aside and then gave him his last meal."
The remainder of the month of September was employed in sending out
small scouting parties, and in protecting the farmers while gathering
their harvests. Though the Esopus Indians were pretty thoroughly
crushed by these disasters which had befallen them, they showed no
sign of submission. It was estimated that not more than twenty-eight
warriors, with fourteen women and a few children survived. And these
were without homes and almost in a state of starvation. Still it was
decided to fit out a third expedition against them to effect their
utter overthrow.
It was thought most probable that the dispersed Indians would rally
again within the fort at Mamakating, which had been captured and
sacked but not as yet destroyed. It was perhaps left as a lure to draw
the Indians to that point where they could be surrounded and
annihilated.
A strong well-armed party of one hundred and sixty-four soldiers set
out on this expedition. Forty six of these were friendly Indians from
a tribe called Marespincks, whose home was on Long Island. The
soldiers were familiar with the route which they had so recently
traversed. A weary but rapid march of twenty hours brought them to the
scene of their recent victory. Not an Indian was there. All was
silence and awful desolation. Even the colonists were appalled by the
spectacle which opened before them. The Indians were so thoroughly
panic stricken that they had not ventured back even to bury their
dead. The decaying corpses lay scattered around, many of them half
consumed by vultures and wolves. The birds and beasts, with wild
cries, were devouring their prey. Parties were sent out to scour the
woods. But no signs of the savages could be found. In fact the Esopus
tribe was no more. It was afterwards ascertained that the wretched
remnant had fled south and were finally blended and lost among the
Minnisincks and other southern tribes.
The fort was so strong that it required not a little labor to destroy
it. It was necessary to cut down or dig up the palisades, which were
composed of trunks of trees twenty feet long and eighteen inches in
diameter. Several cornfields were found in the vicinity wherever an
opening in the forest and fertile soil invited the labor of the
indolent Indian. Two days were occupied in cutting down the corn,
already beautiful in its golden ripeness, and in casting the treasure
into the creek. The palisades were then piled around the dwellings and
in a few hours nothing remained of the once imposing fortress but
smoking embers.
This Indian fort or castle, it is said, stood on the banks of what is
now called the Shawangunk kill, in the town of the same name, at the
southwestern extremity of Ulster county. It seems as though it were
the doom of armies on the march, ever to encounter floods of rain.
Scarcely had the troops commenced their return ere the windows of
heaven seemed to be opened and the fountains of the great deep to be
broken up.
At ten o'clock on the morning of the 5th of October, 1664, the march
was commenced. The rain came on like that of Noah's deluge. The short
afternoon passed away as, threading ravines and climbing mountains,
they breasted the flood and the gale. The drenched host was soon
enveloped in the gloom of a long, dark, stormy night. Weary and
shelterless, the only couch they could find was the dripping sod, the
only canopy, the weeping skies. The weeping skies! yes, nature seemed
to weep and mourn over the crimes of a lost race,--over man's
inhumanity to man. It was not until the evening of the next day, the
rain still continuing, that these weary soldiers reached their home at
Esopus.
CHAPTER XII.
ENCROACHMENTS OF THE ENGLISH.
Annihilation of the Esopus Tribe.--The Boundary
Question.--Troubles on Long Island. The Dutch and English
Villages.--Petition of the English.--Embarrassments of
Governor Stuyvesant.--Embassage to Hartford.--The
Repulse.--Peril of New Netherland.--Memorial to the
Fatherland.--New Outbreak on Long Island.--John Scott and
his High-handed Measures.--Strengthening the Fortifications.
All but three of the captives carried away by the Esopus Indians, were
eventually recovered. The fate of those three is lost in hopeless
obscurity. The revelations of the day of Judgment can alone make known
their tragic doom. To them, as to thousands of others, this earthly
life, if this be all, must have been an unmitigated calamity. But this
is not all. After death cometh the judgment. It will be easy for God,
in the future world, to compensate his children a thousand-fold for
all the ills they are called to suffer in this life. There is true
Christian philosophy in the beautiful poetry of Bryant,
"Oh, deem not they are blest alone
Whose lives an even tenor keep.
For God, who pities man, hath shown
A blessing for the eyes that weep.
"For God has marked each sorrowing day
And numbered every secret tear,
And heaven's long age of bliss shall pay
For all his children suffer here."
Peace was now restored by the annihilation of the hostile Indians.
Most of the Dutch soldiers returned to New Amsterdam. Still it was
deemed important to enlarge and strengthen the fortifications at
Esopus.
The boundary line between the British colonies in New England, and the
Dutch settlements in New Netherland, still continued in dispute. The
English, in numerical strength, were in the vast ascendency, and could
easily overpower the Dutch. Very strenuous efforts had been made, by
the States-General, to lead the British government to accept some
boundary line. But all was in vain. It was very evident that the
English intended to claim the whole. And it was also evident that
their colonies were increasing so rapidly that, in a short time, they
would be able to take possession of all the territory so strongly that
it would be hopeless for the Dutch to attempt any resistance.
Governor Stuyvesant now received intelligence from Holland that there
was no hope of any settlement being effected through the two
governments, and that he must do everything in his power to strengthen
the boundary lines the Dutch claimed, and to enter into such friendly
relations with the New England colonists that they should not be
tempted to undertake any encroachments. To add to the governor's
embarrassments very many Englishmen had taken up their residence in
the Dutch settlements, particularly on Long Island. Though they had,
of necessity, taken the oath of allegiance to the constituted
authorities, their sympathies were with the New England colonists; and
they would welcome any revolution which should transfer the territory
to Great Britain, and thus absolve them from their oaths.
In accordance with the instructions received from Holland, the
governor repaired to Boston to enter into a friendly conference with
the authorities there. Scarcely had he left New Amsterdam, when an
English emissary, James Christie, visited Gravesend, Flushing,
Hempstead and Jamaica, with the announcement that the inhabitants of
those places were no longer under the Dutch government, but that their
territory was annexed to the Connecticut colony. This important
movement took place on the sixth of September, 1663.
Only about six weeks before, the Connecticut council, on the 20th of
July, had sent Captain John Talcott with an armed force of eighteen
soldiers, to that portion of New Netherland now called West. Chester,
to declare that the inhabitants were absolved from their allegiance to
the Dutch government, to dismiss the old magistrates and to appoint
others in their stead. These were high-handed measures, apparently
inexcusable.
When John Christie reached Gravesend, he summoned the whole village
together and read to them the dispatch. The British element was there
strongly in the ascendency, even the magistrates being mainly on that
side. As Christie was reading the treasonable document, one of the
Dutch magistrates, sheriff Stillwell, faithful to his oath, arrested
him. The other magistrates ordered the arrest of Stillwell. His life
was in danger from the passions of the mob. He succeeded in sending
word to New Amsterdam of the peril of his condition. A sergeant and
eight soldiers were dispatched, who arrested Christie again and held
him under their guard.
News of these agitations spread rapidly through the adjoining
villages. It was rumored that a large mob was gathering to rescue
Christie from the soldiers. Consequently, two hours after midnight,
under protection of darkness and without the knowledge of the
community, Christie was secretly removed from sheriff Stillwell's
house to New Amsterdam. During the next day the tidings of his removal
spread through the streets. It created great exasperation. At night a
mob of one hundred and fifty men surrounded the house of sheriff
Stillwell, shouting that they would have him, dead or alive.
He succeeded in the darkness, in escaping by the back door, and in
finding his way to the house of his son-in-law. The mob broke in,
ransacked his house in every corner, poured down their own thirsty
throats a large quantity of brandy which they found there, and
dispersed without committing any further depredations.
Stillwell hastened to New Amsterdam, to enter his complaints there,
and to seek protection. The other magistrates wrote, throwing all the
blame upon him, accusing him of having acted in a violent manner and
of causing "a great hubbub in the town." "We are," they wrote, "the
loyal subjects of the Dutch government, but not of sheriff Stillwell,
who is the greatest disturber of the peace who ever came among us."
The excitement was great. Threats were uttered of retaliation if
Christie were not released. But the Dutch council in New Amsterdam
approved of the conduct of its sheriff. Christie was held firmly.
Dispatches were sent to all the towns in western Long Island, where
there was a considerable English population, ordering that any
seditious persons who should visit their settlements, should be
arrested and sent to New Amsterdam. They then sent an express to
Governor Stuyvesant in Boston, that he might bring the question of
these disorderly measures before the General Assembly there.
But the governor could obtain no redress and no promises of amendment.
The Massachusetts authorities would not hold themselves bound to the
faithful observance of the treaty of 1650. They said that it was
subject to his Majesty's approval and to any limitations which might
be found in the charter granted to Connecticut. They refused to submit
the question to any arbitrators whatever. The New England colonists
were conscious that the power was in their own hands, and they were
disposed to use it.
In the meantime the English residents in the settlements on western
Long Island were not idle. The following very emphatic petition was
got up and signed by twenty-six individuals:
"The humble petition of us the inhabitants of Jamaica,
Middleborough and Hempstead, Long Island, whose names are
subscribed, to the honored General Court, to be assembled at
Hartford on the 8th of October 1663, humbly showeth,
"That forasmuch as it has pleased the all-disposing
Providence to appoint unto us our dwellings in these parts
of the country, under the Dutch government, in which
government we meet with several inconveniences, which do
much to trouble us, and which we find very uncomfortable,
and forasmuch as we have received information how it hath
pleased the Highest Majesty to move the heart of the King's
Majesty to grant unto your colony such enlargements as
comprehend the whole island, thereby opening a way for us,
as we hope, from our present bondage, to such liberties and
enlargements as your patent affords,
"Our humble petition is that, as we are already, according to our best
information, under the skirts of your patent, so you would be pleased
to cast over us the skirts of your government and protection; for
assuredly if you should leave us now, which we hope we have not cause
to fear, our lives, comforts and estates will be much endangered, as
woful experience makes manifest. For a countryman of ours, for
carrying a message to a neighbor plantation, from some of yourselves,
has been imprisoned for several weeks, and how long it will be
continued we know not."
This last sentence had reference to John Christie. It must be admitted
that this was a very mild way of putting the question, when it is
remembered that he came, commissioned by the Connecticut authorities,
at least so he represented it, to announce to the people in the Dutch
settlements, that they were no longer under the Dutch government, but
under that of Hartford.
This petition was speedily followed by vigorous measures, which were
undoubtedly countenanced, if not authorized, by the Connecticut
authorities. One Richard Panton, "whose commission was his sword and
whose power his pistol," threatened the people of Flatbush and other
Dutch villages in the neighborhood, with the pillage of their property
unless they would take the oath of allegiance to the Hartford
government and take up arms against the Dutch provincial authorities.
Such were the news which first greeted Governor Stuyvesant when he
returned, not a little dispirited, from his unsuccessful mission to
Boston. He was fully aware that he could bring forward no physical
power which could resist the encroachments of his unscrupulous
neighbors. He had no weapon to which he could resort but diplomatic
skill. He accordingly immediately sent a deputation of four of his
principal men to Hartford, still to make another attempt with the
authorities there to settle the boundary question, "so that all
further disputes may, for the welfare of our mutual subjects, be
prevented."
The commissioners sailed from New Amsterdam and after two days landed
at Milford. Thence they took horses and rode to New Haven, where they
passed the night. The next day they rode to Hartford. The road through
the almost unbroken wilderness was rough and the journey very
fatiguing. It took our fathers four days to traverse the space over
which we can now easily pass in four hours. The General Assembly at
Hartford appointed three persons as a committee of conference to meet
the delegation from New Amsterdam. A long negotiation followed. John
Winthrop, son of Governor Winthrop of Massachusetts, was then governor
of Connecticut. He seems to have been the worthy son of his noble
sire. His sense of justice disposed him to respect the claims of the
Dutch delegation. He admitted that the patent issued by the king of
England could by no justice rob the Dutch of their territory, and that
it was not so intended. But the Hartford commissioners were
inexorable. "The opinion of the governor," they said,
"is but the opinion of one man. The grant of the king of
England includes all the land south of the Boston line to
Virginia and to the Pacific Ocean. We do not know any New
Netherland, unless you can show a patent for it from the
king of England."
"But did you not," said the Dutch delegates
"agree by the treaty of 1650, that the boundary line on Long
Island should run from the western part of Oyster bay
straight across the island to the sea; and that the land
east of that line should belong to the English and west to
the Dutch?
"And did you not agree that, on the mainland, the boundary
line between the Dutch and English possessions should begin
upon the west side of Greenwich bay, running twenty miles
into the unknown interior, and that the region west of that
should belong to the Dutch?"
The emphatic reply to those questions was,
"We regard that treaty as an absolute nullity--of no force.
We shall govern ourselves entirely by the patent granted us
by his majesty the king of England. The Dutch may hold as
much as they now actually occupy. But that shall not hinder
us from taking possession of any territory not occupied by
them."
The Dutch then proposed, by way of compromise, that for the present,
Westchester should remain in possession of Connecticut, while the
towns on western Long Island should remain under the government of New
Netherland. To this the Hartford commissioners replied:
"We do not know of any province of New Netherland. There is
a Dutch governor over a Dutch plantation, on the island of
Manhattan. Long Island is included in our patent, and we
shall possess and maintain it."[11]
Thus repulsed at every point, the Dutch agents commenced their return.
They bore a letter to Stuyvesant from the General Assembly, in which,
withholding from him the title of governor of New Netherland, they
discourteously addressed him simply as "Director General at
Manhattan."
As we have mentioned, there were many English settlers in the Dutch
towns on the western end of Long Island. In some of them it is not
improbable that the English element predominated. In the letter sent
by the General Court to Governor Stuyvesant, it was stated that
Westchester and Stamford belonged to Connecticut; that, for the
present, the General Court would forbear from exercising any authority
over the English plantations on Long Island; but that, should the
Dutch molest the English there, the Connecticut authorities would use
all just and lawful means for their protection.
The situation of the Dutch province was now alarming in the extreme,
and Governor Stuyvesant was environed by difficulties which no mortal
sagacity or energy could surmount. His treasury was exhausted. The
English settlers in the Long Island villages, were in determined and
open revolt. And his English neighbors, whom he was altogether too
feeble to resist, were crowding upon him in the most merciless
encroachments.
Under these circumstances, he called a Convention, to consist of two
delegates from all the neighboring villages, to meet at New Amsterdam
on the 22d of October, 1663. Eight towns were represented.
The Convention adopted an earnest remonstrance to the authorities in
Holland, in which the disastrous situation of the province was mainly
attributed to their withholding that aid which was essential to the
maintenance of the colony.
"The people of Connecticut," the remonstrance stated,
"are enforcing their unlimited patent according to their own
interpretation, and the total loss of New Netherland is
threatened. The English, to cloak their plans, now object
that there is no proof, no legal commission or patent, from
their High Mightinesses, to substantiate and justify our
rights and claims to the property of this province, and
insinuate that through the backwardness of their High
Mightinesses to grant such a patent, you apparently intended
to place the people here on slippery ice, giving them lands
to which your honors had no right whatever."
Governor Stuyvesant sent with this remonstrance a private letter to
the home government, in which he urged that the boundary question
should be settled by the national authorities of the two countries.
"It is important," he said,
"that the States-General should send letters to the English
villages on Long Island, commanding them to return to their
allegiance. And that the objections of Connecticut may be
met, the original charter of the West India Company should
be solemnly confirmed by a public act of their High
Mightinesses, under their great seal, which an Englishman
commonly dotes upon like an idol."
Scarcely were these documents dispatched when new and still more
alarming outbreaks occurred. Two Englishmen, Anthony Waters of
Hempstead, and John Coe of Middlebury, with an armed force of nearly
one hundred men, visited most of what were called the English
villages, convoked the people, told them that their country belonged
to the king of England, and that they must no longer pay taxes to the
Dutch. They removed the magistrates and appointed their own partisans
in their stead. They then visited the Dutch towns and threatened them
with the severest vengeance if they did not renounce all allegiance to
the Dutch authorities, and take the oath of fealty to the king of
England.
Only four weeks after this, another party of twenty Englishmen from
Gravesend, Flushing and Jamaica, secretly entered Raritan river, in a
sloop, and sailing up the river several miles, assembled the chiefs of
some of the neighboring tribes, and endeavored to purchase of them a
large extent of territory in that region. They knew perfectly well not
only that they were within the bounds which had been the undisputed
possession of New Netherland for nearly half a century, but that the
Dutch had also purchased of the Indians all their title to these
lands.
Stuyvesant, being informed of this procedure, promptly sent Ensign
Crygier, with an armed force, in a swift sailing yacht, to find the
English and thwart their measures. At the same time he sent Hans, a
friendly Indian, in whom he could repose confidence, to warn the
sachems against selling over again, lands to which they no longer had
any title. The Dutch party reached the spot where the Englishmen and
the Indians were in council, just in time to stop the sale. The
Indians were shrewd enough to know that all they could give was a
"quit claim" title, and they were very willing to give that in view of
the rich remuneration which was offered them.
The English thus baffled, again took their sloop and sailed down the
bay, to a point between Rensselaer's Hook and Sandy Hook, where they
were about to renew their endeavors when Ensign Crygier again overtook
them. "You are traitors," he exclaimed. "You are acting against the
government to which you have taken the oath of fidelity." "This whole
country," they replied, "has been given to the English by his Majesty
the king of England."
Thus the antagonistic parties separated. The Dutch sloop returned to
New Amsterdam. The next day a number of sachems came to New Amsterdam
and sold to Governor Stuyvesant the remainder of the lands on the
Raritan, which had not previously been transferred to the Dutch.
One John Scott, an Englishman of turbulent character, and a zealous
royalist, petitioned king Charles Second to bestow upon him the
government of Long Island. In his petition, which was referred to the
Council for Foreign Plantations, he said:
"The Dutch have of late years, unjustly obtruded upon and
possessed themselves of certain places on the mainland of
New England, and some islands adjacent, as in particular on
Manhattan and Long Island, being the true and undoubted
inheritance of his Majesty."
In reply to this petition, Scott with two others, was appointed a
committee to prepare
"a statement of the English title to those lands; with an
account of the Dutch intrusion, their deportment since and
management of that possession, their strength, trade and
government there, and of the means to make them acknowledge
and submit to his Majesty's government or by force to
expulse them."
Armed with this authority, Scott came to America, where he was very
cordially received by the authorities in New Haven. Connecticut
invested him with the powers of a magistrate throughout the whole of
Long Island, and Governor John Winthrop administered to him the oath
of office. Scott entered vigorously upon his work of wresting western
Long Island from the dominion of the Dutch, whom he denounced as
"cruel and rapacious neighbors who were enslaving the English
settlers."
He visited most of the villages, where large numbers of the English
resided, but found that there was strong opposition to being annexed
to Connecticut. Many of them, particularly the Baptists and the
Quakers, were very unwilling to come under the rule of the Puritan
government.
Consequently, six of the towns, Hempstead, Gravesend, Flushing,
Middlebury, Jamaica and Oyster Bay, formed a combination to govern
themselves independently of Connecticut, and empowered Scott to act as
their President, until the king of England should establish a
permanent government among them. Scott in his pride now unfurled an
almost imperial banner. Placing himself at the head of one hundred and
seventy armed men, horse and foot, he set out to compel the
neighboring Dutch villages to renounce their allegiance to Holland and
to subject themselves to his sway.
He first marched upon Brooklyn. Summoning the citizens, he told them
that the soil they occupied belonged to the king of England, and that
he now claimed it as his own, and that they were consequently absolved
from all further allegiance to the Dutch government and were required
to take the oath of submission to the new government, now about to be
established over them.
Scott was accompanied by so powerful an armed force that the
magistrates could not arrest him. One of them, however, Secretary Van
Ruyven, invited him to cross the river to New Amsterdam and confer
with the governor there. Scott replied, "Let Stuyvesant come here with
a hundred men; I will wait for him and run my sword through his body."
There was no disposition manifested whatever, on the part of the
people, to renounce the government of their fathers and accept of that
of Scott in its stead. There was a little boy standing by, whose proud
and defiant bearing arrested the attention of Scott. He was a son of
the heroic Crygier, of whom we have before spoken. Scott ordered him
to take off his hat and bow to the flag of England. The boy refused.
Scott struck him. A bystander scornfully said, "If you have blows to
give, you should strike men, not boys."
Four of Scott's soldiers fiercely assailed the man, and though for a
moment he defended himself with an axe, he was soon compelled to fly.
Scott demanded his surrender and threatened to lay the town in ashes
unless he were given up. He was not surrendered, and Scott did not
venture to execute his barbarous threat.
From Brooklyn Scott went to Flatbush. He there unfurled the flag of
England in front of the house of the sheriff. Curiosity assembled a
large concourse to witness what was transpiring. Scott addressed them
at much length. "He jabbered away," writes a Dutch historian, "in
English, like a mountebank."
"This land," said he,
"which you now occupy, belongs to his Majesty, king Charles.
He is the right and lawful lord of all America, from
Virginia to Boston. Under his government you will enjoy more
freedom than you ever before possessed.
"Hereafter you shall pay no more taxes to the Dutch
government, neither shall you obey Peter Stuyvesant. He is
no longer your governor, and you are not to acknowledge his
authority. If you refuse to submit to the king of England,
you know what to expect."
His harangue produced no effect. The Dutch remained unshaken in their
loyalty. Some of the magistrates ventured to tell him that these were
matters which he ought to settle with Governor Stuyvesant. He replied,
"Stuyvesant is governor no longer. I will soon go to New
Amsterdam, with a hundred men, and proclaim the supremacy of
his Majesty, king Charles, beneath the very walls of the
fort."
The next day he went to Flatbush, where there was a renewal of the
scenes which we have above described. Though the people could present
no resistance, he found no voice to cheer him. The want of success
exasperated Scott. He went to New Utrecht. There was a block fort
there, armed with cannon, and over which floated the Dutch flag. He
hauled down that banner and raised in its stead the flag of England.
Then, with Dutch cannon and Dutch powder, he fired a salute in honor
of his victory. All passers-by were ordered to uncover their heads and
bow in submission to the English flag. Those who refused to do so were
pursued by his soldiers and cruelly beaten.
Governor Stuyvesant, upon being informed of these transactions,
immediately sent three of his principal men to Long Island, to seek
some arrangement with Scott for the termination of such disorders.
They met him at Jamaica. After much discussion they entered into a
partial agreement, which was to be submitted to the approval of
Governor Stuyvesant. As the Dutch deputies took their leave, Scott
said to them,
"This whole island belongs to the king of England. He has
made a grant of it to his brother, the duke of York. He
knows that it will yield him an annual revenue of one
hundred and fifty thousand dollars. He is soon coming with
an ample force, to take possession of his property. If it is
not surrendered peaceably he is determined to take, not only
the whole island, but also the whole province of New
Netherland."
With these alarming tidings, the Dutch envoys returned to New
Amsterdam. Disorders were now rapidly multiplying. Scott rallied
around him all the most turbulent of the English population, and the
Dutch towns were menaced with violence. The Dutch families in the
English villages, were many of them compelled to abandon their houses,
and repair to the Dutch villages for protection. Frequent collisions
occurred. There was no longer any happiness or peace to be found in
these dwellings agitated by the approaching tempests of revolution.
The inhabitants of New Amsterdam became greatly alarmed from fear that
their rich and beautiful city would be attacked or plundered by the
English. The burgomasters and principal men drew up a petition to the
authorities urging additional fortifications for the city and the
enlistment of an increased armed force.
In this petition they said,
"this capital is adorned with so many noble buildings, at
the expense of so many good and faithful inhabitants,
principally Netherlanders, that it nearly excels any other
place in North America. Were it duly fortified it would
instil fear into any envious neighbors. It would protect
both the East and the North rivers, the surrounding villages
and farms, as well as full ten thousand inhabitants who
would soon flock to this province, where thousands of acres
of land remain wild and uncultivated. It would become the
granary of fatherland. Yes, if permitted to abide in peace
this land will become an emporium to fatherland by its
growing plantations."
In accordance with this memorial, heavy taxes were imposed and large
contributions subscribed to enlarge and strengthen the fortifications.
A militia of two hundred men was organized, and one hundred and sixty
were enlisted as regular soldiers.
CHAPTER XIII.
HOSTILE MEASURES COMMENCED.
John Scott and his Movements.--Losses of the Dutch.--The
First General Assembly.--Action of the Home
Government.--Peace with the Indians.--Arrest of John
Scott.--Governor Winthrop's visit to Long Island.--Sailing
of the Fleet.--Preparations for War.--The False
Dispatches.--Arrival of the Fleet.--The Summons to
Surrender.
Governor Stuyvesant, with much anxiety of mind, kept a vigilant eye
upon the proceedings of John Scott, on Long Island. Some praised the
governor for the forbearance he had exhibited under the provoking
circumstances. Others severely blamed him for his course, which they
pronounced to be cowardly and disgraceful to the nation.
By the terms of the Convention, concluded between the Dutch delegates
and John Scott, it was agreed that the English villages, on the
western part of Long Island, should remain unmolested under English
rule, for the space of one year, until the king of England and the
States-General of Holland should have time to settle the question in
dispute. In the meantime the English were to have free access to all
the Dutch towns on the island, and on the mainland, for purposes of
trade; and the Dutch were to enjoy the same privilege in visiting the
English towns.
These terms were to be presented to Governor Stuyvesant for his
rejection or approval. Deciding to ratify them he took with him an
escort of ten men, and proceeded to Hempstead, on the third day of
March, 1664. Here he met the President, John Scott, with delegates
from the English towns, and the agreement was ratified.
The Dutch had now lost, one after another, every portion of territory
which the English had assailed. The whole valley of the Connecticut
river had been surrendered to the English. Westchester was entirely in
their possession. And now the important towns of Flushing, Jamaica,
Hempstead and Gravesend were yielded up to them. The whole of Long
Island was also peremptorily claimed by the English, with the
declaration that if any resistance were made to their taking
possession of it, they would seize the valley of the Hudson and the
whole of New Netherland.
The conjuncture was gloomy indeed. Governor Stuyvesant was conscious
that he was utterly powerless. He then decided it to be necessary to
call to his aid popular representation. A General Assembly of
delegates from all the towns was convoked to take into consideration
the state of the province. This important meeting was held in the City
Hall of New Amsterdam, on the 10th of April, 1664. Twenty-four
delegates were present from twelve towns.
Immediately there arose an unfriendly controversy between the governor
and the assembly which was fatal to any harmonious or efficient
action. The assembly refused to grant the governor the supplies, in
money or in men, which he called for, and adjourned for a week. In the
meantime Governor Stuyvesant had received dispatches from Holland. The
West India Company had acted energetically upon the subject urged in
his memorial. They had presented to the States-General a very earnest
petition.
In this memorial they laid before that August body, a detailed account
of the aggressions committed by the English, and of the repulse with
which the Dutch overtures for an amicable settlement had been met at
Boston and Hartford.
"Out of respect," said they,
"to the alliance recently entered into with England, they
had hitherto abstained from hostilities. But, as it now
seemed absolutely necessary to repel aggression by force,
they implored such military and pecuniary aid as the
occasion required. They also urged that, in conformity with
Governor Stuyvesant's request, an act should be passed under
the great seal, confirming their original charter; and that
letters might be sent to the revolted towns on Long Island,
requiring them, under the severest penalties, to return to
their allegiance. In conclusion they asked that the whole of
the aggressions of which they complained might be
communicated to the king of England, with the request that
he would order his English subjects to restore, on the
instant, the places they had seized, and to abstain from all
further innovations, pending the negotiations for a boundary
line."
These requests were complied with by the States-General. They sent
sixty soldiers to New Amsterdam, with orders to Governor Stuyvesant to
resist any further encroachments of the English, and to reduce the
revolted villages to allegiance. It was easy for the States-General to
issue such an order, but it was not so easy for Governor Stuyvesant to
execute it. The Assembly was immediately called together again, and
the documents from Holland presented to them. After much deliberation
it was decided to be impossible, with the force at the governor's
command, to subdue the English villages. In those villages it was said
that the Dutch were outnumbered six to one; and that upon the outbreak
of hostilities, the flourishing settlements on the Connecticut would
immediately send such a force to Long Island, as would enable them to
overcome and take possession of all the other villages.
It will be remembered that the Esopus Indians had been completely
humbled, and almost annihilated. The tribe living in the immediate
vicinity of the village of Esopus, had been slaughtered or driven from
their lands. The survivors had taken refuge with other neighboring
tribes, who were more or less in sympathy with them. Thus while there
was a cessation of actual war, hostility continued. No terms of peace
had been agreed to, and there could be no friendly intercourse.
News reached Governor Stuyvesant that the Connecticut people, in their
intrigues to get possession of New Netherland, were tampering with
these river Indians, endeavoring to enter into a treaty of alliance,
offensive and defensive with them. It was consequently deemed
desirable immediately to secure a general peace with these Indians.
The sachems of several tribes were invited to assemble in the Council
Chamber at fort Amsterdam. The governor with nine of his council, met
them. It is worthy of special notice that, the preliminaries being
settled, one of the Indian chiefs offered an earnest prayer. First he
called several times, with a loud voice, upon the Great Spirit to hear
him In his language Bachtamo was the name for God.
"Oh Bachtamo," he said,
"help us to make a good treaty with the Dutch. And may the
treaty we are about to negotiate be like the stick I hold in
my hand. Like this stick may it be firmly united, the one
end to the other."
Then turning to the governor, he said, "We all desire peace. I have
come with my brother sachems, in behalf of the Esopus Indians, to
conclude a peace as firm and compact as my arms, which I now fold
together."
Then presenting his hand to Governor Stuyvesant he added, "What I now
say is from the fullness of my heart. Such is my desire, and that of
all my people."
A solemn treaty was soon negotiated. It was signed the next day, and
the event was celebrated by salvos of artillery. On the whole, the
terms were fair, but rather hard for the Indians. The treaty is
concisely given by O'Callaghan in the following words:
"By its terms all that had passed was to be forever
forgotten and forgiven. The land, already given to the Dutch
as an indemnity, and now again conquered by the sword, the
two forts belonging to the Indians included, became the
property of the Christians. The savages were not to return
thither to plant, nor to visit the village, or any remote
Dutch settlements with or without arms. But as it was not
intended to expel them altogether from the country, they
were permitted to plant near their new fort, and this year
only, by their old castle, as they had already placed some
seed in the ground there. But the lands, in the neighborhood
of these forts, having been conquered, were to belong to the
Dutch.
"To prevent all future collision, no savage should hereafter
approach the place where the Christians were ploughing,
pasturing, sowing or engaged in agricultural labor. The
violation of this article was to subject them to arrest.
They might sell meat or maize at the Ronduit, in parties of
three canoes at a time, but only on condition that they sent
a flag of truce beforehand to give notice of their approach.
For their accommodation, on such occasions, a house was to
be built beyond the kill.
"Should a Dutchman kill an Indian, or an Indian a Dutchman,
no war was to be declared. A complaint was to be lodged
against the murderer, who should be hanged in the presence
of both the contracting parties. All damages, by the killing
of cattle, were to be paid for; and this treaty was to be
annually ratified by the Esopus Indians. The Hackingsack and
Staten Island sachems were security for the faithful
observance of this contract; and were bound to co-operate
against either the Esopus Indians or the Dutch, whichever
might violate its terms."
The peace thus secured gave universal satisfaction in the Dutch
settlements. Governor Stuyvesant devoutly proclaimed a day of general
thanks giving to God for the great blessing.
It will be remembered that John Scott had received a commission from
Connecticut, and it was expected that, as their agent, he would cause
the English towns on western Long Island to be annexed to the
Connecticut province. Instead of this, those towns declared themselves
independent, and Scott allowed himself to be chosen their president.
The Court at Hartford, upon being made acquainted with these facts,
was very indignant. A proclamation was soon issued by the Assembly of
Connecticut, charging Scott with various high crimes and misdemeanors,
and ordering his arrest. A party of soldiers was sent under the
command of John Allyn, secretary, "to seize on the body of John
Scott." Mr. Allyn returned to the Honorable Court the following
interesting report of his procedure on the occasion:
"When we came within sight of the house of John Scott we saw
him draw forth those men which came from New Haven to aid
him, with some others, unto a body. When we came up towards
the house, within twenty or thirty rods thereof. John Scott
commanded us, in his Majesty's name to stand, upon our
peril. John Scott charged us in his Majesty's name, to get
off from his land. John Scott desired to know what our
business was.
"Then it was replied, by Nathaniel Seely, that he desired a
parley. John Scott granted a parley, and we met, each of us
with a couple of musketeers. Then Nathaniel Seely told him
that he had come to arrest him, and read the commission unto
him. When it was read Seely demanded of him whether he would
surrender himself according to commission?
"John Scott replied that he would sacrifice his heart's
blood on the ground, before he would yield to him or any of
Connecticut jurisdiction. With that the New Haven men
answered, 'So will we.' John Scott said, 'Stay awhile and I
will fetch you a letter, from under Governor Winthrop's
hand, which I do not question much will satisfy you.' So he
went into the house and fetched it forth and read it before
us, bearing date as he said, of March 25, 1664.
"It was concerning the governor's desiring him to meet him
to end some difference in the Narragansett country about a
tract of land. John Scott said, 'If you will return to your
body, I will fetch a commission under his Majesty's hand,
which shall command you all.' Whereupon he made a flourish
and said that he would go down unto the face of the company
and read it, and he would see if the proudest of them all
dared to lay hands upon him. 'Let them,' said he, 'take me
if they dare.'
"Then he came down to the head of the company, and read the
commission, which he said had the seal manual upon it.
Whereupon he renewed his challenge that he would see if the
proudest of them all dared to lay hands upon him. Then
Nathaniel Seely arrested him in his Majesty's name to go
with him according to law."
Scott was taken to Hartford and thrown into jail, where, it is said,
he experienced much harsh usage. Soon after this Governor John
Winthrop, from Hartford, visited the English Long Island towns,
removed the officers appointed by Scott, and installed others who
would be devoted to the interests of Connecticut.
Governor Stuyvesant being informed of his presence, immediately
crossed the East river to Long Island, to meet the Connecticut
governor, who was thus encroaching upon the Dutch domains. He urged
upon Governor Winthrop the claims of Holland upon New Netherland, by
the apparently indubitable title of discovery, purchase and
possession, as well as by the clearly defined obligations of the
Hartford treaty of 1650. It will be remembered that by that treaty it
was expressly agreed that,
"Upon Long Island a line run from the westernmost part of
Oyster Bay, in a straight and direct line to the sea, shall
be the bounds between the English and the Dutch there; the
easterly part to belong to the English, the westernmost part
to the Dutch."
But here was Governor Winthrop, in total disregard of this treaty,
many miles west of this line, endeavoring to wrest several towns from
the Dutch dominion, and to annex them to the Connecticut colony. All
Governor Stuyvesant's arguments were unavailing. Governor Winthrop
paid no heed to them. He knew very well that the Dutch governor had no
military power with which to enforce his claims. Governor Winthrop
therefore contented himself with simply declaring that the whole of
Long Island belonged to the king of England.
"All Governor Stuyvesant could address, writes O'Callaghan,
"was of no avail. The country was the king's, the people his
subjects. When priority of title from the Indians was
invoked, those from whom the Dutch purchased were, it was
replied, not the right owners and had no right to sell. But
when deeds which the English held from natives, happened to
be older than those of their opponents, then the title could
not be gainsayed. All must be received without
contradiction.
"The truth is, the Directors in Holland were mistaken in
their reliance upon Winthrop's friendship. He now manifested
the greatest hostility to the Dutch, and was the head and
front of all the opposition they experienced. He was no
doubt well-advised of the designs of the Duke of York, and
of his brother the king of England, which were about to
develop themselves against this province."
While New Netherland was thus fearfully menaced by England, the
internal affairs of the province were in a state of prosperity. The
rich soil was producing abundant harvests and farms were extending in
all directions. Emigrants were continually arriving and were delighted
with their new homes. The population of the province now amounted to
full ten thousand. New Amsterdam was a flourishing city, containing
fifteen hundred inhabitants.
This prosperity excited both the jealousy and the covetousness of the
British court. The king resolved, by one bold blow, to rob Holland of
all her American possessions. On the 12th of March, 1664, the king of
England granted to his brother James, the Duke of York, the whole of
Long Island, all the islands in its neighborhood, and all the lands
and rivers from the west side of Connecticut river to the east side of
Delaware Bay. This sweeping grant included the whole of New
Netherland. This was emphatically expelling the Dutch from the New
World.
The first intimation Governor Stuyvesant received of this alarming
movement came to him from Boston. A young man, named Ford, brought the
tidings to New Amsterdam that a fleet of armed ships had sailed from
the naval depot in Portsmouth, England, to enter the Hudson river and
take possession of the whole territory. This intelligence created not
a little panic. The governor summoned his council, and it was decided
to exert every energy in fortifying the city. The hostile fleet might
make its appearance any day.
Money was raised. Powder was ordered from the forts on the Delaware.
Agents were sent to New Haven to purchase provisions. As it was
expected that the fleet would come through the Sound, agents were
stationed along the shore, to transmit the tidings of its approach, so
soon as the sails should be seen in the distant horizon. Several
vessels on the point of sailing with supplies to Curaçoa were
detained.
So secretly had the British government moved in this enterprise, that
the governmental authorities, in Holland, had not the slightest
suspicion of the peril to which their colony in New Netherland was
exposed. At the moment when all was agitation in New Amsterdam, and
every hand was busy preparing for the defence, Governor Stuyvesant
received dispatches from Holland, assuring him that no apprehension of
danger from England need be entertained.
"The king of England," it was said,
"is only desirous of reducing his colonies to uniformity in
Church and State. With this view he has dispatched some
commissioners with two or three frigates, to New England, to
introduce Episcopacy in that quarter."
It was supposed in Holland, that this intolerant policy would
strengthen the Dutch interests in America; that the religious freedom,
which the States-General insisted upon, would invite to New Netherland
from all the countries of Europe, those who were not willing to
conform to the doctrines and ritual of the Church of England.
Governor Stuyvesant, upon receiving these dispatches from the home
government, felt relieved of all anxiety. He had no doubt that the
previous rumor which had reached him was false. Neither he nor his
council anticipated any difficulty. The whole community indulged in
the sense of security. The work on the fortifications was stopped; the
vessels sailed to Curaçoa, and the governor went up the river to fort
Orange. A desolating war had broken out between the Indian tribes
there, which raged with such ferocity that the colonists were full of
alarm for their own lives and property.
But the English fleet was rapidly approaching. It consisted of four
frigates, containing in all an armament of ninety-four guns. This was
a force to which defenceless New Amsterdam could present no
resistance.
The fleet put into Boston the latter part of July, and the
commissioners applied to both Massachusetts and Connecticut for aid in
their military expedition against the Dutch. But the Puritans of
Massachusetts found innumerable obstacles in the way of rendering any
assistance. They feared that the king of England, having reduced the
Dutch, would be induced to extend his arbitrary sway, both civil and
religious, over those colonists who were exiles from their native
land, simply that they might enjoy freedom to worship God.
Connecticut, however, hoped that the conquest of New Netherland might
annex the magnificent domain to their own region. Governor Winthrop,
of Hartford, manifested so much alacrity in the cause, that he was
invited to meet the British squadron, at the west end of Long Island,
to which point it would sail with the first fair wind.
Colonel Richard Nicholls was in command of the expedition. Three
commissioners were associated with him. They had received instructions
to visit the several New England colonies, and to require them, "to
join and assist vigorously in reducing the Dutch to subjection." The
Duke of York, soon after the departure of the squadron, conveyed to
Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret all the territory between the
Hudson and Delaware rivers, from Cape May north to forty-one degrees
and forty minutes of latitude, "hereafter to be called Nova Cæsarea or
New Jersey."
A friend of Governor Stuyvesant, in Boston, sent word to New Amsterdam
of the arrival of the fleet and its destination. An express was
instantly dispatched to Albany to recall the Governor. He hurried back
to the capitol, much chagrined by the thought that he had lost three
weeks. Every able-bodied man was immediately summoned to work at the
city defences, "with spade, shovel and wheelbarrow." This working
party was divided into three classes, one of which was to labor every
day. A permanent guard was organized. The brewers were forbidden to
malt any more grain, that it all might be reserved for food. Six
pieces of cannon were added to the fourteen already mounted. The
garrison at Esopus was summoned to the defence.
About the 20th of August, the English squadron anchored in Nyack Bay,
just below the Narrows, between New Utrecht and Coney Island. A strict
blockade of the river was established. All communication between Long
Island and Manhattan was cut off. Several vessels were captured. Upon
Staten Island, about three miles from where the frigates rode at
anchor, there was a small fort, a block-house, about twenty feet
square. It had been constructed for defence against the savages. For
its armament it had two small guns, carrying one pound balls, and a
garrison of six old invalid soldiers. A party was sent on shore, in
the boats, which captured the fort and also a lot of cattle.
The next morning, which was Saturday, Colonel Nicholls sent a
delegation of four men up to fort Amsterdam, with a summons for the
surrender of "the town situated on the island commonly known by the
name of Manhattoes, with all the forts thereunto belonging." At the
same time proclamations were scattered abroad, forbidding the farmers
from furnishing any supplies to the Dutch garrison, under penalty of
having their houses fired. All the inhabitants of the surrounding
villages, who would quietly submit to his Britannic Majesty, were
promised the safe possession of their property. Those who should
otherwise demean themselves were threatened with all the miseries of
war.
Governor Stuyvesant had but one hundred soldiers in garrison. He could
not place much reliance upon the aid of undisciplined citizens. Still
his brave spirit was disposed to present a desperate resistance. He
called his council together, but was unwilling to have the people know
the nature of the summons, lest they should clamor for a surrender.
But the citizens held a meeting, voted in favor of non-resistance, and
demanded an authentic copy of the communication, which had been
received from the commander of the English fleet. They adjourned to
meet on Monday morning to receive the reply. Governor Stuyvesant was
greatly distressed. After the Sabbath he went to the meeting in
person, and endeavored to convince those present of the impropriety of
their demands. But the citizens, trembling in view of the bombardment
of the town, were in no mood to listen to his persuasions.
It was not needful for the English to be in any hurry. The prey was
entirely within their grasp. It will be remembered that Governor
Winthrop of Hartford, had joined the expedition. Colonel Nicholls
addressed a letter to Governor Winthrop, requesting him to visit the
city under a flag of truce, and communicate the contents to Governor
Stuyvesant. The Dutch governor came out of the fort to receive the
letter, and then returned into the fort to read it. The following was
the letter:
"Mr. Winthrop:--
"As to those particulars you spoke to me, I do assure you that if the
Manhadoes be delivered up to his Majesty, I shall not hinder but any
people from the Netherlands may freely come and plant there or
thereabouts. And such vessels of their own country, may freely come
thither. And any of them may as freely return home, in vessels of
their own country; and this and much more is contained in the
privilege of his Majesty's English subjects. This much you may, by
what means you please, assure the governor from, Sir, your
affectionate servant,
"Richard Nicholls.
"August 22, 1664. O.S."
The Council demanded that this letter should be exhibited to the
people. The governor refused, saying that it would be quite
unfavorable to the defence to communicate such intelligence to the
inhabitants. As the council persisted, the governor, in a passion,
tore up the letter and trampled it beneath, his feet. The rumor spread
rapidly that a flag of truce had come.
The citizens collected in a large and excited gathering, and sent a
delegation of three persons to demand of the governor the
communication which he had received from the hostile fleet. Threats
were uttered. Curses were heard. Resistance was declared to be
madness. The universal voice clamored for the letter. The community
was upon the eve of mutiny.
At length Stuyvesant yielded. A copy of the letter was made out from
the fragments, and it was read to the people. This increased their
disposition to capitulate. Still the indomitable governor could not
endure the thought of surrendering the majestic province of New
Netherland to a force of four frigates. He regarded the movement, on
the part of the English, as an atrocious act of highway robbery. But
he was well aware that there was no escape from the sacrifice.
In the night he sent a vessel, "silently through Hell Gate," to the
Directors in Holland, with the following laconic dispatch. "Long
Island is gone and lost. The capitol cannot hold out long." When a
man's heart is broken his words are few.
Much of the night the governor spent in drawing up a strong
remonstrance, in answer to the message of Colonel Nicholls. All the
argument was with the Dutch. All the force was with the English. But
when argument and force come into collision in this wicked world,
argument must generally yield.
In the very able manifesto of the governor, he traced the history of
the country from the earliest period to the present time. He deduced
the title of the Dutch, to the territory, from the three great
principles of Discovery, Settlement, and Purchase from the Indians. He
severely denounced the pretence, now put forth by the English, that
his, "Britannic Majesty had an indisputable right to all the lands in
the north parts of America." Courteously he added that he was
confident that if his Majesty had been well informed in the premises,
his high sense of justice would have dissuaded him from authorizing
the present hostile demonstration. In conclusion he said,
"In case you will act by force of arms, we protest before
God and man, that you will perform an act of unjust
violence. You will violate the articles of peace solemnly
ratified by his Majesty of England, and my Lords the
States-General. Again for the prevention of the spilling of
innocent blood, not only here but in Europe, we offer you a
treaty by our deputies. As regards your threats we have no
answer to make, only that we fear nothing but what God may
lay upon us. All things are at His disposal, and we can be
preserved by Him with small forces as well as by a great
army."
CHAPTER XIV.
THE CAPTURE OF NEW AMSTERDAM.
The Approach of the Fleet.--The Governor Unjustly
Censured.--The Flag of Truce.--The Haughty Response.--The
Remonstrance.--The Defenceless City.--The Surrender.--The
Expedition to the Delaware.--Sack and Plunder.--Change of
Name.--Testimony to the Dutch Government.--Death of the
Governor.--His farm, or Bouwerie.--War Between Holland and
England.--New York Menaced by the Dutch.
The only response which Colonel Nicholls deigned to make to the
remonstrance of Governor Stuyvesant, was to put his fleet in motion. A
party of soldiers, infantry and cavalry, was landed on Long Island,
and they advanced rapidly through the forest, to the little cluster of
huts which were scattered along the silent and solitary shores of
Brooklyn. These troops were generally volunteers from Connecticut and
from the English settlements on Long Island.
The fleet then ascended through the Narrows, and two of the frigates
disembarked a number of regular troops just below Brooklyn, to support
the volunteers. Two of the frigates, one mounting thirty-six guns, and
the other thirty, coming up under full sail, passed directly within
range of the guns of the fort, and cast anchor between the fort and
Nutten or Governor's Island.
Stuyvesant stood at one of the angles of the fortress as the frigates
passed by. It was a critical moment. The fate of the city and the
lives of its inhabitants trembled in the balance. The guns were loaded
and shotted, and the gunners stood by with their burning matches. A
word from the impetuous Stuyvesant would have opened upon the city all
the horrors of a bombardment. There were but about twenty guns in the
fort. There were sixty-six in the two frigates, whose portholes were
opened upon the city; and there were two other frigates just at hand,
prepared to bring twenty-eight guns more into the fray.
As Governor Stuyvesant stood at that point, burning with indignation,
with the word to fire almost upon his lips, the two clergymen of the
place, Messrs. Megapolensis and son, came up and entreated him not to
be the first to shed blood in a hopeless conflict. Their persuasions
induced the governor to leave the rampart, and intrusting the defence
of the fort to fifty men, to take the remainder of the garrison, one
hundred in number, to repel if possible, the English, should they
attempt a landing. The governor still cherished a faint hope that some
accommodation could yet be agreed upon.
The Directors in Holland subsequently, with great severity and, as we
think, with great injustice, censured Governor Stuyvesant for his
conduct on this occasion. The whole population of the little city was
but fifteen hundred. Of them not more than two hundred and fifty were
able to bear arms, in addition to the one hundred and fifty regular
troops in garrison. And yet the Directors in Holland wrote, in the
following cruel terms, to the heroic governor:
"It is an act which can never be justified, that a Director
General should stand between the gabions, while the hostile
frigates pass the fort, and the mouths of twenty pieces of
cannon, and yet give no orders to prevent it. It is
unpardonable that he should lend his ear to preachers, and
other chicken-hearted persons, demeaning himself as if he
were willing to fire, and yet to allow himself to be led in
from the bulwark between the preachers. When the frigates
had sailed past, he became so troubled that he must then
first go out to prevent their landing. The excuse, that it
was resolved not to begin hostilities, is very poor, for the
English had committed every hostile act."
The governor immediately sent to Colonel Nicholls a flag of truce
conveyed by four of the most distinguished officers of State. Through
them he said:
"I feel obliged to defend the city, in obedience to orders.
It is inevitable that much blood will be shed on the
occurrence of the assault. Cannot some accommodation yet be
agreed upon? Friends will be welcome if they come in a
friendly manner."
The laconic, decisive and insulting response of Colonel Nicholls was:
"I have nothing to do but to execute my mission. To
accomplish that I hope to have further conversation with you
on the morrow, at the Manhattans. You say that friends will
be welcome, if they come in a friendly manner. I shall come
with ships and soldiers. And he will be bold indeed who will
dare to come on board my ships, to demand an answer or to
solicit terms. What then is to be done? Hoist the white flag
of surrender, and then something may be considered."
When this imperious message became known it created the greatest
consternation throughout the city. Men, women and children flocked to
the governor, and, with tears in their eyes, implored him to submit. A
brief bombardment would cause the death of hundreds, and would lay the
city in ashes. "I had rather," the governor replied, "be carried a
corpse to my grave, than to surrender the city."
The civic authority, the clergy and the commanders of the Burgher
corps, promptly assembled in the City Hall and drew up the following
earnest remonstrance, which was immediately presented to the governor
and his council. We give it slightly abbreviated.
* * * * *
"Right Honorable! We, your sorrowful subjects, beg to
represent, in these sad circumstances, that having maturely
weighed what was necessary to be done, we cannot foresee,
for this fort and city of Manhattans, in further resistance,
aught else than misery, sorrow, and conflagration; the
dishonor of women, the murder of children, and in a word the
absolute ruin of fifteen hundred innocent souls, only two
hundred and fifty of whom are capable of bearing arms.
"You are aware that four of the English king's frigates are
now in the roadstead, with six hundred soldiers on board.
They have also commissions to all the governors of New
England, a populous and thickly inhabited country, to
impress troops, in addition to the forces already on board,
for the purpose of reducing New Netherland to his Majesty's
obedience.
"These threats we would not have regarded, could we expect
the smallest aid. But, God help us, where shall we turn for
assistance, to the north or to the south, to the east or to
the west? 'Tis all in vain. On all sides we are encompassed
and hemmed in by our enemies. If, on the other hand, we
examine our internal strength, alas! it is so feeble and
impotent that unless we ascribe the circumstance to the
mercy of God, we cannot sufficiently express our
astonishment that the foe should have granted us so long a
reprieve. He could have delivered us a prey to the soldiery
after one summons.
"We shall now examine your Honors' fortress. You know that
it is incapable of making head three days, against so
powerful an enemy. Even could it hold out one, two, three,
four, five or six months, which to our sorrow it cannot do,
it is still undeniable that it cannot save the smallest
portion of our entire city, our property and what is dearer
to us, our wives and children, from total ruin. And after
considerable bloodshed the fort itself could not be
preserved.
"Wherefore, to prevent the aforesaid misfortunes, we humbly,
and in bitterness of heart, implore your Honors not to
reject the conditions of so generous a foe, but to be
pleased to meet him in the speediest, best and most
reputable manner. Otherwise, which God forbid, we are
obliged to protest before God and the world; and to call
down upon your Honors the vengeance of Heaven for all the
innocent blood which shall be shed in consequence of your
Honors' obstinacy; inasmuch as the commissioners have this
day informed us that the English general has stated that he
shall not wait any longer than this day.
"We trust your Honors will not question that to God, who
seeks not the death of the sinner, belongs obedience rather
than to man. We feel certain that your Honors will exhibit
yourselves, in this pressing exigency and sorrowful season,
as men and christians, and conclude with God's help, an
honorable and reasonable capitulation. May the Lord our God
be pleased to grant this to us, Amen."
* * * * *
The above memorial was signed by ninety-four of the most prominent
citizens of New Amsterdam. One of these signers was the governor's
son. All our readers will perceive that the situation of the governor
had become one of extreme difficulty. A fleet and army of great
strength for the time and the occasion were before him. This force
held in reserve the whole military power of New England. The civic
officers and citizens of New Amsterdam, headed by the governor's own
son, were loud in their remonstrance against any defence, and were
almost in a state of mutiny.
The condition of the city was such that the idea of standing a siege
was not for a moment to be thought of. Along the banks of the North
and East rivers, the village, for the little cluster of three hundred
houses was but a village, was entirely exposed. Upon the land side,
running from river to river, there was a slight fence composed of old
and decayed palisades, which scores of years before had been a
protection against the savages. In front of this fence there were the
remains of a storm-washed breastwork, about three feet high and two
feet wide.
The crumbling fort was pronounced by all to be untenable. It was
originally constructed as a retreat from the savages, who could only
assail it with arrows and hatchets and a few musket balls. It was
surrounded by an earthen rampart, about ten feet high and three or
four feet thick. In all, there were twenty-four cannons within the
enclosure, which was unprotected by any ditch or palisades. In the
rear, where the throngs of Broadway now press along, there was a
series of forest-crowned eminences whose solitary summits were
threaded by an Indian trail. These hills commanded the fort. From
their crests the soles of the feet, it was said, of those walking in
the squares within, could be seen. There were not five hundred pounds
of powder in store fit for use. The gunners declared that a few hours
of fighting would exhaust it all. The stock of provisions was equally
low, and there was not a well of water within the fort.
It is probable that the majority of common soldiers, in almost any
regular army, is composed of dissolute worthless men. There are but
few persons but the lost and the reckless who will enlist to spend
their days in shouldering a musket. A young man of good character can
do better than convert himself into a part of such a military machine.
The garrison at New Amsterdam was composed of the off-scouring of
Europe. They were ready to fight under any banner which would pay
them. They were eager for the conflict with the English. At the first
volley they would throw aside their guns and join the English in the
plunder. One of them was heard saying to an applauding group:
"Now we hope for a chance to pepper these devilish Dutch
traders. They have salted us too long. We know where their
booty is stored. And we know also where the young girls live
who wear gold chains."
Under these circumstances the governor was compelled to yield. He
appointed six commissioners to confer with the same number of the
English. The parties met at Governor Stuyvesant's residence on his
farm or bouwerie, at eight o'clock in the morning of August 27th. The
terms were speedily settled, for the English would enforce any demands
which they were disposed to make. There were twenty-three articles of
agreement, entering into many details. The substance was that New
Netherland passed over entirely to the English. The Dutch retained
their property. If any chose to leave the country they could do so.
The ships of the Dutch merchants could, for the six months next
ensuing, trade freely with the Netherlands, as heretofore. The people
were to be allowed liberty of conscience in divine worship and church
discipline. No Dutchman should be impressed to serve in war against
any nation whatever. All the inferior civil officers were allowed to
continue in office until the next election, when they would be
required to take the oath of allegiance to the king of England.
The next day was Sunday. These articles were therefore not ratified
until eight o'clock Monday morning. It was agreed that within two
hours after the ratification, "the fort and town called New Amsterdam,
upon the island of Manhatoes," should be delivered up. The military
officers of the fort, and the soldiers were to be permitted to march
from their intrenchments with their arms, drums beating and colors
flying.
Colonel Nicholls took possession of the government. He changed the
name of the city from New Amsterdam to New York, in honor of the Duke
of York, the brother of the King of England. The fort was called fort
James. Colonel Nicholls became the deputy governor for James, the Duke
of York, in administering the affairs of the extended realms which the
British government had thus perfidiously seized. We regret to say, but
history will bear us out in the assertion, that there is no government
in Christendom whose annals are sullied with so many acts of
unmitigated villany as the government of Great Britain.
Colonel Nicholls immediately sent an armed force up the river, to take
possession of fort Orange; and another to the Delaware, to unfurl the
English flag over New Amstel. The name of fort Orange was changed to
fort Albany, the second title of the Duke of York. Three frigates were
sent to the Delaware. The severest punishment was denounced against
the Dutch and Swedes there, should they make any resistance. The same
terms were offered them which were granted to the people at New
Amsterdam.
The command of this expedition was entrusted to Sir Robert Carr.
Notwithstanding the sacred stipulations into which Carr had entered,
he trampled them all beneath his feet. Governor Stuyvesant writes,
"At New Amstel, on the South river, notwithstanding they
offered no resistance, but demanded good treatment, which
however they did not obtain, they were invaded, stript bare,
plundered, and many of them sold as slaves in Virginia."
This testimony is corroborated by a London document, which says,
"From the city and the inhabitants thereabout were taken one
hundred sheep, thirty or forty horses, fifty or sixty cows
and oxen, between sixty and seventy negroes, the brew-house
still-house and all the material thereunto belonging. The
produce of the land, such as corn, hay, etc., was also
seized for the king's use, together with the cargo that was
unsold, and the bills of what had been disposed of, to the
value of four thousand pounds sterling.
"The Dutch soldiers were taken prisoners, and given up to
the merchant-man that was there, in payment for his
services; and they were transported into Virginia to be
sold. All sorts of tools for handicraft tradesmen, and all
plough gear, and other things to cultivate the ground, which
were in store in great quantity, were likewise seized,
together with a sawmill ready to set up, and nine sea buoys
with their iron chains.
"Even the inoffensive Menonists, though thoroughly
non-combatant from principle, did not escape the sack and
plunder to which the whole river was subjected by Carr and
his co-marauders. A boat was dispatched to their settlement,
which was stripped of everything, even to a very nail."
At New Amsterdam, Colonel Nicholls paid more respect to the terms of
the treaty. Citizens, residing there, were not robbed of their private
property. But the gentlemen of the West India Company, in Holland,
found all their property mercilessly confiscated. Colonel Nicholls
seized on everything upon which he could lay his hand. He seemed
anxious to eradicate every vestige of the former power. This property
was sold at auction that it might thus be distributed among a large
number of individual owners. The Colonel shrewdly imagined that he
might thus interest all these persons in the maintenance of the new
power.
History has but one voice, and that of the severest condemnation, in
reference to these transactions on the part of the English government.
Mr. O'Callaghan writes:
"Thus was fitly consummated an act of spoliation which, in a
period of profound peace, wrested this province from the
rightful owners, by violating all public justice and
infringing all public law. The only additional outrage that
remained was to impose on the country the name of one
unknown in history, save as a bigot and a tyrant, the enemy
of religious and political freedom wherever he ruled. New
Netherland was accordingly called New York."
Hon. Benjamin F. Butler, in his outline of the State of New York
writes, "In the history of the royal ingrates by whom it was planned
and for whose benefit it was perpetrated, there are few acts more
base, none more characteristic."
Mr. Brodhead, in his admirable History of the State of New York, says,
"The flag of England was, at length, triumphantly displayed
where for half a century that of Holland had triumphantly
waved; and from Virginia to Canada, the king of Great
Britain was acknowledged as sovereign. Whatever may have
been its ultimate consequences, this treacherous and violent
seizure of the territory and possessions of an unsuspecting
ally, was no less a breach of private justice than of public
faith. It may indeed be affirmed that, among all the acts of
selfish perfidy which royal ingratitude conceived and
executed, there have been few more characteristic and none
more base."
Thus the Dutch dominion in North America passed forever away. I cannot
refrain from quoting the just tribute to the Dutch government
contained in Mr. Brodhead's History. "Holland," he writes,
"has long been the theme for the ridicule of British
writers; and even in this country the character and manners
of the Dutch have been made the subjects of an unworthy
depreciation. Yet, without undervaluing others, it may
confidently be claimed that, to no nation in the world is
the Republic of the West more indebted than to the United
Provinces, for the idea of the confederation of sovereign
States; for noble principles of constitutional freedom; for
magnanimous sentiments of religious toleration; for
characteristic sympathy with subjects of oppression; for
liberal doctrines in trade and commerce; for illustrious
patterns of public integrity and private virtue, and for
generous and timely aid in the establishment of
independence. Nowhere among the people of the United States
can men be found excelling in honesty, industry, courtesy or
accomplishment, the posterity of the early Dutch settlers of
New Netherland."
Soon after the surrender, Governor Stuyvesant was recalled to Europe
to vindicate his conduct. The severest charges were brought against
him. He addressed to the States-General an "Account of the
Circumstances preceding the surrender of New Netherland." It was a
triumphant vindication of his conduct. But the unfortunate are rarely
treated with justice. The pride of Holland was deeply touched by the
loss of its North American possessions. Governor Stuyvesant soon
returned to New York, and lived in much seclusion in his spacious
house on his farm, until he died, in the year 1672. The governor's
remains were entombed at his chapel in the Bouwery, now St. Mark's
Church.
There were two roads which led from the fort at the Battery, to the
northern part of the island. One of these followed along the present
line of Broadway to what is now the Park, which was at that time a
large unenclosed open field far out of town called the Common. The
road then wound along by the southeastern side of the common and by
the line of Chatham street and the Bouwery out to Harlaem. This became
eventually the "Old Post Road" to Boston. Governor Stuyvesant's
Bouwery consisted of many acres of land. The farm embraced the land in
the region of Third avenue and Thirteenth street. In the spring of
1647, a pear tree was planted upon this spot, which was long known as
"Stuyvesant's pear tree." For more than two centuries it continued to
bear fruit. In its latter years, this venerable relic of the past was
cherished with the utmost care. It presented many touching indications
of its extreme old age. In its two hundred and twentieth year it
bloomed for the last time. "Since the fall of the tree," writes Mr.
Stone, "a promising shoot from the ancient stock has taken its place,
and shows a hardy vigor which may yet enable it to rival its
progenitor in age."
In the year 1665, the year which followed the capture of the city, war
broke out between England and Holland. It was then generally expected
that the States of Holland would make an attempt to recover the lost
territory of New Netherland. It was rumored that De Ruyter, one of the
Dutch Admirals, had actually set sail, with a large squadron, for New
York. The rumor caused great commotion in the city. The national
spirit of the Dutch residents was roused to intensity. De Ruyter had
indeed sailed with the object of recapturing the province.
Colonel Nicholls was a man of great energy. He immediately commenced
with all vigor, the work of repairing the crumbling fortifications,
and of erecting new ones. But he found none to co-operate heartily
with him, save the few English soldiers, whose bayonets held the
conquered province in subjection. A meeting of all the Dutch
inhabitants was called to ascertain the tone of public sentiment, and
to endeavor to inspire the community with some enthusiasm for the
defence.
But no enthusiasm was elicited. The Dutch were not at all unwilling
that their countrymen should come back and reclaim their own. Even to
defend themselves from the humiliation of conquest, by their English
assailants, they had not been willing to submit to a bombardment. Much
less were they now willing to subject themselves to the horrors of
war, when the flag of Holland was approaching for their deliverance.
They did not venture however, openly to oppose the ruler whom the
fortunes of war had set over them, or to express sympathy for the
success of the approaching fleet, which might be pronounced treason,
and might expose them to severe punishment.
They contented themselves with manifesting entire indifference, or in
offering sundry excuses. They very sensibly assumed the ground that
they were a feeble defenceless colony, far away in the wilderness,
entirely unable to cope with the forces which the great maritime
powers of England or Holland might send against them. When an English
fleet opened the portholes of its broadsides upon their little
village, they could do nothing but surrender. Should a fleet from
Holland now anchor in their waters they must let events take their
natural course.
Colonel Nicholls, as governor, had gifts of honor and opulence in his
hands. As was to have been expected, there were a few Dutch citizens
who were eager to gratify the governor by co-operating with him in all
his plans. This number, however, was small. The great mass of the
citizens assumed an air of indifference, while, in heart, they longed
for the appearance of the Dutch fleet in such strength as to render
resistance impossible.
But either the storms of the ocean, or some other engagements,
arrested the progress of the squadron, until after the rupture between
England and Holland was temporarily healed. Colonel Nicholls remained
in command at New York about four years. His administration was as
popular as could reasonably have been expected under the
circumstances. He gradually relaxed the severity of his rule, and
wisely endeavored to promote the prosperity of the colony. The
conquest had retarded the tide of emigration from Holland, and had
given a new impulse to that from England. The Dutch gradually became
reconciled to his rule. They enjoyed all the rights and immunities
which were conferred upon any of the subjects of England in her
American colonies. Out of respect to the governor they organized two
militia companies, the officers of which were from the most
distinguished of the Dutch citizens, and they received their
commissions from him.
In August of 1668, Colonel Nicholls, at his own request, was recalled,
and he returned to England. The Dutch did not love him, for they never
could forget the circumstances under which he had conquered their
province. But he had won their respect. As he embarked for the shores
of England the great body of the citizens complimented him by a
respectful leave-taking.
Colonel Nicholls was succeeded in the government of the province, by
Colonel Francis Lovelace. He was an English officer of respectable
abilities, and of worthy character. Under his sway, New York for five
years, until 1673, enjoyed prosperity and peace. New agitations then
took place.
The peace, of which we have spoken, between England and Holland, was
of but transient duration. In 1672 war was again declared by England.
The conflict which ensued was mainly upon the ocean. New York had so
grown since its conquest by the English, and could so easily be
reinforced by almost any number of men from populous New England, that
the Dutch did not think that there was any chance of their then being
able to regain the colony. They, however, fitted out a fleet of five
ships, to cruise along the coast of North America, destroy the
English, and inflict such injury upon any and all of the English
colonies as might be in their power.
Governor Lovelace had no idea that any Dutch ships would venture
through the Narrows. He made no special effort to strengthen the
defences of New York. Early in February he went to Westchester county,
to visit at the residence of his friend Mr. Pell. This was quite a
journey in those days. The command of the fort was entrusted, during
his absence to Captain John Manning.
A vessel entered the port, bringing the intelligence that a Dutch
fleet had been seen off the coast of Virginia, sailing in the
direction of New York. This created great commotion. A dispatch was
sent, in the utmost haste, to the governor, summoning his return. He
promptly mustered, for the defence, all the forces he could raise in
the city and neighboring counties, and soon five hundred armed men
were parading the streets of New York.
It proved a false dream. No enemy appeared. The troops were disbanded.
They returned to their homes. The community was lulled into a very
false sense of security. In July, the governor again was absent, on a
visit to Connecticut. On the 29th of July the Dutch fleet appeared at
Sandy Hook, and, learning from some of the inhabitants of Long Island,
whose sympathies were still cordially with the fatherland, that the
city was entirely defenceless and could easily be taken, ventured to
try the experiment. They had not approached the bay with any such
design. They had supposed their force entirely inadequate for so
important a capture. The fleet quietly sailed up the bay and, as the
English fleet had done but a few years before, anchored opposite the
Battery, and turned their broadsides towards the city.
Colonel Manning sent a hurried despatch to the governor, who could by
no possibility return for several days, and fluttered about in the
attempt to beat up recruits. But no recruits were forthcoming. The
sight of the flag of Holland, again triumphantly floating in the
harbor, was joyful to many eyes.
The great majority of the people, in the city and in the country, were
of Dutch descent. Consequently the recruiting parties which were
raised, were in no mood to peril their lives in defence of the flag of
England. Indeed it is said that one party of the recruits marched to
the Battery and deliberately spiked several of the guns, opposite the
City-hall.
It was a most singular revolution of the wheel of fortune. Captain
Manning had but fifty soldiers within the fort. None of these were
willing to fight. One-half of them were such raw recruits that captain
Manning said that they had never put their heads over the ramparts. A
few broadsides from the Dutch fleet would dismount every gun in the
fort, and put to flight all the defenders who should survive the
volley. This was alike obvious to the assailants and the assailed.
CHAPTER XV.
THE FINAL SURRENDER.
The Summons.--The Bombardment.--Disembarkation of the Land
Force.--Indecision of Captain Manning.--The
Surrender.--Short Administration of the Dutch.--Social
Customs.--The Tea Party.--Testimony of Travellers.--Visit to
Long Island.--Fruitfulness of the Country.--Exploration of
Manhattan Island.
The Dutch ships, having anchored and prepared themselves for the
immediate opening of the bombardment, a boat was sent on shore with a
flag of truce, to demand the surrender of the city. At the same time a
boat was sent by Colonel Manning, from the fort to the ships. The
boats passed each other without any interchange of words. Colonel
Manning's boat bore simply the message to the Dutch Admirals, "Why do
you come in such a hostile manner to disturb his Majesty's subjects in
this place?" As England and Holland were then engaged in open war, one
would hardly think that such an inquiry was then called for. When
Colonel Nicholls came to New Amsterdam with his English fleet, the two
nations were in friendly alliance. Such a question then would have
been very appropriate.
The boat from the Dutch fleet bore a flag of truce at its stern, and
was accompanied by a trumpeter, who asked for the English officer in
command and presented the following message to Colonel Manning:
"The force of war, now lying in your sight, is sent by the
High and Mighty States-General and his serene Highness the
Prince of Orange, for the purpose of destroying their
enemies. We have sent you therefore, this letter, together
with our trumpeter, to the end that, upon the sight hereof,
you surrender unto us the fort called James, promising good
quarter; or by your refusal we shall be obliged to proceed,
both by land and water, in such manner as we shall find to
be most advantageous for the High and Mighty States."
Captain Manning returned an answer simply acknowledging the receipt of
the message, and informing the Dutch Admirals that he had already
dispatched officers to communicate with him. He promised upon the
return of those messengers to give a definite reply to his summons.
The Dutch Admirals, Benckes and Evertson, were not disposed to waste
any time in parleying. They probably remembered the circumstances
under which the province of New Netherland had been wrested from them
by its present possessors, and they rejoiced that the hour of
retribution had thus unexpectedly come.
They therefore sent back word that their batteries were loaded and
shotted and ready to open fire; that one half hour and one half hour
only, would be granted for deliberation; that immediately upon the
arrival of the boat at the fort the half hour glass would be turned
up; and that if, when its last sands fell, the white flag of surrender
were not raised upon the fort, the bombardment would be commenced.
The last sands fell and no white flag appeared. Instantly the thunder
of a cannon echoed over the bay, and a storm of iron hail came
crashing upon the frail fort, killing and wounding a number of men.
Volley after volley succeeded without any intermission. Captain
Manning made no attempt to return the fire. He and his powerless
garrison hurried to places of safety, leaving the ramparts to be
ploughed up and the barracks to be battered down without any
resistance.
While this cannonade was going on, the Dutch Admirals manned their
boats with a land force of six hundred men, and they were disembarked
upon the shore of the island without encountering any foe. The little
band of English soldiers was powerless, and the Dutch inhabitants were
much more disposed to welcome their countrymen as deliverers than to
oppose them as enemies. These Dutch troops were armed with hand
grenades and such other weapons as were deemed necessary to take the
place by storm. Rapidly they marched through the fields to the Common,
now called the Park. It was, as we have mentioned, nearly a mile north
from the fort.
Here they formed in column to march upon the town, under their leader,
Captain Colve. The English commander, Captain Manning, sent three of
his subordinate officers, without any definite message, to Captain
Colve, to talk over the question of a capitulation. It would seem that
Captain Manning was quite incompetent for the post he occupied. He was
bewildered and knew not what to do. As his envoys had no proposals to
make, two of them were detained and held under the Dutch standard,
while the third, Captain Carr, was sent back to inform the English
commander that if in one quarter of an hour the place were not
surrendered, it would be taken by storm. In the meantime the troops
were put upon the march.
Captain Carr, aware of the indecision of Captain Manning and of the
personal peril he, as an Englishman, would encounter, with six hundred
Dutch soldiers sweeping the streets, burning with the desire to avenge
past wrongs, did not venture back into the town with his report, but
fled into the interior of the island. The troops pressed on to the
head of Broadway, where a trumpeter was sent forward to receive the
answer to the summons which it was supposed had been made. He speedily
returned, saying that the commander of the fort had, as yet, obtained
no answer from the commissioners he had sent to receive from the Dutch
commander his propositions.
Captain Colve supposed that he was trifled with. Indignantly he
exclaimed "They are not to play the fool with us in this way, forward
march." With the beat of drums and trumpet peals and waving banners
his solid columns marched down the Broadway road to the little cluster
of about three hundred houses, at the extreme southern point of the
island. An army of six hundred men at that time and place presented a
very imposing and terrible military array. In front of his troops the
two commissioners who had been detained, were marched under guard.
As they approached the fort, Captain Manning sent another flag of
truce to the Dutch commander, with the statement that he was ready to
surrender the fort with all its arms and ammunition, if the officers
and soldiers were permitted to march out with their private property
and to the music of their band. These terms were acceded to. The
English troops, with no triumphal strains, vacated the fort. The Dutch
banners soon waved from the ramparts, cheered by the acclaim of the
conquerors.
Captain Manning was, in his turn, as severely censured by the people
of the English colonies in America, and by the home government, as
Governor Stuyvesant had been on the day of his misfortune. English
pride was grievously mortified, that the commandant of an English fort
should allow himself to be fired upon for hours without returning a
shot.
The unfortunate captain was subsequently tried by court-martial for
cowardice and treachery. He was condemned. His sword was broken over
his head and he was declared incompetent forever to hold any station
of trust or authority under the government. Governor Lovelace was
condemned for neglect of duty. He received a severe reprimand, and all
his property was confiscated to the Duke of York.
The victorious Dutch commanders appointed Captain Colve as governor of
recaptured New Netherland. With great energy he commenced his rule.
The name of New York was changed to New Orange, and fort James became
fort Hendrick. Work was immediately commenced upon the fortifications,
and large sums of money were expended upon them, so that within two
months they were deemed so strong that it was thought that no English
fleet would dare to venture within range of their guns. The whole city
assumed the aspect of a military post. Nearly every citizen was
trained to arms. The Common, now the Park, was the parade ground where
the troops were daily drilled. It was very firmly resolved that the
city should not again surrender without the firing of a gun.
The municipal institutions were all re-organized to conform to those
of the fatherland. This second administration of the Dutch was of but
short duration. On the 9th of January, 1674, but about three months
after the re-capture of the city, a treaty of peace was signed between
England and Holland. The sixth article of this treaty read as follows,
"Whatsoever countries, islands, ports, towns, castles or
forts have been taken on both sides, since the time that the
late unhappy war broke out, either in Europe or elsewhere,
shall be restored to the former lord or proprietor in the
same condition they shall be in when peace itself shall be
proclaimed."
Several months however transpired before the actual re-surrender of
the city to the English. On the 10th of November 1674, a little more
than one year after the capture of the city by the Dutch, this change
took place. Mr. David V. Valentine writes:
"This event was not distasteful to the great body of the
citizens, whose national sentiment had, in a measure, given
way before the obvious advantages to their individual
interests of having a settled authority established over
them, with the additional privilege of English institutions
which were then considered of a liberal tendency."
In conclusion, we have but a few words to say respecting the manners
and customs in the thriving little village of New York, in these
primitive days. People were then, to say the least, as happy as they
are now. Food was abundant, and New York was far-famed for its cordial
hospitality. Days of recreation were more abundant than now. The
principal social festivals were "quilting," "apple paring" and
"husking." Birthdays, christenings, and marriage anniversaries were
also celebrated with much festivity. Upon most of these occasions
there was abundant feasting. Dancing was the favorite amusement, with
which the evening was almost invariably terminated. In this busy
community the repose of the night was necessary to prepare for the
labors of the ensuing day. The ringing of the nine o'clock bell was
the signal for all to retire.
A mild form of negro slavery existed in those days. The slaves danced
to the music of their rude instruments in the markets. The young men
and maidens often met on the Bowling green and danced around the May
pole. Turkey shooting was a favorite amusement, which usually took
place on the Common. New Year's Day was devoted to the interchange of
visits. Every door was thrown open, and all guests were welcome,
friends as well as strangers, as at a Presidential levee. This custom
of olden time has passed down to us from our worthy Dutch
predecessors. Dinner parties were unknown. But tea-parties, with the
ladies, were very common.
"To take tea out," writes Mr. William L. Stone, in his interesting
History of New York,
"was a Dutch institution, and one of great importance. The
matrons, arrayed in their best petticoats and linsey
jackets, home-spun by their own wheels, would proceed on the
intended afternoon visit. They wore capacious pockets, with
scissors, pin-cushion and keys hanging from their girdle,
outside of their dress; and reaching the neighbor's house
the visitors industriously used knitting needles and tongues
at the same time. The village gossip was talked over;
neighbors' affairs settled, and the stockings finished by
tea-time, when the important meal appeared on the table,
precisely at six o'clock.
"This was always the occasion for the display of the family
plate, with the Lilliputian cups, of rare old family china,
out of which the guests sipped the fragrant herb. A large
lump of loaf sugar invariably accompanied each cup, on a
little plate, and the delightful beverage was sweetened by
an occasional nibble, amid the more solid articles of
waffles and Dutch doughnuts. The pleasant visit finished,
the visitors donning cloaks and hoods, as bonnets were
unknown, proceeded homeward in time for milking and other
necessary household duties.
"The kitchen fire-places were of immense size large enough
to roast a whole sheep. The hooks and trammels sustained
large iron pots and kettles. In the spacious chimney-corners
the children and negroes gathered, telling stories and
cracking nuts by the blazing pine-knots, while the
industrious _vrows_ turned the merry spinning-wheel, and
their lords, the worthy burghers, mayhap just returned from
an Indian scrimmage, quietly smoked their long pipes, as
they sat watching the wreaths curling above their heads. At
length the clock with its brazen tongue having proclaimed
the hour of nine, family prayers were said, and all retired,
to rise with the dawn."
In the summer of 1679, but five years after the final accession of New
Netherland by the English, two gentlemen from Holland, as the
committee of a religious sect, visited the Hudson river, to report
respecting the condition of the country, and to select a suitable
place for the establishment of a colony. They kept a minute journal of
their daily adventures. From their narrative one can obtain a very
vivid picture of New York life two hundred years ago.
On Saturday, the 23d day of September, they landed at New York, and
found it a very strange place. A fellow passenger, whose name was
Gerritt, and who was on his return from Europe, resided in New York.
He took the travellers to the house of one of his friends, where they
were regaled with very luscious peaches, and apples far better than
any they had seen in Holland. They took a walk out into the fields and
were surprised to see how profusely the orchards wore laden with
fruit. They took up lodgings with the father-in-law of their
fellow-traveller, and in the evening were regaled with rich milk. The
next day was Sunday.
"We walked awhile," they write,
"in the pure mountain air, along the margin of the clear
running water of the sea, which is driven up this river at
every tide. We went to church and found truly there a wild
worldly people. I say wild, not only because the people are
wild, as they call it in Europe, but because most all the
people who go there, partake somewhat of the nature of the
country; that is peculiar to the land where they live."
The preacher did not please them. "He used such strange gestures and
language," writes one of them, "that I think I never in my life heard
anything more miserable. As it is not strange in these countries, to
have men as ministers, who drink, we could imagine nothing else than
that he had been drinking a little this morning. His text was _Come
unto me all ye, etc._; but he was so rough that the roughest and most
godless of our sailors were astonished.
"The church being in the fort, we had an opportunity to look
through the latter, as we had come too early for preaching.
The fort is built upon the point formed by the two rivers,
namely the East river, which is the water running between
the Manhattans and Long Island, and the North river, which
runs straight up to fort Orange. In front of the fort there
is a small island called Nut Island. Around the point of
this vessels must sail in going out or in, whereby they are
compelled to pass close by the point of the fort, where they
can be flanked by several of the batteries. It has only one
gate and that is on the land side, opening upon a broad lane
or street, called the Broadway."
They went to church again in the afternoon. "After preaching," they
write,
"the good old people with whom we lodged, who, indeed if
they were not the best on all the Manhattan, were at least
among the best, especially the wife, begged we would go with
their son Gerrit, to one of their daughters who lived in a
delightful place and kept a tavern, where we would be able
to taste the beer of New Netherland. So we went, for the
purpose of seeing what was to be seen. But when we arrived
there we were much deceived. On account of its being, to
some extent, a pleasant spot, it was resorted to on Sundays
by all sorts of revellers and was a low pothouse. It being
repugnant to our feelings to be there, we walked into the
orchard, to seek pleasure in contemplating the innocent
objects of nature. A great storm of rain coming up in the
evening, we retraced our steps in the dark, exploring our
way through a salt meadow, and over water upon the trunk of
a tree."
On Thursday the 26th, our two travellers, at two o'clock in the
afternoon, crossed East river to visit Long Island. The fare in the
ferry-boat, which was rowed across, was three stivers, less than half
a cent of our money, for each person. They climbed the hill and walked
along through an open road and a little woods to "the first village,
called Breukelen, which has a small and ugly little church in the
middle of the road." The island was then mostly inhabited by Indians.
There were several flourishing farms in the vicinity of Brooklyn,
which they visited and where they were bountifully regaled with milk,
cider, fruit, tobacco and "first and most of all, miserable rum,
brought from Barbadoes, and which is called by the Dutch _kill
devil_."
The peach orchards were breaking down beneath the burden of luscious
fruit. They often could not step without trampling upon the peaches,
and yet the trees were full as they could bear. Though the swine were
fattened upon them, still large numbers perished upon the ground. In
the evening they went on to a place called Gouanes, where they were
very hospitably entertained. It was a chill evening, and they found a
brilliant fire of hickory wood crackling upon the hearth.
"There had already been thrown upon it," they write,
"a pail full of Gouanes oysters, which are the best in the
country. They are large, some of them not less than a foot
long, and they grow, sometimes ten, twelve and sixteen
together, and are then like a piece of rock. We had for
supper a roasted haunch of venison which weighed thirty
pounds, and which he had bought of the Indians for fifteen
cents. The meat was exceedingly tender and good and quite
fat. We were served also with wild turkey, which was also
fat and of a good flavor, and a wild goose. Everything we
had was the natural production of the country. We saw lying
in a heap, a hill of watermelons as large as pumpkins. It
was late at night when we went to rest, in a Kermis bed, as
it is called, in the corner of the hearth, alongside of a
good fire."
"The next morning they threaded their way through the
forest, and along the shore to the extreme west end of the
island, where fort Hamilton now stands. They passed through
a large plantation, of the Najack Indians, which was waving
with corn. A noise of pounding drew them to a place where a
very aged Indian woman was beating beans out of the pods
with a stick, which she did with amazing dexterity. Near by
was the little cluster of houses of the dwindling tribe. The
village consisted of seven or eight huts, occupied by
between twenty and thirty Indians, men, women and children.
"These huts were about sixty feet long and fifteen wide. The
floor was of earth. The posts were large limbs of trees,
planted firmly in the ground. The sides were of reeds and
the bark of trees. An open space, about six inches wide, ran
along the whole length of the roof, for the passage of
smoke. On the sides the roof was so low that a man could not
stand under it.
"They build their fire in the middle of the floor, according
to the number of families which live in the hut; not only
the families themselves, but each Indian alone, according as
he is hungry, at all hours morning, noon and night. They lie
upon mats with their feet towards the fire. All in one
house, are generally of one stock, as father and mother,
with their offspring. Their bread is maize, pounded by a
stone, which is mixed with water and baked under the hot
ashes.
"They gave us a small piece when we entered; and although
the grains were not ripe, and it was half-baked and coarse
grains, we nevertheless had to eat it, or at least not throw
it away before them, which they would have regarded as a
great sin, or a great affront. We chewed a little of it with
long teeth, and managed to hide it so that they did not see
it.
"On Wednesday a farmer harnessed his horse to a wagon and
carried them back to the city. The road led through the
forest and over very rough and stony hills, making the ride
quite uncomfortable. Passing again through the little
village of _Breukelen_, they crossed the ferry and reached
home about noon. On Friday they took an exploring tour
through the island of Manhattan. Their pleasant description
is worth transcribing.
"This island is about seven hours distance in length, but it
is not a full hour broad. The sides are indented with bays,
coves and creeks. It is almost entirely taken up, that is
the land is held by private owners, but not half of it is
cultivated. Much of it is good woodland. The west end, on
which the city lies, is entirely cleared, for more than an
hour's distance, though that is the poorest ground; the best
being on the east and north side. There are many brooks of
fresh water running through it, pleasant and proper for man
and beast to drink; as well as agreeable to behold,
affording cool and pleasant resting places, but especially
suitable places for the construction of mills, for though
there is no overflow of water, it can be used.
"A little east of New Harlaem, there are two ridges of very
high rocks, with a considerable space between them,
displaying themselves very majestically, and inviting all
men to acknowledge in them the grandeur, power and glory of
the Creator, who has impressed such marks upon them. Between
them runs the road to _Spuyt den Duyvel_. The one to the
north is the most apparent. The south ridge is covered with
earth on its north side, but it can be seen from the water
or from the mainland beyond to the south. The soil between
these ridges is very good, though a little hilly and stony.
It would be very suitable, in my opinion, for planting
vineyards, in consequence of its being shut off on both
sides, from the winds which would most injure them; and it
is very warm. We found blue grapes along the road, which
were very good and sweet, and as good as any I have tasted
in the fatherland.
"We went from the city, following the Broadway, over the
valley or the fresh water. Upon both sides of this way there
were many habitations of negroes, mulattoes and whites. The
negroes were formerly the slaves of the West India Company.
But, in consequence of the frequent changes and conquests of
the country, they have obtained their freedom, and settled
themselves down where they thought proper, and thus on this
road, where they have grown enough to live on with their
families. We left the village called Bowery on the right
hand, and went through the woods to Harlaem, a tolerably
large village situated directly opposite the place where the
northeast creek and the East river come together. It is
about three hours' journey from New Amsterdam."
From the account which these gentlemen give, the morals of the people
certainly do not appear to have been essentially better than now. They
passed the night at the house of the sheriff. "This house was
constantly filled with people all the time drinking, for the most
part, that execrable rum. He had also the best cider we have tasted.
Among the crowd we found a person of quality, an Englishman, named
Captain Carteret, whose father is in great favor with the king. The
king has given his father, Sir George Carteret, the entire government
of the lands west of the North river in New Netherland, with power to
appoint as governor whom he pleases.
"This son is a very profligate person. He married a
merchant's daughter here, and has so lived with his wife
that her father has been compelled to take her home again.
He runs about among the farmers and stays where he can find
most to drink, and sleeps in barns on the straw. If he
conducted himself properly, he could be, not only governor
here, but hold higher positions, for he has studied the
moralities and seems to have been of a good understanding.
But that is all now drowned. His father, who will not
acknowledge him as his son, allows him yearly as much only
as is necessary for him to live on."
Saturday morning they set out from Harlaem village to go to the
northern extremity of the island.
"Before we left we did not omit supplying ourselves with
peaches, which grew in an orchard along the road. The whole
ground was covered with them and with apples lying upon the
new grain with which the orchard was planted. The peaches
were the most delicious we had yet eaten. We proceeded on
our way and when we were not far from the point of _Spuyt
den Duyvel_, we could see on our left the rocky cliffs of
the mainland, and on the other side of the North river these
cliffs standing straight up and down, with the grain just as
if they were antimony.
"We crossed over the _Spuyt den Duyvel_ in a canoe, and paid
nine stivers fare for us three, which was very dear.[12] We
followed the opposite side of the land and came to the house
of one Valentyn. He had gone to the city; but his wife was
so much rejoiced to see Hollanders that she hardly knew what
to do for us. She set before us what she had. We left after
breakfasting there. Her son showed us the way, and we came
to a road entirely covered with peaches. We asked a boy why
he let them lie there and why he did not let the hogs eat
them. He answered 'We do not know what to do with them;
there are so many. The hogs are satiated with them and will
not eat any more.'
"We pursued our way now a small distance, through the woods
and over the hills, then back again along the shore to a
point where an English man lived, who was standing ready to
cross over. He carried us over with him and refused to take
any pay for our passage, offering us at the same time, some
of his rum, a liquor which is everywhere. We were now again
at Harlaem, and dined with the sheriff, at whose house we
had slept the night before. It was now two o'clock. Leaving
there, we crossed over the island, which takes about
three-quarters of an hour to do, and came to the North
river. We continued along the shore to the city, where we
arrived in the evening, much fatigued, having walked this
day about forty miles."
The rather singular record for the next day, which was Sunday, was as
follows:
"We went at noon to-day to hear the English minister, whose
service took place after the Dutch service was out. There
were not above twenty-five or thirty people in the church.
The first thing that occurred was the reading of all their
prayers and ceremonies out of the prayer-book, as is done in
all Episcopal churches. A young man then went into the
pulpit, and commenced preaching, who thought he was
performing wonders. But he had a little book in his hand,
out of which he read his sermon which was about quarter of
an hour or half an hour long. With this the services were
concluded; at which we could not be sufficiently
astonished."
Though New York had passed over to British rule, still for very many
years the inhabitants remained Dutch in their manners, customs and
modes of thought. There was a small stream, emptying into the East
river nearly opposite Blackwell's Island. This stream was crossed by a
bridge which was called Kissing Bridge. It was a favorite drive, for
an old Dutch custom entitled every gentleman to salute his lady with a
kiss as he crossed.
The town wind-mill stood on a bluff within the present Battery. Pearl
street at that time formed the river bank. Both Water street and South
street have been reclaimed from the river. The city wall consisted of
a row of palisades, with an embankment nine feet high. Upon the
bastions of this rampart several cannon were mounted.
CHAPTER XVI.
THE OLDEN TIME.
Wealth and Rank of the Ancient Families.--Their Vast Landed
Estates.--Distinctions in Dress.--Veneration for the
Patroon.--Kip's Mansion.--Days of the Revolution.--Mr. John
Adams' Journal.--Negro Slavery.--Consequences of the
System.--General Panic.
Many of the families who came from the Old World to the Hudson when
New Netherland was under the Dutch regime, brought with them the
tokens of their former rank and affluence. Valuable paintings adorned
their walls. Rich plate glittered upon their dining table. Obsequious
servants, who had been accustomed in feudal Europe to regard their
masters as almost beings of a superior order, still looked up to them
in the same reverential service. The social distinctions of the old
country very soon began to prevail in the thriving village of New
York. The governor was fond of show and was fully aware of its
influence upon the popular mind. His residence became the seat of
quite a genteel little court.
"The country was parcelled out," writes Rev. Bishop Kip,
"among great proprietors. We can trace them from the city of
New Amsterdam to the northern part of the State. In what is
now the thickly populated city were the lands of the
Stuyvesants, originally the _Bouwerie_ of the old governor.
Next above were the grant to the Kip family, called Kip's
Bay, made in 1638. In the centre of the island was the
possessions of the De Lanceys. Opposite, on Long Island, was
the grant of the Laurence family. We cross over Harlaem
river and reach Morrisania, given to the Morris family.
Beyond this on the East river, was De Lancey's farm, another
grant to that powerful family; while on the Hudson to the
west, was the lower Van Courtland manor, and the Phillipse
manor. Above, at Peekskill, was the upper manor of the Van
Courtlands. Then came the manor of Kipsburg, purchased by
the Kip family from the Indians in 1636, and made a royal
grant by governor Dongan two years afterwards.
"Still higher up was the Van Rensselaer manor, twenty-four
miles by forty-eight; and above that the possession of the
Schuylers. Farther west, on the Mohawk, were the broad lands
of Sir William Johnson, created a baronet for his services
in the old French and Indian wars, who lived in a rude
magnificence at Johnson Hall."
The very names of places in some cases show their history. Such for
instance, is that of Yonkers. The word _Younker_, in the languages of
northern Europe, means the nobly born, the gentleman. In Westchester,
on the Hudson river, still stands the old manor house of the Phillipse
family. The writer remembers in his early days when visiting there,
the large rooms and richly ornamented ceilings, with quaint old formal
gardens about the house. When before the revolution, Mr. Phillipse
lived there, lord of all he surveyed, he was always spoken of by his
tenantry as the Yonker, the gentleman, _par excellence_. In fact he
was the only person of social rank in that part of the country. In
this way the town, which subsequently grew up about the old manor
house, took the name of Yonkers.
The early settlement of New England was very different in its
character. Nearly all the emigrants were small farmers, upon social
equality, cultivating the fields with their own hands. Governors
Carver and Bradford worked as diligently with hoe and plough as did
any of their associates. They were simply first among equals.
"The only exception to this," writes Mr. Kip,
"which we can remember was the case of the Gardiners of
Maine. Their wide lands were confiscated for their loyalty.
But on account of some informality, after the Revolution,
they managed to recover their property and are still seated
at Gardiner."
For more than a century these distinguished families in New Netherland
retained their supremacy undisputed. They filled all the posts of
honor and emolument. The distinctions in society were plainly marked
by the dress. The costume of the gentleman was very rich. His coat of
glossy velvet was lined with gold lace. His flowing sleeves and
ruffled cuffs gave grace to all the movements of his arms and hands.
Immense wigs adorned his brow with almost the dignity of Olympian
Jove. A glittering rapier, with its embossed and jewelled scabbard,
hung by his side.
The common people in New Netherland, would no more think of assuming
the dress of a gentleman or lady, than with us, a merchant or mechanic
would think of decorating himself in the dress of a Major-General in
the United States army. There was an impassable gulf between the
peasantry and the aristocracy. The laborers on these large Dutch
estates were generally poor peasants, who had been brought over by the
landed proprietors, passage free. They were thus virtually for a
number of years, slaves of the _patroon_, serving him until, by their
labor, they had paid for their passage money. In the language of the
day they were called Redemptioners. Often the term of service of a
man, who had come over with his family, amounted to seven years.
"This system," writes Mr. Kip,
"was carried out to an extent of which most persons are
ignorant. On the Van Rensselaer manor, there were at one
time, several thousand tenants, and their gathering was like
that of the Scottish clans. When a member of the family died
they came down to Albany to do honor at the funeral, and
many were the hogsheads of good ale which were broached for
them. They looked up to the _Patroon_ with a reverence which
was still lingering in the writer's early day,
notwithstanding the inroads of democracy. And before the
Revolution this feeling was shared by the whole country.
When it was announced, in New York, a century ago, that the
Patroon was coming down from Albany by land, the day he was
expected to reach the city, crowds turned out to see him
enter in his coach and four."
The aristocratic Dutchmen cherished a great contempt for the
democratic Puritans of New England. One of the distinguished members
of a colonial family in New York, who died in the year 1740, inserted
the following clause in his will:
"It is my wish that my son may have the best education that
is to be had in England or America. But my express will and
directions are, that he never be sent for that purpose, to
the Connecticut colonies, lest he should imbibe in his
youth, that low craft and cunning, so incidental to the
people of that country, which is so interwoven in their
constitutions, that all their acts cannot disguise it from
the world; though many of them, under the sanctified garb of
religion, have endeavored to impose themselves on the world
as honest men."
Usually once in a year the residents in their imposing manorial homes
repaired, from their rural retreats, to New York to make their annual
purchases. After the country passed into the hands of the English,
several men of high families came over. These all held themselves
quite aloof from the masses of the people. And there was no more
disposition among the commonalty to claim equality with these
high-born men and dames, than there was in England for the humble
farmers to deny any social distinction between themselves and the
occupants of the battlemented castles which overshadowed the peasant's
lowly cot.
Lord Cornbury was of the blood royal. The dress and etiquette of
courts prevailed in his spacious saloons. "About many of their old
country houses," writes Mr. Kip,
"were associations gathered often coming down from the first
settlement of the country, giving them an interest which can
never invest the new residences of those whom later times
elevated through wealth. Such was the Van Courtland
manor-house, with its wainscotted room and guest chamber;
the Rensselaer manor-house, where of old had been
entertained Talleyrand, and the exiled princes from Europe;
the Schuyler house, so near the Saratoga battle-field, and
marked by memories of that glorious event in the life of its
owner; and the residence of the Livingstons, on the banks of
the Hudson, of which Louis Philippe expressed such grateful
recollections when, after his elevation to the throne, he
met, in Paris, the son of his former host."
At Kip's Bay there was a large mansion which for two centuries
attracted the admiration of beholders. It was a large double house
with the addition of a wing. From the spacious hall, turning to the
left, you entered the large dining-saloon. The two front windows gave
you a view of the beautiful bay. The two rear windows opened upon a
pleasant rural landscape. In this dining-room a large dinner party was
held, in honor of Andre the day before he set out upon his fatal
excursion to West Point. In Sargent's, "Life of Andre," we find a very
interesting description of this mansion, and of the scenes witnessed
there in olden time.
"Where now in New York is the unalluring and crowded neighborhood of
Second avenue and Thirty-fifth street, stood, in 1780, the ancient
Bowerie or country seat of Jacobus Kip. Built in 1655, of bricks
brought from Holland, encompassed by pleasant trees and in easy view
of the sparkling waters of Kip's Bay, on the East river, the mansion
remained, even to our own times, in the possession of one of its
founder's line.
"When Washington was in the neighborhood, Kip's house had
been his quarters. When Howe crossed from Long Island on
Sunday, September 15th, 1776, he debarked at the rocky point
hard by, and his skirmishers drove our people from their
position behind the dwelling. Since then it had known many
guests. Howe, Clinton, Kniphausen, Percy were sheltered by
its roof. The aged owner, with his wife and daughter,
remained. But they had always an officer of distinction
quartered with them. And if a part of the family were in
arms for Congress, as is alleged, it is certain that others
were active for the Crown.
"Samuel Kip, of Kipsburg, led a cavalry troop of his own
tenantry, with great gallantry, in De Lancey's regiment. And
despite severe wounds, survived long after the war, a heavy
pecuniary sufferer by the cause which, with most of the
landed gentry of New York, he had espoused.
"In 1780, it was held by Colonel Williams, of the 80th royal
regiment. And here, on the evening of the 19th of September,
he gave a dinner to Sir Henry Clinton and his staff, as a
parting compliment to Andre. The aged owner of the house was
present; and when the Revolution was over he described the
scene and the incidents of that dinner. At the table Sir
Henry Clinton announced the departure of Andre next morning,
on a secret and most important expedition, and added, 'Plain
John Andre will come back Sir John Andre.'
"How brilliant soever the company," Mr. Sargent adds,
"how cheerful the repast, its memory must ever have been
fraught with sadness to both host and guests. It was the
last occasion of Andre's meeting his comrades in life. Four
short days gone, the hands, then clasped by friendship, were
fettered by hostile bonds. Yet nine days more and the
darling of the army, the youthful hero of the hour, had
dangled from a gibbet."
For two hundred and twelve years this mansion of venerable memories
remained. Then it was swept away by the resistless tide of an
advancing population. The thronged pavements of Thirty-fifth street
now pass over the spot, where two centuries ago the most illustrious
men crowded the banqueting hall, and where youth and beauty met in the
dance and song. In view of these ravages of time, well may we exclaim
in the impressive words of Burke, "What shadows we are and what
shadows we pursue."
In the year 1774, John Adams rode from Boston to Philadelphia on
horseback, to attend the first meeting of Congress. His journal
contains an interesting account of this long and fatiguing tour.
Coming from the puritanic simplicity of Boston, he was evidently
deeply impressed with the style and splendor which met his eye in New
York. In glowing terms he alludes to the elegance of their mode of
living, to the architectural grandeur of their country seats; to the
splendor of Broadway, and to the magnificent new church they were
building, which was to cost one hundred thousand dollars.
The aristocratic families of New York were generally in favor of the
Crown. They were not disposed to pay any special attention to a
delegate to the democratic Congress. He had therefore no opportunity
of witnessing the splendor of these ancient families. Two lawyers who
had become wealthy by their professional labors, received him with
honor. At their breakfast tables he beheld display, common enough in
almost every genteel household at the present day, but to which he was
quite unaccustomed in his frugal home at Quincy. One cannot but be
amused in reading the following description of one of his
entertainments:
"A more elegant breakfast I never saw; rich plate; a very
large silver coffee pot; a very large silver tea pot;
napkins of the very finest materials; toast and bread and
butter in great perfection. After breakfast a plate of
beautiful peaches, another of pears and a muskmelon were
placed on the table."
The Revolution proved the utter ruin of these great landed
proprietors, who naturally espoused the cause of the British court.
The habits of life to which they and their fathers had been accustomed
necessarily rendered all the levelling doctrines of the Revolution
offensive to them. They rallied around the royal banners and went down
with them.
Some few of the landed proprietors espoused the cause of the people.
Among others may be mentioned the Livingstons and the Schuylers, the
Jays, the Laurences, and a portion of the Van Courtlands, and of the
Morris family. Fortunately for the Patroon Van Rensselaer, he was a
minor, and thus escaped the peril of attaching himself to either
party.
Negro slavery in a mild form prevailed in these early years in New
York. The cruel and accursed system had been early introduced into the
colony. Most of the slaves were domestic servants, very few being
employed in the fields. They were treated with personal kindness.
Still they were bondmen, deprived of liberty, of fair wages, and of
any chance of rising in the world. Such men cannot, by any
possibility, be contented with their lot. Mr. William L. Stone, in his
very interesting History of New York, writes:
"As far back as 1628, slaves constituted a portion of the
population of New Amsterdam; and to such an extent had the
traffic in them reached that, in 1709, a slave market was
erected at the foot of Wall street, where all negroes who
were to be hired or sold, stood in readiness for bidders.
Their introduction into the colony was hastened by the
colonial establishment of the Dutch in Brazil and upon the
coast of Guinea, and also by the capture of Spanish and
Portuguese prizes with Africans on board.
"Several outbreaks had already happened among the negroes of
New Amsterdam; and the whites lived in constant anticipation
of trouble and danger from them. Rumors of an intended
insurrection real or imaginary, would circulate, as in the
negro plot of 1712, and the whole city be thrown into a
state of alarm. Whether there was any real danger on these
occasions, cannot now be known. But the result was always
the same. The slaves always suffered, many dying by the
fagot or the gallows."
In the year 1741, a terrible panic agitated the whole city in
apprehension of an insurrection of the slaves. The most cruel laws had
been passed to hold them firmly in bondage. The city then contained
ten thousand inhabitants, two thousand of whom were slaves. If three
of these, "black seed of Cain," were found together, they were liable
to be punished by forty lashes on the bare back. The same punishment
was inflicted upon a slave found walking with a club, outside of his
master's grounds without a permit. Two justices could inflict any
punishment, except amputation or death, upon any slave who should make
an assault upon a Christian or a Jew.
A calaboose or jail for slaves stood on the Park Common. Many of the
leading merchants in New York were engaged in the slave trade. Several
fires had taken place, which led to the suspicion that the slaves had
formed a plot to burn the city and massacre the inhabitants. The panic
was such that the community seemed bereft of reason. A poor, weak,
half-crazed servant-girl, Mary Burton, in a sailor's boarding house,
testified, after much importunity, that she had overheard some negroes
conferring respecting setting the town on fire.
At first she confined her accusations to the blacks. Then she began to
criminate white people, bringing charges against her landlord, his
wife and other white persons in the household. In a History of this
strange affair written at the time, by Daniel Horsmanden, one of the
Justices of the Supreme Court, we read,
"The whole summer was spent in the prosecutions. A
coincidence of slight circumstances was magnified, by the
general terror, into violent presumptions. Tales collected
without doors, mingling with the proofs given at the bar,
poisoned the minds of the jurors, and this sanguinary spirit
of the day suffered no check until Mary, the capital
informer, bewildered by the frequent examinations and
suggestions, began to touch characters which malice itself
dare not suspect."
During this period of almost insane excitement, thirteen negroes were
burned at the stake, eighteen were hanged, and seventy transported.
I cannot conclude this treatise upon the olden time better than by
quoting the eloquent words of Mr. Kip:
"The dress, which had for generations been the sign and
symbol of a gentleman, gradually waned away, till society
reached that charming state of equality in which it became
impossible, by any outward costume, to distinguish masters
from servants. John Jay says, in one of his letters, that
with small clothes and buckles the high tone of society
departed. In the writer's early day this system of the past
was just going out. Wigs and powder and queues, breeches and
buckles, still lingered among the older gentlemen, vestiges
of an age which was vanishing away.
"But the high toned feeling of the last century was still in
the ascendant, and had not yet succumbed to the worship of
mammon, which characterizes this age. There was still in New
York a reverence for the colonial families, and the
prominent political men, like Duane, Clinton, Golden,
Radcliff, Hoffman and Livingston, were generally gentlemen,
both by birth and social standing. The time had not yet come
when this was to be an objection to an individual in a
political career. The leaders were men whose names were
historical in the State, and they influenced society. The
old families still formed an association among themselves,
and intermarried, one generation after another. Society was
therefore very restricted. The writer remembers in his
childhood, when he went out with his father for his
afternoon drive, he knew every carriage they met on the
avenues.
"The gentlemen of that day knew each other well, for they
had grown up together and their associations in the past
were the same. Yet, what friendships for after-life did
these associations form! There was, in those days, none of
the show and glitter of modern times. But there was, with
many of these families, particularly with those who had
retained their landed estates and were still living in their
old family homes, an elegance which has never been rivalled
in other parts of the country. In his early days the writer
has been much at the South, has staid at Mount Vernon when
it was held by the Washingtons; with Lord Fairfax's family,
at Ashgrove and Vancluse; but he has never elsewhere seen
such elegance of living as was formerly exhibited by the old
families of New York.
"One thing is certain, that there was a high tone prevailing
at that time, which is now nowhere to be seen. The community
then looked up to public men, with a degree of reverence
which has never been felt by those who have succeeded them.
They were the last of a race which does not now exist. With
them died the stateliness of colonial times. Wealth came in
and created a social distinction which took the place of
family; and thus society became vulgarized.
"The influences of the past are fast vanishing away, and our
children will look only to the shadowy future. The very rule
by which we estimate individuals has been entirely altered.
The inquiry once was, 'Who is he?' Men now ask the question,
'How much is he worth?' Have we gained by the change?"
THE END.
NOTES:
[Footnote 1: Winslow in Young (p. 371).]
[Footnote 2: Bradford in Prince, 248.]
[Footnote 3: Dutch miles, equal to sixteen English miles.]
[Footnote 4: Morton's memorial, page 176.]
[Footnote 5: Hist. of New York, by John Romeyn Brodhead. Vol. I, p
257.]
[Footnote 6: History of the State of New York, p. 203.]
[Footnote 7: History of the State of New York, By John Romeyn Brodhead
Vol I. p. 473.]
[Footnote 8: John Romeyn Brodhead, Vol. 1. p. 521. E.B. O'Callaghan. M
D Vol 2. p. 157.]
[Footnote 9: "History of New Netherland" by E.B. O'Callaghan, Vol 2.
p. 317]
[Footnote 10: Officers of a very important municipal court.]
[Footnote 11: See Brodhead's State of New York, vol. 1. p. 721; also
O'Callaghan's New Netherland, vol 2. p. 489.]
[Footnote 12: This was one cent and a half for the three, or half a
cent each.]
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