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Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library Gift of Seymour B. Durst Old York Library
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2013
http://archive.org/details/peterstuyvesantOOabbo_0
Peter Stuyvesant
By JOHN S. C. ABBOTT
New York
Dodd, Mead and Company
1898
Copyright, 1873,
BV
DODD & MEAD.
Copyright 1901, by i(at'ka arpott Buck
PREFACE.
It is impossible to understand the very remark- able character and career of Peter Stuyvesant, the last, and by far the most illustrious, of the Dutch governors of New Amsterdam, without an acquaint- ance with the early history of the Dutch colonies upon the Hudson and the Delaware. The Antiqua- rian 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. u Daniel Boone " conducts us to the beautiful streams and hunting grounds of Kentucky, when the Indian was the sole possessor
fV PREFACE,
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 ma- jestic 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, re- specting those Olden Times, now passing so rapidly into oblivion
JOHN S. C. ABBOTT.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I. Discovery of the Hudson River.
MM
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 Pris- oners.— The Chiefs Intoxicated. — The Return. — The Village at Castleton. — The Theft and its Punishment. — The Return to England , . 13
CHAPTER II.
The Progress of Discovery.
Value of the Territory Discovered. — Fate of Hudson. — The Con- spiracy.— Aspect of Manhattan Island. — The Trail which has Widened into Broadway. — The Opening Commerce. — The Fur Trade.— Visit of the English Man of War.— Ex- ploring the Sound. — Commercial Enterprise Receives a New Stimulus.— Erection of Forts. — Character of the Fur Trade. 33
CHAPTER III.
The Commencement of Colonization.
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. — Diplo- matic Intercourse. — Testimony of De Rassieres. — The Pa- troons. — The Disaster at Swaanendael 54
V1 CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IV. The Administration of Van Twiller.
PAGE
Friendly Relations Restored. — Wouter Van Twiller New Direc- tor.— Captain Elkins. — Remonstrance of De Vrees. — Claim* for the Connecticut. — The Plymouth Expedition. — A Boat's Crew Murdered. — Condition of the Colony in 1633. — Emi- gration to the Connecticut. — Emigrants from Holland.— The Red Rocks.— New Haven Colony Established. — Nat- ural.— Indian Remonstrance Against Taxation. — Outrage upon the Raritan Indians. — Indian Revenge. • • -77
CHAPTER V.
War and its Devastations.
Approaching Hostilities. — Noble Remonstrance. — Massacre of the Natives.— The War Storm. — Noble Conduct of De Vrees. — The Humiliation of Kieft. — Wide-Spread Desola- tion.— The Reign of Terror. — State of Affairs at Fort Nas- sau.— The Massacre at Stamford. — Memorial of the Select Men. — Kieft Superseded by Peter Stuyvesant. • • • 100
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 Gover- nor Winthrop. — Claims for Long Island. — Arrogance of the Governor. — Remonstrance of the Nine Men. — The Pas- toral Office. — Boundary Lines. — Increasing Discontent. — Division of Parties. — Dictatorial Measures. . . .121
CHAPTER VII. War Between England and Holland.
Action of the Patroons. — Settlements on the Hudson. — Alarm of the Home Government. — Recall of Stuyvesant. — His Es-
CONTENTS. Vli
PAGB
cape from Humiliation. — Difficulties between England and Holland. — The Breaking Out of War. — Directions to Stuy- vesant. — The Relations of the Colonies. — Charges Against the Dutch Governor. — Their Refutation. — Efforts of Stuy- vesant for Peace. — Noble Conduct of the Massachusetts Government. — The Advocates for War. . . • . 144
CHAPTER VIII.
Another Indian War.
Conflict Between the Governor and the Citizens. — Energy of the Governor. — His Measures of Defence. — Action of the Eng- lish 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. 167
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. • . . 191
CHAPTER X.
The Esopus War.
Outrage at Esopus. — New Indian War. — Its Desolations. — Suffer- ings of Both Parties. — Wonderful Energies of the Governor. — Difficulties of his Situation. — The Truce. — Renewal of the War. — The Mohawks. — The Controversy with Massa-
VIM CONTENTS.
PAGH
chusetts. — Indian Efforts for Peace. — The Final Settlement — Claims of the English Upon the Delaware. — Renewed Persecution of the Quakers • • 213
CHAPTER XI.
The Disastrous Year,
Purchase of Staten Island. — The Restoration of Charles Second. — Emigration Invited. — Settlement of Bushwick. — The Pe- culiar People. — Persecution of JohnBowne. — The Governor Rebuked. — Cumulation of Disasters. — The Outbreak at Esopus. — The Panic — Measures of the Governor. — The In- dian Fort. — The Expedition to Mamaket. — Capture of the Fort. — Annihilation of the Esopus Indians. . . . 234
CHAPTER XII.
Encroachments of the E?iglish.
Annihilation of the Esopus Tribe. — The Boundary Question. — Troubles on Long Island. The Dutch and English Vil- lages.— Petition of the English. — Embarrassments of Gov- ernor 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. . . 257
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. . . . 27g
CONTENTS. Ix
CHAPTER XIV. The Capture of New Amsterdam.
FAGB
The Approach of the Fleet. — The Governor Unjustly Censured. — The Flag of Truce. — The Haughty Response. — The Re- monstrance.— 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. 30I
CHAPTER XV.
The Final Surrender,
The Summons. — The Bombardment. — Disembarkation of the Land Force. — Indecision of Captain Manning. — The Sur- render.— Short Administration of the Dutch. — Social Cus- toms.— The Tea Party. — Testimony of Travellers. — Visit to Long Island. — Fruitfulness of the Country. — Exploration of Manhattan Island. ........ 324
CHAPTER XVI.
The Olden Time.
Wealth and Rank of the Ancient Families. — Their Vast Landed Estates. — Distinctions in Dress. — Veneration for the Pa- troon. — Kip's Mansion. — Days of the Revolution. — Mr. John Adams' Journal. — Negro Slavery. — Consequences of the System. — General Panic , 346
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. — Dis- covery of the Delaware. — The Natives. — The Boat Attacked.— Ascending the Hudson. — Escape of the Prisoners. — The Chiefs Intoxicated.— The Return.— The Village at Cast Ieton.— The Theft and its Punishment. — The Return to England.
On the 1 2th of October, 1492, Christopher Co- lumbus landed upon the shores of San Salvador, one of the West India islands, and thus revealed to as- tonished 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
14 PETER STUYVESANT.
Mississippi River. Twenty-six years more elapsed ere, in 1565, the first European colony was estar> lished at St. Augustine> in Florida.
In the year 1585, twenty years after the settle ment of St. Augustine, Sir Walter Raleigh com- menced his world-renowned colony upon the Roa- noke. 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
DISCOVERY OF THE HUDSON RIVER. 1 5
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 navi- gators, a violent contrary wind blew in from the sea, and forced us to return to our ship, greatly regret- ting to leave this region which seemed so commodi- ous 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 expe- dition 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 arr.,id storms and fog and ice, after the rough voyage of a
l6 PETER STUYVESANT.
month, he became discouraged, and determined to change his plan and seek a northwest passage.
Crossing the Atlantic, which, in those high lati- tudes, 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 1 8th 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 High- lands 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
DISCOVERY OF THE HUDSON RIVER. IJ
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 clus- tered 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 Atlan- tic coast, and trafficked with the Indians. The in- habitants 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 impenetra- ble forest. Here and there were picturesque open- ings, 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,
1 8 PETER STUYVESANT.
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 in- flicted 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.
DISCOVERY OF THE HUDSON RIVER. 19
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 jour- nalist, who records this assault, is silent respecting the piovocation which led to it.
Hudson was alarmed by this hostility, and ex- pected an immediate attack upon the ship. He promptly erected bulwarks along the sides of hi3 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 un- armed, 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 ap- proached from the shores of the bay which was many leagues ii 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
20 PETER STUYVESANT.
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 contain- ing 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
DISCOVERY OF THE HUDSON RIVER. 21
which we have alluded, encountered any hostility whatever from the natives.
On the nth 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 hap- piness in the wigwam of the Indian as is now to be found in the gorgeous palace of the modern million- aire. 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, with- in the bark hut of the red man, as is now to be
22 PETER STUYVESANT.
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 Pa- cific. It was not then known whether this conti- nent were a few miles or thousands of miles in breadth. For the first two days the wind was con- trary, 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 plough ed the waves of the unknown river, till, having ac- complished forty miles, just at sunset they dropped their anchor in the still waters which are surround- ed 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
DISCOVERY OF THE HUDSON RIVER. 23
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 Cats- kill Landing. The natives were numerous, and very friendly. They came freely on board, appar- ently 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 In- dians 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 pres- ent 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 pro- cedures.
" It is evident that great distrust was entertain- ed by Hudson and his men towards the natives. He now determined to ascertain, bv intoxicating
24 PETER STUYVESANT.
some of the chiefs, and thus throwing them offtheif 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, l sate so modestly as any of our countrywomen would do in a strange place.' But the men had less delicacy and were soon quite mer- ry 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 in- duced 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 morn- ing 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 :
DISCOVERY OF THE HUDSON RIVER. 2$
" ' 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 pres- ently returned ; and brought a great platter full of venison, dressed by themselves, and they caused him to eat with them. Then they made him rev- erence 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 lit- tle beyond where the town of Waterford now is. Upon the return of the boat, the mate having re- ported that it was useless to attempt any farther ascent of the river with the ship, Sir Henry com- menced 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
26 PETER STUWESANT.
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 kind ness.
A fair wind soon springing up they ran down the river eighteen miles, passing quite a large In- dian 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 patri- archal 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 set- tlement 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 sur- rounded 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, al-
DISCOVERY OF THE HUDSON RIVER. 2*]
most as light as bubbles, were being rapidly paddled over the glassy waves.
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 over- lapped 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 ex- tending along the whole length, through which the smoke of the fires could escape. The interior was finished with great care, and very smoothly. Un- der certain states of the atmosphere and of the wind the smoke freely ascended, causing no embar- rassment 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, pre- sented 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 appar- ently 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
28 PETER STUYVESANT.
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 Hud- son to remain on shore through the night. He de- scribes the land here as very fertile, bearing abun- dantly, 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
DISCOVERY OF THE HUDSON RIVER. 2g
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 unfortu- nate companion fall dead in his blood, were stricken with terror. Some rushed into their canoes. Oth- ers plunged into the river to swim ashore. The vessel's boat immediately put off to pick up the ca- noe 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 Manhat- tan island. Sir Henry Hudson was apparently op pressed in some degree with the unjustifiable harsh- ness with which he had treated the simple-hearted, yet friendly natives. He was continually and in- creasingly apprehensive of treachery. A single canoe containing several men approached the ship
30 PETER STUYVESANT.
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 plung- ing 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 ca- noes, 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 an-
DISCOVERY OF THE HUDSON RIVER. 3 1
other 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 col- or 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 mu- tinous 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 re- pair 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
32 PETER STUYVESANT.
turn the prow of his ship towards Europe. Aftef 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 ser- vice 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 Hud- son had sailed and upon whose shores he had occa- sionally landed, taking possession of the same in the name of the Dutch government.
The English government, jealous of the advan- tage which had thus been gained by the flag of Holland, peremptorily forbade Hudson to leave his native country; and for several months the Hall Moon was detained at Dartmouth.
CHAPTER II.
The Progress of Discovery
Value of the Territory Discovered. — Fate of Hudson. — The Conspir- acy.— Aspect of Manhattan Island. — The Trail which has Widen- ed 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 dis- appointed in not finding in the region they had ex- plored the much hoped-for Northwest Passage to the Indies, were somewhat elated by the magnifi- cent discoveries which had been made. The terri- tory 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 un- explored and unknown.
This was indeed a princely territory to be owned by any power. The climate was as favorable as any
34 PETER STUYVESANT.
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 profu- sion. 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 Hud- son 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
THE PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY. 35
fields of ice, to perish miserably. The following art- less account of this tragedy, which is taken from the lips of one of the mutineers, will be read with inter- est. The ship was surrounded with ice and the crew in a starving condition.
" They had been detained at anchor in the ice,' says Pricket, %l about a week, when the first signs of the mutiny appeared. Green, and Wilson the boat- swain, came in the night to me, as I was lying in my berth very lame and told me that they and sev- eral 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 them- selves 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 execu- tion at daylight. In the meantime Green went into Hudson's cabin to keep him company, and to pre- vent his suspicions from being excited. They had determined to put the carpenter and John King
36 PETER STU YVES ANT.
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 car- penter, so that he did not observe what was going on.
" Hudson now came from the cabin and was im- mediately 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 be- ing surrounded by mutineers. The boat was now hauled along side, and the sick and lame were call- ed 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 al- low me to have any communication with Hudson After the captain was put in the boat, the carpentei
THE PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY. 37
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 quan- tity 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 vic- tims 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 par- ticularly of the rich furs there to be obtained, in« duced the merchants of Amsterdam in the year
38 PETER STUYVESANT.
1616 to fit out a trading expedition to that region. A vessel was at once dispatched, freighted with a varie- ty of goods to be exchanged for furs. The enterprise was eminently successful and gradually more mi- nute information was obtained respecting the terri- tory 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 fring- ed with forests^ bluffs, and moss-covered rocks. The upper part of the island was rough, being much bro- ken 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 lev- el. 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 cli- mate was salubrious ; the atmosphere in cloudless transparency rivalled the famed skies of Italy.
THE PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY. 39
Where the gloomy prison of the Tombs now stands, there was a lake ot 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 peb- bly 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. In- deed 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 moccasoned feet of the Indian, in single file for countless gener- ations. 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 command- ing 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 contf.
40 PETER STUYVESANT.
nent of North America presented any region more attractive. The salubrity of its clime, the beauty of the scenery, the abundance and purity of the wa- ters, 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 charrns which could not be exceeded by any other position on the conti- nent.
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 protec- tion 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 wilder- ness. 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
THE PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY. 41
their furs, heretofore almost valueless, would p ar- chase 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 Christiaensen was the superintend- ent 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 Euro- pean vessels but theirs had, as yet, visited the Mauri- tius river.
But nothing in this world ever long continues tranquil. The storm ever succeeds the calm. In November, of the year 161 3, Captain Argal, an Eng- lishman, 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 Christiaensen to avow fealty to the English crown, and to pay tribute, in token of his dependence upon that power. Christiaensen could make no resistance. One broadside from the
42 PETER ST U YVES ANT.
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 nar- rative 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 dis- covered new territory, on the North American con- tinent, 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 garri- soned 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 pur- chased. Just as Captain Block was preparing to re- turn, 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.
He was a very energetic man, not easily dismay ed by misfortune. The island abounded with ad- mirable timber for ship building. He immediately commenced the construction of another vessel. This yacht was forty-four and a half feet long, and
THE PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY. 43
eleven and a half feet wide. The natives watched the growth of the stupendous structure with aston- ishment. In the most friendly manner they render- ed efficient aid in drawing the heavy timber from the foiest 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 up- on 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 ad- heres 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 discov- ered the mouths of the Housatonic and of the Con- necticut. 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
44 PETER STUVVESANT.
the banks and the numerous water-fowl were un- disturbed upon the stream. The natives were friendly but timid. They were overawed by the presence of the gigantic structure which had invad- ed 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 Nar- ragansett 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 Hol- land 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
THE PROGRESS OF DISCOVERT. 4$
limits, under penalty of the confiscation of both ves« sels 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 isl and, 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 encir- cled 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 wil- derness, 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, swarm- ing 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 pop- ulous cities and beautiful villas, it is difficult to form a conception of the silence and solitude of those re-
46 PETER STUYVESANT.
gions but about two hundred and fifty years ago, when the tread of the moccasoned Indian fell noise* less 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 lu- crative traffic with the Indians, for their valuable furs. The leaders of the Company were men of in- tegrity, and the Indians were all pleased with the traffic, for they were ever treated with consideration, and received for their furs, which they easily ob- tained, articles which were of priceless value to them.
The vagabond white men, who were lingering about the frontiers of civilization, inflicting innu- merable and nameless outrages upon the i.atives, were rigorously excluded from these regions. Thus the relations existing between the Indians ar & their European visitors were friendly in the highest de- gree. Both parties were alike benefited by this traffic ; the Indian certainly not less than the Eu« ropean, for he was receiving into his lowly wigwam the products of the highest civilization.
Indian tribes scattered far and wide through the
THE PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY. 4;
primitive and illimitable forest, plied all their ener gies 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 con- ferred 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 Del- aware 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
48 PETER STUYVESANT.
with new tribes, to examine the country, and to obtain a more intimate acquaintance with the man- ners and customs of the Indians.
In the spring of 1617 a very high freshet, accom- panied 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 con- federation of Indian tribes called the Five Nations. These tribes were the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onon- dagas, 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 won- derful instruments of war, seemed to wield the ener* gies of thunder and lightning.
The Algonquins had, some years before, formed an alliance with the French in Canada. The Iro«
THE PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY. 49
quois now entered into an alliance with the Dutch. It was a very important movement, and the treaty took 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 im- posing ceremony. The garrison furnished for the pageant the waving of silken banners and the exhil- arating music of its band. The Indian chiefs at- tended 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 promi- nent 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 cf 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 pleas-
50 PETER STUYVESANT.
ing 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 hos- pitably 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 be- came very eager to obtain muskets, powder and ball. They were warm friends of the Europeans
THE PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY. 5 1
There seemed to be no probability of their becom- ing 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 Del- aware. 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 yea»s 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 colo- nization.
The Dutch alone had then any accurate knowl- edge of the Hudson River, or of the coasts of Con- necticut, Rhode Island, and Long Island. In 1618 the special charter of the Company, confening upon them the monopoly of exclusive trade with the Indians, expired. Though the trade was thus
52 PETER STUYVESANT.
thrown open to any adventurous Dutch merchant, still the members of the Company enjoyed an im- mense advantage in having all the channels per- fectly understood by them, and in being in posses- sion 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 t'o 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 :
u 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 Vir- ginia, 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 sur- vived.
M After impoverishing himself in unsuccessful
THE PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY. 53
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 jus- tice 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 Colonization.
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 Inter- course.— Testimony of De Rassieres. — The Patroons. — The Dis- aster 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.
THE COMMENCEMENT OF COLONIZATION. 55
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 Netherlands
The proposition was very cordially received. The intelligent gentlemen of that Company at once saw that there was thus presented to them an oppor- tunity 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 lan- guage, 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
56 PETER STUYVESANT.
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 afore- said lands with Englishmen ; to destroy your peti- tioners* 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 re- quest of Mr. Robinson might be favorably regard- ed ; 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 defencr of the infant settlements.
The Dutch government was then upon the eve of a war with Spain, and all its energies were de- manded in preparation for the conflict. They there- fore q* ute peremptorily refused to entertain thepeti-
THE COMMENCEMENT OF COLONIZATION. 57
tion of the New Netherland Company. Thus the destination of the Puritans was changed. Though they were not encouraged to commence their colo- nial life at New Netherland, still it was their inten- tion 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'Calla- ghan, 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 peti- tion in behalf of the Rev. Mr. Robinson's congre- gation, of Feb. 1620, and the rejection of its prayer by their High Mightinesses.
" That the Dutch were anxious to secure the set- tlement of the Pilgrims under them, is freely admit- ted by the latter. Governor Bradford, in his Histo- ry of the Plymouth Colony, acknowledges it, and adds that the Dutch for that end made them large offers.
3*
58 PETER STUYVESANT,
" Winslow corroborates this in his ' Brief Narra- tive/ and adds that the Dutch would have freely transported us to the Hudson river, and furnished every family with cattle. The whole of this evi- dence satisfactorily establishes the good will of the Dutch people towards the English ; while the de- termination of the States -General proves that there was no encouragement held out by the Dutch gov- ernment to induce them to settle in their American possessions. On the contrary, having formally re- jected their petition, they thereby secured them- selves 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 Atlan- tic coast. They maintained their right to the whole American coast, from the Spanish possessions in Flor- ida, 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
THE COMMENCEMENT OF COLONIZATION. 5g
these conflicting claims between England and Hoi land must eventually lead to collision.
The Dutch merchants continued to push theif 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 mer- chants 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 ambas- sador to Holland to urge the States-General to pro- hibit the departure of the fleet, and to forbid the es- tablishment of a Dutch colony in those regions. The diplomacy which ensued led to no decisive re- sults.
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 pres- ent 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 es-. tablished upon the western banks of the Hudsoo
6b PETER STUYVESANT.
River about thirty-six miles from the island of Man- hattan.
Very slowly the tide of emigration began to flow towards the Hudson. A few families settled on Staten Island. Not pleased with their isolated lo- cation, 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 per- manent settlement upon Manhattan island, which was then estimated to contain about twenty-two thou- sand 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 COMMENCEMENT OF COLONIZATION. 6l
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, wood- en 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 pas- tured on Governor's, then called Nutten's Island.
And now the tide of emigration began pretty rapidly to increase. The Dutch transported emi- grants 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 palisadeg 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
62 PETER STUYVESANT.
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 cen< tury or more, was known as the Kolck or the Col- lect.
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, vow- ing 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 ana in the middle rocky. On the north side there is good land in two places,
THE COMMENCEMENT OF COLONIZATION. 6$
where two farmers, each with four horses, would have enough to do without much grubbing or clear- ing at first. The grass is good in the forests and valleys ; but when made into hay, it is not so nutri- tious for the cattle as the hay in Holland, in conse- quence 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. Was- senaar writes, " The Indians were as quiet as lambs, and came and traded with all the freedom imagin- able."
The Puritans had now been five years at Ply- mouth. So little were they acquainted with the
64 PETER STUYVESANT.
geography cf the country that they supposed New England to be an island.* 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 dis- suade them from encroaching in their trade upon ter- ritory 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 Pil- grims 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 ;
* Winslow in Young (p. 371).
COMMENCEMENT OF COLONIZATION. 65
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 Nar- ragansett 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 trad- ing here for six or seven and twenty years ; but have begun to plant of later time ; and now have re-
66 PETER STUYVESA&T.
duced their trade to some order, and confined it only to their company, which, heretofore, was spoil- ed 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 Ply- mouth 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 Am-
THE COMMENCEMENT OF COLONIZATION. 6j
sUrdam with such testimonials of his reception as induced Director Minuit to send a formal ambassa- dor 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 busi- ness 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 em- bassies 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 house4 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,
68 PETER STUYVESANT.
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 approach- ed 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 trad- ing 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 con- veyed to Plymouth, " honorably attended with the noise of trumpeters." *
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 memo- ries of that country with feelings of strong affection^
# Bradford in Prince, 248.
THE COMMENCEMENT OF COLONIZATION. 69
and regarded the Hollanders almost as fellow-coan* tiymen.
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 L, then King of England. And Charles, much to his credit, issued an order that all the Eng- lish ports, whether in the kingdom or in the terri- tories of the British king, should be thrown open to the Dutch vessels, trading to or from New Nether- land.
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 cf the record of these days, often meets with the word Patroony without perhaps having any very distinct idea of its significance. In order to encourage emigration and the establishment of
70 PETER STUYVESANT.
colonies, the authorities in Holland issued a charter, conferring large extents of land and exclusive privi- leges, 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 Nether- land, who shall, within the space of four years, under- take 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'* 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.
* Dutch miles, equal to sixteen English miles
THE COMMENCEMENT OF COLONIZATION. ?I
a wealthy merchant in Holland, who had been accus- tomed to polish pearls and diamonds, became, as patroon, possessed of nearly the whole of the pres- ent counties of Albany and Rensselaer, in the State cf New York, embracing the vast area of one thou- sand 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 power- ful, 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 st-udded 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,
72 PETER STUYVESANT.
for which the Dutch were not at all accountable It will be remembered that a colony had been es- tablished 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 discoveiy, purchase and occupation.
For a while the affairs of this colony went on very prosperously. But in May, 1632, an expedition, consisting of two ships, was fitted out from Holland,
THE COMMENCEMENT OF COLONIZATION. 73
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 col- ony 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 ves- sels 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 bones of their mur- dered 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, rever- berating over the bay, and echoing through the trails of the wilderness, might reach the ear of some
74 PETER STUYVESANT.
friendly Indian, from whom he could learn the de tails 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 dis- trust 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 fol- lowing, undoubtedly true, account of the destruc- tion of the colony :
One of the chiefs, seeing the glittering tin plate, emblazoned with the arms of Holland, so conspicu- ously 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 to- bacco 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
THE COMMENCEMENT OF COLONIZATION. 75
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 com- mandant 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 ap- proached 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 In- dians stood in great dread. Three of the savages, concealing, as far as they could, their weapons, ap- proached the fort, under the pretence of bartering some beaver skins. They met Hossett, the com- mander, not far from the door. He entered the
?6 PETER STU YVES ANT.
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 mo- tionless 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 Direc- tor.— Captain Elkins. — Remonstrance of De Vrees. — CLiims foi 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 Remon- strance 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 suf- fering would be inflicted upon the innocent than upon the guilty. He therefore, to their astonish- ment 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
78 PETER STUYVESANT.
man, and owed his appointment to the powerful pa- tronage he enjoyed from having married the niece of the patroon Van Rensselaer. Thus a u raw Am- sterdam clerk," embarked in a ship of twenty guns, with a military force of one hundred and four sol- diers, to assume the government of New Nether- land. 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 In- dians, 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 Dela- ware river, and for some time no further attempts were made to colonize its coasts.
THE ADMINISTRATION OF VAN TWILLER. 79
In April, 1633, an English ship arrived at Man- hattan. 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 Nether- land was English territory, discovered by Hudson, an Englishman. It was replied that though Hud- son was an Englishman, he was in the service of the East India Company at Amsterdam ; that no Eng- lish 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 thor- oughly 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 or- dered the Dutch flag to be run up at fort Amster- dam, and a salute to be fired in honor of the Prince of Orange. Elkins, in retaliation, unfurled the Eng- lish flag at his mast-head, and fired a salute in hon- or 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
80 PETER STUYVESANT.
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, invest- ed with gubernatorial powers, found himself in wa- ters quite beyond his depth. He collected all the people of the fort, broached a cask of wine, and rail- ed 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 pre- vented 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
THE ADMINISTRATION OF VAN TWILLER. 8 1
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, un- furled 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 attemp\ 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 4*
82 PETER STUYVESANT.
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, includ- ing 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.
THE ADMINISTRATION OF VAN TWILLER, 83
As soon as it was known, at Plymouth and Bos« ton, that the Dutch had taken formal possession of the valley of the Connecticut, Governor Winslow hastened to confer with the Massachusetts Gover- nor 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 as- signed 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."*
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 hospfta-
* Morton's memorial, page 176.
84 PETER STUYVESANT.
bly entertained in the many Indian /illages 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 Win- throp, 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 neigh- bors 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,
THE ADMINISTRATION OF VAN TWILLER. 8$
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 inhabi- tants, so that there need not be any question respect- ing 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 Vvhere the town of Windsor now stands. Lieuten- ant Holmes was then dispatched with a chosen company, in a vessel which conveyed the frame of a small bouse carefully stowed away, and which could be very expeditiously put together. He was di- rected 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
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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 vaga bond Indians. The culprits were taken and hung
This exasperated against the Dutch the power- ful 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.
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In the meantime, Van Twiller having received instructions from the home government, dispatched a force of seventy well armed men to drive Lieuten ant Holmes and his men from their post. The Eng- lish stood firmly upon their defence. The Dutch, seeing that a bloody battle must ensue, with uncer- tain 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 dilapi- dated, was repaired, and a guard-house and a bar- rack for the newly arrived soldiers were constructed within the ramparts, at a cost of several thousand guilders.
u Three expensive windmills were also erected. But they were injudiciously placed so near the fort that the buildings, within its walls, frequently inter- cepted 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 wor- shipped since 1626, was now replaced by a plain
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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 sur- vived to the present day among the descendants of the Dutch colonists of New Netherlands
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 re- gion 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 ob- tain 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 >ear9
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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 in- creasing flocks and herds ; the great beauty and fruitfulness of the Connecticut valley, and the dan- ger that the Dutch, or other English colonies, might get possession of it. "Like the banks of the Hud- son," 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?"*
Thus solicited, families from Watertown and Roxbury commenced a settlement at Wethersfield in the year 1635. Some emigrants, from Dorches- ter, established themselves just below the colony of the Plymouth people at Windsor. This led to a stern remonstrance on the part of Governor Brad- ford, of Plymouth, denouncing their unrighteous in- trusion. " Thus the Plymouth colonists on the Con- necticut, 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
* Hist, of New York, by John Romeyn Brodhead. Vol. I, p 257.
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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 In- dians three years before, and, in token of their pos- session, 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, Linvit'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 Aga- wam, now Springfield. Thus, step by step, the Eng- lish 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 origi nal conveyance of the now almost priceless estate, held by the corporation of Trinity Church. The dU rectors, in Holland, encouraged emigration by all the means in their power. Free passage was offer- ed to farmers and their families. They were also promised the lease of a farm, fit for the plough, for
THE ADMINISTRATION OF VAN TWILLER. 91
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 re- ceived, retaining the increase. They were also as- sisted 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, at- tracted especial attention. Some men from Bos- ton, who had visited it, greatly extolled the beauty and fertility of the region, declaring it to be far superior to Massachusetts Bay. u 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 frorr^ London, men of property and high religious worth, arrived at Boston. They sailed to the Red Rocks, purchas-
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ed 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, num* bered 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, say- ing, " 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 weie sent to Holland respecting the incapacity of the Director Van Twiller. It was said that he, neg- lecting the affairs of the colony, was directing all his energies to enriching himself. He had become, it was reported, the richest landholder in the prov-
THE ADMINISTRATION OF VAN TWILLER. 93
ince. Though sustained by very powerful friends, he was removed.
William Kieft was appointed in his steadj 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 natu- ral resources of the Dutch settlements on the Hudson at this time:
" The colonists lived amid nature's richest profu- sion. 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,
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the christians did not make use of, but the Indians ate them greedily. Flax and hemp grew sponta- neously. Peltries and hides were brought in great quantities, by the savages, and sold for trifles. The land was very well provisioned with all the necessa- ries of life."*
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 govern- ment 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. Indig- nantly the chief exclaimed:
u How can the sachem at the fort dare to exact a tax from us! He must be a very shabby fellow
* History of the State of New York, p. 203.
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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 Amster- dam 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 sup- plied 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 severi ty which should be a warning to all the Indians.
He sent to this innocent, unsuspecting tribe, a
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party of seventy well armed men, many of them un. principled desperadoes. They fell upon the peace, ful 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 thriv- ing plantation belonging to DeVrees on Staten Isl- and. 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 do-
THE ADMINISTRATION OF VAN TWILLER. 97
ing this, he probably felt the joys of an approving conscience, — a conscience all uninstructed in relig- ious 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 re- ply:
" 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 diffi culty, and was accused of seeking war with the In- dians 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 * 5
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were chosen to consider the propositions to be sub- mitted to them by the Director. To them the ques- tion was propounded :
" Is it not just, that the murder lately committed by a savage, upon Claes Smits, be avenged and pun- ished ? 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 cat- tle are scattered in the woods. Many of the inhabi- tants, unsuspicious of danger, are at a distance. It is not best to precipitate hostilities. In the mean- time let two hundred coats of mail be procured in preparation for the expedition. Let our friendly in- tercourse with the savages be uninterrupted, to throw them off their guard. When the hunting sea- son 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 ex- pedition, 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 se-
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cures 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 at- tack. We will follow his steps and obey his com- mands.''
The hunting season soon came. Still it was de- cided to delay hostilities. The savages were on their guard. A very general feeling of unfriendli- ness 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 ap- proaching 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 Eng- land 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 per- vaded 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 u 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 cnief. When we come to see
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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 express- ed 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 uni- versal 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."
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At length, encouraged by DeVrees and acconv. panied by him, the chiefs ventured to fort Amster- dam. They explained to Kieft the occurrence, and proposed the expiatory offering to appease the wid- ow'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 no- ble 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 ac- customed to strong liquors, sometimes become drunk and fight with knives. Sell no more strong drink to the Indians, if you will avoid such mis- chief."
While this question was being agitated, the Mo- hawks from the upper part of the Hudson, came down in strong military bands, armed with mus- kets, 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 subjuga-
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ted tribes fled from the river banks, and from the region of Westchester, to Manhattan and to Pavo- nia, 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 hand- some mill seats. The meadows yielded hay enough spontaneously for two hundred head of cattle.
DeVrees, finding his house full of fugitive sav- ages, on their retreat to Pavonia, at the mouth of the river, paddled down in a canoe through the floating ice to fort Amsteidam, to confer with Direc- tor Kieft upon the emergency. He urged upon the Director that these poor Indians, thus escaping from the terrible Iroquois and grateful for the pro- tection, 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 pe- tition to Kieft, saying,
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" 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 ad- vanced against their unsuspecting victims. They were sleeping in fancied security when the murder- ous assault commenced.
*' The noise of muskets," writes Brodhead, " min
WAR AND ITS DEVASTATIONS. 10$
gled with the shrieks of the terrified Indians. Nei- ther age nor sex were spared. Warrior and squaw, sachem and child, mother and babe, were alike mas. sacred. Daybreak scarcely ended the furious slaugh- ter. 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 mur- derers."
" 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 In- dians murdered in their sleep.''
With the dawn of the morning the victorious Dutch returned from their scene of slaughter, bear- ing with them about thirty prisoners, and the heads instead of the scalps of many warriors. Kieft wel- comed 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 5*
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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 o( the Dutch, were now justly roused to the highest pitch of indignation. They immediately made com- mon 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 dwell- ing. 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
WAR AND ITS DEVASTATIONS. 107
hunger, exposure and woe, fled from their deserted homes to fort Amsterdam. Despairing of ever again rinding 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 fright- ful 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 De- Vrees did not escape the undiscriminating wrath oi 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 con- structed 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 :
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" 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 cow- ardly Kirft ensconced himself securely within the
WAR AND ITS DEVASTATIONS. IO9
tvalls 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 expedi- tions all returned having accomplished nothing.
61 The proud heart of the Director," writes Bred- head, " began to fail him at last. In one week des- olation 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 pro- claimed. 'We continue to suffer much trouble and 7oss 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
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responsibility of the insane course which had been pursued, upon one Adriansen, an influential burgh- er, 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. Exasperat- ed 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 Di- rector's room, with the apparent intention of assas- sinating 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 deliber- ately discharged the piece at the Director, but with- out 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
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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 re- gions. The Dutch were driven out of the whole of New Jersey. The settlers on Staten Island were trembling in hourly expectation of an assault. Wars 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 immedi- ate 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 trem- bling 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
TI2 PETER STUWESANT.
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 begin- ning to starve for want of forage. It was indispens- able 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 free- men. With this handful of men was New Nether- land to be defended against the implacable fury of her savage foe."
For a time the war which had desolated the re- gion 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 Rens-
WAR AND ITS DEVASTATIONS. 113
selaer, 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.
11 I tell them that I admonish the christians that they must now 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
114 PETER STUYVESANT.
teaching the christians, but immediately add, ' Why do so many christians do these things? '"
This was several years before John Eliot com- menced preaching the gospel to the Indians near Boston. Kieft very earnestly applied to the Eng- lish colony at New Haven for assistance against the Indians. The proposal was submitted to the Gen- eral Court. After mature deliberation, it was de- cided 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 ob- taining assistance from the English, was roused to the energies of desperation. The spirit of the peo- ple also rose to meet the emergency. It was de- termined 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 san- guinary 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
WAR AND ITS DEVASTATIONS. 115
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 ex- pedition 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 hiil 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 op- posed 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 hun- dred 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-posses
Il6 PETER STUYVESANT.
sion. 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 ven- ture 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 acros3 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
WAR AND ITS DEVASTATIONS. 117
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 permit- ted to come forth during the summer, remain rotting
1 13 PETER STUYVESANT.
in the fields. We have no means to provide neces* saries 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 or- nament to the country and a profit to the proprie- tors after their long and laborious toil. The whole of these now lie in ashes through a foolish hanker- ing 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 Com- pany'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.
WAR AND ITS DEVASTATIONS. Iig
tl 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 pro gress of the war, they warn the home government against relying upon the statements which the Director had sent over to them. ''These state- ments," they said, ° contain as many lies as lines." The memorial was concluded with the following forcible words :
u 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 re- turn with our wives and children, to our dear father- land. 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 con- cluded 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, Petei Stuyvesant. The preceding account of the origin
120 PETER STUYVESANT.
of the Dutch colony and its progress thus far !s essential to the understanding of the long and suc- cessful 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 Stayvesant.
New Netherland in 1646. — Early Years of Peter Stuyvesant. — Decay of New Amsterdam. — The Germs of a Representative Govern ment. — Energetic Administration. — Death of Governor Win- throp. — Claims for Long Island. — Arrogance of the Governor. — Remonstrance of the Nine Men. — The Pastoral Office. — Boun dary lines. — Increasing Discontent. — Division of Parties. — Dic- tatorial 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 thou- sand. Such was the ruin which the mal-administra- tion of Kieft had brought upon the colony. The male adult population around Amsterdam was re- duced to one hundred. At the same time the pop- ulation of the flourishing New England colonies had increased to about sixty thousand.
On the nth of May, 1647, Governor Stuyvesant arrived at Manhattan. He was appointed as " Re- dresser General," of all colonial abuses. We have but little knowledge of the early life of Peter Stuy- vesant. The West India Company had a colony 6
122 PETER STUYVESANT.
upon the island of Curacoa, in the Caribbean Sea. For some time Stuyvesant had been its efficient Di- rector. He was the son of a clergyman in Fries- land, one of the northern provinces of the Nether- lands.
He received a good academic education, becom- ing quite a proficient in the Latin language, of which accomplishment, it is said that he was after- wards somewhat vain. At school he was impetuous, turbulent and self-willed. Upon leaving the acad- emy he entered the military service, and soon de- veloped such energy of character, such a spirit of self-reliance and such administrative ability that he was appointed director of the colony at Curacoa. He was recklessly courageous, and was deemed some- what unscrupulous in his absolutism. In an attack upon the Portuguese island of Saint Martin, in the year 1644, which attack was not deemed fully justi- fiable, he lost a leg. The wound rendered it neces- sary for him to return to Holland in the autumn of 1644, for surgical aid.
Upon his health being re-established, the Direc- tors 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 Curacoa, Buenaire and
GOVERNOR STUYVESANT. 1 23
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 offi- cers, the Vice-Director and the Fiscal, were associa- ted 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 di- rected 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 cir- cumstances, to be sold to the Indians.
Van Diricklagen was associated with the Gov* ernor 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 emi- grants, with abundant supplies, accompanied this party. The little fleet of four ships left the Texel on Christmas day of 1646. The expedition, run- ning in a southerly direction, first visited the West India islands. On the voyage the imperious tem- per of Stuyvesant very emphatically developed it- self.
Holland was then at war with Spain. A prize was captured and the question arose respecting its
124 PETER STUYVESANT.
disposal. Fiscal Van Dyck claimed, by virtue of hia office, a seat at the council board and a voice in the decision. The governor rudely repulsed him with the woids,
" Get out. Who admitted you into the council. When I want you I will call you."
When they arrived at Curacoa, 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 re- ceived by the whole community with great rejoic- ing. 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 pow- er, 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 des* ecration, intemperance and all quarrelling. No in
GOVERNOR STUYVESANT. 125
toxicating 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 influ- ence 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 unfin- ished 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
126 PETER STUYVESANT.
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 eider 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 appoint- ed to regulate the location and structure of new houses.
The embarrassments which surrounded the gov- ernor were so great that he found it necessary to support his authority by calling public opinion to his aid. " Necessity," writes Rrodhead, " 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 measi.re ropular
GOVERNOR STUYVESANT. 127
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 Dela- ware, 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 Com- pany. 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 limit:-.
Governor Eaton, of the New Haven colony, sent
128 PETER STUYVESANT.
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 allegi- ance."
This decree excited strong disapprobation at home as well as in the other colonies. The inhabi- tants of Manhattan objected to it as tending to con- vert 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
GOVERNOR STUYVESANT. 1 29
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 negli- gence, 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 alJ 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 6*
130 PETER STUYVESANT.
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 prob- ably 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 venera- ble 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, deter- mined 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 north- ern portion of the island, as governor of the whole
GOVERNOR STUYVESANT. 13?
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 consequen- tial 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 some- what secret, and they endeavored to conceal from the governor the papers which were drawn up, con- taining the charges against him. The spirit of Stuy- vesant 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 arrest- ed and imprisoned.
The Vice Director, Van Diricklagen, accompa- nied 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 offi-
132 PETER STUYVESANT.
cers 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 administra- tion. Stuyvesant took the alarm. If the people could judge of Kieft's administration, his own might be exposed to the same ordeal. Convening a spe- cial council, he said,
11 These petitioners are disturbers of the public peace. If we grant their request, will not the cun- ning fellows, in order to usurp over us a more un- limited 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 subser- vient 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 de* cided and sentence was pronounced. Stuyvesant
GOVERNOR STUYVESANT. 1 33
wished Melyn to be punished with death and confis- cation of property. But the majority of the Council held back the Governor's avenging hand. Still he succeeded in sentencing Meiyn to seven years' ban- ishment, to a fine of three hundred guilders, and to forfeit all benefits derived from the Company. Kuy- ter 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.
u 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 Netherlands
Again he said, with characteristic energy, u 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.''**
Melyn and Kuyter being sent to Holland as crim- inals, 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 excit- ed. Anxious that his triumph should be as public
* History of the State o New York, By John Romeyn Brod- head Vol I. p. 473.
134 PETER STUYVE5ANT.
as his disgrace had been, he demanded that frhe 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 com- mands/' said Stuyvesant, u I shall send an attorney to sustain the sentence."
The Indians loudly, and with one accord, de- manded 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 persist- ent refusal to continue the supply, might again in- stigate them to hostilities. The Directors of the West India government therefore intimated that " it was the best policy to furnish them with pow« der 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
GOVERNOR STUYVESANT. 1 35
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 contra- band 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 admin- istration of Stuyvesant was reviewed with much severity.
" In our opinion," said the remonstrants, " this country will never flourish under the present gov- ernment. 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, salu- brity 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
136 PETER STUYVESANT.
authorities there. The pastor of the church at Man* hattan, 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 con- sented 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 ener- getic 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
GOVERNOR STUYVESANT. 1 37
had his authority lowered in the eyes of his neigh- bors 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 impor- tant 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 ol 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 ar- rangements for the long projected meeting with the Commissioners of the United Colonies.
On the 17th of September, 1650, Governor Stuy- vesant embarked at Manhattan, with his secretary, George Baxter, and quite an imposing suite. Touching at several places along the sound, he ar- rived at Hartford in four days. After much discus-
I38 PETER STUYVESANT,
sion 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 re- mark that Stuyvesant's secretary was an English- man, and he chose two Englishmen for his dele- gates.
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 negotia- tions to the Chamber at Amsterdam but, for some
GOVERNOR STUYVESANT. 1 39
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, re- jecting 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 un justifiable prosecutions, and we can already discern the smart thereof from afar." *
Notwithstanding these reiterated rebukes, Stuy-
* John Romem Brodhead, Vol. r. p. 521. E. B. O'Callaghan. M D Vol 2. p. 157.
140 PETER STU YVES ANT.
vesant 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 father land. The vice-director, in forwarding the new pro- test to him wrote,
44 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 refu- gees, 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 differ- ence of opinion which prevails among us."
The West India Company, not willing to relin- quish 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 thte
GOVERNOR STUYVLoANT. I4I
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 libera- tion 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 Dela- ware 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 governot regarded this as a breach of the treaty, for the Eng« lish territory terminated and the Dutch began at the bay of Greenwich. The expedition put in at Manhattan. The energetic governor instantly ar rested the leaders and held them in close confine- ment till they signed a promise not to proceed to
T42 PETER STUYVESANT.
the Delaware. The emigrants, thu6 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 oppo- sition, even to bloodshed, against all English in- truders within southern New Netherland."
In this movement of the English to get a foot- hold 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 neces- sary to appeal to arms, he demanded of the authori- ties 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 Dela- ware. Stuyvesant, with a large suite of officers, visited that region. In very decided terms 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
GOVERNOR STUYVESANT. I43
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 Chris- tina. As Stuyvesant thought fort Nassau too far up the river and inconvenient of access, he de- molished 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 Hol- land.— 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 ob- noxious vice-director, had another, Johannes Dyck- man, who he thought would be more subservient to his wishes, appointed in his stead. The commissa- ry of the patroons, whom he had imprisoned at Manhattan, secreted himself on board a sloop and es- caped up the river to Beaverwyck. The enraged governor seized the skipper of the sloop on his re- turn, and inflicted upon him a heavy fine.
The patroons were now fearful that the governor would fulfil 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
WAR BETWEEN ENGLAND AND HOLLAND. I45
assembled the freemen and householders who bound themselves, by an oath, " to maintain and support offensively and defensively the right and jurisdic- tion 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 proba- bly the first of the name who came to New Nether- land. It was now reported that Governor Stuyve- sant 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 govern- or soon arrived and, with his customary explicitness, informed the authorities there, that the territory by the Exemptions, allowed to the patroon, was to ex- tend 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 enclosuie, 7
I46 PETER STUYVESANT.
fired a volley, and hauled down the flag of the pa troon. He then issued a decree that Beaverswyck, which included the region now occupied by the city of Albany, was independent of the patroon's govern- ment, and was brought under the jurisdiction of the colony of fort Amsterdam.
Van Slechtenhorst, the patroon's bold and effi- cient 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 isl- and 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
WAR BETWEEN ENGLAND AND HOLLAND. 14;
void, and the "pretended proprietors/' were ordered to return the purchase money. Should they how- ever 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 com- plaints 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 in- struct us of the design of the new-built fort Casimir We are at a loss to conjecture for what reason it haa received this name. You ought to be on your guard
I48 PETER STUYVESANT.
that it be well secured, so that it cannot be sur- prised.*'
The States -General were more and more dissatis. fied 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 con- cessions to the commonalty at Manhattan. They therefore communicated to Stuyvesant their consent that the " burgher government" should be estab- lished, 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.
WAR BETWEEN ENJLAND AND HOLLAND. 149
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 M 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 Stuy- vesant 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
150 PETER STUYVESANT.
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 es- tablished between the Dutch and English posses- sions 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
WAR BETWEEN ENGLAND AND HOLLAND, 151
Council did not " deem it fitting to recede." As to the colonial boundary, the ungracious reply was re- turned,
u The English were the first settlers in North America, from Virginia to Newfoundland. We know nothing of any Dutch plantations there, ex- cepting a few settlers up the Hudson. We do not think it necessary at present, to settle the bounda- ries. 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 visita- tion 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 en- sued. A series of terrible naval conflicts followed, with victory now on the one side and now on the
I«52 PETER STUYVESANT.
other. At length Blake, discomfited, was compel led to take refuge in the Thames. Admiral Tromp; rather vain- gloriously, placed a broom at his mast- head 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 ammuni- tion ; and to inspect the fortifications at New Am- sterdam, 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 em- ploy all such means of defence as prudence may re- quire for your security, taking care that the mer- chants and inhabitants convey their property within the forts.
" Treat them kindly, so that they may be encour- aged to remain there, and to give up the thought ol
WAR BETWEEN ENGLAND AND HOLLAND, 1 53
returning to Holland, which would depopulate the country. • It is therefore advisable to inclose the vil- lages, 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 smal straggling village of one story huts, containing about seven hundred inhabitants. The whole island of Manhattan belonged in fee to the West India Com* pany. 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 them- selves of the opportunity to wrest New Netherland
7*
154 PETER STUYVESANT.
from the Dutch, and to extend their sway from Stamford to the Chesapeake. Governor Stuyvesant perceived his danger. He could be easily over- powered 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 colo- nies should continue on its former peaceful footing. At the same time he adopted very vigorous meas- ures to be prepared for defence should he be assailed.
Rumors reached New Amsterdam of active mili- tary preparations in progress in New England. It was manifest that some hostile expedition was con- templated. 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 citi- zens without exception, were ordered to work upon the defences, under penalty of fine, loss of citizen- ship 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
WAR BETWEEN ENGLAND AND HOLLAND. 1 55
Indians, on the east side of the North river, and vhose territory extended to the Connecticut, were allies of the English. Uncas, the chief of this tribe, declared that Governor Stuyvesant was plot- ting to arm the Narragansetts against New Eng- land. At the same time nine chiefs from the vicini- ty 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 Eng- lish 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 gov- ernor. I stood the great part of a winter's day,
i$6 PETER STUYVESANT.
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 insti- gate 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 de- nying the plot, and offering to come himself to Bos- ton " 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
WAR BETWEEN ENGLAND AND HOLLAND. 1 57
delegates to Manhattan to investigate the whole af- fair.
The Council decided to send three commission- ers, men of note, to Manhattan. At the same time an army of five hundred men was ordered to be or- ganized " for the first expedition," should " God call the colonies to make war against the Dutch."
The New England agents were hospitably re- ceived at New Amsterdam. They urged that the meeting should be held in one of the New England colonies, where Stuyvesant " should produce evi- dence 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 re- quiring 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 over- tures. It may be said that it was manifestly for hia interest to do so, for the Dutch colonies were quite
158 PETER STUYVESANT.
powerless compared with the united colonies of New England. The New England agents ungraciously repelled his advances, and at length abruptly ter- minated 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 invita- tions to remain, and " cloaking their sudden depart- ure 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 your- selves or by the Indians, either upon the national quarrel, or by reason of any differences depending between the United English Colonies and your- selves, that, as the Commissioners will do no wrong, so they may not suffer their countrymen to be op- pressed upon any such account. ''
The morning after this unfriendly retirement of the agents, Governor Stuyvesant dispatched a mes- senger 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 arc
WAR BETWEEN ENGLAND AND HOLLAND. 1 59
false reports and feigned informations. Your hon- ored 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 ascer- tained, of any moment was, that Governor Stuyve- sant had told an Englishman, one Robert Coe, that if the English attacked him, he should try to get the In- dians 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 declara- tions without any purpose of concealment. He had been instructed to pursue this course by the Am- sterdam Directors. The New England colonists had in their Pequod war, set the example of employ- ing Indian allies. This repulsive feature in the Brit- ish colonial administration continued until the close of the war of the Revolution.
Captair John Underhill,an Englishman, who had
IOO PETER STUYVESANT.
obtained considerable renown in the Pequod wat becoming dissatisfied with some ecclesiastical cen- sure 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. Underbill 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 proc- lamation, in which he said,
"You are called upon to abjure the iniquitous government of Peter Stuyvesant over the inhabi- tants residing on Long Island. His rule is too grievous for any brave Englishman and good chris- tian 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. Ac- cept and submit ye then to the Parliament of Eng- land ; and beware of becoming traitors to one
WAR BETWEEN ENGLAND AND HOLLAND. l6l
another for the sake of your own quiet and wel- fare."
This proclamation did not meet with a cordial response. Underhill fled to Rhode Island. Here he received from Boston a commission, " to take all Dutch ships and vessels as shall come into his pow- er, and to defend himself from the Dutch and all enemies of the commonwealth of England/'
The report of the agents who had visited Man- hattan 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
l62 PETER STUYVESANT.
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, u At the annual meeting of the Commissioners, Mas- sachusetts 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 Gener- al Court, was terminated by an ambiguous conces- sion 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 Hud son was greatly coveted, as it opened to commerce vast and unknown regions of the interior.
Hartford and New Haven discussed the question
WAR BETWEEN ENGLAND AND HOLLAND. I&J
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 colo- nies 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 com- manded to assist the other colonies tc 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 Lon- don, entitled, "The second part of the Amboyna Tragedy ; or a faithful account of a bloody, treacher- ous and cruel plot of the Dutch in America, purport- ing the total ruin and murder of all the English colonists in New England ; extracted from the
164. PETER STUYVESANT.
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 per- petrated 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 infa- mous and lying libel," translated into their own lan- guage and sent a copy to Governor Stuyvesant and his council, saying:
0 We wish that your honors may see what strata- gems 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
WAR BETWEEN ENGLAND AND HOLLAND. 16$
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 in- creasingly 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 transcend- ing, 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
1 66 PETER STUYVESANT.
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 counc^ "
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 Casi- mir captured by the Swedes. — Retaliation. — Measures for the recapture of Fort Casimir. — Shooting a Squaw. — Its Consequen- ces.— 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 govern- or 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 com- plaints 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 Hol- land with these documents, with instructions to do
1 68 PETER STUYVESANT.
everything in his power to procure the reforms they urged. Though the citizens of New Amsterdam had, for a year, enjoyed a limited municipal govern- ment, they were by no means satisfied with what they had thus far attained. What they claimed, and reasonably claimed, were the larger franchises enjoy- ed by the cities in the fatherland.
The condition of New Netherland, at the com- mencement 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 ex- cesses upon the unprotected inhabitants. The English residents in the Dutch colonies were numei ous, and they were ripe for revolt. The Dutch themselves were uttering loud murmurs. The gov- ernor acted with his accustomed energy. Several vessels were fitted out to act