History of Delaware : 1609-1888, Part 7

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia : L. J. Richards
Number of Pages: 776

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Alternately at war with the whites and other tribes of their own race,-with the Maryland colo- nists, the Delawares, the Chesapeake and Potomac Indians, and the Iroquois of the north, -the Sus- quehannas at last gave way before the march of civilization and its attendant evils, rum and small- pox, combined with the onslaught of their savage enemies, until a mere fragment of their nation, called the Conestogas, was all that remained of a once powerful people, which, as late as 1647, had thirteen hundred warriors trained to the use of firearms by Swedish soldiers. These Conestogas were treacherously and brutally murdered by the "Paxton boys," in the Lancaster jail, where the Pennsylvania authorities had sent them for pro- tection, and not many years later Logan, incom- parably the greatest of the Mingoes, whose passion- ate but dignified and sententious eloquence, as displayed in his words of mourning for his slain kindred, is world-famous, fell a victim to the tom- ahawk of an Indian assas-in while sitting by his lonely camp-tire in the wilds of Ohio. Thus passed the last of the Mingoes, the noblest of all that brave. if barbarous, people-his own fate typical of that which befell his nation and his race.

I Records of New Castle County Court.

CHAPTER IV.

DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT BY THE DUTCH, 1609-1636.

Ir is not positively known who discovered the territory now known as Delaware, but as early as 1526, the Spaniards not only explored the whole coast trom the Mexican Gulf, northward to and beyond the thirty- fifth degree of latitude, but had even attempted to form a settlement about that parallel. There is evidence, apparently incontro- vertible, that the Chesapeake was known to the Spaniards, and that an expedition had been made by them for the occupation of its coasts at least twenty years before we have any knowledge of any attempt of the English to establish them- selves in any part of the American continent In view of these facts it would have been strange that

HENRY HUDSON.

the great basin, now known as Delaware Bay, should have remained unknown to the Spaniards until it was visited by Henry Hudson in 1609.

In the sixteenth century enterprises for discovery were numerous, and the daring and skill of the early voyagers who led the way to the colonization of the United States deserve the highest admira- tion. The character of the prevalent winds and currents was unknown, and the ships employed for discovery were generally of less than one hundred tons burden. Frobisher sailed in a vessel of but twenty-five tons; two of those of Columbus were without a deck, and so perilous were the voyages deemed that the sailors were accustomed. before embarking, to perform -olemn acts of devotion, as if to prepare for eternity.

It is certain that the first practical discovery of the Delaware Bay and River and of the New York Bay and Hudson River was made in 1609, by Henry Hudson,' an English navigator in the ser-

Coordenar y Com, Madrid 123.

" We know surprisingly little of Hemty liphon. He meant to have been the personal friend of Capt. John sunth, the battuler of Virginia, and it is probable that he was of the family of that Heury Undwoh who, in 1334, was one of the offziuul incorporatofs of the English Muscovy

HISTORY OF DELAWARE.

vice of the Dutch East India Company, whose tances, and is found to be so accurate to this day title to immortality seems to be assured by the fact that bis route can be minutely followed. that one of the largest bays and one of the noblest At noon Hudson having passed the lower cape, rivers in the world equally bear his name, and are the shores were descried stretching away north admitted to have been discovered by him. The west, while land was also seen towards the north- cast, which he at first took to be an island, but it proved to be the main land and the second point of the bay.'

discovery of Delaware Bay and River was made, according to the journal kept by Robert Jewett (or Juet), the first officer of Hudson's ship. on August 28, 1609 (new style), and on this discovery the Dutch founded their claim to the countries binding upon and adjacent to the North ( Hudson) and the South ( Delaware) Rivers,1

The accounts of Hudson's third voyage and his discovery of the North and South Rivers are too accurate, circumstantial, and satisfactory to allow of any question in regard to them. Hudson's jour- nal as well as that of Robert Juet are preserved in Purchas' Pilgrims, and Juet has given not only the courses and distances sailed on the coast, but the various depths of water obtained by soundings off the bars and within the capes of the two bay, Juet's log-book of August 28, 1609, has indeed been tested by actual soundings and sailing dis-

Company. This man's con, thistopher, supposed to have been the father of the great navigator, was as early as I warand up to Date the fator and agent on the spot of the Lation Company trading to Russia, and it seems bhely that the younger Hudson, frota luis fancharity with Arctic navigation, and lus daumz pertincity mattempting to mvade the ice-bound northern wastes, thay have served hits apprenti echipa- a navigator in trading, on behalf of the Muscovy Company, trom Bristol to Russia, as was then often done through the North Channel, and routel the Hebrides, Orkneys, Shetlands, and North Cape to the White Fra atl Archangel, At any rate when Hudson makes his first picturesque p- pearance before us, in the sunner of 1607, in the Church of St. Ethr-t- burge, Bishopsgate Street, Lotulen, where he and his crew are present to partake of the Holy sacrament together. it is prepatabiny tu a voyage in the service of the newly-organized " London Company." in Jewett's own words, " for to discover a passage by the North Pula to Japan and China." The navigator was at that time a middle-aged man, experienced and trusted Hudson reached Spitzbergen, and there the ire forced him back. Ilr repeated next year the attempt to reach Asia by crossing directly over the Pole, and again he failed alter havne reached Nova Zembla. The London Company now bweame disheart- ened, and Hudson at once transferred his services to the Dutch, who were then also eagerly seeking a northern route to Asts, and preparing under the ardent urging- of Feeling (of whom more will be said presently ) to establish a West India Company, The Amsterdam Juve- tors of the Dutch Last India Company put him in command of a yacht of the boat, the "Half-Moon " (the " yagt " Halve Maan'"), of forty "lasts " or eighty tous bur len, manned by a motley crew of sixteen or eighteen Enghab and Dutch sailors, and Ile dim continue to search for a route to the Eastern seas such as the Spaans and Portuguese could not olistruet. It way on his third voyage when, braten back to the re from the Greenland seas, he sailed as tax south as the capes of the Chesapeake, and discovered Delaware Bay and Hudson River. In his fourth voyage he returned again to the service of England, discovered and entered Hudson's Bay, wintered their, and in the spring, having angered his crew by harshness and hyper-isting in going westward. w. cast adrift by them in a small boat and left, with his son, to perish in the ice on the desolate border of the bay whn h bear- his name. He was never heard of afterward. For further particulars ist this stern, boll. and intelligent navigator, who was a man fall of spirit, energy, and well-defined purpose, the reader may consult Purchas, Hakluyt, and the monographs of Hon H. C. Murphy, Dr. Acher, Gen, John M. Read, Jr, and Kev. B. F. de Costa.

1 In an official report drawn up by i Putch Chamber, from documents amul papers placed in theu hamls, Devemtor 15, P.14, it is sitt that " New Netherland, situate in America, between English Virginia and Now England, extending from the South the Lawyer River, lying in latitude .1912, to Cape Malhar, in latitude 111; , was test Hop . need by the Inhalntants of this country in the year lde, and esperailly by those of the Groenland Company, but without making any Med settle- melita, only as a shelter in the winter; for which purpure they erected there two little forts of the south and North Rivers, against the Hour- ah ha of the Indians " O'callaghan's History of Ner Netherlands, bol. I.

The remainder of the day was spent in sounding the waters, which were in some parts filled with shoals, as at the present time, so that the " Halt Moon," though of light draught, struck upon the hidden sands. "Ilce that will throughly dis- cover this great Bay," says Juet, " muste have a small Pinnase that must draw but four or five foote water, to sound before him."

At sunset the master anchored his little vessel " in eight fathomes water," and found a tide running from the northwest; "and it riseth one fathome, and floweth South-South-east.": " From the strenth of the current that set out and caused the accumu- lation of sands," he " suspected that a large river discharged into the bay."s

In the course of the night, the weather, which had been intensely warm all day, suddenly changed. A passing storm dispelled the heat, while the breeze blowing from the land refreshed the weary men with the moist perfumes of sweet shrubs and sum- mer flowers. At early dawn the explorations were renewed and Hudson stood towards the "norther land," where he again " strooke ground" with his rudder. Convinced that the road to China did not lie that way, he hastened to emerge from the Delaware in search of new channels through which he might pass quickly to India, the goal of his wishes. Imbued with this idea, he continued his voyage along the evast of New Jersey, and cast anchor, on the 3d of September, within the shelter of what is now Sandy Hook, New York. ITis subsequent discovery of the river which bears his name, and his ascent to a point in the vicinity of the present city of Albany, are facts too well known to be given repetition here .?

The English early gave the name of Delaware Bay and River to the South River of the Dutch, upon the pretext that it was discovered by Lord de la Warr in his voyage to Virginia in 1610. Mr. Brodhead and other writers, however, have

2 Juet's Journal, Purchas III. p. 710.

.Cape May.

4 De Laet Niue Werelt fol, Amsterdam, 1627, Book III . Chap. 7. Hazard's Annals. p &, N. Y. Hast Sect, Call, Vol I N. S. p. 200.

S Jnet's Journal, Purchas Itt. 500. Vander Donk speaking of the South River, or Delaware, sits "This is the place where the ship Half- Mma first took post selvd ' are also O'Callaghan's list of New Nether- Tatid, Vol 1. p. 4.

6 [ Laget - Newwe WereIt

Se Historical Linguiry Concerning Henry Hudson by John Meredith Road, Jo, delivered before the Habend county of Delaware, The hatle " Half Moon," the best craft other than the fall Indian catena. that is kander to have entered the waters of the Delaware Bir, was wir ked about six years later an (old) at the land of Manritus. Brodhead's N. Y Hist. Coll. Vol. I. p. I.J.

DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT BY THE DUTCH.

plainly shown that Lord La Warr never saw De'a- far more favorable in regard to the North than ware Bay, and that the name Cupe La Warr w. given to Cape May by the roistering Capt. Samuel Argalls, of Lord Somers' squadron, who, being »parated from his commander in a fog off the Bermudas, in that voyage the narration of which i- supposed to have given Shakespeare hi- theme for the Tempest, was carried by a cyclone as far north as Cape Cod, and descending the coast again to Virginia, sighted the cape in question and gave his lordship's name to it.

The Dutch eventually rested their claim to the New Netherlands npon the magnificent discoveries of Hudson, as opposed to the English claim through the general discovery by the Cabots, but they did not immediately profit by them to any great ex- tent, nor did they make prompt endeavors to by that best of all methods, organized colonization. Indeed, when it is taken into consideration that Holland was then the first maritime power and the greatest trading country of the world: that Amsterdam was to the north what Venice had been to the Mediterranean and the less known seas of two continents; that her trathe with Russia frequently necessitated the sending of as many as seventy or eighty ships a year to Archangel, and further, when it is brought to mind that her people had for years been urged by the energetic Usselinx (of whom much more anon), to system- atically seck the riches of the New Would, it is difficult to form other conclusion than that the Dutch were somewhat dilatory in taking advan- tage of their enlarged opportunities. There were reasons, which will presently be explained, for the avoidance of colonization schemes, but the tardi- ness, the comparatively inconsequential character and the incompletely organized efforts of this nation of merchants, towards establishing trade with the rich, new found regions of the world are facts not easily accounted for. What the Dutch at first undertook and actually accomplished, however, was inspired by monetary rather than political ambition.

The reports carried to Holland by Hudson were

1 Lord de la Ware's real name was Sir Thomas West, and he was Lord Delawarre only by ronstesy, being the third son of Lord de la Warr and therefore mel gible to the title. Ile was the hrst Governor of Virginia and was apgainted to that position for lite, but wat- soon compelled to return to England and his government was administered by deputies. Hle married in let the daughter ot sir Thomas Shirley from whom the name of the well-known old Vagina estate romles. Ver ons descended from the West stock are still living in Virginia and West Point, N. Y., perpetuates the name of the old Dominion Governor. The family still exists in England nul numbers among its meinders an Ford de la Warr, whose brother, Hon. L & sackville West, is the Forvent Bruch Minister to Washington. land de las Wart ih whose honor the bay, liver and state water manod is assited to have died in le!» while teturning troia Virenna to Kuglaund, and some writers have satel that he was prosutied, which however seems ituprobable that Whib the majority of his onaus dedate that he died at sea, It Is Cir- com-tantially and questively asserted in Walpole's hand and Noble Anthogy as enlarged by Theanas Park and quoted by Banerott IVol. I., .hit he died at Wherwell, Hants, in England, June ;, 1 Is. Bancroft .99% of this personage in honor of whom Delaware received its name) " hiv affection for Virginia ceased only with lus hte," and all students second him a high character as a man and ruler.

the Zuydt or South River, and to the former were directed the first commercial expeditions of the Datep. Tho " Half Moon" in 1610 was sent back to the North River with a trading cargo, and took to Holland a heavy cargo of cheaply bought fur .. In lott (the same year that Hud-on was aban- aoned to a horrible death . Hendrick Christiansen, of Cleves near Nieguen Holland, a West India trader, and Adrien Block, of Amsterdam, char- tered a ship in company with che Schipper Rysar, and trade a tovage to the Manhattans and " the great river of the mountains," returning with a quantity of turs and bringing also two sons of Indian chiefs, whom they named " Valentine," and "Orson." These young savages, and the rare but cheaj, fors from their native land, appear to have roused the phlegmatie Hollanders from their leth- argy, and public interest in the newly discovered territories began to show some liveliness. A me- morial on the subject was presented to the Pro- vincial States of Holland and West Friesland by several merchants and inhabitants of the United Provinces, and, says Brodhead, " it was judged of sadficient interest to be formally communicated to the cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Hoorn and Luckhuysen."" In the following year Christiaen- -en and Block received material aid from several leading merchants, and fitted out two vessels, the " Fortune " and " Tiger," upon which they Failed again to the Hudson and traded along its banks with the Indians. In 1813 other merchants, allured by the handsome profits of these ventures, caught the New World fever, and the " Little Fox," under command of John De Witt, and " Nightin- gale." under Thys Volkertsen, were sent out from Amsterdam, while the owners of the ship " For- tune," of Hoorn, placed their vessel under charge of Captain Cornelis Jacobsen Mey (or May). This little fleet sailed to the Hudson River, where Block's vessel, the " Tiger," was destroyed by fire just as he was about to set sail for Holland in the fall. Undaunted by this misfortune, the mariner built a hut on the shore of a small island (named by him Block Island ), and spent the winter of 1613-14 in constructing a boat to supply the place of the "Tiger." This was a yacht of thirty-eight feet keel, forty-four and one-half feet long, and eleven feet wide, with a carrying capacity of six- teen tons. This little craft, the first built by Europeans in that part of America which became the United States, the builder named the " Onrust " or " Restless," and the name passed into history, and became fiumnous as that of the vessel which bore the first actual explorers of the Delaware River. By the time that the "Onrust" was fin- ished and nearly ready for service, in the spring of 1614, the companion vessels of the preceding year, : Brodhead, Vol. I. p 46. N Y. Ilist. Coll. 2A Series, Vol. II. p. 355.

HISTORY OF DELAWARE.

heretotore enumerated, were on their way over the of the States General, by John Van Olden Bart ocean, to begin their second season's work. This time, however, they came under new auspices, for in consequence of the presentation of petitions by "many merchants interested in the maritite dis- covery " to the " High and Mighty States General of Holland," an addict or ordinance had been issued ' declaring that it " was honorable, useful and pro- fitable " that the people of the Netherlands -houkl be encouraged to adventure themselves in discov- ering unknown countries, and for the purpose of making the inducement " free and common to every one of the inhabitants," it was granted and conceded that " whoever shall from this time for- ward discover any new passages, havens, land- or places, shall have the exclusive right of navigating to the same for four voyages." It was provided that the discoverer should, within fourteen days from his return, deliver to the State "a pertinent report of his discoveries," and that in case any discoveries were made simultaneously by different parties, they were to enjoy in common the rights acquired.

In the spring, when voyaging began, Christiaen- sen pushed up the Hudson and erected a trading post and block house on Castle Island, just below the site of Albany ; Block, with the " Ouest," ex- plored Long Island Sound, and Mey sailed directly southward, upon the " Fortune," charted the coast from Sandy Hook to the Delaware and, entering that bay, gave his surname (now spelled May) to the northern cape, bis Christian name, Cornelis. to the southern cape opposite, and to the southern cape, facing the ocean, the name of Hindlopen or Henlopen, probably after Thymen Jacobsen Hinlop- en, of Amsterdam, or a town in Friesland, though the latter, applied as it was to a false eape, was sub- sequently transferred to the Delaware cape (near Lewes), which now bears it. There is no evidence that May attempted to change the name of Dela- ware Bay and River from that given by the Dutch, Zueydt River, or that he landed at any point. In the fall the vessels of the trading squadron all returned to Holland. except the " On- rust," which was left at Manhattan under the command of Captain Cornelis Hendricksen, doubt- less for the express purpose of making a more minute examination of the country, The returned navigators and their associate merchants formed a company, drew up a report and chart of their several discoveries, and proceeded to the Hague to claim a concession under the ediet of March 27, 1614. In the presence of the twelve mighty lords

1 It was dated March 27, 1014.

"Also variously called boy the Indian names of Postiat, Makiri- shitton, Makarich-Risken, atol Lenape Wilattack, while Heyim, in hi- CosminGraphy, leavely Lives of the butcher name of Arassplit. When it became better known, the butch sometimes called it the Mussau, Pritire Hendrick's or Prince Charles River; and the swertes, New swedeland stream. The earliest settlers sometimes styled it New Port May and Godyu's Bay.

veldt, the " advocate" of Holland, they unfoll what they called a "figurative map" of the W. India (or American ) coast, told their tale of an ventures, discoveries, loss and gain, and asked t the monopoly which the ediet promised. It w. at once granted, and a special charter to them . exclusive privileges to trade for four voyages in ti region they had explored, which now, for the fu . time, obtained the name of the " NEW NETIIL. LANIR, " was drawn up and signed October 11, 161; The territory covered by this charter was all of the region from New France (as the French porst. sions in Canada were called, and Virginia. TI. e mpany was granted the privilege, exclusively. t. navigate to the newly discovered lands for five voyages, within the period of three years, con .. mencing the 1st of January. 1615. The privi- lege expired on the 1st of January, 1618, and then is no evidence now extant that any of the vessel. ever traded on the Delaware. This charter bar a broader historical importance and greater in- fluence in the chain of cause and effect than the mere granting of a valuable franchise to a halt dozen or more individuals, for it, in effect, assorted that the Dutch territory of the New Netherland- embraced all the territory and coast line of North America from the fortieth to the forty-fifth parallel

Hendricksen in the little yacht " Onrust" (scareely larger than the smallest oyster shallop of the present day ), was meanwhile engaged in making

the first actual exploration of the Delaware Bas and River, a work which seems to have occupo: the greater part of the year 1615, and some por- tion of the succeeding one, Authorities radically differ as to the extent of the Captain's exploration-, some firmly asserting that he went as far north :- the Schuylkill, and that he was, therefore, the tir-t white man to gaze upon the site of the city of Phila delphia, and others stoutly denying that he went be. yond the head of the Bay or the mouth of the Dele ware River proper. Without entering into an elabo rate and unsatisfying discussion of the merits of these clashing assertions, it may be stated that th. former possesses the greater portion of probabili ties, and has been generally conceded by the n ' over captions class of erities and historians. Th. chief ground for belief that he did sail up th river is to be found in his report, in which h speaks of having " discovered and explored certai! lands, a bay and three rivers, situated between "> and 40 degrees," corresponding respectively to th: south boundary of Maryland, where it touches th Atlanticand the latitude of Philadelphia would seem from this statement that no other tha: the Delaware Bay and River and the Christiana an. Schuylkill vouhl be meant. But little has been preserved of the information which Hendrickson carried to Holland concerning his voyage. What is |

DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT BY THE DUTCHI.

-aved from oblivion may be regarded as the first record of man upon the Delaware, and it is enough to show that he landed at several places, took soundings, drew charts and discovered the contour the then known America was called." of the bay and the capabilities of the river. He tells how he traded with the Indians for skins of various kinds, sables, otter, mink, bear robes, etc. He speaks of the vegetation of the shores and men- tions the kinds of trees that abound-the oaks, bickories and pines, richly draped and festooned here and there with grape vines and flowering creepers.

The forests he says were alive with game, bucks, does, turkeys and partridges. " He hath found," says his report, "the climate of said coun- try very temperate," and he believed it to be simi- lar in temperature to Holland.

At Christiana Creek where he landed, and pos- sibly walked over the very ground that was des- tined to be covered with the streets and buildings of the City of Wilmington, Hendricksen met a band of Minquas (or Mingse) Indians, and re- deemed from them three white men, who in the spring of 1616 had left the Dutch Fort near the site of Albany, wandered up the Mohawk Valley, crossed the dividing ridge to the head waters of the Delaware, and descended that stream until they had encountered the Minquas and been made pris- oners by them.1

In the summer of 1616, Captain Hendricksen was again in Holland, for on August 19, he laid his report of discoveries and claims for extensive trading privileges before the States General .: For some reason which does not clearly appear this was not granted, and the brave and energetic ex- plorer reaped no advantage from his arduous and dangerous undertaking. nor did he further figure in the cisatlantic affairs of his nation .?

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History of Delaware : 1609-1888, Part 7

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn Publication date: 1888 Publisher: Philadelphia : L. J. Richards Number of Pages: 776

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia : L. J. Richards
Number of Pages: 776