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137 V42 opy 2
The Discovery and Early History of New Jersey
By WILLIAM NELSON
The Discovery and Early History of
New Jersey
A Paper Read before the Passaic County Historical Society, June 11, 1872.
By WILLIAM NELSON.
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ONE HUNDRED COPIES PRINTED, A. D. 1912.
[The original manuscript having turned up accidentally in the sum- mer of 1912, this address has now been printed precisely as written forty years ago, without revision, correction or addition, except two or three foot-notes, enclosed in brackets.]
Author
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THE DISCOVERY AND EARLY HISTORY OF NEW JERSEY
INTRODUCTORY.
In this age of "progress,"-of the steam-engine, the lightning printing-press, the locomotive, the ocean tele- graph-cable, and universal hurry and bustle; in these days of new inventions, of labor-reform, social-reform, and world-and-mankind-reform generally-it is well for us to pause once in a while, step aside out of the on-rushing tide of human "progress," calmly to observe where we stand and whither we are drifting, and then look back to see whence we came. Thus we can judge as to the actual progress we are making, if any ; and if we use our faculties aright we can see many errors committed in the past to be avoided in the future. And, thus contemplating the situa- tion, it will be strange if there do not involuntarily arise the exclamation, Cui bono? For what good have we been toiling, pushing, crowding forward in such tumultu- ous haste? The actual progress of mankind is infinitely slow; it takes almost as long to pass from the "age of stone" to the "age of iron" as it would for a well-behaved monkey to develop into some kinds of men we know. So we might as well move more deliberately, not consuming with the fires of impatience, but restraining our impetuosity and saving our strength for use when and where most needed, only doing our appointed tasks well, satisfied to leave the issue to Him who hath foreseen all things to the end of time, and to whom "a thousand years are but as yesterday when it is past."
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To one who thus withdraws himself, in spirit, from the concerns of the present, and gazes backward, how much is there calculated to inspire him with feelings of admira- tion, of emulation, and of humility! He sees that there have been men as wise, as noble, as true, as good, as generous, as any now living; that there is really very little in theology, sociology or politics that has not been dis- cussed by men whose grandchildren have long ago turned to ashes; that the blatant "reformers," so self-styled, who arrogate to themselves the credit for discovering new ideas of one kind or another, are indeed but poor imitators of abler men and women whose names and systems were long since forgotten by a practical world that in the end preserves only the kernels of grain thrown into its vast thought-hopper; that we, who so exult in our superiority over those who are gone, are but fulfilling the destiny marked out for us a century ago, and, considering our greater advantages, are not doing so much better than our grandfathers, if so well. The study of the past inspires one with reverence, often, for the foresight of our prede- cessors, as we contemplate their sacrifices for the sake of principles essential to human progress and happiness.
No higher heroism nor nobler manhood is anywhere exhibited in American history than may be found in the annals of our own New Jersey, and it therefore seems all the stranger that our early history has not been more gen- erally studied. The paper herewith submitted is a rough sketch of the leading events connected with the discovery, settlement and early government of our State, prepared in the hope that an interest in the subject may be excited not only among our people generally, but especially among those who, studiously inclined, have never deemed it worthy of investigation, only because its real importance and attractiveness have never been brought to their atten-
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tion. Though hastily prepared, the statements contained in this paper are made only on the best authority, and may be relied upon as correct. The authorities are cited for every statement of importance, for verification by the critical reader, and as a guide to the young student to the more available and useful works on the subject.
THE DISCOVERY OF NEW JERSEY.
This part of our history, or rather introduction to our history, has been but scantily touched upon by writers on New Jersey, and is doubtless familiar to but few, which may be considered excuse enough for dwelling upon it here at some length. Our information is mainly gathered from a valuable volume of "Collections," published by the New York Historical Society in 1841, being Vol. I, New Series, of the Society's "Collections." This volume contains accounts written by some of the very earliest , visitors to the American continent, from whom we shall quote freely.
Skipping over the traditional accounts of the discovery of the Western Hemisphere by the Northmen in the ninth or tenth century, or by the Welshmen in the twelfth century (vide Gentleman's Mag., March, 1740, quoted in American Hist. Record, June, 1872), let us remind you that while Christopher Columbus is credited with the discovery-or re-discovery-of the new world in 1492, the Western Continent was first discovered in 1497, by Sebastian Cabot, who was sent out by Henry VIII, of England, whence the English claim to supremacy here a century and a half later. In 1498 Cabot coasted what is now the New Jersey shore. At that time no fashionable villas were "on the beach at Long Branch"; no lighthouse at Cape May warned the mariner of danger; no fishing- smacks were to be seen in the numerous inlets along the
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coast. The land was covered with primeval forests through whose dusky glades strange forms glided. The whole country was novel and mysterious in the eyes of Cabot's crew, and we do not wonder that in such a superstitious age the people to whom, on their return, they told of this wonderful land, were loth to settle in such a mystic and uncanny country. So we have no record that Cabot or his men ever even set foot on the virgin earth of New Jersey.
Capt. John de Verazzano, a Florentine, has given us an account of a voyage he made along the North Ameri- can coast in 1524, in a letter to "His Most Serene Majesty," Francis I, King of France, under whose orders he sailed in the good ship "Dolphin." In March, 1524, he coasted New Jersey-then, of course, unnamed-and he tells how one of his sailors, in trying to approach the shore to throw some trinkets to the wondering natives, was so buffeted about by the waves as to be prostrated, and how the Indians carried him ashore and restored him to consciousness, treated him with the greatest kindness, and then let him depart. Further on, Verazzano went ashore with twenty men, and captured a small boy to carry back to France, much as he would a dog or any other animal. "A young girl of about eighteen or twenty, who was very beautiful and very tall," only escaped captivity because she shrieked loudly as the sailors attempted to lead her away, and they had to pass some woods and were far from the ship. Thus the very first visit of the whites gave the Indians just cause to fear and hate them forever after.
Verazzano greatly admired the country, which he says "appeared very beautiful and full of the largest forests." He "found also wild roses, violets, lilies, and many sorts of plants and fragrant flowers different from our own," which here for many a century had sprung up, blossomed,
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bloomed and "wasted their sweetness on the desert air," or perchance had from time to time afforded to Indian youth the means of indicating to some fair dusky maiden his modest attachment. Verazzano was so pleased with this neighborhood that he remained three days, and next entered, beyond doubt, New York harbor, with a boat. He "found the country on its banks well peopled, the inhabitants not differing much 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." However, he was driven back by adverse winds. (N. Y. Hist. Soc. Col- lections, 2d Series, Vol. I, pp. 41-46.) He sailed next along Long Island, etc., but does not tell us what he did with his young captive.
We might imagine the emotions of awe and wonder- ment that filled the breasts of the untutored natives of the new world when first they beheld their strange visitors, but we have an account that bears internal evidences of genuineness, handed down by tradition among the Indians from generation to generation, and obtained more than a century ago from the lips of ancient Delawares, by the Rev. John Heckewelder, for many years a Moravian missionary to the Indians in Pennsylvania. It may be found in the volume cited above, pp. 71-74. It probably refers to the subsequent arrival of Hudson, as the In- dians of his day had no recollection, or even tradition, it appears, of an earlier landing of whites, but the account may not be inappropriate here. We are told, then, that the Indians watched the strange object approaching their shore with feelings of mingled alarm, awe and wonder, finally concluding the ship to be "a large canoe or house, in which the great Mannitto (or Supreme Being) himself
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was, and that he probably was coming to visit them." The chiefs hastily resolved themselves into a "committee of the whole," to arrange a suitable "reception"; the women were required to prepare the best of victuals; idols and images were examined and put in order; and a grand dance was also added to this extraordinary entertain- ment, on this most extraordinary occasion. "The con- jurors were also set to work, to determine what the meaning of this phenomenon was, and what the result would be. Both to these, and to the chiefs and wise men of the nation, men, women and children were looking up for advice and protection. Between hope and fear, and in confusion, a dance commenced. While in this situa- tion fresh runners arrive, declaring it a house of various colors, and crowded with living creatures. $ * Other runners soon after arriving, declare it a large house of various colors, full of people, yet of quite a different color than they (the Indians) are of; that they were also dressed in a different manner from them, and that one in particular appeared altogether red, which must be the great Mannitto himself." The whites land, treat the Indians to liquor, who of course get drunk, and the whites leave after the friendliest interchange of mutual regards.
More than three-quarters of a century seem now to have elapsed ere this country was again visited by the whites, Europe being convulsed with the great throes of the Reformation, and the accompanying wars that kept her adventurous spirits busily employed at home. Still, Spain was prosecuting the conquest of Mexico and Peru, and occasional adventurous sailors of other countries preferred to prowl over the seas in quest of Spanish frigates laden with the yellow gold robbed from the natives of the new world. This was a speedier way to fame and fortune, and vastly more romantic, than to settle
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in the unknown wilderness, thousands of miles away from home, and there patiently delve and plant, to establish a home. Canada, indeed, was settled as early as 1535 by the French, who called their happy new home Acadia, and there lived the sweet, simple lives so charmingly painted by Longfellow, in "Evangeline." The Span- iards, too, laid claim to nearly the whole continent, or at least the Atlantic coast, possibly because one Gomez, a Spaniard, had about 1525 sailed under their flag along the coast, and in 1535 we find a Spanish grant for Florida (settled in 1512), in which its boundaries are described as extending from Newfoundland to the 22d deg. N. Lat., or south of Cuba. Even a century later the Spaniards claimed all this country, and made incur- sions along the Virginia coast, and colonists to the New Netherlands were warned that it was "first of all necessary that they be placed in a good defensive position and well provided with arms and a fort, as the Spaniards would never allow anyone to gain a possession there." (Doc. Hist. N. Y., Vol. 3, p. 34.)
Massachusetts was discovered in 1600, and in 1603- 1632 Champlain thoroughly explored "New France," and skirted the New Jersey and Virginia coast, but his map of the country (prefixed to the volume just quoted) gives no idea of the shape of New Jersey, though he possibly refers to this neighborhood when he speaks of "the coast of a very fine country inhabited by savages who cultivate it." (Ut supra, p. 21.)
The English now assumed the ownership of the new world, by virtue of Sebastian Cabot's long-forgotten dis- covery, and in 1606 James I, of England, gave charters for the territory between the 34th and 46th degs. N. Lat., or say from Cape Fear, North Carolina, to Newfound- land, the southern half to the London, and the rest to the
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Plymouth Company. (Gordon's N. J., p. 5; Hume's England, Vol. IV , Am. ed., p. 519.)
But the Dutch, proverbially slow though they be, were ahead of the "Plymouth Company," and in 1609 the Netherlands East India Company sent out Henry Hud- son, a bold English sea-captain, to renew for the second or third time a search for a northwest passage to China and the East Indies-a search that had been unsuccess- fully made a score of times before, as it has been since. [In 1595 one John Davis published in London "The World's hydrographical Description, whereby it appears that there is a short and speedie Passage into the South Seas, to China, &c., by northerly Navigation." Lowndes, Bohn's ed., p. 602.] Many of the directors of the com- pany opposed this expedition. "It was," said they, "throwing money away, and nothing else." However, Hudson was sent out April 6, 1609, with a mere yacht, called the Halve-Maan, or "Half-Moon"-earlier pro- phetically called the Good Hope-manned by a crew of sixteen Englishmen and Hollanders. He sailed north- wardly, touched Newfoundland, discovered Cape Cod and called that country "New Holland," as the French had previously called the country north of that, "New France," and as it was designated till the English con- quest in the middle of the last century. (Lambrechtsen, N. Y. Hist. Soc. Coll., N. S., Vol. I, p. 85.)
On Thursday afternoon, September 3, 1609, the natives about Sandy Hook saw a vessel approach from the limitless sea. It was the "Half-Moon," commanded by Hudson. With wonder, admiration and awe they gazed on the strange sight, but after their first astonish- ment wore off, these aboriginal Jerseymen went on board the vessel without hesitation, and seemed to be pleased. They were civil, and gladly exchanged skins, tobacco,
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hemp, grapes, etc., for knives, beads, articles of clothing, etc., betraying a disposition to get the best of a bargain- a predilection that is popularly supposed to characterize the present race of Jerseymen as well. (Journal of Juet, Hudson's Mate, ut supra, p. 323.) Hudson penetrated the Narrows September 11th, and spent three weeks ex- ploring the noble river whose name now perpetuates his fame (though it was first called the Manahatta, the North river, the Rio de la Montagne, the Great river, and the Great North river), sending a boat up as far as Albany, and perhaps above. He made no settlements, of course. With a crew of but sixteen men that would have been scarcely practicable. But he doubtless raised the Dutch flag and claimed the ownership of the country, by right of discovery, for his masters and the Dutch Government. He found the Indians changeable in disposition-some- times friendly, and then on the slightest provocation hostile. Possibly they still remembered the previous visit of the whites-when one of their families was ruthlessly robbed of a darling son, and were on the alert for a similar attempt by Hudson's men. One of his men-John Cole- man-was shot in the throat with an Indian arrow, and in one or two encounters Hudson's little crew killed ten of the enemy. At various places he found many friendly Indians, who welcomed him cordially when he went ashore, though he says they had "a great propensity to steal, and were exceedingly adroit in carrying away whatever they took a fancy to." They got up an enter- tainment for him, regardless of expense, serving up "some food in well made red wooden bowls," shot a couple of pigeons, and even "killed a fat dog, and skinned it in great haste with shells which they had got out of the water." (Hudson's Journal, quoted by De Laet, and Juet's Log of Hudson's Voyage, ut supra, pp. 289, 290,
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300, 321-4.) Hudson returned with glowing accounts of the wonderful new country, and the Company sent out settlers and trading vessels in the next few years. The unfortunate Hudson came to a terrible end the year after his return to Holland. He was sent out once more to find that mysterious Northwest Passage, and discovered the Straits and Bay that bear his name, when in that desolate, ice-bound region his crew mutinied and sent him, his son and six faithful men, adrift in a small boat on the dreary ocean, and they were never heard of more. But his work was done. If he had not, indeed, discovered a new route to the Indies, he had discovered a country of far more importance to the world than the Indies have been or ever will be, and he had discovered a harbor that will one day receive the bulk of the products of the Indies, though he never dreamed that his name would yet be perpetuated in the title of a great and wealthy country, within whose limits tens of thousands of miles of iron roads would yet terminate, depositing in unbroken bulk the teas and the silks of the Far East, from away across the Western Continent.
FIRST SETTLEMENTS.
The first permanent lodgment on the shores of Nen Netherland seems to have been made in 1613, when a trading station was established on the present site of New York. In 1614 and 1615 forts appear to have been built by the Dutch at Albany and at New York, and in 1614 one was erected, it would seem, at what is now Jersey City-authority therefor having been obtained from their. High Mightinesses of the United Netherlands. (Lambrechtsen and De Laet, ut supra, pp. 88, 291, 299, 305; Gordon's N. J., p. 6.) Now settlers gradually strayed over to the unknown wilderness of the new world.
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We may well believe that few men cared to take their families to this mysterious land, where "immeasurable woods with swamps covered the soil," and "savages lived in their coverts, clothing themselves with the skins of wild beasts," their heads covered with feathers,-a costume that must have given them a wild aspect, soon heightened in the imagination of the whites when a band of these savages would occasionally sally out and murder some settler. Despite the glowing accounts brought home by some travelers, the old-world people were loth to leave their settled habitations for the western hemisphere, even though New Jersey already boasted an astonishing attrac- tion in "the retired paradise of the children of the Ethiopian Emperor; a wonder, for it is a square rock two miles compass, 150 feet high, and a wall-like precipice, a strait entrance, easily made invincible, where he keeps 200 for his guards, and under is a flat valley, all plain to plant and sow." (Plantagenet's Description of Nen Albion, quoted in Whitehead's East Jersey, p. 24.) Apart from the uncertainty of settling in a new country, where the success of the crops would be dubious for years, the voyage across the ocean was a vastly different matter from what it is now. Instead of steamers of 3,500 or 4,000 tons burthen, whose size prevents rolling in a great measure, making the passage in seven to ten days, by the most direct route: in those days ships or yachts of 50 to 200 tons burthen were most common, and though as early as 1603 Gosnold had found a straight course across the ocean, yet for many years afterward mariners took the old route, "first directing their course southwards to the tropic, sailing westward by means of trade winds, and then turning northward, till they reached the English settlements." (Hume's Hist. England, Am. ed., Vol. 4, p. 519.) Or, as another writer, in 1624, says: "This
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country now called New Netherland is usually reached in seven or eight weeks from here. The course lies towards the Canary Islands; thence to the (West) Indian Islands, then towards the main land of Virginia, steering right across, leaving in fourteen days the Bahamas on the left, and the Bermudas on the right hand where the winds are variable with which the land is made." (Wassenaer's Historie van Europa, quoted in Doc. Hist. N. Y., Vol. 3, p. 28.) Hence we may be prepared to find that so late as 1638 vessels seldom arrived at the New Netherlands in winter, and when De Vries anchored opposite Fort Amsterdam, December 27th, 1638, he and his fellow- passengers "were received with much joy, as they did not expect to see a vessel at that time of the year." (De Vries, in N. Y. Hist. Soc. Coll., N. S., Vol. I, p. 260.)
Still, there are always adventurous men, and men to whom freedom and independence present a charm that will lead them to brave any and all danger-even the perils of a voyage over trackless oceans (for there was no Maury two and a half centuries ago, to map out paths over the "vasty deep," and the very winds), in rocking vessels, and the dangers of constant encounters with a savage and remorseless foe. . And so we find ship-loads of colonists coming over from time to time, undeterred even by the massacres of entire settlements-as at Staten Island, in 1641, and at other places earlier.
Accordingly, we find settlements at Bergen as early as 1618; but that place must have increased but slowly, for it was not till 1661 that the village was large enough to be allowed a court and a Sheriff, the court being com- posed of the Sheriff and two Schepins (magistrates), and not till 1662 that a church was started, $162 being raised to erect a log house, replaced by one of stone in 1680. (Albany Records, quoted in Whitehead's E. J., p. 16.)
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Had there been 250 families (say 1,000 souls) in the settlement (which then covered all of the present Hudson county and part of Bergen county), it would have been entitled to a city government composed of an upper branch of three Burgomasters and five or seven Schepins, and a lower branch of twenty Councilmen. (Van der Donck, N. Y. Hist. Soc. Coll., N. S., Vol. 3, p. 240.) In 1661 a ferry from Bergen to New Amsterdam was established, and the undertaking seemed so risky that a monopoly had to be guaranteed, to induce anyone to operate it. In the year following we find that the solitary "ferryman complained that the authorities of Bergen had authorized the inhabitants to 'ferry themselves over when they pleased,' to the great detriment of his monopoly." (Albany Records, quoted in Whitehead's E. J., p. 20.) Though the church building was begun as early as 1662, as mentioned above, it was not till ninety-five years later, or 1757, that it had a settled pastor. (Romeyn's 1st Ref. Ch. of Hackensack, p. 40.) Even our old Totowa church was more enterprising than that, for it had a settled pastor in 1756.
It has been frequently asserted that the Puritans who sailed from Holland in 1620 intended to colonize in the New Netherlands, but that adverse winds, or the treachery of the ship's captain, caused them to land much further north, at Plymouth Rock, instead of at New York, or in New Jersey. (Gordon's N. J., p. 7; Robert- son's America, quoted by Lambrechtsen, ut supra, p. 98.)
In 1628 there were on Manhattan Island only 270 souls, living there in peace with the natives. (Was- senaer's Historie van Europa, N. Y. Doc. Hist., Vol. 3, p. 48.) But as the land was undeveloped, in 1629 the Dutch West India Company, anxious to encourage emigration to the new world, which had come into the
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possession of that Company (from the Netherlands East India Company), issued a prospectus in which rights and privileges were guaranteed to the immigrant, quite unusual at that early date. Any who undertook to plant a colony of fifty families in four years were to be acknowledged "patroons" of New Netherland, and allowed to occupy twelve English miles along the North river shore, or six miles each side, and indefinitely into the interior, to "for- ever possess and enjoy all the lands lying within the aforesaid limits, together with the chief command," privileges, franchises, appurtenances, etc., "to be holden from the company as an eternal heritage." This was absolute sovereignty, though an appeal was guaranteed the colonists in certain cases from the courts of the patroons. The colonists were also promised a minister and schoolmaster, "that thus the service of God and zeal for religion may not grow cool, and be neglected among them"; also, that "the company will use their endeavors to supply the colonists with as many blacks as they con- veniently can." Prior to this time two "comforters of the sick" "read to the Commonalty there on Sundays, from texts of Scripture with the Comment." The first Dutch minister in America was John Michaelis, in 1628; the first in New Netherlands was Everardus Bogardus, in 1633, who is distinguished in history chiefly by reason of the fact that he was subsequently the husband of Anneke Jans, of Trinity Church fame; the first regularly-installed Dutch pastor in New Jersey was Guilaem Bertholf, who was sent to Holland in 1693, by the churches at Acquackanonk and Hackensack, to be educated for the ministry, and was installed over those churches in 1694. (N. Y. Hist. Soc. Coll., N. S., Vol. I, pp. 370-6; Wassenaer, reprinted in Doc. Hist. N. Y., Vol. III, p. 42; Romeyn's Ist Ref. Ch. at Hack., pp. 39-40.) The
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