History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 9

Author: W. Woodford Clayton, Ed.
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia: Everts
Number of Pages: 1224

USA > New Jersey > Middlesex County > History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men > Part 9
USA > New Jersey > Union County > History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men > Part 9

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The Delawares regarded their conquerors with feel- ings of inextinguishable hatred (though these were held in abeyance by fear), and they also pretended to a feeling of superiority on account of their more an- cient lineage and their further removal from original barbarism, which latter claim was perhaps well grounded. On the part of the Iroquois, they main- tained a feeling of haughty superiority towards their vassals, whom they spoke of as no longer men and warriors, but as women. There is no recorded instance in which unmeasured insult and stinging contempt were more wantonly and publicly heaped on a cowed and humiliated people than on the occasion of a

Dead, they put into the Ground with them some House Utensils and some Money (as tokens of their Love and Affection), with other Things, expectiog they shall have Occasion for them in the other World."

1 Aod they believed that sometimes the grandfather tortoise became weary and shook himself or changed his position, and that this was the cause of earthquakea.

2 Gabriel Thomas' " Historical Description of the Province and Coun- try of West Jersey in America "

3 The same policy was pursued by the Five Nations towarda the Sha- wanese, who had been expelled from the far Southwest by stronger tribes, and a portion of whom, traveling eastward as far as the country adjoining the D. Jawares, had been permitted to erect their loges there, but were, like the Lenape, held iu a state of subjection by the Iroquois.

HISTORY OF UNION AND MIDDLESEX COUNTIES, NEW JERSEY.

treaty held in Philadelphia in 1742, when Connossa- tego, an old Iroquois chief, having been requested by the Governor to attend (really for the purpose of forcing the Delawares to yield up the rich lands of the Minisink ), arose in the council, where whites and Delawares and Iroquois were convened, and in the name of all the deputies of his confederacy said to the Governor that the Delawares had been an unruly people and were altogether in the wrong, and that they should be removed from their lands; and then, turning superciliously towards the abashed Delawares, said to them, " You deserve to be taken by the hair of your heads and shaken until you recover your senses and become sober. We have seen a deed, signed by nine of your chief's over fifty years ago, for this very land. But how came you to take it upon yourselves to sell lands at all ? We conquered you ; we made women of you! Yon know you are women and ean no more sell lands than women. Nor is it fit that you should have power to sell lands, since you would abuse it. You have had clothes, meat, and drink, by the goods paid you for it, and now you want it again, like children, as you are. What makes you sell lands in the dark ? Did you ever tell us you had sold this land? Did we ever receive any part, even to the value of a pipe-shank, from you for it ? This is aeting in the dark,-very differently from the conduct which our Six Nations observe in the sales of land. But we find you are none of our blood ; you act a dishonest part in this as in other matters. Your ears are ever open to slanderous reports about your brethren. For all these reasons we charge you to remove instantly ! We do not give you liberty to think about it. You are women ! Take the advice of a wise man, and remore instantly ! You may return to the other side of the river, where you came from, but we do not know whether, considering how you have demeaned yourselves, you will be permitted to live there, or whether you have not already swallowed that land down your throats, as well as the land on this side. You may go either to Wyoming or Shamo- kin, and then we shall have you under our eye and can see how you behave. Don't deliberate, but go, and take this belt of wampum." He then forbade them ever again to interfere in any matters between white man and Indian, or ever, under any pretext, to pretend to sell lands; and as they (the Iroquois), he said, had some business of importance to transact with the Englishmen, he commanded them to immediately leave the council, like children and women, as they were.

Heckewelder, however, attempts to rescue the good name of the humbled Delawares by giving some of their explanations, intended to show that the epithet " women," as applied to them by the Iroquis, was originally a term of distinction rather than reproach, and " that the making women of the Delawares was not an act of compulsion, but the result of their own free will and consent." He gives the story, as it was

narrated by the Delawares, substantially in this way : The Delawares were always too powerful for the Iroquois, so that the latter were at length convinced that if wars between them should continue, their own extirpation would become inevitable. They aecord- ingly sent a message to the Delawares, representing that if continual wars were to be carried on between the nations, this would eventually work the ruin of the whole Indian race : that in order to prevent this it was necessary that one nation should lay down their arms and be called the woman, or mediator, with power to command the peace between the other nations who might be disposed to persist in hostilities against each other, and finally recommending that the part of the women should be assumed by the Delawares, as the most powerful of all the nations.

The Delawares, upon receiving this message, and not perceiving the treacherous intentions of the Iro- quois, consented to the proposition. The Iroquois then appointed a council and feast, and invited the Delawares to it, when, in pursuance of the authority given, they made a solemn speech, containing three capital points. The first was that the Delawares be (and they were) declared women, in the following words:

"We dress you in a woman's long habit, reaching down to your feet, and adorn you with ear-rings," meaning that they should no more take up arms. The second point was thus expressed : "We hang a calabash filled with oil and medicine upon your arm. With the oil you shall cleanse the ears of other na- tions, that they may attend to good and not to bad words; and with the medicine you shall heal those who are walking in foolish ways, that they may re- turn to their senses and incline their hearts to peace." The third point by which the Delawares were ex- horted to make agriculture their future employment and means of subsistence, was thus worded: " We deliver into your hands a plant of Indian corn and a hoe." Each of these points was confirmed by de- livering a belt of wampum, and these belts were carefully laid away, and their meaning frequently repeated.

"The Iroquois, on the contrary, assert that they conquered the Delawares, and that the latter were forced to adopt the defenseless state and appellation of a woman to avoid total ruin. Whether these dif- ferent accounts be true or false, certain it is that the Delaware nation has ever since been looked to for the preservation of peace and intrusted with the charge of the great belt of peace and chain of friendship, which they mu-t take care to preserve inviolate. Ac- cording to the figurative explanation of the Indians, the middle of the chain of friendship is placed upon the shoulder of the Delawares, the rest of the Indian nations holding one end and the Europeans the other." 1

1 Notes on the Indians, by David Zelsberger. .

INDIAN HOSTILITIES.

It was not a lack of bravery or military enterprise on the part of the Delawares which caused their over- throw ; it was a mightier agent than courage or en- ergy : it was the gunpowder and lead of the Iroquois, which they had procured from the trading Dutch on the Hudson almost immediately after the discovery of that river, which had wrought the downfall of the Lenapè. For them the conflict was a hopeless one, waged against immeasurable odds,-resistance to the irresistible. Under a reversal of conditions the Del- awares must have been the victors and the Iroquois the vanquished, and no loss of honor could attach to a defeat under such circumstances. It is a pity that the tribes of the Lenape should vainly have expended so much labor and ingenuity upon a tale which, for their own sake, had better never have been told, and in which even the sincere indorsement of Heckewelder and other missionaries has wholly failed to produce a general belief.

When the old Iroquois chief Connossatego, at the treaty council in Philadelphia, before referred to, commanded the Delawares instantly to leave the council-house, where their presence would no longer be tolerated, and to prepare to vacate their hunting- grounds on the Delaware and its tributaries, the out- raged and insulted red men were completely crest- fallen and crushed, but they had no alternative and must obey. They at once left the presence of the Iroquois, returned to the homes which were now to be their homes no longer, and soon afterwards mi- grated to the country bordering the Susquehanna, and beyond that river.

The Indians were great sticklers for the common right which they held in the soil. They did not recognize even in their chiefs any right to convey it away without the general consent of the tribes, and often they refused to submit to treaties so made. Usually, treaties were made by their representatives chosen by the popular voice, who met the whites in council and for their respective tribes ratified the deed disposing of lands. In the first conveyances made to the Dutch in East Jersey, conveying the lands where Hoboken and Jersey City are situated, Aromeauw, Tekwappo, Sackwomeek, Hikitoauw, and Aiarouw represented themselves in tbe deeds as "inhabitants and joint-owners of the lands" named therein.

CHAPTER VI. INDIAN HOSTILITIES.

THE first hostility of the Indians towards the Dutch wasdirected against their plantations on the Delaware, which they wholly destroyed. De Vries tells us that in the year 1630 thirty-two men were killed. In the year 1640, an expedition was fitted out against the Indians on the Raritan, who had been accused, though .

wrongfully, of committing theft and other trespasses. Some of the chiefs were so maltreated and abused that retaliatory measures were resorted to against the settlers on Staten Island, who were killed and their plantations broken up.1

The outbreak of 1643 was induced by various causes. One cause was the exacting of a tribute from the In- dians by Kieft, the Director-General, in 1639; another was the killing of a white man by an Indian in 1641, in retaliation for the robbery and murder of one of his tribe many years before. While the fort at New Amsterdamı was being built in 1626, a Weckquaesgeck Indiao, from the east of the Hudson River, with his nephew, then a young boy, and another Indian rela- tive, came to sell his beaver-skins to the Dutch traders. Before he reached the fort he was met by some of the servants of Minuit, who robbed him of his peltries and murdered him. According to Indian custom, life must be taken for life, and the next of kin must be the avenger. He is the young boy who thus witnessed the wanton murder of his uncle. But he is a boy, and the execution of vengeance must be delayed till he should reach manhood. Years passed, but the outrage done his relative was not forgotten. In 1641 he appeared, now grown to manhood, to execute the behest of the unwritten law of his people, unheeding as to which of the pale-faces should be the victim of the deadly stroke of his tomahawk. It happened to be an inoffensive old man, Claes Cornelis Smits, a " raad maker," living near Canal Street. Pretending to desire to barter some heavers for duffels,? he watched his opportunity, killed Smits, robbed the house, and escaped with his booty.3 Satisfaction and the sur- render of the savage were promptly demanded. But, as he had only acted in accordance with the custom of his race, the sachem refused to surrender him. Kieft wished to seize upon this occasion to punish the natives, but he did not dare to act independently of the people, who desired peace. He therefore called them together for consultation. They chose twelve select men4 to determine everything in connection with the Director and Council. This popular branch of the government stayed for a time the impetuosity of the executive and those immediately under his con- trol, and for a brief period secured peace. But the air was full of rumors of Indian troubles. In 1642, De Vries, who had established a colony at Tappean, in passing through the woods towards Ackensack,5 met an Indian who said the whites had " sold to him brandy mixed with water" and had stolen his beaver- skin coat. He said he was going home for his bows and arrows, and would shoot one of the "roguish Swanekins," as the Indians called the Dutch. He

1 New York Historical Collections.

2 A coarse kind of cloth.

3 Brodhead, i. 316.

4 Winfield: "This was the first representative body in New Nether- land."

5 Hackensack, in Indian Low-land.

HISTORY OF UNION AND MIDDLESEX COUNTIES, NEW JERSEY.

was as good as his word, and shot Garret Jansen Van Varst, who was roofing a house at Achter Kull. The chiefs being alarmed at what was done, offered to pay two hundred fathoms of wampum to Van Vorst's widow, in order to purchase their peace. But Kieft would accept of nothing but the surrender of the murderer. The chiefs would not agree to this ; they said that he had gone two days' journey among the Tankitekes,' and that he was the son of a chief.

In 1643, Kieft espoused the cause of the Mohawks, who were at war with the Weckquaesgecks, Tankite- kes, and Tappeans. In the depth of winter these fierce warriors swept down upon their enemies, killing sev- enteen and making prisoners of many women and children. "The remainder fled through a deep snow to the Christian houses on and around the Island of Manhattan. They were humanely received, being half dead of cold and hunger, and supported for four- teen days; even some of the Director's corn was sent to them." They did not suspect that the Director was secretly in league with their most dreaded and deadly foes, and that, although the people were friendly and hospitable and treated them with great kindness, the commander of the army of New Netherland was about to let loose upon them his ruthless soldiery to ,murder and slaughter them indiscriminately. But such was the fact. Being alarmed lest the Mohawks should fall upon them at Manhattan, they fled, most of them, to Pavonia, where the Hackensacks were bi- vouacked one thousand strong.2 Says Mr. Winfield,-

"They came over to this side of the river on the 23d of February, 1643, and encamped on the westerly edge of Jan de Lacher's Hoeck, behind the settlement of Egbert Wouterssen and miljoining the bouwerie of Jan Ewer ten Bout. . . .. The light of the 25th of February, 1643, was fadiog, and the shadows of the black winter night were drawing over the beautiful bay. Huddled and shivering ou the western slope of Jan de Lacher'e Hoeck, under the protection of the Dutch, the nosus- pecting Indiaos thought themselves safe from the fierce Mohawks But while they drew around the canip-fires, or dreamed of their forsaken wigwams, Manhattan was all astir with the movement of troops and citizens. The noble-hearted De Vries stood beside the Director as the soldiers under Sergeant Rodolf passed by the fort on their way to Pavo- nia. 'Let this work alone,' said he; 'you will go to break the Indians' heads, but it is our oation you are going to murder.' 'The order hiss gone forth ; it shall not be recalled,' was Kieft's dogged reply. The ser- geant, with his eighty soldiers armed for slaughter, marched dowo to the river, and, embarking in boats prepared for the purpose, silently rowed towards the shores of Pavonia. Rounding the southerly point of Paulne Hoeck, under the guidance of Haus Stein, they pulled for the high point at the mouth of Mill Creek. Ilere they landed. Climbing the bank, they passed close to the house of Egbert Wouterssen, and cau- tiously approached their sleeping victims. Suddenly the sound of mus- ketry and the wild shrieks of the Indiane rang out in the midnight. Even at this distance of time, 'the horrors of that night cause the flesh to creep as we ponder over them.' Captain De Vries, who, in conten- plating the consequences of the expedition, could not sleep, says, 'I remained that night at the Governor's, and took a seat in the kitchen near the fire, and at midnight I heard loud shrieks. I went out to the parapets of the fort and looked towards Favonia. I saw nothing but the flash of the guns, and heard nothing more of the yells and clamor of the Indiaus who were butchered during their sleep' Neither age por sex could stay the hands of the unrelenting soldiers. Sucklings were torn from their mothers' breasts, butchered in the presence of their parents, and their mangled lioibs thrown into the fire or water. Others, 'while

fastened to little boards,'-the rude cradle of the pappoose,-were cut through, stabbed, and miserably massacred. Some were thrown alive into the river, and when their fathers, obeying the promptings of nature, rushed in to save them, the soldiers prevented their coming to shore, and thus parents and children perished. . . . De Vries says, ' Some came running to us from the country having their hands cut off Some, who had their legs cut off, were supporting their entrails with their arms, while others were mangled in other horrid ways, in part too shocking to be conceived ; and these miserable wretches did not know, As well as some of our people did not know, but they had been attacked by the Mohawks.'" 3

Such a warfare could not fail to exasperate the natives; and as soon as they became aware that these massacres were by the whites, they resolved upon a relentless war. To render their retaliation more effec- tive, seven tribes entered into an alliance. They killed all the men they could find, dragged the women and children into captivity, burnt houses, barns, grain, hay-stacks, and laid waste the farms and plantations on every hand. From the Raritan to the Connecticut not a white person was safe from the murderous toma- hawk and scalping-knife except those who clustered about Fort Amsterdam. The war continued in all its fury for several months. In March a peace was con- cluded, which, however, lasted only until October, when, three or four soldiers stationed at Pavonia for the protection of a family having been attacked, war was renewed: and so serinus was its character that in March, 1644, the authorities of New Amsterdam proclaimed a solemn fast to placate the anger of Jehovah. Peace was permanently secured the fol- lowing year.

" This day, being the 30th day of August, 1645, appeared in the Fort Amsterdam, before the Director and Conocil, in the presence of the whole commonality, the sachems or chiefs of the savages, as well in their own behalf as being authorized by the neighboring savages, namely : ORATANEY, chief of Ackinkex-lucky (Hackensack) . St SSEKENICK and WIL- LIAM, chiefs of Tuppean and Reeknowtrauk ; l'ACCHAM and PENNEWINE (who were here yesterday and gave their power of attorney to the former, and also took upon themselves to answer for time of Ouancy and the vicinity uf Majanwetinnemin, of Marechowick, of Nyock, and its neighborhood), and Aepjen, who personally appeared, speaking in behalf of Wappins, Wigunexkecks, Sinstrucks, and Kichtarnous.

" FIRST. They agreed to conclude with us a solid and durable peace, which they promise to keep faithfully, as we also obligate ourselves to do on our part.

"SECONO. If it happpen (which God in his mercy avert) that there arise some difficulty between us and them, no warfare shall enane in con- sequence, but they shall complain to our Governor, and we sball com- plain to their sachems.

" If any person shall be killed or murdered, justice shall be directly administered upon the murderer, that we may henceforth live in peace and amity.

"THIRD. They are not to come on Manhattan I-land, nor ju the neighborhood of Christian dwellings, with their arms; neither will we approach their villages with nur guus, except we are conducted thither by a savage to give them warning.

"FOURTH. And whereas there is yet among them an English girl, whom they promised to conduct to the English at Stamford, they still engage, if she is not already conducted there, to bring ber there in safety, and we prom se in return to pay them the ransom which has been promised by the English.

" All which is promised to be religiously performed throughout the whole of New Netherland.

" Done in Fort Amsterdam, in the open air, by the Director and Council jo New Netherland, and the whole communality, called together for thie purpose, in the presence of the MAQUAS' amlissadors, who are solicited

1 Haverstraw Indians, of whom Pacbam was chief.

2 O'Callaghan, N. Y., i. 265.

3 Winfield'e Ilistory of Hudson County, 39, 40

INDIAN HOSTILITIES.

to assist in this negotiation as arbitratora, and Cornelius Anthonissen, their interpreter, and an arbitrator with them in this solemn affair. Done as above."

No further troubles appear to have occurred with the Indians under the Dutch rule until 1655. The nearest approach to it was in March, 1649, when Si- mon Walinges was found dead at Paulus Hoeck, hav- ing been, as was supposed from the arrows and wounds in his head, killed by the Indians. It was ascertained to have beon done either by the Raritans or by some stranger from the south, and the local Indians hast- ened to renew their covenant of friendship. Governor Stuyvesant presented them with about twenty florins and some tobacco, and a gun to Oratamus. The Indians were delighted, reaffirmed the treaty, and returned to their homes.1

In 1655, during the absence of Governor Stuyve- sant to expel the Swedes from the Delaware, troubles again arose with the Indians which bore disastrously upon the settlements on the west side of the Hudson. Hendrick Van Dyck, having his orchard robbed of some of its tempting fruit by Indians who landed at night in their canoes on Manhattan, attempting to drive off the intruders, accidentally in the darkness shot an Indian girl. News of the outrage spread, and the Indians determined on signal vengeance. With- out giving warning of their purpose, on the night of the 15th of September, sixty-four canoes, carrying five hundred armed warriors, landed at New Amster- dam. They searched through the town until they found Van Dyck at the house of a neighbor named Van Diegrist, whom they cut down with a tomahawk, and in the affray wounded Van Dyck in the breast with an arrow. The town and garrison being aroused, the Indians were driven to their canoes, and sought safety by flight to the west side of the river. In re- taliation they set the houses on fire, and soon all Pa- vonia was in ashes. From thence they passed down to Staten Island and laid that waste. In this assault one hundred persons were killed, one hundred and fifty carried into captivity, and over three hundred deprived of their homes. The savages of Hackensack, Tappaen, Ahasimus, and others were present in this fearful devastation, and perpetrated inhuman barbar- ities, notwithstanding their solemn pledge to adhere to the terms of their treaty. When Governor Stuy- vesant sought to bring them to terms, they hesitated and delayed, promised and failed to fulfill their pledges, in hopes to extort from the government a ransom for the prisoners. Finally, the Director wished to know how much they would take for " the prisoners en masse, ar for each." "They replied, seventy-eight pounds of powder and forty staves of lead for twenty-eight per- sons." The ransom was paid, and an additional pres- ent made by the Governor. This proved the final settlement with the Indians, so far as the Dutch were concerned. During all these troubles most of the

1 Valentine's Manual (1863), 548.

mischief was done in that part of New Netherland included in the ancient territory of Bergen County.

The Pomptons and Minsies, having sold their lands, removed from New Jersey about 1737.

The Pompton Indians were engaged with the Del- aware Minsies in the war of 1755, under Teedyes- cung. This war was waged on account of the decep- tion practiced upon the Indians in procuring the lands in Northampton and Pike Counties, Pa., and was carried across the Delaware into New Jersey. During the year 1757 and the first part of 1758 the western borders of the province were in much alarm on ac- count of the Indians raiding upon the settlers across the Delaware. From May, 1757, to June, 1758, twenty-seven murders were committed by the Indians in Sussex County.2

Final Disposal of the Delawares .- In June, 1758, Governor Bernard, of New Jersey, consulted with Gen. Forbes and Governor Denny, of Pennsylvania, as to the measures best calculated to put a stop to this un- pleasant warfare; and, through Teedyescung, king of the Delawares, he obtained a conference with the Minisink and Pompton Indians, protection being as- sured them. . . . The conference took place at Bur- lington, Aug. 7, 1758. ... The result was that the time was fixed for holding another conference at Easton, at the request of the Indians, that being, as they termed it, the place of the " old council-fire."

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History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 9

Author: W. Woodford Clayton, Ed. Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Philadelphia: Everts Number of Pages: 1224

Author: W. Woodford Clayton, Ed.
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia: Everts
Number of Pages: 1224