USA > New Jersey > Scheyichbi and the strand : or, early days along the Delaware ; with an account of recent events at Sea Grove ; containing sketches of the romantic adventures of the pioneer colonists ; the wonderful origin of American society and civilization > Part 2
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The name of Block Island perpetuates the memory of its persistent and intrepid discoverer, the first man to run a keel through Hell Gate, and the first "Long Island Sound Pilot." The shores which Block surveyed, and which Holland first colonized, have been for two cen- turies or more, as now, "the land of steady habits," the home of in- dustry, prosperity, intelligence, and freedom,-a "New Holland," indeed, a "New England" as well. They are glorious by day with many a fair town and city, and sparkle at night with scores of shining beacons, while over the seas the Dutchman slowly navigated speeds in ceaseless succession a numerous fleet of " floating palaces," the best, the safest, and most magnificent steamboats in the world.
The " Restless," built at Manhattan, in 1614, was thirty-eight feet in the keel, forty-four and one-half feet from stem to stern, and eleven and one-half feet wide. She was remarkable as the first vessel built in the harbor of New York, but was not, as has been written, " the first decked vessel built in the old United States," the " Virginia," of " Saga- dahoc," of thirty tons, a "pretty pinnace," having been built by "one Digby, of London," at St. George's,-Sir George Popham's settlement, -at the mouth of the Penobscot River, in the winter of 1607. Still, the Restless was a notable craft, for she sailed in the van of a countless fleet, which for two hundred and fifty years has stood out from the northern coast of the United States to astonish the navigators of Eu- rope by the excellence of American ships, and furnish models for the improvement of the naval architecture of the world. Of all the many fine ships which have done honor to American shipwrights, a credita- ble share have been launched in the waters of the Delaware. Since "the " iron age" of shipbuilding, the craftsmen of its shores have made their names honorably known from London to the "city of Pekin," and now compete with England and Scotland for supremacy in trade, confident of surpassing the industries of the Clyde on the banks of the Delaware.
The Restless explored her way to "Pye Bay," now Nahant Bay,
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Massachusetts ; there she fell in with Christiaensen's ship, the Fortune, also on a cruise. Leaving the Restless in command of Cornelis Hen- dricksen, to be used in exploring on the coast and in the rivers, Block returned to North Holland and made his report to his employers. From his sketches and descriptions an elaborate "Figurative Map" was made, and laid before the States General, with a request for a charter for those who had procured the discovery of the lands delineated upon it, without delay. A special grant, dated October 11th, 1614, was made to the Amsterdam partnership; they were conceded the monop- oly of trade from forty to forty-five degrees north latitude on the coasts of America. The partnership took the title of "The United New Netherland Company." The territory assigned them was called New Netherland. At the same time, at Manhaddoes, or Manhattan, their principal fort was named "New Amsterdam."
The first vessel built at Manhattan was the first to cruise the Dela- ware. Hudson, in 1609, was too fearful of getting aground to attempt explorations in Zuydt Baai, though less timid in the Noordt Riviere. Argall, on his return from his mysterious cruise in 1610, remained but . a day at anchor in the Delaware, leaving the same evening for the Chesapeake, but, in 1616, circumstances led to an exploration of the Poutaxit. It happened that three fur traders, agents of the New Netherland Company, having left Fort Nassau (near Albany), and made their way along Indian trails to the mouth of the Schuylkill, were there kept prisoners; news of this reaching Manhattan, the Restless was sent from the Mauritius River, under command of Cor- nelis Hendricksen, to ransom the adventurous captives. Block had constructed the Onrust for shallow waters and inland navigation ; so Hendricksen, on his arrival at Zuydt Baai, coasted fearlessly along the western shore, making careful observations, bartering with the natives for seal-skins and sables, and being delighted with the scenery, climate, and vegetable productions of the valley, until he arrived at Coaquannock, " the place of tall pines," now central Philadelphia; there he found and ransomed his countrymen for "kettles, beads, and other inerchandise."
The people at Manhattan now called the Delaware River New, South, or "Zuydt" River, and the southern Cape of Zuydt Baai, now called Henlopen, was soon known as Cape Cornelis, after Cornelis Hendrick- sen. A point some miles south of Cape Cornelis was named Hinlopen, in honor of Thymen Jacobsen Hinlopen, of Amsterdam, one of the "Northern Company," engaged in the whale fisheries and explorations, by which Block was employed on his return from America. Cape Hinlopen was also called Inloopen by the Dutch schippers, because it seemed to recede from sight when approached from the sea. The names of these capes have been transferred, and the name of Henlopen is now borne by the point at first named Cornelis.
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ORIGIN OF THE NAME OF CAPE MAY.
§ In 1620, Cornelius Jacobsen May, who in 1614 commanded the Fortune of Hoorn in the explorations along the coast east of Man- hattan, came again to New Netherland in a new vessel called the "Blyde Boodschap," or Glad Tidings. This voyage was intended for the exploration of territories to the west of and below Manhattan, and those south of the fortieth degree to "Virginia," and was made to include Zuydt Baai and the Chesapeake, which the Blyde Boodschap ascended, and went up the James River to Jamestown. May carefully examined the bay and river of the Delaware, where Hendricksen had preceded him four years before, and then returning to Holland early in the summer of 1620, announced the discovery of "certain new populous and fruitful lands" along the Zuydt Riviere. The Poutaxit, Zuydt, or Delaware Bay, as the Indians, Dutch, and English had named it, was after this called "Nieuw Port Mey," and the name of "Cape Mey" was given to the southern point of New Jersey, then as now "the best bathing place in the world."
May, as Hendricksen had done, indeed as every one does who visits Cape May in summer, found the climate charming. It was the highest compliment they could imagine, when the Dutch explorers, a home- loving though voyaging people, declared the climate of the Delaware was "like to that of Holland;" as good as home. As it happened, both the nomen and cognomen of Cornelius Jacobsen May were applied to capes at the mouth of the Delaware, but the name of Cornelius, given in honor of Hendricksen, has been thrust aside and made insignificant, while the fame of CAPE MAY has become world- wide, and summer by summer its increasing attractions add to its popularity, as time multiplies its appreciative visitors.
§ The principles of the Lutheran Reformation gave permanence and character to the colonization of the United States; the hand of perse- cution pointed the way to New Netherland, and the valleys of the Hud- son and the Delaware became an asylum from ecclesiastical despotism even while the Puritans of New England, jealous of their own freedom, denied liberty to others. When, in 1623, the great Dutch West India Company, complete in organization, sought to people its territories, the victims of persecution offered themselves as its first and most desirable emigrants.
When the Hollanders, after their revolt against Spain and the Inqui- sition, in 1565, formed the Union of Utrecht, the Belgic provinces of Hainault, Namur, Luxemburg, Limburg, and Liege, having mostly Roman Catholic citizens, did not join the Dutch Confederation ; still, many of the Belgic people were Protestants, and as such were victims of persecution under Philip II. of Spain. Speaking the old French lan- guage, these people were termed Gallois; they fled by thousands to Holland, where their skill as well as their faith secured them protection and a welcome. In low Dutch the name of the refugees became
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" Waalsche," which the English rendered Walloons. The farmers among the Walloons found poor encouragement in Holland, and in 1622 a number of them offered to emigrate to Virginia if assured municipal freedom. Some delay followed their application to the British Minister at the Hague, and meantime those willing to form a settlement were, at the suggestion of the Provincial States of Holland, engaged as colonists by the Dutch West India Company, and em- ployed in Holland until such time as the perfect organization of that corporation would enable its Directors to send the Walloons to New Netherland.
Having by virtue of their charter taken possession of their domain in 1622, the Dutch West India Company secured the assent of the States General to their articles of internal government the 21st of June, 1623. The same month three trading ships were dispatched to Manhattan " to maintain the course of traffic," and a special effort was made to colonize " Nova Belgia." The " New Netherland," a ship of two hundred and sixty tons, was fitted up, and on board her were embarked a company of thirty families, mostly the Walloons who had offered to settle in Virginia. The superintendence of the ship and colony was entrusted to Cornelius Jacobsen May, who was appointed to remain in New Netherland as First Director ; his second in command on the ship being Schipper Adriaen Joris, of Theinpont. The expe- dition left the Texel early in March, and, following the southern route by the Canary Islands and Guiana, came in safety to Manhattan, the beginning of May. At the mouth of the North River the emigrants repulsed a party of Frenchmen, who were about to erect the arms of France; the French ship, however, renewed her attempt at Zuydt Baai, but was driven off from there by the Dutch settlers or traders. At an early date the Dutch established a lookout at Cape May, and from the time Cornelius Hendricksen in the Onrust explored the Delaware, they were generally well informed of whatever took place thereabouts, and frequently warned off whoever entered.
At Manhattan, Director May left several families, and a number of sailors and men from the New Netherland, for the settlement of South River and the shore of the sound eastward. The ship then proceeded with difficulty up the North River, and landed her company just above Castle Island, on the western bank of the Hudson, at Albany. There "a fort with four angles, named Orange," which had been plotted the year before, was soon completed; the industrious Walloons " put the spade in the earth," and when the next yacht sailed for Holland, their corn "was nearly as high as a man, so that they were getting along bravely." Brave hearts, heroic souls, the verdant corn you tilled struck no root so deep in the soil of the New World as the faith for which you were exiles, no harvest spread so rich a growth as the principles of freedom and toleration you planted here ! Down the Hudson every
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LOVE AND PEACE IN THE WILDERNESS.
year floats the wealth of granaries, richer than Egypt, but the spirit of Religious Liberty and Civil Independence, entrenched in the hearts of millions, bids defiance to intriguing priests and threatening tyrants as it breathes the benediction of "Peace on earth and good will to men" over the vast expanse of a mighty continent.
To prevent attempts to occupy Zuydt Baai, the fort projected in 1622 was, by order of Director May, speedily completed. It was built five miles below Philadelphia, on the Jersey side of the river, of great logs, and named Fort Nassau, the first post of that name, on the island near Albany, having been destroyed by flood and ice. There were four weddings on board the New Netherland during her two-months' voyage from Holland over the sunny Southern seas. Director May, who was a kindly man, had been directed to govern his people " as a father, not as an executioner ;" and it was with a touch of romance, as well as paternal care, that he selected these eight newly-married Wal- loons, and sent them, about the first of June, in a yacht, with as many sailors, to abide at Fort Nassau. They were far from home, from friends, even from civilization, a mere handful in the wilderness among savages, but they were enough; each for the other of every pair, and all for each of the quadruple family. It was a fitting and poetic thing that the valley which was to welcome the men of peace, and grow in peace to be the home of freedom, should owe its first historic settle- ment to young and joyous brides, with their free and hopeful partners. It was in harmony also that they should come in the freshness of summer, when the very air was balm, when every leaf told of life and vigor, when every forest aisle was sweet with woodland fragrance and echoing with bird songs, every note swelling the all-pervading melody, one perfect chorus, whose glad refrain was evermore of love, and still of universal, all-embracing love.
Eighteen of the Walloon families settled at Albany, others went for a time to the House of Good Hope, at Hartford, Connecticut; others made themselves homes, in comfort and happiness, on Long Island. There, in June, 1625, Sarah Rapelje, the first white child of New Neth- erland, was born; and thereabouts, in usefulness and honor, the de- scendants of the Calvanist Gallois still reside.
§ Of Cornelius Jacobsen May, who was formally installed during the summer of 1623 as the first Director-General of New Netherland, there is but little more to be said, but that little is entirely to his credit. "'Tis better to govern by love and friendship than by force," wrote his superiors in Holland; and May acted in the spirit of his instructions, to "the great contentment of the people." Among the Indians at Fort Nassau May's little colony of brides and grooms were unharmed, while at both Manhattan and Fort Orange the Indians " were all as quiet as lambs, and came and traded with all the free- dom imaginable." It required other men than May, and other means
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than " love and friendship," to arouse the savage in the red man of America.
Mentioned as a man of experience at the time of his appointment, Director May had many unrecorded adventures. During one of his earliest voyages to America he found the colonists at Manhattan suf- fering for stores and clothing. From his own ship he supplied their necessities, and the grateful Manhattanese celebrated the timely relief by giving the name of Port May to their harbor.
The voyage of Director May to the Delaware, in 1620, was com- memorated by the name of New Port May, applied to the bay of the Delaware, and by that of Cape May, ever since retained by the southern point of New Jersey.
Thus circumstances supposed to indicate the vanity of May in affix- ing his name to various localities are explained either as a just tribute to the deeds of another exploring "Cornelius," or the grateful and graceful act of his people.
Cape May is one of the very few points about the Delaware which retain the names first given them by white men; but of the thousands who visit it annually, very many are not aware of the source from which that name was derived. Some, careless of history, infer from their pleasant experience of its balmy atmosphere that Cape May derived its appellation from the May-like breezes which make its summers "balmy as the breath of spring." But " the Cape," especially since the improve- ment of Sea Grove, has too many charming attractions to need mis- representation to make it popular. By nature and improvement Cape May is superior as a seaside resort, but its name is significant only as a memento of the old-time voyages of the Hollanders, and of their regard for the character and exploits of their popular Superintendent.
Though the name of Cornelius Jacobsen May disappears from this history, the admirers of Cape May have reason to be proud of the name it bears, since it recalls only deeds of courage and goodness, such as confer an honest fame in the history of time, and crown with happiness the pure in heart amid the glories of eternity.
§ But while perfect peace and fair prosperity marked the history of their colonies, the Directors of the Dutch West India Company were disturbed by the enterprise of a person destined to play an important part in the events of New Netherland. A mariner of Hoorn, North Holland, by the name of David Pietersen De Vries, who had several times voyaged to Newfoundland, procured a commission from the King of France, and, dividing his venture with some Rochelle merchants, he bought a small vessel for a voyage to Canada, for fish and peltries. Determined to prevent all ships but their own sailing to North Amer- ica from Holland, the Directors seized the vessel of De Vries as it lay in the harbor of Hoorn ready to sail, and detained it until an admoni- tory mandate of the States General ordered its release. De Vries re-
SEA
GROVE
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VANINGEN=SNYDER
RUSTIC GATEWAY TO SEA GROVE. LOOKING SOUTH.
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FIRST PURCHASE OF MANHATTAN.
ceived his vessel after much delay; although his voyage was broken up, his claim for damages was evaded, and, suffering from corporate injustice, the enterprising navigator was compelled to bide his time and await another chance of fortune.
Director William Verhulst presided over New Netherland in 1625. He visited the Delaware and extended his voyage far up to the falls at Trenton; there on an island in the bend of the river another trading post was established, and for a time occupied by several families of Walloons. Verhulst returned to Holland in 1626, and Peter Minuit became Director-General of New Netherland. "To superadd a higher title " than that supposed to be derived from discovery and occupation, Minuit purchased Manhattan from the Indians. The island contained about twenty-two thousand acres, and was bought of the natives "for the value of sixty guilders,"-about twenty-four dollars.
Having bought Manhattan, the Dutch began a fort, "to be faced with cut stone," for its defense; for the misbehavior of some of the colonists had given reason to fear just hostility. About the same time the posts on South River were much reduced, and in 1628 left un- tenanted, in order to strengthen Manhattan. Still there were in all probability settlers left on the Delaware, not perhaps the servants of the Company, but "vrye persoonen," who had reason to trust their Indian neighbors, and led a roving, adventurous life among them; but of these adventurers history, made up of corporation documents, has nothing to relate. Before the completion of the fort at Manhattan, it was called Fort Amsterdam, and made the seat of government. There has been a great amount and variety of government on the island of New York since that date, and not a little misgovernment; but with it all an undeniable increase of trade, and a most notable advance in the price of real estate.
§ The United Provinces of the Batavian Republic elaborated the idea of federal union, but their institutions failed to develop personal liberty ; the peasantry of Holland had therefore too little self-reliance to emigrate, and a plan was evolved to encourage colonization, called the Charter of Privileges and Exemptions. By the provisions of this new charter of 1629, whoever of the stockholders of the Dutch West India Company established a colony of fifty persons within four years in New Netherland, became a " Patroon" or "Lord of the Manor." The Patroon had jurisdiction over the settlement he founded, and, by peaceful purchase from the natives, might hold and own the lands on the sea-shore or river-bank for sixteen miles, and as far inland as "the situation of the occupiers would admit;" or the land each side of a river could be held half as far, with a pro rata increase for more colonists in each case.
While the Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions was under consid- eration, several directors of the Dutch West India Company, tempted
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by the concessions it made, undertook to forestall its provisions, and embezzle for themselves in advance the richest territories of the cor- poration. These crafty schemers sent three ships to America with agents to locate manors, and buy the land of the Indians. One of these ships entered the Delaware in May, and on the Ist of June, 1629, a few days before the adoption of the charter in Holland, "two persons," who came on the ship, bought for directors Samuel Godyn and Samuel Blommaert, from the natives, a tract of land two miles wide, which extended from Cape Henlopen thirty-two miles up the bay to the mouth of the river.
At the first meeting of the Amsterdam Chamber after the adoption of the Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions, Director Samuel Godyn gave notice that he as Patroon occupied the bay of the South River, having notified Minuit to register his possession of the same at New Amsterdam. To remove the dissatisfaction which was manifest in the chamber at the course taken by them, and to secure capital, the Pa- troons admitted Killiaen Van Rensselaer, Johannes de Laet, the his- torian, Mathias Van Ceulen, Hendrick Hamel, Johan Van Haringhoeck, and Nicholas Van Sittorigh, as partners in their enterprise. In order to secure his services as superintendent, Pieterzen De Vries was made an equal partner in the concern. The ship "Walvis," or Whale, carrying eighteen guns, and a yacht, were fitted out at once for an expedition to the Zuydt Baai. The two vessels were loaded with colonists, stock, animals, seeds, tools, and the requisites of an agricultural colony. At the suggestion of Godyn, implements were also taken for the capture of the whales, seals, and sturgeons, then abundant in the Delaware.
Amply supplied, the expedition left the Texel December 12th, 1630, under command of Pieter Heyes, of Edam, North Holland, Peterzen De Vries remaining in Amsterdam. Through carelessness on board the Walvis, the yacht was captured by Dunkirk privateers, but the ship kept on, and, passing by Tortugas, where a part of her colonists were bound on French account, but which was found in Spanish hands, she completed her trip. In April, the Whale arrived safely at Zuydt Baai. Finding a safe landing and convenient harbor, with islands, good oysters, and very fertile land, the colony was landed up the stream on the banks of a " kill" (creek, or small river), near the present Lewes, Del. This stream, which was called after the city of Hoorn, Hoornkill, Hoorkill, etc., afterwards corrupted to Whoorkill, or Whore- kill, was also called the river of Swans, and was reported to be two leagues from "Cape Kornelis," now Cape Henlopen, the site of the splendid light that, with its equal and neighbor at Sea Grove, illumin- ates the wide entrance to the Delaware. In the vale where the Dutch colonists landed there were many swans, and hence they gave their settlement the name of Swaanendael (Swandale).
Gillis Hossett, a former agent of Van Rensselaer's in the purchase
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ORIGINAL DEED OF CAPE MAY.
of lands from the North River Indians, was placed in command of the station ; a large brick house was built of Holland brick, and enclosed with palisades ; this building served at once as a residence for all the colony, a storehouse, and a fort. As soon as the settlement was well begun, Commissary Hossett and Schipper Heyes visited the Jersey shore, and, as agents of Godyn and Blommaert, bought of ten Indian chiefs, on May 5th, 1630, a tract of land twelve miles along the shore of the bay, from Cape May Point to the north, and twelve miles inland above, and including Cape May. The lands on the northern and eastern shores of Delaware Bay were in possession of the great and influential but peaceable tribe, called Lenni Lenape (the original people). From them must have been obtained the original title to Cape May ; and the Nanticokes, who occupied what is now Delaware, must have been the grantors who, on July 15th, 1630, ratified by treaty the sale of the western shore of the bay, made to Godyn and Blom- maert's agents the year before.
§ Such is the record of the first transaction in real estate at Cape May; the advance in value on the smallest building lot in Sea Grove, for the current year, is represented by a sum of money greater than was needed to buy the lands of all the lower Delaware; yet both parties were well pleased with the speculation. The Indians, who knew but little more of the full purport and effect of a deed of land than the deer of the primeval woods, were delighted with the "pres- ents" they received, and charmed by the civil and novel manners of their liberal customers. The patroons needed but to examine their pur- chase to become satisfied they had come into possession of a land of promise. Zuydt Baai was now called Godyn's Baai, by which name it was afterwards well known to the Dutch. After spending a few weeks at Swaanendael, Heyes, with Hossett in company, visited New Amster- dam, and there, on the 3d of June, 1631, had the purchase they had effected formally recorded and attested by Director-General Minuit and his council. The deeds of the lands purchased on the Delaware for Godyn and Blommaert were deposited at Fort Amsterdam, and conveyed to Holland, but are now in the archives of the State of New York, at Albany.
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