USA > New Jersey > The New Jersey coast in three centuries; history of the New Jersey coast with genealogical and historic-biographical appendix, Vol. I > Part 6
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It has long since disappeared, the more's the pity. Mey made it his head- quarters, and as he had the happy art of knowing how to cultivate and retain the friendship of the ied man, there were many pleasant and profitable trading scenes enacted before it and within it for several years. "It is better to govern by love and friendship than by force," he once wrote to the directors of the West India Company, and that motto seems to have actuated him in all his dealings with the aborigines, who at that time had not become suspicious of the honesty of the white visitors, which afterwards they learned to doubt by sad experience. It is a pity that the reign of Mey did not last longer than it did, but in 1625 William Verhulst as- sumed authority over the region, and a year later Peter Minuit received the appointment of Director General, and with the first of these changes Mey disappears from our record.
In 1629 the redoubtable Walter the Doubter entered the Delaware and bought land around Cape Henlopen from the Indians, and a year later (May 5, 1630) acting for other parties, Captain Peter Heyssen ( Heyse) of the "Walrus" bought some sixteen square miles of water front in ex- change for "certain quantities of goods." The deed which was given in the transaction was discovered by M. J. R. Brodhead.
If Mey be given the credit of being the sea hero among the discov- erers of New Jersey, the honor of being the land pioneer must be awarded to David Petersen De Vries, one who seems to have been adapted by nature for a colonizer, and who was at once a man of brains and re- sources, a soldier and statesman, and of undoubted courage. The authori- ties at Amsterdam, then in the height of their colonizing fever, knew that the mere purchase of large tracts of land, like that reported to them as having been made at Cape May, could be no possible source of profit without being backed up by the work of actual settlers, and so they per- mitted the foundation of companies of colonists or guilds. One of these organized in 1630 was designed to plant a colony on the South River, and in this guild De Vries was the moving spirit, and' he lost no time. The same year the guild was formed he sent out two vessels with the South River as their destination, each having a number of intending col- onists on board, and being well loaded with cattle, supplies and such tools and implements as might be needed in a new and strange country. One of these vessels was promptly seized by pirates as soon as she reached the open sea, but the other, the "Walrus," made her way in safety across the Atlantic and landed her people (thirty-two in all) and her cargo a few miles above Cape Henlopen. There a stockade was built, and the poetic name of Zwaanendal (Swan Dale) given to it, and having thus made a satisfactory beginning the new comers proceeded to settle down quietly
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and engage in the raising of grain and tobacco, and to prepare for en- gaging in whalefishing, which promised, according to their calculations, to yield the largest financial return. Captain Heyse appears to have been in charge of this part of the scheme, and the "Walrus" was to figure in the business, and so did not at once return; indeed, the whalefishing part of the expedition probably, as promising the quickest results in the way off dividends to the good folks in Amsterdam, was to be put in operation at once. But, even by that time, the trustfulness of the Indian had van- ished ; the pioneers from the first had trouble with the aborigine; agricul- tural progress seems to have come to a standstill, and, with the base of operations in this unsatisfactory condition, there was little opportunity of engaging in the pursuit of whales.
Bad news from the colony began to reach Holland, and the story of failure was confirmed by the arrival there of the "Walrus," which, tired of waiting, had left the settlers to their fate and made its way home. De Vries was a man of action. As soon as the evil tidings came to hint, he began arrangements for a new expedition which he was to command in person, and he also promised to settle on the territory he had acquired or should acquire as patroon. So he sailed for the new world May 24, 1632, with a couple of vessels, receiving just before leaving the intelli- gence that Zwaanendal had been attacked by the Indians and burned to the ground, and that all of the colonists had been murdered. This in- formation was grimly confirmed when, early in December following, he reached the site of the stockade and saw its charred ruins and the skeletons of many of the pioneers. The first expedition was a complete failure in every way, but De Vries was not much given to mourning over what had been done or what might have been accomplished. He saw at once that nothing was to be gained if the Indians were to continue in an ugly mood, so his first business was to have a meeting and an understanding with the owners of the soil. He seems to have had considerable tact in his makeup, and as he had not force enough to crush out the red man le resolved to conciliate him. So he managed to get up a meeting, had what he described as "a nice talk," showed how desirable it would be for the Indians to have white men as neighbors and friends, and in a judicious thrifty manner distributed gifts of one sort or another among the chiefs who were likely to appreciate such generosity. As a result of this, and of several subsequent pow-wows, De Vries seems to have gained the confidence and the friendship of the Indians. So matters seemed clear enough, and he passed over to Fort Nassau. There, according to his journal, he had a narrow escape from being murdered, with all his companions, by the Indians, but, being warned by a native woman, he
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was ready to meet the aborigines when they boarded his ship for the purpose of putting their evil designs into execution. He told them that the Great Spirit had told him of their purpose, and this so impressed these children of nature that they abandoned their purpose and entered into a treaty of peace. However, he judged it safest to make no effort at a permanent settlement.
De Vries, who was the patroon of an extensive territory-all of Cape May-seems to have gone to Virginia in search of fresh supplies for his crew, (which shows that the Indians were not overfriendly,) leaving them in the interval to prosecute the whalefishing. That industry, in fact, was the main hope of the expedition, so far as financial results were concerned, and, as it turned out a failure, De Vries was compelled to return to New Amsterdam for a time, a sadly disappointed man.
The real reason for the failure of the entire project was that it was not founded on true colonizing lines. The primal necessity in such mat- ters is to have an independent source of supplies. That is, a means of providing for the necessities of the colonists under their own control, and that, as a matter of course, resolves itself, in the circumstances, into the cultivation of the soil or the ability to purchase its products. This matter De Vries neglected; his aim was to capture as many whales as possible, and so satisfy the cravings of his partners at home for dividends. The settlement was not made. The Indians, while not murderous, were by no means genial neighbors. "De Vries," wrote John Fiske, "had been more intent upon catching whales than upon planting corn, but whales were scarce on that coast, and bread gave out, so that it was necessary to return to Holland." The partners had already begun to quarrel, and on his return the partnership was dissolved, the land titles were sold back to the Company, and such was the somewhat ignominious end of Swan Dale, the first of the patroonships.
Cape May was visited in 1634 by an English expedition sent out ap- parently with the general purpose of "spying out the land." Lieutenant Robert Evelyn, of this expedition, wrote home to England some inter- esting details of what he saw on this cruise, and as he was the first white man to land on Cape May and penetrate the country behind the coast line, he is entitled to a prominent place among the pioneers of New Jersey. Dr. Beesley says :
"His (Evelyn's) account of the great abundance and variety of fowl and fish seems within the range of probability, and his story of the turkey that weighed forty-six pounds would have less of the 'coleur de rose' were it not qualified in the same paragraph with 'deere that bring three young at a time.' And what a sight it must have been to see the woods
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and plains teeming with wild animals, the shores and waters with fowl in every variety, where they had existed unharmed and unmolested through an unknown period of years; and the magnificent forest, the stately, tower- ering cedar swamp, untouched by the axe of the despoiler, all reveling in the beauties of nature in her pristine state, the realities of which the imagination only can convey an impression or give a foretaste of the charms and novelties of these primitive times."
So far we have been dealing with English and Dutch pioneers, but it should be remembered that although they came later upon the scene, much good pioneering work was done in New Jersey by the Swedes. In 1626 a company was formed at Stockholm after a manner somewhat similar to that at Amsterdam, and with the same aim-that of securing for the home land capitalists some of the wondrous wealth which reports indicated the new world contained. There is much uncertainty as to their movements and their accomplishments. That they made a beginning of their colonizing movement in 1627 is certain, and that they landed on the south side of the Gulf is also certain, but there is considerable mystery as to what part of New Jersey, (if, indeed, any) was settled by them then or afterward. It was subsequently claimed on their behalf that they had purchased from some Indians the territory on both sides of the Delaware from Cape Henlopen almost to Trenton, but the right of the guileless natives to make such a sale has been questioned. There is no doubt, how- ever, that the Swedes acted in perfect good faith in the matter. They · formed several settlements on what is now the Delaware side of the Gulf, and may be regarded as the pioneer colonists of that State; but, so far as New Jersey territory is concerned, they were less in evidence, and their occupation seems to have been limited solely to some trading ports of the most temporary character.
CHAPTER V.
THE PROPRIETARY SYSTEM .- EARLY LAND GRANTS.
The early settlers of New Jersey builded to themselves two endur- ing monuments in their behavior toward the Indians whose lands they acquired, and in their strong assertion of their rights as settlers against the arrogant claims of non-resident proprietors who bartered away their unseen possessions as they did their coin over the gambling table. These are indisputable facts, established by authentic records.
The English had laid claim to the lands of America from Maine to the Carolinas, basing their pretentions to the discoveries of the Cabots prior to the year of 1500, but it was more than a century and a half later before they attempted to enter upon possession of that portion of it with which we are concerned-the region now known as New Jersey-and when they came it was to find the Dutch well established in New Nether- land. The latter also laid claim to the contiguous territory southward -- the Achter Koll, which designation was evidently intended to apply to the entire region now known as New Jersey. The Dutch possession of the Achter Koll was, as a matter of fact, a fiction, except as to a few small settlements along the Hackensack as far south as Newark Bay.
Commercial instinct led the English to New Netherland before any attempt was made to assert rights of political sovereignty. In 1662 the Royal African Company (English) was organized, and its patent was granted January 10th, 1663. The purpose was to prevent the Dutch from controlling the 'African or Guinea trade with its mines and the slave trade, the charter setting forth that "The very being of the Plantation depends upon the supply of negro servants for their work." Every mem- ber of the Royal family, Sir George Cartaret, Lord Berkley, Sir William Coventry, Colonel Richard Nicolls and many others were the principal stockholders. The Duke of York (James Stuart) was at the head of this. enterprise. He was a stronger character than his brother, the King, and he showed himself to be a shrewd business man. The two were equally selfish and unprincipled. About forty vessels sailed under orders of the Royal Company, and their captains knew the colonial markets well. Among
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them were Captain William Crawford of the "Charles," Captains Will- iam and John Morris, Captain Dennis, Captain Cooper and others.
On January 26th, 1664, Sir John Berkley, Sir George Cartaret and Sir William Coventry reported (Colonial State Papers) that they had dis- coursed with several persons well acquainted with the affairs of New England, some having lately inhabited on Long Island, where they have yet an interest. They further reported that the Dutch in those colonies did not exceed one thousand three hundred, with English intermixed with them to the number of about six hundred men. Many "turbulent repub- licans" were reported as residents on Long Island.
When the year 1664 opened, "all the court was mad for a Dutch war." It would make an excuse for taxation that would be popular, and court officials would dispose of the money collected. The Royal Company's vessels and the navy could cruise upon the coast of Africa and capture the rich Dutch merchantmen returning laden with the wealth of the East and West Indies. The New Netherlands could be surprised and taken from the Dutch, giving the crown full possession of the colonies from Canada to Carolina. All these enterprises were undertaken, and some were suc- cessful even before war was officially declared, the King, in short, wonder- ing how he might answer for them to the Dutch ambassador still at his court.
Colonel "Dick" Nicolls, groom off the bed-chamber to the Duke of York, and a stockholder in the Royal Company, with Sir Robert Carr, a gay cavalier, George Cartwright and Samuel Maverick, were deputed in April, 1664, to visit New England and determine all complaints and ap- peals for settling their peace and security. The King, in his public in- structions to Colonel Nicolls, emphasized his most loving attention to the welfare of the colonies of New England. Well knowing the religious sentiments of the colonists, he advised caution in the promotion of the State Church, and insisted upon a most strict protection of all the provisions of the Old Charters for Liberty of Conscience. But in his private instruc- tions to Colonel Nicolls he declares that "the great end of your designe is the possessing of Long Island, and reducing that people to an entyre submission and obedience to us and our government, now vested by our grant and commission in our Brother the Duke of York." The liberal charter granted during the previous year to the "Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations" as a "lively experiment that a most flour- ishing civil State may stand and best be maintained, and that among our English subjects, with a full liberty in religious concernments," but too plainly proved to the Dutch that the King was not sending Nicolls to New England to establish uniformity in Church and State, but to con-
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quer the New Netherlands for the Duke of York, to whom they had already been granted. The whole story of the methods used by the King and his brother to obtain for the latter the New Netherlands, as told in the documentary records of those transactions, is one of the most degraded selfishness and dishonesty. After possession was obtained, their policy was equally rapacious and contemptible. Their agents were always well- chosen representatives of themselves. Sir George Downing, their ambas- sador to Holland, was one of the most unprincipled and treacherous men of his time.
Another of the coarser tools used in the beginning for the rough trimming of their plans, and who was ruthlessly thrown aside later, was Captain John Scott, of Long Island. He belonged to the family of Scott of Scott's Hall, Kent, England. Sir Thomas Scott of Scott's Hall (said to have been the son of Prince Prosport and Mrs. Scott) married Caroline, the second daughter of Sir George Carteret, who was conspicuously prom- inent in colonial affairs even in the troubled reign of Charles I. Prob- ably through this influence, we find Captain Scott concerned in colonial matters in Connecticut, on Long Island and in the West Indies. His re- cord seems to indicate that he was one of the King's dangerous friends described by Pepys. He was accused of stealing the moneys of his regi- ment in Scotland, of stealing State papers in Connecticut, of incompetence in the West Indies, of murdering a coachman in England, and of other offenses. Although arrested, imprisoned in the Tower and tried, he seems to have had some means of escaping justice. Pepys, against whom he gave false evidence, hints at his holding State papers. In July, 1663, Captain Scott had complained to the "Council for Foreine Plantations" of the intrusion of the Scotch on Long Island. About the close of the same year he appeared upon the Island as a disturber of the peace and quiet of the people. Long Island was a "bone of contention." The Dutch claimed it; the Colony of Hartford claimed it; it had been granted, in 1635, at the request of Charles I, by patent from the Plymouth Company, to Sir William Alexander, Earl of Sterling and Viscount of Canada, from whom Lord Sterling, of New Jersey, the hero of the Battle of Long Island, was descended, and now Charles II had granted it to the Duke of York. In 165I, at a meeting in Hartford of Dutch and English, the Island was divided by treaty, the line crossing it about at Oyster Bay, the English holding the east end and the Dutch the west end, the inhabitants of either coming under the jurisdiction of the other if they desired to reside out of their own division. Again, in October, 1663, after twelve years of Indian wars, neglected by the home government, and troubled by constant con- tention with the English, a delegation was sent to Hartford to negotiate
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for peace. Unable to settle upon any terms whatever, the Dutch urged that the affairs of the colonies remain in statu quo until the home govern- ments could decide the difficulties between them, but no conclusive answer was given by the New Englanders. Then, in January, appeared on Long Island Captain John Scott, with a troop of horse and foot, demanding the surrender of the Island to "His Majesty Charles II, Sovereign of Long Island." At Midmont the Dutch Commissioners-Secretary and Receiver General Cornelius Van Ruyven, Burgomaster Olof Stevenszevan Cortlandt; Captain Lieutenant Martin Cryger and Burgher John Law- rentse (Lawrence)-met Captain John "Schott" on January 11th, 1664, and requested him to show his commission. At first, with a great deal of arrogance and bluster, he refused, but finally drew forth a letter of instruction or memorial from the Colony of Hartford to inquire by what right the Dutch held Long Island. Among many violently brought charges he claimed that the Dutch "had broken the peace between England and Holland because the General (Stuyvesant) had dispatched a frigate with armed soldiers in pursuit of some English of Gravesend at Nieuwehings ( Navesinks). Peter Stuvyesant, in his reply to this charge on January 14, 1664, wrote:
"As regards the last, 'tis false and untrue that we sent a frigate with men, as we are accused, against the English of Gravesend, and had re- course to any outrage or force there against them; the truth of this mat- ter is only, that, on the order and letters of our Principals, we have en- deavored to purchase some unsold lands both behind the Coll (Kill von Kull) and in the Newehings (Navesinks), in which we were prevented by the last war with the Esopus and other Indians, and other inconven- iences, and lately some English and Dutch; yea, were we informed and warned by the Barbarians themselves that some from Gravesend sought to prevent us, and, indeed, had gone to the number of twenty to Neweh- ings (Navesinks) and the Raritan Indians to purchase lands from them, which, as no person is allowed to do so privately in New England, Vir- ginia and elsewhere, without the consent or knowledge of the government, so it is also publicly forbidden here by enacted and frequently renewed placards. I have, therefore, sent not a frigate, but a small yacht of six to seven tons burthen, with Captain Lieutenant Cryger, thither, whom I have expressly charged, both verbally and in writing, to exhibit no hos- tility toward either Indians or Englishmen, but in the civilest manner to request the former not to sell any sold or unsold lands to any person except the government, and to warn the latter not to purchase any, as it was directly contrary to the public order and published placards of the government ; and, in case of disobedience, to protest civilly against the English of Gravesend. We have further cause to complain of said Eng- lish of Gravesend on account of their disobedience, their violation of the public orders and placards and infraction of the contract of Hartford,
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and especially for hailing our Captain Lieutenant and some unarmed men, when coming ashore, and demanding what they were doing there, put- ting themselves, to the number of eighteen rank and file, in a posture of defense, with arms in their hands. We are wholly ignorant of any par- ticular insulting words being exchanged, and declair we have not given the least order or command thereto."
When the Commissioners again met Captain Scott and delivered the "General's" letter, they asked once more for his commission. He then "produced an unsigned writing, which he read, wherein his Majesty of England granted 'him the whole of Long Island." "But he said that it was afterward granted to the Duke of York, whose agent he now was, and charged all his subjects to assist Captain Scott." Those of Hartford had requested him to assist His Majesty's subjects on Long Island, of which he now claimed to be President."
Captain Scott stated to some of the commissioners that he knew that the Island had been granted to the Duke of York by the King, and, as it was "said to produce £3,000 sterling," he would have it peaceably or by force. If by force, Captain Scott would command his frigate. The colony of Hartford afterward arrested Captain Scott for claiming the Island for himself under the King and Duke, and not for that colony.
The English and Dutch of Gravesend implicated in the charges brought by Captain Scott against the Dutch were, some of them, the same men who, more than a year later, obtained the "Monmouth Patent" from Colonel Nicolls, for, in 1663, William Goulding, John Bowne, John Tilton, Samuel Spicer, Thomas Whitlock, James Halbert and Sergeant Gybbings, (Richard Gibbons) returned to the region now known as Monmouth county and purchased from the Indians three necks of land. The first was the Newasink, between Sandy Hook Bay and the Navesink River, and extending to the Highlands of Navesink, embracing the site of old Middletown. This purchase was made for a few pence less than one hundred and fifty pounds sterling, paid in money, guns, tobacco, liquor, etc., and included the expenses of the voyage of the sailors. The two other necks were Navarumsunk, between the Navesink and Shrewsbury rivers, and including the site of the Shrewsbury settlement ; and the Poota- peck, to the south of Shrewsbury River. Their western and southwestern bounds were illy defined and are not recognizable. These cost a trifle less than three hundred and sixty pound's sterling each, paid in money and such commodities as in the former case. These purchases were prior to the assertion of English sovereignty, but it has been presumed that the English colonists had an inkling of what was soon to follow in that respect.
Among the old Indian deeds to land in New Jersey is one dated Au-
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gust 5th, 1650, in which Govert Loockermans and Skipper William Thomas declare that they have bought for Luburtus van Dinclagen from Rematap, chief of the Indians, "the lands, bays, creeks and rivers, etc. 011 the south side of the Bay of the North River." "Van Dinclagen ap- parently acted as agent of Alexander and Henry van der Cappellen, on whom he gives order for the sum mentioned (equivalent to $77.20) and advanced by Govert Loockermans, December 5th, 1663," (New Jersey Archives, Vol. xxi). The Indian sachem who received the above amount in goods from Govert Loockermans probably brought to Governor Stuy- vesant the news of the English expedition to the Navesinks and the Rari- tans. For the next day (December 6th) the company's (Dutch West India) sloop with Captain Lieutenant Martin Cregier (Cryger) Govert Loockermans, Jacques Cortelyou, Peter Zevel, ten soldiers, two sailors, the sachem, and a savage from Staten Island, sailed from New Amster- dam down the Bay, through the Kill von Kull, and on the 7th rowed down the creek behind Staten Island. There they met Peter Lawrenson and Jacob Cowenhoven with a small sloop, who said that "they had been out to trade for venison." They had seen the English the day before sail up the Raritan River to meet the Indians. Captain Lieutenant Cryger's party immediately sent "our savage John" to warn the Navesinks and Raritans not to sell any lands. Negotiations were thus interrupted, and the Eng- lish sailed down the Raritan to meet the Dutch, who were awaiting them in the Bay. After a short parley, the English sailed down toward the Navesink hills, the Dutch following. The English and Dutch party from Gravesend landed, probably a little west of the present town of Atlantic Highlands, where a creek came through a break in the circle of the Nave- sink hills, and the point was later called Portland Point. Here, on Decen- ber Ioth, 1663, the "English and Dutch" made their first claim for and defence of Old Monmouth. The party on the Dutch West Indian Com- pany's "yacht" reported the event as follows :
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