A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 10

Author: Ross, Peter. cn
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1188

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June Meeting Day, like the annual hunt- ers' and trappers' spring garden fetes, is pe- culiar to the east end of Long Island. Nom- inally it is a religious gathering, but many per- sons go out of curiosity. Services lasting all day are held in the little church, which seats

THE DECADENCE OF THE ABORIGINES.

only sixty persons. Sixty more can stand in the narrow aisles, and the rest of the crowd sit in wagons and buggies near the doors and windows, where they can hear the preaching and join in the singing of hymns and the pe- culiar songs or worship handed down through generations from the Indians.

Usually some neighboring white minister presides over the June meeting, and yester- day the Rev. W. H. Stewart, of Middle Island, was in attendance. The other preachers were the Rev. "Deacon" Carl, of the reservation ; the Rev. W. H. Parker, of Centre Moriches, and Richard Ward, chief of the Poosepatuck tribe.

The morning was devoted to a praise serv- ice. This consisted of prayers, songs and the telling of religious "experiences." Occasion- ally some of the half-breeds became so en- thusiastic that they would "shout" like old- time Southern darkies. In the old days many Indian families became linked by marriage with negro families brought over from Africa.

The "shouting" which remotely suggested the camp dances of the original Indians, was first occasioned by the singing of a song, part of which ran:

Ole Satan went down to the bottom of the well. (Don't you grieve after me when I'm gone.) He missed his mark and slipped down to hell. (Don't you grieve after me when I'm gone.)

This song was rendered with plenty of foot patting, and rocking from side to side.

Mace Bradley, the only surviving full- blooded Poosepatuck Indian on Long Island, said he felt that the days of the Indians on the reservation were numbered. The old Indian's frame shook with emotion as he went on to exhort his fellows to lead pure lives and "look upward." Not infrequently the women moaned aloud, and the men shouted "Amen !"

Richard Ward, the chief of the reservation, led in singing :

I've got my breast-kit, sword and shield : No man a-work-a like Him.

I'm marchin' boldly through the field- No man a-work-a like Him.

Then in a thundering chorus all joined in the refrain, those sitting in vehicles outside taking up the air :

He's King of Kings and Lord of Lords,- Jesus Christ, the first and last :

No man a-work-a like Him.

Suddenly a woman half-breed, shaking from head to foot with fervor, pointed toward the roof and sang :

Jes look over yonder what I see:

No man a-work-a like Him.

See two angels callin' at me : No man a-work-a like Him.

Verse after verse of this hymn was sung by volunteers.

The afternoon and night services were much like those of the forenoon

The Indians referred to in this article are remnants of the old Patchogue or Setanket tribe.

In the old lands of Europe it is common to trace departed tribes and nations by the names of places, which names have proved more en- during monuments, more popularly under- stood monuments, than could any structure in stone or "enduring brass." Thus in Scot- land the language, manners and customs of the ancient Picts have vanished into the un- known; but the evidences of their existence, of their might and of their territorial greatness is retained in the names of places which are still in popular use. Similar examples could be culled from the history of Germany, of Italy and other countries. So, too, in Long Island. It may be said that the red man has forever disappeared from the places which were once his own, but all over its extent lie has left behind him memorials of his language and his occupancy in the names he gave to many localities and which still cling to them.

Gemeco, or Jameco, is still remembered by the old town of Jamaica, although William W. Tooker, the greatest of all authorities on Long Island Indian lore, seems to think it de- rived from Tamaqua, the beaver. Arshamom- aque, or Hashamomuk, near Southold, still re- tains its old Indian name, meaning "where wild flax grows;" and Quogue (Quaquanan- tuck), Setauket, Sagg, Peconic, Potunk. Syosset, Aquebogue, Quantuck, Tuckahoe, Nissaquag, Watchogue, Ponquogue, Speonk, Seapoose, Manhasset, Rockaway, Noyack, Ne-

HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.

guntapoque, Montauk, Commac and a hundred other places still represent the red man's as- cendancy and story throughout the island. Even in Brooklyn, built over and over again and changed and transformed as it has been since the red man had his village of Merech- kawikingh (near Red Hook) in what is now the twelfth ward, Indian names confront us. Merechkawikingh, it is true, has passed away and been generally forgotten except by the Antiquaries, but we sometimes think of Black- well's Island by its Indian name of Minna- hannock, Gowanus is still the name of a lo- cality, and Ipetonga survives in the name of a fashionable club.

The Navy Yard, writes, Dr. Tooker, where the Marine Hospital stands and there- about was known at a very early period as Rinnegackonck. According to traditions it is supposed to have been the locality where began the first settlement of Long Island ; but in the light of recent investigation it must yield that honor to Flatlands. The Indian deed is dated July 16, 1637, when "Kakapot- eyno* and Pewichaast as owners of this dis- trict by special order of the rulers and with consent of the community * *

* con- veyed to George Rapalje a certain piece of land called Rinnegackonck, situated upon Long Island, south of the island of Mana- hatasţ * *

* reaching from a kill to the woods, south and east to a certain copse where the water runs over the stones, etc" The rec- ords give us: "The plantation of George Rapalje (called Rinnegackonck), 1638; Rinne- gaconck, 1640; Renegakonc, Rinneakonc and Rinnegconck, 1641; Runnegackonck, 1647. Have rented a certain bowery (farm) * * ** called in Indian Rinnegackonck," 1651. Stiles' History of Kings county gives it as Renne- gackonck, with the statement that it was some- times spelt with an i or u in the first syllable. It will be noticed that the name belonged en- tirely to the plantation of George Rapalje,

and not to a creek as supposed by some. It was probably bestowed upon that fertile and well watered farm by the Indians after Rapalje had entered upon the land and improved it, for the Indian titles were almost invariably obtained after the land had been taken posses- sion of by the settlers.

The name gives us an instance occasionally occurring where the r is used in place of w as it should be, according to the English nota- tion. Although the Dutch w has not the same primary sound or derivation as the English, Heckewelder wrote: "There are in the Dela- ware language no such consonants as the Ger- man w or the English v, f, r. Where the w in this language is placed before a vowel it sounds as in English; before a consonant it represents a whistled sound." Eliot found the same difficulty in the Natick dialect, for he says in his grammar, we call w wee, be- cause our name giveth no power of its sound. Many Indian names in the townships west of Southampton, Long Island, show how diffi- cult it was for our early pioneers to catch the true sound of the Indian names of persons and places ; as Heckewelder has said, they had not acquired an Indian ear. For instance, we find Rioncom for Weoncombone, Ratiocan or Raseokan for Ashawoken, Ra or Ronkon- kumake for Wonkonkooamang, and many others. Besides we find some of the familiar Indian names of the eastern townships so ef- fectually disguised under the softening influ- ence of the Dutch language as to render it dif- ficult to believe they are the same. But in giving them the Dutch values in pronunciation we discover their identity. Again in the short vocabulary taken down by Thomas Jefferson in 1794 from the lips of an old squaw at Pusspa'tok, in the town of Brookhaven, we find the r appearing in many words, showing by comparison that she or her kindred, by mar- riage or otherwise, were originally from the tribes of western Connecticut. All of which open up very interesting historical questions regarding Indian migrations that we at pres- ent cannot dwell upon.

But the study of Indian names belongs more to the field of the local antiquary than to that of the general historian, and with this reference the subject must here rest. But those who wish to pursue the study-and a delightful study it is-will find in the writings of Dr. Tooker, now collected in a series of

*The crow: this name is onomatopoetic.

*Penawitz="the stranger," Sachem of Massa- peague.

ĮManahan-otan ="Island town," or "town on the Island:" any other interpretation for this name is inad- missible.

THE DECADENCE OF THE ABORIGINES.

volumes, an able introduction and a most sat- isfying and thoroughgoing guide. He has de- voted his life to the subject and his patient and intelligent labor has been fruitful of endur- ing results.

While writing the closing paragraphs of this chapter a curious meeting has been held in New York, which shows that the few sur- vivors of the old Montauks, Shinnecocks and other tribes are not without some hope of wresting from the white squatters the land owned by their forefathers. The meeting was held by members of the United States Senate's committee on Indian affairs, and its purpose was to listen to appeals by the representatives of the old tribes for legislation which would enable them to institute court proceedings for the recovery of their lands. At the meeting, which was held on September 22, 1900, ten In- dians represented the once mighty race. They were the Rev. E. A. Johnson, Dr. W. H. John- son, Nathan J. Cuffee and James Cuffee, of the Montauk Council, John Noka, Joshua Noka and Donald Seeter, of the Narragansett Council, David Kellis, of the Shinnecock Council, and Lemuel Fielding, of the Mohegan Council. From a newspaper report of the proceedings the following is culled as being of a degree of interest well worthy of being preserved as a part of the Indian story :

The Montauks and Shinnecocks have a joint claim to 11,000 acres of land at Mon- tauk Point. The Narragansetts demand a tract of land eight miles square half a mile back from Narragansett Bay, and the Mohegans claim the reservation four miles from Montville, near Norwich, Connecticut, and including about sixteen acres in Norwich.

The Montauk Indians many years ago oc- cupied Montauk Point. About twenty-five years ago, as the story of the members of the tribe ran, the Montauks found they could no longer make a living off their reservation. So they decided to rent it out to be used for pas- turage by a syndicate known as the Proprie- tors' Company. The members of the company all took grazing allotments, and paid the tribe an annuity. About twenty years ago the mem- bers of the company disagreed, some wanting

a land reapportionment, and litigation fol- lowed. The court, it is asserted, completely ignored the rights of the Indians and ordered property sold at public auction, and the pro- ceeds divided equally among the white occu- pants of the land, who, the Indians claim, were merely lessees. The property was sold to Arthur W. Benson, of Brooklyn, who bought in the 11,000 acres for $151,000. The Indians did not receive a cent of this. It was testified to that Mr. Benson afterward sold 5,000 acres of the reservation to the Long Island Railroad Company for $600,000.

Some of the Indians were still on the reser- vation. Mr. Benson hired Nathaniel Dominey, of Easthampton, to negotiate for their re- moval to Easthampton. Mr. Dominey made a good bargain for Mr. Benson. The old man-he is now nearly eighty-was at the hearing as the chosen friend of the Indians, and he gave the details of the arrangements he made for the removal of the remaining men- bers of the tribe from the lands of their fore- fathers.

"How many members of the tribe were on the reservation when you opened negotiations with them for their removal?" asked one of the senators.

"There were eight, sir. There were the Queen, her son, Wyandank Pharaoh, who is now the rightful King of the tribe ; the Queen's two brothers and four others."

"What arrangements did you make with them?"

"I agreed with the Queen that she should be paid $100 semi-annually, and that she should have two houses to live in, which at her death were to revert to Mr. Benson. I agreed to give her brothers $80 each."

"And how about Wyandank Pharaoh, who you say is now the rightful King; what ar- rangements did you make with him to forfeit his rights?"

"He signed them away for $10."

Among the Montauk Indians present were the Rev. Eugene A. Johnson, a Presbyterian minister, who has a church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and his brother, Dr. William H. Johnson, of 103 West Twenty-ninth street, who is a graduate of the University of Penn- sylvania. It was the former who started the movement to restore their rights to the Mon- tauks.

"There are about three hundred members of the Montauk tribe living," said the Rev. Mr. Johnson. "They are scattered through-

HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.

out the United States, but still keep up their tribal relations. We have a tribal council, of which Nathan J. Cuffee is president, and we meet annually. We have tried to obtain our rights in the state courts and before the state legislature, but have been denied a hearing on the strange ground that we are not 'persons.' We occupy a unique position, being wards both of the state of New York and of the United States. Being wards, we could not rightfully dispose of our property without the consent of the state and the General Govern- ment. That consent was never secured. Oti the contrary, our property was taken from us by shameful bribery and fraud. The property we now claim is valued at about $3,000,000."

David Kellis told the committee of the claims of the Shinnecocks. The town of Southampton is situated on the Shinnecock Hills. The trustees for the Indians went be- fore the legislature in 1859 for authority to acquire the property. The petition which they

presented to the legislature, he said, was fraud- ulent, many of the names having been forged. Nevertheless the authority was granted, and the land obtained for a small portion of what it was worth.

James Lewis Cuffee, who is a representa- tive of the family of Paul Cuffee, the Indian missionary, gave the committee a history of the reservation since the reign of Punkamchise, King of the Shinnecocks, in 1703. He told of the gradual shoving back and disposses- sion of the Indians until there was nothing left to them.

One who watched the proceedings closely said that the committee seemed satisfied that the Indians had made out a good prima-facie case, and there was every possibility that the subject would be permitted to reach the courts. Such at least would simply be a measure of justice.

CHAPTER IV.

DISCOVERY-EARLY WHITE SETTLEMENTS AND POLITICAL AND FINANCIAL RELATIONS-THE IMPORTANCE OF THE WAMPUM INDUSTRY.

N 1497 England sent out an expedition under the direction of the Cabots to try and discover a northwest passage to the West Indies. As we all know, the quest proved a failure ; but the expedition sailed along the coast of the North American continent from Newfoundland to Florida. Did it stay for a while in New York harbor? That is a ques- tion which we fear can never be answered. All we know of that voyage seems to indicate that the adventurers simply sailed as close to the coast line as possible and seldom sent landing parties on shore. The meagre details we have simply represent the discovery of 'a coast line, although that was enough, it would seem, when the time came, to give England a foundation for a claim to the whole of the continent by right of discovery ! Almost as shadowy is the story of John Verazzano, who in 1524 sailed along the American coast on a voyage of discovery. It seems more than likely that he spent some time in New York harbor and landed on some of its shores. His description is well worth remembering, for it is the first glimpse we get of a scene which was soon to undergo remarkable changes.

"After proceeding one hundred leagues we found a very pleasant situation among some steep hills, through which a large river, deep at the mouth, forced its way into the sea. From the sea to the estuary of the river any ship heavily laden might pass with the help of the tide, which rises eight feet. But as we

were riding at anchor in a good berth we would not venture up in our vessel without a knowledge of the mouth. Therefore we took the boat and entering the river we found the country on the banks well peopled, the inhab- itants not differing much from the others, be- ing dressed out with the feathers of birds of various colors. They came towards us with evident delight, raising loud shouts of admira- tion and showing us where we could most securely land our boat. We passed up this river about half a league, where we found it formed a most beautiful lake, upon which they were rowing thirty or more of their small boats filled with multitudes who came to see us." He did not stay long in this beautiful scene, but passed northward. He saw natives gathering wampum on what is now Rockaway Beach as he passed out, and on his way to Nantucket discovered Block Island, to which he gave the name of Louise, the mother of King Francis of France.

We have vague and shadowy records of other voyageurs who looked in more or less through the Narrows from the Lower Bay, but what has reached us about their move- ments and their discoveries is so vague and un- satisfactory that the details belong rather to the antiquary than to the historian. Estevan Gomez, a Spanish adventurer, began a voyage across the Atlantic in 1525 and looked in at the Hudson, so it is claimed; but if he did that much he did no more. About 1540 we

HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.

read of French skippers ascending the "River of the Steep Hills" as far as what is now Al- bany in search of furs, and there is some evi- dence of their having there built a fort to pro- tect themselves and their possessions. In 1542 Jean Allefonsce, of Saintonge, passed through Long Island Sound and so reached New York harbor, being the first it is supposed to have managed that bit of seamanship. Up to that time little was known of the Hudson, although if we agree with Mr. A. J. Weise (“The Dis- coveries of America") that it is the Norambega River laid down upon some early maps, it was the subject of much conjecture and even geo- graphical romance. The knowledge of Long Island Sound was even less scanty,-and too scanty, in fact, even for romance to weave around it a story; and some seventy years were to elapse before much more was to be learned.

It was early in September, 1609, that the "Half Moon"-sixty tons' burden-under com- mand of Hendrick, or rather Henry, Hudson, dropped anchor in the Lower Bay, somewhere between Sandy Hook and Coney Island, rest- ing there, as it were, in the course of a voy- age of discovery up the coast from Chesapeake Bay. He was sent here by the East India Company of Amsterdam, and hoped, with the experience gained in two previous voyages, to discover that ignis fatuus of seamanship even to a recent day-a northwest passage to India. When he entered the river which now bears his name he fondly imagined that he had at last solved the great problem. He spent a few days exploring the shores of the bay and ques- tioning the natives as to the water which led inland. Sad to say, he also had trouble with these seemingly inoffensive people, and they killed one of his men ; but whether that tragedy was enacted on Coney Island or on Sandy Hook is a point on which the antiquaries have not yet made up their minds. They all agree, however, that the man-John Colman-was killed, and we call it a tragedy because it was the beginning of a warfare which, whether ·carried on by firearms, steel, rum or the dis-

eases of civilization, exterminated in time the native population whose gentle, inoffensive qualities Verazzano so clearly describes. Hav- ing learned all he could, he passed up the river almost to Albany, and then, having seen enough to show him that he had not yet dis- covered the long-sought passage, he made his way back to the open sea.

In one respect the story of his journey along the river which has preserved his name and is his most enduring memorial is not pleasant reading. His treatment of the na- tives was the reverse of kindly, and it has been computed that two hundred were killed by Hudson and his crew during the trip up and down the river. They seem to have been gen- erally friendly and inoffensive, over-curious in many respects, and off Stony Point one was caught, so it is said, in the act of stealing from the ship. To this malefactor was at once ap- plied the law of the white man, and he was shot while trying to escape with his plunder. This led to a rupture of friendly relations in that neighborhood, and when the upper end of Manhattan Island was reached there was a sort of naval battle, Indians, canoes and arrows on the one side and the "Half Moon and fire- arms on the other, and the "Half Moon" won. WVe read of another naval battle a little way. further down, but with the same result: The natives could not withstand gunpowder. So Hudson reached the open sea in safety, but left behind him memories which in after years were to help, with later stories of cruelty and wrong, to make the red man, as occasion of- fered and as long as opportunities remained, wreak a terrible vengeance. But Hudson did even more than this; wherever he landed and the Indians proved friendly, or whenever a party of them on kindly service bent visited the "Half Moon," the fire-water was produced to bring about a revel, and of the orgies and excesses which followed each production of that agent of civilization the Indian tradi- tions told in graphic vividness for many a year.

His report to his employers in Amsterdam

DISCOVERY-EARLY WHITE SETTLEMENTS.

was in one sense a disappointment. It did not unveil the desired northwest passage, and so was a failure; but its account of the re- sources of the country he had seen and its opportunities for trade were not lost in a com- munity whose merchants were then the most far-reaching and enterprising in the world. He told of the rich trade in peltries that awaited a gatherer, and it was not long before some enterprising merchants chartered a ship to cross the ocean and bring back a load of furs. That venture proved a signal success, and the trade of the old Netherlands with the New Netherland may thus be said to have com- menced. In 1612 Holland merchants syndi- cated and sent out the Fortune, under com- mand of Hendrick Christiaensen, and the Tiger, under command of Adriaen Block, and in the following year three more vessels were despatched to the Mauritius River, as for a time the Hudson was called.

Of these expeditions our interest here cen- ters mainly in that of Block. His ship per- formed her mission successfully and was load- ed ready for the return journey when she was destroyed by fire. He and his crew at once got sufficient timber to build another ship; but as it was too small to attempt to cross the ocean, Block determined to spend the time until a fresh ship could come from Holland in ex- ploration. In his new boat-the Restless-he explored the waters of Long Island, both on the sound and the ocean front, discovered it to be an island, and then passing along the mainland he explored the Connecticut River, the Narragansett, rounded Cape Cod and en- tered Massachusetts Bay. Every day seemed to bring a new discovery, and his imagination was kept on the stretch inventing names for the rivers, points, islands and bays which he passed. His own name survives to us in Block Island, and to him also is due the name of The Dutch certainly had a high apprecia- tion of the value of Long Island, or at least of the little portion of it of which they had practical knowledge-for even in the most powerful of their days the agents of the West Hellegat-now Hellgate-simply after a branch of the Scheld in his native land, al- though the name has long been a theme for wrangling among the etymologists. While still exploring he met in with his old cruising India Trading Company never exercised any

ship, the Fortune, returning with a second cargo to Holland, and, leaving the Restless in charge of Cornelius Hendricksen, he boarded the Fortune and returned to Holland. America saw him no more, and he passed seemingly into the shadows, for nothing appears to be known of his after life. He was certainly a faithful, as he was one of the first of the ser- vants of the East India Company (which was chartered in 1614, the charter of the West India Company dating from 1621), and he is also entitled to remembrance as having been the first ship-builder in America, for we take it that the watergoing craft of the Indians never got beyond the canoe stage.

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A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 10

Author: Ross, Peter. cn Publication date: 1902 Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 1188

Author: Ross, Peter. cn
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1188