A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 11

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

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Hendrick Christiaensen, who in 1612 was sent out in command of the Fortune, the con- sort of Block's ill-fated Tiger, was appointed agent of the home authorities with instruc- tions to open a trading station on Manhattan Island. This he did in 1661, when he con- structed a little fort and four log houses on the site now occupied by 39 Broadway. This · was the beginning of New York-or rather, to put it more correctly, of the present part of New York known as the Borough of Man- hattan. No doubt his agents soon crossed the East River and established business relations with the Indians there. The first white set- tlement on Long Island, however, was not made until 1636, so far as has been determined, and that story is told in another chapter. The credit of the early discovery of Long Island must be given to Adriaen Block, for although Verazzano and Hudson both saw it before him and John Colman very possibly yielded up his life there rather unwillingly, there seems no doubt that Block first determined its true char- acter as an island by his own explorations, aided by those of Cornelissen Mey, another doughty Dutch sailor.

HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.

real or lasting authority over any part east of an imaginary straight line drawn from Oyster Bay to the south shore. In 1640 a Dutch trav- eler spoke of Long Island as "the crown of the Netherlands," and to the Dutch must be awarded the palm of premier settlement. In June, 1636, one of Governor Van Twiller's sub- ordinates, Jacob Van Corlaer, bought from the Indians a piece of land called Castuteauw on Seawan-hackey, or Long Island, between the bay of the North River and the East River. He was an enterprising man, held the office of commissary of cargoes and taught school ; but he probably bought this premier piece of property as a speculation. He obtained after- ward patents for other "parcels" and became magistrate in New Utrecht, but, like most speculators, he seems to have over-reached himself, for in 1672 he became a bankrupt. In 1636, too, several other purchases of Long Island lands were made; and although it was not long after that much of the land was made ready for agricultural purposes, yet we must confess that all our inquiries lead to the belief that the first actual settler to make his home on Long Island was Joris Jansen Rapalje, who on June 16, 1637, obtained a grant of land at Wallabout. On this subject reference is made at greater length in a subsequent chapter of this history.

Lying as it did between the Dutch settle- ment of New Amsterdam and the English colony in Connecticut, both made up of in- trepid pioneers eagerly engaged in the war of wealth and hungry for jurisdiction over fresh soil with all its advantages, the facilities of the times made most of the northern shore and all of the eastern end of Long. Island much nearer Connecticut than New Amsterdam, and a struggle for possession and rule became im- minent soon after 1639, when Lion Gardiner acquired the island which now bears his name. Not many months afterward Southold and Southampton were settled by English colo- nists. The enterprise of these men carried them as near to New Amsterdam as Hemp- stead, but that was too much for the Dutch,

and they drove the unauthorized intruders back to the eastern end. Still the Dutch were not afraid to welcome settlers who placed themselves under their rule and protection in orderly fashion, for even in 1640 they per- mitted Gravesend to be founded by Lady Moody and her associates, and in 1643 they allowed a settlement of English people from New England to be founded at Hempstead. But such settlements obtained patents from the Dutch Governors and were amenable to the laws imposed by "their High Mightinesses." In the eastern end the communities would have none of this and looked to New England for protection and law. New England, too, claimed jurisdiction over the entire island by virtue of the terms of the charter of 1620 given to the Plymouth Colony, and the Earl of Stirling claimed possession by virtue of the grant given to him in 1635. We will have more to say of this nobleman and his claims in another chap- ter, and it must suffice here to state that the rights of himself and his heirs were fully ac- knowledged in the earlier land transactions in the eastern end of the island by the English settlers. The eastern towns each formed an in- dependent community in itself and all seem to have made treaties on their own account with the authorities at New Haven or of Connecti- cut, before and after September 15, 1650, when the dividing line between the Dutch and English sphere of influence was fixed at Oyster Bay between the high contracting parties. The English system was illustrated even in this little transaction, for there was some doubt as to whether Oyster Bay itself was in the Dutch or English "sphere." But the English claimed it and the result of a long and windy exchange of missives was that they retained it.

In Professor Alexander Johnston's inter- esting monograph on the History of Connecti- cut (in "American Commonwealths" series) we read (page 138) :

Long Island had never been more than nominally under the jurisdiction of the Dutch. They had planted a few farms at its western end, but the rest was a wilderness. Among

DISCOVERY-EARLY WHITE SETTLEMENTS.

the multitude of conflicting and unintelligible grants made by the Council of Plymouth was one to the Earl of Stirling, covering Long Island. The grantee seems to have claimed ownership only, not jurisdiction. Practically, therefore, when his agent sold a piece of ter- ritory, the new owners became an independent political community, with some claims against them, but no direct control. The island was thus in much the same position as the Con- necticut territory before the first irruption of settlers, and offered much the same attractions as a place of refuge for persons or communi- ties who had found the connection between church and state grievous. A company from Lynn, Massachusetts, bought the township of Southampton from Stirling's agent, April 17, 1640. There were at first but sixteen persons in the company, Abraham Pierson being their minister. This was the church which, first re- moving to Branford in 1644, when Southamp- ton became a Connecticut town, finally settled at Newark, New Jersey. Easthampton was settled about 1648 by another Lynn party, and was received as a Connecticut town November 7, 1649. The town of Huntington, though part of it was bought from the Indians by Governor Eaton, of New Haven, in 1646, really dates from about 1653. May 17, 1660, it was re- ceived as a Connecticut town. There were thus three Connecticut towns on Long Island, in addition to Southold, the New Haven town- ship. Between these and the really Dutch set- tlements at the western end of the island there were English settlements at Hempstead; but those acknowledged a much closer dependence on the Dutch authorities.

To all these claims the Dutch were fully cognizant. In a "Description of New Nether- land," written in 1649, and which was trans- lated and printed by the New York Histori- cal Society in 1849, we read :

Long Island, which by its fine situation, noble bays and havens, as well as by its fine lands, may be called the crown of the prov- ince, is also entirely invaded by them [New England settlers] except at the western ex- tremity, where are two Dutch villages, Breuk- elin and Amersfoort, which are not of much consequence, and a few English villages, as Gravesant, Greenwyck, Mespat-where dur- ing the war the inhabitants were expelled and since confiscated by Director Kieft. But the owners having appealed, it is yet in statu quo.

There are not many inhabitants now. Also Vlissingen, a fine village, well stocked with cat- tle; and fourthly and last, Heemsted, better than the others and very rich in cattle.

But as we are now on Long Island we will (as it seems the British are craving this in particular) say a little more about it. From the beginning of our settling here, this island has been inhabited by the Dutch. In 1640 a Scotchman came to Director Kieft, having an English commission, and claimed the island, but his pretence was not much regarded and he departed again without effecting anything except to rouse a little of the mob. Afterward the Director Kieft subdued and destroyed the British who wished to trade in Oyster Bay ; and thus it remained for some time. Another Scotchman came in 1647, named Captain For- ester, and claimed this island in the name of the dowager Van Sterling, whose Governor he pretended to be. He had a commission dated the 18th year of King James' reign ; but it was not signed by the King nor by any- body else. His commission covered the whole of Long Island, with five surrounding islands, as well as the main land. He also had a power of attorney from Maria, dowager Van Ster- ling. Nevertheless the man valued these pa- pers much, and said on his arrival he would examine the commission of Governor Stuyve- sant. If it was better than his, he would give it up; if not, Stuyvesant must. In short, the Director took copies of these papers and sent the man over in the Valkemer; but the vessel touching in England he did not arrive in Hol- land.

Under the terms of its charter Connecticut claimed Long Island as an integral part of its territory and was exercising full territorial rights over it when, in 1664, the Dutch colony suddenly passed under English rule. Then Connecticut fondly imagined it had come into its own, but the influence of Manhattan Island proved too strong, and although the negotia- tions on the point were long drawn out and keenly contested, it was finally determined that the whole of the island was to be a part of the New York colony, while Connecticut had its jurisdiction extended along the opposite shore of the sound. Probably it was the best arrange- ment which could have been made for Con- necticut, but it was hardly agreeable to the

A BIT OF PARDAEGAT WOODS.

DISCOVERY-EARLY WHITE SETTLEMENTS.

"English" towns on the island. When the Dutch regained possession of New Amsterdam all the towns on Long Island, except South- old, Southampton and Easthampton, submitted to the representatives of the States General. But these three held out, asked for aid from Connecticut, and a war between that colony and New York was imminent when the news came that the Dutch regime had again passed and England was once more in possession. Even then an effort was made to have the eastern end of the island declared under the rule of Connecticut, but this request was em- phatically denied and the idea was abandoned. But even to this day the people in the eastern part of Long Island look upon Connecticut folk as their neighbors rather than those who dwell west of the old historic dividing line.

While the possession of the land for specu- lative, agricultural or hunting purposes made Long Island seem a jewel to the Dutch and the English, settlers gladly availed themselves of it as an extended place of refuge for politi- cal and religious freedom. There is no doubt from the references, sometimes half implied and sometimes openly expressed in the earlier documents on which we base our histories, that its possession was desired for another cause. It was in wampum that the red man transacted most of his dealings and measured values, and wampum was the real treasure of Long Island, as gold was the treasure of Cali- fornia in the eyes of the 'forty-niners. Cor- nelius Van Tienhoven, Secretary of the New Netherland, wrote on this point very clearly in a tractate written in 1650 and containing "Information relative to taking up land," in- tended for the guidance of intending immi- grants from the Netherlands: "I begin then," he said, "at the most easterly corner of Long Island, being a point situate on the main ocean, inclosing within, westward, a large inland sea (Gardiner's Bay) adorned with divers fair ha- vens. and bays fit for all sorts of craft; this point is entirely covered with trees without any flatts, and is somewhat hilly and stoney; very convenient for cod-fishing, which is most

successfully followed by the natives during the season. This point is also well adapted to se- cure the trade of the natives in wampum (the mine of New Netherland), since in and about the above mentioned sea and the islands therein situate lie the cockles whereof wampum is made, from which great profit could be real- ized by those who would plant a colonie or hamlet on the aforesaid hook for the cultiva- tion of the land, for raising all sorts of cattle, for fishing and the wampum trade." A docu- ment like this is evidence that the Dutch au- thorities were thoroughly acquainted with the entire resources of Long Island ; that they were anxious to invite settlers even to its most in- accessible parts (from New Amsterdam), and that they knew and appreciated most thorough- ly the site of the most valuable deposits of the most popular medium of exchange. It shows also that they entirely ignored the set- tlements from New England and any claim which Connecticut or New Haven might make to the island, and prompts us to think that Lion Gardiner had other purposes in view than merely agricultural when he obtained by pur- chase from the Indians and by grant from the heirs of Lord Stirling the island which has perpetuated his name and which continues to be the home of his descendants.

On the value of their wampum trade of Long Island a modern writer (John Fiske in his "Quaker and Dutch Colonies," Vol. I, page 174) graphically summarized the subject as follows :

Those shores were a kind of primitive American mint. For ages untold the currency of the red men had been wampum or strings of beads made from sea-shells. There were two sorts, the white beads made from a kind of periwinkle and the black beads made from the clam. It had some of the features of a double standard, inasmuch as the black wam- pum was worth about twice as much as the white; but as no legal-tender act obliged any- body to take the poorer coin for more than its intrinsic value, no confusion resulted. It was good currency, for it had an intrinsic value that was well understood and remarkably

HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.

steady as long as Indians continued to form an important portion of the trading world. For any material to be fit to serve as a currency three conditions are indispensable : I. It must be an object of desire for its own sake apart from its use as currency. 2. It must be diffi- cult to obtain. 3. Its value must not be sub- ject to fluctuations. Wampum satisfied these conditions. It was used for a number of pur- poses, and in particular was highly prized for personal adornment. In order to find it one must go to its native coasts and gather the shells and prepare then, and the areas in which these shells occurred were limited. Since wam- pum thus cost labor, it could easily serve as a measure of other labor. The amount of labor involved in getting a beaver skin could read- ily be estimated in terms of the effort involved in getting a fathom of beads. * *

* It has been well said, "Wampum was the magnet that drew the beaver out of interior forests," or in other words, it was for the white men a currency redeemable in those peltries which were wanted throughout the civilized world.

Now the shores of Long Island abounded in the shells of which wampum is made, and the Indians upon those shores were the chief manufacturers of wampum on the whole At- lantic coast.

Wamipum seems to have been found all along the coasts of Long Island, and that fact gave to the place one of its earliest European names, Seawanhacky, or "Island of Seawan," seawan being the Indian name for the money. Wampum, or white money, was made of the stock of the periwinkle, suckauhock, or black money, from the purple inside of the shell of the quahaug or clam, a shellfish that buried itself in the sand and was generally found in deep water. The black money was equal in value to twice that of the wampum or white money. The crude material was transformed into cylinders, highly polished, about an eighth of an inch in diameter and a quarter of an inch long and strung upon hempen or skin cords. The unit of value was a "fathom," a string measuring from the end of the little finger to the elbow and equivalent to five shill- ings in English colonial money and four guil-

ders in Dutch. It used to be averred among the Dutch colonists that the Indians always sent an agent with a very long forearm or a very short forearm according to the circum- stances in which the measuring was to be done !

It is curious that as even as early as 1.641 there was talk of depreciated currency in wam- pum transactions. The Indians presented oys- ter shells which had no intrinsic value among themselves, but were accepted implicitly by the unsophisticated white colonists ; but a later generation of the latter got even with the red man by handing him wampum made in French factories. While the shells which produced the white and black currency were found all along the coast line the richest deposits were those of Gardiner's Bay, and there the Montauks and Manhassets had established a sort of prim- itive mint, which they zealously guarded from outside interference. It is said that the posses- sions of this wealth made the Long Island In- dians more amenable to the influence of civili- zation than their brethren inland, which means that, having the wherewithal, they more read- ily secured the white man's guns and rum. Certainly they offered, on the whole, a less ferocious opposition to the white settlers than did the aborigines in New England and north- ern and western New York.

But the possession of this wealth brought its cares and anxieties and its dangers. A recent writer, summarizing the information presented by Weeden, the historian of wam- pum, says :

Dutch settlers early recognized the value of a monopoly in handling this wampum; hence their persistent opposition to immigration and the settlement of Lord Stirling's colonists,- a persistency practiced by the Indians in turn, when Montauk's Sachem repelled incursions upon the minting ground made by interior tribes to secure both wampum and shells ill primitive form. But the demand for wampun so increased that more powerful tribes, headed by Narragansetts, Pequots and Mohawks, united to compel annual payment from the

DISCOVERY-EARLY WHITE SETTLEMENTS.

Great South and Shinnecock Bay clans of tribute money, expressed in wampum for a protection and service never rendered. The demands were complied with, however, from sheer inability to resist, and so constant fear kept the clans toiling to manufacture and pay tribute, their mint thus becoming a source of untold misery. Governor Kieft, from New York, tried a similar experiment, but met with utter failure. He levied a tax, payable in wampum, for the rebuilding of Fort Amster- dam. But the wily red man sent back his col- lector with a message that they did not want the fort. It was no protection to them, ninety miles away, and they failed to see any reason for giving up valuables at the Governor's re- quest when they were to receive from him nothing in return. Stuyvesant, too,"the valiant, weatherbeaten, mettlesome, obstinate, leathern- sided, lion-hearted, generous-spirited old Gov- ernor," as he is called by Father Knicker- bocker, had his eyes turned toward the Long Island minting grounds, but never seems to have realized anything therefrom.

In 1628 the Bradford papers record "no inconsiderate profit in the trade with wampum peake," and from the same source comes this statement : "The Kennebec colony bought fifty pounds of it. At first it stuck, and it was two years before they could put of this small quantity, till ye inland people knew of it, and afterward they could scarce ever gett enough for them, for many years together." In 1629 wampum is referred to as being in a manner the currency of the country. In 1642 good wampum passed at four and loose beads at six for a stiver. It is also reported that same year to the Lords of Trade as being the cur- rency used in the United Netherlands-eight white and four black beads passing for a stiver.

Wampum was received in payment of taxes, judgments and all court fees, and, as Weeden says, was the magnet which drew beaver out of interior forests. It passed cur- rent in contribution boxes on Sunday and served all purposes for which tobacco was legal tender in Virginia. In 1683 the Flatbush schoolmaster received his salary in wheat at wampum value, and in 1693 the ferriage of each passenger between New York and Brook- lyn was eight stivers of wampum. Kieft, after a quarrel with the Raritans, offered a bounty of ten fathoms of wampum to every one who was sixty pence.

For purposes of personal adornment wam- pum seems to have remained an object of value among the Long Island Indians until they had fallen so low that all ideas of personal adorn- ment were abandoned. Belts of wampum, necklaces of wampum and ornaments of all sorts were the most undisputable evidences of personal wealth. A wampum belt was among the chiefs an emblem. "A belt," says Thomp- son, "was sent with all public messages and preserved as a record between nations. If a message was sent without the belt it was con- sidered an empty word unworthy of remem- brance. If the belt was returned, it was a re- jection of the offer or proffer accompanying it. If accepted it was a confirmation and strength- ened friendships or effaced injuries. The belt with appropriate emblems worked in it was also the record of domestic transactions. The confederation of the Five Nations was thus recorded. The cockle-shells had indeed more virtue among Indians than pearls, gold and silver had among Europeans. Seawan was the seal of a contract-the oath of fidelity. It satisfied murders and all other injuries, pur- chased peace and entered into the religious as well as civil ceremonies of the natives. A string of seawan was delivered by the orator in public council at the close of every distinct proposition to others as a ratification of the truth and sincerity of what he said; and the white and black strings of seawan were tied by the pagan priest around the neck of the white dog, suspended to a pole and offered as a sacrifice to T'halonghyawaagon, the Upholder of the Skies, the God of the Five Nations."

In all the great seals of the province of New York from 1691 to the Revolution a roll of wampum is held in the hands of one of the two Indians represented as offering tribute to the British sovereigns. As many as ten thou- sand shells were often woven into a single belt four inches wide. Wampum continued to be gathered on Long Island until the nineteenth century was pretty well advanced, for Gabriel Furman in his notes on "Long Island An-

HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.

tiquities," written about 1834, records that even then "wampum is manufactured on this island to be sent to the Indians in the Western States and Territories for the purpose both of a circulating medium and of conventions and treaties. In the summer of 1831 several

bushels of wampum were brought from Baby- lon, on this island, and the person who had them stated that he had procured them for an Indian trader, and that he was in the habit of supplying them. This wampum was bored, but not strung."

CHAPTER V.

THE DUTCH-SOME EARLY GOVERNORS-PETER STUYVESANT.

T is questionable if Adraien Joris, or Cornelius Jacobzen Mey or (May), or William Ver Hulst, who were the authorized

directors of the, New Netherland colony between 1623 and 1626, ever saw anything of Long Island except perhaps the stretch of sand which faced the ocean and which is now given over to pleasure resorts, or the smoke from the wig- wams of Merechkawikingh. Peter Minuit, who took the reins of government May 4, 1626, as Director General of New Netherland and found in his dominion a population of two hundred souls, exclusive, of course, of the aborigines, possibly had just as little personal acquaintance with the island, although he doubtless often looked at its coast line as he journeyed around his citadel in the fort at the Battery. He was an honest man, bought Manhattan Island from the Indians for some- thing like $25 and probably would have given half as much for Long Island had he felt he wanted it, and could he have managed to

find a Sachem who was powerful enough to give him a clear title. But it does not appear that he cast longing eyes in that direc- tion. His thoughts and hopes were more concentrated on the rich finds in pelts which were sent to him from Fort Orange; and then, too, he had enough territory on hand to defend, for the English Plymouth settlers were always encroaching on his territory on the "Conighticate" River and the Pequod In- dians worried him a good deal.

Nor is there existing any evidence of the presence of Governor Wouter Van Twiller on the island during his eventful tenure of the office from April, 1633, until March, 1638; but in his time the existence of Long Island began to assert itself. Van Twiller seems to have been an able man, and like many a mod- ern statesman zealously attempted to build up his own fortunes and those of the state at the same time. He bought for his own profit large tracts of land, including what we now call Blackwell's and Governor's Islands,

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A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 11

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