USA > New York > A history of New York, for schools. Vol. I > Part 10
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Wm. That was right. 2
Un. After dinner the company marched from Hampden Hall to the liberty pole, and thence down Beekman street, and through Queen street to the Coffee-house ; thence up Wall street to Broadway, and to the liberty pole again, where they dispers- ed. This celebration seems to have roused the ire of the royal party, and on Monday the 21th of March, they encouraged their tools, the soldiers, to attack the liberty pole again. Near midnight they attempted to unship, that is, to unfasten, the topmast ; but some citizens discovered them and alarmed others, who repaired to the consecrated spot; these the soldiers attacked and drove off, but more ar- rived ; the soldiers were reinforced from the bar- racks : the citizens rung the Chapel bell ; on which, and seeing the number of inhabitants increasing, the soldiers retreated, and a guard was kept up at the pole all night. This was the last attack that was made by these English mercenaries, who had sworn, it is said, to carry part of it with them ou their voyage to Pensacola, for which place they em- - barked a few days after ; a riot took place in 1775, . at which time, first appears in our story the no- torious Provost Cunningham ; but of that, here- after.
Wm. But when, sir, did Captain Mc Dougal get out of jail ?
Un. On the 30th of April, this same year, 1770, the grand jury found a bill against him for a libel, to which he pleaded not guilty, and was admitted to bail; himself in 500 !. , and two sureties each in 250/.
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John. What, sir, were all the ruling men against him ?
Un. It would seem so; for you have heard that no one of the house of assembly opposed the perse. cution of this gentleman but Col. Philip Schuyler.
WVm. Brave Colonel Schuyler ! I shall love him as much as I always did Colonel Peter Schuyler that the Indians called Quidder.
Un. When I come to speak to you of Philip Schuyler's actions, you will find that you ought to love him even more. But now we must go back again to the year 1766.
Mary. Uncle, you promised to finish the story of the princess.
Un. True. And as I know little more about her, I will tell it now: first I must remind you that part of what I told you respecting her was only my own conjecture to account for her being able to de- ceive people as she really did.
John: You explained that, sir. Was there such a person as Tom Bell ?
Un. O, yes. But I do not know that he ever met with Sarah Wilson. All I know further of the latter, is soon told. In Rivington's Gazette of May 13th, 1773, I found (besides the advertise- ment of Michael Dalton offering a reward for Sarah Wilson) the story of her robbing Miss Vernon, being condemned to be hanged, being transported and sold, running away from Dalton and carrying off clothes and jewels; and of her passing herself off for the Princess Susanna Carolina Matilda, and promising governments and offices to such as did her homage and lent her money. Then again, in September, appeared the following paragraph. I copied it. Read it :
John. "September 2d, 1773; on Tuesday last ar- rived in this city, a person who styles herself the
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Marchioness de Waldegrave, and is supposed to be the same mentioned in the papers as Sarah Wilson, alias, the Lady Carolina Matilda. She still insists on her high pretensions, and makes the same im- pressions on many as she did in the south." This is very curious, sir.
Un. I think so. You observe that in October, 1771, she is advertised as a runaway slave; is pur- sued; and one account says that Dalton arrived in Charleston, South Carolina, in pursuit of her short- ly after she had departed on a visit to a plantation. Yet here she appears again in New York, two years after, making the same high pretensions, but under another name and title.
John. How could she escape ? What curious adventures she must have had during those two years !
Wm. Is this all you know of her, Uncle ?
Un. Not quite. I have made many inquiries both here and in Philadelphia, in vain. But being in company with a lady whose age entitled her to remember something of the year 1773, I asked her if she had ever heard of such a person. She im- mediately replied, " What, the princess ? O, yes ! I remember her well. When I was a little girl I met her at the house of a gentleman in New York, and she attracted my attention by her appearance and manners. It so happened that I was going to Perth Amboy, and from thence to South Amboy; she hearing this, made an appointment to go with me, and the family at whose house I met her arranged that it should be so. She had an introduction to a gentleman at Perth Amboy ; but whether from her troublesome manners, or some suspicions that at this time attached to her, she was coldly received, and insisted on accompanying me to South Amboy, there to take the stage for Philadelphia. She required a
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great deference to be paid her, and made all the family at South Amboy attend upon her devotions. she reading prayers to them ; but what annoyed me most, she insisted upon my sleeping with her, and I had such dread of, or dislike to, her, that I stole out of bed when she fell asleep, and made my escape to the lady of the house. The next day she departed for Philadelphia. I had quite forgotten the prin- cess, and perhaps should never again have thought of her, if you had not asked me the question." Thus, Mary, ends the story of the princess, for I never heard more of her.
Wm. Perhaps she gained her liberty from her master ; perhaps she repented and was a good woman.
Un. Perhaps so: we will hope so. To-morrow we will resume our history of New York.
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CHAPTER XII.
Un. You have already heard from me the events that agitated our city during the disputes relative to quartering troops; and the riots arising from the insolence of the soldiers in cutting down the liberty pole.
I'm. Was it not unaccountable, sir, that the mil- itary should dare to insult the citizens as they did ?
Un. No. For they saw that the colonists were considered and spoken of by the great men of Eng- land, not only as inferiours, but as a kind of proper- ty. They saw that governors were sent out merely to serve the purposes of Great Britain, and to make fortunes as rewards for services done at home; not only governors, but other officers. It was notorious that two successive chief-justices of New Jersey
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vere, the one incompetent, the other infamous. The military officers of England looked with con- tempt on the provincials, whether holding his majes- ty's commission in the army, or as private citizens : (the latter were called by them Mohairs:) the soldiery of course caught the same opinions from their com- manders. John, read this extract from a letter writ- ten by a friend to Major Horatio Gates. It is a specimen of the diseasedly arrogant feeling which generated the American war, and was cured by it. Major Gates was at the time at Pittsburg, and his brother officer writes as it was the custom of these English military gentlemen to speak.
John. " I send you a copy of Mr. Hughs's impu- dent letter, by which you may judge to what degree of insolence the rabble of this country will raise if they are not brought down, from home. This fel- low was a baker lately, then a wagoner, and now, as an assemblyman, he thinks himself entitled to write to me in this style. Such letters should be answered with a stick, if the necessity of the service did not tie our hands."
Un. Thus one of those subalterns spoken of by Mr. Pitt as fit for governors of any of the colonies, writes to another, when mentioning a member of a provincial assembly, " the rabble of this country."
John. If such was the way gentlemen talked and acted, it accounts for the insolence of the English soldiers. About the time of which you are giving us a history, I believe, sir, the unhappy disputes between New York and Massachusetts respecting their boundaries took place.
Un. True, and with New Hampshire: for the governor of that province persisted in claiming and selling the country, now Vermont, even after refer- ring the dispute to the king, and after his decision in favour of New York. At this time too, our
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neighbour, New Jersey, was much troubled by a desperate band of counterfeiters, and by the robbery of the treasury, which for a time was involved in great mystery ; but it was afterward found that the same gang of forgers and counterfeiters were like- wise the robbers.
John. You have mentioned to us a great many causes of discontent which existed before the quar. rel with England came to a positive and open war, but I confess I do not understand the subject fully.
Wm. I wish we had come to the story of the war.
Un. Ah, boy, you are like many that are older ; but war is always a sad story. It is necessary that you should know the cause of the bloody conflict of which I am to speak, that your feelings may be enlisted on the side of justice. When England deprived New York of the power to make laws until she obeyed the orders for quartering and pro- viding for any troops that the king might send to be in readiness to enforce his orders, it alarmed all the provinces ; for they said if this is done to New York, it may be done to us. So the people entered into resolutions not to import goods from Great Britain until their grievances were redressed. They complained of many unjust prohibitions. Their country was full of iron, and they were prohibited from manufacturing it for their own use, or of making it into steel; they were obliged to send it to England and bring it back again, at a great unne- cessary expense ; and so of the hats they wore, they must send the material home, for the benefit of Eng- lish hatters; if they made any woollen goods, they were prevented carrying them from one province to another. Articles that they could sell to foreign countries they were obliged to carry first to' Eng. land; and other things, that they bought of foreign nations, they were forced to carry to some port in
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Great Britain and pay duties on them before they could bring them to their real homes for sale, or use. But above all, they complained that the jails of England were emptied upon them; making the colonies a receptacle for the English rogues and villians-their traitors and felons.
Wm. Tom Bells and Sarah Wilsons.
John. What was the particular cause of quarrel about the tea, sir ?
Un. Simply this. To raise a revenue, the Eng- lish parliament laid a tax of so much a pound on the article, if Americans imported it from Great Britain; and they were prohibited bringing it from China. So they said, "Well, we will do without it." But that did not suit England ; for it reduced the profits of the East India Company, a great body of merchants, who were bound to pay to the treasu- ry 400,000l. sterling a year, as long as their profits amounted to a certain sum. So, as America would not import tea, the ministry gave the merchants permission to send it to the colonies, that the duty might be paid in England, and the profits of the East India Company kept up to that amount which required them to pay the 400,0001.
John. Now I understand, sir. And the Ameri- cans determined not to have the tea forced upon them by this scheme of the English parliament, to get a duty on it, and at the same time save the 400,0004. sterling a year.
Un. Just so. I shall say as little as possible about the transactions at Boston, because you have read, and must read, in every history of America the details respecting throwing the tea into the harbour, and the other events of that time. We will confine ourselves as much as possible to New York. Some of the stories I have told you of what happened respecting informers, and in consequence
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of attempting to press sailors, took place in 1768 and 1769, and there were many violent movements among the people that grew out of the resolutions not to import goods; for some merchants tried to introduce English manufactures contrary to the agreement they had entered into; and the people in some instances seized the articles and made their owners send them back. During all these troubles Sir Henry Moore was governor, that is, from 1765 to September the 11th, 1769, at which time he died: and although he, as a matter of course, endeavoured to carry into effect the orders of his masters in Eng- land, he conducted himself with a degree of pru- dence that caused his death to be regretted, espe- cially as Lieutenant-governor Colden was very un- popular, and the government of course devolved again on him. It was soon after this, that Mr. Mc Dougal was put in prison, as I have told you, for calling the people together in the fields when they censured the assembly for voting 200l. to find accommodations for the English soldiers. In this affair Captain Sears was a prominent man, and to punish him, he was accused of neglecting his duty as inspector of potash. He desired to be heard in his defence, but the majority in the house of assem- bly refused to attend to his petition. At this time two distinguished patriots were in a small minority of the assembly, and their votes in favour of Mr. Sears were of no avail. In consequence, he pub- lished several affidavits contradicting the charges mande against him, and resigned the office of in- spector of pot and pearl ashes.
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John. Who were the gentlemen you mean, sir, that were in the minority ?
Un. Philip Schuyler, and George Clinton ; both glorious names in the war that followed. Nathan- iel Woodhull acted with them at this time, and after;
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but a great majority of the house of assembly were against them.
John. The people would have a poor chance when the majority of their representatives were opposed to them, for the council and governor being appointed by the king would be sure to be enemies to liberty.
Un. But you will soon see, (as was the case about the stamp act,) that when oppression becomes too' barefaced and heavy, the people will be too strong for any set of men placed over them by for- eign influence. I see, boy, you have a clear view of the government of the old colony, when two parts out of three were the creatures of the king or ministry of Great Britain. The only security which the third part had was the power of origi- nating all money bills and grants for the salaries of governors, judges, and other officers; and it was the constant endeavour of these governors, and of the ministry of Great Britain to wrest this (their only) security from them. The governors endeavoured to force the assemblies to give them a permanent salary instead of that granted annually; and the ministry used art and coercion to impose taxes, one purpose of which was to establish a treasury in America, therewith to make the king's governors, and other officers, independent of the assembly. Now I think you have attended long enough to these affairs, and deserve to hear of something con- nected with our history that will be more enter- taining.
Wm. O, the Indians! the Indians!
Un. First I will give you something of a famous mountebank.
John. What, a mountebank in America, sir ?
Un. We have had many men deserving the appellation, but about the time of which we are 13
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speaking there appeared here, and travelled through most of the provinces, a real European mountebank quack-doctor ; selling nostrums from a moveable stage, and accompanied by a clown to play tricks and talk nonsense, (such as circus·riders have to amuse the vulgar,) and a tumbler to astonish by his postures.
John. Such a person would not be tolerated now, sir, I think.
Un. No. The very rabble would hoot him from his stage, and pelt him with pebbles instead of buy ing his pills. I mention him to show you the dif- ference between the feelings of the publick at that time and this. When I was a little boy like you, Philip, the mountebank I speak of, Doctor Yeldal, came once a year to the town I lived at in New Jersey, and to my great delight mounted his stage dressed in a handsome suit according to the fashion of that time, with a powdered wig, laced ruffles, and small-sword. A man dressed in a fantastick clownish habit, with a fool's cap on his head, amu- sed the crowd of villagers by asking questions of the doctor respecting the cures he performed, and occasionally making remarks to excite the laughter of the audience. The doctor praised his medicines and exhibited a number of pill boxes, assuring the people that in one of them was a gold ring, so that some person among the purchasers would not only possess the invaluable medicine, but a valuable piece of gold, and all to be obtained at the cheap rate of two shillings. While the doctor pocketed the money of his dupes, the clown, who was ad- dressed as " Mister Merryman," continued his an- ticks, and had an auxiliary to aid his attraction in Mr. Quicksilver, the tumbler,-a very beautiful youth, who walked on his hands, threw somersets, and showed other feats of dexterity and activity.
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Mary. What is a somerset, Uncle ?
Un. Throwing one's self heels over head, and ap- pearing erect again without having, apparently, touched the floor or ground, is called by tumblers "throwing a somerset."
John. In this way, sir, I suppose the quack-doctor made a great deal of money.
Un. No doubt; and gave me, as a child, great amusement. This was a short time before the rev- olution. I always remembered this extraordinary exhibition, but for many years heard nothing more of Doctor Yeldal, Mr. Merryman, or Quicksil- ver; but not long since, I found in an old paper, " Holt's New York Journal," of 1771, this para- graph. Read it.
John. " A stranger, lately arrived here, who calls himself Doctor Anthony Yeldal, and sells medi- cines from a tage, who, by his harangues, the odd tricks of his Merry Andrew, and the surprising feats of activity of his little boy, highly diverts the people; he has for several weeks past exhibited at Bruklyn." Brooklyn is spelt here with a u instead of double o.
Un. Perhaps a mistake of the printer. Go on.
John. "Bruklyn on Long Island, to which place, it is said, several thousand of people, mostly from this city, have flocked to see him every day of his exhibition. On Monday last, a great multitude, as usual, having attended him, on their return to cross the ferry, the boats being insufficient to carry them all, were prodigiously crowded; every one got in as soon as he could, and when the boat was- Here, sir, the paper is torn off, and what more hap pened is lost.
Un. So, so ! I have worn it out in my pocket. and my memory must supply the rest. These idle people, many of whom, as is still too much the cus-
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tom, being from home had drank strong liquors at the tavern and ferry-house, and all elated by the holyday-show they had seen, crowded helter skel- ter into the ferry-boat; until finding that if more jumped in she would be too deeply laden, they pushed off from the shore without the boatmen, and immediately found themselves hurried away at the mercy of the tide, which, as you know, is very strong and rapid between the city of New York and Brooklyn. Away they went-men, women, and children, crying, screaming, shouting, and quar- relling; in this helpless state the boat struck on a rock, and a hole was broken through the bottom, into which the water poured rapidly; she passed over the first and struck on another rock-
John. Were the passengers drowned, sir ?
Un. They had neither skill nor energy to save themselves, and it being evening, the people on shore thought their cries were a continuation of the un- ruly noises they had made while embarking, until they saw them throwing out water with their hats to prevent the boat from sinking ; then, some skilful men, in other boats, put off to their assistance and saved them from the effects of their folly.
Wm. What became of this mountebank and his Merryman and Quicksilver ?
Un. I have heard that Yeldal purchased an estate in the northeastern part of this province. Of the beautiful boy Quicksilver, I know nothing; but Mister Merryman makes his appearance again in another newspaper paragraph and in another char- acter ; he enlisted as a soldier in one of the conti- nental regiments, and was the delight of his fellow- soldiers as a companion; but he and some of his comrades having the spirit of licentiousness, in addi- tion to that of Jamaica rum, too strong upon them, attempted to rob a farmer near their encampment,
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who making resistance lost his life; the conse- quence was, that Mr. Merryman's last appearance before the publick was on a gallows.
Wm. Poor Mr. Merryman ! he made a sad end. John. In former times, executions must have been frequent.
Un. Yes. The humane institutions of prisons for preventing crimes, or reforming criminals, had not been introduced. The pillory, the whipping-post, - lashes at the cart's-tail, branding with a hot iron, and cropping the cars, were inflicted as punishments when the aid of the gallows and the stake were not called in.
John. Some of the pirates that infested the Amer- ican scas, must have been caught and punished in this city, I should think ?
Un. Certainly. I will give you one instance. the circumstances of which were somewhat remark- able. About the time we have been speaking of, that is, in May, 1769 or '70, the court of admiralty of the province of New York, consisting of the gov- ernor and council, the judge of admiralty, and some others, tried and condemned Joseph Andrews as a pirate, for the murder of Captain Ruluff Duryee, and several sailors, on the coast of Africa, on board Duryee's vessel, in the month of September, 1766. And on the meeting of the court a few days after, for the purpose of trying Stephen Porter, another pirate, for the murder of the captain and crew of a Bristol ship, on the coast of Guinea, when the pris- oner was sent for he was found dead, having hanged himself (by the string which supported his irons) to a bar of the prison window. A coroner's inquest being held, pronounced the deed " self-murder," and he was sentenced to be buried "at the upper end of the Bowery lane, with a stake stuck through the body, which sentence was executed accordingly."
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As to Andrews, he was "hanged in chains on a high gallows, on the most conspicuous part of Bed- low's island." Such spectacles as these were often exhibited to the people in "the good old times." Now, children, to your books. To-morrow when we meet I will talk to you of the Indians of the Six Nations.
CHAPTER XIII.
Wm. Now, Uncle, you will tell us of the Indian wars.
Un. I will endeavour to give you a notion of this · strange people before commencing the history of the revolutionary war; and to do it, we must look back again to the early times of New York. First I will mention to you that New York, among other . proofs that its boundary line was the west side of Connecticut river, and that the province extended northward to the St. Lawrence or Canada line, averred, that the Five Nations, the Mohawks, Onei- das, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas, had been subdued, and had submitted to the governors of New York, by treaties, as early as 1683. These Five Nations were, by the French, called Iroquois. They were a powerful confederacy of distinct tribes, and had conquered the other native tribes from the great lakes to the ocean. New York claimed, from their submission, the exclusive right to purchase their lands from them, and to have jurisdiction over the country when purchased and settled. The country on both sides Lake Champlain belonged to the Five Nations; and in the ancient maps, that water is called Lake Iroquois. New York, you know, likewise claimed all this country as being surrendered to
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England by the Dutch, and granted by the king to the Duke of York; and the contending claims of the New England colonies caused jealousies be- tween them and New York, that unhappily remained to the time of our revolution, and proved very inju- rious to Philip Schuyler, who was a patriotick mem- ber of the New York assembly at the time of these disputes; and one of the best of men. Of this con- troversy, and of the wars of the French with the Five Nations, you are informed in some measure, and must read more by and by.
John. Yes, sir. But please to tell us of the trou- bles with the Indians afterward; and of their history.
Un. I will endeavour to give you some ideas re- specting this interesting race, that in the course of our history, you may better understand the events in which they were actors. You know, John, when Europeans discovered that there was such a continent as America, and such islands as those we call the West Indies, a people essentially different from the whites and from the negroes were found on both. The discoverers were in search of the East Indies, and they chose to call these savages Indians. You, John, have read the voyages of Columbus, and the Conquest of South America by the Spaniards.
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