USA > New York > Kings County > Williamsburgh > A history of the city of Brooklyn : including the old town and village of Brooklyn, the town of Bushwick, and the village and city of Williamsburgh > Part 2
USA > New York > Kings County > Bushwick > A history of the city of Brooklyn : including the old town and village of Brooklyn, the town of Bushwick, and the village and city of Williamsburgh > Part 2
USA > New York > Kings County > Brooklyn > A history of the city of Brooklyn : including the old town and village of Brooklyn, the town of Bushwick, and the village and city of Williamsburgh > Part 2
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FROM THE DISCOVERY OF MANHATTAN ISLAND TO THE INCORPORATION OF THE VILLAGE OF BROOKLYN.
THE discovery of Manhattan Island by Henry Hudson necessarily forms the initial point of this history. For, even if the "most beau- tiful lake" said to have been penetrated by Verazzano in 1524, and which he described in glowing colors to his Royal Master the King of France, was indeed the bay of New York, yet his visit, according to his own account, was little else than a traveller's hurried glimpse and totally unproductive of results, either in respect to exploration or occupation. But when, on the evening of the 11th of September, 1609, the "Half Moon" of Amsterdam came to anchor at the mouth of the "Great River of the Mountains," then, undoubtedly, the eyes of white men rested for the first time upon the Isle of " Manna- hata," the green shores of "Scheyichbi," or New Jersey, and the forest-crowned "Ihpetonga," or "Heights" of the present city of Brooklyn. Then, all this region, now teeming with population and thrilling with the ceaseless pulse of civilized life, was wrapped in the lethargic slumber of primeval nature. The surrounding shores, where a forest of shipping pours its constantly accumulating treasures at the feet of the Empire City of the Western World, were fringed with magnificent forests gorgeous with autumnal hues. To the wondering mariners the land seemed "as pleasant with grass, and flowers, and goodly trees, as ever they had seen ;"
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HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.
and the savage inhabitants who thronged around in canoes curiously fashioned " from single hollowed trees," were comely in form and feature, and friendly in disposition. From its mouth to the head of tide-water, Hudson and his companions explored the noble river which stretched northward before them, spending a month of pleasant dalliance and adventure amid the varied and picturesque scenery of these virgin wilds, which they enthusiastically pronounced to be " as fine a land as the foot of man can tread upon." Though disappointed in finding that the Great River was not the long-sought and much-desired passage to the Eastern Seas, they were deeply impressed with the wonderful and apparently illimitable resources of the country which it traversed, and fully appreciated the value of their discovery to the commercial interests of their native land. The United Netherlands, whose flag they first displayed amid these solitudes, had just attained to the rank of an independent nation. Their energy and heroic persistence in waging a forty years' war with Spain had, at last, wrung from the Spanish monarch a twelve years' truce, which was in fact a recognition of their sovereignty and independence, and with which was coupled a tacit admission of their right to the free and undis- turbed navigation of the seas. The treaty, signed at Antwerp, on the 9th of April, 1609, only three days after Hudson's departure on his voyage of discovery, virtually established to the States the nationality by which, according to the laws of nations, they were fully entitled to the fruits of his magnificent discoveries. These fruits comprised that vast portion of the North American continent included between the two extreme points at which he touched upon the coast ; viz., Cape Cod on the north, and Cape May, at the mouth of the Delaware River, on the south. To this brave and enterprising people, suddenly relieved from the excitements of an arduous and protracted war, the discovery of so vast and rich a territory came most opportunely and gratefully. Their energies, hitherto absorbed in the defence of their rights, were now directed into the new field of commercial adventure thus suddenly opened to them by the fortunate voyage of the " Half Moon." Most alluring, among the varied treasures offered by the New World to the expanding commerce of Holland, was the inexhaustible abundance
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HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.
of beaver-skins and other valuable furs, procurable at a trifling cost, but commanding a most remunerative market among the northern nations of Europe. The spirit of private enterprise was stimulated to an extraordinary degree, and before the close of the next summer (1610) a vessel, laden with coarse but suitable goods for Indian traffic, was dispatched by some of the Amsterdam merchants to the Great River of the North. The "Half Moon," also, and a portion of her crew, although under another leader, revisited Manhattan and the scenes of their former adventures, to the unmistakable delight of the savages, who welcomed them as old acquaintances. During the year following, 1611, Hendrick Christiaensen made two voyages to Manhattan, the latter in com- pany with Adriaen Block, bringing back with them to Holland two young savages, whose arrival in the civilized world fanned to a still brighter glow the already awakened mercantile curiosity and activity. In 1612 these two worthy mariners were again dispatched from Amsterdam to Manhattan, each in command of a separate vessel; and were followed, in 1613, by others, among whom was Captain Cornelis Jacobson May, afterwards honorably known in the annals of Transatlantic discovery. The mingled tide of discovery and commerce had now fairly set towards the shores of New Netherland, and its importance began to attract the attention of the States- General of the United Netherlands, which, on the 27th of March, 1614, passed a general ordinance, conferring upon the discoverers of new lands the exclusive privilege of making six voyages thither- a measure which was followed by an increased activity among the mercantile communities of Amsterdam and Hoorn.
Manhattan Island, by virtue of its admirable position, became the headquarters of the fur-trade. From thence trading-shallops and canoes penetrated into every neighboring creek, inlet or bay, and pushed their way even to the head of navigation on the rivers and larger streams. Gradually inland depots were established, where the adventurous trader, making himself comfortable among the homes and families of the natives, spent the winter months in pur- chasing and collecting furs and peltries, in readiness for shipment when the vessels from " the Fatherland" should arrive in the early spring. A few huts on the lower end of Manhattan Island
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HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.
(occupied by Block and his companions during the winter of 1613- 1614, while they were engaged in building a small yacht to replace their vessel which had been destroyed by fire), were the only visible signs of occupation ; while, as to cultivation of the land there was not even a commencement. Amid these untamed solitudes, secure in the good-will of the surrounding savages, and unmolested by European rivals, the plodding but honest Dutchmen pursued a lucrative traffic in peltries, sending home to Holland vessel after vessel richly freighted with furry treasures, which brought golden returns to the coffers of their owners.
By the spring of 1614, however, attention seemed to be directed towards placing affairs in the new country on a more permanent basis. Factors were appointed to reside at certain designated points in the interior and manage the growing peltry-trade ; while, at Castle Island (now within the limits of the present city of Albany), was erected a small fortified warehouse, garrisoned with ten or twelve men and named " Fort Nassau." To that post resorted the Mohawks and Mohicans, and from thence went scout- ing parties, exploring the country in every direction, and always carefully maintaining the most amicable relations with the natives whom they met. Not less active, also, were the hardy Dutch sailors. Numerous minute explorations of the surrounding coasts were inaugurated by the captains of the various vessels which came out from Holland. Adriaen Block, in his little yacht the " Restless," which he had built at Manhattan during the preceding winter, explored the East River and the Sound, discovering the Housatonic, Thames, and Connecticut rivers, the latter of which he ascended to the head of navigation. Then crossing over to the castern extremity of Long Island, the insular character of which he determined, he gave his name to an island near Montauk Point, and following in Verazzano's track, entered Narragansett Bay and coasted along northward as far as Boston harbor and Nahant Bay. Here meeting with his old comrade Christiaensen, he returned in the latter's vessel to Holland, leaving his own little craft in charge of Cornelis Hendricksen, who explored the coast further south. Cornelis Jacobsen May, meanwhile, was sailing along the southern shore of Long Island, passing southward to
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HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.
Delaware Bay, where Capes Cornelis and May still preserve the memory of his visit.
Upon the announcement of these discoveries at home, the enter- prising merchants of North Holland, under whose auspices they had been made, united themselves into a company, according to the provisions of the ordinance of March 11th, and were favored by the States-General with the grant of a special trading-licence or charter bearing date on the 11th of October, 1614. This docu- ment, in which the name "New Netherland" first appears officially in the world's annals, invested the "United New Netherland Company," as it was styled, with the exclusive right of visiting and trading in "the newly discovered lands lying in America between New France and Virginia, the seacoast whereof extends from the fortieth to the forty-fifth degrees of latitude, for four voyages, within the period of three years from the first of January next ensuing, or sooner." This specific, limited, and temporary monopoly, with which the enterprise of these associated merchants was thus rewarded, conferred upon them no political powers-their objects being simply trade and discovery, and their servants armed traders in forcible possession of an unoccupied country. As might have been expected, no attempt was made, during the term of their charter, to effect any systematic colonization of the new country. While the peltry trade "increased famously, agriculture was neglected, and civilization could scarcely be said to have gained even a foothold in New Netherland. Upon the expiration of the charter, by its own limitation, January 1st, 1618, the company sought a renewal, which the government saw fit to refuse. It con- tinued, however, to grant every facility to private trading enter- prises to the North River ; a new fort was erected there on Norman's Kill, in place of the former one, which had been seriously damaged by the spring freshets, and a treaty of peace and alliance was formally concluded with the famous Iroquois or "Five Nations."
The time had arrived, however, when the necessity of a per- manent colonization of this distant colony became so apparent that its consideration could no longer be postponed. The States- General were meditating large and ambitious designs relative to their Western possessions, and they had already taken alarm at the
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HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.
pretensions which the English were beginning to assert to the same territories. The approaching termination of the Twelve Years' Truce, moreover, was prefaced by certain insulting propositions from Spain, which warned them to gird on their armor for a renewal of their long and bloody struggle with that power. As a means, therefore, of self-protection in the maintenance of their rights as an independent nation, and of aid in carrying on the threatened war with their ancient and powerful enemy, the States-General of the United Seven Provinces determined upon the creation of an armed mercantile association, on the plan of the celebrated East India Company, in which should be concentrated the entire strength of the numerous merchants now engaged in the American and West India trade. Thus originated the great DUTCH WEST INDIA COMPANY, which, supplanting all private adventurers, proposed to itself the promotion of colonization, the suppression of piracy, the humbling of Spain, and the aggrandizement of the national wealth and inde- pendence. Its charter, which was passed under the great seal of the States-General, on the 3d of June, 1621, granted to it the ex- elusive right of trade to the coasts of Africa, between the tropic of Cancer and the Cape of Good Hope ; to the West Indies ; and to the coasts of America, between Newfoundland and the Straits of Magellan. Within these limits, the company was invested with enormous powers. "In the name of the States-General, it might make contracts and alliances with the princes and natives of the countries comprehended within the limit of its charter ; build forts; appoint and discharge governors, soldiers, and public officers ; administer justice and promote trade. It was bound 'to advance the peopling of those fruitful and unsettled parts, and do all that the service of those countries and the profit and increase of trade shall require.' It was obliged to communicate to the States- General, from time to time, all the treaties and alliances it might make, and also detailed statements of its forts and settlements. All governors-in-chief, and the instructions proposed to be given to them, were first to be approved of by the States-General, who would then issue formal commissions ; and all superior officers were held to take oaths of allegiance to their High Mightinesses, and also to the company." The company consisted of five chambers
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HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.
or Boards located in different cities of the Seven United Provinces ; the principal one being that of Amsterdam, to which was confided the especial superintendence of the Province of NEW NETHERLAND. General executive powers for all purposes except of declaring war- which could not be done without the approbation of the States- General-were intrusted to a Board of NINETEEN delegates from the several chambers, and including one delegate who represented the States-General. A million of guilders and a defence "against every person, in free navigation and traffic," was promised to the company by the States-General, who were also, in case of war, to "give them for their assistance" sixteen ships of war of three hundred tons burden and four yachts of eighty tons, fully equipped. The company, however, were to man and support these vessels, besides providing an equal number of their own, the whole to be under command of an admiral appointed by the States-General.
The organization of the company was delayed by various causes for a period of two years, when its articles of internal regulation, the charter having, in the interval, been somewhat modified, were formally approved by the States-General on the 21st of June, 1623.
Meanwhile, the spirit of enterprise had not lain dormant. Amsterdam ships, under special licences, had been steadily pursuing their profitable voyages to New Netherland, and the peltry-trade had assumed larger proportions, not only on the North River, but on the Delaware, the Connecticut, along the shores of Long Island, and as far to the eastward as Narragansett and Buzzard's Bay, within twenty miles of the newly founded English settlement at New Plymouth. In Holland, the press began to teem with pub- lications describing in glowing terms the beauties, wonders, and advantages of America, and the public mind was constantly quick- ened by the news of fresh discoveries, and the flattering reports brought by adventurous mariners from those far-off lands.
In England, also, public attention was at this time strongly directed towards the Western continent by the discoveries of Capt. John Smith, the plantations established in Virginia, and the charter recently granted for the settlement of New England. Maintaining, as they ever did, the right (by discovery, possession, and charters) to the entire American coast between the Spanish possessions in
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HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.
the south and those of France in the north, the English could not fail to feel annoyed by the active preparations of their Dutch neighbors for the occupation of so large a portion of those ter- ritories. Their apprehension found expression in an official remon- strance to the States-General against the sailing thither of the Dutch vessels, but the protest was unheeded, and after a brief diplomatic correspondence, the matter was temporarily dropped. Warned, however, by the evident and growing jealousy of the English, the West India Company lost no time, even before their final organiza- tion, in securing, in the year 1622, their title to New Netherland by taking formal possession, and by making arrangements for the building of two new forts, one on the North River, to be called "Fort Orange," and another called "Fort Nassau," on the South or Delaware River, near the present town of Gloucester, N. J. And, simultaneously with its final organization, in June, 1623, the company began to prosecute with energy the colonization of New Netherland, which was erected into a province, and invested with the armorial bearings of a count.1 The particular management of its affairs was intrusted, as we have before remarked, to the Amsterdam Chamber, which sent out the ship "New Netherland"? of two hundred and sixty tons burden, with a company of thirty families, mostly Walloons,3 under the care of the veteran voyager
I The Provincial seal of New Netherland was a shield, bearing a beaver, proper, surmounted by a count's coronet, and encircled by the legend "Sigillum Novi Belgii." 2 Catelina Trico's statement (see Appendix No. 1) gives the name of this vessel, in which she was a passenger, as the "Unity" (Eendragt). As, however, her deposition was made in 1688, at the age of eighty-three, concerning events which happened sixty- five years before, when she was a girl of eighteen years, we have preferred to follow Wassaneer's account, which was contemporaneous, and supported by Hol. Doc. ii. 370.
3 " These Walloons, whose name was derived from their original 'Waalsche' or French extraction, had passed through the fire of persecution. They inhabited the Southern Belgie Provinces of Hainault, Namur, Luxemburg, Limburg, and part of the ancient Bishopric of Liege, and spoke the old French language. When the Northern provinces of the Netherlands formed their political union at Utrecht, in 1579, the Southern provinces, which were generally attached to the Romish Church, declined joining the Confederation. Many of their inhabitants, nevertheless, professed the principles of the Reformation. Against these Protestant Walloons the Spanish Govern- ment exercised the most rigid measures of inquisitorial vengeance, and the subjects of an unrelenting persecution emigrated by thousands into llolland, where they knew that strangers of every race and creed were sure of an asylum and a welcome. Carry- ing with them a knowledge of the arts, in which they were great proficients, they were distinguished in their new home for their tasteful and persevering industry. To
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HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.
Captain Cornelis Jacobsen May, of Hoorn, who was appointed the first director of the colony. Starting from the Texel early in March, and sailing by way of the Canary Islands and the Guinea coast, the "New Netherland" arrived at the North River in the beginning of May. Eight men were landed at Manhattan Island to represent the company there, and several families, as well as sailors and single men, were dispatched to the settlements on the South River, and to the Connecticut, while the ship proceeded up the North River until she reached "Fort Orange" (the present site of Albany), where eighteen families were disembarked, and immediately com- menced farming operations.
The year 1624, under May's judicious management, was a pros- perous one; the industry of the pioneer colonists fulfilled the expectations of their patrons, the forts on the North and Delaware rivers were completed, and the peltry-trade was so well prosecuted that it returned to the company's treasury the handsome sum of twenty thousand guilders. Encouraged by these signs, the com- pany dispatched to Manhattan, in the spring of 1625, a vessel well laden with "necessaries," which unfortunately fell into the hands of one of the enemy's privateers. The loss, however, was promptly made good, at the risk of one of the directors of the company, by two ships carrying a fine stock of cattle, a full equipment of seeds and farming utensils, and forty-five emigrants, among whom were six entire families. The growing colony, thus increased, now numbered over one hundred souls, and under the Directorship of William Verhulst, who had succeeded May, prospered greatly. In May, 1626, Peter Minuit arrived in New Netherland, and succeeded Verhulst as director-general of the province. His administration commenced with vigor and sagacity ; Manhattan Island was pur- chased from the natives for the sum of sixty guilders (equivalent to
the Walloons, the Dutch were probably indebted for much of the repute which they gained as a nation in many branches of manufactures. Finding in Holland a free scope for their religious opinions, the Walloons soon introduced the public use of their church service, which, to this day, bears witness to the characteristic toleration and liberality of the Fatherland."-Brodhead, i. 146. These Walloons had previously applied to the English government for permission to emigrate to Virginia, but receiv- ing no encouragement in that quarter, turned their attention to New Netherland, and were gladly accepted by the West India Company, under the sanction of the Provincial States.
2
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HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.
about $24 of our money), and a large fort was erected at its lower end, and named "Fort Amsterdam ;" while other improvements were planned and commenced.
At "Fort Orange," however, about this time, affairs took a most unfortunate turn. The commander at that post, forgetful of that neutrality which, hitherto, had been strictly observed by the Dutch in the affairs of the surrounding Indian tribes, joined a party of Mahicans on the war-path against the Mohawks, and, in the battle which ensued, was slain, together with three of his men. His folly had even a worse result, in the sense of insecurity which it threw over the settlement at Fort Orange, and, indeed, over the whole colony. And, though good feeling was finally restored with the Mohawks, yet the progress of colonization received a shock from which it did not soon recover. The Director, justly apprehensive of the danger to which the settlers at Fort Orange, Fort Nassau, and Verhulsten Island "were exposed, recalled them all to Man- hattan Island, in order that a concentration of householders might be made at that point where the natives "were becoming more and more accustomed to the presence of foreigners." Sixteen soldiers, only, were left at Fort Orange; the traffic to the South River was limited to the voyages of one small yacht, and every precaution was adopted by the prudent Director, which could con- duce to the commercial interests of the company, as well as to the safety of its employees and colonists.
The year 1627 was marked by the establishment of friendly re- lations with the English settlements in New England. A special embassy was sent out from Manhattan to New Plymouth, between which colonies soon sprang up a mutually advantageous trade ; the English freely exchanging their commodities for sewan or wampum, which they much needed in their dealings with the surrounding natives, and of which the Dutch-in consequence of their prox- imity to Long Island, the great aboriginal mint-held the almost exclusive monopoly. The annual crop of furs, also, amounting to four ship-loads, yielded 56,000 guilders ; and, in the autumn of the following year, two cargoes of ship-timber from Manhattan sold at Amsterdam for 61,000 guilders. Around the fort, which was now completed with four bastions and a facing of stone, the
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HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.
colonists had clustered, to the number of 270 souls, subsisting chiefly by the products of their own labor, any deficiencies being supplied from the company's stores. The impression conveyed to a casual observer of that day, was, that they subsisted "in a com- fortable manner" and "promised fairly both to the State and undertakers." Still, prosperous as the colony appeared, its indus- try was not self-supporting; and, thus far, the company's seven years' experience had neither justified their own expectations, nor fulfilled the conditions imposed upon them by their charter, in regard to the permanent agricultural colonization of the province. "Not a particle of the soil was reclaimed, save what scantily supplied the wants of those attached to the three forts, which were erected within the limits of this rich and vast country ; and the only exports were the spontaneous products of the forest. Experience had demonstrated, in the interim, that no benefits had accrued to the company from this plantation, under the present system of manage- ment, except what the peltries produced ; the mode of life pursued by the people was very irregular, the expenses of the establishment exceedingly high, and the results not so flattering as anticipated." These were unpalatable facts to the directors of a great mer- cantile corporation, whose ships under Admiral Heyn, bravest of the brave, were sweeping the Spanish navy from the seas, capturing booty which added twelve millions of guilders to their treasury, so that their dividends advanced, in one year, to fifty per cent. Flushed with the easy spoils of these glorious victories, it is not a matter of surprise that the annual returns from their far-off American colonies seemed paltry and unremunerative. They, therefore, began earnestly to consider plans for a systematic and extended colonization of the whole province-which, after a year of deliberation, resulted in the adoption of a "Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions," which was promptly approved and confirmed by the States General, on the 7th of June, 1629. In this charter, the company, with the purpose of encouraging independ- ent colonists, offered to such the absolute property of as much land as each could "properly improve ;" yet, fully aware that few or none of that class of persons possessed the requisite means, they sought to secure the co-operation of capitalists by the offer of
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