A history of the state of New York, from the first discovery of the country to the present time: with a geographical account of the country, and a view of its original inhabitants, Part 8

Author: Eastman, Francis Smith, 1803-1846 or 7
Publication date: 1832
Publisher: New York, A. K. White
Number of Pages: 930


USA > New York > A history of the state of New York, from the first discovery of the country to the present time: with a geographical account of the country, and a view of its original inhabitants > Part 8


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98


HISTORY OF NEW YORK.


CHAP. VI.


FROM 1665 TO 1710.


Administration of Nichols. Lovelace. New York retaken by the Dutch, and soon after restored to the English. Andros. Dongan. Revolution. Leisler. Sloughter. Bellomont. War with the French, &c.


SEC. I. 1665. Nichols, having taken posses- sion of the country, assumed the government, with the title of " deputy-governor, under his royal highness the duke of York, of all his ter- ritories in America." He next proceeded to. erect a court of assizes, consisting of the gov- ernor, council, and justices of the peace, who now commenced the compilation of a body of laws.


The court of assizes collected into one code the ancient customs and usages, with such additional improvements as the great change of things required, regarding the laws of Eng- land as the supreme rule. These ordinances were transmitted to England, and confirmed by the duke of York the following ·year. A dispute having risen between the inhabitants of Ja- maica, on Long Island, respecting Indian deeds, it was ordained, that no purchase from the Indians, without the governor's license, executed in his presence, should be valid. The English methods of government were gradually introduced into the province .*


On the 12th of June, the inhabitants of New York were incorporated under the care of a


* Holmes's Annals.


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FROM 1665 TO 1710. :


mayor, five aldermen, and a sheriff. Previous to this time, the city was ruled by a scout, bur- gomasters, and schepens.


" The hostilities which the French, upon their first discov- ery of the country, had commenced with the Iroquois, were still continued ; and the latter, by their irruptions into Cana- da, not only obstructed the commerce of the French with the western Indians, but often endangered their colony. In 1666, a large expedition was fitted out to punish and repel these incursions. M. de Tracy, viceroy of America, and M. Courcelles, governor of Canada, with 28 companies of foot, and all the militia of the colony, marched from Quebec above 700 miles into the Mohawk country, with the intention of de- stroying its inhabitants ; but, on their approach, the Mohawks retired into the woods with their women and children, and the French effected nothing more than to burn several vil- lages, and murder some sachems, who chose to die rather than to desert their habitations. The ill success of the French on the one hand, and the Indians' fear of fire-arms on the other, brought about a peace the following year."*


SEC. II. 1667. After having for three years exercised the government with integrity and ability, Nichols resigned. Col. Francis Love- lace was appointed by the duke to succeed him. Under Lovelace, the affairs of the colony were happily administered, until its re-surrender to the Dutch, which put an end to his power, and is the only event that signalized his administration.


At the close of his administration, Nichols returned to England. During his residence here, his time was mostly occupied in confirming the ancient Dutch grants. Ile assid- uously devoted himself to the concerns of the colony, exer- cising the highest judicial, as well as legislative authority. Complaints came before him by petition ; upon which he gave a day to the parties, and, after a summary hearing, pro-


* Charlevoix.


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HISTORY OF NEW YORK.


nounced judgment. His determinations were called edicts, and executed by the sheriffs he had appointed. It is much to his honor, that, notwithstanding all this plenitude of pow- er, he governed the province with integrity and moderation.


SEC. III. 1673. A 'second Dutch war hav- ing recently commenced, a small squadron was sent from Holland, which arrived at Staten Island on the 30th of July. The commander of the fort at New York sent a messenger, and treach- erously surrendered to the enemy.


The same day, the Dutch ships came up; moored under the fort, landed their men, and · entered the garrison without giving or receiving a shot. The city immediately followed the ex- ample of the fort; and, soon after, all New Netherland consented to the same humiliating submission.


1 Anthony Colve was constituted governor, but enjoyed his office for a very short season. On the 9th of Feb., 1674, a treaty of peace was concluded between England and the States General of Holland, by which New Netherland was restored to the English.


" At the time of the arrival of the Dutch squadron, John Manning, a captain of an independent company, had the command of the fort. After the re-establishment of the Eng- lish power, he was tried by a court martial for his treacher- ons and cowardly surrender. This charge, which Manning, on his trial, confessed to be true, is less surprising than the lenity of the sentence pronounced against him. It was this, that, though he deserved death, yet, because he had, since the surrender, been in England, and seen the king and the duke, it was adjudged, that his sword should be broken over his head in public before the city hall, and himself rendered


*****.. ....


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incapable of wearing a sword, and of serving his majesty, for the future, in any public trust in the government .*


: SEC. IV. 1674. At the close of the war, the duke of York, to remove all controversy respect- ing his property in America, took out a new patent from the king, and commissioned major Edmund Andros " governor of New York, and all his territories in these parts." The Dutch, in October, resigned their authority to Andros, who immediately received the submission of the inhabitants.


Andros, the following year, made efforts to acquire the country of Connecticut river, but was effectually frustrated by the spirited conduct of the Connecticut colony.


1677. Andros sent a sloop, with some forces, to the province of Maine, to take possession.of the lands which had been granted to the duke of York, and, in the following year, built a fort at Pemaquid. ..


The province of New York contained, at this time, about 24 towns, villages or parishes, in six precincts, ridings, or courts of sessions. The militia of the province amounted to about 2000.


Its annual exports, besides peas, beef, pork, tobacco and peltry, consisted of about 60,000 bushels of wheat. Its an- nual imports were to the value of about 50,000 pounds. The city of New York contained, at this period, 343 houses.


Andros, in his answers to the inquiries of the committee of colonies, dated April, 1678, gives the following account of the condition and resources of the province of New York :- " There is one standing company of soldiers, with gunners and other officers, for the forts of Albany and New York. Fortresses are, James Fort, situated on a point of New York


* Smith .-


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HISTORY OF NEW YORK.


town, between Hudson's river and the Sound. It is square, with stone walls, 4 bastions, almost regular, and in it 46 , guns mounted. Albany is a small, long, stockaded fort, with 4 bastions in it, with 12 guns, which is sufficient against In- dians. There are no privateers about our coasts. Our mer- chants are not many ; but, with inhabitants and planters, about 2000 able to bear arms, old inhabitants of the place or of England; except in and near New York, of Dutch ex- traction, and some of all nations ; but few servants, who are much wanted, and but very few slaves. A merchant worth £1000 or £500 is accounted a good, substantial merchant ; and a planter worth half of that in movables is accounted rich. All the estates may be valued at &150,000. There may have lately traded to the colony, in a year, from 10 to 15 ships or vessels, upon an average, of 100 tons each-English, New England, and of our own built. There are religions of all sorts ; one Church of England, several Presbyterians, and Indepen- dents, Quakers, and Anabaptists of several sects ; some Jews ; but the Presbyterians and Independents are the most numer- ous and substantial. There are about 20 churches, or meet- ing places, of which above half are vacant ; few .ministers till very lately."* The population of New York city, at this time, was computed at 3430 souls.


The administration of Andros appears not to have been remarkably popular. The principal part of his public pro- ceedings, during his continuance in the province, was coin- prised in the ordinary acts of the government, which then consisted mostly in passing of grants, and presiding in the court of assize.


SEC. V. 1682. Thomas Dongan was ap- pointed, by the duke of York, to succeed Andros in the government of the province, but did not arrive at New York until August of the follow- ing year.


1683. The court of assizes, council and corporation of New York having requested that


* Chalmers.


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FROM 1665 TO 1710.


the people should have a participation in the choice of their rulers, on the arrival of Dongan, orders were given to summon the freeholders for the choice of representatives. The assembly consisted of a council of 10, and house of rep- resentatives consisting of 18 members.


Some obscurity rests on the latter part of Andros's admin- istration. He probably retired from the government as early as 1631. During the interval between the close of his adminis- tration and the arrival of Dongan, the government was admin- istered by Anthony Brackholst. When the administration of Brackholst commenced, or ended, has not been determined ; but he certainly acted as commander-in-chief in July, 1681, and in April, 1633 .* Governor Dongan arrived in August, and a session of the assembly was held in October, and ser- cral important laws passed. One of the acts passed is entitled ' The charter of liberties and privileges granted by his royal "highness to the inhabitants of New York and its dependen- cies.' Another session was held the following year; but it is believed there was no other after that, until the revolution of William and Mary.


In 1684, a grand convention was held at Albany, and a treaty with the Iroquois concluded by lord Effingham and governor Dongan, in behalf of all the settlements. By this treaty, the Five Nations put the lands and castles of the Mo- hawks and the Oneidas under the protection of the English government, and the English engaged to guaranty them to the Indians. During the same season, M. de la Barre, with an army from Canada, consisting of 700 Canadians, 130 sol- diers, and 200 Indians, made an unsuccessful expedition into the country of the Five Nations. The object of the French, in this enterprise, was the total destruction of these tribes, and, the further to ensure success, a letter was obtained from the duke of York to colonel Dongan commanding him to lay no ob- stacles in the way. Dongan, however, regardless of the duke's order, apprized the Indians of the intended invasion, and


* See Collections of New York Historical Society.


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HISTORY OF NEW YORK.


promised them his assistance. After a delay of six weeks at fort Frontenac, during which the French army suffered se- verely by sickness, M. de la Barre found it necessary to con- clude the campaign with a treaty. Having crossed the lake, he was met, at a designated place, by the Oneidas, Onondagas and Cayugas, the Mohawks and Senecas refusing their atten- dance.


M. de la Barre being seated in a chair of state, with the Indians and French officers around him, he addressed himself to Garangula, an Onondaga chief, in a haughty speech, which was concluded with a menace of burning the castles of the Five Nations, unless certain stipulations, which he demanded, were complied with. Garangula, knowing the distressed state of the French army, heard these threats with contempt, and answered him in a cool, but bold and decisive speech. M. de la Barre, enraged at this reply, retired to his tent, but pru- dently suspended his menaces. Immediately after the con- clusion of the peace, the Indian chief and his retinue returned to their country ; and M. de la Barre, after having inglori- ously finished an expensive campaign, embarked his army in their canoes, and returned to Montreal.


The following is the speech of Garangula on this occasion, and has been justly admired, as a characteristic specimen of Indian eloquence :-


" YONNONDIO,*


"I honor you, and the warriors that are with me likewise honor you. Your interpreter has finished your speech ; I now begin mine. My words make haste to reach your ears ; hearken to them.


"Yonnondio, you must have believed, when you left Que- bec, that the sun had burnt up all the forests, which render our country inaccessible to the French, or that the lakes had so far overflown the banks, that they had surrounded our cas- tles, and that it was impossible for us to get out of them.


* Yonnondio was the name by which the Indians always addressed the governor of Canada; Corleur was their phrase when speaking to the governor of New York.


3.


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FROM 1665 TO 1710.


Yes, Yonnondio, surely you must have dreamt so, and the curiosity of seeing so great a wonder, has brought you so far. Now you are undeceived, since that I and the warriors here present are come to assure you, that the Senecas, Cayugas, Onondagas, Oneidas and Mohawks are yet alive. I thank you, in their name, for bringing back into their country the calumet which your predecessor received from their hands. It was happy for you, that you left under ground that murder- ing hatchet that has been so often dyed in the blood of the French. Hear, Yonnondio : I do not sleep; I have my eyes open, and the sun, which enlightens me, discovers to me a great captain at the head of a company of soldiers, who speaks as if he was dreaming. He says, that he only came to the lake to smoke on the great calumet with the Onondagas. But Garangula says, that he sees the contrary ; that it was to knock them on the head, if sickness had not weakened the arms of the French.


" I see Yonnondio raving in a camp of sick men, whose lives the Great Spirit has saved by inflicting this sickness on them. Hear, Yonnondio : our women had their clubs, our children and old men had carried their bows and arrows into the heart of your camp, if our warriors had not disarmed them, and kept them back, when your messenger, Ohguesse, came to our castles. It is done, and I have said it. Hear, Yonnondio: we plundered none of the French, but those that carried guns, powder and ball to the Twightwies and Chic- taghicks, because those arms might have cost us our lives. Herein we follow the example of the Jesuits, who stave all the kegs of rum brought to our castles, lest the drunken In- dians should knock them on the head. Our warriors have not beaver enough to pay for all these arms, that they have taken, and our old men are not afraid of the war. This belt preserves my words.


"We carried the English into our lakes, to trade there with the Utawas and Quatoghies, as the Adirondacks brought the French to our castles, to carry on a trade which the English say is theirs. We are born free; we neither depend on Yonnondio nor Corlear.


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HISTORY OF NEW YORK.


" We may go where we please, and carry with us what we please : if your allies be your slaves, use them as such ; com- mand them to receive no other but your people. This belt preserves my words.


"We knocked the Twightwies and Chictaghicks on the head because they had cut down the trees of peace, which were the limits of our country. They have hunted bea- vers on our lands; they have acted contrary to the customs of all Indians; for they left none of the beavers alive ; they killed both male and female. They brought the Satanas into the country to take part with them, after they had concerted all designs against us. We have done less than either the English or French, they have usurped the lands of so many Indian nations, and chased them from their own country. This belt preserves my words.


" Hear, Yonnondio : what I say is the voice of all the Five Nations : hear what they answer ; open your ears to what they speak. The Senecas, Cayugas, Onondagas, Oneidas and Mohawks say, that, when they buried the hatchet at. Cadarac- qui, (in the presence of your predecessor,) in the middle of the fort, they planted the tree of peace in the same place, to be there carefully preserved, that, in place of a retreat for soldiers, that fort might be a rendezvous for merchants ; that, in place of arms and ammunition of war, beavers and mer- chandise should only enter there.


" Hear, Yonnondio : take care for the future, that so great a number of soldiers as appear there do not choke the tree of peace, planted in so small a fort. It will be a great loss, if, after it had so easily taken root, you should stop its growth, and prevent its covering your country and ours with its branch- es. I assure you, in the name of the Five Nations, that our warriors shall dance to the calumet of peace under its leaves, and shall remain quiet on their mats, and shall never dig up the hatchet, till their brother, Yonnondio or Corlear, shall, either jointly or separately, endeavor to attack the country, which the Great Spirit has given to our ancestors. This belt preserves my words, and this other, the authority which the Five Nations have given me."


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Garangula then addressed himself to monsieur la Main, the interpreter :- " Take courage," said he, " Ohguesse ; you have spirit ; speak, explain my words, forget nothing, tell all your brethren and friends; say to Yonnondio, your governor, by the mouth of Garangula, who loves you, and desires you to accept of this present of beaver, and take part with me in my feast, to which I invite you. This present of beaver is sent to Yonnondio, on the part of the Five Nations."*


SEC. VI. 1686. James the Second, formerly duke of York, having now come to the throne, refused, on the renewal of governor Dongan's commission, to confirm the privileges granted when he was duke. The assembly was prohib- ited, and printing forbidden. Much disaffection at this time prevailed among the colonists, on account of the appointment of professed papists to the principal crown offices. Albany was this year incorporated.


In the following year, the French court aimed a blow which threatened to destroy the British interest in North America. M. Denonville, with 1500 French and 500 Indians, took the field against the Senecas. The latter were known to be firmly attached to the English, and it was, therefore, determined to make them examples of French resentment to all others.


When Denonville with his army had arrived within a quar- ter of a league of the chief village of the Senecas, the Indians, who lay in ambush, suddenly raised the war-shout, with a discharge of fire-arms. This surprise threw the French into confusion, of which the Senecas took the advantage, and fell on them with great fury ; but the French Indians rallied, at length, and repulsed them.


* Smith.


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HISTORY OF NEW YORK.


In this action, a hundred Frenchmen, ten French Indians, and about eighty Senecas were killed. The next day, De- nonville marched forward with the intention of burning the village, but found it in ashes. The Senecas had burned it, and fled. Nothing was left to employ the valor of the soldiers, but the corn in the fields, which they effectually destroyed.


The war was undertaken by the French chiefly to put a stop to the English trade, which was extending itself into the continent, and would, in consequence, ruin theirs. Denon- ville soon after returned to Canada.


SEC. VII. 1688. It was determined to add New York and the Jerseys to the jurisdiction of New England. A new commission was passed, in March, appointing Andros captain-general and vice-admiral over the whole.


Francis Nicholson was soon after named his lieutenant, with the accustomed authority. The constitution established on this occasion ordained a legislative and executive governor, and council, who were appointed by the king, without the consent of the people.


In the following year, James having abdicated, William, prince of Orange, and Mary, daughter of James, ascended the throne. This intelligence was joyfully received at New York.


SEC. VIII. 1689. Jacob Leisler, with forty- nine men, seized the garrison at New York, and held it for the prince of Orange. William and Mary were proclaimed there in June ; and the province was now ruled by a committee of safe- ty, at the head of which was Leisler.


Andros had been previously seized and im- prisoned by the citizens of Boston. Nicholson, with the council and civil officers, made all the


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opposition in their power to Leisler, but it was ineffectual. Nicholson absconded, and Leisler assumed supreme authority.


Leisler's assumption of command excited the envy and hatred of many of the people; at the head of whom were col. Bayard and the mayor, who, being unable to make any effectual resistance in New York, retired to Albany.


A letter arrived from England, directed to "Francis Nicholson, esq., or, in his absence, to such as, for the time being, take care for preserving the peace and administering the laws." Nicholson having absconded, Leisler considered the letter directed to himself, and assumed the title and authority of lieutenant-governor.


SEC. IX. Albany, though friendly to William and Mary, refused subjection to Leisler ; to compel which, Leisler sent his son-in-law, Mil- born, with an armed force. Albany was reduced in the following spring, and Nicholson and Ba- yard were imprisoned.


During the year 1689, the Five Nations re- newed their covenant with the English, and soon after made a descent upon Montreal, in Canada, attended with terrible massacre and devastation. Many plantations were burned, and the whole French colony thrown into con- sternation.


At the time this irruption took place, the French had been negotiating, and were on the point of concluding, an advan- tageous peace with the Iroquois. While the province of New York, convulsed with domestic contentions, had neglected its relations with the Indians, the latter had begun to listen to the solicitations of the French, and a general meeting of the hostile parties was proposed at Montreal. Twelve hundred Indians of the Iroquois attended this conference. The con- ditions of the treaty were agreed upon, when its conclusion


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HISTORY OF NEW YORK.


was prevented by the policy of an Indian, who had the ad- dress to destroy, by a well-concerted scheme, all confidence between the parties, and to inflame both with the most deadly hostility.


" Among the tribes which lived on the shores of the western lakes, there was one called by the name of the Dinondodies, a party, or appendage to the Hurons. This tribe had found it profitable to trade with the English at Michilimackinack. On that account, it was suspected by the French, as being in- · clined to withdraw from their alliance; but it was still at war with the confederates. Adario, called by the French Le Rat, was their chief. With a policy perfectly similar to that of Europe, he wished to derive advantages to his own tribe from the follies, jealousies and wars of the belligerent powers. His wish and view was to prevent the peace between the French and the Five Nations. If he could effect this purpose, it would secure his own tribe from the attacks of the French or Iroquois, render their friendship of much importance to both, and, at the same time, secure his own influence, popu- larity and power with his own tribe. To effect these purposes, he put himself at the head of one hundred men, and marched to intercept the ambassadors of the Five Nations, who were going to complete the business of peace with the French governor. At one of the falls of Cadaraqui river, he met the Iroquois ambassadors ; killed some, took others prisoners, and informed them that it was the French governor that had given him intelligence that fifty warriors of the Five Nations were coming that way.


" To be betrayed by the person with whom they had agreed upon a treaty, and were now going to confirm it, and, at the same time, to be delivered into the hands of a party with whom they were at war, exceeded all the conceptions the savages had been able to form of duplicity, perfidy and base- ness; and, in their rage against Denonville, they declared to Adario the nature of their business, and the design of their journey. Adario instantly put on all the appearances of anger, shame and distress, at being made the executioner of Denonville's baseness and treachery. He flew to the princi- pal of the ambassadors, cut his bands, and set him at liberty.


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'Go,' says he, 'my brother; return to your nation, and tell them it was the French who led me to commit so base and vile an action as to make an attack upon the messengers of peace. Though our nations are at war, you are at liberty ; and I shall never be at rest till you have revenged upon the French the base and perfidious conduct into which they have be- · trayed me.' By these arts, similar to those of more polished nations, Adario secured peace for his own tribe, and left the contending powers more exasperated against each other than they had ever been before.




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