USA > New York > New York County > Manhattan > Annals of old Manhattan, 1609-1664 > Part 3
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burghers-elect, and, to supplement his slen- der stipend, he took in washing, perhaps finding relief from uncongenial pedagogic tasks in the athletic exercise that work im- posed.
But unalloyed success did not immediately crown even this labor, for court archives of 1638 record a lawsuit brought by the school- master against Gillies De Voocht, for pay- ment due for washing the defendant's linen, and judgment was rendered in favor of De Voocht, on the ground that the money was not due until the expiration of the year cov- ered by Roelantsen's contract to perform the work.
But although the record states that "people did not speak well of him," the schoolmaster succeeded in winning the favor of a widow, who probably endowed him with some worldly goods, for after his marriage the laundry-business was relinquished, and, in
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1642, there is a record of his contract for a residence. In the stipulations for this domicile, thirty feet in length, eighteen in width, and eight in height, mention is made of two doors, a mantelpiece, an entry, three feet wide, a pantry, a staircase to the attic, and a bedstead. The last item seems to have formed a corporate part of a dwelling-house of the period, and was fitted into a recess in the side of the living-room, and hidden during the day behind closed doors. In many houses this bedstead was reserved for the accommodation of chance travelers to whom hospitality might thus be easily accorded.
The year after his establishment as a prop- erty-holder, Roelantsen entered upon the civic duties of weighmaster in New Amsterdam, and a brief period of prosperity ensued, at- tended presumably by domestic happiness with his wife, Lyntje Martens, and four chil- dren. He purchased another lot of land and
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seems to have conducted himself in a way to win some measure of respect from his associ- ates, for he subsequently filled several public offices, while a successor occupied the peda- gogic chair.
But again troubles arose. In 1646, upon his return from a visit to Holland, he refused to pay his passage money, on the ground that he had been promised free transportation in ex- change for his labors in aiding the sailors, and saying the prayers. This time Roelantsen shines as a victorious contestant, but only a few weeks did he exult in the triumph, for when again he was summoned before the court it was to receive censure for evil deeds, and having been condemned to suffer punish- ment by means of his own implements of torture, the ex-schoolmaster was publicly flogged. An additional clause in the sentence pronounced against him ordained that he should be banished from the colony, but this
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penalty was remitted out of consideration for the welfare of his children, whose mother had died before that date.
In 1635, Roelof Jansz and his family came to New Amsterdam from the Van Rensselaer estate on the Mauritius. Jansz was one of the colonists sent to New Netherland in 1630, and, having served out his term under the patroon, he sought to improve his condition in the position of an independent settler on Manhattan Island. Fortune seemed to favor this ambition, as for some reason hitherto un- explained, the new comer was presented by Van Twiller with a bouwerie (farm) of sixty- two acres, adjoining ground reserved for the use of the director, and beginning about a mile from the fort.1 Here Jansz built a house, but failed further to realize his earthly de- sires, for he died soon after the completion of the home, leaving his widow, Annetje, I O' Callaghan's History of New Netherland, I, 142; II, 35, 58.
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with five children to maintain. Annetje's mother, Tryntje Jonas, was probably with her daughter at this time, having been sent out by the West India Company in the ca- pacity of professional nurse, and somewhat later a house was built for her on Parel Straat, near the home of Annetje's sister Marritje, who was the wife of Tymen, the prosperous carpenter.
About two years after the death of Roelof Jansz, Annetje married Dominie Bogardus, and, with her five children, went to live in the house which possessed the knocker brought from Holland, and a garden where, bordered with box, the gayest flower-beds in New Am- sterdam were seen. There were curious cus- toms in names among those early colonists who boasted no lineage of renown, but passed a patronymic from father to children, and from husband to wife, modified according to cir- cumstances. Roelof Jansz was probably Roelof
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the son of Jan, and Roelof's wife, Annetje, modestly abbreviating her husband's cog- nomen for the feminine form, was known as Annetje Jans, while the son of Roelof and Annetje, reversed his father's signature, and was called Jan Roelefsen.
The first representative of the medical pro- fession in New Amsterdam was the Hugue- not, Johannes La Montagne, who, in 1637, came from Leyden where he had obtained his degree. The family of his first wife, Rachel De Forest, had previously emigrated to New Netherland, and after several years experience of practice in Holland, La Mon- tagne was tempted to follow. Before his ap- pearance the Zieckentroosters (comforters of the sick) aided by professional nurses, had performed all needed offices for those afflicted by illness, and in days when a remedy recom- mended by the most famous physician in London was a Balsam of Bats, and the chief
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ingredient in a popular decoction was "rasp- ings from a human skull unburied," we may question the advantage accruing to the resi- dents of New Amsterdam by the arrival of the learned M.D.
Dr. La Montagne was, however, a man of varied gifts, who subsequently occupied several stations of trust under the govern- ment. His name appears as a member of the council and as official schoolmaster ; and after the arrival, in 1638, of the surgeon, Hans Kierstede, he seems to have entirely re- linquished the duties of the medical profes- sion for those connected with the civil and military service, where his light is dimmed in an atmosphere of cruel deeds for which he cannot be wholly relieved of responsi- bility.
Fearless of Indians, the settlers established themselves outside the walls of the fort, and engaged in farming, though suffering great
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inconvenience from a scarcity of horses and cattle. Before any streets were laid out, a dis- trict north of the fort was divided into bou- weries, and six of these were reserved as the exclusive property of the Company. The grant to Roelof Jansz bounded the base of a chalk hill known as the Kalch Hoek, and extended from a line nearly identical with Canal Street on the north to that of Warren Street on the south. The district now bounded by Baxter, White, Elm, Duane and Park streets was covered by the waters of the " Collect," a pond currently reported to be fathomless and the abode of terrible mon- sters. The western outlet of the Collect was a stream which traversed a marshy land to the Mauritius River, and was deep enough to allow the passage of small boats; while on the other side of the pond a brook made its way to the East River. The Collect was fed by streams of pure water from a hilly land
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around it, where Indian wigwams had dotted the forests, and industrious Indian squaws had occupied themselves in the work of open- ing and drying oysters, which they strung upon reeds for future use. The accumulated shells gave a name to Kalch Hoek near the pond, and the word Collect itself is believed to be a corruption of those explanatory terms.
Not far from the Collect, on the bank of the East River, Van der Donck relates that enormous oysters, many inches in diameter, were found, and sold at eight or ten stuyvers per hundred; and there lobsters from four to six feet long were caught, according to the same authority. It would seem that the pro- verbial grain of salt might have been requisite as an aid to digestion both of shell-fish and story.
If the chronicler may be trusted, the "lus- cious food of water-terrapin " was also abun-
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dant, and wild turkeys, weighing from twenty to thirty pounds, were frequently shot. Cran- berries, raspberries and blackberries grew in profusion, while strawberries were so wildly redundant that colonists " lay down in their midst " to enjoy a feast.
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This view of FORT AMSTERDAM on the Manhattan is copied from an ancient engraving executed in Holland. The Fort was erected in 1623, but finished upon the above model by Governor Van Twiller in 1635
V
The " Comedian " Van Twiller. 1633-1637
I N the year 1632, the mariner- patroon, De Vries, sailed from Holland in command of an expe- dition sent out to test the success of whale-fisheries at the mouth of the South Bay. When he arrived at the spot where two years previous a colony had been established, he found the fort destroyed and the ground strewn with the bones of the murdered col- onists. Having propitiated some Indians whom he encountered, he learned from them the story of a terrible massacre, but wisely pursuing a course of conciliation, he suc- ceeded in cementing with the savages of the locality a formal treaty of peace.
Convinced of the impracticability of pur- suing the whale-fishery to advantage in that
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section, De Vries then decided to spend some time in exploring the coast of New Nether- land, and arrived at Fort Amsterdam soon after Van Twiller had assumed the govern- ment. While he tarried at the fort an English vessel named the " William" entered the bay, desiring to proceed up the Mauritius River. The commander of the vessel was Jacob Eel- kins, a former agent of the Dutch at Fort Orange, who, having been dismissed from that position, had entered English service, and now in the interests of his new employ- ers projected a voyage for trading purposes through the familiar waters of the river. As he declined to show his commission Van Twiller refused to permit him to proceed, whereupon Eelkens announced that he would go if it cost him his life, and sailed defiantly past the fort.
Van Twiller was enraged, but instead of at- tempting to check the intruder with the guns
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at his command, he sent forth a crier to sum- mon the people, ordered a cask of wine to be broached, and called upon all under authority to pledge him protection against "the vio- lence which the Englishman had committed." Posterity will not forget this little tableau enacted at Fort Amsterdam by the "wine- bibbing governor," while unmolested the "William " sailed quietly up the broad river.
De Vries, an energetic, clear-headed man, frankly censured Van Twiller's conduct, and counselled sending the "Zoutberg " up the Mauritius to drive the English vessel from Dutch waters; and after a few days of "doubt- ing," the governor dispatched on this errand "a caravel, a pinnace, and a hoy." At the point where the trader was found encamped, armed troops promptly assisted him to collect his goods, which were confiscated and carried to Fort Amsterdam, while at the peremptory word of the Dutch commander, the " Wil-
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liam" weighed anchor, and, convoyed by the small fleet from the Fort, sailed swiftly down the river and out to sea.
"The Waverer," having been taught a les- son in methods of enforcing his authority, proceeded to practice it on occasions less op- portune, and when De Vries proposed to send his yacht through the East River, for pur- poses of trade with the New England colo- nists, the guns of the fort were ordered to be trained upon the vessel of the Dutch patroon. De Vries did not hesitate to characterize in emphatic syllables the illegality of that meas- ure, and his yacht was finally permitted to proceed.
Van Twiller had found the fort in a dilap- idated condition, and African slaves, imported by the West India Company, were immedi- ately set to work to strengthen and extend its defences. Two years were occupied in this labor, and when completed the improvements
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had cost the Company four thousand one hun- dred and seventy-two guilders! The new fort, three hundred feet in length, by two hundred and fifty in breadth, was quadrangular in shape, with a bastion at each corner, that at the northwest being faced with "good quarry stone." Within the inclosure were erected a guard-house and barracks for the newly-ar- rived soldiers, a "big house " of brick for the governor's residence, and three windmills. Without the walls were built the little wooden church with its peaked roof, and the house not far away for the dominie, and on the west side of the Heere Straat (Broadway) the first burying-ground was laid out.
Van Twiller ordered also the erection of houses at Pavonia, Fort Orange, and Fort Nas- sau on the South River ; being expert in the distribution of the Company's money for the improvement of their property, during those early years of his government, though later
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his zeal seems to have been chiefly manifested in the pursuit of private purposes. His im- provements upon land known as the Bossen Bouwerie may not have been prosecuted with eyes single to the Company's service, for hav- ing erected there a dwelling-house, boat- house, and barn, the honorable director soon assumed possession of the property, as perquis- ites, perhaps, of his office.
The Bossen Bouwerie covered the site of the old Indian village of Sappokanican, and ex- tended through a wooded district, where green fields sloped between low hills to the beach on the Mauritius river; one boundary line be- ginning at the point where Little Twelfth Street and Washington Street now cross. The bouwerie stood in the Company's name un- til the greedy governor succeeded in transfer- ring the title to himself, making his " farm- housein the woods" the first habitation beyond the little settlement around the fort. On this
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bouwerie, Van Twiller began the cultivation of tobacco, which soon gained the reputation of being the best in the colony, and yielded a revenue that notably contributed to the ex- pansion of those capacious pockets, accused at the close of the governor's administration of being unwarrantably distended.
Some islands in the Sound were added to the possessions of this prosperous director, who is said to have owned seven wide estates in New Netherland ; and, in 1637, he bought from the Indians the isle of Pagganck, called by the Dutch " Nutten Island," on account of its hickory and chestnut groves. Separated from the Long Island shore by a channel, at that time so narrow that at low-tide it was frequently forded, this accessible plot of ground was, in 1698, set apart by English de- cree for the benefit of " his Majesty's Gov- ernors and Councillors." I
I Historic New York, Vol. I.
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The origin of its modern name, "Gover- nor's Island," has been often ascribed to the fact of Van Twiller's purchase; but in Sep- tember, 1664, the territory was mentioned as Nutten Island in a letter relating to the sur- render of New Amsterdam, written by the City Court to the West India Company, and with this evidence in its favor the supposition seems plausible that the English name was first linked with the land by people speaking the English tongue.
Complications with the New England col- onists soon disturbed Van Twiller's peaceful career. In a grant to the Earl of Warwick, Charles I. had included a district claimed by the Dutch in right of their discoveries in 1614; and, in anticipation of contests for the possession of this territory, the West India Company instructed the director to purchase from the Indians the land on both sides of the Fresh River (the Connecticut). The Pe-
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quods had recently been victorious over the other tribes of the region, and Jacob Van Cor- lear was sent to secure from the chiefs of that nation a formal deed of transference; while a redoubt near the present city of Hartford, begun in 1623, and named Fort Hope, was fortified with two small cannon, and in token of ownership, the arms of the States General of Holland were affixed to a tree not far from the mouth of the river, at a point called Kie- vit's Hook. I
Governor Winthrop, having received intel- ligence of this proceeding, dispatched a letter to Fort Amsterdam, in which, in the name of the King of England, he laid claim to the entire valley of the Connecticut; and Van Twiller, more diplomatic in correspondence than in speech, sent a courteous reply, asking that the question of boundary lines between English and Dutch territories might be re- I Holland Doc.
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ferred to the home government, in order that the people of both colonies might live "as good neighbors in these heathenish coun- tries." But from some Indians who had been expelled by the victorious Pequods, Win- throp purchased a precarious title to a district north of that occupied by the Dutch, and sent troops under command of Lieutenant William Holmes to take possession. Passing Fort Hope, they were ordered back by Van Corlear, but Holmes valiantly asserting his determination to execute his orders at all hazards, the little band proceeded on their way, and, having reached their destination, "clapped up the frame of a house which they had brought with them, and palisadoed it about."
Van Twiller sent them a formal notice to " depart forthwith," but this produced little effect upon men who, in the fulfilment of their purpose, had defied the guns of the fort;
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and the perplexed governor of New Nether- land, with no energetic counsellor at hand, was plunged into a condition of bewilder- ment from which the authority of the Am- sterdam Chamber seemed alone sufficient to extricate him. That body issued commands to dislodge the intruders, but before the peremp- tory message reached Fort Amsterdam open warfare broke out between the Dutch and the Pequods, and so greatly increased the hazards of the enterprise, that although seventy men were dispatched "with colors displayed" to execute the order, they withdrew on pretense of danger from the Indians, when the Eng- lish manifested an intention to dispute the ground.
Among the indefinitely defined English grants which so often overlapped one an- other, was territory adjacent to the Connecti- cut River, claimed by Lord Saye and Lord Brooke. In 1635, a party led by the younger
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Winthrop arrived at Kievit's Hook, and on behalf of the English nobleman named the spot Saybrooke. Two years later Winthrop received from Lord Warwick's grantees a commission as "governor of the River of the Connecticut with the places adjoining there- unto," and the English advancing into the country, tore down the arms of the States General, and "engraved a ridiculous face in their place."I Troops sent from Fort Amster- dam to resist these encroachments were not permitted to land, and the newcomers, having erected a fort, pursued their purpose of occu- pying the adjacent country until a narrow district in the neighborhood of Fort Hope was all that remained to the Dutch in Eastern New Netherland.
The assertion of De Vries that Van Twiller had been promoted from a clerkship to per- form a comedy in New Netherland, seemed I Holland Doc.
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justified by the patroon's experiences. Before returning to Holland, De Vries again called at Fort Amsterdam, and offered to be the bearer of any letters the director might wish to send to the home government. Van Twil- ler, with pretentious assumption of authority, declared a resolution to detain the outward bound vessel until its cargo had been in- spected by his officials, and when protest was entered against such unauthorized pro- ceedings he sent musketeers to the shore to prevent the ship's departure. In the face of this demonstration De Vries ordered his boat to row out of the harbor, but before taking leave in person, he returned to the fort and again administered wholesome counsel to the discomfited director, while, on the shore, "spectators mocked the guard."
The following morning a slight skirmish of words occurred on De Vries' ship, when it was visited by Remund and Notelman, the secre-
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tary and the schout of New Amsterdam, who brought Van Twiller's budget of letters. Remund threatened to confiscate a few bear- skins which he found on the deck of the vessel, and which had not been entered at the fort, but Notelman interfered, desiring him to let the patroon account for his goods in Holland. The secretary, zealous in his office, declared a determination to send a ship in pursuit of De Vries, and the exasper- ated patroon once more found occasion to deliver in emphatic phraseology his opinion of official rule at Fort Amsterdam.
Affairs on the South River next demanded the attention of the director. In 1635, intel- ligence was brought to Manhattan that the vacant fort in that locality had been seized by the English, and at once Van Twiller dis- patched an armed force to dislodge the in- truders. But when, easily overcome, the enemy were brought prisoners to Fort Amsterdam,
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the incompetent governor was plunged into a new dilemma, for he had received no in- struction in methods of dealing with captives. Fortunately the ubiquitous De Vries again touched at Manhattan, on his way to Chesa- peake Bay, and at Van Twiller's urgent peti- tion, detained his vessel until the English could be conveyed aboard, to be returned to their own colony at Point Comfort.' The Dutch then re-occupied Fort Nassau, and for several years held undisturbed possession.
But private estates had suffered through failure of the West India Company to afford the guaranteed protection, and the patroons brought suits to indemnify themselves for these losses; while quarrels concerning the fur trade continued until the College of XIX, weary of the discord, commissioned their agents to purchase as far as possible the prop- erty rights of the patroons throughout New I New York Hist. Col. Ms. II, III.
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Netherland. The territory on the South River was first secured; soon afterwards Michael Pauw surrendered Pavonia and Staten Island, and Rensselaerswijck alone was retained by its owner. De Vries, delivered from the respon- sibilities of his original patroonship, contem- plated founding a colony in the vicinity of Fort Amsterdam, and requested Van Twiller to reserve Staten Island for his occupancy. An amusing incident is associated with his return to Manhattan in the spring of 1636, when unseen by garrison or sentinel he sailed up the bay and anchored off the fort two hours after midnight! At daybreak, unchallenged, he an- nounced his arrival by firing three guns, whereupon the startled garrison rushed wildly to their posts, and the sleepy governor, in at- tire much disarranged, ran, pistol in hand, to the fort.
Another story tells of De Vries' excursion across the river in company with Van Twiller
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and Dominie Bogardus, to give greeting to a new "head-commander " named Van Voorst, who had recently arrived at Pavonia, and was reputed to have brought with him some good Bordeaux wine. This social event was not free from the occurrence of disputes between the governor and minister, but the company were all upon friendly terms when the visitors took leave of their host, and Van Voorst attempted to honor the director with a salute. But his cannon stood too near the house, and his courtesy cost him his home! A spark fell upon the thatch of his roof, and the depart- ing guests' pathway across the river was illu- minated by the burning building.
One act of unquestionable bravery dignified the closing period of Van Twiller's rule. Dur- ing the progress of the Pequod war, in an at- tack made by the savages upon the English settlement at Wethersfield, nine colonists were killed, and two young girls were carried into
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captivity ! When the news of this calamity reached New Amsterdam, the director dis- patched a force to redeem the captives, with orders to effect this purpose by any means whatsoever. Suspicious of an attempt to re- gain the lost territory in Connecticut, the garrison at Saybrooke refused to allow the Dutch sloop to proceed beyond that point until a pledge was given that the release of the captives should be made their chief de- sign. Having passed Saybrooke the party reached their destination unmolested, but the Pequods refused all offers of ransom for their prisoners, until the Dutch had succeeded in capturing six or seven savages whom they used as a medium of exchange, and the rescued maidens were then restored to their friends.
The "Comedy " was soon to close. The schout-fiscal, Lubbertus Van Dincklagen, de- scribed with doubled imagery as " an upright man and a doctor of laws," had criticised the
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