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8. In the evolution of national development, the extent and permanency of social forces largely condition their effectiveness, as seen in the im- press made upon the early institutions of the Province of New York by the Dutch, who settled in the southeastern part of the Province of New York and ruled it for half a century. Had the French followed up the
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the mainland of North America, from the fortieth degree north- ward, Champlain himself having explored the entire coast of New England, between 1604 and 1607, sailing into Plymouth Harbor sixteen years before the "Mayflower." And England, as we have seen, had not been idle in the matter of exploration during the opening decade of the seventeenth century.
Within two months of the discovery of Lake Champlain by the intrepid Frenchman, a valiant English navigator entered the southern waters of New York. The newcomer was not in the employ of the English, Henry Hudson bringing another important European nation into the list of contending powers ; but had it not been for the intriguing effort made by the French king to persuade Hudson to head a French expedition, instead of a Dutch, in search of the northwest passage to the East, it is doubtful whether he would have reached New York Harbor, as a representative of the Dutch East India Company, in 1609.9 However, as we have seen, neither he nor Cham- plain were the first Europeans to set foot in New York; so the international controversy as to priority of discovery could not properly hinge on the dates of their entry into southern and northern waters, respectively.
discovery of Lake Champlain in 1609, and settled and permanently occupied the territory south of the 45th parallel of latitude, as effectively as did the Dutch the southeastern part of the State, the result, it is safe to say, would have been vastly different. . . . Anomalous as it may appear, that was made so largely by reason of the battle on Lake Champlain between the Algonquins and Hurons on the one side, and the Iroquois on the other, in which Champlain's use of firearms, to the utter surprise and loss to the Iroquois of three of their chiefs, made them thereafter deadly enemies of the French .- Ibid, p. 2, Historical Introduction, by Senator Henry W. Hill.
9. Henry (IV of France) also wished to create an India Company, able to rival those founded in England and Holland. He had no time to realize this idea (being assassinated in 1610) .- Duruy's "A Short History of France," Vol. II, Chap. XLVIII, p. 77.
9. "Hudson was invited . . to continue his efforts under the pa- tronage of the Dutch East India Company, and, going to Holland to com- plete arrangements for the expedition, the French ambassador at The Hague, Pres. Jeannin, intrigued to obtain his services for a similar expedition under French control. This alarmed the Dutch, and they hastened to fit out an expedition-"Nat. Cyclopedia of Am. Biog.," Vol IX, p. 453.
CHAPTER III. HUDSON HEADS DUTCH EXPEDITION .*
Henry Hudson's discoveries in 1609 were the basis for the claim by the Dutch to the territory lying along the Atlantic coast "from Delaware Bay on the South to Cape Cod on the northeast, and the great river of Canada on the north," with indefinite range westward. While the political situation in Europe delayed colonization of the new land, and Hudson did not live to see the land settled, his coming in 1609 definitely set the history of New York Dutchward. The Dutch did not penetrate far into the region to which they laid claim, but the facts that they founded the settlement which was to grow to be one of the two greatest cities in the world and another set- tlement which was to become the capital of a State of ten millions of people-the Empire State of a great Republic- and in addition clearly marked the Dutch impress upon the institutions and life of another State-New Jersey-and to some extent upon Pennsylvania, are cogent reasons for the statement that the Dutch had important part in the building of the paramount nation of the western hemisphere.
The known career of Henry Hudson as a navigator covers only a few years-1607-II-but in those few years he laid trails which have kept his name prominently before the Ameri- can people for three centuries, and established him as one of the great English navigators of an age of intrepid explorers. Little is known of his early life. Date and place of his birth are not known, although evidently he was born in the latter
*AUTHORITIES-Belford's "History of the United States"; Jameson's "Encyclopedic Dictionary of American History"; "Civil List and Consti- tutional History of the Colony and State of New York" (Werner) ; "En- cyclopedia Britannica"; O'Callaghan's "History of New Netherland"; Ches- ter's "Legal and Judicial History of New York"; Smith's "History of New York"; "National Cyclopedia of American Biography."
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part of the sixteenth century, probably in Bristol, possibly in London, England. He is believed to have been a descendant of the Henry Hudson who, with Sebastian Cabot, founded the Muscovy Company, a trading and exploration syndicate whose principal purpose was to discover a northerly passage to China. Henry Hudson, the younger, was, it is said, quite familiar with the Englishmen who were identified with the Muscovy Company, and grew to manhood imbued with thoughts of travel and maritime adventure. Sea charts were his especial study, and those of the North and the Arctic Circle, though for the most part unmarked, became, in the imagination of the young navigator, clear and open routes to the wealth of Canton and Cathay. He was entrusted with a command in 1607, sailing in April in a ship of sixty tons, the "Hopewell," outfitted by the Muscovy Company. In that expedition, he explored the coast of Greenland, followed the ice barrier, and reached Spitzbergen. Ice prevented him from entering Davis' Strait, but observations he made led him to "originate the theory of an open polar sea." This voyage was sufficiently promising to bring to Hudson the leadership of another expe- dition, which set out in the next year to find a northeast passage. He was not able to sail beyond Novaya Zemlya, much to the disappointment of the Muscovy Company, who then abandoned the quest for a time. Whereupon, Hudson went to Amsterdam, having "had a call" from Dutch people who encouraged him to continue his efforts under the patron- age of the Dutch East India Company. The outcome was that Hudson was commissioned to find the passage to China "by the east or the west"; and he sailed from Texel in the "Half Moon" on April 4, 1609. The vessel was of eighty tons burthen, and carried a crew of sixteen or perhaps twenty men, some Dutch, the remainder English. Hudson was in the Barrentz Sea by May 5, and some time later reached near Costin Sareh in Novaya Zemlya. Ice stopped him in that
HENRY HUDSON
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direction, and as some of his men were getting disheartened and mutinous, he turned westward, deciding to seek the pas- sage in about 40° N. latitude indicated on the map his friend, Capt. John Smith, had sent him. On June 15, off Newfound- land, in about 48° latitude, the "Half Moon" "spent overboard her foremast," which accident compelled Hudson to put into Sagadahoc. Sailing again on July 25, the "Half Moon" was off Cape Cod on August 6. He gave the name of "New Hol- land" to that country and passed south, reaching Smith's Islands, near the entrance to the Chesapeake, on August 18. On August 28, he began the survey where Smith left off, at 37° 36' N. latitude. Coasting northward to Sandy Hook, he passed the "overfall" of the Delaware with scarcely any notice, "probably because a western inlet there would have taken him in amid Smith's surveys." New York Bay, in 40° 30' latitude, was evidently his objective, the way "to the South Sea or to China." He therefore set about exploring the bay without delay. On September 4 "a boat's crew put out to fish ; and, according to an Indian tradition, landed on the south beach of Congee (Coney Island), the first Europeans who trod the shore of the great harbor." By September II, or 12, Hudson had reached the mouth of the "River of the Mountains"; and during the next week the "Half Moon" sailed slowly up the great river, the Hudson, anchoring on September 19 near Albany, Another day of exploring in the ship's boats proved that the "River of the Mountains" was not the western waterway to the East. So, on September 23, the "Half Moon" was on its way down the river, its commander regretfully leaving the country which he named "New Netherland," and passing out of the harbor on October 4, bent on wintering in Newfoundland, and of exploring Davis' Strait in the following spring. His rebel- lious crew, however, insisted on returning home. Hence, it happened that the "Half Moon" sailed into the port of Dart- mouth, England, on November 7, 1609. Had Hudson been C.&L .- 3
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aware of the disfavor with which the English Government viewed his, an Englishman's, effort to aid a foreign power to territorial expansion, he would probably have tried to avoid an English port. Upon arrival at Dartmouth the "Half Moon" was seized, and its crew detained. The ship was delivered to its owners in July of the next year, but Hudson was forbidden to reënter the service of the Dutch company; he was "com- manded to use his talents in the interests of his own country."
Hudson, probably, would prefer to serve his own country ; yet he was a man of upright character, and his conscience led him to follow a course which brought further serious official criticism upon him. He kept faith with the Dutch East India Company by sending them a true report of his voyage on the "Half Moon." Nevertheless, he was placed in command of an English expedition early in 1610, and on April 22, sailed in the Muscovy Company's ship "Discoverie" on the voyage from which he never returned.
The Dutch were not immediately able to follow up the advantage Hudson's explorations had brought them. In the first place, the Dutch East India Company, which was char- tered in 1602, was authorized to trade only in the East Indies, and on the eastern coast of Asia and Africa; therefore, only the discovery of a western way to the East would be the direct benefit that could come to the trading company from explora- tion of the western hemisphere. And the Dutch Government had good reason to move with extreme caution, for the nation had just emerged from several decades of warfare-as a matter of fact, it was merely a respite, a twelve years' armistice-and an aggressive colonization plan might have jeopardized the temporary truce in Europe. The powerful European nations -Spain, France, England, Portugal-were all especially sensi- tive in matters that directly or indirectly affected their foreign trade, and the age was one of astonishing activity at sea. The rivals of Spain, in American exploration, probably expected to
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find such treasure fields as were Spain's in South America ; all longed for the time when their intrepid navigators would be returning to home ports bringing wealth from America, and beyond, as fabulous as that which the Spanish galleons had been bringing to Spain. Next to the East, America was the land of untold wealth; all nations expected to find in its mountains natural storehouses of precious metals and stones ; and if, as well, one nation should find the waterway through America to China and the South Sea, the future prosperity of that fortunate nation would be assured for ages to come.
So, while Hudson's report exploded Hakluyt's myth, "that near 40° N. latitude there was a narrow isthmus, formed by the Sea of Verrazzano, like that of Tehuantepec or Panama," and while the political situation in Europe made free move- ment, in colonization, by the Dutch Government inadvisable, it may be presumed that the Dutch were well aware that Hud- son's discoveries opened an advantageous way for Holland to gain a foothold in America, at an opportune moment in the near future, when uncertainty had passed from the home situ- ation. Meanwhile, the Dutch Government probably looked with favor upon private efforts to open the way for the settle- ment of New Netherland.
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CHAPTER IV. THE EARLY DUTCH TRADERS .*
Private enterprise soon developed a satisfactory volume of trading with the aborigines of the region through which Hud- son's "River of the Mountains" ran. "For three years after Hudson's return the little round-prowed vessels of the Dutch busily traversed the Mauritius." Possibly as early as 1610, though perhaps not until 1613, some buildings were erected on Manhattan Island, for the temporary purposes of the trad- ers.1 Captains Hendrick Corstiaensen (or Christiaensen) and Adriaen Block jointly equipped a vessel for a voyage in 1611 or 1612. They brought back rich furs, and in the next year sailed again, Block having command of the "Tiger" and Chris- tiaensen being skipper of the "Fortune," which vessels had been outfitted by three Amsterdam merchants. Another vessel was the "Little Fox," commanded by Jan de With (John de Witt). Cornelis Jacobssen May was captain of the "Fortuyn"; and still another trading vessel was the "Nightingale," whereof Thys Volckertssen was skipper." Captains Block and Chris-
*AUTHORITIES-Lossing's "Our Country"; Parkman's "Pioneers of France in the New World"; Chester's "Legal and Judicial History of New York"; Coe's "Founders of Our Country"; "Encyclopedia Britannica"; Green's "Short History of the English People"; Werner's "Civil List and Constitutional History of the Colony and State of New York"; O'Callag- han's "History of New Netherland"; Belford's "History of the United States"; Eastman's "Courts and Lawyers of Pennsylvania"; Scott's "The Courts of the State of New York"; "Description of the Province of New Albion," in the New York Historical Collections, second series, I, 325; Daly, in "History of the Bench and Bar of New York" (1897).
I. "1610. The Dutch put up a few rude hovels on Manhattan Island, as a temporary shelter for the sailors: the origin of New York City."- Belford's "History of the United States," p. 19.
I. "For three years after Hudson's return, the little round-prowed vessels of the Dutch busily traversed the Mauritius. The chief station was on Manhattan Island; though only a fort and one or two small build- ings had been erected-and perhaps not even these until 1613."-"New York Civil List," 1889, p. 4.
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tiaensen spent the winter of 1613-14 on Manhattan Island. Block built a yacht of sixteen tons, the "Onrust" ("Restless"), during the winter-the "first vessel built by white men in its waters."2 In the spring of 1614, he sailed through Hellegat,3 and into the Housatonic and Connecticut rivers. He followed the course of the latter, which he called the "Varsche" (Fresh Water) River, for a long way. He also explored Long Island Sound thoroughly, discovered Narragansett Bay, and followed the New England coast as far as Nahant Bay, which he con- sidered "the limit of New Netherland." Block Island is named after Adriaen Block, though the Dutch called it "Visscher's Haeck," and Captain May had seen the island before Block. May undertook important explorations southward in the same year (1614), as far as Delaware Bay. The northern cape is known by his name and to the southern cape he gave the name "Hindlopen." Nine years later he established a fort, known as Fort Nassau, near the site of the present town of Gloucester.4
While Captains Block and May were engaged in exploring the seacoast north and south of New York, in 1614, Cap- tain Christiansen explored the Hudson, and traded with the Indians in those waters. In that year, or the next, he erected a fort on Castle Island, "on the west side of the river, a little below the later site of the city of Albany.5 In the autumn of
2. Ibid, p. 5.
3. East River; named Hellegat (corrupted into Hell Gate) after a branch of the Scheld.
4. "In 1614 Captain Cornelis Jacobson Mey in the ship "Fortune," visited it, and gave his name to the northern cape, while the south cape he called Hindlopen, after one of the towns in the province of Friesland. . . . In the same year (1623) Captain Mey, before referred to, explored the Dela- ware River, called by the Dutch the South River, and established Fort Nassau, in the vicinity of the present town of Gloucester, a few miles below Cam- den. This was the first settlement of Europeans on the Delaware."- Eastman's "Courts and Lawyers of Pennsylvania," p. 3.
5. Chester's "Legal and Judicial History of New York," Vol. I, p. 7, and Vol. III, p. 3.
5. (Captain) May also, in 1614, explored the southern shore of Long Island, and the Atlantic coast to Delaware Bay. The same year Captain John de Witt, in the Little Fox, sailed up the North River, and gave his
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1614 he turned his vessel homeward. He had had satisfactory dealings with the natives, it would seem, although presumably he still had room in his ship for any peltries his fellow- navigator, Adriaen Block, might have accumulated at Cape Cod, where a trading post had been established. Probably, it was by previous arrangement that Christiaensen touched at Cape Cod when homeward bound. He would at least have been on the lookout for Captain Block, for he of course knew that Block had lost his ship, the "Tiger," by fire, off Manhattan Island in 1613, and also that the little yacht, the "Onrust"- which the sailors had built on Manhattan Island during the winter and in which Block had carried out his important explorations in the spring and summer of 1614-was hardly a deep-seagoing craft. So, when Christiaensen appeared off Cape Cod, Block was probably glad to leave the "Onrust" and the trading-post in charge of his assistant, Hendricksen, and step aboard the "Fortune," for the trip across the Atlantic, as a passenger, to report.6
name to one of the islands near Red Hook. In this year also Christiaensen established the first great trading post upon the river. It was built upon Castle Island, near Albany, and was called Fort Nassau, in honor of the family of the Stadtholder .- "New York Civil List," 1888, p. 5.
5. The States-General, in the latter part of 1614, chartered a company for the colonization of the country visited by this expedition, granting to the interested parties in this enterprise a three years' monopoly of trade with the territory between 40 and 45 N. latitude. This region was called New Netherland. To prosecute the business of the company so chartered Christiaensen (one of the commanders in the former expedition of five vessels) built a fort or trading post on Castle Island, near the present city of Albany .- "Encyclopedia Britannica," review of the United States.
5. "1615. The Dutch establish a commercial post at Auranea, or Orange (now Albany), on Castle Island in the Hudson, on the site of the castle begun by the French about 1540."-Belford's "History of the United States."
6. Among the bold navigators who came from Holland to Manhattan was Adrien Block. His vessel was the "Tigress." Late in the autumn of 1613, when she was laden with bear skins and was about to depart for Amsterdam, she accidentally took fire and was burned to a useless wreck. The Indians kindly offered the shelter of wigwams to the Dutchmen, but they, regarding them too frail to keep out the winds and snows, built for themselves rude log huts where the warehouses of Beaver Street now stand, and went cheerily to work to construct a new vessel. Before spring,
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Not only on matters of trade was it necessary for the navi- gators to report to their employers, or business associates, in Amsterdam. They had made important territorial discov- eries; and possibly they felt as had Francis I, of France, in the days of Cartier-that this land was indeed "the extremity of Asia towards the West." At all events, they wished to establish the right of the United Provinces of the Netherlands to it. Still, they probably doubted whether they could sub- stantiate the claim, without armed support by the Dutch Gov- ernment, in view of the somewhat ominous and embarrassing meeting they had had with an English navigator. This Eng- lishman, Captain Argall, had sailed into New York waters during the winter of 1613. He was in command of an armed British ship, and was bent on asserting the right of the Vir- ginia companies and of Britain to the land the Dutch sailors were standing on, and to the territory Block and his associates were hoping to win for the Dutch. Argall demanded tribute, and it was promised by Christiaensen, the "superintendent" at Manhattan.7
the oaks . . were converted into a trim-built and staunch yacht of sixteen tons. .
Early in the spring of 1614 Block sailed from Manhattan in the "Onrust" (and after some months of exploring) reached Nahant. . There the "Onrust" fell in with the "Fortune," commanded by Block's friend, Hendrick Christiaensen, who was about to sail for Holland. Block left his own vessel in charge of another navigator and sailed for Amsterdam with his friend .- Lossing's "Our Country," V. 1, 214.
7. "1613. De Saussaye erects a French colony at St. Sauveur, Mount Desert Island, Maine. . . . Argall, in an armed vessel from Virginia, cap- tures and pillages St. Sauveur, and destroys De Mont's deserted settlements at St. Croix and Port Royal. He enters New York Harbor and finds some hovels erected by the Dutch on Manhattan Island."-Belford's "History of the United States."
7 . " . the English asserted their title to all the territory covered by the Virginia patent, and in 1613 Capt. Argel was sent out by Sir Thomas Dale, Governor of Virginia, to dispossess the French at Port Royal and St. Croix. On his return, in the month of November, he 'visited the Dutch on Hudson's river, who prudently submitted for the present, Christaensen, the Superintendent, agreeing to pay tribute in token of dependence on the English crown.'"-Werner, in "New York Civil List," 1888, p. 5.
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It hardly seems possible that the returning navigators could have known of another portentous happening of that year. However, upon arrival at Amsterdam, they were no doubt soon made aware that the States General, or Parliament, had, in the previous March, published a decree offering certain important and exclusive trading rights to discoverers of new lands. So, after hearing the reports of Block and Chris- tiaensen, the Amsterdam merchants who had equipped the five vessels they and their fellow-navigators had commanded in 1613 lost no time in complying with governmental require- ments, for within two weeks of the return of the "Fortune," an association of adventurers was formed, a cartographer drew a map of the newly-discovered regions, and a deputation journeyed to the Hague, to report the finding to the States General, at the palace of the Counts of Holland, with the inten- tion of course of claiming the exclusive right to trade in the said regions for three years, in accordance with the offer by the government. The deputies appeared before the "twelve high and mighty lords" of the Great Council; and they, seated around a table, listened with interest to the narrative of the deputies-told possibly by Adriaen Block himself. His map was spread upon the oval table before them, to illustrate the narrative; and, after due deliberation, the States General, on October II, 1614, signed and sealed a charter which granted to these deputies and their associates, "all now united into one company," the exclusive right to trade in the "new lands situ- ated in America, between New France and Virginia . .. . and called New Netherlands." The region was defined as extending from latitude 40° to 45° N., with the westward limit undetermined, of course. The monopoly was to be effective on January 1, 1615, and to embrace four voyages within three years from that date. A fac-simile of this charter is given in Judge Charles P. Daly's article on the State of Jurisprudence during the Dutch Period," on page 3 of the "History of the
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Bench and Bar of New York" (New York History Company, 1897) ; a translation of the same is given at foot hereof.8
So, for another three years, this Amsterdam syndicate of shipowners, merchants, and navigators, either as the Amster- dam Company, the New Netherland Company, or the United New Netherland Company, controlled the operations of white men within the territory; or at least they had the trading monopoly so far as it lay within the power of the States Gen- eral of the United Netherlands to give it. Navigators of other nations, possibly, would not heed the charter, but by it the Dutch Government forbade "any other person from the United Netherlands to sail to, navigate, or frequent" the New Nether- land during the existence of the charter, under pain of confis- cation of any trade advantage secured and the infliction of a heavy fine. By the way, this was the first state document in which the name "New Netherland" was used.
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