History of Livingston County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 7

Author: Smith, James Hadden. [from old catalog]; Cale, Hume H., [from old catalog] joint author; Mason, D., and company, pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., D. Mason & co.
Number of Pages: 744

USA > New York > Livingston County > History of Livingston County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 7

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From the Appendix to Ancient America, we epito- mize an account of these discoveries. Thorvald, a nobleman, and his son Eirek, surnamed the Red, being obliged to flee from Jadir, in Norway, in con-

· General Hussein Pasha, an Arab gentleman, in a work on America, entitled En-Nesir-El-Tayir, quotes from Djeldeki and other writers to show this, Historical Magazine, New Series, Vol. VI, No. 111., 220. t W'a.kan.san-tai-dson-ye, the great Japanese Encyclopedia.

# Abbe de Bourbourg's Introduction to the Popol. l'uh-Baldwin's Pre-Historic Nations, 401 ; and Historical Magazine, New Series, Vol. VI., No. III., 221 (quoting the Gentleman's Magazine, ) which says :- J. Haulay, the Chinese interpreter in San Francisco, wrote an essay on this subject, drawn from Chinese historians and geographers, from which the following statements are gathered :-

" Fourteen hundred years ago even, America had been discovered by the Chinese and described by them. They stated that land, to be about twenty thousand miles distant from China. About five hundred years after the birth of Christ, Buddhist Priests repaired there, and brought back the news that they had brought back Buddhist idols and religious writings. in the country, already. Their descriptions, in many respects, resemble those of the Spaniards, a thousand years after They called the country ' Fusany,' after a tree which grew there, whose leaves resemble those of the Bamboo, whose bark the natives made clothes and paper out of, and whose fruit they ate."

§ Baldwin's Pre-Historic Vations, 401.

" Ibid.

1. Zell. Baldwin fixes the date at 982.

EARLY NORWEGIAN AND WELSH DISCOVERIES.

sequence of a homicide committed by them, went to Iceland, where Thorvald soon after died. Eirek, becoming involved in another feud resulting in homicide in Iceland, fled that country with a colony in search of the land, which Gunniborn had seen when driven by a storm into the Western Ocean. Sailing west from the west coast of Iceland, he at length discovered land, which he called Midjokul. He coasted along the shore in a southerly direction in search of a more suitable place for settlement, and spent the winter on a part of the coast he called "Eirek's Island," where his colony remained two years. On returning to Iceland he called the dis- covered country Greenland, saying to his confiden- tial friends, "A name so inviting will induce men to emigrate thither." He returned to Greenland with "twenty-five ships," filled with emigrants and stores, "fifteen winters," says the chronicle, (an Account of Erick the Red and Greenland,) "before the Christian religion was introduced into Iceland," i. e. in 985. Biarni, son of Heriulf, a chief man among these colonists, was absent in Norway when his father left Iceland. On returning he resolved to join the colony, and with others set sail, making "one of the most remarkable and fearful voyages on record." After three days' fair sailing he was driven for many days by a north-easterly wind, and on sailing west one day after the abatement of the storm, he discovered land which he concluded was not Greenland, as it " was not mountainous"-sup- posed to be Nantucket or Cape Cod. The ship was put about, and after sailing two days in a north- easterly direction, he discovered land " which was low and level"-supposed to be Cape Sable, Nova Scotia. He sailed three days more in the same direction and came to land, "mountainous and covered with ice"-supposed to be Newfoundland -- around which he sailed. After sailing north four days he reached the southern coast of Greenland, near the new settlement. This was in 985, 507 years before the first voyage of Columbus. Four- teen years later, Leif, a son of Eirek, fitted out an expedition, comprising a ship, manned with thirty- five men, to go in search of the land seen by Biarni. The first land seen by Leif after sailing from Green- land, was the island around which Biarni sailed, which he called Helluland, " the land of broad stones." Sailing south he came to a low and level country covered with wood. This henamed Mark- land-the land of woods. Still sailing toward the south, after two days he touched an island (Nan- tucket ?) " which lay opposite the north-east part of the main land." He then "sailed through a bay

between this island and a cape running north-east, and going westward, sailed past the Cape." At length he " passed up a river into a bay," proba- bly Mount Hope Bay-where he landed and spent the winter. This was about mid-autumn, and finding wild grapes, he called the country Vin- land. In the spring he loaded his vessel with tim- ber and returned to Greenland. The next year Leif's brother Thorvald went to Vinland with one ship and thirty men, and passed the winter. The next summer he explored the coast westward and southward, and seems to have gone as far south as the Carolinas. The next summer he coasted around Cape Cod, toward Boston Harbor. Here the chronicle first speaks of the natives, whom he calls "Skrællings," with whom they provoked a severe engagement, in which Thorvald was mor- tally wounded. His companions, after passing the third winter in Vinland, returned to Greenland. Thorfinn came to Greenland in 1006. He made a voyage to Vinland, taking with him three ships, one hundred and sixty men, live stock and all things necessary to the establishment of a colony, and passing up Buzzard's Bay, disembarked, and prepared to pass the winter, which proved a severe one and threatened famine to the little colony. The next spring he explored the coast farther west and south, and passed the second winter in Vin- land. He called the bay Hop; the Indians called it Haup ; we call it Hope. During the next sea- son, in which he explored Massachusetts Bay, he saw many natives and had much intercourse with them, which finally led to hostilities, in which the latter were signally defeated. After spending a third winter in Vinland he returned to Greenland. A part of the colony remained, and a lucrative traffic was maintained between Vinland and Greenland, where the timber which abounded at the former place found a ready market.

Old Welsh annals preserved in the abbeys of Conway and Strat Flur, and used by Humphrey Llwyd in his translation and continuation of Cara- doc's History of Wales, relate the particulars of Welsh emigration to America under Prince Madoc, Madog or Madawc, in 1170 .* About the year 1168 or 1169, Owen Gwynedd, ruling prince of North Wales, died, and among his sons there was a contest for the succession, which, becoming fierce and

* This emigration, which Squier (Antiquities of New York and the Il'est, 137, ) regards as "apochryphal, " but to the verity of which authors generally give credence, "is mentioned in the preserved works of several Welsh bards who lived before the time of Columbus ;" and "by Hakluyt, who had bis account of it from writings of the bard Gutten Owen." An- cient America, Appendix, 285, 286.

HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.

angry, produced a civil war. His son Madoc, who had " command of the fleet," took no part in this strife ; but, in consequence thereof, he resolved to leave Wales. Accordingly, in the year 1170, he left with a few ships, going south of Ireland, and steer- ing westward, to explore the western lands and se- lect a place for a settlement, which he established in "a pleasant and fertile region," which Baldwin supposes to have been in the Carolinas,* and Cat- lin, " on the coast of Florida or about the mouth of the Mississippi."t . Leaving one hundred and twen- ty persons, he returned to Wales, prepared ten ships, prevailed on a large company, some of whom were Irish, to join him, and sailed again to America. Nothing more was ever heard in Wales of the prince or his settlement.

The locality and destiny of this Welsh settlement is a matter of conjecture, but, says Baldwin, it is supposed that, being " unsupported by new arrivals from Europe, and cut off from communication with that side of the ocean," it " became weak, and, af- ter being much reduced, was destroyed or absorbed by some powerful tribe of Indians." In our colonial times, and later, he adds, " there was no lack of re- ports that relics of Madoc's Welshmen, and even their language, had been discovered among the In- dians ; but generally they were entitled to no credit. The only report of this kind, he says, having any show of claim to respectful consideration, is that of Rev. Morgan Jones, a Welsh clergyman, made March 10, 1685, and published in the Gentlemen's Magasine in 1740, giving an account of his adven- tures among the Tuscaroras, by whom he was cap- tured in 1660. It states that he was promised im- munity from harm by an Indian who appeared to be a war captain, and conversed with him in the Welsh language ; and that they (" the Doegs") en- tertained him "civilly and cordially" for four months, during which time he had opportunity to converse with them familiarly and preached to them three times a week in the Welsh language. In conclu- sion Baldwin says in regard to this report : " With- out meaning to doubt his veracity, one feels skepti- cal, and desires a more intelligent and complete ac- count of these 'travels.' "# Says Foster, in refer- ring to this matter, "he [the Rev. Mr. Jones, ] may have been a very worthy man ; but we are disposed to question the truthfulness of a statement at this day, when the author deems it necessary to fortify

* Ancient America, Appendix, 286.

t Catlin's North American Indians, 11., 259.

Ancient America. Appendix, 285-287. Bald:vm's Pre Historic Nations, page 403, says : "It will be recollected that, in the early colony times, the Tuscaroras were sometimes called ' White Indians.'"

it by a self-sought oath." Elsewhere, referring to the Northmen and Welshmen under Madoc, he says: " these peoples have left behind no memo- rials,""

Catlin enters into an elaborate and plausible argument to show that Madoc's Welsh colony were the progenitors of the Mandans, who occupied and have left so many interesting memorials in the Missouri valley. He shows a remarkable analogy between the two languages-an analogy, appar- ently, too close to be accidental. He supposes that, having landed on the southern coast of the United States, they, or a part of them, made their way through the interior, to a position on the Ohio, where they cultivated fields and established a flour- ishing colony in one of the finest countries on earth, but were at length driven from thence by overpowering hordes, and were besieged, until it was necessary to erect the fortifications referred to for defense, where they held out against a confed- eracy of tribes, till their ammunition and provisions were exhausted, and eventually all perished, except such as may have formed an alliance by marriage with the Indians; that the half-breed offspring of the latter, despised, as he says, "all half-breeds of enemies are," gathered themselves into a band, severed themselves from their parent tribe, and in- creased in numbers and strength as they "ad- vanced up the Missouri river to the place where they have been known for many years past by the name of Mandans, a conception or abbreviation, perhaps, of " Madawgwys," the name applied by the Welsh to the followers of Madawc."t An earlier writer under the caption of "Welsh or White Indians," furnishes voluminous if not authentic, testimony confirmatory of Catlin's sup- positions ; and cites, also, in a somewhat modified form, a case which, evidently, corresponds with that of Rev. Mr. Jones, before referred to. He does not, however, attach much importance to the several narratives, for he says, in conclusion : " Up- on the whole we think it may be pretty safely said that the existence of a race of Welsh about the re- gions of the Missouri does not rest on so good authority as that which has been adduced to estab- lish the existence of the sea-serpent."#

Notwithstanding these discoveries of the Norse- men and Welsh, real, as they unquestionably were, America was not known to Southern Europe until the latter part of the fifteenth century, when it was

. Pre-Historic Races of the United States, 400.

t Catlin's North American Indians, 11., 259-265.

# Biography und History of the Indians of North America, Book I, chapter 111., 36-39.

FIRST SPANISH, FRENCH AND ENGLISH DISCOVERIES.

accidentally discovered while in quest of a westerly route to India and China. In 1492, Columbus, a Genoese, set out on a voyage of discovery under the patronage of the Spanish Government, and in that and the two succeeding years made his tropi- cal discoveries. In 1497, John Cabot, a Venetian, in company with his son Sebastian, set out on a voyage of discovery under letters patent from Henry VII. of England. Sailing westward he dis- covered Newfoundland, and on the 24th of June of that year, struck the sterile coast of Labrador, taking possession of the same in the name of the King of England. The following year his son Sebastian, while in quest of a north-west passage to China, was compelled to turn from the frozen re- gions of the north, and sailing south he explored the coast from Newfoundland to Florida, of which he took possession for the English crown. In 1500, the coast of Labrador and the entrance to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, were explored by two Portuguese brothers named Cortereal. In 1508, the St. Lawrence was discovered by Aubert, and four years later, in 1512, Ponce de Leon discovered Florida. Magellan, a Portuguese, passed through the straits which bear his name in 1519, and was the first to circumnavigate the globe. In 1534, the St. Lawrence was explored by Jacques Cartier (Quartier) as far as Montreal. In 1539, Florida was explored by Ferdinand de Soto. Upper Cali- fornia was discovered in 1578, by an English navi- gator named Drake. These data will be of service in aiding to a proper understanding of the relative importance of the events which subsequently trans- pired.

Thus we see that within a decade from the time that Columbus discovered America the different maritime powers of Europe were engaged in active competition for the prizes of the New World. Spain, actuated by the greed of gold and lust of conquest, conquered Mexico in 1521, seized upon the rich treasures of the Montezumas, and in 1540, carried her conquest into Peru. Stimulated by these successes, she took possession of Florida and that portion of the Northern continent bordering on the Gulf of Mexico, and in 1565, seventy-three years after Columbus' discovery, and fifty-three years after that of Ponce de Leon, planted the first Spanish colony in North America, at St. Augustine, Floridla.

While the Spaniards were pushing their territo- rial acquisition in the South, the French, attracted by the rich prize of the Newfoundland fisheries, had gained a foot-hold in the northern part of the

continent. As early as the beginning of the six- teenth century the French, Basques, Bretons and Normans fished for cod along the entire coasts of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and those in the vicinity, and traded for peltries. In 1518, Baron Livy set- tled there. In 1524, King Francis I. of France, sent thither Jean Verrazani, a distinguished Flor- entine mariner, on a voyage of exploration. He sailed along the coast twenty-one hundred miles in frail vessels, and returned safely to report his suc- cess to his sovereign. At about 41º north latitude he entered a bay-supposed to be the entrance to New York harbor-and remained there fifteen days. His crew are supposed to be the first Euro- peans who trod the soil of New York. Ten years later the same king sent thither Jacques Cartier, a pilot of St. Malo, who made two voyages, and ascended the St. Lawrence as far as Montreal, pre- viously called Hochelaga. As he sailed up the broad expanse of waters on St. Lawrence day, (August 10, 1534,) he applied to the river the name of the illustrious saint whose virtues that day commemorates. In 1540, Cartier was sent back with Jean Francis de Robarval, a gentleman of Picardy, whom King Francis I. appointed his Lien- tenant-General over the new countries of Canada, Hochelaga and Saguenay. In 1543, Robarval came the second time from France, in company with the pilot Jean Alphonse of Saintogue, and they took possession of Great Breton. At this time the settlement of Quebec was commenced. In 1598 King Henry IV. of France conferred on the Marquis de la Roche, a Breton, the govern- ment of the territories of Canada and the adjacent countries ; and in 1603, he conferred his conmis- sion of Lieutenant-Colonel in the territories of New France, Acadia, (Nova Scotia,) Canada and other parts on Sieurde Mons, a gentleman of Saintogue, who, in 1608, built a fort at Quebec, the govern- ment whereof he let to Sieur Champlain, the first discoverer of the Iroquois.

The year previous, 1607, the English colonists made the first permanent settlement at Jamestown, Virginia, under the immediate supervision of that Englishman of heroic spirit and indomitable energy, Capt. John Smith. In 1620, the English planted a second colony on this western continent at Ply- mouth Rock, which was destined to exert an im- portant influence in the affairs of this country. These two colonies were the successful rivals of all others of every nationality in that competition for empire, which has made their descendants the mas- ters of North America.

HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.

Henry Hudson, an intrepid English navigator, having failed in two attempts to discover a western passage to the East Indies in the interest of a com- pany of London merchants, sailed from Amsterdam on the 4th of April, 1609, in the employ of the Dutch East India Company, of Holland, formed the year previous for traffic and colonization. He arrived on the American coast near Portland, Maine, whence he proceeded south along the shore to the entrance of Chesapeake Bay. From thence he pro- ceeded northward, discovered and entered Delaware Bay, and on the 3rd of September moored his vessel, the Half Moon, a mere yacht, at Sandy Hook. Proceeding up the bay, he sent his boats to the Jer- sey shore and received on board the natives who came in great numbers to traffic, and by whom he was in turn entertained. On the 12th he entered the river which bears his name, and ascended it to a point a little above the city of Hudson, having been frequently visited on the way by the Indians, who came to traffic, bringing maize, tobacco and other indigenous products. Deeming it unsafe to proceed further with his ship, he sent a boat with a part of his crew to explore the river higher up. They went, it is supposed, a little above Albany. On the 23d he commenced to descend the river ; and a lit- tle below the Highlands became embroiled with the natives, to whom he had imparted a knowledge of the baneful effects of intoxicating liquors, shooting in the encounters ten or twelve of their number and losing one of his own men. He returned to Europe and imparted the information he had gained which soon led to the establishment of a colony by the Dutch, by the name of New Netherlands. The fol- lowing year Hudson voyaged in search of a north- west passage to India and discovered and entered the bay which bears his name ; but continuing his search too long he was compelled to spend the winter in a northern latitude. In the spring a part of his crew mutinied, and placing him, his son and seven others in a boat, left them to perish.

On the foregoing discoveries three European na- tions based claims to a part of the territory embraced in the State of New York : England, by reason of the discovery of Cabot and his son Sebastian, claim- ing a territory eleven degrees in width and extend- ing westward indefinitely ; France, by reason of the discoveries of Verrazani, claiming a portion of the Atlantic coast ; and Ilolland, by reason of the dis- covery of Hudson, claiming the country from Cape Cod to the southern shore of Delaware Bay.

The Dutch became the actual possessors of the country. In 1610, they sent out a vessel to engage

in the fur trade on the banks of the river discovered by Hudson. In 1612, Hendrick Christiansen and Adrian Block fitted out two other vessels for the same purpose, and were soon followed by others. The fur trade proving successful, Christiansen was appointed to superintend it and Manhattan Island made the chief depot. In 1614, he erected a small fort and a few rude buildings on the southern extremity of the Island, which he called New Am- sterdam. October 11th of the same year the States General granted a charter to the merchants en- gaged in the traffic, conferring on them the exclusive right to trade for three years in the territory embraced between New France and Virginia, and giving the name of New Netherlands to the whole region.

In the meantime explorations were being made in the surrounding country. Adrian Block had passed up the East River, Long Island Sound and Connecticut river, and into the bays and along the islands eastward to Cape Cod. Cornelissen Jacob- son May had explored the southern coast of Long Island and southward to Delaware Bay; while Hen- drick Christiansen had ascended the Hudson to Castle Island, a few miles below Albany, where he established a trading post and, in 1615, built a small fort, which, being damaged by the flood, was re- moved a little below to the Normans-Kill. Here, in 1623, a treaty of peace was formed between the Five Nations and the representatives of the New Netherlands.

The Dutch establishment at New Amsterdam increased, and their fur trade became so profitable that at the expiration of their charter, the States General refused to renew it, giving instead a tem- porary license for its continuance. It had become sufficiently attractive to tempt the avarice of Eng- lish capitalists. In 1620, James 1. granted all the territory between the 40th and 48th degrees of north latitude, extending from ocean to ocean, to Ferdinando Georges and his commercial associates, and in their interest Capt. Dermer appeared at Manhattan and laid claim to all the territory occu- pied by the Dutch. This claim was strengthened by instructions to the English ambassador at the Dutch capital to remonstrate against Dutch intru- sion. Notwithstanding this remonstrance, however, in 1621, the States General granted to the Dutch West India Company, an armed mercantile asso- ciation formed that year, a charter, which gave them exclusive jurisdiction for a period of twenty years over the province of New Netherlands, with power to appoint governors, subject to the ap- proval of the State, to colonize the territory and

CHAMPLAIN'S INVASION.

administer justice. By virtue of this charter the company took possession of New Amsterdam in 1622-'3. The executive management was entrusted to a board of directors, distributed through five separate chambers in Holland. The charge of the province was devolved on the Amsterdam cham- ber, which, in 1623, sent out a vessel under the direc- tion of Capt. Cornelissen Jacobson and Andriaen Jorissen Tienpoint. with thirty families for coloni- zation. A portion of these settled on the Connec- ticut river, and others on the Hudson, at Albany, where, in 1624, they built Fort Orange, and the same year Fort Nassau on the Delaware river, near Gloucester. The colonies thus commenced were soon after augmented by other accessions. In May, 1626, Peter Minuit arrived in New Nether- lands as Director-General or Governor of the Prov- ince, and in that year purchased Manhattan Island for trinkets valued at sixty guilders. For fifteen years the colonists lived on amicable terms with the Indians, carrying on a brisk and profitable trade in furs ; but the harshness and cruelty of William Kieft, who was commissioned Director-General in September, 1637, soon provoked the just resent- ment of the Indians, involving the colonists in a war with the latter, which continued, with slight in- terruptions, during the remainder of the Dutch occupancy, and jeopardized the very existence of the colony.

On the 12th of March, 1664, Charles II., of England, conveyed by patent to his brother James, Duke of York, all the country from the River St. Croix to the Kennebec, in Maine, also Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, and Long Island, together with all the land from the west side of the Connecticut river to the east side of Delaware Bay. The Duke sent an English squadron, under Admiral Richard Nicolls, to secure the gift, and on the 8th of September following, Gov. Stuyvesant capitu- lated, and the territory till then held by the Dutch, passed into the hands of the English, who changed the name of New Amsterdam to New York. The victory was an easy one, for restricted in their rights and liberties, and desirous of enjoying the privileges accorded to the neighboring English colonists, the Dutch settlers refused to contest the supremacy, and Stuyvesant, unsupported, was obliged, though re- luctantly, to resign.

When the French first assumed a military domi- nence in Canada, they found the Iroquois at war with the Adirondacks, who lived in the vicinity of Quebec. The French allied themselves with the Canadian and Western Indians, and maintained

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History of Livingston County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 7

Author: Smith, James Hadden. [from old catalog]; Cale, Hume H., [from old catalog] joint author; Mason, D., and company, pub. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., D. Mason & co. Number of Pages: 744

Author: Smith, James Hadden. [from old catalog]; Cale, Hume H., [from old catalog] joint author; Mason, D., and company, pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., D. Mason & co.
Number of Pages: 744