USA > New York > New York City > History of New Netherland; or, New York under the Dutch, Vol. I > Part 10
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In the mean time the Dutch occupied Manhattan Island merely by sufferance. But as it was now their determination 1626. to make a permanent settlement thereupon, the company hav- ing appropriated an armed ship, of about three hundred tons
1 The names of all the ahove functionaries, except De Razier's, I find an- nexed to Indian deeds, dated 1630 and 1631, among the Rensselaerswyck MSS. " Lond. Doc., i., 34 ; De Laet Kort Verhael, 26, 29.
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BOOK burden, and a yacht, the value of both of which was 120,000 - II. florins,1 to the trade of the country, it became necessary, both 1626. in justice and policy, to obtain a title to the soil. The island of Manhattans, estimated then to contain twenty-two thou- sand acres of land, was therefore purchased from the Indians, who received for that splendid tract the trifling sum of sixty guilders, or twenty-four dollars.
Sept. 23.
Intelligence of this fortunate arrangement was transmitted to the Assembly of the XIX., by the ship "'The Arms of Am- sterdam," which sailed from the River Mauritius on the 23d September, and arrived in Holland on the fourth of November following ; with the additional information that the little colony was in a most prosperous state, and that the women and soil were both fruitful. As an evidence of the latter fact, samples of the recent harvest, consisting of wheat, rye, barley, oats, buckwheat, canary-seed, beans, and flax, were sent forward ; together with eight thousand, one hundred and thirty beaver skins, valued at over forty-five thousand guilders, or nearly $19,000. The imports were estimated at twenty thousand, three hundred and eighty-four guilders, or $8,494.2
On or about the same time that the island of Manhattans was purchased, the Director General and Council bought Eghquaous, or Staten Island, and some other places in that vicinity ; and as a greater security for their lives and property, as well as for the better accommodation of the Company's servants, a blockhouse, surrounded with red cedar palisades, was thrown up on the south point of Manhattan Island, which post having now received the appellation of Fort Amsterdam, became the head-quarters of the government, and the capital of New Netherland.3
An occurrence, we regret to say, took place while this work was progressing, which must have impressed the uncivilized natives with an unfavorable idea both of European honesty and of European justice. One of the neighboring tribe of
1 Hol. Doc., i., 147.
2 Hol. Doc., i., 155. De Laet.
" Hol. Doc., vii., 70, 71. Verbael van Beverninck, 606. Alb. Rec., viii., 161. Moulton, 367. Report to the Assembly of the XIX., in the Appendix, shows the date of the erection of this fort.
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NEW NETHERLAND.
Wickwasqueeck Indians had come, with his nephew, and an- CHAP. other of his nation, to the Dutch post, to sell some beaver-skins. He was met unfortunately by three of Minuit's farm servants, who not only rifled the Indian of his property, but murdered him in cold blood. The nephew of the unfortunate man, who was then a mere youth, was a witness to this outrage. He returned home brooding over the wrong, and vowed to take vengeance when he should arrive at the years of manhood1-a vow which he too faithfully fulfilled, years afterwards, the Dutch having neglected to expiate the crime by a suitable present of wam- pum, in conformity with the customs of the Redman, or to punish the murderers, as justice and good policy demanded.
The activity with which the authorities at the Manhattans 1627. prosecuted trade among the Indians, exploring every creek, bay, and river, with their sloops and other craft, soon spread the intelligence of their settlement all around. The English, now settled some six or seven years at New Plymouth, had al- ready heard much of the Dutch- from the natives. Through the same medium, it is to be presumed, the Dutch heard of their English neighbors;2 but neither party had, as yet, heard from, or met with, the other. Desirous, now, of extending March their commercial relations, the Director and council transmit- 9.
1 De Vries (Korte Historiael ende Journael, &c.) alludes to this murder, and the time it occurred is distinctly mentioned by him-" when the fort was built." Capt. Patrick, writing in 1641, says that it occurred "over one and twenty years ago." This would have carried it back to 1620; hut as no fort was building then, it must be concluded that the Captain's memory, or rather the memory of the sachem who furnished him with that as the distance of time when the murder was committed, must have deceived him. In Hol. Doc. v. 314, the murder is alluded to, also, and it is there represented as having been committed by three of Minnewitz' men. "De welcke (Wilt) van drye bouw- knechten van den Commandeur Minnewitz was omgebracht." This marks the time precisely, as no other fort was built on Manhattan Island by Minuit ex- cept in the above year.
2 In the year 1623, a Dutch trading vessel from New Netherland was stranded in Narragansett bay, near the mouth of Taunton river. In the same year the Plymouth people went on a trading voyage to Narragansett hay, it he- ing the first time they had ventured so far towards the west. In this expedi- tion they were not successful, because the Dutch had been accustomed to sup- ply the natives with goods hetter suited to their wants than the Plymouth peo- ple were able to furnish. N. A. Rev. viii., 82
14
1626.
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1627.
BOOK ted letters to the governor of New Plymouth, "written in a very II. fair hand, the one in French and the other in Dutch," and signed by Isaac de Razier, expressive of good-will, congratu- lating him on the prosperity of his infant colony, and offer- ing to accommodate him with any goods or merchandise which the Dutch had, and which the English might want, in exchange for beaver or otter skins, or other wares.
March 29. An answer to these neighborly and polite proposals was re- (N. S.) turned by Mr. Bradford, governor of New Plymouth, in due course, in which he expressed many thanks for their friendly disposition, and alluded in grateful terms to the kindness the " Pilgrims" had experienced during their sojourn in Holland. In regard to trade, he stated that for the current year they were fully supplied with all necessaries, but promised to trade thereafter, should the rates be reasonable; and with that view desired to know at what price they would take bea- ver and other skins and commodities, and what sort of barter they would accept in exchange, such as tobacco, fish, corn, &c., and on what terms. Governor Bradford requested the Dutch people, at the same time, to forbear trading with the natives of Cape Cod bay and of the Narragansetts, which they had already been in the habit of doing, and concluded by putting them on their guard against vessels belonging to the other English plantations, which were commissioned to cap- ture and expel all strangers trading within the limits of forty degrees.
Aug. 7. To this communication the authorities at Fort Amsterdam sent a friendly reply, by John Jacobsen of Wiring, in which, at the same time, they firmly maintained their right to trade to those parts from which the English had desired them to for- bear, alleging that they had traded thither above six and twenty years, and that they had authority for so doing from the States General and the Prince of Orange. As a testimony of their good feeling towards the New Plymouth people, they accom- panied this letter with a present to Gov. Bradford, of " a rund- let of sugar and two Holland cheeses," which were very thank- Aug. fully received. The governor, in his answer, reiterated his
24. desire for the continuance of good neighborhood ; expressed a wish for an opportunity to confer personally touching mutual
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commerce, and added that he should have sent a person for CHAP. that purpose, but that he had no mode of conveyance at hand. II. He, at the same time, invited the Dutch authorities to depute 1627. some one of themselves to New Plymouth, as they had pro- posed, to make some regulations relative to trade, who would be cordially received. In sending this invitation, Governor Bradford considered it his duty again to warn the Dutch against the danger to which they were exposed from the ves- sels of Virginia, and from the fishing ships coming to New England, as, if they were met, they should assuredly be cap- tured in the same manner as a French colony, years before, which was seated within these bounds. He concluded by calling their attention to the fact, that the English had navi- gated and planted in those parts well-nigh forty years, under patents and royal grants from Queen Elizabeth, and suggested if it were not best that the States General should come to some arrangement with the British court about the matter.
The government at Fort Amsterdam was not slow to ac- cept the invitation conveyed in Governor Bradford's letter. Isaac de Razier was dispatched in the bark Nassau as am- bassador to the New Plymouth colony ; and, having arrived in the neighborhood of that settlement, forwarded a letter thus Oct. 4. addressed :-
" Monsieur Monseigneur William Bradford, Governor Nieu Plemeuen.
" After the wishing of all good unto you, this serves to let you understand that we have received your acceptable letters, dated the 14th of the last month, by John Jacobsen of Wiring, who, besides, by word of mouth hath reported unto us your kind and friendly entertainment of him. For which cause, (by the good liking and approbation of the Director and Council,) I am resolved to come myself in friendship to visit you, that we may, by word of mouth, friendly communicate of things to- gether ; as also to report unto you the good-will and favor that the Hon'ble Lords of the authorized West India Company bear towards you. And to show our willingness of your good accommodation, have brought with me some cloth of three sorts and colors, and a chest of white sugar, as also some sea- wan, &c., not doubting but, if any of them may be service-
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HISTORY OF
BOOK able unto you, we shall agree well enough about the prices II. thereof. Also, John Jacobsen, aforesaid, hath told me that he 1627. came to you overland in six hours, but I have not gone so far this three or four years ; wherefore I fear my feet will fail me, so I am constrained to entreat you to afford me the easiest means that I may, with least weariness, come to congratulate with you. So leaving other things to the report of the bearer, shall herewith end; remembering my hearty salutations to yourself and friends, &c. From aboard the barque Nassau, the 4th Oct., before Frenchman's Point, Anno 1627. Your affectionate friend,
" ISAAC DE RAZIER."
According to the request contained in the above, Governor Bradford sent a boat for Mr. de Razier, " who came honorably attended with a noise of trumpeters." This meeting, it may well be imagined, was a source of pleasure on both sides. " It was the first meeting in the solitude of the New World between friendly colonists of two allied European nations," who had much to say about a country towards which both had feelings of strong affection.
A quantity of Dutch commodities was purchased on this occasion by the New Plymouth people ; especially seawan, or wampum, which the English found to be afterwards very beneficial in their trade with the natives. This was the com- mencement of the intercourse between the Dutch and English colonists on these shores, which continued for many years, to the mutual advantage of both parties.
Oct. 11. At the departure of Mr. de Razier from New Plymouth, Governor Bradford wrote again to the Director and Council at Fort Amsterdam, in reference to the proposition regarding trade which had been made by their agent, but which the New Plymouth authorities could not, at the moment, favor- ably entertain, as they had sent a person to England and Hol- land for supplies, whose return they should necessarily await. In this communication they were again urged to clear the title to their plantation in these parts, which, it was asserted, "the king had granted by patent to divers nobles and subjects of quality." This the Dutch were recommended to do, " lest it
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be a bone of contention in these stirring evil times ; for," it CHAP. was added, " it will be harder and with more difficulty ob- 11. tained hereafter, and perhaps not without blows."]
1627.
The carnestness with which Governor Bradford asserted the right of the English to the country claimed now, or possessed by the Dutch, and urged the latter to clear their title ; and the closing hint, that possibly force might be resorted to hereafter to vindicate the British pretensions, alarmed somewhat the authorities at Fort Amsterdam. They wrote, immediately, to Nov. the directors of the company in Holland, and represented 16. that the English at New Plymouth had threatened, notwith- standing all the kindness they had received from the Dutch, to drive the latter away, or disturb them in their possessions and little colony ; and then concluded by calling for a force of forty soldiers, to aid them in repelling any hostile at- tacks.2
The company had, however, anticipated, and in some de- gree removed, before the receipt of this letter, many of the causes which might have led at this time to an interruption of good feeling between the Dutch and their English neighbors. For, though they did not, as Governor Bradford suggested, "clear their title," they obtained from Charles I. an order in council, in the month of September preceding, by which the Sept. 5 privileges which were secured, in 1627, by the treaty of South- (O. S.) ampton, to all the national vessels of the States General, were extended to the ships of the company. By this order all ports, whether in the kingdom or territories of the British king, were at once thrown open to the Dutch vessels trading to or from New Netherland, which were thus protected from
1 Bradford's Correspondence, in N. Y. Hist. Soc. Coll. (N. S.,) i. 360, et seq. Baillie's Mem. of Plym. i., 146, 147. Prince's N. E. Chron. 249. Moul- ton, 378.
2 This intelligence, which was addressed to the XIX., was reported to the States General in the following words: " Brengen tyding dat sy aldaer (in N. N.) gedreigd worden van de Engelschen van N. Pleymondt : (niettegenstaande de onsen voor desen aen deselfde alle goede correspondentie en vruntschap gepresenteerd hadden :) van hen te willen verjaegen ofte turberen in haer besit en geringe colonie. Versoecken derhalve adsistentie van veertig soldaten tot hunne defensie." Hol. Doc. i., 159, 160.
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BOOK II. seizure by any of the cruisers frequenting the English colo- nies.1
1627.
In the mean while, the trade with the Indians and adjoining plantations continued to be actively carried on. The com- pany sent out four ships this year, with cargoes valued at fifty- six thousand, one hundred and seventy guilders, ($23,404,) being an increase on last year's imports of fifteen thousand dollars. There was, however, a falling off in the value of the furs returned, which, though amounting to seven thousand, eight hundred and ninety skins, were estimated at only twelve thousand, seven hundred and thirty guilders.
1628.
Seven years had now nearly elapsed since the incorporation of the West India Company, and five since that body had been in active operation, yet nothing had been done to carry out that part of the charter which obliged them to advance settle- ments and encourage population in those fertile countries in North America committed to their charge. A few servants of the company, connected with the trading posts which served as a rendezvous for the neighboring Indians, were the only inhabitants, it may be said, of the extensive country claimed as New Netherland. Not a particle of the soil was reclaimed, save what scantily supplied the wants of those attached to the three forts which were erected within the limits of this rich and vast territory ; and the only exports were the spontaneous products of the forest. Experience had demonstrated, in the interim, that no benefits had accrued to the company from this plantation, under the present system of management, ex- cept what the peltries produced ;2 the mode of life pursued
1 This order will be found at length in Hol. Doc. ix., 292, et seq .; also in Lond. Doc. i., 36, 37, 38, 39. The treaty of Southampton is in Aitzema, i., 469.
2 " Now the part which we have named New Netherland, though as re- gards climate it ought to be as warm, and as well adapted for the cultivation of fruit at least, as France, where it borders on Spain, has, nevertheless, been found excessively cold, and as subject to frost and other inconveniences as these still more northerly provinces. The people whom we have conveyed thither up to this time, have, on that account, been able to procure but scanty means of living, and have been, not a profit, hut a loss to the Company. The trade which is carried on in peltries is right advantageous, but can, at the utmost, re- turn, one year with the other, only 50,000 guilders," ($20,000.) Remon- strance of the W. I. Co. against Peace with Spain, 1629. Hol. Doc., i., 165.
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NEW NETHERLAND.
by the people was very irregular, the expenses of the estab- CHAP. lishment excessively high, and the results not as flattering as 11. anticipated. These considerations having been frequently 1628. brought before the XIX., it was finally determined that the resources of the country, under their jurisdiction, would be most efficiently developed by the planting of " colonies," or seignorial fiefs or manors, there.
A meeting of the Assembly of the XIX. accordingly took March place early this year. It was attended by commissioners 28. from their High Mightinesses the States General, and directors and assessors on the part of the principal partners ; and a draft of a "charter of privileges and exemptions," which was considered alike serviceable to the company and advantageous to the patroons, masters, and private individuals who should plant colonies in New Netherland under its provisions, having been submitted, was referred, forthwith, to a committee for examination, which was instructed to report to a future meet- ing.1
It was while these plans were under consideration, that the arms of the company achieved a splendid and most deci- sive victory over the enemy, which, while it threw uncounted wealth into the coffers of the various partners, gave a sudden, yet most efficient, impulse to the permanent colonization of New Netherland.
Admiral Pieter Pieterssen Heyn having been put in com- mand of the company's ships, proceeded to the West Indies, and in the autumn of this year, captured, in Matanzas bay, Sept. 9. the Spanish "Plate fleet," consisting of twenty sail, laden with gold, silver, and other valuable freight, estimated to be worth five millions of dollars. From this and other preceding conquests, the company's dividends advanced at once to fifty per cent.2 When the committee, appointed in the spring of the preceding year to examine the proposed charter for the establishment of colonies in New Netherland, brought in their 1629. report, it was evident that Heyn's victory had considerable Feb. 26. influence on the minds of many of the directors. It was, however, considered wise to address the several chambers on
1 Hol. Doc. ii., 95, 96, 97.
" Vaderlands. Hist. ix., 69, 70.
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HISTORY OF
BOOK the subject, with a view to elicit their views on a matter of II. such importance. A number of amendments were subse- 1629. quently suggested and proposed, and, after a further adjourn- April 18. ment was agreed upon, in order to afford time for the fullest consideration, the whole project was again discussed in the May latter part of May, and then referred a second time to a com- 29. mittee, to report all the articles complete to the Assembly of June 7. the XIX., who, on the seventh day of June, 1629, agreed to these important concessions,1 which were duly ratified by the States General, and published in the following terms :
"FREEDOMS AND EXEMPTIONS
GRANTED BY THE ASSEMBLY OF THE XIX. OF THE PRIVILEGED WEST INDIA COMPANY, TO ALL SUCH AS SHALL PLANT ANY COLONIES IN NEW NETHERLAND :
" I. Such members of the said company as may be inclined to settle any colonie in New Netherland, shall be permitted to send in the ships of this company going thither, three or four persons to inspect the situation of the country, provided that they, with the officers and ship's company, swear to the arti- cles, so far as they relate to them, and pay for provisions and for passage, going and coming, six stuyvers per diem ; and such as desire to eat in the cabin, twelve stuyvers, and to be subordinate and give assistance like others, in cases offensive and defensive; and if any ships be taken from the enemy, they shall receive, pro rata, their proportions with the ship's company, each according to his quality; that is to say, the colonists eating out of the cabin shall be rated with the sail- ors, and those who eat in the cabin with those of the com- pany's men who eat at table and receive the lowest wages.
"II. Though, in this respect, shall be preferred such persons as have first appeared and desired the same from the company.
"III. All such shall be acknowledged Patroons of New Netherland who shall, within the space of four years next after they have given notice to any of the Chambers of the Com- pany here, or to the Commander or Council there, undertake to plant a colonie there of fifty souls, upwards of fifteen years
1 Hol. Doc. ii., 98, 99.
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NEW NETHERLAND.
old; one fourth part within one year, and within three years CHAP. after the sending of the first, making together four years, the~ remainder, to the full number of fifty persons, to be shipped 1629. from hence, on pain, in case of wilful neglect, of being de- prived of the privileges obtained ; but it is to be observed that the company reserve the island of the Manhattes to themselves.
" IV. They shall, from the time they make known the situa- tion of the places where they propose to settle colonies, have the preference to all others of the absolute property of such lands as they have there chosen; but in case the situation should not afterwards please them, or that they should have been mistaken as to the quality of the land, they may, after remonstrating concerning the same to the Commander and Council there, be at liberty to choose another place.
"V. The Patroons, by virtue of their power, shall and may be permitted, at such places as they shall settle their colonies, to extend their limits four miles1 along the shore, that is, on one side of a navigable river, or two miles2 on each side of a river, and so far into the country as the situation of the occu- piers will permit ; provided and conditioned that the company keep to themselves the lands lying and remaining between the limits of colonies, to dispose thereof, when and at such time as they shall think proper, in such manner that no person shall be allowed to come within seven or eight miles3 of them with- out their consent, unless the situation of the land thereabout were such, that the Commander and Council, for good reasons, should order otherwise ; always observing that the first occu- piers are not to be prejudiced in the right they have obtained, other than, unless the service of the Company should require it, for the building of fortifications, or something of that sort ; re- maining, moreover, the command of each bay, river, or island, of the first-settled colonie, under the supreme jurisdiction of their High Mightinesses the States General, and the com- pany : but that on the next colonies being settled on the same river or island, they may, in conjunction with the first, appoint one or more council, in order to consider what may be neces-
1 Equal to sixteen English miles. 2 Or eight English miles.
8 Thirty-two English miles.
15
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HISTORY OF
BOOK sary for the prosperity of the colonies on the said river and II. island.
1629. "VI. They shall forever possess and enjoy all the lands lying within the aforesaid limits, together with the fruits, rights, minerals, rivers, and fountains thereof ; as also the chief com- mand and lower jurisdictions, fishing, fowling, and grinding, to the exclusion of all others, to be holden from the company as a perpetual inheritance, without it ever devolving again to the company, and in case it should devolve, to be redeemed and repossessed with twenty guilders per colonie, to be paid to this company, at the chamber here, or to their commander there, within a year and six weeks after the same occurs, each at the chamber where he originally sailed from ; and further, no person or persons whatsoever shall be privileged to fish and hunt but the Patroons and such as they shall permit ; and in case any one should in time prosper so much as to found one or more cities, he shall have power and authority to establish officers and magistrates there, and to make use of the title of his colonie, according to his pleasure and to the quality of the persons.
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