USA > New York > New York City > History of New Netherland; or, New York under the Dutch, Vol. I > Part 16
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Van Twiller succeeded this season in concluding an advan- tageous peace with the Raritans, which, in the weak state of the colony, was good policy. There were no exports this year from New Netherland. The company sent out the Eendracht, or Union, again, with a cargo valued at 29,562 guilders. Jan Evertsen Bout, heretofore one of the company's servants, came a passenger in this ship, having been appointed by Mr. Paauw superintendent of his colonie at Pavonia.3
1 Hol. Doc. ii., 51, 90, 131, 132, 134, 136-143, 144.
2 Alb. Rec. ii., 328.
3 Ibid. i., 96 ; De Laet ; Hol. Doc. v., 399. Jan Evertsen Bout, mentioned in the text, was a native of Barneveldt, and a man of some note in N. N. He obtained a deed for a farm in 1638, which was the first settlement in the pres- ent town of Bergen, N. J. His wife's name was Tryntje Simenz. de Witt.
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HISTORY OF
CHAPTER VI.
Encroachments of the New England people on New Netherland-Tear down the arms of the States General at Kievitts Hoeck-Van Twiller protests against the intruders, and makes representations to the directors-The Eng- lish send Governor Winslow to London to complain against the Dutch-He is imprisoned there-English attempt a settlement on the South River-Are taken prisoners and sent to the Manhattans-First English settlers in New Amsterdam-Fort Amsterdam finished-Irregularities there-Director-gen- eral and several members of his council appropriate to themselves large quan- tities of the public domain-Settlement of Flatlands, or New Amersfoort commenced-Van Dinelage, schout-fiscaal, opposes Van Twiller-Is dismissed from office-Returns to Holland-Ulrich Lupold appointed in his place-Van Dinclage brings the affairs of New Netherland before the States General- Assembly of the XIX. remove Van Twiller-William Kieft appointed direc- tor-general of New Netherland-Prices at New Amsterdam and on the Connecticut ; Van Twiller adds a number of islands to his estates-States General call the attention of the company to the retrograding condition of New Netherland-Require report thereupon-Queries submitted to the direc- tors-Their answers-Propose surrendering the Indian trade-Unfavorable state of the colony-Causes thereof-States General insist on the adoption of some plan to encourage emigration to and the settlement of the country, so that New Netherland may not be lost or given away.
BOOK II. 1635.
THE English at the eastward having at length obtained a foothold on the Connecticut, the towns of Massachusetts soon rang with the fame of the fertility and "excellent meadows" of that valley ; and these, consequently, became an object of great desire and competition among the New England people. It might have been expected, that when they had settled in America, they would, in gratitude for the hospitality which they had experienced at the hands of the Dutch during their long sojourn at Leyden, Amsterdam, and other cities in Hol- land and Zealand, have left New Netherland unmolested, and forborne to intrude on territory to which they had no claim. But, acting on the principle that they were the saints to whom the earth belonged, pride and self-interest entirely eradicated sentiments of justice and gratitude from their hearts.1 They
1 Lambrechtsen's N. Netherl., in N. Y. Hist. Coll. i., 98. " It can scarcely be believed," adds the same author, " that men so conscientious that they con- sidered themselves in duty bound not to make the least concession in any dispu-
169
NEW NETHERLAND.
stopped not, then, to inquire whether they had any legal title CHAP. to the country ; nor were they at all discouraged by the fact, that by virtue of prior discovery, chartered conveyance from a recognised government, and possession, the Dutch had, for years, been the just proprietors of the district. They at once pronounced the latter "always mere intruders," and, without a shadow of title, commenced a system of encroachments on their neighbors' territory, which, from the first, had no plea for its justification, but such as was prompted by self-interest and covetousness.1 Emigrants from Watertown, Dorchester, Cam- bridge, Newtown, and other places, crossed the mountains, and commenced plantations in several places on the banks of the river. Nearly at the same time, an expedition under Mr. John Winthrop, son of the governor of Massachusetts, repaired by water to Kievitts Hoeck, where he erected a fort, and re- fusing a Dutch party permission to land on their own purchased
ted point about religious rituals, men so highly revering the Holy Scriptures, that they considered themselves in duty bound to distinguish their cities and villages by Biblical names, should so little care about their Netherland neigh- bors of the same religious profession, should so little respect their anterior pos- session." " Deplorable consequences of ignorance and intoler- ance, so much more pernicions, yea, so much more contemptible, in men who had tasted, by experience, their bitter fruits."
1 " It is not easy to discover on what ground the Dutch were regarded by the first settlers of Connecticut, or by their historian at this day, as mere intruders. They had made the discovery of Hudson's river, and established themselves on its banks. They had obtained a patent from their government, who had as good a right to grant lands discovered by their subjects, as any other state. This patent included the lands on Connecticut River, and this river was discov- ered by them before it was known by the English to exist, and before the grant of the New England patent. After trading with the Indians for several years, they purchased of them a tract of land, and built upon it a fort and trading- house, before the country had been taken possession of by the English ; and the people of Plymouth and Massachusetts colonies, when they attempted to drive them from it, came withont a shadow of title from the Plymouth Comva- ny, under whom they professed to claim. . Through the influence of Lord Say and Seal, and other friends of the colony at the court of Charles II., the people of Connecticut obtained from that prince, [1662,] soon after the Restoration, a charter with very ample privileges, containing a grant of all the lands embraced in the original patent, including the New Haven colony. This gave them the first legal title to the lands on which they had settled." N. A. Review, viii., 81, 85. See chapter in Van der Donck's Vertoogh van N. N, entitled, " Of the Right which the Dutch have to the Fresh River."
22
1635.
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HISTORY OF
BOOK soil, offensively tore the arms of the States General from a II. tree, to which they had been affixed some years before, and in 1635. their stead, engraved, in derision, a buffoon's face. On the upper waters of the Connecticut, at a spot then called Aga- wan, but now Springfield, some distance above Fort Hope, a Mr. Pyncheon established a trading-post and plantation ; and though Director Van Twiller made representations to Holland relative to these proceedings, and also protested against the intruders, the English not only refused to desist, but dispatched Governor Winslow, of New Plymouth, to make representa- tions against the Dutch, which might, possibly, have had some effect, had not Archbishop Laud opposed his proceedings, and caused him to be thrown into prison, on the ground that he was a dissenter from the established church.1 The River Connecticut was not the only theatre of these encroachments at this early date. Experiencing no energetic resistance from the authorities at Fort Amsterdam, the English next deter- mined to attempt an assault on the company's territory at the South River. With a view to make a settlement there, a party consisting of George Holmes, his hired man Thomas Hall, and twelve or thirteen others, proceeded to the Dela- ware ; but on their arrival at that point, Hall deserted his master, and the others, failing in their attempt on Fort Nas- sau, were made prisoners by the Dutch, and forwarded to the Manhattans in one of the company's boats. Instead of being punished for their aggressive conduct, these people, who were the first English settlers among the Dutch on Manhattan Island, were treated leniently by the Director-general, under whose patronage they established themselves in various ways around Fort Amsterdam.2 .
1 Mr. Winslow, the late governor of Plymouth, being this year in England, petitioned the council there for a commission to withstand the intrusions of the French and Dutch, which was likely to take effect ; but the archbishop being incensed against him, informed the rest that he was a Separatist ; that he did marry, and thereupon, got him committed. He was afterwards discharged on petition. Winthrop's Journal, 89 ; Winthrop's N. Eng. i., 172 ; Cotton Ma- ther's Magnalia, b. ii., c. 2.
2 Verbael van Beverninck, 606; Trumbull's Conn. i., 36, 58 ; De Vries ; Vanderdonck's Vertoogh van N. N. ; Hol. Doc. iv., 110; v., 399 ; Report and adv. on the condition of New Netherland, Appendix E.
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NEW NETHERLAND.
Two years had now elapsed since Van Twiller had com- CHAP. menced the erection of this fort. Though its dimensions were
VI. not extensive, being about three hundred feet long, and about 1635. two hundred and fifty broad, it was not finished until this year, owing, we presume, to lack of hands and the number of other buildings which he had undertaken. It was completed, it is said, by the company's negroes, at an expense of four thou- sand one hundred and seventy-two guilders, or $1688, in which sum was comprised, it is to be supposed, the cost of the sev- eral buildings which the fort contained.1
The administration of Wouter Van Twiller had been, hith- 1636. erto, marked by any thing but good order in the colony, or economy in the government. De Vries, who paid periodical visits to New Amsterdam, gives by no means a favorable view of the state of things there. On one occasion he was accom- July panied to the fort by Cornelis van Vorst, superior officer at 26. Pavonia, who was carrying a present of claret to the Director- general, " of which article he knew he was fond." Another of the company's servants happening to be present, an alterca- tion arose between the latter, Van Twiller, and Van Vorst, relative to a manslaughter which had recently been committed in the colonie. Matters, however, were soon made up, and Van Vorst, thereupon, proceeded to fire a salute in honor of the Director-general, from a stone gun which stood near the house. A spark from the wadding lodged on the roof, which " being covered with reed" caught fire, " and the whole build- ing was consumed in less than half an hour !"
This was not the only disorder to which De Vries was a witness, and which these potations produced. Some time Ang. 8. after, the first gunner gave a jollification at one of the angles of the fort, where a tent was erected, and tables and benches set for the several guests. In the midst of the revelry, the trum-
1 Alb. Rec. i., 88 ; Hazard i., 397. The calculation made above of the dimensions of the fort, is based or founded on a statement contained in Hol. Doc. v., 11. It is there stated, that the church built by Director Keift in 1642-3, "occupied nearly one fourth part of the fort." (De Kerck bykans het vierde part van het fort beslaet.) Now this church was, as appears by the contract, 72 feet long, and 52 broad. This multiplied by four, would make the dimensions of the fort about as above stated.
172
HISTORY OF
BOOK peter blew a blast upon his trumpet, which considerably II. alarmed those partaking of the frolic. The koopman of the
1636. stores, and the koopman of the cargoes, were highly incensed at this interruption, and called the bugle-blower some hard names, in return for which the trumpeter gave each of them " a drubbing." The koopmen forthwith ran home for their swords, and, full of pot-valiant swagger, followed the trumpeter even to the Director's, for the purpose of " eating him !" They did not, fortunately, find the delinquent, who thus escaped the demolition with which he was threatened.1
A disposition prevailed, in addition to all this, among almost all the company's servants, to enrich themselves at their em- ployers' expense, and to accumulate wealth without much re- gard as to the means. The Director-general, and the members of his council, by appropriating to themselves large portions of the public domain, encouraged, rather than checked this pro- pensity. Van Twiller, Wolfert Gerritsen, Andreas Hudde, and Jacob van Curler, obtained from the Indians, in the course of this summer, without the knowledge or approval of the di- rectors in Holland, three flatts of land on Long Island, amount- ing, it was estimated, to between ten and fifteen thousand acres.2 The Director-general established a tobacco plantation on one part of his section ; Gerritsen and Hudde had a well- stocked farm, called Achterveldt, on theirs ; and Jacob van Curler hired Thomas Hall to superintend another farm, or plantation, which he commenced on his part. Elbert Elbert-
1 At the Dutch plantation this summer, a ship's long boat was overset with a gust. Five men in her got on the keel and were driven to sea four days. Only one of them was saved : he was cast ashore on Long Island. Winthrop's Jour. 187. 2 16th June, 1636. The Director-General and council of New Netherland, residing at Fort Amsterdam, on the island of Manhattans, certify, that before them appeared, this day, Tenkirauw, Ketamian, Ararykan, Aswackhon, Sua- rinkekinkh, Wappettawackenis, Ehetyl, owners, who, by the advice and in the presence of Penhawis, Cakapeteyno, chiefs in that quarter, have, for certain goods delivered to them, sold, &c., to Jacobus van Curler, the middlemost of the three flatts to them belonging, called Castateeuw, lying on the island Sewan- hacky, between the bay of the North River and the East River. Same day, same parties sell to Hudde and Gerrittsen, the westernmost of the above flatts; and on the 16th July, same year, same Indians sell to Van Twiller the eastern- most of those flatts. Alb. Rec. GG, 31, 35, 39. Van Curler transferred his part, called Cashutey, to Van Twiller in July, 1638. Alb. Rec. i., 30.
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NEW NETHERLAND.
sen, one of Van Twiller's farm-servants, and Thomas Spicer CHAP. settled in the same neighborhood about the same time, but 1636.
without any deed for their land.1
Such were the circumstances under which was commenced the first settlement of the present town of Flatlands, on Long Island, which was originally called New Amersfoordt, after the birthplace of the celebrated Dutch patriot and jurist, OLDEN- BARNEVELT.
The irregular conduct and proceedings of the Director-gen- eral encountered serious opposition from Lubbertus van Din- ;lage, the schout-fiscaal. But Van Twiller, however good a boon companion, was not a man to brook opposition in his gov- ernment. He arraigned the fiscal for his contumacy ; con- demned him to lose his wages, which were now three years in arrears ; ordered him to proceed forthwith to Fatherland, to justify his conduct, and thus virtually deprived him of the offi- ces which he held direct from the chamber at Amsterdam. Van Dinclage returned to Holland in the summer of this year. He was succeeded in office by a Hanoverian named Ulrich Lupold of Staden, in the diocese of Bremen, and on the 30th Ang. of August addressed a memorial to their High Mightinesses 30. the States General, in which he not only demanded redress of his own individual grievances, but called attention, at length, to the course of maladministration pursued in New Netherland, including in his accusations even the Rev. Mr. Bogardus, the clergyman at Fort Amsterdam.2
1 Alb. Rec. i., 19, 29, 34 ; ii., 10 ; iv., 45, 46, 66 ; ix. 44. Elbert Elbertsen and Thomas Spicer, from Amersfoort, (says Stuyvesant in 1653,) usurped their lands many years ago without any deed. ...... They are occupying such lands in said village fifteen to twenty years. Hol. Doc. v., 398.
2 Hol. Doc. ii., 167, 178-181. It is to be regretted that Dinclage's letter on this occasion is not to be found, as it would throw considerable light on the his- tory of Van Twiller's administration. The States General, in referring it to the Assembly of XIX., glance cursorily at its contents. Vanderdonk, in his Vertoogh van Nienw Nederland, refers to Dinclage as competent to give a full account of Van Twiller's government, for he adds, " He is known to have reported there- on." Reference is made in the Alb. Rec. ii., 50, iii., 291, to " the records kept in Director Van Twiller'e time ;" but these, as well as Dinclage'e report, are, we fear, irreparably lost, and thus the historian of this period is deprived of materials in every respect invaluable. The complaint against Bogardus is thus mentioned in the Alb. Rec. ii., 17 :- " The Rev. Ev. Bogardus petitions the
174
HISTORY OF
BOOK This representation obtained, at first, no consideration from
IL. the West India Company, with some of the directors of 1637. which body Van Twiller was connected, as already mentioned. But the States General, at the repeated solicitations of Din- April clage, urged matters so strongly, that the Assembly of the 30. XIX. found it incumbent on them, at length, to make a change Sept. 2. in the administration. On the second of September, 1637, the Honorable Elias de Raedt, one of the directors of the company, appeared before their High Mightinesses, and re- quested them to commission WILLIAM KIEFT as director- general of New Netherland, which was accordingly done.1 But Van Twiller took care, before he was superseded, to en- large his own private estate, by the purchase from the Indians of the island of Pagganck, lying south of New Amsterdam,
June 16. now known as Governor's Island, which contained one hun- July dred and sixty acres of land ; also of two islands in the river 16. Hellegat : the greater, containing about 200 acres, called Tenkenas ; the smaller, some 120 acres in extent, lay west of the latter, and was named Minnahanock. Abraham Pietersen of Haarlem obtained possession this year, in the name of the company, of the island Quotenis, situate in the bay of Narra- gansetts and adjoining Roode Island, which he occupied as a trading-post for a long time ; as well as another island lying near the Pequot's River, which afterwards went among the English by the name of the Dutchman's Island.2
Though the means of determining satisfactorily the pro- gress of the colony, its condition or population, at the epoch to which we have now arrived, are but scanty and scattered, we are enabled to form some conclusions as to the prices of provisions, and of the rate of wages in New Amsterdam. Rye was worth two florins and a half per schepel of three pecks ; maize, one and a half to two florins ; peas, four to five florins ; wheat, three florins ; broken barley, four florins ;
Director-general and council for permission to return to Fatherland to defend himself against the charges brought by Lubbert van Dinclage. The council resolve (18th July, 1638) to retain the minister here, so that the increase of God's word may in no manner be prevented."
1 Hol. Doc. i., 183.
2 Alb. Rec. GG, 41, 46 ; i., 89 ; xviii., 291.
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NEW NETHERLAND.
whale oil, three florins the gallon ; vinegar, two florins ; pep- CHAP. per, two florins and a half per pound ; gunpowder, one florin and a half ; candles, ten stivers ; shot and balls, two florins ; pork, seven stivers ; meat, six stivers ; tobacco, twelve stivers ; a hog, six months old, brought fifteen florins ; nine hundred bundles of reed cost thirteen florins and a half ; five hundred nails, two florins and a half ; bricks per thousand, ten florins ; a scythe, six florins ; a keg of butter, twenty-five florins. A laborer in harvest got about eighty cents a day, on other oc- casions, sixty ; while the price of a negro was forty florins, or $16.1
There was, at this period, a great scarcity in the adjoining settlements on the Connecticut, in consequence of the war between the English and the Pequods. Corn rose there to the extraordinary high price of twelve shillings a bushel. A good cow brought thirty pounds ; a pair of oxen, forty pounds ; a mare, forty pounds ; and labor and other articles bore a pro- portional high rate. Whether the prices in New Netherland were affected by the war in Connecticut, or by the small quantity of provisions raised by the Dutch, it is impossible to determine.2
The critical condition of New Netherland, threatened from 1638. without by greedy and encroaching neighbors, surrounded on all sides by uncivilized tribes, who were at best not much to be depended on, and who might, without warning, fall on the few Europeans settled in their midst and cut them off, in the same manner as the Indians had already destroyed the Eng- lish on James River, occupied the attention, early this spring, of the States General. Their High Mightinesses had learned, and now officially announced, that the colony was retro- April grading every day more and more ; that its population had not 26. only not advanced as much as it ought, but that, on the con- trary, though encouraged, it had, owing to the neglect of the West India Company, absolutely decreased, and that to such a degree, that subjects of foreign powers and princes were attempting to seize and appropriate the country to themselves,
1 Alb. Rec. i., 89 ; ii., 59. Two florins and a half make a dollar.
' Trumbull's Conn. i., 78, 94.
1637.
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HISTORY OF
BOOK and that unless means were provided, the whole of New II. 1638.
Netherland would be invaded at once.1 Indignant at these proofs of maladministration, they had already instructed their deputies to the meeting of the XIX., to investigate thoroughly the state of affairs in the Dutch possessions in North America, and to report the result of their inquiries without delay.
These deputies lost no time in attending to the matter con- fided to them. They drew up a series of queries embodying the information which they wished to obtain, and submitted April these to the delegates from the company, who annexed their 30. replies, shortly after, to the questions, and returned the whole, which was duly transmitted to the States General. This pa- per, remarkable for its brevity, is the more interesting as it affords a bird's-eye view of the real situation of the country, when its only inhabitants, from the Chesapeake to the Con- necticut, consisted of a few feeble and almost defenceless fur- traders. We therefore annex it :
" I. Question. How far do the limits of New Netherland extend along the sea-coast ? Ans. Their High Mightinesses granted, anno 1614, to Jonas Wittsen and Tweenhuyzen, by special charter, and on expiration thereof to the West India Company, from Virginia upward ; to wit, from Ciçapoa along the sea coast to Terra Nova.
"II. Q. Are these limits still possessed, at the present time, by the West India Company and citizens of this coun- try ? Ans. We occupy Mauritius, or the North River. Thereon are two forts, Orange and Amsterdam ; and there is one house built for the company, and that is the greatest num- ber of people. (En dat is de meeste populatie.)
"III. Q. If not, what nations have seized them, and un- der what pretext ? Ans. The right is that of the strongest ! The English reach from the northeast of New England to the Fresh River.
1 De populatie in Nieuw Nederlandt niet alleen naer behooren niet en wordt bevordert, nemaer oock de begonste populatie aldaer genoechsaam verachtert, ende by de Compagnie van W. I. schynt geneglegeert te worden, sulx dat do ingesetenen van uytheemsche princen ende potentatien Nieuw Nederlandt on- derstaen 't incorporen, ende ten sy daerinne tydelyck werde versien gants ende t'eenemael sullen invaderen. Hol. Doc. ii., 188.
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NEW NETHERLAND.
"IV. Q. Can the company hold the remaining territory, CHAP. and by what means ? Ans. We can retain the remainder in V1. proportion as we have people. From the North River, men can go into the interior as far as they please.
1638.
"V. Q. What Christian nations are neighbors above and below ? Ans. The English enclose us from Virginia to New England, and as far beyond as we have been.
"VI. Q. Have they [the W. I. Co.] realized profit or loss since the planting of New Netherland ? Ans. They have suffered loss. But it should be able to afford a profit, especially from corn.
"VII. Q. And in case of loss, should their High Mighti- nesses consider it requisite to preserve the limits of New Netherland, and to place the population on a better and surer footing ? Ans. The company cannot people it, because the directors cannot agree among themselves. But some plan of proceeding must be considered.
" VIII. Q. Would it not be expedient to place the district of New Netherland at the disposal of the Generaliteit, [that is, the body of the States General] ? Ans. They have no such intention, unless they derive profit therefrom. But they hope, now that they have taken some order about Brazil, that it will prove profitable in time. It is proposed to surrender the trade with the Indians, or something else."1
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