USA > New York > New York City > History of New Netherland; or, New York under the Dutch, Vol. I > Part 25
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These objections were, however, overruled. It was with
1 De Vries.
2 Men spraake, dan, van de plaatse waerse staende soude. De Directeur wilde en oordeelde datse in het fort staen moest, daerse oock tegens wil en dank van de andere geset is ; en immers soo wel past als het vyffde wiel aen een wagen ; want behalve dat het fort cleyn is, op een punct leyt, dat meer im- porteren soude in cas van populatie. De Kercke die de gemeente, diese becos- tight hebben, eygen behoort te wesen, soo breeckse en beneemt den zuyt- oosten wint aen de koren-molen, die daeromtrent staet ; het welcke een mede oorsaek is, dat men des zomers dickwils by gebreek van maalen sonder broot is. Van der Donk.
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261
NEW NETHERLAND.
justice remarked that the building would be more safe from CHAP. the attacks of the Indians, within than without the fort. As to its being an impediment to the working of the wind-mill, it was remarked that the walls of the fort then impeded the action of the southeast wind on the mill, and prevented its working even before the erection of the church.1 Naught, therefore, now remained but to find ways and means to defray the neces- sary expenses. Director Kieft promised to advance a few thousand guilders from the public chest. The remainder was to be raised by private subscription.
It happened about this time that the daughter of the Rev. Mr. Bogardus was being married. This was considered a favorable opportunity for raising the required subscription. So when the wedding party was in the height of good-humor, and mellow with the host's good cheer, the Director-general called on the guests to subscribe. The disposition to be generous was not wanting at such a time. Each guest emulated his neigh- bor, and a handsome list was made out. When the morning came, a few were found desirous of reconsidering the transac- tions of the wedding-feast. But Director Kieft would allow no such second thought. They must all pay without exception.2
He entered, as churchwarden, into a contract, forthwith, for the mason-work, with John and Richard Ogden, of Stamford, May. who engaged to build a church of rock-stone, seventy-two feet long, fifty-two feet broad, and sixteen feet over the ground, in a good and workmanlike manner, for the sum of two thousand five hundred guilders, equal to one thousand dollars. The churchwardens were to furnish the lime ; to transport the stone
¿ Eer de kercke gebouwt was, conde de coornmolen met een znyt oosten wint niet malen, doordien de wint door de wallen van't fort gestut wiert. Van Tienhoven's Answer to Van der Donck.
2 De Directeur hadde dan besloten een kerck te doen timmeren, en dat ter plaetse daer het hem goet docht. Het man queert hem aan de penningen ; en waer die te becomen? Het gebeurde om desen tyt, dat den Predikant Eve- rardus Bogardus eene vrouw-voordochter bestede. Dese gelegentheyd oordeelde de Directeur een bequame tyt tot zyn voornemen te wesen, dat hy, naer den vierden off vyffden dronck oock in 't werck stelde, en hy selffs met een goet exempel voorgaende, liet de bruy-looffsgasten teyckenen, watse tot de kerck- geven wilde. Ider, dan, met een licht hooffd, teyckende ryckelick wech, de een tegen de ander ; en hoewel het eenige wel beroude, doen de sinnen weder 't huys quamen, sy moesten even wel betalen, daer viel niet tegen. Van der Donck.
III. 1642.
262
HISTORY OF
BOOK III. 1642.
from the river-side to the spot where the building was to be erected; and to allow the use of the company's boat to the con- tractors, who were to receive also a douceur of one hundred guilders, equal to $40, should the work be finished to the satis- faction of the employers.1
With such energy now was the work pushed forward, that the walls soon rose to their proper height, and the shingle roof soon followed. To commemorate the zeal both of the Direc- tor-general and of the commonalty on this occasion, a marble slab was placed conspicuously in front of the building, with the following inscription engraved thereon :-
Anno 1642; " Willem Kieft, Directeur~Generael;
"HEEFT DE GEMEENTE DESEN TEMPEL DOEN BOUWEN."3
1 The following is a copy of the contract :- " Appeared before me Cornelis van Tienhoven, secretary in behalf of the General Privileged West India Com- pany, in New Netherlands, the Hon'ble Wm. Kieft, Churchwarden, at the re- quest of his brethren, the Churchwardens of the Church in New Netherlands, to transact, and in their name to conclude the following business; So did he, as Churchwarden, agree with John Ogden, about a church in the following man- ner :- John Ogden of Stamford, and Richard Ogden, engage to build, in behalf of said Churchwardens, a church of rock-stone, seventy-two feet long, fifty feet hroad, and sixteen feet high, above the soil, all in good order, and in a work- manlike manner. They shall be obliged to procure the stone and bring it on shore near the fort at their own expense, from whence the Churchwardens shall further convey the stone to the place where it is intended to build the church, at their own expense. The Churchwardens aforesaid will procure as much lime as shall be required for the building of the aforesaid church. John and Richard Ogden shall at their own charge pay for the masonry, &c., provided, that when the work shall be finished, the Churchwardens shall pay to them the sum of 2,500 gl., which payment shall be made in beaver, cash, or merchandise, to wit :- if the Churchwardens are satisfied with the work, so that in their judg- ment the 2,500 gl. shall have been earned, then the said Churchwardens shall reward them with 100 gl. more ; and further promise to John aud Richard Og- den to assist them whenever it is in their power. They further agree to facili- tate the carrying the stone thither, and that John and Richard Ogden may use during a month or six weeks the company's hoat ; engaging themselves, and the aforesaid John and Richard Ogden, to finish the undertaken work in the manner they contracted. Done in Fort Amsterdam, in New Netherlands. (Signed) Willem Kieft, John Ogden, Richard Ogden, Gysbert op Dyck, Tho- mas Willett." Alh. Rec. iii., 31. These Ogdens are the ancestors of the pres- ent families of that name in New York, New Jersey, &c.
2 " Anno 1642; William Kieft, Director-general ; hath the Commonalty
i
263
NEW NETHERLAND.
The immediate completion of this church was, however, CHAP. doomed to be interrupted by the spirit of faction, and continued misunderstanding with the aborigines, the progress and ruinous consequences of which it becomes our duty now to relate.
Shortly after the conclusion of peace with the Wechquaes- queeks in the spring of this year, Miantonimo, chief of the Narragansett tribes, whose ambitious spirit aimed at sover- eighty over all the eastern Indians, visited the neighborhood of the Dutch settlements with a band of one hundred warriors, with a view, as it was represented, to urge the Indians into a general conspiracy against the English and the Dutch. So full, throughout the land, were men's minds of fear at the re- port of the intended massacre, that the strangest alarms seized hold of all, and a man could not halloo in the night, but it was supposed that he had fallen into the hands of the Indians, and was tortured by them unto death. Even Director Kieft became affected by these wild reports to such degree that he suspected the Indians not only of endeavoring to poison him, but even of making him the object of their diabolical incanta- tions.1
In this conjuncture of terror and distrust, some traders stole a dress of beaver-skins from a savage whom they had previ- ously stupified with brandy. He was of the Hackingsack tribe, who inhabited the country opposite the Manhattans, on the western shore. Enraged at his loss, on coming to his senses, he vowed to shoot the first " Swannekin" he should meet. He more than kept his word. An Englishman, re- siding on Staten Island, in the service of De Vries, was killed shortly after ; and in a few days following, Gerrit Jansen van Vorst was also slain, while engaged roofing a house " be-
caused this Temple to be built." Van der Donck. Judge Benson, writing in 1817, says that when the fort was taken down " a few years since," the mar- ble slab, above alluded to, was found, with the Dutch inscription on it, buried in the earth, and then removed to the belfry of the church in Garden-street, N. Y., belonging to the Dutch Reformed Congregation. On the destruction of the latter building by the great fire of 1835, this slab totally disappeared.
1 Sommige van de omleggende Wilden practiseerde ons kruyt in den brant te steken, eude den Directeur te vergeven, ofte met haer duyvelerye te beto- veren, gelyck naderhandt haer quade wille gebleecken heeft, soo door effect als report. Journael van Nieuw Nederlant. Winthrop's N. Eng. ii., 78, 79.
III. 1642.
264
HISTORY OF
BOOK hind the Cul," as Newark Bay was called, in the colonie of JII. the Lord of Nederhorst.
1642.
A deputation of chiefs from Hackingsack and Reckawanck, foreseeing the evil consequences of these outrages, hastened to New Amsterdam to make reparation, after the fashion of the red-man, by paying one or two hundred fathoms of wam- pum, as an expiatory offering, to wipe away, as they said, all memory of the deed. But Kieft would not listen to any com- promise. Nothing less than the murderer would be accepted. In vain did the chiefs plead that the Dutch were themselves the cause of the murder. "You ought not to sell brandy to the Indians to make them crazy, for they are not," they said, " accustomed to your liquors. Your own people, though used to them, fight with knives and commit fooleries when drunk. We wish you, so as to prevent all mischief, to sell no more fire-water to our braves." This reasoning was of no avail. "You must surrender the murderer," repeated Kieft. "We cannot do it," the sachems replied, "he is off to the Tankitekes ;" and again they presented their expiatory offer- ings. But these would not be received ; so they returned to their homes, hopeless of effecting any reconciliation, for the man whom Kieft required at their hands, "was also the son of a chief." Hereupon the Director-general sent a message to Pacham, chief of the Tankitekes, warning him that no repara- tion had as yet been made for the Christian blood shed by the savages, and advising him that the Dutch would not wait much longer.1
1643. Winter came, and while the earth was yet buried in snow, a party of armed Mohawks, some eighty or ninety in number, made a descent upon the Wechquaesqueeks and Tappaen Indians, for the purpose of levying tribute. Struck with ter- ror, these, amounting to between four and five hundred, fled in despair to the island of Manhattans, leaving seventy of their men on the field, and numbers of their women and children in the hands of the enemy. Half dead with hunger and cold, Feb. 7. these poor creatures presented themselves at the houses of the Dutch, by whom they were hospitably received and hu-
1 Journael van Nieuw Nederlant ; De Vries; Alb. Rec. ii., 212.
265
NEW NETHERLAND.
manely treated for the space of fourteen days. Even Kieft's CHAP. better feelings gained, for the moment, the ascendency, and he ordered corn to be furnished to the half-famished wretches. But terror had entered so deep into their souls that they did not think themselves safe even here. Once more they fled, Feb. 21. scattering themselves abroad, like leaves before the winter's wind, in various directions ; some to Pavonia, where the Hack- ingsacks bivouacked one thousand strong; and others to " Rechtanck," a point a short distance cast of Fort Amster- dam, now called Corlaer's Hook.1
During the whole of these misunderstandings with the abo- rigines, the inhabitants of New Amsterdam were divided in opinion as to the proper policy to be pursued towards them. One portion, the more numerous, at the head of which was David Pietersen De Vries, counselled patience, humanity, and kindness, by which course they felt satisfied that the un- civilized heathen would eventually be won over; for "the Indians, though cunning enough, would do no harm unless harm were done to them." Another party, headed by Secre- tary Van Tienhoven, and made up of restless spirits and men of strong passions, clamored for the extermination of the sav- ages, masking, however, the ferocity of their desires behind professions of great indignation at the shedding of innocent Christian blood, which they were anxious to revenge.
At this crisis, when wisdom might have taken advantage of the feelings of gratitude excited in the breasts of the Indians, in return for the hospitable shelter recently afforded them by the Dutch, and have thus converted them into lasting friends, Maryn Adriaensen, Jan Jansen Dam, and Abraham Planck, Feb three members of the late board of the "Twelve Men," and 22. the most violent of the exterminators, took upon themselves, while Kieft was participating, at one of their houses, in the amusements of Shrovetide, when wine and " mysterious toasts" were in free circulation, to present to the Director-general a request, in the name of the commonalty, for which, however, they had not a shadow of authority, in which they reminded
1 Report and Advice, &c., Appendix E; Journael van Nieuw Nederlandt. The Indian name for Corlaer's Hook is found in Alb. Rec.
34
In. 1643.
266
HISTORY OF
1643.
BOOK III. His Excellency that the Indians had not as yet made any repa- ration for the blood they had shed, nor fulfilled the conditions of the peace concluded at Bronck's the preceding spring. The character of the Dutch nation was suffering, they alleged, in consequence, while innocent blood was crying aloud to heaven for revenge. "But Gon having now delivered the en- emy evidently into our hands, we beseech you to permit us to attack them, for which purpose we offer our persons, and pro- pose that one party composed of freemen, and another of sol- diers, be dispatched to different places against them."]
Feb.24. The counsel of the violent prevailed. Kieft resolved "to make the savages wipe their chops." In vain did Bogardus warn him not to be too rash, and La Montagne point to the defenceless condition of the colony, and advise patience until a vessel should arrive from Patria, for by his proceedings the Director-general " was about to build a bridge, over which war would stalk, ere long, through the whole country ;" in vain did De Vries represent that such an attack could not be made without the order of the Twelve Men, nor without his consent as chairman of the board ; in vain did he describe the mischief which overwhelmed the colonie of Zwanendal in 1630, and Staten Island in 1640, in consequence of "jangling with the Indians ;" in vain did he foreshadow the ruin that would light on the Dutch themselves, who were settled all around, and had received no warning to be on their guard, so that they might escape, or prepare themselves to resist, the assaults of those Indians who should survive the attack. "You go," said he to Kieft, "to break the Indians' heads ; it is our own nation you are about to destroy. Nobody in the country knows any thing of this !" But these words "would take no hold." Every thing had been pre-arranged. Secretary Van Tienho-
1 Hol. Doc. iii., 146 ; Van Tienhoven was accused of having originated this letter. " In de jaar 1643 den 24 Feb. [22d] met alle dese omleggende wilden in vreede-saten ; op dien tyd seggen wy, als wanneer den Directeur met drie van zyn consultanten, het vastenavondspiel ten huyze van een derselfder heeft gehouden, en zyn E. Jan Dam een verborgen santé daer op heeft gedronc- ken en weynich daagen daer aen, heeft laten executeren die vervloeghte acte met de vermooden van zoo veel onschuldige wilden over op Pavonia en Mana- tans. Letter of the Eight Men. Hol. Doc. ii., 220.
267
NEW NETHERLAND.
ven and corporal Hans Stein had already been to Pavonia, to CHAP. examine the ground and to mark the position of the Indians. III. Director Kieft was panting to perform a feat worthy of the heroes of ancient Rome, and he was determined not to listen to reason. To every remonstrance he only replied-" The order is gone forth ; it shall not be recalled !"]
In the dead of a bleak winter's night, between the 25th and Feb. 26th of February, two armed parties went forth from Fort 25. Amsterdam. One, composed of freemen, headed by Maryn Adriaensen, a noted freebooter, who had recently removed from Rensselaerswyck to the Manhattans, a man of violent temper and quarrelsome disposition, proceeded, accompanied by Govert Lookermans, against the Indians at Corlaer's Hook. The other, consisting of a troop of soldiers under the com- mand of their sergeant, and guided by one well acquainted with the retreat of the red-men, crossed over to Jan de Lacher's hoeck in Pavonia, where the principal body of the Indians slept, behind the settlement of Egbert Wouterssen, and ad- joining the bouwerie of Jan Evertsen Bout, unsuspicious of any attack from those who, but a few days before, had shel- tered and fed them. To secure success, the blessing of Heaven was blasphemously invoked on the expedition.2
1 " Het woordt isser uyt ; het moet 'er uytblyven." Hol. Doc. iii., 161, 174. " Voordat dese tochten geschieden, ende den oorloch in den Raadkamer: (daer- mede present den Predikant Bogardus :) beslooten zynde, is Cornelis van Tien- hoven en Hans Steen gecommandeert van den Directeur en Raden omme op Pavonia tegaen, ende de situatie van Indianse huysen te besichtigen ; waervan By rapport gedaen hebben." Hol. Doc. v., 51, 52 ; De Vries, Korte Histo- riael.
" The following are transcripts of the commissions issued to the leaders of these expeditions :- " Whereas, the inhabitants in our neighborhood continue to reside in the country under great alarm, and cultivate their land in anxiety, through fear of the savages, who now and then have murdered some of them in a most villanous manner, without any previous provocation, and we cannot ob- tain any satisfaction for these massacres ; we must, therefore, appeal to our arms, so that we may live here in security. In the full confidence that God will crown our resolutions with success ; moreover, as the commonalty solicit, on the 22d Feh., 1643, that we may execute the same ; we, therefore, hereby authorize Maryn Adriaensen, at his request, with his associates, to attack a party of savages skulking behind Corlaer's Hook, or plantation, and act with them in every such manner as they shall deem proper, and the time and opportunity shall permit. Done this 25th February, 1643."
1643.
268
HISTORY OF
BOOK III. 1643.
" I remained that night at the Director's," says an eye-wit- ness, "and took a seat in the kitchen near the fire. At mid- night, I heard loud shrieks, and went out to the parapet of the fort, and looked towards Pavonia. I saw nothing but the flashing of the guns. I heard no more the cries of the In- dians. They were butchered in their sleep !"
The horrors of this night cause the flesh to creep when we ponder over them, now, two hundred years after their occur- rence. Eighty Indians were slaughtered at Pavonia, and thirty at Corlaer's Hook, while sunk in repose. Sucklings were torn from their mothers' breasts, butchered before their parents' eyes, and their mangled limbs thrown quivering into the river or the flames. Babes were hacked to pieces while " fastened to little boards"-their primitive cradles !- others were thrown alive into the river ; and when their parents, im- pelled by nature, rushed in to save them, the soldiers prevented their landing ; and, thus, both parents and offspring sunk into one watery grave. Children of half a dozen years ; decrepit men of threescore and ten, shared the same fate. Those who escaped and begged for shelter next morning, were killed in cold blood, or thrown into the river. " Some came running to us from the country, having their hands cut off; some lost both arms and legs ; some were supporting their entrails with their hands, while others were mangled in other horrid ways, too horrid to be conceived. And these miserable wretches, as well as many of the Dutch, were all the time under the impres- sion that the attack had proceeded from the terrible Mo- hawks."]
" Sergeant Rodolf is commandea and authorized to take under his command a troop of soldiers, and lead them to Pavonia, and drive away and destroy the savages being behind Jan Evertsen's, but to spare, as much as is possible, their wives and children, and to take the savages prisoners. He may watch there for the proper opportunity to make his attack successful ; for which end Hans Stein, who is well acquainted with every spot on which the savages were skulk- ing, accompanies him. He, therefore, shall consult with the aforesaid Hans Stein and the corporals. The exploit to be executed at night, with the great- est caution and prudence. Our God may bless the expedition. Done, Feb 24th, 1643." Alb. Rec. ii., 210, 211. Hol. Doc. iii., 148, 204.
1 Do Vries ; The Journael van Nieuw Nederland says, the number killed at both places was eighty, and that thirty were taken prisoners.
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269
NEW NETHERLAND.
On the following day, a man, named Dirck Straatmaker, CHAP. proceeded with his wife to Pavonia, in company with some~ Englishmen, "to plunder maize or any thing else." They Feb.26 were warned by the soldiers to return home, but they refused. " There was no danger ; if there were a hundred savages, not one of them would injure us." The soldiers, hereupon, with- drew, but had not gone far when they heard a shriek. Straat- maker lay mortally wounded, and his wife dead by his side. The unfortunate man could have escaped, but he "did not wish to leave his poor wife." The Englishmen, " who had but one gun among them," were fortunately rescued.1
Flushed with victory, the respective parties returned to Fort Amsterdam, bringing with them thirty prisoners, and the heads of several of the enemy. Kieft, notwithstanding several of the commonalty protested against his proceedings and those of his three friends, received his soldiers and freebooters with thanks, rewards, and congratulations ; while Van Tienhoven's mother- in-law, forgetful of those finer feelings which do honor to her sex, amused herself, it is stated, in kicking about the heads of the dead men which had been brought in, as bloody trophies of that midnight slaughter. The spirit of animosity against the Indians soon became epidemic. Settlers on Long Island. not to be behind their countrymen at the Manhattes, presented a petition, signed in their name by Gerritt Wolfertsen, Jacob Feb Wolfertsen, Dirck Wolfertsen, and Lambert Huybertsen 27. Mol, requesting permission to attack the Marreckkawick In- dians, residing between Breucklen and Amersfoort.2 Kieft re- fused to sanction this step. These Indians had been always the friends and allies of the Dutch, and an attack on them, now, would not only lead to a destructive war, especially as this tribe was on its guard and " hard to conquer," but it would add to the number of the public enemy, and be productive of ruinous consequences to the petitioners themselves. If, how- ever, these Indians should demean themselves in a hostile
1 Alb. Rec. iii., 117. Journael van N. N
" Hol. Doc. v., 320. These Wolfertsens were sons, we presume, of Wolfert Gerrittsen, who, with Hudde, purchased the Flatts, near the town of Flattlands, in 1636.
1643.
270
HISTORY OF
BOOK III. manner, every one was permitted to defend himself as best he
could.1
1643.
The latitude allowed by the latter part of this reply, was construed by the petitioners, who were ready to construe any movement on the part of the Indians into a show of hostility, as authorizing the execution of their projects. They imme- diately got up a secret expedition, and plundered the Marreck- kawicks of two wagon loads of corn. The latter endeavored to prevent the robbery. A rencontre ensued, and two Indians lost their lives.2
This unjustifiable outrage led to consequences almost fatal to the Dutch. It estranged the Long Island Indians, the warmest of their friends, who now formed an alliance with the river Indians, whose hate knew no bounds when they dis- covered that it was the Dutch, and not the Mohawks, who had attacked them at Pavonia and Corlaer's Hook. The tomahawk, the firebrand, and scalping knife, were clutched with all the ferocity of phrensy, and the warwhoop rang from the Raritan to the Connecticut, for eleven tribes of savages proclaimed open war against the Dutch.3 Every settler on whom they laid hands was murdered-women and children dragged into captivity ; and though the settlements around Fort Amsterdam extended, at this period, thirty English miles to the east, and twenty-one to the north and south, the enemy burned the dwellings, desolated the farms and farm-houses, killed the cattle, destroyed the crops of grain, hay, and to- bacco, laid waste the country all around, and drove the set- tlers, panic-stricken, into Fort Amsterdam.4 " Mine eyes saw the flames of their towns," says Roger Williams ; " the
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