USA > New York > New York City > History of New Netherland; or, New York under the Dutch, Vol. I > Part 26
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1 Hol. Doc. v., 337, 338. The answer was drawn up in council, in the fort, in the presence of the Director-general, the Fiscal, the Rev. Bogardus, Ensign Van Dyck, Gysbert op Dyck, and Oloff Stevensen.
2 Journael van N. N.
3 Genootsaack geworden tegens elff natien van wilden (: ten deser oorsaecke opstaende :) den openbaar oorloch aentenemen. Report and advice, Ap- pendix.
4 Two thousand Indians by them armed . fall into war with the Dutch, destroyed all their scattering farms and boors, in forcing them to retire to their up fort, forty leagues up that river, and to Manhatas. Description of New Albion, 19.
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NEW NETHERLAND.
frights and hurries of men, women, and children, and the CHAP. present removal of all that could to Holland."] The planters, despairing of effecting a settlement in the country, threatened now to abandon New Netherland, or to move to Rensselaers- wyck. Dreading the removal of the people en masse, the Director-general found himself obliged to take all the settlers March into the company's service for a period of two months, for he 1. had not soldiers sufficient for the public defence.2
111. 1643.
Pent up in the fort with all who could escape the vengeance of the savages, Director Kieft experienced, and had to bear, the wrath of the men and women who beheld their bouweries in flames, and found themselves reduced in a moment, by his insane conduct, from the comforts of competency to beggary. Women asked him for their husbands ; men for their wives and children ; and all taunted him with the ruinous conse- quences which followed his obstinate rashness. He endeav- ored, for a moment, to stem the torrent of public discontent, by sending Adriaensen again forth at the head of an armed force ; but no good resulted. Adriaensen, though backed by an English company, came back from his bootless expeditions with the additional chagrin of having witnessed, in the de- struction of his own property, the misery he inflicted on others returning, with tenfold severity, on his own head. Kieft next sent a delegation to the Long Island Indians to inquire why they were discontented, and to make them a proffer of his friendship. But these were too simple-minded to be imposed upon ; too indignant to listen to his professions. "Call ye yourselves our friends ? Ye are nothing but corn-thieves," they shouted from a distance, while they refused to hold any communication with the Dutch messengers.3
Foiled in all his plans, and now smarting under the ad- ditional disgrace of having his advances for a peace rejected by the uncivilized savages, Kieft cowered ; and deprived of all other resources, determined to humble himself before that
1 Rhode Island Hist. Rec. iii., 156.
2 Alb. Rec. ii., 213.
3 Den Directeur . sont voort eenigh volck overomme de reden te weten. De Wilden haer van verre verthoonende, riepen: "Zyt gy onse vrienden? gy zyt maer cooren dieven." Journ. van N. N.
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1643.
BOOK Heaven whose laws he had offended, in the hope of obtaining from the Most High that mercy which he had refused to his fellow-men. " We continue to suffer much trouble and loss from the heathen, and many of our inhabitants behold their lives and property in jeopardy, which is doubtless the conse- quence of our sins," was the humble confession which he March publicly made on proclaiming a day of General Fast and
4. Prayer, and soliciting every one to prepare, by true penitence and unremitted supplication, to invoke God's mercy, " so that His holy name may not be slandered by the heathen through our iniquities."1
All this, however, had not the effect of allaying popular discontent, nor of diverting public censure. The Director- general was still held responsible for the massacre on the night of the 25th February, which was now held in such general detestation by the honest burghers, that some among them seriously proposed to imitate the precedent offered by the neighboring province of Virginia, by deposing the Director, and bundling him back to Holland in the Peacock, then in port.2 From this responsibility Kieft endeavored to extricate himself, by throwing the fault on those who had presented him the petition in the name of the commonalty. "You must blame the freemen for what has occurred." "You forbade those freemen to meet on pain of corporal punishment," was the retort thrown back at him : "how came it then ?" He could make no reply.3
Maryn Adriaensen, one of the three who had signed the letter, became soon aware of the direction which Kieft was giving to public opinion, for he found himself the object of public reproach, and heard himself assailed as a murderer, and stigmatized as the chief cause of all the sufferings which his fellow-citizens had to endure at the hands of the Indians. Goaded by the recollections of all that he had risked, and all that he had lost, the freebooter armed himself with a cutlass
1 Alb. Rec. ii., 214, 215.
" " Hendrick Snyder Kip said, We ought to send the Kievit (meaning the Director) back to Holland in the Peacock." Alb. Rec. iii., 109.
3 See affidavits of Evertsen Bout, Stoffelsen, Arentsen, Cornelissen, Derck sen Blaauw, in Hol. Doc. iii., 149, 150, 151, 152, 154.
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and loaded pistol, and rushed into the presence of the Direc- CHAP. tor-general, where, presenting the weapon at Kieft's breast, he exclaimed, " What devilish lies are these you've been telling of me ?" The assault would of a certainty have been fatal to the Director, had not Counsellor La Montagne, who happened to be near, grasped, with becoming presence of mind, the pistol with such quickness as to cover the pan with his hand, and thus the weapon fortunately missed fire ; while Robert Pennoyer drew the sword from the scabbard and flung it on one side. With the assistance of the attorney-general and others, the assassin was immediately overpowered and com- mitted to prison.
The attack was, however, the signal for a general rising among Adriaensen's followers. In an hour, the prisoner's son, accompanied by another desperado, presented himself, armed with a pistol and a gun, at the fort where Kieft was walking. On perceiving their approach, the Director-gene- ral retired towards his room, but was, notwithstanding, fired at on his retreat by young Marynsen, who, in return, was shot down by the sentinel, his head being afterwards affixed to a gibbet. A crowd of some five and twenty of Adriaensen's accomplices now collected around the Director's door ; but not well relishing a personal interview with all these lawless men at once, Kieft ordered four of their number to be admitted. These demanded the prisoner's pardon ; but as this could not be acceded to, the Director-general expressed his willingness to submit the whole matter to the citizens at large, to adjudge in the case as their consciences should suggest, with permis- sion to the prisoner's friends, to select some from among themselves to assist in the investigation.
Instead of communicating this proposal to the congregation, amounting now to over five hundred men, Maryn's friends selected twenty-five or thirty persons who reiterated the de- mand that the prisoner be released, "which of course was refused." They then elected eight from among themselves, " one of whom was already a convicted criminal," who, with- out hearing any of the parties, or taking cognizance of any complaints or papers, ordered Adriaensen's release on pay- ment of a fine of five hundred guilders, ($200,) and on condi-
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III. 1643. March 21.
274
HISTORY OF
BOOK tion that he absent himself from the Manhattans for and during III. the space of three months. This proceeding being entirely
1643. irregular, was refused the sanction of the authorities. De- sirous, however, of paying some deference to public opinion, Director Kieft determined, "in accordance with the invariable custom in affairs of consequence," to adjoin some of the most respectable of the commonalty to the council, which, notwith- standing the Director's solemn promise to the Twelve Men in January, 1642, still consisted of only two persons. But owing to cither his own unpopularity, or to the fear of Maryn's asso- ciates, Kieft found "none so poor to do him reverence." " No one would or dared to assist us." The Director-general March thereupon resolved to send the prisoner, with all the docu- 28. ments appertaining to the case, to Holland, that he may be tried there, "lest it might be insinuated that we acted in a passion." Thither Adriaensen, it is said, was shipped in irons accordingly.I
Spring, the season for fishing, hunting, and planting, was
1 Alb. Rec. ii., 216, 217, 218, 219 ; iii., 94. Winthrop, and after him Hub- bard, Trumbull, and all the New England authorities who allude to this trans- action, represent that Adriaensen, whom they call " Marine, the Dutch Cap- tain," assanlted Kieft for having preferred Capt. Underhill to him as commander, about this time, of the Dutch forces against the Indians. But the Albany Records and the Journael van Nieuw Nederlandt, which embody Kieft's personal statement, make no mention of this motive. They ascribe Maryn's movement solely to irritation at being assailed as a murderer, and made thereby the scape-goat for public censure to centre on. " What devilish lies have you been telling of me?" is his complaint, and not, Why do yon put another over me ? Besides, Underhill did not enter into the Dutch service until the fall of this year, several months after the above assanlt. The latter's promotion could not, therefore, have been the cause of Maryn's attack on Director Kieft. In truth, the statements of New England writers, in general, on matters occurring in New Netherland, must be received, for obvious reasons, with extreme cau- tion. They serve to embarrass rather than to facilitate the labor and progress of the historian.
The freebooter, it seems, returned to New Netherland some years after this, and, notwithstanding the above ontrage on the Director-general's person, ob- tained a grant from Kieft, on the 11th May, 1647, of " a piece of land on the west side of the North River, known by the name of Awiehaken," which " is bounded on the south by the kill of Hoboken, and runs thence north to the next kill, and with the same breadth into the woods, until it contains 50 mor- gens of land." Alb. Rec. GG, 49I.
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now at hand. The Indians saw the necessity of intermitting CHAP. their wars, to prepare food for themselves and families. They made advances, therefore, for the re-establishment of peace.1 1643. Three Indians, messengers from " the great chief Pennawitz," March sachem of the Canarsee tribe, approached the fort, bearing a 4. white flag. They were sent to inquire why the Dutch had murdered his people, who had never injured them? The op- portunity was seized to obtain a cessation of hostilities, and Captain David P. De Vries and Jacob Olfertzsen volunteered to go to Rockaway, to have " a talk" with the Indians. They arrived in the evening at the wigwam of the " one-eyed" chief, by whom they were hospitably entertained. His residence was situated some miles from the shore, and he was surround- ed by between two and three hundred warriors, the owners of some thirty horses.
The Dutch ambassadors were led forth next morning into the woods, where they found sixteen chiefs awaiting their ar- rival. Seated in a circle, these placed the delegates from the Manhattans in the centre, and then one of the chiefs, holding a bundle of little sticks in his hand, slowly arose and address- ed the Dutchmen in the following words :
"When you first arrived on our shores, you were often in want of food. We gave you our beans and our corn. We let you eat our oysters and fish ; and now, for a recompense, you murder our people."
Here the sachem paused It was the first count in the in- dictment. He laid down one of the little sticks, and then proceeded :
" The men whom you left here at your first trip, to barter your goods until your return, we cherished as we would our eyeballs. We gave them our daughters for wives, and by
1 't Saysoen om de beestialen uyttejagen comt : dit verobligeerden veele den pays te begeren. Van d'anderezyde de wilden oock sienden dat het tyt was mayz te planten, waren nietmin begerigh om to vreden, soo dat naer eenige communicatie de pays beslooten wert. Journael van N. Nederlandt. " In the spring and part of the summer, they (the Indians) follow fishing. When the wild herbage begins to sprout up in the woods, the first hunting season begins, and then many of their young men leave the fisheries for the purpose of hunt- ing ; but the old and thoughtful remain at the fisheries until the second and principal hunting season." Van der Donck's Descript. of N. Netherland.
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BOOK III. these have they had children. There are now numbers of Indians who come from the mixed blood of the Indians and 1643. Swannekins. Your own blood have you spilt in this villan- ous manner." And here he laid down another stick. Many more remained untold in his hand. Many more were the complaints which the red-man had to record.
At the conclusion of the chieftain's speech, De Vries invited the sachems to accompany him to Fort Amsterdam. They consented, and gave each of the Dutch delegates, in token of their sincerity, ten fathoms of wampum, equal in value to six- teen dollars. But just at the moment of embarkation, another Indian, armed with bows and arrows, came running towards the shore, and endeavored to dissuade the chiefs from pro- ceeding. " Are ye fools," he asked, "to go to the fort to those villains who have murdered your friends ? When ye go, the governor will keep ye all, and the Indians will then be without chiefs." For a moment the sachems hesitated ; but on De Vries pledging his word, they became reassured, and consented to proceed, "for the Indians had never heard a lie from him, which was not the case with many of the Swanne- kins."
March 25.
This party, twenty in number, arrived at Fort Amsterdam about three o'clock in the afternoon, and concluded a treaty of peace with the Dutch, in ratification of which some presents were made to these Long Island chiefs, who were requested to bring in the river Indians, in order that peace might be con- cluded with them also.1
1 De Vries ; Alh. Rec. ii., 215. Winthrop, and all the New England writers since his time, who have referred to the above treaty, represent that it was mainly brought about by the influence and interference of Roger Williams. " The issue had been uncertain hut for the presence of Roger Williams at Man- hattan, on his way to England. His mediation gave a truce to Long Island." Bancroft's U. S. ii., 291. It was by the influence of Williams, says Gamell, copying Knewles, (art. Life of Williams, in Sparks's Am. Biog. xiv., 117,) that the fiery zeal of the Indians was appeased, and peace restored to the Dutch settlements. Historical truth, and no desire to detract from the high merits of the purely-minded Rhode Island philanthropist, requires us to douht the correct- ness of these statements. De Vries, who was the principal acter in bringing about this peace, relates (N. Y. Hist. Soc. Coll. New Series, i., 270) the several steps which preceded its conclusion, with a minuteness and fidelity commanding convic-
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NEW NETHERLAND.
Nearly a month elapsed before these could be persuaded to CHAP. believe in the sincerity of the Dutch. Trusting at last to the III. representations of his brethren on Long Island, the chief of the Hackingsacks appeared at the fort, with authority to con- clude a peace both for his own and the neighboring tribes, the record of which is in these words :
1643.
"This day, the twenty-second of April, 1643, between April WILLEM KIEFT, Director-general, and the council of the 22. New Netherlands on the one side, and Oratatnin, Sachem of the savages residing at Ack-kin-kas-hacky, who declared that he was delegated by and for those of Tappaen, Reckgawa- wane, Kicktawanc, and Sintsinck, on the other side, is a PEACE concluded in the following manner, to wit :
" All injustices committed by said nations against the Netherlanders, or by the Netherlanders against said nations, shall be forgiven and forgotten forever; reciprocally promis- ing, one the other, to cause no trouble, the one to the other ; but whenever the savages understand that any nation, not mentioned in this treaty, may be plotting mischief against the
tion, but makes no mention or allusion to Mr. Williams. The Indians made the first overtures to the Dutch. "No one had the courage to go" to Long Island hut De Vries and Olfertszen. It was with them alone that the Indians had the " talk," and when the latter hesitated to come to New Amsterdam-when " the issue" was truly. " uncertain," it was on the representations of De Vries alone, that the chiefs ventured to place themselves in the power of Kieft, " for the Indians had never heard a lie from him." In the whole of this transaction, Mr. Williams's name is not once mentioned. That he did endeavor to mediate, at one time, we presume at some earlier date, is probable, from his letter to the general court of Massachusetts, (Rhode Island Hist. Coll. üi., 155.) But he used his influence with the Dutch, and not with the Indians, and his efforts then were unavailing. "The name of peace, which some offered to mediate, was foolish and odious to them. . . . Before we weighed anchor their bouweries were in flames, &c." In no part of this letter does Mr. Williams encourage the idea that he used his influence with the Indians, or persuaded them to make peace. On the contrary, he endeavored to influence the Dutch -Director we suppose-but he failed. De Vries's minute testimony, and Mr. Williams's silence as to any participation of his in bringing about the treaty, afford conclusive evidence, in our opinion, of the incorrectness of the positions assumed by the New England historians on this point. The fact that Winthrop places the date of the treaty in June, while the actual record shows it to have been in March, is enough, we should think, to invalidate any statement of his in the matter.
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HISTORY OF
BOOK IIL. Christians, then will they give to them a timely warning, and not admit such a nation within their own limits."
1643.
To secure this peace, presents were mutually exchanged, and the Almighty God was implored to direct the savages to observe its conditions ; but the latter were not satisfied with what they had received, and-presage ominous of further evil-they went away grumbling.1
1 Alb. Rec. ii., 220. De Vries. The original name of the Croton River was Kicktawanc, and of the lands adjacent to it on the south, Sintsinck.
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CHAPTER IV.
Union of the New England colonies-Congratulatory letters sent by Director and council of New Netherland-Reply of the governor of Massachusetts -Proceedings of the Commissioners of the United Colonies regarding the Dutch-Sir Edmund Ployden Earl-palatine of New Albion-Boundaries of the Palatinate-Continued dissatisfaction of the Indians-The Wappingers attack a Dutch boat and commence hostilities-Several other boats attacked and Christians killed-Meeting of the commonalty-Election of the Eight Men-Names of the citizens present on this occasion-Conclusions of the Eight Men-Expel one of the board, and nominate another in his place- Army raised against the Indians -- The latter attack some settlers on Staten Island and in the colonie at Achter Cul-Murder several persons, and over- run the country-Mrs. Hutchinson and family killed-Attack on Lady Moody-Further deliberations of the Eight Men-Prices at New Amster- dam-Letters to the Assembly of the XIX. and to the States General- Rules for the soldiers on guard-State of affairs on the Island of Man- hattans.
THE principal men in New England having taken into their CHAP. serious consideration the troubles which were now prevailing in the mother country, and the unprotected state of the colo- nies in consequence ; and duly weighed, in connection with shese, the claims which the Dutch so pertinaciously put for- ward, together with the restless and hostile demonstrations of the surrounding Indians, considered their safety could be ef- fectually secured only by forming a confederation, offensive and defensive, of the separate colonies of Massachusetts, Plymouth, New Haven, and Connecticut, which was accord- ingly completed on the nineteenth of May this year, under the May style and title of " The United Colonies of New England." 19.
Intelligence of this union having reached Fort Amsterdam shortly after, the Director-general and council considered such an occurrence to furnish a fitting opportunity to obtain a re- dress of grievances, and to establish a better understanding in that quarter. He therefore dispatched, in the course of July, July a sloop to Boston, with letters written in Latin, and signed by 20. Secretary Van Tienhoven, addressed to the governor and sen-
IV. 1643.
280
HISTORY OF
BOOK ate of the United Provinces of New England. After having, III. 1643.
in the first place, congratulated his excellency on the confed- eration which had been entered into between himself and the other colonies, Kieft took occasion to repeat his complaints of the grievous wrongs and insufferable injuries committed by New Haven and Connecticut on the Dutch ; he next directed attention to the misrepresentations made by Lord Say, Mr. Peters, and others, to the Dutch ambassador at London; and concluded by inquiring of Governor Winthrop whether he should aid or desert him, so that he might know his friends from his enemies.
July 27.
The governor of Massachusetts submitted this communi- cation to such of his council as were at Boston, after which he replied, expressive of his sorrow for the differences which had arisen between the Dutch and his brethren at Hartford He hoped that the good understanding which had existed be- tween the people of Massachusetts and the Dutch ever since they had come to these parts might continue, and suggested that the present differences might be arranged by arbi- tration in England, Holland, or America. He added, how- ever, by way of explanation, that according to the articles of confederation, each colony was obliged to study the welfare and interests of the other colonies as well as its own ; that his letters should be duly weighed by those who were to give further answer ; in the mean while, he trusted that their an- cient friendship should not be interrupted, and that each party would carefully avoid all injuries until final arrangements should be made either here or in Europe ; as the controversy at Hartford about a small piece of land, in so vast a continent as that of America, was, he wisely remarked, too trifling to cause a breach between Protestants so intimately related in feelings and religion as were the Dutch and the English.
Sept. 7.
The question came up at the first meeting of the commis- sioners, held soon after at Boston, at which the New Haven delegates presented a statement of what they considered the hostile and oppressive conduct of the Dutch towards the Eng- lish, at the South River, and other places. Connecticut also made various complaints. Hereupon the president was or- dered to communicate these several charges to the Director-
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general at the Manhattans, and to demand satisfaction for the CHAP. injuries of which they complained. Governor Winthrop was, also, directed to write respecting the Dutch title to the land at Hartford, which the commissioners could not acknowledge until they had more light ; and to assure the Director that as they would not wrong others, so would they not desert their confederates in a just cause. These replies did not satisfy Kieft. He again wrote, reiterating his complaints, and re- urging the soundness of the Dutch title to Hartford.1
While the Director-general was thus engaged, vindicating the company's jurisdiction over the lands on the Connecticut River, a new claimant appeared at Fort Amsterdam, and as- serted his right to all that part of New Netherland embraced between the North and South rivers, (now constituting the state of New Jersey,) together with a portion of Virginia. This personage was Sir Edmund Ployden, Earl-palatine of the province of New Albion.
Straitened in circumstances, and circumscribed in means, this worthy knight happened to be thrown into jail in England for debt, whereupon he solicited from King Charles the First a patent to settle the Delaware River. But having been un- successful at court, he addressed himself to the king's favorite, Strafford, then viceroy of Ireland, who took upon himself to grant to his friend, in 1634, a tract of land beginning at Cape Mey, whence it extended west forty leagues up the Delaware ; thence north forty leagues ; after which it inclined east for the same distance to the Hudson River to " Sand-heey," or, as we presume, Sandy Hook ; from which place the line ran south along the coast to the cape from which it first started. This grant included, moreover, all the islands in the sea " within ten leagnes of the shore of the said region, called by the names of Pamonk, (or Long Island,) Hudson's, or Hud- son's River Isles, or by whatever other name, with all ports for shipping and creeks of the sea to the same adjoining." This territory was, at the same time, erected into a province, or " free county palatine," over which the patentee was cre-
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