USA > New York > New York City > History of New Netherland; or, New York under the Dutch, Vol. I > Part 31
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VI. 1630.
326
HISTORY OF
BOOK 111. declined to resume it, to a certain portion of the purchase
1630.
money, except such mutation occurred in the natural line of descent. Finally, it was his right, as " lord of the manor," to succeed to the estate and property of all persons who might die intestate within his colonie.1
Under the fostering care of its first Patroon, and the pru- dent management of its local magistracy, the colonie of Rens- selaerswyck progressively, though slowly, advanced. Portions of its inhabitants occasionally returned to Fatherland, to spread the tidings of their prosperity, and to invite their friends and relatives to join them in their new homes, which, from the abundance and cheapness of provisions, deserved truly to be called " a land flowing with milk and honey."2 A hamlet gradually arose. On account, it is said, of the crescent form of the bank of the river at this point, this hamlet was first 1634. called the " Fuyck," or " Beversfuyck," and afterwards " Be- verswyck," by which name the present city of Albany was legally known until 1664, though it was familiarly called " the Fuyck," by the Dutch, for many years after the entire country had passed into the hands of other masters.3
1 Charter to Patroons; Van Tienhoven's Korte Bericht ; Jus Patronatus in Corpus Juris Civilis, t. iii. ; Domat's Civil Law, t. ii., Van Leeuwen, 43, 44; Reght Gebruyck tegen het Misbruyck vande Openstaende reckeninge. [For a translation of this edict, in which the Patroon recapitulates many of the obliga- tions of the colonists, see Appendix I.] Several of the above arrangements are common to all new countries, and still exist in the seignories of Canada, and in many manors in England.
? The creeks running through the settlement, as well as the river in front, abonnded with fish ; the woods with deer and other game. Pike and sturgeon were caught in the Fourth, or Fox, Creek, and one of the latter could be bought for a knife. " The year before I came here," (1641,) writes the Rev. Mr. Megapolensis, " there were so many turkeys and deer that they came to the houses and hogpens to feed, and were taken by the Indians with so little trouble, that a deer was sold to the Dutch for a loaf of bread, or a knife, or even a tobacco pipe." Short account of the Maquaa Indians.
' The names of the first hamlet, or village, are taken from the Rensselaers- wyck MSS. The earliest mention I have met of " Beverswyck," or " Bever- wyck," as the name is indifferently written, was in a minute, dated 1634, the original of which was on a small, almost illegible scrap of paper which I found accidentally among the above MSS. That the Dutch continued to call Albany " the Fuyck," long after the surrender of the country to the English, is evident from letters among the Rensselaerswyck MSS. " De huysen in de Fuyck" is
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NEW NETHERLAND.
In order to give greater stability to his settlement, and to CHAP. become better acquainted with its condition, Mr. Van Rensse-
1637.
VI. laer, it is alleged, visited the colonie in person in 1637. His stay in the country, if he ever did come, was, however, not very long. The demise or resignation of Sheriff Planck now re- 1640. quired the appointment of a new officer, and the peculiar posi- tion of the settlers, surrounded on all sides by rude and unconverted savages, demanded the guardian supervision and solacing comforts of religion, for as yet neither church nor clergyman existed in Rensselaerswyck. To secure an effi- cient administration of justice, and to provide a properly qualified clergyman for his people, consequently became a paramount duty.
Adriaen van der Donck, "a free citizen of Breda,"-a 1641. lineal descendant of Adriaen van Bergen, part owner of the famous turf-sloop in which a party of Dutch troops were clandestinely introduced, in the year 1590, into the castle commanding that city, then in the hands of the Spanish, by which stratagem that stronghold fell into the hands of their High Mightinesses the States General,-and a graduate of the University of Leyden, was selected as the successor of Sheriff July. Planck. He entered on the performance of his duties, as schout-fiscaal of Rensselaerswyck, in the course of a month or two after his appointment, having, previous to his departure from Holland, taken a lease from the Patroon of the west half of Castle Island, called "Welysburg."1
an expression in one of S. van Cortlandt's letters, dated N. Yorck, 20th April, 1681, as well as in several others of an anterior date.
1 De Laet makes mention, in his Hist. of the West Indies, p. 200, of one Adriaen Ver Donck, who was in the employ of the West India Company as commissary on the coast of Brazil, in 1630, and who was placed under arrest on suspicion of holding correspondence with the enemy, but liheraled after- wards, as nothing tangible could be brought against him. Whether this indi- vidual and the sheriff of Rensselaerswyck were one and the same person, I have no means of determining. The following instructions from the Patroon to Van der Donck are among the Rensselaerswyck MSS. :
" Memorandum for the officer Adriaen Van der Donck, this 18th July, 1641, in Amsterdam. Whereas divers farmers pass by the carpenters and other of the Patroon's laborers, who not only must go idle, but, moreover, employ others and strangers ont of the service of the Patroon, whom they must pay at a higher rate than his people, which tends greatly to the injury of the Patroon,
328
HISTORY OF
BOOK IfI. The Rev. Johannes Megapolensis, " the pious and well- learned minister of the congregation of Schoorel and Berge," March under the classis of Alkmaer, was duly called to disseminate 1642.
6. the light of the gospel among the Christians and heathen in the colonie, and regularly commissioned " to preach God's word March there ; to administer the holy sacraments of baptism and the
22. Lord's Supper ; to set an example, in a Christian-like manner, by public precept ; to ordain elders and deacons ; to keep and govern, by and with the advice and assistance of the same, God's congregation in good discipline and order, all according to God's Holy Word, and in conformity with the government, confession, and catechism of the Netherland churches, and the synodal acts of Dordrecht."1
The allowauce guarantied to this clergyman was free passage
to the downfall of the colonie, to the transgression of his ordinances, and is directly contrary to their promises and concluded contracts : The officer is, therefore, charged to prosecute all such before the commissioners of the Noble Patroon, and to bring the matter also before the council of the colonie, (exclud- ing those who may have been accessories to such proceedings,) in order to provide therefer by stricter statutes or ordinances, and to punish the delin- quents by penalties and fines, agreeably to law. And in testimony of the truth, have these been signed on the date above written.
" KILIAEN VAN RENSSELAER,
" Patroon of the Colonie of Rensselaerswyck. " He shall also inquire touching the person who had charge of De Laets- burg, and was left there by Gerrit de Reus. The said bouwerie had, in May, 1638, among other things, thirty-one morgens of winter grain [winter coorn] taxed on the field, by four farmers, at five and seventy guilders [$30] the mor- gen [of two acres ;] where the said corn has been left, and now is ; if he hath fulfilled his engagements or not ; if he hath been a defaulter; in fine, how it happened that from so great a number of acres, so little is forthcoming ; and on discovery of the guilty, to punish them as an example to others, as more fully is mentioned in the letter to Arendt van Curler.
" KILIAEN VAN RENSSELAER.
" In case the individual whom Gerrit de Reus left on the bouwerie, should refer (which I do not expect) to the heir of his master, let him be advised that the heir hath given me a procuration which 1 have sent to Director Kieft."
In the " Maentgelt Boeck van den 1638 tot 1649," kept in the colonie, Van der Donck's account opens on 9th Sept., 1641.
1 This gentleman was the son of the Rev. Joannes Megapolensis, minister of Coedyck in Holland, and of Hellegond Jansen. He married his cousin Mach- teld Willemsen, daughter of Willem Steengs, or Heengs, who was his senior by three years. See Appendix J; also Alh. Rec. v., 323, 339.
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NEW NETHERLAND.
and board for himself, his wife and four children, who CHAP. accompanied him to New Netherland; an outfit of three hundred guilders, or one hundred and twenty dollars, and an annual stipend, for the first three years, of eleven hundred guilders, ($440,) thirty schepels of wheat, and two firkins of butter, or in place thereof, should he prefer it, sixty guilders in cash. This salary was to be further increased by an addition of two hundred guilders a year, for the second term of three years, if the Patroon were satisfied with his ser- vices. A pension of one hundred guilders per annum was secured to his wife, in case of his demise within the above term, for and during whatever time might remain unexpired of his engagement.
These preliminaries having been thus arranged, an obstacle was unexpectedly thrown in the way of Mr. Megapolensis' de- parture by the directors of the West India Company, who claimed the exclusive right to approve of his appointment. To this, however, the feudal lord of Rensselaerswyck demurred ; and it was not until after a lapse of several months that a compromise was agreed to, the directors approving of the ap- pointment under protest on the part of Mr. Van Rensselaer, saving his rights as Patroon.
The Rev. Mr. Megapolensis and family embarked, together June 6. with Abraham Staes, surgeon, Evert Pels, brewer, and a num- ber of other freemen, farmers, and farm-servants, shortly after this, in the ship the Houttuyn, or Woodyard, which was freighted with a quantity of goods for the colonie-between two and three hundred bushels of malt for Mr. Pels-four thousand tiles, and thirty thousand stone for building-besides some vines and madder, the cultivation of which the Patroon was desirous of introducing among his people.1 On the arri- Aug. val of Mr. Megapolensis at Rensselaerswyck, a contract was 11. concluded for the erection of a dwelling for himself and family,
1 Mr. Pels erected a brewery in the colonie ; Dr. Staes became one of the council in 1643, and was appointed president of the board in 1644, at a salary of 100 florins ($40) per annum. He obtained license to trade in furs, and had also a considerable bouwerie, besides pursuing the practice of his profes- sion. He was the ancestor of the Staats of the present day, the original name having assumed shortly afterwards the termination it now bears.
42
V1. 1642.
330
HISTORY OF
BOOK but the contractor having failed in fulfilling his agreement, a 111. 1642.
house belonging to Maryn Adriaensen, constructed entirely of oak, was subsequently purchased for his use, for the sum of three hundred guilders, or one hundred and twenty dollars. For the convenience of the settlers at Tuscameatick, (as Greenbush, at the opposite side of the river, was called by the Indians,) a ferry was next established near the foot of the Beaver's Kill, (where it still continues to ply ;) and as it was the Patroon's intention that the church, the minister's dwelling, the attorney-general's residence, and the houses for the trades- people and mechanics, should be erected in one vicinity, so as to constitute a "Kerckbunrte," or settlement around the church, orders were transmitted that no persons (farmers and tobacco planters excepted) should, for the future, establish themselves, after the expiration of their term of service, elsewhere than in the vicinity of the church, and according to the plan now sent out by the Houttuyn ; "for," it was justly observed, "if every one resides where he thinks fit, separated far from other set- tlers, they, should trouble occur, would be unfortunately in danger of their lives, as sorrowful experience hath demon- strated around the Manhattans."1 A church, thirty-four feet long, and nineteen feet wide-the first in this quarter-was erected in the course of the following year. Though humble in its dimensions, when compared with modern edifices of a similar sacred character, it was considered, at this time, suffi- ciently ample for the accommodation of the faithful, " for the next three or four years, after which it might be converted into a school-house, or a dwelling for the sexton." A pulpit, orna- mented with a canopy, was soon added for the preacher, as well as pews for the magistrates and for the deacons, and " nine benches" for the congregation. The expense of all this necessary furniture amounted to the sum of thirty-two dollars. While providing accommodation for the living, the dead were not forgotten. The "church-yard" lay in the rear, or to the west, of the Patroon's trading-house-in what is now very cor- rectly called " Church" street : and in order " to be safe from
1 Patroon's Memorandum for Dom. Megapolensis, 3d June, 1642. A trans- lation of this interesting paper will be found in Appendix K.
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NEW NETHERLAND.
the ravages of the Indians," the infant hamlet, living and dead, CHAP. VI. nestled close under the guns of Fort Orange.1 1643.
One of the principal aims of the first founders of Rensse- laerswyck seems to have been to secure for themselves the valuable trade in furs, the chief mart for which centred at the point where they made their purchase and commenced their settlement. To engross this the more effectually, all foreign and unlicensed traders were rigidly excluded from the colonie. The Patroon and his partners were the only privileged im- porters of European merchandise, the company having, in con-
' The date of the erection of the above church is taken from Van Curler's letter to the Patroon, dated June, 1643, which will be found translated in the Appendix L ; Kieft, when proposing, in 1642, to erect a church in New Am- sterdam, referred to the then contemplated erection of this church in Rensse- Jaerswyck. That it was erected in 1643, is evident from Megapolensis' tract on the Maquaas, published in 1644, in which allusion is made to it. The ex- pense of the pulpit, pews, &c., is taken from the " Groet Boek der Colonie Rens- selaerswyck," anno 1645-6, p. 56, in which we find to the credit of " Willem Fredericksz" the following entry :- "Voor dat hy in de kerck heeft gemaakt een Predickstool, het verwulf, een stoel voor de overicheyt, een ditto voor de Diaconie, een cosyn met 2 lichten, een kruys cosyn dicht gemaackt, en dae- rin een kusje, een hoeckje nevens de stool, met een banck in een winckel- haeck, en 9 bancken, te saemen voor, 80 fl." This church was sufficiently wealthy in 1647, (May 29,) to loan 200 guilders to the Patroon, for which the Diaconie, or deacons, received the obligation of the colonial court, payable in one year after date, at 10 per cent. See account-book F. Rensselaerswyck MSS. ; also the obligation itself in the Gerechtsrolle. A new "stoop," or steps, was added in 1651, to the front of the above building, which accommodated the faithful until 1656, when a second church was erected at the junction of what are now State and Market streets. In 1715, a new church was erected on the latter site, including within its walls that of 1656. The church of 1715 was finally pulled down in 1806. Fort Orange stood at the lower part of what is now Market-street, nearly midway between Denisson and Lydius streets. The Patroon's trading-house was on the north side of the fort, on the verge of the moat by which the latter was surrounded. This trading-house disap- peared some time previous to 1649, when the ground on which it stood was leased for " a garden" to Pieter Hertgers and Anthony de Hooges, at a rent of one guilder, or 40 cents, a year. In the lease was reserved the right to run a strect through this " garden" "to the churchyard," [tot kerckhof,] which lay west of this lot, on what is now Church-street. The hof, or yard, of the Patroon's house lay north of the trading-house. The first location of Beverswyck, "near the bend of the river,"-" close by the fort"-" to be safe from the ravages of the Indians,"-is mentioned with minute precision in Alb. Rec. iv.
332
HISTORY OF
BOOK sequence of the war and other causes, ceased to keep Fort III. Orange supplied with foreign goods. All settlers were bound 1643. under oath not to purchase any peltries from the Indians, on pain of forfeiting their goods and wages, unless duly licensed to carry on such trade, for such a privilege was exclusively vested in the Patroon by the sixth article of the charter. The majority of the settlers subsequently obtained such permission ; received goods on credit from the Patroon's store, and every farmer, as De Vries observes, became a trader. They were, however, obliged to bring in all the furs which they purchased to the Patroon's magazine, to be sent over to Holland to him, he retaining, as his share, half the profits. This condition was afterwards modified so far as to allow him to retain only the sixth beaver, and one guilder recognition, or duty, on each of the remaining five-sixths.1 This system soon produced results which were naturally to be expected. Competition raised the price of peltries nearly one hundred per cent. Prior to 1642 the price of a merchantable beaver, which averaged about an ell square, was six hands, or fathoms, of wampum. In the course of that year the article commanded from seven to seven and a half; but when the traders found that the agents of the Patroon, as well as the officers at Fort Orange, did not refuse paying that price, they immediately offered nine ; and in the following year advanced the rate to ten fathoms of white wam- pum for each skin. A joint proclamation was herenpon issued by the authorities of Rensselaerswyck, and those of the Fort, fixing the price of furs at nine fathoms of white, or four and a half of black wampum, and forbidding all persons whatsoever, whether servants of the company or residents in the colonie, from going into the woods to trade in advance with the Indians, on pain of seizure of all their goods. Another proclamation
1 Rensselaerswyck MSS., Appendix I. Master Abraham (Staes,) Hen- rick Albertzen, Reyer Stoffelsen, Sander Leendertsen en anderen die met de Heer Patroon gecontracteert hebben om te moogen handelen waren gehou- den alle de selve pelteryen, telcke reyse in specie het getal aentebrengen, ende aen de Patroon, en nymant vreemts overtesenden, ende daerenboven van yder beever een gulden en dan noch het seste part aenden Hr. Patroon, ofte zyn gecommitteerden te betaelen, op confiscatie van alle de pelteryen en voorts van al des effecten, volgens de voors. persoonen haer contracten. Gerechtsrolle ady den 3 December, 1648, in re Claes Gerrittsen.
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was also issued, prohibiting all traders to come with their CHAP. sloops within the limits of the' colonie under the penalty of
VI. forfeiting the same. And on the following court-day a third proclamation followed, for the better securing the monopoly of the import trade to the Patroon, by which the inhabitants of the colonie were absolutely forbidden purchasing any goods from the local traders. Orders were given at the same time to Sheriff Van der Donck to enforce these regulations with strictness and severity.
This functionary, between whom and Van Curler, and the other officers of the colonie, considerable jealousy and ill- feeling already existed, had no desire to render himself un- popular with the colonists. "He should not," he said, " make himself the worst man in the colonie, nor be suspected by the colonists, for his term as officer was but short." He therefore not only refused to enforce these regulations, but when, a few days afterwards, the colonists, contrary to the prohibitions of the court, did purchase duffels and sundry other goods which had been surreptitiously introduced, he connived at their proceedings, and either told the suspected parties to put their goods out of his sight, or neglected entirely to execute his duty, or to make any seizures. Not content with this dis- obedience of orders, he proceeded, next, secretly to foment feelings of discontent and mutiny among the people, before whom he placed the abovementioned placards in a most odious light, and whom he persuaded into the belief that Van Curler was endeavoring " to steal the bread out of their mouths." His representations had eventually such an effect on the public mind, that a conspiracy was formed against the commissary- general among several of the colonists, who drew up a strong protest against that officer, which, in order that they might re- main undiscovered, the ringleaders signed in the form of a "round robin," by affixing to the paper their signatures in "a circle." This done, they next denounced Van Curler in the most vehement terms. Some proposed driving him from the colonie as a rogue ; others, more vindictive and tur- bulent, insisted on taking his life. These threats, fortunately for the character of the settlers, were not followed up by any overt act. Van der Donck professed, all the while, an honest
1643
334
HISTORY OF
BOOK desire to second the wishes of the constituted authorities. 111. But when the time for testing his sincerity arrived, he was found wanting in the fulfilment of his promise.1
1642.
While these contentions and altercations were distracting the little hamlet of Beverswyck, intelligence was received Aug. that war-parties of the neighboring Mohawks had returned
15. victorious from one of their wild forays against their hereditary enemies, the Hurons and the French, and had brought with them several Christians whom they had taken prisoners. Arendt van Curler, weighing well the necessity of maintaining, in the feebleness of the colonie, a good understanding with these wild tribes, and full of hope that he could rescue the French captives from their danger, proceeded, in company with Jan Labadie and Jacob Jansen van Amsterdam, to the country of the Mohawks, with suitable presents, in order to confirm the ancient friendship which had hitherto continued uninter- rupted between them and the Dutch, and to obtain new guar- antces for the security of the inhabitants and property in Rens- selacrswyck. This visit was highly pleasing to the Indians, who detained, at each of their three castles, the Dutch ambas- sadors a quarter of an hour, until a salute was fired in honor of their visit, "for my arrival," writes Van Curler, "diffused great joy among them." Parties were sent out in quest of game, who returned with some " excellent turkeys," and feast- ing and good cheer gave substantial proofs of a sincere and hearty welcome.
Van Curler's benevolent mind was, however, ill at ease in the midst of these rejoicings. The Christian captives might be doomed to undergo, in a few days, at the stake, all the tortures which savage cruelty and ingenuity combined could invent to render death more terrific and appalling. Among the prisoners was the mild and disinterested Father Jogues, a learned Jesuit missionary-" one of the first to carry the cross into Michi- gan, and now the first to bear it through the villages of the Mohawks." Despising ease, comfort, life, and every attach- ment which nature renders dear to man, he preferred cap- tivity, suffering, and mutilation, to an abandonment of his
1 Van Curler's letter to the Patroon, Appendix L.
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NEW NETHERLAND.
tender converts ; and now awaited, in resignation and prayer, CHAP. the crown of martyrdom for which his soul had so long panted.
To save these unfortunate men, Van Curler called together the chiefs of the different Mohawk castles. He recalled to their minds the friendship and alliance which had so long exist- ed between them-and demanded the release of their captives, offering, at the same time, for their ransom, presents to the amount of six hundred guilders, which, to their honor be it recorded, the Dutch settlers of the colonie, forgetful of all differences of creed, and actuated by the holy impulses of the Gospel, had generously subscribed to purchase the freedom of their Christian brethren. The savages, however, were not to be moved, either by appeals to ancient friendship, or by the Dutchmen's presents. They were willing to grant to their allies whatever was in their power, but on the point under dis- cussion they would remain silent. Curler well knew how the French treated those who fell into their hands. Had the chief not been successful in his attack, the Iroquois would have been burnt. For the liberation of the French prisoners he could not treat. In a few months the warriors of the several nations would assemble, and then the matter would be finally disposed of. All Van Curler could effect was to persuade the savages to spare the lives of their prisoners, and to promise to restore them to their country. Escorted by a party of ten or twelve armed Indians, the Dutch ambassadors now returned to Beverswyck, their minds filled with admiration of the lovely country through which they travelled.1
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