USA > New York > New York City > History of New Netherland; or, New York under the Dutch, Vol. I > Part 34
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Advantage was taken of the re-establishment of good under- Sept. standing with the natives, to purchase from the Long Island 10. Indians the lands extending along the North River from Cony- nen, or Rabbits Island, to Gowanus, and to Weymit Spritten, which were now added to the public domain. And Thomas Ffarrington, John Townsend, William Lawrence, Robert Ffirman, and others, who were forced to remove from Mas- sachusetts in the spring of this year, obtained a patent, shortly after the peace, for sixteen thousand acres of land Oct. 19.
1 Alb. Rec. ii., 312, 314, 315, 316, 317 ; iv., 11 ; Hol. Doc. iii., 365; iv., 41.
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1645. Dec.
BOOK to the east of Mespath, which was duly incorporated by III. the title of Vlissingen, after the ancient trading-city of that name situated on the island of Walcheren. A patent, convey- 19. ing equally liberal municipal privileges, was granted two months afterwards to the town of Gravenzande.1
While Kieft was engaged concluding these various treaties, he received instructions from Holland to turn his attention to the mineral wealth of the province. Ores of copper, iron, and lead had been already discovered in various parts, specimens of some of which had been conveyed to Europe by private in- dividuals. The Director-general was therefore ordered to forward specimens of the various metals to the company, for the purpose of being tested. The first opportunity which of- fered for complying with these instructions, was during the negotiation of the peace at Fort Orange with the Mohawks. The Indian interpreter was observed to paint his face, after the fashion of his nation. The Director-general obtained a speci- men of the substance which was used on that occasion. It was remarkably heavy, and of a greasy, shining appearance. Suspecting it to be some valuable mineral, he caused it to be subjected, in a crucible, to the action of a strong heat. The result of the experiment was encouraging. It yielded, in ap- pearance, "two pieces of gold, worth about three guilders." An officer, with a few men, was sent to the mountain where the sample was obtained, for a quantity of the metal, which, having been procured, was tested in the same manner as the first, and pronounced equally good; and so it was. For though not exactly gold, it was, equally, iron pyrites. Some time afterwards, samples of other minerals, found in one of the Aug. Nevesink mountains, near the Raritain, were brought by some 31.
July 21.
' Thompson's Long Island ii., 67, 68, 178 ; a volume of " Letters in Gov. Stuyvesant's time," in the Secretary of State's office, Albany, contains " sev- eral orders agreed upon by the inhabitants of Gravesende att several times," from which it appears that the first patentees of that town held a meeting about this time att Amersforte, at which they determined to fence in a certain quan- titie of land to containe 8 and 20 shares. The said 8 and 20 shares were divided by lett, and every one was enjoyned, on penalty of forfeiture of the land, to build and inhabit in the towne by a day agreed uppen, for the mutual strength- ening of one another, " for the peace with the Indians being new and rawe, their was still feares of theyr vprising to warre."
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NEW NETHERLAND.
Indians, which having been deemed valuable, a party were CHAP. sent out to explore the locality, and Kieft expressed the reso- VII. 1645. lution to build a fort in the neighborhood, to secure the treasure, should the mines prove advantageous. "A few samples of a cer- tain mineral which yielded"(what was represented to be) " gold and quicksilver," was the result of this exploring expedition ; and so sanguine now became the Director-general of realizing a rich harvest in this new field, that an officer and thirty men were dispatched to continue the search, with orders to send as Oct. 12. large a quantity as possible of the minerals to Fort Amster- dam. Samples of the whole were sent to Holland by way of New Haven. The vessel sailed at Christmas or New Year's, Dec. 25. but the treasure never reached its destination. The ship foundered at sea. Arent Corssen, Kieft's messenger, was drowned, and " misfortune attended all on board." This ac- cident did not, however, discourage the Dutch authorities. The directors at Amsterdam promised to send out a properly qualified person to examine and report on the iron mine dis- . covered at. Staten Island and near the Raritan, for they still entertained the hope that the prosecution of the search would prove of advantage to the company.1
But while these authorities were thus engaged, circum- stances had unexpectedly occurred in other portions of the company's possessions, which influenced considerably future arrangements regarding New Netherland.
PETRUS STUYVESANT, Director of Curaçoa, determined, in 1644. the beginning of 1644, to make an attack on the island of St. Martin, then in the possession of the Portuguese, with a view to reduce that place. He accordingly laid siege to the capi- tal, which he continued closely to invest for the space of twenty-eight days. But he was eventually obliged to abandon April 4. his object, succor having been thrown into the town by the en- emy. In the course of these operations, he happened to re- ceive a severe wound in the knee, which obliged him to return the following autumn to Holland, to obtain surgical aid, the Sept. hot climate of Curaçoa having been found unfavorable to the recovery of his health. He embarked accordingly in the
1 Van der Donck's Descript. of N. N. Hol. Doc. ii., 362, 363; Alb. Rec. ii., 262, 312, 318, 323 ; xii., 397. Magnalia, B. i. c. 6.
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HISTORY OF
BOOK Milkmaid, but a violent storm overtook the vessel in the Brit- In. ish Channel. The supply of fresh water was then found to be 1645. reduced to about two hogsheads for sixty-one persons, the number on board at the time, many of whom were laboring under scurvy. The vessel was therefore forced to put into the first harbor in Ireland, whence Stuyvesant passed over in safety to Holland. His health was so far improved in the course of the next summer, that the company concluded to ap- point him, instead of Mr. Van Dinclage, Director-general of New Netherland, the expenses of which government, as well as of Stuyvesant's outfit, the Assembly of the XIX. had now July 6. agreed to divide, in common, among all the Chambers, instead of confining it to that of Amsterdam, which last department, however, charged itself to equip two vessels to convey the new Director-general and his suite to the Manhattans.
Sept. 21. General Stuyvesant submitted, some time after, to the As- sembly of the XIX., then in session at Middleburg, a memorial containing various suggestions for the better management of the company's interests in their transatlantic territories. This, together with the instructions drawn up, in conformity with the suggestions contained in the report already referred to, for the guidance of the Director-general, and for the future govern- ment of New Netherland, was submitted to a special com- mittee, which, after a laborious and protracted sitting, reported Oct. 12. resolutions that revolutionized, in a manner, the whole trade of the colony.
From the first incorporation of the West India Company to the commencement of Kieft's administration, this trade, both internally with the Indians, and externally with the mother country, was a close monopoly, exclusively carried on by the company and its servants. A change took place in 1639, when a modification was introduced so far as to open the in- ternal trade to all subjects of the States General, and of foreign powers at peace with the Dutch Republic. The carrying trade between Holland and America was still retained by the West India Company, or permitted only to vessels belonging to Patroons or other privileged persons. It was now deter- Oct. 14. mined to throw this open to the ships of private merchants, and to permit these, in future, to carry merchandise and other freight
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NEW NETHERLAND.
to New Netherland and the other Dutch American colonies, CHAP. under certain regulations. The principal object of these seems to have been the concentration of all colonial commerce at New Amsterdam, for it was ruled that all merchandise sent to New Netherland, or to countries there adjoining, should first of all be conveyed to the above port, before being carried else- where, in order that the ships' papers should be there exam- ined and registered, the vessels visited, and all contraband trade prevented. All return cargoes were likewise to be brought to the Manhattans, from whence the homeward-bound vessels were to clear, giving notice, at the time, of the port in Holland to which they were destined, and binding themselves to pay the duties on their return cargoes into that chamber from which they originally received a permit or license to make the voy- age; they were not to break bulk, from the time they should leave New Amsterdam until their arrival at their port of des- tination in Fatherland, to which they were to proceed in as di- rect a course as possible, without touching at any other place, on pain of forfeiting ship and cargo. It was further determin- ed to place Curacoa, Aruba, and the other adjoining islands under the superintendence of the Director-general of New Netherland, and to reduce the company's establishment at the first-named place to a Vice-director and one hundred and fif- teen persons. The committee stated, at the same time, that it would be much more advantageous to the company to aban- don that island altogether, if such could possibly be done, with the consent of the States General.
Difference of opinion now ensued among the directors. Eventually, the arrangements agreed upon in July were re- considered. Some of the chambers objected to pay their share of the expenses attendant on the change of management, and the consequence was, the department of Amsterdam retained, illegally and contrary to the wishes of the other chambers, (as it was alleged,) the exclusive administration of the affairs of New Netherland. General Stuyvesant's departure was indefinitely postponed, and the colony continued for over twelve months more under the mismanagement of Willem Kieft.1
1 Hol. Doc. iii., 33, 40, 42, 46, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63 ; v., 124; viii., 153 ; Alb. Rec. viii., 39, 40 ; xii., 45, 46, 47, 48, 63, 70.
46
VII. 1645.
362
HISTORY OF
CHAPTER VIII.
Fruits of faction-Quarrel between the Rev. Mr. Begardus and Director Kieft -Progress of affairs at the South River-Sufferings of the first Swedish cel- onists-Reselve te abanden the river aud to remove te Manhattans-Are prevented by the opportune arrival of additional supplies and settlers-Bonnd- aries of New Sweden-Royal appropriations for its support-Printz appointed governor-His salary-Strength of the Swedish establishment on the Dela- ware-Its annual expense-Dutch force at Fort Nassau-Instructions te Printz-Swedish forts on the South River-Swedes seize the Indian trade-Loss accruing to the Dutch in consequence-Seizure of a Swedish vessel in Holland-Proceedings attendant thereupon-Hudde appointed com- missary at Fort Nassau-Some Dutch merchants send a venture to the South River-Their vessels ordered off by the Swedes-Several Dutch freemen receive grants of land on the Delaware-Measures taken to extinguish In- dian titles-Company's arms erected on the spot-Swedes tear them down, and protest against the Dutch, whe reply-High-handed measures of the Swedish governer-The Dutch traders appeal to New Amsterdam-Renewal of the controversy between Kieft and New Haven-Continued misunder- standing on the Connecticut-Correspondence with the commissioners of the United Colonies-The Director-general refers the matters to Holland-In- structions from the West India Company-Patents for new colonies at Kattskill and Yenckers-Breukelen obtains manorial rights and municipal privileges.
BOOK 111. 1646.
THE spirit of faction, which the war engendered, had, among other bad consequences, the effect of destroying the harmony and good understanding which had previously existed among the small number of citizens who resided in New Am- sterdam. The Rev. Everardus Bogardus had, from the be- ginning, been suspected of siding with the commonalty and their representatives, in their differences with the Director- general. A rupture between the latter and the minister was the result, which eventuated now in a public quarrel, to the great scandal and affliction of the staid and religious portion of the community.
The habits of the Rev. Mr. Bogardus had been, unfortu- nately, far from temperate ; his passions were consequently violent, and oftentimes his language coarse and unbridled. He had already had a personal quarrel with Director Van Twiller, towards whom he had behaved in an indecorous man-
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ner, attacking him even from the pulpit, which he is accused CHAP. of having ascended in a state of inebriety.
VIII. 1646.
Director Kieft, as much, perhaps, to vent an old spleen as to check this disorderly conduct, had already taken Bogar- dus to task, at the house of the attorney-general, in the early part of the past year, for having gone into the pulpit " drunk." He took occasion, also, to accuse him of uniting with the greatest criminals in the country ; of taking their part ; of defending them ; of embracing the cause of Maryn Adriaen- sen, who had attempted to assassinate the Director-general, and of writing in favor of malecontents. The minister ill- brooked this reprimand. He attacked Kieft on the following Sabbath from the pulpit " in the most brutal manner." " What," he asked, " are the great men of the country but receptacles of wrath-fountains of wo and trouble ? Nothing is thought of but to plunder other people's property-to dismiss-to banish-to transport to Holland." These hard hits at Kieft's public acts told. "To avoid giving greater scandal, the Direc- tor-general no longer assisted in the congregation." But his absence from church did not save him. At weddings, at christenings, in church and out of church, Bogardus spared him not. In vain Kieft admonished him by letter. Bogardus refused to receive his letters, and persisted in his attacks. "When you preached on the 22d of last December," writes the Director-general to him, "you publicly stated that you had often administered the Lord's Supper without partaking of it, and that you wished those who were the cause of this separation were cut off, for when the customary house-visiting is performed, they cannot give reasons for their continued ab- sence. Your bad tongue is, in our opinion, the only cause, and your obstinacy that of its continuance, with those who encourage you to proceed in that road. On the 24th Decem- ber, you informed your congregation how in Africa, 'owing to the intense heat, different animals copulate there together, by which various monsters are generated. But you knew not,' you added, ' from whence, in such temperate climates as ours, such monsters of men are produced. They are the mighty ones,' you said, 'but it was desirable that they were weak.' Children might tell to whom you here alluded. Similar ser-
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HISTORY OF
BOOK III. mons, in which you have frequently indulged, have occasioned our absence from church."
~ 1646.
Having thus, and in a number of other articles, enumerated the various misdeeds which he charged against the minister, Director Kieft thus concluded his "New Year's offering :"
Jan. 2. " Inasmuch as your duty and oath imperiously demand the maintenance of the magistracy ; and whereas your conduct stirs the people to mutiny and rebellion, when they are already too much divided-causes schisms and abuses in the church, and makes us a scorn and a laughing-stock to our neighbors, all which cannot be tolerated in a country where justice is maintained, therefore our sacred duty imperiously requires of us to prosecute you in a court of justice, and we have accord- ingly ordered a copy of these, our deliberations, to be deliver- ed to you, to answer in fourteen days."
A controversy, opened by a bill of indictment, could not well be passed unnoticed. Bogardus, who had hitherto re- turned Kieft's missals unopened, was now forced to reply ; Jan. 3. but his answers were declared useless and absurd ; filled with Jan. idle subterfuge, calumnies, and injuries ; a profanation of 15. God's holy word, to vilify justice and the magistrate, and he was ordered to send in a more explicit answer. But finding that his answers were already considered unsatisfactory and " insolent," Bogardus, after repeated replies, wisely declined proceeding any further in " a deep discussion of this affair ;" March and Kieft found himself embarrassed in a prosecution in which 22. the charges were matter rather for investigation by the church, than by the state. In order to obviate all pretext of slander, he now invested the Rev. Mr. Megapolensis and the Rev. Mr. Doughty, both ministers of the Gospel, and two or three other impartial persons, with power to decide the matter in issue, provided Bogardus consented, previously, to abide by their judgment, (which the Director-general, on his part, prom- ised to do,) and not to offend the latter, directly or indirectly, in public or in private. This proposal Bogardus rejected, and April appealed to the new Director and council, whose appointment, İ2. it seems, had already become known in the colony. Kieft, however, would not allow of this appeal, as it was not certain when the new Director should arrive, and ordered the prose-
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NEW NETHERLAND.
cution to proceed, "to put a stop to the scandal and disorder CHAP. which were prevailing more and more." But friends interfered in the mean time. The Director-general made a last appeal to the minister to be reconciled, and requested him to permit the Rev. Mr. Megapolensis to preach in the church on the following Sabbath, " as was his usual custom when in New Amsterdam," so that Kieft might hear him. This request was granted, and the quarrel terminated, like all such misun- derstandings, to the apparent satisfaction of all the parties concerned, and seemingly for want of food to nourish it.1
The interests of the Dutch on the South River had, all this time, been subjected to serious damage at the hands of the Swedes. Though the West India Company had obtained complete control of the mouth of the Delaware, by the pur- chase, from the Patroons and their associates, in the year 1635, of the colonie of Zwanendal, for the sum of fifteen thousand six hundred guilders, or $6240,2 the Swedish settlers continued undisturbed in their possessions in that quarter, ever since Kieft had protested against Minuit, and had managed, by underselling the Dutch with the Indians, to export no less than thirty thousand skins in the course of the year succeed- 1639. ing their first arrival in that country.
This competition, however, proved well nigh the ruin of that infant colony. For, having received no support either from the Swedish government or the Swedish West India Company, the first emigrants were so reduced that they found themselves, in the course of the second spring, necessitated 1640. to choose one of two alternatives : to remain and perish, or to abandon their settlement. Like prudent men, they made the latter choice, and resolved to move in a body to the Manhat- tans, the authorities at that place having given them every as- surance of the most hospitable reception and entertainment. But just on the eve of their departure, a Swedish ship hove in sight, having on board Peter Holland, or Hollandaer, as Sept. deputy-governor, together with a considerable number of set-
Alb. Rec. ii., 334, 336, 338, 340, 342, 343, 346, 347.
" For a translation of the deed passed between the Company and the Pa- troons of Zwanendal on this occasion, and other papers, see Appendix S.
VIII. 1646.
366
HISTORY OF
BOOK tlers, and a fresh supply of goods. The Swedes, much to III. the chagrin of Director Kieft, now abandoned all idea of leav- ing the South River, and purchased, it is said, from the Indi- ans an additional quantity of land, extending as far as " a can- non bullet shot" from Fort Christina, " over against Mekaquats- hoe, eight miles above the present town of Burlington." They shortly after added also, by purchase, all the land from the above fort to Duck Creek, where they erected, in token of sovereignty, "the arms of the crown of Sweedland." Mounce Kling, who had acted as deputy to Peter Minuit, followed with two vessels, some time afterwards, and purchased Up- land, Tinnecum, and several other places, and from this time may be dated the permanent colonization of New Sweden.1 1641. The limits of that province, as claimed by its government, extended " from the borders of the Sea to Cape Henlopen in returning southwest towards Godyn's Bay; thence to- wards the Great South River, as far as the Minquaaskil, where Fort Christina is constructed ; and thence again to- wards South River, and the whole to a place which the sav- ages call Sankikan," now Trenton Falls. This district was about thirty German miles in length. In width, " as much of the country as they chose to take."
The Swedish authorities were not as indisposed as we might, a priori, be led to infer, to the settlement of natives of Holland within their jurisdiction. Mr. Henry Hochhammer obtained, Jan. 24. in the early part of this year, a charter for the planting a colo- O. S. nie on the east side of the Delaware, four or five miles distant from Fort Christina, the provisions of which were, in most re- spects, similar to that granted to Patroons in New Netherland. Jan. Joost de Bogaerdt was commissioned by Queen Christina com- 30. mander of this colonie, with a yearly salary of five hundred florins, or two hundred dollars, payable to his banker by the Swedish resident at the Hague. For the more efficient sup-
1 Extracten uyt versheyde missiven geschreven door Wm. Kieft ; MS cer- tificate and deposition of certain ancient Swedes living on the west side of the Delaware, 25th June, 1684. The said " ancient Swedes" declared, in another deposition dated 11th January, 1683, that " the first of their nation that came and planted in this river and the creeks thereunto belonging, did find the Dutch possessed of said river."
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NEW NETHERLAND.
1642.
port of the province of New Sweden generally, Her Majesty CHAP. appropriated two millions, six hundred and nineteen dollars, to be collected annually from the excise on tobacco, and the fines imposed on those importing that weed into the kingdom with- out license, and, in the summer of 1642, appointed John Aug. Printz, (a lieutenant-colonel of cavalry in her service,) as o. S. 16. governor of New Sweden for three years, at a yearly allow- ance of twelve hundred silver dollars, placing at the same time at his disposal, a force sufficient to support the rights of her crown on the South River.1
Governor Printz arrived in the Delaware in the fall of this year, accompanied by two vessels, the Swan and the Fame, and a number of settlers. He was instructed to observe a friendly demeanor towards the Dutch at Fort Nassau, "now occupied by about twenty men ;" to explain to them the inten- tions of the crown of Sweden in planting the South River, and if the Dutch would respect the title of the latter, then to leave them undisturbed in their possessions at Fort Nassau, and at New Amsterdam, on the North River. But, on the contrary, should any hostile disposition be evinced, then force should be employed to repel it. He was likewise directed to claim that part of the east coast from Cape Mey to the Narraticon, or Raccoon Creek, (a few miles below the present city of Phila- delphia,) including Hog Creek, where sixty English settlers had commenced a plantation, but to respect the Dutch colonie under the command of De Bogaerdt, and the privileges conceded to them, obliging these, however, should he think proper, to remove their settlement to a greater distance from Fort Chris- tina, as they were but three German or twenty English miles from that post. In his trade with the natives he was to treat them " with much humanity and kindness," and "see that
' Appropriation for the government of New Sweden, anno 1642. 1 Gover- nor, 800 Rix dollars ; 1 Lieu. Governor, 192 ditto ; 1 Sergeant Major, 120 dit- to ; 1 corporal, 72 ditto; 1 gunner, 96 ditto ; 1 trumpeter, 72 ditto; 1 drum- mer, 60 ditto ; 24 soldiers, 1,152 ditto; 1 paymaster, 120 ditto ; I secretary, 96 ditto; 1 barber, 120 ditto ; 1 provost, 72 ditto ; and one man, 48 ditto; be- ing an annual total of 3,020 Rix dollars. Beauchamp Plantagenet, in his De- scription of New Albion, and Acrelius, in his Hist. of New Sweden, allude to the above named Bogaerdt. In the translation of the latter work in the New Series of N. Y. Hist. Soc. Trans. p. 411, the name, however, is misspelled.
36S
HISTORY OF
BOOK neither violence nor injustice be done them." On the contrary, he was to take care that they be instructed in the Christian re-
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