USA > New York > New York City > History of New Netherland; or, New York under the Dutch, Vol. I > Part 36
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In the course of the following week, the messenger return- ed with the answer of the Director-general and council, "'To the most noble and worthy Commissioners of the Federated English met together at the Red Mounte, or New Haven, in New Netherland," couched in strong and indignant terms. The inhabitants of Hartford, they asserted, had deceived the commissioners with false accusations, as could easily be prov- ed, as well by English as by Dutch testimony, and other au- thentic documents, if it were proper now to do so. A few particulars out of such a mass would, however, suffice, " as by the claw they may judge of the talons of the lion."
Sept. 22.
-
379
NEW NETHERLAND.
The Director-general then proceeded to rebut the several CHAP. charges contained in the commissioners' letter. He maintain- ed that the shedding the blood of the Dutch, of which the inhabitants of Hartford had been guilty, and the selling the company's cattle, proved sufficiently the equity of their pro- ceedings. " And therefore your prejudgment, supported by this oath, Credo coxtius, as if you would say, Amen, Amen, seems wonderful to us, and contrary to the modesty requisite in such an assembly, which should always keep one ear for the other party." He denied that the woman who had been detained at Fort Hope was a slave. "She was neither taken in war, nor bought with a price." She was placed with the Director-general by her parents, to be educated. Notwith- standing all this, he promised that she should not be wrong- fully detained ; but whether her master should be indemnified, or she restored, he insisted that she should be baptized be- fore she be allowed to marry. As for the attack of the Dutch commissary on the watch at Hartford, he considered that as watches were for the defence of towns against ene- mies, and not for the purpose of preventing friends returning to their own houses, the most prudent policy would be, to commit such a trust to men of experience, and not to ignorant boys, who, when they once find arms placed in their hands, think they may also lawfully cry out :- ctiam nos poma nata- mus. "Certainly," continues the Director-general, " when we hear the inhabitants of Hartford complaining of us, we seem to hear Æsop's wolf complaining of the lamb, or the admonition of the young man who cried out to his mother, chiding one of her neighbors, 'Oh, mother, mother ! revile her, lest she first commence attacking you.'" As for the an- swer of those of New Haven, it was such, he said, as he ex- pected. "The eagle always despiseth the beetle-fly." He continued, notwithstanding, determined undauntedly to pursue his own right "by just arms and righteous means," and wound up with these emphatic words :
" We protest against all you Commissioners met at the Red Mount, as against breakers of the common league, and also as infringers of the special rights of the Lords the States, our superiors, in that ye have dared, without express commission,
VIII. 1646.
380
HISTORY OF
BOOK to hold your general meeting within the limits of New Neth- III. erland." 1646.
With this missile, the commissioners, as they well might, expressed themselves much dissatisfied. Director Kieft had, they insisted, left many of their charges untouched, while on others he was misinformed. The Indian girl, they maintain- ed, had been taken in war, and for her misconduct had been handed over to the civil authorities ; she had fled from these and taken refuge in the Dutch fort, where, as the Dutch com- missary had admitted, she was defiled. Such a practice, the commissioners add, " we would condemn in one of ours with any unmarried, much more with an unbaptized Indian. What order you have taken that she be returned-what satisfaction you have given for this wrong, we hear not. We conceive watches are in all places set to prevent inconveniences and mischiefs which may be done by enemies, or disorderly per- sons, and in all places a soberly and comely answer is expect- ed. He that draws and breaks his rapier on a watch, neither attends his duty nor his safety." The commissioners next re- fer to the points in their last letter, which Director Kieft had passed unnoticed, and expressed their doubts that he could, either by witnesses or otherwise, prove that they had been deceived. " Your other expressions-your proverbs or allusions," they continue, " we leave to your calmer consideration." As for the protest with which the Director-general had closed his dispatch, they observed that though it was harsh, it agreed with the general strain of his letter, and concluded by stating that they had more reason to be offended with his protest, than he had with their meeting at New Haven ; as, for aught they knew, they could show as good a commission for the one as he could for the other.1
Thus terminated Director Kieft's correspondence with the English colonies at the east. On a review of the whole, it will be admitted that, however good his case, the commission- ers had the best of the argument on paper. By lack of tem-
1 Winthrop's N. Eng. ii., 268, 276; Hazard's State Papers, ii., 55, 56, et seq. ; N. Y. Hist. Soc. Trans. i., 189-199 ; Trumbull's Conn. i., 155, 156, 157, 158; Alb. Rec. xii., 398
381
NEW NETHERLAND.
per, and by an undignified style, the Director-general leaves CHAP. an impression on the mind, at this distance, unfavorable to his VIII. ability as a diplomatist, as well as to his capacity for filling the high and delicate position which he was then occupying. It cannot, at the same time, be denied that the English afforded provocation sufficient to chafe a temper less irritable than that of Director Kieft, who, to his other troubles, had now the ad- ditional misery of feeling that his government was overwhelm- ed with debts to a large amount, which it was out of his power to meet, and for the means to liquidate which, he should be obliged to draw on the company in Holland, who were al- ready too much dissatisfied with the manner in which he had administered the affairs of New Netherland, to honor any more of his drafts.
He took, however, the earliest opportunity to communicate the Nov. intelligence of the progress of the English encroachments at the 22. northeast to the directors at Amsterdam, who contented them selves with instructing him to collect the most correct informa- tion, particularly as to the pretended right which the Indians had to sell to the English the soil situated within the Dutch limits in the direction of Fort Orange. He was further in- structed to prevent the erection by the former of any trading- post in that quarter, by all possible means short of such dan- gerous proceedings as might provoke a war, of which the directors seem to have already had more than enough ; to watch, in the mean time, the actions of his neighbors, who seemed now intent on appropriating to themselves the whole of the Dutch possessions in North America, and to oppose all further encroachments on their part.1
The annals of this year are marked by two extensive grants on the North River, for the purpose of establishing ad- ditional colonies. Regardless of the claims of the Patroon of Rensselaerswyck, the rich and fertile lands of Katskill Aug. were patented to Cornelis Antonissen van Slyck, of Breucke- 22. len, in return for the eminent services he had rendered in bringing about a general peace, and in ransoming prisoners in the hands of the Indians, " which well-known services should
1 Alb. Rec. xii., 398.
1646.
382
HISTORY OF
BOOK III. of right be duly acknowledged ;"1 and Adriaen van der Donck, now disappointed in his attempt to plant a colonie in the neigh- 1646. borhood of Rensselaerswyck, obtained, in consideration of the assistance he afforded in negotiating the treaty between the Director-general and the Mohawks, and in return for the ad- vances he then made to enable the government to purchase presents for those Indians, the tract of land called Nepper-
1 The following is a translation of this patent. " WE, Willem Kieft, Director-general, and council, on behalf of the High and Mighty Lords States General of the United Netherlands, His Highness of Orange, and the Noble Lords Directors of the Privileged West India Company, residing in New Netherland: To all who shall see or hear these presents read, Health. Where- as Cornelis Antonissen, [Van Slyck,] of Breuckelen, hath appeared before Us, and with his associates requested permission to settle in free possession the land of Katskill lying on the River Mauritius, there to plant with his associates a Colonie, which he hath promised to do, according to the freedoms and exemp- tions of New Netherland : WE, therefore, considering the great service which the aforesaid Cornelis Antonissen hath conferred on this country, as woll in the making of peace as in the ransoming of prisoners, and it heing proper that such notorious services should not remain unacknowledged, We have, as Director and Council, conceded and granted to the aforesaid Cornelis Antonissen, the above-mentioned land of the Katskill, to plant there a Colonie, within the time therefor enacted, and in the order appointed, or to be appointed, by the Noble Lords Majors. Wherefore WE, in the quality aforesaid, deed and transport in a true, free, and perpetual possession, to the said Cornelis Antonissen, the afore- said lands of the Katskill, giving him full power, authority, and special com- mand, to enter on, cultivate, and make use of the said lands in the same man- ner as he should conclude to do with his other patrimonial estate, without our in any manner, in quality aforesaid, having, reserving, or retaining thereon any part, action, or authority in the least, but as regards the same, desisting from all henceforth and forever ; promising to maintain this transport firmly, invio- lably, and irrevocably ; to perform and to fulfil every part thereof under the penalty of answering therefor according to law, without art or gnile. This is subscribed, and with our Seal in red wax, fully and perfectly confirmed. Done in Fort Amsterdam, in New Netherland, this 22d of August, of the year of our Lord and Saviour one thousand six hundred six and forty.
[Signed,] " WILLEM KIEFT.
" By order of the noble Director-general and council of N. N.
" CORNELIS VAN TIENHOVEN,
"Secretary."
Book of Dutch Patents, GG 157, translation 363. The original of the above patent, on a small piece of parchment, and written in fine old Dutch text, is among the Rensselaerswyck MSS. in a high state of preservation. It is from this last-mentioned document that the above translation was made, as I had not discovered the record in the Secretary of state's office at the time.
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NEW NETHERLAND.
haem, but now known as Yonkers. This valuable property CHAP. was situate on the east side of the Hudson River, about six- teen miles above New Amsterdam. It was bounded on the north by the Saw-kill, which the Indians called Maccakassin, and ran south to Nepperhaem ; thence to the Shorakapkock kill and to Papirinimen Creek, called by the Dutch " Spuyten- duyvel," whence it stretched eastward to the river Bronx. The title of this colonie was " Colen Donck," and the propri- etor thereof was invested with all the rights and privileges contained in the charter of 1629.1
The village of Breuckelen was also incorporated this year, in consequence, possibly, of the serious and urgent complaints made by the Eight Men in the fall of 1644. The inhabitants of that village were authorized to elect two schepens, or magistrates, with power to decide all cases within their juris- diction, according to their charter; and to adjoin others to their number, should the duties of their office become too onerous. Any persons obstinately opposing these were to be deprived of their share in the land around the village. These Nov. privileges were subsequently further enlarged, on the repre- 26. sentation of the schepens that they were unable to provide against cases of violence and trespass. A Schout was ap- pointed to assist them. Jan Teunissen was commissioned to fill this office, dependent, however, on the company's schout- fiscaal at New Amsterdam.2
1 Alb. Rec. viii., 79, 80; Hol. Doc. vi., 118; Book of Patents, i., 56.
Alb. Rec. ii., 357, 358, 385; iii., 362, 363.
VIII. 1646.
384
HISTORY OF
CHAPTER IX.
Termination of Kieft's administration-General condition of the country- Slaves-Their lot under the Dutch-Population of New Netherland-Rev- enue-Causes of the hackward state of the province-Advanced condition of New England-Reflections-Settlements enumerated-Their govern- ment-Transfer of the municipal institutions of Holland to New Nether- land-Errors of contemporary writers-Character of Director Kieft-De- nies the right of appeal from his judgments-Harsh and tyrannical proceed- ings against the Rev. Mr. Doughty and Mr. Van Hardenbergh-General discontent-State of morals, religion, and education-Conclusion.
THE administration of Director Kieft, though he was not superseded in fact until 1647, may now be said to have vir- tually terminated. Serious complaints, charging him with nothing less than tyranny, extortion, murder, theft, and other heinous crimes, had, as we have already seen, been transmit- ted to the directors of the West India Company, and produced his recall. But though his successor was appointed, the States General did not issue his commission immediately on its having been demanded. They were desirous of under- standing what disposition had been made of the complaints from New Netherland, and it was not until the application had been iterated more than once, that their High Mightinesses ordered a new commission to be expedited.
What the actual condition of the country was at this remote period, may, in the absence of all materials of a statistical na- ture, be easily gleaned from the remonstrances of the com- monalty, and the proceedings of the home authorities conse- quent thereupon.
Slaves constituted, as far back as 1628, a portion of the population. The introduction of this class was facilitated by the establishments which the Dutch possessed in Brazil and on the coast of Guinea, as well as by the periodical capture of Spanish and Portuguese prizes, and the circumstances at- tendant on the early settlement of the country. The expense of obtaining labor from Europe was great, and the supply by
BOOK 111. 1646.
385
NEW NETHERLAND.
no means equal to the demand. To add to these embarrass- CHAP. ments, the temptations held out by the fur-trade were so irre- sistible, that the servants, or "boere-knechts," who were brought over from Holland, were soon seduced from the pur- suits of agriculture. Farmers were consequently obliged to employ negroes, and slave-labor thus became, by its cheap- ness and the necessity of the case, one of the staples of the country.
The lot of the African under the Dutch, was not as hopeless as his situation might lead us to expect. He was "a chattel," it is true ; but he could still look forward to the hour when he too might become a freeman. In the years 1644 and 1646, several negroes and their wives, who had originally been cap- tured from the Spaniards, had been manumitted, in conse- quence of their long and faithful services. To enable them to provide for their support, they obtained a grant of land ; but as the price of their manumission, they were bound to pay yearly twenty-two bushels and a half of corn, wheat, peas, or beans, and one fat hog valued at eight dollars, failing which, they were to lose their liberty and return again to their former state of servitude. The emancipation of the parents did not, however, carry with it that of their offspring. " All their chil- dren already born, or yet to be born, remained obligated to serve the company as slaves." The fathers were moreover obligated to serve "by water or by land" when called upon so to do. The price of a negro averaged between one hundred and one hundred and fifty dollars. The detention of the children in slavery, after the emancipation of the parents, was highly disapproved of by the commonalty, who considered it a violation of the law of nature. "How any one born of a free Christian mother, could, notwithstanding, be a slave, and be obliged to remain such, passed their comprehension. It was impossible for them to explain it." The authorities at- tempted to palliate the act. "They were treated just like Christians." But this was considered alike unsatisfactory.1
The population, comprising all who came under the title
1 Van Tienhoven; Alb. Rec. il., 243, 378 ; xx., 296; xxi., 416, 417; Hol. Doc. iii., 351 ; Van der Donck'e Vertoogh, van N. N.
49
IX. 1646.
386
HISTORY OF
1646.
BOOK of the "Gemeente," or commonalty of New Amsterdam, JIT. amounted, in 1643, to five hundred men. This would give a total of twenty-five hundred souls. Allowing that Rensse- laerswyck and the few towns on Long Island contained four hundred more, we should then be justified in estimating the whole population of New Netherland at that date, at about three thousand.
The public revenue was computed to amount to sixteen thousand guilders, or six thousand four hundred dollars per annum.
The population was seriously affected by the difficulties with the Indians. Many had removed to the neighborhood of Fort Orange ; others returned to Holland ; and numbers had been slain by the savages. The consequence was, that in and around Fort Amsterdam, the male adult population was reduced to one hundred at the close of the war.' By the re- moval of the first portion of the inhabitants, the population of the country was not, however, actually decreased. The only diminution it experienced, was by emigration and loss of life, and, these considered, we doubt much if, at the close of Kieft's administration, the population exceeded a thousand souls. This figure is, we admit, low, and after a lapse of so many years, creditable neither to the founders nor managers of the province, especially when contrasted with the progress and flourishing condition of the adjoining English colonies. But it could not well be otherwise. It was one of the natural consequences of the imperfect system and mismanagement of which the country was the victim. For the first thirteen years after its discovery, it was abandoned to the casual and rare visits of a few private trading-ships, which came for the mere purpose of taking away the furs that their servants or agents might have collected at Fort Orange or the Manhattans. When the West India Company became incorporated, this system was not altered. Those in the employ of that associ- ation merely took the place of their predecessors. The visits
1 In Hol. Doc. iii., 369, it is asserted, that in 1648 not much more than one hundred males could he found hesides the free traders. The population of New England then was 50 to 60,000.
387
NEW NETHERLAND.
of the company's ships were still made for the sole purpose CHAP. of carrying back to Holland the collected peltries ; and during Minuit's and Van Twiller's administrations, so exclusively was everybody absorbed in the Indian trade, so few were the agricultural settlers, and so little was agriculture attended to, that the colonists depended, we may say wholly, on the parent country for their supplies. These unfortunately failed one season under Van Twiller, and the consequence was, that the settlers around Fort Amsterdam were thrown for food on the charity of the Indians.
The evil consequences of the policy pursued by the direc- tors in Holland towards New Netherland became apparent shortly after the removal of the Massachusetts Company to America. This association adopting a wiser system, encour- aged immigration by every means compatible with the peculiar principles of their municipal government. The country be- came soon inhabited by industrious settlers, full of energy, who, stimulated by the freedom of trade which they enjoyed, and unfettered by those special privileges which followed wherever the civil law was established, spread themselves abroad in every direction, and soon seized on the richest portion of the Dutch possessions. Entertaining, as the West India Company did, no feeling for the prosperity of the country, except so far as the returns of the fur-trade were concerned ; reduced to a state of bankruptcy by its vast undertakings elsewhere ; dis- tracted by internal dissensions, each chamber striving to secure for itself the largest share of profit at the expense of the small- est amount of disbursements,1 it is not surprising that the en- croachments of the people of New England resulted in suc- cess. Numbers effected what unprotected feebleness could not prevent ; self-interest overpowered what national law alone supported, and the Dutch were forced, though unwillingly, to yield.
The reflections of the historian can neither recall the past, nor alter the course of human events. But the review of those
1 Alle de inwoonders in Nieu Nederlandt gelooven dat de Bewinthebbers gants geen acht off regard op Nieu Nederlandt nemen, dan alsser wat te ont- vangen is; hetwelcke, nochtans, maeckt dat sy te minder ontfangen. Van der Donck.
IX. 1646.
388
HISTORY OF
1646.
BOOK transactions will teach nations this abiding lesson :- that it is III. in vain to have either right or justice at their side, if they have not, at the same time, the means to maintain the one, and en- force the other ; and to statesmen this wholesome truth, that as the government of an exclusive mercantile company is the worst of all governments for any country, so colonies can never be fostered or promoted by the commercial monopolies of such privileged associations.1
With the exception of the few individuals who possessed means sufficient to found Patroonships, or to establish plan- tations, the mass of the inhabitants of New Netherland, as is the case in all new countries, were far from wealthy. Van der Donck represents that the greater portion of them " brought nothing" to the country ; a statement which is amply borne out by the fact that the government was called on, occasion- ally, to assist immigrants by advances, or loans of money, with- out interest, to enable them to make a beginning.
The greater number of the houses around forts Amsterdam and Orange were, in those days, low-sized wooden buildings, with roofs of reed or straw, and chimneys of wood. Wind or water mills were erected, here and there, to grind corn, or to saw lumber. One of the latter, situate on Nut or Governor's Island, was leased in 1639 for five hundred merchantable boards yearly, half oak and half pine.2 Saw and grist mills were built on several of the creeks in the colonie of Rensselaerswyck, where " a horse mill" was also erected in 1646.3 A brewery
1 Smith's Wealth of Nations ii., 64.
" Alb. Rec. i., 155, 185; vii., 105, 114.
' 31 January, 1646 : Contract for a Horse-mill. The mill situate on the fifth kill being, to the great damage of the Patroon, and inhabitants of the colo- nie, [Rensselaerswyck,] for a considerable time out of repair, or unfit to be worked, either by the breaking of the dam, the severity of the winter, or the high water, or otherwise ; besides being out of the way, to the prejudice of the inhabitants in going and returning, a contract, after being duly proposed to the court, is, therefore, made with Pieter Cornelissen to build a horse-mill in the Pine grove, whereby not only the colonie, but also, if so be, the navigators who come hither, may be encouraged to provide themselves with other things. Pie- ter Cornelisz. shall complete the work for fl. 300, ($120.) I furnishing him Al. 200 in stones, two good horses, the expense of which is to be divided between us, half and half. The standing work, plank, labor, and other expenses, we
389
NEW NETHERLAND.
had been constructed previous to 1637, in the same quarter, CHAP. by the Patroon, with the exclusive right of supplying retail- dealers with beer. But private individuals were allowed the privilege, notwithstanding, to brew whatever quantity of beer they might require for consumption within their own fami- lies.1
The settlement of the country beyond the precincts of New Amsterdam received, as we have seen, a serious check by the Indian war. On the eastern extremity of Long Island, the English had established the towns of South Hampton and South Old. The plantations at the west end, under the jurisdiction of the Dutch, were, however, far more numerous, and now comprised Breukelen, Amersfoort, (Flatlands,) Gravenzande, Vlissingen, (Flushing,) Heemstede, Mespath, (Newtown,) and Gowanus. There was a small hamlet called Bergen, be- sides a number of valuable bouweries on what is now the Jer- sey side of the river, but this section suffered, comparatively speaking, more than any other from the savages, who laid
ehall defray in common, hearing, each, equal profit and loss. On the comple- tion of the mill, and on its being ready to go, Pieter Cornelissen shall work one day for himself and the other day for the Patroon, and so forth ; the Patroon paying him one Rix dollar for his day. Should it happen, as we expect, that so great a demand shall arise, 80 that the mill will not supply all the colonie or strangers, (buytenwoonders,) then P. Cornelisz. is alone authorized and priv- ileged to erect, in company with the Patroon, another such mill, on these or such other conditions as are now, or shall hereafter he agreed on. Signed, Anthony de Hooges, Pieter Cornelissen. Rensselaerswyck MSS. A mill worked by horses stood, in the course of the last century, as I am informed by an aged citizen, on the lot forming the northeast corner of Hudson and Grand streets, Albany. There was a mill also on the 3d or Rutten kill, in 1646.
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