USA > New York > New York City > History of New Netherland; or, New York under the Dutch, Vol. I > Part 6
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Prison- ers.
The campaign terminated, the conquerors turned their steps homeward, with their prisoners, sending forward a messenger to announce to their friends the intelligence of their approaching return. In the mean time they engraved on some tree, in the neighborhood, the result of their enterprise. After their pris- oners were secured, they did not subject them immediately to ill-treatment, nor if a woman were among the captives, did they offer any violence to her chastity. Their male prisoners were reserved for more exquisite torture. They were led through all the villages of their allies, or subjects, which lay near the road, the inmates of which were drawn up in two lines, through
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which the captives were forced, stark naked, to run the gaunt- CHAP. let. On this occasion they were exposed to every indignity, contumely, and assault, the women exhibiting even more fero- city than the men. The same sad reception awaited the cap- tives at their journey's end, at which they often arrived beaten, bruised, and bloody ; more dead than alive. If they, or any among them, were accepted by those who had lost any of their relatives in that or any former campaign, well : their sorrows were terminated. From that moment they were as one of the tribe ; their wounds dressed, the finest clothing furnished them, and they became absolutely free, enjoying all the privileges of the person in whose stead they were adopted, save that they could no more return to their own country. If a young man or boy were adopted, all the other young men called him father ; so that often a man of thirty was heard calling a boy of fifteen by that venerable appellation.
Woe awaited the unfortunate wretch who was rejected by all-who had none to adopt him. He was often kept for weeks, fed on the coarsest fare, and subjected to every ill usage, until at length, the council having determined on his fate, all the furies of vengeance were let loose on him, and his life was taken amid the most appalling tortures ; which, however, he usually met with unflinching firmness. Tied to the stake, he chanted forth his death-song in trium- phant tones, and proclaimed the joy with which he went to the land of souls to meet the embraces of his brave ancestors, who had taught him the great lessons of courage in fight and endu- rance under suffering. He recounted the glorious exploits of his life, and taunted his torturers by recapitulating the numbers of their tribe whom he had slain with his own hand. He flung back in their teeth his unextinguishable hate; and while the brand, the hatchet, and every engine of torture were applied, while his nails were torn from his fingers, and his flesh lace- rated with red-hot pincers, or gashed with other weapons, or his bowels torn from his mangled body, he laughed at the feeble fury of his executioners, and expired, at length, overpowered, but not conquered, mocking and defying still, even in death, his savage and cruel tormentors.
War had its term like every other calamity, and a desire for
111. 1609.
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BOOK tranquillity usually followed these ebullitions of phrensy, as the I. 1609. sunny calm succeeds the desolating storm. On these occa- sions, the nation which sought for peace usually sent some in- Peace. dividuals or chiefs of note to make overtures. Before these was borne the great calumet of peace, which, like the modern flag of truce, had a sacred character, and ensured security to the ambassadors, who were bearers, also, on these occasions, of belts of wampum, as presents in expiation of wrongs in- flicted, or expositions of proposals which were to be submitted. In the centre of a great council assembled to receive this em- bassy, the ambassador, in a set, yet eloquent speech, submitted and supported his proposals, speaking in the name of his tribe and all their allies. "Lend me your ear," was the language of one of the ambassadors from the Five Nations, on an occa- sion similar to the one we are now referring to, "for I am the mouth of all my country ; you hear all the Iroquois when you hear my word." Each proposition of these discourses was followed by laying down a belt of wampum, and if the prof- fered presents were accepted, similar presents were returned in exchange ; the calumet was smoked ; the contract sealed, and peace ratified by a solemn burial of the hatchet.
Wam- pum.
No article discovered among the savage races has ever ob- tained so universal a use as wampum, as it was termed by the English, or " seewan," as it was called by the Dutch. On the banks of the Hudson, on the shores of the Mississippi, and even on the distant borders of the river Niger, in western Afri- ca, the disposition or custom of using shells as a circulating medium is found to have been equally common. The Indian tribes of New Netherland were unacquainted with gold or silver. They took the great conques and mussel shells which were cast on shore by the sea. From the inside of the stem of the former they manufactured a small smooth white bead which they perforated ; and from the inside purple face of the latter they made also beads, in shape like a straw, one third of an inch long, which they bored longitudinally. These they strung on hempen thread, or on the dried sinews of beasts, and wove them afterwards into strips as broad as one's hand and about two feet long, which were then called belts of wam- pum. The black or purple was twice the value of the white.
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" They value these little bones," says the Rev. Dr. Megapo- CHAP. ensis, " as highly as many Christians do gold, silver, or pearls; valuing our money no better than they do iron." This minis- 1609. ter once showed an Indian chief a rix-dollar. The sachem asked how much it was worth among Christians ; when told, he laughed heartily, and said, " we must be great fools to value a piece of iron so highly, for if he had such money he should throw it in the river."
This wampum, or seewan, constituted not only the money of the Indians, it served likewise as an ornament to their per- sons, and distinguished the rich from the poor, the proud fromn the humble. It was a tribute from the conquered to the con- queror. It ratified treaties, confirmed alliances, sealed friend- ships, cemented peace, and satisfied for murders committed ; for the wampum belt washed away the memories of all blood that had been shed, and of all injuries that had been inflicted.1
The dead, among these primitive people, were highly hon- Burials. ored. The body of the deceased, after having been watched and bewailed for several days, was conducted, dressed in all its finery, to the place of interment, where it was fixed in a sitting posture on a stone, or block of wood, near which they placed a pot, a kettle, spoon or plate, with a trifle of money, and some provisions, which were considered necessary for the journey to the land of souls. The body was then surrounded with wood, or bark, to keep the soil from caving in; a large pile of earth, stone, or wood, was laid over the tomb, around which a number of palisades were also erected to protect the ground from violence, as these burial-places were considered
1 Wampum continued to constitute the common currency of this country long after it ceased to belong to the Dutch. In 1673, there was, according to Dr. Mil- ler, little or no certain coin in the government. Wampum passed for current pay- ment in all cases. Six white and three black beads for a penny ; and three times so much was the value of silver. The schoolmaster in Flatbush was paid his salary, in 1683, in wheat, "wampum value ;" he was bound to provide a basin of water for the purpose of baptism, for which he received from the parents or sponsors twelve styvers, " in wampum," for every baptism. Ten years af- terwards, in 1693, the ferriage for each single person from New York to Brook- lyn was eight styvers in wampum, or a silver two-pence. "Cowries," a spe- cies of Indian shell, are used as money, at the present day, in the interior of Western Africa.
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BOOK 1. 1609.
objects of peculiar veneration. At stated times the nearest relatives of the deceased gave vent, in wild howlings, to their renewed grief. The women painted their faces of a black color, shaved their hair in token of their sorrow, and burnt it on the grave of the dead,-especially if he had been a rela- tive, or had been slain in battle. Once departed, the name of the deceased disappeared forever from among his tribe, and had no longer a place among men. But the strongest attach- ment to the bones and ashes of their fathers still remained , and when calamity, or dire necessity, forced them to quit their native soil, they were sure to convey along with them, if pos- sible, these mouldering relics of their sires.
Reli- gion.
The notions entertained by the Indians of a future state, and of a Supreme and Almighty Creator, were, notwithstand- ing, crude and thoroughly carnal. To all systems of religion they were entire strangers, worshipping no Supreme Being. They, however, acknowledged the existence of a God in heaven from all eternity ; but who, they alleged, was so en- gaged with the society of a beautiful female, that he took no note of the occurrences of this world. The principal worship was that of the Evil One. Of him they entertained great dread; and to him, when sick, or unsuccessful in war or the chase, they offered sacrifices. But of the Supreme Creator of all things, of whom Europeans spoke to them, they had no conception. "We know not that God," said they, when rea- soned with ; "we have never seen him ; we know not who he is. We regard the sun and the moon much more than all your Gods, for they warm the earth ; they cause the fruits thereof to grow." Who it was that created the sun and the moon, they stopped not to inquire-they endeavored not to comprehend.
Manit- tous.
Apart from the Supreme Being, they believed in a multi- tude of minor spirits or tutelary guardians, and supposed that all animated creatures-whether human beings or wild ani- mals, the elements, and even the plants-had their good spirits to watch over them. This spirit was the Indian's Manittou, who protected him from his infancy to his death. It was re- presented by the head of a man carved in miniature on a stick. Every Indian had one or more of these, which he carried
1
1
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around his neck in a bag, or suspended on a string, and to CHAP. these they addressed themselves on all important occasions, III. on a voyage, on the approach of a storm, intrusting to them 1609. even the guardianship of their camp during the night prepa- ratory to engaging in an attack on an enemy's quarters.1
Yet they acknowledged, with all this, a distinction between Immor- the body and soul, believing the latter to be immortal, and to the soul. go, if good in this life, when the body ceased to live, to a place towards the south, where the climate was so fine that it had no need of covering there, for the air would be temperate, and the heat not over troublesome ; where abundance of every good thing would be to be had without the labor of produc- tion ; while, on the other hand, the souls of the wicked would be driven to another place, where they never should enjoy rest, contentment, or peace. With these impressions, a belief in ghosts easily followed, and was so general, that the moanings of the winds at night through the trees of the surrounding forest, or the howlings of the wild animals in the wilderness, were believed to be the lamentations of the spirits of the wicked, condemned to wander thus abroad without shelter or repose. Superstition, twin sister of ignorance, held them, Super- also, in strongest bondage, and one of their most common stitions operations was to hunt or drive the devil from among them, when they were more than usually unfortunate in war or hunt- ing, or when about to enter on a new expedition. For this purpose they assembled in the afternoon, towards sundown, to powow, as it was termed, when they strove, by all sorts of harlequinades, to charm his satanic majesty. They commenced by jumping, bellowing, and grinning, as if possessed. Large fires were kindled, around and over which they danced ; rolling, tumbling, bending, and making the most violent contortions, until the perspiration burst from every pore. Their behavior on these occasions would appal a stranger, for at once, and suddenly, all the devil drivers would unite in rolling, howling, tumbling, and clanging all sorts of hideous noises, until, as they said, some beast would appear to them, whose shape the devil would assume "for the nonce." If this beast were a
1 Charlevoix, Journal, 236.
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1609.
BOOK ravenous animal, they considered it a bad omen ; if a harm- 1. less one, the sign was propitious. They conceived next that this animal replied to their questions ; the answers they inter- preted according to their fancy. The presence of Christians, on these occasions, marred the plot, and the devil, they said, would not on that account be forthcoming.
Creation of the
Their opinions of the creation of this world were in keeping world. with their ideas of a future state, and equally vague. They imagined that a pregnant woman fell from heaven, and having got on the back of a tortoise, scraped the earth together from the bottom of the waters, until finally this globe became formed. From this female sprung, according to them, all sorts of ani- mals ; after which, the creation having been completed, the woman again reascended into heaven. They believed in more worlds than one, and that the Europeans came from another and more distant world.
All these crude and confused opinions were considerably Medicine fostered and encouraged by a class of persons among them, men. called medicine-men, or sorcerers, who lived by, and throve upon, the ignorance and simplicity of their dupes, and whose influence was almost unbounded among their tribe. For they pretended not only to divine the future, to expound the troubled and undigested dreams of the hunter and warrior, but to heal the wounds and diseases which these wild men received in their expeditions in search of glory or of food. Their medi- cal or surgical skill was, however, of the humblest sort. The gum of the pine-tree furnished them with a ready application for wounds of all descriptions. Rheumatic pains or inflam- matory diseases were subjected to the relaxing power of the vapor bath, with which were combined scarifications of the painful parts. From the vapor bath, the Indian medicine-man, the original Presnitz and first hydropath of this continent, flung his patient, all teeming with perspiration, into the nearest pond or river, and by this practice succeeded in many cases in restoring health. But should the disease exceed his skill, he immediately ascribed it to the secret agency of malignant spirits. He then changed his character. No longer a physi- cian, he became a magician. He sung and danced around his patient, invoking his god with loud cries. He felt all over the
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sick man's body for the enchanted spot ; rushed upon it like a CHAP. madman ; tore it with his teeth, often pretending to show a - III. small bone, or other object that he had extracted, and in which 1609. the evil one had been seated. The process was repeated the next day, with increased violence, or the unfortunate patient was surrounded with men of straw, wearing wooden masks, all of the most frightful shapes, in the hope of scaring away the mysterious tormentor ; or a painted image was made, which the medicine-man pierced with an arrow, pretending to vanquish the foul fiend thereby. Various other mummeries, each more absurd than the other, were had recourse to, in the midst of which the sick man expired, leaving the confidence of the people in their mighty medicine-man equally strong and unshaken. It is not strange that in such a state of society thousands were swept away on the visitation of any epidemic, or plague, which communications with Europeans afterwards might have introduced among them, the ravages of which their own ignorance and superstition only augmented in a tenfold degree.
The Indian life was not, however, a ceaseless round of toil Amuse- and suffering. These people had their hours of relaxation, ments. their seasons of amusement, as well as our more civilized na- tions ; and at these times they, no doubt, enjoyed themselves with as much zest as the most polished circles.
Their favorite enjoyments were smoking, singing, and dancing. The first, however, was of a serious occupation rather than a light amusement. With it they opened their great councils ; with it they closed their most important delibe- rations, for on every matter of weight the pipe was introduced, the calumet went round. Their music was of the simplest kind ; their songs generally were extemporaneous histories of their own exploits in hunting or in war; or sometimes the praises of some ferocious animal which they had overcome. Their dances were of various kinds. They had the war-dance, the calumet or peace dance, the marriage-dance, and the mys- tic dance carried on by their jugglers, accompanied by the most gross superstitions. In the last dance, the devil was said always to perform a part.
Their games were many, but partook rather of a gambling, Games
9
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HISTORY OF
BOOK than a light character, and were usually preceded, like their 1. war and hunting expeditions, by a course of fasting, dreaming, 1609. and cther propitiatory devotions. The game of the bone re- sembled that of throwing dice, with this distinction, that the " bones" were thrown in the air instead of on a table, as among modern gamblers. Considerable excitement accompanied this game, and men have been known, as in our day, to stake and lose all they were worth on this chance hazard. The grand festival of dreams was, like the carnival of the Euro- pean continent, an unbridled license from all decorum and rule. It continued for fifteen days, during which they ran about, frightfully disguised, committing every extravagance. He who met another, demanded an explanation of his dream, and, if not satisfied, he threw cold water, hot ashes, or dirt on the guesser, or rushing into his hut, broke and destroyed his furni- ture. Sometimes occasion was taken to give vent in this way to an old grudge. The moment the term of the feast had ex- pired, order was re-established by a general feast, when all damages were scrupulously indemnified.
Such was the race which had possession of the continent of North America when first visited by the Half-Moon ; such were their manners, habits, and customs. On a close and calm review of these, we cannot be surprised to find that the Indians steadily lost ground, from the moment "they came into contact with the more civilized European, until at length they, as it were, entirely disappeared from our sight. They carried within themselves the seeds of their own destruction. Either totally ignorant of the arts of peace, or addicted excessively to the destructive pursuits of war, they were without resources to fall back upon, to protect their race from the superior knowledge, address, and cunning of the white man, whose energy, ambition, and avarice were not to be contented nor controlled, until he became exclusive ruler of the New World.
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CHAPTER IV.
Truce between the Dutch and Spaniards-Crisis favorable for Hudson's dis- covery-Private adventurers resolve to send a ship to the Great River-Erect forts thereupon-Establishment on the island of Manhattan under Hendrick Corstiaensen-Visited by Captain Argal, and obliged to acknowledge its de- pendence on the crown of England-States General grant exclusive rights to all who discover new countries-Edict of 27th March, 1614-Dutch send Adriaen Block, Hendrick Corstiaensen, and Cornelis Jacobsen Mey, with five ships, in search of new lands-They proceed to the month of the Great River of the Manhattans-Block's vessel burnt-builds the Restless-Explores the East River-Discovers the Freshwater River, &c .- Passes through the Sound and meets Corstiaensen-Returns home-Progress of Mey-His discov- eries-Captain Hendrickson continues to explore the country in the Restless- Reports of discoveries laid before the States General-The country acquires, for the first time, the name of New Netherland-Charter or grant of Octo- ber, 1614, to United New Netherland Company-Revier van den Vorst Mauritius-Forts erected at each extremity thereof-Dutch drive an active trade among the Indians-Captain Hendrickson returns to Holland-His re- port-Expiration of the charter of Oct. 1614-Fort removed from Castle Island to the Noordtman's Kill-Treaty of the Dutch with the Five Nations- Causes leading thereto, and importance thereof.
THE gallant and enterprising people under whose auspices CHAP. Hudson had achieved his brilliant discovery, had just emerged~ IV. from a long, bloody, but glorious contest for freedom, which 1609. they had waged with dogged determination against Spain since 1566. Pursuing their tyrants into the remotest recesses of their extensive possessions, they soon made themselves felt wherever they appeared, and finally struck such a fearful blow at the maritime preponderance of the enemy, by the victory gained in the year 1608 over the Spanish fleet, by Jacob Heemskirk, (the bold navigator who had wintered, as we have already mentioned, at Nova Zembla,) that the Spaniards readily concluded a truce, in the course of the following year, with the Dutch, whereby the independence of the latter was virtually, if not formally acknowledged.
It was at this crisis, when peace had at length returned, after an absence of more than forty years, and when numbers of people must, by the transition, have found themselves de-
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HISTORY OF
BOOK prived of their accustomed active employment, and habitual 1. excitement, that the intelligence of Hudson's discovery broke 1609. on the public, affording to private adventure a new field for the exercise of those energies which had hitherto been absorbed by the war, and which now would naturally seek new fields for the employment of its capital.
The commodities which abounded among the natives of the newly discovered countries, were objects of great demand in Europe. The furs that the rigors of the northern climate rendered indispensable to the inhabitants of Holland, and which they had hitherto obtained through Russian and other traders, were to be had now from the Indians in exchange for 1610. the veriest baubles and coarsest goods. Stimulated by these considerations, and by the hope of profitable returns, a vessel was dispatched by some Amsterdam merchants, freighted with a variety of goods, to the Manhattans, in the course of the following year.1
1611. The success of this venture seems to have given increased stimulus to the spirit of enterprise. New discoveries were projected ; licenses were granted by the States General, on Feb. recommendation of the Admiralty, to two ships, the Little
21. Fox, and Little Crane, ostensibly to look again for a Sept. 7. northerly passage to China ; and the cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Hoorn, and Enckhuyzen, as well as several pri- vate merchants and citizens, applied for information to the States of Holland and West Friesland, relative to a certain newly discovered navigable river, and the proper course to be 1612. steered in proceeding thither.2 These ships proceeded, on procuring the requisite information, to that quarter early in the ensuing spring; and of so much importance was the 1613. country now considered, that the traders erected and garrisoned one or two small forts on the river, for the protection of the
1 Alb. Rec. xxiv., 167 ; Hol. Doc. i., 211 ; De Laet ; Lambrechtsen ; Moulton, 337; Heckewelder. Mr. Gallatin states in his Synopsis of the Indian Tribes, p. 41, on the testimony of the Rev. Mr. Heckewelder, that the Dutch made their first settlement on the shore opposite New York island, about the year 1610. All this, however, rests on mere tradition, and may be confounded with the visit paid the Raritans in 1609.
" Hol. Doc. i., 12, 13, 14.
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fur-trade, which the new-comers began to drive with the CHAP. Indians.1 IV.
The favorable position of the island of Manhattan for com- merce was easily perceived by the Europeans from the first, and it soon became the head-quarters of the traders. Their establishment in that locality consisted now of four houses, under the superintendence of Hendrick Corstiaensen, who, by means of his trading-boats, visited every creek, inlet, and bay in the neighborhood, where an Indian settlement was to be found, and thus secured for his employers the furs and other valuable produce of the country.
But the growing prosperity of the infant post was now fated to experience an unexpected check. Capt. Argal, of Virginia, returning in the month of November of this year from a seem- ingly predatory visit to a settlement which the French had made at Port Royal, in Acadia, touched at the island of Man- hattans, with a view, it is said, of looking after a grant of land which he had obtained there from the Virginia Company, and forced Corstiaensen to submit himself and his plantation to the king of England, and to the governor of Virginia under him, and to agree to pay tribute in token of his dependence on the English crown.2
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