USA > New York > New York City > History of New Netherland; or, New York under the Dutch, Vol. II > Part 44
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This party was composed of one hundred and two soldiers, forty-six Marespincks and six freemen. After a Oct. 2. march of about twenty hours, they reached the scene of their late victory. All was solitude and silence. Squaws and papooses lay unburied around, partly devoured by wolves and ravens ; and nine or ten holes were discovered, filled with dead savages, on whose bodies the wild beasts had been feasting ; but no sign of a living human being was to be found. Two days were now spent cutting down the maize crop, which was thrown into the kill. On the Oct. 4. third day the fort was razed. The palisades and wigwams were piled together and the whole set on fire .? About ten o'clock in the forenoon, the party left, and after bivouack- Oct. 5. ing one night, arrived at their quarters in the evening of the following day. The march was fatiguing in the ex- treme. Continual rain had swollen the creeks, several of which had to be waded, breast-high. The road was bad, being generally mountainous, though in some parts the country was beautiful. All the captured savages, twelve, Oct. 9. in number, were shortly after sent to the Manhattans, whither Krygier returned, and an armistice having been agreed upon, all the remaining Christians in the hands of the Indians, except three, were some time after recovered.
In the beginning of this year, New Netherland was visited by a smart shock of an earthquake, which was felt very severely inland, both in Canada, New England, and
1 Alb. Rec. xii., 331 ; xvi., 239-253, 256 ; xxi., 294. Hol. Doc. xii., 347. A writer in the New York Christian Intelligencer, Vol. XVI , No. 42, undertakes to give an account of the above battle " according to tradition." It is altogether different from that given in the Records, and does great injustice to the Indians. It is only referred to here, for the purpose of guarding those who read it against being misled by that, or similar misstatements.
º Alb. Rec. xvi., 257-259, 270; xviii., 243. The forts referred to in the text, are said to have stood on what is now the Shawangunk kill, in the town of the same name, at the south-western extremity of Ulster county
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Acadia, over an area of twenty thousand superficial leagues, CHAP. and in the course of the summer, the country around Fort~
v. Orange was submerged by a freshet which caused consider- 1663. able damage. The grain was mostly cut; the harvest Aug. 4. had been fully as heavy as in the first ten years of the settlement ; but the flood came down unexpectedly like an avalanche, and swept all away.1 To increase the public misfortunes, the small pox broke out soon after among the Whites and Indians. In one week twelve persons died of the distemper at Beverwyck, whilst the loss among the Five Nations is computed at one thousand.2
Advices were now received from Holland announcing that all hope of obtaining in Europe a settlement of the limits between New Netherland and New England must be abandoned; and that any arrangement to be made must be effected in America. The Director-general, there- fore, proceeded to Boston to endeavor, if possible, to come Sep. 6. to some agreement on this vexed question.3 But he had scarcely departed when fresh troubles broke out on Long Island. Capt. Talcott having completed his mission in Westchester, crossed over to Middleburgh, and thence dispatched one James Christie, a Scotchman, to Graves- end, Flushing, Heemstede, and Gemeco, to announce to the people thereabout that they were no longer under the Dutch government, but under that of Hartford." Arrived at
1 Jeremias van Rensselaer's letter, 7th Angust, 1663; Relation, 1662, 1663., 6-18; also Charlevoix, Nouv. France ; Hist. du Canada depuis sa découverte jusqu'à nos jours, par F. X. Garneau, Quebec, 1815, i., 291.
2 Alb. Rec. vi., 403, 423. Relation, 1664-5., 92.
3 Alb. Rec. iv., 424; xii , 329; xxi., 287-290.
4 John Talcott here mentioned, emigrated with his parents, John and Dorothy Talcott, to Massachusetts, from Colchester, (England,) in 1632. He filled many offices of responsibility in Connecticut, was one of the patentees men- tioned in the charter to that colony fromn King Charles, which was subsequently entrusted to his and two others' care, when removed beyond Andros' reach and deposited in the Charter Oak. He served with much success in the wars against the Indians, and died at Hartford, July 23, 1688, O. S., leaving a property valued at over £2000, colonial currency. He was married twice and had four- teen children, one of whom, Joseph, was Governor of Connecticut in 1724, and held that office seventeen years. His (John's) brother Samuel, was one of the original proprietors of Wethersfield, Conn., and is the lineal ancestor of Col. George Talcott, who removed to the State of New York in 1808, entered the U. S. Army in the war of 1812, and is now, and has been for several years, Chief
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BOOK VI. Gravesend, the whole village was called together to hear the letters read ; but Christie had not well commenced 1663. when he was arrested by Sheriff Stillwell. The magis- Sep. 23. trates summoned this officer to answer for his act, who immediately sent a messenger to the Manhattans with a report of his critical position. A sergeant and eight soldiers Sep. 24. came at once to his aid, and Christie was committed to the charge of this guard. News was now received that a large force was collecting to rescue the prisoner. He Sep. 25. was therefore removed, at two o'clock the next morning, to Fort Amsterdam. The following night, about nine o'clock, an armed mob, estimated at one hundred and fifty men, some on horseback, some on foot, surrounded Still- well's house, vociferating that they should have him dead or alive. He succeeded, fortunately, in gaining, in the dark, his son-in-law's residence. In the mean time, the multitude ransacked every corner of his house, " emptied two ankers of brandy," and then dispersed, without com- mitting any further depredation. Stillwell, thereupon, proceeded to New Amsterdam, whither the people of Sep. 26. Gravesend immediately wrote, throwing all the blame on the sheriff, whom they accused of having acted in a violent manner, and causing " a great hubbub in the town." They admitted themselves subjects of the Dutch government, but not of Stillwell, " who is the greatest disturber of the peace that ever came among them." The armed men who visited the village "came in search of one of the King's subjects, who was arrested in the King's land." Those of Middleburgh were more excited. They threat- ened retaliation, if Christie were not released. The Coun- Sep. 27. cil replied in soothing terms. The dispute was merely about words " of no intrinsic value." They approved of Stillwell's conduct ; addressed circulars to all the English villages, requiring them to arrest and send to New Amster- dam any seditious persons who might visit their towns ; and then dispatched an express to the Director-general at
of the Ordnance Bureau at Washington. Col. George Talcott intermarried into the Bogaert family, and his descendants reside at present in Albany.
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Boston, in order that he might place the whole matter CHAP. V.
before the General Assembly.1
The result of Stuyvesant's mission was not satisfactory. 1663.
He had duly complained of the non-observance of the Sex. 19. treaty of 1650, and demanded of the Commissioners if they considered that agreement still in force. The latter equiv- ocated. They acknowledged that they held the treaty to be binding, saving his Majesty's rights and those of Connecticut under their recent charter. But they suggested that the whole controversy should undergo, next year, a full hearing before the Commissioners ; that, meanwhile, all things should remain according to the above-mentioned agreement. The decision was a triumph for those of Hartford, who obtained all they demanded-delay. " It was as clear as the sun at noon-day," says Stuyvesant, Sep. 21. " that these were but frivolous expressions borrowed from the letter of Governor Winthrop and his Court." He, however, expressed his willingness to submit the whole question to any arbitrators mutually chosen, and promised, in that event, neither to wrong nor injure any of the in- habitants of Westchester. But in this, too, he was unsuc- cessful. "In his grief he was necessitated to refer the matters unsettled to both their superiors." He next pro- Sep. 23. posed a continuation of trade on the same terms as it was permitted in Europe, and an alliance offensive and defen- sive against the savages. The Commissioners were will- ing to agree to mutual commerce not contravening the late trade act. The proposal for a union against the Indians they would submit to their respective General Courts.2
Meanwhile the English towns on Long Island were Sep. 20. seriously endeavoring to form a junction with Connecticut. To effect this purpose, Sergeant Hubbard (forgetting the promise of good behavior he had given in 1655) proceeded to Hartford with a petition from certain of the inhabitants of Gemeco, Middleburgh, and Heemstede, praying the General Court of that place to " cast over them the skirts
1 Alb. Rec. xxi., 303-309, 315, 319, 322-325. Aitzema, iv., 1121.
9 Hazard's State Papers, ii., 479-183 ; Trumbull, i., 258.
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BOOK of their government and protection." Hubbard demanded, VI. at the same time, that measures be adopted for the re- 1663. duction of the adjoining Dutch towns .? This was followed by a descent on Midwout (or Flatbush) of a party of armed men, headed by one Richard Panton, "whose commission is his sword and whose power is his pistol," with the intent to bring the Dutch villages under Hartford, threatening the people with plunder of their property, if they should refuse to take up arms against the government at the Manhattans. It was to learn this disastrous state of the country that Stuyvesant returned from Boston. To coun- teract the designs of the disaffected, and to put an end, if
1 The humble petition of vs the Inhabitants [of] Jemaico, Middelborow and Hemstead upon Long Island, (whose names are subscribed,) to the Honored General Court to be assembled at Hartford Sth Octob. 1663, humbly sheweth :- That forasmuch as it hath plesed the aldisposing Providence who determines the times before appointed and the bounds of men's habitasion to apointe unto vs our dwellings in these parts of the cuntery under the Dutch gonerment ; in which gouerment we mete with severall inconvenyances that doe much trubble vs, and which we finde verry uncumfortable, and forasmuch as we haue re- ceived informaton how it hath plesed the highest Magesty to move the hart of the King's majesty to grant vnto your colony such enlargements as comprehends this whole Iland thereby opening a waye for vs (as we hope) from our presant bondage to such liberties and inlargements as we ar informed your patten affords ; and seeing your Worshiphs were pleased the last yere to manefest your respect to vs and care of vs by Capt. John Youngs and since by letters ; shewing your willingness to accept of vs and that we may be true to the comforts of our- selves and these concerned in vs, we make bould to become petisioners to yr. Worships, and accordingly our humbel petision is, that as we ar alruddy ac- cording to our best information under the scurts of your patten, so you would be plesed to cast over vs the scurts of your goverment and protecktion, for assuredly if you should leave us nowe, which we hope we haue not cause to feare, our lives comforts and estates will be much indangered ; as wo full expe- riance makes manefest, yt a contryman of ours for cariing a mesage to a neigh- bor plantasion from sum of yourselues have bin imprisoned for several weks and how long it will be continued we know not. Our petition therefor is yt your Worships will be plesed seriously to consider our condision and giue vs such an answer as your wisdums shal judg mete with as much speed as may bee : and leaue the full declarasion of things to our trusty messenger and thus we shall for the present take leaue of your Worships, comiting ourselves and concernes to the supream disposer and remaine your humbel petisioners as aforesaid. Sept 29, 1663. Robart Coe, John Stickland, Zachariah Walker, Thomas Bennydick, John Baylis, William Smith, Abraham Smith, Nehemiah Smith, Alexander Smith, henery Whitne, Ralph Keeler, Gorge Comons, luke Wat- son, Edward Rouse, John hinds, fulk Danis, Gorge Mills, Samwell Mills, Zacaria Mills, Benjamin Coe, John Gorton, Thomas Bennydick, Junior, Anthony Waters, Joseph Thirston, francis Smith, John Skidmore." Book endorsed "Towns and Lands," in Secretary of State's Office, Hartford, i., 18.
2 Hubbard's request is in last mentioned Book, 13.
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possible, to all this disorder, he deputed Secretary Van CHAP. Ruyven, Burgomaster Van Cortland, and Mr. John Law- m. 1663. Oct. 13.
v. rence, merchant, to Hartford, to endeavor to obtain from Governor Winthrop and his council a settlement of the boundary question, "so that all further disputes may, for the welfare of our mutual subjects, be prevented." Stuy- vesant in the mean time drew on the Company for four thousand guilders, but, so low was the public credit, no person could be found to discount the bill without collateral security. He succeeded finally in obtaining the loan, only by pledging four brass guns in the fort for the repayment of the debt.2
Four days' weary travelling by water and by land, brought the Dutch deputies to Hartford. They found Oct. 18 Governor Winthrop close and incommunicative. The Court, on being made acquainted with the purport of their visit, appointed a committee to confer with them, of whom the delegates enquired whether they would con- Oct. 19. form to the recommendations of the other three colonies as to the limits of 1650, and permit these to remain un- disturbed, until the next meeting of the Commissioners in 1664; if not, would they appoint some persons to treat further on the various differences between them, or refer the whole matter to the respective governments in Europe, leaving everything, in the mean time, in statu quo? To the first of these propositions they gave a negative reply. They held the King's patent; by that should they be regulated, and not by any advice the Commissioners from the other colonies might give. The second question they evaded, and in reply to the third, they expressed a willingness to refer the matters in dispute to Europe, provided that Westchester and the English towns on Long Island should remain, in the interim, under Con- necticut. This, the delegates replied, " would be allowed
! The commission of these delegates is in the Book endorsed " Letters in Governor Stuyvesant's time," in the office of the Secretary of State, Albany ; also in Book endorsed " Colonial Boundaries," ii., 6, in the office of the Secre- tary of State, Hartford.
9 Alb. Rec. xxi., 331, 335, 336, 341.
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HISTORY OF
BOOK VI. neither now nor never." The members of the committee answered; in that case, they could not prevent those 1663. towns repairing under his Majesty. Ye are the cause of this, rejoined the delegates; by your deputations ye have excited them to it. The Hartford men justified their conduct ; they were bound to make the King's grant known. True, it was replied, to the King's subjects, but not to those of their High Mightinesses. "They were his Majesty's subjects," retorted the committee, " since they dwell in his Majesty's territory." In what light, then, is the settlement of 1650 to be regarded ? it was asked. In contradiction to their recorded signatures, and in violation of their solemn promises, they shamelessly declared-As an absolute nullity ; of no force.
In these and such like fruitless discussions passed this conference. Finding now that those of Hartford "only sought to put a spoke in the wheel," and to keep matters in agitation, until the English towns revolted ; consider- ing, further, that it was probable such an occurrence would soon happen; the delegates thought it best, with a view to prevent the effusion of blood, to renew the pro- posal that, if they would respect the treaty of 1650, and refrain from assuming any jurisdiction over the English settlements on Long Island, until the King and States General should agree on a boundary line, the Dutch would, on their part, abandon all control over Westchester. This Oct. 20. proposition was rejected. The English insisted that not only Westchester, but also Middleburgh, Rustdorp, Heem- stede and Flushing should be annexed. If the Dutch would consent to these terms, then the Hartford authorities would proceed no further until another convention. If, however, this offer were refused, they would not prevent the towns in question betaking themselves under their protection, and should protect them in case they were attacked. It was in vain represented, that his Majesty was too prudent to include in the Connecticut patent, land possessed for so many years under the authority of his allies, the States General ; that the lands they obtained were in New England, and not in New Netherland ; that
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Governor Winthrop so understood it ; and that, finally, their CHAP case was the same as that of the Massachusetts patent, V. which covered only lands not already in the possession 1663. of any other power. "What amicable arguments soever we used, we could not proceed any further with them." They insisted that their patent not only included Long Oct. 23. Island, but extended westward to the Pacific Ocean. " Where then lies New Netherland ?" Forgetful that they had, only thirteen years previously, solemnly rec- ognized the Dutch province, they now replied :- We know not, unless you can produce a patent. The Com- pany's charter was invoked. That charter was merely for commercial purposes. If you have no patent for the land, it must fall to us. But the Dutch were the first discoverers ; they had acquired the soil by purchase from the Indians, and were the oldest in possession. "The Dutch then may hold what they actually occupy; the unlocated lands are ours."1
After considerable additional debate, the Hartford deputies gave in their ultimatum. Westchester and the country to Stamford were to belong, until otherwise arranged, to Connecticut, who would forbear exercising any authority over Heemstede, Rustdorp, &c., if the Dutch would, during the same time, abstain from the exercise of any coercive power over these plantations. The other differences were to be left to arbitrators. The Dutch, on the other hand, were willing to allow Westchester and Stamford to remain under Hartford, on condition that the English towns on the western section of Long Island were to be absolutely under New Netherland. This was as unpalatable to the English, as the former was to the Dutch, and the delegates departed with a letter to Stuyve- sant, by the superscription on which the English "refused to the Director-general and Council, the title accorded to them by their High Mightinesses' commission for the last
1 The unsoundness of the argument brought forward on this occasion by the Hartford commissioners, in pleading that the charter to the West India Com- pany was merely for purposes of trade, is most palpable. The second clause of that Grant conferred on the Company all the powers necessary for planting colo- nies. See the charter in the Appendix to Vol. I.
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HISTORY OF
BOOK VI. forty years."' In keeping with the determination above expressed, the General Court resolved to forbear exercising 1663. any authority over the English on the west end of Long Island for the present, until they should hear from the Manhattans ; but they declared, at the same time, that in case the Dutch should molest them, they would not " sce his Majesty's natural born subjects interrupted or injured." They would then use all such just and lawful means as God in his wisdom might offer for their protection, until their sovereign Lord the King should declare his pleasure for their future settlement.2
The situation of the country was now really alarming. An expensive war was being waged against the Indians ; the Company's territory was invaded by Connecticut ; the English villages were in a state of revolt, and the public treasury was exhausted. The Burgomasters and Schepens Oct. 22. therefore requested the Director and Council to convoke a meeting of the magistrates of the several towns and colonies, to take into consideration the state of the province. The season was, unfortunately, too far advanced to admit of the attendance of any delegates from Wilt- wyck, Fort Orange or Rensselaerswyck.3 New Amster- dam, Haerlem, Breukelen, Midwout, Amersfoort, New Utrecht, Boswyck and Bergen only, were therefore repre- Nov 1. sented.4 After due deliberation, they agreed to the follow- ing Remonstrance :-
1 Alb. Rec. xvi., 292-315 ; Colonial Boundaries, ii., 3, 4, in Secretary of State's Office, Hartford ; Aitzema, v., 64; Hazard, ii., 623-633; Trumbull, i., 260, 261.
2 Book endorsed Towns and Lands, Hartford, i., 15.
3 New Amsterdam Rec.
4 The following was the power of attorney granted on this occasion, to the delegates from Boswyck :- " Whereas a letter has been sent by order of the Lords General and supreme councillors of New Netherland to the magistrates of Boswyck, whereby they are enjoined to send two delegates from their town to the Manhatts furnished and provided with proper authority, Therefore the aforesaid magistrates have chosen and named two persons from the same, with the knowledge and consent of the majority of the inhabitants, viz. : Rykous Leydecker and Guysbert Teunissen, to whom they give full power, authority and special command to protect, defend, uphold and vindicate and determine in their name and on behalf of their constituents, the matters affecting the aforesaid town of Boswyck which shall be laid before them, as needs may require, and to do in every respect therein as their constituents might and could do, if they were all there before their eyes, holding the same to be affirmed, good, fast and
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"To the Noble, Great and Respected Lords the Directors CHAP. v. of the Privileged West India Company, Department of Amsterdam :- 1663,
" The undersigned authorized Delegates of the City of Nov. 2. Amsterdam and the respective villages of New Nether- land, are compelled to remonstrate most humbly to your Honors, their Mayors, in the name and on the behalf of the inhabitants of this province, your faithful and obedient subjects, that in these times of perplexity and distress, arising from the depreciated value of returns, which not only renders the prices of imported wares excessively high, but even causes the departure of several families, and a consequent reduction in rents and real estate, so that nothing remains but agriculture ; they have been impatiently expecting from day to day, in reply to their repeated soli- citations, the salutary and necessary means for the con- servation of the good people of this province.
"By the exemptions which your Honors granted and published, which principally encouraged the people to leave their dearly beloved Fatherland, and to transport themselves hither, you publicly bound yourselves to pre- serve your remonstrants in the peaceable possession of their property and of the lands they selected, settled, and occu- pied ; and to protect them and the other inhabitants against all civil or foreign war, usurpation, and open force. To accomplish this, your Honors were bound to obtain from their High Mightinesses the States General, our supreme sovereign, commissions and patents, in due form, estab- lishing and justifying your real and legitimate jurisdiction over this province and its territory, so far as it extended. " In consequence whereof the aforesaid High and Noble States would, through their influence with his Royal Majesty of England, have effected a definite division of the limits between us and his subjects, the English nation, our neighbors here, and obtained the full ratification and
true, the aforesaid constituency promising the deputed to aid, uphold, and bear all costs, losses, charges, &c., herein, they the constituents hereunto pledging their persons and goods, and submitting the same to the constraint of all courts and judges. In witness whereof this is subscribed this last of October, 1663. In presence of me, B. Manout, secretary." Boswyck Rec. 30.
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BOOK
VI.
approbation thereof, together with the protection and de-
fence against all civil and foreign wars ; against all vexa- 1663. tious and open violence of your faithful subjects, so exem- plarily submitting to all imposts and taxes with which they are burthened: so that this province might have been secured and strengthened by your Honors, with a sufficient number of good soldiers and those other necessary means which constitute the principal and universal foundation on which, next to God, quietly repose the tranquillity, safety, and security of this province and its people. Yet, in the one and in the other, have we, your remonstrants, been grievously disappointed and abused, and now, consequently, experience-what have so often been made known to you -- the licentious, bloody and impending ruinous effects thereof.
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