USA > New York > New York City > History of New Netherland; or, New York under the Dutch, Vol. II > Part 5
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Governor Winthrop laid this communication before the Commissioners of the United Colonies, then in session at Boston, with a view to have their opinions as to what an- swer he should return. Some advised, in consideration of its professions of good will and desire of neighborly corre- spondence, that it would be well to endeavor to gain on the Director-general by courtesy, and therefore to accept his offer, and tender him a visit at his residence, or a meeting at any of the towns he should select. But the majority of the assembly thought otherwise, and concluded that it would be more advantageous to preserve terms of dis- Aug. 17. tance. Governor Winthrop, therefore, confined himself in O. S. his reply, to stating that he had laid the letter before the Commissioners, whom its contents properly concerned, who embraced the friendly proposal for a meeting, "in proper time and place." He expressed his willingness to attend such meeting, in the course of the winter, if the state of his health permitted.
The Governors of New Haven, Rhode Island, and Ply- mouth, expressed equally friendly feelings. They, how- ever, took occasion to complain in each of their letters, of the high tariff established by the Dutch at New Amster- dam. So general, indeed, was the dissatisfaction on this head, that the Commissioners of the United Colonies joined in a remonstrance against it, demanding that a system of reciprocity should be observed, and that the English colo- nists should be permitted the same liberal intercourse among the Dutch, that the latter enjoyed in New Eng-
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land, for the high duties imposed at New Amsterdam CHAP. tended to the serious discouragement of mutual trade .~
Il. The Commissioners requested to be furnished with a cor- 1647. rect table of the customs exacted on exported furs and other merchandise, and the cases in which fines were imposed and seizures made. They took occasion to com- plain, at the same time, of the practice at Fort Orange, of selling arms and ammunition to the Indians, even in the English plantations, against which they protested in the strongest terms. No answers were returned to the Com- missioners' complaints, nor was any information given regarding the customs imposed on English imports, or the cases in which the property of traders became liable to seizure ; so that the latter complained that they found it extremely difficult to know on what terms they could do business, or how to escape fines and forfeitures.1
It was whilst absorbed in the consideration of these and other pressing matters, that the delegates arrived at Fort Aug. 23. Amsterdam from Heemstede with intelligence that Maya- wettennema, otherwise called Antinoometone, Sachem of Necochgawodt, was endeavoring, by offers of wampum, to induce the savages to attack the English and Dutch inhabitants of that settlement, in which attack the Sachem of Catsyagock, it was said, had consented to co-operate, as well as his brethren on the east end of Long Island. Sec- retary Van Tienhoven and Commissary Van Brugge were immediately dispatched to enquire into the truth of the report, and to allay, by suitable presents, the discon- tents of the Indians.
Having succeeded in the object of this embassy, these Sep. 17. emissaries on their return reported, that they had discov- ered, trading at the Roodberg, called by the English New Haven, within the limits of New Netherland, a Dutch ship, called the St. Beninio, of North Holland, (belonging to one Benzio, an Italian merchant at Amsterdam,) and that Messrs. William Westerhuyzen and Samuel Goeden- huyzen, the owners of merchandise on board, had applied
1 MS. letters in Governor Stuyvesant's time in Secretary of State's Office, Albany, I., 1-4; Trumbull's Conn. i., 168-174; Hazard's State Papers, ii., 97.
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BOOK IV. to Secretary Van Tienhoven for a permit to trade at New Amsterdam, on payment of the legal duties on the cargo.
1647.
Sep. 20. This proposition was taken into consideration by the Director and Council, who, finding that it was impossible to capture the vessel and bring her to the Manhattans, as she carried ten guns and twenty-seven men, concluded to grant, on payment of the usual recognitions, the required permit, which was accordingly made out and transmitted to New Haven to the owners of the ship.1
Intelligence of a more startling nature was now brought in from Long Island. By the death of the Earl of Stir- ling, this island devolved on his widow, the Dowager Countess of Stirling, who dispatched an agent to America to superintend the settlement of these possessions. Whilst engaged in investigating the affair of the St. Beninio, Sep. 26. Stuyvesant received information from the sheriff of Vlis- singen, that a Scotchman, named Forrester, had arrived there with a commission as Governor, not only of Long Island, but of all the islands within five miles around, which commission he had exhibited to the English settlers at Heemstede and Flushing, where he had remained seve- ral nights. As if to corroborate the sheriff's report, Capt. Forrester arrived at New Amsterdam next day, on his way to Gravesend and Amersfoort, to exhibit his authority to the settlers there also. The Director-general immedi- ately called for his commission, and demanded by whose order he had dared to come within the Dutch limits. For- rester boldly replied that he had come to New Amsterdam to examine Stuyvesant's commission. and if that were better than his he would retire ; but if not, then Stuyvesant must. Sep. 28. He was arrested on the following day in the city tavern, and brought before the Council and examined on interroga- tories in the presence of Carl Van Brugge, Adriaen Van der Donck, and Philip Gerardy, all well acquainted with the English language. After having stated his name, and that he was a native of Dundee in Scotland, he produced a large parchment, dated in the eighteenth year of King
1 Alb. Rec. vii., 70, 76, 77, 79.
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James's reign, and written in the usual manner of commis- CHIAP. sions, from which depended a broken seal, but without any II. signature, or the name of any place. He also produced a 1647. power of attorney, signed Maria Stirling. On being asked why the commission was not signed, he answered that such was not the custom, the seal alone being sufficient ; and stated further that it had been reported in Britain, in the lifetime of the late Earl of Stirling, that the Ambassa- dor of their High Mightinesses to the Court of England had renounced, in behalf of his master, that part of New Netherland embraced in his commission.
These explanations and authorities having been deemed insufficient, the Director and Council determined to send " this pretended Governor" to Holland to defend his com- mission before their High Mightinesses, in company with one Michel Picquet, a native of Rouen in France, who, in the beginning of the summer, used violent language toward Kieft, and threatened to shoot Director Stuyvesant and Fiscaal Van Dyck, for which he was sentenced to per- Oct. 4. petual banishment from New Netherland, and eighteen years' confinement in the rasphouse at Amsterdam. But the Falconer, in which these individuals were shipped, put into a British harbor, where both succeeded in taking leave of their keepers.1
Mr. Goedenhuyzen, one of the owners of the St. Beninio, having, by this time, received the permit to trade, arrived now at the Manhattans; but neither he nor his partner paid the duties as they had promised, nor produced any manifest or invoice. On the contrary, he informed the authorities that his ship was ready to sail to Virginia. This neglect was construed into a preconcerted determi-
1 Alb. Rec. iv., 4; vii., S5-88, 95. Van der Donck's Vertoogh. In condemn- ing Picquet to the rasphouse, Stuyvesant exceeded his powers. " We do not see, (say the Directors,) if the magistrates could, as you requested, have acqui- esced in the judgment of your government, as we are incompetent to decide if the judiciary herc would deem themselves justifiable in executing a sentence which originated in your judicature. Wherefore we deem it inexpedient to make any further experiments on the subject, at the peril of lessening the author- ity of the judicature of your government. We would advise you to punish, after due enquiry, all delinquents in the country in which they are condemned." Alb. Rec. iv., 2, 3.
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- 1647.
BOOK IV. nation to defraud the Company ; and the resolution was, therefore, immediately taken, to seize the suspected craft, which had, from the first, been pronounced a smuggler. To effect this purpose, the following plan was arranged.
The authorities at Fort Amsterdam had sold, on the 21st September, the Company's ship, the Zwoll, to Mr. Good- year, Deputy Governor of New Haven, and contracted to deliver the vessel at the latter port. A number of soldiers were put on board with the crew, under pretext of con- veying the craft in safety to her new owner. This force was placed under command of Capt. P. Leendertsen Van Oct. 10. der Grist, to whom orders were given to cut the St. Beninio out of the harbor of New Haven, and bring her, by force of arms, if necessary, to the Manhattans.
This feat was adroitly achieved on the Lord's day, by the Dutch captain, who, taking advantage of a fair wind, Oct. 11. brought the St. Beninio, along with Goedenhuyzen and all the officers and crew, in triumph to New Amsterdam, where, after examination of the parties in due form of law, the vessel and cargo were confiscated, various articles of contraband having been found on board.1
Oct. 12.
This unexpected proceeding was accompanied by a pro- test from the Director-general, in which he re-asserted the Dutch claim to all the lands and rivers from Cape Henlopen to Cape Cod, and required that all Dutch vessels trading to the port of New Haven should pay him recognitions. Infringing, as this act and those principles did, on their territory and jurisdiction, they created, it may easily be conceived, considerable indignation among the authorities and inhabitants of New Haven. The citizens of that place rose and attempted to stop the ship, but not having timely notice of the attack, they were too late in executing their intended purpose. Governor Eaton wrote immediately to Director-general Stuyvesant, protesting against this illegal conduct of his authorized agents, in the following terms :-
"SIR :- By your agent, Mr. Govert, I received two
1 Alb. Rec. iii., 315; vii., 95, 96, 97, 102; Winthrop's New Eng. ii., 314; Hubbard, 436.
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pages from you, the one sealed, the other open, but neither CHIAP. of them written either in Latin, as your predecessors used,~ II. or in English, as yourself have formerlie done, both to me 1647. and to the other Colonys ; but in Low Dutch, whereof I understand little ; nor would your messenger, though de- sired, interpret anything in them, so that part, at least, must lie by me till I meet with an interpreter.
"On the instant time, as formerly, we were sensible of sundry wrongs, and protested against your predecessor, Mouns. Will. Kieft, so I hereby witness against your un- neighbourly and injurious course in several writings which I have seen. Without grounds you pretend to land in these parts, one while from Delaware to Connecticut River, and another while you extend your limits further even to Cape Cod, from whence drawing any line landward, north or west, you wholly take in, or trench far into the limits of all the United English Colonies, which by license and an- tient patent from King James of famous memory, since confirmed by His Majesty that now is, first came unto these parts, and upon due purchase from the Indians, who were then true proprietors of the land, (for we found it not a vacuum,) have built, planted, and for many years quietly, and without any claime or disturbance from the Dutch or others, possessed the same.
" And now, lately, in a ship belonging to New Haven, as bought by Mr. Goodyear, you have sent armed men, and without license, not so much as first acquainting any of the magistrates of this jurisdiction with the cause or ground thereof, seized a ship within our harbor, and though William Westerhouse, the Dutch merchant, had without our knowledge, before treated with you, and then offered the recognitions, which in a former writing to him you seemed to accept, yet your agent refused it, and protested he would carry away the ship ; whereupon I did protest against him ; and the General Court, considering how highly they were considered in the premises, though they would not meddle in a controversy which belongs not to them, much less defend any known unrighteousness, and though they desire to keep peace (as far as may be) with VOL. II. 4
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all men, and particularly with their neighbors of the Dutch
1647.
BOOK IV. plantations, yet they found it necessary, and resolved, by all just means, to assist and vindicate their right in New Haven's lands and harbor, and their jurisdiction of both, that themselves and posterity be not, through their neglect, enthralled and brought under a foreign government by a seizure made in their harbor, upon such an unjust claim ; the Court conceiving it free for them, according to the laws of Gon and nations, to entertain trade brought unto them, whether by land or sea, without enquiring the privi- leges of foreign companies, or examining whether recog- nitions be due or paid in another country, nor is [it] prob- able that yourself, if an English ship, or vessel, bring necessaries and provisions to the Manhattans, will be soli- citous whether custom be paid in England.
" Wherefore we have protested, and by these presents do protest against you, Peter Stuyvesant, Governor of the Dutch at Manhattans, for disturbing the peace between the English and Dutch in these parts, which hath been so long and so happily maintained betwixt the two nations in Europe, for obstructing and hindering those passages of justice and neighbourlie correspondence which yourself have propounded and desired betwixt the English colonies and Dutch plantations, by making unjust claims to our lands and plantations, to our havens and rivers, and by taking a ship out of our harbor, without our license, by your agents and commission ; and we hereby profess that whatever inconveniences may hereafter grow, you are the cause and author of it, as we hope to show and prove be- fore our superiors in Europe."
To this letter Stuyvesant replied in soothing terms ; but other difficulties now caused fresh embarrassments. Some of the Company's servants had absconded from New Amsterdam and fled to New Haven. In virtue of an arrangement entered into in June, the Director-general demanded their surrender, but Governor Eaton was not in Oct. 25. very good humor, and therefore replied somewhat sharply. He would willingly give an example of neighborly cor-
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respondence and respect by returning the fugitives, but CHAP. protests and threats were ill arguments to encourage the in
II. performance of acts of courtesy. When such acts were 1647. received as offices of love, without implication of authority on the one side, or subjection on the other, he would de- liver the prisoners to any appointed to receive them.1 Reverting, next, to the precedents which the Director- general had cited to justify his cutting out the vessel from New Haven, Governor Eaton admitted that "princes and states in amity had sometimes by violence seized ships in each other's harbors." " The English, you say, seized some of the French in your ports, and the Hollanders have probably seized some of the Spaniards in the English har- bors, but this reacheth not the question ; an injury against the which I did, and still do, protest, that without any just ground you should first pretend title to the lands, streams, rivers, &c., truly belonging to the English colonies, and by them many years quietly and without any question, claim or intimation of title from others, lawfully possessed and planted, and then give commission under that respect and consideration to seize a ship in one of their harbors, without license. This, thus done, would have given offence in any part of Europe, or of the world. Were this justly cleared, I hope all other questions betwixt us might issue to mutual satisfaction."
From the ground here taken, it would appear that the cause of discontent at New Haven was, not so much the seizure of this vessel, as the claim to the soil on which that town stood. This view is further corroborated by Mr. Goodyear, who also wrote at the time, objecting to that claim.
1 Winthrop says, that Director Stuyvesant had directed his letter "to New Haven in New Netherland," and that Governor Eaton, for this reason, refused to deliver the fugitives. This is evidently a mistake, if not a misrepresentation ; and entirely at variance with the entries in the New Haven Records, where, (under date Oct. 18, 1647,) it is stated, that the Dutch Governor hath sent also another letter " by the Fiscael, more milde in phraze, but still continewing his title to the place, and sending for the prisoners ; but seeing he wrights so that if the sending them away may be interpreted, as done in a way of subordina- tion, it was not thought fitt to send them." New Haven Colony Rec. i., 328.
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BOOK IV. 1647. Director Stuyvesant considered it unwise to push the matter any further. He wrote to the Deputy Governor in terms intended to calm any irritation that might exist, and Nov. 13. sent another letter to Governor Eaton, representing that the latter had misconceived some passages in his letter ; denying all desire to usurp any right, or assume any power over the English, and expressive of his wish to preserve and increase a friendly feeling between the two nations. In further vindication of his conduct, he added :-
Nov. 15. " For what I have either written or done, that may seem offensive to yourself, or any other impartial wise man, I as yet am ignorant, for I suppose they cannot but know that, as I am deputed by authorities from my sovereign Lords and Masters, the High and Mighty the States General of the United Belgick Provinces, so to them I must give account, and by them be adjudged in whatsoever shall appear amiss, in any action or passage of mine; and should I in the least measure transgress in the observation of their commands, you well know my life, estate and reputation, lie all at stake and must answer ; and therefore, for what- soever I have done concerning my countrymen, in my surprising their ship there, they may have recourse to the justice of their native land, and I shall not only deliver them their commission, but the copy, also, of all our pro- ceedings here against them. For my threatenings of any belonging to your jurisdiction, I suppose you are either misinformed or mistaken. Therefore, I shall entreat your delivery of the fugitives to this bearer, our commissary ; your charitable opinion both of my actions and intentions ; your compliance and correspondence, neighborly respect from one to the other, a leaving off all altercation on either side, but a joint endeavor of us both for the full effecting of all mutual offices of love, and composing all differences at our joint meeting in the spring with our worthy friends, the Governors of Boston and Plymouth."
Governor Eaton was not satisfied with these honied words and plausible professions. He fancied he saw in- sincerity in the Dutch Director, when he compared his pretensions on the one hand with his avowals of friendship
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on the other ; his expressions, he said, were " at best dark CHAP and required explanation ;" for he could not reconcile the 11. " desire not in any way to usurp on the right" of New 1647. Haven, with the claim to all the country belonging to the English Colonies. He again invoked the King's Patent to all that part of America, "from 40 to 48 degrees north," by virtue of which they had made their settlement. He had never heard that the Dutch claimed any of that land until Kieft commenced aggressions against them in 1642. From Stuyvesant they had hoped for a different and more neighborly policy ; but he had not only trod in his prede- cessor's footsteps, but had, in some respects, surpassed him in violence.
" In yours of the 26th June to the Governor of the Mas- sachusetts colony, which you mention, you pretend ‘ an indubiate right to all the land betwixt Connecticut and Delaware ;' in your protest, dated Oct. 12, you grow in your demands, extending your limits from Cape Cod, with- in Plymouth Colony, to Cape Henlopen towards the south. (a place or name to me yet unknown ;) you charge New Haven, in particular, as usurping your grounds, land, rivers, streams, and are offended for their trading first with Simson Johnson, since with William Westerhouse and other Dutchmen ; you seize a ship in our harbor, without license, pretending title to the place, and complain of a purpose and just resolution in us to vindicate our own right, in a lawful way; you require us to send the Dutch mer- chants and their goods, with recognitions, &c., to the Manhattans, and if we attend not to your directions, you threaten hostilities to New Haven, pretending to keep peace with the other colonies ; and in your letter, which came and beareth date with the forementioned protest, you unjustly charge us concerning your fugitives, and in a commanding, threatening style, require them from us ; and at, or about the same time, in a letter to William Wester- house, as I am informed, you threaten to fetch his goods out of New Haven by force ; you have imposed or taken an excessive high custom, excise, or recognitions for all goods sold within your jurisdiction, with seizures for omis-
Nov. 25.
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HISTORY OF
BOOK sions or mis-entries ; our vessels must anchor under your IV. erected hand, a place very inconvenient, and as if you 1647. meant to shut up the passage by the Manhattans, or by in- sufferable burthens to weary the English out of trade, you begin to take recognitions, &c., upon goods traded else- where, and in their return passing only by the Manhattans. I hear, also, you threaten to burn and beat down our trad- ing house, built upon our own purchased land, within our own limits, and far from any trading house of yours, or any part of the Hudson's river; and what is yet worse, it is reported to us, by several persons from several places, that your secretary hath endeavored, by a slanderous re- port, to incense the Long Island Indians ; and yourself at Aurania Fort have attempted to turn the other companies of Indians against the English. If this agree with rules of Christianity or good neighborhood, I doubt not but we may retaliate, and when we see cause, turn the edged point of those weapons upon yourselves. I enquire not after your grounds of sending Captain Forrester to Holland. The English colonies may have occasion to write after the same copy hereafter."
Though the New Haven functionary closed this broad- side with assurances of being "a loving friend," and with an acceptance of Stuyvesant's proposition to refer the questions at issue between them to the Governors of Mas- sachusetts and New Plymouth, it put the finishing stroke to the correspondence between the Director-general and Governor Eaton for the remainder of the year. Stuyve- sant felt so indignant at his "unjust charges," that he would Dec. 16. not reply to his letter. He sent some explanatory observa- tions, however, to Deputy Governor Goodyear. "Claims to pretended rights," he observed, "are no injuries, and, unless legally adjudged, give no lawful property to what is claimed." Governor Eaton ought to know very well " that many protests and passages of this nature are only pro forma." Whatever he (Stuyvesant) had done in this respect was no wrong, " unless he had sought to make good his claim by force of arms, which as yet he had not so much as thought of," though Eaton, on the other hand, had
NEW NETHERLAND.
rendered judgment in his own favor by virtue of His Ma- CHAP. jesty's grant. With these preliminary remarks, he entered 11. 1647.
into a vindication of his government and character.
" For mine own part," he said, "I can no ways interpret his [Eaton's] letter but as an aggravating of former passages to the worse sense, laying many things to my charge ; ripping up, as he conceives, all my faults, as if I were a schoolboy, and not one of like degree with himself; and they are so vain and by me sufficiently answered, that I shall be silent and instance only two or three of the choicest of them.
" 1st. Concerning my receiving recognition here, that is so excessive high, &c., I only answer :- Every state hath power to make what laws, and impose what customs in its own precincts, they shall think convenient, without being regulated or prescribed by others ; yet notwithstanding, we have been so favorable to your. countrymen trading here, that they pay eight per cent. less than our own, and I am confident, all things considered, not four per cent.
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