USA > New York > New York City > History of New York city from the discovery to the present day, V.1 > Part 4
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
a pair of oxen readily brought forty pounds. In Virginia, corn rose to twenty shillings the bushel during the year 1637; a shepel, or three pecks of rye, brought two guil- ders, or eighty cents ; and a laborer readily earned, during harvest, two guilders per diem. These were high prices for those times, and were probably caused, in a measure, by the sanguinary war which the New England Puritans* were carrying on with their Indian neighbors. The Pe- quods. failing to deliver the murderers of Stone, according to treaty, had tendered an atonement of wampum, but Mas- sachusetts demanded " blood for blood;" and she obtained it in the wars that followed. Winthrop says, "Scarcely a sannup, a woman, a squaw, or a child of the Pequod name survived." It is the fashion to indulge in much panegyric about these ancestral doings, but here can be calmly traced the first attempt of the white race to extirpate the red men from their ancestral birthright to the northern regions of America.
Notwithstanding, however, the large prices obtained for its wares, the year 1638 found the condition of New Netherland very unpromising. Although its 1638. affairs had now been administered for fifteen years by that powerful body, the West India Company, still, the country was scarcely removed from its primitive wilderness state, and, excepting the Indians, it was inhabited by only a few traders and clerks of a distant corporation. Its rich vir- gin soil remained almost entirely uncultivated, and the farms did not amount to more than half a dozen. Doubt- less, the Directors of the West India Company governed New Netherland chiefly to promote their own special in- terests-to advance which, large sums had been expended;
* Fritans, not Pilgrims. These terms, though generally used synony- mously, refer to two entirely different classes of men. The Pilgrims never ยท practiced religious persecution ; the Puritans did. The Pilgrims came over to the New World some fifteen years earlier than the Puritans.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
and, as a natural consequence, no efforts had as yet been made to introduce, on a large scale, a sound and industri- ous emigration. The patroon system, also, to which refer- ence has already been made, greatly retarded the settle- ment of the colony. A monopoly, its patroons neglected their most important duties as planters, and used their energies and means to compete with the Company in the Indian trade; consequently, misunderstandings and dis- putes followed, which became almost fatal to the prosperity of the new settlement.
At this critical moment, William Kieft, the third Di- rector-General and Governor, arrived March, 1638, as the successor of the weak Van Twiller. His first step was to organize a Council, retaining, however, its entire control. Dr. Johannes La Montagne, a learned Huguenot, was appointed by him a member of this new board; Cornelis Van Tienhoven, from Utrecht, one of the oldest settlers, was made Colonial Secretary, with a salary of two hun- dred and fifty dollars per annum ; while Ulrich Leopold continued as Schout-Fiscal, or Sheriff and Attorney-Gen- eral. Adrian Dircksen was made Assistant-Commissary, " because he spoke correctly the language of the Mohawks, and was well versed in the art of trading with them." The Rev. Mr. Bogardus continued the Dominie, and Adam Roelandsen the School-master."
The new Governor found the town in an extremely dilapidated condition. The fort had fallen completely into decay; all the guns were off their carriages; and the public buildings, as well as the church, were all out of repair ; only one of the three wind-mills was in opera-
La Montagne, as Member of the Council, received fourteen dollars a month ; the book-keeper, fourteen dollars and forty cents, with eighty dollars for his yearly board ; the mason, eight dollars ; a joiner, six dollars and forty cents; a carpenter, seven dollars and fifty cents, and forty dollars a year for board
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
tion ; and the Company's fine farms had no tenants-not even a goat remaining upon them. But the new Governor came charged with more onerous duties than simply the repair of houses; he was the bearer of a decree that no person in the Dutch Company's employ should trade in peltry, or import any furs, under penalty of losing his wages, and a confiscation of his goods. Abuses also existed in all the departments of the public service, which Kieft vainly attempted to remedy by proclama- tions. Death was threatened against all who should sell guns or powder to the Indians; after nightfall, all sailors were to remain on board their vessels; no persons could retail any liquors, "except those who sold wine at a decent price, and in moderate quantities," under penalty of twen- ty-five guilders (ten dollars), and the loss of their stock. Tobacco, then as now, was greatly in demand, the rich virgin soil about New Amsterdam suiting the plant well; consequently, plantations for its cultivation increased so fast, that the plant was now also subjected to excise, and regulations were published by the Directory to regulate its mode of culture, and check certain abuses which were injuring " the high name " it had "gained in foreign coun- tries."* But the new Governor did not confine himself to correcting official abuses solely; he issued proclamations to improve the moral condition of the settlement; and all persons were seriously enjoined to abstain from "fighting, calumny, and all other immoralities," as the guilty would be punished, and made a terror to evil-doers. Rightly judging, also, that public worship would be a peaceful auxiliary to his labors, and the old wooden church built by Van Twiller having fallen to pieces, he determined to ereet a new one inside the fort. Jochem Pietersen Kuyter, Jan Jansen Damen, with Kieft and Captain De Vries, as
5 + Albany Records, II., 3-12.
4
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
" Kirke Meesters," superintended the new work, and John and Richard Ogden were the masons. The building was of stone, seventy-two by fifty-two feet, and sixteen high, and cost 2,500 guilders. Its legend, translated from the Dutch, read : " Anno Domini 1642, William Kieft, Direc- tor-General, hath the Commonalty caused to build this temple." New Amsterdam had a town-bell; this was now removed to the belfry of the new church, whence it regulated the city moven.ents, the time for laborers and the courts. It also pealed the weddings, tolled the funer- als, and called the people to the Lord's House .*
Hardly, however, had Kieft got his plans for the moral reformation of his people fairly under way, when, as before hinted, the patroons began to give fresh trouble ; that class now (1638) demanded "new privileges "-"that they might monopolize more territory, be invested with the largest feudal powers, and enjoy free trade throughout New Netherland." Nor was this all. In their arrogance, they also demanded that all "private persons " and "poor emigrants" should be forbidden to purchase lands from the Indians, and should settle within the colonies under the jurisdiction of the manorial lords-i. e., themselves.
These grasping demands of the patroons were reserved for future consideration by the States-General; and it was
* At this period the settlers of New Amsterdam obtained their supplies from the Company's store at fifty per cent. advance on prime cost, a list of prices being placed in a conspicuous position in some place of public resort. Here are some of the rates: Indian corn, sixty cents per schepel of three pecks ; barley, two dollars ; peas, three dollars and twenty-five cents; flour, one dol- lar; pork, five stivers; fresh meat, five; butter, eight ; tobacco, seven ; dried fish, twelve (two York shillings) per pound ; hard-bread, fifteen; rye, five ; wheaten, seven ; cabbage, twelve dollars per hundred ; staves, thirty-two dol- lars per thousand ; a hog, eight dollars ; ordinary wine, thirty-one dollars per hogshead ; Spanish wine, four stivers ; French wine, ten per quart ; sugar, sev- . enteen and twenty-four per pound; flannel, one dollar and twenty cents per ell; cloth, two dollars ; white linen, eighteen to twenty stivers ; red flannels. one dollar and twenty cents: children's shoes, thirty-six stivers, or six York shillings a pair of brass kettles, forty cents each.
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1752968
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 35
determined to try free competition in the internal trade of New Netherland. A notification was accordingly pub- lished by the Amsterdam Chamber, that all the inhabit- ants of the United Provinces, and of friendly countries, might convey to New Netherland, "in the Company's ships," any cattle and merchandise, and might "receive whatever returns they or their agents may be able to obtain in those quarters therefor." A duty of ten per cent. was paid to the Company on all goods exported from New Netherland with the freight. Every emigrant, upon his arrival at New Amsterdam, was to receive "as much land as he and his family could properly cultivate." This liberal system gave a great impulse to the prosperity of New Netherland, by encouraging the emigration of sub- stantial colonists, not only from Holland, but from Vir- ginia and New England. Conscience had ever been free in New Netherland, and now trade and commerce were like- wise made free to all. Political franchise in Massachusetts was limited to church members, and now "many men began to inquire after the southern ports," not from the climate there, or the necessary wants of life, but, in the language of the old chronicler, "to escape their insupport- able government." The only obligation required of emi- grants was an oath of fidelity and allegiance to the colony, the same as imposed upon the Dutch settlers. Both par- ties enjoyed equal privileges.
This free internal trade, however, produced some irreg- ularities ; and a new proclamation soon became necessary to warn all persons against selling guns or ammunition to the Indians. Still another edict prohibited persons from sailing to Fort Orange (Albany), and the South River (Fort Hope), and returning without a passport. Another "very unpopular edict, also, was shortly after issued by Kieft. His extreme anxiety to serve his patrons caused him to " demand some tribute" of maize, furs, or sewant,
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
from the neighboring Indians, " whom," he said, "we have thus far defended against their enemies;" and in case of their refusal, proper measures were to be taken to "remove their reluctance."
In regard, however, to the Governor's proclamation against selling guns, &c., to the Indians, nothing can be said against it. The case demanded it. Freedom of trade with the savages had, indeed, run into abuses and injurious excesses.
The colonists neglected agriculture for the quicker gains of traffic; and at times, by settling "far in the inte- rior of the country," and, by "great familiarity and treat- ing," brought themselves into contempt with the Indians. Evil consequences, as a matter of . course, followed this unwise conduct-the most unfortunate of which was the supplying of the savages with new weapons of war. They considered the gun, at first, " the Devil," and would not even touch it; but, once discovering its fatal use, eagerly sought the fire-arms of the whites. They would willingly barter twenty beaver-skins for a single musket, and pay ten or twelve guilders for a pound of powder. As no merchan- dise became so valuable to the red men, the West India Company foresaw the evil of arming the savages, and declared the trade in fire-arms contraband. It even for- bade the supply to the New Netherland Indians, under penalty of death. But the prospect of large profits easily nullified this law of prudence and wisdom.
In 1640, Director Kieft determined upon an- 1640. other unwise measure, viz., the exaction of a con- tribution, or rather a tax, of corn, furs, and wampum from the Indians about Fort Amsterdam. This and other im- proper acts entirely estranged them from the settlers, and laid the foundation of a bloody war, which, the next year (1641), desolated New Netherland. Meanwhile, Kieft, continuing stubborn sent sloops to Tappan to levy con-
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
tributions; but the natives indignantly refused to pay the novel tribute. In their own plain language, they won- dered how the Sachem at the fort dared to exact such things from them He must be, they said, a very shabby fellow; he had come to live in their land, where they had not invited him, and now came to deprive them of their corn, for no equivalent. They, therefore, refused to pay, adding this unanswerable argument: "If we have ceded to you the country you are living in, we yet remain mas- ters of what we have retained for ourselves !"
Notwithstanding, however, the many injudicious acts of Governor Kieft, it cannot be denied that, during his administration, the trade of New Amsterdam began to be better regulated. The streets of the town, also, were bet- ter laid out in the lower section of the city .* In 1641, Kieft instituted two annual fairs, for the 1641. purpose of encouraging agriculture-one of which was held in October, for cattle; and the other the next month, for hogs, upon the Bowling Green. The holding of these fairs opened the way for another important addition to the comfort of the town. No tavern, as yet, had been started in the Dutch settlement; and the numerous vis- itors from the interior and the New England colonies were forced to avail themselves of the Governor's hos- pitalities. The fairs increasing in number, Kieft found them a heavy tax upon his politeness, as well as his larder; and, in 1642, he erected a large stone tavern, at the Company's expense. It was situ- 1642. ated on a commanding spot, near the present Coenties Slip, and was afterward altered into the " Stadt Huys," or City Hall. .
The Governor now succeeded better, not only in en- forcing law and restraining contraband trade, but in check-
* The price of lots, 30x125 feet, averaged at this period about $14.
1
Arie
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
ing the importation of bad wampum, which had become a serious loss to the traders, by reducing its value from four to six beads for a stiver.
Wampum or sewant, from its close connection with the early trade of New Netherland, requires special notice. This kind of money, or circulating medium, embraced two kinds, the wampum or white, and the Suckanhock sucki, or black sewant. The former was made from the periwinkle, and the latter from the purple part of the hard clam. These, rounded into beads and polished, with drilled holes, were strung upon the sinews of animals, and woven into different sized belts. Black beads were twice as valuable as the white, and the latter became, therefore, naturally, the standard of value. A string, a fathom long,* was worth four guilders. The best article was manufactured by the Long Island Indians ; and, until a comparatively late period, the Montauks on that island, or rather, their descendants, manufactured this shell-money for the inte- rior tribes. A clerk of John Jacob Astor many years ago informed the Hon. G. P. Disosway that he had visited Communipaw, and purchased for his employer, from the Dutch, this article by the bushel, to be used by the great fur dealer in his purchases among the distant savages. It might, perhaps, be a curious question, how many bushels of wampum are invested, for example, in the hotel which bears the name of the great fur millionaire ? The New England Indians, imitating their whiter-faced neighbors, made a cheaper wampum, rough, of inferior quality, and badly strung. Nor was it long before the New England- ers introduced large quantities of their imperfect beads into New Netherland for the Dutchman's goods; next,
* A " fathom " was estimated at " much as a man could reach with his arms outstretched." .The savages, consequently, were shrewd enough (in trading with the whites) to choose their largest and tallest men for measuring sticks or standards.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
beads of porcelain were manufactured in Europe, and cir- culated among the colonists, until the evil finally became so great, that the Council, in 1641, published an ordi- nance, declaring that a large quantity of bad sewant, im- ported from other places, was in circulation, while the good and really fine sewant, usually called " Manhattan Sewant," was kept out of sight, or exported-a state of things which must eventually ruin the country. To cure this public evil, the ordinance provided that all coarse sewant, well stringed, should pass for one stiver. This is the first ordinance, on record, to regulate such currency. In the year 1647, they were again reduced from six to eight for a stiver, and thus became the commercial "greenbacks" of the early Dutch.
About this period, the increasing intercourse and busi- ness with the English settlements made it necessary that more attention should be paid to the English language. Governor Kieft had, it is true, some knowledge of the English tongue; but his subordinates were generally ignorant of it-a circumstance which often caused great embarrassment. George Baxter was accordingly appointed his English Secretary, with a salary of two hundred dol- lars per annum; and thus, for the first time, the English language was officially recognized in New Amsterdam.
As the colony grew stronger, the Dutch scattered themselves further into the interior ; established them- selves more firmly at Manhattan; and thus gave to the City of New York its first incorporation two hundred and nineteen years ago. The ferries received early attention from the corporation. No one was permitted to be a ferryman, without a license from the magistrates. The ferryman also was required to provide proper boats and servants, with houses, on both sides of the river, to accom- modate passengers. All officials passed free of toll; cr, to speak more in accordance with the language of the
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
present day, were dead-heads. But the ferryman was not compelled to cross the river in a tempest. Foot-passen- gers were charged three stivers each, except Indians, who paid six, unless two or more went over together .* The annual salary of the Burgomasters was also, at this period, fixed at three hundred and fifty guilders, and the Shepens at two hundred and fifty. A corporate seal was granted to the city, in which the principal object was a beaver, as was also the case, as has been seen, with the seal of New Netherland.
NEI
70
GRA
ASIGILLUM
20600
SEAB
SEALS OF NEW AMSTERDAM AND NEW YORK.
The first charter of New Netherland restricted, as we have seen, the commercial privileges of the patroons ; but in the year 1640 they were extended to "all free colonists," and the stockholders in the Dutch Company. Neverthe- less, the latter body adhered to onerous imports, for its own benefit, and required a duty of ten per cent. on all goods shipped to New Netherland, and five upon return cargoes, excepting peltry, which paid ten at Manhattan, before exported. The prohibition of manufactures within the province was now abolished, and the Company renewed its promise to send over " as many blacks as possible."
In 1643, the colonists easily obtained goods 1643. from the Company's warehouse, whither they were obliged to bring their fur purchases, before ship-
* On the 19th of March, 1658, the New Amsterdam and Long Island Ferry was put up at auction, and leased for three hundred guilders per annum.
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ment to Holland. The furs were then generally sold at Amsterdam, under the supervision of the patroon, whose share, at first, was one-half, but was afterward reduced to one-sixth. Under this system, the price of a beaver's skin, which before 1642 had been six, now rose to ten " fathoms." It was, therefore, considered proper for the colonial authorities to regulate this traffic ; and they, accordingly, fixed the price at nine "fathoms" of white wampum, at the same time fordidding all persons to " go into the bush to trade." Another proclamation declared that " no inhabitants of the colonies should pre- sume to buy any goods from the residents." . It would appear, however, that these ordinances could not be en- forced; for a sloop, soon after arriving with a cargo, the colonists purchased what they wanted. The commissary was then ordered to search the houses for concealed goods. But the old record naively says: "The Schout gossipped, . without making a search."
In 1644, the ever-busy New Englanders-im- 1644. agining that the beavers came from "a great lake in the northwest part" of their patent-began to covet a share in the fur trade on the Delaware. Accordingly, an expedition was dispatched from Boston to "sail up the Delaware, as high as they could go; and some of the company, under the conduct of Mr. William Aspinwall, a good artist, and one who had been in those parts, to pass by small skiff's or canoes up the river, so far as they could." The expedition failing, another bark "was sent out the same year, from Boston, to trade at Delaware." Winter- ing in the bay, during the spring she went to the Mary- land side, and , in three weeks obtained five hundred beaver-skins-a " good parcel." But this second Boston trading voyage was ruined by the savages; for, as the bark was leaving, fifteen Indians came aboard, "as if they would trade again," and suddenly drawing their hatchets 6
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY
from under their coats, killed the captain, with three of the crew, and then rifled the vessel of all her goods.
This continued interference of New England adventur- ers with the Delaware trade, at length became very annoy- ing to Kieft, as well as to Printz, the Swedish Governor of the Delaware colony. The Dutch at New Amsterdam, as the earliest explorers of South River, had seen their trading monopoly there invaded by the Swedes; but when the New Englanders made their appearance in pursuit of the same prize, the Swedes made common cause with the Dutch to repel the new intruders. The question of sov- ereignty was soon raised abroad by the arrival of two Swedish ships, the Key of Kalmar and the Flame, sent home by Printz with large cargoes of tobacco and beaver- skins. Bad weather, and the war which had just arisen between Denmark and Sweden, obliged these vessels to run into the Port of Harlington, in Friesland. There they were seized by the West India Company, which not only claimed sovereignty over all the regions around the South River, but exacted the import duties that their charter granted. The Swedish Minister at the Hague protested against these exactions; and a long correspondence en- sued, which resulted in the vessels being discharged the following summer upon the payment of the import duties.
During the year 1644, Kieft, headstrong and impru- dent as usual, became involved in a war with the New England Indians. At this juncture of affairs, a ship arrived from Holland with a cargo of goods for Van Rensselaer's patroonery ; and Kieft, the Dutch forces be- ing in want of clothing, called upon the supercargo to furnish fifty pairs of shoes for the soldiers, offering full payment in silver, beaver, or wampum. The supercargo, however, zealously regarding his patroon's mercantile inter- ests, refused to comply, whereupon the Governor ordered a levy, and obtained enough shoes to supply as " many sol-
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
diers as afterward killed five hundred of the enemy." The Governor, much provoked, next commanded the vessel to be thoroughly searched, when a large lot of guns and am- munition, not in the manifest, were discovered and declared contraband, and the ship and cargo confiscated. Winthrop says that he had on board 4,000 weight of powder and seven hundred guns, with which he proposed to carry on a trade with the natives. For such acts as these, Kieft seems to have been equally detested by Indians and Dutch, the for- mer desiring his removal, and daily crying, " Wouter ! Wouter !"' meaning Wouter Van Twiller, his immediate predecessor.
Meanwhile, the Indian war continued; the Dutch set- tlers were in danger of utter destruction ; and the expenses of the soldiery could not be met. Neither could the West India Company send aid to its unfortunate colony, as that body had been made bankrupt by its military operations in Brazil. A bill of exchange, drawn by Kieft upon the Amsterdam Chamber, came back protested. The demands for public money were too pressing to await the slow pro- ceedings of an admiralty court; and accordingly, soon after this, on the 29th of May, 1644, a privateer, the La Garce, Captain Blauvelt, having been commissioned by the Gov- ernor to cruise in the West Indies, returned to Manhattan with two rich Spanish prizes.
Director Kieft now proposed to replenish the Provis- ional Treasury by an excise on wine, beer, brandy, and beaver-skins. This was opposed by his official advisers, or the so-called " Eight Men," because they thought such an act would be oppressive, and the right of taxation be- longed to sovereignty, and not to an inferior officer in New Netherland. An old account says that the Director was "very much offended," and sharply reprimanded the people's representatives, declaring, " I have more power here than the Company has itself; therefore, I may do
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