USA > New York > Staten Island > History of Richmond County (Staten Island), New York : from its discovery to the present time > Part 5
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Winter, though bringing his terrors and flinging Them down at her feet with a pitiless hand, Yet is her ardor sufficient to guard her, And langhter defies him on lake and on land. Springtime poetic and Autumu pathetic, Are seasons whose charms have a limitless sway, Yet do they chasten their garments and hasten To visit their homes on our Isle of the Bay !
Add to what's charming, her fishing and farming, Her soil and its products both racy and rare, Shore lines combining, by Nature's designing, A wharfage for commerce unrivalled elsewhere ; Gardens aud goodlands, with wild ways and woodlands, And water abundant as music in May, Then Use and Beauty unite in the duty, An Eden to make of our Isle of the Bay !
History rolling its gates back, and tolling The echoes of ages receding from sight, Figures are walking and voices are talking, That show us our progress to Liberty's light ; First the red foeman and next the Dutch yeoman. Succeeded by Dongan's Colonial sway ; Hanover's scepter then subjugate kept her Till Washington rescued our Isle of the Bay !
But though her story be studded with glory, And Nature hath decked her with grandeur and grace, Yet are these phases less worthy of praises Than this that here Love finds a fit dwelling place. Refuge from dangers, both natives and strangers, Black, white or red, or the sons of Cathay, All here abiding, in friendship confiding, Find welcome and weal in our Isle of the Bay.
CHAPTER III.
THE PERIOD OF SETTLEMENT-1609 TO 1683.
Discovery .- The First Settlement and the Settlers .- Conquest by the English.
S TANDING upon the soil of this beautiful island and reflecting that it has a character, a history and a name peculiar to itself, we feel a natural desire to review the scenes which broke to the view of the first visitors from the realm of civilization, and indeed to see what is possible of the condition of things that existed previous to that time. Let us imagine the wheels of time turned back two hundred and fifty years or more. Let us wipe out all the improvement which the white man has brought here and look at the land in the full pos- session of its aboriginal occupants. To see it as it was then we must silence the noise of the railroad train and steamboat whistles and bells, tear up the railroad track and neutralize the grade, uproot the mills and manufactories. dissolve the villages, wipe ont the farm fences and obliterate all the other marks of improvement that now exist, then restore the primi- tive forest, the unbroken sward, and repopulate the slopes and plains, the hills and valleys with deer, foxes, raccoons, wolves, rabbits and all the multitudes of animals that once infested them. We should still see life and action. But it would be of a different sort. Instead of all this change, which we call improvement, we should see the work of Nature glory- ing in her freedom, untrammeled by the arts of man. We should see the son of the forest restored to his native haunts, the tangled thicket, the pebbled shore and the groves of majestic trees whose heads had bowed to the winds of cen- turies.
It were a useless undertaking to attempt to set forth a learned hypothesis in regard to the occupancy of this region during the ages of the world's existence which preceded its discovery and settlement by the European white man. That
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history must ever remain as it has thus far, a sealed book. At the time alluded to it was occupied by Indians, but their tra- ditions threw no light upon the darkness that enshrouded the ages which had been rolling away since the creation of the world. They were numerous, and had been more so, even to such an extent that in their traditions the blades of grass and sands of the sea-shore were used as figures to represent the magnitude of their numbers. But no memorial was left to tell us what scenes were passing here while the great events of the ancient world's history were agitating the people of the eastern hemisphere. How long had they held sway ? By what race of beings had they been preceded ? Was their course of development progressive or retrograde ? These ques- tions are answered only by their echoes, which the hollow darkness of uncomputed ages gives back to us.
To approach a realization of the primitive condition of things, let us indulge in an imaginative scene of that period. Suppose ourselves to be surrounded by the whispering solitude of the virgin wilderness. Along the sea-girt shore we have wandered, listening to the hoarse song of the sea; our faces have felt the burning of the glancing sunlight, and we have breathed the strong salt air as it came in upon ns from beyond Sandy Hook. From the seashore coming through the interior we see no roads, no houses, no farms, but life is represented by the animals and birds that start at our approach and by the fruit and flower laden vines and shrubs that impede our movements. From a commanding hill we can see now and then. a little band of In- dians following some obsenre trail through the valley below, as they move from place to place upon some unknown embassy of friendship or perchance of hatred.
Looking across the valley, behold! yonder an Indian hunts- man has secreted himself hard by a little sheet of clear, fresh water, to watch for the deer that may come there to drink. As we look, the sharp twang of the bow and the whirr of the death-dealing arrow, and the commotion of the bushes where the game has fallen in its dying struggle tell us that he has not watched in vain.
Let us approach one of their rude settlements which is con- veniently located on the shore of the beautiful bay, and taking refuge behind one of these old oaks, watch the movements of the savages before us. They know nothing of the existence of
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any race of beings in the shape of men besides themselves. Their lives, their habits, their religion and language are un- mixed-and shall we say nncorrupted ?- by contact with the white man.
We are looking down upon a quiet Indian village in the fore- ground, located upon a low bluff. The bay, with its partially encircling belt of white sand, and the verdure clad hills rising from it in beautiful undulations, presents a landscape scene of surpassing loveliness. Beyond the glimmer and sheen of the nearer waters, the view takes in a glimpse of the wider expanse which loses itself in the hazy veil that obscures the distant hor izon. On the placid water before us half a dozen canoes are paddling lazily abont, some containing a single Indian each, others several, returning perhaps from some neighborly errand to another tribe or village, or perhaps from a hunting or fishing expedition in which they have been engaged. Yonder comes a canoe containing three half-grown boys and a quantity of long. coarse grass or rushes which they have gathered from the bog just across the cove. They are bringing them to be made into mats by that group of women who are seated on the slope just in front of us. That rude manufacture is to them one of the fine arts. But a much finer art is being practiced by that little company which you see away to the right of them, hovering about that heap of shells. They are working ont from the shells, by a slow and tedious process, the details of which we are not near enough to see, those curious little beads, which when strung are called wampnm and are used for ornaments as well as for money. Back on the rolling elevation to the right of us, and in rear of the little cluster of wigwams, lies their cornfield. The women have planted and cultivated it, and now the crop is almost ready to harvest. Some women are in the field looking to see if the ears are ripe enongh to pull from the stalk. Here on our left two men are digging clay from the side of the very hill upon which we stand. This clay they are roughly forming into some sort of primitive pottery, which they will presently harden by baking in a hot fire, when all is ready. Seated at a little distance from them three old men sit chatting, rather socially for Indians it may be, and pecking away at stone arrow-heads, which they are forming for the use of the younger and more active men, two of whom may be seen just now return- ing from the woods, bringing with them the carcass of a fat
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HISTORY OF RICHMOND COUNTY.
buck, which their skilled aim and the magic qualities of the old men's arrows have brought to the ground. Between the primitive pottery works and yonder clump of cedars, which crowns the projecting bluff, some men have rolled the trunk of a huge tree down from a higher hill where it grew, and are working perseveringly with fire and water and their stone axes, digging it out and shaping it for a canoe. This is primitive ship-building.
As we gaze upon the scene before ns, ruminating on the con- trast two hundred and seventy five years will bring over the face of this rock-ribbed and verdure clothed island, two half- grown Indian girls emerge from the thicket and come running down the slope to where these men are at work. With excited gestures they tell of something they have seen from the hill be- hind the cedars. We cannot hear their story, but from the manner of its recital and the absorbed attention the men are ready to give to it we are led to wonder what startling news the little girls have brought.
Presently the men throw down their implements and start with quick and stealthy tread, following as the girls retrace their steps, until the whole party disappears among the cedars. Some women who were at work about the shell-heap and the wigwams, having seen these movements, come over to where the old men are shaping arrow-points, and ask what strange story the little girls brought. Perhaps these old men are sup- posed to possess some peculiar spirit charm by which they can divine things not made known to ordinary minds. To them the women come, but they can give no solution of this mystery. Then the returned hunters come over to the spot, and the small boys come running up from the shore with the same inquiry upon their lips. The collecting group attracts the attention of the women out in the cornfield, and they leave their work to come and learn the cause of its gathering.
Presently the absent men and girls are seen emerging from the thicket and running down the hill and across the valley to where the wondering group is waiting. They are too much out of breath and overcome with excitement to say more than that they have seen a strange sight, which they fear is an omen of danger. As they recover sufficient calmness and possession of their faculties to do so they explain that away out on the great water something is moving toward them-something like a great
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HISTORY OF RICHMOND COUNTY.
canoe, so large that a big tree was growing out of it, and a very great blanket was hung upon the tree so that the wind pushing against it drove the unnamed thing along. What it was they could not tell. Whether it was a great canoe with men in it, or some terrible monster of the sea, with wings, or a veritable delegation from the spirit world, good or bad, is a matter of speculation with them.
As they stand describing the strange sight to their spell- bound listeners, the apparition itself suddenly shoots past the cedar-crowned point and glides into full view, less than a mile away. Its appearance is greeted by an exclamatory chorus which we may interpret, "There it is!" and then in dead silence the group of savages contemplate the wonderful spec- tacle. The children cling trembling to their mothers while the squaws crouch nearer to their husbands and the warriors, and all draw instinctively together as they press around the old ar- row makers, who meanwhile have thrown down their work and sit gazing in speechless wonder at the approaching nondescript. Fear seizes every heart, and the breast of even the bravest war- rior is troubled with misgivings as to what this visitation may bring forth. And well they may be disturbed. It is indeed a kind Providence that hides from them their fate. If they could peer behind the veil and read the future they would know that the vision before them is the harbinger of their own dissolution; the first breath of a poisonous wind that in a few generations shall wrest from them their hunting grounds and sweep their race into the great common sepulchre upon whose portal is in- scribed, "They were, but are not:" aye, the prophetic hand- writing which foretells their doom as surely as that which blazed upon the walls of Belshazzar's banquet hall.
" The Great Spirit is angry," explains one of the savages, who is the first to break the spell of silence, " and he is coming in his big, flying canoe, to look for some warrior who has done some wicked thing, or for some other man who has displeased him ; but maybe he will not find the bad one here. If he wants any of us we must go. No use trying to run away from him, so we may just as well stay where we are."
Another explains: " I don't think it is the Great Spirit. That is not the way he moves. It is a great big canoe, with many men in it. They may be our enemies or they may be our
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friends, or maybe they are strangers from some tribe away, far over the water."
" No," answers a third, whose clearer vision allows hini to see those on board, " these are not men like us. They are pale- faced, -more than our dead fathers and brothers are. They must be spirit men. That is a more beautiful canoe than any man conld make in this world. It comes from the spirit land where our fathers and chiefs have gone. Its wings are white and beautiful. They are made of the skins of animals that are hunted in that world where everything is so white and good. Maybe the spirit men in the canoe are our friends who are look- ing for us, to take us in the beautiful canoe to the happy hunt- ing grounds which they have found."
But all this savage wisdom does not prevent the young war- riors and hunters thinking that whatever may be the errand upon which the approaching party comes, it would be well to be ready for the worst. as least so far as the power to prepare for it is theirs. So their bows and their arrows are made ready and brought out with them, to be at hand in case of need. Some of the squaws, though they have never heard the proverb, " Distance lends enchantment," still have an instinctive convic- tion of its truth, and acting on that conviction are retreating beyond the corn-field as the approaching vessel nears the shore on her passage toward the Narrows, while some of the braver Indians move cautiously down the slope to get a closer view of the new revelation.
As the representatives of two distinct races of men, having nothing in language, manners nor customs alike, approach each other the new comers are able to convey to the Indians-by what sort of language who shall ever know ?- the impression that their mission is a friendly one; that they intend no harm to them, but that they have brought some very useful and curious things, which by way of friendly entertainment they proceed to show them. The Indians readily see the usefulness of the metal knives, the axes, the awls, the hatchets, the blankets, the coats and various other articles which the pale-faces had brought to excite their admiration and cupidity.
The setting sun that evening closed a day never to be forgot- ten by those who participated in the events which we have por- trayed-the day that saw the meeting of two races of men upon the soil that had been, no one knows how long. the home of one,
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HISTORY OF RICHMOND COUNTY.
and was to be, no one knows how long, the home of the other. The former should decrease while the latter should increase.
From the contemplation of these important events as they may have appeared from the Indian standpoint, let us turn to consider in more explicit and definite terms the discovery of the territory by Europeans and the establishment and progress of civilization upon the soil which for unknown centuries had been the home of the untntored savage.
The bay of New York was first discovered, according to a claim (which has, however, been disputed by some) in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, the celebrated Florentine navigator. It does not appear, however, that any attempt was made by the government under which the navigator sailed to hold the terri- tory discovered by him. Of course it naturally follows that the exploration of New York bay involved the discovery of Staten Island. But whatever may have been the facts with re- gard to the exploration of Verrazzano, the honors of discovery are accorded to Henry Hudson, and whatever advantages at- tended that discovery were husbanded by the Dutch govern - ment, under whose flag Hudson sailed.
Henry Hudson was one of those ambitious navigators who were ready to sacrifice their ease, and even their lives, in the exciting enterprise of searching for the northwest passage to the Indies. A native Englishman, the early part of the seven- teenth century found him in the employ first, of the London Company, and after that company had abandoned the enter- prise, then engaged with the Dutch East India Company. Under the commission of the latter he left Amsterdam in the " Half Moon," a ship of about eighty tons capacity, and on the 4th of April, 1609, sailed for the new world. He arrived on the " Banks" of Newfoundland early in July, and for two months cruised along the coast, looking for some opening that would promise to admit him to the Indian sea beyond.
How easy it is in the light of the present day to smile at the unavailing enthusiasm of Hudson and the folly of his scheme ! But whatever the motives that led to it the momentons conse- quences of that exploration are sufficient to provoke our pro- foundest gratitude. After several unsuccessful attempts to find such an opening in the land as would indicate what he desired to see, he entered the Lower bay and anchored inside of Sandy Hook on the 3d day of September, 1609. Though not the first
-
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HISTORY OF RICHMOND COUNTY.
to behold, Hudson was the first to penetrate the mysteries of the land and water which extended to an unknown distance before him. In one boat he visited "Coney Island," and sent an- other, containing five men, on an exploring expedition north- ward. These men passed through the Narrows, coasted along Staten Island, and penetrated some distance into the kills. On their return they suddenly encountered two large canoes, con- taining twenty-six Indians, who, in their alarm, discharged a shower of arrows at the strangers and killed one man, an Eng- lishman, named John Coleman, by shooting him in the neck. Both parties became frightened, and pulled away from each other with all their strength. Coleman's body was taken to Sandy Hook and there interred, and the place was called " Cole- man's Point."
Notwithstanding the mishap, as the death of Coleman was regarded, the natives proved to be friendly, and freely bartered with the strangers such articles as they had to dispose of, as tobacco, maize, wild fruits, etc. Hudson remained at anchor until the eleventh, when he sailed through the Narrows and anchored in the mouth of the great river which now bears his name. On the thirteenth he again weighed anchor, and pro- ceeded to explore the beautiful stream upon whose bosom he was floating; he was eleven days in ascending as far as the site of Albany, and as many more in descending. Before starting he had had considerable intercourse with the natives, but had al- ways prudently kept himself and his men prepared for any emergency, and though the natives frequently came on board armed they made no hostile demonstrations; Hudson, however, detained two of the Staten Island Indians as hostages, and took them with him on the voyage up the river, as far as the site of West Point, where they escaped by jumping overboard and swimming to the shore. On his way he encountered many of the Indians, who, though they manifested a friendly disposi- tion, were nevertheless suspected of entertaining hostile inten- tions, and it was supposed that the dread with which they regarded the arms of their visitors alone restrained them.
On his return down the river, while lying at anchor off Stony Point, numerous canoes from both sides surrounded the ship, from one of which an Indian entered the cabin by climbing through a stern window, from which he stole several articles of clothing. As he left the ship with his plunder, the mate
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HISTORY OF RICHMOND COUNTY.
detected him and shot him, killing him instantly. This was the first blood shed by the whites. When the ship's boat was sent to recover the stolen articles, one Indian, who appeared to pos- sess more conrage than his fellows, while swimming, laid hold of the boat, apparently for the purpose of overturning it. but a sailor, with a single blow of his sword, cut off his hands, and he was drowned. It was supposed that the two Staten Island savages who had escaped at West Point, on their way down the river had alarmed the several tribes so that when the ship arrived at the upper end of Manhattan Island it was met by a large fleet of canoes filled with armed savages, who discharged their arrows, but fortunately without doing any serious injury. A cannon was twice discharged at them, killing some of them and tearing their canoes to pieces, the sailors meanwhile firing at them with small arms. The result of this engagement was that nine Indians were killed, and many more wounded, while the whites sustained no injury whatever. Hudson, having spent a month in exploring the river and bay, put to sea on the 4th of October, and arrived at Dartmouth, England, on the 7th of the following November.
There is no evidence that Hudson ever circumnavigated the island, but that he satisfied himself of its insular character is evident from the name "Staaten Eylandt," which he gave to it.
Following this mere outline discovery, no notice was paid to Staten Island for several years, at least so far as any accounts that we have of the movements of the Dutch traders show. Some descriptions of the condition of the island may have been written at an earlier period, but the following extract from a letter written by Isaack de Rasieres to Samuel Blommaert. about the close of the year 1627 (as is supposed) contains the earliest description of this part of the country that we have by one who was an eye witness of those primitive scenes. The letter was found in the Royal Library at the Hague, and trans- lated by Mr. J. R. Brodhead. It bears no date, but was proba- bly written after De Rasieres' return to Holland. A copy may be found in N. Y. Hist. Soc. Collections. II. Series, Vol. 2, page 343.
"On the. 27th of July, Anno 1626, by the help of God, I arrived with the ship The Arms of Amsterdam, before the Bay of the great Mauritse River, * sailing into it about a musket shot
* The North river-so called after Prince Maurice of Orange.
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HISTORY OF RICHMOND COUNTY.
from Godyn's Point* into Coeuraet's Bayt (where the greatest depth is, because from the East point there stretches out a sand bank on which there is only from 9 to 14 feet water), then sailed on Northeast and North Northeast, to about half way from the low sand bank called Godyn's Point, to the Hamel's- Hoofden, # the mouth of the river, where we found at half ebb, 16, 17, 18 feet water, and which is a sandy reef a musket shot broad, stretching for the most part Northeast and Southwest, quite across, according to my opinion, and to have been formed there by the stream, inasmuch as the flood runs in to the bay from the sea East Southeast ; the depth at Godyn's Point is caused by the ebb flowing out along there with such rapidity. Between the Hamel's-Hoofden the width is about a cannon's shot of 2,000 [yards]. The depthi 10, 11, 12 fathoms. They are tolerably high points, and well wooded. The West point is an island, inhabited by from eighty to ninety savages, who sup- port themselves by planting maize. The East point is a very large island, full 24 miless long, stretching East by South and East Southeast along the sea-coast from the river to the East end of the Fisher's Point. | * * *
" The Hamels-Hoofden being passed, there is about a mile width in the river, and also on the West side there is an inlet, where another river runs up about 20 miles to the North-North-East, emptying into the Mauritse River in the highlands, thus making the North-West land opposite to the Manhatas, an island 18 miles long. It is inhabited by the old Manhatans ; they are about 200 to 300 strong, women and men, under different chiefs whom they call ' Sackimas.' This island is more mountainous than the other land on the South-east side of the river, which opposite to the Manhatas is about a mile and a half in breadthi. At the side of the before-mentioned little river which we call Achter ColT there is a great deal of waste, reedy land ; the rest
* Sandy Hook-so named after Samuel Godyn, one of the directors of the West India Company at Amsterdam.
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