USA > New York > New York City > History of the New Netherlands, province of New York, and state of New York : to the adoption of the federal Constitution. Vol. I > Part 25
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In this controversy, Bradford had been employed by Keith ; and the wrath of the more numerous party, which proved to be Keith's adversaries, falling on the printer, he fed and removed his mischievous engine to New York. Bradford was soou after employed by the corporation to print the city laws, and, in 1725, printed the first newspaper that appeared in New York.
In the same year, (1632,) Bartholomew Green established himself in Boston as a
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collect, the opponents, accusers, judges, and condemners of Leis- ler. Ingoldsby acted as governour until Fletcher's arrival, and then appears to have been commander of the military.
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Sloughter, Ingoldsby and Fletcher, appear to have been sent out merely because they were soldiers who were to be advanced; and Benjamin Fletcher was even more unfit for the ruler of a province, if possible, than his immediate predecessors. He fell into the hands of the aristocratick party, and adopted their views. The mayor and corporation, resolved on " a treat," to the value " of £20," to welcome Governour Fletcher. The assembly was in session, and voted an address of thanks to the king for the warlike store which the governour brought to the province ; and the coun- cil, though rejoicing in the accession of strength which an ignorant and violent governour brought them, found it convenient from some private reasons, to remove two of the former members, Joseph Dudley and William Pinhorne : they were succeeded by Caleb Heathcote and John Young. Dudley was likewise excluded from the bench, where he sat as chief justice, and William Smith placed thereon.
In the address to the king, from the assembly, they represented the necessity for aid against Canada. They said the province was so diminished by former grants, that it consisted of but " a very few towns and villages," and that the number of men fit to bear arms was less than 3000, " and all reduced to great poverty."
Fletcher is represented by William Smith, in his history of New York, as a man of strong passions and inconsiderable talents, very active, and equally avaricious. His desires prompted him to require an independant salary from the people, as well as the dis- posal of the public money granted for specific purposes. His in- structions caused him to press for the establishment of episcopal ministers, and the introduction of the English church by every possible means. -
printer. He was the son of Samuel Green, who arrived with Winthrop in 1638. Bar- tholomew printed the first newspaper. It was issued on the 17th of April, 1704, on a half sheet of pot paper. In this year, likewise, was built, in New York, the old Dutch Church, in Garden street, "the street adjoining the garden of Alderman Johannes Kip." The street has existed as Exchange Place, has been burnt in the fire of 16th and 17th December, 1835, is now rebuilding, and retains the name of Exchange Place. The ground for this church was given by Samuel Bayard. in 1601, to three persons, in trust, for a church and burying ground, in perpetuity. Since the above mentioned fire, the present trustees have sold it to merchants for building lots, for $300.000. The descendants of the old Dutch families see their fathers' bones tossed into the street and sticking out from the sides of a newly dug cellar. We see so many proofs of the folly of supposing that the remains of men can be suffered to rest in any place, that it is only wonderful that we should cherish the filial hope. Who can expect to be left nudisturbed in death after the opening of the pyramids ? There is built, in 1837, a "Temple." at the north east corner of Murray and Church streets, by the congregation of the Garden street church.
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CALEB HEATHCOTE.
. I will pause to give some notice of the Caleb Heathcote, who became at this time one of the governour's, or his majesty's coun- cil. He was a judge, and a colonel of militia. The name of George Heathcote appears among the inhabitants of New York in 1676, and his property is rated at £2036, which placed him as one of the rich of the time. George died unmarried, and his property devolved to Caleb. Tradition says, that the father of Caleb was a man of fortune, and mayor of Chester, in England ; but Caleb had two brothers born before him, who, probably, one or both, inherited the father's estate ; both procured titles, and found- ed families well known in England. The oldest brother was Sir Gilbert Heatlicote, the founder and first president of the bank of England, and lord mayor of London. Caleb, the youngest, had formed a matrimonial engagement with a lady of great beauty, but unfortunately took his elder brother, Gilbert, to see his intended wife. Gilbert was struck with the lady's beauty, and supplanted his brother, who sought refuge with his uncle in New York, married a daughter of " Tangier Smith,"* of Long Island, and became a distinguished man in our history. He was a sincere Episcopalian, and probably seconded from principle, the views which Fletcher advocated from interest, and in obedience to his orders. Heath- cote, in his military capacity, had command of the West Riding, on Long Island, and in one of his letters gives this account of his method of " converting," as my friend Doctor De Kay, from whom I have the extract, says, "military into religious exercises."
- The colonel came to America in 1692, as I gather from this letter, which is dated in 1704, and he must have had both influ- ence and fortune, to have attained a seat in the council the first year of his arrival. He writes thus-" I shall begin the history of the church from the time I first came among them, which was about twelve years ago. I found it the most rude and heathenish country I ever saw in my whole life, which called themselves Christians, there not being so much as the least marks or footsteps of religion of any sort. Sundays were only times set apart by them for all manner of vain sports and lewd diversion, and they were grown to such a degree of rudeness, that it was intolerable. I having then command of the militia, sent an order to all the cap- tains, requiring them to call their men under arms, and to acquaint them, that in case they would not in every town agree among them- selves to appoint readers, and to pass the Sabbath in the best man- ner they could, till such times as they should be better provided, that the captains should every Sunday call their companies under
* Smith was so called, from having been governour of Tangier, and to distin- guish him from " Bull Smith," aud all other Smiths.
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arms, and spend the day in exercise. Whereupon, it was unani- mously agreed on throughout the country, to make choice of readers, which they accordingly did, and continued in those me- thods for some time." This was a mild and ingenious mode of propagating the gospel by aid of the bayonet .*
Fletcher showed his good sense in following the advice of coun- cil, and seeking a knowledge of the Iroquois, and of the danger in which the frontier stood from the activity and talents of Count Frontignac, the governour of Canada, from Peter Schuyler, the mayor of Albany, to whom the Five Nations looked, as to a father, and who had shown on various occasions that he was fit to guide their counsels and lead them in battle.
The governour had capacity enough to see that Schuyler had the knowledge of which he was deficient ; that he was a man on whom he could rely ; and he followed his counsels in regard to the French and the Iroquois. Fletcher had repaired to Albany in the autumn, and by Schuyler's direction, confirmed the Indians in their alliance with New York, and distributed the usual presents. He advanced the colonel to be of his majesty's council, but he still remained as the chief magistrate of Albany, where Ingoldsby was stationed as commander of the troops and fort.
'The Iroquois not only guarded the province of New York from the French, and diminished the colony of Canada by frequent in- roads destructive to the population and settlements ; but they stopped that great plan of the French court, by which a chain of forts and garrisons was to unite the St. Lawrence with the Missis- sippi-Canada with Louisiana. It was, as has been mentioned, thought, that to remove this nuisance which destroyed Canada and shut the French power from the great Lakes, the English province of New York must be subdued, and then the Iroquois must be extirpated or made to aid the great designs of France. Accord- ingly, the plan was entrusted to Frontignac for its execution. A fleet sufficient to reduce the city of New York, was to be sent to hover in the vicinity, until the Count having taken Albany, should approach the devoted city, and thus the province become French.
. This Col. Caleb Heathcote built at Marmaroneck, and Madame Knight, in her journey from Bostonto New York, in the year 1704, speaks of passing the residence of Col. Heathcote, who, she says, she was told was "a very fine gentlemen." He was lord of the manor of Scursdale, in Westchester county, and left two daughters, co-heiresses : one married Doctor Johnson, of Perth Amboy, the friend and corres- pondent of Grotius, and the other married Lieutenant-Governour James De Lancey. Through the Smiths of Tangiers, a daughter of which family he married, the name of Heathcote passed into the Woolsey family ; through Governour De Lancy, to the present Rev. Dr. W. Heathcote De Lancey, of Philadelphia, and Heathcote Johnson, who died unmarried in London. Much of this information I derived from my friend, James Fennimore Cooper, who married a daughter of Colonel De Lancey, of Heathcote Hill, in Westchester.
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In the meantime, Frontignac did not remit his efforts against the Iroquois, and they under a chief called by the English, " Black Kettle," and by Charlevoix, " Chaudure Noire," (better sounding, though meaning the same thing,) made a descent upon the neigh- bourhood of Montreal, and ravaged the open country ; the French not being in force to leave their fortified places. Frontignac, low- ever, pushed on a detachment in pursuit of the invaders, and they were overtaken on their return. A desperate battle ensued. It appears that the French threw a part of their men between the Indians and their return-path : they, however, fought their way through, with the loss of twenty warriours. The Canadian troops lost four officers, and a proportionate number of soldiers ; but re- tained five men, nine women, and five children, as prisoners. But a few days after this rencontre, a party of Iroquois appeared below Montreal, and cut off a captain's conimand, killing the officer and many of his men.
Frontignac, as if to terrify the savages, or to gratify his rage and disposition to cruelty, condemned two of the Iroquois prisoners to be burnt alive. The Jesuits waited on the captives, condemned by the civilized governour of Canada to die at the stake, and in- structed them in the mysteries of Christianity. " They preached to them," says Colden, " the Trinity, the incarnation of our Saviour, the joys of paradise, and the punishments of hell, to fit their souls for heaven by baptism, while their bodies were condemned to tor- ments." The Indians answered by singing their death song. It was said that one of the captives found a knife in his dungeon and despatched himself. This was certainly not characteristick of the people. The other was delivered to the converted Indians, who led him to the stake and put him to the torture, according to the practice of their former pagan state.
'The devoted victim sang his triumphs-defied his tormentors, and boasted of the Frenchmen he had slain. They mangled his flesh-cut his joints-twisted his sinews with bars of iron-tore off his scalp, and poured boiling hot sand on his skull-and it is said, he only received the coup de grace by the intercession of the intendant's lady ; which ended this shameful exhibition, ordered by a French general, executed by what were called christian In- dians, and witnessed by the most civilized people of Europe.
1693 On the 15th of January, 1693, the governour of Canada having projected an expedition against the Mohawks, sent a body of six hundred men, provided with snow shoes, and accom- panied by light sledges made of skins, and drawn by dogs, to carry their stores. Three captains of the king's regular troops, with thirty subalterns, led picked soldiers. The whole were equipped for a march over frozen lakes, and a wilderness shining with ice and snow. On the Sth of February they passed Schenectady, and
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although a prisoner taken at the destruction of that place in 1690, escaped from them, and carried intelligence of the hostile march ; no warning, the Jesuit historian says, was sent to the Mohawk castles ; a friendly act, which might have been done on the south side of the river, as the French advanced on the north.
On the night of the Sth of February, after a march of twenty- four days, suffering incredible hardships, the French, with their Canadians and Indians, entered the first Mohawk village, nearest Schenectady. The warriours were all abroad, and only five males were found with the women and children. . The second Mohawk castle was easily surprised and entered, being as defenceless as the first. The third castle was the largest, and, being farthest from their friends of Schenectady, was the strongest. Forty warriours were here dancing their war-dance, preparatory to sallying forth in pursuit of battle and scalps the next day. The French had entered the gate of the village unperceived ; but notwithstanding this ad- vantage, and the confusion of an unexpected night assault, the In- dians resisted, and slew thirty of the assailants. Many of the Mohawks were killed, and 300 men, women and children, made prisoners. The complaints were loud that Schenectady had not sent either intelligence or help.
Charlevoix says, that in their retreat the French murdered the women and children of the Mohawks, and were pursued by the Oneidas ; that his countrymen finally disbanded ; lost their pris- oners ; and that the wreck of the detachment reached Montreal in March following.
As soon as the news of this attack upon the Mohawks reached Albany, Peter Schuyler mustered what force he could and march- ed to Schenectady. From thence he sent out scouts : and having increased his armed men to 200, he marched in pursuit of the French on the 12th of February. He soon heard that 600 of the Iroquois were on the way for the same purpose. These, I pre- sume, were the Oneidas, of whom Charlevoix speaks. Schuyler waited for the Indians, who amounted when they joined him to only 250 " inen and boys, all armed." His whole force on the 15th of February, was 290 New Yorkers, and 250 Indians. The white troops had no provisions but biscuits carried in their pockets. The Indians were probably quite as destitute, but more hardened to starvation.
The French finding that they were pursued, sent one of their scouts to join Schuyler, under pretence . of desertion ; this spy magnified the force of the Canadian army ; said they had thrown up a fortification and awaited the pursuers, in an advantageous position.
Schuyler sent a message to Ingoldsby, who commanded the king's troops at Albany, desiring him to send a reinforcement of troops
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and provisions ; this done, he immediately pushed forward, and soon found that he approached the enemy, who had thrown up a defence of logs for their main body, and posted their Indians to receive the advance of the pursuers. The mayor of Albany made a circuit to avoid ambuscades, and soon the Indians of both parties had raised their war shouts and were engaged. The French party at first gained an advantage, and the regular troops sallying from their redoubt, attacked Schuyler furiously, but were repulsed with loss. The Iroquois bore off heads and scalps in triumph : but Schuyler, some of whose men had not eaten for two days, found it necessary to form a redoubt of trees and await reinforcements from Albany, for which he pressed by repeated messengers. The French took advantage of a snow storm to retreat. Eighty men arrived from Albany, not led by Ingoldsby, but a Captain Mathews ; on their arrival, Schuyler recommenced the pursuit as soon as his troops had been refreshed by the food which Mathews, who led the van, had brought.
Schuyler had the prospect of overtaking the foe before they could cross the Hudson, which he knew to be open, a very uncommon occurrence in February ; but the French, on arriving at the river, found a bridge, formed by some floating cakes of ice which had ac- cidentally choked up the stream and were joined temporarily to- gether. On this they crossed, and the bridge floated off before Schuyler could follow.
Giving over the pursuit he returned, bearing the rescued priso- ners and his wounded men. Twenty-seven of the French, of whom four were officers, were found dead on the field. Schuyler, on going among his Iroquois allies, found them feasting on broth, of which he was invited to partake. They were regaling themselves on the dead bodies of their enemies.
The French, as mentioned above, dispersed, in a state of famine ; and, in March, the remains of the army entered Montreal, the strongest arriving first, with all the symptoms of discomfiture and rout.
An express had been sent to Fletcher, who immediately called out the militia of New York, of whom three hundred men volun- teered to follow him in pursuit of the invaders. The river being free from ice, with three sloops, the governour and his troops arrived at Albany in three days .* His promptitude, and the extraordinary circumstance of free navigation of the Hudson in February, gained Fletcher great credit. The Iroquois called him "the Arrow." His
* Chief Justice Smith, in a note says, "the climate of late days is much altered, and this day ( February 14th, 1756,) 300 recruits sailed from New York for the army, under the command of General Shirley, now quartered at Albany, and last year a sloop went up the river a month earlier," that is, the 14th of January, 1755.
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expedition, however, was useless, as Schuyler was on his return from the chase.
The Assembly, upon Fletcher's return to New York, compli- mented him for his exertions on this occasion, not only by thanks, but by raising and placing at his disposal, £6000, for a year's pay of three hundred volunteers, and their officers, for the defence of the frontiers. Complaints were afterwards made by those volunteers that they did not receive their wages. At this session, the governour pressed upon the Assembly the settling of schoolmasters, to teach English, and ministers of the Episcopal Church. The House was attached to the Dutch language, and considered the Dutch Church as secured by the articles of surrender. Fletcher's council were as decidedly opposed to Presbytereanism, as were his instructions ; some of these gentlemen not the less because it was the creed of the Leislerian party ; others, as Col. Caleb Heathcote, because of real attachment to the English Church.
The governour told the Assembly, at the close of the session, that notwithstanding his recommendation, they had done nothing in this business, and bade them remember that insured of the privi- leges of Englishmen, of which they were so ready to talk, they provided not for the religion of the Church of England.
Count Frontignac, relying upon the Iroquois keeping at home after the late suffering of the Mohawks, ordered a convoy, with pel- tries, which had been shut up at Michilimackinack, to come on to Montreal ; but they were encountered by the Indians, and the party cut off.
'The rumours, however, of the intended invasion of New York, by sea and land, the arrival of reinforcements from France, the blow inflicted on the Mohawks, and above all, the arts and persuasion of M. Milet, a Jesuit, who had been received among the Oneidas, dis- posed that portion of the confederacy to sue for peace. Peter Schuyler, to counteract this, brought Fletcher, with a load of pre- sents for the Indians, up to Albany, where a council was held, and the goods, which had been withheld a long time, were, with many fair words, delivered ..
The Iroquois were told, that the 90 guns, 810 pounds of pow- der, 500 bars of lead, 1,000 flints, 87 hatchets, 48 dozen knives, besides blankets, beef and pork, came from King William and Queen Mary, their gracious king and queen .*
* I endeavour to make all transactions with the Indians plain to every reader, by adopting such appellations for the different nations or tribes as generally denote the place of residence, or some other well known circumstance. When speaking of. the Fire Nations, I call them by that appellation ; or the confederates, or the Iro- quois, in the aggregate. That part of the Mohawk river which approaches the Hudson, marks the situation of the Mohawk tribe with ther villages and castles.
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The speeches of the Indian orators, when divested of the figura- tive language, awkwardly rendered into English by interpreters, do honour to this singular people ; and their negotiations with both French and English, show a skill in diplomacy, united to more good faith, than was in practice among civilized nations.
The Iroquois were pleased by these presents from England, and promised to deliver up M. Milet, the Jesuit; but he had art enough to continue his intrigues in despite of Fletcher and his adviser.
The governour met a new assembly in September, and prevailed upon them to pass a bill tor settling a ministry ; but it was sent up to the council : it was returned with an amendment, vesting his ex- cellency with an episcopal power of inducting every incumbent. This the house refused ; and the colonel called them before him,and broke up the session, by scolding them, and dismiss- ing them. He told them that they were unmannerly dictators to him and his council ; that they took care to exact their 10s. a day, but wished to pull down the fees of other ministers of the govern- ment ; but he would let them know he had to collate or suspend any clergyman, and he would take care that neither heresy, schism, or rebellion, should be preached among them.
'This assembly, as Mr. Smith remarks, in his history, had " de- served better usage" at Fletcher's hands ; for they had made him for five years independent of the people, by giving him controul over the treasury and continuing the revenue for that time.
The bill, however, as enacted by the assembly, passed into a law without the amendment, and provided for the establishment of good and sufficient protestant ministers - one in New York city, one in Richmond county, two in the county of Westchester, and two in Queen's county -to be paid by a tax upon the inhabitants gene- rally, to be levied by the vestry men and church wardens, who were elective by such inhabitants. By this act, the Church of England
The names of the counties, Oneida and Onondaga, give us the places of those two nations. Onondaga, or the " swamp under the hill," being the great council-ground of the confederates. The Cayugas have impressed their names upon the country of their abode; and the Seneca river points us to territory of that, the farthest of the union who stretched along the borders of Lake Erie. The Iroquois knew no limits to their hunting grounds, but such as the arms of other nations could oppose. They roved free as air - only checked by the French of Canada and their allies, or by the European inhabitants of New York. who gladly sought their friendship. Masters - they had none - although the English governours set up the pretence of sovereignty over them -calling them subjects of England. Their country was never subjected, until, by aiding Great Britain in her attempt to enslave the colonies, the United States were forced to conquer them in self-defence. By the Ottawas- I mean the Indians on that river and neighbourhood. The Caugnawahgas were a mixed race, called christians, and settled opposite to Montreal. The Mackinaws are the people who then dwelt about Lake Michigan : the Hurons are designated by the waters of that name: and Algonkin is a title bestowed on a great portion of the natives who were in alliance with, or subdued by the French.
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was recognized as the dominant church, leaving the dissenters at liberty to maintain a minister of their own, but obliging them to pay the established preacher.
It appears by the minutes of the common council, that the city of New York under Fletcher's direction, (as an addition to the fort,) erected a battery on the point of the island, upon a platform, laid upon the rocks, overlooked by the hill on which the fort stood. This battery was calculated to command both rivers. As Fletcher was vested with plenary powers of commanding the whole mi- litia of Connecticut and the neighbouring colonies, he asserted his claim upon Connecticut. Fitzjohn Winthrop, (who had commanded under Leisler's government the troops of Connecticut and New York,) was appointed agent of the colony to go to England, and oppose Fletcher's claim ..
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