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 8
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* This name of Iroquois is said to be formed upon the exclamation of these people when they finish a speech or harangue-" Iliro !" " I have said."
t Roger Williams was a native of Wales ; he arrived in America in the year 1632. See Verplanck's Historical Discourse, Bancroft, and Walsh's United States and Great Britain. Note C.
VOL. I.
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66
FORT AMSTERDAM.
Fort Amsterdam, in the city of New Amsterdam, was finished . by Van Twiller, on the bluff which once overhung Pearl street, and commanded, or appeared to command, both East and North river. It cost the Dutch West India Company 4172 1640 guilders 10 stuyvers. Two years after his arrival Kieft built a church within the fort. In this church probably the Rev. John Megapolensis was the first preacher. He was likewise a surgeon and practised physic .*
Long Island, as we have seen, was not only claimed, but the settlement commenced in 1625. This island was then and long after the English conquest, an important portion of the province. The Dutch inhabitants of Long Island, as well as their brethren on Manhattoes, professed the religion of the synod of Dort. Their church government was that of the classis of Amsterdam until 1772, when the Dutch church of America established an independant classis and synods like those of Holland.
* In 1664 John Megapolensis, jr., minister of the Dutch church at New Amster- dam, wrote " A short description of the Maquas Indians in New Netherland." He gives an account of the country and its natural products. He says, " strawberries grow in such plenty in the fields that we go there and lie down and eat them, &c. Grapes fit for eating and wine in great plenty-Deer, price six or seven guilders- Turkeys in great plenty, and other fowl-Land-lions, (supposed Panthers,) Bears, Wolves and Foxes, &c. &c."
He describes the Indians as of two nations, the Mahakobaas, (Mohawks or Iro- quois, ) and Mahakans, (Mohicans, ) the latter being subdued by the former and paying yearly tribute to the former, friendly and hospitable to the Dutch, as are both. They go almost naked in summer, the children entirely so. In winter " they hang loosely about them" a bear's or other skin. Nothing is worn on the head, and the women have long hair ; the men only one lock unshorn. He describes them as loose in sex- ual intercourse, and the women's favours bought by the Dutch at two or three shillings (a Dutch shilling is worth six and a half pence sterling.) The facility of child-bear- ing and the slavery of females is mentioned as usual. He asserts that cannibalism, torturing and eating prisoners were practised. He says, that in 1643 the Indians took three Frenchmen. One was a jesuit, who was tortured, but the Dutch released him and sent him to France : one of the other men was killed. He describes their man- nors as they are now well known. Their slovenly and beastly mode of eating is disgustingly descriptive.
A schepel is a measure equal to three pecks : and he says he has seen a canoe of the wood of a single tree, that carried 200 schepels of grain. Already the Dutch had supplied the natives with guns, swords and axes. He describes their fishing, and says they dry the fish for winter food. His description of their belief in and worship of, a good and evil spirit, is confused. He says after he has preached to the Dutch, the Indians who have stood by, asked him what is the meaning of his making so many words, and no one answering him ? And when he tells them that he admon- ishes the christians not to steal, get drunk, commit murder, &c .- they say he does well; but remark. that the christians do all these things notwithstanding. Of their superstitions, charms or medicine, he speaks as having some knowledge. Their government by councils of their oldest, wisest, most eloquent and efficient men is · shadowed forth : but he truly says, it is only a government of persuasion and con- viction ; for the people decide in all cases-this he calls mob government. The chiefs and leaders, he says, give to the people instead of receiving from them, as among christians. The principle of revenge he likewise mentions, and of pacifica- tion by presents. He concludes by saying, "that although these people live without law or punishments, they do not commit murders or other villanies as much as we do."
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" LONG ISLAND. 67
Many of the towns of Long Island were settled by the 1640 English with the permission of, and under the jurisdiction of
the Dutch. These towns adopted or framed laws for their own government : they armed themselves from suspicion of evil designs towards them on the part of the Indians, they therefore entered into military regulations ; they likewise enjoyed trial by jury when it was requested; a jury consisted of seven, and a ma- jority gave the decision ; they had town meetings for imposing taxes and appointing tax-gatherers : each town judged of the char- acter of any person who wished to become a settler, and admitted or excluded him as his good fame or opinions suited the majority. In this year, Trumbull says, Mr. John Youngs purchased and settled Yinnicock, i. e. Southold.
The regulations established by the Dutch Governor respecting trade to Connecticut river, were strict, and no doubt intended to prevent collisions between the Netherlanders and the English. All persons were prohibited, as, early as 1639, from trading with fort Good Hope without permission obtained from the Director- general ; and vessels sailing up the Fresh river without leave were liable to forfeiture. Still the English increased in number about the fort, and the men of Hartford took possession, by force, of the land which the Dutch had prepared for planting. Those of fort Good Hope who attempted to plant, were beaten, and their com- plaints to Governor Hopkins of Hartford were not heeded. On the 13th of May, 1640, Kieft sent Cornelius Van Tienhoven, his secretary, with the under-sheriff, a sergeant and twenty-five sol- diers, to Siocits bay, since called Oyster bay, on Long Island, to break up a settlement which the English had begun at that place. These settlers were people who had purchased from the agent of Lord Stirling, and finding on their arrival from Massachusetts, that the Dutch had marked their possession by affixing the arms of the States to a tree, the English tore down this mark of sovereignty and in derision set up a fool's head in the place.
When Tienhoven and his detachment arrived, they found eight men, one woman and an infant, who had erected one house and were building another. The Dutch guard brought six of the men to Kieft, and these men reported that they came from Lynn, near Boston, under the authority of one Forrester, agent of the Earl of Stirling .* The arms of the States having been replaced,
* July 7th, 1640, Forrest or Forrester, whose real name was Ferrat, agent of Lord Stirling, patented eight miles square, (now the township of Southampton, ) to Daniel How, Job Sayer, George Wilks, William Parker and their associates. Though this agent of Lord Stirling is generally called Forrester and sometimes Forrest, ha wrote his name very plainly Ferrat, as may be seen by original papers now on Long Island.
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GOVERNOR KIEFT.
and the fool's head as well as other erections thrown down, the Governor dismissed the prisoners on their signing an agreement to abandon the intention of settlement. Already another invasion. of Long Island had taken place, and Southold was commenced on a tract of land purchased from the Indians by the governor of New Haven, or by the Rev. Mr. Youngs.
In June the government and council of New Amsterdam 1640 determined to send Johannes La Montaignee, one of the council, with fifty soldiers and some sloops to strengthen fort Good Hope ; and the strife between individuals continuing, a proposition was made by Kieft that the English settlements should be considered valid if made under the jurisdiction of the States of Holland. But all his attempts either amicably or by appearance of force had no effect. The Hartford plantations surrounded the Dutch fort ; the Dutch cultivators were driven off, their cattle seized, fences were set up that prevented the Dutch from pursuing their usual wagon-way to the wood, and all these aggressions in- creased as the stronger party became more strong. In October this year, the English began to build at Greenwich, south of Stamford.
While the New England men, considering the English claim as good, or better than that of Holland, intruded themselves upon the Dutch possessions on the main land, from the east ; the equal- ly hardy Swedes planted their colonies upon the Delaware.
Both the republicans of Connecticut and the servants 1640 of the Earl of Stirling pressed upon the eastern end of Long Island, at the same time that the Indians of New Jersey showed symptons of hostility towards the governor of New Netherland and his colonists. Provoked by dishonest traders and maddened by rum, the Delawares invaded Staten Island and threatened New Amsterdam. Kieft, who seems to have had little of the manner or spirit of conciliation, outlawed the New Jersey Indians, and offered a reward of ten fathoms of wampum for the head or scalp of a Raritan or other native. He even invaded their country, but only to prove the inefficacy of the measure.
De Vries, the leader of the first colony to the Delaware, being at New Amsterdam, urged treatment conciliatory, just and humane, as a remedy more effective than force ; but the counsels of "io- lence were too loud for him. The traders who had been crossed, or insulted, or thwarted in their schemes, could not be brought to submission or reparation ; and the Indians felt the injuries, which they had not been taught, and had no disposition, to forgive. A savage, goaded by insult and wrong, had vowed to kill the first Dutchman he met. The vow of vengeance was performed. Kieft demanded the murderer. This the Raritans would not comply with ; but they sent a deputation to say that they were sorry for
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GOVERNOR KIEFT.
what had happened, and according to their customs were. willing to pay the " price of blood." The historical reader will remem- ber that an atonement of this kind was common to many nations in an early state. The Indians were willing to pay and to apolo- gize; at the same time they said truly, " You are yourselves the cause of the evil. It is only by preventing the sale of rum that such madness and bloodshed can be avoided."
But the customs of civilized men required blood for blood .-- Kieft thought it necessary to strike terror among the natives, and show them that the death of a white man could only be atoned for . by the submission or destruction of a nation. The flames of war kindled, and the colony of New Netherland felt the effects of the cupidity of their traders and the rashness of their governor. I have reminded the reader that the price of blood was received as atonement for the death of a friend or relative among most savages. But in this the laws of civilization were found to clash with the customs of the native Americans and were irreconcilable : yet how powerful is the appeal of the Indian on this occasion. "You sell us rum-you make us mad-you drink and make yourselves mad-it is you who are in fault if we kill your people -it is your rum does it."
Mr. Gallatin has observed that " the Dutch appear to have been reduced to great distress by the Manhattans and the Long Island Indians," and he might have added, the Raritans and other tribes of Delawares. " Application was made in vain," he continues, "for assistance to the colony of New Haven : but they engaged in their service Captain Underhill, a famous partizan officer, with whose assistance, and that of the Mohawks, they carried on the war for several years. Underhill had a mixed corps of English and Dutch, with which he is said to have killed 400 Indians on Long Island. And in the year 1646 a severe battle took place at Horseneck, on the main, where the Indians were finally defeated." Trumbull adds, " that Underhill was from Stamford, and the em- ploying him so offended a ruffian, previously engaged by Kieft in Indian killing, that he attempted the life of the Director-general ; and one of Marine's (the name of this ruffian) men discharged his gun at Kieft, and was shot by the governor's sentinel."
The hostilities from 1640 to 1643, although the cause 1643 of distress to the colonists of New Netherland, and par- ticularly to those who had settled on Staten Island, were terminated in the latter year by the mediations of the wise and good Roger Williams, who visited Manhattan at that time on his way to England.
On the 25th of March, Roger Williams brought about a meeting between Kieft and the Sachems of various tribes, (which had been engaged in the previous contest,) at Rechquatrec, on Long
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70
CANADIAN AFFAIRS.
Island, (now called Rockaway,) and the quarrel which began in 1640, when an Indian youth, maddened by rum and injustice, murdered the first white man he met, and white men, professing christianity, carried the sword among the red men indiscrimi- nately, was healed, and peace for a time restored by a real disciple of Christ.
This pacification was but of short duration, and before the end of the year Governor Kieft was involved again in furious hostility with the natives of the surrounding country, and it was then that he called in the aid of Captain John Underhill; but, before intro- ducing that worthy formally to the reader, I will bring up the affairs of Canada and the northern frontier of New Netherland to this period .*
After the death of M. Champlain, who had caused that enmity · towards France in the confederated Iroquois, which made them a rampart for the frontier of New Netherland, and subsequently for New York ; he was succeeded by Mons. Montmagné, who was shortly after recalled, and Mons. D'Ailleboust was appointed go- vernor of New France.
The great business in Canada at this time, according to Char- levoix, appears to have been making christians ; but the trade in furs was not neglected, and certainly succeeded better than the first, if a protestant may be permitted to judge ; not but that many miracles were performed, and martyrdoms suffered. The Iroquois continued to attack both the French and the Indians with the usual success which attended their superior wisdom, valour, and daring; and as the Eastern Indians were troublesome to the people of New England, Charlevoix tells us that they sent a deputy to propose an alliance, eternal, (as all alliances are,) between the Eng- lish and French colonists. M. Ailleboust, in return, sent a priest
* 1644 .- The Rev. William Castell wrote to the English parliament a letter re- commending the preaching of the gospel to the Indians in the English plantations, and obtained the signatures of many clergymen in London, and elsewhere, to his letter, which was a kind of petition. He represents the cruelties of the Spaniards in America, and points out the " better way" that protestants should take with these unhappy and benighted people He seems, however, to think that the English plan- tations will not continue, as England has rather hindered than furthered their pros- perity. But he urges the cherishing the colonies, and the christianizing the Indians, with force, truth, and eloquence. When the lords and commons, assembled in par- liament, appointed Robert Earl of Warwick governor of all the plantations of Ame- rica, they likewise appointed commissioners to assist him, and among the names re- corded we find that of Oliver Cromwell.
In this year [1644] Southampton, on Long Island, was received into the juris- diction of Connecticut by permission of the commissioners of the United Colonies. The town subsequently complained that the Dutch sold guns, powder, and shot, to the Indians, who (they say) in 1653, had become good marksmen, and disturb the English by firing volleys of small arms at their entertainments. Easthampton was added to Connecticut in 1650.
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FIRST CONGRESS.
as a negotiator to Boston, to conclude a treaty, " provided the English would join in a war against the Iroquois." This alliance was not likely to take place. The New England men did not think fit to march against the Iroquois for the purpose of defending the French and Algonkins.
The Hurons, attributing their destruction to the enmity which the Five Nations bore to the French, became jealous of the jesuits residing among them, and put several to death ; while the Iroquois took pleasure in torturing the priests whenever they fell into their hands. The savage delight of the Indians, and the sufferings of the fathers, are detailed by the jesuit historian, as well as the mi- racles which attended these instances of cruelty.
The triumphant Iroquois are represented as pursuing the Hu- rons, even to the shelter of the fort of Quebec.
In the year 1643 the colonies of Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and Newhaven, formed a league for self-govern- ment and common defence .* This confederacy may be con- sidered as the germ of the present federal constitution : a con- gress was, by agreement, to be held annually, each province send- ing two delegates : the assent of three-fourths of the assembly was binding upon the whole. John Winthrop, the younger, was the first president. This was the first step towards that independence which we now enjoy. This confederation lasted till 1686. It showed that spirit which became universal with the American people-the determination to govern themselves, under just laws, and to preserve the rights of Englishmen ; but it is, by no means, a proof, as Robertson the historiant has asserted, " that they con- sidered themselves as independent societies, possessing all the rights of sovereignty, and free from the control of any superior power." They were ever conscious of their rights as English subjects ; and when they found (as they soon did) that England, for selfish purposes, invaded those rights, they became jealous de- fenders of them. The union of 1643 was for defence, but its operation impressed upon the colonies the truth that union gives power. They united for their defence as their predecessors the Iroquois had done for conquest.
This confederacy of the English colonies may be considered as leading to all those which followed. The New England colonies confederated under pretence of danger from the Dutch, and with some reality of it from the Indians; but the true motive was self- government, the right of all men. The confederacy continued 43 years, when James II., of England, deprived the colonies of
* Kent's Comm. Vol. 1, p. 202, 203.
+ Hist. of Am. Book 10.
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GOVERNOR KIEFT.
their charters. . But although they confederated for self-govern- ment, they soon found themselves strong enough to govern others. The commissioners (so the congress of deputies called them- selves) gave a certificate to an Indian of Long Island, " because Long Island, with the smaller islands adjacent," had been granted " to the Lord Stirling," and by him " passed over," that is, granted or sold to " some English of these colonies," and because the Indians of and in the eastern parts of Long Island had become tributaries to the English, and have engaged their lands to them; they, the commissioners, therefore certify that this Indian pro- fesses to be friendly to both English and Dutch, and will inform them of any plot to injure them ; and therefore they express their wish that this Indian, the sagamore, or sachem of Munhauget, on Long Island, may be respected by the English, and remain unin- jured by them.
It was to this powerful confederacy of the English colonies that Kieft applied for relief from the Indian tribes that desolated New Netherland and threatened New Amsterdam, and he applied in vain. Kieft knew that, besides the Indians who had been pro- voked by his own people, and now prevailed against him, he was surrounded by European foes. The puritans pressed upon him from the east, both on the continent and on Long Island ; the Swedes were on his south river : and the Cavalier colonies of Virginia and Delaware were hostile to the pretensions of his nation.
The tribes of the nations on the Hudson had joined with the Raritans and some of the Long Island Indians; it therefore seemed as if they were determined to exterminate the whites whom they had once loved, or feared and adored. From the shores of New Jersey to the borders of Connecticut savage and remorseless hos- tility was waged against the Netherlanders and their inmates. Anne Hutchinson, who had fled from the persecution of the perse- cuted, and taken refuge with the cultivators of the Netherlands, was murdered with her protectors.
" When you first came to our shores," said a sachem of the . council held for a treaty, " you were destitute of food. We gave you our beans and corn ; we fed you with oysters and fish ; and now, for our recompense, you murder our people." This charge was, with truth, often repeated in every part of America.
But confidence was not restored between the natives 1643 and the Netherlanders. Kieft was not conciliating or pru- dent. The Indians had felt their power and thirsted for re- venge. They, perhaps, began to see their destined annihilation if the whites were suffered to increase and occupy their hunting and fishing grounds and waters. The same causes that had brought on the first quarrel renewed it in less than a year, and the Indians,
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UNDERHILL.
flushed with former success, again began the work of blood and desolation.
Though Kieft had received no succour in soldiers from the government of New England, he was not so unsuccessful in his application to individuals of the English blood. He engaged in his service a man whose name is still famous on Long Island, whose descendants to this day occupy land, purchased by his va- lour, the fears or friendship of some of the Indians, and the assist- ance rendered to the Dutch in this second Indian war.
We are informed by the Dutch records, that in June 1641, Englishimen had permission to settle on Long Island among the Dutch. Such of the English as chose to mingle with the Nether- landers were secured in the exercise of their religion, choice of their own magistrates, their own courts for causes under 41 guilders, and in cases criminal, not capital ; with exemption from taxes for ten years, on condition of swearing allegiance to the Dutch go- vernment, using Dutch weights and measures, and not erecting any forts without permission.
Captain John Underhill, like Lyon Gardiner, brought with him the acquisitions gained by serving in the armies of England, sent to aid the Dutch in the low countries. Captain John was a soldier of fortune, sturdy and brave, seeking " provant" and plunder as one, at that time, of his profession may be supposed to do. He had been sent with the forces of James I. of Eng- land, (much against the king's will,) raised to aid rebellious sub- jects in casting off the yoke of a master ; but the cause of the protestant religion, and the interest of James's son-in-law, the pa- latine, had prevailed over his bias to kingcraft. Whether Un- derhill bore a commission in this war, I know not, but he returned to England with the title of captain, a Dutch wife, and the Dutch language.
The new world presented a wider field for adventure than was to be found in England. A Dutch wife, or the Dutch language, were not likely to cause his thriving among a people taught to des- pise all foreigners ; and the trade of war was not agreeable to James, happily for his subjects. A sword was the king's aver- sion ; and a sword was probably the sole reliance of Underhill. Accordingly he emigrated to Boston, and was well received among the valiant and pious.
Captain John Underhill was an author as well as a warrior, and there exists, in the New York Historical Library, " News from America, or a New and Experimental Discoverie of New Eng- land, containing a true relation of their warlike proceedings, these two years past, with a figure of the Indian Fort or Pallisado, by Captain John Underhill, Commander in the Wars there. London, printed for P. Cole, 1638."
VOL. I.
10
74
UNDERHILL.
The warrior author, after making apologies, tells us of the wars of New England with the " Block Islanders," and that " insolent and barbarous nation called the Pigcats," who were slain by the " sword of the Lord," and the English, " to the number of 1500 souls," so that their country " is fallen into the hands of the Eng- lish." All this for the " glory of God," captain John sets forth. He states the cause of the war with the Block Indians being, their slaying John Oldham in his boat, and clothing " their bloody flesh with his lawful garments." This island, " lying in the road- way to the Lord Sey, and the Lord Brooke's plantation," the murderer was seen, and several of the murderers shot on the spot, and others carried prisoners to Massachusetts by the master and crew of an English vessel. This not being considered atonement sufficient, " Master Henrie Vane," and the other magistrates of Massachusetts, sent " 100 well appointed soldiers," commanded by Endicot, having Underhill and others under him. It seems there were four captains, besides "inferior officers," to command this body of 100 men ; for which disparity Underhill accounts by the necessity of dividing their men into small parties, to meet the practice of the savages. As they approached Block Island, they saw a single Indian, and every appearance of the place being de- serted ; but, knowing their manner of lying in ambush, Underhill was sent with twelve soldiers in his boat to land, in expectation of finding an enemy. Accordingly, he says, when his shallop ap- proached the shore, up rose, " from behind the barricado," " fifty or sixty able fighting men, men us straite as arrows, very tall, and of active bodyes, having their arrows nockt," (i. e. fitted to the nock ready for flight,) " they drew near to the water side, and let fly at the soldiers, as though they had meant to have made an end of us all in a moment." One young gentleman received an arrow in his neck, through a thick collar, and Underhill was pierced through the coat sleeve, and would inevitably been slain, but that " God in his providence" had " moved the heart of" Under- hill's " wife to persuade" him to go " armed with his helmet," on which the missile fell in vain. From which the warrior-au- thor impresses his reader with two things-1st, " that God useth weak means to keep his purpose unviolated." The second lesson of Captain John is, " let no man despise the counsel of his wife." We may add, that few men despise the advice of a wife without cause for bitter repentance.
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