USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York, 1609-1909 > Part 2
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On September 12 the Half-Moon itself was steered into the opening and anchored about two leagues beyond the Narrows, at a point near the site of the present Battery Park. The next day began the famous ascent and descent of the river which now bears the explorer's name. The story, which has often been repeated, is derived from the personal journal of Henry Hudson and from the logbook of the Half-Moon, kept by his English mate, Robert Juet, the other mate being a Dutchman.
Hudson and his men were duly impressed by the beauty of this magnifi- cent river, the scenery and surroundings of which still rank with the world's foremost beauty spots, and were then even more glorious in wealth of primeval forest and green-clad with the luxurious foliage of summer time. The cli- mate of late September and early October along the Hudson is usually glorious, so that the Half-Moon adventurers saw it at its best. The run on September 13 was to an anchorage a little above Spuyten Duyvil Creek, and on the 14th, when for the first time the Half-Moon had a fair wind, they traveled past the Palisades for thirty-six miles up the stream, and on the next day they went twenty leagues higher. After that the way became more diffi- cult, the vessel grounding occasionally on mudbanks or in sandy shallows. On the 18th Hudson made a visit ashore. He came to the habitation of an old
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
LAYING UNDERHILL Phologro
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LANDING OF HENRY HUDSON FROM THE HALF-MOON In the upper right-hand corner is shown the Indian village of the Manna-hatas
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HUDSON AT MANNA-HATA
chief, which was a circular house with an arched roof covered with bark. The chief had a feast prepared in his honor, and the menu included freshly killed pigeons and a fat dog, roasted; but the explorer does not say that he partook of the last-mentioned item of the meal. He was much impressed by the large supplies and excellent quality of vegetable products he saw about the chief's house, and the richness of the soil thereabout, which he declared was the most fertile he had ever seen.
September 19 was a fair, hot day. A run of two leagues was made, and then the voyagers put in their time trading with the Indians, from whom they purchased, at trifling cost, valuable beaver and otter skins; and these trans- actions were among the most interesting items of the report of the expedition made to its commercial promoters in Amsterdam. On the 20th the boat was sent ahead to make soundings and on the following day some of the chief men among the natives were invited to the Half-Moon, were taken into the cabin and treated to wine and aqua vitae, so that one of them became drunk, which was a new experience with these people. The story of this introduction of "fire-water" passed into a legend with the Indian people. On the 22d twenty- seven miles were made; but the stream was getting shallower and narrower and the hope that this might prove to be a strait between two oceans had to be abandoned.
The descent of the river was begun on the 23d, and took about as much time as the ascent. On the 24th some of the men went ashore and gathered a good supply of chestnuts. The magnificent forest attracted attention on the two days following and several specimen logs were taken aboard as evidence of the richness of the country in shipbuilding timbers. On the 27th the Half- Moon stuck upon a muddy bank in the vicinity of Newburg. Contrary winds made progress slow, but finally a good day's run took them out of the Highlands channel on October I. Late in that day an Indian was caught stealing. He climbed by the rudder to the cabin window and stole out Juet's pillow, two shirts and two bandoleers. The master's mate shot the Indian, killing him; the ship's boat was manned and sent to recover the stolen goods. The Indians swam out to the boat and one of them tried to upset it. The cook took a sword and cut off one of the Indian's hands, and he was drowned. The next day, at a point seven leagues further down the river, an Indian who had been kidnaped on the upward journey but had escaped, came to seek his revenge, with companions. They made an attack on the ship's company with bows and arrows, which fell harmless to the deck. The crew answered with a volley from six muskets, which killed two or three natives. Then about a hundred Indians came to a point of land to shoot at the crew again, but Juet, firing from a falcon (small cannon), killed two of them and the others fled. The Indians manned a canoe to return to the attack. When it came within
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
range Juet leveled another falcon, which shot through the canoe, sinking it, and several of the Indians struggling in the water were killed by another dis- charge of muskets.
Six miles below the scene of this encounter the Half-Moon anchored at a point about opposite the Elysian Fields of Hoboken, for Juet speaks of its being off a cliff "that looks of the color of white-green, on that side of the river which is called 'Manna-hata.'" As October 3 was a stormy day, there was trouble with the anchorage, but they remained in safety in the Upper Bay, and October 4 dawned fair, with a favorable wind. The Half-Moon cleared the Narrows, and steered a course direct to Europe, being the first direct packet from the port of New York. Some of Hudson's officers favored wintering in Newfoundland and making a dash through Davis' Strait to India in the fol- lowing spring; but Hudson feared that a mutiny might occur unless he steered the ship homeward. November 7, 1609, the Half-Moon arrived in Dart- mouth, and when the English authorities found that this Dutch vessel had an English captain they detained the ship in that harbor. After some delay Hud- son was permitted to send his reports to the Dutch East India Company in the spring of 1610, and the Half-Moon was released and arrived in Amsterdam in July, 1610; but it is thought that Hudson was not permitted to go there, as there is no record of his having done so before April, 1610, when he left Eng- land in behalf of an association of English gentlemen to search for a North- west Passage.
On June 10 he reached the strait which bears his name and from there passed into the bay which has also been named for him; and spent three months in exploring its coasts and islands. Early in November his vessel was frozen in. A winter of great suffering, with a scant supply of provisions fol- lowed, and serious dissensions occurred. In June, 1611, the mutineers seized and bound Hudson, his son, and seven others of the ship's company, put them into a small boat and set them adrift, never to be heard from again. A few of the survivors of those on board the ship finally reached England.
Thus ended the career of Henry Hudson, who in four years of heroic adventure had made a place for himself on the world's roll of fame, and had rendered important service to commerce by finding and describing the site of what, in three hundred years, has become the second largest city in the world and is probably destined to become the first.
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UNITED NEW NETHERLAND COMPANY EARLY DUTCH COMMERCE WITH THE INDIANS
The directors of the Dutch East India Company were disappointed at the failure of Hudson and the Half-Moon to achieve the precise object of his journey. This was because their charter limited their operations to the East Indies, and they were officially unable to take advantage of the discoveries made by Hudson on the eastern coast of America, their charter expressly forbidding them to take part in commerce with the coasts and countries bordering on the Atlantic.
But the report of Henry Hudson bore fruit in Amsterdam. An organi- zation of merchants was formed, and they dispatched a vessel, under command of the Dutch mate of the Half-Moon, and part of her crew shipped for this second voyage. A cargo of cheap and inexpensive articles was taken for the purposes of trade, and a fine return cargo of beaver and other furs was secured. The eminent success of this enterprise led to other adventures, and in 1612 the association dispatched two vessels, the Fortune and the Tiger, on a trading voyage to the Mauritius River, as the present Hudson River had been named, after Count Maurice of Nassau, the Stadtholder of the Republic of the United Netherlands. These vessels were commanded by Hendrick Christiaensen and Adriaen Block, and in 1613 or 1614, three other vessels, under Captains Vol- kertsen, DeWitt and Mey made successful transatlantic voyages with valuable commercial results. Christiaensen and Block, upon their return to Hol- land, brought with them, besides their cargo of furs, two sons of chiefs; and the exhibition in Amsterdam of these two Indians, to whom the names of Valentine and Orson were given, stimulated interest in America throughout the Netherlands.
Christiaensen and Block returned with the two Indians, and continued in the trade, and decided that it would be well to place it upon a more permanent basis by one of them remaining in America. So several rude houses of boards, roofed with bark, were built at a spot said to be the site of 29 Broadway. From this headquarters Christiaensen would make visits to all favorable points in the surrounding country. Some early English accounts contain a story, now regarded as fictitious, to the effect that in November, 1613, Manhattan Island was visited by an armed English vessel. Because of John Cabot's coasting voyage in 1497, the English claimed all of North America between Florida and Canada, and after the French had made settlements on the Bay of Fundy, Cap- tain Samuel Argall was sent from Virginia with a squadron of three armed ships to dislodge them. This was easily accomplished, as his force was over-
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
whelming; and the ships sailed for a return to Virginia, November 9, 1613. Some days afterward the vessels were separated by a gale. One of them foundered, the second was driven eastward, reaching the Azores and thence sailed to England, and the other, commanded by Captain Argall himself, seek- ing shelter from the storm, is said to have found its way into New York Bay, where, the story goes, Captain Argall thought he had discovered a magnificent harbor and country for his government. When he found, however, that it was a Dutch trading post, he was much incensed. Finding Christiaensen, he made known the claim of England to sovereignty, and giving Christiaensen the alter- native of paying tribute or submitting to the destruction of his business and property, the Dutchman promised to pay the tribute, and Captain Argall went back to Virginia satisfied that he had established England's right to this part of America. In the maps of America made about this time and for the remainder of the Seventeenth Century, those of English origin mark the entire region between Florida and Canada, "New England." while on the Dutch maps the region north of Virginia is marked "New Netherland."
The story of Captain Argall's claim has been doubted by most historians, and is now generally discredited, though some writers, chiefly English, have insisted on its truth; but whatever may be the facts in the matter, there was no halt in the operations of the Dutch traders on Manhattan Island. Chris- tiaensen extended his operations, went up with his ship Fortune to a point near the junction of the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers and there built a stock- ade and rude fort, which he called Fort Nassau, after Maurice, Count of Nas- sau, who had already been honored in the naming of the River Mauritius, now the Hudson River, which had been first named by Hudson, the Groot (or Great) River. Christiaensen and his men equipped Fort Nassau with two cannon and eleven swivel guns, left it under guard of ten or twelve men, headed by Jacob Eelkins, and returned to his trading post in Manhattan. Only a short time afterward Christiaensen was killed by Orson, one of the Indians whom he had taken to Holland, and Orson was shot on the spot by one of Christiaen- sen's men.
While Christiaensen was building Fort Nassau, Adriaen Block, in Man- hattan, had the misfortune to lose his vessel, the Tiger, which was anchored in the Bay, by fire. But Block and his men did not permit this loss to discourage them. They were poorly equipped for tools, but timber was plentiful and they set to work to build a vesssel, and by the spring of 1614 they had built the Onrust, or Restless; a handsome craft 38 feet keel, 441/2 feet over all, II feet beam and sixteen tons burden; the first vessel built in the port of New York. When this vessel was finished Block started with it to explore the surrounding waters, and went to many places then inaccessible to larger vessels. First of all he passed through Hell Gate, a name then given to the entire East River,
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THE UNITED NEW NETHERLAND COMPANY
and was the first European navigator to enter Long Island Sound. He coasted along its northern shore, entered New Haven Inlet, sailed into the Connecticut River, which he named Fresh Water River; and then discovering again the three-cornered island mentioned in Verrazano's "Letter," he gave it his own name, and it is still known as Block Island. Eastward he went, entering Nar- ragansett Bay, which he named the Bay of Nassau. He doubled Cape Cod, and proceeded as far as Salem Harbor, then turned about and made for Man- hattan.
On the way he encountered the Fortune, which had been Christiaensen's vessel, now commanded by Cornelis Hendricksen, and on its way to Amster- dam with a cargo, and learned of his partner's fate. Block transferred Hen- dricksen to command of the Onrust, and himself took charge of the Fortune, with which he went direct to Holland, and after that never, so far as any known record shows, returned to the New Netherlands. He was afterward in the service of the Northern Company and the last mention of him is in the capacity of commander of a whaling fleet for that company in 1624.
In March, 1614, the States-General published a decree in the form of a General Charter for Those Who Discover New Passages, Havens, Countries or Places, offering to give to such discoverers a temporary monopoly of trade; providing that within fourteen days after return from such exploring voyage the discoverer should make a detailed report of his discovery. Adriaen Block arrived, probably, early in October, and October II, 1614, he appeared before the Assembly of the States-General and told the story of his voyage in the Onrust through Hell Gate and Long Island Sound; demonstrating the insu- larity of Long Island and thus establishing his claim as discoverer of a "new passage," and the discovery of New Haven Inlet and Fresh Water River. He also, for the association of merchants with which he was connected, told of the explorations of Captain Cornelis Jacobsen Mey, or May, who had not only explored the south coast of Long Island, and the Atlantic Coast eastward and northward to Martha's Vineyard, but had also gone south to Delaware Bay and bestowed his own name on its northern cape. Captain Block's statements were effective, in combination with those of other skippers, in securing the charter for the merchants associated with them, as The United New Netherland Company.
The charter runs in favor of "Gerrit Jacobz Witssen (ex-burgomaster of the city of Amsterdam), Jonas Witssen, and Simon Morrisen, owners of the ship Little Fox, of which Jan DeWitt was skipper; Hans Hongers, Paulus Pelgrom, and Lambrecht van Tweenhuysen, owners of the two ships called the Tiger and the Fortune, of which Adriaen Block and Hendrick Christiaensen were skippers; Arnolt van Lybergen, Wessel Schenck, Hans Claessen, and Barent Sweertsen, owners of the ship called the Nightingale, whereof Thys Volckertsen was skipper, merchants of the city of Amsterdam; and Peter Clem-
OLD DUTCH COTTAGE IN NEW YORK, 1679
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THE NAME OF "MANHATTAN"
entsen Brouwer, John Clementsen Kies and Cornelis Volckertsen, merchants of the city of Hoorn, owners of the ship called the Fortune, whereof Cornelis Jacobsen May was skipper, all now united into one company," and reciting the publication of their general charter of the preceding March, conferred upon the company the privilege of exclusive trade for four voyages within the term of three years with "the new lands between New France and Virginia, the sea-coasts of which lie between the 40th and 45th degrees, north latitude, now named New Netherland," this being the first official designation of the country by that name.
The Indians of America, east of the Mississippi, were of two great divi- sions, but of numerous "nations" or tribes. Near the coast they were of the Algonquin stock, which was also dominant in the region of the St. Lawrence River. To this stock belonged the natives of the seaboard section including the site of the present Greater City of New York, among whom were the Indians who fought Hudson on his return from his up-river trip. To this grand division belonged all the "Wapanachki or Men of the East," the Hurons of the Canadian region, the Lenni-Lenape, west of the Hudson, and the Mohican Suvanoys and others east of it. The subtribe on the Jersey side was that of the Sanhikans, while on the east side, in a district now comprising the boroughs of Manhattan and Bronx and some adjacent territory, were the Reck- gawarvanes, a subtribe of the Lewanoys, and on Long Island were the Matou- wacks (or Montauks), and those seen by Hudson in Newark Bay were the Raritans; the two last-named being subtribes or chieftaincies of the Lenni- Lenape.
Up the river, Hudson and the later explorers found tribes of the Meng- wes, better known as the Iroquois, or Five Nations (Mohawks, Oneidas, Senecas, Cayugas and Onondagas), afterward augmented to Six Nations by admission of the Tuscaroras. They were a warlike and powerful people, with whom the tribes to the east were unable to cope.
Right here it may be well to say that the name "Manhattan" as applied to the natives of either the territory in the present city, or any others, is a misnomer. Hudson's report speaks of "that side of the river called Manna- hata." Edward Manning Ruttenber, in a chapter contributed to the excellent Memorial History of New York (edited by James Grant Wilson) discusses the derivation of the word "Manna-hata" from its Algonquin origin, and finds that its root syllables mean noble and beautiful landscape or object, or something of similar import, and thus represents an exclamation or eulogistic expression. The names, in various forms of spelling, of "Manhattans," "Manhattæ," "Manatthanes," etc., as applied to the natives of this region were of Dutch and not native origin. Yet the name persisted in spite of lin- guistic and ethnological inaccuracy and is constantly used by the earlier
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authorities, including some who have wasted much energy and ingenuity to give a philological reason for the name.
Of the various local subtribes the Montauks of Long Island were the finest physical specimens and the handsomest in their attire, as is attested by Verrazano's letter of 1524. Hudson writes of them that "many of the people came on board, some in mantles of feathers and some in skins of divers sorts of good furs ;" and the early Dutch accounts of the native people of the region are full of admiration of the virile attractiveness of the men and the beauty of the women. The men were broad-shouldered, full-chested, slender-waisted and had well-formed, symmetrical limbs, black hair and eyes, snow-white teeth, and a mild and pleasant expression. The graceful and pleasing appearance, and the modest demeanor of the women is mentioned by all the early accounts.
Both sexes of the Indians were chaste in their lives, clean in their con- versation, hospitable in their treatment of each other and of strangers and visitors. Their lives were simple and healthful, and they had few diseases. One of the Dutch writers comments on the "grossness" of their food, because he says "they drank water; having no other beverage." If they had never changed their habits in this respect they would have taken a much better place in the pages of modern history. They ate the flesh of all kinds of fish and game, baking it in hot ashes; their bread was made of Indian corn and baked in the same way. They also cultivated and used several kinds of beans, squashes and other garden products. The men were hunters, fishermen and soldiers. The women did the gardening, and made the clothing of skins, the mats, and the ornaments wherewith they arrayed themselves and the men and children of their families, displaying great skill and excellent taste in artistic adornment; while in the care of their homes they were industrious and faith- ful workers. If ever there was a suffragette agitation among these early res- idents of Manhattan, it had won its fight before the coming of the white men, for women had a full share in tribal government.
These Indians of the coast held an important economic and fiscal posi- tion, for theirs were the mint and treasury of the Indian world. In other words, they made the circulating medium, made of two kinds of shells; the white beads called "wampum" being made from the little pillars found inside the conch shells thrown up by the waves semi-annually, and the more precious black beads, called sucki, made from the purple layer inside the shell of the quahoug. The parity of this double-standard currency was long maintained at a ratio of two to one, and the Dutch and English settlers of New Nether- lands and New England having only a very small supply of European cur- rency, adopted this circulating medium, establishing an exchange value of three purple or black beads or six white beads as the equivalent of a Dutch stiver or an English penny.
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THE FIVE NATIONS AND THE HURONS
The natives lived in long narrow houses about twenty feet wide and often more than one hundred and fifty yards long, the walls formed of tall and supple hickory saplings driven into the ground at convenient intervals on both sides and arched together at the top and made fast. The sides and roof were covered with a kind of primitive lathing made fast to the poles and the whole was covered with bark. This long structure was made to accommodate many families, sometimes fourteen to eighteen. One fire in the centre served them all, a hole being left in the roof for the escape of the smoke. As to household furniture, there were no bureaus, tables, chairs, buffets, wardrobes or bedsteads; but each family had its allotted section of the house and its own mats upon which to enjoy the comforts of home. Several of these houses would be erected in some convenient opening in the woods or the side of a hill, near a stream or spring, and the village would be surrounded by a stock- ade as a defense against attack from without.
In war they used as weapons the bow and arrows, tipped with flint, or, occasionally, with copper; spears similarly tipped, stone hatchets, and war clubs; while a primitive shield of tough leather was used for protective purposes. The face was painted in many colors, and their warfare was con- ducted most vigorously.
Their government was democratic. Every man and woman had a voice in it. Each subtribe had its chief, who had a council composed of experienced warriors and aged fathers of families. The larger organization of tribes was governed in a similar manner, with a tribal chief, and counselors chosen from the chiefs of the subtribes. Above this was an organization of the nation, headed by a king or sagamore, whose counselors were selected by the coun- selors and chiefs of tribes. In case of assault or murder, the injured family had the right to judge and to punish, or could accept anything that satisfied them in settlement of the offense or grant a pardon if they decided to do so.
There was a religion which was in essence the same with all of these tribes. They believed in a God who lived beyond the stars, and a life beyond, where they would continue a life similar to that passed on this earth; but their principal concern in a supernatural way was about the Evil Spirit, who had to be appeased before any success could be secured. They had a good deal of astronomy mixed up with their religion, the various constellations having much to do with their success in life, and the stars and the moon con- trolled their destiny and ruled over their fortune.
In a general way these matters of description apply not only to the various tribes and chieftiancies whom the Dutch grouped together under the name of "the Manhattans," but also to the more warlike and aggressive Iro- quois. The Five Nations had so overawed these tribes that they willingly paid tribute rather than further contend against the Iroquois. The northern
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
branch of the Algonquin stock, the Hurons of the Canadian country, had never reached the state of subjection to the Five Nations as had the Mohic- ans, the Lenni-Lenape and their congenor tribes, but still had been worsted in many encounters; but after the coming of the French to Canada, the Hurons had made an alliance with the white men, and a few Europeans who under Champlain had marched with the Huron warriors against the Five Nations had spread sudden death and destruction by a weapon which the Iroquois had never seen, to the complete surprise and discomfiture of the hitherto victorious Five Nations.
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