USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York, from its earliest settlement to the present time > Part 8
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56
Kieft began to repent bitterly of his rashness. He dispatched a messenger with overtures of peace to the Long Island Indians, which were rejected with scorn. A fast was proclaimed throughout the colony. At this time, Roger Williams visited Manhattan on his way to Europe. " Before we weighed anchor," he writes, "mine eyes " saw the flames of their towns, the frights and hurries of " men, women and children, and the present removal of " all that could to Holland." Maddened by their misfor- tunes, the excited colonists threw all the blame on Kieft, and even talked of deposing him and sending him in chains to Holland. To shield himself from their re-
116
HISTORY OF THE
proaches, the director endeavored to throw the odium upon Adriaensen and his colleagues, as the instigators of the Pavonia massacre. Enraged at this cowardice, Adri- aensen, himself almost a ruined man by the destruction of his property during the war, rushed into the presence of the governor, armed with a pistol and hanger, and attempted his life. He was quickly disarmed and sent to prison, whence, despite the open resistance of his friends, he was soon afterwards sent to Holland for trial.
Meanwhile, the spring had come, and the Indians were anxious for a cessation of hostilities that they might plant their corn for the coming season. On the 4th of March, 1643, three red men approached the fort, bearing a white flag, but none but De Vries and Jacob Olfertsen dared go forth to meet them. "Come and speak to our chief " on the sea-coast," said they. De Vries and his com- panion fearlessly accompanied their savage guides, who led them to Rockaway, where they found nearly three hundred Indians assembled. They passed the night in the wigwam of the chief.
At daybreak, the next morning, they were roused to attend a council of the sachems. The Indians ranged themselves in a circle, placing De Vries and his com- panion in the middle, and their chosen orator of the tribe arose with a bundle of sticks in his hand, and slowly ad- dressed the strangers : "When you first came to our " coasts," said he, "you had no food ; we gave you our " beans and corn, and relieved you with our oysters and " fish ; and now, for recompense, you murder our peo- " ple," and he laid down a stick as the first count of the
117
CITY OF NEW YORK.
indictment. "In the beginning of your voyages, you " left your people here with your goods ; we traded with " them while your ships were away, and cherished them " as the apple of your eye ; we gave them our daughters " for companions, who have borne children ; and now you " villainously massacre your own blood," and he laid down another stick as the second count. Many more still remained in his hand, but De Vries, not knowing where the fearful catalogue would end, hastily inter- rupting him, begged the sachems to go with him to Fort Amsterdam, and conclude a peace with the director, to which they consented, despite the remonstrances of their tribes. "Are you all crazy," said the warriors, indig- nantly, " to go to the fort where that scoundrel lives who " has murdered your friends ?" But De Vries assuring them of safety, they said, " Upon your word, we will go, "'for you have never lied to us, like the rest of the " Swannekens." They went, and Kieft gladly con- cluded a treaty with them, and sent them away, loaded with presents, entreating their mediation with the river Indians.
With some difficulty, a truce was soon after concluded with these ; yet it was but a hollow truce. The natives were still smarting beneath a sense of their wrongs ; they grumbled at the insufficiency of their presents, and mut- tered words of ominous meaning, while the whites were distrustful of their terrible neighbors, and lived in con- stant fear of midnight assault, so that the peace was even more' fearful than the war. "; Our people are con- " tinually crying for vengeance ; we can pacify our "young men no longer," said a friendly sachem sadly at
118
HISTORY OF THE
midsummer, as he warned De Vries in behalf of his countrymen against venturing alone in the woods, lest some stranger Indian might kill their favorite.
The words of the sachem were soon fulfilled. In August, the war broke out anew. Several trading-boats were attacked on the North River, nine men were killed, and a woman and two children carried away into cap- tivity. In this emergency, Kieft again summoned the people together, and eight men were chosen by the popular voice to advise with the governor in respect to the war. This second representative body consisted of Jochem Pietersen Kuyter, Jan Jansen Damen, Barent Dircksen, Abraham Pietersen, Isaac Allerton, Thomas Hall, Gerrit Wolfertsen, and Cornelis Melyn. Their first act was to expel from the board Jan Jansen Damen, who had been one of the prime instigators of the massacre of Pavonia, and to appoint Jan Evertsen Bout in his stead, after which they resolved to preserve peace with the Long Island Indians, but to renew hostilities with the river tribes.
Preparations were immediately made to carry on the war with renewed energy. The colonists were mustered and drilled, and to prevent the English colonists from leaving the province, fifty were taken into the Company's pay, the commonalty having agreed to meet one-third of the expense. The command of this detachment was intrusted to Captain John Underhill, who had lately removed from New Amsterdam to Stamford.
The colony seemed, indeed, in a hopeless condition. One after another of the outside settlements fell a prey to the fury of the savages. The Weckquaesgeek Indians,
119
CITY OF NEW YORK.
joining in the strife, fell on the plantation of the cele- brated Anne Hutchinson, at Annie's Hook, and murdered her with her whole family, with the exception of one grand-daughter, a child, whom they carried into captivity. Proceeding thence, they laid waste the other plantations in West Chester, killing, burning, and destroying all be- fore them. At Gravesend, they attacked the settlement of Lady Deborah Moody, who, having been expelled from Salem as an Anabaptist, had established herself there by Kieft's permission, with others of her persuasion. The heroic woman, with her friends, made a brave de- fence, and finally repulsed the savage invaders. Not equally fortunate was the larger settlement of Doughty, at Mespath, which was destroyed, while the colonists were forced to flee for safety to Manhattan. The settle- ments on New Jersey fell a prey to the Indians, and little remained to the Dutch save the little colony at Manhattan. Five or six farmhouses were still standing on the upper part of the island, but these were hourly threatened with destruction. The only place of safety was the fort, around which the women and children huddled in straw huts, while their husbands and fathers defended its walls. And these defenders were but few ; all the men that could be mustered were about two hundred, besides fifty or sixty soldiers in garrison, and a handful of Englishmen; and with these, it was necessary to keep a constant guard, and to re- pel the attacks of seven tribes, numbering fifteen hundred well-armed men. The cattle had been gathered into the fort, where they were starving for want of food. De Vries, the only white man in whom the Indians had confidence, set sail for Holland, a ruined man, reproaching Kieft in
120
HISTORY OF THE
his last words, with the ruin that had resulted from his reckless cruelty.
In this extremity, the council of Eight Men invoked the aid of the colonists at New Haven, but their request was unheeded. The English professed to doubt the jus- tice of the quarrel ; it may be, too, that they were well satisfied that the Indians should do the work they wished done, and exterminate the Dutch from the face of the New World. Foiled in this quarter, the Eight Men addressed an earnest appeal to the government at Hol- land, and set about organizing a desperate defence. Expeditions were dispatched against the Indian villages ; their corn was destroyed, and their wigwams levelled to the ground. But here, instead of simply acting on the defensive, they darkened the story of the war with another act of bloody cruelty.
In the beginning of the year 1644, a colony of English emigrants, headed by Robert Fordham, had settled at Heemstede on Long Island, after securing a grant of land from the Dutch government. Penhawitz, the sachem of the Canarsee tribe in the vicinity, had ever shown himself a firm friend of the whites ; but in this time of general distrust, the English suspected him of treacherous designs, and conveyed information of their suspicions to the governor at Fort Amsterdam. With- out waiting to ascertain the truth of the charge, Kieft at once dispatched a detachment of a hundred and twenty men under the command of La Montagne, Cook and Underhill with orders to exterminate the Canarsees. The party proceeded in three yachts to Cow Bay, where they landed, and dividing their forces, marched upon
121
CITY OF NEW YORK.
the two Indian villages at Mespath and Heemstede. The Indians, taken by surprise, fell an easy prey to their enemies. One hundred and twenty were killed and two taken prisoners, while of the assailants but one was killed and three wounded. The prisoners were conveyed in triumph to Fort Amsterdam, where they were put to death with the most excruciating tortures. The one fell dead in the fort while dancing the death dance beneath the knives of his more than savage victors ; the other was beheaded on a millstone in Beaver Lane, near the Battery.
Encouraged by this bloody success, the governor dis- patched Underhill with a hundred and fifty men on a new expedition against the Connecticut Indians. He landed at Greenwich, and, after marching all day in the snow, arrived at midnight at the Indian village. This consisted of three rows of wigwams, nestling in a nook of the mountain which protected them from the north winds. The night was clear, and the full moon, shining on the snow, gave it all the brightness of a winter's day. This time, the Indians were not sleeping, but were merrily celebrating one of their annual festivals. In the midst of their festivity, the Dutch surrounded the village, and charged upon them, sword in hand. The Indians made a desperate resistance, but in vain ; every attempt to break the line of their foes failed, and in an hour, the snow was dyed with the blood of a hundred and eighty of their number. Having forced all the Indians into the wigwams, Underhill determined to terminate the battle by setting fire to the village. Straw and wood were quickly heaped about the houses, the pile was kindled, and in a few moments, the whole village was in flames.
.1.22
HISTORY OF THE
Men, women and children were shot down as they rushed from the burning huts, or forced back again to perish there. Between five and six hundred perished by fire and sword, and but eight escaped to tell the fearful tale to their countrymen. Not a single man of the assailants was killed, though fifteen were wounded. The victors kindled large fires and slept on the field of battle. The next morning, they set out for Fort Amsterdam, which they entered in triumph, three days after. They were received with open arms, and a public thanksgiving was proclaimed in gratitude for the victory. This battle is supposed to have taken place on Strickland's Plain, within three miles of Greenwich.
This victory practically terminated the war-a war which began and ended in massacre, which very nearly destroyed the youthful colony, and which was carried on by the governor against the wishes of the people. In April, 1644, the chiefs of the Long Island and several of the river tribes, appeared at the fort and pledged them- selves to peace. But the tribes nearest Manhattan Island continued hostile until the following year, when the Mohawks interposed in favor of the Dutch. On the 30th of August, 1645, the sachems of all the hostile tribes assembled on the Bowling Green, and, smoking the calumet of peace, pledged themselves to eternal friendship with the whites. The 6th of September was appointed as a day of general thanksgiving, and the war was at an end.
And it was time. The war had lasted but two years, yet the island was almost depopulated. Scarcely a hun- dred men were left in Manhattan. The cattle and farms
123
CITY OF NEW YORK.
were all destroyed, and the neighboring settlements levelled to the ground. The fort, which had originally been nothing more than a bank of earth with corners of stone, was crumbling into ruins. The stone church which had been commenced in 1642 remained unfinished, the money that had been raised for the support of a school had been expended for the troops, and the English auxiliaries were yet unpaid. Other expenses, too, had been incurred in providing for the safety of the city. In the spring of 1644, a strong fence had been built through Wall street, for the protection of the few cattle that yet remained to the settlers ; and this fence, which was afterwards extended and strengthened, continued to serve as the wall of the city for the ensuing fifty years, and gave its name to the street which stands now as the monetary wall of the metropolis. The Company, crippled by the expenses of their military operations in the Brazils, were utterly powerless to render them any assis- tance, and a bill which Kieft had drawn on them the preceding summer for 2,622 guilders was returned pro- tested. To meet this emergency, Kieft again convened the assembly of the Eight Men, and proposed to levy an excise on wine, beer, brandy and beaver. This was bit- terly opposed by the representatives of the people, both on account of the impoverished state of the city, and because it transcended his rights as a subordinate officer of the Company. Their remonstrances were of no avail ; the tax was imposed by the unyielding director.
Just at this juncture, a hundred and three Dutch sol- diers who had been expelled from Brazil by the Portu- guese insurrection, arrived at Manhattan. These had
124
HISTORY OF THE
been sent by Petrus Stuyvesant, the governor of Curaçoa, to aid the colonists in the war with the Indians. On the arrival of these troops, the English auxiliaries were civilly dismissed, and the new comers were billeted on the citizens. But they were destitute of clothing, and to meet this exigency, the director ordered that the excise duties, which had been provisionally imposed, should be continued. The brewers, upon whom this tax fell most heavily, made a sturdy resistance. They were sum- moned before the council, a judgment was rendered against them, and their beer was given as a prize to the soldiers.
Indignant at this bold violation of their rights, on the 28th of October, the council of the Eight Men addressed a memorial to the Company, demanding the recall of Kieft, whom they charged with the whole blame of the war, and petitioning that the people might be allowed a voice in the municipal government. This document re- flected severely on Kieft, who had already sent to the directors his own version of the war, together with a book and drawings, descriptive of the province. This, they quaintly assured the Company, had as many lies as lines in it. " And besides," they continued, " in " respect to the animals and geography of New Neth- " erland, it would be well to inquire how the director- " general can write so aptly about those distances and " habits, since his honor, during the six or seven years " that he has been here, has constantly resided on the " Manhattans, and has never been further from his " kitchen and his bedroom than the middle of the afore- " said island." This memorial was referred to the
125
CITY OF NEW YORK.
Assembly of Nineteen, who at once determined upon Kieft's recall. Being undecided as to a successor, Lubbertus Van Dincklagen, the schout fiscal who had been so unceremoniously dismissed eight years before by Van Twiller, was appointed to take charge of the gov- ernment provisionally. Before he had embarked, how- ever, to repair to his new post, the Company made choice of Petrus Stuyvesant, the ex-governor of Curaçoa, for director-general. Van Dincklagen's appointment was therefore revoked, and that of vice-director or first coun- cillor of the province given him instead.
This done, new regulations were made for the govern- ment of the province. Peace with the Indians was strenuously insisted on, and Kieft and his council were required to repair to Holland to defend their conduct in the late war. The annual salary of the director was fixed at three thousand, and the expense of the civil and military establishment of the province at twenty thousand guilders. The director, vice-director and schout were to constitute the council, and to have supreme authority in civil and military affairs ; in criminal cases, in which the schout was compelled to act as public prosecutor, the military commandant took his place in the council, and two representatives were added from the people. Fort Amsterdam was immediately to be repaired with " good clay, and firm sods," and a permanent garrison of fifty-three men to be maintained in it ; and the colonists were counselled to provide themselves with weapons and to form a provincial militia. The director was ordered to use every effort to procure the planting and settlement of the island of Manhattan, and to encourage the intro-
126
HISTORY OF THE
duction of as many negroes as the colonists would pur- chase at a fair price. All restrictions were removed from trade, with the sole proviso that New Amsterdam should remain the only port of entry.
But we have anticipated events in the course of our history. The first act of Kieft after the close of the In- dian war was to purchase, in behalf of the Company, the tract of land on Long Island now known as New Utrecht. This purchase was made on the 10th of September, 1641. The following month, Thomas Harrington, with several other Englishmen, Anabaptist refugees from Massa- chusetts, obtained a patent for sixteen thousand acres of land, lying east of Mespath, and founded the settle- ment of Flushing. Soon after, Kieft gave to Lady Moody, her son, and two English officers, a patent including the town of Gravesend, with the most liberal civil and religious privileges, as a tribute of admiration for her gallant defence against her savage assailants.
Not equally fortunate was Thomas Doughty, the Ana- baptist minister and ex-proprietor of Mespath, whose settlement had been destroyed during the Indian war. A dispute having arisen between him and his associates, the director and council decided the case against him and took the control of the colony out of his hands ; and upon his threatening to appeal to the court of Holland, fined him twenty-five guilders, and imprisoned him twenty- four hours for contumacy. Soon after, Arnoldus Van Hardenburg, a merchant of New Amsterdam, appealed in the like manner from a decree of confiscation, and was subjected to the same penalty. This refusal of the right of appeal excited the indignation of the people, who
127
CITY OF NEW YORK.
murmured at the despotic conduct of the director, and declared that "under a king they could not be worse " treated." The rumor of his speedy recall reached the colony, and emboldened them in their rebellion. Domine Bogardus, whom Kieft had accused of drunkenness, joined in the cry, and denounced him from the pulpit in no measured terms. To this, Kieft retorted by absent- ing himself from church, and ordering cannon to be fired and drums to be beaten about the house during the sermon-time to annoy the domine. Nothing daunted, the intrepid clergyman continued his anathemas, and Kieft at length arraigned him to appear before the court within fourteen days to answer to a charge of sedition ; but after considerable wrangling, the proceedings were finally quashed by the interference of mutual friends.
On the 11th of May, 1647, these domestic dissensions were ended by the arrival of Petrus Stuyvesant, the newly appointed director, Vice-director Van Dinckla- gen, Fiscal Van Dyck, and a number of officers, sol- diers and colonists. The whole city turned out in arms to meet him, firing salutes, and uttering shouts of joy, mingled with deep execrations of the late director. "I shall govern you as a father does his children," answered Stuyvesant, in return to this spontaneous welcome.
Petrus Stuyvesant, a native of Friesland, had formerly been director of the Company's colony at Curaçoa, whence, having lost a leg in an attack on the Portuguese settlement at Saint Martin's, he had been obliged to return to Europe for surgical aid. Having regained his health, and replaced his leg by a wooden one with silver bands, which gave rise to the tradition that he
-
128
HISTORY OF THE
Petrus Stuyvesant, the last of the Dutch Governors.
wore a silver leg, he received the appointment of director- general of the province of New Netherland, still retain- ing his command of Curaçoa and the adjacent islands. He was brave and energetic, and the man of all others best calculated to retrieve the fallen fortunes of the colony. But he was also haughty, imperious, and impa-
CITY OF NEW YORK. 129
tient of contradiction, and his despotic love of power soon weakened the affection with which the citizens greeted him on his first arrival. But, with all his faults, he was the man for the times, and his firm and vigorous rule contrasts well with the ill-judged and capricious conduct of his predecessor. Though sworn by the duties of his office to execute the commands of the West India Company, he was at heart attached to the interests of the people, with whom he identified himself after the forced surrender of the city, by taking up his residence among them as a private citizen, the ancestor of a long line of prominent men, which has reached down even unto the present day.
Seal of Petrus Stuyvesant.
Stuyvesant set vigorously to work to reform abuses. His first act was to organize his council, which consisted of Van Dincklagen, Van Dyck, Adriaen Keyser and Bryan Newton, with La Montagne as councillor and Van Tien- hoven as secretary. Paulus Van der Grist was appointed equipage-master, and George Baxter was retained as English secretary. This done, he set about the work of regulating the streets and improving the city. Van
9
130
HISTORY OF THE
Dincklagen, Van der Grist and Van Tienhoven were ap- pointed fence-viewers to regulate the erection of new buildings ; proprietors of vacant lots were directed to improve them within nine months, and hog-pens and out-houses were ordered to be removed from the high- ways. The church still remained unfinished, and Stuyve- sant, who had become a member of the Consistory, took the work of its completion into his own hands. Bogar-
dus resigned his charge in order to proceed to Holland to answer the charges preferred against him by Van Dincklagen, and Johannes Backerus, the former clergy- man of Curaçoa, was appointed in his place at a salary of fourteen hundred guilders per annum. Drunkenness and profanity were strictly forbidden, no liquors were permitted to be sold to the Indians, and strict laws were passed for the protection of the revenue. The ob- noxious duties upon beer, brandy and beaver were not removed ; far from this, a new excise was levied upon wines and other liquors, and the export duties upon pel- tries were still further increased. This proceeding excited some discontent among the people, who had looked to the coming of the new director to remove this hateful duty.
Another cause of disaffection soon arose in the colony. Kuyter and Melyn, the leading members of the council of Eight Men, petitioned that the administration of Kieft during the period of the Indian war might be made the subject of inquiry. The petition was rejected by the director, who saw in it a dangerous precedent for the assumption of power by the people ; and the petitioners were ordered in turn to be examined as to the origin of the Indian war, and to state whether their demand had
131
CITY OF NEW YORK.
been authorized by the government or the commonalty ; as, otherwise, they must return to Holland with Kieft, to substantiate their complaints before the States General. Emboldened by this decision, Kieft accused them of be- ing the authors of a calumnious memorial to the Assem- bly of Nineteen, and, on this ground, demanded their banishment. The accusation was accepted, and an in- dictment preferred, charging Melyn and Kuyter with having fraudulently procured the signatures of the Eight Men to the calumnious memorial of the 28th of October, 1644, unauthorized by the commonalty. In addition to this, Melyn was accused of rebellious conduct, while Kuyter was charged with urging the mortgage of Man- hattan to the English, and threatening Kieft with per- sonal violence.
Both Melyn and Kuyter defended themselves vigor- ously against these accusations. They declared that the memorial had been written by the authority of the Eight Men, and in the name of the commonalty ; that the charges in it could be fully substantiated ; and that the destruction of fifty or sixty bouweries and the murder of numerous colonists furnished ample cause for its trans- mission. Melyn confessed that he had proposed that the island of Manhattan should be pledged to the English as a measure of necessity. But their defence availed them little ; Stuyvesant and his council, fearing the encroach- ments of the people, espoused the cause of Kieft, and Melyn was sentenced to seven years' banishment, and to pay a fine of three hundred and fifty guilders ; while Kuyter was sentenced to three years' banishment, and to pay a fine of one hundred and fifty guilders ; one-third
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.