USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York in the seventeenth century. Vol. I > Part 23
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Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, unorthodox and democratic, refused to buy admission to this new con- federacy at the price of annexation to Massachusetts or Plymouth; and the settlements in Maine were also excluded - somewhat turbulent places as tenacious as Rhode Island of their independence and so unaware of what was fitting that the people of one of them, Winthrop explains, had made a tailor their mayor and an excommunicated person their minister. The Rhode Island settlements, thus left out in the cold, instructed their governor to treat with the New Nether- landers to supply them with necessaries, taking their com- modities in return. Roger Williams, whom they had recently sent to England by way of Manhattan, succeeded in his errand: in 1644 he obtained for them from the Commissioners of the Long Parliament a very liberal charter.
There were now in Massachusetts about fifteen thousand people, in Plymouth Colony about three thousand; there were three thousand in Connecticut, which in 1644 bought Say- brook Fort and took Southampton on Long Island under its wing; and in New Haven Colony there were two thousand. In the Dutch province there were not more than two thousand Netherlanders.
Deep as Kieft was in his Indian war he sent a sloop to Boston with letters congratulating the new federal commissioners and asking whether they intended to indorse the unjust and inimical treatment of his people on the Fresh River. Hart-
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ford, on the other hand, complained of the New Netherlanders and so did New Haven, laying especial stress upon the exclu- sion from the Delaware River of the band of settlers it had sent there. The commissioners decided that Hartford's title to its lands was just.
In the summer of 1646 the commissioners met at New Haven. Writing in Latin Governor Kieft vigorously pro- tested against their presence in their official capacity at the place called by his people 'the Red Hills in New Netherland,' and explained that the Connecticut people
. . . some years past without any occasion given by us and without any necessity imposed upon them but with an insatiable desire of possessing that which is ours, against our protestations, against the law of nations and the ancient league between the king's Majesty and our superiors, have indirectly entered the limits of New Netherland, usurped divers places in them, and have been very injurious unto us, neither have they given satisfaction though oft required. . . .
A new protest was necessary at this time, the governor took pains to say,
. . . because you and yours have of late determined to fasten your foot near Mauritius River in this province, and there not only to dis- turb our trade (of no man hitherto questioned) and to draw it to your- selves but utterly to destroy it. . . .
In their reply, which was also in Latin, the commissioners said:
We do truly profess we know no such river nor can conceive what river you intend by that name unless it be that which the English have long and still do call Hudson's River. Nor have we at any time formerly or lately entered upon any place to which you had or have any known title, nor in any other respect been injurious to you.
While the Connecticut men showed no doubt in regard to their possessions, Governor Eaton of New Haven, who stood nearer the headquarters of the Dutch, appears not to have read his title clear, writing to Winthrop:
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A cloud nearly seems to threaten from the west. We lately built a small house within our own limits, if at least we have any interest in these parts and that the Dutch be not lords of the country, for they write this plantation in New Netherland.
Again the commissioners of the United Colonies wrote to Kieft complaining of the 'strange and insufferable boldness' of his deputy at Fort Good Hope and expressing the wish that he might now send them an answer testifying to his con- currence with them in their desire to 'pursue righteousness and peace.' What he answered was that the inhabitants of Hartford had deceived the commissioners, adding:
Certainly when we hear the inhabitants of Hartford complaining of us we seem to hear Æsop's wolf complaining of the lamb or the ad- monition of the young man who cried out to his mother chiding with her neighbors, Oh, mother, revile her lest she first take up that practice against you.
Taught by the precedent conduct of the enemies who were so much stronger than his own people, Kieft continued, he had of course expected accusations and reproaches, for 'the eagle always despiseth the beetle-fly.' Nevertheless his people would 'undauntedly continue' to assert their rights and to obey the commands of their superiors; and once more he protested in their name
. . . against all you commissioners met at the Red Hill as against breakers of the common league and also infringers of the special rights of the Lords, the States our superiors, in that ye have dared without express commission to hold your general meeting within the limits of New Netherland.
Again the federal commissioners answered lengthily, dwelling upon the 'unsufferable disorders' at Hartford and declaring:
We say no more; we have more cause to protest against your pro- testation than you have to be offended at our boldness in meeting at New Haven, and for aught we know may show as good a commission for the one as you for the other .. . ..
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Later communications show that the commissioners really wanted to induce the rivals at Hartford to live peaceably together and that Kieft promised to do his part therein; but he could not consent when New Haven proposed that the whole matter should be submitted to the arbitration of the king or the parliament of England. When the West India Company learned of these passages it ordered him to do all that he could to prevent further incursions into its territories but again forbade him to use force.
Meanwhile the Swedes had almost annihilated the traffic of the Dutch on the South River, and although Kieft sent down Andries Hudde as commissary his handful of people could make no headway against their more numerous rivals. In 1643 Sir Edmund Plowden, the proprietor of the province- on-paper called New Albion, went from Virginia to the South River to make a settlement. The Swedes turned him out. Then he came to Manhattan and laid claim to the districts now called New Jersey. Fully occupied with the Indian war Kieft ignored him, and he departed saying that he would soon try again on the South River. In 1644 some merchants of Boston wanting, like the New Haven people, to exploit the fur trade on the South River got from Governor Winthrop letters-patent and credentials to the Dutch and Swedish commanders and sent down a pinnace with goods for barter. Erelong it returned to Boston, nothing accomplished; and although the agents of the owners laid the blame for the fail- ure of the enterprise chiefly upon the drunken skipper of the pinnace, and the owners recovered damages from him, never- theless the protests of Governor Kieft and the jealousy shown by the Dutch as well as the Swedes on the river formed another count against New Netherland, long to be remembered and emphasized by the United Colonies.
Vague ideas with regard to these parts of America still prevailed in England. For example, Castell's Short Dis- covery of the Coast and Continent of America, which bears the date 1644 and is believed to contain the earliest English
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description of New Netherland that found its way into print, says that near
. . River Michicham, called the Great North River . .. the Dutch . have built a castle of great use to them not only for the keeping under of the natives adjoining but likewise for their more free trading with many of Florida who usually come down the River Canida and so by land to them; a plain proof Canida is not far remote.
A map called Carta particolare della Nuova Belgia è parte della Nuova Anglia, d'America, which was published at Florence in 1647 in Robert Dudley's Arcano del Mare, drawn by an Italian engraver named Lucini, and based chiefly on € Jacobsen's map of 1621 and through this on the Dutch Fig- urative Map of 1616, shows only the coast regions and makes Long Island, which it calls Matouacs, a group of islands and Sandy Hook a promontory half as large as Cape Cod. It puts New Amsterdam and its fort on Manhattan without naming the island, and calls River Mauritius R. Martins ó R. Hudson.
Englishmen and Swedes were not the only white men who troubled the distressed and incompetent officials on Manhattan during the war with the red men. Their brethren at Rens- selaerswyck were also as thorns in their side.
The latter part of Van Rensselaer's correspondence, which ends with the year 1643, shows that he had grown more and more discouraged about his colony. In 1641 he wrote to a member of the States General that as the Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions permitted patroons to extend their estates as far back from their waterfronts as they might choose, he wished for a commission to extend his from the North to the Fresh River where an English settlement had been set at no more than two or three days' journey from Fort Orange. The English had 'without cause' taken the Fresh River from the West India Company. Therefore, he said, referring to William Pynchon who had founded Agawam (Springfield) :
I would not hesitate to force a certain Master Pingen, an English-
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man who is nearest me, to retreat across the Fresh River . .. for if the English continue thus they will soon take possession of the whole of New Netherland as the Company does little to come to a determina- tion of the boundary, which is generally, it is true, a rather trouble- some question.
Other letters show that Van Rensselaer planned to divert 'a large part of the furs of the savages who now trade with the French in Canada' and that his agents were actually trad- ing with Virginia. But in 1642 he wrote to Governor Kieft that while he could find at least a hundred persons who wanted to go out to his colony as 'masters' he could not find 'servants, for they must work' - that is, farm-hands who were not to work on their own account as in part the master farmers did. The Company, he complained, was exacting higher freight charges and duties than the Charter of Freedoms of 1640 prescribed, and, as he heard, he was in debt to it in New Netherland, chiefly for supplies of wine:
Can it be that Fort Orange is a wine cellar to debauch my people, exhausting them as long as they can find something to pay and after- wards charging it to my account ?
Writing a year later to Adriaen Van der Donck, whom he had sent out in 1641 as 'chief officer' or schout of Rensse- laerswyck, he lamented the bad conduct of his people who were discontented, impertinent, threatening, and 'slanderous' about the prices charged for merchandise, so that
. . . whereas I have been inclined to have a large number of people in my colony I am become disgusted with it, seeing that the greater the amount the worse the bargain, and the better I regulate every- thing the more everyone looks out for himself, from which disorder proceeds.
The patroon had indeed tried to regulate things with the most scrupulous pains, carefully choosing his agents, so dis- tributing their duties as to distinguish, 'as in all well regu- lated governments,' between those who had charge of govern-
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ment, of justice, and of commerce, and prescribing how they should assist yet not interfere with each other. But while his people evidently wanted to regulate themselves his officials disregarded his instructions and thought, he said, too much of their own benefit. Although Van der Donck had shown 'zeal and diligence' he had tried to secure lands for himself at a place remote from the one where Van Rensselaer had 'intended and instructed' him to settle and had assumed too much power. Young Arendt Van Corlaer, not understanding his business, did not rightly manage the patroon's affairs with the Company - the exchange of grain for goods and freight charges - or send him proper reports. Answering these reproaches Van Corlaer wrote the patroon that Kieft reckoned freights and charges too high, ' contrary to the granted freedoms,' and that the farmers delivered their grain directly to the Company, transgressed the order not to traffic with the savages, and would not or could not render proper accounts, while some other persons who were writing to the patroon lied 'like rogues.' Many of his troubles sprang from Van der Donck's opposition or interference. Yet he wanted to re- main permanently in the country and had betrothed himself to the widow of 'M. Jonas Bronck.' On the whole, paternal government of the patroon's kind, although more conscien- tious, intelligent, and liberal than the Company's kind, was not succeeding much better.
Kieft was attending to much business for Van Rensselaer and seemingly was more indulgent than Crol and Van Twiller had been about the removal of live stock from Manhattan. In 1642 the patroon wrote him that as he had heard he was a lover of fine horses he was sending him a saddle, a rapier plated with gold and silver, an embroidered baldric, plated spurs, and boots with spur-straps. There were three reasons, Kieft replied, why he wished these gifts had not been sent: he was already 'pretty well provided with everything,' he expected to be called home in the ensuing summer, and it was against his oath of office to accept presents. Therefore he thanked the patroon heartily on behalf of the West India
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Company 'as whose effects' the articles had been 'entered on the books.'
The governor's quarrels with the patroon's people in New Netherland were not only about freights and duties. Dis- putes about jurisdiction, which had begun with the planting of Rensselaerswyck, were now aggravated by the fact that a village called Beverwyck, inhabited by the patroon's people and containing his trading post, was growing up so closely around Fort Orange that the Company's officials felt obliged to claim the ground upon which it stood although they had never bought it of the Indians. Here was built the first house of worship for Domine Megapolensis and his flock.
The patroon's people had kept peace with the Mohawks and Mohegans by selling them firearms, but their trade of other kinds was ruined by the ruin of New Amsterdam, their only point of contact with the outer world. The wandering 'free traders' from Holland seized the chance to traffic illegally with the savages and encouraged the colonists to do the same. The patroon's agents blamed Kieft for permitting them to come up the river, and the patroon sent out instructions how to prevent such intrusions, commissioning one Nicholas Coorn to establish staple-right for Rensselaerswyck as the West India Company had done for Manhattan and, to enforce this claim as well as to provide a place of refuge in case of Indian outbreaks, ordering him to fortify Beeren Island which lay in the river 'at the entrance of the colony.' Tools for this purpose, guns, ammunition, and some small cannon the pa- troon sent out. The name of the island, he said, should be changed to Rensselaersteyn. He was entitled to order all this, he explained, as the Charter of Freedoms and Exemp- tions gave authority over the river to the first colony that should be established there. Actually the orders were illegal, for the Charter of Freedoms of 1640 secured to all inhabitants of the province free right of way by land and water. More- over, Beeren Island lay south of the borders of the patroon- ship.
In 1644 Coorn carried out his orders. Building a small
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fort he tried to collect tolls from all vessels except those of the West India Company, ordered all others to strike their flags as they passed by, and fired upon one belonging to Govert Lockermans which refused to do so. Governor Kieft pro- tested and condemned Coorn to pay damages. Coorn an- swered with a counter protest. Fort Orange was indeed, if he may be believed, a wine-shop to 'debauch' Van Rens- selaer's people, drink being sold them there at exorbitant prices for furs which they were forbidden to collect and for wheat which they purloined from their 'lord.' Naturally Kieft's confiscation of the ship bound for Rensselaerswyck which he found to be carrying contraband wares deepened the hard feeling between the two groups of colonists.
Nevertheless, the existence of the patroonship, and even the practice of selling arms to the Indians against the Com- pany's orders, had been of great service to the province at large and thus to the Company itself. Nefarious in theory and in many of its results although the traffic in firearms was, it was the only thing that could have kept the Mohegans and the fierce Mohawks so quiet and so friendly that in 1644, when the lower part of New Netherland was running with blood, Domine Megapolensis wrote:
These Indians, though they live without laws or fear of punishment, do not kill unless they are in great passion or fighting, wherefore we go along with them or meet them in the woods without fear.
It was the friendship of the Mohawks that saved the prov- ince from being overwhelmed by the River Indians. And to refuse them guns and powder would not only have turned them into enemies but would have driven them to beg arms from the English on the Connecticut River who were beginning to come into contact with them and, as the Dutchmen very well knew, would try to win them from their old ties.
Although in 1645 the prospects of the West India Company were bad in New Netherland they were worse in Brazil where
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its chief executive, Count John Maurice of Nassau, refused to remain at his post and the Portuguese, now in open revolt, were trying to drive out the Dutch. Discouragement in this quarter increased the relative importance of the North Amer- ican province. The directors saw the need to take such action upon the complaints of New Amsterdam and the recommenda- tions of their own board of accounts as might set New Nether- land once more on the road to prosperity. Deciding to ad- minister it in future through a 'supreme council' of three high officials - a director-general, a vice-director, and a schout- fiscal - they recalled Governor Kieft and appointed in his stead, not Lubbertus Van Dincklagen as the board of accounts had advised, but General Petrus Stuyvesant who had sent New Amsterdam the reinforcements from Curaçoa. Van Dincklagen they consoled with the new office of vice-director or deputy-governor, and as schout-fiscal to replace Van der Huyckens they selected Ensign Van Dyck who had returned to Holland and, undoubtedly, had given convincing evidence against Kieft and his friends. To the Memorials of the Eight Men they returned no direct reply. But that they had in some degree profited by the advice received in the shape of prayer or demand appears from the instructions prepared for the new council by the Assembly of the XIX.
Fort Amsterdam, it was ordered, should be repaired, a permanent garrison maintained, and the militia supplied with weapons. The councillors were to pacify and to satisfy the Indians, absolutely forbidding the sale of arms to them. They were to grant lands to settlers, 'first of all' establishing 'colo- nies and freemen' on the island of Manhattan, and were to do all in their power to induce the farmers to gather in com- pact villages, to prevent further encroachments by the Eng- lish, and to settle definite boundary lines. In all criminal cases two capable members of the community where the crime occurred were to sit with the governor's court. The right of the various 'colonies' in the province to send delegates to assist the council was confirmed although not made obliga- tory as the board of accounts had advised. Moreover, as the
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Company had now resolved 'to open to all private persons' the trade which it had 'exclusively carried on with New Netherland,' it empowered its respective chambers to give permission to 'all private inhabitants of these countries to sail with their own ships' to its own province, the Virginias, the Swedish, English, and French colonies, and all other places 'situate thereabout' in accordance with certain definite regulations regarding 'duties, tolls, and other rights already imposed and to be hereafter imposed' upon exported and im- ported goods - regulations which still carefully emphasized the staple-right of Manhattan.
Stuyvesant's commission was given in May, 1645. The instructions were first drawn up in July but were reconsidered in September when Stuyvesant submitted a memorial regard- ing the better government of the Company's colonies based, of course, upon his own experience at Curaçoa. It was then decided that the island colonies should be joined to New Netherland. Much disputing about questions of trade and of responsibility among the different chambers of the Com- pany so prolonged the delay that not until the spring of the year 1647 did the new governor appear in his province. The acting governor and his people utilized the interval to quarrel even more violently than before.
Knowing that he was to be superseded, Kieft was more anxious than ever to assert and to enrich himself, and his people were more eager than ever to oppose and to flout him. Naturally their condition did not improve as rapidly as it should have done after the fear of the Indians was lifted from their minds. Farming lands were again taken up beyond the East River and the North River but trade, depending almost altogether on the beavers obtained from the savages, was at a standstill; the church on Manhattan remained unfinished; and the governor's court was very busy although with many more prosecutions for debt or slander than for theft or darker crimes.
The most prominent of the English residents fell out with each other at this time, John Underhill bringing suit against
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Isaac Allerton who, he averred, had told him that he would get higher pay from the commonalty than from the West India Company. Allerton denied the charge and Underhill was compelled to promise in court, for himself and his heirs, 'nevermore to speak to or trouble' the defendant on the sub- ject.
A more flagrant offender was Adam Roelantsen the former schoolmaster. He had come down in the world: at one time he earned his living by washing - that is, most probably, by superintending the great semi-annual or quarterly bleach- eries of the Dutch housewives. Often he was prosecuted for slander and in 1646, convicted of loose conduct, he was sen- tenced to be publicly flogged and banished but was reprieved until a future time because he had four motherless children and the cold weather was approaching. He seems to have ended his career as a wood-sawyer and general drudge in the employ of the West India Company.
With most of the respectable men of the community the governor was on bad terms, persecuting them or disputing with them in one fashion or another, notably with the Rev- erend Mr. Doughty, with Arnoldus Van Hardenbergh, and with Cornelis Melyn and Jochem Pietersen Kuyter who loudly blamed him for the destruction of their bouweries. His arch-enemy was Domine Bogardus whom at last he deter- mined to prosecute, declaring that in former years the minister had behaved toward Governor Van Twiller in a manner 'un- becoming heathens, let alone Christians, much less a preacher of the gospel,' saying that he still indulged in the same sort of 'scattering abuse' and did not even spare his own wife when he was 'in good company and jolly,' reproaching him particularly for his support of the would-be assassin Maryn Adriaensen, and complaining in general that his conduct was . stirring up the people to 'mutiny and rebellion' and making their governor a 'scorn and laughing stock' to their neighbors.
The pamphlet called the Breeden Raedt says on the other hand, doubtless with over-emphasis, that Kieft had only 'ravens' religion, who rob whatever falls in their way'; he VOL. I. - S
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gave himself 'no concern about God or man'; to spite Bogar- dus he encouraged his soldiers to beat the drum and to perform noisy games near the church during service hours; his 'illegal administration of justice' was as patent as his impiety, and he was accused of appropriating public money to his pri- vate uses - even the fund that the people had collected for a schoolhouse. Moreover, Van der Huyckens the schout-fiscal, Councillor La Montagne, Secretary Van Tienhoven, and Deacon Oloff Stevensen who was one of the Eight Men were as godless as the governor, never attending divine service or taking the Lord's Supper. The quarrel between the governor and the minister was finally patched up by their friends, but to the end Kieft seems to have preserved the offensively auto- cratic attitude in which La Montagne sustained him while Van der Huyckens worked with him to harass and oppress all who would not bend to his will.
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