USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York : its origin, rise, and progress. Vol. I > Part 10
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In July, Ulrich Lupold was removed from the post of sheriff to that of commissary of wares, and Cornelis Van der Huygens was appointed in his place. Jacob Van Corlear and David Provoost were made inspectors of tobacco, and Oloff Stevensen Van Cortlandt was appointed commis- sary of the shop. This latter personage came out in the same vessel with Kieft from Holland, as a sol- dier in the service of the company, and this was his first promotion. He was a lineal descend- ant of the Dukes of Courland in Rus- sia. His ancestors, when deprived of the duchy of Cour- land, emigrated to Holland. The
Van Cortlandt Manor-House.
family name was
Stevens, or Stevensen, van (from) Courland, and they adopted the latter as a surname, the true orthography in Dutch being Kortelandt, signify- ing short-land.1
Michel Evertsen was clerk of the customs, -the first record in New Netherland of an honorable Dutch name, which has been handed down to many highly respected families in the State of New York and elsewhere. Gerrit Schult and Hans Kiersted were regularly bred sur- geons, sent out from Holland by the West India Company. The latter married Sarah, the eldest daughter of Dr. La Montagne. Gysbert Op Dyck was sent as commissary to Fort Good Hope.
1 The above statements are founded upon Burke's History of the English Commoners, The Heraldic Bearings and Family Tradition. "Let those who would disparage the origin of this noble family go to work and disprove what has long ago been asserted of them." - Rev. Robert Bolton to the Author, November 11, 1872.
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ENGLISH AMBITION.
The state of morals in New Amsterdam was by no means healthy, owing to the great variety of persons who were coming into the town ; and prosecutions and punishments for dishonesty and public executions for murder and mutiny were not infrequent. The governor was con- tinually on the alert, but, from his irritable nature, commanded no re- spect, and was obliged to enforce obedience. Assuming sovereignty and refusing counsel, he soon committed an act of the greatest indis- cretion. He levied a tribute of " maize furs or sewan " upon the Indians, under the plea that on their account the company was Sept. 15. burdened with the heavy expenses of fortifications and garrisons. In case they refused to pay it, he threatened to compel them to do so.1 The disastrous consequences, we shall soon have occasion to relate.
In the mean time, the indomitable New-Englanders had been pushing westward, and had established themselves at a place which the Dutch called Roodeberg, or Red Hill, but to which the English gave the name of New Haven ; and so rapidly had the settlement filled up, that they had already a handsome church built, and more than three hundred houses. They had bought large tracts around them and planted numer- ous smaller towns. Captain De Vries went on a voyage of observation up the Connecticut River, during the summer of 1639, and was agree- ably entertained by the English governor at Hartford, which was quite a thriving place, with a church and a hundred or more houses. Captain De Vries was very frank with his English host, and told him that it was not right to take lands which the West India Company had bought and paid for. The reply was, that those lands were uncultivated, and no effort made to improve them, and it seemed a sin to let such valuable property go to waste, when fine crops could be raised with a little care. De Vries noticed that the English lived there, to quote his exact words, " very soberly." "They only drank three times at a meal, and those who got tipsy were whipped on a pole, as thieves were in Holland "; and their whole government was rigorous in the extreme.
The Dutch held their one small foothold near by ; but it was of very little use to them, for the English openly denied even their right to the ground about the redoubt. From words it came to blows, and Evert Duyckingck, one of the garrison of fourteen men, was cudgeled while sowing grain in the spring of 1640. Disgusted with the command of a post without adequate force to protect it from insult, Op Dyck resigned his office, and Jan Hendricksen Roesen succeeded him.
With a boldness fostered by the consciousness of superior numbers, smart little towns were started all along the Connecticut River to its
1 The Amsterdam Chamber denied any knowledge of this measure.
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
mouth, where a strong fort was in existence, and where Saybrook, under the command of Colonel Fenwick, who had just arrived from England, accompanied by his beautiful wife, the Lady Alice, had become quite a flourishing settlement. On the borders of the Sound, De Vries saw also other evidences of English enterprise. At the mouth of the Housatonic the village of Stratford already contained more than fifty houses. Men, like stray bees, were beginning to build at Norwalk and Stamford, and even at Greenwich two houses were erected. One of these was occupied by Captain Daniel Patrick, who had been an officer in the Pequod war, and had had ample opportunity for inspecting the country, and who had married a Dutch lady at the Hague. The other was occupied by Robert Feake, whose wife was the daughter-in-law of Governor Winthrop,1 and who afterward purchased a title to the whole region, and held it for two years in defiance of Dutch authority.
Returning to his plantation on Staten Island, De Vries found it lan- guishing for want of proper colonists, because his partner in Holland had not fulfilled his agreement to send them. He spent a few days there and then visited New Amsterdam, where two vessels had just arrived, one of which belonged to the company ; the other was a private ship, laden with cattle, and belonged to Captain Jochem Pietersen Kuyter.
1640. Later in the season, De Vries found a better situation, about six Feb. 10. miles above the fort on the Hudson River, where there were some sixty acres of " corn land," and no trees to cut down. There was, be- sides, hay enough upon it for two hundred head of cattle. He accom- plished its purchase of the Indians, and determined to live half of the April 15. time there. On the 15th of April, he sailed on a voyage up the
Hudson, and his circumstantial journal gives a very interesting picture of the country along its banks. From this trip he did not return until December, and then immediately commenced improving his new estate, which he called Vriesendael.
As yet there were few Dutch colonists east of the Harlem River; and Kieft, rendered anxious by English progress, sent Secretary Van April 19. Tienhoven to purchase the group of islands at the mouth of the Norwalk River, together with the adjoining territory on the mainland, and to erect thereon the standard of the States-General, " so as to effectu- ally prevent any other nation's encroachment." These directions were executed, and the West India Company thereby obtained the Indian title May 10. to all the country between the Norwalk and North Rivers. On the 10th of May of the same year, Kieft also bought of the great chief Penhawitiz the territory forming the present county of Kings, on
1 Robert Feake married the widow of Henry Winthrop.
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PURCHASE OF INDIAN LANDS.
Long Island. All the lands east of Oyster Bay, which form the county of Suffolk, remained, however, in the hands of its aboriginal lords.
What was the surprise of the governor of New Netherland when, one morning, a Scotchman, named Farrett, presented himself at Fort Amster- dam and claimed the whole of Long Island, under a commission from the Earl of Stirling ! He had already confirmed Lion Gardiner's purchase of Gardiner's Island 1 from the Indians, and empowered him to make and put in practice all necessary laws of Church and State. He had made an agreement with several persons from Lynn, Massachusetts, by which they might settle upon and cultivate any lands on Long Island which they should buy of the Indians. Farrett was contemptuously dismissed. by Kieft ; but the Lynn emigrants soon after arrived at the head of Cow Bay, pulled down the Dutch arms, and put up a house very quickly. The sachem Penhawitz hurried to New Amsterdam with the news, and Van Tienhoven was dispatched with an armed force to arrest the whole party and bring them before the governor. Satisfied, however, upon ex- amination, that they were not in fault, Kieft dismissed them after they had signed an agreement to intrude no more upon Dutch territory. This led to the immediate settlement of Southampton; for Farrett discovered that the Dutch, although they derided Lord Stirling's claim, were chiefly anxious to maintain possession of the western extremity of Long Island, and he, with his associates, removed and settled unmolested farther east.
Up to this time the relations between the Dutch and the Indians had been upon the whole friendly. But many of the colonists had neglected their farms for the quicker profits of traffic. To prosper in this they had allured the savages to their homes, fed them bountifully, and treated them to "fire-water." In many instances the jealousies of the latter had been excited against each other. They had also been frequently employed as house and farm servants by the settlers ; which was unwise, because they would sometimes steal, and then run away and tell their tribes about the habits, mode of life, and numerical strength of the Dutch.
The unhappiest thing of all was supplying the red-men with fire-arms. The Iroquois warriors at first considered a gun "the devil," and would not touch it. Champlain taught them its power, and then they were eager to possess it. For a musket they would willingly give twenty beaver-skins. For a pound of powder they were glad to barter the value of several dollars. It mattered not that the West India Company for- bade the traffic under penalty of death, and that their executive officer at Manhattan was not in the least averse to capital punishment. Such im-
1 The price paid for Gardiner's Island was one large black dog, one gun, some powder and shot, some rum, and a few Dutch blankets : in value about £ 5.
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
mense profits were too tempting, and the Mohawks were already well armed. It was less easy to deal with the river tribes without discovery, and the latter began to hate the Dutch in consequence. Kieft's taxes were the final blow to their friendship.
July. In July, rumors of some intended hostile demonstration reached the governor, and he ordered all the residents of New Amster- dam to arm themselves, and, at the firing of three guns, to repair, under their respective officers, equipped for warfare, to a place of rendezvous. Without waiting to be attacked, he soon found an excuse to become the aggressor. It happened that some persons in the company's service, on their way to Delaware River in July, had landed at Staten Island for wood and water, and stolen some swine which had been left in charge of a negro by De Vries. The innocent Raritan Indians, who lived twenty miles or more inland, were accused of this theft, and also of having stolen the canoe of a trading party.
Kieft thought to punish them, and sent Secretary Van Tienhoven, with fifty soldiers and twenty sailors, to attack them, and unless they made prompt reparation, to destroy their corn. The men accompanying Tien- hoven, knowing the governor's temper, were anxious to kill and plunder at once. This Tienhoven refused to permit ; but finally, vexed with their importunity, he left them, and they attacked the Indians, several of whom were killed and their crops destroyed. Thus was the seed sown for a long and bloody war.1
Meanwhile the directors of the West India Company had not ceased wrangling with each other and with the patroons ; but they agreed upon a new Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions, which amended materially the obnoxious instrument of 1629. All good inhabitants of New Netherland were to select lands and form colonies, to be limited to one mile along the shore of a bay or navigable river, and two miles into the country. The right of way by land or water was to be free to all, and disputes were to be settled by the governor, under all circumstances. The feudal privileges of jurisdiction, and the exclusive right of hunting, fishing, fowling, grinding corn, etc., were continued to the patroons as an estate of inheritance, with descent to females as well as males. Manufacturers were permitted. Another class of proprietors was soon established. Masters or Colonists they were called, and were such as should convey fine-grown persons to New Netherland, and might occupy one hundred acres of land. Commercial privileges were very greatly extended, al-
1 Breeden Raedt. Chalmers's Political Annals. De Vries, in 11 N. Y. H. S. Col. Albany Records. Kieft is accused of having given to the soldiers themselves, at the moment of em- barkation, even harsher orders than he gave to Van Tienhoven. O'Callaghan, I. 227, note.
95
THE SIX MURDERERS.
though the company adhered to the system of onerous imposts for its own benefit. The company renewed their pledge to furnish negroes, and appoint and support competent officers, "for the protection of the good and the punishment of the wicked." The governor and his council were still to act as an orphans' and surrogate's court, to judge in criminal and religious affairs, and administer law and justice. The Dutch Reformed religion was to be publicly taught and sanctioned, and ministers and schoolmasters were to be sustained.
The people in and around New Amsterdam were generally supplied with necessary goods of all descriptions from the company's store. But it was well known that they were sold at an advance of fifty per cent on their cost, and many were the complaints. The store-keeper, Ulrich Lupold, who had never been regarded as trustworthy, was finally detected in extortion, and removed from his position. The first liquor ever made in this country was produced from a private still on Staten Island, erected by Kieft in 1640, and run by Willem Hendricksen, for twenty-five guilders per month.
In the early part of the year 1641, great excitement was oc- 1641. casioned by the intelligence that a murder had been committed
near the fort. Six of the company's slaves had killed one of their fel- low-negroes. There was no evidence against them; and so torture, the common expedient of the Dutch law in such cases, was resorted to for the purpose of extorting self-accusation. To avoid this terrible engine the negroes confessed they had all jointly committed the deed. The court was in a dilemma. Laborers were scarce, and six were too many to lose. Lots were drawn, in order to determine which should be exe- cuted ; for justice could not be defrauded. The lot fell on a stalwart fellow, who was called " the giant," and he was sentenced to be hanged. January 24th was the great day appointed for his execution, and the whole community turned out to witness the terrible scene. He was placed on a ladder in the fort, with two strong halters about his neck. The fatal signal was given, the ladder pulled from under him, when both ropes broke, and the negro fell to the ground. The bystanders cried so loudly for pardon that the governor granted the culprit his life, under a pledge of future good conduct.
Kieft was constantly issuing new municipal regulations, and April 11. there was great need. We find, under date of April 11th, one by which "the tapping of beer during divine service, and after one o'clock at night," was forbidden ; whereat the Dutch were as much exercised as their German cousins have been in later times. He also took measures to prevent the deterioration of the currency, which was in a mixed state.
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
The coins of Europe were rarely seen here. Wampum was in use, but April 18. had no standard value, until he fixed it by a law. To promote Sept. 5. agriculture, the governor established two fairs to be held annu- ally ; one of cattle on the 15th of October, and one of hogs on the 1st of November.
In March of that year, Myndert Myndertsen Van der Horst secured a plantation, about an hour's walk from Vriesendael, where De Vries was busy putting up buildings, planning orchards and gardens, and making his property singularly attractive. It extended north from Newark Bay towards Tappaen, including the valley of the Hackinsack River; the headquarters of the settlement being only five or six hundred paces from the village of the Hackinsack Indians.1 Van der Horst's people immedi- ately erected a small fort, to be garrisoned by a few soldiers. In Au- gust, Cornelis Melyn returned to New Amsterdam with a full-fledged grant from the West India Company to settle on Staten Island. This astonished De Vries, who knew that the company was aware of his own purchase of the whole of that property. Kieft, who had his distillery and a buckskin manufactory already there, persuaded the liberal-minded patroon to permit Melyn to establish a plantation near the Narrows, and then conferred upon the spirited Belgian a formal patent as patroon over all the island not reserved by De Vries. A small redoubt was immedi- ately erected upon the eastern headland, where a flag was raised when- ever a vessel arrived in the lower bay. This is the first record of a marine telegraph in New York Harbor.2
1 The name of the Indian tribe was Achkinkeshacky, which was corrupted by the early settlers into Hackinsack.
De Vries, 11 N. Y. H. S. Col., I. 264. O'Callaghan I. 228, 229. Brodhead, I. 314. Albany Records.
First Marine Telegraph.
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INDIAN VENGEANCE.
CHAPTER VII.
1641 - 1643.
INDIAN VENGEANCE.
INDIAN VENGEANCE. - THE FIRST POPULAR ASSEMBLY. - KIEFT'S DISAPPOINTMENT. - DEATH OF PETER MINUET. - EFFORT OF THE "TWELVE MEN" TO INSTITUTE RE- FORMS. - THE GOVERNOR'S PROCLAMATION. - THE DUTCH AND ENGLISH. - DISCUS- SION OF THE BOUNDARY QUESTION. - A FLAW IN THE TITLE TO NEW NETHERLAND. - RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION. - THE FIRST TAVERN. - THE NEW CHURCH. - RAISING MONEY AT A WEDDING. - THE FIRST ENGLISH SECRETARY. - "THE YEAR OF BLOOD." - THE BLOOD ATONEMENT. - THE SHROVETIDE DINNER-PARTY. - THE INHUMAN MASSACRE. - GENERAL UPRISING OF THE INDIANS. - OVERTURES FOR PEACE. - THE HOLLOW TRUCE. - THE SECOND REPRESENTATIVE BODY. - A PAGE OF HORRORS.
B Y this time the effects of Kieft's imprudences with the Indians were fast becoming apparent. The Raritans cajoled him with peaceful messages, but suddenly attacked De Vries's unprotected planta- tion on Staten Island, killed four of his planters and burned all 1641. his buildings. Folly begets folly. The governor no sooner heard June. how the Raritans had avenged their wrongs, than he determined upon their extermination. In an ostentatious proclamation, he offered a bounty of ten fathoms of wampum for the head of any or July 4. every one of the tribe, and twenty fathoms for each head of the actual murderers. Some of the River Indians were incited by these bounties, and attacked the Raritans. In the autumn, a chief of the Haverstraw tribe came one day in triumph to the fort, and exhibited a dead man's hand hanging on a stick, which he presented to Kieft, as the hand of the chief who had killed the Dutch.
Meanwhile blood had been shed on the island of Manhattan. Aug. An old man, Claes Smits, lived in a little house near Deutal Bay, and worked at the trade of a wheelwright. The nephew of the Indian who was murdered near the Fresh Water Pond during Minuet's adminis- tration, and who, as a boy, had sworn vengeance, went to the old man's house under pretense of bartering some beaver-skins for duffels, and,
7
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
while the unsuspecting Smits was stooping over the great chest in which he kept his goods, the savage seized an ax and killed him with one blow, then plundered the house and escaped. Kieft sent at once to the chief of the Weekquaesgeek tribe, to demand satisfaction. The latter refused to give up the criminal, on the ground that he was but an avenger, after
the manner of his race. Some soldiers were then sent out from
Aug. 20. the fort to arrest the assassin, but they could not find him. Kieft was exasperated and would have openly declared war, careless of probable consequences, had not some of his friends told him of the state of public feeling, and how the people ac- cused him of aiming to provoke hostilities on pur- pose to make " a wrong reckoning with the com- pany"; even charging him with personal coward- ice, for they said, "He knew full well that he could Dutch Architecture in New Amsterdam. secure his own life in a good fort." He, therefore, paused in his mad course, and summoned together all the patroons, masters, and
Aug. 23. heads of families in the vicinity to the fort, "to resolve upon something of the first necessity." This was the pioneer of popular meet- ings upon Manhattan Island.
Aug. 28. When the people assembled on the day appointed, the governor submitted three propositions.
Ist. "Was it not just that the recent murder of Claes Smits should be avenged by destroying the Indian village where the murderer belonged, if he was not given up ? "
2d. "In what manner ought this to be accomplished ?"
3d. " By whom should it be effected ?"
The assembly, after some preamble and a grave discussion of the ques- tions, chose twelve men out of their number to co-operate with the gov- ernor and council. The names of this first representative body were : Captain De Vries, Jacques Bentyn, Jan Dam, Hendrick Jansen, Jacob
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KIEFT'S DISAPPOINTMENT.
Stoffelsen, Maryn Adriaensen, Abram Molenaer, Frederick Lubbertsen, Jochem Pietersen, Gerrit Dircksen, George Rapaelje, and Abram Planck. De Vries was chosen president. Their counsel was for preserving peace with the Indians as long as possible. They believed the murder should be avenged, but thought "God and the opportunity " ought to be consid- ered. The Dutch were scattered all about the country, and the cattle were in the woods. It was impolitic to get involved in war with the Indians, while there was no adequate means of defense. They, therefore, recommended that the governor send again, yea, for the second or third time, until he obtained the surrender of the prisoner, that he might pun- ish him as he should see fit.
Kieft was greatly dissatisfied with their verdict. He had not willingly made this concession to popular rights, but rather by force of circum- stances, and to serve as " a cloak of protection from responsibility or censure "; for he fully intended to attack the Indians, and chafed under the hindrance which was thus put in his way. Before winter set in he called the "Twelve Men " together again, to confer upon the Nov. 1. same subject, and again they counseled patience. De Vries was opposed to war with the Indians under any circumstances. He reminded the governor of the sentiments of the Amsterdam Chamber, whose order had been distinctly expressed, "Keep peace with the savages "; and the uneasy and indiscreet chief magistrate was silenced, but not convinced.
During the spring prior to these events, the English at New April 1. Haven had made an effort to appropriate a portion of the Dutch territory on the South River. Some fifty families in all had become dissatisfied with their Connecticut River homes, on account of the sick- liness of the climate, and with their effects sailed, about the first of April, in a ship belonging to George Lambertsen, a New Haven merchant, and put into New Amsterdam on their way South to communicate their designs to the Dutch authorities. Kieft warned them not to build or plant within the limits of New Netherland, and they promised to select some spot over which the States-General had no authority. They were allowed to go on their way, and shortly after fortified a post on the Schuylkill.
In December, news came of the death of Peter Minuet, who had guarded his little Swedish colony well for three years, although
Dec. they had once or twice suffered great privations. They had been reinforced by a party of Dutch from Holland, and also by a deputation of Swedes, who purchased additional lands from the Indians, and, in token of the sovereignty of their queen, set up "the arms and crown
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
of Sweedland." Peter Hollaendare, a Swede, succeeded to the chief government after the death of Minuet.
1642. As soon as the rivers were frozen over, Kieft summoned the Jan. 21. "Twelve Men " into council the third time, and insisted upon their acceding to his wishes in relation to the Indians. As the murderer had not been given up, they yielded, though reluctantly. Their assistance in the matter was promised only on condition that the governor should lead the expedition in person, and that the expenses of it, and the necessary care of the wounded men and their families afterward, should be defrayed by the company.
During the same session, the " Twelve Men " took occasion to demand certain reforms in the government. In the Fatherland, domineering arrogance was restrained by the system of rotation in office. The self-reliant men who had won their country from the sea, and their lib- erties from the relaxing grasp of feudal prerogative, knew that they could govern themselves, and they did govern themselves. The " Twelve," who now sat in judgment, were of the same stock, distin- guished not only by talent, but by local experience ; and, although they had voluntarily pledged themselves to submit to the government of the West India Company, they believed it to have been more by neglect than ill-will that such a conceited little potentate had been placed over them, and they knew him to be unworthy of so much trust. He had often been heard to compare himself to the Prince of Orange, as above the law ; but the grievance which caused the most feeling was the mock council, which in reality was no council at all. He appointed all public officers, except such as came with commissions from Holland, made laws, imposed taxes, levied fines, inflicted penalties, incorporated towns, and could affect the price of any man's property at pleasure by changing the value of wampum. He also decided all civil and criminal questions without the aid of jury, and settled controversies and appeals from inferior courts. The memorial, which had been previously prepared, was presented, with all due deference, to the governor. It called for an addition of four men to the council, two of whom should be chosen each year from the "Twelve Men" elected by the people, and demanded that judicial proceedings should be had only before a full board; that the militia should be mus- tered annually ; that the people should have the same privilege as in Hol- land of visiting vessels from abroad, and the right to trade in neighboring places subject to the duties of the company ; that the English should be prohibited from selling cattle within the province, and that the value of the currency should be considerably increased.
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