USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York : its origin, rise, and progress. Vol. I > Part 11
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 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59
Kieft was confounded. He regretted exceedingly having made any
101
THE GOVERNOR'S PROCLAMATION.
show of parliamentary government. But he was also politic, and he replied to the assembly that he expected a complete council in one of the first ships from Holland, and graciously acceded to all the other requirements, without, however, fulfilling a single promise. Then he wound up the meeting adroitly by telling the gentlemen that they had never been invested with greater powers than to give advice respecting the murder of Claes Smits.
A short time afterward, the following poster appeared in various Feb. 18. places : -
" Whereas, The people have at our request commissioned 'Twelve Men' to communicate their good council and advice concerning the murder of Claes Smits, which now being done, we thank them for the trouble they have taken, and shall make use of their written advice, with God's help and fitting time ; and we propose no more meetings, as such tend to dangerous consequences, and to the great injury, both of the country and of our authority ; - we, therefore, do hereby forbid the calling of any assemblies or meetings, of whatever sort, without our express order, on pain of punishment for disobedience.
" Done in Fort Amsterdam, February 18th, 1642, in New Netherland. " WILHELM KIEFT."
Having disposed of the "Twelve Men," Kieft made preparations March 5. and dispatched a party of eighty soldiers, under Ensign Van Dyck, against the Weekquaesgeeks, with orders to exterminate them by fire and sword. The guide professed to know the way to the Indian village, but he lost the track just at nightfall; and, as they had crossed the Harlem River with no little difficulty, the commanding officer finally lost his temper, and the twin losses resulted in an overwhelming gain, for the party returned to New Amsterdam innocent of the death of a single Indian. The mortifying failure enraged the governor; but the Indians were quick to discover the trail of the soldiers, and were so much alarmed as to come at once to New Amsterdam and sue for peace. A treaty was concluded with them, one of the stipulations of March 28. which was the surrender of the murderer, - a promise which, either from unwillingness or inability, was never fulfilled.
This treaty was scarcely concluded before rumors were afloat that the Connecticut savages were planning to destroy the colonists throughout New England. Hartford and New Haven concerted measures of defence, and anxiety and alarm were everywhere felt. Under these circumstances the settlers at Greenwich thought it wise, as a measure of self- protection, to submit themselves to the government of New Neth- April 9. erland; and Captain Patrick and his friends, after swearing allegiance, were invested with all the rights of patroons. But the difficulties be-
102
HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
tween the Dutch garrison and the English at Hartford continued; and
Kieft, finding that his protests were of no effect, prohibited all trade
April 3. and commercial intercourse with the Hartford people. He soon after heard that the New Haven party, who went to the South May 15. River, were living upon the company's lands without his permis- sion. He immediately dispatched two sloops with a strong force to require May 22. them to withdraw, and, in case of refusal, to arrest them and de- stroy their trading-posts. These orders were executed so promptly that the English had not two hours to prepare for their departure, and they were brought with their goods to New Netherland, and afterwards landed at New Haven. The excitement on the subject there was intense ; particularly after Lambertsen, who was considered by the Dutch as the principal instigator of the injury to their trade, had been compelled, while passing New Amsterdam, to give an account of what pel- Aug. 28. tries he had obtained on the Delaware, and to pay duties on them all.
The Hartford authorities found the prohibition against intercourse with the New Amsterdam settlers very inconvenient, to say the least, May 11. and finally sent a committee to confer with Kieft on the subject. He received them pompously, conceded nothing, talked about the an- tiquity of the Dutch title to the country on the Connecticut River, and graciously offered to lease to them a portion of the lands there, on certain terms. The ambassadors went home to report, having accom- plished no part of their mission. Both the Hartford and the New Haven people were more incensed than ever, and vented their annoyance upon every Dutch man or woman who came in their way. The agents from New England who went to London about that time brought the subject into general notice there, and it was discussed with no little acrimony by the courtiers of Charles I. Lord Say told the Dutch Min- ister that the conduct of the New-Netherlanders was haughty and unbear- able in the extreme, and dropped a few meaning hints in regard to their being forcibly ejected from the Connecticut Valley, if the difficulties were not shortly arranged. The Dutch Minister wrote to his government; the States-General took the matter up, and much bitterness appears in the subsequent correspondence, although, as in previous instances, the ques- tion was left unsettled.
It is a singular fact that, while the Dutch in New Netherland were at this time so few in proportion to their wide and fine territory, the English had spread themselves over a great part of New England, and were, to all outward appearances, far the more prosperous. In natural advantages New Netherland immeasurably outrivaled New England,
103
DISCUSSION OF THE BOUNDARY QUESTION.
and the difference in the progress of the two colonies may be traced directly to the want of wisdom by which the statesmen at the Hague endowed a commercial corporation with the maintenance of a depend- ency for their own material gain. New England was founded in religious persecution. As it could contribute little resource to the mother-coun- try, under any circumstances, it was allowed to work out its own combi- nations of policy in Church and State. The mere facts of a colonial condition tend to entail the same species of subjection which ordinarily appertains to infancy in a family ; but the New England colony stands out exceptional in history, as having elicited no particular interest in any quarter of the Old World as to its possible future value, and religious controversies and religious education occupied a reading population who were content with a bare living, and stood quite aloof from mercantile speculations. On the other hand, New Netherland was treated solely as an investment for the eventual accumulation of wealth at home, while at the same time the enormous monopoly of the West India Company comprehended interests in comparison with which the im- mediate affairs of a little State were esteemed insignificant.
When the New-Englanders crossed the supposed boundary lines, the Dutch in power wondered why their impotent protests were unheeded. Those protests were based upon the supposed right of the West India Company to the territory which they claimed, and the quarrels thus en- gendered produced some interesting state papers. Later, John De Witt made the most strenuous efforts to establish a good understanding with Oliver Cromwell, and sent some of his ablest diplomatists to the Protec- tor's court. The subject of the boundary line of New Netherland at- tracted much attention. In the several documents which were drawn up by the West India Company to substantiate their rights, the principal historical statements were audacious fictions, and the writer of them was evidently aware that there was a flaw in the Dutch title, and that, in a court of law, not a foot of the vast territory could be held as a bona fide possession. The Dutch ministers to England must have entertained sim- ilar views, judging from the gingerly care with which they handled the delicate and perplexing question.
As the New England settlements grew more rapidly, and their in- stitutions received more attention from the people than those of New Netherland, so also did the spirit of intolerance take root among them, until they became the most relentless persecutors of the age. "The arm of the civil government," says Judge Story, "was constantly em- ployed in support of the denunciations of the Church, and, without its forms, the Inquisition existed in substance, with a full share of its terrors
104
HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
and its violence." Many important families were driven by this means into finding homes elsewhere ; and not a few, perceiving the larger liberty of opinion which would be vouchsafed in the Dutch dominion, made application to Kieft, and were welcomed right heartily, being required only to take the same oath of allegiance as the Dutch subjects. Roger Williams, a promising young minister, whose ideas of religious liberty shocked the General Court of Massachusetts to such an extent that they sentenced him to perpetual exile, went into the wilderness of Rhode Island and commenced the settlement of that State. That was as early as 1635. Others were banished through the workings of the same pe- culiar ecclesiastical system. Annie Hutchinson, who was a lady of rare cultivation, and styled by her contemporaries "a masterpiece of wit and wisdom," was accused of "weakening the hands and hearts of the people towards the ministers," because she maintained the " paramount authority of private judgment." She was worried by her clerical exam- iners for several hours, although the verdict had evidently been agreed upon before the session commenced, and at last she was declared " unfit for society," and ordered to depart from the province. She went, at first, to Rhode Island, accompanied by quite a number of families of personal friends, and persons of the same phase of religious belief. But fearing the implacable vengeance of Massachusetts would reach her even there, she removed to New Netherland in 1642, selecting for her residence the point now known as Pelham Neck, near New Rochelle, which re- ceived the name of " Annie's Hoeck."1 Near by her settled John Throg- morton and thirty-five English families. Kieft granted them all the franchises which the charter of 1640 allowed, with freedom to worship God in the manner which suited them best.
The terms were so agreeable that a large emigration in the same direc- tion would have speedily set in, had not the General Court of Massa- chusetts taken alarm, and sought to dissuade their own citizens from seeking thus to strengthen "their doubtful Dutch neighbors." But they went on with their political and moral and religious instruction, acting most self-complacently on the conviction that their system of teaching was the very best in the world, and their interpretation of the Scriptures the one and only true way to Heaven.
When, at rare intervals, some bold progressionist tried to open the eyes of the people to the pretenses of pompous ignorance masked in the guise of scholarship and sanctity, or to promulgate some new tenet or article of faith, they were stricken so quickly that the places that had known them knew them not much longer. Rev. Francis Doughty was dragged
1 Hoeck is a Dutch word signifying point. It is sometimes spelt Hoek.
105
THE FIRST TAVERN.
from an assembly at Cohasset for venturing to say in his sermon that " Abraham's children should have been baptized." A large number of his friends determined to join him on a pilgrimage to New Netherland. They bought more than thirteen thousand acres at Newtown, Long Island, near where a number of persons from Lynn and Ipswich had settled a short time before. For this large landed property Kieft granted them an absolute ground-brief, and afforded every facility in his power for the erection of substantial houses and the proper cultiva- tion of the soil.
These accessions to the population of New Netherland were of marked value to the prosperity of the province. But there were other
arrivals about the same time which were less to be desired. April 13. A great number of fugitive servants, both from New England and Virginia, flocked into New Amsterdam, trying to get employment. They were full of mischief, idle, indolent, and dishonest, and occasioned great trouble and complaint among the people. Kieft found it neces- sary to issue new police regulations, one of which was to forbid any family giving to strangers more than one meal, or more than one night's lodging, without first sending notice of the same to the governor.
It would seem that visitors had hitherto been entertained by the citizens. Noteworthy persons had enjoyed the hospitality of the gov- ernor himself. The growth of the town, and the increasing number of travelers, rendered this a great inconvenience. The subject of building a public house had been for some time agitated, and Kieft finally con- cluded to erect it at the company's expense. It was completed this year, a great clumsy stone tavern, and it was located on the northeast corner of Pearl Street and Coenties Slip, fronting the East River.
A short time after this famous old building had been put in use, Captain De Vries was one day dining with the governor, as was his custom when he happened to be at the fort, and, in the course of con- versation, the host congratulated himself upon the architecture and workmanship of the new edifice. De Vries said it was, indeed, an ex- cellent thing for travelers, but that the next thing they wanted was a decent church for the people. In New England, the first thing they did, after building some dwellings, was to erect a fine church; and now, when the English passed New Amsterdam, they only saw a "mean barn," in which the Dutch worshiped their Creator. The West India Company had the credit of being very zealous in protecting the Reformed Church 1 against Spanish tyranny, and there was no reason why their settlements should not be supplied with church edifices. There were
1 Calvinist.
106
HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
Stadthuys.
materials enough at hand, - fine oak timber and good building stone, and lime made from oyster-shells, far better than the lime in Holland.
Kieft was interested, and asked who would like to superintend such a building ?
De Vries told him that no doubt some of the friends of the Reformed religion could be found who would be only too glad to do so.
Kieft, smiling, told De Vries that he supposed he was one of them, and asked if he would contribute one hundred guilders to the enterprise.
De Vries very quickly responded in the affirmative; and then they decided that Jochem Pietersen Kuyter, who was a good Calvinist, and had plenty of workmen, would be the most suitable person to procure timber, and Jan Jansen Dam, who lived near the fort, should be the fourth one of the consistory to superintend the building. The governor promised to furnish a few thousand guilders of the company's money, and the rest was to be raised by private subscription.
A few days afterward, the daughter of Dominie Bogardus was mar- ried, and, at the wedding party, the governor and Captain De May. Vries, thinking it a rare opportunity to raise the requisite amount of funds, took advantage of the good-humor of the guests, and passed round the paper, with their own names heading the list. As each one present desired to appear well in the eyes of his neighbor, a handsome
107
THE FIRST ENGLISH SECRETARY.
sum was contributed. In the morning, some few appealed to the gov- ernor for permission to reconsider the matter ; but his Excellency would permit no names to be erased from the paper.
An arrangement was at once effected with John and Richard May 20. Ogden,1 of Stamford, for the mason-work of a stone church, sev- enty-two feet long, fifty wide, and sixteen high, at one thousand dollars for the job, and a gratuity of forty dollars more should the work be satisfactory. The agreement was signed and sealed on the 20th of May. The church was to be lo- cated in the fort, that it might not be exposed to Indian depreda- tions ; although many objected, on the ground that the fort was over- crowded already. The walls were soon up, and the roof covered with oak shingles, which, from exposure UPDAVIS to the weather, became blue like Inside of Fort, with Governor's House, and Church. slate. Kieft caused to be erected in the front wall a marble slab with this inscription :-
" ANNO DOMINI, 1642, WILHELM KIEFT DIRECTEUR GENERAL. HEEFT DE GEMEENTE DESEN TEMPEL DOEN BOUWEN."
When the fort was demolished, in 1787, to make room for the Govern- ment House, this slab was discovered buried in the earth, and was re- moved to the belfry of the old Dutch Church in Garden Street, where it remained until the burning of that church, in 1835, when it totally dis- appeared.
It was now becoming necessary to observe regularity in drawing boundary and division lines ; hence Andries Hudde was appointed sur- veyor, with a salary of eighty dollars per annum and a few additional fees. The first record of the sale of city lots, we find this year. There is one extant, showing that Abraham Van Steenwyck sells to Anthony Van Fees a lot on Bridge Street, thirty feet front by one hundred and ten deep, for the sum of nine dollars and sixty cents !2
.
The influx into the Dutch settlements of persons who spoke only the English language occasioned no little embarrassment. Kieft himself
1 These Ogdens were the ancestors of the present families of that name in New York and New Jersey. Alb. Rec., III. 31. O' Callaghan, I. 261, 262. N. Y. H. S. Col., II. 293. 2 The street was not then named.
7
108
HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
could speak it fluently, but many of his officers did not understand a word, and it was finally thought best to have an official interpreter. George Baxter received the appointment, at an annual salary of two hun- dred and fifty guilders.
Meanwhile, Adrian Van der Donck, a lineal descendant of Adrian Van Bergen, a graduate of Leyden University, and a man of acknowledged scholarship, had, in 1641, leased the westerly half of Castle Island. He was appointed sheriff of the colony at Rensselaerswick, and spe- cially instructed to repress the spirit of lawlessness which seemed to pervade that district. He went to work energetically. He made it his first business to induce the patroon to send over the learned clergyman, Dr. Johannes Megapolensis, " for the edifying improvement of the inhabi- tants and Indians thereabouts." The Amsterdam Chamber approved the call; the reverend gentleman was promised a new church and parsonage, and a small theological library, together with an annual salary of one thousand guilders. A number of families accompanied him to his new field of labor. They arrived at New Amsterdam in August, 1642. August 1. From that point Van Rensselaer had requested that the further transportation of the party should be left entirely to the advice and dis- cretion of Kieft, to whom he sent, as a present for his trouble, a hand- some saddle and bridle. To obviate as much as possible the dangers of life among the Indians, the patroon required that all his colonists, except the farmers and tobacco-planters, should live near each other, so as to form a church neighborhood. Ships sometimes remained at Manhattan a fortnight before news of their arrival reached Rensselaerswick; but in this instance prompt measures were resorted to, and by the 11th of the month the names of the new settlers had been registered at their destination by Arendt Van Corlear, the commissary.
It was about the same time that intelligence of the capture of some Aug. 11. French missionaries by the Iroquois reached Fort Orange. With characteristic Dutch benevolence, Van Corlear and two stout- hearted friends went on horseback to the Mohawk country to attempt their rescue. They carried presents, which were thankfully received by the great warriors, who saluted them with musket-shots from each of their castles as they approached, fed them with turkeys during their stay, and seemed greatly pleased with their visit. Van Corlear invited the chiefs into council, and urged the release of their prisoners, one of whom was a celebrated Jesuit scholar. Their reply was, "We shall show you every friendship in our power, but on this subject we shall be silent." Several days were spent to no purpose. Six hundred guilders' worth of goods were offered for the Frenchmen's ransom, and coldly refused. Van
109
THE BLOOD ATONEMENT.
Corlear's eloquence only elicited from the Indians a promise not to kill their prisoners; and then the baffled diplomats set out for Fort Orange, conducted by an embassy of ten armed savages. They had hardly de- parted from the encampment, when the restrained braves clamored for blood, and one of the Frenchmen was struck dead with a tomahawk ; but the life of Father Jacques was spared, although his subsequent suf- ferings, throughout a dreary winter, among a class of vindictive savages, who hated the cross and reviled his holy zeal, were most intense.
The year that followed was emphatically "a year of blood." It was ushered in with the wildest stories of a general war by the 1643. New England and New Netherland Indians against the English and the Dutch. If a benighted traveler halloed in the woods, a panic was im- mediately caused, lest savages were torturing some captive. The fireside gossips contributed greatly to the general anxiety and terror by accusing the Indians of trying to poison and bewitch those in authority. Thought- ful men censured Kieft severely for having allowed the colonists to settle wherever they liked, all over the country, so that now they were almost entirely defenseless. He had done nothing to prepare them for war ; he had not even a sufficient stock of powder to allow each colonist a half- pound, if it should be required.
And war, with all its horrors, was on the wing. It came soon, January. surely and swiftly. Captain De Vries, while rambling through the woods near his plantation at Vriesendael, met a drunken Indian. The savage stroked the patroon over his arms, in token of friendship, and called him "a good chief," and then said he had come from Van der Horst's place at Hackinsack, where they had sold him brandy, and stolen his beaver coat. The enraged savage vowed a bloody revenge, and the peace-loving De Vries tried in vain to soothe him. Before night, he had shot Garret Jansen Van Vorst, who was thatching the roof of one of Van der Horst's houses. The chiefs of the Hackinsacks and Recka- wancks hurried to Vriesendael to tell the news, and counsel with De Vries, whom they held in the highest esteem : they would have gone to the governor, but were afraid he might detain them as prisoners. De Vries, however, assured them that the latter would be best, and accom- panied them in person to the fort, where they made their confession, and offered two hundred fathoms of wampum, a blood atonement of money, as a purchase for peace. This universal custom among the Indians of North America was in singular accordance with the usages of Greece : -
" If a brother bleed, On just atonement we remit the deed ; A sire the slaughter of the son forgives, The price of blood discharged, the murderer lives."
110
HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
The chiefs deplored the murder, but pleaded for the murderer. They told Kieft that he was the son of a chief; that brandy should not have been sold him, for he was not used to it, and it crazed him. "Even your own men," they said, "get drunk and fight with knives ; if you will sell no more strong drink to the Indians, you will have no more murders," - an early warning which the whites would have done well to observe, even to this day. Kieft refused to accept any expiation less than the head of the fugitive, and the Indians would not bind themselves to surrender him; for they said he had gone two days' journey away among the Tankitekes, and it would be impossible to overtake him. The governor immediately sent a peremptory message to Pacham, the chief of the Tan- kitekes, for the surrender of the criminal.
Feb. 19. Before the demand could possibly have been acceded to, under any circumstances, a band of Mohawks made a descent upon the Weekquaesgeek and Tappaen tribes, for the purpose of levying tribute. These Indians were terror-stricken, and came flying, half naked, to the Dutch for protection, leaving seventy of their number dead and many of their women and children captives. They were kindly received in New Amsterdam. They seemed to have almost supreme faith in the superior power of the white man, - a confidence which, by a wise policy, might have been strengthened. But public sentiment was divided. De Vries, at the head of one party, breathed kindness and caution in every syllable he uttered. Others sympathized with Kieft in his insane wish to extermi- nate the savages. Some inkling of the state of feeling must have reached the Indians, for they suddenly scattered in various directions; some flying to Pavonia, some to Vriesendael, and some to Corlear's bouwery.
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.