USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York : its origin, rise, and progress. Vol. I > Part 13
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Oct. 22. day affairs grew worse. The "Eight Men" bore it until they could bear it no longer ; and finally, in a cutting memorial addressed to
the West India Company, they charged the whole blame of the
Oct. 28.
war and their consequent sufferings upon Kieft, and demanded his recall. They particularly warned the company against a "book ornamented with water-color drawings" which Kieft had sent to them, which they said "had as many lies as lines in it," and declared that his Excellency could know nothing about the geography of the country, since, during his whole residence in New Amsterdam, he had never been farther from his bedroom and kitchen than the middle of Manhattan Island.
This communication reached Holland at an opportune moment. Dec. 10.
The College of the XIX was in session, and all who heard the letter felt that the colonists were in earnest, and would return with their wives and children to the Fatherland, as they threatened, if Kieft was not recalled. Melyn's1 spirited letter to the States-General, which had been sent to the Amsterdam Chamber with appropriate remarks from that august body, came in at the same time for its share of atten- tion. It was finally resolved "to collect and condense all the reports
about New Netherland." This was subsequently done by the Dec. 15. recently organized "Rekenkamer," or Bureau of Accounts; and the document is one of the most important state papers in existence, as having determined the future policy of the company.
It was decided to recall Kieft; but as no one at hand appeared exactly adapted to fill his place, Van Dincklagen was named as a provisional governor for New Netherland. At a meeting of the Direc-
1 Melyn was the president of the "Eight Men."
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KIEFT'S QUARRELS.
tors, on the 3d of March, 1645, it was resolved to vest the provincial government in a Supreme Council, consisting of a Director-Gen- 1645. eral, Vice-Director, and Fiscal, by whom all public concerns March 3. should be managed. Fort Amsterdam should be repaired, and a garrison of fifty-three soldiers constantly maintained. The wishes of the people should be respected, and the Indians appeased. The population of the country should be strengthened, and Amsterdam weights and measures used throughout New Netherland. All the negroes should be imported that the patroons and colonists would buy, and every man should be required to provide himself with a musket and side-arms.
Thus, notwithstanding the discovery that their North American prov- ince had fallen into ruin and confusion by reason of Kieft's unnecessary war, without the knowledge and surely not by the order of the company, and against the will and wishes of the people; and that, according to the books of the Amsterdam Chamber, this same province had, in place of being a source of profit, actually cost, since 1626, over five hundred and fifty thousand guilders above the returns, - they evidently felt that it was not entirely beyond hope, and that they need not and ought not to abandon it.
The news of Kieft's recall reached New Amsterdam long previous to the official summons to appear before his employers. He thence- forth labored under a great pressure of untoward circumstances. All classes of the people treated him with marked disrespect. His life was an unbroken chapter of arrests, for he attempted to punish every one who was guilty of disloyalty to himself as their chief magistrate. He fined and imprisoned and banished to his heart's content, allowing no appeal to the Fatherland ; a stretch of high-handed tyranny which, but for the expected relief, would probably have cost him his life.
His best friends -if, indeed, he had any friends - could not restrain him from the most injudicious acts. Dominie. Bogardus, while remonstrating with him one day, was accused by him of drunkenness and alliance with the malcontents. The next Sabbath morning, the good divine, standing in his cheaply canopied pulpit, said : " What are the great men of our country but vessels of wrath and fountains of woe and trouble ? They think of nothing but to plunder the property of others, to dismiss, to banish, and to transport to Holland." Whereupon Kieft, who had been up to that time a noted church-goer, absented himself from the sanc- tuary, and caused a band of soldiers to practice all sorts of noisy amuse- ments, such as the beating of drums and the firing of cannons, under the church windows.
The dominie did not, however, relax his censures of the governor,
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
and just after the following New Year's Day he was arrested, and 1646. required to answer to a long list of charges. His answers, being Jan. 2. in accordance with his clear sense of justice, were inadmissi- ble before such a tribunal; and at last, to silence the scandal and Jan. 15. disorder, mutual friends interfered, the prosecution was termi- nated, and the governor went to church again, being placated by
July 23. the compliance of Dominie Bogardus with his request to allow Dominie Mesapolensis, who was in New Amsterdam, to preach the next Sunday.
1645. Meanwhile the Indians, wishing to plant their corn, and after- April 22. wards to engage in their usual pastimes of hunting and fish- ing, sued for peace. A few chiefs appeared at the fort and entered into a treaty, apparently pleased when a salute of three guns was fired in honor of the occasion.1 They were engaged to secure the good-will of the yet hostile tribes, - a work which was at last accomplished by the diplo- macy of Whiteneywen, chief of the Mockgonecocks. He soon returned with friendly messages from the chiefs along the Sound and near Rocka- way, and both parties went through the ceremony of a formal treaty.
Kieft then, accompanied by Dr. La Montagne, made his first visit Aug. 8. to Fort Orange, hoping to secure the friendship of the Mohawks and other tribes in that vicinity, who had just made peace with the Aug. 30. French. This effort was crowned with success, and on the 30th
of August the chiefs of all the tribes assembled in New Amster- dam, where they were met by the officers of the government and the people, and with the most imposing ceremonies all pledged themselves to eternal friendship with each other. No armed Indian was henceforth to visit the houses of the Europeans; and no armed European was to Aug. 30. visit the Indian villages, without a native escort. So slender, at
this time, were the resources of Kieft, that he was obliged to bor- row money of Van der Donck, in order to make the customary presents to the savages.
With characteristic thoughtfulness, the Dutch stipulated for the resto- ration of the little captive granddaughter of Annie Hutchinson; and the Indians, with apparent reluctance, acceded to the proposal. The next July they appeared with her at Fort Amsterdam, and Kieft had the rare pleas- ure of sending her to her friends in Boston. During her brief captivity, she had forgotten her own language and the faces of her relatives, and was loath to leave the Indians, who had evidently treated her tenderly.
1 The salute was fired by Jacob Jacobsen Roy, who, in the discharge of this duty, unfor- tunately received a severe injury from an explosion, which long kept him under the care of Surgeon Kiersted, and ultimately deprived him of his arm.
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THE GREAT INDIAN TREATY OF PEACE.
There was joy in New Amsterdam at the bright prospect of a durable peace ; but the desolation caused by the needless war was not soon to pass out of sight. It had been easy to commence hostilities, but how were broken hearts and fortunes to be repaired ? The day following Aug. 31. the final settlement of the treaty, Kieft issued a proclamation, directing the observance of the 6th of September as a day of general thanksgiving, " to proclaim the good tidings in all the Dutch and English churches."
People began once more to scatter over the country, and to clear and improve the land. The party who had been driven from Newtown, Long Island, returned; but they were bankrupt, their houses and farming utensils were gone, and it was difficult to get another foothold. Doughty exacted purchase-money and quit-rents before he would allow his people to build; but they appealed to the governor, who, thinking it unwise to hinder population, managed so that the minister's land was confiscated. Doughty gave notice that he should appeal from this decision; and he was thereupon imprisoned for twenty-four hours, fined, and compelled to promise in writing that he would never mention what had occurred. He afterwards removed to Flushing, which had just been settled by a party of New England emigrants. These people had bought Sept. more than sixteen thousand acres of land of Kieft; and Doughty became their minister, with a salary of six hundred guilders per annum.
Two months later, that portion of Long Island adjoining Coney
Dec. 19. Island, now known as Gravesend, was formally patented to Lady Moody, her son Sir Henry Moody, Ensign George Baxter, and Sergeant James Hubbard, who had held it so bravely during all these harassing years.
In pursuance of orders from the West India Company, Kieft Oct. 12. investigated the mineral resources of the province. During the progress of the treaty in August, some of the Indians had exhibited specimens of minerals they claimed to have found in the Neversinck Hills and elsewhere, which upon analysis yielded what was supposed to be gold and quicksilver and iron pyrites. An officer and thirty men were sent to search for and procure as many specimens as possible for transmission to Holland. They found the article in question, and as a ship was going to leave New Haven in December, they sent their little cargo by it, in charge of Arendt Corssen; but the vessel was lost at sea, and never heard from after it passed out of Long Island Sound.
One of the signs of progress in New Amsterdam was a new school started by Arien Jansen Van Olfendam, who arrived from Holland on March 3d of this year. He had no competitor after Roelandsen's banish- 8
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
ment, and prospered as well as could have been expected, considering the condition of the country. His terms of tuition were "two beavers " per annum, - beavers meaning dried beaver-skins. He taught in New Amsterdam until the year 1660, and among those he educated were some of the leading personages of the province.
1647. Meanwhile Adriaen Van der Donck, whose name is familiar to Jan. 17. the historians of New Netherland, had married the daughter of Rev. Francis Doughty, and wished to remove to Manhattan. He had filled the office of sheriff in Rensselaerswick for nearly five years, and had been of infinite service to the colony. Through his influence the first church had been built there, which, although small, had a canopied pulpit, pews for the magistracy and the deacons, and nine benches for the people, after the fashion of the Fatherland. As previously recorded, it was chiefly through his recommendations that the services of Dominie Megapolensis had been secured; a clergyman who not only preached to his own countrymen, but was the first of the Dutch Church to attempt. the instruction of the Indians in religion. For a long time, he knew very little of the Indian language ; and he related in a letter to a friend how, when he preached a sermon, ten or twelve savages would attend, each with a long pipe in his mouth, and would stare at him, and after- ward ask why he stood there alone and made so many words, when none of the rest might speak. He taught them slowly and by de- grees, as he could make himself understood, that he was admonishing them as he did the Christians, not to drink and murder and steal. Through his voluntary and earnest and unceasing labors, many of the red-men about Fort Orange heard the gospel preached long before New England sent missionaries among the Indians.
Before Van der Donck had completed his arrangements for removal, the pretty cottage in which he lived was burned; and, as it was in the depth of a remarkably inclement winter, Van Corlear invited his houseless. neighbors to share his hospitality. A quarrel soon arose, because Van Curler insisted that Van der Donck was bound by his lease to make good to the patroon the value of the lost house. Van der Donck retorted sharply ; whereupon Van Corlear ordered him from under his roof within two days. Seeking refuge in Fort Orange, Van der Donck was allowed by the new commissary, Van der Bogaerdt, to occupy a miserable hut, "into which," he said, " no one would hardly be willing to enter," until the opening of river navigation, when he proceeded to New Amsterdam.
Kieft was well disposed towards the man to whom he was in- April 28. debted for a large amount of borrowed money, and readily granted him the privileges of patroon over some fine lands which he selected, to
125
VAN RENSSELAER'S DEATH.
the north of Manhattan Island, on the Hudson River, which took the: name of "Colon Donck," or "Donck's Colony." Many of the Dutch: were in the habit of calling this estate " de Jonkheer's Landt," Jonk- heer being a title which in Holland was applied to the sons of noblemen, The English corrupted it and called it Yonkers; thus the name Early Yonkers perpetuates the memory of the first proprietor of the spring. property in that locality.
During the same summer, Kieft issued a patent to Cornelis Antonissen Van Slyck for the land which is now the town of Catskill, with the privileges of patroon ; giving as a reason "the great services which Van Slyck had done this country in helping to make peace and ransom prisoners during the war"; but in so doing the governor openly set at naught the pretensions of the patroon of Rensselaerswick, which, in- deed, had already been formally denied in the proceedings against Koorn in 1644.
News of the death of Kiliaen Van Rensselaer soon after reached the colony. By this event the title of the estate descended to his eldest son, Johannes, who, being under age, was, by his father's will, placed under the guardianship of Johannes Van Wely and Wouter Van Twiller, his executors. In November, these guardians of the young patroon, having rendered homage to the States-General, in the name of their ward, sent Brandt Van Slechtenhorst as director to the colony, in place of Van Corlear, who had resigned.
Late in autumn, the company granted the town of Breuckelen, Nov. 26. Long Island, municipal privileges; that is, the people were allowed to elect two schepens, with full judicial powers, and a schout, who should be subordinate to the sheriff at New Amsterdam. The vil- lage at this time was a mile inland, the hamlet at the water's edge was known as the Ferry.
Kieft was very much harassed, during the entire year of 1646, by difficulties with the Swedes on the Delaware River, and by what he styled the "impudent encroachments " of the New-Englanders. He sent Andries Hudde to succeed Jan Jansen at Fort Nassau, and imprisoned Jansen for fraud and neglect of duty. In the autumn of 1645, he sent him to Holland, for trial. Hudde was equal to the governor in the use of profane language, but, though energetic, he was no match for Printz, the imperious Swedish commander, who nearly annihilated the commerce of the Dutch; and the two neighbors were engaged in a perpetual squab- ble, which had no dignity, and is hardly worth a place in history, since it was followed by no results. In the same manner ended a long and curi- ously bitter correspondence between the governor and the New England
126
HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
authorities. While justice, in this instance, seemed to be on the side of the Dutch, the English certainly showed themselves the better diplo- matists, and Kieft only injured a good cause by intermeddling.
But events in another part of the world had already prepared the way for a change which was to influence all the future of the province of New Netherland. Peter Stuyvesant, the governor of Curaçoa, which had been wrested from the Spanish during the most brilliant period of the West India Company's history, made an unsuccessful attack upon the Portuguese island of St. Martin in 1644, through which he lost a leg, and was obliged to return to Europe for surgical aid. The company, who held him in great respect, concluded to send him as governor to New Netherland, and revoked Van Dincklagen's provisional appointment. During the summer of 1645, a sharp controversy was go- ing on among the Directors of the com- pany in regard to the proposed reforms in colonial affairs ; and Autograph of Stuyvesant.
their ablest pens were in constant requisition to ward off the attacks of the national Dutch party, who were publishing pamphlets to influence the public mind against their movements, and to show them up as a clique of tyrants, who had squandered the treasures of the country and contracted immense debts. It is curious to read the company's various and numberless resolutions about this time, especially those treating of money matters. They lead us into a better understanding of the diffi- culties attending such a corporation, which, taking upon itself a part of the duties of the government, would necessarily expect from the latter assistance ; and this, coming at all times slowly, at last failed them
1645. altogether. It was decided in the College of the XIX, that the July 6. expenses of New Netherland should no longer be confined to the Amsterdam Chamber, but shared by all the chambers of the company in common. As news of the peace with the Indians had reached them, they were in less haste to send out a new governor : finally, to settle the knotty questions which were engendering a great deal of ill-feeling, and to render instructions clear and comprehensive, Stuyvesant's depart- ure was delayed for more than a year; and even at the last, all the preparations for his voyage were tediously slow.
1646. He received his commission, and took the oath of office before July 28. the States-General, July 28, 1646. He sailed on Christmas morn-
127
THE NEW GOVERNOR.
ing, and after a long détour, stopping at Curaçoa and the West India Islands, reached New Amsterdam, May 11, 1647. He was ac- 1647. companied by Van Dincklagen as Vice-Director, Van Dyck as May 11. Fiscal, Captain Bryan Newton, Commissary Adriaen Keyser, and Cap-
00
Portrait of Peter Stuyvesant.
tain Jelmer Thomas, with several soldiers, a number of free colonists, and a few private traders. The first-named gentlemen, including the governor, had their families with them.
Stuyvesant's reception was very flattering. The guns of the fort were fired, and the entire population of New Amsterdam cheered and waved hats and handkerchiefs as he landed. There was a little informal speech- making, and with great hauteur the new chief magistrate assured the crowd that he "should govern them as a father does his children."
128
HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
The wily little Kieft was foremost in making his successor welcome, and escorted him to the Executive Mansion, which he had already va- cated, and in which a sumptuous repast was awaiting His Excellency.
Peter Stuyvesant was the son of a clergyman in Friesland. He had early evinced a taste for military life, and had now been for some years in the employ of the West India Company. He was a proud, scholarly looking man, a little above the medium height, with a remarkably fine physique; and he bore himself with the air of a prince. The highly in- tellectual features of his face gave evidence of great decision and force of character. His complexion was dark, and a close black cap which he often wore imparted to it a still deeper shade. His chin was bare, and his mouth, indicative of sternness and grave authority, was fringed with a very slight mustache. The inflections of his voice, and his whole appearance when speaking, were rather unattractive; but, in spite of a certain apparent coldness, no one could escape the influence of his mag- netic presence. He was a man of strong prejudices and passions, of severe morality, and at times unapproachable aspect ; but his heart was large, his sympathies tender, and his affections warm, though his creed was rigid. He was never otherwise than faultlessly dressed, and always after the most approved European standard. A wide, drooping shirt-col- lar fell over a velvet jacket with slashed sleeves, displaying a full white puffed shirt-sleeve. His hose were also slashed, very full, and fastened at the knee by a handsome scarf tied in a knot, and his shoes were ornamented with a large rosette. His lost leg had been replaced by a wooden one with silver bands, which accounts for the tradition that he wore a silver leg. He was often abrupt in manner, and made no pretensions to conventional smoothness at any time. He had sterling excellences of character, but more knowledge than culture.
The career of Governor Stuyvesant is deeply interesting from its sym- metry and its manliness. He came to Manhattan in the employ of a mercantile corporation ; but his whole heart and soul became enlisted in the welfare of the country of his adoption. Thenceforward to his latest breath he was intensely American, and the varied fruits of his labors are among the most valuable legacies of the seventeenth century.
A few years prior to this date, he had married Judith Bayard, the daughter of a celebrated Paris divine, who had taken refuge in Holland from religious persecution. Shortly after his own marriage, his sister Anna was espoused to Samuel Bayard, Judith's elder brother. The husband died within a short period, leaving his young widow and three infant sons to the care of her only brother, who deemed it wise to bring them with him to his new home. The two ladies, Mrs.
129
MRS. PETER STUYVESANT.
Stuyvesant and Mrs. Bayard, had hitherto known only luxury and com- fort. They were well informed as to the uncertain prospects of colonial life, and possible savage warfare; for the published accounts of the New Netherland horrors had circulated widely in Europe. But they were as brave as they were sensible and self-sacrificing. Mrs. Stuyvesant was a blonde, and very beautiful, spoke both the French and the Dutch lan- guage with ease, and in the course of a few years acquired a good knowl- edge of English. She had a sweet voice and a rare taste for music, which had been cultivated under the best of masters. She was fond of dress, and followed the French fashions, displaying considerable artis- tic skill in the perfection and style of her attire. She was gentle and retiring in her manners, but was possessed of great firmness of char- acter.
Mrs. Bayard was less attractive in person; she was tall, commanding, and imperious. Her education was of a high order, considering the age in which she lived, and she had great tact and capacity for business. She brought a tutor across the ocean for her three little sons; but after he had been dismissed as unworthy of his position, she taught the children herself in almost every branch of practical education. Of her abilities in that direction we may judge from the fact that her son Nicholas, a mere youth, was appointed, in 1664, to the clerkship of the Common Council, - an office of which the records were required to be kept in both Dutch and English. It will not be amiss perhaps, in this connec- tion, to quote from the historian Brodhead a few words in regard to the women of Holland. He says : "The purity of morals and decorum of manners, for which the Dutch have ever been conspicuous, may be most justly ascribed to the happy influence of their women, who mingled in all the active affairs of life, and were consulted with deferential respect. They loved their homes and their firesides, but they loved their country more. Through all their toils and struggles, the calm fortitude of the men of Holland was nobly encouraged and sustained by the earnest and undaunted spirit of their mothers and wives. And the empire which the female sex obtained was no greater than that which their beauty, good sense, virtue, and devotion entitled them to hold."
It was well for Stuyvesant that he had such a wife and sister near him, for he was entering upon a series of trials which would test his temper and discretion to the utmost. Of their influence and coun- May 27. sels we catch only occasional glimpses here and there. But his administration was longer and more perplexing than that of any other Dutch governor. It was, at that time, no easy matter to conduct the affairs of a remote settlement, where the machinery of government was
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
insufficient of itself to control a mixed community, whose interests were in constant conflict with those of the trading company which held the reins of power. The very conditions of his office compelled him to assume individual responsibility, and to depend upon his own private judgment in a thousand instances, the importance of which we can now imperfectly estimate. His faults sometimes glare upon us in a most blinding manner; but with all his apparent fondness for ostentation of command, he does not seem to have been open to the charge of inten- tional injustice, and his purity of purpose stands out in indelible con- trast with the capricious rule of his predecessor.
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