USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York : its origin, rise, and progress. Vol. I > Part 8
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Captain De Vries walked up and down in silent indignation while this was going on. But at the governor's dinner-table, later in the day, he expressed his opinion of the whole transaction in terms more earnest than polite. He told Van Twiller that he had acted very indiscreetly ; that the Englishman had no commission, only a custom-house clear- ance to sail to New England, not to New Netherland; that if it had been his case he should have helped him to some eight-pounders from the fort, and put a stop to his going up the river at all. As it was, he advised, most energetically, that the ship Zoutberg be sent to force him out of the river, and teach him better manners.
April 28. The governor was convinced of the wisdom of the counsel, and, after mature deliberation, made a move in the proper di- rection by sending an armed force to Fort Orange, where Eelkins had pitched a tent and commenced a brisk trade with the Indians. The tent was speedily folded, and the intruder conducted to his vessel and to Manhattan. The English said : "The Dutch came along with us in their shallope, and they sticked greene bowes all about her and drank strong waters, and sounded their trumpet in a triumphing manner over us."
Eelkins was obliged to disgorge his peltries and leave the harbor, with a friendly warning in his ears never more to attempt any interference with Dutch trade. Van Twiller then issued an order to the effect that no one should sign any paper in reference to the treatment which Eelkins had received.
May 20. Very soon afterward the governor, who was sure to act promptly on inopportune occasions, attempted to vindicate his statesman- ship at the expense of De Vries. The latter had two vessels, one of which was a small yacht; and before returning to Europe he wished to send it toward the north on a trading cruise along the coast. The governor forbade his doing so, and, seeing De Vries making preparations in defiance of his authority, valiantly ordered the guns of the fort turned upon him. De Vries, who tells the story, says :-
" I ran to the point of land where Van Twiller stood with the secretary and one or two of the council, and told them it seemed to me the country was full. of fools ! If they must fire at something, they ought to have fired at the English- man who violated the rights of their river against their will. This caused them to desist from troubling me further."
A Babbeltje
"I ran to the point of land where Van Twiller stood with the Secretary and one or two of the Council, and told them it seemed to me the country was full of fools !" Page 70
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THE FIRST CLERGYMAN.
The yacht sailed, and was soon winding her way through the channel of Hellegat (or Hell-Gate, as it is still called), which in certain times of the tide indulged in all sorts of wild paroxysms. Some go so far as to say that the Dutch named it out of sheer spleen, because it hectored their tub-built barks until the sailors were so giddy that they solemnly gave the yawning gulf over to the Devil.
In the same vessel which brought Wouter Van Twiller to Manhattan, Dominie Bogardus, the first clergyman of New Netherland, was a passen- ger. He was a man of a certain order of talent in large measure, and was honored for his piety. He was large, graceful, sinewy, strong, with a fine, broad, open, frank face, high cheek-bones, a dark piercing eye, and mouth expressive of the very electricity of good-humor, which was partly hidden, however, by a beard cut in the peculiar fashion prescribed for ecclesiastics during the reign of Henry IV. of France. He was not with- out prominent faults. He had a hot and hasty temper, was brusque in his manner, and addicted to high living; but he was greatly superior in both mind and character to Van Twiller, and his sterling qualities stood forth in such bold relief, that now, at the very mention of his name, a figure seems to leap forth from the mist of centuries, instinct with hearty, vigorous life. Fearless in the performance of his own duties, he never allowed any failure on the part of others to pass by unreproved. In several instances the governors in authority were severely castigated from the sacred desk.
He desired a more convenient place for public worship than the loft in the horse-mill; and the West India Company displayed their zeal for the preservation of the blessings of education and religion to their infant colony by building him a church. It was a plain wooden edifice, of a pattern similar to the New England barn of the present day, and was located on a high point of land fronting the East River, near what is now Pearl Street, between Whitehall and Broad. It was a conspicuous object to vessels coming up through the bay ; and English travelers, who were accustomed to a different style of architecture, criticised it in anything but flattering terms. But it was satisfactory to the conscientious and devout worshipers who assembled there every week, and thought only of the eloquent words of their beloved dominie ; and it is to be respected as the first church edifice on Manhattan Island.
Near it, and a little to the right, they built a parsonage. It was a small Dutch cottage, with the gable-end turned towards the street. The front door was ornamented with an elegant brass knocker brought from Hol- land. Dominie Bogardus had been accustomed not only to the comforts, but also to the luxuries of life, and knew how to surround himself with
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
much that was pleasing to the eye and gratifying to the taste, even in the new, wild country. With his own hands he laid out and planted a garden. And in the fresh summer days pinks and tulips winked and blinked across the graveled pathways, coquetting with young vegetables. Pretty vines clambered to the very house-top, and lilacs and roses, jessamines and syringas, vied with each other in gorgeous display, and helped to render the place for many years the pride of Manhattan, and one of the chief objects of attraction for strangers.
Another noted but far less worthy personage came over in the Zoutberg, and enjoyed for several years the distinction of being the first and only schoolmaster in New Netherland. His name was Adam Roelandsen. From some cause, perhaps because "people did not speak well of him," he could not make a living at his vocation, and so took in washing. There is a curious lawsuit recorded in the old Dutch manu- scripts, which shows that on the 20th of September, 1638, Adam Roe- landsen demanded payment of one Gillis De Voocht for washing his linen. The defendant made no objection to the price charged, but refused to pay until the end of the year. The court decided that Roelandsen should wash for De Voocht during the time agreed upon, and then collect his money. He lived at first quite out of town; but there is on record an agreement for building a house on Stone Street, near the brewery of Oloff S. Van Cortlandt, which was to be thirty feet long, eighteen feet wide, and eight feet high, to be tight-clapboarded, and roofed with reeden thatch, have an entry three feet wide, two doors, a pantry, a bed- stead, a staircase, and a mantel-piece, to be ready on the 1st of May, 1642, for which $140 was to be paid by Adam Roelandsen, one half when the timber was on the ground, and the other half when the build- ing was finished.
That the bedstead should be named in the contract for building a house requires some explanation. It was called " slaap-banck," and was a sleeping-bench, constructed like a cupboard in a partition, with doors closing upon it when unoccupied. Two ample feather-beds upon it, one to sleep on and the other for a covering, made up in comfort what it lacked in display, and the whole arrangement was a great economy in the matter of room. A sleeping-apartment in the small Dutch tavern of early New Netherland often accommodated several travelers at night, while during the day it was only a public room, quite unencumbered in appearance. Schoolmaster Roelandsen could not have enjoyed his house for a very long period ; for on the 17th of December, 1646, he was tried for a very grave offence, found guilty, and sentenced to be " publicly flogged, and banished from the country."
73
THE FIRST WIND-MILLS.
Van Twiller was not slow to carry out the ideas of his employers in the matter of public improvements. The fort was scarcely anything more than banks of earth, eight or ten feet high, with decayed palisades, and without ditches. The Dutch, as we have seen, had already introduced ne- gro slavery into their colony; and a number of recently imported Africans were employed, under the superintendence of Jacob Stoffelsen, to repair this dilapidated and never particularly strong structure. A guard-house and barracks were also built within the fort for the newly arrived sol- diers ; and three expensive wind-mills were erected, but injudiciously located so near the other buildings that the south-wind was frequently intercepted. However, they gave the little community something more homelike to look at, and were particularly acceptable.
For himself, Van Twiller built a very substantial brick house within the fort, by far the most elaborate private dwelling which had as yet been attempted in this country; and it served for the residence of succes- sive chiefs of the colony during the remainder of the Dutch dynasty. Several smaller brick and frame dwellings were erected for the officers, all being done at the expense of the company. A farm had been laid out some time prior to this date, called the Company's Farm. It ex- tended north from Wall to Hudson Street (we can designate localities only by thus using the present names), and upon this property Van Twiller built a house, barn, brewery, boat-house, etc., for his own private accommodation. Another farm belonging to the company he set apart as a tobacco plantation. He built several small buildings for the trades- people, and laid out a graveyard on the west of Broadway, above Morris Street. He also built two houses at Pavonia, another at Fort Nassau on the Delaware River, and at Fort Orange one "elegant large house with balustrades, and eight small houses." He did not seem to know where to stop, having once commenced the work of spending his employers' money.
But during all this time no independent farmers attempted the culti- vation of the soil. The agricultural improvements lay entirely in the hands of the patroons, and the sound of the hammer was heard only where it was likely to be advantageous to the special business of the West India Company. The little town on Manhattan Island received the name of New Amsterdam, as the governor's new broom swept over it, and was invested with the prerogative of "staple right," by virtue of which all the merchandise passing up and down the river was subject to certain duties. This right gave the post the commercial monopoly of the whole province.
Van Twiller displayed less and less adaptation to his field of labor as the months wore on, and his mismanagement was the topic of conversa-
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
tion among the intelligent men of the colony. Dominie Bogardus wrote
him several letters on the subject, and is said to have once
1634. called him a " child of the Devil," and threatened him with "a shake from the pulpit." The attention of the States-General was again attracted to the affairs of New Netherland through the complaints that were entered by the owners of the ship William, who estimated the damages they had sustained by reason of the Dutch on the North River at £ 4,000, and demanded payment. There was a tedious litigation, but it never came to a definite settlement.
One of the most onerous duties imposed upon the unlucky governor by the West India Company was to obtain a title to the lands on the banks of the Fresh or Connecticut River, which had occasionally been visited by the Dutch for trading purposes ever since its original discovery by Adriaen Block, in 1614. They had recently learned that it had June 8. been included in a grant to the Earl of Warwick by the king of England, and deemed it politic to get a formal Indian deed before War- wick's grantees should take any steps towards its occupation. Accord- ingly, Jacob Van Curler and six other agents were sent to accomplish the feat, as also to finish the trading-house, or redoubt, which had been pro- jected in 1623, on the west bank of the river, on the site of the present city of Hartford. They had no difficulty in treating with the Pequods, who had just conquered the Sequeens, and who stipulated only that the ceded territory should always be neutral ground, where all the tribes might come to trade, and no wars ever be waged; and then the little post was completed and fortified with two cannons, and named Good Hope.1
Governor Winthrop thought it well to assert promptly the superior title of the English to the whole of the Connecticut valley, in a letter to the Dutch authorities, and received in reply a very courteous and respect- ful document from Governor Van Twiller, asking the governor of Plym- outh to defer all his claims until their respective governments should agree about the limits of their territories, not presuming "two great powers would fall into contention about a little portion of such heathen- ish countries."
But although the Massachusetts authorities were not disposed to inter- fere, the Plymouth people were determined to establish a counter-claim to the land where the Hollanders were now in quiet possession, under their
1 The ruins of the old fort have been traced, by persons now living, on the bank of the Connecticut near the seat of the Wylls family. Several yellow Dutch bricks used in its con- struction are preserved by residents of Hartford. Public Records of Connecticut, by J. H. Trumbull. Holmes, Am. Ann., I. 219, note.
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DIFFICULTIES WITH THE ENGLISH.
threefold supposed right, by original discovery, constant visitation, and legal purchase. So they managed to buy a tract of land, just north of Fort Good Hope, of a party of Indians who had been driven out of that country by the Pequods; and Lieutenant William Holmes, a land surveyor, with a company of English farmers, accompanied by the ban- ished Indians, proceeded there as rapidly as they could make their way through the forests. While passing the Dutch post they were hailed by Van Corlear, who threatened to shoot them if they did not stop instantly. Their reply was, "Fire ! we shall go on if we die"; and they went on, and the Dutch did not fire. Arriving at the point where Windsor now stands, they clapped up the frame of a house which they had brought with them, and landed their provisions. Afterwards they "palisadoed " their house about, and fortified themselves better, for they were afraid of the Pequods, who were much offended that they should bring home and restore the Sachem Natuwannute to his rights.
When the news of these proceedings reached Van Twiller, he sent a formal order to Holmes to depart forthwith from the lands on the Fresh River ; but Holmes, who had already defied the guns of Fort Good Hope, was not to be moved by the power of speech. He replied that he was there in the name of the king of England, and there he should stay.1 Van Twiller submitted his perplexities to the Amsterdam Chamber, but, before any reply could reach him, serious difficulties occurred between the Connecticut River Dutch colonists and the Pequods, and the latter entered into an alliance with the English. When the order came from Holland to send an armed force to dislodge the intruders, Van Twiller dispatched seventy men for the purpose; but the Windsor colony put themselves on the defensive, and, fearful of Indian hostilities, the Dutch thought it wise to withdraw.
The most important event of the year 1634 was an advantageous treaty of peace concluded with the Raritan Indians, which, considering the weak state of the colony, was a master stroke of policy.
Meanwhile, Captain De Vries, upon his return to Holland, had found the directors of the company still at variance in regard to the meddling with the fur-trade by the patroons. Even the few beaver-skins which he had brought over in his vessel provoked high words, and, seeing the turn events were taking, he retired from his partnership on the Delaware, and entered into a speculation with some merchants who were trading on the coast of Guiana. But he did not hesitate to speak his mind freely concerning the incapacity of the New Netherland officials, and through
1 Winthrop ; Bradford, in Hutch. Mass. ; Prince ; Trumbull ; Broadhead ; O'Calla- ghan. 5
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
his efforts and influence the drunken and dishonest sheriff Notelman was superseded by Lubbertus Van Dincklagen, an educated lawyer, and a man of great excellence of character.
1635. Both the directors of the company and the patroons appealed to the States-General for redress of grievances ; but the latter, finding the question very knotty, prudently postponed a decision. In the mean time, Godyn had died, and the remaining patroons of Swaanen- dael commenced legal proceedings against the company for damages, which they had sustained through neglect of the company to defend them from inland and foreign wars, as was promised in their charter. The Assembly of the XIX., tiring of these continual discords, determined
to purchase the rights and property of the South River patroons ; Feb. 7. which they accordingly did, for the sum of fifteen thousand six hundred guilders.
Early in the following summer the vacant Fort Nassau was seized by some Englishmen from Point Comfort, under command of George Holmes. Thomas Hall, one of Holmes's men, deserted, and brought prompt intelli- gence to Van Twiller, who sent an armed force, dislodged the June 1. party, and brought all captives to New Amsterdam. But he did not know what to do with them, and took counsel of De Vries, who was again with his vessel in New York Bay, and about to sail for the
Chesapeake. The result was that they were reshipped "pack and Sept. 10. sack" for Point Comfort, and thus ended the first English ag- gression on the South River.
Success was awaiting the English in the Connecticut Valley, not- withstanding the Dutch fort at Hartford. In the autumn, the Pequods
visited Boston and sold all their right and title to Governor Nov. 24. Winthrop. To whom then did it belong ? Soon afterward, John Winthrop, the younger, arrived from England, commissioned by Lord Warwick's grantees as "agent for the River of the Connecticut with the places adjoining thereto," and brought with him men and ammunition and two thousand pounds in money to begin a fortification at the mouth of the river. A few weeks later he proceeded to take possession and erect some buildings upon the very land which the Dutch had purchased of the Indians three years before, and contemptuously tore down the arms of the States-General which was affixed to a tree, painting a ridicu- lous face in its place. Van Twiller, who had lost all faith in wordy protests, sent a sloop to dislodge them ; but Winthrop had two pieces on shore, and would not suffer the Dutch to land. The English named the point Saybrook, in compliment to Lord Say and Lord Brook.
Fort Amsterdam was completed this summer; but although consider-
77
FORT AMSTERDAM.
able expense had been lavished upon the repairs, if there had been a hostile attack from any source whatever, the question of holding it would have been decided very briefly. The northwest bastion only was faced with stone, and not a fence surrounded it to keep off the goats and other animals which ran at large through the town. Its only redeeming fea- ture was its elegant regularity.
The houses were small and simple in their construction, and nearly all of them were located within a few yards of the quaint little citadel. Some were built of rough stone.
E' Fort nieuw Amsterdam op de Manhatans.
First View of New Amsterdam.
The above sketch of the fort and the buildings around it was originally made by a Dutch officer in 1635, and the picture was engraved in Hol- land. As a work of art it is certainly curious. It was undoubtedly the production of a strong memory, and, even allowing for the omission of Governor's Island, which is ingrafted upon Long Island, and the distance of Paulus Hook, which appears not more than the length of three of the canoes, there is no view extant which can give us a better idea of the tender infancy of our proud city.
The wind-mill was near a creek which is now Broad Street. The gib- bet, or whipping-post, was close by the water's edge. Upon this trans- gressors were hoisted by the waist, and suspended such length of time as their offense warranted.
And yet, such was the peaceful disposition of the inhabitants, that
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
police regulations were almost entirely unknown. Not even a sentinel
1636. was kept on duty at night. A very ludicrous incident occurred May 8. on the morning of the 8th of May, 1636. It was just at day- break that the boom of a strange gun shook the island from center to circumference. The people were alarmed, the soldiers in the fort rushed to their posts, and the corpulent Van Twiller, in a state of mind not to be envied, ran, holding a pistol in one hand while he tried to dress him- self with the other, towards the shore. It was all explained presently. Captain De Vries had returned, and after having piloted his vessel through the Narrows in the dead of night, humorously determined to speak in his own behalf and watch the result. He was heartily wel- comed and invited home with the governor to breakfast.
June 25. It is through the writings of this celebrated sea-captain that we learn of much of the irregularity existing at that time in New Netherland. Nearly every one drank wine and stronger liquors to excess when they could be obtained. For instance, a new agent arrived for Pauw's colony at Pavonia, one Cornelis Van Vorst, and brought with him some good claret. De Vries called there one day, and found the gov- ernor and the minister making merry ; and finally they quarreled with Van Vorst about a manslaughter which had been committed in his colony a few days before, but made it up in the end, and started for home. Van Vorst ran to give a salute to the governor from a stone gun which stood on a pillar near his house, and a spark fell upon the thatched roof, setting it on fire. There being no means of putting it out, in less than half an hour the whole building was consumed.
On another occasion the gunner gave a frolic, and all the digni- Aug. 8. taries were present. The tent was erected in one of the angles of the fort, and tables and benches were placed for the guests. When the glee was at its height, the trumpet began to blow, which occasioned a quarrel, and the koopman of the stores and the koopman of the cargasoons found fault and called the trumpeter hard names. He turned round and gave them each a thrashing, and they ran for their swords, uttering terrible threats. . The trumpeter hid from them that night, but the next morning, when the wine had evaporated, "they feared him more than they sought him."
Aug. 13. The natural beauties of Staten Island attracted the attention Aug. 15. of De Vries, and before he left for Holland, on the 15th of August, he arranged with Van Twiller to enter it for him on the records of the company, as he wished to found a colony there.
On the 16th of June, prior to this date, Jacob Van Corlear had pur- chased a tract of land from the Indians on Long Island, and employed Thomas Hall, the English deserter, to superintend the plantation. About
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PURCHASE OF LANDS.
the same time Andries Hudde, one of the governor's council, in partnership with Wolfert Gerritsen, purchased the flats next Corlear's property. On the 16th of July, Van Twiller himself secured the tempting lands farther to the east. These purchases, including nearly 15,000 acres, seem to have been made without the knowledge or approbation of the Amsterdam Chamber. Upon them was founded the town of New Amersfoordt, now Flatlands.
There was another grant of which it is interesting to take notice, and which occurred not far from the AMIT BEDFORP same date, - sixty - two acres to Roelof Jans, beginning south of BABROW MORTON BLEECKER LEROY Warren Street, and extending along CAR RKSON Broadway as far as Duane Street, C SPR thence northwesterly a mile and a NG ER half to Christopher Street, thus RENS MCDOUGALL HOMPSON < RL SULLIVAN forming a sort of unequal tri- BROOME angle with its base upon the North River. This was the original con- 4 0 SSE3 veyance of the very valuable estate HUDSON VARICK RIVER since known as the Trinity Church property.1 WEST ST. TR ON
HUDSON
TW. BROADWAY
SADA F
m
0
ERS
SHINGTON
GREENWICH
BEAR
Rensselaerswick was at 1637. this time improving more
rapidly than any other part of the RE province. The farmers wrote home PARI BARCLAY PARK glowing descriptions of the soil and VESEY W FULTON productions, which, published in BROADWAY LOVATAND Holland, brought out colonists in Map of what was Anetje Jans's Farm. large numbers, and some of them were men of substantial means. Early in the spring of 1637 Van Rens- selaer purchased of the Indians a large addition to his already exten- sive property, and tradition says that he paid a brief visit to his manor about that time.
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