History of the state of New York Vol I, Part 17

Author: Brodhead, John Romeyn, 1814-1873. 4n
Publication date: 1871
Publisher: New York : Harper & Brothers
Number of Pages: 844

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Cornelis Jacobsen May and Adriaen Jo- tend the ex- pedition. March.

May. Colonists arrive in the prov- ince.

The New Netherland sailed from the Texel in the be- ginning of March; and, shaping her course by the Canary Islands and the coast of Guiana, arrived safely, in the be- ginning of May, at the North River. At the mouth of the river, a French vessel was found lying at anchor, whose captain wished to set up the arms of the King of France, and take possession in the name of his sovereign. But " the Hollanders," faithful to the States General and to the Directors of the West India Company, whose designs they were unwilling to see frustrated, " would not let him do it." The yacht Mackarel having just then returned from up the North River, where she had been trading with the

* Wassenaar, vii., 11, 12 ; Doc. Hist. N. Y., iii., 35, 36 ; Moulton, 366-368 ; Mickle's Reminiscences, 3 ; S. Hazard's Annals of Pennsylvania, 13 ; Appendix, Note K.

t Wassenaar, vii., 11 ; xii., 38; Doc, Hist. N. Y., iii., 35, 43 ; Hol. Doc., ii., 368 ; Alb. Rec., xxiv., 167.

151

FORT ORANGE BUILT.

Indians, was armed at once with a couple of pieces of can- CHAP. V. non, and under her convoy the Frenchman was forced to sea. Unwilling to be balked in his pertinacious loyalty, Designs of 1623. the French

the French captain immediately sailed to the South Riv- er, and attempted the same experiment ; "but he was foiled in a similar manner by the settlers there."*

balked.

The West India Com- pany takes possession

This affair having been satisfactorily accomplished, eight men were left at Manhattan " to take possession" for the West India Company. Several families, together of Manhat- with a number of sailors and men, were also detailed for tan. service and colonization on the South River, and to the eastward of Manhattan. The New Netherland then went Colonists up the North River to Castle Island. When she had pro- North Riv- sent up the ceeded " as far as Sopus, which is half way," her draft of er. water was found to be a serious impediment. The ship was, therefore, lightened " with some boats that were left there by the Dutch, that had been there the year before, a trading with the Indians upon their own accounts, and gone back again to Holland." By this means, they at length " brought the vessel up."t

On the west shore of the river, just above Castle Island, " a fort with four angles, named Orange," which had been Fort Or- projected the previous year, was immediately "thrown up and completed." The colonists forthwith "put the spade in the earth," and began farming operations so vig- orously, that, before the yacht Mackarel returned to Hol- land, their corn " was nearly as high as a man, so that they were getting along bravely." About eighteen fami- lies settled themselves at Fort Orange, under Adriaen Jo- ris, who " staid with them all winter," after sending his

ange built.

* Wassenaar, vii., 11; Doc. Hist. N. Y., iii., 35.

t Depositions of Catelina Trico, in Deed Book, vii., and in N. Y. Col. MSS., xxxv .; Doc. Hist. N. Y., iii., 49-51. These depositions were made in 1685 and 1688, in which latter year the deponent was eighty-three years old. Trico states that she was born in Paris, and that she came out to New Netherland in the year 1623, in the "ship called the Unity (Eendragt ?), whereof was commander Arien Joris, belonging to the West India Company, being the first ship that came here for the said company." There is a slight discrepancy between Trico's testimony and Wassenaar's account, which states the name of the ship as the "New Netherland." Wassenaar's account was contemporaneous, and it is con- firmed by Hol. Doc., ii., 370; on the other hand, the depositions of Trico were sworn to when she was eighty-three years old, and they describe events which happened sixty-five years before, when she was only eighteen years of age.

152

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

1623. New alli- ance be- tween the Dutch and the In- dians.

CHAP. V. ship home to Holland in charge of his son. As soon as the colonists had built themselves " some huts of bark" around the fort, the Mahikanders, or River Indians, the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the Senecas, with the Mahawawa or Ottawawa Indians, "came and made covenants of friendship" with Joris, " bringing him great presents of beaver or other peltry, and desired that they might come and have a constant free trade with them, which was concluded upon." For several years afterward, the Indians " were all as quiet as lambs, and came and traded with all the freedom imag- inable."*

Jacob Eel- kens super- seded.

Kriecke- beeck com- missary at Fort Or- ange.

Eelkens, whose base conduct the year before, in im- prisoning the Sequin chief on board his yacht, had pro- duced general disgust, was no longer employed by the Daniel van company ; and Daniel van Krieckebeeck was installed as Deputy Commissary at Fort Orange. The new command- er, whose name, " for brevity's sake," the colonists soon contracted into "Beeck," became very popular among them, and executed his functions so satisfactorily, "that he was thanked." The management of the fur trade along the river, and in the neighborhood of Manhattan, was intrusted, after Eelkens's supersedure, to Peter Ba- rentsen, who, for several years, performed his duties to the mutual satisfaction of the Indians and of the company.t

Peter Ba- rentsen su- perintend- ent of the Indian trade.

After the construction of Fort Orange, the colonists " also placed upon the Prince's Island, formerly called the Murderer's Island, a fort, which was named by them Fort "Wil- ' Wilhelmus ;' open (plat) in front, with a curtain in the helmus." rear, and garrisoned by sixteen men for the defense of the river below."#

* Wassenaar, vii., 11; Trico's Deposition, in N. Y. Col. MSS., xxxv. ; Doc. Hist. N. Y., iii., 35, 51. Wassenaar says that Fort Orange was built on the island. In this he is in- accurate. Fort Nassau, which was swept away and abandoned in 1617, was on Castle Island. "Fort Orange was built on the alluvion ground now occupied by the business part of the city of Albany. The site was that on which stands the building lately known as the 'Fort Orange Hotel,' formerly the mansion of the late Simeon De Witt."-D. D. Barnard's Address before the Albany Institute, 1839. The Fort Orange Hotel was de- stroyed in the great fire of 1847.

+ Wassenaar, vii., 11 ; xii., 38, 39 ; De Vries, 113 ; Doc. Hist. N. Y., iii., 36, 44, 45.

# I limit the text to the exact words of Wassenaar, vii., 11 (and translated in Doc. Hist.

153

FORT NASSAU, ON THE SOUTH RIVER.

CHAP. V.

The pertinacious attempt which the French captain, who had been convoyed out of the waters of Manhattan, 1623. made to set up the arms of France on the South River, though it had been promptly thwarted by the Dutch trad- ers whom he found there, showed the necessity of a per- manent post to protect the rights of the Dutch. May, whose previous voyages to that region had made him well acquainted with the country, now hastened to construct a log-fort, on the point at the mouth of the " Timmer Kill," which had been previously selected. This post, like the Fort Nas- first Dutch establishment on Castle Island, was named the South sau built on "Fort Nassau," in compliment to the family of the Prince River. of Orange. About three weeks after the arrival of the New Netherland at Manhattan, four couples, who had been June. married at sea, on their voyage from Holland, together with eight seamen, were sent in a yacht to the South River, First Euro- "by order of the Dutch governor," to settle themselves nists set- pean colo- tled there. there. The new home of the pioneers was on the east, or Jersey shore, near Gloucester, about four miles below the present city of Philadelphia .*

A few of the New Netherland's passengers, consisting of " two families and six men," it is said, were sent, directly the ship arrived at Manhattan, to the Fresh or Connecticut May. River, to commence the actual occupation of that part of or Connec- The Fresh the Dutch province. A small fort, or trading post, the occupied by ticut River " Good Hope," is said to have been also now projected and the Dutch. begun ; but it was not finished until 1633, ten years aft- erward.t

Another portion of the colonists, who came out in the Walloons New Netherland, consisting chiefly of Walloons, soon set- Long Isi- settled on tled themselves at a " bogt," or small bay, on the west Waal-bogt. and, at the

N. Y., iii., p. 35), without adding any suggestions of my own as to the position of Fort " Wilhelmus." The subject, however, is considered in note K, in the Appendix.

* Wassenaar, vii., 11 ; Vertoogh Van N. N., in Hol. Doc., iv., 71-207, and in ii., N. Y. HI. S. Coll., ii., 272, 250 ; Hol. Doc., ii., 370 ; viii., 73 ; De Vries, 102 ; i., N. Y. H. S. Coll., iii., 375; Depositions, in iii .. Doc. Hist. N. Y., 49, 50, 5] ; Moulton, 366; Ferris, 19; OCall., i., 100 ; Mulford's N. J., 49 ; S. Hazard's Ann. Penn., 12, 13 ; Appendix, note K.

t Deposition of Catelina Trico. in N. Y. Col. MSS., xxxv .. and in iii., Doc. Hist. N. Y., p. 50; Vertoogh van N. N., in Hol. Doc., iv., 71-20;, and in ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., ii., 276, 277. Trico says, that "as soon as they came to Mannatans, now called New York, they sent two families and six men to Harford River."

154

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

CHAP. V. shore of Long Island, nearly opposite to " Nechtonk," or 1623. Corlaer's Hook, on Manhattan. This settlement, which was just north of " Marechkawieck," or Brooklyn ;* before long became familiarly known as the " Waal-bogt," or Walloon's Cove. The colonists throve apace. Other em- igrants followed the first adventurers from Holland ; and here, in the month of June, 1625, Sarah Rapelje was born -the first ascertained offspring of European parentage in the province of New Netherland. These early colonists are not to be confounded with the Waldenses, who subse- quently emigrated from Amsterdam. The descendants of the Walloons soon spread themselves over the country in the vicinity of the Waal-bogt; and the names of many of the most respectable families on Long Island to this day attest their French and Belgian origin.t

C. J. May, First Di- rector of New Neth- erland

Cornelis Jacobsen May was now formally installed in his office as the First Director of New Netherland, under the Dutch West India Company. His administration, 1624. however, lasted only one year. In Holland, it was hoped that the colony, so prosperously begun, would, with proper management, go on thriftily. Whoever was placed as commander over the colonists, should exercise his author- ity "as their father, and not as their executioner ; leading them with a gentle hand. For he who governs them as a friend and associate, will be beloved by them; but he who shall rule them as a superior, will overthrow and bring to naught every thing, yea, will stir up against him the neighboring provinces, to which the impatient will fly. 'Tis better to govern by love and friendship than by force." During May's brief directorship, Fort Orange was com- pleted on the North River, and Fort Nassau on the South River. The fur trade was more systematically prosecuted ;

May's ad- ministra- tion.

* The name of this beautiful and prosperous city is a corruption of its original Dutch appellation, " Breuckelen," which was derived from that of the pretty village about eight- een miles from Amsterdam, on the road to Utrecht., The Walloons, as has been stated (ante, p. 146), derived their name from their " Waalsche," or French origin. In the prog- ress of years, their old "Waal-bogt" has become Englished into the present " Walla- bout."

t Benson's Memoir, 94 ; Moulton, 370, 371 ; Alb. Rec., xi., 332 ; Dr. De Witt, in N. Y. H. S. Proc., 1844, p. 55, and 1848, p. 75 ; Holgate's American Genealogy.

155

CORNELIS JACOBSEN MAY, DIRECTOR.

and the West India Company were soon gladdened with CHAP. V. the favorable intelligence which reached them from their infant colony. On his return to Amsterdam, Joris report- 1624. December. ed that " all was in good condition" in New Netherland, where the colonists were "getting bravely along," and cul- tivating friendly relations with the savages. All trade now inuring to the exclusive benefit of the West India Com- pany, the cargo of valuable furs which Joris brought back to Holland, as a first year's remittance from New Nether- land, on its public sale at Amsterdam, added over twenty- eight thousand guilders to their treasury .*

Meanwhile, the attention of the directors of that corpo- West India ration had been drawn to a supposed infringement, under arrests De Company their own eyes, of their close monopoly. David Pietersen at Hoorn. de Vries, an enterprising mariner of Hoorn, having made several voyages to the Mediterranean and the banks of Newfoundland, procured a commission from the King of France, and, in partnership with some Rochelle mer- chants, bought a small vessel, for the purpose of going to the fisheries, " and to the coast of Canada, to trade in peltries." The directors of the West India Company, learn- ing the circumstance, sent a committee to Hoorn, and seized the ship, which was lying there ready to sail. De 24 March. Vries protested that the end of his proposed voyage was beyond the limits of the company's charter ; but he pro- tested in vain. The jealousy of the directors was aroused ; they were determined to prevent any vessels but their own from sailing out of Holland to the coasts of North Amer- ica. De Vries, however, was not disheartened. He ap- pealed to the States General, and laid before them his commission from the King of France, countersigned by Admiral Montmorency. The government at the Hague 6 April. promptly interfered. A letter was addressed to the Col- General in- The States lege of XIX., warning them not to engage, in the begin- terfere. ning of their career, in needless disputes with neighboring European powers, especially with the French ; and advis-

* Wassenaar, vii., 11; viii., 85; Doc. Hist. N. Y., iii., 36, 37 : Hol. Doc., ii., 368 ; De Laet, App., 29 ; Budartius, in Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv., 131, 132.

Vries's ship

156

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

1624. De Vries's ship re- leased.

CHAP. V. ing them to arrange the affair amicably with De Vries, whose proposed voyage was to Canada, and beyond the bounds of the company's charter. The directors, after great delay, reluctantly freed the vessel from arrest, enjoining De Vries "not to go within their limits." But the voyage was en- tirely frustrated by their vexatious proceedings ; and De Vries, in the end, sold his ship to the Dordrecht Chamber. The jealous directors refused to make any compensation for the losses De Vries had suffered, who declared to them that he had undertaken his enterprise only with the patri- otic design "to make our Netherlands nation acquainted with those regions ; since our trade subsists by the sea."*

1625. The " Or- English jealousy, which had slumbered for three years ange Tree," since Carleton's first application to the States General to to New Nether- land, ar- rested in Plymouth. 28 Jan. 8 Feb. restrain the Hollanders from trading to New Netherland, was now again aroused. Information was communicated to the Privy Council that a Dutch ship, the " Orange Tree" of Amsterdam, had arrived at Plymouth, on a voyage "to. a place in America which is comprehended in a grant made by His Majesty, upon just consideration, to divers of his subjects." The Lords of the Council, therefore, immediately directed Gorges and the authorities at Plym- outh to arrest the ship, and send the captain, " with his commission and the plat which he hath," up to London. No other result, however, than the detention of the Orange Tree, appears to have followed the action of the Privy Council. James I. was drawing near the end of his days; 1 and though, personally, he was never cordially disposed toward the Dutch, the foreign relations of England had lately become so critically situated, that he had found it 1624. expedient to form an alliance with the States General.t 15 June. Under these circumstances, he wisely judged it impolitic

* Hol. Doc., i., 126, 129, 133 ; Voyages of D. P. de Vries, 41, 42. I quote from the orig- inal work of De Vries, published at Alckmaer in 1655. This very rare book, in its com- plete form, has never before been consulted by any of our writers, who, relying upon the wretched version from the Du Simitière MSS. at Philadelphia (published in ii. N. Y. H. S. Coll., i., 250-273), have been betrayed into grave errors, which it will be my duty to notice and correct. A faithful translation of De Vries, by Mr. H. C. Murphy, will soon be published by the New York Historical Society.

t Lond. Doc., i., 34 ; N. Y. Col. MSS., iii., 12; Wassenaar, v., 91 ; Corps. Dip., v., 2, 458; Clarendon State Papers, i., 41 ; Aitzema, i., 691.

157

CORNELIS JACOBSEN MAY, DIRECTOR.

to offend, in any way, the powerful commercial company CHAP. V. which it was his evident interest to conciliate.

Early in the year 1625, the attention of the inhabit- ants of the United Provinces was attracted to the publica- " New tion, at Leyden, of a black-letter folio History of the " New Leyden.

World" at World, or Description of the West Indies," by John de Laet, one of the most influential directors of the West India Company. This work, which was dedicated to the States General, was composed from " various manuscript journals of different captains and pilots," whose names occur in the course of the descriptions ; and from this circumstance its historical authority is nearly equal to that of an original record. Among others, Hudson's own private journal is largely quoted from. This journal was probably handed to De Lact by the Amsterdam directors of the East India Company, to whom it had been transmitted from En- gland. It is a very remarkable coincidence, that au- thentic extracts of Hudson's own report of his adventures should thus have appeared in Holland, in the same year that Purchas was publishing at London, in his "Pil- Purchas's grims," the formal log-book in which Juct, the mate of in London . the Half Moon, recorded the discovery of New Nether- land. Besides Hudson's private journal, De Lact appears to have had in his possession the original reports of Block, Christiaensen, and May. Until the recent reference to the earlier " Historical Relation" of Wassenaar-which con- Wasse- tains a general statement of interesting events in Europe "Histo- naar's and America from 1621 to 1632-the work of De Laet hael" pub- rische Ver- was thought to contain the first published account of the Amster- lished at Dutch province. Its authority is deservedly very high ; dam. and had English and American writers consulted its ac- curate pages, less injustice would, perhaps, have been done to the Hollanders who explored the coasts of New Nether- land, and piloted their adventurous yachts along the shores of its bays and streams, years before a British ves- sel ascended the North or South Rivers, or passed through Long Island Sound .*

* There are four editions of De Laet's "New World." The first was published by the

1625. Publication of De Laet's

"Pilgrims"

158

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

CHAP. V. The capacity of New Netherland for cultivation and 1625. production being now favorably known to the public, the West India Company determined to prosecute vigorously the work of colonization. The yacht Mackarel was again dispatched to Manhattan, with a cargo of " necessaries" 25 April. 27 April. for the use of the colonists already there. But when only two days out from the Texel, the vessel was captured in a fog by some of the enemy's privateers, and carried a prize into Dunkirk .* This mischance, however, was soon re- Hulft sends paired. Peter Evertsen Hulft, one of the directors of the three ships to New Netherland

risk.

April.

Amsterdam Chamber, promptly undertook to convey to the at his own colony, at his own risk, such necessary articles as might be provided. Two ships, each of two hundred and eighty tons burden, were accordingly fitted out in the same spring, and loaded with one hundred and three head of cattle, among which were stallions and mares, bulls and cows, for breeding, as well as swine and sheep. The an- imals were carefully provided for on shipboard, almost as well as on shore. "Each beast," says the exact Wasse- naar, " had its own separate stall," arranged upon a floor- ing of sand, three feet deep, which was laid upon a deck specially constructed in the vessel. Under this deck each ship carried three hundred tuns of fresh water, for the use of the cattle. Hay and straw were provided in abundance for the voyage ; and all kinds of seeds, and plows and other farming implements, were sent on board for the use of the colony. Hulft also added a third ship to the ex- pedition, "that there should be no failure" in carrying out the enterprise he had undertaken. Along with these three vessels went a fast-sailing yacht or "fluyt," fitted out by the compa- the directors of the company on their own account. These vessels carried out six entire families, besides several free

A yacht also sent by ny.

Elzeviers of Leyden, in Dutch, in 1625 ; the second, also in Dutch, revised and enlarged, in 1630 ; the third, in Latin, in 1633 ; and the fourth, in French, in 1640. Translations of extracts from the third book of De Laet have been published in the second series of N. Y. H. S. Collections, i., 289-315 ; ii., 373. De Laet also wrote a "History of the West India Company," which was published by the Elzeviers in 1644 ; but it has not been trans- lated. While I was in Holland in 1841, efforts were made to ascertain the fate of De Laet's papers, and procure the original documents from which he wrote. But in vain. * Wassenaar, ix., 37 ; ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., ii., 361.

159

WILLIAM VERHULST, DIRECTOR.

emigrants (" vrye persoonen") ; so that forty-five new set- CHAP. V. tlers were thus added to the population of New Nether- land. " This colony has a great scope, lying close by the 1625. track of the Spaniards from the West Indies," said the sa- gacious merehants of Amsterdam, as the little squadron sailed gayly into the Zuyder Zee .*

The voyage was entirely successful ; only two of the July. Success of beasts died at sea. On their arrival, they were first land- the voyage. ed at " Nutten," or Governor's Island ; but that spot fur- landed on First cattle nishing no sufficient pasture, they were taken, a day or and. Nutten Isl- two afterward, by shallops and barges, to Manhattan. Transfer- There they eventually throve very well on the rich grass, hattan. red to Man- "as beautiful and long as one could wish," which abound- ed in the valleys. But, being at first allowed to run wild, about twenty in all died, from eating some poison- ous herbage, which covered the fallow soil with its rank luxuriance. In the same summer and autumn, the Am- July. sterdam directors were gladdened by the arrival of two ves- November. sels from New Netherland, "loaded mostly with peltries," and bringing news of the "great contentment" of the ad- venturers.t

Strengthened by this last arrival, the growing colony William now numbered over two hundred souls ; and Cornelis Ja- ucceeds Verhulst cobsen May, who had administered its simple government ond Direct- May as sec- during the year 1624, was sueceeded by William Verhulst, Nether- land. or of New as the second Director of New Netherland. Verhulst's ad- ministration, like that of his predecessor, lasted, however, only one year ; at the end of which, he returned to Hol- 1626. land. He seems to have visited the South River in per- November. son, to examine into the state of affairs there; and his name was for a long time commemorated by "Verhulsten Verhulsten Island," near the bend of the Delaware at Trenton. Upon the Trenton Island, near this island, which is described as being " near the falls of Falls. that river, and near the west side thereof," the West India

* Wassenaar, ix., 40 ; xii., 37 ; Doc. Ilist. N. Y., iii., 38, 39, 42.

+ Wassenaar, ix., 123 ; x., 82 ; xii., 37 ; Doc. Hist. N. Y., iii., 41, 42; Benson, 94. De Laet, cap. ix., says that the Dutch originally gave what is now known as "Governor's Island," opposite the Battery, in New York harbor, the name of " Nutten Island, because excellent nut-trees grew there."

160

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

1625. Walloons settled there.

CHAP. V. Company established a trading house, "where there were three or four families of Walloons." These families, how- ever, did not remain very long in their lonely frontier home .*

Death of Maurice, prince of Orange. 23 April.

Succeeded «by his brother, Frederick Henry.

The year 1625 was marked by two important public events in Europe, which incidentally influenced the affairs of New Netherland. After thirty years of active military service, Maurice, Prince of Orange, the "Fabius of the Netherlands," died at the Hague. Equal to the most cel- ebrated captains of any age or nation, Maurice appeared to far less advantage in his political capacity, as the stadt- holder of the United Provinces. Many a deed of glory il- lustrates his splendid military career ; but the eye of pos- terity will never cease to look with reproach upon that darkest spot which blots his checkered escutcheon-the blood of Olden Barneveldt. Upon the death of Maurice, the States General conferred the vacant offices of captain and admiral general on his brother, Frederick Henry, who succeeded him as Prince of Orange, and who was also, soon afterward, created Stadtholder by a majority of the provinces. The new prince, who far excelled his brother in prudence, moderation, and capacity for government, entered upon the administration of affairs under circum- stances which, though discouraging, gave promise of brighter days. Religious hostilities were soon restrained to the precincts of the consistories ; and the voice of pa- triotism, which for awhile had been stifled by the clamor of polemical discussion and the vehemence of party strife,

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History of the state of New York Vol I, Part 17

Author: Brodhead, John Romeyn, 1814-1873. 4n Publication date: 1871 Publisher: New York : Harper & Brothers Number of Pages: 844

Author: Brodhead, John Romeyn, 1814-1873. 4n
Publication date: 1871
Publisher: New York : Harper & Brothers
Number of Pages: 844