USA > New York > History of the state of New York Vol I > Part 20
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But if Bradford was pertinacious in urging the parch-
* Bradford, ut sup., 365.
t Sir Edward Coke ; see ante, p. 139.
# Hol. Doc., i., 159, 160 ; O'Call., i., 109.
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
Charles I. favors the Company.
CHAP. VI. ment claims of England, King Charles himself was, ap- 1627. 5 Sept. 15 parently, more considerate. A month before De Rasieres visited New Plymouth, an order in council, formally re- citing the terms of the treaty signed at Southampton in Dutch W.I. 1625, declared that the ships of the West India Company should have free access to and egress from all English ports ; and commanded all English officers to treat the of- - ficers of the company " with that respect and courtesy, as is fitting to be used toward the subjects of a state with whom his majesty is in firm and ancient amity."* Con- tenting themselves with the liberal provisions of an order, which, by throwing open to them all the English ports, and protecting their vessels from seizure by British cruis- ers, virtually recognized their trade to New Netherland, the West India Company seemed to think it unnecessary to take any immediate steps to settle the question of title. 1632. A few years later, when the question was distinctly pre- sented, they vindicated their title with ability and success. At present, the quiet advancement of their colony in New Netherland, and the regular prosecution of trade, was the company's policy. The value of that trade had doubled during the four years succeeding the first permanent col- onization under May. In 1624, the exports from Amster- dam, in two ships, were worth upward of twenty-five thousand guilders, and the returns from New Netherland, twenty-seven thousand guilders. In 1627, the value of the goods which the Amsterdam Chamber exported, in four ships, had risen to fifty-six thousand guilders, and that of the peltries received from New Netherland had increased to the same sum.t
Increasing trade and. revenue from New Nether- land.
1628.
19 August.
The prosperity of the growing colony steadily increased. In the autumn of the next year, Director Minuit dispatch- ed from Manhattan two ships, the " Arms of Amsterdam," Captain Adriaen Joris, and the "Three Kings," Captain Jan Jacobsen, of Weiringen, with cargoes of ship timber and furs for the West India Company, the aggregate
* Lond. Doc., i., 36 ; Hol. Doc., ix., 292 ; N. Y. Col. MSS., iii., 12, 13.
t De Laet, Jaerlyck Verhael, Appendix, p. 26, 29.
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PETER MINUIT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
value of which exceeded sixty-one thousand guilders .* Strengthened by the addition of the settlers who had for- merly resided near Fort Orange, and by the garrison of the 1628. deserted Fort Nassau, on the South River, the colony at Manhattan now numbered two hundred and seventy souls, Population ineluding men, women, and children. Fearless of the In- tan. dians, with whom they now lived in happy peace, these families all continued to reside outside the walls of Fort Fort Am- sterdam Amsterdam, which was now completed, with four bastions, completed. and a facing of stone.
At Fort Orange there were now "no families ;" they Affairs at had all been brought down to Manhattan. That post it- ange. Fort Or- self was occupied by only twenty-five or twenty-six trad- ers, under the viee-director, Sebastian Jansen Krol, who had succeeded to the command two years before, when Barentsen returned to Holland. In the spring of 1628, hostilities broke out between the Mahieans, near Fort Or- ange, and the Mohawks ; but the latter killed and cap- The Mo- tured most of the Mahieans, and expelled the remnant, drive the hawks who settled themselves toward the north, near the "Fresh," off to the Mahicans valley of or Connecticut River, where they began to cultivate the the Con- ground ; " and thus there was now an end of war in that necticut. region."
By order of the West India Company, " all those who were at the South River," at Verhulsten Island, and Fort Nassau, were likewise removed to Manhattan. A small Trade on vessel only was retained there, to keep up the fur trade. River. That trade, however, was less profitable than the traffie on the North River. The factors found that the inland sav- ages, who came down to tide-water, would not barter the " lion skins with which they were elothed," because they were " mueh warmer than other furs."
The colonists at Manhattan subsisted chiefly by their farming, the deficieney in their erops being made up by supplies from the West India Company. Their winter Prosperity eorn had turned out very well ; while the summer grain, of the colo- nists at being prematurely ripened by the excessive heats, was
* Wassenaar, xvi., 13 ; De Laet, App., 29.
the South
Manhattan.
CHAP. VI.
of Manhat-
184
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. VI. very meagre. But the cattle and beasts, which had been 1628. sent from Holland three years before, had thriven ; and ev- ery thing wore an air of progress and improvement .*
Naval suc- cesses of the Dutch.
20 May.
5 Sept.
Heyn cap- tures the Spanish Silver Fleet. December.
While the ships which brought these flattering accounts from Manhattan were yet at sea, an event occurred which materially influenced the fortunes of the growing colony. The renewal of hostilities with Spain had enabled the Dutch to gain the most brilliant successes at sea, and bring ruin and dishonor upon their enemy. Swift min- isters of retributive justice, the fleets of the West India Company swept the ocean, and wrested from the Span- iard the rich spoil he had wrung from the unoffending princes of Mexico and Peru. In 1627, Peter Petersen Heyn, a native of Delft-Haven, who, by reason of his courage and abilities, had been raised from a low station to the rank of admiral, distinguished himself in the con- quest of Saint Salvador, and the destruction of twenty-six ships of the enemy. Heyn now received orders to inter- cept and capture the Spanish "Silver Fleet," on its an- nual return from the West Indies. Sailing to Cuba, he fell in with ten of their galleons off Havanna, and cap- tured them in a few hours. The next day the remainder of the fleet was perceived about three leagues off. Chase was made at once; but the Spaniards, carrying a press of sail, took refuge in the Bay of Matanzas, where nearly all ran aground. Heyn instantly following them in, took nine more prizes ; and brought all the captured vessels, except two, safely to Holland. The booty was immense. Including nearly one hundred and forty thousand pounds of pure silver, it was valued at twelve millions of guilders.t The enthusiasm of the people was unbounded on Heyn's triumphant return. He was introduced into the Assem- bly of the States General, and received the public thanks of the nation. As modest as he was brave, he asked for nothing of the enormous treasure he had won. Soon aft- erward, the vacant office of Lieutenant Admiral was forced
* Wassenaar, xvi., 13; Doc. Hist. N. Y., iii., 47, 48.
+ De Laet, 147 ; Aitzema, i., 720.
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PETER MINUIT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
upon him in spite of his humble protestations that it CHAP. VI. was too high a dignity for one of his mean birth and unpolished manners .* The next year, Heyn dying glo- 17 June. 1629. riously on the deck of his ship, which he had boldly laid . between two Dunkirk pirates, his body was interred in princely state, near that of William of Orange, in the old mausolean church at Delft, where his grateful government erected a magnificent marble monument to his memory.t
Successful war thus poured infatuating wealth into the treasury of the West India Company. In one year they divided fifty per cent. In two years they had cap- tured one hundred and four prizes.# What Barneveldt had feared soon came to pass. To the lust of lucre was now added the pride of conquest. The nation shared the glory, while the company secured the spoil of the war. Infatuating It is not surprising, therefore, that when the negotiation, effect upon the West India Com- which the King of Spain opened, in 1629, to renew the late pany. truce, became public, it should have met with general and determined opposition. The West India Company, covet- ous of gain, presented a strong remonstrance to the States 23 October. General against the proposition, and warmly urged the advantages of a longer war; the clergy, suspicious of Philip's sincerity, opposed the truce, as detrimental both to Church and State ; and a large majority of the people themselves, encouraged by the late naval successes, were disposed to continue a contest, now become not only glori- ous, but profitable. The opposition to the proposed treaty became so universal and so strong, that the negotiations were necessarily abandoned. The West India Company, continuing " a prince-like, instead of a merchant-like war," soon added Brazil to their possessions ; and the maritime 1630. superiority of Holland no longer remained a problem.§
* Aitzema, i., 720.
t The States General, on the occasion of leyn's death, sent a message of condolence to his mother, an honest peasant, who, notwithstanding her son's elevation, had been con- tent to remain in her original station. When she received the message, she replied, " Ay, I thought what would be the end of him. He was always a vagabond-but I did my best to correct him. He has got no more than he deserved."-Céresier, Tableau des Prov. Unies, vi., 40 ; Davies, ii., 571-573, 657.
# Wagenaar, Vad. Hist., ix., 70; Moulton, 368.
6 Hol. Doc., i., 161, 167 ; De Witt ; Aitzema, i., 900, 996.
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. VI.
1629. Cost of New Neth- erland.
Yet the preservation of the Dutch territories in Ameri- ca was enormously expensive ; and thus far, the colonists who were settled in New Netherland, had been " not a profit, but a loss to the company." The peltry trade, how- ever, continued to be "right advantageous ;" but it could "at the utmost return, one year with another, only fifty thousand guilders."* Duly appreciating the importance of the island of Manhattan as a permanent commercial emporium, the company had purchased it for their own private property, and had concentrated in its neighborhood nearly the whole European population of the province. To a contemporary English observer, the Dutch colony ap- peared "to subsist in a comfortable manner, and to prom- ise fairly both to the state and undertakers." The cause of its prosperity was evident. The emigrants under the West India Company, " though they be not many, are well chosen, and known to be useful and serviceable ; and they second them with seasonable and fit supplies, cherish- ing them as carefully as their own families."+ The trad- ing post at Fort Orange was garrisoned by military factors alone. On the South River, a single vessel, with a small crew, sufficed to keep up the trade and possession of the Dutch. Still, notwithstanding their apparent prosperity, the families clustered round Fort Amsterdam hardly sup- ported themselves ; and the annual returns from New Netherland did not satisfy the directors of a victorious company, flushed with the easy spoil of Spanish fleets. This state of things they desired to improve ; and plans for the systematic and extended colonization of the whole province were earnestly considered.
Plans for its coloni- zation.
De Rasieres, who had fallen into disgrace with Minuit, had now returned to Holland. Though deprived of " his things and notes," he still was able, from recollection, to draw up a statement of affairs in New Netherland, for his patron, Samuel Blommaert, one of the leading directors of
* Hol. Doc., i., 165 ; Lambrechtsen, 34, 35.
t "The Planter's Plea," London, 1630. This interesting pamphlet, the authorship of which is ascribed to the Rev. John White, of Dorchester, England, was printed soon after the sailing of Winthrop's fleet, 8th of June, 1630 -Young; Chron. Mass., 16.
187
PETER MINUIT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
the Amsterdam Chamber. After much deliberation, it CHAP. VI. was determined that the manifold resources of its large territory could be best developed by the establishment of 1629. The com- distinct and independent Colonies, at various points on the North and South Rivers. Thesc colonics were to be, in cy changed. Ionial poli- some respects, analogous to the lordships and seigneuries of Europe, yet all in general subordination to the West In- dia Company ; and it was thought that their success could . be better secured by private enterprise, than by the com- pany itself, whose attention was now almost entirely en- grossed by the affairs of the Spanish war. The fostering of its own colony on the island of Manhattan, and the ad- vanccment of the fur trade, of which it proposed to retain the monopoly, were quite sufficient to occupy all the time and capital which the Amsterdam Chamber could at pres- ent devote to the subject.
With the view of inducing private capitalists to engage Charter of in the proposed plan, the College of XIX. accordingly pre- for patroons privileges pared the draft of a charter conferring certain special priv- proposed. ileges upon such members of the company as should, at their own expense and risk, plant colonies in any part of New Netherland, excepting the island of Manhattan. More 1628. than a year was spent in considering the details ; and in 28 March. the summer of 1629, the plan, as revised and amended, in 1629. thirty-one articles, was finally adopted by the College of Adopted. XIX., and was approved and confirmed by the States Gen- eral. In the following autumn, their High Mightinesses established several articles for the government of the Dutch 13 October. transatlantic possessions, and published a decree, author- izing the different Chambers of the West India Company to appoint a council of nine persons, to whom the general Commissa. direction of colonial affairs should be assigned .* ries.
While the West India Company was thus maturing its selfish commercial scheme for the introduction of the feud- al system into its American province, English emigrants loniza- Progress of tion in New were gradually occupying the territory on the north and England.
* Hol. Doc., ii., 95-99 ; Groot Placaatbook, ii., 1235 ; Notules of S. G., 1629, 683 ; Lam- brechtsen, 29 ; Moulton, 387, 399 ; O'Call., i., 112 ; D. D. Barnard's Sketch, 105; De Vries, 162.
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
Mount Wollaston, or " Merry Mount."
CHAP. VI. east of New Netherland. Straggling plantations, some of 1629. them but single families, were already settled on portions of the coast between New Plymouth and Piscataqua. A few persons began a plantation on Massachusetts Bay, 1625. near what is now Quincy, which they called Mount Wol- laston. The settlement soon afterward fell under the con- trol of Thomas Morton, who changed its name to " Merry Mount ;" sold powder and shot to the savages ; harbored runaways; and, setting up a May-pole, broached a cask of wine and held a high carousal. But the New Plymouth 1628. people, at the solicitation of "the chief of the straggling plantations," at length interfered by force ; and Morton was taken prisoner and sent back to England .*
Example of New Plym- outh pro- motes Puri- In the mean time, the Puritans in England had grown more and more uneasy under the restraints of English tan emigra- law, and the intolerance of the English hierarchy ; and tion. the example of the New Plymouth colonists had inspired their brethren at home with the desire of emigrating across the Atlantic. It was a favorable moment to execute the design. The leading members of the council for New En- gland, unable or unwilling to undertake the colonization of the country which had been granted to them by James I., were limiting their ambition to the sale of subordinate Grant of land on Massachu- setts Bay obtained from the council of New En- gland. 19 March. patents. At the instigation of John White, a Puritan cler- gyman of Dorchester, Sir Henry Rosewell, John Endicott, and several other persons of distinction in that neighbor- hood, obtained from the New England corporation the grant of a belt of land on Massachusetts Bay, extending from three miles south of the River Charles to three miles north of the River Merrimack, and stretching from the At- lantic to the Pacific. Other associates from London and its vicinity-Winthrop, Dudley, Johnson, Pynchon, Eaton, Saltonstall, and Bellingham-soon afterward became joint- ly interested in the enterprise. In the autumn of the same year, about sixty emigrants, under the guidance of Endi- 14 Sept. Endicott at Salem. cott, were dispatched to Naumkeag, or Salem, where they were welcomed by Roger Conant, who, expelled from New
* Bradford, in Prince, 231, 240, 244, 250, 252 ; Morton's Memorial, 135-141.
189
PETER MINUIT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
Plymouth, had settled himself there, two years before. CHAP. VI. This was the first English emigration to Massachusetts Bay. The "Old Colony," at New Plymouth, had preceded, 1628. by about eight years, Endicott's settlement at Salem .*
Early in the following spring, a royal charter passed the 1629. great seal, incorporating "the governor and company of 4 March. the Massachusetts Bay in New England ;" confirming to them the Plymouth Company's grant to Rosewell and his Bay. associates ; and superadding powers of government. The territory conveyed, included all that portion of New Neth- erland lying north of Esopus and south of the Mohawk Riv- er; but it was expressly provided that, with respect to such parts or parcels as had, before the third day of November, 1620, been "actually possessed or inhabited by any other Excepting Christian prince or state," the grant should be " utterly clause. void." Nothing was said in the charter about any par- ticular religion : there was no suggestion that the new colony was to be exclusively Puritan. Nevertheless, it was declared and granted, that the colonists themselves " shall have and enjoy all liberties and immunities" of Brit- ish subjects ; and no laws or ordinances were to be made or executed, by the corporation or its officers, " contrary or repugnant to the laws and statutes" of the realm.t
About two hundred fresh emigrants, sent out at the ex- pense of the corporation, joined the settlement at Salem 29 June. in the course of the summer. The whole population of Massachusetts Bay now numbered about three hundred ; Settle- one third of whom soon afterward planted themselves a Salen and ments at at Charles- little south of Salem, at Cherton, or Charlestown. Under town.
* Chalmers, 136 ; Young's Ch. Mass., 13, 30 ; Bancroft, i., 340, 341 ; Hildreth, i., 176, 178.
t Original Charter in the State House at Boston ; copies are in Ancient Charters, in Hutchinson, and in Hazard ; Chalmers, 137. The excepting clause in the patent is as fol- lows : "Provided always, that if the said lands, &c., were, at the time of the granting of the said former letters patent, dated the third day of November, in the eighteenth year of our said dear father's reign aforesaid (1620), actually possessed or inhabited by any other Christian prince or state, or were within the bounds, limits, or territories of that southern colony (of Virginia), that then this present grant shall not extend to any such parts or parcels thereof, so formerly inhabited, or lying within the bounds of the southern planta- tion as aforesaid ; but, as to those parts or parcels so possessed or inhabited by such Christian prince or state, or being within the bounds aforesaid, shall be utterly void ; these presents or any thing therein contained to the contrary notwithstanding."-Haz- ard, i., 244.
Royal char- r for Mas- sachusetts
190
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
1629. 6 August.
Religious intolerance in Massa- chusetts.
CHAP. VI. Endicott's influence, a church was immediately organized at Salem, by the signature of a covenant by thirty persons out of the two hundred who formed the settlement. The polity of the ecclesiastic colony rejected the Anglican Lit- urgy, and even denied its use to those who were " sincere in their affection for the good of the plantation." This innovation displeased several of the colonists, who, headed by John and Samuel Brown, both members of Endicott's council, demanded the enjoyment of the right of all Brit- ish subjects, to worship God according to the ritual of the Established Church. But Endicott, " whose self-will was inflamed by fanaticism," instantly forbade them the re- ligious liberty they desired. The wrongs which the hie- rarchy had inflicted upon the Puritans in the Old World, were now retorted upon powerless Episcopalian emigrants in the wilderness of the New. The Browns were arrested as " factious and evil-conditioned," and immediately sent back to England, because they adhered to an " immunity" which the charter had granted and declared. But they found that "the blessings of the promised land were to be kept for Puritanic dissenters." Thus early was freedom of conscience banished from Massachusetts, by her colo- nists themselves ; for it was, indeed, " an age of much less charity than zeal."*
* Young's Ch. Mass., 67, 89, 196, 287-292 ; Neal's Puritans, i., 299, 300 ; Neal's N. E., i., 141-144 ; Hutchinson, i., 18; Bancroft, i., 348-350, Hildreth, i., 182, 183 ; Chalmers's Revolt of the Colonies, i., 41-43.
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191
PETER MINUIT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
CHAPTER VII.
1630-1632:
WHEN Philip of Burgundy, as sovereign of the Nether- CHAP. VII. lands, instituted the Order of the Golden Fleece, he gave to it the expressive motto " Pretium non vile laborum."* The Gold- 1430. The legend was more significant than Philip imagined. en Fleece. Industry had at last received heraldic honors ; and the recompense of labor could never be ignoble, while knight- hood wore upon its glittering collar the emblem of that valued object which Argonautic enterprise had sought and found in Colchis.
The self-relying spirit of the Dutch had already conse- Industrial crated, in the heart of the nation, the sentiment that labor Dutch. spirit of the is honorable. In Holland, human industry and human skill early won their most splendid triumphs. The whole land was a monument of victorious toil. A great portion of its marshy surface lying below the level of the ocean, required to be defended, by artificial means, against the irruption of the tides. And every moment was a moment of peril. The dikes, which had been built by hardy in- dustry, could be maintained only by ceaseless vigilance. A breach in an embankment might flood a territory which years of incessant labor could scarcely drain. But the in- domitable spirit of the nation was equal to any emergency. That all-pervading spirit was still further developed by the system of local association, which the genius of a self- relying people introduced. Holland was rather an aggre- Rise of the gate of towns, than a state in which, as in other nations, towns. Dutch the towns were of less relative importance. The greater
* Davies, i., 220 ; McCullagh, ii., 107, 108.
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
Holland.
Burgher govern- ments.
CHAP. VII. part of its land was originally held by feudal lords, who 1630. were bound to protect and defend their tenants and re- tainers, in return for their allegiance and assistance. But while there were lords and vassals in Holland, there were No serfs in no serfs .* By degrees, industry sought companionship, and busy hamlets clustered behind the rising dikes. These hamlets gradually expanded into towns ; and the hum of the active loom was never intermitted. The towns soon grew rich and powerful; concessions of franchises were successively extorted from the necessities of feudalism ; and while the accumulating wealth of manufacturers and merchants contributed increasing quotas to the expenses of the construction and maintenance of the dikes, the ter- ritorial nobles avoided raising questions of their waning authority. On the other hand, the thrifty burghers, from the time they first surrounded their towns with perma- nent walls, insisted upon the principle of self-assessment; for they felt that, "although the same tribute and tax, laid by consent, or by imposing, be all one to the purse, yet it worketh diversely upon the courage."t In every vicissitude of affairs, the Dutch burghers, therefore, clung to their essential principle of self-taxation, which soon be- came an immunity, by usage and prescription ; and the territorial lord found that he must yield to the progressive spirit of popular freedom many of the attributes of feudal- ism, which, in other lands, were jealously maintained.
The feudal system modified.
0
Thus the industrial ideas of the Dutch people and the growing influence of the Dutch towns curtailed the au- thority of the feudal chief. Those ideas and that influence naturally modified the rigorous form of the ancient ten- ures of land. The noble owner of the soil, from being the predatory head of an armed band of dependents, soon be- came the careful landlord, drawing his revenue from as- certained rent. Living in the hum of industry, he could not help unconsciously imbibing some of the thrift and prudence of the laborious classes which surrounded him. Constant intercourse, in the relations of business and in the
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