USA > New York > History of the state of New York Vol I > Part 23
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Upon the arrival of Notelman, Director Minuit resigned his government into the hands of the council, at the head of which was Van Remund, who had acted as secretary of the province since the departure of De Rasieres. Em- barking on board the Eendragt, with several families of Minuit re- colonists who were anxious to return to Holland, the re- Holland. turns to called director and superseded schout set sail from New 1632. March. Netherland early in the spring of 1632.
The Eendragt reached the channel in safety, but stress Ilis ship ar- of weather drove her into Plymouth. Her arrival there Plymouth. rested at was no sooner known, than the watchful jealousy of Cap-
* Hol. Doc., i., 185 ; ii., 102, 103 ; Renss MSS. ; O'Call., i., 130, 431.
214
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
1632. 3 April.
CHAP. VII. tain Mason caused her to be attached, at the suit of the council of New England, on a charge of illegally trading within the king's dominions. Minuit instantly communi- cated the circumstances of the ship's arrest to the West India Company, and to Joachimi and Brasser, the Dutch ambassadors at London. The court was, at that moment, 8 April. Complaint of the Dutch am- at Newmarket. Hastening thither, the ambassadors ob- tained an immediate audience, and presented to the king bassadors. an earnest remonstrance against the proceedings of the Plymouth authorities. The ship, they said, had come from New Netherland, where the Dutch had peaceably traded for many years, and had established a colony on an island purchased from the savages, in the River Manhat- tans, "now called the Mauritius." There the colonists lived " surrounded on all sides by the native inhabitants of the land." Hitherto, their ships had been used to enter and depart from the English ports without hinderance; but now, a vessel coming from those parts had been seized for an alleged trespass within his majesty's jurisdiction. Un- der these circumstances, they hoped the king would order the Eendragt's immediate discharge .*
Reply of Charles I.
The king replied, that the Governor of Plymouth had already informed him of the arrest; and that, some years ago, upon the complaint of his father, James I., the States General " had interdicted their subjects from trading in those regions." He could not, at the moment, say what was the exact situation of the affair, but would inform himself more particularly. The ambassadors persisted in urging a provisional release of the ship. The king, how- ever, declined complying with their request, "as long as he was not quite sure what his rights were."
10 April. Further ne- gotiations.
Returning to London, the ambassadors detailed their proceedings to the States General, and asked to be fur- nished with documentary evidence in support of the right of the Dutch to New Netherland, which they thought would "undoubtedly be most sharply disputed by the En- glish."} Several interviews were also held with the lead-
* Hol. Doc., i., 187, 248.
+ Ibid., 196.
215
PETER MINUIT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
ing members of the privy couneil. But Mason took care CHAP. VII. to write a strong letter to Sir John Coke, the Secretary of State, complaining of the Hollanders, who, he affirmed, 1632. April. " as interlopers," had fallen "into the middle," between Virginia and New England. Notwithstanding the alleged disclaimer by Caron, in 1622, the Dutch had fortified Mason's themselves, in two several places, on the " River of Mana- John Coke. letter to Sir hata," and had built ships there, " whereof one was sent into Holland of six hundred tunnes, or thereabouts." And though warned by the English at New Plymouth "to for- bear trade," and to make no settlements within the terri- tories of the King of England, the Duteh had persisted, and had made "sundry good returns" into Holland, which, during the last year, had amounted to " fifteen thousand beaver skins, besides other commodities."* Mason's un- serupulous letter effected its purpose. English jealousy was thoroughly aroused, and the Privy Council were deaf to the representations of the Dutch ambassadors.
In the mean time, the West India Company had trans- 5 May. mitted to the States General a formal deduction of their ti- The West tle to New Netherland. The discovery of the North River pany's de- by the Dutch in. 1609; the return of " some of their people" title. duction cf there in 1610; the grant of the spceial trading charter of 1614 ; the maintenance of a fort and garrison there, until the charter of the West India Company in 1621, which included that country ; the failure of the English to occu- py the regions between Virginia and New Plymouth; and the provisions in James's patent of 1606, by which the re- gion between the thirty-ninth and the forty-first degrees of latitude was left open to the Dutch, were the main points on which they relied. The company alleged their entire ignoranee of the demand made by the British gov- ernment, in 1621, and of its results. They urged that the ambassadors at London should press for the release of their vessel, on the further ground that the American Indians,
* Lond. Doc., i., 47. Mason stoutly maintains that Caron, in the name of the States, disavowed the Dutch "intrusion" into New Netherland. But nothing to this effect ap- pears in any of Caron's letters that I saw in the State Paper office. See ante, p. 142, 143.
India Com-
216
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. VII. being free, might trade with whomsoever they pleased. 1632. The King of England might, indeed, grant exclusive priv- ileges to his own subjects, and so might the States Gen- eral to theirs. But it was unjust for any power to at- tempt to exclude all the rest of the world from regions which their own subjects had never occupied; and still more so, for England to claim sovereignty over territories of which the Dutch had obtained the title, by treaty and honest purchase from the native owners. The States Gen- eral must maintain their own sovereignty, the freedom of the seas, and the validity of the treaties which the Hol- landers had made with the unsubjugated tribes of North America .*
5 May.
This able vindication of the Dutch title was immediate- ly sent by the States General to their ambassadors at Lon- don, with fresh instructions to press for the release of the ship, and an intimation that the right of the West India Company to trade to New Netherland should be main- tained.t
But English nationality was now thoroughly aroused. 22 May. In a few days, the Dutch ambassadors received the formal Answer of answer of the British ministry to their memorial. The the British govern- ment. roaming savages of America were not " bona fide possessors" of the land, so that they could alienate it; and if they were, it could not be proved "that all the savages had contracted with the purchasers ;" these were the technical objections to the Dutch title by purchase. The title of the English was asserted to be by "first discovery, occupation, and pos- session," and by charters and patents from their sovereigns. Such patents the States General had never passed to their own subjects, as was proved when Carleton, the English ambassador, made his remonstrance in 1621. If the Dutch now settled in America would "submit themselves as sub- jects to his majesty's government," they might remain in New Netherland ; otherwise, his majesty's interests would not allow them to " usurp and encroach upon a colony of
* Hol. Doc., i., 209.
1 + Ibid., 218.
217
PETER MINUIT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
such importance, and which he has strong motives to eher- CHAP. VII. ish and maintain in its integrity."*
Thus the British ministry boldly denied the Dutch title to New Netherland, and elaimed it as English territory. Their strenuous assertion of superior British right was probably the last important American State Paper prepared by Sir John Coke,t whom Lord Clarendon describes as "a man of a very narrow education, and a narrower nature." Unwilling, at that moment, to embarrass his foreign rela- tions, already sufficiently complicated, Charles I. content- ed himself with a bold claim of sovereignty over New Netherland, and did not appear anxious to press the ques- tion of title to a settlement. In a few days, the confident note of the British ministry was followed by an act of 27 May. grace ; and the Lord Treasurer, quietly yielding to the released. reiterated demand of the Dutch ambassadors, released the Eendragt from arrest, " saving any prejudice to His Maj- esty's rights."#
Notwithstanding the abuses which had induced Minuit's Minuit's reeall, his administration of the government of New Neth- tration of adminis- erland was, upon the whole, prosperous and successful. erland. Honest purchase had secured Manhattan Island to the West India Company ; industry had flourished around the walls of Fort Amsterdam ; the western shore of Long Isl- and had become studded with the cottages of its early Walloon settlers ; a pleasant intercourse had been opened with the English. colonists at New Plymouth ; friendly relations had been generally maintained with the Indian tribes; the colonization of Rensselaerswyck and Swaanen- dael had been commeneed ; and the trade and commerce of the provinee had largely increased. During the six years of Minuit's directorship, the exports from New Neth- erland were trebled. The value of the commodities sent
1632.
The ship
New Neth-
* Hol. Doc., i., 236. The correspondence on this subject may be found at length in the Address before the N. Y. H. S., in 1844, p. 27-31, and in O'Call., i., 131-136.
t About a month after this dispatch-on the 15th of June-Mr. (afterward Sir Francis) Windebanke was appointed Secretary of State, through the interest of Bishop Laud. Sir John Coke continued to be one of the secretaries for a few years longer ; but the concerns of the American colonies seem to have been managed, after this time, chiefly by Winde- banke.
# Hol. Doc., i., 244.
218
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. VII. home in 1626 was about forty-six thousand guilders ; in 1632. 1632, it had increased to more than one hundred and for- ty-three thousand guilders. Within the same period, the value of the imports from Holland was a little over two hundred and thirty-eight thousand guilders, while the gross value of the exports from New Netherland exceeded four hundred and thirty-five thousand guilders. The ship in which the Director returned to Amsterdam brought to the company's warehouse a cargo of five thousand beaver skins .*
Continued differences between the compa- ny and the patroons.
8 June.
Minuit's return to Holland did not quiet the unfortunate differences between the West India Company and the pa- troons." The large appropriations of territory were not as exasperating causes of irritation as was the pertinacious interference of the patroons with the fur trade, which the company had intended to reserve to itself. . To arrest the encroachments of the new manorial lords, who claimed, under the charter, the largest freedom of traffic "within the territories of their patroonships," the company issued a proclamation, forbidding all "private" persons in New Netherland from dealing, in any way, in sewan, peltries, or maize. The patroons instantly protested against this decided step, and insisted that, according to the charter, they were "privileged," and not " private" persons. But the company, resolute to maintain its superior monopoly, soon afterward dispatched commissaries into the different patroonships, with orders to post the proclamation, and to oblige all the colonists, under oath, to abstain from any interference with the interdicted traffic.t
18 Nov. The colo- nists for- bidden to trade in furs.
1631. Affairs at Swaanen- dael.
1632.
Meanwhile, the colony which Heyes had established at Swaanendael had gone on pleasantly, for a time, under the superintendence of Gillis Hossett; and De Vries him- self had prepared to visit New Netherland. Heyes's un- lucky voyage damped, for awhile, the ardor of his em- ployers ; but the vision of a profitable whale-fishery still haunted Godyn. Early in the year 1632, a new arrange-
12 Feb.
* De Laet, App., 26-30 ; Hol. Doc., i., 210.
t Hol. Doc., ii., 95, 105-114 ; O'Call., i., 137.
219
PETER MINUIT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
ment was made between the partner-patroons, to equip CHAP. VII. another ship and yacht, with which De Vries himself was to go out to the South River, as " patroon and command- 1632. er," and test the experiment in person, during the next winter. The expedition accordingly left the Texel toward the end of May. But just before it sailed, news brought 24 May. by Minuit, from Manhattan, reached Amsterdam, that the destruction colony at Swaanendael had been destroyed by the savages, Holland. reaches and thirty-two men killed outside of the fort, as they were working in the fields .*
In sadness and disappointment De Vries proceeded on De Vries his way. But misfortune still attended the enterprise of the South River.
News of its
sails for the South River patroons. An unskillful pilot ran the ship on the sands off Dunkirk ; and the leaky vessel was navigated with difficulty to Portsmouth, where she went.28 May. into the "King's Doek" to be repaired. After two months' delay, De Vries set sail again, in company with the " great 1 August. ship New Netherland," which had been built at Manhat-
tan, and was now making her first return voyage from Holland. Running southwardly by Madeira, and linger- ing three months among the West India Islands, De Vries arrived, early in December, at the South River, and an- 5 Dec. chored off Swaanendael, where he promised himself "roy- al work" with the whales, and a " beautiful land" to eul- tivate.
The next day, a well-armed boat was sent into the kill 6 Dec. to open a communication with the savages. Reaching the spot where their little fort had been, they found the house itself destroyed, the palisades almost all burned, and the ground around bestrewn with the skulls and bones of their murdered countrymen, intermingled with the re- mains of horses and cattle. The silence of the grave hung over the desolate valley. Not a savage was seen lurking about the ghastly ruins. Gloomy and sorrowful, De Vries returned on board his yaeht, and ordered a gun to be fired to attraet the inland Indians.
* De Vries, 95 ; Deposition of A. D. Korn, in Deed Book, vii. ; and in Doc. Hist. N. Y., iii., 49 ; ante, p. 205, note.
Visits waanen- dael.
220
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
& Dec.
CHAP. VII. A smoke was seen, the next morning, near their devasta- 1632. 7 Dec. ted post. Again the boat was sent into the creek, and two or three savages were observed prowling among the ruins. But mutual distrust prevented any intercourse. Fearful of the arrows of the Indians, De Vries now took his yacht into the creek, to give a better shelter than the open boat afforded. The savages soon came down to the shore; but none, at first, would venture on board. At last one made bold to come ; and De Vries, presenting him with a cloth dress, sent word to the chief that he wished to make a An Indian peace. That night one of the savages remained on board relates the story of the destruction of Swaan- endael. the yacht, and was prevailed on to relate the catastrophe which had befallen the colony. Pointing out the spot where Heyes had set up the pillar bearing the tin plate with the arms of Holland, he said, that one of their chiefs, not thinking he was doing amiss, had taken down the glittering metal, to make it into tobacco pipes. But Hos- sett, who was then in charge of the post, made such an ado, that the savages, to hush up the affair, slew the chief who had done it, " and brought a token" of their deed to the Dutch commander. Hossett told them they had done wrong : they should have brought the chief to the post, when he would have been simply forbidden to repeat the offense. But the mischief was already done. The friends of the slaughtered savage instigated their companions to a bloody vengeance on the unsuspecting strangers. A party of warriors soon visited the settlement, where they found most of the colonists at work in the fields, having left one sick man at home, and a large English mastiff chained up. Had the dog been loose, "they would not have dared to approach the house." Hossett, the com- mander, stood near the door. Three of the boldest sav- ages, under pretense of bartering some beaver skins, en- tered the house with him, and, as he was coming down stairs from the garret, where the stores lay, struck him dead with an axe. They then killed the sick man; and going to the place where the dog, "which they feared the most," lay chained, they shot him "with full five-and-
221
PETER MINUIT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
twenty arrows, before he was dispatched." The rest of CHAP. VII. the colonists, who were scattered over the fields at work, were then approached under the guise of friendship, and, 1632. one by one, all were murdered.
Such was the awful narrative which one of the spoilers of Swaanendael related to De Vries. The bones of his countrymen marked the spot where the patroon had hoped to establish a flourishing colony. Thus carly was the soil of Delaware moistened by European blood. The Dutch possession was " sealed with blood, and dearly cnough bought." But what could now be done ? A barren venge- ance alone could follow retaliation against the roaming savages. So a formal peace was ratified the next day, by 9 Dec. presents of duffels, bullets, hatchets, and Nuremburg toys ; with the and the astonished red men " departed in great joy," to savages. hunt beavers for the Hollanders, who, instead of exacting a cruel retribution, had quietly let pass their inhuman of- fense .*
* De Vries, 95-101 ; Vertoogh van N. N., in Hol. Doc., iv., 71 ; and in ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., ii., 281.
Peace made
222
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
1
1
CHAPTER VIII.
1633-1637.
CHAP. VIII.
1633. New Neth- erland without a director.
C
NEW NETHERLAND had now been, for more than a year, without a director. The experiment of introducing a mod- ified feudal system into the province had just been com- menced; jealousies had already sprung up between the pa- troons and the West India Company, and embarrassment was evidently in store ; the British government had again boldly denied the Dutch title to any part of New Nether- land ; and English colonists, firm of purpose and zealous in faith, were preparing to take actual possession of por- tions of the territory, over the whole of which their sover- eign claimed an exclusive jurisdiction. In this crisis, the administration of the affairs of the Dutch province should have been intrusted only to the ablest hands. But when did a commercial monopoly ever govern a country wise- Wouter van Twil- ed to suc- ceed Min- uit. ly ? The person selected to succeed Peter Minuit as Di- ler appoint- rector General of New Netherland, was WOUTER VAN TWIL- LER, of Nieuwkerke, one of the clerks in the West India Company's warehouse at Amsterdam. He had married a niece of Van Rensselaer, and had been employed by the patroon in shipping cattle to his colony. These were Van Twiller's recommendations : the influence of kinsmen and friends, rather than acknowledged administrative ability, secured for him the most important colonial office under the West India Company. The new director was inexpe- rienced, except in the details of trade which he had learn- ed in the counting-room. Incompetent, narrow-minded, irresolute, and singularly deficient in knowledge of men, Van Twiller was rashly intrusted with the command of
223
WOUTER VAN TWILLER, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
a province. But interest-which, rather than considera- CHAP. VIII. tions of personal fitness, so often controls public appoint- ments-triumphed over all objections. Embarking in the 1633. company's ship "Soutberg," of twenty guns, with a mili- tary force of one hundred and four soldiers, the raw Am- sterdam clerk set sail to assume the government of New Netherland.
Van Twiller arrived at Manhattan early in the spring, April. Van Twil- the ship having captured, on her voyage, a Spanish cara- ler arrives vel, the Saint Martin, which was brought safely into port. tan. Among the Soutberg's passengers were Jacob van Cou- wenhoven, and his brother-in-law, Govert Loockermans, both of whom were soon taken into the company's service, and afterward rose to distinction in the province. Ever- Everardus ardus Bogardus, the first clergyman at Manhattan, and the first Bogardus, Adam Roelandsen, schoolmaster, came out from Holland clergyman at the same time .*
at Manhat-
The new director commenced his administration, assist- ed by the experience of Secretary Van Remund and Schout Notelman. The council consisted of Jacob Jansen Hesse, Provincial Martin Gerritsen, Andries Hudde, and Jacques Bentyn. officers. Cornelis van Tienhoven, of Utrecht, was made the com- pany's book-keeper of monthly wages at Fort Amsterdam; and Sebastian Jansen Krol was succeeded in the command at Fort Orange by Hans Jorissen Houten, who had trad- ed on the river in 1621. Michael Paulusen was commis- Commissa- sary of Pauw's " colonie" at Pavonia.t
council and
ry at Pavo- nia.
In their management of New Netherland, the West In- Unwise co- dia Company seem to have looked rather to the immedi- cy of the lonial poli- ate profits which they might derive from its trade, than to Company West India the permanent political interests of the province. Those interests would have been best secured by the prompt col- onization of the country with free agricultural emigrants, bringing along with them the industrious habits and the simple virtues of their Fatherland. During the first years
* De Vries, 113 ; De Laet, App., 5 ; Hol. Doc., v., 396, 399 ; Alb. Rec., i., 52, 107 ; ii., 328; Renss. MSS. ; O'Call., i., 142 ; ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., ii., 338, 339.
t De Vries, 116 ; Hol. Doc., ii., 88 ; viii., 32 ; ix., 187. "Paulus' Hook," now Jersey City, derived its name from this Michael Paulusen, the commissary at Pavonia.
224
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. VIII. of their organization, the company had, indeed, done some- 1633. thing toward the agricultural settlement of New Nether- land. But their policy was soon changed. Unwisely sur- rendering to subordinate patroons the care of subduing and cultivating the soil, the company seemed to limit their own views to the improvement of their revenue, and the jealous maintenance of their trading monopoly. They seemed anxious " to stock the land with their own serv- - ants." This was the cardinal error which, for so many years, retarded the progress and blighted the prosperity of the province.
Revenue from New Nether- land.
The temptation, indeed, was strong. During the year 1632, the exports of furs from New Netherland had ex- ceeded in value one hundred and forty thousand guilders. This revenue formed, it is true, an inconsiderable item in the grand total of the company's yearly income. But it would probably improve by careful management; and to this end the efforts of the Amsterdam Chamber were chief- ly bent. Its mercantile directors viewed New Netherland rather commercially than politically, and exhibited them- selves as selfish traders, rather than enlightened states- men. They authorized large expenditures in building forts and mills, and for " unnecessary things, which, un- der more favorable circumstances, might have been suit- able and very proper." But in making these expendi- tures, they seemed to have had "more regard for their own interest than for the welfare of the country."* Pow- erful and successful as the West India Company had now unquestionably become, its directors displayed far less sa- gacity in the management of their American province, than in the conduct of their naval war with Spain.
Character of Van Twiller's administra- tion.
Van Twiller's chief objects seem to have been the main- tenance and extension of the commercial monopoly of his principals. In many respects he was, perhaps, their faith- ful representative. He was acquainted with trade ; but he was ignorant of public affairs. From the dealing with
* Journal van N. N., in Hol. Doc., iii., 97 ; Vertoogh van N. N., in Hol. Doc., iv., 71 ; and in ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., ii., 288, 298 ; De Laet, App., 30, .
225
WOUTER VAN TWILLER, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
wares, and the shipping of cattle, he had been suddenly CHAP. VIII. exalted to the command of men, and the management of a province. It was only natural that, from the moment 1633. he began to administer the government of New Nether- land, Van Twiller should have given constant proofs of the folly and danger of intrusting to inexperienced and incom- petent hands the interests of a community and the well- being of a state.
In the mean time, De Vries, after coneluding a peace De Vries at with the savages at Swaanendael, had endeavored to re- dael. Swaanen- trieve his damaged fortunes, by establishing a whale-fish- ery on the South River. But provisions soon began to 1 January. run short ; and, in hopes of obtaining supplies of beans from the savages, he went up the river through the float- ing ice, in his yacht, "the Squirrel," as far as Fort Nassau. Goes up to Fort Nas- That post, " where formerly some families of the West India sau. Company had dwelt," was now deserted by the Hollanders. Here De Vries found some savages, who urged him to go 5 January. up the Timmer Kill, or Timber Creek. But a Sankitan or Stankekan Indian warned the Duteh not to venture into the creek ; for the savages were only plotting to destroy them, as they had a little while before murdered the erew of an English shallop, which had gone into "Count Ernest's Riv- er." The Squirrel's small erew of seven men, therefore, stood on their guard. At the mouth of the Timmer Kill, 6 January more than forty savages from Mantes, or Red Hook, came on board, offering to barter beaver skins, and playing on reeds, to lull suspicion. But De Vries, observing that some of them wore the jackets of the slaughtered English- men, ordered them all on shore, declaring that their " Ma- neto" had revealed their treacherous designs ; and the yaeht dropped down again to Fort Nassau. Here the chiefs & January. of nine different tribes eame on board ; some of whom had worn English jackets at the Timmer Kill. These they had now replaced by robes of fur. Sitting down in Treaty a circle on the yacht's deck, the chiefs declared that they Indians.
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