History of the state of New York Vol I, Part 25

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

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June. De Vries's by officers from the fort. The next morning De Vries reached his ship; which ship visited was soon afterward visited by a yacht from Fort Amster- dam, bringing the director's letters for Holland, and Re- mund and Notelman, the provincial secretary and schout, who were welcomed on board. Remund, however, see- ing a dozen beaver skins lying on the deck, declared them " a prize," because they had not been entered at the fort. De Vries told him that he might seize them; but Notelman, the schout, interfered. "Let them lie," said he; "we are not now at the fort. If there is any thing wrong, the pa- troon can answer for it in Holland." The secretary, more faithful to his trust, threatened to send the ship Soutberg after De Vries ; who, in reply, severely censured the con- duct of the company's officers at Manhattan. "They know nothing," said the irritated patroon, "but about drinking : in the East Indies they would not serve for assistants ; but the West India Company sends out at once, as great mas- ters of folks, persons who never had any command before ; and it must therefore come to naught." With this reproof, the discomfited officials returned to Fort Amsterdam .*

* De Vries, Voyages, 114-116. The journal describes Sandy Hook Bay, in 1633, as " a

237

WOUTER VAN TWILLER, DIRECTOR GENERAL.

Setting sail for Holland, De Vries met an English ves- CHAP. VIII. sel just outside of Sandy Hook, "running directly upon the shoals," and in danger of shipwreck. A gun was fired 1633. 15 June. De Vries sails for Holland. to warn the stranger, and a boat was sent to point out the channel. The English captain immediately visited De Vries, who recognized him as an old acquaintance named Stone, whom he had met in the West Indies, and afterward at Jamestown, the previous spring. Stone was carrying a large cargo of cattle from Virginia to New England; and being in want of water, he was anxious to run up to Manhattan. But no one on board knew the channel. At An English Stone's earnest entreaty, De Vries allowed one of his crew Virginia ar- ship from rives at to join the English ship, and pilot her up to Fort Amster- Manhattan. dam .* The first British vessel that ever ascended the North River had been navigated in, a few months before, by Eelkens, a discharged officer of the Dutch West India Company ; a second English ship now entered the harbor of Manhattan with a Dutch pilot furnished by De Vries.

While Stone was lying at anchor before Fort Amster- dam, a trading pinnace arrived from New Plymouth; and a quarrel soon arose between the Virginia captain and the master of the New England craft. Van Twiller, having been drinking with Stone, was prevailed upon to allow him to seize the pinnace, "upon pretence that those of Plym- outh had reproached them of Virginia." Watching an op- A New portunity when most of the New Plymouth people were pinnace Plymouth ashore, Stone boarded the pinnace with some of his men, the captain seized by and " set sail to carry her away to Virginia." But some ginia ship. of the Vir- of the Dutch, " who had been at Plymouth and received kindness," pursued the marauders, and brought them Rescued by back. The next day, Van Twiller and Stone entreated the Dutch. the master of the pinnace, who was one of the New Plym- outh council, " to pass it by." This he promised to do, " by a solemn instrument under his hand ;" and both the English vessels set sail for Massachusetts. Stone, how-

great bay where fifty or sixty ships could easily lie, protected from the sea winds. This Sandy Hook stretches out about two miles from the Highlands, with a flat sand beach about eight or nine paces broad, completely covered with blue plum-trees, which grow wild there."-P. 116.

* De Vries, 98, 110, 117.

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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

CHAP. VIII. ever, no sooner arrived at Boston, than he was arrested at 1633. the suit of the New Plymouth people, and bound over to appear in the Admiralty Court in England. But the re- cognizance was soon withdrawn ; for the prosecutors found that "it would turn to their reproach."*

Winslow and Brad- ford visit Boston. 12 July. 22

Massachu- setts de- clines to join New Plymouth in occupy- ing Con- necticut.

On the return of their pinnace from Manhattan, the New Plymouth people learned that the New Netherland authorities had now secured an Indian title, and taken formal possession of the valley of the Connecticut. Gov- ernor Winslow and Mr. Bradford, therefore, hastened to Boston, " to confer about joining in a trade to Connecticut for beaver and hemp," and "to set up a trading-house there, to prevent the Dutch."t But Winthrop again de- clined engaging in the enterprise. It was " doubtful whether that place was within our patent or not," thought the Massachusetts authorities ; nevertheless, they assigned other reasons for their refusal. "In regard," said Winthrop, " the place was not fit for plantation, there being three or four thousand warlike Indians, and the river not to be gone into but by small pinnaces, having a bar affording but six feet at high water, and for that no vessels can get in for seven months in the year, partly by reason of the ice, and then the violent stream, &c., we thought not fit to meddle with it." After a week's delay at Boston, Winslow and Bradford returned to New Plymouth, with- out having been able to engage the co-operation of the Mas- sachusetts authorities, but with their "leave to go on."# ..

1 8 July.

Probable motives of the Massa- chusetts people.

It is probable that the real motive of Massachusetts in thus declining the proposition of the New Plymouth peo- ple was an indisposition to interfere with the colonization of Connecticut, under the charter which Lord Warwick had just granted to Saltonstall and his associates. Not long afterward, the authorities at Boston distinctly admit- ted that the lower part of the Connecticut valley was "out

* Winthrop, i., 104; Morton's Memorial, 176.

+ Winthrop. i., 105. Winslow, however, in a letter to Winthrop, written ten years aft- erward, on the 6th of April, 1643, alleges that " the Dutch came in by way of prevention, and stept in between us and our people," &c .- Morton's Memorial, App., p. 395.

# Winthrop, i., 105, and Savage's note, 181 ; Morton's Memorial, 172 ; Hutchinson's Mass., ii., 416.

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WOUTER VAN TWILLER, DIRECTOR GENERAL.

of the elaim of the Massachusetts patent."* The value CHAP. VIII. and importance of the upper part of that valley, which was really comprehended within their patent, was, however, 1633. soon made known to the General Court. John Oldham, John Old- of Watertown, and three others, in the course of the sum- land jour- ham's over-

ney to Con- mer, penetrated one hundred and sixty miles through the necticut. wilderness, to trade with the native tribes on the upper waters of the Connecticut. The travellers were hospitably entertained at all the Indian villages through which they passed ; and the sachem whom they visited, near the pres- ent town of Springfield, "used them kindly, and gave them some beaver." Early in the autumn of 1633, the September. first British explorers returned to Boston, with glowing accounts of the luxuriant meadows which bordered the riv- er, and bringing samples of hemp which " grows there in great abundanee, and is much better than the English."t

Though Winthrop would not join with the New Plym- Winthrop outh authorities in their projected enterprise of opposition Van Twil- writes to to the Dutch, he nevertheless thought it necessary to as- claims Ier, and sert, promptly, the superior title of the English to the cut for the Connecti- whole of the Connecticut valley. Accordingly, he dis- English. patched his bark, the " Blessing of the Bay," on a trading voyage through Long Island Sound, with a " Commis- sion," to signify to the New Netherland government "that the King of England had granted the river and country of Connecticut to his own subjects," and that the Dutch should therefore " forbear to build there." On their way, the bark's company visited Long Island, where they found the Indians had "store of the best wampampeak," and " many canoes so great, as one will earry eighty men." They also visited "the River of Connecticut, which is barred at the entrance, so as they could not find above one fathom water." At Manhattan, Winthrop's messengers " were very kindly entertained, and had some beaver, and other things, for sueh commodities as they put off."#

26 August. 4 Sept.

After five weeks' absence, the bark returned to Boston, 32 Oct.

* Winthrop, i., 398, App.

# Winthrop, i., 111, 112.

+ Winthrop, i., 111 ; Trumbull, i., 34.

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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

CHAP. VIII. with a " very courteous and respectful" letter from Van 1633. Twiller to Winthrop. The Director of New Netherland, in turn, desired the Massachusetts authorities to defer their 23 Sept. 4 Octob Van Twil- ler replies, the Dutch title. " pretence or claim" to Connecticut, until the King of En- gland and the States General should agree about their lim- and asserts its, so that the colonists of both nations might live "as good neighbors in these heathenish countries." "I have," added Van Twiller, "in the name of the Lords, the States General, and the authorized West India Company, taken possession of the forementioned river, and for testimony thereof have set up an house on the north side of the said river, with intent to plant, &c. It is not the intent of the States to take the land from the poor natives, as the King of Spain hath done by the Pope's donation, but rather to take it from the said natives at some reasonable and con- venient price, which, God be praised, we have done hith- erto. In this part of the world are divers heathen lands that are empty of inhabitants, so that of a little part of portion thereof, there needs not any question."*

New Plym- outh com- mences a settlement on the Cor necticut.

Notwithstanding the refusal of the Massachusetts au- thorities, the New Plymouth people did not abandon their purpose of encroachment on the Connecticut; where the Hollanders were now in quiet possession, under their three- fold right by original discovery, constant visitation, and formal purchase from the aboriginal owners. To secure a color of adverse title, a tract of land, just above Fort Good Hope, was bought of "a company of banished In- dians," who had been " driven out from thence by the po- tency of the Pequods." A small frame of a house was prepared, and stowed in " a great new bark ;" with which " a chosen company," under the command of Lieutenant William Holmes, was dispatched to the Connecticut. With Holmes and his party the bark also conveyed the banished Indians, from whom the land had been purchased. This rendered it indispensable that the English intruders should be provided with "a present defense" against the Pe-

An expedi- tion dis- patched to the Con- necticut.

* Lond. Doc., i., 53; N. Y. Col. MSS., iii., 18; Winthrop, i., 113; Trumbull, i., 70; Address before N. Y. H. S., 1844, 32 ; O'Call., i., 152. Holmes, Ann., i., 223, errs in placing this transction under the year 1634, instead of 1633.

241

WOUTER VAN TWILLER. DIRECTOR GENERAL.

quods, "who were much offended that they brought home CHAP. VIII. and restored the right sachem of that place, called Natu- wannute."* 1633.

The Plymouth adventurers soon reached Fort Good 16 Sept. Hope. " When they came up the river," says the quaint Plymouth The New Puritan chronicler, " the Dutch demanded what they in- ers settle adventur- tended, and whither they would go? They answered, up at Wind- the river to trade. Now their order was to go and seat sor. above them. They bid them strike and stay, or else they would shoot them, and stood by their ordnance ready fit- ted. They answered, they had commission from the Gov- ernor of Plymouth to go up the river to such a place, and if they did shoot, they must obey their order and proceed ; they would not molest them, but would go on. So they passed along ; and though the Dutch threatened them hard, yet they shot not. Coming to their place, they elapped up their house quickly, and landed their provi- sions, and left the company appointed, and sent the bark home, and afterward palisadoed their house about, and for- tified themselves better."t Thus was begun the first En- glish settlement at Windsor, in Connecticut.

Advised of the intrusion of the resolute " Plymotheans," Van Twil- Van Twiller sent to Commissary Van Curler a formal noti- ineffectual- ler protests fication, to be delivered to Holmes, protesting against his 25 October. ly. conduct, and commanding him to "depart forthwith, with all his people and houses," from the lands on the Fresh River, continually traded upon by the Dutch, "and at present occupied by a fort." But Holmes, who had de- fied the ordnance of the Hope, was not to be moved by a protest from the Director of New Netherland. "He was there," said the New Plymouth lieutenant, "in the name of the King of England, whose servant he was, and there he would remain."#

* Bradford, in Hutch. Mass., ii., 416; Hazard, ii., 215. Winslow, in Morton's Memo- rial, App., 396, calls this sachem's name " Attawanhut," who had been expelled by Ta- tobum ; and adds, "that this Attawanhut, by the relation of Lieutenant Holmes, if he would have given way to it, would have cut off the Dutch, because they came in by Ta- tobum."

+ Bradford, in Hutch., ii., 417 ; Prince, 435 ; Winthrop, i., 113 ; Trumbull, i., 35.

# Hol. Doc., ix., 189, 190 ; i., N. Y. H. S. Coll., i., 271 ; Hazard, ii., 262 ; O'Call., i., 154.

themselves

242

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

CHAP. VIII. Finding his protests disregarded, Van Twiller submit- 1633. ted his perplexities to his superiors in Holland. But be- fore any reply could reach Manhattan, a new embarrass- ment occurred. Captain Stone, on his return from New England to Virginia, early the next year, entered the 1634. mouth of the Connecticut, for the purpose of trading at January. the Dutch fort ; and, while on his way up the river, was Captain Stone mur- dered by the Pequod Indians. 1 treacherously murdered by the Pequods. The massacre of Stone and his company was followed, soon afterward, by the killing of some friendly Indians ; and Commissary Van Curler punished the double atrocities by executing the War be- tween the Pequods and the Dutch. "old sachem, and some other" of the assassins. This ex- cited the Pequods to open war with the Dutch; and, in revenge, the savages now desired to gain the friendship 6 Nov. Treaty be- tween the Pequods of the English. They, therefore, dispatched an embassy to Boston, where a treaty was negotiated, by which the Pe- and Massa- quods agreed to surrender the two surviving murderers of chusetts. Stone's party, to "yield up Connecticut" to the English, and to give their new allies a large store of wampum and beaver. This treaty, though it benefited Massachusetts rather than New Plymouth, gave the Windsor colonists fresh courage. Van Twiller, who by this time had re- December. The Dutch ceived instructions from the West India Company, soon ineffectual- afterward dispatched " a band of about seventy men, in a ly attempt to dislodge the English from Wind- sor. warlike manner, with colors displayed," to dislodge the New Plymouth men from Windsor. But the intruders standing upon their defense, the Dutch force withdrew " without offering any violence."*

1633. Domestic affairs of the prov- ince.

While important public questions had thus continued to try the inexperienced Van Twiller from the day he landed at Manhattan, the domestic concerns of the province had required much of his attention. From the first, he seems to have formed an extravagant estimate of the wealth and resources of his commercial employers. They had au- thorized him to make large expenditures at the points where their fur trade centered, and where their revenue

* De Vries, 150 ; Winthrop, i., 123, 148, 153, 386 ; Prince, 436 ; Morton's Memorial, 176, 183, 184 ; Trumbull, i., 35, 71.

243

WOUTER VAN TWILLER, DIRECTOR GENERAL.

officers were stationed. Fort Amsterdam, which had be- CHAP. VIII. come dilapidated, was repaired, and a guard-house, and a barrack for the newly-arrived soldiers, were constructed 1633. Fort Am- sterdam re- paired. within the ramparts, at a cost of several thousand guilders. Three expensive wind-mills were also erected ; but they Mills and were injudiciously placed so near the fort that the build- houses built at Manhattan ings within its walls frequently "intercepted and turned off the south wind." Several brick and frame houses were built for the director and his officers ; and on the compa- ny's farm, north of the fort, a dwelling-house, brewery, boat-house, and barn. Other smaller houses were built for the corporal, the smith, the cooper, and the midwife ; and the goats, which Harvey had sent from Virginia as a present to Van Twiller, were accommodated with an ap-, propriate stable. The loft, in which the people had wor- The shiped since 1626, was now replaced by a plain wooden church. building like a barn, " situate on the East River," in what is now Broad Street, between Pearl and Bridge Streets ; and near this " old church," a dwelling-house and stable were erected for the use of "the Domine."* In the Fa- The "Dom- therland, the title of "Domine" was familiarly given to ine." clergymen, and head-masters of Latin schools. The phrase crossed the Atlantic with Bogardus ; and it has survived to the present day, among the descendants of the Dutch colonists of New Netherland.

Manhattan was also invested with the prerogative of "Staple "Staple right," one of those peculiar feudal institutions tablished at right" eg- enjoyed by Dordrecht and other towns in Holland, in vir- tue of which all the merchandise passing up and down the rivers on which they were situated was subject to cer- tain impost duties. This right was now to be exercised at Manhattan ; and all vessels passing before Fort Am- sterdam werc to be obliged either to discharge their car- goes, or pay the " recognitions" which the West India Com- pany imposed.t

Besides the costly works which Van Twiller undertook

* Hazard, i., 397 , Alb. Rec., i., 85, 86, 88 ; x., 355; Hol. Doc., iii., 97; iv., 125, Ver- toogh van N. N., 289, 293 ; O'Call., i., 155 ; Moulton ; Benson's Memoir, 103 ; De Vries, 163. t Meyer's Institutions Judiciaires, iii., 55 ; O'Call., i., 155 ; Vertoogh van N. N., 290, 313.

Manhattan.

244

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

CHAP. VIII. at Manhattan, two houses were ordered to be built at Pa- vonia ; another in Fort Nassau, on the South River ; and 1633. Buildings Fort Nas- sau, and Fort Or- ange. at Fort Orange, " an elegant large house, with balustrades, at Pavonia, and eight small dwellings for the people."* All these en- terprises were undertaken on account, and at the expense of the company. The sound of the hammer was now con- stantly heard ; but only at the points where the trade of the company was to be protected. No independent farmers attempted the cultivation of the soil. The agricultural im- provement of the country was in the hands of the patroons.

The colonie of Rensselaerswyck, during the first three Colonie of years after its settlement, had grown very gradually. A laerswyck. few farms on the rich alluvion yielded large returns. But Rensse- most of the colonists clustered around the walls of the 1634. company's reserved Fort Orange. From the form of the river bank at this place, which was supposed to resemble a hoop-net, the hamlet soon received the name of the The Fuyck. "Fuyck."t This was subsequently changed to "Bevers- wyck," by which it was long known. At first, owing, perhaps, to the discord between the patroons and the com- pany, its population increased very slowly ; and for sev- eral years it was esteemed at Manhattan a place of "little consequence."# Arendt van Curler, a man of large benev- olence and unsullied honor, was the patroon's commissa- Its first of- ficers and prominent colonists. ry and secretary ; Wolfert Gerritsen, superintendent of farms ; and Jacob Albertsen Planck, schout. Roelof Jan- sen, Brandt Peelen, Martin Gerritsen, Maryn Adriaensen, Gerrit Teunissen, Cornelis Teunissen, Cornelis Maassen van Buren, Jan Labbatie, and Jan Jansen Dam, were among the most prominent of the pioneer colonists.§ Some of these, afterward removing from Rensselaerswyck to Man- hattan, became distinguished or notorious in the larger field of provincial politics.

From some unexplained cause, the Raritan savages,

* Alb. Rec., i., 85, 86 ; O'Call., i., 156, 157.

t Judge Benson's Memoir, 120 ; Renss. MSS.

# Journal van N. N., in Hol. Doc., iii., 97; Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv., 5.

§ Renss. MSS. ; O'Call., i., 322, 433, 434. Van Curler was drowned in 1667, while cross- ing Lake Champlain ; Relation, 1667-8, 18; N. Y. Col. MSS., iii., 156.

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WOUTER VAN TWILLER, DIRECTOR GENERAL.

soon after Van Twiller's arrival, attacked several of the CHAP. VIII. company's traders, and showed other signs of hostility. Peace, however, was restored in the course of the follow- 1634. Troubles ing year ;* but the savages in the neighborhood of Fort with the Raritan savages. Amsterdam were never afterward as friendly and cordial toward the Dutch as were the Mohawks near Fort Orange.

ler severely

ed by Dom-

Van Twiller's conduct in the administration of provin- Van Twil- cial affairs seems, before long, to have provoked a severe reprimand- reprimand from Domine Bogardus, who is said to have ine Bogar- written him a letter describing him as " a child of the 17 June. dus. devil," and threatening him with "such a shake from the pulpit, on the following Sunday, as would make him shud- der." Whatever causes may have provoked this coarse attack, neither the license of a rude and early age, nor the habits and temper of Bogardus himself, could justify con- duct, which, his enemies afterward charged against him, was " unbecoming a heathen, much less a Christian, let- ting alone a preacher of the Gospel."t

The affairs of New Netherland had by this time at- Complaints tracted the serious attention of the home government. ers of the of the own- Upon the return of the " William" to England, the depo- ship Will- am to the Dutch am- sitions of the crew were taken ; and a statement of the bassadors case was communicated to Joachimi and Brasser, the 1633. at London. Dutch ambassadors at London, with a demand of damages 1 Nov. from the West India Company, and the threat of an appli- cation to the British government, in case satisfaction should be withheld. The ambassadors immediately trans- 1634. mitted the papers to the States General, with an intima- 27 May. tion that the disputes which had lately broken out be- ted to the Transmit- States Gen- tween the patentees of Virginia and New England were eral. instigated by the Spaniards, and " were not agitated be- cause these parties were suffering loss from one another. but in order that men might have occasion to quarrel with the Dutch about the possession of New Netherland." Upon Referred to the report of their committee, the States General referred India Com- the West pany.

the case to the West India Company, with directions " to 20 June.

* Alb. Rec., i., 96 ; O'Call., i., 157, 167.

+ Alb. Rec., ii., 328-334 ; O'Call., i., 167, 362.

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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

CHAP. VIII. inform their High Mightinesses of the right of the mat- ter."*

1634. 25 October. Answer of the West India Com- pany.

After some months delay, the deputies from the College of the XIX. submitted a memorial to the States General, denying the claim of the London merchants for compen- sation, and insisting that the West India Company had reason to allege damages against the English trespassers. The renegade Eelkens himself was well aware that New Netherland had been discovered at the cost of the East India Company, in 1609, " before any Christians had been there, as was testified by Hudson, who was then employ- ed by the said company to find out a northwest passage to China." Subsequent occupation, purchases from the aborigines, and colonization under the West India Com- pany, had confirmed this original title by discovery. None but "some prohibited traders, and especially Jacob Eel- kens," had hitherto questioned the company's rights un- der their charter. Eelkens's conduct had done them great damage, and the "injurious seed of discord" had been sown between the Indians and the Dutch, who had, up to that time, lived with each other in good friendship. To arrange the present dispute, and prevent future difficulty, the company suggested that the whole question should be referred to the arbitration of Boswell, the English ambas- sador at the Hague, and Joachimi, the Dutch ambassador at London, and that their High Mightinesses should take prompt measures to establish a boundary line between the Dutch and English possessions in North America.t

25 October. Question left unset- tled.

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History of the state of New York Vol I, Part 25

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