USA > New York > History of the state of New York Vol I > Part 28
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Van Twil-
chases Pag-
Nutten Isl-
Soon afterward, Van Twiller purchased from the In- 16 June. dians, for his private use, the island which they called ler pur- "Pagganck," lying a little south of Fort Amsterdam. ganck or This island, which was then estimated to contain a hund- and. red and sixty acres of land, was originally called by the Dutch " Nooten," or Nutten Island, " because excellent nut-trees grow there." After its purchase by Van Twil- ler, it began to be known as "the Governor's Island," which old familiar name survives to the present day. The next month, the director bought two islands in the 16 July. Hell-gate River, the largest of which, called Tenkcnas, islands in Also two contained about two hundred acres, and Minnahonnonck, River. the East the smallest, about one hundred and twenty acres. Van Twiller was now one of the largest private land-owners in New Netherland; and the herds of cattle which soon stocked his flourishing farms, gave occasion to shrewd sur- mises that the director had not hesitated to enrich him- self at the expense of the company's interests.t
Some grants of land were likewise obtained by unoffi- George cial persons. Among these, Joris or George Rapelje, one tains a Rapelje ob- grant at the of the original Walloon colonists of Long Island, procured Waal-bogt
* Renss. MSS .; O'Call., i., 124, 326 ; De Vries. 153 ; Megapolensis's Tract on the Mo- hawk Indians, in Hazard, i., 518. Mr. Barnard affirms that, "about 1637, the patroon of this colony appeared in person to take charge of his estate and his people ;" but there does not seem to be any evidence to support this assertion ; see post, p. 531.
t Alb. Rec., G. G., 41, 46 ; De Laet, ix. ; O'Call., i., 174, 182 ; Valentine's Manual for 1850, 544, 545.
268
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. VIII. the formal confirmation of a tract near the Waal-bogt .*
16 June.
1637. A pleasing tradition asserts, that the Indians had relin- quished their title to the Walloons upon the birth of Rap- elje's daughter Sarah, in the month of June, 1625, because she was the first white child born in New Netherland.t Soon afterward, Jonas Bronck became the owner of the rchase in " Ranaque tract," on the " main land" of West Chester, east of and " over against" what is now known as Haer- lem.
Jonas Bronck's
West Ches- ter.
The com- pany se- cures the island of Quotenis, in Narra- gansett Bay.
About the same time, the Indian title to the island of "Quotenis," near the " Roode Island," in Narragansett Bay, was secured for the West India Company, and a trading- post was established there, under the superintendence of Abraham Pietersen. Not long afterward, Pietersen obtain- ed for the company the possession of another island, lying near the Pequod, or Thames River, which, for many years after the settlement of Connecticut by the English, con- tinued to be known as " the Dutchman's Island."§
Dutch- man's Isl- and.
The directors at Amsterdam also succeeded in purchas- ing from Michael Pauw his territorial rights as patroon, for which they paid him twenty-six thousand guilders. By this arrangement, Pavonia and Staten Island became the property of the company ; and the annoyance which Pauw's independent colony had caused was at length stopped.Il
Pavonia and Staten Island.
Fur trade in New Nether- land.
Up to this time the fur trade had steadily increased ; and notwithstanding the loss of their sole traffic on the Connecticut, the directors received returns from their prov- ince, during the year 1635, amounting to nearly one hund-
* Alb. Rec., G. G .; Valentine's Manual for 1850, 545, 546.
t Judge Benson, in his Memoir, p. 94, gives the following extract from the Council Records in 1656: "Sarah Jorisen, the first-born Christian daughter in New Netherland, widow of Hans Hansen, burthened with seven children, petitions for a grant of a piece of meadow, in addition to the twenty morgens (forty acres) granted to her at the Waal-bogt." In consideration of her situation and birth, Stuyvesant and his council assented to her petition .- Alb. Rec., xi. (P.), 332; Moulton, 371, note ; ante, p. 154.
# Benson's Memoir, 97 ; Bolton's West Chester, ii., 280, 283, 289, 302 ; O'Call., i., 250 ; ii., 581. " Bronck's Kill," now known as " Bronx River," derived its name from this Jo- nas Bronck.
§ Hol. Doc., vii., 78 ; Verbael van Beverninck, 608 ; Alb. Rec., i., 89 ; xviii., 291 ; O'Call., i., 174. There is an island now marked on the large official map of Massachusetts, of 1844, as " Dutch Island." It is in the channel west of Canonicut, and north of the Beaver Tail Light.
W Hol. Doc., v., 400 ; ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., ii., 338 ; O'Call., i., 199.
269
WOUTER VAN TWILLER, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
red and thirty-five thousand guilders .* Besides enjoying CHAP. VIII. the monopoly in New Netherland, the company had open- ed a profitable commeree with New England ; and Dutch 1637. Traffic with New vessels brought tobaceo and salt from the West Indies, England. and Flanders mares, and oxen, and sheep, from Holland to Boston. " They came from the Texel in five weeks three days, and lost not one beast or sheep." All these commodities bore high prices in New England, where there was now a scareity of provisions. Potatoes, from High prices Bermuda, were sold at Boston for two-pence the pound ; sions. of provi- a good cow was worth twenty-five or thirty pounds, and a pair of oxen readily fetched forty. The eattle in Connee- tieut did not thrive. In Virginia eorn rose to twenty shil- lings the bushel. The scarcity in New England and Vir- ginia affected the priees of provisions and the value of la- bor in New Netherland. Before the close of 1637, a sehepel, or three peeks of rye, was sold for two guilders, or eighty eents ; and a laboring man readily earned two guilders a day during harvest.t These priees were prob- ably eaused, in some degree, by the bloody war which was now raging in Conneetieut.
For the Puritan colonists of New England had become 1634. embroiled with their aboriginal neighbors. The Pequods the Pequod Origin of had failed to surrender the murderers of Stone, according war. to their treaty at Boston; and had tendered, instead, an atonement of wampum. But Massachusetts insisted upon avenging blood with blood. Soon afterward, John Old- 1636. ham, the adventurous overland explorer of the Connecti- Oldham's eut, was assassinated by the Block Island Indians, who murder. seem to have become jealous at his trading with the Pe- quods, under their treaty with Massachusetts. The mag- istrates and ministers immediately assembled at Boston, 25 August. and commissioned John Endicott to proceed, with a force Endicott's of ninety men, to Block Island, of which he was direeted expedition. to take possession, after putting to death all the warriors, and making prisoners all the women and children. From
De Laet, App., 30.
t Alb. Rec., i., 89 ; ii., 59 ; Winthrop, i., 160, 161, 182, 167, 191, 206.
270
, HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. VIII. Block Island he was to go to the Pequods, and demand 1636. the murderers of Stone, and a thousand fathoms of wam- pum as damages : if satisfaction were refused, the expe- dition was "to obtain it by force."
Block Isl- and devas- tated.
The Pe- quod wig- wams de- stroyed. 14 Sept.
Endicott promptly executed his " sanguinary orders." The Block Island savages fled at the approach of the En- glish invaders ; and Endicott "burned their wigwams, and all their matts, and some corn, and staved seven canoes, and departed." . Thence he went to Saybrook, where he was re-enforced by twenty men. In a few days, the expe- dition sailed for the Pequod River. After burning all the wigwams, and spoiling the canoes of the Pequods, Endi- cott returned to Boston, having done more than enough to exasperate, but nothing to subdue the now implacable en- emy of the English.
Exaspera- tion of the Pequods. October.
The fatal consequences of Endicott's expedition were soon felt by the colonists on the Connecticut. The Pe- quods, aroused to vengeance, lurked about the new fort at Saybrook, and killed several of the garrison. During the whole winter, the post was in a state of siege; and 1637. Gardiner, the commandant, going with a small party a little beyond the range of its guns, was surprised by an · Indian ambush, and forced to seek safety in a rapid re- treat. Wethersfield, too, felt the bitterness of savage re- venge. Sequeen, aggrieved by the conduct of the English, whom he had been the means of attracting thither, insti- gated the Pequods, who killed nine of the colonists, and carried two maidens away into captivity.
22 Feb.
Revenge themselves at Say- brook and Wethers- field. April.
Saybrook re-en- forced. 10 April.
Apprehension was now felt that the Dutch, " who, by their speeches and supplies out of Holland," had excited the suspicions of their New England neighbors, would re- possess themselves of Saybrook. Captain John Underhill was, therefore, promptly sent from Boston to the mouth of the Connecticut, with a re-enforcement of twenty men, "to keep the fort." But Van Twiller, instead of attempting to expel the harassed English from the "Kievit's Hoeck," dispatched a sloop from Manhattan to the Thames River, near which the Dutch had now a trading post, with or-
271
WOUTER VAN TWILLER, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
ders " to redeem the two English maids by what means CHAP. VIII. soever, though it were with a breach of their peace with the Pequods." Touching at Saybrook, the Dutch vessel 1637. The Dutch rescue the English captives from the Pequods. was stopped by the English, who would not allow her to proceed until her officers stipulated, by "a note under their hands," to make the release of the two Wethersfield girls "their chief design." On reaching the Thames Riv- er, the Manhattan officers made large offers to the Pequods for the ransom of the English captives ; "but nothing would be accepted." So the Dutch detained six or seven of the Pequods on board of their sloop; and with them they redeemed the two maidens, who were conveyed to Man- hattan, and, not long afterward, safely restored to their countrymen at Saybrook.
An exterminating war against the Pequods was now 1 May. decreed by the colonists of Hartford, Windsor, and Weth- glish unite The En- ersfield ; and Massachusetts and New Plymouth resolved to exterm- nate the Pequods. to assist Connecticut. John Mason, who had been bred a soldier in the Netherlands, was solemnly intrusted with the command ; and, after a night spent in prayer, an En- glish foree of ninety men, accompanied by Uncas, the chief of the Mahicans, and sixty of his warriors, embarked in 10 May. three vessels at Hartford, and dropped down to Say brook, where the party was re-enforced by Underhill with his twenty men. The expedition soon reached the Narragan- 23 May. sett Bay, where the English were further strengthened by reaches Narragan-
the chief sachem, Miantonomoh, and two hundred of his sett Bay. warriors ; and the combined forees pressed onward to the strong-holds of the Pequods, on the Mistic River. At dawn 26 May. of day, the assailants, in two divisions, led by Mason and Underhill, attacked the fortified village at the summit of a commanding eminence. The Pequods, taken by sur- prise, fought with the energy of despair ; but their arrows and robes of fur availed them little against the muskets and corselets of the New England men, now "bereaved of pity, and without compassion." No quarter was given ; The Pe- no mercy was shown. Six hundred souls, warriors and lage de- quod vil- women, old men and children, perished in the indiscrim- stroyed.
Expedition
272
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. VIII. inate carnage. The rising sun shone on the smoking ru- 1637. ins of the devastated village. A band of warriors from the second Pequod fort pursued the retreating conquerors ; but the English safely reached their vessels, where they were joined by Captain Daniel Patrick, who had just come on from Boston with forty men. The victorious expedition returning to Saybrook, was welcomed by Gardiner with joyous salvos of artillery.
June. The sav- ages hunt- ed down west of Saybrook.
13 July.
The fate of the remaining Pequods was now sealed. Stoughton soon arrived at Saybrook with re-enforcements from Massachusetts ; and the flying savages were pur- sued as far westward as "within twenty or thirty miles of the Dutch." . At a head of land, near what is now Guilford, the English beheaded two sachems ; " where- upon they called the place Sachem's Head." Near what is now Fairfield, a remnant of the devoted tribe was hunt- ed into "a most hideous swamp," and many warriors per- ished. Two hundred old men, women, and children were taken prisoners, reduced to bondage, and divided among the conquering European troops; and not long afterward, some of the wretched captives were exported from Bos- ton, and sold as slaves in the West Indies. The scalp of Sassacus, the Pequod chief, was sent in triumph from Connecticut to Massachusetts Bay. Scarcely a sannup, a warrior, a squaw, or a child of the Pequod name sur- Extermin- vived. . An aboriginal nation had been almost extermin- ated .*
ated.
The tragedy which was thus awfully accomplished was performed, indeed, within the eastern territories of New Netherland, but by other actors than the Dutch. The victorious warfare of the New England colonists secured for them nearly forty years of comparative peace, and their courageous vigor has well received the most eloquent ap- plause. Yet no habitual veneration of ancestral fame should justify the unvaried panegyric of all ancestral
* Winthrop, i., 189, 193-235 ; Morton's Memorial, 185-195 ; Hubbard's Narrative ; Col. Rec. Conn., 9 ; Mason, in Mass. Hist. Coll., xviii., 131-151 ; Gardiner, in M. H. Coll., xxiii., 136-154 ; Underhill, in M. H. Coll., xxvi., 4-25 ; Chalmers, 291, 292 ; Trumbull, i., 69-93 ; Bancroft, i., 397-402 ; Hildreth, i., 238-252.
273
WOUTER VAN TWILLER, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
works, or cloak from ealm review the full significance of CHAP. VIII. inconvenient truth. The Pequod war, unrighteously be- gun, ruthlessly achieved, was the first serious attempt of 1637. the white race to extirpate the red racc from the northern regions of America. Its injurious effects did not end with the subjugation and enslavement of its surviving vietims. Their coveted land was indeed won. But the seeds of enmity were sown for ages; and it was not long after that the Dutch colonists on the North River were obliged to witness as murderous seenes as did the Puritan con- querors of Connecticut.
Meanwhile, Van Dincklagen, on returning to Holland, 1636. had severely reviewed Van Twiller's government, in a me- Van Dinck- 30 August. morial to the States General, which was immediately rc- Holland. lagen in ferred to the Amsterdam Chamber, with an intimation that they should make prompt satisfaction to their injured officer, whose salary was now three years in arrear. The schout-fiscal's complaints, however, were not confined to Complains the civil authorities of New Netherland. Domine Bogar- Van 'Twil- ler and Bo
dus was also censurcd, and to such an extent that, when gardus. the report of the accusations reached Manhattan, the Con- sistory of the Church felt it their duty to takc " ceclesias- tical proceedings" against Van Dincklagen, which, several years afterward, they were obliged to defend before the Classis of Amsterdam .* But the answer which the di- rectors tardily gave to the peremptory order of the States 20 October. General was a virtual denial of justice. It only produced a fresh memorial from the resolute sehout-fiscal, who re- newed his complaints against the colonial administration 1637. of the company, and invoked the interposition of the home Action of government so earnestly, that their High Mightinesscs at govern-
* Hol. Doc., il., 167, 169 ; Correspondence of the Classis of Amsterdam. The memorial and papers which Van Dincklagen presented, on the 30th of August to the States General, are not now in the Archives at the Hague-at least, I was unable to find them, after a careful search. They were probably never returned by the Amsterdam directors, to whom they had been sent ; and their loss is especially to be regretted, as they, no doubt, con- tained an interesting review of Van Twiller's administration. The Correspondence of the Classis of Amsterdam, which I procured for the General Synod of the R. D. Church, con- tains several references to Van Dincklagen's case ; and on the 18th of July, 1638, it ap- pears that Bogardus applied to the Council of New Netherland for leave to return to Hol- land and defend himself .- Alb. Rec., ii., 17 ; post, p. 614, note.
30 April. the Dutch ment.
S
274
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. VIII. length " seriously" urged the College of the XIX. to grant him full redress .*
1637.
Van Twil- ler super- seded.
It was now apparent, even to the Amsterdam Chamber, that a change must be made in the government of New Netherland. The constant reiteration of charges against their chief provincial officer damaged the reputation of the company at home; and the testimony of De Vries, on his return to Holland, probably turned against Van Twiller the scale which had been kept wavering through the in- fluence of the directors with whom he was connected. The College of the XIX. resolved to remove him at once, and appoint a successor, who, with perhaps more capacity and experience, seems to have been quite as unfit to direct the destinies of a state.
William Kieft cho- sen as di- rector.
William Kieft was the person selected. An apparently unfriendly pen has recorded a few indicative anecdotes of his earlier life. He was born at Amsterdam, where he was brought up as a merchant. After doing business awhile at Rochelle, he became a bankrupt; and his por- trait, according to the uncompromising rule of those days, was affixed to the gallows of that city. Some time after his failure, he was sent to ransom some Christians in Tur- key, where, it was alleged, he basely left in bondage sev- eral captives, whose friends had placed in his hands large sums of money for the purchase of their liberty.t
2 Sept.
Kieft com- missioned and sworn.
To such an agent the West India Company determined to intrust the government of their American Province. One of the members of the Amsterdam Chamber, Elias de Raedt, was accordingly sent to the Hague, to solicit from the States General a commission for Kieft as Van Twiller's successor. The request was promptly granted ; and the new director, in presence of the grave Assembly, took his oath of office.#
* Hol. Doc., ii., 171-173, 177, 178.
t De Vries, 147, 149 ; Breeden Raedt, 10; International Mag. for Dec., 1851, p. 597.
# Hol. Doc., ii., 183.
275
WILLIAM KIEFT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
CHAPTER IX.
1638-1641.
EARLY in the spring of 1638, WILLIAM KIEFT, the fifth CHAP. IX. director general of the West India Company's North Amer- ican Province, arrived at Manhattan, after an unusually 28 March. 1638. protracted voyage; the "Herring," in which he sailed from Holland, having taken the southerly course, and lin- gered over winter at the Bermudas, for fear of approach- ing the coasts of New Netherland, in the stormy season, with inexperienced pilots .*
Kieft was an active, "inquisitive," rapacious person; in Kieft's almost every respect the opposite of Van Twiller. In the and admin- character judgment of his New England contemporaries, he was "a istration. more disereet and sober man" than his predecessor. But the history of his troubled administration does not war- rant us in considering him " a prudent man" or a good chief magistrate.t The official records of New Nether- land, which are wanting before, have fortunately been preserved, in an almost unbroken series, from the time of Kieft's inauguration ; and they afford authentic and co- pious materials for the historian.#
The new director organized his council so as to keep Kieft's the entire control in his hands. Johannes la Montagne, 8 April. council. a Huguenot physician, who had emigrated to New Neth- erland the year before, was appointed a counselor, with one vote at the board, while Kieft reserved two votes to himself. Cornelis van Tienhoven, of Utrecht, who had secretary been for several years the company's book-keeper of wages, fiscal.
* Alb. Rec., i., 89 ; De Vries, 149.
# See note M, Appendix.
+ Winthrop, i., 299 ; ii .. 316.
Provincial
and schout-
William Kieft ar- rives at Manhattan.
276
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. IX. was now made provincial secretary ; and Ulrich Lupold, 1638. whom Van Twiller had appointed in the place of Dinck- lagen, continued for a short time to act as schout-fiscal. Kieft's council managed all the general affairs of the province, and was the supreme court of justice. " It was a high crime," said Van der Donck, a few years after- ward, " to appeal from their judgments." This organiza- tion, however, was occasionally modified, for " whenever any thing extraordinary occurred, the director allowed some whom it pleased him-officers of the company for the most part-to be summoned in addition; but that sel- dom happened."*
Condition of things at Finding that the company's affairs were in a ruinous Manhattan. condition, the director caused a formal statement of their situation to be recorded. Fort Amsterdam was dilapida- ted, and " open on every side," except "at the stone point;" all the guns were dismounted ; the house in the fort, the church, the lodge, and the other buildings "required con- siderable repair." Even the place where the magazine for merchandise once stood could ." with difficulty be dis- covered." Almost every vessel, except the yacht " Prince William," and another on the stocks, was in the " worst condition." Only one of the three wind-mills was in oper- ation ; another was out of repair ; the third was burned. The five farms of the company were untenanted, and thrown into commons ; and all the cattle with which they had been stocked had " been disposed of in other hands." But if Van Twiller failed to administer the affairs of the province satisfactorily, he took care to improve his private estate. A few days after his supersedure, he hired from Kieft the company's. " farm, number one," at a yearly rent of two hundred and fifty guilders, and a sixth part of all the produce; and the inventory of the late clerk- director's property exhibited such an ample estate, that many could not help contrasting it with the sorry condi- tion in which he had left every thing else.t
Van Twil- Ler's thrift. 22 April.
* Alb. Rec., ii., 1, 2; Vertoogh van N. N., in Hol. Doc., iv., 74, and in ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., ii., 299. + Alb. Rec., i., 3, 89, 91, 101 ; ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., i., 279, 280.
277
WILLIAM KIEFT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
Abuses existed in every department of the public serv- CHAP. IX. ice, which the bustling Kieft attempted to remedy by proclamations. It was ordered that no person in the com- 1638. Proclama- tions. Fur trade regula- tions. 7 June. pany's employ should trade in peltries, and that no furs should be exported without special permission, under pen- alty of loss of wages and confiscation of goods. The pla- card forbidding clandestine traffic in New Netherland was republished ; and death was threatened against all who should sell powder or guns to the Indians. After night- Police reg- fall, all sailors must remain on board their ships ; hours ulations. were fixed for all persons to commence and leave off work : subordination and diligence were enjoined ; and fighting, lewdness, rebellion, theft, perjury, calumny, and "all oth- er immoralities," solemnly prohibited. No person was to retail any liquors, " except those who sold wine at a de- cent priee and in moderate quantities." And Thursday in each week was appointed as the regular day for the sessions of the council as a court of civil and criminal ju- risdiction. Tobacco, which had now become a staple pro- Tobacco in- duetion of New Netherland, was also subjected to excise ; spection. and regulations were published, to check the abuses which 19 August. injured " the high name" it had "gained in foreign coun- tries."*
Another proclamation declared, that no attestations or Writings to other public writings should be valid before a court in be attested. New Netherland, unless they were written by the colonial secretary. This arbitrary regulation was soon objected to as oppressive, and as intended to restrain popular rights ; but the policy of the measure was afterward defended by Secretary Van Tienhoven. " Most of the people living in New Netherland," said the sycophantic official, "are coun- try or sea-faring men, who summon each other frequently before the court for small matters, while many of them can neither read nor write, nor testify intelligibly, nor pro- duce written evidence ; and, if some do produce it, it is sometimes written by a sailor or a boor, and is often whol- ly indistinct and repugnant to the meaning of those who
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