USA > New York > History of the state of New York Vol I > Part 30
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Effects of a more liberal policy.
The more liberal system which the company was thus compelled to adopt, though it fell short of the emergency, was a step in advance, and gave a rapid impulse to the prosperity of New Netherland. Private enterprise and in- dustry were now unshackled ; and an anxiety to emigrate was soon manifested at Amsterdam, which the directors wisely encouraged by offering a free passage, and other substantial inducements to respectable farmers.t
* Hol. Doc., ii., 220, 370 ; O'Call., i., 201-203.
+ Hol. Doc., iii., 96; v., 155-157 ; ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., ii., 330 ; O'Call., i., 206.
289
WILLIAM KIEFT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
The proclamation was no sooner published, than plans, CHAP. IX. of colonization were formed by persons of capital and in- fluence. De Vries, who had arranged with Van Twiller, 1638. two years before, for lands on Staten Island, now sailed again sails from the Texel with several emigrants, who had agreed for New Nether. to go out with him and commence a colony. Arriving off land. Sandy Hook in mid-winter, the master of the ship, want- ing a pilot, and observing the ground covered with snow, began to talk of returning to the West Indies, and wait- ing there until summer. He had "old false charts," only, with him. But some of the passengers, "who had lived several years in New Netherland," asked De Vries to pilot them in ; for they knew that he had formerly " taken his own ship in by night." De Vries assenting, conducted 27 Dec. the vessel safely up to Fort Amsterdam, " where there Manhattan. Arrives at was great joy, because no ship was expected there at that time of the year." After spending a few days at Kieft's house, where he was cordially welcomed, De Vries sent 1639. his people to Staten Island, to build some cabins, and be- Builds on 5 January. gin a " colonie."* Staten Isl- and.
In the course of the following summer, several other persons of substantial means came out from Holland, bringing along with them emigrants and cattle. Among 16 June. them was Jochem Pietersen Kuyter, of Darmstadt, who ter and J. P. Kuy- Cornelis had formerly been a commander in the East Indies under Melyn ar- the King of Denmark. Cornelis Melyn, of Antwerp, also Manhattan rive at came to see the country ; which pleased him so well that he soon returned to bring his family out to Manhattan. Both Kuyter and Melyn afterward rose to prominence in their new home.t
The liberal policy which the West India Company had Strangers now adopted not only encouraged the emigration of sub- neighbor- from the stantial colonists from the Fatherland, but also attracted attracted to strangers from Virginia and New England. Conscience erland. had always been unshackled in New Netherland ; and now the internal trade and commerce of the province were made free to all. ' In Massachusetts, where political fran-
ing colonies
New Neth-
* De Vries, 148, 149. + Hol. Doc., iii., 365 ; De Vries, 151.
T
290
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. IX. chises were limited to members of the Church, "many 1639. men began to inquire after the southern parts ;" and it was not because the necessaries of life or a healthy cli- mate were wanting, that that colony was " disesteemed of many." Besides seeking relief in Virginia and the West Indies, the dissatisfied began to escape from their "insup- portable government," to find more congenial homes in New Netherland. From Virginia, too, numbers of persons, whose terms of service had expired, were attracted to Man- hattan, where they introduced improved modes of culti- vating tobacco. - Cherry and peach trees, which hitherto had been seen only near Jamestown, now began to flour- Prosperity ish around the walls of Fort Amsterdam. Prosperity and of the prov- ince. progress replaced dilapidation and ruin. Instead of " sev- en bouweries and two or three plantations," full thirty, " as well stocked with cattle as any in Europe," were soon under cultivation. The numerous applications for land promised " full one hundred more ;" and there was a . prospect that, in two or three years' time, provisions could be furnished for fourteen thousand men .*
15 January. Kieft pur- chases lands on Long Isl- and for the company.
In view of the increasing demand for homesteads near Fort Amsterdam, Kieft purchased from the chief of the tribe living near Manhassett, or Schout's Bay, all the lands from Rockaway eastward to "Sicktew-hacky," or Fire Island Bay; thence northward to Martin Gerritsen's, or Cow Bay, and westward along the East River, "to the Vlaeck's Kill ;" and thus secured to the West India Com- pany the Indian title to nearly all the territory now form- ing the county of Queens. A few months afterward, the Indian owners of " Kekesick" appeared at Fort Amster- dam, and ceded to the company all the territory " which lies over against the flats of the Island of Manhates," ad- joining " the great Kill." This purchase is supposed to have included a part of the present town of Yonkers, in the county of West Chester.t
3 August. Acquires Kekesick in West Chester.
* Hol. Doc., ii., 370, 371 ; iii., 98, 99 ; Alb. Rec., i., 109 ; O'Call., i., 208, 222, 418 ; Win- throp, i., 331 ; De Vries, 109 ; Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv., 6.
t Alb. Rec., G. G., 59, 62 ; xxii., 8; O'Call., i., 210 ; ii., 335 ; Thompson's L. I., î., 94 ; Bolton's West Chester, ii., 401.
291
WILLIAM KIEFT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
Among the prominent men in New England whose at- CHAP. IX. tention was turned toward New Netherland, was Captain John Underhill, one of the heroes of the Pequod war, and 1639. Captain Jolin Un- derhill pro- now Governor of Piscataqua, or Dover. Dissatisfied with his abode, he applied to Kieft for permission to reside with poses to come under the Dutch protection. a few families under the protection of the Dutch, provid- ed they might enjoy all the privileges of the inhabitants of New Netherland. The director and council promptly 8 Sept. granted Underhill's request, upon condition that " he and his adherents take the oath of allegiance to their High Mightinesses the States General, and his highness the Prince of Orange."*
The only obligation required from strangers was an oath Obligations of fidelity and allegiance, similar to that which was im- leges of for- and priví- posed upon Dutch colonists. The liberal maxims of the New Neth- eigners in Fatherland in regard to citizenship were adopted and erland. proclaimed in New Netherland. In no one respect were foreigners subjected to greater restraints than natives, or excluded from any privilege which Hollanders themselves enjoyed. New Amsterdam was to be as much a city of the world as was old Amsterdam ; and the provincial records show how readily the English new-comers bound them- September. selves by oath "to follow the director, or any one of the council, wherever they shall lead; faithfully to give in- stant warning of any treason or other detriment to this country that shall come to their knowledge ; and to assist to the utmost of their power in defending and protecting with their blood and treasure the inhabitants thereof against all its enemies."t
Numerous grants of land were soon obtained by the Grants of adopted citizens of New Netherland. Anthony Jansen, eigners. of Salee, a respectable French Huguenot, entered two 1 August. hundred acres opposite Coney Island, and began the set-
* Alb. Rec., ii., 64. Underhill, however, did not come to New Netherland until 1643. In 1642, after undergoing ecclesiastical discipline at Boston, he removed to Stamford ; and the next year entered the military service of the Dutch .- See Winthrop, i., 270, 291, 306, 326 ; ii., 14, 63, 97 ; and Thompson's L. I., ii., 353-361. In a letter, dated the 28th of June, 1639, Underhill gives an account of the proceedings of the "proud Pharisees" against him, somewhat more circumstantial than Winthrop's statements.
t Alb. Rec., ii., 63.
land to for-
292
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. IX. tlement of Gravesend. - Thomas Belcher soon afterward 1639. took up a tract at " Marechkaweick," in what is now Brook- lyn. And George Holmes, the leader of the expedition against Fort Nassau in 1635, who had been carried back to Virginia, returning to Manhattan, in conjunction with Thomas Hall, his former companion, obtained a grant of land, and built a house near "Deutel Bay," a beautiful . secluded nook on the East River .*
15 Nov.
Deutel Bay.
Kieft's do- mestic ad- ministra- tion.
1 July.
Cornelis van der Huygens appointed schout-fis- cal.
13 July.
While every thing was now beginning to wear an air of progress and improvement around Manhattan, the act- ive director employed himself diligently in reforming the colonial administration. Discipline was enforced among the soldiers, and the company's mechanics and laborers obliged to regulate their working hours by the ringing of the bell. Jacob van Curler and David Provoost were ap- pointed inspectors, of the new staple, tobacco. Oloff Ste- vensen van Cortlandt, who had come out with Kieft from Holland as a soldier in the service of the company, was promoted to be commissary of the shop. A change was also made in the office of schout-fiscal, but not by Kieft's agency. This important post was now conferred, by the Amsterdam Chamber, upon Cornelis van der Huygens. Van Dincklagen, whose representations had so materially contributed to the changes introduced into the administra- tion of New Netherland, was neither reinstated nor re- ceived into the company's favor. Upon the arrival of Van der Huygens at Manhattan, Ulrich Lupold, who had acted as schout-fiscal for three years, was immediately ap- pointed commissary of wares by Kieft, who frequently in- vited his presence at the colonial council board.+
- * Alb. Rec., i., 116 ; ii., 54 ; O'Call., i., 208, 211 ; ii., 581 ; Thompson's L. I., ii., 171, 218. Deutel Bay is the small cove on the East River about two miles above Corlaer's Hook, now known as "Turtle Bay." The original name, "Deutel," which the English soon corrupted to " Turtle," signified, according to Judge Benson (Memoir, p. 96), a peg with which casks were " gedeutelt," or secured. As these pegs were short, but broad at the base, and as the bay was narrow at its entrance and wide within, the supposed resem- blance between it and the peg probably suggested the name of "Deutel."
+ Alb. Rec., ii., 57, 61, 83, 99, 132 ; O'Call., i., 211, 228 ; Hol. Doc., 398 ; ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., ii., 299, 337. Van Cortlandt left the company's service in 1648, and afterward be- came prominent in colonial affairs. Notices of his descendants, who form one of the most respectable families in the state, may be found in O'Call., i., 212 ; and in Bolton's West Chester, i., 51.
293
WILLIAM KIEFT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
The emancipation of the internal trade of the province, CHAP. IX. however, soon began to produce irregularities ; and a new proclamation warned all persons, of whatever rank or con- dition, against selling guns or ammunition to the Indians. A similar edict prohibited any person from sailing to Fort irregular trading. Orange, the South River, or Fort Hope, without a permit from the director general, and from returning without a passport from the company's commissary. But Kieft's in- discretion hurried him into the adoption of another meas- ure, which produced, before long, the most disastrous re- sults. Under the plea that the company was burdened with heavy expenses for its fortifications and garrisons in New Netherland, the director arbitrarily resolved to " de- 15 Sept. mand some tribute" of maize, furs, or sewan from the solves to Kieft re- neighboring Indians, " whom we thus far have defended ute on the against their enemies," and threatened, in case of their savages. refusal, to employ proper measures "to remove their re- luctance."*
Meanwhile, the colonists of New England had been rap- Progress of idly narrowing the eastern frontier of New Netherland. croachment English en- The exterminating war against the Pequods had revealed ticut. in Connec- a territory hitherto unknown to the English ; and Stoughton and Underhill, returning in triumph to Boston, extolled the 1637. beauty of the fertile coasts between Saybrook and Fairfield. " The place whither God's providence carried us, that is, to Quillipeage River, and so beyond to the Dutch," wrote 14 August. Stoughton to Winthrop, "is abundantly before" Massachu- setts Bay., "The Dutch will seize it if the English do not," he urged, "and it is too good for any but friends." Just then Davenport, the former Non-conformist clergyman at Rotterdam, and Eaton and Hopkins, " two merchants of London, men of fair estate and of great esteem for religion, and wisdom in outward affairs," arrived at Boston, and were besought to settle themselves in Massachusetts. But they could not be satisfied to " choose such a condition," 1638. and determined to remove to the " parts about Quilli- pieck." Sailing from Boston, the English colonists soon 30 March.
* Alb. Rec., il., 46, 47, 65.
1639. 30 March. Proclama- tion against
levy a trib-
.
294
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. IX. reached the place which Block had first named the " Roodenberg," or Red Hills. The Dutch title was, how- 1638. Colonists sent from Boston to New Ha- ven. 18 April. ever, disregarded ; and Davenport, under the shadow of a spreading oak, laid the foundations of New Haven. A simple "plantation covenant" bound the colonists to be "ordered by the rules which the Scriptures held forth to them ;" land was purchased from the Indian sachems ; 1639. and the vigorous settlement throve apace. In a year, its 25 October. population exceeded two hundred ; and Theophilus Eaton was chosen governor by electors, whose qualification was church membership .*
With a boldness fostered by the consciousness of supe- rior numbers, English emigrants now aimed at possessing " all the land" as far westward as the Hudson River.t June. Stratford. At the mouth of the Housatonic, the village of Stratford already contained more than fifty houses. Enterprising Norwalk. emigrants were also beginning to build at Norwalk and Stamford ; and even at Greenwich two houses were al- Patrick and ready erected. One of these was occupied by Captain Daniel Patrick, "who had married a Dutch wife from the Hague." Patrick, who had been in command of a portion of the troops sent from Massachusetts during the Pequod war, had ample opportunities of observing the country in the neighborhood of the Dutch. Becoming dissatisfied with Watertown, he resolved to seek a more congenial home; and in company with Robert Feake, who had mar- ried the daughter-in-law of Winthrop, he removed to Con- necticut, and commenced the settlement of Greenwich.#
Feake at Green- wich.
Fort at Saybrook.
Growth of Hartford.
At the mouth of the Connecticut "a strong fort" was now completed by Gardiner, the governor of Saybrook. Hartford was already a little town, with over one hundred houses and a fine church. The Dutch, however, contin- ued in possession of the flat lands around "the Hope," where Gysbert op Dyck was now commissary, with a gar-
* Winthrop, i., 228, 400, 405 ; Hutch. Coll., 62 ; Trumbull, i., 96-99, 104; ante, p. 56. De Vries, 149, says, that on the 6th of June, 1639, he anchored over night at New Haven, where he found " about three hundred houses built, and a handsome church."
t Mather's Magnalia, i., 6.
# De Vries, 151 ; Winthrop, i., 69, 74 ; ii., 151 ; Trumbull, i., 118 ; O'Call., i., 298. The maiden name of Captain Patrick's wife was Annetje van Beyeren.
295
WILLIAM KIEFT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
rison of fourteen or fifteen soldiers. At their first eoming, CHAP. IX. the English eondueted themselves discreetly ; but inereas- ing in numbers, they boldly began to plow up the re- 1639. served lands around the Dutch redoubt. Op Dyek en- deavored to resist ; but the English cudgeled some of the people. garrison who attempted to stop their proceedings, and Haynes, the newly-elected governor of Connecticut, justi- fied his countrymen. The Dutch, he said, had been many 9 June. years in possession, and had done nothing to improve the land, which " was lying idle" around their house. "It Grounds of would be a sin to leave uneultivated so valuable a land, justifica- English which could produce such excellent corn." Thus the tion Hartford people vindicated their conduct. They " gave out that they were Israelites, and that the Dutch in New Netherland, and the English in Virginia, were Egyp- tians."*
The next year witnessed still bolder aggression. The 1640. right of the Dutch to any of the land around their little fort was openly denied. In vain Commissary Op Dyck Hartford.
Continued aggres- sions at pleaded Duteh discovery before English knowledge of the river, and Dutch possession under a title from the Indian owners, anterior to English purchase and settlement. " Show your right," said Hopkins, who had succeeded 23 April. Haynes as governor, "and we are ready to exhibit ours." Evert Duyckingk, one of the garrison, while sowing grain, was struck " a hole in his head with a stieke, soe that the 25 April. blood ran downe very strongly." Ingenuity was taxed to devise modes of worrying the Hollanders ; and to fortify the English claim oftitle, Sequasson, the son of the sachem who had assented to Van Curler's original purchase, was brought 12 July. into court, to testify " that he never sold any ground to the Dutch, neither was at any time conquered by the Pequods, nor paid any tribute to them." Kieft's repeated protests brought no alleviation of annoyance ; for no re-enforce- ments came from Manhattan to vindicate the rights of the West India Company. Disgusted with a post where he was so constantly insulted, Op Dyck resigned his office, 25 October.
* De Vries, 149, 150, 151 ; ante, p. 261, note.
Aggres- sions of the Hartford
296
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. IX. and Jan Hendricksen Roesen succeeded him as commis- sary at the Hope .*
1640.
lands be- tween No walk and the North River.
The progress of English encroachment along the shores of the Sound naturally awakened the anxiety of the New Netherland government. Excepting Bronck and his les- sees, there were as yet scarcely any Dutch colonists east 19 April. Kieft pur- of the Haerlem River. In order to "maintain the char- chases the ter and privileges" of the West India Company, Kieft dis- patched Secretary Van Tienhoven, early in the spring of 1640, with instructions to purchase the " Archipelago," or group of islands at the mouth of the Norwalk River, to- gether with all the adjoining territory on the main land, " and to erect thereon the standard and arms of the High and Mighty Lords States General ; to take the savages under our protection ; and to prevent effectually any other nation encroaching on our limits." These directions were executed ; and the West India Company thus obtained the Indian title to all the lands between Norwalk and the North River, comprehending much of the present county of West Chester.t
Patrick and Feake, who had been quietly settled for 30 April. some time at Petuquapaen, or Greenwich, now purchased, from one of the neighboring sachems, his title to that re- gion. Kieft, however, who had already secured a formal 15 October. cession from the savages, soon afterward protested against Patrick and Patrick's intrusion, and warned him and his associates Requires Feake to submit themselves to the Dutch. that they would be ejected, unless they recognized the sovereignty of the Dutch. But Patrick, though he imme- diately declared that he would do nothing "that should be in the least against the rights of the States General," continued in adverse possession at Greenwich for two years longer, before he formally acknowledged the juris- diction of the authorities of New Netherland.#
* Hol. Doc., ix., 192-197 ; Alb. Rec., ii., 104 ; Hazard, ii., 263, 264 ; N. Y. H. S. Coll., i., 272, 273 ; Col. Rec. Conn., 51, 52 ; ante, p. 235, note.
t Alb. Rec., ii., 78, 147 ; De Laet, viii. ; Hazard, ii., 213 ; O'Call., i., 215 ; Bolton's West Chester, i., 120, 283 ; ii., 16, 145.
# Hol. Doc., ix., 198, 204 ; Hazard, ii., 264, 265 ; N. Y. H. S. Coll., i., 274, 275 ; O'Call., i., 218, 252 ; Trumbull, i., 118.
297
WILLIAM KIEFT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
- Up to this time, the Duteh settlements on Long Island CHAP. IX. had been confined to the neighborhood of the present city of Brooklyn. By purchases from the Indians, the West 1640. tent of the Dutch India Company had already become the proprietary of jurisdiction Mespath, or Newtown, and of the regions eastward as far over Long Island. as Cow Bay, and southward to the Atlantic coast. Kieft now bought from "the great chief Penhawitz," the head 10 May. , of the tribe of Canarsee Indians, who elaimed the territo- ry forming the present county of Kings, and a part of the town of Jamaica, his hereditary rights to lands on Long Island. Thus all the Indian title to that part of the isl- and westward of Oyster Bay, comprehending the present counties of Kings and Queens, beeame vested, by pur- chase, in the West India Company. The territory east of Oyster Bay, now forming the county of Suffolk, how- ever, remained in the hands of its aboriginal lords. But the Dutch, who were the first Europeans that oeeupied any part of Long Island, always considered it the "erown of New Netherland," whence they obtained their supplies of wampum ; and the possession which they had formally asserted, by affixing to a tree the arms of the States Gen- eral, they were determined to maintain .*
A new eneroachment now threatened this " crown" it- self. Under his grant from the eouneil of Plymouth in 1635, Lord Stirling soon afterward gave a power of attorn- 1637. ey to James Farrett, to dispose of any part of his prop- 30 April. erty upon Long Island or its neighborhood. Farrett ae- James Far- cordingly visited New England; and, having seleeted for to New En- rett comes his own private use Shelter Island and Robins' Island, in Lord Stir- gland as
ling's Peeoniek Bay, extinguished the Indian title by a formal agent. purehase.t Previously to Farrett's arrival, however, Lion Gardiner, the commandant at Saybrook, had purchased of 1639. " the ancient inhabitants" the island near Montauk Point, ner pur- " ealled by the Indians Manehonaek ; by the English, the diner's Isl- Isle of Wight." This valuable purchase was soon after- and.
* Alb. Rec., ii., S3 ; Thompson's L. I., i., 93 ; O'Call., i., 215; ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., ii., 275.
t Hartford Records, Towns and Lands, i., 5; Southampton Rec. ; Thompson's L. I., i., 364, 367 ; Winthrop, i., 231 ; ante, p. 259.
Lion Gardi-
chases Gar-
298
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
1640. 10 March.
CHAP. IX. ward confirmed by Farrett, who, in the name of Lord Stirling, granted to Gardiner and his heirs the full posses- sion of the island, and the power "to make, execute, and put in practice such laws for church and civil government as are according to God, the king's, and the practice of the country." Gardiner immediately removed from Say- brook, and fixed his residence on the island, which has 1641. since been known by his name. The next year his daugh- ter Elizabeth was born at "Gardiner's Island ;" and thus was commenced the first permanent English settlement within the present limits of the State of New York .*
14 Sept.
Had Lord Stirling's agent limited his grants to the east- 1640. ern portion of Long Island, no difficulties would probably 17 April. Farrett au- thorizes some Lynn people to settle them- selves on Long Isl- and. have occurred with the Dutch. A month after the con- firmation of Gardiner's purchase, however, Farrett, on be- half of Lord Stirling, made an agreement with Lieuten- ant Daniel Howe, Edward Howell, Job Sayre, and other inhabitants of Lynn, in Massachusetts, by which they were authorized to settle themselves upon any lands on Long Island that they might purchase from the native Indians. Soon afterward, Farrett visited Manhattan in person ; and, in the name of Lord Stirling, boldly laid Farrett ar- claim to the whole of Long Island. But he was instant- Manhattan. ly arrested by Kieft, by whom "his pretension was not rested at much regarded ; and so he departed without accomplish- ing any thing, having influenced only a few simple peo- ple."+
May. The Lynn emigrants at Cow Bay. 10 May.
The Lynn emigrants arriving at Manhassett, at the head of Cow Bay, found the Dutch arms erected upon a tree; and Howe, the leader of the expedition, pulled them down. But the Sachem Penhawitz, who had just before ceded all his rights to the Dutch, promptly informed Kieft that some " foreign strollers" had arrived at Schout's Bay, where they were felling trees and building houses, and " had even hewn down the arms of their High Mighti-
* Thompson's Long Island, i., 305, 306 ; Doc. Hist. N. Y., i., 685. Mr. Thompson given the date of the confirmation as the 10th of March, 1639 ; but as the English then used the old style, it was actually in 1640, according to our present system of reckoning.
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