History of the state of New York Vol I, Part 32

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

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The river Indians were now totally estranged. "The Kieft antic- Hollanders," said the irritated savages, "are Materiotty- rupture. ipates a men of blood : though they may be something on the wa- ter, they are nothing on the land : they have no great sa- chem or chief." Pereeiving the temper of the Indians in The Dutch his neighborhood, Kieft, in apprehension of a sudden at- arm them- ordered to taek, ordered all the residents of Manhattan to provide 10 May. selves. themselves with arms ; and, at the firing of three guns, to repair, under their respective officers, "to the place ap- pointed," properly equipped for serviee.t

But without waiting to be attacked, the imprudent di- rector soon found an opportunity to become the aggressor. It happened that some persons in the company's service, The Rari- on their way to the South River, landed at Staten Island ed with ex- tans charg- for wood and water ; and, on re-embarking, stole some Staten Iel- cesses at swine belonging to De Vries and to the company, which and. had been left there in charge of a negro. The blame was thrown on the innocent Raritan Indians, who lived about twenty miles inland. These savages were also aceused of having attacked the yacht Vrede, which had been sent among them to trade for furs. No lives were lost, though the Indians made off with the trading party's eanoe.#

Kieft rashly resolved to punish the alleged offenders

* Alb. Rec., ii., 65, 81 ; Vertoogh van N. N., 289, 300 ; ante, p. 293 ; Hol. Doc., v., 30. t Alb. Rec., ii., 82 ; Journal van N. N., in Hol. Doc., iii., 104; Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv., 8. # De Vries, 161, 163

310

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

1640. 16 July. Expedition dispatched against the Raritans.

CHAP. IX. with admonitory severity. Van Tienhoven, the provincial secretary, was commissioned to lead a party of fifty sol- diers and twenty sailors to attack the Indians and destroy their corn, unless they should make prompt reparation. When he reached his destination, Van Tienhoven demand- ed satisfaction ; but his men, knowing the director's tem- per, wished to kill and plunder at once. This Van Tien- hoven refused to permit ; but at last, vexed with their im- portunity, he left the party, protesting against their dis- obedience. Several of the Indians were killed ; their crops were destroyed ; and " such tyranny was perpetrated" by the company's servants, that there was now little hope of regaining the friendship of the savages .*

Thus was laid the foundation of a bloody war, which, before long, desolated New Netherland, whose provincial government had now read to the Raritans the lessons which, four years before, Massachusetts had read to the Block Island Indians. Determined to pursue his policy of levying contributions on the river tribes, Kieft soon aft- 20 October. erward sent sloops up to Tappan; but the savages de- tion levied murred against the novel tribute. "They wondered how Contribu- on the Tap- pans. the sachem at the fort dared to exact such things from them." "He must be a very shabby fellow ; he had come to live in their land when they had not invited him, and now came to deprive them of their corn for nothing."t The sav- ages refuse to pay. They refused to pay the contribution, because the soldiers in Fort Amsterdam were no protection to the savages, who should not be called upon for their support ; because they had allowed the Dutch to live peaceably in their country, and had never demanded recompense; because when the Hollanders, "having lost a ship there, had built a new one, they had supplied them with victuals and all other neces- saries, and had taken care of them for two winters, until the ship was finished," and therefore the Dutch were under obligations to them; because they had paid full price for every thing they had purchased, and there was,

* De Vries, 161 ; Alb. Rec., i., 263 ; ii., 95 ; Hol. Doc., iii., 165 ; v., 314 ; O'Call., i., 227. De Vries, 162.

311

WILLIAM KIEFT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.

therefore, no reason why they should supply the Holland- CHAP. IX. ers now " with maize for nothing ;" and, finally, said the savages, because, "if we have ceded to you the country 1640. you are living in, we yet remain masters of what we have retained for ourselves."*

In the mean time, the States General had instructed 13 March. their deputies to the College of the XIX. to aid in recon- pany's dif- The Com- eiling the differences between the patroons and the com- arranged. ferences pany, and devise some plan by which the colonization of the province might be promoted, and its inhabitants put "in the best condition." The company accordingly agreed upon a new charter of " Freedoms and Exemptions" for all patroons, masters, and private persons, which was sent 19 July. to the Hague, and promptly approved.

The new charter amended materially the obnoxious in- New char- strument of 1629. " All good inhabitants of the Nether- troons. ter for pa- lands" were now allowed to select lands and form colo- nies, which, however, were to be reduced in size. Instead of four Dutch miles, they were limited to one mile along the shore of a bay or navigable river, and two miles into the country. A free right of way by land and water was reserved to all; and, in ease of dispute, the director gen- eral of New Netherland was to decide. The feudal privi- leges of erecting towns and appointing their officers; the high, middle, and lower jurisdiction; and the exclusive right of hunting, fishing, fowling, and grinding corn, were continued to the patroons as an estate of inheritance, with deseent to females as well as males. On every such change of ownership, the company was to receive a pair of iron gauntlets and twenty guilders, within one year.

Besides the patroons, another class of proprietors was Heads of now established. Whoever should convey to New Neth- colonies. erland five grown persons besides himself, was to be rec- ognized as a " master or colonist:" and could occupy two hundred acres of land, with the privilege of hunting and fishing. If settlements of such colonists should increase in numbers, towns and villages might be formed, to which

* Breeden Raedt, 14, 15.

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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

CHAP. IX. municipal governments were promised. The magistrates 1640. in such towns were to be selected by the director and council, "from a triple nomination of the best qualified in the said towns and villages." From these courts, and from the courts of the patroons, an appeal might lie to the director and council at Manhattan. The company guar- anteed protection, in case of war, to all the colonists ; but each adult male emigrant was bound to provide himself, before he left Holland, with a proper musket, or a hanger and side arms.

The commercial privileges, which the first charter had restricted to the patroons, were now extended to all " free colonists," and to all the stockholders in the company. Nevertheless, the company adhered to a system of onerous imposts, for its own benefit ; and required a duty of ten per cent. on all goods shipped to New Netherland, and of five per cent. on all return cargoes, excepting peltries, which were to pay ten per cent. to the director at Manhattan be- fore they could be exported. All shipments from New Netherland were to be landed at the company's ware- houses in Holland. The prohibition of manufactures within the province was, however, abolished. The com- pany renewed its pledge to send over "as many blacks as possible ;" and disclaiming any interference with the " high, middle, and lower jurisdiction" of the patroons, re- served to itself supreme and sovereign authority over New Netherland, promising to appoint and support competent officers " for the protection of the good, and the punish- ment of the wicked." The provincial director and coun- cil were to decide all questions respecting the rights of the company, and all complaints, whether by foreigners or in- habitants of the province ; to act as an Orphan's and Sur- rogate's Court ; to judge in criminal and religious affairs, and generally to administer law and justice. No other religion " save that then taught and exercised by author- ity, in the Reformed Church in the United Provinces," was to be publicly sanctioned in New Netherland, where

Commer- cial privi- leges ex- tended.

The Re- formed Dutch Church to be the relig- ious wor- ship of the province.

313

WILLIAM KIEFT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.

the company bound itself to maintain proper preachers, CHAP. IX. schoolmasters, and comforters of the siek .*

1640.

New Netherland soon felt a fresh impulse to her pros- Progress of perity. De Vries now " took hold" in earnest of his pur- coloniza- chase, the previous spring, from the Indians at Tappan, and began a colonie at his new estate, which he named "Vriesendael." It was beautifully situated along the ! Dec. river side, sheltered by high hills ; and the fertile valley, "Vriesen- dael." through which wound a stream, affording handsome mill seats, yielded hay enough, spontaneously, for two hund- red head of eattle. Buildings were soon erected, and Vriesendael beeame, for several years, the home of its en- ergetie owner.t

De Vries at

Early the next year, another eolonie was established, 1641 " within an hour's walk" of Vriesendael, by Myndert Myn- Horst's col- Van der dertsen van der Horst, of Utrecht. The new plantation ex- Hackin- onie at tended from " Achter Cul,"# or Newark Bay, north toward sack. Tappan, and ineluded the valley of the Haekinsack River. The head-quarters of the settlement were about five or six hundred paces from the village of the Hackinsaek Indians, where Van der Horst's people immediately eommeneed the erection of a post, to be garrisoned by a few soldiers.§

Cornelis Melyn now returned to New Netherland, with 20 August. his family and servants, to begin a colonie on Staten Isl- Melyn on and, an order for which he had proeured in Holland from and. Staten Isl- the directors of the Amsterdam Chamber. De Vries, who was already in possession of a part of that island, felt ag- grieved at this interference ; but Kieft, who had himself just established a small distillery and a buekskin manu- factory there, soon obtained the patroon's consent to Me- lyn's establishing a plantation near the Narrows, provided "his rights should not be prejudiced." The Staten Island Indians soon afterward committing acts of hostility, the

* Hol. Doc., ii., 234-262 ; O'Call., i., 218-222. t De Vries, 162, 180, 182.

# " Achter Cul," or " Achter Kol," now called " Newark Bay," was so named by the Dutch, because it was "achter," or " behind" the Great Bay of the North River The pas- sage to the Great Bay was known as the " Kil van Cul," from which has been derived the present name of " the Kills." The English soon corrupted the phrase into " Arthur Cull's" Bay .- Benson's Memoir, 93.

6 De Vries, 165 ; Hol. Doc., iii., 99, 135 ; O'Call., i., 238; S. Hlazard, Ann. Penn., 51, 56.

314

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

CHAP. IX. director and council ordered a small redoubt to be built on 1641. one of the headlands; and the soldiers stationed there were ordered to make a signal by raising a flag, to warn the 12 Sept. Redoubt Flagstaff at officers at Fort Amsterdam whenever any vessels arrived in the lower bay. In the course of the following sum- mer, Kieft issued a formal patent, granting to Melyn the privileges of a patroon over all Staten Island, excepting De Vries's reserved " bouwerij."*

Municipal affairs engaged much of the attention of the 11 April. bustling director. Fresh regulations were published for New police regula- tions. the better observance of Sunday ; and the tapping of beer during Divine service, and after ten o'clock at night, was Provincial currency reformed. forbidden. The currency of the province, too, was re- formed. The coins of Europe were seldom seen in New Netherland. Payments were almost universally made in sewan or wampum; and for many years the Sunday con- tributions in the churches continued to be paid in this na- tive currency, of which that of Long Island and Manhat- tan was always esteemed the best. Of this " good splen- did sewan, usually called Manhattan's sewan," four beads were reckoned equal to one stiver. By degrees, however, inferior wampum, loose and unstrung, began to take the place of the better currency ; and even, in the judgment of the director, to threaten "the ruin of the country." An 18 April. Value of wampum fixed by law. order in council, therefore, directed that the loose beads should pass at the rate of six for a stiver. The only rea- son why the " loose sewan" was not entirely prohibited was, " because there was no coin in circulation, and the laborers, boors, and other common people having no other money, would be great losers." To encourage the grow- ing tendency toward agricultural pursuits, two annual Fairs estab- fairs, the one for cattle and the other for hogs, were soon lished. 15 Sept. afterward established at Manhattan.t

Had the government of New Netherland been in the hands of a "prudent" director, its prosperity would, per-

* De Vries, 163 ; Alb. Rec., ii., 133 ; O'Call., i., 228, 239 ; ii., 592. De Vries's statement is the first record of the establishment of a marine telegraph in New York harbor.

t Alb. Rec., ii., 110, 118, 134; Van Tienhoven's Korte bericht, in Hol. Doc., v., 360; and in ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., ii., 332.

the Nar- rows.

315

WILLIAM KIEFT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.

haps, have now been permanently established. But pru- CHAP. IX. dence was not an element in Kieft's character. His levy of contributions had already alienated the savages around 1641. Manhattan ; and the cruelties inflieted upon the Raritans Temper of the sav had aroused a feeling of revenge, which only waited a fit- ages. ting moment for its display.

'T'hat moment came. While they cajoled the director The Rari- tans de- by peaceful messages, the Raritans suddenly attacked De stroy De Vries's unprotected plantation on Staten Island. Four of ony at Stat-

Vries's col- his planters were killed, and his dwelling and tobaeeo June. en Island.

house burned. Thus the feeble colony was smothered at its birth, through Kieft's blind folly in " visiting upon the Indians the wrongs which his own people had done."*

Folly breeds folly. The director no sooner heard how the Raritans had avenged their wrongs, than he resolved upon their extermination. " The savages of Raritan daily Kieft offers rewards for grow bolder"-so began the proelamation, in which Kieft the offend- ers. offered a bounty of ten fathoms of wampum for the head 4 July. of every one of that tribe. For each head of the actual murderers, twenty fathoms were promised.t

Ineited by the offered bounties, some of the River In- dians attacked the Raritans. In the autumn, a chief of ? Nov the Tankitekes, or Haverstraw tribe, named Paeham, provoked. " who was great with the governor at the fort," came in triumph to Manhattan, with a dead man's hand hanging on a stiek. This he presented to Kieft as the hand of the chief who had killed the Dutch on Staten Island. "I have taken revenge for the sake of the Swannekens," said Pacham, " for I love them as my best friends."#

Meanwhile, the island of Manhattan had become the seene of a bloody retribution. Revenge never dies in the breast of the Indian. It may slumber for years, but it is never appeased until the "just atonement" which Indian law demands is fully paid. . The young Weckquaesgeek savage, whose unele had been murdered near "the Kolek," during the building of Fort Amsterdam, was now grown

* De Vries, 163 ; Alb. Rec., ii., 128 ; Winthrop, ii., 32.

t Alb. Rec., ii., 128, 129. t De Vries, 163. The Indians, both on the South and North Rivers, were in the habit of calling the Dutch "Swannekens."

Hostilities

316

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

CHAP. IX. to man's estate, and upon him Indian usage imposed the

1641.

A Dutch- man mur- dered at Deutel Bay August.

duty of avenging his kinsman's unatoned death. The · Weckquaesgeeks were in the constant habit of visiting Manhattan ; and their beaten trail passed near the Deutel Bay, on the East River, where Claes Smits, a harmless Dutchman, had built a small house, and was carrying on the trade of a wheel-wright. The nephew of the murder- ed savage, coming to the wheel-wright's humble dwelling, stopped to barter some beaver skins for duffels. While the unsuspecting mechanic was stooping over the great chest in which he kept his goods, the savage, seizing an axe, killed him by a blow on the neck. The murderer quickly plundered his victim's lonely abode, and escaped with his booty.

The Weck- quaesgeeks murderer. Kieft promptly sent to Weckquaesgeek to demand satis- justify the faction. But the murderer replied, that while the fort was building, he, and his uncle, and another Indian, bring- ing some beaver skins to trade, were attacked by some Dutchmen, near the "Fresh Water," who killed his un- cle, and stole his peltries. " This happened while I was a small boy," said the savage, " and I vowed to revenge it upon the Dutch when I grew up; I saw no better 20 August. chance than with this Claes the wheel-wright." The sa- chem of the tribe refused to deliver up the criminal ; who, he said, had but avenged, after the manner of his race, the murder of his kinsman by the Dutch, more than twenty years before. Some soldiers were then sent out from the fort to arrest the assassin ; but they returned disappointed .*

Kieft's anx- iety for a war.

The director burned to treat the Weckquaesgeeks as he had treated the Raritans, and commence open hostilities. Yet he feared to exasperate the people, who charged him with seeking a war in order to make "a wrong reckoning with the company," and who now began to reproach him ; for personal cowardice. It was all very well, they said, for him, " who could secure his own life in a good fort, out of which he had not slept a single night in all the

* De Vries, 164; ante, p: 166, 292 ; Hol. Doc., ii., 373 ; v., 314; Journal van N. N., in Hol. Doc., iii., 105 ; Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv., 8, 9.

317

WILLIAM KIEFT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.

years he had been here." Kieft perceiving that he would CHAP. IX. have to bear the whole responsibility of the proposed war, reluctantly sought the counsel of the community .* 1641.

All the masters and heads of families at Manhattan and its neighborhood were accordingly summoned to meet at 23 August Fort Amsterdam, " to resolve there on something of the first necessity."t On the appointed day, Kieft submitted 29 August. these questions to the first popular meeting ever held in First meet- ing of the New Netherland. " Is it not just that the murder lately commonal- ty of the committed by a savage upon Claes Smits be avenged and province. punished ; and in case the Indians will not surrender the murderer at our requisition, is it not just to destroy the whole village to which he belongs ? In what manner, and when ought this to be executed ? By whom can this be effected ?"

The assembly promptly chose " Twelve Select Men" to " Twelve consider the propositions submitted by the director. These pointed. men" ap- persons were Jacques Bentyn, Maryn Adriaensen, Jan Jan- sen Dam, Hendrick Jansen, David Pietersen de Vries, Jacob Stoffelsen, Abram Molenaar, Frederik Lubbertsen, Jochem Pietersen (Kuyter), Gerrit Dircksen, George Rap- elje, and Abram Planck. Of these first representatives of the people of New Netherland, De Vries was chosen president. The " Twelve Men" were all Hollanders, or emigrants from Holland.#

The popular representatives did not delay their answers 29 August. to Kieft's questions. While they agreed that the murder the Twelve Action of of Smits should be avenged, they thought that "God and Men. the opportunity" ought to be taken into consideration ;

* De Vries, 165. t Alb. Rec., ii., 130.

$ Hol. Doc., v., 327-329 ; Alb. Rec., ii., 136, 137 ; ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., i., 277, 278. De Vries, 165, says that Kieft caused the election of the Twelve Men "to aid him in manag- ing the affairs of the country ;" but Van der Donck, in his "Vertoogh," written eight years afterward, affirms that they " had in judicial matters neither vote nor advice, but were chosen in view of the war, and some other occurrences, to serve as cloaks and cats- paws."-ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., ii., 300. Of these " Twelve Men," Bentyn was one of Van Twiller's council ; Adriaensen came out as a colonist to Rensselaerswyck in 1631 ; Dam was also a colonist there in 1634 ; Hendrick Jansen was a tailor at Manhattan ; Stoffelsen was one of Van Twiller's commissaries, and had married the widow of Van Voorst, of Pavonia ; Lubbertsen was " first boatswain ;" Pietersen, or as he usually wrote, Kuyter, came out in 1639; Rapelje was one of the original Walloon settlers at the Waal-bogt; Planck, or Verplanck, was a farmer at Paulus' Hoeck ; of Molenaar and Dircksen the rec- ords say little ; of De Vries much.

318

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

CHAP. IX. and that the director should make the necessary prepara-

1641. tions, and especially procure a sufficient number of coats of mail " for the soldiers, as well as for the freemen, who are willing to pay their share in these expenses." Trade and intercourse with the savages should, nevertheless, be temporarily maintained, and no hostile measure be at- tempted by any one, "of whatever state or condition," ex- cept against the murderer himself, until the hunting sea- son. Then it would be proper to send out two parties, the one to land near the "Archipelago," or Norwalk Isl- ands, and the other at Weckquaesgeek, " to surprise them from both sides." As the director was commander of the soldiery as well as governor, he " ought to lead the van ;" while the community offered their persons "to follow his steps and obey his commands." Yet they humanely add- ed, "we deem it advisable that the director send further, once, twice, yea, for the third time, a shallop, to demand the surrender of the murderer in a friendly manner, to punish him according to his deserts."*

De Vries's pacific counsels.

To these official answers of the Twelve Men De Vries, who keenly felt his double losses at Swaanendael and Staten Island, added his own opinion. The Dutch were. all scattered about the country, and their cattle running wild in the woods. "It would not be advisable to attack the Indians until we had more people, like the English, who had built towns and villages." Besides, the directors of the Amsterdam Chamber were resolutely opposed to war ; for when applied to for permission to commence hostilities against the South River Indians, who had de- stroyed Swaanendael, they had replied, "you must keep at peace with the savages. But Kieft " did not wish to listen."t

Kieft urges war.

1 Nov.

At length the hunting season came ; and Kieft, impa- tient to attack the Weckquaesgeeks, was even more anx- ious to secure the concurrence of the Twelve Men. , To ac- complish his favorite design, he now asked them, separate- ly, for their opinions on the question of immediate hostil-

* Alb. Rec., ii., 136, 137 ; Hol. Doc., v., 326-329. t De Vries, 165.

319

WILLIAM KIEFT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.

ities. Had he convened them in a body, he suspected, and CHAP. IX. with reason, that the popular delegates would hardly con- tent themselves with answering his queries ; they would 1641. very probably turn their attention to the condition of the provincial government. But the impatient director was again foiled. The separate opinions of a majority of the The Twelve Men were for procrastination. The savages were Men op- Twelve still too much on their guard : it was better, at all events, ities. to await the arrival of the next vessel from the Father- land. De Vries, the president, was decidedly opposed to hostilities with the Indians under any circumstances .* For a time longer war was averted.

pose hostil-

The Swedes had, meanwhile, continued in quiet pos- The session of Fort Christina, on the South River. The first the South year after their settlement they prospered abundantly, and River. did " about thirty thousand florins' injury" to the trade of the Hollanders. During the second winter of their resi- dence, however, receiving no succors from home, they were reduced to great extremities, and so much discour- 1640. aged, that the next spring they resolved "to break up, and April. come to Manhattan."+ But unexpected relief was at hand.

Swedes on

The fame of the pleasant valley of the South River, which had now reached Scandinavia, began also to spread through the United Provinces; and several prominent Hol- landers, in apparent disregard of the claims of their own West India Company, undertook to send out emigrants there, under the authority of the Swedish government. A letter, signed by Oxenstierna and his colleagues, was ac- 21.January cordingly obtained by Van der Horst and others, of Utrecht, ish govern- The Swed- declaring that they were permitted "to establish them- courage inent en- selves on the north side of the South River, and there to from Hol- emigration found a colony ;" and a passport was also issued in favor South Riv- land to the of the ship Fredenburg, commanded by Jacob Powelson, er. who was about departing from Holland with colonists for New Sweden. Van der Horst, however, upon further con- sideration, apparently preferring to avail himself of the

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History of the state of New York Vol I, Part 32

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