USA > New York > History of the state of New York Vol I > Part 38
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* Relation, 1640-1, 50, 211 ; 1642-3, 284 ; 1647, 56, 111-117 ; Jogues's letters of the 5th and 30th of August, 1643, 6th of January, 1644, 3d of August 1646 ; Tanner, 510-531 ; ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., iii .; Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv., 21-24 ; Charlevoix, i., 250 ; ante, p. 346.
375
WILLIAM KIEFT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
eral years ; it could afterward " serve for the residence of CHAP. X1. the sexton, or for a school." A canopied pulpit, pews for the magistracy and the deacons, and nine benches for the 1643. people, after the fashion of the Fatherland, were soon aft- erward furnished, at an expense of eighty guilders .*
The pious services of Domine Megapolensis were not, Missionary however, confined to his own countrymen. Like his gapolensis. zeal of Me- friend, Father Jogues, he applied himself to the difficult task of learning the "heavy language" of the Mohawks, "so as to speak and preach to them fluently." The Dutch traders did not themselves understand the idiom of the savages ; and even the commissary of the company, who had been "connected with them these twenty years," could afford Megapolensis no assistance in becoming " an Indian grammarian." The red men about Fort Orange were soon attracted to hear the preaching of the Gospel. And it should be remembered that these earnest and vol- untary labors of the first Dutch clergyman on the northern frontier of New Netherland, preceded, by several years, the earliest attempt of John Eliot, the " morning star of mis- sionary enterprise" in New England, to preach to the sav- ages in the neighborhood of Boston.t " When we have a sermon," wrote Megapolensis, " sometimes ten or twelve of them, more or less, will attend, each having in his mouth a long tobacco-pipe made by himself, and will stand awhile and look, and afterward ask me what I was doing, and what I wanted, that I stood there alone, and made so many words, and none of the rest might speak ? I tell them that I admonished the Christians that they must not steal, nor drink, nor eominit lewdness and murder ; and that they too ought not to do these things ; and that I intend after awhile to come and preach to them, in their country and castles, when I am acquainted with their language. They say, I do well in teaching the Christians ; but immediate-
* Jogues's letter of the 3d of August, 1646; Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv., 23 ; Renss. MSS. ; O'Call., i., 331, 459. This humble building in " the pine grove," near Church Street, ac- commodated the congregation until the year 1656, when a new church was erected at the intersection of State and North Market Streets ; post, p. 624.
t Winthrop, ii., 297, 303-305 ; Bancroft, It., 72, 94 ; Young's Ch. Mass., 258, note.
376
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. ly add, Why do so many Christians do these things ? 1643. They call us Assyreoni, that is, cloth-makers ; or Charis- tooni, that is, iron-workers, because our people first brought cloth and iron among them."*'
+
The pa- troon's close mer- cantile pol- icy.
The effects of the war, which was desolating the neigh- borhood of Fort Amsterdam, soon began to be felt at Fort Orange. The West India Company's magazine was no longer supplied with merchandise ; and the warehouse of the colonie of Rensselaerswyck was now the only resource of the fur-traders who might obtain licenses from the pa- troon. In this respect, his mercantile policy was exclu- sive, and was rigidly enforced within the colonie. Most of the colonists, however, were in the habit of procuring the patroon's licenses; and, as early as 1640, De Vries ob- ·served that "each farmer was a trader." Throughout the war which was desolating southern New Netherland, the colonists at Rensselaerswyck felt little trouble, and enjoy- ed peace, " because they continued to sell fire-arms and powder to the Indians." This conduct was openly re- buked by the directors of the West India Company ; and it was afterward the subject of complaint on the part of the authorities of New England.t
The colonists readily obtained goods on credit from the warehouse, to which they were obliged to bring their pur- chases of furs. These were shipped to Holland, and sold at Amsterdam, under the patroon's supervision. His share, at first one half, was before long reduced to a sixth, to- gether with the recognition of one guilder on each skin of the remainder. Under this system, the price of a beaver skin, which, before 1642, was six fathoms of wampum, soon rose to ten fathoms. It was now thought necessary that the colonial authorities should make some regulations
* " A Short Account of the Maquaas Indians, &c., written in the year 1644. By John Megapolensis, junior, minister there." This tract was first published in Dutch, at Am- sterdam, by Joost Hartgers, in 1651 ; see ante, p. 306, note. It is said to have been a familiar letter to his friends in Holland, and which Megapolensis himself told Van der Donck was "printed without his consent." A translation, revised from that in Hazard, i., 517-526, will be published in ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., iii.
t De Vries, 152, 158; Hol. Doc., ii., 373 ; Report and Advice, in O'Call., i., 420, App. ; Winthrop, ii., 84, 157 ; Hazard, ii., 19, 103, 217.
377
WILLIAM KIEFT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
respecting this trade. The company's commissary at Fort CHAP. XI. Orange, in conjunction with Van Curler, the commissary 1643. of the patroon, accordingly issued a joint proclamation, fixing the price of a beaver skin at nine fathoms of white wampum, and forbidding all persons, " on pain of confis- cation," to " go into the bush to trade." It was also di- Illicit trad- rected that " no residents should presume to come with ited. ing prohib- their boats within the limits of the colonie ;" and a further proclamation declared that " no inhabitants of the colonie should presume to buy any goods from the residents." Van der Donck, "the officer" of Rensselaerswyck, was at the same time required to sce these regulations strictly enforced.
But the schout-fiscal, afraid of risking his popularity, would not enforce the new ordinances. A sloop arriving a few days afterward with some goods, the colonists, in spite of the proclamations, purchased what they pleased ; and Commissary Van Curler and Domine Megapolensis, sending for Van der Donck, directed him to search the Van der houses of the colonists for secreted goods. But the schout faithless Donck's " gossipped, without once making a scarch." He was not conduct. disposed to " make himself suspected by the colonists, as his years as officer were few." Van Curler soon became. unpopular. Van der Donck fomented the discontent; and a protest against the obnoxious commissary was subscribed in a circle, " so that it should not be known who had first signed it." Some of the colonists were for driving him out of the colony as a rogue ; others wished to take his life .*
By degrees, however, Van Curler's popularity returned ; and Van der Donck, finding his residence becoming dis- Van der agreeable, determined to leave Rensselaerswyck. He solves to therefore went down the river to look at Katskill; and colonie. made arrangements to return to Holland, and seek for partners "to plant a colonie there." But the patroon, learning Van der Donck's intention, resolved to forestall " his sworn officer," who had " dishonestly designed" to purchase the lands " lying under the shadow of his colo-
* Renss. MSS. ; Van Curler's letter, in O'Call., i., 461, 462.
Donck re-
form a new
378
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
1643. 10 Sept.
CHAP. XI. nie ;" and determined to enlarge his own domain, so as to include all the territory " from Rensselaer's Stein down to Katskill." Instructions were, therefore, sent to Van Curler to stop the schout's proceedings, and, in case he had al- ready acquired a title from the Indians, to constrain him to surrender it to the patroon. If he should prove obsti- nate, he was to be deprived of his office, which was to be conferred, provisionally, upon Nicholas Koorn. The strin- gent orders of his feudal chief arrested Van der Donck's design, and his proposed settlement at Katskill was aban- doned .*
16 August.
John Printz ap- pointed Swedish governor.
The Swedish government, in the mean time, had taken measures, to place their colony at the South River on a 1642. permanent footing. In the summer of 1642, the queen appointed John Printz, a lieutenant of cavalry, 'to be "Governor of New Sweden," which was declared to be under the royal protection. The territory was defined as extending " from the borders of the sea to Cape Hinlopen, in returning southwest toward Godyn's Bay, and thence toward the great South River as far as Minqua's Kill, where is constructed Fort Christina, and from thence again toward South River, and the whole to a place which the savages call. Sankikan,t which is at the same time the place where are the limits of New Sweden." Of these frontiers, Printz was instructed "to take care;"' yet, if possible, to maintain amity and good neighborhood with the Dutch at Fort Nassau, "now occupied by about twen- ty men," as well as with " those established higher up the North River at Manhattan, or New Amsterdam, and like- wise with the English, who inhabit Virginia, especially because the latter have already begun to procure for the Swedes all sorts of necessary provisions, and at reasonable prices, both for cattle and grain." Toward the colonists under Joost de Bogaerdt good-will was to be shown. Printz might choose his own residence where he should
* Renss. MSS .; O'Call., i., 332, 338, 339, 462.
t The falls at Trenton, in New Jersey, sometimes written Santickan ; ante, p. 282 ; ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., i., 409 ; ii., 283 ..
379
WILLIAM KIEFT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
find it most convenient ; but he was to pay particular at- CHAP. XI. tention that the South River "may be shut," or com- manded by any fortress which he might erect. The trade 1642. in peltries with the Indians was not to be permitted to any persons whomsoever, except to the agents of the Swedish" Company. Detailed instructions were also given for the internal government of the colony; and Divine service was enjoined, "according to the true Confession of Augsburg, the Council of Upsal, and the ceremonies of the Swedish Church." The Dutch settlers, however, were not to be disturbed " with regard to the exercise of the Reformed religion." The governor's appointment was for three years, at an annual salary of twelve hundred silver dol- lars, commencing on the first of January, 1643. The Swedish government furnished officers and soldiers, and 30 August. passed an ordinance assigning upward of two millions of rix dollars, to be collected annually from the exeises on tobacco, for the support of the government of New Sweden .*
Under such auspices, Printz sailed from Gottenburg late in the autumn of 1642, with the ships "Fame" and 1 Nov. "Stork," and accompanied by the Reverend John Cam- panius as chaplain. Early-the next year, the expedition 1643. reached Fort Christina.t Desiring to control the trade of 15 Feb. Printz ar- rives at the river, and be as near as possible to the Dutch at Fort Fort Chris- Nassau, Printz chose for his own residence an island on tina the west shore, then called by the Indians " Tenacong," now known as Tinicum, near Chester, about twelve miles below Philadelphia. Upon this island a "pretty strong" fort, named " New Gottenburg," was promptly construct- Building of ed of heavy hemlock logs. A mansion called "Printz Gotten- Fort New Hall" was built for the governor ; orchards were planted ; burg. and the principal colonists took up their abode at Tini- cum. Toward Fort Christina there were a few scattered farms ; but between Tinicum and the Schuylkill there were no plantations.#
* Hazard's Reg. Penn., iv. ; Ibid., Ann. Penn., 63-69. t Campanius, 70.
+ Acrelius ; Hudde's Report ; ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll .. i., 411, 429 ; Ferris, 62, 63 ; Haz- ard's Ann. Penn., 70. Reorus Torkillus, the clergyman who had accompanied Minuit to New Sweden in 1638, died at Fort Christina on the 7th of September, 1643, soon after the arrival of Printz .- Campanius, 107, 109.
380 '
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. XI.
1643. Printz's conduct an- noys the Dutch.
Printz now hoped to secure to himself all the Indian trade against the competition of the Dutch. Still more effectually to "shut up" the river, in the course of the fol- lowing summer he erected another fort " with, three an- gles," called " Elsingburg," upon the east shore of the bay near Salem Creek, from which the New Haven in- truders had just before been expelled. The new fort was garrisoned by twelve men commanded by a lieutenant, and was armed with eight iron and brass twelve-pound guns. At this place all vessels coming up the river were compelled to lower their colors, and stop, until permission to proceed had been obtained from the governor at Tini- cum .*
De Vries at the South River. 13 October.
The Swedish garrison had an early opportunity of dis- playing their vigilance. De Vries, on his way from Man- hattan to Virginia, put into the South River ; and, as the Rotterdam vessel passed by Fort Elsingburg, a gun was fired for her to strike her flag. Blanck, her schipper, ask- ed De Vries his advice. " If it were my ship, I should not strike," was the reply ; " for I am a patroon of New Netherland, and the Swedes are mere intruders within our river." But the schipper, wishing to trade, lowered his colors. A boat from the fort immediately visited the vessel, which sailed up to Tinicum the same afternoon. At Fort New Gottenburg, the Dutch were welcomed by the governor, who " was named Captain Printz, a man of brave size, who weighed over four hundred pounds." Learning that De Vries was the patroon of the first Dutch colonie at Swaanendael, Printz pledged him in " a great romer of Rhine wine ;" and the Dutch vessel continued five days at the fort, trading confectionary and Madeira wine for beaver skins. After a short visit to Fort Nassau, where he found the West India Company's people in gar- 19 October. rison, De Vries accompanied the Swedish governor down the river to Fort Christina, where there were now several houses. Having spent the night with Printz, who "treat- 20 October. ed him well," De Vries bade farewell to his Swedish host,
* De Vries, 184, 185 ; Hudde's Report, 482 ; Hol. Doc., viii., 32, 50.
381
WILLIAM KIEFT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
for whom he fired a parting salute, as the Dutch vessel CHAP. XI. sailed onward to Virginia .*
1643.
Plowden's
Kieft's attention was soon afterward drawn to a new and unexpected claim to the ownership of a part of New New Al- bion. Netherland. An English knight, Sir Edmund Plowden, ealling himself Earl Palatine of New Albion, arrived at Manhattan from the South River, and boldly affirmed that all the land from the west side of the North River to Virginia was his, by gift of the King of England. Plow- den's claim rested upon a patent issued at Dublin by the 1634. Viceroy of Ireland, to whom the knight addressed him- 21 Jure. self after Charles I. had refused him a charter under the Great Seal of England. By his Irish patent, Plowden was invested with the title and dignity of " Earl Palatine" of the Province of New Albion, which, under a vague and imperfeet deseription, seems to have been meant to include most of the territory between Cape May, Sandy Hook, and the Delaware River, now forming the State of New Jer- sey. Under this worthless charter, issued by a Viceroy of Ireland, who had no authority to grant territorial rights in America, Plowden set sail for Delaware Bay ; but, " wanting a pilot for that place," he went to Virginia. From there he visited the South River. But becoming " very much piqued" with the Swedish governor, John Printz, " on account of some affront given him, too long to relate," he proceeded northward to Manhattan. The 1643. pretensions of the titular Earl Palatine of New Albion were, however, entirely disregarded by Kieft. Plowden, nevertheless, warned the director that, " when an oppor- tunity should offer," he would go to the South River and take possession ; while, at the same time, he assured Kieft that he "did not wish to have any strife with the Dutch."
* De Vries, Voyages, 184, 185. We must here take leave of the blunt mariner, whose original journal has been so pleasant a guide. De Vries was emphatically a man of the people ; ever opposing arbitrary power ; biased, perhaps, in some of his opinions and statements ; hut frank, honest, religious, and a sincere advocate of the true interests of New Netherland. After spending the winter in Virginia, De Vries sailed for Holland, where he arrived in June, 1644. Ile seems never to have revisited America. His un- pretending and simply-written work was published at Alekmaer, in 1655, illustrated by a well-engraved portrait of the author, taken in 1653, when he was sixty years of age. See ante, p. 156, note.
382
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. XI. The disappointed Earl Palatine presently returned to Vir- 1643. ginia ; and though he came to Manhattan several years afterward, and reasserted his claim to New Albion, no actual settlement under his insufficient title appears ever to have been made within the territory of New Nether- land .*
If the proceedings of Printz excited the animosity of the Dutch at Manhattan, his arbitrary conduct was not less George Lamberton annoying to the New England Puritans. Lamberton, not- arrested by withstanding the warning he had received the previous Printz. July. year, persisting in revisiting the Delaware in a New Ha- ven pinnace, was induced, by the Swedish governor, to land at Fort New Gottenburg, where he was instantly im- prisoned, with two of his men. Printz began to ply one of these men with strong drink and liberal promises, to influence him " to say, that George Lamberton had hired the Indians to cut off the Swedes." But the governor could not persuade his prisoner to perjure himself; and in his vexation, "he put irons upon him with his own hands!" According to Winthrop's account, Printz was " a man very furious and passionate, cursing and swearing, and also reviling the English of New Haven as runa- gates,"t &c.
When Eaton's statement of this transaction reached Boston, the commissioners of the United Colonies instruct- ed their president to write to Printz, "expressing the par- ticulars, and requiring satisfaction" for the "foul injuries" offered to Lamberton and the New Haven people on the Delaware. A commission was also given to Lamberton, "to go treat with the Swedish governor about satisfac- tion for those injuries and damages, and to agree with him about settling their trade and plantation."# But
* Hol. Doc., iv., 71 ; ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., ii., 279 ; Alb. Rec., iii., 224 ; xviii., 349 ; Haz- ard's State Papers, i., 160-174 ; S. Hazard's Ann. Penn., 36-38, 108-112 ; Winthrop, ii., 325. The subject of Plowden's claim to New Albion has been considered in C. King's Address, in Proc. N. J. H. S., i., 39-42 ; Pennington's " Examination of Beauchamp Plan- tagenet's Description of New Albion ;" Mulford's New Jersey, 66-74; and in Mr. Mur- phy's very excellent note to the " Vertoogh van N. N.", in ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., ii., 323-326. t Winthrop, ii., 130, 140, 141 ; John Thickpenny's Deposition, in New Haven Col. Rec., i., 97-99 ; S. Hazard's Ann. Penn., 74-76. # Hazard, ii., 11 ; Winthrop, ii., 140.
21 Sept. Action of the New England commis- sioners.
383
WILLIAM KIEFT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
Printz, on his part, met the charges of the New Haven CHAP. XI. people with a positive denial. At the meeting of the Gen- eral Court of Massachusetts in the following spring, the 7 March. 1644. Swedish governor, to rebut the English version of the, case, " sent copies of divers examinations upon oath taken in the cause, with a copy of all the proceeding between them and our friends of New Haven from the first ;" and in his letters "used large expressions of respect" for the English. Governor Eaton, on behalf of New Haven, desiring a new commission " to go on with their plantation and trade in Delaware River and Bay," the court granted it, but "with a salvo jure."*
The Boston merchants now began to covet a participa- Exploring tion in the fur trade on the Delaware. It was imagined sent from expedition Boston to in Massachusetts, that the chief supply of beavers came the South from a " great lake, supposing it to lie in the northwest River. part" of their patent ; and this lake, which they named "Lake Lyconnia," it was now thought should be " dis- covered." A well-manned pinnace, laden with provisions March. and merchandise, was therefore dispatched from Boston, with a commission under the public seal, and letters from Winthrop to the Dutch and Swedish governors. The ex- ploring party were instructed "to sail up the Delaware River so high as they could go; and then some of the company, under the conduct of Mr. William Aspenwall, a good artist, and one who had been in those parts, to pass, by small skiffs or canoes, up the river so far as they could."+
* Winthrop, ii., 157. The commissioners, in a letter to Stuyvesant, of the 16th of Sep- tember, 1650, and again, in their Declaration of Grievances of April, 1653, charge Jansen, the Dutch commissary at Fort Nassau, with combining with Printz in his proceedings against Lamberton. in 1643, and with sitting "as one of the judges in court with the Swedish governor."-HIazard, ii., 164, 214. Trumbull repeats the story with some em- bellishments, and erroneously refers it to the year 1642 .- Trumbull, i .; 122. But the de- position of Thickpeuny, quoted above, says not-a word about Jansen's complicity ; and Winthrop's contemporary account (ii., 140, 141), while it alludes to the Dutch agent's pro- ceedings at the Varkens' Kill, in 1642, refers all the " foul injuries" offered to Lamberton to " the Swedish governor" alone.
+ Winthrop, ii., 160, 161. This exploring expedition shows the ignorance of the geog- raphy of the interior of New Netherland, which so long prevailed among the Dutch and the English. On Van der Donck's map, which was published in 1656, a lake is laid down, somewhere about what is now known as the Delaware Water-gap, through which the river is represented as flowing. The French, in Canada, knew more about the beau- tiful lakes of New Netherland than did either the Dutch or the English.
384
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. XI.
1644. Failure of the expedi- tion.
20 July.
But the expedition failed. Kieft protested against their proceeding, and sent orders to Jansen, at Fort Nassau, " not to let them pass." The pinnace arrived at Fort El- singburg " on the Lord's day," and the Swedes, firing a shot, forced her to anchor lower down. Eventually, the English vessel was suffered to pass ; but both Printz and Jansen forbade the adventurers to trade with the Indians, " and for that end each of them had appointed a pinnace to wait upon" the Boston craft. Her master, however, " proved such a drunken sot, and so complied with the Dutch and Swedes," that the adventurers, fearing that if they should leave their vessel to go up to the lake in a small boat, " he would, in his drunkenness, have betrayed their goods to the Dutch," gave up their expedition, and returned to Boston. The owners of the pinnace, on their arrival home, recovered two hundred pounds damages from the master, " which was too much, though he did deal badly with them, for it is very probable they could not have proceeded." Yet this verdict did not prevent the commissioners of the United Colonies, several years after- ward, from disingenuously alleging the conduct of the Dutch authorities as the cause of the failure of the expe- dition .*
October.
Another Boston ex- pedition ruined by the sav- ages.
The following autumn another bark "was set out from Boston, to trade at Delaware." After wintering in the bay, she went over to the "Maryland side" in the spring, where in three weeks "a good parcel" of five hundred beaver skins was procured. As the bark was about leav- ing, fifteen Indians came aboard, " as if they would trade again," and suddenly drawing forth "hatchets from un- der their coats," killed the master and three others, and rifled the vessel of all her goods and sails, taking pris- oners a boy and "one Redman," the interpreter, who was suspected of having betrayed his countrymen. Printz, hearing of the outrage, which seems to have been perpe- trated in the neighborhood of De Vries's unfortunate col- ony at Swaanendael, procured the delivery of the prison-
* Winthrop, ii., 161, 179, 187; Hazard, ii., 214.
385
WILLIAM KIEFT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
ers to him at Fort New Gottenburg. From there they CHAP. XI. were sent by way of New Haven to Boston, where Red- man was tried for his life, and found guilty .* 1644.
The pertinacious interference of the New England col- The Dutch onists with the trade on the Delaware was as grievous an Swedes op- and the annoyance to Printz as to Kieft. The Dutch, as the first pose En- lish inter- ference on e South River. explorers and possessors of the South River, unwillingly saw their monopoly invaded by the Swedes ; but when the English attempted to divide with them the prize, the Swedes were found acting in concert with the Dutch to repel the new intrusion. In Holland, the question of sov- ereignty was suddenly raised by the arrival of two Swed- October. ish ships, " The Key of Calmar" and the "Fame," which Printz had dispatched home with large cargoes of beaver and tobacco. Stress of weather, and perhaps apprehen- Question sion, owing to the war which had just broken out between eignty rais- of' sover- Sweden and Denmark, induced the masters of these ves- land. ed in Hol- sels to run into the port of Harlingen, in Friesland. Here the ships were seized by order of the West India Compa- 6 October. ny, who, claiming sovereignty over all the regions around the South River of New Netherland, exacted the impost duties and additional recognitions, to which their charter entitled them. Against these exactions Speringh, the 8 October Swedish minister at the Hague, instantly protested to the States General. A long correspondence ensued, which resulted in the discharge of the ships, the next summer, upon payment of the impost duties alone. The compa- ny's additional recognition of eight per cent. was waived; and the question of the right of sovereignty was left un- settled.+
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