History of the state of New York Vol I, Part 39

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

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In the mean time, Kieft, disappointed in obtaining as- 1643. sistance from his English neighbors, had been forced to 3 Nov Kieft's warlike prepara- tions. 12 Nov. draw a bill of exchange on the directors of the West India" Company, in favor of some merchants of Amsterdam. Strict discipline was enjoined upon the heterogeneous forces which were now mustered at Manhattan; and Van

* Winthrop, ii., 203, 204, 236, 237.

+ Hol. Doc., ii., 340, 342, 350 ; iii., 1, 3, 13 ; Alb. Rec., xvii., 321.

B B

386

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

CHAP. XI. der Huygens, the schout-fiscal, was commanded to exe- 1643. cute his duties without fear or favor, and to repress, with all the force of the province, the irregularities which a state of war necessarily produced. The refusal of New Haven left New Netherland to her own resources, and the spirit of the people rose with the occasion. It was now determined that offensive measures should be taken against the savages. Counselor La Montagne was accordingly dis- patched to Staten Island with a force of three companies. forty Dutch burghers under Captain Kuyter, thirty-five English colonists under Lieutenant Baxter, and several regular soldiers under Sergeant Cock., Crossing over from Manhattan in the evening, the expedition spent the whole night in scouring the island. The Indians kept out of the way ; but five or six hundred scheples of corn were se- cured, and brought back to Fort Amsterdam .*

December.

Expedition sent to Staten Isl- and.

The Connecticut Indians in the vicinity of Stamford had now become still more hostile, and Mayano, a fierce Indian hos- chief, who lived a little to the east of Greenwich, boldly tilities near Greenwich. attacked a party of "three Christians," whom he acci- dentally met returning home. One of the party was killed ; but the other two overpowered the savage and cut off his head, which Captain Patrick immediately sent to Fort Amsterdam, with an account of what the colo- nists at Greenwich had already suffered from the chief and his tribe. When Patrick and his friends submitted themselves to the jurisdiction of New Netherland, the year before, it was upon condition of being "protected against their enemies as much as possible." Good faith now required that this condition should be fulfilled ; and Expedition sent from to assist the English settlers. Kieft instantly sent the forces which had just returned Manhattan from Staten Island, to the assistance of the loyal English. Leaving Manhattan in the morning, in three yachts, the expedition reached Greenwich in the evening. All the next night was spent in marching through the country in search of the enemy. But none was found; and the wearied detachment reached Stamford in no good humor.

* Alb. Rec., ii., 212, 236, 250 ; iii., 169 ; Hol. Doc., iii., 117; Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv., 14.

387

WILLIAM KIEFT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.

One of the Dutch soldiers meeting Patriek at Captain Un- CHAP. XI. derhill's house on Sunday, "in the time of afternoon ex- ereise-for he seldom went to the public assemblies"- 1644. 2 January. Captain Patrick charged him with treachery, in eausing one hundred and twenty men to come from Fort Amsterdam on a fool's er- murdered. rand. Patrick resented the nettled soldier's charge with " ill language," and spit in his face. As he was turning to go out, the Dutchman " shot him behind in the head, so he fell down dead, and never spake." The murderer was seized, but he escaped from eustody .*

The expedition, however, was not entirely unsuccessful. Four of the Stamford people volunteered to find out the retreat of the savages ; and, upon their intelligence, some twenty-five pieked men of the detachment surprised a small Indian village, where they killed eighteen or twenty warriors, and took an old man, two women, and several children prisoners. To win favor, the captured old man offered to lead the Dutch against the Weekquaesgeeks, Expedition who were reported to be intrenehed in three eastles ; and Weck- Baxter and Coek, with a detachment of sixty-five men, geeks. quaes- were sent to West Chester. The expedition found the castles strongly construeted and well adapted for defense, built of thiek timbers nine feet high, bound with heavy beams, and piereed with loop-holes. In one of these eas- tles, thirty Indians might defend themselves against two hundred Europeans. But all the savages were gone, and their fortresses deserted. Two of these were burned by the Dutch, who reserved the third as a retreat in case of emergeney ; and the expedition, after marehing some for- ty miles further, killing one or two Indians, and destroy- ing all the corn and wigwams they found, returned to Fort Amsterdam with a few women and children as prisoners.t

against the

from Stam-

nize Heem-

The accounts which Underhill had communicated to English his townsmen at Stamford of the local advantages of New ford colo- Netherland, and the personal knowledge which John Og- Long Isl- den had gained at Manhattan, had meanwhile induced and.

* Winthrop, ii., 151; Hol. Doc., iii., 118; Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv., 14; ante, p. 331.

t Hol. Doc., iii., 119, 120 ; Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv., 15.

388

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

16 Nov.

CHAP. XI. several of them to visit Long Island ; and arrangements 1644. were made, in the autumn of 1643, to secure from the Dutch provincial government a grant of lands at Heem- stede. This portion of Long Island had been so named by the Dutch after the " neatest and most important vil- lage" on the island of Schouwen, in Zealand. Early in 1644, Robert Fordham and several others came over with their families from Stamford, and established themselves at Heemstede, which soon became known as " Mr. Ford- ham's plains." The next autumn, Kieft granted to Ford- ham, Ogden, Lawrence, and their associates, a liberal pat- ent for " the great plains on Long Island, from the East River to the South Sea, and from a certain harbor, now commonly called and known by the name of Heemstede Bay, and westward as far as Martin Gerritsen's Bay." The patentees were authorized "to use and exercise the Reformed religion which they profess," to nominate their own magistrates for the approval of the director of New Netherland, and generally to manage their own civil af- fairs. A quit-rent of a tithe of the produce, to begin ten years "from the day the first general peace with the In- dians shall be concluded," was reserved to the West India Company .*

Hostility of the In- dians.

Scarcely had the Stamford emigrants settled themselves at Heemstede, before Penhawitz, the great sachem of the Canarsees in that neighborhood, who had hitherto been es- teemed friendly to the Dutch, was suspected of treachery ; and several of his tribe were charged with secret hostili- ties against "the Christians." Seven savages were ar- rested by Fordham, on a charge of killing two or three pigs, " though it was afterward discovered that his own Englishmen had done it themselves." Fordham, however, informed Kieft that he had arrested the savages, and con- fined them in a cellar ; but that he "dared not treat them inhumanly, as he could not answer for the consequences

* Thompson's Long Island, ii., 4, 5; Denton's N. Y., p. 6, and Furman's notes ; O'Call., i., 317 ; Martinet's Beschryvinge, iii., 318. John Ogden, one of the Heemstede patentees, was a contractor for building the church in Fort Amsterdam, in 1642 ; ante, p. 336.

389

WILLIAM KIEFT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.

to his own people." La Montagne was therefore sent CHAP. XI. against the Canarsees, with a foree of one hundred and twenty men; Duteh burghers under Kuyter, English 1644. Expedition auxiliaries under Underhill, and regular soldiers under sent to Coek and Van Dyek. The expedition sailed in three yachts to Sehout's or Cow Bay, where the forees were landed without molestation. Marehing at onee to Heem- stede, Underhill killed three of the seven savages whom Fordham had confined in the eellar, and took the other four prisoners. The forees were then divided into two parties. With some fourteen Englishmen, Underhill at- taeked the smaller Indian village ; while La Montagne, with the main body of eighty men, advaneed against the larger settlement at Mespath. Both parties were entirely successful. The villages were surprised ; one hundred and twenty savages were killed ; while the assailants lost only one man, and had three wounded. On the return of the expedition, two of the savages whom Underhill had taken at Heemstede, were conveyed to Fort Amsterdam, where the triumph of the vietors was disgraced by atro- eious ernelties. One of the prisoners, frightfully wounded Atrocities by the " long knives" with which the director had armed tan on the the soldiers in place of swords, at last dropped down dead the forces. return of as he was daneing the " Kinte-Kaeye," or death-dance of his raee. The other, after undergoing even more shoeking · mutilation, was taken out of the fort by Kieft's orders, and mereifully beheaded on a mill-stone in "the Beavers' Path," now Beaver Lane, near the Battery. These bar- barities are said to have been witnessed by the director, and Counselor La Montagne. Some of the female sav- ages who had been taken prisoners in West Chester, stand- ing at the northwest angle of the fort, saw the bloody spee- taele, and, throwing up their arms, and striking their mouths, called out, in their own language, "Shame ! shame! What disgraceful and unspeakable cruelty is this ! Such things were never yet seen or heard of among us."*

The Dutch forces were now in great distress for want

* Hol. Doc., iii., 121, 122; Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv., 15, 16 ; Breeden Raedt, 19, 20. This

at Manhat-

Heemstede.

390

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

CHAP. XI. of clothing. At this conjuncture, a' ship, which the pa- 1644. The Dutch soldiers in want of clothing. troon of Rensselaerswyck had dispatched from Holland the previous autumn, with a cargo of goods for his colony, arrived at Manhattan. Necessity pressed ; and Kieft im- mediately called upon Peter Wynkoop, the supercargo, to furnish fifty pairs of shoes for the soldiers, offering full payment " in silver, beavers, or wampum." But the su- percargo, with more regard for his patroon's mercantile in- terests than for the necessities of a suffering soldiery, re- Supply ob- tained from a private ship at fused to comply with the director's, requisition. Kieft promptly ordered a forced levy ; and enough shoes were Manhattan. taken from the patroon's ship to supply as many soldiers as afterward " killed five hundred of the enemy." The provoked director then commanded the ship to be thorough- ly searched, and a large supply of ammunition and guns, 8 March. not included in the manifest, being found on board, they were declared contraband, and the ship and cargo were confiscated .*

February. Underhill had, meanwhile, been sent to Stamford to re- connoitre the position of the savages. On his return to March. Underhill's to Stam- ford. Manhattan, he was dispatched, with Ensign Van Dyck expedition and one hundred and fifty men, in three yachts, on a new expedition against the Connecticut Indians. Landing at Greenwich, the forces marched all the next day through the snow, crossing, on their way, steep rocky hills, over which the men crawled with difficulty. About midnight, . the expedition approached the Indian village. The night was clear, and the full moon threw a strong light against the mountain, "so that many winters' days were not

latter authority, however, states the date of these transactions as April, 1644. In the in- terrogatories proposed to Van Tienhoven, on the 21st of July, 1650, by the committee of the States General, the atrocities perpetrated upon the two Heemstede prisoners, and the presence and conduct of Kieft and La Montagne on the occasion, were specially inquired into .- Hol. Doc., v., 312, 320, 321 ; O'Call., i., 300. Winthrop, ii., 157, speaks of the news of Underhill's Long Island expedition reaching Boston in March, 1644.

* Alb. Rec., ii., 244, 277 ; Renss. MSS .; O'Call., i., 342. Winthrop, ii., 157, says that this ship was sent "to the free boors at Fort Orange," and had on board "four thousand weight of powder, and seven hundred pieces to trade with the natives, which the Dutch governor having notice of, did seize and confiscate to the use of the company." Savage, in his note, seems to have misapprehended the character of the ship. The vessel was actually " not sent by the company, but by some private men," as Winthrop had originally written it in his journal.

391

WILLIAM KIEFT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.

brighter." The village contained three rows, or streets CHAP. XI. of wigwams, and was sheltered, in a nook of the mount- ain, from the northwest winds. The Dutch troops, find- 1644. Destruc- tion of the Indian vil- ing the Indians on their guard, charged, sword in hand; upon the fortress. But the savages, emboldened by their lage. superior numbers-for the village was crowded with In- dians, who had assembled " to celebrate one of their fes- tivals"-made a desperate resistance. "Some said that there were full seven hundred, among whom were twen- ty-five Wappingers." Several bold sallies were attempted, but every effort to break the Dutch line failed. Not a savage could show himself outside the palisades without being shot down. In an hour, one hundred and eighty Indians lay dead on the snow. The arrows of the be- sieged now beginning to annoy the Dutch, Underhill, remembering Mason's experiment at the Mistic, resolved to set the village on fire. The horrors of the Pequod massacre were renewed. As the wretched victims en- deavored to escape, they were shot down or driven back into their burning huts. The carnage was almost com- plete. Upward of five hundred Indians perished by sword or by flame : of all who had crowded that devoted village at nightfall, but eight escaped. Fifteen of the Dutch sol- diers were wounded. The victors kindled large fires, and bivouacked on the crimsoned snow. In the morning, the expedition set out on its return, marching "over that weari- some mountain, God affording extraordinary strength to the wounded," and the next afternoon it reached Stam- ford, where the soldiers were hospitably entertained by the English. Two days afterward, the triumphant forces reached Fort Amsterdam ; and Kieft proclaimed a public Thanksgiv- thanksgiving for the brilliant victory which his troops had claimed at ing pro- achieved .* Manhattan

* Hol. Doc., iii., 121-126 ; Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv., 16, 17 ; O'Call., i., 302 ; ii., 571 ; Ban- croft, ii., 293. " The traditionary account of the battle on Strickland's Plain, preserved by Trumbull, i., 161, and repeated, but not confirmed, by Wood; can not be quite accurate ; at least, as to time." The battle happened in 1644, not in 1646, as Trumbull erroneously supposes. Winthrop (ii., 157) alleges, that the employment of Underhill by Kieft was " a plot of the Dutch governor to engage the English in that quarrel with the Indians, which we had wholly declined, as doubting the justice of the cause."

392

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

1644. the West Chester and Long Island tribes. 6 April

CHAP. XI. Spring had now begun ; and some of the hostile tribes which had felt the power of the Dutch, wishing peace, ap- Peace with plied to Underhill to interfere in their behalf. In a few days, Mamaranack, the chief of the Croton Indians, and other chiefs from the Weckquaesgeeks, and from the tribes north of Greenwich and Stamford, came to Fort Amster- dam, and concluded a peace with the Dutch. They pledged themselves not to do any further damage to the colonists of New Netherland or their property ; to visit Manhattan only in canoes as long as the savages on the island should continue hostile ; and to deliver up Pacham, the faithless chief of the Tankitekes. On the other hand, Kieft prom- ised them his friendship ; and, in token of his sincerity, 15 April. released several of the captured prisoners. The next week, Gonwarrowe, the sachem of the Mattinnecocks of Flush- ing, Cow Bay, and the neighborhood, warned by the les- son which the Long Island Indians had received at Heem- stede and Mespath, came to Manhattan and solicited a peace. The sachem assented to the conditions which Kieft imposed; and upon his promise that none of the neighbor- ing tribes should do any harm to the Dutch, or assist their enemies, he was dismissed with some presents, and en- joined to communicate the provisions of the treaty to the sachem on " Mr. Fordham's plains."*

Though the Dutch arms had now humbled a distant enemy, and the semblance of a peace had been arranged with the West Chester and Long Island savages, the prin- cipal enemies of the Dutch, nearer to Manhattan Island, remained hostile. The scouting parties of the red, men prowled unopposed about the very precincts of Fort Am- sterdam. For the protection of the few cattle which re- mained to the decimated population, "a good solid fence" was ordered to be erected, "from the great bouwery across to the plantation of Emanuel," nearly on the site of the present Wall Street. . All persons who wished their cattle to be pastured in security, were warned to appear with proper tools and assist in erecting the fence; those who * Alb. Rec., ii., 247, 248 ; O'Call., i., 303.

Fence or- dered to be built at Manhattan. 31 March.

393

WILLIAM KIEFT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.

failed to give their aid were to be excluded from the priv- CHAP. XI. ileges of the inclosed meadow .*

The precaution was necessary. If Kieft had earned the detestation of the Dutch colonists, he was even more hated by the savages, who remembered Van Twiller's pa- cific rule, and called for the removal of his violent suc- cessor. " Their daily cry every where was 'Wouter, Wouter'-meaning Wouter van Twiller."t Throughout the whole summer, the settlements at Manhattan and its neighborhood were constantly in danger of utter destruc- tion. 'The savages were unopposed ; and, as soon as they had " stowed their maize into holes," they began again to murder the Dutch. The ruined commonalty was unable to meet the expenses of the soldiery ; and the West India Company, made bankrupt by its military operations in The West Brazil, could furnish no assistance to its desolated prov- pany bank- ince. The bill of exchange, which Kieft had drawn upon rupt. the Amsterdam Chamber the previous autumn, came back protested. Soon afterward, the privateer La Garce, with which the director had commissioned Captain Blauvelt to cruise in the West Indies, returned to Manhattan with two 29 May. valuable Spanish prizes. But ready money was wanted at once ; and pressing necessity could not brook the slow proceedings of the Admiralty Court.#

Kieft was, therefore, obliged to convene the Eight Men 18 June. once more. He laid before them a statement of the des- Men again The Eight titution of the provincial treasury ; and to raise a revenue convened. for the payment of the English soldiers, he proposed to levy an excise on wine, beer, brandy, and beaver. The Eight Men, however, opposed the proposition, on the Oppose au double grounds that an excise, in the ruined condition of liquors. excise on the people, would be oppressive, and that the right of tax- ation was an attribute of sovereignty which the West In- dia Company might indeed exercise, but which their sub- ordinate officer in New Netherland had no authority to assume.§

* Alb. Rec., ii., 246 ; Hildreth, i., 425. t Hol. Doc., ii., 378.

# Alb. Rec., ii., 250, 251, 257 ; iii., 212 ; Hol, Doc., iii., 210 ; O'Call., i., 296, 306.

§ Hol. Doc., iii., 215, 216.

1644. Hostile temper of the River Indians.

India Com-

394

1 HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

CHAP. XI.

1644. Kieft's su- percilious conduct.

The director was " very much offended" at the honest opinion of the Eight Men ; and, " in an altered mood," sharply reprimanded the representatives of the people. "I have more power here than the company itself," said Kieft to the contumacious burghers, in the presence of La Mon- tagne and the fiscal Van der Huygens; " therefore I may do and suffer in this country what I please; I am my own master, for I have my commission, not from the company, but from the States General." The Eight Men still en- deavored to avert the obnoxious excise from pressing on the commonalty at large ; and proposed, instead, that the private traders, who were amassing fortunes while the colonists were ruined, should be taxed. But Kieft was immovable .*

21 June. Kieft arbi- trarily im- poses an excise on beer.

Three days afterward, he issued a proclamation, "with- out the knowledge of the Eight Men," reciting that all other means having failed to provide for the expenses of the war, it had, " by the advice of the Eight Men chosen by the commonalty," been determined "to impose some duties on those wares from which the good inhabitants will suffer the least inconvenience, as the scarcity of money is very general." It was therefore ordained, "provisionally, until the good God shall grant us peace, or we shall be sufficiently aided from Holland," that on each barrel of beer tapped an excise duty of two guilders should be paid, one half by the brewer, and one half by the public- an-burghers not retailing it, however, to pay only one half as much ; on every quart of brandy and wine, four stivers, and on every beaver skin one guilder.t

Discontent of the com- monalty. 30 June.

The commonalty openly expressed their discontent. Kieft, attributing much of the ill feeling to the popular representatives, who had opposed the tax, sent for Kuyter, Melyn, and Hall, to confer with them respecting the ob- noxious exactions. But the Eight Men found that they were in "little repute" with the director, who left the three representatives of the people to sit in his hall, from

* Hol. Doc., iii., 217.

+ Hol. Doc., iii., 130-132, 217, 218. The original of this order was in Kieft's hand- writing.

395

WILLIAM KIEFT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.

eight o'clock until past noon, without a word being said CHAP. XI. to them, and, finally, to return in disappointment "as wise 1644.

as they came."*

While New Netherland was despairing of relief from Holland, unexpected aid came from the West Indies. One Arrval of hundred and thirty Dutch soldiers, who had been driven Curacoa. troops frov.

by the Portuguese out of Brazil, coming to Curaçoa, where the inhabitants did not need, and could not maintain them, were promptly sent to Manhattan, in the ship " Blue Cock," by order of Peter Stuyvesant, the company's direct- or. Kieft immediately called a meeting of the council, at July. which were also present Oudemarkt, the captain of the Blue Cock, and Jan de Frics, the commander of the new- ly-arrived troops. It was determined to retain De Fries 21 July. and his command at Manhattan, and to dismiss the En- glish auxiliaries " in the most civil manner." The soldiers were to be billeted on the commonalty, according to the circumstances of each one; and the company was to make recompense whenever it could. As there was no clothing 4 August. in the company's warehouse for these troops, the council was again convened, and it was resolved that the excise The beer duties, which had been " provisionally" imposed, should forced. be continued. Besides paying an excise of three guilders on every tun of beer, the brewers were now required to make a return of the exact quantity they might brew.t

excise eu-

But the brewers sturdily refused to pay this unjust The brew- tribute. The first excise had been imposed " provision- to pay. ers refuse · ally," until relief should arrive ; relief had arrived, and the excise, instead of being discontinued, was made more onerous ; the company was bound to furnish clothing to its troops, as much as it was bound to furnish ammuni- tion and guns ; and, above all, the exaction was an arbi- trary act of the dependents of the West India Company, and against the consent of the representatives of the com- monalty, who, in the present instance, had alone the right to impose the tax. The refractory brewers were sum-

* Hol. Doc., iii., 192 ; Vertooghi van N. N., ut sup., 295; O'Call., i., 307, 308.

t Alb. Rec., ii., 260, 264, 265 ; xii., 49-55 ; Hol. Doc., iii., 187 ; Winthrop, ii., 179.

396

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

CHAP. XI. moned before the council. "Were we to yield, and pay 1644. 18 August. the three florins," said they, " we should offend the Eight Men and the whole commonalty." But judgment was 25 August. recorded against them; and their beer was "given a prize to the soldiers." *.

The people side with the brew- ers The people had now learned another lesson in political rights-the lesson of resistance. From this time forward party spirit divided the commonalty. The Eight Men represented the Democratic sentiment of the majority of the people; the parasites of arbitrary power took part with the director. "Those who were on his side could do noth- Party spirit ing amiss, however bad it might be ; those who were op- at Manhat- tan posed to him were always wrong in whatever they did well." Kieft's jealousy even made him suspicious of his own partisans, who held communication with "impartial persons." Throughout nearly the whole summer, private quarrels and prosecutions occupied the mind of the director, to the exclusion of more important subjects ; and six weeks were frittered away in trying an unfortunate smuggler of pearls, who was eventually banished.+

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History of the state of New York Vol I, Part 39

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