USA > New York > History of the state of New York Vol I > Part 41
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1645. End of the Indian war
408
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
1645. Peace with the Long Island s ages. .
CHAP. XII. jure the Christians." A formal peace was ratified by the exchange of tokens of eternal friendship, and Whiteney- wen, the ambassador sachem, was dismissed with liberal presents .*
July. Treaty with the Mohawks and other tribes at Fort Or- ange.
Kieft now, for the first time, went up the river to Fort Orange, with La Montagne, to secure the friendship of the powerful Mohawks. Aided by the influence of the offi- cers at Rensselaerswyck, a treaty was soon arranged with the Iroquois delegates, and with the Mahicans and the other neighboring tribes. The languages of these tribes were various, and the negotiations were conducted with the assistance of the Indian interpreter Agheroense, " who was well known to the Christians." Presents were again exchanged in ratification of the peace ; and Kieft's em- barrassment for the want of money was relieved by Van der Donck, and other inhabitants of Rensselaerswyck. But a chemical analysis of some native mineral, with which the savages painted their faces, raised hopes in the director's mind that he had now found the way to wealth.t
29 August.
The treaty at Fort Orange was followed, before long, by a general peace with the tribes in the neighborhood of Manhattan. The citizens were summoned to assemble at Fort Amsterdam, at the ringing of the bell and the hoist- ing of the colors, to hear the proposed articles read ; and they were assured that " if any one could give good ad- vice, he might then declare his opinions freely." The project of the treaty was almost unanimously approved.
* Alb. Rec., ii., 298-301 ; O'Call., i., 354. One of the guns bursting when the salute was fired, Jacob Jacobsen Roy lost an arm, in spite of the skill of Surgeon Hans Kiersted.
t Alb. Rec., viii., 79, 80. Van der Donck, in his Description of N. N., p. 29 (ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., i., 161), refers particularly to this treaty, and describes a curious incident connected with it. One morning, the Indian interpreter, Agheroense, "who lodged in the director's house, came down stairs, and in the presence of the director and myself sat down, and began stroking and painting his face. The director, observing the opera- tion, asked me to inquire of the Indian what substance he was using, which he handed to me, and I handed to the director. After he had examined it attentively, he judged, from its weight and its greasy lustre, that it must be some valuable mineral. So we commuted with the Indian for it, in order to see what it was. We acted with it as we best could, under the direction of a certain Johannes la Montagne, doctor in medicine, and counselor in New Netherland, a man of intelligence, who had some knowledge or science in these matters. To be brief; it was put into a crucible, and after it had been thought to be long enough in the fire, it was taken out, and two pieces of gold were found in it, which were both judged to be worth about three guilders. This proof was at first kept very still."
409
WILLIAM KIEFT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
No one dissented but "Hendrick Kip, a tailor," one of the CHAP. XII. sturdy burghers who had wished to depose Kieft two years before. On the following day, the appointed meeting with 1645. 30 August. the red men was held. In front of Fort Amsterdam, un- der the open sky, in presence of the sun and the ocean, on the spot " where the commerce of the world may be watched from shady walks," the sachems of the Hackin- sacks and Tappans, the delegates from Long Island, and the Mahican chief who spoke for the Weckquaesgeeks, Sint-Sings, and other river tribes, all acknowledging the Iroquois Confederacy, which was represented by Mohawk ambassadors, as witnesses and arbitrators, seated them- selves, in grave silence, in presence of the director and council of New Netherland, and the commonalty of Man- hattan, and, solemnly smoking the great calumet of peace, General pledged themselves to eternal amity with the Dutch. peace at treaty of Each party bound itself to an honorable observance of the sterdam. Fort Am- treaty. In cases of difficulty with " the Christians," the savages were immediately to apply to the authorities at Fort Amsterdam ; should an Indian be the aggressor, the Dutch were to complain to his sachem. No armed In- dian was thereafter to approach the houses of the Chris- tians on Manhattan; and no armed European was to visit the villages of the savages, unless with a native escort. With benevolent consideration, the Dutch pressed for and obtained from the savages the promise to restore the cap- tive grand-daughter of Anne Hutchinson. The promises of the savages were faithfully performed. Joy succeeded sadness in the devastated province, on the ratification of the great Indian Treaty of Fort Amsterdam. On the mor- 31 August. row, a placard was issued, directing the observance of the tion for a Proclama- sixth of September as a day of general thanksgiving in thanksgiv- day of the Dutch and English churches, " to proclaim the good ing. tidings throughout New Netherland."*
Thus peaceful days revisited the Dutch province. But the sting of war remained. In two years, sixteen hundred
* Alb. Rec., ii., 312-317 ; ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., i., 275, 276, 278; Winthrop, ii., 267 ; Bancroft, ii., 292 ; O'Call., i., 354-357 ; ante, p. 356, 366
410
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. XII. savages had been killed ; at Manhattan, and in its neigh- 1645. Condition of the Dutch Province. borhood, scarcely one hundred men, besides traders, could be found. The church, which had been begun in 1642, remained unfinished. The money which the impoverished commonalty had contributed to build a common school- house, had "all found its way out," and was expended for the troops. Even the poor-fund of the deaconry was sequestered, and applied to the purposes of the war. Be- yond Manhattan, almost every settlement on the west side of the North River, south of the Highlands, was destroyed. The greater part of the western territory of Long Island was depopulated. West Chester was desolated. In all the province, the posts on the South River and the colonie of Rensselaerswyck alone escaped the horrors of war. The work of regeneration was now to be begun .*
Kieft pur- chases lands on Long Isl- company. 10 Sept. Kieft's attention was first given to securing the Indian title to the lands in the neighborhood of Manhattan which and for the had not yet been ceded to the company. A few days aft- er the peace, a tract extending along the bay of the North River, from Coney Island to Gowanus, now known as New Utrecht, was purchased from the Long Island Indians, and became part of the public domain of the province. This purchase completed the title of the West India Company to most of the land within the present counties of Kings and Queens.
19 October. Settlement of Flush- ing.
The next month, Thomas Farrington, John Lawrence, John Townsend, Thomas Stiles, and several other English emigrants, obtained from the director a patent for about sixteen thousand acres, to the eastward of Doughty's ruined settlement at Mespath. The territory which was chosen by the new colonists was named Vlissingen by the Dutch, after one of the principal sea-port towns in Zealand. The patentees received a grant of municipal privileges, similar to those which their countrymen had before obtained from the provincial authorities of New Netherland ;t and the foundations of the present flourishing village of Flushing
* Breeden Raedt, 19 ; Hol. Doc., iii., 369 ; iv., 41 ; ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., ii., 292, 331.
t Thompson's L. I., ii., 68, 69 ; O'Call., i., 357 ; post, p. 537.
411
WILLIAM KIEFT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
were happily laid, in one of the most fertile regions of CHAP. XII. Long Island.
1645.
The English colonists, who had been driven by the sav- ages from their settlement at Mespath, returned to their return to Mespath. desolated homes soon after the peace was concluded. But discords soon broke out among them. Doughty, who had been liberally treated by the Dutch at Manhattan, exhib- ited signs of covetousness soon after his return to Mespath, where he would allow no one to build, unless upon exor- bitant terms of purchase and quit-rent. His associates, who did not wish " to hinder population," were opposed to this policy ; and Smith and others complained to the di- rector and council at Manhattan. Upon a hearing of the case, the court decided that " the associates might enter Case of upon their property"-the farm and lands which Doughty Doughty. Francis had in possession being reserved to him individually. From this decision, Doughty gave notice of an appeal to the Court of Holland, which, however, Kieft would not al- low. "His sentence," he said, " could not be appealed from, but must avail absolutely ;" and Doughty was con- demned to be imprisoned twenty-four hours, and to pay a fine of twenty-five guilders. Not long afterward, he re- Doughty moved to the neighboring settlement at Flushing, where Flushing he became the first clergyman of the English colonists, at an annual salary of six hundred guilders .*
Lady Moody, who had so bravely repelled the attacks of the Indians during the war, was now complimented by 19 Dec. Kieft with a patent, granting to herself, Sir Henry Moody Moody's Lady her son, Ensign George Baxter, and Sergeant James Hub- Grave- bard, that portion of Long Island adjoining Coney Island, sande. upon which she lived, called by the Dutch "Gravesande," and now known as Gravesend. The patentees were as- sured "the free liberty of conscience, according to the custom and manner of Holland, without molestation or dis- turbance from any magistrate or magistrates, or any other ecclesiastical minister that may pretend jurisdiction over
* Breeden Raedt, 24, 25 ; Vertoogh van N. N., and Corte Bericht, in ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., ii., 301, 302, 333 ; Thompson's Long Island, ii., 70.
removes to
patent for
412
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. XII. them." They were also liberally allowed " to erect a body 1645. politic and civil combination among themselves, as free men of this province and town of Gravesend," and invest- ed with all "the immunities and privileges already granted to the inhabitants of this province, or hereafter to be grant- ed, as if they were natives of the United Belgic Provinces." Loyalty to the Dutch authorities was required ; and the use of the "New Style," and of the weights and measures of New Netherland, alone enjoined .*
Minerals discovered near Fort Orange. July. Soon after the peace was made with the Fort Orange Indians, Kieft, in pursuance of orders he had received from Holland to ascertain the mineral riches of the province, sent an officer and several men to the hill, where he was told the substance was to be found which La Montagne had supposed to be gold. The party brought back a buck- et full of earth and stones, upon which several experiments were made, " all with the same result as the first." The 31 August. next month, when the general treaty was made at Fort Amsterdam, some of the savages exhibited several speci- Among the mens of minerals found in the Nevesinck Hills, near the Raritans. Raritans. Kieft supposing them to contain valuable met- al, sent a party to explore the region ; and determined to build a fort for the security of any mines that might be discovered. An analysis of the specimens which the par- ty brought back yielded what was supposed to be gold and 12 October. quicksilver ; and an officer and thirty men were dispatched again to continue the exploration, and procure as many specimens as they could for transmission to Holland. The new mine among the Raritans was judged to be "richer and better than any others before known." Samples of all these minerals were carefully packed, and put in charge Arendt Corssen dispatched to Holland. of Arendt Corssen, the former commissary at the South River, to be delivered to the Amsterdam directors. There being no ship at Manhattan ready to sail for Holland,
y
* Gravesend Records ; Doc. Hist. N. Y., i., 629 ; Thompson's Long Island, ii., 171 ; ante, p. 367. Coney Island was patented to Gysbert op Dyck on the 24th of May, 1644. The name of Coney Island Judge Benson derives from Conyn, " a Dutch surname still remaining among us ;" but he adds that, " from the name coney, there are already symp- toms of the beginning of a tradition that it once abounded in rabbits."-ii., N Y. Hist. Coll., ii., p. 93.
413
WILLIAM KIEFT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
Corssen proceeded to New Haven, where he embarked, CHAT. XII. about Christmas, in a vessel of eighty tons, belonging to Lamberton and his associates, which was about to sail for 25 Dec. 1645. London. The severe winter, " the earliest and sharpest" since the settlement of New England, had already set in; and the harbor was frozen up. A passage was, neverthe- less, " cut out of the ice three miles," and the ship got to Corssen lost at sea. sea early the next month. But " misfortune attended all 1646. on board." The New Haven vessel foundered at sea, and January. " was never heard of after."*
In the mean time, the affairs in New Netherland had re- Action of ceived the serious attention of the West India Company. India Com- the West The report of their Chamber of Accounts decided the fu- lation to
pany in re- ture policy of the directors ; and, in accordance with its erland. New Neth- recommendations, the College of the XIX., at its meeting 1645. the next spring, determined that thenceforward the pro- March. vincial government should be vested in a "Supreme Council," consisting of a Director General, a Vice Direet- or, and a Fiscal, by whom all public concerns were to be managed. This decision rendered new arrangements nec- essary.
It happened that Peter Stuyvesant, the director of the Peter Stuy- company's colony at Curaçoa, who had lost a leg in an 1644. vesant. unsuccessful attack on the Portuguese island of Saint April. Martin, was obliged to return to Holland for surgical aid, in the autumn of 1644. Stuyvesant was the son of a His early clergyman in Friesland, and was educated in the High life. School at Franeker.t While there, he acquired that famil- iar knowledge of the Latin language which he was always fond of displaying. After leaving school, he entered the mil- itary service, and was appointed by the West India Com- pany to be the Director of their colony at Curaçoa. He de- lighted in pomp and the ostentation of command; and his
* Vertoogh van N. N., in ii., N. Y. II. S. Coll., ii., 267 ; Van der Donck's N. N., 29 ; ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., i., 161, 162 ; Hol. Doc., ii., 362, 363 ; Alb. Rec., ii., 262, 312, 318, 323 ; O'Call., i., 359; Winthrop, ii., 254, 266 ; Mather's Magnalia, i., 25, 26. Trumbull and Hazard (Ann. Penn., 93) err in stating the loss of the New Haven vessel in the year 1647. + Breeden Raedt, 26, where Stuyvesant's conduct at Franeker is stated to have been culpable. A faulty translation of extracts from this work is printed in Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv., 101-112. 1
414
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. XII. conduct in the expedition against Saint Martin did not
5 May. Van Dinck- lagen vice director. Van Dyck fiscal. 28 June.
1645. escape censure. The directors, however, looked upon the attack as "a piece of Roman courage ;" and Stuyvesant's health becoming re-established after his return to Holland, May. they determined to appoint him in the place of Kieft, and Appointed director of send him to New Netherland as " redresser general" of all New Neth- abuses. Van Dincklagen's provisional appointment in De- erland. cember was, therefore, revoked ; and he was now formal- ly commissioned as vice-director, to be " second to, and first counselor of the director of New Netherland." Hen- drick van Dyck, who had served as ensign under Kieft, was soon afterward appointed, by the Amsterdam Cham- ber, to be fiscal in the place of Van der Huygens, "to make complaints against all delinquents and transgressors of the military laws, and all other our instructions and commands," and was furnished with detailed instructions respecting his duties .*
7 July. Instruc- Provincial Council. Early the next month, the College of the XIX. prepared tions of the and adopted a code of general instructions for the regula- tion of the "supreme council in the countries of New Netherland." Under these instructions, the director, as president, with his vice, and the fiscal, were to administer and decide upon all civil and military affairs : when the fiscal was prosecutor, the military commandant was to sit in his stead ; and if the charge was a criminal one, "two capable persons" were to be " adjoined from the common- alty of that district where the crime or act was perpetra- ted." The director and council were to "take care that the English do not encroach further on the company's lands," and, in the mean time, try to arrange a definite boundary line. They were to endeavor, by all possible means, "to pacify and give satisfaction to the Indians," and advance " on the one side the interests of the compa- ny, and on the other maintain good correspondence with their neighbors." They were to "do all in their power to induce the colonists to establish themselves on some of the most suitable places, with a certain number of inhabit-
* Hol. Doc., iii., 3 ; vi., 197, 236 ; Breeden Raedt, 26, 27, 35.
415
WILLIAM KIEFT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
ants, in the manner of towns, villages, and hamlets, as the CHAP. XII. English are in the habit of doing." Fort Amsterdam was to be at once repaired with "good clay, earth, and firm 1645. Instruc- sods." A permanent garrison was to be maintained; and the Provin- cial Coun- for greater security, the colonists were also to be required cil. to provide themselves with " weapons for their own de- fense, so as to be able, in time of necessity, with the gar- rison, to resist a general attack." But this colonial mili- tia was not to receive pay. The right of the several sub- ordinate colonies to send delegates to the council at Man- hattan was confirmed. The director and council were to encourage, by grants of land, the immediate planting and settlement of the island of Manhattan, and to permit the introduction of as many negroes as the patroons, colonists, and other farmers may be " willing to purchase at a fair price." No arms or ammunition were to be sold to the Indians. The company having "now resolved to open to private persons the trade which it has exclusively carried on with New Netherland," and to permit all the inhabit- ants of the United Provinces "to sail with their own ships to New Netherland, the Virginias, the Swedish, English, and French colonies, or other places thereabout," the di- rector and council were finally instructed to be vigilant in enforcing all colonial custom-house regulations which might be enacted .* It was also agreed in the College of the XIX., that the expenses of the government of New Netherland should, in future, be borne by all the Cham- bers of the company in common. The Amsterdam Cham- 6 July. ber, however, charged itself with the equipment of two vessels, to convey Stuyvesant and his suite to Manhattan.t
Another meeting of the XIX. was held at Middleburg 21 Sept. in the following autumn, at which Stuyvesant submitted a memorial in relation to the better government of the company's American possessions. The whole subject was now reconsidered. After much discussion, it was event- 14 October. ually determined that the carrying trade between Hol-
* Hol. Doc., iii., 19. Translations of these instructions, and of Van Dincklagen's and Van Dyck's commissions and instructions, are in O'Call., ii., Appendix, 559-564. + Hol. Doc., iii., 3.
416
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
1645. New ar- range- ments re- specting trade and commerce.
CHAP. XII. land and New Netherland, which had hitherto been re- tained as a monopoly by the company, with an exception in favor of the privileged patroons, should be thrown open to the vessels of private merchants. Regulations were adopted to give effect to this policy, and to concentrate all colonial trade at Manhattan. All cargoes shipped to New Netherland were to be examined, on their arrival, by the customs' officers at Fort Amsterdam ; and all homeward- bound vessels were to clear from the same place, where bonds were to be given for the payment of duties in Hol- land. Curaçoa, Aruba, and the neighboring West India Islands, were also to be placed under the general govern- ment of the director of New Netherland. But some of the Chambers of the company demurred to the new expenses which they were to incur by sharing in common the charges of the province ; and the Amsterdam directors eventually retained the exclusive management of New Netherland .*
The prov- ince re- mains un- der the Am- sterdam Chamber.
Stuyve- sant's de- parture postponed.
These disagreements among the several Chambers in- terrupted the plans which had been arranged during the spring and summer ; and Stuyvesant's departure was de- layed for more than a year. Intelligence of the peace, which had at last been established in New Netherland, was now received in Holland ; and the improved aspect of the affairs of the province perhaps tempted the compa- ny to allow Kieft to remain awhile longer in the post he had so unworthily occupied.
Kieft's un- popularity increases. The news of the intended recall of the director soon reached Manhattan. The commonalty were delighted with the prospect of a change; and some of the most free- Temper of spoken of them did not hesitate openly to express their joy, the people. and even threaten their mortified chief with personal chas- tisement, when he should " take off the coat with which he was bedecked by the Lords his masters.". Kieft, who had been furnished by the West India Company with a copy of the letter of the Eight Men, of the previous au-
* Hol. Doc., iii., 31-63 ; v., 124 ; viii., 153 ; Alb. Rec., viii., 39, 40; xii., 45, 63, 70; O'Call., i., 360, 361.
417
WILLIAM KIEFT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
tumn, was in no temper to brook the reproaches with CHAP. XIL which he was now constantly saluted. The people who ventured to speak too boldly were arraigned, and fined 1645. and banished. No appeal to the Fatherland was allowed. The right The right had already been refused in the case of the En- again re- - of appeal glish elergyman Doughty ; another opportunity now oe- fused. curred to deny it to a " free merchant" of Manhattan. Arnoldus van Hardenburg, for giving a written notice of 28 April. his intention to appeal from a decree of confiscation, was condemned " to pay forthwith a fine of twenty-five guild- ers, or be imprisoned until the penalty be paid-an ex- ample to others." Van Hardenburg's conduet was looked upon as eausing "dangerous consequences to result to the supreme authority of this land's magistracy."*
The republican spirit which accompanied the colonists The people from Holland led them to denounee Kieft's denial of the Kieft's tyr- denounce right of appeal. They considered it " an aet of tyranny, anny. and regarded it as a token of sovereignty." Two years before, they had boldly complained to the States General that "one man," who represented the West India Com- pany, had acted in a more arbitrary manner "than a king would be suffered legally to do." The popular feeling Quarrel be- was encouraged by Domine Bogardus, whom Kieft had and Bogar- accused of drunkenness, and reprimanded for siding with dus. the malcontented multitude. Twelve years before, Bo- gardus had not hesitated to attack Van Twiller in rude words. From the pulpit he now boldly denouneed Van Twiller's more obnoxious sueeessor. "What are the great men of the country," said he to the congregation, as he was preaching on a Sunday, " but vessels of wrath, and fountains of woe and trouble ? They think of nothing but to plunder the property of others, to dismiss, to ban- ish, to transport to Holland." To escape such severe eler- ieal admonitions, Kieft absented himself from church ; and his example was followed by many of the chief provincial officers. The director encouraged the officers and soldiers to
* Vertoogh van N. N., in ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., ii., 302, 303, 333, 334 ; Breeden Raedt, 21, 25.
D D
tween Kieft
418
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. XII. practice all kinds of noisy amusements about the church 1646. during the sermon. The drum was ordered to be beaten, and a cannon was several times discharged while the peo- ple were attending divine service. The communicants were openly insulted. But the Domine did not relax his censures ; and the people were still more embittered. Kieft, vexed beyond endurance, at last determined to bring 2 January. the contumacious clergyman to trial. "Your conduct stirs the people to mutiny and rebellion, when they are already too much divided, causes schism and abuses in the Church, and makes us a scorn and laughing-stock to our neighbors," was the inducement to a series of charges which the director cited Bogardus to answer before the court in fourteen days.
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