USA > New York > History of the state of New York Vol I > Part 42
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22 March.
The Domine's reply was considered insolent, calumni- 15 January. ous, and unsatisfactory ; and a further answer was re- quired, which Bogardus refused to give. The director now offered to refer the decision of the whole case to Me- gapolensis and Doughty, the other clergymen of the prov- April. ince, and two or three more impartial persons. Bogardus, however, rejected the proposition, and announced his in- tention to appeal to Kieft's successor. This appeal Kieft refused to entertain, as it was uncertain when the new director would arrive ; and to stop " the scandal and dis- order, which were prevailing more and more," the case was ordered to proceed. But the interference of mutual friends before long put an end to the prosecution ; and the The Direc or and the Domine reconciled. director was enabled to attend divine service once more, by the prompt compliance of Bogardus with his request, that Domine Megapolensis should be allowed to preach in the church the next Sunday, "as was his usual custom when in New Amsterdam." The Classis of Amsterdam had, meanwhile, been taking some steps to send out more cler- gymen to New Netherland. But their efforts were unsuc- cessful ; and the West India Company wrote to Bogardus, asking him to retain awhile longer his post in the province .*
23 July.
,
*, Vertoogh, ut sup., 202 ; Cor. Classis Amst. ; Alb. Rec., ii., 334-347 ; O'Call., i., 362; 365 ; Breeden Raedt, 22, 23. See also note O, Appendix.
419
WILLIAM KIEFT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
Not long after this dispute had been arranged, Kieft CHAP. XII. was called upon to perform a pleasant duty. The eaptive grand-daughter of Anne Hutchinson, whom the savages 1646. Restora- n of Anne Hutchin- son's grand- daughter. had promised to return, was faithfully delivered up to the Dutch at Fort Amsterdam ; and Kieft hastened to restore her to her friends at Boston. "She was about eight years old when she was taken, and continued with them about July. four years ; and she had forgot.her own language and all her friends, and was loath to have come from the Indians."*
In the mean time, Hans Jorissen Houten, so long the 1645. company's vice-diretor and commissary at Fort Orange, Fort Or- Affairs at had been sueceeded by Harman Mynderts van de Bo- Rensse- ange and gaerdt, who eame out to the provinee in 1631 as surgeon of the ship Eendragt. The fort and its precinct was jeal- ously maintained by the company ; for it was now its sole possession within the eolonie of Rensselaerswyck. The management of that patroonship had already given dis- satisfaction to the provincial government, which, the year before, had so distinetly rebuked the arrogant pretension to levy a toll on vessels passing Beeren Island. The West India Company, indeed, by this time had begun to regard the colonie as injurious to the growth and prosperity of the provinee at large.t
Arendt van Curler remained commissary of Rensselaers- Quarrel be- wyck ; but Adriaen van der Donek, who had become dis- Curler and tween Van satisfied with his residenee in the colonie, determining to Donck. Van der remove to Manhattan, where he had married a daughter of Franeis Doughty, the English elergyman, was sueceed- ed in his office of schout by Nicholas Koorn, the former " Wacht- meester" at Beeren Island. Before Van der 1646. Donck completed his arrangements for departing, the 17 January. house which he had occupied was burned ; and Van Cur- ler invited him and his wife to share his hospitality dur- ing the depth of a remarkably inelement winter. A quar- rel soon arose, because Van Curler insisted that Van der Donek was bound by his lease to make good to the pa-
* Winthrop, ii., 267. Welde describes the captive as the daughter of Anne Hutchin- son's daughter.
t Alb. Rec., iv., 199.
laerswyck
420
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. XII. troon the loss of the house; and the unfortunate tenant 1646. 19 Feb. was peremptorily ordered to "remove his chest" in two days. Seeking refuge in Fort Orange, Van der Donck was allowed by Commissary Van de Bogaerdt to occupy a hut " into which no one would hardly be willing to en- ter." There he remained until a great freshet came, March. which caused great damage at Beverswyck, and almost swept away the fort. It had not been equaled since the flood which De Vries witnessed in 1640. At length, on 28 April. the opening of the river navigation, Van der Donck went down to Manhattan .*
Death of Kiliaen van Rensse- laer. News of the death of Kiliaen van Rensselaer soon after- ward reached the colonie. By this event, the title and es- tate of the patroon descended to his eldest son Johannes, who being under age, was, by his father's testamentary directions, placed, with his property, under the guardian- ship of Johannes van Wely and Wouter van Twiller, the executors of the will. Van Curler, now proposing to re- turn to Holland, intrusted the immediate care of Rensse- laerswyck to Anthonie de Hooges, the colonial secretary. RO.Nov. Brandt van Slechten- horst ap- The same autumn, the guardians of the young patroon, having rendered homage to the States General in the pointed di- name of their ward, appointed Brandt van Slechtenhorst, rector of the colonie. of Guelderland, director of the colonie, to succeed Van Curler. It was more than a year, however, before the new commissary arrived at Beverswyck.t
Van der Donck ob- Not long after Van der Donck removed from Rensse- tains a pat- laerswyck, he visited the region on the east side of the ent for a colonie north of North River, adjoining Manhattan Island, for the purpose Manhattan. of establishing himself permanently as a patroon. The valley of the Nepera, or Sawkill, appeared favorable for the erection of mills, and Kieft readily granted to Van der
* Renss. MSS. ; O'Call., i., 346, 469-471 ; Winthrop, ii., 254. The result of the differ- ences between Van Curler and Van der Donck was "to let the matter rest so," and to take the advice of the patroon in Holland. Van der Donck, in his Beschryvinge van N. N., p. 8 (ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., i., 143), speaks of two whales having swum up the North River, in March, 1647 (1646?) ; one of which grounding on an island near "the great Co- hooes' Falls," since known as Walvisch or Whale Island, afforded the colonists a supply of oil, besides causing the river to be covered with grease for three weeks.
t Renss. MSS. ; O'Call., i., 122, 345 ; ii., 68, 69 ; post, p. 491.
t
421
WILLIAM KIEFT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
Donck the privileges of a patroon over the lands in that CHAP. XII. neighborhood, because he "had contributed a vast deal by his services as mediator" in negotiating the peace at Fort 1646. Orange the year before, and had " advanced the principal part of the money, as the director general was at that pc- riod not well provided with it, to procure sewan." Under Kieft's grant, Van der Donck purchased from the savages their unextinguished title to the lands " as far as Papirine- min, called by our people (Spyt den Duyvel), in Spite of spyt den the Devil." The new patroonship was soon afterward Duyvel. formally named "Colen Donck," or Donck's Colony ; and Colen- the States General confirmed to the patroon the right to now Yon- donck, dispose of his ficf by will. The name of the present town kers of Yonkers perpetuates the memory of the first Europcan proprictor of Colendonck .*
The samc summer, Kieft issued a patent to Cornelis 22 August. Antonissen van Slyck, of Breuckclen, for "the land of Katskill. Patent for Katskill, lying on the River Mauritius, there to plant, with his associates, a colonie according to the freedoms and ex- emptions of New Netherland." The consideration for this patent were the great services which Van Slyck had done " this country, as well in the making of pcace as in the ransoming of prisoners, and it being proper that such no- torious services should not remain unacknowledged."+ In thus granting a patent for the present town of Catskill, Kieft openly set at naught the pretensions of the patroon of Rensselaerswyck, which, indeed, had already been for- mally denied in the proceedings against Koorn in 1644.
The policy recommended by the West India Company's 26 Nov. Chamber of Accounts was now acted upon ; and late in obtains a the autumn, the inhabitants of Breuckelen were invested govern- with a grant of the municipal privileges they desired. ment. They were to have the right of electing two schepens or magistrates, with full judicial powers, as in the Father-
Breuckelen
municipal
* Alb. Rec., viii., 79; Patents, i., 56 ; Hol. Doc., vi., 118; Bolton's West Chester, ii., 401-409 ; Benson's Memoir, 111, 112 ; ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., i., 127. The Dutch were in the habit of calling Van der Donck's estate " de Jonkheer's Landt," which the English aft- erward corrupted into " Yonkers." Jonkheer is a title usually applied in Holland to the son of a nobleman. It had a more extended significance in New Netherland.
t Alb. Rec. G. G., 157 ; Renss. MSS .; O'Call., i., 382, 383 ; ante, p. 378, 401.
422
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. XII. land. Those who opposed the magistrates in the discharge 1646. First schout of Breucke- len. of their duties were to be deprived of all share in the com- mon lands adjoining the village. A schout was also to be appointed, in subordination to the schout-fiscal at Man- hattan; and Jan Teunissen was immediately commission- ed for the post. The village of Breuckelen itself was, at this time, nearly a mile inland from the river; the ham- let at the water's edge, opposite Manhattan, was known as "the Ferry."*
1645. Peace be- tween the Iroquois and the French.
gues again in Canada.
Peace had at length been arranged between the French and the Iroquois ; and the Mohawk deputies had proclaim- ed at the Three Rivers, that they had "thrown the hatchet so high into the air, and beyond the skies, that no arm on Father Jo- earth can reach to bring it down." Father Jogues, who had just returned from France, was now commissioned to revisit the Mohawk country, with presents, to ratify the 1646. new treaty. Accompanied by Bourdon, an engineer, and 16 May. some Indian guides, he ascended the Richelieu; traversed the waters of Champlain ; passed "the place where the 29 May. Visits "Lac du Saint Sacre- ment." lake contracts ;" and on the eve of the festival of Corpus Christi, reached the smaller lake, which the savages called " Andiatarocté." In commemoration of the day, the name of "Saint Sacrement" was now given to those pure waters, which Jogues was perhaps the first European to explore and traverse.t Continuing his route on foot, oppressed with the heavy luggage he was obliged to carry, at six leagues distance from the lake he reached the upper wa- ters of a stream which the Iroquois called the "Oïogué," and which the Hollanders, who were settled upon it fur- Descends the North River to Fort Or- ange. 4 June. ther down, had named "the River Mauritius." Again em- barking, he descended the stream to Fort Orange, where he was hospitably entertained by the Dutch commander.
* Alb. Rec., ii., 357, 385 ; iii., 362 ; O'Call., i., 383 ; Van Tienhoven, in ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., ii., 332, and Murphy's note.
t "Ils arriverent, la veille du S. Sacrement, au bout du Lac qui est joint au grand Lac de Champlain. `Les Iroquois le nomment Andiatarocté, comme qui diroit là ou le Lac se ferme. Le Père le nomma le Lac du S. Sacrement."-Relation, 1645-6, 50. These beau- tiful waters might now better bear the aboriginal name suggested by Cooper, or that of the illustrious missionary who explored them, than commemorate the "undoubted domin- ion" of a Hanoverian king ; ante, p. 77, note.
530 to
m
S n
423
WILLIAM KIEFT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
Thence proceeding to the Mohawk country, after two days' CHAP. XII. journey, he reached their first castle, called " Oneugiou- ré," now known as Caughnawaga. The Mohawks re- 1646. 6 June. Revisits the Mo- hawk coun- try. ceived him kindly, and interchanged presents in ratifica- tion of their treaty ; and Jogues, after offering to the Onon- dagas the friendship of the French, returned to the Three Returns to Rivers "by the same route, and with similar toil." Canada. 17 June.
It was now hoped that the time had come for France to establish a permanent mission among the Iroquois; and before the end of three months, Jogues, whose zeal "burn- ed to preach the faith," was again on his way to the Mo- 24 Sept. hawk valley. "Ibo, nec redibo"-" I shall go, but shall again re- Jogues never return," was his own presage, in the last letter he Mohawks. wrote to his superior in France. The fate he expected awaited him. Disease had swept off many of the savages ; their harvest had failed ; and the Mohawks were persuad- ed that the Evil Spirit lurked in the small box of mission- ary furniture which the father had left in their charge. On reaching the Mohawk valley, Jogues was seized, strip- 17 October. ped, and beaten ; and the grand council condemned him to death as an enchanter. As he was entering the wig- 18 October. wam where he was called to sup, a savage behind the door struck him down with an axe. His head was cut off and His death. impaled upon the stockade, and his body was thrown into the Mohawk River. Thenceforward that valley became known in the annals of the Jesuits as " the Mission of the Martyrs."*
The interests of the Hollanders on the South River had, 1645. meanwhile, demanded Kieft's serious attention. With but Affairs on the South River. a small force-eighty or ninety men at the utmost-to gar- rison all his posts, Printz, the new Swedish governor, had succeeded, by good management, in drawing to himself nearly all the Indian trade in that quarter, and had al- most annihilated the commerce of the Dutch.t A new em-
* Relation, &c., 1645-6, 50-59 ; 1647, 6-8, 124-130 ; Letters of Labbatie, 30th of Oct., and of Kieft, 14th of Nov., 1646, in ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., iii. ; Tanner, Soc. Jesu, &c., 530, 531 ; Creuxius, 457 ; Bancroft, iii., 135-138; O'Call., ii., 300 ; Hildreth, ii., 87. The missal of Father Jogues, and some of his clothes, were afterward given by the Mohawks to Domine Megapolensis .- Letter to Classis of Amsterdam, 28th of September, 1658.
t Fort New Gottenburg, with all its buildings, was burned down on the 5th of Decem-
turns to the
424
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. XII. barrassment soon occurred. Jan Jansen was charged with 1645. Jansen su- perseded. 12 October. Andries Hudde ap- pointed commissa- ry 1646. "fraud and neglect of duty ; and the provincial government, after examining the evidence, sent Andries Hudde, the town surveyor of New Amsterdam, to succeed him, " for the present," as commissary at Fort Nassau. Jansen, on his return, was unable to justify himself to the satisfac- tion of Kieft, who ordered him to be sent, " with all his 3 Feb. documents and the process of the schout-fiscal, with the first sailing ship to Amsterdam, to defend and exculpate himself before the directors."*
Hudde soon found that the office of commissary on the 23 June. A Dutch sloop or- dered out of kill by the Swedes. South River was no sinecure. A shallop, which several private traders at Manhattan had dispatched to him with the Schuyl- a considerable cargo, was directed, on its arrival at Fort Nassau, to proceed "to the Schuylkill near the right, and wait for the Minquas." As soon as the Dutch vessel reached the spot, Juriaen Blanck, the trader on board, was ordered off by the Swedish commander, who claimed that the country belonged to his queen. Hudde hearing of this, instantly went with four men to the Schuylkill, " to ex- amine how matters stood." But the Dutch commissary himself was treated with no more favor than were the Manhattan traders ; and he too, receiving notice to leave the Swedish territory, returned at once to Fort Nassau, after sending a message to Printz that the Schuylkill had always been a trading place for the Dutch. The next day Printz sent his chaplain, Campanius, to communicate his determination to compel the Dutch vessel to leave the Hudde's negotiation with Printz. Schuylkill. Hudde protesting against such arbitrary con- duct as an infringement of the rights of the West India Company, and as a breach of the alliance between the United Provinces and Sweden, Printz sent Hendrick Huy- gens, his commissary, with two of his officers, to ascertain the rights which the Dutch claimed to the Schuylkill,
ber, 1645, and all the powder and goods in store blown up. The accident was owing to the negligence of a servant, who fell asleep, leaving a candle burning .- Hudde's Report, in Alb. Rec., xvii., 321, and in ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., i., 429 ; Winthrop, ii., 254 ; Hub- bard, 434.
* Alb. Rec., ii., 319, 323, 337 ; Acrelius, 413 : S. Hazard's Ann. Penn., 85, 86.
0
425
WILLIAM KIEFT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
and to interrogate the commissary at Fort Nassau as to CHAP. X11. his conduct. But Hudde's replies were considered to be unsatisfactory ; and a few days afterward, Printz sent a 1 July. 1646. peremptory order for Blanck to depart at once, under pain of confiscation of his vessel and cargo. On this warning, Blanck, fearing that Printz would execute his threat, sail- ed out of the Schuylkill; and Hudde immediately wrote to 12 July. Kieft an account of the affair .*
Soon afterward, Hudde, in obedience to orders from Kieft, "to inquire about certain minerals in this country," went up to the country of the Sankikan Indians, who were seated at Assinpink, now Trenton, in New Jersey, and tried to penetrate to the " Great Falls." As he was pass- Hudde pre- ing the lower rapids, he was stopped by one of the sa- visiting the chems, and forbidden to proceed. After some hesitation, Trenton. Fails at the sachem admitted that Printz had spread a report Printz en- among the Indians that the Dutch intended to establish a excite the deavors tc fort at the falls, to be garrisoned with two hundred and against the Indians fifty men from Manhattan, and exterminate all the sav- Dutch. ages in the neighborhood. In vain did Hudde employ a variety of means to succeed in his object. He was stop- ped every time by the same objection, and was finally com- pelled to return to Fort Nassau without being able to reach the Falls.t
About the same time, the director and council at Man- 10 August. hattan granted to Abraham Planck and three others, one grants Kieft hundred morgens, or two hundred acres of land, lying on the South lands on the west side of the South River, "almost over against Dutch sub- River to the little ' Singing-bird' Island," upon condition that they' jects. should settle four plantations there within one year, and always continue their allegiance to the States General. But it is said that the grantees did not avail themselves of their patent, and "never came there."#
The next month, Hudde received a letter from Kieft, in 7 Sept.
* Hudde's Report, in Alb. Rec., xvii., 321, and in ii., N. Y. Coll., i., p. 430-432. It seems that some of the Swedish officers were native Dutchmen. Hendrick Huygens, Printz's commissary, was a nephew of Minuit, and a native of Cleef ; and Gregory van Dyck, the sergeant or Wacht-meester, was born at the Hague.
t Hudde's Report, ut sup., 432, 433.
# Alb. Rec., Patents, 153 ; Acrelius, 417 ; Hazard, Reg. Penn., iv., 119.
vented from
426
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. XII. which he was "imperiously commanded" to purchase from 1646. the savages some land " on the west shore, about a mile distant from Fort Nassau to the north." On the follow- ing day, the Dutch commissary accordingly took posses- sion of the spot, which seems to have adjoined Corssen's first purchase ; and soon afterward, a bargain was com- pleted with the " original proprietor," who assisted in af- fixing the arms of the company to a pole erected on the limits. Several Dutch freemen immediately made prepa- ration's to build on their newly-acquired possession, which, considering its distance and direction from Fort Nassau, may be very properly regarded as the site of the present city of Philadelphia .*
25 Sept. Hudde pur- chases the site of Phil- adelphia from the natives.
Printz, on receiving intelligence of this, sent his com- missary Huygens to oppose the proceedings of the Dutch. The Swedish officer promptly executed his orders. "In an insolent and hostile manner," he tore down the arms which Hudde had erected, and declared that " though it had been the colors of the Prince of Orange that were hoisted there, he would have thrown these too under his feet."+
30 Sept. 10 October Printz pro- tests against Hudde's purchase.
A few days afterward, Printz formally notified Hudde to discontinue the "injuries" of which he had been guilty against the crown of Sweden, and protested against the "secret and unlawful purchase of land from the savages," which would seem to argue that the Dutch had no more right to that place than to their other "pretensive claims"
* Hudde's Report, in Alb. Rec., xvii., and in ii., N. Y. Coll,, i., p. 433, 440 ; Acrelius, 412 ; Ferris's Early Settlements, p. 75 ; ante, p. 232. Campanius (p. 79) says that a few days before this (Sept. 4, 1646), he consecrated a decent wooden church, which had just been built at Tinicum. Before the building of this church, worship was probably con- ducted in some part of the Fort New Gottenburg, which was destroyed by fire the last year .- Hazard's Ann. Penn., 89. 1
t Hudde's Report, 435 ; Acrelius, 412. Alluding to this occurrence, the commonalty of N. N., in their " Vertoogh," of the 13th of October, 1649, remark, "It is matter of ev- idence, that above Maghchachansie, near the Sankikans, the arms of their High Mighti- nesses were erected, by order of Director Kieft," &c .- ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., ii., 283. The place, however, seems here to have been inaccurately described as at Crosswick Creek, near Bordentown. Acrelius, too (p. 412), says that it was "at Santhickan," or Trenton. But Commissary Hudde, as we have already seen, was prevented reaching Trenton Falls, or " Assinpink," where the Sankikans were seated ; and he expressly states that the spot upon which he erected the Dutch arms was "on the west shore, about a Dutch mile distant from Fort Nassau to the north," or on the site of Philadelphia.
8 October. The Dutch arms torn down by the Swedes.
427
WILLIAM KIEFT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
on the South River. Finding that the Swedish governor CHAP. XII. had followed up his protest by "forbidding his subjects to enter into any transactions" with the Dutch, Hudde re- 22 October 1646. plied, "I purchased the land not in a clandestine manner, Hudde's re- , pły to Printz.
neither unjustly, unless your honor calls that a clandes- tine manner which is not performed with your honor's knowledge. I purchased it from the real owner. If he sold that land previously to your honor, then he imposed upon me shamefully. The place which we possess, we possess in deed, in just property-perhaps before the name of the South River was heard of in Sweden." Referring to the "insolent and hostile" manner in which the Dutch arms had been thrown down, Hudde warned the Swedish governor that his conduct could have "no other tendency than to cause great calamities ;" and urged him to pro- mote good correspondence and harmony, " at least from the consideration that we who are Christians should not place ourselves as a stumbling-block or laughing-stock to those savage heathens.".
But the Dutch commissary's dispatch was very un- Printz's ceremoniously treated by the imperious commander of ous con- the Swedes. When Hudde's messenger arrived at Fort
discourte-
duct to- ward the New Gottenburg, Printz, taking the letter from his hand, 23 October. Dutch. threw it on the ground, bidding one of his attendants to "take care of it;" and then went "to meet some English- men just arrived from New England." After some inter- val, the messenger, asking for an answer, "was thrown out of doors, the governor taking a gun in his hand from the wall, to shoot him, as he imagined." Printz, how- ever, was prevented from leaving the room to execute his threat ; but his general conduct toward the Dutch con- tinued brutal in the extreme. "The subjects of the com- pany," wrote Hudde, " as well freemen as servants, when arriving at the place where he resides, are in a most un- reasonable manner abused, so that they are often, on re- turning home, bloody and bruised."*
Thus ended Kieft's negotiations with the Swedes on the
* Hudde's Report, in ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., i., 434-436.
428
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. XII. South River. Angry recriminations alone marked, their 1646. progress ; for the bankrupt authorities at Manhattan were in no position to repel distant encroachments. And thus the purchase and occupation of the site of Philadelphia by the Dutch was the occasion of unseemly wrangles between the rival European colonists who first settled themselves on the banks of the Delaware.
Difficulties with the English at the East. While the Swedes were thus thwarting the Dutch on the South River, the attention of the government at Fort Amsterdam was awakened to fresh annoyances from the English at the East. The post which Pynchon had estab- lished at Springfield effectually commanded the upper val- New Ha- ven trad- the Pau- gussett. ley of the Connecticut. Some of the New Haven people ing-post on now purchased a tract of land from the Indians, and built a trading-house on the Paugussett or Naugatuck River, just above its confluence with the Housatonic. This brought the English settlements within a short distance 3 August. Kieft pro- tests against the encroach- ment. of Magdalen Island, on the North River .* On learning this, Kieft dispatched Lieutenant George Baxter, with a letter in Latin to Governor Eaton, complaining of the " insatiable desire" of New Haven to usurp Dutch terri- tory and possess " that which is ours." Against Eaton himself and his people he protested, as disturbers of the public quiet, " because you and yours have of late de- termined to fasten your foot near the Mauritius River, in this province ;" and he threatened that, if the English did not make proper reparation, the Dutch would use all the means God had given them to recover their rights.
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