USA > New York > History of the state of New York Vol I > Part 49
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* The savages constantly gave descriptive or characteristic names as well to the Eu- ropeans as to themselves. They called Stuyvesant the "Wooden Leg." Josselyn, in 1674, spoke of him as the Dutch governor " with a silver leg ;" and Ebeling and Acrelius follow Josselyn. The Mohawks and Josselyn were probably both right ; Stuyvesant seems to have used a wooden leg strapped with silver bands.
494
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
30 Nov.
CH. XIV. from the schout-fiscal accompanied these orders. Van. 1648. Slechtenhorst's insubordination, it averred, had become notorious, and the summons which had been served upon him, in a courteous and sufficiently formal manner, had been disobeyed, though "the river remained open, the winter pleasant, and several vessels sailed up and down during the whole month of November." To cure all doubts, Van Slechtenhorst was now peremptorily commanded to appear, the next April, at Fort Amsterdam, where he would " be informed of the complaint against him." Thus ended the question for the present. In Stuyvesant's mil- itary judgment, the colonists at Beverwyck clustered near Fort Orange "through pride." Perhaps a still stronger motive was their natural anxiety to be as near as possible to the only frontier citadel which could protect them, in time of need, from the wild men of the forests .*
Megapolen- sis and Backerus.
Megapolensis, who had been the clergyman of the col- onie since 1642, having requested permission to return to the Fatherland, at the earnest solicitation of the Classis 15 August. of Amsterdam, agreed to remain until the next year. Domine Backerus, not satisfied with the condition of
2 Sept.
things at Manhattan, also asked his dismission.
This re-
11 Sept.
quest was seconded by Stuyvesant and the other elders and deacons, who desired that "an old, experienced, and godly minister might be sent to them, to the end that their very bewildered people might not, by the departure of their present clergymen, be left in destitution." The Classis endeavored to procure other clergymen for New Nether- land, and consultations were held with the directors of the company and the heirs of Van Rensselaer ; but while ev- ery effort was made, it was difficult to find any experi- enced ministers in Holland willing to undertake " so far distant a voyage."" 1
7 Dec.
The popular discontent at New Amsterdam had now grown to a very significant degree. The debts due to the
* Alb. Rec., iv., 16, 44 ; v., 72-90; vii., 192-219 ; Stuyvesant's Letters ; Renss. MSS .; O'Call., ii., 69-79 ; ante, 304, 374, 420.
t Cor. Classis Amst. ; Letters of Megapolensis of the 15th of August, and of Backerus of the 2d of September, 1648.
495
PETER STUYVESANT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
company, which Kieft had left uncollected to the amount CH. XIV. of thirty thousand guilders, were called in ; while the peo- ple complained that their own claims for wages and grain remained unpaid. The Nine Men were obliged to inter- fere ; and the proceedings which the fiscal had been di- rected to take were " put off for a time." The high cus- toms' duties which were exacted from the colonists, amount- ing to nearly thirty per centum, "besides waste," and the avidity which the director exhibited to confiscate, was a " vulture, destroying the prosperity of New Netherland, diverting its trade, and making the people discontented." The " bad report" spread itself every where ; among the neighboring English ; north and south ; and even in the West Indies and Carribee Islands. Not a ship dared come from those places ; while credible Boston traders assured the Nine Men that more than twenty-five vessels would annually visit Manhattan from those islands, " if the own- ers were not fearful of confiscation."
The representatives of the commonalty complained to The Nine Stuyvesant, and contrasted their own "desolate and ruin- plain to Men com- ous" state with the "flourishing condition" of their neigh- sant. Stuyve- bors. This the director admitted that he observed, but could not remedy ; he only followed the company's orders. The commonalty now thought it expedient and necessary Delegation "to send a deputation to their High Mightinesses." Stuy- proposed. to Holland vesant commended the project, and "urged it strongly." A person was already spoken of to go as delegate, when the director required that the communication with the govern- ment of the Fatherland should be "according to his wish- e's." Perceiving the object of this demand, the Nine Men would not consent, "and the matter therefore fell asleep." The English emigrants, " who had been depended upon, Defection and who were associated in the affair," from time to time glish from of the En- withdrew from the Dutch, who were eager for reforms. side. the popular This made the necessity of action greater ; and at the next December. election the Nine Men were changed .*
* Hol. Doc., iv., 40 ; ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., ii., 312-315, 335, 336. The new board of Nine Men for 1649 consisted of seven of the old members, with Adriaen van der Donck and Oloff Stevensen van Cortlandt.
1648. Growth of popular dis- content at Manhattan. 18 October
496
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CH. XIV. The onerous customs' regulations of New Netherland 1648. The New England colonies the Dutch trading reg- ulations. were not only a sore annoyance to the New England co- lonial governments, but they produced their natural conse- quence. Retaliation was threatened. The sale of guns complain of and powder to the Indians was another grievance. By this practice the greater part of the beaver trade had been drawn to the French and Dutch; and the means of the New England colonies to make returns for English com- modities "were grown very short."*
March.
Corre- spondence with the New En- gland au- thorities. April to August.
Early in the year, Eaton had written to Massachusetts, proposing "a prohibition of all trade with the Dutch until, satisfaction were given," and accusing the director of hav- ing endeavored to "animate the natives to war upon the English." A long correspondence ensued, in which Stuy- vesant vindicated his conduct, pressed for a meeting with the commissioners, and reiterated his peaceful professions ; and the New England authorities, on their side, proposed to fix June of the next year as the time for a conference. In this correspondence, Stuyvesant, betraying too much anxiety, displayed a want of diplomatic tact. The En- glish regarded his conduct as an evidence of the weakness both of the West India Company and of the Dutch colo- nial government, and thought that their embarrassed ad- versary, whose spirit was " beginning to fall," could very well abide their convenience.f
$ 5 Sept.
The following September the commissioners met at Plymouth, and, " by way of preparation to a meeting with the Dutch governor, or provision for their own safety and convenience," thought fit to write to Stuyvesant. . The Mohawks near Fort Orange, whom Pynchon, at Springfield, had described as the " terror of all Indians," were growing bold and daring with the possession of arms furnished to them by the Dutch. The customs' regulations at Man- hattan had not yet been modified ; the seizure of Wester- house's ship at New Haven, and the claim of territorial jurisdiction, were unexplained. They therefore, notified
* Winthrop, ii., 312.
+ Winthrop. ii , 315, 316, 324-330 ; Hubbard, 438; Stuyvesant's Letters, Alb., i.
I
497
PETER STUYVESANT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
the director that Dutch traders in New England must ex- CH. XIV. peet a requital of the "ineonvenient impositions" laid upon all persons within " the Dutch Plantation ;" that guns and ammunition would be seized, and retaliatory restraints upon the Indian trade would be enforced ; and that future of retalia- tion.
1648. The com- missioners adopt measures
seizures of ships within English jurisdiction would be met by " all suitable and just" reprisals.
Stuyvesant replied that he had done all in his power to Stuyve- repress the illicit traffic with the savages ; that English planations. sant's ex- traders had been treated with all possible lenity, and, in some respects, were even more favored than the Dutch ; and that he had urged the West India Company to mod- ify their injurious regulations. As to territorial elaims, what the English ealled Cape Cod the Dutch called Cape Malebarre ; what he himself had meant by Cape Cod, was Point Judith. His own commission was as ample as could be desired. New Netherland was not a "plantation," as the commissioners had erroneously called it. The States General had invested it with the privileges of a " prov- inee," and in all their commissions had recognized it as sueh.
The director also wrote to the West India Company, in 23 Dec. pressing terms, urging that the differences between the co- lonial governments of New Netherland and New England ought to be promptly settled in Europe .* But the dis- traeted condition of England prevented any immediate hope of an arrangement.
* Winthrop, ii., 386 ; Hazard, ii., 102-105 ; N. Y. H. S. Coll., i., 202 ; Stuyvesant's Let- ters ; O'Call., ii., 98-104 ; Alb. Rec., iv., 15.
I I
498
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAPTER XV.
1649-1651.
CHAP. XV. THE year 1649 was one of the most memorable in his- 1649. tory. A contest between the people and their sovereign had been carried on in England, as it had long before been carried on in the Netherlands. Opposition had been suc- ceeded by revolt and civil war. The King of Great Brit- ain, more unfortunate than the King of Spain, became a prisoner in the hands of his subjects. A revolutionary tri- bunal pronounced him a tyrant and a traitor. In the end 30 January. of January, 1649, Charles I. was beheaded in front of his Death of Charles I. own banqueting-hall, and England was declared to be a republic.
Yet the English monarchical principle survived. The army and its great leader were supreme. A military des- potism governed the land; and Cromwell at length became dictator. The people of England had exercised their right to revolt ; but they did not gain, by a change of masters, those political advantages which the people of the Nether- lands had gained by the deposition of their sovereign and the declaration of their national independence.
The terrible tragedy at Whitehall excited the detesta- tion of all classes throughout the United Provinces. The Dutch government was seriously embarrassed. The Prince of Wales and the Duke of York, escaping from England, had found an asylum at the Hague, with their brother-in- law William, prince of Orange, the stadtholder ; and their united influence had prevailed on the States General to refuse an audience to Strickland, the parliamentary agent, while Boswell was still recognized as the resident minis- ter of Great Britain. This naturally provoked antipathy
Feelings of the Dutch.
499
PETER STUYVESANT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
and suspicion in London. A new cause of bitterness CHAP. XV arose, when Dorislaus, who had been sent by the Parlia- ment to propose an alliance with the United Provinces, 1649. was murdered by some Scotchmen who had taken refuge 12 May. at the Hague. Soon afterward, Strickland quitted Hol- Threatened land, without having obtained an audience of the States tween En- rupture be- General ; and Joachimi, the Dutch ambassador, was or- the Nether- gland and dered to leave London. A rupture between the United lands. Provinees and England appeared imminent.
The shock which troubled Europe was felt in America. Effect of The new order of government established in England was death in viewed with more favor in the Puritan colonies than in Virginia. From Cromwell's jealousy of the Dutch much was hoped ; and the dim prospect of a war between the Batavian Republic and the English Commonwealth could not but have an important influence upon the intercourse between their colonial governments across the Atlantic.
the king's
America.
At this crisis, the negotiations between New Netherland Negotia- and New England were renewed. In view of public af- the United tions with fairs, the West India Company had instructed their direct- 27 January. Colonies. or " to live with his neighbors on the best terms possible."* Eaton, in the name of the commissioners, now proposed to 21 April. Stuyvesant a meeting at Boston, in June or July, as Brad- ford and Dudley were both too far advanced in life to make a long journey. He also insisted that the customs' duties exacted at Manhattan should be speedily abolished. Mean- while, Winthrop, the venerable father of Massachusetts, Death of had died, at the age of sixty-one years ; and his death was 26 March. Winthrop. regretted by the Dutch director as " the sad loss of one 4 May. whose wisdom and integrity might have done much in composing matters" between New Netherland and New England. In regard to the proposed interview, Stuyve- Conference proposed sant considered Connectieut a more convenient place for by Stuyve- sant. both parties than Boston ; and he offered to visit the En- 10 May. glish governor at New Haven to have a friendly conference.
Eaton, however, did not think that a private interview Eaton de- could be satisfactory, as he would be obliged to press the clines.
* Alb. Rec., iv., 15 ; Basnage, i., 141-147 ; Davies, ii., 673-676 ; Bancroft, ii., 14-17.
500
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. XV. complaints of his own people very urgently. At the same
26 May.
1649. time, he requested specific information respecting the ru- mored changes in the Dutch customs' regulations. The director acquainted him that the ten per cent. formerly levied on goods imported from New England had been sus- pended ; and that the hand-board which marked the an- chorage-ground off the shore of New Amsterdam had been blown down, and would not be re-erected. Eaton now demanded that English vessels passing to and from Vir- ginia and Delaware Bay, and trading at-Manhattan, should be entirely free from all charges, " by what name soever called," both on goods imported and exported. Stuyve- sant, however, replied, that he had yielded already as much as he dared, without further orders from his supe- riors. To them alone was he responsible ; by no other power would he allow his public conduct to be regulated .*
17 June.
2 July.
2 August.
TỪ
Letter of the com- missioners to Stuyve- sant.
The commissioners of the United Colonies soon after- ward held an extraordinary meeting at Boston, at which Eaton urged that measures should be taken to support the New Haven people in their proposed settlements on Dela- ware Bay. But Stuyvesant had already warned Endicott and Bradford that he would vigorously maintain the right of the Dutch to the South River. The commissioners, therefore, prudently determined not to encourage, by any public act, the settlement of English colonists in that re- 6. August. gion. . They insisted, however, upon the English right to New Haven, and thence eastward to Point Judith and Cape Cod. The director's reply to their letter of the pre- vious September was unsatisfactory and defective. He was silent with respect to the trade in guns and ammuni- tion carried on at Fort Orange ; he had not informed them about the revenue regulations at Manhattan ; he had made no reparation for the seizure of Westerhouse's ship at New Haven, but had referred him " to the justice of Holland." They therefore notified him that all trade with any of the Indians within the limits of any of the United Colonies was forbidden, under penalty of confiscation, " to all per-
* Stuyvesant's Letters, Alb., i. ; O'Call., ii., 104-106 ; Hazard's Ann. Penn., 118.
501
PETER STUYVESANT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
sons but such as are inhabitants within the said English CHAP. XV. jurisdictions, and subject to their laws and government.'
With this bold step, the correspondence between the commissioners and Stuyvesant ended for the present. Ex- the New England
1649. Dutch for- bidden to trade with
cluding the Dutch from the valuable Indian trade which they had so long enjoyed, and to which they felt they had Indians. a right, it only added to the causes of dissatisfaction al- Effect in New Neth- ready rankling in the minds of the people of New Nether- erland. land.
At the last election, the Nine Men had been strengthen- ed by the choice of the energetic Adriaen van der Donck to a seat at their board. It was now determined that the Delegation to Holland project of sending a delegation to Holland, which had fall- again pro- en through the previous year, should be exccuted. The posed. company had been waited upon a long while in vain. Re- forms had been promised from time to time, but there was no amendment. The Ninc Men therefore applicd to Stuy- vesant for leave to confer with the commonalty. In re- ply, the popular tribunes received " a very long letter," to stuyve- sant's de- the effect that " communication must be made through mands. the director, and his instructions be followed."
To this the Nine Men could not assent. They informed Views of Stuyvesant that they would not send any thing to the Fa- Men. the Nine therland without his having a copy, so that he could an- swer for himself; but that his last demand was unreasona- ble, and "antagonistic to the welfare of the country." The director's letter, however, as the Nine Men read it, sug- gested that they should inquire "what approbation the commonalty would give to this business, and how the cx- pense should be defrayed." As the director would not al- low the people to be convened, the popular representatives " went round from house to house," and spoke to their The com- constituents. This excited Stuyvesant's displeasure, and consulted. means were used to prevent the Nine Men from doing any thing. Injurious reports were spread among the common- Intrigues alty ; and the English settlers, who were chiefly in the in- sant. terest of the director and council, were employed in coun-
of Stuyve-
* Hazard, ii., 127-134 ; N. Y. H. S. Coll., i., 208-210 ; S. Hazard's Ann. Penn., 119.
502
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. XV. teracting the efforts of the popular tribunes. These in- 1649. trigues were discovered and exposed ; so, " in order to make a diversion, many suits were brought against those who were considered the ringleaders." To neutralize the pro- posed movement of the Nine Men, the director and council also summoned a meeting of delegates from the militia and summoned. the burghers, to consider the question of sending agents to the Fatherland on " some important points."
A great council
21 Feb.
Van der Donck's journal seized.
The Nine Men, feeling their responsibility, considered it necessary that regular memoranda should be kept, from which "a journal" might be drawn up at the proper time. This duty was intrusted to Van der Donck, who, "by a resolution adopted at the same time," was lodged in the house of Jansen, one of the board. The director, informed of this by Hall and Jansen, went to Van der Donck's chamber during his absence, and seized the "rough draft," and other papers of the Nine Men. 'The next day, Van der Donck himself was arrested and imprisoned.
4 March. Meeting of the Great Council.
5 March. Proceed- ings against Van der Donck.
15 March.
A short time afterward, the delegates from the militia and the burghers met in "great council" at Fort Amster- dam. Van Dincklagen, the vice-director, protested against Stuyvesant's arbitrary proceedings, and demanded that Van der Donck should be admitted to bail. This, how- ever, was refused. Van der Donck now asked for his pa- pers, to correct some errors which had crept into them But this request was also denied ; and, on his examination, he "could not make it right in any way." Another meet- ing of the council was summoned, at which Stuyvesant de- livered his written opinion. Van der Donck had been ar- rested for calumniating the officers of the government; he had explained his libels equivocally ; his conduct tending to bring the sovereign authority into contempt, he should be compelled to prove or to retract his allegations; and, in default, should be excluded from the council and from the board of Nine Men. Van Dincklagen alone opposed the opinion of the director. The rest of the members sided with Stuyvesant ; and Van der Donck was unseated .*
* ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., ii., 315-317, 336 ; O'Call., ii., 89-92 ; Breeden Raedt, 39 ; ante, p. 495.
503
PETER STUYVESANT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
In the mean time, the harsh judgment against Kuyter CHAP. XV. and Melyn had been reviewed in the Fatherland, and acts had been passed by the States General suspending Stuy- vesant's sentence, eiting him to defend it at the Hague, Melyn. and granting to the appellants the full enjoyment of all the rights of colonists in New Netherland. Bearing these au- thoritative papers, Melyn returned to Manhattan. Anx- ious that his triumph should be as public as his disgrace had been, he demanded that the aets of their High Might- 8 March. inesses should be read and explained by the Nine Men to the commonalty, who were assembled in the church with- in Fort Amsterdam. A hubbub arose. After an exciting debate, the point was yielded, and the mandamus and summons were read to the people. "I honor the states, and shall obey their commands," said Stuyvesant; "I shall send an attorney to sustain the sentence." This was all 16 March. the answer he would give. The members of the council sant's ob- Stuyve- stinacy. explained their conduct as they severally thought best. Van Dineklagen frankly acknowledged that he had erred ; but the rest of his colleagues would give no satisfactory re- plies. The director and secretary positively refused to give 23 March. the written answer which Melyn demanded. Stuyvesant's enmity even extended to Melyn's family ; and his son-in- law, Jacob Loper, was refused permission to trade on the 14 June. South River .*
A circumstance now occurred which added to the pop- Affair of ular dissatisfaction. The directors of the West India Com- pany, fearing that war might break out with the savages unless their anxiety to be provided with arms and ammu- nition should be satisfied, had intimated an opinion that " the best policy is to furnish them with powder and ball, but with a sparing hand ;" and, upon the representation of the colonists at Rensselaerswyck, Stuyvesant had order- ed Gerrit Vastrick, a factor, to bring him over a case of guns from Holland. These arms were landed "in the full April. light of day," and delivered to Commissary Keyser at Fort
1649. Case of Kuyter and
Vastrick.
* Hol. Doc., iii., 128-228, 233, 360-378 ; v., 66-106; Alb. Rec., iv., 95, 104, 215; vii., 246; Hazard's Ann. Penn., 117 ; O'Call., ii., 59, 84 ; Breeden Raedt, 31-36 ; ante, p. 473.
504
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
21 April.
CHAP. XV. Amsterdam. The people now began to complain that "the 1649. director was every thing, and did the business of the whole country, having several shops himself; that he was a brew- er, and had breweries ; was a part owner of ships, and a merchant and a trader, as well in lawful as contraband articles." Finding how strongly public opinion was run- ning against him, Stuyvesant was obliged to exhibit the orders of the directors, and explain his own interest in the affair. His explanations, however, were not entirely satis- factory, and the transaction was complained of to the States General. The Amsterdam Chamber afterward reproved their director for his indiscretion, and also commented upon his purchase, for private purposes, of a large bouwery upon Manhattan Island.
Stuyve- sant's Bouwery.
Stuyvesant still op- poses the Nine Men.
S May. Forbids Domine Backerus to thorized pa- pers from the pulpit.
Van der Donck had now become a political martyr, and Stuyvesant's inveterate hostility confirmed the popular tribunes in their determination to obtain a redress of their grievances from the States General. Kieft's placard re- specting the authentication of all documents before the provincial secretary was again formally enacted, " for the purpose of cutting off the convenient mode of proof ;" and the director's fears even led him to tell Domine Backerus in person, not to read from the pulpit any papers whatso- ever referring to the provincial government, unless they had been previously approved by the administration.t But none of these measures could repress the spirit of the pop- ular representatives.
6 July. Memorial Men to the States Ge eral.
A memorial to the States General was prepared, in of the Nine which the reforms sought for from the government of the Fatherland were distinctly stated. I. New Netherland should be peopled at once with colonists, to be brought over from Holland in public vessels. The States General should also " be pleased to take this province under their own gracious safeguard, and to allow their fatherly affec- tion for this land to be promulgated and made manifest throughout the United Netherlands by their own accorded
* Alb. Rec., įv., 1, 2, 24, 31 ; ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., ii., 310, 311, 334 ; O'Call., ii., 93, 108 ; Bancroft, ii., 294. t Alb. Rec., vii., 243 ; ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., ii., 318.
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