USA > New York > History of the state of New York Vol I > Part 52
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The return of Van Tienhoven only added to the popu- 19 Sept. lar discontents. "Our great Moscovy duke," wrote the vice-director to Van der Donck, "keeps on as of old- something like the wolf, the longer he lives, the worse he 14 Sept. A third let- ter from Gravesend sterdam Chamber. bites." On the other hand, the English at Gravesend, at Baxter's instigation, addressed another letter to the Am- to the Am- sterdam Chamber, expressing their great satisfaction that Stuyvesant had been sustained by the directors in Hol- land, and praying that he might be continued in his ad- ministration. The elective franchise desired by the Dutch colonists was condemned by the English refugees. "We willingly acknowledge," said they, "that the frequent change of government, or the power to elect a governor from among ourselves-which is, we know, the design of some here-would be our ruin and destruction, by reason of our factions and the difference of opinion which prevails among us." Private traders were, in their judgment, "the oppressors of the people." They therefore asked to be al- lowed to hire vessels in Holland to bring over farmers and laborers, provided the directors would permit "these ships, and no others, to trade hither." The company should also supply more negroes. It was not in New Netherland as in Holland, or in states whose laws and institutions were matured. "Our small body, composed of divers pieces,
527
PETER STUYVESANT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
namely, of people of divers nations, requires many things CHAP. XV. for the laying a foundation, for which there are no rules nor examples, and which must therefore be left to the dis- 1651. cretion of a well-experienced governor." A similar letter, 25 Sept. Letter from certified by John Moore, their clergyman, was addressed Heemstede. to the Amsterdam Chamber by the English at Hecm- . stcde .*
With these testimonials in their favor, it was no won- der that the officers of the West India Company continued their opposition to the spirit of popular freedom among the Dutch colonists, and to the liberal movements of the States General. But Van der Donck still remained the faithful representative of the commonalty in their Fatherland ; where an enterprising bookseller at Amsterdam again drew Publica- tions in public attention to the province, by issuing a pamphlet Holland. containing a descriptive account of the European settle- ments in America.t
The Hartford treaty, having left the interests of the A new ex- Dutch and the English on the South River "in statu quo," pedition rom New Haven to several inhabitants of New Haven and Totoket equipped a the South vessel, in which fifty emigrants were dispatched to settle River. themselves upon some land which they claimed to have purchased there. On reaching Manhattan, two of the pas- March. sengers landed, and presented to Stuyvesant a letter of rec- ommendation from the governor of New Haven. The di- Stuyvesant rector, viewing this new expedition as a breach of the re- enterprise. defeats the cent treaty, committed them, as well as the master and two others of the company, " close prisoners under a guard" at the house of Martin Kregier, the captain lieutenant of New Amsterdam. There they remained in custody "till they were forced to engage under their hands not then to proceed on their voyage toward Delaware ;" and the de- fcated expedition returned to New Haven. Stuyvesant at
* Hol. Doc., vi., 5, 7, 53-60, 67, 68 ; ix., 240-248 ; O'Call., ii., 170-172.
t " Beschryvinge van Virginia, Nieuw Nederlandt, Nieuw Engelandt," &c., Amster- dam, 1651. Joost Hartgers. This pamphlet is a mere compilation from De Laet, and from Van der Donck's Vertoogh ; and though it contained nothing new, its cheap form no doubt gave it a large circulation in Holland. Megapolensis' tract on the Mohawk In- dians was now also published by Hartgers for the first time, and, according to Van der Donck, without its author's knowledge or consent ; ante, p. 376, note.
528
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. XV. the same time wrote to Eaton, threatening "force of arms and martial opposition, even to bloodshed," against all En- glish intruders within southern New Netherland .*
1651. 11 April.
Calls on Rensse- laerswyck for a sub- sidy.
In this new attempt of the English to gain a foothold on the South River, Stuyvesant perceived a covert purpose to dispossess the Dutch of all their American territory. He therefore called upon the authorities at Rensselaers- wyck for a subsidy. But as the patroons had alone borne all the expenses of colonization, this demand of the pro- vincial government was felt to be unjust ; and Van Slech- tenhorst went down to New Amsterdam to remonstrate. His representations were disregarded; and the director, to punish him for his conduct with respect to the Katskill settlements, ordered his arrest. In spite of all his protests, and the repeated applications of the colonial officers at Manhattan. Rensselaerswyck, Van Slechtenhorst was arbitrarily de- tained four months at Manhattan.t
29 April.
1 May. Van Slech- rested at
Views of the West India Cor pany about the South River. 21 March.
The West India Company had now become aware of the necessity of arranging with the newly-crowned Queen of Sweden the differences respecting jurisdiction on the South River. In the mean time, they instructed Stuyvesant to " endeavor to maintain the rights of the company in all justice and equity," while they recommended him to con- duct himself with discretion and circumspection. The di- rector, therefore, resolved to make his long-projected visit to the South River, where his presence was again urgently July. Stuyvesant aware. desired. Upon his arrival at Fort Nassau, whither he was on the Del- accompanied by Domine Grasmeer and a large suite of officers, he communicated to Printz an abstract of the Dutch title. This was stated to rest on first European discovery and occupation, and actual purchase from the savages "many years before the Swedes arrived there." The Swedish governor was also requested to produce, on his part, proof of what lands his countrymen had pur- chased, and their authority to possess them. But Printz simply replied that the Swedish limits were " wide and
* Hazard, ii., 192-195, 260; New Haven Records, 40 ; Trumbull, i., 196 ; Bozman, ii., 486, 487.
t Renss. MSS .; O'Call., ii., 164, 173, 174.
529
PETER STUYVESANT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
broad enough ;" and excused himself from produeing his CHAP. XV. muniments of title, as they were in the chancellery at Stockholmn. Wappang-zewan, one of the chief sacheins, 1651. soon afterward informed the director that Printz was at this very time endeavoring to purchase from him the lands upon which the Swedes were settled. He had, however, refused to sell ; and he now "presented" to Stuyvesant, New acqui- in behalf of the West India Company, all the lands on the land. sition of east and west shores ; commencing, on the eastern side, from Narratikon or Raccoon Creek, "and stretching down the river to Maetsingsing, and on the western side, from a certain ereek, ealled Neckatoensing, to the westward along the river to Settoensoene, also called the Minquas' Kill, on which is the Swedish Fort Christina."
Stuyvesant soon summoned all the Indian chiefs who Conference lived near the river, and who elaimed to own any lands savages. with the there, to attend a grand couneil at Fort Nassau, in the presence of the officers who had accompanied him from New Amsterdam. After a solemn conference, in which 19 July. the sacheis declared that the Swedes had usurped all the land they elaimed, except the precinet of Fort Christina itself, they confirmed to " the chief sachem of the Manhat- More terri- tans," as a perpetual inheritance for the West India Com- chased. tory pur- pany, the whole territory south of that fort to " Boomtje's" or Bombay Hook,'" called by them Neuwsings." The conveyances were duly attested ; and the only conditions which the chief Pemmenatta imposed were, that the Dutch " should repair his gun when out of order," and give the Indians, when they required it, "a little maize."
The director, thinking that Fort Nassau " was too far Fort Nas- up, and laid too far out of the way," now demolished the ished, and post which the Dutch had first built on the Jersey shore, mir built. Fort Casi- twenty-eight years before, and erceted a new fort, "called Casimir," on the west side of the river, at " Sand Hook," near the present site of New Castle, and about four miles below the Swedish Fort Christina. Against the building of this new fort Printz protested in vain ; and Stuyvesant, having completed his object, prepared to return to Man-
sau demol-
530
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. XV. hattan. Previously to his departure, he had several inter- 1651. views with the Swedish governor, in which both officers " mutually promised to cause no difficulties or hostility to each other, but to keep neighborly friendship and cor- respondence together, and act as friends and allies."*
25 Sept.
Foiled in their designs upon the South River, the New Haven people laid their case before the other colonies ; and 24 May. the Massachusetts government remonstrated with Stuyve- sant. New Plymouth was also applied to for assistance ; 5 June. but the " Old Colony" of New England " would have no hand in any such controversy." At their annual meeting, the subject was brought before the commissioners, who protested against the director's "hostile carriage," and de- clared the Dutch claim to the South River no better than that "which the English, upon as good grounds, can make Com- plaints of New Ha- ven. to the Manhatoes." Eventual assistance was also prom- ised to New Haven ; and information was asked from Ed- ward Winslow, who was then in London, " how any en- gagement by the colonies against the Dutch, upon the aforementioned occasion, will be resented by the Parlia- ment." Anxious to obtain a leader of courage and skill, the New Haven people made liberal offers to Captain John 16 October. Mason ; but the General Court at Hartford opposed his removal from Connecticut, and so the project was again frustrated.i
A change was now made in the provincial government on the North River. Labbatie was superseded, and Jo- hannes Dyckman, a former clerk in the Amsterdam Cham- ber, who had come out with Van Tienhoven in the spring, as book-keeper at Fort Amsterdam, was promoted to be commissary and vice-director at Fort Orange. Van Slech- tenhorst, the patroon's commissary, who had remained un-
Dyckman appointed commissa- ry at Fort Orange.
* Alb. Rec., iv., 46 ; Hol. Doc., viii., 32-50, 59-65, 67, 77 ; ante, p. 153, 511 ; S. Hazard, Ann. Penn., 122-127 ; . O'Call., ii., 166, 167 ; Smith's N. Y., i., 9 ; Ferris, 77, 78 ; Acrelius, 412; Chalmers, 632 ; Bozman, ii., 481. The latter writer is misled by the errors of Chal- mers and Acrelius. Stuyvesant's attendants, on the 19th of July, when the Indians con- veyed their land, were Domine Grasmeer, Isaac Allerton, Cornelis de Potter, Captain Newton, Ensign Baxter, Isaac de Foreest, Captain Martin Kregier, and Surgeon Abra- ham Staats.
+ Plymouth Coll. Rec., iv., 234; Col. Rec. Conn., 227; Hazard, i., 554; ii., 192-196 ; S. Hazard, Ann. Penn., 123, 127-133 ; Trumbull, i., 197-201.
531
PETER STUYVESANT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
der arrest at Manhattan, finding Stuyvesant inexorable, at CHAP. XV. length secreted himself on board a sloop, the schipper of which he was obliged to indemnify against future harm, September. 1651. and returned to Beverwyck. The director, enraged at this Van Slech- tenhorst audacity, arrested the schipper on his return to Manhat- arrest, and returns to Bever- wyck.
breaks his tan, and fined him two hundred and fifty guilders and costs for helping the escape of the unfortunate commis- sary, who reckoned the whole expenses of his luckless visit to Fort Amsterdam at about a thousand guilders.
One of Van Slechtenhorst's motives for breaking his ar- Proposed rest was his anxiety to cause an exploration of the Kats- of the Katy- exploration kill Mountains. A daughter of one of the farmers at Kats- ains. kill Mount- kill had found a stone, "which some thought was silver ;" and the proprietaries in Holland had directed an examin- ation of the country. Van Slechtenhorst, therefore, sent 10 Sept. his son Gerrit to make a search. But a heavy rain set in as soon as the young adventurer reached the patroon's newly-established bouwery. In three hours, the mount- ain torrent rose thirty feet; the farm-house was swept into the kill, and all the cattle and horses would have per- ished, but for the exertions of Gerrit Van Slechtenhorst, " who was an excellent swimmer." The ruin which the Abandoned flood had caused diverted all thought of immediate explo- of a great on account rations ; and the hope of finding a silver mine in the Kats- flood. kill Mountains was postponed. 4
Fearful that the director would execute his threatened purpose of extending the jurisdiction of Fort Orange, Van Slechtenhorst now called upon all householders and free- 23 Nov. men of the colonie to take the " Burgherlyck oath of alle- giance." At the appointed day, the order was obeyed by 28 Nov. a number of the residents, who bound themselves " to main- take oath of Colonists tain and support, offensively and defensively, against every to the pa-, allegiance one, the right and jurisdiction of the colonie." Among the troon. persons who took this oath was John Baptist van Rensse- laer, a younger half-brother of the patroon, and the first of the name who appears to have come to New Netherland .*
* Renss. MSS. ; O'Call., ii., 174-177 ; Holgate's American Genealogy.
532
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
V
CHAPTER XVI.
1652-1653.
CH. XVI. 1652. THE four years during which Stuyvesant had adminis- tered the government of New Netherland were marked by arbitrary efforts to repress the spirit of popular free- dom which the Dutch emigrants brought with them from their Fatherland. In turn, the Nine Men, the vice-direct- or, the only notary in the province, and the patroon of Staten Island, were made to feel the displeasure of au- thority. Van Dyck, the schout-fiscal, who sided with the Nine Men, was early excluded from the council, and per- sonally insulted by his imperious chief. The fiscal, in- deed, had been complained of for leading " a disorderly life," and the Amsterdam Chamber had threatened to pun- 28 March. ish him. A pasquinade against the director, of which he was assumed to be the author, was now made the occa- Fiscal Van sion of his removal from office by the council, whose ac- tion was claimed to have been "by and with the advice of the Nine Men." . They, however, afterward declared that they had never assented to the resolution, which was Stuyvesant's own work, and that " the secretary had false- ly appended to it their names." Van Tienhoven was ac- cused by Van Dyck of having originated the lampoon to accomplish the displacement of an obnoxious official. Whatever may have been the truth in that respect, Van Tienhoven was promoted to be schout-fiscal ; Van Brugge, the former commissary at Fort Orange, was made provin- cial secretary ; and Adriaen Van Tienhoven, lately the clerk of the court on the South River, succeeded his broth- er as receiver general. Appealing to the States General, Van Dyck denounced his successor, in plain terms, as " a
Dyck su- perseded.
Van Tien- hoven pro- moted.
18 Sept.
533
PETER STUYVESANT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
reproach to this country, and the main scourge of both CH. XVI. Christians and heathens, with whose sensualitics the di- rector himself hath always been acquainted."* 1652.
In the mean time, the question of jurisdiction at Fort Affairs at Orange remained unsettled. If Van Slechtenhorst was ange. Fort Or- earnest in maintaining the rights of the patroon, Dyckman was no less so in support of the director; and personal dif- ficulties now vexed the quiet hamlet of Beverwyck. Somc 1 January. of the soldiers of Fort Orange, out on a New Year's night Bever- Quarrels al
wyck.
frolic, fired their matehloeks at the patroon's house ; and but for the exertions of its tenants, the thatched building would have been destroyed. Young Van Slechtenhorst 2 January. was assaulted in the street by some of the garrison the next day ; and Philip Pictorsen Sehuyler, who came to the rescue of his brother-in-law, was threatened by Dyckman with a drawn sword. The friends of Van Slechtenhorst vowed revenge; and the commissary prudently ordered the guns of Fort Orange to be loaded with grape.
Not long afterward, Dyckman, with a small retinuc, went to the court-room where the magistrates of the colo- 8 February nie were sitting, to publish some placards which Stuyve- sant had sent up, relative to the jurisdiction of Fort Or- Van Slecb ange. Van Slechtenhorst, viewing the commissary's pro- opposes tenhorst Dyckman. eeedings as insulting, ordered him to retire. Dyckman 24 Feb. again demanded that the obnoxious proclamations should be published with sound of bell ; but the' colonial court re- fused, until they had received orders from the States Gen- eral and their own immediate superiors. The bell of Fort Orange was now rung three times; and Dyckman, return- ing to the patroon's court-house, ascended the "stocp"t with his attendants, and ordered his deputy to read the proc- lamations. Van Slechtenhorst, however, snatching the in- struments out of the deputy's hands, again protested against the attempted infringement of the rights of his chief.
The director promptly sent up another placard, deelar- 5 March.
* Hol. Doc., vi., 193-276 ; Alb. Rec., iii., 264-268 ; iv., 74 ; O'Call., ii., 181, 182 ; ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., ii., 306.
t Anglicé, " the steps at the entrance of a house." The word " stoop" is still in famil- iar use among the descendants of our old Dutch families.
534
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. 5.
1652. Proclama- tion about the juris- diction of Fort Or- ange.
CH. XVI. ing that the jurisdiction of Fort Orange extended a dis- tance of six hundred paces from its walls, and ordered Dyckman to affix copies of it to posts, "marked with the company's mark," to be erected on this new line, " north, south, and west of the fortress." No house was thereafter to be built within these limits, except by the permission of the director and council at Fort Amsterdam, or their agents at Fort Orange. But Van Slechtenhorst was not disposed to submit. He had just purchased for his pa- troon two large additional tracts on the east side of the river ; one called "Paanpaack," including the site of the present city of Troy, and another further north, called "Panhoosic ;" and he now ordered the constable of Bever- wyck to remove the posts which Dyckman had set up. A new protest declared that the colonists of Rensselaerswyck had never sworn allegiance either to the West India Com- pany or to Stuyvesant, and that they recognized no mas- ters but the States General and their own feudal superiors. Fresh troubles soon arose. Dyckman, attempting to ap- prehend a negress belonging to Alexander Glen, one of the colonists, was opposed by her master, who was arrested the next day at Fort Orange. It was now rumored that the director himself was about to revisit Beverwyck, and that "a new gallows" was being prepared for the rebellious Van Slechtenhorst and his son, and Van Rensselaer.
13 March.
19 March.
Protest of Van Slech- tenhorst.
21 March.
Stuyvesant again at Fort Or- ange.
Stuyvesant, who had been detained at Manhattan by the proceedings against the fiscal, Van Dyck, soon after- ward arrived at Fort Orange. The colonial officers were required to furnish a statement of the bounds of Rensse- laerswyck ; and were told that as the "Exemptions" al- lowed a colonie to extend sixteen miles on one side of a riv- er, or eight miles, if both banks were occupied, the direct- or would recognize the patroon's jurisdiction only to that extent. As the authorities of the colonie were without in- structions on this point, the question was postponed until they could communicate with their superiors in Holland. But Stuyvesant was not to be diverted from his purpose with regard to Beverwyck. Sergeant Litschoe, with a
i April.
535
PETER STUYVESANT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
party of soldiers, was sent to the patroon's house, and Van CH. XVI. Slechtenhorst was ordered to strike the colonial flag. Upon 1652. his refusal, " fourteen soldiers, armed with loaded muskets, The pa- entered the inelosure, and, after firing a volley, hauled down the lord's colors." A few days afterward, a proclamation was issued deelaring Beverwyck to be independent of the 10 April. patroon's colonie, and establishing a Court of Justice in declared Beverwyc Fort Orange for the government of the hamlet. By this Fort Or- aet Stuyvesant completed his long-cherished design ; and ange. the germ of the present city of Albany was released from feudal jurisdiction.
troon's col- ors hauled down.
annexed to
Still, Van Slechtenhorst's loyalty to his immediate su- periors could not be shaken. The director's placard was 15 April. torn down, and a counter-proclamation, indicating the claims of the patroon, was posted in its stead. This bold proceeding filled the measure of Van Slechtenhorst's of- 18 April. fenses. He was arrested and imprisoned in Fort Orange, tenhorst and afterward conveyed under guard to New Amsterdam, to New where he remained until he was released for the purpose dam. Amster- of installing his successor in office. 2 Sept
Before leaving Rensselaerswyek, Stuyvesant confirmed 23 April. the authority of the West India Company by issuing pat- ents to several of the principal colonists for lots of land within the bounds of Beverwyck. John Baptist van Rens- 24 April. selaer took Van Slechtenhorst's place provisionally, and Rensselaer J. B. Van was soon afterward formally appointed direetor by the pa- director. troon. About the same time, Gerrit Swart was commis- 8 May. sioned as " officer or schout," and furnished with instruc- Swart Gerrit tions, which required him " above all things to take care schout. that divine worship shall be maintained in said colonie, conformably to the Reformed religion" of Holland .*
These difficulties, and a desire to free themselves from subjection to the patroon, induced several inhabitants of
* Alb. Rec., v1., 2 ; ix., 123 ; Fort Orange Rec., Mortgage Book A, Alb. Clerk's Office ; Renss. MSS. ; Barnard's Sketch, 128-130; ()'Call., 175-184, 207, 564-566, 557. Upon the reconquest of New York by the Dutch, in 1673, the West India Company admitted that Stuyvesant's proceedings in regard to Beverwyck were in violation of the charter of 1629 ; and Governor Dongan, in 1686, deemed it prudent to require from the patroon of that day a formal release of his claims two days before the charter of the city of Albany was passed.
Van Slech
conveyed
536
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
1652. First settle- ment of UI- ster coun- ty.
CH. XVI. Rensselaerswyck to seek another abode. Between Kats- kill and Manhattan there were as yet few European inhab- itants; and Thomas Chambers, who had occupied a farm near what is now the city of Troy, removing with some of his neighbors to "Atkarkarton," or Esopus, an "exceed- ingly beautiful land," began the actual settlement of the present county of Ulster .*
1 July. Regula- tions for purchases of land.
On his return to the seat of government, Stuyvesant, in order to check the growing disposition on the part of indi- viduals to monopolize large tracts of wild land for the pur- poses of speculation, issued new regulations on the sub- ject. The sales by the Indians to Van Twiller and others on Long Island, to Van Slechtenhorst at Katskill and Clav- erack, and to Van de Capellen about Nevesinck, were de- clared void. The "pretended proprietors" were ordered to return the purchase-money ; if, however, they petitioned within six weeks, they might retain such tracts as the di- rector and council might assign them. 'All persons were forbidden to buy any lands from the natives without the previous consent of the director and council. This order was afterward modified by the Amsterdam Chamber in favor of the purchasers of lands near Katskill, Claverack, and Rensselaerswyck, to whom grants free from any feud- al "patronage" were to be issued in the name of the com- . pany.
New settle- ments on Long Isl- and.
Middel- burgh or Newtown.
Several additional settlements were now commenced on Long Island, under patents from Stuyvesant. One of these, immediately east of Doughty's colonie at Mespath, was called by the Dutch "Middelburgh," but was more familiar- ly known as Newtown. Another in the " Vlacke Bosch," or Flatbush, between Breuckelen and Amersfoort, the prin- cipal patentees of which were Jan Snedekor, Arendt van Hattem, and Domine Megapolensis, was named by Stuy- Midwout or vesant "Middelwout" or Midwout. The Indian title to Flatbush. these places was not, however, extinguished for several years ; and in the mean time, the settlers whose bouwer-
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