History of the state of New York Vol I, Part 6

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

USA > New York > History of the state of New York Vol I > Part 6

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

* The mineralogist may spend an agreeable day in visiting this cliff, near the " Elysian Fields" at Hoboken. Hudson supposed it to be a copper or silver mine.

t See Juet's Journal of Hudson's third voyage, in Purchas, and in i. N. Y. H. S. Coll., i., 102-146 ; and De Laet, in second series of same collections, i., 289-316. An interesting analysis of the Half Moon's voyage up and down the river, is in Yates and Moulton's His- tory of New York, vol. i., p. 201-272.

THE RIVER OF THE MOUNTAINS, IN 1609

with these orders early in the following year, he was ar- CHAP. I. bitrarily forbidden to leave his native country by the En- glish authorities, who were jealous of the advantages 1610. January. which the Dutch had gained by reason of Hudson's dis- coveries while in their service; and the Half Moon was detained for several months, quietly at anchor in Dart- mouth harbor .*

discoveries n North America.

The American territory, which had thus been discover- The Dutch ed by the agents of the Dutch East India Company, though included within James's first Virginia patent of 1606, was actually unoccupied, and unpossessed " by any Christian prince or people." In the south, John Smith's exploring parties were visiting the upper waters of the Chesapeake, and far off in the north the arquebuses of Samuel Cham- plain were dealing death to the aborigines on the " Lake of the Iroquois," when, with extraordinary coincidence, Henry Hudson was about piloting the first European ves- 1609. sel through the unknown " River of the Mountains" which flowed between. No stranger but Verazzano seems to have passed the " Narrows" before those wondering mariners who navigated the Half Moon of Amsterdam up that ma- jestic stream, to which the assent of the world has given the name of its illustrious explorer.t All above was new and undiscovered. The lethargy of uncivilized nature reigned throughout the undisturbed solitude. The wild game sprung from their familiar retreats, startled by the

* N. Y. H. S. Coll. (second series), ii., 370. " Et comme Hudson était prêt de partir avec la navire et ses gens, pour aller faire rapport de son voyage, il fût arreté en Angle- terre, et reçut commandement de ne point partir, mais qu'il devait faire service à sa pa- trie ; ce qu'on commanda aussi aux autres Anglais qui étaient au vaisseau. Ce que plu- sieurs trouverent fort étrange, de ce qu'on ne permettait pas au patron d'aller faire compte, et de faire rapport de son voyage et de qu'il avait fait, à ses maîtres, qui l'avaient envoyé en ce voyage ; puisque cela se faisait pour le bien commun de toutes sortes de navigations. Ceci se fit en Janvier, 1610. On estimait que les Anglais le voulaient en- voyer avec quelques navires, vers Virginia, pour rechercher plus avant la susdite Rivière." -Van Meteren, xxxi., 674, 675, edit. 1618. Emanuel Van Meteren, the author of this ex- cellent History of the Netherlands, was for many years Dutch consul in England, and died in London, at the age of seventy-seven, on the 18th of April, 1612.

t It is stated, indeed, in the " Report and Advice" presented by the Chamber of Ac- counts of the West India Company, on the 15th of December, 1644, that New Netherland, " stretching from the South River, situated in thirty-eight and a half degrees, to Cape Mal- ebarre, in the latitude of forty-one and a half degrees, was first visited by the inhabitants of this country, in the year 1598, and especially by those of the Greenland Company, but without making fixed habitations, and only as a refuge in the winter."-Holland Docu- ments, ii., 368. This statement, however, needs confirmation. See Appendix, note A.

1242319

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

CHAP. I. unusual echoes which rolled through the ancient forests, 1609. as the roar of the first Dutch cannon boomed over the si- lent waters, and the first Dutch trumpets blew the inspir- ing national airs of the distant Fatherland. The simple Indians, roaming unquestioned through their native woods, which no sounding axe had yet begun to level, and pad- dling their rude canoes along the base of the towering hills which lined the unexplored river's side, paused in solemn amazement, as they beheld their strange visitor approach- ing from afar, and marveled whence the apparition came .*

Thus the triumphant flag of Holland was the harbinger of civilization along the banks of the great river of New York. The original purpose of the Half Moon's voyage had failed of accomplishment ; but why need Hudson re- pine ? He had not, indeed, discovered for his employers the long-sought passage to the Eastern Seas ; but he had led the way to the foundation of a mighty state.t The at- tractive region to which accident had conducted the Am- sterdam yacht, soon became a colony of the Netherlands, where, for half a century, the sons and daughters of Hol- land established themselves securely under the ensign of the republic ; transplanted the doctrines of a Reformed faith ; and obeyed the jurisprudence which had governed their ancestors. In the progress of events, a superior pow- er took unjust possession of the land ; and nearly two hund- red years have rolled by since the change came to pass. Yet the hereditary attributes of its earliest settlers have always happily influenced the destinies of its blended com- munity ; and many of the noblest characteristics of its Ba- tavian pioneers have descended to the present day, unim- paired by the long ascendency of the red cross of Saint George, and only more brightly developed by the inter- mingling of the various races which soon chose its inviting territory for their home.

The picturesque shores, along which Hudson lingered with enthusiastic delight-and the magnificence of which

See Appendix, note B.

t The population of the State of New York, in 1850, was 3,097,358; about equal to that of the United States when the Definitive Treaty of Peace was signed in 1783.

THE HUDSON RIVER.

drew from him the bold eulogium, "it is as beautiful a CHAP. I. land as the foot of man can tread upon"-have become the favorite seat of elegance and refinement, and have witness- 1609. ed the resistless rise of " empire and of arts." The silent River of the Mountains is now the highway of a bound- less traffic, and bears upon its bosom the teeming wealth which grand artificial channels, connecting it with the mediterranean seas of a broad continent, bring down to its tides, from coasts of vast extent and illimitable resources. Swift steamers now crowd those waters, where Fulton's native genius first

-- " by flame compelled the angry sea, To vapor rarefied, his bark to drive In triumph proud, through the loud sounding surge ;",

while the yet more "rapid car" rushes incessantly along the iron road which science, obeying the call of enterprise, has stretched along the river's bank. The rights and in- terests of millions are now secured by equal laws, ordain- ed by freely chosen agents, and enforced by the common consent. And while, at the head of tide-water, the political affairs of the commonwealth are watched and administer- ed, and the people declare their sovereign will, the ocean- washed island of Manhattan, at the river's mouth, is the cosmopolitan emporium of an eager commerce which whit- ens every sea.

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

CHAPTER II. 1609-1614.

CHAP. II.

The Dutch an inde- pendent na- tion when Hudson made dis- coveries in their serv- ice.

AT the time of Hudson's grand discovery, the United Netherlands had just taken the rank of an independent nation. For more than forty years they had maintained an unequal strife against the bigotry and despotism of Spain. The confederation of the Provinces, in 1579, had been followed, in 1581, by the noblest political act which the world had then ever witnessed-the declaration of their national independence. Queen Elizabeth, who had warm- ly espoused the cause of the revolted provinces the year be- fore the Union of Utrecht, formally opened diplomatic re- lations with the States General in 1585, and even sent troops to their succor, under the command of her favorite, the Earl of Leicester. In 1604, James I. not only re- ceived ambassadors from the states, but, in conjunction with Henry IV. of France, agreed to use his best efforts to procure the recognition of their independence by Spain. A large number of the people of England, at the same time, were warmly in favor of an alliance with the Netherlands. The naturally unambitious character of the Dutch and the convenience of their country for trading, rendered them safe and profitable allies ; while the difficulty of securing the English coast from their attacks, and the English mer- chant vessels from their privateers, would have rendered them equally mischievous and formidable enemies. Yet James himself, though he agreed to permit contingents of troops to be raised within his kingdom for their defense, heartily disliked the Dutch; and the more so, because he found that the English soldiers who served in the Nether-

TRUCE BETWEEN SPAIN AND THE NETHERLANDS.

lands, returned home filled with notions of popular rights CHAP. II. and civil liberty which they had imbibed in the repub- lican provinces .* But Providence had determined that 1609. the soldiery of England were to learn in Holland, during the reign of James, lessons in human freedom and govern- ment, which were soon afterward to receive a stern appli- cation in the reign of James's unfortunate son.

Three years more of varied war, in which the success- es of Spinola's armies on land were splendidly overbalanced by the victories of the Dutch fleets at sea, and the King of Spain, wearied with an apparently interminable contest, which had baffled all his calculations, and nearly drained his treasury, sent ambassadors to the Hague early in 1607, to open negotiations for a peace with the Netherlands. But the Dutch were not yet unanimous for a cessation of hostilities. Since their triumphs over the Spaniards, they had begun to imbibe a spirit of ambition and conquest alien to their former sober national character; and, from being patient traders and brave defenders of their country against invasion, they had become adventurous and victo- rious aggressors. Perceiving these changes in the habits of the people, and fearing still greater and more inconven- ient modifications, Barneveldt, the Advocate of Holland, and many other patriotic statesmen, ardently wished for peace. But the clergy, who mistrusted the bigotry of Phil- ip, deemed an equitable treaty with Spain impracticable ; and the stadtholder, Prince Maurice of Nassau, naturally opposed the termination of a war in which he was gaining both laurels and emolument as general-in-chief. A large party sided with Maurice, urging that war was more safe and advantageous for the provinces than peace, which would, at any rate, throw out of employment vast num- bers of people ; and many of the merchants feared that with the end of hostilities the trade and commerce, which had been transferred to Amsterdam, would return to more commodiously-situated Antwerp. Fortunately the coun- sels of peace prevailed, and the negotiations which were

* Davies, ii., 384, 385.

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

CHAP. II opened by the Spanish ambassadors, requesting a tempora- 1609. ry truce, received unexpected emphasis from Heemskerk's splendid victory over D'Avila, before Gibraltar, on the twenty-fifth of April, 1607. But Philip, though he agreed to acknowledge the sovereignty and independence of the provinces, refused to grant them, by treaty, a freedom of trade to India ; while the states, on the other hand, were determined, at all hazards, to insist upon their right to a commerce in which they employed upward of one hund- red and fifty ships and eight thousand men, and the an- nual returns of which were estimated at forty-three mill- ions of guilders. With the acknowledgment of their po- litical independence, they claimed the recognition of the consequence of independence-the free navigation of the seas. Upon this tender point, the progress of the negotia- tions was arrested .*

9 April.

At length, after two years of discussion and vicissitude, the conferences which had kept Europe in suspense re- sulted in the signing, at the Town Hall at Antwerp, on the ninth of April, 1609, of a truce for a term of twelve years, instead of a definitive peace. The fulfillment of the treaty was guaranteed by England and France; the United Netherlands were declared to be "free countries, provinces, and states," upon which Philip and the archdukes had no claim; mutual freedom of trade between the contracting parties was established ; and, by a secret article, the King of Spain engaged to offer no interruption to the commerce of the Dutch with India. The truce, after being ratified by the archdukes at Brussels, and by the States General, who were specially convened at Bergen-op-Zoom, was pub- licly proclaimed at Antwerp and the other chief towns of Flanders, amid demonstrations of universal joy, the ring- ing of bells, and salvos of artillery. The great bell at Ant- werp, which had not sounded for many years, was rung by twenty-four men, and its glad peal was heard twelve miles off, at Ordam and Lillo. The priests chaunted " Te Deum

15 April.

* Grotius, xv., 716 ; Van Meteren, xxviii., 608 ; xxix., 626-630 ; Watson's Philip II., iii., 217, 241 ; Davies, ii., 405-427.

INDEPENDENCE AND SOVEREIGNTY OF THE DUTCH.

Laudamus ;" the inhabitants of the towns promenaded CHAP. II. outside of the walls, like newly-liberated prisoners ; and boat-loads of passengers came through the canals, from 1609. Zealand and Holland, to visit friends whom they had not seen for a long generation. But the now martial people of the Northern United Provinces tempered their triumph by a recollection of the sufferings which they and their fathers had undergone. The States General proclaimed a solemn fast; and the day was religiously celebrated in all 6 May. the churches of the United Netherlands by hearty prayers " that the Provinces might be maintained and preserved in a firm union, amity, and correspondence, under a properly authorized government." *.

By foreign nations, the publication of the truce was re- ceived with astonishment and admiration. They could scarcely persuade themselves that the haughty Spaniard could ever be forced to acknowledge the independence and sovereignty of his rebel subjects, and tacitly allow them a free trade to India. But no sooner had the ratifications of the treaty been exchanged, than the powers of Europe and Asia formed new estimates of the resources of the Dutch, and of the wisdom and energy of their counsels, and immediately began to vie with each other in courting their alliance and invoking their support. Soon after the signature of the treaty, the States General sent the Sieur de Schoonewalle on an embassy to England. The king received him at once "as ambassador of a free country 12 July. and state," and immediately commissioned his Master of Requests, Sir Ralph Winwood, to reside in Holland as his ordinary ambassador. Thenceforward, the Dutch were universally esteemed "as a free and independent people. Having gained immortal honor by the magnanimity which they had displayed during the continuance of the war, they were now considered as having obtained the reward

* Corps Dip., v., 99-102 ; Grotius, xviii., 812 ; Van Meteren, xxx., 658. The proclama- tion by government authority, in this state, of days of fasting and days of thanksgiving, was a custom derived from Holland. Frequent instances in which the directors of New Netherland imitated the pious example of the Fatherland, will be found in the following pages.

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

CHAP. II. which their virtue merited, and were every where respect- 1609. ed and admired. Their ministers at foreign courts were now received with the same distinction as those of other sovereign powers."* It is a somewhat singular coinci- dence, that the treaty was signed just three days after Hudson had sailed from the Texel on his voyage of dis- covery. So far, therefore, as England, France, and Spain were concerned, the nationality and sovereignty of the United Provinces were recognized with sufficient distinct- ness at the period of Hudson's voyage; and the Dutch were certainly, from that time forward, abundantly competent to take and enjoy any rights derived from discovery under the law of nations.t

Hudson's last voyage .. to the north, in English service.

Hudson himself never revisited the pleasant lands he had discovered and extolled. The hardy mariner, still intent on solving the problem of the northern passage to China, and prevented by the jealousy of English authority from leaving his native country to engage again in enter- prises for the benefit of foreigners, re-entered the service of his early London patrons, and sailed from the Thames in " The Discovery," on his last and fatal voyage to the 1610. north, in the spring of 1610. Passing Iceland, where he saw the famous Hecla " cast out much fire," he doubled the southern Cape of Greenland, and penetrated through Davis's Straits into the vast and gloomy waters beyond. While Hudson's recent companions in the Half Moon were, under another chief, renewing a happy intercourse with the native savages along the River of the Mountains, the intrepid navigator himself was buffeting with arctic tem- pests, in fruitless efforts to explore the "labyrinth without

17 April.

* Van Meteren, xxxi., 662 ; Watson, iii., 278; Davies, ii., 427-439.

t Chalmers, Pol. Ann., 568, intimates doubts on this subject. But this biased annal- ist, though a standard authority on many points, must be read with great caution in all that he writes with reference to the early history of New York. His strong English prej- udices constantly led him into serious misstatements in regard to the discoveries of other nations. The shores of New Jersey and New York had certainly not been "often ex- plored" before Hudson's voyage. Cabot can not strictly and fairly be said to have "ex- plored" a coast which he seems to have seen only occasionally. And what is the evi- dence that he took " formal possession" of any part south of Newfoundland ? Of Euro- peans, Verazzano alone, who merely looked into the beautiful harbor of New York, was really the predecessor of Hudson. Holmes, i., 135, 136, follows Chalmers, and repeats his errors.

THE FUR TRADE OF HOLLAND.

end" in which he had become involved. At length, after CHAP. II. spending a dreary winter of suffering and privation on the frozen coast, he was basely abandoned by his mutinous

1610. crew on midsummer's day, 1611, in a forlorn shallop, in 1611. the midst of fields of ice, to perish miserably in that sullen Hudson's and inhospitable Bay, the undying name of which perpet-

death. uates the memory of his inflexible daring .*

The Half Moon having, as we have seen, been detained The Half eight months in England, did not reach Amsterdam until turns to

Moon re- the summer of 1610, and the directors of the East India dam. Amster- Company, indisposed to continue efforts in a quarter which did not seem to promise the coveted passage to Cathay, 15 July. and which was not strictly within the limits of their char- ter, took no further steps to make available the discoveries which their yacht had effected.t

1610.

But, meanwhile, if the glowing account of the country Dutch en- he had visited, which Hudson sent from England to his cited. Dutch patrons, corroborated by his companions in discov- ery, on the Half Moon's return to Amsterdam, did not at once induce active efforts to transfer to those pleasant re- gions permanent colonies from the over-populated Father- land, it did not fail to stimulate commercial adventure in a quarter which promised to yield large returns.

terprise ex-

trade with

Toward the end of the sixteenth century, in the midst of their war with Spain, the Dutch had opened a prosper- Their fur ous commerce at Archangel ; and, in 1604, they had ob- Russia. tained from the Czar concessions of such a liberal charac- ter as to attract to that port from sixty to eighty Holland ships every year. From Archangel, their traders had in- tercourse with Novogorod and the great inland towns, and carried on a large traffic in the furs of ancient Muscovy. The wise simplicity of the first Russian tariff laid a duty of five per cent. on all imported goods, and allowed an

* N. Y. H. S. Coll., i., 146-188.

t The subsequent career of the Half Moon may, perhaps, interest the curious. The small " ship book," before referred to, which I found, in 1841, in the company's archives at Amsterdam, besides recording the return of the yacht on the 15th of July, 1610, states that on the 2d of May, 1611, she sailed, in company with other vessels, to the East Indies, under the command of Laurens Reael ; and that on the 6th of March, 1615, she was " wrecked and lost" on the island of Mauritius.

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

CHAP. II. equivalent amount to be exported duty free. Whoever ex- 1610. ported more than he imported, paid a duty of five per cent. on the difference .*

A new temptation was unexpectedly offered to the ex- panding commerce of Holland. Vast regions in North America, which Hudson had seen abounding in beaver and other valuable furs, and where native hunters, unre- strained by arbitrary regulations of excise, furnished ready and exhaustless cargoes, were now open to Dutch mercan- tile enterprise. The tempting opportunity was not neg- Another ship sent to lected. Another vessel was immediately fitted out, and Manhattan. dispatched from the Texel in the summer of 1610, to the great River of the Mountains, with a cargo of goods suit- able for traffic with the Indians. The new adventure was undertaken at the private risk of some merchants of Am- sterdam, who, perhaps, as directors of the East India Company, had read Hudson's report to his Dutch employ- 15 July. ers. The Half Moon had now just returned to Amster- dam after her long detention in England. A part of her old crew manned the new vessel, the command of which was probably intrusted to Hudson's Dutch mate, who had opposed his early return ;# and the experienced mariners soon revisited the savages on the great river, whom they Tradition® of the sav- ages re- specting had left the autumn before. Tradition relates, that when the Europeans arrived again among the red men, "they her voyage. were much rejoiced at seeing each other."§

Meanwhile, the occupation of Virginia by the English had become well known in Holland, and the States Gen- eral, through Caron, their ambassador at London, had even Overtures by the Dutch to the English made overtures to the British government "for joining with them in that colony." A proposition had also been respecting made to unite the East India trade of the two countries. Virginia. But the statesmen of England would not favor either of

* Richesse de la Hollande, i., 51; Mc Cullagh's Industrial History, ii., 255.

t De Laet, book iii., cap. vii. ; Albany Records, xxiv., 167. It is scarcely necessary to add, that the statements in Smith's History of New York, i., 2, 3, respecting Hudson having " sold the country, or rather his right, to the Dutch," &c., are utterly fabulous. # Muilkerk, A., 19.

§ Hol. Doc., i., 211 ; Heckewelder, in ii. N. Y. H. S. Coll., i., p. 73 ; and in Yates and Moulton, i., p. 254. See also Appendix, note C.

CHRISTIAENSEN AND BLOCK AT MANHATTAN.

the Dutch projects. They feared, they said, "that in case CHAP. II. of joining, if it be upon equal terms, the art and industry of their people will wear out ours."* 1610.

The theory of a northern passage to China by way of The Dutch Nova Zembla had continued, in the mean time, to be again to ex- attempt warmly supported by many learned men in Holland. northern plore a Among these was Peter Plancius, of Amsterdam, who, like China. passage to his contemporary Hakluyt, was distinguished no less as a clergyman than as a promoter of maritime enterprise. Plancius insisted that Heemskerk had failed in 1596, be- cause he attempted to go through the Straits of Weygat, instead of keeping to the north of the island. In compli- ance with Plancius's opinion, the States General, early in 1611, directed that two vessels, the "Little Fox" and the 1611. "Little Crane," should be furnished with passports for voy- 21 Feb. ages to discover a northern passage to China. But the ice arrested the vessels long before they could reach the 80th degree of latitude, to which they were ordered to proceed.t

About the same time, Hendrick Christiaensen, of Cleef, or Cleves, near Nymegen, returning to Holland from a voy- voyage to age to the West Indies, found himself in the neighborhood of the newly-discovered river, which the Dutch had already begun to call the " Mauritius," in honor of their stadthold- er, Prince Maurice, of Nassau. But deterred by the fear of losing his heavily-laden vessel, and remembering that a ship from Monichendam, in North'Holland, had been cast away on that coast, Christiaensen did not venture into the river at that time, reserving the enterprise for a future oc- casion. On his arrival in Holland, Christiaensen, in com- Christiaen pany with another " worthy" mariner, Adriaen Block, ac- Block's sen and cordingly chartered a ship, "with the schipper Ryser, and age. joint voy-

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of the state of New York Vol I, Part 6

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

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