USA > New York > History of the state of New York Vol I > Part 73
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Much of what has been written of American history has been written by those who, from habit or prejudice, have been inclined to magnify the influence and extol the merit of the Anglo-Saxon raee, at the expense of every other ele- ment which has assisted to form the national greatness. In no particular has this been more remarkable than in the unjust view which has so often been taken of the found- ers of New York. Holland has long been a theme for the ridicule of British writers ; and, even in this country, the character and manners of the Dutch have been made the subjects of an unworthy depreciation, caused perhaps, in some instances, by too ready an imitation of those provin-
1664.
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CHAP. XX. cial chroniclers who could see little good in their " noxious neighbors" of New Netherland.
1664.
Yet, without undervaluing others, it may confidently be claimed that to no nation in the world is the Republic of the West more indebted than to the United Provinces, for the idea of the confederation of sovereign states; for noble principles of constitutional freedom ; for magnanimous sen- timents of religious toleration ; for characteristic sympathy with the subjects of oppression ; for liberal doctrines in trade and commerce ; for illustrious patterns of private in- tegrity and public virtue; and for generous and timely aid in the establishment of independence. Nowhere among the people of the United States can men be found excel- ling in honesty, industry, courtesy, or accomplishment the posterity of the early Dutch settlers in New Netherland. And, when the providence of God decreed that the rights of humanity were again to be maintained through long years of endurance and of war, the descendants of Hol- landers nobly emulated the example of their forefathers ; nor was their steadfast patriotism outdone by that of any of the heroes in the strife which made the blood-stained soil of New York and New Jersey THE NETHERLANDS OF AMERICA.
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APPENDIX.
NOTE A, CHAPTER I., PAGE 31-35.
THE following account of the first arrival of Europeans in New York is taken from a manuscript eominunicated by the Reverend John lleckewelder to the Reverend Doctor Miller, in 1801, and by him deposited in the library of the New York Historical Society. Mr. Heckewelder was a Moravian missionary among the Pennsylvania Indians ; and he states that his account " is verbatim as it was related to me by aged and respected Delawares, Monseys, and Mahicanni (otherwise called Mohe- gans, Mahicanders) near forty years ago," or about 1760. "A long time ago, when there was no such thing known to the Indians as people with a white skin (their expression), some Indians who had been out a fishing, and where the sea widens, espied at a great distance something remarkably large swimming or floating on the water, and such as they had never seen before. They iminediately, returning to the shore, apprised their countrymen of what they had seen, and pressed them to go out with them and discover what it might be. These together hurried out, and saw, to their great sur- prise, the phenomenon, but could not agree what it might be ; some concluding it either to be an uncommon large fish or other animal, while others were of opinion it must be some very large house. It was at length agreed among those who were spectators that, as this phenomenon moved toward the land, whether or not it was an animal, or any thing that had life in it, it would be well to inform all the Indians on the inhabited islands of what they had seen, and put them on their guard. Accordingly, they sent runners and watermen off to carry the news to their scattered chiefs. that these might send off' in every direction for the warriors to come in. These arriving in numbers, and themselves viewing the strange appearance, and that it was actually moving toward them (the entrance of the river or bay), coneluded it to be a large canoe or house, in which the great Manitto (Great or Supreme Being) himself was, and that he probably was coming to visit them. By this time the chiefs of the different tribes were assembled on York Island, and were counseling or deliber- ating on the manner they should receive their Manitto on his arrival. Every step had been taken to be well provided with a plenty of meat for a sacrifice ; the women were accosted to prepare the best of victuals ; idols or images were examined and put in order ; and a grand dance was supposed not only to be an agreeable entertainment for the Manitto, but it might, with the addition of a sacri- fice, contribute toward appeasing him, in case he was angry with them. The conjurors were also set to work to determine what the meaning of this phenomenon was, and what the result would be. Both to these, and to the chiefs and wise men of the nation, men, women, and children were look- ing up for advice and protection. Between hope and fear, and in confusion, a dance commenced. While in this situation, fresh runners arrive, declaring it to be a house of various colors, and crowded with living creatures. It now appears to be certain that it is the great Manitto, bringing thein some kind of game such as they had not before. But other runners soon after arriving, de- clare it a large house of varions colors, full of people, yet of quite a different color than they (the Indians) are of ; that they were also dressed in a different manner from them ; and that one, in par- ticular, appeared altogether red, which must be the Manitto himself. They are soon hailed from the vessel, though in a language they do not understand, yet they shout (or yell) in their way. Many are for running off to the woods, but are pressed by others to stay, in order not to give offense to their visitor, who could find them out, and might destroy them. The house (or large canoe, as some will have it) stops, and a smaller canoe comes ashore with the red man and some others in it. Some stay by this eanoe to guard it. The chiefs and wise men (or counselors) had composed a large circle into which the red-clothed man with two others approach. He salutes them with friend- ly countenance, and they return the salute after their manner. They are lost in admiration both as to the color of the skin of these whites, as also to their manner of dress ; yet most as to the habit of him who wore the red clothes, which shone with something [lace '] they could not account for. He must be the great Manitto (Supreme Being), they think ; but why should he have a white skin ? A large, elegant hock hack (a gourd or deeanter) is brought forward by one of the supposed Manit- to's servants, and from this a substance is poured out into a small cup or glass, and handed to the
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Manitto. The (expected) Manitto drinks, has the glass filled again, and hands it to the chief next to him to drink. The chief receives the glass, but only smells at it, and passes it on to the next chief, who does the same. The glass thus passes through the circle without the contents being tasted by any one ; and is on the point of being returned again to the red-clothed man, when one of their num- ber, a spirited man and great warrior, jumps up, harangues the assembly on the impropriety of re- turning the glass with the contents in it ; that the same was handed them by the Manitto in order that they should drink it, as he himself had done before them ; that this would please liim ; but to return what he had given to them might provoke him, and be the cause of their being destroyed by him. "And that since he believed it for the good of the nation that the contents offered them should be drank, and as no one was willing to drink it, he would, let the consequence be what it would ; and that it was better for one man to die than for a whole nation to be destroyed. He then took the glass, and, bidding the assembly a farewell, drank it off. Every eye was fixed on their resolute com- panion, to see what an effect this would have upon him ; and he soon beginning to stagger about, and, at last dropping to the ground, they bemoan him. He falls into a sleep, and they view him as expir- ing. He awakes again, jumps up, and declares that he never before felt himself so happy as after he had drank the cup. He wishes for more. His wish is granted ; and the whole assembly soon join him, and become intoxicated. After this general intoxication had ceased (during which time the whites had confined themselves to their vessel), the man with the red clothes returned again to them, and distributed presents among them, to wit, beads, axes, hoes, stockings, &c. They say that they had become familiar to each other, and were made to understand by signs that they now would return home, but would visit them next year again, when they would bring them more presents, and stay with them awhile ; but that, as they could not live without eating, they should then want a little land of them, to sow some seeds, in order to raise herbs to put in their broth."-Heckewelder, in ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., i., 71-73 ; and in Moulton, 252-254. Thus Indian tradition confirms and amplifies the authentic accounts of the revel on board the Half Moon as she was exploring the Hudson River. The tradition, however, while it preserves and embellishes the main fact, erroneously fixes the scene of the event at Manhattan Island. Mr. Heckewelder adds, that the Delawares derive the name of the island from the "general intoxication" which, according to their tradition, occurred there. But the Albany Records (xviii., 348) authoritatively declare that it was so called "after the ancient name of the tribe of savages among whom the Dutch first settled themselves." Besides, it appears very clear- ly from Juct's journal of Hudson's voyage, that the scene of the revelry was in the cabin of the Half Moon, while she was at anchor near Albany. See also Schoolcraft, in N. Y. H. S. Proc., 1844, Ap- pendix, 96, and North American Review, ix., 163-165.
NOTE B, CHAPTER I., PAGE 36.
" The country of which we propose to speak was first discovered, in the year of our Lord 1609, by the ship Half Moon, of which Henry Hudson was master and supercargo, at the expense of the char- tered East India Company, though in search of a different object [a northwest passage to China]. It was subsequently called New Netherland by our people, and very justly, as it was first discovered and possessed by Netherlanders, and at their cost ; so that even at the present day, those natives of the country who are so old as to recollect when the Dutch ships first came here, declare that when they saw them they did not know what to make of them, and could not comprehend whether they came down from heaven or were of the devil. Some of them, when the first one arrived, even imag- ined it to be a fish, or some monster of the sea, and accordingly a strange report of it spread over the whole land. We have also heard the Indians frequently say that they knew nothing of any other part of the world, or any other people than their own, before the arrival of the Netherlanders. For these reasons, therefore, and on account of the similarity of climate, situation, and fertility, this place is rightly called New Netherland."-Holland Documents, volume iv., page 71 ; Van der Donck's " Ver- toogh van Nieuw Nederlandt," translated by Mr. Murphy, in ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., ii., 261, 262 ; ante, p. 512.
"That this country was first discovered by the Netherlanders is evident and clear from the fact that the Indians or natives of the land, many of whom are still living, and with whom I have con- versed, declare freely that they are old enough to remember distinctly that before the arrival of our Netherland's ship the Half Moon, in the year 1609. they, the natives, did not know that there were any other people in the world than those who were like their neighbors round about them, much less any people who differed from them so much in race and fashion as we did. Their men were bare on the breast and about the mouth, and their women, like ours, very hairy ; they were unclothed, and al- most naked, especially in summer, and we were all the time clad and covered. When some of them first saw our ship approaching afar off, they did not know what to think about her, but stood in deep
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and solemn amazement, wondering whether it was a spook or apparition, and whether it came from heaven or from hell. Others of them supposed that it might be a strange fish or sca monster. They supposed these on board to be rather devils than human beings. Thus they differed among each Other in opinion. A strange report soon spread through their country about our visit, and created great talk and comment among all the Indians. This we have heard several Indians testify ; whichi we hold to be a certain proof that the Dutch were the first discoverers and settlers of New Nether- land. For there are Indians in the country who remember over one hundred years ; and so, if there had been any other people there before us, they would have known something of them ; and if they had not seen them themselves, they would at least have heard of them from their forefathers."-Van der Donek's Description of New Netherland, page 3, the first edition of which was published at Am- sterdam in 1655 ; ante, p. 561, note. An imperfect translation is In il., N. Y. H. S. Coll., i., 137.
NOTE C, CHAPTER I1., PAGE 44.
Heckewelder, in continuing his traditionary account, as given in note A, says : "The vessel ar- rived the season following [1610], and they were much rejoiced at seeing each other. But the whites laughed at them (the natives), seeing they knew not the use of the axes, hoes, &c., they had given them, they having had these hanging to their breasts as ornaments, and the stockings they had made use of as tobacco pouches. The whites now put handles or helves in the former, and cut trees down before their eyes, and dug the ground, and showed them the use of the stockings. Here, they say, a general laugliter ensued among the Indians, that they had remaincd for so long a time ignorant of the use of so valuable implements, and had borne with the weight of such heavy metal hanging to their necks for such a length of time. They took every white man they saw for a Manitto, yet inferior and attendant to the supreme Manitto, to wit, to the onc which wore the red and laced clothes."
"Familiarity daily increasing between them and the whites, the latter now proposed to stay with them, asking them only for so much land as the hide of a bullock would cover or encompass, which hide was brought forward and spread on the ground before then. That they readily granted this request ; whereupon the whites took a knife, and, beginning at one place on this hide, cut it up into a rope not thicker than the finger of a little child, so that by the time this hide was cut up, there was a great heap. That this rope was drawn out to a great distance, and then brought round again, so that both ends miglit mect. That they carefully avoided its breaking, and that upon the whole it encompassed a large piece of ground. That they (the Indians) were surprised at the superior wit of the whites, but did not wish to contend with them about a little land, as they had enough. That they and the whites lived for a long time contentedly together ; although these asked, from time to time, more land of them ; and, proceeding higher up the Mahicanittuk [the place of the Mahicans, or the Hudson River], they believed they would soon want all their country."-Heckewelder, in ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., 1., 73, 74 ; Moulton, 254, 255. Mr. Heckewelder adds, with reference to this part of the tradition, that the Dutch turned their classical knowledge of Queen Dido to a profitable account ; and the legend of the Delawares lias furnished material for much inirthful remark. It appears, how- ever, from the Holland Documents, i., 155, that, in the summer of 1626, Director Peter Minuit pur- chased the whole of Manhattan Island from its aboriginal owners for sixty guilders, or about twen- ty-four dollars of our present currency .- See ante, page 164.
NOTE D, CHAPTER II., PAGE 51 ; CHAPTER VIII., PAGE 227.
Almost every writer on American history that I have met with appears to have taken pains to per- petuate the stereotype error that "Lord Delawarr touched at this bay in his passage to Virginia in 1610." The earliest authority who seems to affirm this theory is Sir John Harvey, the governor of Virginia, who told De Vries, in 1633, that Lord Delawarr, " several years before," had been driven in there by foul weather, and had found it innavigable by reason of its being "full of banks."-Ante, page 227. But Harvey does not mention the partieular year ; and very probably he confounded Del- swarr with Hudson, whose mate's journal, printed by Purchas in 1625, states it to be "full of shoals." On the other hand, Lord Delawarr himself, in his letter of the 7th of July, 1610, giving an account of his voyage to Virginia, not only makes no mention of that bay, or of his approaching it, but expressly speaks of his first reaching the American coast on " the 6th of June, at what time we made land to the southward of our harbor, the Chesiopiock Bay."-Mus. Brit. Har. MSS., 7009, p. 58: also recently published in the Introduction to Strachey's Virginla Britannia, p. xxiv. The first Eu- ropean who is really known to have entered the bay, after Hudson, was Captain Samuel Argall, who, after losing Sir George Somers in a fog, on the 28th of July, 1610, While on his way to Bermuda, ran
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toward Cape Cod, whence he sailed southerly, until, on the evening of the 26th of August, he found himself twelve leagues from the Jersey coast. "The seven-and-twentieth by day, in the morning," says Argall in his journal, "I was faire aboard the shore, and by nine of the clocke I came to an an- chor in nine fathoms, in a very great bay, where I found great store of people, which were very kind, and promised me that the next day in the morning they would bring me great store of corne. But, about nine of the clocke that night, the wind shifted from southwest to east northeast. So I weighed presently, and shaped my course to Cape Charles. This bay lyeth in westerly thirty leagues. And the southern cape of it lyeth S.S.E. and N.N.W., and in thirtie-eight degrees twentie minutes of northerly latitude. The eight-and-twentieth day, about four of the clocke in the afternoon, I fell among a great many of shoals about twelve leagues to the southward of Cape La Warr. * * * The one-and-thirtieth, about seven of the clocke at night, I came to an anchor under Cape Charles."- Argall's Journal, in Purchas, iv., p. 1762. Strachey, in his "Virginia Britannia," p. 43, states that Argall, "in the latitude of thirty-nine, discovered another goodly bay, into which fell many tayles of faire and large rivers, and which might make promise of some westerly passage ; the Cape whereof, in thirty-eight and a half, he called Cape La Warr." This is nearly the latitude of Cape Hinlopen. As Argall remained at anchor during the single day he was at the Cape, he probably derived his in- formation about the large rivers which emptied into the bay from the Indians who visited him. If Lord Delawarr had been there two months before, Argall would no doubt have so stated it.
The name of Lord Delawarr, however, seems to have been given to the bay soon afterward by the Virginians. Argall, in his letter to Nicholas Hawes, of June, 1613, in Purchas, iv., 1764, speaks of hoping to find " a cut out of the bottom of our bay [the Chesapeake] into the Delawarre Bay." Lord Delawarr then certainly did not himself enter the bay "on his passage to Virginia, in 1610;" and it would seem that he never did, either on his return to England in 1611, or on his second voyage in 1618. In "Royal and Noble Authors," ii., 180, quoted by Bancroft, i., 152, Lord Delawarr is said to have died at Wherwell, in Hampshire, June 7th, 1618. On the other hand, he is stated to have sailed a second time from England in April, 1618, in a ship of two hundred and fifty tons, for Virginia. At Saint Michael's he was "honorably feasted." "Departing from thence, they were long troubled with contrary winds, in which time many fell sick, thirtie died, one of which was that honorable lord of noble memory. The rest refreshed themselves on that coast of New England with fish, fowl, wood, and water ; and, after sixteen weeks spent at sea, arrived in Virginia."-Purchas, iv., 1774 ; Smith, ii., 34.
NOTE E, CHAPTER II., PAGE 54; CHAPTER V., PAGE 140; CHAPTER XIV., PAGE 485.
Plantagenet's New Albion, Heylin's Cosmography, and Stith's History of Virginia, are the author- ities for this story of Argall's visit to Manhattan. Plantagenet, after stating Argall's expedition against the French at Nova Scotia, adds that, on their return, they "landed at Manhatas Isle, in Hudson's River, where they found four houses built, and a pretended Dutch governor under the West India Company of Amsterdam, share or part, who kept trading boats, and trucking with the Indians ; but the said knights told him their commission was to expel him and all alien intruders on his maj- esty's dominions and territories-this being part of Virginia, and this river an English discovery of Hudson, an Englishman. The Dutchman contented them for their charge and voyage, and, by his letter sent to Virginia and recorded, submitted himself, company, and plantation, to his majesty and to the governor and government of Virginia."-In ii., N. Y. H. S. Collect., i., 334, Mr. Folsom seems satisfied of the truth of the story ; while, in ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., ii., 326, Mr. Murphy asserts that it is " a pure fiction, unsustained by any good authority-though some writers have heaped up cita- tions on the subject-and is as fully susceptible of disproof as any statement of that character at that early period can be."
Singularly enough, the only authorities which affirm the fact of Argall's visit to Manhattan are printed English works. The earliest of these-from which the extract given above is taken-is the "New Albion" of "Beauchamp Plantagenet, Esqr.," published in 1648. This imposing pseudonym was assumed-probably by Sir Edmund Plowden, who, as grantee of the Irish patent for "New Al- bion" in 1634, had an obvious interest adverse to the Dutch title to New Netherland ; ante, p. 381. Almost the whole of Plantagenet's work, in fact, is now generally held to be a mass of absurd and inconsistent errors. Heylin, in his "Cosmography," which was published in 1652, seems only to have adopted and embellished Plantagenet's fanciful account. Stith's History of Virginia was orig- inally published at Williamsburg, in 1747. This author is said by Mr. Jefferson to have had access to the early records of Virginia, which were burned at Williamsburg. Stith also derived assistance from the MSS. of Sir John Randolph, and from the papers of the London Company, which were put into his hands by Colonel William Byrd, the president of the council. These papers, however, as Stith mentions in his preface, commence with 1619. If, instead of copying Heylin, as he does almost
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word for word, Stith had published the submission of the Dutch at Manhattan, said to have been " sent to Virginia and recorded," he would have settled the question.
It is extraordinary that no English or Dutch State Paper corroborates the story. Smith, who speaks of Argall's foray against the French in Acadia, does not allude to his entering our harbor. Dermer, who came directly from Virginia to Manhattan in 1620 (ante, p. 93), does not allude to any previous visit of Argall, who, moreover, was not knighted until 1622. In the application made to King James I., in 1621, the Dutch are stated to have entered there "the year past," that is, in 1620 (ante, p. 140). As Argall was one of the parties to this application, had he found the Dutch seated at Manhattan in 1613, and had he enforced their submission, he would no doubt have stated those facts in it. Captain John Mason, in his letter to Sir John Coke, of the 12th of April, 1632 (ante, p. 215), states that Argall was " preparing to go and sit down in his lot of land upon the said Manahatta River at the same time when the Dutch intruded, which caused a demur in their proceeding," and induced the Privy Council's instructions to Carleton in 1621 ; but Mason seems to avoid stating that Argall was ever actually at Manhattan .- N. Y. Col. MSS., iii., 17. Bradford, in his correspondence in 1627, though he alludes to Argall's surprise of the French settlements in 1613, says nothing about his alleged visit to Manhattan (ante, p. 176). Neither does Harvey refer to the subject, in his con- versations in 1633 with De Vries at Jamestown, where the submission of the Dutch is said to have been " recorded" (ante, p. 227). The silence of all these authorities upon this point is very significant, and, to me, conclusive against the truth of the story.
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