History of the state of New York Vol I, Part 8

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

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Manhattan.

Block com- pletes his ' the Restless."

* Figurative Map, from the archives at the Hague ; Doc. Hist. N. Y., iii., 27, 38 ; Wasse- naar, vi., 144 ; viii., 85 ; De Laet, book iii., cap. ix. ; De Vries, 113; Hol. Doc., ii., 136 ; Alb. Rec., xxii., 317 ; xxiv., 167 ; Smith's Hist. N. Y., i., 22. Castle Island was the first below Albany, and, after 1630, was known as Van Rensselaer's, or Patroon's Island. The rapid progress of improvement has, however, now nearly obliterated its former insu- lar character, and "annexed" it to the thriving capital of our state.

t See Appendix, note F.

# The " Restless" was forty-four and a half feet long, eleven and a half feet wide, and of about eight lasts or sixteen tons burden .- De Laet, book iii., cap. x. ; Hol. Doc., i., 53. Mr. Cooper, in his Naval History (i., p. 41), speaks of Block's yacht as "the first decked vessel built within the old United States." But the honor of precedence in American na- val architecture must, fairly, be yielded to Popham's unfortunate colony on the Kenne- beck. The "Virginia, of Sagadahoc," was the first European-built vessel within the original Thirteen States-if Maine be considered as part of Massachusetts. The " Rest- less, of Manhattan," was the pioneer craft of New York

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

CHAP. II. traders had not yet ventured. Sailing boldly through the then dangerous strait of "the Hell-gate,"* into "the Great

1614.

Sails through Hell-gate into Long Island Sound.

Discovers the Housa- tonic.

Explores the Connec- ticut River

Bay," or Long Island Sound, he carefully " explored all the places thereabout," as far as Cape Cod. Coasting along the northern shore, inhabited by the Siwanoos, Block gave the name of " Archipelagos" to the group of islands oppo- site Norwalk. At the present town of Stratford, he visit- ed the " River of Roodenberg," or Red Hills, now known as the Housatonic, which he described as about " a bow- shot wide," and in the neighborhood of which dwelt the indolent tribe of Quiripey Indians. Passing eastward along the bay at the head of which New Haven now stands, and which, on account of the red sandstone hills in its neighborhood, the Dutch also soon called the "Roo- denberg," Block came to the mouth of a large river run- ning up northerly into the land. At its entrance into the Sound it was " very shallow ;" and Block, observing that there were but few inhabitants near its mouth, ascended the river to the rapids, at the head of navigation. Near Wethersfield, he found the numerous Indian tribe of Se- quins. At the latitude of 41º 48'-between Hartford and Windsor-he came to a fortified village of the Nawaas tribe, who were then governed by their Sagamore Mora- hieck. Here he heard of " another nation of savages, who are called Horikans," dwelling " within the land," proba- bly near the lakes west of the upper part of the river, and who navigated the waters "in canoes made of bark." From the circumstance that a strong downward current was perceived at a short distance above its mouth, Block immediately named this beautiful stream the " Versch,"

* "Our people (the Dutch) call this Inferni os, or the Helle-gat," says the accurate De Laet. According to Block's account, as stated by De Laet, the Dutch likewise originally called the whole of what was soon more familiarly known as the "East River," by the name of the " Hell-gate River ;" and the currents from that river and from the North Riv- er are described as "meeting one another near Nutten (Governor's) Island." A branch of the Scheldt, near Hulst, in Zealand, is called the " Hellegat," after which Block proba- bly named the whirlpool through which he was the first known European pilot. Mod- ern squeamishness has endeavored to improve this expressive hi torical appellation into "Hurl-gate." But while modern science has overcome the nautical terrors of old Hell- gate, it is to be hoped that a vicious modern conceit will not prevail to rob us of one of the few remaining memorial names of early New York.

BLOCK EXPLORES LONG ISLAND SOUND.

or Fresh Water River. By the native savages it was call- CHAP. II ed the " Connittecock," or Quonehtacut ; and the aborig- inal appellation survives to the present day, in the name 1614. of the river and the state of Connecticut .*

covers the

Continuing his course eastward from the mouth of the Block dis- Connecticut, Block came to the " River of the Siccana- Thames mos," afterward called by the English the Pequod or River. Thames River, where he found the powerful tribe of Pe- quatoos or Pequods, who were " the enemies of the Wapa- noos," in possession of the country. From there, stretch- ing "over across the Sound," he visited the "Visscher's Hoeck," or " Cape de Baye," now known as Montauk Point, which he discovered to be the eastern extremity of " Sewan-hacky," or Long Island, "on which a nation of savages, who are called Matouwacks, have their abode." A little to the northeast of Montauk Point, he next visited Visits a large island, to which the Dutch immediately gave the and." name of " Block's Island," in honor of their countryman.t

Thence, following the track of Verazzano, Block ran across to Nassau, or Narragansett Bay, which he thorough- ly explored. The western entrance was named "Sloup Bay," and the eastern " Anchor Bay ;" while "an island

* De Laet, viii. ; Hol. Doc., vii., 72 ; Verbael van Beverninck, 607; Winthrop, i., 52. Trumbull, in his History of Connecticut (i., p. 31), affirms that " none of the ancient ad- venturers, who discovered the great continent of North America, or New England, made any discovery of this river. It does not appear that it was known to any civilized nation until some years after the settlement of the English and Dutch at Plymouth and New Netherland." Yet Hubbard (Mass. Coll., xv., 18, 170) distinctly states that the Dutch first discovered it; and if Trumbull had consulted the accurate details of De Laet, he would have found the clearest evidence that Block explored not only the river, but the whole coast of Connecticut, in 1614, or six years before the first Puritan English colonists landed at Plymouth Rock. Bancroft, ii., 273, following Hubbard, says that "the discov- ery of Connecticut River is undoubtedly due to the Dutch." It would have been safe to have added that Block was " its first European navigator."

' + It has been usual to consider Block as the first discoverer of the island which still bears liis name. But while we thus honor the memory of the explorer of Long Island Sound, we should not forget to do justice to his predecessor Verazzano, who, in 1524, after sailing along the Atlantic coast of Long Island (which he took to be the main land), for fifty leagues eastward from Sandy Hook, " discovered an island of a triangular form, about ten leagues from the main land, in size about equal to the island of Rhodes." This island, which was undoubtedly Block Island, Verazzano named " Claudia," in honor of the mother of King Francis I. It is so laid down in Lock's map of 1582 .- Hakluyt So- ciety's " Divers Voyages," 55, 64; N. Y. H. S. Coll., i., 53 ; i. (second series), 46, 49. The editor of Ilakluyt, however, though he seems unable to reconcile Verazzano's account with the supposition that "Claudia" was Martha's Vineyard, does not appear to have thought of Block Island.

" Block Ist

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

CHAP. II. of a reddish appearance" was observed lying within. This was soon known by the Dutch as "Roode" or Red Island,

1614.

Explores the Narra- gansett Bay and Rhode Island.

from which is derived the name of the present State of Rhode Island. Along the western shore of the bay dwelt the tribe of Wapanoos, whom Block described as " strong of limb and of moderate size," but somewhat shy, "since they are not accustomed to trade with strangers." Run- ning out of the Narragansett, he stood across the mouth of Buzzard's Bay to the southward of the Elizabeth Isl- ands, formerly visited by Gosnold, and sailed by the large " white and clayey" island, commonly called " Texel" by the Dutch, and " Capacke" by others, and which is now known as Martha's Vineyard. South of the Texel, Block Visits Mar- observed another small island, which he immediately named " Hendrick Christiaensen's Island," in compliment to his early comrade. This island, which Gosnold had discovered, and named Martha's Vineyard, is now called " No Man's Land ;" while, with a happier fate, Block Isl- and, retaining to this day the name which the Dutch first gave it, preserves the memory of the hardy pioneer of Long Island Sound.

tha's Vine- yard.

Sailing onward through the " Zuyder Zee," to the north of the island of "Vlieland," or Nantucket, Block passed near the ".Vlacke Hoeck," or Cape Malebarre, and ran along the shore of Cape Cod, until he reached its northern Block pass- es Cape Cod. point, which he named " Cape Bevechier." Thence he coasted along the "Fuyck," or "Wyck Bay," or " Staten Bay"-which names the Dutch gave to the waters now known as Cape Cod Bay-and explored the shore of Mas- sachusetts as far north as "Pye Bay, as it is called by some of our navigators, in latitude 42° 30', to which the limits of New Netherland extend." This Pye Bay is now known Visits Bos- as Nahant Bay, just north of Boston harbor, and, at the time Block first visited it, " a numerous people" dwelt there, who were " extremely well-looking, but timid and shy of Christians," so that it required " some address to approach them."*

* De Laet, book iii., cap. viii .; ante, p. 54; ii. N. Y. H. S. Coll., i., 292-297. It is

ton harbor and Na- hant.

BLOCK RETURNS TO HOLLAND.

On his return from Pye Bay to Cape Cod, Block fell in CHAP. II with the ship of Hendrick Christiaensen, which seems, meanwhile, to have been sent around from Manhattan to the northward. Leaving there his yacht, the Restless, which had already done such good service, in charge of Cornelis Hendricksen, to make further explorations on the coast, Block embarked in his old companion's ship, the For- tune, and returned with her to Holland, to report the dis- coveries which he and his fellow-navigators had made in the New World .*

1614.

Block leaves the Restless at Cape Cod, and returns to Holland.

In the mean time, the States General, anxious to encour- age the foreign commerce of Holland, had granted, early 27 January. in 1614, a liberal charter to an association of merchants, The for prosecuting the whale fishery in the neighborhood of Company" " Northern Nova Zembla, and the exploration of a new passage to by the organized States Gen- China. Of this association, which was named "the North- eral. ern Company," Lambrecht van Tweenhuysen, one of the owners of Block's ship, was an original director; and among his subsequent associates were Samuel Godyn, Nicholas Jacobsen Haringcarspel, and Thymen Jacobsen Hinlopen, whose names have also become historical in our annals.t

The importance of a similar concession of privileges in favor of the merchants, at whose expense new avenues of trade were now being explored in the neighborhood of Man- hattan, was soon perceived ; and the States of Holland 20 March. were petitioned to recommend the general government to pass an ordinance which should assure to all enterprising adventurers a monopoly, for a limited time, of the trade

clear that Block sailed beyond Cape Cod to Pye Bay, as he gives its distance from the Lizard by his observations. See also the "Figurative Map," or chart, found in the archives at the Hague (no doubt the one to which De Laet refers on page 294), upon which Plym- outh harbor is marked as "Crane Bay," and Boston harbor as "Fox Haven," while Salem Bay is called "Count Hendrick's Bay" (Appendix, note G). The same designa- tions are retained upon Visscher's and Montanus's maps, which also lay down "Pye Bay" as near Nahant. The latitude of Nahant is 42º 30', which corresponds precisely with that of " Pye Bay," as given by De Laet.

* De Laet, book iii., cap. x. ; Hol. Doc., i., 53-59. De Laet, after stating Block's ex- ploration of the neighborhood of Cape Cod, in the Restless, adds, "whence he returned home with the ship of Hendrick Christiaensen, and left the yacht there on the coast for further use." The translation in N. Y. H. S. Coll. (second series), i., 301, is inexact. Muilkerk, A, 23, suggests that Cornelis Hendricksen was a son of Hendrick Christiaensen.

t Groot Placaatbook, i., 670 ; Wassenaar, vii., 95; viii., 95 ; ix., 124.

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

1614. 27 March. General ordinance for the en- courage- ment of new dis- coveries.

CHAP. II. with the lands they might discover. The States General accordingly passed the desired ordinance, declaring it to be " honorable, useful, and profitable," that the people of the Netherlands should be encouraged to adventure them- selves in discovering unknown countries ; and, for the pur- pose of making the inducement " free and common to ev- ery one of the inhabitants," granting and conceding that; " whosoever shall from this time forward discover any new passages, havens, lands, or places, shall have the exclusive right of navigating to the same for four voyages." The ordinance also required that reports of such discoveries should be made to the States General within fourteen days after the return of the exploring vessels, in order that the promised specific trading privileges should be formally pass- ed, in each case, to the adventurers appearing to be enti- tled to them ; and that if simultaneous discoveries should be made by different parties, the promised monopoly should be enjoyed by them in common .*

September. Upon Block's arrival at Amsterdam with the details of the Dutch explorations on the coast of America, the mer- chants of North Holland, whose enterprise had been re- warded by such interesting results, hastened to appropriate to themselves the advantageous trade opened to them there, and to exclude all other rivalry. Uniting themselves into Amsterdam a company, they took the necessary steps to obtain the Trading Company formed. special privileges which were promised in the General Or- dinance of the 27th of March. A skillful draughtsman was employed to construct an elaborately finished " Fig- urative Map" of their transatlantic discoveries, which was probably prepared under Block's immediate supervision, and from the data that he furnished.t The associates then deputed some of their number to go to the Hague, and lay before the States General an account of their dis- coveries in America, and to obtain the desired special and exclusive license to trade to those regions.

October.

The deputies, probably accompanied by Block, accord-

* Hol. Doc., i., 15, 19 ; Groot Placaatbook, i., 563.

t See Appendix, note G, for a description of this map.

THE BINNENHOF AT THE HAGUE.

ingly proceeded to the capital. Unlike other Dutch cit- CHAP. Il. ies, the Hague owed its importance, not to commerce or manufactures, but to having carly been made the seat of 1614. Deputies government of the United Provinces, and to the constant sent to the Hague. presence of the officers of state and the foreign ministers accredited to the republic. For four centuries the abode of the counts of Holland, it derives its name from the " Haeg" or hedge encircling the magnificent park which formed their ancient hunting ground, and the majestic. trees in which, at this day, attract the admiration of Eu- rope. On an artificial island in the centre of that beauti- ful town-its long façade bordering the quiet lake which fronts the Vyverberg-stands a straggling pile of build- ings, of irregular forms and of various eras, surrounding a vast quadrangle, quaintly paved with small yellow bricks, and inclosing a lofty and venerable hall, the rival of West- minster, formerly hung round with trophies of the victo- rious confederacy, and in which were held the solemn and extraordinary meetings of the States General. Spacious galleries and corridors, now consecrated to the preservation of the archives of the Netherlands, stretch over long ar- cades and gilded apartments, the faded magnificence of which yet attests the former splendor of the republic, when her calm statesmen sat there in the days of her pomp and power. This is the " Binnenhof," or inner court-the an- The Bin- cient palace of the counts of Holland. Here the States nenhof. General constantly held their ordinary meetings, in a su- perbly-decorated apartment facing the old Gothic Hall ; their clerk or "greffier" occupying a small, meagerly-fur- nished adjoining closet, where ambassadors were frequent- ly received, and the weightiest affairs of state transacted.

Hither came the deputies of the Amsterdam Company Interview to tell their story of adventure and discovery, and to ask States Gen- with the the reward promised to their successful enterprise. Around eral. the oval council-table sat twelve " high, mighty lords" of the States General. One of the assembly was John van Olden Barneveldt, the Advocate of Holland .. Spreading upon the council-board the "Figurative Map" of their

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

CHAP. II. transatlantic discoveries, the petitioners related to the 1614. statesmen of Holland the adventures of their agents in the New World ; and, detailing the " heavy expenses and damages" they had suffered during the current year " from the loss of ships and other great risks," they asked a special and exclusive license to trade to the regions which they had explored. The assembled statesmen list- ened to the narrative with interest and favor. Dutch com- mercial enterprise had now achieved the exploration of unknown and extensive regions in North America, which might soon become of great political importance to the re- public. These regions were sparsely inhabited by various roving tribes of aboriginal savages, who had already shown kindness to the Hollanders. No Europeans but the Dutch traders were in possession of any part of the territory. Why should not the Amsterdam Company now receive" their promised charter ? The States General promptly complied with the prayer of their countrymen; and the 11 October. greffier, Cornelius Aerssen, at once drew up the minute of a special trading license or charter, the original of which yet records, in almost illegible characters, the first ap- pearance of the term "New Netherland" in the annals of the world. The formal instrument, bearing date the 11th of October, 1614, was immediately afterward duly sealed and attested; and thus the government of the United Provinces, by its solemn act, officially designated the un- occupied regions of America lying between Virginia and Canada by a name which they continued to bear for half a century, until, in the fullness of time, right gave way to power, and the Dutch colony of New Netherland became the English province of New York .*

* Holland Documents, i., 42, 47. . This special charter was brought to light by the re- searches made in the archives at the Hague, in 1841, by direction of the government of this state. De Laet, however, who wrote in 1624, refers to it in chapter vii., in general terms, and without giving its exact date, as granting an "exclusive privilege" of navi- gating to and trading at New Netherland. Yet Chalmers, in the teeth of De Laet's state- ments, asserts, that when the Dutch West India Company was finally established in 1621, " neither any plantation nor the name of New Netherland at that time had any exist- ence."-Pol. An., 569. But the whole of the first part of this biased author's chapter re- lating to New York, as has already been intimated, abounds in gross misrepresentations,. some of which have been too eagerly adopted by American writers.

New Neth- erland for- mally nam- ed by the States Gen- eral

THE NEW NETHERLAND CHARTER OF 1614.

The special charter thus granted by the States General licensed the memorialists " exclusively, to visit and navi- gate to the aforesaid newly-discovered lands lying in Ameri- ca, between New France and Virginia, the sea-coasts where- of extend from the fortieth to the forty-fifth degree of lati- tude, now named NEW NETHERLAND (as is to be seen on the Figurative Map prepared by them), for four voyages within the period of three years, commencing on the first day of January, 1615, next ensuing, or sooner ;" and it ex- pressly interdicted all other persons, directly or indirectly, from sailing out of the United Provinces to those newly- discovered regions, and from frequenting the same within the three years reserved, under pain of confiscation of ves- sels and cargoes, and a fine of fifty thousand Netherland ducats to the benefit of the grantees of the charter .*

CHAP. II.

1614. Provisions of the New Netherland charter.

At the time the Dutch government perfected the New Views of Netherland charter, the discovery and possession of Canada General in the States and Acadia by the French was notorious ; and the patent the char- granting which James I. had granted to the London and Plymouth ter. Companies had likewise, for eight years, been known to the world. British colonists had already partially occu- pied Virginia, the title of England to which the Dutch never questioned. The States General themselves had officially recognized it, in permitting Gates and Dale to leave their service to go thither, and in making overtures to join with England in that colony. Upon the Figura- tive Map of New Netherland, referred to in the charter of 1614, New France was represented as extending north- ward of the forty-fifth degree, and Virginia southward of the fortieth degree. The Dutch discoveries were defined

* The charter sets forth the names of the grantees, and of their vessels and captains, as follows : " Gerrit Jacobsen Witsen, former burgomaster of the city of Amsterdam ; Jonas Witsen, and Simon Monisen, owners of the ship the 'Little For,' Captain Jan de Witt ; Hans Hongers, Paulus Pelgrom, and Lambrecht van Tweenhuysen, owners of the two ships named the 'Tiger' and the ' Fortune,' whose captains are Adriaen Block and Hen- drick Christiaensen ; Arnoudt van Lybergen, Wessel Schenck, Hans Claessen, and Barent Sweetsen, owners of the ship named the 'Nightingale,' whose captain is Thys Volckert- sen, merchants of the aforesaid city of Amsterdam; and Pieter Clementsen Brouwer, Jan Clementsen Kies, and Cornelis Volckertsen, merchants of the city of Hoorn, owners of the ship named the ' Fortune,' whose captain is Cornelis Jacobsen May."-Hol. Doc., i., 47., See also Address before N. Y. Historical Society, 1844, Appendix, p. 53 ; and O'Cal- laghan's New Netherland, i., 75.

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

CHAP. II. in that charter, as lying between New France and Vir- 1614. ginia, and the sea-coasts of New Netherland were declared to extend from the fortieth to the forty-fifth degree of lat- itude. This intermediate region, which Block and his comrades had described as inhabited only by aboriginal savage tribes, was yet "unoccupied by any Christian prince or state." The Plymouth Company, by the pat- ent of 1606, were merely authorized to begin a colony at any convenient place between the thirty-eighth and forty- fifth degrees of latitude ; were promised all the land ex- tending along the sea-coast, fifty miles on each side of " the first seat of their plantation," and one hundred miles into the interior ; and were assured that they should not be molested by any British subjects. After the return of their dispirited colonists from the Sagadahoc, in 1608, that company had seemed to relinquish any further attempts to settle emigrants within the limits assigned to them by the patent ; under which, in fact, no subsequent English colonization ever took place. Though British fishing ves- sels continued to resort to that neighborhood, the country itself was esteemed as " a cold, barren, mountainous, rocky desart," and was declared to be "not habitable" by En- glishmen .* In the same summer that Block was explor- ing Long Island Sound and the regions to the north and east, Smith was visiting the bays and coasts of Maine and Massachusetts; and the Crown Prince of Great Britain was confirming the name of "New England," which Smith had given to the territories north of Cape Cod, about the very time that the States General were passing their first charter of trading privileges to the " Directors of New Netherland." But New England, though it had a nom- inal existence, was yet uncolonized in any part. Its re- cent name had not even reached the ears of the Dutch statesmen at the Hague. They might justly have con- New Neth- sidered the territory which they now formally named " New Netherland" as a " vacuum domicilium," fairly open to Dutch enterprise and occupation. In granting

New En- gland es- teemed a "desart."

erland a " vacuum domicili- um" open to the Dutch.

* Hazard, i., 50-58 ; Smith, Gen. Hist., ii., 174 ; Mass. Hist. Coll., xxvi., 56.

BLOCK IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN.

the charter of 1614, the States General certainly exer- CHAP. II. cised a distinct act of sovereignty over that territory by giving it the name of New Netherland. But while they 1614. specifically defined the boundaries of their grant as in- cluding the regions " between New France and Virginia," they only assured to the associated merchants, whose en- terprise had been rewarded by important discoveries, a monopoly of the trade of that country against the compe- tition of other Dutch subjects, without for the present as- serting the right to exclude the rest of the world.

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History of the state of New York Vol I, Part 8

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