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2. The fort at New Amsterdam, which had been commenced several years before, was completed, a guard-house and bar- racks for the soldiers erected, and a church and parsonage built, under his direction. An angry controversy soon sprung up between Bogardus and the Governor, in which the citizens generally took part, growing out of his administration of the affairs of the province. Bitter recriminations passed between the parties, - the anathemas of the Church were hurled upon the devoted head of the Director, who, in turn, denounced his reverend antagonist, - and the strife was prolonged to the close of his brief administration.
Swedish settlement on the Delaware by Minuit. - Erection of Fort Chris- tina. - Death of Minuit. - Governor Van Twiller. - His character. - Controversy with Bogardus. - Adam Roelandsen. - Rebuilding of the fort. - Erection of a church.
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DISCOVERIES AND SETTLEMENTS.
3. In the mean time Jacob Eelkins, a former agent of the Company at Fort Orange, who had been dismissed from their employ, arrived at Manhattan as supercargo of an English ves- sel engaged in the fur-trade. The Governor refused to per- mit the vessel to proceed without the production of a suitable license from the Company. Eelkins declined exhibiting his commission, and claimed the right to trade with the natives as an Englishman to whom the territory legitimately belonged, and after displaying the English flag, and firing a salute in honor of the English king, proceeded up the river in defiance of the guns of the fort.
4. Van Twiller immediately summoned a meeting of the citizens at the square before the fort, now the Bowling Green. and after collecting their sentiments, and indulging m much bravado and festive display of loyalty to the government of the Prince of Orange, despatched an armed force to Fort Orange, whither Eelkins had already repaired, erected a tent, and was engaged in trading with the natives. The soldiers proceeded, on their arrival, to demolish his tent, take possession of his wares, and reconduct his vessel to Fort Amsterdam, whence it was sent to sea, with a warning henceforth to cease from intermeddling with the Dutch trade.
5. The Governor, soon after entering upon the duties of his administration, had despatched Jacob Van Corlaer and other agents to purchase of the Pequod Indians a tract of land on the Connecticut River, near the present site of Hartford. Upon this tract they built and fortified a redoubt, which they named Fort Good Hope. Against this invasion of their territory the Plymouth and Massachusetts colonies, through Governor Win- throp, sent an earnest remonstrance to Van Twiller, to which he returned a courteous reply, proposing a reference of their respective claims to their several governments.
6. The Plymouth colonists, however, having secured from the Indians a small tract in the vicinity of the fort, sent Lieutenant William Holmes with a sufficient force to take possession and commence an English settlement on the present site of Windsor.
Jacob Eelkins's visit to Manhattan. - Defiance of the authority of the Governor. - Van Twiller's proccedings. - Difficulties between the Dutch and English colonists on the Connecticut.
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24.
SECOND PERIOD.
Van Corlaer ineffectually endeavored to oppose their progress, and Van Twiller sent a force of seventy soldiers to dislodge . them. The Dutch commander, however, intimidated by their bold bearing, withdrew without any attempt at their expul- sion.
7. Van Twiller met with better success in expelling a band of English intruders from the Virginia colony, who, headed by George Holmes, had taken possession of Fort Nassau. The Governor promptly despatched an armed force to South River, which dislodged the occupants and brought them back as pris- oners to Fort Amsterdam, whence they were returned to Point Comfort just in season to intercept a party of their countrymen intending to join them. This energetic display of spirit secured to the province the undisputed control of the South River colony.
1636 - 7. S. After purchasing on his own account, in con- junction with Jacob Van Corlaer and others, a tract of fifteen thousand acres of land, now comprising the flourishing town of Flatlands, to which he afterwards added the islands now known as Governor's, Blackwell's, and Randall's, thus rendering himself the wealthiest landholder in the province, he involved himself, with characteristic recklessness and impetuosity, in a quarrel with Van Dincklagen, one of the ablest members of his Council. The latter had complained of his rapacity, and in re- turn had been deprived of his salary, removed from his office, and sent a prisoner to Holland on a charge of contumacy.
9. Van Dincklagen made so strong a representation of the in- efficiency and corruption of the Governor, that the States-Gen- eral urged the Amsterdam Chamber to recall him and reinstate his councillor, with which request the Chamber, after some de- lay, reluctantly complied. Prior, however, to his recall, the West India Company had effected the purchase of Pavonia from its patroon, which conferred upon them possession of and juris- diction over the Jersey shore and Staten Island. The patroon- ship of Rensselaerwyck was therefore the only property of tuis description remaining in the province.
Invasion of Fort Nassau and its reconquest. - Rapacity and wealth of Van Twiller. - Controversy with Van Dincklagen. - Recall of Van Twil- ler. - Purchase of Pavonia.
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DUTCH GOVERNMENT.
CHAPTER IV.
ADMINISTRATION OF WILHELM KIEFT.
1. Ox the 28th of March, 1638, WILHELM KIEFT ar- 1638. rived at Manhattan as the successor of Van Twiller in the government of the colony. He was a man of considerable energy of character, - irritable, capricious, and injudicious, and wholly deficient in that firmness, prudence, and cool discrimina- tion so necessary to his difficult position. His previous career as a merchant at Amsterdam, and subsequently in the employ of the Government, had been stained with dishonor and criminal rapacity. and his administration of the new duties devolved upon him was a stormy and disastrous one ; marked by the assump- tion of dictatorial powers, and distinguished chiefly for rashness, improvidenec, and sanguinary contests with the surrounding Indian tribes.
2. Immediately on his accession he surrounded himself with a Council entirely devoted to his own interests, and obedient in all things to his will. With characteristic activity he set about the reform of a variety of abuses which had crept into the pub- lic service under the lax administration of his predecessor. He prepared a code of laws and regulations strictly prohibiting all illegal traffic under heavy penalties, establishing rigid sanitary observances, and repressing all forms of vice and immorality.
3. He soon became involved in difficulties with the Swedish colonies on the Delaware and the English settlements on the Connecticut. His remonstrances, however, against the intrusion of the Swedish settlers on territory claimed by the Dutch, were disregarded both by the colonists and the States-General, who were unwilling to offend so powerful a neighbor ; and he was re- luctantly compelled to turn his attention in another direction.
4. A new charter of privileges was conferred upon the colonies by the Company : restricting the patroon rights 1632. of occupancy to four miles of frontage on navigable rivers und eight miles inland ; granting two hundred acres of land to every
Wilhelm Kieft. - His character and antecedents. - Reform of alves. - Code of laws and regulations. - Difficulties with the Swedish colonists. - New charter of privileges.
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SECOND PERIOD.
six settlers who should transport themselves to the colony at their own expense ; giving the right of choosing. their own magis- trates to all villages and cities thereafter to be established ; re- linquishing the monopoly of the Indian trade in exchange for a moderate duty ; and making a liberal provision for individual settlers. The Reformed Dutch religion was recognized as the established faith of the province, with full toleration, however, to all other sects; and no discrimination, except an oath of fealty to the Dutch Government, was permitted to exist between foreigners and other citizens.
5. Attracted by these inducements, the colonization of the province rapidly increased, both from Holland and the New England and Virginia colonies. The cultivation of tobacco was introduced ; new fruit-trees and other flowering plants and garden vegetables were domesticated ; and the internal affairs of the colonists were prosperous beyond any previous experience. Large tracts of land on Long Island in the vicinity of the pres- ent Newtown, purchased for the Company by the Governor, were brought into cultivation ; a settlement was commenced at Gravesend by Anthony Jansen Rapelye, the brother of the founder of the Walloon Colony ; and other purchases were made of valuable farms in the vicinity of the city.
1640. 6. In the spring of 1640 Kieft, also in behalf of the Company, purchased of the Indians all the remaining ter- ritory comprised within the present limits of Kings and Queens Counties, and De Vries soon after established another colony at Tappan. These were followed in the ensuing year by a colony on the Hackensack River, by Vander Voorst, and on all that part of Staten Island not already in possession of De Vries, by Cornelius Melyn. A few scattered settlements had been effected on the castern part of Long Island, at Southampton. South- old and Greenport, under English grants, and a few years later the towns of East Hampton and Setauket, were founded under the same authority, without any attempts at disturbance on the part of the Dutch Government.
7. An expedition was during this year fitted out at New Haven by George Lamberton, a merchant, with fifty families,
Internal prosperity of the colony. - Progress of settlements on Long Island.
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DISCOVERIES AND SETTLEMENTS. ·
for a settlement on the shores of the Delaware. Touching at Manhattan, the emigrants were forbidden by Kieft to prose- cute further their enterprise. They, however, disregarded his threats, and proceeded on their voyage. Kieft, indignant at this defiance of his authority, organized a force for their sum- mary expulsion ; but, being prevented by Indian disturbances at home, deferred the enterprise until the following year, when with the aid of the Swedes he succeeded in breaking up the set- tlement and sending back the English with their goods to New Haven. Lamberton, who persisted in trading at the South River, was arrested and compelled to pay full duties on his cargo. Demands for satisfaction on the part of the English col- onics, and continued annoyances ensuing from the refusal on the part of Kieft, induced the latter finally to proclaim an ordi- nance of non-intercourse with the Connecticut colony.
8. Negotiations were now opened for the purchase of the ter- ritory in the ucighborhood of the Dutch post on the Connecticut River; but all terms being refused, both parties appealed to their respective governments for redress. The pendeney of the civil war in England, however, prevented a settlement of the difficul- ties ; and the English colonists continued for some time longer to harass and disturb their Dutch neighbors.
9. In July, 1640, Kieft sent an armed force against 1640. the Raritan Indians, belonging to the Delaware tribe in New Jersey, for an alleged robbery on Staten Island, by a portion of the tribe. Although these Indians were entirely innocent of the offence, ten of their warriors were ruthlessly slaughtered and their crops and other property destroyed. This severe chastise- ment soon provoked a bloody retaliation. The plantation of De Vries, on Staten Island, was attacked, his dwelling burned, and four of his planters killed. Other ontrages speedily followed, and the foundations were thus laid for a vindictive contest, which for a time threatened the extermination of the infant colony.
10. Satisfaction having been refused by the chiefs of the offending tribes, a general declaration of war against the 1641. savages was resolved upon. Previously, however, to engaging in active hostilities, Kieft deemed it prudent to console a
Lamberton's expedition to the Delaware. - Proceedings of Kieft. - Attack upon the Raritan Indians. - Burning of De Vries' plantation. - Indian War.
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. SECOND PERIOD.
general council of the principal citizens, who, on the 28th of August, 1641, nominated a select committee of twelve of their number to act as their representatives. This committee, while making every preparation for the impending conflict, exerted, in conjunction with the officers and agents of the Company, the utmost efforts for the peaceful settlement of the controversy.
1642. 11. Kieft, however, succeeded, in the commencement of the ensning year, in obtaining a reluctant consent from the representative Council for the immediate adoption of vigor- ous measures for the chastisement of the Indians. He at once despatched a party of eighty men up the river, with orders to exterminate by fire and sword the neighboring Westchester tribe, a member of which, in retaliation for a murder committed twenty years before by Minuit's farm servants, had slain in cold blood an unoffending citizen, and was protected and justified by the tribe. The Indians, however, on learning their danger, sued for peace, promising to deliver up the murderer.
12. Pending these negotiations, two other murders were com- mitted by the Indians, and satisfaction was promptly demanded by the Governor. In the mean time a band of Mohawks made a descent upon the river Indians, and, after killing and captur- ing many of their number, compelled them to flee for succor to the Dutch at Manhattan. More than a thousand of the hapless fugitives eneamped on the Jersey shore at Pavonia, while the residue crossed the river, and appealed to the colonists for pro- tection against their enraged and relentless enemies. A favor- able opportunity was thus afforded for the restoration of friendly relations between the settlers and the natives ; but it was frus- trated by an act of wanton and disgraceful treachery and cruelty unparalleled in the annals of civilized humanity.
1643. 13. The faction in New Amsterdam in favor of a war of extermination against the Indians, supported by the influence of the Governor, succeeded in obtaining from that officer full authority to avail themselves of the helpless condi- tion of the fugitives thus thrown upon their hospitality, by a gen- eral and indiscriminate massacre. In defiance of the most ur-
Formation of a representative committee. - Expedition against West- chester Indians, - Attack of the Mohawks upon the river tribes. - Massacre of the Indians at Pavonia and Corlaer's Hook.
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DUTCH GOVERNMENT.
gent remonstrances of the leading citizens, at midnight on the 25th of February, 1643, this inhuman and revolting outrage was perpetrated under the immediate sanction of the Gov. ernor, and eighty of the Indians at Pavonia - men, women, and children, surprised in the midst of their unsuspecting slumbers - were despatched by the muskets of their enemies or driven into the river to perish. A similar massacre was at the same time perpetrated at Corlaer's Hook, upon the confiding and unconscious savages there.
14. These atrocious deeds reflect indelible infamy upon the memory of Kieft, who was solely responsible for their commis- sion. Well had it been if the swift retribution for their enor- Inity could have fallen only upon him and his inhuman ad- visers and instruments ! All the neighboring tribes immediately concentrated their forces for avenging this outrage upon their brethren, and openly proclaimed an unrelenting war against the devoted colonists. They took possession of the swamps and morasses of the island, lay in wait to shoot down the settlers at their work, to drive off their cattle, burn their dwellings, cap- ture their wives and children, and devastate their possessions. Universal terror prevailed. The white settlements on every hand were attacked, and the colonists were reduced to despair.
15. Overtures of peace, preferred by Kieft, who too late began to repent his rashness, were scornfully rejected. Bitter recriminations passed between his cowardly advisers and him- self ; and the persecuted colonists heaped the most contuine- lious reproaches upon his head for his agency in bringing about the deplorable condition in which they found themselves. They even threatened his deposition and arrest as a prisoner, and talked of sending him in chains to Holland. De Vries alone. who had thrown the whole weight of his influence in opposition to the infatuated policy of the Governor, retained the confidence as well of the colonists as their maddened opponents, the savages.
16. Early in the spring, however, a white flag approached the fort, and through De Vries and Olfertson, who alone dared to confront the Indians who bore it, an interview took place with the sachems of the surrounding tribes, followed by a treaty providing for a temporary truce. In August the war
Indian hostilities. - Indignation against the Governor. - De Vries.
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SECOND PERIOD.
was again renewed, a new representative Council summoned by the Governor, an alliance entered into with the Long Island tribes, and energetic preparations made for offensive military operations, under the charge of Captain John Underhill.
17. The Indians on their part renewed their savage attacks upon all the neighboring settlements. The outlying farms were ruthlessly sacked ; the plantation of the celebrated Anne Hutchinson on the East River near Hell Gate burned, and her- self, and her whole family, with one exception, murdered ; and throughout Westchester and the adjoining settlements, on Long Island and the Jersey shore, indiscriminate plunders and massacres were of daily occurrence. The sole place of safety for the hunted colonists was the fort at New Amsterdam, where some two or three hundred defenders, with their wives and children, were collected to resist the constant attacks of fifteen hundred armed and maddened savages. De Vries, finding him- self ruined, and helpless, notwithstanding his great · influence with the Indians, to avert the calamitous results of Kieft's reck- less folly, abandoned the colony and returned to Holland.
1644. 18. The aid of the New Haven colony was in this emergency unsuccessfully invoked by the Council ; and after an carnest and pressing appeal to Holland for assistance in this their hour of sore distress, the colonists sent out several expeditions against the Indian villages. The chief of one of the friendly Long Island tribes at Hempstead having fallen under suspicion of treachery to the whites, Kieft, without any effort to ascertain the truth of the charge, despatched a force of one hundred and twenty men with orders to exterminate the tribe. These orders were promptly carried into effect with circum- stances of revolting barbarity and cruelty. Upwards of a hun- dred warriors were slaughtered, and two prisoners, conducted to Fort Amsterdam, put to death with excruciating tortures.
19. Underhill was then ordered with a hundred and fifty men on an expedition against the Connecticut Indians at Greenwich, who were surrounded at midnight, while celebrat- ing one of their annual festivals, and put to the sword.
Truce with the Indians. - Renewal of the war. - Military preparations of the colonists. - Devastations of the Indians. - Murder of Anne Hutch- inson. - Helpless condition of the settlers. - Massacre of Long Island Indians. - Massacre at Greenwich of Connecticut Indians.
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DISCOVERIES AND SETTLEMENTS.
Nearly two hundred of their number were killed, and the residue forced into their wigwams, which were immediately fired, and their hapless occupants either burned or shot in their efforts to escape. Eight only, of six hundred men, women, and children, escaped the fearful slaughter and conflagration. This san- guinary battle virtually terminated the war, although desul- tory hostilities continued down to the fall of the succeed- ing year, 1645, when a final treaty of peace and amity was concluded at the Bowling Green, and a day of gen- 1645. eral thanksgiving proclaimed.
20. At this period scarcely a hundred men were left on Manhattan Island, and such of the neighboring colonists as survived the calamities of the war had been reduced to por- erty and destitution. Cattle, farms, provisions, and dwellings were destroyed, and everything bore tokens of a long, perilous, and deadly struggle with an infuriated and savage foe. A re- inforcement of Dutch soldiers, forwarded by Stuyvesant, then Governor of Curacoa, were billeted upon the citizens, and the expense of their clothing supplied by the imposition of an excise tax. Indignant at the enforcement of this additional burden, the Council demanded the recall of Kieft, denounced him as the author of the war, and petitioned for the allowance to the citizens of a voice in the municipal government.
21. Their memorial met with a favorable reception. 1647. Kieft was ordered home, new regulations for the gov- ernment of the province were made, and its administration confided to new hands. On his outward voyage, the late Gov- ernor perished by shipwreck, leaving behind him a melancholy record of abused power and perverted opportunities of useful-
ness. With him were two of the members of the Council, un- der sentence of banishment by the new Director on charges preferred by Kieft, and Dominie Bogardus, who was on his way to answer similar charges preferred by the new Council. The two former were rescued and subsequently returned with honor to the colony. Bogardus and eighty others, including the Gov- ernor, went down with the ill-fated vessel.
Treaty of peace. - General thanksgiving. - Reduced condition of the col- ony. - Arrival of reinforcements. - Excise tax. - Indignation of the citi- zeus. - Recall and death of Kieft.
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NORR-CU.SE
New Amsterdam in 1656.
CHAPTER V.
ADMINISTRATION OF PETER STUYVESANT.
1. PETER STUYVESANT, the newly appointed Director, took possession of the government on the 11th of May, 1647. 1647. On his arrival he was greeted with a hearty and cor- dial reception by the citizens, to which he responded by recip- rocal professions of interest and regard. He had for several years been in the Company's service as Director of their colony at Curacoa, and was distinguished for his energy and bravery. Having lost a leg in an attack on the Portuguese settlement at St. Martin's, he had been obliged to return to Europe for sur- gical aid, whence, still retaining his former commission, he was sent to the charge of the Province of New Netherlands.
2. Immediately on his accession he organized a representative Council of nine members from a list of eighteen presented to him by the inhabitants of the province, and gave his assent to
Peter Stuyvesant. - His reception, antecedents, and character. - Repre- sentative Council.
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DUTCH GOVERNMENT.
various important provisions for the regulation of trade and commerce. By a conciliatory and just treatment of the Indians so recently in revolt he speedily gained their affection and good- will, and by his judicious measures for their mutual protection restored peace and harmony among all classes.
3. To adjust the controversy which was still pending between the Dutch and English governments respecting the territory claimed by each on Long Island and at the mouth of the Con- necticut River, Governor Stuyvesant assented to the appointment of two arbitrators on each side, who assigned to New England all that portion of Long Island comprising the present Suffolk County, and all that portion of Connecticut situate east of a specified line nowhere less than ten miles east of the Mauritius or Hudson River. The Dutch remained in possession of their territory at Fort Good Hope.
4. The terms of this arrangement were very unacceptable to the people of the Manhattan colony, who loudly complained of the Governor's course, accusing him of partiality to the English interest and injustice to their own. They demanded, moreover. an independent municipal government, such as had been bestowed upon the neighboring settlement at Brooklyn, the principal pro- visions of which were copied from those of the cities of Holland.
5. On the 4th of April, 1652, this petition was acceded to by the Company, and a burgher government estab- 1632. lished at Manhattan, consisting of a fiscal agent, to be appointed by the Company, and two burgomasters and five inferior magis- trates elected by the people, who were to form a municipal court of justice, subject to the appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of the Province.
6. Constant intrigues, in the mean while, were in pro- 1654. gress between the New England colonies and the English settlers on Long Island, covertly fostered by the English Goy- ernment under Cromwell, having for their ultimate object the conquest of the Dutch province. Stuyvesant was accused of
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