USA > New York > History of the state of New-York : including its aboriginal and colonial annals, vol. pt 1 > Part 29
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It cannot be a subject of indifference to the citizens of New-York, now advancing towards a population of two millions, to retrace the commence- ment and early progress of the little settlement of New Belgium, or New Netherland : a colony, founded and nurtured amid the negligence and ra- pine of war, overlooked by the parent country, exposed to Indian hostility and the rival jealousy of surrounding European colonies, and finally sub- jugated, after a growth of half a century, by people of different language, views, and policy. There ought to be a deep interest to know by what steps the State has been conducted, within two ages, and literally with:in the remembrance of many individuals, to the secure possession of power, splendour, and refinement. Who were the pioneers-who were the helots that toiled and suffered the hardships iucidental to the establishment of such an order of things? Shall their names be as the dust of their first
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fort, scattered to the four winds, or buried, for ever, beneath the super- incumbent rubbish ? Shall we ungratefully turn away from them, as the base things of the earth-because while they were unconsciously labouring for our advantage, they had neither leisure nor opportunity to transmit to their descendants the portraiture of high polish, brilliant intellect, and transcendant virtue ? There is an affectation of squeamishness-a sort of delicate infection, which makes some men revolt at the idea of coming in contact with the rude founders of our country. They look upon these, and all the incidents and events with which their names, characters, and conduct, were associated, as beneath the dignity of history. They would have history mingle only with great personages and great events ; with monarchs, conquerors, and courtiers, queens, priestesses of fashion, and courtezans of rank ; canvass what the common eye dare pot, cannot, or would not behold-the secret policy and intrigues of courts, cabinets, and cabals. They would have history upon a comprehensive plan, march with great armies to decisive battles; trace the complex machinery of government, and survey its effects in the happiness or misery of millions of subjects ; or develop, in the spirit and genius of times better adapted for the purpose than those of the colonies, the moral and intellectual cha- racter, when the collision of free opinion elicits extraordinary dis- coveries, and produces revolutions as astonishing in mind as in govern- ment. It is true that the colonial annals do not embrace topics on a scale of such magnitude ; nor can history change the essential nature of the subject, and elevate that which is comparatively humble into something superior to itself. The reader must not, therefore, expect in these pages, the rise and progress of an empire, the constitutional history of a great kingdom, or the diversified. settlements of a vast continent. But it is not the magnitude alone of the subject, or the vastness of the results, which displays topics for speculative philosophy, political calculation, and practical wisdom. Generalization, by frittering away the details, may afford cold data, but what is thus gained in abstract philosophy and politics, is lost in individual interest. The theatre of operations may be really circumscribed, the personages few, the plot and incidents comparatively unimportant ; but still, human nature loves to dwell upon individuality, and hence, there- fore, from that little assemblage may be derived both instruction and amusement, while the sympathies become more intensely awakened to a participation in the woes, the pleasures, and even follies of our fellow-men. The author will, in future numbers, illustrate these principles fully, by in- troducing a picture of society-the institutions, laws, customs, manners, costume, and anecdotes of the " olden time," and thus add interest to the regular details of public affairs -- the revolutions, wars, and politics which agitated the colony, and its progress in population and resources.
The most unpleasant task to a benevolent disposition is, that of arraign- ing the motives and conduct of individuals whose descendants are living. But men and measures are inseparable, when the motives of the former correspond with the pernicious consequences of the latter. Such a duty
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is indispensable. And so far as the author may deem it essential to the his- tory, he shall perform it, with studied impartiality, without unnecesary severity, but without the slightest fear. If not essential, far be it from him to recuscitate recorded criminality or posthumous slander. Few fami- lies could escape a malicious industry that should employ itself in pamper- ing the prevailing love of scandal.
In this country, however, (thanks to the heroes of our revolution, and gratitude to that Being who gave them virtue and valour) families or individuals are estimated by their own merits and conduct. and their rise or fall is graduated accordingly. The good sense of the community has long since rebuked the injustice of inflicting a vicarious punishment, and on the other hand, the spirit of aristocracy, has long since cowered to the freedom of our institutions. The passport to all that is valuable in pub- lic or private opinion, must bear the intrinsic impress : and the avenue to political distinction or official elevation, to the walks of professional eminence or to the field of glory, are open to the ambition of all classes.
The design of the author is to comprise, within four or five volumes, the History of the Colony and State to the era of its Canal policy. The materials for the work are so. abundant as to create an embarrassment of choice. Besides the manuscript collections of several societies, and the family documents of many individuals, there are one hundred volumes folio in manuscript among the records of the State, all of which must be carefully consulted. From this inestimable historical mine, not enough has been yet extracted to show its value. Little, indeed, has been done in the department of our history. The exertions of the New-York ILIstorical Society have accumulated very rare and valuable books and manuscripts. But with the exception of their published Collections, and the inaccurate epitome of Mr. Smith,* the field of inquiry has been entirely unoccupied.
The progress of the History will necessarily be slow, unless public patronage should justify the author in suspending entirely his professional business. He has devoted two years to it, and spared no expense or exertion in personally collecting original materials from the societies of several cities, from individuals, and, through a friendt now in Europe, from the manuscripts of the Royal Library of Paris. Thus far he has not realized a public patronage sufficient to remunerate the cost of printing. A task of this magnitode might have distayed the timid, and a success of this description would certainly have alarined the selfish. But ao mercenary motives prompted thic undertaking, and no moderate sacrifices shall prevent its accomplishment .; While the author thus avows his determination to
* His history closes in 1732. A continuation of thirty years is now in the press, and will be published in another volume of the New-York Historical Collections This continuation may. under certain limi grote. form a valuable item to the materials
t The author espre's from the same friend some valuab'o manuscripts from Holland.
* The person with whom he was originally associated (but who bas been much engaged in professional and official outies ! has never contributed a sentence or fact ; the author in future will publish his work in his own name only.
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persevere, he cannot but express his confidence, that he shall meet a rever- sionary liberality among the intelligent citizens of this State.
The present part has been composed from facts derived from a great va- rioty of sources. The author has aimed to exclude from his subject the character of a compilation, by clothing it in such a style, and giving to it such an arrangement, as he considered appropriate. He has endeavoured also to avoid verbal errors, similar to those which, partly from inadver- tance, but principally from the printing, crept into the Introductory part. Those who have experienced the trouble of superintending the press, and have not been accustomed to discipline their minds to the minute attention of a professional abecedarian, will concede every reasonable indulgence for mistakes of this description. Notes to the work were unavoidable. It would otherwise have been impossible to have preserved connexion in nar- rative, or consistence in chronology. To speak of places, men, and affairs as they were anciently known and distinguished, required that modern names, allusions, and explanations should be excluded from the text.
The author submits the present part with a wish that in its perusal, the pleasure of the reader might bear some proportion to the labour and diffi- culty inseparable from the performance.
New- York, May 1826.
VIEW OF FORT AMSTERDAM.
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THIS Picture is a bird's eye view of the localities around what is now New-York ; apparently done from a recollection of their situation as seen from the heights above Weehawk, by an intelligent Dutch officer. This is sufficiently manifested in the superlative beauty and accuracy of the fort, shipping, canoes. and Indians .*
Nearly in the centre of the subject stands the elegantly regular " Fort Amsterdam ;" being a square fortress, standing nearly due north and south, with bastions at each angle, (as it was in modern days) with a half- moon covering the castern curtain ; and a demi horn-work covering the western, and with a ditch surrounding the whole. On the salient angle of the south-west bastion is the Dutch standard hoisted. Outside the fort, from the salient angle of the north-west, to that of the south-east bastions, are four clusters of a few houses cach ; and still more to the east is a
* The author is indebted for these descriptive remarks to Archibald Robertson, Esq.
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windmill. The whole stands upon the southernmost point of the island of Manhatans. The limits, towards the right of the picture, admit no more of the island, than to Domine's Hook, now the foot of IJarrison-street. Over the fort is seen Long Island across the East River, with Guanas creek seeming to run far into that island. Directly off the southern point of Manhatans island, towards the left of the picture, are three armed ships, at anchor in the North river, with their heads towards the east, Above these vessels is seen the horizon at the narrows, and under them is the Jersey shore at Paulus Hook. Beneath is Hoboken, on the foreground, with the bay of Ahasimus between them. Immediately under the south point of the Manhatan is a canoe, with outriggers at stem and stern, in which are two Indians paddling it; abreast of Paulus Hook is a pettyauger with leeboards, and a high poop stern, surmounted by a Dutch marine flag, and scudding before the south-west wind up the Mauritius, Hudson, or North river. On the foreground is an elegantly formed canoe,* with five Indians on board, four of which stand up paddling along, two on each side, placed alternately ; and one seated on what in this situation may be denominated the stern : the two paddlers on the starboard, have quivers filled with arrows on their backs ; they are all naked to their waist-cloths --- most probably of skins; and each with two long straight feathers for their crests, as all the other Indians in the piece have. At each end of this canoe, which seems calculated to sail either way, the stem and stern are raised above, about one foot, over the gunwales, and project horizontally at each end; what may be termed a bowsprit finished by a spherical head about the size of a man's. These bowsprits or handles seem an ingenious con- trivance for lifting the canoe and carrying it on the land, by two men hoisting it on their shoulders, and thus as on a pole, carrying it from place to place with ease and expedition. Over the bow of this canoe towards the right of the picture, is a Dutch long-boat, with high poop, in which, amidships, are two sailors rowing : at the bow is an outlook man standing up; and at the stern arc two soldiers seated, with raised pikes or muskets. On the left of this subject in the bay of Ahasimus, are two common canoes, without the outrigger apparatus : in the nearest is seen an Indian, and in the other are two paddlers, drest like those in the large war canoe, the whole of them with their heads towards the cast.
As a work of art this view is very curious. It is evidently an effort of a strong memory, even allowing for the omission of Governor's Island, which the artist has apparently united to Long Island : which some have supposed was once the fact;t for in the memory of those still alive, the Buttermilk channel was nearly fordable, where is now six or seven fathoms of depth. The general proportions and shape of the land are tolerably
* Winthrop in his Jouraal says, the Indians of Long Island had canoes which would contain sixty per:ous.
t This however was not the care in the time of the first two Dutch governors, Minuit and Van Twiller, for the island is expressly referred to in the Dutch records, as Youten Eylandt, or Island of Nuts.
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correct, and the shipping and canoes elegantly so. But in the proportion of the shipping to the extent of the land, there is a wonderful mistake ; for the distance between New-York and Paulus Hook we know to be a nide and one quarter, which the length of their three ships do more than fill up, thus making each vessel to be from stem to stern half a mile long -let this be corrected and all would be faultless.
Fort Amsterdam occupied the site of the two blocks of houses formed by the Bowling Green, State, Pearl, and Whitehall streets. The salient angles of the north-east and north-west bastions, formed the angles at the corners of Whitehall-street and Bowling Green, whilst that of the Bow- ling Green and State-street formed the other: the salient angles of the south-east and south-west bastions form now the corner of Whitehall and Pearl-streets ; and that of Pearl and State streets formed the other salient angle. The half-moon covering the east curtain of the fort extended across and beyond Whitehall-street, and the demi horn-work covering the west curtain crossed State-street, and projected some distance into our present Battery ; although the great gate is not represented* on this pic- ture, yet we know it was in the centre of the north curtain facing the Bow- ling Green.
The cluster of houses at the salient angle of the north-west bastion stood upon the block contained within Broadway, Marketfield, and Green- wich streets and Beaver-lane. The cluster standing off the north-east bastion was contained in the block within Beaver, Broad, and Stone streets and Broadway; and between these two stand a cluster in the centre of what is now Broadway near the Bowling Green; and a fourth cluster stands where now are Water and Moore streets. A little to the east of these is a windmill, near a creek which flowed where now is Broad-street. Upon what is now the Bowling Green stands a pole or gibbet for the pu- nishiment of transgressors, on which, it has been said, they were hoisted by the waist and there suspended, during a longer or shorter period, propor- tionate to merited suffering and disgrace.
The plate represents but few buildings, and consequently there were but few inhabitants. It is also curious as affording an opportunity to contrast, not only the size, construction of buildings, population, and commerce of that day and those of the present city of New-York, but the water craft, then and now : then the annual arrival of more than two or three ships from Holland was an extraordinary circumstance; now, two thousand sail of vessels of every description float upon these waters. Vessels of the most beautiful structure have taken place of the clumsy marine architec- ture of that day. Ships of the largest size are substituted for the Dutch yachts; and instead of canoes, almost an equal number of steam boats now ply between the cities and towns on the Hudson and between New-York and the neighbouring states : some of them of four and five hundred tons burthen, and frequently conveying an equal number of pas- sengers.
* The fort had also a water gate at the south side, as appears from allusions made to it in the Dutch records.
HISTORY
OF
NEW NETHERLAND.
CHAPTER I.
From 1609 to 1614. Hudson's discovery. Its effect in Holland, consider- ed in connexion with a retrospection of the character, resources, public policy, and predominant genius of that country, at this period. The se- cond visit to the Hudson River in 1610-its object and consequences. Transient navigators. Mana-hata and Kayingahaga Indians -- Fur Trade-Temporary structures near Schenectadea in 1613, and on Man- hattan 1614-Competition in the Trade -- Remonstrance to the States General-their decree in favor of those who had an agency in the disco- very-consequently the foundation of the first licensed Trading Com- pany.
THE discovery of the Great River of the Mountains, by Henry Hudson, and the novel incidents of his adventure, have been described in the introduction to this history. Intercept- ed in his return to Holland, by an exertion of the royal pre- rogative in England, he embarked from London, on a northern voyage, and perished ; while the vessel which he had com- manded upon this discovery, was allowed, with its Dutch sailors, to return to Amsterdam in the spring of 1610 .* The encomium which he previously transmitted from England, upon " the pleasantest land for cultivating that men need tread upon,"f was now reiterated by these companions of his disco- very. They had seen the country arrayed in autumnal luxuriance, and had experienced only, that, like Holland, it was
* See Introduction, or Part I. 1. 48, 49, 53. p. 274-6.
f De Laet Beschry vinghe van Nieuwe Wereldt ofte West Indien, 1635. Vou. I.
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History of New-York.
subject to variable winds, the lightning and thunder of heaven, and the storm and tempest : but its picturesque ap- pearance -- variegated by the beauties of spontaneous vegeta- tion, and the magnificence of mountain scenery ; the richness of its soil, the variety and abundance of its game, fish, furs, and ship timber, could not fail to captivate the senses and im- press the minds of a people, stimulated by successful enter- prises, flushed with recent victories, fired by ambition and uational glory, and unrivalled for a skilful and frugal indus- try, that had spread its prodigies over a country, presenting a surface of sand and fen, embracing four hundred thousand morgen* only of arable land, and therefore inadequate in peace or war, to feed its population. The sanguinary contest with Spain, just suspended by a twelve years' armistice, had, in the course of thirty years, concentrated in Holland a dense population. Adventurers from every quarter flocked thither -- industry of every species found employment-artisans, me- chanics, manufacturers, and labourers were invited, and multi- tudes cherished and protected, who in other countries, would have been exposed to want, or as heretics, to the stake. The public laws, dictated by a benign spirit of toleration, had sanctioned it as the asylum of the persecuted, and its standard .of liberty, supported by an invincible perseverance in chival- ric courage, had rallied the friends of freedom from every part of Europe.
If a people so characterised, so signalised, and so located, could not resist a strong impression in favour of a country, so naturally superior to the land of their nativity or adoption,
* 'The morgen is not quite two acres of land. An explanation of this measure, as it prevailed in the colony of New-York, may be useful to the understanding of many Dutch patents. The Rhinsland rod was the Dutch measure for land, contained 12 English feet, 4 inches, 3 quarters; there are 5 to a Dutch chain, which consequently contains 61 feet, 11 inches and 3 quarters-25 such rods long and 24 broad, make a morgen, which con- sists of 600 square Dutch rods. (Peter Fauconnier's survey book, 1715 fo 1734, manuscript, in MISS. of New-York Historical Society. )
New Netherland. 335
was the present crisis in public affairs or the present condition of the society, the national policy, or the spirit of private enter- prise to produce a consequence to the discovery favourable to immediate colonization ? At the present crisis, the public tran- quility had divested of employment a vast number of people who had served in the armies and navy of the Republic, and of whom many had been too familiar with scenes of violence, and too little accustomed to respect the rights of persons and property, to be at once beggared and contented. As it is the policy of every wise government to encourage national indus- . try, and to devise ways and means to give full employment to the energies of the people, because the measure is not only conducive to national wealth, but salutary to public morals : so, at the present period, the government of the United Pro- vinces might have acted wisely, by introducing some plan of colonization, which heretofore had properly been excluded from their policy, because they had not felt the incumbrance of a superfluous population.
Subsistence for a people vastly disproportioned in numbers to the natural capacity of the country, had been the tribute of the world to that astonishing skill which reared a great na- tional fabric, adapted to the peculiar interests and condition of the country-a tribute to the perseverance that sustained it, and the valour that, amid the fury of war, secured to it unvi- valed strength and magnificence. Its four great pillars were, manufactures, fisheries, the carrying trade, and traffic : the main pillar was the last, and arose, like the country itself, from the ocean. Without indigenous productions to freight a hundred ships, Holland and its confederate provinces an- nually built a thousand. They had more than England and ten other kingdoms of Christendom." Twenty thousand ves- sels, and more than two hundred thousand mariners, displayed
* According to Sir Walter Raleigh's report to King James. See John De.Witt's True Interest and Political Maxims of the Republic of Holland and West Friesland. Printed, London, 1702, part I. c. 3.6. See vol. 28 Quarterly Review, p. 435. In three days in 1001, says De Witt on autho- rity of Emanuel Van Meteren, there saded out of Holland, castward, be. tween 800 and 300 ships. and 1500 Losses for herring fishery alone.
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History of New- York.
the republican flag on the Baltic and Mediterranean, on the coast of Great Britain, in Africa, in the West Indies, on the Indian Ocean, and within the Arctic Circle.
Hence had arisen the national resources, and hence also the national character received its predominant impression. Although the recent armistice, by ensuring safety, invigo- rated private enterprise, and gave extraordinary impetus to the peculiar genius of the nation, yet the multitudes that had been dismissed from public service, without any equivalent provision in their favour, were threatened with indigence, and forced to flee the country, or to roam over it as depreda- tors, or in the capacity of pirates, to raise a parricidal arm against the hand that had fed them. The government, from an inflexible perseverance in a policy which would not yield to the exigencies of times or circumstances, did not possess the wisdom, or perceive the expediency of providing, by suitable encouragement, for the colonization of a country, which cer- tainly presented to a surplus population an excellent opening, and to Holland the assurance of an inexhaustible granary. Such an enterprise was therefore left to the spirit of private adventure. But this had acquired the peculiar bent, which has been mentioned, and it cannot therefore be imagined, that, without any direct interposition of government in favour of a colony, the superior fertility of the new world would tempt a commercial people, to vary habits of pursuit which had become almost inflexible, or counterbalance the strength of prepossessions that held the father-land precious by a thou- sand associations. ١
The fur trade and fisheries were, however, among the pre- vailing objects of private adventure, and the discovery of Iludson opportunely awakened attention to these, as objects of gain. The city of Amsterdam, whence he had embarked, containing about one fifth* of the resident inhabitants of that province of which it was the metropolis, was the centre of ma- ritime operations. Here every commercial project was inves,
* 115.022 -- sco pol !- tax list. Gerard Malines, Lex Mercatoria. cited by De Witt P. I. c. o.
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New Netherland.
tigated, and hence every new avenue to wealth was explored. The Amsterdam directors of the East India company, who particularly had patronised Hudson's design of a northern passage to India, though disappointed in this object, appre- ciated his minor discovery .* They looked to the Great River, ¡ and anticipated an indemnity for past expenses, in the profits of an article of commerce, heretofore obtained through the agency of the Muscoviant and other traders, in the north of Europe. Furs, objects of luxury and cost to Europeans, were to be purchased from the Indians, with the baubles and trinkets of Haerlem and Nuremberg. In this traffic, there- fore, gold and silver, the exportation of which the States Ge- · neral had this year (1610) unwisely prohibited, § would have been superfluous, for the purest ingots were less valuable to the Indians, whom Hudson visited, thon their own shell money, copper ornaments or stone pipes. From these causes, and under indications thus favourable, a ship was equipped this year, || for a second visit to the Cohohatatea'T of the aborigines. As the only object was a cargo of furs, the voyage was unimportant, excepting in its consequences, for it was the prelude to the fur trade, in which was the germ of the future colonization of the country. Some of the com- panions of Hudson may have now piloted this ship to the scene of their first interesting adventure, for the Indians say, by tradition, ** that the Assyreoni, or cloth makers, and Charis- tooni, or iron workers, || whom they had hailed as celestial be- ings, came the next year agreeably to their promise.
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