USA > New York > History of the state of New-York : including its aboriginal and colonial annals, vol. pt 1 > Part 33
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#| Nieuwe Wereldt ofte Beschryvinghe van West Indien, &c. Door Joannes de Lact Tot Leyden, 1625. There was a second edition. and two others in French and Latic.
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id for colo. ' of fine trees
He described New york nization. " It is a fine a and also vines-wine mig. re, and the grape cul- , and these might be people might make The forests contain yachts and small vessels tivated. Nothing is wa easily transported. The this the most pleasant and excellent ship-timber, and have been built there." But this commendable interest in behalf of New Netherland, was unavailing to accomplish its colonization, until certain circumstances combined to induce De Laet himself, Killiaen Van Renselaer, and a few other di- rectors, to unite for that purpose. Meantime, Governor Minnit prosecuted the main object of his administration, du- ring the first year of which, (1624) the exports from New Netherland were 4700 boaver and otter skins, valued at 27,125 guilders,* in return to the chamber of Amsterdam, for the imports in two ships the same year to the amount of 25,569 guilders.+ The whole imports within the first four years, from 1624 to 1627, inclusive, were estimated at $46,207, and exports at $68,507.1
* $11,302 82 cents.
{ $10,653 75 cents.
# The imports by the two ships in 1624 into New Netherland were, 25,569 guilders ;(a) in 1625, by several vessels, 8772 guilders ;(b) in 1620, in two ships, 20,384 guilders ;(c) and in 1627, by four ships, 56,170 guil- ders.(d) The exports of beavers and otters, from New Netherland to the West-Indian company department Amsterdam, the first year, were, 4700 beaver skins, valued at 27,195 guilders ;(e) the second year were 5758 skins, at 35,825 guilders ;(h) the third year, 8115 skins, at 45,050 guil- ders;(¿) the fourth year, in two separate shipments, 7520 bearer skins and 370 otters, at 56,420 guilders.(k)
IMPORTS AND EXPORTS. Dolls. Cts.
Dolls. Cts.
1024 (a) 10,653 50
(e) 11,301 661
1625
(6) 3.655
(h) 14,926 665
1626
(c) 3,493 31}
(¿) 18,770 81
23,104 183
(K) 23.508 31
45.206 097 82.507 15
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Now Netherland.
In four years the trade increased one half, and the revenue exceeded the public expenditure one third. The customary fifty per cent. on the invoice of imports might, perhaps, be balanced by cash advances for wages. But to the balance in favour of the company, we must superadd the expense or value of public structures :- the forts, the custom-house in Fort Orange, the governor's house within Fort Amsterdam, the magazine* for stores, and the private buildings for the officers, soldiers, servants, and slaves of the company.t
Slaves, thus early, constituted a portion of the population, and their introduction cannot be contemplated with apathy. It was one of those features in the infancy of the settlement, which became distinguishing-not because slaves had been excluded from all other North American colonies, for Virginia had them-but because the circumstance shows how reckless was the spirit of gain, which, with its pervading genius and comprehensive energy, tainted the life blood and controlled the destinies of New Netherland. The Dutch, it is true, were not the first who invaded the peace, or, for the sake of slaves, fomented the quarrels of Africa, nor the first who, while im- planting the barbed arrow, whose wound was to fester for ages, transfused its poison into the moral atmosphere of the new world. But those foremost champions of the liberties of Europe in the seventeenth century, were the first who entailed upon the fair portion of the new world which forms the sub-
* Packhuys, or Magazyn.
f It seems, from allusions made in the Dutch records, that slaves were. here in 1626. Probably they were here carlier-for it is said that a Dutch ship brought some slaves to Virginia in 1620, and they were, perhaps, in New Netherland, concomitant with its first settlement. This must have been the case, if the following extraordinary fact be truc. An obituary appeared in the newspapers (A.D. 1739-40) of the death of a negro at Smithtown, Long Island, reputed to have been 140 years old, who had de- clared that he well remembered when there were but three houses in New- York. The reader will reflect upon the unexampled growth of a city, which, while this note is penned, (1826) contains some inhabitants in. whose youthful days, one person at least, recollected the time when there. were three houses only,
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ject of these pages, that curse which has been justly execrated by the friends of humanity and all advocates for the rights of man throughout the world. Whatever difficulty there may be to remedy an evil, which, though daily visible and tangible, is hardly susceptible of a radical cure ; yet in its inception and progress, when the mischief might have been grappled with in safety and success, there was, in its toleration, or rather in the conduct of its authors and abettors, a plain dere- liction of the immutable principles of natural justice : prin- ciples which, whether on the coast of Labrador or Austral Asia -- whether in Central Africa or Central Europe, sway the bosoms of men, and illustrate by their sovereignty and their development under various circumstances, an origin in ab- stract right, if not practical immutability. But the con- duct of those who, while struggling to free themselves from the bigot and the tyrant, deliberately bound the chains which they had burst, around the defenceless and the unoffending, merits a tenfold execration. In such a case as this, the simul- taneous example of other slave-trading nations, affords no apology. The enormity becomes aggravated by its hypo- crisy : and no anomaly appears more detestable, than that of those, who, the moment they cease to be slaves, become ty- rants.
To gratify the great national society of the Netherlands, armed and privileged in a glorious canse, the gold of Africa -- the fur-trade of America-the monopoly of the commerce of the two continents -- the liberal share, secured by charter, in the spoils of victory and conquest over the fleets and set- tlements of the national enemy, were all insufficient. The slave trade was superadded, and cupidity was allowed to bat- ten on the miseries of an unfortunate race ; while the banner which had enlisted the sympathies, and the valour which had clicited the admiration of the world, were tarnished by the atrocious traffic. But after all, what can be expected other- wise than the strangest and most criminal inconsistency, when in the noble cause of liberty, the most generous motives come in conflict with the most selfish. When freedom and religion are made the causes of war, and the love of gain sub-
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New Netherland.
servient to its prosecution, the purity and philanthropy of the former are polluted, if not extinguished, amid the rapine and rapacity of the latter.
New Netherland, born republican, might have been nur- tured in free principles, made the healthy and vigorous re- presentative of the parent republic, and the depository for transmission to posterity of that liberty which was to ex- pire at home. The infant colony, might, at least, have been saved from the contamination which rendered profession & mockery in practice. The West-Indian company were amply remunerated for all expenses and care which they bestowed ; and if magnanimity in policy had prevailed over the un- statesman-like maxims of gain and loss, they might have added to their renown, the celebrity of founding the first re- public in the new world. But actuated by different views, and calculating, the progressive profits of trade only, they now determined, if we may judge from the amount of their last transhipment, to carry to a fuller extent the commercial strength and spirit of the colony.
Since their brilliant commencement, they suffered within the last two years, reverses and misfortunes from the pirates, the Dunkirk free-booters, and the public enemy. But in 1627, the capture of thirty of the enemy's ships, under the batteries of St. Salvador, by Admiral Peter Pietersen Heyn, after an unequal conflict on his part, in which skill was sc- conded by the most obstinate heroism, gave renewed vigour to the company. These prizes were richly laden with sugar, tobacco, cotton, and some gold and silver .*
Sugar, linens, cloths, and stuff's of various fabric formed a part of the imports into New Netherland. Its trade was with the natives, who, as far as .. .. m Quebec and Tadousac, brought furs to Fort Orange. But to this chief mart of the province, the five nations introduced the greatest supplies. Fort Am- sterdam was still the head-quarters, where ships rendez- voused, and whence smaller vessels coasted the ountry from New-port-May to the Flat Corner.f But the above men-
* De Laet Hist. van West. In. Co.
i De Vlack-hocck ; the Dutch name for Cape Malabar.
History of New- York.
tioned articles were unnecessary in the fur-trade, excepting cloth of a dark colour, suitable to the melancholy tem- perament of the Indians, who rejected fabrics in which the least whiteness in their texture was discoverable .* Cloth of this description, hoes, hatchets, awls, beads and other trin- kets, looking glasses, Dutch trumpets in which the natives de- lighted, fire-arms, which originated a mischievous traffic with the Mohawks, were the articles for the Indian trade. The circulating medium was seawan.t This was manufactured
* Roger Williams' Key to the Indian language, Lond. 1643 ; reprinted in Massachusetts' Historical Collections.
¡ Seawan, was the name of Indian money, of which there were two kinds ; rompam, (which signifies white) and suckauhock, (sucki signifying black. ; Wompam or wompampeague, or simply peague, was, though improperly, also understood among the Dutch and English, as expressive of the generic denomination. Wompam, or white money, was made of the stem or stock of the meteauhock or periwinkle : suckauhock, or black money, was ma- nufactured from the inside of the shell of the quahaug (venus mercenaria.) a round thick shell-fish, that buried itself but a little way in the sand, and was generally found lying on it in deep water, and gathered by rakes or by diving after it. The Indians broke off about half an inch of a purple colour of the inside, and converted it into beads. These, before the introduction of awls and thread, were bored with sharp stones, and strung upon sinews of beasts, and when interwoven to the breadth of the hand, more or less, were called a belt of seawan or wompam. A black bead, the size of a straw, about one third of an inch long, bored longitu- dinally and well polished, was the gold of the Indians, and alsrays esteemed of twice the value of the white ; but cither species, was considered by them of much more value than European coin. An Indian chief, to whom the value of a rix-dollar was explained by the first clergyman of Rense- Jaerwyck, laughed exceedingly to think the Dutch set so high a price upon a piece of iron, as he termed it. Three beads of black and six of white were equivalent, among the English, to a penny, and among the Dutch, to a stuyver. But with the latter, the equivalent number sometimes varied from three and six, to four and eight. One of Governor Minuit's succes- sors, fixed by placard, the price of the ' good splendid seawan of Manhat tan,' at four for a stuyver. A string of this money, one fathom long, varied in price from five shillings among the New Englanders, (after the Dutch gave them a knowledge of it) to four guilders, (§1.661) among the Dutch.(a) The process of trade was this : the Dutch and English sold for
(a) The prices of the fathom are related by Roger Williams and David Pietersen De Vries They must have referred to an inferior quality, if we calculate the number of beads it's fathom, or the Laiaus soll by the fathom at a price much less than the Dutch and Erglish had put upon the Wave of siedle Leads or shell.
:
377
New Netherland.
particularly by the Indians of Scawan-hacky,* and of this, as well as the first mentioned articles, the New Netherlanders
scawan, their knives, combs, scissors, needles, awis, looking-glasses, hatchets, hoes, guns, black cloth, and other articles of the Indian traffic, and with the seawan bought the furs, corn, and venison from the Indians on the seaboard, who also, with their shell money, bought such articles from Indians residing in the interior of the country. Thus by this circulating medium, a brisk commerce was carried on, not only between the white people and the Indians, but between different tribes among the latter. For the seawan was not only their money, but it was an ornament to their per- sons. It distinguished the rich from the poor, the proud from the humble. It was the tribute paid by the vanquished to those, the five nations for in- stance, who had exacted contribution. In the form of a belt, it was sent with all public messages, and preserved as a record of all public transac- tions between nations. If a message was sent without the belt, it was con- sidered an empty word, unworthy of remembrance. If the belt was re- turned, it was a rejection of the offer or proffer accompanying it. If ac- cepted, it was a confirmation, and strengthened friendships or effaced inju- ries. The belt, with appropriate figures worked in it, was also the record of domestic transactions. The confederation of the five nations, was thus recorded. The cockle shells had indeed more virtue amongst Indians, than pearls, gold, and silver had among Europeans. Seawan was the scal of a contract-the oath of fidelity. It satisfied murders, and all other injuries, purchased peace, and entered into the religious as well as civil ceremonies of the natives. A string of seawan was delivered by the orator in public council, at the close of every distinct proposition made to others, as a rati- fication of the truth and sincerity of what he said, and the white and black strings of seawan were tied by the pagan priest, around the neck of the white dog suspended to a pole, and offered as a sacrifice, to T'halongh- yawaagon, the upholder of the skies, the God of the five nations.
Roger Williams' Key. ITubbard's New-England, and Gookin. Gov. Bradford's Letter Book. Massachusetts' Historical Collections, I. 54, 152, V. 171, VIII. 192. Hopkins' Housatunnuk Indians, p. 4. Barna- by's Travels, p. 60. Duke de la Rochefaucault Liancourt, I. 130. Ma- jor (General) Washington's Journal of Expedition in 1754, p. 15-16. Charlevoix, Journal d'un Voyage, &c. Potherie, Histoire de l'Amerique Septentrionale, &c. Tom. III. Le Beau, Advantures, S.c. Tom. I. Hen- nepin. La Hontan. Megapolensis, Kort Ontwerp, &c. (MS. Copy.) De Vries, Kort Hist. ende Journael, &c. (MS.) Red Jacket's Speeches. (MS.) Rev. Samuel Kirkland's Manuscript Journals. The description of the pagan ceremony of the offering, &c. which Dr. Kirkland witnessed among the Oneidas, will be found in the Supplemental History of the five nations. Long Island.
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History of New-York.
had on hand a surplus quantity. It is obvious, therefore, that for the purpose of vending these wares, a favourite policy of Governor Minuit was to ascertain a new market. His tra- ding vessels had visited Anchor-bay and Sloop-bay, situate on cach side of Red-Island,* ascended the riverf flowing into the bay of Nassau,¿ and trafficked at Sawaans or Puckano- kick, where Massassowat, the friend of the Plymouth people, held dominion, From him and other Indians the latter had often heard of the Dutch, and from the same source the Dutch had no doubt received intelligence of the English. But during the six years which had elapsed since the settle- ment of Plymouth, there had not been the least intercourse with New Netherland. This negative relation would have continued, if the commercial policy which has been suggested, had not now induced Governor Minuit to seek out New Ply- mouth, as the market which was most convenient to inter- course, most congenial in temper and circumstances, and, therefore, preferable to Virginia or Canada, for the purpose of establishing a treaty of commerce and amity. The people of Plymouth had a trading house at Manomet, § but, compara- tively unambitious, their commerce, fortifications, and strength of men, were, as was acknowledged|| by them, far inferior to those of New Netherland. Confined in their operations to the vicinity of the barren and lonely spot on which they had been cast, their little trade was indispensable, and they were aggrieved that the Dutch had encroached upon this trade, almost to their very doors. Having no transatlantic com- merce, they, this year, (1627) sent an agent to England and Holland, to make arrangements for such supplies as their wants or commerce demanded.
Such was the relative situation of the two colonies when in March, Governor Minuit caused a deputation to the Governor and Council of Plymouth, with two letters, written in Dutch and French, dated at " Manhatas, in Fort Amster-
* Roode Eylandt, corrupted ioto Rhode Island.
i Taunton.
# Narraganset.
9 North side of Cape Cod.
!! By Governor Bradford, in his Letter Book.
379
New Netherland.
dam, March 9th, 1627," (N. S.) signed, 'Isaac de Razier, secretary.' The Dutch Governor and Council congratulated the people of Plymouth on the success of their praise-wor- thy undertaking, proffered their ' good will and service in all friendly correspondency and good neighbourhood,' invited a reciprocity of amicable feeling, suggested for this purpose among other things ' the propinquity of their native coun- tries, and their long continued friendshi ?'-and concluded by desiring ' to fall into a way of some commerce and trade' ---- offering ' any of their goods that might be serviceable,' and declaring that they should feel themselves bound to accommo- date and help ' their Plymouth neighbours with any wares that they should be pleased to deal for.'*
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The answer of Governor Bradford and Council was as fol- lows :+
- " To the Honourable and Worshipful the Director and Council of New Netherland, our very loving and worthy friends and Christian neighbours.
" The Governor and Council of Plymouth, in New-Eng- land, wish your Honours and Worships all happiness and prosperity in this life, and eternal rest and glory with Christ Jesus our Lord in the world to come.
" We have received your letters wherein appeareth your good will and friendship towards us, but is expressed with over high titles, and more than belongs to us, or than is meet for us to receive : but for your good will and congratulation of our prosperity in this small beginning of our poor colony, we are much bound unto you, and with many thanks do ac- knowledge the same, taking it both for a great honour done unto us, and for a certain testimony of your love and good-
* Extract from a manuscript history of Plimouth, communicated by IIon. Francis Baylies of Massachusetts. Prince's New England Annals, p. 172. Morton's New England Memorial, p. 91. Gov. Bradford's Letter Book, III. Mass. Historical Collections, p. 51. Hutchinson, II. App.
" To which (says Morton, secretary of Plimouth) the Governor and Council of Plimouth returned answerable courteous acceptance of their loving propositions, respecting their good neighbourhood in general, and particularly for commerce."
i Dated March 19, 1627. The original was written in Dutch.
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History of New- York.
neighbourhood. Now these are further to give your JIo- nonrs, Worships and Wisdoms to understand, that it is to us no small joy to hear, that it hath pleased God to move his Majesty's heart, not only to confirm that ancient amity, alli- ance and friendship, and other contracts formerly made and ratified by his predecessors of famous memory, but hath him- self, (as you say,) and we likewise have been informed, strengthened the same with a new union, the better to resist the pride of that common enemy, the Spaniards, from whose cruelty the Lord keep us both, and our native countries. Now for as much as this is sufficient to unite us together in love and good neighbourhood in all our dealings, yet are many of us further tied by the good and courteous entreaty which we have found in your country, having lived there many years with freedom and good content, as many of our friends do to this day, for which we are bound to be thank- ful, and our children after us, and shall never forget the same, but shall heartily desire your good and prosperity as our own forever. Likewise, for your friendly proposition and offer to accommodate and help us with any commodities or merchan- dise which you have and we want, either for beaver, otters or other wares, is to us very acceptable, and we doubt not but in short time, we may have profitable commerce and trade to- gether. But you may please to understand that we are but one particular colony or plantation in this land, there being divers others besides, unto whom it hath pleased those Ho- nourable Lords of his Majesty's Council for New England, to grant the like commission, and ample privileges to them, (as to us) for their better profit and subsistence, namely, to ex- pulse or make prize of any, cither strangers or other English, which shall attempt either to trade or plant within their limits, (without their special license and commission) which extends to forty degrees : yet for our parts, we shall not go about to molest or trouble you in any thing, but continue all good neighbourhood and correspondence as far as we may; only we desire that you would forbear to trade with the natives in this bay, and river of Naragansett and Sowames, which is (as it were) at our doors. The which if you do, we think also no
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New Netherland. 381
other English will go about any way to trouble or hinder you ; which otherwise are resolved to solicit his Majesty for redress, if otherwise they cannot help themselves.
" May it please you further to understand, that for this year we are fully supplied with all necessaries, both for clothing and other things ; but it may so fall out, that hereafter we shall deal with you, if your rates be reasonable : and there- fore, when your people come again, we desire to know how you will take beaver by the pound, and otters by the skin, and how you will deal per cent. for other commodities, and what you can furnish us with ; as likewise what commodities from us may be acceptable with you, as tobacco, fish, corn, or other things, and what prices you will give.
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. " Thus hoping that you will pardon and excuse us for our rude and imperfect writing in your language, and take it in good part, because, for want of use, we cannot so well ex- press that we understand, nor happily understand every thing so fully as we should : and so we humbly pray the Lord, for his mercy's sake, that he will take both us and our native countries, into his holy protection and defence. Amen.
" By the Governor and Council, your Honours' and Wor- ships' very good friends and neighbours."
In August, Governor Minuit and council sent another de- puty,* and in reply, insisted upon their right to trade to the places which Governor Bradford and council had interdicted, that, " as the English claimed authority under the King of England, so we, (the Dutch) derive ours from the states of · Holland, and will defend it." The letter was in other re- spects very friendly, and, as if to preclude any interruption to the harmony of their projected intercourse, the messenger was charged with a present of " a rundlet of sugar and two Holland cheeses," for which many thanks were returned in the answer by Governor Bradford : he also requested that a deputy might be sent to confer respecting their -future trade and commerce, and with the most friendly zeal cautioned the
* Jan Jacobsen Van Wiring, (John the son of Jacob of Wiring. ) Vor .. I. 48
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Dutch to avoid the Virginia ships or fishing vessels, which might make prize of them, as they had a few years previously, of a French colony that had intruded within their limits :* apprised them of the patents of Queen Elizabeth, and ad- vised them to solicit the States General, to negotiate with England for an amicable understanding upon the subject. Governor Bradford communicated copies of the correspond- ence to the council for New-England, and to Sir Ferdinando Gorges, requesting advice. But now, as if apprehensive lest the contempl ted intimacy with the New Netherlanders, might give plausibility to their local pretensions, he wrote again to Governor Minuit in October, that he should suspend a decision on the question of trade, till the Plymouth agent should return from England and Holland, whither he had been sent to make arrangements, before it was ascertained that supplies could be obtained from the Dutch. He again advised them to adjust their title to a settlement "in these parts," lest in these " stirring evil times," it should become a source of contention.
But before the reception of the last letter, Secretary Ra- zier, actuated by the prior communication of Governor Bradford, resolved, with the approbation of the Governor and council, to be himself the bearer of an embassage to Plymouth. In the bark Nassau, freighted with a few articles for traffic, manned with a retinne of soldiers and trumpeters, conformable to the fashion of the day, and proportional to the dignity of his station, this second officer of the govern- ment, departed on an embassy, which was as important in the primitive affairs of New Netherland and New Plymouth, as any of the magnificent embassies of the old world were to full-grown kingdoms.t
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