USA > New York > Nassau County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume I > Part 15
USA > New York > Suffolk County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume I > Part 15
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Tooker mentions four village sites on Shelter Island and there was a strong fort there in the early days. By deed of May 3, 1639, Yovowan (Youghco) and Aswaw, his wife, sold Gardiner's Island to Lion Gardiner for ten coats of trading cloth.
The Shinnecocks dwelt on the south fluke of the island from Canoe Place (or perhaps as far west as Westhampton) to East Hampton. The name derived from shinne-auke-ut means "at the level land". Their sachem Nowedonah was the first to greet the English colonists from Lynn who landed at Conscience Point in June, 1640, and a treaty was signed in December by which the English acquired the territory which is now Southampton.
The Montauks were the most powerful and most warlike of the Long Island tribes. They held the land from East Hampton to Mon- tauk Point and had important villages at Fort Pond and Three Mile
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Harbor. The name is from meun-ta-cut, meaning "at the fort" or "fortified place".
The story of the Shinnecocks and Montauks is closely identified with the history of Southampton and East Hampton. A few other communities are mentioned in the old records; these were probably small unimportant remnants which were dying out when the white men arrived. The Maspeths were a small branch of the Rockaways; the Marechkewicks joined with the Merricks; the Navacks of New Utrecht and Jamecos of Jamaica were identified with the Canarsies and the Yennecocks were a part of the Corchaugs.
It will be noted that the names given to all these groups or com- munities were almost invariably place names descriptive of the places where they lived. The physical characteristics of Long Island made it an ideal home for the aborigines. An abundance of food, easily obtainable, was a prime necessity for the maintenance of the native population and their camp sites and villages were usually located at the juncture of fresh water streams and salt water inlets where sea- food was plentiful.
The first landing of Europeans on Long Island took place in September, 1609, when Henry Hudson dropped anchor and the Half Moon came to rest between Sandy Hook and Staten Island. Robert Juet of Limehouse, Hudson's mate, kept a journal in which he recorded as follows: "This day (September 4th) the people of the country came aboard us, seeming very glad of our coming, and brought greene tobacco and gave us of it for knives and beads. They goe in deere skins, loose, well-dressed. They have yellow copper. They desire cloathes and are very civill. They have a great store of Indian wheat, whereof they make good bread. The country is full *
of great tall oakes. * Some of the people were in mantles of feathers, and some in skinnes of divers sorts of good furres. Some women also came to us with hempe. They did weare about their neckes things of red copper. At night they went on land again so we rode very quiet, but durst not trust them."
Juet recorded that the natives he saw had yellow copper and red copper tobacco pipes and wore copper ornaments suspended around their necks. In all probability these copper objects were obtained in trade with western tribes. Iron and copper were not mined on Long Island but a small quantity of the yellow metal may have come from the region of Lake Michigan. Perhaps the reddish pottery pipes of the natives were mistaken for copper.
It has been said that Hudson's harsh treatment of the Indians bore bitter fruit but it is also true that the first three Directors of the Dutch West India Company displayed little tact or skill in dealing with the natives. Wouter Van Twiller and his friends enriched then- selves by appropriating portions of the public domain and by the purchase of valuable lands from the Indians for small compensation. A new Director in the person of William Kieft arrived at Fort Amsterdam in March, 1638, and he at once proceeded to reorganize the government in a manner that gave him full control. He imposed taxes on the natives, exacting payment in corn, furs and wampum. The Indians could see no justice in paying taxes for the purpose of
L. I .- I-8
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repairing Fort Amsterdam. Secretary Van Tienhoven was no less cruel than Kieft in his treatment of the redmen. Those Indians who had been friendly to the Dutch now turned against them and the Director was forced to call on the inhabitants to arm themselves for war. Corlaer's Hook and Pavonia were raided and Staten Island bouweries were devastated and war extended to Long Island. In the general excitement some citizens of Flatlands attacked a small band of Marechkewicks, stole two wagon-loads of corn and killed several warriors. Formerly friendly and peaceful, the Long Island tribes were aroused by the injustice of this attack and formed an alliance with the Hudson River Indians. Eleven tribes arose as one and death, fire and captivity threatened the settlers who fled to Fort Amsterdam for refuge. Maspeth was a smoldering ruin; some of its inhabitants were killed and others sought refuge in flight.
With the approach of spring the Long Islanders, anxious to plant their corn, began to relent and three delegates from Penhawitz came to Fort Amsterdam under a flag of truce. They were met by De Vries and Jacob Olfertsen who accompanied the Indians to Rockaway where they found two or three hundred braves under the leadership of the Canarsie sachem. This savage chief, who had only one eye, regaled his guests with a repast of oysters and fish, after which the two Dutchmen were conducted to the woods to meet sixteen chiefs of Long Island. De Vries cut short a recital of their wrongs and invited the Indians to go with him to New Amsterdam. Assured of safe conduct eighteen Indians and the two Dutchmen set out from Rock- away in canoes, were met at the fort by the Director who gave them presents, and as reported by De Vries, "they departed grumbling". However, peace was proclaimed on March 25, 1643, all injuries on both sides to be forgotten and forgiven. The Long Island chiefs were to intercede for peace with the River Indians and a treaty was con- cluded with the Hackensacks.
The peace thus solemnly declared lasted only until September when war broke out anew, first at Newark Bay "behind the cul", then at Pavonia, at Manhattan and on Long Island. Everywhere terror spread and most of Long Island was at the mercy of the savages. Seven well-armed tribes numbering nearly fifteen hundred warriors menaced Fort Amsterdam which was now almost in ruins with only fifty or sixty soldiers left to defend it and their ammuni- tion running low. At Pelham Bay the home of Anne Hutchinson was destroyed and that celebrated lady was murdered with all her house- hold except her eight-year-old granddaughter who was taken captive.
Gravesend was attacked by the savages who were driven off. The Dutch record of October 24, 1643, affirmed that "Long Island is stripped of people and cattle except for a few places over against the Main which are about to be abandoned. The English who settled amongst us have not escaped. They too, except at one place, are all murdered and burned." In 1644 the hostility of the Indians was so intense that Dutch soldiers were sent to protect the inhabitants of New Utrecht.
Seven savages were arrested at Hempstead for stealing pigs and Penhawitz was suspected of treacherously murdering settlers and
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burning their homes. In this crisis the Dutch government called on Captain John Underhill for aid in repelling the attacks of the savages and he proved to be the man of the hour. Director Kieft sent a force of one hundred and twenty soldiers in three yachts to Schout's Bay, the English under Captain Underhill, the Dutchmen under Peter Cock and all commanded by Counsellor La Montagne. From Schout's Bay they marched to Hempstead where Underhill with fourteen English attacked a small village and killed three Indians found hiding in the Reverend Fordham's cellar. Four others were taken to their boat and two of these were drowned while being towed by a rope tied around their necks. The other two were taken to Fort Amsterdam where they were barbarously slain in the street. One was hacked to pieces and strips of flesh were cut from the living body of the other which was horribly mutilated. Kieft and La Montagne were said to have condoned these outrages by their presence.
The other detachment of eighty Dutch soldiers attacked an Indian village called Matsepe which they sacked, leaving over one hundred savages dead on the field with only one Dutch soldier killed and three wounded. This affair may have been the infamous Battle of Fort Neck which so many historians have misplaced in 1653 but the story of the fight was related in the Journal of New Netherlands in 1647 so the battle must have preceded that date. Underhill with one hun- dred and thirty men also crossed to Connecticut and surprised a force of seven hundred Indians near Stamford, all but eight of whom were slain. The strength of the uprising was now broken and by the middle of April the tribes of Westchester and Long Island sued for peace.
Let us glance briefly at the character of Captain John Underhill who had come to New England with his first wife in John Winthrop's ship in 1630. He drilled the Massachusetts militia and commanded troops in the Pequot War, but was subsequently dismissed and ban- ished from the colony because of his free views on religion. He spent some time at Stamford from whence he came to New Amsterdam in the spring of 1644 to help the Dutch in their war with the Indians. His first task seems to have been the massacre at Hempstead and Matsepe (probably the Battle of Fort Neck), after which he led an army to Connecticut where seven hundred warriors were killed in a night attack, thus ending a long war. For his services Underhill was liberally rewarded by Director Kieft. In 1648 we find him living at Flushing where he served as schout and magistrate. In 1653 he suddenly changed sides and went over to the English cause, making seditious addresses and openly denouncing the government of Peter Stuyvesant. He raised the English flag at Hempstead and urged the people to throw off the Dutch yoke. Driven from Long Island to Rhode Island he became commander of the English land forces in that area and raided the abandoned Dutch fort of Good Hope near Hartford.
Unable to return to Dutch territory, Underhill was living at Southold in 1654 and there four years later, after the death of his Dutch wife, he married Elizabeth Feake of Flushing, grandniece of Governor Winthrop. He was a member of the Hempstead Convention
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of 1665 which formulated the Duke's Laws for the governance of Long Island and was appointed Surveyor of Customs and High Con- stable and Under Sheriff of the North Riding of Yorkshire. In 1666 he was delegated to settle a dispute between the people of Hempstead and the Matinecock Indians and for his services was awarded two hundred and fifty acres of land in what is now Locust Valley. When he retired from public life he sought peace and quiet on his estate which he called Killingworth and there he died on September 21, 1672, survived by his second wife and numerous progeny.
Gonworrow, sachem of Matinecock, appeared at Fort Amsterdam on April 15, 1644, and agreed to take under his protection the villages of Matinecock, Massapequa and the Secatogue country; the sachem requested to have peace and permission to plant in these places. It was decreed that the Matinecocks who had suffered in the fighting at Hempstead and Matsepe, should not harm the Dutch nor associate with the Rockaways or Marechkewicks nor give them shelter. Gon- worrow received some presents and there was great rejoicing at the fort as this disastrous war had lasted five years with enormous losses to the colony. The Dutch now bought from the Canarsies all the territory extending along the North River from Coney Island to Gowanus Bay. Sixteen thousand acres lying east of Maspeth were acquired by English settlers who had fled from Massachusetts and now incorporated in December, 1645, the village of Flushing, which the Dutch called Vlissingen.
In the spring of 1645 the Indians being as usual anxious to plant their crops, the Dutch attempted to use the services of some of the Long Islanders to repel the attacks of hostile tribes. It is recorded that a chief called Witaneymin, sachem of Mochgonnecock, came to the fort with forty-seven armed warriors who offered their services to the Governor. This chief was instructed to spy out the enemy and report his whereabouts. Witaneymin returned five days later and reported that the sachems of the east end of the island had taken under their protection several villages near the center and that they desired to walk in firm friendship with the Dutch and would oppose their enemies, in proof of which they presented to the governor several heads and hands of hostile Indians. William Wallace Tooker believed that Witaneymin, sachem of Mochgonnecock, was the Shinne- cock sachem Nowedonah, but the proof does not seem convincing and there is much evidence that he was in fact none other than Tacka- pousha, the wily leader of the Marsapeagues, who was also identified with the Matinecocks which the Dutch corrupted into Mochgonnecock.
Whether or not the Dutch were in danger is open to question, and it is not improbable that this was just another scheme of the crafty sachem to extort tribute. Two years later the people of Hemp- stead feared that Mayawettennema (here details become worse con- founded) was stirring up trouble among the eastern clans and two Dutch officers were despatched to the east end to allay their discon- tent with suitable gifts. Again at Hempstead, in 1651, the magistrates complained that Dutch traders at Manhattan had sold powder and lead to the savages who had killed many cattle and sold them as meat
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to the Dutch in place of venison, thereby causing damage to the good citizens to the extent of one thousand guilders.
The war which broke out between England and Holland in 1652 had its repercussion in the New World. Stuyvesant was accused of inciting the Narragansett Indians to attack the New England colonies and at Stamford the people were told that the Dutch governor was soliciting the local clans to kill all the English. Long Island had suffered heavy losses at the hands of Indians and outlaws and a con- vention of delegates from the several towns met at Flushing and later at New Amsterdam to take measures for the protection of the settlements. If the Dutch government was unable to protect them the English towns threatened to pay no more taxes and to form a union for their own defense. Another convention was held at New Amsterdam in December, 1653, when nineteen delegates declared that if steps were not taken to protect their settlements they would take measures to protect themselves. Stuyvesant fulminated against the right of the common folk to assemble, declaring that his authority was derived from God and the West India Company. In protest the English flag was flown at Gravesend and Oliver Cromwell was pro- claimed as Protector.
In the summer of 1655 Stuyvesant was called away to the Dela- ware to settle matters with the Swedes and at this critical moment a Dutch official wantonly killed an Indian women caught stealing peaches in his orchard. In revenge nineteen hundred Hudson River and New Jersey warriors descended on Manhattan Island and a bloody war began. Savage bands attacked the flourishing bouweries on Staten Island where much valuable property was destroyed and from there they crossed to Long Island and attacked the Canarsies, of whom only a few families escaped by fleeing in their canoes to Barren Island.
While terror still prevailed Peter Stuyvesant returned from the Delaware and adopted measures to protect the settlements. The people of Flatbush were directed to enclose their village with a palisade; all persons were forbidden to go into the country without permission ; all who lived in isolated places were ordered to assemble and form villages as the English had done. Blockhouses were erected and the Director agreed to build a fort or trading post on the north side of Hempstead, to be furnished with articles for trade with the natives.
In November, 1655, Tackapousha sent to Stuyvesant a delegation of seven Indians, one of whom spoke English. This one, called Adam, said that his chief had been at war for twelve years against those who had injured the Dutch and although he now sat with his head droop- ing on his breast, he still hoped to show what he could achieve. He avowed that Tackapousha had obeyed the orders of his father and had done no damage to the Dutch, "not even to the value of a dog". A bundle of wampum was presented to the governor in token of friendship. In March of the following year the Dutch Governor made a treaty of peace with Tackapousha and representatives of five other clans and all past injuries were to be forgiven and forgotten. Tacka- pousha was recognized as Chief Sachem of the Marsapeagues, Ma-
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tinecocks, Secataugs, Merricks, Rockaways and Canarsies, who there- upon took the governor and all his people as their protectors.
Tackapousha in April, 1660, complained to the governor that Hempstead settlers had invaded his planting fields and threatened to burn the houses of his people if they did not leave within eight days. The settlers replied that the town had bought the land and the natives would not give it up and that the Indians had injured their cattle. Tackapousha denied having sold the land but only the grass thereon. The governor allowed the Indians to harvest the corn already planted provided they set off their plantation by fencing and kill their dogs.
In 1663 Hempstead complained to the governor that the Marsa- peagues had shot Mr. Hicks' mare and Peter Stuyvesant came to settle the difficulties. The Indians said the English had destroyed some of their plantations and killed fifty of their dogs; the citizens retorted that the Indians did not keep their fences tight. With the wisdom of Solomon, the old governor decreed that the English should help to build the Indian fences and be paid out of the indemnity awarded to the Marsapeagues. Meanwhile there was war up-river and the Marsapeagues responded to Dutch appeals for help by send- ing forty-six warriors to fight at Esopus.
Following the Dutch surrender of New Amsterdam, the English governor, Colonel Richard Nicolls, in October, 1665, made a general agreement with the sachems of Long Island that there should be no superior sachem on the island but that every sachem should govern his people as formerly; that all Indians submitting to the law should have equal rights with Christians; that the sachems should not enter into wars or unions with other tribes without the consent of the English and that if any Indian should do harm to the person or cattle of any Christian he must upon complaint make satisfaction. When Tackapousha complained about the sale of his lands the governor advised the people of Hempstead to give him a gratuity "for the sake of peace".
In June, 1666, Nicolls made a treaty of peace with the Marsa- peague sachem at Hempstead and there was no more trouble until the outbreak of King Philip's War in 1675. Then the English, fearing the Long Island clans under Poniute might join with the Narragan- setts, adopted measures to placate and disarm the Indians. The sale of strong liquors to the Long Island Indians was prohibited and the constables of the several towns were ordered to enforce the law against the sale of powder and lead. All canoes found in the Sound east of Hell Gate were to be destroyed, thus depriving the savages of access to the mainland, and Indians were forbidden to go beyond the bounds where they lived.
Tackapousha and his son, Captain Oposson, were ordered to bring in their guns; as a token of friendship the sachem sent from Rockaway "an Indian scalpe with hayre on" and received from the governor five cloth coats and some pipes and tobacco. By such wise measures Long Island was spared the horrors of another Indian war. When the danger was passed their arms were restored to the Indians and the Town Fathers of Southampton wrote to the government at
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New York; "Wee are grieved to heare of ye loss of English blood by ve cruel damned pagans and very many are sorry the Indians here have theire guns returned to them."
THE SHINNECOCKS AND MONTAUKS
It is unnecessary to relate here the story of Southampton's settle- ment. It will suffice to say that a small band of pilgrims set out from Lynn in Massachusetts in May, 1640, armed with a deed for eight miles square of land on Long Island and after a landing and attempted settlement at Cow Bay, near Manhasset, they were driven off by the Dutch and in June they stepped ashore at a place on North Sea which has ever since been known as Conscience Point. By the terms of their deed they were required to buy the land from the Indian owners and a temporary agreement was made at once with Nowedonah, the Shinnecock sachem. This informal agreement was confirmed by a deed of December 13, 1640, which fixed the compen- sation at sixteen coats already received and threescore bushels of Indian corn to be paid upon lawful demand in September of the following year. The Indians were friendly and immediately released to the colonists sufficient land for their needs and allowed them to plant their crops and to postpone payment for the land until after the second harvest.
On that June day when our brave band of pilgrims made their way through the primeval forest by an Indian path from North Sea to Old Town Pond, they passed through the country of the Shinne- cocks who dwelt on the land from the present eastern bounds of Southampton Town to Canoe Place and perhaps as far west as West- hampton. They were an important clan, numbering about two hun- dred warriors, but being of a peaceful nature, they, as well as their neighbors, the Montauks, Corchaugs and. Manhansets, were under tribute to the Pequots and Narragansetts who sometimes raided the eastern part of the island.
The Shinnecocks were divided into many small bands, living in villages situate along the shores of Peconic Bay and North Sea and near the adjacent creeks and bays which indent the short line. They had a stockaded village or fort at Sebonac, near the site of the present National Golf Links where important traces of their habitation have been found. Numerous shell heaps and kitchen middens have revealed the remains of refuse, fragments of pottery, and other utensils, broken bits of antlers, bones of animals, arrow heads, fish hooks and occa- sional pieces of woven material which have enabled archeologists to reconstruct the habits, customs and material culture of the aborigines. The language of the eastern clans was similar to that of the Pequots, Mohegans, Quiripis and Narragansetts of New England and traces of it have survived until the middle of the nineteenth century.
In spite of the general friendliness of the natives it was soon found necessary to adopt measures for protection and the early settlers lived in ceaseless dread of the savages. Guards were kept constantly in the fields; every male from the age of sixteen to sixty was armed and at the first Town Meeting in April, 1641, it was
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enacted that "noe man shall give or lende unto any Indians either gunnes, pistols, powder, shott, Bullets, Matches, Swords or any other engine of warre whatsoever". The penalty for violation of this ordinance was forfeiture of all personal estate within the limits of Southampton.
On the other hand, the colonists showed a desire to deal fairly with their red neighbors and laws were enacted for their protection. The friendly Shinnecocks taught the white men how to plant their crops and to fertilize their fields and the women were shown how to make samp porridge which the Indians called "nausamp."
, Basta
1464
In 1642 it was ordered that no man should buy land from the natives without consent of the General Court and Robert Bond, the blacksmith, was forbidden to make for the Indians any har- poons or fishing irons which might be used as weapons against the settlers. John Cooper was licensed to sell liquor on condi- tion that he should not sell to Indians nor permit his customers to do so.
In 1648 the people in Town Meeting decided to remove from the "Olde Towne" to the new Towne Street, now South Main Street, and it was here in the fol- Upper Right and Left Lower, Clay. Up- per Left, Stratite. From Southold, L.I. Lower Right, Stratite, Greenwich Creek, Connecticut lowing year that the little colony was shocked by the murder of Phoebe, the wife of Thomas Hal- sey. A Pequot had been put to death for a murder committed in the town and in revenge several Pequots invaded the settlement and brutually murdered Mrs. Halsey in her home on Horse Mill Lane which Miss Abigail Fithian Halsey describes as extending from Towne Street to Agawan, almost opposite Toylesome Lane. Suspicion of the crime fell upon the Shinnecocks but through the efforts of Lion Gardiner and Wyandanch, the Mon- tauk sachem, the Pequot murderers were caught and taken to Hartford where they were found guilty and executed.
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