USA > New York > Nassau County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume I > Part 7
USA > New York > Suffolk County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume I > Part 7
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At this time New Netherland was on the verge of the most dis- astrous Indian uprising in its history, which may explain the West India Company's friendly attitude towards the migratory movement from New England. Although Director-General Kieft could not have been blind to the threat to Dutch sovereignty which this influx of Englishmen created, he knew that Englishmen would defend their homes as valiantly as would his fellow Dutchmen against an Indian outbreak. They were all equally Dutch subjects and equally subject to a call to arms in defense of New Netherland.
Furthermore, a considerable number of English families residing within the province was likely to insure the assistance of New England against the Indians. Kieft's failure to prevent such an outbreak and, in fact, his foolhardy course of procedure which hastened hostilities may have been actuated by his certainty of such English support.
In 1643 Long Island was still mostly a wilderness. Only at either end of the island had any attempts at settlement been made. Far to the east were Southold, on the North Fork, and, on the South Fork, Southampton. At the westerly end on the flats of future Brooklyn was the Dutch settlement of Nieu Amersfoort which could scarcely be called a village. At Gowanus and the Wallabout lay scattered farms. Near the Ferry a few dwellings had been erected. Gravesend alone, on the southerly shore of what was to be Kings County, had assumed the character of a community.
Some miles to the north of Gravesend, in what is now Queens County, the settlement founded at Mispat by Francis Doughty and his fellow English the year before stood isolated and unprotected by barricade or trained soldiers. Several leagues to the east of Mispat, on the plains of Hempstead, no settlement had as yet been started. Between Mispat and the Brooklyn flats, however, lay scattered bouw- eries and plantations where white men had begun raising tobacco and pasturing their livestock, confident of the lasting friendship of their redskinned neighbors.
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There was reason for this faith. The Island Indians were not a warlike people. Before the advent of the white men they had paid tribute to the redskins of the north. This they had ceased to do on the advice of the Europeans who had come to live beside them and thus given them a sense of security.
In December of 1643 a band of northern warriors descended the Hudson with the avowed intention of collecting tribute from several small tribes living near the river. These tribes fled to Manhattan Island to seek the protection of the Dutch. At the same time a num- ber of Long Island Indians, fearing that the northern band might by-pass Manhattan and attack them, crossed the Hellegat to the vicin- ity of Fort Amsterdam. While they were here encamped, Kieft's militia, instead of advancing to meet the common enemy enroute down the Hudson, fell upon the Long Island Indians of whom a number were slain. Similar action was taken against the river tribes which had sought refuge near the Dutch settlements. The immediate result of these unwarranted attacks by Kieft's soldiers was to drive the erstwhile friendly Indians to join the northern tribes in a war which soon swept the length and breadth of New Netherland, leaving its settlements and isolated homesteads in ruins.
The Long Island Indians who returned to their homes following Kieft's assault upon them might still have chosen a peaceful course but, either on Kieft's orders or on their own ill chosen initiative, the residents of Nieu Amersfoort marched against a neighboring Canarsie village, burned its wigwams and slew a number of its inhabitants as they fled before the unexpected attack. Wrote Brodhead: "It only needed this outrage to fill the measure of Indian endurance."
Describing the war which followed, Rockwell declared: "The farmer was murdered in the open field. Women and children, granted their lives, were swept off into captivity; houses and bouweries, hay- stacks and grain, cattle and crops were all destroyed." Scarcely a homestead on western Long Island was left standing. Those white families which could manage it made their way to the Ferry and crossed the Hellegat to Fort Amsterdam, leaving their worldly goods to the tender mercies of the savages.
Sweeping down from the north and across Manhattan Island, burning and killing as they advanced, a band of mainland Indians joined in devastating the western end of Long Island. This band attacked Gravesend but it was repulsed, thanks to the foresight of Dame Moody in having had a stockade built and a company of militia organized and trained. These men, with a number sent by Director- General Kieft from Fort Amsterdam, forty in all under command of Captain Nicholas Stillwell, saved the little English community. It was the only settlement in the westerly part of the island to escape destruction.
Southold and Southampton, many miles to the east, were not attacked, due as much perhaps to their having ordered every man to be armed, night and day, even at church services.
It was not long before the west end Indians came to realize the utter futility of such a struggle. An Indian victory could mean to them only a return to the status of paying tribute to the northern
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tribes. Kieft, informed of their reluctance to continue the war, offered a truce on condition that they would induce the mainland savages to likewise lay down their arms. Although this was not accomplished, hostilities were suspended on Long Island for the better part of a year. In other sections of New Netherland, however, warfare con- tinued while Long Island homes were being rebuilt and farms and settlements re-established.
During this period a settlement began to take shape in Hempstead Town to which a number of English families from Stamford, Con- necticut, had meanwhile made their way. It was here that hostilities again broke out when a small band of redskins was charged with
(Courtesy Charles F. Dodge)
Dodge Homestead, Port Washington, Built in 1721
killing the settlers' livestock. Several of the culprits were arrested and held to await orders from the director-general. Kieft, upon receiving word of the matter, at once dispatched Captain John Underhill and a company of English colonists to bring the prisoners to New Amsterdam. In the course of events several of the prisoners were slain. Anticipating retaliatory measures by the Indians who had meanwhile assembled in considerable numbers at a Canarsie vil- lage near the site of Mispat, Underhill proceeded to the rendezvous, attacked the village and, according to Brodhead, "killed one hundred and twenty of the savages, while the assailants lost only one man."
Shortly after this massacre the war was brought to an end. Just north of Stamford in Connecticut a force of Dutch and English troops, led by Underhill, fell upon seven hundred of the enemy, slew a great number of them, razed their homes and drove the survivors back into the New England wilderness. But though peace was restored with the savages, Director-General Kieft found little peace in dealing with his own people who charged him with having been directly responsible for the conflict.
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So intense did public feeling against Kieft become that reper- cussions reached the Netherlands and his standing with his employers there, which had been on the decline for some time, descended still further. Throughout the war, when not personally engaged in fighting the Indians, Kieft had been kept busy trying vainly to suppress the demands of his constituency for various rights which they had long been denied. To meet one demand he had named a council of twelve citizens to act in an advisory capacity, but when their advice proved distasteful to him he had dissolved the council.
Inflamed by this action on the director-general's part, the colo- nists insisted upon a council of their own choosing, to consist of eight members. . When Kieft grudingly granted this concession it was the first step ever taken in the Dutch province towards a truly repre- sentative government. Although he immediately began to override the council's decisions, Kieft soon found that he could not continue to ignore the demands of the people as reflected through their council. In the fall of 1644, some months before the cessation of Indian hos- tilities, members of the council made formal protest of Kieft's official behavior to the West India Company. This protest, significant as a further step towards the achievement of representative government for the people of New Netherland, read in part as follows :
"Our fields lie fallow and waste; our dwellings and other buildings are burnt; not a handful can be either planted or sown this autumn on the deserted places; the crops which God permitted to come forth during the past summer remain on the fields standing and rotting; we are burthened with heavy families; we have no means to provide necessaries for wives or children; and we sit here admist thousands of Indians and barbarians, from whom we find neither peace nor mercy. There are among us those, who by the sweat and labor of their hands, for many long years have endeavored, at great expense, to improve their lands and villages; others, with their private capital, have equipped with all necessaries their own ships, which have been captured by the enemy, though they have continued the voyage with equal zeal, and at considerable cost.
"Some, again, have come here with ships, independent of the company, freightened with a large quantity of cattle, and with a number of families, who have erected handsome buildings on the spots selected for their people; cleared away the trees and the forest; inclosed their plantations and brought them under the plough, so as to be an ornament to the country, and a profit to the proprietors, after their long, laborious toil. The whole of these now lie in ashes through a foolish hankering after war. For all right-thinking men here know that these Indians have lived as lambs among us, until a few years ago; injuring not man; affording every assistance to our nation; and, in Director Van Twiller's time, furnishing provisions to the company's servants, until they received supplies.
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"These hath the director by various uncalled-for pro- ceedings, from time to time so estranged from us, and so embittered against the Netherlands nation, that we do not believe that anything will bring them and peace back, unless the Lord, who bends all men's hearts to His will, propitiate their people."
Among the signers of this petition were Captain John Underhill, upon whose prowess as a soldier depended in great measure the out- come of the present war; George Baxter, one of the several patentees of Gravesend and upon whose knowledge of English laws Kieft was quite dependent in dealing with English matters; Francis Doughty, the militant English preacher who had founded Mispat, and one Richard Smith, also of Mispat.
The protest placed full blame for the war and for the unsatis- factory conditions which prevailed in the province upon the director- general and asked for his recall, at the same time beseeching the West India Company to permit the establishment of local govern- ments whose elected officials would have a voice in the affairs of the province. In conclusion it read :
"Honored Lords, this is what we have, in the sorrow of our hearts, to complain of; that one man who has been sent out, sworn and instructed by his Lords and Masters, to whom he is responsible, should dispose here of our lives and prop- erty according to his will and pleasure, in a manner so arbi- trary, that a king would not be suffered legally to do. We shall end here, and commit the matter wholly to our God, who, we pray and heartily trust, will move your Lordships' decisions, so that one of these two things may happen- either that a governor may be sent with a beloved peace to us or, that their Honors will be pleased to permit us to return, with wives and children, to our dear Fatherland. For it is impossible ever to settle this country until a different system be introduced here, and a new governor be sent out with more people, who shall settle themselves in suitable places, one near the other, in form of public villages and hamlets, and elect, from among themselves, a schout and schepens, who shall be empowered to send deputies to vote on public affairs with the Director and Council; so that the country may not be again brought into danger".
Not until a year later did the West India Company take action upon this petition. In the interim, Kieft, sensing the unfavorable light in which the document would place him in the eyes of his employers, strove to counteract its effect upon them by assuming a more constructive policy in the administration of affairs. To Dame Moody and her associates in the founding of Gravesend he issued the patent which they had long awaited, guaranteeing "free liberty of conscience, according to the custom and manner of Holland, with- out molestation or disturbance from any magistrate or magistrates, or any other ecclesiastical minister that may pretend jurisdiction
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over them" and allowing this community of English people who had accepted Dutch sovereignty, "to erect a body politic and civil com- bination among themselves, as free men of this province and town of Gravesend" with all "the immunities and privileges as already granted to the inhabitants of this province, or hereafter to be granted, as if they were natives of the Belgic Provinces."
Another step taken by Kieft, in October, 1645, soon after peace had been concluded with the Indians, was to acquire from the sadly demoralized Canarsies title to practically all their remaining territory within the present bounds of Kings and Queens counties, thus blanket- ing in the name of the West India Company the entire west end of the island extending from the Sound on the north to the Atlantic Ocean on the south.
A patent for some sixteen thousand acres of this tract was there- upon issued by Kieft to a group of Englishmen consisting of Thomas Farrington, John Townsend, Thomas Applegate, Thomas Beddard, Lawrence Dutch, John Lawrence, William Lawrence, William Thorne, Henry Sautell, William Pigeon, Michael Milliard, Robert Firman, John Hicks, Edward Hart, Thomas Stiles, Thomas Saull, John Marston and Robert Field.
The patent, signed October 10, 1645, covered the area lying between the tract previously granted to the Rev. Francis Doughty and associates for the Mispat settlement, since destroyed, and the plantation and town of Hempstead, to the east. Kieft assured the patentees of Flushing political rights similar to those given Gravesend and the right to "nominate and choose * *
* a schout, or con- stable, with power to apprehend any malefactor * *
* disturbing public peace and tranquility in the said town." No provision was made in the Flushing patent however for a town meeting, a court or the selection of magistrates such as had been granted Gravesend and Mispat. Again, unlike the other English towns at the west end of the island, Flushing was not specifically granted the right to erect a church nor was any reference made in the Flushing patent to a church or any religious group. For half a century following its founding Flushing was without a church building of any kind but, as Haynes Trebor has stated, Flushing "did put much emphasis on 'liberty of conscience', vigorously defending that right against any infringement and welcoming to their midst persons of every faith."
Following the Indian war Kieft urged the owners of outlying farms to establish communities the better to secure themselves and families against future aggressions. One such community thus estab- lished was given the name of Breukelen and in June, 1646, Kieft pro- claimed that "whereas on May 21, Jan Evertsen Bout and Huyck Aertsen from Rossum, were unanimously chosen by those interested in Breukelen, situate on Long Island, as schepens to decide all ques- tions which may arise, as they shall deem proper, according to the Exemptions of New Netherlands, granted to particular colonies, which election is subscribed by them, with express stipulation that if anyone refuse to submit in the premises aforesaid to the above mentioned Jan Evertsen and Huyck Aertsen, he shall forfeit the right he claims to land in the allotment of Breukelen, and in order that everything
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may be done with more authority, we, the Director and Council aforesaid, have therefore authorized and appointed and do hereby authorize the said Jan Evertsen and Huyck Aertsen to be schepens of Breukelen, and in case Jan Evertsen and Huyck Aertsen do here- after find the labor too onerous, they shall be at liberty to select two more from among the inhabitants of Breukelen to adjoin them to themselves.
"We charge and command every inhabitant of Breukelen to acknowledge and respect the above-mentioned Jan Evertsen and Huyck Aertsen as their schepens, and if anyone shall be found to exhibit contumaciousness towards them he shall forfeit his share as above stated."
Kieft's endeavors to better serve the interests of his employers and more fully meet the needs of the people proved tardy indeed. Prompted as much perhaps by New Netherland's declining financial status as by the complaint of the Council of Eight, the West India Company on July 7, 1645, appointed Petrus Stuyvesant director- general. The latter's commission was not however issued until July 28, 1646, and he did not arrive at New Amsterdam from far-off Brazil to take over the reins of office until the following May. It is certain that for many months following Stuyvesant's appointment in 1645 no word of it reached Kieft who continued to govern the province until the actual arrival of Stuyvesant some two years later, when for a short time he served as a member of Stuyvesant's council.
The conduct of William Kieft during his nine years in office has been roundly condemned by most historians. According to Thompson, he was charged "with nothing less than tyranny, extortion, theft, murder, and other crimes of a most heinous nature". Appointed to better the conditions which had prevailed under his predecessor, Wouter Van Twiller, whose personal land acquisitions had brought about his removal, Kieft, far from improving matters went to far greater lengths than Van Twiller in exploiting his office. When in the autumn of 1647 he left for Holland in the ship Princess he took with him most of the fortune which he had accumulated. With him went the Rev. Evarardus Bogardus, who had served New Amsterdam as its first minister, and he and the ex-director-general, together with some eighty others aboard the Princes, perished when, six weeks after sailing, the vessel was lost on the coast of Wales.
Peter Stuyvesant, whom Thompson describes as "a brave and honest man," nevertheless lacked that high degree of statesmanship which was so sorely needed at this point in the development of New Netherland if it was to remain in Dutch hands. He did, however, fully appreciate the imminence of English encroachment and the vulnerable position of the province which he was expected to hold for the West India Company and, more especially, for his country.
One of Stuyvesant's early official acts was to address himself in friendly terms to the governors who had in 1643 organized the United Colonies of New England as a so-called protective measure against Indian aggression. To the Dutch director-general, the con- tinuation of such a league with an armed force always available, long
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after the Indians had ceased to be a serious menace, was not without sinister implications.
As already noted, England had never acknowledged the validity of the Dutch claim to any part of the area lying between Virginia and Plymoutlı. As early as 1620 King James I of England had issued charters for this territory but not until sixteen years later was any serious effort made by England to develop Long Island. On April 22, 1636, a few months before the Dutch began their first settlement at the west end, England's King Charles I induced the Plymouth Company, whose charter included Long Island, to issue a patent for this and adjacent islands to William Alexander, Earl of Stirling.
A year later, on the 20th of April, 1637, Stirling appointed one James Farret (or Farrett) "to let, set, mortgage, sell or by any other means, for present summe or sums of money, or for yearly rent, to dispose of the said lands of the said islands, or any part or parcell of them, for such time or times, terme or termes of years, for life or for lives, as my said attorny, upon the advice of the Right Worship- ful Jno. Winthrop, Esquire, Governor of Boston colony, in the said New England, most tending to the preservation of the public peace, the improvement of trade and commerce, and the due execution of justice, in obedience to the lawes of God, and as much as may be, agreeable to the lawes of England."
For serving as Long Island's first real estate broker, as it were, Farret was given a choice of parcels for himself and took title to Shelter Island and the much smaller Robins Island, both in Peconic Bay. These two parcels he disposed of on May 18, 1641, to Stephen Goodyeare, a resident of New Haven. The Earl of Stirling mean- while had died, which may account for Farret having so soon sold his own property to raise funds, none having come to him from either the Earl or his estate. That the agent was in need of money is further implied by his having the same year mortgaged the easterly portion of Long Island for the paltry sum of 110 pounds. This he could do by use of the power of attorney which Stirling had vested in him.
In spite of the West India Company's prior claim to Long Island as a whole by virtue of the discoveries of Hudson in 1609 and Block in 1614, the transactions of the English affecting its easterly end had been disputed seriously by neither Van Twiller nor Kieft, during whose administrations they had occurred. As for Stuyvesant, he was not the type of executive to frustrate or even seriously retard Eng- land's plan of expansion, although quite unyielding in dealing with his own people. To the citizens of western Long Island and the Dutch province as a whole where his jurisdiction was as yet secure, he proved truculent to the point of tyranny.
"If I was persuaded that you would complain of my sentences or divulge them," Stuyvesant once thundered at a delegation of citizens which had confronted him with charges against his predeces- sor's official behavior, "I would have you hanged on the highest tree in New Netherlands." A soldier by profession, hardened by years of campaigning in Brazilian jungles where, incidentally, he had lost a leg in battle, demanding now as strict discipline from civilians as
L. I .- I-4
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he had from his troops, Stuyvesant was destined to destroy any vestige of public loyalty which might have survived the injustices of Kieft.
Stuyvesant, however, was forced to respect if not to love his English subjects. The Englishman, George Baxter, whom Kieft had employed as secretary to handle English correspondence and advise him in respect to dealing with the ever increasing number of English residents of the province, Stuyvesant saw fit to retain in a like capacity and at the same salary of two hundred and fifty guilders a year. This despite Baxter's repeated acts in furtherance of the interests of his countrymen during Kieft's administration.
That Baxter was a wily plotter is shown by subsequent events. Nevertheless, Stuyvesant not only continued him as secretary but appointed him a commissioner to attend the Hartford convention of September 19, 1650, the deliberations of which resulted in establishing boundaries between Dutch and English territories. It is perhaps significant of Baxter's handiwork that the easterly borderline of New Netherland on Long Island was drawn through the present town of Oyster Bay, thus conceding to the English more than three-fourths of the island's area.
This was the first instance of Long Island being the subject of an international treaty, Although its provisions were adopted at the Hartford convention of 1650, it was not finally approved by the States- General of the United Netherlands until February 22, 1656. Notwith- standing England's failure ever to approve the instrument, its generous concessions to English expansion were accepted by the New England colonies which perhaps saw in the agreement a wedge to greater encroachments upon the territory of their Dutch neighbors. It read in part as follows :
"Concerning the Bounds and Limitts, betwixt the English United Collonies and the Duch Provence of New Neatherland, We agree and determine as followeth :
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