USA > New York > New York County> Harlem > Revised History of Harlem (City of New York): Its Origin and Early Annals. : Prefaced by Home Scenes in the Fatherlands; Or Notices of Its Founders Before Emigration. Also, Sketches of Numerous Families, and the Recovered History of the Land-titles > Part 13
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But the arrival has not passed unnoticed. Some of the tawny natives, engaged in fishing,-for the salmon, and mullets, and rays, were plenty,-espy, far out on the ocean (so the red man handed down the story), a large and strange-looking object .* Hastening back to land, they break the news to some of their countrymen, who also go out, in order to discover what it may be. They view with astonishment the strange phenomenon, now so near as to be plainly visible, but are quite disagreed as to what it is ; some take it to be an enormous fish or animal, others a very big wigwam floating on the sea. As the curious object comes nearer to the land their apprehensions increase; they conclude that it possesses life, and resolve without further delay to put all the neighboring Indians on their guard. Messengers depart to carry the news to the scattered chiefs and braves, and to urge their immediate presence. Many of these soon arrive in breathless haste, and, viewing the queer object which has now gained the very entrance of the river or bay, finally conclude that its nothing less than the wigwam of the great Manitto, or Supreme Being himself, who has evidently come to pay them a visit. This opin- ion prevailing, they begin preparations to give him a suitable re- ception. The women must cook the most savory food, and a grand kintekoy or dance be given, measured to their best music, as "an agreeable entertainment for the Great Being."
Early the next morning Hudson, after sending the boat to take soundings farther up the bay, finds a better anchorage; and remaining there all day, some of the crew go ashore to draw a
* The Indian tradition of Hudson's visit is taken from Heckwelder; otherwise the facts have been drawn from original statements by De Laet, Juet, Vander Donck, and others, every circumstance and intimation being duly weighed. We believe these will warrant all the amplification here given, the traditionary part finding strong confirmation in these authors.
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net for fish, returning with ten big mullets, a foot and a half long, and a great ray, taking four men to haul it into the ship. By this time the Indians, having carefully watched the movements of their strange visitor, are so well assured of his supernatural character and friendly mission, that they resolve to venture out to the ship and extend him a welcome. Two of them, clad in loose deer skins, and taking a bundle of green tobacco as a present for the Manitto, launch forth in their canoe, and being admitted on board the vessel, manifest their pleasure at seeing the pale-faced strangers by every sign and exclamation at their command expressive of wonder and delight. Making their offer- ings, they receive in return a few knives and beads. Admiring the dress worn by the Europeans, they signify a wish to have the same for themselves; but so far from showing any rudeness, their decorum is such that the officers notice it and declare them "very civil."
On the succeeding day Hudson and others from the ship made a formal visit to the land, when the assembled Indians, "men, women and children," received and entertained them in their best manner. "The swarthy natives all stood around and sung in their fashion," says Hudson ; the ceremony without doubt indicated more of fear and reverence than of confidence, and was designed to propitiate his favor. The usual present of green tobacco was given, and refreshments served, including bread made of maize, or Indian corn, of which Hudson partook and found it "excellent eating." Then the ship's party strolled "up into the woods, and saw great stores of very goodly oaks and some cur- rants." Many Indians of both sexes also visit the ship during the day, "in their canoes made of a single hollow tree," says Hud- son. They are dressed, "some in mantles of feathers, and some in skins of divers sorts of good furs." About their necks are ornaments of copper. They bring offerings of dried currants, "sweet and good," and Indian hemp. These expressions of good- will do not throw the shrewd navigator off his guard. From common prudence he "durst not trust them," yet his keen eye can detect no lurking evil intent, and he frankly admits that "they appear to be a friendly people." Such is his testimony of "the peo- ple that he found dwelling within the bay." Their entire deport- ment thus far had betrayed only profound respect and veneration for their mysterious visitors.
But, strange, pleasing hallucination of the untutored son of the forest, how quickly did one untoward circumstance dispel it forever, reduce his supposed divinity to the level of a mortal,
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and place him in the attitude of an enemy! On the morning of the 6th, the weather being fair, Hudson, with more accurate conclusions as to the best direction in which to continue his search, ordered John Coleman and four others to proceed with the yawl "over to the north side, to sound the other river," yet little dream- ing that all that was to impart fame to his voyage hung upon its undisclosed mysteries. Rowing twelve miles to its mouth (the Narrows) they ascended and entered a spacious harbor, "with very good riding for ships," whence extending their search two leagues up "a narrow river to the westward between two islands"* and reaching "an open sea,"t they were returning filled with ad- miration of the country, "as pleasant with grass and flowers and goodly trees as ever they had seen," when suddenly, in a manner unexplained, they came in fatal conflict with the natives, twenty- six in number, in two canoes. Coleman was slain by an arrow, and two others of the crew wounded, but strange to say the sav- ages did not follow up their advantage. A rain set in, which extinguishing their match, made their guns useless, and after toiling all night "to and fro on their oars" the party reached the ship. They declared "they were set upon" by the In- dians; the latter have not left us their story! Why, so su- perior in force, did they spare any of the whites to tell their tale? Why the sudden change which Hudson observed in the temper of the savages? Peradventure in this affray the Indi- ans were "more sinned against than sinning;" then the case becomes clearer. If, smarting under a deep sense of unpro- voked injury, they retired to dress their wounds and bury their dead, then the news, which spread rapidly, at once stamped the new-comers as enemies.
Suspicious of the savages from the first, Hudson now had great reason to fear an attack. He thereupon ordered a strict watch to be kept day and night to prevent a surprise, which in- deed the Indians were plotting, and only seeking an opportunity to execute, as was apparent from the many canoes filled with armed men which prowled around the ship. Admitting but few of the savages into the vessels, he seized two, who came on board with a treacherous design, and held them as hostages. Passing the Narrows, September 1Ith, Hudson entered the harbor with his ship. The morning of the 13th found him skirting "that side of the river that is called Mannahata," having "fair weather, the wind northerly." With the full of the tide he casts anchor opposite a gorge in the hills from which a stream, meander-
* Kill Von Kull. t Newark Bay.
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ing through verdant meadows, empties into a small cove or bay (Manhattanville).
News of his coming has preceded him. From one Indian village to another and from wigwam to wigwam runners have carried the startling tidings; delegations from the Flats and parts contiguous have poured in through the ravine till the multi- tudes crowd the beach and crown the acclivities, eager to catch a sight of the big canoe, about which and its inmates such strange rumors have spread far and wide, exciting "great sur- prise and astonishment among the Indians." Hudson and his officers greet with civility the natives, who here approach the ship in four canoes, bringing "great store of very good oysters." He accepts the present, and gives them some trinkets in return : but the menacing attitude of the savages only the day previous indisposes Hudson to any intimacy, or to admit any of them on board,-a wise precaution, as events will show.
Barred from intercourse, and withal ignorant of their lan- guage, Hudson could as yet have acquired but scant knowledge of the country from the natives. But this was in a measure supplied by his own habit of close observation, noting objects so trivial as the ornaments and tobacco-pipes of the natives, whence he inferred the existence of copper. And on this bright September morning, while cooling breezes from the north amble through the rigging of the ship as it lies idly at anchor for sev- eral hours waiting for the tide to set in, and the practised eye of the great navigator surveys on the one hand the pure watery expanse, on the other the charming wooded bluffs which here adorn the Island of Manhattan, doubtless it penetrates the notable cleft in the heights, opening to him a distant vista of the broad and beautiful plains upon which our interest centres, as yet, save only to the aborigines, a very terra incognita! We may read his emotions as, turning from this scene, he records in his journal the admiration of a sailor: "It is as pleasant a land as one need tread upon ; very abundant in all kinds of timber suitable for shipbuilding."*
Hudson ascends the river. A fortnight spent in its further exploration and he has realized, not the prime object of his ambition, but results in the highest degree important ; the best
. Hudson's Journal, as quoted by De Laet (see Coll. N. Y. Hist. Soc., ad series, vol. i, p. 300), places this incident in latitude 40° 48', which agrees well with the locality given. Juet's Journal (ibid., p. 325) gives the date and other particulars, and when closely studied aids in fixing the locality beyond a reasonable doubt. See also the subject of Hudson's voyage carefully treated in Yates and Moulton's Hist. of N. Y., which unhesitatingly gives this incident as happening when the ship was "anchored off Manhattanville."
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indeed of all his voyages. Since he first entered Sandy Hook he had been delighted with the country. He had penetrated nearly to its source the noble river which was thereafter to take his name, finding at every stage in his progress something new to admire in its extended reaches, its majestic highlands, its fruitful vales and its grand and diversified scenery. Now, elated with his valuable discoveries, inspirited by the bracing air and gorgeous appearance of the highlands, clad in the richest hues of autumn, he is on the downward passage. At break of day October 2d the ship leaves its moorings at "Sleepers' Haven," near the jutting Senesqua, or Teller's Point, at the mouth of the Croton, and with canvas bending under a stiff breeze from the northwest, runs down twenty-one miles till, the tide setting in too strongly, it again casts anchor at the upper end of Manhattan Island, near the beautiful inlet Schora- kapok, since "by the Dutch" called the Spuyten Duyvel.
But unlooked-for danger was lurking in its track. An inci- dent of the upward voyage, already alluded to, now had a most painful sequel. The two natives whom Hudson kept on board as hostages were carried up the river. . But haughty captives were not to be beguiled by a voyage in the big canoe of the great Manitto, nor long amused by the red coats with which they were bedecked. In the highlands these restless spirits escaped through a port-hole and swam off, hurling back, from a safe distance, cries and gestures of scorn and defiance. Making their way down the river, and thirsting to avenge the indigni- ties offered them, they sounded the war-whoop to rouse their people to arms, and at the head of Manhattan Island collected a force, with the evident purpose of seizing the ship and appro- priating the rich booty which it contained.
No sooner does the returning vessel heave to near their place of ambush than several canoes dart out, filled with armed war- riors, led on, as is observed, by one of the savages who had escaped from the ship. Hudson, seeing their hostile design, warns them to keep off. Hereupon two of the canoes fall back near the stern and let fly a volley of arrows. Six muskets return the assault, and two or three Indians are killed. Mean- time the ship having gotten under way, the main body of war- riors, about a hundred, collect at a point of land (now Fort Washington) to get a fair chance at her as she slowly moves along. But a falcon-shot from the vessel kills two of them, and the rest flee into the woods. They are now quite discomfited; yet about ten of the boldest, still firm in their purpose, jump into
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a canoe and paddle to meet the ship. Another cannon-shot kills one of their number and pierces the canoe. A volley of musketry slays three or four more, and puts an end to the fight. The savages are left to mourn the loss of nine of their braves, while Hudson pursues his way to the ocean. Ah, hapless fate! which at this first interview thus sealed in blood an enmity between the two races, destined for half a century to redden the soil of Manhattan Island with Christian blood to glut the Indian's ven- geance. The inlet where began this fatal encounter soon took the name of Spuyten Duyvel, but for what reason has not been explained. True, that veritable author, Diedrich Knickerbocker, makes it the presumptuous boast of Petrus Stuyvesant's valiant trumpeter, who essayed to swim the stream in a storm, spyt den duyvel, but was seized and carried under by his satanic majesty in the form of a huge mossbunker! But for those to whom this story may wear a tinge of incredibility we give another possible derivation. By what more fitting term could the sav- ages, so apt in the choice of their names, have designated Hud- son's ship, recalled as an uncouth monster vomiting streams of deadly fire, than by that which (from the object adhering to the locality) found its Dutch equivalent in Spuyten Duyvel, that is, Spouting Devil? But if this also will not bear criticism, we ask the reader to soberly weigh a fact which seems to indi- cate the true source of the queer designation in question. From the large spring which sprouts or bubbles out near the foot of Cock Hill and flows into the creek, "The Spring" became but another name, with the early settlers, both Dutch and Eng- lish, for the locality known as Spuyten Duyvel; and an ancient record of 1672 expressly calls it Spuyten Duyvel, alias the Fresh Spring !
Hudson's discoveries so aroused the enterprise of the mer- chants and shipmasters of Holland that for a series of years vessels were annually dispatched to New Netherland to prosecute dis- covery and the fur trade, for which purpose they were some- times "ordered to remain there the whole year." That section of Manhattan Island in which our interest centres could not long elude .these enterprising Dutch traders, though this seat of the hostile Manhattans remained inaccessible for years after they had gained a foothold on the upper Hudson. Wrapt in that normal state which for untold ages had known no change, its weird charms must have strangely impressed such daring spirits as were foremost to navigate its untried waters or first to penetrate its slumbering solitudes. The Hollander,-his eye ac-
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customed only to a flat country, to dykes and polders,-beheld with admiration this majestic display and picturesque blending of heights and low land, of wood and meadow and meandering brooks. But no hum of busy industry caught his ear, no familiar sight yet met his eye; the waters' gentle ripple, the wind's moaning through the tall pines, the cry of startled beast or bird was his greeting. The group of rustic cabins and the moving forms of dusky savages, clad, if at all, in skins or furs and feath- ers, but enhanced the weirdness of the scene. Lucky, too, was he if his first welcome was not conveyed by the swift-winged arrow from behind the thicket, as was the case with Captain Dermer, ten years after Hudson's visit, but before the Dutch had yet occupied Manhattan Island. Coming from the east- ward, and passing "a most dangerous cataract among small, rocky islands," he soon found greater perils than those of Hell- gate in the hostility of the natives; for, says he, "the savages had great advantage of us, in a strait not above a bow-shot, and where a multitude of Indians let fly at us from the bank; but it pleased God to make us victors." Only escaping, as his words seem to imply, and as had Hudson, by making his assailants feel the superiority of firearms, it seems hardly credible that such was ever the rude and perilous state of our beautiful Island, the now secure abode of peace and refinement.
As introductory to the history of the section in which we are most interested, we must notice the advent and progress of set- tlement upon the southern point of the Island, which antedated by some thirteen years the first known attempt to locate at Har- lem. The idea of a permanent occupation of the country natur- ally followed upon the more intimate knowledge of its resources, acquired through the frequent visits of the Holland traders. But the first move in that direction must be accredited as be- fore mentioned, to Rev. John Robinson, pastor of an English congregation at Leyden, and to the directors of the company engaged in trading to New Netherland. In negotiating with said directors, Robinson had informed them that upon condition of the government protection, etc., he was "well inclined to proceed thither to live," and also "had the means of inducing over four hundred families to accompany him thither, both out of this country (Holland) and England," who would "plant there a new commonwealth." But the company's charter mean- while expiring, the directors, on February 12th, 1620, laid their case before the States General and besought them to take these colonists under their protection and detail two ships of war to
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convey them to that country, in order to keep out other nations and make it "secure to the State."
But this application failed, as did another of similar import made the next year to the London Company by the French and Walloons of Leyden, as heretofore noticed. Nevertheless the States General were not indifferent to the benefits likely to accrue from such colonies being planted in New Netherland. Hence in their charter to the West India Company, in view of "the great abundance of their people, as well as their desire to plant other lands," they enjoined upon the company, as one among the im- portant objects contemplated, "to advance the peopling of those fruitful and unsettled parts."* Accordingly a first act of the com- pany was to equip and send out (March, 1623) a vessel of 130 lasts, the New Netherland, in command of one familiar with the voyage, Captain Cornelis Mey, and which carried about thirty families, "mostly Walloons," with a few single men, all engaged to the company for a term of service, and who were to occupy and garrison several new points along the coast, besides forming a set- tlement up the Hudson. Captain Mey was to be the director or governor in New Netherland, with a deputy in the person of Cap- tain Adrian Tienpont, who accompanied him. Arriving at Hud- son's River about the beginning of May, they lay at anchor for several weeks at Manhattan, where eight men were set ashore "to take possession" for the company, and others dispatched for a like object to the rivers Connecticut and Delaware. About eighteen families proceeded with the vessel up the river to Castle Island, at or near which the Dutch had for nine years maintained a trading- post. Choosing a spot for a settlement still higher up (within the present city of Albany), there they "made a small fort," and en- tered into "covenants of friendship" with the Mahicans or River
" No credit is due to the statement that colonies were planted in New Netherland, on Manhattan Island or elsewhere, prior to 1623. Sir Dudley Carleton, English am- bassador at the Hague, no doubt makes a true representation when, in a letter of Febru- ary 5, 1621 (February 15, 1622 N. S.), to the Leards of the Council in England, he says: "About four or five years since, two particular companies of Amsterdam merchants began a trade into those parts betwixt 40 and 45 degrees, to which after their manner they gave their own names of New Netherlands and the like; whither they have ever since continued to send ships of 30 and 40 lasts, at the most, to fetch furs, which is all their trade; for the providing of which they have certain factors there continually resident trading with savages, and at this present there is a ship at Amster- dam bound for those parts; but I cannot learn of any colony either already planted there by these people, or so much as intended; and I have this further reason to believe there is none, because within these few months divers inhabitants of this country to a considerable number of families have been suitors unto me, to procure them a place of habitation amongst his Majesty's subjects in those parts; which, by his Majesty's order, was made known to the Directors of the Plantation; and if these countrymen were in any such way themselves, there is small appearance they would desire to mingle with strangers, and be subject to their government." (Col. Hist. of N. Y., 3: 7. Stuyvesant does not claim for the Dutch any earlier possession of Man- hattan Island. Ibid, 2: 412. See also ibid, 1: 149, and Doc. Hist. N. Y., 4to, 3: 31, 32.)
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Indians, the Maquas, and other neighboring tribes, who "desired that they might come and have a constant free trade with them, which was concluded upon." Such a beginning had the now wealthy capital of the State.
Those left to form a trading-post at Manhattan intrenched themselves at Capsee, on the southern end of the island, and built them hausse "of the bark of trees." Three years later Gov- ernor Peter Minuit came out, Manhattan Island was purchased from the Indians "for the value of sixty guilders,"-twenty-four dollars and, with a view to making this "the principal colony," the settlement, which had already received important accessions from Holland, with a supply of live stock and farming tools. was further increased by the families from Fort Orange, who, disquieted by a recent affray with the savages in which some of their number were slain, gladly accepted this change; and as the Manhates "were becoming more and more accustomed to the strangers."* New Amsterdam, as now called, and containing two hundred and seventy souls, was permitted, April 7, 1628, to welcome its first minister, Rev. Jonas Michaelius, from Hol- land. This devoted man, educated .at Leyden, preached a dozen years, then went out to Brazil with the great expedition in 1624. After a short term of service at St. Salvador he labored a year or two in Guinea before coming to New Am- sterdam. Here at once he "established the form of a church," but as the Walloons and French knew very little Dutch, he preached to them in their own language. Hither resorted the Indian hunters, bringing quantities of furs, of which from year to year valuable cargoes were taken to Holland in the company's ships. Their agents also used every means to increase this trade by exploring in their yachts all the adjoining coasts, while others scoured the woods and sought the Indian villages for friendly traffic. But it was not only the fur trader, the hunter tracking the game, or the amateur drawn hither by curiosity to see the country ; others were already intent upon finding out its varied re- sources,-the husbandman noting the quality of the soil. the mechanic and artisan whatever for each had a practical business value, the scientist or naturalist in quest of mineral and other
* Harlem was settled before New Amsterdam, if we may credit the tradition current among our old New Yorkers half a century ago; the first colonists, after living here awhile, for some cause removing to the lower end. Such, then, and even later this was the popular belief, as we have had it from the lips of several aged persons long since deceased. But finding no mention of this either in Wassenaer or De Laet. or in any contemporary or early record, we suspect the tradition is due to the removal from Fort Orange or to the abandonment of Harlem for a time by its first settlers because of the Indians, as hereafter related, or perhaps to the confused and faded memories of both.
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treasures,-some new wonder in every stone, tree, shrub, and flower, every beast that starts at his approach, or bird that warbles from the bough. Much of this useful information was presently transmitted to Fatherland, both in private letters from the colonists to their kindred and in official reports to the West India Company. Isaac De Rasieres, who came out in 1626 and served some two years as chief commissary and secretary at New Amsterdam, has left us, in an account written after his return to Holland, the earliest known description of Manhattan Island by an eye-witness. It is, he says, "full of trees, and in the middle rocky," but the north end "has good land in two places, where two farmers, each with four horses, would at first have enough to do without much clear- ing." So early had the attention of the Hollanders, instinctively attached to rich bottom lands, been drawn to these fertile plains, then known to the colonists as the Flats of the Island of Manhatta.
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