USA > New York > Albany County > Albany > The annals of Albany, Vol. I > Part 22
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Colony of Rensselaerswyck.
was placed under the command of Jacob Jacobz Elkens, who continued here four years in the employ of this association, during which time he was well liked by the natives, with whose language he was thoroughly conversant. Another fort was erected, under the superintendence of Corstiaensen, on an elevated spot on the southern extremity of the island Manhattan, where an insignificant establishment had already existed in 1613, as already stated. Possession was thus taken of the two most important points on the river, to which the powerful Mohawks, the fierce Manhatters, and the various other tribes in the neighborhood, brought their valuable furs to be exchanged for European trinkets and duffels The post at the mouth of the river was, however, the traders' head-quarters. Hither annually caine the ships of the New Netherland Company, and hence was annually exported whatever had been collected from the Indians, after their hunting season, at the neighboring coasts and rivers; from the distant castles of the Five Nations to the hunting grounds of the Minquas. Considerable activity consequently prevailed among the agents and other servants of the company in pushing trade, and exploring the adjoining coasts. Runners scoured the woods, in order to become acquainted with the habits of the Indians, their manner of dealing, and to establish friendly relations with those tribes to which the Dutch were not already known.
. The Restless having now thoroughly examined the coast as far as 38°, and penetrated up the Delaware as far as the Schuylkill, Capt. Hendrickson returned to Holland in the summer of 1616, from his second voyage, for the purpose of laying before the managers of the company the particulars of his explorations. On being presented to the States Gene- ral, he made a verbal report of his adventures, on the part of his employ- ers, who, at the same time, petitioned their High Mightinesses, setting forth that they had, at considerable expense, discovered and explored certain countries, bays, and three rivers, lying in latitude from 38º to 40°, with a small yacht called the Restless, of about eight lasts burden, commanded by Capt Cornelis Hendricksen, Jr., of Monnichendam, which yacht the petitioners had built in the aforesaid country. They thereupon demanded, in conformity with the provisions of the ordinance of March, 1614, the exclusive privilege of trading thither.
Skipper Hendricksen's report, it is to be regretted, is both meagre and brief. After the detail of the preceding discoveries, he described the country as well wooded with oak, pine, and hickory, which trees he add- ed, were in some places covered with vines. He stated that he found in those parts male and female deer, turkeys, and partridges, and that the climate was as temperate as that of Holland; that he had traded for seal and sable skins, furs, and other peltries, with the Minquas, from whom he had ransomed three of the company's servants, who had left their employment among the Mohawks and Mohegans, having given, in exchange for them, beads, kettles, and other merchandise.
Whether it was that the States General were dissatisfied with the small amount of information furnished in this report, or that other interests had by this time sprung up, which were anxious to participate in the advan- tages of the trade to America, or that paramount reasons of puplic policy influenced their deliberations, their high mightinesses laid this appli-
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cation on the table, and the exclusive grant to the New Netherland Company expired, by its own limitation, on the 1st of January, 1618, in the spring of which year, the breaking up of the ice, and the accom- panying freshet on the River Mauritius, or North river, did so much injury to the company's fort on Castle island, that their servants were obliged to abandon it, and to remove a few miles south, to the banks of the Tawalsontha creek, now called the Norman's kill. Here, on a hill, called by the Indians Tawassgunshee, they erected a new fortification, and concluded with the great confederacy of the Five Nations a formal treaty of alliance and peace.
This celebrated Indian confederation was composed of five tribes, namely the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas, and generally known by the name of the Iroquois. They inhabited the country bound- ed on the east by the great River Manhattes and Lake Irocoisia, or Champlain; on the west by Lake Erie and the River Niagara; on the north by Lake Ontario and the Great river of Canada; and on the south by the country of the Lenni Lenape, or Delawares. When the Dutch arrived in America, the tribes composing the Five Nations were at war with the Algonquin, or Canada Indians. But the latter having formed an alliance with the French, who, some years previous to this date, had commenced the settlement of New France, as Canada was called, derived such powerful aid from the fire-arms of their European allies, that the Iroquois were defeated in almost every rencontre with their ancient enemy. Smarting under the disgrace of these unexpected repulses, the Iroquois hailed the establishment among them, now of another European nation familiar with the use of those terrible instru- ments, which, almost without human invention, scattered death wher- ever they were directed, and defied the war club and bow and arrow as weapons of attack or defence. Though jealous by nature, and given to suspicion, the Indians exhibited none of these feelings towards the new- comers, whose numbers were too few even to protect themselves or to inflict injury on others. On the contrary, they courted their friendship, for through them they shrewdly calculated on being placed in a condition to cope with the foe, or to obtain that bloody triumph for which they thirsted. Such were the circumstances which now led to that treaty of alliance, which, as the tradition goes, was concluded on the lanks of the Norman's kill, between the Five Nations and the Dutch.
Nothing could surpass the importance the warlike inhabitants of those ancients forests attached to the ratification of this solemn treaty. Each tribe sent its chief as its ambassador to represent it on this occasion. The neighboring tribes-the Lenni Lenape and Mohegans-were invited to attend; and there in the presence of the earth, their common mother -of the sun, which shed its genial heat on all alike-by the murmurs of that romantic stream, whose waters had been made to flow by their common Maker from all time, was the belt of peace held fast by the Dutch and their aboriginal allies, in token of their eternal union. There was the calumet smoked, and the hatchet buried, while the Dutch traders declared that they should forthwith erect a church over the weapon of war, so that it could no more be exhumed without overturning the sa- cred edifice, and whoever dared do that should incur the resentment of
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the white men. By this treaty the Dutch secured for themselves the quiet possession of the Indian trade, and the Five Nations obtained the means to assert that ascen 'ancy which they ever after maintained over the other native tribes, and to inspire terror far and near among the other savages of North America.
The West India Company having finally in 1623 concluded its pre- paratory arrangements, and completed, with the sanction of the States General, the articles of agreement between the managers and the other adventurers, lost no time in commencing operations and forming estab- lishments in New Netherland, which was erected into a province. A fortified post, called Fort Orange, was commenced on the west bank of the river Mauritius, as the North river was called, a few miles north of the redoubt which had been erected in 1618 on Tawalsontha creek, and thirty-six (Dutch) miles from the Island of Manhattans.
In 1629, a charter of privileges and exemptions was passed for the encouragement of patroons to settle colonies, and in the following year several wealthy and influential directors of the Dutch West India company hastened to avail themselves of its advantages. Bastiaen Jansen Krol, commissary, and Dierck Cornelissen Duyster, under- commissary at Fort Orange, having learned that a tract of land called Sannahagog, lying on the west side of the North river, extending from Beeren island, by the Indians called Passapenock, up to the Smackx island, and in breadth two days' journey, was for sale, purchased the same from Paep Sikenekomptas, Nancouttanshal, and Sickoussen, the native proprietors, for Kiliaen - van Rensselaer, a pearl-merchant in Amsterdam, and one of the directors of the West India Company. Three months afterwards, Gillis Hoossett purchased, in the presence of Jan Jansen Meyndertsen, Wolfert Gerrittsen, and Jan Tyssen, trumpeter, for the same gentleman, from Cottomack, Nawanemit, Abantzene, Sagisguwa, and Kanamoack, the lands lying south and north of Fort Orange, and extending to within a short distance of Moenimines Castle, then situated on what is now called Haver island, at the mouth of the Mohawk; and from Nawanemit, one of the last named chiefs, his grounds, called Semesseeck, stretching on the east side of the river, from opposite Castle island to a point facing Fort Orange, and thence from Potanoek, the Mill creek, north to Negagons. These conveyances were subsequently ratified by the respective parties, in the presence of the Director-general and council of New Netherland, who signed an instrument to that effect, " sealed with the seal of New Neth- erland in red wax," on the same day that the charter of 1629 was proclaimed at Fort Amsterdam. Nearly seven years afterwards-namely, ly, on the 13th April, 1637-an intervening district called Papsickenekaas or Papsskanea as the name is now pronounced, lying also on the east side of the river, and extending from opposite Castle island south to the point opposite Smackx island, and including the adjacent islands and all the lands back into the interior, belonging to the Indain owners, was purchased " for certain quantities of duffels, axes, knives, and wampum," also for Mr. Van Rensselaer, who thus became proprietor of a tract of country twenty-four miles long, and forty eight miles broad, containing, as is esti- mated, over seven hundred thousand acres of land, which now compose the counties of Albany, Rensselaer, and part of the county of Columbia .
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Colony of Rensselaerswyck.
On the 1st of October 1630, a copartnership was entered into between Kiliaen van Rensselaer, Samuel Godyn, Johannes de Laet, and Samuel Bloemmaert, with whom were associated Adam Bissuls and Toussaint Moussart, who, by the terms of the contract, were constituted codirec- tors, of Rensselaerswyck. The common stock of this association was divided into five shares, of which Van Rensselaer held two; De Laet, one; Godyn, one; and Bloemmaert and his associates, one; and the man- agement of the affairs of the colonie was committed to a board consisting of four persons or votes, of which Van Rensselaer represented, or held two; Bloemmaert, or Bissels, one; and De Laet, or Moussart, one. Van Rensselaer was, however, not to have any rank or authority in the colonie superior to his associates, except the title of patroon, which, with all its feudal honors, was vested in him alone, the partners binding them- selves to do fealty and homage for the fief on his demise, in the name, and on the behalf of his son and heirs,
Another association was formed, a few days afterwards, between Godyn, Van Rensselaer, Bloemmaert, De Laet, Mathias van Cuelen, Hendrick Hamel, Johan van Harinckhouck, and Nicolaus van Sitterich, also directors of the West India Company, and Capt. David Pieterssen de Vries, for planting a colonie on the South river. Equalizing all expected advantages, they equipped a ship and yacht for that quarter, where they designed raising tobacco and grain, and prosecuting the whale-fishery, oil bringing then a fair price in Holland. Preparations were also made to expedite farmers and cattle to Rensselaerswyck: and everywhere, at home and abroad, things wore the aspect of prosperity, and "promised fairlie both to the state and undertakers."
The condition of the Dutch settlements on the North river, at this time, is thus alluded to by a contemporary English writer: "This which they have settled in New England upon Hudson's river, with no extraordi- nary charge or multitude of people, is knowne to subsist in a comfortable manner, and to promise fairlie both to the state and undertakers. The cause is evident: The men whom they carrie, though they be not many, are well chosen, and known to be useful and serviceable; and they second them with seasonable and fit supplies, cherishing them as carefully as their owne families, and employ them in profitable labors, that are knowne to be of speciall use to their comfortable subsisting." The Planters' Plea; London, 1630.
The inhabitants of Rensselaerswyck in 1640, who numbered at the time as many traders as individuals, noting the avidity with which the Mohawks sought after fire-arms, willingly paying the English twenty beavers for a musket, and from ten to twelve guilders for a pound of gunpowder, were desirous to share so profitable a trade. They commenced accordingly, to furnish fire-arms to these Indians. The profits which accrued became soon known, and traders from Holland soon introduced large quantities of guns and other munitions of war into the interior. The Mohawks, thus provided with arms for four hundred warriors, swept the country from Canada to the sea-coast, levying tribute on the sur- rounding terror-stricken tribes.
The charter of 1629 having provided that every colonie should contain, within four years after its establishment, at least fifty persons over fif-
Map of Rensselaersmyck, Anno 1630.
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Greynen Bush
Unuwats Castle
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Colony of Rensselaerswyck.
teen years of age, one fourth of whom should be located within the first year, the parties interested in the settlement of Rensselaerswyck lost no time in complying with these conditions. Early in the spring of the following year a number of colonists, with their families, and pro- vided with farming implements, stock, and all other necessaries, sailed from the Texel, in the company's ship the Eendracht, Capt. Jan Brou- wer, commander, and arived in safety at the Manhattes, after a passage of sixty-four days. In a short time afterwards they landed at Fort Orange, in the vicinity of which they were furnished with comfortable farm-houses and other dwellings, at the expense of the patroon and his associates. Other settlers followed, with additional stock, each succeed- ing season, and thus were laid the foundations of those moral, wealthy, and prosperous settlements which we now behold in and around the present city of Albany.
Invested as well by the Roman law, as by the charter, with the chief command and lower jurisdiction, the patroon became empowered to administer civil and criminal justice, in person, or by deputy, within his colonie; to appoint local officers and magistrates; to erect courts, and to take cognizance of all crimes committed within his limits; to keep a gallows, if such were required, for the execution of malefactors, subject however, to the restriction that if such gallows happened, by any ac- cident, to fall, pending an execution, a new one could not be erected, unless for the purpose of hanging another criminal. The right to inflict punishments of minor severity was necessarily included in that which authorized capital convictions, and accordingly we find various instances, throughout the record of the local court, of persons who had, by breaking the law, rendered themselves dangerous to society, or obnoxious to the authorities, having been banished from the colonie, or condemned to corporal chastisement, fine, or imprisonment, according to the grade of their offences,
In civil cases, all disputes between man and man; whether relating to contracts, titles, possessions, or boundaries ; injuries to property, per- son, or character; claims for rents, and all other demands between the patroon and his tenants, were also investigated and decided by these courts; from the judgment of which, in matters affecting life and limb, and in suits where the sum in litigation exceeded twenty dollars, ap- peals lay to the director-general and council at Fort Amsterdam. But thej local authorities, it must be added, were so jealous of this privilege that they obliged the colonists, on settling within their jurisdiction to promise not to appeal from any sentence of the local tribunal.
The laws in force here were, as in other sections of New Netherland, the civil code, the enactments of the States General, the ordinances of the West India Company, and of the director-general and council, when properly published within the colonie, and such rules and regulations as the patroon and his codirectors, or the local authorities might establish and enact.
The government was vested in a general court, which exercised exec- utive, legislative or muncipal, and judicial functions, and which was composed of two commissaries, ( gecommitteerden; ) two councillors, styled indiscriminately raetspersoonen, gerechts-persoonen, or raedts-
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Colony of Rensselaerswyck.
vrienden, or schepenen, and who answered to modern justices of the peace.
Adjoined to this court were a colonial secretary, a sheriff, or, schout fiscaal, and a Gerechts-bode, court messenger, or constable. Each of these received a small compensation, either in the shape of a fixed salary or fees; the commissaries and magistrates, fifty, one hundred, or two hundred guilders annually, according to their standing; the secretary one hundred guilders; and the court messenger one hundred and fifty, with the addition of trifling fees for the transcript and service of papers. The magistrates of the colonie held office for a year, the court appointing their successors from among the other settlers, or continuing those already in office, at the expiration of their term of service, as it deemed proper.
The most important functionary attached to this government was, as throughout the other parts of the country, the schout-fiscaal, who, in discharge of his public functions, was bound by instructions received from the patroon and codirectors, similar in tenor to . those given to the same officer at the Manhattans. No man in the colonie was to be sub- ject to loss of life or property unless by the sentence of a court composed of five persons, and all who were under accusation were entitled to a speedy and impartial trial. The public prosecutor was particularly . enjoined not to receive presents or bribes, nor to be interested in trade or commerce, either directly or indirectly; and in order that he might be attentive to the performance of his duties, and thoroughly independent, he was secured a fixed salary, a free house, and all fines amounting to ten guilders [ $4 ], or under, besides the third part of all forfeitures and amends over that sum, were his perquisites.
Jacob Albertsen Planck was the first sheriff of Rensselaerswyck. Ar- endt van Curler, who originally came out as assistant commissary, was appointed, soon after his arrival, commissary-general, or superintendent of the colonie, and acted as colonial secretary until 1642, when he was succeeded by Anthony de Hooges. Brant Peelen, Gerrit de Reus, Cor- nelis Teunissen van Breuckelen, Pieter Cornelissen van Munickendam, and Dirck Janssen were, if not the first, at least among the earliest magistrates of the settlement.
The population of the colonie consisted at this remote period of three classes. Freemen, who emigrated from Holland at their own expense ; farmers and farm-servants, who were sent out by the patroon, who judi- ciously applied his large resources in promoting the early settlement of the country, and in assisting the struggling industry of his people. To accomplish this laudable object, a number of farms were set off, on both sides of the river and adjoining islands, on which he caused dwelling- houses, barns, and stables to be erected. These farms were suitably stocked with cows, horses, or oxen, and occasionally, sheep; and fur- nished with ploughs, wagons, and other necessary agricultural imple- ments, all which preliminary expenses were defrayed by the proprietor so that the farmer entered on the property unembarrassed by the want of capi- tal, which often tends to impede the progress of settlers in new countries. Some of those farms were then valued, and an annual rent was fixed, equivalent in some sort to the interest of the capital expended on their improvement, and payable semi-annually in grain, beavers, and wampum. Other farms were let out on halves, or for the third of their produce; the
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Colony of Rensselaerswyck.
patroon was entitled, at the same time, to half the increase from the stock, reserved to himself one-tenth of the produce of each farm; and in various instances stipulated for a yearly erkentenis, or acknowledge- ment, of a few pounds of butter. The tenant was privileged, however to compound, by the payment of a fixed annual sum for the tenths of the farm, or for his halves or thirds. He was bound, at the same time, to keep the fences, buildings, or farming implements, in repair, and to deliver them up in the same good order in which he had received them, subject in all cases to ordinary wear and tear, but the patroon bore all risks of destruction of the buildings, cattle and other property which might accrue from war, or misunderstanding with the Indians. Wild or unimproved land was usually leased for a term of ten years free of rent or tenths, subject, however, to be improved by the lessee, all im- provements falling to the patroon on the expiration of the lease. In addition to the facilities above enumerated, each of the settlers, on leav- ing Holland, were, like those sent by the West India Company to the Manhattans, generally furnished with clothing and a small sum in cash, the latter to be repaid, at some future o casion, in produce or wampum, with an advance on the principal of fifty per cent. This, however disproportionate it may now seem, can not be considered unreasonable or extravagant, when it is understood that the difference, at the time, between colonial and Holland currency was nearly forty per cent, while between the latter and the value of wampum it was vastly larger. The patroon was bound, at the same time, to supply his colonists with a sufficient number of laborers to assist them in the work of their farms. As compensation for his trouble in engaging these and for his advances in conveying them to America, he was entitled to the sum of sixteen guilders, or six dollars, per annum for each laborer, over and above the yearly wages which the farmer was to allow such servants, and which ranged from forty to one hundred and fifty guilders, and board. This sum provided these servants with necessary clothing, and in the course of time placed at their disposal wherewith to enter on a farm on their own account. It is to be remarked, however, that the first patroon seriously complained that his settlers not only threw altogether on him the payment of these wages, but took large quantities of goods from his store, for which they made no returns whatever, though they were bound to settle at the end of each year, and to hand in an account of the produce of the farm, distinguishing the patroon's tenths, halves, or thirds, the amount paid for wages, and their own expenses, so as to allow him to ascertain what his own profits and losses were at the close of each annual term.
In return for his outlay and trouble, the civil code, which, it must be always borne in mind, was the fundamental law of this colonie, vested in the patroon several privileges common to the feudal system. At the close of the harvest, the farmer was bound to hand in a return of the amount of grain which he had for sale, after deducting what was due to the landlord by the lease, and offer to him or his commissary the pre- ëmption of such produce. In case he refused to buy it, then the farmer was at liberty to sell the same elsewhere. The like rule obtained in regard to cattle. When these were to be sold, the first offer was also to
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be made to the patroon, in order, we presume, that he should have an opportunity of retaining the stock within the colonie. Every settler was, likewise, obligated to grind his eorn at the patroon's mill, and the latter was equally obligated to erect, and keep sueh mill in repair, at his own expense, for the accommodation of his colonists. No person could hunt or fish within the limits of the colonie, without license from the patroon, who, on the exchange, sale, and purchase of real estate within his jurisdiction, was entitled to the first offer of such prop- erty ; or if he declined to resume it, to a certain portion of the purchase money, except such mutation occurred in the natural line of descent. Finally, it was his right, as " lord of the manor," to succeed to the estate and property of all persons who might die intestate within his colonie.
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