USA > New York > Albany County > Albany > The history of the city of Albany, New York : from the discovery of the great river in 1524, by Verrazzano, to the present time > Part 2
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When the Half Moon, on the warm afternoon of the nineteenth of September, cast her anchor and swung with the tide, near the site of the city of Albany, the observ- ing Indians, well aware from their intercourse of nearly a century with the seamen of France what would be most acceptable to the officers and men on the strange
that the natives come to the fort [Fort Orange, the site of Albany] from that river, and from Quebec and Tadoussac."-Nieuwe Wereldt ofte beschrijvinghe van West Indien. Door Joannes de Laet. Tot Leyden, 1625. boek iii. cap. ix. Vide Coll. N. Y. Hist. Soc. Second series. vol. i. p. 399.
1 The Dudley Observatory in the city of Albany, about three-fourths of a mile north of the Capitol, is in 42º 39' 50" north latitude, and in 3º 15' 26" east longitude from Washington ; and in 73° 44' 49" west longitude from Greenwich.
2 Belgische ofte Nederlantsche oorlogen ende geschiedenissen beginnen de van 't jaer 1595 tot 1611. boek xxx. fol. 327. Vide Henry Hudson in Hol- land by Henry C. Murphy. Appendix. pp. 62-65.
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THE HISTORY OF ALBANY.
vessel, hastily carried to their canoes clusters of wild grapes, a few pumpkins, some otter and beaver skins, and rowed to the yacht. Having reached her deck they readily bartered their commodities for beads, knives, hatchets, and other things.
Hudson, desiring to know whether he could sail farther northward, sent his mate and four men the next day to take soundings. They went up the river two leagues and found the depth of the water to be two fathoms, and the channel very narrow. On the third day while the carpenter was on land making a fore-yard, Hudson in- vited several Indian chiefs to partake of some wine and strong liquor in the cabin of the Half Moon. These were freely imbibed by his guests and in a short time the In- dians were tipsy and one drunk. A merry chief had his wife with him, but she with womanly propriety de- meaned herself so modestly that her behavior was admir- ingly observed by Hudson and his officers.
On the afternoon of the fourth day a delegation of Indians visited the vessel and presented Hudson with a quantity of tobacco and some wampum. One of the number made an oration, on the conclusion of which the savages placed a large platter of venison before the navi- gator who courteously eat a part of the cooked meat. The delighted Indians then bowed reverently before him and left the vessel.
Late that night Hudson's mate and four of the crew returned from the upper part of the river where they had been during the day taking soundings. At the distance of about eight leagues from the vessel's anchorage they had found the water quite shallow and not deep enough for the draught of the Half Moon. This report satisfied Hudson that Captain John Smith's expectations of his finding a navigable passage to India in that direction
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THE HISTORY OF ALBANY.
were false, and he therefore determined to return to Hol- land. At noon on the twenty-third of September, the yacht's small anchor was weighed, and the Half Moon sailed down the river on the homeward voyage. On the fourth of October she left the lower bay at Sandy Hook, and stood for England. On the seventh of November she arrived at Dartmouth, from which place Hudson sent the report of his voyage to the East India Company. 1 Giving little consideration to the English navigator's description of the physical features and chief productions of the country of the Grande River, the money-making managers zealously furthered the company's commer- cial interests in other parts of the world.
Some of the Dutch seamen who had made the voy- age with Hudson wisely inferring that a venture to the Grande River for furs would profitably remunerate those investing money in such an enterprise, advised certain merchants of Amsterdam to send a vessel to the river to procure a cargo of peltry. This advice induced a num- ber of capitalists to fit out a ship, which, in 1610, sailed to the river and obtained a large quantity of furs, which were sold in Holland at high prices. Several similar ventures were afterward made which were highly profit- ble in their returns.
While trading with the "Maquaas," 2 at the height of the river's navigation, the Dutchmen learned that the French had been coming for many years to traffic there for furs. Besides giving the Dutch traders this informa- tion the friendly aborigines showed them the ruins of the cháteau on Castle Island. The sagacious Hollanders, hav- ing inspected the dilapidated castle, took measurements
1 Vide Purchas his Pilgrimes. London, 1625. part iii. pp. 593, 594. Coll. N. Y. Hist. Soc. vol. i. pp. 139, 140.
2 The "Maquaas " were also called "Maikans," and "Mahakuaas," by the Dutch. These Indians are more familiarly known as the Mohawks.
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THE HISTORY OF ALBANY.
of its walls and outworks, thinking, perhaps, that the structure might be made serviceable to them should they at any time occupy the country.
To obtain the license and protection of the govern- ment of the United Netherlands the merchants and skip- pers interested in these voyages petitioned the Lords States General to be permitted exclusively to visit and traffic with the natives of this part of America. In their prayer they set forth that after great expense, risk, loss of ves- sels and other reverses during the year 1614, they had discovered, with five ships, “ certain new lands situate in America, between New France and Virginia, being the sea-coast between the fortieth and forty-fifth parallels of north latitude, and now called Nieu Nederlandt (New Netherland )."1 With this petition they presented an embellished map ( caerte ) representing the territory of Nieu Nederlandt. ? Inconsiderately the so-called discov-
1 Nieuwe Wereldt. De Laet. boek. iii. cap. vii. Holland documents in the General Library of the State of New York. vol. i. pp. 39-46. Coll. N. Y. Hist. Soc. Second series. vol. i. p. 291.
2 This highly elaborated map, in the General Library of the State of New York, in Albany, bears the inscription : "The original carte figurative, of which the above is an accurate fac-simile, was found on the 26th of June, 1841, in the loket-kas of the States General, in the royal archives at the Hague. It was annexed to the memorial presented to the States General, on the 18th August, 1616, by the 'Bewindhebbers van Nieuw Nederlandt,' pray- ing for a special octroy according to the placaat of 27 March, 1614; and is referred to in the memorial as shewing the extent of the discoveries made by schipper Cornelis Hendricxx. of Munnikendam, in a small yacht of 8 lasts burden, named the Onrust which the memoralists had caused to be built in New Netherland. Copie d'après l'original par P. H. Loffelt. La Haye. Juillet, 1841. The Hague, 27th July, 1841 J. Romeyn Brodhead, agent of the State of New York."
Although subscribing his name to this statement, Brodhead afterward wrote as follows : "I think, however, that it was actually prepared two years before, from the data furnished by Block immediately after his return. to Holland, and that it was exhibited to their high mightinesses for the first time on the 11th of October, 1614. The charter granted on that day to the directors of New Netherland expressly refers to a 'Figurative map prepared (getransfigeert) by them,' which described the sea-coasts between the fortieth and forty-fifth degrees of latitude. This the parchment map clearly does.
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THE HISTORY OF ALBANY.
erers of this part of New France inscribed the following information on the chart, immediately above the site of the city of Albany. "But as far as one can understand from what the Maquaas [ Mohawks ] say and show, the French come with sloops as high up as to their country to trade with them. 1
The site of the ruins of the French chateau, on Castle Island, which the Indians had shown the Dutch traders, was also represented on the map. They called the fortifi- cation Fort Nassau, in honor of Prince Maurice of Nassau, the stadtholder of the United Provinces, and placed the following descriptive memoranda near it : "Fort Nas- sau is fifty-eight feet wide between the walls in the quad- rangle ; the moat is eighteen feet wide."-" The house in- side the fort is thirty-six feet long and twenty-six wide."2
The ignorance of the Dutch settlers of Albany re- specting the nationality of the builders of the fort on Castle Island gave currency to various conjectures. By some it was assumed that the Spaniards had built the
It, moreover, defines New Netherland as lying between New France and Virginia, according to the description in the charter. The map was prob- ably presented a second time on the 18th of August, 1616, when the directors of New Netherland exhibited their memorial for a further charter, to which it was attached."-History of the State of New York. By John Romeyn Brodhead. New York, 1853. vol. i. Appendix. Note. p. 756.
"This map " says Brodhead, "is undoubtedly one of the most interest- ing memorials we have. It is about three feet long, and shows very mi- nutely the course of the Hudson River from Manhattan to above Albany, as well as a portion of the seacoast ; and contains likewise curious notes and memoranda about the neighboring Indians, the work, perhaps, of one of the companions of Hudson, * made within five years of the discovery of our river, its fidelity of delineation is scarcely less remarkable than its high antiquity."-John Romeyn Brodhead's address before the New York Historical Society, Nov. 20, 1844. Coll. N. Y. Hist. Soc. 1845. p. 16.
1 " Ma so vele men heeft connen verstaen uyt't seggen ende beduyen van de Maquaas so comen de Françoysen met sloupen tot bovem aen haer land mel haerluy handelen."
2 " Fort van Nassoureen is binnen de vallen 58 voeten wydt in 't vier- cant ; de gracht is wydt 18 voeten."
"'t huijs is 36 voeten lanch en 26 wyt in't fort."
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THE HISTORY OF ALBANY.
castle. But this supposition did not seem plausible for there was no historical evidence that the Spaniards had ascended the river to the height of its navigation. The two Labadist missionaries, Jaspar Dankers and Peter Sluyter, visiting Albany, in 1680, speak of the ruins of the fort and of the conjecture concerning the people who built it : "In the afternoon, [Sunday, April 28,] we took a walk to an island, upon the end of which there is a fort, built, they say, by the Spaniards. That a fort has been there was evident from the earth thrown up, but it is is not to be supposed that the Spaniards came so far in- land to build forts, when there are no monuments of them to be seen down on the sea-coasts, where, however, they have been according to the tradition of the Indi- ans. " 1
The petition of the Dutch fur-traders was favorably considered by the Lords States General. They granted them, on the eleventh of October, 1614, a special license to make four voyages to the country called by them Nieu Nederlandt, "within the period of three years, to begin on the first day of January, 1615, or sooner." Having obtained the exclusive privilege to traffic with the natives of New Netherland, the company sent Hen- drik Corstiaenssen,2 an experienced skipper of Amster- dam, in 1615, to Prince Maurice's River, (Riviere van den vorst Mauritius,) as the Grande or Hudson River was
1 Journal of a voyage to New York and a tour in several of the American colonies in 1679 and 1680, by Jaspar Dankers and Peter Sluyter of Wiewerd, in Friesland. Translated from the original manuscript, in the Dutch lan- guage, for the Long Island Historical Society, by Henry C. Murphy. Memoirs of Long Island Hist. Soc. 1867. vol. i. p. 318.
2 The terminations se and sen were used by the Dutch as suffixes to the father's name to designate the child's relation. Thus Corstiaenssen signified the son of Corstiaens; Pieterse the son of Pieter ; Jansen, the son of Jan ; Rutgersen the son of Rutger; Eve Albertse Bratt, Eve, the daughter of Albert Bratt ; Anna Dirkse van Vechten, Anna, the daughter of Dirk van Vechten
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designated on the map of 1614, with orders to occupy · Castle Island and to repair the damaged walls of the French cháteau. Having removed the débris, he rebuilt the dilapidated parts of the structure. A garrison of a dozen Dutch soldiers was then placed in it. To render Fort Nassau defensible against any attack of the Indians, two small cannons (gotelinghen) and eleven stone swivel- guns, (steen stucken,) used on ships, were put in position within the earthworks. 1
During the period of three years in which the company was privileged to trade with the natives of New Nether- land, the only known instance of any bad feeling mani- fested by the latter toward the Dutch, was on the return of a young savage, named Orson, from Holland, who had gone there with Adriaen Block. a Dutch navigator. "This exceedingly malignant wretch," as he is designated by a contemporaneous Dutch historian, cherished a deep resentment toward Hendrik Corstiaenssen, and, at his first opportunity, shot the commander of Fort Nassau. However, before he got beyond the range of a bullet, he was made to pay the penalty of his blood-thirstiness. 2
Corstiaenssen's subordinate officer, Jacob Elkens, was then placed in command of Fort Nassau. The latter remained in charge of the post until the spring of 1618, when a great freshet again inundated Castle Island, and injured the fort so much that it was abandoned by the Dutch, and never again occupied by them.3 When the exclusive trading privileges of the company ceased, in 1618, several vessels were permitted by the Lords
1 Nieuwe Wereldt. De Laet. boek. iii. cap. vii. ix. Albany records, in the General Library of the State of New York. vol. xxiv. fol. 167. Coll. N. Y. Hist. Soc. Second series. vol. i. pp. 291, 299.
2 Historische verhael door Nicolaes à Wassenaer. Amsterdam, 1621- 1632. deel viii. fol. 85. Documentary history of New York. vol. iii. p. 26.
3 Niewue Wereldt. De Laet. boek iii. cap. ix. Albany records. vol. xxiv. fol. 167.
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THE HISTORY OF ALBANY.
States General to be sent to the Mauritius River to ob- tain furs.
The information which the fur traders carried to Hol- land concerning the salubrity of the climate of New Netherland, the fertility of its virgin soil, the numerous water-courses irrigating the country, the excellence of the growing timber, the abundance of fish in the streams, the great flocks of fowl, the vast number of wild animals, the profusion of good fruit, and the surprising friend- liness of the natives, inclined a number of the inhabi- tants of the Netherlands to think of emigrating to the attractive region. Among the first to express a desire to go as colonists to New Netherland was a body of Puritans from England, living in the city of Leyden. Speaking through their pastor, the Rev. John Robinson, they made known to some of the merchants formerly trading in New Netherland their willingness to remove to the new country, provided that they should be protected by the government of the Netherlands. The merchants to whom the application had been made, addressed a let- ter, in February, 1620, to the prince of Orange and a memorial to the Lords States General, expressing the desire of the Puritans to become colonists of New Neth- erland and soliciting the privilege of transporting the lat- ter to the place selected, should their high mightinesses comply with the prayer of the petitioners. For some unknown reason the request was not granted, and conse- quently it happened that another and a less inviting part of North America obtained the historical distinction of being settled by the Puritans. 1
The remarkable prestige which the Dutch East India Company had acquired by its extensive commerce and extraordinary earnings now induced a number of wealthy
1 Hol. doc. vol. i. fol. 94-98, 103.
CHAPTER II.
FORT ORANGE.
1624-1629.
After perfecting their plans of colonization, the direc- tors of the West India Company had not long to wait for a desirable body of emigrants to accept the offers they had publicly made to all persons who might be induced to become settlers of the fertile regions of New Nether- land. For at this time there was living in Holland a large number of French protestants who had come from the Southern Belgic provinces of Hainault, Namur, Lux- emburg and Liege to escape the persecutions of the Spanish Inquisition. These people were called Walloons, and were highly esteemed by the Dutch on account of their probity and industry. 1 The departure of the Pu- ritans from Holland, in 1620, to settle in America, led a number of these French refugees to desire the same priv- ilege of emigrating to it. In order to obtain from the English government the necessary license, the Walloons addressed a petition to the British embassador at the Hague, dated the fifth of February, 1622, signed by Jose de Forest, praying that permission might be granted to
1 The name originated with the Saxons who called all foreigners Wallens: " Saxones occupato regno Britannico, quoniam lingua sua extraneum quemlibet Wallum vocant, & gentes hus sibi extraneas Wallenses vocant, & inde usque in hodiernum barbara nuncupatione & homines Wallenses, & terra Wallia vocita- tur."-Descriptione Cambriae. Sylvester Giraldus. cap. vii.
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THE HISTORY OF ALBANY.
fifty or sixty families, embracing about three hundred persons, residing at Amsterdam, to settle in Virginia.1 The directors of the West India Company, learning that the Walloons had preferred the request, at once made known to the latter the particular advantages which they offered to emigrants becoming colonists of New Netherland.2 Persuaded that no better opportunity for obtaining so many material and political benefits would again favor their purposes and be so conducive to their welfare as settlers in a new country, they accepted the overtures of the company and began to make prepara- tions for leaving the Netherlands.
The colonization of New Netherland evoked consider- able discussion in Holland, and a number of practical suggestions were published concerning the measures that should be taken by the directors of the West India Com- pany to promote the welfare of those emigrating to the new country. Wassenaer, the Dutch historian, writing at the time of the embarkation of the Walloons, remarks, that for the latter "to go in safety it is first of all neces- sary that they be placed in a good, defensive position and be well provided with forts and arms for the Span- iard, [the king of Spain, ] who claims all the country, will never allow any one to gain a possession there." 3
The ship, Nieu Nederlandt, of one hundred and thirty lasts burden, commanded by Cornelis Jacobsen May of Hoorn, with thirty families on board, sailed from Ams- terdam, at the beginning of March, 1624, for the Mauri- tius River.4 The vessel took the usual route of ships
1 London documents. vol. i, fol. 24.
2 Hol. doc. vol. i. fol. 118.
3 Historische verhael. Wassenaer. deel. vi. fol. 147. Doc. hist. N. V. vol. iii. p. 22.
4 Although the writers who have quoted Wassenaer as their authority for their statements that the Nieu Nederlandt sailed in March 1623 to the Mau- ritius River with the first colonists of New Netherland, they, as it will be
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THE HISTORY OF ALBANY.
merchants of Holland to apply to the Lords States Gen- eral for the exclusive privilege of sailing and trafficking within the territorial limits of certain countries over which the government of the Netherlands had assumed jurisdiction. The charter incorporating the Dutch West India Company was given, on the third of June, 1621, under the great seal of the Lords States General. The exclusive privileges conferred by this instrument per- mitted the ships of the company to traffic on the coast and in the interior of Africa from the tropic of Cancer to the Cape of Good Hope, in America and the West Indies, for a term of twenty-four years, beginning the first day of July, 1621. To this corporation was granted the power to make contracts, engagements, and alliances with the rulers and people of the countries designated in the charter, to build forts, to appoint and discharge offi- cers, to advance the settlement of unoccupied territory, to enlarge the channels of commerce and to multiply the sources of revenue.
The Lords States General required the company to communicate to them, from time to time, such contracts and alliances as it might make, and to inform them respecting the situation of all the fortresses and settle- ments erected by its agents. In the appointment of civil and military officers and in giving instructions to them, their high mightinesses were to be consulted, and all commissions of its officers were to be issued under the seal and authority of the Lords States General. If troops were needed their high mightinesses were to furnish them, but they were to be paid and supported by the company. The charter intrusted the government of the corporation to five chambers of managers. These cham- bers and the government of the Netherlands were repre- sented by a college of nineteen persons, of which number
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THE HISTORY OF ALBANY.
eight were from the Amsterdam chamber, four from the Zeeland, two from the Maas, two from the North Hol- land, and two from the Friesland. The government had one representative.
A commercial and colonization company invested with such extensive powers as were conferred on the incor- porators of the West India Company by this patent needed no little time for organization. Therefore its di- rectors were not prepared to prosecute the purposes of its incorporation with any noteworthy enterprise until the twenty-first of June, 1623, when the rules and regu- lations of the company were formally approved by the Lords States General. 1
1 Hol. doc. vol. i. fol. 104-106. Groot placaat boek. vol. i. fol. 566.
2
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THE HISTORY OF ALBANY.
sailing to New Netherland at this time. Proceeding first to the Canary Islands, off the west coast of Africa, to catch the trade-wind, she stood for the Bahamas. Pass- ing between the latter and the Bermuda Islands, she then followed the trend of the coast of the continent north- wardly as far as the Sandpunt, the low point of land now called Sandy Hook.
The king of Spain contrary to general expectation did not take any steps to prevent the planting of the colony. France, however, sent a barque to the bay of the Grande River to forbid the West India Company taking possession of her territory. Consequently when the Dutch ship passed through the Narrows, May was much surprised to see a vessel, flying the flag of France, riding at anchor near the Dutch yacht, the Mackerel, moored in the mouth of the river.1 When he sought informa- tion concerning the presence of the barque, May was told that the French vessel had come there to plant monuments bearing the insignia of France and to assert that country's possession of this part of North America by right of discovery. An angry controversy ensued be- tween May and the French officer. The combative Hol- lander declared that the assertions of the Frenchman were only assumptions, and that the commission from their high mightinesses, the Lords States General, which he exhibited, substantially proved the title of the Dutch to the country. Not to be frustrated or further obstructed in carrying out his present commission by a prolongation of the vexatious controversy, May, with the assistance of
seen by referring to Wassenaer, do not use his dates which are plainly printed on the margins of the pages of his valuable work. He gives 1624 for the sailing of the vessel carrying the first emigrants to New Netherland.
1 The Mackerel had sailed from Holland on the sixteenth of June, 1623, but did not arrive at the Mauritius River until the twelfth of December. She remained at the mouth of the river during the winter of 1623-24.
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THE HISTORY OF ALBANY.
the crew of the Mackerel, compelled the French officer to depart with his ship from the bay. 1
Rid of the disturbing presence of the French vessel, May landed a number of emigrants on "Mannatans " Island, where now the city of New York is built.2 The Nieu Nederlandt then ascended the river to the country of the Maquaas and Mahicans. 3
On the west bank of the river, a short distance north of Castle Island, where a narrow, verdurous plain lay pleasantly sheltered by the westward hill, the little band of Walloons with a few Dutch freemen disembarked. In the warm sunlight of that serene May day of 1624,
1 " The West India Company being chartered to navigate these rivers did not neglect so to do, but equipped in the spring [of 1624] a vessel of 130 lasts, called the New Netherland, (Nieu Nederlandt ghenaemt,) whereof Cornelis Jacobsen May of Hoorn, with 30 families, mostly Walloons, (30 Huysghesinnen meest Waelen,) to plant a colony there. They sailed in the beginning of March, and directing their course by the Canary Islands, steered toward the Wild Coast, and gained the west wind which luckily took them in the beginning of May into the river first called Rio de Montagnes, now the river Mauritius, lying in 4072 degrees. He found a Frenchman lying in the mouth of the river, who would erect the arms of the king of France there ; but the Hollanders would not permit him, opposing it by the commission from the Lords States General and the directors of the West India Company ; and in order not to be frustrated therein, with the assis- tance of those of the Mackerel, which lay above, they caused a yacht of 2 guns to be manned, and convoyed the Frenchman out of the river."-His- torische verhael. Wassenaer. deel vii. fol. 11. Doc. hist. N. Y. vol. iii. p. 23.
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