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 3
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2 Catelina Trico, an aged woman, born in Paris, in a deposition made by her on the fourteenth of February, 1684-5, said that she came to New Netherland "either in the year one thousand six hundred and twenty-three or twenty-fouer to the best of her remembrance." In another deposition, made the seventeenth of October, 1688, she said that she was one of the passengers of " ye first Ship yt came " to New Netherland, sent by the West India Company, and that "as soon as they came to Mannatans now called N: York they sent Two families & six men to harford River & Two families & 8 men to Delaware River and 8 men they left att N : Yorke to take Possession and ye Rest of ye Passengers went wth ye Ship up as farr as Al- bany."-Deed book, vii. New York colonial manuscripts. xxxv. Doc. hist. N. Y. vol. iii. pp. 31, 32.
3 The Maquaas or Mohawks inhabited the west bank of the Hudson River, near the confluence of the Mohawk River, and the country westward bordering the latter stream. The Mahicans or Mohegans dwelt on the east bank of the Hudson River.
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they began to explore with inquisitive eyes the green meadow where the hearth-stones of their new homes were to be laid. They drank with critical taste the water of the hill-side springs, and speculatively wandered over the old, uncultivated corn-fields of the savages. Looking across the slowly flowing river, they beheld the palis- aded village of the Mahicans with its peculiarly built houses.
The landing of the colonists having been seen by some of the Maquaas and Mahicans, the news of the arrival of the Dutch ship was soon known to both tribes. Large numbers of the Wilden 1 began to come on foot and in boats to the landing-place of the roving emigrants. The latter had now ample opportunity to observe their strange visitors. They saw the men were brawny-limbed, well- proportioned, and of a stature equal to their own. Their black eyes and white teeth were in striking contrast with the more disguised features of their beardless, dirty, dusky red faces, variously streaked with paint of differ- ent colors. Their jet-black hair, coarse and straight, was allowed by some to grow only on one side of their heads. Many of the warriors had only crown-locks decorated with large feathers of birds of prey. A number of fiercer mien had narrow growths of short, bristly hair, extending from the tops of their foreheads to the backs of their necks, with braided locks on each side. Their clothing was scanty, filthy, and rudely fashioned. Short, double aprons of skins covered their loins. Their bodies were loosely clad with the skins of deer, bear and other animals. Some wore mantles of turkey-feathers knit together with strings of skin. Their lower limbs and feet were incased in deer-skin leggins and moccasins.
1 The Dutch name for the Indians. Wild, wild ; plural wilden, Wilde menschen, savages.
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The women accompanying them were better attired. Their hair was bound in short rolls, about a hand long. A number wore head-bands ornamented with pieces of shells. The band confining their hair was fastened be- hind, over the roll, in a bow-knot. One or two had fine complexions, several were comely and attractive, and none were remarkably ugly. They were all clothed in dressed deer-skin garments, the lower borders of which, extending below their knees, were elaborately embroid- ered with wampum and strips of fur. With a womanly desire to be attractive, their necks and arms were encir- cled with barbaric ornaments and European trinketry. Their breasts were partly covered with the upper part of a soft, finely dressed deer-skin garment worn next to the skin. Their girdles were very prettily ornamented with wampum, as were also their leggins and moccasins. They also had various ornaments of metal, bone, and shell suspended from their ears. Very few of the Wilden, either the men or the women, were wholly clad in skins. Some had pieces of duffel-cloth thrown across their right shoulders and drawn about their bodies, the ends draping their lower limbs almost to their ankles. 1
Cornelis Jacobsen May, intrusted with the adminis- tration of the West India Company's affairs in New Netherland, soon summoned the colonists about him and assigned to them the quantities of land which they sev- erally were able to cultivate. Then began the humble house building. Small spaces of ground were cleared, holes dug, posts planted and spars split. The latter were then bound horizontally to the upright posts with withes,
1 Beschrijvinge van Nieuw Nederlant door Adriaen van der Donck. Am- sterdam, 1656. pp. 52-54, 56-58. Description of New Netherland. Coll .N. Y. Hist. Soc. Second Series. vol. i. pp. 190, 191, 194, 195.
Korte ontwerp van de Mahahuase Indianen in Nieuw Nederlandt. Be- schreven in 't jaer 1644. Door Johannem Megapolensem, juniorem. Coll. N. Y. Hist. Soc. Second Series. vol. iii. p. 154.
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and over this frame-work large pieces of peeled bark were securely fastened. Arches of bark formed the roof of the hut ; clay, sod and stones the hearth and chimney. While the colonists were building their cabins, the men in the service of the West India Company were construct- ing, near the river, a small log-fort. Having removed their families and household goods from the ship into their bark-huts, the settlers with resolute hearts and active hands began to till the land assigned them. The weed-grown corn-fields of the Indians were digged and sown with wheat and rye. Clearing away the matted vines and brushwood on parts of the grassy plain, the colonists dug shallow holes, at short intervals, and cast in them a few grains of Indian corn, which they covered with the rich loam displaced by their broad hoes. The vegetable seeds brought from Holland were also planted in small patches which became the particular care of the active housewives. The warm summer's sun quickly germinated the seed in the fertile fields, and in a few months the rapidly ripening grain was "almost as high as a man." Soon also upon the tables of the settlers appeared the productions of their gardens,-the first returns for their laborious cultivation of the virgin soil of New Netherland.
The trapping season that began in December was now ended, and the Indians daily resorted to the little settle- ment bringing peltry to barter for European commodi- ties. The little fort of logs and earth was constructed and called Fort Orange, in honor of Maurice, the prince of Orange. 1 Daniel van Krieckebeck was appointed
1 " Een Fort met 4. punten Orangie ghenaemt opgeworpen en voltopt."- Historische verhael. Wassenaer. deel. vii. fol. ii. Doc. his. N. Y. vol. iii. pp. 23.
The principality of Orange was on the east side of the river Rhone. in Southeastern France. Its territory was about twelve miles long and about.
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commissary of the post. The Mackerel, having"taken on board a cargo of furs, now sailed for Amsterdam, where, in August, she arrived with Director May's official com- munications, and letters from the colonists. 1
The gratifying reports brought from Fort Orange by the Mackerel, were, later in the year, more fully con- firmed by letters and messages carried to Holland by the Nieu Nederlandt, which sailed from Fort Orange when "the harvest was far advanced," taking as her cargo fifteen hundred beaver and five hundred otter-skins and other things, which, when sold, returned to the West India Company more than twenty-eight thousand guilders. 2
The settlers gave very laudatory accounts of New Netherland. Its agreeable climate, attractive scenery, and wonderful fertility were highly extolled by them. "We were greatly surprised," wrote one, "when we arrived in this country. Here we found beautiful rivers, bubbling streams flowing down into the valleys, pools of running water in the meadows, palatable fruits in the forests, strawberries, pigeon-berries, walnuts, and wild grapes. Acorns for feeding hogs are plentiful in the woods, as also is venison, and there are large fish in the nine wide. From the time of Charlemagne it has successively been in the possession of the houses of Giraud-Adhemar, Baux, Chalon, and Nassau.
1 Catelina Trico, in her deposition, further related : "There were about 18 families aboard who settled themselves att Albany & made a small fort, and as soon as they had built themselves some hutts of Bark : ye Mahikan- ders or River Indians, ye Maquase, Oneydes, Onnondages, Cayougas, & Sinnekes, wth ye Mahawawa or Ottawawawaes Indians came & made Cov- enants of friendship wth ye sd Arien Jorise there Commander Bringing him great Presents of Bever or oyr Peltry & desyred that they might come & have a Constant free Trade with them wch was concluded upon & ye sd na- tions come dayly with great multidus of Bever & traded them wth ye Chris- tians."-N. Y. colonial MSS. xxxv. Doc. hist. N. Y. vol. iii. pp. 31, 32.
2 A guilder or florin having the value of twenty stivers was equal to about one shilling and ten pence sterling, or about forty cents of our money.
Historisch verhael. Wassenaer. deel viii. fol. 185. Doc. hist. N. Y. vol. iii. p. 25.
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rivers. The land is good for farming. Here is especially the liberty of coming and going without fear of the naked natives of the country. Had we cows, hogs, and other animals fit for food, (which we daily expect in the first ship,) we would not wish to return to Holland, for whatever we desire in the paradise of Holland is found here. If you will come here with your family, you will not regret it." "This and similar letters," says Baudar- tius, a Dutch scholar, writing in 1624, "have roused and stimulated many to resolve to emigrate there with their families in the hope of being able to obtain a handsome livelihood, confidently believing that they will live there in luxury and ease, while here on the contrary they must earn their bread by the sweat of their brows." 1
The prosperous beginning made by the colonists was regarded by the directors of the West India Company as presaging a still greater success of its colonization schemes. The cheering intelligence also created consider- able comment among the people of the United Provinces respecting the company's future policy in administering the affairs of New Netherland. The prospects of the two colonies on the North and South rivers, ? as the Hudson and the Delaware were called by the Dutch, are thus ad- verted to by Wassenaer : "These colonies have already a prosperous beginning, and it is hoped that they will not be neglected but be zealously sustained not only there but at the South River. For their growth and prosperity it is highly necessary that those persons sent out be well provided first of all with means of subsistence and de- fense, and as freemen that they be settled there on a free tenure so that all they work for and obtain be theirs to
1 Gedenkwaardige geschiedenissen zo kerkelyke als wereldlyke, door Gulielmus Baudartius. Arnhem, 1624. Doc. hist. N. Y. vol. iv. p. 132.
2 A number of colonists settled at the mouth of the Timmer kill, a creek flowing into the Delaware, a short distance below Camden, New Jersey.
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dispose of and sell as they may wish, and that he who is placed over them as a director shall act as their father not as their executioner, leading them with a gentle hand, for whoever rules them as a friend and associate will be beloved by them, for he who orders them as a superior will subvert and nullify every thing, yea, will excite against him the neighboring provinces to which they will fly. 'It is better to rule by love and friend- ship than by force.'" 1
During the fall and winter the colonists cleared other spaces of land for cultivation and built more commodi- ous and comfortable log-houses than the rude huts of bark in which they had first lived. They now had also opportunities to hunt and obtain game. Some also vis- ited the villages of the hospitable Maquaas and Mahi- cans. Many of the bark-houses of the savages were more than a hundred feet long, though seldom wider than twenty feet. To construct one, the Indians began by setting in the ground, in two straight rows, long hickory-poles stripped of their bark, placing the rows as far apart as the intended width of the house. Bending the poles inward they bound them together at their upper ends to form the arch of the roof. They then fastened long, narrow pieces of wood ,horizontally to these poles ; and for the covering of this frame-work they used the bark of ash, chestnut, birch, and of other trees, peeling it in pieces about six feet wide and as long as they could obtain it. These pieces they attached with withes to the frame-work, putting the smooth side of the bark inward, and leaving an opening about a foot wide at the crown of the roof for the escape of smoke ascending from the fires built along the middle of the house. They lapped the edges of the pieces of bark far enough over each 1 Historische. verhael. Wassenaer. deel vii. fol. ii. Doc. hist. N. Y. vol. iii. p. 24.
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THE HISTORY OF ALBANY.
other so that the subsequent shrinking of the covering left no openings. These houses were moderately warm in winter. They were often occupied by ten, twelve, and even more families. The members of each family were allotted a particular space in them. Sometimes more than a hundred persons dwelt in one of these long build- ings.
When fishing or hunting at great distances from their villages, the Wilden usually erected temporary huts of bark or skins. Their fortified or inclosed villages were generally built on steep hills near creeks and rivers, and on sites that were inaccessible except from the water-side. To render their villages defensible, the Wilden surrounded them with a double row of oak-palisades. They first laid several heavy logs closely together for foundation- pieces. On each side of these they planted strong palis- ades, the upper ends crossed and securely held together with withes. They further made the inclosing palisades difficult to be climbed over by placing between the crossed ends the trunks of trees and their branches. Inside these strongholds there were sometimes more than a hundred bark-houses. In less defensible situations the villages of the Wilden were not inclosed. 1
During the fall and winter the colonists had fre- quent opportunities to learn something of the habits of that remarkable rodent, the beaver, which made the site of Fort Orange a famous fur-emporium for several cen- turies .? They also observed the novel ways of trapping
1 Beschrijvinge van Nieuw Nederlandt door Adriaen van der Donck, pp. 58-60.
2 The dome-shaped lodges of the beaver were found mostly erected on the banks of deep streams, a short distance from the water's edge. The industrious animals in companies of four, two of each sex, began to con- struct their houses about the beginning of September, the work of building continuing through the fall until the ground was frozen. The structures erected by them were about five or six feet high, and the walls from two to
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these vigilant and timid animals by the Indians, and the manner in which the diligent hunters cured the peltry for traffic.
While the Mauritius River, in winter, was frozen and the colony at Fort Orange isolated from the visitation of ships from Holland, the directors of the West India Com-
three feet thick, built of the trunks of small trees such as the maple, the birch and the poplar, gnawed in lengths of two or three feet. The inter- stices were filled with sticks and stones, cemented solidly together with clay, so as to be impenetrable to animals of prey. In the floor of each house was a hole for egress and ingress, the opening connected by an underground water-way with the bottom of the stream.
Four old beavers, two males and two females, with their progenies of six or eight young, were found occupying a lodge. These houses were not con- tiguous but were constructed at different distances along the water-courses. The channels of shallow streams the beavers dammed to deepen the water so that it might not freeze to the bottom and prevent their escape from their lodges. The dams were built straight across the stream where the flow of the current was slow, but where it was swift the middle part of the dam was built convex, the centre projecting up the stream.
Full-grown beavers measure from the tips of their noses to the ends of their tails from forty to fifty-five inches, and weigh from thirty to sixty pounds. Their tails are about ten inches long and about five inches broad, shaped like a paddle and covered with black, horny scales. Their senses of smell and hearing are acute but their vision is of small range. Their feet are bare and blackish, with strong, brown nails, and are webbed to the roots of the claws. Their upper and lower jaws have each two large, sharp in- cisor and eight molar teeth.
When beavers build their lodges and dams they usually select trees that are not more than six inches in diameter, the trunks of which they gnaw around with their incisors, cutting spaces about five inches in width. When gnawed through, the ends of the severed wood closely resemble in shape the lower part of a child's top. Beavers generally find their timber near the place of building or up the stream, whence they float it to the selected site of the house or dam. The food of beavers is bark of such trees as the willow, poplar, and alder. The females commonly bear in the month of May, giving birth to two, three or four young. The beaver lives from twelve to fifteen years.
Adriaen van der Donck, who lived at Fort Orange from the year 1641 to 1646, and traded for years with the Indians, published in 1656 the following description of the fur of the beaver and the use made of the pelt: "The beaver's skin is rough, but thickly set with fine fur of an ash-gray color, inclining to blue. The outward points also incline to a russet or brown color. From the fur of the beaver the best hats are made that are worn. They are called beavers or castoreums from the material of which they are made, and they are known at present by this name over all Europe. Out-
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pany took action in certain matters that might contri- bute to the welfare of the settlers and induce other per- sons to emigrate to New Netherland. They at the same time commissioned William Verhulst to succeed Cornelis Jacobsen May as resident-director during the year 1625. Having registered the names of forty-five emigrants upon its books, the company sent them with a consign- ment of agricultural implements and a number of horses and other cattle in the spring to New Netherland.
The news of the continued prosperity of the colonists and of the peaceful relations existing between them and the Indians influenced so many people to emigrate to the Mauritius River that the company determined to plant a colony on the island, where now is the city of New York. In 1626, the company purchased the island from the Indians for sixty guilders.1 Pieter Minuit, the third
side of the coat of fur many shining hairs appear, called wind-hairs, which are more properly winter-hairs, for they fall out in summer and appear again in winter. The outer coat is of a chestnut-brown color, the browner the color the better is the fur. Sometimes it will be a little reddish.
"When hats are made of the fur, the rough hairs are pulled out, for they are useless. The skins are usually first sent to Russia, where they are highly valued for their outside shining hair, and on this their greatest recommenda- tion depends with the Russians. The skins are used there for mantle- linings, and are also cut into strips for borders as we cut rabbit-skins. Therefore we call the same peltries. Whoever has there the most and the costliest fur-trimmings is considered a person of very high rank, as with us the finest stuffs, and gold and silver embroidery are regarded as the append- ages of the great. After the hairs have fallen out, or are worn, and the peltries become old and dirty and apparently useless, we get the article back and convert the fur into hats, before which it cannot be well used for this purpose, for unless the beaver has been worn and is greasy and dirty, it will not felt properly ; hence these old peltries are the most valuable. The coats which the Indians make of beaver-skins and which they have worn for a long time around their bodies until the skins have become foul with perspiration and grease are afterward used by the hatters and make the best hats."- Beschrijvinge van Nieuw Nederlandt door Adriaen van der Donck. pp. 82- 89. Vide. Coll. N. Y. Hist. Soc. Second series. vol. i. pp. 190, 191, 194- 197, 220-227.
1 Historische verhael. deel xii. fol. 38, 39. Doc. hist. N. Y. vol. iii. pp. 27, 29. Hol. doc. vol. i. fol. 155.
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resident-director, having arrived on the fourth of May, made the island the seat of the government of New Neth- erland. The south point of the island was selected for the site of a fort, the ground-plan of which was staked out by the company's engineer. Thirty bark-cabins were erected by the colonists near the rude fortification. The two comforters of the sick, (kranck-besoeckers, ) Sebastian Jansen Crol and Jan Huyck, were the conductors of the religious services of the settlers on Sundays. The new settlement at Fort Amsterdam increased the population of New Netherland to "two hundred souls." 1
A number of the settlers at Fort Orange disliking the isolated and remote situation of the colony at the height of the river's navigation now removed to the lower set- tlement. Shortly afterward they were followed by the other settlers with their families. The removal of the latter was caused by an indiscreet act of the commander of Fort Orange.
The two tribes of Indians, the Maquaas and the Mahi- cans, made war upon each other. The palisaded village of the latter, on the east side of the river, was opposite the fort, and the colonists were the terrified witnesses of the horrors of Indian warfare. Van Krieckebeek, com- manding the small garrison of Fort Orange, having been solicited by the Mahicans or Mohegans to take part with them in an attack upon the Maquaas or Mohawks impru- dently consented. Taking with him six soldiers from the fort he went with a body of Mohegans to meet a party of Mohawks. When they had gone about a mile from the fort they suddenly came upon the Mohawks who repulsed them so valiantly that they were forced to retreat leaving many slain, the Dutch officer and three of his men being among the number. It is related that
1 Historische verhael. deel xii. fol. 38. Doc. hist. N. Y. vol. iii. p. 28.
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"among the latter was Tymen Bouwensen, whom [the Mohawks] devoured, after they had roasted him. The rest they burnt. The commander was buried with the other two by his side. Three escaped ; two Portuguese and a Hollander from Hoorn. One of the Portuguese was wounded by an arrow in the back while swimming. The Indians carried a leg and an arm home to be divided among their families, as a proof that they had conquered their enemies." 1
The horrifying details of this affair caused great con- sternation in the settlement, while the fear of the fort being attacked by the Mohawks in retaliation for Van Kreickebeek's partisanship increased the general feeling of insecurity. The terrified people were no little cheered a few days thereafter by the arrival of Pieter Barentsen, the chief fur trader of the West India Company, whose business it was to go from point to point to collect peltry from the Indians for shipment to Holland. He made it his mission to go at once to the Mohawks and learn at once what feelings of resentment they might have toward the Dutch. They frankly told him that they had never injured the Hollanders and asked why the latter had med- dled with them. Unable to ascertain anything respecting their intentions, Barentsen returned to Fort Orange and assumed the command of the sixteen men composing the garrison. Apprehensive that the revengeful Mo- hawks might be instigated to make a sudden descent upon the little settlement, he had the remaining eight families conveyed to Fort Amsterdam. The only per- sons left at the post were those of the garrison and twen- ty-five fur traders under Sebastiaen Jansen Crol, the new vice-director, (onder directeur). 2
1 Historische verhael. deel xii. fol. 38. Doc. hist. N. Y. vol. iii. p. 28.
2 Historisch verhael. deel xii. fol. 38; deel xvi. fol. 13. Doc. hist. N. Y· vol. iii. p. 28.
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The hostilities between the Mohawks and the Mohe- gans continued through the year 1627. The Mohawks, who were greater in number, at last successfully assault- ed the palisaded village of the Mohegans, and finally, in 1628, drove the few valorous survivors of the tribe to the Connecticut River. 1
The West India Company finding that the coloniza- tion of New Netherland had been attended with consid- erable expense, which added nothing to its revenues, abandoned, in 1629, the undertaking of sending settlers to the Mauritius River with the expectation that its out- lays would in time be returned in profits arising from the exclusive sale of its commodities to the colonists and from the export-duties on grain and other produce which its ships carried to Holland. The directors of the company now agreed to favor another scheme by which it was believed an enriching revenue could be obtained. They decided to divide the country into manors to be granted to proprietary lords, called patroons or patrons of New Netherland. 3 A charter of privileges and exemptions was therefore drafted and reported to the assembly of the nineteen representatives. On the seventh of June, 1629, the body formally approved the new plan for the colonization of New Netherland, which was duly rati- fied by their high mightinesses, the Lords States Gen- eral. In order to become a patroon it was required by the charter that the person so inclined should first notify the company that he intended to plant a colony in New Netherland, and then, within the space of four years immediately thereafter, settle upon the selected land fifty persons over fifteen years of age. He was permit- ted the choice of such land as he might deem suitable extending four Dutch or twelve English miles along one 1 Historische verhael. deel xvi. fol. 13. Doc. hist. N. Y. vol. iii. p. 30. 3
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