USA > New York > The history of the late province of New-York, from its discovery, to the appointment of Governor Colden, in 1762. Vol. I > Part 7
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"2dly. That, if it be possible that you can order it so, I would have you take one or two of your wisest sachems, and one or two of your chief captains of each nation, to be a council to manage all affairs of the war. They to give orders to the rest of the officers what they are to do, that your
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designs may be kept private ; for after it comes among so many people, it is blazed abroad, and your designs are often frustrated ; and those chief men should keep a correspondence with me by a trusty messenger.
" 3dly. The great matter under consideration with the brethren is, how to strengthen themselves, and weaken their enemy. My opinion is, that the brethren should send messengers to the Utawawas, Twightwies, and the farther Indians, and to send back likewise some of the prisoners of these na- tions, if you have any left, to bury the hatchet, and to make a covenant-chain, that they may put away all the French that are among them, and that you will open a path for them this way (they being the king of England's subjects likewise, though the French have been admitted to trade with them; for all that the French have in Canada, they had it of the great king of England,) that, by that means, they may come hither freely, where they may have every thing cheaper than among the French : that you and they may join together against the French, and make so firm a league, that whoever is an enemy to one, must be to both.
" 4thly. Another thing of concern is, that you ought to do what you can to open a path for all the north Indians and Mahikanders that are among the Utawawas and further nations. I will endeavour to do the same to bring them home. For, they not daring to return home your way, the French keep them there on purpose to join with the other nations against you, for your destruction ; for you know that one of them is worse than six of the others; there-
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fore all means must be used to bring them home, and use them kindly as they pass through your country.
"5thly. My advice further is, that messengers go, in behalf of all the Five Nations, to the Christian Indians at Canada, to persuade them to come home to their native country. This will be another great means to weaken your enemy ; but if they will not be advised, you know what to do with them.
" 6thly. I think it very necessary, for the bre- thren's security and assistance, and to the enda- maging the French, to build a fort upon the lake, where I may keep stores and provisions in case of necessity ; and therefore I would have the brethren let me know what place will be most convenient for it.
" 7thly. I would not have the brethren keep their corn in their castles, as I hear the Onondagas do, but bury it a great way in the woods, where few people may know where it is, for fear of such an accident as has happened to the Senecas.
" 8thly. I have given my advice in your general assembly, by Mr. Dirk Wessels and Akus, the interpreter, how you are to manage your parties, and how necessary it is to get prisoners, to exchange for your own men that are prisoners with the French, and I am glad to hear that the brethren are so united as Mr. Dirk Wessels tells me you are, and that there was no rotten members nor French spies among you.
" 9thly. The brethren may remember my advice, which I sent you this spring, not to go to Cada- racqui ; if you had, they would have served you, as
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they did your people that came from hunting thither, for I told you that I knew the French better than you did.
" 10thly. There was no advice or proposition that I made to the brethren all the time that the priest lived at Onondaga, but what he wrote to Canada, as I found by one of his letters, which he gave to an Indian to carry to Canada, but which was brought hither ; therefore, I desire the brethren not to receive him, or any French priest any more, having sent for English priests, with whom you may be supplied to your content.
" 11thly. I would have the brethren look out sharp, for fear of being surprised. I believe all the strength of the French will be at their frontier places, viz. at Cadaracqui and Oniagara, where they have built a fort now, and at Trois Rivieres, Mon- treal, and Chambly.
" 12thly. Let me put you in mind again, not to make any treaties without my means, which will be more advantageous for you, than your doing it by yourselves, for then you will be looked upon as the king of England's subjects ; and let me know, from time to time, every thing that is done.
" Thus far I have spoken to you relating to the war."
Not long after this interview, a considerable party of Mohawks and Mahikanders, or River In- dians, beset Fort Chambly, burnt several houses, and returned with many captives to Albany. Forty Onondagas, about the same time, surprised a few soldiers near Fort Frontenac, whom they confined instead of the Indians sent home to the galleys,
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notwithstanding the utmost address was used to regain them, by Lamberville, a French priest, who delivered them two belts, to engage their kindness to the prisoners, and prevent their joining the quarrel with the Senecas. The belts being sent to colonel Dongan, he wrote to De Nonville, to demand the reason of their being delivered. Pere le Vail- lant was sent here about the beginning of the year 1683, under colour of bringing an answer, but in reality as a spy. Colonel Dongan told him, that no peace could be made with the Five Nations, unless the Indians sent to the Galleys, and the Caghnuaga proselytes were returned to their re- spective cantons, the forts at Niagara and Frontenac razed, and the Senecas had satisfaction made them for the damage they had sustained. The jesuit, in his return, was ordered not to visit the Mohawks.
Dongan, who was fully sensible of the importance of the Indian interest to the English colonies, was for compelling the French to apply to him in all their affairs with the Five Nations; while they, on the other hand, were for treating with them inde- pendent of the English. For this reason, among others, he refused them the assistance they fre- quently required, till they acknowledged the de- pendence of the Confederates on the English crown. King James, a poor bigotted, popish, priest-ridden prince, ordered his governor to give up this point, and to persuade the Five Nations to send messen- gers to Canada, to receive proposals of peace from the French. For this purpose, a cessation of arms and mutual re-delivery of prisoners was agreed upon. Near 1,200 of the Confederates attended this ne-
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gotiation at Montreal, and in their speech to De Nonville, insisted with great resolution, upon the terms proposed by colonel Dongan to father Le Vaillant. The French governor declared his wil- lingness to put an end to the war, if all his allies might be included in the treaty of peace, if the Mohawks and Senecas would send deputies to signify their concurrence, and the French might supply Fort Frontenac with provisions. The Con- federates, according to the French accounts, acceded to these conditions, and the treaty was ratified in the field. But a new rupture not long after ensued, from a cause entirely unsuspected. The Dinon- dadies had lately inclined to the English trade at Missilimakinac, and their alliance was therefore become suspected by the French. Adario, their chief, thought to regain the ancient confidence, which had been reposed in his countrymen, by a notable action against the Five Nations; and for that purpose put himself at the head of one hundred men. Nothing was more disagreeable to him, than the prospect of peace between the French and the Confederates ; for that event would not only render the amity of the Dinondadies useless, but give the French an opportunity of resenting their late fa- vourable conduct towards the English. Impressed with these sentiments, out of affection to his country, he intercepted the ambassadors of the Five Nations, at one of the falls in Cadaracqui river, killed some, and took others prisoners, telling them that the French governor had informed him, that fifty war- riors of the Five Nations were coming that way. As the Dinondadies and Confederates were then at war,
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the ambassadors were astonished at the perfidy of the French governor, and could not help commu- nicating the design of their journey. Adario, in prosecution of his crafty scheme, counterfeited the utmost distress, anger, and shame, on being made the ignominious tool of De Nonville's treachery, and addressing himself to Dekanesora, the principal ambassador, said to him, " Go, my brethren, I untie your bonds, and send you home again, though our nations be at war. The French governor has made me commit so black an action, that I shall never be easy after it, till the Five Nations shall have taken full revenge." This outrage and indignity upon the rights of ambassadors, the truth of which they did not in the least doubt, animated the Confederates to the keenest thirst after revenge ; and, accordingly, 1,200 of their men, on the 26th of July, 1688, landed on the south side of the island of Montreal, while the French were in perfect security; burnt their houses, sacked their plantations, and put to the sword all the men, women, and children, without the skirts of the town. A thousand French were slain in this invasion, and twenty-six carried into captivity, and burnt alive. Many more were made prisoners in another attack in October, and the lower part of the island wholly destroyed. Only three of the Confederates were lost, in all this scene of misery and desolation .*
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Never before did Canada sustain such a heavy
* I have followed Dr. Colden in the account of this attack, who differs from Charlevoix. That jesuit tells us, that the invasion was late in August, and the Indians 1500 strong; and as to the loss of the French, he diminishes it only to two hundred souls.
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blow. The news of this attack on Montreal no sooner reached the garrison at the Lake Ontario, than they set fire to the two barks, which they had built there, and abandoned the fort, leaving a match to twenty-eight barrels of powder, designed to blow up the works. The soldiers went down the river in such precipitation, that one of the battoes and her crew were all lost in shooting a fall. The Confederates, in the mean time, seized the fort, the powder, and the stores ; and of all the French allies, who were vastly numerous, only the Nepicirinians and Kiapous adhered to them in their calamities. The Utawawas, and seven other nations, instantly made peace with the English ; and but for the un- common sagacity and address of the Sieur Perot, the Western Indians would have murdered every Frenchman amongst them. Nor did the distresses of the Canadians end here. Numerous scouts from the Five Nations, continually infested their borders. The frequent depredations that were made, pre- vented them from the cultivation of their fields, and a distressing famine raged through the whole coun- try. Nothing but the ignorance of the Indians, in the art of attacking fortified places, saved Canada from being now utterly cut off. It was, therefore, unspeakably fortunate to the French, that the In- dians had no assistance from the English, and as unfortunate to us, that our colonies were then in- capable of affording succours to the Confederates, through the malignant influence of those execrable measures, which were pursued under the infamous reign of king James the second. Colonel Dongan, whatever his conduct might have been in civil affairs, VOL. I .- 12
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did all that he could in those relating to the In- dians, and fell at last into the king's displeasure, through his zeal for the true interest of the province.
While these things were transacting in Canada, a scene of the greatest importance was opening at New-York. A general disaffection to the govern- ment prevailed among the people. Papists began to settle in the colony under the smiles of the go- vernor. The collector of the revenues, and several principal officers, threw off the mask, and openly avowed their attachment to the doctrines of Rome. A Latin school was set up, and the teacher strongly suspected for a jesuit. The people of Long Island, who were disappointed in their expectation of mighty boons promised by the governor on his arrival, were become his personal enemies ; and in a word, the whole body of the people trembled for the Protestant cause. Here the leaven of opposition first began to work. Their intelligence from Eng- land, of the designs there in favour of the prince of Orange, blew up the coals of discontent, and elevated the hopes of the disaffected. But no man dared to spring into action, till after the rupture in Boston. Sir Edmund Andross, who was perfectly devoted to the arbitrary measures of king James, by his tyranny in New-England, had drawn upon himself the universal odium of a people, animated with the love of liberty, and in the defence of it resolute and courageous ; and, therefore, when they could no longer endure his despotic rule, they seized and imprisoned him, and afterwards sent him to Eng- land. The government, in the mean time, was vested in the hands of a committee for the safety
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of the people, of which Mr. Bradstreet was chosen president. Upon the news of this event, several captains of our militia convened themselves to con- cert measures in favour of the prince of Orange. Amongst these, Jacob Leisler was the most active. He was a man in tolerable esteem among the people, and of a moderate fortune, but destitute of every qualification necessary for the enterprise. Milborne, his son-in-law, an Englishman, directed all his councils, while Leisler as absolutely influ- enced the other officers.
The first thing they contrived, was to seize the garrison in New-York ; and the custom, at that time, of guarding it every night by the militia, gave Leisler a fine opportunity of executing the design. He entered it with forty-nine men, and determined to hold it till the whole militia should join him. Colonel Dongan, who was about to leave the pro- vince, then lay embarked in the bay, having a little before resigned the government to Francis Nichol- son, the lieutenant-governor. The council, civil officers, and magistrates of the city, were against Leisler, and therefore many of his friends were at first fearful of openly espousing a cause disap- proved by the gentlemen of figure. For this reason, Leisler's first declaration in favour of the prince of Orange, was subscribed only by a few, among several companies of the trained bands. While the people, for four days successively, were in the utmost perplexity to determine what part to choose, being solicited by Leisler on the one hand, and threatened by the lieutenant-governor on the other, the town was alarmed with a report, that three
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ships were coming up with orders from the prince of Orange. This falsehood was very seasonably propagated to serve the interest of Leisler; for on that day, the 3d of June, 1689, his party was aug- mented by the addition of six captains and four hundred men in New-York, and a company of seventy men from East-Chester, who all subscribed a second declaration,* mutually covenanting to hold the fort for the prince. Colonel Dongan continued till this time in the harbour, waiting the issue of these commotions ; and Nicholson's party, being now unable to contend with their opponents, were totally dispersed, the lieutenant-governor himself absconding, the very night after the last declaration was signed.
Leisler being now in complete possession of the fort, sent home an address to king William and queen Mary, as soon as he received the news of their accession to the throne. It is a tedious, in- correct, ill-drawn narrative of the grievances which the people had endured, and the methods lately taken to secure themselves, ending with a recog- nition of the sovereignty of the king and queen over the whole English dominions.
This address was soon followed by a private letter from Leisler to king William, which, in very broken English, informs his majesty of the state of the garrison, the repairs he had made to it, and the temper of the people, and concludes with strong protestations of his sincerity, loyalty, and zeal. Jost Stoll, an ensign, on the delivery of this letter
* See note I.
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to the king, had the honour to kiss his majesty's hand, but Nicholson, the lieutenant-governor, and one Ennis, an episcopal clergyman, arrived in England before him; and by falsely representing the late measures in New-York, as proceeding rather from their aversion to the Church of England, than zeal for the prince of Orange, Leisler and his party missed the rewards and notice, which their activity for the revolution justly deserved. For though the king made Stoll the bearer of his thanks to the people for their fidelity, he so little regarded Leisler's complaints against Nicholson, that he was soon after preferred to the government of Virginia. Dongan returned to Ireland, and it is said succeeded to the earldom of Limerick.
Leisler's sudden investiture with supreme power over the province, and the probable prospects of king William's approbation of his conduct, could not but excite the envy and jealousy of the late council and magistrates, who had refused to join in the glorious work of the revolution ; and hence the spring of all their aversion, both to the man and his measures. Colonel Bayard, and Courtland, the mayor of the city, were at the head of his op- ponents, and finding it impossible to raise a party against him in the city, they very early retired to Albany, and there endeavoured to foment the oppo- sition. Leisler, on the other hand, fearful of their influence, and to extinguish the jealousy of the people, thought it prudent to admit several trusty persons to a participation of that power, which the militia, on the 1st of July, had committed solely to himself. In conjunction with these, (who, after the
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Boston example, were called The Committee of Safety,) he exercised the government, assuming to himself only, the honour of being president in their councils. This model continued till the month of December, when a packet arrived with a letter from the lords Carmarthen, Halifax, and others, directed " To Francis Nicholson, Esq., or in his absence, to such as for the time being, take care for preserving the peace and administering the laws, in their ma- jesties' province of New-York, in America." "This letter was dated the 29th of July, and was accom- panied with another from lord Nottingham, dated the next day, which after empowering Nicholson to take upon him the chief command, and to appoint for his assistance as many of the principal free- holders and inhabitants as he should think fit, requiring also " to do every thing appertaining to the office of lieutenant-governor, according to the laws and customs of New-York, until further orders."
Nicholson being absconded when this packet came to hand, Leisler considered the letter as directed to himself, and from this time issued all kinds of commissions in his own name, assuming the title, as well as authority, of lieutenant-governor. On the 11th of December, he summoned the Com- mittee of Safety, and agreeable to their advice, swore the following persons for his council :- Peter de Lanoy, Samuel Staats, Hendrick Jansen, and Johannes Vermilie, for New-York ; Gerardus Beekman, for King's County ; for Queen's County, Samuel Edsel; Thomas Williams, for West Chester, and William Lawrence, for Orange County.
Except the eastern inhabitants of Long Island,
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all the southern part of the colony cheerfully sub- mitted to Leisler's command. The principal free- holders, however, by respectful letters, gave him hopes of their submission, and thereby prevented his betaking himself to arms, while they were pri- vately soliciting the colony of Connecticut to take them under its jurisdiction. They had, indeed, no aversion to Leisler's authority, in favour of any other party in the province, but were willing to be incorporated with a people, from whence they had originally colonised; and, therefore, as soon as Connecticut declined their request, they openly appeared to be advocates for Leisler. At this juncture the Long Island representation was drawn up, which I have more than once had occasion to mention.
The people of Albany, in the mean time, were determined to hold the garrison and city for king William, independent of Leisler, and on the 26th of October, which was before the packet arrived from lord Nottingham, formed themselves into a convention for that purpose. As Leisler's attempt to reduce this country to his command, was the original cause of the future divisions in the province, and in the end brought about his own ruin, it may not be improper to see the resolution of the convention, a copy of which was sent down to him, at large.
" PETER SCHUYLER, Mayor ; DIRK WESSELS, Re- corder ; JAN WENDAL, JAN JANSEN BLEEKER, CLAES RIPSE, DAVID SCHUYLER, ALBERT RYCK- MAN, Aldermen. KILLIAN V. RENSLAER, Justice ; Capt. MARTE GERRITSE, Justice ; Capt. GERRIT
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TEUNISSE ; DIRK TEUNISE, Justice ; Lieut. Ro- BERT SAUNDERS, JOHN CUYLER, GERRIT RYERSE, EVERT BANKER, RYNIER BARENTSE.
" Resolved, since we are informed by persons coming from New-York, that captain Jacob Leisler is designed to send up a company of armed men, upon pretence to assist us in this country, who intend to make themselves master of their majes- ties' fort and this city, and carry divers persons and chief officers of this city prisoners to New-York, and so disquiet and disturb their majesties' liege people, that a letter be writ to alderman Levinus Van Schaic, now at New-York, and lieutenant Jochim Staets, to make narrow inquiry of the busi- ness, and to signify to the said Leisler, that we have received such information ; and withal acquaint him, that notwithstanding we have the assistance of ninety-five men from our neighbours of New- England, who are now gone for, and one hundred men upon occasion, to command, from the county of Ulster, which we think will be sufficient this winter, yet we will willingly accept any such assis- tance as they shall be pleased to send for the defence of their majesties' county of Albany : provided they be obedient to, and obey such orders and commands as they shall, from time to time, receive from the convention ; and that by no means they will be admitted to have the command of their majesties' fort or this city ; which we intend, by God's assis- tance, to keep and preserve for the behoof of their majesties, William and Mary, king and queen of England, as we hitherto have done since their pro-
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clamation ; and if you hear that they persevere with such intentions, so to disturb the inhabitants of this county, that you then, in the name and behalf of the convention and inhabitants of the city and county of Albany, protest against the said Leisler, and all such persons that shall make attempt, for all losses, damages, bloodshed, or whatsoever mischiefs may ensue thereon ; which you are to communicate with all speed, as you perceive their design."
Taking it for granted that Leisler at New-York, and the convention at Albany, were equally affected to the revolution, nothing could be more egregiously foolish, than the conduct of both parties, who by their intestine divisions, threw the province into convulsions, and sowed the seeds of mutual hatred and animosity, which for a long time after, greatly embarrassed the public affairs of the colony. When Albany declared for the prince of Orange, there was nothing else that Leisler could properly require; and rather than sacrifice the public peace of the province, to the trifling honour of resisting a man who had no evil designs, Albany ought, in prudence, to have delivered the garrison into his hands, till the king's definitive orders should arrive. But while Leisler, on the one hand, was inebriated with his new-gotten power, so on the other, Bayer, Court- land, Schuyler, and others, could not brook a sub- mission to the authority of a man, mean in his abilities, and inferior in his degree. Animated by these principles, both parties prepared, the one to reduce, if I may use the expression, the other to retain, the garrison of Albany. Mr. Livingston, a VOL. I .- 13
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principal agent for the convention, retired into Connecticut, to solicit the aid of that colony, for the protection of the frontiers against the French. Leisler suspecting that they were to be used against him, endeavoured not only to prevent these supplies, but wrote letters to have Livingston apprehended as an enemy to the reigning powers, and to procure succours from Boston, falsely represented the con- vention as in the interest of the French and king James.
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