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 8
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Jacob Milborne was commissioned for the reduc- tion of Albany. Upon his arrival there, a great number of the inhabitants armed themselves and repaired to the fort, then commanded by Mr. Schuy- ler, while many others followed the other members of the convention, to a conference with him at the city-hall. Milborne, to proselyte the crowd, de- claimed much against king James, popery, and arbitrary power ; but his oratory was lost upon the hearers, who after several meetings, still adhered to the convention. Milborne then advanced with a few men up to the fort, and Mr. Schuyler had the utmost difficulty to prevent both his own men, and the Mohawks, who were then in Albany, and per- fectly devoted to his service, from firing upon Mil- borne's party, which consisted of an inconsider- able number. In these circumstances, he thought proper to retreat, and soon after departed from Albany. In the spring, he commanded another party upon the same errand, and the distress of the country on an Indian irruption, gave him all the desired success. No sooner was he possessed of the garrison, than most of the principal members
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of the convention absconded. Upon which, their effects were arbitrarily seized and confiscated, which so highly exasperated the sufferers, that their pos- terity, to this day, cannot speak of these troubles, without the bitterest invectives against Leisler and all his adherents.
In the midst of those intestine confusions at New-York, the people of New-England were en- gaged in a war with the Owenagungas, Ourages, and Penocoks. Between these and the Schakook Indians, there was then a friendly communication, and the same was suspected of the Mohawks, among whom some of the Owenagungas had taken sanc- tuary. This gave rise to a conference between several commissioners from Boston, Plymouth, and Connecticut, and the Five Nations, at Albany, in September, 1689, the former endeavouring to en- gage the latter against those Eastern Indians, who were then at war with the New-England colonies. Tahajadoris, a Mohawk sachem, in a long oration, answered the English message, and however im- probable it may seem to Europeans, repeated all that had been said the preceding day. The art they have in assisting their memories is this :- The sachem who presides, has a bundle of sticks pre- pared for the purpose, and at the close of every principal article of the message delivered to them, gives a stick to another sachem charging him with the remembrance of it. By this means the orator, after a previous conference with the Indians, is prepared to repeat every part of the message, and give it its proper reply. This custom is invariably pursued in all their public treaties.
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The conference did not answer the expectation of the people of New-England, the Five Nations discovering a great disinclination to join in the hostilities against the Eastern Indians. To atone for which, they gave the highest protestations of their willingness to distress the French, against whom the English had declared war on the 7th of May preceding. 'That part of the speech ratifying their friendship with the English colonies, is sin- gularly expressed. " We promise to preserve the chain inviolably, and wish that the sun may always shine in peace over all our heads that are compre- hended in this chain .* We give two belts. One for the sun, and the other for its beams. We make fast the roots of the tree of peace and tranquillity which is planted in this place. Its roots extend as far as the utmost of your colonies. If the French should come to shake this tree, we would feel it by the motion of its roots, which extend into our country. But we trust it will not be in the gover- nor of Canada's power to shake this tree, which has been so firmly and long planted with us."
Nothing could have been more advantageous to these colonies, and especially to New-York, than the late success of the Five Nations against Canada. The miseries to which the French were reduced, rendered us secure against their inroads, till the work of the revolution was in a great measure accomplished; and to their distressed condition, we must princi- pally ascribe the defeat of the French design, about
* The Indian conception of the league between them and us, is couched under the idea of a chain extended from a ship to a tree, and every renewal of this league they call brightening the chain.
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this time, to make a conquest of the province. De Calliers, who went to France in 1688, first project- ed the scheme *; and the troubles in England en- couraged the French Court to make the attempt. Caffiniere commanded the ships, which sailed for that purpose from Rochefort ; subject, nevertheless, to the Count de Frontenac, who was general of the land forces, destined to march from Canada by the route of Sorel-River and the Lake Champlain. The fleet and troops arrived at Chebucta, the place of rendezvous, in September ; from whence the count proceeded to Quebec, leaving orders with Caffiniere to sail for New-York, and continue in the bay, in sight of the city, but beyond the fire of our cannon, till the first of December: when, if he received no intelligence from him, he was ordered to return to France, after unlading the ammunition, stores, and provisions at Port-Royalt. The co unt was in high spirits, and fully determined upon the enterprise, till he arrived at Quebec; where the news of the success of the Five Nations against Montreal, the loss of his favourite fort at Lake On- tario, and the advanced season of the year, defeated his aims, and broke up the expedition. De Nonville who was recalled, carried the news of this disap- pointment to the court of France, leaving the chief command of the country in the hands of Count
* Charlevoix has published an extract of the memorial presented to the French king. The force demanded for this enterprise was to consist of 1,300 regulars, and 300 Canadians. Albany was said to be fortified only by an inclosure of stockadoes, and a little fort with four bastions ; and that it contained but 150 soldiers and 300 inhabitants. That New-York the capital of the province was open, had a stone fort with four bastions, and about 400 inha- bitants, divided into eight companies.
+ Now Annapolis.
A
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,
Frontenac. This gentleman was a man of courage, and well acquainted with the affairs of that country. He was then in the sixty-eighth year of his age, and yet so far from consulting his ease, that in a few days after he landed at Quebec, he re-embarked in a canoe for Montreal, where his presence was abso- lutely necessary, to animate the inhabitants and re- gain their Indian alliances. A war, between the English and French crowns, being broke out, the count betook himself to every art, for concluding a peace between Canada and the Five Nations ; and for this purpose, the utmost civilities were shown to Taweraket and the other Indians, who had been sent to France by De Nonville, and were now returned. Three of those Indians, who doubtless were struck with the grandeur and glory of the French monarch, were properly sent on the im- portant message of conciliating the friendship of the Five Nations. These, agreeable to our alli- ance, sent two sachems to Albany, in December, with notice, that a council for that purpose was to be held at Onondaga. It is a just reflection upon the people of Albany, that they regarded the treaty so slightly, as only to send four Indians and the in- terpreter with instructions, in their name, to dis- suade the Confederates from a cessation of arms ; while the French, on the other hand, had then a Jesuit among the Oneidas. The council began on the 22d of January 1690, and consisted of eighty
. sachems. Sadekanaghtie, an Onondaga chief, opened the conference. The whole was managed with great art and formality, and concluded in showing a disposition to make a peace with the
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French, without perfecting it; guarding, at the same time, against giving the least umbrage to the Eng- lish.
Among other measures to detach the Five Na- tions from the British interest, and raise the de- pressed spirit of the Canadians, the Count de Fron- tenac thought proper to send out several parties against the English colonies. D'Aillebout, De Mantel, and Le Moyne, commanded that against New-York, consisting of about two hundred French and some Caghnuaga Indians, who being prose- lytes from the Mohawks, were perfectly acquainted
with that country. Their orders were, in general, to attack New-York; but pursuing the advice of the Indians, they resolved instead of Albany, to surprise Schenectady, a village seventeen miles north-west from it, and about the same distance from the Mohawks. The people of Schenectady though they had been informed of the designs of the enemy, were in the greatest security ; judging it impracticable for any men to march several hundred miles in the depth of winter, through the snow, bearing their provisions on their backs. Besides, the village was in as much confusion as the rest of the province ; the officers who were posted there, be- ing unable to preserve a regular watch, or any kind of military order. Such was the state of Schenec- tady, as represented by colonel Schuyler, who was at that time mayor of the city of Albany, and at the head of the Convention. A copy of his letter to the neighbouring colonies, concerning this descent upon Schenectady, dated the 15th of February, 1689-90, I have now lying before me, under his own hand.
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After two and twenty days' march, the enemy fell in with Schenectady, on the 8th of February ; and were reduced to such straits, that they had thoughts of surrendering themselves prisoners of war. But their scouts, who were a day or two in the village entirely unsuspected, returned with such encouraging accounts of the absolute security of the people, that the enemy determined on the at- tack. They entered on Saturday night about eleven o'clock, at the gates, which were found unshut ; and, that every house might be invested at the same time, divided into small parties of six or seven men. The inhabitants were in a profound sleep, and un- alarmed, till their doors were broke open. Never were people in a more wretched consternation. Before they were risen from their beds, the enemy entered their houses, and began the perpetration of the most inhuman barbarities. No tongue, says colonel Schuyler, can express the cruelties that were committed. The whole village was instantly in a blaze. Women with child ripped open, and their infants cast into the flames, or dashed against the posts of the doors. Sixty persons perished in the massacre, and twenty-seven were carried into captivity. The rest fled naked towards Albany, through a deep snow which fell that very night in a terrible storm; and twenty-five of these fugitives lost their limbs in the flight, through the severity of the frost. The news of this dreadful tragedy reached Albany about break of day ; and universal dread seized the inhabitants of that city, the enemy being reported to be one thousand four hundred strong. A party of horse was immediately despatched to
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Schenectady, and a few Mohawks then in town, fearful of being intercepted, were with difficulty sent to apprise their own castles.
The Mohawks were unacquainted with this bloody scene, till two days after it happened, our mes- sengers being scarce able to travel through the great depth of the snow. The enemy, in the mean time, pillaged the town of Schenectady till noon the next day ; and then went off with their plunder, and about forty of their best horses. The rest, with all the cattle they could find, lay slaughtered in the streets.
The design of the French, in this attack, was to alarm the fears of our Indian allies, by showing that we were incapable of defending them. Every art also was used to conciliate their friendship, for they not only spared those Mohawks who were found in Schenectady, but several other particular persons, in compliment to the Indians, who requested that favour. Several women and children were also released at the desire of captain Glen, to whom the French offered no violence, the officer declaring he had strict orders against it, on the score of his wife's civilities to certain French captives in the time of colonel Dongan.
The Mohawks, considering the cajoling arts of the French, and that the Caghnuagas who were with them, were once a part of their own body, behaved as well as could be reasonably expected. They joined a party of young men from Albany, fell upon the rear of the enemy, and either killed or captivated five and twenty. Several sachems, in the mean time, came to Albany, and very affectingly
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addressed the inhabitants, who were just ready to abandon the country, urging their stay, and exciting an union of all the English colonies against Ca- nada. Their sentiments concerning the French appear from the following speech of condolence :
" Brethren, we do not think that what the French have done can be called a victory : it is only a far- ther proof of their cruel deceit. The governor of Canada sent to Onondaga, and talks to us of peace with our whole house ; but war was in his heart, as you now see by woful experience. He did the same, formerly, at Cadaracqui, and in the Seneca's country. This is the third time he has acted so deceitfully. He has broken open our house at both ends; formerly in the Seneca's country, and now here. We hope, however, to be revenged of them."
Agreeable to this declaration, the Indians soon after treated the chevalier D'Eau and the rest of the French messengers, who came to conclude the peace proposed by Taweraket, with the utmost indignity, and afterwards delivered them up to the English. Besides this, their scouts harassed the borders of the enemy, and fell upon a party of French and Indians, in the river, about one hundred and twenty miles above Montreal, under the com- mand of Louvigni, a captain who was going to Missilimakinac, to prevent the conclusion of the peace between the Utawawas and Quatoghies, with the Five Nations. The loss in the skirmish was nearly equal on both sides. One of our prisoners was delivered to the Utawawas, who eat him. In revenge for this barbarity, the Indians attacked the island of Montreal at Trembling Point, and killed
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an officer and twelve men, while another party carried off about fifteen prisoners taken at Riviere Puante, whom they afterwards slew through fear of their pursuers, and others burnt the French planta- tions at St. Ours. But what rendered this year most remarkable, was the expedition of Sir William Phips against Quebec. He sailed up the river with a fleet of thirty-two sail, and came before the city in October. Had he improved his time and strength, the conquest would have been easy ; but by spending three days in idle consultations, the French governor brought in his forces, and enter- tained such a mean opinion of the English knight, that he not only despised his summons to surrender, but sent a verbal answer, in which he called king William an usurper, and poured the utmost con- tempt upon his subjects. The messenger who car- ried the summons, insisted upon a written answer, and that within an hour ; but the count De Frontenac absolutely refused it, adding, "I'll answer your master by the mouth of my cannon, that he may learn that a man of my condition is not to be sum- moned in this manner." Upon this, Sir William made two attempts to land below the town, but was repulsed by the enemy, with considerable loss of men, cannon, and baggage. Several of the ships also cannonaded the city, but without any success. The forts at the same time returned the fire, and obliged them to retire in disorder. The French writers, in their accounts of this expedition, universally censure the conduct of Sir William, though they confess the valour of his troops. La Hontan, who was then at Quebec, says, he could not have acted in a manner
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more agreeable to the French, if he had been in their interest .*
* Dr. Golden supposes this attack was made upon Quebec in 1691, but he is certainly mistaken. See Life of Sir William Phips, published at London in 1697. Oldmixon's Brit. Empire, and Charlevoix.
Among the causes of the ill success of the fleet, the author of the Life of Sir William Phips, mentions the neglect of the conjoined troops of New York, Connecticut, and the Indians, to attack Montreal, according to the original plan of operations. He tells us that they marched to the Lake, but there found themselves unprovided with battoes, and that the Indians were dissuaded from the attempt. By what authority these assertions may be supported, I know not. Charlevoix says our army was disappointed in the intended diversion, by the small-pox, which seized the camp, killed three hundred men, and terrified our Indian allies.
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PART III.
FROM THE REVOLUTION TO THE SECOND EXPEDITION AGAINST CANADA.
WHILE our allies were faithfully exerting them- selves against the common enemy, Colonel Henry Sloughter, who had a commission to be governor of this Province, dated the 4th of January, 1689, arrived here, and published it on the 19th of March, 1691. Never was a governor more necessary to the province, than at this critical conjuncture ; as well for reconciling a divided people, as for defend- ing them against the wiles of a cunning adversary. . But either through the hurry of the king's affairs, or the powerful interest of a favourite, a man was sent over, utterly destitute of every qualification for government, licentious in his morals, avaricious, and poor. The council present at his arrival were JOSEPH DUDLEY, CHUDLEY BROOK,
FREDERICK PHILIPSE, THOMAS WILLET,
STEPHEN VAN COURTLAND, WILLIAM PINHORNE.
GABRIEL MIENVIELLE,
If Leisler had delivered the garrison to colonel Sloughter, as he ought to have done, upon his first landing, besides extinguishing in a great degree, the animosities then subsisting, he would, doubtless,
.
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have attracted the favourable notice, both of the governor and the crown. But being a weak man, he was so intoxicated with the love of power, that though he had been well informed of Sloughter's appointment to the government, he not only shut himself up in the fort with Bayard and Nichols, whom he had before that time imprisoned, but re- fused to deliver them up, or to surrender the garri- son. From this moment, he lost all credit with the governor who joined the other party against him. On the second demand of the Fort, Milborne and Delanoy came out, under pretence of confering with his excellency, but in reality to discover his de- signs. Sloughter, who considered them as rebels, threw them both into goal. Leisler, upon this event, thought proper to abandon the fort, which Colonel Sloughter immediately entered. Bayard and Ni- chols were now released from their confinement, and sworn of the Privy Council. Leisler having thus ruined his cause, was apprehended with many of his adherents, and a commission of oyer and ter- miner issued to Sir Thomas Robinson, colonel Smith, and others, for their trials.
In vain did they plead the merit of their zeal for king William, since they had so lately opposed his governor. Leisler, in particular, endeavoured to justify his conduct, insisting that Lord Notting- ham's letter entitled him to act in the quality of lieutenant-governor. Whether it was through ig- norance or sycophancy, I know not : but the judges instead of pronouncing their own sentiments upon this part of the prisoner's defence, refered it to the governor and council, praying their opinion, whether
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that letter "or any other letters, or papers, in the packet from White-Hall, can be understood, or in- terpreted, to be and contain. any power, or direc- tion to captain Leisler, to take the government of this province upon himself, or that the administra- tion thereupon be holden good in law." The an- swer was, as might have been expected, in the ne- gative ; and Leisler and his son were condemned to death for high-treason. These violent measures drove many of the inhabitants, who were fearful of being apprehended, into the neighbouring colonies, which shortly after occasioned the passing an act of general indemnity.
From the surrender of the province to the year 1683, the inhabitants were ruled by the duke's go- vernors and their councils, who, from time to time, made rules and orders, which were esteemed to be binding as laws. These, about the year 1674, were regularly collected under alphabetical titles ; and a fair copy of them remains amongst our re- cords to this day. They are commonly known by the name of the Duke's Laws. The title page of the book, written in the old court hand is in these bald words, "Jus Novæ Eboracensis ; vel, Leges Illustrissimo Principe Jacobi Duce Eboraci et Al- banæ, etc. Institutæ et Ordinatæ, ad Observandum in Territoriis America ; Transcriptæe Anno Domini MDCLXXIV."
Those acts, which were made in 1683, and after the duke's accession to the throne, when the peo- ple were admitted to a participation of the legisla- tive power, are for the most part rotten, defaced, or lost. Few minutes relating to them remain on the
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council books, and none in the journals of the house. As this assembly, in 1691, was the first after the revolution, it may not be improper to take some particular notice of its transactions .*
It began the 9th of April, according to the writs of summons issued on the 20th of March preceding. The Journal of the house opens with a list of the members returned by the sheriffs.
City and County of New-York- James Graham, William Merrett, Jacobus Van Courtlandt, Johannes Kipp.
City and County of Albany -- Derick Wessells, Levinus Van Scayck.
County of Richmond- Elias Dukesbury, John Dally.
County of West-Chester-
John Pell.
County of Suffolk- Henry Pierson, Matthew Howell.
* All laws made here, antecedent to this period, are disregarded both by the legislature and the courts of law. In the collection of our acts published in 1752, the compilers were directed to begin at this assembly. The validity of the old grants of the powers of government, in several American colonies, is very much doubted in this province.
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Ulster and Dutchess County- Henry Beekman, Thomas Garton.
Queen's County- John Bound, Nathaniel Percall.
King's County- Nicholas Stillwell, John Poland.
The members for Queen's county, being Qua- kers, were afterwards dismissed, for refusing the oaths directed by the governor's commission, but all the rest were qualified before two commis- sioners appointed for that purpose.
James Graham was elected their speaker, and approved by the governor.
The majority of the members of this assembly were against the measures which Leisler pursued in the latter part of his time, and hence we find the house, after considering a petition signed by sundry persons against Leisler, unanimously resolved, that his dissolving the late convention, and imprisoning several persons, was tumultuous, illegal and against their majesties' right, and that the late depredations on Schenectady, were to be attributed to his usurpation of all power.
They resolved, against the late forcible seizures made of effects of the people, and against the levy- ing of money on their majesties' subjects. And as VOL. I .- 15
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to Leisler's holding the fort against the governor, it was voted to be an act of rebellion.
. The house having, by these agreeable resolves, prepared the way of their access to the governor, addressed him in these words.
" May it please your Excellency, .
We, their majesties' most dutiful and loyal subjects, convened, by their majesties' most gracious favour, in general assembly, in this province, do, in all most humble manner, heartily congratulate your excel- lency, that as, in our hearts, we do abhor and detest all the rebellious, arbitrary and illegal proceedings of the late usurpers of their majesties' authority, over this province, so we do, from the bottom of our hearts, with all integrity, acknowledge and declare, that there are none, that can or ought to have, right to rule and govern their majesties' subjects here, but by their majesties' authority, which is now placed in your excellency ; and therefore we do solemnly de- clare, that we will, with our lives and fortunes, sup- port and maintain, the administration of your excel- lency's government, under their majesties, against all their majesties' enemies whatsoever : and this we humbly pray your excellency to accept, as the sincere acknowledgement of all their majesties' good sub- jects, within this their province ; praying for their majesties' long and happy reign over us, and that your excellency may long live and rule, as according to their majesties' most excellent constitution of governing their subjects by a general assembly."
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