USA > New York > The old streets of New York under the Dutch. A paper read before the New York historical society, June 2. 1874 > Part 2
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Wolves roamed at large through the wilderness north of the present park ; and as late as 1685 we read of a gubernatorial pro- clamation, speaking of the mischief done by wolves, and giving permission to any inhabitants on the Island of Manhattan to hunt and destroy them.
On the unsettled portion of the island continued to dwell and follow the chase the fierce tribe of the Man-hattas.
Oft the infant colony was startled by the wild hoops of the red man and the rush of the game, as wolf or deer or hare, in the ar- dor of the chase, was driven into the cluster of cottages that con- stituted the first settlement on the island.
Subsequently, difficulties with the red men at times brought rapine and ruin. The desolating war with the Indians, initiated through the unwise policy of Gov. Kieft, lasted nearly five years, with hardly a temporary cessation, and "Nieuw Amsterdam " became nearly depopulated. Scarcely one hundred able men besides traders could be then found. Father Jogues, a Jesuit Father, travelling there in 1643, speaks of the sufferings of the inhabitants from the murderous attacks of the red man as " griev- ous to see."
During the period above referred to, colonization by the Eng- lish had been going on in New England. The colonies of Ply- mouth, Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut and New Haven were established in succession, and occasional communication took- place between their officials and the Dutch Governors on the " Manhattoes," which was conducted with great courtesy and kindness. In answer to a letter from de Rasicres, the Dutch Sec- retary, which, as a tribute of neighborly kindness, was accompa- nied by "a rundlett of sugar and two Holland cheeses, " William.
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Bradford, the Governor of Plymouth in 1627, expresses him .. . as follows : "It is our resolution and hearty desire to hold : : : continue all friendship and good neighborhood with you as far as we may and lies in our power. We cannot lik ... wise omit (out of our love and good affection toward you, ami the trust you repose in us) to give you warning of the danger which may befall you, that you may prevent it; for if you light either in the hands of those of Virginia, or the fishing ship" which come to Virginia, peradventure they will make prize ot you, if they can, if they find you trading within their limits ; as they surprised a colony of the French not many years since which was seated within their bounds."
These communications, although always courteous, and gener- ally friendly, even when the home governments were at war, we find always accompanied by a protest or claim by the English that the Dutch were occupying their possessions without legal claim or right, and in opposition to the English title; while the Dutch as persistently retaliated, asserting their claim as founded on Hudson's discovery and a continuous occupation.
I propose now to take a stroll about the City of " Nieuw Ain- sterdam," sometimes called the town of the "Manhadoes," or " Manhattans," or of the " Manatthanes," the capital of New Netherlands, somewhere about the period between 1658 and 1660, under the administration of his Excellency Petrus Stuyve- sant, the last of the Dutch Governors, and a few years before the surrender of the province to the English.
The Governor had returned successful, two or three years be- fore, from his great campaign against Fort Casimer and Fort Christina, and the Swedish settlements on the South or Delaware River; the Indians had been awed into submission, and with the exception of an occasional disturbance by the malcontents among the English settlers on Long Island, or a cloud of apprehension that was continually lowering from New England on the vexed question of territorial rights, the little city was progressing in peace and prosperity.
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New Amsterdam at this time contained but 220 houses and a population of about 1,400, among whom it is said there were spoken eighteen different tongues. The greater part of the houses were of wood, covered with reeds or shingles, some of them with wooden chimneys ; others, of a more pretentious char- acter, were built of little shiny, yellow, glazed bricks, baked in Holland, variegated with blacker bricks of quaint cross and checkerwork design, and were roofed with red and black tiles.
There were a few residences built of stone, as were the com- pany's store-houses on Winkle street. Nearly all of these houses were placed with their gable ends towards the street : the end of the roofs rising to a peak in successive steps.
Surmounting all was that great comfort of a Dutchman, re- vered at home through sad experience of broken dyke and sea barrier -- the weathercock.
These primitive mansions were placed in a straggling man- ner-some in thoroughfares, and some at random-about the quaint little town, which was then mostly comprised in the spe- cies of semicircle made by Wall street and the East and North Rivers.
If we could have penetrated the best room of one of the bet- ter class of the residences of this olden time, we would have beheld an interior in which the inherited order, thrift, and clean- liness of the race was pleasingly manifested.
Outside, under projecting eaves, was the " stopp," the place of social interchange and domestic repose.
The bulls-eye in the door, and the small size of the lower win- dows, indicated a residence amid peril and apprehension of the savage foe.
Within, the well-scrubbed snow-white floor is covered with finest sand drawn in figures and festoons. Above, the polished oaken rafters are cut in quaint device and motto.
Through the glass doors of the nutwood cupboard shine, glit- tering in the sunlight or by the blaze from cheerful hearth, the generous pewter tannard and two-eared enp, and portly drain
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mug, and silver porringer and ladle-relics brought from the of sea home-and Delft ware tea-pot and bowl, and a few tiny chins cups, wherein the social bohea is often dealt out to appreciative guests, who knit and gossip between the frequent sips.
At one end, in an alcove, is the great four-posted family bed- stead, the pride of the house, the family heir loom, endeared through associations with the past, on which rest its two beds of down, and flowered curtains, and intricate patchwork quilt, and silken coverlid-triumphs of domestic thrift and handicraft.
In another place is the great cedar chest, where reposes the valued store of household linen, snow-white and substantial, the good housewife's hereditary dowry, increased by industry, and destined to be apportioned among the blooming maidens of the household, when some Jan or Pieter or Jacobus can muster cour. age to ask them to leave the paternal roof.
Extending almost along the breadth of the room is the great fire-place of those days, in whose ample embrasure would gather the children and the cats and dogs, and the old negro slave cron- ing out his stories on the long winter eve.
Brass-mounted irons support the blazing pile of solid logs. In front is a brazen fender of intricate design, sent over by HIol- land friends.
Scenes of Scriptural history are illustrated there by the little blue tiles that line the chimney-piece-Jonah's adventures, and Toby's travels, and Sampson's exploits-while on the lofty man- tle, covered with flowered tabby chimney cloth, stands the hour- glass, the old Bible with its brazen ends and clasps, the well-bur. nished family warming-pan, the best pipe of the master of the house, and his trusty sword and fire-piece, that had often helped to defend his home-that had done good service in the expedi- tion against the savages, with old Jan de la Montagnie, at Heem- stede, when Kieft was director-that had fought with Sergeant Rodolf at Pavonia-that had flourished in the great campaign against the castles of the Weekquaesgeeks, in the valley of Saw-
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Mill Creek-and that had participated in the bloodless victory over the Swedes on the South River.
In one corner stands the fire-screen, with its gay designs ; in another the best spinning-wheel, curiously inlaid.
Against the wainscoated walls is the round tea-table, with its turned up leaf, the benches in the windows, and in prim array, each in its accustomed place, are the high-backed chairs of Rus- sia leather, adorned with double rows of brass-headed nails, one or two covered, perhaps, by embroidered back and seat, and trimmed with lace-the work of the dexterous fingers of the good house-wife herself, in earlier days.
On the walls might be seen a little mirror in a narrow ebony frame, and also so framed a few engravings of Holland social life, portraits of some Dutch magnate, or scenes of naval fight- the taking of a galleon from hated Spain, or a broadside conflict between two high-pooped frigates.
Here, too, was the loom from which was made the home-spun cloth that clad the good man and his boys, and made stout petti- coats for the girls.
These humble homes were scenes of placid joy and content. No artificial pleasures lured from the domestic scene. The family circle formed a tie of strength, where all were attached, occupied, and happy.
Industry kept off the attacks of weariness and the inroad of vice; and the scenes of beauty that nature exhibited around them-the sports of the chase-the arrival of another ship from Amsterdam, with its varied goods and budget of European news-the rumors of an Indian war, or tidings from the New England colonies-kept the inhabitants of the little town far from the stagnation that routine often brings to rural circles.
We will begin our perambulations, if you please, at about the present corner of Broadway at the head of Wall -- at the old city gate, called the Land-gate, closed nighniy by the city watch, where was the outlet from the city walls or palisades, called the " Cingel," running a little north of the line of the present Wall
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street. These palisades were originally erected for defende against the savages, under Governor Kieft's administration, and subsequently strengthened in 1653, when a war was threatened with New England, and a ditch and rampart constructed inside.
We now turn our face down what is modern Broadway, then called the " Heere Straat." We pass the present site of Trinity Church and Church-yard, then the West India Company's Gar. den, running to the river ; on which, on a bank overhanging the stream, were the locust trees, the resort of lad and lass for senti. mental walk. Here they viewed together the glories of the bay, illumined with beams of setting sun, or whispered hopes under Dian's light, and listened to music of the wave, breaking over what was then the pebbly shore.
Below, on the West side, were the picturesque mansions and gardens and peach orchard running to the river of the Schout Fiskael, Hendrick Van Dyck, whose rosy daughter, Diewertie, might be seen looking over the low-cut door. Then came the fine brick house and orchard of Burgomaster Vandiegrist.
Then we pass the old Dutch Church-yard or burying-ground of the settlement, just above the present Morris street, where many of the rude forefathers of the hamlet still lie-the hardy pioneers that bore the wil and battle of the earlier time, and carved the way for empire.
Even at this time, in digging foundations in that part of the city, is found some disregarded relic of a former sturdy life.
This venerable abiding place of the earlier dead was sold in building lots, under the advancing spirit of the age, in 1677.
In a goodly house near by dwelt the revered Dominie Mega- polensis, of whom we shall have something to say by and by. Also, hereabout, some on the west and. some on the east side of the street, were Peter Simkan the tailor, and Jan Joostan the skipper, and Jan Stevenson the schoolmaster, and the tavern of the doughty captain and ex-burgomaster, Martin Cregier, who. reposing after his varied campaigns, was still ready for the tented field.
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On the east side of Broadway, going down from Wall, the houses were rather of a meaner order ; the proximity of the marsh, or Company's Valley, called " Schaap- Waytie," or sheep's walk or pasture, a swampy meadow surrounded by hills, running from Wall street and Exchange Place to Broad and Beaver, not making the east as desirable as was the west side. One of these hills was called " Verlettenberg " and terminated the little canal that led up Broad street. This name was subsequently converted into " Flattenbarach " IIill.
The movement of the cattle from the highways to this meadow made the then rural path, or Schaap-waytie, which now is known under the more business-like title of Exchange Place, and was known, under the English regime, as Garden street.
This region was drained by the ditches dug on the site of Broad and Beaver, which ditches were the humble origin of these two time-honored streets.
We now pass on our left what was known as the old ditch, the " Bever-graft" or " straat," which, east of Broad street, was known as " De Prince straat." On this street lived many well-to-do citizens, whose national instincts caused them not to dislike a little muddy water.
Passing down Broadway, we come to what was called the "Oblique Road," also the " Marchvelt-steegie." or the Marketfield path," now still Marketfield street. This road or path led from the Broad street canal to the marckvelt, or market-place, which was opposite the present Bowling-green, commencing on the east side of Whitehall street, near Stone street, and extending as far up as Beaver.
HIere was a busy and bustling place. Besides the market- place on the east, there was the fort at the foot of Broadway, just south of the present Bowling Green, and the parade in front.
There, also, towards the North river, near Battery Place, was the great town windmill, to which farmers carried their wheat in ox-drawn wains, or on the backs of some of the shaggy horses
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that were allowed to browse and roam unchecked around the woods on the upper part of the island.
Here was a sort of business and social exchange, whence was distributed the news from New England or Holland, or the last gossipy rumor of the town-where the Domine's last sermon was discussed, and where the Burgher's rights were upheld in argu- ment against the invasions of the Governor.
At the Marckvelt was held, also, the great annual cattle fair, in October, and beasts driven from Straatfort and New Haven, and Suidhampton and Oosthampton, might be seen in competition with those raised on the island, or transported from Heemstede and Esopus and Rensselaers-wyck from Oost-dorp (Westchester) and Rust-dorp (now Jamaica).
Another market was held on Saturdays at the Strand, near the house of Dr. Hans Kierstede, then on the north side of Pearl street, at about the foot of Moore street, where was the weigh- house and the little dock, then the only one in the town.
At these two markets flocked the country folk, some for pur- chase, some for sale ; coming in farm carts or on horse and pil- lion, or from the Jersey or Long Island shore by the ferry, or in their own boats. Here bustled the housewife, battling for a bar- gain with obstinate vendors from " Gamoenepa ; " here stood the dusky Indian with his wampum belt; and here the substantial burgher interchanging views with some financial wise trader- mayhap the price of beaver skins, or a sudden rise in clay pipes.
Anchored in the inlet in Broad street, and at the little dock on the Strand, might be seen the shallops and canoes of Indian and country people. from Long Island, bringing to the markets veal, pork, butter, cheese, roots and straw, raised on their well-tilled farms; and there was venison, and milk, and tobacco, and peaches, and pork, and smoked " twaeflt," or striped bass. There, too, are " Gouanes " oysters, not less than a foot long, as recorded in a journal kept at this period, and cider, and herbs, and melons ; and here is Indian maize or Turkey wheat, brought by the Corchauy, the Secatung, or the Najack Indians from their
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homes on Long Island, from which maize was made the favorite Indian pap or mush, called " Sapaen "-also extensively adopted by the Dutch, and still known by that name among us moderns.
Here, too, in rather short but voluminous petticoats, hob-nail shoes, woollen stockings, and kirtle and hood, are the sturdy farmers' vrouws, gathered from " Breuckelen " and Vlake-bos (Flat- bush) ; and buxom lassies from Ahasimus, and Hoboken-Hacking, and New Utrecht, and New Amersfoordt (Flatlands), and Ompoge (Amboy), in close-quilted caps and head-bands, and heavy gold earrings, and copper shoe buckles, vending, and bargaining, and chatting ; and there are stout farmers from Sapokanican (now Greenwich), and from the new village of " New Haerlem," and from Vlissingen (now Flushing), and from Boomptie's Hoeck, come to buy cattle or poultry, or seeds for their farms.
There are also drovers from the English settlement on the Sound, who, in their little trading-sloops, had muttered good Pur- itan prayers as they passed through the trials and perils of the " Helle-gat."
There, also, in the season, were "elft " (the modern shad), and the water terrapin, whose good qualities were known, even in those days, by the City officials, as testifies Counsellor Van der Donck, who writes, in 1656, "Some persons prepare delicious dishes from the water terrapin, which is luscious food."
At the little dock, or in the canal in Broad street, we may also see canoes of the Marechkawick Indians, living between Nieuw Amersfoordt and Breuckelen, bringing wild turkeys, and quail, and white-headed wild geese, and coots, and whistlers, and blue bills, and pelicans, and cel shovelers.
Jan Evertsen Bout, too, is there from " Gamoenepa; " Farmer Verplanck, too, is there from "de Smit's Valey," now Pearl street; and Hermanus Smeeman, from Bergen ; and Jan Pieter- sen, from Nieuw Haarlem ; and George Holmes, the Englishman, from his tobacco plantation at " Deutle," now Turtle Bay ; and . Peter Hartgers, the trader, from the Heeregraft ; and Daniel Den- ton, from Heemstede ; and one or two Tappaen Indians from the
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Hudson river, or a " Sint Sing." with skins of fox and squirrel. or wolf; and perhaps a Raritan or a Hackingsack might be there. with the spoils of the chase, from the Jersey shore: and a Ma- quaa, with beaver skins, from the valley of the Mohawk. The various little boats and sloops take back, at the close of the day. medicines, Barbadoes rum, called by the Dutch " Kill devil ; " also muscovado sugar, "arrack" for their punch, and, doubtless, some "Olykoeks " and ginger-bread for the little people ; and fresh ribbons and caps for Sunday wear ; and stout linsey woolsey stuff's, and perhaps some new pipes to please old Granny in the chimney corner.
The medium of exchange between buyer and seller, at these ancient markets, was of a various character. Sometimes it was beaver, or other skins; sometimes grain ; sometimes Dutch guild- ers, or stuyvers ; but the favorite currency, preferred by both Dutch colonist and Indian, as well as by the English settlers-in fact, the great common basis of trading-was wampum, Sewan, or Sewant.
The best was made by the Indians on Long Island, or Sewan- hackey. That was rated as the truly genuine currency, and found its way over all the marts of trade then established in North America.
A fatcom of wampum. so called, was as much as a man couldl reach between his outstretched arms, and was equal to about four guilders. Strictly speaking, Sewant was the generic name for the money. Wampum was the white, and Suckauhock the black beads, which were double the value of the white. The white was made from the stem or stock of the periwinkle, now seldom found ; the black, or purple, from the inside shell of the hard elam. It was made into beads strung on the sinews of animals. and polished. Three beads of black, or six of white, as a gen- eral thing, equalled a Dutch stuyver, or English penny. This was at about par, although there were as many fluctuations and commercial panies affecting this currency as we in these days ex. perience with gold coin.
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As an illustration of the varied money for the payment of la- For at the time, we read of a contract made in 1655, between Habert Van Borsum, the ferry man on the Long Island side, under which the carpenters were to be paid 550 guilders (about 220 dollars) : one-third in beaver skins, one-third in good mer- chantable wampum, and one-third in good silver coin, and small beer to be drunk during work.
We now come to the Fort, pride and glory of New Amster- dam, emblem of home authority, local manifestation of that great sovereign power, their High Mightinesses the States-General- around whose walls the carliest memories of the settlers clustered -on whose bastion floated the flag that recalled the brave Fa- therland-before whose walls, on the parade, were drilled the lit- tle armies of two or three hundred men that went out to battle- under whose protecting power the young hamlet had nestled, and spread, and grown-that still, even with its few and ancient can- non, and crumbling earth works, and broken bastions, exposed from the river and commanded by heights within, bade stern de- fiance to both civilized and savage foc.
The first Fort was a mere block-house.
The second Fost was commenced in 1633, and constructed of earth works. It was bounded by the present Bridge. Whitehall and State streets, and the Bowling Green. It had four points or bastions, with no moat outside, but was enclosed with a double row of palisades.
Originally called Fort Amsterdam, under the Dutch ; subse- quently Fort James, under the Duke of York ; changed by Gov. Colve, on the Dutch restoration, to Fort Wilhelm Hendrick ; changed by Gov. Andros, to Fort James; by Leisler, to Fort William ; by Sloughter, to Fort William Henry ; and afterwards called Fort George-its nomenclature exhibited the varying for- tunes and history of New Amsterdam.
Several brick and stone dwellings were located within its walls; among thein the governor's brick house, and the church built of stone ; a wind gill was at one of the bastions, and a high
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flag-staff, on which the orange, yellow and blue colors of t !. "Privileged West India Co." were hoisted when any vessel .... seen in the bay.
During the Indian war, brought about by the unwise and : gressive policy of Governor Kieft, in 1641, the inhabitants fled : the shelter of the Fort, and established their huts as near as IM. sible to the protecting ramparts. These buildings subsequent!, remained ; and grants of land were made to the holders. This- was formed a portion of the present Pearl street next to White. hall street, and also a portion of the latter street.
Those were perilous times in the " Manhadocs."
All the farms and exposed habitations about the Island were destroyed, and their panic-stricken inhabitants were driven into the Fort, where the garrison was not over fifty or sixty men.
The plantations about Westchester and Staten Island, and the blooming "bouweries " on the East river, and on the line of the. present Chatham street, and at Hoboken-Hacking, Pavonia, Na- visink, and Tappaen, were laid waste, and almost every settle- ment on the west side of the Highlands was destroyed and the inhabitants slaughtered.
The great dramatic event connected with the history of the Fort wastits capitulation to the English in 1664, in a time of peace between England and the Netherlands.
Charles II., as is well known, had given a patent of a large ter- ritory to his brother, the Duke of York and Albany, compu. bending Long Island and all the lands and rivers from the west side of the Connecticut River to the east side of Delaware Bay.
In September of 1664, accordingly, while the colony was un- aler the direction of Gov. Stuyvesant, Col. Nichols, the Deputy- Governor appointed to reduce and govern the province for the Duke, with scarcely note of warning, appeared in the bay with a a fleet of four ships of nearly 100 guns, and a body of 500 regn- lar soldiers, besides seamen. New Englanders also swelled the invading force, and the services of Long Island settlers and Sav- ages were also engaged.
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The Dutch colony was quite unprepared to contend with such a force, the Fort being in a dilapidated condition, manned by only 250 soldiers, and commanded by hills within pistol shot.
The little garrison accordingly capitulated, with the honors of war, on the 8th of September. The Governor protested against the act, wishing to fight to the last, and exclaiming to the citi- zens requesting him to surrender, " I had much rather be carried out dead !"
The conclusion of Gov. Stuyvesant's reply to the summons of the English to surrender the town, against which they threatened the miseries of war, is worth recalling :
" As touching," he writes, "the threats in your conclusion, we have nothing to answer, only that we fear nothing but what God (who is as just as merciful) shall lay upon us ; all things being in His gracious disposal ; and we may as well be preserved by Him with small forces, as by a great army, which makes us to wish you all happiness and prosperity, and recommend you to Ilis protection.
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