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THE STORY OF NEW YORK.
insult to injury by sounding a trumpet in their boat " in disgrace of the English." Eelkens and his goods being on board the William, the Dutch took posses- sion of her and escorted her to the mouth of the river; or, as Eelkens described it : " The Dutch came along with us in their shallop, and they sticked green bowes all about her, and drank strong waters, and sounded their trumpet in a triumphing manner over us."
Thus ended the third attempt of the English to as- sert their right to the Hudson as against the Dutch.
Van Twiller was soon embroiled in a deeper quar- rel with the English colonies on the east. Both parties cast covetous eyes on the Fresh River (the Connecticut), which had been discovered by Adrian Block, in 1614, and which had since been visited at stated periods by Dutch traders who derived a yearly revenue from it of ten thousand beaver skins, beside other peltries. The Dutch claimed the river by vir- tue of Block's discovery ; the colonies of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay by grant of the English king. To strengthen his claim, Van Twiller, in 1632, bought a large tract of the Indians at Saybrook Point at the mouth of the river ; and in the summer of 1633, he sent his commissary, Jacob Van Curler, with a piece of duffels twenty-seven ells long, six axes, six kettles, eighteen knives, one sword-blade, one shears, and some toys, to buy a large tract called "Connittecock," embracing the present site of the city of Hartford. Van Curler built on his new pur- chase a trading post fortified with two cannon, which he called the House of Good Hope.' This act of the
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WOUTER VAN TWILLER.
Dutch caused great uneasiness when it was reported at Boston and Plymouth. Governor Winthrop con- tented himself with an emphatic protest, but Gov- ernor Winslow, of Plymouth, proved himself a man of action. . The frame of a house was quickly made ready and placed on board a vessel. A company of emigrants also embarked, and the little craft then proceeded coastwise to the mouth of the Connecti- cut and up that beautiful stream. Sped by favoring winds, it soon came to the House of Good Hope, where Van Curler stood by his guns to forbid her passage. " Halt," he cried, " or I shall fire !" But the English kept right on. "They were obeying the orders of the Governor of Plymouth," they said, " and they should go on, though they died for it." They passed unmolested, and founded a settlement at Windsor, a few miles above Hartford, which be- came the nucleus of the State of Connecticut. Van Twiller protested, but his protests were treated with contempt by the English ; he then despatched an armed force of seventy men to clear the river. The doughty warriors finding the English resolute, and the woods (in their imagination) full of hostile sav- ages, returned valiantly to New Amsterdam, without striking a blow. The Director seems to have made no further attempt to dislodge the intruders, but to have contented himself with sending protests, and despatching lengthy accounts to his superiors at home. In a short time the English had established settlements at Springfield above Good Hope, at Wethersfield, just below, and at Saybrook, and were in virtual possession of the river. ·
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THE STORY OF NEW YORK.
On the Delaware, however, Van Twiller was more fortunate. A fort (Nassau) had been early estab- lished on this river to command its trade, and then temporarily abandoned. A party of Virginia cav- aliers seized this fort early in the summer of 1635, pretending that it came within the confines of their territory. A deserter bore the news to Fort Amster- dam, and the Director at once despatched a body of troops to capture the invaders. They returned in due time with the crest-fallen cavaliers as captives. There was great rejoicing in New Amsterdam-fanfare of trumpets, and toasts in honor of the victors,-but the Director was sorely puzzled to know what to do with his prisoners. At last he hit upon a plan, and calling them before him, he first soundly lectured them for their thievery and trespassing, and then shipped them "pack and sack " to Virginia-which was certainly a very wise thing to do.
In the management of his internal affairs, Gov- ernor Van Twiller was much more fortunate. He had some trouble with the powerful patroons who abated no whit of their pretensions, but otherwise affairs ran smoothly. An honorable peace was con- cluded with the Raritan Indians. New farms and villages were continually being opened in the vicini- ty. De Vries purchased Staten Island and founded a colony there. East of the Walloon settlement, on the present site of Brooklyn, Jacob Van Corlear bought a large tract of the Indians and founded a plantation. Andries Hudde, of the Governor's Council, in company with Wolfert Gerritsen, bought a large tract next to Van Corlear's, and the Gov-
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WOUTER VAN TWILLER.
ernor himself purchased another adjoining them on the east, the whole forming the present town of Flatlands. Van Twiller also bought for himself Nutten, now Governor's Island, Blackwell and Great Barn islands. Under him, too, was given another grant to which we shall later refer ; that to Roelof Jans of sixty-two acres, which was later incorporated into the King's Farm, and now forms a part of the estate known as the Trinity Church property. In the erection of public buildings, and the giving in general a substantial and civilized air to the crude little town Van Twiller had an honorable record. Fort Amsterdam was completed, and a substan- tial guard-house of brick was erected within it for the Director, with barracks for the soldiers on the East River shore above the fort, and near by a par- sonage and stable, to which Domine Bogardus soon added a fine garden. A country house of brick was also built, " on the plantation," for the Governor. A barn, dwelling, brewery, and boat-house "to be covered with tiles " on Farm No. I, a goat's stable "behind the five houses," several mills, and dwell- ings for the smith, cooper, corporal, and other offi- cials. All this was done at the expense of the West India Company, which had now become a wealthy and powerful corporation, owning one hundred and. twenty vessels fully armed and equipped, and em- ploying an army of nearly nine thousand men. The furs annually exported from Manhattan had reached a value of one hundred thousand guilders, and Van Twiller reasoned correctly that a part of this revenue should be expended in making his capital more pre-
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THE STORY OF NEW YORK.
sentable. The company, however, did not agree with him, and partly for his action in this respect, but chiefly because of charges by such responsible persons as De Vries and Van Dinclage, the Schout- fiscal, that he was diverting the company's moneys to his own enrichment, they decided to remove him. Van Twiller left the colony under a cloud. Wilhelm Kieft, his successor, took the oath of office at Am- sterdam, September 2, 1637.
THE CITY IN 1842
FERRY
ERR
0
DAD TO.F
1. The City Ta. Tern.
E
E
B. The Fort. C. The Wharf D. Burial P'Ince. F. The Strand, or Shore."
THE EARLIEST MAP OF THE CITY.
III.
WILHELM KIEFT.
THE good barque Blessing, bearing Kieft and his party, arrived on the 28th of March, 1638, but the new Director did not receive a very hearty welcome from the motley throng gathered on the quay to re- ceive him. Tales not at all to his credit had pre- ceded him. He had failed as a merchant in Holland, it was whispered, and his portrait had been affixed to the gallows-a lasting disgrace ; and, when later, through the influence of friends he had been ap- pointed Minister to Turkey, and funds for the re- demption of Christians held by the heathen had been placed in his hands, he had turned the money to his own use, and the poor captives had continued to languish in bonds. Such were the popular tales. His personal appearance as he stepped ashore was not well calculated to win love or confidence. He was a little man with sharp, pinched features, a cold gray eye, a suspicious look, and the air of an auto- crat. A man of good natural abilities, but of little education ; a shrewd trader, austere in morals-in happy contrast to Van Twiller,-of a fiery, peppery
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THE STORY OF NEW YORK.
temper, conceited, opinionated, and tyrannical ; the very man to embroil himself with his people, and his people with their neighbors. The citizens soon found that the new Director was bent on establishing a despotism-one that chafed all the more because of the lax rule of Van Twiller. The company had given him authority to fix the number of his coun- cil. He chose but one, and further curtailed the power of that one, by adopting a rule that in con- ducting the government his council should have but one vote, while he had two. His powers in other respects were so extraordinary as to create him a despot. His will was absolute. He erected courts, appointed all public officers, except such as were commissioned by the company; made laws and ordinances and executed them, imposed taxes, levied fines, incorporated towns, and had every man's property at his mercy by his power of raising or lowering the price of wampum, then the chief circu- lating medium of the country. He extinguished Indian titles to land at his pleasure ; no purchases from the natives were valid without his sanction. No contracts, sales, transfers, or engagements were of effect unless they passed before him. He not only made and executed the laws, but construed them as judge. He decided all civil and criminal cases with- out the aid of a jury. He was the highest court of appeal in the colony.
The council had heretofore been the only check on the governor's action, and this abolished, he be- came at once an absolute monarch. Having arranged matters to his liking, Kieft, in his shrewd, business-
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WILHELM KIEFT.
like way, began investigating the affairs of the colony, and found matters in very bad condition, as he reported to the company : the fort open on every side except " the stone point," the houses and public buildings all out of repair, the magazine for merchan- dise destroyed, every vessel in the harbor falling to pieces, only one windmill in operation, the farms of the company without tenants and thrown into com- mons, the cattle all sold or on the plantations of Van Twiller. Vice, too, was prevalent, but the greatest evil was the illicit trade with the Indians. Every- body, from the patroon to the negro slave, he said, was engaged in it. Even Hans, instead of quietly toiling on his little farm, would secrete his demijohn of rum or canister of gunpowder, and barter it slyly with the Indian for his coveted beaver or otter skin.
Another evil was the great lack of farmers. The Dutch colonists had a great repugnance to agricul- ture. Even if placed on farms, they would fol- low their hereditary instincts and become traders ; very different from their neighbors, the English pioneers, who immediately cleared their lands for farms, and soon became self-supporting freeholders. The Director thought he could change all this by a few strokes of the pen. One morning, on their way to business, the people were surprised to see the trees, walls, rocks, and corners of the houses covered in part with proclamations written in a bold, free hand, and signed with the Director's name. They read on them certain new laws for the government of the colony. Whoever sold powder or fire-arms to the Indians should suffer death ; if a servant of the
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THE STORY OF NEW YORK.
company was found trafficking with the latter, he should lose his office and his wages ; if an outsider, his goods should be confiscated, and he himself cor- rected. No articles could be exported without the governor's permission ; no one could trade in any part of the company's territories without a license. Sailors could not remain on shore after sunset with- out special leave ; the company's servants of every grade must proceed to and leave off work at stated hours, and "not waste their time." Fighting, re- bellion, theft, false swearing, calumny, "and all other immoralities " were sternly forbidden. Lastly, the instrument appointed Thursday of each week for the regular sitting of the council for the trial of criminal cases and hearing of complaints. A second proclamation forbade all "except those who sold wine at a decent price and in moderate quantities " to sell any liquor under a penalty of twenty-five guilders. An inspector of tobacco was also appoint- ed. The regulation that the colonists deemed the most oppressive, however, was one declaring that no . contracts, bargains, sales, or public acts should be deemed valid unless they were written by the secre- tary of the province, a law similar in character to the famous " stamp act " of a century later. Another unwise regulation that Kieft soon made was one af- fecting the Indians. On the plea that the company was put to heavy expense for forts and soldiers on their account, he levied a tribute of maize, seawan, or furs, and when they refused to pay it, threatened to compel them by force. The effect of such stringent laws on a community so mixed and impatient of re-
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WILHELM KIEFT.
straint was what a wiser man would have foreseen and guarded against. The ordinances were treated with contempt and openly violated. Prosecution and punishment followed ; there were some execu- tions for murder and mutiny, and the little Governor, lacking the respect of his subjects, was soon involved in constant broils in the effort to maintain his authority.
We have spoken of the deplorable lack of farms in New Netherlands. To remove this state of things and promote trade, the West India Company this year, 1638, published a very important instrument, which abolished its monopoly of trade and of lands. By the provisions of this paper, any merchant in the Netherlands, "its allies or friends," might send cargoes to America in the company's ships, paying as freight ten per cent. of their value ; while "to people the lands there more and more, and to bring them into a proper state of cultivation," every immi- grant to the new country was promised as much land as he " by himself and his family can properly cul- tivate," provided he paid after four years of cultiva- tion one tenth of the produce to the company.
Religious freedom had always been enjoyed in New Netherlands, and these generous terms attract- ed a large immigration not only from Europe, but from New England, where the Puritans were begin- ning to prosecute the Quakers and Anabaptists, and drive them from the country.
Scarcely was this matter settled when another foreign invasion threatened New Netherlands, and put the fiery Director in a glow of martial rage
,
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THE STORY OF NEW YORK.
and patriotism. The Swedes this time were in- tent on carving a slice from Dutch territory. The attempt is interesting, as showing how nearly every great nation of Europe was concerned in the settlement of our country. Sweden had long turned a covetous eye upon America, and her Parliament, in the time of the great Gustavus Adolphus (1626), had created a corporation similar in character to the Dutch West India Company for its settlement, but the German war and death of Gus- tavus on the field of Lutzen (1632) prevented the company from being organized. Minuit had doubt- less heard of this fact, and on being dismissed from his government had hurried to the good Swedish Queen Christina, and had offered his services, the result being that as Director Kieft sat in his great chair of state one day, a breathless messenger hurried in with news that a Swedish frigate and her tender had sailed into Delaware Bay, and up the river, until brought to by the guns of the Dutch Fort Nassau. He further said that the frigate was commanded by Peter Minuit, who, though ordered by Peter Mey, the Dutch commander, to halt and show his com- mission, had refused, saying : "My queen hath as much right here as thou ; I shall pass, therefore, and erect a fort to be called by her name." Director Kieft is said to have been thrown into paroxysms of rage by this news, but as soon as he could control him- self, he sat down and dictated, by his secretary, Van Tienhoven, a truculent message to Minuit, which is so good an example of the style and thought of the men of that day that we print it, without further apology.
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WILHELM KIEFT.
" I, Wilhem Kieft, Director General of New Nether- land, residing in the island of Manhattan, in the Fort Amsterdam, under the government of the High and Mighty States-General of the United Netherlands and the West India Company privileged by the Senate Cham- ber in Amsterdam, make known to thee, Peter Minuit, who stylest thyself commander in the service of Her Ma- jesty, the Queen of Sweeden, that the whole South River of New Netherland, both upper and lower, has been our property for many years, occupied with our forts, and sealed by our blood, which also was done when thou wast in the service of New Netherland, and is therefore well known to thee. But as thou art come between our forts to erect a fort to our damage and injury, which we will never permit, as we also believe Her Swedish Ma- jesty hath not empowered thee to erect fortifications on our coasts and rivers, or to settle people on the lands ad- joining, or to undertake any other thing to our prejudice ; now therefore we protest against all such encroachments and all the evil consequences from the same, as blood- shed, sedition, and whatever injury our trading company may suffer, and declare that we shall protect our rights in every manner that may be advisable."
This document he despatched to Minuit by his commissary Jan Jansen Van Ilpendam. Minuit however treated the protest with contempt, and continued building his fort, which stood nearly on the present site of the city of Wilmington. Kieft did not dare attack him, his timidity arising from the fact that though a tyrant he was also amenable to the chamber in Amsterdam.
It is not necessary to give an extended account of Kieft's subsequent acts. His reign was marked by
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THE STORY OF NEW YORK.
cruelty to the Indians-which in return brought sav- age vengeance on the colony-and by oppression of the people. One day in 1640, word came that some swine turned loose in the forests of Staten Island to feed on mast were missing. The Director at once asserted that the Raritan Indians had stolen them, and sent out a company of men-at-arms with orders to kill, burn, and destroy. The soldiers surrounded the unfortunate tribe in their village, slaughtered them without mercy, burned their wigwams and cornfields, and returned-to learn that a party of the company's servants on their way to Virginia had taken the swine. The Raritans in return de- scended on the bouwerie of De Vries at Staten Island, killed four of his planters, and burned his house and tobacco-barn. Kieft, frenzied with rage, now swore to exterminate the Raritans, although he had been enjoined by the company to keep peace with the Indians. He offered his allies, the River Indians, ten fathoms of wampum for every head of a Raritan, and twenty fathoms each for the heads of those who had committed the Staten Island massa- cre. This reward set five hundred human hounds on the trail of the wretched Raritans, and in a few days Pacham, the chief of the Tankitikes, who re- sided about Sing Sing, brought in, dangling on the end of a stick, the head of the chief who had slain De Vries' men. At the same time, so fierce was the hunt that the Raritans came in and begged for peace. Another day there arose a great outcry in the village, and the gossips learned that an inoffensive old man, Claes Smit, the village wheelwright and a general fa-
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WILHELM KIEFT.
vorite, had been murdered in his cottage in the su- burbs, where he lived alone, and it was soon known that the murderer was the Weckquaesgek Indian, whose uncle had been murdered twenty years before in the time of Peter Minuit. Kieft promptly de- manded the murderer from the Weckquaesgek chief, but the chief refused the demand. "He was sorry," he said, " that twenty Christians had not been killed." The Indian had but performed a pious duty in aven- ging an uncle whom the Dutch had slain twenty years before." The Director would have declared war at once, but feared the people, who were beginning to murmur at the results of his Indian policy, which threatened them all with the torch and tomahawk of the savage. A little cowed by these complaints Kieft made a concession to popular rights-he called a meeting at the fort, of the patroons and heads of fam- ilies to advise with him in the emergency, and this meeting, quick to improve the occasion, appointed a council of twelve wise men to advise with the Director in the affair, much to the latter's disgust. The coun- cil, with Captain De Vries at its head, advised delay in declaring war for three reasons : the crops were still unharvested ; the cattle in the woods; and the peo- ple scattered about on their farms. In the winter, they argued, these conditions would not exist, while the Indians could be taken at great disadvantage. The impatient governor was therefore forced to wait until the winter had set in.
In January the twelve gave their consent, and at the same time ventured to call- the Director's atten- tion to certain evils in his government, and to ask
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THE STORY OF NEW YORK.
for their removal, as well as for certain concessions to popular rights-a council being one of them. Kieft promised fairly at the time, but soon after issued a proclamation dismissing the council, which had been called to advise on the murder of Claes Smit, and, "which now being done," he thanked them for the trouble they had taken, and promised to make use of their written advice with "God's help and fitting time," " but," concluded the paper : "we propose no more meetings, as such tend to dan- gerous consequences and to the great injury both of the country and of our authority." The calling of any assemblies or meetings in future was therefore prohibited, on pain of punishment. Being now un- fettered in action, Kieft ordered his ensign, Hendrick Van Dyck, to proceed with eighty soldiers from the fort against the Weckquaesgeks, and punish them with fire and sword. The party set out on its errand, but became bewildered in the forests and returned with- out having even seen the foe. The Weckquaesgeks, however, soon discovered the trail pointing toward their village, and, alarmed at the dangers they had but barely escaped, came in and sued for peace.
In 1643, the governor's policy provoked a general Indian war-the gravest misfortune that could have befallen the colony. In this war the River Indians, the Connecticut Indians, and the Long Island tribes formed a confederation to exterminate the Dutch. Fifteen hundred savage warriors were arrayed against two hundred and fifty whites. Soon the outlying farms and settlements were attacked and given to the flames, their people being killed or driven in terror
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WILHELM KIEFT.
to the fort; and as the Indians continued to increase in numbers, the people were in mortal terror lest the fort itself should be taken. We at this distance can have little conception of the terror and dismay which beset the people in those troublous times. The Director acted like one bereft of his senses. He would not listen to counsel ; his troops in their ex- peditions were ordered to spare no one. Terrible - massacres, at which humanity shudders, were com- mitted by his stern orders.
In February, 1643, for instance, the Weckquaesgek and Tappaen tribes came fleeing breathless and trembling to the fort for protection. The Mohawks, they said, had made a descent on them and had slain seventy of their people, besides carrying many into captivity. Every instinct of humanity would seem to have pleaded for these helpless refugees, but Kieft, deaf to the entreaties of the humane De Vries and others, sent a force which surprised them at night and butchered every one, man, woman, and child, in cold blood. An expedition against the Canarsees, in 1644, destroyed one hundred and twenty warriors with the loss of but one man killed and three wounded. Again, in February, 1645, the Stamford tribe of Indians was surprised in their village as they were celebrating a festival, their wigwams were burned, and between five and six hundred men, women, and children perished by fire and sword. These massacres, we may be sure, were avenged by the allied tribes to the full extent of their powers. Meantime De Vries had retired to Holland in dis- gust, and the people had sent petition after petition
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THE STORY OF NEW YORK.
to the home authorities, reciting the crimes and arbitrary acts of the Director, and demanding his recall. But the influence of the Patroon Van Rens- selaer and other of Kieft's friends was so powerful in Amsterdam that for a long time these complaints were unheeded. At length, in the spring of 1645, on the colonists threatening to desert the island in a body unless the Director was removed, he was re- called, and Petrus Stuyvesant was appointed in his stead. Kieft will not again appear in our history in any official capacity. In taking leave of him it is but just to set over against the evil that he wrought, the good that he did. For he certainly did much to make Manhattan Island more beautiful and habitable. He straightened the streets and enacted laws for keeping them in better sanitary condition. He repaired the fort and other public buildings, and set out orchards and gardens, and encouraged others to do so. He built, in 1642, a great stone tavern, which later became the Stadt Huys or City Hall, and he began within the fort and nearly finished a large stone church, to be paid for in part by the company's funds, and in part by popular subscriptions ; and the dwellings that he built for the company's servants and on the company's farms were of such character as to add much to the beauty and solidity of the future city.
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