History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Part 14

Author: Bean, Theodore Weber, 1833-1891, [from old catalog] ed; Buck, William J. (William Joseph), 1825-1901
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1534

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3 " Every great European ovent affected the fortunes of America, Did A State prosper, it sought an increase of wealth by plantations in the West ; was a sect persecuted, it escaped to the New World. The Refor- mation, followed by collisions between English Disseoters and the Anglican hierarchy, colonized New England ; the Reformation, eman- cipating the Low Countries, led to settlements on the Hudson. The Netherlands divide with England the glory of having planted the first colonies in the United States; they also divide the glory of having set

This condition of things was suggestive to capitalized ambition, and led to the formation of corporations or companies for the encouragement of transatlantic commerce and the establishment of permanent colo- nies at or near convenient points of shipment on navigable rivers.

In 1609, Henry Hudson, an English navigator of great experience and remarkable energy, then in the service of the Dutch East India Company, explored the coast from the Chesapeake Bay to Maine. The Delaware River was first explored by this bold mari- ner. His first officer, Robert Jewett (or Juet), kept a journal of the ship's experience, from which it appears that on Aug. 28, 1609 (new style), they en- tered the mouth of the river. It was on the strength of this discovery, and that of the Hudson River by the same officer, that the Dutch based their claim to the lands between the North and South Rivers, as the Hudson and Delaware Rivers were then called, as well as that which was contiguous to their shores.

The accounts of this voyage and the discoveries made are said to be accurate, circumstantial, and satisfactory to all historians.‘ The Dutch did not

the example of public freedom. If England gave our fathers the idea of a popular representation, the United Provinces were their model of a Federal Union. "

4 We know surprisingly little of Henry Hudson. He is said to have been the personal friend of Capt. John Smith, the founder of Virginia, and it is probable that he was of the family of that Henry Hudson who, in 1554, was one of the original incorporators of the English Muscovy Company. This man's son, Christopher, supposed to bave been the father of the great navigator, was as early as 1560 and up to 1601 the factor and agent on the spot of the London Company trading to Russia, and it seems likely that the younger IFudsoo, from his familiarity with Arctic navigation, and his daring pertinacity in attempting to invade the ice-bound northern wastee, may have served bis apprenticeship as a navigator in trading, on behalf the Muscovy Company, from Bristol to Russia, as was then often done through the North Channel, and round the Hebrides, Orkneys, Shet- lands, and North Cape to the White Sea and Arch- angel. Atany rate when Hudson makes bie first picturesque appearance before us, in the summer of 1607, in the Church of St. Ethelburge, Bish- opsgate Street, London, where he and his crew are present to partake of the Holy Sacrament to- gether, it is preparatory to a voyage in the ser- vice of the newly-ur- HENRY HUDSON. ganized " London Com- pany," in Jewett's own words, " for to discover a passage by the North Pole to Japan and China." The navigator was at that time a middle-aged man, experienced and trusted. He had already explored tho northeast and the north, and the region between the Chesapeake and Maine. There was no room for hope but to the north of Newfoundland. Pro- ceeding by way of Iceland, where " the famous Hecla" was casting out fire, passing Greenland and Frobisher's Straits, he sailed on the 2dl of August, I610, into the straits which bear his name, and into which no one had gone before him. As he came ont from the passage upon the wide gulf, he believed that he bebeld "a sea to the westward,"eu that the short way to the l'acific was found. How great was bis disappointment

FIRST SETTLEMENTS ON THE DELAWARE AND SCHUYLKILL RIVERS.

avail themselves at once of the great advantages of trade and commerce opened up by the wonderful dis- coveries of Hudson, who had penetrated the North or Hudson River as far as Albany, visiting the river tribes of Indians and ascertaining the vast resources of valuable furs and skins purchasable from the sav- ages at merely nominal prices.1 Hudson's report of the South or Delaware River was that from obser- vations made. He found the land "to trend away towards the north west, with a great bay and rivers, but the bay was shoal." It is evident that Hudson did not find the Delaware River as inviting in a navigable point of view as the North or Hudson River, and there- fore it was that the Dutch first settled upon the latter river. In 1611 two enterprising men, Hendricks Christiaensen, of Cleves, Holland, a West India trader, and Adrian Block, of Amsterdam, in company with Schipper Rysar, chartered and equipped a ship and made a successful voyage to and up the Hudson River, exchanging commodities with the Indian tribes, and returning with a profitable cargo of furs and skins. They were also successful in securing two young Indians, said to be the sons of chiefs, whom they christened Valentine and Orson. These sav- ages, not less than the possibilities of large trade in the rude products of their tribes, excited popular in- terest in the new country. These enterprising traders, joined by a number of merchants, memorialized the Provincial States of Holland and West Friesland by the importance of discoveries made, and it was judged of sufficient consequence to be formally com- municated to the cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam,

when he found himself in a labyrinth without eod. Still confident of ultimate success, the determined mariner resolved on wintering in the bay, that he might perfect his discovery in the spring. His crew mur- mured at the sufferings of a winter for which no preparations had been made. At length the Inte and anxiously-expected spring burst forth ; but it opened in vain for Hudson. Provisions were exhausted ; he di- vided the last brend among his men and prepared for them a bill of return, and "he wept as he gave it them " Believing himself almost on the point of succeeding, where Spaniards and English and Danes and Dutch had failed, he left his anchoring-place to steer for Europe. For two days the ship was encompassed by fields of ice, and the discon- tent of the crew broke forth into mutiny. Hudson was seized, and, with his only son and seven others, four of whom were sick, were thrown into the shallop. Seeing his commander thus exposed, Philip Staffe, the carpenter, demanded and gained leave to share his fate, and just as the ship made its way out of the ice, on a midsummer day, in a latitude where the sun in that season hardly goes down and evening twilight mingles with the dawn, the shallop was cnt loose. What became of Hudson ? Did he die miserably of starvation ? Did he reach land to perish from the fury of the natives ? Was he crushed between ribs of ice ? The returning ship encountered storms, by which she was proba- bly overwhelmed. The gloomy waste of waters which bears his name is his tomb and his monument.

1 Hudson relates that he was taken to a house well constructed of oak-bark, circular in form, and arched in the roof, the gracary of the beans and maize of the last year's harvest, while outside ecougli of then lay drying to load three ships. Two mats were spread out as seats for the strangers ; food was immediately served in neat red bowls; men who were sent nt once with bows and arrows for game soon returned with pigeone ; n fat dog, too, was killed, and haste made to prepare a feust. When Hudson refused to wait, they supposed hier to be afraid of their wenpons, and taking their arrows they broke them in pieces and threw them into the fire. Of all lands on which I ever set my foot, Baye Hudson, this is the best for tillage.

Hoorn, and Enckhuysen.2 On the 27th of March, 1614, the States-General ordained " that private ad- venturers might enjoy an exclusive privilege for four successive voyages to any passage, haven, or country they should thereafter find." With such encourage- ment, a company of merchants in the same year sent five small vessels, of which the "Fortune," of Am- sterdam, had Christiaensen for its commander ; the " Tiger," of the same port, Adrian Block ; the " For- tune," of Hoorn, Cornelis Jacobsen Mey, to extend the discoveries of Hudson, as well as the trade with the natives. Upon the return of this merchant fleet the officers made report to the States-General, in conformity with the terms of the "ordinance" under which they sailed. This report embraced a detailed account of their exploring efforts on the coast, and entrance to harbors and rivers. Appended to the same were maps representing the topographical face of the country for some miles inland. Armed with this report and "figurative map" these navigators, supported and accompanied by the wealthy mer- chants in whose service they were really employed, proceeded to the Hague to obtain further concessions from the "twelve mighty Lords of the States-Gen- eral," presided over by John von Olden Barneveldt, the advocate of Holland. They presented an ad- mirable case, basing their claim for a further and en- larged extension of privileges upon the perils and hardships endured, misfortunes suffered, and advan- tages likely to accrue to the merchants of the Neth- erlands. Barneveldt and his associates were favora- bly impressed with the flattering report, and promptly granted to the united company of merchants and their adventurous Dutch captains a three years' monopoly of trade with the territory between Vir- ginia and New France, from forty to forty-five degrees of latitude. This grant was in the nature of a char- ter, executed on the 11th day of October, 1614, and named the extensive region of country embraced in it as the New Netherlands.

While these early monopolists were paying court to the Netherland government, and adroitly laying plans for large acquisitions of lands which they claimed to have discovered between Virginia and the New Eng- land coast, Capt. Cornelis Hendricksen manned and equipped the " Unrest," or " Restless," a yacht of six- teen tons, built by Capt. Block, to take the place of the "Tiger," burnt at Manhattan Island, and pro- ceeded to explore the Delaware Bay and River. He is reported to have landed at several places, made soundings, and prepared extensive charts of the shore line, and noting the entrance of many of the conflu- ent streams emptying into this navigable highway. As evidence of the thoroughness of the manner in which Hendricksen did his work on the Delaware, it is related that, while leaving the " Restless" at anchor at the mouth of Christiana Creek, he extended his

2 Brodhe.«l, i. p. 46. N. Y. Hist. Coll, 2d series, ii. 355.

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

observations inland for some distance, where he came in contact with a small party of Minqua Indians, and rescued three white men, Netherlanders, who had some months prior strayed away from the fort or trading-station at Castle Island, on the Hudson River. These men had lost their way in the forest and had reached the Mohawk Valley. Crossing from thence to the Delaware, they fell in with savages who proved friendly, and, by a providence of life deemed most for- tunate by them, met their friends on the shore of Christiana Creek. Having prepared himself to make an advantageous report, he returned to Holland, and on the 16th of August, 1616, appeared before the States-General, declaring "he had discovered a bay and three rivers, situated between thirty-eight and forty degrees, and did there trade with the Indians, said trade consisting of sables, furs, robes, and other skins. He hath found the said country full of trees, to wit: oak, hickory, and pines, which trees were in some places covered with vines. He hath seen in said country bucks and doe, turkeys and partridges. He hath found the climate of said country very temper- ate, judging it to be as temperate as Holland." On this report Hendricksen claimed further and exten- sive privileges and immunities. In this he was dis- appointed. The authorities refused him upon the ground that a change in their policy was expedient, looking to the permanent colonization of the country he claimed to have explored. This policy compre- hended the organization of a " West Indies Company." The growth, utility, and experience of this company for many subsequent years, resulting from the politi- cal agitation of the Netherlands, affords an interesting theme for comment, and is nowhere more graphically described than in the recently-published " History of New York," by Mrs. Martha J. Lamb.

The spirit of religious persecution which prevailed in the seventeenth century was also a factor in the work of colonization. The Puritan exiles, led by John Robinson, William Brewster, and others, who had been living in the Netherlands in the enjoyment of their religious tenets, were looked upon as a migra- tory people, and by a certain class of political econ- omists thought available as colonists for the purpose of founding a flourishing settlement at some point on the Atlantic coast. To these people the New World was painted in glowing colors by the Dutch naviga- tors and capitalists, while they in turn were willing to make unusual sacrifices for the enjoyment of religious liberty. Here were conditions of society and policy which seemed to synchronize and promise the most desirable results to all parties concerned. These exiles had made overtures to the Virginia Col- ony and the Plymouth Company, but in both instances failed to effect arrangements deemed necessary for their permanent welfare as a colony, and therefore applied to the Netherlands through the Amsterdam merchants to settle at some point in the New World under the protection of the States-General. John

Robinson prepared the memorial. He proposed to take four hundred families with him, provided they

- were assured of protection. " They desired to go to the New Netherlands, to plant there the true Christian religion, to convert the savages of those countries to the true knowledge and understanding of the Christian faith, and through the grace of the Lord, and to the glory of the Netherlands' government, to colonize and establish a new empire under the order and command of the Prince of Orange and the High Mighty Lords States-General." The company of merchants heart- ily co-operated with Robinson in his comprehensive purpose, pledging large sums of money to secure transportation for the four hundred families, and all the necessary supplies of stock, implements, seeds, provisions, etc., and when plans were well matured they sent their most influential men to submit the memorial to the Hague, with their endorsement of the project. The Prince of Orange referred the project to the States-General, who, after great consideration, refused to sanction the enterprise or grant them the protection deemed necessary by Robinson and his coadjutors for the success and permanency of the new colony in the wilds of America. It was this refusal of the Dutch to transplant the "Pilgrims" on the Hudson and Delaware Rivers that aroused the re- served energies of their restless souls, and led to their subsequent departure in the "Speedwell" and " May- flower" for Plymouth Rock.1

About this time religious controversy was renewed with great vigor. The Calvinists and Puritans were arrayed against the Arminians, who were in control of the States and patronage of the country. The work of the Reformation was producing its just fruits, and the freedom of religious thought prevailed. In 1619, after a bitter contest, the Calvinists triumphed, and soon after signalized their success by chartering the West India Company, granting to it extraordinary powers for the encouragement of maritime commerce and the extension of colonial dominion. This charter is dated June 3, 1621, and gave to the West India Company for the period of twenty-four years the ex- clusive monopoly of trade and navigation to the coasts of Africa, between the Cape of Good Hope and the Tropic of Cancer, and to the coasts of America and the West Iudies, between the Straits of Magellan and Newfoundland. The company was invested with enormous powers. In the language of Brodhead, it might make in the name of the States-General

1 John Robinson's farewell blessing :

" I charge you before God and His blessed angels that you follow me no further than you have seen me follow the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord has more truth yet to break forth out of His holy word. I cannot sufficiently bewail the condition of the Reformed Churches, who are to come to a period in religion, and will go at present no further than the instruments of their reformation, Luther and Calvin were great and shining lights in their times, yet they penetrated not into the whole counsel of God. I beseech you, remember it,-'tie an article of your church covenant,-that you be ready to receive whatever truth shall be made known to you from the written word of God."

FIRST SETTLEMENTS ON THE DELAWARE AND SCHUYLKILL RIVERS.

" contracts and alliances with the princes and natives of the countries comprehended within the limits of its charter, build forts, appoint and discharge gov- ernors, soldiers, and public officers, administer justice, and promote trade. It was bound to advance the peopling of these fruitful and unsettled parts, and do all that the service of those countries and the profit and increase of trade shall require." The States- General had a sort of general supervision, with the privilege of confirming the appointment of superior officers, but no other powers over it. The govern- ment of the company was vested in five boards of managers,-one at Amsterdam, managing four-ninths of the whole ; one at Middleburg, in Zealand, man- aging two-ninths; one at Dordrecht, on the Maese, managing one-ninth ; one in North Holland, one- ninth ; and one in Friesland and Groningen, one- ninth. The general executive power for all purposes, the power to declare war only being reserved for the approval of the States, was confided to a board of nineteen delegates, of whom eight were to come from the Amsterdam chamber, and the rest from the other chambers in proportion to their shares, except that the States-General had one delegate. The States were pledged to defend the company against all comers, to advance to it a million guilders in money, and give it for its assistance sixteen ships of war of three hundred tons each, and four yachts of eighty tons, fully equipped. This fleet was to be main- tained, manned, and supported by the company, which besides was to provide an equal number of vessels on its own part, the whole to be under the command of an admiral selected by the States-Gen- eral. Any inhabitant of the Netherlands or of other countries might become a stockholder during 1621, but after that year the subscription books were to be closed, and no new members admitted. Colonization was one object of this great monopoly, but what its chiefs looked to principally for profit was a vast system of legalized piracy against the commerce of Spain and Portugal in Africa and America. The company was not finally organized under the charter until June, 1623, when the subscription books were closed.

In the interval between the lapse of the old United Company and the completion of the charter of the new monopoly, several ships were sent on trading ventures of a more or less private character to the North and South Rivers in the New Netherlands, among them vessels which had visited those regions before. King James I. having granted the charter of the Plymouth Company, complaints began to be heard about Dutch intrusions. Sir Samuel Argall, who is represented in the spurious Plantagenet pam- phlet as having forced a Dutch governor in Manhat- tan to yield allegiance to the British king in 1613, is found in 1621 as complaining, in a memorial signed by him, Sir Ferdinando Georges, the Earl of Arun- del, and Capt. John Mason, against the "Dutch in-

truders," who are represented as having only settled on the Hudson in 1620. This was claimed by the Plymouth Company as proof of the British king's title to the whole country, jure primce occupationis. This led to a protest, in December, 1621, by the Brit- ish government, through Sir Dudley Carleton, ambas- sador at the Hague. The States professed ignorance, and promised to make inquiry, and with that answer, after some fretfulness, the British minister was forced to content himself. In fact, the States-General, en- grossed in preparations for the war with Spain, sim- ply delayed matters until the West India Company was organized, when all such questions were referred to it for settlement. It thus became an issue between British Plymouth Company and Dutch West India Company, and the latter was the stronger of the two, both in men and argument.

The ships of that company, even before the final ratification of the amended charter, were trading in all the Atlantic waters between Buzzard's Bay (within twenty miles of Plymouth) and the Delaware River, and a plan of colonization was already matured. A number of Walloons ( Belgian Protestants of supposed Waelsche or Celtic origin), refugees in Holland from Spanish persecution, had applied to the British min- ister Carleton for leave to emigrate to Virginia. The terms offered them do not seem to have been satisfac- tory. The Holland Provincials heard of the negotia- tions, and suggested to the Amsterdam chamber of the West India Company that these would be good immigrants with whom to begin the permanent set- tlement of the New Netherlands. The suggestion was seized upon, and provision made to carry the Walloons over in the company's ship then about to sail, the "New Netherlands," Capt. Cornelis Jacob- sen Mey, he who had first sailed into South River, and who was going out now as first resident director or governor of the colonies. Some thirty families, chiefly Walloons, were accordingly taken on board, and in the beginning of March, 1623, the " New Neth- erlands" sailed from the Texel, Capt. Mey in com- mand, the next highest officer being Adriaen Joris, of Thienpoint. The course of the ship (and of nearly all vessels making the American voyage at that day) was southward from the British Channel to the Cana- ries, thence across the Atlantic with the trade-winds to Guiana and the Caribbees, then northwest between the Bermudas and Bahamas until the coast of Virginia came in sight. Mey's vessel reached the North River safely and in time to drive off a French vessel which songht to set up the arms of France on Manhattan Island. The Frenchman was foiled in the same way on the Zuydt River. Mey distributed his colonists as far as he could. The greater part of the Walloons were sent up to Albany, several families went to the Dutch factory on the Connecticut; four couples, who had married during the voyage out, several sailors, and some other men were sent to the South River, now also called Prince Hendrick's River. Mey appears

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

either to have accompanied them here or visited them soon after their arrival. He selected a site for their settlement, planting the Walloons on Verhulsten Island, near the present city of Trenton, N. J., and hastened the construction of a log fort or stockade for his sailors and soldiers at the mouth of the Tim- mer Kill, on the New Jersey bank of the Delaware, not far from where Gloucester now stands. This fort was called " Nassau." Its exact site is not deter- mined, nor can we decide the original Indian name of the spot, having such a variety to choose from.1 This South River colony was soon given up. The men and women of the Walloons grew homesick and returned to New York, certainly within a year or so, the garrison also abandoning the fort to the Indians, who occasionally lodged there during several years, probably while waiting for trading vessels. Such a vessel was sent round to the South River at least once a year from Manhattan Island. Thus, it is supposed in 1625, the first settlement on the Delaware came to naught.2 Fort Nassau, to conclude its history, seems to have been alternately occupied and aban- doned by the Dutch until 1650 or 1651, when it was destroyed by the Dutch themselves, as being too high up the river and too much ont of the way. The post was then transferred to the new Fort Casimir. In 1633, De Vries found none but Indians there, but it seems to have been restored some time during the same year by Governor Van Twiller, who was ac- cnsed of incurring extravagant expense in connec- tion with its construction. Arent Corssen was then commissary ; he had a clerk, and the Governor or- dered him to select the site for another structure of the same sort on the river. In 1635 an English party attempted but failed to capture this fort. They were thought to be Lord Baltimore's people, but were more likely New Englanders or Virginians. The Swedes repeatedly denied that there was any fort of the Dutch on the Delaware in 1638; but the Dutch ac- counts of expenditure for the maintenance of Fort Nassau charged against that year in the West India Company's books disprove this. There was certainly enough of a garrison in the fort to report at once and protest against the Swedish settlement at Christiana

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History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Part 14

Author: Bean, Theodore Weber, 1833-1891, [from old catalog] ed; Buck, William J. (William Joseph), 1825-1901 Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck Number of Pages: 1534

Author: Bean, Theodore Weber, 1833-1891, [from old catalog] ed; Buck, William J. (William Joseph), 1825-1901
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1534