Going Dutch_ How England Plundered Holland's Glory Part 8

On 23 July Moray added a postscript to a letter to Oldenburg, written from Hampton Court, whence he was about to accompany the King to Salisbury: I had almost forgot to desire you to send to Mr Hugens either the whole former Transaction [June issue], or so much of it as containes Hooks answer to Auzout & withall to let him know what Hook is doing as to his gla.s.ses [lenses and telescopes]. I have told him I would give you that task. L. Brounker will let you have hugens's letter.43

The exchanges amongst this group shaped received opinion concerning the possibility of machine manufacture of precision lenses, and has continued to be treated as the authoritative account of the episode by historians of science ever since.44 Yet, although Hooke played a starring role in these exchanges, this was an extended conversation in which he had no direct voice, and over which he could exercise no control. Yet, although Hooke played a starring role in these exchanges, this was an extended conversation in which he had no direct voice, and over which he could exercise no control.

And although Hooke's close friend Christopher Wren was in Paris throughout this period, in daily contact with the Auzout circle, he apparently did nothing to clarify the nature of Hooke's machine, nor did he communicate the fact that Hooke was now absent from Royal Society circles. Wren was certainly consulted over the Auzout/Hooke affair. In April 1666 Auzout reported to Oldenburg that he had spoken to Wren shortly before he returned to England, concerning Hooke's proposed method for increasing the focal length of lenses by filling the s.p.a.ce between two lenses with liquid (a topic a.s.sociated with the lens-grinding machine debate).45 By the end of July the Royal Society members had almost all dispersed because of the plague. Hooke, Wilkins and Petty were at Epsom, together with a substantial amount of experimental equipment, and a.s.sistant operators. Boyle was briefly with them, then retired to Oxford. Moray was with the King, first at Hampton Court, then at Oxford. For much of the period we are looking at Brouncker was on a ship off Greenwich seeing to navy business. Oldenburg stayed in London with his family, in a state of considerable agitation about the possibility of his succ.u.mbing to the plague (he made a will carefully separating his personal affairs from those of the Royal Society). During this time the Royal Society had two locations: a correspondence address with Oldenburg in London; and a transferred 'real' centre of operations in Oxford, where Moray and Boyle had established weekly meetings of a caucus of members.46 Huygens was in The Hague throughout, corresponding with Oldenburg, Moray and Auzout (his father, however, was in Paris for three months in early 1665). Huygens was in The Hague throughout, corresponding with Oldenburg, Moray and Auzout (his father, however, was in Paris for three months in early 1665).47 Wren visited Paris on behalf of Charles II, to inspect new building projects in train there, on 28 July 1665. We know he was frequently in the company of Auzout.48 From then on he provided a direct epistolary route for information from Auzout and his circle in Paris to both Oldenburg and Boyle. From then on he provided a direct epistolary route for information from Auzout and his circle in Paris to both Oldenburg and Boyle.49 So we have an epistolary circuit of transmission, detailed explication, claim, counter-claim, a.s.sertion, surmise and response, which by mid-1665 has effectively developed a life of its own. The partic.i.p.ating correspondents and the readers of the published versions are actually aware of only a small part of the network of exchanges which const.i.tute the 'controversy', and the complex webs of influence these create.

Auzout and Oldenburg's investment in all of this is pretty clear. From the Journal des scavans Journal des scavans in Paris and in Paris and Philosophical Transactions Philosophical Transactions in London was emerging an entirely new form of intellectual debate, one which reached beyond the bounds of coterie and nation into what was apparently a genuine Republic of Scientific Letters. Both Auzout and Oldenburg had a stake in establishing such an intellectual organ to enhance their own reputations, and both were remarkably successful at doing so. Hooke was more or less caught in the crossfire. As a result of Oldenburg's letter-writing, translating and publications he acquired a reputation for making boastful claims he could not sustain. Controversy also became a.s.sociated with his name on the Continent, at just the moment when in London was emerging an entirely new form of intellectual debate, one which reached beyond the bounds of coterie and nation into what was apparently a genuine Republic of Scientific Letters. Both Auzout and Oldenburg had a stake in establishing such an intellectual organ to enhance their own reputations, and both were remarkably successful at doing so. Hooke was more or less caught in the crossfire. As a result of Oldenburg's letter-writing, translating and publications he acquired a reputation for making boastful claims he could not sustain. Controversy also became a.s.sociated with his name on the Continent, at just the moment when Micrographia Micrographia was establishing him as a formidable scientific presence. was establishing him as a formidable scientific presence.

The story of the simultaneous attempts in London, Paris and The Hague to develop a machine-method for manufacturing optical lenses is a minor one for the history of science. But we should note that this correspondence, circulating vigorously in Hooke's absence, and without his knowledge, contains the 'insider' remarks supplying clues to the construction of his balance-spring watch which were later to cause him such personal grief and anger.

Indeed, the first 'leaked' information concerning the use of a coiled spring to regulate a pocket watch comes in a letter from Moray to Huygens which forms part of the lens-grinding exchanges, sent shortly after Hooke had left London. Hooke, Moray explains, has not yet been able to complete the collating of data on the 1664 comet, collected by virtuosi across Europe, which Huygens has asked for.50 As if to distract his somewhat demanding friend from the fact that he is unable to supply information on this topic, Moray changes the subject: As if to distract his somewhat demanding friend from the fact that he is unable to supply information on this topic, Moray changes the subject: Up to now I have not ever spoken to you about another thing that he has suggested in his lectures on mechanics (which he gives every Wednesday outside the University term).51 It is an entirely new invention [...] It is an entirely new invention [...]52

And Moray proceeds to explain how Hooke uses a spring ('un ressort') as the regulator for his new watch. Like the 'iron circle' Huygens seized on for his lens-grinding equipment, this was quite enough to set Huygens off on the right track particularly since, as in that case too, Moray proceeded to describe the balance-spring watch to Huygens in increasing detail in succeeding letters.

Hooke and Auzout, by the way, remained on cordial terms during this sequence of events and orchestrated controversies, despite Oldenburg's promptings to the contrary. Throughout the exchanges, Auzout continued to refer to Hooke in the most respectful of terms, and Oldenburg consistently deleted these from his racy English translations. On 18 December 1666, for instance, writing to Oldenburg to communicate an important astronomical observation, Auzout wrote: 'I think that Mr Hook, whom I salute wholeheartedly, as well as Mr Wren, will be very interested.' Oldenburg omitted the phrase 'whom I salute wholeheartedly' from the version he published in Philosophical Transactions Philosophical Transactions.53 By contrast with Oldenburg's tendency to edit the two protagonists' p.r.o.nouncements, so as to present Hooke's work as controversial and his relationship with Auzout as abrasive, the issue of the Journal des scavans Journal des scavans published on 20 December 1666 contained a review of published on 20 December 1666 contained a review of Micrographia Micrographia, praising it unreservedly and at length, in extravagant terms. Uniquely for the Journal Journal up to that point, the review reproduces two reduced-size versions of the 'cuts' or plates for which it expresses enormous admiration (the louse and blue mould). up to that point, the review reproduces two reduced-size versions of the 'cuts' or plates for which it expresses enormous admiration (the louse and blue mould).54 The controversy conducted in the pages of the Philosophical Transactions Philosophical Transactions and the and the Journal des scavans Journal des scavans, and in Auzout's pamphlet publications issued in the course of 1665, achieved what Auzout wanted: to bring his astronomical expertise to the attention of Colbert and the King of France and secure himself a royal appointment. His opportunism is clear, and is supported by the fact that within two years he had quarrelled with other members of the Paris Academie and left France for Italy.

Oldenburg was more than content that the Philosophical Transactions Philosophical Transactions should have become essential reading among virtuosi across Europe as soon as he began publishing them by the fourth issue, the one containing the first adversarial exchange of letters between Auzout and Hooke, there was an absolute scramble to get hold of copies immediately they appeared. The elite, high-minded virtuosi Moray and Huygens cemented their intimate AngloDutch friendship by exchanging sought-after information, and keeping each other 'in the know'. should have become essential reading among virtuosi across Europe as soon as he began publishing them by the fourth issue, the one containing the first adversarial exchange of letters between Auzout and Hooke, there was an absolute scramble to get hold of copies immediately they appeared. The elite, high-minded virtuosi Moray and Huygens cemented their intimate AngloDutch friendship by exchanging sought-after information, and keeping each other 'in the know'.

In spite of his forebodings, after his breakdown of 1676 Christiaan Huygens did return to the Academie des sciences in Paris for a brief period in late 1678. In spring 1681, however, he collapsed again. This time it was his sister Susanna, accompanied by her husband and their three children, who was sent to rescue him. She stayed three weeks finally realising her dream of visiting the French capital then brought Christiaan home for the last time. In 1684 the Academie, tired of his absence, dismissed him. He joined his father in the big family house in The Hague, keeping the aged Sir Constantijn company until his death in 1687.

Thereafter, Christiaan retired to his father's estate, with its wonderfully serene and restorative garden, at Hofwijk. But with the Dutch invasion of England, his reputation as a brilliant scientific innovator enjoyed one final flowering abroad. For while Hooke was an old-style divine-right-of-kings man (like his close friend Sir Christopher Wren), and had, right up to William of Orange's arrival, steadfastly backed James II as England's legitimate monarch, Christiaan Huygens, his scientific adversary, was the clever younger brother of William's private secretary, Constantijn Huygens junior, who had played a prominent role in the successful invasion.

In London, Constantijn junior was now a senior figure in the new administration, with real political power. The fact that all Sir Constantijn Huygens's children spoke excellent English was now a further distinct a.s.set. The young English scholar Thomas Molyneux, visiting Christiaan during his final period in Paris, reported that he had received a warm welcome: 'When he understood after a few words that I was English, he spoke to me in my own language, beyond all expectation, and moreover, extremely well.'55 Constantijn's new position in England tempted his brother Christiaan out of retirement, with the prospect that he could now be a.s.sured of real respect from the English virtuosi, and could finally take his place among the Fellows of the Royal Society (he had been elected an overseas member in 1663 the first foreigner to receive that honour).

Christiaan had a further reason for allowing himself to be tempted away from the seclusion of Hofwijk. For two years he had been poring over Isaac Newton's Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, or the Principia Principia, of which the author had sent him a presentation copy, working painstakingly through its mathematical calculations. Shortly after he read it, Huygens told Constantijn that he had enormous admiration for 'the beautiful discoveries that I find in the work he sent me'.56 When John Locke came to visit him, and asked him if he thought Newton's mathematics, which he admitted he could not himself follow, were sound, Christiaan told him emphatically that they were certainly to be trusted. Newton, to whom Locke recounted this, proudly repeated the Dutch mathematician's endors.e.m.e.nt in London. A visit to London would enable Huygens to meet Newton face to face. When John Locke came to visit him, and asked him if he thought Newton's mathematics, which he admitted he could not himself follow, were sound, Christiaan told him emphatically that they were certainly to be trusted. Newton, to whom Locke recounted this, proudly repeated the Dutch mathematician's endors.e.m.e.nt in London. A visit to London would enable Huygens to meet Newton face to face.

In preparation for his trip, Christiaan resuscitated and rewrote his ten- year-old treatise Traite de la lumiere Traite de la lumiere (Treatise on Light), to provide him with his credentials for re-entering English intellectual life. He wrote to Constantijn: (Treatise on Light), to provide him with his credentials for re-entering English intellectual life. He wrote to Constantijn: I had intended to stay here at Hofwijk for the whole winter ... However, you might have an opportunity to see Mr. Boyle. I would like to visit Oxford, if only to make the acquaintance of Mr. Newton [in fact, of course, Newton was at Cambridge] for whose excellent discoveries I have the greatest admiration, having read of them in the work [Principia] which he sent me.57

Christiaan arrived in London on 6 June 1689. He joined Constantijn junior and Constantijn junior's son in lodgings close to Whitehall. A week later the three of them went together to stay at Hampton Court Palace, where the new King and Queen were in residence. On 12 June Christiaan travelled by boat back along the Thames to London for a meeting of the Royal Society. He recorded in his diary: Meeting at Gresham College in a small room, a small cabinet of curiosities, over-full but well kept. Hoskins President, Henshaw Vice-President, Halley Secretary. Van Leeuwenhoek's letter was read. Newton and Fatio were there too.58

In the period of uncertainty leading up to the Dutch invasion and William's claiming the English throne, Isaac Newton had already begun to emerge from his sheltered position as a solitary scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1687, when James II's interference with the university roused even those as aloof as Newton from their political indifference, he found himself nominated to act for the university in what turned out to be a critical piece of resistance to James II's policy of installing Catholic cronies in key administrative positions. Newton was one of nine prominent members of Cambridge University who in April 1687 at the very moment when Edmond Halley was seeing the Principia Principia through the press confronted the notorious 'Hanging Judge' Lord Jeffreys, and refused to allow James II to appoint his personal nominees, without qualification or oath, to senior academic positions. through the press confronted the notorious 'Hanging Judge' Lord Jeffreys, and refused to allow James II to appoint his personal nominees, without qualification or oath, to senior academic positions.59 So at the beginning of 1689, Isaac Newton was already one of the most prominent, Protestant-supporting members of the university community, with impeccable credentials to serve the incoming regime. On 15 January he was elected one of the three university representatives to the national Convention appointed to settle the legitimacy of William and Mary's claim to the English throne.60 Two weeks after his arrival in London, having returned to Hampton Court, Christiaan Huygens had an audience with King William and dined with his Dutch favourite, William Bentinck, Earl of Portland, the most powerful man at court. It had been suggested beforehand that, as an esteemed virtuoso particularly well-connected with the Dutch royal household, Christiaan might put a word in with William III on Isaac Newton's behalf, putting the mathematician's name forward for a senior academic promotion. Two days later, on 10 July, Christiaan, Nicolas Fatio de Duillier and Newton met at seven in the morning in London, 'with the purpose of recommending Newton to the King for the vacant Mastership of a Cambridge College'.61 On 28 July, Christiaan attended a fashionable concert at which he was introduced to the Duke of Somerset, Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, and Newton's preferment was once more discussed. On 28 July, Christiaan attended a fashionable concert at which he was introduced to the Duke of Somerset, Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, and Newton's preferment was once more discussed.62 So Christiaan Huygens was directly involved in the political game of snakes and ladders, in which Newton hitherto a small player, politically moved centre-stage, while formerly powerful intellectuals like Wren and Boyle were nudged to the margins.

The Cambridge college whose headship Newton had ambitions to fill was King's, and John Hampden, the court lobbyist on Newton's behalf who approached Huygens, was a leading Parliamentary player. Huygens's approach evidently had the desired effect. Shortly thereafter, William wrote to the Fellows of King's College, informing them of his desire that they appoint Newton as their new Provost. The new foreign King was, however, roundly rebuffed by the Fellows, who selected another candidate. This was probably just as well for Newton's future career as a public figure, since imposed royal appointments were deeply unpopular.63 Even though this personal intervention of Huygens's to advance Newton's career did not succeed, the scientific relationship between the two men was thereby significantly strengthened. In August, before he left for home, Huygens received two papers from Newton on motion through a resisting medium. At some point during the visit they also had lengthy discussions of optics and colour.64 Huygens told the German mathematician Leibniz that Newton had communicated 'some very beautiful experiments' to him probably his experiments with thin films similar to the ones Huygens himself had performed twenty years earlier, and to those Hooke had recorded in his Huygens told the German mathematician Leibniz that Newton had communicated 'some very beautiful experiments' to him probably his experiments with thin films similar to the ones Huygens himself had performed twenty years earlier, and to those Hooke had recorded in his Micrographia Micrographia even earlier. even earlier.65 After Christiaan Huygens had returned to The Hague, at the end of August 1690, Nicolas Fatio de Duillier spent a month with Newton in London, followed by fifteen months in the Netherlands, mostly with Huygens.66 Over the next several years, Fatio facilitated the exchange of ideas between the two men. Huygens came to regard Fatio as his direct link through which he learned Newton's latest thoughts on mathematics, gravity and light. Over the next several years, Fatio facilitated the exchange of ideas between the two men. Huygens came to regard Fatio as his direct link through which he learned Newton's latest thoughts on mathematics, gravity and light.

Although Christiaan Huygens retreated rapidly to his self-imposed life as an intellectual invalid at Hofwijk, his brother Constantijn continued to be a person of influence at the court of William and Mary.67 Newton, mean-while, became Master of the Royal Mint, and a formidable figure in London political circles. He was also by now an international celebrity as the author of the Newton, mean-while, became Master of the Royal Mint, and a formidable figure in London political circles. He was also by now an international celebrity as the author of the Principia Principia the man who had finally unlocked the secret of the motion of the heavens. In terms of his own continuing career, Hooke now found himself between a rock and a hard place: between the City and the Royal Society. In neither did he any longer command any kind of authority, and in neither could he find powerful protectors who had survived the change of dynasty. the man who had finally unlocked the secret of the motion of the heavens. In terms of his own continuing career, Hooke now found himself between a rock and a hard place: between the City and the Royal Society. In neither did he any longer command any kind of authority, and in neither could he find powerful protectors who had survived the change of dynasty.68 So when, on 12 June 1689, Huygens, Newton and Hooke found themselves together at a meeting of the Royal Society, Newton and Huygens were, unbeknown to Hooke, about to embark on a new, yet more intense phase of their intellectual relationship. Hooke, meanwhile, was increasingly ill at ease with the Royal Society, where all but a few of his oldest friends among the members seemed to take him less and less seriously.69 Of all Hooke's claims to scientific breakthrough, and to have antic.i.p.ated Huygens's and Newton's ideas, those in optics were probably the most convincing and well-doc.u.mented. Both Newton and Huygens had started their work on thin coloured films in 166566 after having read Hooke's suggestive discussion in Micrographia Micrographia.70 Similarly, both men had pursued the wave theory of light proposed in that book, and the a.s.sociated calculation of the velocity of propagation of light. In the early 1670s, when Newton first wrote to the Royal Society with his theory of colour, and first crossed swords with Hooke, who inevitably challenged him, Newton was open about having been influenced by Hooke's work. Similarly, both men had pursued the wave theory of light proposed in that book, and the a.s.sociated calculation of the velocity of propagation of light. In the early 1670s, when Newton first wrote to the Royal Society with his theory of colour, and first crossed swords with Hooke, who inevitably challenged him, Newton was open about having been influenced by Hooke's work.71 By 1675, however, egged on by Oldenburg, Newton was denying Hooke's influence and claming that any ideas the two men shared were simply 'common thoughts': 'I desire Mr Hooke to shew me therefore ... [that] any part of [my hypothesis] is taken out of his By 1675, however, egged on by Oldenburg, Newton was denying Hooke's influence and claming that any ideas the two men shared were simply 'common thoughts': 'I desire Mr Hooke to shew me therefore ... [that] any part of [my hypothesis] is taken out of his Micrographia Micrographia.'72 Nevertheless, Hooke's experiments in optics were an authoritative contribution to the reputation of the Royal Society, and some important intervention from him at that auspicious meeting of the Society in which Huygens and Newton partic.i.p.ated was to be expected. None is recorded. Nevertheless, Hooke's experiments in optics were an authoritative contribution to the reputation of the Royal Society, and some important intervention from him at that auspicious meeting of the Society in which Huygens and Newton partic.i.p.ated was to be expected. None is recorded.

Following the meeting of the Royal Society on 12 June, Hooke worked through the arguments propounded in Huygens's Treatise on Light with even more than his usual punctiliousness. We can surmise that he was discouraged and depressed by the confident authority with which Huygens and Newton had conducted themselves at the Royal Society meeting. He responded by drafting two lectures defending in detail his own 'philosophical' views: the first dealing with those concerning light and its properties (wave theory and thin films), the second dealing with planetary motion (orbits of the planets, and shape of the earth). Hooke's health that year was particularly bad. According to Richard Waller, he was 'often troubl'd with Head-achs, Giddiness and Fainting, and with a general decay all over, which hinder'd his Philosophical Studies'.73 Eight months later, on 19 and 26 February 1690, Hooke delivered his response to the Society.74 The first lecture includes a particularly poignant restatement of his own originality, which appeals to his listeners to a.s.sess his own contribution before deciding that Huygens's competing views are correct: The first lecture includes a particularly poignant restatement of his own originality, which appeals to his listeners to a.s.sess his own contribution before deciding that Huygens's competing views are correct: This is in brief what I thought necessary to be considered before what I have formerly Deliverd concerning Light be rejected and before what is here Deliverd be Received, for though I doe readily a.s.sent that Monsieur Huygens & others much more Able than myself may penetrate farther into the true causes of the Phenomena of Light than I had done at that time; yet I confesse I have not yet found any phenomenon or hypothesis propounded by any writer since that time that has given me cause to alter my sentiments concerning it. However I should be very gladd to meet with any such and shall be as Ready to Relinquish this Upon the meeting with a better as I was in making choice of it for the best at the time of publication.75

In the second lecture, Hooke went on to a.n.a.lyse Huygens's Discours sur la cause de la pesanteur Discours sur la cause de la pesanteur (Discourse concerning the cause of weight). Here Hooke fastens onto Huygens's treatment of gravity: (Discourse concerning the cause of weight). Here Hooke fastens onto Huygens's treatment of gravity: For what follows afterwards is additionall to that Discourse as he himself Declares in his preface, which is concerning those proprietys of Gravity which I myself first Discovered and shewed to this Society many years since, which of late Mr. Newton has done me the favour to print and Publish as his own Inventions. And Particularly that of the Ovall figure of the earth was read by me to this Society about 27 years since upon the occasion of the Carrying the Pendulum Clocks to Sea And at two other times since, though I have had the Ill fortune not to be heard, and I conceive there are some present that may never well Remember and Doe [not] know that Mr. Newton did not send up that addition to his book till some weeks after I had read & shewn the experiments & Demonstration thereof in this place.76

As usual, Hooke insists that he had himself long ago made every one of the discoveries Huygens and Newton claim for themselves. This time he had clear justification for maintaining his influence, and doc.u.mented the indebtednesses with measured intelligence. A group of well-disposed members attended the lectures in question, including Sir Robert Southwell, Sir John Hoskins, Waller, Edmond Halley, John Wallis, Hans Sloane 'and divers others'.77 But Huygens and Newton had moved on. But Huygens and Newton had moved on.78 According to the records, Hooke's intervention was barely registered, and n.o.body bothered to respond. According to the records, Hooke's intervention was barely registered, and n.o.body bothered to respond.79 The mercurial Dutch virtuoso Christiaan Huygens floats in and out of other people's stories from his adolescence, through the Europe-wide acclaim accorded him in his prime (while he resided in Paris, as Louis XIV's favourite scientist), down to his decline, depression and death. From his childhood he had been his influential and ambitious father's favourite. Sir Constantijn was determined to find his second son a lucrative appointment to enable him to utilise his scientific talents, and as an anglophile his first preference would have been for Christiaan to join the scientific community in London. Between October 1661 and April 1665, Sir Constantijn shuttled between Paris and London as he negotiated the return of Orange (seized by Louis XIV) to the house of Orange. While he was at it, he lobbied people in high places to try to secure a position for his son.80 Christiaan preferred Paris. Even the festivities surrounding Charles II's coronation did not make London seem glamorous to him. After his first visit, he wrote to his brother Lodewijk: I had little pleasure of my visit to London ... The stink of the smoke is unbearable and most unhealthy, the city poorly built, with narrow streets having no proper paving and nothing but hovels ... There is little going on and nothing compared with what you see in Paris.81

In December 1666, Christiaan Huygens was appointed to a salaried position in the new Academie royale des sciences in Paris, though he was made a foreign Fellow of the Royal Society, and remained in active contact with his fellow scientists in London throughout his life.

If it is hard to imagine a biography of Christiaan's father Sir Constantijn which does not straddle the Narrow Sea and consider him in a robustly AngloDutch historical context, the same is even more true of Christiaan, whose life and career as represented in the literature of the history of science are both shadowy and contradictory depending on whether he is being looked at in a Dutch, English or French context and milieu.

The events described in this and the preceding chapter have made it clear, I hope, that Christiaan Huygens's claims to priority in the matter of the spring-regulated pocket watch, and pre-eminence in the field of lens- grinding, microscopy and telescopy, are inseparable from his sometimes uncannily close connections with his British and French counterparts. So let it be another of Christiaan Huygens's involuntary international collaborations at a distance that takes us forward to the final chapter of this story AngloDutch relations in the New World.

In a letter written on 25 October 1660 from Hartford, Connecticut, where he was governor of the English colony, John Winthrop junior, son of the founder of the English colony at Jamestown, and a considerable scientist in his own right, told the English scientist and educator Samuel Hartlib that he was disappointed that his 'Telescope of [focal length] about 10 foot doth shew little of Saturne'.82 He asked Hartlib, who acted as an intellectual go-between for scientists and pract.i.tioners across Europe, to tell him if he knew 'the manner of the fabrique of that new Telescopium in holland', expressing the hope that Christiaan Huygens might have described such an instrument accurately in his He asked Hartlib, who acted as an intellectual go-between for scientists and pract.i.tioners across Europe, to tell him if he knew 'the manner of the fabrique of that new Telescopium in holland', expressing the hope that Christiaan Huygens might have described such an instrument accurately in his Systema Saturnium Systema Saturnium (System of Saturn), which Winthrop had not yet read. Huygens's book, announcing his remarkable discovery of Saturn's rings, had been published the previous year. Winthrop's antic.i.p.ation of a copy arriving in Connecticut is further evidence of the ease with which new publications circulated across the known world. It was another year, however, before Hartlib wrote telling Winthrop that 'some weeks agoe' he had sent him 'the Systeme of Saturne with all the Cuts [ill.u.s.trations]'. Winthrop was gripped by the contents of Huygens's book, and was keen to observe the phases in Saturn's appearance himself. (System of Saturn), which Winthrop had not yet read. Huygens's book, announcing his remarkable discovery of Saturn's rings, had been published the previous year. Winthrop's antic.i.p.ation of a copy arriving in Connecticut is further evidence of the ease with which new publications circulated across the known world. It was another year, however, before Hartlib wrote telling Winthrop that 'some weeks agoe' he had sent him 'the Systeme of Saturne with all the Cuts [ill.u.s.trations]'. Winthrop was gripped by the contents of Huygens's book, and was keen to observe the phases in Saturn's appearance himself.

His astronomical observations were interrupted by more pressing local political concerns. Connecticut had been founded during the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell. Now, in 1661, Winthrop was obliged to return to England to negotiate a new charter for the colony with the returning King, Charles II. He was away for almost two years, during which time he was successful in gaining for the inhabitants of Connecticut a charter from the King, a.s.signing them lands from the Pawcatuck River all the way westwards to the Pacific Ocean. While in England he was also made a Fellow of the Royal Society. He returned to Connecticut in 1663, and in 1664 a.s.sisted in Charles II's seizure of the thriving Dutch settlement on Manhattan Island for the English.83 In January 1665, in the midst of unfolding events following the seizure of Manhattan, Winthrop wrote to Sir Robert Moray at the Royal Society, sending him observations of the moons of Jupiter which he had made with a refracting telescope of '3 foote and [a] halfe with a concave ey-gla.s.se'. Inspired by Christiaan Huygens's book, he had, it seems, brought the English-made telescope back with him from London: Having looked upon Jupiter with a Telescope upon 6th of August last I saw 5 Satellites very distinctly about that planet; I observed it with the best curiosity I could, taking very distinct notice of the number of them, by severall aspects with some convenient time of intermission; and though I was not without some consideration whether that fifthe might not be some fixed star with which Jupiter might at that time be in near conjunction, yet that consideration made me the more carefully to take notice whether I could discern any such difference of one of them from the other four that might by the more twinkling light of it or any other appearance give ground to believe that it might be a fixt star, but I could discern nothing of that nature.84

Winthrop turned out to be mistaken although a fifth moon of Jupiter was indeed discovered in the nineteenth century, his telescope could not have detected it, and he is indeed most likely to have taken a fixed star, crossing the face of Jupiter, for a satellite circling the planet.

But the accuracy or otherwise of John Winthrop's observations of Jupiter is not our concern here. What is, is that more than three thousand miles from London, in an American colony, an English astronomical enthusiast's pa.s.sion for telescopic observation had been kindled by a young Dutch astronomer who had made an exciting discovery about the planet Saturn. In 1671, Winthrop presented his reflecting telescope as a gift to the new Harvard University its first recorded astronomical instrument. So the emerging science of astronomy in North America, with a long and distinguished future stretching ahead of it, was, it seems, in its earliest days equally indebted to English and Dutch astronomers back home.

12.

AngloDutch Influence Abroad: Compet.i.tion, Market Forces and Money Markets on a Global Scale

We have observed the development of an unplanned affinity between the English and the Dutch in the course of the seventeenth century. As a result, encounters between them could ordinarily be eased into some kind of agreement. This was, however, decidedly not the case with relations between the two nations overseas. Aggressive commercial compet.i.tion meant that wherever the paths of Dutch and English financial interests crossed, there was almost bound to be trouble. This in spite of the fact that on the whole the Dutch did not have imperial ambitions along their newly established trade routes.

The Dutch Republic was a seaborne, trading nation at heart, and its expansionist energies were driven by the search for new goods and markets, and a keen eye for potential profit. It regarded the outposts it established as a result of the highly successful activities of its Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie, or VOC) and West India Company (West-Indische Compagnie, or WIC) as first and foremost well-ordered trading posts, rather than colonies. These were settled points of exchange for goods and services, whose profits could be returned to the patria patria (homeland), where wealth would be invested and acc.u.mulated long-term for the benefit of the nation or at least for the benefit of the wealthy speculators who financed long-distance, high-risk ventures. (homeland), where wealth would be invested and acc.u.mulated long-term for the benefit of the nation or at least for the benefit of the wealthy speculators who financed long-distance, high-risk ventures.

The Royal Society's first historian, Thomas Sprat, noted this difference between the English and the Dutch away from home. English merchants carried their way of life with them, establishing it in the new communities they encountered. Dutch merchants were entirely preoccupied with trade: The Merchants of England live honourably in forein parts; those of Holland meanly, minding their gain alone: ours converse freely, and learn from all; having in their behaviour, very much of the Gentility of the Families, from which so many of them are descended: The others, when they are abroad, shew, that they are onely a Race of plain Citizens, keeping themselves most within their own Cells, and Ware-houses; scarce regarding the acquaintance of any, but those, with whom they traffick.1

Sprat's characterisation of the Dutch as focusing all their efforts in this period on trade and gain, thereby enriching the nation, is in many ways a fair a.s.sessment of the United Provinces' place in seventeenth-century Europe though here we are, readers will recall, being careful not to attribute temperaments too narrowly to nations. In this final chapter we shall see how the new initiatives in finance, taxation and exchange, which had fuelled the Dutch 'golden age' of culture and commerce, were gradually transferred to Britain by a process of more or less conscious emulation, long before the arrival there of William and Mary in 1688.

There was one clear exception among Dutch trading outposts overseas to their general mercantile strategy of living abroad 'meanly, minding their gain alone', in the first half of the seventeenth century. This was the settlement of New Netherland, strategically located at the mouth of the Hudson River, on the east coast of America.2 New Netherland was unique among the 'factories' or trading locations established by the Dutch East and West India Companies in developing into a thriving and productive community, closely modelled on its Low Countries roots: 'Whereas most Dutch colonies in the seventeenth century never developed into much more than trading posts, New Netherland became the first Dutch settlement colony, preceding that of the Cape of Good Hope.' New Netherland was unique among the 'factories' or trading locations established by the Dutch East and West India Companies in developing into a thriving and productive community, closely modelled on its Low Countries roots: 'Whereas most Dutch colonies in the seventeenth century never developed into much more than trading posts, New Netherland became the first Dutch settlement colony, preceding that of the Cape of Good Hope.'3 New Netherland fits Sprat's description of a colony with a civilising mission and a commitment to replicating a European way of life in the New World. It was in every respect resolutely Dutch. From the style of roof-truss used in family homes and public buildings, to the manner of grinding corn and the type of bread baked for the community, New Netherland adopted the habits and mores of the homeland, and specifically those of the mercantile hub from which its ships set out, and which was the home of the Dutch trading companies: Amsterdam.

It was an English adventurer and explorer, Henry Hudson, employed by the Dutch East India Company to look for the fabled North-West Pa.s.sage to the Spice Islands, who discovered New Netherland. Thwarted in his first attempts to journey eastwards to find a North-East Pa.s.sage to Russia, Hudson decided to head instead westward towards North America. He directed his attention to the area between the thirty-seventh and forty- second parallels, between Chesapeake Bay and Cape Cod, looking for an inlet promising enough to suggest a route through the continent to the Spice Islands, which allegedly lay beyond. In September 1609 he arrived at the mouth of what we now know as the Hudson River, sailing up it as far as what is today Albany, where it became too shallow for a seagoing ship to pa.s.s.

In 1615 the States General of the United Provinces granted a patent to the New Netherland Company, authorising it to undertake voyages to establish trading relations, particularly in furs, with the new trading posts precariously established at the mouth of the Hudson, followed, in 1621, by the formation of the Dutch West India Company. In response to protests from the English amba.s.sador at The Hague, Sir Dudley Carleton, that the English had prior claims to this stretch of coastline, the new company sent a small vanguard of settlers to New Netherland, who established Dutch trading posts near Manhattan Island (as it later became) and a fortified headquarters for the region at Fort Orange, close to modern-day Albany.

The most hospitable and fertile place for settlement, however, lay on the coast, at the mouth of the north Hudson River. In early 1626, Paul Minuit, the newly appointed commander of the settlers in the Dutch colony of New Netherland, famously exchanged the small, sheltered island of Manhattan, tucked in between the river mouth and what the Dutch called 'Lange Eylant' (Long Island), for goods to the value of sixty guilders with the Indian tribe which lived there.

A contemporary account of the deal is preserved in records of the Dutch West India Company the organisation responsible for settling the area on behalf of the Dutch, as a trading post for beaver pelts and other commodities to be shipped to Europe for profit. In the last week of November 1626, a Company official in Amsterdam reported in a letter (in Dutch) to his superiors at The Hague the arrival of a ship, the Arms of Amsterdam Arms of Amsterdam, which had left New Netherland in late September: They report that our people are in good heart and live in peace there; the Women also have borne some children there. They have purchased the Island Manhattes [Manhattan] from the Indians for the value of 60 guilders; it is 11,000 morgens in size. They had all their grain sowed by the middle of May, and reaped by the middle of August. They send thence samples of summer grain; such as whet, rye, barley, oats, buckwheat, canary seed, beans and flax.

The ship in question carried a gratifyingly rich cargo of furs from the colony beaver, otter and mink as well as 'Oak timber and Hickory'.4 From this report we gather that within a year of gaining ownership, the residents of Manhattan Island were farming their newly acquired land profitably, and consolidating their trade in lucrative furs with the Indians. Within two years, under the direction of Minuit, they had established a permanent settlement: thirty wooden houses along 'The Strand', on the flattish south-eastern flank of the island, and one stone building with a thatched roof of river reeds, as the West India Company headquarters, where the precious pelts collected from the interior could be stored before being shipped back to Europe. A fort was built on the south-western point of the island, whence enemy vessels could be attacked as they entered the harbour. Two mills were constructed at the southernmost tip, one for grinding grain, the other for sawing lumber. In contemporary drawings the sails of the windmill can be clearly seen behind the small cl.u.s.ter of Dutch- style cottages this could almost be a landscape in the United Provinces themselves.

Manhattan Island turned out to have a richly varied terrain, with ample fertile land for cultivation. There was thick forest from which protruded large vertical rocks, gra.s.sy meadowlands, high hills in the centre of the island, babbling brooks and reedy ponds. Oaks, chestnut trees, poplar and pine studded the landscape, the inlets teemed with fish, and in summer the meadows were carpeted with wild strawberries. In this hospitable landscape Minuit established the settlement of New Amsterdam, and it duly prospered, its population increasing to 2,500 by the early 1660s.

Numbers in the settlement were swelled by new arrivals not directly involved in the WIC's commercial business, but rather bent on making a new life there. In April 1637 a ship arrived from Amsterdam and sailed up the Hudson to Fort Orange. On board were some thirty-seven people, hired by their Dutch 'patroon' or master, Kiliaen van Rensselaer, to establish a settlement in his name, and there to trade with the Indians on his behalf. By 1642 around one hundred people had settled in the dispersed community around Fort Orange known as Rensselaerswijck, building and equipping a 'bijeenwoninge' literally a 'living together', a community. In 1652 this spread-out settlement became the village of Beverwijck, a WIC company village. Eight years later this village had become a small town, inhabited by more than a thousand people. Among those who came to live in Beverwijck were Dutch settlers from Recife in Brazil, once governed by Johan Maurits van Na.s.sau-Siegen, but lost in 1654 to the Portuguese, who expelled the Dutch traders, including a group of twenty-three Jews, men, women and children, who were allowed to settle in New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island.5 Between the early years of settlement and the 1650s, the population of New Netherland as a whole grew from a handful to almost eight thousand, a thriving, self-sufficient, Dutch-speaking community.6 That growth in population gradually led to a process of development of forms of government and social structures derived from the 'old country' specifically the city of Amsterdam. According to Dutch custom, the settlements in North America were supposed to be directly controlled by the 'nineteen lords' of the Dutch West India Company (drawn predominantly from the governing chambers of Amsterdam and Zeeland). In fact, since most of the voyages to New Netherland were organised by Amsterdam merchants, New Netherland was largely under the administration of the twenty directors of the Amsterdam chamber. In addition to managing the wharves, the equipping of the ships and the sales of the cargoes brought in, they were also expected to administer the colony on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. That growth in population gradually led to a process of development of forms of government and social structures derived from the 'old country' specifically the city of Amsterdam. According to Dutch custom, the settlements in North America were supposed to be directly controlled by the 'nineteen lords' of the Dutch West India Company (drawn predominantly from the governing chambers of Amsterdam and Zeeland). In fact, since most of the voyages to New Netherland were organised by Amsterdam merchants, New Netherland was largely under the administration of the twenty directors of the Amsterdam chamber. In addition to managing the wharves, the equipping of the ships and the sales of the cargoes brought in, they were also expected to administer the colony on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

The settlement at Rensselaerswijck, however, considered itself to be under the direct administration of its patron, Kiliaen van Rensselaer, just as van Rensselaer considered himself ent.i.tled to trade directly with the local inhabitants for beaver pelts, rather than via the WIC. In practice, therefore, administration of New Netherland came increasingly to be provided from among its Dutch residents. It was not until the arrival of Petrus (Peter) Stuyvesant in 1645, as the official representative of the WIC, that the situation was eventually regularised and an official voice was given to the population of New Netherland, in the form of an advisory committee of 'the Nine Men'. The colonists were asked to draw up a list of eighteen nominees, from which Stuyvesant selected nine. These gemeentsmannen gemeentsmannen or or gemeijnsluijden gemeijnsluijden (councillors of the community) were not ent.i.tled to meet on their own initiative, but had to wait to be summoned by the director general 'as is customary in our fatherland'. (councillors of the community) were not ent.i.tled to meet on their own initiative, but had to wait to be summoned by the director general 'as is customary in our fatherland'.7 By the 1660s, when the scattered settlement of Rensselaerswijck had been consolidated into the thriving small township of Beverwijck, anyone encountering the settlers would have appreciated the thoroughgoing Dutchness of their way of life, from the language spoken to dress and habits. The records contain specific references to the customs of Amsterdam, in the appointment locally of burgemeesters burgemeesters and and schepenen schepenen, rather than the representatives of the States General and the West India Company. Methods and manners of taxation and the regulation of trades were also closely modelled on those in the Dutch Republic.

The administrative and legal system of New Netherland, the structure of ecclesiastical life, the method in which the economy of the colony was ordered, and the way burgher rights were used as expressions of differences in status, were all based on those in the Dutch Republic. So too were the patterns of daily life.

Births, marriages and deaths were celebrated in New Netherland with simplified versions of the practices back home in the old country. The naming of children, choice of G.o.dparents and baptismal gifts display clear parallels with the customs in the Dutch Republic. Misdemeanours from drunkenness to whoring were punished with penalties modelled on those at home, as were breaches of promise, and marital discord. Where disputes arose between neighbours, or complaints were laid for insulting behaviour or swearing, both the behaviour and the methods of resolution are those of the Netherlands. Even the nursery rhymes sung by the children of New Netherland for many generations are recognisably those of urban Amsterdam.8 One curious consequence of the introduction of a robustly Dutch administration in New Netherland was its extension to a group of small communities almost entirely peopled by English immigrants. In order not to over-extend their small group of settlers, the WIC had allowed Long Island to be colonised by men and women from neighbouring English settlements. These communities were among the first to be granted autonomous administrative bodies and local courts, since it was inappropriate for the WIC to try to extend its Dutch powers to them. Nevertheless, the forms of administration and courts adopted were those also favoured by the neighbouring Dutch settlements. So by the 1660s, in spite of growing tension between England and the United Provinces at home, there was an unacknowledged AngloDutch accord in New Netherland, extending to a merging of English and Dutch local interests.

And then, in AugustSeptember 1664, a small flotilla of heavily armed ships, laden with well-equipped soldiers, arrived off the sh.o.r.e of New Netherland from London. Without warning, as part of AngloDutch hostilities on the other side of the world, brought about by commercial greed and ambition, New Netherland was taken by force by the English, and Dutch colonial ambitions in North America came abruptly to an end. New Netherland was absorbed into New England, New Amsterdam became New York, and Fort Orange became Albany (named after Charles II's brother, Admiral of the Fleet and a keen investor in the English East India and Royal African Companies, James, Duke of York and Albany). Until comparatively recently, history had all but forgotten about the fundamental role played in the region by pioneering souls from the United Provinces.

Here a short digression is needed concerning Sir Robert Holmes, whom we encountered in Chapter 10 Chapter 10, testing sea-going pendulum clocks for the Royal Society. For the catalyst for the seizure of New Netherland was an a.s.sault on Dutch settlements on the east coast of Africa by Holmes, under orders from the warmongering factions surrounding the recently returned English King, Charles II. This group had its eye on what it perceived to be extremely lucrative trading opportunities along the coast of Guinea, where, however, the Dutch were firmly installed already in fortified positions at Goree and elsewhere. The profitable commodity eyed particularly covetously by James, Duke of York, who had acquired a considerable taste for speculative investment in overseas trade politely known as 'black gold' was, of course, African slaves, to be transported at enormous profit to the new European plantations in the West Indies.

Holmes was first dispatched in 1661 with a small, heavily armed contingent of ships, to 'a.s.sist' in the Royal African Company's trading ventures along the Guinea coast. He sailed from Portsmouth in January, reaching the Gambia in early March. On 18 March he forced the surrender of the Dutch fort of St Andreas, and after an unsuccessful attempt to find a legendary store of gold, he returned to England. The expedition brought a storm of diplomatic protest from the Dutch. Samuel Pepys regarded Holmes as fundamentally untrustworthy: 'He seems to be very well acquainted with the King's mind and with all the several factions at court. But good G.o.d, what an age is this, that a man cannot live without playing the knave and dissimulation.'

In May 1663, Holmes embarked on another voyage to Guinea, whose real purpose was to disrupt Dutch trade in the region and to seize Dutch possessions along the Guinea coast. On 21 January 1664 he attacked Goree, sinking two ships and taking two others, and the island surrendered on the following day. He went on to take the Dutch fort of Anta and a number of other Dutch positions before sailing for England in late June. We get some flavour of Holmes's naval style from a letter he sent to one of the Duke of York's officials on the way home. Undisciplined behaviour of a kind which seemed to follow him around had led to a nasty incident. In spite of a.s.surances to the contrary, after seizing the Dutch trading posts at Aga and Anamaboa by force, Holmes's men had begun to plunder their a.s.sets. The Dutch retaliated by blowing up the post, resulting in casualties to the tune of '80 or 90 whites and blacks'. Which, Holmes reports nonchalantly, 'the blacks rewarded by cutting off all their heads': Since my Letters from Cape Coast wee have taken in Aga & Anamaboa the former by storm, and after promiseing Quarter to the Flemins & taken possession our men being somewhat greedy of Plunder, the Flemins treacherously blew up the Powder & withall 80 or 90 whites and blacks, which the blacks rewarded by cutting off all their heads [...] I know not how my Actions vpon the Coast of Guyny are resented at Court, nor how my Condicion stands [...] My service to all friends I am sir, yours. R.H.9

It was on this return voyage that Holmes produced the story that has earned a permanent place in the history of science, about the amazing accuracy of Huygens's pendulum clocks, and how they had saved the returning ships from disaster by enabling him to predict how long it would take, in precisely which direction, to make landfall on the Cape Verde islands. The clocks had been kept a.s.siduously wound and to time, he claimed, throughout his marauding adventures.10 Anti-Dutch feeling was already running high among the hawks in Charles II's government by 166263. But it was Holmes's buccaneering and unscrupulous naval action off Guinea that brought matters between England and the United Provinces conclusively to a head, and triggered the declaration of war by the Dutch in February 1665 (Holmes was also to provoke the confrontation which led to the third Dutch war in 1672).

So much for Holmes's disreputable behaviour on behalf of the English off Africa. As part of the same initiative, the continuing state of heightened AngloDutch tension led to Charles II's resolving to put an end to Dutch settlement in North America. While Holmes was on the high seas, the King was putting together an expedition to seize New Netherland and give it to his brother James, Duke of York and Albany. In January 1664 a committee set up to consider the likely outcome of an attack concluded that 'if the King will send three ships and three hundred soldiers under good officers', the Dutch could be vanquished and their colonies seized. Charles a.s.signed to his brother James ('his Heirs and a.s.signs') not only all the lands currently held by the Dutch in New Netherland, but vast tracts of the new continent, from Maine to Delaware.

A convoy of ships was equipped, and a contingent of soldiers heavily armed for the enterprise, under the Duke of York's command. James appointed his groom of the bedchamber Richard Nicolls his deputy governor, and Nicolls set off from Portsmouth in May 1664, arriving off Cape Cod ten weeks later, where he informed the English inhabitants of his intentions.

The English settlers along the east coast of North America had managed to co-exist remarkably amicably with their Dutch neighbours for more than thirty years, exchanging essential goods with one another, and cooperating in the defensive and other measures needed to prevent the precariously established colonies from destruction, by either hostilities with the local Indian population, or the depredations of the climate.

When the English ships arrived at the English Ma.s.sachusetts Bay Colony and Nicolls's forces disembarked, John Winthrop, the English governor of Connecticut (whom we met at the end of the last chapter, observing the moons of Jupiter through his telescope), was taken entirely by surprise. On his recent trip to London, the King had granted him much of the territory which he had now given with a flourish to James. Winthrop's Connecticut colony charter was reneged on with a simple message transmitted by Nicolls, who had been ordered to 'putt Mr Winthropp in mind of the differences which were on foot here'. Nicolls's arrival with three frigates and three hundred combat-ready, heavily armed forces threatened to destabilise the entire region. Deeply disappointed on behalf of the community he had worked so hard for, John Winthrop was forced to cut his losses and step in as negotiator for Nicolls on the English side, to try to persuade Peter Stuyvesant, governor of New Netherland, to surrender rather than provoke a full-scale colonial war.

There was, however, one further, gratuitous piece of double-dealing by the English homeland administration to be coped with by the beleaguered Winthrop. One of the chief instigators of the aggressive move to seize New Netherland turned out to be his own cousin George Downing, who had grown up in New England, and graduated in the first year of the colony's new university, Harvard. Now Resident English amba.s.sador at The Hague, having managed to regain the post he had also held under the Commonwealth, Downing was one of the loudest voices arguing that Dutch commercial expansion could only be curtailed by striking at their trading posts across the world: [The Dutch] discourse very publicly [...] 'we shall wholly destroy the English in the East Indies, we are masters of Guinea, we shall ruin the English trade in the caribee islands and western parts, and we doubt not but now by the order sent to Cadiz and the Streights, to be masters of those seas and to take and ruin all the English shipping there'.11

Downing, who was deeply unpopular with the Dutch, expressed vociferous concern at what he characterised as their damaging expansionist ambitions. 'From 1661 to 1665 his insistence upon resolute English action against Dutch pretensions was sufficiently aggressive to be accounted a princ.i.p.al cause of the ensuing war.'12 His intervention in the Dutch colonial venture in North America was well-informed and effective. He knew both New Netherland and the governor of Connecticut at first hand, and he knew how to dupe them into submission. His intervention in the Dutch colonial venture in North America was well-informed and effective. He knew both New Netherland and the governor of Connecticut at first hand, and he knew how to dupe them into submission.

From The Hague, Downing had taken the trouble to inform the States General that the Dutch colonies had nothing to fear from the English forces: Charles II was merely sending a commander to overhaul the administration of the New England colonies. The Dutch administration was suitably rea.s.sured: the directors of the WIC informed Stuyvesant that Nicolls's mission would not affect him.13 Winthrop, who was on cordial terms with Stuyvesant, also rea.s.sured him on the strength of Downing's briefing. So Stuyvesant, who had been at Fort Orange on business when the English troops disembarked, returned to Manhattan to find English gunboats at the entrance to the lower harbour, cutting off the river and Manhattan island. In response to a letter from him asking for rea.s.surance that nothing 'of prejudice' was intended against them, Nicolls replied: Winthrop, who was on cordial terms with Stuyvesant, also rea.s.sured him on the strength of Downing's briefing. So Stuyvesant, who had been at Fort Orange on business when the English troops disembarked, returned to Manhattan to find English gunboats at the entrance to the lower harbour, cutting off the river and Manhattan island. In response to a letter from him asking for rea.s.surance that nothing 'of prejudice' was intended against them, Nicolls replied: In his Majesties Name, I doe demand the Towne, Situate upon the Island commonly knowne by the Name of Manhatoes with all the Forts there unto belonging, to be rendered unto his Majesties obedience, and Protection into my hands.

The King, he went on, did not relish 'the effusion of Christian blood', but if the Dutch did not surrender they would bring upon themselves 'the miseryes of a War'. Stuyvesant would have preferred to hold out against the gunships on his doorstep. In the end, though, the leading men of New Amsterdam opted to surrender without a fight, rather than suffer 'misery, sorrow, conflagration, the dishonour of women, murder of children in their cradles, and in a word, the absolute ruin and destruction of innocent souls'. Apart from a brief period when the United Provinces regained New Netherland in the early 1670s, the Dutch colonisation of America was over.

Charles II received the news with delight. Although he can have had no idea of the long-term global significance of having acquired the 'island at the centre of the world' without a shot being fired, he did appreciate its significance as a trading destination on the expanding English imperial map. 'You will have heard of our taking of New Amsterdam,' he wrote to his sister in Paris. ''Tis a place of great importance to trade, and a very good town.'

And yet, forms of Dutch-based regional government continued on English-administered Manhattan island and in surrounding territories, to which they had been adapted over forty years of confrontation and compromise with the authorities of the Dutch West India Company. So did familiar patterns of everyday life, rituals of birth, marriage and death, and even the names of particular localities: Breuckelen (Brooklyn), Deutel Bay (Turtle Bay), Neuw Haarlem (Harlem), Yonkers, the Bronx.

Many of the Dutch residents of New Netherland did not leave. They adjusted to the new regime as to so much else since they had left their homeland. So did the mingled community of those from other countries, of other ethnicities and with other faiths, who had washed up in the Dutch colony, where the spirit of toleration that had been brought from Amsterdam continued to sustain them. Although the Dutch language did not survive as the language of daily life in America, American English still carries traces of its Netherlandish ancestry a 'cookie' is a koekje koekje (small cake) and your 'boss' is your (sma