Peter Stuyvesant, the Last Dutch Governor of New Amsterdam Part 12

There were still a number of captives held by the Indian tribes who dwelt among the Highlands. The question was anxiously deliberated, in the Council, respecting the best mode of recovering them. One only, Van Tienhoven, was in favor of war. But Governor Stuyvesant said,

"The recent war is to be attributed to the rashness of a few hot-headed individuals. It becomes us to reform ourselves, to abstain from all that is wrong, and to protect our villages with proper defences. Let us build block-houses wherever they are needed and not permit any armed Indian to enter the European settlements."

The Long Island Indians sent a delegation to New Amsterdam declaring that for ten years, since 1645, they had been the friends of the Dutch, and had done them no harm, "not even to the value of a dog."

They sent, as a present, a bundle of wampum in token of the friendship of the chiefs of the Eastern tribes. But the up-river Indians continued sullen. With their customary cunning or sagacity they retained quite a number of captives, holding them as pledges to secure themselves from the vengeance of the Dutch. There was no hope of liberating them by war, since the Indians would never deliver up a white captive in exchange for prisoners of their own tribes. And upon the first outbreak of war the unfortunate Dutch prisoners would be conveyed to inaccessible depths of the forests.

The Dutch settlers had scattered widely, on farms and plantations.

Thus they were peculiarly exposed to attacks from the Indians, and could render each other but little a.s.sistance. As a remedy for this evil, Governor Stuyvesant issued a proclamation ordering all who lived in secluded places in the country to a.s.semble and unite themselves in villages before the ensuing spring, "after the fashion," as he said, "of our New England neighbors."

In Sweden, before the tidings of the fall of fort Casimir had reached that country, an expedition had been fitted out for the South river, conveying one hundred and thirty emigrants. Stuyvesant, on learning of their arrival, forbade them to land. He dispatched a vessel and a land force, to capture the Swedish ship the Mercury, and bring it with all the pa.s.sengers to fort Amsterdam. Having disposed of her cargo, the vessel and all the Swedish soldiers it bore, were sent back to Europe.

In obedience to orders from home, Stuyvesant erected a fort at Oyster Bay, on the north side of Long island. In the instructions he received he was enjoined, "to maintain, by force, if necessary, the integrity of the Dutch province, the boundaries of which have just been formally confirmed by the States-General."

The Directors added,

"We do not hesitate to approve of your expedition on the South river, and its happy termination. We should not have been displeased, however, if such a formal capitulation for the surrender of the forts had not taken place, but that the whole business had been transacted in a manner similar to that of which the Swedes set us an example when they made themselves masters of fort Casimir."

CHAPTER IX.

AN ENERGETIC ADMINISTRATION.

New Amsterdam in 1656.--Religious Intolerance.--Persecution of the Waldenses.--The New Colony on South river.--Wreck of the Prince Maurice.--The Friendly Indians.--Energetic Action of the Governor.--Persecution of the Quakers.--Remonstrance from Flushing.--The Desolation of Staten Island.--Purchase of Bergen.--Affairs at Esopus.--The Indian Council.--Generosity of the Indians.--New Amstel.--Encroachments of the English.

War would doubtless have arisen, between Sweden and Holland, in view of transactions on South river, had not all the energies of Sweden been then called into requisition in a war with Poland. The Swedish government contented itself with presenting a vigorous memorial to the States-General, which for eight years was renewed without accomplishing any redress.

The vice-governor resided at fort Orange, in a two story house, the upper floor of which was used as a court-room. This station was the princ.i.p.al mart for the fur trade, which had now become so considerable that upwards of thirty-five thousand beaver skins were exported during the year 1656.

A survey of the city of New Amsterdam was made this year, which showed that there were one hundred and twenty houses, and a population of one thousand souls. A man like Stuyvesant, the warm advocate of arbitrary power, would almost of necessity, be religiously intolerant. Zealously devoted to the Reformed church, and resolved to have unity in religion, notwithstanding the n.o.ble toleration which existed in Holland, he issued a proclamation forbidding any one from holding a religious meeting not in harmony with the Reformed church.

Any preacher, who should violate this ordinance was to be subjected to a penalty of one hundred pounds. Any one who should attend such a meeting was to be punished by a penalty of twenty-five pounds.

This law was rigorously enforced. Recusants were fined and imprisoned.

Complaints were sent to Holland, and the governor was severely rebuked for his bigotry.

"We would fain," the Directors wrote to Stuyvesant,

"not have seen your worship's hand set to the placard against the Lutherans, nor have heard that you oppressed them with the imprisonments of which they have complained to us. It has always been our intention to let them enjoy all calmness and tranquillity. Wherefore you will not hereafter publish any similar placards, without our previous consent, but allow all the free exercise of their religion within their own houses."

But Stuyvesant was a man born to govern, not be governed. He was silent respecting the instructions he had received from home. When the Lutherans informed him that the Directors of the Company had ordered that the same toleration should exist in New Netherland which was practiced in the fatherland, he firmly replied that he must wait for further explanations, and that in the mean time his ordinance against public conventicles must be executed.

At Flushing a cobbler from Rhode Island, a baptist, William Wickendam by name, ventured to preach, "and even went with the people into the river and dipped them." He was fined one thousand pounds and ordered to be banished. As he was a poor man the debt was remitted, but he was obliged to leave the province.

It will be remembered that thus far nearly all the operations of the Dutch, in the New World, had been performed under the authority of Dutch merchants, called "The West India Company." Their chartered powers were very great. Only in a subordinate degree were they subject to the control of the States-General.

At this time there was a very cruel persecution commenced by the Duke of Savoy against the Waldenses. Hundreds of them fled to the city of Amsterdam, in Holland, which was then the refuge for the persecuted of all nations. They were received with the most n.o.ble hospitality. The city government not only gave them an asylum, but voted large sums from its treasury, for their support.

Carrying out this policy, the city decided to establish a colony of its own in New Netherland, to be composed mainly of these Waldenses.

The munic.i.p.al authorities purchased of the West India Company, for seven hundred guilders, all the land on the west side of South river, from Christina kill to Bombay Hook. This gave a river front of about forty miles, running back indefinitely into the interior. This region was named New Amstel. The colonists were offered a free pa.s.sage, ample farms on the river, and provisions and clothing for one year. The city also agreed to send out "a proper person for a schoolmaster, who shall also read the holy Scriptures in public and set the Psalms." A church was to be organized so soon as there were two hundred inhabitants in the colony.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

The Company wrote to Stuyvesant saying,

"The confidence we feel about the success and increase of this new colony of which we hope to see some prominent features next spring, when to all appearance, large numbers of the exiled Waldenses will flock thither, as to an asylum, induces us to send you orders to endeavor to purchase of the Indians, before it can be accomplished by any other nation, all that tract of land situated between the South river and the Hook of the North river, to provide establishments for these emigrants."

On Christmas day of 1656, three vessels containing one hundred and sixty emigrants, sailed from the Texel. A wintry storm soon separated them. The princ.i.p.al ship, the Prince Maurice, which had the largest number of pa.s.sengers, after a long voyage, was wrecked on the South coast of Long island, near Fire island inlet, in the neighborhood of the present town of Islip. It was midnight when the ship struck. As soon as it was light the pa.s.sengers and crew succeeded in reaching the sh.o.r.e in their boats through the breakers and through vast ma.s.ses of floating ice.

They found upon the sh.o.r.e a bleak, barren, treeless waste, "without weeds, gra.s.s or timber of any sort to make a fire." It was bitter cold. A fierce wind swept the ocean and the land, and the sea ran so high that it was expected every moment the ship would go to pieces.

These poor emigrants thus suddenly huddled upon the icy land, without food and without shelter, were in imminent peril of perishing from cold and starvation.

Their sufferings were so terrible that they were rejoiced to see some Indians approaching over the wide plains, though they knew not whether the savages would prove hostile or friendly. But the Indians came like brothers, aided them in every way, and dispatched two swift runners across the island to inform Governor Stuyvesant of the calamity. Some sails were brought on sh.o.r.e, with which a temporary shelter from the piercing blast was constructed, and enough food was secured to save from absolute starvation.

The energetic governor immediately dispatched nine or ten lighters to their a.s.sistance, and with needful supplies proceeded in person to the scene of the disaster. Thus nearly all the cargo was saved and the pa.s.sengers were transported to New Amsterdam. There were one hundred and twenty-five pa.s.sengers on board the Prince Maurice, seventy-six of whom were women and children. Another ship, the Gilded Beaver, was chartered at New Amsterdam which conveyed them all safely, after a five days' pa.s.sage, to South river. The other vessels, with soldiers and a few settlers, also soon arrived.

It is said that at this time the "public," exercises of religion were not allowed to any sects in Holland except the Calvinists. But all others were permitted to engage freely in their worship in private houses, which were in fact, as if public, these places of preaching being s.p.a.cious and of sufficient size for any a.s.sembly. Under this construction of the law every religion was in fact tolerated.[9]

The Lutherans in Holland sent a clergyman, Ernestus Goet.w.a.ter, to New Amsterdam, to organize a church. The Directors wrote,

"It is our intention to permit every one to have freedom within his own dwelling, to serve G.o.d in such manner as his religion requires, but without authorizing any public meetings or conventicles."

This tolerance, so imperfect in the light of the nineteenth century, was very n.o.ble in the dark days of the seventeenth. Upon the arrival of Goet.w.a.ter at New Amsterdam, the clergy of the Reformed church remonstrated against his being permitted to preach. The governor, adhering to his policy of bigotry, forbade him to hold any meeting, or to do any clerical service, but to regulate his conduct according to the placards of the province against private conventicles. Soon after this the governor ordered him to leave the colony and to return to Holland. This harsh decree was however suspended out of regard to the feeble health of Goet.w.a.ter.

On the 6th of August, 1657, a ship arrived at New Amsterdam with several Quakers on board Two of them, women, began to preach publicly in the streets. They were arrested and imprisoned. Soon after they were discharged and embarked on board a ship to sail through h.e.l.l Gate, to Rhode Island, "where," writes Domine Megapolensis, "all kinds of sc.u.m dwell, for it is nothing else than a sink for New England."

One of the Quakers, Robert Hodgson, went over to Long Island. At Hempstead he was arrested and committed to prison, and was thence transferred to one of the dungeons of fort Amsterdam. He was brought before the Council, convicted of the crime of preaching contrary to the law, and was sentenced to pay a fine of six hundred guilders, about two hundred and forty dollars, or to labor two years at a wheelbarrow, with a negro.

After a few days' imprisonment he was chained to the wheelbarrow and commanded to work. He refused. A negro was ordered to beat him with a tarred rope, which he did until the sufferer fell, in utter exhaustion, almost senseless to the ground. The story of the persecutions which this unhappy man endured, is almost too dreadful to be told. But it ought to be told as a warning against all religious intolerance.

"Not satisfied," writes O'Callaghan,

"his persecutors had him lifted up. The negro again beat him until he fell a second time, after receiving, as was estimated, one hundred blows. Notwithstanding all this, he was kept, in the heat of the sun, chained to the wheelbarrow, his body bruised and swollen, faint from want of food, until at length he could no longer support himself and he was obliged to sit down.

"The night found him again in his cell, and the morrow at the wheelbarrow, with a sentinel over him, to prevent all conversation. On the third day he was again led forth, chained as before. He still refused to work, for he 'had committed no evil.' He was then led anew before the director-general, who ordered him to work, otherwise he should be whipt every day. He was again chained to the barrow and threatened, if he should speak to any person, with more severe punishment. But not being able to keep him silent, he was taken back to his dungeon, where he was kept several days, 'two nights and one day and a half of which without bread or water.'

"The rage of persecution was still unsatiated. He was now removed to a private room, stripped to his waist, and then hung up to the ceiling by his hands, with a heavy log of wood tied to his feet, so that he could not turn his body. A strong negro then commenced lashing him with rods until his flesh was cut in pieces. Now let down, he was thrown again into his loathsome dungeon, where he was kept ten days, in solitary confinement, after which he was brought forth to undergo a repet.i.tion of the same barbarous torture. He was now kept like a slave to hard work."

His case eventually excited so much compa.s.sion that Stuyvesant's sister interfered, and implored her brother so importunately that he was at last induced to liberate the unfortunate man. Let a firm Quaker resolve that he will not do something, and let a Governor Stuyvesant resolve that he shall do it, and it is indeed "Greek meeting Greek."

Henry Townsend, of Jamaica, ventured to hold prayer-meetings in his house, in defiance of the ordinance against conventicles. The governor sentenced him to pay a fine of eight pounds and to leave the province within six weeks, under pain of corporeal punishment. This sentence was followed by a proclamation, fining any one fifty pounds who should entertain a Quaker for a single night, and confiscating any vessels which should bring a Quaker to the province.