Peter Stuyvesant, the Last Dutch Governor of New Amsterdam Part 2

Coasting along the narrow portion of the sound, he named the land upon his right, which he did not then know to be an island, Metoac or the Land of Sh.e.l.ls. We should rather say he accepted that name from the Indians. On this cruise he discovered the mouths of the Housatonic and of the Connecticut. He ascended this latter stream, which he called Fresh River, several leagues. Indian villages were picturesquely scattered along the sh.o.r.es, and the birch canoes of the Indians were swiftly paddled over the mirrored waters. All else was silence and solitude. The gloom of the forest overshadowed the banks and the numerous water-fowl were undisturbed upon the stream. The natives were friendly but timid. They were overawed by the presence of the gigantic structure which had invaded their solitude.

Continuing his cruise to the eastward he reached the main ocean, and thus found that the land upon his left was an island, now known as Long Island. Still pressing forward he discovered the great Narragansett Bay, which he thoroughly explored, and then continued his course to Cape Cod, which, it will be remembered, Sir Henry Hudson had already discovered, and which he had called New Holland.

Intelligence was promptly transmitted to Holland of these discoveries and the United Company, under whose auspices the discoveries had been made, adopted vigorous measures to secure, from the States-General, the exclusive right to trade with the natives of those wide realms. A very emphatic ordinance was pa.s.sed, granting this request, on the 27th of March, 1614.

This ordinance stimulated to a high degree the spirit of commercial enterprise. The province was called New Netherland, and embraced the territory within the 40th and 45th degrees of north lat.i.tude. All persons, excepting the United "New Netherland Company," were prohibited from trading within those limits, under penalty of the confiscation of both vessels and cargoes, and also a fine of fifty thousand Dutch ducats.

The Company immediately erected a trading-house, at the head of navigation of the Hudson river, which as we have mentioned, was then called Prince Maurice's River. This house was on an island, called Castle Island, a little below the present city of Albany, and was thirty-six feet long and twenty-six feet wide, and was strongly built of logs. As protection from European buccaneers rather than from the friendly Indians, it was surrounded by a strong stockade, fifty feet square. This was encircled by a moat eighteen feet wide. The whole was defended by several cannon and was garrisoned by twelve soldiers.

This port, far away in the loneliness of the wilderness, was called Fort Na.s.sau. Jacob Elkins was placed in command. Now that the majestic Hudson is whitened with the sails of every variety of vessels and barges, while steamers go rushing by, swarming with mult.i.tudes, which can scarcely be counted, of the seekers of wealth or pleasures, and railroad trains sweep thundering over the hills and through the valleys, and the landscape is adorned with populous cities and beautiful villas, it is difficult to form a conception of the silence and solitude of those regions but about two hundred and fifty years ago, when the tread of the moccasoned Indian fell noiseless upon the leafy trail, and when the birch canoe alone was silently paddled from cove to cove.

In addition to the fort in the vicinity of Albany, another was erected at the southern extremity of Manhattan Island at the mouth of the Hudson. Here the company established its headquarters and immediately entered into a very honorable and lucrative traffic with the Indians, for their valuable furs. The leaders of the Company were men of integrity, and the Indians were all pleased with the traffic, for they were ever treated with consideration, and received for their furs, which they easily obtained, articles which were of priceless value to them.

The vagabond white men, who were lingering about the frontiers of civilization, inflicting innumerable and nameless outrages upon the natives, were rigorously excluded from these regions. Thus the relations existing between the Indians and their European visitors were friendly in the highest degree. Both parties were alike benefited by this traffic; the Indian certainly not less than the European, for he was receiving into his lowly wigwam the products of the highest civilization.

Indian tribes scattered far and wide through the primitive and illimitable forest, plied all their energies with new diligence, in taking game. They climbed the loftiest mountains and penetrated the most distant streams with their snares. Some came trudging to the forts on foot, with large packs of peltries upon their backs. Others came in their birch canoes, loaded to the gunwales, having set their traps along leagues of the river's coast and of distant streams.

Once a year the ships of the company came laden with the most useful articles for traffic with the Indians, and, in return, transported back to Europe the furs which had been collected. Such were the blessings which peace and friendship conferred upon all. There seemed to be no temptation to outrage. The intelligent Hollanders were well aware that it was for their interest to secure the confidence of the Indian by treating him justly. And the Indian was not at all disposed to incur the resentment of strangers from whom he was receiving such great benefits.

The little yacht "Restless," of which we have spoken, on one of her exploring tours, visited Delaware Bay, and ascended that beautiful sheet of water as far as the Schuylkill River. Runners were also sent back from the forts, to follow the narrow trails far into the woods, to open communication with new tribes, to examine the country, and to obtain a more intimate acquaintance with the manners and customs of the Indians.

In the spring of 1617 a very high freshet, accompanied by the breaking up of the ice, so injured Fort Na.s.sau that the traders were compelled to abandon it. A new and very advantageous situation was selected, at the mouth of the Tawasentha Creek, subsequently called Norman's Kill.

This name is said to have been derived from a native of Denmark, called the Norman, who settled there in 1630.

In this vicinity there was a very celebrated confederation of Indian tribes called the Five Nations. These tribes were the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas. They were frequently known by the generic name of the Iroquois. When the Dutch arrived, the Iroquois were at war with the Canadian Indians, who, though composed of different tribes, were known by the general name of the Algonquins.

The Iroquois had been worsted in several conflicts. This led them eagerly to seek alliance with the white men, who, with their wonderful instruments of war, seemed to wield the energies of thunder and lightning.

The Algonquins had, some years before, formed an alliance with the French in Canada. The Iroquois now entered into an alliance with the Dutch. It was a very important movement, and the treaty look place, with many surroundings of barbaric pomp, on the banks of the Norman's Kill.

Amba.s.sadors from each of the five tribes graced the occasion. Leading chiefs of several other tribes were also invited to be present, to witness the imposing ceremony. The garrison furnished for the pageant the waving of silken banners and the exhilarating music of its band.

The Indian chiefs attended with their decorated weapons, and they were arrayed in the richest costume of war paint, fringed garments, and nodding plumes.

The a.s.sembly was large. The belt of peace, gorgeously embroidered with many-colored beads, on softly-tanned deer skin, was held at one end by the Iroquois chieftains, and at the other by the prominent men of the Dutch Company, in their most showy attire. The pipe of peace was smoked with solemn gravity. The tomahawk was buried, and each party pledged itself to eternal friendship.

The united nation of the Iroquois, in numbers and valor, had become quite supreme throughout all this region. All the adjacent tribes bowed before their supremacy. In Mr. Street's metrical romance, ent.i.tled "Frontenac" he speaks, in pleasing verse, of the prowess and achievements of these formidable warriors.

"The fierce Adirondacs had fled from their wrath, The Hurons been swept from their merciless path, Around, the Ottawas, like leaves, had been strown, And the lake of the Eries struck silent and lone.

The Lenape, lords once of valley and hill, Made women, bent low at their conquerors' will.

By the far Mississippi the Illini shrank When the trail of the Tortoise was seen on the bank.

On the hills of New England the Pequod turned pale When the howl of the Wolf swelled at night on the gale, And the Cherokee shook, in his green smiling bowers, When the foot of the Bear stamped his carpet of flowers."

Thus far the Iroquois possessed only bows and arrows. They were faithful to their promises, and implicit confidence could be reposed in their pledge. The Dutch traders, without any fear, penetrated the wilderness in all directions, and were invariably hospitably received in the wigwams of the Indians.

In their traffic the Dutch at first exchanged for furs only articles of ornament or of domestic value. But the bullet was a far more potent weapon in the chase and in the hunting-field than the arrow. The Indians very soon perceived the vast advantage they would derive in their pursuit of game, from the musket, as well as the superiority it would give them over all their foes. They consequently became very eager to obtain muskets, powder and ball. They were warm friends of the Europeans. There seemed to be no probability of their becoming enemies. Muskets and steel traps enabled them to obtain many more furs. Thus the Indians were soon furnished with an abundant supply of fire-arms, and became unerring marksmen.

Year after year the returns from the trading-posts became more valuable; and the explorations were pushed farther and farther into the interior. The canoes of the traders penetrated the wide realms watered by the upper channels of the Delaware. A trading-house was also erected in the vast forest, upon the Jersey sh.o.r.e of the Hudson River, where the thronged streets of Jersey City at the present hour cover the soil.

We have now reached the year 1618, two years before the arrival of the Pilgrims at Plymouth. Though the energetic Dutch merchants were thus perseveringly and humanely pushing their commerce, and extending their trading posts, no attempt had yet been made for any systematic agricultural colonization.

The Dutch alone had then any accurate knowledge of the Hudson River, or of the coasts of Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Long Island. In 1618 the special charter of the Company, conferring upon them the monopoly of exclusive trade with the Indians, expired. Though the trade was thus thrown open to any adventurous Dutch merchant, still the members of the Company enjoyed an immense advantage in having all the channels perfectly understood by them, and in being in possession of such important posts.

English fishing vessels visited the coast of Maine, and an unsuccessful attempt had been made to establish a colony at the mouth of the Kennebec River. Sir Walter Raleigh had also made a very vigorous but unavailing effort to establish a colony in Virginia.

Before the year 1600, every vestige of his attempt had disappeared.

Mr. John Romeyn Brodhead, in his valuable history of the State of New York, speaking of this ill.u.s.trious man, says:

"The colonists, whom Raleigh sent to the island of Roanoke in 1585, under Grenville and Lane, returned the next year dispirited to England. A second expedition, dispatched in 1587, under John White, to found the borough of Raleigh, in Virginia, stopped short of the unexplored Chesapeake, whither it was bound, and once more occupied Roanoke. In 1590 the unfortunate emigrants had wholly disappeared; and with their extinction all immediate attempts to establish an English colony in Virginia were abandoned. Its name alone survived.

"After impoverishing himself in unsuccessful efforts to add an effective American plantation to his native kingdom, Raleigh, the magnanimous patriot, was consigned, under an unjust judgment, to lingering imprisonment in the Tower of London, to be followed, after the lapse of fifteen years, by a still more iniquitous execution. Yet returning justice has fully vindicated Raleigh's fame. And nearly two centuries after his death the State of North Carolina gratefully named its capital after that extraordinary man, who united in himself as many kinds of glory as were ever combined in any individual."

CHAPTER III.

THE COMMENCEMENT OF COLONISATION.

The Puritans.--Memorial to the States-General.--Disagreement of the English and the Dutch.--Colony on the Delaware.--Purchase of Manhattan.--The First Settlement.--An Indian Robbed and Murdered.--Description of the Island.--Diplomatic Intercourse.--Testimony of De Ra.s.sieres.--The Patroons.--The Disaster at Swaanendael.

In the year 1620 the Puritans founded their world-renowned colony at Plymouth, as we have minutely described in the History of Miles Standish. It will be remembered that the original company of Puritans were of English birth. Dissatisfied with the ritual and ceremonies which the Church of England had endeavored to impose upon them, they had emigrated to Holland, where they had formed a church upon their own model. Rev. John Robinson, a man of fervent piety and of enlightened views above his times, was their pastor.

After residing in Holland for several years, this little band of Englishmen, not pleased with that country as their permanent abode, decided to seek a new home upon the continent of North America. They first directed their attention towards Virginia, but various obstacles were thrown in their way by the British Government, and at length Mr.

Robinson addressed a letter to the Dutch Company, intimating the disposition felt by certain members of his flock, to take up their residence at New Netherland.

The proposition was very cordially received. The intelligent gentlemen of that Company at once saw that there was thus presented to them an opportunity to establish a colony, at their trading post, which it would be wise to embrace. They therefore addressed a memorial upon the subject to the States-General, and to the Prince of Orange, in which they urged the importance of accepting the proposition which they had received from Mr. Robinson, and of thus commencing an agricultural colony upon the island of Manhattan. In this memorial they write under date of February, 1620:

"It now happens that there resides at Leyden an English clergyman, well versed in the Dutch language, who is favorably inclined to go and dwell there. Your pet.i.tioners are a.s.sured that he knows more than four hundred families, who, provided they were defended and secured there by your Royal Highness, and that of the High and Mighty Lords States-General, from all violence on the part of other potentates, would depart thither, with him, from this country and from England, to plant, forthwith, everywhere the true and pure Christian religion; to instruct the Indians of those countries in the true doctrine; to bring them to the Christian belief; and likewise, through the grace of the Lord, and for the greater honor of the rulers of this land to people all that region under a new dispensation; all under the order and command of your princely Highness and of the High and Mighty Lords States-General.

"Your pet.i.tioners have also learned that His Britannic Majesty is inclined to people the aforesaid lands with Englishmen; to destroy your pet.i.tioners' possessions and discoveries, and also to deprive this State of its right to these lands, while the ships belonging to this country, which are there during the whole of the present year, will apparently and probably be surprised by the English."

The pet.i.tioners therefore prayed that the request of Mr. Robinson might be favorably regarded; that the contemplated colony should be taken under the protection of the Dutch government, and that two ships of war should be sent out for the defence of the infant settlements.

The Dutch government was then upon the eve of a war with Spain, and all its energies were demanded in preparation for the conflict. They therefore quite peremptorily refused to entertain the pet.i.tion of the New Netherland Company. Thus the destination of the Puritans was changed. Though they were not encouraged to commence their colonial life at New Netherland, still it was their intention when they sailed from England, to find a home somewhere in that vicinity, as England, as well as Holland, claimed the whole coast. A note, in the History of New Netherland, by E.B. O'Callaghan, contains the following interesting statement upon this subject:

"Some historians represent that the Pilgrims were taken against their will to New Plymouth, by the treachery of the captain of the Mayflower, who, they a.s.sert, was bribed by the Dutch to land them at a distance from the Hudson river.

This has been shown, over and over again, to have been a calumny; and, if any farther evidence were requisite, it is now furnished, of a most conclusive nature, by the pet.i.tion in behalf of the Rev. Mr. Robinson's congregation, of Feb.

1620, and the rejection of its prayer by their High Mightinesses.

"That the Dutch were anxious to secure the settlement of the Pilgrims under them, is freely admitted by the latter.

Governor Bradford, in his History of the Plymouth Colony, acknowledges it, and adds that the Dutch for that end made them large offers.

"Winslow corroborates this in his 'Brief Narrative,' and adds that the Dutch would have freely transported us to the Hudson river, and furnished every family with cattle. The whole of this evidence satisfactorily establishes the good will of the Dutch people towards the English; while the determination of the States-General proves that there was no encouragement held out by the Dutch government to induce them to settle in their American possessions. On the contrary, having formally rejected their pet.i.tion, they thereby secured themselves against all suspicion of dealing unfairly by those who afterwards landed at Cape Cod. It is to be hoped, therefore, that even for the credit of the Pilgrims, the idle tale will not be repeated."