Peter Stuyvesant, the Last Dutch Governor of New Amsterdam Part 4

A party of warriors, thoroughly armed, came stealing through the glades of the forest and approached the unsuspecting fort. All the men were at work in the fields excepting one, who was left sick at home.

There was also chained up in the fort, a powerful and faithful mastiff, of whom the Indians stood in great dread. Three of the savages, concealing, as far as they could, their weapons, approached the fort, under the pretence of bartering some beaver skins. They met Hossett, the commander, not far from the door. He entered the house with them, not having the slightest suspicion of their hostile intent.

He ascended some steep stairs into the attic, where the stores for trade were deposited, and as he was coming down, one of the Indians, watching his opportunity, struck him dead with an axe. They then killed the sick man. Standing at a cautious distance, they shot twenty-five arrows into the chained mastiff till he sank motionless in death.

The colonists in the field, in the meantime, were entirely unaware of the awful scenes which were transpiring, and of their own impending peril. The wily Indians approached them, under the guise of friendship. Each party had its marked man. At a given signal, with the utmost ferocity they fell upon their victims. With arrows, tomahawks and war-clubs, the work was soon completed. Not a man escaped.

CHAPTER IV.

THE ADMINISTRATION OF VAN TWILLER.

Friendly Relations Restored.--Wouter Van Twiller New Director.--Captain Elkins.--Remonstrance of De Vrees.--Claims for the Connecticut.--The Plymouth Expedition.--A Boat's Crew Murdered.--Condition of the Colony in 1633.--Emigration to the Connecticut.--Emigrants from Holland.--The Red Rocks.--New Haven Colony Established.--Natural.--Indian Remonstrance Against Taxation.--Outrage upon the Raritan Indians.--Indian Revenge.

De Vrees very wisely decided that it would be but a barren vengeance to endeavor to retaliate upon the roaming savages, when probably more suffering would be inflicted upon the innocent than upon the guilty.

He therefore, to their astonishment and great joy, entered into a formal treaty of peace and alliance with them. Any attempt to bring the offenders to justice would of course have been unavailing, as they could easily scatter, far and wide, through the trackless wilderness.

Arrangements were made for re-opening trade, and the Indians with alacrity departed to hunt beaver.

A new Director was appointed at Manhattan, Wouter Van Twiller. He was an inexperienced young man, and owed his appointment to the powerful patronage he enjoyed from having married the niece of the patroon Van Rensselaer. Thus a "raw Amsterdam clerk," embarked in a ship of twenty guns, with a military force of one hundred and four soldiers, to a.s.sume the government of New Netherland. The main object of this mercantile governor seemed to be to secure trade with the natives and to send home furs.

De Vrees, having concluded his peace with the Indians, sailed up the South river, as they then called the Delaware, through the floating ice, to a trading post, which had been established some time before at a point about four miles below the present site of Philadelphia. He thought he saw indications of treachery, and was constantly on his guard. He found the post, which was called Fort Na.s.sau, like a similar post on the Hudson, deserted. The chiefs, however, of nine different tribes, came on board, bringing presents of beaver skins, avowing the most friendly feelings, and they entered into a formal treaty with the Dutch. There did not, however, seem to be any encouragement again to attempt the establishment of a colony, or of any trading posts in that region. He therefore abandoned the Delaware river, and for some time no further attempts were made to colonize its coasts.

In April, 1633, an English ship arrived at Manhattan. The bluff captain, Jacob Elkins, who had formerly been in the Dutch employ, but had been dismissed from their service, refused to recognize the Dutch authorities, declaring that New Netherland was English territory, discovered by Hudson, an Englishman. It was replied that though Hudson was an Englishman, he was in the service of the East India Company at Amsterdam; that no English colonists had ever settled in the region, and that the river itself was named Mauritius river, after the Prince of Orange.

Elkins was not to be thus dissuaded. He had formerly spent four years at this post, and was thoroughly acquainted with the habits and language of the Indians. His spirit was roused. He declared that he would sail up the river if it cost him his life. Van Twiller was equally firm in his refusal. He ordered the Dutch flag to be run up at fort Amsterdam, and a salute to be fired in honor of the Prince of Orange. Elkins, in retaliation, unfurled the English flag at his mast-head, and fired a salute in honor of King Charles. After remaining a week at fort Amsterdam, and being refused a license to ascend the river, he defiantly spread his colors to the breeze, weighed anchor, and boldly sailed up the stream to fort Orange. This was the first British vessel which ascended the North river.

The pusillanimous Van Twiller was in a great rage, but had no decision of character to guide him in such an emergency. The merchant clerk, invested with gubernatorial powers, found himself in waters quite beyond his depth. He collected all the people of the fort, broached a cask of wine, and railed valiantly at the intrepid Englishman, whose ship was fast disappearing beyond the palisades. His conduct excited only the contempt and derision of those around.

DeVrees was a man of very different fibre. He had, but a few days before, entered the port from Swaanendael. He dined with the Governor that day, and said to him in very intelligible Dutch:

"You have committed a great folly. Had it been my case, I would have helped the Englishman to some eight pound iron beans, and have prevented him from going up the river. The English are of so haughty a nature that they think that everything belongs to them. I would immediately send a frigate after him, and drive him out of the river."

Stimulated by this advice, Van Twiller prepared, as speedily as possible, three well armed vessels, strongly manned with soldiers, and sent them, under an intrepid captain, in pursuit of the intruders.

They found the English ship, the William, about a mile below fort Orange. A tent was pitched upon the sh.o.r.e, where, for a fortnight, the English had been pursuing a very lucrative traffic for furs. The Dutch soldiers were in strength which Elkins could not resist.

They ordered him to strike his tent. He refused. They did it for him; reshipped all his goods which he had transferred to the sh.o.r.e, to trade with the Indians, and also the furs which he had purchased. They then weighed the anchors of the William, unfurled her sails, and, with trumpet blasts of victory, brought the ship, captain and crew down to fort Amsterdam. The ship was then convoyed to sea, and the discomfited Elkins returned to London. Thus terminated, in utter failure, the first attempt of the English to enter into trade with the Indians of New Netherland.

The Dutch were now the only Europeans who had occupied any part of the present territory of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware.

They were also carrying on a very flourishing trade with the Indians on the Connecticut river, which was then called Fresh river, and this "long before any English had dreamed of going there." The Value of this traffic may be inferred from the fact that, in the year 1633, sixteen thousand beaver skins were sent to Holland from the North river alone.

To strengthen their t.i.tle, thus far founded on discovery and exclusive visitation, the Dutch, in 1632, purchased of the Indians nearly all of the lands on both sides of the Connecticut river, including Saybrook Point, at the mouth, where the arms of the States-General were affixed to a tree in token of possession. A fort was also commenced, near the mouth of the river, and a trading post established some miles up the stream, at the point now occupied by the city of Hartford.

About the same time, Lord Warwick, a.s.suming that a legitimate grant of the region had been made to him by the king of England, conveyed to Lords Say, Brook and others, all the territory running southwest from Narragansett river, to the distance of one hundred and twenty miles along the coast, and reaching back, through the whole breadth of the country, from the Western Ocean to the South Sea. The geography of these regions was then very imperfectly known. No one had any conception of the vast distance between the Atlantic Ocean and the sh.o.r.es of the Pacific. The trading post, which the Dutch had established on the Connecticut, was called Fort Hope.

As soon as it was known, at Plymouth and Boston, that the Dutch had taken formal possession of the valley of the Connecticut, Governor Winslow hastened to confer with the Ma.s.sachusetts Governor respecting their duties. As it was doubtful whether the region of the Connecticut was embraced within either of their patents, they decided not to interfere. But through diplomatic policy they a.s.signed a different reason for their refusal.

"In regard," said Governor Winthrop,

"that the place was not fit for plantation, there being three or four thousand warlike Indians, and the river not to be gone into but by small pinnaces, having a bar affording but six feet at high water, and for that no vessel can get in for seven months in the year, partly by reason of the ice, and then the violent stream, we thought not fit to meddle with it."[4]

Still Governor Winthrop looked wistfully towards the Connecticut.

Though he admitted that the lower part of the valley was "out of the claim of the Ma.s.sachusetts patent," it could not be denied that the upper part of the valley was included in their grant. In the summer of 1633, John Oldham, with three companions, penetrated the wilderness, through the Indian trails, one hundred and sixty miles to the Connecticut river. They were hospitably entertained in the many Indian villages they pa.s.sed through by the way.

They brought back early in the autumn, glowing accounts of the beauty of the region, and of the luxuriant meadows which bordered the stream.

Governor Winthrop then sent a vessel on a trading voyage, through Long Island Sound, to Manhattan, there to inform the Dutch authorities that the king of England had granted the Connecticut river and the adjacent country to the subjects of Great Britain.

In most of these transactions the Dutch appear to great advantage.

After five weeks' absence the vessel returned to Boston to report the friendly reception of the Ma.s.sachusetts party at Manhattan, and bearing a courteous letter to Governor Winthrop, in which Van Twiller, in respectful terms, urged him to defer his claim to Connecticut until the king of England and the States-General of Holland should agree about their limits, so that the colonists of both nations, might live "as good neighbors in these heathenish countries." Director Van Twiller added, with good sense, which does him much credit:

"I have, in the name of the States-General and the West India Company, taken possession of the forementioned river, and, for testimony thereof, have set up an house on the north side of the said river. It is not the intent of the States to take the land from the poor natives, but rather to take it at some reasonable price, which, G.o.d be praised, we have done hitherto. In this part of the world there are many heathen lands which are dest.i.tute of inhabitants, so that there need not be any question respecting a little part or portion thereof."

At the same time the Plymouth colony made a move to obtain a foothold upon the Connecticut. To secure the color of a t.i.tle, the colony purchased of a company of Indians who had been driven from their homes by the all-victorious Pequods, a tract of land just above fort Hope, embracing the territory where the town of Windsor now stands.

Lieutenant Holmes was then dispatched with a chosen company, in a vessel which conveyed the frame of a small house carefully stowed away, and which could be very expeditiously put together. He was directed to push directly by fort Hope, and raise and fortify his house upon the purchased lands. Governor Bradford, of Plymouth, gives the following quaint account of this adventure:

"When they came up the river the Dutch demanded what they intended, and whither they would go? They answered, 'up the river to trade.' Now their order was to go and seat above them. They bid them strike and stay or they would shoot them, and stood by their ordnance ready fitted. They answered, they had commission from the Governor of Plymouth to go up the river to such a place, and if they did shoot they must obey their order and proceed; they would not molest them but go on. So they pa.s.sed along. And though the Dutch threatened them hard yet they shot not. Coming to their place they clapped up their house quickly, and landed their provisions, and left the company appointed, and sent the bark home, and afterward palisaded their house about, and fortified themselves better."

Van Twiller, informed of this intrusion, sent a commissioner, protesting against this conduct and ordering Holmes to depart, with all his people. Holmes replied, "I am here in the name of the king of England, and here I shall remain."

Matters soon became seriously complicated. A boat's crew was robbed and murdered by some vagabond Indians. The culprits were taken and hung.

This exasperated against the Dutch the powerful Pequods who had the supremacy over all that territory. Open war soon ensued. The Pequods sent an emba.s.sy to Boston, and entered into a treaty of alliance with the Ma.s.sachusetts colony, in which they surrendered to that colony the Connecticut valley.

In the meantime, Van Twiller having received instructions from the home government, dispatched a force of seventy well armed men to drive Lieutenant Holmes and his men from their post. The English stood firmly upon their defence. The Dutch, seeing that a b.l.o.o.d.y battle must ensue, with uncertain results, withdrew without offering any violence.

In many respects the Dutch colonies continued to enjoy much prosperity. Mr. Brodhead gives the following interesting account of the state of affairs at the mouth of the Hudson, in the year 1633:

"Fort Amsterdam, which had become dilapidated, was repaired, and a guard-house and a barrack for the newly arrived soldiers were constructed within the ramparts, at a cost of several thousand guilders.

"Three expensive windmills were also erected. But they were injudiciously placed so near the fort that the buildings, within its walls, frequently intercepted and turned off the south wind.

"Several brick and frame houses were built for the Director and his officers. On the Company's farm, north of the fort, a dwelling-house, brewery, boat-house and barn were erected.

Other smaller houses were built for the corporal, the smith, the cooper. The loft, in which the people had worshipped since 1626, was now replaced by a plain wooden building, like a barn, situated on the East River, in what is now Broad street, between Pearl and Bridge streets. Near this old church a dwelling-house and stable were erected for the use of the Domine. In the Fatherland the t.i.tle of Domine was familiarly given to clergymen. The phrase crossed the Atlantic with Bogardus, and it has survived to the present day among the descendants of the Dutch colonists of New Netherland."

The little settlement at Manhattan was ent.i.tled to the feudal right of levying a tax upon all the merchandise pa.s.sing up or down the river.

The English were, at this time, so ignorant of this region of the North American coast that a sloop was dispatched to Delaware Bay "to see if there were any river there." As the Dutch had vacated the Delaware, the English decided to attempt to obtain a foothold on those waters. Accordingly, in the year 1635, they sent a party of fourteen or fifteen Englishmen, under George Holmes, to seize the vacant Dutch fort.

Van Twiller, informed of this fact, with much energy sent an armed vessel, by which the whole company was arrested and brought to Manhattan, whence they were sent, "pack and sack," to an English settlement on the Chesapeake.

The Plymouth people had now been two years in undisturbed possession of their post at Windsor, on the Connecticut. Stimulated by their example, the General Court of Ma.s.sachusetts encouraged emigration to the Connecticut valley, urging, as a consideration, their need of pasturage for their increasing flocks and herds; the great beauty and fruitfulness of the Connecticut valley, and the danger that the Dutch, or other English colonies, might get possession of it. "Like the banks of the Hudson," it was said, "the Connecticut had been first explored and even occupied by the Dutch. But should a log hut and a few straggling soldiers seal a territory against other emigrants?"[5]

Thus solicited, families from Watertown and Roxbury commenced a settlement at Wethersfield in the year 1635. Some emigrants, from Dorchester, established themselves just below the colony of the Plymouth people at Windsor. This led to a stern remonstrance on the part of Governor Bradford, of Plymouth, denouncing their unrighteous intrusion.

"Thus the Plymouth colonists on the Connecticut, themselves intruders within the territory of New Netherland, soon began to quarrel with their Ma.s.sachusetts brethren for trespa.s.sing upon their usurped domain."