Peter Stuyvesant, the Last Dutch Governor of New Amsterdam Part 7

During the whole summer of 1644, the savages were busy carrying the desolating war into every unprotected nook and corner. The condition of the colony became desperate, being almost entirely dest.i.tute of food, money and clothing. The utter incompetency of Kieft was daily more conspicuous. He did nothing. "Scarce a foot was moved on land, or an oar laid in the water." The savages, thus left in security to fish and gather in their crops, were ever increasingly insolent and defiant. One of the annalists of those times writes:

"Parties of Indians roved about day and night, over Manhattan island, killing the Dutch not a thousand paces from fort Amsterdam. No one dared to move a foot to fetch a stick of firewood without a strong escort."

Kieft, in his overwhelming embarra.s.sments, had found it necessary to convene eight select men to advise him and to aid in supporting his authority. These select men decided to demand of the home government the recall of Kieft, whose incapacity had thus plunged the once-flourishing colony into utter ruin. They also urged the introduction into New Netherland of the munic.i.p.al system of the fatherland.

In their brief but touching memorial they write,

"Our fields lie fallow and waste. Our dwellings are burned.

Not a handful can be sown this autumn on the deserted places. The crops, which G.o.d permitted to come forth during the summer, remain rotting in the fields. We have no means to provide necessaries for wives or children. We sit here amidst thousands of savages from whom we can find neither peace nor mercy.

"There are those among us who, by the sweat and labor of their hands, through many long years and at great expense, have endeavored to improve their land. Others have come with ships freighted with a large quant.i.ty of cattle. They have cleared away the forest, enclosed their plantations, and brought them under the plough, so as to be an ornament to the country and a profit to the proprietors after their long and laborious toil. The whole of these now lie in ashes through a foolish hankering after war.

"All right-thinking men here know that these Indians have lived as lambs among us until a few years ago, injuring no man, offering every a.s.sistance to our nation, and when no supplies were sent for several months, furnishing provisions to the Company's servants until they received supplies.

These hath the Director, by several uncalled-for proceedings from time to time, so estranged from us, and so embittered against the Netherlands nation, that we do not believe that anything will bring them and peace back, unless the Lord, who bends all hearts to his will, propitiate their people.

"Little or nothing of any account has been done here for the country. Every place is going to ruin. Neither counsel nor advice is taken."

After giving an account of the origin and progress of the war, they warn the home government against relying upon the statements which the Director had sent over to them. "These statements," they said, "contain as many lies as lines." The memorial was concluded with the following forcible words:

"Honored Lords; this is what we have, in the sorrow of our hearts, to complain of. We shall end here, and commit the matter wholly to our G.o.d, praying that he will move your lordships' minds, so that a Governor may be speedily sent to us with a beloved peace, or that we may be permitted to return with our wives and children, to our dear fatherland.

For it is impossible ever to settle this country until a different system be introduced here, and a new Governor sent out."

In response to this appeal Kieft was recalled. Just before he received his summons peace was concluded with the Indians, on the 31st of August, 1645. The war had raged five years. It had filled the land with misery. All were alike weary of its carnage and woes. A new governor was appointed, Peter Stuyvesant. The preceding account of the origin of the Dutch colony and its progress thus far is essential to the understanding of the long and successful administration of the new governor, whose name is one of the most ill.u.s.trious in the early annals of New York.

It may be worthy of brief remark that a few weeks after the arrival of Governor Stuyvesant, Kieft embarked in the ship Princess for Holland.

The vessel was wrecked on the coast of Wales Kieft and eighty-one men, women and children sank into a watery grave. Kieft died unlamented.

His death was generally regarded as an act of retributive justice.

CHAPTER VI.

GOVERNOR STUYVESANT.

New Netherland in 1646.--Early Years of Peter Stuyvesant.--Decay of New Amsterdam.--The Germs of a Representative Government.--Energetic Administration.--Death of Governor Winthrop.--Claims for Long Island.--Arrogance of the Governor.--Remonstrance of the Nine Men.--The Pastoral Office.--Boundary lines.--Increasing Discontent.--Division of Parties.--Dictatorial Measures.

It is estimated that the whole population of New Netherland, in the year 1646, amounted to about one thousand souls. In 1643, it numbered three thousand. Such was the ruin which the mal-administration of Kieft had brought upon the colony. The male adult population around Amsterdam was reduced to one hundred. At the same time the population of the flourishing New England colonies had increased to about sixty thousand.

On the 11th of May, 1647, Governor Stuyvesant arrived at Manhattan. He was appointed as "Redresser General," of all colonial abuses. We have but little knowledge of the early life of Peter Stuyvesant. The West India Company had a colony upon the island of Curacoa, in the Caribbean Sea. For some time Stuyvesant had been its efficient Director. He was the son of a clergyman in Friesland, one of the northern provinces of the Netherlands.

He received a good academic education, becoming quite a proficient in the Latin language, of which accomplishment, it is said that he was afterwards somewhat vain. At school he was impetuous, turbulent and self-willed. Upon leaving the academy he entered the military service, and soon developed such energy of character, such a spirit of self-reliance and such administrative ability that he was appointed director of the colony at Curacoa. He was recklessly courageous, and was deemed somewhat unscrupulous in his absolutism. In an attack upon the Portuguese island of Saint Martin, in the year 1644, which attack was not deemed fully justifiable, he lost a leg. The wound rendered it necessary for him to return to Holland in the autumn of 1644, for surgical aid.

Upon his health being re-established, the Directors of the West India Company, expressing much admiration for his Roman courage, appointed him Governor of their colony in New Netherland, which was then in a state of ruin. There were also under his sway the islands of Curacoa, Buenaire and Amba. The Provincial Government presented him with a paper of instructions very carefully drawn up. The one-man power, which Kieft had exercised, was very considerably modified. Two prominent officers, the Vice-Director and the Fiscal, were a.s.sociated with him in the administration of all civil and military affairs. They were enjoined to take especial care that the English should not further encroach upon the Company's territory. They were also directed to do everything in their power to pacify the Indians and to restore friendly relations with them. No fire-arms or ammunition were, under any circ.u.mstances, to be sold to the Indians.

Van Diricklagen was a.s.sociated with the Governor as Vice-Director, and ensign Van Dyck, of whom the reader has before heard, was appointed Fiscal, an important office corresponding with our post of Treasurer.

Quite a large number of emigrants, with abundant supplies, accompanied this party. The little fleet of four ships left the Texel on Christmas day of 1646. The expedition, running in a southerly direction, first visited the West India islands. On the voyage the imperious temper of Stuyvesant very emphatically developed itself.

Holland was then at war with Spain. A prize was captured and the question arose respecting its disposal. Fiscal Van Dyck claimed, by virtue of his office, a seat at the council board and a voice in the decision. The governor rudely repulsed him with the words,

"Get out. Who admitted you into the council. When I want you I will call you."

When they arrived at Curacoa, Van Dyck again made an attempt to gain that place in the Council to which he thought his office legitimately ent.i.tled him. Stuyvesant punished him by confining him to the ship, not allowing him to step on sh.o.r.e. All the other officers and soldiers were freely allowed to recruit themselves by strolling upon the land.

Upon reaching Manhattan, Stuyvesant was received by the whole community with great rejoicing. And when he said, "I shall reign over you as a father governs his children," they were perhaps not fully aware of the dictatorial spirit which was to animate his government.

With wonderful energy he immediately devoted himself to the reform of abuses. Though he availed himself of absolute power, taking counsel of no one, all his measures seem to have been adopted, not for the advancement of his own selfish interests, but for the promotion of the public good.

Proclamations were issued against Sabbath desecration, intemperance and all quarrelling. No intoxicating liquors were to be sold to the savages under a penalty of five hundred guilders. _And the seller was also to be held responsible for any injury which the savage might inflict, while under the influence of strong drink_. After the ringing of the nine o'clock bell in the evening, intoxicating drinks were not to be sold to any person whatever.

To draw a knife in a quarrel was to be punished with a heavy fine and six months imprisonment. If a wound was inflicted the penalty was trebled. Great faults accompanied this development of energy. The new governor a.s.sumed "state and pomp like a peac.o.c.k's." He kept all at a distance from him, exacted profound homage, and led many to think that he would prove a very austere father. All his acts were characterized by great vigor.

New Amsterdam, at that time, presented a very dilapidated and deplorable appearance. The fort was crumbling to ruins. The skeleton of an unfinished church deformed the view. The straggling fences were broken down. The streets were narrow and crooked, many of the houses encroaching upon them. The foul enclosures for swine bordered the thoroughfares.

A system of taxation upon both exports and imports was introduced, which speedily replenished the treasury. Governor Stuyvesant was a professing christian, being a devout member of the Reformed Church of the fatherland. He promptly transferred his relations to the church at fort Amsterdam. He became an elder in the church, and conscious that the christian religion was the basis of all prosperity, one of his first acts was the adoption of measures for the completion of the church edifice. Proprietors of vacant lots were ordered to fence them in and improve them. Surveyors of buildings were appointed to regulate the location and structure of new houses.

The embarra.s.sments which surrounded the governor were so great that he found it necessary to support his authority by calling public opinion to his aid. "Necessity," writes Brodhead, "produced concession and prerogative yielded to popular rights. The Council recommended that the principle of representation should be conceded to the people.

Stuyvesant consented."

An election was ordered and eighteen "of the most notable, reasonable, honest and respectable persons" in the colony were chosen, from whom the governor was to select nine persons as a sort of privy council. It is said that Stuyvesant was very reluctant to yield at all to the people, and that he very jealously guarded the concessions to which he was constrained to a.s.sent. By this measure popular rights gained largely. The _Nine Men_ had however only the power to give advice when it was asked. When a.s.sembled, the governor could attend the meeting and act as president.

Governor Stuyvesant, soon after his arrival at fort Amsterdam, addressed courteous letters to the governors of all the neighboring colonies. In his letter to Governor Winthrop, of Ma.s.sachusetts, he a.s.serted the indubitable right of the Dutch to all the territory between the Connecticut and the Delaware, and proposed an interview for the settlement of all difficulties.

An Amsterdam ship, the Saint Benino, entered the harbor of New Haven, and for a month engaged in trade without a license from the West India Company. Stuyvesant, ascertaining the fact, sent a company of soldiers on a secret expedition to New Haven, seized the vessel on the Lord's day, brought her to Manhattan, and confiscated both ship and cargo.

Emboldened by success, Stuyvesant sent a letter to the authorities at New Haven claiming all the region from Cape Henlopen to Cape Cod as part of the territory of New Netherland, and affirming his right to levy duties upon all Dutch vessels trading within those limits.

Governor Eaton, of the New Haven colony, sent back a remonstrance protesting against the Dutch governor as a disturber of the public peace by "making unjust claims to our lands and plantations, to our havens and rivers, and by taking a ship out of our harbor without our license."

Three deserters from Manhattan fled to New Haven. Governor Eaton, though bound by treaty obligations to deliver them up, yet indignant in view of what he deemed the arrogant claim of Governor Stuyvesant, refused to surrender them, lest the surrender should be deemed as "done in the way of subordination." The impetuous Stuyvesant at once issued a retaliatory proclamation in which he said:

"If any person, n.o.ble or ign.o.ble, freeman or slave, debtor or creditor, yea, to the lowest prisoner included, run away from the colony at New Haven, or seek refuge in our limits, he shall remain free, under our protection, on taking the oath of allegiance."

This decree excited strong disapprobation at home as well as in the other colonies. The inhabitants of Manhattan objected to it as tending to convert the province into a refuge for vagabonds from the neighboring English settlements. After a few months the obnoxious proclamation was revoked. But in the meantime Governor Stuyvesant had bribed the runaways, who had been taken into the public service at New Haven, to escape and return home.

As a precaution against fire, it was ordered that if a house were burned through the owner's negligence, he should be heavily fined.

Fire-wardens were appointed to inspect the buildings. If any chimney was found foul, the owner was fined and the sum was appointed to purchasing fire-ladders, hooks and buckets. As nearly one-fourth of the houses were licensed for the sale of brandy, tobacco or beer, it was resolved that no farther licenses should be granted. It was ordered that cattle and swine should be pastured within proper enclosures. And it was also ordained that, "from this time forth, in the afternoon as well as in the forenoon, there shall be preaching from G.o.d's word." Many of the Indians were employed as servants or day laborers. They were often defrauded of their wages. A decree was issued, punishing with a fine those who neglected to pay these debts.

In January, 1649, Charles I., of England, was beheaded in front of his own banqueting hall, and England became nominally a republic. The event created the most profound sensation throughout all Christendom.

The shock, which agitated all Europe, was felt in America. The prince of Wales and the duke of York, escaping from England, took refuge in Holland with their brother-in-law, the stadtholder, William, prince of Orange. A rupture between England and Holland appeared imminent. The Puritans in America were well pleased with the establishment of a republic in their native land. A war between the two European nations would probably bring all the Dutch colonies under the control of England. The West India Company, in view of these perils, urged Stuyvesant "to live with his neighbors on the best terms possible."

On the 24th of March, of this year, the venerable Governor Winthrop, of Ma.s.sachusetts, died, at the age of sixty-one. Governor Eaton, of New Haven, proposed to Stuyvesant a meeting of the Governors, at Boston, to discuss the affairs of the colonies. The meeting was held in August. It was not harmonious. The Dutch were forbidden from trading anywhere with the Indians within the territory of the English colonies, and Stuyvesant was very emphatically informed that the English claimed all the territory between Cape Cod and New Haven.

Lady Stirling, widow of Lord Stirling, determined to maintain her t.i.tle to the whole of Long Island. She sent an agent, who announced himself to the English settlers at Hempstead, on the northern portion of the island, as governor of the whole island under the Dowager Countess of Stirling. Intelligence of this was speedily sent to Stuyvesant. The Dutch Governor caused his immediate arrest, ordered him, notwithstanding his "very consequential airs," to be examined before the council, took copies of his papers, and placed him on board ship for Holland. The ship put in at an English port, the agent escaped and was heard of no more.