Production Note Cornell University Library produced this volume to replace the irreparably deteriorated original. It was scanned using Xerox software and equipment at 600 dots per inch resolution and compressed prior to storage using CCITT Group 4 compression. The digital data were used to create Cornell's replacement volume on paper that meets the ANSI Standard Z39.48-1984. The production of this volume was supported in part by the New York State Program for the Conservation and Preservation of Library Research Materials and the Xerox Corporation. Digital file copyright by Cornell University Library 1993.© COLLECTIONS or THE NEW-YORK HISTORICAL. SOCIETY. SECOND SERIES. VOLUME III.—PART I. NEW-YORK: I). APPLETON AND COMPANY, 346 & 348 BROADWAY. M DCCC LVIL4. £96-8- Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by Geo. H. Mooes, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. >c JOHN F. TROW, 8TEAM BOOK AKD JOB PRINTER, 377 & 379 Broadway, N. Y.PREFACE. This volume has been compiled and prepared for publica- tion by the undersigned, to whom the duty was intrusted by the Executive'Committee of the New-York Historical Society. Various circumstances—prominent among which may he named the engrossing, and now successful, efforts to ensure the completion of a fire-proof building for the use of the Society and the safe keeping of its Library and Galleries— have retarded the action of the Committee on Publications. It is confidently believed, however, that no such causes of delay will hereafter occur; and that when the Society shall at length be happily established in its permanent and con- venient home, its series of collections will begin, and continue to be, regularly, as well as rapidly issued. The first volume of the second series of the collections of the Society wTas issued in the year 1841:—the second followed it in 1849. Like its predecessors, this third volume is de- voted to the illustration of the Dutch period in our History; that is, to the years between the discovery of the State in 1609, and its surrender to the English in 1664, when its name was changed from “ New Netherlands to “ New York.” The fourth and the fifth volumes—which, will complete the second series—are intended to contain a full and accurate catalogue of the Library, and are now in press.IV PREFACE. The several articles embraced in the present volume are so fully indicated in the table of contents and explained in the notes which accompany them, that no further prefatory observations are thought necessary. The Committee, how- ever, indulge and express the hope that this volume will be found to compare very favorably with any that have been issued by the Society. The proofs of each of the articles have been carefully read by the gentlemen whose names are con- nected with them as translators or. annotators ; and every precaution has been taken to secure correctness in all the details of the press. Nevertheless, the undersigned deem it proper to state, that, beyond selecting the several papers included in this volume, and intrusting the translation and annotation of them to competent hands, they have not felt it to be their duty to revise, or alter in any way, the translations thus made, or the notes thus contributed. Their responsibility was con- sidered to be that only of securing typographical accuracy. Francis L. Hawks, John Romeyn Brobhead, George Henry Moore, Committee on Publication... New-York, March, 1857.CONTENTS. I. Voyages from Holland to America, A. D., 1632 to 1644. By D. P. DeVries. Translated by Henry C. Murphy, IE Short Sketch of the Mohawk Indians in New Netherland, etc. By J. Megapolensis, Jr. Translation revised, with an Introduction, by John Romeyn Brodhead, IH. The Jogues Papers. Translated and arranged, with a memoir by John Gilmary Shea,............................. IV. Extract from Castell’s Disco verie of America, 1644. From Dr. Hawks’s Copy, ... %...................... V. Broad Advice to the United Netherland Provinces, ' “The 10th of September we weighed anchor, and set sail, five of us in company, among us a caraval from Avere, in Portugal. Going out, two ships came up to us, one of eight guns, commanded by Mr. Geerner van Zonden, the other mounting ten guns, by Mr. Fox. “The 30th Cape St. Vincent hove in sight.” As the little fleet approached Carthagena, in Spain, they encount- ered eight Turkish ships, commanded by a Dutch renegade of the name of Veenboer. It was the 10th of October, at sunrise, that they prepared for battle. De Vries ran up the Vice-Admiral’s flag, sum- moned together his men, thirty in nnmber, sang with them tha 140th Psalm, distributed brandy among them, and on some of them show- ing signs of cowardice, pricked them to duty with his sword. Two of the piratical craft disposed themselves to engage with De Vries, one of them mounting twenty-eight and the other thirty-three guns, while De Vries’ ship had only fourteen. These vessels were strongly manned, one with 250 and the other with 300 men. It seems strange at the present day that a naval fight with such disparity of force could have been long kept up, yet these ships were engaged the whole day. Towards night, however, the Turkish admiral, Veenboer, was killed. The pirates then hauled off, and the next day De Vries entered the bay of Carthagena. Here he remained till the 10th of January, 1621, having in the mean time disposed of his cargo of fish. He then sailed for Tabarclca for a load of grain; thence to Genoa, and thence to Toulon, on the 12th of July. Here he entered into a con-8 INTRODUCTION. tract with the Duke of Guise, admiral of the King of France, to serve with his ship by the month, and continued in this service until De- cember. The Duke then desired him to engage in his service against Rochelle, but he declined, on the ground that he could not fight against his religion. The Duke respected his scruples, and gave him a dia- mond ring on parting. After freighting for some time in the Med- iterranean, De Yries heard of the death of two of his partners in Holland, whereupon he sold his ship and set out for Marseilles by land, for Dieppe, where he took ship, and arrived at Rotterdam in August 1623. He prepared, in the following spring, to make a voyage to Canada, which led to a controversy with the West India Company, thus'related by him:—“ The 24th of March (1624), being at home, and my own" means not permitting me to buy a ship, I bought a small vessel for the purpose of going from the fishery to the coast of Canada for peltries, and to that end entered into partnership with Jan Mackyri, because every one had not liberty to go there, and no one except those of the West India Company. The ship being ready, two of the Bewinthebbers (managers) of the Nineteen of the West India Company of Amsterdam, came and said that they had authority to cause the vessels to be seized for their service, which they did. I showed them several more suitable ships than mine, but they were not satisfied with them, and desired mine. It seemed as if they were curious* because I wanted to go to the West Indies. I protested ' against their proceedings, and sought redress in the Commercial Court, whereby they were adjudged to release my vessel from the seizure and let her go. Upon this they appealed, in order that my time would slip by, so that I could not prosecute my voyage. Understanding this, I started for the Hague to my father-in-law^ who had been four or five weeks' in attendance upon the Assembly of the States of Holland. u The 28th of the same month I came to the Hague, and pre- sented besides my commission f from the King of France, under the Admiral Montmorency, a petition (as I desired to go far beyond their limits, and to Canada) that I might be released from my arrest; whereupon I obtained an open letter to the nineteen Bewinthebbers, wherein it was set forth as follows: That as they were a newly or- ganized company, they should be careful not to get into any difference with any neighbouring princes, their friendly allies. With this letter * This is t&e original—it is used in the sense of troubled. t Obtained through his partner at Rochelle, Jan Mackyn./ INTRODUCTION. 9 I returned to Amsterdam, and handed it to the Nineteen; and as those who are inclined to go to the fishery in Canada must sail in March, or at the latest in the beginning of April, they, well knowing this, sought to detain me from time to time; and seeing at last that they could no longer prevent me, ordered me not to go within their limits. Whereupon I said that I had not forged my commission, and that they had no right to prescribe laws to the King of France where he should go to traffic. Finally, the time having passed by, I was compelled to discharge the crew at a great loss, and sold the ship to the West India Company at Dort. Those at Amsterdam had caused some of my cargo at Amsterdam to be seized, whereupon I sought by law to have it released, and succeeded so far that the lords caused it to be released without cost or loss. Having already sustained great damage, partly on the goods and partly from the lost time of the ship and crew, instead of going off, it was necessary to stay at home; so I presented to the Bewinthebbers a petition, in which I sought that they would be pleased to pay me according to justice the damage which I had sustained, but they were not willing to pay me, and said they would allow me nothing. I answered them that the business little concerned me, but my partners at Rochelle having learnt of the un- justifiable seizure of their goods, would not, without doubt, remain still, but would speedily demand of them full compensation for their un- reasonable damage; and I told them it was contrary to all reason that such a voyage should be frustrated in so unheard of a way, the more so because I had no other design than what was consistent with our business on the sea, to make our people of the Netherlands ac- quainted with those places; and I told them for a leave-taking, that they might take down what had transpired that very morning, that they then paid no regard to the States General. “The 8th of May I received a letter from Lieut. John Mackyn, who was one of the company, to fit me out for Canada, dated the 12th of April, in which he wondered greatly, that as the time was already passed, I had not come over, and that he had hired twenty-five Basques to go on the fishery. I had written to him the first moment of my arrest, but it appeared he had not received the letter, and for that reason being uninformed of what had happened to me, it well enough caused him to wonder. The 12th of May he wrote another letter which I received the 6th of June, in which he directed me to come to Rochelle as speedily as possible to prosecute my voyage. “The 25th of July I left the Maese with Captain Liefhebber for10 INTRODUCTION*. Havre de Grace, where we arrived on the 28th, and I immediately set out for Paris, which I reached on the 4th of August, and on the 7th I went with the post to Rochelle, where I arrived on the 15th. After being there three weeks, I set out for French Bayonne, and on the way passed Bordeaux, and arrived at Bayonne on the 8th of Septem- ber, where I hired some Bascans to go with me on the fishery, and bought a ship here, which I sent with the Bascans to Rochelle, in order to fit it out there.” * De Vries proceeded to Rochelle, and remained there till April, 1625, when, being ready to sail, a tumult arose in that city, and his ship was taken into the service of the king of France. In March, 1627, he went, as captain, with a fleet of seven ships to the East Indies, and returned in June, 1630. The events of this voyage are of no interest. After being home about two months, his attention was directed to New Netherland, as detailed in the following pages, to which we must refer for the further incidents of his life. As his book was published under his own direction in 1655, he was then living, at the age of sixty-two years, holding an office under his government. Beyond this we know nothing of his history. He was certainly a bold and skilful seaman. He was a religious man, and held the strongest Calvinistic doctrines. His narratives, where he speaks from personal knowledge, are entitled to the highest credit, for not only do they bear internal evidence of truth, but they have been corroborated in many instances by other evidence, and by the records which we have; and being his daily observations, taken down at the time, they have rom this circumstance a value which no narrative formed from memory could possess. His account of the Indians appears to have been compiled partly from his own observation, and partly from Champlain, Megapolensis, and others, and. is, therefore, not of the same original merit as the rest of his work. His relation of the disgraceful and disastrous Indian war, in which he was an actor and friend of the Indians, is the only au- thentic one extant, of any completeness, except that of the govern- ment, and is, therefore, of great interest and value.SHORT HISTORICAL AND Journal notes Of several Voyages made in the four parts of the World, namely, Europe, Africa, Asia, and America, By D. DAVID PIETERSZ. de VRIES, Ordnance-Mafter of the Moft Noble Lords, the Committed Council of the States of Weft Friesland & the North Quarter to herein are bescribeb tol)at Battles l)e f)as l)ab hy toater; €acl) Country its Animals, 33irbs, kintr of Tisljes and San age Jtlen,—counterfeited to tl)e Cite,— and tl)e tDoods and Hiocrs roitl) tljeir products HOORN. For David Pietersz. de Vries, Ordnance-Master of the North Quarter. At Alckmaer, by Symon Cornelisz. Brekegeest. Anno 1655.To the Nolle) Mighty Lords, the Committed Council of the States of West Friesland and the North Quarter. Together with’the Nolle, Very-learned JDirck VanForeest, Doctor inboth laws, ancZ Secretary of the Noble, Mighty Lords, the Committed Council of the States of West IMesland and the North Quarter. The Noble, Mighty Lords, the Roman Senate, have always had as a maxim and rule of conduct, les lois ne sont faites quentant son salutaires an peuple; that is, laws are made only for the welfare of the people, to wit, that the community not only suffer no loss, but flourish and prosper more and more. This lesson and good counsel the excellent and illus- trious kings of France, Henry of Yalois, the Third of that name, and Henry the Great of Bourbon, the Fourth of that name, of France and Navarre, have followed and observed in great dignity, according to the testimony of the celebrated historian, Pierre Mathieu, who bears witness of this to the praise of their Majesties, and declares, moreover, that all the potentates and republics of Christendom should practise and follow this precept in order to advance and promote the interests of their people in all business and trade by sea and land. Our own old and faithful forefathers, the Lords Regents of our beloved Fatherland, especially, have always had it at heart, and in every way encouraged it to that end, principally in navigation and voyages by sea, as being the means in and by which the welfare and prosperity of the whole country not a little consist. Now, my most Noble Lords, you Mighty Lords, having no less care therefore at this time than had the old Lords Regents, your predecessors: so it is that I, David Pietersz: de Tries, having from my youth up been trained in that business, and having under the regulation of the Noble, High, and Mighty Lords States-General, and the privileges granted by the same, and by the Council of Nineteen of the West India Company, been the first possessor and patroon of the South River at Swanendael, and at Staten Island in Mauritius, or the North River of New Netherland, and also the first patroon who went there for the purpose of cultivating the same, and to trade and traffic there by special privilege of my Lords, have published my labours in navigation and around the world, as ship-master, as captain and supercargo in the East14 DEDICATION. Indies, as vice-commander of seven ships, and as a patroon who has planted colonies in America,—the first, indeed, who had ever sailed out of Holland or Zealand,—and every thing which I had found by my own experience: in order to make known to trading and seafaring persons what trade and profit (accidents excepted) are to be had there, and to point out to them the good havens and roadsteads for securing their ships and goods, and to warn seamen of the rocks, shoals, and dangerous bars, in order that they may avoid them; showing them also what course they must take at sea, and how they must govern by the wind, sun, moon, and stars. These my humble labours and writings, though not embellished with ornaments of words—as is not to be expected of a person who has passed the most of his life upon the wild ocean waste,— but containing every thing which has appeared to me in my voyages worth relating, I offer this day to you, Noble Lords, and pray you to accept the same, trusting that, being made accessible to the trader and seamen by printing, they will be of service to them. May Almighty God prosper your administration to his praise and glory, and to the best interests of yourselves and of the people. Anno 1655. Noble Lords, Your dutiful Ordnance-Master, David Pieteksz: de Ybies.VOYAGE TO NEW NETHEKLAND. After I had been home from the Indies two months, I met, at Amsterdam, Samuel Godyn, a merchant, who bid me welcome, as an old acquaintance, and asked me where I came from ? I said from the East Indies. In what capa- city ? I told him as supercargo. He inquired whether it was my intention to remain home. I said, yes. He said he wished me to go as a commander to Ne w-Netherland ; he wanted to plant a colony there, and to employ me as sub- patroon, as may be seen in the privileges granted by the Lords States, and allowed by the Council of Nineteen of the West India Company to all patroons. I gave him for answer that the business suited me well, but I must be a patroon, equal with the rest. He said that he was content that it should be so. So we five first began this patroon- ship; namely, Samuel Godyn, Gilliame Yan Eensselaer, Bloemaert, Jan de Laet, and myself, David Pietersz. de Yries. But more were afterwards admitted into the com- pany ; namely, Mathys Yan Ceulen, Nicolas Yan SittOrigh, Harinck Koeck, and Heyndrick Hamel, who made a con- tract with the others, whereby we were all placed on the same footing. We at the same time equipped a ship with a yacht for the purpose of prosecuting the voyage, as well to carry on the whale fishery in that region, as to plant a colony for the cultivation of all sorts of grain, for which the country is very well adapted, and of tobacco. This ship with the yacht sailed from the Texel the 12th of December, with a number of people and a large stock of cattle, to settle our colony upon the South Eiver, which lies in the thirty-eighth16 VOYAGES OF and a half degree, and to conduct the whale fishery there, as Godyn represented that there were many whales which kept before the bay, and the oil, at sixty guilders a hogs- head, he thought would realize a good profit, and conse- quently that fine country be cultivated. The 20th of same month, we understood that our yacht was taken the day but one before as it was running out the Texel, by the Dunkirkers, through the carelessness of the large ship, which had sailed after the yacht, in which there was a large cargo, intended for the coast of New France. The large ship proceeded on the voyage, having on board some people to land at the island of Tortugas in the West Indies, which island we had made a contract with sixty Frenchmen to hold for us as a colony under their High Mightinesses the Lords States and the West India Company. Anno 1631. In September our ship returned from New- Netherland and the West Indies. They should have disem- barked a lot of people on Tortugas, but they found that France had been killed by Spain. The ship conveyed the rest to the South Eiver in New Netherland, and brought a sample of oil from a dead whale found on the shore. The Captain said that he arrived there too late in the year. This was a losing voyage to us ; because this captain, Peter Heves, of Edam, whom we had put in command, durst not sail by the way of the West Indies with only one ship of eighteen guns, where he must have made good the expense of this voyage. He was a person who was only accustomed to sail to Green- land, where he made the voyage in three or four months, and then came home. Anno 1632. The 12th of February we again entered into an agreement to equip a ship and yacht for the whale fishery, in which much profit had not been realized ; becauseawe had had such a losing voyage, and no returns from the whale fishery, and saw no prospect of any. But Samuel Godyn encouraged us to make another attempt. He said the Green- land Company had two bad voyages with Willen Yan Muyen, and afterwards became a thrifty company. It was therefore again resolved to undertake a voyage for the whale fishery, and that I myself should go as patroon, and as commander of the ship and yacht, and should endeavour to be there in December, in order to conduct the whale fishing during the winter, as the whales come in the winter and remain till March.DAVID PIETERSZ. DE VRIES. 17 Before sailing out the Texel, we understood that our little fort * had been destroyed by the Indians, the people killed,—two and thirty men,—who were outside the fort working the land. The 24th May, sailed out of the Texel with the ship and yacht, with a northeast wind. ' ■ The 26th of the same month, at night, we ran aground through the carelessness of the pilots, to whom I gave parti- cular directions, before I went to bed, to throw the lead fre- quently, and keep the Yierman, which was a large ship, and drew full three feet more water than we did, upon our lee; but they not following their orders, we grounded upon the large shoal before Dunkirk. We fired a shot, so that our companion came to anchor. My yacht came under my lee ; but we could not bear the expense of its returning. Our* crew took the boat, and in that, and two wood sloops, left the ship. But I was not willing, and kept both of the pilots, by me, who dared not leave me for shame, seeing that I remained aboard with eight or nine raw hands, whojn I them learned to be the best of the crew. Those men who had ap- peared fierce as lions, were the first to escape in the boat. All of us pushing and pulling we got into four fathoms water, where I let the anchor fall, and set to pumping. At the same time, the day broke, when we saw the boat and two sloops tossing about; but when they saw the ship, they came on board again, and told us that had the night con- tinued two hours longer, they would have rowed into Dun- kirk. We weighed anchor again and sailed for the coast of England, and, on the 28th, ran into Portsmouth, and hauled, the ship into the king's dock, where we repaired her. The 10th of July, we sailed from Portsmouth to Cowes- in the Isle of Wight. The 12th of the same month, the ship New Netherland,,. of the West India Company, arrived here,—a large ship, , which was built in New Netherland, and which was bound, to the West Indies,whither I had good company. The 1st of August,‘with a good north-east wind, weighed, anchor, and made sail with my ship and yacht, and the ship; New Netherland. * On the South River. SECOND SERIES.—YOL. III. 218 VOYAGES OF The 2d, passed Land's End, and laid our course for the Canary Islands. The 13th, we saw Madeira on our larboard, and at the same time a Turk came towards us, but as soon as he ob- served that we were stout ships, he hauled off from us, and we sailed for him. The evening growing dark, I fired a shot for my yacht to come by me. When night came on, we pursued our course, but the New Netherland followed the Turk by night, which seemed to us folly, because we had not got near him by day. We then separated from the New Netherland. The 14th, towards evening, we saw the Isle of Palms on our lee, and set our course from thence to Barbadoes. The 4th of September, we came in sight of Barbadoes, and the next day, towards evening, arrived at the Island of St. Vincent. The Indians put out with their canoes and came on board of us. I observed the great astonishment of this people. Their canoes or boats getting full of water, they sprang overboard, and with great dexterity lifted up both ends with their shoulders in the water, emptied out the water, and then clambered in again ; when many of our peo- ple, in such circumstances, would have drowned, as the boat was full of water, and they had no other aid than their bodies and the sea. While here, we had fifteen good supplies of yams, pine-apples, and various other West India fruits. We anchored in the Great Channel in 23 fathoms. On the 5th, arrived here also the ship New Netherland, which was separated from us at Madeira. On the 8th, we weighed anchor, and passed by the islands of Martinique, Dominica, Guadaloupe, Montserrat, Bedonde, and Nevis, arrived the 20th* before St. Christopher, where we found some English ships, and obtained a supply of water. The 11th, weighed anchor, in order to sail to St. Martin. Half-way between St. Martin and St. Christopher, we met a French ship with a large sloop in company ; he screamed at us, as if he sought to commit some hostility towards us, but I kept my course, heeding him not. I let the prince's flag fly aloft, and the red flag behind. When he saw this, he turned about and ran a good distance on my lee. To- wards evening, we arrived at the^roadstead of St. Martinf Evidently a misprint for the 10th.DAVID PIETERSZ. DE VRIES. 19 and let our anchor fall. We found before the fort, three fly- boats under Dirck Femmesz. of Hoorn, two from Waterland, and the third an Englishman. The 11th of September, as I lay before the fort with my yacht, the above-named master of the fly-boats came on board, and inquired if I had not met a French ship. I said, “Yes, sir.” And whether he had, not attacked me? I said, “No.” Had we been a small ship, he perhaps would have done so : for he had sworn to pay off the first Hol- lander whom he should meet, because they had shot and killed two men out of his vessel, which was not creditable to them. He told me that this French ship had come into the harbour some days ago, and that the captain was a Knight of Malta, and the vessel a royal yacht of the King of France, in search of Spaniards. When he was taken ashore by the commander of the fort, he inquired whether * there was any one who could speak French. The captain of the soldiers understanding French, he requested that the captain might go with him to interpret what should be said. So the captain went from the fort with this Knight in his skiff to the fly-boats. Having reached them, the Knight desired that they should sell him a barrel of tar, and used good language. He had long sailed in the West Indies ; but they gave him a rude answer,—that they did not wish to have him in their ships—if the captain of the fort wished to come on bQard their ships he might, but he must depart with the boat. The Knight stood perplexed at such an answer, when he had met them with every courtesy. At length he said to the captain, his interpreter, that they would return to the fort, (as) he wished to make his com- plaints to the commander-in-chief. Coming to the commander, he exhibited his royal commission, and inquired of the com- mander whether he had not as much right to go in the road- stead where these fly-boats were, as they ?—that they were friends;—that all the ports and harbors in France were open to us. The commander said, “Yes.” Then the Frenchman weighed anchor, and wished to come to anchor by them in order to careen his ship a little, as the water was shallow there. When they saw the Frenchman had weighed his anchor, they hauled one behind the other, and began to fire upon him, and shot two of his men ; when the Frenchman again let his anchor fall, went to the fort and complained of the hostilities which these brutes had com-20 VOYAGES OP xnitted against him, and desired that the commander, with his officers, should take note thereof; and made his protest. But he was lost on his return voyage, with his ship, people and all, which has caused great comfort to these shipmasters, as he would otherwise have made sport enough for them ; hut the quarrel was thereby terminated. This we learned afterwards. ^ The 12th of September, I let the ship have room, but the capture of a whale brought me to anchor. In New Netherland and in Patria, this would have been a valuable prize. This day the ship New Netherland arrived here, which I had left lying at St.. Vincent to refresh. With her also arrived the ship Gelderia, together with a ship of the Company, and also two vessels from Hoorn, Cornelis Jansz. Niels, master. The master of the Company's ship, the Fal- con, was G-errit Jansz. The 27th of this month, we had our cargo of salt, as much as we wanted, and made ourselves again ready to sail to Nevis, to take in wood and water, because they were both better there than at St. Christopher, and there is also a fine sandy bay fot the boats to land. The captains of the vessels, who had committed the hostilities against the Frenchman, inquired of me whether they might sail with me to'Nevis, in order to provide themselves with wood and water, so as to sail directly for Holland, as they were afraid of the French- man* who had called out to them that he wished to meet them when they went to take in water ; and they did not mount more than six or eight guns. I gave them for answer, that I was willing that they should sail with me, because they were our citizens, though I would not prevent any hostility of the Frenchman happening to them, and that my ship was to be defended as well as theirs. If they wished, how- ever, to sail with me, they could. The 29th, weighed anchor with my yacht to get under sail, but they remained. By evening I arrived before the Island of Nevis. I went ashore to the governor, an Eng- lishman, named Littleton. He requested me to take aboard some captive Portuguese, and to put them, on my way to St. Christophers, on board an English ship called Captain Stone's; which I could not refuse him, if I had them only three or four hours in the ship. Martin Thysz., from Zealand, had put these Portuguese ashore here. The 1st of November, took ray leave of the governor of21 DAVID PIETERSZ. DE VRIES. Nevis, and weighed anchor. At noon, came to the great roadstead where the English were. There was a governor, named Sir Warner. Here I immediately got rid of the Portuguese prisoners, gave them over to the Englishman, who wished to sail in company with* me to St> Martin. The 2d, weighed anchor, with my yacht and the English- man, of London,, who had the Portuguese prisoners, whom he was to'carry to Porto Rico. He left his barge behind, to follow him with some goods to St. Martin. We arrived in the evening at the anchorage before St. Martin, where we found the whole fleet there still which we had left there. I asked the captains of the fly-boats why they had not followed me when I weighed anchor. They answered that they thanked me for the offer which I had made them, but they had de- termined to remain by each other, and expected that they would be ready together, and the Gelderland would go with them. The 4th, the Englishman expecting his' boat from St. Christophers, knew not what it meant that it staid so long, as it should have followed us at noon. This Englishman wished much to sail with me to the latitude of Porto Rico, 'which I must pass. The 5th of this month, took my leave at the fort of our governor and the captains, and weighed anchor with my yacht also; having a fair sail set, I could not wait longer for the Englisman’s boat. We understood afterwards that this boat was placed in great distress ; that it was driven to the leeward by a strong wind, and being in want of provisions and water, the men cast lots whom they should first kill for the others to eat for food; having at length felled pne, they fed themselves therewith, till they finally reached the island of Saba, where they subsisted on what they found there, and were afterwards recovered in great distress, but he who was killed was eaten up for their subsistence. The 14th, in the thirty-second degree of latitude, the Bermudas to the east of us, encountered a severe storm from the north-west; the water turned round as if it were an hur- ricane ; it blew so, that standing on either side we could not understand each other. I feared when I saw the yacht, that it would be stranded, so dreadful was it to see so small a yacht, of ten lasts, save itself from such a storm. This storm continued until the 18th, but towards the last the wind veered entirely west.22 YOYAGES OF The 1st of December, threw the lead, in the thirty-ninth degree of latitude, in fifty-seven fathoms, sandy bottom; found out afterwards that we were then fourteen or fifteen miles* from the shore. This is a flat coast. Wind west- erly. The 2d, threw the lead in fourteen fathoms, sandy bot- tom, and smelt the land, which gave a sweet perfume,f as the wind came from the north-west, which blew off land, and caused these sweet odours. This comes from the Indi- ans setting fire, at this time of year, to the woods and thick- ets, in order to hunt; and the land is full of sweet-smelling herbs, as sassafras, which has a sweet smell. When the wind blows out of the north-west, and the smoke too is driven to sea, it happens that the land is smelt before it is seen. The land can be seen when in from thirteen to four- teen fathoms. Sand-hills are seen from the thirty-fourth to the fortieth degree, and the hills rise up full of pine-trees, which would serve as masts for ships. The 3d of the same month, saw the mouth of the South bay, or South river, and anchored on sandy ground at four- teen fathoms; because it blew hard from the north-west, which is from the shore, and as we could not, in consequence of the hard wind, sail in the bay, we remained at anchor. The 5th, the wind south-west, we weighed anchor, and sailed into the South bay, and lay, with our yacht, in four fathoms water, and saw immediately a whale near the ship. Thought this would be royal work—the whales so numerous —and the land so fine for cultivation. The 6th, we went with the boat into the river, well man- ned, in order to see if we could speak with any Indians, but coming by our house,% which was destroyed, found it well beset with palisades in place of breastworks, but it was almost burnt up. Found lying here and there the skulls and bones of our people, and the heads of the horses and cows which they had brought with them, but perceiving no Indi- ans, the business being undone, came on board the boat, and let the gunner fire a shot in order to see if we could find any trace of them the next day. * Forty-two or forty-five English miles. In this translation the miles are according to the Dutch standard; one Dutch being equal to three English miles. t Kalm speaks of the same smell at about the same place, t The fort before spoken of.DAVID PIETERSZ. DE VRIES. 23 The 7th, in the morning, we thought we saw some smoke near our destroyed house ;—we landed on the opposite side. On this side the river, before the beach, there is something of a sand-hill. Coming to the beach, looked over the river near the house where we had been the day before, and where we thought in the morning we had seen signs of smoke, but saw nothing. As I had a cousin of mine with me from Rot- terdam, named Heyndrick de Liefde, and as a large gull was flying over our heads, I told him to shoot at it once, as he had a fowling-piece with him, and he being a good shot on the wing, brought it down. With it came a shout from two or three Indians, who were lying in the weeds on the other side of the river by the destroyed house. We called to them to come over to us. They answered that we must come into the river with our boat. We promised to do so in the morning, as the water was then low, and that we would then talk with them, and we went back to the boat. Going aboard, we resolved to sail in the river with the yacht, as otherwise in. an open boat we might be in danger of their annoyance. The 8th of December, we sailed into the river before our destroyed fort, well on our guard. The Indians came to the edge of the shore, near the yacht, but dared not come in. At length, one ventured to come aboard the yacht, whom we presented with a cloth dress, and told him we desired to make peace. Then immediately more came run- ning aboard, expecting to obtain a dress also, whom we pre- sented with some toys, and told the one to whom we had given the cloth garment, that we had given it to him because he had most confidence in us—that he was the first one who came in the yacht, and should they come the next day with their chief called Sakimas, we would then make a firm peace, which they call rancontyn mareuit. An Indian remained on board of the yacht at night, whom we asked why they had slain our people, and how it happened. He then showed us the place where our people had set up a column, to which was fastened a piece of tin, whereon the arms of Holland were painted. One of their chiefs took this off for the pur- pose of making tobacco-pipes, not knowing that he was doing amiss. Those in command at the house made such an ado about it, that the Indians, not knowing how it was, went away and slew the chief who had done it, and brought a token of the dead to the house to those in command, who24 VOYAGES OF told them that they wished they had not done it, that they should have brought him to them, as they wished to have forbidden him not to do the like again. They then went away, and the friends of the murdered chief incited their friends—as they are a people like the Italians, who are very revengeful—to set about the work of vengeance. Observing our people out of the house, each one at his work, that there was not • more than one inside, who was lying sick, and a large mastiff, who was chained—had he been loose they would not have dared to approach the house—and the man who had command, standing near the house, three of the stoutest Indians, who were to do the deed, bringing a lot of beaver-skihs with them to exchange, sought to enter the house. The man in charge went in with them to make the barter; which being done, he went to the loft where the stores lay, and in descending the stairs, one of the Indians seized an axe, and cleft his head so that he fell down dead. They also relieved the sick man of life; and shot into the dog, who was chained fast, and whom they most feared, twenty-five arrows before they could despatch him. They then proceeded towards the rest of the men, who were at their work, and going among them with pretensions of friend- ship, struck them down. Thus was our young colony de- stroyed, causing us serious loss. The 9th, the Indians came to us with their chiefs, and sitting in a ring, made peace. Gave them some presents of duffels, bullets, hatchets, and various Nuremberg trinkets. They promised to make a present to us, as they had been out a-hunting. They then departed again with great joy of us, that we had not remembered what they had done to us, which we suffered to pass, because we saw no chance of re- venging it, as they dwelt in no fixed1 place. We began to make preparations to send our sloop to sea, and to set up a kettle for whale-oil, and to erect a lodging-hut of boards. Anno 1633. The 1st of January, I went in the morning, with the yacht, the Squirrel, about eight hours' sail up the South river, to see whether I could obtain any beans from the Indians, as our stock-fish was consumed, and the porridge, now doubled, began to grow short. Towards evening we were stopped, as it was calm, and the ice, which the tide brought down, opposed us, and we cast anchor in eight fathoms. Saw a whale at the mouth of the South river. The 2d, in the morning, fine and pleasant, saw" twoDAVID PIETERSZ. DE VRIES. 25 large whales near the yacht. Wished much that we could have had the sloop, with the harpooners, which was lying at Swanendael. We weighed anchor with the tide, and by evening came a good mile before Eeed Island, where we cast anchor, and saw fires on the land. Supposed that they were made by Indians out a-hunting ; but an hour afterwards a canoe came alongside. They .said that they were a-hunting, but would not come aboard, from which we drew unfavour- able conclusions ; but they answered they would come aboard early in the morning. The 4th, after we had chopped some wood, as it began to freeze, weighed anchor with the tide, made saii3 and came within cannon-shot of Eed Hook, where we anchored before a kill, because it began to freeze ; so that in case the ice should stop us, we could haul in there to secure the yacht. The 5th, we weighed anchor in the morning, and sailed before the little fort named Fort Nassau, where formerly some families of the West India Company had dwelt. Some Indians had assembled there to barter furs, but I desired to trade for their Turkish beans, because we had no goods to exchange for peltries, and our stores had been given away at Swanendael for the purpose of making the peace, so that there were not more than two pieces of cloth left of our goods, and two kettles, for which we wanted corn. We ob-. served that the Indians were very scrupulous* after that. They told us that w~e ought to haul into the Timmer-kill. There was an Indian of the Sankitans, who cautioned us not to go entirely into the kill, as she knew that they intended to make an attack upon us. When we told her that if she would relate to us everything in regard to the attack, we would give her a cloth garment, as we did. She confessed to us that they had killed some Englishmen, who had gone into Count Ernest's river in a sloop. The 6th, we weighed anchor, and came to again before the Timmer-kill, in order to see fully what the Indians would do. While lying there, a crowd of Indians came to trade, bringing beaver-skins with them, and being forty-two or forty-three strong. A portion of them began to play tunes with reeds, in order that they might not cause in us any suspicion, but we kept ourselves strictly upon our guard, as there were only seven of us in the yacht, and there were26 VOYAGES OF forty-two or forty-three of the Indians. When we found the traffic at its height, we ordered them to go ashore im- mediately, or we would shoot them all. Their Sachem took an armful of heaver-skins which he wanted to present to us in order to tempt us, hut we desired them not, and gave him for answer that they must make their way to the shore, as we knew that they had evil designs in their heads, that Manetoe (that is, the Devil, whom they call Manetoe) had told us so. They went ashore again, and their villainy was frustrated, God be praised and thanked ! When a few are on their guard against this people, there is, with God's help, no difficulty with the Indians. Moreover, I may observe, that those in the Company's sloops, who give the Indians too much liberty, get into trouble thereby, which they might otherwise prevent with friendship. These Indians were from Red Hook, otherwise called Mantes, and had a parcel of English jackets on, which gave me more cause of suspicion, as those were not clothing for them, or trading goods. Whilst they were on the land, there came three or four others, who desired that we would trade for their goods ; but we answered them that we did not want any beaver- skins, but wished corn for food. The 7th, the chief, whom they call Sachema, of the Ar- mewaninge, came to us, who were then their neighbours. His name was Zeepentor, and to him we interpreted our ad- venture. He said he had heard that they had been on board of our boat strong. He requested us to return soon to the Timmer-kill with the yacht, whereat I was suspicious: I told my interpreter to ask him why he was not willing to bring the corn here. He answered that where we were lying, it was too miry and muddy to get on board, and it was too cold to go round the mud. So we said to him that we would go to the fort again, where it was hard and dry to come aboard, with which he was well content, and was again con- veyed to the shore, saying that when we arrived at the fort, he would come aboard again. The 8th, weighed anchor early in the morning, and came to again before the fort, which we saw was full of Indians, and more and more constantly coming. This gave us no favorable impression, because of the great numbers of the Indians. When they had all assembled in the fort, a canoe, —which is a boat hollowed out of a tree-^came from the fort to board us, in which were nine Sachems from nine differentDAVID PIETERSZ. DE VRIES. 27 places about there. I saw among them those who had intended to destroy us ; they had thrown off the English clothes, and put on those made of skins, which I immediately mentioned to my interpreter. The nine seated themselves in a cirde and called us to them, saying they saw that we were afraid of them, but that they came to make a lasting peace with us, whereupon they made us a present of ten beaver- skins, which one of them gave us, with a ceremony with each skin, saying in whose name he presented it ; that it was for a perpetual peace with us, and that we must banish all evil thoughts from us, for they had now thrown away all evil. I wanted to make presents to them through the interpreter, to each one an axe, adze, and pair of knives, but they refused them, declaring that they had not made us presents in order to receive others in return, but for the purpose of a firm peace, which we took for truth. The 8th of January, we wished to give them something for their wives, but they said we must give it to them on shore. As it was late, they went ashore again, and said they would come the next day with corn, and send aboard that evening seven or eight youth, which showed a good peace with them. The 9th, they came aboard again in the morning, and brought Indian corn of different colours, for which we ex- changed duffels, kettles, and axesc We also obtained some beaver-skins, all in good feeling. There came this day fifty of them into the yacht, but we kept ourselves constantly on our guard. The 10th, in the morning, traded for some beaver and corn ; and at noon drifted off with the ebb tide, and by noon came to anchor on the bar at Jaques Island, where we re- mained one tide. The 11th, weighed anchor in the morning, and by evening arrived about a half-a-mile above Min qua's kill, where we anchored, and saw a whale there that evening six or seven times. We were surprised to see a whale seven or eight miles up into fresh water. The 12th, weighed anchor again, and arrived at the mouth of the river, where the thicket is. The 13th, weighed anchor with the ebb, and at noon came to the ship at Swanendael, where our friends were re- joiced to see us. We found that they had shot two whales, but they furnished little oil.28 VOYAGES OF The 18th, the goods were placed in our yacht, and we sailed again up the South river. By evening arrived between Minqua’s kill and Keed Island, where we came to anchor. It began to freeze. We anchored here because the tide was running down. The 19th, weighed anchor with the tide, and came within a mile of Jaques Island. As it began to freeze, and it was difficult to go on, it became necessary to haul into a kill which was near us. Found it a fine creek, where the water was two fathoms deep at high tide ; but the current was strong, and not above thirty feet wide. The-ice began to trouble us some by the rubbing of the current. We quickly cut a parcel of trees, and fastened them in the ground, before and behind, in order to lie clear of the ice. This is a fine coun- try, in which many vines grow wild, so that we gave it the name of Wyngsert’s kill. Went out daily, while here, to shoot. Shot many wild turkeys, weighing from thirty to thirty-six pounds. Their great* size and very fine flavour are surprising. We were frozen up in this kill from the 19th to the 3rd of February. During this time, perceived no Indians, though we saw here and there, at times, great fires on the land, but we saw neither men nor canoes, because the river was closed by the ice. The 3d of February, we hauled out of the kill, as the river was open again, and sailed to Fort Nassau, where we had left the Indians before, but found no one there now, and saw no Indians. It began to freeze again, and we hauled into a kill over against the fort, as we were apprehensive, if we should be frozen in there, we might be in danger. When we had lain in this kill, eight days before the ice broke, there came a canoe, in which sat an old Indian with a squaw, who brought with them some maize and beans, of which we bought a parcel. We could not understand from the Indian how it was that we saw no Indians. It seemed as if he were unwilling to tell us; he appeared astonished that he had escaped, ran frequently ashore, looked to and fro, so that we could perceive there must be something. We hauled the next day out of the kill, and were carried between the cakes of ice and the shore, which we could not prevent with our yacht. The 11th, full fifty Indians came over the river from the fort upon the ice, with canoes, directly to our yacht, so that they could step in it from the shore, and spoke to us. TheyDAVID PIETERSZ. DE VRIES. 29 were Minquas, who dwell among the English of Virginia. They came on ai warlike expedition, and were six hundred strong. They were friendly to us, but it would not do to trust them too far. I determined, as the flood-tide began to make, that we must hauLinto the mouth of the kill, so that they could not come upon us on foot and master us. Hauling out of the kill about five-and-twenty paces, we could not get any further, because there was not water enough. I told the master of the yacht, that he must direct the crew to throw some ballast overboard, but he could not induce them to do it. I then went to them, and asked them whether they would rather trust to the mercy of these barbarians, or throw away the ballast. They answered that while we were in the river, our lives were at the mercy of the ice. I replied that God, who had so long aided us, would help us. Finally, I said that I had three flasks of brandy in my locker, and would give them one of them, if they would throw the ballast over- board, and we would all help to do it. The yacht was now driven by the current and with the ice and the ebb tide, which was most spent. We were a thousand paces below the kill, between two high pieces of ice, which had fallen on the shore; this happened at night-fall. They all raised a great shout, when they saw that we were driven nearer to the river. In the morning, at day-break, they saw that we were lying between the two pieces of ice, with the bowsprit over the shore, and came running to the yacht. We stood, eight of us, on our arms. The 12th, we kept them off, as they sought to come into the yacht by the bowsprit, while we were lying, bow on land, between the two pieces of ice. At length the water rose, so that the yacht and the ice floated, and we were to be driven at God's mercy with the ice, which was our great enemy, while the land was our enemy on account of the Indians. We were finally driven up the river, where there was a dry sand-bar running most to the middle of the river. We were afraid we would be driven upon it by the ice, when God provided two canoes to float by us, which we immediately held before the bow, one on each side, and broke the ice with, them. Then setting the foresail, as there was a good wind, in order to sail up the river with the tide, we passed, by the aid of God, the Vogelsant, which was our great peril at this place, and arrived at the beautiful island when the tide began to run, and we managed to get _to the shore, with the side30 VOYAGES OF to the shore lengthwise with the bow. At last, the water began to fall rapidly, and we found that the bank was bold. We immediately set about making the mast fast to a good stout tree on land, by means of a rope, and to intrench our- selves behind stakes. The next day, the 13th, three Indians of the Armewamen came, who were at the yacht before. They told us that they were fugitives—that the Minquas had killed some of their people, and they had escaped. They had been plundered of all their corn, their houses had been burnt, and they had escaped in great want, compelled to be content with what they could find in the woods, and came to spy out in what way the Minquas had gone away—-the main body of their people lying about five or six hours' jour- ney distant, with their wives and children. They told us also, that the Minquas had killed ninety men of the San- kiekens; that they would come to us the next day, when the sun was in the south-east, as they were suffering great hunger, and that the Minquas had all left and gone from us, back to their country. The 14th, at night, it began to rain hard, and the wind was from the south-west, which made it warm. In the morning we had high-water, which caused the yacht to float finely. We loosened the rope from the tree, to which it had been made fast, in order to get from the yacht, because the shore was so bold there, and let her drift into the river. As the ice was already very soft, like snow, we resolved not to wait for the Indians, as they had been driven away, and could not assist us in those things for which we had come, so that it was a hopeless voyage for us. Going down the river, we arrived below the Minqua's kill, where we took in some stone for ballast, which we could not obtain elsewhere in the morning. This is a very fine river, and the land all beauti- fully level, full of groves of oak, hickory, ash, and chestnut trees, and also vines which grow upon the trees. The river has a great plenty of fish, the same as those in our father- land, perch, roach, pike, sturgeon, and similar fish. Along the sea-coast are codfish, the different kinds of fish which are in our fatherland, and others. After we had taken in some ballast, we went further down the river, and came to its mouth. We fished once with our seines, and caught in one draught as many as thirty men could eat of perch, roach, and pike. * The 20th, we weighed our anchor, and with a north-westDAVID PIETERSZ. DE VRIES. 31 wind sailed out of the bay, which is ten miles long, and so wide, that in the middle of it you can hardly see from one shore to the other. It is full of shoals on both sides, being from six to seven fathoms deep, but is deepest on the west side. In order to run up by soundings, as you come from sea to Cape Hinloopen, which lies in thirty-eight degrees and twenty minutes, the shoal of the bank, which stretches from Cape Hinloopen over the bay, reaches Cape May, and when you have passed this a mile and a half, and come into the river, so that Cape Hinloopen is south of you, run in then north-west along the west shore, and you will be out of dan- ger of the banks, and keep the west side, where you should keep sounding. If it be less than two fathoms, and if the ship be a large one, you must; go direct to the South river. When you come to the mouth of the river, where it is full two miles wide, there is a shoal before it, on which, at low tide, there is not more than six or seven feet of water. You must then put the helm a-starboard, and you will see a rough point ahead on the west side, along which you must hold your course; and there it is deep enough, the water being three and a half fathoms at low tide, but inside, in the river, it is six or seven fathoms. The tide rises and falls here from five to six feet. By evening, we arrived again at the ship, in which there was great rejoicing to see us, as we had been gone over a month. They did not imagine that we had been frozen up in the river, as no pilot or astrologer could con- ceive, that in the latitude from the thirty-eighth and a half to the thirty-ninth,ttsuch rapid running rivers could freeze. Some maintain that it is because it lies so far west ; others adduce other reasons; but I will tell how it can be, from experience and what I have seen, and that is thus : inland, stretching towards the north, there are high mountains, covered with snow, and the north and north-west winds blow over the land from these cold mountains, with a pure, clear air, which causes extreme cold and frost, such as is felt in Provence and Italy, which I have often experienced when I was at Geneva, when the wind blew over the land from the high mountains, making it as cold as it was in Holland. I have found, by experience, in all countries, during winter, that when the wind blows from the land, the hardest frost makes. It is so in New Netherland also, for as soon as the wind is south-west, it is so warm that they may go almost naked in the woods, with only a shirt on them.32 VOYAGES OF The 5th of March, determined to make a voyage to the English in Virginia, as we had failed to obtain corn in the South river, in consequence of the war among the Indians, as before related, by which we were placed in such danger, and the grain of the Indians was destroyed ; and as we thought that we would not be able to find a sufficient store of it at Fort Amsterdam, on the East river, to serve us on our return voyage to Holland, we therefore deemed it ad- visable to sail to the English in Virginia. Although there had never been any one there from this quarter, I said, as I had escaped the danger in the South river, I would be the first one of our nation to venture to the English in Virginia, from these parts, as the distance is not more than thirty miles from the South river or Cape Hinloopen. The 6th, we weighed anchor, and laid our course along the shore, south-southwest. In the evening it became cafm, and we anchored in six fathoms, sandy bottom, the wind north-west off the shore. The 7th, in the morning, at daylight, we weighed anchor, and sailed along the weather-shore. Found that the coast ran from Cape Hinloopen, about eight miles south-southwest, and north-northeast, then changed again two points south- west and north-east. We coasted along in six fathoms, till we found it began to be shoally, and I saw that the water began to change. I told the captain of the yacht he should throw the lead once, in order to see how deep it was. He said that he had just sounded in six fathoms. I replied that I could not believe it was so deep, for th§ water changed too much, when he, with a frown, threw out the lead, and there was a fathom and a half of water. I was startled, though we had gone with the yacht where it was only six feet deep. We were now about a mile and a half from the shore, and immediately turned to it, as I saw that it changed less there than towards the sea. Immediately found again two, three, and four fathoms of water; ran then from the bank to the sea, and obtained seven and eight fathoms, and saw a high point before us, which I guessed to be about seven or eight miles from Smith's Island or Cape Charles, but from this point across the sea, almost to Cape Charles, it is full of shoals, so that it will not do for a large ship to come nearer than nine fathoms, on account of the bank, which lies three or four miles in the sea, and runs along the whole coast to the North river, and on which sometimes there will not beDAVID FIETERSZ. DE VRIES. 33 more than five fathoms, or four fathoms and a half of water. Inside of this again, towards the land, you will get ten, eleven, and nine fathoms, for this is a flat coast, and the land is seen first in thirteen or fourteen fathoms. As it was dark at evening, we came to anchor in nine-fathom water, in order that we might not pass by the Bay of Virginia in the night. After we had been lying there about an hour, a storm be- gan to blow from the south-east straight on shore—a lee- shore for us. We put the stout boat's nose to the wind, and took down the topmast at the same time, and she lay there and rode as if she had been a fish. The 8th, when we looked out in the morning, we found that it had been snowing all night, for the snow was more than a couple of feet thick. The captain came and inquired whether we should weigh anchor. I answered he must use seamanship ; as he saw that it still blew hard, with a heavy sea, and no sight of land, it was best to remain, as we were well secured, and wait for good, clear weather. At noon, it began to clear, the wind coming from the south-west with a clear, pure air ; and we saw that we were lying right before the bay, Smith's Island north of us. Sailed over to Cape Henry in order to run in by it. Found that from this Cape the land trended north and south. Ban into the north of it with a light breeze. Found at Cape Henry, a fine wide and broad bay. We ran in until we had three fathoms water. Ban but again, and laid our course to the north, and at evening came to a bank, where, in consequence of the dark- ness, we anchored in fifteen-feet water. This shoal reaches to Elizabeth river. The 9th, sounded the depth, and found only nine feet water, so that it had fallen six where we were lying. The wind blew from the east, so that we were on a lee-shore, and were ignorant, as none of us had ever been here. We weighed anchor and sailed from the shore. The bank stretches from the west side more than two parts over to the east shore. It is deep along the east shore. There was a fort newly-made at that time. The land is called by the English, Point Comfort. We ran in here—it being ten, eight, and seven fathoms deep—and saw before us a point stretching out about three miles, which the English call Newport News. As you come to the east side from the sea, you must see that you bring this point of Newport News within the point where the fort is situated, otherwise you SECOND SERIES.—VOL. III. 334 VOYAGES OF will be in danger of being shipwrecked, but keep the before- named hook, which you can see afar off, a good piece out- side. As you pass by the fort to Newport News, you will see on the side of the fort a large bay. Let your anchor fall, so that you may not be driven within six fathoms. This bay is the Bay of Kicketan, and has a river running into it, which you may enter with a ship of fifty lasts. On the west side, opposite, is Elizabeth's river, into which you can sail five or six miles with a large ship. After we had lain a day in this Bay of Kicketan, a pilot was sent on board to pilot us to Jamestown, where the governor holds his court on be- half of the King of England, and where we took an English merchant with us. The 10th we sailed up the river. When we came to the before-mentioned point of Newport* News, we landed and took in water. A fine spring lies inside the shore of the river, convenient for taking water from. All the ships come here to take in water on their way home. After we had procured some water, we sailed on, and came at evening to a kill, in which a large ship might lay, called Blank Point. We went ashore there, where one of the most dis- tinguished citizens lived, named Captain Matthews. We were compelled to stay all night, and were well treated. The 11th, took our leave of this Captain, and went aboard of the yacht again, and proceeded on. Here, the river is full three miles wide, but shoally, so that it is only by sounding the passage that you can get along. It is only a pilot's channel. At noon, we came to Littleton, where we landed, and where there resided a great merchant, named Mr. Menijit, who kept us to dinner, and treated us very well. The river is half as wide as before. Here was a garden of one morgen,* full of Provence roses, apple, pear, and cherry trees, the various fruits of Holland, with dif- ferent kinds of sweet-smelling herbs, such as rosemary, sage, marjoram, and thyme. Around the house were plenty of peach-trees, which were hardly in blossom. I was aston- ished to see this kind of tree, which I had never seen before on this coast. An express order came to us here, from the governor, who desired to see us, when we took our leave of the merchant, went aboard, and having weighed anchor, in two hours came to anchor before Jamestown, where the governor holds his court. * Two acresDAYID PIETERSZ. DE VRIES. 35 The 11th, went ashore, where the governor stood upon the beach, with some halberdeers and musketeers, to welcome us. On my setting foot upon the land, he came up to me, and bid me heartily welcome. He inquired of me where I came from. I answered him, from the South Bay of New Netherland. He asked how far it was from their bay. I said thirty miles. He then proceeded with me to his house, where he bid me welcome with a Venice glass of sack, and then brought out his chart, and showed me that the South Bay was called by them My Lord Delaware’s Bay, who had encountered foul weather there some years ago, and, finding the place full of shoals, thought it was not navigable. They had, therefore, never looked after it since, but it was their King’s land, and not New .Netherland. I answered him that there was a fine river there, that for ten years no Englishman had been there, and that we for many years* had had a fort there, called Fort Nassau. It was strange4 to him, that he should have such neighbours, and have never heard of them. He had, indeed, heard that we had a fort in the fortieth degree of latitude, at Hudson’s river as they called it, and that a sloop was sent there last September, with seven or eight men, to see whether there was a river there, who had not returned, and whether they had perished at sea or not, he did not know. I told him that we., had seen Indians in the South river, who had English jackets on, and had also understood from an Indian, who gave us warn- ing, that the Indians had run down an English sloop there,, in which were seven or eight Englishmen. He then re- marked they must have been his people; otherwise, they who had been sent to discover the South river, would hav& returned home long ago. Finally, he said there was land enough,—we should be good neighbours with each other, and that we were in no danger from them, if the people of New England did not come too near us, and dwelt at a dis- tance from us. I remained to sup with the governor, and he insisted on my staying the night at his house. The 12th, arrived here Captain Stone, whom I had left at St. Martin, in the West Indies. He told me that he had waited fourteen days for his boat, which suffered such- distress, as I have mentioned before, that they had cast lots whom they should kill for food. He also said that the Portuguese prisoners, whom I had brought from Nevis, and had delivered to him at St. Christopher’s, as before related,.36 VOYAGES OF he had brought to Porto Rico, and that he was very well treated by the Spanish governor. He had hastened his voyage here to Virginia, and was very glad to meet me. He was very well received by the governor. He was from Lon- don, from the Great House. I remained at dinner with the governor, and as we sat at the meal, Captain. Stone asked why the governor had an interpreter for me, as I could speak English ; at least, I had spoken English to them in the West Indies. The governor said he did not know that, and inquired whether I could also speak French. I said “ Tea." Whether I understood Italian. I answered in the affirma- tive. Whether I had been in Italy, and in Africa, and in the East Indies. I said I had. He was astonished that I had begun so early to command. Finally, there sat at the table an Englishman, who had been in the East Indies at the same time that I was there, and who asked me who commanded the English in the East Indies when I was there. I gave him the name ; and when I could see him, I looked at him well, and he at me. Then this commander paid that mountains could not, but men who go and see the Wrld can, meet each other. Besides, the commander had assisted me with provisions while I was there. This com- mander was named Sir John Harvey. The 18th, took leave of the governor, who sent half-a- dozen goats on board, to take with us, which he made a present to our governor, with a ram. He had understood that there were no goats at Fort Amsterdam, in New Netherland. We set sail at once, and arrived at evening at Blank Point, at the Councillor’s, to whose place we had before sailed in ascending the river. Here we bought some swine, which we killed and salted. The 20th, we took our leave of this Councillor, whose name was Captain Matthews, and proceeded to Kichetan, and anchored at evening before the point of Newport News, where we took in water. Here lived a gentleman of the name of Goegen. I was astonished to observe of the English people, that they lose their servants in gambling with each other. I told them that I had never seen such work in Turk or Barbarian, and that it was not becoming Christians. The 21st, we arrived again before Kicketan. There, also, we bought some provisions, while we were waiting for a good wind. These English Virginias are a fine country ; altogether a beautiful flat land, full of all kinds of fine largeDAVID PIETERSZ. DE VRIES. 37 trees—oak, hickory, chestnut, ash, cypress, and cedar, and other kinds. There come here yearly, between thirty and forty ships of various sizes, from two hundred lasts and up- wards, mounting twenty-eight, twenty-four, and nineteen guns, which come here to load tobacco, and carry it to England. The entrance of this bay is five miles wide, from Cape Henry to Cape Charles. Many fine rivers run out, like those on the east side. It turns to the north, and a large ship can sail up it full eighty miles. Thirty miles up the river lies a large island, two miles long, which the English call the Isle of Kent, upon which many of them reside, under one Captain Klaver's * government, who car- ries on there a great trade in peltries. Here is another river. The first after the East river, running to the west, is called York river, which is navigable with a large ship full twenty miles. Then comes the Pette-womeque (Poto- mac) river, navigable thirty miles with a large ship. The river where Jamestown—in Dutch, called Jacob Stadt—is situated, runs mostly west, and is navigable about forty miles, with a large ship, to an island called Henrico. This island is inhabited on every side by the English, and there run into it all around, small kills, from five miles long and less, into which a good-sized ship may enter. There are great numbers of fish of all kinds, the same as in the rivers of Holland ; also, birds of various kinds ; swans, geese, ducks, wild geese, partridges, and wild turkeys, the same as in New Netherland. There is an objection which the Eng- lish make. They say that during the months of June, July, and August, it is very unhealthy ; that their people, who have then lately arrived from England, die during these months, like cats and dogs, whence they call it the (sickly) season. When they have this sickness, they want to sleep all the time, but they must be prevented from sleeping by force, as they die if they get asleep. This sickness, they think, arises from the extreme heat that exists there. Then, again, when it has been a half-an-hour very hot, if the wind shifts and blow from the northwest, it immediately becomes so cold, that an overcoat may be worn. Thus, this country appears to lie in the dividing line between the heat and the cold, while New Netherland is beautifully tempered. The 28th, weighed anchor, and set sail with a good south-west wind, along the coast north-easterly. * Clayborne.38 VOYAGES OF The 29th, we arrived again in the South Bay at Swan- endael, at our ship, where we were very welcome. Found that our people had caught seven whales, but there were only thirty-two cartels of oil obtained, so that the whale- fishery is very expensive, when such meagre fish are caught. We could have done more if we had had good harpooners, for they had struck seventeen fish, and only secured seven, which was astonishing. They had always struck the whales in the tail. I afterwards understood from some Basques, who were old whale-fishers, that they always struck the harpoon in the fore-part of the back. This voyage was an expensive one to us, but not so much, since I had laden a good cargo of salt in the West Indies, which brought a good price. Having put our oil in the ship, taken down our kettle, and hauled in wood and water, we got ready to sail. This bay is, generally, fine flat land, full of the various kinds of pine trees, which I have described. In winter time, from Virginia to Swanendael, there are hundreds of thousands of geese, both gray, and white. The country is also full of wild turkeys, and has a great many deer. The 14th of April, as we were now entirely clear of everything, so as to set sail, we weighed anchor both with the ship and yacht. Whilst we were lying here, there came in during this month of April, hundreds of thousands of wild pigeons, flying from the land over the bay. Indeed, the light could hardly be discerned where they were. Some- times they flew upon the ship, pressed down by numbers as they came over the bay. Having got under sail, I went again on board the yacht, and the pilots took command of the large ship, for I wished to explore the coast distinctly. Sailed over to Cape May, where the coast began to trend east-northeast and west-southwest. Came, at evening, to the mouth of Egg harbour. Found between Cape May and Egg harbour, a slight sand-beach, full of small, low sand- hills. Egg harbour is a little river or kill, and inside the land is broken, and within the bay are several small islands. Somewhat further up in the same direction, on a slight headland, is a beautiful high wood. In the evening it be- came very still. The 15th, in the morning, it was so foggy that we could not see the large ship. We heard the ground swell and surf; threw the lead, and found it eight fathoms deep. Let the anchor fall. It was shelly ground. Fished with a drop-DAVID PIETERSZ. DE VRIES. 39 line, and caught in a couple of hours, eighty-four codfish, which are a very good-flavoured sweet fish, better than those in Newfoundland. It began to blow from the south-west, and to be bright and clear again. So we weighed anchor and made sail. Found ourselves before Barende-gat (Barnegat), where the coast began to stretch to the north-east by north, and south-west by south. At evening we saw the high moun- tains, which make a high point running along the sea, for the most part east-southeast, and west-southwest. This was the first mountainous land which I met since I came from the south. We sailed that evening to the Sandy Hook, which forms a large bay close by the point, and is also called Godyn's Point, where we anchored that evening in seven- fathom water. The 16th, weighed anchor, and ran over to Staten Isl- and, all along the shore of which runs a great sand-bank, entirely flat. It is necessary to sound the southeast side, and it will not do to come nearer than from three to four and a half fathoms with a large ship. Arrived at noon before Fort Amsterdam, and found a Company's ship there, called the Soutbergh, with a prize taken on the way, laden with sugar. She had brought a new governor, Wouter Van Twiller of Newkirk. He had been a clerk in the West India Department at Amsterdam. They had left Holland after us. I went ashore to the fort, out of which he came to welcome me, and inquired of me also, how the whale- fishery succeeded. I answered him that I had a sample ; but that they were foolish who undertook the whale-fishery here at such great expense, when they could have readily ascertained with one, two, or three sloops in New Nether- land, whether it was good fishing or not. Grodyn had been a manager of the Company as long as the Company had been in existence, and also of the Greenland Company at Amsterdam, and ought to have known how it at first might have been undertaken with little expense. While we stood thus discoursing, our sloop came from the large ship to the shore, from which we learned that they had come to anchor at Sandy Hook, and would remain there until I gave other orders. In the mean time, I intended to despatch my yacht to New England and New France, to explore the bay. The 18th, arrived here an Englishman, who came from New England to trade in the river, where there was a mer- chant named Jacob Eelkes, who had, during the time of the40 VOYAGES OF private association,* navigated and commanded on the river, but whom the Company would not employ, seeking out an unfit person like this governor, whom they had transferred from a clerkship to a governorship, to perform a comedy. This Englishman invited the governor to come and see him. I went with him, in company with a number of the officers, who became intoxicated, and got into such high words, that the Englishman could not understand how it was that there should be such unruliness among the officers of the Com- pany, and that a governor should have no more control over them ;* he was not accustomed to it among his countrymen. The Englishman remained six or seven days lying before the fort, and then said he wished to go up the river, and that the land was theirs’ This we denied, declaring that they had never made any settlement there. He said that David Hudson first discovered this river, and he was an English- man. We answered that he discovered the river in the year Nine, but he was fitted out at the expense of the East India Company at Amsterdam ; and that the river w7as now called Mauritius river, after our Prince of Orange. The 24th, the Englishman weighed anchor and sailed up the river to Fort Orange, where this Jacob Eelkeshad for- merly resided as commander for the private Company ; when governor Wouter Van Twilier assembled all his forces before his door, had a cask of wine brought out, filled a bumper, and cried out for those who loved the Prince of Orange and him, to do the same as he did, and protect him from the out- rage of the Englishman, who was already out of sight sail- ing up the river. The people all began to laugh at him ; for they understood well how to drink dry the cask of wine, as it was just the thing they wanted, even if there had been six casks, and did not wish to trouble the Englishman, saying they were friends. As I sat at the table with him at noon, I told him that he had committed great folly, as the Eng- lishman had no commission to navigate there, but a paper of the custom-house that he had paid so much duty, and might sail with so many passengers to New England", and not to New Netherland. I said, if it were my matter, I would have helped him away from the fort with beans from the eight-pounders, and not permitted him to sail up the river,— * This refers to the company authorized by the octroy of the States General of 11th October, 1614.DAVID PIETERSZ. DE VRIES. 41 would rather have held him hack by the tail, as he said he was a man from England. I told him as the English com- mitted some excesses against us in the East Indies, we should take hold of them ; that I had no good opinion of that nation, for they were so proud a nature, that they thought everything belonged to them ; were it an affair of mine, I would send the ship Soutberg after him, and make him haul down the river, and drive him from it until he brought another com- mission than a custom-house license; that he was only making sport of him. The 20th May, I wished to send my yacht to the north by the way of Hell-gate. I also began to make preparations to return with the large ship to Holland, when this governor commenced his pranks of the head, and began again to juggle as if he were drunk. He did not want the yacht to go to the north, and sent alongside of it a schapan,—-a flat lighter- boat, in which the whole yacht could easily have been contain- ed,—and wanted to take out five or six lasts of store-ballast, when I protested to him, explaining the privileges granted by the College of Nineteen, and approved by the States General, and that I did not wish him to unload the yacht. He then desired to search the yacht, the same as was customary by all princes and potentates, in order that he might see whether there was anything in it that concerned the Company. He then ordered the guns at the angles of the fort to shoot at the yacht, when I ran to where he stood at the angle with the Secretary and one or two of his Council, and told them the land was full of fools ; if they wished to shoot anything, they should have shot at the Englishman, who was violating their river in spite of them. Upon this expostulation they desisted from shooting, and set about preparing a yacht to sail along with our yacht. So they both sailed to the north after I had despatched my yacht. When we had made everything ready, and were about to take our leave of the governor, he then came to annoy me anew. He did not want me to go with my boat to embark until his boat had first boarded our ship, in order to search her. I opposed it, and told him that she was not to be searched. I was bound home, and if he wished to write any letters, he could do so, and send them after I had gone to my boat. He immediately sent twelve musketeers after me, in order that we should not depart. My boat's crew asked whether they should row away in the boat. I said I would42 VOYAGES OP let them do so, and had they my courage they would. They immediately did so, and the musketeers were ridiculed with shouts and jeers by all the bystanders, who cried out that they should have stopped the Englishman with shot and muskets, from sailing past the fort, and not our own patrons of the country, who sought to promote its interests. In a little while I reached Long Island, where, behind Nut Isl- and,* I had commanded my boat to row. Before I crossed over, I went once more to the fort, to take my leave of the governor. I told him I wished that he had omitted the folly of attempting to prevent my departure by his soldiers, as he had only made himself a subject of sport among his people ;—if he desired to write any letters to his masters, the managers, he might send them after me in the bay. I went out and crossed over the bay to my boat at Long Island. Night coming on, and the flood-tide making, I thought it most prudent to let my people row over to Pavonia, and there wait the ebb. Beaching Pavonia, we were well entertained by Michael Poulusz ; the officer in charge, who prepared letters to send to his master, whilst we waited for the tide. Our people overslept a little their time, as I had ordered them to be on hand as soon as the ebb began to run. We passed the fort early in the morning by break of day, before the reveille was beaten in the fort. We arrived at noon again at our ship at Sandy Hook. Saw our ship's boat lying on the point, where our people were catching fish with a seine, and went there to tell them to come aboard as soon as they had made a haul or two. The sail-boat from the fort was also alongside, having sailed before us in order to bring their letters to us. They tacked away, and were crossing to see what we were doing on the point with our boat. I went towards them immediately, and, coming by them, they inquired of me what I did with my boat when I passed by the ship. I answered that it did not concern them, so they returned again alongside. In this boat were the Schout, Notelman, and the Secretary, Bemunt. Coming aboard, I bid them welcome to the ship ; and I had my goods taken from my boat into the ship, among which were a dozen beaver-skins. These, the Secretary said, were confiscated, because they had not been entered at the fort. I told him to take them then ; but the Schout said I might * Now Governor’s Island.DAVID PIETEESZ. DE VKIES. 43 let them lie, we were not now at the fort, and let him try our wine, as he was a good bibber, as all of them were. I an- swered that water was good enough for them, for they might otherwise fall overboard. At length, the Schout asked why we were quarrelling here ; he.was very thirsty, and would go to the cabin ; if there was anything wrong, the Patroon might answer for it in Holland. Because the Schout spoke so well, I told him he might enter the cabin, and I would let him fill a glass from the best cask ; if the other one wished to play the fool, he might leave; I was now in my own. ship, not under their jurisdiction. The Secretary then said they could send the ship Soutberg after us to board us. I told him they might do so, for the Soutberg had sugar in her, and our crew would be right glad to eat sugar in their groats, as we would have a chance to do. I said to the Sec- retary, that we were surprised that the West India Com- pany would send such fools into this country, who knew nothing, except to drink; that they could not come to be assistants in the East Indies; and that the Company, by such management, must come to naught. In the East Indies, no one was appointed governor, unless he had first had long service, and was found to be fit for it; first, by serving as an assistant, under-koopman, and afterwards as chief-koopman, and promoted further, according to their merits; but the West India Company sent, in the first instance, as superior officers, persons who never had command in their lives, for which reason it must come to naught. Upon this, they again returned, with their boat, to the fort, which is five miles from Sandy Hook. The bay inside of Sandy Hook is a large one, where fifty to sixty ships can lie, well protected from the winds of the sea. Sandy Hook stretches a full half-mile from the hills, forming a flat sandy beach, about eight or nine paces wide, and is covered with small blue-plum trees, which there grow wild. The 15th June, we weighed anchor, and made sail for patria. While we were getting under sail, an Englishman came sailing towards us, who would have run straight upon the bar, and lost his ship. When I perceived him, I fired a shot to warn him, and sent my boat to him, and he imme- diately sailed towards me, and perceived that he was not in the right channel. Coming by us, he proved to be an ac- quaintance,—Captain Stone, of whom I have before spoken, —whose boat had suffered such distress in the West Indies,44 VOYAGES OF and whom I had also met in English Virginia. His ship was laden with corn and young cattle, bound to New Eng- land. As he was in want of water, he wished to put in here to take in some. He sought of me, for the sake of our ac- quaintance, whether I would furnish him a man to pilot him in. I asked our crew whether there was any one of them who wished to make a longer voyage, and who would be transferred to this Englishman ; when one offered to make a long voyage, whom I gave over to him, and I laid my course southeasterly to sea, as Long Islafid lies east and west. The coast here falls off seventeen degrees, or more than a point and a half. The 17th, changed our course to east by south, at the fortieth degree of latitude, and then ran east, so as to pass in sight of Cowes. The 29th at break of day, we saw a strange sail, which came upon us before the wind, and hailed him to keep behind. He called to me to send off my boat. I replied I would not. He then put off his boat, and came on board, and I bid him welcome. • He was a privateer from Flushing, Captain Frank- fort. He asked me how far we were from land. I told him I had yesterday evening examined the reckoning with my pilots, but we disagreed a great deal, as I supposed that we were not fifty miles from Cowes, and they both thought we were over a hundred and twenty miles from land ; that he could not understand my reckoning ; and that I had seen small sea-mews which do not go further than thirty or forty miles from land. He said my reckoning was right, and we would by evening see Cowes. The 29th,* the captain requested that 1 would let my pilots come into the cabin, which I did. He inquired of them, when there, how far they reckoned themselves to be from Cowes and Flores. They answered an hundred miles. He said they had made a bad guess, they would soon see the land at Cowes ; that he had been cruising six weeks about here, where he was yesterday evening. After a long discourse, he took his leave of us ; he wished us a safe voyage, and we him much booty ; gave each other a parting shot, and thus separated. The 1st of July, in latitude thirty-three, discovered a sail running by the wind in order to come over to us, when * Misprint for 30th.DAVID FIETERSZ. DE VRIES. 45 the crew began to cry out that it was a Portuguese pirate, and wished to repel him by force. The wind was light. He ran about half a cannon-shot ahead of us, but we could dis- cern no flag. I then ashed the crew what they had a mind to do ; it was a large ship, and if they had the courage to attack him, to keep away after him, and endeavour to ap- proach him. When we began to come close to him, my crew said that he was a Turk, that the ship was Jan de Begyn's, of Rotterdam, which the Dunkirkers had taken and sold to the Portuguese, and which was afterwards cap- tured by the Turks. I said, with a ship of eighteen guns and fifty men, I was not afraid of one Turk, for I had in my youth been engaged in a fight with two of them, the smallest of which had twenty-eight guns, and the other thirty-three, and three hundred men, while I had only one ship of four- teen guns, and thirty men, and by the help of God, came off with honour. My crew replied, that was a case where it was necessary to defend myself, but here we could get away, and there was no booty for us to take. We then pursued our course again, but when we had got to the leeward of him, he set his sprit-sail as if he were a-going to chase us, when I immediately struck my topsail, in order to wait for him. When he saw this, he tacked about again. Thus we separated from him, and pursued our course. The 9th, sounded the channel, and found sandy ground. It was the bank which lies south of Ireland. The 10th, in the morning, we bore away to the north of the Scilly islands ; and, according to my reckoning, I sailed fifteen miles over to the land. My under pilot said it was the coast of France. We had had no latitude (observation) in four or five days. Nevertheless, he maintained firmly that it was the coast of France, and made the point of Land's End, a French Cape. According to my chart, we could not have gone so far east on our last course. I let the ship tack, and run to the north, when we immediately obtained the increasing ground of the‘channel. These knowers of the land wrere then ashamed of themselves. The 10th, (?) I told these wiseacres, if they wished to be good pilots, they must observe their course and altitude better another time. I depend upon mine to the last— until some one comes and says he knows the land, then the course and altitude may be set aside. The 11th, we came near the Lizard. ' There came also46 VOYAGES OF towards us three ships, and we made everything ready, in case we were compelled to have a fight, but kept close to the shore. As they were very large ships, we would rather have run into Falmouth, if we could have reached there, for the chance was a bad one, for one ship to fight three ivolves. It was our intention, nevertheless, to do the best—to show that our ancient courage was not gone—although the chances were bad for one merchantman to fight three ships of war, for it is said that many dogs are the death of the hare. At length, as they began to get near us, it became calm, and we careened close to the shore. The admiral, who carried the flag, took a boat ashore, in order to obtain some refresh- ments at Falmouth, and came on board of us, and told us that they came from the Vice-Admiral of Holland, Liefheb- ber, of Rotterdam ; and that we need not now have any fear of the Dunkirkers ; it was now in the midst of summer, and our ships of war, under Admiral Dorp, were lying before Dunkirk. They then went from aboard of us to get their refreshments in Falmouth, and we separated, as we supposed. Along the coast of England, it is necessary, sometimes, to sail slowly, though we had a good south-west wind. The 15th, in the morning, saw two ships before us. One looked like a privateer with a prize. We kept close to the prize. Then he went to the leeward, as if to wait for the prize, but as we approached him he dared not wait for us, and started forward again. We thought he was afraid that we were a Dunkirker. He then sailed away with the other vessel. The 16th, in the morning early, we were opposite Dover. The privateer was nearer the French coast, with his prize. There came bearing down towards us, from the English coast, thirteen or fourteen ships of war. They were the Lord Admiral Dorp and his squadron. They did not hail us. Near the Downs, the wind north-east, there came three large ships sailing after us, they came along, two after the privateer, and the other to hail us. They told us to send off our boat. I said that I could not, as I was fearful the ship had evil designs, inasmuch as we had, four hours before, seen our whole squadron, and thought that this must be a Dunkirker. We were all ready (to fight), and resolved not to send the boat. At length, he sent his boat off, with a lieutenant, who came on board of us, and who, when he saw what kind of a ship we had, wondered that everything wasDAVID PIETER SZ. DE VRIES. 47 so prepared, and that we intended to oppose so large a ship as theirs was. He informed us that their captain was Cap- tain Danckeras, and that the other two ships which had sailed after the privateer, were commanded, one by Admiral Jan Evertsz. of Flushing, and the other by Captain Block. With a head-wind, ran, with the other ships, into the har- bour of Dover, where I understood that this privateer was Captain Backer, from Zealand, and the ship was called the Burning Oven, and had, as a prize, a small Holland vessel, with five hundred boxes of sugar, which came from Brazil. He told me he was afraid, when I came sailing behind him, that I would deprive him of his prize, supposing that I was a Dunkirker. We went ashore here at Dover, and learnt that they had suffered great loss last autumn from the French rovers, as well as from the Dunkirkers. The 18th, the wind from the south-west, weighed our anchor, and took our leave of the ships of war. They fol- lowed, and conveyed the privateer to Wieling. The 20th, saw in the morning, the towers of Egmont, and were becalmed. Saw also there, some sail before us. In the afternoon the wind began again to blow a little. The 21st, in the morning, with the day, we saw Kyck- duyn. A pilot boarded us, and in six hours we reached Lands Diep, where we run for the Helder, so as to touch the shore. Then, God aiding, we came by evening at the Mer- chantman’s Harbour. The 22d, in the morning I hired a boat, which took me to Medenblick, and proceeded by a wagon to Hoorn, and gave thanks to God for my safe voyage. The 24th, I returned to Amsterdam, where I found my partners at variance with their associates, the other man- agers, because I had traded from two to four beaver-skins. That was not a handsome thing, and it was not worth men- tioning ; especially as the fifteenth article provides that the Patroons might trade where the Company had no clerk or commissary. On this account, our business of making colo- nies must be suspended in places still uninhabited ; so that these managers at Amsterdam have done nothing else than to fight their own shadow, and to drink Rhenish wine in the Kloveniers-Doelen,* and the other managers to look * A famous inn at Amsterdam, so called from the “ doelen ” or target, at which the “ Kloveniers ” or archers used to shoot.48 VOYAGES OF DAVID riETERSZ. DE VRIES. after powder and lead in Brazil, and the managers’ magazine, and the yearly meetings of the Nineteen. As we could not agree with the Company, and my partners at Amsterdam were all directors, and were continually at variance with their associates, on account of trifles, I separated from them, seeing there was nothing but roguery. The rest I will leave unwritten.MY SECOND VOYAGE TO THE COAST OF AMERICA,, OR THE WILD COAST 1ST THE WEST INDIES. Having, with some friends, formed a Company, for the?, purpose of planting a colony upon the coast of Guiana,, otherwise called the Wild Coast; of which Company, Mr., Jan Bicker was one of the chief Patroons, with others, I re— solved to go myself as Patroon, to conduct the settlement;; and I was the first who went there as such, from this > country. On the 10th of July, 1634, in the ship called the King.-; David, mounting fourteen guns, and having a crew of five- and-twenty men, with thirty planters, in order to make a beginning of the colony, left the Texel, four ships in com- pany,—to wit, two Genoese vessels, and one French ship,— at four o'clock in the afternoon, with a north by west wind, on a course south-west by south. At night the wind blew from the north-west, so that we laid our course with a strong. wind and rain, and parted from our company. Took in our topsail. The 11th, a strong wind as before; our course west- southwest. At noon, saw two strange sails to the leeward. At night it became entirely calm, so that we could not make * a steady course. The 12th, in the morning, it began to blow a little. At; noon fell in with three ships which came out of - the Maes.. Course southerly, with the wind west-southwest. In the first quarter, lay to the north-northeast ; and in^the second,, SECOND SERIES.—VOL. III. . 450 VOYAGES OE tacked again, and ran south-west by west, with a stiff breeze. The 13th, the wind sharpened np so that we could not sail to the south. At noon, tacked again, and ran north- west, with the wind west-southwest. To-day, dealt out the ration ; to wit, two cheeses for the voyage, and other things in the ration-list in proportion. At evening, spoke a vessel which came by us. The 14th, in the morning, we saw the coast of England, lying west by south, from us about five miles, and at noon sailed through the Straits of Dover, with rough weather and rain. The wind north-northwest, and course west by south, and so passed the Singels, and in the evening the Foreland, when the wind began to sharpen west-southwest. It changed back and forth during the night, with a stiff breeze. The 15th, the wind west-southwest, as before ; it changed, blowing sometimes from the shore, and then from the sea. Steady rain and wind, so that it seemed as if Neptune were wholly against us; also, had a small storm from west-northwest. Course south-west, with steady Tain. The 16th, the weather began early to moderate a little, and became entirely calm, so that we took in our sails, and let the ship drift. Being out of sight of land, we threw out our bow-anchor, and let it be as long as the tide was running. In about three hours, we were again under sail. "Wind south-west; course north-west by west, with fine weather. At night it was entirely calm. Course west by south ; the wind north-west. The 17th, in the morning, it began to blow a little. Set our course west, and west by south, to the Isle of Wight. At noon, it again became calm, so that we threw out our bow-anchor, in order to stem the tide. In three hours, weighed anchor, and set our course for Wight, for the pur- pose of obtaining some more ballast, as we were lightly bal- lasted. We arrived before Portsmouth at five o'clock, where we came to anchor, and where I went ashore, and ordered a lighter to go with ballast. The 18th, took in the ballast, and made everything ready in order to sail again with the next fair wind. The 20th, in the morning, weighed anchor, and sailed from the Isle of Wight by the needle, with good weather, and a clear sky. The wind north by west; going west by south.DAVID RIETERS2. DE VRIES. 51 The 21st, early, there was fine weather with a good breeze, and by evening we came to Land’s End, lying north of ns about five miles. Wind north by west; course west- south-west. The 1st of August, in the morning, we saw land. It was the Island of Maderia, and was five miles west of us. At noon, saw to the leeward, two sails, and held for them ; ■came up to them about noon. They appeared to be English pirates,, and we hailed them, when it was very evident that they had intended to attempt something. Wind north-east ; course south by west, with a clear sky. The 2d, a stiff breeze from the east.* Saw in the after- noon the Island of Palms, one of the Canaries.' Course south. The 9th was good weather. At noon, observed the lati- tude, seventeen degrees and forty minutes, and going west- south-west. Towards evening, saw land rising in three hills, and lying south-west by west, distant about five or six miles. Thought it was the Island of Zael, but found it was St. An- thony, so that we were much further west than we supposed. Laid our course west; the wind north-west by west. The 27th, the weather became fine and calm. At noon, got a small breeze west-southwest. Course south, and south by west, with a clear sky. Had here a strong current, which ran to the west. Began to see land birds. The 3d September, in the morning, sounded in seventy fathoms, with white and black sand. The water appeared entirely green. Sounded again at noon, and found fifty-five fathoms. Wind east; course west, and west by south. Found the stream ran here strong to the north-east, as well as we could judge. Sounded at evening, and found forty- three fathoms, sandy bottom, as before. Latitude, three degrees and fifty-six minutes. The 4th, weather fine and- calm. Sounded in thirty- seven to thirty-five, and thirty-four fathoms. Latitude at night, five degrees and a half, so that we found that the cur- rent had carried us to the north-east, since yesterday even- ing, twenty-three miles. Seeing that we could not reach Wiapocke,—as those who wish to touch at Wiapocke must run to the latitude of three degrees and a half, and then west- southwest, and find black bottom, when they will be about twenty-five miles from Wiapocke, and have seventy fathoms of water,—we cast anchor at evening in twenty-eight fath-52 VOYAGES OF oms, in a clayey bottom. At night, had a hard blow from the south, with rain, but it did not last long. The 5th, saw land at daylight, between Maruin and Cayana, and found ourselves about six miles below Cayana and the land of Maruin, rising in four high mountains, the middlemost one of which was the highest, and about four miles south-west of us, with a mountain to the west of Maruin. The extreme part of the land of Cayana, was from us about seven miles south-southeast. We sounded in twenty-four, twenty-two, twenty, and seventeen fathoms, on hard ground ; and at noon, cast anchor in fourteen fath- oms, clay bottom, the Devil's Islands lying west of us about two miles, and appearing, though it was afterwards disap- proved, a handsome level land. At noon, ten of us went ashore, and by nine o'clock in the evening, came into the rivet of Korro, which some call Cawrora-Nauive. At its mouth it is deep, for at low water it has two fathoms and a half to three fathoms, with a fine clayey bottom. About twelve o'clock at night, reached a short mile up the river. It was wide within, and from one and a half to two fathoms deep ; and here and there were some rocks. At three o'clock in the morning, six of us went ashore in order to find inhab- itants. We first passed a large wood, and after that came on a level field, which was under good cultivation, and where the grass came up to the waist. About nine o'clock, came to an Indian village, where they received us with all friendship. We informed them that we were Hollanders, and they caused us immediately to sit down, and gave us to eat and drink. Their chief then came to us, and led us into his house, where he treated us well with their liquor, which they make of Gasari ; it is thick like hogs-draf, but is whitish, and stronger to drink than Harlem beer. About two o'clock, we set out to return to our boat, and the chief, with two of his sons, went with us. Their village consisted of six or seven houses, and might contain about fifty souls. It stood in a beautiful grove, and was about two miles and a half from our boat. About one mile from this village is another smaller one, which yields cotton and orlian, but not very much, because they do not plant them'; speckled wood also grows here. Arrived at our boat at evening, and left again with the ebb. Eemained at night before the mouth of the river. At daybreak, went to the ship, and about noon got aboard. Having a sea-wind, we weighed anchor andDAVID PIETERSZ. DE VRIES. 53 left, but towards evening cast anchor again in seven fathoms of water, clayey ground. At night, took our boats to Cayana, in order to ascertain the situation of the country, and get water. The 8th, we were lying becalmed. The 9 th, in the morning, had a land-wind, so that we made sail, but it became calm again, and we again cast anchor. At noon, started again, and at night anchored in seven fathoms, having run a fine piece. The 10th, made sail, the wind off land. About nine o'clock, our boat came with water, bringing an Englishman on board, who would take us to Cayana. At noon, cast anchor in eleven fathoms, but about three o'clock were un- der sail again with a stiff breeze. At night, came to anchor a half mile from Cayana and the cliff. The Lost Child * was about a half a mile from us, lying in five fathoms, and at night in two fathoms and a half, so that the tide falls two fathoms and a half along the coast of Cayana, and an east and west moon makes a full tide or high water. The 11th, weighed anchor ; the wind along the shore ; tacked, but gained nothing, so we ran out a piece to sea again, and let our anchor fall in seven-fathom water, hard bottom, a short mile from the Lost Child, which was south- southeast from us. The wind south-east, with a stiff breeze. The 12th, the wind and weather the same as before. The 13th, got a land breeze, so that we ran out to sea a piece, and at noon come to anchor in seven fathoms. About three o'clock, weighed anchor, with a sea breeze, an$. sailed south by east, and south-southeast, in seven, six, and five fathom water, along by the Lost Child, and in the even- ing, anchored under the west shore of the Island of Mecoria, where the river of Cayana empties into the sea. This island lies between the river Cayana, and the river Mia. It was half a mile from Cayana where we were lying at anchor, with four fathoms at low water. As you sail in, there is five, four, and three and a half fathoms of water, between the Lost Child and Cayana.—We were no sooner at anchor, than there came a canoe to us with Indians on board, having bananas, and many other refreshments ; among them, the pineapple, which is a delightful fruit for eating. * A rock54 VOYAGES OF The 14th, landed thirty men to mate a Beginning of a new colony, to raise the dye orlian, called By the Indians Anotyand cotton and tobacco, all of which grow here well. Toot the men to a hilloct, adjoining where the ship was lying, where were the ruins of an old forty and having still two angles of stone entire, made as well as they could Be, to prevent the entrance of foreign ships. Found this fort wild and waste, where good sugar-cane grew wild, of which we eat. It was almost as thick as one's arm, so it was natural that we desired to plant sugar there. This ruined fort ap- peared to have been Built in former times By the French,, and lies upon a handsome hill, of tolerable size, By which there is a fine valley for raising fruit, cotton, Beans, and tobacco. Two miles from this place, we found seven or eight Zealanders and Englishmen, on account of Jan de Moer, of Zealand, who cultivated tobacco, and had Been here eight months. This is an island full of people, all Caribs, as I have mentioned before. They are a warlike- people, continually at war with a nation called Arrieoens. The chief of Cay ana was named Arrawicary, who dwelt two- miles from us upon the island, which is sixteen miles round. This chief died while we were here. He was faithful and true" to Christians, except the Spaniards, whom he would not hear named. They informed us, afterwards, that he was full a hundred and fifty years old. It is to be remarked of this people, that when one of their chiefs die, they immedia- tely kill all his slaves, saying that they shall serve him in the other world. Among the rest, they also kill his physi- cian, because he bad not preserved his life longer ; he might be to him a better physician in the other world, as they told me. These priests they call Peoasyos ; we call them sorcerers. Whilst we were here, I observed the nature of the climate, and. the condition of the people. The seasons of the year on this coast are diverse ; for in the eastern part of Guiana, towards the South Sea, the dry season, which we call summer, begins in August, and the violent winds and rain, which we consider their winter, begin in February; but in the western parts, towards the Oronoco, the dry season commences in October, and the rainy season and winter in April. There is little, variation of heat and cold, this country lying so under the Equinoc- * The Amatto^DAVID PIETERSZ. DE VBIES. 55 tial, and the days and nights being, for the most part, of equal length, like as I observed at Batavia, in the East In- dies ; but these seasons sometimes vary much, and it rains also one year more than another. The people have division, or reckoning of time and numbers. They reckon only by the moon ; as, one, two, three, &c., moons as we count the days, up to ten, and then, one and ten, &c. In order to better express their meaning, they put up their fingers, and when they wish to say twenty they bring their fingers to their feet. When they promise to do anything by a certain time, they deliver a bundle of sticks, and keep one of a like number. In order to keep the appointed time, they take a stick out every day, until they have taken all away, when they know that the time which they had fixed has come, and will then keep their promise. Of the Genius and Condition of the Natives of this Country ; how they are clothed, and what Pride they have. The Indians, who dwell upon this whole coast, run almost naked. Their hair is black, but sometimes painted red ; eyes black ; holes in the tips of the ears, and generally holes in the nose and lips ; and the whole body painted with the paint which the Caribs call contseuwe, and the Jaos, anoty. It seems that they prick it, and burn it in with the sun, in. youth. Some of the women paint their daughters differently—particularly with certain strange figures—with a black gum. Some of the men wear a cotton covering in front, but very few, and those more from a love of being odd, because they see us covered, than from modesty. Tfie un- married men generally have a small string tied round their prgeputium, and that is fastened to a string which is tied round the neck. The women bear children very easy, and are naturally strong. They carry their children, for the most part upon their hips, sitting, and also in a cotton-band, when they have far to go. They are of middling size, toler- ably handsome, and painted like the men. They go naked,, and they bind their hair in a bunch. These people have no religion, as far as I could learn,, except that they pay some respect to the sun and moon, like the heathens upon the coast of Coromandel, believing that56 VOYAGES OF they are endowed with life ; and they worship them, as those of the coast of Coromandel do,—who, in the morning, when the sun rises, go and stand in the water, with hands uplifted to the sun,—these people, at that time, prostrating themselves. They make no offerings, except they observe certain superstitions, in their drunken festivals. They hold a solemn feast upon the death of their cassique chiefs, or other great friends, making the best provision of their strong- est liquor, which they call Ferromv, for three or four days, or as long as their liquor lasts ; and spending the time in dancing, singing, and drinking,—in which they exceed all other heathen nations that I have ever seen,—esteeming him the bravest fellow who first gets drunk. While they are drinking, the wives of the next friends of the deceased stand crying and howling. Whether they observe any su- perstition in this, I do not know, but this is certain, that their priests and soothsayers, whom they call peayos, as pre- viously mentioned, have at times communication with the Devil, whom they name Wattipa, and are by him deceived. Yet, they hate and fear him very much, and say that he is wicked, and not without great reason, for they are frequently beaten by him black and blue. I have since learned that they worship Tamouco ; who, according to their sayings, lives above and reigns over all. The Jaos, especially, wor- ship this Tamouco, every morning and * evening. They be- lieve that the good Indians, after death, go upwards, pointing to Heaven, which they name Ooupo ; and that the bad go down, pointing to the earth, which they call Soy. When one of their cassiques, or chiefs, die, if he have any slaves, or other prisoners, they kill them,—but not any of his other servants,-—in order that he may be served in the other world. The quality of the land is various in this region. On the sea-coast, the land is low, and the heat would be very vehement there, were it not moderated by the fresh and cool breezes, or easterly winds ; which, at the hottest time of the day, blow very strong. In many places, this low land is very unhealthy, and little inhabited, on account of the overflowing of the water ; but it has, for the most part, very fine rivers, fertile soil, and many inhabitants, and is .healthy for habitation. Upon the mountains, the climate ds cold, and the land, in some places, fertile, and in others mot; but it is generally full of minerals, and mines of differ-DAVID PIETERSZ. DE VRIES. 57 ent metals, yielding as mucli as any places in the East or West Indies, both of the better and inferior kinds, and in most of the mountains. Upon the mountains, are found very healthy dwelling places. There is, also, a middle kind of land, which is of a medium height, very temperate, healthy, and fertile, and almost all peopled. It is full of lakes and pleasant streams of water, fine groves, and pleasant plains, for profit, pleasure, and recreation, and not unpro- vided with minerals. They are very much troubled here with mosquitoes, which they call mapiry, whose sting is very venomous. The building of many fires is a good remedy. They have there, also, fleas, which they call Sico. We will now speak of the productions of the country, and other things which serve to sustain the life of man. The provision of this land, for supporting life, is mani- fold. First the root of cassava, of which they make bread, in the following manner : they break the root upon a stone, and express the juice, which, in its raw state, is poisonous, for I threw a bit of it to a hen, which died therefrom imme- diately ; but, boiled with Cayenne pepper,—of which they have a great abundance,—it affords an excellent and whole- some sauce. Then they dry the bruised root, and bake it upon a stone in the same manner as oatcakes are baked. This bread is then fit to be used ; they bake it as thick as one's finger. There is a species of large wheat, called maize, or Turkey wheat, like that of Virginia, which grain is a pecu- liar provision for this country, and is very productive, yield- ing a thousand or fifteen hundred for one, and frequently more. It makes very good flour for bread, and good malt for beer or ale, and serves various necessary purposes for the support of man. Of the before-mentioned cassava bread, and of this Indian corn, they make a liquor, which they call passiauw, which must be used in four or five days. They make also another beverage of cassava, which they call per- nouw, orperranon ; which they prepare in large pots, and boil it, as they do beer in Holland. It foams, and is as good and strong as the beer of Breme, but it is somewhat hot; it has, also, as high a colour as Breme beer, and can be kept good ten days. There are several kinds, some strong, others weak, some thick, others thin, but it was all good, and well58 VOYAGES OF prepared, when we were among the Caribs and Arwackes, who are the neatest of all those nations. There is a great abundance of honey, and although it is found wild in trees and holes in the earth, it is as good as any in the world. Good mead can be made of it. There are no vines, but as the land is fertile and rich, and the climate warm, they would grow there, if they were planted, and furnish fine wines ; which, for this region, would be very wholesome ; though I would be afraid of their becoming sour from the heat. Of the Wild Beasts and Cattle. , Many other necessaries for the support of man are to be found here, wild, of all kinds. Swine, in great numbers, of two species; one, small, called by the Indians, pockiero, which has the navel on the back ; the other, named panigo, as large and fine as any swine, and weighing from one hun- dred and fifty to one hundred and eighty pounds. There are also multitudes of hares and rabbits, but different from ours; they are like young deer, twenty-four hours old. There are leopards, tigers,—one of which, an Indian, while I was here, took and played with, while lying in his ham- mock,—armadillos, maipuries*—whose meat tastes like beef,—baremoes, which tastes like mutton,—rand other small animals of various flavour and colour : as apes, innumerable monkeys of different kinds, good to eat—though I was not willing to taste them—besides many strange animals ; as the Caribs, who had been with one of our men up the river of Gaparwaca, and in other places, told us. There are deer, which the Indians call osary ; wild hogs, white, which they call abihera ; lions, waricory,—having red hair, the fore legs like the hind ones, three toes on each foot, head like an ape, and a short tail; it is sluggish, and a small eater, won- derfully slow in moving and climbing. There is also an animal, to which we gave the name sagewyntjes, of the size of a rat three weeks old, with copperish marks above the eyes, and four small feet, like those of a water-dog ; it is very tender, and cannot be kept alive in confinement. Ba- boons, also, are very numerous. * The Tapir.DAVID PIETERSZ. DE VRIES. 59 Of the Birds of the Country. Here are wild ducks, teal, geese, herons of various colours, cranes, storks, pheasants, partridges, pigeons, thrushes, black- birds, snipe, parrots of different kinds, and many other species of birds of which I have no knowledge, both large and small, of exquisite colour, besides large birds of prey, and hawks of all sorts, and beautiful ravens. Of the Kinds of Fish ivhich are caught. There are many kinds of fish; first, of sea-fish, beam, chub, sole, perch, roach, blackfish, sturgeon, like salmon, as it is red, like that at Batavia, in the East Indies. It is of the same species, and is on the shell like the salmon, except the colour. There are shrimps, lobsters, and oysters, which grow on the branches of trees, which appears very wonderful; also, a rare fish called Cassoorwa, which has two organs of sight in each eye; one of which in swimming, it holds above, and the other, under water ; its back and ribs are like the back and ribs of men, the one being round and the other flat, and, it has a backbone ; it is somewhat larger than a smelt, which it very much resembles in swimming ; it keeps always along the shore, in large schools. There are many other very good fish; the accare, which are not unlike the crocodile, but thinner and longer, and shorter heads ; they come upon the land, but feed upon fish ; they are good to eat, but diffi- cult to catch, having an acute smell, by which they become aware of danger. The owanna, very similar to, but smaller than the ayamare,—a large species of shad, which keeps in deep water, and is very choice eating. Moreover, of fresh fish, there are many, but for the most part, they are unknown to us, though they are all very good and delicate ; so that it maybe conscientiously said, that this country, according to its climate, may be compared, for variety and excellence of the fish, with any other country in the world. There is also a sea-fish which generally comes into fresh wa- ter, especially during the winter and rainy season, called by the Indians, cojumero, and by the Spaniards, manatee, and by us, the sea-cow. It is an even chance, if a person, who had never seen one before, should catch one, he would not know but that he had a young bull or heifer, for it has ribs, and is lined with fat, and the hide is like a cow's hide, is suit-60 VOYAGES OF able to make buff leather, and, dried in the sun, and dressed with oil, is good for shields against the arrows of the In- dians. There is a fish here, called calcop in the East Indies, very fine for eating, as large as a cod, with scales the size of a copper ; and also another, called in the East Indies, saribi- lam, which keeps in the fresh water. The coa, which are crabs, are to be found in great numbers in the low swampy grounds, and all along the coast. The fruits are of various kinds: pineapples, plantains, potatoes, medlars, plums of different sorts, nuts of curious shape. The pineapple, or ananas, is as excellent and as large as that of the East Indies ; no better fruit can be found ; the flavour is like that of a strawberry and a ripe pippin ; the potato is well known ; the medlars are very large ; the plums are not to be praised, because, when plentifully eaten, they cause a diarrhoea,—which in this country, is very dangerous according to my observation ; and so of the common greens of the country, napi, which are not unlike the eastern reuven. There is a tree, which grows here, as large as a pomegranate tree, with pale-green downy leaves, and white flowers, but of more leaves, and of no scent; from the blossom, first comes only a large bean, like the kidney of a rabbit, from which grows a fruit in the shape of a pear, and the bean remains hanging below it ; there is a pit in it, which tastes like a hazel-nut, and under the skin is an oil, which is good for in- flammation in the face. Of the Commodities of the Country. The most important production of this country is the sugar-cane, of which there are immense quantities. The land is as well adapted to it as any in the world. It grows very large in a little time; and by cultivating, and the erec- tion of proper buildings for extracting the sugar, which would cost a good deal at first, great wealth would be realized, as we can see has been done by the Portuguese, in Brazil and elsewhere. Cotton is a general article of merchandize, and is very useful for merchants and for us, to make fustians and bom- bazines and other goods, and also to make hammocks—which are the beds of the Indians, and very necessary in this region— and calicoes. There is, besides, a kind of hemp or flax, ofDAVID PIETERSZ. DE VRIES. 61 great value, almost as fine as silk, and can be used like it ; it makes very excellent linen. They have here peculiar dyes, one of which is called Au- notoy which ‘ grows on trees as large as cherry-trees. These trees bear large nuts, which burst open when they are ripe, and within the kernels of which are small berries of a red colour. These, well prepared by the Indians—which they do with palm-oil—produce a perfect dye of a fast orange col- our ; but the Indians cheat much by mixing cassava with it. There is another berry, which dyes a blue colour ; and a certain gum of a tree, which makes a perfectly fast yellow colour in cloths; and leaves of trees, which, properly pre- pared, give a deep red colour. There is also a wood which dyes purple, and is of great value ; and another, which yields a yellow dye ; besides many others, undoubtedly, which are as yet unknown ; but which, by careful search, will some time or other be discovered. Many aromatic gums are found here ; but as I have no experience in the science, I know not what virtues they pos- sess. Cassia fistula and senna-leaves grow here, and the earth yields Armenian bole. There is a tree, with which they catch their fish, worthy of special consideration. It grows generally near their dwellings ; and when they wish to go a-fishing, they carry some branches of it to the creeks,—which at high water are for the most part full of good fish. They take the sticks and beat them upon the stones until they become as soft as flax ; and running up the creek, which they had previously stopped up at high water with the branches of other trees, they throw this wood, which they had by beating made like flax, into the water when it is half run out. When the fish come swimming to the surface of the water, they become intoxicated ; and, finding the creek stopped up at its mouth, they leap upon the land. Some come floating belly upwards, and are scooped up out of the water ; or, if they still swim, they are shot with arrows through the body, so that any one can catch as many as he wishes.* While I was walking by the seaside, I saw a whale fighting with a swordfish, and the water was as red as blood; as often as the whale jumped out of the water, and in terror * Bancroft describes this mode of intoxicating the fish by the natives of Guiana, by throwing into the water the bruised root ofHiarra. (pp. 322-3.)62 VOYAGES OE of the swordfish, he spouted the water frightfully. The swordfish stuck him as he came down under the belly, which made him spring out of the water again. It was wonderful to see. There is a tree of red-speckled wood, called by the in- habitants piratimnere, and in the Netherlands, letterwood. It is excellent for all kinds of cabinet -work. The tree grows up straight, and has a smooth white bark ; the letterwood is the heart of the tree, in which it grows ; there are no leaves on the tree, except at the top. Good tobacco can be grown here ; and there are rich mines, but they have not been well explored. We will now resume our Voyage. After I had lain here four weeks, and put my colonists whom I had settled here in order, they set about planting thirty thousand dye-trees, a hundred thousand cotton-trees, and a hundred thousand tobacco-plants, each of which yields a half-a-pound of tobacco, which commands a good price. The 14th of October, about nine in the morning, we weighed anchor for Cayana, and took with us the grandson of Arrawycary, the principal chief, who was deceased, as before related. This youth was desirous of visiting the Netherlands, and I was the more willing to take him, be- cause it would make my colonists more contented. Set our course northerly towards the Lost Child, in three and a half, four, four and a half, five, six, seven and eight fathoms of water, and at evening came to, a little below the Devil's Islands, in ten fathoms, the wind from the east. The 15th of the same month, we weighed anchor, and sailed along the coast in nine, eight, seven and six fathoms, clay bottom. The coast trends almost north-west by west; the land is low, and here and there a mountain. At noon, lay to below the river called Senamaria, in three fathoms at low water, a mile from land. The coast is flat, so that the river is difficult to be found, except by two rocks which lie a little below the river, and another white rock, which lies half-a-mile further in the sea. You can see there is a small opening into the rivet, very narrow, and having only two feet of water at low tide, but at high tide about nine. It lies between the rivers Suraco and Sinenari. The coast stretches west-northwest, and north-west. I went threeBAYID PIETEESZ. BE VEIES. 63 miles up this small river, as there was living there a French captain called Captain Schanbou, who had dwelt there three years, and had twelve Frenchmen with him. He had a ship loading there with aggie, or long pepper, and he ex- pected daily the arrival of another for the same purpose. He compelled me to stay all night with him, which I did, going to him with the yacht. We caught a hog which had its navel on the back, and his gunner shot thirty-three teal at one ^hot, at which I was astonished. In the morning, took my leave of the captain, thanking him for his hospi- tality. I observed that these Indians are not as thievish as in other countries, for we had let our boat lie at night with- out a guard, and found that they had been by it, and had moved the goods about, but that they had not taken any- thing. The French captain said that he had oftentimes gone inland with all his people, but had never missediany- thing. The 17th, we got under sail, the wind along the shore, and set our course north-west, and north-west by west, and west-northwest, and anchored at evening about three miles from land, which is very flat. It is three, four, and four and a half fathoms deep about three miles from land. The 18th, we were under sail again, and laid our course west-northwest, the wind along the shore, and at noon came to anchor between the rivers Amana and Marriwyn in thirteen feet at high water, soft clay bottom, so that we had not at low tide more than five feet, and were then fast, though it was difficult to lie here, as we could not hold the ship fast because the current changed each time with the tide. So we had a great deal of trouble with our anchors, and had every afternoon a stiff breeze from the sea. I went at noon, with eight men, to the river Amana, to see if there wa& any trade. In the morning of the 19th, went two miles up the river, wThere we found some houses of the Arrewackes, but no men. We fired off a musket, when two Indians imme- diately came to us, and conducted us to their houses. They were Arwackes, and gave us to eat and drink. A distance further inland, dwell some Arwackes, but at this time there was not much to trade, because it was too early. The dye- plants were still standing in the fields, and the letterwood and redwood could not be procured, because they must be got in the rainy season, which begins in November. Those64 VOYAGES OP who want to trade here, must manage to be on the coast in January, for at that time the traffic is best. About ten o’clock, we went up the river with the tide, leaving our sloop with a Frenchman, and at evening reached a village where the Caribs lived, who received us in friendship, and where there were ten or twelve houses. It is about eight miles up the river. We. remained here at night, very much tormented by the mosquitoes, and in the morning went with the son of the Cassique about three miles into the country, where we found another Carib village of seven or eight houses. They entertained us well with their liquor, and we then went a mile further, to another large village of Caribs, consisting of eighteen or twenty houses. We found here mostly women, as the men had gone after fish and crabs, which are their chief food. We found nothing here to trade for, it being too early, as before stated. At evening, returned to our sloop, and spent the evening in a frolic with the Indians, for it was a festival-time with them. In the morning, went with the ebb-tide down the river, and on the evening of the 20th reached the ship. This river, at high- water, is ten feet deep at the mouth, and is deep within, and is therefore a fine river to navigate with a yacht. The land is all low, and has nothing else but trees, and is with- out hills ; it is extremely flat, the trees standing and grow- ing in the water, with their branches hanging in water, covered with oysters, of which I ate. On the 21st October, went with our sloop to the river of Mariwyne, and saw at once how deep it was. Found, for the most part, eleven to twelve feet at -highwater, till we came at the mouth of the river. We found in the middle of the river a sand-bank, entirely dry at low-water. There was an opening on the east side, very narrow, and about ten feet deep ; and also one on the west side, but how deep it was I do not know. The river stretches to the south-west, and about two miles up are some islands. It is hardly a mile wide. Such is its situation, as far as I have been able to discover. About a mile up lies a village where Arwackes live, but they had all gone to Sernama, except one woman, who watched the houses. Many different nations live here ; to wit, Caribs, Jaios, Arwackes, Percoren, and many others besides. They promised to furnish us, in another year, a full shipload of letterwood. Whilst we were ashore here, a Netherlander came to us, who had left the ship in which heDAVID PIETERSZ. DE VRIES. 65 had come, on account of the Indian-pox, and as he was now better, he requested that he might go to Holland with me, and came aboard our ship. Any one who has this disease must be cured here ; even though he may have it in Holland, he must return here to be cured ; for it is like the Amboyn- pox in the East Indies. Young children of a month old can here be afflicted with it. There came with him to us two Frenchmen, who had run away from Captain Schanbou ; they resided at Ounama, and all three lived in an Indian village. The 23d, weighed anchor and got under sail, the wind from the shore, and the course north-west, and afterwards west. The land trends to the west, and is all low. The water three to four fathoms deep, fine bottom. In the evening let anchor fall in five fathoms, about two miles and a half from land. At break of day, in the morning of the 24th, weighed anchor,—wind east, course west, andVest by south,—five, and four fathoms, firm bottom,—and about noon, came before the river of Sorname, and ran in south-east by south. It was first three fathoms and a half deep, then four, and four and a half, firm ground, and in some places hard. We cast anchor in four fathoms and a half, and lay behind the sandy-point, close into the shore. We could see both rivers ; to wit, the river of Sername, the more westerly, and Coma- wini, the more easterly. To sail into the Comawin, you must keep to the larboard-side, for it is deep there, and then the river runs as far as you wish. There had been here, five or six days before, a ship from Flushing, whose master was named Packemack. He had lain here in Comawin full four months, and obtained from fifteen to sixteen lasts of letterwood. Towards evening, went with our sloop to the river of Sername, and in the morning of the following day, came to one or two houses which were made with palisades round them like a fort. An Englishman, named Captain Marshall, lived there with sixty English, and wanted to plant a colony. It was about sixteen miles up the river. We remained a - day and a night with the captain. The land along the shore is very low. In ascending it, when the tide fell, we went into the bushes on the shore with our sloop,—for the trees stand there three feet in the water,— and we made our hammocks fasf to the trees, and then got in them to sleep until the tide began to run up again. We SECOND SERIES.—VOL. III. 566 VOYAGES OF had to draw our hammocks over our heads, as the mosquitoes were very numerous. The 26th, took our leave of Captain Marshall, and went down the river again. It is a fine deep river, and can be navigated by a large ship. In descending it, we found, about six miles from our ship, an English house, where there were fourteen or fifteen Englishmen, who planted tobacco. Got aboard by evening. The 27th, sailed from Sername, and ran north-west by north, along the point east of the sandy-point, and came to another point; then have the two in range, or the last a little further out, and take care that you go, if you can, west-northwest, for you are then free from the bank that runs out from the west point. Ran west-northwest, and then west by west, in from four to five fathoms, firm bottom. Cast anchor at night, about two miles and a half from land, in five fathoms. The 28th, set sail, the wind from the shore. Came to anchor at noon before Sername, well known by the point which you see by the land. You must keep off somewhat from the east point, because there is a reef running before it, and there is not more than ten to eleven and twelve feet water, so that our ship would have been held fast unless we had made our way far enough off, and set our course that Sername lay about east-southeast, two miles and a half from us. Could there see it all open, lying south-east by south, about three miles. Laid here in four fathoms at high-water. It is very flat, and whoever wishes to sail into Sername, must run close to the starboard-shore, where it is thirteen feet deep at high water. We found here Packemack, of Flushing, with his ship. The 30th, weighed anchor, and took aboard full a hundred and fifty Indians, men and women, who prayed us to take them to Timenare. They were of a nation called Sapaye, and were apprehensive that the Caribs would kill them. We went west-northwest, in five, six, seven, eight, nine and ten fathoms water, muddy bottom, and sailed about four miles from the shore, and anchored in the even- ing. The 31st, got under sail in the morning, and set our course west-northwest. It began to be calm at noon. The water was twelve to fourteen fathoms, and we anchored in the evening in eight fathoms at high-tide. The bottom wasDAVID PIETERSZ. DE VRIES. 67 hard, the shoals were gravelly, and were distant about three miles from the shore. The 1st of November, weighed anchor, the wind being along shore; course west, with a fine breeze. At noon, sailed past Berbysie. The water four, five, and six fathoms deep, muddy bottom. Anchored at night in five fathoms. The 2d, we weighed anchor. Course the same as before, and by noon came into the river of Timmerarie. The chan- nel stretches south-west by south, and is two fathoms and a half and three fathoms deep in the shallowest part at flood- tide. It runs about three-quarters of a mile from the east shore, where it is the deepest. Here we disembarked the Indian men and women,—who immediately prepared their habitations with pieces of wood,—as they were near their friends. Whilst we were lying here, Jan Yander Goes came with a canoe from the river of Isekebie, where he was com- mander for the West India Company. The 7th, set sail from Timmerare ; the wind east-north- east, the course north, with a fine breeze. The 8th, it was again unsettled, with rain and wind, so* that we took in our topsails. The 11th, in the morning, saw the island of Barbadoes> lying about four miles east of us. It was cloudy ; the wind east. Laid our course west, and west by south, and set our topsails. At evening, saw the island of Bequia, and some islands of the Granades ; but we were a little too far south, and so that we ran by the wind. Sailed north by east, with a strong wind. The 12th, in the morning, were on the east side of St. Vincent, lying about west from us. On the north side, it has high steep mountains, and further towards the south side, it is also high, and the land doubles. We ran to the north point of the island to anchor. In the first bay, which lies close by, is a rock like a haystack, a short distance from the land,—you must run as close to the west side of it as you can,—we ran close under the shore and came to in twenty- three fathoms. A multitude of canoes came to us here with refreshments. The 13th, at nine o’clock in the morning, our cooper died, after having lain sick seven weeks. The 14th, weighed anchor and made sail; the wind, easterly; but after we were a little distance from the land68 VOYAGES OF it became calm.T At night, had occasionally a slight breeze. Our course north by east. The 15th, in the morning, St. Lucia lay across us. It is low on the south side. A little distance from the point are t\yo mountains like sugar-loaves, and then, further along, are high mountains. Had the wind east-northeast, the course north-east. At evening, tacked about, because the wind was so sharp, and ran south-east and south-east by east. The wind was at times a little stronger, and then a little weaker, after that it became violent. ^ The 16th, the wind variable, so that we lost more than we gained, and at evening were again under the south point of St. Vincent. To the 24th, of this month, we had much variable weather and wind; but, by our reckoning, we saw the Isl- and of Trinidad before us. The 25th, we had fine weather, and ran at noon in sight of high land, in the middle of which was a low valley, and off the east point of which were two small islands. The wind east-northeast, and our course north, and at night sailed off and on. The 26th, in the morning, got out our boat, which I sent ashore with seven men, to see whether there were any Indians, and if there were a good harbour there. My boat returned late in the evening, and reported that there was no anchorage, and nothing on the land but high steep cliffs, and that they found no signs of men. We had here variable weather con- tinually. The 1st of December, the weather became fine; wind east-southeast, course north-east by north, in latitude fifteen degrees and eighteen minutes. At evening saw the Island of Dominica lying about east of us. Ean over four glasses* into the first watch, because the wind was so sharp, but the wind dying away, we turned to the north by east, and north- northeast. At break of day on the 3d, saw the Island of Aves and St. Christophers, and on the third day came to anchor under Nevis, where a small English ship was lying at anchor, bound for Ireland. The 6th, a Hoorn’s man came in from St. Christophers, to wait for a packet which was at St. Christophers, and sailed with her for Gruadaloupe. * Two hours.DAVID PIETERSZ. DE VRIES. 69 On the 13 th, five Holland ships arrived from Pernambuco, and anchored by us, bound for Cape de Velle for salt, and for Curagoa for wood. The 25th, we weighed anchor and sailed for St. Christo- phers, and came to under the French fort in the afternoon. I went ashore there, and found a Frenchman, named Mon- sieur de Nanbuck, in command. I traded for some tobacco, and was well treated by him. Anno 1635. The 1st of January, weighed anchor, and put for a harbour before the Fort of the English, where a person named Captain Warnas commanded, and we took in a parcel of tobacco. The 15th, we ran to the sand-point, where I found four French ships at anchor, two of which came from Cape de Yerde, the other two were taking in tobacco here. The 17th, Schellinger, of Mendenblick, arrived here with a prize which he had taken at Margarita, having lost his sail- maker, who was shot in boarding. The 4th of February, learned that the Spanish fleet had arrived at Guadaloupe, and wanted the ships to run to the leeward, and I said that I would not lose my passage on ac- count of the Spanish ships, and must see whether I could pass by them at night. The 10th, we weighed anchor and got under way, and at evening came about Eedonde, and stood towards Mont- serat, but as the dusk of the evening began to come on, two ships followed after us, which it appeared had kept through the day behind the Island of Redonde, in order to observe the ships which might pass there, lying there in wait, it seemed, for the Spanish fleet. One of them sailed towards us, and began to shoot at a distance, and exchanged signals constantly with the other. We cleared for action, and I let the rigging hang. He sailed close behind us, and asked whence our ship. He was evidently an Easterling, who hailed us. He told us to wait for his admiral. I said if they wished anything, they should come by day, and at the same time told him to keep behind us or I would shoot into him, which he scarcely desired. He called to us again to strike, and wait for his admiral, and laid his bowsprit across us. We said we would shoot. He then immediately held off, when we heard a great noise of people, all speaking Spanish.. He hauled short off from us when he saw that we mistrusted him, and we left him well assured that these ships were those70 VOYAGES OF who were lying in wait for the Spanish fleet, and in the morning saw no more of them. The 11th, at evening, came in sight of Martinique. The 12th, in the morning, had Bequia east of us. Ean along the coast of the Island of Granades,and fell in with a canoe of Caribs (who live on this island) with provisions; but they are a thievish set, and one must be on his guard with them. Anchored at evening on the south end of a fine sandy bay, where there was a salt pond. We went ashore with the boat, but found no salt there. The 14th, weighed anchor early in the morning, with a brave east wind, and laid our course south by west, and by evening carried little sail. The 15th, in the morning, discovered a number of small islands in a round group. They were the Tortugas. We kept near them, and sailed through them, and found the most westerly islet an excellent sandy bay, where we anchored in eighteen fathoms, and sent our boat ashore. There was nothing here but bare naked cliffs and rocks, where there were many hares and coneys, such as we have in the sand- hills in Holland, and shot about thirty-one hares, which were not unlike the coneys in taste. The 16th, weighed anchor, and at night saw the Tortuga, whence they take salt, but did not venture to stop there for salt, because we were alone. Carried a little sail at night. The 17th, saw the island of OrchiUa in the morning, and coming to it, sent my boat to wood, which came back immediately, bringing nothing, as it was wild, and we did not wish to lose any time. Sailed, at noon, by the Island of Rocca, and at evening came to the Island of Aves, and made little sail, so as not to pass by Bonnapere. The 18th, reached Bonnapere in the morning, but saw no salt in the pond. Ran under little Bonnapere, and laid our course for Curagoa, and coming before Curagoa, had so much wind that we hauled in both the mainsails. Presently, there came out two ships, one of which was the Otter, com- manded by Houtebeen, and the other was the Cat, and were bound for the mainland for a prize, and they told me that I could not reach Curagoa, as the wind and current ran too strong to the west. We resolved, as it blew hard, to lay our .course north by west, with reefed sails. The 20th, at evening, saw the Island of Spaniola CopoDAVID PIETERSZ. DE VRIES. 71 Colongia, and stood along the shore, with little sail. The wind and our course west-northwest. • The 21st, found ourselves in the morning close by the Island of Vache. Observed that the eastern shore of the isl- and was full of rocks and rushes, and about noon passed this island, and ran to Cape Tiburon. About three hours after noon, we met a small yacht of the West India Com- pany’s fleet, which hailed us, and inquired where we wanted to go. Answered him to the Tortugas, behind Spaniola. He told us we must sail cautiously, as on the 9 th of Janu- ary, he had run away from the Spaniards, who had killed between five and six hundred Englishmen. The 22d, Cape Tiburon was east of us, and a Zealand privateer, named Maertman, whose commander was named Pieter Jansz, who came aboard of us, and inquired where we wished to go. Answered him, to the Tortugas. He told us that we should be careful, as he had come from thence, and had careened his ship there. Whilst he was doing that, the Spaniards came and ravaged the island, where they killed and made prisoners many English. He was lying under the English fort, upon which nine pieces of ordnance were mounted, which the Spaniards immediately spiked, as it was night. Maertman, whilst his boat was under the fort, had brought two cannon upon the land. When it was day, he hauled his cannon from the shore, and defended his boat with the two pieces which he had in the ship, as he lay close to the shore. When he had his boat again on board, none of the Spaniards dare come to the fort. They then ran over the plantations to drive away the English. At night, there came a sloop with Spaniards, who ignorantly rowed or sailed upon the reef; but Maertman was aware of this (as it was close by his ship), and sent his boat armed to them, and took them aboard. Thus the governor of the English saved him- self by the assistance of this privateer, who presented him the captured Spaniards, with whom he did not hold much parley, but immediately killed them; for which Maertman did not have much respect, as he had handed over these pris- oners in order that some of them might be ransomed. All this was told us by Pieter Jansz Martman, who gave him- self out as commander of Martman’s ship. We also learned from him that he had taken a prize with fifteen cannon, and laden full of Cumarie wines, but had sailed the same prize on the weather-shore, to the Island of Jamaica. He di-72 VOYAGES OF rected us to look well before us, as the Spaniards, with their four vessels, were full of people, with whom they had made this attack. They had one ship and three barks, with a small boat. He then took his leave, exchanging a salute with us; we separated from each other, and w~e wished him a good prize and a prosperous voyage. The 23d, early in the morning, met at the Gaimites, on the west end of Spaniola, a fishing-boat, with a wood sloop, which was full of the English refugees, who had fled from the Island of Tortuga. They requested that I would take the people from the wood sloop (who were twenty-five strong) with five-and-twenty from the fishing-boat, which was so full that they could not move. But my crew were afraid to take so many people on board, but I answered them that these were not English seamen, that they were planters, that there was no danger of their running the ship away, that I knew well how to converse with those people, and understood their language, and also that I could not let them perish in the sea, for they were Christians. After a long discourse with my folk, as we were only five-and-twenty men strong, they thought it was very absurd to take on board fifty stran- gers, not thinking in what misery these people were, who had no food, and who durst not go ashore to hunt for any, be- cause they had no ship to convey them. I at length took the fifty men on board, and sailed that day with them be- hind the Caimites, an island, where we anchored in tern fath- om water, and upon a coral bar. Immediately took some English ashore, with one who could manage the harpoon, and caught a sea-cow, which they brought on board in the evening, with three large turtles. As it was not entirely safe to lie here in foul bottom, and as water could not be got, we resolved to go to the Bay of Goava, in the Island of Guanabo, about ten or twelve miles deeper in the Gulf. The 25th, weighed anchor in the morning, and arrived in the afternoon in the Bay of Goava, where was fine fresh water running down from the mountain to the sea-shore, and where we had only to lie with the boat, and scoop the water in the casks at the bows. We went ashore here, with eight- een or twenty English in our boat, who were well acquainted with it, and who took their dogs to hunt. This is a fine bay, and has about ten feet water, fine bottom. The boat returned in the evening, bringing three wild hogs, which the English had taken with their dogs, and about six thousandDAVID PIETERSZ. DE VRIES. 73 oranges and lemons; so that this is a very fine place for provisions. Besides, we caught some fine fish with the drop- line. The 26th, went ashore again in our boat, with a party of English, and returned at evening with fifteen or sixteen thousand oranges and lemons, and with seven wild hogs, which they had hunted. The 27th, saw a Holland boat, with a sloop's sail and foresail, lying on the shore, a cannon's shot from us, and I discovered by my spy-glass that the boat was full of people. Immediately sent my sloop and boat, well manned, and boarded it. There were five-and-twenty Spaniards. The captain of the vessel showed me a letter that he had been captured by Eoebergen, having a fine ship laden with hides. They had given him back this boat, and thereupon I let him go again. The 4th April, after having well provided ourselves in this bay with provisions and water, we resolved to sail in the morning to a salt-pond, which was situated by Cape Saint Nicholas. The 5th, we weighed anchor, and at noon came to an- chorage at a high mountain. There was a plain around it, and a small salt pond by the mountain. This salt pond lies between Guanives and Cape Saint Nicholas. We laid here in fifteen-fathom water, on a sandy bottom. I went ashore to examine the pond, and found that there was salt in it. We immediately prepared to make a scaffold, to take in salt for ballast. The 6th, finished our scaffold, and began to take the salt from the pan, and after we had collected three or four boat- loads of salt it began to rain, and the salt was immediately dissolved by the fresh water. We hauled the salt on board which we had collected, and if it had not been in the rainy season we might have laden three or four ships with salt. It was convenient to haul, not being more than thirty paces from the sea. We shot here many birds,—flamingoes, and others,—and it was also full of /wild horses, which we saw running by hundreds in the morning. The 10th, weighed anchor at break of day, and set sail, and reached Cape St. Nicholas in the evening, and arrived' on the 12th, before the island of Tortugas, which the Span- iards had left, and found there Eoebergen, from Zealand, who had with him the prize which he had taken from the74 VOYAGES OF Spaniards, as before related, with two other ships, one of which was from Schiedam, and the other from Middleburgh. We also found here a vesselr in which the governor of the English was bound for Virginia. We trafficked some Brazil wood while we were lying here, and as it blowed a storm daily, so that we could not go out, our English went daily to the island of Spaniola to hunt, to catch hogs, and horned beasts, and we lay here safe, through the bad weather, till the 20th of April. I asked the English whether they did not wish to inhabit the island again; they answered that they were afraid of the Spaniards, if they should undertake to inhabit it; so they could not be persuaded to it. This island is at the north end of Spaniola, and at the distance of a mile. Beautiful rills run down from the fresh streams and plenty of fresh water can be had there. There are also upon the island of Spaniola fine savannah or pasture-lands, where many cattle run wild, and also horses and swine. There are no Spaniards on the north side. There are many oranges and lemons growing wild. The 3d of May, we weighed anchor on the east end of Tortugas, and got under sail. The 7th, in the morning, saw the Caicos, the shoal with the small islands, which you have in sight from the Tortu- gas. On the north side there is a clump of trees, which looks like a fort or wooden wall. We had rain daily, and between the 7th and 8 th, we passed by the island of Mayr- guana. There come upon me a stiffness at night (as I had been lying asleep in the rain) that confined me to the cabin, such as I had never known. The 11th, had a hard storm from the north-east, so that we ran with the foresail. The 16th, came in sight of the mainland, and sounded fourteen fathoms on sandy bottom. Saw the sand-hills of Virginia, and were near Cape Engano, in latitude thirty- four and thirty-five degrees. The 17th, came before the harbour of English Virginia, and as there was no one in the ship, except myself, who had been there, the helmsman and boatswain came in the cabin, and had me carried on deck, in order to sail the ship. We arrived at four o'clock in the afternoon before the fort called Point Comfort, where we found a ship from London, in which was Sir John Harvey, governor on behalf of the King of England. He was sent to England by his council andDAVID PIETERSZ. DE VRIES. 75 the people, who had made a new governor, which turned out bad for them. I landed here all the English whom I had brought with me, and endeavoured to obtain some pro- visions, in order to sail to New Netherlands to make my ship tight, as it was extremely leaky, which I could not do iirthe English Yirginias. As it was out of season to obtain tobacco, I let all of my cargo lie here, and gave directions to trade when the crop of tobacco should be ripe, and I would re- turn again when the unhealthy season should be over, that is September,—for June, July, and half of August are very unhealthy there for those who have not lived there a year. The English die there at this season very fast, unless one has been there over a year, by which they say he is seasoned ; that is, he is accustomed to the land. They attribute the cause of the unhealthiness of this land, which lies in latitude thirty-six to thirty-seven degrees, to the variableness of the climate ; one hour it is so hot, at this season, that a man cannot endure the heat, the next hour the wind shifts to the. north-west with such freshness, that he has to put on an overcoat, and that causes the great unhealthiness. The 28th, after I had provided myself again with every- thing, we weighed anchor, and sailed for New Netherland, where we arrived safe behind the point in the evening of the 30th. The 1st of June I went ashore at Fort Amsterdam, where I found Wouter Van Twilier, governor, as before. Asked him if he would hire for me some carpenters, in order to re- pair my ship, which was very leaky ; if not, I would sail to New England. He promised me assistance. I then sent my boat back, in order to let my ship come in, which was five miles from there, and a young man, who might pilot her in, who had formerly, when I went to the East Indies, been in my service. When my boat was about half an hour from the ship, there arose a thunder-storm, which they could not weather, and the boat got full of water, and drove for two nights and three, days at sea. I wondered very much why my ship delayed so, with a good wind, with which she could sail in in three hours. I sent one of the Com- pany's yachts on board, which, the next day but one, came sailing in with the ship; and there came an Indian from the. island* to the fort, bringing news that my boat had * Long Island.76 VOYAGES OF gone ashore, and that the young man, Flips Jansz, of Hger- lem, was in it, and that they had found him lying one fathom or two from the breakers, and had brought him to there wild - houses, as he was entirely exhausted, and that the other five men from the ship were lost. The boat the Indians had hauled up on the land. The 5th, the young man, who had been so wonderfully saved, came to the fort; and he told us, that when he encountered the travado, there were two Frenchmen in the boat, who betook themselves to the sea, when it was full of water, intending to swim aboard (of the ship), but they were never seen again. The first night, as they were all seated in the water in the boat, two more of them betook themselves to the water, intending to swim to the land, but they were not seen again. Flips Janz and my boatswain, who was with him, remained in the boat. The second night, and the third day in the afternoon, the boatswain told Flips Janz, who was to pilot the ship in, that he also would abandon the boat; but Flips Janz answered that he would remain in the boat, and wait the providence of God. In about a quarter of an hour after the boatswain was out of the boat, and had taken his leave of him, he was thrown with the boat on land by the sea and breakers, and he ran five or six paces from the water, and was so weak and hungry"that he could not go further, and there the Indian found him. He said, that while they were seated in the boat, and driven about with it full of water, such spirits were about them, as appear when one has eaten and drunk: and, at length, one appeared like a fine lady; so I suppose that these apparitions were only their light-headedness from the hunger and hardships which they suffered. We pre- pared to clean the ship, in order to get at the leak, and unloaded her, and had her hauled upon the strand,—as the water rises and falls here seven feet, with every daily tide, and at spring-tides, nine to ten feet, according to the force of the wind. We spent here the unhealthy season of the English Virginias,—June, July, and August. The 1st of September, we were lying ready to go to the English Virginias, to see whether we could obtain our dues from the rescued English, whom I had brought from the Tortugas, and for the goods left there. Wfiile I was taking my leave of the governor, the bark of the Company arrived, bringing fourteen or fifteen English with them, who hadDAVID PIETERSZ. DE VRIES. 77 taken Fort Nassau from our people. As our people had no one in it, they intended to guard it with the boat, but they found that they must take possession of it again, or else it would be destroyed by the English. This arrival of the Englishmen, delayed me six days longer, as Governor Wouter Yan Twiller desired that I should take them to the English Virginias, from whence they expected assistance. They therefore took their leave of Wouter Yan Twiller, who was governor, and came, bag and baggage, on board my vessel. The 8th, we again got under sail with the Englishmen. Their commander was named Mr. Joris Hooms (George Holmes). We sailed with a strong north-west wind, along the weather-shore. The 10th we arrived at Point Comfort, before the English fort, landed the Englishmen whom we had brought with us at Cicketan, where we found a bark lying with twenty men, bound for the South Eiver to aid them, but our arrival with their people prostrated their design. We sailed up the river eight miles, to Blank Point, and found there thirty- six large ships,—all of them English ships of twenty, to twenty-four guns,—for the purpose of loading with tobacco. Fifteen of the captains were dead, in consequence of their coming too early in the unhealthy season, and not having been before in the country. The 1st of October, I began to sail up and down the river, according to my license, in order to collect my debts ; but found that little tobacco had been made, and that there had been this year great mortality among the people, and large quantities of goods brought into the country by the English; and that there were great frauds among the English, who had not paid each other the tobacco, and .that half the ships of their own nation were not laden; so that I consider, in regard to this trade, that those who wish to trade here, must keep a house here, and continue all the year, that he may be prepared, when the tobacco comes from the field, to seize it, if he would obtain his debts. It is thus the English do among themselves ; so that there is no trade for us, unless there be an overplus of tobacco, or few English ships. After I had spent the winter here, I was compelled to return, as did most all the ships, without tobacco, and to78 VOYAGES OP let my debts stand. I determined to go off, and traffic for beaver with the English. Anno 1636. The 28th April, I came with my ship again to the fort before Cicketan, where I learnt that my colony, which I had established on the wild coast, was broken up by the disorders of some English and seamen who were among them. Those who want to plant a colony, must not let any sailors among them, unless the place be so situated that they carry on the trade with a vessel. The cause of abandoning the place was : there came a Spaniard with slaves to seek for water, when our people induced the Indians to show them the water. In the mean time our people ran off the bark and killed the Spaniards. And then the English, who were under our people, went to them and told them that if they would go to the Islands with the bark, they (the English) must be the cap- tains ; for they would be going to their own nation, and would there share the booty, but our people must acknow- ledge that they were their servants ; and thus our fine colony was lost, which, if they had remained there for two months, would have had an hundred and fifty thousand guilders' worth of cotton, orlian, and tobacco. But these scoundrels got their reward for abandoning this colony so well begun. When they reached the Islands, the English, who had the title of captains, sold the prize, and the sailors as servants. The English are a villainous people, and would sell their own fa- thers for servants in the Islands. The 6th of May, weighed anchor to sail to New Nether- land. The English Virginias are an unfit place for our nation to trade, unless they continue the trade through all the year. The 7th, we saw the South river north by west of us, about three miles. Sounded upon the bar which runs along the coast in four fathoms, and were surprised at its being so shallow. The 8th, arrived at evening at Sandy Hook, and stood in immediately, so that at two o'clock at night we anchored under the fort, without their being aware of our arrival. At break of day I fired three guns, which caused the people to spring out of their beds all at once, for they were not accustomed for any one to come upon them by such surprise. I went ashore im- mediately to speak to the commander, Wouter Van Twilier, as my ship was very leaky. When I came to the said com-DAYID PIETERSZ. DE YRIES. 79 mander, I was welcomed by him, and I requested assistance to repair my ship. The 6th,* hauled the ship into the Smith’s vly,f where we unloaded all our goods and careened the ship. The 25th, we hauled into the stream again, and found her still leaky, and then resolved that we would let the ship lie, and put the goods aboard the West India Com- pany’s ship ; but as that was not large, and would not be able to carry our goods, we determined to consult the carpenters whether there was any means of making our own ship answer, and for that purpose they sought after the leak, and found, what we had not supposed, that it was in the keel, which was entirely eaten by the worms. We then resolved to go into the woods, and cut a good oak tree; where we procured a new keel, sixty feet long, and made the ship tight again, and hauled her up the stream. The 25th of June, I went with the commander and min- ister to Pavonia, opposite the fort, in the colony of Michael Pauw, where the person who was in command there for Michaeh Pauw, was named Cornells Yan Yorst. He had arrived, with a small English bark, from the Northern Eng- lish, bringing with him from thence good Bordeaux wines ; and as the commander was fond of tasting good wines, he was treated therewith. Whilst we were there, it so happened that there were some words between the commander and minister and Comelis Van Yorst, in relation to a murder that had been committed there ; but they separated after- wards good friends, when Oornelis Yan Yorst, wishing to give the commander a parting salute, fired a piece of cannon which stood upon a palisade before his house, when a spark flew upon the house, which was thatched with rushes, and in half an hour it was entirely consumed. We returned to the fort, and I went to the ship and set to work to haul every- thing aboard again. Whilst we were engaged in shipping our goods, two prizes, taken by the English, arrived. They had first, with a sloop and eighteen men of them, taken, near Carthagena, a fine new and fast sailing frigate of about thirty lasts, laden with tobacco and hides, and then with it took a small bark, having hides aboard. They brought * This is evidently a misprint for 16th. f This is a Dutch word still in common use. It is a contraction of the word vaUeye—a valley.80 VOYAGES 0E them to New Netherlands and ran into the South river, where they found one of our trading sloops, which brought them to Fort Amsterdam. These fellows were fitted out by my Lord Warwick, in order to begin a settlement at the Island of Nombre de Dios ; but through want of assistance and provisions, were compelled to abandon it, and had ob- tained a copy of a commission from one of our privateers, with which they had performed this feat. They sold their pri- zes here at our fort, and shipped their goods in the West India Company's ship and put ten of the Englishmen in mine. As to which the captain maintained that it was forced upon him, as he wished to have his men with his goods ; and want- ed to have his goods in my ship, as I would have taken all his men with me also ; but the commander Wouter Van Twiller, compelled him to ship all his goods in the Company's ship, and compelled me to carry over ten of the Englishmen, all which trading by force was very unreasonable. The 8th of August, the gunner of the fort gave a parting feast, and had a tent erected on the top of the fort, where a table and benches were set for many guests. When the banquet was at its highest, the trumpeter began to blow, as to which some words were passed ; when the keeper of the store, Hendrick Hudden, and keeper of the freight railed at Corlaer, the trumpeter, who gave each of them santer quain- ter, whereupon they ran home, and brought out a sword, and wished to have revenge upon the trumpeter. They went to the house of the commander and used much foolish language, one calling out, “ I am the same man who took the life of Count Floris." But When they had slept upon it, their sol- diership was all over, and were more afraid of the trumpeter than when they sought him; and thus the matter passed over. The 9th, let my ship sail up the river to the*Great Fall, which is a mile beyond Menates (Manhattan) Island, in or- der to take in water and wood. The 13th, I requested Wouter Yan Twilliger to regis- ter Staten Island for me, as I wished to return and plant a colony upon it, which he consented to do. I took my leave of him and went aboard. Weighed anchor, and by evening came to anchor at Sandy Hook, in company with the Compa- ny's ship, The Seven Stars. The 15th, weighed anchor, as did also the Company's ship, and set sail for Patria, to which may Almighty God conduct us.DAVID PIETERSZ. DE VRIES. 81 The 25th September, overtook a fleet of English ships, which came from St. Lucia, and were by contrary winds driven to the westward. There was among them a smuggler from Hoorn. I hailed the Englishman, what latitude they had, and how far he calculated Scilly was from them ; as I had hailed the Company’s ship the evening before, and he told me that he was an hundred and seventy miles from land, the Scilly Islands east-northeast from him ; which differed much from me, as I calculated I was eighty miles from them east by north. The Englishman told me that they were ninety leagues east by north of the Scilly Islands^ which well agreed with me, as our miles are a little more than their leagues. These mistakes happen very frequently, partly because many pilots do not understand the variation of the compass, and partly because they do not understand the shortening of the way by the rotundity of the earth. The 1st of October, we hove in sight of the land of Wem- borough right before Arundel, in a storm, so that we came into the channel with a pair of mainsails, and saw at evening the light of the Singels, and in the second watch the light of Dover. The helmsman then came to me and inquired whether we should not go north-east. I showed him that we were too close to the shore, and that a north-east course would soon make us cold feet, and I told him to go east- northeast on the last watch, arid that it would then be day, and that we must drift along till then in a straight course, and when the day broke then go north-east, and north-east by north. The 2d, at evening, it appeared as if the wind would come out of the north-west; veered a little seaward. The 3d, laid our course towards the shore, and found we were north of the Haecken ; then stood over to the Ylie. There came sailing behind us a large ship, which we hailed. The captain said it was the Hen, of Hoorn. We came in the evening of this day with the ship before the Castle in the Ylie. The 4th, made great effort to reach Hoorn in a boat, and arriving there, learned from my partners that the red- dye wood was worth only a rix dollar and three guilders a hundred, which made us a bad voyage ; for our expectation, when we left, was to obtain eighteen or twenty guilders a hundred, as for sixteen or seventeen years it had been worth that; so that instead of having, as we intended, fifteen or SECOND SERIES.—VOL. HI. 582 VOYAGES OF DAVID IUETERSZ. DE VRIES. sixteen thousand guilders' worth of wood, we had only fifteen or sixteen hundred, which made it a losing voyage for us; but this, nevertheless, had not been so if our colony in Cayenne had remained, which would have yielded us a hundred thou- sand guilders a year in commodities, had they not abandoned the place as I have before related. The work was done, and could be repaired again with little trouble, whenever the part- ners at Amsterdam should wish it; but they abandoned it on account of the lpss of this colony which I had begun, and by my experience started ; which would have returned to us great profits, in cotton, orange-dye, and sugar,—which they would have raised there,—and tobacco and letter-wood,—which grows upon that coast only,—five good articles of trade, which would have increased more and more. I have seen this done in Barbadoes, which in my day was not above a hun- dred men strong ; making at first a little tobacco, which was not much thought of; but since then, they have commenced planting cotton and making sugar. And there can be seen full a thousand men in the Caribby Islands, and much ship- ping, both of the English and of our own nation. The French, also, have planted many colonies. But nothing has been done by us in consequence of the bungling of the West India Company, which covets the profits of all the trade before they are grown. This is my view, and he who has understanding and experience can perceive whether it is right or not.MY THIRD VOYAGE TO AMERICA AND NEW NETIIERLAND, IN ORDER TO PLANT A COLONY UPON STATEN ISLAND FOR MYSELF AND FREDERICK DE VRIES, SECRETARY OF THE CITY OF AMSTERDAM, AND A MANAGER OF THE WEST INDIA COMPANY! UNDERTAKEN AT HIS REQUEST. Anno 1638. The 25th of September I am in a Com- pany's ship, freighted by them, and in which are some per- sons in my service. On the same day, weighed anchor and set sail in company with some ships bound to the Straits, and two tt) Spain. The 28th, near the Kiscassen, a Dunkirk frigate came into our fleet, and began to shoot at our ships, but received so prompt an answer, that, thanks to God, he made off from us. The 9th of October, we saw the Island of Madeira east of us ; the wind north-west, and so remained with us to the sixteenth degree of latitude, before we obtained the trade wind from the north-east. The 28th, we had a west wind with a gust. We were about two hundred miles from the Caribby Islands,—the Island of Seada west of us,—and were much surprised to have, in the track of the trade, such a contrary wind, which continued with us five days with much violence. The 8th November, came in sight of Ladeada, the first island which Francis Columbus saw when he discovered the West Indies. The 10th, we arrived at the Island of Nevis, and an- chored in a fine sandy bay, and went ashore to the governor, who treated me well, and would have me spend the evening84 YOYAGES OF with him ; but imprisoned the master of the ship for refus- ing the anchorage duty, who was a clownish boor, and was not accustomed to this navigation; so I settled with the governor what was to be paid, and he was set at liberty again. The 13th, weighed anchor, and went to St. Christophers, where we laid at the sandy point for three days, and then ieft. The 16th, having weighed anchor in order to proceed on our voyage to New Netherland, sailed at noon along by St Martin and Anguilla, and by evening saw Sombareren. When we sailed by Anguilla, the helmsman tried to make me believe it was Sombareren ; so well do pilots sometimes remember where they do not daily go, that they do not know whether they see one island or another. The 18th December, sounded in thirty fathoms in thirty- seventh degree of latitude, and ran into twenty-three fath- oms, and tacked again from the shore, as evening approached. Thus they converted a good wind into a bad one. I told the pilot, who was ignorant of this navigation, that he must run into fourteen fathoms, to approach the land, for if we turned at night towards the sea from twenty-three fathoms, we could not during the day get into* fourteen fathoms, as in this latitude a strong current set out from the bay of the English Virginias. 1 could not make him understand what I told him, till finally, in consequence of the time that was lost, he was compelled to give heed to me. Early in the morning of the 24th, we came opposite Barnde-gat, the wind north-east, blowing so hard that we ran out to sea; afterwards it blew a storm straight on the shore from the south-east, so that we sailed the whole night and also all the day of the 25th under one mainsail. It seemed as if we felt the same tempest here, as that in which so many ships and men were lost in the Texel. The 26th, moderate weather again, the wind south-west. Saw land again from on board, and at noon came in sight of the highlands of Sandy Hook, and at four o'clock reached the point, where the pilots wanted to cast anchor and fire a gun, in order that some one might come off and pilot the ship in. I told him that his cannon were not heavy enough for them to hear the report at the fort, which was five miles distant. Then the skipper said he would return to the West Indies, as he saw the island covered with snow, and waitDAVID PIETERSZ. DE VRIES. 85 there till summer. I answered him, that if we could not get in here, I would take him to the South river. But I could not make him understand that there was any South river, inasmuch as he had old false charts by which he wanted to sail. As there were some passengers, who had dwelt several years in New Netherland, they urged him to ask me to take him in, as I had been there with my own ship at night, as'before related. The skipper then came to me, and asked me if I would sail the ship in, as I was well acquainted here, I answered him that I would do so for the sake of the passengers who were on board; and that he, at another time, if he took freight, should employ pilots who were acquainted with the places. . So I brought the ship that same evening before Staten Island, which belonged to me, where I intended to settle my people, and at dark let our anchor fall in eight fathoms. The 27th, in the morning, the weather became very foggy, so that one could hardly see from the stem to the stern of the ship. The skipper then asked me whether we should lie there, as there was nothing in sight. I told him to weigh anchor, and although it was growing darker, I would, with that breeze, bring him before the fort in an hour. The anchor being raised, we quickly sailed to the fort, where there was great rejoicing, inasmuch as they were not expect- ing any ship at that time of year. Found there a comman- der, named William Kieft, who was sent to the station from France, and had come in the spring, having wintered in the Bermudas, because they did not dare to venture upon the coast of New Netherland, in consequence of the ignorance of their pilots. Going ashore, I was made welcome by the com- mander3 who invited me to his house. Anno 1639. The 5th January, I sent my people to Staten Island to begin to plant a colony there, with assistance to build. The 4th of June, I started north in a yacht to the Fresh river, where the West India Company have a small fort called the House of Hope, and at night came to anchor in Oyster Bay, which is a large bay which lies on the north side of the Great Island, which is about thirty miles long. This bay put up into the island, and is about two miles wide from the mainland. There are fine oysters here, whence our nation has given it the name of Oyster Bay. The 6th, had good weather at break of day, and "got86 VOYAGES OF under sail, and at evening arrived at the Rodenberghs* (Red Hills) which is a fine haven. Found that the English had begun to build a town on the mainland, where there were already three hundred houses and a fine church built. The 7th, having weighed anchor, arrived at the Fresh river about two o’clock in the afternoon, where at the mouth of the river the English have made a strong fort. There was a governor, Lion Gardiner, who had a Nether land wife from Worden, and he himself had formerly been an engi- neer and working-baas in Holland. They cannot sail with large ships into this river, and vessels must not draw more than six feet water to navigate up to our little fort, which lies fifteen miles from the mouth of the river. Besides, there are many bare places or stone reefs, over which the Indians go with canoes. Remained at night at this English fort, where we were well treated by the governor. The 8th, took our leave and went up the river, and hav- ing proceeded about a mile up the river, we met, between two high steep points, some Indians in canoes, who had on English garments, and among them was one who had on a red scarlet mantle. I inquired how he came by the mantle. He had some time ago killed one Captain Stone, with his people, in a bark, from whom he had obtained these clothes. This was the captain of whom I have before spoken in my first voyage to America, who had the misfortune of his boat- men eating each other ; and he had now lost his own life by the Indians. The 9 th, arrived with the yacht at the House of Hope, where one Gysbert Yan Dyck commanded with fourteen or fifteen soldiers. This redoubt stands upon a plain on the margin of the river, and alongside it runs a creek to a high woodland, out of which comes a valley, which makes this hill, and where the English, in spite of us, have begun to build up a small town, and had built a fine church, and over a hundred houses. The commander gave me orders to make a protest against them, as they were using our own land, which we had bought of the Indians. Some of our soldiers had forbidden them to put the plough into it, but they had disregarded them, and had cudgelled some of the Company’s soldiers. Going there, I was invited by the English gover- nor to dine; when sitting at the table, I told him that it ♦New Haven.DAVID PIETERSZ. DE VRIES. 87 was wrong to take by force tbe Company’s land, which it had bought and paid for. He answered that the lands were lying idle : that though we had been there many years, we had done scarcely anything; that it was a sin to let such rich land, which produced such fine corn, lie uncultivated ; and that they had already built three towns upon this river, in a fine country. There are many salmon up this river. These English live soberly, drink only three times at a meal, and whoever drinks himself drunk, they tie to a post and whip him, as they do thieves in Holland. The 12th, among the incidents which happened while I was here, was that of an English ketch arriving here from the north, with thirty pipes of Canary wine. There was a mer- chant with it, who was from the same city, in England, as the servant of the minister of this town, and was well ac- quainted with him. How, this merchant invited the min- ister’s servant on board the vessel to drink with him ; and it seems that the man became fuddled with wine, or drank pretty freely, which was observed by the minister. So they brought the servant to the church, where the post stood, in order to whip him. The merchant then came to me, and requested me to speak to the minister, as it was my fault that he had given wine to his countryman. I accordingly went to the commander of our little fort or redoubt, and invited the minister and the mayor, and other leading men, with their wives, who were very fond of eating cherries ; as there were from forty to fifty cherry-trees standing about the redoubt, full of cherries. We feasted the minister and the governor and their wives, who came to us ; and, as we were seated at the meal in the redoubt, I, together with the merchant, re- quested the minister to pardon his servant, saying that he probably had not partaken of any wine for a year, and that such sweet Canary wine would intoxicate any man. We were a long while before we could persuade him, but their wives spoke favourably, whereby the servant got free. Whilst I happened here, another farce was played. There was a young man, who had been married two months, who was complained of before the consistory, by his brother, that he had slept with his wife before they were married ; whereupon they were both taken and whipped, and separated from each other six weeks. These people give out that they are Israel- ites, and that we at our colony are Egyptians, and that the English in the Yirginias are also Egyptians, I frequently told88 VOYAGES OF the governor that it would be impossible for them to keep the people so strict, as they had come from so luxurious a country as England. The 14th, took leave of the House of Hope. This river is a fine pleasant stream, where many thousand Christians could obtain farms. The 15th, early in the morning, we arrived again at the mouth of the river, and ran out of it. Sailed this day four miles ^past Koode-bergh, and came into a river where the English had begun to make a village, and where over fifty houses were in process of erection, and a portion finished. The 16 th, weighed anchor, and sailed by two places which the English had built up, and at noon arrived where two Englishmen had built houses. One of the Englishmen was named Captain Patrick, whose wife was a Dutch woman from the Hague. After we had been there two or three hours, proceeded on our voyage, and at evening reached the Minates, before Fort Amsterdam, where we found two ships had arrived from our Patria, one of which was. a ship of the Company, the Herring, the other was a private ship, the Fire of Troy, from Hoorn, laden with cattle on account of Jochem Pietersz, who had formerly been a commander in the East Indies, for the King of Denmark. It was to be wished that one hundred to three hundred such families, with labourers, had come, as this would very soon become a good country. The 10th February, I have begun to make a plantation, a mile and a half, or two miles above the fort, as there was there a fine location, and full thirty-one morgens of maize- land, where there were no trees to remove ; and hay-land lying all together, sufficient for two hundred cattle, which is a great article there. I went there to live, half on account of the pleasure of it, as it was all situated along the river. I leased out the plantation of Staten Island, as no people had been sent me from Holland, as was stipulated in the con- tract which I made with Frederick de Vries, a manager of the West India Company. The 15th of April, I went with my sloop to Fort Orange, where I wanted to examine the land, which is on the river. Arrived at Tajpaen in the evening, where a large valley of about two or three hundred morgens of clay-soil, lies under the mountain, three or four feet above the water. A creek, which comes from the highland, runs through it,DAVID PIETERSZ. DE VRIES. 89 on which fine water-mills could be erected. I bought this valley from the Indians, as it was only three miles abov§ my plantation, and five miles from the fort. There was also much maize-land, but too stony to be ploughed. * The 25th, opposite Tapaen, lies a place called Wick- quaes-geck, where there is much maize-land, but stony or sandy, and where many fir-trees grow. We generally haul fine masts from there. The land is also mountainous. The 16th wrent further up the river. Passed the Aver- stro, where a kill runs out, formed from a large fall, the noise of which can be heard in the river. The land is also very high. At noon, passed the highlands, which are prodi- giously high stony mountains, and it is about a mile going through them. Here the river, at its narrowest, is about five or six hundred paces wide, as well as I could guess. At night came by the Dance-chamber, where there was a party of Indians, who were very riotous, seeking only mischief, so that we were on our guard. The 27th, we came to Esoopes, where a creek runs in, and there the Indians had some maize-land, but it was stony. Arrived at evening, as it blew hard, before the Cats-kill. Found the river up to this point, stony andL mountainous, unfit for habitations. But there was some lowland here, and the Indians sowed maize along the Cats-kill. The 28th, arrived at Beeren (Bears') Island, where were many Indians fishing. Here the land begins to be low along the margin of the river, and at the foot of the mountains it was good for cultivation. At evening, we reached Brand-pylen's Island, which lies a little below Fort Orange, and belongs to the patroons, Godyn, Bonselaer, Jan de Laet, and Bloe- mart, who had also there more farms, which they had made in good condition at the Company's cost, as the Company had sent the cattle from Fatherland at great expense ; and these individuals, being the commissioners of New Nether- land, had made a good distribution among themselves, and while the Company had nothing but an empty fort, they had the farms and trade around it, and every boor was a merchant. The 30th of April. The land here is, in general, like it is in France. It is good, and very productive of every thing necessary for the life of man, except clothes, linens, wool- lens, shoes and stockings ; but these they could have if the country were well populated ; and there could be made good90 VOYAGES OF leather of the hides of animals, which multiply in great quantities. Good tan could be made, of the bark of oak- trees. The land all along this river is very mountainous ; some cliffs of stone are exceedingly high, upon which grow fine fir-trees, which may be discerned with the eye. There are, besides, in this country, oaks, alders, beeches, elms, and willows, both in the woods and along the water. The islands are covered with chestnut, plum, and hazel-nut trees, and large walnuts of different kinds, of as good flavour as they are in Fatherland, but hard of shell. The ground on the mountains is bedecked with shrubs of bilberries or blue- berries, such as in Holland come from Yeeluwes. The level land, or old maize-land, is covered with strawberries, which grow here so plentifully that they answer for food. There are also in the woods, as well as along the river, vines very abiindant of two kinds, one bearing good blue grapes, which are pleasant when the vines are pruned, and of which good wine could be made. The other kind is like the grapes which grow in France on trellisses,—the large white ones which they make verjuice of in France ;—they are as large as the joints of the fingers, but require great labour, for these vines grow in this country on the trees, and the grapes are like the wild grapes which grow along the roads in France, on vines which are not pruned, and which are thick with wood, with little sap in it, for want of being attended to. There was this year, as they told me, a large quantity of deer at harvest and through the winter, very fat, having upon their ribs upwards of two fingers of tallow, so that they were nothing else than clear fat. They also had this year, great numbers of turkeys. They could buy a deer for a loaf of bread, or for a knife, or even for a tobacco-pipe ; at other times they give cloth, worth six or seven guilders. There are many partridges, heath-hens, and pigeons which fly together in thousands, and our people sometimes shoot thirty, forty, and fifty of them at a shot. Plenty of fowl, such as belong to the river, and all along the river are great numbers of them of different kinds ; such as swans, geese, pigeons, teal, and wild geese, which go up the river in the spring by thousands, from the sea-coast, and fly back again in the fall. Whilst I was at Fort Orange, the 30th of April, there was such a high flood at the island on which Brand-pylen lived,—who was my host at this time,—that we were com-DAVID PIETERSZ. DE VRIES. 91 pelled to leave the island, and go with boats into the bouse, where there were four feet of water. This flood continued three days, before we could use the dwelling again. The water ran into the fort, and we were compelled to repair to the woods, where we erected tents and kindled large fires. These woods are full of animals, bears, wolves, foxes, and especially of snakes, black snakes and rattlesnakes, which are very poisonous, and which have a rattle at the end of the tail, with many rattles, according to their age. As to what the land produces, the soil, which on the mountains is a red sand or cliffs of stone, but in the low plains, often clay-ground, is very fertile, as Brand-pylen told me that he had produced wheat on this island for twelve years succes- sively without its lying fallow. He also told me that here the Indians put their enemies to death, as horribly as this plate shows, and had for some time past done justice to their enemies in this place. They place their foe against a tree or stake, and first tear all the nails from his fingers, and run them on a string, which they wear the same as we do- gold chains. It is considered to the honour of any chief who has vanquished or overcome his enemies, if he bite off or cut off some of their members, as whole fingers. After- wards, the prisoner is compelled to sing and dance, entirely naked, before them ; and finally when they burn the cap- tive, they kill him with a slow fire, and then eat him up ; the commoners eating the arms and buttocks, and the chiefs* eating the head. When these Indians fasten their enemy to the stake, he is compelled to sing, and accordingly be- gins to sing of his friends, who will avenge his death.. They inflict a cruel death upon him, pricking his body with hot burning wood in different parts, till he is. tormented to death. They then tear his heart out of his body, which every one eats a piece of, in order to embitter themselves against their enemies. Along this land runs an excellent river, which comes out of the Maquas county, about four miles to the north of Fort Orange. I went there with*some Indians, and passed by a farm upon which a boor lived, whom they called Brother Cornells. This river runs be- tween two high rocky banks, and falls over a rock as high as a church, with stich a noise that it is frequently heard at the farm, and when I was there it made such a loud noise that we could hardly hear each other speak.. The water flowed by with such force, that it was. all the time aa92 VOYAGES OP if it were raining, and tlie trees upon the hills, as high as the dunes at home, have their houghs constantly wet as if with rain. The water is as, clear as crystal, and fresh as milk, and appears all the time as if a rainbow stood in it, but that arises from its clearness. There are a great many Indians here, whom they call Maquas, who catch many lampreys, otherwise called pricks. The river is about six hundred to seven hundred paces wide at this place,"and con- tains large quantities of fine fish, such as' pike, perch, eels, suckers, thickheads, sunfish, shad, striped bass, which is a fish which comes from the sea in the spring, and swims up the river into the fresh water as the salmon does. There are sturgeon, but our people will not eat them; also trout, slightly yellow inside, which I myself have caught, and which are considered in France the finest of fish. There are several islands in this river, of thirty, fifty, and seventy morgens of land in size. The soil is very good. The tem- perature is in extremes, in the summer excessively hot, and in winter exceedingly cold, so that in one night the ice will freeze hard enough to bear one. The summer continues to All Saints' day, and in December it will freeze so hard, that if there be a strong current, which loosens it, it will freeze in a night what has run over it in the day. The ice continues generally for three months, and although the lati- tude is forty-three, it is nevertheless always frozen for that period; for though sometimes it thaws, in pleasant days, it does not continue to do so, but it freezes again until March, when the river first begins to open, sometimes in February, though seldom. The severest cold comes from the north-west, as in Holland from the north-east. The reason of this cold is that the mountains to the north of it are covered with snow, and the north-west wind comes blow- ing over them, and drives all the cold down. This tribe of Indians was formerly a powerful nation, but they are brought into subjection, and made tributaries by the Maquas. They are stout men, well favoured of countenance, body and limb, but all of them have black hair and yellow skin. They go naked in the summer, except they cover their privy parts with a patch ; but the children, and youth of ten, twelve, tected in the fort, out of which he had not slept a single night, during all the years he had been there, and with seeking the war in order to make a bad reckoning with the Company, and began to feel that the war would be laid to his charge, he called the people together to choose twelve men to aid him in the direction of the affairs of the country, of which number I was, as a’patroon, chosen one. Commander Kieft then sub- mitted the proposition, whether we should avenge the mur- der of Claes Rademaker by declaring war upon the Indians, or not. We answered that time and opportunity must be taken, as our cattle were running at pasture in the woods, and we were living far and wide, east, west, south and north of each other ; that we were not prepared to carry on a war with the Indians until we had more people, like the English, who make towns and villages. I told Commander Kieft that no profit was to be derived from a war with the Indians ; that he was the means of my people being murdered at the colony which I had commanded on Staten Island in the year forty ; and that I well knew that the managers did not de- sire a war waged against the Indians, for when we made our colony in the year 1630, in the South river at Swanendael, otherwise called Hoere-kil, our people were all murdered through some trifling acts of the commander whom we had sta- tioned there, named Gilles Oset, as I have already mentioned in the beginning of my journal; that it was then proposed to the Company to make war upon the Indians, but the Com- pany would not permit it, and replied that we must keep at peace with the Indians. This I related to Commander Kieft, but he would not listen to it. It becomes the man- agers to take care what persons they appoint as Directors, for thereon depends the welfare of the country. Were it the case that the East India Company had gone to work in the East Indies, as the West India Company here, they would soon have been there like the West India Company; but in the East Indies they made no person commander of a fort, if he be not well acquainted with the country, and have knowledge of the people sufficiently. But command- ers are sent here whether they be fit or not. About this time also I walked to Ackingh-sack, taking a gun with me, in order to see how far the colony of Heer Yander Horst had advanced, as it was only a short hour’s journey behind my house. On approaching Ackinghsack,104 VOYAGES OF about five or six hundred paces from where the colony was started, an Indian met me who was entirely drunk. He came up to me and struck me on the arm, which is a token of friendship among them, and said that I was a good chief; that when he came to my house, I let him have milk and everything for nothing; that he had just come from this house, where they had sold him brandy, into which they had put half water ; that he could scoop up the water himself from the river, and had no need of buying it ; that they had also stolen his beaver-coat, and he wanted to go home and get his bow and arrows, and would kill some one of the villain- ous Swannekens who had stolen his goods. I told him he must not do so. I then proceeded on to the house of Heer Yander Horst, and I told some soldiers and others who were there, that they must not treat the Indians in that manner, as they were a very revengeful people, and resembled the Italians in that particular. I then returned home, and on my way, shot a wild turkey weighing thirty pounds, and brought it along with me. I was not long home, when there came some chiefs from Ackinghsack, and from Eeckawanck, which was close by me, and informed me that one of their Indians, who was drunk, had shot a Dutchman dead, who was sitting on a barn thatching it. They asked me what they should do ; they said they durst not go to the fort ; that they would give one or two hundred fathom of Zeewan to the widow and then they would be at peace. I told them that they must go with me to the fort, and speak to the com- mander ; but they were afraid that, on going to the fort, he would not permit them to return home. I made them of good heart, by telling them that I would deliver them safe home. They went with me, at length, to the fort ; and, going to Commander Kieft, told him the misfortune which had happened to them. He answered the chief of the Indians that he wanted the Indian who had done the act to be brought to him. They said that they could not do so, as he had run away a two day's journey to Tanditekes ; but they wished the commander to listen to them, as they desired in a friendly way to make the widow contented, and to pay for the man's death with Zeewan, which is their money ; it be- ing a custom with them, if any misfortune befel them, to reconcile the parties with money. They laid the blame upon our people, saying that it was because we sold the young In- dians brandy or wine, making them crazy, as they were unac-DAVID PIETERSZ. DE VRIES. 105 customed to drink ; that they had even seen our people, who were habituated to strong drink, frequently intoxicated, and fight with knives. They therefore desired that no liquor should be sold to the Indians, in order to prevent all accident for the future. It seemed as if they had some fear that the governor would detain them, so they answered him, that they would do their best to get the Indian, and bring him to the fort. They then took their departure ; but on the way they told me that they could not deliver up the Indian to him, as he was a Sackemaker’s son,—that is to say, as above, a chiefs son. And thus the matter passed off. Of what Genius and Condition this Nation of Men are, hoio they are clothed, and what Magistrates they have. As I have related the manner of living, and the appear- ance, of the Indians at Fort Orange, I will state something of the nations about Fort Amsterdam ; as the Hackinsack, Tapaense, and Wicquas-geckse Indians ; and these are em- braced within one, two, three, or four miles of the entrance of the river. Their manner of living is for the most part like that of those at Fort Orange ; who, however, are a braver, and a more martial nation of Indians,—by name, the Maquas, as before mentioned, and who hold most of the others along the river to Fort Amsterdam under tribute. The Indians about here are tolerably stout, have black hair, with a long lock, which they let hang on one side of the head. The hair is shorn on the top of the head like a coek’s-eomb, as is shown in the plate. Their condition is bad. They are very revengeful; resembling the Italians. Their clothing is a coat of beaver-skins over the body, with the fur inside in winter, and outside in summer; they have, also, sometimes a bear’s hide, or a coat of the skins of wild cats, or hefspanen,* which is an animal most as hairy as a wild cat, and is also very good to eat.* I have frequently eaten it, and found it very tender. They also wear coats of turkey’s feathers, which they know how to put together ; but since our Nether- land nation has traded here, they trade their beavers for duffels-cloth, which we give for them, and which they find more suitable than the beavers, as they consider it better for the rain ; and take two and a half in length of duffels, which * Indian term for raccoon.106 VOYAGES OF is nine and a half quarters wide. Their pride is to paint their faces strangely with red or black lead, so that they look like fiends. They are then valiant; yea, they say they are mannette, the devil himself. Some of the women are very well-featured, having long countenances. Their hair hangs loose from their head ; they are very foul and dirty ; they sometimes paint their faces, and draw a black ring around their eyes. When they wish to cleanse themselves of their foulness, they go in the autumn, when it begins to grow cold, and make, away off, near a running brook, a small oven, large enough for three or four men to lie in it. In making it they first take twigs of trees, and then cover them tight with clay, so that smoke cannot escape. This being done, they take a parcel of stones, which they heat in a fire, and then put in the oven, and when they think that it is sufficiently hot, they take the stones out again, and go and lie in it, men and women, boys and girls, and come out so perspiring, that every hair has a drop of sweat on it. In this state they plunge into the cold water; saying that it is healthy, but I let its healthfulness pass ; they then become entirely clean, and are more attractive than before. The girls consider themselves to have arrived at womanhood when they begin to have their monthly terms, and as soon as they have them, they go and disguise themselves with a garment, which they throw over their body, drawing it over the head so that they can hardly see with their eyes, and run off for two or three months, lamenting that they must lose their virginity ; and they therefore do not engage in any diversion by night, or other unseasonable time. This period being over, they throw away their disguise, and deck themselves with a quan- tity of Zee wan upon the body, head and neck ; they then go and sit in some place, in company with some squaws, show- ing that they are up for a bargain. Whoever gives the most Zeewan is the successful suitor. They go home with him, and remain sometimes one, three, or four months with him, and then go with another ; sometimes remaining with him, according as they are inclined to each other. The men are not jealous, and even lend their wives to a friend. They are fond of meetings to frolic and dance; but the women are compelled to work like asses, and when they travel, to carry the baggage on their backs, together with their infants, if they have any, bound to a board.DAVID PIETERSZ. DE VRIES. 107 We will now speak of the Productions of the Country, and other things which serve for the support of the life of Man. The productions are various. The principal one is maize, which is their corn, and which is called by us Turkish wheat. They pound it in a hollow tree, as may be seen in the plate. When they travel, they take a flat stone, and press it with another stone placed upon the first, and when it is pressed, they have little baskets, which they call notassen, and which are made of a kind of hemp, the same as fig-frails,—which they make to serve them as sieves,*—and thus make their meal. They make flat cakes of the meal mixed with water, as large as a farthing cake in this country, and bake them in the ashes, first wrapping a vine-leaf or maize-leaf around them. When they are sufficiently baked in the ashes, they make good palatable bread. The Indians make use of French beans of different colours, which they plant among their maize. When the maize (which is sown three or four feet apart, in order to have room to weed it thoroughly) is grown one, two, or three feet high, they stick the beans in the ground alongside of the maize-stalks, which serve instead of the poles which we use in our Fatherland, for beans to grow on. In New Netherland, the beans are raised on the maize-stalks, which grow as high as a man can reach, and higher, according to the fertility of the soil. There are also pumpkins, water-melons, and melons. They (the Indians) dry the nuts of trees, and use them for food. There are also ground-nuts and white ground-nuts, which are poisonous to eat—a mason of the Company having died in consequence of eating one of them. There also grow here hazel-nuts, large nuts in great quantities, chestnuts, which they dry to eat, and wild grapes in great abundance. Our Netherlander raise good wheat, rye, barley, oats, and peas, and can brew as good beer here as in our Fatherland, for good hops grow in the woods; and they can produce enough of those things which depend on labour, as everything can be grown which grows in Holland, England, or France, and they are in want of nothing but men to do the work. It is a pleasant and charming country, which should be well peopled by our nation only. Medlars grow wild and reversely from what they do in our country, as they grow in Holland open and broad above, but here they grow up sharp, the reverse of those in108 VOYAGES OF Holland. Mulberry trees there are too, so that silkworms could be raised, and good silk made; and good hemp and flax, but the Indians use a kind of hemp, which they under- stand making up, much stronger than ours is, and for every necessary purpose, such as notassen, (which are their sacks, and in which they carry everything) ; they also make linen of it. They gather their maize and French beans the last of September and October, and when they have shelled the corn, they bury it in holes, which they have previously covered with mats, and so keep as much as they want for the winter and while hunting. They sow the maize in April and May. Of the Animals and Cattle, and how they hunt and catch them. There are great quantities of deer, which the Indians shoot with their bows and arrows, or make a general hunt of, a hundred more or less joining in the hunt. They stand a hundred paces more or less from each other, and holding flat thigh-bones in the hand, beat them with a stick, and so drive the creatures before them to the river. As they ap- proach the river, they close nearer to each other, and what- ever is between any two of them, is at the mercy of their bows and arrows, or must take to the river. When the animals swim into the river, the Indians lie in their canoes with snares, which they throw around their necks, and drag them to them, and force the deer down with the rump up- wards, by which they cannot draw breath. At the north, they drive them into a fuyk,* which they make of palisades split out of trees, and eight or nine feet high, and set close to each other, for a distance of fourteen or fifteen hundred paces on both sides, coming together like a fuyk, as is shown in the plates ; the opening is one or two thousand paces wide. When the animal is within the palisades, the Indians begin to come nearer to each other, and pursue it with great ardour, as they regard deer-hunting the noblest hunting. At the end of the fuyk it is so narrow that it is only five feet wide, like a large door, and it is there covered with the boughs of trees, into which the deer or animal runs, closely pursued by the Indians, who make a noise as if they were wolves, by * A peculiar form of net, large at the entrance, and terminating in a snare.DAVID PIETERSZ. DE VRIES. 109 which many deer are devoured, and of which they are in great fear. This causes them to run into the mouth of the fuyk with great force, whither the Indians pursue them furiously with hows and arrows, and from whence they can- not escape; they are then easily caught with snares, as may be seen in the plate. There are elks, chiefly in the moun- tains ; also hares, but they are not larger than the rabbits in Holland; foxes in abundance, multitudes of wolves, wild cats, squirrels,—black as pitch, and gray, also flying squir- rels,—beavers in great numbers, minks, otters, polecats, bears, and many kinds of fur-bearing animals, which I can- not name or think of. The Indians understand the prepar- ing of deer-skins, of which they make shoes and stockings, after their fashion, for the winter. Of the Fowl which come in the River, and the Achter Col.* * There are great numbers of two kinds of geese, which stay here through the winter, by thousands, and which afford fine sport with the gun. One kind is the grey geese, which weigh fifteen or sixteen pounds each; the other they call white- heads, weighing six or seven pounds, very numerous, flying by thousands, and of good flavour. There are large quan- tities of ducks, which keep along the saltwater shore, and gulls, small star-birds,f snipes, curlews, and many other shore- birds, which I cannot give the names of. The geese and ducks come here in September and leave in April. Many of the Indians say that they go to the river of Canada, where they breed their young ; for the fishermen who sail to New- foundland, find them there in great numbers in the sum- mer time, when they are fishing there. On the fresh water are many swans. Land birds are also very numerous, such as wild turkeys, which weigh from thirty to thirty-six and fifty pounds, and which fly wild, for they can fly one or two thousand paces, and then fall down, tired with flying, when they are taken by the Indians with their hands, who also shoot them with bows and arrows. Partridges are numerous, but they are small. There are meadow-hens, as large as a year-old hen, and with feathers like those of a partridge; and white and grey herons in great numbers. Nothing is wanted but good marksmen with powder and * Newark Bay. f Star-vogeltjes.110 VOYAGES OP shot. Pigeons, at the time of year when they migrate, are so numerous, that the light can hardly be discerned where they fly. There are white and gray cranes, and a species of blackbird, as large as what is called in our country the star- ling or thrush, and which makes its appearance at harvest, when the corn named maize is ripe. These birds are called maize-thieves, because they fall upon the corn by thousands, and do great damage. I have seen one of our Netherlanders kill, in the commander’s orchard at Fort Amsterdam, eighty-four of these birds at one shot. They are good-tasted, and similar to the thrushes in Fatherland. I have also seen, at different times, thirty to thirty-four pigeons killed at one shot, but they are not larger than turtle-doves, and their bodies are exactly like those of the turtle-doves in Father- land, except they have longer tails. Of the hinds of Fish which frequent, the Sea and Fiver as far up as the brackish and fresh water. There are different kinds of fine fish on the seacoast for the wants of man, similar to those in Holland, as the codfish (in winter), haddock, plaice, flounders, herring, sole, and many more kinds of which I cannot give the names. There is a species of fish which by our people is called the twelve f* and which has scales like a salmon, and on each side six black streaks, which I suppose is the reason they call it twelve. It is the size of a codfish, very delicate, and good-tasted for eating; the head is the best, as it is full of brains like a lamb’s head. The fish comes from the sea into the river in the spring, about the last of March and April, and continues until the last of May. It is caught in large quantities and dried by the Indians,—for at this time the squaws are engag- ed in sowing their maize, and cultivating the land, and the men go a-fishing in order to assist their wives a little by their draughts of fish. Sometimes they catch them with seines from seventy to eighty fathoms in length, which they braid themselves, and on which, in place of lead, they hang stones, and instead of the corks which we put on them to float them, they fasten small sticks of an ell in length, round and sharp at the end. Over the purse, they have a figure made of wood, resembling the devil, and when the fish swim into the * Striped bass.DAVID PIETERSZ. DE VRIES. Ill net and come to the-purse, so that the figure begins to move, they then begin to cry out and call upon the mannetoe, that is, the devil, to give them many fish. They catch great quantities of this fish; which they also catch in little set- nets, six or seven fathoms long, braided like a herring-net. They set them on sticks into the river, one, and one and a half fathoms deep. There is also another bind of fish on the seacoast, which is called thirteenft by us, because it is larger than the twelve. The scales of the thirteen are yellow like those of the carp, to which it is not unlike in shape. It is of the size of a codfish. Herring also come into the river. There is a species of fish caught on the shore, called by us stone-bream, and by the English schijo-heet, that is to say, sheep's-head, for the reason that its mouth is full of. teeth, above and below, like a sheep's head. Sturgeon are numer- ous in the brackish water, and as high up in the fresh water as Fort Orange. There are many binds of fish which we have not in our Fatherland, so that I cannot name them all. In the fresh waters, are pike, perch, roach, and trout. There are fine oysters, large and small, in great abundance. In the summer-time crabs come on the flat shores, very good tasted. Their claws are of the colour of the flag of our Prince of Orange, white and blue, so that the crabs show sufficiently that we ought, and that it belongs to us, to people the country. In what manner the Indians bury their Dead. They make a large grave, and line it inside with boughs of trees, in which they lay the corpse, so that no earth can touch it. They then cover this with clay, and form the grave, seven or eight feet, in the shape of a sugar-loaf, and place palisades around it. I have frequently seen the wife of the deceased come daily to the grave, weeping and crying, creeping over it with extended body, and grieving for the death of her husband. The oldest wife by whom he has had children does this ; the young wife does not make much ado about it, but looks out for another husband. They keep a portion of the dead in the house. I have seen at the North, great multitudes of Indians assembled, who had col- lected together the bones of their ancestors, cleaned them, Drum-fish.112 VOYAGES OF and bound them up in small bundles. They dig a square grave, the size and length of a person, and over it erect four pillars, which they cover with the bark of trees, as may be seen in the plate ;* they set a time when they will bury them, when all the friends will have a great gathering, and bring ample supplies of provisions. It is accordingly announc- ed in their village, that a great festival is to be held, with frolic and dancing. This festival continues ten days, during which time their friends come from other nations on all sides, in order to see it held, and the accompanying ceremonies, which are attended with great expense. Under cover of these ceremonies, dances, feasts, and meetings, they contract new alliances of friendship with their neighbours; saying, that as the bones of their ancestors and friends are together in the little bundles (which appear in the plate), so may their bones be together in the same place, and that as long as their lives shall last, they should be united in friendship and concord, as were their ancestors and friends, without being able to be separated from each other, lika as the bones of the ancestors and friends of each other were mingled toge- ther. One of them—their chief, a magician—delivers a speech over the bones (saying), “ that if they remain thus united, their enemies can have no power over them.” They then bury the bones in the grave, with a parcel of Zeewan, and with arrows, kettles, knives, paper, and other knick- knacks, which are held in great esteem by them, and cover them with earth, and place palisades around them as before related. Such is the custom on the coast in regard to the dead. The chief doctrine held among them is the belief in the immortality of the soul by some. Others are sceptical on this point, but not far from it, saying, when they die they go to a place where they sing like the ravens ; but this singing is entirely different from the singing of the angels. How the Indians at the North arm themselves when they go to War. When I was at the North, I saw Indians who were going to war. They were armed as the figures show ; their weapons were bows and arrows in the manner shown, which they carry * The reference to figures in different portions of the narrative, is made to plates in the original work. See Introduction.DAVID PIETERSZ. DE VRIES. 113 daily, and each, one had in his hand a shield of leather as thick as buffalo-skin. I took it to be elk's-hide, as these animals are numerous there. If they wish to take a journey in winter, when there is snow on the ground, they bind two things under their feet, like the racket with which we strike the balls at tennis, in order to prevent them from sinking in the snow, as may be seen on the figure (of the man), who is accompanied by his wife. This * is a Representation of them when they dance and have a Feast. "When they dance they stand two and two beside each other, which I have seen at the north. They dance in two, three, and four pairs. The first pair carry a tortoise in their hands, as this nation say that they have descended from a tortoise-father, at which I laughed. They then asked me where our first father came from. I said he was called Adam, and was made of earth. They said I was a fool to say that he was made of a thing that had no life. I replied that it was full of life, for it produced all the fruit upon which they lived. They answered that the sun, which they looked upon as God, produced it, for in summer he drew the leaves from the trees, and all the fruits from the ground. Anno 1643. The 22d February, there broke out a war among the Indians. The Mayekanders, who came from Fort Orange, wanted to levy a contribution upon the Indians of Wiekquasgeck and Tapaen, and of the adjacent villages. There were eighty to ninety of them, each with a gun on his shoulder. There came flying to my house, four to five hun- dred Indians, desiring that I would protect them. I answer- ed them that I could not do it, as the Indians at Fort Orange were our friends, and that we could not interfere in their wars ; that I now saw that they were children, that they were flying on all sides from eighty or ninety men, when they were themselves so many hundi^ds strong ; that it was displeasing to me that they should be such soldiers, as it was to mannetoe himself,—that is to say, the devilbut that I saw now that they were only children.. As my house was full of Indians, and I had only five men with me, I made ready to go to the fort to obtain some soldiers for the pur- * Referring to the plate. SECOND SERIES.—VOL. III. 8114 VOYAGES OF pose of having more force in my house. So I took a canoe, as my boat was frozen up in the kill, and went in the canoe, or hollow tree, which is their boat, as before related, between the cakes of ice, over the river to Fort Amsterdam, where I requested Governor Kieft to assist me with some soldiers, as I was not master of my own house, because it was so full of Indians, although I was not afraid that they would do any harm ; but it was proper that I should be master of my own house. The Governor said he had no soldiers ; that I must see how it would be in the morning, and stop at night with him, which I did. The next day the Indians came in troops on foot from my house to Pavonia, by the Oysterbank, where the great body of them encamped. Some of them came over the river from Pavonia to the fort. I spoke to some of them, and they said that they had all left my house. These Indians went to Correlaer’s bouwery, where there were some Indians from Eeckeweck, opposite the fort, on Long Island, who were under a chief, named Nummerus, whom I well knew. The 24th of February, sitting at a table with the gover- nor, he began to state his intentions, that he had a mind to wipe the mouths of the Indians ; that he had been dining at the house of Jan Claesz. Damen, where Maryn Adriaensz, and Jan Glaesz. Damen, together with Jacob Planck, had presented a petition to him to begin this work. I answered him that there was no sufficient reason to undertake it; that such work could not be done without the approbation of the twelve men ; that it could not take place without my assent, who was one of the twelve men ; that moreover I was the first patroon, and no one else hitherto had risked there so many thousands, and besides being patroon, I was the first to come from Holland or Zeeland to plant a colony ; and that he should consider what profit he could derive from this business, as he well knew that on account of trifling with the Indians we had lost our colony in the South river at Swanendael, in the Hoere-kil, with thirty-two men, who were murdered in the year 1630 ; and that in the year 1640, the cause of my people being murdered on Staten Island was a difficulty which he had with the Earitaense Indians, where his soldiers had for some trifling thing killed some Indians, and brought the brother of the chief a prisoner to the Man- nates, who was ransomed there, as I have before more par- ticularly related. But it appeared that my speaking was ofDAVID PIETERSZ. DE VRIES. 115 no avail. He had, with his co-murderers, determined to commit the murder, deeming it a Roman deed, and to do it without warning the inhabitants in the open lands, that each one might take care of himself against the retaliation of the Indians, for he could not kill all the Indians. When I had expressed all these things in full, sitting at the table, and the meal was over, he told me he wished me to go to the large hall, which he had been lately adding to his house. Coming to it, there stood all his soldiers ready to cross the river to Pavonia to commit the murder. Then .spoke I again to Governor William Kieft: “ Stop this work ; you wish to break the mouths of the Indians, but you will also murder our own nation, for there are none of the farmers who are aware of it. My own dwelling, my people, cattle, corn, and tobacco will be lost/' He answered me, assuring me that there would be no danger ; that some soldiers should go to my house to protect it. But that was not done. So was this business begun between the 25th and 26th of February in the year 1643. I remained that night at the governor's, sitting up. I went and sat in the kitchen, when, about mid- night, I heard a great shrieking, and I ran to the ramparts of the fort, and looked over to Pavonia. Saw nothing but firing, and heard the shrieks of the Indians murdered in their sleep. I returned again to the house by the fire. Having sat there awhile, there came an Indian with his squaw, whom I knew well, and who lived about an hour's walk from my house, and told me that they two had fled in a small skiff; that they had betaken themselves to Pavonia ; that the Indians from Fort Orange had surprised them; and that they had come to conceal themselves in the fort. I told them that they must go away immediately; that there was no occasion for them to come to the fort to conceal them- selves ; that they who had killed their people at Pavonia were not Indians, but the Swannekens, as they call the Dutch, had done it. They then asked me how they should get out of the fort. I took them to the door, and there was no sentry there, and so they betook themselves to the woods. When it was day the soldiers returned to the fort, having massacred or murdered eighty Indians, and considering they had done a deed of Roman valour, in murdering so many in their sleep; where infants were torn from their mother's breasts, and hacked to pieces in the presence of the parents, and the pieces thrown into the fire and in the water, and116 VOYAGES OF other sucklings were hound to small boards, and then cut, stuck, and pierced, and miserably massacred in a manner to move a heart of stone. Some were thrown into the river, and when the fathers and mothers endeavoured to save them, the soldiers would not let them come on land, hut made both parents and children drown,—children from five to six years of age, and also some old and decrepit persons. Many fled from this scene, and concealed themselves in the neighbouring sedge, and when it was morning, came out to beg a piece of bread, and to he permitted to warm them- selves ; hut they were murdered in cold blood and tossed in- to the water. Some came by our lands in the country with their hands, some with their legs cut off, and some holding their entrails in their arms, and others had such horrible cuts, and gashes, that worse than they were could never happen. And these poor simple creatures, as also many of our own people, did not know any better than that they had been at- tacked by a party of other Indians,—the Maquas. After this exploit, the soldiers were rewarded for their services, and Director Kieft thanked them by taking them by the hand and congratulating them. At another place, on the same night at Corler’s Hook on Corler’s plantation, forty Indians were in the same manner attacked in their sleep, and mas- sacred there in the same manner as the Duke of Alva did in the Netherlands, but more cruelly. This is indeed a dis- grace to our nation, who have so generous a governor in our Fatherland as the Prince of Orange, who has always endeav- oured in his wars to spill as little blood as possible. As soon as the Indians understood that the Swannekens had so treated them, all the men whom they could surprise on the farm-lands, they killed ; but we have never heard that they have ever permitted women or children to be killed. They burned all the houses, farms, barns, grain, haystacks, and de- stroyed everything they could get hold of. So there was an open destructive war begun. They also burnt my farm, cattle, corn, barn, tobacco-house, and all the tobacco. My people saved themselves in the house where I lived, which was made with embrasures, through which they defended themselves. Whilst my people were in this state of alarm, the Indian whom I had aided to escape from the fort came there, and told the other Indians that I was a good chief, that I had helped him out of the fort, and that the killing of the Indians took place contrary to my wish. Then theyDAVID PIETEBSZ. DE VEIES. 117 all cried out together to my people that they would not shoot them ; that if they had not destroyed my cattle they would not do it; that they would not burn my house ; that they would let my little brewery stand, though they had melted the copper-kettle, in order to make darts for their arrows ; but hearing now that it (the massacre) had been done contrary to my wish, they all went away, and left my house unbesieged. When now the Indians had destroyed so many farms and men in revenge for their people, I went to Governor William Kieft, and asked him if it was not as I had said it would be, that he would only effect the spilling of Christian blood. Who would now compensate us for our losses ? But he gave me no answer. He said he wondered that no Indians came to the fort. I told him that I did not wonder at it ; “ why should the Indians come here where you have so treated them ? ” The 4th of March, there came three Indians upon Long Island, with a small white flag, and called out to the fort. Then Governor William Kieft asked who would go over to them. There was no one who was willing to do so, among all of them, except Jacob Olfersz and I, David Pietersz. de Vries. We went to the three Indians. They told us that they came from their chief, who had sent them to know the cause why some of his Indians had been killed, who Jiad never lain a straw in our way, and who had done us nothing but favours ? We answered them that we did not know that any of their Indians were among them. They then said we must go and speak with their chief, who had fled seven miles from there on the seacoast. We resolved to go with the Indians, for we believed that they were well disposed to- wards us two. At evening we arrived at Rechqua Akie, where we found the chief, who had only one eye, with two or three hundred Indians, and about thirty houses. They led us into his house, and treated us to what they had, as oysters, and fish, which they catch there ; told us we were tired, and must rest a little ; they would early in the morning speak to us about the business upon which we had come there. During the night, I went out of the house, when there came an In- dian to me, as the moon was Shining, and told me I must come into his hut. I then went into his hut, and by the light saw he was an Indian, who lived half a mile from my house at Yriessendael, with his squaws, who lived there with118 VOYAGES OF him, at which I was alarmed. Then he assured me, saying, that I was a good chief, and that I came to make Rancontyn Maruit; that is, in their language, to make a peace. I asked them how they came so far from their dwelling. They answered that they were out a hunting with these In- dians, and had friends among them. I then returned to my comrade in the house of the chief. When the day began to dawn, we were awakened, and taken by an Indian, who led us into the woods about four hundred paces from the houses, and when we came there, sixteen chiefs were there of this Long Island, which is thirty miles long. They placed us two by ourselves, and seated themselves around us, so that we sat within a ring. There was one among them who had a small bundle of sticks, and was the best speaker, who be- gan his oration in Indian. He told how we first came upon their coast; that we sometimes had no victuals ; they gave us their Turkish beans and Turkish wheat, they helped us with oysters and fish to eat, and now for a reward we had killed their people. Then he laid down one of the sticks, which was one point. He related also that at the begin- ning of our voyaging there, we left our people behind with the goods to trade, until the ships should come back ;* they had preserved these people like the apple of their eye ; yea, they had given them their daughters to sleep with, by whom they had begotten children, and there roved many an Indian who was begotten by a Swanneken, but now our people had become so villainous as to kill their own blood. He then laid down another stick. This laying down of sticks began to be tedious to me, as I saw that he had many still in his hand. I told him that I knew all these things which he had told ; that as to what happened to the Indians of Long Isl- and, we were ignorant of any of them being with the other Indians ; they should go with us to the fort, where the gov- ernor would give them presents for a peace. The speaking now ceased and they gave to each of us ten fathoms of Zeewan,—which is their money, each fathom being worth four guilders. Then they all rose up and said that they would go with us to the fort, and speak with our governor William Kieft. We went to the canoes for the purpose of going, and to make the journey shorter than when we came, for it took full three hours to go. When we reached the * See Note A.DAVID PIETERSZ. DE VRIES. 119 canoes, we found that the tide had not yet began to make, and that we must wait some time before it would be flood. In the mean time, an Indian came running up with a bow and arrow, who had come on a run six miles on behalf of a chief who had not been.with us, and asked the chiefs who were^_^ going with us to the fort if they were so foolish as to go\^p the fort where there was such a villain, who had caused their friends to be so foully murdered ; and who, when so many of the chiefs were together at the fort, would keep them there, and thus all the Indians would be in distress, being without heads or chiefs, and the chief from whom he came would be entirely without advisers. They then asked us two if we understood what he said. We answered that this was a silly Indian, that they would find it otherwise, and would return home with good presents. Then one of the chiefs who knew me said, “ we will go on the faith of your word, for the Indians have never found you to lie as they have other Swannekens.” Finally, twenty of us went sitting in a ca- noe or hollow tree, which is their boat, and the edge was not more than a hand's-breadth above the water. Arrived at the fort about three o'clock in the afternoon. William Kieft came and made peace with the Indians, and gave them some presents. He requested them to bring those chiefs to the fort who had lost so many Indians, as he wished also to make a peace with them, and to give them presents. Then some of them wrent and brought the Indians of Ackin-sack and Tapaen and the vicinity, and the chiefs came forward, to whom he made presents; but they were not well content with them. They told me that he could have made it, by his presents, that those days would never again be spoken off; but now it might fall out that the infants upon the small boards would be remembered. They then went away grumbling with their presents. The 20 th of July, a chief of the Indians came to me, and told me that he was very sad. I asked him wherefor. He said that there were many of the Indian youths, who were constantly wishing for a war against us, as one had lost his father, another his mother, a third his uncle, and also their friends, and that the presents or recompense were not worth taking up ; and that he would much rather have made pre- sents out of his own purse to quiet them : but he could no longer keep them still, and that I must be careful in going alone in the woods ; that those who knew me would do me120 VOYAGES OF no harm, but I might meet Indians who did not know me, who would shoot me. I told him that he ought to go to Commander Kieffc at the fort, and tell the same things to him. We went to the fort, and coming to the commander, the chief of these Indians told the same things to him. Commander Kieft told this Indian he was a chief of the In- dians, and must kill these young madcaps who wished to engage in a war with the Swannekens, and he would give him two hundred fathoms of Zeewan. I then laughed with- in myself, that the Indian should kill his friends for two hundred fathoms of Zeewan,—that is eight hundred guild- ers,—to gratify us. It is true that they do so towards each other, whep. they are at enmity with each other, but not at the will of foreigners. Then the Indian said this could not be done by him ; that there were many malcontents. Had he (the governor) paid richly for the murder, it would have been entirely forgotten. He himself Would do. his best to keep them quiet, but he was afraid he could not, for they were continually calling for vengeance. The 28 th of September, arrived a herring buss from Rot- terdam ; the master was named Jacob Blenck. He was la- den with a hundred pipes of Madeira wine, and had come by the way of the West Indies, wishing to go to the Virgi- nias, but could not find them, and had sailed quite to New England. He could not sell his wine there, because the English there live soberly. He was compelled to return, and came along the coast inside of Long Island, through Hellgate to Fort Amsterdam ; and coming here he could not expose his wines for sale, because here was a tax upon wines which the Company had established. He sold his wines to an Englishman to be taken to the Virginias. As he could find no one who could pilot him to the Virginias, he asked me if I would, take him there, as he understood that I wished to go there in order to take a well-mounted ship for P atria, because my farms, where I had begun my colonies, were lying in ashes ; and the Indians were discon- tented and desired to go to war again, or to have satisfaction. I promised the skipper that I would take him there, and told him that he must provide hitnself with provisions here, for it was difficult to obtain them in the Virginias, because every one there only produced for himself. The 1st of October, nine Indians came to the fort at Pa- vonia, where there were three or four soldiers stationed toDAVID PIETERSZ. DE VRIES. 121 protect a farmer who lived there, named Jacob Stoffelsz, to- wards whom they were so well disposed, that they did not wish to kill him. So they made a pretended errand, and persuaded him to go over to the fort (Amsterdam), and he came over accordingly ; then they went under the guise of friendship, when the soldiers had no arms in their hands, and killed them all, except the son of his wife by a former mar- riage, whom they took with them captive to Tapaen. They set fire to the farm-house and all the other houses at Pavonia ; and thus began a new war. The next day the governor came to me with the step-father of the boy that was made prisoner by the Indians. He was the son of Cornelis Yan Yorst. The governor asked me if I would go to the Indians to ob- tain the release of the boy, as nobody dare go to the Indians except me. I said I would speak to one or two Indians; but if I brought them to the fort, they must not be misused, for they would come with me upon my word. So I went over to Long Island and brought with me two Indians to go to Tapaen to obtain the release of the boy. When I brought the Indians over, every one wanted to kill them, and X had enough to do to save them. I took them to a privateer which was lying there, which carried them away, and they released the boy. The 8th of the same month I took my leave of Com- mander Kieft, and left in the Rotterdammer buss for the English Virginias ; and, in taking leave of William Kieft, I told him that this murder which he had committed was so much innocent blood ; that it would yet be avenged upon him, and thus I left him. Sailed past Staten Island to the headland at Sandy Hook, where we were detained two days by contrary winds. Picked each day some blue-plums, which are abundant there, and grow there naturally wild.* The 11th, weighed anchor to sail from Sandy Hook to the Virginias, with a north-west wind and a weather shore. The 12th, at daylight, the wind from the southeast straight on a leeshore, and it began to blow hard. We were in twelve fathoms water. When it was day, the skipper asked me if I knew where I was. I told him we must run into eight or nine fathoms, when we would be able to distin- guish the land ; but he was afraid of the shore, as he had never been here. Finally ran into shallower water, when he * Wild plums are still found there.122 VOYAGES OE asked me if I knew the country. I said, Yes ; and I saw that we were by Cape May, before the South river. He then inquired of me whether we could not sail straight in. I said, No ; that it was all over full of shoals, that we must enter at the south-west side. He then threw the lead, and had four fathoms, at which he was startled, I told him he must lay down the lead ; that of my own knowledge it was all a shoal there. We then came by Cape Hinloopen in deep water, when I told him he might throw the lead, and he would find eight to nine fathoms, as he ran into the South *Bay, close by the shore. We sailed in by the shore, and he said : “ I was in this same place over seven weeks, and there were Indians here on land, and a-fishing, and I went ashore with my skiff and spoke Spanish to them, but they could not understand me. It was so full of shoals, Iran again out to sea and proceeded to New England/' Then I said to the skipper : “ Had you known the Indian language as I know it, you would not have sailed to New England. This land is called Swanendael, and these Indians destroyed a colony in the year 1630, which I began. Had you been able to speak to them, they would have taken you up the river to the Swedes, or to our people, who would have in- formed you that you had passed by the Virginias.” I sailed up the Bay west by north along the west shore; at evening came before the river by the Rmge-Bosjen, where we anchored in four fathoms, hard bottom, and in the morning weighed anchor. The 13th, sailed by Reed Island, and came to the Fer- cTcens-kil, where there was a fort constructed by the Swedes, with three angles, from which they fired for us to strike our flag. The skipper asked me if he should strike it. I answered him, “ If I were in a ship belonging to myself, I would not strike it because I had been a patroon of New Netherland,' and the Swedes wrere a people who came into our river ; but you come here by contrary winds and for the purposes of trade, and it is therefore proper that you should strike.” Then the skipper struck his flag, and there came a small skiff from the Swedish fort, with some Swedes in it, who inquired of the skipper with what he was laden. He told them with Madeira wine. We asked them whether the governor was in the fort. They answered, No ; that he was at the third fort up the river, to which we sailed, and arrived at about four o'clock in the afternoon, and went to the gov- ernor, who welcomed us. He was named Captain Prins,DAVID PIETERSZ. DE VRIES. 123 and a man of brave size, who weighed over four hundred pounds. He asked the skipper if he had ever been in this river before, who said he had not. How then had he come in where it was so full of shoals P He pointed to me, lhat I had brought him in. Then the governor's koopman, who knew me, and who had been at Fort Amsterdam, said that I was a patroon of Swanendael at the entrance of the Bay, destroyed by the Indians in the year 1630, when no Swedes were known upon this river. He (the governor) then had a silver mug brought, with which he treated the skipper with beer, and a large glass of Khenisli wine, which was given to me. The skipper traded some wines and sweetmeats with him for peltries, beaver-skins, and staid here five days from contrary winds. I went once to Fort Nassau, which lies a mile higher up, in which the people of the West India Com- pany were. I remained there a half a day, and took my leave of them, and returned at evening to the Governor of the Swedes. The 19th, I went with the governor to the Minckquas- kil, where their first fort was, and where there were some houses. In this little fort there were some iron guns. I staid here at night with the governor, who treated me well. In the morning, the ship was lying before the Minckquas-kil. I took my leave of the governor, who accompanied me on board. We fired a salute for him, and thus parted from him ; weighed anchor, and got under sail, and came to the first fort. Let the anchor fall again, and went on land to the fort, which was not entirely finished ; it was made after the English plan, with three angles close by the river. There were lying there six or eight brass pieces, twelve-pounders. The skipper exchanged here some of his wines for beaver- skins. The 20th of October, took our departure from the last fort, or first in sailing up the river, called Elsenburg. The second fort of the Swedes is named Fort Christian ; the third, New Gottenburg. We weighed anchor and sailed from the river ; arrived at noon at Cape Hinloopen, and put to sea. Set our course along the coast south-west, quite southerly at first. The 21st, we arrived in the Virginias, and passed by the fort into the Bay of Kicketan, where the skipper inquired for his factor, to whom he had letters, who immediately came aboard, and directed that he should sail up the river with124 VOYAGES OF his wines to Jamestown, where the governor has his resi- dence. The 22d, we arrived before Jamestown, in our language called Jacob-Stadt—so named after the old king. I went with the skipper to the governor, who inquired whence he came, and what lading he brought. He said that he was consigned to a factor, and had sold his wines. Some Eng- lishmen stood there who knew me, and that I had been in the Virginias before, in the time of other governors, and that I was the captain who, in the year 1635, when the Tortugas behind the Island of Spaniola were overrun, had saved the lives of fifty Englishmen who were wandering on the sea, almost without provision^, and would have perished if I had not saved them and brought them to the Virginias, where many of them still lived. This they told to the governor, although they said I had not spoken of it. There was a person interpreting the skipper, and they told the governor that I could speak good English, although I had been silent. Then the governor asked me why I came there, as he under- stood I had been there with my ships in the times of other governors. I answered him that I had begun to make a colony at the Dutch plantation upon Staten Island, but it was destroyed through the acts of the governor, who had provoked a war with the Indians, so that I came here to seek a passage to London, and thence to my Patria. He said I must remain the winter here, until the ships should leave with tobacco in the spring, and he would provide me a good ship, in which I would be well treated ; but I must re- main with him till then, and I should have as good as he had himself, for I was a man who had seen the world, and had sailed as a commander over all of it ; that he had heard many speak of me before I came into the country now ; that I had treated their nation well, and on that account he should use me well, and would have my society during the winter, as he was fond of, and in need of society. This gov- ernor was named Sir William Berkeley Knight. I thanked him for his kind offer, and said that I had promised the skip- per to aid him, as he had never been here ; but I would try to come occasionally for four or five days ; which I did do. We proceeded with the ship one hundred and seven miles further up the river to Florida, where we discharged a por- tion of the wine ; and I went daily from one plantation to another, until the ships were ready, and had their cargoes ofDAVID PIETERSZ. DE VRIES. 125 tobacco. I saw here the old practice of the English of losing their servants by gambling. I also saw here an Indian and a squaw of this country, whom they call Saske An- neechs, habited as shown in this plate. I occasionally ex- amined their plantations, and found that the lands which had been exhausted by tobacco-planting, were now sown with fine wheat, and some of them with flax. This should be done in New Netherland. Here were now lying full thirty ships to be laden with tobacco, altogether fine English ships of twenty-four, to twenty-eight, and eighteen guns, and also four Holland ships, which make a great trade here every year. This should be done in New Netherland, for it is all one kind of tobacco that grows here and in New Netherland, and also in South river, where it is not different, and in process of time twenty ships could be used in New Nether- land ; and ships with grain also go from thence with hemp and flax. Nothing is wanting but to carry men there, for the land upon this coast is very fertile. And to this end a law should be enacted, forbidding leaf-tobacco, which the English bring here ; as the English have done in their coun- try, forbidding foreign ships to take tobacco from there. Then would New Netherland quickly flourish ; for now all that is carried from New Netherland, amount yearly in pel- tries to a hundred thousand guilders, or hardly so much, and the members of the Company are so jealous of each other, that it is not worth the while to have a company, for they are at a great expense there ; but the land being free, as in the English Yirginias, every one working for his own nation, and everything produced by labor out of the ground, millions would be returned, and the land populated at once ; there would be no want of cargoes of the productions of the earth, as there is of peltries. Such would be the result of labor, as everything in the Eastern countries, and in other lands, is produced by it, corn, hemp, and flax. In course of time the country would become populous; and if we should again engage in a war with our old enemy, the King of Spain, we would be able to do him great damage in the West Indies, for we could sail from this country to the West Indies in from, fourteen days to three weeks ; but it takes sometimes three or four months from the Texel. We could proceed from here, and have every opportunity to make and equip our ships, and furnish them with provisions in New Netherland. The 10th of April, as I had now passed most of my126 VOYAGES OF time, during the winter, in going up and down the river, I went down to Jamestown to the governor, to thank him for the friendship which had been shown me by him through the winter. There was lying there a brave ship of twenty- eight guns, to the captain of which he recommended me to go over with him, who answered that the best in the cabin was at my service, and that I must have my goods carried on board. In going down to Jamestown on board of a sloop, a sturgeon sprang out of the river into the sloop. We killed it, and it was eight feet long. This river is full of sturgeon, as also are the two rivers of New Netherland. When the English first began to plant their colony here, there came an English ship from England for the purpose of fishing for sturgeon; but they found that this fisher}' would not answer, because it is so hot in summer, which is the best time for fishing, that the salt or pickle would not keep them as in Muscovy, whence the English obtain many sturgeon, and where the climate is colder than in the Vir- ginias. The 13th of the same month, took my leave of the gov- ernor, with my thanks, and drifted down the river to Blank Point, where there was a large fly-boat lying, mounting twelve guns, from Brustock, and there came two Londoners sailing down the river, intending to capture this fly-boat from Brustock (? Bristol), because the Brustock people ad- hered to the King, and the Londoners to the Parliament. So there was a sharp engagement with the fly-boat, which sailed into the creek at Blank Point, and the Londoners could not get nearer to it than a couple of musket-shots, be- cause their ships drew too much water. They did what dam- age they could to each other with cannon shot, and some people were killed.. At evening they ceased firing. We went on board of one of the London ships at evening, which did not now come to land, because the governor and all the people of the country were in favour of the King. These two ships were compelled to go to London without tobacco. They went in company with us. I was on board of one of these Londoners the night, and in the morning I went into the creek at Blank Point, and went on board of the fly-boat from Brust, which was damaged some by the two ships, and had lost a man who was a planter of the country, who had come on board to buy some goods. After we had examined her, we went ashore at Blank Point, where a captain fivesDAVID PIETERSZ. DE VRIES. 127 who is one of the council of the country, and holds a court every week. He has three or four persons of his council sit- ting with him. There all suits are tried, and those who are not satisfied with the judgment, which is given, appeal to Jamestown,where a monthly court is held by the governor, who presides, and all the captains of the country, who are the judg- es. Every two or three miles has a captain, according as the places are populated. I passed the night here with this captain, whose name was Captain Matthews, and who was the first who began to populate this part of the Virginias. Although the Virginias are so unhealthy, they contain ten or eleven thousand men and women. The 25th (P 15th) of April I took my leave of this cap- tain, who was a good friend to me, and with whom I had formerly good correspondence. The English there are very hospitable, but they are not proper persons to trade with. You must look out when you trade with them, Peter is always by Paul, or you will be struck in the tail; for if they can deceive any one, they account it among themselves a Roman action. They say in their language, “ He played him an English trick and then they have themselves well-es- teemed. After I had taken my departure, I went leisurely walking to Newport, where the English ship was lying, taking in water, a ship of twenty-eight guns. Whilst I was on my way, it became very foggy in the woods where I was walking, and I could not see the sun. I came to two roads, and did not know which to take. I at length took the largest road, which led me to a pond of fresh water, which was four or five hundred paces in circumference, and about five or six feet deep, and there ran across it a dyke, over fifty paces long, and about six feet broad, which was made by the ani- mal they call the beaver. It was set with stakes in the ground as thick as my arm, and boughs and earth had been brought in, as if done by men's hands. The trees stood there, from which this animal had sawed off the boughs with his teeth. It was wonderful to see that such an animal could make a dyke to hold the water so that it could not run out in the summer ; and it was also wonderful to see that this animal had built a little house on the side of this pool, in shape like a hive, about one and a half fathoms high, with three stories. When the water of this pool rises in the winter, he re- tires to the highest story. The house has eight or ten holes ; if they are beset when they are in their houses, they have128 VOYAGES OF holes through which they can take to the water. On what- ever side they may be attacked, they have a way of escape. These animals are good to eat, and taste like lamb’s flesh; I have eaten of it several times. I proceeded on my journey, and went wandering in the woods, and was afraid that I had, in consequence of the fog missed my way, and that this beaver’s path had misled me, and the evening was coming on apace. At last I saw at a distance an old burnt tree, to which I came. It appeared to have been burnt by the Indi- ans, as the Indians in New Netherland do, where by every spring an old tree is to be found burnt. I went by this spring to rest myself, and put my ear to the ground to listen if I could hear the voices or noise of men. I could hear nothing. I took a pipe of tobacco, and drank of the water, which tasted the best I had ever drank. I found water- cresses growing wild at this spring, and I eat of them, and was refreshed. I then heard a great noise, which star- tled me, as the night was approaching. I looked in the di- rection the noise came from, and I saw from thirty to forty deer coming on a full run towards me. They came to drink at this spring, and almost ran upon me before they discov- ered me. It beg^n to clear away, so that I saw the sun, when I found that I had been going away from the habita- tions. I took my course by the sun, and having run about a half an hour, the sun went down, and I was distressed. At length I heard a dog barking, and I ran towards the noise, and came to a creek where an English house stood, and where they built boats; there was a carpenter there who carried me over the creek, and bid me welcome, and was glad that he had me in his house, as I had, some years ago, on board of my ship, well treated him, and he hoped to treat me well now. He immediately killed a turkey and some chickens. I considered this a better supper than to be lying in the woods all night at the mercy of the wolves and bears, and that without arms. So I related to him my adventure. I said in consequence of there being no sun, I had followed the largest path, and had taken the beaver’s path. He said that he would in the morning give me a guide who would take me to the great river, and if I went along the stream of the river, I could not go astray. I took my leave of this Englishman in the morning, who had treated me so well, and thanked him for his hospitality. I went thence along the river to Newport, where the ships, eleven in number, wereDAVID PIETERSZ. DE VRIES. 129 all lying ready for sea, the least of them mounting from eighteen to twenty-eight guns. Went the same evening to Kicketan by the fort. The 18th, the whole fleet weighed anchor and got under sail. The 1st of May, we sounded in eighty fathoms, sandy bottom, upon the bank which stretches across on the west of Ireland. It began to grow calm. The 2d of May we ob- tained sight of England and fourteen English Parliament ships met us. Our eleven prepared to fight them, supposing them to be the King's ships; but on coming up to them, found them to be friends ; and all sailed on quietly together. Kan along the English coast, and arrived the last of May in the Downs, where I tarried eight or ten days, and heard the shots which were fired before Oreveling, which the King of France had besieged. The 15th of June, I left the Downs for the Mase, and reached Goree on the morning of the 16th, where I hired a wagon to take me to Briel, and on the morn- ing of the 17th, I arrived at Rotterdam, where I stopped a day or two, and on the 21st of June, in the year 1644, by the mercy of Almighty God, arrived here within my pater- nal city of Hoorn, where I have an ancestry of two hundred years on the father's side, and at Amsterdam on my mother's side, and came to my house at three o'clock, for which our God must be eternally praised, that he should have brought me again to my Fatherland, after such long and tedious voy- ages, and through so many perils of savage heathens. SECOND SERIES.—VOL. Ill 9Note A. See page 118. * The Long Island Sachem, in reproaching the Dutch, at Rockaway, for their ingratitude towards his nation, who had given them provisions when they first came upon the coast, and had permitted them to pass the winter among them, with their goods to trade, while their ships returned to Holland, indirectly throws light upon a question which is of. some historical importance,—that relating to the first European Settlement in the territory of New York. These transac- tions had happened within the lifetime of the speaker, and under his own eyes. The statement was not contradicted by those to whom it was addressed, and who must, in defence of their national character, have repelled it, if false; and it therefore may he taken as strictly true. Historians of our State, both in and out of it, have sought to give an earlier date to the building of houses on Manhattan Island than any authentic evidence which we have seen will justify, fixing it as early as 1618. The author of this pre- tension, flattering now perhaps to local pride,—ever anxious to establish an early origin for the State,—but then intended for a fraudulent purpose, was^the writer of “ The Description of the Province of New Albion.”* He asserts that Sir Samuel Argali, on his return from his expedition to Nova Scotia, landed at that time on Manhattan Island, where he found four houses. But this assertion is a part only of a gross fabrication, contrived by the writer of it, in order to aid a title under the British Crown, as will presently be shown. Contemporaneous authorities enable us to state, almost with certainty, when and under what cir- cumstances the settlement took place, and to them we will first direct attention. Hudson made his discovery in 1609, but remained only a month in the river. The first voyage after his was made by Hendrick Christiaensen (who had passed along the coast in a previous voyage to the West Indies, but did not venture in the river) and Adrian Block, who chartered a ship, commanded by Skipper Ryser, on their joint private account, and visited Hudson river, returning to Holland with two Indian youths. The period of their visit is not stated by Wassenaar, who is the principal authority for this voyage; f but he expressly states that this was the first voyage, and places it before Christiaensen’s connec- tion with the Company, organized under the general authority or grant of the States-General of the 27th March, 1614; for he says that Christiaensen, after he dissolved his connection with Block, made ten voyages by virtue of that grant, and the special grant made on 11th of October, 1614, in pursuance of the general one, sets forth that Block and Christiaensen had been on discovery to New Netherland, in command of separate ships, owned by certain private mer- chants of Amsterdam and Hoorn, therein named, in that year, under the encourage- ment of the General Octroy. So that the partnership of Block and Christiaen- sen must have been dissolved before then, and allowing tfme for their return on their own joint voyage, previous to the 27th March, 1614, when the General Octroy was passed, we may fix the time of that voyage in 1613, or one of the other three years succeeding Hudson’s discovery; but in which year in particu- * Printed in London in 1648, and reprinted by Mr. Force, Washington, 1837. t Historisch Yerhael. Snb anno 1624.NOTE. 131 lar, we have no further means of determining, than that De Laet, and after him Stuyvesant (probably on the authority of De Laet), in his letter of the 20th of April, 1660, to the General Court of Massachusetts, say it was in 1610. In which- ever year it was, there is no further account of their doings than as here given, which by no means countenance the supposition that they built any habita- tions. It is true that the West India Company, in a memorial to the States General, in 1634, state that one or two forts were built in New Netherland be- fore 1614, but where they do not say; and it is to be observed that they speak loosely of a fort or forts, which were built by another Company than their own, and are contradicted by earlier authority. The second voyage after Hudson’s was that of an expedition sent out by the Association formed under the Octroy of March, 1614, by the merchants of Amsterdam and Hoorn, before referred to. It is expressly stated that this voyage was undertaken under the pledges of this Octroy; * consequently, it was after the 27th March, 1614. There were five ships, among which were the Tiger and.the Fortune, under the command, respectively, of Block and Christiaensen, as before stated. It returned, as fairly may be assumed, within fourteen days previous to the granting of the special Octroy of the 11th of October, 1614, inasmuch as the Octroy of March required a report to be made within that period after the return from the voyage, to entitle the discoverers to exclusive privileges; and the Resolution of the States-General granting those privileges, states the fact that a deputation of these merchants was present to make their report on that day, the 11th of October. It occupied them, therefore, a term of about six months, to sail to and get returns from New Netherland. The first buildings in New Netherland, of which the Dutch writers make mention, were forts, constructed for defence, and occupied as trading posts and habitations. The first one was built in 1614-15, at Castle Island in the North river, near Albany. De Laet says in one place it was 1614, and in another 1615. It was probably constructed as soon after the grant of the exclusive privileges was made to the Private Company as they could send back and have it done, and therefore after October 11th, 1614; or if not then, at all events after the first Octroy of March in that year. No mention is made by him, however, of any fort thus early on Manhattan Island. De Laet also informs us that Block’s ship (the Tiger) was accidentally burnt in 1614, and that he constructed here a yacht, with which he explored Long Island Sound, and that while near Cape Cod, he fell in with Christiaensen, and leaving the yacht, returned with him to Holland. The Company, in a memo- rial to the States-General on the 18th of August, 1616, as recited in their re- solution of that date, state that the yacht was built on its account; confirming the statement of De Laet that the yacht was built as late as the summer of 1614. This yacht, Vhich was called the Onrust, or Restless, was left here in com- mand of Cornelis Hendricksen, who afterwards returned to Holland, and made a report of his discoveries in what is called the second voyage of the Com- pany. Hendricksen’s report was presented to the States-General on the 18th Au- gust, 1616, doubtless immediately on his arrival home.f He was thus two win- ters in New Netherland, those of 1614*15 and 1615-16. The Company continued to have voyages made hither until the expiration of their privileges on the first of January, 1618, when the trade was thrown open, and continued so until the establishment of the West India Company and settlement by it in 1621-3. De Vries, in the passage now under consideration, reports the Indians as stating that the Dutch wintered here for the purpose of disposing of their goods. J It is quite certain that Hendricksen was left in change of them, and made his dis- coveries in disposing of some of them; for De Laet informs us that the yacht built by Block, was left here for the purpose of trading further,—“ ende liet dejacht * See the Resolutions of the States-General in Holl. Doc. I. 39. t Holl. Doc. I. 53, et seq. $ De Laet, in Novus Orbis, Book III. c. 7, also speaks of their wintering here. The statement in the Breeden Radt, that it took them two winters to build the yacht is prepos- terous, as well as in direct contradiction to De Laet.132 NOTE, doer op decuste om vorder te handelen. It does not appear, if they erected tempo- rary huts to live in, while building the yacht, or in which to store their goods, where they were put up, and from the claim being set forth by a Long Island chief, of aid by his people during the period, it is quite as probable that they were erected on Long Island, or elsewhere than on Manhattan Island, as on that Island. After the expiration of the three years of exclusive privilege to the company of merchants, voyages continued to be made to the Hudson river on private account until the establishment of the West India Company, for the purposes of trade, to the post at Castle Island. * The first vessels sent out by that Company went up the river with some colonists,who built Fort Orange above the Fort of Castle Island, in 1623. In one of these ships, called the New Netherland, were a num- ber of families of Walloons, some of whom, according to tradition, settled on Long Island, at the Bay, from them called the Waaleboght; but whether at this time or not, is quite uncertain. Wassenaar states that the colony on Manhattan Island was planted, and Fort Amsterdam commenced to be built on it in 1625-6, which is the earliest period which we have seen mentioned of any settlement on that island, by any reliable authority; and it is to be remarked that the same annalist, in speaking of the supplies sent out by the West India Company in the year 1625, says that they were sent to the colony near the Maykans (Mohicans) on the river Mauritius, or, in other words, to Fort Orange; and is entirely silent as to any other colony already established on that river. Such, succinctly, is the history of the progress of the Dutch, as given by themselves, in the territory of the State of New York, until the first settlement on Manhattan Island. It is entirely silent as to the alleged building of houses in 1613 on that island, and is strong negative testimony against the statement. There is, besides, a circumstance derived from another source, corroborative of the view here presented of the point under examination, also of a negative char- acter, but equally strong. It is the visit of Captain Thomas Dermer to New York Bay in 1619. This person had been despatched by the Plymouth Company in England, with a ship, to the coast of New England. Leaving his ship at Mon- hegan, on the coast of Maine, he set out on the 19th of May in that year, in a small pinnace, to explore the coast to the south, for the purpose of discovering a passage to the South Sea; and, 11 in my way,” says he, “I discovered land thirty leagues in length, heretofore taken for mayne, where I feared I had been em- bayed, but by the help of an Indian I got to sea again, through many crooked and straight passages. * * * * Once the savages had great advantage of us in a streight not above a boweshot, and where a multitude of Indians let fly at us from the banke; but it pleased God to make us victours; neere unto this we found a most dangerous catwract amongst small rockie islands, occasioned by two uneqaul tydes, the one ebbing and flowing two hours before the other : here we lost an anchor by the strength of the current, but found it deepe enough; from hence were wee carried in a short space by the tyde’s swiftness into a great Bay (to us so appearing), but indeed is broken land, which gave us light of the sea; here, as I said, the land trendeth southerly. In this place I talked with many salvages, who told me of two sundry passages to the great sea on the west; offered me pilots, and one of them drew mee a plot with chalke upon a chest, whereby I found it a great island parted the two seas; they report the one scarce passable for shoalds, perilous currents, the other no questions to be made of. Having re- ceived these directions, I hastened to the place of greatest hope, where I pur- posed to make triall of God’s goodnesse towards us, and use my best endeavour to bring the tppth to light, but wee were only shewed the entrance wherein seek- ing to passe, "wee were forced backe with contrary and overblowing windes, hardly escaping both our lives. Being thus overcharged with weather, I stood alongst the coast, &c.” f Here we have his passage through Long Island Sound, * Holl. Doc. I. 91. Dermer, in Gorges’ Brief Narration, 11 and 30, 31. De Laefc, in Nieuwe Wereldt, 93. Wassenaar, sub anno 1626. Letter of Sir Dudley Carlton in Lon. Doc. 1.9. t Purchas, IV. 1778-9. This letter of Dermer was dated at Captain Martyn’s plantation in Virginia, 27 Dec., 1619, and was published by Purchas in 1626. In the above extracts, he furnishes a remarkably accurate description ot our rivers aHd bays.NOTE. 133 HeUgate, and the East river, to New York Bay, broken with islands, and through the Bay and Narrows to the ocean. The two passages, which he supposed the Indians meant, to a western sea, were the Hudson and Raritan rivers, and the one of them of greatest hope, which he attempted to ascend, was the Hudson. The savages were <5f the tribes who held the conference with Be Vries, and knew whether there were any Hutch on Manhattan Island; yet Benner saw no buildings, or other indications of a settlement on the island, though he coasted along it on both rivers, and heard of none from the Indians. This we may con- clusively infer from his silence; because in an account of his return voyage from Virginia to Monhegan, he does not omit to mention his meeting with certain Hollanders who had a trade in Hudson’s river,—a circumstance of far less im- portance than the fact of an actual settlement there. The Hollanders whom he met were undoubtedly those in the ship commanded by Cornells Jacobsen May, which was in the Chesapeake, in 1620.* May was one of the five shipmasters sent out by the Private Company in 1614, and appears to have continued making voyages to New Netherland until 1624, when he was appointed the first Governor of New Netherland under the West India Company, resident at Fort Orange. Bermer does not state where he met the Hollanders, but probably in the Chesa- peake.! It was the information communicated by him to the Plymouth Com- pany of the Butch trade in Hudson’s river, thus accidentally learnt from May, that led to the inquiries on the subject by the British government, through its minister at the Hague, Sir Budley Carlton, hereafter referred to. Bermer, therefore, would not have omitted to state the important fact of there being houses on Manhattan Island, if there had been any when he sailed by it. Independently of the statement of the author of the description of New Al- bion, it is clear not only that no evidence exists to show a settlement as early as 1613, but that we have most satisfactory proof of the contrary. As before inti- mated, however, his statement on this point is part and parcel of a story intended to show the title of the English to the territory by right of early conquest. We propose, therefore, to examine this pretension particularly, and to demonstrate its utter falsity. His account is in these words— “ The Virginia being granted settled, and all that part now called Maryland, New Albion, and New Scotland, being part of Virginia, Sir Thomas Bale and Sir Samuel Argali, captains and counsellors of Virginia, hearing of divers aliens and intruders and traders without license, with a vessell and forty soldiers, landed at a place called Mount Besert in Nova Scotia, neer S. John’s river or Twede, possest by the French, there killed some French, took away their guns, and dismantled the fort, and in their return, landed at Manhatas Isle in Hudson’s river, where they found four houses built, and a pretended Dutch Govemour, under the West India Company of Amsterdam, share or part; who kept trading-boats, and trucking with the Indians; but the said knights told Mm their commission was to expell him and all alien intruders on his Majestie’s dominion and territories, this being part of Virginia, and this river an English discovery of Hudson, an Eng- lishman—the Butchman contented them for their charge and voiage, and by his letters sent to Virginia and recorded, submitted himself, company and planta- tion to his Majesty and to the governour and government of Virginia; but the next pretended Butch govemour, in maps and printed cards, calling this part New Netherland, failing in paying of customes at his return to Plymouth in England, was there with his Bever goods and person attached to his damage of 1500£ ; whereupon, at the suit of the Governour and Councell of Virginia, his now Majesty, by his embassadour in Holland, complaining of the said aliens* intrusion on such his territories and dominions, the said Lords, the States of Holland, by their publique instrument declared, That they did not avow, nor would protect them, being a private party of the Amsterdam West India Com- pany, but left them to his Majestie’s will and mercy.” J * De Laet in Nieuwe Wereldt, 39. f Gorges’ Brief Narration, 11. ! Force’s reprint, 18.134 NOTE. There are some circumstances which, at the outset, are calculated to throw discredit upon this statement. I. It does not purport to be founded on any per- sonal knowledge or documentary or other evidence; hut it is a naked assertion, not contemporaneous, made thirty-four years after the transactions are alleged to have taken place. II. The author, who styles himself Beauchamp Plantagenet, and who is otherwise an unknown person in the colonization of America, if not a fictitious one, put forth the story for the purpose of establishing title in him- self. As, therefore, he states as facts, matters which were not notorious or es- tablished already in the known history of the time, we may reasonably refuse to admit their truth. III. It is not mentioned or alluded to by those contemporane- ous writers, who not only possessed every means of knowledge on the subject, but were the historians of Argali’s expedition. Thus, Ralph Hamor, who was in Virginia when Argali returned, and who gives a distinct account of Virginian affairs, and mentions the expedition ;* Purchas, who discusses the rights of the English in this country, and famishes an account of Argali’s attack upon Fort Royal ;f Be Laet, who also relates the expedition against the French Gorges, who sustains the right of the English and his own grant of a part of new Neth- erland, and mentions the complaint to the Butch government, made by the English through Sir Budley Carlton in 1621; are all silent as to any visit by Argali to Manhattan. Governor Bradford, of Plymouth colony, offers this nega- tive testimony in a peculiarly striking and satisfactory manner. In reply to a letter from the Butch authorities in New Netherland, proposing to send a deputy to confer with the Plymouth colonists, he cautions them of the danger which might befall the messenger on his passage, adding this remark (dated Ply- mouth, August 14, 1627), “ If you light either in the hands of those in Virginia, or the fishing-ships which come to New England, per adventure they will make prize of you, if they can, if they find you trading within those limits, as they surprised a colony of the French not many years since, which was seated within those bounds” § The governor, writing as he was to the Butch, would have illustrated the danger of their falling into the hands of Pirates, not only by Argali’s attack upon the French, but most appropriately by that upon the identical colony he was address- ing, if any such had taken place ; of which he must have known as well as the, other. With him, we have five original and reliable authorities—contempora- ries of Argali—writing of the events in the colony of Virginia, under different circumstances, for different objects, and without concert or reliance on each other,—one present with Argali himself in Virginia, another in England, col- lecting every thing, whether documentary or oral, in reference to this country— a third, a director of the Butch West India Company, writing in Holland a his- tory which is conceded to be the most authentic and full, as regards facts rela- ting to North America, then written,—a fourth, interested as a grantee from the crown of England of a part of New Netherland, in producing every fact bearing upon the right of the English, who disputes the right of the Butch, and there- fore would not omit so strong a circumstance against it as their subjection by Argali,—and the fifth, in the adjoining colony in New England, who speaks of the jealousy of the Butch on the part of his own countrymen—unitedly silent, when each and all of them must and would have mentioned the affair, if it had ever happened. Against this extraordinary omission of authentic writers, we have the unsupported assertion of a pamphleteer many years after the event, writing for the purpose of aiding a land speculation, founded on a title which was sought to be upheld by another fraud—that of a pretended grant from the King of England, [j It is true that Samuel Smith, Chalmers, Ebeling, Belknap, Holmes, and Ban- croft, credit the story, but they rely upon Plantagenet and Stith as their author- * True Discourse of the present Estate of Virginia, 35-3T. t Pilgrimes IV. 1807, and margin. $ Nipuwe Wereldt, 71-9. i §3 Mass. Hist. Coll. 53. H See Note to the translation of the Vertoogh Van Nieu Nederland, in N. Y. Hist. Coll. 2d series, vol. ii. ?23.NOTE. 135 ties. Heylin and De Britaine, writing subsequently to Plantagenet in the same century, give no. authority, but evidently borrow from him. The accurate Prince, it may be remarked, does not give it any credit. Stith says that Cap- tain Argali, in his return from Port Royal, visited the Dutch settlement on Hud- son’s river, demanded^ possession, and the Dutch governor submitted both himself and colony to the King of England,, and to the Governor of Virginia under him. He gives no authority for this statement, but it is evident from his repeating the error as to the Dutch governor, presently to be referred to, that it is taken from Plantagenet. He does, indeed, say in the next paragraph, that we are indebted to Ralph Hamor for this part of the history of Virginia; but if he in- tended to give Hamor as authority for this statement, it is untrue. Hamor says nothing of a visit to Manhattan; though, as before observed, he speaks of Ar- gali's voyage to Port Royal, and of his supplanting the French there. Hamor, it may also be observed, in addition to what is said above, appears, in his book, as the eulogist of Argali, whom he accompanied on his return to Virginia as governor, in 1617. He would have been the last one to omit so signal an ex- ploit of his patron, as this was claimed to be, if it had ever happened. But be this as it may, he affords no testimony on the subject for the statement of Stith. There is, therefore, no authority for the statement, except Plantagenet. But, passing by these circumstances of discredit, let us look at the story as it is told. The writer asserts that Argali found at Manhattan four houses built, and a Dutch governor under the West India Company. Now, the time of Ar- gali’s return to Virginia, from his expedition, can be fixed precisely. Cham- plain says that he left Port Royal on the 9th of November, 1613,* so that he must have reached Virginia before the termination of that year. He found then, according to this story, four houses and a Dutch governor in command at Man- hattan, several months before the first grant of the States General to their sub- jects, which was passed, as we have seen, on the 27th of March, 1614, and nearly a year before the charter of Special Privileges, by which alone the Pri- vate Company acquired its right to make any trading establishment. It is of course idle to controvert the statement that the governor was under the West India Company, established, as it was, eight years after the pretended event; but, supposing the writer to have meant a governor under the Private Com- pany, it is quite as evident that there could have been none at the time assigned for the submission of that functionary, namely, on the return of Argali from Nova Scotia. The writer says further, that the governor submitted in writing to the English, in a letter recorded in Virginia. No such letter has ever been found or mentioned by any chronicler of the events in the history of Virginia, or other writer, as it would have been if it had been made a record. Stith, who had the means of knowing of its existence, and who was indefatigable in the de- tails of the history of Virginia, rejects it as untrue, inasmuch as he does not repeat this part of the account,* while he admits the rest of it. Thus material portions of the relation are shown to be utterly false, discrediting by every rule of argument the whole of it. Another misstatement, not so material, but show- ing the general inaccuracy of Plantagenet, is, that Sir Thomas Dale accompa- nied Argali to Nova Scotia. This was not so; but, as Purchas has it, in the margin before cited, “ Sir Thomas Dale was Governor, and sent him,” (Argali.) We must, moreover, summon Argali himself to bear testimony against this claim. In 1621, eight years after the alleged transaction, Argali, who was one of the associates in the Company with Gorges^ Mason, and others, united with them in a remonstrance to King James, complaining that the Dutch had within the past year possessed themselves of the country, and were about sending ships there again ; but he says nothing of the former possession of the Dutch, and their submission to himself, which, as affording the strongest argument for the inter- ference of the government, he would have done, if it had been true. An order of Council reciting this remonstrance was made, directing Sir Dudley Carlton, * Champlain’s Voyages. Book III. c. i. Ed. of 1830.136 NOTE. the minister at the Hague, to present the matter to the States General, ana to have the plantation stayed.* Carlton made inquiries, and-answered, under date of 5th Feb. 1627, as follows:—