^J. The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://archive.org/details/cu31924080771987 CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 3 1924 080 771 987 Production Note Cornell University Library produced this volume to preserve the informational content of the deteriorated original. The best available copy of the original has been used to create this digital copy. It was scanned bitonally at 600 dots per inch resolution and compressed prior to storage using ITU Group 4 compression. Conversion of this material to digital files was supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Digital file copyright by Cornell University Library 19,95. This volume has been scanned as part of The Making of America Project, a cooperative endeavor undertaken to preserve and enhance access to historical material from the nineteenth century. The digital data were used to create Cornell'^ replacement volume on poper ihct me«ts ANSIStQndflrdZ39.48>l99t CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY GIFT OF Prof, R. S, Hosmer HENKY HUDSON. HISTORY or THI CITY OF KE"W TOEK. FROM ITS EAELIEST SETTLEMENT TO THE PRESENT TIME. MAEY L. BOOTH. ILLUBTRAiaD WITH OTEE ONE HUNDRED ENGRAVINGS. ,: NEW YORK: J w. E. c. glare: & 00., 49 WALKER STBBET. MDOOCLX. '•r'- / Entered according to Act of Congreu, in the year 1859, bj W. B. C. CLABE k ME£KEB, la the Clerk's Office of tne United States District Court for ttie Southern District of New Torh. W. H. TINSON, $Tim>OTTr» ino Painu, WEEKS ^ JTIDD, Bimie» E.-.f4J*4!C.lr.SU,K.Y )eFr»k/ortiL,N.Y. CONTENTS, 1 ■ >« CHAPTEE I. 1609— 1C33. New York as it wa»— Aborigines of Manhattan— Canses which led to the discovery of the island— Early navigators— Discovery of Manhattan by Henry Hudson— Landing of the first white men — ^Desth and burial of Colman — Hudson returns to Holland Opening of the fur trade— First houses built on the island— Building of "The Restless " — JOrganization of the Tfew Netherland Company— Alliance with the natives — Charter granted to the West India Company — Cornelissen Jacobsen Mey appointed first Di- rector—Arrival of the first colonists — The Walloons — William Vernulst appointed second Director — Organization of a Provincial Government— Peter Minuit appointed Director-general of New Netherland — Purchase of the island of Manhattan— Building of Fort Amsterdam — The Patroons — Building of the mammoth ship, " New Nether- land, '' at Manhattan — Groivth of the colony — Becall of Peter Minuit — His departure for Holland, and subsequent events, 21 62 CHAPTEE II. 1633—1643. Arrival of Wouter Van Twiller — First clergyman and schoolmaster — Chiirchbnllt at Fort Amsterdam — " Special right " granted to the city — Contention between Van Twiller and Bogardus — The William sails to Fort Orange, and is forced to return — De Vries and the Director — English difficulties on the Connecticut Biver — Anthony Van Corlaer, the Trumpeter — Settlement of Flatlands — Purchase of Governor's Island by Wouter Van TwiQer — Removal of the Schout Fiscal — Purchase of Pavonia — Recall of Van Twiller — Arrival of Wilhelm Kieft, the new Director — Reform of abuses — Peter Minuit at Fort Christina — Liberal policy of the Company — Increase of emigration — Settlement of Staten Island — Settlement of Gravesend — The Jansens de Rapeye- English difficul- ties ^Progress of the city — City lots — Tavern built at Coenties Slip — Church built at Fort Amsterdam — The Seawant currency, 63 — 101 ,. CHAPTEE III. 1643—1664. The Indian War — Causes which induced it — Murder of Claea Smits— ^First public meeting in New Amsterdam — The Twelve Men — ^Massacre at Pavonia and Corlaer's Hook — Pro- gress of the war — The deposition of Kieft proposed by the citizens — Adriaensen and the Director — A truce proclaimed — ^Renewal of hostilities — The Eight Men — Battles of Mespath and Strickland's Plain — End of the war — Palisades through Wall streets-Ex- cise imposed by Kieft on beer, brandy, and beaver — Dissatisfaction of the people — Memorml of the Eight Men— Kieft's recall determined on— Petrus Stuyvesant appomted his successor Quarrel between Kieft and Bogardus — Arrival of Stuyvesant — Municipal Eeform*— Melyn and Kuyter— Shipwreck and death of Kieft and Bogardus— Council VI CONTENTS. of Nine Men chosen by the people — Pirewardens appointed — Origin of the Fire Depart- ment of New York^Jity improvements — Municipal government granted to Breuckelen — " Burgher government " established at Manhattan — First stadthuys at Coeuties Slip — ^Invasion t&eatened by the English — Lease of the Long Island Ferry — First seal f ranted to the city — Expedition against the Swedes — The Indiana attack the city — irst survey and censufi — Progress of the city — The Dake of York's patent — The Eng- lish invest the city — Surrender of the fort — Death of Stuyvesant — His burial-place — The old Stuyvesant pear-tree, 102 — 166 CHAPTEE lY. 1664—1674. Col. Bichard Nicolls, Governor — The Nicolls Charter — City incorporated nnder a Mayor, Aldermen, and SherifT— Mayor Willett— -The Lutherans — War between England and Holland — Fortification of the city — Peace of Breda — New Netherland ceded to England — Betnrn of Nicolls — Col. Francis Lovelace, Governor — Popular grievances — New seal granted to the city — The Exchange — Sale of a Swedish planter — Purchase o( Staten Island — War with Holland — Hostile expedition — Conduct of Manning — Becap- tnre of the fort by the Dutch — New York becomes New Orange — Punishment of Man- ning — ^Bestoration of the Dutch form of municipal government — Anthony Colve, Go- vernor — Bfturn of the fleet — ^Warlike preparations — Mayor's duties in olden times — _ Trials for i?itchcraft — Treaty of peace — Final cession of New York to the English — Sir ' Edmund ijidros. Governor — The first council — William Dervall, Mayor — ^Mayors De- lavall, Sttenwyck, NicoU, and Lawrence — ^New York, and its parent. New Amster- dam, 156—174 CHAPTER Y. 1674. New Amsterdam in the old Dutch colony times — Houses and furniture of the Burghers of New Amsterdam— Carpets — Beds — Chests and cupboards — Chairs and tables— Tea parties of New Amsterdam— Clocks — Looking-glasses and pictures — Hearthstones of the Knickerbockers — Manners end customs — Costumes of the early settlers Churcb going— Early streets in the city — Social customs — Holidays — ^New Year's Day Paas and Piniter — Christmas — Santa Claus, 176 195 CHAPTER YI. 1674—1689. Sir Edmund Andros, Governor— Despotism of the Duke of York— Expedition of Andros to New England— Nicholas de Meyer, Mayor— New city ordinances established— Free- dom of the city— Tavern rates— The Shoemaker's Land— Improvement of Broad street — Stephanus Tan Cortlandt, Mayor— Seven public wells built in the city— Water of the island of Tlanhattan — Francois Eombouts, Mayor-^Bolting monopoly granted to the city— Establishment of the First Admiralty Court in the province- Indian laws- William Dyre, Mayor- Visit of Andros to England— Dyre arrested by the citizens for abuse of power in his office of Collector of Customs and sent to England for trial Cornelius Steenwyck, Mayor — Eecall of Andros, and appointment of Col. Thomas Dongan as Governor — First Popular Assembl); under the English government Charter of Liberties — ^Municipal ordinances — City divided into six wards — Monopoly of pack- ing flour and making bread for exportation granted to the city— Aldermen and Coun- cilmen for the first time elected by the people — Gabriel Minveille, Mayor Succession of the Duke of York to the Throne— NicholaB Bayard, Mayor— Persecution of the Jews — Powder magazine established in the city — The Dongan Charter granted to the city— City Seal of 1G86— Stephanus Van Cortlandt, Mayor— Water street proposed— Wall street laid out — Indian afikirs — ^Becall of Dongan — Sir Francis Nicholson assumes command of the province— Eevolution in England- Accession of William and Mary to the throne, 196—2 18 CONTENTS. VU CHAPTER YII. 1689—1692. Dissensiou between the olSciala and the people^Tacob Leialer chosen as the popular leader — Seiznre of the fort by the Leislerian party — Committee of Safety appointed- Seizure of the Coatom Honse — Impotent resistance of Xicholson and liis party — Flight of Nicholson to England — Leisler appointed Commander-in-Chief— Fortification of the city — ^Pieter Delanoy, Mayor — Two mayors — Letter of Bayard to the train-bands of New York— War on the northern frontiers — ^Expedition of Milborne to Albany — Arri- val of instructions from England— Leisler assumes the title of Lieutenant Governor — Arrest of Bayard — Massacre at Schenectady — Leisler acknowledged by the Albanians — Expedition against Canada — Henry Sloughter appointed Governor — Arrival of Major Ingoldsby — Refusal of Leisler to surrender the fort — Arrival of Blouaj|ter — His recep- tion by the anti-Leislerian party— Arrest of Leisler and Milborne-JOohn Lawrence appointed Mayor — Trial of the Prisoners — Execution of Leisler and.Bilborne — Subse- quent reversal of the act of attainder — Assembly of 1691 — Supreme 'Court instituted — Abraham De Peyster, Mayor — Pine and Cedar streets laid out — Support of public gaupers assumed by the city — South Dutch Church built in Garden street — De^th of loughter, 219—246 CHAPTEE VIII. 1692—1702. Benjamin Fletcher, Governor — Change in the Council — Threatened repeal of the Bolting Act — Unavailing opposition of the Corporation — Repeal of the monopoly— First news- paper established m New York — Church ditBculties — The Episcopal Church the estab- lished church of the province— Trinity Church erected — King's Farm donated to it by Queen Anne— Chapels of the church — Indian affairs — Piratical depredations — Fletcher recalled and Lord Bellamont appointed his Successor- William Merrit, Mayor— Mea- sures for the suppression of piracy— The Adventure Galley— Captain Kidd— His his- tory and future career — Arrest and execution of Kidd — New City Hall erected in Wall street— Sale of the old Stadt-Huys— Streets lighted for the first time— Fire wardens appointed by the corporation — Scarcity of bread in the city— Johannes De Peyster, Mayor Assembly of .1699— Remains of Leisler and Melborne disinterred and reburied in the church in Garden street — ^Efforts for the renewal of the Bolting Act — David Provost, Mayor — New market-houses- Hospital for paupers established in the city — Lease of thf ferry— Ferry rates— Isaac De Biemer Mayor— Visit of Bellamont to Bos- ton His death and burial in the chapel in the fort — John Nanfan, Lieutenant Governor —Removal and Impeachment of Robert Livingston — The Noell election — Arrest of Bayard— Arrival of Lord Cornbury as Governor, and subsequent change in the aspect of afiaire, '. 246—268 CHAPTER IX. 1702—1720. Character and antecedents of Cornbury— His instructions from Queen Anne— Indian Laws— Market for Slaves in Wall street-DifBculties with the negroes— Reception of Cornbury by the Corporation— First free grammar school established in the city— Y;el- low fever in New York— Panic among the Citizens— Removal of Cornbury to Jamaica ^ -Religions persecution— Trinity cemetery donated to the church- Purchase by Trinity Church of the property of Aneke Jans— War proclaimed against France and Spain- Fortification of the City— PoU tax instituted— Assembly of 1715— Despotism of Corn- burv— Religious persecution and imprisonment of the clergy— His recaU and subse- queut impnsonment by his creditors— Progress of the city-iiPhilip French, Mayor-- WiUiam Peartree, Mayor— French Church built m Pine street by the Hugaenots— Set- tlement of the Hnguenots on Staten Island— Riot of privateersmen— Ebenezer Wilson, Mayor-Broadway paved for the first time-New ferry lease granted to James Hard- inr— Arrival of Lord Lovelace as Governor— Conduct of the Assembly— Death of thi Governor— Gerardns Beekman at the head of affairs-Kobert Hunter, Governor- Commencement of German immigration— The Palatines-Lutheran Church buiU in Broadway— Lewis Morris of Morrisania- Hostile expedition against Canada-First negro plot in the city— Peace of Utrecht— Contest between the Governor and Assem VIU CONTENTS. bly— Institntion of a Conrt of Chancery— Return of Hunter to England — Government administered by Peter Schnyler — Jacobna Van Cortlandt, Mayor — Progress of the city— Mnnicipal ordinances of the administration of Hunter — Caleb Heatncote, Mayor — His history and antecedents — Alms House and House of Correction erected in the Commons — James Johnston, Mayor — First public clock in the city — Presbyterian Church erected in Wall street — First ropewalk built ia Broadway — Jacobus Van Cor- landt, Mayor — Arrival of William Burnet as Governor, 269 — 302 CHAPTEE X. 1729—1732. Marriage of the Governor to a lady of New Tort — Debut of Cadwallader Colden in poli- tical affairs — Glance at affairs on the northern and western frontiers — Policy of Burnet — Abolition of the circuitous trade — Opposition of the merchants — Opening of the fur trade to private enterprise — Congress of Governors at Albany — Difficulties in the French church in Piue street — Contest between Burnet and the Assembly — Burnet superseded by John Montgomerie — Robert Walters, Mayor — Munictpal ordinances of hia administration — Johannes Jansen, Mayor — Robert Lurting, Mayor — The Montgo- merie Charter granted to the city — Middle Dutch Church built in Nassau street — Jew's Burial ground established in Chatham street — Powder House built in an island in the Collect — Greenwich and Washington streets constructed — Line of stages established between New York and Philadelphia — Foot post to Albaay — First public library of the city— Markets of the city— The White Hall— The Bowling Green— The Commons— The Vineyard — The Collect— The Swamp — The Shoemaker's Land — ^Vandercliffs Orchard — The " Bowery "—The Lantberg Hifls — Minetta Brook — Crummashie Hill — The Inclen- berg — Bayard's Mount — Corlaer's Hook— Potter's Hill— Wolfert's Marsh— The King's Farm — City divided into seven wards — Fire engines introduced into the city — First organization of a Fire Department — Death of Montgomerie — Kip Van Dam assumes the charge of affairs — Arrival of William Cosby as Governor, 303— 328 CHAPTER XI. 1732—1741. Character of Cosby — His controversy with Rip Van Dam — Suit instituted in the Exche- quer — Its result — Chief Justice Morris removed from office and James De Lancey ap- pointed iu his stead — Public Sentiment — Publication of Zenger'a Weekly Journal — First newspaper controversy in the city — Zenker's paper ordered to be publicly burned — ^Refusal of the Mayor and Corporation to witness the ceremony — Zenger imprisoned on a charge of libel — Artifices of the accusing parCy"- Smith and Alexander removed from the bar — Andrew Hamilton, of Philadelphia, retained as counsel for Zenger Trial of Zenger in the City Hall in Wall street-^Eloquent defence of Hamilton— Acquit- tal of the prisoner — Pubhc rejoicings— The freedom of the city presented to Hamilton by the Corporation^Inconsistenoy of the municipal authorities — Freedom of the city presented to the brother and son-m-law of tlie Governor, together with Lord Augustus Fitzroy— Secret marriage of the latter to the Governor's daughter — ^Death of Cosby — Previous suspension of Van Dam from the Council — Contest between Clark and Van Dam — Clark appointed Lieutenant-Governor — Hia acta and policy — Smith and Alexan- der restored to the bar — Disfranchisement of the Jews — Retrospect of city affairs — First Poor House erected on the Commons— Cortlandt street opened — Paul Richard, Mayor —Commencement of the Battery on Whitehall Rocks— Extension of Water street- Rector street opened — Quarantine at Bedloe's Island — John Cruger, Mayor — ^Market- house built in Broadway opposite Liberty street — Hard winter of 1740-41 — Snow six fee* on a level — The approaching catastrophe, 329—354 CHAPTEE XII. 1741—1763. The negro plot of 1741 — Causes and effects — ^Robbery at the house of Hogg — Arrest of Hughson and his associates — Buildings in the fort destroyed by fire — Successive con- flagrations — The Spanish negroes — Suspicion and arrest of the slaves — Trial of the prisoners — Confession of Peggy Carey — Further arrests — Execution of Prince and CONTENTS. IX C«Mr— Execution of Hnghson, his wife and Peggy Carey— Piogresa of the trials— Universal panic — More executiona — Proclamation of Pardon and reward to confessing conspirators— More accusations— Trial and condemnation of John Ury— Other whites accused by Mary Burton— Stay of proceedings— Beview of the plot— Yellow fever in New York— George Clinton arrives as Governor— Proceedings of the Assembly— New war with Prance— Stephen Bayard, Mayor— King's College proposed— Edward Hol- land, Mayor — Opening of Beekman and the contiguous streets— Moravian Chapel built in Pulton street — First Merchants' Exchange erected in the city — St. George's Chapel built in Beekman street — Dissensions between the Governor and Assembly — Outrage by the captain of the Greyhound — Popular indignation — ^Besignation of Clinton — Sir Danvers Osborn a|Ppointed Governor — ^Hia arrival and .xeception — His suicide and Burial — Jamea De Lancey Lieutenant-Governor, 356 — 380 OHAPTEK XIII. 1753—1763. Lieutenant-Governor De Lancey — Position of the two great parties of the province— De Lancey's policy — The third intercolonial war — Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle — Congress at Albany — Charter of King's College signed and sealed bj the governor — Controversy between the Episcopalians and Presbyterians — City journals : The Post Boy, Weekly Mercury, and Independent Heflector — Society Library founded — Walton House built in Pearl street — Ferry between New York and Staten Island — Peck Slip opened — New war between England and France— Fortification of the city — Sir Charles Hardy, Governor — ^6 returns to England — De Lancey again Lieutenant-Governor — John Cruger, jr., Mayor— The Corporation and Lord London — Progress of the French and Indian War — Conquest of Canada — Death of De Lancey — Cadwallader Golden, Lieutenant-Governor— Attempted impressment in New York harbor — ^Visit of General Amherat to New York — His reception by the municipal authorities — Death of George H., and accession of George III. — Theatre opened in Beekman street — Robert Monckton, Governor — His reception by the Corporation — Position of public affairs— Departure of Monckton for Martinique — His return — ^The city lighted at public expense — Assize of provisions — Dr. Cooper, second president of King's College — Progress of the Institution — Early graduates— Sandy Hook lighthouse first lighted-— Jersey City ferry established — Tra- velling accommodations of olden times — ^Methodist Church built in John street — ^Biot of the British soldiers — Resignation of Monckton — His return to England — Cadwallader Golden at the head of the Government, '. 381—401 CHAPTER XIV. 1763—1769. The American Coloniesiat the beginning of the Revolution— Policy of Great Britain— Navigation Acts — Proposed scheme of parliamentary taxation — Lord Grenville at the head°of the British Cabinet^-Stamp Act proposed— Protest of the New York Assem bly Passage of the Stamp Act — Reception of the news in the city— The Sons of Lib- erty Constitutional Courant published — Affair of the Garland — Impressment of the Fishermen— First colonial Congress held in New York- Opposition of Colden— Declara- tion of rights and grievances — Journals of New York — Holt's Gazette and Post-Boy — Meetin" of the Merchants at Burns' Coffee House— The non-intercourse agreement— CommiMee of Correspondence— Arrival of the stamps— Resignation of McEvers, the Stamp Distributor of New York— Stamps received by Colden— Riots of the Ist of No- vcmber- Colden burnt in effigy on the Bowling Green— Proclamation of Colden— Deli- very of the Stamps to the Mayor and Corporation— Fair established for the sale of home manufactures— Plan of union proposed by the Committee of Correspondence- Address to General Gage— Whig and Tory— Arrival of Sir Henry Moore as Governor— Captain Jacobson— Stamps for Connecticut burned by the Sons of Liberty— Lewis Pintard First stamp brought into the city from Canada— Its reception by the citizens —Grenville, Colville, and Murray burned in effigy on the Commons— Repeal of the Stamp Actn-First liberty pole erected on the Commons— Statues of Pitt and George III. —Battles around the liberty pole— Outrages of the British soldiery— Whitehead Hicks, Mavor— New York Assembly of 1761-1768— The Mutiny Act— Contest between the Governor and Assembly— Disfranchisement of New York by the British Pariiament— Tax on tea— Spirited action of the Sons of Liberty— Patriotism of the New York mer- chants—Formal dissolution of the Assembly— A new one convened— Disposition of the new Assembly— Sympathy with the Bostonians— Burning of the Governor and Sheriff of Boston in effi"y on the Commons— Death of Moore and consequent accession of CadwaUader Cold"en, 405-442 X CONTENTS. CHAPTER XV. 1769—1773. Disposition of the Assembly of 1769— Emission of Bills of Credit— Handbills posted denouncing the Assembly — Meeting on the Commons — Public protest — John Lamb charged with libel, and subsequently dismissed — Arrest and imprisonment of Alexan- der McDougall — Movements of the Sons of Liberty— Lord North at the head of the British Cabinet — Tax removed from all articles except tea — Attack of the British sol- diers on the liberty pole — Conflict at Montague's — Fourth liberty pole cnt down by the soldiers — Indignation meeting on the Commons — Battle of Golden Hill — Defeat of the British soldiers — Permission to erect a liberty pole refused to the citizens by the Mayor and Corporation — Fifth liberty pole erected on private property by the Sons of Liberty — Purchase of Hampden Hall by the Liberty Party — New attack on the lib- erty pole by the British soldiers — Their defeat — Pinal destiny of the liberty pole — Nathan Kogers burnt in effigy on the Commons — Committee of One Hundred — Re- sumption of importations — Protest of the Sons of Liberty — Lord Dunmore arrives as Governor — Trial of McDongall — William Tryon appointed Governor — ^New arrange- ments in respect to the salaries of officials — Sears removed from office, to give place to Uontagne — New York Hospital founded — Burning of the Governor's house in the tort, 443—465 CHAPTER XVI. 1773—1776. Scheme of Parliament for forcing the tea on the colonies — ^Reception of the news in New York — Resolutions of the Mohawks and Liberty Roys — Apprehensions of the London merchants — Meeting of the Sons of Liberty on the 16th of December — The people resolve to receive no tea — Tryon returns to England — Colden again at the head of the government — Arrival of the tea ship Nancy — Her reception by the Sons of Liberty — Captain Chambers of the T.ondon arrives with tea — The New York tea-party — Public leave-taking of the captains of the tea-ships — The Boston Port Bill — Visit of Paul Revere to J(ew York — Proposition to renew the non-importation agreement — Dissent of the Committee of Fifty-one — Great meeting in the fields — D^but of Alexander Hamilton — Second Colonial Congress at Philadelphia — Election of the New York dele- gates — Committee of Sixty appointed in the city — The James of Glasgow sent back to England by the Vigilance Committee — First Provincial Congress assembles in New York — The Asia stationed before the town — Boards destined for the barracks at Bos- ton seized by the Sons of Liberty — News of the battle of Lexington— Vigorous mea- sures of the Sons of Liberty — Committee of Safety organized and preparations made for defence — Seizure of military stores at Turtle Bay — Commencement of open hostili- ties— Washington appointed Commander-in-Chief— His visit to New York and reception by the Provincial Congress— Return of Tryon— The Asia fires upon the town- Abdica- tion of Tryon— Rivington's Gazette demoUshed by the Sons of Liberty— General Putnam in command ^t New York— Ideas of Independence— " Common Sense" — "Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress " — Reception of the news in the city — Washington in New York — Battle of Long Island — Retreat of Washington from New York— Capture of Port Washington— The British in possession of the c"y> 466—509 CHAPTER XVII. 1776—1783. The British in New York— Gen. Howe, Commander in-Chief— Prisons of the Revolution— The North Dutch Church— Brick Church in Beekman street— Friends' Meeting House -French Church in Pine street— Middle Dutch Church— Reminiscences of John Pin- tard — Old sugar house in Liberty street — Bridewell — New Jail— Reminiscences of John Pintard, Levi Hanford and others— The prison ships-^The old Jersey, Scorpion, Fal- mouth and others— Freueau's Poem on the Prison Ship— Conflagration of 1776— Death of Cadwallader Colden— Burning of the house of Oliver De Lancey— Journals of the City — Arrest and imprisonment of Gen. Lee— First constitation of the State of New ^1 CONTENTS. remains of the priBOQ-ship martyrs— Fire of 1811— New York Island snrreyed and laid out— War of 1812— Meetings ia the Park— Harbor fortifications— Preparations for defence— Close of the War— Politics of the city— Cadwallader D. Golden, Mayor- Stephen Allen, Mayor- William Paulding, Mayor— Visit of Lafayette to New York- The Erie Canal Celebration— Death of De Witt Clinton, 66S— 722 CHAPTER XXI. 1826—1866. Introduction of gas into the city — Joint stock companies — ^Financial panic of 1826 — The Italian Opera — The Garcia Troupe — ^Introduction of marble as a building material- Merchants' Exchange built in Wall street^Anti-Masonic Excitement — Walter Bowne, Mayor— Amended Charter of 1830 — Politics of the city — Gideon Lee, Mayor— Cholera of 1832 — Journalism In the city — ^Establishment of the Penny press — The Moon Hoax — Cornelius W. Lawrence, Mayor — Great fire of 1835 — Financial panic of 1837 — Aaron Clark, Mayor — Isaac L. Varian, Mayor — Robert H. Motris, Mayor — Steamships Sirius and Great Western — Introduction of the Croton into the city — First Magnetic Telegraph Line — Fire of 1845— James Harper, Mayor — Politics in the city — Mayors HaTemeyer, Miokle, Brady and Woodhull — Amended Charter of 1849 — Astor Place Opera House Kiot— Ambrose C. Ejugsland, Mayor — Jenny Lind in New York — Arrival of Kossuth— Jacob A. Westervelt, Mayor — ^The Crystal Palace — ^Pranconi's Hippodrome— New York in 1856 723—763 CHAPTER XXII. 1856—1869. Fernando Wood, Mayor — Opening events of his administration — The Central Park — Financial panic of 1887 — Suspension of the Banks — Meetings of workingmen in the Park — The Cable celebration — Burning of the City Hall— Amended Charter of 1857 — Daniel F. Tiemann, Mayor — City and County government — Suburbs of the city— New York in 1859, 764—792 Appendix, • '^^^ Index, 837 CONTENTS. XI York — Gen. Clinton, Governor — Aid from France— Valley Forge— Cabals agaiii^'i Washington thwarted by the Action of the New York delegation — Count d'Estaing ai New York Conflagration of 1778 — David Mathews, Mayor — Knyphaosen in command at New York— Cold winter of 1789-90— Treason of Arnold— His residence in the city — ^Project for his abduction by Champe — Capture of Comwallis — Clinton superseded by Sir Guy Carleton — Conclusion of peace between the United States and Great Britain— Evacuation by the British troops of the city of New York, 610 — 568 CHAPTEK XVIII. 1783-1801. Uatilation of the flag staff by the British troops previously to the evacuation — Gen. Knox, Comojander-in-Chief at the fort — Partmg of Washington with his officers at Praunces' Tavern in Pearl street — Municipal Government reorganized — James Dnane, Mayor — Departure of Lafayette for France — ^Tisit of Jay, Washington, and Steuben — Their public reception by the civic authorities — The city at the close of the Eevolntion — Improvement of the Collect — The Commons — First sidewalks in the city — Streets numbered by order of the Corporation — The Doctors' Mob— Articles of Confedera- tion — ^National Convention — Federal Constitution proposed — Popular opposition — The "French Party" — State Convention at Foaghkeepsie — Federal procession in New York — Adoption of the Federal Constitution — Riots in the city — Destruction of the office of the "Patriotic Register " — Joha Lamb's house in Wall street attacked by the rioters — City of New York the seat of the federal government — City Hall repaired — Washington and Adams elected President and Vice-President — Their arrival and re- ception by the public authorities — Washington inaugurated in the Federal Hall In WaH street — Arrival of Mrs. Washington — Washington in New York — John Street Theatre — " Hail Columbia " — Style of address — Illness of Washington — First session of Congress — Banker's Mansion House — Second session of Congress — Assumption of State debts — Removal of the Capital to the District of Columbia — Visit of the Creek deputation to the city — Alexander McGillivray — Treaty concluded between Washington and the Chiefs — Col. Richard Varick, Mayor — War between France and England — Arrival of Genet — His reception by the citizens — ^Proclamation of neutrality — Arrival of the Ambuscade — Engagement with the Boston — The French fleet — Genet in New York — His marriage at the Walton House and subsequent recall — The Jay Treaty — Yellow fever in the city — Politics of the city at the close of the eighteenth century, S69 — 611 CHAPTER XIX. 1801. New York in the beginning of the nineteenth century — Bounds of the city — Boads ^Pot- ter's Field — Public gardens — Country seats — Richmond Hill Mansion-— The Van Ness House — Chelsea— Murray Hill — The Varian House — The Apthorpe House— The Grange — The Beekmau House — Madame Jurnel's — The Belvidere — Frannces' Tavern — ^The Kennedy House — Bunker's Mansion House — State Prison — Penitentiary — Bellevne establishment^ Bridewell — New Jail — House of Refuge — New York Hospital ^New York Dispensary — Columbia College — Benevolent Institutions — Tontine Association Religious Associations — Churches of New York in the beginning of the nineteenth century — Primitive manners and customs of the Reformed Dutch Church — Society Library — Custom House — Post Office — Banks — Theatres — Newspapers — Markets Ferries— Ship yards — Fire Department — ^Militia — Manners and customs, 615—662 CHAPTER XX, 1801-1825. The Manhattan Water Worlds— City Hall erected in the Park— De Witt Clinton, Mayor- Politics of the city — Duel of Hamilton and Burr— Foundation of the Historical Society — Fire of 1804 — Public School Society — Steam Navigation — Fulton and Livingston— The Clermont — Ferries between New York and Brooklyn — Steam ferry-boats— Marinas Willet, Mayor — St. John's Chapel erected— Jacob Radcliff, Mayor- Interment of tho fist 0f Illustrations. 1— HENKY HUDSON. 28— LISPENAKD'S MEADOWS (in the heart of which now standa the St. Nicholas Hotel). S4^HALP MOON ASCENDING THE RIVEE. 46— THE COUNCIL AT TAWASENTHA, IN 1617. 62— SEAL OF NEW AMSTERDAM. 69— WRATH OP VAN TWILLER. 89— NIEUW NEDERLANDT (supposed to be the EarUest View of New York now extant). 1C4— INDLiNS BRINGING TRIBUTE. 113- MASSACRE OF INDIANS AT PAVONIA. 98- OLD HOUSE, corner Peck Slip and Water street. 128— PETER STUYVESANT, the last of the Dutch GoTemon. 97— STADT HUYS (erected in 1642). 129— SEAL OF PETER STUYVESANT. 140— SEAL OF NEW NETHERLAND, 1625—1664. 163— THE OLD STUYVESANT PEAR-TREE (now standing). 154— TOMB OF PETER STUYVESANT. 159— OLD LUTHERAN CHURCH (erected about 1764). 162— FIRST ENGLISH SEAL OF THE PROVINCE. 174— NEW YORK IN 1074. 176— HOUSEHOLD IN THE OLD DUTCH COLONY TIMES. 177— DUTCH GROCERY IN BROAD STREET. 196- PORTRAIT OF SANTA CLAUS, the Patron Saint of New Amsterdam. 203— DUTCH COTTAGE IN BEAVER STREET IN 1679. 218— CITY SEAL OF 1686. 242— RESIDENCE OF N. W. STUYVESANT. 248— OLD GARDEN STREET CHURCH (erected in 1696), 168— THE STUYVESANT MANSION. XIV LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. FAS I 282— FRENCH CHURCH IN PINE STREET (erected in 1710). 296— PORTRAIT OF AUGUSTUS JAY. 299— PORTRAIT OF CALEB HEATHCOTK 304— PORTRAIT OF CADWALLADER COLDEN. S17— MIDDLE DUTCH CHURCH (now the Post-office) m OLDEN TIMB. 816— OLD SUGAR-HOUSE IN LIBERTY STREET. 326— OLD RUTGERS' MANSION, at the junction of East Broadway and Diviflion street. 848_OLD FERRY-HOUSE, comer of Broad and Garden streets. S61_0LD BROOKLYN FERRY-HOUSE OF 1746. 849— RHINELANDER'S SUGAR-HOUSE AND RESIDENCE. 871- PORTRAIT OF SIR GEORGE CLINTON. 871— PORTRAIT OF LADY CLINTON. 874— ST. GEORGE'S CHAPEL IN BEEKMAN STREET (erected in 1762). 877_KING'S COLLEGE. 886_THE WALTON HOUSE AS IT NOW STANDS. 88iB_ENTRANCE HALL OF THE WALTON HOUSE. 389— SITTING-HOOM IN THE SECOND STORY OF THE WALTON HOUSE. 40S_BRICK MEETING-HOUSE IN BEEKMAN STREET. 401_METHODIST CHURCH IN JOHN STREET (erected in 1785) IN THE OLDEN TIME. 41 6_ATL ANTIC GARDEN HOUSE (Bums' Coffee-Houee). 43i5— BATTERY AND BOWLING GREEN DURING THE REVOLUTION. 468— NEW YORK HOSPITAL (erected in 1773). 475_P0RTRAIT OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 49a_WASHINGrT0N'S HEAIMiUARTERS IN FRANKLIN SQUABR 623— BRIDEWELL (erected in 1789). 627— NEW JAIL. 646— PORTRAIT OF JOHN JAY. 659_pRrVATE ROOM OF SIR HENRY CLINTON, No. 1 BROADWAY. 67l-DmiN(J-ROOM IN FRAUNCES' TAVERN, corner of Pearl and Broad Stg. 677— STONE BRIDGE ON THE CORNER OP BROADWAY AND CANAL STREET IN 1812. 698— FEDERAL HALL AND THE VERPLANCK MANSION. 620— MURRAY HILL COTTAGK 626 — THE TOMBS. 628— COLUMBIA COLLEGE, i^t the foot of Park Place. 661— THE BIBLE HOUSE, in Eighth street. 635-DR. MACAULEY'S CHURCH, corner of Fifth Avenne and Twenty-firrt 639— REFORMED DUTCH CmTRCH, in Lafayette Place. 641-REFOHMED DUTCH CHURCH, corner of Fifth Avenue and Tweoty-nlnth street. ' LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. XV PAQB 649— FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, Fifth Avenue. 661— DR. ALEXANDER'S CHURCH, corner of Fifth Avenue and Nineteenth street. «68_FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, corner of Broome and Elizabeth Btreets. 664_ST. PATRICK'S CATHEDRAL, corner of Mott and Prince Btreets. fieV— THE OLD PARK THEATRE. 668_THE AMERICAN MUSEUM. 666_KESERVOIR OF MANHATTAN WATER-WORKS, in Chambers St., 1825. eeT-CITY HALL AND PARK. eTl— THE GRANGE, Kingsbridge Road, Residence of Alex. Hamilton. 61S — CALVARY CHURCH, corner of Tvpenty-first street and Fourth Avenue. 617— FIRST PUBLIC SCHOOL-HOUSE ERECTED IN NEW YORK. e^S— FREE ACADEMY. 681_ROBERT FULTON. 682_THB " CLERMONT "—FULTON'S FIRST STEAMBOAT. 694— CHURCH OF THE ASCENSION, oorner of Fifth Avenue and Tenth street ■707— ST. PAUL'S CHAPEL. 711— TOMB OF MONTGOMERY, in wall of St. Paul's Chapel. 727— ACADEMY OF MUSIC. 730— THE NEW YORK UNIVERSITY. 735— CHURCH OF THE MESSIAH, in Broadway. "742— WALL STREET (looking toward Broadway). y 746— HIGH BRIDGK 747— CROTON RESERVOIR. 760— INTERIOR OF CASTLE GARDEN IN FORMER TIMES. 762— CRYSTAL PALACE. 787 761-VIEWS OP THE CENTRAL PARK. 766— CHURCH OF THE ANNUNOLA.TION. 769— ROMAN CATHOLIC CATHEDRAL, in Third street, street. 773— NEW YORK FROM WILLUMSBURG. 116—YIEVr FROM THE PARK. IJ77 ALL SOULS CHURCH, corner of Fourth Avenue and Twentieth street. 779— CUSTOM HOUSK 780 — SLOWER ARSENAL. 781— MERCHANT'S EXCHANGE. 788— COOPER mSTITUTR 645— TRINITY CHURCH, Broadway. 647— GRACE CHURCH, Broadway. THE MEECHANTS OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK, WHO, OHIEBraLLT BACBinCIMa TBEIB INTEREST TO IB^T OF THEIR COUNTRY IN THE REVOLUTION, WERE THE FIRST TO PROPOSE A NON-INTERCOURSE ACT— THE LAST TO RENOUNCE IT, AND THE ONLY ONES TO MAINTAIN IT INVIOLATE ; AKD WHO, BT IH£IB SMXBaT ASO ENIEBFBISE, HATE ilADE THEIB CITY AT THE PBESENT TIKE THE COMMERCLiL METROPOLIS OF THE WESTERN WORLD, PREFACE, The preparation of this work was first suggested by the need of collecting the floating facts relative to the history and growth of our city, and condensing them into a compact form for the use of the general reader. In the short space of two hundred and fifty years, New York has sprung up, as it were, by magic, from a hamlet of four wretched huts, into the commercial metropolis of the western hemisphere. The many changes that have occurred during this time have been noted by lovers of their native city, who have made collections from time to time of facts and incidents invaluable to the historian ; yet these are scattered among numerous volumes, where few have time to seek and unearth them. Histories of the State also abound ; but there is not a single history of the city of New York from its earliest settlement to the present time. It has been the aim of the writer in the present work to remedy this deficiency in part, by collecting those important local facts most hkely to interest the general reader, and embodying them in a continuous history of the foundation and growth of the city. It cannot be sup- posed that all the curious and interesting events of the past have thus been noticed — the task would swell vol- umes to so formidable a size that they would terrify the public, and thus defeat their own object — but it is hoped that nothing of essential importance has been omitted, and that the record given will be found authentic. Especial care has been taken to verify facts and dates by the best authorities, and nothing has been admitted Xviii PREFACE. which has not first been authenticated by reliable testi- mony. The plan of the work embraces the history of New York city from the earliest Dutch settlement to the present^ time. In the beginning, when the histories of the city*and the province are inseparable, this necessarily includes the history of the early settlements on the Long Island, New Jersey, and adjacent shores. Later, it is confined to the city alone, retaining so much of the his- tory of the State as is necessary to preserve the thread of the narrative unbroken, and to give the reader a comprehension of the general state of affairs. Especial care has been taken to collect the incidents of the Kevo- lutiou, in which the city bore so prominent a part, and which are fast growing dim in the minds of the citizens, in this, the writer begs leave to acknowledge the kind- ness of several distinguished citizens, lineal descendants of our oldest families, who have furnished valuable documents and iufornmtion, which have been of essential aid in the preparation of the work. Thanks are also due to the courteyy of the various city librarians, who have cheerfully rendered all the assistance in their power to the necessary investigations. Among the authors consulted have been Brodhead, Valentine, Bancroft, Holdreth, O'Callaghan, Irving, Smith, Dunlap, Moulton, Leake, Hardie, Watson, Horsmanden, and Heckewelder, to whom, with many others, of whose information the author has availed herself, she tenders cordial acknow- ledgments. For many of the designs in the work, she is indebted to the courtesy of David T. Yalentine, and Wilham J. Davis, Esqs. There is certainly too great an indifference prevaUing in respect to the memories of our city. But few vestiges of the past remain to us, and even these few are unheeded. In the hurry of business, our citizens pass and repass the grave of Stuyvesant and the tomb of Montgomery, unconscious of their locality. The busy New Yorkers throng the Post-office, without bestowing a thought upon its eventful history ; the Park, the cradle of the Revolution, is to them a park, and no more ; the P K E F A C E . XLX Bowling Green, where the Dutch lads and lasses erected their May-pole and danced around it, and where, at a later date, the patriotic citizens kindled bonfires in honor of liberty with stamp acts and royal effigies, is almost forgotten in the upward course of the tide of business ; and the Battery, with Castle Garden, has fallen into the hands of the Commissioners of Emi- gration. We are more remiss than our neighboring cities. Boston never forgets to commemorate the anniversary of her tea-party ; few New Yorkers know even that a similar tea-party was held one night in their own harbor. Boston does not forget her " Massacre ;" New York is oblivious of her battle of Golden Hill, her fierce contests around the liberty-pole, and her thousands of victims from the pestilential prison- ships. The traditions of our Dutch ancestry are well- nigh forgotten, and little remains of the once strongly- marked individuality of our city. It is true that the influence still lingers ; that the broad, cosmopolitan character, the Uberal, ^olerant spirit, and the genial, hospitable nature ingrafted on the city by its early settlers, still remain to it. It is true, too, that, as a general rule. New Yorkers think less of men than they do of deeds, and, provided that a thing is done, pay little heed to the means that conduced to its accomplish- ment. Yet this is in danger of being carried too far when it renders them forgetful of those memorials which it should be the pride and the glory of every people to cherish. If this work avail in any way to bring these records of the past before the minds of the citizens and inspire them with a love for their native or adopted city, it will answer the purpose for which it is designed. Much time and labor have been bestowed on its preparation ; to what efiect the public must decide. To their verdict, it is respectfully submitted. NiW YoBK, June iBt, 1859. HISTORY or THs CITY OF NEW TOEK. CHAPTER I. 1609—1633. Primitive New York— Aborigines of Manhattan— Caosea whioh led to the DiaooTery of the Island — ^Early Navigators — ^Discovery of Manhattan by Henry Hudson — ^Landing of the first White Men. Two hundred and fifty years ago, the island on which now stands the city of New York was uninhabited by white men. The lower part of it consisted of wood- crowned hiUs and beautiful grassy valleys, including a chain of swamps and marshes, and a deep pond. North- ward, it rose into a rocky high ground. The sole inhabitants were a tribe of dusky Indians, — an oflf-shoot from the great nation of the Lenni Lenape, who inhabited the vast territory bounded by the Penobscot and Potomac, the Atlantic and Mississippi, — dwelling in the clusters of rude wigwams that dotted here and there the surface of the country. The rivers that gird the 22 HISTOEYOPTHE island were as yet unstirred by the keels of ships, and the bark canoes of the native Manhattans held sole pos- session of the peaceful waters. The face of the country, more particularly described, was gently undulating, presenting every variety of hill and dale, of brook and rivulet. The upper part of the island was rocky, and covered by a dense forest ; the lower part grassy, and rich in wild fruit and flowers. Grapes and strawberries grew in abundance Iq the fields and nuts of, various kinds were plentiful in the forests. which were also filled with abundance of game. The brooks and ponds were swarming with fish, and the soil was of luxuriant fertility. In the vicinity of the present " Tombs " was a deep, clear and beautiful pond of fresh water, (with a picturesque little island in the middle) — so deep, indeed, that it could have floated the largest ship in our navy, — which was for a long time deemed bottomless by its possessors. This was fed by large springs at the bottom, which kept its waters fresh and flowing, and had its outlet in a little stream which flowed into the East River, near the foot of James street. Smaller ponds dotted the island in various places, two of which, lying near each other, in the vicinity of the present corner of the Bowery and Grand street, collected the waters of the high grounds which surrounded them. To the northwest of the Fresh Water Pond, or Xolck, as it afterwards came to be called, beginning in the vicinity of the present St. John's Park, and extending to the northward over an area of some seventy acres, lay an immense marsh, filled with reeds and brambles and tenanted by frogs and water-snakes. A little CITY OF NEW YORK, 23 CITY OF NEW YORK. 25 rivulet connected this marsh with the Fresh Water Pond, which was also connected, by the stream which formed its outlet, with another strip of marshy land, covering the region now occupied by James, Cherry, and the adjacent streets. An unbroken chain of waters was thus stretched across the island from James street at the southeast to Canal street at the northwest. An inlet occupied the place of Broad street, a marsh covered the vicinity of Ferry street, Rutgers street formed the cen- tre of another marsh, and a long line of meadows and swampy ground stretched to the northward along the eastern shore. The highest line of lands lay along Broadway from the Battery to the northernmost part of the island, forming its back-bone, and sloping gradually to the east and west. On the corner of Grand street and Broadway was a high hUl, commanding a view of the whole island, and falling off" gradually to the Fresh Water Pond. To the south and west, the country, in the intervals of the marshes, was of great beauty — rolling, grassy, fertile, and well watered. A high range of sand hills traversed a part of the island, from Yarick and Charlton to Eighth and Greene streets. To the north of these lay a valley, through which ran a brook, which formed the outlet of the springy marshes at Washington Square, and emptied into the North River at the foot of Hammersly street. • The native Manhattans belonged to that well-known race of North American Indians, the manners and cus- toms of which have been made too familiar by repeated descriptions to require a detailed notice at our hands. 26 HISTORYOFTHE These were the same in outline among all the tribes ; the chief difference lay in the individual character, and in this there was a marked distinction. One tribe was peaceful and gentle ; another, fierce and warlike ; a third, treacherous and cunning. The natives of the island of Manhattan were distinguished for their ferocity, in con- trast with their peaceful brethren of the neighboring shores. They lived in plenty on their beautiful island, the women cultivating maize, pumpkins, beans, and tobacco, and gathering the roots and berries which Nature so abundantly yielded ; the men scouring the forests in quest of game, and drawing stores of fish from the ponds and rivers. Their villages were scattered here and there in pleasant localities over the island — villages consisting of clusters of huts, made by twisting the tops of young saplings together, and covering them with strips of bark. Windowless and floorless were they, with boughs for doors, and a hole in the roof to let out the smoke. Yet each of these structures usually accommodated from six to thirty families, who lived in peaceful harmony together. v/ Like most savages, they were fond of dress, and shaved their crowns, painted their faces, and adorned their deer-skin mantles and moccasins with feathers, shells, and wampum, in the most approved style. This wampum, which served as a circulating medium among them, and afterwards became a recognized currency among the whites, consisted of small cylindrical beads, made from the white linTbg of the conch and the purple coating inside the muscle-shells — ^the purple beads being worth twice as much as the white ones. CITT OF NEW YORK. 2T In common with their race, they were eloquent ora- tors, trusty friends, crafty enemies, brave warriors, and cruel victors. Though at first disposed to receive their white visitors with favor and to treat them kindly, it was not long before their own jealous nature, together with the ever-present spirit of European encroachment, brought on the usual warfare, in which Indian sagacity and cunning was forced to succumb to the superior skill of the white man. Let us glance briefly at the causes which led to the discovery of this vast and hitherto unknown region. At the period of which we speak, more than a century had elapsed since Columbus had first unlocked the door of the new continent, yet little was known of it in the old world beyond the bare fact of its ■ existence. Its geography was wholly unknown to its new possessors. Its possible resoiu-ces were totally disregarded ; in itself it was regarded as a thing of httle value, and the chief utility of the new discovery was supposed to lie in the easy commimication which it might afford to the rich countries of the Bast. Now and then an adventurous navigator sailed along the coasts, landing here and there and erecting a flagstaff, and thus taking possession of the country in the name of his sovereign ; yet but few attempts at exploration had been made, and these few had proved, for the most part, imsuccessful. Some of the explorers had penetrated a little way into the inte- rior, and some had planted colonies which had soon been broken up by hardships and discouragement, but few had been able to gain much topographical knowledge of the countries which they claimed to own. The EngUsh had 28 HIST OET OF THE succeeded in establishing a small colony at Jamestown, and the French had founded a colony at Quebec, and made a settlement at Port Royal, but the rest of the country remained in the hands of the natives. In the year 1524, Francis I. had dispatched Jean Verrazani, a skillful Florentine navigator, with a squad- ron of four ships, to explore the coast of North America. Soon after their departure, three of these became dis- abled in a violent tempest, and Yerrazani reached the island of Madeira with but a single vessel. Stopping here a few days to refit, he proceeded on his voyage, and reached the American coast, as it is supposed, in the vicinity of Wilmington, whence he coasted northward, and was the first to enter the bay of New York, which he thus describes : "After proceeding one hvmdred leagues, we found a " very pleasant situation among some steep hiUs, through " which a very large river, deep at its mouth, forced its "way to the sea. From the sea, to the estuary of the " river, any ship heavily laden might pass with the help "of the tide, which rises eight feet. But as we were " riding at anchor in a good berth, we would not "venture up in our vessel without a knowledge of " the mouth ; therefore we took the boat, and entering "the river, we foimd the country on its banks well "peopled, the inhabitants not differing much from the " others, being dressed out with the feathers of birds of "varioiis colors. They came towards us with evident " delight, raising loud shouts of admiration, and showing " us where we could most securely land our boat. We "passed up this river about half a league, when we CITY OF NEW YORK. 29 " found it formed a most beautiful lake, three leagues in ' circuit, upon which they were rowing thirty or more " of their small boats from one shore to the other, fiUed " with multitudes who came to see us. All of a sudden, "as is wont to happen to navigators, a violent contrary " wind blew in from the sea, and forced us to retiurn to " our ship, greatly regretting to leave this region, which " seemed so commodious and delightful, and which we " supposed must also contain great riches, as the hiUs " showed many indications of minerals." This graphic description is the more worthy of notice, inasmuch as it is the earliest now extant of the island and natives of Manhattan. From here Verrazani pro- ceeded to the haven of Newport, where he anchored for fifteen days, after which he coasted northward as far as the fiftieth degree of north latitude, then returned to France, where he pubhshed a brief narrative of his jour- ney. To the newly discovered country, he gave the name of New France, a name by which Canada con- tinued to be known as long as it remained in the possession of the French. This discovery laid the foun- dation for a claim by France on all the territory north of the Carohnas — a claim which she long continued to maintain. Previously to this, however, Sebastian Cabot, a Venetian by birth, in the service of Henry VII., had explored the country from Labrador to Florida, thus giving to England a prior claim upon the same territory. As has before been said, both nations had profited by these discoveries to make settlements in the country thus claimed by each, the one in Virginia and the other in Canada ; but at the period in which our history opens. 30 HISTORY OFTHE the whole of the vast territory lying between these distant points remained in the possession of its first owners, the natives. It was not long before a third nation disputed the rich prize with them by virtue of the right of actual possession. At this time, the Dutch were the richest commercial nation on the globe. Having conquered their inde- pendence from Spain and their country from the sea, they turned their attention to commerce, and with such success that it was not long before their sails whitened the waters of every clime. A thousand vessels were buQt annually in HoUand, and an extensive trade was carried on with all the European nations. But their richest commerce was with the East Indies ; and the better to secure themselves in this against all com- petition, the merchants engaged in this traffic had, in 1602, obtained a charter of incorporation for twenty- one years from the States General under the name of the East India Company, granting them the exclusive monopoly of the trade in the Eastern Seas beyond the Cape of Good Hope on one side and the Straits of Magellan on the other, with other valuable privileges. This obtained, it next became desirable to shorten the passage thither, and thus to render the commerce more lucrative. The voyage to China by the only known route — that by the way of the Cape of Good Hope — consumed two years, and the time seemed long to the impatient merchants. It was thought that a more expe- ditious passage' might be discovered by the way of the Polar Seas, and three expeditions, under the command of Barentsen, Comelissen, and Heemskerck, were dis- CITTOPNEWYOEK. 31 patched, one after the other, in search of it. But they found nothing but ice and snow where they had hoped to find a clear sea, and returned after having endmvd unheard-of hardships, and earned a lasting fame as the earliest Polar navigators. The English, in the meantime, had not been idle. Jealous of the growing commercial prosperity of their neighbors, they determined on trying the experiment in which the Dutch had failed. In 1607, a company of merchants fitted out a ship, and intrusted it to the com- mand of Henry Hudson, an Englishman and an experi- enced and skillful navigator, with instructions to carve a passage through the Polar Seas to China and Japan for the benefit of England. But he met with no better success than his predecessors, and after two voyages, the merchants became discouraged, and refused to permit him to make a third trial. Hudson, however, was more than ever sanguine of the ultimate success of the enterprise, and after an unsuccess- ful negotiation with Henri IV. of France, he induced the Dutch East India Co. to fit out a small yacht called the Halve Maen, or Half Moon, of sixty tons burden, manned with a mixed crew of Dutch and English, twenty in num- ber, to attempt the discovery of the Northwest Passage.* Hudson sailed from the Texel on his third expedition, on the 6th of April, 1609, hoping to reach the Indies by the way of the Polar Seas. After a stormy voyage, he reached the banks of Newfoundland early in July. Here he lay becalmed for some time, after which he steered to Penobscot Bay, where he remained a week to * See Appendix, Note P. 32 HISTORYOFTHE replace his foremast, which had been lost during the voyage, and to mend his rigging. Coasting southward as far as Chesapeake Bay, landing on his way at Cape Cod, which he mistook for an island and named New Holland, he retraced his course, and proceeded north- ward to Delaware Bay, which he attempted to explore ; but finding the navigation difficult, he again put to sea, and, on the evening of the 2d of Sept., came in sight of the Highlands of Navesinck, which he describes " as a " good land to fall in with, and a pleasant land to see." Here he remained all night, and setting sail the next morning came to what he describes as "three great "rivers," the northernmost of which he attempted to enter, but was prevented by the shoal bar before it. This was probably Rockaway Inlet ; the others, the Raritan and the Narrows. Foiled in this attempt, he rounded Sandy Hook, sending a boat before him to sound the way, and anchored his vessel in the lower bay. Seeing that the waters were swarming with fish, he sent a boat's crew to obtain some. They landed, it is said, at Coney Island, and were the first white men that ever set foot on the soil of the Empire State. We can easily excuse Hudson if he forgot the North- ern Passage and the Polar Seas — the prime objects of his expedition — in the beautiful scene before him, and determined to explore this strange, new country, which was worth more than all the wealth of the Indies. The shores were covered with gigantic oaks from sixty to seventy feet high, the hills beyond were crowned with grass and fragrant flowers, strange wild birds were flit- ting through the air, and fish were darting through the CITY OF NEW YORK. 33 sparkling waters. Friendly Indians, dressed in mantles of feathers and fine furs, and decorated with copper or- naments, flocked on board the vessel, bringing corn, to- bacco, and vegetables for the mysterious strangers. Hudson received them kindly, and gave them axes, knives, shoes, and stockings in return. But these arti- cles were all new to them, and they put them to a new use ; they hung the axes and shoes about their necks for ornaments, and used the stockings for tobacco pouches. Hudson remained in the bay for a week, sending a boat's crew, in the meantime, to sound the river. They passed through the Narrows, entered the bay, and came in sight of the grassy hills of Manhattan. Passing through the Kills, between Statei^[sland and Bergen Neck, they proceeded six miles up^le river, and disco- vered Newark Bay. On their return, the boat was attacked by the natives. An English sailor named John Colman was struck in the throat by an arrow and killed ; two others were slightly wounded, and the rest escaped to the ship with the dead body of their companion, to carry the tidings of the mournful catastrophe. This was the • first white man's blood ever shed in the territory, and it is probable, though not certain, that the sailors themselves were the first aggressors. Oolman was an old comrade of Hudson ; he had been the companion of his earlier voy- ages, and his death inspired him with distrust and hatred of the natives, whom before he had regarded with favor. On the following day — the 9th of September — the first white man's grave in these regions was dug on Sandy U!ook, and the spot was christened Colman's Point in aemory of the departed. 3 34 HISTORTOFTHB On the 11th of September, 1609, the Half Moon passed through the Narrows, and anchored in New York Bay. Distrustmg the fierce Manhattans, the captain rerriained there but a single day. Canoes filled with men, women and children, flocked around the ship, bringing oysters and vegetables ; but though these were purchased, not a native was suffered to come on board. The Half Moon ascending tlie river. The next day Hudson made his way up the river which now bears his name, and through which he hoped ta find the long-sought passage to the Indies. He called it the G-root Rivier. It was called by the respective tribes which inhabited its shores, the Shatemuc Mohi- CITY OF NEW YORK. 35 can, and Cahohatatea. The Dutch afterwards gave it the name of the Mauritius, in honor of Prince Maurice of Nassau, by which it continued to be known until the name of its discoverer was properly bestowed on it by its English owners. Sailing slowly up the river, and anchoring at night in the friendly harbors so plentifully scattered along his way, Hudson pursued his course towards the head of ship navigation, admiring the ever changing panorama of the beautiful river with its lofty palisades, its broad bays, its picturesque bends, its ro- mantic highlands, and its rocky shores, covered with luxurious forests. Everywhere he was greeted with a friendly reception. The river Indians, more gentle than those of the island of Manhattan, ^^omed the strangers with offerings of the best that tlBPland afforded, and urged them to remain with them. Fancying that the white men were afraid of their arrows, they broke them in pieces and threw them into the fire. Game was killed for their use, hospitalities were urged upon them, and every attention which a rude but generous nature could prompt was offered to the strangers. Indeed, this seems in the beginning to have been the usual conduct of the natives, and it is probable that in their future hostilities, in nearly every instance, the whites were the aggressors. On the 19th of September, Hudson reached the site of the present city of Albany, which, greatly to his disap- pointment, he found to be the head of ship navigation. To be sure of the fact, he dispatched the mate with a boat's crew to sound the river higher up, but, after pro- ceeding eight or nine leagues, finding but seven feet 36 HISTORYOFTHB water, they were forced to return with the unwelcome intelligence. After remaining at anchor for several days, during which time he stiU continued to hold friendly intercourse with, the natives, Hudson prepared to descend the river. His stay here was marked by a revel, the tradition of which is still preserved among the Indian legends, and the scene of which is laid by some historians upon the island of Manhattan. Various legends of a siffiilar import concerning the introduction of the fatal " fire-water " are in existence among the different tribes of Indians ; everywhere the same causes produced the same results, and the multipHcity of these traditions may easily be accounted for. On the 23d of Jjj^tember, Hudson commenced to descend the river. ^K had ascended it in eleven days ; he descended it in the same time, constantly receiving demonstrations of friendship from the natives of the neighboring shores. But unfortunately this harmony was soon destined to be broken. While anchored at Stony Point, an Indian was detected pilfering some goods through the cabin windows. The offender was instantly shot by the mate, and the frightened natives fled in con- sternation. Nor was this the only rupture of peaceful relations with the hitherto friendly natives. Following the exam- ple of other discoverers, who were accustomed to carry to their own homes specimens of the natives of the new countries which they had visited, Hudson had seized and detained two Indians on board his ship at Sandy Hook; both of whom had escaped during his passage up the river, and were lying in wait for his return, to avenge CITY OF NEW YORK. 37 their captivity. Their narrative had enlisted the sympa- thies of their countrymen, and a large body gathered iu their canoes at the head of Manhattan Island, and attempted to board the vessel. Repulsed in the attempt, they discharged a harmless flight of arrrows at the yacht, which was returned by a musket shot, which killed two of their number. They scattered in dismay, only to gather again, reinforced by several hundreds, at Fort Washington ; where they again attacked the vessel as she was floating down the stream. A few musket-shots soon put them again to flight, with the loss of nine of their warriors. This strange new weapon of the white men, speaking in tones of thunder, and belching forth fire and smoke, was more terrible to ij|k|i than an army of invaders. They did not return t^TOe attack, and Hud- son pursued his way unmolested to the bay near Hobo- ken, where he anchored for the last time, and, lying windboimd there for one day, set sail for Europe on the 4th of October, just one month after his arrival, to carry to his patrons the news of the discovery of a new country, and the opening of a new commerce. Though Yerrazani was the first to behold the island of destiny, to Hudson belongs the credit of being its practical dis- coverer, and of opening the way to its future settlers. The directors of the East India Company were dis- satisfied with the success of the enterprise. They had expected to find a short road to the land of silks ?ud spices, and cared little for the rich lands and oroad forests described by Hudson." Hudson proposed again to undertake the enterprise, and would probably > Non Q. 88 HISTOET OFTHB have done so, but, having landed at Dartmouth on his re- turn homeward, he was forbidden to leave the country by the En^Ush authorities, who were jealous of the advan- tages which the Dutch had gained by his means. Untir- ing in his efiforts to find the northwest passage, that ignis fatuus which has lured on so many intrepid navigators to their destruction, he sailed on another voyage of dis- covery in the service of his early English patrons in the spring of 1610, and, after passing a winter of suffering among the Arctic regions, perished, abandoned by his mutinous crew, amid the ice and snows of the bay which bears his name. The Half Moon, on her return to Hol- land, was dispatched on a trading voyage to the East Indies, during whid^he was vsrecked and lost on the island of Mauritius^^^ The voyage of the Half Moon to America, if it did not gain the exact thing desired, was at least suggestive of a new idea to the busy Dutch speculators. Though their most lucrative traffic was with the East Indies, they did not neglect the smaller mines from which money might be extracted, but maintained a flourish- ing commerce with the other European nations, espe- cially with Russia. They dispatched nearly a hundred ships to Archangel every year, whence they carried on a lucrative traffic in furs with the interior of the country, subject to a duty of five per cent, on aU goods exceeding an equal amount of importations. But Hudson's glowing accounts of the rich peltries which he had seen among the natives of the newly-discovered territory suggested to the traders that it would be much cheaper to purchase them with knives and trinkets in a country where • See Appendix, Note Q. CITY OF NEWYORK. 39 custom-houses and duties were unknown, than to buy them, as hitherto, at a high rate in Russia. Acting under the impulse of this idea, in 1610, a few merchants fitted out another vessel, and dispatched her under the command of the former mate of the Half Moon, to trade in furs with the Indians. The speculation proved eminently successful. Stimulated by their example, other mer- chants joined in the enterprise, and in 1612 dis- patched the Fortune and the Tiger, under the command of Hendrick Christiaensen and Adriaen Block, on a trad- ing voyage to the Mauritius River, as it was now called. The following year, three more vessels, imder the com- mand of Captains De "Witt, Volckertsen, and Mey, were sent from Amsterdam and Hoorn to the same coast on the same errand. The fur traffic might now be considered to have fairly commenced, and a new mine of wealth to be opened to Holland. It was determined 'to open a regular com- merce with the new province, to make the island of Manhattan the chief depot of the fur trade in America, and to estabhsh agents there to collect furs while the ships were going to and returning from Holland. Hend- rick Christiaensen was appointed the first agent. He built a redoubt with four small houses on the site of the present 39 Broadway, and thus laid the foundation of the future city. The navy was commenced about the same time. One of the vessels, the Tiger, commanded by Adriaen Block, was accidentally burned just as he was preparing to return to Holland. He immediately set about building another, the fine timber of the island furnishing him with ample materials, and in the spring of 1614, finished the first 40 'histoetofthb vessel ever launched on the waters of Manhattan. This was a yacht of sixteen tons burden, and was called the Restless — a name truly prophetic of the future city. The building of the vessel occupied the whole winter, the friendly natives meanwhile supplying the strangers with food. The httle yacht completed, Block set about explor- ing the neighboring country. Passing through the Hellegat into the Long Island Sound, he discovered the Housatonic, and Connecticut, or Fresh River, as he named it, in contradistinction to the Hudson, the waters of which were salt, and ascended the latter to the head of navigation. Returning to the Sound, he again proceeded eastward to Montauk Point, which he christened " Vis- Bchel's Hoeck," and discovered Block Island, which stiU bears his name. Continuing his course to Narragansett, or Nassau Bay, he thoroughly explored its waters, discovered Roode or Red, since corrupted into Rhode Island, and coasted northward as far as Nahant Bay, exploring and naming the intervening bays and islands, which, however, had before been discovered and named by earlier English adventurers. On his return to Cape Cod, he encountered the Fortune, which had quitted Manhat- tan to return to Europe. The temptation was too strong to be resisted, the picture of home rose before his eyes, and leaving his little yacht, too frail to encounter the perils of the ocean voyage, in the charge of Comelis Hendricksen, he embarked in the returning vessel to bear the news of his discoveries to Holland. He never returned to the scene of his early discoveries, but his name is one of the few relics of the early pioneers that CITY OF NEW YORK. 41 still remain to us. His comrades had not been idle in the meantime. Cornehssen Mey had explored the southern coast of Long Island, thus proving for the first time that it was an island, and had visited Delaware Bay and bestowed his name on its northern cape, while Hendrick Christiaen- sen had ascended the Mauritius, and built a little struc- ture, half fort, half warehouse, armed with two large guns and a few swivels, and garrisoned by eleven men, on Castle Island, a little below Albany. This post he christened Fort Nassau in honor of the stadtholder. It is affirmed by several historians that, soon after its foundation, the little settlement was visited by Captain Argall of Virginia on his return from his Acadian expe- dition, and that the Dutch traders were compelled by him to strike their flag and to acknowledge the supremacy of England. But this assertion seems unsupported by suffi- cient evidence. The earlier historians are silent in re- spect to it, nor do the state papers of either nation make mention of the fact. The story rests upon the authority of one or two printed English works, unsupported by documentary evidence, and cannot at least be affirmed with certainty ; the probability is that it is fictitious. A few months previous to Block's return to Holland, the States General of the Netherlands, to encourage emigration, had passed an ordinance, granting to all dis- coverers of new countries the exclusive right of trading thither for four voyages. Unwilling to lose any part of the profitable commerce thus opened by their enter- prise, the merchants who had fitted out the first expedi- tion made a map of all the country between the Cana- das and Virginia, and, claiming to be the original dis- 42 HISTOBTOPTHE coverers thereof, petitioned the government for the promised monoply. This was granted, and on the 11th of October, 1614, they received a charter, granting them the exclusive right of trade, to the territory lying be- tween the fortieth and forty-fifth degrees of north lati- tude, for four voyages within the period of three years ; and forbilding aU other persons to interfere with this monopoly, under penalty of confiscation of both vessels and cargoes, with a fine of fifty thousand Netherland ducats for the benefit of the grantees of the charter. In this instrument, the province first formally received the name of New Netherland. The merchants now formed themselves into an asso- ciation under the name of the "United New Nether- land Company," and prepared to carry on their opera- tions on a more extensive scale. Parties were sent to explore the interior, and to collect furs from the natives which were stored at the depots of Fort Nassau and Manhattan ; and Jacob Belking, a shrewd and active trader, was appointed agent at the former, in the place of Hendrick Christiaensen, who had been murdered by one of the natives. This is the first murder on record in the province. The murderer, a young Indian, whom Christiaensen had carried to Holland on his first voyage, and who had ever since remained with him, met a speedy death from the hands of the settlers. Yet the Dutch did not neglect to cultivate the friend- ship of the natives. The several tribes within the pro- vince of the New Netherland differed widely in char- acter. The whole, indeed, claimed originally to have been one people, the Lenni Lenape, or "unbrokem CITY OF NEW YORK. 43 nation ;" but few vestiges remained of the original brotherhood. The generic name of this people was Wapanachki ; the name "Indian" was an anomalous one, derived from the idea that North America formed part of the Indies. The Manhattan Indians were fierce and war- like, though they treated the traders kindly, and supplied them with food during the long, cold winters. The Mo- hicans on the east side of the river were peaceful and friendly, yet they were the deadly enemies of the Min- cees, who dwelt on the other side ; and their war parties often crossed and recrossed the river on hostile expedi- tions. On the southern border of the province, along the Delaware River, were the Lenape or Delawares. To the north of these, were the Mengwes or Iroquois, the most dreaded and powerful of all the Indian tribes. These held acknowledged supremacy over all the other tribes. Their hunting-grounds stretched across the entire province, and their wigwams opened at the east on the Hudson River, and at the west on Lake Brie. But they had not gained this ascendency without a struggle. Weak in the beginning, they had learned to comprehend that union is strength ; and the five tribes which originally occupied this vast extent of territory — the Mohawks, Oneidas, Senecas, Cayugas, and Ononda- gas, had leagued themselves together in a firm union under the name of Iroquois, or the Five Nations. Later, the Tuscaroras were admitted into the confeder- acy, and the Five Nations were thua increased to six. Strengthened by this alUance, and fierce and despotic by nature, they soon subjugated their gentler brethren, and forced them to lay aside their weapons and to assume 44 HISTORY OFTHB the name of " women," trusting their defence entirely to them. They sent their old men into the villages to collect tribute from the river Indians, and there was not one among them who dared refuse it. A single Iroquois would put a hundred Mohicans or Mincees to flight, so great was the terror inspired by them. But this sove- reignty did not extend to the Hurons or Canada Indians, who were as formidable as they, and their constant and deadly foes. The French in the Canadas leagued with the latter, and taught them the use of firearms ; and see- ing themselves threatened with extermination by this new and wonderful weapon, the Iroquois hailed the arrival of white men in their own country with delight, as the only means which could save them from being subjugated in turn, and forced to take their place with the Mohicans and Mincees. The Dutch, on their side, were quite as ready for the alliance. The country of the Iroquois abounded in rich furs which could only be obtained through the friendship of the natives. Their fort at the head of the riv«r was on the land of the Iro- quois, and, without their alliance, they could not secure its safety. In the spring of 1^17, a solemn council of both nations was held in a place «^ed Tawasentha, near the site of the present city of Albany. Each tribe of the Iroquois sent a dhief to the meeting, and a delega- tion was also present from the river tribes. A formal treaty of peace and alliance between the Dutch and the Iroquois was concluded, and the other tribes renewed their acknowledgment of the supremacy of the Five Nations. The pipe of peace was smoked, and the hatchet' buried in the earth ; and the Dutch declared CITY OF NEW YOBK, 45 that they would build a church over the spot, so that none could dig it up without overthrowing the sacred struc- ture, and thus incurring the wrath of the Great Spirit and the vengeance of the white men. Well indeed would it have been for them, could it always have thus remained buried. The CounoU at Tawasentha, in 1617. 46 HISTORTOFTHE Tliis treaty insured the prosperity of the traders. Sure of the friendship of the natives, they fearlessly sent their agents among them to obtain their costly furs in exchange for the muskets and ammunition they so much coveted. It was not long before the Indian be- came more skillful than his master in the use of the deadly weapon, and grew in turn to be the terror of the white man. The agents explored the interior, bringing back stores of valuable furs, and the trade became so profitable that when, in 1618, the charter of the United New Netherland Company expired by its own limitation, they petitioned the government to grant them a renewal. This they failed to obtain, though they were permitted to continue their trade under a special Ucense two or three years longer. Hitherto the Dutch had looked on Manhattan only as a trading-post. They did not think of making them- selves homes in this new, wUd country, but dwelt in temporary huts of the rudest, construction, which scarcely protected them from the cold. But the Enghsh were exploring the coast, and laying claim to all the coun- try between Canada and Virginia, and the Dutch began to reahze the importance of planting colonies in the new province, and thus securing their American posses- sions. About this time, too, the little settlement received a visit of threatening import. In 1620, Captain Thomas Dermer, an Englishman in the service of Sir Ferdinand© Gorges, touched at Manhattan on his way to New Eng- land, and warned the traders not to continue on English, territory ; to which they replied that it belonged to theiu CITY OP NEW YORK. 47 of right, as the first discoverers and occupiers. Upon this, Dermer, Gorges, Argall and others, petitioned James I. for a grant of the province of New Netherland, protesting that it was wrongfully occupied by the Dutch, and claiming for Dermer the discovery of Long Island Sound and the adjacent country. That he was the first Englishman who had ever sailed through the Sound is probable : yet Block, Christiaensen and others had preceded him. He is one of the few who makes men- tion of the prior visit of Argall to Manhattan — an inter- ested witness, since this pretext served to strengthen his claim to the possession of the territory. The king, how- ever, listened to their prayer ; a royal charter conferring the exclusive jurisdiction of all territories in America between the parallels of forty and forty-eight degrees was granted to Gorges and his associates, and the English ambassador at the Hague was directed to remonstrate with the States General against the occupation by the Dutch of English territory. But Uttle attention was paid to this remonstrance, and the Dutch went on in their work of colonizing New Netherland. There was httle freedom of thought at this time in England. The people were divided into two great re- hgious sects, the EpiscopaUans, and the Puritans. The latter, by their stern denunciation of the rites and cere- monies of the Episcopalian Church, the established Church of England, their refusal to conform to the statutes of the realm, and their almost fanatical opposi- tion to everything that savored of prayer-book or ritual, had drawn upon themselves the displeasure of the government. Disapprobation soon grew into persecu- 48 HISTORYOFTHE tion. The Puritans sternly refused to yield a single point t)f theijT; obnoxious doctrines, while the government daily increased in rigor. Weary of the contest, a num- ber of the persecuted nonconformists fled, with their min- ister, John Robinson, to HoUand, where they found the fullest toleration. Settling at Leyden, they organized a congregation, and enjoyed the religious freedom which they had failed to obtain in their native land. Yet here they felt like strangers. The manners and customs were foreign to them ; the language was strange and the gov- ernment unhke their own, and their children were grow- ing up in the speech and habits of the new country and forgetting their mother-tongue. They were English and they feared to become Dutch. The New World offered a tempting home to them in which they could enjoy both civil and religious Uberty, and train up their offspring in their own faith and language. It was at first proposed to settle at Guiana, but this scheme was finally aban- doned. Hearing of the glowing accounts of the pro- vince of New Netherland, Robinson entreated permia- sion of the Dutch to settle there, promising to take with him four hundred families if the government would pledge itself to protect hun against all other powers. The offer pleased the merchants, who would gladly have transported them thither free of cost, and have fur- nished them with cattle and agricultural implements to aid them in establishing the much-needed colony. But the States General had other plans in view. They wished to organize an armed miUtary force that could assist them in the war which they were then carrying on with Spain ; and besides, they thought it better policy to peo- CITY OF NEW YORK. 49 Die the province with their own countrymen. They, therefore, refused the prayer of the Puritans ; and on the 3d of June, 1621, granted a charter to the " West India Company," conferring on them for a period of twenty-one years, the exclusive jurisdiction over the pro- vince of New Netherland. The powers thus conferred upon this new association were as extensive as those en- joyed by the East India Company. The exclusive right of trade in the Atlantic, from the Tropic of Cancer to the Cape of Good Hope on the eastern, and from New- foundland to the Straits of Magellan on the western continent was granted them. Their power over this immense territory was almost unlimited. They could make contracts with the native princes, build forts, administer justice, and appoint governors and public officers, the appointment of the former to be subject to the approval of the States Q-eneral, to whom they were required to take oaths of allegiance. In return, the Com- pany pledged themselves to colonize the new territories, and to keep the States General informed from time to time of their plan of operations. The government of the association was vested in five separate chambers of managers, established in five principal Dutch cities : one at Amsterdam, one at Middleburg, one at Dordrecht, one in North Holland, and one in Friesland and Gron- inger. The details of its management were intrusted to a board of directors, nineteen in number, one of whom was appointed by the States General, the others by the respective chambers, in proportion to their relative im- portance. Full executive powers, with the exception of a declaration of war, for which the consent of the States 4 50 HISTOETOF'rui General was necessary, was conferred on this board of directors, commonly called the Assembly of Nineteen. The States General, on their part, promised to protect the Company from all interference, to give them a mil- Uon of guilders, and to supply them with ships and men in case of war. The Puritans, meanwhile, repulsed on this side, had made their way to Plymouth Rock, and planted their faith on the shores of New England. The West India Company set about the work of co- lonizing the new province with vigor. In 1623, the Amsterdam Chamber, to whose especial care the province had been intrusted, fitted out the New Netherland, i ship of two hundred and sixty tons burden, and dis- patched it, with thirty families, to the territory whose name it bore, for the purpose of founding a colony. The expedition was placed under the command of Cornelissen Jacobsen Mey, who was also appointed First Director of the province. Most of these new colonists were Wal- loons, or French Protestants, from the confines of France and Belgium, who had obtained from the Dutch what they had vainly sought from the EngUsh, permission to make themselves homes in the New World. These were, properly speaking, the earliest colonists of the province, the Dutch, who had previously emigrated hither, having been mere traders and temporary sojourners. The new comers scattered themselves over the country. Eight re- mained at Manhattan. Four couples, who had been mar- ried during the voyage, together with eight seamen, were sent to South River, where they founded a settlement on the Jersey shore, near Gloucester. The Walloons, headed by George Jansen de Rapelje, settled on Long Island. ^iTY OF NEW YORK. 51 at the Waal-bogt, or Walloon's Bay, where Sarah de Rapelje, the first chiM of European parentage in the pro- vince, was born, in 1625.* A few of the colonists were dispatched by the governor to the Fresh, or Connecticut River, and the rest proceeded with him up the Mauritius River, where they build Fort Orange, on the west shore, about four miles above Fort Nassau, and vigorously com- menced the work of clearing the wilderness. The New Netherland returned to HoUand under the comman,d of Adriaen Jovis, the second in command of the expedition, with a cargo of furs, valued at twelve thousand dollars. In 1625, three ships and a yacht, bringing a number of families, with their furniture, farming implements, and a hundred and three head of cattle, arrived at Manhattan. Fearing lest the cattle might stray away into the forests, the settlers landed them on Nutten's, now Governor's Island, until further provision could be made for them ; but finding the island destitute of water, they were com- pelled at once to carry them in boats to Manhattan. Two more vessels soon arrived, and the colony now num- bered some two hundred persons. A nucleus was now formed from which to form a per- manent settlement. Hitherto the form of government had been simple and the settlers transient, but affairs were now assuming a more settled aspect. In 1 624, Mey returned to Holland, and was succeeded in the director- ship by William Verhulst. At the end of a year, he, too, was recalled, and Peter Minuit was appointed Director- • Recent inTestigations tend to confirm the theory that Sarah de Rapelje iita bom at Albany, where her parents appear to hare resided about the period of her birth, instead of at the Waal-bogt, as has been supposed. 52 HISTOEY OF THE General of New Netherland ; with instructions from the Company to organize a pro\"incial government. In this government, the supreme authority, executive, legisla- tive, and judicial, was vested in the Director and Council, with full power to administer justice, except in capital cases ; in which, the offender, on being convicted, must be sent with his sentence to Holland. Next to these came the Koopman, who performed the double duty of Secretary of the province, and book-keeper of the Com- pajiy's warehouse. Subordinate to this functionary, was the Schout Fiscal, a sort of civil factotum, half sheriff and half attorney-general, the executive officer of the Director and Council, and general custom-house officer. At the same time, the first seal was granted to the province of New Nether- land.* Minuit's council consisted of Peter Byvelt, Jacob Elbertsen Wis- sinck, Jan Janssen Brouwer, Simon Dircksen Pos, and Reynert Har- menssen. Isaac de Rasi^res, the first Koopman, was succeeded two years afterwards by Jan Van Re- mund ; Jan Lampo acted as Schout Fiscal. On the 4th of May, 1626, Peter Minuit, the new Director, arrived at Manhattan in the ship Sea Mew, com- manded by Adriaen Jovis. To his credit be it said, the first act of his administration was to secure possession of Manhattan by lawful purchase. Soon after his arrival he bought the whole island of the Indians for the Dutch West India Company for the sum of sixty guilders, or twenty-four dollars. The island was fifteen miles in ■ For engniTing of the seal, 8ee p. 140. Seal of New Amsterdam. 1651, {Dtteribed m p. 139.) CITY OP NEW YORK. 63 length, and from about a quarter of a mile to two miles in breadth, and was estimated to contain twenty-two thousand acres. Having thus become the lawful owners of the terri- tory, the first care of the colonists was to provide for their personal safety. The English were constantly prowUng about their coasts and threatening their destruction, and they knew that they were not secure in the neighborhood of the fierce Manhattans. A fort was at once staked out by their engineer, Kryn Frederycke, on the triangle which formed the southern part of the island, and which seemed chosen by nature herself for the purpose. This fort, which was a mere block-house, surrounded by cedar palisades, received the imposing name of Fort Amsterdam, and was completed in the course of the following year. A horse miU was also erected, with a large room on the second floor for reUgious services, and a stone building, thatched with reeds, was built for the Company's warehouse. Some thirty rude huts along the shores of the East River made up" the balance of the settlement. Neither clergyman nor school- master was as yet known in the colony, but two visitors of the sick, Sebastian Jansen Krol and Jan Huyck by name, were appointed, whose duty it was to read the Scrip- tures and the creeds to the people on Sundays. Every settler had his own house, kept his cows, tilled his land, or traded with the natives — ^no one wais idle. The settle- ment throve, and the exports of furs during this year amounted to nineteen thousand dollars. Minuit now determined to open a friendly correspon- dence with his eastern neighbors, and on the 9th of 54 HISTORY OF THE March, 1727, Isaac de Rasiferes, the secretary of the pro- vince, addressed an amicable letter by his order to Gov- ernor Bradford at Plymouth, congratulating him on the prosperity of his colony, and expressing a hope that pleasant relations might continue to exist between them. This letter was the first communication between the Dutch and the Yankees. Bradford repHed in the same friendly tone, though he took care to throw out a few hints on the questionable propriety of Dutch trade within the limits of New England. Alarmed by this claim, Minuit answered a few weeks after, vindicating the right of the States General to the territory of New Netherland. The matter rested thus until fhree months after, when another letter was received from Bradford, apologizing for the long delay, and requesting that the Dutch would send a commissioner to discuss the boundary question in an amicable manner. The sugges- tion was complied with, and Isaac de Rasi^res dispatched on the errand, which amounted to little more than an interchange of civilities between the two powers. Ere long, seeds of trouble were sown, which ripened into a harvest of horror and misery. A. Weckquaesgeek Indian, who had come down with his nephew from West Chester to seU furs to the settlers, was attacked near the Fresh Water Pond by three of Minuit's farm servants, who robbed and murdered him. His nephew, a mere boy, escaped, vowing vengeance on his uUcle's murderers. It is but justice to the authori- ties to say that they were ignorant of this deed of horror, which in after years was visited so terribly upon the whole colonv. Revenge is an Indian's virtue, and the CITY OF NEW YORK. 55 young savage grew up to manhood, cherishing his terrible oath, and swearing to wash out his uncle's mur- der in the blood of the white men. In the meantime, the colony was increasing slowly, not so much by new arrivals as by the accession of the settlers from Forts Nassau and Orange, and the settle- ments at the" South River, who, attacked by the Indians and tiring of their lonely position, had deemed it advisable to remove to Manhattan. Six farms, called " Bouwerys," were reserved as the private property of the Company, four of which stretched along the east shore, the other two lying on the western side of the island, and extending to Greenwich. The inhabitants now numbered two hundred and seventy. But the settlement was expensive, and the Company, who were anxious to settle the country, determined to induce individual mem- bers of their/-body to establish settlements at their own risk. To effect this, in 1629, an act was proposed by the Assembly of Nineteen and ratified by the States General, granting to any member of the West India Company who should found a colony of fifty persons, upward of fifteen years of age, within four years after notice of his intention, the title of Patroon, with the privilege of selecting a tract of land sixteen miles on one side or eight miles on both sides of a navigable river, and extending as far inland as they chose, any- where within the limits of the province except on the island of Manhattan. This, the Company reserv^ to themselves, together with the exclusive right to the fur- trade, and a duty of five per cent on all trade carried on by the oatroons. The patroons were required to satisfy 56 HISTORY OF THE the Indians for the land, and to maintain a minister and schoohnaster ; and the Company promised to strengthen the fort at Manhattan, to protect the colonists against all attacks both from the English and the natives, and to supply them with a sufficient number of negro-servants for an indefinite length of time. This was the first introduction of slavery into the province of New Nether- land. Those settlers who emigrated at their own expense were to have as much ground as they could cultivate, and to be exempt from taxes for ten years ; in no case, however, either on the territory of the patroons or the Company, were they permitted a voice in the government. They were also forbidden to make any wooUen, linen, or cotton cloth, or to weave any other stuffs, imder penalty of punishment and exile. These and similar arbitrary restrictions sowed the seed of that discontent which agitated the people for so many years, and finally culminated in open rebellion. These patroons were petty sovereigns in their own right — feudal lords of the soil — possessing complete juris- diction over their tenants, who were forbidden to leave their service for a stipulated time. They also had authority to appoint local officers in all cities which they might establish, and were endowed with manorial privi- leges of hunting, fishing and fowling on all lands within their domain. This tempting offer at once excited the cupi^ty and love of power of the merchants of the WesFlndia Company, and no sooner was the act passed than a number hastened to comply with its requirements. Samuel Godyn and Samuel Blommaert, both of whom were directors of the West India Company, dispatched CITY OF NEW YORK. 57 agents to New Netherland, who purchased of the Indians two tracts of* land ; the one extending from Cape Henlo- pen thirty-two miles up the west shore of Delaware Bay ; and the other, a piece of land sixteen miles square on the opposite shore, including Cape May, to which they gave the name of Swaanendael. Soon after, the agents of Killian "Van Rensselaer, another director of the Company, purchased in his name the lands above and below Port Orange, including the present counties of Albany and Rensselaer, to which they gave the name of Rensselaers- wyck. Another director, Michael Pauw, appropriated a tract of land on the Jersey shore opposite to Manhattan, including Paul us Hook, Hoboken, and the adjacent country, to which he gave the name of Pavonia. To this purchase he soon after added that of Staten Island. This wholesale appropriation of the province excited the jealousy of the other directors. Loud murmurs of discontent arose among the Company, and the grasping patroons were forced to admit their colleagues to share in their domains. Companies were formed for the proposed scheme of colonization, and David Pietersen de Vries, who had become one of the patroons of Swaanendael in the new arrangement, proceeded thither with a colony of thirty persons, which he established at HoarkiU near the present site of Lewiston. Colonies were also established about the same time at Rensselaerswyck and Pavonia. The settlement at Fort Amsterdam, meanwhile, con- tinued to flourish. Not only was it the chief depot of the fur trade, but also of the coast trade of the patroons, who were obliged to bring thither all their cargoes. In 1629 and 1630, the imports from Amsterdam amounted 58 HISTOBTOFTHE to one hundred and thirteen thousand guilders, while the exports from Manhattan exceeded one hundred and thirty thousand. The people were turning their atten- tion to ship-building, in humble imitation of the Father- land, and at this early date, ^ew Amsterdam was the commercial metropolis of America. It fairly won the title in 1631 by the construction of the New Netherland, a ship of eight hundred tons, which was buUt at Man- hattan and dispatched to Holland. This was an impor- tant event in the ship-building annals of the times, for the New Netherland was one of the largest merchant vessels in the world. But the experiment was a costly one, and was not soon repeated. The land about the fort was fast being brought under cultivation, and, under the management of the industrioiis^aUoons, a thriving settlement was springing up on the Brooklyn shore, and gradually extending back upon Long Island. Emigrants of all nations were beginning to flock into the province, allured by the Uberal offers of the Company, who trans- ported them thither in their own ships at the cheap rate of twelve and a half cents a day for provisions and pas- sage, and gave them as much land as they could cultivate on their arrival. Unlike the policy of the Colony of Massachusetts, the fullest reUgious toleration was granted in the .province, and this attracted many victims of the persecution which was raging so fiercely in Europe. Wal- loons, Huguenots, Calvinists, Friends and Catholics, all foun% a home here, and laid the foundation of that cosmopohtan character which the city has since so well sustained. Yet the colony was chiefly of the Dutch type. The CITY OP NEW YORK. 59 simple and frugal settlers had imported the manners and customs of Holland along with its houses and furniture, and these for many years imparted a marked individual- ity to the growing city. To the north and south, the settlements were essentially English ; for a long time, New Amsterdam and its successor, New York, remained essentially Dutch. Yet these Holland manners and cus- toms were becoming greatly modified by the exigencies of the new country. The settlers were gradually adopt- ing something of the mode of life of their savage allies ; already had they learned to relish the Indian luxuries of succotash and hominy, and to welcome to their tables the game, shell-fish, fruits and berries which the island afforded in such profusion ; nor did the tobacco find less favor among them. The wampum had come to be a com- mon currency in the settlement. Much of the Indian life was already clinging to them ; though in thought and feeling they stiU belonged to the Old World, and looked fondly back to Holland as their true fatherland. At this juncture, a heavy calamity fell upon the infant colony which had been planted by De Vriea at Swaanen- dael. According to custom, a tin plate, bearing the arms of Holland, had been affixed to a tree, in token of the sovereignty of the nation. Attracted by the glitter of the metal, and thinking no harm, a chief took it down to make it into tobacco pipes. This proceeding, Hossett, who had charge of the place, imprudently resented as an insult, and the natives, to appease him, slew the offefeder and brought him his right hand as a token of a ven- geance of which the Dutch commander had never dreamed. But it was now too late. A few days after. 60 HISTORTOPTHfi the friends of the murdered chieftain fell upon the settlers as they were at work in the fields, slew them without mercy, burned the fort and laid waste the whole settlement. Thirty-two colonists were massacred in cold blood — not one escaped to tell the tale. It was from the Indian chiefs themselves that De Yries heard the details of the horrible catastrophe on his arrival. The colony at Rensselaerswyck meanwhile continued to prosper. The directors of the West India Company had hoped, by the aid of the patroons, to succeed in colonizing the country, and, at the same time, to retain the rich mono- poly of the fur trade in their own hands. In this they met with serious opposition. The patroons, who had grown powerful through their extensive privileges, interfered with the traffic to such an exte;^ that the directors resolved to Umit their authority and to break their power. This procedure excited almost a civil war in the Conlpany. By the provisions of the charter, the patroons were obliged also to be members of the associa- tion, and the Company was thus divided against itself. A warm dispute arose, and in 1632, Peter Minuit, who was suspected of favoring the pretensions of the patroons, was recalled from the directorship, although no suc- cessor was appointed for more than a year. At the same time, Jan Lampo, the schout fiscal, was super- seded by Conrad Notelman, who had brought the letters of recall. Minuit at once resigned the government into the 'hands of the council, and embarked for Holland in the ship Eendragt, which had brought the news of his dismissal, accompanied by the ex-schout and several famihes of returning colonists. The Eendragt also car- CITTOPKEWTORK. 61 ried with her a cargo of five thousand beaver skins — a token of the growing prosperity of the colony. On her return, the .ship was forced by stress of weather into the harbor of Plymouth, where she was detained by the authorities as an illegal trafi&cker in EngUsh monopoUes. Minuit instantly dispatched news of this proceeding to the Company," and also to the Dutch ambassadors at London, who remonstrated with the English government. The arrest of the Dutch trader led to a correspondence between the two countries, in which the claims of the rival powers were distinctly set forth. These claims, which formed the basis of contin- ual agitations as long as the province remained in the hands of its Dutch proprietors, are too important in their connection with the history as well of the city as of the whole country, not to find a place here. The Dutch claimed the proprietorship of the province on the grounds of its discovery by their nation in 1609 ; of the return of their people in 1610 ; of the grant of a trading charter in 1614 ; of the maintenance of a fort and garrison until the organization of the West India Company in 1621 ; of the failure of the English to occupy the territory ; and of the purchase of the land from its original owners, the natives. The English, on the other hand, laid claim to it on the ground of the prior discovery of Cabot, and declared it to be the property of the Plymouth Company, by virtue of a patent granted by James I., its lawful sovereign. As to the purchase of the land from the natives, they alleged that the wan- dering and communistic Indians, not being the honA fide possessors of the land, had no. right to dispose of it, and 62 CITY OF NEW YOEK. therefore, that all Indian titles must be invalid — a theory which they had certainly done their best to reduce to practice. They offered to permit the Dutch to remain in New Netherland, provided they would swear alle- giance to the English government ; otherwise they were threatened with instant extirpation. But civil war was now on the eve of breaking out in England, and the authorities were ill prepared to put their threat into exe- cution. Contenting themselves with this assumption of sovereignty, they released the Eendragt, and reserved the accomplishment of their designs for a more con- venient season. CHAPTER li. 163a— 1642. New AmsteTdam in the Days of Wonter Tan Twiller— EngUah Difflcnltles— Wuneim Kieft. During the interregnum which succeeded the departure of Minuit, the government was administered by the council, headed by Koopman Van Remund, the succes- sor of Isaac de Rasi^res. In April, 1633, the ship Sout- berg arrived at Manhattan, bringing Wouter Van TwUler, the new director-general, with a miUtary force of a hundred and four soldiers, and a Spanish caraval which she had captured on the way. Among the pas- sengers came also Everardus Bogardus and Adam Roelandsen, the first clerg3rman * and schoolmaster of New Amsterdam. * The reader is referred to Appendix, Note C, for a curious letter, recently trans- mitted to the Historical Society by the Hon. Henry C. Murphy, U. S. Minister at the Hague, bearing date the lltb of August, 1628, and purporting to have been Addressed by Jonas Michaelius, first Minister of the Church of New Amsterdam, to Domino Adrianns Smontias, Minister of the Dutch Reformed Church at Amster- dam. This letter, of the authenticity of which Mr. Murphy expresses himself strongly persuaded, was found among the papers of Jacobus Koning, clerk of the fourth judicial district- of Amsterdam, and communicated to the Kerk-hiatorisch Archief by J. J. Bodel Nijenhaus, Esq. Of its previous history, nothing whatever is known. In the records of the Classis of Amsterdam of a later date, Domine Michaelius is mentioned as the late minister of Virginia ; and the fact that the Dutch 64 HISTOETOFTHE A weaker, more vacillating or thoroughly incompe- tent governor could hardly have been selected than Wouter Yan Twiller. He had married the niece of the wealthy patroon, Killian Van Rensselaer, and it was probably in consequence of this connection that he had succeeded in obtaining this important post. He had been employed as a clerk in the Company's warehouse, and had done them good service in this capacity ; but knowing nothing at all of the science of government, and ignorant of everything except of money-making, he soon became ridiculoua in his new position. Immediately upon his arrival, Van Twiller assumed the direction of affairs, and organized his council. This council consisted of Jacob Jansen Hesse, Martin Gerrit- sen, Andries Hudde, and Jacques Bentyn. Cornelius Van Tienhoven was made book-keeper of the Company, Ungnage was unknown in Virginia proper, coupled with the general custom of bestowing this appellation indiscriminately upon all portions of the western world, ■Hbrds strong presumptiTe proof of the genuineness of the letter. If it be really authentic, it is, with the exception of Isaac de Rasiires' letters to Governor Brad- ford and to Mr. Blommaert of Amsterdam, the only letter now extant written by the pioneers of New Amsterdam. The history of Hichaelius is full of adventure. Bom in 16T7 in North Holland and educated at the University of Leyden, he settled in 1614 at Nieuwbokswouden, whence he, two years afterwards, removed to Havre. On the capture of St. Salvador by the Dutch in 1624, he was dispatched thither to preside over the church of the victors. The next year, the island fell again into the hands of the Portuguese, and Hichaelius, abandoning his charge, set out on a missionary expedition to Guinea. In 1627, he returned to Holland, and soon after, if we may rely on this letter, made his way to New Amsterdam, to enact the part of the religious pioneer which historians have hitherto agreed in assigning to Bogardus. He probably did not remain long in the province. The next trace of him appears in 1637 or 38, when it was proposed by the Classis to send him again to New Amsterdam ; but the request was refiised by the West India Company, pro- bably on account of his advanced age. The letter in question is quaint and curiona, and gives a graphic picture of the primitive life of the early settlers. CITY OF NEW YORK. 65 and Notelman and Van Remund retained their offices of schout and koopman. The council organized, he turned his attention at once to public improvements. The Com- pany had authorized him to fortify the depots of the fur- trade, and he waa not slow in obeying their instructions. The fort which had been commenced in 1626 and never completed, and which was now in a ruinous condition, was rebuilt, and a guard-house and barracks erected at a heavy cost for the newly arrived soldiers. Having a minister, a church now became indispensable. The loft in the horse-mill in which prayers had been read for the last seven years was abandoned, and a wooden church or rather barn was erected, on the shore of the Bast River, in Pearl between Whitehall and Broad streets ; near to which was also constructed a parsonage and stable for " the domine." By this appellation, the ministers of the Dutch churches long continued to be known ; the name is even now in vogue in some of the western settlements of Long Island. A graveyard was also laid out on the west side of Broadway, above the present Morris street. Three windmills were built in the vicinity of the fort ; so near it, indeed, that the build- ings within the walls often intercepted the wind and rendered them useless. Several brick and stone build- ings for the use of the director and his officers were built within the walls of the fort. Van Twiller also caused a dwelling-house, barn, brewery, boat-house and other out-buildings to be built on Farm No. 1. of the Com- pany, extending from Wall street, northward to Hudson street, where he himself took up his abode. The farm No 3, at Greenwich, he appropriated as his tobacco 66 HISTORTOFTHB plantation. Houses were built for the corporal, the smith, the cooper and the midwife, and several costly dweUings were also erected at Pavonia and at Forts Nassau and Orange, all of which were constructed at the expense of the Company. About this time, the commercial importance of New Amsterdam was increased by the grant of "staple right ;" a sort of feudal privilege, having its basis in the institutions of the Fatherland. By this grant, all vessels trading along the coast, or passing up and down the rivers, were obliged either to discharge their cargoes at the port, or to pay certain duties in lieu thereof. This right was valuable, for it gave to the colony the com- mercial monopoly of the whole province. In the person of Domine Bogardus, Van Twiller had brought with him an unruly subject. Scarcely had he commenced his administration, when the latter began to rebuke him for his conduct in public afiairs. Van Twil- ler angrily resented the interference, whereupon Bogar- dus anathematized him from the pulpit as a chUd of the devil, and so incensed the governor that he refused ever to enter the church-doors again. The people naturally took sides in the quarrel, and the contest between governor and domine continued to the end of the admin- istration. In the records of the year 1638, we read that "for slandering the Rev. B. Bogardus, a woman was " obliged to appear at the soimd of a bell in the fort " before the governor and council, and to say that she " knew that he was honest and pious, and that she lied " falsely." However this may be, it is certaia that Bogar- dus was rude and imperious, and that many charges CITY OF NEW YORK. b( were brought against him which were never sufficiently refuted. A. short time before the arrival of Van Twiller, De Tries returned with the mammoth ship New Nether- land and a yacht, to visit his little colony of Swaanen- dael. Mournful, indeed, was the scene that met his eyes. Where he had left a flourishing settlement, there was naught to be seen but blackened ruins, charred trees, and the mouldering bones of the unhappy colonists. De Tries sickened at the sight ; but prudently concealing his sorrow and anger, he summoned the Indians, gleaned from them an account of the terrible disaster, then, instead of wreaking on them the vengeance they had expected, dismissed them with presents to meditate on the mercy of the white men. Such a vengeance would have been the signal for the destruc- tion of every white man within the province. This De Tries well knew ; and after contracting this necessary but detested alliance, he sailed to Tirginia, and opened a friendly intercourse with the governor, Sir John Har- vey, who assured him that the Dutch had nothing to fear from that side, but warned them to beware of their Plymouth neighbors. On parting, the friendly gover- nor sent several goats as a present to the director at Fort Amsterdam, by whom they were gladly received, there being as yet none in the colony. Soon after the arrival of Tan Twiller, the William, an English ship, arrived at Manhattan, with Jacob Belkins, the former agent at Fort Orange, who had been dismissed by the Company in 1632, as supercargo. Irritated by his dismissal, Eelkius had gone over to the service of the 68 HISTOKTOFTHE English, and had now come in the interests of his new employers to trade in furs with the Indians of the Mauri tins River. This was contrary to the policy of the West India Company ; and Van TwUler, who, though a bad governor, was a good merchant, understanding the value of the monopoly of the fur trade, refused to permit the vessel to proceed on its way, and demanded Eelkins' commission. This Eelkins refused to produce, declaring that he was on British territory, discovered by an Englishman, and that he wnauld go up the river if it cost him his life. The governor forbade him in the name of the Dutch government, and ordered the flag to be hoisted at Port Amsterdam, and three guns to be fired in honoi of the Prince of Orange. In return for this display, Eelkins rim up the English flag by way of bravado, and ordered a salute to be fired in honor of King Charles ; then cooUy sailed up the river in defiance of the guns of Fort Amsterdam, leaving the astonished governor to meditate on his audacity at his leisure. Thunderstruck at such an act of daring, Van TwDler summoned aU the people together in the square before the fort, now the Bowling Green, then ordering a cask of wine and another of beer to be brought, he filled a glass, and called on all good citizens who loved the Prince of Orange to do the same, and to drink confusion to the Enghsh Gov- ernment. The citizens were not slow in obeying the com- mand ; and, indeed, this was all that they could do, for the ship was now far beyond the guns of the fort, and safely pursuing her journey up the river. But they were deeply mortified at the governor's pusillanimity, and De Vries openly taxed him with cowardice, and told him that if it CITT or NEW YORK. 69 had been his case, he should have sent some eight-pound beans after the saucy Englishman and helped him down again, but as it was now too late for that, he should cer^ tainly send the Soutberg after him and drive him down the river. After meditating on this counsel for a few days, the vacillating Van Twiller resolved to follow it, and dispatched an armed force to Fort Orange, where Wrath of Van Twiller. 70 HISTORYOF THE Eelkins had pitched a tent on the shore, and was busily engaged in trading with the natives. This tent the soldiers speedily demolished, and, reshipping his goods, brought his vessel back to Fort Amsterdam, where he was required to give up his peltries, and was sent to sea with a warning never more to interfere with the trade of the Dutch government. It was not long before Van Twiller, who always acted promptly on inopportune occasions, attempted to vindi- cate his statesmanship at De Tries' expense. The latter wished to send his yacht through Hellegat to trade along the coasts, a privilege to which he was entitled as a patroon ; but the governor refused his consent, and ordering the guns of the fort to be turned on the reced- ing vessel, commanded her to stop and unload directly. " The land is full of fools !" exclaimed the exasperated De Tries, running to the Battery point Avhere stood the governor with some of his council, "if you want "to shoot, why didn't you shoot the Englishman when " he sailed up the river ?" The governor dared not give the order to fire, and the yacht passed on, and was soon winding her way through the tortuous channels of the Hellegat. Although, in the general appropriation of patroon- ships, no claim had been made on the country about the Connecticut River, and the few settlers who had gone thither had soon returned with their families to Manhat- tan, the Dutch had constantly kept up a brisk trade with the Indians, and as constantly asserted their right to the territory. In the meantime, a grant of the same terri- tory had been made to Lord Warwick by the E aglish CITY OF NEW YORK. 71 government ; and Van Twiller, taking alarm at the movements of the English, determined to forestall them by securing its possession. During the summer preced- ing the arrival of Van TwiUer, a small tract of land at the mouth of the Connecticut River had been purchased of the Indians, and the arms of the States General affixed to a tree. Immediately after his arrival, the governor dispatched Jacob Van Corlaer with six other agents thither, who purchased a tract of land of the Pequods near the site of the present city of Hartford, and built a redoubt upon it, which they fortified with two cannon and named Fort Good Hope. Hearing of this encroachment, the people of Plymouth applied to the Massachusetts colony to aid them in driv- ing off the Dutch intruders. But, deeming the country almost valueless on account of the difficulty of entering the river and the hostility of the Indian tribes in the vicinity, the latter declined, although Governor Winthrop dispatched a letter to Van Twiller, remonstrating with him for encroaching upon EngUsh territory. To this Van Twiller returned a courteous reply, proposing that the matter should be referred to their respective govern- ments, and hoping " that two great powers might not "fall into contention about a little part or portion of "these heathenish countries." The Plymouth colonists, however, resolved on more decisive measures, and pur- chasing a small tract of land of the Indians, just above Fort Good Hope, dispatched Lieutenant William Holmes thither with a picked company of men and the frame of a small house to found an English settlement. As they neared the Dutch post, they were hailed by Van Corlaer, 72 HISTOBTOFTHE who threatened to fire if they proceeded. " Fire !' was the reply, " we are following the commands of the gover- " nor of Plymouth, and, Hving or dead, we must obey his " orders." The true follower of Yan Twiller, Yan Corker dared not fire, and Holmes ascended the river a mile and a half higher, set up his house, and founded the settle- ment of Windsor. Yan Twiller, on hearing of these proceedings, served a written protest on the intruders, and soon after sent seventy soldiers to dislodge them. But they stood on their defence, and the Dutch com- mander withdrew without attempting their expulsion. In the meantime, De Yries had returned to Holland, contending to the last with Yan Twiller, who vainly endeavored to detain him and to wring from him a tri- bute in the shape of taxes and duties. Soon after, he withdrew from his partnership in the patroonship of Swaanendael, which was bought up by the Company for the sum of fifteen thousand six hundred guilders, or six thousand two hundred and forty dollars. About the same time, Xotelman, the schout fiscal, who had been convicted of dishonesty in the performance of his duties, was superseded by Lubbertus Yan Dinklagen. Trouble broke out in a new quarter. A party of Englishmen from Point Comfort, headed by Greorge Holmes, took possession of the deserted trading-post of Fort Nassau. For once, Yan Twiller seems to have acted with promptness. He at once dispatehed an armed force to South River, who dislodged the intruders and brought therii back as prisoners to Fort Amsterdam Just at this juncture, De Yries arrived from Holland, on his way to Virginia. Yan Twiller, at a loss how to dis- CITY OF NEW YORK. 73 pose of his prisoners, begged him to wait for a few days ; the unlucky Englishmen were embarked on board his vessel, and landed two days afterwards at Point Comfort, just in time to prevent a party of their countrymen from Betting out to rejoin them. This timely action ended the proposed invasion, and secured to the Dutch for the time being the imdisputed possession of the South River. Not equally fortunate were they on the Connecticut. In 1634, a company of emigrants from Massachusetts founded a settlement at Wethersfield ; while another party estabhshed themselves near the mouth of the river, tearing down the arms of the States General which had been affixed there three years before, and treating them with contemptuous derision. To this latter settlement they gave the name of Saybrook. Van Twiller, finding protests unavailing, dispatched a sloop to dislodge them, which was driven off by the English without being suffered to land. At a loss how to act, the governor dis- patched an account of the proceedings to his superiors, and waited for further instructions. In the meantime, the English occupied Springfield, thus gaining almost exclusive possession of the territory of the Fresh River. About the same time, some incidents less serious and more ludicrous occurred at Fort Amsterdam, which have been caught up by the witty historian of the Knickerbocker times, and converted into a choice bit of satire on the unlucky governor. Finding that Vir- ginia was not a good place for the Dutch to trade at, De Vries, after landing his prisoners, returned to Fort Amsterdam, which he reached about two o'clock in 74 HISTORTOFTHB the morning. The whole city was asleep. Not a sen tinel appeared on the walls, no challenge was given, and no one was conscious of the arrival of the vessel. At daybreak he fired a salute of three guns. The frightened citizens sprang from their beds and seized their arms, the startled soldiers ran to their guns, and the governor fancied that the English were in possession of the city. A few minutes explained the mistake ; the people laughed at their terror, and De Yries was heartily welcomed back again. His vessel leaking badly, she was hauled up into the *' Smit's "Vly," a morass lying outside of Pearl street between Pine and Fulton streets, where she was careened and repaired. This "vjy" or valley afterwards became the site of the weU-known Fly Market. Soon after De Vries' arrival, the first fire in the vicin- ity occurred at Pavonia. ComeUus Van Voorst, the newly appointed agent for Patroon Pauw, had just arrived, bringing with him some choice claret, and Van TwiUer, with De Vries and Domine Bogardus, hastened thither to greet his arrival and taste the luxury. The party was not altogether a harmonious one, for Van Twiller and Bogardus, who were friends for the occasion, quarrelled with Van Voorst about a murder which had recently been committed on his pre- mises. They parted, however, on friendly terms, and on their return, the agent fired a farewell salute from a swivel that was mounted in front of his house. A spark fell upon the thatched roof, the reeds caught, and in half an hour the building was in ashes. Such an event had, as yet, been hardly anticipated, and no means were at CITY OF NEW YORK. 75 hand for extinguishing the fire ; nor indeed did any exist until several years after. De Vries soon after prepared to return to Europe, and the director resolved to give a banquet in honor of his departure. Tables were spread on the Battery in one of the angles of the fort and a large company invited and Van Corlaer, the celebrated trumpeter of the fort, was called upon to furnish music for the occasion. The wine circulated freely and all were merry ; but just as the festivity had reached its height, a couple of worthy " koopmans," or supercargoes, took it into their heads to find fault with the trumpeter. The valorous Van Cor- laer vindicated his cause by giving them both a beating, upon which they ran home for their swords, uttering threats of the most direful vengeance. But their anger evaporated during the night, and in the morning, says the quaint chronicler of the times, "they feared the *' trumpeter more than they sought him." Dc Vries, after selecting Staten Island as his future residence, and entering his claim to it through the director, set sail for Holland, taking with him several Englishmen, who had sold their vessel, together with two captured prizes, at Fort Amsterdam. Van Twiller, as has already been said, was too good a merchant to neglect his own interests. In the sum- mer of 1636, he, with Jacob Van Corlaer, Adriaen Hudde and Wolfert Gerritsen, purchased a tract of land com- prising some fifteen thousand acres on Long Island, where they founded New Amersfoordt, the present Flatlands. About the same time, he granted to Roelef Jansen a tract of thirty-one morgens or sixty-two acres of land, 76 HIST ORT OF THE beginning a little south of the present Warren street, and extending along Broadway as far as Duane street, and thence northwesterly a mile and a half to Christopher street, thus forming a sort of unequal triangle with its base upon the North River. This grant afterwards became a part of the famous Trinity Church property. Jansen died a few years after, leaving four children, and his widow and heiress, Aneke Jans, became the wife of Domine Bogardus, After his shipwreck and death, the grant was confirmed by Stuyvesant to Aneke Jans, a second time a widow with eight children. Upon the subsequent capture of the province, the grant was again confirmed by the English government to her heirs, who sold it in 1671 to Colonel Lovelace, though one of the heirs failed to join in the conveyance. It was now incor- porated into the King's Farm, once owned by the Dutch West India Company, and, in 1703, was presented by Queen Anne to Trinity Church, at that time the established church of the city. Van Twiller also con- firmed the possession of the Waal-bogt to George Jansen de Rapelje, one of the Walloons who had emigrated with Cornelissen Mey,* and granted to Jonas Bronck that part of Westchester lying opposite Harlem. Nor did Van Twiller neglect to increase his own pos- sessions. Besides his recent purchases on Long Island, he already had a flourishing plantation at Red Hook ; to this he added Nutten's Island, which lay opposite it, only separated by a narrow channel, so shoal that cattle * The companioDB of de Bapelje, whose nameg, slightly changed in orthograpbT may still be found among the residents of the Wallabout and its vicinity, were L'Escuyer, Duregee, Le Sillie, Cershaw, Conscilleur, and Uusserol. CITY OF NEW YORK. 77 forded it at low water. This undoubtedly formed origin- ally a part of Long Island. But the abrasion of the neighboring shores by the waves, together with the fill- ing in of the lower part of the city, have widened and deepened the chasm, and ships now pass in safety through Buttermilk Channel. So lately as the close of the last century, its passage was hardly deemed safe for boats, on account of the rocks with which it was filled ■ though market-boats, loaded with buttermilk and rowed by women, glided through it on their way from Long Island to the New York market, and gave it its name. Nutten's Island, which had derived its name from its abundance of nut-trees, was henceforth known as Gover- nor's Island. Soon afterwards he purchased Great Barn and Blackwell Islands in the Hellegat River ; becoming through .these acquisitions the richest landholder in the colony. The growing rapacity of the director became at length so apparent that it excited public attention, and called forth open murmurs from Van Dincklagen, the upright and able schout-fiscal. Incensed at this audacity. Van TwiUer removed him from his office, and, retaining his salary, which was now three years in arrear, sent him a prisoner to Holland on a charge of contumacy. Ulrich Lupoid was appointed as his temporary successor. But on his arrival. Van Dincklagen, who was a man of marked abiUty, represented the bad management of the director so strongly to the States General, that they urged the Amsterdam Chamber to recall him, and to reinstate Van Dincklagen in his office. To this they at first demurred, but the representations of Van Dinck- lagen being confirmed by De Vries, they finally con- 78 HISTORYOFTHE sented, and on the 2d of September, 1637, appointed Wilhelm Kieft as his successor. Nor did the schout- liscal stop here ; he also censured Domine Bogardus so severely, that the latter, on learning of the charges made against him, petitioned for leave to return to Holland to defend himself. This was denied him, but the consis- tory of his church instituted ecclesiastical proceedings against Van Dincklagen, which were brought several years afterwards before the Classis of Amsterdam. Yan Dincklagen was forced to wait many years for the pay- ment of his salary, though the States General had signi- fied their pleasure that it should at once be paid to him. But he finally returned with honor to New Amsterdam, to fill one of the most important offices in the government. One of the last events in the administration of Van Twiller was the purchase of Pavonia from its patroon by the West India Company. This purchase consolidated their power, by giving them possession of the Jersey shore as well as of Staten Island. Swaanendael they had before acquired, and all the patroonships with the excep- tion of Rensselaerswyck thus reverted back to them. This, indeed, was the only one in which the system had produced the colonization so much desired by the Com- pany. Yet the settlement at Manhattan remained the only one worthy of the name ; and, at this date, the his- tory of the city and that of the province must necessarily be inseparable. Pavonia soon lost its euphonic appella- tion, Latinized from the uncouth name of Pauw, in the hands of its new proprietors ; and at the present time the httle village of Communipauw is aU that is left to remind us of the wealthy patroon. CITY OF NEW YORK. 79 On the 28th of March, Wilhelm Kieft, the new director, arrived in the ship Herring, at Manhattan. Hia antecedents were not prepossessing. Born at Amster- dam and educated as a merchant, he had become a bankrupt at Rochelle, where his portrait had been affixed to the public gallows after the custom of the city. After this, he had been sent to ransom some Christians in Turkey, where he was accused of having left several captives in bondage, retaining the money which had been raised for the purchase of their liberty. He was a bustling, excitable man, with some show of business talent and considerable energy, yet testy, irritable and capricious, without stability or mental equilibrium, and devoid of the sound judgment and cool prudence so necessary in the governor of a province. In some respects, he was the superior of the heavy, indolent Yan Twiller, yet the nervous irritabiUty which rendered him so, involved the province in scenes of blood and horror which it would probably have escaped beneath the plac- able sway of the good-natured director. Kieft immediately set to work with bustling activity, organizing his council ia such a manner as to keep the direction of affairs in his own hands. Lupoid was con- tinued in the office of schout, Yan Tienhoven was appointed koopman, and a Huguenot physician by the name of Johannes la Montague, who had lately emigrated to New Amsterdam, was admitted into the council. This done, he set about reforming the abuses which had crept into the colony, and repairing the disorder of pub- lic affairs. He found no lack of business in this direc- tion. The fort was in a ruinous condition, and all the 80 HISTOETOFTHE guns dismounted; the church and government build- ings were out of repair ; but one of the three mills which had been built was in working order, and almost all the vessels were leaky or disabled. The few cattle of the Company had been sold or transported to the plantations of Yan Twiller, and their farms thrown into commons. There were abuses everywhere — private individuals smuggled furs and tobacco, and sold powder and guns to the Indians, regardless of the prohibitions of the Company, and law and order were almost obsolete in the colony. Kieft energetically set to work to cure these evils, and issued a code of laws and regulations, which were hot much better heeded by the colonists than the wordy protests of Van TwUler had been by the English. All illegal traffic . in furs was forbidden under penalty of confiscation of the goods, the selling of mus- kets or ammunition to the Indians was made a capital offence, tobacco was subject to excise, and no liquor but wine was permitted to be sold at retail. Sailors were forbidden to leave their ships after nightfall, hours were fixed for all to commence and leave ofif work, and strict laws were passed against aU vice and profanity. Thursday in each week was fixed for the session of the council as a civil and criminal court. All persons were prohibited from leaving the island without a passport, and strict measures were taken to restrain the illegal traffic which had grown so dangerous to the interests of the Company. Meanwhile, the Dutch were threatened with a new rival from an unexpected quarter. Minuit, the ex- director, indignant at his abrupt dismissal, resolved to CITY OF NEW YORK. 81 found a new colony under his own direction. With this design, he proceeded to Stockholm, and, gaining access to Queen Christina, described the new country to her in such glowing language that she at once became anxious to secure a portion of it for Sweden. The project, indeed, was not a new one ; it had previously been pro- posed to Gustavus Adolphus by WilHam Ussehncx, the original projector of the Dutch West India Company, who had favored the undertaking ; but ere it could be carried into effect, Sweden's greatest monarch had found his death on the field of Liitzen. It remained for his daughter, aided by the counsels of the able Oxenstiern, to carry out his project, and to secure a foothold for Sweden in the New World. By her command, the Key of Calmar man-of-war, and a tender called the Griffin, were fitted out with goods suitable for traffic with the Indians, a Lutheran clergyman and some fifty emi- grants were embarked, and the expedition was placed under Minuit's direction. Steering directly for the Virginian coast, he touched at Jamestown f6r wood and water ; then, proceeding to Delaware Bay, he pur- chased aU the territory on the west side of the river from Cape Henlopen to Trenton Falls, with an indefinite extent inland, of the sachem of the country, for the con- sideration of a kettle and a few trifles, and, taking pos- session of the country in the name of Sweden, erected a trading-post which he called Fort Christina. This was situated near the site of the present Wihnington, and was the first settlement within the State of Delaware. On learning of this new encroachment, Kieft imme- diately served a protest on the intruders, claiming the 6 82 HISTORTOFTHB territory as the property of the West India Company, and declaring that he would not be answerable for the consequences which might result from their UlegaJ occu- pation. Finding his remonstrances disregarded, he appUed for instructions to the Amsterdam Chamber. But, at this time, Sweden was one of the most, powerful of the European kingdoms ; the States General, unwilling to embroil themselves with so dangerous a neighbor, deemed it expedient not to pursue the matter further, and the Swedes were permitted to continue their traffic under protest. Soon after this occurrence, a measure was adopted by the Company which proved of vital importance to the interests of the colony. Hitherto, their efforts at coloniz- ation had proved futUe, and the patroon system had resulted in a total failiu-e. For the encouragement of individual enterprise, a new charter of privileges was granted, limiting patroonships to four miles of frontage on navigable rivers with eight miles inland ; granting to every person who should transport himself and five others to the province at his own cost, two himdred acres of land ; and conferring on all villages and cities which should hereafter be founded, the right of choosing their own magistrates. The monopoly of the Indian trade was reUnquished in consideration of a moderate duty the Company only retaining the exclusive right of transportation to and from the colony. They ofifered a free passage, however, to all respectable farmers, with as much land as they could cultivate on their arrival subject to a quit-rent of a tenth of the produce. They also pledged themselves to provide ministers, school- CITY OP NEW YORK. 83 masters, and " comforters for the sick ;" and renewed their promise to supply the colonists with negroes. The prohibition against making cloths was also repealed. The Reformed Dutch ReUgion was declared the estabhshed faith of the province, though the fullest toleration was gi-anted to all other sects. No distinction was made between foreigners and Hollanders, the only obligation imposed on the former being an oath of fideUty to the Dutch government. Allured by these liberal oflFers, numerous wealthy emi- grants soon flocked into the colony. In 1639, De Vries returned to Manhattan with a party of colonists, and erected some buildings and began a colony on Staten Island. In the course of the same year, Jochem Pieter- sen Kuyter and CorneUs Melyn, both men of means and influence, arrived with a number of emigrants at New Amsterdam, where they soon became prominent mem- bers of the colony. Some BngUsh indentured servants, who had served out their time in Virginia, came also to Manhattan, where they carried on the cultivation of tobacco, and introduced cherry and peach-trees which had hitherto been unknown in the settlement. Attracted by the greater religious freedom in the province, several valuable settlers came in from New England, among whom was Captain John Underbill, who had distin- guished himself in the Pequod war, and had afterwards become Governor of Dover. The strangers were cor- dially welcomed, and at once inducted into aU the privi- leges of citizenship, and they soon grew warmly attached to the interests of their adopted city. The island was fast losing its savage aspect, fuU thirty farms and planta- 84 HISTORTOFTHB tions were in thrifty cialtivation, and the country outside the walls of the fort resembled a blooming garden. The land in the vicinity of Manhattan, both on the Long Island and Jersey shores, and northward on the mainland, was fast being brought under cultivation. In the summer of 1638, Kieft had purchased for the Com- pany a large tract of land on Long Island in the vicinity of the present Newtown, and commenced the settlement of the country adjacent to the Waal-bogt. In the fol- lowing summer, Antonie Jansen de Rapelje, the brother of the founder of the Walloon settlement, obtained a grant of a hundred morgens, or nearly two hundred acres of land, opposite Coney Island, and commenced the settlement of Gravesend. Rapelje, or Jansen, as he was commonly called, was a man of prodigious strength and stature, and was reputed by many to be a Moor by birth, a circumstance probably owing to his adjunct of De Salee, under which name his patent was granted, and by which he was often known. This report, how- ever, was without foundation ; he was a native Walloon, and the suffix to his name was probably derived from the river Saale in France, and not from Salee in Morocco. For many years after the Dutch dynasty had passed away, his farm at Gravesend continued to be known as Anthony Jansen's Bouwery.* Thomas Belcher, • William Jansen de Rapelje, the third brother of this family, distinguished as hav- ing been among the earliest settlen of Long Island, and the fonnders of the present citj of Brooklyn, settled at New Amsterdam, where he died without children. By a curious caprice, the descendants of Autonie have discarded the name of Rapelje retaining that of Jansen, or Johnson as they are more commonly called • while the family of George have dropped the Jansen, and are known by the name of Rapelje or Rapelyea. CITTOPNEWYORK. 85 an Englishman, soon after obtained a tract of land at Brooklyn, and George Holmes and Thomas Hall, the leaders of the unsuccessful Virginian expedition against Fort Nassau, who had now become residents of Man- hattan, obtained farms near Deutel's, now Turtle Bay on the East River. In the spring of 1640, Kieft purchased of the Indians in behalf of the Company, all the territory comprised within the present hmits of Kings and Queens Counties which was not already hi their possession. De Vries soon after established another colony at Tappan on lands which he had previously purchased of the Indians, to which he gave the name of Vriesendael. The following year, another colony was established within an hour's walk of the former by Myndert Vander Voorst in the valley of the Hackensack River; and about the same time, Cornelis Melyn obtained a grant from the Amsterdam Chamber for all that part of Staten Island which was not already occupied by De Vries. Previously to this, Kieft had established a distillery and buckskin manufactory there on his own account, and had stationed a few soldiers in a small redoubt on one of the headlands, with orders to signal to the garrison in the fort the arrival of vessels in the lower bay. The English, meanwhile, continued their encroach- ments upon the territory of the Connecticut, and had almost succeeded in forcing the Dutch from Fort Good Hope, the only foothold which they possessed in that region. Not content with this, they next attempted to gain possession of Long Island also. In 1635, Lord Stirhng had obtained a grant from the Plymouth Coun- cil of a part of New England, together with Long Island ; 86 CITY OF NEW YORK. « and acting on this authority, he dispatched James Far- rett, a Scotchman, to take possession of it and dispose of it in his name. Farrett at once proceeded to the island, and selected Shelter and Robbins' Islands in Peconic Bay for his own use, first purchasing the land of the Indians. Soon after, he confirmed the purchase of Gardiner's Island, which had previously been made by Lyon Gardiner, in the name of Lord Stirling. The fol- lowing year, Gardiner removed with his family to the island, and founded the first settlement in this region. Farrett next granted a patent of the lands in the vicinity of Manhassett to a company of emigrants from Lynn, who proceeded thither, and tearing down the arms which the Dutch had aflBxed to a tree, proceeded to establish a colony there. Penhawitz, the friendly sachem of the country, instantly dispatched a messenger to Kieft to in- form him of the aggression ; whom Van Tienhoven at once dispatched to the spot with an armed force to break up the incipient settlement. He arrested the party and brought them to Manhattan, whence they were sent back to New England, after signing an agreement never more to trespass upon the/Dutch territory. Disappointed in their attempt to found a colony on the western part of the island, the same parties obtained another grant from Farrett of lands on the eastern part, and, in 1640, commenced the settlement of Southampton. In the same year, the neighboring town of Southold was settled by a company of emigrants from Norfolk- shire, England, who, after spending a short time at New Haven, had crossed the Sound, and secured the lands in the vicinity of Yinnicock, now Greenport. But these CITY OF NEW YORK. 87 distant settlements scarcely troubled the Dutch authori- ties, who, content with maintaining their claim to the western part of the island, suffered the eastern colonists to remain in peace. In 1648, another party of colonists from Lynn took possession of the easternmost part of the island, and founded the town of Easthampton. With the exception of a small colony that was founded at Setauket, on the north side of the island, in 1655, these were the only English settlements that were made on Long Island during the rule of the Dutch dynasty.' The Swedes, meanwhile, had continued to carry on a flourishing trade with the Indians in the neighborhood of Fort Christina. In the beginning, they experienced hardships and privations ; at one time, indeed, rendered desperate by famine, they were on the point of breaking up their little settlement and removing to Manhattan, where Kieft had promised th.em a cordial reception. Fortunately, the day before the projected emigration, a ship laden with colonists and supplies appeared in the river. Others soon followed, and the colony rapidly increased. In 1641, Peter Minuit died, and was buried at Fort Christina. Peter HoUendaere, a Swede, suc- ceeded him in the command. But the success of these Swedish colonists on the South River was too marked not to excite the cupidity of the New Englanders. In 1640, a bark was fitted out at New Haven by a merchant (George Lamberton), and dispatched with some fifty families to the shores of the Delaware to fotmd a settlement. On the way, they touched at Manhattan, where they were warned by Kieft to desist from all enterprises in that quarter. Disregard- 88 HISTOKTOFTHE ing his injunctions, they proceeded on their way, and established themselves, a part on Salem Creek, and the rest on the Schuylkill. Enraged at this interference with the Dutch trade, Kieft fitted out two yachts with a force of fifty men to dislodge the intruders ; but trouble breaking out among the Indians on Staten Island, he was forced for the time to abandon the enterprise. In the following year, he dispatched an expedition, which, seconded by the Swedes, broke up both the settlements, and brought back the English with their goods to Fort Amsterdam, whence they were sent back to New Haven. Lamberton, who persisted in trading at the South River, was soon after arrested and brought to Manhattan, where he was compelled to pay full duties on his cargo. The English demanded satisfaction for the damages done their people, which they estimated at a thousand poimds, but Kieft boldly justified his con- duct, and refused to accede to their demand. The con- troversy continued, and the English annoyed their neigh- bors so greatly that Kieft proclaimed a non-intercourse with the colony of Connecticut. This state of affairs proving embarrassing, the colonists soon opened a nego- tiation with Kieft for the purchase of the territory about the Dutch post ; and this failing, both parties appealed to their respective powers in England and HoUand for a redress of their grievances. But civil war was now rag- ing in England between the king and the parliament, and though a correspondence was opened between the two governments, the settlement of the question was de- ferred tin a more convenient season. Meanwhile, the Eng- lish persisted in their design of crowding out the Dutch CITY OF NEW YORK, 89 CITY OF NEW YORK. 91 from a territory which indubitably belonged to them, both by right of discovery and that of first possession. The settlement at Fort Amsterdam — the embryo New York — continued to increase in numbers and prosperity. Among the late accessions were many men of wealth and public spirit, who were ambitious for the advance- ment of the colony. The settlement was growing into respectable proportions. A few brick and stone houses had been erected for the accommodation of the governor and officials, but the greater part were unpretending httle cottages, with thatched roofs and wooden chimneys, standing with the gable end to the street. Until 1642, city lots and streets were unknown ; the settlers chose land wherever it was most convenient for them, and being gregarious in habits, streets were formed almost by instinct. This fact accounts reasonably enough for the crooked ways of the lower part of our metropoUs. Two roads leading from the fort towards the northern part of the island had been formed by common consent ; the one, afterwards known as the Boston or Old Post Road, leading from the fort up the line of Broadway to the end of the Park, then winding round through Chatham, Duane, William and Pearl streets to avoid a steep hill with a brook at the foot at Roosevelt street, and continu- ing its course up the line of the Bowery ; the other, extending from the fort through Stone street to Hanover Square, and thence along the river shore to the ferry, where the ferryman, CorneUs Dircksen, who owned a farm hard by, came at the sound of the horn that hung against a tree, and ferried the waiting passen- ger across the river in his Uttle skiff for the moderate 92 HISTORYOFTHE charge of three stivers in wampum. This ferry, in the earliest days of the city, was established between the nearest points of contact of the opposite shores, that is, from the vicinity of Peck Slip to a point a little below the Fulton ferry landing at Brooklyn. At this time, and for many years after, Pearl street formed the edge of the river. It is at no very distant date, indeed, that Water, Front and South streets have been reclaimed from their river beds and made to do their duty as a stanch support to commerce. From the old yellow house — one of the last relics of the past — now standing on the northwest corner of Peck Slip and Water street, one could easily throw stones into the river which flowed through Water street at the time of its erection. In the days of Wilhehn Kieft, this street was selected as the site of the up-town residences of the wealthy burghers on account of its fine river prospect. The ferryman Dircksen owned the land directly oppo- site the ferry ; the tract above of thirty-three acres, extending up to the vicinity of Franklin Square, was own^d by Henry Bressar. Above this lay Wolfert's Marsh, the property of Wolfert Van Couwenhoven, covering the Roosevelt street district. Between the lands of Dircksen, and Wall street, which formed the northern boundary of the city, the lands along the line of the street were owned by David Provoost, Philip de Truy, Cornehs Tan Tienhoven, Laurens Yanderwel, and Govert Loockermans, the most of whom were agents in the Company's employ. On the west side of Broadway, above the graveyard, stood the country seats of Messrs. Vandiegrist and Van Dyck. But the most of the houses CIXT OP NEW YORK, 93 CITYOFNEWTORK. 95 were clustered at the lower end of the town about the walls of the fort. In Whitehall street, stood the parson- age, with its garden of variegated tuUps intersected by plain alleys of clipped box and cedars. In close proxim- ity stood the bakery, brewery, and warehouse of the Company. In South WUliam near Pearl street was the old horsemill, erected by Minuit, and since superseded by the windmills of Van Twiller. One of these stood on State street, the most prominent object in the city as seen from the river. The fort itself was bounded by the Bowling Green, Bridge, Whitehall and State streets. The former was known as " the plain," and was a valu- able institution, both in peace and war. It was the vil- lage green, where the people erected their May poles, and danced on hohdays ; it served also as the parade ground of the soldiers of the fort, and more than once, had it witnessed the departure of a warlike expedition. Pearl street was probably the street first occupied — the oldest in the annals of the city ; the first houses were built on it in 1633. Bridge street came next in order, and a deed is still on record whereby Abraham Yan Steenwyck sells to Anthony Van Fees a lot on this street, thirty feet front by one himdred and ten feet deep, for the sum of twenty-four guilders, or nine dollars and sixty cents — the earliest conveyance of property now on record in this city. Whitehall, Stone, Broad, Beaver and Market- field streets were built on soon after. In 1642, the first grant of a city lot east of the fort was made to Hendrick Hendricksen Kip. The following year, several grants of lots on the lower end of Broadway, or Heere Straat as as it was then called, were made to difierent individuals. 96 HISTOET OF THE Martin Krigier was the first grantee of a lot on this street, opposite the Bowling Green, containing about eighty-six rods. On this he buUt the well-known "Krigier's Tavern," which soon became a place of fashionable resort. Upon its demolition, the " Bang's Arms Tavern " was erected in its stead. This afterwards became the head-quarters of General Gage, the commandant of the fort and commander-in-chief of the British forces at the breaking out of the Revolution. Transformed into the Atlantic Gardens, No. 9 Broadway, it still remains stand- ing, one of the few relics of the olden time ; the more remarkable for being but the second structure that has occupied the site since the foundation of the city. Other grantees soon purchased lots, and streets became fixed facts in the lower part of the city, though no systematic efibrt was made for their regulation until after the arrival of Stuyvesant. The price of lots averaged at about fourteen dollars ; they were laid out in uneven figures to suit the course of the streets, containing from thirty to a hundred and twenty-five feet, according to the location. In 1641, Kieft instituted two annual fairs for the encouragement of agriculture, the first for cattle, to be held on the 15th of October, and the second for hogs, to be held on the 1st of November, upon the Bowling Green- This opened the way for another improve- ment. As yet, no tavern had been erected within the settlement for the accommodation of strangers and the numerous visitors from the New England colonies as weU as from the interior were compelled to avail themselves of the hospitalities of the director. The fairs swelled the number, and Kieft, finding the tax CITY OF NEW YOEK 97 becoming a heavy one, in 1642 erected a large stone tavern at the Company's expense for their accommoda- tion. This tavern was situated on the east shore of the river, near the present Coenties Slip, and was afterwards transformed into a city hall or Stadt huys. " stadt Huys," at Coenties Slip The church which had been built by Tan Twiller, and which was but a barn at best, was becoming dilapidated, and several of the settlers, headed by De Tries, urged the erection of a new one. " It was a shame," they said, "that the English, who had such fine churches in their "settlements, should see them worshipping in a mean "barn, when they had plenty of fine wood and stone " and oyster-shells for lime at their very doors." It is more probable that they feared an attack from the Indians in the old structure outside the walls of the fort, 7 98 HISTOKYOFTHB but this they did not choose to assign as their motive. The governor consented, and proposed, doubtless for the same reason, that the church should be erected within the walls of the fort. To this arrangement, many demurred. They objected that the fort was already crowded with buildings, and that the church would in- tercept the southeast wind and obstruct the working of the windmill on the shore of the North River ; but the director remained firm, and the site was finally agreed upon. Jochem Pietersen Kuyter, and Jan Jansen Damen, with De Vries and Kieft, were appointed " kirke- meesters," to superintend the building of the edifice, and nothing was wanting but the necessary funds. How to obtain them was the question. Kieft, on his part, promised to advance a thousand guUders on the Company's account, and De Vries headed a private sub- scription-list with a hundred more, but this was not nearly sufficient, and the citizens were not in a liberal humor. A little management extricated the projectors from their difficulty. At this juncture, a daughter of Do- mine Bogardus was opportimely married. The principal citizens were invited to the wedding, the wine circulated freely, and aU were merry. When the festivity had reached its height, the subscription paper was produced, and the excited guests vied with each other in the amount of their donations. There were some the next morning who would fain have recalled their reckless Uberality ; but repentance availed them nothing, the money was subscribed, and the work went on. A contract was made with John arid Richard Ogden of Stamford for the mason-work of a church of rock- CITY OF NEW YORK. 99 stone, seventy-two feet long, fifty-two wide and sixteen high, at a cost of twenty-five hundred guilders, with a bonus of a huf.dred more, should the work prove satis- factory. The roof was covered with split oaken shingles, then called wooden slates. In the front wall was inserted a marble slab with the inscription, " Ao. Do. " MDCXLII. W. Kieft Dr. Gr. Heeft do Gerneenten dese " Tempel doen Bouwen ;" which, being translated, gives the somewhat equivocal sentence, "Anno Domini, 1642, " Wilhelm Kieft, Director-General, hath the Common- " alty caused to build this Temple." When the fort was demolished in 1787 to make room for the Government House, the stone was discovered, buried in the earth, and was removed to the belfry of the old Dutch Church in Garden street, where it remained until both were destroyed in the conflagration of 1835. The church was styled the St. Nicholas, in honor of the tutelary saint of New Amsterdam. The town bell was removed to the belfry, whence it regulated all the affairs ' of the city ; ringing time for .laborers, summoning courts of justice, ringing merry peals for weddings, tolling out funeral knells, and calling the people on Sundays to their devo- tions. Better order, too, was beginning to be observed in the colony. The director had succeeded in part in enforcing his laws, and in restraining contraband trade ; as well as in checking the importation of bad wampum into the colony, which had been a source of serious annoyance to the settlers, by reducing its value from four to six beads for a stuyver. This wampum, or seawant, as it was properly called, merits a more extended notice than 100 HIST ORT OF THE has hitherto been given it. It was of two kinds, the wampum or white, and the suckanhock sucki, or black seawant — the former being made from the stem of the periwinkle, and the latter from the purple coating of the hard clam. These were rounded and polished into beads, and pierced with sharp stones, then strung upon the sinews of animals, and woven into belts of different sizes. The black beads were accounted twice as valuable as the white, the latter being made the standard of valuation. A string a fathom long was worth about four guilders. Although seawant was the generic name of the currency, the wampum, strictly speaking, being only the white beads, among the Dutch and English the lat- ter name was universally applied to it. Jhe best was manufactured on Long Island, called by the aborigines Sewanhacky, or the Isle of Shells. The seawant of the Iroquois and New England Indians was inferior in quality, and rough and badly strung. Indeed, it seems to have been unknown among the New England tribes before 1627, when Isaac de Rasibres, the koopman of New Amsterdam, when on an embassy to Plymouth, purchased corn with it from the English settlers. Find- ing it convenient as a circulating medium, the Indians soon learned the art of its manufacture, and it was not long before the cunning New Englanders succeeded in draining New Netherland of its finely poHshed seawant in payment for their goods, and introducing large quantities of their imperfect beads in turn. Nor was this all • beads of porcelain were manufactured in Europe and put into circulation among the colonists, and the evil grew so alarming that, in 1641, the council published an ordi- CITY OF NEW YORK. 101 nance with the sanction of Kieft, declaring that " a great deal of bad seawant, imported from other places, was in circulation, while the good, splendid sewant, usually called Manhattans sewant, was out of sight or exported, which must cause the ruin of the country." To remedy this evil, the ordinance provided that in future all coarse seawant, well stringed, should pass at six for one stuy ver ; while the well polished should be valued at four for a stuyver. This ordinance is the first on record for the regulation of the exportation of specie in the colony. In 1657, they were again reduced from six to eight for a stuyver. About this time, too, the increasing intercourse with the English settlements rendered it necessary that some provision should be made in respect to correspondence in the EngUsh language. Dutch was of course the lan- guage of the settlement ; Kieft knew something of Eng- lish, but his officers were ignorant of it, and this was often embarrassing. It was therefore resolved that an Enghsh secretary was indispensable ; George Baxter was appointed to the office, with an annual salary of two hundred and fifty guilders ; and the English language was thus first recognized in New Amsterdam. CHAPTER III. 1612—1664. The Indian War — Fetros StnTvesant — ^New Amsterdam becomes New York. A. CLOUD had long been gathering over the colony , it now burst with terrific fury. At the period in which our chapter opens, the colonists were involved in the horrors of an Indian war — a war which devastated the little settlement, and the bloody tragedies of which were long perpetuated in legends and traditions. To better depict its rise and progress, it wiU be necessary to re- trace the events of a few years, and to glance briefly at the causes which had thus transforraed the friendship of the natives into bitter hostility. For some years past, an unfriendly feeling had gradu- ally been springing up between the settlers and the Indians. The better to carry on the fur trade, the Dutch had separated from each other, and scattered over the interior of the province, where they had allured the natives to their houses by supplying them with liquor, and treating them with great familiarity ; and had bar- tered guns and ammunition in exchange for their furs, despite the laws to the contrary. The natives thus 108 CITY OFNEW YORK. 103 became well supplied with fire-arms, and also gained a knowledge of the numbers and habits of the settlers. This was especially the case with the Mohawks in the neighborhood of the colony of Rensselaerswyck. In the vicinity of New Amsterdam, stricter regulations were observed, and the colonists were strictly prohibited from selling guns and ammunition to the Indians. This excited the jealousy of the river tribes, who accused the Dutch of partiality to their enemies. The cattle of the set;tlers often strayed into the unfenced corn-fields of their Indian neighbors, who revenged themselves for the mischief by shooting them down. Many of the natives were at this time employed as house and farm servants in the colony, who often committed petty thefts and ran away, to acquaint their tribes with the domestic arrangements of their masters. In the midst of the bitter feelings which had been stirred up by these petty aggressions, Kieft rashly deter- mined to levy a tribute of corn, furs and wampum upon the Indians, under the pretext that the government in- curred heavy expenses in protecting them from their enemies. This excited the indignation and contempt of the natives, who well knew that they received no pro- tection from the soldiers at Fort Amsterdam. They could not understand why they should be compelled to support the Dutch because they had suffered them to five peaceably in their country. "The sachem must be a '•' mean fellow," they said ; " he had come to live among "them without an invitation, and now wanted them to " supply him with maize for nothing." At this juncture, a party of Dutch, on their way to the 104 HISTORY OF THE Indians bringing Tribute. South River, landed at Staten Island and stole some hogs belonging to De Vries ; the blame of which was laid on the Raritans, a tribe on the west shore of the Hudson, who were also accused of having attacked a yacht, and stolen a canoe from its crew. The impetuous Kieft resolved at once to punish the offenders, and, on the 16th of July, 1640, dispatched Koopman Van Tienhoven with seventy men, to demand immediate reparation. On reaching the settlement, Yan Tienhoven demanded the restitution of the property. But nothing less than the blood of the natives would CITY OF NEW YORK. 106 satisfy the men under his command. After vainly re- monstrating, Van Tienhoven left them to their work of destruction, and returned to the fort. The soldiers fell on the innocent Raritans, burned their crops, killed ten of their warriors, and returned to New Amsterdam, hav- ing lost one of their own men in the encounter. Thus was laid the foundation of a bloody war, which threatened for a time to destroy the infant colony, and which prudent management might easily have averted. This unprovoked outrage naturally awakened a desire for vengeance in the hearts of the Raritans. While await- ing' a fitting moment, they amused the director with over- tures for peace ; then, suddenly falling upon the plantation of De Vries at Staten Island, they burned his dwelling and tobacco house, and killed four of his planters. Incensed at the consequences of his own folly, the governor determined to exterminate the whole tribe, and allured the river Indians to assist him by offering a bounty pf ten fathoms of wampum for the head od every Raritan, and twenty for the heads of the actual murderers. It was not long before Pacham, a chief of the Tankitekes or Haverstraw Indians, came in with the hand of the dead chief of the party as a token that he had earned the price of blood. Terrified at the power of their foes, the Raritans sued for peace, and hostiUties were for a time suspended. But it was only to change the scene of warfare. An Indian never forgets an injury, and the memory of- his uncle's murder had long been rankling in the breast of the Weckquaesgeek boy who had witnessed the foul deed in the days of Minuit. The boy had now grown into 106 HISTORY OF THE a man, and, according to the Indian custom, the duty devolved upon him of offering up a victim to the manes of his murdered kinsman. Twenty years had passed since the murder ; the Dutch, if they had ever known, had forgotten it; but tne memory was fresh in the mind of the young Indian, and a harmless old wheelwright, by the name of Claes Smits, who dwelt in a little house near Deutel's Bay, was chosen by him as the victim of his revenge. Stopping at the house of the old man one day, under the pretext of bartering some beaver-skins for blankets, the Indian struck him dead with an axe while he was stooping over the chest in which he kept his goods, then, rifling the house, escaped with his booty. A judicious governor would have overlooked this offence, heinous as it seems, in view of the consequences. The stern law of Indian justice, blood for blood, had been satisfied, the murder could not be undone, and to seek to avenge it was to endanger the lives of the whole community. But Kieft, who thirsted for the extermina- tion of the Indians, refused to be satisfied with anything less than the blood of the offender, and demanded him of his tribe, who refused to give him up, saying that he had but avenged his kinsman after the custom of the nation. Upon receiving this answer, the first impulse of Kieft was to declare an immediate war. But the people remonstrated — scattered as they were, over the island on their farms and bouweries, such a proceeding menaced them with instant destruction ; and Kieft, perceiving that he would be held responsible for the consequences of su3h a war, reluctantly called a council of the prin- cipal citizens to consult together in the emergency. CITY OF NEW YORK, 107 They assembled in the fort on the 28th of August, 1641, and formed the first public assembly that ever convened on the island of Manhattan. To this assembly, Kieft submitted these propositions : "Whether the murder of Claes Smits should not be avenged ? — Whether, in case the tribe refused to surren- der the murderer, the whole village should not be destroyed ? — In what manner and when should this be executed ? and by whom could it be effected ? The assembly at once chose "Twelve Select Men," to act as their representatives in this matter. These first representatives of the people were Jacques Beiityn, Maryn Adriaensen, Jan Jansen Damen, Hendrick Jan- sen, David Pietersen de Vries, Jacob Stoffelsen, Abram Molenaar, Frederick Subbertsen, Jochem Pietersen Kuy- ter, Gerrit Dircksen, George Rapelje, and Abram Planck ; all Hollanders. Of these, De Vries was chosen president. In answer to the propositions of Kieft, they replied that, while the murder of Smits ought to be avenged, " God and the opportunity " should be taken into consideration. They advised that preparations should be made for war, that coats of mail should be provided for the soldiers, and that two parties, headed by the director in person, should march against the Weckquaesgeek village in the hunting season, if they still refused to deliver up the murderer ; but that, in the meantime, every effort should be made to bring the affair to a peaceful termination, and to avert a war with the natives. De Tries, though he had been the prin- cipal sufferer, having witnessed the destruction of his colonies both at Swaanendael and at Staten Island, was 108 HISTORY OF THE earnestly opposed to war. The Company, too, was averse to it, and had constantly directed the colonists to keep peace with the natives,- as they valued their own safety. These peaceful counsels did not suit the temper of the vengeful director. But the Twelve Men succeeded in postponing the war for a season, then turned their attention to pubhc aiTarrs. The numher of the council being optional with the director, Kieft's consisted only of himself and La Montague, Kieft having two votes and Montague one. The Twelve Men demanded that the council should be reorganized and increased at least to five, that four of these should be elected by the people, and that judicial proceedings should only be had before a full board. They also demanded that the militia should be mustered annually, and that the Company should furnish half a pound of powder to each man ; that the people should be allowed to visit vessels arriv- ing from abroad, and to trade freely with neighboring places, subject to the duties of the Company. Besides this, they required that the English should be prohibited from seUing cows and goats within the province ; and that a greater increase should be made in the value of the provincial currency. These bold demands irritated the director beyond expression; but as he could only thus gain their consent to the war that he so ardently desired, he consented to make some concessions. A complete council, he said, was daily expected from Holland ; he was willing, how- ever, that the people should choose four men, two of whom were to be chosen annually, who should be CITY OF NEW YORK. 109 called into the council when necessary, and should assemble occasionally to consult upon public affairs. The other demands he granted without much reluctance, refusing only to permit the people to visit vessels from abroad, or to furnish powder to the militia for practice. In return, he wrung from them a reluctant consent to the war, and on the 18th of February, 1642, dissolved the body. Having at last obtained the formal consent of the peo- ple to commence hostilities, Eaeft dispatched a party of eighty men against the Weckquaesgeeks with orders to exterminate them by fire and sword. The party was intrusted to the command of Hendrick Van Dyck, and accompanied by a guide who professed to know the country. Night set in, however, before they reached the Indian village, the guide lost his way and Van Dyck his temper, and the party returned, innocent of the death of a single Indian. The Wecquaesgeeks, discovering from the trail of the white men the danger to which they had been exposed, became terrified and sued for peace, pro- mising to deliver up the murderer of Smits — a promise, by the way, which they never performed. While these negotiations were pending, a trader made an Indian drunk, and stole from him a dress of beaver skins. On regaining his senses, the incensed savage, meeting De Vries, told him of the theft, and vowed to shoot the first white man he should meet. De Vries tried to dissuade him from his purpose, but in vain. A few days after, he shot an .Englishman on Staten Island, and afterwards, a Dutch colonist at Newark Bay. The frightened sachems hastened to New Amsterdam, and offered two hundred fathoms of wampum as an 110 HISTORY OF THE indemnity for the murder, which Kieft refused, demand- ing the immediate surrender of the murderer. The sachems pleaded that he was the son of a chief, and that he had gone two days' journey off, among the Tankitekes, whence it was impossible to retake him. " Why do you " sell brandy to our young men ?" said they ; " they are "not used to it, and it makes them crazy. Even your " own men, who are used to it, get drunk sometimes, " and fight with knives. Sell no more fire-water to the " Indians, and you will have no more murders." But this reasoning failed to satisfy the implacable director, and the sachems returned sorrowfully to Yriesendael with their slighted offering, while Kieft sent a messenger to the Tankitekes to demand the head of the fugitive. Before the Tankitekes had time to accede to the demand of the director, they were attacked by a new foe from an unexpected quarter. A band of Mohawks made a descent upon the river Indians, and, killing and making prisoners of many, forced them to flee from their homes to seek protection from the Dutch. Hundreds of tlie half naked and homeless savages fled to Manhattan in the depth of winter to implore shelter from their dreaded enemies. More than a thousand encamped at Pavonia. Some, crossing to Manhattan, settled at Cor- ker's Hook, where the more compassionate of the colonists supplied them with food, and counted on the occasion to inspire them with lasting gratitude and friendship for the whites. Despite the jealousies and hostilities which had so lately prevailed, the Indians were not yet estranged from the colonists. They stUl had a confidence in the superior power of the white man, and CITY OF NEW YORK. Ill this confidence might have been strengthened by judi- cious policy. But a different spirit prevailed in the councils of the director. At this time, there were two parties in New Amsterdam, the peace party under De Tries, and the war party, headed by Van Tienhoven. At a Shrovetide feast at the house of Jan Jansen Damen, when all were merry with wine, the host, with Adriaen- sen and Planck, presented a petition drawn up by Van Tienhoven to the governor, and, feigning to speak in the name of the Twelve Men, their colleagues, tirged him to avenge the murder of Smits by an instant attack on the defenceless Indians whom God had thus delivered into their hands. The proposal chimed with the wishes of the director, who, drinking a toast to the success of the enterprise, instantly dispatched a party of men under the command of Sergeant Rodolf to Pavonia, and another headed by Maryn Adriaensen to Corlaer's Hook, to destroy the un- armed savages in the name of the commonalty. It was in vain that Domine Bogardus warned Kieft against this violence, that Councillor la Montague begged him to wait until the arrival of the next ship from Holland, and that Captain De Vries declared that hostilities could not legally be commenced without the consent of the peo- ple ; for his sole reply, Kieft took De Vries aside, and showed him his soldiers, ready to cross over to Pavonia. " The order has gone forth ; it cannot be recalled," said he. At midnight, on the twenty-fifth of February, 1643, this order was executed, and one of the most terrible tragedies enacted that ever disgraced the annals of a 112 HISTORY OF THE civilized nation. The Indians, surprised in the midst of their slumbers, were slaughtered without resistance. Chief and warrior, mother and child, old and young, all met the same fate — all were dispatched by the muskets of their enemies, or driven into the river to perish there. Eighty Indians were slaughtered at' Pavonia. So sud- den was the attack that they knew not who were their murderers, and died believing themselves slain by the Mohawks. The humane De Yries sat by the kitchen fire at the director's, listening mournfully to tlie shrieks of the victims that were wafted across the river from Pavonia, when an Indian and squaw who had escaped in a canoe from the scene of the massacre, rushed into the house to implore his protection. "The Port Orange ' ' Indians have fallen upon us j we come to hide our- " selves in the fort," said they. "It is no time to hide " yourselves in the fort ; no Indians have done this deed," answered De Yries, pityingly. "It is the work of the " Swannekens — the Dutch." And he led them from the gate, and watched them imtil they were hid in the shel- ter of the forest. In the meantime, a similar massacre was being per- petrated at Corlaer's Hook. The party headed by Maryn Adriaensen, a noted freebooter, had fallen upon the sleeping savages, and murdered them all in cold blood. Daylight ended the tragedy, and the party re- turned to Fort Amsterdam in triumph, with thirty prisoners and the heads of several of their victims, where they were received with joy by the director ; and with sorrow by the citizens, who thus saw the door opened to long and bloody war. On Wilhelm Kieft rests the sole CITY OF NEW YORK 113 Massacre of Indians at Favonia. responsibility of this atrocious deed, which was neither suggested nor sanctioned by the people of New Amster- dam. Stimulated by the success of their neighbors, some of the settlers at New Amersfoordt soon after petitioned for l&ave to attack the Indians in their vicinity. Res- trained by the remonstrances of Bogardus and De Vries, Kieft refused his consent, on the grounds that they had always been friendly to the Dutch, and vjere hard to con- quer; but added that in case they should prove hostile, 8 114 HISTORY OF THE every man was at liberty to defend himself as best he could. It was not long before some demonstrations on the part of these Indians were construed into hostiUties by the covetous settlers, and made the pretext for rob- bing them of their com. The natives attempted to defend their property, and in the struggle lost three of their men. Enraged at this injustice, the Long Island Indians joined with the river tribes in avenging their wrongs. Eleven tribes banded together and proclaimed open war against the colonists. The retribution was terrible. The swamps and morasses of the island were filled with lurk- ing Indians, Watching for opportunities to shoot down the colonists while at work in the fields, drive off" their cattle, set fire to their houses, and rob, kiQ, and plun- der. The peaceful and smiling country was quickly transformed into a wilderness. Men were shot down in broad daylight, and women and children carried into captivity ; fences were torn down, trees uprooted, and thrifty bouweries laid waste in the general ruin. The affrighted settlers fled within the walls of the fort, now their only place of safety. Every thicket outside con- cealed a foe, and no place was safe from the bullet of the subtile enemy. The settlements on Long Island, West Chester and the Jersey shores all shared the same fate. Rensselaerswyck alone escaped destruction, sheltered by the friendly Mohawks. The despairing colonists, stripped of their property and fearing for their hves, threatened to quit the fort in a body and return to' Hol- land, and Kieft was compelled as a last resort to take them all to serve as soldiers for two months in the pay of the Company, CITY OF NEW YORK. 115 Amid all the horrors of this savage warfare, an inci- dent occurred which proved that the Indians did not for- get past kindness in their thirst for vengeance. De Vries had always been a firm friend of the Indians, and had enjoyed their confidence, yet his plantation at Vries- endael did not escape the general destruction. A party of Indians made a descent upon the plantation, set fire to the barns, and destroyed the crops and cattle. The planters took refuge in the rudely fortified manor-house, and were preparing to defend their lives to the last extremity, when the Indian whose life De Vries had saved on the night of the Pavonia massacre rushed to the spot, and, telling the story, begged his countrymen to spare the life of " the good chief." The effect was magical. The grateful savages cried out to the planters that they were sorry that they had killed the cattle, but that they would let the brewery stand, though they "longed for the copper kettle to make barbs for their " arrows," and at once departed. Kieft began to repent bitterly of his rashness. He dispatched a messenger with overtures of peace to the Long Island Indians, which were rejected with scorn. A fast was proclaimed throughout the colony. At this time, Roger Williams visited Manhattan on his way to Europe. " Before we weighed anchor," he writes, "mine eyes " saw the flames of their towns, the frights and hurries of " men, women and children, and the present removal of " all that could to Holland." Maddened by their misfor- tunes, the excited colonists threw all the blame on Kieft, and even talked of deposing him and sending him in chains to Holland. To shield himself from their re- 116 HISTORY OF THE preaches, the director endeavored to throw the odium upon Adriaensen and his colleagues, as the instigators of the Pavonia massacre. Enraged at this cowardice, Adri- aensen, himself almost a ruined man by the destruction of his property during the war, rushed into the presence of the governor, armed with a pistol and hanger, and attempted his life. He was quickly disarmed and sent to prison, whence, despite the open resistance of his friends, he was soon afterwards sent to Holland for trial. Meanwhile, the spring had come, and the Indians were anxious for a cessation of hostilities that they might plant their corn for the coming season. On the 4th of March, 1643, three red men approached the fort, bearing a white flag, but none but De Vries and Jacob Olfertsen dared go forth to meet them. " Come and speak to our chief " on the sea-coast," said they. De Vries and his com- panion fearlessly accompanied their savage guides, who led them to Rockaway, where they found nearly three hundred Indians assembled. They passed the night in the wigwam of the chief. At daybreak, the next morning, they were roused to attend a council of the sachems. The Indians ranged themselves in a circle, placing De Tries and his com- panion in the middle, and their chosen orator of the tribe arose with a bundle of sticks in his hand, and slOwly ad- dressed the strangers: "When you first came to our " coasts," said he, "you had no food ; we gave you our " beans and oorn, and relieved you with our oysters and " fish ; and now, for recompense, you murder our peo- " pie," and he laid down a stick as the first count of the CITY OF NEW YORK. 117 indictment. " In the beginning of your voyages, you " left your people here with your goods ; we traded with "them while your ships were away, and cherished them " as the apple of your eye ; we gave them our daughters " for companions, who have borne children ; and now you " villainously massacre your own blood," and he laid down another stick as the second count. Many more stiU remained in his hand, but De Vries, not knowing where the fearful catalogue would end, hastily inter- rupting him, begged the sachems to go with him to Fort Amsterdam, and conclude a peace with the director, to which they consented, despite the remonstrances of their tribes. ^ " Are you all crazy," said the warriors, indig- nantly, "to go to the fort where that scoundrel lives who " has murdered your friends ?" But De Vries assuring them of safety, they said, ' ' Upon your word, we will go, " for you have never lied to us, like the rest of the " Swannekens." They went, and Kieft gladly con- cluded a treaty with them, and sent them away, loaded with presents, entreating their mediation with the river Indians. With some difficulty, a truce was soon after concluded with these ; yet it was but a hoUow truce. The natives were still smarting beneath a sense of their wrongs ; they grumbled at the insufficiency of their presents, and mut- tered words of ominous meaning, while the whites were distrustful of their terrible neighbors, and lived in con- stant fear of midnight assault, so that the peace was even more fearful than the war. " Our people are con- " tinually crying for vengeance ; we' can pacify our "young men no longer," said a friendly sachem sadly at 118 HISTORY OF THE midsummer, as he warned De Vries in behalf of his countrymen against venturing alone in the woods, lest some stranger Indian might kill their favorite. The words of the sachem were soon fulfilled. In August, the war broke out anew. Sieveral trading-boats were attacked on the North River, nine men were killed, and a woman and two children carried away into cap- tivity. In this emergency, Kieft again summoned the people together, and eight men were chosen by the popular voice to advise with the governor in respect to the war. This second representative body consisted of Jochem Pietersen Kuyter, Jan Jansen Damen, Barent Dircksen, Abraham Pietersen, Isaac Allerton, Thomas HaU, Gerrit Wolfertsen, and Cornells Melyn. Their first act was to expel from the board Jan Jansen Damen, who had been one of the prime instigators of the massacre of Pavonia, and to appoint Jan Evertsen Bout in his stead, after which they resolved to preserve peace with the Long Island Indians, but to renew hostiUties with the river tribes. Preparations were immediately made to carry on the war with renewed energy. The colonists were mustered and drilled, and to prevent the English colonists from leaving the province, fifty were taken into the Company's pay, the commonalty having agreed to meet one-third of the expense. The command of this detachment was intrusted to Captain John Underbill, who had lately removed from New Amsterdam to Stataford, The colony seemed, indeed, in a hopeless condition. One after another of the outside settlements fell a prey to the fury of the savages. The Weckquaesgeek Indians, CITT OF NEW YORK. 119 joining in the strife, fell on the plantation of the cele- brated Anne Hutchinson, at Annie's Hook, and murdered her with her whole family, with the exception of one grand-daughter, a child, whom they carried into captivity. Proceeding thence, they laid waste the other plantations in West Chester, killing, burning, and destroying all be- fore them. At Gravesend, they attacked the settlement of Lady Deborah Moody, who, having been expelled from Salem as an Anabaptist, had established herself there by Kieft's permission, with others of her persuasion. The heroic woman, with her friends, made a brave de- fence, and finally repulsed the savage invaders. Not equally fortunate was the larger settlement of Doughty, at Mespath, which was destroyed, while the colonists were forced to flee for safety to Manhattan. The settle- ments on New Jersey fell a prey to the Indians, and little remained to the Dutch save the little colony at Manhattan. Five or six farmhouses were still standing on the upper part of the island, but these were hourly threatened with destruction. The only place of safety was the fort, around which the women and children huddled hi straw huts, while their husbands and fathers defended its walls. And these defenders were but few ; all the men that could be mustered were about two hundred, besides fifty or sixty soldiers in garrison, and a handful of Englishmen; and with these, it was necessary to keep a constant guard, and to re- pel the attacks of seven tribes, numbering fifteen hundred well-armed men. The cattle had been gathered into the fort, where they were starving for want of food. De Vries, the only white man in whom the Indians had confidence, set sail for Holland, a ruined man, reproaching Kieft in 120 HISTORY OF THE his last words, with the ruin that had resulted from his reckless cruelty. In this extremity, the council of Eight Men invoked the aid of the colonists at New Haven, but their request was unheeded. The English professed to doubt the jus- tice of the quarrel ; it may be, too, that they were weU satisfied that the Indians should do the work they wished done, and exterminate the Dutch from the face of the New World. Foiled, in this quarter, the Eight Men addressed an earnest appeal to the government at Hol- land, and set about organizing a desperate defence. Expeditions were dispatched against the Indian villages ; their corn was destroyed, and their wigwams levelled to the ground. But here, instead of simply acting on the defensive, they darkened the story of the war with another act of bloody cruelty. In the beginning of the year 1644, a colony of English emigrants, headed by Robert Fordham, had settled at Heemstede on Long Island, after securing a grant of land from the Dutch government. Penhawitz, the sachem of the Canarsee tribe in the vicinity, had ever shown himself a firm friend of the whites ; but in this time of general distrust, the English suspected him of treacherous designs, and conveyed information of their suspicions to the governor at Fort Amsterdam. With- out waiting to ascertain the truth of the charge, Kieft at once dispatched a detachment of a hundred and twenty men under the command of La Montague, Cook and Underbill with orders to exterminate the Canarsees. The party proceeded in three yachts to Cow Bay, where they landed, and dividing their forces, marched upon CITY OF NEW YORK. 121 the two Indian villages at Mespath and Heemstede. The Indians, taken by surprise, fell an easy prey to their enemies. One hundred and twenty were killed and two taken prisoners, while of the assailants but one was killed and three wounded. The prisoners were conveyed in triumph to Fort Amsterdam, where they were put to death with the most excruciating tortures. The one fell dead in the fort while dancing the death dance beneath the knives of his more than savage victors ; the other was beheaded on a millstone in Beaver Lane, near the Battery. Encouraged by this bloody success, the governor dis- patched Underbill with a hundred and fifty men on a new expedition against the Connecticut Indians. He landed at Greenwich, and, after marching all day in the snow, arrived at midnight at the Indian village. This consisted of three rows of wigwams, nestling in a nook of the mountain which protected them from the north winds. The night was clear, and the full moon, shining on the snow, gave it all the brightness of a winter's day. This time, the Indians were not sleeping, but were merrily celebrating one of their annual festivals. In the midst of their festivity, the Dutch surrounded the village, and charged upon them, sword in hand. The Indians made a desperate resistance, but in vain ; every attempt to break the line of their foes failed, and in an hour, the snow was dyed with the blood of a hundred and eighty of their number. Having forced all the Indians into the wigwams. Underbill determined to terminate the battle by setting fire to the village. Straw and wood were quickly heaped about the houses, the pile was kindled, and in a few moments, the whole village was in flames. . 122 HISTORY OF THE Men, women and children were shot down as they rushed from the burning huts, or forced back again to perish there. Between five and six hundred perished by fire and sword, and but eight escaped to tell the fearful tale to their countrymen. Not a single man of the assailants was killed, though fifteen were wounded. The victors "kindled large fires and slept on the field of battle. The next morning, they set out for Fort Amsterdam, which they entered in triumph, three days after. They were received with open arms, and a public thanksgiving was proclaimed in gratitude for the victory. This battle is supposed to have taken place on Strickland's Plain, within three miles of Greenwich. This victory practically terminated the war — a war. which began and ended in massacre, which very nearly destroyed the youthful colony, and which was carried on by the governor against the wishes of the people. In April, 1644, the chiefs of the Long Island and. several of the river tribes, appeared at the fort and pledged them- selves to peace. But the tribes nearest Manhattan Island continued hostile until the following year, when the Mohawks interposed in favor of the Dutch. On the 30th of August, 1645, the sachems of aU the hostUe tribes assembled on the Bowling Green, and, smoking the calumet of peace, pledged themselves to eternal friendship with the whites. The 6th of September was appointed as a day of general thanksgiving, and the war was at an end. And it was time. The war had lasted but two years, yet the island was almost depopulated. Scarcely a hun- dred men were left in Manhattan. The cattle and farms CITY OF NEW YORK. 123 were all destroyed, and the neighboring settlements levelled to the ground. The fort, which had originally been nothing more than a bank of earth with corners of stone, was crumbling into ruins. The stone church which had been commenced in 1642 remained unfinished, the money that had been raised for the support of a school had been expended for the troops, and the English auxiliaries were yet unpaid. Other expenses, too, had been incurred in providing for the safety of the city. In the spring of 1644, a strong fence had been built through Wall street, for the protection of the few cattle that yet remained to the settlers ; and this fence, which was afterwards extended and strengthened, continued to serve as the wall of the city for the ensuing fifty years, and gave its name to the street which stands now as the monetary wall of the metropoUs. The Company, crippled by the expenses of their military operations in the Brazils, were utterly powerless to render them any assis- tance, and a bill which Kieft had drawn on them the preceding summer for 2,622 guilders was returned pro- tested. To meet this emergency, Kieft again convened the assembly of the Bight Men, and proposed to levy an excise on wine, beer, brandy and beaver. This was bit- terly opposed by the representatives of the people, both on account of the impoverished state of the city, and because it transcended his rights as a subordinate officer of the Company. Their remonstrances were of no avail ; the tax was imposed by the unyielding director. Just at this juncture, a hundred and three Dutch sol- diers who had been expelled from Brazil by the Portu- guese insurrection, arrived at Manhattan. These had 124 HISTORY OF THE been sent by Petrus Stuyvesant, the governor of Cura^oa, to aid the colonists in the war with the Indians. On the arrival of these troops, the English auxiliaries were civilly dismissed, and the new comers were billeted on the citizens. But they were destitute of clothing, and to meet this exigency, the director ordered that the excise duties, which had been provisionally imposed, should be continued. The brewers, upon whom this tax fell most heavily, made a sturdy resistance. They were sum- moned before the council, a judgment was rendered against them, and their beer was given as a prize to the sol'^.Iers. Indignant at this bold violation of their rights, on the 28th of October, the council of the Eight Men addressed a memorial to the Company, demanding the recall of Kieft, whom they charged with the whole blame of the war, and petitioning that the people might be allowed a" voice in the municipal government. This document re- flected severely on Kieft, who had already sent to the directors his own version of the war, together with a book and drawings, descriptive of the province. This, they quaintly assured the Company, had as many hes as Knes in it. " And besides," they continued, " in " respect to the animals and geography of New Neth- " erland, it would be well to inquire how the director- " general can write so aptly about those distances and " habits, since his honor, during the six or seven years " that he has been here, has constantly resided on the " Manhattans, and has never been further from his " kitchen and his bedroom than the middle of the afore- " said island." This memorial was referred to the CITY OF NEW YORK. 125 A^ssembly of Nineteen, who at once determined upon Kieft's recall. Being undecided as to a successor, Lubbertua Van Dincklagen, the schout fiscal who had been so unceremoniously dismissed eight years before by Van Twiller, was appointed to take charge of the gov- ernment provisionally. Before he had embarked, how- ever, to repair to his new post, the Company made choice of Petrus Stuyvesant, the ex-governor of Cura(?oa, for director-general. Van Dincklagen's appointment was therefore revoked, and that of vice-director or first coun- cillor of the province given him instead. This done, new regulations were made for the govern- ment of the province. Peace with the Indians yras strenuously insisted on, and Kieft and his council were required to repair to Holland to defend their conduct in the late war. The annual salary of the director was fixed at three thousand, and the expense of the civil and miUtary establishment of the province at twenty thousand guilders. The director, vice-director and schout were to constitute the council, and to have supreme authority in civil and military affairs ; in criminal cases, in which the schout was compelled to act as public prosecutor, the military commandant took his place in the council, and two representatives were added from the people. Fort Amsterdam was immediately to be repaired with " good clay, and firm sods," and a permanent garrison of fifty-three men to be maintained in it ; and the colonists were counselled to provide themselves with weapons and to form a provincial mihtia. The director was ordered to use every effort to procure the planting and settlement of the island of Manhattan, and to encourage the intro- 126 HISTORY OF THE duction of as many negroes as the colonists would pur- chase at a fair price, AU restrictions were removed from trade, with the sole proviso that New Amsterdam should remain the only port of entry. But we have anticipated events in the course of our history. The first act of Kieft after the close of the In- dian war was to purchase, in behalf of the Company, the tract of land on Long Island now known as New Utrecht. This purchase was made on the 10th of September, 1641. The following month, Thomas Harrington, with several other Englishmen, Anabaptist refugees from Massa- chusetts, obtained a patent for sixteen thousand acres of land, lying east of Mespath, and founded the settle- ment of Flushing. Soon after, Elieft gave to Lady Moody, her son, and two English officers, a patent including the town of Gravesend, with the most liberal civil and religious privileges, as a tribute of admiration' for her gallant defence against her savage assailants. Not equally fortunate was Thomas Doughty, the Ana- baptist minister and ex-proprietor of Mespath, whose settlement had been destroyed during the Indian war. A dispute having arisen between him and his associates the director and councU decided the case against him and took the control of the colony out of his hands ; and upon his threatening to appeal to the court of HoUand, fined him twenty-five guilders, and imprisoned him twenty- four hours for contumacy. Soon after, Amoldus Van Hardenburg, a merchant of New Amsterdam, appealed in the like manner from a decree of confiscation, and was subjected to the same penalty. This refusal of the right of appeal excited the indignation of the people, who CITY OF NEW YORK. 127 murmured at the despotic conduct of the director, and declared that " under a king they could not be worse " treated." The rumor of his speedy recall reached the colony, and emboldened them in their rebellion. Domine Bogardus, whom Kieft had accused of drunkenness, joined in the cry, and denounced him from the pulpit in no measured terms. To this, Kieft retorted by absent- ing himself from church, and ordering cannon to be fired and drums to be beaten about the house during the sermon-time to annoy the domine. Nothing daunted, the intrepid clergyman continued his anathemas, and Kieft at length arraigned him to appear before the court within fourteen days to answer to a charge of sedition ; but after considerable wrangling, the proceedings were finallj'^ quashed by the interference of mutual friends. On the 11th of May, 1647, these domestic dissensions ' were ended by the arrival of Petrus Stuyvesant, the newly appointed director. Vice-director Van Dinckla- gen, Fiscal Van Dyck, and a number of officers, sol- diers and colonists. The whole city turned out in arms to meet him, firing salutes, and uttering shouts of joy, mingled with deep execrations of the late director. " I shall govern you as a father does his children," answered Stuyvesant, in return to this spontaneous welcome. Petrus Stuyvesant, a native of Friesland, had formerly been director of the Company's colony at Cura9oa, whence, having lost a leg in an attack on the Portuguese settlement at Saint Martin's, he had been obliged to return to Europe for surgical aid. Having regained hie health, and replaced his leg by a wooden one with silver bands, which gave rise to the tradition that he 128 HISTORY OF THE Petrns Stay veaant, the last of the Dutch Governors. wore a silver leg, he received the appointment of director- general of the province of New Netherland, still retain- ing his command of Cura9oa and the adjacent isUnds. He was brave and energetic, and the man of all others best calculated to retrieve the fallen fortunes of the colony. But he was also haughty, imperious, and impa- CITY OF NEW YORK. 129 tient of contradiction, and his despotic love of power soon weakened tho affection with which the citizens greeted him on his first arrival. But, with all his faults, he was the man for the times, and his firm and vigorous rule contrasts well with the ill-judged and capricious conduct of his predecessor. Though sworn by the duties of his office to execute the commands of the West India Company, he was at heart attached to the interests of the people, with whom he identified himself after the forced surrender of the city, by taking up his residence among them as a private citizen, the ancestor of a long line of prominent men, which has reached down even unto the present day. Seal of Petrns Stnyveaant. Stuyvesant set vigorously to work to reform abuses. His first act was to organize his council, which consisted of Van Dincklagen, Van Dyck, Adriaen Keyser and Bryan Newton, with La Montagne as councillor and Van Tien- hoven as secretary. Paulus Van der Grist was appointed equipage-master, and George Baxter was retained as English secretary. This done, he set about the work of regulating the sti-eets and improving the city. Van 130 HISTORY OF THE Dincklagen, Van der Grist and Van tienhoven were ap- pointed fence-viewers to regulate the erection of new buildings ; proprietors of vacant lots were directed to improve them within nine months, and hog-pens and out-houses were ordered to be removed from the high- ways. The church stUl remained unfinished, and Stuyve- sant, who had become a member of the Consistory, took the work of its completion into his own hands. Bogar- dus resigned his charge in order to proceed to HoUand to answer the charges preferred against him by Van Dincklagen, and Johannes Backerus, the former clergy- man of Cura9oa, was appointed in his place at a salary of fourteen hundred guilders per annum. Drunkenness and profanity were strictly forbidden, no liquors were permitted to be sold to the Indians, and strict laws were passed for the protection of the revenue. The ob- noxious duties upon beer, brandy and beaver were not removed ; far from this, a new excise was levied upon wines and other liquors, and the export duties upon pel- tries were stiU. further increased. This proceeding excited some discontent among the people, who had looked to the coming of the new director to remove this hateful duty. Another cause of disaflFection soon arose in the colony. Kuyter and Melyn, the leading members of the council of Eight Men, petitioned that the administration of Kieft during the period of the Indian war might be made the subject of inquiry. The petition was rejected by the director, who saw in it a dangerous precedent for the assumption of power by the people ; and the petitioners were ordered in turn to be examined as to the origin of the Indian war, and to state whether their demand had CITY OF NEW YORK. 131 been authorized by the government or the commonalty ; as, otherwise, they must return to Holland with Kieft, to substantiate their complaints before the States General. Emboldened by this decision, Kieft accused them of be- mg the authors of a calumnious memorial to the Assem- bly of Nineteen, and, on this ground, demanded their banishment. The accusation was accepted, and an in- dictment preferred, charging Melyn and Kuyter with having fraudulently procured the signatures of the Eight Men to the calumnious memorial of the 28th of October, 1644, unauthorized by the commonalty. In addition to this, Melyn was accused of rebellious conduct, while Kuyter was charged with urging the mortgage of Man- hattan to the English, and threatening Kieft with per- sonal violence. Both Melyn and Kuyter defended themselves vigor- ously against these accusations. They declared that the memorial had been written by the authority of the Eight Men, and in the name of the commonalty ; that the charges in it could be fuUy substantiated ; and that the destruction of fifty or sixty bouweries and the murder ot numerous colonists furnished ample cause for its trans- mission. Melyn confessed that he had proposed that the island of Manhattan should be pledged to the English as a measure of necessity. But their defence availed them little ; Stuyvesant and his council, fearing the encroach- ments of the people, espoused the cause of Kieft, and Melyn was sentenced to seven years' banishment, and to pay a fine of three hundred and fifty guilders ; while Kuyter was sentenced to three years' banishment, and to pay a fine of one hundred and fifty guilders ; one-third 132 HISTORY OF THE of the money to be given to the poor, one-third to the church, and one-third to the fiscal. The heavier punish- ment of Melyn was imputed by many to a private revenge on the part of Kieft, with whom the former had refused to share his grant on Staten Island. Both Kuyter and Melyn were placed as criminals on board the ship Princess, then ready to return to Holland. Kieft accompanied his victims with his ill-got fortune ; and Domine Bogardus and Van der Huyghens, the late schout fiscal, were also of the company. But the ill- fated vessel struck on a rock on the coast of Wales, and went to the bottom, carrying with her Kieft, Bogardus, a son of Melyn, and eighty others. But twenty were saved ; among whom were Kuyter and Melyn. The rich cargo of furs, valued at a hundred thousand doUars, wap irretrievably lost. The news of the tragical end of the director excited but httle sympathy at New Amsterdam^ while the New England settlers affected to regard it as a special mark of the wrath of God against their enemies. The sentence against Kuyter and Melyn was afterwards reversed by the Company, and they returned with honor to New Amsterdam. To complete the proposed improvements, money was necessary. But the treasury was empty, the taxes came in slowly, and the colonists murmured grievously at being taxed without their consent. Embarrassed by the difficulties of his position, Stuyvesant at length consented to concede a representation, and in August, 1647, called an election at which the inhabitants of Manhattan, Breuckelen, New Amersfoordt and Pavonia chose eighteen men, from whom nine were selected by the director and CITY OF NEW YORK. 133 council to advise with them in matters relating to the wel- fare of the province. This new house of representatives consisted of Augustine Heermans, Arnoldus Van Harden- burg, Govert Loockermans, Jan Jansen Damen, Jacob Wolfertsen Van Couwenhoven, Hendrick Hendricksen Kip, Michael Jansen, Jan Evertsen Bout, and Thomas HaU ; three of whom were to have seats in the council in turn on the usual weekly court day, and to act as arbitrators in civil cases. Six of the board were to be succeeded annually by six others, elected by the director and council from among twelve chosen by the people at the election on the last day of December. The Nine Men at once commenced their dehberations in respect to the proposed repairs of the fort and city. Stuyvesant oflfered on the part of the Company to defray a part of the expense of a school, and to furnish one of the government houses for its temporary accommodation, but insisted that the people should repair the fort for their own security. This, the Nine Men refused, as the Company had bound itself by its charter to keep the fort in a posture of defence. They oflfered, however, to repair the church and to reorganize the school without delay, and after some hesitation this proposition was acceded to, and the repairs commenced forthwith. In 1648, Adriaen Keyser, Thomas Hall, Martin Krigier and George "Woolsey, were appointed fire wardens to in- spect the houses in the city. The owners of all chim- neys, condemned by them as foul, were to pay a fine of three guilders. If a house should be burned by the owner's carelessness, he was to pay a fine of twenty-five guilders. These fines were to be appropriated to the 134 HISTORY OF THE purchase of ladders, hooks and buckets, to be deposited at different places throughout the city. The public wella were in the middle of the streets, and the water was passed from them in buckets through long rows of citizens to the scene of the fire. It was not until several years after, however, that these buckets were actually provided. Every Monday was fixed as a market-day, and an annual fair for ten days, com- mencing on the Monday after St. Bartholomew's Day, was estabhshed. Various laws for the regulation of trade and immigration were enacted, and new ordi- nances were passed, forbidding the sale of fire-arms and ammunition to the Indians. So earnest were the council in this latter prohibition, that Jacob Reintsen, with Jacob Schermerhorn and his brother, being convicted soon after of violating it, were sentenced to death ; a sentence which was afterwards commuted, through the intercession of their friends, to the confiscation of their goods. In 1649, an order was established for the regulation of weights and measures, the Amsterdam standard being adopted. The same year, a dispute arising between Domine Backerus and the director, the domine obtained permission to return to Holland ; and Domine Megapo- lensis, the ex-minister of Rensselaerswyck, was installed as his successor. The following year, Dirck Van Schelluyne, the first lawyer, commenced practice in the city. In the meantime, outside difficulties had been pressing heavily upon the director. The dispute between the Dutch and English, in respect to the territory of the Fresh River, together with Long Island, was still pend- CITY OF NEW YORK. 135 ing, and as a last resort, Stuyvesant repaired in person to the scene of the contest. After a long negotiation, it was finally decided to submit the case to two delegates from each side, to be subject to their decision. These arbitrators assigned to New England, all the eastern por- tion of Long Island, comprising the present Suffolk County. On the mainland, the boundary was to begin at the west side of Greenwich Bay, to run northerly twenty miles into the country, but in no case to approach within ten miles of the Mauritius River. The Dutch were left in possession of their territory at Fort Qood Hope, and no disposition was made in respect to South River. The people were dissatisfied with an arrangement which ceded so large a portion of their territory to their enemies, and loudly accused the director of injustice. Both the arbitrators appointed by him had been Englishmen ; and this displeased the colonists, who claimed that their wishes had not been represented in the treaty, and complained to the Company that the director had surrendered territory enough to form fifty colonies, and had taken Englishmen into his confidence instead of his legal counsellors. They also petitioned for a municipal government, like that of the independent cities of the Fatherland. This had been granted to Breuckelen some time before. On the 26th of Novem- ber, 1646, a charter had been conferred upon the little village, then situate nearly a mile distant from the wa- ter's edge, granting to the inhabitants the right of elect- ing two schepens, or magistrates, with full judicial powers. These were subordinate to a schout, who was 136 HISTORY OF THE in turn, subordinate to the schout fiscal of Manhattan. These Uberal privileges naturally excited the envy of their brethren across the river, who claimed similar rights for themselves. On the 4th of April, 1652, their petition was granted by the Company, and a "burgher govern- ment" established at Manhattan. This consisted of a schout, to be appointed by the Company, and two burgomasters and five schepens, to be elected by the people ; who were to form a municipal Court of Jus- tice, subject to the right of appeal to the Supreme Coui-t of the province. At the same time, the States General ordered Stuyvesant to repair at once to HoUand, to give an account of his administration ; but, yielding to the remonstrances of the Amsterdam chamber, were at length persuaded to revoke their recall. Domine Dris- sius was appointed as assistant to Megapolensis, and La Montague took charge of the school. The city thus received its first incorporation. Cornells Van Tienhoven was elected schout ; Arent Van Hatten and Martia Klrigier, burgomasters ; and Paulus Van der Grist, Maximilian Van Gheel, Allard Anthony, Wilhelm Beekman* and Pieter Van Couwenhoven, schepens. The stone tavern at Coenties' Slip was converted into a " stadt buys " or city-hall ; and the magistrates held their court there every Monday morning, beginning at nine and closing at twelve. In the autumn of 1652, the settlements of Middleburgh and Midwout, now Newtown and Platbush, were founded under patents from Stuyvesant. In the same year, a war ♦ See Appendix, Note D. CITY or NEW YORK. 137 broke out between England and Holland, and the citi- zens, fearing an attack from their New England neigh- bors, set to work to fortify the city. The fence that had been erected along the line of Wall street during the late war for the protection of the cattle, was converted into a ditch and palisades with a breast-work, and extended from river to river. The fort was also strengthened, and the whole body of citizens were ordered to mount guard every night. Grateful for the concessions which had just been made them, the citizens promptly raised the six thousand guilders which were needed for the completion of the fortifications, and set to work themselves, pick and shovel in hand, to dig the trenches and erect the palisades. During the whole summer, the citizens remained under arms, expecting an attack ; nor were their fears un- founded. The settlers of New England took advantage of this opportunity to break the late treaty, and to en- deavor to further their plans for the ultimate conquest of New Netherland. Their first step was to accuse Stuy ve- saut of having plotted with the Narragansett Indians for the destruction of the English. The sachems themselves denied all knowledge of such a plot, and Stuyvesant indignantly demanded an investigation of the matter. Three delegates were accordingly appointed to visit New Amsterdam, and receive depositions; but little was accom- plished by this negotiation, and the delegates returned to Boston with small proof of the accusation. On Long Island, Captain Underbill, turning against his late allies, endeavored to stir up the colonists to revolt, but without effect. The commissioners of the United Colonies, who still professed to believe in the reality of the plot, urged 138 HISTORY OF THE immediate hostilities against the Dutch, but the General Court of Massachusetts refused to take part in the war, and thus prevented the accomplishment of the design. Eager for the conquest of the Dutch province, the other colonies persisted in their purpose, and by their repre- sentations, induced Cromwell to send an expedition against New Amsterdam. Before it arrived, peace was proclaimed between England and Holland. The news was received with joy in the city ; bells were rung and cannon fired, and the 12th of July, 1654, was set apart as a day of general thanksgiving. In the meantime, a continual contest had been going on between the people and the director, and to replenish his exhausted treasury, the latter had been compelled to surrender to the city the obnoxious excise on beer and liquors. But this failed to satisfy the burgomasters and schepens, who, on the 24th of December, 1653, ad- dressed a letter to the Company, entreating that New Amsterdam might enjoy equal municipal privileges with her namesake in Holland. They demanded that the schout should be chosen by the people, instead of being, as heretofore, the Company's fiscal ; and that as the city was compelled to defray its own expenses, the excise should go into the city treasury, and power should be conferred upon the municipal authorities to levy taxes, and to lease the ferry between Long Island and New Amsterdam. They also demanded that the city should have a seal and a stadt buys of its own, and should have full authority to sell and convey lands, and to regulate its local affairs ; and that fixed salaries should be granted to the magistrates. In the spring of 1654, a portion of CITY OF NEW YORK. 139 their demands was reluctantly granted. The office of schout was separated from that of the Company's fiscal ; but the directors still retained the power of appointment in their own hands. The municipal authorities were granted the use of the stadt huys, which had hitherto been wholly under the control of the provincial government; they were permitted to pay the public salaries out of the excise, and to levy taxes with the consent of the com- monalty and the provincial government ; and to sell and convey lands within the limits of the city. No one was permitted to ferry across the river without a license from the magistrates. The ferryman was required to keep proper servants and boats, and a house on both sides the river for the accommodation of passengers, and to pass all officials free of toll. On the other hand, he was not compelled to ferry anything without prepayment, or to cross the river in a tempest. On the 10th of October of the same year, an ordinance was passed by the city au- thorities, regulating the rates of ferriage at three stuy- vers each for foot passengers, except Indians, who paid six each, unless there were two or more. On the 19th of March, 1658, the ferry was put up at auction, and leased to Hermanns Van Bossom for three years, at three hun- dred guilders a year. The annual salary of the burgo- masters was fixed at three hundred and fifty, and that of the schepens at two hundred and fifty guilders. A seal* • This seal is thus described by E. B. 0. Callaghan, Esq., to whom we are indebted for this information: — "Argent per pale; three crosses saltire; Crut, ft Beaver proper, surmounted by » mantle, on which is a shield or, bearing the letters 6.W.C. (Geeoctroyerde West Indische Compagnie). Under the base of the arms are the words, SionnTM Austkllodamensis in Novo Biloio : — the Seal of Amsterdam in New Netherland. The whole is encircled with a wreath of laurel." — Set cut on p. 62. 140 HISTORY OF THE >-