AllENDT VAN rUKLEK, 
 
 FIRST SUPERINTENDENT OF RRXSSELAERWICK, FOUNDER OF SCHENEC- 
 TADY AND OF THE DUTCH POLICY OF PEACE 
 \VITH THE IRFOrOlS. 
 
 By WM. ELLIOT GRIFFIS, J>. I). 
 
 A PAPER READ BEFORE THE ALIiAXY INSTITUTE, NOVEMBER, 18, 1S84. 
 
 f 
 
ARENDT VAN CURLER, FIRST SUPERINTENDENT OF 
 RENSSELAERWYCK, FOUNDER OF SCHENECTADY, AND 
 OF THE DUTCH POLICY OF PEACE WITH THE IRIQUOIS. 
 
 By Wm. Elliot Griffis, D. D.,* Domine of the Reformed [Dutch] Cuurch, 
 Schenectady, N. Y., from June 1, 1877, to April 5, 1886. 
 
 [Read before the Albany Institute November 18, 1884.] 
 
 In tlie report of tlie Special Committee on Archaeology of the Albany 
 Institute on the proposed erection of local historical monuments pre- 
 sented April 26, 1881, and printed in volume X, the following para- 
 graph occurs: 
 
 ''Our respected neighbor, the city of Schenectady, has a university 
 whose success is gratifying to us — has an historical scholar in whose 
 honor we speak, but it is sadly faithless to its most interesting history. 
 It has no monuments of the great raid of 1G90, whose narrative was 
 the theme of interest across the great sea — it has no memorial of 
 Corlffir, who, going out of Albany to find the still more remote fron- 
 tier settlements, by his sagacity and estimable qualities so won the 
 hearts of the savages that thereafter they gave his name as the equiv- 
 alent of Governor, and who died while en route to Montreal, where 
 his excellence had won him an invitation from the Freucli ruler." 
 (Transactions of the Albany Institute, vol. X, p. 143.) 
 
 If not with "the stern joy that warriors feel," it is with a patriot's 
 grateful appreciation that we pick up with our pen, the gauntlet thus 
 thrown down, and hand it back on our nib, with a determination to 
 wipe out the reproach of Dorp. The " University "—" old Union" 
 [College] —fathered by Domine Dirck Romeyn, endowed by the 
 Dutchmen of the Schenectady Church, made national by Dr. Nott, 
 having nobly reared her sons in the past, will I doubt not, despite a 
 season of reverses, regain vitality in head as well as body, and yet send 
 forth many sons to fame and honor. Our historical scholar, Professor 
 
 ♦Pastor of Shawmut Congregational Church, Boston, Mass. 
 
O 
 
 2 Arendt Van Curler. 
 
 Jonathan Pearson, still hale and wise in sunny old age, has spoken for 
 himself in goodly volumes of priceless lore. 
 
 These are realities. 
 
 The monument to the martyrs of 1690 is yet in the loins of the 
 future, and the pockets of subscribers; but its local habitation is se- 
 lected, and the sj^irit is willing. In due time, I doubt not, will ap- 
 pear a child of art and memory, which shall perpetuate the virtues 
 alike of the founder and the forefathers of the village in the pine 
 woods, once spoken of as in " the far West,^' and made the theme of 
 grave debate between London and Versailles. To add a further me- 
 morial of a man who was great in goodness, as well as renowned in 
 statecraft, is the purpose of this paper. 
 
 It usually happens in history that the thunders, of battle, the noise 
 of the drum, and the shoutings of great captains drown the still small 
 voice of truth. Through the dust and smoke of war, the more sub- 
 stantial victories of peace are discerned not at first, but later. Of the 
 eccentric, the belligerent, and testy in church and state, the military 
 on horseback, and the patroon on his manor, we have heard much; 
 and epauletted and cloaked statues are beginning to be numerous. 
 On history's sober page, or in Irving's classic jest, many names are 
 famous or notorious; but, we maintain that of the Holland pioneers 
 who laid the foundations of this commonwealth, and made it the Em- 
 pire State, there is too little known. There is room for more monu- 
 ments, as the true perspective of history retires some names to shadow, 
 and brings others into the foreground. Of these, in my modestly sub- 
 mitted opinion and in the estimation of historical critics who note the 
 effect while aj^parently shortsighted as to the cause, none more de- 
 serves honor in some enduring token, than the yeoman, Arendt Van 
 Curler, the first superintendent of the Colony of Eensselaerwyck, and 
 the founder of Schenectady. 
 
 Yet no letters on a sculptured monument or in written essay can 
 equal the noble expression of admiration from the uncivilized Indian. 
 The first treaty of peace made between the Iriquois and the Hollanders 
 at Norman's kill near Albany — classic ground by a historic stream, 
 yet to be sung in epic verse — was and is called by them "the Cove- 
 nant of Corljer." For over two centuries the red men betAveen the 
 Hudson and the Niagara addressed the governors of New Amsterdam 
 and New York as "Corl^er." When leaving their native hunting-grounds 
 to follow their religious teachers to Canada, the Mohawks of Caugh- 
 nawaga, though changing their faith, their allegiance, their habitation 
 
Arendt Van Curler. 3 
 
 and their climate, yet carried with them as a potent talisman the 
 cognomen of their benefactor. The name of Cnrler is now honored 
 and fragrant in one American tongue, and in three European 
 languages and civilizations. Two years ago, on the pnldication 
 in Montreal of a Lexique de hi Langue Iriqnoise, by Father 
 J. A. Cnoq, one of the missionary priests of Saint Snlpice, I sent 
 for a coi)y. Among other nuggets of linguistic lore, I met with 
 a word embalming his memory in the daily speech of the Indians of 
 Caughnawaga. This fragment of the Mohawk tribe has been domi- 
 ciled in Canada since 1670, when they left their ancestral seats on the 
 Mohawk. Tourists doAvn the St. Lawrence, past the Lachine rapids, 
 will remember their pretty village on the river bank, with its church 
 enriched by the gifts of many a sovereign of France from Louis XIV 
 to Eugenie. Those who read the sporting items in the newspapers 
 will recall that last spring those same Caughnawaga Indians, born 
 almost Avith a racket on their feet, and a lacrosse web in their hands, 
 beat with ease, at New York, the champion American team just re- 
 turned from their victories in Europe. Again some of those red men 
 came into notice when Sir Garnet Wolseley, transporting them beyond 
 Egypt, availed himself of their skill in moving his boats through the 
 cataracts and rapids of the Nile. 
 
 Cuoq's Iriquois Lexicon, under the word Kora, says: '' Monsieur, 
 the abbe Ferland (in his history of Canada) points out the true origin 
 of this word, in making it come from the name of the celebrated 
 Arendt Van Corla?r. But it should be added further that from the 
 Dutch governors of Orange and New Amsterdam the title of kora 
 passed from, them to the English governors of Albany and New York, 
 and thence in course to all the governors of New England. As 
 a matter of fact, the governor-general of Canada finds himself invested 
 with this title of honor, and for Her Majesty, the queen of Great 
 Britain, they are accustomed to exalt more highly her glory by adding 
 the epithet koioa, that is, 'the great.'" 
 
 When the Canadian Indian of to-day would exquTss in his own 
 tongue the divinity that doth hedge about Victoi'ia Kegina, he says 
 kora-kowa, "the great Corher." The splendor of the empress of 
 India shines among her red sul)jects by borrowed light. Fair as the 
 moon and terrible to the red man as an army with banners, as is her 
 imperial majesty, the sun that sup})lies the glory of lier prestige is the 
 name of Van Curler — the original Moliawk Dutchman. Herein- is 
 fulfilled the wise man's prophecy, "Seest thou a man who is diligent 
 in his business, he shall stand before kings." 
 
4 Arendt Van Curler. 
 
 * While on this subject of titles, let us note further the term " Onon- 
 tio " used by the Iriquois before the time of Van Curler, and down to 
 the conquest of Canada by Wolfe, and familiar to all readers of Colonial 
 documents or Indian eloquence. On this word Cuoq remarks : " This 
 name [Onontio] was given for the first time to the successor of Cham- 
 plain to the government of 'Canada, Charles Hault, De Montmagny, 
 Chevalier de Malte. We have seen the origin of the title of Kora 
 given to the kings and queens of England, and to the English govern- 
 ors of Canada. This title is, if we may so speak, of purely Iriquoise 
 creation, since it is no other than that of the Hollandish governor 
 Corlajr, pronounced by a savage. But it is otherwise with the title 
 Onontio, first conferred upon the chevalier of Montmagny. They 
 translated his name, and to this the missionaries must have lent their 
 assistance, without which the savages could not even have suspected 
 the meaning of Montmagny, the great mountain. It is noteworthy 
 that in rendering the name of the French governor by Onontio, they 
 have given only a free translation — the Iriquois word meaning liter- 
 ally ' the beautiful mountain,' and not the great mountain. From 
 the chevalier of Montmagny the title of Onontio passed to his suc- 
 cessors until the title of the conquest (1760). For the kings of France 
 they add the adjective kowa [the great]." 
 
 I have been particular thus in summoning testimony to the worth of 
 Van Curler citing from the aborigines, the first historic occupiers of the 
 soil, because they stood between the rival nations contesting for the pos- 
 session of this continent, and largely by their attitude decided its occu- 
 pancy. And the one man who, more than any other, secured and 
 maintained for the Dutch and the English the friendship of the Five 
 Nations of the Iriquois, the most nearly civilized Indians, and who 
 were advanced above all others in political knowledge, against the 
 French and the Algonquin Indians, north of the St. Lawrence, was 
 Arendt Van Curler. Bancroft, Parkmau, Higginson, Hildreth, O'Cal- 
 laghau, Shea, Stevens, Brodhead, and, neither last nor least, our own 
 historical scholar Pearson — name ever honorable to our city — agree 
 in this one thing, viz. : That " the most momentous and far-reaching 
 question ever brought to issue on this continent " — namely, that of 
 
 * When, at the bi-centennial celebration of the city of Albany, in July, 1886, 
 a delegation of these Indians from Canada stood in Pearl street awaiting the start 
 of the great parade, I asked one of the young braves how they sjioke of Victoria, 
 the queen of England. He answered at once, " Kora." JAn older Indian corrected 
 him merely to add, " Kowa." The first one inquired of, assenting, rejoined, 
 " Kora, Kowa." 
 
Arendt Van Chcrler. 5 
 
 its possession by a Germanic or a Latin race — -hung largely upon 
 another question, whicli side should win and hold the friendship of 
 that i^owerful confederation of red men, who overawed or held in 
 tribute the Indians from the Mississippi to the Atlantic, and from Lake 
 Ohamplain to the Ohespeake. 
 
 This was the question unanswered for a century and a half. 
 
 In the first place, this mighty confederacy of tribes held, as their 
 " long house," that wonderful portion of this continent which seems 
 by nature created for empire, whether in the stone or the iron age, 
 the Empire State it was then, the Empire State it is now. It holds 
 the keys to the water-ways between the fresh and the salt seas, for its 
 rivers run to the Atlantic, the St. Lawrence, the Mississippi and the 
 Gulf of Mexico. Its land routes, fitted for trail, pike, plank, iron or 
 steel roadways, are smoothed ready for foot or wheel, moccasin or 
 tire by nature. Nowhere along the mountain-ribbed Atlantic coast is 
 there such another long, level, natural roadway as that of the Iriquois 
 trail between the cataracts of Cohoes and Niagara, now banded by the 
 steel rails of two mighty corporations. 
 
 From Champlain to Montcalm, the French by diplomacy, religion, 
 threats, flattery, and all the resources of Gallic wit, force, and address 
 endeavored to gain over the Iriquois to their king and cause; but ever 
 loyal to *'the Covenant of Corlaer," they adhered to the Prince of 
 Orange and the Sovereign of Great Britain. They acted as a stone- 
 wall, a breakwater, against the storm and tide of French aggression, 
 while the English colonies nourished their strength, and won this fair 
 land, first from the Gaul, from Latin ideas and civilization, and then 
 from King George and monarchy. 
 
 What began that struggle which from a backwoods raid became a 
 clashing of empires ? What part did Van Curler bear ? Was he " a 
 Dutch clodliojiper," or a far-seeing statesman ? 
 
 Let us go back twenty-one years before his arrival on this continent: 
 
 In 1000, Cham])lain, in company with a war party of Hurons and 
 Algou(|uins, proceeding against the Mohawks unwarrantal)ly interfered 
 in tlieir tribal quarrels, and decided the scale of victory. The Mohawks 
 were defeated by the power of gunpowder and invisible missiles. 
 Again, in 1615, this Frenchman in glittering armor with five belching 
 weap<ms went along with the Algonquins to the ]\rohawk country to 
 besiege their castle. These proceedings aroused a spirit of hatred 
 against the French, and to counterpoise the odds against them, the 
 Iriquois sought alliance with the Dutch. Powder and ball were their 
 
6 Arendt Van Curler. 
 
 first desires. Their motives were utterly selfish, when in 1617, two 
 years after Champlain's second filibustering interference, they came to 
 Fort Orange, and made a formal treaty with the Dutch. 
 
 A compact made between two alien races on the basis of their mutual 
 hatred to a third party is not likely to last, when the once enemy turns 
 friend, or the old friend falls on adversity. Why was it, that the 
 cruel, selfish savage kept inviolate for over a century this covenant 
 sealed only with the sacrament of wampum belts, amid all tempta- 
 tions to rupture ? Why did Dutch and British alike keep with even 
 more faithfulness their word Avitli the weakening savages, even when 
 they had exhausted the benefit of their service ? Why, amid all 
 vicissitudes was their treaty negotiated with less fuss, ceremony and 
 spectacular display than Wm. Penn's with the Lenni Lenapis — ob- 
 served with better faith, too, than was the Philadelphia compact. 
 
 In the painting of Benjamin West, by fascinating but uncertain 
 legend, and by the praise of Voltaire, who, to sneer at religion, wrote 
 a lying epigram, the Quaker's treaty has been given world-wide fame. 
 The witty Frenchman said of it '' never sworn to, and never broken." 
 History, however, demonstrates, that while Penn and the Friends kept 
 their word, the people of Pennsylvania did not. In New York, the 
 promises on either side were kept, until America and British them- 
 selves came to blows, a calamity which fell heavily upon the Iriquois, 
 and from which they never recovered. If it be objected that tlie raid 
 and burning of Schenectady in 1690, and tlie five years Indian war 
 under Kieft appear to militate against our statement, we have only to 
 mention that the Schenectady massacre was by the French and 
 proselyted savages from Canada, not of New York, while the five years 
 war under Kieft was waged by Indians not Iriquois. This war, by the 
 way, was healed nominally by Stuyvesant, but actually by Van Curler 
 in 1660. 
 
 I am glad that a distinguished gentleman of the legal profession 
 asked me " Who was the founder of Schenectady ? Was he any more 
 than a Dutch clodhopper ?" I can safely answer that he was a scholar 
 and a gentleman, fluent with his pen, possessing a gift by no means to 
 be despised — the mastery of languages. He was a man of systematic 
 mind, and so faithful to his trust and vow, as to recall a Roman of 
 classic days. Withal, he was so kind of heart, so full of deep con- 
 viction of conscience along with a power of rising above the narrow- 
 ness of sect and nationality, as to suggest a Christian indeed. Brave 
 as a lion, he feared neither round-robin conspirators, nor the schem- 
 
Arendt Van Curler. 7 
 
 ing lawyer who used his profession mainly to molest honest men, nor 
 crafty savages, nor perfidious French. Further, he had the eye of an 
 engineer and strategist, with the foresight of a statesman. 
 
 Arendt Van Curler was the first cousin of Kilian Van Kensselaer, 
 and came to this country in 1630. Of the original company of ten 
 members, or "co-patroons," all on the same footing to plant colonies 
 in America, Kilian Van Eensselaer seems to have been the most 
 successful, and we shall see why. Others formed colonies along the 
 Hudson in New Netherlands. Others disagreeing, or thinking more 
 profitable ventures could be made in the East Indies, gave up America 
 and tried the Spice Islands, Formosa and Japan. Vries became the 
 famed navigator who left his name on the large island near the bay of 
 Yedo. Hendrick Hamel went out as supercargo to Nagasaki, and was 
 wrecked in Oorea, ke^^t a prisoner, and escaping, got home to Holland, 
 to find his old friends Kilian Van Rensselaer, dead, and Van Curler, 
 drowned, in far off America ; but Eensselaerwyck had prospered. 
 Why ? The patroon never visited the colony, but confided all to his 
 agent. Van Curler, the first suj)erintendent. Hear what L. P. Brockett 
 says : " The administration of Justice, and the management of its 
 financial affairs, he committed to a commissary-general. Fortunate in 
 the selection * * * his colony prospered much more than that 
 at New Amsterdam, and it was to the good offices of Vau Curler, or 
 Corlaer, the first commissary that the colonists at New Amsterdam 
 Avere indebted more than once, for their preservation from destruction 
 at the hands of the savages" [during Kieft's mal-administration]. 
 This excellent man cultivated the most friendly relations with the 
 Indians, and so strong was their affection for him, that ever after 
 they applied the name Corlaer to the governors of New York, as the 
 highest title of respect. " So too, from the date of the scttlt-nieut of 
 Albany, the county was never invaded by these sons of the forest. 
 The Schuyler family, for several generations carrying out the policy 
 inaugurated by Van Curler, exerted a powerful influence over the 
 Indians. Unfortunately, Van Curler left no descendants to keep 
 alive the memory of his services. 
 
 Van Curler's jurisdiction, as superintendent and justice of the 
 colony, extended from Beeren Island in the Hudson to the mouth of 
 the Mohawk, and he was also colonial secretary until 1642. He pro- 
 vided food and sustenance for the immigrants, promptly bringing 
 them up from Manhattan Island, enrolling them, arranging for their 
 houses and assigning their farms, while guarding against famine, dis- 
 
8 Arendt Van Curler. 
 
 order, and the foes of the forest and from Canada. He took every right 
 means to increase honest trade. His devotion to his master brought 
 him into collision with the traders " in the bush." A protest against 
 him was fomented by Van der Donck ; and his enemies put their names 
 to the paper in a circle, so that it should not be known who had first 
 signed it, or in other words, who was the ring leader. Their activity 
 brought him into such temporary unpopularity that some were for 
 driving him out of the colony as a rogue. Others wished to assassi- 
 nate him. 
 
 Evidently life in a frontier settlement in the woods was then very 
 much what it is now, and the characters much the same. The firm- 
 ness, courage, fair play, and unwavering good nature and honesty of 
 Van Curler carried him safely through the crisis. By degrees, the 
 • popularity of the superintendent returned, and Van der Donck left the 
 settlement. Van Curler's prayer, if it were identical with Job's, was 
 answered, for his rival did ''write a book'' in 1655, which is still 
 valuable as a literary photograph of colonial New York, the Nether- 
 lands in America. Van Curler, according to orders, had " concentra- 
 ted " the immigrants into a Kerch hurte, a parish or church, neighbor- 
 hood, near the Beaver's creek or Greenbush ferry. He built a church 
 and parsonage. This was the first protestant church edifice built as 
 such and so consecrated on the continent of America. 
 
 The domine* Megapolensis began his work among the people, morals 
 improved, home life began to be more stable and retired, and pros- 
 perity was laid on a sui'e foundation. Van Curler and the parson were 
 always good friends, the layman ever taking counsel with his clerical 
 brother, and receiving his advice Avith respect. Thus the unseemly 
 war between bench and pulpit, which disgraced Manhattan island, was 
 unknown in Rensselaerwyck. Through all the stormy administration 
 of Governor Kieft, and the five years' war which wiped out so many 
 Dutch settlements on the Hudson, and nearly annihilated Manhattan, 
 
 * There is no other way of spelling the title of a pastor of a Reformed [DutchJ church in 
 Holland, America, South Africa, or the East Indies, but that in which it is invariably 
 spelled in the Dutch records. It is always domine and not " dominie." The Dutch title is 
 the unaltered Latin. " Dominie," in English and Scotch inay mean a parson of some 
 kind ; it does mean a teacher or schoolmaster. This orthography of domine is the usage 
 in Corwin's " Manual of the Reformed church in America," in Pearson's " Schenectady 
 First Church Memorial," in The Christian Intelligencer, and in the writing of all critical 
 and careful writers (^except where printers tamper with their MSS), who write concerning 
 ministers of the Reformed churches in the Netherlands, or their offspring. Further, to 
 join a Scotch term savoring of cant or slang to a Latinized form of a Hollander's name is 
 to do something which scholarly Hollanders would never approve of. 
 
Arendt Van Curler. 9 
 
 Van Curler's firm hand in the colony and unbounded influence over 
 all the Indians, kept the advancing prosperity of the colony of Rens- 
 selaerwyck in the safe path. It was in the midst of danger of infec- 
 tious lawlessness and savage irritation, that he made his first journey 
 into the Mohawk country. Of this wonderful valley he was not the 
 original explorer, though he was probably the first white visitor who 
 described and fully appreciated it. 
 
 Humanity prompted him to this westward errand. News came to 
 his ears that two French })riests were in the hands of the ]\lohawks 
 near Caughnawaga, now Fonda. Like tigers with their prey, the 
 savages intended to enjoy the torture of their victims before burning 
 or tomahawking them. Van Curler Avas a Dutch patriot and a 
 Protestant of Orange dye, but he was more — a Christian and a man. 
 ""Why risk life among the bloodthirsty savages, and intermeddle to 
 save a papist and a Frenchman," some doubtless may have said. Van 
 Curler, without argument or reservation, quickly collected ransom to 
 the value of 600 guilders equal to $250 then, or perhaps $500 now. 
 He rode up the valley, in September, 1642. It was then dressed in 
 the gorgeous livery of autumn, and bright with many an acre of ripen- 
 ing maize. He called it " the fairest land that the eyes of man ever 
 rested upon," but the moral beauty of his own act exceeded even that 
 of nature. He did not succeed in ransoming or rescuing the priest. 
 Father Jogues; but he secured a promise from the savages not to kill 
 or further torture him. Afterwards, Van Curler assisted Jogues to 
 escape from Albany to France, where at the imperial court at Ver- 
 sailles the scars of his fingers which the savages, like wild beasts, had 
 chewed and from Avhicli they had torn out his nails, were kissed by 
 proud lords and lovely ladies as of those of a saint. Again this devoted 
 missionary returned to America, and Avas again captured by the in- 
 satiate Mohawks. This first Roman Catholic missionary on the soil 
 of our state, and the discover of the Lake of the Holy Sacrtiment, now 
 ignobly named George, finally suffered martyrdom at Ossuercnon, near 
 Auriesville. On the hills overlooking the station of the West Shore 
 railway, he yielded up his life. In his honor, a shrine to the Virgin, 
 " Our Lady of Martyrs/' is now erected. Yet with nearly equal pro- 
 priety, is the name of Van Curler the exemplar of noble humanity 
 linked to the spot. 
 
 This was but one of the many visits Avhich Van Curler made to the 
 Indians at their homes and council-fires. Having mastered tlieft- ver- 
 nacular, he was able to hear from their own lips, their side of every 
 
10 Are7idt Van Curler. 
 
 question. Hence, he had never to trust to interpreters, or to rely 
 upon hearsay or uncertain information. When in 1646 Stuyvesant 
 arrived, and began his administration by settling the Indian difficulties 
 which had afflicted the lower settlements, he sent first of all to Van 
 Curler, for advice and direction. Later at a great convention of chiefs 
 of all the non Iriquois nations, held at Esopus in 1660, an agreement 
 of peace was made. In this work, Stuyvesant was the figure-head, 
 and Van Curler the real diplomatist and peace-maker. 
 
 One of the many journeys made in carrying out the policy of justice 
 and peace with the Indians brought him to the house of Jonas Bronck, 
 who has given his name to one of the rivers and villages — Bronx 
 andBronxville — of Westchester county. Here, after punishment in- 
 flicted on the actual murderers, peace was made with the Wickwaskect 
 tribe, at the house of the burgher whose widow Antonia afterwards 
 became Van Curler's wife. They were married in the autumn of 1646, 
 and settled down in one of the best houses of the settlement of Rens- 
 selaerwyck, for she was deserving of it, being as her husband states, 
 " a good housekeeper." 
 
 Having now the prospect of domestic happiness, desirous also of 
 possessing a farm, the affairs of the colony withal being settled. Van 
 Curler leaving his bride behind him, visited Patria (Holland) to report 
 to his lord the patroon, and get a lease for his " bowerie" which was 
 near Cohoes. 
 
 The patroon Kilian Van Eensselaer died in 1646, leaving the colony 
 in the hands of his son Johannes. 
 
 Van Curler returning to America went to live on his farm, and there 
 enjoyed the pleasures of unofficial life. Yet his days were far from 
 inactive. He seized every opportunity to educate and benefit the In- 
 dians, rescue Christian captives, and cement the bonds of friendship 
 Avith the red men. Van Curler owned a brewery in Rensselaerwyck 
 and believed that beer was good for Christian and savage; but the use 
 of brandy, rum, Avhiskey, and the various concoctions of "fire-water" 
 he condemned. He attempted, in vain, however, to influence the In- 
 dians against drunkenness, and to prevent the traders from selling 
 strong liquors. At one time, when, on account of troubles largely 
 occasioned by liipior, the relations of the settlers and the Mohawks 
 were strained, we find Van Curler leading twenty-five of the chief men 
 of the settlement and proceeding to Caughnawaga. There on the 
 17th of September, 1659, after the calumet had been smoked with the 
 sachems Van Curler made a forcible speech, pointing out firewater as 
 
Arendt Van Curler. 11 
 
 the potent cause of their troubles. His arguments and eloquence were 
 satisfactory and successful, and the links of the covenant chain were 
 forged anew. 
 
 Now came the time for another of the great achievements of our 
 hero's life. Largely through his acts and character, the way Avas 
 paved for the peaceful settlement of the Mohawk valley by the whites. 
 Food had become scarce near Fort Orange, farmers wanted homes, 
 but were not willing to settle at Rensselaerwyck under semi-feudal 
 restrictions. Having left Patria, they wished to hold their land in 
 fee simple, and when dying to bequeath the fruits of their toil to their 
 children. This, under the patroon, they coiild not do. Van Curler 
 sympathized with them, and himself longed to possess land not as a 
 fief, but as a holding forever. Accordingly he applied, June 18th, 
 1661, to Gov. Stuyvesant for permission to purchase ^'the great flat" 
 of the lower Mohawk valley from the Indians, called by them Scho- 
 nowe, including the site of one of their villages, Schenectady. Owing 
 to influences emanating from Rensselaerwyck, the privilege of trade 
 was not granted until 1672, and at first the little frontier settlement 
 was wholly agricultural. Van Curler for years vainly protested against 
 this churlish and illiberal spirit which savored of the* dog in the man- 
 ger, and so long hindered the growth of a true commonwealth. Van 
 Curler's plea was for unshackled commerce, free trade and farmer's 
 rights, as against monopoly, semi-feudalism and whiskey. 
 
 Here note the liberal principles on which Van Curler founded his 
 settlement; they were justice, temperence, and liberty. Wm. Penn 
 has been lauded for buying the land of the Indians. Van Curler did 
 the same. He fought the whiskey-sellers whose fiery liquid destroyed 
 the red men as did small pox, and turned reasoning men into mur- 
 derous brutes. He pleaded for the rights of trade to actual settlers on 
 wild lands as against monopoly, and for the privilege of holding land 
 in fee simple, and bequeathing it to children. Here, having taken 
 the subject of my sketch beyond the boundaries of Eenssalaerwyck, it 
 js proper for me to postpone the continuance of my story. In a fur- 
 ther and more elaborate study, I hope to present the life and works of 
 Van Curler in befitting dress. Suffice it to say that in 1664, on the 
 conquest of New Netherlands by the English, one of the first acts of 
 Colonel Nicholls was to send for Van Curler to consult as to his policy 
 with the Indians. Two years later, the French expedition of Courcelles 
 was saved from starvation and probable annihilation by Van Curler. 
 Hastening from Schenectady with provisions he succored his famishing 
 
12 Aretidf Van Curler. 
 
 fellow Christians who had fallen into ambuscade, while also warning 
 them off English ground. Had the founder of the settlement lived, 
 the frightful massacre of 1690 would, doubtless, never have been con- 
 summated. In 1667, while on a visit to Canada, by invitation of the 
 French Governor Tracy, Van Curler was drowned during a squall in 
 Lake Champlain. *' In the middle of the Lake where Corlaer was 
 drowned,'' reads the old chronicle, but the exact spot we do not know. 
 For a half century or more this sheet of water was named and known 
 to the English only as " Corlaer's Lake," while " Corlaer's Bay" is 
 still on the maps. 
 
 Craving pardon of my hearers, and of this honorable Albany Insti- 
 tute for presenting so fragmentary a paper, pleading shortness of 
 notice, and press of imperative duties as my excuse, I beg leave to 
 state that life and leisure being given, I hope to do fuller justice to a 
 name most noble among those who laid the foundations of the great- 
 ness of the Empire State. 
 
i^7 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 M 
 
 014 114 067 A