YONKERS HISTORICAL AND LIBRARY 
 ASSOCIATION. 
 
 Hpngieg of 
 
 BY R0N. T. ASTLEY ATKINS. 
 
 }HRHZ]i IS, 
 
Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library 
 Gift of Seymour B. Durst Old York Library 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2014 
 
 http://archive.org/details/indianwarsuprisiOOatki 
 
Indian Wars and the Uprising of 
 1 655— Yonkers Depopulated. 
 
 A PAPER READ BEFORE THE YONKERS HISTORICAL 
 AND LIBRARY ASSOCIATION 
 
 BY 
 
 Hon. T. ASTLEY ATKINS, 
 
 March 18, 1892. 
 
 YONKERS : 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY. 
 
 MDCCC.XCII. 
 
m 
 
 AS 
 
INDIAN WARS AND THE UPRISING OF 1655. 
 
 "Upon ye maine, by the river commonly called by the 
 Indians Aquehung, otherwise Broncke River," there lived 
 a few settlers, also upon the Harlem Eiver and the creek 
 called "Spiting Devil" by the Dutch, were to be found a 
 number of farmers. Up the valley of Tibbett's Brook and 
 on the east bank of the Hudson still others ventured, Avhile 
 along the Sound and the East River there were, upon "ye 
 maine" land, scanty settlements prior to the eventful 
 years and w^ars we chronicle. But the records of these 
 settlements are scarce, and he who would but dig in this 
 often disturbed ground will find but little consolation- 
 Much of the sparseness of records arises from the fact that 
 the country was so thinly peopled that they had but little 
 history to transmit and also because "ye maine" at this 
 date was usually yoked to the island of the "Manhattoes," 
 at the opposite end of which in those days lay the great 
 city of the New Netherland, New Amsterdam. Ten years 
 later than the time at which our account opens, historical 
 records became more numerous, and after the Indian mas- 
 sacre of sixteen hundred and fifty-five the island took more 
 notice of the main land. The southernmost portion of 
 Westchester County lying between the Sound, the Hudson 
 and the Harlem Rivers, was, at this date, virtually a wil- 
 derness. It was subdivided by little streams, which were, 
 as far as possible, utilized as public highways and also 
 served as boundary hues for parcels of land granted to 
 patroon or settler. To the casual observer this tract was 
 to all appearance a veritable wilderness, for it was densely 
 wooded and had no roads, and indeed contained but few 
 open spaces. There were, however, paths or trails of one 
 kind or another through the woods from one settled patch 
 
4 
 
 to another. These paths were but seldom used, and there 
 was, in fact, but little communication of any kind between 
 the settlers. 
 
 About this time there was held upon the island some sort 
 of a popular convention, in which our county, however, 
 took no part, so much more important were the Long Is- 
 land towns which sent delegates. We find, at the time 
 the wars commenced with the Indians, scattered through 
 the public records, a few names of families who then dwelt 
 upon "ye maine;" but, a little later, and about the time of 
 the "massacre," there appears evidence of a rapidly grow- 
 ing settlement of the Younckers and other Westchester 
 County plantations. 
 
 The situation may be briefly summed up as follows : 
 The Indians, as owners, had already been crowded off 
 Manhattan Island, but they dwelt in considerable numbers 
 thereon by permission of the Dutch. A like state of things 
 was existent upon Long Island. Upon the main land 
 north of the Harlem they still lived in many an ancestral 
 nook and in many an out-of-the-way corner. Cowed, 
 crowded, watchful, many inclined to great friendliness, 
 others full of wrath and determination to repossess their 
 fair fields and fisheries. 
 
 Along the Hudson, and stretching across the land far 
 away on either side of it, were other Indian settlements, 
 usually peacefully inclined so far as the Dutch settlers 
 were concerned, but at strife often with other dusky tribes. 
 
 Upon Manhattan Island, and presumably upon the 
 Van der Donck plantation to the north of it, the Indians 
 had been accustomed to free access to streets and farms 
 and in some instances to the houses. No doubt they 
 thought that if the white settler could enter upon their 
 close and take home their rabbit or their fish, they, too, 
 had equal right to poach upon his domain. We shall see. 
 It may not be amiss to note here a few facts as to these 
 aboriginal owners of our manor and county. 
 
 Mr. Bancroft, in his history says that the country 
 between the banks of the Connecticut River and the Hud- 
 son, was possessed by independent villages of the Mohe- 
 
o 
 
 gans, kindred with the Manhattans of New York Island, 
 and that the Algonkin dialect was the most widely diffused 
 and was used by our local tribes. It is further stated that 
 at the time of English colonization the Algonkins, from 
 Hudson's Bay to Carolina, numbered ninety thousand. 
 Speaking of the Algonkin dialect, one authority says that 
 it was "prodigal of its consonants" and its style abounded 
 in "noble metaphors." 
 
 Ruttenber, in his invaluable book upon the North River 
 Indians, says that our local Indians were, in times of war, 
 under rigid martial law, and that to begin a war was called 
 by them "taking up the hatchet," but this could only be 
 declared "for most just and important reasons." First 
 there would be an address as follows: " The bones of your 
 murdered countrymen lie uncovered, they demand revenge 
 at our hands, and it is our duty to obey them; their spirits 
 loudly call upon us and we must satisfy them. Still greater 
 spirits watching over our honor inspire us with a resolu- 
 tion to go in pursuit of the murderers of our brethren. 
 Let us go and devour them. Do not sit inactive. Follow 
 the impulse of your hereditary valor. Anoint your hair. 
 Paint your faces. Fill your quivers. Make the woods 
 echo with your voices. Comfort the spirits of the deceased 
 and revenge their blood." After this address weapons of 
 war were collected, pouches of parched corn and maple 
 sugar were prepared and the warriors painted their bodies. 
 Then followed the war dance and war song: 
 
 "0 poor me 
 
 "Who am going out to fight the enemy, 
 "And know not whether I shall return again 
 "To enjoy the embraces of my children 
 "And my wife. 
 "0 poor creature ! 
 
 "Whose life is not in his own hands 
 
 * * * * * 4f * -» 
 
 "Suffer me to return again to my children, 
 
 "To my wife 
 
 "And to my relations. 
 
 "Take pity on me and preserve my life 
 
 "And I will make thee a sacrifice." 
 
6 
 
 The lives of prisoners taken in war were rarely spared, 
 except those of women and children. Male prisoners were 
 subjected to great torture, usually by fire. Ruttenber says 
 of our local Indians: "More sinned against than sinning 
 they left behind them evidences of great wrongs suffered, 
 their enemies being the witnesses." And, further on, he 
 remarks that "Law and justice, as civilized nations under- 
 stand them, were to them unknown." 
 
 Speaking of the Indian troubles between the years six- 
 teen hundred and forty-two and sixteen hundred and fifty- 
 five, Governor Stuyvesant said with great truth and much 
 bitterness that "the Dutch were clearly at fault." 
 
 The Indian Totems, or Symbols, on the Hudson River he- 
 low Wappingers, were, among some tribes, the Wolf, and, 
 among others, the Bear. North of the Manhattoes of the 
 island there were, upon the main land of Westchester, the 
 villages of Saeck Kill, Wickquaeskeck, Alipkonk and 
 Sint Sinck, while, as far north as the Croton, lived the 
 Kitchanongs. The Wickquaeskeck s had several castles 
 between the Hudson at Dobbs Ferry, and Nor walk, on 
 Long Island Sound 
 
 We find early complaints that the traders sold the In- 
 dians all the guns and powder they called for or could pay 
 for. 
 
 In the early days of the settlement the wrongs of the 
 Indians were often promptly redressed, an instance being 
 given in Smith's History of New York, as follows: 
 
 "When the Dutch began settlements upon the banks 
 of the Hudson the country adjacent was in subjection to 
 the "Five Nations', and as early as the year sixteen hun- 
 dred and twenty-two the imprisonment of the Chief of the 
 Sequins aroused the Mohicans to that extent that the of- 
 fending agent of the Dutch was compelled to leave the 
 country. " 
 
 As we shall see, it was later the old policy of the devil, 
 who, when sick, would be a Saint, but, when well again, 
 "the devil a Saint was he." Our inoffensive Dutchmen, 
 when few in numbers and weak in arms, were good enough 
 to the natives and dwelt many a year in peace with them. 
 
7 
 
 but when numbers increased and new farms were needed, 
 and the thrif ty Dutchman felt strong, then trouble began, and 
 as Peter Stuyvesant said, "the Dutch were clearly at fault." 
 
 Now this greed for land which was not their own was 
 really at the bottom of most of the quarrels between the 
 Dutch and the natives. Finding that public sentiment at 
 home would not be in their favor if they stole outright the 
 farms, hunting and fishing grounds of the Indians as well 
 as their forests, the crafty Dutchman of the Manhattoes 
 and the main land devised a scheme of legal robbery which 
 worked just as successfully in the long run and at the 
 same time placated critics and their High Mightinesses at 
 home. For instance, in the year sixteen hundred and thirty- 
 nine certain alleged Indian owners of Kekeshick conveyed 
 to the Dutch company a large tract of land which sounds 
 in description at least, pretty near home being, say the Al- 
 bany records, "lands which He over against the flats of 
 the island of the Manhates, to wit: by the great Kill." In 
 sixteen hundred and forty -six Sachem Tackarew conveyed 
 land upon ye maine to Adriaen Van der Donck. Tackarew, 
 be it noted, hailed from Jersey. Somehow or other, when 
 a Dutchman wanted a new farm, he now always found a 
 convenient Indian to make his totem on the precious sheep- 
 skin. 
 
 Nor was the land-grabbing of the Dutch their only crime, 
 for we are told that in sixteen hundred and forty-five ' £ the 
 town of New Amsterdam was largely given up to the sale 
 of brandy, tobacco and beer throughout the streets. Every 
 advantage was taken by the Dutch. The Indians were 
 employed as servants and defrauded of their wages; they 
 were induced to drink, and, while intoxicated, were robbed 
 of their furs and the goods they had purchased. They were 
 angry at the price paid for their lands by the Dutch." 
 
 On the other side, the wily Dutchmen alleged that the 
 Indians had killed their cows, horses and hogs, and had 
 cruelly murdered ten persons in as many years, and that 
 the murderers had been demanded from the Indians, but 
 that they had refused to deliver them to the authorities. 
 
 If half of the charges against our stolid and withal 
 
8 
 
 pious Dutch ancestors were true, they must have been mon- 
 sters, indeed. In the Holland Documents will be found a 
 letter from one John Onderhill, in which he states one of 
 the reasons for the war we are about to chronicle. He 
 says: "But a great portion of the lands which we occupy 
 being as yet unpaid for, the Indians come daily and com- 
 plain that they have been deceived by the Dutch Secretary, 
 etc." They bought the Indians' lands, occupied them and 
 failed to pay for the greater or a great proportion of them. 
 They sold goods to the Indians, got them drunk and took 
 back the goods. They cheated them out of their wages. 
 They robbed them of their furs. And the gentle worm 
 turned at last. The mild-tempered inhabitants of the main 
 and island who had trusted the Dutchman and shared their 
 land with him turned and in ten years made way with ten 
 Dutchmen. Had the Indians taken the Dutchmen's house 
 and land and stolen his bought goods and furs, does any 
 one who knows what these immigrants from Holland and 
 England were, suppose that only ten Indians would have 
 been slaughtered in ten years ? The record of other colonies 
 forbids the belief. 
 
 Let us now turn to some of the events of the few years 
 prior to the massacre of sixteen hundred and fifty-five, 
 which left scarce a settler upon our hills and meadows. 
 As early as sixteen hundred and forty-one the New 
 York Civil List says ' ' troubles with the Indians and com- 
 plications with the English now began to seriously em- 
 barrass the colony. " It was in this latter year that Director 
 Kieft called the first popular assemblage "to consider 
 Indian troubles." This convention was reconvened the 
 next year for the same purpose. It may be noted that 
 this war closed three years after this latter session and 
 that Oloff Van Cortlandt was one of the Commis- 
 sioners who concluded a treaty of peace with the Manhat- 
 tans. 
 
 It is stated in various histories that in the year of the 
 first convention the Dutch attacked the unarmed Indians 
 at Pavonia. It is said that they were the North River In- 
 dians, the Weckquaeskecks, from Dobbs Ferry, and the 
 
Tappans, from Piermont, who had fled from Manhattan 
 Island. One authority says that "the naked and un- 
 suspecting tribes could offer little resistance; the noise of 
 musketry mingled with the yells of the victims, and nearly 
 one hundred Indians perished in the carnage. Men 
 might be seen mangled and helpless, suffering from 
 cold and hunger. Children were tossed into the stream, 
 and, as their parents plunged to their rescue, the soldiers 
 prevented their landing, that both parent and child might 
 drown." In addition to these wanton murders, thirty In- 
 dians were killed at Corlears Hook, on Manhattan Is- 
 land, while asleep. O'Callaghan, in his history of the 
 New Netherlands, says "this estranged the Long Island 
 Indians, who foimecl an alliance with the North River 
 Indians. Every settler they laid bands on was mur- 
 dered." 
 
 The next year we find it recorded that seven Long Is- 
 land Indian prisoners were "turned over to Underbill's 
 Company of Dutch and English by the English Minister 
 Fordham at Hempstead. Three of the seven were killed 
 (unarmed) in a cellar, two were towed in the water until 
 drowned, two were brutally murdered by soldiers at Fort 
 Amsterdam." It was alleged that they were pig stealers. 
 
 The "war" lasted about five years, and an eminent 
 authority estimates that the Dutchmen killed during that 
 time some sixteen hundred Indians. On the white side of 
 the question it is written that ' ' the Dutch pointed to piles 
 of ashes from burnt houses, barns, barracks and other 
 buildings and the bones of cattle." "Our fields lie fallow 
 and waste, our dwellings and other buildings are burnt, 
 all this through a foolish hankering after war, for it is 
 known to all right-thinking men here that these In- 
 dians have lived as lambs among us until a few- years 
 ago, injuring no one and affording every assistance to our 
 nation," says one of the most veracious of Dutch histories 
 of these times. 
 
 After the so-called treaty of peace there seems to have 
 been a period of quiet, so far as Westchester and Manhattan 
 Island were concerned. That is to say, there was a period 
 
LO 
 
 in which but little burning or slaughter occurred, compared 
 to the troublous time we have spoken of. But there was 
 evil intent upon both sides and each side awaited with ill- 
 concealed venom for the revenge. 
 
 Mr. Bolton gives a quotation from the protest of the 
 Eight Men or council concerning one treaty of peace, which 
 it is well to give in full, for it shows the value put upon an 
 alleged "treaty of peace." In the year sixteen hundred 
 and forty-four they protested that ' ' a semblance of peace 
 was attempted to be patched up last Spring with two or 
 three tribes of savages towards the north by a stranger, 
 whom we, for cause, shall not now name, without one of 
 the Company's servants having been present, while our 
 principle enemies have been unmolested. This peace hath 
 borne little fruit for the common advantage and reputation 
 of our lords; for so soon as these savages had stowed away 
 their maize into holes, they began again to murder our 
 people in various directions. They rove in parties contin- 
 ually around day and night on the Island of Manhattaus, 
 slaying our folks, not a thousand paces from the forts, and 
 'tis now arrived at such a pass that no one dare move a 
 foot to fetch a stick of fire wood with out a strong escort." 
 The next year our Adriean van der Donck and others 
 furnished the needful to buy of for a season the " Mohegans" 
 or "Mahicanders." 
 
 It will amuse and instruct even the most casual reader to 
 look through one of these so-called Indian conveyances and 
 one is chosen at random from the Book of Patents, as cited 
 by Bolton; it runs thus: 
 
 " Beginning at the south side of a creek called Bisightick, 
 and so ranging along Hudson's Eiver, southerly to a creek 
 or fall called by the Indians Weghquesike, and by the 
 Christians called Lawrence's Plantation, and from the 
 mouth of said creek or fall upon a due east course, to a 
 creek called by the Indians Nippiran and by the Christians 
 Youncker's Kill; and from thence along the west side of 
 the said creek or kill, as the same runs to lands formerly 
 bought." In presence of Emient, Sachem of Siapham, 
 signed by Kictawough and others, consideration for this 
 
11 
 
 magnificent plot, and this, it may be said, was many years 
 after the wars jnst related, was one hundred and twenty- 
 four yards of wampum, twelve blankets, twelve kettles, 
 ten guns, fifty pounds of powder, thirty bars of lead, twelve 
 shirts, twelve pair of stockings, thirty bows, eight fathom 
 of water cloth, eight coates, fifty knives, twenty boxes, two 
 ankers of rum, two and a half vats of beere, three drawing 
 knives, two coopers adds, ten yearthen jugs and ten axis." 
 
 Patience with the North River Indians had ceased to be a 
 virtue. They had been plundered, deceived, murdered in 
 cold and in hot blood by the settlers who bought their lands 
 for a few yards of wampum and a lot of pots, kettles and 
 rum. So the weary decade of the forties had worn itself 
 out and left a record of which civilization may well be 
 ashamed. But one thing may be said of our Dutch ances- 
 try, which cannot be said of our English or Spanish settlers, 
 and that is that there was no pretence of religion in the 
 Dutch aggression. It w r as not the bible in one hand and 
 the sword in the other, but the Dutchman bought or stole 
 the land and the Indians starved, died or moved on, the 
 Dutchmen did not allege the necessity of his conversion, 
 but called the Indian a Duyvil and treated him with the 
 same distinquished courtesy that their more refined progeny 
 do at the present day. In these days anything that was 
 black passed for a devil, either on the earth or in the depths 
 of the nether world. 
 
 The early years of the fifties w^ere rather quieter than 
 the last of the forties. In the early portion of the 
 year sixteen hundred and fifty -five, contemporary 
 records show conclusively that there were a very 
 considerable number of farmers on the main land 
 north of the Harlem River, but the sweep of the In- 
 dian tempest of that year cleaned out man and beast 
 and destroyed much evidence regarding the settlement at 
 Yonkers. 
 
 One of the most concise reports of the rising of this year 
 may be found in O'Callaghan's History and is as follows : 
 " A party of savages, Mohegans and others from Esopus, 
 Hackingsaack, Tappaan, Stamford and Onkeway, as far 
 
12 
 
 east as Connecticut, estimated by some to amount to nine- 
 teen hundred in number, from five hundred to eighteen 
 hundred of whom were armed, landed suddenly before 
 daybreak (September 15th) in sixty-four canoes at New 
 Amsterdam, and. whilst the greater part of the inhabitants 
 were still buried in sleep, scattered themselves through the 
 streets and burst into several of the houses on pretence of 
 looking for Indians from the north, but in reality to avenge 
 the death of a squaw whom Van Dyck, the late Attorney- 
 General had killed for stealing a few peaches/' 
 
 They shot Van Dyck in the breast with an arrow, and 
 immediately the little town was wild with excitement and 
 terror. The military being called from the fort, attacked 
 the savages, and drove them to their canoes. The Indians 
 sailed across the Hudson to the village of Pav< mia and set 
 it on fire, and took as prisoners a large number of women 
 and children. 
 
 Upon the mainland there was a panic and all who ^ould 
 fled to Manhattan Island to put themselves under the pro- 
 tection of the soldiers. Property counted for but little in 
 those terrible hours. It is remarked by one writer that "a 
 visitation so dreadful spread consternation abroad. All 
 the country people except Amesspoort, Breucklen and Mid- 
 wont and the negro hamlets took wing and fled to the 
 Manhattans." In fact, as far up as Esopus the settlers 
 abandoned their farms. 
 
 The prisoners were carried north and held by the Weck- 
 quaeskecks and Highland Indians. These poor women and 
 children must then have been held by the Indians in that 
 region just to the north and north-east of the City of Yon- 
 kers. We need not here recount the fate which befell many. 
 
 It is said that during the three days this storm raged, the 
 Dutch lost one hundred people who were killed or maimed; 
 and that fully one hundred and fifty were carried off into 
 captivity; and that twenty-eight farms and plantations 
 were devastated and three hundred people driven away 
 from their burned and ravaged homes. The damage, as 
 estimated in money, was alleged to be about eighty thou- 
 sand dollars. 
 
L3 
 
 To the north of us the Indians took their revenge almost 
 in kind. At Esopus, in revenge for the slaughter of their 
 people by one Sergeant Stoll, the Ir dians burned houses, 
 barns and harvest, and killed horses and cattle. " They 
 tied their Dutch captives to stakes around a fire, tore off 
 the nails of victims, bit off their fingers, crushed their fin- 
 gers between stones, scorched their skin with fire brands, 
 cut pieces of flesh from their bodies, and as they died 
 tossed their bodies into the flames." 
 
 "Prowling bands of savages flitted in and out of the 
 woods. The whole country (about the Hudson Eiver) was 
 struck with horror," says another authority. But who 
 shall judge the Indian of that year harshly ? 
 
 There is little doubt that our Westchester Indians took a 
 very active part in the so-called Massacre of 1655. After 
 the retreat of the Indians to their 1'astnesses it is recorded 
 that the settlers gradually returned to their "avocations," 
 which means probably that the farmers returned to what 
 was left of their farms and did the best they c^uld with 
 them. 
 
 Peter Stuyvesant, in a letter of his written to Holland 
 after the restoration of peace and quiet here, speaks of our 
 own dear Yonkers plantation as ' £ the lands of old Verdonck 
 (meaning Adrian Van der Donck), divided and settled by 
 his children and associates in various plantations and 
 farms ; but who, in the massacre, were absconded with 
 many others ; all which lands are situated here and border- 
 ing on our island, only divided by a small creek which in 
 some places by low water is passable." 
 
 And so the Yonkers plantation was again opened to set- 
 tlement, and again the Indian was pushed back. Perhaps 
 after this the wily Dutchman gave him a better price for 
 his land. 
 
 Authorities used in this paper : 
 
 Bancroft's "History of the United States." 
 Ruttenber's "North River Indians." 
 New York Civil List. 
 Albany Records. 
 
14 
 
 Bolton's "History of Westchester County." 
 O'Callaghan's "History of the New Netherlands." 
 Holland Documents. 
 
 Documents relating to the Colonial History, etc., etc. 
 Mrs. Lamb's "History of New York." 
 Smith's "History of New York." 
 
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