THE DE FORESTS 
 AND 
 
 HE WALLOON FOUNDING 
 OF NEW AMSTERDAM 
 
 BY 
 
 LUCY GARRISON GREEN 
 
 PRINTED PRIVATELY 
 IN CONNECTION WITH THE CELEBRATION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 THREE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY OF 
 THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW YORK 
 BY WALLOONS 
 
i£x ICtbna 
 
 SEYMOUR DURST 
 
 When you leave, please leave this hook 
 
 Because it has heen said 
 "Sver'thing comes t' him who waits 
 
 Sxcept a loaned hook." 
 
 Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library 
 Gift of Seymour B. Durst Old York Library 
 
THE DE FORESTS AND 
 THE WALLOON FOUNDING 
 OF 
 
 NEW AMSTERDAM 
 
I 
 
 1 
 
 i£x ICtbrtja 
 
 SEYMOUR DURST 
 
 When you leave, please leave this hook 
 
 Because it has heen said 
 " Ever'thing comes t' him who waits 
 
 Except a loaned hook." 
 
 I 
 
 1 
 
THE DE FORESTS 
 AND 
 
 THE WALLOON FOUNDING 
 OF NEW AMSTERDAM 
 
 BY 
 
 LUCY GARRISON GREEN 
 A THESIS 
 
 PRESENTED TO THE FACULTY OF 
 THE GRADUATE COLLEGE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF 
 
 NEBRASKA 
 
 IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF 
 REQUIREMENTS FOR 
 THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS 
 DEPARTMENT OF 
 AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 LINCOLN, NEBRASKA 
 1916 
 
Copyright 1924 
 By Lucy Garrison Green 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 BY a fortunate coincidence, just a short month 
 before the celebration of the Three Hundredth 
 Anniversary of the Settlement of New York by 
 Walloons, this thesis was called to my attention. It 
 was written by Miss Lucy Garrison Green of Lincoln, 
 Nebraska, some eight years ago as qualification for 
 her master's degree in the University of Nebraska. 
 And it was written before any plans to celebrate 
 this anniversary had taken shape or, so far as I 
 know, had been considered. I found it existed only 
 in typewritten form in the library of the University. 
 It seemed to me to have such scholarly quality and 
 literary charm as to merit circulation at this time. 
 I am, therefore, having it privately printed with the 
 consent of the writer. 
 
 1 ask myself whether perhaps it does not, by its 
 title, unduly emphasize the part which the Walloons 
 took in the settlement of New York. There seems 
 to be no question but that the first real settlers — 
 those who came to stay as distinguished from those 
 who came to trade — ^were "mostly Walloons.'' But 
 these Walloons were sent here by the Dutch in a 
 Dutch ship and they came from Leyden, the city of 
 Holland which so generously befriended them, as 
 
 v 
 
well as their English fellow-exiles of "Mayflower" 
 fame. 
 
 But to honor the Walloons, the descendants of 
 those ancient Belgae who so troubled Julius Caesar, 
 is not less to honor the Dutch who made their 
 enterprise possible. There is glory enough to go 
 around. And so broad-minded a people as the 
 Dutch certainly will not begrudge to the Walloons 
 some of this glory. 
 
 1 also question whether the title of this thesis 
 should not have more properly been "the settlement" 
 than "the founding" of New York. There seems 
 to be no question but that the first permanent set- 
 tlers were "mostly Walloons," who came here in 
 1624. There also seems to be no question but that 
 the first organization of city government dated from 
 1626. But whatever distinction there may be be- 
 tween the word "settlement" and the word "found- 
 ing" and whatever bearing that distinction may have 
 on any anniversary date, it is 1624 that marks the 
 three hundredth anniversary of the first Walloon 
 emigration. Time has been too short to give the 
 author or anyone opportunity to correct proof. 
 Responsibility for all errors must therefore rest on 
 the broad shoulders of the "printer's devil." 
 
 Robert W. de Forest. 
 
 April 15, 1924. 
 
 VI 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 A. Sources 
 
 1. Documents Relating to the Colonial History 
 of the State of New York, now commonly called 
 "New York Colonial Documents." Collected by 
 John R. Brodhead. 
 
 a. Holland Documents. 
 
 b. Dutch Documents. 
 
 c. London Documents. 
 
 2. Collections of New York Historical Society. 
 
 3. New York Colonial MSS. State Archives, 
 Albany, N. Y. 
 
 4. Proceedings of the New York Historical Society 
 (periodical magazine). 
 
 5 . Year Books of the Holland Society of New York. 
 
 6. London Public Records. 
 
 a. State Papers, Colonial Series, America and 
 West Indies. 
 
 b. British State Papers: Holland, 1622. 
 
 7. Sloane MS. 179 b. in British Museum, entitled 
 "Journal du voyage faict par les peres de families 
 envoyes par Mes les Directeurs de la Compagnee des 
 Indes Occidentals pour visiter la coste de Gujane." 
 Written by Jesse de Forest and Jean Mousnier de la 
 Montagne. Collected by Sir Hans Sloane, founder 
 of the British Museum. 
 
 • • 
 
 vn 
 
Bibliography 
 
 8. The New York Genealogical and Biographical 
 Record. 
 
 9. Registers of the Huguenot Church of Sedan, 
 translated from the French by J. W. De Forest, 1900. 
 
 10. Baptismal Register of the Walloons, Ley den. 
 Certified copy by State Archivist, Leyden. 
 
 B. Secondary Material 
 
 1. History of the State of New York, 1853. 
 
 John Romeyn Brodhead. 
 
 2. The De Forests of Avesnes and New Nether- 
 land. 1900. J. W. De Forest. 
 
 3. French Blood in America. 1895. 
 
 Thomas Balch. 
 
 4. The American Nation : a History. 1607-1907. 
 
 Albert Bushnell Hart. 
 
 5. A Walloon Family in America. 19 14. 
 
 Mrs. Robert W. De Forest. 
 
 6. History of the City of Albany. 1884. 
 
 Arthur James Weise. 
 
 7. History of New Netherland, or New York 
 under the Dutch. 1848. E. B. O'Callaghan. 
 
 8. New Amsterdam and Its People. 1902. 
 
 J. H. Innes. 
 
 9. The French in America. 1895. 
 
 Thomas Balch. 
 
 10. The England and Holland of the Pilgrims. 
 1906. Henry M. Dexter and Morton Dexter. 
 
 1 1. The Puritans in Holland, England and Amer- 
 ica. 1892. Douglas Campbell. 
 
 • • • 
 
 vm 
 
THE DE FORESTS AND THE WALLOON 
 FOUNDING OF NEW AMSTERDAM 
 
 OUTLINE 
 
 I. Introduction. 
 
 A. Common acceptance of the Dutch as the 
 first settlers of New Amsterdam. 
 
 B. Casual mention of a few Walloons as in- 
 cluded among these early Dutch settlers. 
 
 C. Recent establishment of the fact that the 
 De Forest colony of Walloons were predecessors 
 of the Dutch. 
 
 II. Walloons in general. 
 
 A. Racial history and distribution. 
 
 B. Characteristics. 
 
 C. Religion. 
 
 D. Emigration due to persecution. 
 
 1 . Number migrating. 
 
 2. Havens found. 
 
 3. Reasons for migrating again. 
 
 4. General Results — permanent loss to land 
 left, gain to land sought. 
 
 III. Comparison of the Walloon Colony in Ley den 
 with the contemporary Puritan Colony from England 
 in Ley den. 
 
 ix 
 
The De Forests and the 
 
 A. Previous experience of each colony. 
 
 B. Fellowship in Ley den. 
 
 C. Emigration of part of the Separatist Church 
 under Robinson in Ley den to America in 1620. 
 
 D. Stimulus to emigration of Walloons. 
 
 IV. Jesse De Forest, Leader of the Walloon mi- 
 gration to New Netherland. 
 
 A. French origin and early connections. 
 
 B. Family migration to Holland. 
 
 C. Reasons leading to emigration. 
 
 V. Efforts of De Forest to arrange for the emigra- 
 tion of a colony under auspices of the British Virginia 
 Company. 
 
 A. Interview with Sir Dudley Carleton, British 
 Ambassador to the Netherlands. 
 
 B. Written Transactions. 
 
 1. "The Demands" of the colonists. 
 
 2. "The Round Robin." 
 
 3. Reply of the Directors. 
 
 C. Result on plans of the Walloons. 
 
 VI . Efforts of De Forest to arrange for the emigra- 
 tion of a colony under Dutch auspices. 
 
 A. Petition to "The States of Holland and West 
 Friesland" (provincial legislature). 
 
 B. Petition to "The States General" (national 
 legislative body of The United Netherlands). 
 
 C. Dealings with the newly created Dutch West 
 India Company. 
 
 X 
 
Walloon Founding of New Amsterdam 
 
 VII. De Forest's Expedition to Guiana under the 
 Dutch West India Company. 
 
 A. General stage of colonization in South 
 America. 
 
 B. Sailing routes to the New World. 
 
 C. John De Laet's "History of the New 
 World," and Wassenaer's "Historical Account." 
 
 D. The Journal of Jesse De Forest, Sloane MS. 
 179 b. "A Voyage to Guiana." 
 
 E. "Les peres de families": personnel of De 
 Forest's colonists aboard the "Pigeon." 
 
 F. Companion voyage of "The Mackerel" and 
 "The Pigeon" from Leyden to the New World. 
 
 G. The settlement along the Wyapoko on the 
 Wild Coast. 
 
 H. Death of Jesse De Forest. 
 
 I. The colonists' return to Holland. 
 
 VIII. De Forest's contemporary Walloon colony 
 for the Hudson River. 
 
 A. The "Nieuwe Nederlandt," skipper Cor- 
 nelis Mey; date of voyage. 
 
 B. Personnel of the Colony. 
 
 C. Landing on Manhattan; first experiences. 
 
 D. Comparative historic importance of the little 
 settlement. 
 
 IX. Expedition of Jean La Montague, De Forest's 
 colleague and son-in-law, to Tobago. 
 
 A. La Montague's return from the Guiana ven- 
 ture, and marriage to Rachel De Forest. 
 
 xi 
 
The De Forests and the 
 
 B. Unsuccessful colony at Tobago. 
 
 C. La Montagne's return, and readiness for 
 new ventures. 
 
 X. Emigration of Jesse De Forest's three children, 
 Hendrick, Isaac and Rachel, with the latter's hus- 
 band. La Montagne. 
 
 A. Gerard De Forest, brother of Jesse. 
 
 B. Hendrick De Forest, son of Jesse. 
 
 C. The Patroon Kiliaen van Rensselaer. 
 
 D. The Swanendael Colony. 
 
 E. The Rensselaerswyck Expedition. 
 
 1. Contract between Kiliaen van Rensselaer 
 and Gerard De Forest for joint equipment and 
 profits of the vessel " Rensselaerswyck." 
 
 2. Personnel of the expedition. 
 
 3. Voyage and Landing. 
 
 F. Location of lands first held by the De 
 Forests. 
 
 G. Death of Hendrick De Forest. 
 
 XI. The "Muscoota Bouweries,'' or Walloon 
 homesteads. 
 
 A. Hendrick De Forest's, afterwards Dr. La 
 Montague's, called " Vredendael." 
 
 B. Isaac De Forest's, "on the Kill that runs 
 round the Island." 
 
 C. Philippe Du Trieux', on the East River 
 overlooking Smit's Vly, now Fulton Market. 
 
 D. General Conditions. 
 
 1 . Degree of comfort in home. 
 
 xii 
 
Walloon Founding of New Amsterdam 
 
 2. Results of French skill and taste. 
 
 3. Difficulty regarding service. 
 E. Danger from the Indians. 
 
 1 . Leadership of La Montague. 
 
 2. Appeal to the West India Company. 
 
 3. Appeal to the States General at the Hague. 
 
 4. Later Services of La Montague. 
 
 XII. Place held by the Walloons in the early 
 years of New Amsterdam. 
 
 A. Civic Organization. 
 
 1. The Director-General. 
 
 2. "The Nine Men." 
 
 3. Great and Small Burghers. 
 
 4. Minor offices. 
 
 B. Representative Walloon Citizens. 
 
 1. Peter Minuit. 
 
 2. Isaac De Forest. 
 
 3. Jean Mousnier La Montague. 
 
 4. Philippe Du Trieux. 
 
 C. Descendants. 
 
 D. Interesting contributions to the earliest life 
 of the colony. 
 
 1 . The driving out by De Forest's Protestant 
 Walloon colony, on their arrival in the ''Nieuwe 
 Nederlandt, in 1623-4, of French Catholic 
 commander about to land on Manhattan for the 
 purpose of setting up the arms of France, then 
 a Roman Catholic power. 
 
 2. Establishment, by this same French- 
 speaking, Protestant band, of the first perma- 
 
 xiii 
 
The De Forests and the 
 
 nent town-building, crop-raising settlement of 
 New York, never since destroyed or abandoned. 
 
 3. Purchase of the island of Manhattan from 
 the Indians by Peter Minuit soon after his 
 arrival in 1626. 
 
 4. Treaty of La Montagne with the sachems 
 for the purchase of all the territory on the 
 Schuylkill. 
 
 5. Successful defense against the Indians, at 
 a critical time, after many massacres, by a com- 
 bined force of Dutch, Walloons and English, 
 under chief command of La Montagne. 
 
 XIII. Conclusion: Investigation of the facts by 
 the Holland Society of New York. 
 
 A. Value to history of original sources either 
 long overlooked or only recently available. 
 
 B. Larger share of credit, than has commonly 
 been awarded, due to earliest Walloon settlers. 
 
 C. Recognition of Jesse De Forest as the real 
 founder of New Amsterdam, now the City of New 
 York. 
 
 XIV 
 
THE DE FORESTS AND 
 THE WALLOON FOUNDING 
 OF 
 
 NEW AMSTERDAM 
 
Walloon Founding of New Amsterdam 
 
 THE DE FORESTS AND THE WALLOON 
 FOUNDING OF NEW AMSTERDAM 
 
 1. Introduction 
 
 IN Brodhead's "History of the State of New 
 York/'i published as long ago as 1853, t)ut from 
 its careful scholarship still substantially reliable, is to 
 be found an account — fairly correct in most particu- 
 lars, so far as it goes — of the Walloon colony which 
 formed the first permanent settlement upon the 
 island of Manhattan. In the production of this 
 work, at a time when American research was in its 
 infancy — as the author himself ^ says, "under the re- 
 cent impulse to historical investigation" — Mr. Brod- 
 head, with patience and conscientiousness, consulted 
 such original authorities as were then within reach. 
 Realizing the importance of the field, he continued, 
 after the completion of his "History," to devote his 
 scholarship for many years to the collection, in 
 France, England, Holland, and America, of " Docu- 
 ments relating to the Colonial History of the State 
 of New York." These papers, of great and increasing 
 value, are now to be found in state and historical 
 libraries under the title of "New York Colonial 
 Documents." They comprise a variety of sources. 
 Several of these, such as the "Holland Documents" 
 and "Dutch Documents," are among the source- 
 material consulted in the preparation of this paper. 
 
 '"History of the State of New York," by John R. Brodhead. N. Y. 1853, Ch. 
 V, pp. 146-154. »Preface to above. 
 
 I 
 
The De Forests and the 
 
 While much new matter of interest in this field has 
 since come to light, Mr. Brodhead as the first scien- 
 tific historian of this period should receive due 
 acknowledgment for his pioneer labors — of priceless 
 worth since the destruction by fire of the State 
 Archives in the Capitol at Albany. 
 
 With the steady growth in the past twenty years 
 of general interest in matters of history and biogra- 
 phy, further research among early records of state in 
 Holland, England, and the American Colonies has 
 brought within reach of the general public a number 
 of documents relating to the very earliest settlements 
 in the New Netherland. By these later investiga- 
 tions it now appears clearly established that, while 
 the Dutch were first in the field as explorers and 
 traders, the Belgian-French were their predecessors 
 as actual settlers with homes, families, cattle and 
 tilled fields. The first to bring their wives and chil- 
 dren, the first to plow and plant, the first to build 
 permanent residences upon the island of Manhattan 
 and the site of New York City, were a company of 
 Walloons recruited and enrolled by Jesse De Forest 
 of Avesnes — not included as a negligible minority in 
 a colony planned by the Dutch Government, but 
 gathered together of their own motion and wish, as 
 a racial and religious unit, seeking from the United 
 Netherlands only permission to make a settlement, 
 and means of transportation. It is of this Walloon 
 colony, of its leader, Jesse De Forest, and of the 
 part it played in the first days of New Amsterdam, 
 that the present paper in a modest way seeks to treat. 
 
 2 
 
Walloon Founding of New Amsterdam 
 
 II. Walloons in General 
 
 A. Racial History and Distribution. — The 
 word "Walloon" is probably akin to the Anglo-Saxon 
 "wealas/' Welsh, Foreigners; and to the German 
 "welsche," strangers. It is commonly applied to the 
 mediaeval and modern descendants of Celtic or 
 Alpine stock who have tenaciously held for centuries 
 to the soil where Caesar found them. He describes 
 them as the eastern division of the Gaulish tribes, 
 the ''fortissimi Belgae," dwelling nearest to the 
 Germans ''with whom they continually wage war.*' 
 Not Cimbrian nor Teuton, not Roman nor Frankish, 
 not purely Celtic; probably Celtic with an admixture 
 of Germanic, and perhaps of Frankish blood, the 
 Walloons have never been dislodged from their an- 
 cestral ground where, so far as modern knowledge 
 goes, they were well-rooted two thousand years ago. 
 They belong to "the cock-pit of Europe" — about 
 three million in the Belgian provinces of Liege, 
 Namur, Brabant, Hainault and Luxembourg; about 
 one million in the French departments of Aisne, 
 Ardennes, Calais and Nord. Since modern Belgium 
 did not become a separate kingdom until 1830, the 
 terms Belgic or Belgian-French, as applied to this 
 Walloon element, are not political, but racial or geo- 
 graphical. In terms of present national borders, we 
 may say that, roughly, the Walloon territory, at the 
 period of which we are chiefly speaking, was that 
 now included in southwest Belgium and northeast 
 France. It is hardly necessary to point out to what 
 
 3 
 
The De Forests and the 
 
 an extent this territory has been trampled under both 
 political and religious conflicts. Kings and powerful 
 nobles schemed, wrangled, lied, married and mur- 
 dered for possession of the soil. Bought or conquered, 
 the rich provinces were harried and plundered, 
 drained of blood and treasure. Boundaries cease- 
 lessly shifted between France and the Spanish Neth- 
 erlands, even before political and military wars were 
 empoisoned with acute religious differences. 
 
 B. Characteristics. — Race characteristics ap- 
 pear strongly defined and persistent. They are a 
 stocky, rather short, type, of rugged health, dark 
 skin, and most often black hair. They are not of a 
 stolid temperament, but quick to love, fight, pray 
 or laugh. They appear to have been always a fighting 
 and a home-loving people — patriotic and warlike (at 
 all events, sturdy soldiers), deeply religious, and 
 tenacious of their liberties. They formerly spoke 
 Liegeois (a middle French dialect) in which a con- 
 siderable literature remains, of marked peculiarities 
 and some merit. In later centuries they have spoken 
 ordinary, somewhat provincial, modern French. 
 
 C. Religion. — With the spread of the Reforma- 
 tion and the rise of the Protestant Netherlands, 
 Spanish persecution became most bitter. Though 
 the southern provinces contained more adherents to 
 the elder faith than the northern ones, yet the former 
 contained many thousands of Huguenots who finally 
 had to choose between extermination and expatria- 
 tion. Hainault,^ although farther from Spain, fared 
 no better than the south. 
 
 »Ceded by the French to Spain in 1559. 
 
 4 
 
Walloon Founding of New Amsterdam 
 
 D. Emigration Due to Persecution. — From all 
 these Inquisition-ridden, tortured provinces Hugue- 
 nots, and especially Walloons, poured north and east 
 to escape the talons of Spain. Many reached Eng- 
 land, some others penetrated into Prussia; the ma- 
 jority found an asylum in Holland. There was no 
 question of gathering together their forces for a 
 possible return. Their beautiful and beloved coun- 
 try, home of their stock for more than twenty cen- 
 turies, lay open to the power of the tyrant. It is 
 naturally indefensible. There are no "coigns of 
 vantage " from which to repel an intruder. Allegiance 
 to the Belgian soil has ever been a liability rather 
 than an asset — so far at least as earthly safety goes. 
 
 The refugees, while doubtless in many cases mi- 
 grating at severe financial loss, were far from being 
 social derelicts. They paid their scot wherever they 
 went. Thankful for Holland's religious toleration, 
 naturally law-abiding, both industrious and ingen- 
 ious, the Walloons were made welcome everywhere. 
 
 ''Carrying with them a knowledge of the arts, in 
 which they were great proficients,'' says Brodhead,^ 
 "they were distinguished in their new home for their 
 tasteful and persevering industry. To the Walloons 
 the Dutch were probably indebted for much of the 
 repute which they gained as a nation in many 
 branches of manufactures." 
 
 J. W. De Forest,^ also, quotes "another modern 
 investigator, the Netherlands historian Archer," as 
 
 i"History of the State of New York," by John R. Brodhead, N. Y. 1853. Ch. 
 V, p. 147. 
 
 '"The De Forests of Avesncs and of New Netherland," J. W. De Forest, 1900. 
 
 5 
 
The De Forests and the 
 
 declaring that "the whole greatness of Holland 
 sprang from her hospitality to a hundred thousand 
 exiled Walloon families." 
 
 These Belgian-French Protestant refugees, not 
 speaking Dutch, naturally wished to establish their 
 own church services. The tolerant Hollanders saw 
 no objection to this. Religious freedom was the 
 essence of the hospitality sought and granted. The 
 Walloon Church was then soon established, with the 
 use of the French language and the Geneva Cate- 
 chism, and to this day the strangers' descendants in 
 Holland so worship. 
 
 By the time the war between France and Spain 
 closed with the treaty of 1598, the worst — Alva's 
 unspeakable worst — was nearly over for the Nether- 
 lands. The half century preceding had been one of 
 horror, too well known to need repetition. The seven 
 northern provinces of the Netherlands ^ had declared 
 their independence by the Union of Utrecht in 1 579, 
 after the heroic and famous defense of Leyden; and, 
 while their great leader, William the Silent, had 
 been assassinated in 1584, the Dutch dauntlessly 
 fought on to formal recognition of independence 
 from Spain in 1609. The ten southern provinces, on 
 the other hand, were crushed; Protestantism had 
 been practically wiped out. Thoroughly cowed, they 
 returned to Spanish allegiance, not to raise a national 
 head again until the second quarter of the nineteenth 
 century; and to the present time Catholicism is the 
 prevailing faith. 
 
 iProtestant Dutch. 
 
 6 
 
Walloon Founding of New Amsterdam 
 
 The latter half of the sixteenth century had been 
 one of frightful misery for both northern and south- 
 ern provinces. During this time it is estimated that 
 at least half a million Walloons had emigrated, for 
 the most part to Holland. Perhaps an additional 
 hundred thousand had been slain. Civilization was 
 at a standstill. 
 
 Strange to say, while the little Dutch republic 
 had been so struggling and suffering, with dikes cut, 
 fields ruined, towns leveled, she had been steadily 
 growing in wealth by commerce and manufactures.' 
 After the defeat of the Armada ^ Spain could no 
 longer check her sea power; the young nation of the 
 United Netherlands speedily became mistress of the 
 seas. National pride, stimulated by victory, made 
 all things possible. Hence the Walloon immigrants, 
 although entering at a time of storm and stress, 
 were made welcome, kept busy and well paid, and 
 speedily made to share in the rising prosperity of 
 the whole country. To their leaders, indeed, the 
 chief doubt was lest they should become lost by 
 assimilation into the larger element of the Dutch 
 about them. 
 
 III. Comparison of the Walloon Colony in 
 Leyden with the Contemporary Puritan 
 Colony from England in Leyden. 
 
 A. Previous Experience of Each Colony. — 
 Most persons, perhaps, are wont to think of the 
 
 1" Modern History," by W. M. West, passim. 
 *1588. 
 
 7 
 
The De Forests and the 
 
 religious persecutions of this age as wholly like to 
 that to which the Walloons were subjected; namely, 
 the persecution of Protestants by Catholics. They 
 do not realize that in England at the same time, for 
 example, there was a persecution of "Dissenters,*' 
 by the Established Church, scarcely less cruel or 
 unjust. Queen Elizabeth seems to have enjoyed an 
 undeserved reputation for being comparatively tol- 
 erant. It is true that she used in oifice talented men 
 regardless of their creeds; and she discouraged public 
 discussions of religion; but she set her hand to laws 
 and acts of extreme intolerance. She herself said ^ 
 that while "she would suppress the papistical religion 
 so that it should not grow, she would root out Puri- 
 tanism and the favorers thereof." The persecution 
 of the Anabaptist refugees from the continent in 
 1575, resulting in the dispersion of the whole group, 
 with the burning alive of several at Smithfield, indi- 
 cates her general attitude. "In 1581," says Camp- 
 bell, ^ "some acts were passed by Parliament which, 
 aimed primarily at the Catholics, bore heavily upon 
 the nonconformists." In 1583, the High Commis- 
 sion Court was established for the express purpose 
 of harrying the latter, especially the clergy, who were 
 much better educated than those of the Established 
 Church. Through this instrument, and by the 
 zealous labors of Whitgift, Archbishop of Canterbury, 
 and Aylmer, Bishop of London, hounding of the 
 Puritan leaders increased. 
 
 >"The Puritans of Holland, England, and America," by Douglass Campbell, 
 p. 490. 
 
 *"The Puritans of Holland, England and America," by Douglass Campbell, 
 p. 492. 
 
 8 
 
Walloon Founding of New Amsterdam 
 
 "In nothing did this Commission^ fall behind 
 Alva's famous Council of Blood, created fifteen years 
 before, except in the power of punishing by death; 
 and in the condition of the English prisons of that 
 day, even this power was indirectly granted, for the 
 jail-fever was as fatal as the axe of the executioner. 
 Of its origin, the unimpassioned Hallam^ says, "The 
 primary model was the Inquisition itself." 
 
 It should be understood, of course, that the Puri- 
 tans labored long and patiently in England to remedy 
 the shocking immoraHty and illiteracy which existed, 
 protected by the Crown, within the Church of Eng- 
 land; that for the most part they became Separatists 
 only when flung out neck and crop, and "Pilgrims" 
 only when driven into exile to preserve a bare mini- 
 mum of intelligent opinion or personal freedom. 
 Under such circumstances, at Scrooby in Lincoln- 
 shire, in the first decade of the seventeenth century, 
 was gathered the famous group of Separatists who 
 shortly, like the Walloons, were driven to seek the 
 peace of religious toleration under the friendly flag 
 of the Netherlands; and like them, also, to venture 
 among the very first who braved the unknown terrors 
 of the New World. 
 
 The Separatists, having endured the severest per- 
 secutions, finally determined to emigrate — the first, 
 from London, as early as 1593. From Scrooby, in 
 1606, two more bands of refugees departed, and in 
 1608, the remainder, after being betrayed, plundered, 
 
 ^Campbell, p. 494. 
 
 »"ConstitutionaI History," by J. H. Hallam. Vol. 1, p. 204. 
 
 9 
 
The De Forests and the 
 
 imprisoned and scattered in the effort to escape,* 
 finally reached Holland. They were under the lead- 
 ership of their pastor, the Rev. John Robinson, a 
 man of great learning, courage, and breadth of mind, 
 a Cambridge man and an ordained clergyman of the 
 Church of England who remained not only the head 
 of the Puritan Church of the Netherlands, but also — 
 what is perhaps not so generally known — the only 
 pastor of the Pilgrim colony at Plymouth from their 
 landing in 1620 until his death in 1625. A touching 
 account of the terrors and cruelties of the persecution 
 preceding and accompanying the flight is given in 
 quaint old language by Governor Bradford in his 
 History "Of Plimoth Plantation," of which the 
 original MS. was a few years ago returned to the 
 Commonwealth of Massachusetts by the British 
 Government. He comments also, 
 
 "Mr. Foxe recordeth how y^ besids those worthy 
 martirs & confessors which were burned in queen 
 Marys days & otherwise tormented, many (both 
 studients & others) fled out of y^ land, to y^ number 
 of 800. And became severall congregations. At 
 Wesell,2 Frankford, Bassill, Emden, Markpurge, 
 Strausborugh & Geneva &c." ^ 
 
 Bradford continues regarding the exiles from 
 Scrooby^ . . . "They could not long continue 
 in any peaceable condition, but were hunted & per- 
 secuted on every side, so as their former afflictions 
 
 i"Of Plimoth Plantation," by Gov. William Bradford, pp. 2-25. 
 2Peter Minuit the Walloon, third Governor of New Amsterdam, was a deacon 
 in this refugee church at Wesel. 
 »"Of Plimoth Plantation," p. 6. 
 ^Bradford, p. 15. 
 
 10 
 
Walloon Founding of New Amsterdam 
 
 were but as flea-bitings in comparison with those 
 that now came upon them. . . . Seeing them 
 selves thus molested, and that ther was no hope of 
 their continuance ther, by a joynte consente they 
 resolved to goe into y^ Low Countries, wher they 
 hearde was freedome of Religion for all men/' 
 
 The experiences of this colony under Robinson 
 form in many respects a close parallel with those of 
 the Walloon refugees of whom De Forest became 
 the leader. Driven by the crass ignorance and bit- 
 ter piety of those in authority, Robinson's Protestant 
 colony came to Amsterdam in 1608, removed to 
 Leyden in 1609, and emigrated to America in 1620. 
 Jesse De Forest's father emigrated to Leyden in 
 1602, Jesse himself in 161 5, many of their relatives 
 and friends in the intervening years. In 1623 De 
 Forest's colony of Walloons followed the example 
 of the English Protestants in adventuring to find a 
 permanent home upon the western continent. 
 
 B. Fellowship in Leyden. — The two colonies 
 must have had much in common. Alike in religion 
 and general characteristics, with experiences in many 
 ways very similar, strangers in a strange land, to- 
 gether at the same time for conscience' sake, finding 
 much the same problems and opportunities, they 
 were doubtless well informed of each other's fortunes. 
 Bradford says, "y^ magistrate of y^ citie"^ com- 
 pared the English refugees with ''the Walloons who 
 were of y^ French church in y^ citie," somewhat to 
 the disparagement of the latter as being more prone 
 to quarrel among themselves than the less mercurial 
 
 iLeyden. Bradford, p. 27. 
 
 I I 
 
The De Forests and the 
 
 British. Says Mrs. Robert De Forest, ^ " It is known 
 that much cordiaHty and friendship existed between 
 these French and English Protestants." This is the 
 more likely when we remember that many thousands 
 of Walloons in the latter half of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury passed into England as well as into Holland. 
 According to Froude, ^ the Spanish ambassador, in 
 1562, reported over 30,000 Flemish refugees in 
 England. In 1587 there were in Norwich alone 
 nearly 5,000 Walloons, making a majority of the 
 population, 3 *'So late as 1645,^ when Laud had 
 driven great numbers away, there were 700 com- 
 municants in the Dutch church at Colchester, 500 
 in Sandwich, and 900 in the Walloon church at 
 Canterbury." 
 
 The material prosperity of modern England, of 
 Holland, and of colonial America was unquestionably 
 increased by this migration of Walloon refugees, 
 every one of whom was a skilled artisan. In this 
 they had the advantage over the Pilgrims, who, as 
 Bradford laments, ^ "were not acquainted with trade 
 nor traffique (by which y^ countrie doth subsiste) 
 but had only been used to a plaine countrie life & 
 y^ inocente trade of husbandrey." One reason why 
 the English roused to reemigration before the Wal- 
 loons, and in greater numbers, from that "faire and 
 bewtifull citie" of Ley den, was that the former, being 
 
 i"A Walloon Family in America," p. 17. 
 
 »"History of England," by J. A. Froude, Vol. VII, pp.270. 413. 
 •Campbell, p. 489. 
 Mdem, p. 490. 
 
 »"0f Plimoth Plantation," p. 16. 
 
 12 
 
Walloon Founding of New Amsterdam 
 
 unaccustomed to the artisan life of a city, found the 
 confinement detrimental to the health of their young 
 people, as well as social temptations a menace to 
 morals. 
 
 Recent search, having uncovered so many new 
 sources of value, may still bring to light documents 
 showing a closer interchange of ideas between these 
 two bodies of refugees, or between their leaders, than 
 we are at present justified in assuming. The dif- 
 ference in language was doubtless some bar. De 
 Forest, while not a highly educated man, wrote 
 French well and readily. The important papers 
 concerning his expedition are in his own handwriting, 
 and for the most part bear his signature alone. 
 Robinson was of course a man of signal culture, 
 especially in a day when even high officials and 
 ecclesiastics were so illiterate and so densely ignorant. 
 He was M. A. and Fellow of Cambridge University, 
 a ready scholar in Latin, Greek and Hebrew, a man 
 of native ability and Hberal learning, considered, 
 even in those days of bitter prejudice, a distinct 
 loss to the English Church. His opponents admitted 
 him to be^ "the most learned, polished, and modest 
 spirit that ever separated from the Church of Eng- 
 land." Presumably he spoke French, and doubtless 
 both he and De Forest, through long residence in 
 Leyden, spoke Dutch as well as their mother tongue. 
 The Puritan colony centered about Robinson's resi- 
 dence (their place of worship) on the Klockstrasse, 
 opposite St. Peter's Church. If De Forest's group 
 
 »Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography. 
 
 13 
 
The De Forests and the 
 
 of colonists had such a center, and whether, if so, 
 it was near that of the Pilgrims, I am unable to say. 
 
 C. Emigration of Part of the Separatist Church 
 UNDER Robinson in Leyden to America in 1620. — 
 The fourth chapter of Bradford,^ "Showing rea- 
 sons & causes of their remoovall,'' gives a discussion 
 of political, business and social conditions in Leyden, 
 with the arguments for and against emigration, of 
 which almost every sentence applies with equal force 
 to Puritans and to Walloons. It furnishes the basis 
 for a fme understanding of the spirit in which both 
 Robinson and De Forest pursued their courageous 
 designs of leading colonies of their compatriots far 
 across the seas into an unknown wilderness. 
 
 (To fearful ones) — " It was answered, that all great 
 and honourable actions are accompanied with great 
 difficulties, and must be both enterprised and over- 
 come with answerable courages. It was granted y^ 
 dangers were great, but not desperate; the difficulties 
 were many, but not invincible. For though their 
 were many of them likly, yet they were not certaine; 
 it might be sundrie of y^ things feared might never 
 befale; others by provident care & y^ use of good 
 means, might in a great measure be prevented; and 
 all of them, through y^ help of God, might either be 
 borne, or overcome. True it was, that such attempts 
 were not to be made and undertaken without good 
 ground & reason; not rashly or lightly as many have 
 done for curiositie or hope of gaine, &c. But their 
 condition was not ordinarie; their ends were good & 
 
 i"History of Plimoth Plantation," pp. 29-35. 
 
 14 
 
Walloon Founding of New Amsterdam 
 
 honourable; their calling lawfulle, & urgente; and 
 therefore they might expecte blessing of God in 
 their proceeding. Yea, though they should loose 
 their lives in this action, yet might they have com- 
 forte in the same, and their endeavors would be 
 honourable. They lived hear but as men in exile, 
 & in a poor condition; and as greate miseries might 
 possibly befale them in this place, for y^ 12 years of 
 truce were now out, & there was nothing but beating 
 of drumes, and preparing for warr, the events whereof 
 are allway uncertaine. Ye Spaniard might prove as 
 cruell as the salvages of America, and y^ famine and 
 pestelence as sore hear as ther, & their libertie less to 
 looke out for remedie. After many other perticuler 
 things answered & aledged on both sids, it was fully 
 concluded by y^ major parte, to put this designe in 
 execution, and to prosecute it by the best means 
 they could." 
 
 D. Stimulus to Emigration of the Wal- 
 loons. — In view of De Forest's Guiana project, and 
 his efforts to emigrate to Virginia, it is of interest to 
 note that the Pilgrims had much the same experi- 
 ences. 
 
 "Some," says Bradford, ^ "had thoughts & were 
 ernest for Guiana, or some of those fertill places in 
 those hott climats; others were for some parts of 
 Virginia." 
 
 The negotiations in regard to both expeditions — 
 that of the English to Plymouth, and that of the 
 
 > Bradford, p. 34. 
 
 15 
 
The De Forests and the 
 
 Walloons to Manhattan — were carried on at almost 
 the same time, the English preceding step for step 
 by about three years, and were in many respects 
 much alike; for example, both colonies tried first to 
 make the settlement in Guiana, then did their best 
 to arrange one in Virginia, and finally decided upon 
 a more northern destination. It is possible that the 
 two bands had even had some idea of making common 
 cause in the New World. The Pilgrim colony on 
 the ''Mayflower,*' as we know, was bound for the 
 mouth of the Hudson, but encountering many delays 
 and adventures en route, so that they reached the 
 American coast only when winter was well upon 
 them, they were halted upon the nearer, more 
 northern shore of Massachusetts by inclement 
 weather and the lateness of the season. Accounts 
 of the Pilgrim voyage and settlement, however, are 
 legion. The parallel with the Walloon expedition 
 will become apparent in subsequent pages. 
 
 'The Pilgrim Fathers had gone to America under a 
 patent from the Virginia Company," remarks Mrs. 
 Robert De Forest, ^ "and some of Jesse De Forest's 
 compatriots had gone with them. It was, therefore, 
 quite natural, all things considered, that Jesse him- 
 self should propose to emigrate with his followers 
 under the same auspices." 
 
 At all events, by the time the remnant of the 
 Mayflower colony had weathered the first winter, 
 he had gathered together between fifty and sixty 
 families, containing about three hundred persons, of 
 
 »"A Walloon Family in America," by Mrs. Robert W. de Forest, p. 18. 
 
 i6 
 
Walloon Founding of New Amsterdam 
 
 Protestant Belgian-French who were desirous of 
 making the venture. Before proceeding, however, 
 some account is in order of this one conspicuous 
 leader of the Walloons, Jesse De Forest. 
 
 IV. Jesse De Forest, Leader of the Walloon 
 Migration to New Netherland 
 
 A. French Origin and Early Connections. — 
 The province of Hainault has long been a land of 
 history and romance. Here dwelt and fought the 
 Nervii, who so earned the respect of Caesar for their 
 fighting qualities. Baldwin, the Emperor of Byzan- 
 tium, Philippa of Hainault," the Queen who sucked 
 the poison from her husband's wound, Froissart, the 
 quaint chronicler. Count Egmont of undying fame — 
 the little plot of ground has furnished its share of 
 notables. Near the Belgian-French frontier, not far 
 from Mons of recent bloodshed and a new legend, 
 stands — or stood, perhaps, until the swift destruction 
 of the past by the present — a little old walled town 
 of fewer than five thousand inhabitants — Avesnes. 
 It has changed hands many times, belonging now to 
 Bavaria, now to Burgundy; a possession in turn of 
 Spain, Austria, France of today. In 1477, Louis XI 
 of France, planning to surprise the Netherlands of 
 Burgundy, sent an army which, on its way, by treach- 
 ery slew nearly all the people of the town, and after 
 pillage so burned it that but eight dwellings, with a 
 hospital and a monastery, remained. All previous 
 church and town records were destroyed at this 
 
 17 
 
The De Forests and the 
 
 time. Somehow the town rose again, for nearly a 
 century later 1 it appears worth being formally ceded 
 from France to Spain. During the French Revolu- 
 tion, some of the town records were used for wadding 
 cartridges, and a hundred years ago, during the in- 
 vasion of the Prussians, the explosion of a magazine 
 all but destroyed the town once more. Hence the 
 records are very fragmentary. 
 
 The earliest known are in the Bibliotheque 
 Nationale at Paris. Others are to be found in the 
 archives of Lille, Mons, etc. These Paris archives 
 run back to 1488; those of Avesnes, broken as they 
 are, begin in 1 529. Hundreds 2 of local records, more 
 or less clearly connected, contain the name of De 
 Forest, indicating that the family had been long on 
 the soil. Presently emerge, with fair probability of 
 identification, entries such as any self-respecting old- 
 world community makes every effort to keep, of 
 births and deaths, baptisms and marriages, for the 
 two or three generations immediately preceding Jesse 
 De Forest, the Walloon emigrant. 
 
 For the past three centuries, while America in 
 general is very lax in such matters, the records of 
 this particular family, now quite numerous, have 
 been fairly well preserved. Actuated frankly by a 
 mixture of general historic interest and family pride, 
 several De Forests of the present day have been at 
 considerable pains to search the old records available 
 in America, France, Belgium, Holland and England 
 for any entries concerning their immigrant ancestors. 
 
 11559. 
 
 2"The De Forests of Avesnes," by J. W. De Forest, 1900. (Passim) 
 
 i8 
 
Walloon Founding of New Amsterdam 
 
 In this they have been fairly successful. While in 
 their published results many pages are naturally 
 devoted to mere genealogical matter affecting later 
 generations, the appendices contain certified copies 
 of records from European archives and similar source- 
 material — of primary interest to the family, no 
 doubt, but also of a certain impersonal value as 
 aiding the general reader to gain a more accurate 
 knowledge of the circumstances under which such 
 important cities as Albany and New York were 
 founded. The two books including this source- 
 material are ''The De Forests of Avesnes and of New 
 Netherland," by J. W. De Forest (1900) and *'A 
 Walloon Family in America," by Mrs. Robert W. 
 De Forest (19 14). While they are informal in style, 
 occasionally gossipy, careful references are given for 
 all statements of any weight, due notice is given 
 whenever evidence passes into speculation, and in 
 general the volumes are free from raw heraldic claims 
 or the like undemocratic pretensions. 
 
 According to these old local records, Jean de 
 Forest, father of Jesse de Forest, married Anne 
 Maillard in Avesnes, about 1570, some two years 
 after William of Orange's first defeat by Alva. He 
 belonged to the guild of the wool merchants, as did 
 also several of his brothers.^ Jean, the youngest of 
 the family, and less often mentioned in the records, 
 very probably was going to and fro as agent for the 
 De Forest wool firm. Markets must have been very 
 uncertain in this half-century of fierce strife between 
 
 >Two others were canons of the church of St. Nicholas in Avesnes. 
 
 19 
 
The De Forests and the 
 
 Spain and Protestantism. Jean de Forest, the first 
 Protestant of the family, soon found it necessary to 
 leave his home. In 1601 he appears established as 
 a merchant in Sedan. ^ His family was then scat- 
 tered: a son, Melchior, at Lille; another, Gerard, at 
 Ley den ; a daughter, Anne, with her mother at Am- 
 sterdam; only Jesse remaining with his father. 
 Jesse's marriage presently appears. ^ 
 
 **i6oi. Sunday, 23d day of said month^ at the 
 
 Catechism, the said Sieur du Tilloy blessed the mar- 
 riage of Jesse des forests, son of Jean des forests 
 merchant residing in this city, with marie du Cloux, 
 daughter of Nicaise du Cloux merchant residing in 
 this city.'' 
 
 In due time, at intervals on the same register occur 
 entries of the baptisms of the first five children, in- 
 cluding Henry or Hendrick,^ who was later one of 
 the early settlers of New Amsterdam. 
 
 B. Family Migration to Holland. — During 
 these years the family became re-united in Holland. 
 In local records^ we find, "Received member of the 
 church at Leyden by letter from Beighem op Zoom, 
 Jehan de Forest and Anne Maillard, his wife.'' Next 
 year ^ they are received members at Amsterdam by 
 letters from Leyden. 
 
 ''1615, March i. Baptized at Leyden, Jesse, son 
 of Jesse du Forest and of Marie du Clou." 
 
 iHolland Records. Registers of the Walloon churches. 1601, 
 ^Register of the Huguenot Church in Sedan. 
 ^September. 
 <March 7, 1606. 
 
 'Holland Records. Register of the Walloon Church at Leyden. 1603. 
 61604. 
 
 20 
 
Walloon Founding of New Amsterdam 
 
 " 1616, July ID, Baptized at Leyden, Isaac, son of 
 Jesse du Forest." ^ 
 
 C. Reasons Leading to Emigration. — Many 
 other entries are at hand, of birth, marriage, church 
 membership, concerning Isaac De Forest, his parents 
 and brothers. Land transactions, voyages, wills, 
 guardianships, and so on are also recorded in num- 
 bers, sometimes in French, sometimes in Dutch. 
 Had De Forest been altogether prosperous, he would 
 presumably have remained in one place or in one 
 occupation. On the contrary, the records between 
 1600 and 1625 show him with an increasingly large 
 family, shifting from place to place, now apparently 
 traveling buyer or salesman for the family firm, again 
 appearing less as a wool merchant than as a dyer. 
 In 1608 he is noted ^ as a "merchant-dyer" upon the 
 records of Montcornet in Thierache.^ After this we 
 lose sight of him for some years, during which he 
 may have had several children, since the births of 
 five are previously recorded at Sedan, and five more, 
 after this gap in the family records, at Leyden. 
 Later, also, is recorded the marriage of a daughter 
 not included in either group. In 16 18 we come 
 across a civic record at The Hague, which tells of 
 his pledging his very dyery-chaldron^ because he is 
 in arrears of house-rent to the amount of fifty florins. 
 These circumstances indicate that the family was not 
 
 iHolIand Records. Register of the Walloon Church at Leyden. 
 *"De Forests of Avesnes," p. 53. 
 «An eastern canton of Picardy. 
 ♦"De Forests of Avesnes," p. 56. 
 
 21 
 
The De Forests and the 
 
 prosperous, and may have furnished sufficient spur 
 to emigration. 
 
 Still, we must remember that poverty was no slur 
 upon character in those days, especially among 
 Huguenot and Walloon exiles. The very word 
 " Beggar" indeed, flung at them as a scornful epithet, 
 was worn as a proud title. In 1566 some 500 
 Protestant nobles of the Netherlands (later joined 
 by many of lesser rank) having pledged themselves to 
 make a stand against Spanish cruelty and tyranny, 
 presented a petition to the Duchess of Parma. One 
 of her advisers spoke contemptuously of "les Gueux" 
 (the beggars). The acknowledgment, ''Faithful to 
 religion and native land, even to the bearing of the 
 beggar's wallet," soon became a slogan which changed 
 the insult to a distinction. The phrase and the fact 
 behind it became an inheritance of pride in the 
 Protestant Netherlands. Hardship often but breeds 
 dauntlessness; and it may be noted that great ad- 
 venturers have most often been men with broken 
 fortunes to mend. 
 
 V. Efforts of De Forest to Arrange for the 
 Emigration of a Colony Under Auspices 
 OF THE British Virginia Company 
 
 A. Interview with Sir Dudley Carleton, 
 British Ambassador to the Netherlands. — 
 While the formation of the Dutch West India Com- 
 pany had been under discussion for a year, it was 
 not yet organized; hence in July, 1621, De Forest 
 
 22 
 
Walloon Founding of New Amsterdam 
 
 went to The Hague/ and presenting himself at the 
 residence of the British Ambassador, Sir Dudley 
 Carleton, formally made request, as spokesman for 
 three hundred others, that an expedition, bearing a 
 permanent colony to the New World, might be 
 arranged for them. 
 
 B. Written Transactions. — Upon Carleton's 
 suggestion that he present his request in written 
 form, De Forest reappeared two days later with these 
 "Demands," clearly and properly couched, over his 
 own signature, and also a document known as "the 
 round robin." These two papers, brought to Carle- 
 ton upon July 21, were forwarded by him the same 
 day to Sir George Calvert, then State Secretary. 
 With them went a letter, saying, 
 
 "There hath been with me of late a certain Walon 
 in the name of divers families, men of all trades and 
 occupations, who desire to goe into Virginia. . . . 
 I required of him his demands in writing, with the 
 signatures of such as were to bear part therein, both 
 of which I send your honour herewith." 
 
 As the documents presented by De Forest both 
 bear date of July 21, while Carleton's letter is headed 
 July 19, it would appear that unless either had been 
 slightly misdated, Carleton's letter, in spite of the 
 wording, had been held two days, after being written 
 on the day of his interview with De Forest, until the 
 required papers were made ready to accompany it. 
 The discrepancy, however, is a trifling one, and does 
 not aflfect the substance of the contents. 
 
 iBrodhead, Ch. V., pp. 146, 147. 
 
 23 
 
The De Forests and the 
 
 The petition known as "The Demands requested 
 from the British Virginia Company definite replies 
 upon seven points of inquiry, as follows 
 
 1. Defense by the King, and freedom of religion; 
 
 2. Transportation of the colonists in an armed 
 vessel, and later freightage of supplies; 
 
 3. Choice of location after landing; 
 
 4. Permission to fortify the settlement, and to 
 set up local self-government; 
 
 5. Furnishing of ammunition and permission to 
 make powder, shot and cannon; 
 
 6. Sole right to the territory within a radius of 
 eight miles, "and whether those of them who could 
 live as nobles would be permitted to style themselves 
 such'*; 
 
 7. Game, fishery, mineral and timber rights. 
 After incidental request for information regarding 
 
 the warehouse ordinances of London, with a view to 
 establishing trade relations, the document closes with 
 profiler of full allegiance, and the usual formal 
 courtesies. 
 
 Accompanying this was a "round-robin" agree- 
 ment^ of the colonists prepared to go upon the pro- 
 posed expedition. It is 18x13.5 inches in size. 
 Within the small inner oval are a few words^ prom- 
 ising that the signers would settle in Virginia "under 
 
 IN. Y. Colonial Documents, Vol. 111. 
 
 London Documents I, p. 9, for rather loose translation. 
 
 Baird, Vol. 1, pp. 348-350 for full document in French. 
 
 J. W. De Forest for better translation. "A Walloon Family." Vol. 11, p. 17, 
 for facsimile. '^Condensed. 
 
 sFacsimiie, Baird, I, p. 351: also "A Walloon Family." Vol. 11, p. 21. 
 *Thc language, of course, is French. 
 
 24 
 
Walloon Founding of New Amsterdam 
 
 the conditions set forth in the articles which we have 
 communicated." Time and the fold have blurred 
 the central part, but the close stands out coolly 
 enough: "And not otherwise." In the next oval 
 come the clear signatures ^ of the men — "Jesse de 
 Forest, tincturieur"; "Mousnier de la Montague, 
 estudient en medicine," etc.; while in the outer oval, 
 opposite each man's name, appears his family con- 
 dition — "homme a marier," perhaps, or "fme dix 
 enfans," as the case might be. 
 
 These two papers, presented to Carleton within 
 forty-eight hours, apparently show De Forest to have 
 been both business-like, and eager to be gone. In a 
 fortnight or so came the categorical reply from the 
 Virginia Company^ through the "Rt. Ho'ble Sr 
 George Calvert," in substance as follows: 
 
 1. "If it stand with his Ma'ties gratious favour, 
 they do not conceive it any inconvenience at present 
 to suffer sixtie families of Walloones and ffrenchmen 
 not exceeding the number of 300 persons to goe and 
 inhabite in Virginia. . . . the said persons tak- 
 ing oath to . . . bee conformable to . . . 
 the Churche of England. 
 
 2. They esteeme it so Royall a favour in his 
 Ma'tie and so singular a benefitt to the said Walloons 
 and ffrenchmen to bee admitted to live in that fruit- 
 full land under ... so mightie and pious a 
 Monarch as his Ma'tie is that they ought not to 
 expect of his sacred Ma'tie any ayde of shipping or 
 
 iQf fifty-six, only three made their marks. 
 2N. Y. Col. Doc. Vol. III. London Doc. I. 
 
 25 
 
The De Forests and the 
 
 other chargeable favour . . . only in point of 
 advise and Councell." 
 
 " 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. Articles. They conceive that for 
 the prosperity and principally the securing of the 
 plantacion in His Ma'ties obedience it is not expe- 
 dient that the sayd ffamilies should bee sett downe 
 in one gross bodie'' . . . but, in short, be thor- 
 oughly broken up and scattered among "the naturall 
 Englishe; and this course they out of their experience 
 do conceive likely to prove better and more com- 
 fortable to the sayd Walloons and ffrenchmen than 
 that other w'ch they desire." 
 
 C. Result on Plans of the Walloons. — 
 Whether "Jesse de Forest, tincturieur," mingled any 
 other emotion with the disappointment in which he 
 must have received "so Royall a favour" is not 
 recorded. He made no further effort to gain the ear 
 of "so mightie and pious a Monarch," but for eight 
 months quietly perfected other plans. 
 
 VI. Efforts of De Forest to Arrange for the 
 Emigration of a Colony under 
 Dutch Auspices 
 
 A. Petition to the States of Holland and 
 West Friesland. — Seeing that the organization of 
 the West India Company was proceeding with true 
 Dutch deliberation, the undaunted De Forest in 
 April, 1622, took his petition to the provincial legis- 
 lature called "The States of Holland and West 
 Friesland," using in his request the term "West 
 
 26 
 
Walloon Founding of New Amsterdam 
 
 Indies/' which then included the whole eastern coast 
 of North and South America. On being consulted, 
 the Directors of the Dutch West India Company ' 
 reported briefly in favor of promoting the plan. As 
 no action followed, De Forest four months later re- 
 newed his efforts, turning now to the States General. * 
 The matter was referred back to the States of 
 Holland and West Friesland,^ which formally author- 
 ized* "the said Jesse des Forest" to inscribe and 
 enroll for the colonies all families having the qualifi- 
 cations requisite," and "to furnish a report thereof 
 to the Lords Gentlemen." The outcome of this was 
 "The Guiana Expedition." 
 
 VII. De Forest's Expedition to Guiana under 
 Dutch West India Company 
 
 A. General Stage of Colonization in South 
 America. — In the early part of the seventeenth cen- 
 tury, Holland, being freed from Spanish oppression, 
 had rapidly risen to sea-power and to schemes of 
 wide colonial expansion. Admiral Willekens, with 
 one great fleet, was to take Brazil from Spain by 
 sudden attack. Another commander, with an 
 equally large squadron of war-ships, was to support 
 Willekens by keeping the Atlantic swept clean of the 
 Spanish. A third fleet was to take possession of the 
 Congo and Angola coasts, in order to supply gold 
 and slaves. Atlantic settlements north of the Poto- 
 
 »Royal Archives, The Hague, Holland. 
 
 *The national legislative body of the United Netherlands. 
 
 »N. Y. Col. Doc. British Doc. from State Archives at The Hague. 
 
 «Aug. 27, 1622. 
 
 27 
 
The De Forests and the 
 
 mac were more or less under consideration, since 
 Dutch explorers had now for some years led the way. 
 The organization of the Dutch West India Company, 
 as its name implies, was leading to large plans for 
 trade and colonization in that quarter of the globe, 
 notably among the Caribbean Islands and along the 
 northern coast of South America between the Gulf 
 of Maracaibo and the frontier of Brazil. The latter 
 region was called interchangeably "Guiana" and 
 "The Wild Coast" by writers of this time. All of 
 these projects were upon a scale to command respect. 
 Willekens* expedition, ^ for example, was carried by 
 twenty-three ships and three clipper yachts, defended 
 in transit by five hundred cannon; and consisted of 
 sixteen hundred sailors, and seventeen hundred sol- 
 diers, besides civilian colonists. It has been thought 
 by some that De Forest's band were of these last, 
 but later-found sources show clearly that he left in 
 the previous June. 
 
 B. Sailing Routes to the New World. — Before 
 going further, it may be well to recall two facts, 
 perfectly well known, but liable to be overlooked 
 since the same conditions no longer prevail. The 
 first is that the present lanes of travel on the North 
 Atlantic were then unknown. Vessels from Holland, 
 bound for the mouth of the Hudson, slipped down 
 the west coast of Africa, past the mouth of the 
 Congo, across the narrowest part of the Atlantic to 
 perhaps the mouth of the Wyapoko on the frontier 
 between Brazil and Guiana; then northward among 
 
 iWasscnacr, passim. 
 
 28 
 
Walloon Founding of New Amsterdam 
 
 the West Indies and on up the coast of the present 
 United States. For the return voyage, explains 
 Wassenaer, **on leaving the lower river/ you lay 
 your course for the west wind, and, having got it, to 
 the Bermudas, whence homeward by the current." 
 "The Wild Coast" — say the present Dutch Guiana — 
 for a Hollander was as much on the way to New 
 York as Buffalo, for a Chicago man, is on the way 
 to Boston. Vessels clearing the Hook of Holland, 
 one bound for Manhattan and the other for Mara- 
 caibo, were strictly in company. 
 
 The other point is that South America has always 
 seemed to Europe of more importance than the easy 
 egotism of "the States" reaHzes. What is true even 
 today, with the vast wealth and the dense popula- 
 tion centering about the island of Manhattan, was 
 a hundred times more true in the beginning of the 
 seventeenth century. The settlement of New York 
 may now seem to us a matter of some importance; 
 it was then a very negligible affair, to both English 
 and Dutch, as may be seen by the delays and diffi- 
 culties encountered by Jesse de Forest in his ceaseless 
 endeavors to get per^nission and transportation for 
 hundreds of desirable colonists already recruited and 
 enrolled. Holland paid scant heed to the proposition 
 of making a settlement upon the River of the Moon, 
 whence, at most, she expected to draw a few furs 
 and a little tobacco. It was not a North Atlantic 
 Company the Dutch were organizing, but one for 
 the West Indies. From South America and the 
 
 iThe mouth of the Hudson. 
 
 29 
 
The De Forests and the 
 
 Caribbean Islands, already exploited by Spain, they 
 looked for coffee and spices, dye-woods, gold, jewels, 
 furniture-woods. Less was to be feared here from 
 either climate or natives. Manhattan was the little- 
 known, little-visited end of the "spur track" far 
 beyond the "main-traveled road" leading to the 
 West Indies. At a time when the interest of many 
 influential Hollanders was centered upon "The Wild 
 Coast," and when, as previously noted, many of the 
 Puritan colony in Leyden — "and none of the mean- 
 est" — argued strongly in favor of emigrating to 
 Guiana as being a far more promising place for a 
 colony than New Netherland or New England, it 
 need be matter of little surprise when we find Jesse 
 De Forest organizing at the same time two colonies, 
 one for Guiana, the other for New Netherland, 
 launching them ten weeks apart, and himself accom- 
 panying to Guiana the first of these. 
 
 C. Wassenaer's "Historical Account." — As 
 authority for a discussion of this Guiana enterprise, 
 two reliable sources have long been available, and a 
 third has very recently been brought to light. The 
 first is the history of "The New World, or Descrip- 
 tion of the West Indies," by John De Laet, one of 
 the leading directors of the West India Company. 
 Brodhead mentions this ^ as being published in Leyden 
 in 1625, and as having been made up from "various 
 manuscript journals^ of different captains and pilots," 
 including Hendrik Hudson's private journal, and 
 
 iBrodhead, Ch. V., p. 157. 
 ^Mentioned definitely as used. 
 
 30 
 
Walloon Founding of New Amsterdam 
 
 also, apparently, the original reports of Block, Mey 
 and Christiansen. Brodhead notes that "from this 
 circumstance its historical authority is nearly equal 
 to that of an original record," and continues ^ : " Until 
 the recent reference to the earlier 'Historical Rela- 
 tion' of Wassenaer, which contains a general state- 
 ment of interesting events in Europe and America 
 from 162 1 to 1632,2 the work of De Laet was thought 
 to contain the first published account of the Dutch 
 province. Its authority is deservedly very high — 
 and had English and American writers consulted its 
 accurate pages, less injustice would perhaps have 
 been done to the Hollanders. . . — and, inci- 
 dentally, to the little band of Walloons who as 
 colonists preceded the Dutch. 
 
 Another of these sources is the " Historisches Ver- 
 hael" of Wassenaer, mentioned above. Brodhead 
 was the first to find^ a complete copy, and to use it 
 as a historical authority. A good part of it, in trans- 
 lation, is to be found in early volumes of the New 
 York Historical Documents* and in the Proceedings 
 of the New York Historical Society.^ 
 
 D. The Journal of Jesse de Forest. — A third 
 source, and in this connection an even more impor- 
 tant one, is a very unusual manuscript journal which 
 has been lying unnoted in the British Museum for 
 many years, being published for the first time ^ in 
 
 iP. 157. 
 
 *Wassenaer's own sub-title. 
 *ln London. 
 «Vol. Ill, p. 397. 
 SYear 1848, p. 215. 
 
 ^Either in the original French or in translation. 
 
 31 
 
The De Forests and the 
 
 1914. It is listed as Sloane MS. 179 b, having been 
 among the first of similar MSS. collected by Sir Hans 
 Sloane, founder of the Museum. Its full title ^ is, 
 "Journal du voyage faict par les peres de families 
 envoyes par Mes les Directeurs de la Compagnee 
 des Indes Occidentals pour visiter la coste de 
 Gujane.*' It is commonly called "Jesse De Forest's 
 Journal," though certainly part of it, and possibly all, 
 is written by another hand than his. It contains a 
 complete account of the expedition of which De 
 Forest was "our Captain," to its finish. The nar- 
 rative is in itself readably interesting, with ten 
 beautifully colored maps, as many careful descrip- 
 tions of places, and numerous sketches — of the high- 
 built native houses along the river lowlands, for 
 example. 
 
 During the dispute over the boundary line between 
 British Guiana and Venezuela, ^ the British Govern- 
 ment published extracts from this MS. to prove that 
 a Dutch colony had been established on the Esse- 
 quibo River in British Guiana before 1624. This 
 argument was based upon this settlement of the 
 peres de families ^ headed by De Forest. It was also 
 noted by the Rev. George Edmundson, who dis- 
 covered it in the course of gathering data for articles 
 on Guiana;^ and finally published in full in "A 
 Walloon Family." 
 
 iBoth original and translation are given in Mrs. Robert W. De Forest's "A 
 Walloon Family in America," Vol. II, pp. 188-278 (1914). 
 2Settled in 1899. 
 3So quoted by the Government. 
 
 ^Articles on Guiana, English Historical Review. Oct., 1901; Oct., 1903; 
 Jan., 1904. 
 
 32 
 
Walloon Founding of New Amsterdam 
 
 E. "Les Peres de Familles." — For two years, 
 as we have seen, Jesse De Forest, with his fixed idea, 
 had been seeking the chance to emigrate. The West 
 India Company was finally organized;^ and within 
 a fortnight 2 the impatient Walloon, in the ship 
 " Pigeon," left Leyden on his way to the New World. 
 
 But as their Excellencies the said Directors thought 
 it better before carrying over the above mentioned 
 families, to send a certaine number of the heads of 
 families with the said Jesse des forests to inspect the 
 region and themselves select their place of abode, 
 there were chosen for this purpose Louis le Maire, 
 Bartheleme Digan, Anthoine Descendre, Anthoine 
 Beaumont, Jehan Godebon, Abraham Douillers, 
 Dominique Masure, the brothers Jehan and Gilles 
 Daynes, and Jehan Mousnier de la Montague, over 
 whom on landing the said Jesse des forest was to 
 have command." ^ 
 
 Four of these men were among those who had 
 signed the Round Robin two years before — "Jesse 
 de Forest, tincturieur"; "Anthoine Descendre, 
 laboureur"; " Barthelemy Digand, scyeur de bois"; 
 and "Jehan Mousnier Montague, estudient en med- 
 ecine." The last of these, though still "homme a 
 marier,"^ we find stoutly enrolled among the "fathers 
 of families." The fact that later, on returning to 
 Leyden, he married De Forest's daughter Rachel, 
 may indicate an already altered footing among the 
 
 ijune 21, 1623. 
 
 ^Saturday, July 1, 1623. 
 
 sSloane MS. 179 b, p. 1. 
 
 *"A man for marriage" — a bachelor. 
 
 33 
 
The De Forests and the 
 
 band. In the Journal, "our Captain always means 
 De Forest"; "Our Master'' refers to the commander 
 of the "Pigeon," one Pieter Fredericsz of Harlem. 
 
 F. Companion Voyage of "The Mackerel" 
 AND "The Pigeon" from Leyden to the New 
 World. — Another yacht of about the same size, 
 "The Mackerel," sailed just before "The Pigeon." 
 The ships expected to keep company as far as "the 
 Amazons"; from there "The Mackerel" was to go 
 on to New Netherland. Both vessels planned to 
 coast along under protection of some slave ships 
 headed for the Guinea coast; but slight accidents to 
 "The Mackerel's" mast first lost the opportunity 
 of this protection, and presently made it necessary 
 to anchor in the Downs ^ for further protection. 
 
 The "Masters" of both vessels seem to have been 
 in no hurry. Supper parties, fights, a wedding, de- 
 sertions, and casual piracies occupied two months 
 before even Cape Finisterre was reached. Fredericsz 
 having halted an English ship returning from New- 
 foundland, and having robbed the sailors' chests of 
 all their clothing, De Forest made him return every 
 stitch; and then, supported by the pilot, demanded 
 that he should leave off "skylarking" by the way, 
 and proceed more directly. At Madeira, in mid 
 September, the little ships parted company, "The 
 Mackerel" then heading for New Netherland. The 
 latter vessel seems also to have spent some time in 
 
 iHere they had an amusing and stirring adventure with one Pieter Jansz of 
 Flushing, whom Sir Walter Raleigh had met in Cayenne in 1617, and said of him 
 that he "had traded that place about a dussen years." Other of Jansz's tricks 
 appear later in the Journal. 
 
 34 
 
Walloon Founding of New Amsterdam 
 
 the popular sport of the high seas. Wassenaer re- 
 marks/ 
 
 "The yacht 'Maeckereer sailed out last year 1623 
 on the 1 6th of June and arrived yonder ^ on the 12th 
 of December. That was indeed somewhat late, but 
 it wasted time in the salvage islands to catch a fish (a 
 Spanish prize), and did not catch it, so ran the luck." 
 
 On October i6th, at the mouth of the Amazon, 
 "The Pigeon" again met Pieter Jansz, and together 
 they sailed in. "The Pigeon" spent about six weeks 
 along the river, exploring and trading. She found 
 it already crowded. Six English and Irish colonies 
 were even then established, though under warning of 
 frequent and imminent trouble from both the Spanish 
 and the natives. On December 4th, "The Pigeon" 
 was back at the North Cape, headed for the Wyapoko 
 River. ^ It was during this leisurely progress that 
 many of the fme maps and sketches in the "Journal" 
 were made. After exploring the Wyapoko for some 
 ten days, the "peres de families" finally ^ found a 
 place to their liking. 
 
 G. The Settlement Along the Wyapoko on 
 THE Wild Coast. — Here occurred a surprise and 
 disappointment, for the Master of "The Pigeon," 
 Pietersz, then informed them that his orders from 
 the Directors of the West India Company were to 
 leave there all of them except two whom he would 
 
 lUnder date of April, 1624. 
 *In New Netherland. 
 
 'Now called the Oyapok — the present boundary between French Guiana and 
 northern Brazil. 
 ♦Dec. 27. 
 
 35 
 
The De Forests and the 
 
 allow to return with him. This seemed to them 
 unreasonable — that they had not been allowed to 
 bring their families, nor to know the circumstances 
 before leaving Holland, that they might make 
 arrangements; nor were they now permitted to 
 fetch them. As the Journal says, 
 
 "They began in divers ways to excuse themselves. 
 Our Captain, seeing this, declared to the Master 
 that he was ready to remain if they would give him 
 in place of the heads of families who wished to 
 return, the same number of sailors. This was 
 allowed him so that there remained with our said 
 Captain, Louis le Maire and I ^ from among the 
 families, our Gunner, four sailors and the Surgeon's 
 mate — nine persons in all." ^ 
 
 The entries next following are very brief:' 
 
 "On Thursday the 28th they prepared everything 
 which they were willing to give us, which was 
 (illegible) of Coucal,'^ axes, knives, a small pierrier,^ 
 with our Cheloupe."® 
 
 "On Friday the 29th we left to go to Commaribo." ' 
 
 "On Saturday the 30th we arrived at the said 
 Commaribo." 
 
 "The first day of the year 1624 our ship left to 
 return to Holland." 
 
 These "heads of families" seem to have been men 
 
 'Almost certainly La Montagne. 
 
 sjournal, 1623, Dec. 27. 
 
 'No omissions. 
 
 *Cocoa, presumably. 
 
 6A cannon for throwing stones; a saker. 
 
 6"Shallop"; ship's pinnace. 
 
 safer, higher spot across the river. 
 
 36 
 
Walloon Founding of New Amsterdam 
 
 of resolution and self-reliance. There is no further 
 expression of surprise, annoyance, or sense of in- 
 justice. A letter 1 which was written the last day of 
 December, 1623, to be carried back to Leyden by 
 "The Pigeon," shows excellent courage and spirits. 
 It begins, 
 
 "Although the letter from our Captain ^ suffices to 
 inform you both of the success of our voyage and the 
 excellence of this region where we live, 1 must not 
 neglect to fulfill the promise which I made at our 
 departure. Our voyage was very happily concluded 
 . . . we found very friendly natives here, who 
 treated us well; the streams are convenient and the 
 land overflows with everything that is needed to 
 support human life: good bread and fine fish . . . 
 the bread is superior to the best that is to be found 
 in Holland. . . . Tree fruits have a much finer 
 flavor than in the Netherlands. . . . We expect 
 here the families from Holland ^ . . and con- 
 tinues with various items of intelligent interest. 
 
 The Journal continues with frequent entries. 
 De Forest seems to have been an indefatigable 
 explorer and experimenter. Being by trade a dyer, 
 he was constantly on the watch for dyewoods and 
 suitable places for dyeing cotton. He collected 
 mineral specimens, bought tobacco fields, laid off 
 sites for towns and fortifications, made long excur- 
 sions, and took many notes. He was successful in 
 
 >Given in full by Wassenaer. 
 ^Not given by Wassenaer. 
 
 ^Wassenaer adds, "The families whom they expect are people going thither 
 from Leyden." 
 
 37 
 
The De Forests and the 
 
 making friends with the natives and in preserving 
 the peace even between hostile tribes. One incident 
 is given at some length, showing considerable 
 courage, tact, and leadership on the part of "our 
 Captain." A large party of Caribs had come on a 
 visit to the Yaos, the tribe among which De Forest 
 and his little party were living on amicable terms. 
 The next day appeared, in canoes, a third tribe, the 
 Aricoures, in deadly pursuit of the Caribs. The 
 clash was imminent when "as they were preparing 
 to fight, peace was made between them by the 
 intervention of our Captain." The ceremony 
 ingeniously suggested by him is described to the 
 point at which, 
 
 "This done, the Caribs, throwing down their arms, 
 rushed into the canoes of the others and embraced 
 them. On the occasion of this peace the Yaos enter- 
 tained them together for eight days; peace having 
 never been known between them before." 
 
 For a man who had been in the region less than 
 three months, without previous knowledge of the 
 native language or customs, this seems to indicate a 
 certain force of character. 
 
 Within ten days of De Forest's arrival, he had 
 bought "a field in which to grow tobacco, which 
 cost us four axes"; and in the course of the next 
 three months had laid out fields of sugar and cotton, 
 chosen the sites for their fortified town and their 
 dye-works, and collected the native products needed 
 for this industry. He appears to have recognized on 
 sight the small Oreillan tree from the seeds of which 
 
 38 
 
Walloon Founding of New Amsterdam 
 
 the valuable dye called ''arnotto" or "bastard 
 scarlet'' was made. One of the most valuable pro- 
 ducts collected for trade was the ''letter-wood'* or 
 "leopard-wood." This was of a rich dark brown 
 color with odd markings resembling letters, in black. 
 It was hard as ebony and heavier than teak, weighing 
 eighty pounds to the cubic foot; and fetched from 
 30 to 40 pounds a ton. The colonists from the first 
 speak with vivid interest of going "higher up in the 
 country, along this river, where no Christian has 
 ever been ... in the hope of finding something 
 curious." One entry of the Journal reads, "On the 
 27th of September our Captain was at Cayenne to 
 see the Caribs, who receive him kindly." 
 
 H. The Death of De Forest. — Eight months 
 had elapsed since the sailing of "The Pigeon," but 
 no returning ship had brought the colonists' families. 
 In the midst of their hopeful activities, misfortune 
 suddenly befell them. On October 13, while on an 
 expedition by canoe, De Forest suffered a severe 
 sunstroke, and was brought home unconscious, with 
 a high fever. The Journal ^ continues, 
 
 "On the 15th of October, by the advice of those 
 who had lived in this country before us, we had him 
 bled, which gave him relief; but being impatient of 
 keeping quiet, he wished to go on the sea again, 
 returning from which he again had a sunstroke, 
 which redoubled his fever." 
 
 "On the 22nd of October our said Captain died, 
 much regretted by the Christians and Indians, who 
 
 »La Montagne writing. 
 
 39 
 
The De Forests and the 
 
 had taken a great liking to him. This day we 
 carried him to be buried as honorably as was possible 
 for us, accompanying the body with our arms, which 
 we each discharged three times over his grave, and 
 our cannon as well." 
 
 Here then, under an alien sky, in the full vigor of 
 middle life, Jesse De Forest met the sudden death, 
 found the lonely grave, which are the lot of most 
 pioneer adventurers. Like many another, also, the 
 lasting influence of a life so casually cut short upon 
 a distant shore, is to be measured only in the light 
 of later years. 
 
 1. The Colonists' Return to Holland. — With 
 De Forest fell the hopes of the colony for which he 
 had so eagerly planned and petitioned and waited. 
 The West India Company apparently made no effort 
 to fulfill its promise of sending out the families. Of 
 the original *'peres de families,'' only Le Maire and 
 La Montagne remained, with the few sailors left to 
 reenforce them. "Seeing that the ships did not 
 come as they had promised us and that our stores 
 were giving out," the survivors decided that while 
 something still was left, they "ought to try to build 
 some sort of craft with which they could reach the 
 Caribbean Islands." At this, with insufficient tools, 
 they toiled most of the time until the 23rd of May, 
 when they were surprised by the arrival of a boat 
 from the "Flying Dragon," commanded by Gelyn 
 van Stapels of Flushing, who had been with Admiral 
 Lucifer in the valley of " the Amazons." He reported 
 to the little band that he had been commissioned by 
 
 40 
 
Walloon Founding of New Amsterdam 
 
 the Directors of the West India Company in the 
 Zeeland Chamber to take them home with him; and 
 nothing loath, they went aboard. The voyage home 
 was a leisurely one, but at length, on Nov. i6, 1625, 
 the survivors "arrived at Flushing, for which God 
 be praised." ^ 
 
 VIII. De Forest's Contemporary Walloon 
 Colony for the Hudson River 
 
 A. The "Nieuwe Nederlandt," Skipper Cor- 
 nelis iVIey; Date of Voyage. — Meanwhile, what 
 of Jesse De Forest's other Walloon colony, destined 
 for the mouth of the Hudson? A number of careful 
 writers 2 have stated on what seemed then good 
 authority that the "Nieuwe Nederlandt" under 
 Cornelis Mey left Holland for the western shores in 
 March of 1623. This would have been before De 
 Forest and La Montague left for Guiana. Prior to 
 the discovery of "Sloane MS. 179 b," it was thought 
 by some that De Forest went to the New World on 
 the expedition bound for the Hudson instead of that 
 for Guiana. Both these suppositions are now known 
 to be erroneous. Even O'Callaghan, usually reputed 
 careful, though he found the date 1624, altered it as 
 "an error," to correspond with some statements 
 made by Dutch authorities — as, for example, that 
 contained in a memoir^ drawn up by the West India 
 Company in 1641, which says that "in and since 
 
 ' riie closing phrase of the Journal. 
 
 ■^See list of authorities in J. W. De Forest, Vol. II, pp. 77-79. 
 3N. Y. Col. Doc. I, p. 564; II, p. 153. 
 
 41 
 
The De Forests and the 
 
 1623 four forts were built in the New Netherlands, 
 to-wit : Amsterdam . ..." Others have placed 
 undue reliance in the deposition of Caterina Tricot, 
 taken when she was past eighty, when she had for- 
 gotten both the name of the ship and that of the 
 captain. Governor Stuyvesant claims the date as 
 1623. So also does a Report ^ of the Board of 
 Accounts of New Netherland," dated 1624, which 
 declares, " In the years 1622 and 1623 the West India 
 Company took possession . . . etc." 
 
 The weight of recent authority, however, seems 
 wholly in favor of the year 1624 as the date of the 
 earliest settlement. The contemporary Wassenaer, 
 indeed, whose narrative is both careful and con- 
 sistent, seems to have been overlooked in this dis- 
 cussion. Brodhead, if accepted as authority by 
 later writers — as in most respects he deserves — has 
 doubtless misled the superficial. While familiar with 
 Wassenaer, and indeed quoting him in this very 
 detail, he omits the date given by Wassenaer as not 
 in accordance with the year 1623 on which he — 
 Brodhead — had previously settled. He says^ "There 
 is a slight discrepancy between Trico's testimony 
 and Wassenaer's account," but does not note or dis- 
 cuss the difference in dates. However, the slow or 
 partial acceptance of an attempt to reform the 
 calendar, about this time, leaves many dates of the 
 early seventeenth century somewhat in doubt, only 
 to be patiently verified. In thousands of records, 
 with a fine impartiality, the date has been recorded 
 
 »N. Y. Col. Doc. Ill, pp. 31-32. 
 *Brodhead, pp. 150. 151, and note. 
 
 42 
 
Walloon Founding of New Amsterdam 
 
 1623-4, without further comment. Wassenaer, under 
 date of 1624, writes, 
 
 "The West India Company . . . equipped 
 in the spring a vessel of 130 lasts, called the Niew 
 Nederlandt, whereof Cornelis Jacobsz Mey of Hoorn 
 was skipper, with a company of 30 families, most 
 Walloons, to plant a colony there. They sailed in 
 the beginning of March, and directing their course 
 by the Canary Islands, steered toward the Wild 
 Coast, and gained the wind which luckily (took?) 
 them in the beginning of May into the river called 
 first Rio De Moniagnes, now the river Mauritius,^ 
 lying in 40^^ degrees." 
 
 Brodhead's account of what followed appears 
 substantially correct. The yacht Mackerel," ^ 
 having reached the mouth of the Hudson "pretty 
 late" in the preceding December, was just at this 
 time trading up the North River. When the "New 
 Netherland" arrived, she found lying at anchor a 
 French vessel, the captain of which was about to 
 land for the purpose of setting up the standard of 
 France and thereby claiming possession of the soil 
 in the name of the most pious and Catholic King 
 Louis. " But the Hollanders would not permit him," 
 remarks the calm Wassenaer. In fact, to make their 
 meaning quite clear, and just then receiving a timely 
 reenforcement in the return of the "Mackerel" down 
 the North River — they put two guns on a pinnace 
 and therewith escorted the Frenchman clear out to 
 
 *The Hudson River. 
 
 *This, as we have seen, made part of the voyage in company with the "Pigeon!* 
 carrying De Forest to Guiana. 
 
 43 
 
The De Forests and the 
 
 sea. Wassenaer says he repeated the experiment, 
 but was ''foiled in a similar manner/' 
 
 Now there was clearly no Dutch settlement, 
 garrison, or military power — no sort of official 
 occupancy — at the mouth of the Hudson River, nor 
 anywhere else in what is now the state of New York. 
 Whatever was done in this matter was done by these 
 Walloons in Mey's ship on their timely arrival. If 
 the great Catholic power of France had definitely 
 preempted this key of the New World, subsequent 
 history would probably have been very different. 
 And the coming of these Walloons was owing to 
 the ambition, the perseverance, the leadership, of 
 Jesse De Forest. As the relations become better 
 recognized, it is probable that De Forest's name will 
 be remembered as deserving a definite place, however 
 modest, in American history. 
 
 B. Personnel of the Colony. — The original 
 records of the West India Company were destroyed^ 
 about 1820, including all papers regarding the sailing 
 of the New Netherland,^ such as the manifest of 
 cargo, list of passengers, and so on. In 1910 there 
 were sold in Amsterdam five very important docu- 
 ments,^ of recent discovery, evidently contempor- 
 aneous copies of original West India Company 
 records. These give the full instructions sent over 
 with Mey, as signed by three members of the Com- 
 pany under date of March, 1624.^ No list of the 
 
 iNot by malice or accident, but officially. 
 ^Brodhead. 
 
 3"A W alloon Family," p. 34. 
 
 ^Further confirmation of the correct date. 
 
 44 
 

 
 Walloon Founding of New Amsterdam 
 
 colonists occurs here, and as the few records of the 
 new settlement were unfortunately destroyed ^ within 
 a short time after their landing by a general con- 
 flagration/' none has ever come to light. We know, 
 however, that they formed a part of the band of 
 would-be-emigrants recruited and enrolled by De 
 Forest at the time of his application to Sir Dudley 
 Carleton. It is certain that two of them were 
 Philippe Du Trieux and his second wife, Susanna 
 Du Chesne.2 Their daughter Sara Du Trieux, who 
 in 1 64 1 married Isaac De Forest, ^ was born either 
 just before or just after the landing of her parents. 
 She may have been "the eldest child of New Amster- 
 dam," though that person is generally supposed to 
 be Sarah de Rapalye, born June 9, 1625, the daughter 
 of Simon de Rapalye and his wife Catherine or 
 Caterina Tricot. In spite of Caterina's conflicting 
 memories at an advanced age, she and her husband 
 are accepted by most as among the first comers. 
 
 Amid the very first records of New Amsterdam 
 after the blank caused by the ''general conflagra- 
 tion/' we find many surnames identical with those 
 upon the "Round Robin" presented by De Forest 
 to Carleton. Besides those of De Forest and La 
 Montague, we may note the following duplicates: 
 Cornille, Catoir, Campion, Damont, De Carpentier, 
 De Croy, De Crenne, Du Four, De la Mot, Du Pon, 
 De Trou, Caspar, Chiselin, Gille, Lambert, Le Roy, 
 
 ^According to a letter written by Dominie Michaelius, the first pastor, on 
 Aug. 11, 1628. 
 
 *Not Jacquemine Noiret, who died in Holland. 
 ^Son of Jesse De Forest. 
 
 45 
 
The De Forests and the 
 
 Le Pou, Maton, and Martin. While this is scarcely 
 proof that the groups of families were the same, it is 
 certainly a striking coincidence, especially as there 
 would be other like families whose names had no 
 occasion to appear upon the records, and may fairly 
 be considered as proof presumptive. 
 
 C. Landing at Manhattan; First Experi- 
 ences. — The little band bravely separated. One 
 part remained on Manhattan Island; a larger one, 
 consisting of some eighteen families, with Adriaen 
 Joris as leader, settled at "Fort Orange";^ some 
 others, including four couples who had been married 
 at sea, built "Fort Nassau" on the Delaware just 
 below the site of Philadelphia, under the advice of 
 Comelis Mey ; a few more even scattered out to the 
 mouth of the "Fresh'' or Connecticut River.^ Still 
 another little group betook themselves to a small 
 bay or "bogt" on the west shore of Long Island, 
 about opposite Corlaer's Hook on Manhattan, and 
 but a little north of the spot where Breuckelen^ was 
 soon to rise. The name " Waalbogt " — the Walloons' 
 Bay — survives in the term " Wallabout," still applied 
 to the same locality. Says Brodhead,^ "The descend- 
 ants of the Walloons soon spread themselves over 
 the country in the vicinity of the Waal-bogt, and 
 the names of many of the most respectable families 
 on Long Island to this day attest their French and 
 Belgian origin." 
 
 iPresently known as Albany. 
 
 2This settlement, however, proved to be short-lived. 
 
 'Brooklyn. 
 
 *P. 154. 
 
 46 
 
Walloon Founding of New Amsterdam 
 
 Like the ''peres de families" in Guiana, these 
 colonists also sent back brave and cheerful word 
 concerning the new land. ''We were much charmed 
 on arriving in this country," they reported.^ Had 
 the Dutch West India Company been sufficiently 
 far-sighted in 1623 to transport fifty families to 
 Guiana when besought to do so, and had it returned 
 presently with cattle, implements, and comforts, as 
 to the Hudson settlement, instead of marooning a 
 few strong men in a far country, and neglecting its 
 promises until the leader found an unknown grave, 
 Holland might today have had a vast colonial 
 empire in the New World south of the Isthmus of 
 Panama. 
 
 As soon as the rude log forts were even partially 
 completed, the colonists with good will "forthwith 
 put the spade into the ground," ^ according to 
 Wassenaer, ''and before the Mackerel sailed the 
 grain was nearly as high as a man, so that they 
 were bravely advanced." 
 
 D. Comparative Historic Importance of the 
 Little Settlement. — Here, again, is a point of 
 importance. This was the first permanent, home- 
 building, farming settlement in the present state of 
 New York. The beginning here made was never 
 abandoned or interrupted, but has steadily grown 
 into the metropolis of the western world. And it 
 was made by a picked band of Belgian-French 
 Protestant refugees, recruited, held together through 
 
 IN. Y. Col. Doc. IV, p. 131. 
 
 «N. Y. Hist. Doc. Vol. IV, p. 132. 
 
 47 
 
The De Forests and the 
 
 many disappointments, and launched by that in- 
 defatigable Walloon, Jesse De Forest of Avesnes. 
 
 IX. Expedition of Jean La Montagne, 
 De Forest's Colleague and 
 Son-in-law, to Tobago 
 
 A. La Montagne's Return From the Guiana 
 Expedition, and Marriage to Rachel De Forest. 
 — When Dr. La Montagne returned to Leyden from 
 the Guiana expedition, he reentered the University, 
 and became one of the household of De Forest's 
 widow, then living on the Voldergraft. A year later 
 he married the young daughter of the house, Rachel 
 De Forest. Apparently one adventure in coloniza- 
 tion had but whetted La Montagne's appetite for 
 more; since fifteen months after his marriage we fmd 
 him sailing with his wife and baby on the " Fortuyn," 
 commanded by his old friend Gelyn van Stapels, 
 with some sixty odd other colonists bound for the 
 island of Tobago. ^ On the way out, at St. Vincent, 
 they met^ two men who were the sole survivors of a 
 colony sent out by the West India Company to 
 Guiana, under one Jan van Ryen, only a year after 
 the return of the survivors of the colony under 
 De Forest which the Company had allowed to come 
 to naught. Captain Jan van Ryen, lacking De 
 Forest's tact and probably his fair dealing, had pro- 
 voked the hitherto well-disposed natives into killing 
 him and scattering his settlement. 
 
 iQne of the Windward Islands, northwest of Guiana. 
 ^Annual Report of West India Company. 
 
 48 
 
Walloon Founding of New Amsterdam 
 
 B. Unsuccessful Colony at Tobago. — La Mon- 
 tagne remained at Tobago about five years; but, to 
 be brief, at the end of three he found it necessary to 
 send his family back to Leyden ; and after two more, 
 finding it still impossible to safeguard their return, 
 he sacrificed his interests upon the island and 
 rejoined them in Holland. Four years after his 
 departure,^ this colony also was wiped out by 
 Spaniards and Caribs. 
 
 C. La Montagne's Return, and Readiness 
 FOR New Ventures. — With a flexible mind finely 
 able to adapt itself with equal interest to the wilder- 
 ness or to civilization. Dr. La Montague for a third 
 time tranquilly pursued his studies at the University 
 of Leyden until, in the course of a year or so, the 
 "wanderlust" again seized him. His young wife 
 also, having been comfortably reestablished for 
 several years under her mother's roof, and having 
 now the future of several sturdy little sons to con- 
 sider, appears to have felt refreshed and equipped 
 for further adventure, especially as two of her 
 brothers were of the proposed party, and her uncle 
 Gerard was counseling and financing it. 
 
 X. Emigration of Jesse De Forest's 
 Three Children and Son-in-Law 
 
 A. Gerard De Forest, Brother of Jesse. — 
 Gerard De Forest appears to have been a leading 
 member of the French colony in Leyden. After Jesse 
 
 »1633. 
 
 49 
 
The De Forests and the 
 
 De Forest's departure in 1623, his brother Gerard, 
 up to that time a "dyer in black/' applied for and 
 received permission to occupy the place and to 
 transact the former business of Jesse, a ''dyer in 
 colors." Having few children of his own, he seems 
 to have felt a strong affection and family responsi- 
 bility toward the fourteen children of his brother 
 Jesse. He had stood godfather to a number, and as 
 chosen witness to La Montague's marriage with his 
 niece Rachel; had apparently stood by the widowed 
 Marie du Cloux as a brother, and was now planning 
 a future for her younger sons. 
 
 B. Hendrick De Forest. — Of these, Henri — or, 
 in the Dutch equivalent, Hendrick — next older than 
 his sister Rachel La Montague, had already had some 
 experience as a sailor and pioneer to the New World. 
 In June, 1629, the West India Company had issued 
 a "Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions for 
 patroons,! masters or private persons who will plant 
 any colonies in, and send cattle to, New Nether- 
 land." Of these patroons Kiliaen van Rensselaer 
 was perhaps the most prominent. In the Van 
 Rensselaer Bowier Manuscripts, recently translated 
 and ably edited by A. J. F. van Laer, the State 
 Archivist at Albany, N. Y., we fmd Kiliaen van 
 Renssalaer's letter-books from 1634 to 1643, the Log 
 of the yacht Rensselaerswyck,^ and many other 
 important documents,^ including numerous entries 
 
 patroon was one who agreed to plant in New Netherland "a colony of fifty 
 souls," upwards of fifteen years old, within the space of four years. 
 n636-37. 
 
 3See "A Walloon Family," p. 63. 
 
 50 
 
Walloon Founding of New Amsterdam 
 
 concerning Gerard De Forest and his nephew 
 Hendrick. Among these is an account of the voyage 
 in 1636 of the Rensselaerswyck, in which several of 
 Jesse De Forest's children and grandchildren, and 
 his son-in-law La Montagne, sailed to the New World. 
 
 C. The Swanendael Colony. — Van Rensselaer, 
 with several other patroons, including Johannes De 
 Laet, the historian, and David De Vries, the sea- 
 captain, had become interested in the whaling 
 industry at Swanendael, on the west shore of Dela- 
 ware Bay. On Dec. 19, 1631, the patroons engaged 
 Hendrick De Forest to go to Swanendael and take 
 command of the colony already planted under 
 Houset. The voyage, ^ during which Hendrick De 
 Forest acted as chaplain^ and steward,^ was long 
 and eventful. Before the vessel arrived, the colony 
 was wiped out by the Indians — "lamentably killed, 
 whereby they/'* said the patroons coolly, "suffered 
 incalculable damage." ^ De Vries then set about 
 getting a cargo of salt at St. Martin. The patroons 
 of Swanendael seem to have been rather shabby as 
 regards their pay-roll, for some years later, during 
 his own absence, De Forest had to get his uncle 
 Gerard to sue them for the amount due him.^ 
 
 D. The Rensselaerswyck Expedition. — In 
 1636 Jesse De Forest's two sons, Hendrick and 
 
 i"Voyages from Holland to America," by David De Vries (passim). 
 
 *"Voorleezer." 
 
 '"Commis of the Victuals." 
 
 *i.e., the patroons. 
 
 5Van Rensselaer Bowier MSS., pp. 196, 240, 241. 
 
 •See "The Declaration of Hendrick De Forest" in the notarial records at 
 Amsterdam, as given (translated) in "A Walloon Family," p. 352. 
 
 51 
 
The De Forests and the 
 
 Isaac, aged thirty and twenty respectively, decided 
 that the time was ripe to carry out their dead father's 
 long-cherished and fixed desire to found a family 
 home in the New World. Kiliaen van Rensselaer 
 had previously planted a colony called Rensselaers- 
 wyck at Fort Orange on the Hudson, and he now 
 wished to reenforce this settlement by sending over 
 a ship with settlers, merchandise, cattle and tools. 
 Kiliaen being cramped in purse, however, was glad 
 to enter into a partnership with Gerard De Forest. 
 In a private letter he says, "As the equipment of 
 this ship ran too high for me I granted Gerrit de 
 foreest a half interest in it." ^ 
 
 Among the Notarial Records of Amsterdam is the 
 full contract^ entered into by "Mr. Kiliaen van 
 Rensselaer with his associates of the first part and 
 Mr. Gerrit de Forest of Leyden with his associates 
 of the second part," agreeing to divide equally 
 almost every expense, and adding, 
 
 "For conveying the settlers and the merchandise 
 for the colony the above-mentioned Rensselaer shall 
 allow Gerrit de Forest and his associates to share 
 the right which as Patroon of New Netherland he 
 has by virtue of act 1 3 of the granted Freedoms . . . " ^ 
 
 On Sept. 25, 1636, the ship, not a large one, set 
 sail from Amsterdam. The skipper was Jan Schel- 
 linger; the mate, Hendrick De Forest. Besides a 
 crew of twelve men, there were thirty-eight of Van 
 
 *Van Rensselaer Bowier MSS., p. 328. 
 «"A Walloon Family," p. 352. 
 
 •This was not a permanent distinction or social privilege, but referred to sailing 
 and traffic rights. 
 
 52 
 
Walloon Founding of New Amsterdam 
 
 Rensselaer's colonists for the upper Hudson and 
 fourteen in the De Forest party. Hendrick, newly 
 married, had left his wife with her mother for a 
 time; Isaac was a bachelor of twenty; the La Mon- 
 tagnes had with them their three sons, and a daughter 
 was born before they landed. With them were 
 friends and neighbors. 
 
 The surprising lack of judgment shown by most 
 of these early colonial expeditions, in setting forth 
 at the autumn equinoctial, had the usual results. 
 The voyage was one of eventful hardship, most 
 graphically set forth in the "Log of the Rensselaers- 
 wyck." Off Madeira they had a brush with a 
 "Frenchman from New Rochelle,'' in preparation 
 for which they "cleared away the chests and the 
 cows ^ with which the deck was encumbered/' but 
 came away none the worse for the encounter. After 
 going as far south as the Canaries, they caught the 
 trade winds, and at last, on March i, 1637, came in 
 by "Godyn's Point," 2 majestically escorted by a 
 school of whales — "some ten or twenty swimming 
 for about two hours about our ship." Four days 
 later they dropped anchor "off the Manatans." 
 As soon as the Walloons were landed, with their 
 belongings, the yacht sailed on up the river to Fort 
 Orange with Van Rensselaer's colonists and property. 
 
 E. Location of Lands First Taken Up by the 
 De Forests. — With the intention of raising tobacco, 
 the De Forests soon selected a tract of fertile bottom- 
 
 lOne wonders where these were bestowed, 
 'Sandy Hook. 
 
 53 
 
The De Forests and the 
 
 land in the northern part of the island, called " Mus- 
 coota'' — "the flat land'* — by the Indians. Hendrick 
 secured from van Twiller, the Director, a grant of a 
 hundred ''morgens" of land "between the hills and 
 the kill that runs round the island." Maps of the 
 time/ preserved in the New York Public Library, 
 show this land to be between Morningside Heights 
 and Harlem Creek,^ running on the north to perhaps 
 124th Street, and on the south to include the high 
 land in Central Park as far as 109th Street. Here 
 he promptly put up a thatched house "42 feet long, 
 with a brick chimney." ^ 
 
 F. Death of Hendrick De Forest. — Many 
 papers of importance concerning these early colonists 
 were wholly lost in the fire which destroyed the 
 archives of the State Capitol at Albany in 191 1, but 
 the scattered, incomplete records contain much of 
 interest. Hendrick, still "mate and trader" of the 
 Rensselaerswyck, was called upon, when she returned 
 from her three months' stay at Fort Orange, to sail 
 with her to Virginia. As his brother Isaac, being 
 under the age of twenty-five, was by Dutch law still 
 a minor, Hendrick left his "Muscoota bouwery," 
 with other business interests, in charge of his brother- 
 in-law, Dr. La Montagne. On the Virginia voyage 
 Hendrick De Forest contracted "the epidemical 
 disease," ^ then very malignant, and on July 26, 1637, 
 ten days after the yacht's return to New Amsterdam, 
 
 ^Reproduced by Innes and Mrs. de Forest. 
 2Col. Doc. Vol. XIV, p. 11. 
 
 'Most of the chimnejs were of the "catstick and daub" variety. 
 
 ♦Van Rensselaer Bowier MSS., "The Log of the Rensselaerswyck," p. 382. 
 
 54 
 
Walloon Founding of New Amsterdam 
 
 Captain Chellinger entered on his log, "About two 
 o'clock in the morning my mate heindrick de Freest 
 died." 
 
 Again within a year, La Montagne was called upon 
 to bury a De Forest who had sought with him to 
 found a colony in the New World. In each case, 
 daring had been rewarded only by disaster and death; 
 in each case, also, a widow in Leyden was to learn 
 of her loss long afterwards. 
 
 XI. The ''Muscoota Bouweries,'' or Walloon 
 
 Farmsteads 
 
 A. Hendrick De Forest's, later La Mon- 
 tagne's. — Hendrick De Forest's holding was for 
 some time honestly and ably managed by Dr. La 
 Montagne, who presently made a satisfactory ac- 
 counting to the widow, Gertrude Bornstra,^ who had 
 remained in Leyden. Before very long she made a 
 second marriage with Andries Hudde,^ who found 
 Hendrick's American property worth emigrating to 
 claim as his inheritance. The deed signed by 
 Director Kieft on July 20, 1638, giving to Andries 
 Hudde the two hundred acres which had been 
 Hendrick De Forest's, is the first legal conveyance 
 of land recorded on Manhattan Island.^ 
 
 La Montagne presently bought this property for 
 1800 guilders, and named it in hope " Vredendael" — 
 
 •Van Rensselaer Bowier MSS., p. 382. 
 
 'According to an odd, almost Scriptural custom of the times, Gertrude named 
 Hudde's first child, born five years after De Forest's death, and upon its death, 
 even their second child, born two years later, after her former husband Hendrick 
 De Forest, "that his name might not die out in the land." 
 
 »N. Y. Colonial Documents, Vol. XIV. p. U. 
 
 55 
 
The De Forests and the 
 
 Peace Valley or Peaceful Dale. As we shall see, the 
 hope embodied in this name was to fall sadly short 
 of realization. On this estate a beautiful flowing 
 spring was soon called " Montagne's Fountain." 
 This spring, still bearing the same name, has sur- 
 vived, and may today be seen flowing in a rippling 
 stream with waterfalls until it empties into Harlem 
 Mere in Central Park.^ 
 
 B. Isaac De Forest's Holding. — Isaac de For- 
 est, a young man of twenty-one at his landing in 
 1637, at first aided his brother Hendrick to improve 
 the latter's bouwery. Upon Hendrick's death, Isaac 
 turned to similar services for his sister Rachel and 
 her husband, with whom for some time he made his 
 home; but in the meantime he also secured his own 
 holding of land. This was a strip of about a hundred 
 acres, 2 nearly a mile in length, beginning on Harlem 
 Creek opposite Hendrick's land,^ and running east- 
 ward to the shore of the Hellegat,'* opposite Bronck's 
 Kill.^ Settlers, at this period, appear to have been 
 little more than "squatters" recognized by the Com- 
 pany, which required only that the land be culti- 
 vated and improved within two years, and that after 
 ten years' free use the settlers should annually tithe 
 their crops ^ to the Company. Formal titles appear 
 to have been "confirmed" by successive directors. 
 
 iPhotograph in "A Walloon Family," p. 105. 
 
 2"Map of Nieuwe Haerlem Village Plots," 1670, in Riker's "History of Harlem,;' 
 p. 260. 
 
 'Later known as "Vredendael." 
 <The Harlem River. 
 ^About First Avenue and 126th St. 
 *That is, hand over ten per cent. 
 
 56 
 
Walloon Founding of New Amsterdam 
 
 In time, of course, permanent papers were held by 
 the grantees. 
 
 Isaac planted his land to tobacco until his coming 
 of age, when he at once married, ^ and built a dwelling 
 upon it. He engaged two English carpenters to 
 make him a substantial house, eighteen by thirty 
 feet, "with two four-light windows and two three- 
 light windows," "tight all round" against the 
 weather; a separate kitchen, sixteen by twenty feet, 
 covered with clapboards and furnished with an 
 "English chimney" made of cobblestone; also a 
 tobacco-house sixty feet long, with "inside work." 
 For these buildings ^ he paid three hundred Carolus 
 guilders, or $i6o. To meet such bills he had some- 
 thing from several tobacco crops, together with part 
 of 164 guilders left him jointly with his brother Jan 
 from Hendrick's estate. 
 
 The young couple lived upon this grant of land 
 for a year or more, until, as the danger from the 
 savages became imminent, the young man decided 
 to take his wife and baby into town for greater 
 safety. He leased his bouwery to John Denton for 
 three years ^ and at once moved closer in. Denton 
 was to take possession in October; but before that 
 date tomahawks were out in such force ^ that the new 
 tenant refused to begin residence. De Forest's tilled 
 fields and new farmstead were laid waste. As hold- 
 
 'As the bride, Sara du Trieux, is entered on the church records as "young girl 
 of New Netherland," she was evidently not born in Leyden; and as her parents 
 landed in the spring of 1624, she could not at this time have been more than seven- 
 teen. She may have been born on the voyage, or among the first children. 
 
 »N. Y. Col. MSS., Vol. I, p. 250. ajuly 6, 1643. 
 
 <N. Y. Col. MSS., p. 117. sjhis was the time when Montagne lost Vredcndael. 
 
 57 
 
The De Forests and the 
 
 ings of this sort were perforce deserted during the 
 time the savages were on the war path, the owners 
 thought it safer 1 to take out new "land briefs." 
 Montagne's new patent was signed by Director 
 Kieft on May 9, 1647, two days before his embarka- 
 tion on a return voyage to Holland; while only six 
 days later, De Forest's was issued by the new Gov- 
 ernor, Stuyvesant.2 
 
 By 1650 it was supposed that a permanent peace 
 with the savages had been established. De Forest 
 sold most of his property at this place to William 
 Beeckman, a well-known early burgher of the grow- 
 ing town.^ Three years later Beeckman sold it to 
 Claesen Swits, who within two years* was murdered 
 there, his family carried off by the Indians, and his 
 farmstead destroyed. This was the occasion of the 
 Directors' forbidding isolated dwellings. They or- 
 dered laid out a village wherein the surviving settlers 
 might gather for mutual defense and common safety. 
 Isaac De Forest's land, being well situated, well 
 cleared, and easily accessible from "the Hellegat,"^ 
 was chosen as the site. Here in 1658 was located the 
 village of Nieuwe Haerlem, with Isaac's wagon-track 
 or farm lane for its one first street. This, of course, 
 in time grew to be a city in itself, until merged in 
 Greater New York. De Forest and La Montagne 
 had had enough of the Muscoota region; they were 
 too safe, and too well occupied, in New Amsterdam, 
 
 iQr perhaps it was legally necessary. 
 
 ^Calendar of Dutch MSS.. p. 375. 
 
 3N. Y. Col. MSS., p. 46. 
 
 *Sept., 1655. 
 
 *The Harlem River. 
 
 58 
 
Walloon Founding of New Amsterdam 
 
 to resume residence at or near the new village. La 
 Montagne's son Jan, however, was one of the first 
 householders, and for long a leading citizen of New 
 Haerlem. 
 
 Isaac and Sara De Forest lived first in New 
 Amsterdam on the " Marckveldt," or market square.^ 
 just outside the fort, and divided from it by a narrow 
 lane called Winkel Straet. A little later he moved 
 into a better house on Brouwer Straet, or the Brew- 
 ers' Street, so named because the great brewery of 
 the West India Company was the most notable 
 building upon it. De Forest himself was by this 
 time a brewer on a large scale. This street De 
 Forest and some others presently paved at their own 
 expense; it has ever since been called Stone Street, 
 being the first paved way in the city. 
 
 At the time the records begin, ^ the holding of 
 Philippe du Trieux was on high ground near the 
 East River,^ overlooking ''Smit's Vly." ^ At the time 
 of his daughter Sara's marriage to Isaac De Forest 
 he was living nearer the center of the settlement in 
 a house which he had built on " Bever Graft." ^ This 
 is now the site of Fulton Market. 
 
 C. General Conditions. — Something may be 
 added regarding the general conditions of life in the 
 colony. In 1643 Director Kieft told Father Jogues, 
 the Jesuit missionary to the Indians, that there were 
 
 •Maps and plans in Innes; also Calendar of Dutch MSS., p. 370. 
 ^Perhaps earlier, of course. 
 'Maps in N. Y. Public Library. 
 ♦Still called "The Swamp." 
 ^Beaver Street. 
 
 59 
 
The De Forests and the 
 
 at that time '*four or five hundred men of different 
 sects and nations" living in or close to New Am- 
 sterdam,^ and that eighteen different languages 
 were spoken. Mrs. de Forest quotes from Madam 
 Knight's "Brief Description of New York," as 
 follows : 
 
 "The Buildings are Brick generally, very stately 
 & high. The Bricks in some of the Houses are of 
 divers Coullers and laid in Checkers, being glazed, 
 look very agreeable. The inside of them is neat to 
 admiration."^ The doors of most of the houses were 
 "equally divided as in Holland with an upper & a 
 lower half"; "the gable ends of the high roofs were 
 notched like steps." ^ Both Dutch and Belgian- 
 French seem to have taken great satisfaction in the 
 cheap abundance of building materials. Many sup- 
 plies and comforts, of course, were still shipped from 
 the Old World; the colonists, however, appear to 
 have been both industrious and ingenious in the local 
 production of property and merchandise. 
 
 "The Huguenot refugees," says the author of 
 "French Blood in America,"^ "were gentle, trained 
 in many arts, and possessed of the keen perceptions, 
 the courtesy, and the easy adaptability of their 
 race. . . . Tradition says that the first to utilize 
 the remnants of worn-out garments by cutting them 
 into strips and weaving them into carpets were the 
 French. The rag carpet was in its day an advance 
 agent of comfort and culture. . . . Among the 
 
 '"Narratives of New Netherland," by J. F. Jameson, p. 259. 
 2"A Walloon Family," p. 119. 
 
 3"French Blood in America," by Lucian J. Fosdick, pp. 406 et seq. 
 
 6o 
 
Walloon Founding of New Amsterdam 
 
 earliest importations of the French settlers were the 
 spinning-wheels and looms of better quality than 
 were previously known here. . . . Where the 
 English and Dutch dyed linen yarn of heavy quality 
 and wove it into ugly stripes and checks for bed and 
 window curtains, the French ^ used either white linen 
 or that with but one color, dainty shades of light 
 blue or dusky green or a subdued gold colour, made 
 by dyes of which they had brought the secret with 
 them, being preferred. . . . The cultivated taste 
 and the dainty arts brought from France made the 
 homes of the Huguenots much more attractive in 
 appearance than those of the other colonists, even 
 though the latter might have far more wealth.'* 
 
 De Forest and Du Trieux^ are the only dyers 
 noted. Their skill perhaps served all. 
 
 Men servants, skilled workmen and ordinary labor- 
 ers were more easily to be found than women ser- 
 vants. On emigrating, the young De Forests had 
 been prudent enough to engage and bring with them 
 two stout men, Tobias Teunissen and Willem Fred- 
 erick Bout, under contract to serve for three years 
 after landing.^ Their sister, young Mrs. La Mon- 
 tagne, however, with four little children at first and 
 presently more, and a household including her two 
 brothers and these two serving men, besides her hus- 
 band, could find no domestic aid until a man-servant 
 Ariean was engaged at twelve and a half florins per 
 month. The Rev. Jonas Michaelius, the first Dutch 
 
 iposdick, p. 406 et seq. 
 
 *A worsted-dyer from Roubaix, near Avesnes. 
 ^Van Rensselaer Bowier, MSS., p. 360. 
 
 61 
 
The De Forests and the 
 
 minister sent to the colony, soon after wrote home, 
 "Maid servants are not here to be had, at least 
 none whom they can advise me to take; and the 
 Angola slave women thievish, lazy and useless 
 trash." 1 
 
 The tobacco plantations were largely worked by 
 negro slaves, either privately owned by the individual 
 settlers, or hired from the West India Company. 
 The Directors of the Company encouraged private 
 expeditions to "buy''^ slaves on the Guinea Coast. 
 They "granted liberty to particular merchants to 
 send two or three ships to the coast of Africa to 
 purchase slaves, & to promote the settlement of the 
 country by importing the same." ^ These, of course, 
 were mostly men, not relieving the problem of do- 
 mestic service. Isaac De Forest was a slave-holder, 
 but he finally sent to Holland for a house-servant, 
 paying all the expenses of her passage. Here, how- 
 ever, he caught a Tartar, for she "sought to get out 
 of the house as soon as she was in it, abusing him 
 and his wife very spitefully. 
 
 Others had similar experiences. Home making 
 laid heavy burdens upon the pioneer mothers, strug- 
 gling single-handed with the problems of ceaseless 
 household toil and the simultaneous rearing of large 
 families. Doubtless many another, like Rachel De 
 Forest, succumbed at thirty-three or thirty-four, 
 leaving a spotless home, six young children, several 
 little graves, and a husband soon to be consoled, like 
 
 ^Letter of Michaelius, in N. Y. Col. Doc, Vol. II, p. 768. 
 
 2N. Y. Col. Doc, XIV. p. 209. 
 
 'Records of New Amsterdam, Vol. II, pp. 350, 351. 
 
 62 
 
Walloon Founding of New Amsterdam 
 
 so many of our egoist forefathers, who complacently 
 prided themselves upon the large families for which 
 they were indebted, on the average, to the joint 
 efforts of three wives apiece — successively, of course, 
 in so highly-civilized a country as ours. 
 
 D. Danger from the Indians. — Danger from the 
 savages was for a long time acute. Massacres oc- 
 curred here as elsewhere. The local government 
 even made regulations forbidding settlers to estab- 
 lish isolated homesteads. For a number of years La 
 Montagne was Chief Military Officer, leading expe- 
 ditions in person and laying all possible plans for 
 the defense of the colony. This was no light respon- 
 sibility. 
 
 When the new Director-General, William Kieft, 
 reached New Amsterdam in March, 1638, he was 
 empowered to select his own councillors. He chose 
 only one, and that one Dr. La Montagne, *'a proper 
 experienced person." Kieft and La Montagne, then, 
 for a long time were the Council — no others being 
 added. Kieft was warlike, determined upon exter- 
 minating the Indians; La Montagne saw this as 
 reckless folly. Kieft persisted, and on Feb. 25, 
 1643,1 slaughtered a number of Indians. Naturally 
 they retaliated. The result of Kieft's foolhardiness 
 nearly destroyed the whole colony. The Indians 
 killed every settler they could fmd. Scarcely one 
 remained on Manhattan Island except in New Am- 
 sterdam. ^ Montague's prosperous bouwery at Vred- 
 
 »Calendar of Dutch MSS., p. 84. 
 ^History of Harlem, by Riker. 
 
 63 
 
The De Forests and the 
 
 endael was wiped out, Montagne losing everything 
 that he was unable to carry away. 
 
 In the late autumn of the same year ^ a touching 
 appeal for aid was despatched by the colonists to the 
 West India Company. ^ A condensed extract fol- 
 lows : 
 
 "On the island of the Manachatas, from the north 
 even unto the Fresh Water ^ there are no more than 
 five or six spots inhabited at this date. . . . We 
 have no other shelter remaining for ourselves, our 
 wives and children, than around and adjoining Fort 
 Amsterdam at the Manahactas. The fort is defence- 
 less and entirely out of order, and resembles (with 
 submission) rather a mole-hill than a fort against an 
 an enemy. . . . The population is composed mainly 
 of women and children; the freemen (exclusive of 
 the English) are about 200 strong, who must protect 
 by force their families now skulking in straw huts 
 outside the Fort. . . . We turn then to your 
 Honors; we humbly pray and beseech you to be 
 pleased to help us in this distressed plight, so that 
 this place and all of us, with wives and children, 
 may not be delivered over a prey to these cruel 
 heathen.'' * 
 
 Their Honors, however, both stingy and hard of 
 heart, afforded no relief. The West India Company 
 seem ever to have had ''the souls of shopkeepers" 
 in any question of reenforcing or defending a colony 
 
 lOct. 24, 1643. 
 »Col. Doc, p. 190. 
 
 'From the Hudson River to the Connecticut. 
 *Col. Doc, p. 190. 
 
 64 
 
Walloon Founding of New Amsterdam 
 
 they had once established. A second petition,* 
 equally despairing, was addressed to the States 
 General at The Hague. This (in part) said: 
 
 "We, wretched people, must skulk, with wives and 
 children that still survive, in poverty together, in 
 and around the fort at the Manahatas where we are 
 not safe even for an hour whilst the Indians daily 
 threaten to overwhelm us. Very little can be planted 
 this autumn, and much less in the spring; so that it 
 will come to pass that all of us who will yet save our 
 lives must of necessity perish next year of hunger 
 and sorrow unless our God have pity on us."^ 
 
 No aid was afforded by Holland. It was clear that 
 war with the savages was not to be averted. La 
 Montagne was made "General" of the united Dutch, 
 Walloon, and English forces.^ Continuing to hold 
 this position, he headed many expeditions against 
 the Indians, and successfully defended the little set- 
 tlement, until in the summer of 1645, the red men, 
 apparently tired out, concluded a peace which it was 
 hoped might prove permanent. 
 
 When Peter Stuyvesant landed ^ as the new Direct- 
 or-General, he at once retained La Montagne as a 
 member of his council, so that the subsequent records 
 contain frequent references to "Councillor La Mon- 
 tagne" as one of the most influential men of New 
 Amsterdam. In 1655 the armed savages suddenly 
 appeared before Manhattan in a fleet of sixty-four 
 
 iNov. 3, 1643. 
 »N. Y. Col. Doc. I, p. 139. 
 »N. Y. Col. MSS.. p. 186. 
 «.May, 1647. 
 
 65 
 
The De Forests and the 
 
 canoes. The ensuing scenes were very bloody. 
 Again many of the whites, Hke Kieft, were for a war 
 of extermination; but La Montague, reaHzing the 
 weakness of the little colony, again pleaded peace 
 counsels; and once more the village escaped. Next 
 year, the difficulties with the Indians proving still 
 acute and increasingly threatening, he was made 
 Vice-Director at Fort Orange. ^ The same year he 
 was one of two men ^ to sign the treaty of sale with 
 the Indians for the territory on the Schuylkill. ^ A 
 few years later,* while he was still living at Fort 
 Orange, his daughter Rachel, the wife of Surgeon 
 Gysbert Van Imbroech of Esopus, was carried away, 
 with her little daughter, Lysbet, by the Indians, and 
 only La Montague's personal reputation among the 
 savages fmally secured their release unharmed.^ 
 
 La Montague appears to have had a gift for getting 
 on peaceably with the natives, similar to that which 
 Jesse De Forest showed in Guiana. We have seen 
 that when the latter died, he was "deeply regretted" 
 by the natives, who had taken a great liking to him; 
 while his successor, in spite of the friendly relation 
 opened by De Forest, at once so alienated the savages 
 that he and his colony soon perished. 
 
 La Montague appears as one of the most coura- 
 geous, efficient and public-spirited citizens of New 
 Amsterdam. His personal property and interests 
 seem to have been wholly sacrificed in his defense of 
 
 ^Albany on the Hudson. 
 
 ^L. van Dincklage being the other 
 
 3N. Y. Col. Doc, p. 593. 
 
 n663. 
 
 *N Y Col. Doc. XllI, pp. 246, 271, 273. 
 
 66 
 
Walloon Founding of New Amsterdam 
 
 the settlement against the Indians. His latter days 
 were weary, sad, and harried by failing fortunes. In 
 1662, being then nearly seventy, he wrote to Stuyve- 
 sant and the council at New Amsterdam a rather 
 touching letter, saying in part, 
 
 " I always kept my household in victuals and 
 clothes here as temperately as a common burgher; ^ 
 but the excessive dearth of all things has driven me 
 insensibly into such need and poverty., as that never 
 in the 68 years that I have lived, so great distress have 
 I felt, finding myself destitute of all means to provide 
 for my daily bread, and provisions for the winter."* 
 
 In 1664, New Netherland passed into English 
 hands. La Montague drops out of sight. He may 
 have returned to Holland with Stuyvesant. I do 
 not find note of his death. 
 
 XII. Place Held by the Walloons in the 
 Early Years of New Amsterdam 
 
 A. Civic Organization. — In the early days of 
 New Amsterdam, the civic organization was much 
 like that of a modern city, with similar officials under 
 different names. The Director-General, commonly 
 called the "Governor," held at first the place of 
 Mayor. His Councillors, few or many at his choice, 
 were appointed by himself. There was thus a de- 
 cided centralization of power in the chief magistrate. 
 As the authority of the Director-General, however, 
 extended over all New Netherland, the city govern- 
 
 'He was still Vice-Director at Fort Orange. 
 *Riker's History of Harlem, p. 794. 
 
 67 
 
The De Forests and the 
 
 ment as such soon became more definitely organized. 
 After Kieft's obstinacy in forcing an issue with the 
 Indians had such disastrous results, he was ready to 
 allow some local aid and cooperation in the man- 
 agement of the colony. In 1643 he invited the 
 "Commonalty of the Manhattans" to elect some 
 six or eight of their number as an advisory board. 
 These formed the "Eight Men," later the "Nine 
 Men," as they were called; they attended court, 
 acted as referees and advisers, and when asked, ex- 
 pressed their opinion upon any matter in which the 
 Governor and his Council saw fit to consult them. 
 In 1653, again, a decided change occurred. The city 
 being incorporated, the Nine Men gave way to a 
 court of magistrates consisting of a schout or mayor, 
 two burgomasters, and five schepens. " Small burgh- 
 ers" were something like ordinary members of a 
 modern Commercial Club, especially in one where 
 the membership is not cheapened by over-solicita- 
 tion; and the "Great Burghers" were more, perhaps, 
 like chairmen of the leading committees of a Com- 
 mercial Club or Board of Trade. All city offices, 
 even minor ones, were much more guarded in respect 
 to eligibility, taken with more serious sense of re- 
 sponsibility, and in general indicated either a higher 
 social standing, or greater dignity of character, than 
 is commonly the case in modern civic afi^airs. To 
 be either a "Small Burgher" or a "Great Burgher," 
 the privileged party must "take up his abode here 
 in New Netherland three consecutive years, and in 
 addition build in this city. New Amsterdam, a 
 
 68 
 
Walloon Founding of New Amsterdam 
 
 decent citizen dwelling," "continuously maintain 
 fire and light therein''; and, in addition, be chosen 
 by the city authorities, take an oath of fidelity to 
 the city, pay the prescribed fees, and be duly regis- 
 tered. The nucleus of the first list was made up 
 ex officio of the Governor and Council, the clergy, the 
 commissioned officers in the city regiment, and, by 
 an unblushing "grandfather clause," their sons and 
 sons-in-law as well. 
 
 B. Representative Walloon Citizens. — Cor- 
 nelis Mey of Hoorn, the skipper engaged to take 
 over De Forest's colony of emigrants, remained with 
 them as "director" for the first year. After him 
 Willem van Hulst, a man of little force, served for 
 a time; then, in response to the desire of the Walloon 
 colony, a man of their own blood, faith, and language ^ 
 was sent out as director — Peter Minuit,^ son of Jean 
 and Sara Minuit, Walloon refugees to the Huguenot 
 colony at Wesel.^ Oddly enough, while no one ap- 
 pears to have considered the Pilgrim Fathers of 
 Plymouth a Dutch colony because they sailed from 
 Leyden, yet it has been assumed that the Belgian- 
 French colony, sailing at the same time from the 
 same place, were Hollanders. It is true that the 
 first sailed in a ship called the "Mayflower," under 
 auspices of the "Virginia Company," while the latter 
 embarked in a vessel called the "New Netherland," 
 
 iLetters of Michaelius (1628) in N. Y. Col. Doc, Vol. II. Article by Rev. J. G. 
 Sardemann of Wesel, in Dawson's Hist. Magazine for April, 1868. Statement of 
 Harless, State Archivist of Dusseldorf, in N. Y. Gen. and Biog. Record for Oct., 
 1895. 2Appleton's Diet, of Am. Biog. 
 
 'On the lower Rhine, not far from either France or the Netherlands. 
 
 69 
 
The De Forests and the 
 
 chartered by the West India Company; yet it was 
 but through a disappointment to earnest efforts that 
 the Walloons had not come through arrangements 
 made with the English corporation — in which case, 
 presumably, they would long have been classed as 
 British emigrants. At all events, the greater part 
 of the first settlers of Manhattan have been but 
 recently perceived to be French Protestants; and 
 it may still be news to some that the first real Gov- 
 ernor ^ was also one, being born in a Walloon colony 
 of French parents,^ and a deacon in the Walloon 
 Church at Wesel until the year before his appoint- 
 ment to the New Netherlands. It is probable that 
 his surname is properly the French ''Minuit*' — mid- 
 night — and no more rightly **Minnewit" than "Du 
 Trieux*' is properly "Truax," or Molyneux "Mon- 
 lux," though both of these family names have been 
 so spelled and so pronounced. 
 
 If Minuit's nationality has been mistaken, there 
 has been no such error in regard to his services. At 
 the time of his arrival the little settlements were in 
 sore danger from the savages, who were even in- 
 dulging in cannibalism. At least they wholly made 
 way thus with one Tyman Bouwensz, ''after they 
 had well cooked him."^ Minuit speedily made a 
 peace, never broken, with the Mohawks,* concen- 
 trated his settlements on Manhattan, and before 
 five months were ended had bought peaceably from 
 
 ^Though technically the third "Director." 
 ^Appleton's Diet, of Am, Biog. 
 
 3N. Y. Col. Doc. Vol. III. Extracts from Wassenaer. 
 *The recent feasters. 
 
 70 
 
Walloon Founding of New Amsterdam 
 
 the Indians the entire island of Manhattan, more 
 than 22,000 acres, for sixty guilders — less than 
 twenty-five dollars. Even when turned out of office 
 a few years later, when the Dutch outnumbered the 
 Walloons, he organized, promoted, and successfully 
 planted the colony of New Sweden on the eastern 
 coast of Delaware. 
 
 In the State Papers at Albany, such as the Register 
 of the Provincial Secretary; in the Aldermanic Rec- 
 ords of New Amsterdam in the City Hall, New York, 
 and in the printed records of New York City, such 
 as the list of office-holders from O'Callaghan^s New 
 Netherland Register, are to be found scores, perhaps 
 hundreds, of entries indicating the position and ser- 
 vices of the Walloon citizens of New Amsterdam. 
 In the Appendix to J. W. De Forest's single volume, 
 "The De Forests of Avesnes," appears a copious 
 selection of entries concerning the De Forest family 
 and those closely connected with them by marriage, 
 such as the Du Trieux and La Montagues, De 
 Riemers and Van Imbroecks. Many others are to 
 be found in the Year Books of the Holland Society 
 of New York, the ''Documentary History of the 
 State of New York," and the "New York Historical 
 Collections," as well as in the quarterly publications 
 of the "New York Genealogical and Biographical 
 Society." In the "New York Historical Society 
 Collections" for 1885, also, is a very interesting and 
 illuminating article of some length, by Mrs. Robert 
 De Lancey, on " Burghers and Freemen of New 
 York." 
 
 7> 
 
The De Forests and the 
 
 In the first list issued of "Those who have the 
 Burgher Right Pursuant to Privilege," ^ the name of 
 Johannes La Montagne heads the list for the "Great 
 Burgher Right," and that of Isaac De Forest the 
 one for the lesser privilege. ^ Not long afterward, 
 Governor Stuyvesant, having "taken into serious 
 consideration and reflection the small number of 
 Great Burghers" . . . "found it advantageous 
 for this city to increase the said number of Great 
 Burghers and to reenforce it with six old and suitable 
 persons." One of these was Isaac De Forest, pres- 
 ently referred to as "one of the most influential 
 burghers and inhabitants of the city." ^ Five days 
 later he was also elected "Schepen" — a coveted 
 honor at this time. 
 
 Naturally, he had before this held creditably 
 many minor oifices. In 1652 he was one of the 
 Nine Men; in 1653, city inspector of tobacco; in 
 1656, Schepen, and inspector of weights and mea- 
 sures; in 1658, again Schepen, and asks to be re- 
 lieved of the superintendence of the Brewer's Street. 
 He seems to have been much in demand ^ as "Orphan- 
 master" — that is, guardian of the children whose 
 parents had been killed by the Indians, or other 
 minors. Often he is on record as ransoming children 
 held by the savages; often appointed administrator, 
 arbitrator, holder of trust funds, or given power of 
 attorney in interests of importance. 
 
 iDated April 10, 1657. 
 2The Small Burgher Right. 
 
 ^"Records of New Amsterdam," Vol. N, p. 315. 
 
 ^Extracts from Dutch Documents in Year-Book of the Holland Society for 
 1900, pp. 112, 117, 121, etc. Twenty or more De Forest entries. 
 
 72 
 
Walloon Founding of New Amsterdam 
 
 Judging from the entries of his foreign shipments, 
 he seems also to have been one of the leading brewers 
 and tobacco merchants. He owned a number of 
 houses, loaned money, bought a tract of land on 
 Long Island, dealt in furs, owned boats, entered 
 into various business firms. Innes gives ^ " Isaac De 
 Forest ... a prominent place in the early his- 
 tory of New Netherland." By the records he is 
 shown to be a public-spirited man. When Stuy- 
 vesant ^ asked for voluntary subscriptions to repair 
 and strengthen the town's outer walls, he was one 
 of the first to respond. In 1653 he was among 
 twenty - one prominent citizens who offered and 
 promised the burgomasters and schepens to pay cer- 
 tain extra taxes "for paying the public expenses 
 and keeping in repair the works'' of the little city.^ 
 As previously mentioned, he was one of the property 
 owners on Brouwer Straet to offer to pave it at their 
 own expense "with round stones," furnishing both 
 the material and the labor. ^ Once he was assessed 
 a hundred florins "for the defense of the city," no 
 one else being assessed more than two hundred. In 
 1664 he was spoken of as "one of the most affluent 
 inhabitants of the city." 
 
 Yet at his death he was not a wealthy man, his 
 estate being valued only at some 15,000 florins. He 
 had lived honorably and as became a man of public 
 
 '"Amsterdam and Its People," by J. H. Innes, Ch. VIII, pp. 71-74. 
 
 *In passing it might be noted that the wife of Peter Stuyvesant, most Dutch of 
 men. was a Walloon; so also was his sister's husband. Stuyvesant's descendants 
 are half Walloon at the outset. 
 
 '"Records of New Amsterdam," Vol. I, pp. 67, 127. 
 
 «lbid, p. 300. 
 
 73 
 
The De Forests and the 
 
 spirit; he had brought up a large family ;i he had 
 been administrator of the estate and guardian of the 
 children of both his brother-in-law and his father- 
 in-law; and he had repeatedly furnished ransom for 
 the piteous little orphans held captive in savage 
 hands. On the whole, he had probably done some- 
 thing better with his money than hoarding it, when 
 in the summer of 1674 he died at the rather early 
 age of fifty-six. 
 
 His wife, Sara Du Trieux,^ survived him without 
 remarriage some eighteen years, living quietly in the 
 Brouwer Straet house. Their eight sons, all of whom 
 had been taught some useful occupation, in course 
 of time scattered as to their place of residence, but 
 all prospered in worldly affairs and in a reputation 
 for being upright, public-spirited men. The De 
 Forests in America now number uncounted thou- 
 sands, all descendants of Jesse and Isaac De Forest, 
 and all, so far as known, intelligent and useful citi- 
 zens, serving the state wherever their lot falls. Their 
 names are thick on the alumni rolls of the best col- 
 leges; the **De Forest scholarships" and **The De 
 Forest prize" at Yale are among her coveted dis- 
 tinctions. Despite exile, poverty, sorrow and dis- 
 appointment, and his own lonely, lost grave beside 
 the Wyapoko, the eager dream and hope of Jesse 
 De Forest of Avesnes, that he might safely and per- 
 manently estabhsh his family in the New World, has 
 been fully realized. 
 
 lEight sons and a daughter survive him. 
 
 20r Sarah Philips, as she is called in the Dutch records to indicate the name of 
 her father, Philippe Du Trieux. 
 
 74 
 
Walloon Founding of New Amsterdam 
 
 The services of Dr. La Montagne, the first physi- 
 cian of the colony, for a long time the Governor's 
 only Councillor, and the wise Commander-in-chief, 
 against the savages, of the united Dutch, English 
 and Walloon forces, have already been noted. No 
 extended account has been given of Philippe Du 
 Trieux, De Forest's father-in-law. He was one of 
 the first ship-load of settlers, and for a long time 
 "Court Marshal'' of New Netherland. De Trous, 
 Trows, Truells, and Truaxes of today, as well as a 
 few who still maintain the older name in uncorrupted 
 form, are, for the most part, the descendants of 
 Philippe Du Trieux and his wife Susanna Du Chesne. 
 Some of the surnames of this little colony have en- 
 tirely disappeared in modern life, some have so 
 altered as to be scarcely recognizable, some are still 
 evident in large numbers. So far as visible surname 
 is concerned, a deal of good blood disappears by 
 marriage in each generation; yet it is hardly to be 
 doubted that the qualities of this old Huguenot 
 stock have come down by the distaff side as well as 
 by that of the spear. Their dear-bought freedom of 
 conscience; their intention of good citizenship; their 
 hardy physique and industry; their warm affections, 
 "answerable courages," and skill in the joy of living, 
 are doubtless working for good, though unrecognized, 
 in later generations. 
 
 C. Important Contributions to the Early 
 Life of the Colony. — But apart from this proba- 
 bility, if we look back dispassionately at the un- 
 questioned early actions of these first-comers, there 
 
 75 
 
The De Forests and the 
 
 appear to be several worth recounting, when we 
 pause to consider how differently history might have 
 developed along the North Atlantic seaboard, had 
 these pioneers been absent or of a different sort. 
 First may be noted the driving out by De Forest's 
 Walloon colony, on their arrival at Manhattan in 
 1624, of the French commander about to land for 
 the purpose of setting up the arms of France, then a 
 strongly Catholic power. Second, the establishment, 
 by this same French Protestant band, of the first 
 permanent, crop-raising, town-building settlement, 
 never since destroyed or abandoned, upon the soil 
 that later became the State of New York, and upon 
 the site of the greatest city in the western hemi- 
 sphere. Third, the purchase of the island of Man- 
 hattan from the Indians by Minuit upon his arrival 
 in 1626. Fourth, the treaty of La Montagne with 
 the sachems for the purchase of all the territory on 
 the Schuylkill River. Lastly, at a critical time, 
 after many massacres, the successful defense of the 
 little colony against the Indians by a combined force 
 of Walloons, English and Dutch under command of 
 Jean La Montagne. All these are surely events of 
 moment in the early history of both the metropolis 
 and the commonwealth. 
 
 XIII. Conclusion: Investigation of the Facts 
 BY THE Holland Society of New York 
 
 Some years ago the Holland Society of New York, 
 a social and patriotic organization whose chief quali- 
 fication for membership is direct descent in the male 
 
 76 
 
Walloon Founding of New Amsterdam 
 
 line from one or more early Dutch settlers, began 
 to be assailed by doubts regarding the priority of 
 their claim to being descended from the first founders 
 of New Amsterdam — a confidence in which, with a 
 pleasant pride, they had long reposed. The gather- 
 ing evidence contrary to this supposition, and the 
 ensuing discussions, presently caused a delegation of 
 the members to visit the city of Leyden on a mission 
 of special research. The result of this and of further 
 inquiry appears in the Year Book of the Holland 
 Society for 1895, in an article as follows: ^ 
 
 "Jesse De Forest or Peter Minuit? Facts from 
 Leyden going to show that the former was the 
 founder of New Amsterdam, 
 
 "A letter from George W. Van Siclen, a prominent 
 officer of the Holland Society, says: . . " 'Pos- 
 sessing some information on that subject myself, 1 
 still thought it best to write to Mr. Charles M. Dozy, 
 Archivist of Leyden, and inquire into the historical 
 facts. 1 have just received his answer, which I send 
 herewith. 
 
 'When the delegation of the Holland Society of 
 New York visited Holland in 1888, a most elaborate 
 display of old maps, books, engravings and original 
 MSS. was prepared for us at Leyden, and I had in 
 my hand the original minutes of the City Council of 
 Leyden, dated Aug. 27, 1622, granting permission to 
 Jesse De Forest to enroll the Walloon colonists. 
 (Also the original MS. poll-tax list, giving names, 
 localities, and assessments of William Brewster, John 
 
 »Year Book of the Holland Society for 1895, p. 121. 
 
 77 
 
The De Forests and the 
 
 Robinson and the other Pilgrim Fathers while they 
 were living in Leyden in 1622.) 
 
 George W. Van Siclen. 
 New York, March 13, 1895.' 
 
 The letter from Mr. Dozy follows: 
 
 . . You ask my opinion about the founding 
 of New York. You are right in thinking that the 
 question does interest me, as I made researches about 
 Jesse De Forest at Avesnes and Sedan. 
 
 "Minuit was the third Governor of the colony; 
 he organized the administration; he made a treaty 
 with the Indians that rendered the Dutch proprietors 
 of the whole island instead of possessors only by 
 right of first discovery or occupation; he fortified 
 the settlement that had already existed three years. 
 His importance for the colony should not be disre- 
 garded, but before his directorship, since 1623, there 
 was a settlement on Manhattan Island that had 
 already received important accessions from Holland, 
 with a supply of live stock and farming tools. 
 
 "Jesse De Forest, born at Avesnes between 1570 
 and 1580, living in 1601 and 1608 at Sedan, and 1605 
 at Leyden, had applied in the name of fifty-six 
 Walloon families, who wished to go to Virginia, to 
 the ambassador of England at The Hague. . . . 
 In August, 1622, Jesse sent a petition to the States- 
 General of the United Provinces, asking to be allowed 
 to enroll Protestant families for emigration. . . . 
 The permission was given, the ship was equipped, 
 and in March, 1623, the New Netherland left the 
 
 78 
 
Walloon Founding of New Amsterdam 
 
 Dutch shores. In May the mouth of the River 
 Hudson was reached. One division of the colonists 
 went on and built Fort Orange, the origin of the 
 present Albany. But the other part settled on Man- 
 hattan Island and the name Walenboght or Walloon 
 Bay, the Wallabout of today, bears testimony to 
 their being Walloons. It cannot be denied that from 
 that fact, from the arrival of the New Netherland 
 in May, 1623, dates the permanent occupation of the 
 site of New York. 
 
 "It was Jesse who had written the address to 
 England, and who was the advocate of the would-be 
 colonists before the Ambassador; it was Jesse who 
 had given the impulse to the expedition by his peti- 
 tion to the States, and had enrolled the emigrants. 
 . . . As there is no doubt that the first perma- 
 nent settlement on Manhattan dates from May, 
 1623,1 the fact that Jesse De Forest prepared and 
 organized that colonization^ and was almost certainly 
 the leader of it, gives him a right to be called the 
 founder of New Amsterdam. 
 
 Charles M. Dozy." 
 
 The manful publication of these papers by the 
 disappointed Holland Society adds weight to the 
 evidence, such as was afforded when John Robinson's 
 bitter enemies admitted that he was "the most 
 learned, polished and modest spirit that ever sepa- 
 rated from the Church of England." 
 
 Mt will be noticed that Mr. Dozy, though one of the careful authorities, still 
 gives 1623 as the correct date of landing. This was before the discovery and 
 publication of De Forest's Journal, as previously noted. 
 
 *See previous pages. 
 
 79 
 
Walloon Founding of New Amsterdam 
 
 Plans for the tercentenary of the founding of New 
 York City are already under way. In this every 
 effort toward accuracy will doubtless be made, judg- 
 ing from the researches and tentative plans already 
 being made. In the New York Genealogical and 
 Biographical Record for January, 1914,^ is published 
 an article of some length upon Philippe Du Trieux, 
 which closes with the following words: 
 
 "The earlier history of Philippe Du Trieux con- 
 firms the historical data which have led historians of 
 the New Netherland to place the first settlement of 
 that colony in 1624, and to ascribe to a company of 
 Walloons who came thither in that year under the 
 leadership of Jesse De Forest the honor of being the 
 first citizens of what is now New York. In 1924, 
 when the State of New York celebrates its three 
 hundredth anniversary as a European settlement, 
 Jesse De Forest and his little band of exiled Walloons 
 will be found to lead the long procession of emigrants 
 who for one reason or another have made the New 
 World their resting-place. And of the few of this 
 early company who settled on Manhattan Island, 
 Philippe Du Trieux, because of his now full record, 
 may claim special consideration." 
 
 1924 is now a milestone not far ahead. Before 
 that is reached it is hoped that those interested in 
 their country's historic past will more universally 
 recognize the place and the services of Jesse De 
 Forest, the Walloon founder of the little pioneer 
 settlement which has come to be the metropolis of 
 the Western World.