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CHAPTER IV
THE DIRECTORS THE first
Director-General of the colony, Captain Cornelis May, was removed by
only a
generation from those “Beggars of the Sea” whom the Spaniard held in
such
contempt; but this mendicant had begged to such advantage that the sea
granted
him a noble river to explore and a cape at its mouth to preserve his
name to
posterity. It is upon his discoveries along the South River, later
called the
Delaware, and not upon his record as Director of New Netherland, that
his title
to fame must rest. Associated with him was Tienpout, who appears to
have been
assigned to the North River while May assumed personal supervision of
the
South. May acted as the agent of the West India Company for one year
only
(1624-1625), and was followed in office by Verhulst (1625-1626), who
bequeathed
his name to Verhulsten Island, in the Delaware River, and then quietly
passed out
of history. Neither of
these
officials left any permanent impress on the history of the colony. It
was
therefore a day of vast importance to the dwellers on the North River,
and
especially to the little group of settlers on Manhattan Island, when
the Meeuwken
dropped her anchor in the harbor in May, 1626, and her small boat
landed Peter
Minuit, Director-General of New Netherland, a Governor who had come to
govern.
Minuit, though registered as “of Wesel,” Germany, was of Huguenot
ancestry, and
is reported to have spoken French, Dutch, German, and English. He
proved a
tactful and efficient ruler, and the new system of government took
form. under
the Director and Council, the koopman,
who was commercial agent and secretary, and a schout
who performed the duties of sheriff and public prosecutor. Van
Wassenaer, the
son of a domine in
Amsterdam,
gives us a report of the colony as it existed under Minuit. He writes
of a
counting-house built of stone and thatched with reeds, of thirty
ordinary
houses on the east side of the river, and a horse-mill yet unfinished
over
which is to be constructed a spacious room to serve as a temporary
church and
to be decorated with bells captured at the sack of San Juan de Porto
Rico in
1625 by the Dutch fleet. According to this chronicler, every one in New
Netherland who fills no public office is busy with his own affairs. One
trades,
one builds houses, another plants farms. Each farmer pastures the cows
under
his charge on the bouwerie
of the
Company, which also owns the cattle; but the milk is the property of
the
farmer, who sells it to the settlers. “The houses of settlers,” he
says, “are
now outside the fort; but when that is finished they will all remove
within, in
order to garrison it and be safe from sudden attack.” One of
Minuit’s
first acts as Director was the purchase of Manhattan Island, covering
some
twenty-two thousand acres, for merchandise valued at sixty guilders or
twenty-four dollars. He thus secured the land at the rate of
approximately ten
acres for one cent. A good bargain, Peter Minuit! The transaction was
doubly
effective in placating the savages, or the wilden,
as the settlers called them, and in establishing the Dutch claim as
against the
English by urging rights both of discovery and of purchase. In spite
of the
goodwill manifested by the natives, the settlers were constantly
anxious lest
some conspiracy might suddenly break out. Van. Wassenaer, reporting the
news
from the colony as it reached him in Amsterdam, wrote in 1626 that
Pieter
Barentsen was to be sent to command Fort Orange, and that the families
were to
be brought down the river, sixteen men without women being left to
garrison the
fort. Two years later he wrote that there were no families at Fort
Orange, all
having been brought down the river. Only twenty-five or twenty-six
traders
remained and Krol, who had been vice-director there since 1626. Minuit
showed true
statesmanship by following conciliation with a show of strength against
hostile
powers on every hand. He had brought with him. a competent engineer,
Kryn
Frederycke, or Fredericksen, who had been an officer in the army of
Prince
Maurice. With his help Minuit laid out Fort Amsterdam on what was then
the tip
of Manhattan Island, the green park which forms the end of the island
today
being then under water. Fredericksen found material and labor so scarce
that he
could plan at first only a blockhouse surrounded by palisades of red
cedar
strengthened with earthworks. The fort was completed in 1626, and at
the close
of the year a settlement called New Amsterdam had grown up around it
and had
been made the capital of New Netherland. During the
building
of the fort there occurred an episode fraught with serious
consequences. A.
friendly Indian of the Weckquaesgeeck tribe came with his nephew to
traffic at
Fort Amsterdam. Three servants of Minuit fell upon the Indian, robbed
him, and
murdered him. The nephew, then but a boy, escaped to his tribe and
vowed a
vengeance which he wreaked in blood nearly a score of years later. Minuit’s
preparations for war were not confined to land fortification. In 1627
the
hearts of the colonists were gladdened by a great victory of the Dutch
over the
Spanish, when, in a battle off San Salvador, Peter Heyn demolished
twenty-six
Spanish warships. On the 5th of September the same bold sailor captured
the
whole of the Spanish silver-fleet with spoils amounting to twelve
million
guilders. In the following year the gallant commander, then a
lieutenant-admiral, died in battle on the deck of his ship. The
States-General
sent to his old peasant mother a message of condolence, to which she
replied:
“Ay, I thought that would be the end of him. He was always a vagabond;
but I
did my best to correct him. He got no more than he deserved.” It was
perhaps the
echo of naval victories like these which prompted Minuit to embark upon
a
shipbuilding project of great magnitude for that time. Two Belgian
shipbuilders
arrived in New Amsterdam and asked the help of the Director in
constructing a
large vessel. Minuit, seeing the opportunity to advertise the resources
of the
colony, agreed to give his assistance and the result was that the New Netherland, a ship of eight
hundred
tons carrying thirty guns, was built and launched. This enterprise
cost more than had been expected and the bills were severely criticized
by the
West India Company, already dissatisfied with Minuit on the ground that
he had
favored the interests of the patroons, who claimed the right of
unrestricted
trade within their estates, as against the interests of the Company.
Urged by
many complaints, the States-General set on foot an investigation of the
Director, the patroons, and the West India Company itself, with the
result that
in 1632 Minuit was recalled and the power of the patroons was limited.
New
Netherland had not yet seen the last of Peter Minuit, however. Angry
and
embittered, he entered the service of Sweden and returned later to vex
the
Dutch colony. In the
interval
between Minuit’s departure and the arrival of Van Twiller, the reins of
authority were held by Sebastian Krol, whose name is memorable chiefly
for the
fact that he had been. influential in purchasing the domain of
Rensselaerswyck
for its patroon (1630) and the tradition that the cruller, crolyer or krolyer, was so called in his
honor. The Company’s selection
of a permanent successor to Minuit was not happy. Wouter Van Twiller,
nephew of
Kiliaen Van Rensselaer, must have owed his appointment as Director to
family
influence, since neither his career nor his reputation justified the
choice. David de
Vries, writing
on April 16, 1633, notes that on arriving about noon before Fort
Amsterdam he
found there a ship called the Soutbergh
which had brought over the new Governor, Wouter Van Twiller, a former
clerk in
the West India House at Amsterdam. De Vries gives his opinion of Van
Twiller in
no uncertain terms. He expressed his own surprise that the West India
Company
should send fools into this country who knew nothing except how to
drink, and
quotes an Englishman as saying that he could not understand the
unruliness
among the officers of the Company and that a governor should have no
more
control over them. For the
personal
appearance of this “Walter the Doubter,” we must turn again to the
testimony of
Knickerbocker, whose mocking descriptions have obtained a
quasi-historical
authority: This renowned old gentleman arrived at New Amsterdam in the merry month of June.... He was exactly five feet six inches in height and six feet five inches in circumference. His head was a perfect sphere and of such stupendous dimensions that Dame Nature, with all her sex’s ingenuity would have been puzzled to construct a neck capable of supporting it: Wherefore she wisely declined the attempt and settled it firmly on the top of his backbone just between the shoulders.... His legs were short but sturdy in proportion to the weight they had to sustain so that when erect he had not a little the appearance of a beer barrel on skids. His face, that infallible index of the mind, presented a vast expanse, unfurrowed by any of those lines which disfigure the human countenance with what is termed expression.... His habits were regular. He daily took his four stated meals, appropriating exactly an hour to each; he smoked and doubted eight hours, and he slept the remaining twelve of the four-and-twenty. A later
historian,
taking up the cudgels in behalf of the Director, resents
Knickerbocker’s
impeachment and protests that “so far from being the aged, fat and
overgrown
person represented in caricature Van Twiller was youthful and
inexperienced, and
his faults were those of a young man unused to authority and hampered
by his
instructions.”1 In his new office
Van Twiller was confronted with questions dealing with the encroachment
of the
patroons from within and of the English from without, the unwelcome
visit of
Eelkens, of whom we shall hear later, and massacres by the Indians on
the South
River. Such problems might well have puzzled a wiser head and a more
determined
character than Van Twiller’s. We cannot hold him wholly blameworthy if
he dealt
with them in a spirit of doubt and hesitation. What we find harder to
excuse is
his shrewd advancement of his own interests and his lavish expenditure
of the
Company’s money. The cost of building the fort was more than
justifiable. To
have neglected the defenses would have been culpable; and the barracks
built
for the hundred and four soldiers whom he had brought over from the
Fatherland
may also be set down as necessary. But when the Company was groaning
under the
expenses of the colony, it was, to say the least, lacking in tact to
build for
himself the most elaborate house in New Netherland, besides erecting on
one of
the Company’s bouweries
a house,
a barn, a boathouse, and a brewery, to say nothing of planting another
farm
with tobacco, working it with slave labor at the Company’s expense, and
appropriating the profits. In the year 1638, after he had been five
years in
office, the outcry against Van Twiller for misfeasance, malfeasance,
and
especially nonfeasance, grew too loud to be ignored, and he was
recalled; but
before he left New Netherland he bought Nooten or Nut Island, since
called
Governor’s Island, and also two other islands in the East River. At the
time of
his marriage in 1643, Van Twiller was in command of a competence
attained at
the expense of the West India Company, and there is much excuse for the
feeling
of his employers that he had been more active in his own affairs than
in
theirs. The
principal
service which he had rendered to the Company in his term of office was
the
establishment of “staple right” at New Amsterdam,
compelling all ships
trading on the coast or the North River to pay tolls or unload their
cargoes on
the Company’s property. But on the reverse side of the account we must
remember
that he allowed the fort to fall into such decay that when Kieft
arrived in
1638 he found the defenses, which had been finished only three years
before,
already in a shamefully neglected condition, the guns dismounted, the
public
buildings inside the walls in ruins, and the walls of the fort itself
so beaten
down that any one might enter at will, “save at the stone point.” The hopes
of the
colonists rose again with the coming of a new governor; but the
appointment of
Kieft reflected as little credit as that of Van Twiller upon the
sagacity of the
West India Company. The man now chosen to rule New Netherland was a
narrow-minded busybody, eager to interfere in small matters and without
the
statesmanship required to conduct large affairs. Some of his
activities, it is
true, had practical value. lie fixed the hours at which the colonists
should go
to bed and ordered the curfew to be rung at nine o’clock; he
established two
annual fairs to be held on the present Bowling Green, one in October
for cattle
and one in November for hogs; and he built a new stone church within
the fort,
operated a brewery, founded a hostelry, and planted orchards and
gardens. But
on the other side of the account he was responsible for a bloody war
with the
Indians which came near to wrecking the colony. His
previous record
held scant promise for his success as a governor. He had failed as a
merchant
in Rochelle, for which offense his portrait had been affixed to a
gallows. Such
a man was a poor person to be put in control of the complicated
finances of New
Netherland and of the delicate relations between the colonists and the
Indians
relations calling for infinite tact, wisdom, firmness, and forbearance.
The natives in
the
region of New Amsterdam were increasingly irritated by the
encroachments of the
whites. They complained that stray cows spoiled their unfenced
cornfields and
that various other depredations endangered their crops. To add to this
irritation Kieft proposed to tax the natives for the protection
afforded them
by the Fort, which was now being repaired at large expense. The
situation,
already bad enough, was further complicated by Kieft’s clumsy handling
of an
altercation on Staten Island. Some pigs were stolen, by servants of the
Company
as appeared later; but the offense was charged to the Raritan Indians.
Without
waiting to make investigations Kieft sent out a punitive expedition of
seventy
men, who attacked the innocent natives, killed a number of them, and
laid waste
their crops. This stupid and wicked attack still further exasperated
the
Indians, who in the high tide of midsummer saw their lands laid bare
and their
homes desolated by the wanton hand of the intruders. Some
months later
the trouble between the whites and the red men was brought to a head by
an
unforeseen tragedy. A savage came to Claes Smits, radenmaker or wheelwright, to
trade beaver for duffel cloth.
As Claes stooped down to take out the duffel from a chest, the Indian
seized an
axe which chanced to stand near by and struck the wheelwright on the
neck,
killing him instantly. The murderer then stole the goods from the chest
and
fled to the forest. When Kieft
sent to
the tribe of the Weckquaesgeecks to inquire the cause of this murder
and to
demand the slayer, the Indian told the chief that he had seen his uncle
robbed
and killed at the fort while it was being built; that he himself had
escaped
and had vowed revenge; and that the unlucky Claes was the first white
man upon
whom he had a chance to wreak vengeance. The chief then replied to the
Director
that he. was sorry that twenty Christians had not been killed and that
the
Indian had done only a pious duty in avenging his uncle. In this
emergency
Kieft called a meeting at which the prominent burghers chose a
committee of
twelve to advise the Director. This took place in 1641. The Council was
headed
by Captain David de Vries, whose portrait with its pointed chin, high
forehead,
and keen eyes, justifies his reputation as the ablest man in New
Netherland. He
insisted that it was inadvisable to attack the Indians — not to say
hazardous.
Besides, the Company had warned them to keep peace. It is interesting
to
speculate on what would have been the effect on the colony if the
Company’s
choice had fallen upon De Vries instead of on Kieft as Director. Although
restrained
for the time, Kieft never relinquished his purpose. On February 24,
1643, he
again announced his intention of making a raid upon the Indians, and in
spite
of further remonstrance from De Vries he sent out his soldiers, who
returned
after a massacre which disgraced the Director, enraged the natives, and
endangered the colony. Kieft was at first proud of his treachery; but
as soon
as it was known every Algonquin tribe around New Amsterdam started on
the
warpath. From New Jersey to the Connecticut every farm was in peril.
The famous
and much-persecuted Anne Hutchinson perished with her family; towns
were
burned; and men, women, and children fled in panic. On the approach
of
spring, when the Indians had to plant their corn or face famine,
sachems of the
Long Island Indians sought a parley with the Dutch. De Vries and
Olfertsen
volunteered to meet the savages. In the woods near Rockaway they found
nearly
three hundred Indians assembled. The chiefs placed the envoys in the
center of
the circle, and one among them, who had a bundle of sticks, laid down
one stick
at a time as he recounted the wrongs of his tribe. This orator told how
the red
men had given food to the settlers and were rewarded by the murder of
their
people, how they had protected and cherished the traders, and how they
had been
abused in. return. At length De Vries, like the practical man that he
was,
suggested that they all adjourn to the Fort, promising them presents
from the
Director. The chiefs
consented to meet the Director and eventually were persuaded to make a
treaty
of peace; but Kieft’s gifts were so niggardly that the savages went
away with
rancor still in their hearts, and the war of the races continued its
bloody
course. It is no wonder that when De Vries left the Governor on this
occasion,
he told Kieft in plain terms of his guilt and predicted that the
shedding of so
much innocent blood would yet be avenged upon his own head. This
prophecy
proved a strangely true one. When recalled by the States-General in
1647, Kieft
set out for Holland on the ship Princess,
carrying with him the sum of four hundred thousand guilders. The ship
was
wrecked in the Bristol channel and Kieft was drowned. The evil
that Kieft
did lived after him and the good, if interred with his bones, would not
have
occupied much space in the tomb. The only positive advance during his
rule —
and that was carried through against his will — was the appointment of
an
advisory committee of the twelve men, representing the householders of
the
colony, who were called together in the emergency following the murder
of Claes
Smits, and in 1643 of a similar board of eight men, who protested
against his
arbitrary measures and later procured his recall. After the
departure
of Kieft the most picturesque figure of the period of Dutch rule in
America.
appeared at New Amsterdam, Petrus or Pieter Stuyvesant. We have an
authentic
portrait in which the whole personality of the man is writ. large. The
dominant
nose, the small, obstinate eyes, the close-set, autocratic mouth, tell
the
character of the man who was come to be the new and the last
Director-General
of New Netherland. As Director of the West India Company’s colony at
Curaçao,
Stuyvesant had undertaken the task of reducing the Portuguese island of
St.
Martin and had lost a leg in the fight. This loss he repaired with a
wooden
leg, of which he professed himself prouder than of all his other limbs
together
and which he had decorated with silver bands and nails, thus earning
for him
the sobriquet of “Old Silver Nails.” Still, so the legend runs, Peter
Stuyvesant’s ghost at night “stumps to and fro with a shadowy wooden
leg
through the aisles of St. Mark’s Church near the spot where his bones
lie
buried.” But many events were to happen before those bones were laid in
the
family vault of the chapel on his bouwerie.
When
Stuyvesant
reached the country over which he was to rule, it was noted by the
colonists
that his bearing was that of a prince. “I shall be as a father over his
children,” he told the burghers of New Amsterdam, and in this
patriarchal
capacity he kept the people standing with their heads uncovered for
more than
an hour, while he wore his hat. How he bore out this first impression
we may
gather from The Representation of
New
Netherland, an arraignment of the Director, drawn up and
solemnly
attested in 1650 by eleven responsible burghers headed by Adrian Van
der Donck,
and supplemented by much detailed evidence. The witnesses express the
earnest
wish that Stuyvesant’s administration
were at an end, for they have suffered from it and know themselves
powerless.
Whoever opposes the Director “hath as much as the sun and moon against
him.” In
the council he writes an opinion covering several pages and then adds
orally
“This is my opinion. If anyone have aught to object to it, let him
express it!”
If any one ventures to make any objection, his Honor flies into a
passion and
rails in language better fitted to the fish-market than to the
council-hall. When two
burghers,
Kuyter and Melyn, who had been leaders of the opposition to Kieft,
petitioned
Stuyvesant to investigate his conduct, Stuyvesant supported his
predecessor on
the ground that one Director should uphold another. At Kieft’s
instigation he
even prosecuted and convicted Kuyter and Melyn for seditious attack on
the
government. When Melyn asked for grace till his case could be presented
in the
Fatherland, he was threatened, according to his own testimony, in
language like
this: “If I knew, Melyn, that you would divulge our sentence [that of
fine and
banishment] or bring it before Their High Mightinesses, I would cause
you to be
hanged at once on the highest tree in New Netherland.” In another case
the
Director said: “It may during my administration be contemplated to
appeal; but
if anyone should do it, I will make him a foot shorter, and send the
pieces to
Holland and let him appeal in that way.” An answer
to this
arraignment by the burghers of New Netherland was written by Van
Tienhoven, who
was sent over to the Netherlands to defend Stuyvesant; but its value is
impaired by the fact that he was schout
fiscaal and interested in the acquittal of Stuyvesant, whose
tool he
was, and also by the fact that he was the subject of bitter attack in
the Representation by
Adrian Van der Donck,
who accused Van Tienhoven of continually shifting from one side to
another and
asserted that he was notoriously profligate and untrustworthy. One
passage in
his reply amounted to a confession. Who, he asks, are they who have
complained
about the haughtiness of the Director, and he answers that they are
“such as
seek to live without law or rule.” “No one,” he goes on to say, “can
prove that
Director Stuyvesant has used foul language to or railed at as clowns
any
respectable persons who have treated him decently. It may be that some
profligate person has given the Director, if
he has used any bad words to him, cause to do so.” It has
been the
fashion in popular histories to allude to Stuyvesant as a doughty
knight of
somewhat choleric temper, “a valiant, weather beaten, leathern-sided,
lion-hearted, generous-spirited, old governor”; but I do not so read
his
history. I find him a brutal tyrant, as we have seen in the affair of
Kieft versus Melyn; a
narrow-minded bigot, as we
shall see later in his dealing with the Quakers at Flushing; a bully
when his
victims were completely in his power; and a loser in any quarrel when
he was
met with blustering comparable to his own. In support
of the
last indictment let us take his conduct in a conflict with the
authorities at
Rensselaerswyck. In 1646 Stuyvesant had ordered that no building should
be
erected within cannon-shot of Fort Orange. The superintendent of the
settlement
denied Stuyvesant’s right to give such an order and pointed to the fact
that
his trading-house had been for a long time on the border of the fort.
To the
claim that a clear space was necessary to the fort’s efficiency, Van
Slichtenhorst, Van Rensselaer’s agent, replied that he had spent more
than six
months in the colony and had never seen a single person carrying a
sword,
musket, or pike, nor had he heard a drum-beat except on the occasion of
a visit
from the Director and his soldiers in the summer. Stuyvesant rejoined
by
sending soldiers and sailors to tear down the house which Van
Slichtenhorst was
building near Fort Orange, and the commissary was ordered to arrest the
builder
if he resisted; but the commissary wrote that it would be impossible to
carry
out the order, as the settlers at Rensselaerswyck, reënforced by the
Indians,
outnumbered his troops. Stuyvesant then recalled his soldiers and
ordered Van
Slichtenhorst to appear before him, which the agent refused to do. In 1652
Stuyvesant
ordered Dyckman, then in command at Fort Orange, not to allow any one
to build
a house near the fort or to remain in any house already built. In spite
of
proclamations and other bluster this order proved fruitless and on
April 1,
1653, Stuyvesant came in person to Fort Orange and sent a sergeant to
lower the
patroon’s flag. The agent refusing to strike the patroon’s colors, the
soldiers
entered, lowered the flag, and discharged their guns. Stuyvesant
declared that
the region staked out by posts should be known as Beverwyck and
instituted a
court there. Van Slichtenhorst tore down the proclamation, whereupon
Stuyvesant
ordered him to be imprisoned in the fort. Later the Director
transported the
agent under guard to New Amsterdam. Stuyvesant’s
arbitrary character also appears in his overriding of the measure of
local
self-government decreed by the States-General in 1653. Van der Donck
and his
fellows had asked three things of their High Mightinesses, the
States-General:
first, that they take over the government of New Netherland; second,
that, they
establish a better city government in New Amsterdam; and third, that
they
clearly define the boundaries of New Netherland. The first of these
requests,
owing to the deeply intrenched interest of the West India Company,
could not be
granted, the last still less. But the States-General urged that
municipal
rights should be given to New Amsterdam, and in 1652 the Company
yielded. The
charter limited the number of schepens
or aldermen to five and the number of burgomasters to two, and also
ordained
that they as well as the schout
should be elected by the citizens; but Stuyvesant ignored this
provision and
proceeded to appoint men of his own choosing. The Stone Tavern built by
Kieft
at the head of Coenties Slip was set apart as a Stadt-Huys, or City Hall, and
here Stuyvesant’s appointees,
supposed to represent the popular will, held their meetings. It was
something
that they did hold meetings and nominally at least in the interest of
the
people. Another concession followed. In 1658 Stuyvesant yielded so far
to the
principles of popular government as to concede to the schepens and burgomasters of
New Amsterdam
the right to nominate double the number of candidates for office, from
whom the
Director was to make a choice. In 1655,
during the
absence of Stuyvesant on the South River, the Indians around Manhattan
appeared
with a fleet of sixty-four war canoes, attacked and looted New
Amsterdam, then
crossed to Hoboken and continued their bloody work in Pavonia and on
Staten
Island. In three days a hundred men, women, and children were slain,
and a
hundred and fifty-two were taken captive, and the damage to property
was
estimated at two hundred thousand guilders approximately eighty
thousand
dollars. As usual the Dutch had been the aggressors, for Van Dyck,
formerly schout fiscaal,
had shot and killed an old Indian woman who was picking peaches in his
orchard. It must be
set down
to Stuyvesant’s credit that on his return he acted toward the Indians
in a
manner that was kind and conciliating, and at the same time provided
against a
repetition of the recent disaster by erecting blockhouses at various
points and
by concentrating the settlers for mutual defense. By this policy of
mingled
diplomacy and preparation against attack Stuyvesant preserved peace for
a
period of three years. But trouble with the Indians continued to
disturb the
colonies on the river and centered at Esopus, where slaughters of both
white
and red men occurred. Eight white men were burned at the stake in
revenge for
shots fired by Dutch soldiers, and an Indian chief was killed with his
own
tomahawk. In 1660 a treaty of peace was framed; but three years later
we find
the two races again embroiled. Thus Indian wars continued down to the
close of
Dutch rule. In spite
of these
troubles in the more outlying districts, New Amsterdam continued to
grow and
thrive. In Stuyvesant’s time the thoroughfares of New Amsterdam were
laid out
as streets and were named. The line of houses facing the fort on the
eastern
side was called the Marckveldt, or Market-field, taking its name from
the green
opposite, which had been the site of the city market. De Heere Straat,
the
principal street, ran north from the fort through the gate at the city
wall. De
Hoogh Straat ran parallel with the East River from the city bridge to
the water
gate and on its line stood the Stadt-Huys.
‘T Water ran in a semicircular line from the point of the island and
was
bordered by the East River. De Brouwer Straat took its name from the
breweries
situated on it and was probably the first street in the town to be
regulated
and paved. De Brugh Straat, as the name implies, led to the bridge
crossing. De
Heere Graft, the principal canal, was a creek running deep into the
island from
the East River and protected by a siding of boards. An official was
appointed
for the care of this canal with orders to see “that the newly made graft was kept in order, that
no filth was
cast into it, and that the boats, canoes, and other vessels were laid
in
order.” The new
city was by
this time thoroughly cosmopolitan. One traveler speaks of the use of
eighteen
different languages, and the forms of faith were as varied as the
tongues
spoken. Seven or eight large ships came every year from Amsterdam. The
Director
occupied a fine house on the point of the island. On the east side of
the town
stood the Stadt-Huys
protected by
a half-moon of stone mounted with three small brass cannon. In the fort
stood
the Governor’s house, the church, the barracks, the house for
munitions, and
the long-armed windmills. Everything was prospering except the
foundation on
which all depended. There was no adequate defense for all this
property. Here
we must acquit Stuyvesant from responsibility, since again and again he
had
warned the Company against the weakness of the colony; but they would
not heed
the warnings, and the consequences which might have been averted
suddenly
overtook the Dutch possessions. The war which
broke out in 1659 between England and the Netherlands, once leagued
against
Catholic Spain but now parted by commercial rivalries, found an
immediate echo
on the shores of the Hudson. With feverish haste the inhabitants of New
Amsterdam began to fortify. Across the island at the northern limit of
the
town, on the line of what is now Wall Street, they built a wall with
stout
palisades backed by earthworks. They hastily repaired the fort,
organized the
citizens as far as possible to resist attack, and also strengthened
Fort
Orange. The New England Colonies likewise began warlike preparations;
but,
perhaps owing to the prudence of Stuyvesant in accepting the Treaty of
Hartford, peace between the Dutch and English in the New World
continued for
the present, though on precarious terms; and, the immediate threat of
danger
being removed by the treaty between England and Holland in 1654, the
New
Netherlanders relaxed their vigilance and curtailed the expense of
fortifications. Meanwhile
Stuyvesant had alienated popular sympathy and lessened united support
by his
treatment of a convention of delegates from New Amsterdam, Flushing,
Breuckelen, Hempstead, Amersfort, Middleburgh, Flatbush, and Gravesend
who bad
gathered to consider the defense and welfare of the colonies. The
English of
the Long Island towns were the prime movers in this significant
gathering.
There is an unmistakable English flavor in the contention of The Humble Remonstrance adopted
by the
Convention, that “‘tis contrary to the first intentions and genuine
principles
of every well regulated government, that one or more men should
arrogate to
themselves the exclusive power to dispose, at will, of the life and
property of
any individual.” As a people “not conquered or subjugated, but settled
here on
a mutual covenant and contract entered into with the Lord Patroons,
with the
consent of the Natives,” they protested against the enactment of laws
and the
appointment of magistrates without their consent or that of their
representatives. Stuyvesant
replied
with his usual bigotry and in a rage at being contradicted. He asserted
that
there was little wisdom to be expected from popular election when
naturally
“each would vote for one of his own stamp, the thief for a thief, the
rogue,
the tippler and the smuggler for his brother in iniquity, so that he
may enjoy
more latitude in vice and fraud.” Finally Stuyvesant ordered the
delegates to
disperse, declaring: “We derive our authority from God and the Company,
not
from a few ignorant subjects, and we alone can call the inhabitants
together.” With
popular support
thus alienated and with appeals for financial and military aid from the
States-General and the West India Company denied or ignored, the end of
New
Netherland was clearly in sight. In 1663 Stuyvesant wrote to the
Company
begging them to send him reënforcements. “Otherwise,” he said, “it is
wholly
out of our power to keep the sinking ship afloat any longer.” This year
was full
of omens. The valley of the Hudson was shaken by an earthquake followed
by an
overflow of the river, which ruined the crops. Smallpox visited the
colony, and
on top of all these calamities came the appalling Indian massacre at
Esopus.
The following year, 1664, brought the arrival of the English fleet, the
declaration of war, and the surrender of the Dutch Province. For many
years the
English had protested against the Dutch claims to the territory on the
North
and South rivers. Their navigators had tried to contest the trade in
furs, and
their Government at home had interfered with vessels sailing to and
from New
Amsterdam. Now at length Charles II was ready to appropriate the Dutch
possessions. He did not trouble himself with questions of
international law, still less with international ethics; but, armed
with the
flimsy pretense that Cabot’s visit established England’s claim to the
territory, he stealthily made preparations to seize the defenseless
colony on
the river which had begun to be known as the Hudson. Five
hundred
veteran troops were embarked on four ships, under command of Colonel
Richard
Nicolls, and sailed on their expedition of conquest. Stuyvesant’s
suspicions,
aroused by rumors of invasion, were so far lulled by dispatches from
Holland
that he allowed several ships at New Amsterdam to sail for Curaçao
ladened with
provisions, while he himself journeyed to Rensselaerswyck to quell an
Indian
outbreak. While he was occupied in this task, a messenger arrived to
inform him
that the English fleet was hourly expected in the harbor of New
Amsterdam.
Stuyvesant made haste down the river; but on the day after he arrived
at Manhattan
Island, he saw ships flying the flag of England in the lower harbor,
where they
anchored below the Narrows. Colonel Nicolls demanded the surrender of
the
“towns situate on the island commonly known by the name of Manhattoes,
with all
the forts thereunto belonging.” Although
the case
of New Amsterdam was now hopeless, Stuyvesant yet strove for delay. He
sent a
deputation to Nicolls to carry on a parley; but Nicolls was firm. “When
may we
visit you again?” the deputation asked. Nicolls replied with grim humor
that he
would speak with them at Manhattan. “Friends are welcome there,”
answered
Stuyvesant’s representative diplomatically; but Nicolls told them
bluntly that
he was coming with ships and soldiers. “Hoist a white flag at the
fort,” he
said, “and I may consider your proposals.” Colonel Nicolls
was as good as his word and, to the consternation of the dwellers in
New
Amsterdam, the fleet of English frigates, under full sail and with all
guns
loaded, appeared before the walls of the useless old Fort Amsterdam.
Stuyvesant
stood on one of the angles of the fort and the gunners with lighted
matches
awaited his command to fire. The people entreated him to yield.
“Resistance is
not soldiership,” said one of them. “It is sheer madness.” Stuyvesant,
who with
all his faults was a brave soldier, felt to the quick the humiliation;
but he
saw also that resistance meant only useless bloodshed. At last he
submitted,
and the English vessels sailed on their way unmolested, while
Stuyvesant
groaned, “I would much rather be carried to my grave.” Without
firing a
shot the English thus took possession of the rich country which the
States-General had not thought worth defending, and New Netherland
became New
York. ___________________________
1 Van
Twiller’s advocate, W. E. Griffis, quotes the Nijkerk records in proof that Van
Twiller was born on May 22,
1606, which would fix his age at twenty-seven when he was sent out to
the
colony. The editor of the Van Rensselaer-Bowler manuscript states that
Kiliaen
Van Rensselaer was born in 1580, that his sister, Maria, married
Richard, or
Ryckaert, Van Twiller and that the Wouter of our chronicles was their
son and
therefore Van Rensselaer’s nephew. We are the more inclined to accept
the year
1606 as the true date of Van Twiller’s birth because the year 1580,
previously
accepted by historians, would have been the same as that of the birth
of
Kiliaen Van Rensselaer himself, and because, according to the author of
the Story of New Netherland,
Maria Van
Rensselaer was betrothed in 1605. Otherwise we should find it almost
beyond
credence that a youth of twenty-seven should have been so suddenly
promoted
from the counting-house at Amsterdam to the responsible post of
Director of New
Netherland. |