Kitabı oku: «Peter Stuyvesant, the Last Dutch Governor of New Amsterdam», sayfa 9

CHAPTER IX.
AN ENERGETIC ADMINISTRATION

New Amsterdam in 1656.—Religious Intolerance.—Persecution of the Waldenses.—The New Colony on South river.—Wreck of the Prince Maurice.—The Friendly Indians.—Energetic Action of the Governor.—Persecution of the Quakers.—Remonstrance from Flushing.—The Desolation of Staten Island.—Purchase of Bergen.—Affairs at Esopus.—The Indian Council.—Generosity of the Indians.—New Amstel.—Encroachments of the English.

War would doubtless have arisen, between Sweden and Holland, in view of transactions on South river, had not all the energies of Sweden been then called into requisition in a war with Poland. The Swedish government contented itself with presenting a vigorous memorial to the States-General, which for eight years was renewed without accomplishing any redress.

The vice-governor resided at fort Orange, in a two story house, the upper floor of which was used as a court-room. This station was the principal mart for the fur trade, which had now become so considerable that upwards of thirty-five thousand beaver skins were exported during the year 1656.

A survey of the city of New Amsterdam was made this year, which showed that there were one hundred and twenty houses, and a population of one thousand souls. A man like Stuyvesant, the warm advocate of arbitrary power, would almost of necessity, be religiously intolerant. Zealously devoted to the Reformed church, and resolved to have unity in religion, notwithstanding the noble toleration which existed in Holland, he issued a proclamation forbidding any one from holding a religious meeting not in harmony with the Reformed church.

Any preacher, who should violate this ordinance was to be subjected to a penalty of one hundred pounds. Any one who should attend such a meeting was to be punished by a penalty of twenty-five pounds.

This law was rigorously enforced. Recusants were fined and imprisoned. Complaints were sent to Holland, and the governor was severely rebuked for his bigotry.

"We would fain," the Directors wrote to Stuyvesant,

"not have seen your worship's hand set to the placard against the Lutherans, nor have heard that you oppressed them with the imprisonments of which they have complained to us. It has always been our intention to let them enjoy all calmness and tranquillity. Wherefore you will not hereafter publish any similar placards, without our previous consent, but allow all the free exercise of their religion within their own houses."

But Stuyvesant was a man born to govern, not be governed. He was silent respecting the instructions he had received from home. When the Lutherans informed him that the Directors of the Company had ordered that the same toleration should exist in New Netherland which was practiced in the fatherland, he firmly replied that he must wait for further explanations, and that in the mean time his ordinance against public conventicles must be executed.

At Flushing a cobbler from Rhode Island, a baptist, William Wickendam by name, ventured to preach, "and even went with the people into the river and dipped them." He was fined one thousand pounds and ordered to be banished. As he was a poor man the debt was remitted, but he was obliged to leave the province.

It will be remembered that thus far nearly all the operations of the Dutch, in the New World, had been performed under the authority of Dutch merchants, called "The West India Company." Their chartered powers were very great. Only in a subordinate degree were they subject to the control of the States-General.

At this time there was a very cruel persecution commenced by the Duke of Savoy against the Waldenses. Hundreds of them fled to the city of Amsterdam, in Holland, which was then the refuge for the persecuted of all nations. They were received with the most noble hospitality. The city government not only gave them an asylum, but voted large sums from its treasury, for their support.

Carrying out this policy, the city decided to establish a colony of its own in New Netherland, to be composed mainly of these Waldenses. The municipal authorities purchased of the West India Company, for seven hundred guilders, all the land on the west side of South river, from Christina kill to Bombay Hook. This gave a river front of about forty miles, running back indefinitely into the interior. This region was named New Amstel. The colonists were offered a free passage, ample farms on the river, and provisions and clothing for one year. The city also agreed to send out "a proper person for a schoolmaster, who shall also read the holy Scriptures in public and set the Psalms." A church was to be organized so soon as there were two hundred inhabitants in the colony.

The Company wrote to Stuyvesant saying,

"The confidence we feel about the success and increase of this new colony of which we hope to see some prominent features next spring, when to all appearance, large numbers of the exiled Waldenses will flock thither, as to an asylum, induces us to send you orders to endeavor to purchase of the Indians, before it can be accomplished by any other nation, all that tract of land situated between the South river and the Hook of the North river, to provide establishments for these emigrants."

On Christmas day of 1656, three vessels containing one hundred and sixty emigrants, sailed from the Texel. A wintry storm soon separated them. The principal ship, the Prince Maurice, which had the largest number of passengers, after a long voyage, was wrecked on the South coast of Long island, near Fire island inlet, in the neighborhood of the present town of Islip. It was midnight when the ship struck. As soon as it was light the passengers and crew succeeded in reaching the shore in their boats through the breakers and through vast masses of floating ice.

They found upon the shore a bleak, barren, treeless waste, "without weeds, grass or timber of any sort to make a fire." It was bitter cold. A fierce wind swept the ocean and the land, and the sea ran so high that it was expected every moment the ship would go to pieces. These poor emigrants thus suddenly huddled upon the icy land, without food and without shelter, were in imminent peril of perishing from cold and starvation.

Their sufferings were so terrible that they were rejoiced to see some Indians approaching over the wide plains, though they knew not whether the savages would prove hostile or friendly. But the Indians came like brothers, aided them in every way, and dispatched two swift runners across the island to inform Governor Stuyvesant of the calamity. Some sails were brought on shore, with which a temporary shelter from the piercing blast was constructed, and enough food was secured to save from absolute starvation.

The energetic governor immediately dispatched nine or ten lighters to their assistance, and with needful supplies proceeded in person to the scene of the disaster. Thus nearly all the cargo was saved and the passengers were transported to New Amsterdam. There were one hundred and twenty-five passengers on board the Prince Maurice, seventy-six of whom were women and children. Another ship, the Gilded Beaver, was chartered at New Amsterdam which conveyed them all safely, after a five days' passage, to South river. The other vessels, with soldiers and a few settlers, also soon arrived.

It is said that at this time the "public," exercises of religion were not allowed to any sects in Holland except the Calvinists. But all others were permitted to engage freely in their worship in private houses, which were in fact, as if public, these places of preaching being spacious and of sufficient size for any assembly. Under this construction of the law every religion was in fact tolerated.⁹

The Lutherans in Holland sent a clergyman, Ernestus Goetwater, to New Amsterdam, to organize a church. The Directors wrote,

"It is our intention to permit every one to have freedom within his own dwelling, to serve God in such manner as his religion requires, but without authorizing any public meetings or conventicles."

This tolerance, so imperfect in the light of the nineteenth century, was very noble in the dark days of the seventeenth. Upon the arrival of Goetwater at New Amsterdam, the clergy of the Reformed church remonstrated against his being permitted to preach. The governor, adhering to his policy of bigotry, forbade him to hold any meeting, or to do any clerical service, but to regulate his conduct according to the placards of the province against private conventicles. Soon after this the governor ordered him to leave the colony and to return to Holland. This harsh decree was however suspended out of regard to the feeble health of Goetwater.

On the 6th of August, 1657, a ship arrived at New Amsterdam with several Quakers on board Two of them, women, began to preach publicly in the streets. They were arrested and imprisoned. Soon after they were discharged and embarked on board a ship to sail through Hell Gate, to Rhode Island, "where," writes Domine Megapolensis, "all kinds of scum dwell, for it is nothing else than a sink for New England."

One of the Quakers, Robert Hodgson, went over to Long Island. At Hempstead he was arrested and committed to prison, and was thence transferred to one of the dungeons of fort Amsterdam. He was brought before the Council, convicted of the crime of preaching contrary to the law, and was sentenced to pay a fine of six hundred guilders, about two hundred and forty dollars, or to labor two years at a wheelbarrow, with a negro.

After a few days' imprisonment he was chained to the wheelbarrow and commanded to work. He refused. A negro was ordered to beat him with a tarred rope, which he did until the sufferer fell, in utter exhaustion, almost senseless to the ground. The story of the persecutions which this unhappy man endured, is almost too dreadful to be told. But it ought to be told as a warning against all religious intolerance.

"Not satisfied," writes O'Callaghan,

"his persecutors had him lifted up. The negro again beat him until he fell a second time, after receiving, as was estimated, one hundred blows. Notwithstanding all this, he was kept, in the heat of the sun, chained to the wheelbarrow, his body bruised and swollen, faint from want of food, until at length he could no longer support himself and he was obliged to sit down.

"The night found him again in his cell, and the morrow at the wheelbarrow, with a sentinel over him, to prevent all conversation. On the third day he was again led forth, chained as before. He still refused to work, for he 'had committed no evil.' He was then led anew before the director-general, who ordered him to work, otherwise he should be whipt every day. He was again chained to the barrow and threatened, if he should speak to any person, with more severe punishment. But not being able to keep him silent, he was taken back to his dungeon, where he was kept several days, 'two nights and one day and a half of which without bread or water.'

"The rage of persecution was still unsatiated. He was now removed to a private room, stripped to his waist, and then hung up to the ceiling by his hands, with a heavy log of wood tied to his feet, so that he could not turn his body. A strong negro then commenced lashing him with rods until his flesh was cut in pieces. Now let down, he was thrown again into his loathsome dungeon, where he was kept ten days, in solitary confinement, after which he was brought forth to undergo a repetition of the same barbarous torture. He was now kept like a slave to hard work."

His case eventually excited so much compassion that Stuyvesant's sister interfered, and implored her brother so importunately that he was at last induced to liberate the unfortunate man. Let a firm Quaker resolve that he will not do something, and let a Governor Stuyvesant resolve that he shall do it, and it is indeed "Greek meeting Greek."

Henry Townsend, of Jamaica, ventured to hold prayer-meetings in his house, in defiance of the ordinance against conventicles. The governor sentenced him to pay a fine of eight pounds and to leave the province within six weeks, under pain of corporeal punishment. This sentence was followed by a proclamation, fining any one fifty pounds who should entertain a Quaker for a single night, and confiscating any vessels which should bring a Quaker to the province.

The inhabitants of Flushing, where Townsend had formerly resided, and where he was very highly respected, issued a noble remonstrance to Governor Stuyvesant against this persecution of their former townsman.

The remonstrance was drawn up by the town clerk, Edward Hart, and was signed by all the adult male inhabitants, twenty-nine in number. The memorial said:

"We are commanded by the law of God to do good unto all men. The law of love, peace and liberty, extending in the state to Jews, Turks and Egyptians, forms the glory of Holland. So love, peace and liberty extending to all in Christ Jesus, condemn hatred, war and bondage. We desire not to offend one of Christ's little ones under whatever form, name or title he may appear, whether Presbyterian, Independent, Baptist or Quaker. On the contrary we desire to do to all as we could wish all to do to us. Should any of those people come in love among us, we cannot lay violent hands upon them. We must give them free ingress and egress into our houses."

This remonstrance was carried to New Amsterdam by Tobias Feake, and presented to the governor. His indignation was roused. Feake was arrested and committed to prison. The sheriff was sent to Flushing to bring Hart and two of the magistrates, Farrington and Noble, to the presence of the enraged governor. It was a fearful thing to fall into his hands when his wrath was inflamed. They were imprisoned for some time, and were then released upon their humbly imploring the pardon of the governor, expressing their deep regret that they had signed the remonstrance and promising that they would sin in that way, no more. The town itself was punished by the prohibition in future of all town meetings, without the permission of the governor. Indeed the mass of the settlers were no longer to decide upon their local affairs, but a committee of seven persons was to decide all such questions. All who were dissatisfied with these arrangements were ordered to sell their property and leave the town.

It is not necessary to continue the record of this disgraceful persecution. The governor was unrelenting. Whoever ventured to oppose his will felt the weight of his chastising hand.

New Amsterdam consisted of wooden houses clustered together. The danger from fire was very great. The governor imposed a tax of a beaver skin, or its equivalent upon each householder to pay for two hundred and fifty leather fire buckets and hooks and ladders, to be procured in Holland. He also established a "rattle watch" to traverse the streets from nine o'clock in the evening until morning drum-beat.

Stuyvesant would allow nothing to be done which he did not control. The education of the young was greatly neglected. Jacob Corlaer opened a school. The governor peremptorily closed it, because he had presumed to take the office without governmental permission. To establish a place of amusement the governor formed a village called Haarlem, at the northern extremity of Manhattan island. He also constructed a good road over the island, through the forest, "so that it may be made easy to come hither, and return to that village on horseback or in a wagon." A ferry was also established to Long Island.

Staten Island was a dreary waste. It had not recovered from the massacre of 1655. Efforts were made to encourage the former settlers to return to their desolated homes, and to encourage fresh colonists to take up their residence upon the island. To promote the settlement of the west side of the North river, Stuyvesant purchased from the Indians, all the territory now known as Bergen, in New Jersey.

This purchase comprised the extensive region,

"beginning from the great rock above Wiehackan, and from there right through the land, until above the island Sikakes, and from there to the Kill van Col, and so along to the Constables Hook, and thence again to the rock above Wiehackan."

The settlement at Esopus, was in many respects in a flourishing condition. But it was so much more convenient for the farmers to have their dwellings in the midst of the fields they cultivated, instead of clustering them together in a compact village, that they persisted in the dangerous practice, notwithstanding all the warnings of the governor. There were individuals also who could not be restrained from paying brandy to the savages for their peltries The intoxicated Indians often committed outrages. One of the settlers was killed. The house and outbuildings of another were burned. The Dutch retaliated by destroying the cornfields of the Indians, hoping thus to drive them to a distance. At this time, in May, 1658, there were about seventy colonists at Esopus. They had widely extended fields of grain. But the Indians were becoming daily more inimical, and the alarmed colonists wrote to Govern or Stuyvesant, saying,

"We pray you to send forty or fifty soldiers to save Esopus, which, if well settled, might supply the whole of New Netherland with provisions."

The governor ordered a redoubt to be built at Esopus, sent an additional supply of ammunition, and taking fifty soldiers with him, went up the river to ascertain, by a personal investigation, the wants of the people. He urged them strenuously to unite in a village, which could be easily palisaded, and which would thus afford them complete protection. The colonists objected that it would be very difficult to remove from their farms, while their crops were ungathered, and that it would be impossible to select a site for the village which would please all. The governor refused to leave the soldiers with them unless they would immediately decide to concentrate in a village. In that case he would remain and aid them in constructing the palisade till it should be completed.

In the mean time messengers were sent to all the neighboring chiefs inviting them to come to Esopus to meet "the grand sachem from Manhattan." Sixty of these plumed warriors were soon assembled, with a few women and children. The governor, with two followers and an interpreter, met them beneath the widespread branches of an aged tree. One of the chiefs opened the interview by a long speech, in which he recounted all the injuries which he conceived that the Indians had experienced from the foreigners. The governor listened patiently. He then replied,

"These events occurred, as you well know, before my time. I am not responsible for them. Has any injury been done you since I came into the country? Your chiefs have asked us, over and over again, to make a settlement among them. We have not had a foot of your land without paying for it. We do not desire to have any more without making you full compensation. Why then have you committed this murder, burned our houses and killed our cattle? And why do you continue to threaten our people?"

There was a long pause, as though the chiefs were meditating upon the answer which should be made. Then one of them rose and, with great deliberation and dignity of manner, said, "You Swannekins," for that was the name they gave the Dutchmen,

"have sold our children drink. We cannot then control them, or prevent them from fighting. This murder has not been committed by any of our tribe, but by a Minnisinck, who now skulks among the Haverstraws. 'Twas he who fired the two houses and then fled. We have no malice. We do not wish to fight. But we cannot control our young men after you have sold them drink."

The best of the argument thus far, was manifestly with the Indians. The irascible governor lost his temper. "If any of your young savages," said he, "want to fight, let them come on. I will place man against man. Nay, I will place twenty against forty of your hotheads. It is not manly to threaten farmers and women and children who are not warriors. If this be not stopped I shall be compelled to retaliate on old and young, women and children. I expect of you that you will repair all damages and seize the murderer if he come among you.

"The Dutch are now to live together in one spot. It is desirable that you should sell us the whole of the Esopus land and move farther into the interior. It is not well for you to reside so near the Swannekins. Their cattle may eat your corn and thus cause fresh disturbance."

The Council was closed with professions of friendship on both sides. The Indians promised to take the suggestions of the governor into careful consideration. The settlers also decided to adopt the counsel of the governor. They agreed unanimously to form themselves into a village, leaving it with Governor Stuyvesant to select the site. He chose a spot at the bend of the creek, where three bides would be surrounded by water. Two hundred and ten yards of palisades formed the sufficient enclosure.

All hands now went to work energetically. While thus employed a band of Indian warriors, in their most showy attire, was seen approaching. It was feared that they were on the war path, and the soldiers immediately stood to their arms. It is undeniable that the Indians seemed ever disposed to cherish kindly feelings when justly treated.

These kind hearted savages fifty in number, notwithstanding all the wrongs which they had endured, came forward and one of them, addressing the governor, said,

"In token of our good will, and that we have laid aside all malice, we request the Grand Sachem to accept as a free present, the land on which he has commenced his settlement. We give it to grease his feet, as he has undertaken so long and painful a journey to visit us."

The labor of three weeks completed the defences. The buildings were reared within the enclosure. A strong guard-house, sixteen feet by twenty-three, was built in the northeast corner of the village. A bridge was thrown across the creek, and temporary quarters were erected for the soldiers. The energetic governor having accomplished all this in a month, left twenty-four soldiers behind him to guard the village, and returned to Manhattan.

In 1658, the little settlement of New Amstel presented quite a flourishing appearance. It had become a goodly town of about one hundred houses, containing about five hundred inhabitants. As many of these were Waldenses, Swedes and emigrants from other nationalities, they seemed to think themselves independent of the provincial authorities at New Amsterdam. The governor therefore visited the place in person, and called upon all to take the oath of allegiance.

There was great jealousy felt by the governor in reference to the encroachments of the English. They were pressing their claims everywhere. They were establishing small settlements upon territory undeniably belonging to the Dutch. English emigrants were crowding the Dutch colonies and were daily gaining in influence. Though they readily took the oath of allegiance to the Dutch authorities, all their sympathies were with England and the English colonies.

The Directors of the Company wrote to Stuyvesant recommending him

"to disentangle himself in the best manner possible from the Englishmen whom he had allowed to settle at New Amstel. And at all events not to admit any English besides them in that vicinity, much less to allure them by any means whatever."

There were many indications that the English were contemplating pressing up from Virginia to the beautiful region of the Delaware. The Directors urged Stuyvesant to purchase immediately from the Indians the tract of land between Cape Henlopen and Bombay Hook. This contained a frontage on Delaware bay of about seventy miles.

"You will perceive," they wrote,

"that speed is required, if for nothing else, that we may prevent other nations, and principally our English neighbors, as we really apprehend that this identical spot has attracted their notice. When we reflect upon the insufferable proceedings of that nation not only by intruding themselves upon our possessions about the North, to which our title is indisputable, and when we consider the bold arrogance and faithlessness of those who are residing within our jurisdiction, we cannot expect any good from that quarter."

In the autumn of this year a very momentous event occurred. Though it was but the death of a single individual, that individual was Oliver Cromwell. Under his powerful sway England had risen to a position of dignity and power such as the nation had never before attained. A terrible storm swept earth and sky during the night in which his tempestuous earthly life came to a close. The roar of the hurricane appalled all minds, as amid floods of rain trees were torn up by the roots, and houses were unroofed. The friends of the renowned Protector said that nature was weeping and mourning in her loudest accents over the great loss humanity was experiencing in the death of its most illustrious benefactor. The enemies of Cromwell affirmed that the Prince of the Power of the Air had come with all his shrieking demons, to seize the soul of the dying and bear it to its merited doom.

Scarce six months passed away ere the reins of government fell from the feeble hands of Richard, the eldest son and heir of Oliver Cromwell, and Monk marched across the Tweed and paved the way for the restoration of Charles the Second.

To add to the alarm of the Dutch, Massachusetts, taking the ground that the boundary established by the treaty of Hartford, extended only "so far as New Haven had jurisdiction," claimed by virtue of royal grant all of the land north of the forty-second degree of latitude to the Merrimac river, and extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean. The forty-second parallel of latitude crossed the Hudson near Red Hook and Saugerties. This boundary line transferred the whole of the upper Hudson and at least four-fifths of the State of New York to Massachusetts.

In accordance with this claim, Massachusetts granted a large section of land on the east side of the Hudson river, opposite the present site of Albany, to a number of her principal merchants to open energetically a trade with the Indians for their furs. An exploring party was also sent from Hartford to sail up the North river and examine its shores in reference to future settlements. The English could not enter the Hudson and pass fort Amsterdam with their vessels without permission of the Dutch. This permission Stuyvesant persistently refused.

"The Dutch," said the inflexible governor,

"never have forbidden the natives to trade with other nations. They prohibit such trade only on their own streams and purchased lands. They cannot grant Massachusetts or any other government any title to such privilege or a free passage through their rivers, without the surrender of their honor, reputation, property and blood, their bodies and lives."