UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 AT LOS ANGELES
 
 10307 8
 
 MAKERS OF AMERICA" 
 
 PETER STUYVESANT 
 
 DIRECTOR-GENERAL FOR THE WEST INDIA 
 COMPANY IN NEW NETHERLAND 
 
 . 
 
 BAYARD TUCKERMAN 
 
 AUTHOR OF "A LIFE OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE," ETC., ETC. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 
 (D'893 
 
 * fP 90802
 
 Copyright, 1S9S, 
 BY DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY. 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 
 JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.
 
 
 TO 
 
 DR. J. WEST ROOSEVELT.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 ORIGINAL sources of information concerning 
 
 the early Dutch settlers of Manhattan Island 
 
 are neither many nor rich. The two volumes 
 
 of Holland Documents, published by the State 
 
 of New York, contain the official papers of the 
 
 colony and the West India Company. Some 
 
 contemporary descriptions exist, of which Van 
 
 der Donck's is the best. But the Dutch wrote 
 
 ^ very little, and on the whole their records are 
 
 ? meagre. Concerning their social conditions, 
 
 H the best authority is to be found in the pro- 
 
 -1 ceedings of the burgomasters and schepens, 
 
 E preserved in the City Hall and in the books of 
 
 L the Surrogate's and Register's offices. These 
 
 sources and the collections of the New York 
 
 Historical Society have been relied upon in the 
 
 preparation of this book. The author's thanks 
 
 are due to Mr. WILLIAM KEBBY, Librarian of 
 
 the Historical Society. 
 
 THE BENEDICK, NEW YORK, 
 March, 1893.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Settlement of Manhattan Island by the Dutch West 
 India Company. Administrations of Directors 
 Peter Minuit, Wouter van Twiller, and Wilhelm 
 Kieft 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Administration of Peter Stuyvesant ... 57 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Social Aspect of New Amsterdam in the Time of 
 
 Peter Stuyvesant 103 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 New Amsterdam becomes New York . . . 169
 
 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 SETTLEMENT OF MANHATTAN ISLAND BY THE DUTCH 
 WEST INDIA COMPANY. ADMINISTRATIONS OF GOV- 
 ERNORS PETER MINUIT, WOUTER VAN TWILLER, AND 
 WILHELM KIEFT. 
 
 ON the morning of the 4th of September, 1609, a 
 few Indians wandering upon the shore of Sandy 
 Hook, were surprised by the sight of a ship sailing 
 slowly along the coast. They fled inland, spreading 
 among their tribe the news of the strange appari- 
 tion. The vessel, carefully sounding as it went, 
 rounded the Hook and cast anchor in the waters of 
 what is now known as the lower bay of New York. 
 
 A century of maritime and colonial enterprise had 
 begun, which was to make familiar to Europe the 
 continents of Asia, Africa, and America ; to witness 
 the foundation of new empires, and to broaden in- 
 definitely the horizon of human activity. As yet, 
 colonization in America had made little progress. 
 Spaniards under Menendez had built the fort at St. 
 Augustine in 1565. A few settlers in Virginia had 
 been struggling since 1607 under the leadership of 
 Captain John Smith. In 1608, Champlain planted
 
 8 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 the cross and the fleur-de-lys at Quebec. Now, in 
 1609, the flag of the United Netherlands was car- 
 ried by Henry Hudson up the river which bears his 
 name. 
 
 The Dutch, who thus entered into competition 
 with Spain, England, and France for the possession 
 of American territory, were in the heroic period of 
 their history. Industry and fortitude, .qualities es- 
 sential to their existence, had been impressed on 
 the national character. Possessing a land situated 
 in great part below the level of the sea, and liable 
 to overflow besides from the fresh waters of the 
 Rhine, persevering toil had shut out the tides of the 
 Atlantic, had confined by great dykes the river be- 
 tween its banks, had changed marshes and inland 
 seas into meadows. The precious territory thus 
 redeemed was turned to such account that visitors 
 from other nations of Europe were astonished at 
 the aspect of Dutch cultivation. The towns promi- 
 nent on the few elevations which the country af- 
 forded, or in the lowlands intersected by waterways 
 which served for streets, were hives of wealth-pro- 
 ducing industry. Merchandise from every corner 
 of the civilized world was floated through the quiet 
 canals up to the warehouse doors. A soil too re- 
 stricted to sustain its population by agriculture made 
 foreign commerce the basis of prosperity. Dutch 
 ships carried for every nation, making Amsterdam 
 and The Hague markets where all the world came 
 to buy. The destiny of the country was well ex- 
 pressed by the stamp on an old Zealand coin, a 
 sceptred king riding over the waves on a sea-horse,
 
 SETTLEMENT OF MANHATTAN ISLAND. 9 
 
 with the device, "Your road is upon the sea, and 
 your paths are in many waters." The motto of the 
 noble order of the Golden Fleece, which declared 
 the wages of labour to be honourable, indicated the 
 spirit of industry which animated the higher as well 
 as the lower ranks of Dutch society. 
 
 It was natural that a people so intelligent and 
 self-reliant should rest uneasily under the weight of 
 arbitrary power and the Roman Inquisition. From 
 an early period, the provinces of the Netherlands 
 had enjoyed an exceptional degree of political lib- 
 erty. The large towns managed their own affairs 
 as semi-independent corporations, while the nobles 
 ruled on their estates in accordance with liberal cus- 
 toms which had the force of law. The principles 
 of the Reformation rapidly gained adherents. The 
 efforts of the Inquisition to stifle religious thought 
 at the gallows and the stake were met by rebellion 
 and image-breaking. Charles the Fifth of Spain, of 
 whose vast inheritance the Netherlands formed a 
 part, abdicated his throne in time to avoid the solu- 
 tion of the problem presented by Dutch political 
 and religious liberty. But in 1555 he had brought 
 his son Philip to the Netherlands, and had intro- 
 duced to the provinces their future master. In the 
 security of his palace at Madrid, the monarch who 
 combined most completely an ignorant bigotry with 
 a relish for human blood, brooded over a plan to 
 extirpate every Dutchman not wholly devoted to the 
 Roman Inquisition and the absolute authority of the 
 Spanish crown. In 1567 Philip had decided upon 
 the method, had received the approval of the earthly
 
 10 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 representative of Christ, and had appointed the Duke 
 of Alva to carry out the holy work. The duke 
 arrived in the Netherlands with his boxes of death- 
 sentences signed in blank by Philip, and ten thou- 
 sand picked veterans from the Spanish army, to 
 which were added the king's troops already in the 
 country. Against this force the Netherlands had 
 almost none to oppose. Alva, holding the king's 
 commission, had the law on his side. In several 
 of the provinces the Catholics predominated, and 
 welcomed what they considered a holy crusade 
 against heretics. Moreover, the lack of union 
 among the provinces enabled Alva to proceed 
 against each one separately. Thus for a time the 
 Dutch could only suffer. Three men stood pre- 
 eminent as leaders, William of Orange, and the 
 counts Egmont and Horn. William foresaw the 
 object of Alva's mission, and left the Netherlands 
 in time to save a life which was to be his country's 
 salvation. Egmont and Horn, trusting in Philip's 
 treacherous promises, remained to lose their heads. 
 In the course of a few years, Alva and his Council 
 of Blood had taken the lives of eighteen thousand 
 persons by the hand of the executioner alone. The 
 sword, the rope, the stake and the rack were sup- 
 plied to their full capacity with victims whose crime 
 was a belief in the reformed religion. Tortures 
 which surpassed the ingenuity of savage races ex- 
 torted from innocent servants accusations against 
 equally innocent masters, which sent accuser and' 
 accused together to the scaffold. 
 
 The resistance to Alva and the Spanish armies
 
 SETTLEMENT OF MANHATTAN ISLAND. 1 1 
 
 could be made only by isolated towns which had 
 none but their burghers and families to defend the 
 walls. The endurance and valour displayed by the 
 citizens of Haarlem, Leyden, Maestricht, and Alk- 
 maar hardly find a parallel in history. Men, women, 
 and children resisted for months the famine within 
 as well as the veterans without. Leyden, reduced to 
 the last extremity of starvation, held out until Dutch- 
 men opened gaps in the dykes, led the waters of 
 the Atlantic over the land, and forced the besiegers 
 to abandon their exhausted prey. Of the character 
 of the war waged by the Spanish generals, the fate 
 of Maestricht is a sufficient example. After defend- 
 ing their walls for four months against the Spanish 
 veterans, the burghers and their wives were sur- 
 prised in their sleep. The city had contained over 
 thirty thousand inhabitants before the siege, occu- 
 pied in flourishing industries. All those who had 
 survived the previous fighting were put to the sword, 
 except four hundred whom sheer fatigue of slaughter 
 allowed to escape. They wandered away, and the 
 town became a shelter for camp-followers and vaga- 
 bonds. Such was the system chosen by Philip to 
 tempt his Dutch subjects back to the fold of the 
 Roman Church. After all the executions and the 
 massacres, it was wonderful that there remained 
 men or spirit enough to rise against the oppressor. 
 But, as Sir Philip Sidney said to Queen Elizabeth, 
 the spirit of the Dutch was the spirit of God, and 
 was invincible. 
 
 Through these years of suffering, the hearts of 
 the Netherlander had turned to William of Orange
 
 12 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 as the only hope of their need. He had sold or 
 mortgaged all his property to procure the means to 
 hire soldiers to fight the Spanish, but the merce- 
 naries which he could collect had been of little 
 avail against the trained veterans of Philip. The 
 patient fortitude of William the Silent proved supe- 
 rior, at last, to Spanish force. The Protestant 
 provinces, hitherto divided, united under his stand- 
 ard. In 1579, the Union of Utrecht arrayed the 
 country under William, and from that hour the tide 
 turned. During forty years of war, Holland and 
 Zealand led the other Protestant provinces in de- 
 stroying and expelling the armies of Spain ; and 
 during these years of struggle, the rebellious pro- 
 vinces rose to an extraordinary height of prosperity. 
 On the other hand, Hainault and Brabant (now 
 Belgium), which submitted to the rule of Philip, 
 sank into complete desolation. The withering rule 
 of the Inquisition and the Spanish soldiery so re- 
 duced the country that its inhabitants deserted it. 
 The suburbs of Antwerp were abandoned to wolves, 
 that reared their young in once prosperous human 
 dwellings ; the crops ceased to be planted ; Catholic 
 nobles who had lived in feudal pomp on their estates 
 were seen begging for bread in the streets of Pro- 
 testant Amsterdam and The Hague. From such a 
 fate Holland and Zealand escaped by a desperate 
 struggle of forty years against the power of Spain, 
 when that power was the greatest in Europe, and 
 was supported by the treasures taken from South 
 American mines. In William the Silent, the Dutch 
 had a soldier and statesman whose character ap-
 
 SETTLEMENT OF MANHATTAN 7 ISLAND. 13 
 
 preaches more nearly to Washington's than that of 
 any leader of men recorded in history. William 
 was assassinated in 1584 by a hireling of Philip; 
 but he left a son known as Prince Maurice of Nas- 
 sau, who lived to be the first captain of his time, 
 and to complete the work of national independence 
 begun by his father. 
 
 Great as were the victories won by the armies of 
 Holland, they were surpassed by the prowess of her 
 seamen. From every port on the coast sailed pri- 
 vateers to prey on the commerce of Spain. Galleons 
 from America, merchant- men from the East Indies, 
 trading-vessels from European ports, ships which 
 had carried their cargoes safely for thousands of 
 miles were captured as they entered their own har- 
 bours, and brought as prizes into the Dutch canals. 
 As navigators and sea-fighters there was no compari- 
 son to be made between the two nations. In 1602, 
 Jacob Heemskerk, with two small vessels containing 
 together one hundred and thirty men.captered in 
 the Straits of Malacca a great Lisbon carrack manned 
 by eight hundred men, and divided among his sailors 
 a booty of a million florins. Wolfert Hermann, with 
 five trading-vessels and three hundred men, put to 
 flight off the coast of Java the fleet of twenty- five 
 large ships which Mendoza had brought to punish 
 the islanders who had dared to trade with the ene- 
 mies of Philip and the Pope. In 1607, Admiral 
 Heemskerk discovered the Spanish war-fleet com- 
 manded by Don Juan Alvarez d'Avila at anchor in 
 the Bay of Gibraltar under the guns of the fortress. 
 Heemskerk had twenty-six small vessels, several of
 
 14 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 which could not be brought into action. D'Avila 
 had twenty-one sail, of which ten were galleons of 
 the largest size, containing four thousand soldiers. 
 Heemskerk attacked at one o'clock, and by evening 
 every Spanish ship had been destroyed with the 
 crews and soldiers, while the Dutch lost not a single 
 vessel and only one hundred men. 
 
 Spain had exhausted her resources in vain to 
 reduce the rebellious provinces to political and re- 
 ligious subjection. The treasures which were to pay 
 her soldiers had been wrested from her on the seas. 
 While she was poor and defeated, the Netherlands 
 were rich and victorious. Her pride could not yet 
 recognize that independence which the provinces 
 had won ; but she consented eagerly to a truce of 
 twelve years, in which to regain energy to renew the 
 struggle. This truce, which began in 1609, was 
 not generally acceptable in the Netherlands. Prince 
 Maurice led a powerful party, which preferred to 
 continue a war which gratified the national desire 
 for revenge at the same time that it filled with 
 treasure the warehouses of the towns. But the 
 peace-party, under the guidance of John of Barne- 
 velt, carried the day, and a brief period of repose 
 intervened before the Thirty Years' War. 
 
 The national energies called into being by the 
 conflict with Spain immensely increased the mari- 
 time enterprise of Holland, and eventually made 
 Dutchmen supreme on the seas. In 1596, Corne- 
 lius Houtman doubled the Cape of Good Hope and 
 showed his countrymen the way to India. The 
 India trade increased so rapidly that the States-
 
 SETTLEMENT OF MANHATTAN ISLAND. 15 
 
 General, fearing the results of excessive competition, 
 compelled all Dutchmen thus engaged to unite in a 
 single organization. Thus, in 1602, was formed the 
 great Dutch East India Company, which expelled 
 the Portuguese from India, captured Spanish prop- 
 erty all over the world, and grew into an unexampled 
 commercial power. 
 
 In 1609 this Company, hoping to find a northern 
 passage to India shorter than that around the Cape 
 of Good Hope, was looking about for a suitable 
 explorer. He was found in Henry Hudson, an 
 Englishman who had already made two arctic voy- 
 ages in the employment of the London Trading 
 Company, and who had shown himself to possess 
 the necessary intrepidity, perseverance, and know- 
 ledge of navigation. The East India Company 
 placed him in command of the " Half-Moon," a 
 small vessel manned by a picked crew of Dutch and 
 English sailors, and he set sail from Amsterdam 
 on the 25th of March, 1609. Ice and fog having 
 balked his efforts to pass either to the south or the 
 north of Nova Zembla, he sailed westward along the 
 coast of North America from Newfoundland to Vir- 
 ginia ; then turning again to the north, he followed 
 the shore as far as the mouth of the great North 
 River. Hoping that a passage might here exist to 
 the north and west around the Pole, he sailed up 
 the river as far as the site of Albany. He traded 
 with the Indians, and gave them their first taste of 
 intoxicating liquor. He observed the beauty and 
 fruitfulness of the land, the remarkable adaptation 
 of the waters to the purposes of commerce, and
 
 1 6 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 returned down the river, disappointed in his object 
 of finding a northwest passage to India, but confi- 
 dent that he had made a discovery valuable to his 
 employers. The " Half-Moon " soon after made 
 port at Dartmouth, England, where the authorities, 
 jealous of Dutch interference in America, forbade 
 Hudson to proceed to Holland. But the vessel, 
 with maps and descriptions of the new discoveries, 
 reached the Dutch East India Company at a propi- 
 tious moment. 
 
 The truce with Spain made it necessary to find 
 new outlets for the maritime enterprise which had 
 grown so fast during the war, and many ship-owners 
 in Holland now turned their attention to America. 
 During the five years following Hudson's discovery, 
 the coasts were explored and the advantages of the 
 fur-trade determined. Hendrick Christiansen and 
 Adrian Block especially distinguished themselves. 
 Block's ship having been burned at Manhattan 
 Island, he built himself a new one on the spot, called 
 the " Restless," in which he explored Long Island 
 Sound and Cape Cod, and discovered the island 
 which still bears his name. In 1614, the territory 
 made known by Hudson and Block was formally 
 named New Netherland by the States-General, and 
 the monopoly of trade conceded to the Amsterdam 
 Trading Company. This association kept up a 
 small station on Manhattan Island and another up 
 the river in the Mohawk country, and prosecuted the 
 fur-trade for several years. A few agents lived at 
 each station in log-huts, bartered Dutch trinkets for 
 beaver-skins collected by the Indians, and were
 
 SETTLEMENT OF MANHATTAN ISLAND. 17 
 
 visited in their solitude at regular intervals by an 
 Amsterdam ship, which brought supplies and carried 
 home the peltry. In 1618 the Company's charter 
 expired, and the States-General refused to grant a 
 new one, as they had more extensive plans in view 
 for New Netherland. The marvellous success of 
 the East India Company as a commercial institution, 
 and as an instrument for inflicting injury on the he- 
 reditary enemies of Holland, convinced the States- 
 General that their new possessions would be utilized 
 to the best advantage by similar means. Therefore 
 in 1621 was incorporated for twenty-four years the 
 West India Company, with exclusive power to plant 
 and govern colonies, to prosecute trade, and to wage 
 war against national enemies in the West Indies and 
 America. The government of this commercial and 
 military monopoly was intrusted to a board of nine- 
 teen directors, called the College of the XIX., of 
 which Amsterdam furnished eight, Zealand four, 
 The Maas two, North Holland two, Friesland and 
 Groningen two, and the States-General one. 
 
 The first agricultural colonists were sent out in 
 the ship "New Netherland" in 1623, and culti- 
 vated the fertile lands along the shore of the East 
 River. Soon after, several families of Walloons, per- 
 secuted Protestants from the Catholic provinces, 
 settled at the Waal-Bogt, now Wallabout Bay, Long 
 Island. Others followed, and under Cornelis Mey 
 and Wilhelm Verhulst a small settlement grew up 
 at the extreme end of Manhattan Island ; a trading- 
 post, called Fort Orange, was erected on the Hud- 
 son, near the present site of Albany, and another,
 
 1 8 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 called Fort Nassau, on the South or Delaware 
 River. These three points in the wilderness marked 
 the only habitations of white men between Virginia 
 and Plymouth. In 1626, Peter Minuit came out as 
 director for the West India Company, and under 
 his administration of seven years much progress was 
 made. The Island of Manhattan was purchased for 
 the Company for twenty- four dollars, a fair sum, 
 considering that the Indians suffered only a slight 
 diminution of their hunting-grounds, and that the 
 land had no value beyond that which the Company 
 could give it by its own expenditure. A block- 
 house, surrounded by a stockade, was erected to 
 serve as a fort on the shore of the Bay. A mill was 
 built, of which the upper room served as a church. 
 The place of a clergyman was taken by a " krank- 
 besoecker," or consoler of the sick, who read the 
 creed and the Scriptures on Sundays. Around the 
 block-house and the Company's counting-room grew 
 up a settlement of small log-huts thatched with 
 reeds. Before the little village lay the beautiful 
 waters of the harbour, and behind it the unbroken 
 forest. Such was Fort Amsterdam in 1630. The 
 settlers were busily and profitably occupied with the 
 collection of furs for export, sailing up the river in 
 sloops, and making journeys into the woods to ex- 
 change cloths and beads from Holland for beaver 
 and other skins. The trade grew rapidly at first. 
 In 1626 the exports were valued at 46,000 guilders ; 
 in 1632 they were worth 143,000 guilders, showing 
 the Company a profit over expenses. And the in- 
 dustry of the colony was not confined to the fur-
 
 SETTLEMENT OF MANHATTAN ISLAND, 19 
 
 trade. A ship of six hundred tons burden, called 
 the " New Netherland,' 1 was built at Manhattan in 
 1631, and sent home loaded with peltry. 
 
 Still, the Dutch possessions in America were no 
 more than trading- posts, and it was evident that the 
 West India Company was unfitted by its military and 
 commercial character for the task of planting per- 
 manent colonies. At the same time, the opposition 
 already made by the English government to the 
 Dutch settlements, and the hostile attitude toward 
 them assumed by the colony of Massachusetts Bay, 
 had made it plain that actual occupation of the soil 
 was necessary to secure possession. The Dutch had 
 little surplus population inclined to emigrate, and no 
 body of men, like the English Non-conformists, who 
 were obliged to build up a home in a distant wil- 
 derness for the sake of religious freedom. There- 
 fore, the Directors of the Company had to devise an 
 artificial Method of colonization. 
 
 The people of Holland were divided into three 
 classes : the noble families owning land ; the bur- 
 ghers who controlled the cities, and the common 
 people. Many Of the burghers were rich, and 
 sought to enter the highest class by the possession 
 of land and the feudal rights connected with it. 
 This wish could not be gratified in Holland, where 
 the limited territory was held tenaciously by its 
 owners. But the burgher of Amsterdam or The 
 Hague might become the feudal chief of an Amer- 
 ican domain. This idea was embodied in the 
 "Charter of Privileges and Exemptions" adopted 
 in 1630, by which any stockholder in the West India
 
 20 PETER STUYVESANT 
 
 Company who should plant a colony of fifty souls in 
 New Netherland was to acquire title to land six- 
 teen miles in length on one side of a river, or eight 
 in length if situated on both sides, and as far into 
 the interior as the owner could occupy. Such owner 
 was to be called a " Patroon," and to possess the 
 hereditary rights of a feudal noble, power to make 
 laws, to establish courts of justice, and to control 
 hunting, fishing, and the grinding of grains, subject 
 only to allegiance to the States-General. The 
 patroons were allowed to trade along the American 
 coast, and with Europe, on paying a duty of five per 
 cent on the cargoes to the West India Company. 
 The fur-trade was permitted on condition that the 
 exports should be sent through the Company's agents 
 at Manhattan. Thus, colonists were tempted to emi- 
 grate by free transportation and the promise of good 
 lands at a nominal rental, while rich burghers were 
 tempted to assume the expense involved by the pro- 
 spect of attaining the dignity of feudal lords. This 
 plan seemed especially feasible, as wealth had lately 
 been pouring into the coffers of the West India 
 Company. The war with Spain had been renewed 
 after the expiration of the truce in 1621, and the 
 Company had shown itself equal to the East India 
 merchants in making booty of Spanish commerce. 
 In 1628, Peter Heyn, in command of the Com- 
 pany's squadron, met the Spanish " silver fleet " 
 bearing home the spoils of South American mines. 
 Ten galleons were captured off Havana at the first 
 encounter, and the remainder soon after in Matanzas 
 Bay. Heyn brought in all the Spanish vessels ex-
 
 SETTLEMENT OF MANHATTAN ISLAND. 21 
 
 cept two as prizes, together with pure silver worth 
 twelve millions of guilders. The enthusiasm was 
 great throughout Holland, and the West India Com- 
 pany declared a dividend of fifty per cent. 
 
 Chief among those who now sought the honours 
 of patroonship was Kiliaen Van Rensselaer, a wealthy 
 jeweller of Amsterdam. In 1630, he purchased from 
 the Indians, through the Company's agent at Fort 
 Orange, a great tract of land lying on the river to 
 the north and south of the fort. He made good his 
 title by sending out emigrants, and thus planted 
 the colony of Rensselaerwyck. Two other directors 
 of the Company, Godyn and Blommaert, secured 
 lands on the Delaware or South River, their patent 
 ante-dating by two years that given by Charles I. to 
 Lord Baltimore. Michael Pauw soon afterward pur- 
 chased from the Indians Staten Island and Paulus 
 Hook, the site of Jersey City, to which he gave the 
 name of Pavonia. But the rapidity with which these 
 enterprising directors had seized upon the best terri- 
 tory excited so much jealousy among their colleagues 
 that they were obliged to share their acquisitions 
 with other members of the Company by taking them 
 into partnership. The same jealousy caused the 
 recall of Peter Minuit, who, as director, had con- 
 firmed the obnoxious grants. The influence of Van 
 Rensselaer was still strong enough to enable him to 
 procure the appointment to the directorship of 
 Wouter van Twiller, who had married his niece, and 
 had served as his agent in shipping colonists and 
 cattle to Rensselaerwyck, but who was only a clerk 
 in the Company's employment, and quite unfit for 
 the responsibility of the post.
 
 22 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 Van Twiller arrived 1 in New Netherland in the 
 spring of 1633, bringing with him one hundred sol- 
 diers, the first military garrison of the place. Other 
 important fellow- passengers were Everardus Bogar- 
 dus, the first clergyman, and Adam Roelandsen, the 
 first schoolmaster. Besides these were two emi- 
 grants, Govert Loockermans and Jacob van Cou- 
 wenhoven, destined to play a leading part in their 
 adopted country. Var; Twiller proceeded to spend 
 the Company's money with a generous hand. The 
 room over the mill, hitherto used for religious ser- 
 vices, was now too small for the growing congrega- 
 tion. A wooden church of rude design was built at 
 the corner of Pearl and Broad streets, with a house 
 for Domine Bogardus, overlooking the East River. 
 The block-house was changed into something like a 
 fort, with barracks for the newly arrived soldiers. 
 Three windmills were set up, injudiciously to the 
 north of the fort, where they lost the force of the 
 south wind. Houses were built for the director and 
 other officers of the Company, for the cooper, the 
 smith, and the midwife. Van Twiller confirmed the 
 Company's title to land on the west of the Connecti- 
 ticut River by purchase from the Indians, and to 
 protect the claim, erected a fort called the Good 
 Hope on the present site of Hartford. 
 
 In 1633, a Dutch sea-captain named De Vries, 
 who had entered into partnership with two of the 
 Amsterdam directors for the establishment of a 
 patroonship, brought his vessel to Manhattan. De 
 Vries belonged to the class of bold seamen who had 
 rendered such great service to Holland, and he forms
 
 SETTLEMENT OF MANHATTAN ISLAND. 23 
 
 the most interesting figure among the Dutchmen 
 connected with the early history of New Netherland. 
 He rejoiced in an opportunity to lay his ship along- 
 side a Dunkirk pirate, and thought nothing of en- 
 gaging two or three Spaniards at once. While he 
 was making the acquaintance of Van Twiller and 
 the people at the fort, an English vessel named the 
 " William " came up the Bay. In command of her 
 was Jacob Elkens, a Dutchman formerly in the ser- 
 vice of the West India Company at Fort Orange and 
 dismissed for dishonesty in 1623. Having entered 
 the service of Englishmen, he now announced his 
 intention to take the " William " up the river to his 
 old station, to trade with the Indians. Van Twiller 
 declared that the river belonged to the West India 
 Company of Holland, and that the " William " should 
 not go up. Elkens replied that the river was dis- 
 covered by an Englishman, and that he should carry 
 out his intention. Van Twiller displayed the Orange 
 flag at the fort, and fired three guns'. Elkens ran 
 up the English flag on the " William," and likewise 
 fired three guns. For six successive days Van 
 Twiller contemplated the English vessel riding at 
 anchor with a complacent sense of his authority. 
 But on the seventh morning the "William " weighed 
 anchor, and sailed defiantly past the fort. She was 
 the first vessel to carry the English flag up the 
 Hudson River. Van Twiller's rage was great, and 
 his official action characteristic. Calling the inhabi- 
 tants into the fort, he tapped a cask of beer in front 
 of his house, and taking a glass himself, he called 
 upon the others to drink with him, and to protect
 
 24 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 him from the violence of the Englishmen. The 
 cask was soon emptied, amidst laughter and jeers. 
 De Vries looked upon the scene with contemptuous 
 indignation. The people, he declared, would al- 
 ways help the director in that way, they would 
 even get to the bottom of seven casks of beer to 
 protect him ; but meanwhile the " William " was 
 ascending the river unmolested. Soon after, De 
 Vries taxed Van Twiller in private with his folly. 
 " If it had been my case," he continued, " I should 
 have helped him from the fort to some eight-pound 
 iron beans, and have prevented him from going up 
 the river. The English are of so haughty a nature, 
 they think everything belongs to them. I should 
 send the ship ' Soutberg ' after him, and drive him 
 out of the river." Stung by the taunts of De Vries. 
 Van Twiller embarked his soldiers on the " Sout- 
 berg," a Dutch vessel lying in port, and overtook 
 Elkens while trading with the Indians. With their 
 greatly superior force, the Dutch had no difficulty in 
 confiscating the peltries which Elkens had purchased, 
 and in expelling his ship from the waters of Man- 
 hattan. The director returned from this expedition 
 in a vain-glorious spirit, and looked about for further 
 opportunities to exercise his authority. De Vries 
 ordered his yacht " The Squirrel " to go through 
 Hell Gate to the East on a trading-voyage, as he had 
 a right to do in his quality of patroon. Van Twiller 
 forbade " The Squirrel " to proceed, and ordered the 
 guns of the fort to be trained on the little vessel. 
 At this, De Vries ran up to the fort. "The country 
 is full of fools," he called out to the director and
 
 SETTLEMENT OF MANHATTAN ISLAND. 25 
 
 his secretary. " Why did you not shoot when the 
 Englishman violated your river?" The abashed 
 director withdrew his order, and "The Squirrel" 
 proceeded. Soon after, when De Vries's boat was 
 lying on the beach waiting to convey the captain to 
 his ship, Van Twiller insisted that De Vries should 
 not depart until his vessel had been searched by the 
 officers of the West India Company. Twelve sol- 
 diers were sent down to the shore to stop the boat. 
 De Vries jumped in, and ordered his men to pull off 
 without regard to the soldiers, who " were ridiculed 
 with shouts and jeers by all the by-standers." De 
 Vries left Manhattan after his first visit with a low 
 opinion of the Company's officials. " They know 
 nothing," he declared, " but about drinking. In 
 the East Indies they would not serve for assistants ; 
 but the West India Company sends out at once, 
 as great masters of folks, persons who never had 
 any command before ; therefore it must come to 
 naught." 
 
 Van Twiller's alternate pusillanimity and tyranny 
 made him an unpopular director. Dominie Bogar- 
 dus felt called upon to threaten him with " such a 
 shake from the pulpit as would make him shudder." 
 His honesty was not unquestioned. When replaced 
 by Wilhelm Kieft in 1637, he hired two of the 
 Company's best boweries, or farms ; and it happened 
 that upon these particular boweries had strayed 
 nearly all the Company's cattle, although their pre- 
 vious habit had been to wander over other parts 
 of the island. Van Twiller claimed and kept them 
 as his own property. During his administration the
 
 26 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 population had increased ; but the emigrants were 
 chiefly traders, who looked to peltry instead of to 
 agriculture for their maintenance, so that the colony 
 could not support itself without supplies from Hol- 
 land, which the Company had to send out at great 
 expense. 
 
 The new director proved himself to be a yet 
 more unfortunate selection. Wilhelm Kieft was a 
 bankrupt merchant of Amsterdam, whose portrait, 
 in accordance with Dutch custom, had been nailed 
 on the gallows. There were dark rumours, also, of his 
 having been sent to Turkey with money to ransom 
 Christian captives, and of his having appropriated 
 the money, leaving the captives to their fate. The 
 inferior character of the agents appointed by the 
 West India Company upon which De Vries had 
 commented was the result of two circumstances : 
 the wide field of Dutch activity at the time caused 
 a scarcity of available men, and the best material 
 was required at points where there was fighting as 
 well as trading to be done. Kieft arrived at New 
 Amsterdam in the spring of 1638, and his early 
 labours were suggestive of the new broom. He 
 placed on record the condition in which he found 
 the settlement : the fort in decay, the guns dis- 
 mounted ; of the three windmills, one burned, 
 another useless ; the church and the counting-house 
 out of repair. The prosecution of the fur-trade by 
 individual settlers had prevented agricultural de- 
 velopment, and had cut down the profits of the 
 Company's monopoly. 
 
 Kieft reorganized the administration. Cornelius
 
 SETTLEMENT OF MANHATTAN ISLAND. 27 
 
 van Tienhoven (formerly the book-keeper) became 
 provincial secretary, a good choice only so far as 
 his handwriting was considered. The Council was 
 improved by the addition of Johannes de la Mon-. 
 tagne, a Huguenot physician of high character. 
 The Company's buildings were repaired, a strenuous 
 prohibition was issued against the participation of 
 private persons in the fur-trade, and the morals of 
 the people, which their isolated condition had caused 
 to degenerate below the standard of the fatherland, 
 were regulated to some degree. 
 
 At the same time the States- General of Holland' 
 interfered in the management of the colony much 
 to its advantage. The West India Company sent 
 out few persons besides its clerks and fur-buyers ; 
 the patroonships had .failed as a colonizing system, 
 with the single exception of Rensselaerwyck. Real- 
 izing that under the Company's narrow commercial 
 policy the fertile province of New Netherland re- 
 mained undeveloped while the colonies of New 
 England advanced with rapid strides, the States- 
 General abolished the exclusive privileges of the 
 Company, and threw open the Hudson River trade' 
 to all comers. The loss of its monopoly forced the 
 directors into agricultural colonization as a means of 
 giving value to their lands. Tempting inducements 
 to farmers were now held out : the Company's ves- 
 sels conveyed colonists without charge, and land 
 ready for the plow, together with the use of house, 
 barn, and cattle, were promised at a low rental. 
 These changes of management produced an imme-' 
 diate effect. Various persons employed by the Com-
 
 28 PETER STUYFESANT. 
 
 pany at Manhattan left its service to take up farms ; 
 others established themselves in trade, exporting 
 peltries, and importing clothing and provisions. 
 Private vessels arrived, giving to the Bay a new 
 animation. Farmers in considerable numbers em- 
 igrated from Holland, settling at Manhattan, at 
 Paulus Hook, and on Long Island. In a few years 
 Kieft had a thriving colony to govern. Among the 
 arrivals were men who brought property with them. 
 Cornelius Melyn, the new patroon of Staten Island, 
 settled there with his family ; Jochem Pietersen 
 Kuyter, who had seen sendee in the East Indies, 
 established a bowery on the Haarlem River; Dr. 
 La Montagne took up a farm which he called 
 " Vredendal," the Valley of Peace, described 
 as lying " between the hills and the kills and a point 
 on the East River called ' Rechga wanes ; ' " Abra- 
 ham Isaacsen Verplanck settled at Paulus Hook ; 
 four brothers named Evertsen cultivated tobacco at 
 Pavonia, and had a tannery on Manhattan Island ; 
 Nicholas Koorn (the sergeant), Hans Kierstede 
 (the surgeon), Jacob van Curler (the inspector of 
 merchandise), and David Provoost (the commis- 
 sary), had small houses close to the fort. Among 
 the soldiers in the barracks was Oloff Stevensen, 
 the founder of the Van Cortlandt family ; Gyspert 
 Op Dyck had charge of Fort Good Hope, on the 
 Connecticut River ; Hendrick and Isaac de Forest 
 began farming ; De Vries, the bold sea-captain, 
 sailed from the Texel with a small colony, which he 
 established on Staten Island. In 1640 an impetus 
 to the colony was given by a new charter agreed
 
 SETTLEMENT OF MANHATTAN ISLAND. 2Q 
 
 upon by the States-General and the West India 
 Company, the liberal provisions of which removed 
 many of the obstacles to colonization created by 
 the Company's exclusive powers. Henceforth any 
 inhabitant of New Netherland could take up lands 
 for his own use ; towns could be formed with the 
 privilege of municipal government ; and commer- 
 cial freedom was promised to all persons, subject 
 only to export and import duties payable to the 
 Company. De Vries, who had lately explored 
 the beautiful shores of the Hudson, purchased from 
 the Indians a tract at Tappan, which he called 
 " Vriesendael," containing meadow-land enough to 
 pasture two hundred head of cattle, and a fine 
 stream. Not far from De Vries's new home, and 
 bordering on the Achter Cul, or Newark Bay, 
 Myndert van der Horst, of Utrecht, established a 
 bowery. The settlement of Gravesend was begun 
 by a Huguenot named Anthony Salee, who obtained 
 two hundred acres opposite Coney Island. The 
 site of Brooklyn (then called Marechkaweick) was 
 occupied only by an Englishman named Thomas 
 Belcher. Two of his countrymen, George Holmes 
 and Thomas Hall, lived at Deutel (since called 
 Turtle Bay), a cove on the East River, about two 
 miles above Corlaer's Hook. 
 
 The province of New Netherland soon assumed a; 
 cosmopolitan character. Colonists arrived from Vir- 
 ginia, introducing the cultivation of tobacco, and the 
 cherry and peach trees which afterward became so 
 abundant. The severity of religious censorship in 
 New England sent many of its inhabitants to seek
 
 3O PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 among the Dutch the liberty denied to them at 
 home. Among these was John Underbill, distin- 
 guished in the Pequod War. Persecuted English- 
 men from Lynn and Ipswich settled on Long Island 
 in 1641. Francis Doughty, expelled from Cohasset 
 for preaching that Abraham's children should have 
 been baptized, founded the town of Mespath, L. I., 
 in 1642. John Throgmorton, with thirty-five Eng- 
 lish families, was given land at Westchester. Anne 
 Hutchinson and her son-in-law, the zealous Collins, 
 fleeing before the vengeance of Massachusetts, found 
 their last home at Annie's Hoeck, now called Pel- 
 ham Neck, where the neighbouring Hutchinson's 
 River still preserves the memory of the remarkable 
 woman and her tragic fate. The foreigners who 
 came to -New Netherland were subjected to no re- 
 strictions beyond taking the oath of allegiance to 
 the States-General. So considerable became the 
 demand for land that Kieft purchased from the In- 
 dians the western part of Long Island, extending 
 from Rockaway to Sicktewhacky, or Fire Island Bay, 
 on the south side, and on the north to Martin Ger- 
 ritsen's, near Cow Bay. 
 
 After 1640, Manhattan began to assume more of 
 the appearance of a town. Fairs for the exchange 
 of agricultural products were held periodically near 
 the fort. Most of the business was done by barter ; 
 but beaver-skins, and the Indian beads called 
 "seawant," served as a medium of exchange. The 
 best seawant in America was made by the Long Is- 
 land Indians, who picked up a superior supply of 
 shells on their long beaches. " Good, splendid
 
 SETTLEMENT OF MANHATTAN ISLAND. 31 
 
 seawant, usually called Manhattan's seawant," were 
 worth, when strung, four beads to a stiver, or an 
 English penny. But loose beads were generally of 
 an inferior quality, were regarded as a debased cur- 
 rency, and valued only at six to a stiver. The dom- 
 ine had occasion to complain that contributions 
 at church were too frequently made in loose seawant. 
 Fort Amsterdam became a stopping place for travel-' 
 lers between New England and Virginia, the coast- ' 
 ing vessels regularly putting in to the Bay to trade. 
 The number of visitors thus requiring hospitalities 
 at the fort became embarrassing to Kieft, and in 
 1642 he built a stone " Harberg," or hotel, on the 
 shore of the East River, at the corner of Coenties 
 Lane and Pearl Street, opposite Coenties Slip. The 
 need of a new church had been felt by many per- 
 sons besides Domine Bogardus, and the energy of 
 De Vries brought about its construction. Dining 
 one day with Kieft in the Fort, he told the director 
 that it was a shame to the community that visiting 
 Englishmen should see the " mean barn " in which 
 the domine preached ; that in New England a fine 
 church was always built immediately after the dwel- 
 ling-houses. " We should do the like ; we have fine 
 oak wood, good mountain stone, and excellent lime, 
 which we burn from oyster shells, much better 
 than our lime in Holland." De Vries supported his 
 plea by a subscription of a hundred guilders ; and 
 Kieft, mindful of the fact that the people of Rensse- 
 laerwyck were taking steps to build a new church,, 
 consented to give a thousand guilders on behalf of 
 the Company. The construction was confided to the
 
 32 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 care of Kieft, De Vries, Jan Jansen Dam, who lived 
 conveniently near the Fort, and Jochem Pieter- 
 sen Kuyter, " a devout professor of the Reformed 
 religion." It was decided to have the church in- 
 side the fort for greater protection against the In- 
 dians. To raise the necessary funds then became 
 a difficulty which the cunning of Kieft overcame. 
 A daughter of Domine Bogardus was about to be 
 married. At the wedding feast, " after the fourth 
 or fifth round of drinking," Kieft announced the 
 worthy project in hand, and produced the subscrip- 
 tion list headed by his own name and that of De 
 Vries. Amid the expansive enthusiasm of the occa- 
 sion the company subscribed " richly." Not a few, 
 as the chronicles record, " well repented it " on the 
 morrow ; but " nothing availed to excuse." The con- 
 tracts called for a stone church, in length seventy-two 
 feet, in width fifty, and in height sixteen. John and 
 Richard Ogden of Stamford did the work for twenty- 
 five hundred guilders, with a hundred added for 
 doing it well. English carpenters covered the roof 
 with oak shingles, and completed the finest building 
 in New Netherland. The words, " Anno Domini, 
 1642, William Kieft Director-General, hath the 
 Commonalty built this Temple," were cut in a stone 
 on the front wall. The congregation worshipped 
 here until 1693, when it removed to Garden Street 
 (now Exchange Place). The building was used 
 then by the military until its destruction by fire in 
 1741. In 1 790, workmen, digging the foundations 
 for the Government House on the southern end of 
 the Bowling Green, uncovered the stone in which the
 
 SETTLEMENT OF MANHATTAN ISLAND. 33 
 
 inscription had been cut. It was set up inside the 
 Garden Street church, and there remained to share 
 the fate of that church in the great fire of 1835. 
 
 The commercial system upon which the little 
 Dutch colony had been established contained ele- 
 ments of weakness, which were soon to turn pros- 
 perity into ruin. The New England colonies were 
 peopled by independent men, who came prepared 
 to brave every hardship in a country which they in- 
 tended to make the home of themselves and their 
 descendants forever. They were bound together by 
 powerful religious ties. To them success meant 
 liberty of conscience and a living wrung from the 
 soil of their adopted country by self-denying toil. 
 But the Dutch had won the right to worship God in 
 their own land and in their own way before the " Half 
 Moon" had sailed into the Hudson River. They hadi 
 neither the religious incentive nor the religious ties' 
 of their neighbours. Moreover, the establishment 
 of a permanent home in America was to them, in 
 those early days, an object subordinate to the im-j 
 mediate profits of the fur-trade. Instead of the' 
 complete independence and self-reliance of the 
 English colonists, they had the serious drawback 
 of their subjection to a private commercial Com- 
 pany, and the habit of looking to that distant 
 power, rather than to their own efforts, for em- 
 ployment and aid. 
 
 The requirements of the fur-trade caused an all- 
 important difference in the policy pursued toward 
 the Indians by the English and the Dutch. The 
 New England people sought to avoid complications
 
 34 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 by keeping the savages at arm's length. When in- 
 volved in troubles with them, as in the case of the 
 Pequod War in 1637, they took the offensive at 
 once, and by a vigorous display of power procured a 
 peace of forty years. But it was to the Indians that 
 the Dutch looked for the supply of furs upon which 
 their gains depended. For the, better prosecution 
 of the trade, the Hollanders made long journeys 
 into the woods and encouraged the visits of the 
 Indians to Manhattan. As competition increased, 
 the traders sought to be nearer the base of supply, 
 and made settlements at great distances from the 
 fort, thus extending dangerously the population of 
 the colony. The Indians visiting at the fort were 
 treated too indulgently, allowed to lounge about, get 
 drunk at the taverns, quarrel with one another and 
 the Dutch, and worst of all to become acquainted 
 with the slender defensive resources of the settle- 
 ment. The savages, who at first dreaded a gun as 
 " the devil," no sooner understood its uses, than 
 their eagerness to possess one made arms and am- 
 munition the most profitable medium of exchange. 
 The traders could not resist such a temptation as 
 the offer of twenty beaver- skins for a gun. The 
 people at Rensselaerwyck pushed this trade so far 
 that the Mohawk nation was soon supplied with 
 firearms, by the help of which they exacted tribute 
 from the terror-stricken tribes of Canada, New 
 England, and the Hudson River. At Manhattan, 
 strenuous efforts were made to prevent the sale of 
 guns to the neighbouring savages. But this prohi- 
 bition so greatly aided the tyranny of the Mohawks,
 
 SET7^LEMENT OF MANHATTAN ISLAND. 35 
 
 that the river tribes became exasperated at what 
 they deemed the unjust advantages accorded to 
 their enemies by the Dutch. 
 
 In 1640. when the friendship of the savages had 
 become somewhat alienated by this quarrel, the 
 headstrong Kieft was foolish enough to arouse their 
 active hostility. Finding himself short of provisions, 
 he proceeded to levy a tribute of corn upon the 
 river tribes on the pretext that the Dutch protected 
 them against their enemies. As we learn from De 
 Vries, the Indians refused the payment, on just 
 grounds. The Dutch had never protected them 
 against the oppression of the Mohawks. " Kieft," 
 they said, " must be a very shabby fellow ; he had 
 come to live in their land uninvited, and now sought 
 to deprive them of their corn for nothing." They had 
 paid for everything obtained from the Dutch ; when 
 the Hollanders, "having lost a ship there, built a 
 new one [the "Restless"], they had supplied them 
 with food and other necessaries, and had taken care 
 of them for two winters until the ship was finished. 
 ... If we have ceded to you the country you are liv- 
 ing in," they concluded, " we yet remain masters 
 of what we have retained for ourselves." The 
 estrangement brought about by the injudicious de-j 
 mands of the director soon entailed more serious 
 complications. A trading party in the Raritan coun- 
 try complained of having been attacked by savages ; 
 and the theft of some hogs on Staten Island was tool 
 hastily attributed to the same source. The Dutch 
 were inclined to treat the Indians well, and these 
 difficulties might have been smoothed over. But
 
 36 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 Kieft, as the Company's director, had absolute au- 
 thority in this matter, and he had resolved upon a 
 violent policy. He now sent a party of seventy men 
 into the Raritan country to seek reparation or re- 
 venge. Van Tienhoven, the secretary, who was 
 placed in command, shared the director's animosity 
 toward the Indians, and allowed his men to kill and 
 plunder without attempting a peaceful negotiation. 
 By such ill-advised injustice was made inevitable a 
 condition of active war. It was not long before the 
 Raritans had responded by burning De Vries's build- 
 ings on Staten Island, killing four of his men, and 
 thus destroying that promising colony. 
 
 While this unnecessaiy quarrel with the Raritans 
 was in progress, an avoidable difficulty arose with 
 the Weckquaesgeeks of Westchester. About ten 
 years before this time a Weckquaesgeek, accom- 
 panied by his youthful nephew, was bringing peltry 
 to New Amsterdam for sale. Some rough Dutch- 
 men met them in the woods near the Kolck (a pond 
 on the site of the Tombs prison), murdered and 
 robbed the Indian, but allowed the boy to escape. 
 JThe latter, having grown to manhood, savage cus- 
 tom required that he should avenge the death of 
 his kinsman. In August, 1641, in pursuance of his 
 obligation, he came down the trail to Manhattan, 
 which skirted the East River. In the woods near 
 Deutel Bay stood the lonely cottage of Claes, the 
 smith. The Weckquaesgeek entered, offered a 
 beaver in trade, and when the smith stooped to 
 take an article from his chest, he killed him at a 
 blow. The demands of the Dutch for the surrender
 
 SETTLEMENT OF MANHATTAN ISLAND. 37 
 
 of the murderer were met by a relation of the pro- 
 vocation and the claim of a just revenge. This cir- 
 cumstance was the more unfortunate, in that it gave 
 Kieft an excuse for the policy of violence upon 
 which he was resolved. The community was averse 
 to extreme measures. The boweries were scattered 
 and defenceless ; while the people living about the 
 fort might be secure, the outlying settlements were 
 in danger of instant destruction. As De Vries de- 
 clared, " It would not be advisable to attack the 
 Indians until we have more people, like the English, 
 who have built towns and villages." Moreover, 
 there were not a few men in New Amsterdam who 
 accused the director of seeking a war to conceal 
 irregularities in his accounts with the Company. 
 Others, again, reminded him that hostilities were 
 not as attractive to them as to the official " who 
 could secure his own life in a good fort, out of which 
 he had not slept a single night in all the years he 
 had been there." In face of this opposition, Kieft 
 endeavoured to shift as much responsibility as he 
 could upon other shoulders. Calling together the 
 heads of families, he submitted to them the question 
 whether or not the murder of Claes Smits should be 
 avenged by the destruction of the village to which 
 the assassin belonged. This, the first popular assem-l 
 bly held upon the territory of New York, elected 
 twelve men to decide the question. These were 
 Jacques Bentyn, Maryn Adriaensen, Jan Jansen Dam, 
 Hendrick Jansen, David Pietersen de Vries, Jacob 
 Stoffelsen, Abram Molenaar, Frederik Lubbertsen, 
 Jochem Pietersen Kuyter, Gerrit Dircksen, George 
 
 90802
 
 38 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 Rapelje, and Abram Verplanck. The Twelve Men 
 gave as the result of their deliberations that " the 
 director send further, once, twice, yea, for the third 
 time, a shallop, to demand the surrender of the 
 murderer in a friendly manner." This failing, re- 
 venge should be sought, but with a proper regard 
 to " God and the opportunity." It would not do to 
 bring a sudden war upon the scattered population. 
 Peaceful relations should be kept up, and meanwhile 
 the director should prepare arms for the soldiers 
 and freemen. Finally, in case war became unavoid- 
 able, they hinted that Kieft himself " ought to lead 
 the van." 
 
 The director was little pleased with this result. 
 In January, 1642, he called the Twelve Men to- 
 gether again, represented to them that the mur- 
 derer of Claes had not been surrendered, and that 
 a favourable moment for reprisals had arrived, the 
 Indians being dispersed on their hunting expeditions. 
 Kieft's authority was nearly unrestricted in the col- 
 ony. The Council which should have limited it had 
 but one member, Dr. La Montagne. The reader 
 will recollect occasions in history when, on a greater 
 scene and in more important emergencies, the 
 monarch who has sought the assistance of his sub- 
 jects for the prosecution of war has been forced to 
 grant reforms as a preliminary condition. In this 
 situation the director of New Netherland now found 
 himself. The Twelve Men, instead of giving the 
 ; expected consent, demanded some of the political 
 privileges to which they had been accustomed in 
 Holland. Four representatives, elected by the peo-
 
 SETTLEMENT OF MANHATTAN ISLAND. 39 
 
 pie, should sit on the Council Board to save " the 
 land from oppression; " the militia should be pro- 
 perly organized ; and every freeman should have 
 liberty to visit and to trade with vessels arriving in 
 port. Kieft promised these concessions, meaning 
 never to carry them out. The Twelve Men then 
 gave their consent to an expedition against the 
 Weckquaesgeeks. This point secured, the director 
 announced that he did not consider that the Twelve 
 had " received from the Commonalty larger powers 
 than simply to give their advice regarding the murder 
 of the late Claes Smits." He then issued a procla- 
 mation in form, dissolving the Twelve and forbidding 
 further political meetings of the people, as tending 
 " to dangerous consequences and to the great injury 
 both of the country and of our authority." 
 
 The long talked-of expedition against the Weck- 
 quaesgeeks took place in March. Kieft declined 
 " to lead the van," and the command devolved upon 
 Ensign Hendrick van Dyck. The guide missed 
 his way, the soldiers wandered aimlessly about, and 
 returned to the fort without firing a shot. The In- 
 dians, discovering from the Dutch trail the danger 
 from which they had escaped, now sent messengers 
 to Manhattan to sue for peace. Van Tienhoven, 
 the secretary, went to Westchester, and at the 
 house of Jonas Bronck, on the Bronx River, a treaty 
 was arranged, by which the Weckquaesgeeks agreed 
 to surrender the murderer. This promise was not 
 fulfilled; but the treaty served to maintain peace 
 for some months. 
 
 The year 1643 opened ominously. In both New
 
 40 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 England and New Netherland prevailed a vague 
 terror of impending Indian troubles. The great 
 sachem Miantonomoh was reported to be circulat- 
 ing among all the tribes to organize a general attack 
 upon the whites. The inhabitants of the boweries 
 distant from Manhattan looked anxiously into the 
 forests about them, hardly doubting from day to day 
 that the war-whoop would resound from them. In 
 an atmosphere so charged with alarms, a slight in- 
 cident might have grave results. One day in Janu- 
 ary De Vries was strolling about the woods near 
 Vriesendael, gun on shoulder, in search of game. 
 Suddenly an Indian, excited by drink, approached 
 the patroon, " stroked him over the arms as a sign 
 of good-will," and thus addressed him : " You are 
 a good chief; when we visit you, you give us milk 
 to drink for nothing. But I have just come from 
 Hackinsack, where they sold me brandy half mixed 
 with water, and then stole my beaver-skin coat." 
 Notwithstanding the patroon's remonstrances, the 
 injured savage declared that he should get his bow 
 and arrows, and kill one of the " roguish Swanne- 
 kins." De Vries, fearful of trouble, hastened over 
 to Hackinsack, Van der Horst's bowery, and warned 
 the inhabitants of the danger which their conduct 
 had provoked. On his return to Vriesendael, there 
 appeared several chiefs of the Hackinsacks and 
 Rechawancks, who related that the harm had al- 
 ready been done. The Indian had shot a Dutchman 
 named Garret Jansen van Voorst, at Hackinsack, as 
 he was thatching a roof. The chiefs had hastened to 
 Vriesendael to offer the blood atonement of money
 
 SETTLEMENT OF MANHATTAN ISLAND. 41 
 
 (the usual Indian expiation of murder), and to se- 
 cure the mediation of De Vries in favour of peace. 
 The latter, knowing the provocation received by the 
 murderer, and that the choice lay between the ac- 
 ceptance of these well-meant offers and a bloody 
 war, himself accompanied the Indians to the fort, 
 and supported their cause. They had much to 
 plead in their favour. " Why do you sell brandy 
 to our young men?" they said to Kieft. "They 
 are not used to it ; it makes them crazy. Even 
 your own people, who are accustomed to strong 
 liquors, sometimes become drunk, and fight with 
 knives. Sell no more strong drink to the Indians, 
 if you would avoid mischief." To their offer of 
 atonement to the widow, Kieft would not listen. 
 The person of the murderer must be surrendered. 
 The Indians replied that this they could not do : 
 he had gone off two days' journey among the Tan- 
 kitekes. Thus the efforts of De Vries to preserve 
 peace were foiled by the obstinacy and bad judgment 
 of Kieft. 
 
 In February, the Mohawks, armed with the guns 
 obtained from the traders at Rensselaerwyck, made 
 their annual descent upon the Algonquin tribes, in 
 the vicinity of Manhattan, to plunder and levy 
 tribute. De Vries awoke one morning to find his 
 bowery filled with hundreds of starved and terror- 
 stricken fugitives, seeking food and protection from- 
 the Mohawks. He had but five men besides him- 
 self to defend Vriesendael. It was the depth of 
 winter, and the river was full of floating ice. But he 
 embarked alone in a canoe, and made his way pain-
 
 42 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 fully to Manhattan, where he asked the director for 
 the assistance of a few soldiers. Kieft refused it. 
 Almost immediately large numbers of fugitive In- 
 dians, including many from Vriesendael, camped 
 with the Hackinsacks near the oyster banks of 
 Pavonia, depending in their danger upon the pro- 
 tection of the Dutch at the fort. The wise De 
 Vries saw the opportunity offered by this emergency 
 to win the lasting gratitude and friendship of the 
 savages. He pointed out earnestly to Kieft that by 
 /affording these people in their hour of suffering the 
 'assistance they asked, the disputes of the past would 
 be forgotten, and a permanent peace secured. 
 
 But Kieft had neither wisdom nor humanity. 
 Hatred of the savages and love of revenge hurried 
 him on his fatal course. The measures to be taken 
 were concerted in secret with some of his boon 
 companions. Accompanied by Van Tienhoven, he 
 went to dine at the house of Jan Jansen Dam, and 
 there met Verplanck and Adriaensen. two oth- 
 ers who had belonged to the Twelve Men. After 
 dinner, the wily Van Tienhoven presented to the 
 director a petition which purported to come from 
 the Twelve Men. In this, it was urged that the 
 murderers of Smits and of Van Voorst had not been 
 given up, that circumstances had placed the savages 
 in the power of the Dutch, and that a favourable 
 moment had arrived to snatch an easy vengeance. 
 The men there present had no right to speak for 
 the Twelve, whom Kieft had formally dissolved in the 
 previous year ; but the excuse of the petition was 
 enough for the purposes of the bloodthirsty direc-
 
 SETTLEMENT OF MANHATTAN ISLAND. 43 
 
 tor. Van Tienhoven and Corporal Hans Steen were ' 
 sent to reconnoitre the position of the Indians, and 
 to plan the attack. There was no lack of opposition 
 to these proceedings. Domine Bogardus protested 
 vehemently ; La Montagne foretold that " war 
 would stalk through the whole country." De Vries 
 learned of the proceedings at Dam's house with 
 disgust and dismay. He went immediately to the 
 fort, and as a former member of the Twelve denied 
 that that body had given its consent or had even 
 been consulted. In vain he pointed out to Kieft the 
 folly of his course, and the certainty that the scat- 
 tered settlers, taken unawares, would be massacred 
 on their boweries. But the director would reply 
 only that his measures had been taken with the 
 consent of the Commonalty, and leading De Vries 
 to the window, pointed out triumphantly the sol- 
 diers drawn up in review within the fort. " Let 
 this work alone ! " cried De Vries ; " you want to 
 break the Indians' mouths, but you will also murder 
 our own people." " The order has gone forth," 
 replied Kieft, obstinately, " it cannot be recalled." 
 
 That night De Vries sat by the kitchen fire in the 
 director's house, sorrowfully reflecting on the crim- 
 inal folly which was plunging the colony into ruin. 
 He was alone in the fort ; not even a sentinel had 
 been left behind. "About midnight," he says, 
 " hearing loud shrieks, I ran to the ramparts of the 
 fort. Looking toward Pavonia, I saw nothing but 
 shooting, and heard nothing but the shrieks of In- 
 dians murdered in their sleep." He had returned 
 sadly to the kitchen fire, when an Indian and his
 
 44 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 squaw, who had escaped from Pavonia in a canoe, 
 burst into the room. "The Fort Orange Indians 
 have fallen upon us," they cried; "we have come 
 to hide ourselves in the fort." " It is no time to 
 hide yourselves in the fort," replied the patroon, 
 who recognized the savages as neighbours at Vries- 
 endael ; " no Indians have done this deed. It is 
 the work of the Swannekins, the Dutch." He 
 led them to the gate of the fort, and pointed to the 
 woods beyond as their only place of safety. 
 
 The night attack upon the unsuspecting Indians 
 resulted in a general massacre of the families at 
 Pavonia and at Corlaer's Hook. Neither women 
 nor children were spared. The next morning 
 the director enjoyed his momentary triumph, and 
 greeted the " Roman achievements " of his soldiery 
 with hand-shakings and gifts of money. 
 
 Kieft's bad example was soon followed by the 
 turbulent element of the Long Island settlers, who 
 wantonly attacked the friendly tribe of Marechka- 
 wiecks, killing several, and stealing their corn. This 
 outrage was the more stupid, as the enmity of the 
 Long Island Indians left the Dutch surrounded by 
 j foes. Eleven tribes now rose in furious war. On 
 the Hudson River, in Westchester, on Long Island, 
 the forests resounded with their cries, and every 
 outlying bowery suffered attack. The farmers, with 
 such of their families as survived, fled to Manhattan, 
 and camped about the fort. The ships in the harbour 
 became crowded with people anxious to. return to 
 Holland. To keep the homeless and angry colonists 
 from starving, Kieft had to take them into the pay
 
 SETTLEMENT OF MANHATTAN ISLAND. 45 
 
 of the Company as soldiers. Even Vriesendael did 
 not escape. The savages destroyed the out-build- 
 ings and gathered crops, while De Vries and his 
 men awaited behind the loopholes of his house the 
 final attack. But at this juncture the Indian whom 
 De Vries had befriended on the night of the Pavonia 
 massacre reminded the attacking party of the pa- 
 troon's constant friendship ; and the savages de- 
 parted, saying that they would do the good chief no 
 more harm, and would even let the brewery stand, 
 although they " longed for the copper kettle to 
 make barbs for their arrows." 
 
 Leaving the smouldering ruins of his beloved 
 Vriesendael, De Vries went down to Manhattan. 
 " Has it not happened just as I said," he demanded 
 of Kieft, " that you were only helping to shed 
 Christian blood?" The director could make no 
 answer. He stammered out his surprise that the/ 
 Indians had not come to the fort to make terms. 
 " Why should they come here," asked De Vries, 
 "whom you have so treated?" 
 
 Kieft was now as much alarmed as he had been 
 confident before, and sent messengers to the Long 
 Island Indians to ask for peace. But the savages \ 
 would not even parley. "Are you our friends?" 
 they cried from a distance. " You are only corn 
 thieves ! " The director's position became daily 
 more uncomfortable. Manhattan was crowded with 
 widows, with fatherless children, with farmers, who 
 mourned the loss of buildings, crops, and relatives. 
 It was winter, and shelter for the homeless was hard 
 to find. Provisions were growing scarce. Dark
 
 46 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 looks and angry words met Kieft at every turn. 
 Within two weeks of his vain boast that he would 
 make the Indians " wipe their chops," he could 
 find no palliation for the calamities which he had 
 brought upon the colony other than to proclaim 
 the fourth of March as a day of fasting and prayer. 
 " We continue to suffer," the proclamation ran, 
 " much trouble and loss from the heathen, and 
 many of our inhabitants see their lives and property 
 in jeopardy, which is doubtless owing to our sins." 
 
 But Kieft's day of fasting did not help him much. 
 A number of burghers talked plainly of putting the 
 director on board of a ship bound for Holland ; oth- 
 ers upbraided him even in the fort. To all he had 
 but one reply to make : the responsibility rested 
 with Adriaensen, Dam, and Verplanck, who, as 
 members of the Twelve, had urged the midnight 
 attack. But the retort of the burghers was con- 
 clusive : " You forbade those freemen to meet, on 
 pain of punishment for disobedience ; how came it 
 then?" Among the most furious was Adriaensen 
 himself, who had not only signed the petition, but 
 had commanded the expedition which murdered 
 forty Weckquaesgeeks at Corlaer's Hook. Ruined 
 by the destruction of his own bowery, and stung 
 by the reproaches of his companions, he resented 
 Kieft's attempt to make him responsible. On the 
 morning of March 21 he forced his way, armed, 
 into the director's room, shouting : " What lies are 
 these you are reporting of me ? " He was arrested. 
 But a party of his friends and servants came to his 
 rescue, and one of them fired at the director. The
 
 SETTLEMENT OF MANHATTAN ISLAND. 47 
 
 man was shot, and his head set upon a pole, while 
 Adriaensen was sent to Holland. 
 
 In this distracted state of the colony Kieft listened 
 at last to De Vries. The latter, accompanied by 
 Jacob Olfertsen, sought out the Indians in the 
 woods, and his influence brought about a peace. 
 But Kieft, persistently wrong, was niggardly with his 
 gifts. The atonement was not sufficient, and De 
 Vries knew well that, although the Indians were will- 
 ing to observe a truce until their corn was planted, 
 the chiefs could not restrain their young men from 
 finally seeking a full revenge for the dead whom 
 they mourned. And so it proved. In August, the 
 Tankitekes of Haverstraw and the Wappingers of 
 the Highlands dug up the hatchet, killing fifteen 
 Dutchmen along the river, and plundering the fur- 
 laden sloops coming down from Fort Orange. 
 
 Kieft called the burghers together to assist him 
 in this new emergency. By them an advisory 
 board was chosen known as the Eight Men, consist- 
 ing of Jochem Pietersen Kuyter, Cornelis Melyn, 
 Jan Jansen Dam, Barent Dircksen, Abraham Pieter- 
 sen, Gerrit Wolfertsen, Isaac Allerton, and Thomas 
 Hall. The first two, Kuyter and Melyn, henceforth 
 took in the affairs of the colony a leading part, 
 which was destined to make much trouble for them 
 in Stuyvesant's time. Allerton, a Mayflower emi- 
 grant, had come to Manhattan from Plymouth. His 
 presence on the board and that of Hall showed thej 
 growing influence of the English in the colony. 
 The Eight Men began their proceedings by expel- 
 ling Dam on account of his part in bringing about
 
 48 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 the Pavonia massacre, and chose in his place Jan 
 Evertsen Bout. The prosecution of hostilities was 
 then authorized. The director took into the Com- 
 pany's service fifty Englishmen, who were about to 
 leave the unhappy colony, and placed at their head 
 Capt. John Underhill, the hardy soldier whose ser- 
 vices to New England in the Pequod War had 
 not prevented his banishment thence for religious 
 differences. 
 
 But, as De Vries had pointed out before, the 
 colony was too scattered to admit of defence. In 
 September, the Weckquaesgeeks murdered Anne 
 Hutchinson and her family at Annie's Hoeck, in 
 Westchester. Lady Deborah Moody's settlement 
 of English people from Salem at Gravesend, Long 
 Island, barely escaped with their lives by hard fight- 
 ing. Doughty's prosperous colony at Mespath was 
 destroyed. The Hackinsacks burned Van der 
 Horst's buildings at Achter Cul. The village at 
 Pavonia was burned in October, and the garrison 
 killed to a man, although Stofifelsen, who was in 
 charge and had shown the Indians kindness, was 
 sent away by them on some pretext before the 
 attack. Van Voorst's little son was made captive, 
 and De Vries had to go into the forest to obtain 
 his release. Thus, from the Highlands to the 
 Honsatonic River, the province of New Netherland 
 was desolated. The surviving farmers camped with 
 their families about the fort. Above the Kolck but 
 a few boweries maintained armed possession. New 
 Amsterdam itself was in danger. Men gathering 
 firewood as far north as Wall Street were constantly
 
 SETTLEMENT OF MANHATTAN ISLAND. 49 
 
 fired at. Van Dyck was shot in the arm while re- 
 lieving guard. Provisions were falling short, and 
 yet Kieft allowed two vessels laden with grain to sail 
 for Curacoa. An application for assistance sent to 
 New Haven by Allerton and Underhill resulted in 
 failure. 
 
 At this sad time New Netherland lost its best 
 friend. De Vries, the bold sea-captain and enter- 
 prising patroon, left the colony forever. His public 
 spirit, his rough wisdom, his tact in dealing with the 
 Indians would have given to New Netherland a 
 happy history had he been in the place of the 
 director. His boweries were in ruins, and the 
 prospect of rebuilding them became daily more 
 remote. A herring-buss from Rotterdam came 
 through Hell Gate, whose skipper had failed to 
 sell his cargo of Madeira in New England " because 
 the English there lived soberly." He wanted a 
 pilot to guide him to Virginia, and De Vries took 
 the opportunity to return to Holland. Before em- 
 barking, the patroon went up to the fort. "The 
 murders in which you have shed so much innocent 
 blood," he said to Kieft, " will yet be avenged 
 upon your own head," a prophecy before long 
 fulfilled. 
 
 During the winter of 1644 the Dutch sent out i 
 expeditions against the Indians in Westchester and | 
 on the great plains of Long Island, under Van 
 Dyck, Kuyter, and Underhill, in which the Christian 
 showed himself to be no less cruel than the heathen. 
 But Kieft was much straitened in his supply of pro- 
 visions for the people, and of ammunition for the
 
 50 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 soldiery. A bill of exchange which he had drawn 
 on the West India Company in the previous autumn 
 had returned protested. The unprofitable wars 
 waged against the Portuguese and Spaniards in 
 South America had brought the Company to bank- 
 ruptcy. At this juncture, a vessel arrived in port 
 with a cargo of supplies sent by the patroon to 
 his colony of Rensselaerwyck. The skipper, Peter 
 Wynkoop, having refused to sell shoes for the sol- 
 diers at Manhattan, Kieft had the ship searched, and 
 finding goods not included in the manifest he con- 
 fiscated both ship and cargo. The ammunition and 
 clothing thus acquired not proving sufficient, the 
 director levied a tax on beer, which excited great 
 opposition among the impoverished people. The 
 Eight Men remonstrated justly, on the ground that 
 the Company had formally agreed to defray all the 
 expenses of war. " I have more power here than 
 the Company itself," replied Kieft; "therefore I 
 may do and suffer in this country what I please. I 
 am my own master,, for I have my commission not 
 from the Company, but from the States-General." 
 Kuyter, Melyn, and Hall of the Eight who went to 
 the fort to protest against the tax were allowed to 
 kick their heels in the director's hall for four hours, 
 and to depart "as wise as they came." In July a 
 Dutch vessel called the " Blue-Cock " arrived from 
 Curacoa, containing a hundred and thirty soldiers 
 sent by Peter Stuyvesant, the governor there. The 
 burghers hailed the arrival of these men as a means 
 of terminating the Indian war during the summer. 
 But Kieft quartered the soldiers on the Common-
 
 SETTLEMENT OF MANHATTAN ISLAND. 51 
 
 alty, and took no warlike steps. All summer, 
 " scarce a foot was moved on land or an oar laid 
 in the water." 
 
 The Eight Men, exasperated by the sufferings of 
 the colony, now apparently interminable, saw that 
 their only hope of redress lay in applications to 
 the States-General and the West India Company. 
 Kuyter and Melyn were the authors of a vigorous 
 memorial sent out in the " Blue-Cock." " Our 
 fields lie fallow and waste," said the Eight ; " our 
 dwellings and other buildings are burnt. The crop 
 which God the Lord permitted to come forth dur- 
 ing the last summer remains on the field, as well as 
 the hay standing in divers places, whilst we poor 
 people have not been able to obtain a single man 
 for our defence. We are burdened with heavy 
 families ; have no means to provide necessaries any 
 longer for our wives and children. We are seated 
 here in the midst of thousands of Indians and bar- 
 barians, from whom is to be experienced neither 
 peace nor pity. We have left our fatherland, and 
 had not the Lord our God been our comfort, must 
 have perished in our wretchedness. There are 
 men amongst us who by the sweat and labour of their 
 hands have been endeavouring at great expense to 
 improve their lands and gardens. ... All these are 
 now laid in ashes through a foolish hankering after 
 war ; for it is known to all right-thinking men here 
 that these Indians have lived as lambs amongst us 
 until a few years ago, injuring no one, affording 
 every assistance to our nation. The director hath, 
 by various uncalled-for proceedings, so estranged
 
 52 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 them from us, and so embittered them against the 
 Dutch nation, that we do not think anything will 
 bring them back, unless the Lord God, who bends 
 all men's hearts to his will, propitiates them." 
 
 The memorials of the Eight Men were considered 
 by the College of the XIX. at the end of 1644. 
 They were conclusive in their description of the 
 misgovernment of the colony, and moreover had the 
 support of De Vries. The West India Company, 
 now bankrupt, was seeking to merge itself with the 
 successful East India Company. An examination 
 into the affairs of New Netherland revealed the fact 
 that instead of the long looked-for profits, the 
 colony had cost, from 1626 to 1644, over five hun- 
 dred and fifty thousand guilders above the receipts. 
 But the College of the XIX. considering that the 
 Company had promised to assist the colony, and 
 that there might yet be some hope for it, resolved 
 that the directors could not " decently or consis- 
 tently abandon it." Kieft's policy was condemned, 
 his acts repudiated, and he and his Council were 
 ordered to Holland to assume responsibility for the 
 " bloody exploit " at Pavonia and Corlaer's Hook. 
 A new director was to be sent out and the admin- 
 istration thoroughly reformed. 
 
 In the spring of 1645 * ne Indians, themselves, 
 weary of war, made proposals of peace. The nego- 
 tiations were long ; but on the 2oth of August the 
 burghers assembled joyfully at the fort, where the 
 articles of the treaty were submitted to their ap- 
 proval. None objected but Hendrick Kip, who 
 opposed all the proposals of the director, on princi-
 
 SETTLEMENT OF MANHATTAN ISLAND. 53 
 
 pie. The next day was set apart as a day of thanks- 
 giving, and in all the English and Dutch churches 
 it was ordered " to proclaim the good tidings 
 throughout New Netherland." But during the five 
 years of war the colony had been nearly depopu- 
 lated ; hardly more than three hundred freemen 
 remained capable of bearing arms, and all were im- 
 poverished. The news of Kieft's repudiation and 
 recall made life at Manhattan very uncomfortable 
 for him. Surrounded by men who attributed to 
 him their ruin, he was often threatened with per- 
 sonal chastisement when he should " take off the 
 coat with which he was bedecked by the lords his 
 masters." All this provoked Kieft to reprisals, and 
 the fort was the scene of constant turmoil. Domine 
 Bogardus arraigned him from the pulpit as " a vessel 
 of wrath and a fountain of woe and trouble ; " to 
 which Kieft replied by causing the garrison to beat 
 drums and discharge cannon about the church dur- 
 ing the time of the domine's discourse. 
 
 The colony at Rensselaerwyck, having kept on 
 good terms with the surrounding Mohawks, had es- 
 caped the Indian war, and formed the most pros- 
 perous portion of New Netherland. Nature was 
 profuse in her gifts. The river abounded with stur- 
 geon and the brooks with trout. Nuts, plums, 
 blackberries, and grapes were to be had on all sides 
 for the picking. The wild strawberries grew so 
 thickly that the children had but to lie down and 
 eat. Deer, turkeys, partridges, and pigeons were 
 abundant. The lazy burgher could get a fat buck 
 from an Indian in exchange for a pipe. Arendt
 
 54 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 van Curler, the agent for the patroon, received the 
 emigrants, allotted them land, and administered a 
 rude justice. In 1642, Domine Johannes Mega- 
 polensis was sent out by the Classis of Alckmaar, 
 and he preached to both Dutch and Indian. The 
 fur-trade was a steady source of income, although 
 the independent traders who came up the river 
 curtailed seriously the patroon's profits. To remedy 
 this abuse, Van Rensselaer ordered Van Curler to 
 stop illicit trading, and to preserve his exclusive 
 rights as the " first and oldest " patroon on the 
 North River. For this purpose, in 1644, Van 
 Curler erected a fort on Beeren Island command- 
 ing both channels of the river, to which he gave 
 the name of Rensselaerstein. The Dutch claim of 
 " staple right " was set up, a toll of five guilders was 
 levied on passing vessels, and all were ordered to 
 strike their colors to the fort in homage to the 
 patroon in whose territory they were. Nicholas 
 Koorn was appointed " wacht-meester " to enforce 
 these rules. In July, Covert Loockermans, a leading 
 burgher of New Amsterdam, was sailing down the 
 river in his sloop, the " Good Hope," laden with 
 furs collected in the country above. As the " Good 
 Hope " floated lazily past the fort, her crew were 
 surprised to hear a cannon discharged thence, and 
 the voice of Koorn from the ramparts, shouting, 
 
 " Strike thy colours ! " 
 
 Loockermans was at the helm. " For whom shall 
 I strike?" he inquired. 
 
 " For the staple right of Rensselaerstein," shouted 
 Koorn, grandly.
 
 SETTLEMENT OF MANHATTAN ISLAND. 55 
 
 '' I strike for nobody," retorted Loockermans, 
 " but the Prince of Orange, or those by whom I am 
 employed." 
 
 The sloop passing defiantly on, three shots were 
 fired from the fort, one of which passed through 
 Loockerman's "princely flag," just above his head. 
 Thus began a long struggle between the authorities; 
 of New Netherland and of Rensselaerwyck. Nich-, 
 olas Koorn was immediately summoned before the 
 Council at Manhattan, and a lively dispute took 
 place between him and Van der Huygens, the 
 schout- fiscal. The latter protested against the 
 patroon's attempt to control the Hudson River, 
 while Koorn maintained the right of the patroon, 
 derived from the States-General, to fortify and pro- 
 tect his colony. And there the contention rested 
 until Stuyvesant's time. 
 
 The other Dutch possessions in America were 
 faring badly. The South or Delaware River had 
 been explored by Hendricksen in 1616, and in 1623 
 a beginning was made by the erection of Fort 
 Nassau, on the Jersey shore, ab~but four miles below 
 Philadelphia. In 1631, the patroon Godyn and his 
 partners established the colony of Swaanendael on 
 the Delaware side. But in 1638 Peter Minuit, the 
 former director of Manhattan, brought a party of 
 Swedes into the river, who built Fort Christina, 
 disregarded Kieft's remonstrances, and by superior 
 enterprise soon made themselves masters in that 
 country. 
 
 The Dutch were still less successful in opposing! 
 the encroachments on their eastern boundaries by
 
 56 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 the English. Western Connecticut belonged by dis- 
 covery and by the erection of Fort Good Hope to 
 New Netherland. But the New England people 
 moved steadily westward, taking up good lands 
 wherever they found them, replying to Dutch re- 
 monstrances that the soil was too rich to be left 
 idle. They settled all around the Fort Good Hope, 
 making that Dutch stronghold the favourite subject 
 of their jokes. The turnips planted by Op Dyck 
 and his men were cooked in New England kettles, 
 and the soldier who objected got a buffeting for his 
 pains. The English ploughman ran his furrows 
 close to the walls of the fort, and complained of the 
 obstruction. The garrison that nominally held Con- 
 necticut for the West India Company found them- 
 selves living in an English community, with the town 
 of Hartford growing up before them. The Dutch 
 claim was undoubtedly good, but there was no force 
 to prevent the all-absorbing English immigration. 
 The New England people were already at Stamford, 
 and the eastern end of Long Island was within their 
 grasp. In 1640, the Lynn emigrants at Cow Bay 
 pulled down the arms of Holland and left in their 
 place "an unhandsome face."
 
 HIS ADMINISTRATION. 57 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION OF PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 THE neglect shown by the West India Company 
 towards its colony of New Netherland had been 
 unavoidable. The conquests in Brazil and other 
 portions of South America had proved so costly 
 and unremunerative, the number and the value of 
 Spanish prizes had so far diminished, that the ces- 
 sation of dividends was followed speedily by bank- 
 ruptcy. The competition of private traders had 
 curtailed the profits of the fur- trade, and New Ne- 
 therland, showing a balance on the wrong side of 
 the ledger, was not an interesting subject to the 
 Company. Indeed, the College of the XIX., sorely 
 pressed by greater troubles, had nearly forgotten its 
 North American possessions, until the information 
 of the Indian wars and the aggressions of the Eng- 
 lish made it evident that a total loss would result 
 from further neglect. There were compunctions of 
 conscience, too, several of the directors declaring 
 that the Company, after the promises it had made, 
 was bound to give assistance to the settlers. A 
 strong man must be sent out who would repair the 
 errors of Kieft, subdue the Indians, and resist the 
 encroachments of the English. The choice fell on 
 Peter Stuyvesant.
 
 58 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 The word " Stuyvesant " signifies " shifting sands," 
 a condition characteristic of parts of the coast of 
 Holland. Peter was the son of Balthazar Stuy- 
 vesant, a clergyman of the Reformed religion. 
 Previous to 1619, Balthazar was settled at Scherpen- 
 zeel, in southern Friesland. In 1622 he removed 
 with his family to Berlicum, in the same province. 
 Thence, in 1634, he went to Delfzil, in Guelderland, 
 where he died in 1637. At Berlicum, on May 2, 
 1625, he lost his wife, Margaretta Hardenstein, who 
 left two children, Peter, and a daughter Annake. 
 On July 22, 1627, he married Styntie Pieters, of 
 Haarlem, by whom he had three more children, 
 Margaretta, Tryncke, and Balthazar. 
 
 Peter had his own way to make ; and his vigour- 
 ous and impetuous character had led him into the 
 adventurous rather than the peaceful paths of Dutch 
 commercial life. His record was well known to the 
 directors of the West India Company, in whose 
 service he had fought the Spaniards and Portuguese 
 in South America, and had been for some years 
 governor of the island of Curacoa. During his 
 command there, he had made a naval attack upon 
 the island of St. Thomas, his conduct of which was 
 ever afterward a subject of contention between 
 his friends and enemies. The former always spoke 
 of it as an instance of his "Roman courage," 
 sufficiently proved by the wooden leg worn in con- 
 sequence of it ; while the latter declared that the 
 undertaking was foolhardy in the beginning, and 
 carried out with such vain bluster that the store 
 of powder in the attacking fleet had been exhausted
 
 HIS ADMINISTRATION. 59 
 
 in a threatening cannonade before the ships got 
 within gunshot of the enemy. It is certain that the 
 attack was unsuccessful, and that Stuyvesant's leg 
 was so badly injured that he was obliged to return 
 to Holland, where it was amputated. He was now 
 walking about on a wooden leg bound with silver 
 bands, and had married, at Amsterdam, Judith, 
 the daughter of Balthazar Bayard, a French pro- 
 testant who had fled to Holland from persecution. 
 The directors of the West India Company took the 
 " Roman-courage " view of the St. Thomas inci- 
 dent, and decided to confide to Peter Stuyvesant 
 the execution of their plans for the regeneration 
 of New Netherland. 
 
 The expedition was liberally fitted out. There 
 were four vessels, the "Great Gerrit," the " Prin- 
 cess," the " Zwol," and the " Raet." A new' 
 Council to assist the director was sent with him, 
 consisting of Hon. Lubbertus Van Dincklage, vice- 
 director of New Netherland and first councillor 
 of New Amsterdam ; Hendrick van Dyck, schout- 
 fiscal; Capt. Bryan Newton, an Englishman who 
 had served under Stuyvesant at Curacoa ; Adriaen 
 Keyser, the commissary ; and Jesmer Thomas, a 
 captain in the Dutch navy. Besides these, there 
 were soldiers and servants, and a number of traders 
 and adventurers. Stuyvesant took his wife with 
 him, and also his sister Annake (the widow of 
 Nicholas Bayard), with her three sons, Balthazar, 
 Peter, and Nicholas. The fleet sailed from the ; 
 Texel on Christmas, 1646. 
 
 In such an enterprise it was necessary that full
 
 6O PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 authority should be vested in the commander ; but 
 Stuyvesant soon showed that to his rightful predom- 
 inance he added an overbearing spirit. For reasons 
 known only to himself, he determined to proceed to 
 Manhattan Island by way of Curacoa. The remon- 
 strances of Van Dyck and others of the Council, 
 who were exhausted by the tedium of the voyage 
 and the unhealthfulness of a tropical climate, met 
 with stern denial. At St. Christopher's the fleet 
 fell in with a vessel called the " Love," whose 
 papers not being satisfactory to Stuyvesant, was 
 made a prize of. 'While the director was sitting 
 in his cabin arranging for the disposal of the prize, 
 the schout-fiscal Van Dyck attempted to take 
 part in the business. "Get out!" roared Stuyve- 
 sant. " Who admitted you into the Council ? When 
 I want you, I'll call you." At Curacoa, poor Van 
 Dyck tried to enter the council-room again with 
 no better success ; and, to teach him who was mas- 
 ter, Stuyvesant never allowed him even a "stroll 
 ashore " during the three weeks that the fleet lay 
 under the tropical sun in the harbour of Curacoa. 
 By the time the long voyage was over, there had 
 ceased to be any doubt as to the extent of the 
 director's authority. 
 
 It was the ayth of May, 1647, before the fleet cast 
 anchor off the fort of New Amsterdam. Great was 
 the joy on board at the view of these beautiful 
 shores, and great was the satisfaction in the little 
 settlement at the prospect of a new governor and 
 new friends. At the fort all the ammunition that 
 remained was consumed in firing salutes, while along
 
 HIS ADMINISTRATION. 6 1 
 
 the bank of the East River gathered the inhabitants 
 with their vrows and children, ready with a hearty 
 welcome. Kieft was there, his feelings divided be- 
 tween satisfaction at relief from his burdensome 
 position and fears as to his treatment by the new 
 authorities ; Melyn and Kuyter, burning for an op- 
 portunity to let the new director know what they 
 thought of the old one ; Van Tienhoven, anxious 
 for his office of colonial secretary ; and the other 
 burghers, ready to forget the past in pleasant 
 anticipations. 
 
 On landing, Stuyvesant proceeded to the fort, 
 whither he was followed by the principal burghers. 
 His bearing, as reported by unfriendly critics, was 
 " like a peacock's, with great state and pomp," and 
 he kept the burghers " for several hours bare- 
 headed," while he was covered " as if he were the 
 Czar of Muscovy." Standing within the fort, he' 
 formally assumed authority. Then the wily Kieft, 
 thinking to profit by the general good humour, 
 made a farewell speech, in which he thanked the 
 Commonalty profusely for their fidelity to him. He 
 hoped that fair words would bring a responsive 
 compliment, under which he might retire without an 
 exposure of the hatred in which he had long been 
 held. But his voice only excited still more the feel- 
 ings which he sought to calm. Kuyter, Melyn, and 
 others of the Eight Men answered angrily that they 
 had no thanks for him. A stormy scene was im- 
 minent. Stuyvesant cut it short by announcing that 
 he would do justice to all, and would govern them 
 as a father his children. But there was something
 
 62 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 in the director's manner which " caused some to 
 think that he would not be a father." 
 
 Stuyvesant's first work was to organize the ma- 
 chinery of government. To the members of his 
 Council, who had come out with him, he added 
 Dr. La Montagne, who had served for many years 
 in a similar capacity, and Van Tienhoven, who con- 
 tinued in his old office of provincial secretary. 
 Baxter, who had been appointed English secretary 
 by Kieft, remained undisturbed, as he was the only 
 man at Manhattan who could " tolerably read or 
 write the English language." Paulus Leendertsen 
 van der Grist was made " equipage master." A 
 ' court of justice was formed, with Van Dincklage as 
 judge, although Stuyvesant reserved the right to 
 preside when he desired. 
 
 When the new director surveyed the capital of 
 his dominions, he found that a great task lay before 
 him. The long Indian wars, the consequent pov- 
 erty, the incessant quarrels between Kieft and the 
 burghers had left everything at loose ends. The 
 town was confined between the site of Wall Street 
 and the water fronts, and it was thickly settled only 
 in the small space between the fort and the canal, or 
 arm of the East River, which extended up the pres- 
 ent Broad Street as far as Exchange Place. The 
 streets were hardly named as yet, and were no more 
 than broad paths, alternately muddy or dusty, ex- 
 tending from the fort to the canal. The houses 
 were rudely constructed of wood, with roofs generally 
 thatched, and with wooden chimneys. Pig-pens 
 and out-houses were set directly on the street, dif- 

 
 HIS ADMINISTRATION. 63 
 
 fusing unpleasant odours. The hogs ran at will, kept 
 out of the vegetable gardens only by rough stockades. 
 Stuyvesant insisted on the removal of nuisances from 
 the streets, ordered the proprietor? of vacant lots to 
 improve them within nine months, and appointed 
 Van Dincklage, Van Tienhoven, and Van der Grist 
 " surveyors of buildings " to see that his reforms 
 were carried out. The morals of the people were 
 regulated by proclamations, which called for a 
 " thorough reformation." Drunkenness, Sabbath- 
 breaking, and brawling must cease. The selling of 
 liquor to the Indians was prohibited. The church was 
 still unfinished ; the walls of the fort trodden down 
 by cattle, and an embankment was sorely needed 
 along the water-front, against the encroachments of 
 the tide. These works required money, and turned 
 the director's attention to the revenue. He found 
 that the West India Company was being defrauded 
 of its due by the selling of furs to Virginia and New 
 England. This unlawful business was summarily 
 stopped. A " hand-board " was erected on the 
 shore of the East River, at the foot of the pres- 
 ent Whitehall Street, where all vessels were com- 
 pelled to anchor, and where they could be properly 
 supervised. A method of raising money, charac- 
 teristic of Dutchmen and more attractive than port 
 duties, was immediately adopted. Two vessels, 
 the " Cat " and the " Love," were despatched 
 to the West Indies in search of Spanish prizes. 
 
 Stuyvesant had hardly started on this preliminary 
 work, when a contest arose which greatly disturbed 
 the peace of the colony, and formed the beginning
 
 64 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 of a long series of dissensions between the director 
 and his people. The majority of the burghers had 
 been satisfied with the dismissal of Kieft from the 
 directorship, and .were bent only on making the 
 most of the new conditions. But Kuyter and Melyn, 
 who were partners in a patroonship, men of means 
 and education much superior to Kieft, were not in- 
 clined to let him off so easily. Their losses through 
 , his misgovernment had been ruinous, and the long 
 enmity rankled unsatisfied. Now they presented to 
 the director and Council formal accusations against 
 Kieft, with a petition that the leading citizens should 
 be examined with a view to laying bare his whole 
 conduct, from the imposition of the Indian tribute in 
 1639. Had the patroons known more of the char- 
 acter of the new director they would not have ven- 
 tured so far. If there was one opinion unalterably 
 fixed in the mind of Stuyvesant, it was that to the 
 powers that be is due a blind obedience. Right 
 or wrong, there should be no resistance to a consti- 
 tuted authority. Although political liberty was the 
 birthright of the Dutch, their colonies, generally 
 military in character, had to be arbitrarily governed. 
 Stuyvesant was accustomed to a rigid discipline, and 
 he knew how to govern only as a master. 
 
 When the petition of Kuyter and Melyn was re- 
 ceived, the director at once took alarm. If the 
 administration of Kieft were thus to be put in judg- 
 ment on the demand of private persons, his own 
 conduct would be subject to the same examination. 
 The precedent was dangerous. He " chose the side 
 of Kieft ; " declined to recognize Kuyter and Melyn
 
 HIS ADMINISTRATION 65 
 
 in their official capacity as members of the Eight 
 Men, and refused to consider such a petition from 
 private individuals. " If this point be conceded," 
 he said at the Council Board, " will not these cun- 
 ning fellows, in order to usurp over us a more un- 
 limited power, claim and assume in consequence 
 even greater authority against ourselves and our 
 commission, should it happen that our administra- 
 tion may not square in every respect with their 
 whims? '' He ended by saying, and no doubt it 
 was his earnest belief : " It is treason to petition 
 against one's magistrates, whether there be cause or 
 not." The Council agreed with him, and the pe- 
 tition of the " malignant subjects " was rejected. 
 
 The guilty Kieft had been much alarmed at 
 the possible issue. Now, seeing his advantage, he 
 boldly became complainant, and accused Kuyter 
 and Melyn of being the authors of the Memorial 
 to the Congress of the XIX. in 1644, which, he 
 claimed, contained false statements calculated to 
 bring the magistrates into contempt. Stuyvesant 
 had worked himself into a passion by this time, and 
 made up his mind to punish Kuyter and Melyn as 
 an example. He ordered them to appear to an- 
 swer within forty-eight hours. Kieft's complaint 
 being no more than the accusation that the pat- 
 roons had told the truth about himself, other 
 charges were trumped up. Both were convicted : \ 
 Melyn was sentenced to seven years' banishment 
 and a fine of three hundred guilders ; Kuyter, to 
 half of the same penalty. The sentences were un- 
 just and very unpopular. But Stuyvesant was re- 
 5
 
 66 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 solved that there should be no question in the col- 
 ony as to the extent of the director's authority. 
 
 Melyn declared his intention to appeal to the 
 directors in Holland, which increased Stuyvesant's 
 anger to fury. "If I was persuaded," he said to 
 Melyn, " that you would appeal from my senten- 
 ces, or divulge them, I would have your head cut off, 
 or have you hanged on the highest tree in New 
 Netherland." Nothing excited him so much as the 
 contempt of his authority involved in a threatened 
 appeal to Holland. When any one mentioned the 
 subject, he became so angry that " the foam hung 
 on his beard." He said to Van Hardenberg, as 
 the two were leaving the parsonage house after 
 a meeting of the consistory : " If any one during 
 my administration shall appeal, I will make him a 
 foot shorter, and send the pieces to Holland, and 
 let him appeal in that way." His whole conduct of 
 this affair was in accordance with a remark attributed 
 to him in the " Representation from New Nether- 
 land ": "These brutes may hereafter try to knock 
 me down also, but I will manage it so now that 
 they will have their bellies full for the future." 
 
 The ship " Princess " lay at anchor in the East 
 River ready to sail for Holland. Domine Bogardus 
 and Kieft embarked to return home, and the un- 
 fortunate patroons were sent aboard as prisoners. 
 Off the coast of England the " Princess " struck 
 upon a rock in the night, and began to go to pieces. 
 " And now," says the Breeden Raedt, " this wicked 
 Kieft, seeing death before his eyes, sighed deeply, 
 and, turning to these two, said : ' Friends, I have
 
 HIS ADMINISTRATION. 6j 
 
 been unjust towards you; can you forgive me?'" 
 His repentance came too late ; he perished in the 
 fulfilment of the prophecy of De Vries, that his sins 
 would be visited upon his own head. The Domine 
 Bogardus and nearly all the ship's company were 
 lost. " Jochem Pietersen Kuyter remained alone 
 on a part of the ship on which stood a cannon, 
 which he took for a man ; but speaking to it and 
 getting no answer, he supposed him dead. He was 
 at last thrown on land, together with the cannon, to 
 the great astonishment of the English, who crowded 
 the strand by thousands, and set up the ordnance 
 as a lasting memorial. Melyn, floating on his back, 
 fell in with others who had remained on a part of 
 the wreck, till they were ^driven on a sand-bank, 
 which became dry with the ebb." Then they got 
 ashore. As Kuyter and Melyn " were more con- 
 cerned for their papers than for anything else, they 
 caused them to be dragged for, and on the third day 
 Jochem Pietersen got a small part of them. . . . 
 When they arrived in Holland, the Dutch directors 
 much lamented the loss of the ship and its rich 
 cargo, and were doubly pained that, while so many 
 fine men, were lost, two rebellious bandits should 
 survive to trouble the Company with their com- 
 plaints." But the patroons had justice on their side, 
 and they succeeded finally in changing this hostile 
 opinion. 
 
 After the departure of the " Princess," Stuyvesant 
 threw himself vigorously into the work of improve- 
 ment. A devout professor of the Reformed religion, 
 he had joined the consistory of the church at New
 
 68 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 Amsterdam, and now took measures to have the 
 building finished. The place of Domine Bogardus 
 was taken by Domine Backerus, who had come out 
 with the director. Work on the fort and the 
 
 i streets proceeded ; but in everything the director 
 was hampered by lack of means. The " Love " 
 and the " Cat " were still looking for a prize, and 
 the port duties came in slowly. In this difficulty, 
 IStuyvesant proclaimed a tax on wines and beers. 
 Immediately there was great opposition from the 
 burghers. They conceded to the Company its right 
 of government, but insisted that it must pay its own 
 expenses. " No taxation without representation " 
 was a principle perfectly understood by the Dutch. 
 Stuyvesant tried in vain to carry his point. At last, 
 to allay the discontent, he was obliged to make 
 concessions which admitted the people to a share 
 
 . in the government. In September, 1647, a Board 
 of Nine Men was established, to be presided over 
 by the director. They were to advise, not to legis- 
 late. Three members were to sit in rotation to hear 
 civil suits, the litigants to have the right of appeal 
 to the Council. Six were to retire annually, and 
 their places to be taken by six others, to be ap- 
 pointed by the director from a list of twelve of the 
 " most notable citizens " named by the Commonalty. 
 Thus, the Board of Nine Men was to be largely the 
 director's choice ; and as it was to continue " until 
 lawfully repealed," he could dispense with it if he 
 chose. Still, the concession was a great step toward 
 the representation of the people in public affairs, 
 and prepared the way for better things to come.
 
 SIS ADMINISTRATION. 69 
 
 The first Board was made up of excellent men. 
 From the merchants were chosen Augustine Heer- 
 mans, Arnoldus van Hardenberg, Covert Loocker- 
 mans ; from the citizens, Jan Jansen Dam, Jacob 
 Wolfertsen (Van Couwenhoven), Hendrick Kip; 
 from the farmers, Machyel Janssen, Jan Evertsen 
 Bout, Thomas Hall. At the first meeting of the 
 Board Stuyvesant was ill with an influenza which 
 prevailed throughout New Netherland and New 
 England ; but he sent a summary of the subjects to 
 be considered, among which the principal were re- 
 pairs to the fort, the completion of the church, the 
 building of a schoolhouse, and the maintenance of 
 a school-teacher. The Nine Men showed them- 
 selves worthy of their responsibility. The means 
 for all these objects were provided for by internal 
 taxation, except the work on the fort. The Board 
 contended, and maintained successfully, that the 
 West India Company's charter of 1629 bound the 
 Company to bear all the expense of the military 
 establishment. For that purpose the director must 
 depend^ upon the port and mill duties. 
 
 Domestic affairs had hardly been got in running 
 order when Stuyvesant's attention was drawn to the 
 aggressions of New England. All the country lying 
 between the Connecticut and Hudson rivers was' 
 claimed by the Dutch by right of first occupation. 
 We have already seen how ineffective a barrier had 
 been Fort Good Hope and its small garrison to the 
 steady westward progress of the English. These 
 extensive and fertile lands were valuable to the 
 Dutch as a rich field of the fur-gathering industry ;
 
 7O PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 but they had never attempted to fill it with boweries. 
 The restless New England people, continually mov- 
 ing in search of better land, scorned the Dutch 
 claim. " The land," they said, " was too good to 
 stand idle." It rapidly became covered with their 
 farms and villages. New Haven and Hartford grew 
 apace. The Dutch had no power to keep back the 
 English tide, and their numbers were not sufficient to 
 send settlers to anticipate the intruders. The Eng- 
 lish policy, openly avowed, was " to keep crowding 
 the Dutch." Stuyvesant, alarmed at the prospect, 
 opened communication with New England, and 
 sought an interview with Winthrop ; but New Eng- 
 land preferred to put off discussion, while the 
 " crowding out " went on. Winthrop agreed to 
 meet Stuyvesant when his health permitted, a 
 time which seemed never to come. The Dutch 
 director made a formal proposition that the bound- 
 aries of New Netherland should be recognized as 
 the Connecticut and Delaware rivers. Winthrop 
 evaded an answer, and made complaints of the sell- 
 ing of arms to the Indians by the Dutch, and of the 
 restrictions on trade at the port of New Amsterdam. 
 Already in Kieft's time a party of Englishmen had 
 laid claim to Long Island as belonging to the Earl 
 of Stirling. In the autumn of 1647, a man named 
 Forester appeared, and attempted to take posses- 
 sion as the agent of Lord Stirling's widow. This 
 was pushing matters too far. Stuyvesant captured 
 him, kept him in close confinement at New Amster- 
 dam, and sent him off in the first ship that sailed 
 for Holland.
 
 HIS ADMINISTRATION. J\ 
 
 The flourishing colony of New Haven, under 
 Governor Eaton, was within the nominal bound- 
 aries of New Netherland. Stuyvesant heard that a 
 Dutch ship, named the " Saint Benino," was taking 
 in a cargo there without paying dues or obtaining 
 permission from the authorities of New Amsterdam. 
 In the director's opinion, this was a flagrant defi- 
 ance of the West India Company's rights. He 
 pronounced the ship a smuggler, and devised a 
 skilful plan to capture her. The " Zwol," a Dutch 
 vessel, had been purchased by the deputy gover- 
 nor of New Haven, and delivery was to be at that 
 place. Stuyvesant sent the vessel off with a party 
 of armed men on board, under Captain Van der 
 Grist. The " Zwol " sailed into the harbour at 
 New Haven " on the Lord's Day," ran alongside the 
 "Saint Benino," captured her and her crew; and 
 Captain Van der Grist, leaving his own vessel to her 
 new owner, sailed away on the " Saint Benino " 
 before the English knew what was going on. Gov- 
 ernor Eaton was naturally very angry. " We have 
 protested," he wrote, " and by these presents do 
 protest against you Peter Stuyvesant, Governor of 
 the Dutch at Manhattans, for disturbing the peace 
 between the Dutch and the English in these parts, 
 ... by making unjust claims to our lands and 
 plantations, to our havens and rivers, and by taking 
 a ship out of our harbour without our permission 
 by your agents and commission ; and we hereby 
 profess that whatever inconvenience may hereafter 
 grow, you are the cause and author of it, as we 
 hope to show and prove before our superiors in
 
 72 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 Europe." Stuyvesant replied that the ship was 
 legally confiscated within the boundaries of New 
 Netherland. But he was careful to conduct his 
 correspondence in Dutch, which Eaton could not 
 understand. 
 
 Three servants of the West India Company ran 
 away soon after, and took refuge at New Haven. 
 Stuyvesant wrote to Eaton, to request their sur- 
 render ; but in his characteristic way he addressed 
 the letter to New Haven in New Netherland. This 
 angered Eaton still more, and he refused to give up 
 the men. The harbouring of each other's fugitives 
 was for all the colonies a dangerous practice, and 
 Winthrop much regretted the action of Eaton. But 
 Stuyvesant, instead of leaving his adversary in the 
 wrong, put himself there by proclaiming that " if 
 any person, noble or ignoble, freeman or slave, 
 debtor or creditor, yea, to the lowest prisoner in- 
 cluded, run away from the colony of New Haven, or 
 seek refuge in our limits, he shall remain free un- 
 der our protection on taking the oath of allegiance." 
 This policy was so unpopular at home as well as 
 hostile to the other colonies that Stuyvesant found 
 himself obliged to inform Massachusetts and Vir- 
 ginia that the rule did not apply to them. By as- 
 surances of immunity, privately conveyed to the 
 deserters at New Haven, he induced them to return, 
 and was then able to revoke his proclamation with 
 some show of dignity. Thus the conflict went on. 
 
 Ever since the scene on the Hudson River, when 
 Govert Loockermans had refused to strike his flag 
 to the " right " of Rensselaerstein, there had been dis-
 
 ff/S ADMINISTRATION. 73 
 
 agreement between New Amsterdam and Rensse- 
 laerwyck ; and Stuyv'esant was not the man to 
 smooth matters over by a conciliatory attitude. 
 In 1648, having proclaimed a fast, Stuyvesant found 
 that it was not observed at Rensselaerwyck, the 
 commissary there taking this means of showing his 
 independence of New Amsterdam. The first pat- 
 roon had never been in New Netherland. He was 
 now dead, and the title and estates descended to his 
 son Johan, a minor in Holland. The guardians of 
 the heir had sent out Brandt van Schlechtenhorst as 
 agent and commissary, a man who loved indepen- 
 dent command as well as Stuyvesant himself. On 
 hearing of the commissary's neglect of his proclama- 
 tion, the director went up to Fort Orange in per- 
 son. The fort and some land about it belonged to 
 the West India Company ; but the remainder of the 
 territory was the property of the patroon. Hence a 
 conflict of authority was easy. Stuyvesant found 
 that the village of Beverwyck, which had nestled for 
 protection close to the fort, was on land belonging to 
 the Company. Moreover, the proximity of some of 
 the houses to the ramparts interfered with the use 
 of the fort. These houses he ordered to be pulled 
 down ; and he further directed that the fort should 
 be repaired with stone taken from the patroon's 
 land. Van Schlechtenhorst refused to carry out 
 either order, and a violent quarrel ensued, even 
 the Indians standing about and wondering why 
 "Wooden Leg" wanted to pull down his country- 
 men's houses. Stuyvesant wished to assert his au- 
 thority ; but he also wished to take measures to
 
 74 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 insure the safety of that portion of New Netherland. 
 He departed from Rensselaenvyck in great wrath, 
 and sent up from Manhattan a detachment of sol- 
 diery to enforce his orders. But the force was not 
 enough to overcome the opposition of the inhabi- 
 tants, and victory, for the present, lay with the 
 commissary. 
 
 During the first two years of Stuyvesant's authority 
 a substantial immigration from Holland took place ; 
 the ravages of the Indian wars were repaired ; 
 boweries were repeopled ; and trade grew at New 
 Amsterdam. With returning prosperity the people 
 grew restless under the commercial rule of the 
 West India Company, and began to resent the ar- 
 bitrary domination of the director. These Dutch- 
 men had been accustomed at home to political 
 liberty, and in their adopted country wished to be 
 surrounded by the cherished institutions of the 
 fatherland. In the hands of Stuyvesant absolute 
 authority became a galling yoke. Well meaning 
 though he was, and solicitous for the good of the 
 colony, his impetuous temper and rough words kept 
 him in an attitude of apparent hostility toward 
 the burghers. The first Board of Nine Men had 
 , many conflicts with him. The second Board, ap- 
 pointed in 1649, were against him to a man. They 
 accused him of selling arms to the Indians, while he 
 forbade to the other citizens that profitable traffic ; 
 of monopolizing various branches of trade for his 
 own benefit ; and, lastly, of a tyrannical manner 
 toward persons having business with the Company. 
 The last accusation was well founded ; the others 
 were probably mistaken.
 
 HIS ADMINISTRATION. y$ 
 
 However, the Nine Men decided among them- 
 selves that a reform in the administration of the 
 province was imperatively needed ; abuses must be 
 corrected, and a more popular government secured.! 
 To attain this end a delegation must be sent to Hol- 
 land to lay the demands of the people before the 
 College of the XIX. and the States- General. The 
 Board asked Stuyvesant's permission to call a meet- 
 ing of the Commonalty to obtain its support and 
 pecuniary aid. Stuyvesant, as usual, went into a 
 rage, swore that there should be no public meeting, 
 and that any communication between the people 
 and the College should go through him only. 
 Naturally, this method did not suit the Nine Men. 
 As they were forbidden to consult the Commonalty 
 in meeting assembled, they resolved to do so indi- j 
 vidually and privately. They went about from 
 house to house asking from each burgher his moral 
 support and financial aid. With them went Adriaen 
 Van der Donck, the first lawyer to settle in New 
 Netherland, a graduate of the University of Leyden, 
 and a Doctor of Laws ; he took down in writing the 
 substance of these interviews. Stuyvesant was furi- 
 ous when he heard of what was going on. He went 
 in person to Donck's house while the lawyer was 
 away, and seized his papers. Donck, on his return, 
 was imprisoned. The director then called a meet- 
 ing of burghers chosen by himself, procured their 
 approval of his conduct, expelled Donck from the 
 Board, and kept his papers. Although an apparent 
 victory for Stuyvesant, this conduct excited great 
 dissatisfaction in the colony, and roused an increased 
 opposition to him.
 
 76 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 At this critical juncture, Melyn returned trium- 
 phantly from Holland, bringing with him a reversal 
 of his sentence obtained from Their High Mighti- 
 nesses, together with a letter ordering Stuyvesant to 
 appear in person or by proxy at The Hague, to 
 answer the accusations which Kuyter and Melyn 
 had brought against him. Melyn, smarting under 
 his ill-treatment, was not inclined to spare the di- 
 rector. Soon after his return, a meeting of citizens 
 was held in the church. There he went accompa- 
 nied by his friends, and demanded that the reversal 
 \ of his sentence be pronounced as publicly as the 
 sentence itself had been. A hot dispute arose : on 
 one side Stuyvesant and his supporters, on the other 
 Melyn and the party opposed to the administration. 
 The question put to a vote was decided in Melyn's 
 favour. So, Van Hardenberg, one of the Nine, 
 took the paper and rose to read it. Furious at this 
 proceeding, Stuyvesant declared that a copy must 
 first be served on him, and going up to Van Harden- 
 berg, he tore the paper from his hand. Hardenberg 
 attempted to recover it ; an uproar ensued ; the op- 
 posing parties struggled for the possession of the 
 paper, and the sea* was torn from it. This scene 
 of violence lasted for some minutes. Then some of 
 the cooler heads interceded. Stuyvesant saw that 
 his position was untenable ; Melyn promised to fur- 
 nish him with a copy, and Van Hardenberg was 
 allowed to read the mutilated paper. 
 
 This scene, together with Stuyvesant's treatment 
 of Van der Donck and the other subjects of com- 
 plaint, roused so strong a feeling against the director
 
 HIS ADMINISTRATION. 77 
 
 that he could no longer prevent .the departure of a! 
 delegation to Holland. A memorial of the com-' 
 plaints and wants of the citizens was drawn up and 
 signed on behalf of the Commonalty, by Augustine 
 Heermans, Arnoldus van Hardenberg, Oloff Stevenss 
 (Van Courtlandt), Machyel Janssen, Thomas Hall, 
 Elbert Elbertsen, Govert Loockermans, and Hen- 
 drick Hendricksen Kip. The memorial was dated; 
 July 26, 1649. The delegates chosen to present it 
 were Jacob Wolfertsen van Couwenhoven, Jan Evert- 
 sen Bout, and Adriaen Van der Donck. Stuyvesant 
 sent Van Tienhoven to represent him. 
 
 On arriving in Holland, Van der Donck wisely 
 perceived that he could expect nothing from the 
 West India Company, who would support Stuyvesant 
 right or wrong, and so he appealed directly to thej 
 States- General. At the same time he realized the 
 necessity of arousing some public interest in his 
 mission, without which the States- General, occupied 
 with greater affairs, might accord the delegates from 
 New Netherland but slight attention. With this 
 object, he published his " Vertoogh," a book which 
 set forth the history of the settlement of the Dutch 
 colonies in North America, with many interesting 
 facts concerning their progress and necessities. The 
 plan was eminently successful. The book was so 
 much read and excited so much attention that the 
 Amsterdam chamber of the West India Company 
 wrote to Stuyvesant : " The name of New Nether- 
 land, was scarcely ever mentioned before, and now it 
 would seem as if heaven and earth were interested 
 in it."
 
 78 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 The delegates were received formally in the great 
 hall of the States-General, and a committee was 
 appointed to consider their application. They asked 
 for protection from the Indians, for freedom of trade, 
 and, above all, for a popular municipal government 
 in place of the arbitrary rule of a commercial Com- 
 pany. They pointed out the necessity for encour- 
 aging the emigration of real settlers who meant to 
 make their permanent home in New Netherland, 
 and without whom the Dutch territories could not 
 be retained. At present, they said, there were too 
 many " Scots and Chinese," persons who were de- 
 fined as " petty traders who swarm here with great 
 industry, reap immense profit, and exhaust the coun- 
 try without adding anything to its population or 
 security. But, if they skim a little fat from the pot, 
 they can take again to their heels." Against Stuy- 
 vesant they urged his tyrannical conduct, his mo- 
 nopoly of profitable branches of trade, his injustice 
 to litigants. " His manner in court," they said, " has 
 been from his first arrival up to this time, to brow- 
 beat, dispute with, and harass one of the two par- 
 ties. ... If any one offer objection, his Honor bursts 
 forth incontinently into a rage, and makes such a 
 to-do that it is dreadful." Stuyvesant, they urged, 
 was quite uncontrolled by his Council. Van Dinck- 
 lage was always overruled ; La Montagne was afraid 
 to speak frankly ; Brian Newton did not understand 
 Dutch, and so was obliged to say "Yes" to every- 
 thing; Van Dyck was not allowed to give an 
 opinion. The colony could never prosper until 
 it had proper courts of justice and a free burgher 
 government.
 
 HIS ADMINISTRATION. 79 
 
 Van Tienhoven, representing Stuyvesant, relied 
 upon the support of the West India Company, and 
 sought only to discredit the motives of the popular 
 party. . " Arnoldus van Hardenberg," he sneered, 
 "knew how to charge the colonists well for his 
 wares." Oloff Stevensen (Van Courtlandt) having 
 gone out as a common soldier, had been promoted 
 by Kieft to be commissary of the store ; " he has 
 profited by the Company's service, and is endeavour- 
 ing to give his benefactor the pay of the world, 
 that is, evil for good." Elbert Elbertsen was in 
 the Company's debt, from which he would like to 
 escape ; Covert Loockermans owed his prosperity 
 to the Company, and should support it. Hendrick 
 Kip, he said, was a tailor who had lost nothing, pre- 
 sumably, because he had nothing to lose. This line 
 of defence could not have much effect, and Van 
 Tienhoven soon discredited himself altogether by be- 
 ing arrested and imprisoned for immoral conduct. 
 
 Still, the delegates had against them the influence 
 of the West India Company, whose policy it was to 
 tire them out by vexatious delays. Postponement 
 after postponement took place, causing to Van der 
 Donck and his associates an expense and a loss of 
 time which they could ill afford. During the pro- 
 gress of the negotiations, their High Mightines- 
 ses of the States-General endeavoured to smooth 
 matters over by ordering Stuyvesant to appear in 
 person in Holland, and the West India Company 
 to institute reforms in New Netherland. But the 
 Company, standing on its technical rights, disputed 
 the authority of the States^ General, and privately
 
 80 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 informed Stuyvesant of the attitude it had taken. 
 So when the director received the order to repair 
 to Holland, he said that he should "do as he 
 pleased," and he stayed where he was. For three 
 )long years the faithful delegates urged the cause of 
 their fellow-colonists at The Hague and at Amster- 
 dam before they could prevail against the power of 
 the commercial Company which held New Nether- 
 land as its private property. 
 
 Melyn had been assisting the delegates at The 
 Hague, and in 1650 sailed from Holland in a good 
 ship laden with colonists and stores for his manor at 
 Staten Island. When off the coast, his ship was 
 struck by a storm and put into Rhode Island for 
 repairs. This was a technical violation of the West 
 India Company's laws regarding trading without a 
 license, although there was no proof to show that 
 any trading had been done. But when the ship 
 arrived at New Amsterdam, and Stuyvesant heard of 
 the stopping at Rhode Island, he seized upon the 
 excuse to persecute his enemy. He brought Melyn 
 to trial as owner of the vessel ; unable to prove it, 
 he was obliged to release him. But he confiscated 
 both ship and cargo, a high-handed act of tyranny, 
 for which the Company had to pay heavy damages 
 to the real owner of the vessel. Poor Melyn lost 
 his stores ; and not only that, Stuyvesant brought 
 new charges against him, and confiscated his prop- 
 erty in New Amsterdam. Melyn retired to Staten 
 Island, built a fort, and intrenched himself against 
 the fiery director. 
 
 Stuyvesant's domineering temper was increasing,
 
 HIS ADMINISTRATION.. 8 1 
 
 and the people were becoming less inclined to en- } 
 dure it. New Amsterdam was a small place, and" 
 irritation grew with constant contact. Money and 
 letters were privately despatched to Holland to aid 
 the cause of the delegates. Disaffection arose even 
 in 'the Council. Van Dincklage, the vice-director, 
 got up a new protest in support of Van der Donck. 
 Stuyvesant discovered it, and expelled Van Dinck- 
 lage from the Council. The vice-director resisted, 
 contending that his commission was from the States- 
 General. Stuyvesant imprisoned him in the fort. 
 He escaped, and took refuge behind the stockade 
 of Melyn on Staten Island. "Our great Muscovy 
 Duke," he wrote to Van der Donck, "goes on as 
 usual, resembling somewhat the wolf: the older he 
 gets the worse he bites. He proceeds no longer by 
 words or letters, but by arrests and stripes." 
 
 Van Dyck, the schout-fiscal, whom Stuyvesant 
 had treated with such severity on the voyage out, 
 was found to have been concerned with Van Dinck- 
 lage. He was punished by being reduced from the 
 office of fiscal, or attorney-general, to the position 
 of a clerk. Stuyvesant's opponents assert that poor 
 Van Dyck was "charged to look after the pigs and 
 keep them out of the fort, a duty which a negro 
 could very well perform." The late attorney-general 
 objected to such an occupation, and then.the direc- 
 tor " got as angry as if he could swallow him up," 
 and when he disobeyed "put him in confinement or 
 bastinadoed him with his rattan." Yet the feelings 
 of Van Dyck were still more sorely offended. Van 
 Tienhoven, after presenting Stuyvesant's defence to 
 6
 
 82 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 the committee of the States- General, had been con- 
 victed of licentious conduct, and Holland being 
 too hot for him, had returned to New Amsterdam. 
 Stuyvesant now accused Van Dyck of drunkenness, 
 and appointed Van Tienhoven in his place as fiscal. 
 The appointment was very unpopular, and particu- 
 larly hateful to Van Dyck. " The perjured secre- 
 tary," he wrote, " returned here contrary to their 
 High Mightinesses' prohibition ; a public, notori- 
 ous, and convicted whore-monger and oath-breaker, 
 a reproach to this country and the main scourge 
 of both Christians and heathens. . . . The fault of 
 drunkenness could be easily noticed in me, but not 
 in Van Tienhoven, who has frequently come out 
 of the tavern so full that he could get no further, 
 and was forced to lie down in the gutter." All 
 these animosities kept New Amsterdam in a fer- 
 ment, and Stuyvesant now went about accompanied 
 by a guard of four soldiers. 
 
 In 1650, the director found himself obliged to 
 make some settlement regarding his New England 
 boundary. The English farmers were extending 
 constantly westward, and serious quarrels were tak- 
 ing place between them and the Dutch owners of 
 outlying boweries. Stuyvesant concluded wisely 
 that he could only lose by delay, and that it was 
 ' better to draw a definite line somewhere, even if 
 much territory justly claimed by the Dutch had to 
 be surrendered. Negotiations were opened with 
 Connecticut, and commissioners appointed on both 
 ; sides. Those representing the Dutch were Thomas 
 Willett of Plymouth, and George Baxter, the Eng-
 
 HIS ADMINISTRATION. 83 
 
 lish secretary of New Netherland. Much indigna- 
 tion was expressed at New Amsterdam that both 
 commissioners to present the Dutch cause were 
 Englishmen. Stuyvesant probably found it impossi- 
 ble to select competent Dutchmen who could speak 
 English ; and moreover the nationality of his com- 
 missioners was of little importance to him, as the 
 real work of sustaining the Dutch claims was to be 
 performed by himself. He proceeded in state to 
 Hartford, where, as well as on the journey, he was 
 treated with great respect by the inhabitants. As 
 he travelled eastward, he could not help recognizing 
 the weakness of the Dutch claim to Connecticut. 
 It was true that the Dutch had been the first white 
 men to tread upon these lands, and that they had 
 taken formal possession by the erection of Fort 
 Good Hope and the maintenance of a garrison 
 there. But the fertile valley of the Connecticut 
 was actually occupied by English farms and villages- 
 The Dutch director had no power to compel their 
 allegiance or to drive them away. By force of 
 numbers and by activity of settlement the English 
 had acquired a right of occupation which was at 
 least as good as the Dutch right of discovery. The 
 eastern end of Long Island was in the same situa- 
 tion as Connecticut. 
 
 When the negotiations were opened, Stuyvesant 
 raised a small storm by characteristically dating his 
 first communication from " Hartford in New Nether- 
 land." But this blew over, and business proceeded 
 quite amicably. The agreement reached provided' 
 that the line dividing Dutch and English jurisdiction
 
 84 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 I on Long Island should run from Oyster Bay to the 
 \Atlantic Ocean. On the mainland, the line began 
 west of Greenwich Bay, four miles from Stamford, 
 and ran northerly thence ; but it was never to ap- 
 proach nearer than ten miles to the Hudson River. 
 In the vicinity of Hartford, the Dutch were consid- 
 ered as controlling only such lands as they actually 
 held and cultivated. This agreement was condemned 
 vigorously at New Amsterdam, where the people re- 
 proached Stuyvesant with the abandonment of so 
 large a portion of New Netherland. The West India 
 Company also disapproved the treaty. Yet there 
 can be no doubt that Stuyvesant knew best, and 
 set the wise course for the Dutch to pursue under 
 the circumstances. 
 
 At last, in the beginning of 1653, Van der Donck 
 ) and his companions returned to New Amsterdam 
 with the hard-earned fruits of their patriotic labours 
 in Holland. The West India Company had op- 
 posed them long with success ; but the collapse of 
 Van Tienhoven, the continued support sent to the 
 delegates from New Amsterdam, the persistent ap- 
 peals by Van der Donck, Bout, and Couwenhoven 
 to the States-General and the people of Ho'.iand had 
 proved too much for the Company. It was obliged 
 to yield, or see its power transferred altogether to 
 the States-General. The government of New Am- 
 sterdam was henceforth to be conducted by two 
 burgomasters, five schepens, and a schout, or sheriff, 
 after the manner of the towns of the fatherland. 
 These offices were directed to be filled by election. 
 But Stuyvesant, disregarding the orders of the States-
 
 HIS ADMINISTRATION. 85 
 
 General to that effect, took it upon himself to fill 
 them by his own appointment. The first burgo- 
 masters were Arendt van Hatten and Martin 
 Cregier ; the schepens, Wilhelm Beeckman, Paulus 
 Leendertsen van der Grist, Maximilian van Gheel, 
 Allard Anthony, Pieter Wolfertsen van Couwen- 
 hoven ; and Jacob Kip was the first secretary to the 
 magistrates. It is significant that none of those 
 men to whose efforts the great reform was chiefly 
 due were appointed to office. Still, the appoint- 
 ments were good and well received. Van Tien- 
 hoven, however, was made the schout, which gave 
 great dissatisfaction. It is difficult to understand 
 Stuyvesant's continued support of this man except 
 on the ground that he made a useful tool. Thus 
 began municipal government on Manhattan Island, 
 where burgomasters and schepens conducted the 
 city's affairs until the English had taken the place 
 of the Dutch flag. The labours of these officers will 
 be considered in another chapter. 
 
 At the same time that their High Mightinesses 
 granted the reforms asked for by Van der Donck, they 
 commanded Stuyvesant to return to Holland to an- 
 swer the accusations which had been made against 
 himself. But this order was soon rescinded. War/' 
 had broken out between England and Holland ; 
 Blake and Tromp were contending for the mastery 
 of the English Channel ; and Stuyvesant's hand, too 
 heavy in times of peace, was needed at the helm in 
 the prevailing storm. The news of the European 
 war was received in New England and New Am- 
 sterdam with consternation, as it seemed to involve
 
 86 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 hostilities between the colonies. Stuyvesant, know- 
 ing his own slender resources, was much troubled 
 at the prospect, and sent to New England and 
 Virginia assurances of his continued friendly feeling. 
 But the danger was imminent, and all the director's 
 energies were concentrated on measures of defence. 
 The northerly boundary of the town, where an attack 
 by the English would be made, was quite unpro- 
 tected. Stuyvesant began the construction of a 
 ditch and palisade from the East to the North River, 
 upon which work was pushed rapidly while the dan- 
 ger of invasion lasted. The palisade was erected on 
 the present site of Wall Street, whence the name was 
 derived. There was a gate on the shore of the East 
 River called the Water Gate, and another at Broad- 
 way called the Land Gate. The inhabitants at first 
 cheerfully seconded Stuyvesant's efforts to erect 
 this defence : but as war became less probable, they 
 refused to go on with it, and Stuyvesant was obliged 
 to raise the necessary means to complete the work 
 by a private subscription among the richer citizens. 
 In New England the alarm of coming war was 
 intensified by a report circulated in Connecticut, as 
 derived from Uncas the Mohegan chief, that Stuy- 
 vesant was in league with Pessicus, Mixam, and 
 Ninigret, chiefs of other tribes, to make a concerted 
 descent upon the English. As soon as the director 
 heard of the story, he denied it publicly and indig- 
 nantly. Still, the possibility of savage hostilities was 
 so much dreaded that New England sent commis- 
 sioners among the tribes to investigate the report. 
 To them Uncas said : " Do not we know the Eng-
 
 HIS ADMINISTRATION. 87 
 
 lish are not a sleepy people ? Do they think we are 
 mad to sell our lives and the lives of our wives and 
 children and all our kindred, and to have our country 
 destroyed for a few guns, powder, shot, and swords ? 
 What good will they do us when we are dead?" 
 Ninigret, in his defence, set forth the contemptuous 
 treatment of himself by Stuyvesant : " I stood a great 
 part of a winter's day knocking at the governor's 
 door, and he would neither open it nor suffer others 
 to open it to let me in. I was not wont to find 
 such treatment from the English my friends." 
 
 Massachusetts was persuaded of Stuyvesant's 
 peaceful intentions, and refused to join Connecticut 
 in making war on the Dutch. The Connecticut 
 people, being so much nearer the point of danger 
 and so much more liable to Indian attacks, were 
 less confident of security ; but they could not pro- 
 ceed without the help of Massachusetts Bay. Gov- 
 ernor Eaton sent Captain John Underhill to Long 
 Island to investigate there the reported conspiracy. 
 Underhill, who was a turbulent fellow, did not trouble 
 himself to investigate, but began a small war on his 
 own account. Raising his standard at Heemstede 
 and Flushing, he made proclamation that Stuyve- 
 sant had been guilty of unlawful taxation, conspir- 
 acy with Indians, violation of conscience and other 
 obnoxious conduct, and called upon the Dutch 
 and English inhabitants to throw off his tyranni- 
 cal yoke. Stuyvesant arrested Underhill, and would 
 have hanged him ; but thinking it a good opportu- 
 nity to show his friendship toward New England, he 
 released him after a short imprisonment.
 
 88 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 The graceless Underbill then went to Rhode 
 Island, where he succeeded in inducing the General 
 Assembly to declare war against New Netherland. 
 He was made captain of the land forces, while 
 William Dyre and Edward Hull were appointed 
 commanders on the sea, to relieve the English on 
 Long Island " from the cruell tirannie of the Dutch 
 power at the Manathoes " and to " bring the Dutch 
 to conformitie to the Commonwealth of England." 
 Underhill set out for Fort Good Hope with twenty 
 volunteers. The deserted and ruined fort, with 
 about thirty acres of land, was all that remained to 
 the Dutch in the Connecticut valley. This property 
 Underhill claimed by right of conquest, and sold to 
 two different persons, giving to each a deed. Then 
 he disbanded his valiant army. At sea, Hull took a 
 French ship, which was not a severe blow to Stuy- 
 vesant ; and Baxter, under a letter of marque from 
 Rhode Island, turned pirate and attacked Dutch 
 and English vessels impartially. 
 
 A number of fights occurring among the Indians, 
 and some outrages upon white settlers at this time 
 renewed in Connecticut the fears of Indian hostility. 
 The prospect of such a calamity was so appalling, 
 and a belief in a league between Dutch and Indians 
 so strong, that the people prepared actively for a 
 war. Until New Netherland should be subject to 
 English rule, there seemed no certainty that the 
 savages could be kept in subjection. Large gather- 
 ings of armed men took place at Stamford and 
 Fairfield. Massachusetts was loudly blamed for her 
 refusal to send assistance. Commissioners were
 
 HIS ADMINISTRATION. 89 
 
 sent to England to ask Cromwell for men and arms, 
 and Governor Hopkins, who was then in London, 
 was urged to press the demand. Cromwell com- 
 plied ; and several vessels, with arms and soldiers 
 under Captain Leverett and Major Sedgwick, reached 
 America, where Plymouth and New Haven had raised 
 a co-operating force. But before the beginning of 
 hostilities, in 1654, news arrived that peace hadj 
 been concluded between England and Holland. It 
 was a fortunate escape for New Netherland, which 
 must have yielded to so superior a force. Stuyve- 
 sant had realized the gravity of the situation, and on 
 the announcement of peace he set apart a day of 
 thanksgiving. " Praise the Lord," ran the procla- 
 mation, " O England's Jerusalem ! and Netherland's 
 Zion, praise ye the Lord ! He hath secured your 
 gates and blessed your possessions with peace, even 
 here where the threatened torch of war was lighted ; 
 where the waves reached our lips, and subsided only 
 through the power of the Almighty." 
 
 After the establishment of burgher government in 
 New Amsterdam there continued to be some fric- 
 tion regarding taxation between Stuyvesant, as the 
 representative of the West India Company, and 
 the municipality. But with this exception, matters 
 went smoothly enough. On the other hand, there 
 was much discontent among the inhabitants of the 
 English towns on Long Island. They were still 
 subject to the rule of the West India Company, 
 and paid taxes to the director. They claimed that 
 no protection against the Indians was afforded them, 
 and that they got no equivalent for their money.
 
 go PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 In 1653 these towns chose delegates to a conven- 
 tion held at the Stadt Huys in New Amsterdam, 
 under the leadership of George Baxter and James 
 Hubbard. These English residents of New Nether- 
 land had been relied upon hitherto by Stuyvesant 
 as a support against the disaffected Dutch party. 
 Their opposition was, therefore, a serious blow to 
 him. When the convention met, he sent La Mon- 
 tagne and Van Werckhoven of his Council to rep- 
 resent him. The delegates declined positively to 
 receive Van Werckhoven, and refused to allow La 
 Montagne or the director himself to preside over 
 them. They made the point that while acknowl- 
 edging allegiance to the States- General of Holland, 
 they rejected the authority of the West India Com- 
 pany. Hence they would receive into the con- 
 vention representatives of the burgomasters and 
 schepens, but not of the director. Furthermore, 
 they declared that as they were obliged to take 
 their own measures for defence, they would pay no 
 more taxes to the Company. 
 
 Stuyvesant was much enraged, and informed the 
 convention that its conduct " smelt of rebellion, of 
 contempt of his high authority and commission," 
 which was indeed the fact. Unable to prevent this 
 new disaffection, he sought to modify its effects. If 
 a convention were to be held, he claimed, the Dutch 
 as well as the English towns had a right to be rep- 
 resented in it. The delegates had to agree to this, 
 and postponed their meeting for a month, saying, 
 "the director might then do as he pleased, and 
 prevent it if he could."
 
 HIS ADMINISTRATION. 91 
 
 On re-assembling, delegates appeared from the 
 four Dutch towns, New Amsterdam, Breukelen, 
 Amersfoort (Flatlands), and Midwout (Flatbush) ; 
 and four English towns, Flushing, Newtown, 
 Heemstede, and Gravesend. Nine Englishmen) 
 and ten Dutchmen composed the convention./ 
 George Baxter was secretary, and drew up the 
 memorial of grievances. Stuyvesant sought to sow 
 discord among the members. " Is there no one 
 among the Netherlands nation," he inquired scorn- 
 fully, " expert enough to draw up a remonstrance to 
 the director and Council, . . . that a foreigner or 
 an Englishman is required to dictate what you have 
 to say?" But this taunt did not disturb the union 
 of the delegates. They presented their memorial, 
 complaining of the arbitrary character of the gov- 
 ernment, and of its neglect of their interests ; the 
 West India Company collected taxes, and left them 
 to fight their own battles with the savages. Stuy- 
 vesant replied, denying that there was any cause of 
 complaint. A debate followed. The director took 
 the ground that there was no inherent right in the 
 people to share in the government, and that the 
 convention itself was an unlawful body. The 
 delegates manfully sustained the contrary, and car- 
 ried their views into effect by sending to Holland 
 an agent, named Le Bleeuw, to argue their cause. 
 The mission failed ; the agent's remonstrances 
 were considered frivolous, and he was forbidden to 
 return to New Netherland. The West India Com- 
 pany wrote to Stuyvesant that his administration 
 was approved. His only fault had been in showing
 
 92 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 too much leniency to " the ring-leaders of the 
 gang," and in condescending to parley with them. 
 So Stuyvesant expelled Baxter and Hubbard from 
 their offices. Soon afterward they raised the 
 English flag at Gravesend, and declared the town 
 subject to England. The director then sent a 
 'military force to Long Island, captured the English- 
 men, and locked them up at New Amsterdam. 
 Thus ended the last organized opposition against 
 the rule of Stuyvesant and of the West India 
 Company. 
 
 The Dutch possessions on the South or Delaware 
 River had never been successfully settled or strongly 
 held. After a time the Swedes began a colony 
 there on the opposite side of the river. They 
 commanded the most favourable situation for the 
 Indian trade, grew in numbers, and quite overruled 
 the Dutch, who were allowed to retain their lands 
 only on sufferance. The Dutch claims to sole own- 
 rship of the river excited only the derision of the 
 Swedes, whose superior strength made acts of hos- 
 tility unnecessary. In 1654 the Dutch fort Casimir, 
 commanded by Gerrit Bikker, was occupied by the 
 Swedish Captain Rysyngh, and its name changed 
 to Fort Trinity. The Dutch inhabitants were kindly 
 allowed to remain in the country, but under the 
 Swedish flag. 
 
 The news of these proceedings created great ex- 
 citement at New Amsterdam. Stuyvesant's rage 
 was shared by the burghers, who gathered about the 
 fort to denounce the outrage. An unfortunate 
 Swedish ship, on its way to the South River, ran 
 
 s
 
 HIS ADMINISTRA TION. 
 
 93 
 
 aground near the mouth of the harbour, and, igno- 
 rant of the state of affairs, sent up to New Amster- 
 dam for a pilot. Instead of the pilot, Stuyvesant 
 sent a vessel full of soldiers, who brought the Swede 
 up to New Amsterdam, where she and her cargo 
 were confiscated. This incident afforded some al- 
 leviation to the director's fury, and he sought to 
 open a negotiation with Rysyngh. But the Swedish 
 commander, satisfied with possession, declined to 
 enter into a discussion. Stuyvesant was belligerent, 
 but had not the means for hostile measures ; he 
 could only write an indignant account of the event 
 to the West India Company, and ask for assistance. 
 While awaiting a reply, he carried out a long-de- 
 layed purpose, and made a voyage to the West 
 Indies to open new trade for the Dutch. But 
 in this object he was defeated by the efforts of 
 the English. 
 
 When the directors of the West India Company 
 heard of the capture of Fort Casimir by the Swedes, 
 they were as angry as Stuyvesant could wish. The 
 director of New Netherland was ordered to drive 
 away the intruders, and a ship of war, named the 
 " Balance," was sent to him. Great preparations 
 were made at New Amsterdam for the enterprise, 
 and all possible secrecy was observed with the pur- ( 
 pose of surprising the enemy. Six other ships were; 
 hired or impressed ; a force of six or seven hundred 
 men was collected. The expedition, planned on a 
 scale which must be overwhelmingly superior to the 
 Swedish means of defence, was so evidently destined 
 to easy victory that every man in New Amsterdam
 
 94 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 wished to take part in it. A summer voyage to the 
 Delaware River, with glory at the end of it, was a 
 more attractive prospect than the routine of daily 
 toil at home. So the fleet set sail in the midst of 
 jollity and confident valour. 
 
 Stuyvesant arrived in the South River on Sept. 
 10, 1655. Fort Trinity surrendered at the first 
 summons. Rysyngh held out for twelve days in 
 Fort Christina. A great deal of talking was done, 
 and a great deal of firing; but very little injury was 
 received on either side. Rysyngh, having made 
 a show of resistance, yielded to the inevitable ; the 
 Swedes were allowed to stay where they were on 
 taking the oath of allegiance ; and a Dutch gar- 
 rison was placed in charge of the fort. Domine 
 Megapolensis, who had gone as chaplain, preached 
 a thanksgiving sermon. Thus ended Swedish rule 
 on the South River. But the Dutch never pros- 
 pered there. The West India Company conveyed 
 the territory to the City of Amsterdam, in return 
 for advances of money, and the colony was only a 
 trading-post when it passed into the hands of the 
 English with the rest of New Netherland. 
 
 While Stuyvesant was in the midst of his triumph 
 over the Swedes, he was suddenly recalled to New 
 Amsterdam by the news of a great calamity. He 
 had always kept on satisfactory terms with the 
 Indians ; his conduct toward them had been a 
 mixture of sternness and justice which commanded 
 their respect. But others had been less judicious, 
 and lately a brutal murder had roused their just 
 resentment. Van Dyck, the late fiscal, whom Stuy-
 
 HIS ADMINISTRATION. 95 
 
 vesant had expelled from office, discovered a squaw 
 in his garden picking the peaches from trees. He/ 
 fired upon and killed her. This outrage demanded 
 revenge, and the director's absence with the fighting 
 force of the town gave the opportunity. One morn- 
 ing in September, the streets of New Amsterdam , 
 began to swarm with savages in war-paint. At first' 
 they made no attempt to kill, but contented them- 
 selves with bullying and robbing. The burghers, so 
 much reduced in numbers, dared make no resistance 
 to the plundering of their houses. Such soldiers as 
 remained at home were kept in readiness in the 
 fort, and 'meanwhile the Dutch sought to temporize 
 and to come to a peaceable agreement with the 
 savages. An arrangement was made that the Indi- 
 ans should all go over to Nutten's, or Governor's, 
 Island, there to await the result of a conference 
 between the burghers and the chiefs ; but a quar- 
 rel occurred, and fighting began no one knew how. 
 Van Dyck was killed by an arrow ; Captain Van der 
 Grist was felled with an axe. The struggle extended ; 
 the soldiers were called from the fort, and before 
 their organized attack the Indians fled in canoes. 
 
 But they were now excited by bloodshed. Instead 
 of going to Governor's Island, they went to Pavonia 
 and Hoboken. What happened there was too well 
 known to the people on Manhattan Island, who stood 
 on the shore and watched the flames arise from the 
 ravaged boweries. Men were killed, women and 
 children taken prisoners. The savages then went to 
 Staten Island, where the same scenes were enacted. 
 For three days there was burning and murdering
 
 g6 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 all about the Bay, Long Island, and Manhattan 
 Island. The killed numbered one hundred ; the 
 prisoners, one hundred and fifty; the homeless, 
 three hundred. 
 
 Stuyvesant returned as soon as the news reached 
 him, called in the outlying farmers, and prepared 
 \ for hostilities ; but the Indians sued for peace. 
 Their attack had been provoked, and they had 
 many prisoners in their power. Instead of seeking 
 new vengeance and prolonging the war indefinitely 
 as Kieft had done, the director granted a peace, 
 and received back the prisoners. The result proved 
 his wisdom, for there was no renewal of war on 
 the part of the tribes about New Amsterdam. At 
 Rensselaerwyck, no trouble was experienced. When 
 knowledge of the hostilities at New Amsterdam was 
 received there, the usual policy of conciliating the 
 Mohawks was resorted to, and none of the other 
 tribes dared to attack such allies. 
 
 In 1658 another disastrous Indian war broke out, 
 which affected only the town of Esopus on the 
 Hudson River, near Rondout. The Dutch there 
 were the aggressors, and the usual course of fighting 
 and burning continued intermittently until 1663. In 
 that year Stuyvesant went up in person to settle the 
 disputes, and to put an end to a state of hostility in 
 which the settlers could not fail to have the worst. 
 While he was holding a conference with the chiefs, 
 the warriors suddenly fired the village, and began a 
 massacre of the whites. After this treachery, Stuy- 
 vesant abandoned peaceful methods, and followed 
 up the Indians until the small surviving remnant
 
 HIS ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 97 
 
 was glad to sue for peace. The troubles were ter- 
 minated by treaty in 1664, the last Indian treaty 
 made by the Dutch. 
 
 Religious affairs never played the important part 
 in New Netherland that they did in New England. 
 The Dutch had won freedom of conscience in the 
 wars with Spain and the Inquisition. They had come 
 to New Netherland only for self-advancement, and 
 there existed generally among the people a toler- 
 ance of religious differences, and indeed an apathy 
 toward sectarian disputes. Society in New Amster- 
 dam was divided by political, but not by religious, 
 quarrels. For thirty years after the settlement of 
 Long Island no church was built there, the people 
 depending upon the minister at New Amsterdam 
 for spiritual aid. With theological rigour and per- 
 secution there was no sympathy. With these senti- 
 ments r the West India Company was in full accord, 
 and it intended New Netherland to be a common 
 ground for persons of all opinions. 
 
 It was the arbitrary spirit of the director, ratheif 
 than religious narrowness on the part of the Dutchj 
 that brought about such persecution as occurred in 
 New Netherland. Stuyvesant was a devout member 
 of the Reformed Church ; but above all he believed 
 in obedience to established authority, that power was 
 derived from God, and that any one who rejected the 
 generally accepted order of things was a disturber 
 of the peace, and should be suppressed. When he 
 persecuted a Lutheran or a Quaker, it was not so 
 much the religious tenet that he attacked as it was 
 the individual man who presumed to set up peculiar
 
 98 PETER STUYVESANT, 
 
 views of his own and obstinately follow them out, 
 when the right way had been pointed out to him by 
 his superiors. 
 
 In 1654 the Lutherans had become numerous 
 enough to have religious meetings of their own. 
 Stuyvesant issued a proclamation to them, pointing 
 out the propriety of their attendance at the regular 
 Dutch church. What was good enough for the 
 other inhabitants was good enough for them. When 
 they tried to get a meeting- room for services, he 
 prevented it. When they procured a minister from 
 Holland, the director made life so uncomfortable 
 for him that he left the colony. To have one body 
 of non-conformists at liberty was to invite the pres- 
 ence of others ; the idea was offensive to the direc- 
 tor's sense of order. The Domines Megapolensis 
 and Drisius were intolerant enough to support him. 
 But the Lutherans appealed to Holland, where they 
 found relief in the national spirit of liberality. The 
 West India Company blamed Stuyvesant for perse- 
 cuting these people, on grounds of both policy and 
 principle. To retard the growth and happiness of 
 a commercial colony on account of a "needless 
 preciseness " on the subject of baptism was an 
 act of folly; nor was it in accordance with the 
 Christian spirit. So the Lutherans, who were law- 
 abiding persons, were allowed henceforth full liberty 
 of worship. 
 
 Stuyvesant could accept the Lutheran Church, 
 and could even in 1656 treat the Anabaptists on 
 Long Island with comparative mildness. But he 
 could not endure the Quakers. They were ob-
 
 HIS ADMINISTRATION. 99 
 
 noxious to him, as a Calvinist ; but as director 
 their methods offended him much more, and his 
 anger at their obstinacy carried him beyond all 
 bounds. In 1 65 7 there arrived some " cursed 
 Quakers ; " they had been expelled from Boston, 
 and now reached New Amsterdam from Barbadoes, 
 on their way to Rhode Island, that " sink of New 
 England, where all kinds of scum dwell," as the 
 Domines Megapolensis and Drisius described it. 
 These Quakers went about the streets of the quiet 
 Dutch town, gathering crowds on the corners, har- 
 anguing against steeple- houses, a priesthood, and the 
 powers that be in general. The inhabitants of New 
 Amsterdam stood about, and stared, without under- 
 standing the pious exhorters. But scenes of dis- 
 order were of constant occurrence, and the Quakers 
 would submit to no regulation. Nothing could be 
 better calculated to excite the wrath of Stuyvesant. 
 Two of the women-preachers were thrown into 
 prison, and sent off, with their hands tied be- 
 hind them, on the first ship bound for Rhode 
 Island. But a man named Robert Hodgson was 
 more aggravating in his conduct, and suffered a 
 barbarous treatment. He was arrested at Heem- 
 stede, where he had been preaching, and brought 
 to New Amsterdam at a cart's tail. When arraigned 
 in court, he drove the director into a paroxysm of 
 rage by refusing to remove his hat, which was his 
 way of showing respect to God alone. Stuyvesant 
 proceeded to reduce the obstinate rebel to sub- 
 mission. He was chained to a wheelbarrow, and 
 compelled to work on the roads ; a negro accom-
 
 IOO PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 panied him armed with a whip ; he slept in a dun- 
 geon. But Hodgson's spirit was hard to break, 
 and he preached to the passers-by from his wheel- 
 barrow. For this disobedience Stuyvesant had him 
 hung up by the hands, and severely beaten. The 
 contest between the outraged director and the 
 obstinate preacher continued until the Dutch be- 
 came disgusted with the spectacle. Mrs. Anna 
 Bayard, Stuyvesant's sister, interceded for the un- 
 fortunate Quaker, and he was released, with a 
 sentence of banishment. 
 
 Another contumacious Quaker named John Bowne, 
 an old resident of Flushing, was sent to Holland ; 
 Stuyvesant, writing to the directors of his offence, 
 declared that he meant to treat others more se- 
 verely. But the West India Company would not 
 permit it. To send away active citizens on account 
 of their religion was not the way to populate the 
 colony. They ordered Stuyvesant to " let every 
 one remain free as long as he is modest, moderate, 
 his political conduct irreproachable, and as long as 
 he does not offend others or oppose the govern- 
 ment." This was the time-honoured custom of the 
 magistrates of Amsterdam : " Tread thus in their 
 steps, and we doubt not you will be blessed." 
 Stuyvesant obeyed this injunction, and thus ended 
 a religious persecution which had never had the 
 sympathy of the people of New Netherland. 
 
 During the last ten years of Stuyvesant's govern- 
 ment the emigration from Holland had been stead- 
 ily increasing, and was of a good class of farmers 
 and burghers. By 1660 New Amsterdam had three
 
 HIS ADMINISTRATION. IQI 
 
 hundred and fifty houses. Outside settlements in- 
 creased rapidly, and boweries were cultivated as far 
 as the Haarlem River. In 1656 the Rust Dorp, 
 or Quiet Village, was settled, which was afterward 
 called by the English Jamaica, from the Indian 
 name Jemaico. New Utrecht and Boswyck, or 
 Bush wick, followed in 1661. About 1656 Oost 
 Dorp was settled in Westchester County, principally 
 by Englishmen ; Thomas Pell bought a tract of 
 land, which included the old possessions of the 
 unfortunate Anne Hutchinson. In 1660 New 
 Haarlem became a distinct village. In 1661 
 Melyn gave up the struggle with Stuyvesant, and 
 sold his property on Staten Island to the West 
 India Company. There sprang up New Dorp, 
 built by French Waldenses and Rochelle Hugue- 
 nots. In the same year Bergen was founded in 
 New Jersey, which preserved Dutch characteristics 
 long after they had been crowded out elsewhere. 
 Meanwhile Rensselaerwyck pursued its even way, 
 untroubled by religious or political dissensions. Its 
 alliance with the powerful Mohawk nation, wisely 
 maintained, preserved it from the dangers of In- 
 dian war. The inhabitants traded in furs, culti- 
 vated their rich soil, fished and hunted in peace. 
 The patroon's agent governed in his name, so far as 
 any government was necessary. Stuyvesant had a 
 long-continued quarrel with this agent, whom he 
 kept under arrest at New Amsterdam for a time, for 
 defiance of his authority. But toward the end of 
 the Dutch rule in New Netherland the patroon's 
 officers acknowledged the director's supremacy by
 
 IO2 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 an annual tribute of wheat. In 1661 Arendt van 
 Curler bought for the patroon the " great flat" be- 
 tween Fort Orange and the Mohawk country, which 
 was then opened to settlement. In 1664 Schaen- 
 heckstede, now Schenectady, was founded. 
 
 Such, briefly stated, were the more important 
 events of Stuyvesant's administration as far as the 
 period when New Netherland became New York. 
 That a considerable portion of the province had 
 fallen under English rule was due to the want of 
 a sufficient Dutch emigration and not to any fault 
 of the director. The same difficulty had prevented 
 the development of the territory about the Delaware 
 River. On Long Island and along the shores of 
 the Hudson River the Dutch had flourished and had 
 made permanent homes. New Amsterdam had be- 
 come an orderly, substantial town, already marked 
 by characteristics destined to be lasting. There 
 prevailed religious and political liberty, a cosmo- 
 politan spirit tolerant of varied tongues and cus- 
 toms, a commercial activity suited to an unequalled 
 maritime situation. In the., next chapter we shall 
 consider the outward appearance of the town in the 
 days of Dutch supremacy, its social, educational, and 
 national features.
 
 SOCIAL ASPECT OF NEW AMSTERDAM. 103 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 SOCIAL ASPECT OF NEW AMSTERDAM IN THE TIME OF 
 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 IN the early days of Dutch settlement the fort 
 was the centre of activity, being at once the busi- 
 ness headquarters of the West India Company and 
 the only safe refuge from external danger. About 
 it clustered the storehouses and dwellings of the 
 colonists. As the settlement increased, new build- 
 ings were constructed along the line of paths which 
 diverged from the fort to other points of interest. 
 Thus Broadway came into existence as the road lead- 
 ing from the front of the fort over the ridge of the 
 island to the common pasture-lands. Whitehall 
 Street was the shortest way to the East River and 
 the anchorage-ground. Stone Street originated in 
 the path which ran from the fort down to a point on 
 the East River, now Peck Slip, which was found to 
 be the most convenient for a ferry to Long Island. 
 Most of the streets at present in use in the lower 
 part of New York city had a similar origin. In 
 1657 these streets were already indicated with some 
 distinctness as thoroughfares, but they abounded in 
 irregularities of direction and width. In this year 
 the town below Wall Street was surveyed by Jacques 
 Cortelyou, and the streets definitely laid out.
 
 IO4 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 In front of the fort lay an open space, now called 
 the Bowling Green. It was first used as a parade- 
 ground for the garrison. In 1659 it became the 
 established market-place of the town, and was called 
 the Marckvelt. In this use it continued for many 
 years. In 1732 the Corporation resolved to "leave 
 a piece of land, lying at the lower end of Broadway, 
 fronting the fort, to some of the inhabitants, in order 
 to be enclosed to make a bowling-green there, with 
 walks therein, for the beauty and ornament of said 
 street, as well as for the delight of the inhabitants 
 of this city." John Chambers, Peter Bayard, and 
 Peter Jay were the lessees for eleven years, at one 
 peppercorn per annum. In Stuyvesant's time, his 
 private secretary Cornells van Ruyven and Allard 
 Anthony had houses facing the Marckvelt, and Mar- 
 tin Cregier kept a tavern there. 
 
 Broadway was first called Heere Straat, princi- 
 pal street ; later, the Breede Weg, translated by the 
 English into the Broadway. It extended from the 
 market-place to the Land Gate as a residence street, 
 and thence northward as a country road as far as the 
 pastures on the site of the present City Hall Park. 
 As the business interests of the Dutch town were 
 along the shore of the East River, Broadway was ne- 
 glected for many years. Lots there had begun to be 
 granted by Kieft in 1643, but tnev were generally held 
 for speculation. In 1664 the condition of the street 
 was about as follows : Leaving the fort and going up 
 on the west side, near the present Morris Street, we 
 find the town cemetery, about one hundred feet front 
 and extending back to the North River. Some years
 
 SOCIAL ASPECT OF NEW AMSTERDAM. 105 
 
 later the cemetery was removed, and this land was 
 sold in four lots. Next above was the property of 
 Paulus Leendertsen van der Grist. He had com- 
 manded one of the vessels which accompanied 
 Stuyvesant from Holland, and had become a magis- 
 trate and a man of wealth. His house was one of the 
 best in the town, and was built near the river with a 
 garden about it. Beyond Van der Grist was the house 
 lately occupied by the fiscal Van Dyck, whom 
 Stuyvesant had expelled from the Council. Next- 
 were two lots, each ninety-three feet front and run- 
 ning back to the river. The first of these the 
 director had allotted to his son Nicholas William, 
 and the second to his other son Balthazar. Beyond 
 these was the West India Company's garden, after- 
 ward granted to the English Church, and now 
 Trinity churchyard. Turning at the Land Gate and 
 going down Broadway on the east side, we find a 
 number of small houses occupied by mechanics. 
 This side of the street, sloping off to the marshy 
 lands near the Broad Street canal, was not consid- 
 ered desirable ; but it improved afterward, as the 
 water-courses were filled up. 
 
 The site of the present Broad Street was occupied 
 by a sort of canal, or inlet, from the East River. 
 Toward this canal four streets ran eastward from 
 Broadway. The first now Wall Street began at 
 the Land Gate, and extended to the East River. 
 It was called De Cingel ofte Stadt Waal ("The 
 Walk by the City Wall"), and was built upon at 
 this time only on the south side, facing the stockade. 
 Boatmen and labourers had cottages here.
 
 106 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 The next street now Exchange Place was a 
 path called De Shaap VVaytie ("Sheep Walk") run- 
 ning down to a bridge across the canal. Beyond 
 the bridge, the site of Exchange Place was occupied 
 by a stream, which, in common with the upper part 
 of the Broad Street canal, was called the Prince 
 Graft. On the Graft lived Johannes Hardenbrook, 
 Jacob Kip, and Bay Roosevelt. Here, about 1691, 
 when the stream was filled in and the street had 
 been named, first Tuyen, and then Garden 
 Street, was built the Dutch church, to replace 
 the old one in the fort. 
 
 Near the foot of Broadway was the Bever Graft 
 ("Beaver Canal"), the site of a stream running 
 to the Heere Graft, or large canal, on Broad Street. 
 When this "old ditch" was filled up, the street was 
 built upon with houses of an inferior character. 
 After crossing Broad Street, the Bever Graft was 
 called Prince Street, and later Smith Street Lane. 
 There lived Albert the Trumpeter. 
 
 From the foot of Broadway to the East River ran 
 Beurs Straat, or Whitehall Street. On the south side 
 lay the fort and Stuyvesant's official residence. On 
 the north side lived Jacob Teunis de Kay, Cornelis 
 Steenwyck, the rich dry-goods merchant, and later 
 Jacob Leisler. 
 
 Four streets connected Whitehall Street with the 
 Heere Graft, or Broad Street Canal. The first was 
 called T'Marckvelt Steegie ("Market-field Path"), 
 because it led from a boat-landing on the Heere 
 Graft to the open space in front of the fort. 
 Here lived Claes van Elslant, the sexton, and 
 some mechanics.
 
 SOCIAL ASPECT OF NEW AMSTERDAM. IQ'J 
 
 The present Stone Street came next. From 
 Whitehall to Broad it was called Brouwer (Brew- 
 er) Straat, on account of Oloff Stevensen van 
 Courtlandt's brewery situated there. Besides Van 
 Courtlandt, the inhabitants were Jeroninus Ebbingh, 
 Isaac de Forest and his wife Sara Philipse, and 
 Isaac Kip. Beyond the Heere Graft, Brouwer 
 Straat became Hoogh (or High) Straat, on account 
 of its elevation above the East River. Hoogh 
 Straat extended to the city wall, parallel to the 
 Water Side. It was the favourite situation for dwell- 
 ings in Stuyvesant's time, being sufficiently near the 
 river for convenience, and yet safe from high tides ; 
 it was also the principal thoroughfare for all persons 
 entering the town by the Water Gate. Here lived 
 Govert Loockermans, Johannes van Bruggh, Abra- 
 ham de Peyster, Abiggel Verplanck, Jacob and 
 Johannes van Couwenhoven, Nicholas de Meyert 
 and his wife Lydia van Dyck, Nicholas Bayard and 
 his wife Judith Verlett, Evert Duyckinck and his 
 wife Hendrickje Simons, and two Englishmen, 
 Isaac Bedlow and John Lawrence. Brouwer Straat 
 and its continuation Hoogh Straat were the 
 first to be paved ; which was done with cobble- 
 stones in 1657, under the superintendence of Isaac 
 de Forest and Jeroninus Ebbingh. Hence was de- 
 rived the present name of Stone Street. 
 
 De Brugh (or Bridge) Straat was the next, con- 
 necting Whitehall with Broad. It took its name 
 from the large bridge over the canal which lay at its 
 foot. Hendrick Hendricksen Kip the ancestor 
 of the Kip family lived here.
 
 108 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 Continuing down Whitehall, past Bridge, we come 
 to Pearl Street, which formed the eastern boundary 
 of the fort. It had this name only south of White- 
 hall Street. There lived Pieter Wolfertsen van 
 Couwenhoven, Jacques Cousseau, Gerrit van Tricht, 
 and Dr. Hans Kierstede. 
 
 North of Whitehall Street, on the present line of 
 Pearl, there was not, during Stuyvesant's govern- 
 ment, any street regularly built upon. The locality 
 was called the Water Side, and was simply the 
 shore of the East River. The present Water, South, 
 and Front streets were then covered by the tide. 
 The present Pearl Street came into existence gradu- 
 ally. In 1642 Director Kieft built the stone tavern, 
 called the Harberg, down on the shore of the river, 
 where it could be seen from the anchorage-ground, 
 and there it stood alone for some years. In 1654, 
 when the municipal government was organized, 
 this building was granted to the municipality as 
 a town hall, and called the Stadt Huys. Its situ- 
 ation was that of the present Nos. 71 and 73 Pearl 
 Street, facing Coenties Slip. High tides rose close 
 to the building, and to prevent such encroachments 
 a stone wall was built out in front of the Stadt 
 Huys to keep off the water. This wall protected 
 the building but not the rest of the shore, which 
 often became impassable by the washing of the tide. 
 On this account a barrier against the water was 
 built along the shore, on a line with the wall in 
 front of the Stadt Huys. It was called the Schoey- 
 inge, and consisted of planks driven endwise into the 
 mud, the space behind them being filled in. The
 
 SOCIAL ASPECT OF NEW AMSTERDAM. 109 
 
 work went on from 1654 to 1656, by which year 
 it extended from Broad to Wall streets. Owners of 
 lots fronting on the Water Side were compelled to 
 bear part of the cost. When the Schoeyinge was 
 completed it made a dry walk along the shore, and 
 then houses were built on the line of the Stadt 
 Huys and fronting on the East River. This street 
 was called from the tide-barrier De Waal, and also 
 Lang de Waal, and is sometimes confounded with 
 the present Wall Street. The first people to build 
 on De Waal were Balthazar de Haart, Carel van 
 Brugh, Cornelis Jansen van Hoorn, and Dirck 
 van Clyflf. At a later period the street became 
 populous. 
 
 On the shore of the East River, east of Pearl and 
 south of Whitehall, was a small street of one block, 
 called T Water. When the flats along the river- 
 front were filled in, the continuation of this block 
 formed the present Water Street. Two short lanes, 
 called De Winckel and Achter de Perel, near the 
 fort, were closed up at an early period. 
 
 Extending nearly parallel to Whitehall Street and 
 Broadway, from the East River to Wall Street, on 
 the site of the present Broad Street, was De Heere 
 Graft, or principal canal, an important feature of 
 the town. The Graft was an inlet of the East 
 River, of which the waters rose and fell with the 
 tide as far as Exchange Place. It was crossed by 
 a large bridge near its mouth, at Bridge and Stone 
 streets, and farther up by smaller foot-bridges. 
 The Graft was the chief centre of trade. Near its 
 outlet were the stores of the West India Company ;
 
 IIO PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 opposite was the anchorage-ground, where vessels 
 were complied to unload. Boats laden with mer- 
 chandise went into the Graft to discharge their 
 cargoes. The Long Island farmers brought their 
 produce there, selling from boats drawn up on the 
 bank. Indians paddled up in canoes with skins to 
 barter. Wooden sidings to protect the banks, like 
 those on the East River, were constructed in 1657, 
 and until 1659 two men were kept constantly at 
 work upon them. Throwing refuse into the Graft 
 was prohibited by the burgomasters. In 1659 Re- 
 solvert Waldron was made " Graft officer," with in- 
 structions to keep the sidings in repair, to prevent 
 nuisances, and to see that " boats, canoes, and other 
 vessels which came into it were laid in order." 
 The vicinity of the bridge which crossed the Graft 
 at Stone Street was the most populous portion of 
 the town, and the bridge itself was a generally re- 
 cognized place of meeting for the transaction of 
 business. In 1670 the merchants met there every 
 Friday morning, forming the first established Ex- 
 change in the city. 
 
 In 1660 a petition was presented to the "Re- 
 spected Lords, the Burgomasters and Schepens of 
 Amsterdam in New Netherland," to have a pave- 
 ment laid on the walks along the banks of the Graft. 
 Among the petitioners were Oloff Stevensen van 
 Courtlandt, Johannes van Bruggh, Isaac, Jacob, and 
 Hendrick Kip, Isaac de Forest, and Maria Geraerd. 
 The petition was granted ; the street was surveyed, 
 and the assessments apportioned by Jacques Cor- 
 telyou, town surveyor. After the paving, the Heere
 
 SOCIAL ASPECT OF NEW AMSTERDAM. HI 
 
 Graft was used much more for dwellings, and prop- 
 erty rose greatly in value. In 1676 the primitive 
 conditions of commerce, which made the water- 
 course useful, no longer existed ; the Heere Graft 
 was filled in, and became Broad Street. Persons 
 owning lots there, besides the petitioners mentioned 
 above, were Nicholas Delaplaine, Abel and Johan- 
 nes Hardenbrook, Johannes de Peyster, Cornelius 
 de Silla, Conraet Ten Eyck, Guilian Cornelis, 
 Joghem Beeckman, Adriaen Vincent, Jacob van 
 Couvvenhoven, Cornelis Melyn, Brandt Schuyler and 
 his wife Cornelia van Courtlandt, Jan de la Mon- 
 tagne and his wife Annetje Waldron, Wilhelm Bo- 
 gardus, and Jan Vincent. 
 
 The site of William Street, south of Wall Street, 
 and the south side of Hanover Square were on land 
 granted to Borger Joris, who kept a blacksmith shop 
 there. William Street- and Old Slip were then called 
 Borger Joris's Path, and later Burgher's Path. The 
 name was afterward Smee Straat, and under the 
 English became Smith Street. Abel Hardenbrook 
 and John Ray lived there. 
 
 Such were the streets of New Amsterdam in the 
 last years of Dutch supremacy. The town was in- 
 cluded in the space bounded on the south by the 
 fort and Whitehall Street, on the west by Broadway, 
 on the north by Wall Street, and on the east by 
 Pearl Street. It was intersected near the middle 
 by the waterway on Broad Street. The large major- 
 ity of the people lived near the fort and the East 
 River. Two or three streets only had been roughly 
 paved with cobble-stones ; the others were muddy
 
 112 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 and uneven. The only drainage was a gutter in the 
 middle of the street. Trees abounded both in the 
 streets and in the gardens about the houses. The 
 houses were set irregularly, and generally surrounded 
 by fences to keep out wandering hogs and cows. 
 There was no attempt made to light the streets at 
 night during the Dutch period. At first, horses, 
 cows, goats, and hogs were allowed to run free in 
 the streets and unenclosed grounds ; as the town 
 improved, regulations on this subject were made : 
 " On account of damage to roads by rooting of 
 hogs, all inhabitants are ordered to stick a ring 
 through the noses of their animals." Later : " On 
 account of damage to orchards and plantations by 
 hogs and goats, these animals are ordered to be 
 kept within enclosures." In 1650 the fort having 
 been injured and trodden down by animals, Stuy- 
 vesant ordered that none should be allowed at large 
 within the city. As nearly every house had its cow, 
 which had to go daily to the common pastures, it 
 was found convenient to have a town herdsman. 
 One Gabriel Carpsey was chosen ; and for many 
 years he went each morning from house to house, 
 collected the cattle, and drove them along the 
 Heere Weg to the commons. At night he drove 
 them back ; and, as each cow stopped before its 
 familiar gate, he sounded a horn to announce the 
 arrival. 
 
 Above the stockade at Wall Street, we find our- 
 selves in the country. Broadway, within the stock- 
 ade called the Breede Weg, now becomes the Heere 
 Weg. It extended from the Land Gate north as far
 
 SOCIAL ASPECT OF NEW AMSTERDAM. 113 
 
 as the City Hall Park, then the common pastures 
 called De Vlacke, or Flat. Thence it took a north- 
 easterly course on the line of Park Row, Chatham 
 Street, and the Bowery, as far as New Haarlem, to 
 which village it was extended in 1669. 
 
 The land lying between the stockade and Maiden 
 Lane, from river to river, was granted by Director 
 Kieft in 1644 to Jan Jansen Damen, and was oc- 
 cupied by him as a farm. He had married Adriana 
 Cuvilje, widow of Guleyn Vinje. He left no chil- 
 dren ; but his wife had four by her first husband, 
 who inherited and lived upon this property. They 
 were John Vinje the son, and three daughters, 
 Maria, wife of Abraham Verplanck ; Rachel, wife of 
 Cornelis van Tienhoven ; Christina, wife of Dirck 
 Volkertsen. 
 
 On the west side of Broadway, next above the 
 Damen farm, was a farm belonging to the West 
 India Company ; its boundaries were about the pres- 
 ent Fulton and Chambers streets and the North 
 River. On the capture of the town by the English, 
 this land was confiscated and called the King's farm ; 
 it was afterward given to the English Church. 
 
 North of the King's farm lay a tract of about 
 sixty-two acres. Its boundary line began at a point 
 between Warren and Chambers streets, ran along 
 the site of Broadway about as far as Duane Street, 
 thence northwesterly to the Hudson River. This 
 tract was known as the Domine's bowery. At a 
 very early period in the settlement it was granted 
 by Director Van Twiller to Roeloff Jansen, a super- 
 intendent at Rensselaerwyck who had removed 
 8
 
 114 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 thence to New Amsterdam. Jansen married a wo- 
 man named Annetje, or Annie, who as Annetje 
 Jans attained a curious fame. On the death of 
 Jansen she inherited the farm, and married Domine 
 Everardus Bogardus. By each husband she had 
 four children. After the death of Bogardus in the 
 wreck of the " Princess," she went to live in Albany, 
 and died there in 1663, leaving a will executed in 
 January of the same year. The will provided that 
 all her property should be divided equally among 
 her eight children, the four children of Jansen, 
 however, to be first paid one thousand guilders, out 
 of the proceeds of the farm which Annetje had re- 
 ceived from their father. The widow's title to the 
 land had been confirmed by Stuyvesant in 1654, and 
 was confirmed again in 1667 by Nichols, the first 
 English governor. In 1670, Governor Lovelace 
 bought the Domine's farm, but only a majority of 
 the heirs signed the deed. Lovelace getting into 
 debt, the property was confiscated by his successor, 
 Governor Andros, and called the Duke's farm after 
 the Duke of York. It was afterward considered to 
 belong to the English Crown, and was granted by 
 Queen Anne to Trinity Church. This land had 
 rented for many years for a few hogs per annum ; 
 when Governor Lovelace purchased it, he had not 
 thought it worth while to get a perfect title. But as 
 the town grew and values rose, the heirs of Annetje 
 Jans began to cast longing eyes upon the great 
 patrimony which had been sold for a mess of pot- 
 tage. The heirs of those of Annetje's children who 
 had not signed the deed claimed that Queen Anne
 
 SOCIAL ASPECT OF NEW AMSTERDAM. 115 
 
 had no right to convey their share in the property. 
 The first suit to recover possession was brought by 
 Cornelius Brower in 1750, and unsuccessful litiga- 
 tion since that time has kept alive the name of 
 Annetje Jans and her Domine's bowery. 
 
 To return to Broadway. Only one street ex- 
 tended eastward connecting Broadway with the 
 East River. This was a path called T'Maagde 
 Paatje, now Maiden Lane, which formed the north- 
 ern boundary of the Damen farm. Maiden Lane 
 was the first side-street above Wall to be built upon ; 
 but although the Damen heirs sold some lots here 
 about 1660, it was many years before the Maiden's 
 Path lost its rural beauties. In 1679 there was an 
 orchard between the present Cedar Street and 
 Maiden Lane. One day a bear was found among 
 the trees feeding upon the fruit, and the neigh- 
 bours had an exciting time chasing him with clubs 
 from tree to tree. 
 
 On the east side of Broadway above the Damen 
 farm was the property of Wilhelm Beeckman. In 
 1656 Beeckman applied to the burgomasters and 
 schepens, stating that certain persons claimed a right 
 of way across his land, and requested that they be 
 ordered to show their right. The alleged trespassers 
 proved that there had long been a path through 
 Beeckman's by which they drove their cattle to the 
 common. This was the beginning of Beekman 
 Street, but it was not laid out and paved until 1750. 
 
 There were no streets parallel to Broadway be- 
 tween it and the East River. Nassau Street was 
 not begun until 1692. In that year we find a "pe-
 
 I 1 6 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 tition of Teunis de Kay, that a carte-way may be 
 made leading out of the Broad Street to the street 
 that runs by the Pye-woman's leading to the com- 
 mon of this city ; that the petitioner will undertake 
 to do the same providing he may have the soyle." 
 This road was called Kip Street in 1732. The 
 Middle Dutch church was erected upon it, which in 
 our own time was used as a temporary post-office, 
 and then torn down to make way for the Mutual 
 Life Insurance Building. 
 
 Another road extended out of the town along the 
 shore of the East River from the Water Gate to the 
 Long Island Ferry. It was a continuation of Stone 
 Street, and was called De Smit's Valey. At the cor- 
 ner of this road and Maiden Lane a blacksmith 
 called Cornelius Clopper had set up his forge to get 
 the custom of visitors from Long Island, and his 
 occupation gave the name to the road. For many 
 years the street connecting Wall Street with Franklin 
 Square continued to bear the name, although modi- 
 fied with time to Valey, Vly, and Fly. As it was 
 directly on the shore, houses were built only on its 
 west side, overlooking the river. Pearl Street now 
 occupies its site. 
 
 Just outside the Water Gate, Augustyn Heermans 
 had a good house, with an orchard and garden ex- 
 tending back over the present line of Pine Street. 
 Heermans made a drawing of the town as it appeared 
 from the East River in 165 6, which remains our best 
 guide as to the appearance of New Amsterdam. 
 Beyond his house, on the Smith's Yaley, we find 
 some of the Damen heirs, John Vinje, and Abra-
 
 SOCIAL ASPECT OF NEW AMSTERDAM. 1 17 
 
 ham Verplanck with his sons Isaac and Guleyn. 
 North of them lived Thomas Hall, an Englishman 
 prominent in the affairs of the colony. On his death, 
 the widow sold the property to Wilhelm Beeckman. 
 That part of it called Beekman's swamp afterward 
 belonged to Jacob Leisler, and was confiscated 
 on his attainder. In 1732 Jacobus Roosevelt 
 bought it for ^200, and sold it off in lots. It 
 is still known as the Swamp, and is the site of the 
 leather trade. The tanners had first established 
 their pits in the swampy places on Broad Street ; 
 thence they had moved to Maiden Lane and the 
 shores of the Fresh Pond; they finally moved to 
 Beekman's swamp, where the leather business has 
 since remained. 
 
 The ferry-landing was at Peck Slip. There one 
 Cornelis Dircksen had settled before 1642, and 
 added to his earnings by ferrying to the Long Is- 
 land shore. As the number of travellers increased, 
 the municipality assumed control of the ferry, and 
 in 1654 regulated its use. Dircksen was given a 
 monopoly of the business, but was compelled to 
 conduct it systematically. He was allowed double 
 fares at night, and might refuse passage during a 
 storm. His wife furnished refreshments and beer 
 to travellers, and Dircksen's became an important 
 place. 
 
 North of the common lands, and on the site of 
 the Tombs prison, was a pond called the Kolch- 
 hock. The name signified " Shell Point," and was 
 derived from a deposit of shells on a point on the 
 westerly side of the pond. This name was abbre-
 
 Il8 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 viated into Collck, and changed by the English 
 to Collect. A stream ran from the pond to the 
 East River, near the line of Roosevelt Street, 
 and was called by the Dutch the Versch (fresh) 
 Water; the land north of it was called Overyet 
 (beyond) Versch Water. The pond itself was 
 afterward called the Fresh Water by the English. 
 It long remained the favourite fishing-ground for 
 boys; and even as late as 1734 a town law was 
 passed to prevent netting, or the taking of fish in 
 any manner other than angling. Fifty years after 
 the capture of the town by the English, land in the 
 vicinity of the pond sold for twenty-five dollars 
 per acre. 
 
 Another outlet of the pond flowed in a north- 
 westerly direction, into the large creek which occu- 
 pied the site of Canal Street, and mingled its waters 
 with those of the Hudson River. The creek was 
 navigable for small boats. The shores of the pond 
 were a constant camping-ground for Indians ; they 
 paddled their canoes from the Hudson up the 
 creek, and nearly to the pond itself. The creek 
 and the marshy lands about it formed a serious 
 obstacle to travel, so that the road northward to 
 Haarlem kept along the east side of the island. It 
 crossed the fresh-water stream by a bridge known 
 afterward as the Kissing Bridge. A few labourers 
 and negroes had houses near the creek, and they 
 were described as living " Aen de Groote Kill," 
 which was the first name for Canal Street. The 
 low lands in the vicinity were called Lispenard's 
 Meadows.
 
 SOCIAL ASPECT OF NEW AMSTERDAM. 119 
 
 As the dread of Indian hostility passed away, 
 farms were gradually established in the upper part 
 of the island. In Stuyvesant's time there were five 
 boweries between the common-lands and his house, 
 in the neighbourhood of Fourth Avenue and Twelfth 
 Street; but the greater portion of the land was 
 densely wooded. A small hamlet, containing a few 
 houses and farms, called Sapokanican, was the be- 
 ginning of Greenwich, now comprising most of the 
 eighth and ninth wards of the city. New Haarlem I 
 was in its infancy, and growing. 
 
 On Stuyvesant's arrival at New Amsterdam in 
 1647 he found about one hundred and fifty houses 
 and seven hundred people, but not more than one 
 hundred permanent citizens capable of bearing arms. 
 In 1664, when his directorship terminated, there j 
 were two hundred and twenty houses and a popula- \ 
 tion of fourteen hundred. The inhabitants of Rens- 
 selaerwyck and the other Dutch towns had increased 
 in the same proportion. Ten years later there were' 
 three thousand people on Manhattan Island. At the 
 end of the seventeenth century the population had 
 increased to four thousand four hundred, and the , 
 commerce of the port had become so considerable 
 that forty square-rigged vessels and sixty-two sloops 
 were entered at one time at the custom-house. 
 Another century passed before the population of 
 New York reached sixty thousand. . 
 
 When Stuyvesant had restored order in the col- 
 ony, and particularly after the establishment of mu- 
 nicipal government, the emigration from Holland 
 increased considerably, and was of a good character.
 
 I2O PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 Some of the laws made in 1656 by the West India 
 Company for the government of its emigrant-ships 
 may be cited as illustrative of the times : 
 
 " No man shall raise or bring forward any ques- 
 tion or argument on the subject of religion, on pain 
 of being placed on bread and water three days 
 in the ship's galley; and if any difficulty should 
 arise out of the said disputes, the author thereof 
 shall be arbitrarily punished. 
 
 " If any one quarrel or strike with the fist, he 
 shall be placed three days in irons on bread and 
 water ; and whoever draws a knife in anger, or to 
 wound, or to do any person bodily injury, he shall 
 be nailed to the mast with a knife through his hand, 
 and there remain until he draws it through ; and if 
 he wound any one, he shall be keel-hauled, forfeit- 
 ing besides six months' pay. If any person kill an- 
 other, he shall, while living, be thrown overboard 
 with the corpse, and forfeit all his monthly wages 
 and booty." 
 
 The desire to possess lands of their own was the 
 chief attraction to emigrants ; and the West India 
 Company, after the fur- trade became unprofitable, 
 could gain only through the sale of its territory, and 
 thus encouraged emigration as much as possible. 
 The new-comers spread over Long Island, northern 
 New Jersey, and the banks of the Hudson River as 
 far as Rensselaerwyck. 
 
 In 1655, the burgomasters Allard Anthony and 
 O. S. van Courtlandt requested the director and 
 Council to establish some system for the allotment 
 of land within the city to emigrants wishing to settle
 
 SOCIAL ASPECT OF NEW AMSTERDAM. 121 
 
 there. Stuyvesant directed the road-masters, to 
 gether with councillor La Montagne and burgomas- 
 ter Anthony, to divide the spare land into lots, and 
 to sell them at reasonable prices to persons wish- 
 ing to build. These commissioners held regular 
 sessions, at which they adjusted conflicting claims, 
 ordered repairs and improvements, sold and gave 
 away lots. The following examples will illustrate 
 their procedure : 
 
 " Jan Videt asks permission to build on the ground 
 heretofore given to Daniel Teneur, which has not 
 been built upon. Answer. Jan's application is re- 
 fused, because on the ground asked for a corner 
 house should be built, and he wishes to build little 
 houses thereon. 
 
 " Albert Jansen requests that, inasmuch as he is 
 ready to build a house, a piece of ground may be 
 given him, which is acceded to, and he may have 
 the ground next to that of Jannette Boon." 
 
 Until 1653, the government of the colony was con- 
 ducted arbitrarily by the director and his Council, 
 who acted with the authority of the States-General 
 of Holland, but more particularly as the servants of 
 the West India Company. The director's commands 
 were announced by proclamations. In 1648 Stuyve- 
 sant thus ordained a proper observance of Sunday : 
 " Whereas the Sabbath in various ways has been pro- 
 faned and desecrated, to the great scandal, offence, 
 and reproach of the community : . . . Therefore 
 the director-general and Council for the purpose 
 of averting as much as lies in their power the 
 dreaded wrath and punishment of God, through
 
 122 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 this sin and other misdemeanours, . . . ordain that 
 from this time forth, in the afternoon as well as in 
 the forenoon, there shall be preaching from God's 
 Word." All the Company's servants were ordered 
 to attend the services, and "tapping" during the 
 day was forbidden. Similar proclamations were is- 
 sued against brawling, drunkenness, and other mis- 
 demeanours as circumstances called for them. 
 
 At first, the only courts of justice in New Nether- 
 land were those held by the patroon's agent at 
 Rensselaerwyck and by the director at New Am- 
 sterdam. Town courts were established on Long 
 Island at Heempstede in 1644, at Gravesend in 
 1645, an d at Breukelen in 1646. Stuyvesant and 
 his Council at first undertook to hear all lawsuits 
 arising in New Amsterdam at their own court. But 
 the amount of business soon became embarrassing. 
 Many suits of trifling importance were brought. 
 The attention of the director and Council was drawn 
 by them from more important matters, and at the 
 same time the delays were becoming vexatious to 
 litigants. Hence, in 1647, when Stuyvesant found 
 it necessary to attract popular support by the ap- 
 pointment of the Nine Men, he placed upon their 
 shoulders the duty of hearing the cases of lesser 
 moment. Three of the Nine sat in rotation as a 
 court of arbitrators, their decisions subject to appeal 
 to the director's Council. The pressure was some- 
 what relieved by this means, but dissatisfaction with 
 the administration of justice continued to prevail. 
 Stuyvesant was far from being fitted for a judicial 
 position ; his temper carried him away ; his preju-
 
 SOCIAL ASPECT OF NEW AMSTERDAM. 123 
 
 dices caused him to adopt one side or the other 
 impetuously before he had heard the whole case. 
 In court he browbeat one side or the other, and 
 when resisted he " made a to-do that was dreadful." 
 This continued to the distress of the colony until 
 Van der Donck and his companions obtained their 
 reforms in Holland, and a government by burgo- 
 masters and schepens was established in New Am- 
 sterdam in 1654. Henceforth Stuyvesant governed 
 New Netherland for the West India Company, but 
 New Amsterdam became a free Dutch town. The 
 administration of justice as well as the regulation of/ 
 the municipality was conducted by the burgomasters 
 and schepens during the remainder of the Dutch 
 possession. In 1655,3 separate "Orphan's Court" 
 was established for surrogate cases. 
 
 The scene of the meetings of the burgomasters 
 and schepens was the two- story stone building/ 
 erected by director Kieft in 1642 as a tavern, then 
 called the Harberg, and under the management of 
 the inn-keeper, Philip Gerritsen, who there retailed 
 the Company's wines. Stuyvesant gave the building 
 to the municipal government in 1654, to be used as a 
 town hall, after which it was called the Stadt Huys. 
 It stood on Pearl Street, opposite Coenties Slip, at 
 high-water mark, overlooking the East River. Be- 
 fore it was the walk along the Schoeyinge, called 
 De Waal, or Lang t'Wall ; behind it was a garden 
 fronting on Hoogh (or Stone) Street. In the tav- 
 ern days this space was used for growing vegetables ; 
 but after the building became the town hall, the bur- 
 gomasters' secretary was allowed to raise a crop of
 
 124 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 grain in the garden for his own use. In 1659, 
 Evert Duyckinck engraved the city arms on a 
 window-pane in the council-chamber, where for forty 
 years it was pointed out with pride. On the roof 
 was a cupola, where in 1656 was placed a bell, rung 
 for the assemblage of the magistrates and on the 
 publication of proclamations, which was done from 
 the front steps. Jan Gillisen, nicknamed " Koeck," 
 held the office of bell-ringer for many years. The 
 Stadt Huys contained a council-chamber, town offi- 
 ces, and a prison. In 1697 the building had become 
 so old and insecure that the judges refused to hold 
 court in it. A new town hall was built in Wall 
 Street, opposite Broad ; and the old Stadt Huys, 
 with its garden, was sold at auction for ^920 to 
 John Rodman, a merchant. 
 
 t The town magistrates were eight in number, a 
 /schout or sheriff, two burgomasters, and five sche- 
 1 pens. When the States-General granted municipal 
 government to New Amsterdam, they intended these 
 offices to be elective. But Stuyvesant, as we have 
 seen, ignored their intention, and appointed the first 
 set himself. Half of the officers retired each year, 
 and their places were filled according to the follow- 
 ing method : The schout, on behalf of the director's 
 Council, appeared at the meeting and requested the 
 burgomasters and schepens to nominate a list of 
 men of "goed naem and faem staen " (of good 
 name and standing), from which the director and 
 his Council should choose magistrates for the next 
 year. Each burgomaster and schepen made out a 
 separate list ; they were compared, and the per-
 
 SOCIAL ASPECT OF NEW AMSTERDAM. 12$ 
 
 sons receiving the highest number of votes were 
 declared in nomination. From these Stuyvesant 
 then made his choice. 
 
 Among the magistrates who held office during 
 Stuyvesant's time may be mentioned the following : 
 Sellouts Cornelis van Tienhoven, Nicasius de Sille, 
 Pieter Tonneman, Allard Anthony. Burgomasters 
 Arent van Hatten, Martin Cregier, Allard Anthony, 
 Oloff Stevensen van Courtlandt, Paulus Leendertsen 
 van der Grist, Cornelis Steenwyck. Schepens 
 Wilhelm Beeckman, Pieter Wolfertsen van Couwen- 
 hoven, Johannes de Peyster, Jacob Strycker, Johan- 
 nes van Bruggh, Hendrick Kip, Covert Loockermans, 
 Adriaen Blommaert, Hendrick Jansen Vandervin, 
 Isaac de Forest, Jacob Kip, Jeroninus Ebbingh. 
 
 The magistrates were treated by the people withj 
 much respect, and were generally addressed as 
 " Most worshipful lords." But they seemed to have / 
 no confirmed official titles ; and when Stuyvesant 
 addressed them, he adopted a form which suited 
 the importance of the communication or his own 
 momentary humour. Thus, in announcing to the 
 magistrates a Fast Day, he directed his letter to 
 "The Most Worshipful, Most Prudent, and very 
 Discreet, their High Mightinesses, the Burgomasters 
 and Schepens of Nieuw Amsterdam." When he 
 had occasion to request them to adopt regulations 
 to keep pigs out of the fort, he addressed them as 
 " Respected and particularly dear friends." But 
 when a quarrel had arisen between the director 
 and the municipal authorities on the subject of the 
 propriety of a game called " Riding the Goose,"
 
 126 PETER STUYVESAA'T. 
 
 Stuyvesant addressed his angry reproofs to "The 
 Small Bench of Justices." 
 
 In 1654 the salary of the burgomasters was 
 fixed at about one hundred and forty dollars, and 
 that of the schepens at one hundred dollars. But 
 the salaries were to be paid out of the municipal 
 " chest," which was always empty. The magistrates 
 grumbled occasionally, and hoped for better times 
 when the arrears might be collected. But those 
 times never came, and they were obliged to be 
 satisfied with the dignity of office, with the title of 
 " worshipful lord," and the separate pew in church, 
 where they sat in state on cushions brought over 
 from the Stadt Huys by the sexton. 
 I The schout's duties combined in a primitive 
 I fashion those of a sheriff and district attorney. 
 He prosecuted offenders, executed judgments, and 
 supervised the order of the town. Nicasius de 
 Sille used to complain that when he made his 
 rounds after dark, the boys would annoy him by 
 shouting " Indians ! " from behind the fences and 
 raising false alarms. 
 
 The duties of the burgomasters and schepens 
 were of two kinds. They regulated the affairs of 
 the town like a board of aldermen, and they sat as 
 a court of justice both civil and criminal. 
 
 Among their proceedings we find ordinances for- 
 bidding galloping through the streets and shooting 
 partridges or other game within the town limits ; or- 
 dering horses and oxen to be led through the streets 
 by the head, and children to be catechised on 
 Sunday; regulating the value of wampum and the
 
 SOCIAL ASPECT OF NEW AMSTERDAM. 127 
 
 prices of various commodities. But although these 
 municipal powers were usually conceded to the 
 magistrates, the director and his Council reserved 
 the right to make regulations overriding those of 
 the burgomasters and schepens. Thus the arbitrary 
 spirit of Stuyvesant continued to obstruct the free 
 institutions which the States-General intended to 
 implant in New Netherland. One day an order 
 issued from the fort forbidding the game of " Riding 
 the Goose " at the feast of Backus and Shrove-tide. 
 The order was very unpopular, and the magistrates 
 at the Stadt Huys felt aggrieved that it should 
 have been proclaimed without any consultation 
 with them. " Aggrieved, forsooth ! " wrote Stuy- 
 vesant, haughtily, " because the director-general had 
 done this without their consent and knowledge ! As 
 if without the knowledge and consent of the burgo- 
 masters and schepens no order can be made, no 
 mob interdicted from celebrating the feast of 
 Backus ; much less have the privilege of correcting 
 such persons as tread under foot the Christian and 
 holy precepts, without the knowledge and consent 
 of a little bench of justices ! Appreciating their own 
 authority, quality, and commission better than oth- 
 ers, the director and Council hereby make known 
 to the burgomasters and schepens that the institution 
 of a little bench of justices under the name of the 
 schout, burgomasters, and schepens, or commission- 
 ers, does in no wise diminish aught of the power of 
 the director-general and councillors." 
 
 The first police and fire departments were estab-\ 
 lished by the burgomasters and schepens. In 1658 |
 
 128 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 twas organized the " ratel wacht," or rattle-watch. 
 The first watchmen were Pieter Jansen, Hendrick 
 van Bommel, Jan Cornelsen van Vlensburg, Jan 
 Pietersen, Gerrit Pietersen, Jan Jansen van Lang- 
 straat, Hendrick Ruyter, Jacques Pryn, and Tomas 
 Verdran. The wages were twenty-four stuyvers per 
 night, to have " one or two beavers besides, and two 
 or three hundred sticks of firewood." The captain 
 of the watch, Ludowyck Pos, was authorized to collect 
 monthly from each house the sum of fifty stuyvers 
 to meet the expenses. The following rules of the 
 watch were adopted : 
 
 " When any one comes on the watch being drunk, 
 or in any way insolent or unreasonable in his beha- 
 viour, he shall be committed to the square-room or 
 to the battlements of the town hall, and shall be- 
 sides pay six stuyvers. 
 
 " When any one shall hold watch in the battle- 
 ments, he shall diligently be on the lookout ; and if 
 he be found asleep during his hours of watch, he shall 
 forfeit ten stuyvers. 
 
 " If any one be heard to blaspheme the name of 
 God, he shall forfeit ten stuyvers. 
 
 " If any one attempt to fight when on the watch, 
 or tries to draw off from the watch for the purpose 
 of fighting, he shall forfeit two guilders. 
 
 " When they receive their quarter money, they 
 shall not hold any gathering for drink or any club 
 meeting. 
 
 " They shall at all corners of the streets, between 
 the ninth hour of the evening and the break of morn- 
 ing, call out the time of night and how late it is."
 
 SOCIAL ASPECT OF NEW AMSTERDAM. 129 
 
 The customary thatched roofs, wooden chimneys, , 
 and hay-stacks near the houses were a constant i 
 source of danger from fire. An order was issued in 
 1655 forbidding the future construction of wooden 
 chimneys between the fort and the Fresh Water. 
 Adriaen Keyser, Thomas Hall, Martin Cregier, and 
 Joris Wolsey were appointed wardens to enforce 
 the regulation. But it was not until 1657, when it 
 was evident that one fire might sweep the town, that 
 systematic precautions were adopted. In that year 
 all wooden chimneys, thatched roofs, hay-stacks, 
 hen-houses, and hog-pens within the town wall were 
 ordered to be removed. The burgomasters and 
 schepens levied a tax on each house, great or small, 
 of one beaver-skin, or eight guilders in seawant, 
 to furnish fire-buckets, ladders, and hooks. To 
 maintain them a yearly tax of one guilder was col- 
 lected for every chimney. The shoemakers were' 
 called before the burgomasters, and it was agreed 
 with Remout Remoutsen and Adriaen van Lair to 
 make two hundred and fifty buckets for six guil- 
 ders two stuyvers each ; payment, half beavers, 
 half seawant. The ladders were placed at con- 
 venient points in the streets. The buckets were\ 
 distributed as follows : in the Stadt Huys, fifty ; 
 in Abraham Verplanck's house in the Smith's 
 Valey, twelve ; in Johannes Pietersen van Bruggh's, 
 twelve ; in Heer Paulus Leendertsen van der 
 Grist's, twelve ; in Heer Nicasius de Sille's, in the 
 Sheep Path, twelve ; in Pieter Wolfertsen van 
 Couwenhoven's, twelve ; in Hendrick Hendricksen 
 Kip's, ten. 
 
 9
 
 130 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 The burgomasters and schepens met as a civil 
 and criminal court once a fortnight ; and when busi- 
 ness required it, once a week. A recess of a month 
 took place about Christmas-time, and no sittings 
 were held during the harvest. At nine o'clock Jan 
 Gillisen Koeck rang the court-house bell ; and in- 
 side the council-chamber Johannes Nevius turned 
 the hour-glass, and fined all persons who were late. 
 The burgomasters and schepens sat on benches 
 provided with cushions, the same which on Sundays 
 were carried to their pew in church. Behind them 
 was the coat-of-arms of New Netherland, sent over 
 from Holland. Johannes Nevius had charge of the 
 law-library, to which the court resorted when in 
 doubt. Among the books were " Placards, Ordi- 
 nances, and Octroys of the Honourable, Great, and 
 Mighty Lords, the States of Holland and of West 
 Friesland," " The By-laws of Amsterdam," and 
 "The Dutch Court Practice and Laws." Claes van 
 Elslant, son of the old sexton, was court- messenger ; 
 Pieter Schaafbanck was jailer; and Matthew de 
 Vos, bailiff. Proceedings were opened by a prayer 
 from the domine. 
 
 Litigants nearly always appeared in person, and 
 presented their own cases. Van der Donck, who 
 was an educated lawyer, requested permission of the 
 College of the XIX., in 1653, to practise at New 
 Amsterdam ; but he was allowed only to give advice, 
 on the ground that " as there was no other lawyer 
 in the colony there would be none to oppose him." 
 There were several notaries. Dirck van Schelluyne, 
 who came out in 1641, was the first: others were
 
 SOCIAL ASPECT OF NEW AMSTERDAM. 131 
 
 David Provoost, Solomon La Chair, Van der Veen, 
 Van Vleck, and Pelgrum Clocq. These men could 
 draw wills and deeds, and their knowledge of legal 
 forms was sufficient for the simple needs of their 
 clients. If they made a mistake, the Worshipful 
 Court was not slow in its reprimand. Pelgrum Clocq 
 drew up a deed without procuring the appointment 
 of a guardian for an infant, whereupon he was thus 
 addressed in open court : 
 
 " Whereas, you, Pelgrum Clocq, in the above and 
 other of your instruments, have committed great 
 abuses, wherefrom serious mischiefs might arise ; 
 and, according to the law of the Orphan Chambers, 
 no notary can draw up any instrument relating to 
 widows and orphans without a chosen guardian, 
 therefore you are hereby ordered and charged by 
 the burgomasters and schepens of this town not to 
 draw up within six weeks from date any instrument 
 appertaining to the Subaltern court of this town." 
 
 The proceedings of the court may be shown best 
 by reciting some cases, and their disposition. 
 
 "Jan Haeckins, plaintiff, demands payment from 
 Jacob van Couwenhoven, defendant, for certain beer 
 sold him according to contract. The defendant says 
 the beer is bad. Plaintiff denies that the beer is bad, 
 and asks whether people would buy it if it were 
 not good. He further insists that the beer is of 
 good quality, and such as is made for exportation. 
 Couwenhoven denies this, and requests that after 
 the rising of the bench the court may come over 
 and try the beer, and then decide. The parties 
 having been heard, it was ordered that after the
 
 132 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 meeting breaks up the beer shall be tried, and if 
 good, then Couwenhoven shall make payment ac- 
 cording to the contract ; if otherwise, the plaintiff 
 shall make deduction." 
 
 Wolfert Webber, plaintiff, against Judith Verleth, 
 defendant : " The plaintiff makes complaint that the 
 defendant has for a long time pestered him, and 
 with her sister Sara came over to his house last 
 week and beat him in his own house, and afterward 
 threw stones at him. He requests that said Judith 
 may be ordered to let him live quietly in his own 
 house. The defendant acknowledges that she has 
 struck Webber, but excuses the act because he has 
 called her names ; moreover, he once threatened 
 to strike her with a broom. The parties are or- 
 dered to leave each other unmolested." Webber is 
 fined twelve stuyvers for passing the lie during the 
 meeting. 
 
 Certain domestic troubles between Arent Juniaan- 
 sen Lantsman and his wife Beletje, the daughter 
 of Ludowyck Pos, having been brought to the notice 
 of the court, the matter was referred to the Domi- 
 nes Megapolensis and Drisius, who were requested 
 to reconcile the pair. " Then, on the promise of 
 amendment and that such should not occur again, 
 shall the past be forgiven ; but if one or the other 
 party shall not abide by nor submit to advice and 
 arbitration of the reverend preachers between this 
 and the next court day, then proceedings may be 
 expected according to the style and custom of law, 
 as an example to other evil housekeepers." 
 
 Pieter Kock and Anna van Voorst having entered
 
 SOCIAL ASPECT OF NEW AMSTERDAM. '133 
 
 into an agreement, of marriage, and then having 
 shown unwillingness to fulfil the engagement, " the 
 burgomasters and schepens by these presents decide, 
 that as the promise of marriage has been made be- 
 fore the Omniscient God it shall remain in force ; 
 so that neither the plaintiff nor defendant, without 
 the approbation of their lordships the magistrates 
 and the other one of the registered parties, shall 
 be permitted to enter matrimony with any other, 
 whether single man or single woman." 
 
 As there was no prison for criminals, they were 
 punished by fines, whipping, branding, the stocks, 
 the ducking-stool, labour with negroes, riding on a 
 wooden-horse, and banishment. The rack was used 
 to threaten with ; but it is unlikely that there ever 
 was a rack on Manhattan Island. In criminal cases 
 the schout prosecuted. 
 
 Hannen Barentzen was sentenced to be chastised 
 with the rod and banished from the town for five 
 years for stealing three half beavers, two nose-cloths, 
 and a pair of linen stockings. Mesaack Martens 
 stole cabbages from Pieter Jansen, in the Maiden 
 Lane. He had to stand in the pillory with cabbages 
 on his head, and was then banished for five years. 
 Jan Alleman, an officer in the fort, was sentenced 
 to ride the wooden-horse and to be cashiered for 
 sending a challenge to Jan de Fries who was bed- 
 ridden. Abel Hardenbrook was fined forty guilders 
 for having " at night and at unseasonable hours, in 
 company with some soldiers, created an uproar and 
 great insolence in the street by breaking windows." 
 Madaleen Vincent accused Wilhelm Beeckman and
 
 134 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 the schout-fiscal of winning her husband's money at 
 play, and of leading him into evil courses. She could 
 not prove her allegations, and so was fined sixty guild- 
 ers. Pieter Pietersen Smit called Joghem Beeckman 
 a "black pudding ; " Isaac Bedlo called Joost Goderis 
 a " horned beast." The slanderers were fined. 
 
 An aggravated case was that of the schout An- 
 thony de Mill against Abel Hardenbrook. " The 
 Heer Schout complains that the defendant Harden- 
 brook has shoved him on the breast, and abused 
 him with foul and unseemly language, wishing that 
 the devil should break his neck, when, on the third 
 September last, the Heer Plaintiff repaired, by or- 
 der of the burgomasters and schepens, to defend- 
 ant's house, to warn his wife that she should not go 
 again to the house of the Heer Burgomaster Johan- 
 nes de Peyster, as she now had twice done, to make 
 trouble there ; also had obstinately refused to obey 
 the order of the burgomasters and schepens as well 
 as the court-messenger Henry Newton, the burgo- 
 master Luyck, and Heer Schepen Wilhelm Beeck- 
 man, as to him the plaintiff; and that the said 
 delinquent being in the evening a prisoner at the 
 town hall, in the chamber of Pieter Schaefbanck, 
 carried on and made a racket like one possessed 
 and mad, notwithstanding the efforts of the Heer 
 Burgomaster Johannes van Bruggh, running up to 
 the court-room and going away next morning as if 
 he had not been imprisoned. ... All which qught 
 in no manner to be tolerated in a well-ordered bur- 
 ghery, being directly contrary to the customs and 
 provisions of the laws. . . . The burgomasters and
 
 SOCIAL ASPECT OF NEW AMSTERDAM. 135 
 
 schepens, having heard the delinquent's excuse 
 and the arguments between parties, and examined 
 the evidence produced, condemn the delinquent in 
 a fine or penalty of twenty-five florins in beavers ; 
 further, that the delinquent for the assault shall 
 beg pardon of the Court, God, and Justice, and pay 
 the costs incurred herein." 
 
 The magistrates were careful to uphold the dig- 1 
 nity of public office. When the fire inspectors were 
 going about ordering the demolition of wooden 
 chimneys, Solomon la Chair lost his temper, and 
 abused the inspectors, calling them, among other 
 names, " chimney-sweepers." His conduct having 
 come to the knowledge of the court, he was fined, 
 and a messenger was sent to collect the fine. 
 Solomon paid it with the contemptuous remark, 
 *' Is it to have a little cock booted and spurred that 
 I am to give it?" For this the court imposed a 
 fflrther fine of twelve guilders, on the ground that 
 " it is not seemly that men should mock and scoff 
 at persons appointed to any office, yea, a neces- 
 sary office." The house of Pietertje Jans was sold 
 on an execution for debt. Whereupon she declared 
 publicly to the officers of the court, "Ye despoilers ! 
 ye bloodsuckers ! ye have not sold, but given away 
 my house ! " The officers complained that such 
 words were " a sting that cannot be endured." 
 Whereupon Pietertje was brought before the magis- 
 trates, and reprimanded in the following terms : 
 
 " Whereas, thou, Pietertje Jans, hast presumed 
 shamefully to attack honourable people with foul, 
 villainous, injurious words, yea, infamous words ;
 
 136 'PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 also insulting, defaming, affronting, and reproach- 
 ing the Worshipful Court of this town, publicly on 
 the highway, to avenge the loss which thou hast 
 caused thyself in regard that thy house and lot were 
 sold on an execution, which blasphemy, insult, 
 affront, and reproach cannot be tolerated or suf- 
 fered to be done to a private individual, more 
 especially to the court aforesaid, but must in the 
 highest degree be reprimanded, particularly cor- 
 rected, and severely punished as criminal : There- 
 fore the heeren of the court hereby interdict and 
 forbid you to indulge in such blasphemies for the 
 future, or by neglect the judge shall hereafter pro- 
 vide for it." 
 
 The notary Walewyn van der Veen was in con- 
 tempt of court several times. On one occasion, 
 when a case had been decided against him, he 
 spoke of the magistrates as " simpletons and block- 
 heads." The court decided that "Van der Veen, 
 for his committed insult, shall here beg forgiveness, 
 with uncovered head, of God, Justice, and the Wor- 
 shipful Court, and moreover pay as a fine one hun- 
 dred and ninety guilders." On another occasion, 
 when the secretary Johannes Nevius declined to 
 show him some records, Van der Veen called him 
 a " rascal," and said further, " Had I you at another 
 place I would teach you something else." The 
 secretary complained to the burgomasters and 
 schepens of this treatment, and the schout, as pro- 
 secutor, presented the case to the court, saying : 
 " That in consequence of the slander and affront 
 offered to plaintiff in scolding him as a rascal,
 
 SOCIAL ASPECT OF NEW AMSTERDAM. 137 
 
 which affects his honour, being tender ; and as the 
 Honourable and Worshipful Court is not willing to 
 be attended by a rascally secretary, he demands a 
 fine of fifty guilders, that it may serve as an example 
 to all other slanderers, who for trifles have con- 
 stantly in their mouths curses and abuse of other 
 honourable people." 
 
 Until the adoption of the burgher government 
 the finances of New Amsterdam were entirely in the 
 hands of the West India Company. But in 1654, 
 when the director found himself confronted by a 
 debt of seven thousand guilders incurred in preparing 
 for the expected hostilities with New England, he 
 resolved to shift the burden upon the new magis- 
 trates, and directed them to consider the means to 
 pay the debt. A special meeting was held for the 
 purpose, the following being present : Arent van 
 Hatten, Martin Cregier, Paulus Leendertsen van 
 der Grist, Pieter Couwenhoven, Wilhelm Beeckman, 
 and Martin van Gheel. The importance of the 
 issue made it advisable to secure the support of 
 the Commonalty, and a number of burghers were 
 requested to attend in an advisory capacity, among 
 whom were Johannes Pietersen van Bruggh, Johan- 
 nes Gilliesen van Bruggh, Jacob van Couwenhoven, 
 Govert Loockermans, Oloff Stevensen van Court- 
 landt, Abram Verplanck, Johannes de Peyster, and 
 Coenraet Ten Eyck. The burgomasters and sche- 
 pens, with the concurrence of the private burghers, 
 decided that the duty of defending the town be- 
 longed to the West India Company, and that the 
 Commonalty was not liable for the debt. They
 
 138 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 would take no steps in the matter until the di- 
 rector-general abandoned his excise on wine and 
 beer, when they would find means to raise the ne- 
 cessary money. Stuyvesant refused to give up the 
 obnoxious excise, saying that it had already been 
 paid into the Company's counting-house. The 
 magistrates held another meeting, and declared 
 positively that they would do nothing toward pay- 
 ing the debt until the excise was transferred to the 
 treasury of the burgomasters and schepens. If any 
 calamity resulted, they held themselves blameless. 
 The director was obliged to yield, and relinquished 
 the "tapster's excise" to the town authorities, with 
 the only condition that the salaries of Domines 
 Megapolensis and Drisius should be paid out of 
 it. This was the first revenue coming to the town 
 of New Amsterdam. 
 
 Having gained this point, the burgomasters and 
 schepens raised the seven thousand guilders in 1655 
 I by a direct tax on the citizens in proportion to their 
 ' supposed wealth. A considerable number not only 
 paid the sum levied upon them, but added a further 
 voluntary contribution. The largest payments were 
 made by P. Stuyvesant, C. van Tienhoven, A. An- 
 thony, O. S. van Courtlandt, T. W. van Couwen- 
 hoven, J. P. van Bruggh, C. Steenwyck, Govert 
 Loockermans, Jacobus Backer, J. L. van der Grist, 
 J. van Couwenhoven, P. L. van der Grist, Jo. 
 Nevius, Jo. de Peyster, Martin Cregier, Domine 
 Megapolensis, Domine Drisius, Jeremias van Ren- 
 sselaer, Isaac de Forest, Cornelis van Ruyven, 
 Wilhelm Beeckman, Hendrick van Dyck, Ludowyck
 
 SOCIAL ASPECT OF NEW AMSTERDAM. 139 
 
 Kip, Arent van Corker, Jacob Kip, Isaac Kip, 
 Conraet Ten Eyck, Abrarn Verplanck, P. C. van 
 der Veen, H. J. Vandervin. 
 
 The next year the town was again in financial 
 straits. The town wall, the schoeyinge, the Stadt 
 Huys, the watchroom, the schoolhouse, and the graft 
 were all in need of repairs, for which the excise 
 duties were far from sufficient. The burgomasters 
 and schepens applied in vain to the West India 
 Company for relief. Stuyvesant was resolved that 
 the Stadt Huys should get no help from the Fort. 
 The next year, 1657, matters were not improved, 
 as the records show : 
 
 '' Hendrick Hendricksen, drummer, attended the 
 meeting of the burgomasters, and requested payment 
 of promised yearly wages ; but as the chest at pres- 
 ent is not well supplied, the applicant is requested 
 to wait until the first convenient opportunity, when 
 he shall be satisfied. 
 
 "Jan Jansen, woodcutter, left at the meeting his 
 account for timber and other work for the town; 
 but since he is not present himself, and the chest 
 is not well supplied, the consideration of the same 
 is put off." 
 
 In 1658 the burgomasters and schepens placed 
 taxes upon land-transfers, taverns, and slaughtered 
 cattle, and managed to raise sufficient money to 
 meet the necessary expenses of the town. But the 
 chest never contained enough to pay their own 
 salaries. 
 
 There was very little gold or silver money at New^ 
 Amsterdam. In their place beaver and other skins J
 
 I4O PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 /and the Indian wampum, or seawant, served as a 
 medium of exchange in cases where simple barter 
 was inconvenient. The beaver-skin was the stan- 
 dard. The West India Company paid eight guil- 
 ders for a beaver over its counter, and thus its value 
 was fixed. Inferior skins brought less, and so their 
 condition entered into every bargain. The seawant 
 derived its value from its purchasing power with 
 the Indians. As beaver-skins grew scarcer, it re- 
 quired more seawant to buy one : hence this cur- 
 rency depreciated steadily. The buyer and the 
 seller had to come to an agreement as to the 
 amount of beavers and seawant an article was 
 worth. 
 
 The foreign trade of New Amsterdam was made 
 up by the exportation of skins and tobacco, and the 
 importation of tools, clothing, and articles adapted 
 to Indian exchange. Until 1660 the foreign trade 
 was limited to Holland, a circumstance which re- 
 stricted the enterprise of New Amsterdam mer- 
 chants, and caused much complaint. In that year 
 trading was allowed with France, Spain, Italy, and 
 the West India Islands, on payment of duties ; and 
 this extension brought added prosperity during the 
 few years which remained of Dutch rule. It was 
 not until after the English occupation, when New 
 York became a grain-producing and exporting coun- 
 try, that wealth became considerable. The peltry- 
 trade alone was never sufficient to meet the wants of 
 the colony. 
 
 Several causes tended to reduce the profits of the 
 Dutch- Indian trade. The French in Canada became
 
 SOCIAL ASPECT OF NEW AMSTERDAM. 141 
 
 active competitors ; as New Netherland grew, the 
 Indians were pushed into the interior, and skins 
 were less easily obtained. But the most serious ; 
 cause was the intrusion of foreign traders, who sailed 
 past New Amsterdam, outbid the Dutchmen at the 
 trading-posts up the river, and gradually stole away 
 their business. Even in the town the foreign ped- 
 dlers, who kept no " fire and light," were reaping 
 profits which belonged to Dutch citizens. Realiz- 
 ing the injury which resulted to permanent settlers 
 by the operations of these " base, itinerant deal- 
 ers," who bore no share in the expense of govern- 
 ment, the burgomasters and schepens petitioned the 
 director and Council to withdraw the privilege of 
 free trade from foreigners; to make them keep 
 open shop in New Amsterdam, and pay the 
 usual taxes. 
 
 In February, 1657, Stuyvesant and his Council' 
 limited the right of trade to recognized citizens; j 
 and in order to draw the line between them and the 
 foreigners, an institution called the " Great and Small 
 Citizenship " was established. The Great Citizens 
 were to be : (i) Those who have been or are mem- 
 bers of the supreme government, with descendants 
 in the male line ; (2) Past and present burgomasters 
 and schepens in the town with their descendants ; 
 (3) Former and present ministers of the gospel, with 
 their descendants: and (4) Officers of the militia, 
 with their descendants. Other persons could obtain 
 the distinction by paying fifty guilders. The Small 
 Citizens were to be : ( i ) Residents for one year and 
 six weeks, who have kept fire and light ; (2) All born
 
 142 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 in the town; (3) All who have married daughters 
 of citizens born in the town; and (4) All who have 
 opened a store, and paid to the burgomasters twenty 
 guilders. The distinction created between Great 
 and Small Citizens was declared to be " grounded 
 in reason," and to be " in conformity with the cus- 
 toms of the city of Amsterdam in Europe." But 
 very few of the burghers considered the rank of 
 Great Citizens to be worth fifty guilders. The 
 names on the list were nearly all of persons who 
 had held office ; others who desired enrolment 
 for business reasons contented themselves with 
 the Small Citizenship. Of these there were two 
 hundred. 
 
 Until 1656, the shores of the Heere Graft formed 
 the market-place of the town. There the Indians 
 drew up their canoes and bartered their beaver- 
 skins. There the farmer from Long Island, from 
 Bergen, Nieuw Haarlem, or Gamoenepa, exchanged 
 his vegetables and fruits for tools, clothing, sugar, 
 and beer. In 1648 was inaugurated the annual fair 
 called the Kermis, which began on the first Monday 
 after the feast of Saint Bartholomew and continued 
 for ten days. All comers sold their goods from tents. 
 In 1656, it became evident that better means were 
 required to bring together the producer and con- 
 sumer ; and the magistrates proclaimed, " Whereas, 
 divers articles, such as meat, pork, butter, cheese, 
 turnips, cabbage, and other country produce, are 
 from time to time brought here for sale by the peo- 
 ple living in the country, and oftentimes wait at the 
 strand without the people living out of that immedi-
 
 SOCIAL ASPECT OF NEW AMSTERDAM. 143 
 
 ate neighbourhood knowing that such things are for 
 sale in the town : Therefore it is ordered that from 
 this time forward, Saturday in each week shall be 
 appointed as market-day, the articles to be brought 
 on the beach, near Mr. Hans Kierstede's house ; of 
 which all shall take notice." This spot remained for 
 many years a resort for dealers in country produce. 
 In 1659 a yearly cattle- market was established by 
 the burgomasters and schepens for " fat cattle, 
 steers, cows, sheep, goats, hogs, bucks, and such 
 like." It opened on October 20, and lasted till 
 the end of November. The site was the present 
 Bowling Green, where shambles were erected and 
 " the key given to Andries the baker, to keep over- 
 sight of the same." Posts were set up along Broad- 
 way opposite the churchyard, to which the animals 
 were attached pending sale. The proclamation for 
 this market was translated into English and sent to 
 Standtfort, Uncque, Suidhampton, Suidhool, Straat- 
 foort, Milfort, and Oosthampton. This fair was held 
 for more than thirty years. During its continuance 
 no visitor could be arrested for debt, and the attend- 
 ance was large from Connecticut and all parts of 
 New Netherland. The fish-market was at Coenties 
 Slip, so-called because the land in this vicinity was 
 the property of Conraet Ten Eyck, who was famil- 
 iarly known as Coentje. 
 
 Of separate shops there were none ; but many 
 of the merchants used parts of the ground- floor of 
 their houses as retail stores, especially those living 
 on the Hoogh Straat. Most of these were general 
 stores, in which hardware, dry-goods, and wines were
 
 144 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 all sold. Cornells Steenvyck, at the corner of 
 Bridge and Whitehall streets, made a specialty of 
 dry-goods, and grew rich by selling petticoats, linen, 
 and ribbons to the women, breeches and shirts to 
 the men. Steenwyck's was the most fashionable 
 store, and much frequented by the "vrows." 
 
 When Peter Stuyvesant came out as director, the 
 houses of New Amsterdam were nearly all poorly 
 built of wood, with thatched roofs and wooden 
 chimneys ; but with the return of peace and pros- 
 perity the town was gradually rebuilt. By 1664, 
 when the Dutch rule terminated, there were about 
 two hundred and fifty houses, of which a consider- 
 able number were of a substantial character. Small 
 /coloured bricks, and black and yellow tiles for roofs, 
 I were imported from Holland ; and it was the ambi- 
 tion of the wealthier Dutch citizens to construct 
 their houses of these. The buildings stood with the 
 gable end toward the street, the roof rising to a 
 peak by a series of steps. The stoop was made an 
 important feature ; there the burgher sat with his 
 family on pleasant evenings. Connected with every 
 house of any pretension was a garden, where kitchen 
 vegetables and flowers were cultivated. In some 
 cases these gardens were made highly ornamental, 
 and the subject of family pride. The improvement 
 in the appearance of the town was gradual, but con- 
 tinuous. After the haystacks, piggeries, and other 
 unsightly objects had been suppressed by the mag- 
 istrates, and the streets straightened and paved, the 
 citizens made individual efforts to adorn their prop- 
 erties, which soon changed the appearance of New
 
 SOCIAL ASPECT OF NEW AMSTERDAM. 145 
 
 Amsterdam very much for the better. The water 
 supply during this period was derived from wells 
 near the houses, and from streams and springs when 
 convenient. Later on, public wells were dug in 
 various parts of the town. 
 
 In the interior of the houses we see the same 
 improvement keeping pace with prosperity. The 
 floors were covered with a thin layer of sand drawn 
 by the broom into quaint figures. Carpets were 
 long in coming into use. There was one in Cor- 
 nelis Steenwyck's " great chamber " when he died 
 in 1686, and by that time the parlours of the principal 
 citizens probably had them. There were "tabby" 
 curtains at the windows. The principal articles of 
 furniture, imported from Holland and handed down 
 from father to son, were the sideboard, with its 
 pewter and sometimes silver or china furniture, the 
 sofa and chairs in the best room, the four- posted 
 bed, the linen chest, and the hand-loom. As it ap- 
 pears by the inventories of deceased persons, the 
 furniture increased very much in quantity and value 
 as time went on. Before 1650 people had only 
 the most necessary articles; after 1670 a great in- 
 crease in wealth and comfort appears. Dr. Jacob 
 Lange died in 1685. Enumerated as part of his 
 estate were a sword with silver handle, another with 
 an iron handle, a carbine, a pistol, a cane with silver 
 head, and another with ivory head. Among his cloth- 
 ing were found a gros-grained cloak lined with silk, 
 a black broadcloth suit, a coloured serge suit with sil- 
 ver buttons, silk and calico drawers, silk night-caps, a 
 pair of yellow hand-gloves with black silk fringe, five
 
 146 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 white calico stockings, and two worsted stockings. 
 Dr. Lange's wife had when she died red and 
 scarlet under-petticoats, cloth petticoats with black 
 lace, striped stuffed petticoats, coloured drugget pet- 
 ticoats with various coloured linings and lace, black 
 silk petticoats with gray silk lining, black pottofoo 
 petticoats with black and gray silk linings : these 
 petticoats were valued at ^30. Besides these she 
 had a black tartanel samare with a tucker, a flow- 
 ered calico samare, flowered and red calico night- 
 gowns, silk and red calico waistcoats, a bodice, 
 white cotton stockings, five black love-hoods, one 
 white love-hood, sleeves with great lace, cornet 
 caps with and without lace, a black silk rain-cloth, 
 a yellow love-hood, a black plush mask, an em- 
 broidered purse with silver bugle and chain to the 
 girdle, a silver hook and eye, five small East India 
 boxes, five hair- curlings, four yellow love-drowlas, 
 one silver thread-wrought small trunk, in which was 
 the following jewelry : a pair of black pendants with 
 gold hooks, a gold boat, wherein were thirteen dia- 
 monds to one white coral chain, one pair gold pen- 
 dants in each ten diamonds, two diamond rings, one 
 gold ring, and another gold ring with diamonds. 
 
 When Cornelis Steenwyck died in 1686, he left 
 seven hundred and twenty-three ounces of silver 
 plate and ^300 in money. Among the articles 
 found in his house, apart from the store, were a 
 gold chain and medal, a child's whistle, coats and 
 breeches with silver buttons and buckles, rush-leather 
 chairs, velvet chairs with fine silver lace, tables, a 
 cabinet, a looking-glass, thirteen pictures, bedsteads,
 
 SOCIAL ASPECT OF NEW AMSTERDAM. 147 
 
 ten pieces of china, five alabaster images, tapestry for 
 twelve cushions, a great deal of pewter, and some 
 watches and clocks which were out of order. Prob- 
 ably purchased at Steenwyck's store were the fol- 
 lowing articles of men's dress, which are elsewhere 
 enumerated : green silk breeches flowered with sil- 
 ver and gold, silver gauze breeches, scarlet stockings, 
 blue silk stockings, laced shirts, laced neck-cloths, 
 a lacquer hat, bob wigs and periwigs. 
 
 Elizabeth van Es died in 1694, aged seventy 
 years. Her inventory contains the goods in the 
 shop, a share in a brigantine, a negro-boy Toby, 
 two bands of seawant, two breast- plates of seawant, 
 one silver tankard, one silver beker, one silver mus- 
 tard-pot, three gold hoop-rings, two gold rings with 
 stones, one hundred and three beaver-skins, eighteen 
 otters, twenty-three maters, nine fishers, eight minks, 
 two cats, eighteen rat-skins, forty-nine hespannen, 
 nine gray squirrels, one red squirrel, seven bear- 
 skins, one wolf, one beaver-rock, two Bibles with 
 silver clasps and two Dutch Bibles, a New Testa- 
 ment with silver clasps, and two catechisms. Her 
 library which was a good sample of the contem- 
 porary bookshelf contained "Isaac Ambrosius," 
 " Housewife," Howin's " Church History," French 
 "Flock of Israel," Coleman's "Christian Interest," 
 "Christ's Ways and Works," Dewitt's " Catechism," 
 Duyken's " Church History." 
 
 In Stuyvesant's time domestic servants were rare ; \ 
 the housework was performed by the housewife and ' 
 her daughters. In a few of the wealthier families 
 one or two Dutch domestics were employed as
 
 148 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 apprentices ; but as their term of service expired 
 they usually married. The same difficulty prevailed 
 in regard to male labourers. Thus, a ready market 
 f was found for African negroes when Dutch traders 
 brought them to Manhattan Island. In 1629 the 
 West India Company promised to supply negro 
 slaves to the colony as fast as possible ; but for 
 many years the arrivals were few, and these served 
 as labourers for the Company. The treatment of 
 'them was humane, and freedom was generally 
 within their reach as a reward of good conduct. 
 In 1644 a number of slaves petitioned Kieft to free 
 them, on the ground of long service. The petition 
 was granted as to themselves and their wives, but 
 not as to their children. The freedmen were placed 
 on the same footing with other citizens, except that 
 they had to pay a yearly tribute to the Company. 
 In 1646, on request of Domine Megapolensis, a 
 slave named Jan Francisco was freed in conse- 
 quence of faithful service, on condition of paying 
 the Company ten skepels of wheat annually. Ne- 
 groes were brought to New Amsterdam only from 
 the West Indies until 1654, when the first cargo 
 arrived direct from Africa. The slave-trade was 
 allowed to citizens of New Netherland, but was 
 not participated in by them until the end of the 
 century. The negroes seemed to have fared well 
 at the hands of the Dutch citizens, and to have been 
 orderly and contented. At the end of the century 
 they had increased in number, and were generally 
 employed as domestic servants. At that time, we 
 find that the widow Van Courtlandt had seven adults
 
 SOCIAL ASPECT OF NEW AMSTERDAM. 149 
 
 and two children ; Colonel de Peyster, the same 
 number. William Beeckman had three ; Rip van 
 Dam, five and one child. The widow Philipse had 
 four, and three children. Members of the Kip family 
 had twelve. Mrs. Stuyvesant had five ; Balthazar 
 Bayard, six ; John van Horn, four ; Jacobus van 
 Courtland, four and a child ; David Provoost, Jr., 
 three ; Col. Nicholas Bayard, three ; Abraham 
 Loockermans, five and three children. Rebecca 
 van Schaick had three. 
 
 During the rule of the West India Company 
 building-lots were conveyed to settlers at nominal 
 prices, and until near the end of Dutch control real- 
 estate values remained very low. About 1660 there 
 was a decided advance, following on increased pros- 
 perity ; and this advance continued steadily. In 
 1647 a farm of two hundred acres near Haarlem 
 brought forty dollars. In 1667 the house and lot 
 on west side of Broadway, near Morris Street, 
 brought three hundred dollars. In the same year 
 the house and lot next north of Trinity churchyard, 
 fifty by ninety feet, was sold for seventy-five dollars. 
 In 1682 a lot on Wall Street brought thirty dollars. 
 In 1683 a lot on Pearl Street, near John, brought one 
 hundred and fifty dollars. In 1700 Wall Street had 
 become a favourite locality, and a lot on the corner 
 of Wall and Broad was sold for $815. The fol- 
 lowing is a record of a contract of sale of real estate 
 made in Stuyvesant's time : 
 
 " Before me, Cornelius van Tienhoven, secretary 
 of New Netherland, appeared Harck Sybesen, who 
 acknowledged to having sold to Barent Dircksen his
 
 150 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 house and lot, earth and nail- fast, both big and 
 little, as the same is situated on the Island of Man- 
 hattan, near Fort Amsterdam, which Dircksen also 
 acknowledges to have purchased for one hundred 
 and seventy-five guilders, and a half-barrel of beer 
 as a treat for the company, to be paid in fourteen 
 days, when the delivery of the house and depend- 
 encies shall take place. It is agreed that if either 
 party backs out, or repents of the sale, he shall pay 
 a half-barrel of beer." 
 
 The descriptions of property transferred were usu- 
 ally rather indefinite. When Govert Loockermans 
 purchased the land near Hanover Square, on which 
 he lived, it was thus described in the deed, dated 
 1642 : "A dwelling-house and lot situated on East 
 River, on Manhattan Island, beginning at a brook 
 of fresh water emptying into the East River, till to 
 the farm of Cornelius van Tienhoven, whose pali- 
 sades extend from the long highway toward the 
 East River, as may be seen by the marks by him 
 made bordering on the aforesaid land, from the 
 fence to the great tree." 
 
 In the disposition of property by will, the general 
 custom among the Dutch was for the husband and 
 wife to inherit absolutely from each other. The 
 married pair appeared before a notary and declared 
 such to be their wish, " out of love and special nup- 
 tial affection." When husband or wife married a sec- 
 ond time, it was arranged that the property of the 
 deceased should eventually go to his or her children. 
 The children inherited equally, without regard to 
 sex or priority of birth. "An instance of which I
 
 SOCIAL ASPECT OF NEW AMSTERDAM. 151 
 
 remember," said Wooley, "in one Frederick Phi- 
 lipse, the richest Mein Heer in that place, who was 
 said to have whole hogsheads of wampum, who, 
 having one son and one daughter, I was admiring 
 what a heap of wealth the son would enjoy; to 
 which a Dutchman replied that the daughter must 
 go halves." In dividing property among the chil- 
 dren, the testator usually specified every article 
 in detail : the scarlet petticoat was to go to Ger- 
 truyd, the black love-hood to Annetje, the pew- 
 ter tankard to Jan. So the father left his Sunday 
 suit to Pieter, the three-cornered hat to Evert, 
 the gun to Nicholas, the linen-chest to Tryntje. 
 Through these wills heirlooms can be traced in 
 families for several generations. When a man died 
 insolvent, his widow could relieve herself from the 
 claims of creditors by relinquishing the right of in- 
 heritance. This was done in legal form, when the 
 wife declared that she " kicked the estate away with 
 the foot, and laid the key on the coffin." 
 
 The festivals observed by the Dutch were Ker- 
 stydt Christmas ; Nieuw Jar New Year's Day ; 
 Pinxter Whitsuntide ; Paas Passover ; and 
 Saint Nicholas Day. For two or three weeks after 
 Christmas the burghers and their families spent 
 much of their time in firing guns, beating drums, 
 dancing, card-playing, playing at bowls or nine-pins, 
 and in drinking beer. The public offices were 
 closed during these holidays. " Whereas," says the 
 record of the burgomasters and schepens, " the win- 
 ter festivities are at hand, it is found good that be- 
 tween this day and three weeks after Christmas the
 
 152 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 ordinary meetings of the court shall be dispensed 
 with." May Day was observed so boisterously that 
 the burgomasters provided that damage done to 
 property during its celebration should be reported 
 lo them, and reparation would be made. There 
 was always a contest between the rigid director at 
 the fort and the complaisant magistrates at the 
 Stadt Huys as to the toleration of these public 
 amusements. On one occasion Stuyvesant pro- 
 claimed : " Whereas experience has taught us that 
 on New Year's days and on May days from the 
 firing of guns, the planting of May-poles, and 
 drunken drinking there have resulted unnecessary 
 waste of powder and much intoxication, with the 
 bad practices and accidents which generally arise 
 therefrom : therefore we expressly forbid on New 
 Year and May days any firing, or plantiug of May- 
 poles, or beating of the drum ; nor shall there be 
 at those times any wines, brandy, or beers dealt 
 out." This order may have modified, but it did 
 not suppress, the popular ebullition of spirits. There 
 was a game called " Pulling the Goose," introduced 
 at New Amsterdam in 1654. A goose with head 
 and neck smeared with grease was suspended be- 
 tween two poles. Men rode at full gallop, and 
 tried to grasp it as they passed. Stuyvesant forbade 
 this game, pronouncing it " an unprofitable, heathen- 
 ish, and popish festival, and a pernicious custom." 
 Some farmers who " pulled the goose " after the 
 prohibition were fined and imprisoned, " in order 
 to prevent more sins, debaucheries, and calamities." 
 Against this severity the burgomasters remonstrated.
 
 SOCIAL ASPECT OF NEW AMSTERDAM. 153 
 
 As the colony grew in wealth and stability, the 
 amusements of the people became more refined. 
 The rougher sports were replaced by ball games, i 
 bowling, and cricket, introduced by the English. ' 
 Shooting and fishing were much in favour. The 
 young people of both sexes met at dancing-parties 
 and at jaunts in boats, wagons, and sleighs. Mrs. 
 Knight, an English visitor, in 1 700, says : " Their 
 diversion in winter is riding in sleighs about three 
 miles out of town, where they have houses of en- 
 tertainment at a place called the Bowery ; and 
 some go to friends' houses, who handsomely treat 
 them. ... I believe we met fifty or sixty sleighs 
 one day ; they fly with great swiftness, and some 
 are so furious that they '11 turn out of the path for 
 none except a loaded cart. t Nor do they spare for 
 any diversion the place affords, and sociable to a 
 degree, their tables being as free to their neighbours 
 as to themselves." Among the wealthier families 
 chocolate parties were much in vogue, which a j 
 domine objected to as keeping people up till ' 
 nine o'clock at night. 
 
 A great deal of beer was consumed in New Am- 
 sterdam, and several of the richest men were 
 brewers. Stuyvesant and the domines had to 
 struggle against intemperance and its consequences, 
 which they did very earnestly. The traditional 
 fondness of the Dutch for smoking seems not to 
 have been exaggerated. " They are obstinate and 
 incessant smokers," says Wooley, " both Indians 
 and Dutch, especially the latter, whose diet, es- 
 pecially of the boorish sort, being sallets and
 
 154 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 bacon and very often picked buttermilk, require 
 the use of that herb to keep their phlegm from 
 coagulating and curdling. I once saw a pretty 
 instance, relating to the power of tobacco, in two 
 Dutchmen riding a race with short campaigne-pipes 
 in their mouths, one of whom, being hurled from 
 his steed, as soon as he gathered himself up again, 
 whip'd to his pipe, and fell a-sucking and drawing, 
 regarding neither his horse nor fall, as if the prize 
 consisted in getting that heat which came from 
 his beloved smoke. Tobacco is two pence and a 
 half a pound." 
 
 The church in the fort was the only Dutch 
 Reformed church in New Amsterdam during Stuy- 
 vesant's time. The first religious services at Man- 
 hattan were begun in 1626, in the room over the 
 horse-mill. When Domine Bogardus arrived in 
 1633, a plain wooden building was erected on the 
 East River, near Old Slip, with a parsonage for the 
 domine. The people worshipped here until 1642, 
 when, at the suggestion of De Vries, the stone 
 church in the fort was built. This building re- 
 mained in use until 1693, when it had become 
 much dilapidated, and the congregation, under 
 Domine Selyns, gladly removed to the new church 
 in Garden Street, now Exchange Place. The old 
 edifice in the fort was used by the military until 
 1741, when it was burned. The site remained un- 
 touched until 1790, when the government house 
 was built upon it. Then it was that the commem- 
 orative stone erected by Kieft in 1642 was dug 
 up and placed in the Garden Street church.
 
 SOCIAL ASPECT OF NEW AMSTERDAM. 155 
 
 Subscriptions began to be taken up for the new 
 building in 1689. Many persons thought Garden 
 Street was too far up-town ; but a piece of land 
 there was finally chosen in 1690, which adjoined 
 the orchard of Domine Drisius's widow. The 
 church was opened in 1693, having cost about 
 $28,000. It was an oblong building with a brick 
 steeple. The windows were of small panes set in 
 lead. On many of the panes were the coats-of- 
 arms of elders and magistrates engraved thereon by 
 Gerard Duyckinck. There were also painted coats- 
 of-arms hung on the walls. Galleries ran along the 
 sides ; in them sat the men, with the women below. 
 The interior was quite plain ; the seats were wood- 
 en benches ; the pulpit, imported from Holland, 
 stood in the middle of the end opposite the door ; 
 the bell-rope hung down in the middle aisle. 
 
 As the population increased, another church was 
 built on Nassau Street, on the corner of Liberty 
 Street. It was of stone, with a clock in the tower ; 
 and there the true Reformed doctrines were preached 
 far into the nineteenth century. It was surrounded 
 by trees in early times, and looked as though " built 
 in a wood." The Garden Street church was then 
 called the Old Church, and the Nassau Street church 
 the New Church. When another was built at the 
 corner of Fulton and Williams streets it was called 
 the North, that in Garden Street the South, and that 
 in Nassau Street the Middle Church. The building 
 in Garden Street was destroyed in the great fire of 
 1835 ; that in Nassau Street was pulled down in 
 our own time ; prayer-meetings of the Dutch Re- 
 formed Church are still held in Fulton Street.
 
 156 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 Religious services on Manhattan Island were first 
 held by a schoolmaster and " consoler of the sick." 
 In 1633 the first domine came out, Everardus Bo- 
 gardus, who served the people faithfully for fourteen 
 years, resisted the tyranny of Kieft, and perished 
 with him in the wreck of the " Princess " in 1647. 
 Johannes Backerus succeeded him in 1648, but re- 
 turned to Holland in the following year. His de- 
 parture left Manhattan without a minister, much to 
 the discouragement of Stuyvesant. At this juncture 
 Domine Johannes Megapolensis, who had served at 
 Rensselaerwyck since 1642 as minister to the Dutch 
 and Indians, arrived at New Amsterdam on his way 
 to Holland, whither his wife had preceded him. 
 Stuyvesant pictured to him the miserable state of 
 the people without a minister, and persuaded him 
 to remain. He continued to be the leading domine 
 in the colony until his death in 1669. The famous 
 Jesuit, Father Lemoyne, visited him in 1658, in 
 order to convert him to Romanism, but without 
 success. Megapolensis had a son Samuel, who had 
 been taught Latin and English at the " Academy of 
 New England," in Cambridge. In 1658 Samuel 
 went to Holland, studied for five years at Utrecht, 
 and was ordained. In 1664 he came out to Man- 
 hattan, and ministered to a parish which included 
 Breukelen, the Waal-Bogt, Gowanus, and Stuyve- 
 sant's bowery. But after five years he wearied of 
 colonial life, and returned permanently to Holland. 
 
 Samuel Drisius of Leyden arrived in 1652. He 
 could preach in Dutch, English, and French, and 
 remained for twenty years, during most of this time
 
 SOCIAL ASPECT OF NEW AMSTERDAM. 157 
 
 acting as a colleague of Megapolensis. Whilhelmus 
 van Nieuwenhuysen officiated from 1671 to 1681, 
 and Henricus Selyns from 1682 to 1701. Although 
 Selyns began his ministrations in New Amsterdam 
 only in 1682, he had lived for a long time in New 
 Netherland. In 1660 he succeeded Domine Joh. 
 Polhemus at the parish of Breukelen, which included 
 also Midwout (Flatbush), Amersfoort (Flatlands), 
 and the Waal-Bogt. The population of Breukelen 
 was then only one hundred and ninety-four persons. 
 When Selyns arrived from Holland, Stuyvesant de- 
 puted Nicasius de Sille and Martin Cregier to intro- 
 duce him to his parishioners, and invited him to 
 preach from time to time at his bowery. In 1664 
 Selyns decided not to live under the English rule, 
 and went to Holland. But the call to the New Am- 
 sterdam church in 1682 brought him back, and he 
 died here in 1701. Among those who were influ- 
 ential in inducing him to return were Stephanus van 
 Courtlanclt, Nicholas Bayard, Joh. de Peyster, and 
 Dr. Joh. Kerfbyl. He was the most cultivated and 
 accomplished of the domines. 
 
 These preachers were all of the Reformed Dutch 
 Church. The Lutherans only succeeded in forming 
 a congregation toward the end of Stuyvesant's rule, { 
 and many years passed before it became consider- 
 able in numbers. Megapolensis and Drisius gave a 
 vigorous support to Stuyvesant's attempt to suppress 
 the Lutherans, and were never on cordial terms with 
 their minister. Megapolensis accompanied Stuyve- 
 sant to the South River in 1655, and preached the 
 Thanksgiving sermon at the taking of Fort Casimir.
 
 158 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 He then thought the terms of the treaty of capitula- 
 tion too easy, because they allowed the Lutheran 
 minister to continue to preach. This antagonism 
 animated his successors also. The Rev. Charles 
 Wooley, who was rector of the English church, now 
 Trinity, in 1679, relates the following anecdote : 
 
 " In the city of New York, where I was minister 
 to the English, there ,were two other ministers, or 
 domines as they were called there, the one a 
 Lutheran, a German or High Dutch ; the other 
 a Calvinist, an Hollander or Low Dutchman, 
 who behaved themselves one toward another so 
 shily and uncharitably as if Luther and Calvin had 
 bequeathed and entailed their virulent and bigoted 
 spirits upon them and their heirs forever. They 
 had not visited or spoken to each other with any 
 respect for six years together before my being there ; 
 with whom I being much acquainted, I invited them 
 both, with their vrows. to a supper one night, un- 
 known to each other, with an obligation that they 
 should not speak one word in Dutch, under the 
 penalty of a bottle of Madeira, alleging I was so im- 
 perfect in that language that we could not manage 
 a sociable discourse. So accordingly they came; 
 and at the first interview they stood so appalled as 
 if the ghosts of Luther and Calvin had suffered a 
 transmigration. But the amaze soon went off with a 
 salve fu quoque and a bottle of wine, of which the 
 Calvinist domine was a true carouser ; and so we 
 continued our menzalia, the whole meeting in Latin, 
 which they spoke so fluently and promptly that I 
 blushed at myself with a passionate regret that I 
 could not keep pace with them."
 
 SOCIAL ASPECT OF NEW AMSTERDAM. 159 
 
 Claes van Elslant was the first sexton of the 
 church in the fort. After him came Jan de la 
 Montagne, who had a son Jan who was sexton of 
 the Garden Street church. A third Jan, a son of 
 the preceding, succeeded his father. Egbert Ben- 
 son, when a boy in the latter part of the eighteenth 
 century, saw the third Jan de la Montagne going 
 his rounds to collect the " Domine's gelt." The 
 Dutch were careful to pay their minister promptly, so 
 that he should not need to " desire a gift." 
 
 Sunday was not observed in New Amsterdam with 
 anything like the strictness of New England. Still, 
 the day was kept with respect. Stuyvesant would 
 tolerate no selling of beer or disorder on Sundays, 
 and treated the offenders with great severity. In 
 this he was supported by the burgomasters and 
 schepens. Albert the Trumpeter had to answer to 
 the magistrates for being found on Sunday with an 
 axe on his shoulder ; he excused himself on the 
 ground that he only intended to cut a bat for his 
 little boy. Fishing, fowling, gathering nuts or 
 strawberries, the playing of children in the streets, 
 were forbidden on Sundays. Dancing, playing ball, 
 cards, tric-trac, tennis, cricket, nine-pins, and plea- 
 sure parties were not allowed before or during di- 
 vine service. It was a day of relaxation, however, 
 when the people put on their best clothes (which 
 were used at no other time) and enjoyed a respite 
 from toil. 
 
 As the occasions for social reunion were few, 
 marriages were made much of, and furnished the 
 opportunity for the display of silver, pewter, or
 
 160 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 china, and the best clothing. The publication of 
 banns at the church was necessary, and run-away 
 or impatient couples had to go down to Lady 
 Moody's settlement at " Gravenzande," where there 
 were no such restrictions. At both weddings and 
 funerals it was customary to load the dining- table 
 with the best dishes, wine, or beer which the family 
 could afford. At funerals a pewter or silver tankard 
 was passed around filled with hot wine. 
 
 In Holland the church was an essential part of 
 the government, and it was not less so regarded in 
 New Netherland. It was as much the duty of the 
 West India Company to keep the colony supplied 
 with a domine as with a director. And the domines 
 were of the utmost importance to the social order. 
 They were a mediation between the authorities and 
 the people, a restraint on the one hand to tyranny, 
 on the other to rebellion. Upon them the burgo- 
 masters' court frequently relied to reconcile husband 
 and wife, or to reform the youthful evil-doer. 
 
 Not less inseparately connected than the church 
 with the Dutch idea of government was the school. 
 The church and the school belonged to each other 
 and to the civil authority. The appointment of 
 domines and schoolmasters rested conjointly with 
 the Company and the Classis of Amsterdam. When 
 Domine Bogardus came out in 1633, there accom- 
 panied him Adam Roelandsen, the first schoolmas- 
 ter. He taught the children until 1639, when he 
 resigned and went to Rensselaerwyck. Jan Corne- 
 lissen, a carpenter living there, heard of the vacant 
 .post, and coming down to New Amsterdam secured
 
 SOCIAL ASPECT OF NEW AMSTERDAM. l6l 
 
 it. He taught until 1650. Roelandsen had a school-, 
 room assigned to him ; Cornelissen received his' 
 pupils in the house in which he lived. In 1647, 
 when Domine Backerus returned to Holland, Stuy- 
 vesant sent by him a message to the Classis of 
 Amsterdam asking for " a pious, well-qualified, and 
 diligent schoolmaster." William Vestens was sent 
 in answer to this appeal, arriving in 1650 in the 
 same ship with Domine Megapolensis's wife. Ves- 
 tens continued in office for five years, the school 
 being held in a hired room. During this period 
 he was the principal teacher ; but there being more 
 scholars than he could well take care of, Jan de la 
 Montagne was appointed a second teacher, and a 
 room in the tavern was assigned to him. A school- 
 house was then built, and at the same time Vestens 
 was succeeded by Harmanus van Hoboocken. The 
 school was soon after burned, and Hoboocken was 
 allowed one hundred guilders annually to hire new 
 accommodations, " as the town youth are doing so 
 uncommonly well now." In 1661 Hoboocken was 
 transferred to Stuyvesant's bowery, to teach the 
 children of settlers in that growing quarter. Evert 
 Pietersen then became the schoolmaster at New 
 Amsterdam, living and teaching in the Brouwer 
 Straat. The school with difficulty founded and 
 maintained through the early years of the settle- 
 ment was continued by the Collegiate Dutch Church 
 after the English possession. There the Dutch 
 youth were educated for many years in their native 
 language only, later in both English and Dutch. 
 The school, like the church, still exists and flourishes
 
 1 62 PETEK STUYVESANT. 
 
 in New York ; they are bound together by the old 
 ties, and look back upon an honourable and inter- 
 .esting history. 
 
 While this was the official free school, maintained 
 by Church and State, there were also private schools 
 in New Amsterdam. Licenses for the teachers of 
 these were issued before 1664 to Jan Stevensen, 
 Aryaen Jansen, Andries Hudde, Jacob van Corlaer, 
 Jan Lubberts, Joost Carelse, Adriaen van Ilpendam, 
 Juriaense Becker, and Johannes van Gelaer. 
 
 In 1658 a general desire was felt for a high or 
 classical school, which would carry the youth beyond 
 the rudiments of education. Accordingly the bur- 
 gomasters and schepens thus petitioned the West 
 India Company : " It is represented that the youth 
 of this place and the neighbourhood are increasing 
 in number gradually, and that most of them can read 
 and write, but that some of the citizens and inhab- 
 itants would like to send their children to a school 
 the principal of which understands Latin, but are 
 not able to do so without sending them to New 
 England ; furthermore, they have not the means to 
 hire a Latin schoolmaster expressly for themselves 
 from New England, and therefore they ask that the 
 West India Company will send out a fit person as 
 Latin schoolmaster, not doubting that the number 
 of persons who will send their children to such a 
 teacher will from year to year increase, until an 
 academy shall be formed whereby this place to great 
 splendour will have attained, for which, next to God, 
 the Honourable Company which shall have sent such 
 teacher here shall have laud and praise. For our
 
 SOCIAL ASPECT OF NEW AMSTERDAM. 163 
 
 own part, we shall endeavour to find a fit place in 
 which the schoolmaster shall hold his school." The 
 petition was granted, and in 1659 Dr. Alexander 
 Carolus Curtius, of Lithuania, arrived in New Am- 
 sterdam. The burgomasters gave him the use of 
 a house and garden, promised him a salary of five 
 hundred guilders, and allowed him to charge each 
 scholar a fee of six guilders per quarter. Curtius 
 turned out to be not a fit person for the place. 
 Parents complained that he could keep no order 
 among the pupils, who "beat each other and tore 
 the clothes from each other's backs." Curtius ex- 
 cused the lack of discipline on the ground that " his 
 hands were tied, as some of the parents forbade 
 him punishing their children." He overcharged 
 some scholars by asking from them a whole beaver- 
 skin per quarter. The discontent with his services 
 sent Curtius back to Holland. The Rev. ^Egidius 
 Luyck, who had been tutor to Stuyvesant's sons, was 
 then appointed principal, and under his care the 
 academy succeeded admirably, students attend- 
 ing it from Virginia, the South River, and Rens- 
 selaerwyck, as well as from the neighbourhood of 
 New Amsterdam. 
 
 The first educated physician who practised in 
 New Amsterdam was Dr. Hans Kierstede, who 
 lived on the East River, near the foot of Whitehall 
 Street. Samuel Megapolensis, the domine's son, 
 added the practice of medicine to his spiritual 
 duties while he lived in the colony. Other phy- 
 sicians were Johannes de la Montagne, Johannes 
 Kerfbyl, a graduate of Leyden, Jacob Bloeck,
 
 164 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 Samuel Coster, and two or three of lesser fame. In 
 1652 the profession petitioned the director and 
 Council that none but surgeons should be allowed 
 to shave people. After weighty consideration, the 
 Council gave the following answer : 
 
 " That shaving doth not appertain exclusively to 
 chirurgery, but is only an appanage thereof. That 
 no man can be prevented from operating herein 
 upon himself, or doing another this friendly act, 
 provided that it be through courtesy, and that he 
 do not receive any money for it, and do not keep 
 any open shop of that sort, which is hereby forbidden, 
 declaring, in regard to the last request, this act to 
 belong to chirurgery and the health of man." 
 
 The medical profession, like other skilled occu- 
 pations, increased very much in importance to- 
 ward the end of the century, when there was 
 wealth enough in the colony to attract well- trained 
 men from Holland. 
 
 Only a portion of the early Dutch settlers had 
 family names. It was at about this time that such 
 names were becoming fixed and hereditary. There 
 were three ways in which, commonly, family names 
 were attained. The first and most usual was the 
 attachment of sen or se (a termination meaning 
 son) to the father's Christian name : thus, Evert 
 Pietersen and Frederic Philipse. To signify a 
 daughter the termination s was used : thus, An- 
 netje Jans, Tryntje Everts. If we take, for ex- 
 ample, a man named Jan : his son Hendrick, to 
 distinguish himself from other Hendricks, calls 
 himself Hendrick Jansen ; -his son again is called
 
 SOCIAL ASPECT OF NEW AATSTERDAM. 165 
 
 Evert Hendricksen ; his son Teunis Evertsen ; his 
 son Willem Teunissen. Thus the second name va- 
 ried from generation to generation. Gradually the 
 second name became hereditary, and Hendrick 
 Jansen's children were called Jansen instead of 
 Hendricksen. 
 
 Another method of fixing a family name was by 
 the father's trade. Thus, the brewer Willem Hen- 
 dricksen was called Willem Brouwer; Jan Willem- 
 sen the bleacher was called Jan Bleecker. In the 
 same way originated the names of Coster, Schoon- 
 macker, Stryker, Dyckman, and Hofman. 
 
 A third derivation of names was that from places 
 of origin. When Oloff Stevensen van Courtlandt 
 first came out to New Amsterdam as a soldier, he 
 was known as Oloff Stevensen, and so signed his 
 name to the protest carried by Van der Donck to 
 the States-General. As he became a leading man, 
 he distinguished himself from other Stevensens by 
 adding van Courtlandt the town of his birth 
 to his name ; his descendants continued the custom, 
 and so it became the family appellation. Other 
 names of similar origin are Van Bergen, Van 
 Antwerp, Van der Veer (Ferry), Verplanck (of the 
 plank- walk), Ten Eyck (at the oak), Ten Broeck (at 
 the marsh,) Opdyck (on the dyke), and Wyckoff 
 (parish-court). Some of these names had been 
 borne in Holland ; many became hereditary first 
 in New Netherland. 
 
 Augustyn Heermans, who made a good sketch of 
 the city of New Amsterdam as it appeared from the 
 East River, was the only artist whose work survives.
 
 1 66 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 But three Dutchmen wrote poetry in their native 
 language, which may still be read. Jacob Steendam 
 composed a " Complaint of New Amsterdam " 
 and " The Praise of New Netherland," dedicated 
 to the Hon. Cornelis van Ruyven, secretary of the 
 West India Company, "a faithful and very up- 
 right promoter of New Netherland." The next 
 poet was Nicasius de Sille. He was a member of 
 Stuyvesant's Council and an educated man. In 
 1656 he succeeded Van Tienhoven as fiscal, and 
 afterward held the office of schout. In 1657 he 
 built a house at New Utrecht, L. I., where he 
 afterward lived. ' This house was of stone, roofed 
 with large Dutch tiles, and originally protected by 
 palisades. In 1850 this house was still standing, 
 and formed a comfortable dwelling. In front of 
 it stood a great tree, which had probably shaded 
 De Sille himself. He kept the records of New 
 Utrecht in good language and handwriting. One 
 of his daughters married Hendrick Kip, and an- 
 other Gerritse van Couwenhoven of Breukelen. 
 He composed " Imitations of the Psalms," an 
 "Epitaph on a Cortelyou Child," the first born 
 in New Utrecht, and " The Earth speaks to its 
 Cultivators." The third poet was the good Domine 
 Henricus Selyns. The subjects which inspired him 
 were : " Nuptial Song for ^Egidius Luyck and 
 Judith van Isendoorn ; " " Birthday Garland woven 
 in Honour of Matilda Specht ; " "To my Friend, 
 Captain Gerard Douw ; " " Epitaph on Domine 
 Johannes Megapolensis ; " " Epitaph for Madam 
 Anna Loockermans, widow of Oloff Stevensen van
 
 SOCIAL ASPECT OF NEW AMSTERDAM. 167 
 
 Courtlandt ; " " Epitaph for P. Stuyvesant ; " " Rea- 
 sons for and against marrying Widows." 
 
 There was no lack of good food in New Am- 
 sterdam in time of peace. Game was shot in plenty 
 by the young men, and brought to town in canoes 
 by the Indians. Deer were very numerous : an In- 
 dian would sell a fat buck for five guilders ; in some 
 seasons a pipe would buy one. Bears, elk, hares, 
 and rabbits abounded. Close at hand were quail, 
 partridges, and wild turkeys ; of the latter De Vries 
 shot one weighing thirty pounds. Along the shores 
 of the rivers and harbour fluttered and swam great 
 numbers of wild geese, ducks, and swans. Van der 
 Donck knew a gunner, named Hendrick de Backer, 
 who killed eleven gray geese out of a large flock at 
 one shot from his gun. The waters in the vicinity 
 of Manhattan Island furnished sturgeon, salmon, 
 bass, shad, drum, smelts, cod, sheepshead, herring, 
 mackerel, black-fish, lobsters, weakfish, oysters, and 
 shrimps. Nor did the terrapin swim unappreciated. 
 " Some persons," wrote Van der Donck in 1656, 
 " prepare delicious dishes from the water terrapin, 
 which is luscious food." 
 
 The gardens of New Netherland produced lettuce, 
 cabbages, parsnips, carrots, beets, spinach, radishes, 
 parsley, cresses, onions, leeks, artichokes, asparagus, 
 squashes, melons, cucumbers, and beans. On the 
 farms were cows, goats, sheep, and hogs. Horses 
 were bred and used ; but oxen did the farm work. 
 The native grasses were mixed with the wild onion, 
 which gave its taste to the milk. A great deal of 
 tobacco was raised, which ranked next to that of
 
 1 68 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 Virginia. But the crops most cultivated were wheat, 
 rye, barley, and corn. The latter was grown in hills 
 with pumpkin-vines, as at present. The rye grew so 
 tall that a man could bind the ears together above 
 his head. Van der Donck saw a field of barley, 
 of which the stems were seven feet high. The soil 
 seemed inexhaustible. Domine Megapolensis stated 
 that a farmer had raised fine crops of wheat on the 
 same field for eleven years in succession. 
 
 It was when the inhabitants of New York looked 
 for profit to the land rather than to the forest, that 
 wealth flowed in upon them. At the end of the cen- 
 tury the colony was celebrated more for its grain 
 than for its beaver-skins ; then the trader and the 
 farmer, working together, laid the foundations of a 
 great prosperity.
 
 NEW NETHERLAND: NEW YORK. 169 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 NEW NETHERLAND BECOMES NEW YORK. 
 
 DURING the last few years of Stuyvtsant's admin- 
 istration the Dutch colonists prospered, good order 
 prevailed, and immigration steadily increased. Ex- 
 cept for the Indian war at Esopus, nothing occurred 
 to interrupt the growing activity of the settlement. 
 But although the people were contented and pros- 
 perous, the director had cause for ceaseless anxiety 
 and exertion. The encroachments of the English 
 were menacing the very existence of New Nether- 
 land as a Dutch colony. On the South or Delaware 
 River, the " crowding out " policy was being 
 pursued with little disguise. The English there 
 claimed jurisdiction over the whole territory under 
 Lord Baltimore's patent. Stuyvesant sent Wilhelm 
 Beeckman to defend the Dutch rights and direct 
 the affairs of the colony. Matters not improving, 
 Cornelis van Ruyven went to the assistance of 
 Beeckman, accompanied by Captain Martin Cregier 
 and sixty soldiers. Later on, the director appointed 
 Resolved Waldron and Augustyn Heermans as com- 
 missioners to negotiate with the English authorities. 
 They presented the Dutch claims so forcibly that 
 further English aggression was postponed until 1664.
 
 1 70 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 New England gave the director still greater cause 
 for apprehension. Massachusetts set up the claim 
 that her territory extended indefinitely westward, 
 and so claimed the northern Hudson. Connecticut 
 did more. In 1662 John Winthrop obtained in 
 London a new patent from Charles II., which made 
 Connecticut, like Massachusetts, extend indefinitely 
 westward and include all northern New Netherland. 
 In Westchester and on Long Island, English settlers 
 were increasing much faster than the Dutch, and 
 their towns were becoming restive under Dutch 
 jurisdiction. Against this accumulation of threat- 
 ened disaster Stuyvesant laboured earnestly but with 
 little effect. He made a visit to Boston in person 
 and conferred with representatives of the United 
 New England colonies. But all his efforts were 
 checkmated by the English policy of delay. While 
 the director was thus pressed from the East and the 
 South by harassing aggressions, and had the Esopus 
 war on his hands, the Long Island English towns 
 revolted under John Scott and repudiated Dutch 
 authority. 
 
 Stuyvesant had to struggle on alone. In 1660 
 he had written to the Amsterdam Chamber of the 
 West India Company : " Place no confidence in the 
 weakness of the English government and its indis- 
 position to interfere in affairs here. New England 
 does not care much about its troubles and does not 
 want its aid. Her people are fully convinced that 
 their power overbalances ours tenfold ; and it is to 
 be apprehended that they may make further attempts 
 at this opportunity without fearing or caring for home
 
 NEW NETHERLANDS NEW YORK. 171 
 
 interference." While New England needed no help 1 
 from the mother country, Stuyvesant could get none! 
 The West India Company was unable to send mili- 
 tary assistance, and the subtle character of English 
 aggression was of a sort difficult to make, through 
 the States-General, a national grievance. 
 
 A treaty of peace between England and Holland 
 had been signed at Westminster in 1662. But 
 Charles II. hated the Netherlands ; he had his rea- 
 sons for wishing to conciliate New England ; and he 
 had the fortune of his brother, the Duke of York, to 
 make. Hence in March, 1664, he granted to the 
 Duke of York all the territory between the Con- 
 necticut River and Delaware Bay, the exact boun- 
 daries of New Netherland. The grant was kept 
 secret, and nothing was heard of it in Old or New 
 Amsterdam. 
 
 In April, 1664, a fleet of four ships sailed for 
 New England under the command of Colonel 
 Richard Nicholls, carrying three hundred and fifty 
 soldiers. This news was brought to Stuyvesant in 
 July by Captain John Willett. The director divined 
 the object of the fleet, and feared that his worst 
 predictions were about to be realized. All his 
 energies were immediately devoted to preparations 
 for defence. But the same news had reached 
 Holland long before. The West India Company 
 had made inquiries in London, had been informed 
 that the expedition was intended only to enforce 
 certain of the king's wishes in New England, and 
 the directors wrote to Stuyvesant that he had noth- 
 ing to fear. Thus thrown off his guard, Stuyvesant
 
 172 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 went up to Fort Orange to conduct negotiations 
 with the Mohawk Indians. The English fleet ar- 
 rived in Boston Harbour, remained there inactive 
 for a month, and all seemed safe. 
 
 One day toward the end of August the English 
 flagship was seen sailing into the lower bay. Stuy- 
 vesant was informed, and hurried down from Fort 
 Orange. One by one the other ships of the hostile 
 fleet came to anchor in the Narrows with reinforce- 
 ments of men from New England. The enemy 
 made no secret of its mission. A fort on Staten 
 Island was taken immediately. Soldiers were landed 
 on the Long Island shore, and the inhabitants were 
 warned not to send supplies or assistance to the 
 town. Stuyvesant threw himself into the work of 
 defence with all his wonted vigour. All able-bodied 
 men were put to work on the fortifications or en- 
 rolled as soldiers ; new guns were mounted, and the 
 shores patrolled. But with all this effort, the result 
 could be slight. The town lay unprotected except 
 for the poor fort at the Battery. There were guns, 
 but of powder hardly sufficient for a day's cannon- 
 ade. On the north the only defence was an earthen 
 rampart three feet high, surmounted by the old rot- 
 ten palisade which had done duty in the Indian 
 wars. From the hills beyond it cannon could com- 
 mand the whole town. On the east and west the 
 hostile ships could sail up and down, pouring in un- 
 answered broadsides. Stuyvesant, however, was hot 
 /for the fight. 
 
 On Friday, August 29, he sent a messenger to 
 Nicholls, demanding to know the meaning of his
 
 NEW NETHERLAND: NEW YORK. 173 
 
 invasion. The answer, couched in friendly language,) 
 was a summons to surrender the town, with a prom-f 
 ise of protection and fair treatment to all who sub- 
 mitted like good subjects to the authority of Charles 
 II. The director read this communication to his 
 Council and the assembled magistrates. His labours 
 to provide means of defence had been ill supported. 
 The Long Island farmers refused to come in, on the 
 ground that they had their own property to defend. 
 The townspeople were persuaded that resistance was 
 useless, and their work was half-hearted. Stuyvesant 
 was anxious to keep the summons secret, lest its 
 favourable terms should incline the people to yield. 
 But he was overruled by the Council and the burgo- 
 masters. They were resolved not to have their houses 
 knocked about their ears to preserve the interests 
 of the West India Company. They insisted on 
 making public the contents of Nicholls's letter, 
 and the director had to give way, saying that he 
 would not hold himself " answerable for the ca- 
 lamitous consequences." 
 
 The evident intention to accomplish their objects 
 as peacefully as possible helped the English cause 
 very much. On Monday, Winthrop, who guided 
 the policy of the invaders, came up the Bay under 
 a flag of truce, bearing another summons yet more 
 attractive in its terms. There was to be no change 
 but that of the flag and the governor. The Dutch 
 were to trade with Holland as before, Dutch prop- 
 erty was to be inviolate, and immigration from 
 Holland to continue. When this communication was 
 read in the council-chamber at the fort, Stuyvesant
 
 174 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 saw in it a death-knell to his plans. The people, 
 with the consequences of a bombardment in their 
 minds, seeing no prospect but bloodshed, fire, and 
 the destruction of homes acquired by long and 
 painful toil, were already nearly unanimous for sur- 
 render on any favourable terms. The soldiers were 
 becoming mutinous, and were heard talking of 
 booty and where the young women lived who wore 
 gold chains. Stuyvesant felt that the only way to 
 make his people fight was to give them no other 
 alternative. Hence, he announced in Council that 
 the letter must be kept secret ; but the councillors, 
 the burgomasters, and schepens, knowing that de- 
 feat was certain in the end, and wishing to preserve 
 life and property, contended that the public had a 
 right to know what the English proposed. A hot 
 debate ensued, in which the director maintained 
 his point with his customary violence. At last 
 , Stuyvesant, finding that all were against him, char- 
 jacteristically settled the question by tearing the 
 letter into small pieces, and throwing them pas- 
 sionately on the floor. The meeting broke up in 
 confusion, and its members carried into the town 
 information of what had occurred. The people be- 
 came angry and rebellious, work on the fort ceased ; 
 a large crowd gathered in front of the Stadt Huys 
 clamouring for Stuyvesant and the letter. The di- 
 rector appeared, harangued the people, and sought 
 to inspire in them some of his own patriotic deter- 
 mination ; but they continued to call for the letter, 
 and denounced him and the West India Company as 
 indifferent to their interests. Stuyvesant returned
 
 NEW NETHERLAND: NEW YORK. 175 
 
 mournfully to the fort. The fragments of the letter 
 were gathered up by a secretary, pieced together, 
 and delivered to the burgomasters. A copy was 
 then made, which was read from the steps of the 
 Stadt Huys. Meanwhile, Stuyvesant retired to his 
 own house to compose his answer. He demon- 
 strated the title of the Dutch to New Netherland 
 by discovery, settlement, and possession; he de- 
 nounced the violation of English and Dutch treaties 
 by the present invasion ; he concluded by defying 
 the English, and by declaring his trust to be in God, 
 who could give victory to the weak over the strong. 
 On receipt of this communication, Colonel Nich- 
 olls made his preparations for an assault. Soldiers 
 were landed on Long Island, and marched toward 
 Breukelen. The war-ships were anchored off the 
 fort, with their guns trained on the town. Stuyvesant 
 stood gloomily beside a gun on the ramparts; his 
 situation was desperate, and he could expect no 
 better issue than death at his post. From time to 
 time came Domine Megapolensis, members of the 
 Council, the burgomasters a"nd schepens, begging 
 him not to make a useless sacrifice of the town. 
 After some hours, the director went down to the 
 shore with one hundred soldiers, prepared to oppose 
 a landing. Thus matters remained all day, neither 
 side being desirous of firing the first shot. Then 
 Stuyvesant sent another letter to Nicholls, his tone 
 still defiant ; but he despatched commissioners with 
 it, whom he hoped might gain some advantage. 
 But the commissioners returned with the final answer 
 that the terms could not be changed, and that the
 
 176 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 only choice "lay between their acceptance and bom- 
 bardment. When this became known, the people 
 crowded about the director clamouring for sur- 
 render. A remonstrance against resistance was 
 handed to him, signed by all the principal burghers, 
 including his son Balthazar. Stuyvesant declared 
 that he would rather be carried a corpse to his grave 
 than to surrender ; but there was no alternative, a 
 fact as well known on board the fleet as in the town. 
 On Saturday, September 6, Jan de Decker, Nicholas 
 Verleth, Samuel Megapolensis, Cornelis Steenwyck, 
 Jacques Cousseau, and O. S. van Courtlandt met 
 Colonel Nicholls, and agreed upon terms of surren- 
 der. By these, safety of life and property, freedom 
 in religion, trade, and emigration, and a represen- 
 tative government were guaranteed to the Dutch. 
 rOn Monday, Stuyvesant had to ratify the treaty ; and 
 immediately afterward he walked out of the fort 
 followed by his soldiers, whom he led through 
 Marckvelt Straat to the East River, where the mili- 
 tary were embarked on the ship " Gideon " for 
 Holland. The English flag was hoisted in place of 
 the Dutch ; Fort Amsterdam became Fort James ; 
 and New Netherland, New York. A fortnight 
 later Fort Orange surrendered, and was named 
 "Albany," the Duke of York's second title. 
 The inhabitants of Rensselaerwyck were given the 
 same terms as those of New Amsterdam, and the 
 patroon himself afterward received a confirmation 
 of his rights. On October i Fort Casimir, on the 
 
 , South River, was taken, and the Dutch flag ceased 
 
 i to wave in North America.
 
 NEW NETHERLAND: NEW YORK. 177 
 
 The object of the English to gain possession of ' 
 the Dutch colony without injuring its value had 
 been gained ; but such a proceeding was tantamount 
 to a declaration of war, and it was so received in 
 Holland. As soon as the " Gideon " arrived with 
 the garrison of Fort Amsterdam, orders were de- 
 spatched to Admiral de Ruyter, off the coast of 
 Africa, to reduce the English possessions there, 
 which he did without delay. In 1665 great prepar- 
 ations for the war were made in Holland, and the 
 fisheries were suspended to gain men for the war- 
 ships. Then Charles II. formally declared war.} 
 During its progress the advantage remained with 
 the Dutch, whose captures were much the more 
 important. 
 
 Meanwhile the West India Company sent word 
 to Stuyvesant to come out, and explain the surren- 
 der in person. Before his departure, he asked from 
 the burgomasters and schepens a statement regard- 
 ing his conduct as director. They testified : " His 
 Honour hath, during eighteen years' administra- 
 tion, conducted and demeaned himself not only as 
 a director-general, as, according to the best of our 
 knowledge, he ought to do on all occasions for the 
 best interests of the West India Company, but be- 
 sides as an honest proprietor and patriot of this 
 province, and as a supporter of the Reformed Re- 
 ligion." Stuyvesant arrived at The Hague in Oc- 
 tober, 1665, and presented his report to the 
 States-General. He found the directors of the 
 West India Company much incensed against him. 
 Angry at the loss of their property, and prejudiced
 
 178 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 by misrepresentations of the facts made by hostile 
 members of the Fort Amsterdam garrison, they 
 wished to hold him responsible for the " scandalous 
 surrender." His situation for some time was very 
 unpleasant. He wrote to New York for testimony 
 in confirmation of his defence, and received in six 
 months letters from the city magistrates and from 
 Jeremias van Rensselaer, which enabled him to make 
 before the States-General an able and conclusive 
 vindication of his conduct. 
 
 Medhvvhile negotiations for peace were conducted 
 between England and Holland. A treaty was signed 
 in August, 1667, according to which each nation was 
 to retain its conquests. These terms were considered 
 both in London and The Hague to be highly favour- 
 able to the Dutch, who gained more than they lost. 
 Stuyvesant exerted himself to obtain from the Eng- 
 lish government privileges of trade advantageous to 
 New York, and returned there in October, 1667, 
 where he passed the remainder of his life in retire- 
 .ment on his bowery. 
 
 -N4m> years afterward Holland and England were 
 again at war. In August, 1673, while De Ruyter 
 and Tromp were maintaining the reputation of the 
 Dutch for prowess on the seas, by defeating the com- 
 bined English and French fleets off the Helder, 
 Dutch mariners again hoisted the national flag on 
 Manhattan Island. 
 
 Cornelis Everts and Jacob Binckes had just cap- 
 tured eight English tobacco ships in the Chesa- 
 peake, when the idea occurred to them that New 
 York would be an easy prey. They were soon
 
 NEW iVETHERLAND: NEW YORK. 179 
 
 anchored off the fort, at which they fired a few 
 broadsides, while Capt. Anthony Colve, at the 
 head of six hundred men, landed at Trinity 
 churchyard, and marched down Broadway. No 
 defence was offered beyond a cannon-shot fired at 
 the fleet. The fort surrendered unconditionally ; 
 the English marched out, and the Dutch marched 
 in. Governor Lovelace then formally capitulated. 
 The English had taken the place by surprise in 
 time of peace. The Dutch re-took it in time 
 of open war. Prizes were made of all the English 
 vessels in the harbour. The province was re-named 
 New Netherland ; the city was called New Orange ; 
 and the fort, William Hendrick. A Dutch admin- 
 istration was appointed, with Anthony Colve at its 
 head. Anthony de Mill was made schout ; Johan- 
 nes van Bruggh, Johannes de Peyster, and ^Egidius 
 Luyck, burgomasters ; Wilhelm Beeckman, Jeroninus 
 Ebbingh, Jacob Kip, Laurens van der Spiegel, Gelyn 
 Verplanck, schepens. The joyful shout of "Oranje 
 Boven " was heard throughout the province. 
 
 But England soon became disgusted with a war 
 which cost her too much. Twenty-seven hundred 
 British ships had been taken by Dutch men-of-war 
 and privateers. In 1674 the Treaty of Westminster 
 was signed, by which it was agreed that each power 
 should return to the other the conquests made dur- 
 ing hostilities. Thus New Netherland became per- 
 manently New York. 
 
 Peter Stuyvesant died in 1672 at his bowery, and' 
 his remains were interred in a vault beneath the 
 chapel which he had built near his house. When
 
 1 80 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 the present St. Mark's church was erected, on the 
 site of the old chapel, the vault was preserved, and 
 a commemorative stone was placed upon its wall, 
 which still marks the grave of the hardy director of 
 New Netherland. The character of Stuyvesant has 
 appeared plainly in the narrative of events at New 
 Amsterdam. Honest, blunt, and passionate, his vir- 
 tues and his faults were evident to all men. He had 
 been a faithful servant to the West India Company, 
 guarding its interests with a jealous fidelity and pro- 
 moting them with untiring zeal. In the service of 
 his employers, he never lacked vigour or courage. 
 In his enforced conflicts with other colonies he 
 showed judgment and foresight, yielding when he 
 must, but struggling to the last against any odds. 
 Had the West India Company heeded his warnings, 
 New Amsterdam might have resisted for many years 
 the English pressure. In his dealings with the In- 
 dians he pursued a policy of stern justice, which won 
 their respect and confidence. No Indian war can 
 be laid to his charge ; and during his presence on 
 Manhattan Island, the sleep of the Dutch settlers 
 was undisturbed by fears of savage invasion. His 
 conduct as director was marred by conflicts with 
 those under his authority, which were caused not so 
 much by harshness of nature as by an unnecessarily 
 rigid idea of his duty. To govern a colony of ad- 
 venturous men, settled in the wilderness, threatened 
 on the one hand by savage enemies, on the other by 
 aggressive neighbours of uncertain friendliness, 
 he conceived that his mastery must be unquestioned. 
 The responsibility was his, the authority must be
 
 NE W NE THERLA ND : NE W YORK. \ 8 1 
 
 his also. His life had been spent in Dutch colonial 
 adventures, where the word that was passed from 
 the quarter-deck was the law without appeal. Hence 
 the contentions which characterized the early years 
 of his rule, and the attitude of apparent tyranny in 
 which he appeared. As time wore on, he and the 
 burghers understood each other better, and a mutual 
 respect succeeded to the old antagonism. Head- 
 strong and violent in his temper he always was, but 
 animated by good motives, faithful to the line of his 
 duty, and seeking the interest of those committed to 
 his charge. 
 
 Stuyvesant's last years were passed in seclusion 
 on the old bowery, which had been the home of his 
 family for some years before the capitulation in 
 1664. The house was of wood, two stories in 
 height, with projecting rafters. Its situation, as 
 described by the Hon. Hamilton Fish, was a point 
 about one hundred and fifty feet east of Third Ave- 
 nue and about forty feet north of Twelfth Street. 
 In front of it was a stiff Dutch garden, laid out with 
 formal paths and flower-beds. Near the house 
 Stuyvesant had planted a pear-tree, which had a 
 remarkable history. For more than two hundred 
 years it marked the spot where had been the old 
 director's garden. Generations of his descendants 
 grew up and passed away, and still the pear-tree 
 held its own. As new streets were laid out and the 
 open fields of Stuyvesant's bowery became city lots, 
 the pear-tree found itself on the corner of Third 
 Avenue and Thirteenth Street, protected by an iron 
 railing. The onward march of improvement had
 
 1 82 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 left it behind in a thickly settled part of the city, 
 when in February, 1867, it was blown down in a 
 storm. The boundaries of Stuyvesant's bowery 
 were, roughly speaking, Fourth Avenue on the 
 West, the river on the East, on the North Seven- 
 teenth Street, and on the South Sixth Street ; it 
 contained about six hundred acres. 
 
 Stuyvesant's widow, Judith Bayard, lived upon the 
 bowery until her death in 1687. By her will, she 
 founded St. Mark's Church. She had two sons, 
 Balthazar, born in 1647 '> an ^ Nicholas William, born 
 in 1648. Balthazar went to the West Indies, where 
 he died, leaving a daughter. Nicholas William mar- 
 ried, first, Maria Beeckman ; and, secondly, Elizabeth 
 Schlectenhorst. He passed his life at New York, and 
 is the ancestor of the present family. 
 
 Although New Netherland became a permanent 
 English colony under the Treaty of Westminster in 
 1674, its population remained largely Dutch until 
 nearly the middle of the next century. The pros- 
 perity of New York, growing steadily with the prog- 
 ress of trade and the exportation of grains, attracted 
 emigrants from Holland notwithstanding the change 
 of flag. Many families now living on Manhattan 
 Island are descended from Dutchmen who came out 
 after the English occupation. The old names with 
 which we have become familiar in the early annals 
 of New Amsterdam continue in positions of honour 
 and prominence through the English colonial rec- 
 ords. In 1673, we find among the city magistrates 
 Johannes van Bruggh, Johannes de Peyster, ^Egi- 
 dius Luyck, Jacob Kip, Laurans van der Spiegel,
 
 NEW NE7WERLAND: NEW YORK, 183 
 
 Wilhelm Beeckman, Guleyn Verplanck, Stephen 
 van Courtlandt. In 1677, Stephanus van Court- 
 landt is mayor, and Johannes de Peyster deputy- 
 mayor. In 1682, Cornells Steenwyck is mayor; 
 in 1685, the office is filled by Nicholas Bayard; in 
 1686, by Van Courtlandt again. Abraham de Peys- 
 ter was mayor from 1691 to 1695 ; and in his time 
 the following Dutchmen were aldermen : W. Beeck- 
 man, Johannes Kip, Brandt Schuyler, Garrett Douw, 
 Arent van Scoyck, Gerard Douw, Rip van Dam, 
 Jacobus van Courtlandt, Samuel Bayard, Jacobus 
 van Nostrandt, Jan Hendricks Brevoort, Jan van 
 Home, Petrus Bayard, Abraham Wendell, John 
 Brevoort. These names recur down to 1717. In 
 1718, John Roosevelt, Philip van Courtlandt, and 
 Cornelius de Peyster are aldermen. In 1719, Ja- 
 cobus van Courtlandt is mayor, and among the 
 aldermen are Philip van Courtlandt, Harmanus van 
 Gilder, Jacobus Kip, Frederic Philipse, John Roose- 
 velt, Philip Schuyler. In 1745, Stephen Bayard is 
 mayor. During the last half of the eighteenth 
 century the Dutch names are more and more 
 crowded out by the English. But we still find 
 Nicholas and Cornelius Roosevelt, Cornelius van 
 Home, Dirck Brinckerhoff, Huybert van Wagener, 
 Henry Brevoort, Jacob Lefferts, John Hardenbrook, 
 Nicholas Bayard, Tobias van Zandt, John Quack- 
 enboss, Theophilus Beeckman, and others. By the 
 beginning of the nineteenth century, the Dutch 
 names occur only occasionally. 
 
 These Dutchmen not only preserved their leader- ; 
 ship in public affairs, but carried on a large proper- '
 
 I 84 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 \ tion of the city's trade. New York was an English 
 colony, but its greatness was largely built on Dutch 
 foundations. It is often said that the city became 
 flourishing only after the English occupation. This 
 is true, with the qualification that the Dutch trader 
 and the Dutch farmer after that event had greater 
 opportunities for successful activity. 
 j Not a few of the old Dutch houses have remained 
 intact until our own day. Notable among these was 
 the De Sille house at New Utrecht ; the Cortelyou, 
 Schermerhorn, and De Hart houses in Brooklyn ; and 
 the Kip house on Kip's Bay, near the foot of East 
 Thirty-fifth Street, New York. The Van Courtlandt 
 manor-house at Yonkers still stands in much its 
 original condition. 
 
 Some of the Dutch geographical names remain 
 unchanged, as Barnegat, Kill van Cull, Staten Island, 
 Corlaer's Hook, Spuyt den Duyvel (in spite of the 
 devil). Others have been Anglicised or trans- 
 lated ; thus, Sandt Hoeck, Sandyhook ; Beeren's 
 Island, Barren Island ; Conyn's Island, Coney Isl- 
 and ; Vlachte Bos, Flatbush; Jemaico, Jamaica; 
 Vliessengen, Flushing; Robyn's Rift, Robin's Reef; 
 Waal-Bogt, Wallabout ; Kruine Punt, Crown Point ; 
 Deutel Bay, Turtle Bay ; Helle-gat, Hell Gate ; Mar- 
 tyn Wyngaard's Island, Martha's Vineyard ; An- 
 tonie's Neus, St. Anthony's Nose. Yonkers was 
 called Jonckers, from Jonge Heer, and signified the 
 "young gentleman's place." 
 
 Dutch continued to be the language of New York 
 iuntil the end of the seventeenth century, after 
 which time English contended for the mastery with
 
 NEW NETHERLAND: NEW YORK. 185 
 
 steady success. In the outlying towns of Long 
 Island and New Jersey and along the Hudson River, 
 Dutch was generally used for a century later. The 
 diakct called " Jersey Dutch " is still heard in the 
 Ramapo Valley. But in New York city the large 
 English immigration, the requirements of com- 
 merce, and the frequent intermarriages of Dutch 
 and English families had given to English the pre- 
 dominance by the year 1750. The Rev. Dr. Laid- 
 lie preached to a Dutch Reformed congregation 
 the first sermon in English in March, 1 764, in the 
 Middle Church. In 1773, English was first used 
 in the Dutch school. Mary, the daughter of Peter 
 van Schaack of Kinderhook, and the wife of James 
 Jacobus Roosevelt, who died in 1845, spoke Dutch 
 in her family ; and her son, C. V. S. Roosevelt, who 
 lived on the southwest corner of Broadway and 
 Fourteenth Street, could also speak it. Many similar 
 cases of the survival of the language occurred. But 
 after the beginning of the present century they were 
 unusual, and the services of the Reformed churches 
 were conducted entirely in English. The colony of 
 Cape Town in South Africa, like New Amsterdam, 
 became an English possession after being settled by 
 the Dutch. There the language continued more 
 steadily in use. The late Nicholas L. Roosevelt vis- 
 ited Cape Town in 1870 as a lieutenant on board 
 the United States ship " Alaska " of the East In- 
 dian squadron. A ball was given on board to the 
 residents of the town, and some of them expressed 
 to Lieutenant Roosevelt their surprise that he could 
 not converse with them in the language of the 
 fatherland.
 
 1 86 PETER STUYVESANT. 
 
 The language and customs of Holland survived 
 until recent years in isolated villages of Long Island, 
 of New Jersey and the Hudson River. In Albany, 
 the Dutch inhabitants continued in nearly exclusive 
 possession through the eighteenth century. The 
 Van Rensselaer patroonship was the only one which 
 succeeded and endured. After the English occupa- 
 tion, the patroonship was changed to a manor, but 
 the proprietor retained his title. Stephen van Rens- 
 selaer, the last of the family to be called " The 
 Patroon," died in 1839. 
 
 In New York city, the high- stoop house, and the 
 peculiar observance of New Year's Day which 
 continued until 1870, are two familiar relics of 
 Holland. The valuable custom of registering trans- 
 fers of real estate has been received from the same 
 source. The Collegiate Dutch Church has flour- 
 ished for two centuries and a half in a career of 
 uninterrupted and unmeasured usefulness. When 
 the English flag was hoisted at New Amsterdam 
 in 1664, the infant city had already stamped upon 
 it the characteristics of commercial enterprise, of 
 a cosmopolitan spirit, of religious toleration, of free 
 public education, and of a representative munici- 
 pal government.
 
 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 ACHTER DH PEREL STRAAT, 109. Bikker, Gerrit, 92. 
 
 
 Adriaensen, Maryn, 37, 42, 46. 
 
 Binckes, Jacob, 178. 
 
 
 Albert the Trumpeter, 106. 
 
 Bloeck, Jacob, 163. 
 
 
 Allerton, Isaac, 47. 
 
 Block, Adriaen, 16. 
 
 
 Alva, Duke of, 10. 
 
 Blommaert, Adriaen, 21, 125. 
 
 
 Amersfoort, 91. 
 
 Bogardus, Everardus, 22, 32, 43, 53, 
 
 
 Amsterdam Trading Co., 16. 
 
 67, 114, 156. 
 
 
 Anchorage ground, no. 
 
 Wilhelm, in. 
 
 
 Animals, at large, 112. 
 
 Books, 147. 
 
 
 Anthony, Allard, 85, 104, 125. 
 
 Bout, Jan E., 48, 69, 77. 
 
 
 Artists, 165. 
 
 Bowery, the Domine's, 113, 114. 
 
 
 
 Stuyvesant's, 181. 
 
 
 BACKER, Jacobus, 138. 
 
 Bowling Green, 104. 
 
 
 Backerus, Johannes, 156. 
 
 Bowne, John, 100. 
 
 
 Bayard, Annake, 59. 
 
 Bommel, van, Hendrick, 128. 
 
 
 Balthazar, 59, 149. 
 
 Breede Weg, 104. 
 
 
 Nicholas, 59, 107, 149, 183. 
 
 Brevoort, Henry, 183. 
 
 
 Peter, 59, 104, 183. 
 
 Jan Hendrick, 182. 
 
 
 Samuel, 183. 
 
 Bridge Street, 107. 
 
 
 Stephen, 183. 
 
 Bridge, the, 107, 1 10. 
 
 
 Baxter, George, 62, 90. 
 
 Brinckerhoff, Dirck, 183. 
 
 
 Beaver Street, 106 
 
 Broadway, 103, 104, 112, 115. 
 
 
 Becker, Juriaense, 162. 
 
 Broad Street, 105. 
 
 
 Bedlow, Isaac, 107, 134. 
 
 Bronck, Jonas, 39. 
 
 
 Beeckman, Joghim, in. 
 
 Brooklyn, 29, 91. 
 
 
 Maria, 182. 
 
 Brouwer, Cornelius, 115. 
 
 
 Theophilus, 183. 
 
 Straat, 107. 
 
 
 Wilhelm,8 5 , 115, 125, 133,137, 
 
 Bruggh.van, Carel, 109. 
 
 
 138, 149, 169, 179. 
 
 Johannes, 107, no, 125, 179, 182. 
 
 
 Beekman Street, n S . 
 
 Johannes G-, 137- 
 
 
 Beekman's Swamp, 117. 
 
 Johannes P., 129, 137, 138. 
 
 
 Belcher, Thomas, 29. 
 
 Bruggh Straat, 107. 
 
 
 Benson, Egbert, 159. 
 
 Building lots, 149. 
 
 
 Bentyn, Jacques, 37. 
 
 Burgher's path, in. 
 
 
 Bergen, 101, 
 
 Burgomasters and schepens, the first. 
 
 
 Beurs Straat, 106. 
 
 85; method of appointment, 124; 
 
 
 Beverwyck, 73. meetings of, 123; duties of, 126; 

 
 i88 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 powers of, 127 ; salary of, 126 ; title 
 of, 125 ; impose taxes, 138 ; sitting 
 as civil and criminal court, 130, 
 '33- 
 Bushwyck, 101. 
 
 CANAL, on Beaver Street, 106. 
 
 on Broad Street, 105, 109. 
 
 Canal Street, 118. 
 
 Carelse, Joost, 162. 
 
 Carpsey, Gabriel, 112. 
 
 Cemetery, the, 104. 
 
 Chambers, John, 104. 
 
 Charles II. grants New Netherland 
 
 to Duke of York, 171. 
 Charter of privileges, 19. 
 Christiansen, Hendrick, 16. 
 Church, the first building, 22 ; in the 
 
 fort, 31, 32; others, 154, 155; the 
 
 English, 105. 
 
 Cingel ofte Stadt Waal, 105. 
 Citizenship, great and small, 141. 
 Clergyman, the first, 22. 
 
 See Domines. 
 Clocq, Pelgrum, 131. 
 Clopper, Cornelius, 116. 
 Clothing, 145. 
 Clyff, van, Dirck, 109. 
 Co'enties Slip, 108. 
 Collect, the, 118. 
 Collins, John, 30. 
 Colve, Anthony, 179. 
 necticut lands, 22. 
 
 orlaer, van, Jacob, 162. 
 
 ornelis, Guilian, in. 
 
 ornelissen, Jan, 160. 
 
 ortelyou, Jacques, 103, no. 
 
 oster, Samuel, 164. 
 Courts of justice, 122, 123, 130. 
 Courtlandt, van, Cornelia, in. 
 
 Jacobus, 149, 183. 
 
 Oloff Stevensen, 28, 77, 79, 107, 
 
 1 10, 125, 137, 138, 148, 176. 
 
 Philip, 183 
 
 Stephen, 183. 
 
 Cousseau, Jacques, 108, 176. 
 Couwenhoven, van, Jacob, 22, 69, 77, 
 107, in, 131, 137- 
 
 Johannes, 107. 
 
 Pister, 85, 108, 125, 129, 137. 
 
 Cows, 112. 
 
 Cregier, Martin, 85, 89, 104, 125, 129, 
 
 37, 138, 169. 
 Crops, 168. 
 Curler, Arendt, 54. 
 
 Jacob, 28. 
 
 Curtius, Alex. C., 163. 
 Cuvilje, Adriana, 113. 
 
 DAM, Jan Jansen, 32, 37, 47, 69. 
 
 Dam, van, Rip, 149, 183. 
 
 Damen, Jan Jansen, 113. 
 
 Decker, de, Jan, 176. 
 
 Delaplaine, Nicholas, in. 
 
 Delegates to Holland, 77, 78, 84. 
 
 Dincklage, van, Lubbertus, 59, 78. 
 
 Dircksen, Barent, 47. 
 
 Cornelius, 117. 
 
 Gerrit, 37. 
 
 Domines, the, their salaries, 138 ; in- 
 fluence of, 160 ; those who officiated 
 in New Amsterdam, 156, 157. 
 
 Donck, van der, Adriaen, consults 
 with people, 75 ; sent to Holland 
 to procure reforms, 77 ; publishes 
 " Vertoogh," 77 ; returns success- 
 ful, 84 ; law practice, 130. 
 
 Doughty, Francis, 30, 48. 
 
 Douw, Gerard, 183. 
 
 Gerrit, 183. 
 
 Drainage, 112. 
 
 Drisius, Domine, 98, 138, 156. 
 
 Duyckinck, Evert, 107, 124. 
 
 Gerard, 155. 
 
 Dutch people, character of, 8 et seq. 
 
 Dutch influence, after English occu- 
 pation, 182, 184, 186. 
 
 Dyck, van Hendrick, 39, 59, 78, 94. 
 
 Lydia, 107 
 
 Dyre, William, 88. 
 
 EAST INDIA COMPANY, 15. 
 
 Eaton, Governor, 71. 
 
 Ebbingh, Jeroninus, 107, 125, 179. 
 
 Eight Men, the, 47, 51. 
 
 Elbertsen, Elbert, 77. 
 
 Elkens, Jacob, 23. 
 
 Eislant, van, Claes, 106, 130, 159. 
 
 Emigration, 100, 119, 120. 
 
 English language, first used in Dutch 
 
 church and school, 185. 
 Es van, Elizabeth, 147.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 189 
 
 Esopus War, 96. 
 
 Governor's Island, 95. 
 
 Everts, Cornells, 178. 
 
 Graft, Bever, 106. 
 
 Exchange Place, 106. 
 
 Heere, 109, 142. 
 
 Exchange, the first, no. 
 
 Prince, 106. 
 
 
 Gravesend, 20, 91. 
 
 
 Greenwich, 119. 
 
 FAIRFIF.LD, 88. 
 Farm, the Duke's, 114; the king's, 
 113 ; West India Company's, 113. 
 
 Grist, van der, Paulus L., 62, 71,85, 
 95. i5, 125, 129, '37, 138- 
 
 Ferry, the, 103, 116, 117. 
 
 
 Festivals, 151. 
 
 HAART, de, Balthazar, 109. 
 
 Finances, 137. 
 Fire department, 127, 129. 
 Fish, Hamilton, 181. 
 Flat, the, n 
 
 Haeckens, Jan, 131. 
 Half-Moon, the, 15. 
 Hall, Thomas, 29, 47, 50, 69, 77, 117, 
 129. 
 
 Flatbush, 91. 
 Flatlands, 91. 
 Flushing, 91. 
 
 Hanover Square, in. 
 Hardenberg, van, A., 66, 69, 76, 77. 
 Hardenbrook, Abel, in, 133, 134. 
 
 Fly, the, 116. 
 
 Johannes, 106, in, 183. 
 
 Food, 176. 
 
 Harlem, 101, 119. 
 
 Forest, de, Isaac, 28, 107, no, 125, 
 
 Hartford treaty, 84. 
 
 138. 
 Fort Amsterdam, 18, 103, 176. 
 
 Hatten, van, Arent, 85, 125, 137. 
 Heemskerk, Jacob, 13. 
 
 Casimir, 92, 176. 
 
 Heemstede, 91. 
 
 Christina, 55, 94. 
 Good Hope, 22, 56, 88. 
 
 Heere Straat, 104. 
 Heere Weg, 112. 
 
 James, 176. 
 
 Heermans, Augustyn, 69, 77, 116, 
 
 Nassau, 18. 
 Orange, 17. 
 
 165, 169. 
 Hendricksen, 55. 
 
 Trinity, 92,94. 
 
 Herberg, 31, 108. 
 
 William Hendrick, 179. 
 
 Herdsman, the, 112. 
 
 Franklin Square, 116. 
 Fresh Water, the, 118. 
 Front Street, 108. 
 Funerals, 160 
 Fur trade, 18, 57, 140, 141. 
 
 Hermann, Wolfert, 13. 
 Heyn, Peter, 20. 
 Hoboocken, van, Harmanus, 161. 
 Hodgson, Robert, 99. 
 Hoogh Straat, 107. 
 
 
 Holland, naval victories, 13 ; war with 
 
 GAME, 167. 
 
 England, 177, 178. 
 
 Garden Street, 106. 
 
 Holmes, George, 29. 
 
 Garden, West India Company's, 105. 
 
 Hopkins, Governor, 89. 
 
 Gelaer, van, Johannes, 162. 
 
 Home, van, Cornelius, 109, 183. 
 
 Geographical names, Dutch, 184. 
 
 Jan, 149, 183. 
 
 Geraerd, Maria, no. 
 
 Horst, van der, Ulyndert, 29, 48. 
 
 Gerritsen, Philip, 123. 
 
 Houses, 144, 145. '84. 
 
 Gheel, van, Martin, 137. 
 
 Houtman, Cornelius, 14. 
 
 Maximilian, 85. 
 
 Hudson, Henry, discoveries, 8 ; at 
 
 Gilder, van, Harmanus, 183. 
 
 Hudson River, 15. 
 
 Gillisen, Jan, 124. 
 
 Hubbard, James, 90. 
 
 Godyn patroon, 21. 55. 
 
 Hudde, Andries, 162. 
 
 Golden fleece, 9. 
 
 Hull, Edward, 88. 
 
 Good Hope, Cape of, 14. 
 
 Hutchinson, Anne, 30, 48.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 ILPENDAM, van, Adriaen, 162. 
 Indian War, the, 35 ; end of, 53 ; in 
 
 Stuyvesant's time, 95. 
 Indians, treatment of, by Dutch, 33, 
 
 34 ; by Stuy vesant, 94. 
 Inheritance, 150. 
 Inventories, 146, 147. 
 
 JAMAICA, 101. 
 Jans, Annetje, 114. 
 Jansen, Albert, 121. 
 
 Aryaen, 162. 
 
 Hendrick, 37. 
 
 Machyel, 69, 77. 
 
 Pieter, 128. 
 
 Roeloff, 113 
 
 Jay, Peter, 104 
 Jersey, Dutch, 185. 
 Joris, Borger, m. 
 
 KAY, de, Jacob Teunis, 106, 116. 
 
 Kerfbyl, Johannes, 157, 163. 
 
 Kermis, 142 
 
 Keyser, Adriaen, 59, 129. 
 
 Kieft, Wilhelm, his appointment as 
 director and previous reputation, 
 26 ; his administration, 27 et seg ; 
 his conduct toward Indians, 35, 37? 
 attacks Indians, 42 ; accuses Kuyter 
 and Melyn, 61, 65 ; his death, 66. 
 
 Kierstede, Hans, 28, 108, 143, 163. 
 
 Kip, Hendrick, 52,69, 77, no, 125. 
 
 Hendrick H , 107, 129. 
 
 Isaac, 107, 139, 149. 
 
 Jacob, 85, 106, no, 125, 139, 
 
 179, 182, 183. 
 
 Johannes, 183. 
 
 Ludowyck, 138. 
 
 Kip Street, 116. 
 
 Kissing Bridge, 118. 
 
 Koeck, Jan, 130. 
 
 Kolch-hoeck, 117. 
 
 Koorn, Nicholas, 28, 54. 
 
 Krank-besoecker, 18 
 
 Kuyter, 28, 32, 37, 47, 50, 61, 64, 66, 67. 
 
 LA CHAIR, Solomon, 131, 135. 
 Laidlie, Dr., 185. 
 Lair, van, Adriaen, 129. 
 Land Gate, 104, 105. 
 Lang de Waal, 109. 
 
 Lange, Jacob, 145. 
 Langstraat, van, Jan, 128. 
 Lawrence, John, 107. 
 Lawyers, 130. 
 Lefferts, Jacob, 183. 
 Leisler, Jacob, 106, 117. 
 Leverett, Captain, 89. 
 Lispenard's Meadows, 118. 
 Litigation, 130. 
 Loockermans, A., 149. 
 
 Covert, 22, 54, 69, 77, 107, 125, 
 
 i37, 138. 
 
 Long Island, settlement of, 30. 
 Long Island towns, convention of, 90. 
 Lovelace, Governor, 179. 
 Lubberts, Jan, 162. 
 Lubbertsen, Frederik, 37. 
 Lutherans, the, 98, 157. 
 Luyck, Aegidius, 134, 163 166, 179, 
 
 MAAGDE Paatje, 115. 
 Magistrates, the, 124, 125. 
 Maiden Lane, 115. 
 Manhattan Island, purchase of, 18. 
 Marckvelt, the, 104. 
 Marckvelt Steegie, 106. 
 Market-field Path, 106. 
 Markets, 142, 143. 
 Marriages, 159. 
 Maurice, Prince, 13, 14. 
 Megapolensis, Johannes, 54, 94, 98, 
 138, 156, 175. 
 
 Samuel, 156, 163, 176. 
 
 Melyn, Cornelius, 28, 47, 50, 61, 64, 
 
 66, 67, 76, 80, 101, in. 
 Mespath, L. I., 30. 
 Mey, Cornelis, 17. 
 Meyert, de, Nicholas, 107. 
 Midwout, 91. 
 Mill, de, Anthony, 179. 
 Minuit, Peter, 18, 21, 55. 
 Mixam, 86. 
 
 Molenaar, Abram, 37. 
 Money, 139. 
 
 Montagne, de la, Jan, in, 159. 
 de la, Johannes, 27, 28, 43, 62, 
 
 78, 163. 
 
 Moody, Lady Deborah, 48. 
 Municipal government, its beginning, 
 
 84, 85.
 
 INDEX 
 
 191 
 
 NAMES, family, 164, 165. 
 Nassau Street, 115, 
 Nevins, Johannes, 130, 136, 138. 
 New Amsterdam, as Stuyvesant found 
 it, 62; its limits, in; its appear- 
 ance, 112; houses in, 119; popula- 
 tion of, 119; allotment of land in, 
 12 1 ; establishment of municipal 
 government, 123 ; finances of, 137 ; 
 first public debt, 137 ; first revenue, 
 138; foreign trade, 140; attacked 
 by English force under Nicholls, 
 171; its surrender, 176; re-taken 
 by Dutch, 178. 
 
 Newark Bay, 29. 
 
 New Dorp, 101. 
 
 New England, encroachments of, 57, 
 70, 82, 170. 
 
 New England settlers in New Neth- 
 erland, 30. 
 
 New Netherland named, 16 ; growth 
 under Stuyvesant, 100 ; its charter, 
 19; government of, 121 ; courts of 
 justice, 122; granted by Charles II. 
 to Duke of York, 171 ; becomes 
 New York, 176, 179- 
 
 "New Netherland," built at Man- 
 hattan, 19. 
 
 New Orange, 179. 
 
 Newton, Bryan, 59, 78. 
 
 Newtown, 91. 
 
 New Utrecht, 101. 
 
 Nicholls, Richard, 171, 176 
 
 Nieuwenhuysen, van, Wilhelmus, 157. 
 
 Nine Men, the, 68, 69, 75, 122. 
 
 Ninigret, 86. 
 
 Nostrandt, van, Jacobus, 183. 
 
 Notaries, 130, 131. 
 
 Nutten's Island, 95. 
 
 OLFERTSEN, Jacob, 47. 
 
 Oost Dorp, 101. 
 
 Op Dyck, Gyspert, 28, 56. 
 
 PALISADE, at Wall St., 86. 
 
 Park, City Hall, 113. 
 
 Pastures, the, 104, 112. 
 
 Patroons, their creation and privi- 
 leges, 20 ; failure of the system, 27 ; 
 the last patroon, 186. 
 
 Pauw, Michael, 21. 
 
 Pavonia, massacre at, 43. 
 
 Pearl Street, 108, 116. 
 
 Peck Slip, 103. 
 
 Pell, Thomas, 101. 
 
 Pessicus, 86. 
 
 Peyster, de, Abraham, 107, 183. 
 
 Cornelius, 183. 
 
 Johannes, in, 125, 137, 138, 
 
 149, 179, 182, 183. 
 Philipse, Frederic, 147, 151, 183. 
 
 Sara, 107. 
 
 Physicians, 163. 
 Pietersen, Abraham, 47. 
 
 Evert, 161. 
 
 Gerrit, 128. 
 
 Jan, 128. 
 
 Pine Street, 116. 
 
 Poets, 166. 
 
 Polhemus, Johannes, 157. 
 
 Police, 127. 
 
 Pos, Ludowyck, 128. 
 
 Prince Street, 106. 
 
 " Princess," wreck of, 67. 
 
 Provoost, David, 28, 131, 149. 
 
 Pryn, Jacques, 128. 
 
 Punishments, 133. 
 
 QUACKENBOSS, John, 183. 
 Quakers, 99. 
 Quebec, 8. 
 
 RAPELJE, George, 38. 
 
 Rattle-watch, 128. 
 
 Ray, John, in. 
 
 Real estate, 149, 150. 
 
 Religious toleration, at New Amster- 
 dam, 99. 
 
 Remoutsen, R., 129. 
 
 Rensselaer, van, Jeremias, 138, 178. 
 
 Johan, 73. 
 
 Kiliaen, 21, 54. 
 
 Stephen, 186. 
 
 Rensselaerwyck, 55, 73, 101, 176. 
 
 Representative government, in New 
 Amsterdam, 37, 47, 68, 69, 75, 84 
 85, "7. 133- 
 Restless," the, 16. 
 
 Rodman, John, 24. 
 
 Roelandsen, Adam, 22, 160. 
 
 Roosevelt, Bay, 106. 
 
 C. V. S., 185.
 
 192 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Roosevelt, Cornelius, 183. 
 
 Smit's Valey, 116. 
 
 Jacobus, 117. 
 
 Smoking, 153. 
 
 James Jacobus, 185. 
 
 South River, 55, 92, 169. 
 
 John, 183. 
 
 South Street, 108 
 
 Nicholas, 183. 
 
 Spiegel, van der, Laurens, 179, 182. 
 
 Nicholas L., 185. 
 
 Stadt Huys, 108, 123. 
 
 Roosevelt Street, 118. 
 
 Stamford, 88. 
 
 Rust Dorp, 101. 
 
 St. Augustine, 7. 
 
 Ruyter, de, Admiral, 177. 
 
 " St. Benino," capture of, 71. 
 
 Ruyter, Hendrick, 128. 
 
 Stevensen, Jan, 162. 
 
 Ruyven, van, Cornells, 104, 138, 166, 
 
 Steen, Hans, 43. 
 
 169. 
 
 Steendam, Jacob, 166. 
 
 Rysyngh, Captain, 92, 94. 
 
 Steenwyck, Cornelius, 106, 125, 138, 
 
 
 144, 146, 176, 183, 
 
 SALEE, Anthony, 29. 
 
 Stirling, Lord, 70. 
 
 Schaack, van, Peter, 185. 
 
 Stoffelsen, Jacob, 37, 48. 
 
 Rebecca, 149. 
 
 St. Mark's Church, 180. 
 
 Schaafbanck, Pieter, 130. 
 
 Stone Street, 103, 107. 
 
 Schenectady, 102. 
 
 Stoop, the, 144. 
 
 Schepens, 85. 
 
 Streets, origin of, 103 ; the first paved, 
 
 Schelluyne, van, Dirck, 130. 
 
 107. 
 
 Schlechtenhorst, van, Brandt, 73. 
 
 Strycker, Jacob, 125. 
 
 Elizabeth, 182. 
 
 Stuyvesant, Balthazar, 58, 105, 176, 
 
 Schoeyinge, the, 108, 109, 123. 
 
 182. 
 
 School, the, 160, 161. 
 
 Judith Bavard, 149, 182. 
 
 the Latin, 162. 
 
 Nicholas William, 105, 182. 
 
 Schoolmaster, the first, 22; others, 160. 
 
 Pear Tree, 181. 
 
 Schont, the first, 85; duties of, 124, 125. 
 
 Peter, at Cura^oa, 50 ; appointed 
 
 Schuyler, Brandt, in, 183. 
 
 Director, 57; early life, 58 ; loss of 
 
 Philip, 183. 
 
 his leg, 58 ; his wife, 59 ; voyage to 
 
 Scott, John, 170. 
 
 New Netherland, 60 ; his overbear- 
 
 Scoyck, van, Arent, 183. 
 
 ing spirit, 60; arrival at Manhat- 
 
 Seawan, 30, 140. 
 
 tan, 61 ; organizes government, 621 
 
 Sedgwick, Major, 89. 
 
 his reforms, 63 ; his course toward 
 
 Selyns, Henricus, 157, 166. 
 
 Kieft, Kuyter, and Melyn, 64, 65; 
 
 Servants, 147. 
 
 his anger at an appeal to Holland, 
 
 Sexton, the, 159. 
 
 66 ; quarrels with burghers about 
 
 Schaap Waytie, 106. 
 
 taxation, 68 ; appoints nine men, 
 
 Scheep Walk, 106. 
 
 68 ; negotiates with New England, 
 
 Ship, first built at Manhattan, 16. 
 
 70; quarrels with New Haven, 71 ; 
 
 Shops, 143. 
 
 with Rensselaerwyck, 73 ; dissatis- 
 
 Sidney, Sir Philip, n. 
 
 faction with his government, 74 ; 
 
 Silla.de, Cornelius, in. 
 
 punishes Van der Donck, 75 ; quar- 
 
 Sille, de, Nicasius, ^5, 129, 166. 
 
 rels with Melyn, 76, 80 ; sends Van 
 
 Simons, Hen^rickje, 107. 
 
 Tienhoven to represent him in 
 
 Slavery, 148. 
 
 Holland, 77 ; his arbitrary temper 
 
 Smee Straat, 111. 
 
 and acts, 81 ; negotiates with Con- 
 
 Smith, Capt. John, 7. 
 
 necticut, 82 ; journey to Hartford, 
 
 Smith Street, in. 
 
 83 ; appoints burgomasters and 
 
 Smith Street Lane, 106. 
 
 schepens, 85 ; prepares for war, 86, 
 
 Smith, the, Claes, 36. 
 
 89 ; opposes Long Island towns,
 
 INDEX. 193 
 
 
 90; his expedition against Swedes, Verplanck, Maria, 113. 
 
 
 93; pacification of Indians, 96; 
 
 Vesteus, Wilhelm, 161. 
 
 
 persecutes Lutherans, 98 ; the 
 
 Videt, Jan, 121. 
 
 
 Quakers, 99; his authority, 121 ; as 
 
 Vin, van der, 125. 
 
 
 a magistrate, 122 ; overrules bur- 
 
 Vincent, Adriaen, in. 
 
 
 gomasters, 127; his opposition to 
 
 Jan, in. 
 
 
 English encroachment, 169 ; visits 
 
 Vinje, Guleyn, 113. 
 
 
 Boston, 170 ; his dread of invasion, 
 
 Vlacke, the, 113. 
 
 
 171 ; hears of Nicholl's expedition, 
 
 Vlensburg, van, Jan, 128. 
 
 
 172 ; prepares for defence, 172 ; de- 
 
 Vly, the, 116. 
 
 
 termination to defend the city, 173 ; 
 
 Volkertsen, Dirck, 113. 
 
 
 his contest with the burgomasters, 
 
 Voorst, van, Gerrit, 40, 48. 
 
 
 174; defies the English, 175; is 
 
 Vos, de, Mathew, 130. 
 
 
 forced to surrender, 176 ; goes to 
 
 Vries, de, arrives at Manhattan, 22 ; 
 
 
 the Hague, 177: vindicates his con- 
 
 opposes Van Twiller, 24 ; colonizes 
 
 
 duct, 178; returns to New York. 
 
 Staten Island, 28 ; opposes Kieft's 
 
 
 178; his death, 179; his character, 
 
 War, 40, 44 ; leaves New Nether- 
 
 
 180 ; his bowery, 181. 
 
 land, 49. 
 
 
 Sunday, observance of, 159. 
 
 Vriesendael, 29, 45. 
 
 
 Surrender of New Amsterdam, 176. 
 
 
 
 Surveyor, the town, no* 
 
 WAAL, the, 109. 
 
 
 Swamp, the, 117. 
 
 Wagener, van, Huybert, 183. 
 
 
 
 Waldron, Annetje, in. 
 
 
 TANNERS, the, 117. 
 
 Resolved, 1 10, 169. 
 
 
 Taxation, 68, 138, 139. 
 
 Wall Street, 86, 105. 
 
 
 Teneur, Daniel, 121. 
 
 Walloons, 17. 
 
 
 Ten Eyck, Conraet, in, 137, 139, 143. 
 
 Water Side, the, 108. 
 
 
 Thomas, Jesmer, 59. 
 
 Water Street, 108, 109. 
 
 
 Throgmorton, John, 30. 
 
 Water Gate, 1 16. 
 
 
 Tienhoven, van, Cornelius, 27, 42, 61, 
 
 Wendell, Abraham, 183. 
 
 
 77, 79, 82, 113, 125. 
 
 Werckhoven, Van, 90. 
 
 
 Tonneman, Pieter, 125. 
 
 West India Company, incorporation, 
 
 
 Tricht, van, Gerrit, 108. 
 
 17; profits, 18; successes, 20; 
 
 
 Tromp, Admiral, 178. 
 
 bankruptcy, 52, 57 ; opposed to re- 
 
 
 Tuyen, Straat, 106. 
 
 forms, 77, 84 ; its religious tolera- 
 
 
 Twelve Men, the, 37. 
 
 tion, 98, 100 ; summons Stuyvesant 
 to Holland, 177. 
 
 
 
 Westminster, treaty of, 179. 
 
 
 UNCAS, 86. 
 
 Whitehall Street, 103, 106. 
 
 
 Underbill, John, 30, 48, 87. 
 
 Willet, John, 171. 
 
 
 Utrecht, Union of, 12. 
 
 William of Orange, 10, 12. 
 
 
 
 William Street, in. 
 
 
 VEEN, van der, Walewyn, 131, 136. 
 
 Winckel Straat, 109. 
 
 
 Verdran, Thomas, 128. 
 
 Windmills, 22. 
 
 
 Verhulst, Wilhelm, 17. 
 
 Winthrop, John, 70, 170, 173. 
 
 
 Verleth, Nicholas, 176. 
 
 Wolfertsen, Gerrit, 47. 
 
 
 Verplanck, Abraham, 28, 38, 42, 113, 
 
 Wolsey, Joris, 129. 
 
 
 117, 129, 137, 139- 
 
 Wooley, Charles, 158. 
 
 
 Abiggel, 107. 
 
 Wynkoop, Peter, 50. 
 
 
 Guleyn, 117, 179, 183. 
 
 
 
 Isaac, 117- 
 
 ZANDT, van, Tobias, 183. 
 
 
 
 

 
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