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THE HISTORY

The City of Albany,

NEW YORK,

FROM

THE DISCOVERY OF THE GREAT RIVER IN 1524, BY VERRAZZANO,

TO THE PRESENT TIME

ARTHUR JAMES WEISE, M. A.

E. H. BENDER

ALBANY : 71 & 73 STATE STREET 1884

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1881, by

E. H. BENDER

In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington

PREFACE.

Although written two hundred and sixty years after the occupation of the site of the city of Albany by the first settlers, this work presents a number of facts con- tradicting certain statements respecting that event and others preceding it. It will be seen in the first chapter that Henry Hudson, the English navigator, was not the discoverer nor the first explorer of the river which now bears his name. The Grande River, as the Hudson was first geographically designated, was discovered in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, who had been commissioned to make discoveries of new countries by Francis I., king of France. Shortly afterward it was ascended to its navigable height by French seamen trading for furs with the Indians living on its shores.

The title of the French to the discovered territory was perfected by occupation. Early in the sixteenth century they built, as it appears, two forts, one on the island where the city of New York is, and another on Castle Island, near the site of Albany. When the first vessel conveying emigrants from Amsterdam, Holland, to the country of the Grande River reached the mouth of the noble stream, the officer of the French barque, anchored there, not only declared the fact of the previous possession of the attractive domain by his countrymen but peremptorily forbade the occupation of this part of New France by the Dutch usurpers.

iv PREFACE.

Remarkable as. it is true, the greater number of the first settlers of Albany were Walloons, — French people. Hitherto the year 1()23, instead of 1024, has erroneously been given as the date of the planting of the first colony on the site of the city of Albany.

The peculiar prominence of Albany as the council- place of the Indians and the English governors of the American provinces in the colonial period; its peculiar geographical position as the military gate- way of the country during the Indian and French wars and during the revolutionary struggle; its selection as the place of the convocation of the first provincial congress which form- ulated a '^plan of a proposed Union of the several col- onies ;" these and many other important facts make its history notable and attractive.

The writer regrets that his subject-matter was by agreement limited to a certain number of pages, and that he was compelled to condense much of it into abridged statements.

In ending the task of writing this, the first history of the city of Albany, I deem it a conscionable duty to pay a friend's tribute to the memory of Joel Munsell, deceased, the assiduous and painstaking compiler of the '^Annals of Albany "and the " Collections on the His- tory of Albany." His unrequited industry evidently merits a public memorial from the citizens.

It is a pleasure to remember personal courtesies. To Henry A. Homes, LL. D., the librarian of the General Library of the State of New York, to his assistant, George Rogers Howell, to Stephen B. Griswold, the librarian of the Law Library, to Berthold Fernow, keeper of the French, Dutch, and English records in the State Library, to W. Bayard Van Rensselaer, Theodore Town- send, and J. H. Van Antwerp of Albany; to Horatio Sey-

PREFACE. V

mour, LL. D,, ex-governor of the State of New York, of Deerfield, Oneida County; to Dr. T. M. Coan of New York City; to DeWitt Clinton, librarian of the Young Men's Association Library, and to William H. Young of Troy; I am under many obligations for official ser- vices and desired information.

Arthur James Weise.

Troy, N. Y., August 2, 1884.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

PAGE.

Discoveries and explorations. Giovanni da Verrazzano enters the bay of the Grande River. The French ascend the stream to its navigable height. Henry Hudson's voyage. The French chateau on Castle Island. Organization of the West India Company. . . 1-17

CHAPTER II.

Sailing of the Walloons and Dutch freemen to New Netherland. The site of the colony. Fort Orange. The Wilden. Van Kreicke- beek's partisanship. The patroons. The charter of exemptions and privileges. 18-30

CHAPTER III.

Kiliaen van Rensselaer. The territory of Rensselaerswyck. First set- ■ tiers. Leases of land. Officers of the manor. The fur trade. Shell- money of the Indians. The patroon's instructions. . . 37-52

CHAPTER IV.

The call of the Rev. Joannes Megapolensis, jr. Sketch of the Mohawk Indians. Father Jogues's captivity. Beeren Island fortified. The church at Fort Orange. Petrus Stuyvesant's directorship. " Wooden Leg's dogs." The burgerlijke oath. ..... 53-98

CHAPTER V.

The troubles at Fort Orange. The dorpe Beverswyck. The tapsters' excise. Erection of the block-house church. Persecution of the Lutherans. The armed Mohawks. The village palisaded. The boschloopers. Anneke Janse Bogardus's will. . . . 94-134

CHAPTER VI.

New Netherland coveted by the English. Its territory given to the duke of York and Albany. Surrender of the Dutch. Governor NicoUs's orders. The fort and village of Albany. . . . 135-152

CHAPTER VII.

The province regained by the Dutch. Willemstadt. Immunities granted to the patroon. The head-church. Fort Nassau. New Netherland surrendered to the English. ...... 153-158

VI

TABLE OF CONTENTS. vii

CHAPTER VIII.

PAGE.

The village again named Albany. Indian hostilities. Militia laws. The Fuyck. Description of the place. The burghers. The house of peace. ... 159-183

CHAPTER IX.

Manners and customs. Houses. Furniture. Occupations. Shops. Inns.

Church-going. Festival days. Funerals. Marriages. . . 184-196

CHAPTER X.

Charter of the city. The municipal officers. Rules and regulations.

French invasion. Military preparations. . . . 197-215

CHAPTER XI.

A French project. The city to be attacked. Captain Bull's visit to Al- bany. Jacob Leisler's usurpation. The province disturbed. The massacre of the inhabitants of Schenectady. . . . 216-251

CHAPTER XII.

Indian affairs. Albany described. Land taken from the Indians. Dic- tatorial power of royalty. The Five Nations. . . 252-269

CHAPTER XIII.

The building of the stone-fort. Fugitive slaves. Schaihtecogue land.

Invasion of Canada. A missionary's letter. . . . 270-287

CHAPTER XIV.

Intemperance of the Indians. The trade of the frontier. Albany's geographical position. Another war with France. Description of the city 288-312

CHAPTER XV.

The colonial congress. Military movements. The fur trade. Anglo- mania. 313-332

CHAPTER XVI.

The city's revenues. Fire precautions. A public whipper. Character

istics of the people. Docks built. Masonic lodges. . 3:^3-353

VIII TABLE OF CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XVII.

PAGE.

The revolution. The committee of superintendence and correspondence. Albany regiments. Reading of the Declaration of Independence. The invasion of Burgoyne. First meeting of the legislature in the city. Washington's visit. ...... 354-385

CHAPTER XVIII.

The business of merchandizing. Stages. The opening of a theatre. A centennial celebration. A federal procession. The city described. Establishment of a bank. The trade of Albany. . . 386-423

CHAPTER XIX.

The capital of the state of New York. Erection of a public building. A large fire. A new state-house built. The first steamboat on the Hudson. Albany in 1813. 424-457

CHAPTER XX.

The city's wealth and prosperity. Celebration of the opening of the Erie canal. The Mohawk and Hudson railroad. The public schools. The new capitol. .... ... 458-486

ADDENDA.

Historical summary, 487-492

Churches, 493-506

Nev^spapers, 506-510

Mayors, 610-511

Banks, 511-512

Changed names of streets, 512-513

Census, 514

Free and Accepted Masons, 513-514

Independent Order of Odd Fellows, .... 514

Index, 515-520

THE HISTORY OF ALBANY.

CHAPTEE I.

DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORATIONS.

1524-1628.

On a bright day near the end of April, 1524, a num- ber of aborigines fishing in the lower bay of New York descried a strange object floating toward them from the sea. Much excited by the apparition, the amazed savages rapidly rowed to the neighboring islands to apprise the inhabitants of the extraordinary spectacle. Hundreds of inquisitive, fascinated faces were soon turned toward the mysterious thing. At first a wild speculation assumed it to be an unknown aquatic monster, then a less fanciful one conjectured it to be a large house drifting in from the sea. The slowly moving body was closely watched by the wondering crowds. As it approached they saw that it was an immense boat, filled with people and pro- pelled by wind-expanded cloths hung before poles rising high above its curiously shaped hull. The novel craft having found a suitable riding-place in the spacious haven cast her anchor in the sight of the excited natives, who,

2 THE HISTOEY OF ALBANY.

with loud shouts of dehght, witnessed the first mooring of a European ship in this discovered roadstead. ^

The anchored vessel was the French ship, La Dau- phine, with a crew of fifty men, commanded by Giovanni da Verrazzano, an experienced navigator. Having been commissioned by Francis L, king of France^ to seek a western sea-route to India and to make discoveries of new lands, he had sailed from the port of Dieppe late in the year 1523. Verrazzano had descried, on the eleventh of March, 1524, {old style,) the coast of North America, on the thirty-fourth parallel of north latitude. He had afterward explored the coast southwardly for fifty leagues, and then had turned and sailed northwardly, frequently going ashore to survey the country and to ac- quaint himself with the habits of the friendly natives.

Eager to learn whether the bay in which his ship was anchored were not a part of a navigable strait through which he might sail to Cathay, in Eastern Asia, Verraz- zano ordered the ship's boat to be manned, and began 'the first exploration of the mighty river that poured its flood into the bay through the channel now called the Narrows. The gazing savages, seeing the boat moving toward the upper bay, hastened with renewed exclamations of de- light to the nearest shores to inspect more closely the un- known visitors. Here, partly clad with barbaric dresses of skins, birds' feathers and decorative wampum, the dusky-colored aborigines, with frequent signs and various calls, manifested their friendliness toward the explorers, who, in mid-stream, rowed by them.

Enteri]ig the upper bay of New York, described by the delighted navigator as a most beautiful lake formed by the descending waters of the great river, Verrazzano

1 Fide The Rev. John Heckewelder's paper concerning an Indian tradi- tion of the first arrival of Europeans in New Vork Bay. Collection^ of the New York Historical Society. Second series, vol. i. pp, 11-74.,

THE HISTORY OF ALBANY. 3

perceived it to be an excellent harbor for the largest ves- sels, and the surrounding country an attractive region diversified by hills, in which he thought valuable min- erals might be found. Here the inquisitive Indians steered their canoes toward the boat, and, rowing around and about it, gazed at the fail- faces and Euro])ean dress of the strangers with the greatest c'uriosity and admira- tion. Suddenly a violent gale of wind from the direc- tion of the sea warned the circmnspect navigator of his remoteness from the Dauphine. and he ordered the boat to be rowed to the distant shi}), not a little displeased by the sudden termination of his ])leasurable ex})loration of the beautiful bay.

On the i-eturn of the explorers to the ship her anchor was weighed and the Dauphine put to sea, sailing north- wardly as far as the fiftieth paraUel of north latitude, where she stood for France, and early in July arrived at the port of Dieppe. From this place, Verrazzano sent a letter to Francis I., dated on the eighth of the month, describing the New Land ''never before seen by men either in ancient or in modern times," which he had dis- covered and explored for more than eleven, hundred miles. ^

In consequence of these discoveries, the northern part of the continent, extending along the Atlantic Ocean from Florida to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, was called by the French, La Nouvelle France (New France). The valu- able furs of the beaver, otter, marten, and other animals of the nev/ country inducted certain French capitalists, merchants, and ship-owners to send a number of vessels to diffei-ent i)arts of its coast to barter with the natives

1 Parts of the coasts of Labrador, Newfoundland, Cape Breton Island, and Nova Scotia had been discovered and explored by the Cabots in 1497 and 1498. Gaspar Cortereal, in 1500 and 1501 had inspected parts of the coasts of Labrador and Newfoundland.

4 THE HISTORY OF ALBANY

for peltry. Some of these barques sailed to the beautiful bay discovered by Verrazzano, and explored the Grande River, as the Hudson was then called, to the height of its navigation. Here the friendly savages received the French fur- traders with a large-hearted hospitality, which greatly contributed to the success of the first ventures of these speculative Europeans. To enlarge and protect the exclusive traffic begun so advantageously with the abo- rigines of the different villages near the confluence of the two rivers, now known as the Mohawk and the Hud- son, the French undertook to build, about the year 1540, a fortified trading-house or castle on the long, low island, lying in the little bay, on the west side of the Grande River, near the site of the city of Albany. Unfor- tunately before the building was completed, the island was inundated by the flood of a great freshet. The partly erected walls of the chateau and the environing earthworks were so much damaged by the rushing water that they were never repaired by the French, nor was the island any longer deemed habitable by them. These trading ventures of the French to the Grande River, dur- ing the sixteenth century, made them well acquainted with the topographical features of the adjacent country. On many of the maps of La Nonvelle France made dur- ing this period the noble stream is plainly represented from Sandy Hook to its navigable limits. *

The exploration of the Grande River by Henry Hudson in 1609, was suggested to the English navigator by infor- mation derived from published descriptions and maps of New France. It was confidently believed by many per- sons that in North America a navigable passage could be found through which vessels could pass to the Indian Ocean and sail to the Molucca or Spice Islands. Spain,

1 About one hundred and seventy-five miles from the ocean.

Saguenax

lerra Co\|rtc^\realiy

COPY OF A PART OF GERARD MERCATOR'S MAP OF THE WORLD, MADE AT DUISBURG IN 1 569.

THE HISTORY OF ALBANY. 5

England, Portugal, and France, in turn, had already sent their great sea-captains across the Atlantic to search for such a water-way to the East. Magellan, in 1 520, found the strait which now bears his name and through it the ships of Spain passed to the Moluccas. ^ Certain wealthy commercial companies in the United Netherlands, in the latter part of the sixteenth century, fitted out ships and sent them to explore the ice girdled ocean north of Europe for a navigable route to Asia. These perilous enterprises did not accomplish the purposes of the Dutch capitalists. Still the hope of finding a sea-path to the Orient stimu- lated other voyages of discovery in the same frigid field of the eastern hemisphere.

An exploration of the Arctic Ocean, north of Novaya Zemlya, it was thought would result in the discovery of an open polar passage to Northern Asia, wheie a naviga- ble channel could be found by which vessels might sail southward into the interior of the continent. For the purpose of learning whether this conjecture were true the speculative managers of the Dutch East India Com- pany engaged Henry Hudson to command a vessel to be manned and equipped for the undertaking. ^ He set sail from Amsterdam, with a crew of twenty men, Dutch and English, on the twenty-fifth of March, 1609, (old style^) in the yacht, De Halve Maen, (The Half Moon,^ of forty lasts or about eighty tons burden. Leaving the

1 Vid^ The discoveries of America to the year 1525, By Arthur James Weise. New York, 1884. G. P. Putnam's Sons.

2 Hudson was unacquainted with the Dutch language, and he therefore employed Jodocus Hondius, a learned Hollander, to act as his interpreter in his conferences with the directors of the East India Company. Hondius as- sisted him in making the following contract with the Amsterdam chamber, to which instrument he and Hondius signed their names :

"On this eighth of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and nine, the directors of the East India Company of the chamber of Amsterdam, of the ten years' reckoning, of the one part, and Mr. Henry Hudson, Englishman, assisted by Jodocus Hondius, of the other part, have

6 THE HISTORY OF ALBANY.

Texel, the English navigator steered northwardly, and, after doubling North Cape on the coast of Norway, stood for Novaya Zemlya. On this last course Hudson encount- ered a barrier of ice which compelled him to relinquish the purpose he had in view. Unwilling to return to Hol- land without making an attempt to reach India by sail- agreed in manner following, to wit : That the said directors shall in the first place equip a small vessel or yacht of about thirty lasts [about sixty tons] burden, with which, well provided with men, provisions and other necessa- ries, the aforenamed Hudson shall, about the first of April, sail, in order to search for a passage by the north, around by the north side of Novaya Zemlya, and shall continue thus along that parallel until he shall be able to sail south- ward to the latitude of sixty degrees. He shall obtain as much knowledge of the lands as can be done without any considerable loss of time, and if it be possible return immediately, in order to make a faithful report and rela- tion of his voyage to the directors, and to deliver over his journals, log-books and charts, together with an account of every thing whatsoever which shall happen to him during the voyage, without keeping any thing back ; for which said voyage the directors shall pay to the said Hudson, as well as for his owtfit for the said voyage as for the support of his wife and children, the sum of eight hundred guilders ; [about three hundred and twenty dollars ;] and, in case (which God prevent) he do not come back or arrive here- abouts within a year, the directors shall further pay to his wife two hundred guilders in cash ; and thereupon they shall not be further liable to him or his heirs, unless he shall either afterward or within the year arrive and have found the passage good and suitable for the company to use ; in which case the directors will reward the aforenamed Hudson for his dangers, trouble, and knowledge in their discretion, with which the before-mentioned Hudson is content. And in case the directors think proper to prosecute and con- tinue the same voyage, it is stipulated and agreed with the aforenamed Hudson, that he shall make his residence in this country with his wife and children, and shall enter into the employment of no other than the company, and this at the discretion of the directors, who also promise to make him satisfied and content for such further service in all justice and equity. All without fraud or evil intent.

*' In witness of the truth, two contracts are made hereof, of the same tenor, and are subscribed by both parties and also by Jodocus Hondius, as interpreter and witness.

*' Dated as above. *' Dirk van Os.

*'J. Poppe. '* Henry Hudson. "Jodocus Hondius,

*' witness."

Vide Henry Hudson in Holland. By Henry C. Murphy. The Hague, 1859. pp. 34-86.

THE HISTORY OF ALBANY. 7

ing in a different direction, he gave his officers and crew the choice of two proposals :

' ' The first was to go to the coast of America at the fortieth degree of latitude, mostly incited to this by letters and maps which a certain Captain Smith had sent him from Virginia, and in which he showed him a sea by which he might circumnavigate their southern colony [in Virginia] from the north, and from there pass into a western sea. The other proposal was to seek the pas- sage by Davis's Strait." ^

Hudson's men preferred to make the first voyage, partly influenced by what had been suggested in the communications of Captain John Smith, and partly by a desire to avoid the lower temperature of the more north- ern region of the continent. The so-called Western Sea, which it was thought Hudson could reach by sailing through some unexplored passage extending to it from the Grande River, is exhibited on the map of America made by Michael Locke, the Enghsh cartographer, in 1582. 2 On this fan-shaped chart it is designated Mare de Verrazana 1524 (Sea of Verrazzano 1524). North of it the Grande River is represented as an outlet of the St. Lawrence River. ^

The Half Moon, having taken on board a supply of fresh water at the Faroe Islands, sailed westward toward

1 Belgische ofte Nederlandsche oorlogen ende geschiedenissen begin- nende van 't jaer 1595 tot 1611, mede vervatende enighe gebueren handel- inghe. Beschreven door Emanuel van Meteren. Gedruckt op Schotlant buyten Danswyck by Hermes van Loven. 1611. boek xxx. fol. 32*7.

2 Locke's map, dedicated to Sir Philip Sidney, was used by Richard Hakluyt, the English collector and publisher of voyages and travels, to illus- trate his work entitled : Divers voyages touching the discouerie of America. London, 1582. l^/de The discoveries of America to the year 1525. By Ar- thur James Weise. New York, 1884. G. P. Putnam's Sons.

3 As late as the year 1625, the Dutch explorers of the Grande River were ignorant of its course beyond the height of its navigation. Joannes de Laet, the Dutch historian, remarks: " Judging from appearances, this river ex- tends to the great river St. Lawrence, or Canada, for our skippers assure us

8 THE HISTORY OF ALBANY.

Newfoundland. On the third of July the yacht came among some French vessels taking cod on the fishing banks. Sailing southward, the explorers approached the peninsula of Virginia, ''in latitude 37° 45V' ^^ys Van Meteren, the Dutch historian, writing two years after the voyage. ^'They then held their course along the coast until they reached, in latitude 40° 45', a good entrance between two headlands. Here they discovered and entered, on the twelfth of September [1609, old style,^ as beautiful a river as could be found, very wide and deep, with good anchorage along both shores. They ascended it with their large vessel as high as 42° 40', and went still higher with the ship's boat. ^ At the mouth of the river they found the natives brave and warlike, but beyond, up to the highest point of the stream, friendly and hospitable, having great numbers of skins and furs, as those of martens and foxes, and many other commodi- ties, birds, fruits, and even white and blue grapes. They treated these people civilly and brought away a little of whatever they found among them.''

When the Half Moon, on the warm afternoon of the nineteenth of September, cast her anchor and swung with the tide, near the site of the city of Albany, the observ- ing Indians, well aware from their intercourse of nearly a century with the seamen of France what would be most acceptable to the officers and men on the strange

that the natives come to the fort [Fort Orange, the site of Albany] from that river, and from Quebec and Tadoussac," — Nieuwe Wereldt ofte beschrijvinghe van West Indien. Door Joannes de Laet. Tot Leyden, 1625. boek iii. cap. Ix. Vide Coll. N. Y. Hist. Soc. Second series, vol. i. p. 399.

1 The Dudley Observatory in the city of Albany, about three-fourths of a mile north of the Capitol, is in 42° 39' 50" north latitude, and in 3" 15' 26" east longitude from Washington ; and in 73° 44' 49" west longitude from Greenwich.

2 Belgische ofte Nederlantsche oorlogen ende geschiedenissen beginnen de van 't jaer 1595 tot 1611. boek xxx. fol. 327. Vide Henry Hudson in Hol- land by Henry C. Murphy, Appendix, pp. 62-65,

THE HISTOEY OF ALBANY. 9

vessel, hastily carried to their canoes clusters of wild grapes, a few pumpkins, some otter and beaver skins, and rowed to the yacht. Having reached her deck they readily bartered their commodities for beads, knives, hatchets, and other things.

Hudson, desiring to know whether he could sail farther northward, sent his mate and four men the next day to take soundings. They went up the river two leagues and found the depth of the water to be two fathoms, and the channel very narrow. On the third day while the carpenter was on land making a fore-yard, Hudson in- vited several Indian chiefs to partake of some wine and strong liquor in the cabin of the Half Moon. These were freely imbibed by his guests and in a short time the In- dians were tipsy and one drunk. A merry chief had his wife with him, but she with womanly propriety de- meaned herself so modestly that her behavior was admir- ingly observed by Hudson and his officers.

On the afternoon of the fourth day a delegation of Indians visited the vessel and presented Hudson with a quantity of tobacco and some wampum. One of the number made an oration, on the conclusion of which the savages placed a large platter of venison before the navi- gator who courteously eat a part of the cooked meat. The delighted Indians then bowed reverently before him and left the vessel.

Late that night Hudson's mate and four of the crew returned from the upper part of the river where they had been during the day taking soundings. At the distance of about eight leagues from the vessel's anchorage they had found the water quite shallow and not deep enough for the draught of the Half Moon. This report satisfied Hudson that Captain John Smith's expectations of his finding a navigable passage to India in that direction

10 THE HISTOEY OF ALBANY.

were false, and he therefore determined to return to Hol- land. At noon on the ^twenty -third of September, the yacht's small anchor was weighed, and the Half Moon sailed down the river on the homeward voyage. On the fourth of October she left the lower- bay at Sandy Hook, and stood for England. On the seventh of November she arrived at Dartmouth, from which place Hudson sent the report of his voyage to the East India Company. ^ Giving little consideration to the English navigator's description of the physical features and chief productions of the country of the Grande River, the money-making managers zealously furthered the company's commer- cial interests in other parts of the world.

Some of the Dutch seamen who had jnade the voy- age with Hudson wisely inferring that a venture to the Grande Eiver for furs would profitably remunerate those investing money in such an enterprise, advised certain merchants of Amsterdam to send a vessel to the river to procure a cargo of peltry. This advice induced a num- ber of capitalists to fit out a ship, which, in 1610, sailed to the river and obtained a large quantity of furs, which were sold in Holland at high prices. Several similar ventures were afterward made which were highly profit- ble in their returns.

While trading with the ''Maquaas," ^ at the height of the river's navigation, the Dutchmen learned that the French had been coming for many years to traffic there for furs. Besides giving the Dutch traders this infoi'ma- tion the friendly aborigines showed them the ruins of the cJutteaii on Castle Island. The sagacious Hollanders, hav- ing inspected the dilapidated castle, took measurements

1 Fic/i' Purchas his Pilgrimes. London, 1625. part iii. pp. 593, 594. Coll. N. Y. Hist. Soc. vol. i. pp. 139, 140.

2 The " Maquaas " were also called " Maikans," and " Mahakuaas," by the Dutch. These Indians are more familiarly known as the Mohawks.

THE HISTOEY OF ALBANY. 11

of its walls and outworks, thinking, perhaps, that the structure might be made serviceable to them should they at any time occupy the counfcry.

To obtain the hcense and protection of the govern- ment of the United Netherlands the merchants and skip- pers interested in these voyages petitioned the Lords States General to be permitted exclusively to visit and traffic with the natives of this part of America. In their prayer they set forth that after great expense, risk, loss of ves- sels and other reverses during the year 1614, they had discovered, with five ships, '' certain new lands situate in America, between New France and Virginia, being the sea-coast between the fortieth and forty-fifth parallels of north latitude, and now called Nieu Nederlandt (New Netherland)." ^ With this petition they presented an embellished map (caerte) representing the territory of Nieu Nederlandt. ^ Inconsideratel}^ the so-called discov-

1 Nieuwe Wereldt. De Laet. boek. iii. cap. vii. Holland documents in the General Library of the State of New York. vol. i. pp. 39-46. Coll. N. Y. Hist. Soc. Second series, vol. i. p. 291.

2 This highly elaborated map, in the General Library of the State of New York, in Albany, bears the inscription ; *' The original carte figurative, of which the above is an accurate fac-simile, was found on the 26th of June, 1841, in the lokeUkas of the States General, in the royal archives at the Hague. It was annexed to the memorial presented to the States General, on the 18th August, 1616, by the 'Bewindhebbers van Nieuw Nederlandt,' pray- ing for a special octroy according to the placaat of 27 March, 1614 ; and is referred to in the memorial as shewing the extent of the discoveries made by schipper Cornells Hendricxx. of Munnikendam, in a small yacht of 8 lasts burden, named the Onrust which the memoralists had caused to be built in New Netherland. Copie d'apih Vorighial par P. //. Loffelt. La I/aye. Juillet, 1841. The Hague, 27th July, 184T J. Romeyn Brodhead, agent of the State of New York."

Although subscribing his name to this statement, Brodhead afterward wrote as follows: "I think, however, that it was actually prepared two years before, from the data furnished by Block immediately after his return to Holland, and that it was exhibited to their high mightinesses for the first time on the 11th of October, 1614. The charter granted on that day to the directors of New Netherland expressly refers to a ' Figurative map prepared {getransfigeert) by them, ' which described the sea-coasts between the fortieth and forty-fifth degrees of latitude. This the parchment map clearly does.

12 THE HISTORY OF ALBANY,

erers of this part of New France inscribed the following information on the chart, immediately above the site of the city of Albany. ''But as far as one can understand from what the Maquaas [ Mohawks ] say and show, the French come with sloops as high up as to their country to trade with them. ^

The site of the ruins of the French chateau^ on Castle Island, which the Indians had shown the Dutch traders, was also represented on the map. They called the fortifi- cation Fort Nassau, in honor of Prince Maurice of Nassau, the stadtholder of the United Provinces, and placed the following descriptive memoranda near it: ''Fort Nas- sau is fifty-eight feet wide between the walls in the quad- rangle ; the moat is eighteen feet wide."—'' The house in- side the fort is thirty -six feet long and twenty-six wide."^

The ignorance of the Dutch settlers of Albany re- specting the nationality of the builders of the fort on Castle Island gave currency to various conjectures. By some it was assumed that the Spaniards had built the

It, moreover, defines New Netherland as lying between New France and Virginia, according to the description in the charter. The map was prob- ably presented a second time on the 18th of August, 1616, when the directors of New Netherland exhibited their memorial for a further charter, to which it was attached." — History of the State of New York. By John Romeyn Brodhead. New York, 1853. vol. i. Appendix. Note. p. 756.

''This map" says Brodhead, "is undoubtedly one of the most interest- ing memorials we have. It is about three feet long, and shows very mi- nutely the course of the Hudson River from Manhattan to above Albany, as well as a portion of the seacoast ; and contains likewise curious notes and memoranda about the neighboring Indians, the work, perhaps, of one of the companions of Hudson, ^ -^ ^ made within five years of the discovery of our river, its fidelity of delineation is scarcely less remarkable than its high antiquity." — John Romeyn Brodhead's address before the New York Historical Society, Nov. 20, 1844. Coll. N. Y. Hist. Soc. 1845. p. 16.

1 " Ma so veic nieft /weft coniien i^erstaen ityt 7 se^-ge?i ende bediiyen van de Alaquaas so cornea de Frafi^oysen met sloupen tot hovem aen haer laiid met haerh{y handelen . ' '

2 ''Fort van Nassoureen is binnen de vallen ^8 voeten wydt in V vier- cant ; de gracht is zuydt j8 voeten.''

*"/ huijs is j6 voeten lanch en 26 wyt in 7 foT-ty

THE HISTORY OF ALBANY. 13

castle. But this supposition did not seem plausible for there was no historical evidence that the Spaniards had ascended the river to the height of its navigation. The two Labadist missionaries, Jaspar Dankers and Peter Sluyter, visiting Albany, in 1680, speak of the ruins of the fort and of the conjecture concerning the people who built it : ''In the afternoon, [Sunday, Apri] 28, J we took a walk to an island, upon the end of which there is a fort, built, they say, by the Spaniards. That a fort has been there was evident from the earth thrown up, but it is is not to be supposed that the Spaniards came so far in- land to build forts, when there are no monuments of them to be seen down on the sea-coasts, where, however, the}^ have been according to the tradition of the Indi- ans." ^

The petition of the Dutch fur-traders was favorably considered by the Lords States General. They granted them, on the eleventh of October, HUtt, a special license to make four voyages to the country called by them Nieu Nederlandt, ''within the period of three years, to begin on the first day of January, 1015, or sooner." Having obtained the exclusive privilege to traffic with the natives of New Netherland, the company sent Hen- drik Corstiaenssen, ^ an experienced skipper of Amster- dam, in 1615, to Prince Maurice's River, {Riviere van den vorst Mauritius,) as the Grande or Hudson River was

' Journal of a voya.a^e to New York and a tour in several of the American colonies in 1679 and 1680, by Jaspar Dankers and Peter Sluyter of Wiewerd, in Friesland. Translated from the original manuscript, in the Dutch lan- guage, for the Long Island Historical Society, by Henry C. Murphy. Memoirs of Long Island Hist. Soc. 1867. vol. i. p. 318.

2 The terminations sc and sc/i were used b\ the Dutch as suffixes to the father's name to designate the child's relation. Thus Corstiaens^cf// signified the son of Corstiaens ; Pieter.sr the son of Pieter ; ]3.nsen, the son of Jan ; Rutgerj-^";^ the son of Rutger ; Eve Albertj-^' Bratt, Eve, the daughter of Albert Bratt ; Anna Dirkj-^ van Vechten, Anna, the daughter of Dirk van Vechten

14 THE HISTORY OF ALBANY.

designated on the map of 1614, with orders to occupy Castle Island and to repair the damaged walls of the French chateau. Having removed the debris, he rebuilt the dilapidated parts of the structure. A gariison of a dozen Dutch soldiers was then placed in it. To render Fort Nassau defensible against any attack of the Indians, two small cannons igotelhighen) and eleven stone swivel- guns, {steeri stucken,) used on ships, were put in position within the earthworks. ^

During the period of three years in which the company was privileged to trade with the natives of New Nether- land, the only known instance of any bad feeling mani- fested by the latter toward the Dutch, was on the return of a young savage, named Orson, from Holland, who had gone there with Adriaen Block, a Dutch navigator, ' ' This exceedingly malignant wretch, " as he is designated by a contemporaneous Dutch historian, cherished a deep resentment toward Hendrik Corstiaenssen, and, at his first opportunity, shot the commander of Fort Nassau. However, before he got beyond the range of a bullet, he was made to pay the penalty of his blood-thirstiness. ^

Corstiaenssen 's subordinate officer, Jacob Elkens, was then placed in command of Fort Nassau. The latter remained in charge of the post until the spring of 1618, when a great freshet again inundated Castle Island, and injured the fort so much that it was abandoned by the Dutch, and never again occupied by them.^ When the exclusive trading privileges of the company ceased, in 1618, several vessels were permitted by the Lords

1 Nieuwe Wereldt. De Laet. boek. iii. cap. vii. ix. Albany records, in the General Library of the State of New York. vol. xxiv. fol. 167. Coll. N. Y. Hist. Soc. Second series, vol. i. pp. 291, 299.

2 Historische verhael door Nicolaes a Wassenaer. Amsterdam, 1621- 1632. deel viii. fol. 85. Documentary history of New York. vol. iii. p. 26.

3 Niewue Wereldt. De Laet. boek iii. cap. ix. Albany records, vol. xxiv. fol. 161.

THE HISTOEY OF ALBANY. 15

States General to be sent to the Mauritius River to ob- tain furs.

The information which the fur traders carried to Hol- land concerning the salubrity of the climate of New Netherland, the fertility of its virgin soil, the numerous water-courses irrigating the country, the excellence of the growing timber, the abundance of fish in the streams, the great flocks of fowl, the vast number of wild animals, the profusion of good fruit, and the surprising friend- liness of the natives, inclined a number of the mhabi- tants of the Netherlands to think of emigrating to the attractive region. Among the first to express a desire to go as colonists to New Netherland was a body of Puritans from England, living in the city of Leyden. Speaking through their pastor, the Rev. John Robinson, they made known to some of the merchants formerly trading in New Netherland their willingness to remove to the new country, provided that they should be protected by the government of the Netherlands. The merchants to whom the application had been made, addressed a let- ter^ in February, J()20, to the prince of Orange and a memorial to the Lords States General, expressing the desire of the Puritans to become colonists of New Neth- erland and soliciting the privilege of transporting the lat- ter to the place selected, should their high mightinesses comply with the prayer of the petitioners. For some unknown reason the re(|uest was not gj-anted, and conse- quently it happened that another and a less inviting part of North America obtained the historical distinction of being settled by the Pmitans. ^

The remarkable prestige which the Dutch East India Company had acquired by its extensive commerce and extraordinary earnings now indu-ced a number of wealthy

1 Hoi. doc. vol. i. fol. 94-98, 103.

16 THE HISTORY OF ALBANY.

merchants of Holland to apply to the Lords States Gen- eral for the exclusive privilege of sailing and trafficking within the territorial limits of certain countries over which the government of the Netherlands had assumed jurisdiction. The charter incorporating the Dutch West India Company was given, on the third of June, 1621, under the great seal of the Lords States General. The exclusive privileges conferred by this instrument per- mitted the ships of the company to traffic on the coast and in the interior of Africa from the tropic of Cancer to the Cape of Good Hope, in America and the West Indies, for a term of twenty-four years, beginning the first day of July, 1621. To this corporation was granted the power to make contracts, engagements, and alliances with the rulers and people of the countries designated in the charter, to build forts, to appoint and discharge offi- cers, to advance the settlement of unoccupied territory, to enlarge the channels of commerce and to multiply the sources of revenue.

The Lords States General required the company to communicate to them, from time to time, such contracts and alliances as it might make, and to inform them respecting the situation of all the fortresses and settle- ments erected by its agents. In the appointment of civil and military officers and in giving instructions to them, their high mightinesses were to be consulted, and all commissions of its officers were to be issued under the seal and authority of the Lords States General. If troops were needed their higb mightinesses were to furnish them, but they were to be paid and supported by the company. The chartei intrusted the government of the corporation to five chambers of managers. These cham- bers and the government of the Netherlands were repre- sented by a college of nineteen persons, of which nunjber

THE HISTORY OF ALBANY. 17

eight were from the Amsterdam chamber, four from the Zeeland, two from the Maas, two from the North Hol- land, and two from the Friesland. The government had one representative.

A commercial and colonization company invested with such extensive powers as were conferred on the incor- porators of the West India Company by this patent needed no little time for organization. Therefore its di- rectors were not prepared to prosecute the purposes of its incorporation with any noteworthy enterprise until the twenty-first of June, 162B, when the rules and regu- lations of the company were formally approved by the Lords States General. ^

1 Hoi. doc. vol. i. fol. 104-106. Groot placaat boek. vol. i. fol. 566.

CHAPTEE II.

FORT ORANGE.

1624-1629.

After perfecting their plans of colonization, the direc- tors of the West India Company had not long to wait for a desirable body of emigrants to accept the offers they had publicly made to all persons who might be induced to become settlers of the fertile regions of New Nether- land. For at this time there was living in Holland a large number of French protestants who had come from the Southern Belgic provinces of Hainault, Namur, Lux- emburg and Liege to escape the persecutions of the Spanish Inquisition. These people were called Walloons, and were highly esteemed by the Dutch on account of their probity and industry. ^ The departure of the Pu- ritans from Holland, in 1620, to settle in America, led a number of these French refugees to desire the same priv- ilege of emigrating to it. In order to obtain from the English government the necessary license, the Walloons addressed a petition to the British embassador at the Hague, dated the fifth of February, 1622, signed by Jose de Forest, praying that permission might b.e granted to

1 The name originated with the Saxons who called all foreigners Wallens: " Saxones occupato regno Britannico^ qiwniavi lingua sua extraneum quevillbet Wallum vacant^ S:f gentes has sibi extraneas IVallenses vacant, df inde usque in hodietnum barhara nuncupatione &^ homines Wallenses, ^ terra Wallia vocita- tur'' — Descriptione Cambriae. Sylvester Giraldus. cap. vii,

18

THE HISTORY OF ALBANY. 19

fifty or sixty families, embracing about three hundred persons, residing at Amsterdam, to settle in Virginia. ^ The directors of the West India Company, learning that the Walloons had preferred the request^ at once made known to the latter the particular advantages which they offered to emigrants becoming colonists of New Netherland.^ Persuaded that no better opportunity for obtaining so many material and political benefits would again favor their purposes and be so conducive to their welfare as settlers in a new country, they accepted the overtures of the company and began to make prepara- tions for leaving the Netherlands.

The colonization of New Nether land evoked consider- able discussion in Holland, and a number of practical suggestions were published concerning the measures that should be taken by the directors of the West India Com- pany to promote the welfare of those emigrating to the new country. Wassenaer, the Dutch historian, writing at the time of the embarkation of the Walloons, remarks, that for the latter 'Ho go in safety it is first of all neces- sary that they be placed in a good, defensive position and be well provided with forts and arms for the Span- iard, [the king of Spain,] who claims all the country, will never allow any one to gain a possession there.'* "^

The ship, Nieu Nederlandt, of one hundred and thirty lasts burden, commanded by Cornelis Jacobsen May of Hoorn, with thirty families on board, sailed from Ams- terdam, at the beginning of March, 1624, for the Mauri- tius River. ^ The vessel took the usual route of ships

1 London documents, vol. i, fol. 24.

2 Hoi. doc. vol. i. fol. 118.

3 Historische verhael. Wassenaer. deel. vi. fol. 147. Doc. hist. N. Y, vol. iii. p. 22.

4 Although the writers who have quoted Wassenaer as their authority for their statements that the Nieu Nederlandt sailed in March le^S to the Mau- ritius River with the first colonists of New Netherland, they, as it will be

20 THE HISTORY OF ALBANY.

sailing to New Netherland at this time. Proceeding first to the Canary Islands, off the west coast of Africa, to catch the trade-wind, she stood for the Bahamas. Pass- ing between the latter and the Bermuda Islands, she then followed the trend of the coast of the continent north- wardly as far as the Sandpunt, the low point of land now called Sandy Hook.

The king of Spain contrary to general expectation did not take any steps to prevent the planting of the colony. Prance, however, sent a barque to the bay of the Grande River to forbid the West India Company taking possession of her territory. Consequently when the Dutch ship passed through the Narrows, May was much surprised to see a vessel, flying the flag of Prance, riding at anchor near the Dutch yacht^ the Mackerel, moored in the mouth of the river. ^ When he sought informa- tion concerning the presence of the barque. May was told that the French vessel had come there to plant monuments bearing the insignia of Prance and to assert that country's possession of this part of North America by right of discovery. An angry controversy ensued be- tween May and the French officer. The combative Hol- lander declared that the assertions of the Frenchman were only assumptions, and that the commission from their high mightinesses, the Lords States General, which he exhibited, substantially proved the title of the Dutch to the country. Not to be frustrated or further obstructed in carrying out his present commission by a prolongation of the vexatious controversy. May, Avith the assistance of

seen by referring to Wassenaer, do not use his dates which are plainly printed on the margins of the pages of his valuable work. He gives 1624 for the sailing of the vessel carrying the first emigrants to New Netherland. 1 The Mackerel had sailed from Holland on the sixteenth of June, 1623, but did not arrive at the Mauritius River until the twelfth of December. She remained at the mouth of the river during the winter of 1623-24.

THE HISTORY OF ALBANY. 21

the crew of the Mackerel, compelled the French officer to depart with his ship from the bay. ^

Rid of the disturbing presence of the Freacli vessel, May landed a number of emigrants on '* Mannatans '' Island, where now the city of New York is built. '^ The Nieu Nederlandt then ascended the river to the country of the Maquaas and Mahicans. ^

On the west bank of the river\ a short distance north of Castle Islaud, where a narrow, verdurous plain lay pleasantly sheltered by the westward hill, the little band of Walloons with a few Dutch freemen disembarked. In the warm sunlight of that serene May day of 1024,

1 " The West India Company being chartered to navigate these rivers did not neglect so to do, but equipped in the spring [of 1621] a vessel of 180 lasts, called the New Netherland, {Xien XedcrUvidt ghcnaemt^) whereof Cornells Jacobsen May of Hoorn, with 30 families, mostly Walloons, {jo fluysghesinnen 7neesi IVae/en,) to plant a colony there. They sailed in the beginning of March, and directing their course by the Canary Islands, steered toward the Wild Coast, and gained the west wind which luckily took them in the beginning of May into the river first called A'zo de Montagnes, now the river Mauritius, lying in 40i^ degrees. He found a Frenchman lying in the mouth of the river, who would erect the arms of the king of France there ; but the Hollanders would not permit him, opposing it by the commission from the Lords States General and the directors of the West India Company ; and in order not to be frustrated therein, with the assis- tance of those of the Mackerel, which lay above, they caused a yacht of 2 guns to be manned, and convoyed the Frenchman out of the river." — His- torische verhael. Wassenaer. deel vii. fol. 11. Doc. hist. N. Y. vol. iii. p. 23.

2 Catelina Trico, an aged woman, born in Paris, in a deposition made by her on the fourteenth of February, 1684-5, said that she came to New Netherland "either in the year one thousand six hundred and twenty-three or twenty -fouer to the best of her remembrance." In another deposition, made the seventeenth of October, 1688, she said that she was one of the passengers of "ye first Ship yt came " to New Netherland, sent by the West India Company, and that " as soon as they came to Mannatans now called N : York they sent Two families & six men to harford River & Two families & 8 men to Delaware River and 8 men they left att N : Yorke to take Possession and ye Rest of ye Passengers went w th ye Ship up as farr as Al- bany."— Deed book, vii. New York colonial manuscripts, xxxv. Doc. hist. N. Y. vol. iii. pp. '6\, 32.

3 The Maquaas or Mohawks inhabited the west bank of the Hudson River, near the confluence of the Mohawk River, and the country westward bordering the latter stream. The Mahicans or Mohegans dwelt on the east bank of the Hudson River.

22 THE HISTOEY OF ALBANY.

they began to explore with inquisitive eyes the green meadow where the hearth-stones of their new homes were to be laid. They drank with critical taste the water of the hill-side springs, and speculatively wandered over the old, uncultivated corn-fields of the savages. Looking across the slowly flowing river, they beheld the palis- aded village of the Mahicans with its peculiarly built houses.

The landing of the colonists having been seen by some of the Maquaas and Mahicans, the news of the arrival of the Dutch ship was soon known to both tribes. Large numbers of the Wilden ^ began to come on foot and in boats to the landing-place of the roving emigrants. The latter had now ample opportunity to observe their strange visitors. They saw the men were brawny-limbed, well- proportioned, and of a stature equal to their own. Their black eyes and white teeth were in striking contrast with the more disguised features of their beardless, dirty, dusky red faces, variously streaked with paint of differ- ent colors. Their jet-black hair, coarse and straight, was allowed by some to grow only on one side of their heads. Many of the warriors had only crown-locks decorated with large feathers of birds of prey. A number of fiercer mien had narrow growths of short, bristly hair, extending from the tops of their foreheads to the backs of their necks, with braided locks on each side. Their clothing was scanty, filthy, and rudely fashioned. Short, double aprons of skins covered their loins. Their bodies were loosely clad with the skins of deer, bear and other animals. Some wore mantles of turkey-feathers knit together with strings of skin. Their lower limbs and feet were incased in deer-skin leggins and moccasins.

1 The Dutch name for the Indians. Wild, wild ; plural wilden, Wilde menschen, savages.

THE HISTORY OF ALBANY. 23

The women accompanying them were better attired. Their hair was bomid in short rolls, about a hand long. A number wore head-bands ornamented with pieces of shells. The band confining their hair was fastened be- hind, over the roll, in a bow-knot. One or two had fine complexions, several were comely and attractive, and none were remarkably ugly. They were all clothed in dressed deer-skin garments, the lower borders of which, extending below their knees, were elaborately embroid- ered with wampum and strips of fur. With a womanly desire to be attractive, their necks and arms were encir- cled with barbaric ornaments and European trinketry. Their breasts were partly covered with the upper part of a soft, finely dressed deer-skin garment worn next to the skin. Their girdles were very prettily ornamented with wampum, as were also their leggins and moccasins. They also had various ornaments of metal, bone, and shell suspended from their ears. Very few of the Wilden, either the men or the women, were wholly clad in skins. Some had pieces of duffel-cloth thrown across their right shoulders and drawn about their bodies, the ends draping their lower limbs almost to their ankles. ^

Cornelis Jacobsen May, intrusted with the adminis- tration of the West India Company's affairs in New Netherland, soon summoned the colonists about him and assigned to them the quantities of land which they sev- erally were able to cultivate. Then began the humble house building. Small spaces of ground were cleared, holes dug, posts planted and spars split. The latter were then bound horizontally to the upright posts with withes,

1 Beschrijvinge van Nieuw Nederlant door Adriaen van der Donck. Am- sterdam, 1656. pp. 52-54, 56-58. Description of New Netherland. Coll.N. Y. Hist. Soc. Second Series, vol. i. pp. 190, 191, 194, 195.

Korte ontwerp van de Mahahuase Indianen in Nieuw Nederlandt. Be- schreven in 't jaer 1644. Door Johannem Megapolensem, juniorem. Coll. N. Y. Hist. Soc. Second Series, vol. iii. p. 154.

24 THE HISTORY OF ALBANY.

and over this frame- work large pieces of peeled bark were securely fastened. Arches of bark formed the roof of the hut ; clay, sod and stones the hearth and chimney. While the colonists were building their cabins, the men in the service of the West India Company were construct- ing, near the river, a small log-fort. Having removed their famihes and household goods from the ship into their bark-huts, the settlers with resolute hearts and active hands began to till the land assigned them. The weed-grown corn-fields of the Indians were digged and sown with wheat and rye. Clearing away the matted vines and brushwood on parts of the grassy plain, the colonists dug shallow holes, at short intervals, and cast in them a few grains of Indian corn, which they covered with the rich loam displaced by their broad hoes. The vegetable seeds brought from Holland were also planted in small patches which became the particular care of the active housewives. The warm summer's sun quickly germinated the seed in the fertile fields, and in a few months the rapidly ripening grain was ''almost as high as a man." Soon also upon the tables of the settlers appeared the productions of their gardens,— the first returns for their laborious cultivation of the virgin soil of New Netherland.

The trapping season that began in December was now ended, and the Indians daily resorted to the little settle- ment bringing peltry to barter for European commodi- ties. The little fort of logs and earth was constructed and called Fort Orange, in honor of Maurice, the prince of Orange. ^ Daniel van Krieckebeck was appointed

1 '' Een Fort met 4. punten Orangie ghenaemt opgeworpen en voltopt.'' — Historische verhael. Wassenaer. deel. vii. fol. ii. Doc. his. N. Y. vol. iii. pp. 23.

The principality of Orange was on the east side of the river Rhone, in Southeastern France. Its territory was about twelve miles long and about

THE HISTOEY OF ALBANY. 25

commissary of the post. The Mackerel, having taken on board a cargo of furs, now sailed for Amsterdam, where, in August, she arrived with Director May's official com- munications, and letters from the colonists. ^

The gratifying reports brought from Fort Orange by the Mackerel, were, later in the year, more fully con- firmed by letters and messages carried to Holland by the Meu Nederlandt, which sailed from Fort Orange when ^^the harvest was far advanced," taking as her cargo fifteen hundred beaver and five hundred otter-skins and other things, which, when sold, returned to the West India Company more than twenty-eight thousand guilders. ^

The settlers gave very laudatory accounts of New Netherland. Its agreeable climate, attractive scenery, and wonderful fertility were highly extolled by them. "We were greatly surprised," wrote one, ^^when we arrived in this country. Here we found beautiful rivers, bubbling streams flowing down into the valleys, pools of running water in the meadows, palatable fruits in the forests, strawberries, pigeon-berries, walnuts, and wild grapes. Acorns for feeding hogs are plentiful in the woods, as also is venison, and there are large fish in the

nine wide. From the time of Charlemagne it has successively been in the possession of the houses of Giraud-Adhemar, Baux, Chalon, and Nassau.

1 Catelina Trico, in her deposition, further related : "There were about 18 families aboard who settled themselves att Albany & made a small fort, and as soon as they had built themselves some hutts of Bark : ye Mahikan- ders or River Indians, ye Maquase, Oneydes, Onnondages, Cayougas, & Sinnekes, wth ye Mahawawa or Ottawawawaes Indians came & made Cov- enants of friendship wth ye gd Arien Jorise there Commander Bringing him great Presents of Bever o^" oyf Peltry & desyred that they might come & have a Constant free Trade with them wch was concluded upon & ye sd na- tions come dayly with great multidus of Bever & traded them wth ye Chris- tians."— N. Y. colonial MSS. xxxv. Doc. hist. N. Y. vol. iii. pp. 31, 32.

2 A guilder or florin having the value of twenty stivers was equal to about one shilling and ten pence sterling, or about forty cents of our money.

Historisch verhael. Wassenaer. deel viii. fol. 185. Doc. hist. N. Y. vol. iii. p. 25.

26 THE HISTORY OF ALBANY.

rivers. The land is good for farming. Here is especially the liberty of coming and going without fear of the naked natives of the country. Had we cows, hogs, and other animals fit for food, (which we daily expect in the first ship,) we would not wish to return to Holland, for whatever we desire m the paradise of Holland is found here. If you will come here with your family, you will not regret it." ''This and similar letters," says Baudar- tius, a Dutch scholar, writing in 1624, '*^have roused and stimulated many to resolve to emigrate there with their families in the hope of being able to obtain a handsome livelihood, confidently believing that they will live there in luxury and ease, while here on the contrary they must earn their bread by the sweat of their brows." ^

The pros])erous beginning made by the colonists was regarded by the directors of the West India Company as presaging a still greater success of its colonization schemes. The cheering intelligence also created consider- able comment among the people of the United Provinces respecting the company's future policy in administering the affairs of New Netherland. The prospects of the two colonies on the North and South rivers, ^ as the Hudson and the Delaware were called by the Dutch, are thus ad- verted to by Wassenaer : ''These colonies have already a prosperous beginning, and it is hoped that they will not be neglected but be zealously sustained not only there but at the South River. For their growth and prosperity it is highly necessary that those persons sent out be well provided first of all wdth means of subsistence and de- fense, and as freemen that they be settled there on a free tenure so that all they work for and obtain be theirs to

1 Gedenkwaardige geschiedenissen zo kerkelyke als wereldlyke, door Gulielmus Baudartius. Arnhem, 1624. Doc. hist. N. Y. vol. iv. p. 132.

2 A number of colonists settled at the mouth of the Timmer kill, a creek flowing into the Delaware, a short distance below Camden, New Jersey.

THE HISTORY OF ALBANY. 27

dispose of and sell as they may wish, and that he who is placed over them as a director shall act as their father not as their executioner, leading them with a gentle hand, for whoever rules them as a friend and associate will be beloved by them, for he who orders them as a superior will subvert and nullify every thing, yea, will excite against him the neighboring provinces to which they will fly. ' It is better to rule by love and friend- ship than by force.' " ^

During the fall and winter the colonists cleared other spaces of land for cultivation and built more commodi- ous and comfortable log-houses than the rude huts of bark in which they had first lived. They now had also opportunities to hunt and obtain game. Some also vis- ited the villages of the hospitable Maquaas and Mahi- cans. Many of the bark-houses of the savages were more than a hundred feet long, though seldom wider than twenty feet. To construct one, the Indians began by setting in the ground, in two straight rows, long hickory- poles stripped of their bark, placing the rows as far apart as the intended width of the house. Bending the poles inward they bound them together at their upper ends to form the arch of the roof. They then fastened long, narrow pieces of wood horizontally to these poles ; and for the covering of this frame- work they used the bark of ash, chestnut, birch, and of other trees, peeling it in pieces about six feet wide and as long as they could obtain it. These pieces they attached with withes to the frame- work, putting the smooth side of the bark inward, and leaving an opening about a foot wide at the crown of the roof for the escape of smoke ascending from the fires built along the middle of the house. They lapped the edges of the pieces of bark far enough over each

1 Historische. verhael. Wassenaer. deel vii. fol. ii. Doc. hist. N. Y. vol. iii. p. 24.

28 THE HISTORY OF ALBANY.

other so that the subsequent shrinking of the covering left no openings. These houses were moderately warm in winter. They were often occupied by ten, twelve, and even more families. The members of each family were allotted a particular space in them. " Sometimes more than a hundred persons dwelt in one of these long build- ings.

When fishing or hunting at great distances from their villages, the Wilden usually erected temporary huts of bark or skins. Their fortified or inclosed villages were generally built on steep hills near creeks and rivers, and on sites that were inaccessible except from the water-side. To render their villages defensible, the Wilden surrounded them with a double row of oak- palisades. They first laid several heavy logs closely together for foundation- pieces. On each side of these they planted strong palis- ades, the upper ends crossed and securely held together with withes. They further made the inclosing palisades difficult to be climbed over by placing between the crossed ends the trunks of trees and their branches. Inside these strongholds there were sometimes more than a hundred bark-houses. In less defensible situations the villages of the Wilden were not inclosed. ^

During the fall and winter the colonists had fre- quent opportunities to learn something of the habits of that remarkable rodent, the beaver, which made the site of Fort Orange a famous fur-emporium for several cen- turies. ^ They also observed the novel ways of trapping

1 Beschrijvinge van Nieuw Nederlandt door Adriaen van der Donck. pp. 68-60.

s The dome-shaped lodges of the beaver were found mostly erected on the banks of deep streams, a short distance from the water's edge. The industrious animals in companies of four, two of each sex, began to con- struct their houses about the beginning of September, the work of building continuing through the fall until the ground was frozen. The structures erected by them were about five or six feet high, and the walls from two to

THE HISTORY OF ALBANY. 29

these vigilant and timid animals by the Indians, and the manner in which the diligent hunters cured the peltry for traffic.

While the Mauritius River, in winter, was frozen and the colony at Fort Orange isolated from the visitation of ships from Holland, the directors of the West India Corn- three feet thick, built of the trunks of small trees such as the maple, the birch and the poplar, gnawed in lengths of two or three feet. The inter- stices were filled with sticks and stones, cemented solidly together with clay, so as to be impenetrable to animals of prey. In the floor of each house was a hole for egress and ingress, the opening connected by an underground water-way with the bottom of the stream.

Four old beavers, two males and two females, with their progenies of six or eight young, were found occupying a lodge. These houses were not con- tiguous but were constructed at different distances along the water-courses. The channels of shallow streams the beavers dammed to deepen the water so that it might not freeze to the bottom and prevent their escape from their lodges. The dams were built straight across the stream where the flow of the current was slow, but where it was swift the middle part of the dam was built convex, the centre projecting up the stream.

Full-grown beavers measure from the tips of their noses to the ends of their tails from forty to fifty-five inches, and weigh from thirty to sixty pounds. Their tails are about ten inches long and about five inches broad, shaped like a paddle and covered with black, horny scales. Their senses of smell and hearing are acute but their vision is of small range. Their feet are bare and blackish, with strong, brown nails, and are webbed to the roots of the claws. Their upper and lower jaws have each two large, sharp in- cisor and eight molar teeth.

When beavers build their lodges and dams they usually select trees that are not more than six inches in diameter, the trunks of which they gnaw around with their incisors, cutting spaces about five inches in width. When gnawed through, the ends of the severed wood closely resemble in shape the lower part of a child's top. Beavers generally find their timber near the place of building or up the stream, whence they float it to the selected site of the house or dam. The food of beavers is bark of such trees as the willow, poplar, and alder. The females commonly bear in the month of May, giving birth to two, three or four young. The beaver lives from twelve to fifteen years.

Adriaen van der Donck, who lived at Fort Orange from the year 164 1 to 16-16, and traded for years with the Indians, published in 16.56 the following description of the fur of the beaver and the use made of the pelt: "The beaver's skin is rough, but thickly set with fine fur of an ash-gray color, inclining to blue. The outward points also incline to a russet or brown color. From the fur of the beaver the best hats are made that are worn. They are called beavers or casioreums from the material of which they are made, and they are known at present by this name over all Europe. Out-

30 THE HISTOEY OF ALBANY.

pany took action in certain matters that might contri- bute to the welfare of the settlers and induce other per- sons to emigrate to New Netherland. They at the same time commissioned William Verhulst to succeed Cornells Jacobsen May as resident-director during the year 1625. Having registered the names of forty-five emigrants upon its books^ the company sent them with a consign- ment of agricultural implements and a number of horses and other cattle in the spring to New Netherland.

The news of the continued prosperity of the colonists and of the peaceful relations existing between them and the Indians influenced so many people to emigrate to the Mauritius Eiver that the company determined to plant a colony on the island, where now is the city of New York. In 1626, the company purchased the island from the Indians for sixty guilders. ^ Pieter Minuit, the third

side of the coat of fur many shining hairs appear, called wind-hairs, which are more properly winter-hairs, for they fall out in summer and appear again in winter. The outer coat is of a chestnut-brown color, the browner the color the better is the fur. Sometimes it will be a little reddish.

"When hats are made of the fur, the rough hairs are pulled out, for they are useless. The skins are usually first sent to Russia, where they are highly valued for their outside shining hair, and on this their greatest recommenda^ tion depends with the Russians. The skins are used there for mantle- linings, and are also cut into strips for borders as we cut rabbit-skins. Therefore we call the same peltries. Whoever has there the most and the costliest fur-trimmings is considered a person of very high rank, as with us the finest stuffs, and gold and silver embroidery are regarded as the append- ages of the great. After the hairs have fallen out, or are worn, and the peltries become old and dirty and apparently useless, we get the article back and convert the fur into hats, before which it cannot be well used for this purpose, for unless the beaver has been worn and is greasy and dirty, it will not felt properly ; hence these old peltries are the most valuable. The coats which the Indians make of beaver-skins and which they have worn for a long time around their bodies until the skins have become foul with perspiration and grease are afterward used by the hatters and make the best hats." — Beschrijvinge van Nieuw Nederlandt door Adriaen van der Donck. pp. 82- 89. Vide. Coll. N. Y. Hist. Soc. Second series, vol. i. pp. 190, 191, 194- 19Y, 220-227.

1 Historische verhael. deel xii. fol. 38, 39. Doc. hist. N. Y. vol. iii. pp. 27, 29. Hoi. doc. vol. i. fol. 155.

THE HISTOEY OF ALBANY. 31

resident-director, having arrived on the fourth of May, made the island the seat of the government of New Neth- erland. The south point of the island v^as selected for the site of a fort, the ground-plan of w^hich was staked out by the company's engineer. Thirty bark-cabins were erected by the colonists near the rude fortification. The two comforters of the sick, (kranck-besoeckers,) Sebastian Jansen Crol and Jan Huyck, were the conductors of the religious services of the settlers on Sundays. The new settlement at Fort Amsterdam increased the population of New Netherland to "two hundred souls." ^

A number of the settlers at Fort Orange disliking the isolated and remote situation of the colony at the height of the river's navigation now removed to the lower set- tlement. Shortly afterward they were follow^ed by the other settlers with their families. The removal of the latter was caused by an indiscreet act of the commander of Fort Orange.

The two tribes of Indians, the Maquaas and the Mahi- cans, made war upon each other. The palisaded village of the latter, on the east side of the river, was opposite the fort, and the colonists were the terrified witnesses of the horrors of Indian warfare. Van Krieckebeek, com- manding the small garrison of Fort Orange, having been solicited by the Mahicans or Mohegans to take part with them in an attack upon the Maquaas or Mohawks impru- dently consented. Taking with him six soldiers from the fort he went with a body of Mohegans to meet a party of Mohawks. When they had gone about a mile from the fort they suddenly came upon the Mohawks who repulsed them so valiantly that they were forced to retreat leaving many slain, the Dutch officer and three of his men being among the number. It is related that

1 Historische verhael. deel xii. fol. 38. Doc. hist. N, Y. vol. iii. p. 28.

32 THE HISTORY OF ALBANY.

*' among the latter was Tymen Bouwensen, whom [the Mohawks] devoured, after they had roasted him. The rest they burnt. The commander was buried with the other two by his side. Three escaped ; two Portuguese and a Hollander from Hoorn. One of the Portuguese was wounded by an arrow in the back while swimming. The Indians carried a leg and an arm home to be divided among their families, as a proof that they had conquered their enemies." ^

The horrifying details of this affair caused great con- sternation in the settlement, while the fear of the fort being attacked by the Mohawks in retaliation for Van Kreickebeek's partisanship increased the general feeling of insecurity. The terrified people were no little cheered a few days thereafter by the arrival of Pieter Barentsen, the chief fur trader of the West India Company, whose business it was to go from point to point to collect peltry from the Indians for shipment to Holland. He made it his mission to go at once to the Mohawks and learn at once what feelings of resentment they might have toward the Dutch. They frankly told him that they had never injured the Hollanders and asked why the latter had med- dled with them. Unable to ascertain anything respecting their intentions, Barentsen returned to Fort Orange and assumed the command of the sixteen men composing the garrison. Apprehensive that the revengeful Mo- hawks might be instigated to make a sudden descent upon the little settlement, he had the remaining eight families conveyed to Fort Amsterdam. The only per- sons left at the post were those of the garrison and twen- ty-five fur traders under Sebastiaen Jansen Crol, the new vice-director, {onder directeiir), ^

1 Historische verhael. deel xii. fol. 38. Doc. hist. N. Y. vol. iii. p. 28. 3 Historisch verhael. deel xii. fol. 38 ; deel xvi. fol. 13. Doc. hist. N. Y- vol. iii. p. 28.

THE HISTOEY OF ALBANY. 33

The hostilities between the Mohawks and the Mohe- gans continued through the year 1627. The Mohawks, who were greater in number, at last successfully assault- ed the palisaded village of the Mohegans, and finally, in

1628, drove the few valorous survivors of the tribe to the Connecticut Eiver. ^

The West India Company finding that the coloniza- tion of New Netherland had been attended with consid- erable expense, which added nothing to its revenues, abandoned, in 1629, the undertaking of sending settlers to the Mauritius River with the expectation that its out- lays would in time be returned in profits arising from the exclusive sale of its commodities to the colonists and from the export-duties on grain and other produce which its ships carried to Holland. The directors of the company now agreed to favor another scheme by which it was believed an enriching revenue could be obtained. They decided to divide the country into manors to be granted to proprietary lords, called patroons or patrons of New Netherland. A charter of privileges and exemptions was therefore drafted and reported to the assembly of the nineteen representatives. On the seventh of June,

1629, the body formally approved the new plan for the colonization of New Netherland, which was duly rati- fied by their high mightinesses, the Lords States Gen- eral, s In order to become a patroon it was required by the charter that the person so inclined should first notify the company that he intended to plant a colony in New Netherland, and then, within the space of four years immediately thereafter, settle upon the selected land fifty persons over fifteen years of age. He was permit- ted the choice of such land as he might deem suitable extending four Dutch or twelve English miles along one

1 Historische verhael. deel xvi. fol. 18. Doc. [list. N. Y. vol. iii. p. 30. 3

34 THE HISTOEY OF ALBANY.

side of a navigable river, or two Dutch or six English miles along both sides of it, and so far back into the interior as the situation of the occupiers would admit. The land thus selected was not to be taken possession of until the Indian proprietors had been satisfied with a compensation for it. Each patroon was then to be granted the full possession and enjoyment of the land within the limits of his manor and the right to dispose of it by testament. The chief command and the lower jurisdiction of these estates were given to the patroons, and no person was allowed to fish, hunt, and own mills on them except such persons as the proprietors permitted. The patroons were privileged to sail and traffic along the coast of North America, from Florida to Newfoundland, provided their vessels returned with all the commodities to Fort Amsterdam and paid a duty of five per cent, on them to the agents of the West India Company before shipping them to Holland. Along the cost of New Neth- erland they were allowed to trade with such goods as they wished to dispose of, and to receive in return for them all kinds of merchandise ' ' except beavers, otters, minks, and all sorts of peltry, which trade " the company reserved to itself. Where the company had no fur col- lectors there the patroons were privileged to trade for peltry on the condition that they should pay to the com- pany '^one guilder for each merchantable beaver or otter- skin " obtained by them. The commodities brought from Holland in the company's ships for the colonies of the patroons were to be transported at certain rates ; goods carried by other vessels for them were dutiable to the company. The colonists of the patroons were to be ''free from customs, taxes, excises, imposts, or any other con- tributions for the space of ten years." But they were not "permitted to make any woolens, linen or cotton-

THE HISTORY OF ALBANY. 35

cloth, nor to weave any other stuffs " in the new country ''on pam of being banished, and as perjurers to be arbi- trarily punished."

All judgments given by the courts of the patroons, exceeding the sum of fifty guilders, (about twenty dol- lars) had an appeal to the director and council of New Netherland. A colonist entering the service of a patroon was not permitted to leave it or to engage in that of another unless a consent in writing was first obtained from the patroon having control of the person desiring to make the change. The West India Company promised to do everything in its power to apprehend any colonist breaking his contract of service and to deliver him into the hands of his patroon or of the latter's attorney to be proceeded against according to the laws of the Nether- lands. The patroons were to appoint deputies whose duty it should be to furnish information to the director and council of New Netherland concerning all things relating to their colonies, and at least once in twelve months, to make reports of their condition to the company. The patroons and the colonists were, as soon as it was prac- ticable, to find out ways and means whereby they might support a minister and school-master that the service of God and zeal for religion might not grow cold and be neg- lected. The patroons were also enjoined to procure a com- forter of the sick for the settlers as soon as they planted a colony. The company promised to provide the colonists with as many negroes as it conveniently could on con- ditions thereafter to be made. Such private persons as on their own account or others in the service of masters in Holland, who should be inclined to emigrate to New Netherland, were, with the approbation of the director and council at Fort Amsterdam, privileged to take up as much land as they were able to improve and were granted

3G THE HISTORY OF ALBANY.

the right to enjoy the same in full property either for themselves or their masters. ^

This charter seemingly a brief summary of well-de- fined franchises clearly mirrors the real object contem- plated by the self-interested projectors of the instrument. Its honoring conditions of proprietorship were devised to entice wealthy men to risk capital in a speculative scheme that might be attended with irreparable ] osses. With spe- cious promises of freedom from taxation it was planned to induce poor men to place themselves in bonds of servitude and to submit to the arbitrary laws of rigorous masters. Its prohibitions were the suggestions of ava- rice and its privileges were only granted to those who were deemed able to fulfill all the pledges of tribute which it exacted. It was to subserve the selfish purposes of a greedy monopoly which failed to hide its mercenary fea- tures behind a thin mask of philanthropy. In a distant country removed from public observation and censure this instrument commissioned men to lay anew the foun- dations of feudalism and to fetter human freedom with the shackles of serfdom. The charter was published in 1630, and the pamphlets containing it were widely circu- lated through Holland. ^

1 Historische verhael, deel xviii. fol. 94. Coll. N. Y. Hist. Soc. Second Series, vol. i. pp. 369-37^7.

2 The pamphlet has this title : ' ' Vryheden by de Vergaderinghe van de Negenthiene van de Geoctroyeerde West-Indische Compagnie vejgunt aen alien den ghenen, die eenighe Colonien in Nieuzu Nederlandt sullen planten. In het licht ghegheven. Om bekentre maken 7vat Profijten ende Voordeelen aldaer in Nieu Nederlandt, 7wor de Coloniers ende der selver Patroonen ende Meesters, tnidts- gaders de Participanien, die de Colonien aldaer planten, zijti bekomen. [£n- gramngl. IVest indjett karz sijn Nederlands, groot geivin. Verkley nf szdja^tds Macht brifigt silver-platen in 7~" Amstelredam. Voor Marten yansz Brandt, boeckverkooper, woo n ende by de nieitivekerck, in de Gereformerde Catechisinus. Anno idjo.''

CHAPTER III.

RENSSELAERSWYOK.

1 680-^1641.

Among the first persons to make known to the West India Company their intention to plant colonies in New Netherland was Kiliaen van Rensselaer,^ a wealthy di- rector of the Amsterdam chamber,, who, for many years had been a dealer in diamonds and pearls in that city. - The authority to settle a colony on such land as he should select was formally conferred on him, on the nineteenth of November, 1629.^ He then sent instructions to Sebas- tiaen Jansen Crol, at Fort Orange, to purchase for him a tract of land from the Indians, sufficient in extent for the settlement of a colony. Crol at once made the neces- sary overtures to certain Indians possessing land near the fort. The Indians, on the eighteenth day of April, 1680, conveyed to Van Rensselaer the tract of land called Sanckhagag, on the west side of the river, extending

1 Kiliaen or Kelyaen van Rensselaer was the son of Hendrik and Maria (nee Pafraats) van Rensselaer. His first wife was Hellegonda van Bylet, by whom he had one son, Johannes, who married his cousin, Elizabeth van Twiller. In 1627, Kiliaen van Rensselaer married Anna van Wely, by whom he had eight children: 1. Maria; 2. Jeremias, who married Maria, daughter of Oloff Stevensen van Cortland ; 3. Hellegonda ; 4. Jan Baptiste, who married Suzanna van Wely ; 5. Eleonora ; 6. Suzanna, who married Jan de la Court; 7. Nicolaas, who married Alida Schuyler; and 8. Rykert, who married Anna van Beaumont. MSS. of Rensselaerswyck.

2 Korte historiael door D. David Pietersz de Vries. Hoorn, 1655. fol. 162. •^ MSS. of Rensselaerswyck. Protest of Nicholas Coorn. '

37

38 THE HISTOEY OF ALBANY.

from a point above Beeren Island to a point opposite Smack Island, in breadth ''two days' journey inland." ^

Meanwhile Kiliaen van Eensselaer actively exerted himself to obtain the quota of people which the West India Company required to be settled the first year on the selected land. With practical sagacity he had maps made that attractively represented the lands he had se- lected on the North River for his colony. ^ His judicious advertisements induced a number of persons to accept the proposals he offered them as settlers of his manor, and these set sail, on the twenty -first of March, 1630, from Holland, in the Unity, commanded by Jan Brouwer. '^ Having arrived at Fort Amsterdam on the twenty-fourth of May, the ship ascended the river to Fort Orange, where Commander Crol sent the settlers to the land which he had recently purchased for their occupancy.

The patroon desired another tract of land and empow- ered Gillis Hossett to purchase it. This commission he executed on the twenty-seventh of July, 1631, and ob- tained from the Indians a piece of land extending along the west side of the river, from Fort Orange northward to a point ''a little south of Moenemines castle." ^ At

1 Beeren Island is eleven miles south of Albany and was called by the Dutch Beeren Eylandt, Bears Island ; beer, a bear, beeren, bears. The small bay between it and the west bank of the river was early known as Onwee Ree (Old Harbor). Smack Island is north of Beeren Island.

MSS. of Rensselaerswyck. Book of patents. G. G. p. *.).

3 In the book of accounts of Rensselaerswyck, under the date of Febru- ary 8, 1630, is the following entry in Dutch : "To Gillis van Schendel for one map on parchment, and four ditto on paper, of the islands and other tillable lands, {bouzulanden,) in my colony, to be sent there for their use, (> Rix dollars." — MSS. of Rensselaerswyck.

•^ Among the number of emigrants were Wolfert Gerrittsen, the farm- overseer, (opper-bouwmeester,) Brant Peelen from Nieukerk, a farm-laborer, (bouw-knecht,) Rutger and Seger Heindricksen from Soest. — MSS. of Rens- selaerswvck.

4= '*Monemins Casteel" represented on the map of Rensselaerswyck, was seemingly on Haver Island, between the third and fourth branches of the Mohawk River, south of Waterford.

THE HISTORY OF ALBANY. 39

the same time he purchased the tract called Gesmessert, lying on the east side of the river, opposite Castle Island, extending "from Petanock, the Molen kill, northward to Negagonse, in extent about three [Dutch miles]." ^

In order to advance more rapidly the growth of the colony, Kiliaen van Rensselaer formed a limited partner- ship with Samuel Godyn, Johannes de Laet, and Samuel Blommaert, three influential members of the Amsterdam chamber of the West India Company. ^ To give greater publicity to the advantages to be obtained by persons be- coming colonists of Rensselaerswijk or Rensselaerswyck, ^ new maps of the estate were drafted and other advertise- ments made of the fertility of its farms and the produc- tions of the new country. Not only were the several tracts of land invitingly displayed upon these maps but representations of towns were also delineated on them, bearing the names of the manorial co-partners. Notes containing information concerning game were also in- scribed on these maps. ^

1 MSS. of Rensselaerswyck. Book of patents. G. G. p. 4

- MSS. of Rensselaerswyck. Hoi. doc. vol. v. fol. 298. Albany records. vol. vii. fol. 72, 78. Korte historial. De Vries. p. 162. Coll. N. Y. Hist. Soc. Second series, vol. iii. p. 89.

'■^ IVijk or 7oyck, noun feminine, refuge, parish, ward, district, manor. Anglo-Saxon ivic, a port, village. In all original Dutch words the letters // are used instead of y. In Dutch compound words formed of two nouns either the two remain unchanged, or the first noun takes an s or an e as Renssclaeis-ioyck Rensselaer-manor ; krrkebiirt, crturch-neighborhood.

+ "Opposite Fort Orange, on the south point of De Laet's Island are many birds to be shot, geese, swans, and cranes. Turkeys frequent the woods. Deer and other game are also there ; also wolves but not larger than dogs. On De Laet's Island are many tall and straight trees suitable for making oars. Fat and excellent venison can be obtained in large quanti- ties from the Maquaas, principally in the winter ; three, four, or five hands of wampum for a deer. Deer would be exchanged readily for milk or butter. Deermeat is well suited for smoking and pickling."

" In the fourth kill are pike and all kinds of fish. Here the sturgeon are smaller than at the Manathans [the island on which New York is built.] One can be bought from the Wilden for a knife." P'^tde Map of Renssel- aerswyck.

40 THE HISTOEY OF ALBANY.

The exclusive privilege of the West India Company to trade for peltry with the Indians of New Netherland was, in April, 1633, boldly infringed upon by some Eng- lish merchants of London, who sent a ship to the Hudson River to obtain a cargo of furs. They had taken into their employment Jacob Elkens, who earlier in the cen- tury had command of Fort Nassau on Castle Island. While in the service of the West India Company he had won the confidence and the good- will of all the tribes of the northern territory of New Netherland, and was there- fore well-suited to carry out the instructions of his Eng- lish employers.

The sight of a strange ship, flying the British flag, ap- proaching unannounced the wharf at Fort Orange caused considerable excitement in the little fortification. Eager to know what object had brought the English vessel to the height of the river's navigation, Hans Jorissen Hou- ten, commanding the garrison, sent an oflicer to the English ship to obtain information concerning her pres- ence in this part of New Netherland. When he learned that she had come there to traffic for furs and that her officer claimed that the surrounding territory belonged to Great Britain, he immediately ordered Captain Trevor to depart from the river with his ship, and forbade him to trespass upon the commercial privileges of the incorpo- rated body of Dutch capitalists. ^ As if complying with the command of Captain Houten, the English seaman departed with his ship. However, as soon as he was out of sight of the gazing garrison, he ran his vessel close to the west bank of the river and there cast anchor. Un- der Elkens's superintendence a tent was pitched on the shore and an assortment of English goods was conspicu-

^ The English claim to the territory of New Netherland was based on the discoveries of the Cabots in 1497 and 1498, and on the grant given in 1584 to Sir Walter Raleigh by Queen Elizabeth.

THE HISTOEY OF ALBANY. 41

ously displayed in it. The Mohawks, learning that their old friend Elkens had come again to trade with them repaired in large numbers to the tent, carrying with them their packs of beaver and otter-skins. The fur- traders of the West India Company heard these facts with no little astonishment. Having then no means to eject the invaders, the Dutch traders erected a tent near the one occupied by Elkens and became the eager com- petitors of the zealous factoi^ for the furs of the Indians. To induce the Wilden to barter with them, they loudly disparaged the value of the English goods and trucked their cloths and wares at lower rates. Exasperated by this opposition, Elkens then took advantage of their pres- ence by sending a shallop up and down the river to col lect furs from those Indians who had been intimidated by the Hollanders from visiting his tent. One day the shallop ventured too near Fort Orange, and fell into the hands of Commander Houten. Sticking green boughs about her, he and a number of the soldiers of the garri- son sailed in the captured vessel to the place where the Euglish were trafficking with the Indians. Here he found three vessels and a body of soldiers sent from Fort Amsterdam by Director Van Twiller ^ to seize the £hig- lish vessel. Deaf to the protestations of Elkens, who loudly declared that he had the right to trade on soil be- longing to Great Britain, the Dutch soldiers carried the Enghsh goods on board the British ship and then pulled down the lent of the enraged factor. To add to the dis- grace of the Enghsh, it is said that the elated trumpeter of Fort Orange loudly blew his instrument while the ejectment of the interlopers was in progress. It is fur- ther related that some of the excited Hollanders beat several of the Indians who had come to trade with El-

1 Pieter Minuit sailed for Holland in March, ]6i^2. Wouter van Twiller arrived at Fort Amsterdam in April, 1633.

42 THE HISTORY OF ALBANY.

kens. The English ship was taken to Fort Amsterdam, where she was detained a short time by Director Van Twiller, and then permitted to return to England. When she arrived at London, the English merchants presented to the embassadors from the Netherlands a formal com- plaint of the ill-treatment their agents had received on British territory at the hands of the Dutch, and de- manded the payment of damages for the losses they had sustained. The Dutch government answered these charges by affirming that the English had no right to trade within the limits of New Netherland ; alleging that the river and the adjoining country were discovered by Henry Hudson at the expense of the East India Com- pany in 1^)09, ''before any Christians had been there, as was certified by Hudson;" and that ''the West India Company had commanded, possessed, and cultivated the country from the beginning of its charter, and had car- ried on trade there, without any person having with rea- son questioned " its piivilege ' ' or sought to destroy its trade by force, except some prohibited traders " and Jacob Elkens. Besides giving emphasis to these declarations, it was added that the West India Company ''had suf- fered special loss;" that "the injurious seed of discord had been sown" between the Indians and the Dutch, who previously had lived with each other in friendship ; and that "other serious njischiefs" had resulted from El- kens's visit, such as "the killing ot* men and of cattle." ^

One of the most noticeable consequences of this affair was the special attention given to the welfare of the per- sons employed at Fort Orange to collect furs by the West India Company. Through Director Van Twiller orders were given to Dirck Cornelis Van Wensveen to erect Avithin the fortification '^a handsome large house with a

1 Holland doc. vol. ii. fol. 51-88 ; 140-143, 196.

THE HISTOEY OF ALBANY. 43

flat roof and lattice- work, and eight small dwellings for the people." ^

The extensive territory of Rensselaerswyck had as yet few settlers. ^ Each year, however, increased the num- ber of its inhabitants. Many of these early pioneers, whose patient toil transformed the wilderness of the Up- per Hudson into palisaded fields of waving wheat and wide acres of tasseled maize, dwelt at first in temporary huts, the construction of which is tJms described by a Dutch writer: '^ They dig a square pit in the ground, cellar -fashion, six or seven feet deep, and as long and as wide as they think proper. They case the earth inside with wood all around the wall, and line the wood with the bark of trees or something else to prevent the caving in of the earth. They floor* this cellar with plank and clapboard it overhead for a ceiling, run a roof of spars

1 Albany records, vol. i. fol. 86.

3 In 1630 the following names of persons, residing at Fort Orange and in Rensselaer's manor are recorded in the books of monthly wages and the manuscripts of Rensselaerswyck : Wolfert Gerritsen, Rutger Hendricksen van Soest, Seger Hendricksen van Soest, Brandt Peelen van Nieukerke, Simon Dircksen Pos, Jan Tyssen, Andries Carstenssen, Laurens Lau- renssen, Barent Tomassen, Arendt van Curler, Jacob Jansen Stol, Martin Gerrittsen van Bergen, Claes Arissen, Roeloff Jansen van Maesterlandt, Claes Claessen, Jacques Spierinck, Jacob Govertsen, Raynert Harmensen, Bastiaen Jansen Krol, Albert Andriessen Bradt.

In 1631 : Maryn Adriaensen van Veere, Thomas Witsent, Gerrit Teu- nissen de Reus, Cornells Teunissen van Westbroek, Cornelis Teunissen van Breukelen, Johan Tiers, Jasper Ferlyn, Gerrit Willem Oasterum, Cor nelis Maessen van Buren Maassen, Cornelis Teunissen Bos.

In 1634: Jan Labbadie, Robert Hendricksen, Adriaen Gerritsen, Lu- bert Gysbertsen, Jan Jacobsen, Jacob Albertzen Planck, Joris Houten, Jan Jansen Dam.

In 1635 : Jan Terssen van Franiker, Juriaen Bylvelt, Jan Cornelissen, Johannes Verbeeck.

In 1636 : Barent Pieterse Koyemans, Pieter Cornelissen van Munnich- endam, Dirck Jansen van Edam, Mauritz Janssen, Arent Andriessen van Frederickstad, Michel Jansen, Jacob Jansen van Amsterdam, Simon Wal- ings van der Belt, Gysbert Claessen van Amsterdam, Hans Zevenhuyzen, Cristen Cristysscn Noorman van Vlecburg, Adriaen Hubertsen, Rynier Ty- manssen van P^dam, Tys Barentsen Schoonmaker van Edam, Tomas Jan- sen van Bunick, Cornelis Tomassen, Arent Steveniersen, Johan Latyn van

44 THE HISTORY OF ALBANY.

clear up and covei' the spars with bark or green sods so that they can hve dry and warm in these hoiises with their famihes for two, three, and four years. '-" '^ '" ''" The wealthy and principal men in New England in the beginning of the colonies constructed their first dwelling houses in this fashion for two reasons. First, in order not to w^aste time in building and not to stand in want of food the next season ; second, in order not to discour- age the poorer laboring people whom they brought oyer in numbers from Fatherland. In the course of three or four years, when the country became more cultivated^ they built themselves handsome houses, spending on them several thousand dollars.'' ^

Verduym, Claes Jansen van Nykerk, Rutger Jacobsen van Schoenderwoerdt Ryckert Rutgersen.

In 1637 : Jan Michaelsen van Edam, Pieter Nicolaussen van Nordinge, Teunis Cornelissen van Vechten, Burger Joris, Jan Ryersen, Abraham Stevensen, Cornells Teunlssen van Merkerk, Goosen Gerrltsen van Schalck, Willem Juriaensen Bakker.

In 1688 : Jan Dircksen van Amersfoort, Gerrit Hendrlcksen, Wybrant Pletersen, WlUem Meynten, Cornells Leendertsen, Francis AUertsen, Mar- tin Hendrlcksen van Hamelwaard, Roeloff Cornelissen van Houten, Adrl- aen Berghoorn, Volckert Jansen, Hendrlck Fredrlcksen, Jacob Jansen Nos- trandt, Chrlstoffel Davits, Claes Jansen Ruyter, Jacob Plodder, Gysbert Adriensen van Bunick, Teunis Dircksen van Vechten.

In 1639 : Jacob Adriaensen van Utrecht, Ryer Stoffelsen, Cryn Corne- lissen, Adam Roelantsen van Hamelwaard, Sander Leendertsen Glen, Pieter Jacobsen, Johan Poog, Gilles Barentsen, Cornells Spiernick, Claes Jansen van Breda, Claes Tyssen.

In 1640: Nys Jacobsen, Jannitje Teunlssen, Jan Teunlssen, Teunis Jacobsen van Schoenderwordt, Andrles Hubertsen Constapel van der Blaes, Andries de Vos, Adrlaen Teunlssen van der Belt, Jan Creynen, Jan Jansen van Rotterdam, Jacob Jansen van Campen, Cornells Kryne van Houtten, Jan Cornelissen van Houten, Claes Gerrltsen.

In 1641 . Adriaen van der Donck, Cornells Antonlssen van Slyck, Claes Gysbertsen, Wolfertsen, Teunis de Metselaer, Joris Borrelingen, Claes Jan- sen van Ruth, Cornells Cornelissen van Schoonderwoerdt. — MSS. of Rens- selaerswyck.

The Dutch preposition van means of, from, or by ; van Frederickstad /. <?., of or from Frederickstad.

1 Information relative to taking up land in New Netherland. By Cornells van Tlenhoven. 1650. Hoi. doc. vol. v. fol. 145, 146. Doc. hist. N. Y. vol. iv. p. 31.

THE HISTORY (3F ALBANY. 45

The first farm placed under cultivation by the patroon in 1630 was in charge of Wolfert Gerrittsen, the prin- cipal farm-master {opper-boiiwmeester), who was paid twenty guilders or eight dollars a month for his service besides his board. A farm-hand {bouw-knecht\ re- ceived from twenty-five to one hundred and twenty guilders or from ten to forty-eight dollars a year as wages in addition to his board. Colonists without capital, be- fore leaving Holland, were often furnished by the patroon with clothing and money, for which they were to pay him thereafter a stipulated quantity of produce or a cer- tain sum of money or a specified length of wampum. The first settlers erected on the land assigned them temporary huts, in which they dwelt until the houses built at the expense of the patroon were ready for occupation. The latter stocked these farms with horses and other cattle, and also provided his tenantry with agricultural imple- ments. A farm and its buildings were sometimes leased at an annual rent of three hundred guilders, (about one hundred and twenty dollars,) sometimes for five hundred guilders, (about two hundred dollars,) payable in mer- chantable beaver-skins, produce, money or zeewan. The lessees were required to give annually to the patroon the tenths of all the grain, fruit, and other productions of the cultivated land, and also one-half of the increase of the cattle. It was often stipulated that lessees were to per- form each year for the patroon certain kinds of labor, as cutting in the forests a number of pieces of wood and conveying them to the bank of the riv^er, and to give him one or more days' service with their horses and wagons. Several bushels of wheat, a number of pounds of butter, and a few fat fowls for a quit-rent were also commonly demanded of the colonists renting farms. When settlers erected farm-buildings at their own expense, these fre-

46 THE HISTORY OF ALBANY.

quently reverted to the patroon in lieu of rent. The lessees were bound under oath not to lodge any unlicensed traders in their houses nor to receive their goods on pain of forfeiting all the rights granted by the patroon. When any question arose between lessees, the matter in dispute was to be submitted to the court of the manor without any appeal or further complaint respecting the decision rendered. Lessees were to submit themselves as faithful subjects to all the regulations, orders, and conditions made by the patroon and to those thereafter made by him. The patroon had the right of purchasing before all other persons the grain and cattle of his tenants and also other property belonging to them. When a colonist died intestate, his property in the wyck reverted to the pat- roon. The settlers were required to take their grain to the patroon's mill to be ground, which he was to keep in repair for their accommodation.

The president and council of Eensselaerswyck were empowered to execute the laws of the civil code, to en- force the enactments of the Lords States General, the ordinances of the West India Company and of the di- rector and council of New Netherland, and the rules and regulations of the manor. Two magistrates or justices {gerechts-persoonen)^ and the commissary -general formed the court of the manor. The other officers were the sheriff {schout), and a hangman {scherprechter). ^

In order to possess an extent of land on the east side of the river equal to that which he had purchased on the west side, the patroon instructed Jacob Albertzsen Planck^ the first sheriff of Eensselaerswyck, to buy from the In- dians the tract called Papsickenekas, extending south- ward from a point opposite Castle Island to a point opposite Smack Island. This additional land^ pur-

1 MSS. of Rensselaerswyck.

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THE HISTORY OF ALBANY. 47

chased on the thirtieth of April, 1H37, made Kihaeii van Rensselaer and his co-partners the patroons of a manor about twenty-one miles long and forty-six wide, containing more than six hundred thousand acres of land, at present included within the limits of the counties of Albany and Rensselaer.^

No people of the nations of Europe were more ac- quisitive than those of Holland. To obtain soil for culti- vation they took from the sea the low land of their once inundated country and inclosed it with massive barriers of sand and stone. With marts and manufactures they drew to the ports of the United Prov^inces the merchant- men of Europe. Their monopolies vexed the neighboring nations. They sailed all seas in quest of wealth. They received usury from royal borrowers. To get property and to increase their possessions was the quickening thought that animated the energies of the diligent in- habitants of Holland. This love of gain prompted the patroons of New Netherland to claim the right to trade for furs within the limits of their manors. Forthwith the West India Company filed a protest with the Lords States General calling the government's attention to the fact that the charter of privileges and exemptions of 1 029 expressly reserved the traffic in all kinds of peltry to the corporation. The sp€^.cial immunity of the West India Company being ignored by the patroons, the colo- nists in turn began to trade clandestinely with the Indians and afterward openly. When William Kieft succeeded Wouter van T wilier as director of the com- pany's affairs, in 1638, the agents of the patroons and the colonists were actively competing with one another in the lucrative fur trade. ^

1 Willem Kieft arrived at Fort Amsterdam, March 28, 1G38.

2 Book of patents. GG. pp. 13-16; 24-26. MSS. of Rensselaerswyck. Map of Rensselaer's manor, 1767.

48 THE HISTORY OF ALBANY.

In April, 1639, the Dutch navigator, David Pietersen de Vries, visited Fort Orange. The short account of his sojourn on Castle Island with Brandt Peelan, although marred by an unwarranted reflection respecting the patroon and his co-partners, furnishes several note- worthy incidents belonging to the early history of Rensselaerswyck. He says : ''On the twenty- eighth we arrived at Beeren Island, where many Indians were fishing. '' - - ''' In the evening we reached Brand- pylen's Island, that lies a little below Fort Orange and belongs to the patroons, Godyn, Ronselaer, Jan de Laet, and Bloemart, who had also more farms there which they had put in good condition at the company's cost, for the company had sent cattle from Fatherland at great expense, and these mdividuals, being the commis- sioners of New Netherland, had made a good distribution 1 of them] among themselves, and while the company had nothing but afi empty fort, they had the farms and trade ai'ound it, and each farmer was a trader. ''' ^ ^^ *''*

' ' While I was at Fort Orange, on the thirtieth of April, there was such a high flood at the island on which Brand-pylen lived, who was my host at this time, that we were compelled to leave it and to go with boats into the house where there were four feet of water. This freshet continued three days before we could use the dwelling again. The water ran into the fort, and we were obliged to repair to the woods, where we erected tents and kindled large tires." ^

Several appeals made to the Lords States Greneral to decide the matters in dispute between the West India Company and the patroons obtained, in 1640, the ap- proval of a new charter of privileges and exemptions.

1 Korte historiael. fol. 152. Coll. N. Y. Hist. Soc. Second series, vol. iii. pp. 89-91.

THE HISTOEY OF ALBANY. 49

Among the articles of this instrument was the provision allowing all patroons, free colonists, and inhabitants of New Netherland the privilege of selling goods brought from Holland by the payment of a duty of ten per cent, on their first cost to the West India Company. Another provision permitted the inhabitants to trade for peltries, but an export duty of ten per cent, in cash was required to be paid to the director and council of New Netherland upon all furs sent to Holland. Persons shipping com- modities from New Netherland were first obliged to pro- cure a permit and then to bind themselves to send them to the company's stores in Holland. The prohibition on the manufacture of woolen, linen and cotton cloth in the new country was removed. Whoever should convey a colony of five adult persons to New Netherland was en- titled to receive a tract of two hundred acres of land, with the privilege of hunting and fishing in the public forests and streams. " No other relig:ion was to be pub- licly tolerated or allowed in New Netherland except that which was then taught and made a rule of practice by authority in the Eeformed Church in the United Prov- inces." The company renewed its pledge to provide the colonists ''with as many negroes as possible." The juris- diction of the patroons was not abridged. An appeal from the manor-courts could be made to the director and council of New Netherland when the amount in dispute exceeded the sum of forty dollars, and from all judgments in criminal cases as in the Netherlands.^

The liberty of trafficking for furs was soon abused by the settlers. Some thinking that an opportunity was now afforded them to make their fortunes personally frequented the Indian villages and trucked for peltry. Others invited the Indians to their houses, admitted them

1 Hoi. doc. vol. ii. fol. 234, 235, 239-262. 4

50 THE HISTORY OF ALBANY.

to their tables, placed napkins before them, gave them wine, and bestowed upon them the most obsequious at- tentions, which, it is said, the Indians, in time, looked upon ''as their due and desert," and that when these civilities were not paid them they manifested great dis- pleasure. Some of the colonists of Rensselaerswyck, perceiving that the Mohawks wanted guns and were will- ing to pay twenty beavers for each piece, and as much as twelve guilders for a pound of powder, sold fire-arms and ammunition to them, from which large profits were real- ized. These private transactions were soon known to the traders coming from Holland to the height of the river's navigation, and they from time to time brought from the Netherlands guns, powder, and lead which they traded for peltry with the Mohawks. The four hundred war- riors of this tribe soon became expert in the use of these death-dealing weapons, achieving ' ' many profitable for- ays " in Canada, and making ' ' the surrounding Indians, even as far as the sea-coast," to whom previously the Mo- hawks had in like manner been subject, pay them tribute. The Indians whom the Mohawks had humbled into sub- mission now became eager to possess guns and ammuni- tion in order to release themselves from the degrading domination of the latter. Death being the published penalty for furnishing the Indians with fire-arms, the settlers of the lower colony, at Fort Amsterdam, could not be induced to provide the importuning Wilden with the desired weapons. The refusal of their daily requests affronted the Indians of this part of New Netherland, who called the colonists " materiooty,^^ (cowards,) and saying that the Dutch might '' be of some importance on water but were of no account on land," that as a people they "had neither a great sachem nor any chiefs." ^

1 Journael van Nieu Nederlant. Doc. hist. N. Y. vol. iv. pp. 7, 8.

THE HISTORY OF ALBANY. 51

Wampum, the shell-money of the Indians, was now counterfeited by some avaricious Hollanders, whose "ill- made, rough zeewan " lessened the circulation of the more valuable article made by the Wilden. The Indians made it by shaping small pieces of the shells of such testaceous fishes as the periwinkle, cockle and mussel into cylindrical beads, about a quarter of an inch long, perforated lengthwise like a pipe- stem. These were strung on strings and woven together into strips, some as broad as a man's hand and of different lengths. As money, the black or dark-purple beads were rated at double the value of the white ones. Not only was wam- pum used as money by the Indians, l3ut they also highly prized it as a decoration, wearing it around their necks and arms, and attaching it to their clothing. They also gave it as a pledge for the fulfillment of their compacts and as a significant token of their good-will, when about to engage in conferences of any special importance. For a long time four beads of Indian wampum had the cur- rent value of a stiver (about two cents) in New Nether- land. The baser zeewan made by the Dutch threatening 'Hhe ruin of the country," a law was enacted by the director-general and council of New Netherland, by v/hich six of the inferior beads were declared the equivalent of a stiver. ^

Arendt van Curler, who, in 1630, had been appointed assistant commissary of Rensselaerswyck, was now commissary-general of the manor. In the fall of 1641 Adriaen van der Donck, a graduate of the university of Leyden, Holland, assumed the duties of the sellout -flscaal or attorney -general of the colony. This officer, before sailing to New Netherland, was instructed by Kiliaen van Eensselaer to prosecute a number of farmers on his

lAlbany records, vol. ii. fol. 108-111, 118-119. Hoi. doc. vol. v. fol. ;i60.

52 THE HISTORY OF ALBANY.

manor who were hiring laborers not in the service of the patroon, which transactions the latter declared tended greatly to his injury, "to the downfall of the colony, the transgression of his ordinances," and were ''directly con- trary to their promises and sealed contracts." These of- fenders and other transgressors were to be brought by the attorney-general before the officers of the patroon, and action was to be taken against them, in order that they might be punished " by penalties and fines, conformably to law." 1

1 MSB. of Rensselaerswyck.

CHAPTEE IV

THE KERKEBUURTJ

1642-1651.

Kiliaeii van Eensselaer was peculiarly qualified for the duties of his patroonship. He was self-reliant and practical, wealthy and ambitious. E[is plans for the set- tlement of his colony and his measures for the welfare of his people evince the sound judgment and the executive ability which gave his acts no little prominence in the history of New Netherland. He built comfortable houses and ample barns for his tenants ; provided them with agricultural implements and live-stock ; erected saw and grist-mills at convenient places on the larger water-cour- ses of the manor ; and supplied his store with suitable goods to meet the common wants of the colonists.

The number of inhabitants of Rensselaerswyck had become so large in 164-2 that the patroon willingly com- plied with the requirements of the West India Company to secure for the settlers the sei'vices of a clei'gyman of the Reformed Church. He requested the classis of Am- sterdam to provide the people of the manor with a "good, honest, and pure preacher." The Reverend Doctor Joan- nes Megapolensis, junior, the pastor (jf the congregation of Schorel and Berg, belonging to the classis of Alkmaar, was selected. This clergyman formally accepted his call

1 From keik, church, and buurt^ neighborhood.

5-^

54 THE HISTORY OF ALBANY.

to the .new field of pastoral labor, on the sixth of March, 1642. ^ One of its conditions was that he was to serve the patroon six years and to receive an annual salary of one thousand guilders, (four hundred dollars,) the first three years, so that he and his family should be ''able to maintain themselves honorably and not be necessitated to have recourse to any other means, either farming, trading, cattle-rearing or such like, except the diligent performance of his duties for the edification of the in- habitants and Indians.'- This salary was to be paid in ''meat, drink, and whatever he might claim," one-half in Holland, the other in New Netherland, at the current prices. He was also to receive a yearly donation of thirty schepels ( twenty -two and a half bushels ) of wheat, and two firkins of butter, or sixty guilders. If his services should be satisfactory to the patroon, it was further stip- ulated that the latter was to give him annually, for the last three years, two hundred guilders additional salary. The patroon besides giving the clergyman a present of three hundred guilders before he embarked for New Netherland, also agreed that he and his family should not be at any expense for food while making the voyage, and that his salary should begin on the day of his arrival at Fort Orange. 2 On the twenty-second of March, the classis of Amsterdam duly accredited him "to preach God's word in the colony " of Eensselaerswyck, ''in con-

1 The acceptance of the call was attested, in Amsterdam, by Adam Bessels, a co-partner of the patroon, the Rev. jacobus Laurentius and Petrus Vvittewrongel, ministers of the Reformed Church.

2 In the agreement it is stated that the Rev. Dr. Megapolensis was thirty-nine years old, that his wife, Machtelt, was forty-two years of age, that their children, Hellegond, Dirrick, Jan, and Samuel, were respectively, aged fourteen, twelve, ten, and eight years. The clergyman was the son of the Rev. Joannes Megapolensis, pastor of the church at Coedyck, Holland, and ot Hellegond Jansen. He married his cousin, Machtelt Willemsen, daughter of Willem Steengs, or Heengs. — Albany records, vol. v. fol. 323, 339. MSS. of Rensselaerswyck.

THE HISTORY OF ALBANY. 55

formity with the government, confession and catechism of the Netherland churches and the synodal acts of Dord- recht." The Amsterdam chamber of the West India Company demanded that the credentials of the Reverend Doctor Megapolensis should be submitted to it for approv- al, claiming that the commiission granted him by the classis of Amfjfterdam was not valid without its attesta- tion and sanction. This prerogative Kiliaen van Ren- sselaer was unwilhng to concede to the company. How- ever, as the vessel to convey the clergyman and his family to New Netherland was ready to sail, the patroon waived his objections to the company's approval of the document in a written protest. Having formally ex- amined the paper, the directors of the Amsterdam cham- ber gave it their indorsement on the sixth of June.

The ship, De Hotittuyu, then sailed for New Nether- land, having as her passengers, the clergyman and his family, Abraham Staes, surgeon, Evert Pels, brewer, and his wife, Hendrick Albertsen and his wife, and four- teen other emigrants. ^ These colonists arrived at Fort Orange on the thirteenth of August. Arendt van Curler as instructed by the patroon, provided the minister and his family with lodging and boarding until he could build a suitable house for them. Fearing that the colonists of his manor, living, as they did, at wide intervals from one another, might, at some time, fall victims to savage treachery and revenge, as had been the lot of some of the settlers near Fort Amsterdam, the patroon determined to have them dwell in the neighborhood of the church, which he intended to build near the walls of Fort Orange. He therefore made a small map of the proposed church- vicinage, designating the place for the site of the church,

I Among these were Cornelis Lamberssen, Jochim Ketlelhuer, Johan Helms, Johan Carsterssen, Jeuriach Bestvaell, Claes Jansen, Paulus Jansen Hans Vos, and jurien van Sleswyck. — MSS. of Rensselaerswvck.

56 THE HISTORY OF ALBANY.

the parsonage, the manor-house and the dweUings of the traders and mechanics. This plan he showed to Abraham Staes and Evert Pels before they sailed from Amsterdam, who promised to build their houses on the sites designated by the patroon. The ferry established between the east and west banks of the river was given in charge of Hendrick Albertsen, who built a ferry-house on the north side of the Bever kill, ^ flowing into the Hudson, where now is the eastern terminus of Arch Street. The patroon's directions respecting these matters were conveyed to Commissary Van Curler in memoranda given to the Rev. Dr. Megapolensis, on the third of June. Hendrick Albertsen, the patroon writes, ' ' has been treating with me for the place of ferryman, fixing his dwelling by the Bever kill, in order to convey the people to the church- neighborhood and back again from it. As the church, the minister's house, that of the officer, and also all those of the trades-people must hereafter be established there, as Abraham Staes and Evert Pels, the brewer, have undertaken, I am entirely willing, and consent that, with the exception of the farmers and tobacco- planters, who must reside on their farms and plantations, no tradesmen, henceforth and after the expiration of their service, shall establish themselves elsewhere than in the church-neighborhood in the order and according to the plan of building sent herewith ; for every one residing where he thinks fit, separated far from the others, would be unfortunately in danger of their lives, in the same manner, as sorrowful experience has taught around the Manhattans. Concerning these matters the commissary, Arendt van Curler, shall give notice to all persons, being called together, so that they may regulate themselves accordingly."

1 The Bever kill was early called the First kill. The stream is now known as Buttermilk creek.

THE HISTORY OF ALBANY. 57

The patroon's commissary, in obedience to the in- structions given him, contracted '^for the building of a house for Domine Megapolensis which should be ready precisely at Christmas." The contractors, however, were dilatory, and it was not until November that they were ready to begin building. Then Van Curler thinking that it would be unwise to permit the work to proceed so late in the season, and '"that the house would cause great expense in meat and drink, and the work not be ad- vanced," broke the contract. Fortunately, at this time Maryn Adriaensen van Veere offered to sell to the disap- pointed commissary a newly-built ''house of oak-wood, all ready, cross casings, door casings, all of oak." The domine was consulted, who, after examining the build- ing, concluded that it was better adapted to his wants than the one to be erected for him. Thereupon Van Curler purchased it for three hundred and fifty guilders, or ony hundred and forty dollars. ^

In order to preach to the Indians Domine Megapolen- sis began to study their peculiar language. In his short sketch of the Mohawk Indians, written in 1644, he tells of the many perplexities which embarrassed him in ac- quiring a knowledge of the Mohawk tongue.^ He calls the Mohawks, Mahakinbas and Mahakuaas, or as they denominated themselves, Kajingahciga. The Mohegans he calls Mahakans, or as they were designated in the In- dian language, Agotzagena. ' ' The Mohawks are divided

1 MSS. of Rensselaerwyck,

2 Korte ontwerp van de Mahakuase Indianen in Nieuw Nederlandt, haer landt, stature, dracht, manieren, en magistraten ; beschreven in 't jaer 1644 ; door Johannem Megapolensem, juniorem, predikant aldaer. Amster- dam. Bij Joost Hartgers, bookverkooper op den dam. Anno 1651.

A short sketch of the Mohawk Indians in New Netherland, their land, stature, dress, manners and magistrates, written in the year 1644, by Johan- nes Megapolensis, junior, minister there. Amsterdam. By Joost Hartgers bookseller, at the dam. Year 1651. Vide Coll. N. Y. Hist. Soc. Second series, vol. viii. pp. 137-160.

58 THE HISTORY OF ALBANY.

into three tribes, called Ochkari, Anaware, Oknaho, the bear, the tortoise, and the wolf. Of these, the tortoise is the greatest and most eminent, and the members of it boast that they are the oldest. ^' ^' "- These have made a fort of palisades, and they call their castle Asserue. ^ Those of the bear tribe are next to these, and their castle is called by them Banagiro. The last are the descendants of these, and their castle is called Thenon-

1 *'The Maquaes have four touns, vizt Cahaniaga, Canagora, Cona-

jorha, Tionondogue, besides one small village about IJO miles from Albany.

" Cahaniaga is double stockadoed round, has four ports, about four foott

wide a piece, conteyns about 24 houses, & is situate upon the edge of an

Hill, about a bow shott from the river side.

"Canagora is only singly stockadoed, has four ports like the former, conteyns about 16 houses ; itt is situated upon a fflatt, a stones throw from ye water side.

" Conajorha is also singly stockadoed, and ye like manr of Ports and quantity of houses as Canagora, ye like situacon, only about two miles distant from the water.

"Tionondogue is double stockadoed round, has four Ports, four foott wide, a piece, contains about thirty houses, is scituated on a hill a Bow shott from ye River.

"The small village is withoutt ffence, & conteyns about ten houses, lyes close by ye river side, on ye north side, as do all ye former.

"The Maques passe in all for aboutt 300 fighting men. ^ * *

" The Onyades have butt one towne, which lys aboutt 180 miles westward of ye Maques, itt is situate aboutt 20 miles from a small river which comes out of ye hills to ye southward and runs into the Lake Teshirogue [Oneida Lake,] and aboutt 30 miles distant from the Maques river, which lyes to ye northward ; the towne is newly settled, double stockadoed. "^ "'^ ^' The towne consists of aboutt 100 houses, they are said to have aboutt 200 fighting men. ^- * *

"The Onondagos have but one towne butt itt is very large consisting of about 140 houses, nott fenced, is situate upon a hill thatt is very large, the Banke on each side extending itt selfe att least two miles. ^ ^ ^ They have likewise a small village about two miles beyound thatt, consisting of about 24 houses. They ly to the Southward of ye west, about 86 miles from the Onyades. *-?«•* The Onondagos are said to be about 350 fighting men. * * *

" The Caiougas have three townes about a mile distant from each other, they are not stockadoed, they doe in all consist of about 100 houses, they ly about 60 miles to the Southward of ye Onondagos. * ^ * They passe for about 300 fighting men. * -^ ^

"The Senecques have four towns, vizt Canagora, Tiotohatton, Canoen- ada and Keint-he ; Canagaroh and Tiotohatton lye within 30 miles of ye lake

THE HISTORY OF ALBANY. 59

diogo. Each of these tribes carries the animal after which it is called (as its ensign) when it goes to war. ^ ^ * -«• "These two nations [the Mohawks and the Mohegans] have different languages that have no affinity with each other, as the Dutch and the Latin. These people formerly carried on a great war against each other, but since the Mahakanders were subdued by the Mahakobaas, a peace has existed between them, and the conquered are obliged to bring an annual contribution to the other. We live auiong the people of each tribe of these Indians, who, coming to us from their country or we going to them, manifest by many acts a great friendship for us. The principal nation of all the savages and Indians in this neighborhood with which we are acquainted, are the Mahakuaas, who have laid all the other Indians near us under contribution. This nation has a very heavy lan- guage, and I find great difficulty in learning it so as to

flrontenacque [Lake Ontario,] and ye other two ly about four or five miles apiece to ye southward of these. « * * None of their towns are stockadoed.

'* Canagorah lyes on the top of a great hill. * * * Contayning 150 houses ; Northwestward of Caiougo 72 miles. * * -5^ Tiotehatton which signifies bending, itt lyes to Westward of Canagorah about 30 miles, con- tains about 120 houses. * "^ "^

" Canoenda lyes about four miles to ye Southward of Canagorah, con- teys about 80 houses. '^ '^ * Keint-he lyes aboutt four or five miles to ye Southward of Tiotehatton, contayns about 24 houses. * * * "Yhe Senecques are counted to bee in all aboutt 1<»00 fighting men." — Observations of Wentworth Greenhalgh in a Journey from Albany to ye Indyans west- ward ; Begun May 28th, Km 7, and ended July ye 14th following. London doc. iii. Doc. colonial hist. N. Y. vol. iii. p. 20.

1 Each tribe has, in the gable end of its cabin, the animal of the tribe painted ; some in black, others in red. * ^ *

" When they go to war and wish to inform those of the party who may pass their path they make a representation of the animal of their tribe, with a hatchet in his dexter paw ; sometimes a sabre or a club ; and if there be a number of tribes together in the same party, each draws the animal of his tribe, and the number representing the tribe's party all on a tree from which the bark has been removed. The animal of the tribe heading the expedition is always the foremost." — The nine Iroquois tribes. 1666. Paris doc. i. Doc. hist. N. Y. vol. i. pp. 11, 12.

60 THE HISrORY OF ALBANY.

speak and preach to thern fluently. There is no Chris- tian here who understands the language thoroughly ; those who have lived here long can hold a kind of con versation just sufficient to carry on trade with them, but they do not understand the idiom of the language. I am making a vocabulary of the Mahakuaa language, and when I am among them I ask them how things are called; but as they are very stupid, I sometimes cannot get an explanation of what I want. Besides what I have just mentioned, one will tell me a word in the infinitive mood, another in the indicative ; one in the first, another in the second person ; one in the present, another in the praeter perfect tense. I often stand and look but do not know how to put it down. And as they have their declensions and conjugations, so they have their augments like the Greeks. Thus I am as if I were distracted, and fre quently cannot tell what to do, and there is no person to set me right. I must do all the studying myself in order to become in time an Indian grammarian. When I first observed that they pronounced their words so diff'erently, I asked the commissary of the company what it meant. ^ He answered that he did not know, but imagined they changed their language every two or three years. I told him in reply that it could not be that a whole nation should so frequently change its language ; and, though he has been associated with them here these twenty years he can afford me no assistance. ^' '^ ^ '•

''We go with them into the woods, we meet with each other, sometimes at an hour or two's walk from any houses, and think no more about it than if we met with a Christian. They sleep by us, too, in our chambers, before our beds. I have had eight at once, who lay and slept upon the floor, near my bed ; for it is their custom to

1 Sebastian Jansen Crol.

THE HISTOEY OF ALBANY. 61

sleep only on the bare ground, and to have only a stone or a piece of wood under their heads. In the evening they go to bed very soon after they have supped ; but they rise early in the morning, and are up before day begins to break. They are very slovenly and dirty. They do not wash their faces or hands, but let all kinds of filth remain upon their yellow skui, and look as dirty as hogs. Their bread is Indian corn beaten into pieces between two stones, of which they make a cake, and bake it in the ashes. Their other victuals are venison, turkeys, hares, bears, wild cats, their own dogs and other things. The fish they cook just as they get them out of the water without cleaning them ; also the entrails of deer, with all their contents, v^hich they cook a little ; and if the entrails are then too tough, they take one end in their mouth and the other in their hand, and between hand and mouth they separate and eat them. So they do commonly with flesh. They cut a little piece and lay it on the fire so long as it takes one to go from house to church, and then it is done ; and when they eat it, the blood runs down their chins. They can also take a piece of bear's fat as large as two fists, and eat it with- out bread or any thing else. It is natural to them to have no beards. Not one in a hundred has any hair about his mouth.

''They paint their faces red, blue and other colors, and then they look like the devil himself. They smear their heads with bear's grease, which they all carry with them for this purpose in a small basket. They say they do it to make their hair grow better and prevent their having lice. When they travel they take with them some of their maize, a kettle, a wooden bowl, and a spoon. These they pack and hang on their backs. When- ever they are hungry, they immediately make a fire and

62 THE HISTOEY OF ALBANY.

cook. They can get fire by rubbing pieces of wood together one against the other, and that very quickly.

''They have their set times for going to catch fish, bears, panthers, and beavers. In the spring they catch vast quantities of shad and eels, which are very large here. They lay them on the bark of trees in the sun, and dry them thoroughly until they are hard, and then put them in notasten or bags, which they plait from hemp, which grows wild here, and keep the fish till winter. When their corn is ripe, they take off the ears and put them in deep pits, and preserve them the whole winter. They can also make nets and seines in their fashion ; and when they want to fish with seines, ten or twelve men will go together and help one another, all of whom own the seine in common. '-" '^ ^ '^

''They generally live without marriage, but if any of them have wives, the marriage continues no longer than they think proper, and then they separate and each takes another partner. I have seen those that had parted, and afterward lived a long time with others, seek their former partners and again be one pair. On the birth of a child, the women go about immediately afterward, and be it ever so cold it makes no difference, they wash themselves and the infant in the river or the snow. They will not he down (for they say that if they did they should soon die), but keep going about. ^ ^* ^'' The men have great authority over their wives, so that if they do any thing which affronts them and makes them angry, they take an axe and knock them in the head, and there is an end of it. The women are obliged to prepare the land, to mow, to plant and do everything. The men do nothing except hunt, fish, and go to war against their enemies. They are very cruel toward their enemies in time of war. They first bite off the nails of the fingers of their cap-

THE HISTOEY OF ALBANY. 63

tives, and cut off some joints, and sometimes all the fin- gers. The captives are afterward forced to sing and dance before them stark naked ; and finally, they roast their prisoners dead before a slow fire for some days, and then eat them. The common people eat the arms, the rump and trunk, but the chiefs eat the head and heart. '^ * '^

''They have also naturally a great opinion of them- selves. They say, ' / hy Othkon ' — (I am the devil), by which they mean that they are unequalled. In order to praise themselves and theif people, whenever we tell them they are very expert at catching deer, or doing this and that, they say, ' Tkoschs ko, aguweechon kajingahaga kouacme Jountuckcha Othkon;^ that is, Really all the Mohawks are very cunning devils. ^ '^ '^ They also make of the peeling and bark of trees, canoes or small boats, which will carry four, five, and six persons. They also hollow out trees and use them for boats, some of which are very large. I have several times sat and sailed with ten, twelve, and fourteen persons in one of these hollowed logs. We have in our colony a wooden canoe obtained from the Indians, which will easily carry two hundred schepels [one hundred and fifty bushels] of wheat. The arms used by them in war were formerly a bow and arrow, with a stone axe and clap-hammer, or mallet ; but now they get from our people guns, swords, iron axes and mallets. '^ '^ ""' They place their dead upright in holes, and do not lay them down, and then they throw some trees and wood on the grave, or inclose it with palisades. ^ ^' ^

''They are entire strangers to all religion, but they have a Tharonhijoiiaagon, (whom they also otherwise call Athzoockkuatoriaho^) that is, a Genius, w^hom they honor in the place of Grod ; but they do not serve or present offerings to him. They worship and present offerings to

64 THE HISTORY OF ALBANY.

the devilj whom they call Otskon, or Aireskuoni, If they have any bad luck in war, they catch a bear, which they cut in pieces, and roast, and these they offer up to their Aireskuoni, saying the following words : ' 0 great and mighty Aireskuoni, we know that we have offended against thee, inasmuch as we have not killed and eaten our captive enemies ; forgive us this. We promise that we will kill and eat all the captives we shall hereafter take as certainly as we have killed, and now eat this bear.' Also when the weather is very hot, and there comes a cooling breeze, they cry out directly. 'Asoronusi, asoronusi, Otskon aworouhsi reinnuha ; ' that is, I thank thee, I thank thee, Devil, I thank thee, Oomke ! If they are sick, or have a pain or soreness any where in their limbs, and I ask them what ails them, they say that the devil sits in their body, or in the sore places, and bites them there ; and they always attribute to the devil the accidents which befall them ; they have no other re- ligion than this. When we pray they laugh at us. Some of them really despise praying ; and some, when we tell them what we do when we pray, stand astonished. When we have a sermon, sometimes ten or twelve of them, more or less, will attend, each having a long to- bacco pipe that he has made, in his mouth, and will stand awhile and look, and afterward ask me what I was doing and what I wanted that I stood there alone and made so many words, while none of the rest might speak. I tell them that I admonish the Christians that they must not steal, nor commit lewdness, nor get drunk, nor commit murder, and that they too ought not to do these things, and that I intend in course of time to preach the same to them and come to them in their own country and castles (about three days' journey from here, further inland,) when I am acquainted with their language. They

THE HISTORY OF ALBANY. 65

say I do well to teach the Christians, but immediately add, ' Diatennon jawij Assyreoni, hagiowisk,^ that is, Why do so many Christians do these things ? They call us Assyreoni, that is, cloth-makers, or Charistooni, that is, iron workers, because our people first brought cloth and iron among them." ^

A few weeks before the arrival of Domine Megapolensis at Fort Orange, about seventy Mohawk warriors set out on a foray. On the fourth of August they attacked from both sides of the St. Lawrence Riv^e^r a party of Huron Indians and French priests who were ascending the river to the Huron country in twelve canoes. Twenty-two prisoners were taken in the brief struggle. On the march to the Mo- hawk River the captives were subjected to a series of sav- age cruelties, which are partly described by Father Jogues, in a letter written by him at Rensselaerswyck, dated August 5, 1643. '^ This holy man they had beaten senseless because he had manifested a tender commiseration for one of the tortured prisoners. ''Scarcely had I begun to breathe, when some others, attacking me, tore out, by biting, almost all my finger-nails, and crunched my two forefingers with their teeth, giving me intense pain. -:v ^ -X- ^^ trial, however, came harder upon me than to see them, five or six days afterward, approach us jaded with the march, and in cold blood, with minds nowise excited by passion, pluck out our hair and beard, and drive their nails, which are always very sharp, deep into parts most tender and sensitive to the slightest impres- sion. ^ ^ ^- On the eighth day we fell in with a band of two hundred Indians going out to fight ;^ and as it is

1 Vide Coll. N. Y. Hist. Soc. Second series, vol. viii. pp. 137-160.

2 This letter, it is said by the translator, John Gilmary Shea, was ad- dressed to the provincial of the Jesuits at Paris. The original, in its classic Latin, was printed by Alegambe, in his Mortes illustres, Rome, 1657 ; and by Tanner in his Societas Militans, Prague, 1675.

3 At an island in Lake Champlain.

66 THE HI8T0EY OF ALBANY.

the custom for savages, when out on war-parties, to ini- tiate themselves, as it were, by cruelty, under the belief that their success will be the greater as they shall have been the more cruel, they thus received us : First render- ing thanks to the sun, which they imagine presides over war, they congratulated their countrymen by a joyful volley of musketry. Each then cut some stout clubs in the neighboring wood in order to receive us. After we had landed from the canoes, they fell upon us from both sides with their clubs in such fury, that I, who was the last and therefore the most exposed to their blows, sank overcome by their numbers and severity before I had accomplished half the rocky way that led to the hill on which a stage had been erected for us. I thought I should quickly die there ; and therefore, partly because I could not, partly because I cared not, I did not rise. How long they spent their fury upon me He knows for Avhose love and sake it is delightful and glorious thus to suffer. Moved at last by a cruel mercy, and wishing to carry me to their country alive, they ceased to strike. And thus half dead and covered with blood, they bore me to the scaffold. Here I had scarce begun to breathe, when they ordered me to come down to load me vnth scoffs and insults, and countless blows upon my head and shoulders, and indeed on my whole body. I should be tedious were I to at- tempt to tell all that the French prisoners suffered. They burnt one of my fingers, and crushed another with their teeth ; the others already thus mangled they so wrenched by the tattered nerves that even now, though healed, they are frightfully deformed. ^ ^ ^ On the eve of the As- sumption [the fifteenth of August], about three o'clock, we reached a river which flows by their village. ^ Both banks were filled with Iroquois, who received us with clubs,

1 The Mohawk.

THE HISTORY OF ALBANY. 67

fists, and stones. As a bald or thinly-covered head is an ob- ject of aversion to them, this tempest burst in its fury on my bare head. Two of my nails had hitherto escaped ; these they tore out with their teeth, and with their keen nails stripped off the flesh beneath to the very bone." Shortly afterward Father Jogues was approached by an old Indian, who compelled an unwilling squaw to cut off his left thumb. ^

The news of the foray of the Mohawks soon reached Fort Orange. It startled the little community. The armed Mohawks were greater in number than the sol- diers of the garrison and the able-bodied men of the manor. No one could tell how soon some sudden freak of savage temper might suggest an attack upon the fort and the pillage of the farms. The power to enslave French- men might prompt an attempt to subject the people of the church- neighborhood to a similar servitude. The colonists were governed by their apprehensions. They resolved to do two things. The first was to retain the good will of the Mohawks by presenting them with some significant tokens of their friendship. The second was to procure the early release of the French prisoners by offering their captors a large ransom.

Arendt van Curler, the patroon's commissary, Jan Labatie, a French settler, and Jacob Jansen of Amster- dam, were delegated to visit the Mohawks, and to renew the former covenants of peace and amity, and to make overtures for the liberation of Father Jogues, and his assistant laymen, {donnes,) William Couture and Eene Goupil. They proceeded to the Mohawk village, where as Arent van Curler relates the three Frenchmen were kept prisoners, ^^ among them a Jesuit, a very learned man, whom they had treated very badly by cutting off his fin-

1 The Jogues papers, translated and arranged, with a memoir, by John Gilmary Shea. Coll, N. Y. Hist. Soc. Second series, vol. viii. pp. 174-182.

fiS THE HISTORY OF ALBANY.

gers and thumbs. 1 carried presents there, and desired that we should hve as good neighbors and that they should neither harm the colonists nor their castle, to all of which the savages of all three villages readily agreed. We were entertained there very well and veAy kindly. We had to stop before each castle for about a quarter of an hour that the savages could get ready and re- ceive us with a number of salutes from their muskets. They were highly delighted that I had come there. Some men were immediately ordered to go hunting and they brought home very fine turkeys. After thoroughly in- specting their castle, I called together all the chiefs of the three castles and advised them to release the French prisoners, but without success, for they re- fused it in an eloquent speech, saying : ' We shall be kind to you always, but on this subject you must be silent. Besides you well know how they treat our people when they fall into their hands.' Had we reached there three or four days later they would have been burnt. I offered them a ransom for the Frenchmen, about six hundred florins in goods, which all the colony was to contribute, but they would not accept it. We neverthe- less induced them to promise not to kill them, but to carry them back to their country. The Frenchmen ran screaming after us and besought us to do all in our power for their delivery from the savages. But there was no chance for it. On my return they gave me an escort of ten or twelve armed men who conducted us home. * jf -jf Two of these Frenchmen, of whom the Jesuit was one, were at my house last May. They expressed their hope that means could be found to procure their release. As soon as the Indians return from hunting, I shall en- deavor to obtain their freedom.'' ^

1 MSB. of Rensselaerswyck. Letter of Arendt van Curler to the patroon dated at "the Manhattans," June 16, 1643.

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It was not until the summer of 1643 that a way of escape was opened to Father Jogues. About the first of August he was permitted to accompany a party of Mo- hawks to Fort Orange. He then went with them to "a place seven or eight leagues below the Dutch post/' to catch fish. Returning about the middle of the month, the Indians tarried at Fort Orange. Here he was advised by the officer commanding the garrison to get privately on board of a vessel anchored in the river and about to sail to Virginia, whence it would carry him to France. He was greatly perplexed. He was afraid that the Indians would suspect the Dutch of aiding him to escape. He said he would wait until morning be- fore accepting or declining the advice given him. ''As soon as it was day," he writes, ''I went to salute the Dutch governor, and told him the resolution I had come to before God. He called upon the officers of the ship, told them his intentions, and exhorted them to receive and conceal me, in a word, to carry me over to Europe. They replied that if I could once get aboard their vessel I was safe, and would not have to leave it till I reached Bordeaux or Eochelle. "

'''Cheer up, then,' said the governor, 'return with the Indians, and this evening, or in the night, steal off quietly and get to the river, where you will find a little boat which I will have ready to take you to the ship.'

''After most humble thanks to all those gentlemen, I left the Dutch, better to conceal my design. In the evening I retired, with ten or twelve Iroquois, to a barn, where we bpent the night. Before lying down I went out to see where I could most easily escape. The dogs, then let loose, ran at me, and a large and powerful one snapped at my bare leg and bit it severely. I immediately entered the barn, the Iroquois closed the door securely,

ro THE HISTORY OF ALBANY.

and to guard me better came and lay beside me, the one who was in a manner appointed to watch me. Seeing myself beset with these mishaps, and the barn secured and surrounded by dogs that would betray me if I attempted to go out, I almost thought I could not escape. ^ ^ ^ This whole night also I spent without sleep. Toward day I heard the cocks crow. Soon after, a servant of the Dutch farmer, who had received us into his barn, entered by some door I had not seen. I went up to him softly and made him a sign, not understanding his Flemish, to si^op the dogs from barking. He immediately went out, and I after him, when I had taken up my little luggage consisting of a little office of the Blessed Virgin, an Imitation of Christ, and a wooden cross which I had made to keep me in mind of my Saviour's suffer- ings. Having got out of the barn without making any noise or waking my guards, I climbed over a fence sur- rounding the house, and ran straight to the river where the ship was. It was as much as my wounded leg could do, for the distance was a quarter of a league. I found the boat as I had been told, but as the tide had gone down it w^as high and dry. I pushed it to get it to the water, but finding it too heavy, I called to the ship to send me their boat to take me on board. There was no answer. I do not know whether they heard me. Be that as it may, no one appeared, and day was beginning to reveal to the Iroquois the robbery which I had made of myself, and I feared to be surprised in my innocent crime. Weary of hallooing I returned to my boat, and praying to the Almighty to increase my strength, I suc- ceeded at last so well by working it slowly on and push- ing stoutly that I got it into the water. As soon as it floated I jumped in and reached the vessel alone, unper- ceived by any Iroquois. I was immediately lodged in the

THE HISTORY OF ALBANY. 71

bottom of the hold, and to hide me they put a large box on the hatch. I was two days and two nights in the hold of this ship, in such a state that I expected to be suffo- cated and die of the stench. ^ ^ ^

'^The second night of my voluntary imprisonment the minister of the Hollanders came to tell me that the Iroquois had made much trouble, and that the Dutch settlers were afraid that they would set fire to their houses and kill their cattle. * * * i was taken to his house, [that of the officer who had advised him to es- cape], where he kept me concealed. These comings and goings were done by night, so that I was not discov- ered."^

^^The Iroquois," he says in another letter, ^'came to the Dutch post about the middle of September, and made a great deal of disturbance, but at last received the presents made by the captain who had me concealed. They amounted to about three hundred livres, which I will endeavor to repay. All things being quieted, I was sent to Manhattan, where the governor of the country resides. He received me kindly, gave me clothes and passage in a vessel which crossed the ocean in mid- winter." ^

1 Father Jogues's letter, dated Rensselaerswyck, August SO, 1643. Coll. N. Y. Hist. Soc. Second series, vol. viii. pp. 207-214.

3 Letter of Father Jogues to Father Charles Lalemant. Rennes, January 6, 1644. Coll. N. Y. Hist. Soc. Second series, vol. viii. pp. 214, 215.

It is said that on his arrival in France, "honors met him on every side ; objects belonging to him were eagerly sought as relics ; the Queen Regent even requested that he should come to Paris, that she might see so illustrious a sufferer. All this was painful to him, and it was not till three times summoned that he proceeded to the capital. He longed to return to Canada ; but one thing prevented his departure. The mangled hands which had been reverently kissed by the Queen and Court of France, were an obstacle to his celebrating the holy sacrifice of the altar. A dispensation was needed. Urban VIII. then sat in the See of Peter, a pope noted especially for the stringent rules which he introduced against any symptom of public veneration to the departed servants of God until their life and virtues had been sifted and examined in the long and minute legal proceedings for canonization.

72 THE HISTORY OF ALBANY.

The officers of the patroon were often at variance. Disagreements and disputes concerning the administra- tion of the affairs of the manor made them openly cen- sure one another, and, in time, each was the leader of a faction. Adriaen van der Donck, the schout-fiscaal, attempted to secure the favor of the colonists by conniv- ing at the infringement of the laws and regulations of the patroon, and by disparaging the official conduct of the commissary-general. Overtaxed by the numerous cares of the management of the manor. Van Curler was made to feel in many ways the brunt of Van der Donck's personal criticism and ill-will. The loyal commissary held the patroon in high respect. In addressing him in his letters he used the most complimentary phrases of personal courtesy. " Most honorable, wise, powerful, and right discreet lord, my lord patroon, with submissive salutation this shall serve to greet your honor and your honor's beloved lady, who is dear to you, with wished-for good fortune, prosperity, and continued happiness."

In a letter thus addressed to Kiliaen van Rensselaer, dated '^at the Manhattans," June 16, 1643, he speaks of the reprehensible conduct of the attorney-general. Informing the patroon that he had broken the contract made with the men who were to build the house for Domine Mega- polensis and that he had bought a new one from Maryn Adriaensen van Veere, he says : ^' Van der Donck, hearing this, began to associate with the carpenters and others, and told them that we had issued placards [proclamations |

Yet when the application of Father Jogues was presented, and he had learned the story of his sufferings, he forgot his own laws and exclaimed, as he granted it, ' Indip^num esse C/nisti tnartyrem Christi n.ui 'jibere sani^-ui7ie;u .' '' In June, 1646, on his way to visit the tribe by whom he had been held pris- oner, he stopped at Fort Orange. In the fall of 1646 he fell into the hands of a war-party of Mohawks, who put him to death with horrible cruelties. Memoir of Father Jogues by John Gilmary Shea. Coll, N. Y. Hist. Soc. Second series, vol. viii. pp. 168-172.

THE HISTORY OF ALBANY. 7S

forbidding the colonists to trade with the residents [the traders at Fort Orange] ; that those interested should mutiny, that those who had been connected with this [purchase of the house] had also drawn up the placards, and also that I had undertaken to steal the bread out of the mouths of the colonists. Some who heard him were surprised that an officer of the manor should give such counsel to the people. Some immediately conspired together to protest against me, and under the protest [written by them] drew a circle within which to place their names, so that it should not be known who had first signed it. This protest having been drawn up, some were for driving me out of the colony as a rogue, others wished to take my life. Nothing, however, resulted from these threats. Van der Donck thereafter said he would honestly and to our satisfaction, assist me and the council. But when want pressed him, he withdrew from me and the council to second them. I shall send your honor the affidavits of two persons who told me this with their own lips, so that your honor can readily form an opinion respecting this matter, and what kind of an officer you have here who causes so much trouble to a whole colony. He intends next year to return home. He has been to Kat skill with some colonists to examine that place, and your honor may be assured he intends to look for partners to plant a colony there. Borger Jorissen, who has heretofore been in the lord's colony, will also live there."

When KiUaen van Rensselaei* received the informa- tion concerning Van der Donck's intention to plant a colony on the south side of his manor, he forthwith com- missioned Pieter Wyncoop, then at Amsterdam with the ship, the Arms of Rensselaerswyck, to purchase from the Indians the lands lying at Katskill. According to the

74 THE HISTOEY OF ALBANY.

charter of 1629, the patroon claimed that no person could settle a colony within seven or eight miles of his manor, and that he could extend the limits of his own to Katskill if he settled a proportionate number of colonists on it, which number of emigrants was then on board the Arms of Rensselaerswyck. In order to preclude Van der Donck from making such a settlement, the patroon de- clared that he had already included the new tract within his manor, fromBeeren Island to Katskill..^

He therefore instructed Arendt van Curler to con- strain Van der Donck to desist from his undertaking. He wrote : ''In case Van der Donck should prove obstinate, he shall be degraded from his office and left on his bouwery to complete his contracted lease. He shall not be allowed to depart, and his office shall be conferred pro- visionally on Nicolaas Coorn till further orders, and he shall be divested of all papers appertaining to his charge. But if he will desist, then he shall be allowed to hold his office and his bouwery. "^

Van Curler also wrote to the patroon concerning the evils which had sprung up in the colony by the general competition to purchase peltry. He said: ''The trade heretofore has always been at six fathoms of zeewan, [for a merchantable beaver skin]. Last year the residents as well as the colonists gave seven to seven and a half fathoms. I also gave the same. As soon as they saw that I and the West India Company's commissary gave so much, they immediately gave nine, and since this spring ten fathoms. So at last the trade ran so high that we of the colony and the commissary at the fort agreed to publish a placard as well for the colonists as

1 Letter to Arendt van Curler, dated Amsterdam, Sept. 10, 1643. MSS. of Rensselaerswyck.

2 MSS. of Rensselaerswyck. An order to Arendt van Curler and Pieter Wyncoop concerning Katskill

THE HISTORY OF ALBANY. 75

the residents and the company's servants that they should not presume^ on pain of heavy fine and confisca- tion of their goods, to trade with the Indians for furs at more than nine fathoms of white wampum, or four and a half fathoms of black ; and that none, on pain of con- fiscation, should go into the woods to trade, and ordered that the officer [Van der Donck] should prevent it. And he has not even once attended to this ; nor will he do so even now. When he was told that he should take notice of the frauds and abuses in order to prevent the same as much as possible, he declared that he would not con- sent to be the worst man to others, that he would not make himself suspected by the colonists as his years, as officer, were few. And it happened last year, that we agreed together respecting a placard that no residents should presume to come with their boats within the limits of the colony, on confiscation of the same. There- upon there were great complaints on the part of the colo- nists. '" ^ '^ Neither I nor the company have scarcely had any trade this year. I believe the residents have conveyed fully three to four thousand furs from above. So great a trade has never been driven as this year, and it would be very profitable if your honor could bring about with a high hand that the residents should not come to the colony to trade. Otherwise your honor will never derive any profit." ^

The patroon, as suggested by Van Curler, did attempt "with a high hand" to prevent traders from coming to his colony to traffic with the settlers and Indians. He ordered Nicolaas Coorn to fortify Beeren Island and to demand of each skipper of a vessel passing up and down the river, except those of the West India Company, a

1 Letter of Arendt van Curler to the patroon, June 16, 1643. MSS. of Rensselerswyck.

76 THE HISTOEY OF ALBANY.

toll of five guilders (two dollars) as a staple right or tax, and also to compel each one to lower his colors in honor of the patroon. In accordance with the instructions given him, he issued a manifesto prefaced with this paragraph :

''I, Nicolaas Coorn, quartermaster (wacht-meester) of Rensselaer's castle (steyn) and for the noble lord, Kiliaen van Eensselaer, under the high jurisdiction of the high and mighty Lords States General of the United Nether- lands, and the privileged West India Company, hereditary commander of the colonies on this North River of New Netherland, and as vice-commander in his place, make known to you that you shall not presume to use this river to the injury of the acquired right of the said lord in his rank as patroon of the colony of Rensselaerswyck, the first and the oldest on this river."

The loyal wacht-meester charged the intrusive traders with the following offences :

''First, you frequent this river without his [the patroon's] knowledge. '' '• ^'

"Second, you have attempted afterward to withdraw from him and allure to yourself the tribes round about, which for many years have been accustomed to trade either at Fort Orange with the company's commissary, or with his commissary especially, and if possible to divert these tribes away to his injury, and to show them other secret trading places, greatly to the prejudice of the West India Company and of him, the patroon.

''Third, that you have destroyed the trade in furs by advancing and raising the price thereof on the company's commissary at Fort ()i*aMge, as well as on his (the patroon's) commissaiy ; that you are satisfied if you get merely some profit from it, not caring afterward whether or not the trade be so ruined that the patroon will thereby

THE HISTORY OF ALBANY.

i i

be unable to meet the expenses of his colony, the same being greatly prejudicial to him, thepatroon.

" Fourth, that you. sought bo debauch and to turn his own inhabitants and subjects against their lord and master, furnishing them among other things with wine and strong drink, and selling this to them at a usurious and high price against his will, causing yourself to be paid in peltries, which they, contrary to his orders and their own promises, trade away, or in wheat, which they purloin from their lord, of which they have given no ac- count, of which the lawful tenths were not legally drawn, of which he, the patroon, has not even received his third part or half according to contract, and of which he has not refused the right of pre-emption, compelling the patroon, who has been assisted by his people with little or no advances considering his outlay, to enter these on his books, while you go away with that, yea, with his share, whereby he is deprived of the means to provide his people with all that they require because you so ex- haust them and impoverish his colony, which is highly prejudicial to him, the patroon.

'' Since he is not bound to suffer these things from any private individuals, he doth warn you to refrain from doing any of them. Protesting in the name of the said lord, should you presume in defiance of law to attempt to pass by contrary to this proclamation, I am directed to prevent you. Under this manifesto, however, you are permitted to trade with his commissary, but not with the Indians or his particular subjects, as will be seen and read in the admonition and instruction given by him, the patroon, to Pieter Wyncoop, the commissary, and Arendt van Curler, the commissary-general, conformable to the restrictions of the regulations contained therein."^

1 Protest of the patroon, dated the eighth day of September, 1643. MSS. of Rensselaerswyck.

78 THE HISTORY OF ALBANY.

While many of the traders were wiUing to comply with the regulations of the patroon governing their traffic in his colony, there were some who openly defied the power of his officers to prevent their traffic with the Indians and the colonists. The most humiliating require- ment was that each master of a vessel passing Beeren Island should salute the flag of the patroon.

In the summer of 1644, Govert Loockermans, the skipper of the yacht the Good Hope, sailed from Fort Orange, and when passing Rensselaer's castle contempt- uously omitted the required salute. The vigilant officer of Rensselaer's fort cried out, ' ' Lower your colors ! "

''For whom should I," demanded the imperturbable seaman.

''For the staple-right of Rensselaerswyck/' replied the exasperated commander.

"I lower my colors for no one except the prince of Orange and the lords, my masters," shouted the daring skipper.

The blunt refusal to do homage to the Rensselaer ensign left no other course of action open to Wacht- meester Coorn than that of firing upon the yacht of the contumacious mariner. Quickly training the nearest cannon toward the passing vessel, the Dutch officer ap- plied a match and fired the piece. Its shot tore through the mainsail and cut away some of the rigging. The ball of a second cannon, fired too high, passed over the Good Hope. A third cannon fired by an Indian sent its missile through the colors of the prince of Orange which the in- trepid skipper was waving above his head.

When Loockermans arrived at Fort Amsterdam, on the fifth of July, he lodged a complaint against Coorn and de- manded that reparation should be made him for the damages sustained by his vessel. The director-general

THE HISTORY OF ALBANY. 79

and council of New Netherland ordered that Coorn should indemnify Loockermans for the injury done to the yacht, and forbade his firing on vessels passing Beeren Island under the penalty of corporal punishment. Seem- ingly the wacht-meester of Rensselaer's fort had no fear of the authority vested in the director and council of New Netherland, for he continued to demand toll and homage as he had previously done. The attorney -general of New Netherland was therefore again directed to notify Commander Coorn that if he did not refrain from inter- dicting the free navigation of the river to the height of its navigation that he would be prosecuted to the full ex- tent of the law. Coorn replied that it was a matter which the government and the patroon might settle be- tween them, and that the step he had taken had nothing else in view but " to keep the canker of free people " ^ out of Rensselaerswyck. Although frequent protests were made against this assumed privilege of the patroon nevertheless staple-right and the prescribed salute to the Rensselaer colors were demanded and obtained for a number of years thereafter by the undaunted com mander of Rensselaer's castle. ^

In mid-summer 1645, Director Kieft to obtain pledges of amity from the Indians of New Netherland visited Fort Orange to renew the former treaties made with the Mohawks and the other Wilden of the surrounding country. While the different conferences with the chiefs of the tribes detained the director-general at the fort, the following incident related by Van der Donck occurred : ''It happened on a certain morning that the Indian in- terpreter lodging in the director's house came down stairs

1 *' A/soo het gedaen wort om den kancker dervrijluijden ugt sijn colonie te weren.''

2 Albany records, vol. ii. fol. 1*^2, 234, 268, ; vol. iii. fol. 187, 188, 219. Coll. N. Y. Hist. Soc. Second series, vol. i. pp. SY'T-SSl.

so THE HISTORY OF ALBANY.

and in the presence of the director and myself sat down and began to streak and paint his face. The director ob- served the apphcation of the paint and requested me to in- quire of the Indian the name of the substance he was us- ing. He handed it to me and I passed it to the director, who carefully examined it and inferred from its weight and its greasy and shining appearance that it contain- ed some valuable metal. I bargained with the Indian for it to ascertain its composition. We experimented with it according to the best of our knowledge, and gave it to be assayed to an expert doctor of medicine, named Johannes La Montague of the council of New Netherland. The mineral was put into a crucible and placed in the fire and after it had been in the fire long enough (according to my opinion) it was taken out, when it yielded two pieces of gold worth about three guilders. This assay was kept a secret. After the treaty of peace was made, an officer and several men were sent to the mountain to which the Indian guided them for a quantity of the mineral. They returned with about a bucketful, in- termingled with stones. '^ '^" ''' Experiments were made with this quantity, which proved as good as the first." The director-general desired to send a small quantity of it to the Netherlands, and dispatched a man named Arent Corsen, with a bag containing the mineral, to New Haven, who took passage in an English ship about to sail to England, whence he was to proceed to Holland. This vessel sailed at Christmas and was lost at sea. ''The director-general, William Kieft, sailed from New Netherland for the Netherlands in the year 164:7 on board the Princess, taking with him specimens of the assayed mineral and of several others. This ship was also lost." ^

1 Beschrijvinge van Nieuw Nederlant door Adriaen van der Donck. Coll. N. Y. Historical Soc. Second series, vol. i. pp. 161, 162.

THE HISTORY OF ALBANY. 81

It was afterwards discovered that the so-called gold was nothing more than pyrites, a combination of sulphur, iron, copper, and cobalt, having a yellowish metallic luster. It is commonly called fooFs gold.

To celebrate the cessation of Indian hostilities in New Netherland and the ratification of the various treaties of peace made by the director-general and his council with the different tribes, which for five years had been at war with the Dutch living in the vicinity of Fort Amsterdam and on Long Island, a general thanksgiving was ordered on the thirty-first of August, to be observed throughout New Netherland.

''Whereas it hath pleased Almighty God, in his un- bounded clemency and mercy, in addition to many previous blessings, to suffer us to reach a long- wished -for peace with the Indians ;

' ' Therefore is it deemed necessary to proclaim the fact to all the inhabitants of New Netherland, to the end that in all places within the aforesaid country where Dutch and English churches are established, God Al- mighty may be especially thanked, praised, and blessed, on next Wednesday forenoon, being the sixth of Septem- ber, the text to be appropriate and the sermon to be applicable thereto."

A copy of the proclamation was sent to Domine Megapolensis, in Rensselaerswyck, accompanied with this order : ''Your reverence will please announce this matter to the people of the congregation next Sunday, so that they may have notice. On which we rely."^

Father Jogues, the French Jesuit missionary, who had returned to Canada, was sent in 1646, by the governor of Canada, as an embassador of peace to the Mohawks,

1 Albany records, vol. ii. fol. 312-317. Coll. N. Y. Hist. Soc. Second series, vol. i. pp. 275, 276, 278.

82 THE HISTORY OF ALBANY.

with whom Father Jogues had been a prisoner. On the sixteenth of May, he set out on his mission from Three Eivers with Mr. Bourdon, a French officer, and four Mohawks and two Algonquins.^ On the twenty-ninth of May they reached Lake George, which was then called by the Indians Andiatorocte. Their arrival at the lake on the eve of the festival of Corpus Christi, instituted by the Eoman Catholic Church to honor Christ's body in the holy sacrament, was commemorated by the devout mis- sionary naming the beautiful sheet of water Lac du Saint Sacrement (Lake of the Holy Sacrament). Thence they came to Ossarague, a fishing place on the Hudson. A few days afterward the party reached Fort Orange, where Father Jogues received a hearty welcome from his Dutch friends, to whom he paid the sum of money that they had so generously advanced to ransom him from the Mohawks. On his return from his visit to the Mohawks he wrote a short description of New Holland, as he de- nominated New Netherland. He had a favorable oppor- tunity at the time of his visit to inspect Fort Orange, and to obtain considerable information respecting the growth of the settlement. His statements, therefore, are not only interesting, but truthful. He writes : ' ' There are two things in this settlement (which is called Rensselaers- wyck, or in other words the settlement of Rensselaer, who is a rich Amsterdam merchant), first, a miserable little fort called Fort Orange, built of logs, with four or five pieces of Breteuil cannon and as many swivels. This has been reserved and is maintained by the West India Company. This fort was formerly on an isla^id in the river. It is now on the main-land toward the Iroquois, a little above the said island. Second, a colony sent here by this Rensselaer, who is the patroon. This colony is

1 The Algonquin tribe lived in Canada.

THE HISTOEY OF ALBANY. 83

composed of about a hundred persons, who reside in some twenty-five or thirty houses, built along the river as each one found most convenient. In the principal house lives the patroon's agent ; the minister has his apart, in which service is performed. There is also a kind of bailiff here, whom they call the seneschal, who administers justice. Their houses are solely of boards and thatched, with no mason-work except the chimneys. The forest furnishes many large pines ; they make boards by means of their mills, which they have here for the purpose.

' ' They found some pieces of cultivated ground, which the savages had formerly cleared, and in which they sow wheat and oats for beer, and for their horses, of which they have great numbers. There is little land fit for tillage, being hemmed in by hills, which are poor soil. This obliges them to separate, and they already occupy two or three leagues of country.

" Trade is free to all ; this gives the Indians all things cheap, each of the Hollanders outbidding his neighbor, and being satisfied, provided he can gain some little profit.

^'This settlement is not more than twenty leagues from the Agniehrorons, [MohawksJ who can be reached by land or water, as the river [the Mohawk] on which the Iroquois lie, falls into that [the Hudson] which passes by the Dutch, but there are many low rapids and a fall [Cohoes falls] of a short half league, where the canoe must be carried." ^

The church, which the patroon had instructed Van Curler to build in 1(>4:2, was not erected, it seems, until lf)4f). The commissary, writing to the patroon in June, 1648, says : "As for the church it is not yet contracted for, not even begun. I had written to your honor that I

1 Father Jogues's description of New Netherland, written at Three Rivers in New France, August 8, 1646, Coll. N. Y. Hist. Soc. Second series, vol. viii. pp. 217, *J18.

84 THE HISrORY OF ALBANY.

had a building almost ready, namely the covenanted work, which would have been for Domine Megapolensis, but this house did not suit Domine Johannes ; in other respects it was adapted in every way to his wants. On this account I have laid it aside. The one which 1 in- tend to build this summer in the pine-grove will be thirty-four feet long by nineteen wide. It will be large enough for the first three or four years to preach in and can be used afterward as a residence by the sexton, or for a school. I hope your honor will not take this ill as it happened through good intentions." ^

When Father Jogues visited Fort Orange, in the sum- mer of 1646, Domine Megapolensis was still conducting the religious services of the settlers in his own house. The building designed for the church was already erected, and Willem Fredericksen, a carpenter, had almost finished making the furniture which was needed to com- plete it for the use of the small congregation that had been worshiping in the parsonage. The plain-built edifice with its vaulted ceiling contained a predickstool or pulpit, a seat for the magistrates, one for the deacons, nine benches and several corner-seats.^ The little church stood on a plot of ground a short distance northwest of the fort, near the line of Church Street, between Pruyn Street and Madison Avenue. ^

The wooden buildings forming the church- neighbor- hood stood near the bank of the river, between the fort

1 MSS. of Rensselaerswyck.

2 In the ledger of the manor, {groef boek de colonic Rensselaerswyck,^ page 56, is the account of the carpenter, Willem Fredericksz, who under the date of 1646 is credited as follows : *' Voor dat hij in de keick heeft geriaacht ecn Predickstool het verwulf, een stoel voor de overicheyt, een ditto voor de Diaconie,. een cosijn fuet 2 lichten, een kruys cosijn dicht gemaackt, een daetin een kusje^ een hoeckje 7ievens de stoel, met een bmick in eeit winckelhaeck, en g bancken, te saemen voor 80 fl.'' About thirty -two dollars.

3 The name, Madison Avenue, was substituted for that of Lydius Street, May 20, 1867.

THE HISTOEY OF ALBANY. 85

and the patroon's trading-house, the latter being a short distance north of the former. South of the fort were several dwellings, one of which was the ferry-house, on the north side of the Bever kill. Inside the fort were the trading-house of the West India Company and a few cottages, one of which was occupied by Harmanus Myndertse van derBogaert, ^ who had succeeded Sebas- tiaen Jansen Orol, the company's commissary. On the fifth kill, beyond the patroon's trading-house, was one of the grist-mills of the manor. It had been out of repair for some time and as it had been thought to be too far from the people dwelling near the fort, another mill operated by two horses was constructed during the sum- mer in the pine-grove northwest of the church. ^

On the death of Kiliaen van Eensselaer, in 1646, Johan, his eldest son, became patroon. He was under age, and the management of the affairs of the colony was intrusted by the executors, Johannes van Wely and Wouter van Twiller, to Brandt Arent van Slechtenhorst of Nieukerke, Holland. While Van Slechtenhorst was preparing to remove to New Netherland, Anthonie de Hooges, the secretary of the colony, and Nicolaas Coorn the schout, had charge of the manor ; Arendt van Curler being in Holland.

In March, 1647, there was a great freshet, which almost washed away Fort Orange and the houses in the church-neighborhood. It is related that while the river

1 He sometimes wrote his name, Harmanus & Boghardij.

On the seventeenth of January, 1646, the house occupied by Adriaen van der Donck was burned to the ground, and he and his wife lived in one of the cottages within the fort until his term of office as schout-fiscaal of Rensselaerswyck expired, when, in April, at the opening of navigation, he removed to Fort Amsterdam — MSS. of Rensselaerswyck.

3 MSS. of Rensselaerswyck. Collections on the history of Albany from its discovery to the present time. By Joel Munsell, Albany, 1865- 1871. vol iii. pp.66, 67. Albany county records translated by Professor Jonathan Pierson of Union College, Schenectady, N. Y.

S(^ THE HISTORY OF ALBANY.

overflowed its banks a number of whales ascended it, one of which was stranded on an island opposite Lansing- burgh, called afterwai'd Walvish Eylant (Whale Island), now covered by the deep water of the state-dam. ''This fish was tolerably fat, and although the people of Rens- selaerswyck boiled out a great quantity of train-oil, yet the water of the river (the current being still rapid) was oily for three weeks thereafter and covered with grease. "^ Petrus Stuyvesant, the successor of Director Kieft, arrived at Fort Amsterdam on the eleventh of May, 1647. His policy was one of reform. He began his administra- tion by making new laws to protect the commercial interests of the West India Company, and took steps to have them enforced in every part of New Netherland. The jurisdiction which he claimed to have over the people of Rensselaerswyck seemed to the settlers to be an unwarranted usurpation of the personal prerogatives of the patroon. When Brandt Arent van Slechtenhorst, on his arrival at Fort Orange on the twenty-second of March, 1648, entered upon the performance of his duties as director of the manor, he ignored the right of Director Stuyvesant to require obedience from the people of Rens- selaerswyck to the new laws enacted by the director and council of New Netherland, and took the first opportunity that was given him to show that he did not consider the people of the manor were subjects of the West India Company. '^ When the director-general shortly afterward sent a proclamation to be read in the church at Fort Orange, setting apart Wednesday, the sixth of May, to be observed as a day of fasting and prayer by the people

1 Beschrijvinge van Nieuw Nederlant door Adriaen van der Donck. Coll. N. Y. Hist. Soc. Second series, vol. i. pp. 140, 141.

3 Van Slechtenhorst sailed from Holland Sept. 26, 1647, for Virginia. The river being frozen he did not reach Fort Orange until March 22, 164b, with his family and servants.

THE HISTORY OF ALBANY. 87

there and in the colony of Eensselaerswyck, and ordering a sermon on penance to be preached by Domine Megapo- lensis on the first Wednesday of each month, Van Slecht - enhorst protested against the pubhcation of the proclam- ation, declaring that it was contrary to " the old order and usage/' making it appear as if the director-general were the proprietor of the patroon's colony. ^ Although Van Slechtenhorst resolutely contended that the patroon was vested with the sole jurisdiction of the colony, and that his authority was not subordinate to that of the director-general of the West India Company, nevertheless he willingly conceded to the latter the right to administer the affairs of the company elsewhere in New Netherland as he deemed most conducive to the interests of its directors. When Director Stuyvesant and some of the officers of the company visited Fort Orange in midsum- mer, Van Slechtenhorst took particular pains to honor the director-general's arrival and departure with a dis- charge of cannon, and to make his visit an event of considerable local importance to the settlers. ^ After the reception-ceremonies the director- general inspected Fort Orange and its surroundings. General Stuyvesant's military experience showed him that the fort could not be successfully defended against a force of Indians, for the buildings erected near its walls would advantageously

1 MSS. of Rensselaerswyck. Documents relating to the colonial history of the State of New York. vol. xiv. p. 92.

2 "J^ly* 1648. Whereas, the council of the colony directed that the Heer General Pieter Stuyvesant should be honored, on his arrival and departure with several salutes from the Heer Patroon's three pieces of cannon, the director employed Jan Dirckscn van Bremen and Hans Eencluys to clean the same, for they were filled with earth and stones, and to load them, in doing which they were engaged three days, to wit : one day in cleaning them, the second in firing, at the arrival, and the third at Stuyvesant's departure, for which Van Schlectenhorst purchased twenty pounds of powder and expended ten guilders for beer and victuals, besides having provided the Heer General at his departure with some young fowls and pork." — MSS. of Rensseiaerswvck.

<S8 THE HISTORY OF ALBANY.

shelter the assailants. To keep the unoccupied ground around the fort free from further obstruction, he requested the authorities of Rensselaerswyck, on the twenty-third of July, not to erect any more buildings near the fort. ''We request, by virtue of our commission, the com- mandant and court of the said colony to desist and refrain from building within a cannon-shot from the fort, until further orders or advice from our sovereigns or superiors, or to present to us special consent and authority signed by our sovereigns or superiors aforesaid, for both above and below [the fort] there are equally suitable, yea better building sites."

The implication that the patroon of Rensselaerswyck could not exhibit any document containing proof of his proprietorship of the ground immediately surrounding the fort, highly incensed Van Slechtenhorst, who in a protest, dated the twenty-eighth day of July, claimed that the ground belonged to the patroon, who had pur- chased it from the Indians. He also asserted that '^the trading house of the patroon stood for a few years undis- turbed on the border of the moat of the fort or trading post," and that the land " all around the fort " had been for many years in '' the quiet possession" of the patroon, who still occupied it. ''Now comes General Petrus Stuyvesant," writes the irate director of the manor, "and attempts with improper means to prevent the infant patroon from improving or building on his own ground, which is over five hundred paces from the fort or trading post, within which space there are eight houses standing on the patroon's land ; and he threatens to bat- ter down these buildings with forcible means. * * * Therefore do I officially assert and protest * * * th^^t I am obstructed in the performance of my duty and business.

THE HISTORY OF ALBANY. 89

''So far as regards the renowned fortress," remarks Van Slechtenhorst, "men can go in and out of it by night as well as by day. " He further asserts that he had "been more than six months in the colony and the near- est resident to the fort, and yet he had never been able to discover a single person carrying a sword, a musket or a pike, nor had he heard or seen a drum beat, except when the director-general himself visited it, with his soldiers, in July."

Believing himself to be in the right in the matter of the ownership of the land around Fort Orange, Van Slechtenhorst undertook to erect a house within the range of a pistol-shot from its walls. When Director Stuy vesant learned, in September, of Van Slechtenhorst's open disregard of his recent order, he sent from Fort Amsterdam a number of soldiers and sailors to Fort Orange "to demolish the house with the smallest loss to the owners." He also instructed Carl van Brugge,^ the commissary of Fort Orange, that if the director of Rensselaerswyck should attempt to oppose him in the execution of the order, that he should ' ' arrest him in the most civil manner and detain him in confinement until he delivered to the commissary a copy of his commission and instruction, with a declaration that he, the com- mander" of the manor of the patroon, had "no other commission and instruction than those" he then ex- hibited.

When the people of the church-neighborhood heard of the intended demolition of the building, they mani- fested their partisanship by publicly declaring that if Van Brugge should undertake to carry out the instructions of the arbitrary officer of the West India Company, that

1 Carl van Brugge was appointed commissary of Fort Orange, November 0, 1647.

90 THE HISTORY OF ALBANY.

they would oflfer an armed resistance. ''Not only the colonists but also the Indians were in a great uproar." The latter were greatly offended with ''Wooden Leg," (as they designated the director-general, who wore a wooden leg for a lost hmb,) because he sent his dogs to destroy the house in which they intended to sleep when at Fort Orange. It is said that Van Slechtenhorst, during the fourteen days of the stay of the seven soldiers and five sailors from Fort Amsterdam, had four times more trouble to manage the Indians than his own partisans, and that he had to tell the former that they were misin- formed, that the house should continue to stand, and that they might sleep in it whenever they came to the fort. Van Brugge, perceiving that it would be impossi- ble for him to obey the director-general with so small a body of armed men, prudently wrote to Director Stuyve- sant that his orders could not be executed without loss of life and the shedding of blood. Having this information, the director-general discretely delayed taking immediate action in the matter and recalled the soldiers and sailors to Fort Amsterdam. He nevertheless sent an official order to Van Slechtenhorst to appear before him, on the fourth of April, at which time he would " be informed of the complaint against him." ^

In the summer of 1648, Domine Megapolensis, having served the people of the manor six years with Christian fidelity and pastoral love, asked for a letter of dis- mission^ intending to return to Holland to settle the busi- ness of an estate in which he was interested. The mem- bers of his little congregation, however^ with affectionate importunity prevailed upon him to remain with them another year. When, at last, in August, 1649, he took

1 MSS. of Rensselaerswyck. Albany records, vol. iv. fol 16 ; vol. v. fol. 72-83, 87-90 ; vol. vii. fol. 192-198, 204-206, 208, 217-219.

THE HISTORY OF ALBANY. 91

his letter of dismission from the church of Rensselaers- wyck^ he was so earnestly solicited by Director Stuyve- sant to become the pastor of the congregation at Fort Amsterdam that he accepted the call. ^ He remained in charge of this pastorate until his death, twenty years later. The congregation of the church at Fort Orange, in the summer of 1650, requested the Rev. Wilhelmus Grasmeer of Grafdyck, a brother-in-law of Domine Megapolensis, to fill the vacant pulpit. Although this clergyman had left Holland without the sanction of the classis of Alkmaar, he was nevertheless cordially received by the members of the little society, whom he zealously served, with marked acceptance, until he sailed for Holland, in 1 651. ^ While Domine Grasmeer was tem- porarily performing the duties of a pastor of the people of the manor, the latter held a meeting to consider the practicability of building a school-house in the church- neighborhood. The interested colonists willingly con- tributed the money that was needed, and shortly after- ward the school-house was erected and provided with suitable furniture. Andreas Jansen, on the ninth of September, 1650, was elected teacher of the children of the patrons of the school, who, in the following year, tend- ered him a gift of twenty dollars. ^ Among the note- worthy incidents of the Christmas holy days {de heilige dagen van kersmis,) of 1650, was the marriage of PhiHp Pietersen Schuyler and Margritta van Slechtenhorst, the daughter of the director of the manor. As the church of Rensselaerswyck was without a lawfully called minister, the legal formalities, which constituted them

1 Correspondence of classis of Amsterdam. Letters of Megapolensis, Aug. 15, 1648. Letter of Stuyvesant, August, 1649. Albany records, vol. iv. fol. 16-23, vol. vii. fol. 229, 251-256.

'i Correspondence of classis of Amsterdam.

^ MSS. of Rensselaerswyck.

92 THE HISTOEY OF ALBANY.

husband and wife, were complied with, on the twenty - second of December, at the manor-house before Anthonie de Hooges, the secretary of the colony, in the presence of the officers of Fort Orange and Rensselaerswyck, and some of the residents of the church-neighborhood. ^

In 1651, Jan Baptiste, the third son of Kiliaen van Eensselaer, arrived at Fort Orange. He found the people of the colony and the officers and the garrison of the fort still at variance respecting their rights on the land sur- rounding Fort Orange. Denied the privilege of cutting fire-wood in the adjacent woods, forbidden the liberty of hunting and fishing within the limits of the manor, per- sonally estranged and prevented from mingling with the colonists by the animosity engendered by the continued disputes respecting the jurisdiction of the governor and of the patroon, the soldiers naturally became deeply em- bittered, and often manifested their vindictiveness by secret depredations on the property of the settlers, and by scurrilous vituperations when the latter came near the fort. The colonists were also culpable, for they not only insultingly called the soldiers ''Wooden Leg's dogs," but they were gratified to see the Indians manifest their contempt for them. Meanwhile Van Slechtenhorst, who was under arrest at Fort Amsterdam for his contumacy toward the governor, secreted himself on a sloop and re- turned to the manor. The escaped director, in order to make the colonists more subsei'vient to the interests of the patroon, induced a number of them to take the

1 Philip Pietersen Schuyler came from Amsterdam to New Netherland in 1650. The children by this marriage were : Guysbert, Gertrude, (who married Stephanus van Cortlandt in 1671), Alida (who first married the Rev. Nicolaas van Rensselaer, afterward Robert Livingston), Pieter, Brant, Arent, Sybilla, Philip, Johannes, and Margritta. Philip Pietersen Schuyler died at Albany March 9, 1384, and was buried two days afterward, in a vault in the Dutch church, which then stood at the intersection of the streets now called Broadway and State Street.

THE HISTORY OF ALBANY. 03

burgher-oath of allegiance, in accordance with the resolu- tion of the council dated November 23, 1651 :.

'^Resolved, that all householders and freemen of the colony shall appear on the twenty-eighth day of Novem- ber of this year, being Tuesday, at the house of the hojiorable director, and there take the hurgerlijke oath of allegiance."

The oath was administered in the following form : ' ' I promise and swear that I shall be true and faithful to the noble patroon and co-directors, or those who represent them here, and to the honorable director, commissioners, and council, subjecting myself to the court of the colony ; and I promise to demean myself as a good and faithful inhabitant or burgher, without exciting any opposition, tumult, or noise, but on the contrary, as a loyal inhabi- tant to maintain and support, offensively and defensively against every one, the right and the jurisdiction of the colony. And with reverence and fear of the Lord, and the uplifting of both the first fingers of the right hand, I say. So truly help me God Almighty."

On the appointed day forty-five of the colonists took the required oath at the house of Director Van Slecht- enhorst. ^

1 "Arendt van Curler, Johan Baptist van Rensselaer, Pieter Hartgers, Jan Verbeeck, Sander Leendertsz, Gysbert Cornelisz van Weesp, Willem Fred- ericksz, Jan Michelz, Rutger Jacobszen, Goosen Gerritsz, Andres Herbertsz, Cornells Cornelisz. Vos, Jan van Hoesem, Jan Thomasz, Pieter Bronck, Jacob Jansz. van Nostrandt, Harmen Bastiaensz, Tennis Cornelisz, Jacob Adriaensz Raedmacker, Teunis Jacobsz, Rutger Adriaensz, Caspar Jacobsz, Abraham Pietersz. Vosburg, Everardus Jansz, Adriaen Pietersz. van Alk- maer, Thomas Jansz, Jochim Wessels Backer, Jacob Luyersz, Thomas Sandersz Smith, Evert Pels, — Hendricksz. Verbeeck, [A name obliter- eited] — van Es, Hendrick Westercamp, Thomas Keuningh, Cornells Segersz, Cornells Cornelisz. van Voorhout, Jan Ryersz, Jan Helms, Aert Jacobsz, Guysbert Cornelisz. aende Berg, Evert Jansen Kleermaker, Dirck Jansen Croon, Jacob Simonsz. Klomp, Volcker Jansz." — MSS. of Rensselaerswyck.

CHAPTEE V.

BEVERSWYCK.

1652-1664.

While the authorities of Rensselaerswyck were en- deavoring to strengthen the partisanship of the people of the church-neighborhood, the oflRcers and soldiers of the West India Company grew more abusive and quar- relsome. Johannes Dyckman^ the vice-director of the company/ was not only rancorous, but so agressively malignant, that he became a personal terror to those who incurred his ill-will. The soldiers of the garrison meanwhile did many things to exasperate and shock the inhabitants of the manor. Permitted at night to go out- side the fort with loaded guns, they frequently congre- gated about the houses of the settlers, and loudly whooped and fired off their pieces in a manner so alarm- ing that often the people were as teirified as they would have been had their houses been surrounded by a band of revengeful savages. On the night of the first day of the year 1652, a party of soldiers, with hideous outcries, came before the patroon's house and began to fire their muskets. A piece of burning wadding fell on the reed- roof and set it on fire. Fortunately, only a small part of

^ Johannes Dyckman was stationed at Fort Orange as vice-director of the West India Company in 1651, and held this office until July, 1655, when he was incapacitated for the administration of its duties by insanity.

M

THE HISTOEY OF ALBANY. 95

the thatch had been consumed when the fire was discov- ered and extinguished. This hostile demonstration was the next day followed by an assault upon Van Slechten- horst's son. The soldiers ''not only beat him black and blue, but dragged him through the mud and mire, in the presence of Johannes Dyckman, the vice-director, who repeatedly cried out, 'Let him have it, now, and the duivel take him ! ' " Philip Pietersen Schuyler attempted to rescue his brother-in-law, but Dyckman, seeing him running toward the soldiers, intercepted him, and draw- ing his sword threatened to run it through him if he advanced a step farther. This affray caused much excite- ment. Van Slechtenhorst's partisans made threats that they would avenge the outrage. Dyckman declared that he would retaliate any harm done his soldiers, and ordered the guns of the fort to be loaded and trained toward the patroon's house.

Director Stuy vesant still claiaied that the patroon had no right to the ground surrounding the fort within the range of a ball fired from a cannon, or not nearer than six hundred paces. He sent a proclamation to Vice- Director Dyckman, in which it was declared that the described area of land around the fort was the property of the West India Company. To make known the order of the director-general, Dyckman with a small number of soldiers went to the manor-house where the magis- trates of the colony were in session. When Van Slecht- enhorst learned his mission, he forthwith ordered him to leave the room, telling him that he had no right to come within the limits of the patroon's jurisdiction with an armed body of men. Some days afterward, the commis- sary, with a large number of soldiers, again repaired to the manor-house to demand that the director-generaPs proclamation should be published to the colonists by the

96 THE HISTORY OF ALBANY.

officers he found there. " It shall not be done as long as we have a drop of blood m our vehis," they declared, '^ nor until we receive orders from their high mightinesses and our honored masters." Dyckraan, not to be frus- trated, ordered the patroon's bell to be rung to collect the colonists, that he might read the proclamation to them. This privilege was denied him. He then proceeded to the fort, had the bell rung three times, and then returned to the stoop of the manor-house, where he ordered his deputy to read the placard to the assembled people. When Dyckman handed the document to his subordinate, Van Slechtenhorst, who was watching the proceedings, suddenly rushed to the side of the commissary's officer and snatched the director-general's proclamation from his hands, tearing it in such a manner *'that the seals fell on the ground." While the exasperated commander of Fort Orange was loudly declaring that the patroon's agent should be made to suffer for this indignity, Jan Baptiste van Rensselaer sarcastically said to the laughing colonists : ^^Go home, good friends, it is only the wind of a cannon-ball fired six hundred paces off."

When Director Stuy vesant heard how despitef ully his officers had been used by Van Slechtenhorst, he was greatly enraged, and on the fifth of March, 1652, sent an order to Vice- director Dyckman, instructing him to erect, at the distance of six hundred paces or about two hundred and fifty Rhineland rods^ from the walls of Fort Orange, a number of posts, marked with the com- pany's seal, and to affix to boards nailed on them copies of his proclamation, so that no person could plead ignor- ance concerning the boundaries of the West India Com- pany's land. In obedience to this order, Dyckman

1 A Rhineland rod equalled twelve Rhineland feet, and a Rhineland foot 12 36-100 English inches.

THE HISTORY OF ALBANY. 97

planted several posts a short distance north of the present line of Orange street, north of Fort Orange, and several south of it, near the present line of Gansevoort street. As soon as these posts were planted, the magis- trates of Rensselaerswyck ordered the constable of the manor to remove them, and on the same day, the nineteenth of March, wrote a remonstrance ' ' against the unbecoming pretensions and attacks of the director- general and council of New Netherland." This defiant conduct made the director-general the more pertinacious in his purpose to vindicate the company's right to the ground environing Fort Orange. He informed Vice- director Dyckman that he would shortly visit him and would personally enforce obedience to his proclamation. When it became known that Director Stuyvesant in- tended personally to take steps to have his orders respected by the authorities of Rensselaerswyck, it was rumored that Dyckman had instructions to erect a gallows on which the contumacious agent of the patroon. Van Slechtenhorst, his son, and Jan Baptiste van Renssel- aer were to pay the penalty of their rebellious disregard of the director-general's commands. When Director Stuyvesant arrived at Fort Orange about the end of March, he sent^ Sergeant Litschoe with a squad of soldiers to the director of the manor, ordering him to take down the patroon's flag, which was flying above the territory belonging to the West India Company. This Van Slechtenhorst emphatically refused to do, where- upon '^fourteen soldiers, armed with loaded muskets" entered the yard of the manor-house, '^and after firing a volley drew down the patroon's colors." The director- general then proclaimed that the space included within the boundaries prescribed by him was the property of

1 April 1, 1652.

7

98 THE HISTORY OF ALBANY.

the West India Company, and designated this area of land surrounding the fort the Dorpe Beverswyck, (the beaver- district village).^ He also erected a court of justice having jurisdiction over the people of Fort Orange, the village of Beverswyck, and the neighbor- hood. 2 He then appointed three magistrates to hear and determine civil and criminal causes. ^

Conformably to Director Stuyvesant's order the procla- mation concerning his recent acts was posted up at the court-house of Eensselaerswyck. Van Slechtenhorst, as soon as he discovered the placard there, tore it down and put another in its place declaratory of the rights of the patroon. Three days afterward, on the eighteenth of April, the defiant director was arrested by a company of soldiers and imprisoned in Fort Orange, ^'^ where neither his children, his master, nor his friends, were allowed to speak to him." He was afterward taken to Fort Am- sterdam, where he was detained for some time under civil arrest. ^

For the site of an alms-house the director-general, on the twenty- third of April, conveyed to the inhabitants of Beverswyck the farm '' bounded north by the Fuyck kilP and south by the public road, west by [land occupied by] Jacob Janssen and east by the wagon-road," with the

1 Do7'p, village. Bever, beaver. Wijk or wyck, refuge, ward, district, parish, manor. In Dutch compound names the first noun frequently takes an s after it.

2 ' ' Gerechtsrolle van der Banck van J-ustitie der Fortresse Orange^ Dorpe Beverswyck ende appendentie van dien^ door den Eerentfesten ende Achtbaeren Heer^ Myn Heej^en, de Heer Direcieur Generaal en Raaden van Nienw N^eder- landt, den lo Aprilis A"" i6j2, in loco synde gesteltj" — Mortgage-book A. Albany County Clerk's office. Vide Gerechtsrolle der colonic Rensselaers- wyck. fol. 103—114.

3 These officers of the court were annually appointed.

4 Van Slechtenhorst's memorial. MSS. of Rensselaerswyck. Albany records, vol. ix. fol. 128.

5 Fuyck kill, the hoop-net creek, emptying now into the river near the foot of Hudson Avenue. This creeek was afterward called the Rutten kill-

THE HISTORY OF ALBANY. 99

express condition and stipulation that the holders and possessors of the aforesaid farm should " acknowledge the directors of the West India Company as patroons under the sovereignty of their highnesses the States- General of the United Netherlands, and obey the director-general and his counsellors as good and faithful subjects are bound to do, and to pay all duties and taxes as ordered or to be ordered thereafter by the directors of the said company ; "'' '^ ^ to hold it, cultivate it, or make it productive to provide for the wants of the poor." ^

Jan Baptiste van Rensselaer now became the director of the manor of the patroon, ^ and Gerrit Swart was ap- pointed schout or sheriif of the colony.^ The Rev. Gideon Schaets, on the eighth of May, accepted the call given him by the proprietors of Rensselaerswyck^ to be- come the pastor of the congregation organized by Do mine Megapolensis in 1642. ^

1 MSS. of the Dutch Reformed church. Annals of Albany, by Joel Munsell. Albany, 1856. vol. vii. pp. 232, 233.

2 The power of attorney to Jan Baptiste van Rensselaer bears the date of May 8, 1662.

3 The commission of Gerrit Swart is dated Amsterdam, April 24, 1652, and signed by Johan van Rensselaer and by Giacomo Bissels for the co- directors.

4 The proprietors of the manor at this time, besides the patroon, were the co-directors Joannes de Laet, Samuel Godyn, Samuel Blommaert, Adam Bissels and Toussaint Mussart. MSS. of Rensselaerswyck.

5 The acceptance of the call of the Rev. Gideon Schaets is dated Am- sterdam, May 8, 1652, and is signed by him and by Johan van Rensselaer, and by Toussaint Mussart, for the co-directors. One of the stipulations of the agreement was : "He is accepted and engaged for the period of three years, commencing when his reverence shall have arrived in the colony of Rensselaerswyck, in the ship the Flower of Gelder, his passage and board being free, and he shall enjoy for his salary yearly the sum of eight hundred guilders, which shall be paid to his reverence there through the patroon's and the director's commissaries ; and in case of prolongation the salary and allowance shall be increased in such a manner as the parties there shall mutually agree upon/' — MSS. of Rensselaerswyck.

The Rev. Gideon Schaets was born in 1607. His children were : Reynier, who was killed in the massacre at Schenectady), Bartolomeus, and Anneke, (who married Thomas Davidtse Kikebell).

100 THE HISTORY OF ALBANY.

At this time Holland was about to declare war against England, for the latter had granted letters of reprisal to certain English ship-owners to capture the vessels of the Dutch found sailing on the high seas. The fleets of the two powers fought with each other in the straits of Dover on the twenty-ninth of May. The directors of the West India Company in their letter to Director Stuyvesant, dated the sixth of August, wrote : ' ' This unexpected rupture, which we have not courted, induced many merchants trading to New Netherland to solicit us to send an express to your honor, so that you and the colonists might be informed of this state of things. "" '• ''" We warn you not to place an un- bounded confidence in our English inhabitants, but to keep a watchful eye on them, so that you may not be deceived by a show of service through their sinister machinations, as we have before been deceived. If it happen, which we will not yet assume, that those New Englanders be inclined to take part in these broils and injure our good inhabitants, then we should advise your honor to engage the Indians in your cause, who, we are informed, are not partial to the English. You will em- ploy, further, all such means of defence as prudence may require for your security, paying attention that the merchants and inhabitants convey their valuable property within the forts. Treat them with kindness, so that they may be encouraged to remain there and to abandon the thought of returning here, which would cause the depopulation of the country. It is therefore advisable to surround the villages, at least the principal and most opulent, with breastworks and palisades to prevent sur- prise.'' ^

1 Hoi. doc. vol. vi, fol. lf.5, 167, 176, 177, 190, 191. Albany records, vol. iv, fol. 8b-85, 87, 91 ; vol. vi. fol. 76.

THE HISTORY OF ALBANY. 101

The vessel carrying these ofificial instructions was captured by the enemy. When the directors of the West India Company were apprised of the fact, they sent the director-general, on the thirteenth of December, a duph- cate of their first dispatch. When the river was navi- gable in the spring of 1658, Director Stuyvesant trans- mitted copies of the dispatches received from Holland to Vice-director Dyckman, ordering him to make known to the inhabitants of Beverswyck and the colonists of Rensselaerswyck the wishes of the directors of the West India Company. Aware of their unprotected condition, the people willingly labored together in making Fort Orange defensible. This mutual co-operation of the dis- affected partisans of the West India Company and those of the patroon greatly lessened the bitter feeling which had estranged them. At the request of Arendt van Curler representing the magistrates of the manor, and Rutger Jacobsen the inhabitants of Beverswyck, the director and council of New Netherland commanded that after the fort had been ]*epaired that all the inhabitants of Fort Orange and of Beverswyck should assist those of the colony in strengthening the redoubt oi* block-house which the patroon had built.

When the news reached the city of New Amsterdam, as the village at Fort Amsterdam was now called, on the sixteenth of July, 1654, that peace had been declared between England and HoJland, the citizens were