Standard Library Edition

THE HISTORICAL WRITINGS

JOHN FISKE

ILLUSTRATED WITH MANY PHOTOGRAVURES,
MAPS, CHARTS, FACSIMILES, ETC.
IN TWELVE VOLUMES

VOLUME VII

Illustration Facing Title Page: Peter Stuyvesant (photogravure)

iii

THE DUTCH AND QUAKER
COLONIES IN
AMERICA

JOHN FISKE

IN TWO VOLUMES. VOLUME I

Nieuw Nederlant is een seer schoon aengenaem gesont en lustigh lantschap daer het voor alderley slagh van menschen beter en ruymer aen de kost of gemackelycker door de werelt te geraken is als in Nederlant offte eenige andere quartieren des werelts mijn bekent. — Adrian Van der Donck, 1656.

For I must needs tell you, if we miscarry it will be our own fault; we have nobody else to blame; for such is the happiness of our Constitution that we cannot well be destroyed but by ourselves. — William Penn, 1679.

BOSTON AND NEW YORK

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY

The Riverside Press Cambridge

TO MY OLD FRIEND

JOHN SPENCER CLARK

WHO HAS LONG FELT A DEEP INTEREST IN

THIS WORK

I NOW DEDICATE IT

WITH SINCERE AFFECTION

vii

PREFACE

In the general sequence of my volumes on American history, the present work comes next after “The Beginnings of New England,” which in turn comes next after “Old Virginia and Her Neighbours.” It will be observed that these books leave the history of New England at the overthrow of James II., while they carry that of the southern and middle colonies, with some diminution of details, into the reigns of the first two Georges. It is my purpose, in my next book, to deal with the rise and fall of New France, and the development of the English colonies as influenced by the prolonged struggle with that troublesome and dangerous neighbour. With this end in view, the history of New England must be taken up where the earlier book dropped it, and the history of New York resumed at about the same time, while by degrees we shall find the histories of Pennsylvania and the colonies to the south of it swept into the main stream of Continental history. That book will come down to the year 1765, which witnessed the ringing out of the

viii

old and the ringing in of the new,—the one with Pontiac’s War, the other with the Stamp Act. I hope to have it ready in about two years from now.

In connection with the present work I have to express my thanks especially to my friend, Colonel William Leete Stone, for several excel-lent suggestions, and for procuring for me a beautiful set of the “Records of New Amsterdam,” edited by Mr. Berthold Fernow; and likewise to Mr. James Roberts, the State Comptroller, for a similar set of the “Colonial Laws of New York.”

CAMBRIDGE, May-day, 1899.

I
THE MEDIÆVAL NETHERLANDS
Fénelon’s remark about Amsterdam	1
Significance of the fact that New York is the daughter of Amsterdam	1-3
Kinship between the English and Dutch peoples	3-5
Dutchland and Welshland	5
Belgians and Batavians	5-7
Flemish and Frankish speech	7
The Frisians as heathen	8
The Frisians as Christians	9
Lotharingia, the Middle Kingdom	10
Lorraine	11
The Crusades; feudal states in the Low Countries	12, 13
Political circumstances which favoured the Netherlands	14
Favourable industrial circumstances	15
Agriculture; dikes and canals	15, 16
Horticulture and manufactures	17
The fine arts	18
Scholarship	19
Erasmus	20
Dutch literature	21
The Bible in the Netherlands	21
Public schools	21
Urban and rural population	22
Modern features of the mediaeval Netherlands	23
Political development in England	24

Contrast in the political development of the Netherlands	25
The guilds	26
The local lords; the overlords	26, 27
The disaster of Roosebeke in 138z	27
Philip the Good, and Charles the Bold	28, 29
Lady Mary and the Great Privilege	30-32
Philip of Austria	32
Charles V.	32
Dutch and Flemish liberties in danger	33

II
DUTCH INFLUENCE UPON ENGLAND
Non-English elements in the American people	34
Patriotic bias; Anglophobia	35, 36
Free public schools; the fallacy of post and propter	37
A Bohemian view	38
Flemings in mediaeval England; politics and wool	39, 40
Trade between Flanders and England	41
Immigration from the Netherlands into England	42
Netherlanders in East Anglia	43
Puritanism was especially strong in the eastern counties of England	44
The Lollards	44, 45
Influence of the Netherlands upon English Puritanism	46
Antagonism between priestcraft and commerce	47
Some features of the revolt of the Netherlands	48-50
The Netherlands broken in twain	50
Hegira of Dutch and Flemish Puritans into England	51-53
Dutch family names anglicized	53
Migration of Flemish Protestants into Holland	54
Growth of the Dutch provinces at the expense of the Flemish	55

Relations of the Low Countries with Portugal	55-57
Death of Don Sebastian; seizure of Portugal by Spain	57
The Dutch in the East Indies	57-59
How they introduced tea and coffee into Europe	59
The Dutch in the Moluccas, and in Australasia	60
The affair of Amboyna	. 61, 62
The Dutch in Brazil	62
Arctic explorations; Linschoten and Barentz	63, 64
Antarctic voyages, and discovery of Cape Horn	65, 66

III
VERRAZANO AND HUDSON
The Newfoundland fisheries	67
The voyage of Dieppe sailors in 1508	68
Giovanni da Verrazano, the Florentine	69
He visits a “new land” in 1524	70-72
And stands “between two boundless seas”	72
The Sea of Verrazano	73
He visits the harbour of New York	74
And finds a “port of refuge” in Narragansett Bay	75
He sees the peaks of the White Mountains, and turns his prow seaward from the mouth of Penobscot River	76
His letter to Francis I.	77
He is captured by Spaniards and hanged	78, 79
The voyage of Estevan Gomez in 1525	79
The voyage of Jean Allefonsce in 1542, and the French fort at Albany	80
The Norumbega question	81-83
The River of the Grand Scarp	83
Difficulties in the study of old maps	83-85
Importance of Cabo de Arenas	85-87
The Gastaldi map	87
Mercator’s map of 1569	88, 89

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Allefonsce’s manuscript	89
Testimony of other maps; probability that the City of Norumbega “was a village near the site of the present City Hall in New York	90-92
Temporary cessation of French activity on the ocean	92
Beginnings of English maritime enterprise; the Muscovy Company	93
Henry Hudson, the alderman of London	93
Thomas Hudson, of Mortlake	94
Thomas Hudson, of Limehouse	95
Christopher Hudson	95
Henry Hudson, the Navigator	95
His first and second voyages	96
He enters the service of the Dutch East India Cornpany	97-100
In his third voyage he is baffled at Nova Zembla	100
What next? Lok’s map and John Smith’s letter	101
The whale fishery	101
Sun spots	102
Hudson goes in search of the Sea of Verrazano	102-104
The Half Moon in the harbour of New York	104
The Half Moon in the Catskills	104-106
Indian hospitality	106
Hudson returns to the service of the Muscovy Company	107
His last voyage and tragic fate	107-110
Hudson in folk-lore	110

IV
THE WEST INDIA COMPANY
Significance of the year 1609	111-113
The American question in Holland	113
The Calvinist or Orange party	114

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The Arminian or Republican party	114-116
William Usselincx	116
Founding of the Dutch East India Company in 1602	117
Its indifference to America	117
Dutch pioneers at Manhattan, 1613	118
The Ordinance of 1614	119
Voyage of Adrian Block	120
Voyage of Cornelius May	121
First appearance of the name “New Netherland”	121-123
Fort Nassau, and the vale of Tawasentha	123
Treaty with the Five Nations	123
Triumph of the Orange party	124-126
Petition of the Leyden Pilgrims to the States General, 1620	126
It Is rejected by the States General	127
By accident the Mayflower, intended for Delaware Bay, arrives in Cape Cod Bay	128
Founding of the Dutch West India Company, 1621	129-131
English claims upon the coast of North America	131
John Smith’s voyage to New England, 1614	131
Thomas Dormer’s voyages, 1619-20	132
The Council of New England	133
A government provided for New Netherland	134
Arrival of the ship New Netherland at Manhattan	134
Fort Orange, on the North River	135
Fort Nassau, on the South River	135
Walloon Bay	136
Why England did not interfere	137
Accession of Frederick, Prince of Orange	138
Purchase of Manhattan by Peter Minuit, 1626	139
The building of Fort Amsterdam	140
Mohawks and Mohegans	141-143
Minuit’s discussion with Governor Bradford	143, 144
Crushing naval defeats of the Spaniards by the Dutch	145, 146

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V
PRIVILEGES AND EXEMPTIONS
The English people as colonizers	147
Contrast with the French	148-150
Why Huguenots did not go to New France	150
Influence of habits of self-government upon colonization	151
There was no self-government in New Netherland	152
Contrast with Plymouth and Virginia	153
Slow growth of the Dutch colony	154
The patroons	154-157
Limitations upon trade and manufactures	157
Feudal features in the charter of 1629	158-160
David de Vries, and his colony of Swandale, 1630	160
Staten Island and Pavonia	161
Rensselaerwyck	161
Disputes between the Company and the patroons	162
Recall of Minuit	163
The affair of the ship Eendragt revives the English claim	163
Queen Elizabeth’s doctrine	164
What constitutes occupation of a country?	165
Why Charles I. refrained from pressing the question	165
Appointment of Van Twiller as Director General	166
His portrait by the veracious Knickerbocker	167
An unwelcome English visitor	168
A broadside of bumpers	169
True explanation of the affair	170
A Dutch fortress on the Schuylkill	171
Portentous growth of New England	171
Mohegans in the Connecticut valley	172
Completion of Fort Good Hope	173
Disputes with New England	173

Plymouth men on the Connecticut River	174
Troubles with the Pequots	175
The English fort at Point Saye-Brooke	176
The founding of Connecticut	177
The Pequot war	178
Van Twiller’s chivalrous intervention	179
The reason why there was so much bravado with so little fighting between English and Dutch	180-182

VI
KING LOG AND KING STORK
Comical notions associated with the name “Dutch”	183
Silly generalizations	184
The Athenian prejudice against Boeotians	185
Irving’s Knickerbocker	186
Capture of English intruders on the Delaware River	187
Growth of New Amsterdam	188
Van Twiller’s purchases of land	188
Bibulous magnates	189-191
How Van Twiller was removed from office	191
Arrival of William Kieft	192
Kieft’s method of governing	193, 194
Illicit trade in peltries; Kieft’s proclamations	194, 195
Quality of the New Netherland population	196
The proposals of the patroons	197
The abolition of monopolies	197
New inducements to emigration	198, 199
English settlements on Long Island Sound	200
The republic of New Haven	200-202
Wampum as currency	202-204
The wampum treasures of Long Island	204
Advance of the English on Long Island	204
The Algonquin tribes	205

xvi

Selling fire-arms to the Iroquois	206
Kieft undertakes to tax the Algonquins	207
The Raritans destroy De Vries’s plantation on Staten Island	208
Murder of Claes Smit	209
The board of Twelve Men	209
Reforms proposed	210
English settlers in New Netherland	211
The Bogardus wedding	212
A murder at Hackensack	212
Arrival of Mohawk tribute-gatherers; panic among the Algonquins	213
Kieft’s insane conduct; massacres of Indians	214
General rising of Algonquins	215
Massacre of Mrs. Hutchinson’s household	216
Departure of De Vries	217
John Underhill arrives upon the scene	217
And destroys the Algonquin fortress at Stamford, with a wholesale slaughter of Indians	218
Peace	218

VII
A SOLDIER’S PATERNAL RULE
The board of Eight Men	219
Financial necessities	220
Kieft’s excise; protest of the Eight Men	221, 222
Kieft’s rudeness	222
The Eight Men address a petition to the States General, and beg for self-government	223-225
Appointment of Peter Stuyvesant as Director General	226
Kieft’s treaty with the Algonquin tribes	226-228
Quarrels between Kieft and Bogardus	228

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Arrival of Stuyvesant; his theory of government	229-231
His name and family	231
His character	232
His autocratic behaviour	232
Petition of Kuyter and Melyn for a judicial inquiry into Kieft’s conduct	233
Stuyvesant befriends Kieft	234
Who attacks Kuyter and Melyn	235-237
Kieft and Bogardus, Kuyter and Melyn, all sail for Holland in the same ship	237
Which is wrecked on the English coast; Kieft and Bogardus are drowned, while Kuyter and Melyn, with their papers, are saved	237
Stuyvesant’s board of Nine Men	238-240
A Director’s difficulties	240
Rensselaerwyck	241
Feudal insubordination of Van Rensselaer	242
“Weapon right”	243
Beverwyck and its traffic	243
Staple right	244
The Bear Island incident	245
Adrian van der Donck, the Jonkheer	246
Selling fire-arms to the Indians	246
Insubordinate conduct of Schlechtenhorst at Beverwyck	247
Stuyvesant’s wrath and Schlechtenhorst’s defiance	248
What the Mohawks thought of a Old Wooden Leg”	249
Stuyvesant’s quarrel with Van der Donck	250
A deadlock	251
Return of Melyn	251
Memorial to the States General	252
The Vertoogh, or Remonstrance	253

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VIII
SOME AFFAIRS OF NEW AMSTERDAM
How the late Lord Sherbrooke once tried to measure historic events with a foot rule	254-256
Importance of homely beginnings	256
English self-government	257
Differences between the English and Dutch migrations	258, 259
Government by a commercial company	259-261
Spontaneous reproductiveness of English institutions	261
Differences between insular and continental conditions	262-264
The Dutch West India Company and the States General	264
Incorporation of New Amsterdam	265
Five phases of colonial growth	266
Recovery of strength after the Indian war	266
Influx of sects; polyglottism and cosmopolitanism of Manhattan Island	267-269
Lutherans and Baptists	269, 270
The Quakers; shameful persecution of Hodshone	270-272
The case of Henry Townsend; protest of the men of Flushing	272
The glory of Flushing	273
Stuyvesant is rebuked by the Amsterdam Chamber	274-276
Origin of New Sweden	276
Peter Minuit and his Swedes on the Delaware River	277
Affairs of New Sweden	278
John Printz, the ponderous governor	279
He receives a visit from De Vries	280
Fall of New Sweden	281

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IX
DUTCH AND ENGLISH
Change in the relations between England and the Netherlands	282
Government and political circumstances of the Netherlands	283-285
Marriage of William II. to the Princess Mary	285
Scheme of William II. and Mazarin	286
Death of William II.	287
Proposed union between England and the Netherlands; its failure	287-289
The Navigation Act, and the resulting war between England and Holland	289
The second and third Dutch wars	290
Grant of Long Island to Lord Stirling	291
Affair of the San Beninio	292-295
Extradition of criminals between New Haven and New Netherland	295
“Czar” Stuyvesant and his Nine Men	296
Stuyvesant’s visit to Hartford	297-299
The treaty of Hartford, September 19, 1650	299
Wrath of the Nine Men	300
Origin of Wall Street	301
The excise	302
Absurd rumours as to Stuyvesant’s endeavouring to incite the Indian tribes to a concerted attack upon the English	303-305
The grain of truth	305
Underhill’s manifesto	306
He seizes Fort Good Hope	307
Exit Underhill	307
A panic	308-310
Disaffection upon Long Island	310

A popular convention, and a remonstrance	310-313
Triumph of Stuyvesant	313
Van Dyck shoots a squaw	314
New Amsterdam thronged with redskins	314
Massacres at Hoboken, Pavonia, and Staten Island	315
Conference at Esopus	316
Bloodshed at Esopus	317
Growth of New Netherland	318
Growth of New England	319
Colonization of Pelham Manor	319-321
The Connecticut charter, 1662	321
English and Dutch claims	322
The English view	323
The Navigation Laws	324
Signs and omens; intriguers against New Netherland	325, 326
The Dutch envoys at Hartford	327
The rise and fall of President Scott	328, 329
Grant of New Netherland to the Duke of York, 1664	330
Colonel Richard Nicolls and his commission	330-332
Arrival of the English fleet in the Lower Bay	332
New Amsterdam helpless	333
Nicolls’s letter to Winthrop; Stuyvesant tears it to pieces, but Nicholas Bayard puts the pieces together	334, 335
Popular murmurs	336
On this occasion Stuyvesant’s pen was not mightier than Nicolls’s sword	336
Stuyvesant surrenders	337
How the Dutch took their revenge	338
Political consequences	339
Stuyvesant’s visit to Holland	339
His last years and death	340-342

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
	PAGE
Peter Stuyvesant (photogravure)	Frontispiece
From the original painting In the New York Historical Society, by the kind permission of the owner, R. V. R. Stuyvesant.
Erasmus (photogravure)	20
From the painting by Holbein in the Louvre.
Giovanni da Verrazano (photogravure)	70
From the engraving in Uomini Illustri Toscani. After the painting by G. Tocchi.
Maiollo’s Map, 1527, showing Verrazano’s Discoveries	72
From Kretschmer’s Entdeckung Amerikas, Berlin, 1892. The original is in the Ambrosian Library at Milan.
Part of Gastaldi’s Map, made in Venice about 1550	86
From the copy engraved in Ramusio, Navigation e Viaggi, Venice, 1556.
Part of Mercator’s Mappemonde, made in Duisburg, 1669	90
From the facsimile published at Berlin, in 1891, by the Gessellschaft für Erdkunde.
Wouter Van Twiller (photogravure)	166
After the painting by Washington Allston.
David Dieters De Vries (photogravure)	210
From an engraving by Cornelius Visscher in the Lenox Collection, New York Public Library.
Van der Donck’s Map of New Netherland, 1656	268
From his Beschrijvinge van Nieu Nederlans, ghelijck het togen woordig in staet is, Amsterdam, 1656; in Harvard University Library.
James Duke of York (photogravure)	330
From an engraving in Boston Athenæum.

Table of Contents Chapter I →

Author:	Fiske, John.
Title:	The Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America.
Citation:	Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1902.
Subdivision:	Front Matter to Volume I
	HTML by Dinsmore Documentation * Added October 20, 2004
	Table of Contents Chapter I →

PREFACE

CONTENTS