1644. Printz, on his part, met the charges of the New Haven Chap. XI. people with a positive denial. At the meeting of the General Court of Massachusetts in the following spring, the 7 March. Swedish governor, to rebut the English version of the case, "sent copies of divers examinations upon oath taken in the cause, with a copy of all the proceeding between them and our friends of New Haven from the first:" and in his letters "used large expressions of respect" for the English. Governor Eaton, on behalf of New Haven, desiring a new commission "to go on with their plantation and trade in Delaware River and Bay," the court granted it, but “with a salvo jure."* expedition sent from Boston to River. The Boston merchants now began to covet a participa- Exploring tion in the fur trade on the Delaware. It was imagined in Massachusetts, that the chief supply of beavers came the South from a "great lake, supposing it to lie in the northwest part" of their patent; and this lake, which they named "Lake Lyconnia," it was now thought should be "discovered." A well-manned pinnace, laden with provisions March. and merchandise, was therefore dispatched from Boston, with a commission under the public seal, and letters from Winthrop to the Dutch and Swedish governors. The exploring party were instructed "to sail up the Delaware River so high as they could go; and then some of the company, under the conduct of Mr. William Aspenwall, a good artist, and one who had been in those parts, to pass, by small skiffs or canoes, up the river so far as they could."+ * Winthrop, ii., 157. The commissioners, in a letter to Stuyvesant, of the 16th of September, 1650, and again, in their Declaration of Grievances of April, 1653, charge Jansen, the Dutch commissary at Fort Nassau, with combining with Printz in his proceedings against Lamberton, in 1643, and with sitting "as one of the judges in court with the Swedish governor."-Hazard, ii., 164, 214. Trumbull repeats the story with some embellishments, and erroneously refers it to the year 1642.-Trumbull, i., 122. But the deposition of Thickpenny, quoted above, says not a word about Jansen's complicity; and Winthrop's contemporary account (ii., 140, 141), while it alludes to the Dutch agent's proceedings at the Varkens' Kill, in 1642, refers all the "foul injuries" offered to Lamberton to "the Swedish governor" alone. + Winthrop, ii., 160, 161. This exploring expedition shows the ignorance of the geography of the interior of New Netherland, which so long prevailed among the Dutch and the English. On Van der Donck's map, which was published in 1656, a lake is laid down, somewhere about what is now known as the Delaware Water-gap, through which the river is represented as flowing. The French, in Canada, knew more about the beautiful lakes of New Netherland than did either the Dutch or the English. CHAP. XI. Failure of tion. But the expedition failed. Kieft protested against their proceeding, and sent orders to Jansen, at Fort Nassau, 1644. "not to let them pass." The pinnace arrived at Fort Elthe expedi- singburg "on the Lord's day," and the Swedes, firing a shot, forced her to anchor lower down. Eventually, the English vessel was suffered to pass; but both Printz and Jansen forbade the adventurers to trade with the Indians, "and for that end each of them had appointed a pinnace to wait upon" the Boston craft. Her master, however, "proved such a drunken sot, and so complied with the Dutch and Swedes," that the adventurers, fearing that if they should leave their vessel to go up to the lake in a small boat, "he would, in his drunkenness, have betrayed their goods to the Dutch," gave up their expedition, and returned to Boston. The owners of the pinnace, on their arrival home, recovered two hundred pounds damages from the master, "which was too much, though he did deal badly with them, for it is very probable they could not have proceeded." Yet this verdict did not prevent the commissioners of the United Colonies, several years afterward, from disingenuously alleging the conduct of the Dutch authorities as the cause of the failure of the expedition.* 20 July. October. Another Boston expedition ruined by the sav ages. The following autumn another bark "was set out from Boston, to trade at Delaware." After wintering in the bay, she went over to the "Maryland side" in the spring, where in three weeks "a good parcel" of five hundred beaver skins was procured. As the bark was about leaving, fifteen Indians came aboard, "as if they would trade again," and suddenly drawing forth "hatchets from under their coats," killed the master and three others, and rifled the vessel of all her goods and sails, taking prisoners a boy and "one Redman," the interpreter, who was suspected of having betrayed his countrymen. Printz, hearing of the outrage, which seems to have been perpetrated in the neighborhood of De Vries's unfortunate colony at Swaanendael, procured the delivery of the prison * Winthrop, ii., 161, 179, 187; Hazard, ii., 214. ers to him at Fort New Gottenburg. From there they CHAP. XI. were sent by way of New Haven to Boston, where Redman was tried for his life, and found guilty.* and the pose En ference on River. of sover 1644. The pertinacious interference of the New England col- The Dutch onists with the trade on the Delaware was as grievous an swedes opannoyance to Printz as to Kieft. The Dutch, as the first glish interexplorers and possessors of the South River, unwillingly the South saw their monopoly invaded by the Swedes; but when the English attempted to divide with them the prize, the Swedes were found acting in concert with the Dutch to repel the new intrusion. In Holland, the question of sovereignty was suddenly raised by the arrival of two Swed- October. ish ships, "The Key of Calmar" and the "Fame," which Printz had dispatched home with large cargoes of beaver and tobacco. Stress of weather, and perhaps apprehen- Question sion, owing to the war which had just broken out between eignty raisSweden and Denmark, induced the masters of these ves- land. sels to run into the port of Harlingen, in Friesland. Here the ships were seized by order of the West India Compa- 6 October. ny, who, claiming sovereignty over all the regions around the South River of New Netherland, exacted the impost duties and additional recognitions, to which their charter entitled them. Against these exactions Speringh, the 8 October. Swedish minister at the Hague, instantly protested to the States General. A long correspondence ensued, which resulted in the discharge of the ships, the next summer, upon payment of the impost duties alone. The company's additional recognition of eight per cent. was waived; and the question of the right of sovereignty was left unsettled.i ed in Hol 3 Nov. prepara In the mean time, Kieft, disappointed in obtaining as- 1643. sistance from his English neighbors, had been forced to Kient's draw a bill of exchange on the directors of the West India warlike Company, in favor of some merchants of Amsterdam. 12 Nov Strict discipline was enjoined upon the heterogeneous forces which were now mustered at Manhattan; and Van * Winthrop, ii., 203, 204, 236, 237. + Hol. Doc., ii., 340, 342, 350; iii., 1, 3, 13; Alb. Rec., xvii., 321.. tions. В в 1643. CHAP. XI. der Huygens, the schout-fiscal, was commanded to execute his duties without fear or favor, and to repress, with all the force of the province, the irregularities which a state of war necessarily produced. The refusal of New Haven left New Netherland to her own resources, and the spirit of the people rose with the occasion. It was now determined that offensive measures should be taken against December. the savages. Counselor La Montagne was accordingly disExpedition patched to Staten Island with a force of three companies, Staten Isl- forty Dutch burghers under Captain Kuyter, thirty-five sent to and. tilities near English colonists under Lieutenant Baxter, and several regular soldiers under Sergeant Cock. Crossing over from Manhattan in the evening, the expedition spent the whole night in scouring the island. The Indians kept out of the way; but five or six hundred scheples of corn were secured, and brought back to Fort Amsterdam.* The Connecticut Indians in the vicinity of Stamford had now become still more hostile, and Mayano, a fierce Indian hos- chief, who lived a little to the east of Greenwich, boldly Greenwich. attacked a party of "three Christians," whom he accidentally met returning home. One of the party was killed; but the other two overpowered the savage and cut off his head, which Captain Patrick immediately sent to Fort Amsterdam, with an account of what the colonists at Greenwich had already suffered from the chief and his tribe. When Patrick and his friends submitted themselves to the jurisdiction of New Netherland, the year before, it was upon condition of being "protected against their enemies as much as possible." Good faith now required that this condition should be fulfilled; and Expedition Kieft instantly sent the forces which had just returned Manhattan from Staten Island, to the assistance of the loyal English. English Leaving Manhattan in the morning, in three yachts, the expedition reached Greenwich in the evening. All the next night was spent in marching through the country in search of the enemy. But none was found; and the wearied detachment reached Stamford in no good humor. sent from to assist the settlers. Alb. Rec., ii., 212, 236, 250; iii., 169; Hol. Doc., iii., 117; Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv., 14. One of the Dutch soldiers meeting Patrick at Captain Un- CHAP. XI. Patrick murdered. derhill's house on Sunday, "in the time of afternoon ex- 1644. ercise for he seldom went to the public assemblies"— 2 January. charged him with treachery, in causing one hundred and Captain twenty men to come from Fort Amsterdam on a fool's errand. Patrick resented the nettled soldier's charge with "ill language," and spit in his face. As he was turning to go out, the Dutchman "shot him behind in the head, so he fell down dead, and never spake." The murderer was seized, but he escaped from custody.* against the quaes The expedition, however, was not entirely unsuccessful. Four of the Stamford people volunteered to find out the retreat of the savages; and, upon their intelligence, some twenty-five picked men of the detachment surprised a small Indian village, where they killed eighteen or twenty warriors, and took an old man, two women, and several children prisoners. To win favor, the captured old man offered to lead the Dutch against the Weckquaesgeeks, Expedition who were reported to be intrenched in three castles; and WeckBaxter and Cock, with a detachment of sixty-five men, geeks. were sent to West Chester. The expedition found the castles strongly constructed and well adapted for defense, built of thick timbers nine feet high, bound with heavy beams, and pierced with loop-holes. In one of these castles, thirty Indians might defend themselves against two hundred Europeans. But all the savages were gone, and their fortresses deserted. Two of these were burned by the Dutch, who reserved the third as a retreat in case of emergency; and the expedition, after marching some forty miles further, killing one or two Indians, and destroying all the corn and wigwams they found, returned to Fort Amsterdam with a few women and children as prisoners.† from Stam nize Heem. The accounts which Underhill had communicated to English his townsmen at Stamford of the local advantages of New ford coloNetherland, and the personal knowledge which John Og- stede, on den had gained at Manhattan, had meanwhile induced and. * Winthrop, ii., 151; Hol. Doc., iii., 118; Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv., 14; ante, p. 331. † Hol. Doc., iii., 119, 120; Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv., 15. Long Isl |