the company's commissary at Fort Orange, who had ac- CHAP. XV. companied Van Curler in 1642, was asked to repeat his 1650. visit with the new embassy. But Labbatie, feeling him A new em Mohawk self secure within his fortified post, declined. The colonial 2 October. delegates therefore proceeded alone on their mission; and bassy to the friendship was secured with the Mohawks by the distribu- valley. tion of presents to the value of nearly six hundred guilders. The main fountains of "mischief, trouble, and animosity” were the trading licenses, and the "bosch-loopers," or runners in the woods, known among the French as coureurs de bois." This system of licenses, which had helped the Trading lipatroon's revenue to the injury of the colonists, was now abolished. formally abolished by a placard, with the full approbation of the people, who testified their assent "in Fort Orange under their own hands."* 66 censes Donck and hoven in Van der Donck, in the mean time, had remained a faith- Van der ful representative of the commonalty of New Netherland Van Tienin their Fatherland. Learning that Van Tienhoven was Holland. on the point of returning, "to exercise his vengeance" on the popular party, he obtained an order of the States Gen- 21 July. eral for the examination of the secretary upon fifty-nine specific points touching the misgovernment of the province. A long report upon the subject was accordingly submitted 9 August. to their High Mightinesses. The letter of the thirteenth of September, in which the Nine Men renewed their demand for " a good and wholesome" government, was soon afterward received; and the publication of the Remon- 18 Nov. strance of the commonalty attracted so much attention, that a formal defense of the West India Company's administration in New Netherland became necessary.† For this purpose, Van Tienhoven, after a year's delay, 29 Nov. drew up, and submitted to the States General " statement,” in answer to some of the points in the toogh." The secretary's reply was an able paper. no notice of the charges against himself; exhibited a succinct and skillful defense of the company and its officers; Van Tien- a brief Alb. Rec., viii., 318; Renss. MSS.; O'Call., ii., 161–163, 185; Cor. Classis Amst. † Hol. Doc., v., 310-325, 339-345, 354-357; ante, p. 512, 518. strance of erland. CHAP. XV and closed by retorting upon the signers of the Remonstrance short descriptions of their individual characters, in terms meant to be by no means flattering.* 1650. Van Tien dered to come to the tion. Hague. 1651. Van der Donck, however, soon presented another me14 January morial to their High Mightinesses; and the Amsterdam 14 March. Chamber was directed to send Van Tienhoven and his fahoven or ther-in-law, Jan Jansen Dam, to the Hague for examinaBut the secretary, who had employed himself during the winter in deceiving a poor girl at Amsterdam, while his wife was yet living at Manhattan, was about to return, with the spring fleet, to New Netherland; and the company, to mark their appreciation of his "long and faithful services," had renewed his appointment as provincial secretary, made him likewise their receiver general of revenue, and granted him a well-stocked farm. The di 21 April. rectors were now ordered to prevent Van Tienhoven's embarkation until he should have reported himself at the 28 April. Hague. The secretary, obliged to obey, was arrested on reaching the seat of government, and was fined for adultery. A week afterward, he managed to embark, in spite of the prohibition of the States General; and, accompanied Van Tien- by his paramour, he returned to Manhattan, where the rich cargo of a Portuguese prize, captured on the voyage, proerland. cured for him an acquittal in the fruitless prosecution commenced by his undeceived victim.† 5 May. hoven re turns to New Neth 8 Feb. turns to erland. 1650. Melyn, who had not failed to bring before the States Melyn re- General Stuyvesant's "irreverent neglect" of their manNew Neth- damus, intrusting his undecided case to an attorney, availed himself of the growing interest in New Netherland to induce Baron Hendrick van de Capellen, of Ryssel, one of the committee of the States General, and several Amsterdam merchants, to form an association for the colonization of Staten Island and its neighborhood. A ship called the "New Netherland's Fortune" was purchased, in which some twenty colonists, with proper farming implements, 18 May. * Hol. Doc., v., 360-401; ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., ii., 329-338. In O'Call., ii., 121–127, this paper is erroneously ante-dated as of the year 1649. + Hol. Doc., v., 404, 408, 410, 412, 413; vi., 6, 33-59, 246, 267-280; Alb. Rec., iv., 70; O'Call., ii., 168, 169. 1650. were sent out, under the charge of Adriaen Pos. Procur- CHAP. XV. ing a new letter of safe-conduct from the States General, Melyn set sail in his influential friend's vessel; which, 30 June. forced by a long and boisterous voyage to put into Rhode Island for supplies, did not reach Manhattan until midwinter. Stuyvesant eagerly availed himself of this devi- 19 Dec ation as a pretext to seize the ship and vent his animosity against the patroon, by prosecuting him as the alleged owner. As the vessel was owned by Van de Capellen and his associates in Holland, the action against Melyn failed; but the ship and cargo were nevertheless confiscated and sold. The patroon now went to his colonie at Staten Island, "for the greater security" of which, Van Dincklagen had just before purchased from the Raritans, 5 August. for Van de Capellen, the lands "at the south side, in the chased of Bay of the North River." Summoned to Manhattan on tans. new charges, Melyn refused to obey, and a house and lot which he owned at New Amsterdam were seized and sold Apprehending further trouble, the patroon fortified him- Melyn on self in his colonie, where he established a manorial court. and. Before long, he was charged with distributing arms and ammunition among the Raritans and the South River tribes, and with stirring up the Nyack savages against stuyveStuyvesant. The council accordingly passed a resolution bodythat the director should be attended by a body-guard of four "halberdiers" whenever he went abroad.* Lands pur the Rari Staten Isl sant's guard. persists in measures. Notwithstanding the rebukes which his administration Stuyvesant had received at the Hague, Stuyvesant persisted in his ar- arbitrary bitrary course. But the spirit of the Dutch colonists did not slumber; and the vice-director, and the fiscal, Van Dyck, joined in preparing a new protest expressing the 1651. popular griefs. Stuyvesant now ordered Van Dincklagen van Dinckto be expelled from the council. The vice-director refused pelled from to obey; for his commission was from the same supreme Alb. Rec., iv., 90; viii., 1-7, 23, 64-66; Hol. Doc., v., 65, 306; vi., 42, 263; vii., 32; East Jersey Records, B. 7; Whitehead's East Jersey, 19; O'Call., ii., 130, 157, 158, 575. The "New Netherlands' Fortune" was sold to Captain Thomas Willett, one of Stuyvesant's Hartford arbitrators, who sent her on a voyage to Virginia and Holland, where she was replevined by Van de Capellen; and the West India Company, after a long lawsuit, was obliged to pay heavy additional damages. 28 Feb. lagen ex the council 1651. luyne and CHAP. XV. authority as was that of the director himself. Newton and Baxter, with a file of soldiers, therefore arrested Van Dincklagen, and conveyed him to the guard-room, where he was imprisoned several days. After his liberation, he retired to Staten Island, to brood with Melyn over their mutual Van Schel- injuries. Van Schelluyne, the notary, who had authentiothers op cated the protest, was arbitrarily forbidden to practice his profession, and scarcely dared to keep any papers in his house for fear they should be seized by the director. Loockermans and Heermans both suffered vindictive prosecutions. Stuyvesant's displeasure seemed chiefly directed against his own countrymen of the popular party; the English, who had shown their sycophancy, were treated with consideration and regard. pressed. 19 Sept. The return of Van Tienhoven only added to the popular discontents. "Our great Moscovy duke," wrote the vice-director to Van der Donck, "keeps on as of oldsomething like the wolf, the longer he lives, the worse he bites." On the other hand, the English at Gravesend, at Baxter's instigation, addressed another letter to the Amto the Am- sterdam Chamber, expressing their great satisfaction that Chamber. Stuyvesant had been sustained by the directors in Hol 14 Sept. A third let ter from Gravesend sterdam land, and praying that he might be continued in his administration. The elective franchise desired by the Dutch colonists was condemned by the English refugees. "We willingly acknowledge," said they, "that the frequent change of government, or the power to elect a governor from among ourselves-which is, we know, the design of some here—would be our ruin and destruction, by reason of our factions and the difference of opinion which prevails among us." Private traders were, in their judgment, "the oppressors of the people." They therefore asked to be allowed to hire vessels in Holland to bring over farmers and laborers, provided the directors would permit "these ships, and no others, to trade hither." The company should also supply more negroes. It was not in New Netherland as in Holland, or in states whose laws and institutions were matured. "Our small body, composed of divers pieces, namely, of people of divers nations, requires many things CHAP. XV. for the laying a foundation, for which there are no rules 1651. nor examples, and which must therefore be left to the discretion of a well-experienced governor." A similar letter, 25 Sept. certified by John Moore, their clergyman, was addressed Heemstede. to the Amsterdam Chamber by the English at Heemstede.* Letter from With these testimonials in their favor, it was no wonder that the officers of the West India Company continued their opposition to the spirit of popular freedom among the Dutch colonists, and to the liberal movements of the States General. But Van der Donck still remained the faithful representative of the commonalty in their Fatherland; where an enterprising bookseller at Amsterdam again drew Publicapublic attention to the province, by issuing a pamphlet Holland. containing a descriptive account of the European settlements in America.† tions in pedition Haven to River. defeats the The Hartford treaty having left the interests of the A new exDutch and the English on the South River "in statu quo," from New several inhabitants of New Haven and Totoket equipped a the South vessel, in which fifty emigrants were dispatched to settle themselves upon some land which they claimed to have purchased there. On reaching Manhattan, two of the pas- March. sengers landed, and presented to Stuyvesant a letter of recommendation from the governor of New Haven. The di- Stuyvesant rector, viewing this new expedition as a breach of the re- enterprise. cent treaty, committed them, as well as the master and two others of the company, "close prisoners under a guard” at the house of Martin Kregier, the captain lieutenant of New Amsterdam. There they remained in custody "till they were forced to engage under their hands not then to proceed on their voyage toward Delaware;" and the defeated expedition returned to New Haven. Stuyvesant at * Hol. Doc., vi., 5, 7, 53-60, 67, 68; ix., 240-248; O'Call., ii., 170-172. + "Beschryvinge van Virginia, Nieuw Nederlandt, Nieuw Engelandt," &c., Amsterdam, 1651. Joost Hartgers. This pamphlet is a mere compilation from De Laet, and from Van der Donck's Vertoogh; and though it contained nothing new, its cheap form no doubt gave it a large circulation in Holland. Megapolensis' tract on the Mohawk Indians was now also published by Hartgers for the first time, and, according to Van der Donck, without its author's knowledge or consent; ante, p. 376, note. |