XIII. CHAP. colonization, was pushing his discoveries up to the head waters of the Chesapeake, while the Half-Moon was slowly 1610. sounding her way up the Hudson. Hudson arrived safely in England, but he was not permitted by the government to continue in the service of the Dutch, lest they should derive advantage in trade from his discoveries. However, he found means to transmit to his employers at Amsterdam, an account of his voyage. Once more he sailed under the patronage of some English merchants. He passed through the straits into the bay known by his name; groped among a multitude of islands till late in the season, and then determined to winter there, and in the spring continue his search for the wished-for passage. When spring came his provisions were nearly exhausted; it was impossible to prosecute his design. With tears of disappointment he gave orders to turn the prow of his vessel homeward. A day or two afterward his crew mutinied. They seized him, put him, with his son and seven seamen, four of whom were ill, on board the shallop, and inhumanly left them to perish. "The gloomy waste of waters which bears his name, is his tomb and his monument." Hudson, in his communication to his employers, described the extensive region he had discovered as well watered by rivers, and as lying around bays and inlets; as covered with forests abounding in the finest timber for ship-building; and as "a land as beautiful as ever man trod upon. The numerous tribes of Indians who met him in friendship, and the multitudes of beaver and otter, gave indication also of a profitable trade. The next year a ship was sent to trade; the traffic was profitable, and was still further prosecuted. In a few years there were forts or trading houses on the river, as far up as Fort Orange, since Albany. A rude fort at the 1614. lower end of Manhattan island was the germ of the present city of NEW YORK. The Dutch during this time were EMIGRATION ENCOURAGED. 115 XIII. busy exploring the waters from the Delaware to Cape CHAP. Cod. They were as yet but a company of traders; no emigrants had left Holland with the intention of making 1614. a permanent settlement. A company was formed, under the title of the Dutch 1621. West India Company; an association for the purpose of trade only. They took possession of the territory as temporary occupants; if they grew rich they were indifferent as to other matters; they had no promise of protection from Holland, and as a matter of policy they were peaceful. The States-General granted them the monopoly of trade from Cape May to Nova Scotia, and named the entire territory New Netherland. The claims of the English, French, and Dutch thus overlapped each other, and led to "territorial disputes, national rivalries, religious antipathies, and all the petty hatreds and jealousies of trade." About thirty families, Walloons or French Protestants, who had fled to Holland to avoid persecution, were the first to emigrate with the intention of remaining. Some of these settled in the vicinity of what is now the Navy Yard in Brooklyn, others went up the river to Fort 1625, Orange. The central position of the island of Manhattan obtained for it the honor of being chosen as the residence of the agent for the company. Peter Minuits was appointed such, under the title of governor, and the few cottages at the south end of the island were dignified with the name of New Amsterdam. The island itself belonged exclusively to the company, and was purchased from the Indians for about twenty-four dollars. Effort was now made to found a State. Every person who should emigrate had the privilege of owning as much land as he could properly cultivate, provided it was not on lands especially claimed by the company. To encourage emigration, it was ordered that any member of the company who in four years should XIII. CHAP. induce fifty persons to settle anywhere in New Netherland, except on the island of Manhattan, should be recog1625. nised as "Patroon," or "Lord of the Manor." Under this arrangement "Patroons" could purchase a tract of land sixteen miles long by eight in width. They secured to themselves, by purchase from the Indians, the most valuable lands and places for trade. The less rich were by necessity compelled to become tenants of the Patroons. The people, thus deprived of that independence which is essential to the progress of any community, took but little interest in cultivating the soil, or in improving the country. The company, for the sake of gain, determined, even at the expense of the prosperity of the colonists, to make New Amsterdam the centre of the trade of New Netherland. Under the penalty of banishment the people were forbidden to manufacture the most common fabrics for clothing. No provision was made for the education of the young, or the preaching of the gospel; although it was enjoined upon the Patroons to provide "a minister and a schoolmaster," or at least a "comforter of the sick," whose duty it should be to read to the people texts of Scripture and the creeds. The company also agreed, if the speculation should prove profitable, to furnish the Patroons with African slaves. As Hudson had discovered Delaware bay and river, the Dutch claimed the territory. Samuel Godyn purchased from the Indians all their lands from Cape Henlopen to 1629. the mouth of the Delaware river. Two years after this thirty colonists arrived, fully prepared to found a settlement. When De Vries, who was to be Patroon and commander, came the next year, he found not a vestige of the settlement; all had perished by the hands of the savages. After the resignation of Minuits, Walter Van Twiller, through the "influence of kinsmen and friends," was ap WILLIAM KIEFT GOVERNOR. 117 XIII. pointed governor. He proved himself unfitted for the CHAP. station. As a clerk, he was acquainted with the mere routine of business, but ignorant of human nature; as con- 1633. ceited as he was deficient in judgment and prudence, he failed to secure the respect of those he governed. In his zeal for the interests of his employers, he neglected the rights of the people, and was so inconsistent in the management of public affairs that Dominie Bogardus sent him a letter of severe reproof, threatening to give him "such a shake from the pulpit on the following Sunday 1638. as would make him shudder." The inefficient Van Twiller was succeeded by William Kieft. Though he had not the same defects as Van Twiller, his appointment was a most unfortunate event for the colony. A bankrupt in Holland, his portrait was affixed to the gallows; an evidence of the estimation in which his character was held. Avaricious and unscrupulous, so arbitrary in his measures that during his rule the colony was in a continual turmoil, he quarrelled with the Swedes on the Delaware, had difficulties with the English in New England, made the Indians his enemies, and had scarcely a friend in his own colony. The Dutch were on friendly terms with the Indians during the rule of Van Twiller. It was forbidden by law to sell them fire-arms; but the traders up the river, indifferent to the interests of the settlers, sold them guns to such an extent, that at one time more than four hundred of the Mohawks, or Iroquois, were armed with muskets. By this means these terrible marauders and despots of the wilderness were rendered more haughty and dangerous. They paid enormous prices for guns, that they might be able to meet their enemies the Canadian Indians, who were supplied with fire-arms by the French. Though the traders did not sell guns to the tribes living near New Amsterdam and on the river, yet they sold them rum. Kieft pretended that the company had ordered him to XIII. CHAP. levy an annual tribute upon the river Indians-the Mohegans and other clans of the Algonquin race. They re1638. fused to pay any tribute, saying he "was a shabby fellow to come and live on their lands without being invited, and then want to take away their corn for nothing." Such injustice, with the partiality shown to their enemies, the Mohawks, gradually alienated their feelings of friendship for the Dutch. An act of Kieft awoke the slumbering anger of the savages. The Raritans, a tribe living on the river which bears their name, were accused of stealing hogs, which had been taken by some Dutch traders. Kieft did not inquire into the truth of the charge, but sent soldiers to punish them, who destroyed their corn and killed some of their number. De Vries, who, in the mean time, had planted a settlement on Staten Island, was himself a friend of the Indians. The Raritans attacked this settle1641. ment and killed four men. The people now urged the governor to conciliate the savages, but without effect. Twenty years before a chieftain had been killed by a Dutch hunter in the presence of his nephew, then a little boy; that boy, now a man, according to their custom, avenged the death of his uncle by murdering an innocent DutchKieft demanded that the young man should be given up to him, to be punished as a murderer. The tribe would not comply with the demand, but offered to pay the price of blood. The violent governor refused any such compromise. 1642. man. With his permission a meeting of the heads of families was called. They chose twelve of their number to investigate the affairs of the colony. They passed very soon from the Indian difficulties to other abuses; even to the despotic actions of the governor himself. As the "twelve men" refused to be controlled by Kieft, but persevered in expressing their opinions of his conduct, he |