CHAPTER IV.

NEW NETHERLAND.

ONE of the first attempts of the West India Company, was designed to give aid and support to the settlement in New Netherland. The territory was formally erected into a province to be known and distinguished by certain armorial insignia. The management of its affairs was assigned to the Chamber of Amsterdam, this department having the direction of four-ninth parts of the whole stock of the company. In the year 1623 an expedition was sent out under the direction of Cornelis Jacobson Mey, and Adriaen Jorisz; they were accompanied by a number of settlers, and were provided with articles for trade with the natives. Mey, the principal in command, had visited the country before; he now touched at the post upon the Island of Manhattan, but soon afterwards proceeded onward to the South, or Delaware River, where he designed to establish a settlement. He ascended the stream for several leagues, and selected a spot on the eastern bank, at a place called Techaacho, by the natives. It was near the mouth of the Sassackon, the most northerly branch of a stream, which afterwards came to be known by the names of Gloucester River, and Timber Creek. A work was erected here, which received the name of Fort Nassau, and the erection of this fort was the primary effort of civilized man upon the shores of the Delaware, with any view to actual occupation.*

Agreement between the managers and principal adventurers of the West India Company.

Mickle's Reminiscences, p. 3.

About the year 1616, Capt. Hendrickson had sailed up the Delaware as far as to the mouth of the Schuylkill, but no attempt was made to effect a settlement by him or by any others, prior to the present visit of Mey.

The prosecution of trade with the natives was the immediate aim of the present undertaking, and for this purpose a body of men remained at the post; but history is almost silent as to their further proceedings, and also as to the subsequent movements of the Commander, Mey. In a sort of legendary way, the information is conveyed, that he succeeded in opening an intercourse with the native tribes, and that the communication between them was such, as to give rise to feelings of confidence and kindness.

Either under the direction of Mey, or of the officers in the province at the time of his coming, another station was erected, nearly at this period, on the North, or Hudson River.

In 1624, the Amsterdam Department sent out two ships to the colony, amply provided with stores. A Governor, or Director in Chief, was also appointed. The person selected for this office was Peter Minuet, a native of Wesel, in the kingdom of Westphalia; and in one of the ships just mentioned, he arrived in the province. It would appear that the authority of Corstiaensen, the first commandant in the country, had ceased with the dissolution of the company under which he had acted, but Elckens, his lieutenant, had continued in office under the direction of the West India Company; this latter officer however, was superseded upon the appointment and arrival of the new Director. The coming of the Governor, and the accession to the number of settlers which then occurred, gave an appearance of stability and strength to the settlement.5

In the government of the province, the general course of affairs was carried on in accordance with instructions given to the officers by the Amsterdam Department. The Governor, with the other officers, forming a council, constituted the executive and legislative

There arrived with Director Minuet, a number of persons known by the name of Walloons. They were natives of the country which formed the frontier between Belgium and France, and had formerly applied to Sir Dudley Carleton, the English Embassador at the Hague, for leave to settle in Virginia. The application was referred to the Virginia Company, but the conditions that were offered by this company not being approved, the attention of the applicants was turned to New Netherland. Of those who came with Director Minuet, a number settled on Staten Island, but afterwards removed to Long Island, and to a place called the Wahle-Botch, since corrupted into Wallaboat. O'Callaghan, p. 101.

authority, and were also the sole judicial tribunal. The duties of the Governor were somewhat varied in character, he having the chief control in all military, as well as civil and criminal affairs, and also a general superintendence in matters of trade. But his military duties could hardly have been onerous; the garrison at the different forts consisted of scarcely more than a sergeant and his guard, and even these had but little exercise in their proper vocation. The colony was secured from danger by the alliance which had formerly been concluded with the native tribes, and which yet continued to be faithfully observed. Nor was the business of a civil nature of much extent. There was no extensive range of aims or employments, and of consequence, but few occasions occurred requiring an exercise of formal authority. The action of government was nearly limited to a single object, the prosecution and management of trade.

The other officers of the province were those who had the immediate direction of mercantile affairs. The first of these, next to the Governor, was the Opper Koopman or Upper Merchant." He performed the duties of principal Commissary, and also of Book-Keeper or Clerk, and the first individual invested with these offices was Isaac de Rasier, a person who is represented as having been active and faithful in office, and who was also commended for his "fair and genteel behaviour."7

The administration of Governor Minuet was highly successful, at least for a time. A title for lands was acquired from the natives, by treaty or purchase. The Island of Manhattan, which before had been held through favor, was obtained by purchase for the sum of sixty guilders. The works at this place were extended, the fort was greatly enlarged, and its former name was confirmed. Here was the capital of New Netherland.

The trade of the province was also prosperous. The articles exported from the colony, even in the first year, exceeded in value the amount of the imports, and in four years the trade had increased one-half, and the revenue derived from the country was greater than the expenditure, fully one-third.

Moulton's New York.

Bradford's Correspondence.

Twenty-four dollars.

Only a single occurrence of an adverse or disturbing character took place at this period. Upon the passage of some ships to the colony, one of them touched at Plymouth, in England, and was there detained. Her captain was ordered to London to appear before the Lords of the Privy Council, inasmuch as the place in America for which he was bound, was claimed to be comprehended in the grant made by his Britannic Majesty to divers of his subjects.

This arrest was of far less consequence from its immediate effects, than from the disposition it manifested on the part of the English, to maintain their claims to the country of New Netherland. But no farther demonstration was made at the time.

At an early period, a new channel of trade was opened by Director Minuet, by the establishment of an intercourse with the English colony at Plymouth. These settlers were the same that have already been mentioned as having passed over from Holland, and became established at Plymouth, under a charter which had been finally obtained from the great New England Company.

The English and the Dutch had remained in the country with scarcely more knowledge of each other than they had been able to acquire from the natives, who were in intercourse with both. A more direct communication was now attempted by the people of New Netherland. Letters were sent to the Governor of New Plymouth, written by Isaac de Rasier, from Manhattas, in Fort Amsterdam. The writer, on behalf of the authorities of the province, congratulated the English colonists on account of their settlement in the country, and their prosperous condition, made a proposal for the maintainance of friendly intercourse, and an offer to engage to trade.

To this overture the English soon afterwards returned a lengthy reply. It was made in the name of "the Governor and Council of Plymouth, in New England," and was expressed in terms sufficiently courteous. They professed a desire to live in amity, and a willingness to engage in traffic, but they took occasion to intimate, and that with some plainness, that they did not

Dated March 12th, 1627, N. S.

consider the claim of their neighbors to the country of New Netherland, to be entirely valid and sound. 10 They also required that the Dutch should refrain from trading with the natives,

10 The answer of Governor Bradford and his Council. Dated March 19th, 1627. "To the Honorable and Worshipful, the Director and Council of New Netherland, our very loving friends and neighbours.

"The Governor and Council of Plymouth, in New England, wish your Honours and Worships all happiness and prosperity in this life, and eternal rest and glory with Christ Jesus our Lord, in the world to come.

"We have received your letters, wherein appeareth your good will and friendship towards us, but is expressed with over high titles, and more than belongs to us, or than is meet for us to receive; but for your good will and congratulation of our prosperity in this small beginning of our poor colony, we are much bound unto you, and with many thanks do acknowledge the same, taking it both for a great honor done unto us, and for a certain testimony of your love and good neighbourhood. Now these are further to give your Honours, Worships and Wisdoms to understand, that it is to us no small joy to hear that it hath pleased God to move his majesty's heart, not only to confirm that ancient amity, alliance, and friendship, and other contracts formerly made and ratified by his predecessors of famous memory, but hath himself (as you say) and we likewise have been informed, strengthened the same with a new union, the better to resist the pride of that common enemy, the Spaniards, from whose cruelty the Lord keep us both, and our native countries. Now for us, this is sufficient to unite us together in love and good neighbourhood in all our dealings, yet many of us are tied by the good and courteous entreaty which we have found in your country, having lived there many years, with freedom and good content, as many of our friends do to this day, for which we are bound to be thankful, and our children after us, and shall never forget the same, but shall heartily desire your good and prosperity as our own, forever. Likewise, for your friendly proposition and offer to accommodate and help us with any commodities or merchandize which you have, and we want, either for beaver, otter, or other wares, it is very acceptable to us, and we do not doubt but in a short time, we may have profitable trade and commerce together. But you will please to understand that we are but one particular colony or plantation in this land, there being divers others besides unto whom it hath pleased those Honorable Lords of his Majesty's Council for New England, to grant the like commission and ample privileges to them (as to us) for their better profit and subsistence, namely, to expulse or make prize of any, either strangers or other English, which shall attempt either to trade or plant within their limits (without their special license and commission) which extends to forty degrees. Yet for our parts we shall not go about to molest or trouble you in any thing, but continue all good neighbourhood and correspondence as far as we may; only we desire that you would forbear to trade with the natives in this Bay and River of Naragansett, and Sowames, which is, as it were, at our doors The which if you

do [if you do this forbear] we think, also, no other English will go about any way to trouble or hinder you which otherwise are resolved to solicit his majesty for redress, if otherwise they cannot help themselves."