Every person in New Netherland rendered some public service; they were as industrious as the Hollanders at home; one traded with the natives southward and northward,another built houses-a third cultivated the land. Each husbandman had his own farm upon the Company's land, and was also furnished with cows, the milk of which was his own profit. The houses of the Hollanders were all, at that time, outside of the fort; but as soon as that should be completed they intended to reside within its walls, so as to be secure from a sudden attack. It was also intended to abandon the fort on the South River, and transfer the people there to Manhattan. At Fort Orange, which was then the furthest point north at which the Hollanders had traded, fifteen or sixteen men only were to be left; the rest were to come down the river. It happened this year (1626) that the Maykans, making war upon the Maquas, asked the assistance of the commander at Fort Orange with six other men. Commander Krieckebeeck having accordingly gone with them about a mile from the fort, they met the Maquas, who fell upon them so warmly with a discharge of arrows, that the party was put to flight, and many of them were slain. Among the slain were the Commander Krieckebeeck, and three of his men, one of whom, Tymen Bowensen, was eaten by the savages after he had been well roasted. The others were burnt; and the remains of the Commander and two of his men were buried side by side. Three of the party escaped by flight; two of whom were Portuguese, and one a Hollander from Hoorn. One of the Portuguese was hit in the back by an arrow as he was swimming for his life. A leg and an arm of the victims were carried home by the savages to be distributed among their families as evidences that they had conquered their adversaries. Some days after this occurrence, Pieter Barentsen, who had been in the habit of visiting this region in trading shallops, arrived at Fort Orange. The savages excused their conduct, on the ground that they had done nothing, on their part, against the whites; and they demanded the reason why the whites had meddled with them, which, if they had not done, such an event would not have happened. There being now no commander at the post, Director Minuit ordered Pieter Barentsen to remain in that capacity at Fort Orange. There were at this time eight families there, and ten or twelve sailors in the service of the Company. The families, however, were directed to remove from Fort Orange during the year, leaving the post to be garrisoned by sixteen men without any women. This was done for the purpose of strengthening the chief colony at Manhattan with householders; where the Indians were by this time becoming more and more accustomed to the presence of foreigners. The Fort on the South River was also abandoned, about this time, in order to concentrate as much strength as possible at Manhattan; and for economy's sake a single yacht, only, was to be employed in trading in that quarter. To the north of the colony were the Sickenanes, living between the "BROWNISTS" (the Puritans of Plymouth) and the Hollanders. The chief of this tribe had shortly before this period made a treaty with Pieter Barentsen, to trade with no one but with him. Jaques Elekes, had imprisoned this chief on board his yacht in the year 1622, and had made him pay one hundred and forty fathoms of sewan, by way of ransom. For this reason the chief now distrusted every one but Barentsen. This Pieter Barentsen was well acquainted with all the neighboring tribes of Indians. He traded not only with the Sickenanes, to whom all the tribes on the northern coast were tributary, but also with the Sinnecox, Wapenox, Maquaes and Maikans. He visited all these Indians in shallops, and traded with them for furs and peltries in great friendship. He came back to Holland in November, 1626, in the ship Arms of Amsterdam, Captain Adriaen Joris, in charge of a valuable cargo; and bringing the interesting intelligence of the purchase of Manhattan Island, and of the prosperity of the colony. In the month of October, 1628, two ships which had been despatched from New Netherland by Director Minuit, arrived in Amsterdam, laden with furs and ship timber for the West India Company. One of these vessels was the "Three Kings," captain Jan Jacobsen, of Weiringen, and the other, the Arms of Amsterdam," captain Adriaen Joris. When these ships left Manhattan on the 19th of August, 1628, the government of New Netherland was administered by " Minuit, the successor of Van Hulst," who, as before stated, went out from Holland on the 9th of January, 1626. Fort Amsterdam was now completed; having four bastions, and being entirely faced with stone. The colony now numbered two hundred and seventy souls, including men, women and children, who still resided outside of the fort, without any apprehensions of the Indians, with whom they lived on friendly terms. The colonists subsisted chiefly by their farming; the deficiency being supplied by the West India Company. Their winter corn had turned out very well; but the summer corn, being prematurely ripened by the excessive heat, was very meagre. The cattle that had been sent there throve well; and every thing wore a prosperous appearance. At Fort Orange, there were now no families remaining, as they had all been transferred down the river to Manhattan. Twenty-five or twenty-six traders, however, still occupied the post under the direction of Sebastiaen Jansen Krol, formerly Kranck-besoecker (comforter of the sick) at Manhattan, who was sent to Fort Orange in 1626, when Peter Barentsen left on his return to Holland. By order of the West India Company, all their people who were formerly on the South River, had also now deserted that region, retaining there only a single trading vessel. In the beginning of 1628, a war broke out between the Maikans near Fort Orange and the Maquaes, but the latter killed and captured most of the Maikans, and expelled the remnant, who settled themselves towards the north, near the Fresh River, (the Connecticut,) so called, where they began to till the ground; and thus there was now an end of war in that region. XI. HUDSON'S VOYAGE IN 1609. EX T R A CТ FROM "VERHAEL VAn de eerste Schip-vaert der HOLLANDSCHE ende Zeeusche SCHEPEN DOOR 'T WAY-GAT BY NOORDEN, NOORWEGEN, MOSCOVIEN, ENDE TARTARIEN TRANSMITTED TO THE N. Y. HISTORICAL SOCIETY, BY DR. M. F. A. CAMPBELL, AT THE HAGUE. TRANSLATED BY J. ROMEYN BRODHEAD. NOTE. MR. CAMPBELL, the Deputy Librarian at the Hague, one of the Corresponding Members of the New York Historical Society, has just sent me, for communication to the Society, an interesting extract from a small quarto volume in Dutch, recently purchased for the Royal Library, entitled, "Verhael van de eerste Schipvaert der Hollandsche ende Zeeusche Schepen door 't Way-Gat by Noorden, Noorwegen, Moscovien, ende Tartarien om, na de Coninckrycken Cathay ende China: &c., &c.: 't Amsterdam, voor Joost Hartgers, &c. 1648, in 4to." This extract, which contains a condensed and hitherto unnoticed account of Henry Hudson's voyage of discovery in 1609, I have translated from the Dutch as literally as possible-preferring faithfulness to elegance-and trust that it may be thought worthy a place in the Collections" of the Society. It will be interesting to compare this extract with the Journal of Hudson's voyage, kept by ROBERT JUET, given at page 320 of the First Volume of the Second Series of our Collections. J. ROMEYN BRODHEAD. London, 7th November, 1848. EXTRACT. [After giving details of the three expeditions despatched under the direction of William Barentsen, to discover a northern passage to Asia, the Narrative continues, (on page 40,) as follows:-] THIS and all the former expeditions not having yet proved successful, the Directors of the chartered East India Company therefore, in the last of March, 1609, again despatched, for the purpose of exploring the passage to China by the north-east or north-west, the skilful and experienced English pilot, Henry Hudson, with a fly-boat well provided, and manned with twenty men, as well English as Netherlanders, as is to be seen by the sequel. This Henry Hudson sailed from the Texel on the 6th of April, 1609. He doubled the Cape of Norway on the 5th of May, and held his course towards Nova Zembla, along the North Coast; but he found the sea there so full of ice, as he The expedition of 1596. |