IX.

NEW NETHERLAND IN 1627.

LETTER FROM

ISAACK DE RASIERES TO SAMUEL BLOMMAERT,

FOUND IN THE ROYAL LIBRARY AT THE HAGUE,

AND

TRANSMITTED BY DR. M. F. A. G. CAMPBELL TO THE

J. ROMEYN BRODHEAD, Esq.,

U. S. Legation, London.

Royal Library, the Hague, June 10, 1848.

DEAR SIR:-Allow me, as a proof of my lasting and growing sympathies for the American Union, and in it for New York, (our old Nieuw Nederlandt,) to send you the enclosed statement of its situation at a brief period after it became our West India Colony.

The priority of its date over Van der Donck's description, may give to it an historical value which doubtless will induce you to judge it worthy of being joined to so many more valuable documents gathered by you in Europe.

The person to whom the writer, Isaack de Rasieres, addresses his note, Mr. Blommaert, was a member of the West India Company for Amsterdam; and from the whole, I judge de Rasieres was an inferior officer of that same company, sent over in het wapen van Amsterdam,” in order to keep his chiefs well informed of the real state of the colony. Unhappily, from the Cahier, (of 16 pages, in folio,) the two interior ones (pages 7-10) are wanting, and vainly I tried to find them out wherever they might be. The piece itself being an original, was joined with others, most of them regarding our West India Colonies in Brazil, in a parcel newly bought for this Royal Library; thus explaining the fact that it was not shown to you during your investigations at the Hague.

Be so kind, sir, as to offer this copy to the Historical Society of New York, in my name, not quite unknown to them, since you kindly mentioned it in your Report of October, 1841, about the historical investigations performed by you in the Netherlands. I am sure I could not choose a more worthy interpreter of my sentiments, nor one more agreeable to the Society than the former Historical Agent of New York. This piece will increase the number of the documents in the period between 1614 and 1640, the scarcity of which, you deplored in your Report.

From the general dispersion of our West India Colonial Archives, it can hardly fail to happen, I think, and especially considering my actual position as Second Librarian, that from time to time new documents about New Netherland will occur to my attention, on public or private sale; and I hardly need to assure you, sir, that I will be attentive to their appearance, and if possible lay hand on them, and make them follow, in original or copy, de Rasieres' statement.

Accept, dear sir, the assurances of my perfect consideration, and believe me,

as ever,

Your truly obedient servant,

M. F. A. G. CAMPBELL.

NOTE.

WHILE engaged in making researches as Agent of the State of New York, in the Archives at the Hague, in 1841, it occurred to me that the MSS. Department of the Royal Library there, might contain something relating to our history; and with the assistance of Mr. Campbell, one of the Deputy Librarians, a careful examina tion was accordingly made in that Repository. But with the excep tion of the fragment of one manuscript, a copy of which is now in the Secretary of State's office at Albany, [Hol. Doc. vol. III. p. 90,] nothing was then found. It seems, however, that a parcel of MSS. has recently been purchased for the Library, and among these, Mr. Campbell's kind research has detected the letter a copy of which he has made for the New York Historical Society.

In the following translation, I have endeavored to render, as literally as possible, the original of a document, the high value of which will be readily appreciated, when it is considered that it is the earliest description we have of the Colony of New Netherland and its neighborhood, from an eye witness.

WASSENAER, it is true, in his " Historische Verhael,”—a very rare work, which I have lately had the good fortune to meet with in London gives several very interesting particulars respecting New Netherland, as early as 1623 and 1624; and we all know that DE LAET published in 1625 an account of the discoveries of Hudson and the other early navigators to our coast, whose journals, he distinctly states, he had before him when he wrote. But the earliest detailed description of the Island of New York, by a person who visited it himself, in 1626, is now for the first time brought to light.

It will be remembered that among the documents found in the Archives at the Hague, is a letter of Mr. P. Schagen, to the States General, dated at Amsterdam, November 5, 1626, [Hol. Doc. Vol. I. p. 155,] in which he reports the arrival of the ship "Arms of Amsterdam," which sailed from the North River on the 23d of September, and brought the intelligence of the purchase of Manhattan Island from the Indians, for the sum of about TWENTY-FOUR DOLLARS.

The writer of the following letter, Isaack de Rasieres, went out passenger in this very ship, which arrived in New Netherland, as he tells us, on the 27th of July, 1626; and as the purchase of the

Island of Manhattan was made before the 23d of September following, when the "Arms of Amsterdam" returned to Holland, it is quite probable he was himself one of the witnesses of that interesting event.

De Rasieres, (whose name has been variously and incorrectly spelled in our published Documents,) seems to have been a French Protestant, whose ancestors, seeking refuge from persecution, settled themselves on the river Waal, in Guelderland, and were hence called "Walloons." He was probably a protégé of Mr. Samuel Blommaert, one of the leading Directors of the West India Company, to whom, as a mark of his gratitude, he addressed his interesting letter. On his arrival at New Netherland, De Rasieres became "Opper Koopman," or chief commissary under Director Minuit, and also acted as Secretary of the Colony. In this capacity he conducted a correspondence with Governor Bradford of New Plymouth, in March, 1627; and in the following October, he was himself despatched on an embassy to that colony, where he was honorably received by Bradford, who speaks of him as the Dutch "Upper Commies, or chief merchant, and second to the Governor ; a man of fair and genteel behavior,"-adding that he "soon after fell into disgrace among them by reason of their factions."

This is all we know of De Rasieres; and without any precise information as to the cause of the seizure of his " things and notes" which he mentions in the beginning of his letter, we cannot but regret a circumstance but for which, as he himself tells us, we should perhaps have been gratified by a still more ample and detailed account than the one he has now left us, of the early days of New Netherland.

De Rasieres' letter has no date ;-but it was evidently written from memory—and after his return to Holland-probably about the close of 1627. Unfortunately, it is defective; and, judging from the part immediately following the hiatus, we may reasonably infer that the missing portion would have been of the highest interest to us. It is quite probable that De Rasieres gave some particulars of the purchase of the Island, as well as of the political and commercial situation of the infant colony, and of the topography of the country between Manhattan and Narragansett Bay. But still, quite enough remains to us to induce lively congratulation that a happy chance has now placed so precious a fragment within our reach. J. ROMEYN BRODHEAD.

London, 17th August, 1848.

TRANSLATION

OF

AN ORIGINAL LETTER FROM ISAACK DE RASIERES TO SAMUEL BLOMMAERT, FOUND IN THE ROYAL LIBRARY AT THE HAGUE.

MR. BLOMMAERT:

As I feel myself much bound to your service, and in return know not how otherwise to recompense you, than by this short memoir, (wherein I have in part comprised as much as was in my power concerning the situation of New Netherland and its neighbors, and should in many things have been able to treat of or write the same more in detail, and better than I have now done, but that my things and notes, which would have been of service to me herein, have been taken away from me,) I will beg you to be pleased to receive this, on account of my bounden service, &c.

On the 27th of July, Anno 1626, by the help of God, I arrived with the ship "The Arms of Amsterdam," before the Bay of the great Mauritse River,* sailing into it about a musket shot from Godyn's Point,† into Coenraet's Bay ; (where the greatest depth is, because from the East point there stretches out a sand bank on which there is only from 9 to 14 feet water,) then sailed on North-East, and NorthNorth-East, to about half way from the low sand bank called Godyn's Point, to the Hamel's-Hoofden,§ the mouth of the river, where we found, at half ebb, 16, 17, 18 feet water, and which is a sandy reef a musket shot broad, stretching for the most part North-East and South-West, quite across, according to my opinion, and to have been formed there by the stream, inasmuch as the flood runs into the bay from

The North River;-so called, after Prince Maurice of Orange.

+ Sandy Hook ;-so named after Samuel Godyn, one of the Directors of the West India Company at Amsterdam.

These

The Lower Bay of New York; also called Port May, or Godyn's Bay. § Hamel's Hoofden;-the narrows, between Staten and Long Islands, "Hoofden," or headlands, were named after Hendrick Hamel, one of the Directors of the West India Company.