292 XV. WAR RENEWED. CHAP. ransom had stifled revenge and calmed the pride of honor. "The presents we have received,” said an 1643. older chief, in despondency, "bear no proportion to our July 20. loss; the price of blood has not been paid;"1 and war was renewed. Sept. 15. 2 The commander of the Dutch troops was John Underhill, a fugitive from New England, a veteran in Indian warfare, and one of the bravest men of his day. Having the licentiousness not less than the courage of the soldiers of that age, he had been compelled, at 1640. Boston, in a great assembly, on lecture-day, during the session of the General Court, dressed in the ruthful habit of a penitent, to stand upon a platform, and with sighs and tears, and brokenness of heart, and the aspect of sorrow, to beseech the compassion of the congrega1641. tion. In the following year, he removed to New Sept. Netherlands, and now, with a little with a little army of one hundred and twenty men, became the protector of the Dutch settlements. The war continued for two years. At length, the Dutch were weary of danger; the Indians tired of being hunted like beasts. The Mohawks claimed a sovereignty over the Algonquins; their ambassador appeared at Manhattan to negotiate a peace; Aug. and in front of Fort Amsterdam, according to Indian usage, under the open sky, on the spot now so beautiful, where the commerce of the world may be watched from shady walks, in the presence of the sun and of the ocean, the sachems of New Jersey, of the River Indians, of the Mohicans, and from Long Island, acknowledging the chiefs of the Five Nations as witnesses and arbitrators, and having around them the director and council of New Netherlands, with the whole com 30. 1 It is curious to compare Il. ix. 634, πόλλ' ἀποτίσας. 2 Hubbard's History of New England, 359, 360. THE DAWN OF BETTER DAYS. 1 293 XV. Sept. monalty of the Dutch, set their marks to a solemn CHAP. treaty of peace. The joy of the colony broke forth into a general thanksgiving; but infamy attached to 1645. the name of Kieft, the author of the carnage; the 6. emigrants desired to reject him as their governor; the West India Company disclaimed his barbarous policy. About two years after the peace, he embarked for 1647, Europe in a large and richly-laden vessel; but the man of blood was not destined to revisit the shores of Holland. The ship in which he sailed, unable to breast the fury of elements as merciless as his own passions, was dashed in pieces on the coast of Wales, and the guilty Kieft was overwhelmed by the waves.2 1648. 1648. 1647. May A better day dawned on New Netherlands, when the brave and honest Stuyvesant, recently the vicedirector of Curaçao, wounded in the West Indies, in the attack on St. Martin, a soldier of experience, a scholar of some learning, was promoted for his services, 1646. and entered on the government of the province. Sad experience dictated a milder system towards the natives; 11. and it was resolved to govern them with lenity. The interests of New Netherlands required free trade; at first, the department of Amsterdam would not listen to the prayer; it had alone borne the expense of the colony, and 1648. would tolerate no interlopers. But nature is stronger than privileged companies; the monopoly could not be 1 The contemporary authorities are abundant. I. The Albany Records, vol. ii. contain Kieft's statement. Compare other places, as x. 139, xxiv. 55. II. The views of the Indians are given in De Vries. Compare too R. Williams in Knowles, 275. III. The N. England statements, in Winthrop, ii. 96, 97, 136. Gorton, 59. Hubbard, 441, and 365. The traditionary account of the battle on Strickland Plain, preserved by Trumbull, i. 161, and repeated, but not confirmed, occur. 2 Hubbard, 444. 294 PROGRESS OF NEW YORK. CHAP. enforced; and export duties were substituted.' Man XV. hattan began to prosper, when its merchants obtained 1648. freedom to follow the impulses of their own enterprise. The glorious destiny of the city was anticipated. "When your commerce becomes established, and your ships ride on every part of the ocean, throngs that look towards you with eager eyes will be allured to embark for your island." This prophecy was, nearly two centuries ago, addressed by the merchants of Amsterdam to the merchants of Manhattan.2 At that time, Amsterdam was esteemed the first commercial city, not of Europe only, but of the world: who could have foreseen, that the population and wealth of that famed emporium, would one day be so far excelled by the maturity of the little settlement that had barely saved its life from the vengeance of the savages? The Island of New York was then chiefly divided among farmers; 1649. the large forests which covered the Park and the adjacent region, long remained a common pasture, where, for yet a quarter of a century, tanners could obtain bark, and boys chestnuts; and the soil was so little valued, that Stuyvesant thought it no wrong to his employers* to purchase of them at a small price an extensive bowery just beyond the coppices, among which browsed the goats and kine from the village. 3 With so feeble a population, it was impossible to protect the eastern boundary of New Netherlands. Of what avail were protests against actual settlers? Stuyvesant was instructed to preserve the house of Good 1650 Hope at Hartford; but while he was claiming the country from Cape Cod to Cape Henlopen, there was 1647. 1649, 1 Albany Records, iv. 1, 3, 9, 13. This volume contains the correspondence of Stuyvesant and the West India Company. 2 Ibid. vii. 226. 3 Lovelace, in J. W. Moulton's New Orange, 33. 4 Albany Records, iv. 24. STRIFE WITH NEW ENGLAND. 295 XV. danger that the New England men would stretch their CHAP. settlements to the North River, intercept the navigation from Fort Orange, and monopolize the fur-trade.' The commercial corporation would not risk a war; the expense would impair its dividends. "War," they declared, "cannot in any event be for our advantage; the New England people are too powerful for us." No issue was left but by negotiation; Stuyvesant himself repaired as ambassador to Hartford, and was glad 1650. Sept. to conclude a provisional treaty, which allowed New Netherlands to extend on Long Island as far as Oyster Bay, on the main to the neighborhood of Greenwich. This intercolonial treaty was acceptable to the West India Company, but was never ratified in England; its conditional approbation by the States General is the only Dutch state-paper in which the government of the republic recognized the boundaries of the province on the Hudson. The West India Company could never obtain a national guaranty for the integrity of their possessions. to The war between the rival republics in Europe did 1651 not extend to America; we have seen the prudence of 1654. Massachusetts restrain the colonies; in England, Roger 3 Williams delayed an armament against New Netherlands. It is true, that the West India Company, dreading an attack from New England, had instructed 1652. Aug. their governor "to engage the Indians in his cause."4 15. But the friendship of the Narragansetts for the Puritans could not be shaken. "I am poor," said Mixam, one 1 Albany Records, vii. 3; iv. 32. 2 Treaty, in Trumbull, i. 192. Hutchinson, i. 447. Hazard, ii. 218. Compare Albany Records, iv. 14, 15, 18, 28, 32, 35, &c. &c. 73, 207. 3 Williams, in Knowles, 263. 4 Albany Records, iv. 84. But compare Albany Records, iv. 120; 296 NEW ALBIÓN. NEW SWEDEN. CHAP. of their sachems, "but no presents of goods, or of guns, XV. or of powder and shot, shall draw me into a conspiracy against my friends the English." The naval successes 1653. of the Dutch inspired milder counsels; and the news of peace in Europe soon quieted every apprehension. The provisionary compact left Connecticut in possession of a moiety of Long Island; the whole had often, but ineffectually, been claimed by Lord Stirling. 1634. The favor of Strafford had also obtained for Sir Edward June 21. Ployden a gift of New Albion, or Long Island with the 1641 country on the Delaware. The lord palatine at1648. tempted a settlement; but the want of a pilot compelled to him to enter the Chesapeake; and his people were absorbed in the happy province of Virginia. He was never able to dispossess the Swedes.1 With the Swedes, therefore, powerful competitors for the tobacco of Virginia and the beaver of the Schuylkill, the Dutch were to contend for the banks of the Delaware. In the vicinity of the river, the Swedish company was more powerful than its rival; but the whole province of New Netherlands was tenfold more populous than New Sweden. From motives 1651. of commercial security, the Dutch built Fort Casimir, on the site of Newcastle, within five miles of Christiana, near the mouth of the Brandywine. To the Swedes this seemed an encroachment; jealousies en1654. sued; and at last, aided by stratagem and immediate superiority in numbers, Rising, the Swedish governor, overpowered the garrison. The aggression was fatal to the only colony which Sweden had planted. The 1655. metropolis was exhausted by a long succession of wars; 1654, 1 B. Plantagenet's Description of New Albion, 1648, in the library of the Library Company, Philadel phia. Hazard, i. 160, &c. Winthrop, ii. 325. |