Narratives of New Netherland, 1609-1664 Part 4

THE REPRESENTATION OF NEW NETHERLAND, 1650

Reference material and sources.

Adriaen van der Donck, The Representation of New Netherland, 1650. In J. Franklin Jameson, ed., Narratives of New Netherland, 1609-1664 (Original Narratives of Early American History). NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1909.

INTRODUCTION

The fussy incompetence of Kieft and the disastrous results of the Indian war he had aroused led at last to his removal, and in May, 1647, a new director-general arrived, Petrus Stuyvesant, who had made a good record as governor of Curacao in the West Indies. Stuyvesant, the last of the Dutch governors, was a man of character, brave, honest, capable and energetic; but he was proud, headstrong and tyrannical, and had such high notions of a governor's prerogative that from the first he conceived a prejudice against the opponents of Kieft, and presently Kuyter and Melyn were condemned to severe punishment for attempting to bring the latter to justice.

The new director-general was bent on pursuing a vigorous policy toward encroaching English and Swedish neighbors, on repressing the high claims of the patroon's officers at Rensselaerswyck, on putting the province in good condition for defence, on suppressing illegal trading, especially the supplying of fire-arms to the Indians, and on regulating with a strong hand all the doings of his small body of subjects. But such a policy costs money, and to obtain it by taxation he found himself compelled in August, 1647, like many another arbitrary ruler, to summon reluctantly the representatives of the people. Carefully as the functions of the Nine Men were limited, they const.i.tuted a permanent element in the governmental system, as the Twelve Men and Eight Men had not. It was inevitable that sooner or later they should become the mouthpiece of popular discontent, which was rapidly increasing under the unprosperous condition of the province and the burdensome taxes, customs and other restrictions imposed upon its economic life.

In December, 1648, the board was partly renewed. One of the new members, Adriaen van der Donck, a lawyer from Breda, who from 1641 to 1646 had been schout for the patroon at Renssellaerwyck, soon became the leading spirit of the new board. Their sense of popular grievances increasing, they planned to send a deputation to the mother country to remonstrate.

Stuyvesant opposed, arrested Van der Donck, seized some of his papers, and expelled him from the board. Nevertheless, a bold memorial to the States General was prepared, and was signed on July 26, 1649, "in the name and on the behalf of the commonalty of New Netherland," by Van der Donck and ten others, present or former members of the board of Nine Men. In this memorial, which is printed in _Doc.u.ments relating to the Colonial History of New York_, I. 259-261, the representatives request the Dutch government to enact measures for the encouragement of emigration to the province, to grant "suitable munic.i.p.al [or civil]

government, ...somewhat resembling the laudable government of the Fatherland," to accord greater economic freedom, and to settle with foreign governments those disputes respecting colonial boundaries and jurisdiction the constant agitation of which so unsettled the province and impeded its growth.

The following doc.u.ment accompanied the memorial, bearing date two days later, July 28, 1649, and was signed by the same eleven men. It is considered probable that Adriaen van der Donck was its main author. Its first part, descriptive of the province, reads like a preliminary sketch for his _Beschryvinge van Nieuw-Nederlant_ ("Description of New Netherland"), a very interesting work published at Amsterdam six years later (1665, second edition 1656), and of which a translation appears in the _Collections of the New York Historical Society_, second series, I.

125-242.

With respect to the remaining, or political portion of its contents, it is only fair for the reader to remember that it is a body of ex parte statements, and should be compared with those made on behalf of the administration by Secretary van Tienhoven in his _Answer_, the doc.u.ment immediately following this. Stuyvesant, whatever his faults of temper--love of autocratic power, lack of sympathy with the life of a community already far from austere, vindictiveness even--conceived of his province as a political community, not solely as a commercial possession, and honestly tried to govern it with an eye to its own best interest. The directors, moreover, could truthfully say that many of their narrowest actions were prescribed by their instructions from the West India Company. While the States General were often capable of taking a statesmanlike view of New Netherland, and as it lost control of the former found itself involved in greater and greater financial embarra.s.sments, which made it increasingly difficult to do justice to the latter. We may also set down on the credit side of the account that though the administration was slow to concede representative inst.i.tutions to the province, it did not a little to organize local self-government, Kieft granting village rights, with magistrates and local courts of justice, to Hampstead in 1644, to Flus.h.i.+ng in 1645, to Brooklyn in 1646, while Stuyvesant bestowed such rights on a dozen towns during his seventeen years' rule and gave New Amsterdam a somewhat restricted munic.i.p.al government in 1653.

Of those whose signatures follow Van der Donck's at the end of the _Representation_, Augustin Herrman was a Bohemian of Prague, who had served in Wallenstein's army, had come out to New Netherland in 1633 as agent of a mercantile house of Amsterdam, and had become an influential merchant. A man of various accomplishments, he probably made the drawing of New Amsterdam which is reproduced at the foot of Van der Donck's map in this volume. Later he made for Lord Baltimore a fine map of Maryland, and received as his reward the princely estate of Bohemia Manor.

Arnoldus van Hardenberg, another merchant, had been a victim of judicial oppression by both Kieft and Stuyvesant. Jacob van Couwenhoven had come out in 1633 and resided at first at Rensselaerswyck; he was afterward of note as speculator and brewer in New Amsterdam. Oloff Stevensz van Cortlant had been store-keeper for the Company and deacon of the church; later he was burgomaster of New Amsterdam. Michiel Jansz and Thomas Hall were farmers, the latter, the first English settler in New York State, having come to Manhattan as a deserter from George Holmes's abortive expedition of 1635 against Fort Na.s.sau on South River. Elbert Elertsz was a weaver, Hendrick Kip a tailor. Govert Loockermans, on the other hand, brother-in-law to both Couwenhoven and Cortlandt, was the chief merchant and Indian trader of the province, often in partners.h.i.+p with Isaac Allerton the former Pilgrim of Plymouth. Lastly, Jan Everts Bout, a farmer, had formerly been superintendent for Pauw at Pavonia.

Characterizations of these men, by an unfriendly hand, may be seen at the end of Van Tienhoven's _Answer_ to this _Representation_.

Three of the signers, Van der Donck, Couwenhoven and Bout, were deputed to go to the Netherlands and present the _Representation_ to the States General, while Stuyvesant sent Secretary van Tienhoven to counteracat their efforts. The Voluminous papers which both parties presented to their High Mightinesses were referred to a committee, which in April, 1650, submitted a draft of a reformed and more liberal government for the province. The delegates caused their _Representation_ to be printed, in a pamphlet of forty-nine pages, now very rare, under the t.i.tle, _Vertoogh van Nieu-Neder-Land, Weghens de Ghelegentheydt, Vruchtbaerheydt, en Soberen Staet desselfs_ (Hague, 1650), i.e., "Representation of New Netherland, concerning its Location, Productiveness and Poor Condition." Much discussion was aroused. "The name of New Netherland," wrote the Amsterdam chamber of the Company to Stuyvesant, "was scarcely ever mentioned before, and now it would seem as if heaven and earth were interested in it." So effective an exposition of the colony's value and of its misgovernment could not fail to awaken consideration and sympathy. Nevertheless, the company, aided by the _Answer_ which Van Tienhoven submitted in November, 1650, were able to ride out the storm, and to temporize until the outbreak of the war of 1652-1654 with England put a new face on colonial affairs. A few concessions were made--the export duty on tobacco was taken off, and a munic.i.p.al government allowed to New Amsterdam, now a town of 700 or 800 inhabitants (1653). But no serious alteration in the provincial government resulted. "Our Grand Duke of Muscovy," wrote one of Stuyvesant's subordinates to Van der Donck, "keeps on as of old."

Disaffection among the Dutch settlers never ceased till the English conquest, though on the other hand the English settlers on Long Island were much better disposed toward Stuyvesant's government, and were treated by him with more favor.

Van der Donck's two companions returned to New Netherland before long.

He, however, remained in the old country until the summer of 1653, occupied with the business of his mission, with legal studies, taking the degree of doctor of laws at he University of Leyden, and with the preparation of his _Beschryvinge van Nieus-Nederlant_. The States General gave him a copyright for it in May, 1653, but the first edition was not published till 1655. In that year the author died, leaving to his widow his estate, or "colonie," which he called Colendonck. The name of Yonkers, where it was situated, perpetuates his t.i.tle of gentility (Jonkheer van der Donck).

The original ma.n.u.script of the _Representation_ is still preserved in the archives of the Netherlands, and a translation of it was printed in 1856 in _Doc.u.ments relating to the Colonial History of New York_, I. 271-318, and reprinted in _Pennsylvania Archives_, second series, V.

124-170. A translation of the printed tract, the text of which differs but very slightly from that of the ma.n.u.script, was made by Hon. Henry C. Murphy and printed in 1849 in the _Collections of the New York Historical Society_, second series, II. 251-329. It exists also in a separate form as a pamphlet, and, combined with the _Breeden Raedt_, in a volume privately printed in an edition of 125 copies by Mr. James Lenox. It is this translation which, revised by Professor A. Clinton Crowell, is printed in the following pages.

THE REPRESENTATION OF NEW NETHERLAND, 1650

The Representation of New Netherland concerning its Location, Productiveness, and Poor Condition.

AMONG all the people in the world, industrious in seeking out foreign lands, navigable waters and trade, those who bear the name of Netherlanderse, will very easily hold their place with the first, as is sufficiently known to all those who have in any wise saluted the threshold of history, and as will also be confirmed by the following relation. The country of which we propose to speak, was first discovered in the year of our Lord 1609, by the s.h.i.+p Half Moon, of which Hendrik Hutson was master and supercargo--at the expense of the chartered East India Company, though in search of a different object. It was subsequently called New Netherland by our people, and very justly, as it was first discovered and possessed by Netherlanders, and at their cost; so that even at the present day, those natives of the country who are so old as to recollect when the Dutch s.h.i.+ps first came here, declare that when they saw them, they did not know what to make of them, and could not comprehend whether they came down from Heaven, or were of the Devil.

Some among them, when the first one arrived, even imagined it to be a fish, or some monster of the sea, and accordingly a strange report of it spread over the whole land. We have also heard the savages frequently say, that they knew nothing of any other part of the world, or any other people than their own, before the arrival of the Netherlanders. For these reasons, therefore, and on account of the similarity of climate, situation and fertility, this place is rightly called New Netherland.

It is situated on the northerly coast of America, in the lat.i.tude of 38, 39, 40, 41 and 42 degrees, or thereabouts, coast-wise. It is bounded on the northeast by New England, and on the southwest by Virginia. The coast runs nearly southwest and northeast, and is washed by the ocean.

On the north is the river of Canada, a large river running far into the interior. The northwest side is still partially unknown.

The land is naturally fruitful, and capable of supporting a large population, if it were judiciously allotted according to location. The air is pleasant here, and more temperate than in the Netherlands. The winds are changeable, and blow from all points, but generally from the southwest and northwest; the former prevailing in summer, and the latter in winter, at times very sharply, but const.i.tuting, nevertheless, the greatest blessing to the country as regards the health of the people, for being very strong and pure, it drives far inland or consumes all damps and superfluous moisture. The coast is generally clean and sandy, the beach detached and broken into islands. Eastward from the North River lies Long Island, about forty leagues in length, forming a fine wide river, which falls at either end into the ocean, and affording a very convenient pa.s.sage between the sh.o.r.es which is protected from the dangers of the sea by a great number of good bays and other places of anchorage, so that vessels even in winter can readily pa.s.s east and west. Towards the south approaching the South River, there are several inlets, but they are muddy and sandy, though after proper experiments they could be used. Inside these again there are large streams and meadows, but the waters are for the most part shallow. Along the seacoast the land is generally sandy or gravelly, not very high, but tolerably fertile, so that for the most part it is covered over with beautiful trees. The country is rolling in many places, with some high mountains, and very fine flats and maize lands, together with large meadows, salt and fresh, all making very fine hay land. It is overgrown with all kinds of trees, standing without order, as in other wildernesses, except that the maize lands, plains and meadows have few or no trees, and these with little pains might be made into good arable land.

The seasons are the same as in the Netherlands, but the summer is warmer and begins more suddenly. The winter is cold, and further inland, or towards the most northerly part, colder than in the Netherlands. It is also subject to much snow, which remains long on the ground, and in the interior, three, four and five months; but near the seacoast it is quickly dissolved by the southerly winds. Thunder, lightning, rain, showers, hail, snow, frost, dew and the like, are the same as in the Netherlands, except that in the summer sudden gusts of wind are somewhat more frequent.

The land is adapted to the production of all kinds of winter and summer fruits, and with less trouble and tilling than in the Netherlands. It produces different kinds of woods, suitable for building houses and s.h.i.+ps, whether large or small, consisting of oaks of various kinds, as post-oak, white smooth bark, white rough bark, gray bark, black bark, and still another kind which they call, from its softness, b.u.t.ter oak, the poorest of all, and not very valuable; the others, if cultivated as in the Netherlands, would be equal to any Flemish or Brabant oaks. It also yields several species of nut wood, in great abundance, such as oil-nuts, large and small; walnut of different sizes, in great abundance, and good for fuel, for which it is much used, and chestnut, the same as in the Netherlands, growing in the woods without order.

There are three varieties of beech--water beech, common Beech, and hedge beech--also axe-handle wood, two species of canoe wood, ash, birch, pine, fir, juniper or wild cedar, linden, alder, willow, thorn, elder, and many other kinds useful for many purposes, but unknown to us by name, and which we will be glad to submit to the carpenters for further examination.

The indigenous fruits consist princ.i.p.ally of acorns, some of which are very sweet; nuts of different kinds, chestnuts, beechnuts, but not many mulberries, plums, medlars, wild cherries, black currants, gooseberries, hazel nuts in great quant.i.ties, small apples, abundant strawberries throughout the country, with many other fruits and roots which the savages use. There is also plenty of bilberries or blueberries, together with ground-nuts and artichokes, which grow under ground. Almost the whole land is full of vines, in the wild woods as well as on the maize lands and flats; but they grow princ.i.p.ally near to and upon the banks of the brooks, streams and rivers, which are numerous, and run conveniently and pleasantly everywhere, as if they were planted there. The grapes comprise many varieties, some white, some very fleshy, and only fit to make raisins of, others on the contrary juicy; some are very large and others small. The juice is pleasant, and some of it as white as French or Rhenish wine; some is a very deep red, like Tent,(1) and some is paler. The vines run much on the trees, and are shaded by their leaves, so that the grapes ripen late and are a little sour; but with the intelligent a.s.sistance of man, as fine wines would undoubtedly be made here as in any other country. In regard to other fruits, all those which grow in the Netherlands also grow very well in New Netherland, without requiring as much care to be bestowed upon them as is necessary there.

Garden fruits succeed very well, yet are drier, sweeter, and more agreeable than in the Netherlands; for proof of which we may easily instance musk-melons, citrons or watermelons,(2) which in New Netherland grow right in the open fields, if the briars and weeds are kept from them, while in the Netherlands they require the close care of amateurs, or those who cultivate them for profit in gardens, and then they are neither so perfect by far, nor so palatable, as they are in New Netherland. In general all kinds of pumpkins and the like are also much drier, sweeter and more delicious, which is caused by the temperateness and amenity of the climate.

The tame cattle are in size and other respects about the same as in the Netherlands, but the English cattle and swine thrive and grow best, appearing to be better suited to the country than those from Holland.

They require, too, less trouble, expense and attention; for it is not necessary in winter to look after such as are dry, or the swine, except that in the time of a deep snow they should have some attention. Milch cows also are much less trouble than they are in Holland, as most of the time, if any care be requisite, it is only for the purpose of giving them occasionally a little hay.

The wild animals are princ.i.p.ally lines,(3) but they are few; bears, of which there are many, elks and deer in great numbers, some of which are entirely white, and others wholly black. The savages say that the white deer are of very great consequence in the estimation of the other deer, and are exceedingly beloved, regarded and honored by the others, but that the reverse is true of the black deer. There are various other large animals in the interior, but they are unknown to the Christians.

There are also wolves, dangerous only to small cattle, beavers, otters, weasels, wild cats, foxes, racc.o.o.ns, minks, hares, musk-rats, about as large as cats, pole-cats and squirrels, some of which can fly. There are also ground-hogs and other small animals, but they are for the most part, as we have said, not known to the Christians.

(1) A deep-red Spanish wine.

(2) The original has water-limoenen, water-citrons, for the watermelon, little known in Dutch gardens at this time, was regarded rather as a citron than as a melon.

(3) Panthers.

Of birds this country is by no means without its share. There are great numbers of birds of prey, as eagles of two kinds--the bald-headed, which has the head, tail and princ.i.p.al wing-feathers white, and the common kind; hawks, buzzards, sparrow-hawks, crows, chicken-hawks, and many others, yet all are birds of prey and capable of being trained and used for hunting, though they differ somewhat in shape from those in the Netherlands. There is also a bird which has its head like a cat, and its body like a large owl, colored white.(1) We know no name for it in the Netherlands, but in France it is called grand duc, and is esteemed very highly.

(1) The cat-owl or great barred own, bubo Virginia.n.u.s. It is not white, but neither is the grand duc, the European bubo. Van der Donck, in his _Beschryvinge_, says, "of a light ash color."

The other birds found in this country are turkies, the same as in the Netherlands, but they are wild, and are plentiest and best in winter; several kinds of partridges, some smaller than in the Netherlands, others larger, curlews, wood and water snipes, pheasants, heath-hens, cranes, herons, bitterns, mult.i.tudes of pigeons resembling ringdoves, but a little smaller; quails, merlins, thrushes, sh.o.r.e-runners, but in some respects different from those of the Netherlands. There are other small birds, some of which sing, but the names of most of them are unknown to us, and would take too long to enumerate. Water fowl are found here of different kinds, but all very good and fit to eat; such as the swans, similar to those in Netherlands and full as large; three kinds of geese, gray geese, which are the largest and best, bernicles and white-headed geese, ducks of different kinds, widgeons, divers, coots, cormorants and several others, but not so abundant as the foregoing.

The river fish are almost the same as in the Netherlands, comprising salmon, sturgeon, twelves, thirteens,(1) shad, carp, perch, pike, trout, roach, thickhead, suckers, sunfish, eel, nine-eyes or lampreys, both much more abundant and larger than in the Netherlands, besides many other valuable fish which we are unable to name.

(1) Striped ba.s.s and drum-fish.

In the salt water are caught codfish, haddock, weakfish, herring, mackerel, thornbacks, flounders, plaice, sheepshead, blackfish, sea-dogs, panyns and many others; also lobsters, crabs, great c.o.c.kles, from which the Indians make the white and black zeewant, oysters and muscles in great quant.i.ties with many other kinds of sh.e.l.l-fish very similar to each other, for which we know no names, besides sea and land tortoises.

The venomous animals consist, for the most part, of adders and lizards, though they are harmless or nearly so. There are snakes of different kinds, which are not dangerous and flee before men if they possibly can, else they are usually beaten to death. The rattlesnakes, however, which have a rattle on the tail, with which they rattle very loudly when they are angry or intend to sting, and which grows every year a joint larger, are very malignant and do not readily retreat before a man or any other creature. Whoever is bitten by them runs great danger of his life, unless great care be taken; but fortunately they are not numerous, and there grown spontaneously in the country the true snakeroot, which is very highly esteemed by the Indians as an unfailing cure.

The medicinal plants found in New Netherland up to the present time, by little search, as far as they have come to our knowledge, consist princ.i.p.ally of Venus' hair, hart's tongue, lingwort, polypody, white mullein, priest's shoe, garden and sea-beach orach, water germander, tower-mustard, sweet flag, sa.s.safras, crowfoot, platain, shepherd's purse, mallows, wild marjoram, crane's bill, marsh-mallows, false eglantine, laurel, violet, blue flag, wild indigo, solomon's seal, dragon's blood, comfrey, milfoil, many sorts of fern, wild lilies of different kinds, agrimony, wild leek, blessed thistle, snakeroot, Spanish figs which grow out of the leaves,(2) tarragon and numerous other plants and flowers; but as we are not skilled in those things, we cannot say much of them; yet it is not to be doubted that experts would be able to find many simples of great and different virtues, in which we have confidence, princ.i.p.ally because the Indians know how to cure very dangerous and perilous wounds and sores by roots, leaves and other little things.

(2) Probably the p.r.i.c.kly pear.

It is certain that the Indigo silvestris grows here spontaneously without human aid. It could be easily cultivated if there were people who would undertake it; at least, the other species would grow very well and yield a good profit. We have seen proof of this in the colony of Renselaerswyck, though it was all sown too late and upon a barren rock where there was little earth. It came up very well, but in consequence of the drought turned very yellow and withered, and was neglected; nevertheless it was evident that if it were well covered it would succeed. Madder plants also would undoubtedly grow well both in field and gardens, and better than in Zeeland.

There may be discovered casually or by little search, different minerals, upon some of which tests have been made according to our limited means, and which are found good. We have attempted several times to send specimens of them to the Netherlands, once with Arent van Corenben by way of New Haven and of England, but the s.h.i.+p was wrecked and no tidings of it have ever been received.(1) After that Director William Kieft also had many different specimens with him in the s.h.i.+p the Princess, but they were lost in her with him.(2) The mountains and mines nevertheless remain, and are easily to be found again whenever it may be thought proper to go to the labor and expense. In New England they have already progressed so far as to make castings of iron pots, tankards, b.a.l.l.s and the like out of their minerals, and we firmly believe all that is wanting here is to have a beginning made; for there are in New Netherland two kinds of marcasite, and mines of white and yellow quicksilver, of gold, silver, copper, iron, black lead and hard coal.

It is supposed that tin and lead will also be found; but who will seek after them or who will make use of them as long as there are not more people?

(1) Arent Corssen. Van der Donck says that he and Kieft saw an Indian painting his face with a s.h.i.+ning mineral. They had it a.s.sayed, and it proved to contain gold. Arent Corssen, sent to Holland with a bag of it, embarked early in 1646 in the "great s.h.i.+p" of New Haven, Captain George Lamberton, for whose return into the harbor as a phantom s.h.i.+p, months afterward, see Cotton Mather's _Magnalia_, I. 84 (ed. of 1853), and Longfellow's poem, "The Phantom s.h.i.+p."

(2) In August, 1647, some months after Stuyvesant's arrival, Kieft sailed for Holland. With him sailed his enemy Domine Bogardus, and the chief victims of his and Stuyvesant's persecution, Kuyter and Melyn. The s.h.i.+p was wrecked on the Welsh coast. Kieft was drowned; his opponents escaped.