SETTLEMENTS AT MANHATTAN; OTHER VOYAGES. man who came to such an untimely end was a notable instance of the irony of human destiny. * In all that he attempted he failed, and yet he achieved great results that were not contemplated in his schemes. He started two immense industries, the Spitzbergen whale-fisheries and the Hudson Bay fur trade; and he brought the Dutch to Manhattan Island."'* Because of Hudson's discoveries, the Dutch East India Company now claimed the right to possess and occupy the lands contiguous to the Hudson, and in 1613 several vessels were sent out to open trade with the natives. For this purpose a number of fortified trading houses on the island of Manhattan were established which constituted the nucleus of the present city of New York. Shortly after these trading posts were established, it is said that Argall, returning from his attack on the French settlements in New Eng Read, Jr., Historical Inquiry concerning Henry 189 land, entered the harbor and claimed the territory as a possession of the English king, and as the Dutch were too weak to dispute this claim they affected submission until his vessel was out of sight, when they reasserted their claim in the name of the Dutch East India Company. This statement is made by a number of historians and repeated by others, but lacks positive confirmation and is denied by the majority.* Meanwhile, on October 11, 1614, the States-General offered to grant a monopoly of the trade for four years to any enterprising traders who would fit out an expedition to colonize, and an Amsterdam Company which later became the New Netherland Company, sent out five ships.† Among these adventurers was Adriaen Block who went up the East River, ran through "Hellegat " or Hell Gate, and traced the shores of Long Island and the coast of Connecticut as far as Cape Cod. In 1611 Hendrick Christaensen of Cleves confirmed Hudson's report re Hudson; B. F. Da Costa, Sailing Directions of garding the fertility of the soil. Henry Hudson; Clifton Johnson, The Picturesque Hudson (1909); Edgar M. Bacon, Henry Hudson, His Times and Voyages (1907); the Narratives by Emanuel Metern and Robert Juet in J. F. Jameson, Narratives of New Netherland, pp. 6-8 (1909); Morris, Discoverers and Explorers of America, pp. 190-197; Asher, Henry Hudson the Navigator; Fiske, Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America, vol. i., pp. 80-95. See also the New York Historical Collections, 1st series, vol. i. *Fiske, Dutch and Quaker Colonies, vol. i., p. 94 (copyright by Houghton, Mifflin & Co.). For the derivation of the name Manhattan see Beauchamp,. Indian Names in New York, p. 45; cf. Brinton, Lanapé-English Dictionary, S. V. Menatey. VOL. I.- 13 Cornelis Jacobs May also sailed along the south side of Long Island and continued southward along the coast until he reached Delaware Bay which he explored. A few years later * See Brodhead, History of the State of New York, First Period, p. 54; Lamb, City of New York, vol. i., p. 38 note. Hildreth so states it, vol. i., p. 136. A translation of the charter is in New York Colonial Documents, vol. i., p. 11; also James Grant Wilson's Memorial History of the City of New York, vol. i., pp. 128-130. (1620), the first Englishman to visit the Dutch, Thomas Dermer, arrived at Manhattan Island and explored the Long Island Sound. In 1615 a fort was erected on Manhattan Island and another (Fort Nassau) a few miles below Albany. These were intended, however, more as trading posts or as centres of traffic with the Indians than as permanent settlements.* On June 3, 1621, after the Dutch East India Company had enjoyed its trade monopoly for three years, during which time its explorers had come in contact with the Mohawks, the easternmost of the Iroquois or Five Nations, and had succeeded in opening friendly relations with a number of other Indian tribes, the trading monopoly was transferred to the Dutch West India Company,† who were endowed for twenty-four years with the exclusive privilege of commercial relations with Africa and America, with the islands of the Pacific and with the undiscovered or uncertain lands in the southern the southern oceans. The Dutch West India Com *Fiske, Dutch and Quaker Colonies, vol. i., pp. 96-107; Brodhead, vol. i., p. 55; Doyle, The Middle Colonies, p. 7 (1907); Roberts, New York, vol. i., pp. 26-27. In 1617 Fort Nassau was washed away by a freshet when the ice in the Hudson broke up. See Lamb, City of New York, vol. i., p. 43. The creation of this company really dated from 1617, but its concessions were not finally obtained until 1621. Its capital stock was originally 3,000,000 florins which was later increased to 7,200,000 florins. Morris, History of Colonization, vol. i., p. 349 et seq. For details regarding the formation of this company, see Fiske, vol. i., pp. 107-113. On the charter, see Doyle, Middle Colonies, p. 9 et seq. pany, which combined military with commercial operations, was divided into nine chambers, four of which were in Amsterdam, while one each was established in five of the principal Dutch cities. An Assembly of Nineteen was appointed as a Board of Directors to manage its affairs, and the Company devoted the most particular attention to making reprisals on Spanish commerce, purchasing chasing slaves, the conquest of Brazil, etc.* Brazil, etc.* The Amsterdam Company had charge of New Netherland, and in 1623 this Chamber sent two vessels under the command of May to New Netherland and he became its first director. He stayed on the island for only one year, but during his brief administration a fort was built on the Delaware and another on the Hudson on the site of the present city of Albany which was named Fort Orange, and which superseded the original Fort Nassau.† The following year, 1624, May returned to America in command of a vessel which contained a number of Walloons, who had been denied the privi * Roberts, New York, vol. i., pp. 31-33. Most historians, however, say the company was divided into five chambers. The first correct translation of the Dutch charter into English will be found in the Van Rensselaer Bowier Manuscripts, edited by A. J. F. Van Laer, pp. 86-115 (Albany, 1908). See also Thorpe, Federal and State Constitutions, vol. i., pp. 59-67; Hazard, State Papers, vol. i., pp. 121-131. Journal of New Netherlands, Holland Documents, vol. i., p. 181; Wassenaer's Historisch Verhael, in Jameson, Narratives of New Nether land, pp. 75-76; Lamb, City of New York, vol. i., P. 49. MANHATTAN PURCHASED; INTERCOURSE WITH ENGLISH. lege of settling within the territory possessed by the Virginia Company. These Walloons were the first colonists to settle on Long Island and they established their homes on the northwest corner of the island at Waal-bogt -"Walloon's Bay "-now Wall * See Putnam, Origin of Breuckelen in the Half-Moon series; Brodhead, vol. i., p. 155. On the attempts of the English to claim the territory see Fiske, Dutch and Quaker Colonies, vol. i., p. 113 et seq. † Lamb, City of New York, vol. i., p. 54. + As the purchasing power of gold dollars was then at least five times as great as at the present day, the purchase price was equivalent to not less than $120. Since that time the value of the land and buildings has risen so enormously that in 1913 the assessed valuation of realty in Manhattan was over $5,000,000,000. 191 Sunday worship.* Large farms were laid out in the meadows along the East Rivert and these were stocked with cattle, sheep, goats, swine and horses and planted with fruit trees and gardens. Soon after their arrival, the Dutch sent to Holland specimens of rye, wheat, flax, barley, etc., in proof of their assertions as to the fertility of the soil, and also sent specimens of peltries of all sorts and pieces of oak timber and hickory.‡ The fur trade had now reached an export value of about $20,000 yearly, but as yet (up to 1627) the Dutch had not begun to make any actual colonization and settlement on the banks of the Hudson. They were content to have friendly intercourse with the English at Plymouth and to enjoy the profits of trade with the Indians in the interior. In March, 1627, Minuit wrote to Governor Bradford of Plymouth making suggestions regarding the trade of both colonies with the Indians. After further correspondence on the subject,|| Minuit sent Isaack de Rasières, secretary of the Dutch colony, to consult with Bradford concerning this matter. While *The site of this first house of Christian worship on Manhattan Island is 32-34 South William Street Jameson, Narratives of New Netherland, pp. 83-84, and note p. 84. See the letter of Isaack de Rasières in Jameson, p. 104, which will also be found in Collections of the New York Historical Society, series ii., vol. ii., pp. 339–354. Jameson, pp. 82-83. The correspondence will be found in the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, vol. iii., pp. 51-57, New York Historical Society Collections, series ii., vol. i., pp. 355-360. the New Englanders paid the embassador every courtesy, they did not fail to remind him with characteristic feeling on the subject that the English laid claim to the region now being occupied by the Dutch, and when the English thought they had established a just claim to anything, they were not likely to give it up either easily or graciously. Minuit reported this proceeding to the home government, and the States-General immediately sent him a command of 40 soldiers, the first standing army in the colonies. Charles I., however, settled this dispute for the time by proclaiming that the treaty of Southampton granted the Dutch freedom of trade with England and her dependencies, though he in no way recognized the Dutch title to New Netherland. Upon this basis the matter rested for some years.† The Assembly of Nineteen had now drawn up a plan of colonization, and in 1629 the States-General was induced to accept it. This was known as the charter of "Privileges and Exemptions." ‡ "Any member of the Company who might establish in any part of New Netherland, within Lamb, City of New York, vol. i., p. 58. . Fiske, Dutch and Quaker Colonies, vol. i., pp. 123–125; Bancroft, vol. i., p. 496. The Dutch text of this charter with an English translation will be found in van Laer's edition of the Van Rensselaer Bowier Manuscripts, pp. 136-153. English translations will also be found in N. Y. Col. Docs., vol. ii., pp. 553-557; in O'Callaghan, History of New Netherland, vol. i., pp. 112-120; and in Jameson, Narratives of New Netherland, pp. 90-96. See Appendix to this chapter. four years after notice of his intention, a colony of fifty persons upwards of fifteen years of age, was to be entitled, by the name of Patroon, to a grant of territory so occupied, sixteen miles in extent along the sea shore, or the bank of some navigable river, or eight miles where both banks were occupied, with an indefinite extent inland. The island of Manhattan and the fur trade with the Indians were expressly reserved to the Company; and upon all trade carried on by the patroons an acknowledgment of five per cent. was to be paid. These patroons were to extinguish the Indian title, and were to settle their lands with tenants, farmers having indented servants the same with those in Virginia; but the feudal privileges reserved to the patroons, some traces of which still exist, present a marked difference between this Dutch scheme of settlement, and the free tenure of lands adopted in Virginia. Free settlers who emigrated at their own expense, were to be allowed as much land as they could cultivate, and settlers of every description were to be free of taxes for ten years. The colonists were forbidden to make any woolen, linen or cotton cloth, or to weave any other stuffs, on pain of being banished, and arbitrarily punished as perjurers,' a regulation in the spirit of that colonial system adopted by all the nations of Europe, who sought to confine the colonists to the production of articles of export, and to keep them dependent upon the |