Copyright^ COPYRIGHT DEPOSm I STO R.v ■ " O F ^ y ( . 3/iyOf TOISMOT - tft- William L.^tone. pRTl K^Y©HSTOK ^BEWIO^K 7fe. HISTORY OF NEW YOEK CITY FROM THE DISCOVEKY TO THE PRESENT DAY, BY WILLIAM L. STONE, AUTHOR OF "THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON, BART."; " LIFE AND WRITINGS OF COL. WM. L STONE " ; ETC., ETC., ETC. "HUMANI NIHIL ALIENUM.' NEW YORK : VIRTUE & YORSTON 12 DEY STREET. 1872. En'ered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1372. by VIRTUE & YORSTON, In the Oflice of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington bs^ Anderson iT--' Ramsay, Printers, 28 Frankfort Street, -V. TO HORACE GREELEY and MARSHALL 0. ROBERTS, REPRESENTATIVE MEN NEW YORK CITY, AS A SLIGHT ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF THE MANY COURTESIES WHICH HE HAS RECEIVED FROM THEM, ®Ijts Volume RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, BY THEIR FRIEND, THE AUTHOR. PREFACE. Perhaps, in the history of the world, no other city has risen, in the same space of time, to such pre- eminent commercial importance as the city of New York. To the student, the merchant, the philosopher, and the statesman, every incident connected with its rise and progress must be of the greatest interest. Histories of the city of New York have been before this submitted to the public, but it is believed that none of them have met the requirements of a work like the present, — one which, while it aims to be an authority for the future historian, shall be desirable for general reading. In the preparation of this volume, the author has derived very great aid from the unpublished manuscripts of his father, the author of " Brant " and " Red-Jacket." Many of these consist of conversations yj PREFACE and narratives taken down by him from the lips of men who took a prominent part in the public affairs of the city from the period of the American Revo- lution down to the year 1844. Conversations, for example, with Aaron Burr, Chancellor Livingston, Nicholas Bayard, Chief - Justice Yates, John Jay, Robert Morris, Morgan Lewis, William Maxwell, Robert Troup, Josiah Ogden Hoffman, Dr. Francis, and others, contain much that is new and especially valuable, not only to the historical scholar, but to the mere lover of curious and entertaining reading. In this work will be found, entire, three valuable contributions to the history of the city. These are, first, the narrative of the Grand Erie Canal Cele- bration, written, at the request of the Corporation of the City of New York, by the late Colonel William L. Stone ; second, an account of the Pro- cession in Honor of the Adoption of the Federal Constitution in 1788, and Washington's Reception and Inauguration Ball, in 1789, by the same author ; and, third, Reminiscences of New York City, by the late Gulian C. Verplanck, first given under the nom de plume of " Francis Herbert," in the Talisman for 1829-'30. These narratives, alone, should make this work of particular value, since, as is well known to PREFACE. v ij book-collectors, they can only be obtained with diffi- culty and at a high price. The writer himself, also, has enjoyed peculiar advantages of a similar kind for gaining accurate and extended knowledge of events which, although of comparatively recent date, are fast fading from the minds of the present generation. Of these may be mentioned the Great Fires of 1811 and 1835, the Reception of General Lafayette in 1824 ; and the " Trinity Church," " Five Points," " Flour," and " Stone-cutters' " Riots — the facts of which were in part communicated to him by one who was an active participant in those scenes, — the late Gabriel P. Disosway, of Staten Island, the well-known anti- quarian and local writer. The author has likewise derived much assistance from conversations held with General Prosper M. Wet- more, Chief-Justice C. P. Daly, the late venerable David T. Valentine, — for many years clerk of the Common Council, — and from the writings of Colonel Thomas F. Devoe, Mr. Asher Taylor, and Miss Mary L, Booth. His thanks are also due to President James B. Angell, of the University of Michigan ; Colonel Silas W. Burt, Franklin Burdge, Esq., Dr. Joseph W. Richards, and Manuel C. Jordan, of New York viii PREFACE. city ; Dr. E. P. Buffett, Lewis A. Brigham, Esq., and B. VV. Throckmorton, Esq., of Bergen, N. J. ; Waldo M. Potter, Esq., of Davenport, Iowa ; and Hon. Judge C. S. Lester and Dr. R. L. Allen, of Saratoga Springs, N. Y., for valuable suggestions. Nor must he forget to make special mention of the kindness of Lucien B. Stone, Esq., the well-known Broad-street banker, for assistance in gathering important statistics. In the hope that, whatever defects there may be in his work, he will, at least, be credited with the desire of performing his task conscientiously, the author submits this volume to the kind consideration of his fellow-citizens. William L. Stone. CONTENTS. FIRST PERIOD. 1598-1674. CHAPTER I. 1598—1647. Hendrick Hudson not the Discoverer of the Island of Manhattan— Topography of New York Island — The Dutch make Manhattan the Depot of the Fur Tradh in America — The States-General encourage Emigration — The Dutch and Iroquois conclude a Treaty of Peace— The New Netherland, with Thirty Families, arrives at New Amsterdam — Peter Minuit is appointed Director- General of New Netherland— The Inhahitants turn their attention to Ship- building — Minuit returns to Holland— Arrival of Wouter Van Twiller — His Incompetency— The " Staple Right " granted— Arrival of Governor Kieft — Van Twiller drinks confusion to the English Government — Ferry estab- lished across the East River — The Fur Trade keeps pace with the prosperity of the Town — The Patroon System a failure — Guns and Powder forbidden to be sold to the Indians— Salaries of the early Officials— The Patroons give fresh trouble — The Colonists neglect Agriculture — The Streets begin to be better laid out — Wampum, and a description of it — More attention paid to the English Language — Rise in the price of Beaver Skins — Interference of New England Adventurers — Kieft becomes involved in an Indian War — Illicit Trade carried on at Albany — Death of Kieft. CHAPTER II. 1G47— 1G74. Governor Stuy vesant arrives at Manhattan — Finds the Colony in a " low con- dition" — Improves the Town^rrjide__opened to Private Persons— Regu- lation of Taverns — No Person to carry on Business unless he takes the Oath of Allegiance— Naval War breaks out between England and the United xii CONTENTS — Ferry Street ceded to the City — Moravian Chapel built ia Fulton Street — First Merchants' Exchange erected at the foot of Broad Street — St. George's Chapel built — Its History — Origin of the yearly Appropriation for the City Manual. CHAPTER V. 1753—1765. Arrival of Sir Danvers Osborne as Governor — James De Lancey commissioned Lieutenant-Governor — Mr. Clinton Insulted — Suicide of Sir Danvers Os- borne — Causes which led to the act — De Lancey assumes the Reins of Gov- ernment — Want of harmony in the General Assembly — The Province of New York divided into two Sects, under the lead of De Lancey and Liv- ingston — The People of New York raise Money with which to Found a College — The majority of the Trustees of the College Episcopalians — Trouble arises on this account — Mr. Livingston writes against the Man- agement of the College in the Independent Reflector — Efforts to prevent the Incorporation of Columbia College fruitless — The granting of its Cbarter displeases the People — De Lancey endeavors to assuage their Resentment — Urges the passage of several popular Acts — Sir Charles Har- dy arrives as the successor of Clinton — Becomes tired of an inactive life, and takes command of the Expedition against Lewisburg — Lord Loudon Outrages the citizens of New York — Soldiers billeted upon the people — Death of Chief-Justice De Lancey — Particulars of his Death — Character of Mr. De Lancey — General Amherst visits New York, and receives an Ovation — City illuminated on the Occasion — Work of improving the City advances rapidly — Light-house erected on Sandy Hqok — Two Ferries estab- lished — The first Stage starts from New York for Philadelphia — Time three days — Second Stage advertised for same Route — Stages begin their Trips between New York and Albany — The Line extended to old Fort Schuyler (Utica) — Contrast between that and the Present Day — The Meth- odists first organize in the City — Several new Streets Opened. CHAPTER VI. 1761—1770. The Government Devolves on Dr. Colden — Major-General Monckton Appointed Governor — Sails from New York, leaving the Government in the hands of Dr. Colden — The Administration of Governor Colden — An unfortunate Appointment — " Writs of Assistance" — James Otis — His Speech — Living- ston, Scott, and Smith do battle for the People — New York follows the wake of her Puritan Neighbors — Colden entertains doubts of the Result — Grenville and North devise the Plan of raising a Revenue by the Sale of Stamps — Troubles in Massachusetts — The People of New York bitterly oppose the Stamp Act — Organization of the Sons of Liberty — Compel the Stamp Distributors to Resign — Posting of Placards — Colden is terrified — Shuts himself up in the Fort — He and Lord Bute are hung in Effigy — Col- den's Carriage burnt — Arrival of the new Governor, Sir Henry Moore, Bart. — The Corporation offer him the Freedom of the City, which he refuses unless on Stamped Paper — Colden retires in disgust to his Country-seat — More Trouble from the Sons of Liberty — They compel a Stamp-Distributor to resign — Hold Correspondence with other Cities — Repeal of the Stamp Act — New York rejoices — Mast erected to George III — Opening Speeeh of Governor Moore — Troubles in Dutchess County — The Rioters brought to Reason — Methodist Denomination organized — First Medical School organ- ized — New Streets Opened — The British Cabinet regret the Repeal of the Stamp Act — New York declines Obedience to the Mutiny Act — The Func- CONTENTS. Xlll tions of the New York Assembly annulled-Boston sympathizes with New York-Writs issued for a new Assembly-The Assembly firm in maintaining its Constitutional Rights-Sir Henry Moore dissolves the LsemUy-The new Election hotly contested-Death of Governor Moore _Dr CoWen assumes the reins of Government for the third time-Active Measures taken by the Sons of Liberty to oppose the Mutiny Act-Large Assembly in the " Fields" (present City ^Hal 1 Park)-Hat red ^ be twee* the Soldiers and Sons of Liberty-Battle of Golden Hill-First Blood shed in the American Revolution at Golden Hill. CHAPTEE VII. 1770—1788. John Earl of Dunmore, succeeds Sir Henry Moore as Governor-Description of the new Governor in a Letter to Sir William Johnson-Sir William Tryon Bart , succeeds Dunmore as Governor and Commander-in-Chief— N ew York Hospital Founded-Meeting of the Assembly-The Governor is rendered independent of the Colony-The Sons of Liberty hold a Pub he Meeting- Tea Commissioners resign-Tryon concedes a little to Public Opimon- The Assembly do not share in the Indignation of the People-Tryon s Administration comes to an End-Profound Tranquility prevails-The Sternfat length breaks-The Nancy boarded in New York Bay and her Car«ro of Tea thrown overboard-New York forms a Provincial Congress- Tryon sails for England-General Condition of Affairs- Washington visits New York-Honors paid to him- Washington places the City under Com- mand of General Schuyler, and departs for Boston-The Assembly ask the Crown for a Redress of Grievances-Description of the principal ^Fortifica- tions erected at this time for the Defense of the City-The British Army land on Long Island-Battle of Long Island-The Americans effect a masterlj Retreat across the East River to New York Island-Indignation of Wash- ington— Battle of Harlem-Fort Washington captured— Fort Lee evacu- ated- Washington retreats across New Jersey-The British in Possession of the City— Great Fire— Suspicion of it having been caused by Design- Ground covered by the Fire-Trinity Church and the Lutheran Chapel destroyed— The History of New York City during its Occupation by the British not one that Americans can recall with Pleasure-The old Sugar- bouse-The Jersey Prison-ship-Prison-pens of the City-Crue ties in- flicted upon the Prisoners-Account by an Eye-witness of the terrible Out- rages perpetrated on the Americans-The British Officers and their Wives meanwhile, pass their time in Frivolity-View of the interior and Social Life of New York at this time by Mrs. General Riedesel-Scarcity of \\ ood -Remarkablv cold Winter- Wall Street lined with Trees- 1 he House N Tl Toadway the Head-quarters of the British Officers-T he Beekman House (site of the present Journal of Commerce Building) the Head-quar- ters of the British Naval Officers-The British evacuate New York- W ash- ington enters the City— The American Flag run up on the Battery. CHAPTER VIII. 1725—1787. History of the Newspapers published in New York City before and during the Revolution-New York totte-New York Weekly Journal-Evening Post -New York Jfcrcury-New York Chronicle-Xw York Journal, or Gen- eral Advertiser-- Parker's Gazette— Independent Gazette-Bimngtons New Y,'rh r/«6«V-New York lioyal Gazette-Xevr York Gazette and Univer- sal Advertiser— The Press of New York City. xiv CONTENTS THIRD PEEIOD 1783-187S. CHAPTER I. 1783—1788. The Position of New York among the Colonies — Financial Distress at the clos>> of the War — New York City celebrates with a magnificent Procession the , Adoption of the Federal Constitution — Full Description of the Procession- ' It is dismissed at the Bowling Green with a Salute. CHAPTER II. 1788—1795. Winter Festivities of 1788-1789 succeeded by matters of a Public Nature — The Senate and House of Representatives assemble in the City preparatory to Inauguration of Washington as President of the United States — The Mem- bers from the different States arrive slowly — Arrival of Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia — John Langdon elected President of the Senate pro tern., and Samuel A. Otis, Secretary— A Committee wait on Washington at Mt. Vernon — Washington repairs to New York— His Triumphal Entrance into New York — Honors paid him — The day one of unmingled Joy — Inaugura tion of President Washington — Minute Details — Chancellor Livingston administers the Oath of Office — Washington delivers his Inaugural Address — Feelings of a Gentleman present on the Occasion — Washington issues a Proclamation for a Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer — The Day closes by a Displav of Fiie-works — Description of the Illumination of various Private Residences during the Evening — The different Transparencies, &c, &c. — The President occupied for seseral days in receiving the Congratulatory and Official Calls — Mrs. Washington arrives in New York to attend the « Inauguration Ball — She is met by her Husband at Elizabethtown-Point — UFullTind minute Description of the Ball— The People who attended— The Toilets worn on the Occasion — Mrs. General Knox enters the Ball-room with President Washington and his Wife, with the Intention of being seated on the same Sofa — Meets with Disappointment, as the Sofa is not large enough for three — The French Minister gives a. fete in honor of Washington — Dresses of the Ladies on that Occasion — The Levees of Washington far more select than those of his Successors — Dignified Man- ners of Lady Washington — Personal Appearance of Lady Washington — Her Levees close at Nine ! — Late Hours at that time not necessary to Fash- ion — Letter from John Pintard describing Mrs. Washington's first Levee 'd Pcblic School Society, by Hon. Hooper i "•' ret the Oldex Time, by Right Reverend Bishop Kip. W a guest of Taitma.vy. Lu sper M. Wetn. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Engravings on Steel. 1 Entrance of the American Army into New York, Nov. 25th, . . . Fronosi 2 The Inauguration of Washington *'. Battle of Harlem ™ face ? "-" a Destructicn of the Gaspe, : 72 " "' 5. Portraits of Gov. G. Clinton, Gen. Gates, Gen. Schuyler, Gen. Montsomerv, Gen. J. Clinton 6. Battle of Lexington 7. Battle of Bunker's Hill '/'''["„'' "^ 8 Plan showing the position of the American and Br::, , 240 Ausust, 1770 n Portrait of General Washington, after Trumbull -+9 j 200 10. Capture of Major Andre • • - • " „ Reception of President Washington in New York, :;- April, r 272 12. Portrait of Washington in 1795, after Stuart - , , John Adams, after Copley - : - - : 14! Portraits of Gen. Steuben, Gen. Pulaski, Gen. I Kosciusko, Gen. De Kalb 1-. Portrait of Mrs. Washington, after Wo; 16. 1: Thomas Jefferson, after Bouch James Monroe, after Stuart t g . jimes Madison, after Stuart De Witt Clinton : Beniamin Franklin, after Duplessis 45 6 19. 20. Wood Engravings, Etc. Half Moon" 10 1. Hendrick Hudson's Exploring Vessel, the " 2. First Settlement on the Hudson 13 3. The Swamp 4 First Saw-mill on the Hudson 5. Dutch Mansion and Cottage in Ne* am =9 -6. Seals of New A I 7. Street View in Ancient Albany ILLUSTRATIONS. 8. Old Dutch Church, Albany 45 9. View of New Amsterdam 58 10. Portrait of Peter Stuyvesant 65 1 1 . Bowling Green in 1861 79 1 2. Hell Gate 84 13. Turtle Bay and Blackwell's Island 85 14. Map of New York City, taken in 1 728 130 1 5. No. 1 Broadway, fifty years ago 153 16. St. George's Chapel 169 17. St. George Building, 1870 169 18. Old King's College 176 19. Columbia College, 1840 178 20. Columbia College, 1872 1 80 21. Sandy Hook from the Light-house 185 22. Parker's Mail Stage 189 23. The Old Walton House 220 24. Kip's Bay House 247 25. View from Fort Lee 249 26. Washington Heights 251 27. Trinity Church 252 28. Old Sugar House, Liberty street 253 29. The Tombs 271 30. Bowling Green in 1783 273 31. Federal Hall 302 32. President Washington's House in New York 316 33. Tontine Coffee-house in 1812 320 34. Tontine Building in 1872 327 35. Society Library Building 345 36. The Grange — Hamilton's Residence 346 37. Richmond Hill — Burr's Residence 346 38. Tomb of Hamilton 347 39. Burr-Hamilton Duelling Ground 347 40. The Clermont — Fulton's First Steamer 351 41. Catskill Landing 352 42. The Thomas Powell Steamer off the Storm King 354 43. Fulton Ferry in 1740 357 44. Fort Hamilton 359 45. Monument to General Montgomery 373 46. Fort Lafayette 383 ILLUSTRATIONS. 47. The Navy Yard, Brooklyn 386 48. Sandy Hook 390 49. Provost or Debtors' Prison 470 50. Merchants' Exchange before the Fire of 1835. 476 51. after the Fire of 1835 (front) 477 52. (rear) 478 53. Ready-money Provost's Tomb 491 54. The Old Bridewell 497 5 5. Mouth of the Croton 500 56. Croton Aqueduct 501 57. Croton Dam 502 58. High Bridge 502 59. Bloomingdale Road 503 60. View in Central Park 503 61. Manhattan ville 1504 62. Distributing Reservoir and Rutger's Institute 505 63. Barnum's Museum and St. Paul's Chapel 511 64. Fifth Avenue Hotel 513 65. Union Square 514 66. Martyr's Monument 515 67. Monument to General Worth 515 68. Middle Dutch Church 517 69. Terrace and Mall, Central Park 530 70. First Fire Engine in New York in 1730 578 71. Another view 579 72. National Academy of Design 588 73. The Old Brick Church 591 74. North Dutch Church . 593 75. Stuy vesant Pear Tree 5 96 76. Hudson River R. R. Freight Depot 599 jy. New York Life Assurance Building 603 78. Equitable Life Assurance Building 604 79. Young Men's Christian Association Building 608 80. Booth's Theatre 609 81. Harper & Brothers' Building 635 82. Virtue & Yorston's Building 636 83. Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb 639 84. Bible House, Cooper Union, and Clinton Hall 649 85. St. Mark's Church and Historical Society's Building 656 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. The history of new york naturally divides itself into three periods of time: — First — from its settlement by the dutch to ITS PERMANENT OCCUPANCY BY THE ENGLISH ; Second — FROM THE ENG- LISH CONQUEST TO THE CLOSE OF THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR ; AND, Third — FROM ITS EVACUATION BY THE BRITISH DOWN TO THE PRESENT DAY. FIEST PEEIOD. 1598-1674. The settlement of New York Island by the Dutch, and its permanent occupancy by the English. CHAPTER I. It is the general belief that the first landing made on New York Island, or the " Island of Manhattan," as it was then called, was by Hendrick Hudson, in 1G09. 1 508 This, however, is not the case ; since the earliest records extant state that as early as 1598, a few Holland- ers, in the employ of a Greenland Company, were in the habit of resorting to New Netherlands («. e., New York), not, it is true, with the design of effecting a settlement, but merely to secure shelter during the winter months. With this view they built two small forts to protect themselves 2 10 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. against the Indians. Nevertheless, the fact remains un- disputed, that to Hudson belongs the honor of being the first who directed public attention to the Island of Man- hattan as an advantageous point for a trading port in the New World. On the 4th of April, 1609, the great navigator sailed out of the harbor of Amsterdam, and ' by twelve of ye clocke" of the Gth he was two leagues oil' 1009. THE " HALF-MOON. the land. He was in the employ of the Dutch East India Company, who had commissioned him to seek a passage to the East Indies by the north side of Nova Zembla. Having, however, found the sea at that part full of ice, he turned the prow of his little vessel, the Half-Moon, west- ward, and, after a month's cruise, reached the great Bank of Newfoundland on the 2d of July Thence he sailed HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 11 southward to the James River, Virginia, and again alter- ing his course— still in pursuit of a new channel to India— FIRST SETTLEMENT OX THE HUDSON. lie coasted along the shores of New Jersey, and on the 2d of September, 1609, cast anchor inside of Sandy Hook. The topography of New York Island, as it was first seen by Hudson, was as follows : "The lower part of it consisted of wood-crowned hills and beautiful grassy valleys, including a chain of swamps and marshes and a deep pond. Northward, it rose into a rocky, high ground. The sole inhabitants were a tribe of dusky Indians,— an off-shoot from the great nation of the Lenni Lenape, who inhabited the vast territory bounded by the Penobscot and Potomac, the Atlantic and Missis- sippi—dwelling in the clusters of rude wigwams that dotted here and there the surface of the country. The 12 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. rivers that gird the Island were as yet unstirred by the keels of ships, and the bark canoes of the native Man- hattans held sole possession of the peaceful waters. " The face of the country, more particularly described, was gently undulating, presenting every variety of hill and dale, of brook and rivulet. The upper part of the Island was rocky, and covered by a dense forest ; the lower part grassy, and rich in wild fruits and flowers. Grapes and strawberries grew in abundance in the fields, and nuts of various kinds were plentiful in the forests, which were also filled with abundance of game. The brooks and ponds were swarming with fish, and the soil was of lux- uriant fertility. In the vicinity of the present "' Tombs " was a deep, clear, and beautiful pond of fresh water (with a picturesque little island in the middle) — so deep, indeed, that it could have floated the largest ship in our navy, — which was for a long time deemed bottomless by its pos- sessors. This was fed by large springs at the bottom, which kept its waters fresh and flowing, and had its out- let in a little stream that flowed into the East River, near the foot of James street. Smaller ponds dotted the Island in various places, two of which, lying near each other, in the vicinity of the present corner of the Bowery and Grand street, collected the waters of the high grounds which surrounded them. To the north-west of the Fresh Water Pond, or "Kolck," as it afterwards came to be called, beginning in the vicinity of the present Hudson River Railroad and Freight Depot (formerly St. John's Park), and extending to the northward over an area of some seventy acres, lay an immense marsh, filled with reeds and brambles, and tenanted with frogs and water- snakes. A little rivulet connected this marsh with the Fresh Water Pond, which was also connected — by the stream which formed its outlet — with another strip of marshy land, covering the region now occupied by James, HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 13 Cherry, and the adjacent streets. An unbroken chain of waters was thus stretched across the Island from James street at the south-east to Canal street at the north-west. An inlet occupied the place of Broad street, a marsh cov- THE SWAMP. erect the vicinity of Ferry street, Rutgers street formed the center of another marsh, and a long line of meadows and swampy ground stretched to the northward along the eastern shore. "The highest line of lands lay along Broadway, from the Battery to the northernmost part of the Island, form- ing its backbone, and sloping gradually to the east and west. On the corner of Grand street and Broadway was a high hill, commanding a view of the whole Island, and falling off gradually to the Fresh Water Pond. To the south and west, ihe country, in the intervals of the marshes, was of great beauty — rolling, grassy, fertile, and well watered. A high range of sand hills traversed a part of the Island, from Varick and Charlton to Eighth and Greene streets. To the north of these lay a valley, through which ran a brook, which formed the outlet of 14 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. the springy marshes at Washington Square, and emptied into the North River at the foot of Hammersly street." * Meanwhile, Hudson, having explored the river that bears his name as far as the present city of Albany, set sail on the 4th of October for Europe, bearing the news of the discovery of a new country — the " opening for a new commerce;" for although his patrons were disappointed in not finding a short road to the land of silks, teas, and spices, still, his great discovery was destined to open in future time mines of wealth, more valuable than all the imagined riches of the Celestial Empire. At that period, Holland carried on a lucrative trade with the East Indies and Russia. Every year they dis- patched nearly one hundred ships to Archangel for furs ; but Hudson's glowing accounts of the rich peltry he had seen in the newly-discovered regions, soon turned the attention of the busy Dutch to a country where these articles could be purchased without the taxes of custom- houses and other duties. Accordingly, in the year 1610, a few merchants dispatched another vessel, under the command of the Half-Moon's former mate, to traffic in furs with the Indians. This venture met with such success, that, two years after, in 1612, 1 til 2 ii%/ i > the Fortune and the Tiger, commanded, respect- ively, by Hendrick Christiaensen and Adrien Block, sailed on a trading voyage to the "Mauritius River," as the Hudson was first named. The following year, also, three more vessels, commanded by Captains De Witt, Volckert- sen, and Wey, sailed from Amsterdam and Hoven on a similar adventure. These were the beginnings of the important fur trade, which was, ere long, to be a chief source of wealth to Holland and America. It was now determined to open a regular communication with the * Miss M. L. Booth's History of New York. HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 15 newly-discovered region, and to make the Island of Man- hattan the depot of the fur trade in America. It was also resolved to establish permanent agents here for the purchase and collection of skins, while the vessels were on their voyages to and from Holland. Captain Hen- drick Christiaensen became the first agent, and built a redoubt, with four small houses, on ground which, it is said, is now the site of No. 39 Broadway. A little navy was commenced about the same period by Captain Adrien Block, one of the vessels of which was accidentally burned, just on the eve of his departure for Holland. Having abundant materials, however, in the Island of Manhattan, he finished another; and, in the spring of 1614, launched the first vessel ever built ^^ in New Amsterdam. She was named the Restless, a yacht of sixteen tons— a name prophetic of the ever- busy and future great city. The entire winter passed in building the vessel, the Indians kindly supplying the strangers with food. Such were the earliest movements of commerce in New Netherlands two centuries and a half ago ! A few months before Captain Block's return to Hol- land, the States-General of the Netherlands, with a view of encouraging emigration, passed an ordinance granting the discoverers of new countries the exclusive privilege of trading at Manhattan during four years. Accordingly, the merchants who had sent out the first expedition had a map made of all the country between Canada and Vir- ginia, as the whole new region was called, and, claiming to be the original discoverers, petitioned the Government for the promised monopoly. Their petition was granted ; and on the 11th of October, 1614, they obtained a charter for the exclusive right of trade on the territory withm the 40th and 45th degrees of north latitude. The charter also forbade all ether persons to interfere with this mo- X6 HISTORY OP NEW YOEK CITY. nopoly, in the penalty of confiscating both vessels and cargoes, with a fine also of 50,000 Dutch ducats for the benefit of the charter's grantees. The new province first formally received the name of New Netherland in this document ; and Dutch merchants, associating themselves under the name of the " United New Netherland Com- pany," straightway prepared to conduct their operations on a more extensive scale. Trading parties to the in- terior hastened to collect furs from the Indians, and de- posit them at Forts Nassau (Albany) and Manhattan. Jacob Eelkins, a shrewd trader, received the appointment of agent at the former place, where the first one, Captain Christiaensen, had been murdered by an Indian. This was the first murder ever recorded in the new province. In the year 1617, a formal treaty of peace and alliance was concluded between the Dutch and the powerful nation of the Iroquois. The pipe of peace was smoked, and the hatchet buried in the earth, on the present site of Albany. This treaty, as may readily be imagined, greatly increased the prosperity of the Dutch traders, who had hitherto occupied Manhattan merely by the sufferance of the Indians. Their agents accordingly at once extended their trips further into the interior, obtaining on each trip valuable furs in exchange for the muskets and ammunition so much coveted by the na- tives This trade became so profitable, that when the charter of the United New Netherland Company expired, in 1618, they petitioned for a renewal, but failing to ob- tain it, they continued their trade two or three years longer, under a special license. Up to this period, the Hollanders had considered Manhattan as a trading post only, and dwelt in mere temporary huts of rude construction. But the British now explored the American coast, claiming the whole region between Canada and Virginia, from the Atlantic HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 17 to the Pacific Ocean, and the Dutch, consequently, be- gan to realize the importance of securing their American possessions in the new province. The English Puritans, hearing glowing accounts of New Netherlands, requested permission to emigrate thither with their families. But the States-General, having other plans in view, refused the prayers of the Puritans. They thought it better policy to supply the new province with their own coun- trymen, and on the 3d of June, 1G21, granted a. charter to the West India Company for twenty years, which conferred upon that body the exclusive jurisdiction over New Netherland. It may well be ques- tioned whether the States-General acted wisely in the course thus pursued. Had they filled the land, as the English were doing, with crowds of hardy, moral emi- grants and pioneers — farmers with their cattle and hus- bandry — the Dutch settlements would have advanced with far greater rapidity. Be this, however, as it may, the West India Company no sooner became possessed of the charter, than it at once became a power in the new country. Having the exclusive right of trade and com- merce in the Atlantic, from the Tropic of Cancer to the Cape of Good Hope upon the Eastern Continent, and from Newfoundland to Magellan Straits on the Western, its influence over this immense territory was almost bound- less in making contracts with the Indians, building forts, administering justice, and appointing public officers. In return, the chartered Company pledged itself to colonize the new territory. The government of this association was vested in five separate chambers or boards of manage- ment, in five of the principal Dutch cities, viz: Amsterdam, Middleburg, Dordrecht, one in North Holland, and one in Friesland. The details of its management were intrusted to an executive board of nineteen, commonly called the Assembly of Nineteen. The States-General further promis- 3 18 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. ed, on their part, to give the Company a million of guild ers, and in case of war, to supply ships and men. Mean- while, the Puritans, not disheartened, reached Plymouth Rock, and thus conveyed their faith and traffic to the shores of New England, where they continue to this day. The West India Company now began to colonize the new province with fresh zeal. The Amsterdam Chamber in 1G23, fitted out a ship of 250 tons, the New Nether- land^ in which thirty families embarked for the distant territory whose name she bore. Captain VV r ey commanded the expedition, having been appointed the 1G23. FIRST SAW-MILL ON THE HUDSON. first director of the province. Most of these colonists were Walloons, or French Protestants, from the borders HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 19 of France and Belgium, who sought in a strange land a refuge from religious persecutions. With the arrival of the New Netherlands a new era in the domestic history of the settlement began. Soon saw-mills supplied the necessary timber for comfortable dwellings, in the place of the bark-huts built after the Indian fash- ion. The new buildings were generally one-story high, with two rooms on a floor, and a thatched roof garret. From the want of brick and mortar the chimneys were constructed of wood. The interior was, as a matter of course, very scantily supplied with furniture — the great chest from Fatherland, with its prized household goods, being the most imposing article. Tables were generally the heads of barrels placed on end ; rough shelves con- stituted the cupboard ; and chairs were logs of wood rough-hewn from the forest. To complete the furniture, there was the well known " Sloap Banck" or sleeping- bench — the bedstead — where lay the boast, the pride, the comfort of a Dutch housekeeper, the feather-bed. Around the present Battery and Coenties Slip and Bowling Green were the houses, a few of which were surrounded by gar- dens. The fruit-trees often excited the thievish propen- sities of the natives ; and one devastating war followed the shooting of an Indian girl while stealing peaches from an orchard on Broadway, near the present Bowling Green. Meanwhile, commerce kept pace with the new houses ; and the staunch ship, the New Nether land, re- turned to Holland with a cargo of furs valued at $12,000. Anxious to fulfill its part of the agreement, the West India Company, in 1625, also sent out to Manhat- tan three ships and a yacht, containing a large 1623, number of families armed with farming implements, and one hundred and three head of cattle. Fearing the cattle might be lost in the surrounding forests, the set- tlers landed them on Nutten's (Governor's) Island, but IG2G. 20 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. afterward conveyed them to Manhattan. Two more ves- sels shortly after arrived from Holland, and the settle- ment soon numbered some 200 persons, and gave promise of permanency. In the year 1624, Wey returned to Holland, and was succeeded in the Directorship by William Verhulst. The latter, however, did -not long enjoy the emoluments of office, for at the end of a year he also was recalled, and Peter Minuit appointed, in his place ; Director-General of New Netherland, with full power to organize a provisional government. He arrived May 4, 1G26, in the ship Sea-Meiv, Adrian Joris, captain. The first seal was now granted to the province, having for a crest, a beaver, than which, for a coat of arms, nothing could have been more appropriate. It was fitting that the earliest Hol- landers of the " Empire City " should thus honor the animal that was fast enriching them in their newly- adopted home. To the credit of Director Minuit, be it said, the very first act of his administration was to purchase in an open and honorable manner the Island of Manhattan from the Indians for sixty guilders, or twenty-four dollars. The Island itself was estimated to contain 22,000 acres. The price paid, it is true, was a mere trifle, but the purchase itself was lawful and satisfactory to the aboriginal owners — a fact which cannot be truly said in regard to other regions taken from the Indians. To assist him in carrying out his instructions, the Director was furnished with an Executive Council. The latter body was, in turn, assisted by the Koopman, who acted as Secretary to the province and book-keeper of the public warehouse. Last of all, came the Schout- Fiscal, a civil factotum, half sheriff and attornej-general, executive officer of the Council, and general custom-house official. Thus earlv had the Dutch an eve to the "main chance," HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 21 the export of furs that year (1626) amounting to $19,000, and giving promise of a constant increase. Some thirty rudely-constructed log-houses at this time extended along the shores of the East River, which, with a block-house, a horse-mill, and the " Company's " thatched stone building, constituted the City of New York two hundred and forty-two years ago. A clergy- man or school-master was as yet unknown in the infant colony. Every settler had his own cabin and cows, tilled his land, or traded with the Indians— all were busy, like their own emblem, the beaver. In the year 1629, the "Charter of Privileges ^^ and Exemptions" was granted in Holland, and patroons were allowed to settle in the new colony. This important document transplanted the old feudal tenure and burdens of Continental Europe to the free soil of America. The proposed Patrooneries were only transcripts of the Seigneuries and Lordships so common at that period, and which the French were, at the same time, establish- ing in Canada. In that province, even at the present day, the feudal appendages of jurisdiction, pre-emption rights, monopolies of mines, minerals, and waters, with hunting, fishing, and fowling, form a part of the civil law. Pursuing, however, a more liberal policy, the grantees cf the charter to the New Netherland patroons secured the Indian's right to his native soil, at the same time that they enjoined schools and churches. Meanwhile, the settlement of New Netherland, con- tinuing to prosper, soon became the principal depot for the fur and coasting trade of the patroons. The latter were obliged to land all their cargoes at Fort Amsterdam ; and the years 1629-'30, the imports from old ^ Amsterdam amounted to 113,000 guilders, and the exports from Manhattan exceeded 130,000. The Company reserved the exclusive right to the fur trade, 22 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. and imposed a duty of five per cent, on all the trade of the patroons. The inhabitants, in order not to be idle, turned their attention, with fresh zeal, to ship-building, and with so much success, that as early as 1631, New Amster- dam had become the metropolis of the New World. The New Netherlands a ship of 800 tons, was built at Manhattan, and dispatched to Holland — an important event of the times, since the vessel was one of the largest merchantmen of the world. It was a very costly experi- ment, however, and was not soon repeated. Emigrants from all nations now began to flock into the new colony. They were principally induced to come by the liberal offers of the Dutch Company, who transported them in its own vessels at the cheap rate of twelve and a half cents per diem for passage and stores ; giving them, also, as a still further inducement, as much land as they could cultivate. Nor were these the only reasons which caused so many to leave their Fatherland. With a wise and liberal policy, totally different from that of its eastern neighbors, the Dutch province allowed the fullest religious toleration. The Walloons, Calvinists, Huguenots, Quakers, Catholics, and Jews, found a safe home in New Netherland, and laid the broad and solid foundation of that tolerant character ever since retained by the City of New York In her streets and broad avenues may be seen, on any Sabbath, Jews, Gentiles, and Christians, worshipping God in their sacred temples, "according to the dictates of their own consciences." In the meantime the Directors of the West India Company calculated, with the strong aid of the patroons, upon colonizing the new country, and, at the same time, securing the important free trade in their own hands. But they were met, almost at the outset, with serious opposition from that class who, not content with a nega- HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 23 tive policy, took active measures seriously to injure this traffic. From the first, the object of the patroons had seemed to be a participation in the Indian trade, rather than the colonization of the country ; and they had even claimed the privilege of trafficking with the Indians from Florida to Newfoundland, according to their charter of 1629. This extensive trade the West India Company justly considered an interference with their vested rights and interests, and no time was lost in presenting their complaints to the States-General. That body thereupon adopted new articles, the effect of which was essentially to limit the privileges already granted to the patroons. This misunderstanding had the effect of interrupting, for a time, the efforts making to colonize and advance the new country. At length, in 1632, both parties be- came in a complete state of antagonism as to their privileged charters, and, for a little time, a civil war seemed inevitable. In the same year (1632), Peter Minuit, the Director, it will be remembered, of New Netherland, was suspected of favoring the patroons, and was recalled from his Directorship. He returned to Holland in the ship Eendragt (which had brought over his dismissal), which carried also a return cargo of 5,000 beaver-skins — an evidence of the colony's commercial prosperity. The vessel, driven by stress of weather, put into the harbor of Plymouth, where she was retained on the ground of hav- ing illegally interfered with English monopolies. This arrest of the Dutch trader led to a correspondence between the rival powers, in which the respective claims of each were distinctly set forth. The Hollanders claimed the province on the following grounds : 1st. Its discovery by them in the year 1609 ; 2d. The return of their people in 1610; 3d. The grant of a trading charter in 1614; 4th. The maintenance of a fort, until 1621, when the West India Company was organized ; and, 5th Their purchase 24 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. of the land from the Indians. The English, on the con- trary, defended their right of possession on the ground of the prior discovery by Cabot, and the patent of James I. to the Plymouth Company. The Indians, they argued, as wanderers, were not the bona fide owners of the land, and hence, had no right to dispose of it ; consequently, their titles must be invalid. But England, being at this period just on the eve of a civil war, was in no condition to en- force her claims ; and she, therefore, having released the Eendragt, contented herself with the mere assumption of authority — reserving the accomplishment of her designs until a more convenient season. At length, in the month of April, 1633, the ship Soutberg reached Manhattan with Wouter Van Twiller, the new Director-General (or Governor) and a military force of one hundred and four soldiers, together with a Spanish caraval, captured on the way. Among the passengers, also, came Dominie Everardus Bogardus and Adam Roelandsen, the first regular clergyman and school- master of New Amsterdam. A church now became indis- pensable ; and the room over the horse-mill, where prayers had been regularly read for seven years, was abandoned for a rude, wooden church, on Pearl, between Whitehall and Broad streets, on the shore of the East River. This was the first Reformed Dutch Church in the city ; and near by were constructed the parsonage and the Dominie's sta- bles. The grave-yard was laid out on Broadway, in the vicinity of Morris street. Van Twiller occupied " Farm No. 1 " of the Company, which extended from Wall to Hudson street. " Farm No. 3," at Greenwich, he appropriated as his tobacco plan- tation. The new Governor and the Dominie did not har- monize. Bogardus having interfered in public concerns, which Van Twiller resented, the former, from his pulpit, pronounced the Governor a " Child of Satan." This, HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 25 doubtless, was very true, but the "Child of Satan" became so incensed, that he never entered the church-door again. In 1G38, "for slandering; the Rev. E. Bocrardus," 1638 an old record states, " a woman was obliged to appear at the sound of a bell, in the fort, before the Gov- ernor and Council, and say that she knew he was honest and pious, and that she had lied falsely." Van Twiller had been promoted from a clerkship in the Company's warehouse, and seems to have been a very incompetent Governor. He probably obtained the place, not from fitness, but from the same means which act in similar cases at the present day, viz., political influence, arising from the fact that he had married the daughter of Killian Van Rensselaer, the wealthy patroon. The Company had authorized him to fortify the depots of the fur trade. Accordingly, the fort on the Battery, commenced in the year 1G26, was rebuilt, and a guard- house and barracks prepared for the soldiers. Several brick and stone dwellings were erected within the fort, and three wind-mills, used to grind the grain necessary for the garrison, on the southwest bastion of the fort. African slaves were the laborers principally engaged upon these improvements. At a subsequent period, when these slaves had grown old, they petitioned the authorities for their freedom, and recounted their services at the time men- tioned in support of their application, in proof of which they presented a certificate given them by their overseer : " That, during the administration of Van Twiller, he (Ja- cob Stoffelsen), as overseer of the Company's negroes, was continually employed with said negroes in the construction of Fort Amsterdam, which was finished in 1635 ; and that the negroes assisted in chopping trees for the big house, making and splitting palisades, and other work." The "big house" here referred to was the Gov- ernor's residence. It was built of brick, and was, no 4 26 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. doubt, a substantial edifice, as it is found to have served for the residence of successive chiefs of the colony during all the Dutch era, and for a few years subsequent. In respect to the walls of the fort, they were in no wise improved by the incompetent Van T wilier, except the northwest bastion, which was faced with stone. The other parts of the walls were simply banks of earth with- out ditches ; nor were they even surrounded by a fence to keep off the goats and other animals running at large in the town. When Governor Kieft arrived in 1G38, as Van Twiller's successor, he found the fort in a decayed state, " opening on every side, so that nothing could obstruct going in or coming out, except at the stone point." Nevertheless, there is no doubt that the fort ex- ercised a very salutary influence in keeping the Indians at a respectful distance.* In 1633, the commercial importance of New Amsterdam was increased by the grant of the " Staple Kight," a sort of feudal privilege similar to the institutions of the Fatherland. By it, all vessels trading along the coast, or sailing on the rivers, were obliged either to discharge their cargoes at the port, or pay cer- tain duties. This soon became a valuable right, as it gave to New Amsterdam the commercial monopoly of the whole Dutch province. A short time before the arrival of Governor Van Twil- ler, De Vries, whose little colony at Suaaendael, Delaware, * In 1641, an Indian war broke out, and raged for many months, resulting in tlie complete devastation of most of the farms and exposed settlements, even those lying within a stone's-throw of Fort Amsterdam. The frightened settlers fled to the fort ; but the accommodation in the fort not affording them an ade- quate shelter, they established their cottages as close as possible to the protect- ing ramparts. Thus it was that two or three new streets were formed around the southern and eastern walls of the fort. After the danger had passed, these buildings were allowed to remain, and grants of land were made to the pos- sessors. Thus was formed that portion of the present Pearl street west of Whitehall street, and also a portion of the latter street. — Valentine's Manual. HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 27 had been cut off by the Indians, returned to America on a visit, in the mammoth ship New Netherland. A yacht, about this time, also arrived — the English ship, William, with Jacob Eelkins, who had been dismissed from his office of supercargo by the Company, in 1632. Enraged by this dismissal, he had entered the service of the English, and had now returned to promote their interests in the fur trade on the Mauritius (Hudson) River. This was a bold act, and contrary to the policy of the West India Company, Accordingly, Van Twiller, who, though an inefficient Governor, was a thorough merchant, and understood the important monopoly of the fur trade, refused permission for the vessel to proceed further on its way. His demand upon Eelkins for his commission was refused by the latter, on the ground that he occupied Brit- ish territory, and would sail up the river at the cost, if need be, of his life. Thereupon, the Director, ordering the national flag to be hoisted, and three guns fired in honor of the Prince of Orange, forbade him to proceed further. But, far from being daunted by this prohibition, Eelkins answered by running up, in his turn, the British colors, firing a salute for King Charles, and coolly steering up the river in defiance of Fort Amsterdam. The amazement of Van Twiller at the audacity of the ex-Dutch Agent may be easily imagined. Astonished, as he was, at this daring act, the Director, nevertheless, proceeded very philosophi- cally : First, he summoned all the people in front of the fort, now the Bowling Green ; next, he ordered a cask of wine, and another of beer ; then, filling his own glass, he called on all good citizens who loved the Prince of Orange to follow his patriotic example, and drink confusion to the English Government. The people, of course, were not slow in obeying this reasonable request; indeed, what more could they do, for the English ship was now far be- yond all reach, safely pursuing her way up the Hudson. 28 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. Still, while they drank his wine, they were deeply morti- fied at the Governor's cowardiee. De Vries openly accused him with it, and plainly told him, if it had been his case, he should have sent some "eight-pound beans" after the impudent Englishman, and helped him down the river again; but it being now too late to do this, he should send the Soutberg after him, and drive him down the river. The effect of this advice was not lost upon the Governor; for, a few days after, Van Twiller screwed up his cour- age sufficiently to dispatch an armed force to Fort Orange (Albany), where Eelkins had pitched his tent, and where he was found busily engaged in trading with the Indians. The Dutch soldiers quickly destroyed his canvas store, and, reshipping the goods, brought the vessel back to Fort Amsterdam. Eelkins was then required to give up his peltry ; after which he was sent to sea, with the warning never again to interfere with the Dutch Government trade. Meanwhile the settlement at Fort Amsterdam — the New York embryo — continued to increase and prosper, men of enterprise and wealth often arriving. Most of these came from the Dutch Netherlands, and thus trans- ferred the domestic economy and habits of Holland and the Rhine to the banks of the Hudson. Ships were loaded with bricks, burnt in Holland ; and at first, every dwell- ing was modeled after those they had left, and with storerooms for trade, like those of Amsterdam and other trading towns in Fatherland* Thus, at New Amsterdam and Fort Orange rows of houses could be seen built of imported brick, with thatched roofs, wooden chimneys, and their gable ends always toward the street. Inside were all the neatness, frugality, order, and industry which the inmates brought from their native land. A few of these original, venerable Dutch homes were to be seen, till within a year or two, in this city ; but we do not know of a single one now. Several yet remain in Albany ; and it HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 29 is almost worth a trip there to see these striking relics of "ye olden time." Until the year 1642, city lots and streets were unknown, adventurers and settlers selecting land wherever most convenient for their purpose. Hence the crooked courses of some of our down-town streets * DUTCH MANSION AND COTTAGE IN NEW AMSTERDAM. Cornelis Dircksen owned a farm by the present Peck Slip, and ferried passengers across the East River for the small price of three stivers, in wampum. At that time, Pearl street formed the bank of the river— Water, Front, and South streets having all been reclaimed for the pur- pose of increasing trade and commerce. The old wooden, shingled house, one of the last venerable relics of the olden * Pearl street, for instance. 30 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. time, on the corner of Peck Slip, was so near the river that a stone could easily be thrown into it. Pearl, it is thought, was the first street occupied, the first houses being built there, in 1633. Bridge street came next; and a deed is still in existence for a lot on it, thirty-four by one hundred and ten feet, for the sum of twenty-four guilders, or nine dollars and sixty cents. This is the earliest conveyance of city property on record. Whitehall, Stone, Broad, Beaver, and Marketfield streets were opened soon after. In the year 1642, the first grant of a city lot, east of the fort at the Battery, was made to Hendricksen Kip. During the next year, several lots were granted on the lower end of " Heere Straat," as Broadway was then named. Martin Krigier was the first grantee of a lot in this section, opposite the Bowling Green, which contained eighty-six rods. There he built the well-known Krigier's Tavern," which soon became a fashionable resort.* Nor during all this time did the fur trade fail to keep pace with the growing local prosperity of the place. Dur- ing the year 1635, the Directors in Holland received returns from the province to the amount of nearly 185,000 guilders But the monopoly of the traffic in furs was not the only source of gain. A profitable commerce was also carried on with New England. Dutch vessels brought tobacco, salt, horses, oxen, and sheep from Holland to Boston. An old account says they came from the Texel in five weeks and three days, " and lost not one beast or sheep." Potatoes from Bermuda were worth two pence the pound ; a good cow, twenty-five or thirty pounds ; and * Upon the deinolishment of this building its site was occupied by the " King's Arms' Tavern," which, in after years, was the head-quarters of the British General Gage. Subsequently, it became the " Atlantic Garden," No. 9 Broadway, where it long remained one of the striking mementoes of the olden time. HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 31 a pair of oxen readily brought forty pounds. In Virginia, corn rose to twenty shillings the bushel during the year 1G3T; a shepel, or three pecks of rye, brought two guil- ders, or eighty cents ; and a laborer readily earned, during harvest, two guilders per diem. These were high prices for those times, and were probably caused, in a measure, by the sanguinary war which the New England Puritans* were carrying on with their Indian neighbors. The Pe- quods. failing to deliver the murderers of Stone, according to treaty, had tendered an atonement of wampum, but Mas- sachusetts demanded " blood for blood ; " and she obtained it in the wars that followed. Winthrop says, " Scarcely a sannup, a woman, a squaw, or a child of the Pequod name survived." It is the fashion to indulge in much panegyric about these ancestral doings, but here can be calmly traced the first attempt of the white race to extirpate the red men from their ancestral birthright to the northern regions of America. Notwithstanding, however, the large prices obtained for its wares, the year 1638 found the condition of New Netherland very unpromising. Although its affairs had now been administered for fifteen years by that powerful body, the West India Company, still, the country was scarcely removed from its primitive wilderness state, and, excepting the Indians, it was inhabited by only a few traders and clerks of a distant corporation. Its rich vir- gin soil remained almost entirely uncultivated, and the farms did not amount to more than half a dozen. Doubt- less, the Directors of the West India Company governed New Netherland chiefly to promote their own special in- terests—to advance which, large sums had been expended ; * Puritans, not Pilgrims. These terms, though generally used synony- mously, refer to two entirely different classes of men. The Pilgrims never practiced religious persecution; the Puritans did. The Pilgrims came over to the New World some fifteen years earlier than the Puritans. 32 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. and, as a natural consequence, no efforts had as yet been made to introduce, on a large scale, a sound and industri- ous emigration. The patroon system, also, to which refer- ence has already been made, greatly retarded the settle- ment of the colony. A monopoly, its patroons neglected their most important duties as planters, and used their energies and means to compete with the Company in the Indian trade; consequently, misunderstandings and dis- putes followed, which became almost fatal to the prosperity of the new settlement. At this critical moment, William Kieft, the third Di- rector-General and Governor, arrived March, 1G3S. as the successor of the weak Van Twiller. His first step was to organize a Council, retaining, however, its entire control. Dr. Johannes La Montague, a learned Huguenot, was appointed by him a member of this new board; Cornells Van Tienhoven, from Utrecht, one of the oldest settlers, was made Colonial Secretary, with a salary of two hun- dred and fifty dollars per annum; while Ulrich Leopold continued as Schout-Fiscal, or Sheriff and Attorney-Gen- eral. Adrian Dircksen was made Assistant-Commissary, "because he spoke correctly the language of the Mohawks, and was well versed in the art of trading with them." The Rev. Mr. Bogardus continued the Dominie, and Adam Roelandsen the School-master.* The new Governor found the town in an extremely dilapidated condition. The fort had fallen completely into decay ; all the guns were oil' their carriages ; and the public buildings, as well as the church, were all out of repair; only one of the three wind-mills was in opera- * La Montagne, as Member of the Council, received fourteen dollars a mouth; the book-keeper, fourteen dollars and forty cents, with eighty dollars for his yearly board ; the mason, eight dollars ; a joiner, six dollars and forty cento; a carpenter, seven dollars and fifty cents, and forty dollars a year for boa id HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 33 tion ; and the Company's fine farms had no tenants— not even a goat remaining upon them. But the new Governor came charged with more onerous duties than simply the repair of houses ; he was the bearer of a decree that no person in the Dutch Company's employ should trade in peltry, or import any furs, under penalty of losing his wages' and a confiscation of his goods. Abuses also existed in all the departments of the public service, which Kieft vainly attempted to remedy by proclama- tions. Death was threatened against all who should sell guns or powder to the Indians; after nightfall, all sailors were to remain on board their vessels ; no persons could retail any liquors, " except those who sold wine at a decent price, and in moderate quantities," under penalty of twen- ty-five guilders (ten dollars), and the loss of their stock. Tobacco, then as now, was greatly in demand, the rich virgin soil about New Amsterdam suiting the plant well; consequently, plantations for its cultivation increased so fast, that the plant was now also subjected to excise, and regulations were published by the Directory to regulate its" mode of culture, and check certain abuses which were injuring " the high name" it had "gained in foreign coun- tries."* But the new Governor did not confine himself to correcting official abuses solely; he issued proclamations to improve the moral condition of the settlement ; and all persons were seriously enjoined to abstain from "fighting, calumny, and all other immoralities," as the guilty would be punished, and made a terror to evil-doers. Rightly judging, also, that public worship would be a peaceful auxiliary to his labors, and the old wooden church built by Van Twiller having fallen to pieces, he determined to erect a new one inside the fort. Jochem Pietersen Kuyter, Jan Jansen Damen, with Kieft and Captain De Vries, as * Albany Records, II., 3-12. 34 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. " Kirke Meesters," superintended the new work, and John and Richard Ogden were the masons. The building was of stone, seventy-two by fifty-two feet, and sixteen high, and cost 2,500 guilders. Its legend, translated from the Dutch, read : "Anno Domini 1642, William Kieft, Direc- tor-General, hath the Commonalty caused to build this temple." New Amsterdam had a town-bell; this was now removed to the belfry of the new church, whence it regulated the city moven.ents, the time for laborers and the courts. It also pealed the weddings, tolled the funer- als, and called the people to the Lord's House.* Hardly, however, had Kieft got his plans for the moral reformation of his people fairly under way, when, as before hinted, the patroons began to give fresh trouble : that class now (1638) demanded "new privileges" — "that they might monopolize more territory, be invested with the largest feudal powers, and enjoy free trade throughout New Netherland." Nor was this all. In their arrogance, they also demanded that all "private persons" and "poor emigrants" should be forbidden to purchase lands from the Indians, and should settle within the colonies under the jurisdiction of the manorial lords — i e., themselves. These grasping demands of the patroons were reserved for future consideration by the States-General ; and it was * At this period the settlers of New Amsterdam obtained their supplies from the Company's store at fifty per cent, advance on prime cost, a list of prices being placed in a conspicuous position in some place of public resort. Here are some of the rates : Indian corn, sixty cents per schepel of three pecks ; barley, two dollars ; peas, three dollars and twenty-five cents; flour, one dol- lar; pork, five stivers; fresh meat, five ; butter, eight ; tobacco, seven ; dried fish, twelve (two York shillings) per pound ; hard-bread, fifteen ; rye, five ; wheaten, seven ; cabbage, twelve dollars per hundred ; staves, thirty-two dol- lars per thousand ; a hog, eight dollars ; ordinary wine, thirty-one dollars per hogshead ; Spanish wine, four stivers ; French wine, ten per quart ; sugar, sev- enteen and twenty-four per pound; flannel, one dollar and twenty cents per ell ; cloth, two dollars ; white linen, eighteen to twenty stivers ; red flannels, one dollar and twenty cents ; children's shoes, thirty-six stivers, or six York shillings a pair of brass kettles, forty cents each. HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 35 determined to try free competition in the internal trade of New Netherland. A notification was accordingly pub- lished by the Amsterdam Chamber, that all the inhabit- ants of the United Provinces, and of friendly countries, might convey to New Netherland, " in the Company's ships," any cattle and merchandise, and might "receive whatever returns they or their agents may be able to obtain in those quarters therefor." A duty of ten per cent, was paid to the Company on all goods exported from New Netherland with the freight. Every emigrant, upon his arrival at New Amsterdam, was to receive " as much land as he and his family could properly cultivate." This liberal system gave a great impulse to the prosperity of New Netherland, by encouraging the emigration of sub- stantial colonists, not only from Holland, but from Vir- ginia and New England. Conscience had ever been free in New Netherland, and now trade and commerce were like- wise made free to all. Political franchise in Massachusetts was limited to church members, and now " many men began to inquire after the southern ports," not from the climate there, or the necessary wants of life, but, in the language of the old chronicler, " to escape their insupport- able government." The only obligation required of emi- grants was an oath of fidelity and allegiance to the colony, the same as imposed upon the Dutch settlers. Both par- ties enjoyed equal privileges. This free internal trade, however, produced some irreg- ularities ; and a new proclamation soon became necessary to warn all persons against selling guns or ammunition to the Indians. Still another edict prohibited persons from sailing to Fort Orange (Albany), and the South River (Fort Hope), and returning without a passport. Another very unpopular edict, also, was shortly after issued by Kieft. His extreme anxiety to serve his patrons caused him to " demand some tribute " of maize, furs, or sewant t 36 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. from the neighboring Indians, "whom," he said, "we have thus far defended against their enemies ; " and in case of their refusal, proper measures were to be taken to "remove their reluctance." In regard, however, to the Governor's proclamation against selling guns, &c, to the Indians, nothing can be said against it. The case demanded it. Freedom of trade with the savages had, indeed, run into abuses and injurious excesses. The colonists neglected agriculture for the quicker gains of traffic; and at times, by settling "far in the inte- rior of the country," and, by " great familiarity and treat- ing," brought themselves into contempt with the Indians. Evil consequences, as a matter of course, followed this unwise conduct — the most unfortunate of which was the supplying of the savages with new weapons of war. They considered the gun, at first, " the Devil" and would not even touch it; but, once discovering its fatal use, eagerly sought the fire-arms of the whites. They would willingly barter twenty beaver-skins for a single musket, and pay ten or twelve guilders for a pound of powder. As no merchan- dise became so valuable to the red men, the West India Company foresaw the evil of arming the savages, and declared the trade in fire-arms contraband. It even for- bade the supply to the New Netherland Indians, under penalty of death. But the prospect of large profits easily nullified this law of prudence and wisdom. In 1640, Director Kieft determined upon an- other unwise measure, viz., the exaction of a con- tribution, or rather a tax, of corn, furs, and wampum from the Indians about Fort Amsterdam. This and other im- proper acts entirely estranged them from the settlers, and laid the foundation of a bloody war, which, the next year (1641), desolated New Netherland. Meanwhile, Kieft, continuing stubborn, sent sloops to Tappan to levy con- HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 37 tributions ; but the natives indignantly refused to pay the novel tribute. In their own plain language, they won- dered bow the Sachem at the fort dared to exact such things from them He must be, they said, a very shabby fellow ; he had come to live in their land, where they had not invited him, and now came to deprive them of their corn, for no equivalent. They, therefore, refused to pay, adding this unanswerable argument: "If we have ceded to you the country you are living in, we yet remain mas- ters of what we have retained for ourselves ! " Notwithstanding, however, the many injudicious acts of Governor Kieft, it cannot be denied that, during his administration, the trade of New Amsterdam began to be better regulated. The streets of the town, also, were bet- ter laid out in the lower section of the city.* In 1641, Kieft instituted two annual fairs, for the purpose of encouraging agriculture — one of which was held in October, for cattle ; and the other the next month, for hogs, upon the Bowling Green. The holding of these fairs opened the way for another important addition to the comfort of the town. No tavern, as yet, had been started in the Dutch settlement ; and the numerous vis- itors from the interior and the New England colonies were forced to avail themselves of the Governor's hos- pitalities. The fairs increasing in number, Kieft found them a heavy tax upon his politeness, as well as his larder; and, in 1642, he erected a large stone ' ' ° 1642. tavern, at the Company's expense. It was situ- ated on a commanding spot, near the present Coenties Slip, and was afterward altered into the " Staclt Huys" or City Hall. The Governor now succeeded better, not only in en- forcing law and restraining contraband trade, but in check- * The price of lots, 30x125 feet, averaged at this period about $14. :»„M II 1 1; i <> i: v o i ,\ k \v v <» k k 0IT1 in" the importation of bad wampum, which had become a serious loss to the traders, by reducing its value from four to i beads i"i •• stivei l\(ui/iiim/ <»i sewctnL from ii close connection with the early trade of New Notherland, requires special notice This kind of money, 01 circulating medium, embraced two I i n< i the wa ni fa in (.1 white, and the Suckanhooksucki, oi blacl 'ii'niii. The form©] \\;i made from t\e periwinkle, find ilic lattei i > the purple part oi the hard clam Thei e, pounded into beads and polished, with drilled holes, were trung upon 'in- inewi «»i animals, and woven ini<> diffei (ni sized belts Black beads were twice as valuable as il"' white, and ili<" latter became, therefore, naturalh , the standard of value A. string, a fathom long, 41 was worth i. >ui guilders, The be I article was manufactured by the Lou" i land Indians j and. until a oomparativen late period the Mont auks on that inland, or rather, their de pendant , manufactured this shell mone^ for the inte mil tribes A clerk < > I . 1 « > 1 1 1 1 Jacob A stor manj years ago informed Hi«' Hon << I*. Disoswa^ thai li«' had visited Communipaw, and purchased for his employer, from the Dutch, iIh article l>\ the bushel, i<> be used l>\ ili<' great iiii dealer in his purchases nmong the distant savages. Ii mi 'iii, perhaps, be :> curious question, how man^ bushels <>i ■aiiipum are invested, lor «• \ :» m j >l< in tin' hotel winch bear the name <>i the great fur millionaire 1 The New England Indians, imitating their whiter fac «l neighbors, made •'> <>- wampum, rough, «>i inferior quality , and l>:ull\ strung n..i w.i ii long before the New England- (i their imperfect bends into New Motherland for the Dutchman's goods; next, " A " l:illi..in nr- . •■! 1111:1 ( • .1 Ml " mil. Ii &| n in mi . .uil.l irncli Willi In:- Mini : .Mil- 1 ni. ii.-.i rii. gft\ i [uently, were shrewd enough (In tr&dlnji uiiii iii.' \>iiii< •■.* I., choose iii. ii i:iif. i m 1 1. 1 i:iii.";i hi. -ii foi iii.ii'iin in;; stlcki oi gt&ndard BISTORT OF N.EW FORK CITY. .'J9 beads of porcelain were manufactured in Europe, and cir- culated among the colonists, until the evil finally became so great, that the Council, in Kill, published an ordi- nance, declaring that a large quantity of bad sewant, im- ported from other placers, was in circulation, while the good and really fine sewant, usually called " Manhattan Sewant" was kept out of sight, or exported — a state of things which must eventually ruin the country. To cure this public evil, the ordinance provided that nil coarse sewant^ well stringed, should pass for one stiver. This is the first ordinance, on record, to regulate such currency. In the year 1017, they were again reduced from six to eight for a, stiver, and thus became the commercial "greenbacks" of the early Dutch. About this period, the increasing intercourse and busi- ness with the English settlements made it, necessary that more attention should he paid to the English Language. Governor Kiel! had. it is tine, som<; knowledge of the English tongue; hut his subordinates were generally ignorant of it — a circumstance which often caused great embarrassment George Baxter was accordingly appointed his English Secretary, with a. salary of two hundred dol- lars per annum; and thus, for the first time, the English language was officially recognized in New Amsterdam. As the colony grew Stronger, the Dutch scattered themselves further into the interior; established them- selves more firmly at Manhattan ; and thus gave to the City of New York its first, incorporation two hundred and nineteen years ago. The ferric- received early attention from the corporation. No one w;i- permitted to he a ferryman, without a, License from the magistrates. The ferryman also was required to provide proper boats and servants, with houses, on both sides of the river, to accom- modate passengers. All officials passed ih-c. of toll ; or, to speak more in accordance with the Language of the 40 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. present day, were dead-heads. But the ferryman was not compelled to cross the river in a tempest. Foot-passen- gers were charged three stivers each, except Indians, who paid six, unless two or more went over together.* The annual salary of the Burgomasters was also, at this period, fixed at three hundred and fifty guilders, and the Shepens at two hundred and fifty. A corporate seal was granted to the city, in which the principal object was a beaver, as was also the case, as has been seen, with the seal of New Netherland. SEALS OF NEW AMSTERDAM AND NEW YORK. The first charter of New Netherland restricted, as we have seen, the commercial privileges of the patroons ; but in the year 1640 they were extended to "all free colonists," and the stockholders in the Dutch Company. Neverthe- less, the latter body adhered to onerous imports, for its own benefit, and required a duty of ten per cent, on all goods shipped to New Netherland, and five upon return cargoes, excepting peltry, which paid ten at Manhattan, before exported. The prohibition of manufactures within the province was now abolished, and the Company renewed its promise to send over " as many blacks as possible." In 1643, the colonists easily obtained goods from the Company's warehouse, whither they were obliged to bring their fur purchases, before ship- 1643. * On the 19th of March, 1658, the New Amsterdam and Long Island Ferry was put up at auction, and leased for three hundred guilders per annum. HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 41 merit to Holland. The furs were then generally sold at Amsterdam, under the supervision of the patroon, whose share, at first, was one-half, but was afterward reduced to one-sixth. Under this system, the price of a beaver's skin, which before 1642 had been six, now rose to ten " fathoms." It was, therefore, considered proper for the colonial authorities to regulate this traffic ; and they, accordingly, fixed the price at nine " fathoms " of white wampum, at the same time fordidding all persons to " go into the bush to trade." Another proclamation declared that " no inhabitants of the colonies should pre- sume to buy any goods from the residents." It would appear, however, that these ordinances could not be en- forced ; for a sloop, soon after arriving with a cargo, the colonists purchased what they wanted. The commissary was then ordered to search the houses for concealed goods. But the old record naively sayjs : " The Sellout gossipped, without making a search." In 1644, the ever-busy New Englanders — im- n li 1644. agining that the beavers came from "a great lake in the northwest part" of their patent — began to covet a share in the fur trade on the Delaware. Accordingly, an expedition was dispatched from Boston to " sail up the Delaware, as high as they could go; and some of the company, under the conduct of Mr. William Aspinwall, a good artist, and one who had been in those parts, to pass by small skiffs or canoes up the river, so far as they could." The expedition failing, another bark " was sent out the same year, from Boston, to trade at Delaware." Winter- ing in the bay, during the spring she went to the Mary- land side, and in three weeks obtained five hundred beaver-skins— a " good parcel." But this second Boston trading voyage was ruined by the savages; for, as the bark was leaving, fifteen Indians came aboard, " as if they would trade again," and suddenly drawing their hatchets 6 42 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY from under their coats, killed the captain, with three of the crew, and then rifled the vessel of all her goods. This continued interference of New England adventur- ers with the Delaware trade, at length became very annoy- ing to Kieft, as well as to Printz, the Swedish Governor of the Delaware colony. The Dutch at New Amsterdam, as the earliest explorers of South River, had seen their trading monopoly there invaded by the Swedes ; but when the New Englanders made their appearance in pursuit of the same prize, the Swedes made common cause with the Dutch to repel the new intruders. The question of sov- ereignty was soon raised abroad by the arrival of two Swedish ships, the Key of Kalmar and the Flame, sent home by Printz with large cargoes of tobacco and beaver- skins. Bad weather, and the war which had just arisen between Denmark and Sweden, obliged these vessels to run into the Port of Harlington, in Friesland. There they were seized by the West India Company, which not only claimed sovereignty over all the regions around the South River, but exacted the import duties that their charter granted The Swedish Minister at the Hague protested against these exactions ; and a long correspondence en- sued, which resulted in the vessels being discharged the following summer upon the payment of the import duties. During the year 1644, Kieft, headstrong and impru- dent as usual, became involved in a war with the New England Indians. At this juncture of affairs, a ship arrived from Holland with a cargo of goods for Van Rensselaer's patroonenj ; and Kieft, the Dutch forces be- ing in want of clothing, called upon the supercargo to furnish fifty pairs of shoes for the soldiers, offering full payment in silver, beaver, or wampum. The supercargo, however, zealously regarding his patvoorfs mercantile inter- ests, refused to comply, whereupon the Governor ordered a levy, and obtained enough shoes to supply as "many sol- HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 43 diers as afterward killed five hundred of the enemy." The Governor, much provoked, next commanded the vessel to be thoroughly searched, when a large lot of guns and am- munition, not in the manifest, were discovered and declared contraband, and the ship and cargo confiscated. Winthrop says that he had on board 4,000 weight of powder and seven hundred guns, with which he proposed to carry on a trade with the natives. For such acts as these, Kieft seems to have been equally detested by Indians and Dutch, the for- mer desiring his removal, and daily crying, " Wouter ! Wouter ! " meaning Wouter Van T wilier, his immediate predecessor. Meanwhile, the Indian war continued ; the Dutch set- tlers were in danger of utter destruction ; and the expenses of the soldiery could not be met. Neither could the West India Company send aid to its unfortunate colony, as that body had been made bankrupt by its military operations in Brazil. A bill of exchange, drawn by Kieft upon the Amsterdam Chamber, came back protested. The demands for public money were too pressing to await the slow pro- ceedings of an admiralty court ; and accordingly, soon after this, on the 29th of May, 1644, a privateer, the La Garcc, Captain Blauvelt, having been commissioned by the Gov- ernor to cruise in the West Indies, returned to Manhattan with two rich Spanish prizes. Director Kieft now proposed to replenish the Provis- ional Treasury by an excise on wine, beer, brandy, and beaver-skins. This was opposed by his official advisers, or the so-called "Eight Men," because they thought such an act would be oppressive, and the right of taxation be- longed to sovereignty, and not to an inferior officer in New Netherland. An old account says that the Director was " very much offended," and sharply reprimanded the people's representatives, declaring, " I have more power here than the Company has itself; therefore, I may do 44 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. and suffer in this country what I please ; I am my own master." * * * Remaining immovable, however, he three days afterward arbitrarily ordered "that on each barrel of beer tapped, an excise duty of two guilders should be paid — one-half by the brewer, and one-half by the publican." But those Burghers who did not retail it were to pay only one-half as much. On every quart of brandy and wine also, four stivers were to be paid, and on every beaver-skin one guilder. Besides the excise on the beer, the brewers were also required to make a return of the quantity they brewed ; but upon their sternly refusing to pay the unjust tribute, judgment was obtained against them, and their beer "given as a prize to the soldiers." STREET VIEW IN ANCIENT ALBANY, But notwithstanding all the efforts to restrain illicit traffic, it still continued at Rensselaerswyck (Albany), where three or four thousand furs had been carried away by unlicensed traders. Van Rensselaer, " as the first and oldest " patroon on the river, resolved that no one should HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 45 " presume to abuse " his acquired rights, aud erected a fort on Beeleu Island. A claim of " staple right" was set up, and Nicholas Koorn was appointed " Wacht-Meester," to levy a toll of five guilders upon all vessels passing by, except those of the West India Company, and to make them lower their colors to the merchant poltroon's authority. This annoyance soon manifested itself, for while the Good Hope, a little yacht, Captain Loockermans, was passing down from Fort Orange to Manhattan, " a gun without ball " was fired from the new fort, and Koorn cried out, " Strike thy colors ! " " For whom 1 " demanded the cap- tain of the vessel. " For the staple right of Rensselaer ! " was the reply. " I strike for nobody but the Prince of Orange, or those by whom I am employed ! " retorted the testy Dutchman, as he slowly steered on. Several shots followed. "The first," according to the old account, "went through the sail, and broke the ropes and the ladder ; a second shot passed over us ; and the third, fired by a sav- age, perforated our princely colors, about a foot above the head of Loockermans, who kept the colors constantly in his hand." OLD DUTCH CHURCH AT ALBANY. 4f) HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. For this daring act Koorn was forth with called to answer before the Council at Fort Amsterdam, when he pleaded his patrooii's authority. Van der Huyghens, the Schout-Fiscal (Sheriff), also protested against "the law- less transactions" of the patrooii's wacht-meester. Still, the patrooii's agent tried to justify his course, " inasmuch as this step had been taken to keep the canker of free- traders off his colonies." Nevertheless, he was fined, and forbidden to repeat his offense. At length the pitiable condition of the New Nether- land colony attracted the attention of the Dutch Govern- ment. Its originators, as before mentioned, had become nearly, if not entirely, bankrupt. To use their own official words, " the long-looked-for profits thence " had never arrived, and they themselves had no means to relieve "the poor inhabitants who had left their Fatherland ;" accordingly, the bankrupt Company urged the " States- General " for a subsidy of 1,000,000 of guilders to place the Dutch province in good, prosperous, and profitable order. That body directed an examination to be made into the affairs of New Netherland, and also into the propriety of restricting its internal trade to residents, with the policy of opening a free one between Brazil and Manhattan. Upon making this investigation, it was found that New Netherland, instead of becoming a source of commercial profit to the Company, had absolutely cost that body, from the year 1626 to 1644, " over 550,000 guilders, deducting returns received from there." Still, " the Company could not decently or consistently abandon it." The Director's salary, the report continues, should be 3,000 guilders, and the whole civil and military establishment of New Nether- land 20,000 guilders. As many African negroes, it thought, should be brought from Brazil as the patroons, farmers, and settlers "would be willing to pay for at a fair price." It would thus appear that our Dutch forefathers had some- HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 47 thing to do with the slave trade, as well as the Eastern and Southern colonies. Free grants of land were to be offered to all emigrants on Manhattan Island ; a trade allowed to Brazil and the fisheries ; the manufacture and exportation of salt were to be encouraged, and the duties of the reve- nue officers -'sharply attended to." Such was the business condition of New Netherland in the year 1645. The five previous years of Indian wars had hardly known five months of peace and prosperity. Kieft, perceiving his former errors, concluded a treaty of amity with the In- dians, August 30th, 1645. In two years, not less than 1,600 savages had been killed at Manhattan and its neighborhood, and scarcely one hundred could be found besides traders. The insufficient condition of the fort as a place of de- fense became the subject of serious consideration aftei this war, and the authorities in Holland, listening to the importunities of the colonists, gave directions for its im- provement, requiring, however, that the people should con- tribute, to some extent, towards the labor and expense involved. In 1647, the subject was discussed in the Council of the Director-General, and a resolu- tion was passed that the fort should be repaired with stone laid in mortar, " by which means alone," it was stated, " a lasting work could be made," inasmuch as the earth to be procured in the neighborhood was entirely unfit to make it stable with sods, unless it were annually renewed, nearly at the same expense ; and, as this pro- ject required a considerable disbursement for labor in carrying the stone, etc., it was found expedient to consult the inhabitants, to learn the extent to which assistance would be afforded by them. In communicating their resolve to the people, the authorities referred to " this glorious work, which must increase the respect for the Govern- ment, as well as afford a safe retreat to the inhabitants in 48 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. case of danger." The suggestion was, that every male inhabitant, between the ages of sixteen and sixty rears, should devote, annually, twelve days' labor, or, in lieu thereof, contribute for each day two guilders (eighty cents). But the project was found too expensive for the means at hand, and the completion of the work with stone was abandoned for the time, the work being re- paired with earth as before. Nor does it appear that it was, as yet, protected by any inclosure from the inroads of the vagrant cattle, as the Director is found, from time to time, expostulating with the city authorities against permitting swine, goats, and other animals, to run at large in the town, from which great destruction to the works of the fortress ensued.* Soon after the peace, in 1647, Kieft, having been re- called, embarked for Holland, carrying with him speci- mens of New Netherland minerals (gathered by the Raritan Indians in the Neversink Hills), and a fortune estimated by his enemies at 400.000 guilders. Dominie Bogardus and Van der Huygens, late Fiscal, were fellow- passengers in the richly-laden vessel. The ship, having been carelessly navigated into the English Channel, was wrecked upon the rugged coast of Wales, and went to pieces. Kieft. with eighty other persons, including Bo- gardus and the ex-Fiscal, were lost ; only twenty were saved. Melyn, the patroon of Staten Island, floating on his back, landed on a sand-bank, and thence reached the main-land in safety. * This matter came to be considered of so great importance, that, in 1656, Governor Stuyvesant again communicated with the Holland authorities respecting the improvement of the fort, and received from them a favorable response, stating that they had no objection to have the fort surrounded with a stone-wall, and were willing, in the ensuing spring, to send " a few good masons and carpenters to assist in the work," enjoining the Governor, in the meanwhile, to have the necessary materials prepared and in readiness wheD the mechanics should arrive. — Valentine's Manual. CHAPTER II. On the 11th of May, 1647, Governor Stuyve- sant, as " Reclresser-General " of all the colonial abuses, arrived at Manhattan, to enter upon an adminis- tration which was to last until the end of the Dutch power over New Netherland. Well might the new Governor write home that he " found the colony in a low condition." Disorder and discontent were every- where apparent, the public revenue was in arrears, and smuggling had nearly ruined legitimate trade. Such were the auspices — sufficiently gloomy — under which the last of the Dutch Governors entered upon his adminis- tration. Far from despairing, however, the sturdy Dutch- man put his shoulder at once to the wheel. Publicans were restrained from selling liquor before two o'clock on Sundays, " when there is no preaching," and after nine o'clock in the evening ; to the savages none was to be sold. The revenue, greatly defrauded by smuggling furs into New England and Virginia for shipment to Eng- land, was henceforth to be guarded by stringent laws. The introduction of foreign merchandise by vessels run- ning past Fort Amsterdam during the night was also to be stopped ; and all vessels were obliged to anchor under the guns of the fort, near the present Battery. For the purpose of replenishing the treasury, an excise duty was now, for the first time, levied on wines and liquors ; the 7 50 HISTOKY OF NEW YORK CITY. export duty on peltry was increased ; the unpaid tenths from the impoverished farmers were called in, although a year's grace was allowed for payment, in consequence of losses by the Indian wars ; and, in addition to all this, two of the Company's yachts, still further to increase the revenue, were sent on a cruise to the West Indies, to cap- ture, if possible, some of the richly-laden Spanish vessels returning to Spain. Stuyvesant, also, seems to have been the first Gov- ernor who took pride in improving the town itself. He found the infant city very unattractive, with half the houses in a dilapidated condition, cattle running at large, the public ways crooked, and the fences straggling in zig- zag fashion, many of them encroaching on the lines of the streets. All these evils he at once set about to remedy ; and one of his earliest acts was to appoint the first " Surveyors of Buildings," whose duties were to regulate the erection of new houses in New Amsterdam. The Dutch Company " now resolved to open to private persons the trade which it had exclusively carried on with New Netherland, the Virginia, the Swedish, English, and French colonies, or other places thereabout ;" and the new Director and Council were ordered to be vigilant in en- forcing all colonial custom-house regulations. All car- goes to New Netherland were to be examined, on arrival, by the custom-house officers, and all who were homeward- bound were to give bonds for the payment of duties in Holland. Nor was it long before Stuyvesant had an op- portunity of showing his zeal. The *S7. Bemcto, an Am- sterdam ship, was found trading at New Haven without the license of the West India Company ; but the owners of the cargo applied for permission to trade at Manhattan, upon the payment of the proper duties. This permit obtained, Stuyvesant learned that the ship was about to sail directly to Virginia, without having paid duties, HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY 51 as well as without a manifest. The case having thus assumed an open violation of the colonial revenue laws, the Governor embarked a company of soldiers, who, sail- ing up the Sound, captured the smuggler in New Haven harbor. This bold act naturally produced a great sensa- tion ; and Eaton, the Governor of the New Haven colony, protested against Stuyvesant, as a disturber of the peace. In reply, Stuyvesant claimed all the region from Cape Henlopen to Cape Cod as a part of New Netherland. with the right to levy duty upon all Dutch vessels trad- ing at New Haven. A sharp correspondence ensued be- tween the " State Right " parties, which resulted in the Dutch Governor issuing a proclamation, declaring, " If any person, noble or ignoble, freeman or slave, debtor or creditor — yea, to the lowest prisoner included, run away from New Haven, or seek refuge in our limits, he shall remain free under our protection, on taking the oath of allegiance." The Dutch colonists, however, objected to this unwise measure as tending to change their province into a refuge for vagabonds from the neighboring English settle- ments, and the obnoxious proclamation was thereupon revoked. About this period, 1648, it became necessary to regu- late the taverns, as about one-fourth part of the town of New Amsterdam had become houses for the sale of brandy, tobacco, or beer. No new taverns, it was ordained, should be licensed, except by the unani- mous consent of the Director and his Council ; and those established might continue four years longer, if their owners would abstain from selling to the savages, report all brawls, and occupy decent houses — " to adorn the town of New Amsterdam." Notwithstanding, however, all these precautions, the Indians were daily seen " run- ning about drunk through the Manhattans." New York, now the metropolitan city, witnesses every day ant] 52 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. night crowds of such drunken savages in her streets ; and it would almost seem that our wise legislators have not wisdom or strength enough to frame laws to subdue or prevent this great public evil. Finally, at New Amster- dam, in addition to all the former penalties, offenders against the temperance laws were "to be arbitrarily punished without any dissimulation." In the year 1648, no person was allowed to carry on business, except he was a permanent resident and had taken the oath of allegiance, was worth from two thou- sand to three thousand guilders at least, and intended to " keep fire and light in the province." This was an early expression of permanent residence in the Dutch province. Old residents, however, not possessing the full trading qualifications, were allowed the same privi- lege, provided they remained in the province, and used only the weights and measures of " Old Amsterdam, to which we owe our name." Scotch merchants and ped- dlers were not forgotten in these business arrangements, for it was also ordained that "all Scotch merchants and small dealers, who come over from their own country with the intention of trading here," should " not be per- mitted to carry on any trade in the land" until they had resided there three years. They were also required to build a " decent, habitable tenement" one year after their arrival. Every Monday was to be a market-day, and, in imitation of Fatherland, an annual " keemis," or fair, for ten days, was established, commencing on Monday after St. Bartholomew's Day, at which all persons could sell goods from their tents. The trade on the North and the South River was reserved for citizens having the re- quisite qualifications. It was declared, however, that the East River should be " free and open to any one, no matter to what nation he may belong." All vessels under fifty tons were to anchor between the Capsey HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 53 " Hoeck" (which divided the East and North Rivers) and the " Hand," or guide-board, near the present Battery. No freight was to be landed, nor any boats to leave the vessels, from sunset to sunrise. Those regulations were strictly enforced, and the high custom or duties exacted from the colonists amounted to almost thirty per cent., " besides waste." " The avidity of the Director to con- fiscate, " says an old account, " was a vulture, destroying the property of New Netherland, diverting its trade, and making the people discontented." This '"'bad report" spread among the English, north and south, and even reached the. West India and Caribbean Islands. Boston traders declared that more than twenty-five vessels would every year reach Manhattan from those islands, " if the owners were not fearful of confiscation." Not a ship now dared come from those places. Difficulties constantly arising between the authorities of the Fatherland and New Netherland, the " Presiding Chamber " plainly perceived that they must make concessions, or lose all control over their distant colony. Accordingly, the " Commonalty of Manhattan" was informed that the Amsterdam Di- rectors had determined to abolish the export duty on tobacco, to reduce the price of the same, and to allow the colonists to purchase negroes from Africa — all this being designed to show their " good intentions." They also informed Governor Stuyvesant of their assent to a "burgher government" in Manhattan, which should ap- proach as nearly as possible to the custom of " the metropolis of Holland." At the time that the colonists had obtained this concession (1652) of the long- desired burgher government, New Amsterdam numbered a population of seven hundred or eight hun- dred souls. At last, a naval war, long brewing, broke out between England and the United Provinces, and, without warning, 54 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY Dutch ships were arrested in English ports, and the crews impressed. Martin Harpertsen Tromp commanded the Dutch fleet. His name has no prefix of" Van," as many writers insist. Bancroft and Brodhead are among the few who have not adopted the common error. The Dutch Admiral was no more " Van Tromp " than the English was " Van Blake," or our brave American " Van Farra- gut." Tromp, in a few days, met the British fleet, under Admiral Blake, in Dover Straits, and a bloody but inde- cisive fight followed. Brilliant naval engagements ensued, in which Tromp and De Ruyter, with Blake and Ayscue, immortalized themselves. But the first year of hostili- ties closing with a victory for the Dutch, Blake sought refuge for his vessels in the Thames River, when the Dutch commander placed a broom at his mast- head — an emblem or token that he had swept the British Channel free from British ships. These hos- tilities between Holland and England encouraged pirates and robbers to infest the shores of the East River, and perpetrate excesses on Long Island and the neighborhood of New Amsterdam. Several yachts were immediately commissioned to act against the pirates. A reward of one hundred thalers was offered for each of the outlaws, and a proclamation issued prohibiting all persons from har- boring them, under the penalty of banishment and the confiscation of their goods. Forces had even been col- lected to act against New Netherland, but the joyful in- telligence of peace sent them to dislodge the French from the coast of Maine ; and thus, for ten years longer, the coveted Dutch-American province continued under the sway of Holland. The peace was published " in the ringing of bell" from the City Hall, and the 12th of August, 1654, appointed, piously by Stuyvesant, as a day of general thanksgiving. During the same month, 1654, Le Moyne, a Jesuit HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 55 father and missionary to the Indians, immortalized hi< name by a discovery which afterward formed one of the largest sources of wealth in our State. Reaching the en- trance of a small lake, filled with salmon-trout and other fish, he tasted the water of a spring, which his Indian guides were afraid to drink, saying that there was a demon in it which rendered it offensive. But the Jesuit had dis- covered " a fountain of salt water," from which he actu- ally made salt as natural as that of the sea. Taking a sample, he descended the Oneida, passed over Ontario and the St Lawrence, and safely reached Quebec with the in- telligence of his wonderful discovery. To the State of New York it has been more valuable than a mine of silver or gold. During the year 1654, the Swedish and the Casimir colonists on the Delaware took the Dutch fort on that river ; and soon after, Stuyvesant avenged himself by cap- turing the Golden Shark, a Swedish ship, bound to South River, which, by mistake, had entered Sandy Hook and anchored behind Staten Island. The captain, having dis- covered his error, sent a boat to Manhattan for a pilot, when the Governor ordered the crew to the guard-house, and dispatched soldiers to seize the vessel. The Shark's cargo was removed to the Company's magazine, until a reciprocal restitution should be made. The Swedish agent sent a long protest to Governor Stuyvesant, complaining of his conduct. In the year 1656, there were in New Amsterdam one hundred and twenty houses and one thousand souls. A proclamation, issued at this time, forbade the removal of any corps in the town or colony, until the Company's tithes had been paid. The authorities of Ren<- selaerswick refusing to publish this notice, the tapsters were sent down to New Amsterdam, pleading that they acted under the orders of their feudal officers. This 56 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. defense was overruled, and one person was fined two hundred pounds, and another, eight hundred guilders. The cities of Holland, for a long time, had enjoyed cer- tain municipal privileges called " great " and " small " burgher rights. In Amsterdam, all who paid five hundred guilders were enrolled "great burghers," and they monop- olized all the offices, and were also exempt from attainder and confiscation of goods. The " small burghers" paid fifty guilders for the honors, and had the freedom of trade only. This burghership became hereditary in Holland, and could pass by marriage, and be acquired by females as well as by males. Foreigners, after a year's probation, could also become burghers ; and the burghers were gen- erally the merchants and tradesmen. The various trades and professions formed separate associations, or "guilds" and their members were bound to assist each other in distress or danger. In Fatherland, each guild generally inhabited a separate quarter of the town, was organized as a military company, and fought under its own stand- ard, having its own " dekken," or dean. In the year 1657, "in conformity to the laudable cus- tom of the city of Amsterdam in Europe," this great burgher right was introduced into New Amsterdam. 1657 This was an absurd imitation of an invidious policy, and the mother city herself was soon obliged to abandon it, notwithstanding Governor Stuyvesant attempted to establish in New Amsterdam this most offensive of all distinctions — an aristocracy founded on a class, or mere wealth. In Mr. Paulding's " Affairs and Men of New Amster- dam in the Time of Governor Peter Stuyvesant," there is a list of the recorded Great Citizenship, in the year 1657. As a rare matter of the olden time, it is here given entire : " Joh. La Montagne, Junior ; Jan Gillesen Van Burggh, Hendricksen Kip, De Heere General Stuyvesant, Domine HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 57 Megapolensis, Jacob Gerritsen Strycker, Jan Virge, The wife of Cornells Van Tienhoven, Hendrick Van Dyck, Kip Hendrick, Junior ; Captain Martin Krigier, Karl Van Burggh, Jacob Van Couwenhoven, Laurisen Cornelisen, Van Wyek, Johannes Pietersen,VanBurggh,Cornelis Steen- wyck, Wilb. Bogardus, Daniel Litschoe, Pieter Van Cou- wenhoven." These twenty names composed the aristoc- racy of New York two hundred and thirteen years ago, when umbrellas and carriages were unknown. We have also before us the names of the " small " citi- zenship, which number two hundred and sixteen. In a few short years it was found that this division of the citi- zens into two classes produced great inconvenience, in consequence of the very small number of great burghers who were eligible to office. It became necessary for the Government to change this unpopular order. The heavy fee to obtain it frightened most foreigners, so that it was purchased but once during a period of sixteen years. In the year 1668, the difference between "great" and "small" burghers was abolished, when every burgher be- came legally entitled to all burgher privileges. During the year 1659, it was discovered that the Dutch colony had as yet produced no returns, and was already seven thousand guilders in arrears. It was there- 1659 fore determined that, to prevent further loss, such colonists only as had left Holland before December, 1658, should be supplied with provisions. Goods were to be sold only for cash, and exemptions from tithes and taxes were to cease several years before the original stipulated period, and merchandise thereafter was to be consigned to the city of Amsterdam exclusively. The colonists remon- strated against this new restriction of trade, which had the appearance of gross slaveiy, and of fettering the free pros- pects of a worthy people. This remonstrance was well timed, and the City Council consented that all the traders 5S HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. on the South River might export all goods, except peltry, to any place they wished. In the year 1660, a second survey and map of New Amsterdam was made by Jacques Cortelyou, and the city was found to contain three hundred and fifty houses. It was sent to the Amsterdam Chamber, in case it should be thought " good to make it more pub- lic by having it engraved." This early map has probably been lost. The restoration of Charles the Second, in 1661, did not produce in England more friendly feelings towards the Dutch ; and the two nations now became com- mercial rivals. The Act of Navigation had already closed the ports of New England, Virginia, and Maryland against Holland and its colony of New Netherland ; and such at that time was the narrow spirit of British states- men, that many Independents and Dissenters desired to seek new homes, where they would be alike free from monarchy, prelacy, and British rule. Nor were these considerations overlooked in Holland. The West India Company now determined to invite emigration to New Netherland by larger inducements ; accordingly, a new charter was drawn up, which granted to " all such people as shall be disposed to take up their abode in those parts," fifteen leagues of land along the sea-coast, " and as far in depth in the continent as any plantation hath, or may be, settled in New Netherland." Emigrants were also to have " high, middle, and low jurisdiction," "freedom from head-money" for twenty years, property in mines, freedom for ten years from taxes, the right to use their own ships, and freedom in the fishing trade. " Therefore," added the Company, " if any of the English, good Christians, who may be assured of the advantage to mankind of plantations in these latitudes to others more southerly, and shall ration- HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY 59 ally be disposed to transport themselves to the said place, under the conduct of the United Provinces, they shall have full liberty to live in the fear of the Lord, upon the aforesaid good conditions, and shall be likewise court- eously used." A proper act, under the seal of the Com- pany, was issued at the Hague, which granted to " all Christian people of tender conscience in England or else- where oppressed, full liberty to erect a colony in the West Indies, between New England and Virginia, in Amer- ica, now within the jurisdiction of Peter Stuyvesant, the States-General Governor for the West India Company." How many " Christian people of tender conscience " availed themselves of these advantageous offers, does not appear; but the metropolis prospered. A better cur- rency was now found to be indispensable, and the burgo- masters wrote to Holland for authority to establish a mint for the coinage of silver, and to constitute wampum (needed for trade with the savages) an article of sale. But the Amsterdam Directors refused to grant this improvement of the colonial currency. A number of breweries, brick-kilns, and other manu- factories, carried on a successful business; and the pot- teries on Long Island some persons esteemed equal to those of Delft. Dirck De Wolf having obtained from the Amsterdam Chamber, in 16G1, the exclusive privi- lege of making salt for seven years in New Netherland, began its manufacture upon Coney Island ; but the Graves- end settlers, who claimed the spot, arrested the enter- prise; and this, too, notwithstanding Governor Stuyve- sant sent a military guard to protect him. In the year 1664, the population of New Netherland had increased to "full ten thousand," and New Amster- dam contained one thousand five hundred, and ~ •, -n t i 1664. wore an appearance ot great prosperity. English jealousy evidently increased with the augmenting com- 60 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. merce of the Dutch. James, Duke of York, was the King's brother, and also Governor of the African Com- pany, and he denounced the Dutch West India Company, which had endeavored to secure the territory on the Gold Coast from English speculators and intruders. Eng- land, now resolved to march a step further, and, at one blow, to rob Holland of her American province. The King granted a -sealed patent to the Duke of York for a large territory in America, including Long Island, and all lands and rivers from the west side of the Connecti- cut to the east side of Delaware Bay. This sweeping grant embraced the whole of New Netherland. The Duke of York, that he might lose no time in securing his patent, dispatched Captain Scott, with one hundred and fifty followers, to visit the Island of Man- hattan, the value of which was now estimated at three thousand pounds. On the 11th of January, 1664, the valorous Scott made his appearance at "Breukelen" Ferry Landing, and, with a great flourish of trumpets, demanded submission to the English flag. Governor Stuyvesant, despatching his Secretary, politely asked Captain Scott, " Will you come across the river?" and the reply was, " No ; let Stuyvesant come over with one hundred sol- diers; I will wait for him here!" "What for?" demanded the Secretary. " I would run him through the body !" was the Captain's courteous answer. " That would not be a friendly act," replied the Governor's Deputy. Thus they parted ; Scott retiring to Midwout (Flatbush) with his forces, with drums beating and colors flying, while the people " looked on with wonder, not knowing what it meant." Scott told them that they must abandon their allegiance to the Dutch, and promised to confer with Governor Stuyvesant. But when he reached the river, on his way to New Amsterdam for this purpose, he de- clined crossing it. Still he felt very brave, threatening HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 61 to go over, proclaim the English King at the Manhattans, and "rip the guts, and cut the feet from under any man who says, ' This is not the King's land.' " This was, cer- tainly, very bloodthirsty; but the good people of Man- hattan all escaped with whole feet and bowels. The valiant Captain then marched to New Utrecht, ordered the only gun of which the block-house boasted to be fired in the King's honor, and then continued his triumphant march to Amersfort, for another bloodless victory. Governor Stuyvesant now ordered a new commission to confer with Captain Scott, at Jamaica, and Cornelis Steenwyck* — one of the fathers of New Amsterdam, residing on his farm at Harlem — was one of the commis- sion. It was here agreed that the English Captain should desist from disturbing the Dutch towns. The latter, however, insisted that the basis of future negotiations should recognize Long Island as belonging to Great Britain. He also hinted that the Duke of York intended to reduce, in time, the whole province of New Nether- land — a declaration which was to prove true sooner than the Dutch Governor anticipated. In September of the same year (1664), Colonel Nic- olls anchored before New Amsterdam with a fleet and soldiers. His imperious message to Governor Stuyvesant was : " I shall come with ships and soldiers, raise the white flag of peace at the fort, and then something may be considered. The Dutch colony was entirely unprepared for such a warlike visit, and capitulated at eight o'clock on the morning of September 8th, 1664. Stuyvesant, at the head of the garrison, marched out of the fort with the honors of war, pursuant to the terms of the surrender. His soldiers were immediately led down the " Bever's * There is a portrait of Mr. Steenwyck in the collection of the N. Y. Historical Society. 62 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. Paafje" or Beaver Lane, to the shore of the North River, where they embarked for Holland. An English " corpo- ral's guard " immediately entered and took possession of the fort, over which the English flag was at once hoisted. Its name, Fort Amsterdam, was then changed to " Fort James," and New Amsterdam was henceforth known as " New York." This was a violent and treacherous seiz- ure of territory at a time of profound peace — a breach of private justice and public faith ; and by it, a great State had imposed on it a name which is unknown in history, save as it is connected with bigotry and tyranny, and which has ever been an enemy of political and religious liberty.^ Before following further the course of events, a brief retrospect of the commercial prosperity of New Nether- land seems desirable. At the period when Governor Stuy- vesant's administration was so suddenly terminated by the arrival of the Duke of York's forces, the population of New Netherland was established at " full ten thousand." When New Amsterdam was first surveyed, in 1656, it contained one hundred and twenty houses and one thou- sand souls, which increased to fifteen hundred in 1664. Not quite two hundred arid fifty of these were male * As the surrender of Fort Amsterdam involved the less of the entire Dutch possessions in New Netherland, the conduct of Governor Stuyvesant, in not maintaining its defense, was severely criticised by his superiors in Holland. In his justification, he explained that the fort was encompassed only by a slight wall, two to three feet in thickness, backed by coarse gravel, not above eight, nine, and ten feet high, in some places ; in others, higher, according to the rise and fall of the ground. It was for the most part crowded all around with build- ings, and better adapted for a citadel than for defense against an open enemy. The houses were, in many places, higher than the walls and bastions, and ren- dered those wholly exposed. Most of the houses had cellars not eight rods distant from the wall of the fort ; in some places not two or three feet dis- tant ; and at one point scarce a rod from the wall, — so that whoever should be master of the city, could readily approach with scaling-ladders from the adja- cent houses, and mount the walls, which had neither a wet nor a dry ditch. — Valentine's Manual. HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 63 adults ; and the rest women and children below eighteen years 'of age. The same city now numbers about a million of people ! New York, on an average, has about doubled its population every twenty-three years. Be it remembered that trade and commerce became the great stimulus of population, and their regulation of the utmost importance. The damages incurred by the West India Company during 1645-'6, in Brazil, and estimated at one hundred tons of gold, rendered some measures necessary to retrieve its condition. Trade with that country was there- fore opened in the year 16 18 to the New Netherlander, who were permitted to send thither their produce, and return with African slaves, whose subsequent exportation from the Dutch Province was forbidden. Four years afterward, the province obtained the privilege of trading to Africa for slaves and other articles. In the same year, the monopoly of the carrying trade between Holland and this country (before in the hands of the Amsterdam Chamber) was abolished ; " for the first time," private vessels were now entered at Amsterdam ; and, in 1659, the privilege of ex- porting produce to France, Spain, Italy, and the Carib- bean Islands, was obtained. Thus, the markets of the world, except those of the East, were opened to New Neth- erland ships. From this regulation, however, furs alone were an exception, as these were to be sent exclusively to Amsterdam. The duties were fixed by the tariff of 1648, at ten per cent, on imported, and fifteen upon exported goods ; but some difference existed in favor of English colonial but- tons, causing them first to be sent to New England, and thence imported into New Netherland at a low rate. To obviate this, in 1651, the duties on such goods were raised to sixteen per cent., tobacco excepted, its eight per cent. tax being taken off. In the year 1655, the duties on im- ports again were reduced to ten per cent., and, in 1659, g4 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. owing to the demand for lead to be used in window- frames, this article was placed on the free-list. As we have noticed, the industry of the Dutch colonists was early manifested in ship-building. At the close of Stuy- vesant's administration, a number of distilleries, breweries, and potasheries, were in operation, with several manufac- tories of tiles, bricks, and earthenware. An attempt was also made, in 1657, to introduce the silk culture; two years after, mulberry-trees were exported to Curacoa; and, as before stated, the making of salt was attempted ; but the inhabitants of Gravesend, claiming Coney Island under their patent, destroyed the houses and improve- ments, burnt the fences, and threatened to throw the workmen into the flames. Although wampum, or "zeawan" had become almost the exclusive currency of New Netherlands (1G64), still, beaver remained the standard of value. During the years 1651— '2, Director Stuyvesant tried to introduce a specie currency, and applied to Holland for twenty-five thousand guilders in Dutch shillings and four-penny pieces, but the Di- rectors there disapproved of his project. The people were thus entirely dependent on wampum, as we are now upon " greenbacks," and the value of wages, property, and every commodity, was, in consequence, seriously disturbed. So it is in this day, and ever will be, with an irredeemable currency, whether of clam-shells, thin paper, or any thing else, not equal to specie. At first, wampum passed at the rate of four black beads for one stiver ; next, it was lowered to six ; again, in 1657, to eight; and then it was ordered to be considered a tender for gold and silver. But Stuyvesant wisely objected, as it would bring the value of property to naught. In the year 1650, the white wampum was next reduced from twelve to sixteen, and the black from six to eight for a stiver. What was the result? The holder was obliged to give more wampum HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 55 for any article he purchased of the trader, who, in return, allowed the natives a large quantity of it for their beavers and skins; and, to use the plain record of the day, "little or no benefit accrued." Nominally, prices advanced, when beavers which had been sold for twelve or fourteen guilders rose to twenty-two and twenty-four, bread from fourteen to twenty-two stivers (eight-pound loaves) beef nine to ten stivers per pound, pork fifteen to twenty stivers, shoes from three and a half guilders to twelve a pair, and wrought-iron from eighteen to twenty stivers the pound. Beavers and specie remained all the while of equal value ; but the difference between these and wam- pum was fifty per cent. The effect on wages was almost ruinous. An old record says: "The poor farmer, laborer, and public officer, being paid in zeawan, are almost re- duced to the necessity of living on alms." Those in the employ of the Dutch Company asked that their salaries might be paid in beavers, but this was refused ; as well might public officers in our day desire to receive gold and silver for their services. This deprecia- tion of the currency, and the consequent disturbance of prices, caused much popular clamor, and various expe- dients were adopted to amend the unfortunate state of things. The Directors of New Netherland would have the colonists consider wampum as " bullion," but would only receive beavers in payment of duties and taxes. We adopt something of the same theory in our Custom-House payments. Governor Stuyvesant raised the value of specie in the country twenty to twenty -five per cent, " to prevent its exportation." Finally, however, the price of beaver in 1663 fell from eight guilders (specie) to four and a half, white wampum from sixteen to eight, and black from eight to four for a stiver. What a fall ! This was the state of the public finances when the English came in possession of New Netherland. Some persons 9 6(3 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. are met with at the present time who fear a similar financial crash sooner or later in our enlightened land with its hundreds and millions in paper-money operations and promises. The public revenue in New Netherland embraced two descriptions, provincial and municipal: the former con- sisting of the export duty on furs, the impost on Euro- pean goods, with the tenths of agricultural produce, butter, cheese, etc. ; the latter of an excise duty on liquors and slaughtered cattle. In the year 1655, the duty on exported furs is stated at twenty-two thousand guilders. The expenses of the Government became very large, especially from the Indian wars, which also cut off the supplies of furs ; so that by the close of Stuy vesant's administration, there was a deficit of fifty thousand florins, or twenty thousand dollars. The municipal rev- enue arising from the liquor excise was of two kinds, the tapsters and the burghers — the first paying a duty of four florins a ton on home-brewed, and six on foreign beer ; eight florins a hogshead on French ; and four on Spanish wine, brandy, or other spirits. These rates were doubled in 16G2. The income of New Amsterdam from these sources was estimated at twenty-five thousand guilders. The Company in Holland had now expended twelve tons of gold in the settlement of New Netherland, and now (1664), when some return was expected for this large outlay, foreigners seized and possessed themselves of all the benefits resulting from such expenditures. We again resume the thread of our narrative. The war which broke out in 1672 between the English and the Dutch, and which was chiefly carried on by the navies of the two powers, occasioned appre- hensions for the safety of the province of New York ; and Governor Lovelace, the successor of Nicolls, the first English Governor, made preparations for a demonstra- HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 67 tion of that character on the part of the Dutch. Nor were his fears unfounded ; although, some months elaps- ing without any appearance of the enemy, he allowed himself to fall into a fatal sense of security, and accord- ingly disbanded the levies, while he himself departed on a visit to the Eastern colonies, leaving the Fort in charge of Captain John Manning. The Dutch, however, were not asleep; nor had they relinquished their design. De- termined to regain New Amsterdam at all hazards, they fitted out a fleet of five ships, commanded by Admirals Benckes and Evertsen, with Captains Colve, Boes, and Van Zye. On the 29th of July, 1673, they appeared off Sandy Hook ; and quietly sailing up the bay, and anchoring before Staten Island, soon appeared oppo- site the Battery. The fleet then opened a heavy cannon- ade upon the city, at the same time that Captain Colve, landing with six hundred men, drew up in order of battle on the Commons, ready to march into the city. At a given signal the men marched down Broadway, where- upon Captain Manning surrendered the fort, on condition that its garrison should march out with all the honors of war. This condition having been granted, the Dutch troops again possessed the fort and city. New York re- ceived the name of New Orange, and the fort itself the name of Fort William Hendrick. Governor Lovelace, who, meanwhile had hastened back from his pleasure tour, was allowed to return with the Dutch Admiral. He received from the English Government a severe repri- mand for cowardice and treachery, and his estates were confiscated to the Duke of York. Captain Colve, now in command of the Province of New Netherland, received a commission from Benckes and Evertsen to govern the new territory. His rule, though brief, was energetic. He at once took measures to im- prove the defenses of the fort; and, in October, 1673, we 68 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. find it stated in one of his orders, that the fortifications had then, at great expense and labor to the citizens and inhabitants, been brought "to perfection." Anthony De Milt was appointed Schout, with three burgomasters and five schepens. The entire city assumed the appearance of a military post, the Commons (the present Park) be- coming the parade-ground. A wall or palisade was placed around it, running from Trinity Church along Wall Street — hence its name — and block-houses protected the set- tlement on every side. Every day the Schout reviewed the military, before the "Stadt Huys," at the head of Coenties Slip. At six in the evening he received the city keys, and with a guard of six men locked the public gates, and stationed the sentinels. He unlocked the gates at sunrise. The city at this period numbered three hundred and twenty houses. But the second administration of the Dutch was des- tined to be of short duration. On the 9th of February, 1674, the treaty of peace between England and the States-General was signed at Westminster ; and the Dutch, having discovered and possessed the beautiful country of New Netherland for almost sixty years, were now, once and forever, dispossessed of it. On that day the old fort became " Fort James," having surrendered to Sir Edmund Andros, who had been appointed Governor by the Duke of York. CHAPTER III. Before closing this section, and bidding farewell en- tirely to New York under the Dutch rule, it seems fitting to glance somewhat minutely at the social manners and customs of our early Dutch ancestors. The Dutch of New Amsterdam were distinguished for their good nature, love of home, and cordial hospitality. Fast young men, late hours, and fashionable dissipation were unknown There was, nevertheless ; plenty of oppor- tunity for healthful recreation. Holidays were abundant, each family having some of its own, such as birth-days, christenings, and marriage anniversaries. Each season, too, introduced its own peculiar and social festivals — the " Quilting," " Apple-Raising," and " Husking Bees." The work on such occasions was soon finished, after which the guests sat down to a supper, well supplied with chocolate and waffles — the evening terminating with a merry dance. Dancing was a favorite amusement. The slaves danced to the music of their rude instruments, in the markets ; while the maidens and youths practiced the same amuse- ment at their social parties, and around the annual May- Pole on the Bowling Green. Besides such holidays, five public or national festivals were observed. These were — Kerstrydt 1 or Christmas ; Nieuw Jar, or New Year ; Paas, or Passover ; Pinxter, Whitsuntide ; and Santa Claus, St. Nicholas, or Christ-Kin- 70 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY kle Day. The morn of the Nativity was hailed with uni- versal salutations of a " Merry Christmas " — a good old Knickerbocker custom which has descended unimpaired to us. Next, in the day's programme, came "Turkey Shoot- i n o-" — the young men repairing either to the " Beekman Swamp," or on the Common (Park), for this amusement. Each man paid a few stivers* for a "chance," when the best shot obtained the prize. The day was also commem- orated, as it is at the present time, by family dinners, and closed with domestic gayety and cheerfulness. New- Year's Day was devoted to the universal inter- change of visits. Every door in New Amsterdam was thrown wide open, and a warm welcome extended to the stranger as well as the friend. It was considered a breach of established etiquette to omit any acquaintance in these annual calls, by which old friendships were renewed, fam- ily differences settled, and broken or neglected intimacies restored. This is another of the excellent customs of the olden times that still continues among New Yorkers ; and its origin, like many others, is thus traced exclusively to the earliest Hollanders. Paas, or Easter, was a famous festival among the Dutch, but is now almost forgotten, except by the chil- dren, who still take considerable interest in coloring eggs in honor of the day. The eggs were found then on every table. This old festival, however, is rapidly passing away, and, like Pinxter, will soon be forgotten. Santa Claus, however, was the day of all others with the little Dutch folk, for it was sacred to St. Nicholas — the tutelar divinity of New Amsterdam — who had presided at the figure-head of the first emigrant ship that reached her shores. The first church erected within her fort was * A stiver was equal to nearly two cents in United States money. HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 71 also named after St. Nicholas. He was, to the imagina- tion of the little people, a jolly, rosy-cheeked, little old man, with a slouched hat, large Flemish nose, and a very long pipe. His sleigh, loaded with all sorts of Christmas gifts, was drawn by swift reindeer ; and, as he drove rap- idly over the roofs of the houses, he would pause at the chimneys to leave presents in the stockings of the good children ; if bad, they might expect nothing but a switch or leather-strap. In this way the young Knickerbockers became models of good behavior and propriety. They used to sing a suitable hymn on the occasion, one verse of which is here given, for the benefit of those readers who may wish to know how it sounded in Dutch : " Sint Nicholaae, myn goden vriend, Ik heb u altyd wel gediend ; Als gy my nu wot wilt geben, Zal ik dienen als myn leven." TRANSLATION. " Saint Nicholas, my dear, good friend, To serve you ever was my end ; If you me now something will give, Serve you, I will, as'long as I live." " Dinner parties " in these primitive days were un- known ; but this seeming lack of social intercourse was more than made up by the well-known and numerous tea parties. To " take tea out" was a Dutch institution, and one of great importance. The matrons arrayed in their best petticoats and linsey jackets, "home spun" by their own wheels, would proceed on the intended afternoon visit. They wore capacious pockets, with scissors, pin- cushion, and keys hanging from their girdle, outside of their dress; and, reaching the neighbor's house, the visitors industriously used knitting-needles and tongues at the same time. The village gossip was talked over, neighbors' affairs settled, and the stockings finished by tea-time, when the important meal appeared on the table 72 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. precisely at six o'clock. This was always the occasion for the display of the family plate, with the Lilliputian cups, of rare old family china, out of which the guests sipped the fragrant herb. A large lump of loaf-sugar invariably accompanied each cup, on a little plate, and the delightful beverage was sweetened by an occasional nibble, amid the more solid articles of waffles and Dutch doughnuts. The pleasant visit finished, the visitors, don- ning; cloaks and hoods — as bonnets were unknown — proceeded homeward in time for milking and other neces- sary household duties. The kitchen fire-places were of immense size, large enough to roast a sheep or whole hog; and the hooks and trammels sustained large iron pots and kettles. In the spacious chimney-corners the children and negroes gathered — telling stories and crack- ing nuts by the light of the blazing pine-knots, while the industrious vrows turned the merry spinning-wheel, and their lords, the worthy burghers — mayhap just returned from an Indian scrimmage — quietly smoked their long pipes, as they sat watching the wreaths curling above their heads. At length, the clock, with its brazen tongue, having proclaimed the hour of nine, family prayers were said, and all retired, to rise with the dawn. A model housekeeper rose at cock-crowing, break- fasted with the dawn, and proceeded to the duties of the day ; and when the sun reached the meridian or " noon mark," dinner, which was strictly a family meal, was on the table. This domestic time-piece answered every pur- pose, so regular were the hours and lives of the people. At one time there were not more than half a dozen clocks in New Amsterdam, with about the same number of watches. But they were strikingly peculiar in one re- spect : they were scarcely ever known to go, and hence were of very little practical utility. No watch-maker had yet found it profitable to visit the settlement; and Ill STORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 73 this was a period two centuries before the invention of Yankee clocks. For a long while, time was marked by hour-glasses and sun-dials. We have already seen the interior of the kitchen, and will now go up stairs into the parlor of the early Dutch dwellings. Stoves were never dreamed of; but instead of them was the cheerful fire-place, sometimes in the corner, but more generally reaching nearly across the back of the room, with its huge gum back-log and glowing fire of hickory. The shovel and tongs occupied each corner of the fire-place, keeping guard, as it were, over the family brass-mounted andirons which supported the blazing wood. Marble mantles had not yet been invented ; but chimney-jambs, inlaid with party colors, imported Hol- land tiles, representing all kinds of Scriptural stories, were quite ornamental as well as instructive. Many a youngster has received categorical instruction from these silent venerable teachers. In one corner of the room always stood the huge oaken iron-bound chest, brimful of household linen, spun by the ladies of the family, who delighted to display these domestic riches to their visitors. Later, this plain wardrobe gave place to the " chest of drawers" one drawer placed upon the other, until the pile reached the ceiling, with its shining brass rings and key-holes. The book- case, too, with its complicated writing-desk, mysterious secret-drawers and pigeon -holes, came into use about the same period, though both were unknown to the early Knickerbockers. Sideboards were not introduced into New Amsterdam until after the American Revolution, and were entirely of English origin. The round tea-table also occupied a place in the corner of the parlor, while the large square dining-table stood in the kitchen for daily use. In another corner stood the well-known Hol- land cupboard, with glass doors, conspicuously displaying 10 74 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. the family plate and porcelain. Little looking-glasses in narrow black frames, were in common use ; two or three only of the wealthiest burghers possessing larger mirrors, elaborately ornamented with gilding and flowers. About 1730, the sconce came in fashion — a hanging or projecting candlestick, with a mirror to reflect the rays This was a very showy article, giving a fine light to the rooms.* After this period pier and mantel glasses came into fashion. Pictures, such as they were, abounded ; but they were, for the most part, poor engravings of Dutch cities and naval engagements. Chintz calico of inferior quality formed the only window-curtains, without any cornices. There were no carpets among the early Dutch, nor any in general use among the New Yorkers until up to the period of the Revolution. The famous Captain Kidd, it is said, owned the first modern carpet in his best room, and the pirate's house was the best furnished in the city. It was made of Turkey work, at a cost of twenty- five dollars, and resembled a large rug. The custom of sanding the floor of the principal room, or parlor, was universal, and much taste was displayed in the many fanciful devices and figures made in the sand with the brooms of the smart Dutch matrons and daughters. Our Dutch ancestors knew nothing of lounges or sofas, or even of that comfortable American invention, the rock- ing-chair. Their best chairs were straight and high- backed, covered with Russia leather, and elaborately orna- mented with double and triple rows of brass nails. In addition to these, the parlor was decorated with one or two chairs having embroidered seats and backs, the * Two of these quaint fixtures, a hundred and fifty rears old, hung, until a year or two since, in the parlor of the Union Hall, at Saratoga Springs, N. Y. Old visitors will readily recall them. They now adorn the parlors of Mrs. Washington Putnam, of Saratoga Springs, the widow of the late Washington Putnam, for many years the genial host and owner of the " Union." HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY 75 handiwork of the daughters. Some of the oldest families also displayed in their best rooms two chairs with cush- ions of tapestry, or velvet, trimmed with lace. About the year 1700, cane seats became fashionable, and thirty years after came the leather chairs, worth from five to ten dollars each. These led the fashion about thirty years more, when mahogany and black walnut chairs, with their crimson damask cushions, appeared. But the most ornamental piece of furniture in the par- lor was the bed, with its heavy curtains and valance of camlet. No mattresses then, but a substantial bed of live geese feathers, with a very light one of down for the cov- ering. These beds were the boast and pride of the most respectable Dutch matrons, and, with their well-filled chests of home-made linen, supplied their claims to skill in housekeeping. A check covering cased the bed and pillows ; the sheets were made of homespun linen ; and over the whole was thrown a bed-quilt of patchwork, wrought into every conceivable shape and pattern. The u betste" (bedstead) was at this period a part of the house. It was constructed something like a cupboard, with closing doors, so that by day, when unoccupied, the apartment could be used for a sitting-room. In more humble houses, the " sloop banck" or " bunk," was the sleeping-place. In Dutch taverns, the good vrow or her maid opened the doors of the "betste" for the traveler, and, like a kind mother, bade him "mel te rusten" — "good- night," and always, as an old friend, "hoo-y rees" — "good- by." To this day, in Holland, travelers meet similar receptions at the taverns ; and all the guests, assembling in one room, eat, drink, and smoke. Our Dutch forefathers were fond of pure, good milk — a luxury unknown to their unfortunate descendants. It was the common practice for all who could afford stable room, to keep their own cows, and thus furnish their fami- 76 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. lies with milk and butter. Rip Van Dam, in 1748, kept two cows ; and Abraham De Puyster, one of the wealthi- est merchants, owned the same number. Good pasturage, too, surrounded the town, no further off than the present Park. A man with a bell came along early in the morn- ing for the cows, driving them through Wall to the city- gate, at the corner of that street and Water; thence to the fields about the Collect, where the Tombs now stands ; in the evening he brought them back to their owners. In the earlier period of New Amsterdam, the grain was made into flour by pestle and mortar, every family adopting this method. Coin then as now was exceedingly scarce ; nor was there even any paper currency. Hence, grain became as much the circulating medium as " green- backs " are at the present day with us. From this cir- cumstance, the pestle and mortar constituted the real mints of the people ; the pounded grain passing current for goods and labor, like bank-notes. The horses of those days were bred wild in the woods and pastures which covered the upper part of Manhattan Island. Thousands of them ran at large, their owners, at certain seasons, branding them with their names, when they were turned loose again, until winter rendered a shelter for them necessary. Such was their great increase, that it is said the Island was overrun by the animals, now become as wild and dangerous as the buffaloes of the prai- ries ; the breed was, consequently, inferior, the price of a horse ranging from ten dollars to forty dollars, according to the strength, and not the speed, of the animal. This great plenty of horse-flesh, however, afforded ample opportunity for the fair Dutch dames to indulge their favorite pastime — riding on horseback. The ladies, at this period, how- ever, did not ride on horseback alone, as is now the fash- ion, but were mounted upon a pillion, or padded cushion, placed behind the gentleman's saddle (or a servant's), upon HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 77 whose support they depended. This was the common custom, as the roads were unbroken, being, in fact, little better than bridle-paths. Early in the eighteenth century side-saddles came into partial use. The gentlemen's hous- ings were made of bright-colored cloths or velvet, often trimmed with silver lace ; holsters were common. The literature of New Amsterdam was entirely differ- ent from that of modern times In the place of the nov- els, magazines, and light reading which now fill the cen- ter-tables, there was to be found little else than Bibles, Testaments, and hymn-books. The matrons' church books were generally costly bound, with silver clasps and edg- ings, and sometimes of gold. These were suspended to the girdle by silver and gold chains, and distinguished the style of the families using them, on the Sabbath days. The Sundays in New Amsterdam were, moreover, bet- ter observed by its inhabitants than at the present day. All classes, arrayed in their best, then attended the pub- lic services of religion; and the people, almost exclusively Calvinists, attended the Dutch Reformed Church. The "Koeck" or bell-ringer and sexton, was an important personage on the Sabbath. He not only summoned the congregation by the sound of the church-going bell, but formed a procession of himself and his assistants to carry the cushions of the burgomasters and schepens from the City Hall to the pews appropriated to these officials. At the same time, the Schout went his rounds, to see that quiet was kept in the streets during Divine worship, and also to stop the games of the negro slaves and Indians — to whom the Sabbath was allowed as a day of recreation, except during church hours. Small pieces of ivampum were obtained by the deacons, and sold at great value to the heads of the Dutch families. These, having been distributed among the different mem- bers of families, were then taken to church, and deposited 78 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. in the collection-bags, which were attached to long poles. Such was the custom a long while ; nor, in some of the in- terior Dutch settlements, has it been entirely abandoned at the present day. Formerly, a small bell was attached to the bottom of the bags, to remind the drowsy of the col- lection. The deacons, being thus prepared to receive the benefactions of the congregation, presented themselves in front of the pulpit, when, the Dominie having addressed a few appropriate words to them, they forthwith proceeded to collect the contributions. At that day, also, the " Koor- leser" or Clerk, occupied a little pew in front of the pul- pit, holding in his hand a rod, on the end of which all notices were placed, and thus passed up to the Dominie. The moment the minister reached the pulpit stairs, he offered a private prayer, holding his hat before his face, until, having sought the aid of the Lord and Master, he ascended the sacred desk. It was also at this time the custom to publish from the pulpit the bans three times before a marriage could be solemnized. The Dutch Church was, at this period, within the fort, at the Battery ; and the present Bowling Green, an open field, exhibited many country wagons, arranged in regular order, while their horses were allowed to graze on the green slopes that led down to the Hudson River. And here, in the old Church of St. Nicholas, for half a century, from 1642 to 1693, the early Dutch worshipped God in His Holy Temple. Every house in New Amsterdam was surrounded by a garden, sufficiently large to accommodate a horse, a cow, two pigs, fowls, a patch of cabbages, and a tulip-bed. In- deed, the love of flowers seems to have been inherent in the Dutch dames. While the head of a family care- fully watched the growth of some ancient household tree, planted, in accordance with a universal custom in New HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 79 Amsterdam, directly before the door-way, the matron might have been seen with her large calash over her shoulders, and her little painted basket of seeds in her hand, going to the labors of the garden. Nor is this figu- rative. It was the universal custom for a Dutch lady in independent circumstances, gentle of form and manner, to sow, plant, and cultivate. These fair gardeners were also good florists. Where have there ever been found choicer THE BOWLING GREEN IN 1SG1. hyacinths and tulips than among the Hollanders'? In- deed, all New Yorkers may well feel proud of their great- great-great grandmothers from Holland. They were fair and unblemished religious dames, with great grasp of mind, and of exemplary industry. The important task of religious instruction chiefly devolved upon them ; and the essentials, especially the ceremonials of piety, were SO HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. instilled upon the minds of their children. Hence moth- ers among the early Dutch were always regarded with peculiar reverence. The Dutch ladies wore no bonnets, as is still the fashion with some ol' the German emigrants who now arrive at Castle Garden. At New Amsterdam the fash- ionable dress was a colored petticoat, rather short (for ease in walking), waist jacket, colored hose of homespun woolen, and high-heeled shoes, suitable to a city desti- tute of pavements or sidewalks ol' any kind. The Dutch burghers wore long-waisted coats, with skirts reaching almost to their ankles, and adorned with large silver hut- tons. The wardrobe ol' a prominent burgomaster at the transfer ol' Now Amsterdam to the British, was as fol- lows: A cloth coat, with silver buttons, worth fifteen dollars ; a stuff coat, ten dollars ; cloth breeches, ten shillings ; a cloth coat, with gimp buttons, seven dol- lars and fifty cents; a black cloth coat, seven dollars; a black velvet coat, fifteen dollars; a silk coat, breeches, and doublet, >ix dollars; a silver cloth breeches and doublet, five dollars; a velvet waistcoat, with silver lace, live dollars; a buff coat and silk sleeves, five dollars; three grass-green cloaks, six dollars each; besides several old suits. To these also must be added linen, hose, shoes with silver buckles, a cane with an ivory head, and a hat. It may be doubted if our present Mayors, with all their cloths and eassimeres, possess even one tithe of such an assortment of coats, pants, and vests, as this official Dutchman, their predecessor, in "ye olden time."* In the good old Dutch times respectable tradesmen * A little later, in 1000. we rind among a fashionable gentleman's apparel, etc.. green silk breeches, tinted with silver and gold ; silver gauze-breeches, scarlet and blue silk blockings, laced shirt, a blue cloth stuff and frieze coat, a gun and a pair of pistols, a silver-hilted sword, a silver 9poon and fork, a lacku hat, a campaign, shut -bob, old-bob wigs, and periwigs. HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. gl worked hard; none were drones or mere lookers-on. There existed but little competition among trades- men, as with us. No tempting display of goods in show-windows attracted the attention and excited the desire of passers-by to go beyond their means. Content to sell their goods at a fair profit, they secured both good customers and a reputation for probity and fair dealing. It was the English who first introduced display, fashion, and extravagance. It was they who first introduced the custom of keeping the shops open at night — a needless and expensive fash- ion, and greatly injurious to the health and morals of the clerks. In these early days, however, the diligent closed their stores and shops at an early hour. All classes went on foot; for carriages and wheeled vehicles were very scarce. Even physicians paid ail their visits on foot; and, in another respect, they differed widely from the doctors of the present day — their charges were very moderate. At funerals, it was the custom to give hot wine in winter, and wine-sangaree in summer. Ladies generally attended on such mournful occasions, especially if the deceased was a female, when burnt wine was served in silver tankards. At a later era, on the death of Mrs. Daniel Phoenix, the wife of the City Treasurer, all the pall-bearers were ladies. The working man always wore his leather apron, no matter what his employment. Tradesmen were accus- tomed to saw their own wood ; and a most healthful ex- ercise it was. Nor did any man in middle circumstances fear to carry home his "one hundredweight" of meal from market. On the contrary, it would have been con- sidered a disgrace to have avoided such a burden. A greater change, however, in the habits of the peo- ple, cannot be named than in that of hired servants or 11 82 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. " help." The female servants formerly wore short gowns of green baize, with petticoats of linsey-woolsey, receiv- ing only half a dollar a week for their wages. Now they demand from eight to fourteen dollars a month, and dress like fashionable ladies, displaying all their pride and show. In these primitive days, also, when a man " set up business," he invariably took down his own shutters, opened the door, swept the store, and dusted the goods himself by the gray dawn. Then men grew rich by early rising, economy, and industry, and by attending to their own business themselves, and not leaving their inter- est in the charge of boys, agents, or clerks. The only capital of most young men then were industry and punc- tuality ; and labor and honesty were as fashionable at this early day as stylish young men, defaulting cashiers, fast living, and fast horses are now. Neither would any sensible matron permit her daughter to encourage the attention of any young man who was not his own servant. Shortly before the cession of New Amsterdam to the British rule, the settlement was celebrated for its num- ber of young people, as the children of the early immi- grants had then reached adult age. Several daughters of the wealthy burghers were married to young English- men whose visits were only of a temporary character. Many romantic rural spots, everywhere surrounding the settlements at New Netherland, w r ere naturally favorable to the important business of courtship, and there were several places of pleasant resort famed for this business, even at that early day. The Locust- Trees was one, upon a bluff on the shore of the North River, a little back of the present Trinity Church-yard. From this command- ing and shady eminence, the eye could wander over an extensive vista of river, bay, islands, and the bold, distant hills of New Jersey. Here, too, was the West India HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 83 Company's beautiful garden, on the site of the present Trinity Church, with its rich flowers and vegetable pro- ductions. A little beyond the town was Maiden's Valley, now Maiden Lane, a rural, shady walk, with a charming litte rivulet meandering through it. The original name of this rustic walk was T Maagde Paatje, or the " Maiden's Path." South of this lane stretched the Clover Watte, or " Pasture Field ; " and from the present Gold street, hid- den in the foliage, a little stream, fed by a living spring, came tumbling down the rocks. From John, near Gold, a longer walk led to the enchanting lakelet, the Kolck, or " Collect," nestling within a circle of forest hills. Like many such ponds in the vicinity of old villages, this, traditionally, had no bottom, and was said to be haunted by the spirits of some old native sachems, the paddles of whose canoes could be heard at night, though nothing was seen visibly to disturb the crystal waters. All these spots were famous trysting-places of the youthful New Netherlander. But how changed the scene! Where those sparkling and beautiful waters once flowed, and the morning carols of the birds were heard, the dark, sorrow- ful and simple abodes of the "Five Points" now stand in close proximity to the gloomy prison cells of the " Tombs." But although New York City, two hundred years ago, passed over to British rule, still the inhabitants remained Dutch in their manners, customs, modes of thought, and religious ideas, for many subsequent years. Sleighing was a fashionable amusement ; and a ride to Harlem be- came the longest drive among the " city folk." Parties, however, often turned aside to visit " Hell Gate," in- fluenced, doubtless, by the fact that on this road, over the Tamkill (a little stream emptying into the East River, opposite Blackwell's Island), was the Kissing Bridge, so laid down on the old maps, and named from the old Dutch custom of the gentlemen saluting their 84 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. lady companions whenever they crossed the bridge. That was the day also of the " cocked hats " and " cues," which stuck out from behind the head " stiff as a poker."' The most fashionable gentleman made his appearance be- fore the fair one who was to be his companion in the ride, in a large camlet cloak, with a very large cape, snuff-colored coat, small clothes and thick stockings drawn over the VIEW NEAK HELL-GATE. shoes to keep out the snow. In addition, a woolen tip- pet warmly protected his neck, and domestic-knit mittens his hands. People then showed their good sense by dressing according to the weather. An old chronicle tells us that an Ethiopian, named Coesar, had great fame as a driver, fiddler, and waiter. The ladies, once upon a time, appeared in linsey-woolsey, with HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 85 hoods of immense size ; and at noon away went the party in high glee, to the jingle of sleigh-bells, to take a cup of tea and a dance at Harlem. Reaching there, CaBsar tuned his three-stringed fiddle ; when the gentlemen appeared in their snare-toed shoes, and the ladies in peak- toed, high-heeled slippers. Dancing and skipping the " light, fantastic toe" immediately begun, and continued until ^ >H *fiA A'Y']<* '>A'"' TURTLE BAT AND BLACKWELL'S ISLAND. eight o'clock in the evening, when they again hastened back to the city; for " to be out" after nine, on common occasions, was considered a certain sign of bad morals. The earliest Dutch emigrants to New York left their deep impress upon the city and upon the State. Far- reaching commerce, which immortalized Old Amsterdam 86 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. in the seventeenth century, soon provoked the envy of New Amsterdam's neighbors, and in the end made our city the emporium of the Western World. Oar ancestors left children and children's children, who were well fitted to act important parts in the great work of opening the American continent to European Christian civilization. They brought with them honest maxims, industry, and the liberal ideas of their Fatherland — their school-masters, their dominies, and their Bibles. In the course of events, however, New Netherland passed over to British rule, when new customs, new relationships, and new habits of thought, were introduced.* * It may be amusing to many of the present generation, so little accustomed to the old Dutch names, to read some titles once very familiar in New Amster- dam and New York, but now so seldom thought of or understood : De Herr — Officer ; or Hoofdt-Schout, High-Sheriff. Be Fiscoll — Attorney-General. Groot Bingenecht, and Klein Bingenecht, the Great and Small Citizenship, early marking the two orders of society. The Schout (Sheriff), Burgomeesters, and Schepens, then ruled the city, "as in all cities of the Fatherland." Gchfim Sell uyner— Recorder of Secrets. Wees-Meesters — Guardians of Orphans. Roy-Meester — Regulator of Fences. Eyck-Meester — The Weigh-Master. The word Boss, still in use, a century ago was written " Baas," and literally means " master." SECOND PERIOD. 1674-1783. From tlie English Conquest to the Revolutionary War and the Termination of British Rule. CHAPTER I. Before entering upon the history of this period, it seems desirable to take a ramble about the limits of New Amsterdam, and see for ourselves how it appeared at the time that the Dutch surrendered it to the English. In our walk we will take as our guide a map of the " Towne of Wambados, or New Amsterdam, as it was in Sep- ^^ tember, 1661," a copy of which now lies before us. This is, so far as known, the only plan of the city executed in the early Dutch times, and was found a few years since in the British Museum. The town wind-mill stood on a bluff, within our pres- ent Battery, opposite Greenwich Street. On Water, be- tween Whitehall and Moore Streets, was the " Government House," built, by Stuyvesant, of stone, and the best edifice in the town. When Governor Dongan became its owner he changed its name from the " Government House " to " Whitehall," and hence the name of the street. It was surrounded by a large inclosure, one side of which, with 88 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. the garden, was washed by the river. A little dock for pleasure-boats ran into the stream at this point. Here, also, was located the Governor's house, between which and the canal in Broad street was the present Pearl Street, then the great center of trade — known as the " Water- side," and sometimes as the " Strand." Near the Gov- ernor's house was the " Way-house," or Weigh-house, at the head of the public wharf at the foot of the present Moore Street. A very short distance off, and parallel with Pearl, ran the Brugh Straat the present Bridge Street), so named from the fact of its leading to the bridge across the canal in Broad. There was a small passage-way run- ning through this block and along the side of the "Old Church," for convenient access to a row of houses laid down on the map. These, five in number, belonged to the Company, and were built of stone. In front of them was a beautiful sloping green. The canal in Broad Street was, in truth, but a narrow stream, running toward Wall Street for a quarter of a mile. Both sides were dyked with posts, in the fashion of Fatherland, at the distance of twelve feet from the houses. On each side, as houses line a canal in Holland, stood a row of buildings in the ultra- Dutch style, low, high-peaked, and very neat, with their gables toward the street. Each had its stoop, a vane or weather-cock, and its dormer-window. From the roof of one, a little iron crane projected, with a small boat at its end, as a sign of this being the " Ferry-house." The landing was at the head of the canal, in Broad Street, at the point where Garden united with it. This canal or lit- tle stream originally went up to " Verlettenberg Hill" (Exchange Place), afterward corrupted into " Flotten- banck." This was the head of tide-water ; and here the country people from Brooklyn, Gowanus, and Bergen brought their marketing to the center of the city. Many of the market-boats were rowed by stout women, without HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 89 hats or bonnets, but wearing in their place close caps, There were generally two rowers to each craft. Further along the East River, or " water-side," a build- ing of considerable pretension appeared — the Stadt Hiti/s, or City Hall, first erected as a tavern, but afterward taken by the municipal government. In front of the Stadt Huys was placed a battery of three guns. Proceeding along the river-shore, we pass Hanover Square, where two boats are lying, and approach the " City Gate," at the foot of Wall Street, sometimes called the " Water Gate," to distinguish it from the " Land Gate " at the end of the road on the Sheera Straat (Broadway). The Water Gate seems to have been quite an imposing structure, doubtless because Pearl Street was the great thoroughfare and main entrance to the town. Most of the strangers or visitors to New Amsterdam came from Long Island. Continuing our walk toward Long Island Ferry, or " Passage Place," and passing by Maagde Paatje (Maiden Lane), we come to another public way leading to " Shoe- makers' Land " and " Vanderclift's Orchard," both places of noted resort. This was the present John Street, from Pearl to Cliff. At a very early day the tanneries in Broad Street were declared a nuisance, and their owners ordered to remove beyond the city limits. This they did, and established themselves along Maiden Lane, then a marshy valley.* * When the Maagde Paatje, or Maiden Lane, was continued through to the river, and widened below Pearl Street for the slip called " Countess's Slip," in compliment (for some " slip " of hers?) to the lady of the Governor, Lord Bella- mont, a market was built there, known as the Yly Market, the " Market in the Marsh," corrupted to the Fly Market. Hence, when in subsequent years there arose a sharp contest between a New-Yorker and a Philadelphian on the all-im- portant question, in which of their cities was the best fare, the New-Yorker would boast of his fish, their variety, scores of kinds, their freshness, some even alive and gasping in the market. This fact was not to be denied ; but to avoid the effect of a triumph, the Phihvdelphian would only, significantly, remind him, that however fresh his fish might be, the flesh he ate during the summer months 12 90 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. Four of the number, shoemakers by trade, purchased a tract of land bounded by Broadway, Ann, William, and Gold Streets, and here commenced their business. This region was thenceforth known as the Shoemakers' Land, a name which it retained so late as 1690, when it was divided into town-lots. The tanners were next driven from this locality into what is even now known as the " Swamp." The Vanderclif } s Orchard was bounded by the East River, Shoe- makers' Land, and Maiden Lane. Its original owner was Hendrick Ryker, who sold it in 1680 to Dirck Vandercliff. During the Revolution this tract received the more pleas- ant-sounding name of Golden Hill, so named, it is said, from the fine wheat grown on it. Cliff Street yet pre- serves a part of the old title. Proceeding past Golden Hill we come to a large edifice, close to the present site of Fulton Market, and marked on the map as " Alderton's Buildings," surrounded by a fence. This is supposed to be the store-house of Isaac Allerton, who resided at New Amsterdam and carried on an extensive trade with the New-England colonies. He was one of the emigrants in the May Flower, and a notable character in our early his- tory. His business was the importation of tobacco from Virginia, and this edifice was probably his great tobacco depot. Continuing our tour, we reach the " Passage Place," the present Peck Slip, known for a long time as the " Old Ferry." This was the earliest Brooklyn ferry; and its rates were regulated by the city authorities, in 1654, at three stivers for foot passengers, except Indians, who paid six, unless there were two or more. Here Cornelis Dirck- was not quite free from taint. Since, from the swarms of the insect in the prin- cipal market, it was called emphatically the Fly Market. The poor New- Yorker, ignorant of the Dutch language and of the etymologies from it, and hence knowing no better than that it was the true name of the market, left without a reply ; left to experience what no one can know who has not expe- rienced how provoking it is to be obliged in a disputation to give up the point. HISTORY* OF NEW YORK CITY 91 sen, the ferryman, who owned a farm near by, at the sound of a horn hanging on the tree ferried the passengers over in his little skiff. Still further on there was a little stream, on the bank of which stood a water-mill. This brook ran into Walphafs Meadow, which covered the present Roose- velt street and vicinity. This stream, known as " Old Wreck Brook," ran from the meadow into the Kolck (Collect), a bridge crossing it on the highway in Chatham near Pearl. The " Commons " (the present Park) was a well-known spot in early New York. Through it passed the post-road to Boston, the present Chatham Street, and for many years this was the place for public executions. North of the Commons or the VlacJcte (the " Flat "), lay the Fresh- Water Pond (to which allusion has already been made) with its neighboring district Kolck Book, or Collect, below the Com- mons.* Near the Collect rose Potter's Hill. At its foot, followed the " Owl's Kill," leading the waters of that pond through the marshes of " Wolfert's Valley " to the East River. Toward the river was the Swamp, the present Ferry Street and neighborhood, a low marshy place, cov- ered with bushes and briars. t * As the city gradually extended its limits, the powder-house, at first built on the Commons, was considered unsafe, and a new magazine was built in 1728 upon a secluded little island in the Fresh- Water Pond. Not far from this place, in the course of the following year, Noe Willey, of London, gave to his three sons in New York the ground for a Jewish cemetery. It was bounded by Chatham, Catharine and Oliver Streets, and was to be held forever as a burial place for the Israelites. But the wishes of the old Hebrew have been violated long since, for Chatham Street now runs through the sacred inclosure, and Mammon has erected a bank and stores upon the spot. Some tomb-stones, however, still stand, like grim sentinels, to keep guard over this once hallowed and venerable grave-yard. f In 1744, this tract was sold for £200 to Jacobus Roosevelt, who divided it into fifty lots and established on them several tanneries. This indicated its future destiny, and ever since it has been the center of the large leather trade of the city. More immense fortunes have been made about that region than any other of the same extent in the city. It was originally called Beekman's Swamp, and leased to Rip Van Dam, a member of the Council, for twenty-one years, at a yearly rent of twenty shillings. 92 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. The city-wall, called the " Lingel" or ramparts, was a row of palisades, with embankments nine feet high and four wide, on which several canon were mounted on bas- tions. Two large stone points were afterward added — one on the corner of Broadway and Wall, called " Ilollan- dia" and the other on the north-west corner of Wall and William, known as " Ztalandia" These completely com- manded the whole front of the city -wall. Retracing our steps into town, we have now leisure to examine more carefully the canal, which is laid down as running through the entire length of Broad Street. Thirty years later this canal was filled up. It had a little branch running toward the west through Beaver Street. The Steeregraft, or main canal, appears to have been crossed by two principal bridges, one at Bridge and the other at Stone Street, with smaller ones, evidently de- signed for foot-passengers. Near Beaver Street, small boats or canoes lay moored in the canal. Pearl Street then, and many years afterward, formed the river bank. Water and South Streets have both been reclaimed from the water. On the west side of Broad- way, above the grave-yard, at the present Morris Street, were the country-seats of Messrs. Vandergrist and Van Dyck. On Whitehall Street stood the parsonage of the Dutch Dominie, with its garden of beautiful tulips and hyacinths, and its paths of cedar and clipped box. Close at hand stood the bakery, brewery, and warehouse of the Company. In William, near Pearl, was the old horse- mill, erected, it will be remembered, by Director Minuit, and which did good service until superseded by the three wind-mills of Van Twiller. One of these stood on State Street, and was the most prominent object seen on ap- proaching the city from the bay. The old fort itself was bounded by Bridge, Whitehall, and State Streets, and the Bowling Green. HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 93 Two main roads led from the fort at the Battery toward the northern part of the island. One of these, afterward the " Boston, or the old Post Road," followed Broadway to the Park, and then extended through Chat- ham, Duane, William, and Pearl Streets to the Bowery.* Along the Bowery road lay " Steenwyck's " and " Heer- man's " orchards, with the well-known Stuyvesant's " Bowerie " (farm), whence the name. Near the last, and in the neighborhood of Gramercy Park, came " Crummashie Hill," while beyond were the " Zantberg " hills, with " Minetta " brook, which found its way through a marshy valley into the North River. Still further toward the north, near Thirty-Sixth street and Fourth Avenue, rose the " Incleberg" or "Beacon Hill," the Mur- ray Hill of later times. From this latter point there was a commanding view of the whole island. The other main road also started from the fort, and passing through Stone Street to Hanover Square, led along the East River to the Brooklyn ferry. Thus much for the outward appearance of New York at this time. In regard to its manners and interior life we are enabled — thanks to the late researches of the Hon. Henry C. Murphy, the Foreign Corresponding Sec- retary of the Long Island Historical Society — to speak even more definitely. Toward the middle of the seven- teenth century a peculiar religious sect existed in West- phalia. They were known as Labadists, and professed a kind of mysticism, holding, nevertheless, to the tenets of the Dutch Reformed Church. In the summer of 1679 two of their number were sent over to America, with the view of ascertaining the nature of the * In the year 169(5 the first hackney-coach was introduced upon the Bowery road. Previous to this time, with the exception of the Governor's, private coaches were unknown. 94 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. country and government, and selecting a suitable place for the establishment of a colony of the religious com- munity to which they belonged. The journal which they kept during their stay in America is of great in- terest, particularly that portion having reference to their visit to New York; for, aside from the quaintness and originality of the narrative, it is of peculiar value, as giving an inside view of the people of New Amsterdam at this time. As there were but a very small number of copies printed, and the circulation is therefore extremely limited, we shall take the liberty of quoting somewhat extensively from the work itself. * " Having then fortunately arrived, by the blessing of the Lord, before the City of New York, on Saturday, the 23d day of September, we stepped ashore about four o'clock in the afternoon, in company with Gerrit, our fellow-passen- ger, who would conduct us in this strange place. He had lived here a long time, and had married his wife here, although she and his children were living at present at Zvvolle. We went along with him, but as he met many of his old acquaintances on the way, we were constantly stopped. He first took us to the house of one of his friends, who welcomed him and us, and offered us some of the fruit of the country, very fine peaches and full-grown apples, which filled our hearts with thankfulness to God. This fruit was exceedingly fair and good, and pleasant to the taste ; much better than that in Holland or elsewhere, though I believe our long fasting and craving of food made it so agreeable. After taking a glass of Madeira, we proceeded on to Gerrit's father-in-law's, a very old man, half lame, and unable either to walk or stand, who fell upon the neck of his son-in-law, welcoming him with tears of joy. The old woman was also very glad. This good man was born in Vlissingen, and was named Jacob Swart. He had been formerly a master-carpenter at Amsterdam, but had lived in this country upwards of forty-five years. After we had been here a little while, we left our traveling-bag, and went out to take a walk in the fields. It was strange to us to feel such stability under us, although it seemed as if the earth itself moved under our feet like the ship had done for three months past, and our body also still swayed after the manner of the rolling of the sea ; but this sensation gradually passed off in the course of a few days. As we walked along we saw in different gardens trees full of apples of various kinds, and so laden with peaches and other fruit that one might doubt whether there were more leaves or fruit on them. I have never seen in Europe, in the best sea- sons, such an overflowing abundance. When we had finished our tour and * This journal was found in manuscript, a few years since, in Holland, by Mr. Murphy, who, perceiving its value, presented it to the Long Island Histori- cal Society, by whom a few copies were printed for the members in 1867. HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 95 given our guide several letters to deliver, we returned to his father-in-law's, who regaled us in the evening with milk, which refreshed us much. We had so many peaches set before us that we Were timid about eating them, though we experienced no ill effects from them. We remained there to sleep, which was the first time in nine or ten weeks that we had lain down upon a bed un- dressed, and able to yield ourselves to sleep without apprehension of danger. "24th, Sunday. We rested well through the night. I was surprised on waking up to find my comrade had already dressed himself and breakfasted upon' peaches. We walked out awhile in the fine, pure morning air, along the mar- gin of the clear running water of the sea, which is driven up this river at every tide. As it was Sunday, in order to avoid scandal and for other reasons, we did not wish to absent ourselves from church. We therefore went, and found there truly a wild, worldly world. I say wild, not only because the people are wild, as they call it in Europe, but because most all the people who go there to live, or who are born there, partake somewhat of the nature of the coun- try, that is, peculiar to the land where they live. We heard a minister preach who had come from the up-river country, from Fort Orange, where his residence is, an old man named Domine Schaats, of Amsterdam. * * * " This Schaats then preached. He had a defect in the left eye, and used such strange gestures and language that I think I never in all my life heard anything more miser- able ; indeed, I can compare him with no one better than with one Do. Van Ecke, lately the minister at Armuyden, in Zeeland, more in life, conversation, and ges- tures than in person. As it is not strange in these countries to have men as min- isters who drink, we could imagine nothing else than that he had been drinking a little this morning. His text was, Come unto me all ye, &c, but he was so rough that even the roughest and most godless of our sailors were astonished. " The church being in the fort, we had an opportunity to look through the latter, as we had come too early for preaching. It is not large ; it has four points or batteries ; it has no moat outside, but is inclosed with a double row of palisades. It is built from the foundation with quarry stone. The parapet is of earth. It is well provided with cannon, for the most part of iron, though there were some small brass pieces, all bearing the mark or arms of the Neth- erlanders. The garrison is small. There is a well of fine water dug in the fort by the English, contrary to the opinion of the Dutch, who supposed the fort was built upon rock, and had, therefore, never attempted any such thing. There is, indeed, some indication of stone there, for along the edge of the water below the fort there is a very large rock extending apparently under the fort, which is built upon the point formed by the two rivers, namely, the East River, which is the water running between the Manhattans and Long Island, and the North River, which runs straight up to Fort Orange. In front of the fort, on the Long Island side, there is a small island called Noten Island (Nut Island), around the point of which vessels must go in sailing out or in, whereby they are compelled to pass close by the point of the fort, where they can be flanked by several of the batteries. It has only one gate, and that is on the land side, opening upon a broad plane or street, called the Broadway or Beaverway. Over this gate are the arms of the Duke of York. During the time of the Dutch there were two gates, namely, another on the water side ; but the English have closed it and made a battery there, with a false gate. In front of the church is inscribed the name of Governor Kyft, who caused the same to be built in the g 6 HIS T R Y F N E W V ( I B K C IT Y. year 1643. It has a shingled roof, and upon the gable towards the water there is a small wooden tower with a bell in it. but no eloek. There is a sundial on three sides. The front of the fort stretches east and west, and consequently the sides run north and south. •■ After we had returned to the house and dined, tuy companion, not mailing to >ro to church, set about writing letters, as there was a ship, of which Andre Hon was master, about to leave in a few days for London; but in order we should not be both absent from church, and as the usual minister was to preach in the afternoon. 1 went alone to hear him. He was a thick, corpulent person, with a red and bloated face, and oi very Blabbering speech* His text was ' The elders who serve well.' &C, because the elders aud deacons were thai day renewed, and I saw them admitted. After preaching, the good old people with whom we lodged, who. indeed, if they were not the best on all the Manhattan, were at least among the best, especially the wife, begged we would go with their son tierrit to one of their daughters, who lived in a delightful place, and kept a tavern, where we would be able to taste the beer of New Netherlands inasmuch as it was also a brewery. Some of their friends passing by requested Uernt and us to accompany them, and so we went for the purpose of seeing; what was to be seen ; but when we arrived there, we found ourselves much deceived. On account ot' its being to some extent a pleasant spot, it was resorted on Sundays by all sorts of revelers, and was a low pot house. Our company immediately found acquaintances there and joined them, but it being repugnant to our feelings to be there, we walked into the orchard to seek pleasure in contemplating the innocent objects of nature. Among other trees we observed a mulberry-tree, the leaves of which were as large as a plate. The wife showed us pears larger than the tist. picked from a three years' graft which had borne forty of them. A great storm of rain coming up in the eve ning compelled us to go into the house, where we did not remain long with the others, but took our leave of them against their wishes. We retraced our steps in the dark, exploring a way over which we had gone only once in our life, through a wleg (salt meadow) and over water upon the trunk of a tree. We nevertheless reached home, having left the others in their revels. While in their company we conversed with the first male born of Europeans in New Netherland. named Jean Vigne\ His parents were from Valenciennes, and he was now about sixty-five years of age. He was a brewer and a neighbor of our old people." ********** •• 35th, Monday. We went on board the ship this morning- in order to obtain our traveling bag and clothes for the purpose of having- them washed, but when we came on board we could not get ashore again before the after- noon, when the passengers' goods were to be delivered. All our goods which were between decks were taken ashore and carried to the public store house, where they had to be examined, but some time elapsed before it was done, in consequence of the examiners being- elsewhere. At leng-th. however, one Abraham l.ennoy, a good fellow apparently, befriended us. He examined our chest only, without touching- our bedding or any thing else. I showed him a list of the tin which we had in the upper part of our chest, and he examined it and * The minister here referred tc was the Rev. William Nieuentuisen. HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 97 also the tin, and turned up a little more what was in the chest, and with that left off, without looking at it closely. He demanded four English shillings for the tin, remarking at the same time that he had observed some other small arti- cles, but would not examine them closely, though he had not seen either the box or the pieces of linen. This being finished, we sent our goods in a cart to our lodgings, paying for the two heavy chests and straw beds and other goods from the public store-house to the Smit's valey, sixteen stivers of zeawan, equal to three stivers and a half in the money of Holland. This finished the day, and we retired to rest. " 26th, Tuesday. We remained at home for the purpose of writing, but in the afternoon, finding that many goods had been discharged from the ship, we went to look after our little package, wliich also came. I declared it and it was examined. I had to pay twenty-four guilders in zeawan, or five guilders in the coin of Holland. I brought it to the house and looked the things all over, rejoicing that we were finally rid of that miserable set and the ship, the freight only remaining to be paid, which was fixed at four guilders in coin. We went first to Margaret in relation to the freight, who said she had nothing more to do with it, and that we must speak to her husband about it, which it was not convenient to do that evening, and we therefore let it go, waiting for an opportunity to speak to her and her husband with the captain, and perhaps also Mr. Jan. ********** " As soon as we had dined we sent off our letters, and this being all accom- plished, we started at two o clock for Long Island. This island is called Long Island, not so much because it is longer than it is broad, but particularly be- cause it is the longest island in this region, or even along the whole coast of New Netherland, Virginia, and New England. It is one hundred and forty- four miles in length, and from twenty-four to twenty-eight miles wide, though there are several bays and points along it, and consequently it is much broader in some places than others. On the west is Staten Island, from wliich it is separated about a mile, and the great bay over which you see the Nevesincke. With Staten Island it makes the passage through which all vessels pass in sailing from or to the Mahatans, although they can go through the Kil Van Kol, which is on the other side of Staten Island. The ends of these islands opposite each other are quite high land, and they are therefore called the Hoof den (Headlands), from a comparison with the Hoofden of the channel between England and France in Europe. On the north is the island of Ma- hiitnits and a part of the mainland. On the east is the sea, which shoots up to New England, and in which there are various islands. On the south is the great ocean. The outer shore of this island has before it several small islands and broken land, such as Coney Island* a low, sandy island of about three hours' circuit, its westerly point forming with Sandy Hook on the other side the entrance from the sea. It is oblong in shape, and is grown over with bushes. Nobody lives upon it, but it is used in winter for keeping cattle, horses, oxen, hogs and others, which are able to obtain there sufficient to (-at the whole winter, and to shelter themselves from the cold in the thickets. This island is not so cold as Long Island of the Mahatans, or others, like some • H Conijnen Eylant, Rabbit's Island. 13 98 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. islands on the coast, in consequence of their having more sea-breeze, and of the saltness of the sea breaking upon the shoals, rocks, and reefs with which the coast is beset. There is also the Bear's Island * and others, separated from Long Island by creeks and marshes overflown at high water. There are also on this sea-coast various miry places like the Vlaeck f and others, as well as some sand bays and hard and rocky shores. Long Island stretches into the sea for the most part east by south and east-south-east. None of its land is very high, for you must be nearly opposite Sandy Hook before you can see it. There is a hill or ridge running lengthwise through the island, nearest the north side and west end of the island. The south side and east end are more flat. The water by which it is separated from the Mahatans is improperly called the East River, for it is nothing else than an arm of the sea, beginning in the bay on the west and ending in the sea on the east. After forming in this passage several islands, this water is as broad before the city as the Y before Amsterdam, bat the ebb and flood tides are stronger. There is a ferry for the purpose of crossing over it which is farmed out by the year and yields a good income, as it is a considerable thoroughfare, this island being one of the most populous places in this vicinity. A considerable number of Indians live upon it, who gain their subsistence by hunting and fishing, and they, as well as others, must carry their articles to market over this ferry or boat them over, as it is free to every one to use his own boat, if he have one, or to borrow or hire one for the purpose. The fare over the ferry is three stivers \ in zeawan for each person. " Here we three crossed over, my comrade Gerrit, our guide, and myself, in a row-boat, as it happened, which, in good weather and tide, carries a sail. When we came over we found there Jan Teunissen, our fellow-passenger, who had promised us so much good. He was going over to the city to deliver his letters and transact other business. He told us he would return home in the evening and we would find him there. We went on up the hill along open roads and a little woods, through the first village, called Breukelen, which has a small and ugly little church standing in the middle of the road.g Having passed through here, We struck off to the right in order to go to Gouanes. We went up on several plantations, where Gerrit was acquainted with most all of the people, who made us very welcome, sharing with us bountifully what- ever they had, whether it was milk, cider, fruit, or tobacco, and especially and first and most of all, miserable rum or brandy which had been brought from Barbadoes and other islands, and which is called by the Dutch " kill-devil." All these people are very fond of it, and most of them extravagantly so, although * 7 Beeren Eylant. Now called Barren Island. t The Wieringen shoals in the Zuyder Zee are probably meant. X Less than half a cent in our money. § Breukelen, now Brooklyn, was so called from the village of that name in the province of Utrecht, The church here referred to was built in 1006, and was the first one in Brooklyn. When it was taken down does not appear. " A second church," says Furman, in his Notes relating to Brooklyn, 76,* " was erected, on the site of that built in 1006, which second church continued standing until about 1810, when a new and substantial church was erected on Joral- emon street, and the old one taken down. This old church was a very gloomy-looking build- ing, with small windows, and stood in the middle of the highway, about a mile from Brook- lyn ferry." Of this second church a view is given in the Brooklyn Manual of 1863. HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 99 it is very dear and has a bad taste. It is impossible to tell how many peach- trees we passed, all laden with fruit to breaking down, and many of them actually broken down. We came to a place surrounded with such trees, from which so many had fallen off that the ground could not be discerned, and you could not put your foot down without trampling them, and notwithstanding such large quantities bad fallen off, the trees still were as full as they could bear. The hogs and other animals mostly feed on them. This place belongs to the oldest European woman in the country. We went immediately into her house, where she lived with her children. We found her sitting by the fire, smoking tobacco incessantly, one pipe after another. We inquired after her age, which the children told us was a hundred years. She was from Luyck (Liege), and still spoke good Waalsche (old French) with us. She could reason very well sometimes, and at other times she could not. She showed us several large apples, as good fruit of that country, and different from that of Europe. She had been about fifty years now in the country, and had above seventy chil- dren and grandchildren. She sa*w the third generation after her. Her mother had attended women in childbed in her one hundred and sixth year, and was one hundred and eleven or twelve years old when she died. We tasted here, for the first time, smoked twaelft * (twelfth), a fish so called because it is caught in season next after the elft\ (eleventh). It was salted a little and then smoked, and although it was now a year old, it was still perfectly good, and in flavor not inferior to smoked salmon. We drank here, also, the first new cider, which was very fine. " We proceeded on to Gouanes. a place so called, where we arrived in the evening at one of the best friends of Gerrit, named Symon. He was very glad to see us, and so was his wife. He took us into the house, and entertained us exceedingly well. We found a good fire, half-way up the chimney, of clear oak and hickory, of which they made not the least scruple of burning profusely. We let it penetrate us thoroughly. There had been already thrown upon it, to be roasted, a pail-full of Gouanes oysters, which are the best in the country. They are fully as good as those of England, and better than those we eat at Falmouth. I had to try some of them raw. They are large and full, some of them not less than a foot long, and they grow sometimes ten, twelve, and six- teen together, and are then like a piece of rock. Others are young and small. In consequence of the great quantities of them, everybody keeps the shells for the purpose of burning them into lime. They pickle the oysters in small casks, and send them to Barbadoes and the other islands. We had for supper a roasted haunch of venison, which he had bought of the Indians for three guilders and a half of seeicant, that is, fifteen stuivers of Dutch money (fifteen cents), and which weighed thirty pounds. The meat was exceedingly tender and good, and also quite fat. It had a slight spicy flavor. We were also served with wild turkey, which was also fat and of a good flavor ; and a wild goose, but that was rather dry. Every thing we had was the natural production of the country. We saw here, lying in a heap, a whole hill of watermelons, which were as ]arp;e as pumpkins, and which Symon was going to take to the city to sell. They were very good, though there is a difference between them and those of the * The striped bass, t The shad 100 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. Caribly islands ; but this may be owing to its being late in the season, as these were the last pulling. It was very late at night when we went to rest in a Kermis bed, as it is called, in the corner of the hearth, alongside of a good fire. "30th, Saturday. Early this morning the husband and wife set off for the city with their marketing ; and we, having explored the land in the vicinity, left after breakfast. We went a part of the way through a woods and fine, new- made land, and so along the shore to the west end of the island, called Net/jack.* As we proceeded along the shore, we found, among other curiosities, a highly- marbled stone, very hard, in which we saw Muscovy glass lying in layers between the clefts, and how it was struck or cut out. We broke off a small piece with some difficulty, and picked out a little glass in the splits. Continuing onward from there, we came to the plantation of the Najack Indians, which was planted with maize, or Turkish wheat. We soon heard a noise of pounding, like thrash- ing, and went to the place whence it proceeded, and found there an old Indian woman busily employed beating Turkish beans out of the pods by means of a stick, which she did with astonishing force and dexterity. Gerrit inquired of her, in the Indian language, which he spoke perfectly well, how old she was, and she answered eighty years ; at which we were still more astonished that so old a woman should still have so much strength and courage to work as she did. We went from thence to her habitation, where we found the whole troop together, consisting of seven or eight families, and twenty or twenty-two persons, I should think. Their house was low and long, about sixty feet long and fourteen or fifteen feet wide. The bottom was earth, the sides and roof were made of reed and the bark of chestnut-trees; the posts, or columns, were limbs of trees stuck in the ground, and all fastened together. The top, or ridge of the roof, was open about half a foot wide, from one end to the other, in order to let the smoke escape, in place of a chimney. On the sides, or walls of the house, the roof was so low that you could hardly stand under it. The entrances, or doors, which were at both ends, were so small that they had to stoop down and squeeze themselves to get through them. The doors were made of reed, or fiat bark. In the whole building there was no lime, stone, iron, or lead. They build their fire in the middle of the floor, according to the number of families which live in it, so that from one end to the other each of them boils its own pot, and eats when it likes, not only the families by themselves, but each Indian alone, accord- ing as he is hungry, at all hours, morning, noon, and night. By each fire are the cooking utensils, consisting of a pot, a bowl, or calabash, and a spoon also made of a calabash. These are all that relate to cooking. They lie upon mats, with their feet towards the fire on each side of it. They do not sit much upon any thing raised up, but, for the most part, sit on the ground, or squat on their ankles. Their other household articles consist of a calabash of water, out of which they drink, a small basket in which to carry and keep their maize and small beans, and a knife. The implements are, for tillage, a small, sharp stone, and nothing more ; for hunting, a gun and pouch for powder and lead ; for fish- ing, a canoe without mast or sail, and without a nail in any part of it, though it is sometimes full forty feet in length, fish-hooks and lines, and scoop to pad- dle with in place of oars. I do not know whether there are not some others of a trifling nature. All who live in one house are generally of one stock or de- * Fort Hamilton, which is surrounded, in a great measure, by a marsh, and hence is here called an island. HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 101 scent, as father and mother, with their offspring. Their bread is maize, pounded in a block by a stone, but not fine. This is mixed with water, and made into a cake, which they bake under the hot ashes. They gave us a small piece when we entered, and although the grains were not ripe, and it was half-baked and coarse grains, we nevertheless had to eat it, or, at least, not throw it away before them, which they would have regarded as a great sin, or a great affront. We chewed a little of it with long teeth, and managed to hide it so they did not see it. We had also to drink out of their calabashes the water which was their drink, and which w T as very good. We saw here the Indians who came on board the ship when we arrived. They were all very joyful at the visit of our Gerrit, who was an old acquaintance of theirs, and had heretofore long resided there. We presented them with two jews-harps, which much pleased them, and they immediately commenced to play upon them, which they could do tolerably well. Some of their patroons (chiefs), some of whom spoke good Dutch, and are also their medicine-men and surgeons as well as their teachers, were busy mak- ing shoes of deer-leather, which they understand how to make soft by continu- ally working it in their hands. They had dogs, fowls, and hogs, which they learn by degrees from the Europeans how to manage better. They had, also, peach-trees, which were well laden. Towards the last, we asked them for some peaches, and they answered : ' Go and pick them,' which showed their polite- ness. However, in order not to offend them, we went off and pulled some. Although they are such a poor, miserable people, they are, nevertheless, licen- tious and proud, and given to knavery and scoffing. Seeing a very old woman among them, we inquired how old she was, when some young fellows, laughing and jeering, answered twenty years, while it was evident to us she was not less than a hundred. We observed here the manner in which they travel with their children, a woman having one which she carried on her back. The little thing clung tight around her neck like a cat, where it was kept secure by means of a piece of daffels, their usual garment. Its head, back, and buttocks, were en- tirely tiat. How that happened to be so we will relate hereafter, as we now only make mention of what we saw. " 4th, Wednesday. We slept for the night in our old place. In the morn- ing the horses were harnessed to the wagon for the purpose of carrying us to the city, and bringing back some medicines which had arrived for him (Jaques) from Holland in our ship. We breakfasted to our full, and rode first to the bay, where we had left our traveling-bag. Seeing there was nothing to be accomplished with our Jan Theunissen, all his great promises having vanished without the least result, though they had cost us dearly enough, we let that rest quiet, and taking our leave, rode on to 't Vlacke Bos, a village situated about an hour and a half's distance from there, upon the same plain, which is very large. This village seems to have better farms than the bay, and yields full as much revenue. Riding through it, we came to the woods and hills, which are very stony and uncomfortable to ride over. We rode over them, and passed through the village of Breukelen to the ferry, and leaving the wagon there, we crossed over the river and arrived at home at noon, where we were able to rest a little, and where our old people were glad to see us. We sent back to Jaqueshalf of our tincture calimanaris, and half of our balsam sulphur- 102 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. eous, and some other things. He had been of service to us in several respects, as he promised to be, and that with perfect willingness. ********** " 6th, Friday. We remained in the house during the forenoon, but after having dined we went out about two o'clock to explore the island of Manathans. This island runs east and west, or somewhat more northerly ; on the north side of it is the North River, by which it is separated from the main-land on the north ; on the east end it is separated from the main-land by a creek, or rather a branch of the North River, emptying itself into the East River. They can go over this creek at dead low water, upon rocks and reefs, at the place called Spytden duyvel. This creek coming into the East River forms with it the two Barents islands* At the west end of these two running waters, that is, where they come together to the east of these islands, they make, with the rocks and reefs, such a frightful eddy and whirlpool that it is exceedingly dangerous to pass through them, especially with small boats, of which there are some lost every now and then, and the persons in them drowned ; but experience has taught men the way of passing through them with less danger. Large vessels have always less danger, because they are not capable of being carried along quickly. There are two places where such whirling of the stream occurs, which are on account of the danger and frightfulness called the Great and Little Hellgate. After these two streams are united, the island of Manathans is separated on the south from Long Island by the East River, which, beginning at the bay before New York, runs east- wardly, after forming several islands, again into the sea. This island is about seven hours' distance in length, but it is not a full hour broad. The sides are indented with bays, coves, and creeks. It is almost entirely taken up, that is, the land is held by private owners, but not half of it is cultivated. Much of it is good woodland. The west end, on which the city lies, is entirely cleared for more than an hour's distance, though that is the poorest ground ; the best being on the east and north side. There are many brooks of fresh water running through it, pleasant and proper for man and beast to drink, as well as agree- able to behold, affording cool and pleasant resting-places, but especially suita- ble places for the construction of mills, for although there is no overflow of water, yet it can be shut off and so used. A little eastward of Nieu Ilaerlem there are two ridges of very high rocks, with a considerable space between them, displaying themselves very majestically, and inviting all men to acknowl- edge in them the majesty, grandeur, power, and glory of the Creator, who has impressed such marks upon them. Between them runs the road to Spyt den duyvel. The one to the north is most apparent ; the south ridge is covered with earth on its north side, but it can be seen from the water or from the main-land beyond to the south. The soil between these ridges is very good, though a little hilly and stony, and would be very suitable, in my opinion, for planting vineyards, in consequence of its being shut off on both sides from the winds which would most injure them, and is very warm. We found blue grapes along the road, which were very good and sweet, and as good as any I have tasted in the Fatherland. We went from the city, following the Broadway, over the valey, or the * Now called Great and Little Barn Islands. HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 103 fresh water. Upon both sides of this way were many habitations of negroes, mulattoes, and whites. These negroes were formerly the proper slaves of the West India Company, but, in consequence of the frequent changes and con- quests of the country, they have obtained their freedom and settled them- selves down where they have thought proper, and thus on this road, where they have ground enough to lve on with their families. We left the village called the Bouwerij, lying on the right hand, and went through the woods to New Harlem, a tolerably large village situated on the south side of the island, directly opposite to the place where the north-east creek and the East River come together, situated about three hours' journey from New Amsterdam, like as old Harlem in Europe is situated about three hours' distance from old Am- sterdam. As our guide, Gerrit, had some business here, and found many acquaintances, we remained over night at the house of one Geresolveert* scoup (sheriff or constable) of the old place, who had formerly lived in Brazil, and whose heart was still full of it. This house was constantly filled with peo- ple all the time drinking for the most part that execrable rum. He had also the best cider we have tasted. Among the crowd we found a person of quality, an Englishman, named Captain Carteret, whose father is in great favor with the king, and he himself had assisted in several exploits in the king's service. He was administrator or captain-general of the English forces which went, in 16G0, to retake St. Kitts, which the French had entirely conquered, and were repulsed. He had also filled some high office in the ship of the Duke of York, with two hundred infantry under his command. The king has given to his father, Sir George Carteret, the entire government of the lands west of the North River, in New Netherland, with power to appoint as governor whom he pleased ; and at this present time there is a governor over it by his appoint- ment, another Carteret, his nephew, I believe, who resides at Elizabethtown, in New Jersey. \ From this Carteret in England the Quakers have purchased the privilege of a government of their own over a large tract of territory which they have bought and settled within his dominion ; and it is but little different from their having bought the entire right of government of the whole of his land. This son is a very profligate person. He married a merchant's daughter here, and has so lived with his wife that her father has been com- pelled to take her home again. He runs about among the farmers, and stays where he can find most to drink, and sleeps in barns on the straw. If he conducted himself properly, he could be, not only governor here, but hold higher positions, for he has studied the moralities, and seems to have been of a good understanding ; but that is all now drowned. His father, who will not acknowledge him as his son, as before, allows him yearly as much only as is necessary for him to live on. " 7th, Saturday. This morning, about half-past six, we set out from the vil lage in order to go to the end of the island ; but before we left we did not omit * Resolved, a Christian name. t Philip Carteret, the brother, not the nephew, of Sir George, is the person here meant. He was appointed governor of New Jersey, under the joint proprietorship of Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, in 1664, and of East Jersey in 1674, under the sole grant of Sir George. He resigned in 1682. and died in December of that year, in this country, leaving a widow, the daughter of Richard Smith, Smithtown, on Long Island.— fYhitekead's Ewst Jersey under the Proprietors, 36, 84. 104 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. supplying ourselves with peaches, which grew in an orchard along the road. The whole ground was covered with them and with apples, lying upon the new grain with which the orchard was planted. The peaches were the most deli- cious we had yet eaten. We proceeded on our way, and when we were not far from the point of Spyt den duyvel we could see on our left hand the rocky cliffs of the main-land on the other side of the North River, these cliffs standing straight up and down, with the grain, just as if they were antimony. We crossed over the Spyt den duyvel in a canoe, and paid nine stuivers fare for us three, which was very dear. We followed the opposite side of the land, and came to the house of one Valentyn, a great acquaintance with our Gerrit. He had gone to the city, but his wife, though she did not know Gerrit or us, was so much rejoiced to see Hollanders that she hardly knew what to do for us. She set before us what she had. We left after breakfasting there. Her son showed us the way, and we came to a road entirely covered with peaches. We asked the boy why they left them to lie there and they did not let the hogs eat them. He answered, " We do not know what to do with them, there were so many ; the hogs are satiated with them, and will not eat any more." From this we may judge of the quantity of them. We pursued our way now a small distance through the woods and over the hills, then baek again along the shore to a point, where one Webblingh, an Englishman, lived, who was standing ready to cross over. He carried us over with him, and refused to take any pay for our passage, offering us at the same time some of his rum, a liquor which is every- where. We were now again at New Harlem, and dined with Gerosolveert, at whose house we slept the night before, and who made us welcome. It was now two o'clock ; and leaving there we crossed over the island, which takes about three-quarters of an hour to do, and came to the North River, which we followed a little within the woods, to Sappokanikke* Gerrit having a sister and friends there, we rested ourselves, and drank some good beer, which refreshed us. We continued along the shore to the city, where we arrived in an hour in the evening, very much fatigued, having walked this day about forty miles. I must add, in passing through this island we sometimes encoun- tered such a sweet smell in the air that we stood still, because we did not know what it was we were meeting." ********** " 14th, Saturday. Being under sail, as I have said, it was so entirely calm that we could only float with the stream until we came to Schutters island, where we obtained the tide again. It was now about four o'clock. In order to pro- tect ourselves from the air, which was very cold and piercing, we crept under the sail, which was very old and full of holes. The tide having run out by daylight we came under sail again, with a good wind, which brought us to the city at about eight o'clock, for which we were glad, and returning thanks to God, betook ourselves to rest. "15th, Sunday. We went at noon to-day to hear the English minister, whose services took place after the Dutch church was out. There were not above twenty-five or thirty people in the church. The first thing that occurred was the reading of all their prayers and ceremonies out of the prayer-book, as * According to Judge Benson this was the Indian name of the point, afterward known as Greenwich, on the north side of the city.— New York Historical Collections, second series, 84. HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 105 is done in all Episcopal churches. A young man then went into the pulpit and commenced preaching, who thought he was performing wonders ; but he had a little book in his hand out of which he read his sermon, which was about a quarter of an hour or half an hour long.f With this the services were con- cluded, at which we could not be sufficiently astonished. This was all that happened with us to-day." t The only English minister in the whole province at this time was attached to the garri- son at the City of New York. This was the Rev. Charles Wooley, a graduate of Emanuel College, Cambridge, in 1677. He came to New York in August, 1678, and left there for Eng- land in July, 1680. He was the author of a small volume with the title of A Two Years'' Jour- nal in New York, etc., published in 1701, and recently republished, with notes by Dr. E. B. O'Callaghan, in Mr. Gowan's interesting series of early works on the colonies. 11 CHAPTER II. The new regime in New York, under Edmund Andross, as her first Governor, dates from the year 1674. An- dross was a public officer of ability, but well known for his imperious and despotic disposition. The people immediately petitioned their royal master, the Duke of York, for an Assembly of Representatives; but James, who regarded popular bodies as dangerous, refused their prayer, with the question : " What do they want with Assemblies? They have the Court of Ses- sions presided over by the Governor; or, if this is not enough, they can appeal to me !" Such was the English spirit of oppression a century before it was resisted in blood at Golden and Bunker Hills. Upon learning of this reply of Andross, Sir William Berkley, Governor of Virginia, " thanked God that there were neither free- schools nor printing-presses in the colony," fervently adding, " God keep us from both !" Governor Andross, however — much as he may in after years have merited from the people of the Eastern Colo- nies the title of the " Tyrant of New England " — governed New York with wisdom and moderation. Desirous of establishing himself on a popular basis with the people, one of his first official acts was to appoint, in 1676, a native Hollander-— Nicholas Meyer — Mayor of the city. The selection was a good one. Meyer was one of the HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. JQ7 most enterprising of traders, and, withal, a most respect- able burgher ; and although the duties of his office could not have been particularly onerous at a time when only three hundred and one names were recorded upon the list of tax-payers, yet what little he did was done honestly and well Nor did Andros strive to be popular alone. Aware that no government can be a stable one unless placed on a basis of sound morality, he at once estab- lished ordinances for regulating the public morals and promoting the welfare of the city. " The city-gates were ordered to be closed at night at nine o'clock, and to be opened at daylight. The citizens were required to keep watch by turns, and were fined for absence or neglect of duty ; and all profanity and drunkenness were strictly forbidden. Every citizen was ordered to provide himself with a good musket or firelock, with at least six charges of powder and ball, and to appear with good arms before the Captain's colors, at the first beating of the drum." In 1677 the first native-born Mayor was appointed to the Mayoralty. This was Stephanus Van Cortlandt, a large property -holder, and after whom Cortlandt street is named. Under his administration seven 677 ' public wells were placed in different parts of the city, chiefly as a protection against fires. Meanwhile the necessity of conciliating the Iroquois the most powerful Indian confederacy, at that time in America — had received little or no attention from the people of New York or their Government, The first three English Governors of the colony, or rather lieutenants of the Duke of York — viz., Colonels Nicholls, Lovelace, and Major, afterward Sir Edmund Andros bestoAved but inconsiderable attention upon the Five Nations, not seeming to appreciate either the importance of their trade or of their friendship. Still, the moral hatred they had borne for the French inclined them rather to prefer the 108 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. friendship of the English. But the Duke of York, in his affection for the Church of Rome, shutting his eyes to what unquestionably should have been the true policy of the English toward the Indians, had conceived the idea of handing the Confederates over to the Holy See, as con- verts to its forms, if not to its faith. Hence the efforts to mediate the peace between the Iroquois and the French of 1667, which were followed by invitations to the Jesuit missionaries from the English, to settle among the Con- federates, and by persuasions to the latter to receive them. The Mohawks were either too wise, or too bitter in spirit toward the French, to listen to the proposal. But not so with the other nations of the alliance ; and the Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas opened their eyes to the strangers in holy garb, causing infi- nite mischief in after years, as will appear in the sequel. This peace of 1667 continued several years, during which time both the English and French prosecuted their trade with the Indians to a great and profitable extent. The French, especially, evinced a degree of energy, and a spirit of enterprise, almost unexampled in the history of colonization — planting their trading- posts, under the lead of the adventurous La Salle, at all the commanding points of the great lakes, and across the country of the Illinois to the Mississippi; and stealing the hearts of the Indians by means of the ministers of the order of Jesus, whom they sprinkled among the principal nations over the whole country of the exploration. By these bold advances deep into the interior, and the energy which everywhere characterized their movements, the French acquired a decided advantage over the English colonists in the fur trade, which it was evidently their design exclusively to engross ; while the direct tendency of the Duke of York's policy, originating in blindness and bigotry, was to produce exactly the same result. HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 109 The error was soon perceived by Governor Dongan, who arrived in the colony as the successor of Major An- dross, in 1683. Though his religious faith was in . . 1683. harmony with that of his royal master, he never- theless possessed an enlarged understanding, with a dis- position, as a Civil Governor, to look more closely after the interests of the crown than those of the crosier. He had not been long at the head of the colony before he perceived the mistakes of his predecessors in the conduct of its Indian relations. In fighting-men, the Five Nations at that time numbered ten times more than they did half a century afterward ;* and the Governor saw at once their importance as a wall of separation between the English colonies and the French. He saw, also, the importance of their trade, which the Jesuit priests were largely influ- ential in diverting to Canada. He saw that M. de Cour- celles had erected a fort at Cadaraqui, within the territory of the Iroquois, on the north side of Lake Ontario,! and that La Salle had built a bark of ten tons upon that lake, and another of fifty upon Lake Erie, planting also a stock- ade at Niagara. He saw that the French were intercept- ing the trade of the English upon the lakes, and that the priests had succeeded in seducing numbers of the Mohawks and river Indians away from their own country, and plant- ing their colonies upon the banks of the St. Lawrence, in the neighborhood of Montreal, through whose agency an illicit trade had been established with the City of Albany, by reason of which, Montreal, instead of Albany, was be- coming the principal depot of the Indian trade. He saw, in a word, that the followers of Ignatius Loyola were rapidly alienating the affections of the Confederates from the English and transferring them to the French, and * Memoir of Dr. Colden, concerning the fur trade, presented to Governor Burnet in 1724. f The site of Kingston, Canada West. HO HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. that unless the policy respecting them were changed, the influence of the English would, at no distant day, be at an end with them. Nor had the priests confined their efforts simply to moral suasion ; but, as though aiming to sepa- rate the Confederates from the English at a blow, and by a gulf so wide and deep as to be impassable, they had instigated them to commit positive hostilities upon the frontier settlements of Maryland and Virginia. Having made himself thoroughly acquainted with these matters, Colonel Dongan lost no time in seeking to countervail the influence of the French, and bring back the Indians to a cordial understanding with his own peo- ple. His instructions from home were to encourage the Jesuit missionaries. These he not only disregarded, but he ordered the missionaries away, and forbade the Five Nations to entertain them. It is true this order was never enforced to the letter, the priests, some of them at least, maintaining a foot-hold at several points of the Con- federacy — dubious at times, certainly — but yet maintain- ing it for three-quarters of a century afterward. Still, the measures of conciliation adopted by Colonel Dongan made a strong and favorable impression upon the Indians. Availing himself of the difficulty between the Con- federates and Virginia, consequent upon the outrages just adverted to as having been instigated by the priests, Colonel Dongan was instrumental in procuring a conven- tion of the Five Nations, at Albany, in 1684, to meet Lord Howard, of Effingham, Governor of Vir- ginia, at which he (Dongan) was likewise present. This meeting, or council, was attended by the happiest results. The difficulties with Virginia were adjusted, and a cove- nant made with Lord Howard for preventing further dep- redations.* But what was of yet greater importance, * Smith's W.story of New York. HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. HI Colonel Dongan succeeded in completely gaining the af- fections of the Indians, who conceived for him the warm- est esteem. They even asked that the arms of the Duke of York might be put upon their castles, a request which it need not be said was most readily complied with, since, should it afterward become necessary, the Governor might find it convenient to construe it into an act of at least partial submission to English authority, although it has been asserted that the Indians themselves looked upon the ducal insignia as a sort of charm that might protect them against the French.* There was likewise another fortunate occurrence of events just at that time, which revived all the ancient animosity between the Iroquois and the French. While the conferences between Lord Howard and the Indians were yet in progress, a message was received from M. de la Barre, the Governor of Canada, complaining of the con- duct of the Senecas in prosecuting hostilities against the Miamies and other western nations in alliance with the French, and thus interrupting their trade. Colonel Don- gan communicated the message to the Iroquois chiefs, who retorted by charging the French with supplying their enemies with all their munitions of war. " Onontio t calls us children," said they, " and at the same time sends powder to our enemies to kill us !" This collision resulted in open war between the Iroquois and the French, the latter sending to France for powerful reinforcements, with the design of an entire subjugation of the former in the ensuing year. Meantime the French Catholics continued to procure letters from the Duke of York to his lieutenant commanding him to lay no obstacles in the way of the invaders. But these commands were again disregarded. * Colden's History of the Five Nations. f The name by which the Iroquois were wont to speak of the French Gov ernors of Canada. 112 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. Dongan apprised the Iroquois of the designs of the French, not only to march against them with a strong army, but simultaneously to bring down upon them the western Indians in their interest. Thus, by the wisdom and strong sense of justice of Colonel Dongan, was the chain of friendship between the English and the Five Nations brightened and the most amicable relations re-established. Yet for the course he had taken, he fell under the displeasure of his bigoted master on his accession to the throne in 1685. It is not, of course, within the purpose of this history to trace the progress of the long and cruel wars that suc- ceeded the negotiations between Colonel Dongan and the Confederates. Briefly, it may be said, in respect to the expedition of M. de la Barre, that it failed by reason of sickness in his army at Cadaraqui, before crossing the lake. He was succeeded in the government of Canada by the Marquis Denonville, who invaded the Seneca country in 1687 with a powerful force, gaining, however, such a victory over the Indians in the Genesee Valley as led to an inglorious retreat. This invasion was speedily recompensed by the Confederates, who descended upon the French settlements of the St. Lawrence like a tempest, and struck a blow of terrible vengeance upon Montreal itself. New York was at this time torn by the intestine commotions incident to the revolution which drove the Stuarts from the English throne and ended the power of the Catholics in the colony. It was a consequence of these divisions that the English could afford the Indians no assistance in their invasion of Canada at that time, else that country would then doubtless have been wrested from the Crown of France. But the achievements of* the Indians were, nevertheless, most important for the colony of New York, the subjugation of which was at that pre- HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 113 cise conjuncture meditated by France, and a combined expedition, by land and sea, was undertaken for that pur- pose — Admiral Caffniere commanding the ships which sailed from Rochefort for New York, and the Count de Frontenac, who had succeeded Denonville, being the General of the land forces. On his arrival at Quebec, however, the Count beheld his province reduced to a field of devastation, and he was therefore constrained to aban- don the enterprise. Nor was Governor Dongan's administration in the government of the colony itself characterized by less wis- dom than his dealings with the Indians. He was highly respected as Governor — being upright, discreet, and of accomplished manners, added to which his firm and judi- cious policy, and his steadfast integrity, soon won for him " the affections of his people, and made him one of the most popular of the Royal Governors." Two years pre- vious to his arrival, the aldermen of New York, and the justices of the peace of the Court of Assize, in conse- quence of the tyranny of Andros, had petitioned the Duke that the people might be allowed to participate in the affairs of the government by the construction of a General Assembly, in which they might be represented. Through the interposition of William Penn, who enjoyed the favor both of the King and the Duke, the point was yielded, and Colonel Dongan was instructed to allow the people a voice in the government, Greatly, therefore, to the joy of the inhabitants, who had become turbulent, if not disaffected, under the rule of Andros, writs were issued to the sheriffs summoning the freehold- ers to choose representatives to meet the new Gover- nor in Assembly. He thus gave the colony its first legislative Assembly, which, meeting for the first time in the city of New York, on the 17th of October, 1683, consisted of the Governor, ten 15 114 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY councilors, and seventeen representatives elected by the people. Henceforth, and up to the period of the Ameri- can Revolution, the history of New York city as the legislative capital of the province, consists, for the most part, in a series of bitter scenes between the Assembly and the Royal Governors. The first act of the Assembly was to give to the province its first " Charter of Liber- ties," by which it was ordained " that supreme legislative power should forever reside in the Governor, Council, and people met in General Assembly ; that every free- holder and freeman might vote for representatives with- out restraint ; that no freeman should suffer but by judg- ment of his peers, and that all trials should be by a jury of twelve men ; that no tax should be assessed on any pretense whatever but by the consent of the Assembly ; that no seaman or soldier should be quartered on the inhabitants against their will ; that no martial law should exist; and that no person professing faith in God, by Jesus Christ, should at any time be in any way dis- quieted or questioned for any difference of opinion in matters of religion." Three assemblies, at least, were to be held every year ; and should any scat become vacant, a new election was to be at once ordered by the Gov- ernor. One of the first acts of the Assembly was to divide the Province into twelve counties — New York, Rich- mond, Kings, Queens, Suffolk, Orange, Ulster, Albany,- Westchester, Dutchess, Dukes, and Cornwall — all of which names, with the exception of the last two, still remain at the present day. The Assembly, also, lost no time in bettering the con- dition of the city itself. " New police regulations were at once established. Sunday laws were enacted ; tavern- keepers were forbidden to sell liquor except to travellers, citizens to work, children to play in the streets, and In- dians and negroes to assemble on the Sabbath. Twenty HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. H5 cartmen were licensed by the municipal authorities, on condition that they should repair the highways gratis whenever called on by the Mayor, and cart the dirt from the streets (which the inhabitants were required to sweep together every Saturday afternoon) beyond the precincts of the city. The rate of cartage was fixed at three pence per load to any place within the bounds of the city ; beyond which the price was doubled. The cartmen, however, soon proved refractory, and a few weeks after the license system was abandoned, and all persons, with the exception of slaves, were allowed to act as cartmen. " On the 8th of December, 1683, the city was divided into six wards. The First or South Ward, beginning at the river, extended along the west side of Broad to Beaver Street ; thence westward along Beaver Street to the Bowling Green ; thence southward by the fort to Pearl Street ; and thence westward along the river-shore to the place of starting. The Second or Dock Ward, also beginning at the river at the south-east corner of Pearl and Broad street, extended along the shore to Hanover Square ; thence northward through William to Beaver Street; thence along Beaver to Broad Street; thence back through Broad Street to the river-shore. The Third or East Ward formed a sort of triangle, begin- ning at the corner of Pearl and Hanover Square, and extending along the shore to the Half-Moon Fort at the foot of Wall Street ; thence stretching along Wall to the corner of William, and thence returning along the east side of William to the river. The Fourth or North Ward, beginning at the northwest corner of William and Beaver Streets, extended through the former to the corner of Wall ; thence westerly along the palisades to a line a little beyond Nassau Street; thence southerly to Beaver Street ; thence easterly along Beaver to the first-named point. The Fifth or West Ward, beginning at the June- 116 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. tion of the Fourth Ward with Beaver Street, extended northerly along the boundary line of the latter to Wall Street ; thence along the palisades to Broadway ; thence southerly to Beaver Street ; thence easterly to the point of starting. The Sixth or Out Ward comprised all the farms and plantations outside the city walls, including the town of Harlem. Each of these wards was author- ized to elect an alderman and councilman annually to represent them in the city government. The Governor and Council retained the appointment of the Mayor in their own hands ; it was not, indeed, until long after the Revolution that this office was made elective by the people. " In 1686 the Dongan Charter was granted to the city. This instrument, which still forms the basis of the municipal rights and privileges of New York, con- firmed the franchises before enjoyed by the cor- poration, and placed the city government on a definite looting. The Governor retained the appointment of the mayor, recorder, sheriff, coroner, high-constable, town- clerk, and clerk of the market in his own hands ; leaving the aldermen, assistants, and petty constables, to be chosen by the people at the annual election on St. Michael's Day. This charter, which was dated April 22, 1686, declared that New York city should thenceforth comprise the entire island of Manhattan, extending to the low- water mark of the bays and rivers surrounding it. " In the same year the city received a new seal from the home government. This still preserved the beaver of the Dutch, with the addition of a flour-barrel and the arms of a wind-mill, in token of the prevailing commerce of the city. The whole was supported by two Indian chiefs and encircled with a wreath of laurel, with the motto, Sigillum Civitatis Novi Eboraci. HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY H7 "In 1687, Stephanus Van Cortlandt was again ap- pointed Mayor. During his Mayoralty, it was determined to enlarge the city by building a new street in the river along the line of Water Street, between White- hall and Old Slip, and water-lots were sold by the corpo- ration on condition that the purchasers should make the street toward the water, and protect it by a substantial wharf from the washing of the tide, in imitation of Waal (or sheet-pile) Street, extending along the line of Pearl street, from Broad to William Street, in front of the City Hall. It was not, however, until some years after, that this scheme was carried into effect, and the projected street rescued from the waters. " Measures were also taken to enlarge the city still further by placing the fortifications further out, and lay- ing out Wall Street thirty-six feet wide. The fortifica tions, indeed, were now worse than useless. The palisades which had been erected in 1653 along the line of Wall Street had fallen down, the works were in ruins, the guns had disappeared from the artillery-mounts, and the ditches and stockades were in a ruinous condition. Their imme- diate removal was determined on and ordered, but was delayed by the revolution which followed soon after. When war broke out between France and England in 1693, they were again repaired to be in readiness for the expected French invasion, and it was not until 1699 that their demolition was finally accomplished. Wall Street, however, was laid out immediately, and it was not long before it became one of the most important thorough fires in the city. During the same year, a valuation was made of the city property, which was estimated on the assessor's books at £78,231."* Many other municipal regulations concerning huck- * Miss Mary L. Booth's Ilia'ovy of New York. 118 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. sters, bakers, butchers, and others, were established — then esteemed of vital importance, but a repetition of which would only weary. A single item, however, deserves no- tice, as illustrating the punishments practiced in olden times. A pillory, cage, whipping-post,t and ducking- stool were set up in the vicinity of the City Hall, and hither were brought all vagrants, slanderers, pilferers, and truant children, to be exposed to the public gaze, and to receive such chastisement as their offenses might warrant. Meanwhile, William and Mary had been proclaimed King and Queen of England in place of James II, who, having abdicated the throne, had become a wanderer on the Continent. This change in the home government from a Catholic to a Protestant one, necessitated a correspond- ing change in the Governor at New York. Colonel Slough- ter was, accordingly, commissioned to the government of New York in January, 1689, but did not arrive until the 19th of March, 1691. The selection of Slough- ter was not fortunate. According to Smith, he was utterly destitute of every qualification for government: licentious in his morals, avaricious, and base. Leisler, who had administered the government after a fashion, since the departure of Dongan, intoxicated with power, refused to surrender the government to Sloughter, and attempted to defend the fort, in which he had taken refuge. Finding it expedient, however, very soon to abandon the fort, he was arrested, and, with his son-in- law, Milburne ; tried and executed for treason. Still, on the whole, the conduct of Leisler during the revolution had been considered patriotic, and his sentence was deemed very unjust and cruel. Indeed, his enemies could not pre- vail upon Sloughter to sign the warrant for his execution until, for that purpose, they got him intoxicated. It was * A whipping-post, put up in 1630, is still standing on the Village Green, in Fairfield, Connecticut. HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. H9 a murderous affair. Slaughter's administration was short and turbulent. He died July 23d, 1691. On the death of Sloughter, Richard Ingoldsby, the captain of an independent company, was made president of the council, to the exclusion of Joseph Dudley, who, but for his absence in Boston, would have had the right to preside, and upon whom the government would have devolved. But although Dudley very soon returned to New York, he did not contest the authority of Ingoldsby, who administered the government until the arrival of Colonel Fletcher, with a commission as governor, in August, 1692. In the preceding month of June, Ingoldsby met the Five Nations in council at Alba- ny, on which occasion they declared their enmity to the French in the strongest possible terms. Their expressions of friendship for the English were also renewed. " Brother Corlaer," said the sachem, " we are all the subjects of one great king and queen ; we have one head, one heart, one interest, and are all engaged in the same war." They nevertheless condemned the English for their inactivity, " telling them that the destruction of Canada would not make one summer's work, against their united strength, if ingeniously exerted." In conducting the Indian affairs of the colony, Colonel Fletcher took Major Schuyler into his councils, and was guided by his opinions. " No man understood those affairs better than he ; and his influence over the Indians was so great, that whatever Quider,* as they called him, either recommended or disapproved, had the force of a law. This power over them was supported, as it had been obtained, by repeated offices of kindness, and his single bravery and activity in the defense of his country." | Through the in- * Quider, the Iroquois pronunciation of Peter. Having no labials in their language, they could not say Peter, f Smith's History of New York. 120 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. fluence of Quider, therefore, Colonel Fletcher was placed upon the best footing with the Indians, by whom was conferred upon him the name of Caj^enguinago, or " The Great Swift Arrow," as a compliment for a remarkably rapid journey made by him from New York to Schenec- tady on a sudden emergency.* Despairing, at length, of accomplishing a peace with the Five Nations, Count Frontenac determined to strike a blow upon the Mohawks in their own country — which pur- pose was securely executed in the month of February, 1G93. For once this vigilant race of warriors were taken by surprise, two of their castles being entered and cap- tured without much resistance — the warriors of both hav- ing been mostly absent at Schenectady. On assailing the third or upper castle, however, the invaders met with a different reception. The warriors within, to the number of forty, were engaged in a war-dance, preparatory to some military expedition upon which they were about entering; and though inferior in force, yet they yielded not without a struggle, nor until thirty of the assailants had been slain. About three hundred of the Mohawks were taken prison- ers in this invasion, in respect to which the people of Schenectady have been charged with bad conduct. They neither aided their neighbors, nor even apprised them of the approach of danger, although informed of the fact in due season themselves. But Quider, the fast friend of the Indians, took the field at the head of the militia of Albany, immediately on hearing of the invasion, and harassed the enemy sharply during their retreat. Indeed, but for the protection of a snow-storm, and the accidental resting of a cake of ice upon the river, forming a bridge for their escape, the invaders would have been cut off. Fletcher was by profession a soldier, a man of strong * Colden's Six Nations. HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 121 passions and inconsiderable talents ; very active, and equally avaricious. His administration was so energetic and successful the first year, that he received large sup- plies, and a vote of special thanks from the Assembly. He was a bigot, however, to the Episcopal form of church government, and labored hard to introduce into the prov- ince the English language, to encourage English churches and schools. On this account he was soon involved in a violent controversy with the Assembly, who were .at first inclined rather to favor the Dutch churches. But in 1G93 an Assembly was found who, more pliant, passed an act " Providing for the building of a church in the city of New York, in which was to be settled a Protestant minister" — the word Protestant being tacitly understood to mean Episcopal. This was the origin of Trinity Church,* which was forthwith begun in 1696, and finished and opened for public worship, February, 1697, under the auspices of Rev. William Vesey. The church itself, which was a very insig- nificant building, resembled its present namesake on the same site in nothing save in having a very tall spire. Certainly it did not resemble the present Trinity in having set apart in it (as it did) a pew for the Mayor and Common Council, to whom a sermon was annually preached, on the day of the city election. Fletcher was succeeded by Richard, Earl of Bella- mont, who was appointed Governor of New York, Massa- chusetts, and New Hampshire, in May, 1695, but did not arrive in New York until May, 1698. He was appointed by King William with a special view to the suppression of piracy in the American seas — New York, at that time, having been a commercial depot of * This church was destroyed by fire in 1776, and lay in ruins until 1788, when it was rebuilt. In 1839 it was torn down to build the present edifice, which was opened in 1846. 16 122 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. the pirates, with whom Fletcher and other officers in the colony had a good understanding. Kidd was fitted out with a ship by Bellamont, Robert Livingstone, and others, including several English noblemen. Turning pirate him- self, Kidd was afterward arrested in Boston by the Earl, and sent home for trial. The Earl was a nobleman of polite manners, a great favorite of King William, and very popular among the people both of New York and Boston. He had been dissipated in his youth, but afterward became penitent and devout. He died in New York in March, 1701. On the death of Earl Bellamont, the government devolved upon Mr. Nanfan, the Lieutenant-Governor, until the appointment of Lord Cornbury in 1702. A public dinner was given in honor of his arrival; he was presented with the freedom of the city, in a gold box ; and a congratulatory address was tendered him by the city authorities. It was not long, however, before his true character appeared. He was a very tyrannical, base, and profligate man, and was appointed to the government of New York by King William as a reward for his desertion of King James, in whose army he was an officer. He was a savage bigot and an ungentlemanly tyrant He imprisoned several clergymen who were dissenters, and robbed the Rev. M. Hubbard, of Jamaica, of his house and glebe. He was wont to dress himself in women's clothes, and thus patrol the fort. His avarice was insatiable, and his disposition that of a savage. The only things worthy of note during his adminis- tration are : First, the establishment by the corporation of the city of a free grammar-school ; and, second, the rag- ing of a malignant epidemic, which strongly resembled the yellow-fever. The terror-stricken citizens fled to the shores of New Jersey and Staten Island ; and Lord Cornbury, with his council, took up his quarters at Ja- HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 123 maica, Long Island. But the inhabitants of New York had a worse plague than even the pestilence, in Corn- bury ; who, at length, becoming an object of uni- versal abhorrence and detestation, was superseded by Queen Anne, who, in the autumn of 1708, appointed John, Lord Lovelace, Baron of Hurley, in his place. Lovelace, however, did not long enjoy either the cares or pleasures of office. He died on the 5th of May in the next year, of a disorder contracted in crossing the ferry on his first arrival in New York. On the death of his lordship, the government once more devolved upon Richard Ingoldsby, the Lieutenant-Governor of the colony, until the arrival of Governor Hunter, in the summer of 1710. Hunter was a Scotchman, and when a boy, an ap- prentice to an apothecary. Leaving his master, he entered the army, and, being a man of wit and beauty, gained promotion, and also the hand of Lady Hay. In 1707, he was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia, but being captured by the French on his voyage out, on his return to England he was appointed to the govern- ment of New York and New Jersey, then united in the same jurisdiction. Governor Hunter was the man who brought over the three thousand Palatines from Germany, by whom the German settlements in the interior of New York and Pennsylvania were founded. He administered the government of the colony " well and wisely," as was said to him in an affectionate parting address by 1719. the General Assembly, until the summer of 1719, when he returned to England on leave of absence, as well on account of his health us to look after his private affairs. He intimated, upon his departure, that he might return to the government again, but did not. The chief command on his departure devolved on the Hon. Peter Schuyler, as the oldest member of the council, but only 124 HISTORY OP NEW YORK CITY. for a brief period. He, however, held a treaty with the Six Nations at Albany, which was considered satisfactory ; yet it would have been more so had his efforts to induce the Confederates to drive Joncaire, the agent of the French, out of their country, been successful. This Jesuit emissary had resided among the Senecas from the begin- ning of Queen Anne's reign. He had been adopted by them, and was greatly beloved by the Onondagas. He was incessant in his intrigues in behalf of the French, facilitating the missionaries in their progress through the country, and- contributing greatly to the vacillating course of the Indians toward the English. Schuyler was aware of all this; but, notwithstanding his own great influence over the Six Nations, he could not prevail upon them to discard their favorite. In other respects the government of Schuyler was marked by moderation, wisdom, and integrity. About this period a " new market was established at the upper end of Broad Street, between the City Hall and Exchange Place, and permission was given to the resi- dents of the vicinity to erect stalls and sheds to suit their convenience, under the direction of the Clerk of the Market. Country people were also permitted to sell meat at wholesale or retail, as they pleased, subject to the same supervision ; and bakers were required to brand their loaves with their initials, under penalty of forfeit- ure of the bread. In the spring of the same year (1711), it was resolved that a meeting of the Common Council should be held at the City Hall on the first Friday of every month ; and the treasurer was also ordered to pur- chase eighteen rush-hottoiimd chairs and an oval table for their accommodation. In regard to the appearance of the city itself at this time we are not left entirely to conjecture. In the month of October 1704, Miss Sarah Knight, a Boston lady of considerable shrewdness and observa- HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 125 tion, and who was connected with some of the old New- England families, traveled on horseback from Boston to New York, on a visit to some of her friends. During her journey she kept a journal, in which she jotted down her experiences of men and things noted by the way. This journal, which has recently been printed for private cir- culation, contains the following quaint passage, descriptive of the city at this period : " The Citie of New York is a pleasant well compacted place, situated on a commodious River, well is a fine harbour for shipping. The Building Brick Generaly very stately and high, though not altogether like ours in Boston. The Bricks in some of the Houses are of divers Coullers and laid in Checkers, being glazed, look very agreeable. The inside of them are neat to admira- tion, the wooden work, for only the walls are plastered, and the Sumers and Gist * are plained and kept very white scowr'd as so is all the partitions made of Bords. The fire-places have no Jambs (as ours have) But the Backs run flush with the walls, and the Hearth is of Tyles and is as farr out into the Room at the Ends as before the fire, wch is Generally Five foot in the Low'r rooms, and the peice over where the mantle tree should be is made as ours with Joyners work, and as I suppose is fasten'd to iron rodds inside. The House where the Vendue was, had Chimney Corners like ours, and they and the Hearth were laid wth the finest tile that I ever see, and the stair cases laid all with white tile which is ever clean,f and so are the walls of the Kitchen, wheh had a Brick floor. They were making Great preparations to Receive their Governor, Lord Cornbury from the Jerseys, and for that End raised the militia to Gard him on shore to the fort. \ " They are Generaly of the Church of England and have a New-England Gentleman § for their Minister, and a wry fine church set out with all Cus- tomary requisites. There are also a Dutch || and Divers Conventicles, as they * Summers and joist. The Summer, a word now not in very common use, was a central beam supporting the joist, such as is now sometimes called the bearing beam. t The tiles were set into the wall, forming, as it were, a continuous border or row of the width of one tile (or perhaps sometimes of more) close to the upper line of staircase. The Coeymans house, standing on the bank of the Hudson, just north of the village of Coey- mans, still shows most of these peculiarities of building mentioned by Mme. Knight; the staircase laid with tiles, no plaster except on the walls, and heavy floor-timbers, strengthened at the ends by solid knees, planed and " keptvery white scoured." X On the block beween Bowling Green, Whitehall, Bridge, and State Streets.— Valentine's History of New York, 28. § William Vesey. previously "a dissenting preacher on Long Island He had received his education in Harvard under that rigid Independent. Increase Mather, and was sent thence by him to confirm the minds of those who had removed for their convenience from New England to this Province. * * * But Col. Fletcher, who saw into his design, took off Mr. Vesey by an invitation to this living: * * * and Mr. Vesey returned from Eng- land in Priest's orders."— Documentary History of New York, III, 438. II The Reformed Dutch Church, built in 1693. in what is now Exchange Place.— Greenleaf's History nf N. Y. Churches, 11. 12(1 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. call them, viz. : Baptist,* Quakers/)- &c. They are not strict in keeping the Sabbath as in Boston and other places where I had bin, But seem to deal with great exactness as farr as I see or Deall with. They are sociable to one another and Curteos and Civill to strangers and fare well in their houses. The English go very fashernable in their Dress. But the Dutch, especially the middling sort, differ from our women, in ther habitt go loose, were French muches wch are like a Capp and a head band in one, leaving their ears bare, which are sett out wth Jewells of a large size and many in number. And their fingers hoop't with rings, some with large stones in them of many Coullers as were their pendants in their ears, which You should see very old womens wear as well as Young. " They have Vendues very frequently, and make their earnings very well by them, for they treat with good Liquor Liberally, and the customers Drink as Liberally, and Generally pay for't as well, by paying for that which they Bidd up Briskly for, after the sack has gone plentifully about, tho' sometimes good penny worths are got there. Their Diversions in the Winter is Riding Sleys about three or four Miles out of Town, where they have Houses of entertain- ment at a place called the Bowery, \ and some go to friends' Houses, who handsomely treat them. Mr. Burroughs carry'd his spouse and Daughter and myself out to one Madame Dowes, a Gentlewoman that lived at a farm House, who gave us a handsome entertainment of five or six Dishes and choice Beer and metheglin, Cyder, &c, all which she said was the produce of her farm. I believe we mett fifty or sixty slays that day ; they fly with great swiftness, and some are so furious that they'll turn out of the path for none except a Loaden Cart. Nor do they spare for any diversion the place affords and sociable to a degree, they'r Tables being as free to their Naybours as t( themselves." William Burnet, son of the celebrated prelate of that name, who nourished in the reign of William and Mary, succeeded Hunter in the government of the colony, in the year 1720 ; and of all the colonial Governors IT20. of New York, with the exception of Colonel Don- gan, his Indian and colonial policy was marked by the most prudent forecast and the greatest wisdom. Imme- diately after the peace of Utrecht a brisk trade in goods for the Indian market was revived between Albany and * Greenleaf, however, gives 1799 as the first Baptist preaching— that of Wickenden. A petition of Nicholas Eyres slates that in 1715 his house was registered for an Anabaptist meeting-house.— Documentary History of New York, III, 480. t The first Friends' Meeting-house— a small frame building, standing on Little Green Street— is said to have been erected in 1696 or 1705.— GreenleaJ ', 116. % "A small tavern stood on the banks of the Harlem River. This tavern was the occa- sional point of excursion for riding parties from the city, and was known as the 'Wedding- place.' One or two small taverns were on the road between the town and the Bowery."— Valentine's History of New York, 69. HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 127 Montreal, the Caughnawaga tribe of the Mohawks resid- ing near Montreal serving as carriers. The chiefs of the Six Nations foresaw the evil and inevitable consequences to result from allowing that trade to pass round in that direction, inasmuch as the Indians would of course be drawn exclusively to Montreal for their supplies, to be received immediately at the hands of the French, and they cautioned the English authorities against it. Mr. Hunter had indeed called the attention of the General Assembly to the subject at an antecedent period ; but no action was had thereon until after Mr. Burnet had as- sumed the direction of the colonial administration. The policy of the latter was at once to cut off an intercourse so unwise and dangerous with Montreal, and bring the entire Indian trade within the limits and control of New York. To this end an act was passed, at his suggestion, subjecting the traders with Montreal to a forfeiture of their goods, and a penalty of one hundred pounds for each infraction of the law. It likewise entered into the policy of Mr. Burnet to win the confidence of the Caughnawagas, and reunite them with their kindred in their native valley. But the ties by which the Roman priesthood had bound them to the interests of the French were too strong, and the efforts of the Governor were unsuccessful. In furtherance of the design to grasp the Indian trade, not only of the Six Nations, but likewise that of the re- moter nations of the upper lakes, a trading-post was established at Oswego in 1722. A trusty agent was also appointed to reside at the great council-fire of the Onondagas, the central nation of the Confederates. A congress of several of the colonies was held at Albany to meet the Six Nations, during the same year, which, among other distinguished men, was attended by Gov- ernor Spottswood, of Virginia, Sir William Keith, of Penn- sylvania, and by Governor Burnet. At this council the 128 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. chiefs stipulated that in their Southern war expeditions they would not cross the Potomac; and in their marches against their Southern enemies, their path was to lie westward of the great mountains, meaning the Allegha- nies. Mr. Burnet again brightened the chain of friend- ship with them on the part of New York, notwithstand- ing the adverse influences exerted by the Chevalier Jon- caire, the Jesuit agent residing alternately among the Senecas and Onondagas. The beneficial effects of Mr. Burnet's policy were soon apparent. In the course of a single year more than forty young men plunged boldly into the Indian country as traders, acquired their language, and strengthened the precarious friendship existing between the English and the more distant nations ; while tribes of the latter pre- viously unknown to the colonists, even from beyond the Michiliinackinac, visited Albany for purposes of tralfic. The establishment of an English post at Oswego was a cause of high displeasure to the French, who, in order to intercept the trade from the upper lakes that would otherwise be drawn thither, and thus be diverted from Montreal, determined to repossess themselves of Niagara, rebuild the trading-house at that point, and repair their dilapidated fort. The assent of the Onondagas to this meas- ure was obtained by the Baron de Longueil, who visited their country for that purpose, through the influence of Joncaire and his Jesuit associates. But the other mem- bers of the Confederacy, disapproving of the movement, declared the permission given to be void, and dispatched messengers to Niagara to arrest the procedure. With a just appreciation of the importance of such an encroach- ment upon their territory, the Confederates met Mr. Burnet in council upon the subject at Albany in 1727. " We come to you howling," said the chiefs ; " and this is the reason why we howl, that the HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 129 Governor of Canada encroaches upon our land and builds thereon." Governor Burnet made them a speech on the occasion, beautifully expressed in their own figurative language, which gave them great satisfaction.* The chiefs, declaring themselves unable to resist this invasion of the French, entreated the English for succor, and for- mally surrendered their country to the great king, " to be protected by him for their use," as heretofore stated. But Governor Burnet, being at that period involved in political difficulties with an Assembly too short-sighted or too factious to appreciate the importance of preserv- ing so able a head to the colonial government, was enabled to do nothing more for the protection of the In- dians than to erect a small military defense at Oswego ; and even this work of necessity he was obliged to per- form at his own private expense. Meantime the French completed and secured their works at Niagara without molestation. In the course of the same year, having been thwarted in his enlarged and patriotic views by several successive assemblies, Mr. Burnet, one of the ablest and wisest of the colonial administrators, retired from the government of New York, and accepted that of Massachusetts and New Hampshire. His departure, personally, was universally regretted. He was not only a man of letters, but of wit — a believer in the Christian religion, yet not a serious pro- fessor. A variety of amusing anecdotes has been related of him. When on his way from New York to assume the government at Boston, one of the committee who went from that town to meet him on the borders of Rhode Island was the facetious Colonel Tailer. Burnet com- plained of the long graces that were said before meals by clergymen on the road, and asked when they would * Smith's History of New York. 17 130 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. shorten. Tailer answered : " The graces will increase in length till you come to Boston ; after that they will shorten till you come to your government of New Hamp- shire, where your excellency will find no grace at all." Colonel John Montgomery succeeded Mr. Burnet in the government of the colonies of New York and New Jersey in the month of April, 1728. He was a Scotchman, 1728. and bred a soldier. But quitting the profession of arms, he went into Parliament, serving, also, for a time, as groom of the bed-chamber to his majesty George II, before his accession to the throne. He was a man of moderate abilities and slender literary attainments. He was too good-natured a man to excite enmities; and his administration was one of tranquil inaction. He was an indolent man, and had not character enough to inspire opposition. The French, perceiving this, and enraged at the erec- tion of a fort at Oswego, were now menacing that post. The new Governor thereupon met the Six Nations in council at Albany, to renew the covenant chain, and en- gage them in the defense of that important station. Large presents were distributed among them, and they declared their willingness to join the reinforcements detached from the independent companies for that service. Being apprised of these preparations, the French desisted from their threatened invasion. Much of the opposition to the administration of Gov- ernor Burnet had been fomented and kept alive by the Albanians, who, by the shrewdness of his Indian policy, and the vigorous measures by which he had enforced it, had been interrupted in their illicit trade in Indian goods with Montreal, and also by the importers of those goods residing in the city of New York. Sustained, however, by his council-board, and by the very able memoir of Dr. Colden upon that subject, Mr. Burnet, as the reader HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 13] has already been apprised, had succeeded in giving a new and more advantageous character to the inland trade, while the Indian relations of the colony had been placed upon a better footing, in so far, at least, as the opportuni- ties of the French to tamper with them had been measur- ably cut off. But in December of the succeeding year, owing to some intrigues that w^ere never .clearly under- stood, all these advantages were suddenly relinquished by an act of the Crown repealing the measures of Mr. Bur- net ; reviving, in effect, the execrable trade of the Alba- nians, and thus at once re-opening the door of intrigue between the French and the Six Nations, which had been so wisely closed. The three principal events, however, of Montgbmery's administration affecting the city itself, were the grant of an amended city charter in 1730, by which the 1730. jurisdiction of the city was fixed to begin at King's Bridge, the establishment of a line of stages to run between New York and Philadelphia once a fortnight during the winter months, and the founding of the first public library. For more than a century there had been no public library in the city ; but in the year 1729 some sixteen hundred and twenty-two volumes were bequeathed by the Rev. John Millington, rector of Newington, England, to the " Venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts," by whom the books were in turn imme- diately presented to the city. To this number also was added another collection, the gift of the Rev. John Sharp, chaplain to Lord Bellamont, when both collections, now one, were opened to the public as the u Corporation Library," The librarian dying soon after, the books were neglected until 1754, when a few public-spirited citizens founded the Society Library, at the same time adding the Corpo- ration collection and depositing the whole in the City 132 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. Hall. The undertaking prospered, and in 1772 George III granted it a charter. During the Revolutionary struggle the library was neglected ; but when peace was restored in 1783, the society revived their charter and again set themselves to work collecting those volumes that had been scattered and replacing those irretrievably lost by new ones. Their efforts were so far successful as to warrant them in erecting a library building on Nassau Street, opposite the Dutch church, a building that for a long time was considered one of the finest specimens of architecture of which the city could boast. Thence it was removed to the Mechanics' Society building on Chambers Street, where it remained until the completion of their new and fine edifice in 1840 on the corner of Broadway and Leonard Street. This spot was next vacated and quarters were obtained for it in the new Bible House, Astor Place, whence, in 1857, it once more removed to its beautiful edifice in University Place, between Twelfth and Thir- teenth Streets. Such is a short sketch of the first public library of New York, commenced one hundred and thirty- nine years ago. On the decease of Colonel Montgomery, in 1731, the duties of the colonial executive were for a brief period exercised by Mr. Rip Van Dam, as President of 173 1« • .... the Council.* His administration was signalized by the memorable infraction of the treaty of Utrecht by the French, who then invaded the clearly-defined territory of New York, and built the fortress of St. Frederick, at Crown Point, a work which gave them the command of Lake Champlain — the highway between the English and French colonies. The pusillanimity evinced by the gov- ernment of New York on the occasion of that flagrant * Mr. Van Dam was an eminent merchant in the city of New York, " of a fair estate," says Smith, the historian, " though distinguished more for the in- tegrity of his heart than his capacity to hold the reins of government." HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 133 encroachment upon its domains, excites the amazement of the retrospective reviewer. Massachusetts, alarmed at this advance of the rivals, if not natural enemies, of the English upon the settlement of the latter, first called the attention of the authorities of New York to the subject ; but the information was received with the most provoking indifference. There was a regular military force in the colony abundantly sufficient, by a prompt movement, to repel the aggression, yet not even a remonstrance was uttered against it. With the exception of this infringe- ment upon the territory of New York, nothing worthy of special mention occurred during the ad- ministration of Mr. Van Dam. In August, 1732, Colonel William Cosby arrived in New York as his successor. The first act of the new Governor was one which, having its rise at first in a mere personal quarrel, was des- tined to establish, for all time in America, the question of the liberty of the press. The act of the Governor here alluded to was the institution of proceedings against Rip Van Dam to recover half of the salary which the latter had received during his occupation of the Governor's chair. The suit was decided against Van Dam, who was consequently suspended from the exercise of his functions as President of the Council. This unfair decision natu- rally aroused the indignation of the people, who gave vent to their feelings in squibs and lampoons hurled without mercy at the Governor and his party. These were, in turn, answered by the Nezv York Gazette, a paper published by William Bradford in the interest of the Government ; and the controversy finally grew so bitter that John Peter Zenger, a printer by trade, was induced, under the patron- age, as was supposed, of Rip Van Dam, to start a new paper, the New York Weekly Journal — the columns of which were to be devoted to opposing the colonial administration of Governor Cosby. The columns of the new paper teemed 134 HISTORY OF NEW YOEK CITY. with able and spicy articles assailing the acts of the Gov- ernor — written, probably, by William Smith and James Alexander, the two prominent lawyers of New York. The Governor, and those members of his council who were his satellites, were not long in bringing themselves into the belief that these articles were actionable ; and thus it hap- pened that the first great libel suit tried in this city was insti- tuted by the Government, in 1734, against Zenger. 1734. • The latter, in a pamphlet which he wrote afterward upon his trial, quaintly says : * "As there was but one Printer in the Province of New York that printed a public News Paper, I was in Hopes, if I undertook to publish an- other, I might make it worth my while, and I soon found that my Hopes were not groundless. My first paper was printed November 15th, 1733, and I continued printing and publishing of them (I thought to the satisfaction of every body) till the January following, when the Chief Justice was pleased to animadvert upon the Doctrine of Libels in a long charge given in that term to the Grand Jury;" Zenger was thereupon imprisoned on Sunday, the 17th of November, 1734, by virtue of a warrant from the Gov- ernor and Council; and a concurrence of the House of Representatives in the prosecution was requested. The House, however, declined by laying the request of the Council upon the table. The Governor and Council then ordered the libelous papers to be burned by the common hangman or whipper, near the pillory. But both the com- mon whipper and the common hangman were officers of the Corporation, not of the Crown, and they declined, officiating at the illumination. The papers were therefore * This pamphlet, which is excedingly rare, is a large 8vo (5^ xi)i£ inches) of 39 pages. It is entitled : A Brief Narrative of the Case and Trial of John Peter Zenger, Printer of the New York Weekly Journal :—New York Printed : Lancaster re-printed, and sold by W. Dunlap, at the New Printing Offices, Queen Street, 1736. HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 135 burned by the Sheriff's negro servant at the order of the Governor.* An ineffectual attempt was next made to procure an indictment against Zenger, but the Grand Jury refused to find a bill. The Attorney-General was then directed to file no information against him for printing the libels, and he was consequently kept in prison until another term. His counsel offered exceptions to the com- missions of the judges, which the latter not only refused to hear, but excluded his counsel, Messrs. Smith and Alex- ander, from the bar. Zenger then obtained other counsel — John Chambers of New York, and Andrew Hamilton of Philadelphia. The trial at length came on and excited great interest. The truth, under the old English law of libel, could never be given in evidence, and was of course excluded on the present trial. Hamilton, nevertheless, tried the case with consummate ability. He showed the jury that they were the judges as well of the law as the fact, and Zenger was acquitted. " The jury," says Zenger in relating the result of the trial, " withdrew, and in a small time returned, and being asked by the clerk whether they were agreed upon their verdict and whether John * In the pamphlet before alluded to, Zenger gives the following account of this proceeding: " At a council held at Fort George in New York the 2d of November, 17;J4, present, His Excellency William Cosby, Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief , &c, ...r. Clark, Mr. Harrison, Dr. Colden" [a note says Dr. Colden was that day at Esopus, ninety miles away], "Mr. Livingston, Mr. Kennedy, the Chief Jus- tice, Mr. Cortlandt, Mr. Lane, Mr. Horsmanden : " Whereas, By an order of the Board of this day, some of John Peter Zen- ger's journals, entitled the New York Weekly Journal, Nos. 7, 47, 48, 49, were ordered to be burned by the hands of the common hangman or whipper, near the pillory of this city, on Wednesday, the 6th inst., between the hours of eleven and twelve. It is therefore ordered that the Mayor and Magistrates of this city do attend at the burning of the several papers or journals aforesaid, numbered as above-mentioned. . Fred. Mokkis, D. CI. Con. " To RoBERT.LuitTiNG, Esq., Mayor of the City of New York, &c." (The Aldermen protested vigorously against the execution of this order, and refused to instruct the Sheriff to execute it. The Sheriff burned the papers, however, or " delivered them into the hands of his own negro, and ordered him to put them into the fire, which he did.") 136 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. Peter Zenger was guilty of printing and publishing the libels in the information mentioned, they answered by Thomas Hunt, their foreman, not guilty, upon which there were three huzzas in the hall, which was crowded with people, and the next day I was discharged from imprisonment." Immediately after the trial the Corporation voted the freedom of the city in a magnificent gold box * to Andrew Hamilton, " for the remarkable service done to this city and colony, by his defense of the rights of mankind and the liberty of the press." Twenty years afterward, however, the Government organ itself fell under the displeasure of the reigning powers. Upon the relinquishment of his paper in 1743, it was resumed by James Parker under the double title of the New York Gazette and Weekly Post Boy. In 1753, ten years afterward, Parker took a partner by the name of William Way man. But neither of the partners, nor both of them together, possessed the indomitable spirit of John Peter Zenger. Having in March, 1756, published an article reflecting upon the people of Ulster and Orange counties, the Assembly, entertaining a high regard for the majesty of the people, took offense thereat, and both the editors were taken into custody by the sergeant-at- arms. What the precise nature of the insult upon the sovereign people of those counties was, does not appear. But the editors behaved in a craven manner. They ac- knowledged their fault, begged pardon of the House, and paid the costs of the proceedings, in addition to all which * This gold box was five ounces and a half in weight and inclosed the seal of the said Freedom. On its lid were engraved the arms of the City of New York and these mottoes : On the outer part of the lid, Demers^e Leges — Timefacta Libertas — H^c Tandem Emergunt. On the inner side of the lid, Nun Noishs — Virtute Paratur. On the front of the rim, Ita Cuique Eveniat ut de Republica Meruit. "Which freedom and box," naively adds Zenger, " was presented in the manner that had been directed, and grate- fully accepted by the said Andrew Hamilton, Esquire." HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 137 they gave up the name of the author. He proved to be none other than the Rev. Hezekiah Watkins, a missionary to the County of Ulster, residing at Newburg. The reverend gentleman was accordingly arrested, brought to New York, and voted guilty of a high misdemeanor and contempt of the authority of the House. Of what per- suasion was this Mr. Watkins does not appear. But neither Luther, nor Calvin, nor Hugh Latimer would have betrayed the right of free discussion as he did by begging the pardon of the House, standing to receive a reprimand, paying the fees, and promising to be more circumspect in future — for the purpose of obtaining his discharge. This case affords the most singular instance of the exercise of the doubtful power of punishing for what are called con- tempts on record. A court has unquestionably a right to protect itself from indignity while in session, and so has a legislative body, although the power of punishing for such an offense without trial by jury is now gravely questioned. But for a legislative body to extend the mantle of its protection over its constituency in such a matter is an exercise of power of which, even in the annals of the Star Chamber, when presided over by Archbishop Laud, it is difficult to find a parallel. Sure it is that a people, then or now, who would elect such mem- bers to the Legislature deserve nothing else than con- tempt. From the establishment, however, of the inde- pendence of the country until the present day there has been no attempt to fetter the press by censors or by law ; while the old English law of libel, which prevailed until the beginning of the present century, has been so modi- fied as to allow the truth in all cases to be given in evidence. For the attainment of this great end the country is indebted, more than to all other men, to the early and bosom friend of the late venerable Dr. Nott — Alexander Hamilton. 18 138 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. At length the incessant quarrels of the weak and avaricious Cosby with the people and their representa- tives was suddenly terminated bv his death in 1736 March, 1736. On his decease, Mr. George Clarke, long a member of the Council, after a brief struggle with Mr. Van Dam for the presidency, succeeded to the direction of the government, and, being shortly after- ward commissioned as Lieutenant-Governor, continued at the head of the colonial administration from the autumn of 1736 to that of 1743. Mr. Clarke was remotely connected by marriage with the family of Lord Clarendon, having been sent over as Secretary of the colony in the reign of Queen Anne. Being, moreover, a man of strong common sense and of uncommon tact, and, by reason of his long residence in the colony and the several official stations he had held, well acquainted with its affairs, his administration — certainly until toward its close — was comparatively popular, and, all circumstances considered, eminently successful. In the brief struggle for power between himself and Mr. Van Dam, the latter had been sustained by the popular party, while the officers of the Crown and the partisans of Cosby, with few, if any, exceptions, adhered to Mr. Clarke. This difficulty, however, had been speedily ended by a royal confirmation of the somewhat doubtful authority assumed by Mr. Clarke. His own course, moreover, on taking the seals of office, was conciliatory. In his first speech to the General Assembly, he referred in temperate lan- guage to the unhappy divisions which had of late dis- turbed the colony, and which he thought it was then a favorable moment to heal. The English flour -market having been overstocked by large supplies furnished from the other colonies, the attention of the Assembly was directed to the expediency of encouraging domestic man- ufactures in various departments of industry. To the HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 139 Indian affairs of the colony Mr. Clarke invited the spe- cial attention of the Assembly. The military works of Fort Hunter being in a dilapidated condition, and the object of affording protection to the Christian settlements through the Mohawk Valley having been accomplished, the Lieutenant-Governor suggested the erection of a new fort at the carrying-place between the Mohawk River and Wood Creek* leading into the Oneida Lake, and thence through the Oswego River into Lake Ontario; and the transfer of the garrison from Fort Hunter to this new and commanding position. He likewise recommended the repairing of the block-house at Oswego, and the send- ing of smiths and other artificers. into the Indian country, especially among the Senecas.t During the greater part of the year 1738— if we ex- cept the establishing of a quarantine on Bedloe's Island and the opening of Rector Street— but little at- ^ tention was paid to local affairs, the principal historical in cident of that year being the memorable con- * The site, afterward, of Fort Stanwix, now the opulent town of Rome. + In the course of this Session of the General Assembly, Chief Justice De Lancey Speaker of the Legislative Council, announced that his duties in the Supreme Court would render it impossible for him to act as Speaker through the session. It was therefore ordered that the oldest Councilor present should thenceforward act as Speaker. Under this order, Dr. Colden first came to the chair. , . On the 26th of October, the Council resolved that they would hold their sittings in the Common Council chamber of the City Hall. The House imme- diately returned a message that they were holding their sessions, and should continue to hold them, in that chamber ; and that it was conformable to the constitution that the Council, in its legislative capacity, should sit as a distinct and separate body. During the same session, also, the Council having sent a message to the House by the hand of a deputy-clerk, a message was trans- nutted back, signifying that the House considered such a course disrespectful. Until that time messages had been conveyed between the Houses with bills, resolutions, &c, by the hands of their members respectively. The House considered the sending of a clerk an innovation upon their privileges ; and Colonel Phillipse, Mr. Verplank, and Mr. Johnson were appointed a committee to wait upon the Council and demand satisfaction. The Council healed the matter by a conciliatory resolution, declaring that no disrespect had been intended. 140 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. tested election between Adolphe Phillipse and Gerrit Van Horne, in connection with which, owing to the extraor- dinary skill and eloquence of Mr. Smith, father of the historian and counsel for Van Home, the Hebrew free- holders of the City of New York, from which place both parties claimed to have been returned to the Assembly, were most unjustly disfranchised, on the ground of their religious creed, and their votes rejected. The colony was greatly excited by this question, and the persuasive powers exerted by Mr. Smith are represented to have been wonderful — equaling, probably, if not surpassing, those of Andrew Hamilton, four years previously, in the great libel case of Zenger — and possibly not excelled even by Patrick Henry a few years afterward, when he dethroned the reason of the court, and led captive the jury, in the great tobacco case in Virginia. CHAPTER III. The years 1738 and 1739, were marked by increasing political excitement; and the dividing line of parties, in- volving the great principles of civil liberty on the 1738. one side and the prerogatives of the Crown on the "39. other, were more distinctly drawn, perhaps, than at any antecedent period. The administrations of the earlier English Governors, Nicholls and Lovelace, were benevolent and almost parental. Andros, it is true, was a tyrant ; and during his administration parties were formed, as in England, upon the mixed questions of politics and religion, which dethroned the last and most bigoted of the Stuarts, and brought William and Mary upon the throne. Dongan, however, the last of the Stuart Governors in New York, although a Roman Catholic, was nevertheless mild in the administration of the government, and a gentleman in his feelings and manners. It was upon his arrival, in the autumn of 1683, that the freeholders of the colony, as we have seen, were invested with the right of choosing repre- sentatives to meet the Governor in General Assembly. For nearly twenty years subsequent to the revolution of 1G89, the colony was torn by personal, rather than politi- cal, factions, having their origin in the controversy which compassed the judicial murder of the unhappy Leisler and his son-in-law, Milburn. These factions dying out in the lapse of years, other questions arose, the principal of which 142 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. was that important one which always, sooner or later, springs up in every English colony — involving, on the one hand, as I have already remarked, the rights of the peo- ple, and on the other the claims of the Crown. Invaria- bly, almost, if not quite, the struggle is originated upon some questions of revenue — either in the levying thereof, or in its disposition, or both. Thus in the origin of those political parties in New York, which continued with greater or less acrimony until the separation from the parent country, Sloughter and Fletcher had both endeav- ored to obtain grants of revenue to the Crown for life, but- had failed. Subsequently, grants had been occasionally made to the officers of the Crown for a term of years ; but latterly, especially during the administration of Governor Cosby, the General Assembly had grown more refractory upon the subject — pertinaciously insisting that they would vote the salaries for the officers of the Crown only with the annual supplies. This was a principle which the Gov- ernors, as the representatives of the Crown, felt bound to resist, as being an infringement of the royal prerogative. Henceforward, therefore, until the colony cast off its alle- giance, the struggle in regard to the revenue and its dis- position was almost perpetually before the people, in one form or another ; and in some years, owing to the obsti- nacy of the representatives of the Crown on one side, and the inflexibility of the representatives of the people on the other, supplies were not granted at all. Mr. Clarke, although he had the address to throw off, or to evade, the difficulty, for the space of two years, was nevertheless doomed soon to encounter it. Accordingly, in his speech to the Assembly at the autumnal session of 1738, he complained that another year had elapsed without any provision being made for the support of his Majesty's gov- ernment in the province — the neglect having occurred by reason of "a practice not warranted by the usage of HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 143 any former General Assemblies." He therefore insisted strongly upon the adoption of measures for the payment of salaries, for the payment of public creditors, and for the general security of the public credit by the creation of a sinking-fund for the redemption of the bills of the colony. The Assembly was refractory. Instead of complying with the demands of the Lieutenant-Governor, the House resolved unanimously that they would grant no supplies upon that principle ; and in regard to a sinking-fund for the redemption of the bills of credit afloat, they refused any other measure than a continuance of the existing excise. These spirited and peremptory resolutions gave high offense to the representative of the Crown ; and on the day following their adoption, the Assembly was sum- moned to the fort, and dissolved by a speech, declaring the said resolutions " to be such presumptuous, daring, and unprecedented steps that he could not look upon them but with astonishment, nor could he with honor suffer their authors to sit any longer." The temper of the new Assembly, summoned in the spring of the succeeding year, 1739, was no more in uni- son with the desires of the Lieutenant-Governor than that of the former. The demand for a permanent supply-bill was urged at. several successive sessions, only to be met with obstinate refusals. The second session, held in the autumn, was interrupted in October by a prorogation of several days, for the express purpose of affording the members leisure " to reflect seriously " upon the line of duty required of them by the exigencies of the country ; for, not only was the Assembly resolutely persisting in the determination to make only annual grants of supplies, but they were preparing to trench yet further upon the royal prerogative by insisting upon specific applications of the revenue, to be inserted in the bill itself. Meantime, on the 13th of October, the Lieutenant-Governor brought the 144 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. subject of his differences with the Assembly formally before his privy council. In regard to the new popular movement of this Assembly, insisting upon a particular application of the revenues to be granted in the body of the act for the support of the Government, the Lieutenant- Governor said they had been moved to that determination by the example of New Jersey, where an act of that nature had lately been passed. He was unwilling to allow any encroachment upon the rights of the Crown. Yet, in con- sideration of the defenseless situation of the colony, he felt uneasy at such a turn of affairs, and not being disposed to revive old animosities, or to create new ones by another summary dissolution, he asked the advice of the council. The subject was referred to a committee, of which the Hon. Daniel Horsmanden, an old member of the council, was chairman. This gentleman was one of the most sturdy supporters of the royal prerogative ; but, in conse- quence of the existing posture of affairs, and the necessity of a speedy provision for the public safety, the committee reported unanimously against a dissolution. They be- lieved, also, that the Assembly, and the people whom they represented, had the disputed point so much at heart that it would be impossible to do business with them unless it was conceded ; and, besides, it was argued, should a disso- lution take place, there was no reason for supposing that the next Assembly would be less tenacious in asserting the offensive principle. Since, moreover, the Governor of New Jersey had yielded the point, the committee advised the same course in New York.* The point was conceded ; * See the old minutes of the executive or privy council, in manuscript, in the Secretary-of-State's office in Albany. To avoid confusion hereafter, it may be well to state, in this connection, that the council acted in a twofold capacity : first, as advisory ; second, as legislative. " In the first," says Smith, in his chapter entitled Political State, " they are a privy council to the Governor." When thus acting they are often called the executive or majesty's council. Hence, privy council and executive council are synonymous. During the see HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 145 and the effect, for the moment, was to produce a better state of feeling in the Assembly. Supplies were granted, but only for the year ; and various appropriations were made for placing the city and colony in a posture of defense. But it is seldom that the wheels of revolution roll backward, and the concession which allowed the General Assembly to prescribe the application or disposition of the supplies they voted, ever before claimed as the legal and known prerogative of the Crown, appeased the popu- lar party only for a very short time. Indeed, nothing is more certain, whether in monarchies or republics, than that the governed are never satisfied with concessions, while each successful demand only increases the popular clamor for more. Thus it was in the experience of Mr. Clarke. It is true, indeed, that the year 1740 passed without any direct collision upon the question of prerogative ; although at the second short session of that year, the speech alleged the entire exhaustion of the rev- enue, and again demanded an ample appropriation for a term of years. But the controversy was re-opened at the spring session of the following year — 1741 — on which occasion the Lieutenant-Governor delivered a speech, long beyond precedent, and enumerating the grievances of the Crown by reason of the continued en- croachments of the General Assembly. The speech began by an elaborate review of the origin and progress of the difficulties that had existed between the representatives of the Crown and the Assembly, in respect to the grant- ting of supplies, evincing — such, indeed, is the inference sion of the legislature, however, the same cotincil sat (without the presence of the Governor) as a legislative council ; and in such capacity exercised the same functions as the Senate of the present day — so far as regards the passing of laws. The journals of this last or legislative council have recently been pub- lished by the State of New York under admirable editorship and the supervis- ion of Dr. E. B. O'Callaghan. 19 146 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY — a want of gratitude on the part of the latter, in view of the blessings which the colony had enjoyed under the paternal care of the Government since the revolution of 1688. But it was not in connection with the supplies only that the Assembly had invaded the rights of the Crown. It was the undoubted prerogative of the Crown to appoint the Treasurer. Yet the Assembly had de- manded the election of that officer. Not satisfied with that concession, they had next claimed the right of choos- ing the Auditor-General. Failing in that demand, they had sought to accomplish their object by withholding the salary from that officer. These encroachments, he said, had been gradually increasing from year to year, until apprehensions had been seriously awakened in England " that the plantations are not without thoughts of throw- ing off their dependence on the Crown." He, therefore, admonished the Assembly to do away with such an im- pression " by giving to his Majesty such a revenue, and in such a manner, as will enable him to pay his own officers and servants," as had been done from the Revolu- tion down to the year 1709 — during which period the colony was far less able to bear the burden than now.* Thus early and deeply were those principles striking root in America which John Hampden had asserted and poured out his blood to defend in the great ship-money contest with Charles I — which brought that unhappy monarch to the block, and which, fulfilling the appre- hensions of Mr. Clarke, thirty-five years afterward, sepa- rated the colonies from the British Crown — although in the answer of the House to the " insinuation of a suspi- cion " of a desire for independence, with real or affected * Vide Journals of the Colonial Assembly, vol. 1, Hugh Gain's edition. This (1741) was the year in which the chapel, barracks, Secretary's office, &c, at Fort George (the Battery) were burned, and the speech referred to in the text asked an appropriation for their rebuilding— but without success. HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. ]47 gravity, they " vouched that not a single person in the colony had any such thoughts;" adding, " for under what government can we be better protected, or our liberties or properties so well secured?" But the popularity of Mr. Clarke was rapidly on the wane. Chief-Justice De Lancey, the master-spirit of the council, having rather abandoned him, and attached him- self to the popular party, managed to preserve a consid- erate coolness on the part of that body toward their execu- tive head, while the house heeded but little his recom- mendations. The only object of local excitement, however, during the year 1741, was the celebrated plot (supposed to have been discovered), on the part of the negroes, to murder the inhabitants of New York, and ravage and burn the city — an affair which reflects little credit either upon the discernment or the humanity of that generation. African slavery had existed from an early period in New Netherlancl. It was encouraged as the most certain and economical way of introducing slavery in a new country, where there was no surplus population. The slave-trade was brought into the Dutch colony by the Dutch West India Company, and, shortly after its intro- duction, became a considerable and profitable branch of its shipping interest. A "prime slave" was valued from one hundred and twenty dollars to one hundred and fifty dollars, and below this price he could not profitably be purchased from Africa or the West Indies. In 1702, there were imported one hundred and sixty-five African slaves ; in 1718 five hundred and seventeen. After that year, however, the traffic began to fall off, the natural increase being large.* * Almost every family in the colony owned one or more negro servants ; and among the richer classes their number was considered a certain evidence of their master's easy circumstances. About the year 1703 — a period of pros- 148 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. As far back as 1628. slaves constituted a portion of the population of New Amsterdam ; and to such an extent had the traffic in them reached that, in 1709, a slave-market was erected at the foot of Wall Street, where all negroes who were to be hired or sold, stood in readiness for bidders. Their introduction into the colony was hastened by the colonial establishment of the Dutch in Brazil and upon the coast of Guinea, and also by the capture of Spanish and Portuguese prizes with Africans on board. The boere-knechts, or servants, whom the settlers brought over with them from Holland, soon deserted their field-work for the fur traffic, thus causing European laborers to become scarce and high ; and, as a natural result, slaves, by their cheap- ness, became one of the staples of the new country. In 1652, the Directors at Amsterdam removed the export duty of eight per cent., which had been hitherto paid by the colonists on tobacco. The passage-money to New Netherland was also lessened from fifty to thirty guilders ; and, besides trading to the Brazils, the settlers were al- lowed "to sail to the coast of Angola and Africa to procure as many negroes as they might be willing to employ."* Several outbreaks had already happened among the negroes of New Amsterdam ; and the whites lived in constant anticipation of trouble and danger from them. Rumors of an intended insurrection, real or imaginary, would circulate (as in the negro plot of 1712) and the pcrity in wealth and social refinement with the Dutch of New Amsterdam — ■ the widow Van Cortlandt held five male slaves, two female, and two chil- dren ; Colonel De Peyster had the same number ; William Beekman, two ; Rip Van Dam, six ; Mrs. Stuyvesant, five ; Mrs. Kip, seven ; David Pro- voost, three, &c. * In the year 1755 a census of slaves was taken in all the colonies except Albany, New York, and Suffolk — Borough numbered 91 ; Manor of Polham. 24 ; Westchester, 73 : Bushwick, 43 ; Flatbush, 35 ; New Utrecht, 67 ; New- town, 87 ; Oyster-Bay, 97, &c, &c. HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 149 whole city be thrown into a state of alarm. Whether there was any real danger on these occasions cannot be known, but the result was always the same, viz.: the slaves always suffered, many dying by the fagot or the gallows. The "Negro Plot" of 1741, however, forms a serious and bloody chapter in the history of New York. At this distance of time it is hard to discover the truth amid the fears and prejudices which attended that public calamity. The city then contained some ten thousand inhabitants, about one-fifth of whom were African slaves, called the " black seed of Cain." Many of the laws for their govern- ment were most unjust and oppressive. Whenever three of them were found together they were liable to be pun- ished by forty lashes on the bare back, and the same penalty followed their walking with a club outside of their master's grounds without a permit. Two justices could inflict any punishment, except amputation or death, for any blow or assault by a slave upon a Christian or a Jew. Such was the outrageous law. New York swarmed with negroes, and her leading merchants were engaged in the slave-trade, at that time regarded fair and honorable. New York then resembled a Southern city, with its cala- boose on the Park Commons and its slave-market at the foot of Wall Street. The burning of the public buildings, comprising the Governor's residence, the Secretary's office, the chapel, and barracks, in March, 1741, was first announced to the Gen- eral Assembly by the Lieutenant-Governor as the result of an accident — a plumber who had been engaged upon some repairs having left fire in a gutter between the house and chapel. But several other fires occurring shortly after- ward in different parts of the city, some of them, perhaps, under circumstances that could not readily be explained, suspicions were awakened that the whole were acts of 150 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. incendiaries. Not a chimney caught fire — and chimneys were not at that day very well swept — but the incident was attributed to design. Such was the case in respect to the chimney of Captain Warren's house, situated near the ruins of the public buildings, by the taking fire of which the roof was partially destroyed ; and other instances might be enumerated. Suspicion, to borrow the language of Shakespeare, "hath a ready tongue," and is "all stuck full of eyes," which are not easily put to sleep. Incidents and circumstances, ordinary and extraordinary, were seized upon and brought together by comparison, until it became obvious to all that there was actually a conspir- acy for compassing such a stupendous act of arson as the burning of the entire town and murder of the people. Nor was it long before the plot was fastened upon the negro slaves, then forming no inconsiderable portion of the population. A negro, with violent gesticulation, had been heard to utter some terms of unintelligible jargon, in which the words " fire, fire, scorch, scorch," were heard articulated, or supposed to have been heard. The crew of a Spanish ship brought into the port as a prize were sold into slavery. They were suspected of disaffection — as well they might be, and yet be innocent — seized, and thrown into prison. Coals were found arranged, as had been supposed, for burning a hay-stack; a negro was seen jumping over a fence and flying from a house that had taken fire in another place; and, in a word, a vast variety of incidents, trifling and unimportant, were collated and talked over until universal consternation seized upon the inhabitants, from the highest to the lowest. As Hume remarks of the Popish plot in the reign of Charles II, " each breath of rumor made the people start with anxiety ; their enemies, they thought, were in their bosoms. They were awakened from their slumbers by the cry of Plot, and, like men affrighted and in the dark. HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. J5J took every figure for a specter. The terror of each man became a source of terror to another, and a universal panic being diffused, reason, and argument, and common sense, and common humanity, lost all influence over them." * A Titus Oates was found in the person of a poor, weak, servant-girl in a sailors' boarding-house, named Mary Burton, who, after much importunity, con- fessed that she heard certain negroes, in the preceding February, conferring in private, for the purpose of setting the town on fire. She at first confined the conspirators to blacks, but afterward several white persons were included, among whom were her landlord, whose name was Hughson, his wife, and another maid-servant, and a Roman Catholic, named Ury. Some other information was obtained from other informers, and numerous arrests were made, and the several strong apartments in the City Hall, called " the jails," were crowded with prisoners, amounting in number to twenty-six whites and above one hundred and sixty slaves. Numerous executions took place upon the most frivolous and unsatisfactory testimony, but jurors and magistrates were alike panic stricken and wild with terror. Among the sufferers were Hughson, his wife, and the maid-servant, as also the Romanist Ury, who was capitally accused, not only as a conspirator, but for officiating as a priest, upon an old law of the colony, heretofore mentioned as having been passed at the instance of Governor Bellamont, to drive the French missionaries from among the Indians. ; ' The whole summer was spent in the prosecutions ; every new trial led to further accusations ; a coincidence of slight circumstances was magnified by the general terror into violent presumptions ; tales collected without doors, min- * Quoted by Dunlap, who has given a good collection of facts respecting this remarkable plot, though not rendered into a well-digested narrative. See chap, xxi of his History. 152 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. gling with the proofs given at the bar, poisoned the minds of the jurors, and this sanguinary spirit of the day suf- fered no check until Mary, the capital informer, bewil- dered by frequent examinations and suggestions, began to touch characters which malice itself dare not suspect." Then, as in the case of the Popish plot and the prose- cutions for witchcraft in Salem, the magistrates and jurors began to pause. But not until many had been sent to their final account by the spirit of fanaticism which had bereft men of their reason as innocent of the charges laid against them as the convicting courts and jurors themselves. Thirteen negroes were burned at the stake, eighteen were hanged, and seventy trans- ported. * The year 1742, if for no other reason, is memorable in the annals of the city from the fact that in that year was built the house now standing on the site of No. 1 1742. Broadway, and known as the "Washington Hotel," and the oldest house in the city. Previous to this year (1742) the site was occupied by an old tavern kept by a Mrs. Kocks, built the century previous by her husband, Pieter Kocks, an officer in the Dutch service and an active leader in the Indian war of 1C93. The late Mr. David T. Valentine — to whom New York is indebted more than * Daniel Horsmanden, the third Justice of the Supreme Court, published the history of this strange affair in a ponderous quarto. He was concerned in the administration of the judicial proceedings, however, and wrote his history he- fore the delusion had passed away. Chief-Justice De Lancey presided at least at some of the trials, and he, too, though an able and clear-minded m^n, was carried away by the delusion. James De Lancey was the son of Stephen De Lancey, a French Huguenot gentleman from Caen, in Normandy, who fled from persecution in France. Settling in New York in 1686, he married a daughter of M. Van Cortlandt, and was thus connected with one of the most opulent families in the province. He was also an active member of the House of Assembly during the administration of Governor Hunter. His son James was sent to Cambridge University (England), for his education, and bred to the pro- fession of the law. On being elevated to the bench, such were his talents and application, he became a very profound lawyer. — Smith. HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 153 to any other man for the preservation of its local history, and for which she can never be sufficiently grateful — usually remarkably accurate, states that the building No. 1 Broadway was built by Archibald Kennedy (afterward Earl of Cassilis), then Collector of the Port of New York. This, however, is an error. It was built by Sir Peter, afterward Admiral, Warren,* K. C. B. — whose name is so identified with the naval glory of England — during his NO. 1 BROADWAY FIFTY YEARS AGO. residence in New York city. Neither pains nor expense were spared to make it one of the finest mansions in this country. The plans were all sent out from Lisbon — the exterior and interior being similar in every respect to that of the British embassador's residing at the Portuguese cap- * After whom Warren Street is named. 20 154 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. ital. The house was fifty-six feet on Broadway, and when erected the rear of the lot was bounded by the North River. Greenwich Street was not then opened or built — the North River washing the shore. One room of this edifice deserves particular notice, being the banqueting- room, twenty-six by forty, and used on all great occa- sions. After the British forces captured New York, in the war of the American Revolution, as the most prominent house, it was the headquarters of the distinguished British commanders. Sir William Howe, Sir Henry Clinton, and Sir Guy Carlton, afterward Lord Dorchester, all in succes- sion occupied this house ; and it is a memorable fact that the celebrated Major Andre, then Adjutant-General of the British forces, and aid to Sir Henry Clinton, resided in this house, being in the family of Sir Henry, and departed from its portals never to return, when he went up the North River and arranged his treasonable project with the traitor Arnold at West Point.* * This building is also known to historians as the " Kennedy House." CHAPTER IV. The administration of Lieutenant-Governor Clarke was ended in the autumn of 1743, by the arrival of Admiral George Clinton, uncle of the Earl of Lincoln, and a younger son of the late Earl, who had been appointed to the government of New York through the interest of his friends, to afford him an opportunity of mending his fortunes. Mr. Clarke, who, in the commence- ment of his administration, had succeeded in conciliating the leaders of both political parties, had contrived before the close of his career to lose the confidence of both, so that his retirement from the Government was regarded with universal satisfaction.* Especially had he incurred * George Clarke, Esq., who, in various official stations, was for almost half a century connected with the colonial government of New York, was an Eng- lishman by birth " His uncle, Mr. Blaithwait, procured the secretaryship of the colony for him early in the reign of Queen Anne. He had genius, but no other than a common writing-school education ; nor did he add to his stock by reading, for he was more intent upon improving his fortune than his mind. He was sensible, artful, active, cautious ; had a perfect command of his temper, and was in his address specious and civil. Nor was any man better acquainted with the colony and its affairs." He successively held the offices of Secretary, Clerk of the Council, Councilor, and Lieutenant-Governor ; and from his official position he had every opportunity of enriching himself by obtaining grants and patents of land, which, from his knowledge of the colony, he was enabled to choose in the most advantageous locations. He was a courtier, and was careful never to differ with the governors of the colony ; although during Cosby's stormy career he usually kept himself quiet at his country villa upon the edge of Hempstead plains. " I 'is lady was a Hyde, a woman of fine accomplishments, J56 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. the resentment of the Chief-Justice, De Lancey ; who. strangely enough, though usually a stanch supporter of the prerogatives of the Crown, had now become, to some extent, a favorite of the General Assembly. The new Governor had spent most of his life in the navy; and, according to the earliest English historian of New York, " preferring ease and good cheer to the restless activity of ambition, there wanted nothing to engage the interest of his powerful patrons in his favor more than to humor a simple-hearted man, who had no ill-nature, nor sought anything more than a genteel frugality and common civil- ity while he was mending those fortunes, until his friends at court could recall him to some indolent and more lucrative station." Mr. Clinton arrived in New York on the 22d of Sep- tember, and was received with demonstrations of univer- sal satisfaction by the people Finding that the General Assembly stood adjourned to meet in a few days, and ascertaining that the people would be pleased with an opportunity of holding a new election, the Assembly was dissolved on the 27th, and writs for the return of another Assembly issued the same day. The elections were conducted without political acrimony, and all the old members, with but seven exceptions, were returned. and a distant relation of that branch of the Clarendon family. She died in New York. Mr. Clarke returned to England in 1745, with acquisitions esti- mated at one hundred thousand pounds. He purchased an estate in Cheshire, where he died about the year 1761. George Clarke, his grandson and the heir to his estates, after a residence in America of about thirty-five years, died at Otsego about the year 1835. His eldest son, George Hyde Clarke, with his young wife, was lost in the ship Albion, wrecked on the coast of Ireland in the summer of 1820, on his passage from New York to England. His second son then returned to England and entered into possession of the fortune of his father's estates situated in that country. By the vast increase in price of his American lands, Mr. Clarke's estates in this country became of princely value before his death. They are inherited by his youngest son, George Clarke, Esq., who at present resides in the noble mansion erected by his father a few years before his decease, upon the margin of Otsego Lake." HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 157 The session opened on the 8th of November. Meantime, the Governor had fallen into the hands of De Lancey, who doubtless had the molding of his excellency's speech. Its tone was conciliatory, although the sore subject of a permanent revenue was opened afresh. But this was done in gentle terms, the Governor asking for a grant " in as ample a manner, and for a time as long, as had been given under any of his predecessors." The Assem- bly was informed that, owing to the critical state of affairs in Europe, and the doubtful attitude in which Great Brit- ain and France stood toward each other, a large supply of military stores for the defense of the colony had been received from the parent government ; and the Governor hoped the Assembly would show their thankfulness by making an adequate provision for the purchase of others. The usual recommendations in regard to the Indian inter- course of the colony were renewed, and an appropriation was asked for rebuilding the barracks and public offices, together with the house of the Governor, which had been destroyed by fire. The latter recommendation was in- sisted on as being necessary for the comfort of the Governor's family. "An humble address" was voted by the council in reply, drawn up by De Lancey. The appointment of the new Governor was received " as an additional evidence of his majesty's affection for his people, and his zeal for the liberty of mankind, lately most evidently demonstrated. in his exposing his sacred person to the greatest dangers in defense of the liberty of Europe." In all other respects the answer was an echo of the speech. The address of the House was more than an echo ; it was couched in language of excessive flattery to the new Governor, and of fawning adulation toward the sovereign, who was desig- nated " the darling of his own people, and the glorious preserver of the liberties of Europe." There was, how- 158 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. ever, a disposition on all sides to be pleased. The Assem- bly responded to the demanded appropriations, voting the Governor fifteen hundred pounds for his salary, one hun- dred pounds for house-rent, four hundred pounds for fuel and candles, one hundred and fifty pounds to enable him to visit the Indians, and eight hundred pounds for the pur- chase of presents to be distributed amongst them. Other appropriations were made upon a scale of corresponding liberality ; and the Governor was so well pleased with the good temper of the Assembly, that he signed every bill presented for his approbation without a murmur of disap- probation, not even excepting the supply-bill, which, not- withstanding his demand to the contrary, in the opening speech, was limited to the year. But, notwithstanding these reciprocal manifestations of good feeling, and notwithstanding, also, the amiable traits of the Governor's natural disposition, it will be seen, in the progress of events, that the bluff characteristics of the sailor were not always to be concealed ; and his administration, in process of time, became as tempestuous as the element upon which he was certainly more at home than upon the land. Advices of the intended invasion of his majesty's dominions, in behalf of a "Popish Pretender," were com- municated to the General Assembly of New York by Governor Clinton, in April, 1744. In connec- tion with this anticipated act of hostility, which would of course extend to the contiguous colonies of the two coun- tries, efficient measures were urged for placing the country in a posture of defense. The temper of the colony, in regard to this movement of France, mav be inferred from the immediate action of the Assembly. In the council, Chief-Justice De Lancey, in moving an address of thanks for the speech, offered also a resolution expressive of the abhorrence of that body of the designs of France in favor HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 159 of the Pretender, and declaring that the civil and religious rights of his majesty's subjects depended on the Protest- ant succession. The House was invited to join in the address, which request, though a very unusual procedure, was readily acquiesced in, and the address was prepared by a joint committee of the two houses. From all this it was evident that a war was very near at hand, and that the frontiers of the colony might again, very soon, be sub- jected to the ravages of a foe than whose tender mercies nothing could be more cruel. In 1746, the small-pox drove the Assembly from the city to Greenwich ; but soon appearing there also, pro- duced a panic that for several days entirely arrested the course of business. The Assembly prayed for a recess from the 9th of March to the 12 th of April, and also for leave to adjourn their sittings to some other place. Jamaica and Brooklyn were suggested ; bat in the opinion of the Governor the demands of the public service forbade so long an interregnum, and he therefore directed their adjournment for a week, to meet in the borough of Westchester. They convened there accord- ingly ; but the inconvenience of the locality was such that the members begged permission to adjourn even back to the infected city again, rather than remain where they were. In the end the Governor directed them to trans- fer their sittings to Brooklyn, at which place the transac- tion of business was resumed on the 20th of March, when an address to the Governor was ordered to be prepared in answer to that of the council, respecting the rejection of the before-mentioned revenue bill. Before the introduction of the bill, the Assembly had inquired of the Governor whether he had any objection to an emission of paper money to meet the exigencies of the country ; to which question the proper answer was given by Mr. Clinton, that " when the bill came to him 160 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. he would declare his opinion." The bill was therefore introduced and passed by the Assembly ; but the coun- cil, disapproving of certain of its provisions, requested a conference. The Assembly, however, declared that, inas- much as it was a money bill, they would consent to no such course upon the subject. The council thereupon summarily rejected the bill, and sent up an address to the Governor, written by the Chief-Justice, De Lancey, set- ting forth the reasons by which its course had been governed. One of the objections to the bill, according to this representation, was found in the fact, " that the money proposed to be raised by the bill was not granted to his majesty, or to be issued by warrants in council, as it ought to have been, and as has usually been done." This objection involved the whole question of the royal prerogative — nothing more. On the subject of the right claimed by the Assembly of exclusive power over the details of money bills, the address asserted " the equal rights of the council to exercise their judgments upon these bills." Various other objections of detail were sug- gested ; but the two points specified above were the only grounds of principle upon which the council relied in justification of its course. Yet the unreasonableness of the assumption of the House, that the council should not be allowed even to point out and rectify the defects of any thing which they chose to call a money bill, was argued at considerable length. There was yet another cause of irritation on the parj of the House. So early as the year 1709, the General Assembly had found it necessary, in providing ways and means for the public service — especially in the prosecu- tion of the several wars in which the colony had been involved by the Parent Government — to issue a paper currency, called bills of credit. The operation had been repeated, from time to time, in emergent cases — some- HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 161 times with the approbation of the Crown, and sometimes not — until these paper issues had become a part of the policy of the colony. Others of the colonies, laboring under the same necessities, had resorted to the same measures of finance ; but to which the Crown, jealous of its prerogative in all matters of currency, had uniformly been opposed. For many years, therefore, antecedent to this period, the royal governors had arrived in the colony clothed with instructions against allowing further emis- sions of bills of credit — instructions, however, which the stern law of necessity had seldom allowed them to enforce. Still, the Crown, keenly alive to every step of inde- pendent action on the part of the colonies, was persisting in its war against a colonial currency even of paper ; and a bill was now before Parliament, upon the subject, which gave great alarm to the people. Professedly, its design was merely for preventing these bills of credit from being made a legal tender ; but it was discovered that the bill was to have a far more extensive operation — " obliging and enjoining the legislatures of every colony to pay strict obedience to all such orders and instructions as might from time to time be transmitted to them, or any of them, by his majesty or his successors, or by or under his or their authority." Such an act, it was justly held, " would establish an absolute power in the Crown, in all the British plantations, that would be inconsistent with the liberties and privileges inherent in an English man, while he is in a British dominion. Incensed at this stubbornness on the part of his little Parliament, the sailor-Governor determined, in the Assem- bly, which met on the 12th of October, 1748, to re-assert the prerogative in the strongest terms by bringing the subject of a permanent supply to a direct issue ; choosing, as Mr. Bancroft has remarked, New York " as the opening scene in the final contest that led 21 162 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. to independence." Accordingly, on the 14th he sent down his message to the House, in which he demanded a per- manent support for five years. The message stated that on coming to the administration of the Government, he had been disposed to do all he could, consistently with his duty to the king, for the care and satisfaction of the people. Hence, reposing confidence in the advice then given him, he had given his assent to various acts of the Assembly, the tendency of which, as experience had taught him, was to weaken the authority of his majesty's Government. Still, as the country was very soon after- ward involved in war, he had forborne to take that atti- tude in the premises which duty to his sovereign seemed to require But with the return of peace, he deemed it to be his indispensable duty to put a stop to such innova- tions. Prominent among these was the practice which had been growing up of making only an annual provision for the payment of the officers of the Government. He also alluded to the modern practice of naming the officers for whose benefit the appropriations were made in the act, thus interfering with the prerogative in the appoint- ing honor. He admonished the Assembly that he should give his assent to no acts of that character for the future ; and demanded an appropriation for the payment of the Governor's secretaries, judges, and other salaried officers, for the term of five years, according to the practice that had prevailed during the administration of his four imme- diate predecessors — namely, Governors Hunter, Burnet, Montgomery, and Cosby. The inconvenience of these annual grants of salaries and allowances was adverted to, and objections further urged against the recent method of intermixing matters of an entirely different nature with the provisions of the salary-bills, and tacking new grants for other purposes to the Governor's own support. The Assembly, in its reply, justly regarding the re- HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 153 quest for a permanent supply as a direct attempt to render the Crown independent of the people, with great indignation refused to grant it. As to the more recent practice of naming the officers provided for in the salary- bills, it not only justified it, but intimated that if this course had been adopted at an earlier day, his excellency would not have been able to remove the third Justice of the Supreme Court "without any color of misconduct" on his part — who was " a gentleman of learning and experience in the law."* The result can readily be seen. After continual bickerings for several weeks, Mr. Clinton, in great wrath, prorogued the Assembly. Thus the parties separated, and thus again commenced that great struggle between the Republican and the Mon- archical principle which, in the onward progress of the former, was destined at a day not even then far distant to work such mighty results in the Western Hemisphere. Although, from a very early date in the historv of this protracted controversy, it became inexcusably per- sonal, yet it is not difficult to perceive that it was in reality one of principle. On the one hand, the infant Hercules, though still in his cradle, was becoming impa- tient of restraint. The yoke of colonial servitude chafed the necks, if not of the people, at least of their representa- tives. The royal Governor was not slow to perceive what kind of leaven was fermenting the body politic ; and hence he became perhaps overjealous in asserting and defending the prerogatives of his master. Doubtless, in the progress of the quarrel, there were faults on both sides. Of an irascible and overbearing temperament, and accustomed in his profession to command rather than to persuade, he was ill-qualified to exercise a limited or * Alluding to the removal, the year before, of Justice Horsmanden. This act was again imputed to the influence of " a person of a mean and despicable character " — meaning, as it was well understood, Dr. Golden. 164 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. concurrent power with a popular Assembly equally jealous of its own privileges and of the liberties of the people — watching with sleepless vigilance for every opportunity to circumscribe the influence of the Crown, and ready at every moment to resist the encroachments of arbitrary power. Still, however patriotic the motives, under the promptings of De Lancey, their opposition to Mr. Clinton became factious ; and it is not difficult even for a republican to believe that he was treated, not only with harshness, but with great injustice, especially in regard to his measures, and his personal exertions for the public defense and the prosecution of the Indian war. At length, worn out in health and spirits by his struggle against a powerful opposition, Clinton, in 1753, 1753. sent in his resignation to the Home Government, and Sir Danvers Osborne was appointed in his stead. The character of Mr. Clinton has not, I think, been fairly drawn. Those upon whose opinions his character rests were persons living at the same day, and who, influ- enced by party strife, were not in a position to judge impartially. He was an uncouth and unlettered admiral, who had been, through the Newcastle interest, appointed to the chair of Governor. He was evidently unsuited to his position; and his former profession, in which he had always been accustomed to command, ill fitted him to brave the rebuffs and the opposition of party faction. His manner, too, was not such as to win friends. Having to depend entirely upon the advice of those around him, he was often the dupe of those better versed in the arts of diplo- macy than himself. But I look in vain for that love of ease, to the neglect of his official duties, of which he is accused by his enemies. On the contrary, although he relied too much on the advice of others for his own good, yet it was caused more by a consciousness of a lack of education than by a desire to shirk action. In the care HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 165 of the Indians he was indefatigable, as appears by his large correspondence with Colonel (afterward Sir William) Johnson and the officers of the different frontier posts. He labored incessantly with his Assembly to make them realize the condition of the colony; and had they met his views half-way, or even manifested a tithe of his energy, the Province of New York would not have presented such an inviting field for the encroachments of the French. He is accused of amassing by unfair means a large fortune while Governor, yet he freely advanced out of his private purse large sums for the exigencies of the Indian affairs, and many times saved the Six Nations from defection, and the province from the horrors of a predatory warfare, when it was impossible to rouse the Assembly to a sense of danger. Indeed, I think it may safely be said that, had it not been for the untiring efforts of Mr. Clinton and Colonel Johnson, the Six Nations would have been com- pletely won over by the French, and the fire-brand and tomahawk carried down to the very gates of New York. Meanwhile, several public edifices had been erected, and various improvements had taken place in the city. In 1747, the Presbyterian church in Wall Street, which had been erected by Hunter, was rebuilt. " In the course of the next two years, Beekman and the contiguous streets were regulated. Ferry Street was ceded to the city; Beek- man, Dey, and Thames Streets were paved; Pearl Street was dug down near Peck Slip, and graded from Franklin Square to Chatham Street ; and John Street was paved and regulated.* In 1751, a Moravian Chapel was built * Another important event occurred about this time, which should not be omitted by one who attempts to give a history of the city — inasmuch as it gives us the origin of the yearly appropriation made by the Common Council for the City Manual — viz., that in 1747 the Common Council appropriated four pounds for the publication of fifty copies of An Essay on the Duties of Vestrymen ! 1G6 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. in Fulton Street ; the following year, the first Merchants' Exchange was erected at the foot of Broad Street ; and St. George's Chapel was built by Trinity Church on the corner of Cliff and Beekman, and was consecrated on the 1st of July by the Rev. Mr. Barclay, a former missionary among the Mohawks, but now the rector of Trinity Church." This building remained in good preservation, well known as one of the few original landmarks, until 1868, when it shared the fate of other structures of a similar character, and was torn down to make room for another altar to the god Mammon ! This was, next to the Post-office, the oldest church-edifice in the city, and its quaint old chan- deliers, and aisles flagged with gray stone, continued for many years relics of the days of yore. Washington, it is said, was a frequent attendant of this church during his residence in this city in the early part of the Revolution- ary War. In speaking of the history of this edifice, a writer in the New York World, of March 17th, 1868, recalls the following interesting facts : " One hundred and twenty years ago, New York city bad not attained its majority, and Broadway was but a cow-patb above Canal Street. The Right Honorable George Clinton, ' Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief in and over the Province of New York and the Territories thereon, Depending in America, Vice-Admiral of the Same, and Vice-Admiral of the Red Squadron of His Maj- esty's Fleet,' as that most doughty and right honorable personage was wont to sign himself in proclamations to the fat burghers of New York, sat in the chair now filled by Reuben E. Fenton. In that day, New York city was a nest for privateers, which sailed hence to destroy French and Spanish commerce. According as their destination might be, these vessels, with a fair quantity of rum, molasses, and sea-provisions, would be piloted to the Hook, and there take on board an India, Mediterranean, or other pilot, to carry them to their destination. Small negro boys and Jamaica men in parcels were sold at auc- tion where now the Custom-house rears its lofty pillars. Maria Theresa, Empress of Austria and Queen of Bohemia and Hungary, wielded the scepter of the Caesars ; George the Second, Fidei Defensor, twiddled his thumbs in Windsor Park and played bowls with his Hanoverian mistresses ; and wheat was six shillings a bushel ; flour, eighteen shillings a hundred ; beef, forty shil lings a barrel ; West-India rum, three and eight pence a gallon ; salt, three shillings a bushel; and single-refined sugar, one and 'tuppence' a pound in New York city. Manus Carroll had been hung at the old powder-house, which Btill stands on an eminence at the upper end of the Central Park, for a cruel HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. ]G7 and most ' un-Christian'-like murder which he had committed two years before in Albany, then a thriving town. Counterfeiters were at that time amenable to the death-penalty ; and the Barnum of that day exhibited wax-figures in Dock Street, and the editor of the New York Weekly Post Boy was in the habit of receiving presents of baskets of Bermuda potatoes from the masters of vessels bound into the goodly port of New York. One day the editor received a potato weighing seven pounds from the master of the Good Delight, from Plumb Island, in the far-off ' Bermoothes,' and, out of sheer joy at the prodigy, he went and made himself drunk on ' arrack-punch,' the most aristocratic tipple of our forefathers' days. The city and county of New York had at that early day a population of twelve thousand, two thousand of which number were negroes. "On the loth of April, 1748, a number of gentlemen met in the vestry of King's Chapel, or Trinity Church, then situated where the present church stands in the Broadway, but, at the time referred to, overhanging the banks of the Hudson, whose limits have since been pushed back a quarter of a mile by the contractors and dust-collectors ; and these gentlemen being of the opinion, after a deliberate consultation, that it was necessary to have a chapel of ease connected with Trinity, it was then and there ordained that the Church-ward- ens, Colonel Moore, Mr. Watts, Mr. Livingston, Mr. Chambers, Mr. Horsman- den, Mr. Reade, and Mr. Lodge, be appointed a committee to select a place for the erection ' of ye ' Chapel of St. George's. Another meeting was held on the 4th of July, 1748. Colonel Robinson, one of the committee, reported that he had agreed with a Mr. Clarkson for a number of lots, for which that person had asked the sum of £500, to be paid in a year ; and several persons in Mont- gomerie Ward had stated to him that the lots of Colonel Beekman, fronting Beekman and Van Cliff Streets, would be more commodious for building the said chapel, and proposed that if the vestry would agree to the building of the chapel on Colonel Beekman's property, the inhabitants of Montgomerie Ward would raise money anions themselves to purchase the ground, and that if Mr. Clarkson insisted on the performance of the agreement with him for his lots, they would take a conveyance for them, and pay the purchase-money ; which was agreed to after many hot words ; for these respectable vestrymen, in a manner like all vestrymen from time immemorial, had tempers of their own. and no doubt they were exercised at the fact that the doughty Robinson had taken upon himself to make an agreement to purchase lots for £500, a very large sum in those days, when the gold-board had not been established, while, on the other hand, the inhabitants of Montgomerie Ward, which was afterward called the ' Swamp ' in the memory of man, were, without whip or spur, eager for the honor and glory of the future, to furnish the lots and build upon them a church. Well, the vestrymen went home and drank more arrack-punch, sweet- ened with muscovado sugar, and punished ' oelykoeks,' greasy with oil and other substances, and then returned to the bosoms of their respective families. Dona- tions poured in to the committee, and the first subscription, of £100, was made by Sir Peter Warren, who desired, if not inconsistent with the rules of the church, that they would reserve a pew for himself and family in perpetuity. The Archbishop of Canterbury contributed ten pounds. The installation services were held on the 1st day of July, A. D. 1752 ; but there being no bishop in the country at the time, it was consecrated agreeably to the ancient usajjes of the church. The Rev. Henry Barclay, D. D., at this time, was the rector, and Rev. Samuel Auchmuty, D. D., assistant minister of Trinity Church. Being finished 168 HISTOEY OF NEW YORK CITY. in the finest style of architecture of the period, and having a handsome and lofty steeple, this edifice was justly deemed a great ornament to the city. It first stood alone, there being but few other houses in its vicinity. Shortly sub- sequent, however, the streets were graded and built upon, and now the im- mense warehouses of enterprising merchants and bandsome private residences surround it on every side. When first constructed, the interior arrangement of St. George's differed considerably from the present, the chancel at that time being contained in the circular recess at the rear of the church, and the altar standing back against the rear-wall in. full view of the middle aisle. Tbere was also some difference in the arrangement of the desk, pulpit, and clerk's desk. An interesting relation is told concerning the material of which this part of the church-furniture was made, and it may be thus condensed : In one of tbe voyages made by a sea-captain, whose vessel was unfortunately wrecked, he sustained, among other injuries, tbe loss of the vessel's masts. This disas- ter occurring on a coast where no other wood than mahogany could be procured, the captain was obliged to remedy the loss by replacing the old masts with masts made of mahogany. This ship, thus repaired, returned to this port about the time St. George's was building, when more suitable masts were substituted, and those made of mahogany were donated to the church. The pulpit, desk, and chancel-rails were removed some years afterward, and it may be interest- ing to state that that they can now be seen answering a like capacity in Christ Church, in the little town of Manhasset, on Long Island. " There is an incident connected with the beautiful font of this church which will also bear repetition. Originally intended for a Catholic church in South America, it was shipped on a French vessel to be carried to its destina- tion ; but whilst on the voyage it was captured by the English during the old French war and brought to this city. This font is made of white marble, and is a masterly piece of workmanship. In 1814, when St. George's was burned, this font was supposed to have been destroyed, but it was found about thirty years ago in a remote part of the church, where it had been removed during the conflagration. It was somewhat damaged, but not enough, however, to prevent its further use ; and after being cleaned and repaired it was replaced in front of the chancel, where it now stands, an interesting feature of the time- honored building. " One of the melancholy events associated with this old church was the sudden death of the Rev. John Ogilvie. On the 18th of November, 1774, whilst delivering one of the lectures he was in the habit of holding on Friday even- ings, he was struck with apoplexy. He had given out his text : ' To show that the Lord is upright : he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.' — Psalm, xcii, 15 : and after repeating a sentence or two he sank into the read- ing-desk, and was deprived of speech. He suffered thus for eight days, when he was relieved by death. It was in this chapel, in July, 1787, that the Right Rev. Samuel Provost, the first bishop of the diocese of New York, held his first ordination, at which time the late Right Rev. Richard C. Moore, D. D., Bishop of Virginia, and the Rev. Joseph G. I. Bend, of Baltimore, were made deacons. In the year 1811, arrangements were made for a separation between the congregation of St George's and the corporation of Trinity Church, after which the former became duly organized as a separate parish, known as St. George's Church. "The following persons composed the first vestry: Church-wardens — ST. GEORGE'S CHAPEL ST. .GEORGE BUILDING. 170 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. Gerrit Van Wagenen and Henry Peters. Vestrymen — Francis Doniinick, Isaac Lawrence, Isaac Carovv, Robert Wardell, Cornelius Schermerhorn, John Onderdonk, Edward W. Laight, and William Green. Alter St. George's became a separate parish, its first minister was the Rev. John Brady, who after- ward became an assistant under the Rev. John Kewly. St. George's was entirely consumed by fire in the month of January, 1814, nothing being saved but the bare walls. After a proper examination, these walls were decided to be safe enough to bear another roof, and when this was put on the whole interior of the building was renewed. The interior of the church is much more handsomely finished than the exterior, the carved capitals of the Corin- thian order presenting a fine specimen of architectural beauty. The ground- floor is divided into three aisles, and on either side a commodious gallery is supported by massive columns. At the west end, and connecting these two, there is another gallery, in the middle of which is located a handsome ma- hogany organ. Above this end gallery there are two smaller ones, which are used by the Sunday-school pupils. From the center of the ceiling three large magnificent glass chandeliers depend, and these are among the few articles that were saved from the fire. Over the side-galleries three smaller but very beau- tiful chandeliers are hung above the arches. When St. George's was com- pleted a second time, it was placed by the vestry under the pastoral charge of the Rev. Dr. Milnor, who continued to fill the rectorship until the 8th of April, 1845, when he died. This venerable minister was held in high esteem by his parish, and his death was sincerely lamented. He had been a lawyer in Philadelphia in early life, and for several terms represented that city in Congress. In 1813, he abandoned secular pursuits, and was admitted to priests' and deacons' orders by Bishop White. " One hundred years after the consecration of St. George's, a grand cente- nary celebration was held in the church, and hundreds of worhipers knelt in the shadow of the pulpit from which George Washington had often heard the sacred text read and expounded. Dr. Tyng held the rectorship until the new edifice in Sixteenth Street was finished, when the communion service was removed to the new church, and a number of old relics carried away. Now the venerable pile is being gutted from organ-loft to altar, and the hungry doors stand open that all may see the nakedness of the edifice. The old gray flag-stones, worn by the feet of Schuylers, Livingstons, Reades, Van ('lift's, Beekmans, Van Rensselaers, Cortlandts, Moores, and others, well known and respected in the infancy of the metropolis, are to be torn up and converted into lime ; the pulpit will go to a junk-shop, and the rest of the furniture to the wood-yard. At present the graves of Revolutionary heroes serve as a depository for ashes and rubbish, and vessels are emptied daily from the win- dows adjoining on places where, a hundred years ago, were carved the sacred words never to be effaced, " Requiescat in pace." The old church has to be torn down, and the six lots will be sold to the highest purchasers. The church was the oldest in the city but one. the building occupied as a post-office having been the first building erected as a place of worship. The property purchased from Colonel Beekman for £500 is now worth, it is said, half a million of dollars." * ♦The site of this building is now (1871) occupied by the elegant marble building of the Oriental and American Stove Works. CHAPTER V. Mr. Clinton was at his country-seat at Flushing, L. I., when his successor, Sir Danvers Osborne, arrived. This was on Sunday, the 7th of October, 1753. The council, mayor, corporation, and the chief citi- zens met the new Governor on his arrival, and escorted him to the council chamber. The following day Mr. Clinton called upon him, and they both dined with the members of the council. On Wednesday morning Mr. Clinton administered to him the oath of office, and delivered to him the seals ; at the same time delivering to James De Lancey his commission as Lieutenant-Gov- ernor. As soon as these forms were finished, Governor Osborne, attended by the council and Mr. Clinton, set out for the Town-hall, where the new commission was usually read to the people. Scarcely, however, had the procession advanced a few steps, when the rabble, incited, it is said, by the De Lancey faction, insulted Mr. Clinton so grossly as to compel him to leave the party and retire into the fort. In the evening cannon were fired, bonfires lighted, fire-works displayed, and the whole city was given up to a delirium of joy. Amid all these rejoicings, the new Governor sat in his room, gloomy and sad ; and. seemingly averse to conversation, retired early. On Thursday morning he informed the council that his strict orders were to insist upon an indefinite support for the 172 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. Government, and desired to have the opinion of the board upon the probabilities of its success. It was universally agreed by the members present that the Assembly never would submit to this demand, and that a permanent support could not be enforced. Turning to Mr. Smith, who had hitherto remained silent, he re- quested his opinion, which being to the same effect as that just expressed, Sir Danvers Osborne sighed, and, leaning against the window, with his face partially con- cealed, exclaimed, in great mental distress, " Then, what am I sent here for V 7 That same evening he was so unwell that a physician was summoned, with whom he conversed for a little time, and then retired to his cham- ber, where he spent the most of the night in arranging his private affairs. In the morning he was found sus- pended from the top of the garden-fence, dead.* Sir Danvers Osborne had lost a wife, to whom he was passionately attached, shortly before coming to New York. This acting upon a mind morbidly sensitive, had thrown him into a melancholy bordering upon insanity. He came to the Government charged with instructions much more stringent in their tone than those given to his predecessor ; and, knowing the difficulty which Mr. Clinton experienced during his administration, he saw before him only a succession of storms and tempests. Almost the first words of the city corporation in their address to him in the Town-hall — " that they would not brook any infringement of their liberties, civil and religious" — con- vinced Sir Danvers Osborne of the utter impossibility of the task assigned to him. All these causes working upon a morbid state of mind— wishing to carry out his instruc- tions on the one hand, yet seeing its utter hopelessness on * Manuscript affidavits of Philip Crosby and John Milligan before the council. Sworn to October 12th, 1753, and now preserved in the Secretary-of- State's Office, Albany, N. Y. HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. ]73 the other — produced a temporary insanity, in which state he committed the rash act. Party rage, it is true, threw out suspicions of unfair play ; and the council even thought it worth while to appoint a committee to investi- gate more fully the circumstances of his death ; but these suspicions, it was made clearly evident, were entirely without foundation. Immediately on the death of Governor Osborne, Mr. De Lancey, by virtue of his commission as Lieutenant- Governor, assumed the reins of government. The role which he was henceforth to play, though difficult, was acted with his usual shrewdness and address. He had now to convince the ministry that he was zealous in the promotion of the interests of the Crown ; while, at the same time, if he would retain his own popularity, he must show the Assembly that he was true to his former princi- ples, and by no means required a compliance with the instructions, which, on the part of his majesty, he should present to them. "As his majesty's representative, he was obliged to urge their compliance with seeming sincerity and warmth ; but as James De Lancey, their old friend and best adviser, it was his real sentiment that they never ought to submit." The change in the administra- tion, however, was productive of one good result — that of infusing into the Assembly a desire to take active meas- ures for the defense of the province, new threatened with a desolating Indian war. Before the close of the session, an elaborate complaint to the Crown and a representation to the Board of Trade again- 1 Mr. Clinton were drawn up, and forwarded, through Mr. De Lancey, to the Home Gov- ernment. The Assembly was then prorogued to the first Tuesday of the following March — the Lieutenant-Gov- ernor tenderly remarking, before they parted, that they " must be sensible they had not acted with his majesty's royal instructions." 174 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. In the General Assembly, which met on the 15th of October, 1754, was first manifested the want of that har- mony which had hitherto been so flattering to Mr. De Lancey's administration. The reluctance of the Lieutenant-Governor at the congress to accede to the plan of union first awakened suspicion in the public mind that his sympathies were on the side of the Crown, and that the affection which he professed for the people was only a cover to his own ambition. There were also a few of Mr. Clinton's friends left, around whom were gathered a small opposition ; and the partiality which Mr. De Lan- cey had shown to his partisans since coming into jDOwer disgusted others and added to the discontent which was now quite general. To this was added another source of dissatisfaction — viz., the course he had taken in the found- ing of the college. To understand this latter point more clearly, it is necessary to glance at the origin of the con- troversy which was now raging fiercely, and which had already divided the Assembly into two parties. The province of New York at this period was divided in its religious views into two sects — the Episcopalian and the Presbyterian — the former being led by James De Lrm- cey and the latter by William Livingston. The Presby- terians, though outnumbering ten to one the Episcopalians, had not fairly recovered from the oppression of the early Governors, Fletcher and Cornbury ; and they would prob- ably have remained quiet had not the Episcopalians, with great lack of judgment, stirred up anew the embers of controversy. The people of New York, awakened to the importance of stimulating education, raised, by successive lotteries, the sum of three thousand four hundred and forty-three pounds for the purpose of founding a college ; and, in the fall of 1751, passed an act for placing the money thus raised in the hands of ten trustees. Of these, seven were HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 175 Episcopalians, two belonged to the Dutch Church, and the tenth was William Livingston, an English Presbyterian. This manifest inequality in favor of the Church of Eng- land at once raised a well-founded alarm in the minds of the other sects, who very justly perceived in this an attempt to make the college entirely sectarian, by which only those in the Episcopal Church could participate in its benefits. Nor were they left long in suspense, for it soon became well understood that the majority of the trustees were to have the college under their control, and were intending shortly to petition the Lieutenant-Governor for a charter, in which it was to be expressly stipulated that no person out of the communion of the English Church should be eligible to the office of president. Far-seeing men uttered gloomy forebodings ; and a belief soon dif- fused itself through the minds of intelligent dissenters that this was only the foreshadowing of an attempt to introduce into the colony an established church. This idea was to a majority of the colonists repugnant in the extreme. The union of Church and State, with its tithes and taxes, was, like the " skeleton in armor," ever present to their imaginations, stimulating them to the utmost resistance. Mr. Livingston, therefore, partially with the view of exposing the evils of a college founded upon such sectarian principles, established a paper called the Independent Reflector. The articles which successively appeared from his pen on this subject were able and pun- gent. Under his lash the leaders of the church party winced ; and, in their agony, charged him with the design of breaking up the plan of any college whatever, and dreaded lest he should obtain a charter " for constituting a college on a basis the most catholic, generous, and free." These attacks of the church party were returned with redoubled violence, and the controversy had now risen to fever-heat. HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY 177 But the efforts of Mr. Livingston and other able writ- ers to prevent the incorporation of King's (Columbia) College under these principles were fruitless ; and Mr. De Lance}- accordingly granted the charter. The Rev. Sam- uel Johnson, from Stratford, a worthy man, was called to the president's chair, and Mr. Livingston was appointed one of the governors, in the hope of silencing his opposition. The granting of this charter was so displeasing to the majority of the people, that the Lieutenant-Governor thought it advisable, in order to win back their former confidence, to urge at the present session the passage of several popular acts. Among them was one for supplying the garrison at Albany and the fortifications along the frontiers, and another for the discharge of the claims of the public creditors, especially the one of Colonel (afterward Sir William) Johnson. The granting of a charter to the new college, however, had not utterly crushed out opposition to its obnoxious principles. The House still had the disposal of the money which had been raised ; and the sectarians having a ma- jority, the trustees were ordered to report their transac- tions by virtue of the act under which they had been appointed. The latter, accordingly, on the 1st of Novem- ber handed in two separate reports, William Livingston reading one, and James Livingston and Mr. Nichol the other. After the two reports had been considered, the House unanimously resolved " that it would not consent to any disposition of the moneys raised by lottery for erecting a college within this colony in any other manner than by an act of the Legislature hereafter passed for that purpose." Permission at the same time was given Mr. Robert Livingston to bring in a bill for incorporating a college, which he introduced that same afternoon. The introduction of this bill astonished both Houses. It was vain to suppose that the council would give its 23 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. ^79 assent to an act so distasteful to its religious prejudices ; nor was the Lieutenant-Governor likely to directly con- tradict the letters-patent which, on behalf of the Crown, he himself had granted; while the Assembly, composed chiefly of dissenters, dared not reject it. In this predica- ment, a motion was made by Mr. Walton — prefaced with the remark " that the subject was of the utmost conse- quence to the people they represented, with the respect both to their civil and religious liberties " — that the con- sideration of the bill be deferred until the next session, by which time the sentiments of their constituents could be obtained. This motion was gladly seized upon as the only mode which presented an honorable retreat from the position they had so hastily assumed, and was therefore immediately carried. Thus, with the close of the year, practically terminated the college controversy, which, considered in itself, was not, perhaps, of much importance ; but which should not be omitted by the historian, who would show the progress which the citizens of New York were making toward that civil and religious freedom which they afterward attained. Sir Charles Hardy, the person whom the ministry had appointed to succeed Sir Danvers Osborne, arrived in New York in 1755. He was. like Clinton, an 1 7 •") •> unlettered British admiral, and he had not landed long before it was apparent that, like him, also, he had not sufficient executive talent to govern without a leader. He therefore soon resigned himself into the hands of De Lancey, who thus again became Governor. Sir Charles Hardy, however, soon became tired of his inactive life ; and having, like a sensible man, asked and received permission to resign the government and return to his former profession, he hoisted his flag as Rear-Admiral of the Blue ; and leaving his government in the hands of the HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 181 Lieutenant-Governor, De Lancey, he sailed on the 2d of July, 1757, to take command of an expedition against Lewisburg. The year before his departure, however, was signal- ized by an outrage upon the citizens of New York, which was long treasured up, and undoubtedly had its full weight in the catalogue of grievances which a few years later was to precipitate the colony into revolution. At this time the colonists were engaged in a bloody war with the Indians and French ; and Lord Loudon, who had been appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Army in America, arrived in New York in December, 1756, with twenty -four hundred men. His first act after landing was to insist that his officers should have free quarters upon the city. This, it will be remembered, was in direct opposition to the charter of liberties, framed by the first Assembly under Governor Dongan ; and the citizens, who saw in this an attempt to burden them with a standing army, became excited, and warmly pleaded their rights as Englishmen. But Loudon was not to be moved. Six men were billeted upon the brother of the Lieutenant-Governor — Oliver De Lancey. The latter threatened, if they were not removed, to leave the country. " I shall be glad of it," replied his lord- ship, at the same time quartering half-a-dozen more upon him, " for then the troops will have the whole house."* The Corporation insisted that free quarters were against the common law and the petition of rights. " God damn * Sir : Am just now informed that 2,400 men are arrived in New York. My Lord Loudon set a billetting them and sent only six to his old acquaintance, Mr. 01. De Lancey ; he zounzed, and blood-and-zounzed at the soldiers. This was told my lord ; he sent Mr. 01. half-a-dozen more. He sent my lord word if matters were to go so he would leave the country. My lord sent him word he would be glad of it ; then the troops would have the whole house. I really thought this so extraordinary, I must communicate it to you " — MS. Letter in the author's possession. Wm. Corry to Sir Wm. Johnson, Jan. 15th, 1757. 182 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. my blood ! " exclaimed Loudon to Mayor Cruger, who presented the opinion of the Corporation, " if you do not billet my officers upon free quarters this day, I'll order all the troops in North America, under my command, and billet them myself upon this city ! " All argument being thus at an end, a subscription was raised for the quartering of the officers ; and Loudon, having rendered himself an object of detestation, went to Boston to breathe the same threats and to talk of the rigor which was to character- ize the next year's campaign. Three years after the departure of Governor Hardy, the City of New York was thrown into deep mourning by the death of its former Chief- Justice and present Lieutenant-Governor, James De Lancey. On the 30th of July, 1760, he died very suddenly from an attack of asthma, a malady to which he had for many years been subject. The day previous to his decease, he had visited Staten Island, and dined with Governor Morris, General Prevost, and several other distin- guished men of the day. Late in the evening he crossed the bay, seemingly laboring under great depression of spirits, and drove to his country-seat in the suburbs.* The next morning he was found by one of his little grandchildren t sitting in his library in the last agonies of death. By his violent political enemies Mr. De Lancey has been represented as a most unprincipled demagogue, while by his satellites he has been lauded to the skies as a dis- interested citizen and patriot. Neither of these views is correct; and the truth, as is generally the case, lies be- * On the east side of the Bowery, a little above Grand Street. f The little child that discovered him was the grandfather of the late Bishop De Lancey, of New York. Miss Booth, in her generally accurate and valuable work, states that James De Lancey was the greatgrandfather of the late bishop. Tins, however, is a mistake. He was his grandfatlier. HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 183 tween the two extremes. Mr. De Lancey, undoubtedly, was very ambitious and fond of notoriety; and his love, of power and the emoluments of office often led him into the commission of acts from which otherwise he would have shrunk. While he has been praised for his " broad and popular principles," and for his "political skill in suc- cessfully preserving to the Assembly the right of annual appropriations," yet he assumed this position more from a determination to displease Clinton, that he himself might rule, than from any love for the people. His course in 1754, in relation to the college charter, alien- ated his warmest friends; and although he subsequently bitterly repented of giving his sanction to the act of incor- poration, yet it was more on account of his loss of popu- larity than from any feeling of liberality. He was, how- ever, possessed of many amiable and noble qualities and private virtues; his disposition was social and genial, and he was withal a good classical scholar and a profound lawyer. His conduct upon the bench was generally irre- proachable ; and his decisions, in those cases in which the feelings of the political partisan did not enter, were char- acterized by fairness and discrimination. His death, occurring at this time, was a great loss to the prov- ince ; for, numerous as were his faults, he was a man of unquestioned ability. During his long administration he had made himself thoroughly conversant with Indian relations ; and since the departure of Clinton had heartily co-operated with Sir William Johnson, the Indian super- intendent, in all his efforts in that department. By his death the political complexion of the province underwent a material change; and Dr. Colden, by virtue of being president of the council, took the charge of the Govern- ment until the wishes of the ministry were known. Scarcely had the gloom resulting from the death of Mr. De Lancey been dispelled, when the city was again 184 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. thrown into excitement — this time, however, from a pleasurable cause. In the October that succeeded the Lieutenant-Governor's death, General Amherst, covered with laurels on account of his conquest of Canada, visited New York. So overjoyed were the citizens at the suc- cessful termination of the protracted struggle, that it seemed as if they could not do too much for him, whom they regarded in the light of their preserver from the tomahawk and scalping-knife Accordingly, upon the arrival of Amherst, a public dinner was given to him, the freedom of the city presented in a gold box, salutes fired, and the whole city illuminated. Nor, as is too frequently the case with ovations, were these honors undeserved by their recipient, who was as modest as he was brave. Meanwhile, the work of improving the city rapidly advanced. In the spring of 17G1, new streets were opened and paved, among which was Partition Street, now Fulton. At the same time the first theater was opened in Beekman Street, under the patronage of the Lieutenant-Governor, although the project was strenu- ously opposed by the Assembly as tending to vitiate and lower the standard of public morals. " During this year, also, the old plan of lighting the streets by lanterns sus- pended from the windows was definitely abandoned ; and public lamps and lamp-posts were erected in the principal streets, and lighted at the public expense." Laws were also passed regulating the prices of provisions, some of which the same author gives as affording an idea of the prices at that time. Beef was sold at four pence half- penny per pound; pork, five pence half-penny; veal, six pence ; butter, fifteen pence ; milk, six coppers per quart ; and a loaf of bread, of a pound and twelve ounces, four coppers. In June, 1764, a light-house was erected on Sandy HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY, 185 Hook and lighted for the first time. Two ferries were also established the same year ; one between Paulus Hook (Jersey City) and New York, and another between ^^ Staten Island and Bergen. At the same time the mail between New York and Philadelphia was changed from once a fortnight to twice a week, the distance be- tween the two cities being made in three days. At an early period in New York the mails, now of such vital importance, were a very insignificant affair. ^ISp^ SANDY HOOK, FROM THE LIGHT-HOUSES. Even since the American Revolution a saddle-bag boy on horseback, without any protection, carried the mail three times a week between New York and Philadelphia. Peo- ple wondered at seeing the bags next placed upon a sulky; and were lost in amazement when a four-horse stage be- 24 186 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. came necessary for the increasing load and bulk. Now, a large car, several times a day, is found insufficient for the amount of mail matter that passes between those two cities ; and instead of there being, as formerly, only a few straggling letters, two hundred and fifty thousand postage- stamps are, on an average, daily canceled, and that is a representation of the number of domestic letters delivered at the post-office every twenty-four hours.* Then the post went and returned by way of " Blazing Star," Staten Isl- and. In process of time, several new routes were opened to Philadelphia. One crossed the bay to Staten Island in a perogue, commonly called a periagua, a little open boat with lee-boards, and steered by one man. Reaching the island, the traveler proceeded to the ferry at "Arthur Rolls' " Sound, crossed in a scow to New Jersey, and shortly reached the " Blazing Star," near Woodbridge. Journeying slowly to the Raritan River, New Brunswick was reached by a scow, and in the same manner Trenton, on the Delaware, until, by the third or fourth day, the "City of Brotherly Love" made its appearance. Another route advertised a commodious " stage-boat" to start with goods and passengers from the City Hall Slip (Coenties) twice a week, for Perth Amboy ferry, and thence by stage-wagon to Cranberry and Burlington, from which point a stage-boat continued the line to Philadelphia ; this trip generally required three days. This was long before the days of steam-boats. These " stage-boats " were small sloops, sailed by a single man and boy, or two men ; and passing "outside," as it is still called, by the Narrows and through the " Lower Bay," these small passage-ves- sels, at times, were driven out to sea, thus oftentimes caus- * One comparative statement more. The City of New York is divided into twelve postal stations, each one having its distinct officer and clerks. Station A, situated in the heart of New York, does a larger business than the city of Buffalo, New Haven, Hartford, Hudson, or Troy. HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 187 ing vexatious delays. In very stormy weather, the " inside route," through the Kills, was chosen. The most common way to Philadelphia, however, was to cross the North River in a sail-boat, and then the Passaic and Hackensack by scows, reaching the " Quaker City" by stages in about three days. But these passages had their perils. The "Blazing Star Inn" (sign of a comet) lay four or five miles from the Staten Island ferry ; and Baron De Kalb, then a colonel, crossing over here in January, 1768, was the only one of nine passengers not frozen so as to lose life or limb. The open scow sank on a sand-bank and left the whole party exposed all night. When rescued, he alone refused to be warmed by the fire, but placing his feet and legs in cold water, went to bed and arose uninjured. One of his comrades died on the scow before succor arrived. In 1756, the first stage started between New York and Philadelphia— three days through. In 1765, a second stage was advertised for Philadelphia — a covered Jersey wagon — at two pence a mile. The next year another line was begun, called the " Flying Machine," with good wagons, seats on springs, time two days, and fare two pence a mile, or twenty shillings through. John Mersereau, at the " Blazing Star," " notifies that persons may go from New York to Philadelphia and back in five days, remaining in Philadelphia two nights and one day; fare, twenty shillings through. There will be two wagons and two drivers, and four sets of horses. The passengers will lodge at Paulus Hook Ferry the night before, to start thence the next morning early." * * In this connection it may be mentioned that, during the year 175G, the first British packet-boats commenced sailing from New York to Falmouth, each let- ter carried " to pay four-penny weight of silver." It is also worth noticing here that the earliest voyage to China from New York was made during the year 1785, in tlie ship Empress, Captain Greene. The same year Captain Dean per- formed this identical voyage in an Albany sloop— a feat at that day more remark able than the sailing of the little " Red, White, and Blue " across the Atlantic a short time asro. 1T65. 188 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. During the year 1785, the first stages began their trips between New York and Albany, with four horses, at four pence a mile, on the east side of the North River, under a special act of the Legislature, lor ten years. Ten years afterward this line was extended as far as Whitestone, just beyond old Fort Schuyler (Utica).* What a contrast between that day and our own ! Then news from England five months old was fresh and racy. Now we must have it in two hours, and then grumble at the length of time taken by the Atlantic cable to convey the intelligence. Then news seven days old from New York to Boston was swift enough for an express. Noiv, if we cannot obtain the news from Washington in less than the same number of minutes, we become almost frantic, and talk of starting new telegraph companies. * On the opposite page will be found a facsimile of an advertisement, cut out of an old newspaper kindly given me by the Hon. Theodore Faxton, of Utica, N. Y. Mr. Faxton is the son-in-law of " Jason Parker." PARKER'* Mail Stage, From Wbitefiown to Canajobarrie. fattMNi THE Mail leaves Wbiteflo-ujn every Monday and T Bur/day , at tnuo o'clock P. M. and proceeds to Old Fort Schuyler the famt evening ; ■next morning ftarts at feur o'clocJt, and arrives at Canujoharrie in the evening ; exchanges pajfengtrs