, r! f ,» FEUNDERS AND PATRIOTS. The Settlement of New York. 4‘45"; bk \. b. r ‘» \ I/ V \ , ~ ~ ‘2:\ / ’ ' NAWV‘ ‘ '-‘\ r“ , 11x§"x?92‘%’9‘éa’3 a” A : / , / y r p ' r: A! )mpfl’ :1/‘(5 .9 V > .‘V '5 .5 # ‘ ‘ ,, x - II :3. Wm M 7 x 4 n/ / V \ ' ‘. «A 32 “ ' x ‘« ~ _ 1m \ -. r) n v .x 2 r A \SENNECAS ‘ m ‘31..“ P wwfw /’ D Y /‘ ~ '1 ‘ — "M A. ‘1’. \ - '3 . x /’ \' “ ‘ 1 ‘ a ‘ :~\ 5 \ 4m. . r: / _ . <, 6 _ 3:1” , A (T ‘ L a" 1 , r .i 9 {5(1) " _ “f ‘3‘ ‘20 . ,- , (r, r . ‘ :7 ,2 .0 .3: ,r V . , W A H \ x , _. . ’ , . . . m , J 1:: _ i A ~ I -‘ .- A , " - - "" “ ;.,‘_) ‘\_ ,\ . x V 1 ., 3 Mok‘ c 2 \ °. .— . I ., ' ‘ ' , -‘qy; In 7‘ V "” ‘ '1, “ ‘ ' 1"” 1* 7°”“Z/ . " -/ 5 "‘ | Q ._ 2 c‘ ‘ "3'; I “ 4*; l \(JI .. , ' 2;" I\\ r?“ a ' ,, I E \.__ - I \ r. 4 S l-AKl/VLAN . ‘1 ' A c1" . elf ‘ WM (J «259% . = 5m“ w; \’rt/’\'>\'w>: U ' Q 5‘ K "T?“ ' ‘ Abdn Yb \_ \ / \ / Q K ._ . K . 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UT”. 0F SAHONY I: 0? NEW YORK. % Z6140 624% 09H. @ér/ézW/% .’ . /mfl%gfl éf7w27% //4W _ V ' V gig/aux W ‘ . ‘ _ _. . , W/agM/aWWga ' ‘ ' . THE DATE OF THE SETTLEMENT OF THE COLONY PUBLICATIONS OF THE NEW YORK SOCIETY Vt Of the Order of the FOUNDERS AND PATRIOTS OF AMERICA. No. 1. OF NEW YORK. By GEORGE ROGERSvH‘OWELL, Historian. | 'ALBANYr " CHARLES VAN Bnmuuvsnu & Sons, 1897. PREFACE. The order of Founders and Patriots was incorporated on the 18th of March, 1896, in the city of New York. It was instituted to kindle anew and keep alive the fires of patriotism and to keep in mind the heroic deeds and sacrifices of the founders of our nation. Men qualified to unite with the Order soon appreciated what such a society represented, and joined from all sections of this state and from other states. Such was the growth that state societies were formed in Connecticut and New Jersey before the year expired, and the eighteen members in Albany at their request were organized into a chapter January 8, 1897. A w L 9 5 W (D \E OFFICERS OF THE New York Society of the Order of the Founders and Patriots of America. 1896:97. RALPH EARL PRIME, GOVERNOR, Yonkers. WILLIAM WINTON GOODRICH, DEP. GOVERNOR, New York. MATTHEW HINMAN, TREASURER, 359 Broadway, New York City. HENRY LINCOLN MORRIS, SECRETARY, 253 Broadway, New York City. SAMUEL VICTOR CONSTANT, STATES-ATTORNEY, New York City. EDWARD HAGAMAN HALL, REGISTRAR, 14 Lafayette Place. New York City. GEORGE ROGERS HOWELL, HISTORIAN, Albany. C O U N C I L O R S. (Three Years.) FERDINAND PIN N EY EARLE, - - - - - New York City. GEORGE CLINTON BATCHELLER, - — - - - New York City. CHARLES ALBERT HOYT, - - - - - - Brooklyn. _ (Two Years.) CLARENCE LYMAN COLLINS, - - - - - - New York City. ROBERT EMMET HOPKINS, - - - - - - Tarrytown. WALTER STEUBEN CARTER, - - - - - - Brooklyn. (07w Year.) JOHN WINSLOW, - - - - - - - - Brooklyn. THOMAS HUBBARD STRYKER, ~ - - - - - Rome. RICHARD W. MEADE, - - - — - - - Philadelphia. w’m»; THE DATE OF THE First Colonization of the State of New York ' IN MODERN HISTORY. A paper read before the New York Society of Founders and Patriots at the Hotel Normandie, New York City, March 18,1897. By GEORGE ROGERS HOWELL,“ ‘ ’° Hisz‘ormn q/ the State Sandy and Historian zy‘ Ike AZba’nfi/ tédfle‘r‘. ' -' 9 ‘3 ,’ -__.*7.,._~, .,n.,.- ‘ '1 1‘ v n - . ' \ It is a little remarkable that the only cotemporary witnesses 011 this side of the ocean, who have left evidence of the settlement of New York by the Dutch, are an old Flench woman and an Indian. The woman made two affidavits 011 the question, one at the age of eighty, and a second at the age 01 eighty- th1ee. He1 two state- ments are contradictmy 011 essential points, and, Without char 011110 intention to deceive, both are unreliable. One would suppose that even if no one 011 this side had lecorded either directly, or incident- ally in some narrative, the time of the settlement, that certainly in Holland there would be in the archives of the West India Com- pany or in the state papers, some lecord of this impo1tant event. It is quite doubtful if any such will eve1 be found, as all the papers of the West India Company were sold at public auction by direc- tion of the government of the Netherlands twenty years before Brodhead’s visit to Holland to procure historical documents for the state of New Yo1k 111 1841. The West India Company was chaltercd on the thild of June, 1621, with three main objects 111 View by the statesmen of Holland who issued the charter. These objects were, first, an immediate source of revenue to the state to aid in supporting the war then waging with Spain , second, to colonize the lands from which we16 p10111ised so many advantages by the United Netherlands Trading Company, which had ceased to exist 011 the fi1st of Janual y, 1618, by the limits of its chalter , and thir,d the colony was to be a per- manent ofi’set as a colony to the American colonies of Spain, and a place of ambush from which to pounce on the rich galleons from 6 :THE DATE on THE FIRST COLONIZATION on THE her provinces in America. Willem Usselincx, a farsighted states- man and patriot, but of less influence owing to his want of wealth and high rank, had been for ten years urging the immediate coloni- zation of the fair land visited by Henry Hudson, who had given glowing reports to the West India Company of its riches and pro- ductiveness. John Cabot in his second voyage to America in 1498 had sailed from Labrador along and down the coast probably to Florida,‘ and by right of discovery had preempted that portion of the continent to England. In. 1524: Giovanni Veriazzano, a Florentine in the se1vice oofv' 'Francis I. 50f :F1ance, sailed into the month of the Hud- son 'riVén' :‘It- visa; matter 6F;1ecord 1n the archives of F1 ance 9 that f1 oin this' tune on 't'0"l‘624 the French wele in the habit of fishing fOI codfish from the coast of New Foundland southward, and that they traded with the Indians is shown in a remarkable statement which was written on the map probably used by Henry Hudson in his voyage of so—called discovery of the river that beans his name, and written by the side of the river just above Albany : “ As well as one can understand from the words and explanation of the Mo- hawks the French come with sloops as high up as their country to trade with them.” 3 Thus Hudson on his voyage of discovery in ‘ See Harrisse on the Cabots. 'The baron de Pufiendorf in his “Introduction (3 l’histoz're dc Z’Uuivers, 1745,” after mentioning that De Mons was sent by Henry IV. in 1603 from France as a. missionary to the Indians and to make discoveries of lands (a case where piety was to pay its way), says that on the arrival of the vessel on the Canadian coast they found Basques and Bretons there fishing, and trading with the Indians for peltries. He remained in America three years with his vessel. Pufl'endorf goes on to say in vol. 8, p. 280: [translation] “During these three years (1603—1606) our Frenchmen discovered the coast southward to Cape Henry, which still pre- serves in maps the name they then gave it. * * * The rivers which the dis- coverers entered and the travels which they made on land caused them to be acquainted with the country which lies between the great river St. Lawrence and the ocean, in that part where are to-day Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, New England, Acadia and Gaspasia. The first four countries were at first known under the name of N orumbega and all together had the name of New France.” I may add that several maps in the State Library ante-dating the voyage of Hudson in 1609 confirm these statements as to N ornmbega and New France. ’ “Na so vele men heeft connen verstaen uyt t’seggen ende beduyen vande Maquaas so comen de Frangoyse met sloupen tot boven aen haer land met haer luy handelen.” The above inscription is on the “Carte Figurative ” at the right of the Hudson river between Fort Orange or Albany and where the Mohawk empties into the STATE OF'VNEW YORK IN MODERN HISTORY. 7 1609 had a map with him of the country he was discovering. show- ing the interior up to the inflow Of the Mohawk, a map made also before he was born.1 Still another discoverer, Estevan Gomez, in the Spanish service, as narrated by Peter Martyr, also found this river before Hudson. But no matter. The Dutch came here and , colonized, and their thrift and industry turned the wilderness to a garden. The claims of England, and of France, if she had any, were in abeyanee. It is matter of record that the Dutch visited these shores from 1614 to 1624 for trading with the natives. But only for trade. No passengers came, and when the cargo was ready, all who came in the ship returned with the ship to Hol- land. It is said they built a fort at Manhatan, and another at Albany on Castle island. The gateway of their new colony would have needed the protection of a fort if the Indians had happened to have had rifled cannon to prevent the passage of a vessel by Manhatan island and up the river. But the Dutch settlers were few in numbers, the Indians on Manhatan hostile, and the seat of the fur trade was in the heart of the interior among more friendly tribes. Hence it happened that the fort was not built at the mouth of the Hudson river until a few years later. They built an earth- work in Albany near the river crowned with an abattis of sharp- ened logs. A similar one more or less out of repair the Dutch found already built on Castle island, built by their trading prede- cessors the French,2 and they used it, they occupied it for their Hudson. It is written with pen and ink, as well as another inscription just below it giving the dimensions of the fort on Castle island. See the map. ‘ That is, the geographical knowledge shown on this map is to be found in the following, besides in other maps, though the exact date of this particular map is not known. The map of Gerard Mercator published at Duisberg 1569, and the map in “Cosmog'raphie Universelle" by André Thévet, published in Paris 1575, both show the Hudson river. of course under a different name, with its afflu- . cut the Mohawk, both rivers lying in the heart of the country there called N o— rumbega. The map of Viscount Maiollo in the Ambrosian library in Milan, made in 1527, shows the mouth of the Hudson and Block island at its proper distance as described in the journal of the voyage of Verrazzano in 1524. A portion of this map is given in “ Discoveries of America to 1525,” by A. J. Weise, and a fac- simile of the whole of the map is in the New York State Library. ’ Two agents of a religious sect called the Labadists, Jasper Dankers and Peter , Sluyter of Wreioerd in Friesland, visited the colony of New Netherland in 1679 and 1680. looking out for a favorable site for a settlement of their friends in the old country. A translation Of the journal of Dankers by Henry C. Murphy is published in the Memoirs of the Long Island Hist. Society, vol. ], 1867. He says: 8 THE DATE or THE FIRST COLONIZATION on THE security. Castle island was as inaccessible to an enemy except by boats, as a castle on the Rhine except by Wings. It made an ideal trading post. In fact Castle island made Albany, or Castle island and the Mohawk river together; the one was a natural site for a defence from all foes, the other a natural and easy highway by boats to the heart of a country rich in furs and peltry. And “In the afternoon we took a walk to an island upon the end of which there is a, fort, built, they say, by the Spaniards. That a fort has been there is evident enough from the earth thrown up, but it is not to be supposed that the Spaniards came so far inland to build forts when there are no monuments of them to be seen down on the sea coast where, however, they have been according to the traditions of the Indians. The spot is a short hour’s distance below Albany on the west side of the river." This was on Castle island, now the site of an iron foundry. The point here made is, that it is an acknowledgment by the I Dutch when some, at least, of the first settlers still survived, that they did not build this fort, but found it in existence When they came. We know the Spanish did not build it, and we know that the French did. Furthermore, the Jesuit missionary Isaac Jogues in his account of the Dutch settlement in his “ N ovum Belgium,” page 17 of the edition of Shea, published in 1862, says: “11 y a deux choses en cette habitation qui s’appellc Renselaerwick comme qui diroit l'habitation de Renselacrs, qui est un riche marchand d’Amster- dam. Premierment un meschant petit fort nommé le Fort d’Orenge basty de pieux avec 4 ou 5 pieces dc Breteuil ct autant dc pierriers que la Campagnie de WestJndes s’est reserve ct qu’ellc entretient. Ce fort étoit autres fois dans une Isle que faict la Riviere. maintenant il est en terre ferme du costé des Hiroquois, un peu au dessus de la dte Isle. Secondmt une Colonic qu’y a envoyé ce Reuse- laers qui en est le Patron. Cette colonic est composée d’environ cent personnes qui demeurent en 25 on 30 maisons basties 1e long de la Riviere selon que chacun a trouvé 1a commodité. Dans la principale maison est logé celuy qui est de la part du Patron: le Ministre a la sicnne in part dans laquelle se fait le Presche. 11 y a aussi comme un Baillif qu’ils appellent Seneschal qui a. soin de la justice. Toutes leurs maisons ne sont que de planches et sont couvertes dc chaume. Il ny encor point dc massonerie sinon dans les cheminées.” Translation: There are two notable things about this settlement which is called Rensselaerwick, that is, the village of Rensselacr, who is a rich merchant of Am- sterdam. First a shabby little fort called Fort Orange built of stakes, with four or five Breteuil pieces and as many guns for throwing stones, which the West India Company provided and maintains. This fort was formerly on an island in the river, but now it is on the main land on the side of the Iroquois [west side] a little above this island. Secondly a. colony sent here by a. Rensselaer who is the Patroon. This colony is composed of about one hundred persons who dwell in twenty-five or thirty houses [1644], built along the river according to each one’s convenience. In the principal house is lodged he who represents the Patroon. The minister has his own separate in which he preaches. There is also a bailiff whom they call Seneschal who administers justice. All their houses are of boards and thatched. N o mason work is about them except the chimneys. STATE or NEW YORK IN MODERN HISTORY. 9 lbany is the military key to the eastern half of the continent. as he Mohawk valley is the easiest gradient to the valley of the Miss- ssippi north of the Carolinas, and therefore the strategic line of his half of the continent. Now let us hear the deposition of the French woman, Catalina rico : 1 ' “NEW YORK, Feb. 14, 1684-5. “The deposicon of Catalina Trico aged four score yeares or thereabouts taken before the right Honble Collo. Thomas Dongan Lieut. Governour under his Royal] Highness James Duke of Yorke and Albany etc. of New York and its Dependencyes in America, who saith and Declares in the presence of God as followeth : “That she came to this province either in the yeare one thousand six hundred and twenty-three or twenty-foure to the best of her remembrance, and that foure women came along withher in the same shipp the Governor Arian Jorissen came alsoe over, which fouer women were married at sea and that they and their husbands stayed about three weekes at this place and they with eight seamen more went in a vessell by order of the Dutch Governor to Dell- aware River and there settled : This I certifie under my hand and ye seale of this province. THOMAS DONGAN.” Her second deposition sixty-four years after the events happened is given in N. Y. Col. MSS., vol. 35 ; 182, as follows : “ Oath of testimony, dated October 17, 1688. “ Catalyn Trico, aged about eighty-three years born in Paris, doth testify & declare that in ye year 1623 she came into this country with a ship called the Unity, whereof was Commander Arien Jorise, belonging to ye West India Company being ye first ship yt come here for ye sd company : as soon as they came to Manhatans now called N. York they sent two families & six men to Harford river, & Two families & 8 men to Delaware River, and 8 men they left att N. Yorke to take possession and ye rest of ye passengers went with ye ship up as farr as Albany which they then called Fort Orangie. When ye ship came as far as Sopus fEsopus, 2'. 3. Kingston], which is half way to Albany, they light- lSee vol. 7 of Deeds, p. 98, in office of the Secretary of State, Albany. 10 THE DATE on THE FIRST COLONIZATION OF THE ened ye ship with some boats yt were left there by ye Dutch that had been there ye year before a trading with ye Indians upon there owne accompts & gone back again to Holland, & so brought ye vessel] up: there were about 18 families aboard who settled themselves att Albany and made a small fort: and as soon as they had built themselves some hutts of bark, ye Mahikanders [Mohegans] or river Indians: ye Maquase [Mohawks]: Oneydas: Onnondages, Cayouges & Sinnekes, with ye Mahawawa or Ottawa- waes Indians came & made covenants of friendship with ye sd Arien J orise there Commander, Bringing him great Presents of Bever or other Peltry & desyred that they might come & have a constant free Trade with them wch was concluded upon & ye sd nations came dayly with great multitudes of Bever & traded with ye Christians, there sd Commander Arien J orise staid with them all winter and sent his sonne home with ye ship : ye sd Deponent lived in Albany three years all which time ye sd Indians were all as quiet as Lambs & came & traded with all ye freedom imaginable. In ye year 1626 ye Deponent came from Albany & settled at N. Yorke where she lived afterwards for many years and then came to Long Island where she now lives.” The sd Catalyn Trico made oath of ye sd Deposition before me at her house on Long Island in ye Wale Bought [on Wallabout bay] ye 17th of October, 1688. WILLIAM MORRIS, Justice of ye Pece. Now if we had only the first deposition of this aged lady we should learn that five women only came over in this ship, four of whom were married on the way over, and that about three weeks after their arrival in Manhatan bay the four new families with eight men went to the region of Delaware bay and settled : that Catalina Trico herself remained in Manhatan, and that all this was in 1623 or 1624. If we now turn to the second deposition three years later when . she was 83 years of age, we find that her memory fixes on 1623 for the landing at Manhatan. She now adds the name of the ship, the Eendraght or Unity, as the ship that brought them over, in command of Ariaen J orissen, and adds that the vessel was in the servme of the West India Company, and that this was the first ship STATE or NEW YORK IN MODERN HISTORY. 11 hat came here for that company. Then as to the disposal of the olonists she says that two families and six men were sent to Hart- ord river, that two families and eight men went to the Delaware, nd eight men were left on Manhatan island and that the rest of he passengers went up to Fort Orange or Albany and about 18 amilies aboard settled themselves at Albany. Now the deponent oes not say whether there were any married men with their wives mong the eight men left at Manhatan to hold the place. Nor does he state whether among the passengers who went up to Albany here were some families with women and children who returned to Manhatan to settle after leaving the 18 families up the river. But she mentions in all 22 families specifically, and several unattached men to be used as occasion required. It is impossible to reconcile her story with facts. Of course her memory at four score and over was not to be depended on to recall accurately events that happened 64 years previously. What is most essential to our study at this time, the date of the voyage, is wrong by one year. It was in 1624 as we shall see when the first shipload of families came here to settle and establish a colony. The names of the ship and her commander are both incorrect if she is describing the first ship that came with settlers. There is a work in the State Library entitled “An Historical Account of all the Memorable Events in Europe . . . Asia . . . Africa . . and America . . . happening from 1621 to 1632. Written by Nicholas de Wassenaer, Physician at Amsterdam,” published in annual volumes, each relating the history of the preceding year. There are 21 volumes or parts bound in five thick, small quartos, and a generous amount of nar- rative, about 700 pages to a year, is thus devoted to the current history of the world. Part 7 of vol. 2, from which I quote, in its dedication to the Councillors and Magistrates of Amsterdam, bears the date of December 1, 1624, and was published at Amsterdam in 1625, and covers the events of six months from April to October, 1624. So that the author is telling a story to his countrymen of what was fresh in his and their own memory.‘ The author was an educated man and his books are standard history and, as it were, eye-witnesses of the events therein portrayed. ‘ He gives the names of the Dutch ships and their commanders that leave Hol- nd and return there and mentions their cargoes and objects of the voyage. JV, 12 THE DATE OF THE FIRST COLONIZATION on THE Translating now from vol. 7, p. 11 : ' “ The West Indian Company having been chartered to explore rivers did not neglect the same, but in the spring‘2 equipped a ship of 130 lasts,3 called the New Netherland, whose master Was Cor- nelis Jacobsen May of Hoorn, with a company of thirty families, most of whom were Walloons, to plant a colony there. In the beginning of March they sailed and directed their course for the Canary Islands and steered for the wild coast, and a favorable wind happily brought them in the beginning of May into the river for. merly known as the river of the mountains, now called the Mauritius river [the Hudson], lying in forty and one-half degrees. He found in the mouth of the river a Frenchman who would there set up the arms of the king of France, but the Hollanders would not permit him, opposing it by the orders of their High Mightinesses the States General and the Directors of the “West India Company.” As they carried the heaviest guns the Frenchman was routed. The author goes on to say that “ the ship was taken up the river 44 miles (about 132 English miles) to the Maykans (Mohegans), and lT’ Savanna—Dani. OF T’ VERVOLGH van het Historisch verhael aller ges- chiedenissen, die in EUROPA, als Duytslant, Vranckrijck, Enghelant, Spaeng'ien, Hungarien, Polen, Sevenberghen, Denemercken, Sweden, Moseovien, Zwitserlant, en N ederlant : in ASIA, als Turckijen, China, Cambaja, Siam, en Batavia: in AFRICA, als Barbarien, Maroco. en Guinea: in AMERICA, als Brasilien, en Nova Espa gna: van Aprili deses jaers 1624. tot Octobrem voorgevallen syn. Beschreven door N icolaes 5. Wassenaer, Amsteldammer Medicijn. t’ Amstel- redam bij Ian Ianssen Boeckverkoper 0p ’t water inde Paskaert. Anno 1625. De West-Indische Compagnie gheoctroyeert zijnde de Revieren te bezeylen. heeft sulcx niet versuymt, maer int voorjaer een Schip van 130 Last, N ieu N ederlandt ghenaemt, toe-gherust. daer Schipper op was Cornelis J acobsz May van Hoorn, met het gheselschap van 30 Huysghesinnen, meest Waelen, om een Colonie daer te planten. Sy Iiepen uyt in’t beginsel van Maert, en door de Canarische Eylanden haer cours settende, staecken zy over na de Wilde cust, en beqnamende Weste wint, die haer gheluckelick in’t beginsel van May, inde Revier, eerst Rio de Montague, nu de Revier Mauritius ghenaemt, legghende op 40-; graden. Hy vondt inde mondt van de Revier een Fransman legghen, die aldaer het Wapen vanden Con- inck van Vranckrijck opreehten Wilde, maer de Hollanders wilden het niet toe laten, sulckx uyt last der H. H. Staten Ghenerael, en der Bewinthebberen vande West-Indische Compagnie.” * * * “Is het Schip opghevaren tot 44 mylen, aen de Maykans, hebben op een Eylant by haer t’ Casteels Eylant, een Fort met 4 punten, Orangie ghenaemt, opgeworpen en voltopt.” ' The spring of 1624—this year date being'both in the margin of that page and in the title of the chapter. ' 130 lasts = about 260 tons. STATE OF NEW YORK IN MODERN HISTORY. 13 ey threw up and full-topped (surmounted with an abattis) a fort ith four bastions which they called Fort Oiange on an island nea1 y called Castle Island. ” VVassenaer, w1iting in June, 1624, said 111 s 6th volume, p. 147, that a ship had been “fitted out under a mmission from the West India Company and freighted with milies to plant a colony” in New Netherland, and adds that he ould give an account of it at the beginning of the seventh part, hich account I have just read. Thus, then, this voyage of the ip New Netherland under command of Cornelis Jacobson May om March to May, 1624, was the first attempt of the West India ompany to plant a colony within the bounds of this State. Was- 11aer says in another place, by the way, that the usual length of a oyage from Holland here was seven or eight weeks. This narra- 've as to date is so explicit and clear as to fix the date of the first ttlement beyond all question. Now as to some incidental confirmation of this. We have 011 ecord the deposition of the sachem Mattehoorn, taken by Gov. tuyvesant1 to the effect that the first European settlement on the elaware was brought there by Cornelis May in 1624. To show hat he remembered and identified Capt. May, the Indian stated ome peculiarity of his person which made it impossible to mistake he identity of the Captain. N 0w as to the name of the vessel. The only vessel of the name t that time of the Unity or Eendraght was, according to a state— ent of Wassenaer2 one of a fleet of 25 vessels in an engagement 11 the Bay of All Saints on the South American coast in May, 624, so that she could not have been at the same time in the Hud- on river. In fact, no mention is found 01 the Unity as b1111ging assengers or freight to New Amsteldam until the year 1630. 11d the Holland Society of N ew York has also published the fact at the Unity came here several years later than the New N ether- nd. ‘ Now to return to the deposition of Cateline Tricot. She proba- ly did come in the ship New Netherland with Capt. Cornelius May, ut for the details of the occurrences her narrative cannot be usted. One eye-witness of an event outweighs all later racon- ' O’Callaghan’s New Netherlands, 1 ; 100. ’ Wassenaer, 7 ; 44 and 45. 14 THE DATE OF THE FIRST COLONIZATION on THE teurs combined. Out of one hundred men now living and old enough in 1850 to read the newspapers, how many can tell the year in which a political colonization settled the territory of Kansas? Had a portion of the families of this first ship in 1624 been left on Manhatan island, it is a fair presumption that W assenaer would have mentioned it. But neither he nor any authority of the time mentions the arrival in America of any colonists in 1624 except those in the ship New N ether-land, who appear to have gone up to Albany, excepting some families taken to the Delaware coast and, ‘ possibly, some to the Connecticut. 1The next mention of ships bound for New Netherland was of four ships sailing in April, 1625, under Pieter Evertsen Hulst, of which two brought one hundred and three cattle; among which were breeding horses, cows, sheep and hogs; a third ship accom- panied them with extra provisions and water; and the fourth car- ried over six families and some freemen (that is, men who were neither employees of the West India Company nor under the pa- troon), forty-five colonists in all, to make permanent homes in the new country. This was followed soon after by other vessels with cattle, sheep, hogs, wagons, plows and agricultural implements, and perhaps other colonists, but if so, they are not mentioned. These few colonists and supply ships must have come in the summer of 1825 and all have gone to Fort Orange, later Albany. 2 “ These cattle were on their first arrival landed on N ooten 3 (or Nut) island three miles tip the river Where they remained a day or two. There being no means of pasturing them there they were shipped in sloops and boats to the Manhates, right opposite said island. Being put out to pasture here they throve well but after- ward full twenty in all died. The cause of this was that they had eaten something bad from an uncultivated soil. But they went in the middle of September (1625) on new grass as good and as long as could be desired. “ The colony was planted at this time on the Manhates where a fort was staked out by Master Kryn Frederycke, an engineer. It will be of large dimensions. The ship,4 which has returned home ‘Wassenaer, 9; 40. Doc. Hist. of N. Y., 3; 38 (8° ed.) ’ Wassenaer, 12; 38. 3 N ow Governor’s Island. ‘ The Arms (Wapen), of Amsterdam, sailed from Manhatan September 23, 1626. STATE or NEW YORK IN MODERN HISTORY. 15 ’ is month (November, 1626,) brings samples of all the different orts of produce there.” I have quoted considerable here in order to enable you to form a udgment as to the exact time indicated by the phrase “at this 'me” just recited. While the narrative is of the occurrences of 5 ovember, 1626, the writer harks back to the events of 1625 and rings the narrative of events to November, 1626, when he says two undred souls were in the colony. The transfer of cattle to the land of Manhatan in September, 1625, would lead one to believe hat there must have been a sufficient number of men placed there it least to guard them. Plenty of evidence of its temporary use s a trading post, and soon deserted, but nothing in the narrative If Wassenaer implies the existence of a colony in 1625 outside of ort Orange in the borders of what is now the state of New York. ' hatever reason we have to suspect that any of the colonists in the hip New N etherland, in 1624, were left elsewhere than at Albany ' omes from the statements of the old French woman and the Indian chem. And these were settlements on the Delaware where very rly the Dutch erected Fort Nassau, and near the Connecticut 'ver where they also built a small fort called Fort Good Hope. s these two settlements do not concern our proper subject we leave "u em at this point. There is an old story that rises up about this stage of the narra- ve to confound the historian, that will now receive our attention. \ is that the first white child born in the colony was born at ‘1 allabout, on the west end of Long Island, on the 6th of June, ' 5:125. This was Sarah, daughter of ‘Sarah, the wife of George nnsen Rappelje. It is a relief to know that later investigation i'thin a few years has shown that this birth occurred in Albany, lad that subsequently the family moved to Long Island. No mention, then, of a settlement of families on Manhatan island made by our cotemporary witness, Wassenaer, earlier than 1626, hen 22,000 acres, as this island was then estimated to contain, re purchased for twenty-four dollars. But as, according to En- ‘oean law, the Indian could hold no more than a usufructuary ht to the land it is not so absurd a bargain as at first it seems. Id back of European law is the law of common sense that no '1 pie will be permitted to keep large tracts of the earth a wilder— ‘ when it is needed for grainfields and towns and cities. The 16 THE DATE OF THE FIRST COLONIZATION, ETC. earth is as much the inheritance of civilized nations as it is of savages. Well, the settlement on Manhatan island then seems to have been in the spring of 1626, although it must always be understood that it was a trading post both for the French and the Dutch for many years previous to this. New York was in- vested with a municipal government as an incorporated city by Governor Stuyvesant, in February, 1652, and thus has the dis- tinction of being the first city of European origin on the west- ern continent. The powers bestowed by Governor Stuyvesant were confirmed and enlarged by Governor Dongan on April 2, 1686, in a formal charter of that date. Albany received from the same governor its first city charter July 22, 1686. In 1626 some indiscreet conduct of the authorities at Fort Orange or Albany led to serious trouble with the Indians, and the colonists, except- ing a small garrison at the fort, were taken to New Amsterdam, Where they appear to have remained until 1630, when Kilian Van Rensselaer sent his first shipload of colonists to New Netherland. Wassenaer makes no mention of any accessions of colonists in 1627, and says all the families in 1628 were still living in New Amsterdam to the number of 270 souls. So therefore the first colony established by the Dutch in the limits of our state was at Albany in the first half of May, 1624. And the first settlement by the English within the same limits was made at Southampton, on Long Island, in May or June, 1640. These colonists were of the Pilgrim Fathers of New England, mostly from Lynn, Mass, who received a charter from the English authorities and immediately on their arrival arranged for a friendly purchase of the land from the Indians. Binder (:aylotd Bros“ Makexs 11f. ockton 0’1 2» ~ Nil/IIIWill/Ill!!!Ill/IIf!!!llII/llllI/fllll/l/Illl/lll/ CDEHHlllH? UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY .4"? ;