. ' • , • ^ ''' ' ' ' I <»< LIBRARY OF ^ ^-MC ff ^"^^^ Presented by1\ ^^i4<*^^..e^ ''^^a^-f- ^=^^4::^T^^^^r^3?^^|^^=^^=O^^T^^T^^?^^TN^=rNlB BOOK 974.7.R54 1 v. 1 c. 1 ROBERTS # NEW YORK 3 T153 DODSbOOfi a :amewan Commontoealtl^gf. EDITED BY HORACE E. SCUDDER. PLEASE NOTE It has been necessary to replace some of the original pages in this book with photocopy reproductions because of damage or mistreatment by a previous user. Replacement of damaged materials is both expensive and time-consuming. Please handle this volume with care so that information will not be lost to future readers. Thank you for helping to preserve the University's research collections. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2009 with funding from Boston Library Consortium IVIember Libraries http://www.archive.org/details/newyorkplantingg001robe Sllmcrican Comiiiontucaltljia? . . j NEW YORK THE PLANTING AND THE GROWTH OF THE EMPIRE STATE BY ELLIS H. ROBERTS IN TWO VOLUMES VOL. L \ \\: BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 1892 Copyright, 1887, Br ELLIS n. ROBERTS. All rights reserved. The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A. Electrotyped and Printed by IL 0. Houghton & Company. CONTENTS OF VOLUME L I. BEFORE THE ADVENT OF THE ENGLISH. CHAPTER I. DISCOVERT BY THE FRENCH — THEIR INVASION FAILS. PAGE 1524-1615. — Early Voyages. — Verazzano. — Early Maps. — Jacques Cartier. — Samuel de Champlain. — Invades the Land of the Iroquois. — First Battle. — Renewed Fighting. — The French Retire ..... 1 CHAPTER II. DISCOVERT AND OCCUPATION BT THE DUTCH. 1609-1622. — Henry Hudson. — Ascends the River of the Mountains. — The Dutch open Trade with Manhattan. — Fort Nassau. — Dutch West India Company. — Treaty of Tawasentha. — Active Operations in New Netherland , . 19 CHAPTER III. DUTCH COLONIZATION. 1622-1637. — First Colony. — Walloons. — South River, Fresh River, Fort Orange. — Indian Conflict. — Rens- selaerwyck. — Peter Minuit Director. — Purchases from the Indians. — Fort Amsterdam. — Wouter Van Twil- ler. — Dutch Spirit. — Trade. — Controversies ... 34 VI CONTENTS OF VOLUME I. CHAPTER IV. TRIALS OP THE DUTCH COLONY. 1637-1647. —William Kieft Director. — War with the In- dians. — Popular Assembly Summoned. — The Twelve. — Immigration. — Freedom of Religion. — Charges against Kieft. — The Eight 52 CHAPTER V. CULMINATION OF THE DUTCH SWAY. 1647-1663. — Peter Stuyvesaut. — Asserts Power of the West India Company. — The Finances. — The Nine. — Appeal to Holland. — Stuy vesant's Strong Rule. — Re- ligion and Education. — New Amsterdam. — Trouble with New England. — Indian Difficulties. — Growth of the Colony 68 CHAPTER VI. SURRENDER OP THE DUTCH. 1663-1674. — Long Island claimed for the Duke of York. — Popular Conventions. — A British Fleet demands surrender of New Amsterdam. — Stuy vesant's Position. — He is forced to yield. — Weakness of the Dutch Col- ony. — Activity and Tolerance of the Settlers. — Occu- pation by the British Forces. — Governor Nicolls. — Meeting of Delegates. — New York and Albany. — Governor Lovelace. — Reconquest by the Dutch. — Governor Colve. — End of Dutch Rule. — Condition of the Colony when Transferred 89 CHAPTER VII. THE ATTEMPT OF THE SWEDES. 1626-1656. — Swedish Company for Trade and Emigra- tion. — Dutch Suggestions. — Peter Minuit. — Fort CONTENTS OF VOLUME I. Vll Christina. — Distress of the Swedes. — Fort Casimir. — Difficulties. — New Jersey cut off from New York . 115 CHAPTER VIII. THE TOPOGRAPHY OF NEW YORK. Land of the Iroquois. — Natural Boundavies. — Trend of Mountains. — Flow of Rivers. — Lines of Discovery. — Recommended as Seat of Captain General. — Mili- tary Significance. — Channels for Commerce. — Con- figuration 120 CHAPTER IS. THE PEOPLE OF THE LONG HOUSE. River Indians. — The Iroquois. — As Cartier and Cham- plain found them. — Trade in Beaver-Skins. — Their Origin. — The Tribes and their Location. — The Con- federacy. — Its Supremacy. — Creed and Practices. — Oratory. — The Domain of the Iroquois. — Their Prow- ess and Advancement 128 CHAPTER X. FRENCH MISSIONARIES AND FRENCH ARMS. 1640-1671. — Fort Sorel. — Capture of Jogues, Goupil, and Couture. — Mission of the Martyrs. — Death of Jogues. — Bressani. — Poucet. — Le Moyne. — The Salt Springs. — Le Mercier. ^ — A Settlement Abandoned. — Forays in Canada by the Iroquois. — The French King orders a War of Extermination. — Campaign of Mar- quis de Tracy. — Expedition of Courcelles. — Renewed Invasion. — Additional Missionaries. — French Move- ments to the South and West. — Plan to occupy New Netherland . 144 Vm CONTENTS OF VOLUME I. CHAPTER XI. THE EXPLOITS OF FRONTENAC. 1672-1698. — Fort Frontetiac. — Frontenac makes Friends with the Iroquois. — Quarrels with the Jesuits. — He is recalled to France. — Father Hennepin. — Fort Niagara. — Governor De la Barre fails. — La Famine. — Garangula. — Denonville's Treachery. — Lamberville, the last Missionary to the Iroquois. — Failure of De- nonville. — Independence of the Iroquois. — Return of Frontenac. — Directs three Expeditions against the English Colonies. — Burning of Schenectady. — John Schuyler at La Prairie. — Peter Schuyler at Chambly. — Frontenac's Advance against the Mohawk Castles. — His Expedition against the Onondagas. — Iroquois Strategy. — Peace of Ryswyck 160 II. A BKITISH COLONY. CHAPTER XII. BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH RULE. 1674-1688. — Governor Andros. — Instructions to encour- age Settlement and foster Trade. — Guaranties to the Dutch. — Long Island. — Arrests for Sedition. — Claims to Connecticut. — Relations with the Iroquois. — With Adjacent Colonies. — Andros's Report on the Province. — Clergymen and Churches. — New Jersey. — BrockhoUs, Commander-in-Chief. — Customs Duties Contested. — An Assembly asked for. — Governor Don- gan. — Summons for an Assembly, — Enacts a " Char- ter of Liberties." — Religious Freedom. — Taxation only hy " the People in General Assembly." — Confer- ence of Governors. — Treaty with the Iroquois. — King James repudiates the Charter of Liberties. — Assembly Dissolved. — Condition of the Colony 178 CONTENTS OF VOLUME 1. IX CHAPTER XIII. A REBELLION AND AN EXECUTION. 1688-1691. — Consolidation of the Northern Colonies. — Sir Edmund Andros Governor General. — Questions about proclaiming William and Mary. — Andros ar- rested in Boston. — Authority of Nicholson, Lieutenant Governor, contested in New York. — Religious Preju- dices. — Jacob Leisler assumes Power by the Sword. ■ — Calls a Convention. — Albany refuses to Submit. — Leisler's Arbitrary Acts. — First Colonial Congress. — A Collision of Forces. — Governor Sloughter arrives. — Leisler and his Associates arrested. — Tried by a Packed Court. — Leisler and Milborne hanged, — At- tainder reversed by Act of Parliament . . . . . .198 CHAPTER XIV. A REACTION IN ADMINISTRATION. 1691-1708. — An Assembly Summoned. — New York's Governors. — First Protestant Missionaries among the Iroquois. — Revenue. — Governor Fletcher. — Settle- ment for Clergymen. — Earl of Bellamout. — Leisler's Prosecutors. — Speculation in Lands. — Connivance at Piracy. — Captain Kidd. — Lord Cornbury. — Rev. Francis McKemie. — Declarations of the Assembly against Cornbury 215 CHAPTER XV. A DECADE OF DEVELOPMENT. 1 708-1 720. — Governor Hunter. — Population. — Negroes. — Trade. — Manufactures Discouraged. — Production of Naval Stores. — Immigration from the Palatinate. — Troubles. — Schoharie. — The Mohawk Valley. — Movements against Canada. — Prices. — Paper Money. — Lavish Appropriations. — Hunter's Character. — X CONTENTS OF VOLUME I. Predicts the Colonies will " wean themselves." — Court of Chancery. — Peter Schuyler. — Robert Livingston. — Lewis Morris. — James DeLancey 232 CHAPTER XVL STRUGGLES FOR POPULAR EIGHTS. 1720-1736.— Governor Burnet. — Prohibition of Trade with Canada. — Congress of the Colonies held in Al- bany. —A Printer Invited. — William Bradford.— New York " Gazette." — New York " Journal." — John Peter Zeuger. — Charge of Libel. — Court of Chancery. — Denounced by the Assembly. — Opposition to Gov- ernor Burnet. — James Alexander. — William Smith. — DeLancey. — Governor Montgomerie. — Rip van Dam. — Governor Cosby. — Contest over Fees. — Barons of Exchequer. — Schools. — The Quakers. — Members ac- countable only to the General Assembly. — Powers of the Assembly. — Acts tending to Independence. — Con- dition of the Province 251 CHAPTER XVII. THE PRESS MADE FREE. 1734-1735. —Zenger's alleged Libel. — Writ of Habeas Corpus. — Exception to Commission of the Judges. — Alexander and Smith Disbarred. — Sons of Liberty. — Andrew Hamilton as Counsel. — His Argument. — Zenger Acquitted. — Popular Rejoicing. — Significance of the Verdict 268 CHAPTER XVIIL COLLISIONS AND AFFLICTIONS. 1736-1743. — Rip van Dam. — George Clarke. — Clarke Lieutenant Governor. — The Assembly. — Rights of Jews. — Slander of a Member. — Scotch Highlanders. — French Fort at Crown Point. — Affairs with the Iro- CONTENTS OF VOLUME I. XI quois. — Specific Appropriations. — Incendiarism in New York. — Alleged Negro Plot. — Judicial Madness. — Executions and Burnings. — Clarke and Clinton . 279 CHAPTER XIX. OPPOSITION ORGANIZED. 1743-1753. — French Aggressions. — Saratoga Destroyed. — Governor Clinton and the Assembly at Variance. — Elections every Seven Years. — Block Houses Ordered. — Bounties for Recruits — Preparations against Can- ada. — Council with the Iroquois. — Raids and Scalps. — Chief Justice DeLancey in Opposition. — Cadwalla- der Golden. — Leaders. — Sir William Johnson. — The Assembly and the Revenue. — Sir Danvers Osborne Governor. — DeLancey Lieutenant Governor. — King's College. — Party Divisions. — Missionaries among the . Six Nations 298 CHAPTER XX. THE FRENCH WAR. 1754-1760. — DeLancey's Tact. — Attitude of the Iro- quois. — Congress at Albany. — Plan of Union. — Ex- peditions Proposed. — Men and Money. — Disasters. — Battle of Lake George. — The Only Gleam of Tri- umph. — Sir Charles Hardy Governor.*- British Regulars. — Montcalm. — French Attacks. — Rome. — Bradstreet supplies Oswego. ~ Fall of Oswego. — Fort William Henry. — Palatine Village Ravaged. — Disas- ter on Lake George. — 'Bradstreet captures Fort Fron- tenac. — Montcalm's Plans shattered. — Oswego Saved. — Niagara Captured. — Lake Champlain Recovered. — Fall of Quebec. — Canada given up to Britain. — Re- Uef of New York 315 XU CONTENTS OF VOLUME I. CHAPTER XXI. PREPARATION. — FIRST STEP TOWARDS UNION. 1760-1765. — New York at the Peace with France. — Parties and Leaders. — The Courts. — General Monck- ton Governor. — New York and other Counties. — Trade and Culture. — The Manors. — The British Ministry and the Revenue. — Petitions and Addresses of the Assembly. — Their Authors. — New York leads for Union against British Legislation 338 I^EW TOEK. I. BEFOEE THE ADVENT OF THE EN&LISH. CHAPTER I. DISCOVERY BY THE FRENCH — THEIR INVA- SION FAILS. 1524-1615. Sebastian Cabot's map of his discoveries on the Western Continent bung, in Queen Eliza- beth's time, in the gallery at Whitehall. That daring navigator had doubtless plainly marked the point on the mainland which he had dis- covered on the 24th of June, 1497, when he first penetrated the western seas, and had traced the coast which in his two subsequent voyages he had sailed along from the mouth of Hudson's Bay to Cape Breton, and not to the Chesapeake, as was once suggested. For while he reached the parallel of 38°, it was doubtless on the high seas, as he makes no mention of any of the chief features of the shore south and west of Cape Breton. No claim is urged in his behalf ^ NEW YORK. that he entered the broad bay in latitude 44° 40' and longitude 74° 2', into which a great river disci larges its flood from the north, and from which a sound trends eastward, separated from the ocean by a low-lying island. Yet for the domain adjacent to that bay, as well as for other parts of the continent, the English title begins with the discovery of Cabot, and the possession of colonies to the eastward and south- ward. This title was the pretext for the seiz- ure of the trading factories from the Dutch by the English, and for the bestowal on that colony, which has become the greatest of the American commonwealths, of a name derived from the Duke of York, the most bigoted of the Stuarts. The English were not, in fact, the discoverers of any part of the land which has become New York. A map was presented to Henry VIIT. of England by Giovanni da Verazzano, which traced the sea-coast of the Western Continent from Cape Breton to Florida; and a globe is described in Queen Elizabeth's private gallery in Westminster including the like details by the same navigator. Verazzano was a Florentine who entered the service of Francis I. of France, and according to Hakluyt was thrice on the American coast; first in 1508, a second time in 1524, and again two years later. On his first DISCOVERY BY THE FRENCH. 3 voyage he sailed from Dieppe, in a vessel ac- companied by another, commanded by Thomas Anbert, and they discovered and named the St. Lawrence River, which they first entered on the day of St. Lawrence. They carried to Europe some of the red men, as was the prac- tice of the adventurers. Verazzano started on a second voyage in 1523, but his fleet was driven back by a severe storm. In the next year be sailed in La Dauphine, from Dieppe, and reach- ing the American coast at about 34°, after seeking a harbor southward for four degrees, surveyed the coast northward to 50°. He saw across the peninsula the Chesapeake Bay after passing its mouth. At the close of April, 1524, be arrived at a point which he called the Cape of St. Mary, now Sandy Hook, and cast anchor. The natives came in multitudes to the shores to look upon the strangers and their ship, as Verazzano sailed through the narrows into the bay, and into the stream which he styled " a very great river." His description of the bay, which he styles a " most beautiful lake," and of the "extent and attractiveness of the region," exists in a letter to Francis I., in a library in Florence. He found the adjacent country to be "thickly inhabited," and thirty boats ap- peared upon the bay. Verazzano continued his explorations on the coast to the east and north. 4 NEW YORK. and he has left an interesting narrative, over which critics have battled ; but the Maiollo map in the Ambrosian library in Milan marks the general line of his surve}^ and another map, made in 1524, probably by Hieronimus da Ve- razzano, a brother, is preserved in the Borgian Museum in Rome, and is further confirmation.^ Other maps of the sixteenth century sketch the general features of this bay and river. French writers of that period speak of the region as Norumberge or Norimbega, and the " great river " is represented to a point where its chief branch enters from the west, and the main stream flows from the unknown north. In a manuscript in the National Library in Paris, by Raulin Secalart and Jean Alphonse, the writer, about 1545, describes the shallows, " dangerous on account of rocks and swash- ings," as Hell Gate has proved to be, and says " the river is salt for more than forty leagues up," as the Hudson River approximately is. He thinks "the river runs into the river of Can- ada, and into the sea of Saguenay," according to the belief long received that the waters of the St. Lawrence and this ''great river" com- mingled. He describes " a town up the said river fifteen leagues, called Norombeque." In ^ See the discussion over Verazzano in papers by J. Carson Brevoort, H. C. Murphy, G. W. Greene, and B. F. De Costa. DISCOVERY BY THE FRENCH, 5 it there was " a good people," and they had ''peltries of all kinds," and were "dressed in skins, wearing mantles of martens." He sailed up the river for many leagues. On the map of Gerard Mercator, made in 1569, a fort is represented on the east side of the " great river." The claim is urged that the French navigators built some kind of works near the mouth of the river, and the ruins on " Castle Island " below Albany are supposed to be those of the fort marked on his map by Mer- cator. Traditions claimed even an earlier date for a part of these ruins, and attributed them to Spanish adventurers. Certainly, the bull of Pope Alexander VI. gave all America to the Spaniards, and some wanderers from the fol- lowers of Menendez may have penetrated to these lands. Esteban Gomez was a Portuguese, who was a mutineer in the fleet of that discoverer who gave his name to the Straits of Magellan. In 1525, sailing under the flag of Charles V. of Spain, he ran his ship, the San Antonio, into the bay already visited by the French, and doubtless ascended the river for a considerable distance. He carried home with him a cargo which included furs and red men for slaves. Fortunately, Francis I. and Charles V. did not find on these shores a field for their bloody 6 NEW YORK. contests. France carried its discoveries farther northward, and the Spaniards chose more sunny climes for their colonies on the Western Con- tinent. No C(^rtez here carried the cross at the point of liis sword. The civilization was to be of another type. The Breton fishermen sought profit on the Newfoundland banks, and there trained mariners, who found their mis- sion in seeking for a site for a new France, and for religious conquests. Inspired by their adventures, Jacques Cartier was the earliest to organize an expedition. He sailed in 1534, un- der commission of Francis I., to explore the western lands about which hung the mystery of romance and the possibility of empire. On the day of St. Lawrence, as Verazzano had done before him, he entered the gulf to which his piety again gave the name of the Saint. He won favor with the aborigines in the bay of Gaspe, and the chief permitted two of his sons to make a visit to France, on a promise that they should be brought back in the ensuing year. In 1535 Cartier, as commander and pilot, con- ducted a second expedition to the same waters, and the chronicles describe in his company some of the young nobility of the kingdom. During this voyage he ascended the stream to a settle- ment of red men at Hochelaga, near the hill DISCOVERY BY THE FRENCH. 7 which he called Mont Real. He extended his discoveries to the rapids of the St. Lawrence River, and looked wistfully to the southward. The information which the red men gave him of the country in that direction was not very definite. They told him of a river running to the southwest (the river of the Iroquois), and, by following it, a moon's journey would bring one to a land where there was never any ice or snow, rich in oranges and almonds and nuts and plums, but where continual wars were waged. The people there were clothed in skins like themselves. They reported that no gold or copper was found in that land, which Car- tier understood to be toward Florida. The country nearest to the St. Lawrence southward was known only as the seat of continual conflict. The French immigrants, whether Huguenots or Jesuits, whether authorized by Francis I. or Henry IV., were fully occupied for two genera- tions in caring for themselves at the village which grew to be Montreal and the fort which they built at Quebec. Wrangling and incom- petency checked growth and delayed schemes for advancing the lines of occupation. These quarrels and weaknesses belong to the chroni- cles of Canada. They served to prevent the ex- tension of the boundaries of New France south of the St. Lawrence and the Lakes, at that crit- 8 NEW YORK. ical era. Then the continent lay open, and tlie French might have chosen the shores of the Atlantic, and sought friendship with tlie Five Nations instead of with the Hurons. If the currents of their migration had flowed down the Sorel and Lake Cham plain, if their enterprise had penetrated southward of the Adirondacks, the French colonies which grew into perma- nence along the Saguenay and the lower St. Lawrence might well have been planted in the country of the Oneidas, the Mohawks, the Onon- dagas, the Senecas, and the Cayugas. France might have held the mouth of the Hudson and the Chesapeake as well as of the St. Lawrence, and even the fate of war in Europe might not have checked the course of migration and set- tlement. The French were the first Europeans to come into contact with the Five Nations. The ad- vance which, at an earlier daj^ might have changed the course of history and the fate of tlie Western Continent was providentially de- layed until 1609. The wars of the red men drew in the French adventurers. The oppor- tunity was given to Samuel de Champlain to carry his faith and his nationality to the natu- ral seats of empire on this continent. He be- came a discoverer, and sought to be a conqueror. He failed to be the architect of a grand com- DISCOVERY BY THE FRENCH. 9 monwealth on the soil which he invaded. Yet Champlain must be accepted as the original European upon the domain which is now New York, the first white actor on this broad stage. He was worthy in many respects to be the founder of a State. He was a favorite in the court of the French king known to song and story as Henry of Navarre. His family was trained to the sea, and he was himself a cap- tain and a, quartermaster of cavalry. He was a zealous Christian, and he declared the sal- vation of one soul more important than the founding of a new empire. Yet he strove with all his energy to lay the foundations of New France. He was chief in expeditions which aimed at trade with the natives, but he never engaged in traffic on his own account. He was a soldier and a Frenchman, so it was easy for him to listen to Huron appeals for alliance for warlike enterprises. He did not come as the Pilgrims came afterward to Plymouth, driven by religious persecution, but he directed him- self to carrying Christianity to the native peo- ple, and introduced to them the Recollets and the Jesuits. His enterprise had nothing in com- mon with the adventures soon to follow in Virginia. No contrast can be stronger than that between his advance up the Sorel and to the lake which he discovered, and the peaceful 10 NEW YORK. coming of William Penn to the commonwealth which honors him. The French ca[)tain com- bined religious zeal with military and naval accomplishments, with graces fostered at court, and with a reputation as an author which his works yet preserve. He was merciful if severe ; he was self-restrained in the midst of specula- tion ; he commanded the confidence of succes- sive holders of royal grants and of successive ministers of state, and this confidence was jus- tified by his discretion, his courage, and his integrity. His persistence and the reliance placed upon his sagacity and capacity by the French authorities saved Canada from aban- donment in the period between 1615 and 1632. Under the Count de Soissons and the Prince of Conde, he was lieutenant, and thus really the first governor of New France. It was only as an incident in his Canadian career that he be- came the earliest European figure in the his- tory of New York. Born in Saintonge in 1567, he sailed in 1599 for Mexico in the Spanish fleet, and reported his voyage with charts of the western shores. This service it was, doubtless, which led to his designation to explore the territory in America granted to De Chastes, governor of Dieppe, and to found a colony on the St. Lawrence. The commander of the fleet, which sailed March DISCOVERY BY THE FRENCH. 11 15, 1603, was Pontgrave, but the task of ex- ploration fell to Champlain, who ran in a light boat up the river from the mouth of the dark and deep Saguenay, to the St. Louis Rapids above Montreal. De Monts, who succeeded to the claims of De Chastes, sought to divert Champlain to the coast of Nova Scotia or even as far southwest as Cape Cod. After exami- nation, however, choice was definitely made of Quebec as the site of the colony. There, in 1608, he began to build homes and defenses, and by putting the ringleader to death checked a plot to end his career by assassination. The French chieftain at once made friends with the neighboring red men. He calls those whose home was on the adjacent hills Montaignars, and the name was extended to several friendly tribes. In 1609 these tribes appealed to Cham- plain to help them in their strife with their ene- mies, the Iroquois, with whom they had waged mortal war for a long time. On his maps the French discoverer assigns to these warlike peo- ple the country south and west of Lake Cham- plain and of the St. Lawrence, and also west as well as south of the Lake of the Iroquois, now Lake Ontario. His red allies told him also that east of the lake which he discovered as far as mountains seeming to be covered with snow in July (thus since known as White Mountains), 12 NEW YORK. the Iroquois raised grain and fruit in beautiful valleys. The Montaignars gathered their allies before the French adventurer. Among them were chiefs who knew the rivers and the lands of the Iroquois. The red men told of the cruel- ties of the Iroquois, and of their own desire for vengeance, and they pledged their readiness to render liim implicit obedience on the sole con- dition* of his help in this war. Cham plain list- ened to their plea, and promised to go with them, not to trade, as he said enemies had charged, but sim[)ly to fight for them. The treaty was celebrated by the firing of muskets and arquebuses '' as a sign of great friendship and rejoicing." Champlain's narrative of the negotiation and of the expedition is the first chapter in the chronicles of European invasion of the land of the Iroquois. The treaty was agreed upon June 19, 1609, on the Isle of St. Esloy, really a point lying east of the mouth of the Three Eivers on the St. Lawrence. Champlain was on his advance on the 2d of July at the rapids of the River of the Iroquois, connecting the St. Lawrence with the lake to which he was to give his name. This point is now known as the Chambly Rapids. The force consisted of twenty-four canoes and sixty men. On the 29th of July, at night, a war DISCOVERY BY THE FRENCH. 13 party of tlie Iroquois was encountered on the west side of the lake. The Iroquois hewed trees and set up barricades. The Montaignars lay in their canoes tied to poles. After parley, battle was postponed until morning. The night was spent in song and dance and in repartee between the hostile parties. At daybreak the Iroquois, to the number of three hundred, left their barricades, led on by three chiefs wlio wore lofty plumes. The forces marched "slowly with gravity and assurance " toward each other. The Iroquois halted and stood firm ; the Mon- taignars " ran about two hundred paces toward their enemies." Here Europe appears on the scene. Champlain in quaint words outlines the tragedy : " Our savages commenced calling me in a loud voice, and making way opened ranks and placed me at their head, marching about twenty paces in advance until I was within thirty paces of the enemy. The moment they saw me they halted, gazing at me and I at tbem. When I saw them preparing to shoot at us I raised my arquebus and aimed directly at one of the three chiefs. Two of them fell to the ground by this shot, and one of their companions received a wound of which he died afterwards. I had put four balls in my arque- bus. Our savages on witnessing a shot so fa- vorable for them set up such tremendous shouts 14 NEW YORK. that thunder could not have been heard ; and yet there was no hick of arrows on one side or the other." Another Frenchman fired from ambush and added to the astonishment of the Iroquois, who soon fled. In pursuit some were killed, and ten or twelve were taken prisoners. The spoils of battle were Indian corn and meal and arms thrown away in flight. This is the beginning of European invasion in this domain. Champlain carefully locates it "in forty-three degrees some minutes latitude." The place is between Lake George and Crown Point, in Ticonderoga, Essex County. The battle prompted the commander to name the water by which he had come Lake Champlain. Rarely does history possess so complete a record of an event marking an era as it enjoys of this achievement. Champlain has told his own story with charming detail. He has also perpetuated it by art. In the original edition of his voyages, printed at Paris in 1613, is a bold engraving of this struggle. The canoes of both parties lie on the shore of the lake. On the right are the pickets of the Iroquois, and before them their warriors armed with bows. On the left are the Montaignars and their al- lies with like weapons. A forest forms the background, and on its edge are two French- men, each armed with an arquebus. In the DISCOVERY BY THE FRENCH. 15 centre, nearly midway between the hostile forces, while arrows are showered about him, stands Champlain, with helmet and plume, with corselet and sword, and with arquebus blazing with the discharge of its four balls. Opposite him, prostrate at the feet of their followers, lie three plumed Iroquois chiefs. So France be- gan its career south of the St. Lawrence. This first act of French invasion was a blun- der. It arrayed the great confederacy of the Long House against the authorities at Quebec. It rendered difficult any negotiations, and finally cast the masters of Lake Ontario, the Mohawk, and the Hudson into close alliance with the English. Champlain's advent was picturesque and chivalrous. The echo of his arquebus rang long in Indian wars, and was heard in the fall of French power in America on the Plains of Abraham. He was to continue his fighting with the Iroquois. After a visit to France he returned, and in 1610 had an encounter with them on the river then called by their name, now the Richelieu or Sorel. He claims a vic- tory over them, and describes in detail their defeat. Champlain kept close relations with the French court by visits home, and pressed dis- coveries to the north and west. In Septem- ber, 1615, he discovered Lake Huron, La Mer 16 NEW YORK. Douce ^ and on liis return joined the Huron tribe in a movement against the Iroquois. He came from the west overland, and crossed Lake Ontario at its outlet into the St. Lawrence, and advanced into the land of the Iroquois for four- teen leagues along the eastern shore of the lake. He concealed the canoes of his force on the banks near what is now Henderson, Jeffer- son County. The hostile march extended to an outlet of Oneida Lake, which Champlain describes. Here eleven Iroquois, four of them squaws, were captured by the invaders. The men were tortured to death by the red allies, but the women were spared on the appeal of the commander. On the 10th of October Champlain and his little army found the foe at a point whicli, not without controversy, has been fixed south of Oneida Lake, in Fenner, Madison Count}^ The Iroquois occupied a fort which he pictures as a square of wooden pickets, and a village ''in- closed with strong quadruple palisades of large timber, thirty feet high, interlocked the one with the other, with an interval of not more than half a foot between them. Galleries in the form of parapets were defended with double pieces of timber, proof against our arquebuses, and on one side they had a pond with a nevei* failing supply of water, from which proceeded DISCOVERY BY THE FRENCH. 17 a number of gutters, which they had laid along the intermediate space, throwing the water without, and rendering it effectual inside for the purpose of extinguishing fire." Champlain tried to set fire to these works, and he built a tower of timber from which "four or five ar- quebuses might fire over the palisades and galleries." Even from the French narrative it is easy to see that this movement was a failure. Champlain himself " received two wounds from arrows, one in the leg and the other in the knee, which sorely incommoded" him. He expected reinforcements from the Hurons or their allies, but they did not come. Several skirmishes occurred, and safety was secured only by the arquebus. On the 16th of October, and as soon as he could bear his weight on his wounded leg, Champlain retreated " out of this prison, or, to speak more plainly, out of hell." The Iroquois pursued " about the distance of half a league," but he found his way to the lake where his canoes had been concealed, and they bore him away. The defeat had made it certain that this daring and able French ad- venturer was not to build walls for New France in the land of the Iroquois. In 1612 Champlain was appointed lieutenant to the Count de Soissons, governor of New France, and was kept in place by the Prince 18 NEW YORK. of Conde, who succeeded ;is governor, as lie was also by the Duke de Montmorency and the Duke de Ventadour. He was in command in Quebec in 1629, when an English fleet com- pelled him to surrender. When Canada was restored to France by treaty in 1632, Cham- plain again became governor. He devoted him- self to strengthening and extending the colonies on and near the St. Lawrence, but died Christ- mas, 1635, in the scene of his labors. He is the European pioneer in the land of the Iroquois. We owe to his policy that French settlement was directed north of the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario and to the west. CHAPTER II. DISCOVEEY AND OCCUPATION BY THE DUTCH. 1609-1622. The French under Champlain penetrated to Lake Champlain July 30, 1609. In September of the same year the Half Moon, a Dutch vessel, sailed up the River of the Mountains, and the name of the discoverer, Hudson, was given to the stream. Henry Hudson was an Englishman, who, after trying twice to find the passage to Cathay under the English flag, transferred his services to the Dutch East India Company, and received the command of a ves- sel of eighty tons burden, with twenty sailors, some Dutch and some English, with instruc- tions to seek China by the northeast or north- west. This company was the earliest organ- ization for discovery and trade in tbat era when adventure became a passion, and trading companies were soon multiplied as its instru- ment. The States General of the Netherlands were intent on a full share in the commercial enterprise of the age. The far East and not 20 NEW YORK. the New World was the destination of the Half Moon, as of so many of its predecessors. Hudson was driven by ice from an attempt to pierce to the northeast. He turned to seek China by the westward. He ran along the banks of Newfoundland and the coast of Nova Scotia, and after looking upon Cape Cod sailed southward as far as the mouth of the Chesa- peake Bay. He then turned northward and came to anchor in Delaware Bay. Those waters did not attract him, and he put out to sea and again took a course to the northward. Septem- ber 3, he rounded Sandy Hook, and the Half Moon was anchored in the lower bay. John Smith of Virginia had told him of the great river in these latitudes, and the maps doubtless accessible to him marked their general features. The Dutch sailors went ashore and found the land "pleasant with grass and flowers and as goodly trees as ever they had seen, and very sweet smells came from them." The Indians were friendly. They returned the visit, and curiosity ran high on both sides. The white men were as strange to the red men as the red men were to the sailors who came in their white-winged ship. The weapons and orna- ments and attire of Europe were as novel a sight on the one hand as were, on the other hand, the mantles of feathers and robes of fur DUTCH DISCOVERY AND OCCUPATION. 21 Mild copper necklaces of America. For three days the sailors went and came in peace. Sep- tember 6, as a boat engaged in exploration was returning to the ship, savages in two canoes at- tacked it^ and John Colman, an English sailor, was shot to death with an arrow in his throat. The cause of the attack is not stated by Hud- son. If the Indians had received no provo- cation their guilt would have been charged. Colman was buried on Sandy Hook, the first European to die on these waters. After his death the Indians were not permitted to come on board the vessel, but two were taken cap- tive, and red coats were put on them. September 11, the Half Moon "went into the river," — the River of the Mountains, — and drifting with the incoming tide, the vessel advanced for three days. Then with favoring winds Hudson sailed beside the palisades and in sight of the mountains. Near the site of the present village of Catskill natives with friendly signs — "loving people" the old nar- rative styles them — brought ears of Indian corn and pumpkins and tobacco, and exchanged them for the trifles of the sailors. In latitude 43° 18', near Castleton, September 18, Hud- son went ashore in a canoe with an old chief, d,nd visited his tribe and home. The next day the Half Moon anchored near where now 22 ' NEW YORK. stands the city of Albany. Here the Indians in numbers came on board with grapes and pumpkins and beaver and otter skins, and sold them for beads and knives and hatchets. Here occurred an incident prophetic of evils for the red men. Hudson and his mate were suspicious of the purposes of the Indians, and " determined to try some of the chief men of the country whether they had any treachery in them." They therefore took them into the cabin of the Half Moon, and " gave them so much wine and aqua vitce that they were all merry." The Iroquois long retained a tradition of the first meeting of the Europeans with their chiefs and of the effects of the fire-water. On the day succeeding the revel one of the chiefs "made an oration" to Hudson, and "showed him all of the country round about." In the hope of finding an open channel to the northward, Hudson sent a boat's crew eight or nine leagues further up the river, where they came to " but seven feet of water and in con- stant soundings," and the report was brought back that the crew " found it to be at an end for shipping to go in." For eleven days Hudson had been occupied in the ascent of the river ; he now turned the prow of the Half Moon to the southward, and sailed toward the sea. The Indians came on board DUTCH DISCOVERY AND OCCUPATION. 23 wherever he cast anchor. Near Stony Point one of them was detected in stealing through the cabin-window, and he was sliot down by the mate. This was the first Indian blood shed through the act of Europeans on this river. The natives were frightened at the killing of their associate, and another life was lost in their hasty flight. When the Half Moon descended the river to the head of Manhattan Island, two canoes full of fighting-men approached the vessel, and as they were not allowed to come on board, they sent a flight of arrows into it. The party was led by one of the captives who had been clothed in a red coat, and had escaped to his people. The assailants were met by musket-shots, and two or three were killed. Near the point where is now Fort Washington, the Indians attacked the Half Moon as it passed. Two were killed by a shot from the large gun, and the rest fled into the woods ; another canoe bore a company for assault, but the bark was shattered by a ball, and the red men retired, after losing in all nine warriors. These first collisions on the Hudson occurred October 2. That night the Half Moon was anchored in the bay where '' one side of the river was called Manna-hatta," and lay there for a day. Oc- tober 4, the navigator ran out of the "great t^ NEW YORK. mouth of the great river " which preserves the memory of his voyage in its name, the Hudson. Fearing his crew, who began to '' threaten him savagely," Hudson determined to cross the Atlantic, anxious to return to Holland, but finally seeking port in Dartmouth, England. He sent a report of his discoveries to the Dutch East India Company, with a proposal to renew the search for the northwest passage. He was summoned to Amsterdam, but the English authorities forbade his departure, and kept him at Dartmouth for several months. He reentered the English service the next year, and sailing in the Discovery penetrated to that great bay in the far north, where, amid fields of ice, he was abandoned by his crew, and left to die alone. Hudson's Bay was the scene of his death, as it was the limit at once of his discoveries and of his adventures. Holland merchants engaged in the fur trade sent a second vessel to the River of the Moun- tains, in the summer of 1610. The crew in- cluded several sailors who had returned in the Half Moon, and it is surmised that the mate of that vessel was the commander on this second voyage to Manhattan. The records are scant, but tradition tells that when the whites met the Indians on this occasion '' they were much rejoiced at seeing each other." DUTCH DISCOVERY AND OCCUPATION. 25 The Dutch were looking to the country on the Hudson River with growing interest. They called it the Mauritius, after the Stadtholder, Prince Maurice. Hendrick Christiaensen of Cleves contributed to the new ventures. He had been on a voyage to the West Indies before he joined Adriaen Block in excursions to the American coast, in 1611, when they visited Manhattan, and carried back two sons of an Indian chief, who were named Orson and Val- entine. These savages had the attraction of novelty, and were taken as representatives of a numerous population in the western land. The merchants of the United Provinces were prompted to seek trade with the continent along the routes which their vessels had traversed; and a memorial on the subject was addressed to the chief cities of Holland. Hans Hongers, Paulus Pelgrom, and Lam- brecht van Tweenhuysen, three merchants of Amsterdam, were the pioneers in Dutch com- merce with Manhattan. They equipped in 1612 two vessels, the Fortune and the Tiger, under the command respectively of Christiaen- sen and Block, to seek trade along the Hud- son River. The next year the Little Fox and the Nightingale were also sent out from Am- sterdam, and the Fortune sailed from Hoorn. The Tiger was accidentally burned at Manhat 26 NEW YORK. tan, and Block built a vessel to take its place in the winter of 1613-14. At the same time a few huts were built near the southern point of the island, and for two winters the Indians supplied the Dutch with food and necessaries. The beginning of shipbuilding was dependent upon Indian friendship and supplies. The new vessel was called the Restless, and with it Block explored the waters east of the mouth of the Hudson. In the same year, if not before, Christiaen- sen built a strong house on Castle or Patroon's Island, on the west bank of the Hudson, a little below the site of Albany, and called it Fort Nassau. The dimensions of this structure de- serve to be recorded. It was thirty-six feet by twenty-six feet, and had a stockade fifty-eight feet square with a moat eighteen feet wide. The armament was two large guns and eleven swiv- els, and the garrison numbered ten or twelve. Christiaensen was the first commander, and his second was Jacob Eelkens, who had been a clerk for a merchant in Amsterdam. Orson, one of the Indians who had been taken to Hol- land, proved to be " an exceedingly malignant wretch and was the cause of Hendrick Chris- tiaensen's death." The cause of the tragedy is not related, but those were days of prompt ven- geance, and Orson " was repaid with a bullet DUTCH DISCOVERY AND OCCUPATION. 27 as his reward." The incident does not seem to have had any effect on the relations of the Dutch with the red men. To Fort Nassau the buyers who went out among the Mohawks re- turned with their purchases, and the Indians soon learned to repair thither for traffic and adventure. It was so badly damaged by a freshet in the spring of 1617, that it was suf- fered to go to decay. These Mohawks told the Dutch that the French came to the upper part of their country in shallops to trade with them there. Competition between nations had al- ready begun in American commerce. The States General of Holland granted a charter, October 11, 1614, to a company of Am- sterdam merchants, '^ exclusively to visit and navigate to the newly discovered lands lying in America, between New France and Virginia, now named New Netherland, for four voyages commencing on the 1st of January, 1615, or sooner." Block, who had returned to Holland, was active in securing this grant, which organ- ized Dutch trade in New Netherland. This company sent traders into the interior. Three who followed the Delaware southward were taken prisoners, and were recovered by the payment of ransoms. This Dutch company has the distinction of framing the first treaty with the red men 28 NEW YORK. After the abandonment of Fort Nassau the Dutch, under the command of Eelkens, in 1617 erected a new fortified trading-liouse at the mouth of the Tawasentha, or Norman's Kill, two miles below the present site of Albany. There the Mohawks gathered representatives not only of the Iroquois, but of the Mohicans, the Mingoes, the Minnisincks, and the Lenni- Lenapees, in a council of peace. An alliance was formed between the Dutch on the one hand and the Iroquois as chief negotiators on the other hand, with the other tribes as subordi- nates. They held the belt of peace as a sign of union ; they smoked the cakimet, and they buried the tomahawk at a spot where the Dutch promised to build a church to cover it so that it could not be dug up. This was the beginning of the friendly relations which the Dutch carefully maintained with the red men. The treaty of Tawasentha stood unchanged for twenty-eight years, and was renewed in 1645, and then was continued during the entire pe- riod of Dutch possession. This treaty was the practical act, on the part of the Dutch, of men who sought trade and profit, and favored peace as a means to that end. They had no dreams of conquest, they were fired by no religious zeal. They recognized the Indians as persons whose rights were to be DUTCH DISCOVERY AND OCCUPATION. 29 respected, and whose lives were not to be sac- rificed ; as parties to a treaty standing on the same plane with themselves, with ideas of nat- ural justice and due sense of obligation and of honor. In the time of its framing, in the par- ticipants, in its scope, in its bearing on tlie com- monwealth, the treaty of Tawasentha was of the utmost significance. It arrayed the Iro- quois as a barrier against French invasion, it enabled the Dutch to get a solid foothold on the Hudson and its western branches, and went far to determine that the country of the Five Na- tions should not be governed from Versailles. A company of English people sought free- dom of religion in Holland, in 1608, the year when Champlain was busy advancing up the St. Lawrence and its tributaries, and twelve months before the French discoverer found the lake, and Henry Hudson the river, which are chief features in the topography of New York. These Englishmen caught eagerly at the sto- ries of a new land beyond the sea, and were zealous to establish there the faith to which they were devoted. Dissatisfied with their refuge in Holland, they weighed the attrac- tions of several colonies then newly founded. Eobinson, their pastor, in 1620 applied for per- mission to remove to New Nether land, and promised to take with him four hundred fami-= 30 NEW YORK. lies, on condition that the Dutch government would protect them from the assaults of any other power. He wanted to plant in New Netherland " the true and pure ChriGtian re- ligion," and "to colonize and establish a new empire there," under the States General. The Amsterdam merchants trading to the New World submitted a memorial approving the application of the " English preacher at Ley- den," especially as a means to secure the col- ony to the Dutch. The States General, April 11, 1620, refused to grant permission to Robin- son and his associates to colonize in New Neth- erland. The Englishmen therefore concluded to sail under arrangements, not wholly catisfac- tory, previously proposed by the Virginia Com- pany, and they laid the foundations of another colony the history of which runs in broad, dis- tinct channels of its own. Some lessons they had learned in twelve years of banishment in Leyden, lessons of toleration, of the union of provinces, of the intellectual activity of a peo- ple rising out of conflict to primacy in many branches of civilization. The colony on the Hudson lost all that this zealous company might have brought to it. That colony continued for forty-four years under Dutch control, separate from English influence, and working out a de- velopment peculiar and unique on this conti- nent. DUTCH DISCOVERY AND OCCUPATION. 31 That development entered upon a new stage when, in 1621, the Dutch West India Company- was chartered. The charter of the New Neth- erland Company had expired three years before, and the States General refused to grant a re- newal ; but a license was granted to Hendrick Eelkens and his associates who had been mem- bers, to send a ship to Manhattan to trade. Controversy arose concerning discoveries be- tween him and Cornelis Jacobsen May, who had come over in the Fortune, and in 1620 made a second voyage, now in the Glad Tidings, and sailed southward of Manhattan, giving his name to a cape to-day fashionable as a water- ing-place. The controversy helped to direct attention to the American coast, and both claim- ants were repulsed while vast privileges were conceded to the West India Company. The powers granted to this new organization were monstrous even in that age when Euro- pean states gave away the control of immense regions in the New World. The company was clothed, in fact, with exclusive rights in the do- mains of the Dutch between the tropic of Can- cer and the Cape of Good Hope, in the West Indies, and on the coasts of America between Newfoundland and the Straits of Magellan. It might make treaties and maintain courts of justice, and employ soldiers in the name of 82 NEW YORK. the States General. Oaths of allegiance ran both to the home government and to the com- pany. The company was to be ruled by cham- bers divided into nine parts, of which Amster- dam possessed four, and other Dutch provinces five, parts. Nineteen delegates exercised its executive power, and the States General were represented by one of them, while eighteen were distributed among the home cities and provinces. Governors were to be appointed and their instructions ratified by the States General. This body gave a million guilders to the company, and pledged to defend it, and in case of war to furnish sixteen ships of three hundred tons each, and four yachts of eighty tons each, to be maintained by the company and be commanded by an admiral appointed by the " high mightinesses " in Holland. The purpose of the Dutch West India Com- pany was first commercial, but its charter ex- pressly provided that it was " to advance the peopling of the fruitful and unsettled parts " of the wide domain intrusted to it, and to " do all that the service of those countries and the profit and increase of trade shall require." With all these advantages the promoters of the company occupied two years in perfecting its organization, and they did not secure the approval of the States General until June 21, DUTCH DISCOVERY AND OCCUPATION. 33 1623. Under a provision continuing the license previously accorded to traders to sell goods shipped to the colony and to make return vo}^- ages, private merchants kept up active traffic, and several vessels were dispatched to Manhat- tan and other points on the coast. When active operations began, the affairs of New Netherland were consigned to the cham- ber of Amsterdam. The members most prom- inent were Jonas Wifcsen, who since 1614 had been interested in trade with the Mauritius, Hendrick Hamel, Samuel Godyn, Samuel Blom- maert, John de Laet, noted as a historian, Kiliaen van Rensselaer, to become the first of the patroons, Michael Pauw, who also became a patroon, and Peter Evertsen Hulft, who shipped the first cattle to the colony. Before the formal organization the company took measures to secure its possessions in New Netherland, and in 1622 sent out the yacht Mackerel for that purpose. The yacht arrived in December of that year and went up the Hud- son River to trade with the Indians, and its return was fortunately timed so that it was in the bay when the first colony sent out by the Dutch West India Company came into those waters. 3 CHAPTER III. DUTCH COLONIZATION. 1622-1637. The first colony to New Netherland under the auspices of the Dutch West India Company- consisted in largest part of Walloons, persons of French blood resident in the southern prov- inces of Holland. They had been refused the privilege of immigrating to Virginia on terras satisfactory to them, and were welcomed as passengers in the New Netherland, a ship of two hundred and sixty tons, which sailed in March, 1623, under the superintendence of Cornells Jacobsen May, and after a voyage of two months arrived at the mouth of the Hudson. Here was found a French vessel, and its cap- tain insisted on taking possession of the coun- try for the king of France. The Mackerel was able by the display of cannon to convince the French captain that his claims could not be enforced. The passengers by the New Nether- land were distributed over the territory which DUTCH COLONIZATION. 35 the Dutch West India Company sought to pos- sess. Eight men were deemed sufficient for Manhattan, several families were sent to the South River, now the Delaware, and two fam- ilies and six men to the Fi-esh River, now the Connecticut, while another party settled on the west shore of Long Island. The vessel proceeded up the Hudson River. The larger part of the immigrants landed on the west bank of the river, where Fort Orange had been laid out the preceding year. Adriaen Joris, who was director under May, went with eighteen families, who found a home here. The fort was soon completed, and the settlers de- voted themselves with energy to tilling the earth, to building huts of bark, and to trading for fur with the Indians. These included the Mohicans and the several tribes of the Iroquois. They all made covenants of friendship, and brought furs with hearty good will. This was the beginnmg of Albany, the capital of New York. In 1623 Fort Nassau was built on the South River, but was soon deserted. No marked suc- cess followed efforts to extend Dutch occupa- tion so far southward until 1631. In that year a colony built a brick house for a fort and a residence, and named it Swaanendael. Gillis Hossett, who had come out as Van Rensselaer's 36 NEW YORK. agent on the Hudson, was in cliarge, and the sprout there planted has grown into the State of Delaware. Of the colonists generally Joris was able to report at the end of their first year, in 1624, that they were '' getting bravely along." He took to Holland with him a cargo of furs, which gave over twenty - eight thousand guilders to the treasury of the company, as material proof of the success of the enterprise. In Dutch literature New Netherland became a prominent feature. The "Historical Relation of Wassenaer," begun in 1621 and continued for twelve years, recorded all the information which could be gathered from the Western Continent. John de Laet, one of the directors of the West India Company, published at Ley- den, in 1625, from "various manuscript jour- nals of different captains and pilots," including Henry Hudson, a rich and full volume entitled " The New World, or Description of the West Indies." These works stirred the hearts and hopes of the adventurous to engage in trade or colonization in the broad new fields. Peter Eversen Hulft, of Amsterdam, deserves the credit of shipping, in 1625, in three vessels, at his own risk, horses, cattle, swine, and sheep, with seeds, plows, and other implements for farming. When May handed over the direction DUTCH COLONIZATION. 37 of the colony to William Yerhulst, in 1625, the population was two hundred souls. In 1626 Peter Minuit came out as director general of New Netherland, and the govern- ment of the province became more formal and definite. A council of five assisted the direc- tor, and they together possessed all authority, subject to the company in Holland. Gage de Rasieres, the first " koopman," served as secre- tary of the province, and Jan Lampo, the first "schout," performed the duties of procurator, sheriff, and supervisor of customs. Minuit's administration was distinguished by the purchase from the Indians of the entire island of Manhattan for sixty guilders or about twenty-four dollars. The transaction to the honest Dutch traders was so simple and proper that no glamour was thrown about it, and it was only one of the series of transactions by which, during their whole occupation, the Dutch held the red men in amity and peace. Two " consolers of the sick " followed the new direc- tor in the same year, Sebastian Jansen Krol and Jan Huyck by name, and they, on Sun- days, read texts out of the Scripture and the creeds to such as would attend. An upper room in a horse-mill served for the congrega- tion, and a tower with Spanish bells, captured at Porto Rico, marked its religious character. 38 NEW YORK. Fort Amsterdam was built on the southern point of Manhattan Island, and the original battery, which has become a historical feature, was begun. Fort Orange suffered in this year from one of the few wrongs perpetrated upon the red men by the Dutch. The Mohicans from a village on the east side of the river crossed the stream to attack the Mohawks, and induced Krieckebeeck, the commissary of the fort, to join in the expedition with six men. The Dutch leader soon paid the penalty of his blunder, for the Mohawks did not wait to be attacked, but fell upon the invaders, killed the commissary and three of his men, and put the rest of the force to flight. Tymen Bouwensen, one of the killed, the Dutch averred, " was eaten by the savages after he had been well roasted." The Mohawks displayed in their wigwams an arm and a leg of their victims as proof of their victory. When inquiry was made of the cause of the trouble the Mohawks pleaded that they had done nothing against the whites, and had acted simply in self-defense. In consequence of the fight the families at Fort Orange were removed to Manhattan, and a garrison of six- teen men, without any women, was left in charge, under Krol, who had just arrived as one of the '' consolers of the sick." For two DUTCH COLONIZATION. 39 years the dread of Indian hostilities hung over Fort Orange, and kept settlers away. In 1628 the Mohawks drove the Mohicans from the banks of the Hudson and conquered a peace. Krol continued to hold the garrison, and sent such reports of the soil and the climate and the advantages of trade, that Kiliaen van Rensse- laer, a director of the West India Company in Amsterdam, who had grown rich by polishing pearls and diamonds, chose that site for invest- ment. Van Rensselaer instructed Krol to buy for him from the red men a tract of land on the west side of the river. This purchase was made in 1630 under a charter of privileges and exemptions creating patroons, a system which had a marked effect on the tenure of land in New York. Krol bought a tract extending northward from Barren Island to Smack's Is- land, and " stretching two days' journey into the interior." This was called Rensselaerwyck, and colonists were sent out in 1630, well pro- vided with cattle and implements. With them came Wolfert Gerritsen as overseer of farms, and Gillis Hossett as special agent for the proprietor. Hossett was so well pleased with the prospect that he arranged for the purchase of additional land on both sides of the Hudson River, and both north and south of Fort Orange. The fort itself remained in possession 40 NEW YORK. of the West India Company, but the new patroon became with these and later purchases the owner of a great part of the land now con- stituting the counties of Albany, Rensselaer, and Columbia. Michael Pauw was, like Van Rensselaer, a shrewd and adventurous director, who took ad- vantage of the charter for patroons. He bought from the red men the whole of Staten Island and the land now occupied by Jersey City. Minuit, as director general, approved of the contract for Staten Island July 15, 1631. The consideration for the land was " certain parcels of goods." The bargains may have been sharp on the part of the Dutch, but the red men were vol- untary actors, and the title to New Netherland was not tainted by blood or violence. Minuit bought Manhattan for the company, and Van Rensselaer and Pauw bought their tracts as other directors secured land on the outer limits of the province, in free and peaceful trade. The record is creditable to the humanity of the promoters of the colony, and it established precedents, so that purchase and not conquest became the rule for the acquisition of land from the red men in all parts of the colony. The original patroons were charged with greed in grasping for such vast tracts of the most DUTCH COLONIZATION. 41 eligible land. To assuage tlie jealousy they divided their purchases with fellow-directors. • Eastward on the Fresh River the West India Company claimed possession in 1623, but in 1627 its representatives informed the Puritans at Plymouth of the river " now known by the name of the Conighticute River, which they often commended to them for a fine place both for plantation and trade, and wished them to make use of it." In 1633, however, a new policy was set on foot. Jacob van Curler was sent to build a fort, " Good Hope," and to buy from the red men a large tract of land. He succeeded in both tasks, and secured title from the Pequods, who were the conquering tribe. They, in the succeeding year, murdered an English captain who came to trade at the fort, and Van Curler executed some Indians in re- turn. War followed, and the Pequods sought help from the English, and by treaty trans- ferred all their rights on the Connecticut to them. An English colony had been planted at Windsor, and held the place against Dutch protests. Emigration from several points in Massachusetts was organized, and in 1635 col- onists in considerable numbers sailed from Eng- land to Boston on their way to Connecticut. They grew strong enough to repulse a display of force by the Dutch. From this time the 42 NEW YORK. Fresh River cannot be claimed as a part of New Netherland, but controversy over the pos- session of it lasted for many years. Manhattan, with occasional rivalry from Fort Orange, became the chief market and settle- ment of New Netherland. It was the natural seat of authority for a government deriving its authority from beyond the sea. It was tbe port through which exports and imports must pass. Already, in 1629 and 1630, Manhattan exchanged with Amsterdam one hundred and thirty thousand guilders' worth of commodities, with a balance in favor of the colony of seven- teen thousand guilders. In 1631 a ship called after the province and after the vessel which brought over the first colony of the West India Company, was built at Manhattan. It was from six hundred to eight hundred tons bur- den, and carried thirty guns, and was one of the largest merchant vessels then afloat. Such an enterprise proves the prosperity of the prov- ince and the broad and far-reaching hopes of its managers. With prosperity came collisions. The pa- troons had interests apart from the company. They sought a share in the fur trade, at least at points where the company did not maintain stations. Their rivalry brought the recall of Minuit, the director-general of the province, in DUTCH COLONIZATION. 43 1631, and the struggle over the appointment of his successor kept the place vacant and admin- istered by subordinates for two years. The company having the power insisted on its mo- nopoly in trade. In 1633 Wouter van Twiller was appointed director general. He was a clerk for the corn- pany in Amsterdam, had married a niece of Van Rensselaer, and had attended to some of the colonial interests of his uncle. He sailed in the Soutberg, bearing twenty guns and a hundred and four soldiers, and the vessel cap- tured and brought into Manhattan a Spanish caravel. Among his companions were Everar- dus Bogardus, the first clergyman, and Adam Roelandsen, the first schoolmaster, who came to the province. Among the changes at the be- ginning of his administration was the substitu- tion at Fort Orange of Hans Jorissen Houten, who was familiar with trade on the river, for Krol, who had been in command since Kriecke- beeck was killed in his foolish raid on the Mohawks. In the administration of Van Twiller Wash- ington Irving finds the beginning of that his- torical opera honffe in which he has celebrated the Dutch rule in New Netherland. The bur- lesque has taken its place in our literature, and has colored the estimate of events in that pe- 44 NEW YORK. riqd. With much that is quaint, and with figures which it is possible to regard as very- comical, the Dutch, from the coming of Van T wilier to the surrender of Stuyvesant, did a great deal of practical work in organizing and settling the province, and in establishing, by friendly treatment and fair trade, cordial rela- tions with the red men. The colony was under a trading company, but it had its sources in that reorganized na- tion whose struggle with Spain had ended in the very year of Hudson's voyage hither. The religious activity of the Netherlands was ex- hibited in the synod of Dort, and in the leader- ship which it held in the movement for release from the shackles of priestcraft and supersti- tion. During the period of the growth of New Netherland the mother country was one of the foremost powers of the world. For thirteen years Van Tromp carried its victorious flag over all seas, and in 1652 bore his defiant broom at the masthead through the English Channel. France and England were glad to take the States General into alliance as an equal. The treachery of Charles Stuart broke the relations with Holland, but only to pro- duce that situation which trained Wilham of Orange to become king of England, and to impress his policy as a permanent system on DUTCH COLONIZATION. 45 the diplomacy and the conduct of his adopted country. The intellectual and literary life of the Netherlands was at this period not infe- rior to that of any part of Europe. The Uni- versity of Leyden challenged all rivals. The city of Amsterdam was so far a leader that its style in art gave name to a school. In mechan- ism, and especially the skilled branches, which are akin to art, the Dutch were masters. Their towns were little republics, which educated citi- zens and developed men. For culture, for polit- ical and religious freedom, for varied develop- ment in literature and art, the Netherlands of William the Silent and Prince Maurice, of Barneveld and Grotius and John DeWitt, were not second to any other nation in that age. The commercial enterprise of the Dutch was a natural growth of the broad and generous life of their republic. New Netherland received the adventurous spirits of such a country. While they came for traffic primarily, they brought the clergy- man and the schoolmaster with them. While the directors were clothed with vast powers, the settlers insisted on applying the principles of self-government which they had learned in their native towns. Because it was the earliest, the influence of the Dutch upon the common- wealth has been radical and enduring. 46 NEW YORK. The language of the early settlers has given way to a tongue which is conquering in trade and in literature. The mother country has fallen behind in the race of nations, and has lost many of its historic provinces. But no colony can wholly outgrow the impress given to it in the first generations of its existence, and it is certain that New Netherland has not done so. While the early settlers tried to support themselves, in part at least, from the soil, they did not attempt in any large degree to raise agricultural products for export. The)^ made experiments with tobacco and gradually ex- tended their crops of grain, so that after a while wheat was shipped to Boston, and in due time became a factor in trade with the Old World. At the outset the source of profit was in furs, and the general policy was determined by this fact. The devotion of New England to the fisheries, and of Virginia to raising to- bacco, gave to the Dutch colony the control if not the monopoly of the fur traffic. The cli- mate of New Netherland, its wealth in certain animals, and its ease of communication with Canada, determined the policy of the West India Company. The zeal to get furs gave tone to the treatment of the red men. Peace with them was the sure way of securing the DUTCH COLONIZATION. 47 rich peltries which they hunted for in the distant forests and on the streams which they alone knew. The cheap trifles of the Dutch markets afforded a more profitable means of capturing beaver and otter, and fox, and deer and bear skins than arms and strife could offer. The obvious and immediate interests of the col- onists accorded with their humane desires and Christian purposes, and rendered their relations with the Indians during the Dutch occupation as a rule friendly and peaceful, to a degree beyond the experience of their neighbors. The large profits of the fur trade, and the restricted field within which it was pursued, led to suspicion and watchfulness by the Dutch Company. The directors from first to last found this one of their chief tasks. Van Twiller did not shrink from it whether foreigners or fellow- countrymen crossed his path. The first English vessel to visit Sandy Hook came in 1619, under command of Thomas Der- mer, but the only result was a report which Purchas published in his " Pilgrims." In 1633, a London vessel, the William, came to Man- hattan to trade upon the Hudson River. Jacob Eelkens, who had been commissary at Fort Orange, directed the enterprise for English capitalists. With display of the Dutch and English flags and a salute on both sides, 48 NEW YORK. the William defiantly sailed up the river. Eelkens established a trading tent a mile be- low Fort Orange, and for a fortnight held his ground ; but Van T wilier gathered a fleet of three vessels, seized the goods of the intruder and put them on the William, turned the ves- sel about, and took it out to sea under convoy of the little Dutch fleet. Eelkens did mischief by exciting the red men against the Dutch, but he failed to establish English trade on the Hudson River at that time. Van T wilier had that virtue in a ruler which consists of faith in his country. He devised large things for Manhattan : the repair of Fort Amsterdam, new windmills, houses of brick and frame, a brewery, and other structures. A plain wooden church was built to take the place of the loft used for religious services, and a dwelling-house was provided for the " dom- ine," as the preacher was called. Elsewhere in the province also improvements were made: on the South River, and at Pavonia, the sta- tion of Patroon Michael Pauw, while Fort Orange rejoiced in an " elegant large house, with balustrades and eight small dwellings for the people." The director - general and his friends secured large tracts of land from the red men. The rights of Patroon Pauw to Pavo- nia and Staten Island were transferred to the DUTCH COLONIZATION. 49 West India Company. Trade with New Eng- land and with the West Indies was extended. The Dutch gave sympathy to the English in their war of extermination against the Pe- quods in Connecticut. The signs of activity and growth were many. But Van T wilier had made enemies. David Pietersen de Vries of Hoorn tried to sail with a French commission to trade in furs on the American coast, in 1624, but was prevented by the West India Company. In 1630, he se- cured an interest on South River as a patroon. Two years later he came out just in time to see the ruins of Swaanendael, the station on that river. He succeeded in securing peace with the red men who had caused the destruc- tion, and then made an excursion to Virginia. Returning to Manhattan in time to greet Van Twiller on his arrival, he witnessed the con- duct of the director general in the affair of the William, and deemed it too slow and weak. In 1633, he had a controversy with Van Twil- ler, who proposed to search his vessel as he was starting for Holland, for articles subject to tax to the company. He arranged to establish a colony on Staten Island. He was in Holland when Van Dincklagen, who had been schout- fiscal, and removed by Van Twiller, appeared with charges against his former chief. De 60 NEW YORK. Vries intimated that the director general, who seems to have been a plodding, self-seeking offi- cial, "acted farces" in the province. Domine Bogardus had more than once quarreled with Van Twiller. On one occasion he described the director as a "child of the devil," and threatened him with "such a shake from the pulpit as would make him shudder." Van Dincklagen aimed his censures at the domine as well as the director, but no change was made in the ecclesiastical control. Van Twiller was removed under charges in 1637. He retired with a large estate. He appeared later as one of the executors of the Patroon Van Rensse- laer, and in 1650 he was a leading opponent of the administration of Stuyvesant. The com- pany charged him with aiming to " appoint himself as the only commander of the North River," and with threatening " to repel with force every one who with a commercial view shall come there or to Rensselaerwyck." He was appointed governor to sustain the mo- nopoly of the company against the patroons. His last appearance is as the champion of the chief patroon against the compan}^ In his career the spirit of the colony at this period was embodied. The company was vigor- ous in the assertion of its claims, and the direc- tor general gave exhibition of personal traits DUTCH COLONIZATION. 51 in the exercise of arbitrary powers. Protest was not infrequent against the claims of the company and the domination of the director. The growing power of the patroons was mak- ing trouble. There were scattered farms, but in the main the life of the settlers was concen- trated about the trading-posts and two or three villages. These, however, were yet weak, and the rate of growth was not rapid. CHAPTER IV. TEIALS OF THE DUTCH COLONY. 1637-1647. The decade in which William Kief t held the place of director general was marked by an aggressive policy toward the red men, excep- tional in Dutch history, by an exaggeration of difficulties incident to the relations of the two races, and by consequent dangers and collisions. These gave the occasion for the bold assertion by the settlers of a right to share in the gov- ernment, which was thereafter steadily main- tained. Kieft came out as director in 1637, but the reason for his selection is not easy to find. He had no previous connection with colonial affairs, and was charged with appropriating money given to him to ransom Christian pris- oners in Turkey. He had failed in business as a merchant in Eochelle, and for that offense his portrait had been affixed to the gallows. He was as active as Van T wilier was slow, and was no less greedy of gain. He was equally self-willed, as he showed at once on arriving in TRIALS OF THE DUTCH COLONY. 53 the province by organizing the council so as to retain the entire control. He made haste to testify that his predecessor left affairs in a very bad condition. The company's farms were not tenanted; its cattle had been sold; its build- ings were out of repair; and the fort was in ruins and its guns dismounted. Six years be- fore Van Twiller had been censured for extrav- agance in building and repairing the fort, so that some allowance must be made for the dark colors in this picture. Kieft himself, among his first acts, rented one of the company's farms to Van Twiller, and the rent was two hundred and fifty guilders a year and one sixth of the produce. The new director general, like his predeces- sor, began with strengthening the monopoly of the company in trade. He put an end to oper- ations in that line by employees. He enacted stringent police regulations, restricting the sale of liquor and imposing an excise on tobacco, while passports were required from persons wishing to leave Manhattan. He bought addi- tional lands for the company from the red men as opportunity arose, and sold parcels to indi- viduals who made eligible offers. In the first year of his administration the States General investigated the management of the company in New Netherland, and inquired 54 NEW YORK, into the policy of assuming immediate control. The affair was complicated by demands on the part of the patroons for additional privileges. The era was stormy on all sides for the prov- ince. One residt of the discussion was a con- cession on the part of the company by which any person could trade "in the company's ships " to the province subject to ten per cent, duty on shipments from New Netherland in addition to the charges of transportation. Im- migrants were to receive as much land as they could cultivate, paying one tenth of the prod- uce as quit-rent. De Yries returned with a colony to Staten Island. In this year also came Joachem Pietersen Kuyter of Darmstadt and Cornehs Melyn, who took, at a later day, a prominent part in affairs. Immigrants from Virginia and New England joined in increas- ing the population. Fresh impulse was given to agriculture and especially to the cultivation of tobacco. Captain John Underbill, who had won a name in the Pequod war, brought sev- eral families from Connecticut, and cast his lot in New Netherland. Anthony Jansen, a French Huguenot, was one of the immigrants in 1639, when also Thomas Belcher took up a tract upon the site of the present city of Brooklyn. The foreigners were welcomed on equal terms with Dutchmen, and the chronicles certify that TRIALS OF THE DUTCH COLONY. 55 the English settlers were prompt to promise by- oath " to follow the director or any one of the council wherever he may lead," and to support the province against all enemies. Kieft's great blunder was committed in 1639/ and was due to mingled greed and ignorance. He demanded tribute from the red men in maize, furs, or service, on the plea that the Dutch had defended them against their enemies. This demand was connected with an effort to pre- vent the sale of guns or ammunition to the red men. Relations between the races had grown familiar. The red men made frequent visits to the houses of the Dutch, and some were em- ployed as servants. The Iroquois at first feared a gun, and styled it the "devil," from its Satanic power, but they soon learned to use it with skill, and found traders willing to furnish weapons at a round price in furs. Possession of firearms enabled them to assert domination over other tribes. The director general tried his scheme of col- lecting tribute first on the Raritan Indians, with whom trouble had previously occurred. They refused to pay, whereupon several In- dians were killed and corn crops were destroyed. To the claim that the tribute was in return for defense, the red men on the banks of the Hud- son pleaded that they had not only looked out 66 NEW YORK. for themselves, but bad for two winters sup- plied food and other necessaries to the Dutch vvhen long ago they were building a ship, and had always paid for everything they had re- ceived. The Raritans took quick revenge for the assault upon them by sweeping out of existence by murder and fire the colony of De Vries on Staten Island. Kieft responded by a proclamation offering ten fathoms of wampum for the head of every Raritan, and twice as much for that of one of the murderers. The bounties enlisted some red men on the side of the whites. Twenty years before an Indian who had come with his nephew to Fort Am- sterdam to sell furs was killed without provo- cation. At this time of disturbed relations between the races the nephew sought revenge by killing an inoffending blacksmith named Claes Smits. The tribe protected him for the act, and the director did not venture on his own authority to arrest him. The incident is notable because it was the occasion for the first exercise of popular rights in the colony. Kieft was so much alarmed by the course of events that he summoned all the masters and heads of faniilies in and near Manhattan to meet at Fort Amsterdam. To this popular assemblage* he submitted the question whether the murder of Claes Smits should nut be punished, and in TRIALS OF THE DUTCH COLONY. 57 case the tribe would not surrender the culprit if it would not be just to destroy the village to which he belonged. Twelve selectmen were chosen to consider the matter. They were all Hollanders, and De Vries was named as presi- dent of the Twelve. The advice of the Twelve was to ask for the surrender of the murderer, and in the mean time to procure coats of mail for the soldiers, and to await the hunting sea- son before offensive operations. Kieft was intent on war, but it was six months before he could secure the assent of the Twelve for an expedition. In January, 1642, they assented to an expedition under the per- sonal command of the director, and with ammu- nition and supplies furnished by the company. As the price of such concessions the Twelve demanded from the director a reconstruction of the council, with a fair representation of the people. They insisted also that the mili- tia should be organized and armed, and that judicial proceedings should be before the full council. They asked besides for the removal of restrictions on trade for themselves, for the exclusion of cows and sheep brought from New England because they interfered with those brought from Holland, and for an increase in the value of the currency. The director un- graciously gave promise to admit popular rep- 68 NEW YORK. resentatives to the council, to exclude New England cows and sheep, and to amend the currency. But the Twelve men, he declared, had been chosen only to advise relative to the murder of Claes Smits, and as that duty was finished he dismissed them and forbade any meetings of the people without his order, as they " tend to dangerous consequences." The chapter reads much like the experience of other peoples in other lands, where arbitrary power has been forced by necessity to appeal for the help of those who can bear arms and f urnisli supplies. The parallel is complete also in that the director never carried out liis pledges. He, however, began his operations against the red men. An expedition was sent out, which, without bloodshed, secured a treaty for the de- livery of the murderer, but he was never given up, and Director Kieft learned little from the experience. While these events were in progress the re- ligious controversies in New England, with the gi eater freedom of traffic in New Netherland, turned a strong tide of migration to the latter province. Several notable persons removed to jNIanhattan. Francis Doughty came for " free- dom of conscience, which he missed in New England." John Throgmorton located on the East River with thirty-five English families TRIALS OF THE DUTCH COLONY. 59 "for the free exercise of their religion," driven out by the stern orthodoxy of Hugh Peters. The noted Anne Hutchinson was foremost among the religious immigrants of 1642, who, from persecution in Massachusetts and Connec- ticut, fled to find spiritual peace in New Neth- erland, and finally, with her family, to be butchered by the red men. The influx of Eng- lish people at this period prompted the appoint- ment of an English secretary as an oflicer of the province. The director general was busy with many things besides the administration of the colony. He set up a distillery and buckskin factory on Staten Island. At the (charge of the company he built a stone hotel to entertain travelers near the fort. A new church, also of stone, with oak shingles, was erected, and it is nar- rated that at a wedding feast, " after the fourth or fifth round of drinking," subscriptions were completed for the purpose. The coming of Domine Johannes Megapolensis to Rensselaer- wyck, the first clergj^-man for the interior of the province, gave a prudent counselor in secular affairs as well as a faithful religious teacher. In 1643, a serious Indian outbreak occurred. The immediate occasion was the stealing of a beaver-skin coat from a red man at Hacken- sack, where he had been drinking. He gath- 60 NEW YORK. ered some of his tribe and killed a colonist, Van Voorst, who was quietly at work. The Indians at once offered to pay an atonement of two hundred fathoms of wampum, and protested against the sale of liquor to their young men. The director general would listen to nothing but the giving up of the murderer. At the same time, the Mohawks, in collecting tribute from the tribes on the lower Hudson, enforced their power by killing and capture, so that their tributaries fled before them, and sought shelter with the Dutch in Westchester. Kieft took advantage of this circumstance to wreak ven- geance for the murder of Smits and Van Voorst. At Pavonia, the Dutch fell upon the Indians as they slept, and slew men, women, and children to the number of eighty persons. At Corlaer's Hook, forty persons were butchered with like circumstances of atrocity. The result was to drive the river tribes into a union, and eleven of them combined to carry terror to the Dutch. Kieft made a general levy for two months, and the colonists hastened to Fort Amsterdam and other strong places. The property of the Dutch was ravaged, and destruction threatened the province. Adriaensen, who led the slaughter at Corlaer's Hook, was one of the chief losers. He became so excited as to try to assassinate the director general, and was arrested and sent to TRIALS OF THE DUTCH COLONY. 61 Holland for trial. Kieft proclaimed a day of fasting and prayer, while the colonists held him responsible and talked about sending him for trial to Amsterdam. The Indians of Long Island, however, soon made advances for peace, and a treaty was framed with them and soon after with the river tribes. But the pacifica- tion was outward, and left rankling sores on the part of the red men. The dh'ector gen- eral found it necessary to forbid the sale of liquor to any of the tribes. Peace was not long maintained. Attacks were made by the red men on boats coming down the Hudson River from Fort Orange, their furs were seized, and some of the crews slain. Once the red men were beaten back with loss of their warriors. Colonists were killed, too, often by red men who approached as friends. The situation grew very serious, and a second time the director general ap- pealed to the people " to elect five or six per- sons from among themselves " to consider the emergency. Eight men were chosen, and they agreed upon preparations for war against the river tribes, while peace was to be kept up with the Long Island Indians. Among the sol- diers enrolled were fifty Englishmen, who came from New England, and who were placed under the command of John Underbill, who had kept 62 NEW YORK. his fame as a fighter. The red men were more prompt than the Dutch. They swept with fire and slaughter in every direction, and the colonists who could escape fled to Manhattan. The destruction was relieved by the gallant de- fense made by Lady Deborah Moody, who had been dealt with by the church at Salem for denying baptism to infants, and now at Graves- end, with forty supporters, repelled the savage attack, and held her position. This was almos., the sole oasis in the red desert of carnage. Only under the shelter of Fort Amsterdam was security felt. An officer relieving guard even here was shot in the arm. In his extremity the director general sent delegates to Connecticut to ask for help ; but it was refused. Fortunately, a hundred and thirty Dutch soldiers arrived in the nick of time, from Cura^oa, in the West Indies, sent by Peter Stuyvesant, director there. This relief may have decided the struggle which threatened to turn against the colony. De Vries, who had been a friend of peace and was trusted by the Indians, having been ruined by the war, left the colony to return home, and his parting with Kieft was like that of a Hebrew prophet : " The murders in which you have shed so much innocent blood will yet be avenged on your own head." TRIALS OF THE DUTCH COLONY. 63 The Eight resolved to appeal to the father- land. They sent an address to the West India Company, full of plaintive recital of their trou- bles. Famine was now threatening them, for they could not till the land by reason of the war. They also submitted to the States Gen- eral a statement of their suffering and weak- ness, and of the strength which the savage foe possessed from the familiarity which he now had with firearms. At the same time they urged the importance of " the sea-coast, bays, and large rivers" to Dutch commerce. The Eight charged the director general with bring- ing on hostilities with the Indians without suffi- cient cause, and with making misrepresenta- tions concerning the resources and growth of the colony. He had especially offended by im- posing taxes upon his own authority, to the great indignation of the people. The removal of Kieft was demanded with a new system and policy. Both the West India Company and the States General were stirred by these appeals to consider the affairs of New Netherland. The company was bankrupt, chiefly through its op- erations in Brazil. It had lost five hundred and fifty thousand guilders, above all receipts, in New Netherland. A report to the States General recommended the recall of Kieft, the 64 NEW YORK. abandonment of liis warlike policy toNAards the Indians, the adjustment of the boundaries with the English, and the settlement of towns rather than scattered farms. It was proposed to reconstruct the council, so that it should con- sist of the director, a vice- director, and fiscal, and this council was to exercise wide authority. Provision was made for delegates from the commonalty to meet every six months at Man- hattan ''for the common advancement of the welfare of the inhabitants." The introduction of negroes from Brazil was recommended, and general trade was allowed with that country. No firearms were to be sold to the Indians, and charges upon exports and imports were to be relied upon for revenue. The Indian war was prosecuted with the usual incidents of such struggles until 1645. Kieft had learned by the condemnation in Hol- land and the odium in the colony that his con- duct towards the red men had been a blunder, and he sought diligently to secure peace. He framed treaties with some of the minor tribes, and for the first time visited the Mohawks, for whose friendship he was anxious. With them a treaty was signed at Fort Orange, and a gen- eral peace followed. This was confirmed by a treaty at Fort Amsterdam, where the Mohawks appeared for the Five Nations as arbitrators. TRIALS OF THE DUTCH COLONY 65 The 6th of September was appointed as a day of thanksgiving "to proclaim the good tidings." The chronicles narrate that sixteen hundred red men were killed during the two years of hostilities. The scattered settlements were al- most obliterated. Manhattan could count only about a hundred men besides the traders. Rensselaer wyck and the colony on the South River had been exempt from the carnage. The company in Holland decided to remove Kieft, and the decision did not improve his re- lations with the colonists. They talked freely, and he imposed fines and banishment, refusing appeal to the home authorities. Domine Bo- gardus, from his pulpit, said, " What are the great men of the country but vessels of wrath and fountains of woe and trouble ? They think of nothing but to plunder the property of others, to dismiss, to banish, to transport to Holland." Kieft retorted by charging the domine with drunkenness, and emphasized his retort by stay- ing away from church services, and having drums beat and cannon fired to interrupt them. In spite of all strife the settlements expanded as soon as the Indian hostilities ceased. Brook- lyn set up a municipal government in 1646. Mines of valuable ore, quicksilver and gold, were reported on Staten Island and towards the South River. Barytes supposed to be gold 66 NEW YORK. was found in the Catskills, and dreams of for- tune intoxicated many persons. Long Island was accounted prosperous, as was Rensselaer- wyck. The boweries or farms, besides, were about fifty. The wiiole province, it was esti- mated, could furnish not more than three hun- dred fighting-men, and its entire population must, therefore, have been less than fifteen hundred or at most two thousand souls. Kieft closed his administration in unpopular- ity, and at the inauguration of his successor a vote of thanks was refused to him. Kuyter and Melyn led the hostile party, and petitioned for an investigation of his conduct. Their complaints w^ere dismissed, and they were sub- jected to counter-charges. They were formally indicted, Melyn for rebellion, and Kuyter for counseling treachery toward the red men. The new director took strong grounds against them, and refused to allow them to appeal to Holland when they were sentenced. Melyn's sentence was seven years' banishment and a fine of three hundred guilders, with forfeiture of all benefits derived from the company. Kuyter was to suf- fer three years' banishment, and to pay a fine of one hundred and fifty guilders. Kieft sailed for Holland on the ship Princess, carrying with him a fortune of four hundred thousand guil ders. His two accusers were also among the TRIALS OF THE DUTCH COLONY. 67 passengers, with Domine Bogardus and other persons of note. The vessel was wrecked in Bristol Channel. Kieft, in the danger, ad- dressed his accusers: "Friends, I have been unjust toward you ; can you forgive me ? " He with eighty other persons, including Domine Bogardus, was drowned. Kuyter and Melyn were saved, went to Holland, and afterwards returned to Manhattan. They were uneasy spirits to the end. The verdict of history must be that Kieft wrought great mischief by his rage against the red men and his lack of administrative wisdom. His greed and his violence were not offset by any important services rendered to the colony. The redeeming traits in bis administration are the advent of the Twelve and the Eight as rep- resentatives of the people in the government. CHAPTER V. CULMINATION OF THE DUTCH SWAY. 1647-1663. The successor of Kieft as director general was Peter Stuyvesant, who had already ren- dered the colony important service by sending military help, during the Indian war, from Cu- ragoa. He had held the like position there, and had, by an attack on the Portuguese island of St. Martin, won praise for courage and cen- sure for misjudgment. He was the son of a clergyman in Friesland, had received consider- able education, and was now forty-five years of age. Ill health had taken him to Holland from his post in the West Indies, at the time of the controversies between the Eight men and Di- rector Kieft, and the company naturally turned to him on account of his experience and char- acter, as a desirable person for the more diffi- cult and influential station at Manhattan. Van Dincklagen, whose quarrrel with Van Twiller has made him known to us, had received a CULMINATION OF THE DUTCH SWAY, 69 provisional appointment for the chief place, but before he sailed was named as vice-director under Stuyvesant. Great joy was manifested in Manhattan when Stuyvesant and his party landed there, May 27, 1647. He had been long expected, for he had been appointed nearly two years before. He put on airs on his arrival, strutted " like a pea- cock," and " as if he were the Czar of Mus- covy," say the chroniclers. He was a notable figure. He had lost a leg in the attack on St. Martin's, and had supplied its place with one, called silver by one writer, and wooden by others, and in fact doubtless of wood with silver bands. He was autocratic in manner, decided in speech, and prompt in action. He was a de- voted churchman, was diligent in his duties, and devoted to the interests of the company and the colony, as he understood them. His arbi- trary conduct continued the struggle between the settlers and the ruler, so flagrant under his predecessor. The new code of instructions which he brought with him required him to guard against encroachments on the boundaries of the colony, to preserve peace with the In- dians, and to encourage the settlement of the colonists in villages. Delegates were to be in- vited from the outlying hamlets to the council in Manhattan, and some mitigation was or- 70 NEW YORK. dered in the severe restrictions on trade. The home company had learned that consideration must be extended to the settlers, but necessity was more imperative than the instructions and extended further. Fort Amsterdam needed re- pairs, and the cost of general administration must be met. The director must have money, and he could get it only from the people. Ac- cordingly, by the advice of his council he or- dered an election at which the settlers in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Amersfoort, and Pavonia were to designate eighteen persons from whom the director and council should select nine, " as good and faithful interlocutors and trustees of the commonalty," to confer with the director " on all means to promote the welfare of the commonalty and the country." Three were to sit in council in rotation to judge civil cases, and in each year six of the nine were to retire, but to be eligible for reelection. This repre- sentation was a concession in return for taxa- tion. The director immediately asked for money for schools and for finishing the church, and a tax was voted for that purpose. The Nine re- fused to provide means for repairing the fort, on the ground that the company had agreed to maintain the defenses. They endeavored to encourage permanent settlers by concentrating CULMINATION OF THE DUTCH SWAY. 71 trade in their hands. As a means not only for raising money, but for insuring safety, efforts were made to regulate the sale of liquor, espe- cially to the red men, for " almost one full fourth part of the town of New Amsterdam " was de- voted to " houses for the sale of brandy, tobacco, and beer." The sale of arms to the red men also caused trouble, and yet persons in official station, and even one of the Nine, were engaged in it. The director in his efforts to check this traffic made his first visit to Fort Orange in 1648, where Brandt van Slechtenhorst, a new agent of the patroon, claimed the right to sell arms and generally to act on his own discre- tion. Stuyvesant had to send troops to enforce the authority of the company, but finally set free from the patroon's title much of the land on which the city of Albany now stands. Stuyvesant acted vigorously, even aggres- sively, for the company against all rivals. His troubles arose from his zeal in this direction, and not primarily from personal quarrels. Pa- troon, colonists, or even the States General, met in him a sturdy champion of the company which he served. His first controversy began, as was inevitable, over the finances. The Nine protested against the director's management. He insisted on the payment to the company of what was due to it, while he was lax in set- 72 NEW YORK. tling such claims as it owed. They complained also of the heavy charges levied upon trade. They proposed to send a delegation to Holland, and as the grievances ran on, the proposal was renewed. Stuyvesant was unwilling to have any appeal made to the home authorities except through him. In 1649 he suggested to the Nine to inquire '• what approbation the com- monalty would give to the business, and how the expenses should be defrayed." He would not permit the people to assemble, and the Nine sought counsel from house to house. The di- rector was displeased at this course, and sum- moned delegates from the militia and the burghers, to consider the subject of a delega- tion. The Nine, finding events to be grow- ing exciting, ordered a journal to be kept by Adriaen van der Donck, one of their number. The director seized the papers, arrested the writer, and put him in prison on the charge of libeling the government, and demanded that he should either retract or be excluded from the Nine and the council. This behest was rati- fied and the author of the journal was unseated, but the popular sympathy was strong in his favor. Stuyvesant failed to obstruct the appeal to Holland. The Nine sent a petition to the States General, accompanied by an elaborate CULMINATION OF THE DUTCH SWAY. 73 " remonstrance " against the management of the West India Company in the province, and a detailed statement of grievances and of meas- ures for relief. The first demand was for abdi- cation of power by the company in favor of the States General. The second was for a public school with at least two good masters. The third was for " godly, honorable, and intelli- gent rulers," because *' a covetous governor makes poor subjects," and " the mode in which the country was then governed was intoler- able." With public colonization New Nether- land would on these conditions " in a few years be a brave place, and be able to do service to the Netherland nation, to pay richly the cost, and to thank its benefactors." Both sides sent representatives to Holland. For the people, Van der Donck and two others of the Nine appeared, with Domine Backerus, who had served as the successor of Domine Bogardus at New Amsterdam, and who now returned, leaving Megapolensis as the only clergyman in the province. On behalf of the director, Cornells van Tienhoven, his secretary, was the delegate. By the Nine sixty-eight specifications were submitted to the States" General of " excessive and most prejudicial neglect " on the part of the company, resulting in making the condition of New Netherland far 74 NEW YORK. inferior to that of New England. A committee of the States General reported to that body in 1650 a "provisional order" for the settlement of the controversy. In that document we can discern the extent of the evils which really existed, and the remedies which far-sighted statesmen proposed. It condemned Kieft for bringing on the Indian war, and forbade hos- tilities against *' the aborigines or neighbors " without action of the States General. It re- quired that the sale of arms and ammunition to the red men should be prevented, and the in- habitants enrolled as militia. Three clergy- men were to be provided for the province, and the youth were to be instructed by good school- masters. The commonalty was to be convoked and was to choose two members of the council, and the " collection, administration, and pay- ment " of taxes were to be " placed on such footing as their constituents should order." The courts should be reorganized, and burgher government was conceded in the "City of New Amsterdam." Stuj^vesant was to be called to Holland to report, and a suitable person, " ex- perienced in matters relating to agriculture," was to be dispatched to " take charge of the country lying on both sides of the great North River, extending south to the South River, and north to the Fresh River." CULMINATION OF THE DUTCH SWAY. 75 The Amsterdam chamber criticised and op- posed this provisional order. The contest was waged in the province and in Holland. The English in the province took the side of the director, while the Dutch were m<)re and more arrayed against him, and the Nine renewed and expanded their complaints in additional papers forwarded to the States General. In Holland the "remonstrance" had been published, and was answered by a " brief statement " by the secretary, Van Tienhoven. Stuy vesant afforded fresh grounds for criticism by his operations against the Swedes on the South River, and by a treaty which he negotiated at Hartford con- cerning affairs and boundaries on the Fresh River. Dissensions arose between the various chambers of the West India Company, and the greed and control of the Amsterdam chamber were resented. In 1652 the Amsterdam cham- ber yielded, and removed the export duty on tobacco which had been collected in the prov- ince, permitted the importation of slaves from Africa, and reduced the charges for passage of emigrants. Burgher government was conceded to New Amsterdam with the condition that the schout or sheriff should maintain the privileges of the West India Company. Stuyvesant was far enough away from Hol- land to exercise his own will with little let or 76 NEW YORK. hindrance. He paid scant heed to the orders of tlie States General in behalf of Kuyter and Melyn against his sentence. While he tried to prevent the sale of arms by others to the Indians, he imported a case of guns himself to sell to them, and the Amsterdam chamber cen- sured him for the act and for the purchase of lands on Manhattan Island for private purposes. Patroon Van Rensselaer, in 1649, bought from the red men tracts at Catskill and Claverack, and to check such purchases the director se- cured for the company the Indian title to what is now the chief part of Westchester County. He refused to recognize the " provisional order " of the States General. He prevented the mus- tering of the burgher guard, and deprived the Nine of the pew in the church which the con- sistory had assigned to them. He neglected to send to the authorities in Holland any copy of the treaty which he negotiated at Hartford. He set up a -body guard of four soldiers, who attended him whenever he went abroad. In his hate of Melyn he seized a ship in which the latter had returned from Europe, and on a technicality confiscated vessel and cargo, for which, after a long suit, the West India Com- pany was compelled to make restitution. Stuy- vesant went even further. He sent soldiers to arrest the vice-director, Van Dincklagen, and CULMINATION OF THE DUTCH SWAY. 77 held him a prisoner in a guard-room for. several daj^s. Dirck van Schelluyne, a notary public, who had come out in 1650 to practice his pro- fession, had given the vice-director professional aid, and was forbidden to practice further. Tlie sch out-fiscal. Van Dyck, was excluded from the council. With such a high hand Stuyvesant bore sway, and, like other arbitrary rulers, fell into the practice of mingling his resentments with his assertion of authority. Like his pred- ecessor, he taught the colonists to consult for their own rights and interests. Under the Dutch sway religion and educa- tion received early and constant attention. In 1650 William Vestens was sent from Amster- dam as schoolmaster and consoler of the sick. A common school was maintained at the time with a succession of teachers. In 1652 Domine Samuel Drisius, who could preach in Dutch, French, and English, was sent as colleague for Megapolensis, at a salary of fourteen hundred and fifty guilders, and Domine Gideon Schaats, at a salary of eight hundred guilders, came out to Rensselaerwyck as preacher and school- master. Four years later Domine Johannes Theodorus Polhemus, who had been in Brazil, arrived and was made pastor of the church at Flatbush. Brooklyn had no separate pastor until 1660, when Domine Henry Selyns came 78 NEW YORK. from Holland to occupy that position. In 1654 the Lutherans asked permission to erect a church in New Amsterdam, but the director refused to permit them to do so, and an appeal to the West India Company brought the an- swer that no other doctrine should be encour- aged in the province than " the true reformed." The classis of Amsterdam in Holland claimed spiritual jurisdiction over the province. Domine Megapolensis, zealous in seeking to instruct the red men, was no less intent on enforcing the teachings of the Synod of Dort. In the English settlements these teachings were not accepted as binding, and there were Lutherans among the Dutch. On the appeal of the reformed clergymen Director Stuyvesant, in 1656, issued a proclamation forbidding preachers not called by ecclesiastical or temporal authority to hold meetings, under a penalty of a hundred pounds; and any person attending assemblages ad- dressed by such preachers was to be fined twenty-five pounds. The prohibition was vig- orously enforced until the West India Company rebuked the director, and declared its purpose to let the Lutherans and logically others out- side of the reformed communion " enjoy all calmness and tranquillity." In the succeeding year, however, John Ernestus Goetwater, a Lutheran clergyman who had been sent out to CULMINATION OF THE DUTCH SWAY. 79 preach, was notified that "he might have free- dom within his own dwelling," but could not organize a church, and he was silenced. Two Quaker women, Dorothy Waugh and Mary Witherhead, banished from Boston, were im- prisoned for preaching in the streets, but were discharged after a few days. Robert Hodgson, a Quaker, fared worse for preaching in Flush- ing. He was taken to the dungeon of Fort Amsterdam, was fined and set to work, and failing in his task was beaten with a tarred rope until he fell. He was finally released and compelled to leave the province. In Jamaica and Flushing and Heemstede, also, severe meas- ures were taken against Quaker teachers and such as listened to them, and fines and impris- onment were imposed on many persons. So abominable was the heresy regarded, and so dangerous, that Stuyvesant and his council pro- claimed a fast day to check its progress. The authorities in Holland found it necessary to ■warn the clergymen of New Amsterdam against " overbearing preciseness," and to counsel them to try, by adhering to old forms rather than new, to keep the Lutherans within the fold. The States General in 1661 sought to tempt immigrants by inviting " Christian people of tender conscience, in England or elsewhere op- pressed," to make homes within the jurisdiction 80 NEW YORK. of Stuyvesant. He, however, kept up his per- secutions of the Quakers until he banished John Bowne for holding meetings of the sect in his own house. The martyr proceeded to Amsterdam, and the directors of the West India Company, after listening to his plea, rebuked Stuyvesant and announced to him this rule of religious freedom : " Let every one remain free as long as he is modest, moderate, his political conduct irreproachable, and as long as he does not of- fend others or oppose the government. This maxim of moderation has always been the guide of our magistrates in this city, and the consequence has been that people have flocked from every land to this asylum. Tread thus in tlieir steps and we doubt not you will be blessed." February 2, 1653, Stuyvesant issued his proc- lamation to set in motion the burgher govern- ment conceded to the city of New Amsterdam. He assumed the authority to name the burgo- masters, the schepens, and the fiscal. One of the first tasks of the new government was to provide for the defense of the city, for war had broken out between England and Holland. The New England colonies were also ready for attack, excited by a charge that the Dutch governor had tried to hire the Indians to kill all the English. The people set to work on the CULMINATION OF THE DUTCH SWAY. 81 defenses, provided for money by loan and then by tax, and a ditch and palisades twelve feet high with a breastwork were constructed in- closing the city from the East to the North Kiver. Fort Orange was also prepared for defense. Stuyvesant undertook to adjust the difficulties with New England, and invited commissioners to come to New Amsterdam for the purpose. Their visit produced no direct result other than to incite Captain John Under- hill to hoist the colors of the English parlia- ment at Heemstede and Flushing, and to seek to stir up armed revolt. He was banished from the colony and fled to Rhode Island, where a commission was given to him and to others to prey on Dutch commerce. The attempt to or- ganize war between the colonies failed for the time, although by excluding Dutch vessels from New England harbors and renewing and pub- lishing the charges of inciting the Indians to slaughter, the eastern colonists kept alive the embers of strife. Under this stress and a movement from the colonists on Long Island, delegates convened to consult for the welfare of the country. A pre- liminary gathering arranged for a popular con- vention at New Amsterdam, December 10, 1653. The delegates came from New Amsterdam, Brooklyn, Flashing, Middleburg, Heemstede, 82 NEW YORK. Amersfoort, Flatbush, and Gravesend. Four Dutch and four English towns were represented by ten persons of Dutch nativity and nine of English nativity. This convention unanimously adopted a remonstrance to the States General protesting against the course of the director and council in enacting laws and appointing officers without the consent of the people, and against the granting of large tracts of land to favored individuals. Stuyvesant prepared a formal answer to this document. The remon- strance is a singularly clear declaration of pop- ular rights combined with loyalty to the States General. The answer is a spiteful arraignment of the delegates and a bold denial of the wis- dom of elections, where "each would vote for one of his own stamp, the thief for a thief, the rogue, the tippler, and the smuggler for his brother in iniquity, so that he may enjoy more latitude in vice and fraud." To a rejoinder the director responded with an order to the delegates to disperse, with his declaration : " We derive our authority from God and the com- pany, not from a few ignorant subjects, and we alone can call the inhabitants together." The burgomasters and schepens appealed to the West India Company for fuller powers for the municipal government, like those of the home city, especially for the election of the CULMINATION OF THE DUTCH SWAY. 83 fiscal and complete control of the whole excise, and power to levy new taxes and to farm out the ferry between New Amsterdam and Brook- lyn. The magistrates of Gravesend, by letter, renewed their allegiance to the States General and the company, while reciting certain griev- ances, and Francois le Bleeuw, an advocate, went as agent to Holland to plead the popular cause. Such events did not tend to reduce the fric- tion in the province, where the English began to show sympathy with the eastern colonists just at the time that Connecticut seized on the Fort of Good Hope at Hartford, and news came that Cromwell had sent four ships of war to help in the capture of " the Manhattoes " and any place held by the Dutch on the Hudson River. New England was ready for active hos- tilities, when information was received of the ratification of the treaty of peace between Eng- land and Holland, April 15, 1654, and the threatened collision was postponed. Stuyve- sant showed zeal, courage, and capacity in his preparations for defense, and he granted some privileges to the Dutch towns which took part with him in the work. Bleeuw, the agent of the burghers, was not received with favor by the Amsterdam cham- ber. On the contrary, the members declared 84 NEW YORK. that Stuyvesant should have acted with more vigor, and commanded him to punish the com- plainants so that others might be deterred from follov^ing their example. They charged the burgomasters and schepens to '' submit to tlie government placed over them," and " in nowise to hold particular convention with the English or others on affairs of state which do not per- tain to you, and what is yet worse, attempt an alteration in the state and its government." The director soon resumed the contiol of the excise, which he farmed out. He found people at Beaverwyck and on the lands of the patroon about Fort Orange unwilling to pay taxes to the company. Trouble befell him also from the affairs on the South River, for at this time Fort Casimir was surprised, and he secured only partial satisfaction by seizing a Swedish ship, the Shark, which by mistake entered Manhat- tan Bay. The purchase by English colonists of land in what is now Westchester County and at Oyster Bay called out protests from the di- rector, but they proved of no effect. The Eng- lish at Gravesend had hoisted a British flag and given signs of sedition. Yet Stuyvesant must have regarded affairs as in the main satisfactory, for in December, 1654, he took a trip to the West Indies to es- tablish trade with those islands. The vessels CULMINATION OF THE DUTCH SWAY, 85 he took were seized by British commissioners, who enforced a rigid embargo. As soon as he returned the recovery of Fort Casimir demanded liis attention. He was absent on the South River wlien New Amsterdam and its vicinity were startled by a demonstration by Indians in force. Van Dyck, who had been schout-fiscal, had killed a squaw for stealing peaches from his garden, and bands of the river tribes, said to number nineteen hundred, appeared in canoes before the city, in the early morning, Septem- ber 15, 1655. They killed Van Dyck with an arrow and another burgher with an axe, before they were driven back to their canoes. They turned their weapons against Hoboken, Pavo- nia, and Staten Island, and in three days a hundred Dutch settlers were killed, a hundred and fifty taken prisoners, and the damages were estimated at two hundred thousand guilders. Some of the prisoners were ransomed, and Stuyvesant entered into treaties with the red men on Long Island and renewed intimate alli- ance with the Mohawks. Help was asked from the authorities in Holland, block-houses were erected at exposed points, the settlers were enjoined to form villages for self-defense, and after a while arms were furnished to some of the inhabitants with which to protect them- selves. For three years peace was preserved. 86 NEW YORK. Esopus then becaaie the seat of new troubles. The settlers there insisted on living at a dis- tance from the centre and each other, and since they had found liquor the readiest means of buying furs from the red men they paid them in the desired commodity. Quarrels were the natural result, and persons were killed and houses burned. Stuyvesant visited the place, conferred with the red men, promised them presents, and found it necessary to guard the settlers by soldiers. Some of these became ex- cited at seeing the red men in a drunken ca- rouse and fired on them. This slaughter was revenged by the seizure of Dutch prisoners, eight of whom were burned at the stake, and by the destruction of buildings and crops. A truce was secured through the mediation of the Mohawks, with whom the Dutch, with much formality, had framed fresh treaties. But hos- tilities were revived; the soldiers attacked the red men, and took prisoners, most of whom were sent to the West Indies, but one of the oldest chiefs was, after capture, killed with his own tomahawk. Not until 1660 was a treaty of peace framed, when a Mohawk and a Min- qua sachem acted as arbitrators, and enjoined upon both parties to live in amity. In 1656 Stuyvesant conceded to the burgo- masters and schepei.s of New Amsterdam the CULMINATION OF THE DUTCH SWAY. 87 riglit to nominate their successors, subject to liis approval. After some friction the privileges of Westchester were enlarged and a village was set up, now known as Jamaica. In 1658 a petition was submitted to the Amsterdam chamber for a master for a Latin school, and the next year Alexander Carolus Curtius, a professor in Lithuania, came out in that capa- city, but he gave way in 1661 to Domine Aegi- dius Luyck, whose reputation drew pupils from families as far away as Virginia and the Caro- linas. The province was growing in these years, notwithstanding Indian troubles and religious controversies. New Harlaem secured a village charter. A municipal court was established at Esopus, under the name of Wiltwyck, the first in the present county of Ulster. Settlers were planting homes north and west of Fort Orange, and, in 1G61, Arendt van Curler, for love and trust for whom the white governors were long known to the red men by the name by which they called him, " Corlaer, " was authorized to buy the " Great Flats " where Schenectady now stands. In 1642 he was the first from the south and east to penetrate the Mohawk coun- try, visiting the castles, and seeking to miti- gate the condition of Father Jogues and other French prisoners. He not only reported the 88 NEW YORK. lands *'the most beautiful that eye ever saw," but established with the red men a friendship both romantic and beneficent. Bergen received name and local magistrates, and marked the beginning of municipal administration in the present State of New Jersey. The West In- dia Company secured all the patroon titles on Staten Island, and gave grants of land there to Waldenses and Huguenots. An association of Mennonists was assisted to locate south of the city. Esopus was again to be the centre of strife and carnage. In 1663 the continued sale of liquor and fire-arms to the red men threatened trouble ; but the settlers permitted themselves to be surprised, when the village of Wiltwyck was nearly destroyed, with the loss of twenty- one lives, and forty-five, chiefly women and children, carried into captivity. Expeditions were sent from New Amsterdam, so that the red men were punished, and the settlements at this point were strengthened. CHAPTER VI. SUBRENDER OF THE DUTCH. 1663-1674. On various occasions the English settlers, especially on Long Island, had given signs that they were a distinct body from the Dutch in- habitants. They had acted together for or against Director Stuyvesant as they had seen fit. In the appeals to Holland against him they had joined in declarations of hearty loyalty to the fatherland. In 1663 several of them resid- ing in Jamaica, Middleburg, and Heemstede sent a petition to Hartford asking Connecticut to cast " the skirts of its government" over them to protect them from their " bondage," and sug- gesting also the seizure of the Dutch towns on Long Island. The general assembly of Con- necticut challenged the authority of the West India Company except as a trading corporation, and the English settlers on Long Island seemed intent on actual revolution. To meet the emer- gency Stuyvesant called a convention of dele- gates at New Amsterdam. Eight towns were 90 NEW YORK. represented, while those on the upper Hudson sent no delegates. The remedy for the evils was, as so often before, an appeal to Holland, now especially for formal proclamation of the rights of the West India Company, in a form to restrain the English and to confirm the loyalty of the Dutch settlers. In the mean time Stny- vesant agreed to a proposition from Connecticut to forbear the exeicise of jurisdiction by either claimant in Westchester and on Long Island. The signs of English aggression multiplied. John Scott, who had brought out stringent orders for the enforcement of the British navi- gation laws in the colonies, and who claimed tbat Long Island belonged to the Duke of York, was designated a commissioner by Connecticut, and he organized a combination of the English towns on Long Island. He was chosen presi- dent of the combination, which was to last until the English king or the Duke of York should establish a government over the town. He tried to draw the Dutch towns on the island into the combination, but they refused to join in it. In 1664 Stuyvesant and Scott made an arrangement by which the question of jurisdic- tion should be referred to England and Hol- land for adjustment. In the mean time the English towns were for twelve months to be under the English crown, and the Dutch towns SURRENDER OF THE DUTCH. 91 under tlie States General, but the latter were to pay royalties to the English king. The Dutch authorities determined to fortify New Amsterdam and to increase its military force, so as to maintain two hundred militia- men and a hundred and sixty regular soldiers. Another popular convention was held in 1664, and twelve towns sent delegates. The first de- mand was for the provincial government to protect the people against the savages and " the malignant English." The convention wanted the States General or the company to meet the expense. Director Stuyvesant responded that the company had spent on the province twelve hundred thousand guilders more than it had received. The convention received from the States General answers to the appeals of the preceding year. The authority of the West India Company was ratified and proclaimed, and the provincial government was ordered to exterminate the Indians about Esopus, to check the English, and to subject the revolted settlers to allegiance. To help in these tasks sixty ad- ditional soldiers were sent out. The Esopus war was onded by a treaty of peace, which was celebrated by a day of thanksgiving. The re- volt on Long Island and the aggressions of the English from without, the convention pro- nounced beyond its power to meet. The let- 92 NEW YORK. lers of the States General were indeed laughed to scorn in the Enghsh towns, and Governor Winthrop formally repudiated the temporary arrangement for jurisdiction and asserted the absolute title of the English king. Vessels were already at sea, sent by the Duke of York, as Lord High Admiral of England, to enforce his claims not only to Long Island, but to the whole of New Netherland. Rumors of the expedition had reached Director Stuyve- sant, but a dispatch from the Amsterdam cham- ber announced that the purpose of the Duke of York was to establish Episcopacy in the English colonies and to look after their affairs. The English squadron, however, after rendez- vousing at Gardiner's Island, summoned help from Massachusetts and Connecticut, and came to anchor off Coney Island. It blockaded the river and the bay, seized several vessels, and August 29, 1664, the commander. Colonel Rich- ard Nicolls, demanded the surrender of the " towns situated on the island commonly known by the name of Manhattoes, with all the forts thereunto belonging.'* The town was in no condition for defense. The fort had been pronounced untenable. The burghers had long been impressed with the neg- lect of the Dutch authorities at home. Stuy- vesant was plucky and loyal and wanted to SURRENDER OF THE DUTCH. 93 resist, but he notified the Amsterdam cham- ber that " Long Island was gone and lost," and New Amsterdam " could not hold out much longer." NicoUs, the English commander, adroitly promised to hold the place subject to negotiations between the home governments, and to extend to the Dutch equal privileges with the English in case the surrender should be made. In vain Stuyvesant stood on one of the angles of the fort, ready to fire on the fleet, for the domines in behalf of the people begged hiui to desist. Placing himself at the head of his little garrison, he then proposed to resist the landing of the English, when petitions of men, women, and children came to him to sur- render, and he sadly answered, " I would much rather be carried out dead." A formal remon- strance against further opposition was signed by most of the officers and many principal in- habitants, and the brave director was compelled to yield. Security of property, liberty of con- science, and of church discipline, and the main- tenance of existing customs of inheritance, were guaranteed to the Dutch settlers, and mil- itary pride was flattered by allowing the garri- son to "march out with their arms, drums beating and colors flying and lighted matches." The surrender was made September 3, but was not formally completed until September 8. 94 NEW YORK. The treachery of James Stuart, Duke of York, thus broke the Dutch domination in New Netherland, and foreshadowed its end. The Dutch rule had lacked system, vigor, construc- tive and generative force. The divided author- ity in Holland had rendered it weak in mat- ters of vast moment, and negligent of provis- ion for large growth and permanent prosperity. The personal power confided to the director general encouraged him in an arbitrary policy, and the temper of the incumbents of that ofiice did not tend to diminish the evil inherent in the system. Those very evils developed here, as such causes elsewhere have done, resistance to oppression and the assertion of popular rights. The intellectual and religious activity and free- dom which illuminated the home country at that epoch were transferred to New Nether- land, and while something of the intolerance which in that age was so general stained its records, this colony beyond any other, except that founded by Roger Williams, was the ref- uge of the persecuted of every sect. One of the last acts of Stuyvesant was to welcome a company of French Huguenots, and in spite of his own previous attitude, one of his last com- munications to his directors proclaimed that it '' would be highly desirable that the yet waste lands which might feed a hundred thousand in- SURRENDER OF THE DUTCH. 95 habitants, should be settled and cultivated by the oppressed ; on the one side by the Roman Catholics in France, Savoy, Piedmont, and else- where, and on the other by the Turks in Hun- gary and upon the confines of Germany." This was a vision of cosmopolitan growth not com- mon in those days. But New Netherland had even then a population more diversified than any other American colony. Stuyvesant esti- mated it at full ten thousand in number, but others placed it at six thousand. Perhaps eight thousand is a liberal estimate. Agriculture was prospering ; the trade inland with the red men was profitable and was extending. The Am- sterdam chamber declared, when its population and navigation " should become permanently established, when the ships of New Netherland ride on every part of the ocean, then numbers, now looking to that coast with eager eyes, will be allured to embark for your island." Stuy- vesant labored to extend the foreign trade of the province, but he was met on every hand by British restriction, by the severe enforcement of the navigation laws, and by a jealousy which was argus-eyed, and a rivalry which brooked no competition. His surrender galled his proud spirit, but it was unavoidable. He was summoned to Hol- land to give account o*" his conduct, and bore 96 NEW YORK. with him warm testimonials of the burgomas- tei's, and was in the end sustained by the gov- ernment, aUliough the West India Company blamed him for the consequences of its own neglect. When by the Treaty of Breda the Dutch finally conceded the American colony to the English, Stuyvesant set about increasing its commerce by securing concessions to Dutch vessels. Returning to New York, he made his farm, the Bowery, a feature in the town, and died at the age of eighty. His monument may still be seen by the studious visitor. The Dutch soldiers were sent aboard ship, destined for Holland, as Nicolls, the English commander, at the head of his infantry, took possession of Fort Amsterdam. The Long Island and New England auxiliaries were not allowed to enter the town, and were soon dis- missed to their homes. The city was at once officially named New York and the fort was called Fort James. The English governor sur- rounded himself with English counselors and an English secretary, occasionally summoning one or two of the former Dutch counselors for advice. The religious situation remained as it had been except that services after the Episco- pal order were established in addition to those previously held. Fort Orange accepted the terms of capitula^ SURRENDER OF THE DUTCH, 97 tion and was clnistened Albany, and an English garrison was placed there under command of Captain Manning. An oath of allegiance to Great Britain was required of the settlers while they lived in its territories, and it was freely taken as it included no renunciation in terms of the Dutch government. The boundaries of the colony called for early attention. Commissioners awarded Long Is- land, then styled Yorkshire, to New York, and refused to it the land claimed in its behalf on the Connecticut River, and adjudged for an eastern limit a line running from the head of Mamaroneck Creek to the north - northwest, "about twenty miles from any part of the Hudson River." This line, it was charged, was the result of a trick on the part of the Connecticut delegates, — one of the earliest "Yankee tricks." Governor NicoUs was the personal represent- ative of the Duke of York, whose patent au- thorized him to make all laws and to carry on the government. In no other colony was arbitrary power so distinctly recognized. It was a formality, therefore, in which the gov- ernor indulged, when he summoned a meeting of two delegates from each town to consider a code proposed by him. The meeting assem- bled at Hempstead (for English forms were 98 NEW YORK. now adopted for the old Dutch names) Febru- ary 28, 1665, and thirty - four delegates ap- peared. They asked for the privilege of elect- ing their own officers, but this was contrary to the duke's commission and was not granted. Since they were not permitted to do anything else they thankfully accepted the code as pre- pared, and it was promulgated as " The Duke's Laws." It was systematic and elaborate, estab- lishing courts, town offices, and certain rates. It required a church to be built in every parish, and no minister was allowed to officiate without testimonials of ordination. It provided that "no persons should be molested, fined, or im- prisoned for differing in matters of religion who profess Christianity." The code was only gradually applied in practice, and the preju- dices of the Dutch were regarded. The task was to bring the Dutch, who wefre a large ma- jority, under English laws and English rule, and in the main Governor NicoUs showed mod- eration and discretion. The municipal government of the city which had become New York was at that early day, as so often since, the cause of trouble. The Dutch system was set aside, and the English plan of mayor and aldermen was established by the governor, with Captain Thomas Willett as the first mayor. At Albany, where he licensed SURRENDER OF THE DUTCH. 99 " the only English schoolmaster," the governor found that the Mohawks and the Mohicans had quarreled and some Dutch persons were killed. The murderers were detected, and one Indian was hanged and another was sent in chains to Fort James. At Esopus the military rule was strengthened with an injunction to the com- mander to maintain peaceful relations with the burghers. The forethought of the governor did not prevent a riot, which it required all his sagacity finally to adjust. By purchase from the Indians the domain of the Duke of York in this vicinity was extended, and especial effort was made to attract settlers. In 1665 Ralph Hall and his wife, Mary, were brought up for trial for witchcraft and sorcery, but the jury, in spite of " some suspi- cions," found "nothing considerable" against them. They were, however, put under bonds, which Governor Nicolls, at the end of three years, ordered canceled. The treatment of the charge affords notable contrast to the action taken elsewhere under the dictates of supersti- tion and cruelty. As war progressed between England and the Dutch republic. Governor Nicolls enforced a policy of confiscation of the property of such Dutch people as had not taken the oath of al- legiance. When the Dutch power was restored vengeance was taken in turn. 100 NEW YORK. Interruption of trade witli ITolland caused serious disaster to the colony, and relations with England were not yet sufficient to make up the deficiency. Of revenue tiie collections were inadequate to meet the charges upon it, and the private fortune of Governor Nicolls was exhausted in supporting the government. He sought to make up his losses by methods not above criticism. On Long Island discon- tent was general, in large part on account of " The Duke's Laws," and the Court of Assizes issued a decree against sedition, under which several persons were punished by fines and the stocks. The Duke of York, without consulting the governor, gave away to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret a vast tract of land to be called New Jersey. On the other hand Gov- ernor Nicolls claimed for the duke all the is- lands fiom Cape Cod to Cape May, and sent a commission to Martha's Vineyard, where he collected customs. Staten Island he confiscated to the duke as the property of the West India Company. In 1668 Governor Nicolls gave up his posi- tion and returned to personal service with the Duke of York. He was killed on board the flag-ship of the duke in the naval fight in Solebay, in 1672, and thus the seizure of New SURRENDER OF THE DUTCH. 101 Netherlaiid was avenged. He bore on his de- parture from the colony the good- will of the people and won the approval of the ducal pro- prietor. His rule of four years was one of difficulties, for the colony was poor. The wars in Europe kept settlers away, while the French overran the northeastern part of New York. His position was trying, but he met his duties bravely. He sent out a privateer in 1667 against the French and the Dutch, and its cap- tain, Exton, burned two forts in Acadia and captured as "many guns and other plunder" as his vessel could carry. Nicolls asserted all the prerogatives of his patron, but he main- tained liberty of conscience, and when he went away the testimony was given that " the sev- eral nations of Indians were never brought into such a peaceable posture and fair correspond- ence as by his means they now are." The new governor was a court favorite, Francis Lovelace. His task, like that of Nic- olls, was to bring the Dutch quietly under English authority. He fostered social relations between the Dutch and English settlers, and he was personally interested in building two ships. The prosperity of New York city was measured by the possession of four hundred houses. Some movement of migration toward the colony was indicated. He encouraged the 102 NEW YORK. Lutherans to bring a minister from Holland, luul sustained him against opposition, while the Reformed Church was protected in all its privileges, and the Presbyterians had a strong footing, particularly on Long Island. Reli- gious freedom was thus fairly illustrated. In 1667 petitions were presented to the gov- ernor from a number of towns asking for a legislature chosen by the freeholders, but an- swer was not given until the coming of Love- lace, who responded that he had no power to gi-ant their request, and " nothing was required of them but obedience and submission to the laws of the government, as appears by his high- ness' commission." Three years later, when Governor Lovelace wanted a levy through the Court of Assizes for the repair of Fort James, several towns objected by petition and protest, declining to aid unless they should have the right of representation. He and his council ordered the papers to be publicly burned as " scandalous and seditious." Appeal was made by some Long Island towns to the king, and when war became flagrant between England and Holland a ''benevolence" was asked in- stead of a tax. In 1671 efforts were made to promote migra- tion from New York to the Carolinas. Gov- ernor Lovelace sought to check it by requiring SURRENDER OF THE DUTCH. 103 passports for departure, but the number of emi- grants did not prove to be large. Lovelace continued the policy of buying lands from tlie red men. A question which arose over the title to Staten Island was ended by him in favor of the Duke of York by a deed obtained by tlie payment of certain wampum and wares. The establishment of post messengers be- tween New York and Boston is to be credited to Governor Lovelace, and it is a sign of the growing intimacy between the colonies. The Dutch navy had for many months been sweeping the seas in victory, and a fleet under Cornells Evertsen and Jacob Binckes had been busy on the coast of America capturing and burning the tobacco ships of Virginia in spite of their armed convoys. Among the vessels captured was one bearing Captain James Car- teret and his bride from New York to Virginia, and with them as a passenger was Samuel Hop- kins. While the master of the ship represented New York to be strong in its armament and de- fenses, Hopkins reported truly that the garrison consisted of only sixty or eighty men, and that the fort was defended by only thirty to thirty- six cannon, that it would be difficult to raise more than three or four hundred men against a sudden assault, and that since Governor Love- 104 N£W YORK. lace was absent, delay would occur in any de- fensive movement. The opportunity V7as welcomed by the Dutch commodores. They gathered their fleet off Sandy Hook, and August 7, 1673, anchored op- posite Staten Island. With seven ships of war, they had sixteen prize vessels, and these bore sixteen hundred men. The Dutch inhabitants were gladdened at the sight, and many visited the fleet, bearing information as well as con- gratulations. The next day the fleet moved within the Narrows, and anchored in sight of the city. Captain Manning, who had once been in com- mand at Albany, and since Nicolls' coming prom- inent in the government, was, in the absence of Governor Lovelace, in control at Fort James, with Captain Carr, who had been in command on the Delaware, as his chief counselor. He ap- pealed for volunteers, seized provisions, and tried to put the fort in condition for defense. In- stead of giving help, the inhabitants spikrd the guns at the city hall, and left the garrison to its fate. The Dutch commodores were neverthe- less challenged to answer why they "• had come in such a hostile manner to disturb his majes- ty's subjects in this place?" and their answer was, that the place " was their own, and their own they would have," and they demanded the SURRENDER OF THE DUTCH. 105 surrender of the fort. The fleet was already within musket-shot of the fort, and when Man- ning asked for delay until the next morning to consult the mayor and aldermen, he was allowed only half an hour. The Dutch commodores promised " to all men their estates and liber- ties," and promptly at the time named opened their broadsides on the fort, and killed and wounded some of the garrison. The fort re- turned the fire, and ''shot the general's ship thro' and thro'." The Dutch landed six hun- dred men at the point where Wall Street now reaches the East River, and these were joined by four hundred of the burghers, and the lat- ter urged an immediate advance to storm the fort. Such an attack was barely avoided. Man- ning asked for a parley and showed a flag of truce, but Carr at the same time struck the royal flag. The latter, when charged to convey to the fOrt the conditions of surrender fixed by the Dutch, fled instead of delivering the mes- sage. The army therefore began its march down Broadway. Fortunately Captain An- thony Colve, the commander, received on the way a proposal from Manning to surrender the fort and garrison with the honors of war, and promptly accepted it. The gates of the fort were opened to him, the surrender was made 106 NEW YORK. with colors flying and drums beating, a Dutch garrison was placed within the walls, and the ensign of the Dutch Republic was restored to the flagstaff, to float over New Netlierland re- covered by open assault in time of war. The capture of New York was made by the Dutch fleet and forces without direct orders. The attack was a surprise to the local author- ities, although warning had been received to put the fort in condition for defense. But with three fourths of the people Dutch in sympathy as well as in fact, defense was impracticable. The show of force might have been greater if proper preparations had been taken. The Dutch, however, came in numbers and might sufficient to make the conquest against all that the English authorities could have done. They yielded to a power too great for them. New Netherland was once more the name of the colony, while the city became New Orange and the fort on the bay was called William Henr}?-. The Dutch commodores summoned a council of war, and designated Captain Colve as governor general. Six burghers were in- vited to advise for the restoration of muni- cipal government. The commodores issued a decree of confiscation of all English and French property. Vessels were sent up the river and reduced Esopus and Albany without resistance. SURRENDER OF THE DUTCH. 107 Most of the Long Island towns accepted the Dutch rule without delay. In New Jersey the conquest was at once recognized. Governor Lovelace received word at New Haven of the capture of Fort James, and hur- ried to Long Island to defend his colony. He talked a little but did nothing, and soon ac- cepted an invitation to visit the fort, where he was arrested for debt, his property fell under confiscation, and he was taken to Europe in one of the Dutch vessels. He was charged with being in debt to the Duke of York, and on the return of the English his estate was seized to make the account good. He died in disgrace a few years afterwards. When the commodores sailed away they bore an address from the government which they had set up in New Orange, to the States Gen- eral, magnifying the attractions of the colony. Three cities and thirty villages were prosper- ing. With a larger farming population, grain and many necessaries could be produced for Holland, and peltries would furnish a profitable trade. Especially was the port of value as a naval station to guard against English aggres- sion. For all of these reasons reinforcements were solicited for the Dutch inhabitants, who now numbered six or seven thousand. The address took no account of the inhabitants of 108 NEW YORK. Englisli and other nationalities, at this time probably from three to five thousand in various parts of the colony. The States General re- ceived the communication after the decision had been reached to abandon the cities and vil- lages and farms and naval station to the Eng- lish rival. Governor Colve returned to the policy of Stuyvesant in the provisional instructions which he issued to the towns. In the eastern part of Long Island his authority was not accepted, and Connecticut sent agents to stir up the dis- affected. Massachusetts seized a Dutch ves- sel ; reprisals followed by the Dutch. War be- tween the colonies seemed imminent. Colve ordered all strangers away and forbade the entrance of any person not bearing a passport. To strengthen the fortification he levied a tax on the estates of all residents worth over a thousand guilders, and the list showed more than five hundred and twenty thousand guil- ders. A part of the tax was demanded in ad- vance by way of loan. He put the fort into good repair and mounted on it a hundred and twenty guns. He was busy with a soldier's care of the colony, until October 15, 1674, when orders came to him to surrender New Nether- land to the King of Great Britain. The seizure of the colony by the Duke of SURRENDER OF THE DUTCH. 109 York had been one of the incidents in the policy which arrayed England and Holland in deadly strife. For two years the demand for its recovery had been pressed by the colonists upon the Dutch government and was urged by the latter in negotiations with England. The reconquest by the Dutch was one of the series of victories which in those years gave glory to the States General. The necessities of Holland forced upon her unwelcome action. Great Britain and France had formed an alliance, and Holland had been driven to rely on her old enemy, Spain, and on Germany. In her stress Holland offered to yield New Netherland to Britain. The States General were not informed of the reconquest of the colony when pledge was given to recognize the British title. William of Orange was directing the negotiations which resulted in such aggrandizement of the realm of which he was within a few years to become king. The Treaty of Westminster was signed February 19, 1674, and all lands captured dur- ing the war were restored. Dutch rule on the continent of America was ended. New York as it was finally transferred to British authority did not contain twelve thou- sand white persons. The population reached as far north as the vicinity of Albany, and Schenectady was the remotest settlement on 110 NEW YORK. the Mohawk. Settlers nestled about the Hud- son. The French had missionary stations at various points among the red men. The pop- ulation was already varied in its elements. Swedes and Finns in New Jersey reached over nearly to the chief seaport. Waldenses and Huguenots had been from the first welcome settlers. English had come from home directly and through the colonies to Long Island and the eastern banks of the Hudson. In the list still preserved of immigrants are found names of persons from various parts of France, from Prussia, Germany, Switzerland, Norway, Den- mark, and Bohemia. The prophecy of a cosmo- politan population was already apparent. The Reformed Church had official recogni- tion during Dutch rule. The Lutherans were subject to occasional annoyances, but in the main were free to worship in their own way. The Presbyterians secured a strong footing, and with the advent of the new English governor the Episcopal Church was planted. Roman Catholics had at this time no settled pastors within the recognized limits of the Dutch col- ony, but received occasional visits from their missionaries among the Indians, who were treated with marked courtesy by the governor. The visit of Father Le Moyne, in 1658, led to arrangements for trade with Canada as well as SURRENDER OF THE DUTCH. Ill to favorable feelings toward the French mis- sionaries among the Iroquois. Jews were not allowed to serve as soldiers even under a press- ing exigency, but no other disability seems to have been imposed upon them. Charges of witchcraft were treated without passion, and no life was sacrificed to the superstition. If religious freedom was not perfectly asserted it would be hard to find in that age any other land in which closer approach was intelligently made to that result. The dominant influence except in certain towns, chiefly on Long Island, was that of the Dutch. They brought with them the contro- versies between Calvinism and Arminianism, and the forms and practices of the home country. The colonists took pains to establish schools and they maintained them in a modest way. Unless Stuyvesant is a slanderer, fully one fourth of the houses in New Amsterdam was devoted to the sale of brandy, tobacco, and beer, and the regulation of them was a source of trouble. Their existence tells the story of the habits of the people. The chief city was fol- lowed in this respect by the villages and the country. Hard drinking was not unusual. The taverns were the places of constant resort, and firewater was one of the easy instruments of trade with the red men. Withal the piety of 112 NEW YORK. rulers and people was pronounced. Governor Colve only illustrated the spirit of the colony when he appointed the first Wednesda)^ of every month as a universal day of thanksgiving and prayer. In spite of personal blunders and crimes the Dutch fostered humane and honest relations with the Indians, and established a friendship with the Iroquois which, inherited by the English, became a safeguard against French invasions. The fur trade brought red men and white men into more close intercourse than was com- mon in the other colonies. It tended somewhat to turn attention from immigration. For while company and governor and patroon and mer- chant sought profit from that source, numbers were less required than when energies were turned chiefly to the culture of the soil. For a like reason, what was wealth for those days was represented by a considerable body of capitalists, and society had its full share of display. The silver ornaments on the wooden leg of Governor Stuyvesant, and the " coach and three " which Governor Colve felt called upon to set up, not only reflect the character of the men, but their estimate of the taste of the inhabitants. But the governor's carriage was alone in its glory for no little time. The struggle for a share in the government SURRENDER OF THE DUTCH. 113 by the settlers began early, and was kept up during the wliole period of Dutch rule. The West India Company could arrogate no claim of divine right, for all men knew it was a simple organization for making money. It commanded no veneration, and the governors were regarded as mere individuals, often not so wise or so brave as the settlers. The home government was a republic during its whole control of New Netherland. The Dutch settlers brought with them man- ners, style of dress, furniture, habits of life. In a colony so remote, manners and habits were somewhat relaxed. Dress and furniture were in large part free from the raids of fashion. In an engraving in the "Description of New Nether- land" by Arnoldus Montanus, of the date of 1671, New Amsterdam appears with its fort and its church, not far from the bay. The houses stand with their sharp gables to the street; not a few of them have two stories besides the angle close to the roof. Some of only one story are situated below the fort. The town runs off from the river upon the creeks and ponds which were then frequent on the lower part of the island. The cold climate called into re- quisition wliatever clothing one possessed, and the manifold petticoats and trousers which have aroused ridicule contributed to comfort during 114 NEW YORK. the long winters. The taverns added the at- tractions of the American weed, tobacco, to the liquor and beer familiar at home, and the pipe adapted itself to the phlegmatic nature of the Dutchmen. Market days were a convenience for a population widely scattered. The Ker- mess, a sort of fair, brought this population to- gether for a succession of holidays. Church festivals were observed with zeal and with peculiar practices, as memories of Paas and Pinxter and the jollities of Christmas testify, and St. Nicholas, the Santa Claus of the chil- dren, has come down to us as the patron saint of the colony. The new year was celebrated by social calls on neighbors, a sign of comity and good will, which, while sometimes abused, has spread into other parts of the country. The commonwealth retains the impress of many of the peculiarities of its early settlers. If it has shown less state pride than some of its sisters, the reason may be found in part in the passing away of the language used during the first sixty years of its life, and in the diverse elements which from the beginning entered into its composition. CHAPTER VII. THE ATTEMPT OF THE SWEDES. 1626-1656. The Dutch claimed all the territory south as well as east of New Amsterdam, and the South River as well as the Fresh River are accounted in the early annals as no less included in New Netherland than the Hudson River. These claims were challenged at an early day by the English on pretense of earlier discovery, and by the Swedes because the land was open and un- occupied. Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden was led in 1626 to organize a company for trade and emigration to this coast, but his death pre- vented the impress of his genius and energy upon the enterprise. Queen Christina and her great minister Oxenstiern took up the project twelve years later. The matter was brought to the attention of the Swedish government by Usselinx, the projector of the Dutch West India Company, who had become dissatisfied with the people of Holland; and it was Peter Minuit, the dismissed director of New Nether- 116 NEW YORK. land, who led the movement for New Sweden. In 1638 a man-of-wMr and a tender were placed at his service, and with about fifty Swedes, mostly convicts, he sailed, and landed at James- town, Virginia. In April he took up a posi- tion on the South River, now the Delaware, and begun to trade for furs with the Indians. Di- rector Kieft served a protest on the part of the Dutch, but it was disregarded, and Swedish ves- sels sailed with cargoes of tobacco, while a gar- rison was established in a fort called Fort Chris- tina. The Swedes from this point entered into competition for furs in trade with the red men. They were not prosperous and were ready to abandon the post, when accessions came in 1640 from the home country, with fresh supplies, and as deputy governor, Peter Hollandaer. Thus strengthened, they bought lands of the Indians, and asserted a claim to a tract extend- ing thirty German miles along the sea, and in- land '' as much of the country as they chose to take.'* The colony grew to such importance that John Printz, a lieutenant colonel of cav- alry, was sent out in 1642 as governor, with orders for developing industry and trade. He took pains to command the mouth of the river, although the Dutch had established Fort Nas- sau on its eastern bank, and the Swedish settle- ments were on the western bank exclusivelv. THE ATTEMPT OF THE SWEDES. 117 Collisions arose between the Dutch and the Swedes, and when the former put up the arms of the States General on the completion of a purchase of lands from the Indians, Printz in a passion ordered them to be torn down. The Swedes gained in strength while the Dutch lost ground in the vicinity. In 1646 the Dutch attempted to build a trading post on the Schuylkill, when they were repulsed by force by the Swedes. Individuals seeking to erect houses were treated in the same way. The Swedes in turn set up a stockade on the disputed ground. Director Stuyvesant found it necessary in 1651 to go to confer with Printz with a view to holding the country against the aggressive Eng- lish. The Indians were called into council and confirmed the Dutch title, allowing the Swedes little more than the site of Fort Christina. Fort Casimir was erected lower down the river, to protect Dutch interests. The two rulers agreed to be friends and allies, and so contin- ued for three years. The distress of the Swedish colony led to appeals for aid from the home country whither Governor Printz had returned. In 1654 help was given, and a new governor, John Claude Rysingh, marked his coming by the capture of Fort Casimir, pretending that the Dutch 118 NEW YORK. West India Company authorized the act. The only revenge the Dutch could take was the seizure of a Swedish vessel which by mistake ran into Manhattan Bay. But the next year orders came from Holland exposing the fraud of Rysingh and directing the expulsion of the Swedes from the South River. A fleet was organized and Director Stuyvesant recovered Fort Casimir without firing a gun. After some parley Fort Christina was also surrendered. Such Swedes as would not take the oath of allegiance to the Dutch authorities were sent to the home country. Only twenty persons ac- cepted the oath, and of three clergymen two were expelled, and the third escaped like treat- ment by the sudden outbreak of Indian troubles. In 1656 the States General and Sweden made these transactions matter of international discussion. The Swedes presented a protest against the action of the Dutch, and it was talked over, but the matter was finally dropped. In the same year the West India Company sold its interests on the South River to the city of Amsterdam, and the colony of New Amstel was erected, so that the authority of New Nether- land was extinguished. After New Amsterdam was seized by the Duke of York an expedition was sent under Robert Carr to reduce the settlements on the THE ATTEMPT OF THE SWEDES. 119 Delaware. The Swedes welcomed his arrival. The Dutch resisted ; but while three of their garrison were killed and ten wounded, the assailants suffered no injury. John Carr, a lieutenant, and son of the commander, seized the captured property, sent the Dutch soldiers to Virginia to be sold as slaves, and set himself up as governor. He was after a while forced to recognize Governor McoUs as superior, but he was left in command. The Duke of York's concessions to Berkeley and Carteret led to a separate government. On the conquest of New York by the Dutch, the original claims of New Netherland to the south- ward were again asserted, and were not con- tested. A government was established on the Delaware with Schout Alrichs as its head, re- porting to Governor Colve. The surrender of New Netherland carried with it the settlements down to CapeHenlopen. But the Duke of York's gift to Berkeley and Carteret reduced the fair proportions of the province which bore his name, and established its boundaries upon the Lower Hudson and the waters of the Delaware. CHAPTER VIII. THE TOPOGRAPHY OF NEW YOEK. The English conquest brought a new name to the colony, and the Duke of York by giving away New Jersey marked out its bounds on the south. The defeat of the French in Canada and the treaty with Great Britain after the Revolution were required to fix the limits on the north. The domain when the French first came in was the seat of a powerful confederacy. Champlain's first chart, edition of 1613, marks the St. Lawrence, with Quebec and Montreal the seats of his authority, and locates the lake to which he gave his name in fair relations to them. The Lake of the Iroquois is not identi- cal in form or situation with Lake Ontario, but stands for it. North and west of that lake is a great body of water, unnamed, which he de- scribes as measured by fifteen days' travel of the canoes of the savages. The whole domain sur- rounding Lake Champlain, except on the north- east, and all south of the St. Lawrence and these lakes, indefinitely westward, he defines as THE TOPOGRAPHY. 121 the country of the Yrocois. The orthography- later became Iroquois. Champlain's niap of 1632 is more full and more extended. Its features for the domain which has become New York are the St. Law- rence, Lake Champlain, with a trend too much to the southwest, Lake St. Louis, where now is Lake Ontario, extending westward into nar- rower proportions, and northwestward a Mer Douce and a Grand Lac. He locates a very high waterfall at the west of Lake Ontario. The Hirocois occupy the centre of the domain, the Antouoronons (the Senecas) are south of the western limit of the Ontario, and west of them he places the '' neutral nation." The only French sign is Saintonge, the name of his birth- place, which he gives to the site of his first bat- tle with the Iroquois, but he is careful to mark no settlement. The Hudson, Long Island and its sound are sketched but not named. South- ward and inland he locates Virginia. Its natural features helped in great measure to separate the domain west of the Hudson and south of the lakes from the Plymouth colony on the east and Virginia on the south. By the charters of both they had a claim to all this territory. Nature had foreordained that its history should be distinct and different. By the formation of its soil, the trend of its moun- 122 NEW YORK. tains, by its relation to the ocean, and by its lakes and the course of its rivers, its people must have peculiar tasks. For they were to stand at the gateway of empire on this conti- nent, and were to control its earliest paths. Here were to be the battlefields on which were to be determined the type of the civiliza- tion to become dominant and the political con- trol of the chief part of the New World. The lines of discovery were prophetic. The French entered from Lake Champlain. The Dutch came up the Hudson. The Swedes challenged the southern border. The English crowded in from the east and south. The choice of Fort Orange as the original settle- ment and the early advances along the Mohawk touched the heart of the continent. The red men knew, the white men soon learned, that from the centre of the land of the Iroquois, the rivers flow to all points of the compass. The head waters of the Mohawk, which pass through the Hudson to the Atlantic, interlace with streams which sweep northward and join the majestic St. Lawrence. Waters which a stone's throw separate start some for the Mohawk, and others, by the Susquehanna, to the far distant Chesapeake. Within the land of the Iroquois Champlain might have found streams to con- duct him before Joliet or La Salle, by way of THE TOPOGRAPHY. 128 the Ohio, down the controlling current of the Mississippi. This watershed marks also the mountains which are the ribs of the continent. Across from the north of Lake Champlain the Adiron- dack Mountains run southward, sinking their summits to the Catskills, and extending then to the hills which join the Alleghanies. These elevations are a part of that continental system of mountains. The Hudson cleaves them. The Mohawk divides the hills which open to make a gateway for its waters. Minor rivers seek final outlet by the St. Lawrence at the north or by the Hudson at the south. The Delaware, the Chenango and the Susquehanna, and the Chemung flow southward, and the Alleghany to the southwest. The interior lakes all discharge across the lines of latitude. This conformation affords natural channels for advance north toward the lake and the St. Lawrence and southward almost indefinitely. The earliest and most inviting gateway west- ward has proved to be by the Mohawk valley. The earlier French governors saw in this do- main the seat of empire. Baron D'Avaugour wrote in 1663 to the minister Colbert, " The St. Lawrence is the entrance to what may be made the greatest State in the world," and he urged the erection of a strong fort where Al- 124 NEW YORK. bany now stands. Talon, a few years later, recommended the purchase or seizure of New York with a view to the control of the conti- nent. These designs inspired the contests of the French against the Iroquois which followed these natural lines and led to the counter- assaults carried seven times to the gates of Montreal. The British advanced by the same paths to conquer Canada. The royal attempts to check the revolution of the colonies chose the Champlain and the Hudson and the Mo- hawk for some of the decisive demonstrations. Washington, in his visit in 1783, to the Mohawk, Oneida Lake, and the sources of the Susque- hanna, was impressed with the " immense diffu- sion " of inland waters and the facilities for making intimate connections with other parts of the country. In 1812 British arms again sought to penetrate the United States by the water-routes leading from Canada southward. A leader in the rebellion of 1861 alleged that one chief cause of the failure of the Confederacy was due to the flow of the rivers and to their open valleys leading from New York to the heart of Virginia. General Scott, standing on the field of the battle of Bemus Heights, de- clared this Commonwealth to hold the military key of the continent east of the Mississippi, and on the same spot General Grant confirmed the judgment. THE TOPOGRAPHY. 125 In 1721 the Lords Commissioners of Planta- tions proposed to the British crown to place a captain general in this province on account of its commanding position, and to " render the several provinces from Nova Scotia to South Carolina " subject to his orders. The sugges- tion was due not to the population of the prov- ince, for it was suialler than that of others, but solely to the natural relations of New York to the British possessions. It was an official rec- ognition of the geographical situation. To these natural features must be assigned the current of migration, of trade, of growth, of wealth, and of power, which has passed through the valley of the Mohawk, from the Old World and the eastern part of the conti- nent, first to western New York, and in due order to Ohio, to the Northwest, beyond the Mississippi, to the Pacific, and finally to Oregon and the Columbia. Settlers in the early days went west by the flatboafcs on the Mohawk, and up the Delaware and Susquehanna, before arti- ficial channels multiplied the facilities of the pathways marked out by nature. We shall describe the domain which has become New York, in a general way, if at the mouth of the Hudson we draw a right-angled triangle. The perpendicular will follow the Hudson and Lake Champlain, and our terri- 126 NEW YORK. tory will extend eastward beyond the river so as to control both of its banks. The base of this triangle from the Hudson will follow mountains to the eastern bend of the Delaware and along that river to the forty-third parallel, thence along that parallel west to a line bound- ing Pennsylvania and running to the middle of Lake Erie. The hypo then use Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence supply. A like triangle was cut off between the head waters of Lake Cham- plain and the St. Lawrence by the Treaty of Ghent, which drew a line westward from the sources of the Connecticut on the forty-fifth parallel. New York, besides its outlying islands, is such a truncated triangle, with the Hudson extending from its main angle down to the sea. A more homely resemblance is found in the form of a shoe with a long heel resting at the seaport, broad toes touching Lake Erie, and a large ankle spreading along the St. Lawrence. The area is 47,620 square miles, if we measure to the centre of the lakes and rivers which make part of its boundaries, and the extreme measurements are 311§ miles from north to south, and 412 miles from west to east, incUiding Long Island. At the main angle of our triangle spreads the bay which commerce has chosen for its chief seat, and which receives and distributes its treasures in THE TOPOGRAPHY. 127 large part along the paths that nature has pro- vided through the domain which has become the Empire State. This domain could not well be an attach- ment to any other colony. It must be itself the source of development, the centre of growth. Settlement was checked during the struggles of France and England, and the bat- tles of the Revolution, and the movements of troops kept the increase below the rate of other colonies. These were consequences due to the position and topography of New York. As soon as continental strife ceased, natural ad- vantages drew settlers and developed resources, and gave the reins to commerce. The map of the State, and especially its lakes, the course of its rivers and the trend of its mountains, are the key to its history. CHAPTER IX. THE PEOPLE OF THE LONG HOUSE. The title of the Empire State is a modern invention. Yet at the time the white men came into New York, a confederacy, which boasted that it had already existed six genera- tions, occupied the chief part of this territory and wielded a power imperial in its extent and exercise. The aborigines on the h>wer Hud- son and the seacoast consisted of several tribes who gave no particular direction to the current of events. From the mouth of the Mohawk northward and westward dwelt a people known as the Five Nations, allied in a union which with their genius for control, made them mas- ters over a large part of the continent. They had at one time lield full sway on the north shores of the St. Lawrence. In Cartier's time one of their tribes occupied the site of Quebec. Champlain found them on the west shores of the lake which bears his name, and the terror of their arms introduced French warriors and French missionaries to far western lakes and rivers. THE PEOPLE OF THE LONG HOUSE. 129 They at once became the masters of the trade in beaver skins, and were not second to any tribes in hunting and fishing. They were hardly less noted for the culture of tlie soil and for the building of cabins and defensive works than for military prowess. The first white visitor found frame cabins, and fields of corn and beans, and tobacco, pumpkins, and small fruit ; and thrift as well as industry were proved by the preservation of crops, which were buried in the winter. The Iroquois had stone axes, and chisels, and knives, before the whites gave them metal implements. They produced pot- tery, and the specimens preserved in graves show a rude skill and some merit in design. They fashioned moccasins of deer skins and shoes of the hide of the elk. They tanned leather, they made needles of bones ; from bark they wrought rope, baskets, and barrels, and graceful and useful canoes. From wood they devised many implements which they carved elaborately. They used armor of twigs and hides, and their fortifications had a certain mili- tary strength even against French arms. Their speech was direct and vigorous and effective, and proves, as Max Miiller declares, that they were powerful reasoners and accurate classi- fiers. By a very full and rich pictorial lan- guage, abounding in compounds, they recorded 130 NEW YORK. on skms remarl?:able achievements, and some- times so conveyed messages. Their money- was wampum or seawant, strips of leather adorned with shells from the lakes, and after- wards with beads. The pipe of peace they used as a sedative and a symbol. They styled themselves Ongwe-Honwe^ men surpassing all others, when they yielded to their swelling oratory. They were also " The People of the Long House," priding them- selves on the domain they occupied, or quite as likely on the form of the cabins they built, and probably the phrase had reference to both. Their orators were wont to speak of the east- ern valley of the Mohawk as the entrance of the mansion which extended to the falls of Niagara, where was the western door. Here were their castles and their home, however far they ranged in hunting or in war. The French called them Iroquois, the " men who say iro," or " I have said Koue^^ a word of approval, as it is the habit to explain the derivation. It is, however, noteworthy that one of the earliest chiefs whom Champlain met was called Iro- quois, although not of this confederacy, and the inference is fair that the personal name existed in other tribes, and was transferred by the French to the united Five Nations, or, indeed^ was applied by the red men themselves. THE PEOPLE OF THE LONG HOUSE. 131 These tribes derived their origin from a divine source. Their traditions were various and were enriched by noble conceptions. Ac- cording to one of them the first of the nation was a celestial being, Atotarho, or To-do-da-ho, whose hair was serpents, and whose name was retained for the chief of the Onondagas. Hia- watha, also divine, is reputed to be the archi- tect of the confederacy, transformed by mod- ern criticism into a " lawgiver of the stone age." The contest between these two persons affords wide scope for myths. Hiawatha, al- though an Onondaga, found the first response to his plans for union from the Mohawks, and the support of other tribes was won by conces- sions in rank and power. Another tradition is that Ataentsic, a goddess, accidentally fell from heaven, or was excluded for a human amour. She bore two children, the sun and the moon, and, although a Huron, became the mother of these tribes, and with some qualities of a universal mother on earth. The higher version recognizes the " holder of the heavens " as the master of life, and in a peculiar sense the god of the Iroquois. The names of tribes as we know them in English are formed from those of the people themselves, except the Senecas and the Mo- hawks, who were probably so styled by epithets 132 NEW YORK. of dislike. The title Mohawk was a term of terror and of hate first applied to the tribe by the eastern Indians, and to the French it was a note of alarm while they held sway in Mon- treal and Quebec. The Mohawks lived in the eastern part of the valley which still bears their name, the Oneidas next west in the vicinity of Oneida Lake, the Onondagas in the region of the Salt Springs, the Cayiigas reaching to the shores of Lake Ontario, and the Senecas spreading to the south and west. The Tuscaroras, defeated in North Carolina, joined the union in 1715 as a sixth nation, and received from the Oneidas lands between the latter and the Onondagas. The Senecas were the most numerous, with as many as twelve hundred fighting men, wliile the other four tribes could together mus- ter hardly so many. The total population of the confederacy after white men came to know them did not exceed twelve thousand souls. One of the remarkable facts of history is, that, scattered as they have been, with all the vicis- situdes of exclusion and the flood of a new civ- ilization, an equal number of representatives of these tribes exists to-day. The records of the Interior Department in Washington contain the demonstration. American research among the traditions of THE PEOPLE OF THE LONG HOUSE. 133 our original tribes does not discover, the annals of mankind do not afford on the same grade of general civilization, any parallel to the political system which existed among the Iroquois as a confederacy, or among the tribes composing it. Within the tribes were clans, sometimes seven or eight, distinguished by names of animals, as the Tortoise, the Bear, and the Wolf, and organ- ization was close and complete. These people lived in castles which were towns, with homes and their appendages. Fifty sachems were ap- portioned, not according to population, but by arbitrary rule : nine each to the Mohawks and Oneidas, fourteen to the Onondagas, ten to the Cayugas, and eight to the Senecas. These con- stituted the national council, and the succes- sion was by inheritance on the female side, with apparently a right of choice by the wo- men among their heirs. The name descended with the office. Next to the sachems were chiefs, elected by their tribes, and distinguished achievements at once gave access to this rank. All old men and all warriors exercised an advi- sory part in affairs, and the women held meet- ings in which their will found utterance and it was formally communicated to the chiefs and sachems. In matters of property and especially of land their voice was potent. It would appear thus that councils were held 134 NEW YORK. of various grades, rising by degrees to those of tlie sachems. They were all conducted with dignity and decorum. The resemblance to town meetings and to modern legislatures is not a mere fancy. These councils were held in the several tribes, and when exigency arose, a con- gress of the union was summoned by runners bearing belts of wampum. All decisions re- quired a unanimous vote. Deliberation and debate were employed to secure this result. If at last all did not approve, the project proposed was abandoned. Such institutions were the school of freedom and of loyalty. They developed intellectual activity and force, and created a confederacy remarkable in its elements and notable for its duration. It stood the strain of contact with the invading whites, and fostered a military prowess of which the proofs are simply wonder- ful. The supremacy of the Iroquois was recog- nized by the red men of New England. They collected taxes from those who lived on Long Island. In 1608 John Smith met a war party of them on the Chesapeake. In 1663, Sir Thomas Temple, governor of Nova Scotia, sent a remonstrance to Fort Orange, to ask that the Mohawks might be restrained from waging war on the Indians within his jurisdiction. The fear of the Iroquois rested on the tribes THE PEOPLE OF THE LONG HOUSE. 135 about Montreal and north of the St. Lawrence, and they roamed in battle to the far south and west. When they bought arms of the Dutch and French, in exchange for peltries, they car- ried terror before them. The upper lakes were the scene of their conquests. They drove the Hurons and the Ottawas to the head-waters of the Mississippi. They became masters along the Illinois, the lower Ohio, and to the mouth of the Mississippi. Champlain suffered defeat at their hands. Tracy exhausted his resources in an invasion of their domain in which they foreshadowed the tactics of the Russians before Napoleon. They held their territory against French power, and became the shield of Eng- lish civilization on this continent. Peter Schuyler in 1710 took five of their sachems to England with him, with a view to impress Queen Anne and her ministers with the importance of their alliance. Great show was made of them, and an address was presented by them urging the conquest of Canada, be- cause they had been a " strong wall " against the French, and now the reduction of that power was " of great weight to their free hunting." The " Tatler " and the " Spectator " spoke of these visitors as " Indian kings," and the spark- ling essayists adorned their productions with references to the " Emperor of the Mohocks." 136 NEW YORK. The "kings" were accepted as typical of the most formidable of the red men of America. Gouverneur Morris was wont to relate an in- cident received by him from an eye-witness, illustrating the estimate which that statesman had formed of the red men, whom he knew well. The Long Island Indians, according to the narrative, had neglected to pay tribute to the Iroquois for several years, about 1760, and had sold some land without their leave. One even- ing a Mohawk warrior in full dress appeared on Long Island, and stated that he had a message from the Six Nations to present to the tribe at a council in the morning. At the council, standing alone, he asked why the tribute had not been paid, why the land had been sold, and who first signed the deed. An old chief con- fessed that he was the first signer. As the words passed his lips the Mohawk split his head with a tomahawk. Then without let or hin- drance he left the paralyzed council and went safely home. Such audacity and such sover- eignty by a single chief, in a hostile tribe, a hundred and fifty miles from his castle, epito- mize the power and eminence of the Iroquois. They believed in a great spirit and in im- mortality in happy hunting grounds. In their " keepers of the faith," a priestly order may be discerned, and in their festivals and form of THE PEOPLE OF THE LONG HOUSE. 137 burial are ceie monies not without sacrificial and spiritual significance. Their religion lifts them above brute barbarism to a semi-civilization which separates them from the tribes surround- ing them. They respected woman and hon- ored matrimony, and inheritance was from the female. Chivalry did not accord her so much as did these red men, for they gave her a part in their councils and their governments, and made her voice potent in the choice of chiefs. The family was a sacred institution, and chil- dren were caref idly trained. For the aged high regard was exhibited, and the rites of hospi- tality were honored with chivalric strictness. In the passions of war the Iroquois tortured prisoners at the stake with terrible inhumanity. They were sometimes cannibals, but they often spared their captives and adopted them into the families of their chiefs, with a method of generous naturalization. They even merged tribes defeated in battle into their own system, and thus, as the Romans were wont to do, ex- tended their sway and strengthened their force for future warfare. They were natural diplomatists. The Dutch, in 1617, established a firm and lasting treaty with them, and relied upon the Mohawks, as the readiest agents for adjusting difficulties arising with the tribes on the islands and the lower 138 NEW YORK. Hudson. The French found the Five Nations all adepts in negotiation. Neither by arms nor by treaty could the successive governors secure a permanent foothold in the country of the Iroquois. These red men regarded ambassa- dors as peculiarly entitled to honor and pro- tection, and to compacts once formed they were quite as faithful as modern nations are v^ont to be. The chronicles of French intercourse with the Iroquois exhibit in strong light the cour- age, the audacity, the independence and pa- triotism of these red men. They never ceased to defy and challenge French power, however they might at intervals seek to gain time and advantage by negotiation ; and when Canada fell into British hands the result was due in no small degree to the checks put by Iroquois arms on the broad and aggressive policy of the governors sent out from Paris, and of the min- isters and sovereigns who directed them. The French writers learned to know the character of these heroes of the forest. Charle- voix saw them as early as 1706, and testifies " these Americans are perfectly convinced that man is born free, and that no power on earth has any right to restrict his libert}^ while noth- ing can make up for its loss." La Potherie declares in his book, published in 1722, that THE PEOPLE OF THE LONG HOUSE. 139 '' their union worked like a clock " from the marvelous adjustment of its parts. The Jesuit Lafitau represents their " senate " — a title per- haps too formal — as " discussing affairs of state with as much coolness and gravity as the Span- ish junta or the grand council of Venice." The Dutch always found them good neighbors and trustworthy friends. Oratory bore an important part in the life of the Iroquois. In their councils they prac- ticed it, drawing figures from the phenomena of nature, and retaining after long intercourse with the whites a rhetoric original and unique. In negotiations the oration was a leading feat- ure. Charlevoix testifies that Joncaire, a Sen- eca, " spoke with all the .^vivacity of a French- man and the sublime eloquence of an Iroquois." Jefferson "challenged the whole orations of Demosthenes and Cicero and of any more emi- nent orator of Europe, if Europe has furnished more eminent, to produce a single passage su- perior to the speech of Logan," who was descended from the Cayugas. DeWitt Clinton declares it to be "impossible to find in all the effusions of ancient or modern oratory a speech more appropriate and convincing " than an argument made by Garangula, a chief of the Onondagas. Living men testify to the marvel- ous eloquence of the Seneca, Red Jacket, who died in 1830. 140 NEW YORK. By such qualities the Iroquois not only won but held supremacy over the red men of the continent. Not a tribe could successfully dis- pute their might in battle. The settlers in Maryland framed a treaty with them for the protection of their own borders. The governors of Virginia, beginning in 1679, more than once deemed it vital to enter into negotiations with tliem. In 1689 Massachusetts found it neces- sary to frame a treaty with these redoubtable tribes, and both that colony and Connecticut appealed to them for aid in their expedition against Canada. In 1753 the governor of South Carolina besought Governor Clinton of New York to make peace between the Iroquois and the Creeks, to check French schemes in the southern colony. From Hudson's Bay and Lake Superior to the mouth of the Chesapeake, from the Penob- scot to the Kentucky and Savannah rivers, and one author says even to the Isthmus of Darien, at the close of the seventeenth century, the Indian nations recognized the domination of the Iroquois. The French failing to conquer them vied with the British in seeking their alliance. They supported the British govern- ment in general policy, and gave it strong help in the Revolution. At Fort Duquesne Washing- ton appealed to the Six Nations because he THE PEOPLE OF THE LONG HOUSE. 141 was fighting for their rights to territory. Brit- ain always recognized their title to the domain south of the St. Lawrence. In 1755 the Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations au- thorized a map of the colonies in America, by Mitchell, and it fixes the extent of the Iroquois dominion at that day, as claimed by the Eng- lish, and practically recognized by the French, in their negotiations with each other. The southern boundary runs from the Atlantic through the middle of North Carolina to the Mississippi, np that stream to the Illinois, thence through Lake Michigan to the north of the Straits of Mackinaw, and eastward to the Ottawa River, and thence to Montreal, the Sorel, and the Hudson. The map states that the southern portion of this domain was yielded to the crown in 1729. In the controversy which arose between the British and French over the territory along the Ohio and southward, the British claim al- ways rested on the title derived from the Six Nations. To a memorial in behalf of France, made by the Duke de Mirepoix, May 14, 1755, response was published in the French language on the part of the British ministry, and prom- inence is given to a memorial of the Earl of Albemarle, of March 7, 1752, in which he de- clared that "the court of Great Britain asserts 142 NEW YORK. and insists that the five Iroquois nations, ac- knowledged by France to be the subjects of Great Britain, are either originally or by con- quest the lawful proprietors of the territory of Ohio." Virginia by treaty defined its boundaries with the Iroquois, and Pennsylvania secured a cession of its soil from them, while Connecticut people bought of them large tracts on the Sus- quehanna River. To all that remained New York attained by purchase and fair negotiation the right of eminent domain. In the Iroquois confederacy the Mohawks were the " true heads," as they were recog- nized by the treaty of 1768 at Fort Stanwix. Their castles were nearest to the whites, and they became first known and bore the brunt of the earliest fighting. The Oneidas were in- clined to moderate counsels, the conservatives of the union. The Onondagas became the most affected by French influences. The Sene- cas probably were most apt in tilling the soil. The Six Nations, except a share of the Onei- das, were led by Sir William Johnson to the British side in the Revolution, fighting at Oris- kany and under Burgoyne, and liarassing the settlers until cruelly crushed in the Sullivan campaign of 1779. Some of them appeared under the British flag in 1812 during the oper- ations in New York. THE PEOPLE OF THE LONG HOUSE. I43 The domination of the Iroquois over the red men was due in part to the natural avenues \ which they possessed for making swift inroads in every direction, assured to them by the topography of their country. Their imperial domain helped to make them what they were. They had qualities of sagacity, courage, organ- ization, eloquence, which were not elsewhere found when Europeans entered the continent. They had farms and homes and towns and a political system. They had medicine men and a sort of religion with sacrifices. Without courts, justice was regarded, and the chiefs and councils supervised the exercise of personal adjustment and vengeance. Their character and their military strength were important elements in determining the 'settlement and development of the commonwealth which grew up in their Long House. CHAPTER X. FEENCH MISSIONARIES AND FRENCH ARMS. 1640-1671. French rights derived from the discoveries of Champlain extended to the sources of the waters tributary to the St. Lawrence. They covered, therefore, all of northern New York. No effort was made by the French to occupy this domain, until the attacks of the Iroquois compelled retaliation. The forethought of mis- sionaries and adventurers reached further west. Even relio^ious zeal was directed into the coun- try soutli of the St. Lawrence and Lake Onta- rio chiefly by the fate of war. The French used those waters as a pathway to the West. As early as 1640 fierce enemies were threatening them. Montmagny, governor of Canada, to hold the L^oquois in check, built a fort at the mouth of the Sorel River. It was part of a broad policy conceived by one whose name translated — Onontio, Big Mountain — the red men applied to his successors, and in- deed to the French power. His establishment of such an advanced post was none too soon. FRENCH MISSIONARIES AND ARMS. 145 Two Frenchmen captured by the Iroquois in 1641 were taken as interpreters to Montmagny, by a large company of the red men asking for a treaty. The French commander haughtily re- jected the proffered terms, which excluded the Indian allies of France, and the captives, in- stead of heralds of peace, became the ministers of hitensifying relations already hostile. They notified the French that the Five Nations would soon be on the war-path, and would especially seek to destroy the other tribes and put an end to French alliance and intercourse with them. Twelve canoes were on the Lake of St. Peter in the St. Lawrence, August 3, 1642, on their return to the Hurons. The company consisted of Huron boatmen and converts, with three Frenchmen engaged in missionary work. Two were lay assistants, Rene Goupil and Guil- laume Couture. The third was Isaac Jogues, a Jesuit, an accomplished scholar, an adven- turous traveler devoted to French interests, but above all, a zealous apostle of Christ. Upon this peaceful fleet suddenly dashed a force of Iroquois in canoes, and bearing arms. The show of defense was brief, and was fol- lowed by a panic. Jogues escaped for the moment, but speedily returned to his captured companions. Couture in fleeing was caught, but killed a pursuer. A Huron maiden, Teresa 146 NEW YORK. Oiouhaton, was among the prisoners, and be- coming the wife of a Mohawk, long preserved the reputation of saintly virtues. The three Frenchmen were beaten, their finger-nails were torn off by the teeth of their captors. The conquerors led their victims away by the Sorel River and Lake Cham plain. Near the south end of that lake, a band of Iroquois warriors was met advancing for fight in Canada. The captives were compelled to run the gauntlet between two rows of savages beating and bruis- ing them, and Jogues received the decoration of the worst treatment. Proceeding to the south and west, in thirteen days from the St. Lawrence the company reached a palisaded town on the banks of the Mohawk River. On their arrival here the captives were driven be- tween a double line of the people, who beat them with rods, amid wild yells and screeches. Jogues was knocked down, but arose and stag- gered on ; his thumb and that of Goupil were cut off. At night they were bound to stakes, and the children cast live coal and hot ashes upon their naked bodies. They were led for seven days to the second and third Mohawk towns, and back and forth, and the tortures were repeated. Goupil was struck in the head with a tomahawk and released from his suffer- ings, September 29, and the dogs feasted on FRENCH MISSIONARIES AND ARMS. 147 his body. Couture for his bravery in defend- ing himself was adopted into the tribe. Jogues was compelled to serve the Indians, and sought to teach them the Gospel. In the forest he re- peated his prayers and carved the cross and the name of Jesus on the bark of the trees. He saw Huron captives brought in by war parties, and burned, and their flesh eaten by the con- querors. The next year he accompanied a party to Fort Orange, and made an effort to escape. His effort was a failure, but he was befriended by Rev. Johannes Megapolensis, the Dutch minister, and finally ransomed by his Dutch benefactors, and was invited to Man- hattan, where Governor Kieft welcomed him, and enabled him to return to Europe. The Pope by special dispensation restored to him, crippled by his sufferings, the privilege of say- ing mass, forbidden to any person having physical deformity. He returned to Canada in 1644, and in May, 1646, he was sent to the Mohawks where Couture was residing, on a mission of peace, and carried back to Quebec responses fairly satisfactory. September 27, he set out on his final tour to the tribe to found the " Mission of the Martyrs." On his previous visit he had left a box, which the red men were induced to believe contained a sor- cerer's evil charms. On that suspicion a war 148 NEW YORK. party met the brave priest, who had a single French companion. The warriors seized them, and cut strips of flesh from the back of Jogues, taunting him with threats of death on the morrow. Invited to a feast on that day, he was struck with a hatchet and fell dead. His companion was also killed, and the bodies of botli were thrown into the Mohawk, and their heads placed on palisades. The date of their martyrdom was October 18, 1646, and the scene has been definitely located near the present vil- lage of Auriesville. His murderer was identi- fied among prisoners taken by the French, and he was burned to death at the Sillery Mission. This was the manner of the advent of the first missionary among the Iroquois, and he proved that he had many of the virtues of a true martyr. Joseph Bressani, also a Jesuit, was the sec- ond missionary, and his experience of captivity was not dissimilar. He was captured April 29, 1644, by one of the many war parties of Iro- quois then ravaging the country down the St. Lawrence. He was on his way as a missionary to the Hurons, and his party in three canoes was captured on the river. The captives were taken by the route of Lake Champlain to the upper Hudson. There was a camp of four hun- dred Iroquois, and Bressani was given over to FRENCH MISSIONARIES AND ARMS. 149 torture by the children, after the men were weary. He was stripped naked, his nails and the joints of liis fingers were burned off one by one ; he was hung in chains by the feet, and the dogs were set to lacerate him. In June he was sent to Fort Orange, to be sold to the Dutch, who in their humanity ransomed him, and he was enabled to go to Europe. He returned and afterwards labored with zeal among the Hurons. Father Joseph Poucet repeated the same experience of captivity. In August, 1653, he was seized at Three Rivers and by the same route taken a captive to the Mohawk castles. Threatened with torture he was saved by adop- tion into an Indian family. He was taken to Fort Orange and his wounds healed. After administering religious rites to two Catholics resident there, he returned to the Mohawks, who gave him up to the French authorities in November of the same year. These three missionaries brought by force into the laud of the Iroquois took back, and Jogues sent back in writing, information con- cerning the red men, their surroundings, and their plans. The Iroquois had for years har- ried the French in Canada, and fear of them was on priest and soldier. Father Vimont at the beginning of their many victorious raids 150 NEW YORK. declared : " I had as lief be beset by goblins as by the Iroquois. The one is about as in- visible as the other. Our people on the Riche- lieu and at Montreal are kept by them in a closer confinement than were ever monks or nuns in our smallest convents in France.'* The Mohawks were the leaders in the assaults on the French, often the only members of the war parties which tinged the St. Lawrence with blood. In 1653, a peace was made by the French with them, and the recovery of Father Poucet was made a condition by De Lauzon, the French commander. In response to a request from the Onondagas for a Jesuit father to live with them, and for help to build a fort, Simon Le Moyne was sent in July, 1653, as a missionary with the deputa- tion that presented the invitation. He was first of white men to observe the Salt Springs which to this day have been a source of wealth to the Onondaga country. The Indians had told the French of these springs, but they at- tracted no notice until Le Moyne tested them and made them known. The Mohawks were only a few months later than the Onondagas in asking for a missionary, and were annoyed that a rival tribe had been first in the mat- ter, but they were promised a share in the labors of Le Moyne. He was with the Onon- FRENCH MISSIONARIES AND ARMS. 151 dagas when in 1655 the Iroquois engaged in the war with the Erie tribe which resulted in its practical annihilation. In the autumn of that year two other Jesuit missionaries came to the Onondagas by the way of Lake Ontario. They were Joseph Chaumonot and Claude Da- blon. The preaching of the former roused the red men to shout under the lead of their chief : " Glad tidings ! Glad tidings ! " A chapel of bark was built in a single day, and a site for a permanent French settlement was chosen at the Salt Springs. In 1656, Father Le Mercier brought a colony of fifty Frenchmen and five additional missionaries. Under the lead of Sieur Dupuys they reached their destination July 12, and five pieces of cannon announced their arrival. A redoubt was built on an emi- nence overlooking the lake, then called Genen- taha, and cabins soon provided shelter. The Mohawks disliked the lead taken by the Onon- dagas, but the other tribes of the great con- federacy welcomed the missionaries who went forth to give instruction in the faith. Alarms came quick and fast upon the adven- turous French colonists. The Iroquois pre- pared for war parties. Dupuys heard of plots for exterminating his little company. He ar- ranged* a feast for the Onondagas, and in the midst of their revelry he led his fellow-colonists 152 NEW YORK. through the floating ice of March, and took them safely back to Canada. The abandon- ment was complete. In 1661, Father Le Moyne returned to the scene, and sought to reestablish a mission. The Mohawks did not forget the repulse which they had received years before, but Senecas and Cayugas joined with the Onon- dagas to greet the missionary. The winter did not bring sufficient promise of encouragement, and Father Le Moyne gave up the field in the succeeding spring, taking with him to Canada prisoners released by the three western tribes of the confederacy. The Oneidas and Mohawks kept up their forays even to the gates of Montreah In 1663, the French governor, D'Avaugour, asked the home authorities for three thousand troops to destroy the Iroquois, and urged the building of forts on the Sorel and upper Hudson to keep open communication by that route. The Jesuit missionaries pleaded that the sale of liquor to the red men was one cause of their violence. Quarrels arose between successive governors and the priests over the proper policy to be pursued with the red men. In 1665, the French king gave instructions to treat the Five Nations as " perpetual and irreconcilable enemies," and to carry war ''even to their firesides in order to- tally to exterminate them." A thousand French FRENCH MISSIONARIES AND ARMS. 153 veterans of the Carignan regiment were trans- ferred from fighting Turks in Hungary to per- form this task of extermination, and with them came large accessions to the Canadian colony. The Marquis de Tracy entered upon his duties as viceroy by rebuilding a fort at the mouth of the Sorel, and by erecting Fort Chambly on the rapids of that name, and Fort Ste. Therese, still nearer to Lake Champlain, and soon after Fort La Motte, on an island in the lake. These demonstrations and the persua- sions of the Onondagas, led by their chief, Gara- kontie, brought all the Iroquois, except the Mohawks, to Quebec, to frame a treaty by which the French king was recognized as their protector, and the tribes were styled his vassals and allies. The French were to be welcomed into the land of the Iroquois, and immigrants from the red men were to have farms assigned to them in Canada. The Mohawks who had no part in the treaty were to be dealt with by force. General Courcelles, in January, 1666, led an expedition of five hundred men by way of Lake Champlain, and came near Schenec- tady, February 19. By an ambuscade several were killed and wounded by the Mohawks, who bore the heads of four Frenchmen as trophies. Courcelles soon heard from Albany that he was invading a colony no longer Dutch, but now 154 NEW YORK. under English rule, and lie hastened to retrace bis steps. The Mohawks annoyed him on his re- treat, and picked off prisoners from his discour- aged column. The authorities at Albany gave tender care to wounded Frenchmen left with them, and so wrought upon the Mohawks that messages were sent to Quebec that this fierce tribe desired peace. Steps were taken for nego- tiating a treaty, by which missionaries were to be sent to them. The peace was interrupted by one of those incidents which sometimes turn the course of history. The Mohawks fell upon a French hunting party from Fort La Motte, slew Sieur de Chazy, a nephew of the viceroy, and took several captives. To avenge the out- rage, Sorel, the commander of the fort, started with three hundred men towards the Mohawk country. The red men went out to meet him with their captives and new promises of peace. The prisoners were sent on to Quebec, where soon appeared Agariata, a Mohawk chief, to help f lame a treaty. This chief boasted that his was the arm that broke the head of Chazy. Viceroy Tracy ordered him hanged at once, and a half-breed who was of his party was put in prison. It became certain the Mohawks could never be allies of France. The other tribes of the Iroquois kept up a close intimacy by embassies to Quebec. Jesuit FRENCH MISSIONARIES AND ARMS. 155 fathers continued to go to them at their re- quest. Tracy proposed to wreak terrible ven- geance on the Mohawks. An expedition of six hundred men from the Carignan regiment, a like number of militia, and a hundred Hurons and Algon quins advanced, September, 1666, by- way of Lake Champlain. It was a formidable force with its abundant small arms and two pieces of artillery. Tracy himself was the com- mander, and was accompanied by Courcelles. The cunning Mohawks withdrew before the invaders. The latter had expected to get abun- dant corn, but for a wliile they were compelled to be content with the ripening chestnuts. On further advance corn was discovered buried in the earth. At the ft)urth village the Mohawks delivered a heavy fire before they dispersed into the forests. The French captured only one man and two women, too infirm to be moved, and found the remains of some prisoners. Tracy took formal possession of the country in the name of the King of France. The wealth of the tribe is indicated by the boast of the French that they destroyed on the expedition grain enough to sustain their whole colony for two years. This destruction w^as the real result of so great an expedition led by the two chief officers of New France, Tlie Mohawks were sheltered 156 NUW YORK. by the forests, as the French army v/ithdrew before the severities of October. In the next year, as Tracy was ordered to report for service in France, Courcelles became governor general, and received instructions from the minister, Colbert, in Paris, to march again against the Mohawks, " for the purpose of utterly destroy- ing them if possible." That tribe was inclined to temporize, and accepted a treaty of peace. Missionaries were assigned to the Mohawks, as well as to the other tribes, and among the six who started in July, 1667, was Father Jacques Bruyas, whose fame as a scholar is only sec- ond to that of his zeal as a teacher among the Oneidas. They took the route now so familiar to the French, over Lake Champlain. They were well received at Caughnawaga, where Jogues had suffered, at Kanagaro, and at the Mohawk capital, Tionnontoguen, where they were received with a fusillade of joy. With impressive religious solemnities, Father Fremin, September 14, 1667, confirmed peace between the tribe and the French, and established the " Mission of St. Mary of the Mohawks," on the site of the '' Mission of the Martyrs." Father Bruyas went westward to set up a mission among the Oneidas, — that of St. Francis Xavier. The work of the Church was extended among the Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the Senecas, and FRENCH MJS810NARIES AND ARMS, 157 a colony of the Cayugas on the Bay of Quints in Canada. When the Mohawks went out to battle with the Mohicans, a priest accompa- nied the war-paity to invoke the divine blessing on each step of the bloody enterprise. The era of marvelous activity on the part of the Catholic missionaries, who combined the work of explorers with their religious tasks, was well begun. Stations were occupied among the Iroquois tribes by priests devoted to their faith and to French aggrandizement. Their lanks were now recruited by one of the most far- sighted and daring of them all, who combined with the old dreams of discovering a waterway to China a grand grasp of the possibilities of the West and Southwest. Rene Robert Cavelier La Salle was a Jesuit, with rare capacity for affairs, with unswerving courage, and peculiar gifts for dealing with the red men, who gave up all to become an enthusiast in exploration. He was destined to perish miserably by the hands of his companions in the far Southwest, after a ca- reer which has left its marks on the heart of the continent. His connection with the interior of New York was incidental to his plans for his advance over the continent toward the far dis- tant East. He came from France in 1667, and devoted himself for two years to study and prep- aration, and his zeal for the plans which he 158 NEW YORK. was developing has left the name of La Chine at the spot where he dwelt. In 1669 he took with him certain fathers from the Quinte mis- sions, and started westward by water. He sought among the Senecas for a guide to lead him in his explorations. They did not tell him of the route by the way of the Ohio to the Southwest, which the>; well knew. If he had then learned of the flow of the rivers and the easy passage to the Mississippi, it is conceivable that the French power might have been seated there too securely for easy interruption, and a movement by that flank might have shut in the Iroquois to its control. But he was sent by the Senecas to the north by the Falls of Niagara. La Salle took possession for King Louis of the country to the south as well as the north and west of Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. Louis XIV. was looking not only wistfully but hopefully to all this domain. The mission- aries were sending encouraging reports from the field of their labors among the Iroquois. The signs of change among the Mohawks might well arouse the hopes of the devoted missionaries. The Oneidas did not come so readily under reli- gious influences. The work among the Onon- dagas received an impetus by the baptism of the chief, Garakontie, who took the name of Daniel. The mingling of political with reli- FRENCH MISSIONARIES AND ARMS. 159 gioiis purposes is expressed by the eulogy upon this convert, that he was " the protector of the French crown in this country." In France the suggestion was considered, of attempting to secure from England and Holland the cession of the whole of New Netherland. Talon, the intendant of Canada, urged that thus the French would have two entrances to their American possessions, and would control in trade all the peltries of the North. More than once, also, the Canadian authorities entertained the purpose of seizing Fort Orange, and after- wards Manhattan. An expedition made by Governor Courcelles in 1671 up the St. Law- rence, at great cost and with much display, alarmed the English at New York quite as much as the Iroquois, for effect upon whom it was designed. But Charles 11. threw himself into an alliance with France, and the form of the danger was changed. CHAPTER XL THE EXPLOITS OF FEONTENAO. 1672-1698. The new danger was embodied in the person and the plans of Count Frontenac, who in 1672 became governor of Canada, in many respects the foremost of all the French representatives that colony ever received. He brought with him a reputation earned on Italian battlefields, and the honor of a designation by the great Turenne to lead the Venetian armies in Candia. He was fifty-two years of age, and had ex- hausted his fortune and his credit, and he, or, as the chronicles show, his wife, had wrecked his domestic relations. His plans for the govern- ment of Canada were broad and liberal, and his schemes for the extension of his jurisdiction to the southward were large and statesmanlike. He found in La Salle a co-laborer ready to suggest ideas and to carry out comprehensive plans. His first step was an expedition to Lake Ontario, and the construction on the north side, where Kingston now stands, of a fort, to which THE EXPLOITS OF FRONTENAC 161 he gave his own name. This fort was meant to serve as a centre of operations against the Iroquois, but no less of trade with them. La Salle was placed in charge, and it was alleged that the governor and his ally were seeking personal profit quite as much as the building up of New France. But the visit of Frontenac and the erection of the fort and the influences which emanated from it were followed by ten years of greater quiet than the French were accustomed to enjoy with the red men. Fron- tenac won favor with the Iroquois in an assem- bly which he invited when he was beginning his enterprise, where he addressed them as " chil- dren," and therefore entitled to help, instead of "brothers," as the practice had prevailed before his time. It may have been only the expression of his own personal arrogance, but the red men liked the phiase and adopted its author as a favorite. He was less fortunate in maintaining harmony with the Jesuits and the ofiicial circle in Montreal and Quebec. He charged the Jes- uits with '^ thinking more of beaver skins than of souls," and denounced their missions as " mockeries." In return they alleged that he was making profit out of his govei-norship, and sought to hold a monopoly of trade in his hands. To secular eyes, it must be confessed, the com- petition in trade between the Jesuits on the one 162 NEW YORK. hand with their allies, and Frontenac and La Salle on the other, was very sharp. The Jes- uits, in addition, charged the governor with de- bauching the red men by the sale of liquors. The quarrel resulted in the recall of Frontenac to France in 1682. He impressed his views rel- ative to Canadian affairs on the French court, but was left in poverty in Paris for seven years, when the exigencies of the colony sum- moned him again to Quebec. But those seven years bad proved fatal to French control among the Iroquois. Some new characters had ap- peared on the scene. Father Louis Hennepin, a Recollet f liar, afterwards noted as an author on American topics, made a winter excursion overland from Lake Ontario to the land of the Onondagas, Oneidas, and Mohawks in 1677, and in the succeeding year he, with Father La Motte, was for a while among the Senecas. La Salle built a fort at Niagara, and in his labors there and on the western borders, he was aided by Henri de Tonty, an Italian of courage and the sort of skill necessary in a wild country. At Cayuga Creek, on the south side of Niagara River just above the falls, they built a vessel for use in their western explorations. It was called the Griffin, and was lost in Lake Michi- gan with a cargo of furs on a return voyage. Since they had obtained fire-arms the Iro- THE EXPLOITS OF FRONTENAC 163 quois had been pressing hard upon their neigh- bors. They had in 1680 crushed out the tribe adjacent to them on the south, the Andastes, as they had before made an end of the Eries, who lived just west of them. The profits of the fur trade induced them to extend their forays farther and farther, and this reason is alone sufficient to explain their appearance among the Illinois and the Hurons, without accepting the French stories that they were urged to this course by the English and Dutch traders. That charge has no more truth than the other, that the Jesuits incited the Iroquois to make forays on the settlements in Maryland and Virginia. Governor De La Barre, who came in when Frontenac was displaced, found that the Iro- quois were threatening the Illinois with de- struction, but as La Salle controlled the French interest among the latter, the governor left them to the tender mercies of their foes. When he sent a band out to the Illinois country for his own purposes, it was attacked by the Iroquois, and he began in earnest preparations for an expedition which he had long boasted over. He gave notice of his purpose to Gov- ernor Dongan of New York, who was not slow in letting the red men have the information. La Barre's own intendant wrote to the minis- 164 NEW YORK. try at home that he was entering upon the war for personal gain. The French governor pressed forward with bis expedition, and gath- ered his forces at Fort Frontenac. Disease fell upon them, but they crossed the lake to the mouth of the Salmon River, where the name of La Famine serves to tell of the evil which came to aggravate their fever. This was in September, 1684. Through the efforts of the Jesuits a council was arranged with the Onondagas. La Barre told the Indian depu- ties that he came to smoke the calumet of peace, if all the Five Nations would give indem- nity for past wrongs and pledges of good be- havior. Garangula responded with audacious eloquence : *' We are born free ; we depend neither upon Onontio nor Corlaer," — neither on the French nor the English. La Barre was glad to make the best peace he could. The expedition had proved an utter failure, and King Louis, when he heard of the treaty agreed upon, pronounced it disgraceful to the French. It was time for La Barre to yield place to a successor. He came in the person of the Marquis Denonville, who was not quite so bombastic, but was little more successful than his predecessor. He charged the English with furnishing arms to the Iroquois, and felt justified in resorting to all sorts of intrigues to THE EXPLOITS OF FRONTENAC. 165 counteract such influence. Sharp correspond- ence arose between him and the governor of New York over Fort Niagara, the sale of liquor to the Indians, and over the attempt on both sides to control trade at the West. Governor Dongan urged the first claim of entire mastery of the country south of Lake Ontario, June 20, 1687, saying : "I hope your Excellency will be so kind as not to desire or seek any correspond- ence with our Indians on this side of the Gre^t Lake ; if they do amiss to any of your govern- ment, and you make it known to me, you shall have all justice done." The Iroquois, for the first time, began to style the governor of New York " Father Corlaer " instead . of Brother Corlaer, thus recognizing English protection. Denonville felt that French power was de- stroyed in the Iroquois country unless a demon- stration could be made to restore lost prestige. With a barbarity which no savages could sur- pass, as soon as he reached Fort Frontenac on his advance, he bound a number of Iroquois to posts for torture, and then sent fifty to France as prisoners, according to special orders from King Louis. These were in part peaceable members of colonies on the north side of the lake, and had been entrapped on pretense of a feast, and they were in part ambassadors from the tribes to treat for peace. This was the 166 NEW YORK. first use Denonville made of his force of two thousand men, which included regulars of the army of France. The Onondagas received word of this treatment of their brethren, and the missionary Lamberville, who was living among them, expected to suffer in retaliation. The chiefs, however, sent him to the French, under an escort to guard him from possible assault. So French missions among the Iroquois were finally closed, through cruel treachery on the side of the Canadian governor and with a sub- lime act of humanity on the side of the Onon- dagas. Denonville moved forward to Irondequoit Bay on the south side of the lake. There he was met by a thousand allies from the western tribes, led by Tonty and by La Durantaye, who brought with them two trading parties of Eng- lish, Dutch, and Indians captured on the upper lakes. The Senecas, from their village near the present site of Victor, drew the French advance into an ambuscade, and threw it into disor- der. They supposed it was the main body of invaders, and they in turn suffered bloody punishment. The panic into which the French were thrown at the outset was checked, and the Senecas resorted to the usual tactics of the red men of retiring into the forests. They took their wounded and most of their dead with THE EXPLOITS OF FRONTENAC. 167 them. The French loss was reported at five or six killed and about twenty wounded, while the Senecas, it was claimed, lost forty killed and sixty wounded. The villages and provis- ions of the Senecas were destroyed, but Denon- ville retired to Irondequoit. These events oc- cupied twelve days, from July 12 to July 24, 1687. The achievement was not one of which such an army could be proud. The record of deaths does not indicate very effective warfare on the part of the invaders. The French gov- ernor was glad to get to Niagara and devote himself there to the building of the fort, and in the next year disasters rushed so thick and fast that he was compelled to abandon that strong- hold. Denonville's expedition became the text of communications with the governor of New York, and of appeals to King Louis for more soldiers for Canada and for strengthening the forts on the border. The Canadian rulers strongly urged the acquisition of New York, which " would render His Majesty master of all North America." The device of a treaty of neutrality had failed to preserve peace on the borders, and both parties were charged, and truly too, with gross acts of violation. The question of jurisdiction over the Iroquois was sharply contested between James and Louis in 168 NEW YORK. the old countries, as well as between the gov- ernors of New York and Canada. The Iroquois, meanwhile, asserted their inde- pendence of both powers, and six hundred war- riors, headed by Grand Guele, marched against Montreal. The chief warned Onontio of his danger, and told him that he could escape by accepting peace on the terms proposed by Cor- laer. The French governor bowed to the ne- cessity and a truce was agreed upon, and the chiefs sent to France as captives were returned. Before Denonville gave up the government he saw another war-party ravaging Canada almost to Montreal, and bewailed the capture of Fort Frontenac by the Iroquois. The Stuarts had been driven from the Eng- lish throne, and the accession of William broke the close connections which had existed with France. Count Frontenac was sent back as governor of Canada with instructions to ar- range for a simultaneous attack on the English colonies at Hudson's Bay and in New York. He was welcomed as " the Kedeemer of Can- ada," which was surely in need of help. His efforts were directed to restoring his old rela- tions of friendship with the red men. The authorities of New York strove to check his plans. Eighty Iroquois sachems met at Onon- daga in council to consider the rival proposi- THE EXPLOITS OF FRONTENAC. 169 tions. Millet, a French priest naturalized among the Oneidas, held that tribe and the Cayugas from the alliance with New York in which the Mohawks, the Onondagas, and the Senecas joined. Fronteoac was equal to the emergency. He threw three expeditions against the English colonies : one by way of Three Rivers against the settlements between Albany and Boston, a second from Quebec against Maine, while the third advanced from Montreal against New York. This third col- umn included eighty of the praying Indians from Caughnawaga, under the Mohawk chief Kryn, with other red men, and a body of Cana- dian bush-rangers. They marched in Feb- ruary, 1690, and directed their assault against Schenectady. The town was without watch or preparation, although it was surrounded by a palisade and had a small fort. The inhabi- tants were asleep when the invaders fell upon them. Fire and slaughter met with little re- sistance, for the bravest were so surprised as to fight at disadvantage. Sixty persons were killed, and twenty-seven old men, women and children were taken prisoners. Thirty Iroquois were spared, to show that the English and not the red men were the enemies aimed at, and immunity was shown to neighboring settlers who had previously befriended French pris- 170 NEW YORK. oners. Twenty-five whites sought safety by escaping through the severities of winter to Albany, and all froze limbs on their flight. The invaders made haste to retreat with their prisoners and spoils to Canada, and suffered from cold and hunger on the way. Peter Schuyler, mayor of Albany, with two other leading men, in the emergency wrote a strong appeal for help from the authorities of Massachusetts. He spoke of the affair at Schenectady as a " dreadful massacre and mur- ther," the like of which had '*' never been com- mitted in these parts of America," and said : " the cruelties committed no pen nor tongue can express ; the women big with child ripped up, and the children alive thrown into the flames, and their heads dashed in pieces against the doors and windows." The weather was so severe that " it was as if the heavens had com- bined for the destruction of that poor village." The French plan was to seek immediate alli- ance with the Mohawks, and presents were brought to purchase amity. The effect was, on the contrary, to arouse the tribe to renewed activity, and the alarm at Albany led to move- ments to ward off the attack which it was feared might be directed against that town. The Mohawks, who had been assigned the duty of scouts, were blamed" for carelessness in THE EXPLOITS OF FRONT EN AC 171 not detecting the approach of the expedition, and now they advised the invasion of Canada. At Albany, an appeal was issued to all the col- onies for a united movement against Quebec in the spring. In May, French agents were seized among the Onondagas, and two were handed over to the red men, who burned them to death. In the same month, another invading party, coming by way of Lake Champlain, captured several Iroquois and several English women, but was attacked by mistake by Indians in the French service. Here was killed Kryn, the Mohawk chief, a devoted champion of France, constantly striving to form an alliance between the Iroquois and the governors of Canada. The conflict had already changed its charac- ter from a simple attempt of the French rulers to control the Iroquois by diplomacy and force. It had become a war between the colonies sep- arated by the St. Lawrence. Massachusetts had made a demonstration by water under Governor Phi,ps against Quebec, while a land movement from Albany was conducted by Connecticut and New York. The result was hardly less than dis- graceful in both the land and naval operations. The New York colonists arranged to take their full part in the attack. Captain John Schuyler, the youngest brother of the mayor of Albany, added to the laurels of his brother by leading 172 NEW YORK. a gallant assault, with forty whites and one hundred Mohawks, to a fort at La Prairie, op- posite Montreal. After driving the garrison with great loss from the fort, he retired, de- stroying crops and holding his command in good order. The next year, in 1691, Peter Schuyler led a force of Iroquois and settlers northward from Albany, to test the designs of Frontenac, and to defend the frontier. His force consisted of 266 men — 120 whites, 80 Mohawks, and 66 River Indians. The rendez- vous was for July 17, and the advance was not challenged until within ten miles of Fort Cham- bly. Plans were formed for a hasty march to La Prairie, but a party of French and Indians, which Schuyler places at 420, appeared at the fort, and a sharp fight compelled them to re- tire within their defenses. Schuyler destroyed crops, and a second contest occurred later the same day. Frontenac pronounces the fight at this point the " most hot and stubborn " ever fought in Canada. Schuyler says : " We broke through the middle of their body until we got into their rear, trampling on their dead, then faced upon them, and fought them until we made them give way ; then drove them by strength of arm four hundred paces before us.'* His little army opened the path homeward, and won a real victory. Losses on both sides were THE EXPLOITS OF FRONT EN AC. 173 exaggerated in various letters. Schuyler re- ports his killed at " 21 Christians, 16 Mohawks, and 6 River Indians, and the wounded in all 25 ; " while, he says, " ifc was thought by all that his expedition killed about 200 French and Indians." The effect in Canada was an offset to th.e alarm in New York from the burn- ing of Schenectady. John Nelson, an English- man, at the time a prisoner in Quebec, writes that Schuyler's action was there accounted ''one of the most vigorous and glorious at- tempts that hath been known in these parts, with great slaughter on the enemy's part, and loss on his own, in which if he had not been discovered by an accident, it is very probable he had become master of Montreal." That was beyond his design, for the time, but was the incitement to all his plans. Captive Iroquois were in 1692 taken to Mon- treal, and, on two occasions at least, by order of Frontenac, some of them were tortured and burned at the request of his Indian allies. The purpose was to strike terror along the Mohawk and on Onondaga Lake. Any such effect must have been temporary, for the Iroquois were soon again north of the St. Lawrence and threatening Montreal. Frontenac organized another winter expedition, with his Indian al- lies as its centre, supported by a hundred sol- 174 NEW YORK. diers and a band of Canadians. The force num- bered six hundred, and marched from Chambly in January, 1693. Sixteen days were spent in reaching the lower Mohawk castles, which were easily taken, for the warriors were absent. The third castle was surprised, the cabins burned and prisoners taken. The French then found it necessary to retreat, and at the end of two days' march they put up defensive works. There Major Peter Schuyler, at the head of five or six hundred men, including a party of Oneidas, came up with the invaders. He, too, prepared defenses, and upon them repeated as- saults were in vain made by the Frencli. In the night the latter withdrew in a driving snow-storm. Schuyler's force was on the point of starvation, and was not able to make suc- cessful pursuit. The invaders, after many tri- als and losses, straggled home. Yet Frontenac pronounced the expedition a glorious success. From this time for three years comparative quiet was maintained between the rulers on the St. Lawrence and the red men on the Mohawk. Frontenac received deputations who proposed peace, but he wanted it on his own terms. The authorities in New York tried to keep the Iroquois in hostility to the French. They were in large measure successful. The governor of Canada determined upon a formidable assertion THE EXPLOITS OF FRONTENAC ' 175 of French power. He had restored Fort Fron- tenac, and there gathered his forces in July, 1696. They numbered two thousand two hun- dred men, regulars, Canadians, and Indians, and were well supplied with cannon. Frontenac was hiinsylt in chief ci)nimand ; Callieres, who was to be his successor as governor of Canada, and De \^aiidreui], :ili-eady rioted in Indian war- fare, also to b^^conie g >yernoi' and tlse father of a governoi', were his main lieutenants. They advanced by the Oswego I^iver, and August 1st reached Onondaga Lake. The Onondagas re- tired before the invaders. Among the stragglers was a warrior of eighty years, who was burned at the stake, taunting his captors as dogs, and dogs of dogs. The castle of the Oneidas was also destroyed, and some hostages seized, while Frontenac gave as the conditions of peace that the whole tribe should emigrate to Canada. French valor exhausted itself on the growing crops, for no foe could be discovered. These were the results of this ostentatious invasion. The Onondagas and the Oneidas sacrificed their castles, which they were powerless to defend, and in the winter depended for food largely upon the authorities of New York. Frontenac boasted in his despatches to the French king that no force withstood him in ambuscade or in 176 * NEW YORK. the passes of the hills. The Iroquois strategy was more cunning and effective. The French force was compelled to retire without a fight, and the Indian warriors nestled unharmed in the wilderness. The peace of R3^swick in 1697, between France and England, ended hostilities with the Iroquois on the soil of New York, for the time. Controversy arose over the prisoners captured, and the recognition of the dependence of the Iroquois upon the British government. But the chapter of Frontenac's exploits was closed. New York had escaped from its most threaten- ing danger of subjection to the French, and its red men retained their wide domain. Fron- tenac died November 22, 1698, and his name is indelibly marked in the annals of New York as well as of Canada. Distinguished as a soldier, far-seeing as a statesman, no other governor of Canada approached him in skill in dealing with the Indians or in power over them. He could adopt their habits, and in a war council he led the war-dance and whooped like a savage. He was seventy-six years old at the time of his in- vasion of the Onondaga country, and on the ad- vance was carried in a litter. He learned the reverses of fortune, and his vast schemes for the subjection of the Iroquois proved empty THE EXPLOITS OF FRONT EN AC. 17T visions. The fault cannot be attributed to him. The event was due to the courage and persistence and loyalty of the Five Nations and to the advantages which they enjoyed in their imperial domain. 11. A BEITISfl COLONY. CHAPTER XII. BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH EULB. 1674-1688. The representative of the British govern- ment to receive the province now finally to be known as New York, was Major Edmund An- dros, a member of the royal household, distin- guished in the wars in Holland, a major in Prince Rupert's dragoons, and already the com- mander of the king's forces in Barbadoes. To him a commission was given as lieutenant and governor of the territories of the Duke of York in America, and these James took pains to as- sure to himself by a new patent from the king. Elaborate instructions required Governor An- dres to encourage settlement and foster trade, and imposed a tariff of two per cent, on all goods imported from England or its posses- sions, and ten per cent, if from any foreign country, with higher charges upon wines and BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH RULE. 179 liquors. Merchandise carried up the Hudson, except farmers' tools, was to pay three per cent. In addition, the excise and internal taxes im- posed by Nicolls and Lovelace were to be con- tinued. Courts were to be maintained in the king's name. A council of ten was to be ap- pointed by the governor ; " all persons of what religion soever " were to be treated alike, if they did not molest others. Anthony Brock- holls, a Roman Catholic, was designated as lieutenant-governor, while Andros was a mod- erate Episcopalian. The Duke of York sent over a company of a hundred infantry to serve in the province. When the vessels bearing the new governor and his staff, accompanied by a number of col- onists, arrived in New York, Governor Colve and the burgomasters asked for guarantees to the Dutch inhabitants. These were accorded. November 9, 1674, Governor Colve made his formal farewell, and the next day the ceremonies of the transfer were consummated. Nine days later British officers were installed at Albany. Meetings on the eastern part of Long Island pronounced that their people owed allegiance to Connecticut, but Andros soon asserted the authority of New York over them. Matthias Nicolls was designated as secretary of the prov- ince and mayor of New York, and a council and board of aldermen were appointed. 180 NEW YORK. Manning, who liad surrendered the province to the Dutch fleet, was put on trial for neglect of duty, cowardice and treachery. He pleaded guilty to the first charge and appealed for niercy. His sword was broken over his head in front of the city hall, and he was pronounced incapable of filling any ofiice of trust. Governor Andros soon showed the temper of his administration. John Burroughs, town clerk of Newtown, was forced to stand an hour on the whipping-post in front of the city ball, for stating by direction of his fellow-townsmen the grievances undei* which they suffered. Many prominent burghers of New York objected to an oath of allegiance required of them, and eight asked to take a modified form or to be permitted to remove from the colony. The governor refused assent, and the signers of the petition, Steenwyck, Van Brugh, De Peyster, Bayard, Luyck, Beekman, Kip, and De Milt, were imprisoned for endeavoring to incite a rebellion, and were released only on giving bonds. They sent a memorial of their case to the States General. Trial was ordered before the court of assizes, and seven were convicted, but finally all yielded and took the oath, where- upon the penalties were remitted. Arrests for sedition were not a rarity. In 1678 Jacob Mil- borne was arrested as " a mutinous person," BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH RULE. 181 and going to London after his discharge, three years later, recovered a verdict of £45 against Governor Andros. His subsequent career may indicate that the epithet was well applied. The transfer of the colony, however, caused less friction than might have been expected, and moderation prevailed as a rule on the part of the government, as well as of the settlers. Governor Andros was busy in other ways in confirming his powers. He landed in Saybrook with a force to proclaim his title over Connecti- cut ; he sent soldiers to Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket; and he visited the red men at the sources of the Mohawk, penetrating '' nearly a hundred miles beyond Schenectady." The Iro- quois held a conference with him at Albany, where they gave assurances of good will. Rec- ognizing the importance of friendly relations with them, he organized a board of commis- sioners for Indian affairs, and designated as secretary Robert Livingston, a Scotchman now twenty-one years old, who had come hither from Rotterdam, and had already become town clerk of Albany. While New England was en- gaged in the war with its Indians, resulting in the death of King Philip, charges were made that arms and ammunition were furnished to the Indians from Albany. Andros indignantly denied the slander, and sent six barrels of pow- 182 NEW FORK. dev and other supplies to Rhode Island, while that colony fostered very cordial relations with New York. In the crisis of the conflict, the Mohawks struck severe blows against the east- ern Indians. Edward Randolph, an agent from England, investigated the charges that Al- bany had assisted the enemy in the war, and pronounced them " without any just cause or ground, but rather a report raised out of mal- ice and envy," and King Charles confirmed this judgment. But the relations between New York on the one hand, and Connecticut and Massachusetts on the other, continued to be strained. With New Jersey also Andros had trouble, and he refused to allow a port to be opened in its territory. He was instructed by the Duke of York to maintain the northern bounds of New York " as far as the Lake or the River of Canada." This claim brought on con- troversy with the French at Montreal, and with King Louis, relative to jurisdiction over the Iroquois. The Duke of York also asserted rights in Maine, and as the red men there were working harm, Governor Andros sent an ex- pedition to Pemaquid, where Fort Charles was built, and arrangements were made for a govern- ment dependent on New York. The Iroquois were already and long continued a source of very great anxiety and responsibility BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH RULE. 183 to the province. In 167T, Massachusetts and Connecticut asked and were permitted to hold conference with them in Albany, and formed a treaty of friendship. Maryland and Virginia, in the same year, sent an agent, who agreed upon satisfactory relations with the confederacy. Governor Andros went to England in 1678, perhaps notified that he was there to be knighted for his services, and left his lieutenant, Brock- holls, in control of the province. The governor made a statement of its affairs when he reached London. The value of all the estates was about £150,000. A merchant having £500 or £1,000 was accounted substantial, and a planter *' rich " with half that capital. There were " very few slaves," each worth X30 to £35. The exports were mainly provisions, furs, tar, and lumber, and the imports £50,000 a year in British manufactures. In all the province were about twenty churches, including Presbyterians and Independents, Quakers, Anabaptists, Luther- ans, Reformed, and Jews, and all supported hy ''free gifts." The Duke maintained an Epis- copal chaplain. Nicolaus van Rensselaer, or- dained in both the Reformed and Episcopal churches in the old countries, had been recom- mended by James, and was made a colleague of Domine Schaats in the Reformed church in Albany. Charges were brought against him by 184 NEW YORK. Jacob Leisler and Jacob Milborne for heresy, and he was tried in New York, on appeal, by the mayor and aldermen and the ministers of the city. The Albany authorities managed to adjust the differences, and the prosecutors were compelled to pay all costs. It was a fitting ending to one of our earliest religious contro- versies. In 1679 a classis of the Reformed Church of Holland was organized to ordain - Petrus Tes- schenmaker, a graduate of the university of Utrecht, who wished to serve as a clergyman on the Delaware. It is a curious incident that Governor Andros, an Episcopalian, gave an official order for the examination of the candi- date, and that the ordination was approved by the authorities of the church in Amsterdam. Governor Andros also took the initiative for building a new edifice for the Reformed Church in New York, and contributed to the free gifts for the purpose ; while Rev. Charles Wolley, an Episcopalian, who had come out as chaplain of the forces in the province, attended the meeting, with its pastor, Domine Van Nieuwenhuysen. Chaplain Wolley in 1701 published a " Journal of Two Years in New York," in which he praised the air and pronounced the " inhabi- tants, both Dutch and English, very civil and courteous," to whose '^ tables he was frequently BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH RULE. 185 invited, and always concluded with a generous bottle of Madeira." New Jersey was a continual thorn in the flesh of the New York authorities. Conflicting claims led Governor Andios to send soldiers to Elizabeth town, where Carteret, who held a patent from the Duke of York, resided, and in the dead of night he was taken a prisoner to New York on the charge of assuming illegal jurisdiction. Andros sat as judge, while Car- teret showed his commission as governor of New Jersey. The jury, against Sir Edmund's efforts, recorded a verdict of not guilty, and Carteret was conducted home with great pomp. The autliority of Gcjvernor Andros was, how- ever, so far recognized that civil and military officers commissioned by him were inducted into office without question. In 1680 justices from New Jersey, Nantucket, and Pemaquid attended the court of assizes in New York. Quakers had come into West Jersey, and sought to set up a separate government. Will- iam Penn was among those who in London ar- gued their case before the Duke's commission. The matter was referred to Sir William Jones, who found in favor of the Quakers, and the Duke of York granted a deed to their leaders. In 1680, the controversy over East Jersey was settled by a similar instrument. 186 NEW YORK. Tliat controversy led to the recall of Sir Ed- mund Andros. Lady Carteret complained to the Duke of the arrest of her son, and the Duke dis- owned all responsibility. Farmers of the rev- enue were in favor in that age, and an offer was made to James to pay him large returns for the receipts of New York. Complaints were urged of the governor's action concerning trade, and his accounts were alleged not to agree with the actual revenue. The Duke sent out John Lewin to inquire into all the affairs of the ad- ministration. He prosecuted his investigations with sleuth-hound zeal, and the authorities of New York complained of his violation of per- sonal rights. When his report was submitted to the Duke's attorney and solicitor, they found that the governor had not " misbehaved him- self," nor " in any way defrauded or mismanaged the revenue." Andros received a substantial token of vindication in an order to serve as a gentleman of the king's privy chamber, and so was kept in London until he was sent out as governor general of all the northern colonies. The administration in the absence of the gov- ernor was committed to Anthony BrockhoUs as commander-in-chief. Trouble befell him at once, because the customs duties had expired by limitation Mnd had not been renewed. The merchants on this ground refused to pay any BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH RULE. 187 duties on imports. The council advised Brock- holls that he had no authority to collect them without orders from the Duke. Dyer, collector of the port, was arrested, and charged with trai- torously exercising " regal power and author- ity," because he tried to hold goods to enforce payment. He appealed to the courts at home, but without trial finally received practical ap- proval of his course by appointment as surveyor general of customs in America. The jury, on the other hand, declared to the court of assizes that a provincial assembly was needed. Sheriff John Younge, of Long Island, was designated to draft a petition to the Duke of York for " an assembly to be duly elected by the freeholders, as is usual within the realm of England and other of his majesty's plantations." The de- mand was urgent, because the inhabitants " were groaning under inexpressible burdens of an ar- bitrary and absolute power," by which "revenue had been exacted, their trade crippled, and their liberties enthralled." Disaffection was open and pronounced, especially on Long Is- land. Lieutenant-Governor Brockholls laid the case before the Duke, and was censured for not promptly renewing the order for the duties and enforcing their collection. The pressure for money led the Duke to inti- mate that he " would condescend to the desires 188 NEW YORK. of the colony in granting them equal privileges in choosing an assembly and so forth, as the other English plantations in America have ; " but this was '' on the supposition that the in- habitants will agree to raise money to discharge the public debts, and to settle such a fund for the future as may be sufficient for the mainte- nance of the garrison and government." James had previously disapproved of any movement for an assembly as fraught with " dangerous consequences," while he pointed to the court of assizes as adequate to hear and remedy any grievances. Now he declared, March 28, 1682, that he '' sought the common good and pro- tection of the colony and the increase of its trade " before any advantages to himself, and he promised that whatever revenues the people would provide should be applied to the public uses suggested. The summons for an assembly was, how- ever, left for a new governor to issue. Thomas Dongan, who was permitted to inaugurate his administration with this gracious act, arrived in New York August 28, 1683, and on the next day the city authorities welcomed him by '' a large and plentiful entertainment." He was born in 1634, the youngest son of an Irish bar- onet, was a colonel in the Royal Army, had seen service in France, and been lieutenant- BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH RULE. 189 governor of Tangiers. He was a Roman Cath- olic, and was to prove himself a man of prudence, of loyalty to the colony, and for that period a statesman of foresight as well as of ability. His commission covered the land to the west side of the Connecticut River, with Pemaquid, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket. His in- structions were to call Frederick Phillipse and Stephen van Cortlandt and other " most eminent inhabitants " as councilors, not exceeding ten in number, and to summon a general assembly, to consist of not more than eighteen persons, to be chosen by all the freeholders. This assembly was to " have free liberty to consult and debate for all laws," and its statutes were to be valid unless disapproved by the Duke. The governor was clothed with authority to establish courts similar to those in England, but the Duke's command was a condition for waging war, and revenue could be collected only under act of the assembly. The formal summons for this as- sembly bears date September 13, 1683, and was addressed to the freeholders of Pemaquid and Martha's Vineyard as well as of New York, Long Island, Esopus, and Albany. The assembly met in Fort James, October 17, with Matthias Nicolls as speaker, and a let- ter from the Duke of York was read. In a ses- sion of three weeks fourteen acts were passed. 190 NEW YORK. By far the most important was " the Charter of Liberties," in which deckiration was made that under the king and lord proprietor " the su- preme legislative authority shall forever be and reside in a governor, council, and the people met in a general assembly." It was the first time "the people" were recognized "in any constitution in America," as James when he became king took occasion promptly to point out. The whole document was in the same free spirit. It provided in elections for liberty of choice for all freeholders, and for entire free- dom in religion. It embodied in plain words the principle that " no aid, tax, custom, loan, benevolence or imposition whatsoever shall be levied within this province upon any pretense, but by the consent of the governor, council and representatives of the people in general assem- bly." An accompanying act granted certain duties on imports to the Duke and his heirs. In no other colony in America bad the princi- ple of representation of the people as a condi- tion of taxation been so clearly asserted by stat- ute at that day. Twelve counties were erected — New York, Westchester, Ulster, Dutchess, Orange, Albany, Richmond, Kings, Queens, Suf- folk — within the present State, while Dukes County included Nantucket and Martha's Vine- yard and dependencies, and Cornwall covered BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH RULE. 191 Pemaquid and adjacent territory. Courts were established and naturalization provided for. This assembly did its work well and promptly, and set a good example to its successors. The boundaries of the colony gave Governor Dongan no little trouble. Its relations with Canada and the Iroquois presented the most serious difficulty. He met the controversy with courage and foresight, and bore himself well in complex and trying negotiations. The claim of New York to jurisdiction to Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence he maintained with persist- ency, and the purpose to protect and control the red men in this territory was asserted in many forms. The raids of the Iroquois to the south brought Francis, Lord Howard of Effingham, to confer with the governor of New York, and together they met the chiefs of the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, and Cayugas in Albany, July 30, 1684. Stephen van Cortlandt repre- sented Massachusetts in the consultation, which lasted for several days. The occasion was im- portant, the speeches as they have been pre- served were notable and eloquent, and the whole transaction was peculiar and picturesque. The results were far-reaching and impressive. The Four Nations represented submitted to King Charles, with the formality of signatures and seals, and the record was made on parchment, 192 NEW YORK. to be sent to England. Tomahawks were bur- ied in behalf of the contracting parties, and " the Indians threw dirt upon them " in sign of enduring peace, and they " sang the Peace Song," and rejoiced over the treaty. The arms of the Duke of York were put upon the cas- tles of the Four Nations. As the negotiations were closing, the Senecas appeared and were included in the adjustment. Governor La Barre, on the part of Canada, refused to recognize the " pretensions " to the soil or its red inhabitants, and the case was re- ported to the governments of France and Brit- ain. The governor of Canada did not deem it necessary to change his policy before he re- ceived orders from his home government to do so, and he kept up his hostile movements against the Iroquois, and complained that help was given them from Albany. The accession of James II. to the throne boded no good to New York, or to popular rights in any of the colonies. He continued in the main the policy towards Canada and the Iroquois which had been inaugurated. He repudiated the charter of liberties, ostensibly in part because it recognized a '' lord proprietor " who was now king, but also because it tended to abridge the king's power and traced author- ity to "the people met in general assembly," BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH RULE. 193 and he ordered " the government of New York to be assimilated to that of New Eng- land," where no assembly was authorized. He held on, however, to the revenue which had been voted as a consideration for the charter he now repudiated. Yet the colonists felt a sort of personal interest in the king v^hose ducal title was borne by their domain, and they gave cor- dial expression to their loyalty. His reward to them, as to all the provinces, was to enforce the royal authority, without respect to petition or protests. For one thing he deserves credit. While previously in every form, even in the charter of liberties, liberty of conscience was confined to those " profess- ing faith in God by Jesus Christ," now King James, in instructions to Governor Dongan, extended such liberty to *' all persons, of what religion soever." He extended the ecclesiasti- cal jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Canter- bury over the colony, and schoolmasters were required to get licenses from him. At the same time, printing without leave of the gov- ernor was expressly prohibited. The provin- cial assembly, first prorogued for six months, was by proclamation of January 20, 1687, for- mally dissolved, and Governor Dongan and his council assumed power to impose taxes and frame statutes. But the right of represen- 194 NEW YORK. tation was so vital and fruitful in the breasts of the colonists, that the denial of it caused a stir and ferment which soon compelled its res- toration. All the while the Iroquois kept busy the wits and the resources of the governors of New York and Canada, and compelled them to make frequent resort to the home authorities. Governor Dongan gave passes for trade and hunting to young men to penetrate to the western tribes, and this competition invited protests from the French. The French gov- ernors kept up their raids at intervals into the Iroquois country. The influence of French missionaries prompted Dongan to seek for English Jesuits to counteract it. He held fre- quent conferences with the red men, and, by moral means and occasionally by arms and aid, strengthened them against the French. His plans were far-reaching. He recommended the erection of forts at Ticonderoga, Oswego, and Niagara to serve as a cordon about the red men, whom he recognized as the " bulwark '* of the colony against French assault. Governor Dongan thriftily turned many a penny from the change which had taken place in the occupancy of the British throne. He required the several towns to take out new patents, and collected fees on them. New BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH RULE, 195 York and Albany in 1686 each paid him £300 for their revised charters, besides fees to subor- dinates, and Rensselaerwj^ck paid <£200. The charges created no scandals, and were accounted the proper perquisites of the office. Nor was Dongan a venal man. He pledged his personal credit and mortgaged his farm to raise money in aid of the expedition against Canada which brought so little of glory. His official career was closed by the policy adopted by King James of consolidating the colonies north of Pennsylvania under a single head. He proved himself here a competent governor, faithful, of broad views and vigorous in action ; his report continues to be a model of clearness and accuracy concerning the affairs of the colony. The principal towns were at this time New York, Albany, and Kingston, and the first two were maintained wholly by trade with the Indians, with England, and with the West Indies. England took beaver and other peltry, oil and tobacco, while to the West Indies flour, bread, peas, pork, and sometimes horses were exported. New York was far from an English or even a British settlement. Governor Don- gan testifies that in seven yeaiis after his com- ing, not over twenty families arrived of Eng- lish, Scotch, or Irish people, while of French families several had come, and several Dutch 196 NEW YORK. families had been added to the population. On such facts he based an argument for the union of the Jerseys and Connecticut with New York, "so that a more equal balance may be kept between his Majesty's natural born sub- jects and foreigners, which latter," he adds, " are the most prevailing part of this govern- ment." He states the case moderately. German and French Protestants found wel- come in New York, and after the repeal of the Edict of Nantes the latter came in considerable numbers, so that the Huguenots attained at once to recognized influence both by reason of their numbers, and the ability, worth, and thrift of their leaders. The current of migration from Canada was at times so strong as to lead to appeals from Montreal for aid from Albany to check it. The Quakers were those who fared worst under the administration of Governor Dongan. Their creed did not permit them to take up arms for the colony in its needs, and they were fined for refusal. For kindred rea- sons the privilege of voting was denied to them. Their grievances now begun were long the sub- ject of discussion. After he gave up his position, Governor Dongan retired to his farm at Hempstead. When the anti-Catholic fever raged he was brought under suspicion. Because he con- BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH RULE. 197 structed a brigantine for a visit to England, he was charged with getting up a force to niain- tain the authority of James against William and Mary, and in Leisler's time a warrant was issued for his arrest. He withdrew across the border until the craze passed away. In his administration he was tolerant of all creeds, not only because his instructions so enjoined, but because his own spirit was generous and liberal. Those were evil times which chose such a man for a victim, and heaped false charges upon him, and drove him, even temporarily, from the rural home where he was illustrating the modest virtues of a private person. CHAPTER XIII. A REBELLION AND AN EXECUTION. 1688-1691. The colony was now to enter upon stirring experiences. James 11. had ordered the con- solidation of the northern colonies under the title of the Dominion of New England, and had designated Sir Edmund Andros, at the time governor in Boston, as Governor-in-Chief and Captain-General. He was to have a council of forty-two members, selected from the various provinces. No seat of government was desig- nated, and Governor Andros exercised his power wherever he happened to be, whether in Boston, New York, or far-off Pemaquid. The majority of the population was east of the Hudson, and a close union of the colonies was for many purposes desirable. But New York did not take kindly to the apparent advantages which its eastern neighbors were likely to gain by the new policy. Its governor and the merchants at the seaport wanted Connecticut A REBELLION AND AN EXECUTION. 199 and the Jerseys brought under its jurisdiction. One of the first results of the royal plan was to carry Connecticut into the arms of Boston. It was inevitable also that the eastern towns of Long Island, largely settled from New England, should go east to trade more than the mer- chants of New York approved. New England was Puritan in creed, and its clergy directed its policy. New York was liberal, already cos- mopolitan, and gave no special preference to priest or preacher of any creed. Governor Andros had in this first council Anthony Brockholls, Frederick Phillipse, Jarvis Baxter, Stephen van Cortlandt, John Spragg, John Younge, Nicholas Bayard, and John Palmer, of New York. They took part in legis- lation and administration for all the northern colonies, while New York was equally subject to the joint authority of the councilors resident elsewhere. Andros came to New York August 11, 1688, to receive the transfer of power from Dongan, and was received with pomp, and kind- ly remembrance of his previous services. He visited Albany for a conference with the Iro- quois, at the time when Denonville was threaten- ing to subdue them. But the governor general soon found that the eastern colonies needed his care, and kept him in Boston, while Francis Nicholson, captain of a company of soldiers sent 200 NEW YORK. from England, represented, as lieutenant gov- ernor of the Dominion, the royal authority in New York. When James Stuart, by his bigotry and arbi- trary measures, threw away the crown of Britain, the American colonies were cast into a ferment of excitement. They had been warned to guard against invasion by foreign force. They were prompt to respond to the first summons to pro- claim the new sovereigns. New England re- joiced because they were Protestants ; New York beheld in William a Dutchman, its former friend, and therefore the harbinger of a restora- tion of its local government. But the accession of William and Mary, as it was the immediate source of revolt in Massachusetts, led in New York to rebellion, open, armed, and for a while completely successful. The colonies, the British law-officers held, passed from one sovereign to another by the same act which brought in William and Mary. They confirmed in the colonies the commissions of all persons "being Protestants." When Nicholson in New York learned by a shipmaster from Virginia of the change of government in England, he scouted at the " invasion," and for- bade promulgation of the news. When Andros, who was in Maine, was informed of the revolu- tion, he awaited official notification. This, it A REBELLION AND AN EXECUTION. 201 was charged, was delayed by the intrigues of Increase Mather, who was in London. By a popular movement Governor Andros, on return- ing to Boston, was placed under arrest, and a committee of safety for Massachusetts was created. So the Douiinion of New England went to pieces, and New York was left to ad- minister its own affairs. Andros had definitely cut off Pemaquid, Martha's Vineyard, and their dependencies from its jurisdiction, and confirmed Connecticut in its separation. Nicholson, the lieutenant governor at New York, had no nerve to breast a storm. His title to act at all was questioned. With his chief under arrest, could he claim original authority ? The three councilors then in New York were Phillipse, Van Cortlandt, and Bayard. They summoned the aldermen and council of the city to advise in the emergency, the justices and military officers accessible were invited, and an appeal was issued to royal councilors to assist with their wisdom. Not one of the latter ap- peared, nor did the rural counties respond when asked to appoint delegates for conference. Nicholson sent a messenger to England with a report of the situation and a request for in- structions, and in the mean time he concluded that it was " most safe to forbear acting in the premises till the minds of the people become 202 NEW YORK. better satisfied and quieted." Andros had no suggestions for his lieutenant further than to ask him to send commissioners to Boston to ask for the governor's release from imprisonment. But New York took no interest in petitions to the committee of safety in Boston, and was not disposed to ''forbear acting." On the con- trary, the rule of James II. had introduced into the colony a dread of Catholic aggression. Don- gan was a Catholic, and personally observed the forms of his church, while he was tolerant to every faith. Nicholson was nominally an Epis- copalian, but he had in the camp of King James reverently kneeled at the celebration of the mass, and by a stretch of intolerance was de- nounced as a " papist." His three councilors belonged to the Dutch church. The religious fears and prejudices which had precipitated the revolution in Britain were grotesquely para- phrased in New York. " With his sword William became King of England ; " with his sword Jacob Leisler became Dictator of New York. The story is for the greater part a comedy rather than a tragedy ; for the rebellion was achieved without bloodshed, and only at its close were lives sacrificed. At last the chief paid for his brief exercise of power with his life. One of the first needs of the government, when the A REBELLION AND AN EXECUTION. 203 arrest of Andros occurred, was for funds, espe- cially for the defense of the port. Nicholson ordered the revenue from the customs to be ap- plied to this purpose. Jacob Leisler, a captain of militia, refused to pay duties on a cargo of wine, on the pretext that the collector was a '' papist." The militia was called to keep guard at Fort James, in apprehension of French in- vasion. Lieutenant Henry Cuyler ordered a man to stand sentinel, and Nicholson called him to account for exceeding his authority, and in wild rage exclaimed : " I would rather see the town on fire than commanded by you ! " His words were reported as a threat to burn the town, and they started the flame of revolution. The succeeding Sunday it came to be alleged he was to order another massacre of St. Bar- tholomew. A conference was held May 31, 1689, when Nicholson sought to explain his position. He lost his temper, took Cuyler's commission away, and afforded the occasion for open revolt. The militia captains who were present ordered the drums beat. The companies were soon under arms, and on their demand Nicholson gave up to them the keys of the fort. A declaration was drafted by Leisler, signed by several, and circulated in manuscript, repeating the griev- ances and dangers felt and apprehended, and 204 NEW YORK. promising to hold the fort " in behalf of the power that now governeth in England, and to surrender to tbe person of the Protestant reli- gion" sent to receive it. The charges grew by repetition. By accident a sloop arrived from the Barbadoes, off Coney Island, and it was rep- resented to be the advance of a French fleet with a Catholic army. The militia was gath- ered into the fort, and Leisler issued a procla- mation, signed also by five other captains and four hundred men, renewing the pledge to hold the fort, with the specification that they awaited " orders from His Royal Highness the Prince of Orange." Official letters addressed to Nichol- son and his councilors Leisler seized and read. He and four other captains joined in an address to William and Mary, reciting the events in which they were actors, and giving assurance of prompt submission to their pleasuie. While Leisler was acting with so much vigor, Nichol- son went off to England, June 6, 1689, carrying letters from clerg;^mien and his councilors, and abandoning the field. Now, if not before, Leisler might claim the right to act. He summoned first a committee of safety, and then a popular convention. Dele- gates were chosen by a light vote from most of the towns, excepting those in Queens, Suffolk, Ulster, and Albany counties, and they assembled A EE BELL I ON AND AN EXECUTION. 205 in the fort in New York, June 26, 1689. Two withdrew when the purpose became apparent ; but ten members constituted themselves into a committee of safety, and designated Jacob Leisler as captain of the fort, " till orders shall come from their Majesties." He set to work, built a battery, and organized a company of soldiers. He sent out Sergeant Joost Stoll, a "dram-seller," to "disarm the papists," and several persons were arrested. No magistrate could be found to administer the oath of alle- giance to the existing power, and so the commit- tee of safety designated Leisler as commander- in-chief with full discretion. Report of these transactions was carried to London by Stoll and Matthew Clarkson, the latter of whom re- turned as secretary of the province. Orders were issued for elections in the several counties, which were only in part recognized. Albany under the guidance of its mayor, Peter Schuy- ler, and the leading inhabitants, refused to recognize the commander-in-chief, or to be "subordinate to the city of New York." When alarm arose from the operations of Denonville, Albany sent an express to Leisler for help, and in turn he declined to cooperate in the defense of the northern borders. Nor was he content with this refusal. He sent a force with three sloops under his son-in-law, Jacob Milborne, up 206 IVEW YORK. the Hudson to bring the recusant town into subjection. Milborne did not fail for lack of speech or strategy. His arguments were set aside, and Mayor Peter Schuyler, in command of the fort, thrust him out, and, ordering the garrison to load its guns, he "read a paper." He had also at hand a body of Mohaw^ks ready to help the Albany garrison against the New York assailants. Milborne was compelled to withdraw as he came, except as he had organ- ized a faction among the young men with Jo- achim Staats as leader. In New York Leisler's power was growing. The charges of " popish plots," and of hostile schemes on the part of Nicholson and his allies, were diligently exaggerated, and the usual de- vices of arbitrary power of searches and annoy- ances were employed, so that not a few persons of prominence fled from the colony. When special letters addressed to Nicholson arrived, or to " such as may bear rule for the time being," Leisler appropriated them, and acted on the orders they contained. He seized a messenger bearing other orders from England. There- upon he claimed authority as lieutenant gover- nor under the king's commission, and he tried to continue the government in the former grooves. By the seizure of private letters he claimed that he had " detected a hellish conspiracy " against A REBELLION AND AN EXECUTION. 207 the king's government and New York, and on this pretext he arrested the councilor Bayard, who was carried in chains about the fort, and William NicoUs, who had also aroused his hate. They were kept in close confinement for thirteen months. When Schenectady was burned, the popular alarm prompted him to order many other arrests. The dread of the vigorous movements of Frontenac for the moment brought recognition of the sole government existing on the lower Hudson. On the advice of Connecticut, the Albany authorities accepted Leisler as gov- ernor, although the ink was yet fresh on their protest that he was a " restless and ambitious spirit," " acting without the least show of au- thority." To a summons to elect delegates to an assembly, all the counties except Suffolk and Queens responded, and it was held April 24, 1690, and provided for a revenue; but on re- ceiving petitions for the release of political prisoners it was prorogued until September, when it met again to clothe Leisler with almost absolute control of person and property in the colony. One of the anomalies of history is that the call for the first Colonial Congress in America proceeded from this governor, whose title was won by his sword and his audacity, was always 208 NEW YORK. in dispute, and was finally cancelled on the gallows. The immediate suggestion was j)i'e- sented by the convention htld in Albany in February, 1690, and was inspired by the Five Nations as the teaching of their exj)erience. The Colonial Congress met in New York, May 1, 1690, and Jacob Leisler and Peter de la Noy were the members for that colony. Its business was to organize joint expeditions against Canada. The coopeiation was far from complete, and the movement became a failure, to serve for a prophecy of a future achievement, when union should be learned and practiced. William and Mary refused to listen to the agents of Leisler, and appointed Colonel Henry Sloughter to be governor of New York. But the incumbent held his position firmly, though once assaulted in the street. He grew more arbitrary in his conduct, and delay in the ar- rival of the newly appointed executive pro- duced serious complications. Sloughter's com- mission bore date September 2, 1689, but by delay in England and mishaps to his vessel at Bermuda, he did not reach New York until March 19, 1691. In the mean time a vessel had arrived which sailed when he did, and boie Major Richard Ingoldsby, with two companies of soldiers. These landed September 10, 1690. A REBELLION AND AN EXECUTION. 209 Major Ingoldsby had no authority to act as commander in the absence of his chief. Leis- ler professed himself as ready to welcome Governor Sloughter, and offered quarters to Ingoldsby and his soldiers in the town, but in- sisted on holding the fort until the governor should arrive. Collision arose upon this ground. Leisler collected the militia to sustain him. Ingoldsby, on the urgency of persons named of the new governor's council, prepared for seizing the fort. Armed men were arrayed against each other. Proclamations, addresses, letters, were thick as rooks. March 17, Leisler with his own hands fired a gun from the fort at the British troops on parade, and volleys of musketry followed. The force of Ingoldsby returned the fire. Of the latter two were killed, and several wounded. On Leisler 's side six were killed. The bloodshed would have been prevented if patience had held out two days longer, for when the hostile forces were waiting to renew the conflict. Governor Sloughter arrived, hastened to land, and organized his government. Leisler first asked for sight of the royal commission, and sought to make terms, but he soon surren- dered the fort, and was imprisoned with his chief supporters. The next month they were put on trial, charged with treason and murder, 210 NEW YORK. for holding the fort after the arrival of In- goldsby, and for the resistance offered to him. A court was specially commissioned to conduct the trial ; all of its members were English or Scotch, and nearly all with titles as oflScers. Major Ingoldsby was one of the judges named, and William Pinhorne, another of them, was also designated on a committee, with Bayard and Van Cortlandt, to prepare evidence for the prosecution. The jury was all drawn from New York, while the other counties were not repre- sented at all. Then and afterwards it was al- leged that the governor and council put only the enemies of Leisler on the bench ; and this is substantially true. Leisler and his son-in-law and main support, Milborne, denied the jurisdic- tion of the court, but they were found guilty as mutes. Besides them were convicted Abraham Gouverneur, Gerardus Beekman, Johannes Ver- milye, Thomas Williams, Myndert Coerten, and Abraham Brasher. Two others indicted were acquitted. Most of these prisoners were after a time discharged, but passion raged bitter and violent against Leisler and Milborne. The Dutch clergymen, who had felt the rebel's power, led the demand for the enforcement of the law, and the wealthier people, especially the women, joined in the clamor. Petitions were presented for pardon or mitigation of sentence, but to no avail. A REBELLION AND AN EXECUTION. 211 Leisler and Milborne were hanged, and their heads separated from their bodies, May 16, 1691, near old Tammany Hall, in New York. It was a cruel, unnecessary exercise of legal authority. When Sloughter arrived, the foundation and superstructure of Leisler 's power were anni- hilated. He was a rebel, it is true, but he had not used his usurped power corruptly or basely. Even his enemies rested their entire indictment against him on his conduct subsequent to the landing of Ingoldsby. If his authority before that time was not controverted in court, he can well be pardoned for insisting on some real title on the part of those who summoned him to sur- render. The evidence is absolute that he had the support of a large and growing majority of the people. Of the three resident councilors whom Nicholson left, Phillipse early joined Leisler, and Bayard later recognized him. The Albany convention yielded after a while, and the other colonies all followed Connecticut in treating him as the governor of New York. He was born in Frankfort on the Main, and came to New York as a soldier in the pay of the West India Company. He engaged in trade and took sea ventures, on one of which in 1678 he was captured by the Turks, and compelled to secure his freedom by a large ransom. His 212 NEW YORK. education was limited, but he became connected by marriage with both Bayard and Van Cort- landt. He caught the wild fever of the times against the Catholics, and like other zealots de- nounced as " papists " all who crossed his path. The divisions which he caused weakened the colony in its contests with the French in Canada ; but he put forth wise and broad efforts to cor- rect that evil, and to organize the forces of New York, and to make it a centre of a union of all the colonies. His faults were those of all usurpers. He was arbitrary and violent, and pursued his per- sonal enemies with public enginery. Yet until that unfortunate last day before the arrival of Slonghter, he shed no drop of blood to get or to hold his place. He appealed to popular forms for carrying on his administration, and expressed himself at all times as ready to hand it over to any duly accredited representative of the British crown. His logic was natural that King Will- iam could not deem him guilty for maintaining the Protestant faith in New York by the same instrument that asserted it in England. But the Protestant faith was in no danger in New York. The Catholics were few in number, had never been aggressive, and could have exercised no control if they had tried to do so. But Don- gan had several Catholics in prominent places, A REBELLION AND AN EXECUTION. 213 and lie was charged with putting a Jesuit over the Latin school. Those who saw in Canada and in France the incarnation of the papal power were easily alarmed, although New York was far less bigoted than other countries. Race controversies facilitated the schemes of Leisler. The English rule was not yet so firmly estab- lished but that those of other blood and other birth found occasion for complaint. They had probably their fair share in the colonial council and local offices, but the difference was a con- venient pretext for a rallying cry. Leisler was overthrown by no popular up- rising. He felt strong enough to hold the fort against two companies of British regulars. He succumbed to the royal seal, but not to actual force. His dying speech was that of a sincere man, not without a touch of heroism, and with a deep desire for the welfare of the colony. Ifc puts his religious character in a favorable light. Milborne was less resigned to the gallows, and had less of the stuff of leader or martyr. The British parliament passed in 1695 an act revers- ing the attainder of Leisler and his associates, and annulling all the convictions. The act not only recognized Leisler's appointment' by the assembly, but treats it as confirmed by the royal letters addressed to " such as bear rule," and expressly declares that Ingoldsby's demand 214 NEW YORK. for possession of the fort was " without legal authority," while the transfer to Sloughter was gracious and in due time. If the severity of the court and of the governor, council and assembly had been mitigated by the generosity which at that late day parliament exhibited, the record of New York might have been spared the stain of cruelty and of the sacrifice from political malice of two brave and active lives. CHAPTER XIV. A EEACTION IN ADMINISTRATION. 1691-1708. Colonel Sloughter had a council appointed for him at Whitehall, made up of the pronounced opponents of Leisler, or, as the phrase was, of members of the " party of aristocrats ; " for already wealth was a claim to distinction, and certain families began to assume eminence and influence. He was authorized to summon a general assembly, abolished by James II. When that body assembled, it appealed to the king to give back Connecticut and the original Jerseys, including Pennsylvania, to this colony, and it re-enacted substantially the old charter of liber- ties, with the exclusion, however, of the right to worship according to the " Romish religion." So the government of the province was put again on a regular track. Relations with its neighbors were growing more close in various ways. The questions which were arising were not unlike those which the settlers elsewhere had to deal with. The conditions were not 216 NEW YORK. identical ; for the inhabitants were in large part different in origin, in training, and in many- elements of character, and their views of British authority were not the same. By geographical position, now that the colonists recognized a common sovereign. New York became a link between those to the east and those to the south, and the activity and importance of the Iroquois, and the continual conflicts with Canada, made it a centre of colonial conference and operations. History often turns on the character and con- duct of the rulers. At this period New York affords no wide field of that sort. Its governors moved over the stage almost as rapidly and with little more substance than the Scottish kings appeared to Macbeth. Their terms were more brief than those in other colonies. While Vir- ginia had twenty governors in the century be- fore the Revolution, Massachusetts twenty-one, and Pennsylvania twenty-five, the executive authority in New York underwent thirty-three changes, counting the lieutenant governors serv- ing temporarily as heads of the government. Governor Sloughter died suddenly July 23, 1691, whereupon Major Ingoldsby conducted the administration until Colonel Benjamin Fletcher came out as governor, August 29, 1692. Richard, Earl of Bellamont, appointed in 1695, did not arrive until April 2, 1698, and died A REACTION IN ADMINISTRATION. 217 March 5, 1701. John Nanfan, lieutenant gov- ernor, acted as chief executive from May 19 of that yea I- until Lord Cornbury entered upon the government in 1702. He gave place, De- cember 18, 1708, to John, Lord Lovelace, who died very soon after his arrival. Then Major Ingoldsby acted again until April 10, 1710, when Gerardus Beekman, who had been indicted with Leisler, was chosen by the council to await the arrival of General Robert Hunter, who was transferred from Virginia, June 14, 1710. The governors were graciously treated by the people and the assembly. When Fletcher ar- rived in New York, he was welcomed with a " treat costing £20," and on return from a tour no farther than the Jerseys, public entertain- ment was extended to the head of the govern- ment. The salary paid to Governor Fletcher was £780, while at the same time (1692) Chief Justice William Smith received but .£130. The state and parade of some of the titled oc- cupants of the executive chair, notably of Lord Cornbury, were imposing and extravagant. In so young a colony, with all its struggles, and with inhabitants with fortunes to make, much civility and social outlay would hardly be looked for. To Captain John Miller, who was for nearly three years chaplain to his Majesty's forces in the province, it presented in 1695 an 218 NEW YORK. aspect sufficiently rude. Besides tlie Episcopal church in the fort, there was also a Reformed Dutch church, and in the city of New York were a large French Protestant congregation, one of Dutch Lutherans, and a Jewish synagogue, while English dissenters, although somewhat numerous, had no meeting-house. Long Island had meeting-houses in almost every town, but the ministers were Presbyterians or Indepen- dent, or without orders at all. At Albany and Kingston were Reformed Dutch churches. To the grief of Captain Miller, voluntary contribu- tions were the only source of support for re- ligion, and the ministers *' did more harm in distracting and dividing the people than good in amending their lives and conversations." The chaplain pronounced the people little con- cerned about religion, inclined, " so soon as the bounty of God has furnished them with a plen- tiful crop, to turn the money into drink," and to " ride ten or twenty miles " for " sottish engage- ments." Like habits prevailed in New York city, where "ruin and destruction of many merchants " followed from frequenting taverns. The marriage relation was not always respected, separation was easy, and chastity was sometimes disregarded. The absence of ministers of his own church. Chaplain Miller deemed the cause of these evils, and perhaps gave depth of color A REACTION IN ADMINISTRATION. 219 to his statement ; for his conclusion is that " the great, most proper and effectual remedy " was to " send over a bishop to the province of New York," to be appointed by the governor on a salary of £1,500, with the king's farm as an Episcopal seat. He should have also five or six sober young ministers, with Bibles and prayer- books. But the chaplain was not appointed bishop, as perhaps would have been every way proper. Religious activity there was, however, al- thougli of the dissenting sort in such large measure, and not without the practices incident to adventure and new settlements. The move- ment so vigorously pressed in these years, for missions among the Iroquois, must have been inspired in no small degree by religious zeal. Political motives there were, for the " praying Indians," who had migrated across the St. Law- rence, gave as a reason for removal to French jurisdiction the desire for religious instruction ; and they promised in 1698 to return to their castles, if good teachers should be furnished to them there. Rev. Godfrey Dellius, the Dutch minister at Albany, had visited the Mohawks occasionally for several years, on religious mis- sions. Rev. Bernard Freeman, also a minister of the Dutch church, in 1700 began his work in Schenectady, under the auspices of Gover- 220 NEW YORK. nor Bellamont, with chief regard to instruc- tion of the Mohawks. During the five years of his residence he learned their language, and translated into it the liturgy and parts of the Old and New Testaments. He testified that thirty-six of the Mohawks had embraced the Christian faith. Rev. Mr. Lydius, the pastor at Albany, labored zealously among the Indian tribes. The first missionary of the Church of England sent to them was Thorougood Moor, who came in 1704, but he met with discourage- ments, and after beholding the promised land from Albany withdrew the next year. The authorities of the colony, it must be confessed, were more steady and urgent for mission work among the Iroquois than the clergymen and churches proved to be. The question of revenue was the first for each governor in turn to meet, and it gave rise to con- stant collisions with the assembly, both con- cerning the power and mode of raising it and the control of its expenditure. The amount raised at this period, for a population of twenty thousand, scattered from New York to Schenec- tady, was less than some of the minor cities of the State now devote to their fire departments, and less than one fourth what they expend for lighting streets. In 1692, the total revenue was £3,202 17s., derived from customs, excise, A REACTION IN ADMINISTRATION. 221 quit-rents, weigh-house, and fines, and for sev- eral years the average was about the same, ex- cept as special appropriations were made for military purposes. In 1700, the total revenue and from like sources was .£5,400, and did not vary greatly for several subsequent years. The assembly, when Sloughter first sum- moned it, voted the revenue for a period of two years ; under Fletcher the period was extended to five years, under Bellamont to six years, and under Cornbury to seven years. This last ad- ministration was well calculated to show the mischiefs of such long grants. In 1711 and afterwards, the assembly voted only annual ap- propriations for four successive years. The assembly in 1709, and again in 1711, voted, in order to provide for an expedition against Can- ada, to issue X 10,0 00 in bills of credit, and they passed into circulation as money. Domestic matters well deserved attention, and they were growing to a magnitude which, if royal governors were to be sent out, was quite adequate to engross all their energies. Yet Fletcher's jurisdiction extended over Pennsyl- vania and Delaware, and he had the titular com- mand of the militia of the Jerseys and Connecti- cut. The Earl of Bellamont was governor also of Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Fletch- er's title to remembrance lies in his zeal and 222 NEW YORK. activity as a soldier, which was recognized by the assembly by placing at his disposal <£ 6,000 for the defense of the frontier, and by the In- dians by the title of " the Great Swift Arrow." The assembly had less regard for his wishes w^ien he sought to secure provision for an es- tablished ministry, a revenue for the king during life, and repairs for the fort in New York, and the erection of a chapel. A quarrel arose over the governor's demand for authority to " ap- prove and collate," and of course to reject min- isters, and he vigorously scolded the legislators convened before him, and then dissolved the body. The act as passed applied to four coun- ties, and contest at once arose over its construc- tion, which was not settled, by a formal resolu- tion of the assembly, " that the vestrymen and church- wardens have power to call a dissenting Protestant minister, and that he is to be main- tained as the act directs." The claim was long urged that only clergymen of the Episcopal church were entitled to the public maintenance, and in fact the endowed churches generally be- came attached to that denomination. Governor Fletcher, although such a champion of the church under State care, was sent to England under arrest on charges of malfeasance, from which he was never relieved, and on allegations that he was a partner with pirates on the coast, which were never verified. A ENACTION IN ADMINISTRATION. 223 The Earl of Bellamont was of a far nobler type. His opening speech to the assembly gave assurance of reform, where he found "a divided people, an empty purse, a few miserable, naked, half -starved soldiers, not half the number the king allowed pay for ; the fortifications and even the governor's house very much out of re- pair, and in a word the whole government out of frame." For himself, he declared : " I will take care there shall be no misapplication of the public money ; I will pocket none of it myself, nor shall there be embezzlement by others." One point of significance about the attitude of Bellamont is, that he at once dismissed the chief councilors, and brought grave charges against some of them, while he called the friends of Leisler about him. As he had been a member of the committee in parliament which favored the reversal of the act of attainder on Governor Leisler, his choice of supporters from that side must be accepted as the result of investigation and deliberation. Councilor Nicoll was put under bonds, charged with collecting money for protecting pirates. Councilor Bayard was sus- pended for cause : for conniving at commis- sions to pirates, for advising " Fletcher's fre- quent embezzlements of the king's revenue," for taking to himself a grant of land belonging to the Mohawks as large as one of the middle 224 NEW YORK. counties of England, without a reasonable quit- rent, and for raising scandalous reports against the new governor. Bayard responded with an elaborate defense, denying several of the charges and justifying the acceptance of the land patent. His case was only one of many. Land began to promise large returns, and speculation reached out for vast tracts. Robert Livingston, who had begun his career in Albany, on a visit to England secured grants for many thousand acres on the Hudson, which became known as Livingston's Manor. Transactions with the red men led more and more to purchases of land, or acquisitions less regular. Clergymen were members of combinations such as would now be known as "Indian rings and land rings." Domine Godfrey Dellius, the Dutch pastor at Albany, was a zealous politician, bitter in his hostility to Leisler, and yet appointed by Leis- ler a commissioner of Indian affairs. He was charged with fraudulently securing deeds from the red men for vast tracts. Pinhorne, a mem- ber of the council, with associates, obtained patents for the Mohawk Valley, two miles on each side of the river, for fifty miles along its banks. Peter Schuyler was one of several who, at first interested in buying these lands, had withdrawn from the transactions on account of the frauds practiced. The courts vacated the A REACTION IN ADMINISTRATION 225 patents, Delliiis was suspended from the minis- try, and a temporary check was given to the greed of the land jobbers. But the vast domain of the Iroquois continued to offer temptations, and governors and officials of various grades, and capitalists, small and large, grasped for a share of it, until only scanty reservations re- mained to the original owners. Party spirit suffered the prosecution against the land operators to lack nothing of activity and thoroughness. They had been leading opponents to Leisler, while a reaction in his favor set in when Bellamont came. Leisler's remains and those of Milborne were disinterred in 1699, were exhibited in state, and were re- buried in the Dutch church. Acts of indemnity were passed for such of this party as had not been pardoned, and popular favor ran strongly in favor of what was styled the " popular cause." This was made especially manifest in 1702 by the arrest and trial for treason of Nicholas Bayard, chief in influence under recent gover- nors. He was arraigned under a statute en- acted by his procurement in 1691, aimed against Leisler, pronouncing all persons "rebels and traitors " who should by arms or otherwise " dis- turb the peace, good and quiet " of the colony. The specification was that in an address, with warm protestations in honor of Lord Cornbury, 226 NEW YORK. already appointed governor, but not arrived, he had joined imputations upon Bellamont and accused Nanfan of bribing the assembly. With him was brought to trial, for circulating the address, a tavern-keeper named Hutch ins. Chief Justice Atwood and two associates of the supreme court, designated to preside at the trial, were avowedly hostile, as was the prosecuting attorney ; and of the jurors it was alleged, one had declared that, " if Bayard's neck were gold, he should be hanged." An indictment was found, but Bayard's son objected that a suffi- cient number of the jurors did not agree to it ; that those who did w^ere Dutch, and several could " neither read nor write nor understand the English language." He objected, too, that most of the petit jury, all Dutch, were "handicraft and laboring men." The trial, however, pro- ceeded. Weaver, the solicitor, appealed to the race prejudice of the jurors by accusing Bayard and his English associates of seeking to intro- duce popery, and as a nest of pirates, and di- rectly alleged that they had offered Bellamont <£ 10,000 " to connive at their piracies, and XI 00 to himself to solicit it.'' Both prisoners were convicted under the indictment, and they were sentenced to be punished for high treason. Hutchins was released on bail, but Bayard was kept in prison until Lord Cornbury arrived. A REACTION IN ADMINISTRATION. 227 Then the chief justice and solicitor, in fear of their lives, fled to England, although they had been appointed members of Lord Cornbury's council. All the proceedings against the prison- ers were nullified, and the statute under which they were conducted was repealed, by order of Queen Anne. Connivance at piracy was a charge not infre- quent against prominent persons in the colonies at this time. Privateering was encouraged by the government, and reputable persons became partners in vessels sent out under daring sailors to seize prizes. The sailors did not always ob- serve nice distinctions when rich captures were possible, and privateering not infrequently fell more and more into audacious piracy. This was the case with William Kidd, whom the ballad represents as confessing, " most wickedly I did," and whose career is closely connected with New York. He was a navigator who won confidence and fame. In 1691 he was employed by the council, and the assembly on its restora- tion voted hira .£150 "for many good services done to the province." During the war with Spain, a vessel was provided for him for priva- teering, and King William, the Earl of Bella- mont, Robert Livingston, and others in Eng- land and New York, were shareholders. He swept the seas with little regard to laws of 228 NEW YORK. property, and his achievements became the theme of story and invention. He captured considerable treasure, which he turned to his own use, and some of it he buried on Gardi- ner's Island. '* Kidd's treasures " have tempted speculators to dive and dig at various points, from the exaggerations which have found ready currency. He cannot have deemed himself a criminal in any great degree, if at all ; for after selling his ship he appeared openly in Boston, where the Earl of Bellamont recognized him and put him under arrest. He was sent to England, and put on trial for murder and piracy under a law specially enacted to supply a defi- ciency in the statutes which did not cover such transactions as he had been engaged in. The Earl of Bellamont was accused of partnership with Kidd, as he was in fact with the king and others in privateering, but not in piracy. An investigation in parliament gave signs that New York merchants pressed the charge against Bellamont, because as governor he had shown vigor in enforcing the acts of trade. Lord Cornbury, who became Earl of Claren- don, held a higher rank at home than the Irish peer Bellamont. But he was impoverished by his vices, intent on gain without regard to methods, and possessed little capacity for ad- ministration. He threw liimself into the arms A REACTION IN ADMINISTRATION. 229 of the aristocratic party, and was at once con- spicuous for his zeal for the Episcopal church. He insisted that no preachers or teachers should practice their vocation without a license from the bishop of London. In Jamaica, a contest arose between the original Dutch settlers and the Episcopalians of the town for the possession of a church edifice, and resulted in violence. The governor sustained the Episcopalians, and having borrowed the parsonage house of the Presbyterian minister for his own use, deceit- fully handed it over to the sheriff and the Epis- copalians, who held it for their denomination. The temper of administration and people is well illustrated by the trial of Francis McKemie, a dissenting minister, for unlawfully preaching without a license, and for using other ceremonies than those prescribed by the Book of Common Prayer. The claim was urged by the prosecu- tion that the governor's directions had the force of law, and that the statutes of uniformity ap- plied to the province. For the defense this was denied, and it was insisted that preaching was no crime by the common law. McKemie closed the argument for himself with such effect that he was acquitted, and yet by some legal device he was not discharged until he paid the fees for his prosecution. The doctrine of religious liberty was asserted with a force and clearness 230 NEW YORK. worthy of any tribunal in any age. And yet an act passed in 1700 was on the statute books, providing for the hanging of every "popish priest " who came voluntarily into the province. The province had grievous occasion to learn that Lord Cornbury was a spendthrift even more than a zealot. As soon as the assembly was organized, as it was by the party to which he allied himself, it granted him <£l,800for the defense of the frontiers, and made a personal gift of X 2,000 for the expenses of his voyage. Although a like gift of <£ 1,500 had been made to Bellamont and <£500 to his lieutenant, this liberality was so scandalous that Queen Anne forbade any more such donations. But Corn- bury was not content even with this lavishness. He diverted to his own use <£ 1,000 of the ap- propriation for the frontiers, and £1,500 raised for batteries at the Narrows. His waste and greed brought him into collision with the as- sembly. He sought to prolong his power by a claim of the right of the council to amend money bills, which was promptly rejected, and the as- sembly passed a series of resolutions denouncing as a " great grievance for any officer to extort any money whatsoever not positively estab- lished," as also was it to " compel any man upon trial to pay any fees " beyond his own counsel. It was pronounced a " great discouragement to A REACTION IN ADMINISTRATION, 231 trade, to screw excessive sums from masters of vessels," and to send to vessels " supernumerary officers taking extraordinary fees." The prin- ciple was plainly declared further, " that the imposing and levying of any moneys upon her Majesty's subjects of this colony under any pre- tense or color whatsoever, without consent in general assembly, is a grievance and a violation of the people's property." This resolution was elaborated in an address previously presented to the governor, in which these eloquent words were used : " Whatsoever else may admit of controversy, the people of this colony think they have an undoubted, true, and entire property in their goods and estates, of which they ought not to be divested but by their free consent, in such manner, to such, ends and purposes, as they shall think fit, and not otherwise." Possibly such misconduct as that of Cornbury was re- quired to call forth such enduring expression of popular rights. New Jersey, also under the same governor, appealed for his removal. Queen Anne listened to the cry, although Cornbury was her cousin. His creditors thrust him into prison, but his earldom of Clarendon now fell to him, and by its privileges he was released to go home, carrying with him the contempt of the colonists. CHAPT:f:R XV. A DECADE OF DEVELOPMENT. 1708-1720. The province was slowly growing in popu- lation in the years following Leisler's rebellion. Governor Hunter in 1716 " cannot say that the inhabitants increase as in the neighboring prov- inces, where the purchase of land is easier." He adds that " great numbers of the younger sort leave Long Island yearly to plant in the Jerseys and Pennsylvania." From the interior of New York settlers were practically excluded by the hostility of the Canadians. Yet the militia, which Colonel Fletcher reported at 2,923 in 1693, Governor Hunter officially stated to be 6,000 in 1720, owing probably in part to closer enlistments. The population in 1720 was reported to the Lords of Trade at 27,000 whites and 4,000 blacks. The total population for all the colonies was 434,600. Negroes were systematically imported into New York by private traders. In 1701, 1,014 A DECADE OF DEVELOPMENT. 233 were brought in from the West Indies and 626 from Africa ; but this was an exceptional year, for from that time to 1726 the importation was 1,573 from the West Indies and 828 from Africa. They became the cause of alarm and cruelty. They were aliens, not closely identified with the families whom they served, and were the object of the race hatred, then much more in- tense than now. In 1712 New York was stirred with rumors of organized insurrection, and sus- picion welcomed and exaggerated every charge. One house was burned, and several whites were killed. The vengeance was prompt and sweep- ing. Many negroes were arrested, and nine- teen were tried and executed. The assembly passed an act for preventing, suppressing, and punishing the conspiracy and insurrection of negroes, and thus illustrated the dread which prevailed and the severity on which depend- ence was placed. Trade was extending in various directions, especially with the Indians. From 1717 to 1720, the total imports averaged X 21, 254 a year, against exports of X52,239, including furs valued at X 8,44 3. The British merchants did not receive the benefits which they desired from the trade of the colony. The device which was suggested to help them, in addition to the rigid enforcement of the navigation laws, was the 234 NEW YORK. restriction of all forms of manufactures in this as in the other colonies, and the fostering of the production of naval stores. Caleb Heath- cote, a member of the council, wrote in 1708 to the Lords of Trade in London, referring to former urgent correspondence : " My proposal was to divert the Americans from going on with their linen and woolen manufactories, and to turn tlKiir thoughts on such things as might be beneficial to Great Britain. They are already so far advanced in their manufactories that three-fourths of the linen and woolen, especially of the coarser sort they use, is made amongst them." He feared " they would carry it on a great deal further," although he was exerting " all his interest and skill to prevent the mak- ing of fine stuffs." His apprehension led him into some exaggeration, for Governor Hunter in 1715 declared that very few in New York or Albany wore American fabrics ; and of the colony at large he said : '" Few that are able to go to the expense of English manufacture we-dv homespun, and a law to oblige such as are not able to go to that expense to do it under penal- ties, would be equivalent to a law to compel them to go naked." He agreed with Heathcote in advocating a policy for producing naval stores, " because these provinces raise much more than serves for their own consumption A DECADE OF DEVELOPMENT. 235 and that of the West Indies," and except in naval stores he saw " no solid way to prevent the decay of trade." Zeal to develop the production of naval stores, with a thrifty eye to profits, prompted Governor Hunter in 1711 to enter upon a large scheme for introducing laborers into the province. He found them in the German districts known as the Palatinate, where the French had ravaged the country and impoverished the people. He secured from the British government a grant of £10,000 for the project, and entered into a contract to transport the immigrants, and to maintain them for a while, in return for their labor. The number is commonly stated at 3,000 persons, but authorities differ on the subject. At a hearing in London, in 1720, a committee of the Palatines, as they were called, placed the original migration at between 3,000 and 4,000, and Governor Nicholson placed it at 3,200. Statistics show that 2,227 Vent upon the lands provided upon the banks of the Hud- son, while 357 remained in New York. These came in two shipments about the same time, while a third immigration occurred in 1722. Their coming was a marked event, for it added nearly ten per cent, to the total population. The first Palatines, except such as remained in New York, located on both sides of the Hudson, 236 NEW YORK. " about a hundred miles up," as Governor Hunter says, in five villages, three on the east side of the river, on lands belonging to Robert Livingston, and two on royal lands on the west side. They were to produce tar and turpentine. Governor Hunter contracted with Livingston to furnish bread and beer to them, and trusted to local overseers. Trouble soon began. It was alleged that money promised was not paid to the immigrants, that the land was barren, and that enough food was not provided. Cer- tain it is that complaints were loud and long, and the Palatines within the year refused to do the work required of them, and wished to move to other lands. They organized a strike, and Governor Hunter went among them with troops to subdue them and enforce his con- tracts. He found that his receipts were far from meeting his outlays. In July, 1712, he cut off the supply of beer from all except men actually engaged in work, and the following September he notified them that '^ everyone must shift for himself, but not outside of the province." He declared that his money and credit were gone, and later investigations prove that the enterprise involved a loss of X 20,000. His accounts and conduct were long in contro- versy. In England the Palatines did not com- mand the sympathy which their appeals sought A DECADE OF DEVELOPMENT. 237 to arouse, because it was urged that in a new country a livelihood was easily gained. Lord Clarendon said " that every person who will work, man or woman, above fifteen years of age, may earn 2s. Sd. a day in New York money, that is ISd. sterling; while handicraftsmen, joiners, masons, blacksmiths, and the like, may earn 5s. a day." The fallacy was that theoe people had mortgaged their wages, and were crippled by their contracts. The red men offered the Palatines land in Schoharie on easy terms, and thither many of them soon removed and created a settlement. Some at different periods, and a hundred fam- ilies in 1722, with additions from the third migration, found homes in the Mohawk Valley, where Palatine Bridge and the town of German Flats and their original patent of Stone Arabia preserve their memory. The contract system, and not the character of the Palatines, was the cause of the failure of Governor Hunter's migration scheme. As independent laborers the immigrants proved themselves industrious, thrifty, and prosperous, and they became useful and in many cases eminent members of the community, and their numerous descendants perpetuate their virtues. Settlement was advancing up the Mohawk Valley with slow but sure steps. Tradition 238 NEW YORK. locates Hendrick Frey, a native of Zurich, Switzerland, west of Palatine Bridge before 1700. In 1712 Fort Hunter was built at the mouth of Schoharie Creek, and in the succeed- ing year a like centre for trade and defense was constructed at Onondaga. These forts were one hundred and fifty feet square, with blockhouses, and served for small garrisons, while they became the resort of traders and the nucleus of a few daring pioneers. The Dutch current spent its main force not far from Fort Plain, where the Palatines estab- lished their lines, and opened and held the route by the Mohawk for adventure and traffic. The movements against Canada from the ad- vent of Frontenac lost the character of opera- tions by New York alone. Virginia found its interests in the west threatened by French ag- gression, and New England actually suffered from invasion. Yet New York was by its posi- tion most frequently assailed, and by reason of its intimate relations with the Iroquois was the chief reliance for any campaign, whether of as- sault or defense. Since it had to bear the brunt of the conflicts, it asked the other colonies for contributions to a common fund. The request was obviously equitable. It was not always met with generosity, althougli with some quib- bling and delay response was made, frequently A BE CADE OF DEVELOPMENT. 239 with a condition that the command of expe- ditions should be yielded. The concession was costly, as the event proved. Possibly failure in such expeditions was inevitable, but in New York it was attributed to the leadership of men not familiar with the kind of warfare needed, as when in 1693 Phips, of Massachusetts, over the fleet, and General Winthrop over the land forces, met with disaster ; and even greater shame was incurred in 1710, when an expe- dition for which New York had made prepa- rations was abandoned, and in 1711, when a movement met with an utter failure. Then Governor Nicholson, of Virginia, led an army of 4,000 men, cooperating with a British fleet under Walker, which was wrecked on the St. Lawrence. Great Britain rendered New York a greater service by the Treaty of Utrecht than it did by military or naval resources ; for peace, even though transient, was of priceless value. The preparations for the campaign of 1711 afford a glimpse of the markets and prices of the period. Commissioners were appointed to purchase provisions, and they were allowed to pay not exceeding £3 ''for each barrel of good, firm pork well saved, 31^ gallons ; " 5s. per bushel for peas ; 8d. per pound for bacon ; 7d. for buttock ^ beef, smoked ; 6d. for cheese ; 240 NEW YORK. 2s. 6d. per bushel for Indian corn ; 17s. Qd. per hundred for " well-baked biscuit, made of meal, as comes from the mill, with all the flour, only the bran taken out, without mixture of Cor- nell ; " and 3s. 6d. per gallon for rum. The articles bought for the soldiers, and their cost, let light into the larders and upon the tables of many of the colonists. The burdens which the expeditions against Canada had cast upon New York were very heavy. It was to meet them that it first issued paper money. In 1714, to pay debts incurred chiefly in these expeditions, a new issue of bills of credit was authorized to the amount of £28,000. In 1717 another issue of X48,000 was ordered, on like pretexts, and for claims for services running back thirty years which had only lately been discovered. The ugly Aspect is that nearly all of the claims allowed were in the name of partisans of Governor Hunter. With such methods it is not strange that the general assembly voted the revenue for five years, breaking down the precedent of annual appropriations. In our own days the scheme of the sweeping allowance of resurrected claims would be denounced as a corrupt job. The grand jury then remonstrated, as well it might, against the issue of the paper money, for the bills were current at the rate of three for one in A DECADE OF DEVELOPMENT. 241 coin ; its members were reprimanded for their pains. The home government forbade the is- sue of any further paper money except for cur- rent expenses of the colony. Robert Hunter is one of the most marked figures on the list of roj^al governors of New York, and, except George Clinton, his admin- istration covers the longest period, extending over nine years. He was by birth Scotch, by training a soldier, by taste and habit devoted to literature and literary men, and known as a friend of Addison and Swift. By his career under King William and Marlborough, he had won the rank of major-general, and by mar- riage with a peeress he had established con- nections which gave him political promotion. In 1707 he had been appointed governor of Virginia, but was captured by the French and taken back to Europe. When in 1710 he came to New York, he reported that it had "the finest air to live upon, but not for me ; for according to the customs of the country, the sachems are the poorest of the people," and he pathetically exclaims, " Sajicho Panza was a type of me." His administration was in many respects successful, and he has not been charged with enriching himself, although the assembly in which his friends were dominant passed ex- travagant, wasteful, and corrupt measures, to which he gave his approval. 242 NEW YORK. He was himself a communicant in tlie Epis- copal Church, but he did not satisfy its clergy in enforcing the law for the maintenance of ministers, and in Jamaica he was charged with favoring the dissenters. His fault was that he tried to be tolerant and even-handed, and rea- sonable members of his own church sustained him. Lewis Morris, with a vision worthy of a statesman, pointed out that in Pennsylvania the Episcopal Church was, without legislative support, much stronger than in New York, and argued that here "she would be in much better condition if there were no law in her favor," and he showed that the statute was open to a construction recognizing all denominations for maintenance. He dwelt cynically on the ex- tent of dissent here, for "as in New England the greatest part of the people, except a few families, was the scum of the old, so in this province the greatest part of the English is the scum of the new." The evidence he cited was their tendency to other religious faith and prac- tice than his own. In the main. Governor Hunter managed to get on in his position with comparative quiet and harmony. Yet it was not without under- standing the temper and drift of the people. As early as 1711 he wrote to St. John, after- wards Lord Bolingbroke : " The colonies are A DECADE OF DEVELOPMENT. 243 infants at their mother's breasts, but such as will wean themselves when they become of age." In that year the assembly denied the authority of parliament to tax the colony, and of the council to amend money bills, while it asserted its own "inherent right to act not from grant of the crown, but from the free choice of the people, who ought not, nor justly can be divested of their property without their consent." The Lords of Trade declared that the claim " tended to independency of the crown." The logic was inevitable, as events were mov- ing on to prove. Governor Hunter himself opened a new chan- nel for such events, by establishing a court of chancery in 1712, and thus began the education of the province in a jurisprudence which has been one of its marked features. The courts of the justices of the peace, of sessions, of com- mon pleas, and the supreme court did not wholly meet the views of the governor. By advice of the council, without consulting the assembly, he set up all the machinery of a court of chancery, of which he was chancel- lor, and appointed masters, an examiner, a register and clerks. The scheme promised con- siderable returns in fees, while it added largely to the power of the governor, and to the same degree diminished the authority of the assem- 244 NEW YORK. bly. The Lords of Trade sustained the claim that the power to establish courts belonged to the crown. The assembly asserted its own rights in behalf of the people, and the inde- pendence of the courts from executive control became one of the principles for which the province struggled, and to which various inci- dents gave especial prominence. Such a prin- ciple was, in addition to power over the revenue, one of the branches of the doctrine of self- government which New York was working out so thoroughly. When Governor Hunter, June 24, 1719, an- nounced his purpose to take a leave of ab- sence, his addi'ess to the assembly was ver^^ cordial. " The very name of party or faction seems to be forgotten," he said, and he ex- pressed a wish coupled with praise : " May no strife ever happen among you, but that laud- able emulation who shall approve himself the most zealous servant and most dutiful subject of the best of princes, and most useful member of a well-established and flourishing community of which you have given a happy example." The answer was even more glowing in compli- ment to the " just, mild and tender administra- tion " which was closing, and assured Genera] Hunter, " You have governed well and wisely, like a prudent magistrate, like an affectionate A DECADE OF DEVELOPMENT. 245 parent," and a shower of good wishes followed for " our countryinan." He returned to Eng-. land, and received the appointment which he desired, on account of a climate better fitted for his faihng health, of Governor of Jamaica, where he died in 1734. His success in New York was in no slight degree owing to his in- timacy with the strong men who were devel- oped as the real leaders. He won the confi- dence of most of them, and he had the tact which court favorites did not possess, of enlist- ing their talents for the province, and of secur- ing their cooperation with himself personally. In the generation divided by the beginning of the eighteenth century, Peter Schuyler stands forth as the most prominent New Yorker. He was designated under the charter granted by Governor Dongan as mayor of Al- bany, and he served in that capacity for more than eight years. He led the movement against Leisler at that point, and was commander of the fort, but was nevertheless retained as mayor on the recognition of that governor's authority. He was called into the provincial council in 1692 under Governor Fletcher, and long served in that body. He was lieutenant of a troop of horse as early as 1684, and was colonel of the Albany county militia in 1700. He was urged for commander of the movement against Canada 246 NEW YORK. ill 1693, and was admitted to be the foremost soldier of the province. His exploits dining the campaigns of Frontenac, when he was the chief in command of the colonists, endeared him to red men and whites. As a commis- sioner of Indian afl'airs he was of tbe utmost service. He welcomed the red men to his home and table, and won and held their confidence, so that his presence was for a generation essential to a successful conference with the Iroquois. They knew him as Brother Qaider, and he bad trust in them and friendship for them. His views were broad and sagacious. His convic- tion that dangers were threatened from Canada was prompted by intelligence secured from the red men, and his counsel was zealous and per- sistent to guard against such dangeis by carry- ing the assault across the St. Lawrence. To enlist the British government in this policy, and to counteract the discouragement conse- quent on the abandonment of the proposed ex- pedition, he went to England in 1710 at his own expense, and took with him five Iroquois chiefs, whose visit created gc neral and lasting interest among tlie Englisli people. Upon his departure for his voyage, the general assembly passed unanimously a resolution accrediting him to the queen, as " a person who not only in the last war, when he commanded the forces of A DECADE OF DEVELOPMENT. 247 this colony in chief in Canada, but also in the present, has performed faithful services to this and neighboring colonies, and behaved himself in the offices with which he has been intrusted with good reputation, and the general satisfac- tion of the people in these parts." The British court gave heed to Schuyler's argument ; but the expedition ordered for the ensuing year, by sea and land, added another to the series of faihires, and charges are on record that the British ministry was responsible by neglect or jobbery. Schuyler's policy was postponed by the peace between Britain and France, but no British minister and no colonial authority gave it up until it was finally carried out to a tri- umphant result. In New York Schuyler re- tained and extended his influence, and when Governor Hunter retired, he became, as pres- ident of the council, acting governor of the province. As such he was called to meet the renewed activity of the French and the Iro- quois. Chevalier Joncaire, a skillful and dan- gerous emissary, had been adopted by the Onondagas, and was never idle in stirring up the tribes in the interest of France. Schuyler urged the Iroquois to exclude him from among them. He could not secure this point, but a new treaty with the red men marked his brief occupancy of the executive office. Schuyler 248 NEW YORK. was born in Albany, the son of another Peter Schuyler, an immigrant from Holland, whose descendants were many, and their services to the province and to the Union precious and .enduring. Peter's nephew, Philip Schuyler, soon to come upon the stage, adoins our an- nals as commanding general, and a senator of the United States. Peter Schuyler's second wife was a daughter of Petrus van Rensselaer. The several branches of the Schuyler family intermarried with the Hamiltons, Livingstons, the Van Cortlandts, and other influential per- sons, and continued very strong in social and political position for a long period. Associated with Schuyler for many years, and allied to him by marriage, was Robert Livingston, son of a Scotch preacher, who, for conscience' sake, had fled to Rotterdam. Town clerk of Albany, and commissioner of Indian aff'airs, he took part in the Albany movement against Leisler, was arrested and outlawed by him, and in turn favored his execution, and was denounced by name by Milborne from the gallows. In London, however, he advised the reversal of the act of attainder, and ssdvocated at home indemnity to the associate rebels. George I. in 1715 confirmed to him a grant of land which he had received under Governor Dongan, included in Dutchess and Columb'a A DECADE OF DEVELOPMENT. 249 counties as they now are, and established the manor and lordship of Livingston. While he supported Bellamont and was his close friend, Livingston joined with Schuyler in seeking to make William Smith, senior councilor, acting governor to the exclusion of Nanfan. To pun- ish him for this course, a partisan prosecution was waged for his removal from his office of commissioner of Indian affairs, and for an al- leged deficiency of £28,000. But he triumphed over his enemies, and became mayor of Albany, a provincial councilor, often a member of the general assembly, and a representative to other colonies. His descendants and those of his brothers kept the name on the rolls of New York and the Union for a long period, by abil- ity and worth and patriotism, by remarkable gifts in legislation and administration, and gen- erous devotion to the public welfare. Li the administration of Governor Hunter, a third personage of eminence was Lewis Mor- ris, born in Morrisania, of Welsh descent. He possessed large estates in New Jersey as well as in New York, and devoted himself in large degree to public affairs in both provinces. He was a scholar, a lawyer, and a natural leader. He was especially influential in the general assembly, became chief justice, and exerted a lasting influence. He was one of the closest 250 NEW YORK. supporters of Governor Hunter, wlio owed not a little of the success of his administration to him. By his efforts a separate administration was accorded to New Jersey, and he became its governor in 1738. His descendants furnished many notable names to the roll of New York and the Union. These, and such as these, gave promise of further development, already so auspiciously begun. CHAPTER XVI. STRUGGLES FOR POPULAK EIGHTS. 1720-1736. William Btjenet, son of the distinguished bishop, exchanged with General Hunter the office of comptroller of customs in London for the position of Governor of New York, and began his career in the latter capacity Septem- ber 17, 1720. He was a civilian of consider- able culture, an astronomer, and an author. He was one of the multitude who had lost money in the South Sea Bubble. He sought the gov- ernorship to retrieve his fortunes, but no base or corrupt devices are attributed to him. He sought to continue the policy of his predeces- sor, and the council was not radically changed. He accepted the friends of Governor Hunter, and identified himself with the province by wedding a daughter of Abraham van Home, a prosperous Dutch merchant, and a member of the council. He met with no difficulty in se- curing a grant of revenue for five years, which was extended for three years. 252 NEW YORK. He had the zealous support of the colony in the chief measure of his administration, which was the prohibition of the trade in Indian goods between Albany and Canada. The French traders found profit in buying their supplies in Albany for their trading excursions among the red men. They fostered intimacy with the tribes, and sought to alienate them from New York. The design of the new statute was not merely to secure the profits of trade for Albany, but to hold the red men by every tie to the authority of this province. The London mer- chants complained on the ground that their ex- ports would be reduced, and Canada would get supplies elsewhere. The colonists responded in an elaborate report, urging that the effect was to increase the volume of British trade in America. Already forty young men had en- gaged in traffic with the red men. Indians from Mackinaw and a branch of the Missis- sippi had come direct to Albany for merchan- dise. The assurance was given that more beaver would be exported than ever before, and more goods would be imported into New York for the Indians. The province through Albany felt quite adequate to meet all demands of the Indian trade, and to increase it. In pur- suance of this policy, a trading post was estab- lished at Oswego in 1722, and a fort built there STRUGGLES FOR POPULAR RIGHTS. 253 in 1727. The French saw the meaning of such acts, and in 1726 launched two large vessels on Lake Ontario and rebuilt the fort at Niagara, where Joncaire and the historian Charlevoix represented their interests. These projects disturbed the Iroquois. When Governor Burnet called upon them to explain if they encouraged the French at Niagara, their representatives declared at Albany : " We speak now in the name of the Six Nations, and we come to you howling because the governor of Canada encroaches on our land." They were not content to permit New York to build at Oswego, but finally they renewed an old grant of the land, ceded a strip sixty miles wide from Oswego to Cleveland, on Lake Erie, " to be pro- tected " by the British government. Governor Burnet was so zealous for his plans, that he paid from his private funds for building the fort at Oswego, where trade became at once active. The British authorities at home repealed, De- cember 11, 1729, the prohibition on the trade in Indian goods between Albany and Canada, and traffic with the red men fell back in some measure into French hands. The British mer- chants were finding the colonies, and not least New York, a good market, for from 1720 to 1730 England sent to this province <£657,998 worth of merchandise, and to all the colonies 254 NEW YORK. £4,712,992. The sanguine trader might al- ready discern the signs of the growing com- merce of New York. A congress of governors and conimissioners from the various provinces met in Albany in 1722 to consider relations with the red men. A recommendation was made for a line of trading posts on the northern and western frontier. It was not acted upon, perhaps because the pov- erty of the colonies was more keenly felt than the need of a defensive policy, which would have saved them in the future much blood and treasure. The alliance with the Iroquois was confirmed, and they threatened to wage war against the Eastern Indians if the latter kept up their raids on the New England settlers. The habit of conference and united action be- tween the colonies was of more significance than any specific results. The leadership of New York in the movement was due in this case to the importance of the Iroquois, in view of the increasing activity of the French from Canada among the Western tribes, as well as on the borders of this province. Popular discussion doubtless existed in the province, for it goes forward wherever men have minds and tongues, and the taverns of Dutch days and public resorts of various kinds of later years afforded a sort of forum. In STRUGGLES FOR POPULAR RIGHTS. 255 1693 the council, feeling the need of preserving and multiplying copies of official papers within the province, passed a resolution inviting a printer to establish himself here, and offering "^40 a year and half the benefit of his print- ing besides what served the public." William Bradford, who had already the distinction of the earliest printer in Philadelphia, accepted the invitation to come to New York, and was retained as official printer for fifty years. His first work was to fill orders for broadsides, pamphlets, and proclamations. The prohibition against printing without a license forbade the establishment of any newspaper. In 1696, Gov- ernor Fletcher ordered the reprinting of a num- ber of the London "Gazette," with news of a battle with the French. Among productions of Bradford's press preserved are the trial of Nicholas Bayard, under date of 1702, and the Laws of the Colony, 1710. The latter was probably the first bound book printed in New York. About 1723, Benjamin Franklin called on Bradford, looking for work, but the business did not justify the employment of additional help. So the young printer was referred with kind words to Bradford's son in Philadelphia, and New York lost the man who was to call lightning from its home, and to stand before Europe as the representative American. 256 NEW YORK. In 1725 Governor Burnet felt the need of communicating with the people in a semi-official channel, and the New York " Gazette " was started b}^ Bradford to serve as an organ of the administration. It was a weekly sheet, printed on foolscap paper, from the type known as English in size. As has so often happened since, one partisan organ called forth a rival. The New York " Weekly Journal " was started November 5, 1733, by John Peter Zenger, for checking the influence of Governor Cosby. It was, like the " Gazette," of foolscap size, but was printed in pica type, and so contained more matter. Its publisher, when a boy, came over in the Palatine migration, and was an appren- tice to Bradford in Philadelphia. He had scholarly attainments and approved courage and ability as an editor. The two newspapers at once engaged in con- flict. The '' Journal " criticised Governor Cosby with severity, and reveled in innuendoes con- cerning the character and acts of rulers. Before that paper was a year old, the governor decorated Zenger by a proclamation for publishing " divers scandalous, virulent, false and seditious reflec- tions, not only upon the whole legislature in general and upon the most considerable persons in the most distinguished stations in the prov- ince, but also upon his Majesty's lawful and STRUGGLES FOR POPULAR RIGHTS. 2i>l rightful government," and £20 reward was offered for the discovery of the author of two ballads, " highly defaming the administration of his Majesty's government in this province." Zenger was arrested and imprisoned. He con- tinued to edit the "Journal " while a prisoner, and the popular sympathy was strongly aroused in his favor. The "Journals" containing the alleged libels and the sheets of the offensive ballads were ordered to be burned by the hang- man. The mayor and council refused to attend the burning, as required. The assembly stood aloof, while the court of sessions forbade the hangman to obey the order, and a negro slave belonging to the sheriff burned the offensive matter. Governor Cosby appealed to the courts to punish the audacious editor and to put down his newspaper. The controversy constitutes one of the most notable chapters in the strug- gles for liberty in America. The court of chancery was the delight of Governor Burnet, and it was the source of his chief troubles. He exercised the powers of chancellor with a flippant vivacity, and with the habits of a layman, for he was not a lawyer. One of his decrees affected the estate of Phil- lipse, the speaker of the assembly, who had been a devoted supporter, but was now dismissed from the council. The assembly seized the oc- 258 NEW YORK. casion to express "" the general cry of his Maj- esty's subjects inhabiting this colony," that this court's " violent measures " had ruined some persons and driven others from the colony, and that " its extraordinary proceedings and the exorbitant fees countenanced to be exacted by the officers thereof are the greatest grievance and oppression this colony hath ever felt." Resolutions were passed, November 25, 1727, denouncing "the erecting and exercising" of such a court, as a manifest oppression and grievance to the subjects, and of a pernicious consequence to their lil^erties and properties. The assembly also announced the purpose to declare all the orders and proceedings of the court to be null and void. The only action taken at the next session was, however, to cor- rect certain abuses in practice, and greatly to reduce the fees of the court. Governor Burnet had striven to secure fixed salaries, by perma- nent appropriations, for all the officers of the province, so that they might feel free from the influence of the assembly. In increased meas- ure the representatives held firmly to the purse- strings, and abolished the crown, office of audi- tor-general. This controversy over the court of chancery with other incidents alienated the governor's previous supporters. He dismissed Peter Schuy- STRUGGLES FOR POPULAR RIGHTS. 269 ler from the council, iind even DeLancey went over to the opposition on account of a quarrel in the rich French church in New York. In a trial of this case, two lawyers appeared who were to become eminent. For the minister who held the pulpit James Alexander was counsel, for the elders William Smith. The former was of Scotch descent, the latter of English birth and blood, and both came over in tlie same ship. Smith challenged the jurisdiction of the court, on the ground that the matter was ecclesiastical, while Alexander sustained the court, and the governor took the same side. In the new divi- sions, Alexander, already a member of the coun- cil, became one of the leading champions of the executive authority. Smith arrayed himself with the advocates of popular liberty, and was for years prominent at the bar and in public affairs. A son and grandson bearing the same name, wrote a History of New York, but chose British protection and official favor in Canada, when the colonies asserted their independence. It was he who in 1734 delivered an elaborate argument before the assembly, that the assem- bly, and not the crown or its representatives, should establish courts and determine their ju- risdiction, and judges should serve during good behavior, and not at the pleasure of the gov- ernor. 260 NEW YORK. Prompted probably by the bitterness arising from the church quarrel, Governor Burnet lifted Stephen DeLancey to the position of a martyr. The latter was a Huguenot refugee f lom Caen in Normandy, and had amassed wealth as a merchant in New York. He was chosen in 1725 to fill a vacancy in the assembly, when the governor refused to administer the oath to him, on the pretext that he was an unnaturalized alien. DeLancey was able to prove that he was a British subject, and the assembly challenged the governor's action as an infringement of its privileges. That body always afterwards as- serted and maintained the exclusive right to de- termine the qualifications of its own members. The denunciations of the court of chancery so offended Governor Burnet that he dissolved the assembly, which had existed for eleven years. The new members are stated to have been " all ill affected to him." They were op- posed to his broad claims of executive power, and he had his full share of personal antago- nisms. He was glad to be transferred to the governorship of Massachusetts, and to surrender the chair of New York and New Jersey to John Montgomerie, April 15, 1728. The new gover- nor was a Scotch soldier, who had served in parliament and as groom of the bedchamber to King George I. His career in the province STRUGGLES FOR POPULAR RIGHTS. 261 was uneventful and brief, for he died July 1, 1731, and was succeeded by Rip van Dam, who was the senior member of the council. He oc- cupied the executive chair for thirteen months, awaiting the arrival of Governor Cosby, who came as Governor of New York and New Jersey, August 1, 1T32. Over the trifling matter of the adjustment of fees between these two officers arose a contro- versy which affected the whole current of events. Governor Cosby brought an order from the king for an equal partition between his iui me- diate predecessor and himself of the salary, emoluments, and perquisites of the office for the period of Van Dam's incumbency. The Dutch merchant bowed before the royal order, but asked its literal execution. He had received the salary, but Cosby had received the fees. His receipts had been <£ 1,975 Is. 10c?., which he was willing to sliare with Cosby, but the latter in turn must divide his receipts, alleged to be X 6,407 18s. lOcZ. The royal governor applied the order of partition to Van Dam, and not to himself. Both sides appealed to the courts to enforce their construction. Van Dam sought to proceed under the common law. Cosby asked the supreme court to proceed ac- cording to the rules of the English courts in ex- chequer, and he designated the judges " barons 262 NEW YORK. of the exchequer." Smith and Alexander were the counsel for Van Dam, and excepted to the jurisdiction of the supreme court in equity. Chief Justice Morris sustained their claim, while DeLanceyand Phillipse overruled them. Gov- ernor Cosby, in order to carry his case, as he succeeded in doing, removed the chief justice, and appointed in his stead James DeLancey, a native of Albany, but a graduate of the Uni- versity of Cambridge, England, son of that DeLancey over whose seat the rights of the assembly had been asserted. While the Dutch settlers had made provision for education, their English successors had been occupied with other things. Schools there were, but so poorly supported, that our historian Smith testifies, that after he was born, " such was the negligence of the day, that an instructor could not find bread from the voluntary contri- butions of the inhabitants," It was high time to care for the youth of the province, for its population had become, in 1731, 50,289. Yet an act passed in 1732 to " encourage a public school in the city of New York," went no further. It was the beginning of our broad system of public schools, and provided especially for teaching " Latin, Greek, and mathematics." The school was free to all pupils. Advance in religious liberty was made in the STRUGGLES FOR POPULAR RIGHTS. 263 struggles of these times. In 1734, tlie assembly granted to the Quakers the privilege of mak- ing affirmation, instead of taking the usual oath. It was a great step forward. Quaker members from Queens county were excluded from the assembly of 1691 for refusing the oath, and the exclusion continued in effect for this whole period. The contests between the governor and his opponents served to teach the assembly the need of recognizing the rights of the individual conscience. The assembly of 1734 was called to meet other demands for consideration for the rights of the people. In 1728 a declaration was formally passed that " for any act, matter, or thing done in general assembly, the members thereof are ac- countable and answerable to the House only, and to no other persons whatsoever." The notice was directed to governor and council, but log- ically it crossed the sea and echoed in White- hall and in the ears of King George. The salaries of all the officers of the province were, by act of 1729, determined by the assembly. The treasurer who paid the money appropriated was appointed by the governor ; but already ap- pointments were made, as Lewis Morris charged when Philip van Cortlandt was named, of per- sons " inclinable to give up the rights of the 264 NEW YORK. powers with it, for Attorney-General Bradley charged that the assembly attached to every vote for money " some bill injurious to his Majesty's prerogative and interest, which must be complied with or no money can be had for the necessary support of the government." He told the Lords of Trade, November 22, 1729, " Most of the previous and open steps which a dependent province can take to render them- selves independent at their pleasure, are taken by the assembly of New York." His words are a testimonial of fidelity and patriotism such as it was not his purpose to perpetuate. In 1734, a further demand was made. At that time representatives once elected served, in fact, at the pleasure of the governor. Until he was pleased to dissolve the assembly, no new election could take place. It was now proposed to provide for elections every three years. The measure was too radical to pass the governor and crown at once, but the proposal was a proof that the province was reaching out for all the substance of power. The controversies, which had been confined to speech and letters and broadsides, found a larger audience when rival journals entered upon their discussion. Party spirit borrowed bitterness from personal quarrels. Governor Cosby was greedy, arrogant, and strong-headed. The coun- STRUGGLES FOR POPULAR RIGHTS. 265 cil had a will of its own, denied his riglit to preside at its meetings, and commanded the popular favor. He dismissed such of its mem- bers as he pleased, and removed from the bench those who failed to carry out his schemes. He died March 10, 1736, and left an order not be- fore promulgated suspending Rip van Dam, the senior member, from the council. Governor Cosby had served in a like execu- tive capacity in Minorca before he came to New York, but experience had not taught him wisdom as a ruler. He sought to derive all available profits out of the colony. The rev- enue was voted under his administration for six years, and he received a salary of X 1,560, with payments of fees of ^400, £150 for a trip to Albany, and X750 for services in London in opposing a bill inimical to the colony relative to trade in sugar. In an address to the assembly, he admitted that discouragements were upon trade and the prosperity of the province. These his oppo- nents charged to his misgovernment. He rec- ommended as remedies, assistance to ship- building and a transfer of some of the taxes from trade to legal documents, while he con- demned " too great importation of negroes and convicts." This address is in better spirit than his personal conduct. He destroyed deeds 266 NEW YORK. which fell into his hands for land in Albany, and he aimed to overthrow the old patents on Long Island, in order that in the re-adjustment he might get gain in fees, and perhaps also in land. In like spirit, when the Mohawks sub- mitted to him a deed by which they had con- veyed a valuable part of their domain to be held in trust for them, and objected to grants to private persons in defiance of this trust, he by deceit secured possession of the paper, and threw it into the fire, where it was burned. The name of " Cosby 's manor," covering vast tracts of land in the upper part of the Mohawk Valley, and perpetuated in the title-deeds, proves that his greed brought rich and ripe fruit into his lap. A strong effort for his removal was pressed in London by Lewis Morris, who had gone abroad with leave of the assembly, and there- fore spoke to some extent in its name. But the Lords of Trade reported that the reasons urged did not call for action on their part. And so Cosby ruled until death befell him. The best that can be said of his character is that it developed an opposition which established a free press in the province, and lifted up the courts into an independence which his suc- cessors could not destroy. His tyranny was so gross, and his self-seeking so offensive, that he STRUGGLES FOR POPULAR RIGHTS. 267 served the province better than a more prudent governor could have done. The people learned to look out for their own rights, to assert their own convictions, to defend the integrity of the judiciary, and to regard their rulers not as rep- resentatives of a sacred majesty, but as simple instruments for carrying on the government. The teaching was rude, but the lesson was learned. CHAPTER XVII. THE PHESS MADE FBEE. 1734-1735. John Petee Zenger had no heroic aim when he printed political ballads, and admitted severe censure of Governor Cosby into the col- umns of the New York " Journal," and in- dulged in the criticisms which events and meas- ures seemed to him to justify. The specific libel with which he was charged was an article in answer to the " Gazette," declaring that " the people of New York think, as matters now stand, that their liberties and properties are precarious, and that slavery is likely to be en- tailed on them and their posterity, if some past things be not amended." The "Journal " also reported a person moving from New York to Pennsylvania as saying : " We see men's deeds destroyed, judges arbitrarily displaced, new courts erected without consent of the legisla- ture, by which it seems to me trials by juries are taken away, when a governor pleases ; men of known estates denied their votes, contrary THE PRESS MADE FREE. 269 to the received practice of the best expositor of any law. Who is there in that province that can call anything his own, or enjoy any liberty longer than those in the administration will condescend to let thera do it? for which reason I left it, as I believe more will." This report of the criticism of an emigrant, and still more the words of the editor, were little more than a repetition of some of the phrases of the as- sembly denouncing the court of chancery, with a fresh application, and a verbal expansion. The language did not go beyond that often used in political discussion before and since, and it embodied none of the charges against the per- sonal integrity of the governor which were cur- rent and have come down to posterity. It was, however, too bold and too comprehensive for the royal representative to endure. When Zenger was arrested, November 17, 1734, he was at first denied even pen, ink and paper. A writ of habeas corpus was sued out for him, when he swore that '* he was not worth X40 in the world," but bail was fixed at .£800, which he did not raise ; but his liberty was enlarged, so that he was able to edit the "Journal" from his room in the city hall, then used as a jail. The grand jury refused to find a bill for libel, and proceedings were insti- tuted by information, by the attorne3^-general, Richard Bradley. 270 NEW YORK. At the April term of the supreme court, Alexander and Smith, his counsel, excepted to the commissions of Judges DeLancej and Phil- lipse. They were met by an order of the court excluding them from practice at the bar, and assigning John Chambers as counsel to Zenger, while a struck jury was summoned for the trial. The case aroused all the more attention from this action of the judges. It was everywhere discussed, and the friends of the prisoner took pains to excite sympathy. Three years later, when the disbarred attorneys were prosecuting suits for damages against the judges, they were restored to practice on abandoning all such claims. Thrust out of court, they enlisted all the more heartily in behalf of Zenger, or per- haps more truly against his assailants, and were the real advisers in legal proceedings, and quite as much in the popular movements which gave courage to the defendant and to his supporters. Probably in connection with this case, cer- tainly about this time, an organization was formed, destined to wield vital influence on the affairs not only of the province, but of the con- tinent. To express and maintain opposition to arbitrary power, and at this time especially to the acts and policy of Governor Cosby, the '' Sons of Liberty " were established. The leaders in tbe movement have left no memorial TEE PRESS MADE FREE 271 of their services. The records of the society at that time were secret, and it was felt rather than heard. At a later period it became the nucleus of deliberation, correspondence, and ac- tion. When the case of Zenger was called the judges were surprised to see as leading counsel for Zenger, Andrew Hamilton, speaker of the assembly of Pennsylvania, a Quaker, venerable in years, and, as he soon proved, skilled in law, and master of a glowing and powerful elo- quence. He admitted the publication charged, but denied that it was " scandalous or sedi- tious." The attorney-general argued that the "jury must find a verdict for the king," whether " the libel was true or false." He pronounced it a very grave offense to revile those in author- ity, and declared that Zenger had offended in a most notorious and gross manner in scandaliz- ing the king's immediate representative. Ham- ilton charged the attorney-general with going back to the odious Star Chamber for his prece- dents, and ridiculed the claim that the governor could arrogate the prerogative and exemptions of the sovereign. The information charged the publication to be false ; the defense did not ask proof to this effect, but offered to give testi- mony that it was true. The chief justice ruled that the defense could not be "permitted to 272 NEW YORK. prove the facts in the papers." Hamilton cited authorities in support of his position, and then appealed to the jury as witnesses of the facts. He went further. He charged thus : " The practice of informations for libels," adopted by the prosecution, " is a sword in the hands of a wicked king and an arrant coward, to cut down and destroy the innocent." He declared that the representatives of a free people " are not obliged by any law to support a governor who goes about to destroy a province or its privi- leges which by his Majesty he was appointed and by the law he is bound to protect and en- courage." Referring to the right of protest he asked, " Of what use is this mighty privilege if every man that suffers must be silent, and if a man must be taken up as a libeler for telling his sufferings to his neighbor ? " He dwelt on the abuses of executive power in general, in controlling legislatures and courts. He averred that '' prosecutions for libel have generally been set on foot by the crown or its ministers ; and it is no small reproach to the law, that these prosecutions were too often and too much countenanced by the judges, who held their places at pleasure, — a disagreeable tenure to any officer, but a dangerous one in the case of a judge." He insisted that the jury should con- sider the truth of the publication. THE PRESS MADE FREE. 273 In conclusion he asserted the principle un- derlying the case : " It is not the cause of a poor printer, nor of New York alone, which the jury is now trying. No ! It may in its conse- quences affect every freeman that lives under a British government on the main of America. It is the best cause, it is the cause of liberty ; and I make no doubt but your upright conduct this day will not only entitle you to the love and esteem of your fellow-citizens, but every man who prefers freedom to slavery will bless and honor you as men who have baffled the attempt of tyranny, and by the impartial and uncorrupt verdict, have laid a noble foundation for securing to ourselves, our posterity, and our neighbors, that to which nature and the laws of our country have given us a right, — the liberty both of exposing and opposing arbitrary power, in these parts of the world at least, by speaking and writing truth." After such an appeal the argument of Attor- ney-General Bradley fell like idle words on the ears of the jury; and the charge of Chief Jus- tice DeLancey, that the court and not the jurors must decide whether the words were libelous, had no effect. The jury promptly rendered a verdict of not guilty. The significance of the result was perceived at once, and the report of the jury was greeted 274 NEW YORK. with deafening sliouts. Chief Justice DeLan- cey rebuked the crowd, and threatened to im- prison the offenders, whereupon a son of Ad- miral Norris called for more cheers, and they were given. The chief justice succumbed to the demonstration of popular enthusiasm, and ordered no arrests. The advocate Hamilton was the hero of the hour. A banquet was served and a salute was fired in his honor, and the common council voted to him the freedom of the city for " the remarkable service done by him to the city and colony by his learning and generous defense of the rights of mankind and the liberty of the press." The gold box containing the certificate bore the mottoes : ^^ Demersae leges^ timefaeta libertas, haec tan- dem emergunt ; ""^ "• Non nummis, virtute para- tur ; " and on its front : " Ita cuique eveniat ut de repuhlica meruit.''^ In advance of action in any other province, in a clearer, stronger tone than anywhere else in the world, the liberty to print the truth was thus asserted in New York. The occasion arose out of the struggle over the partition of exec- utive emoluments. That incident led Governor Cosby to interfere with the independence of the bench. It put Van Dam forth as battling for the legal privileges of the citizen. The divi- sions in the council aggravated, while they were THE PRESS MADE FREE. 275 in part caused by, this controversy. The gov- ernor created a council to support all his acts. The suspended members and the assembly, ar- rayed first against his aggressions, inevitably used the language and became the champions of legislative and individual rights. The estab- lishment of the " Journal " afforded a channel for their criticism, their satire, their arguments. The trial of Zenger was not the prosecution of an editor simply. It was the effort of arbitrary power to suppress free speech, to hold the courts in leash, to rule by royal prerogative and executive assertion. The strength of the popular determination can be measured by its overwhelming triumph. The jury spurned the direction of the chief justice, and decided the case independently of his claim to apply the law. The court yielded without protest, and the audience turned the chamber into a scene of tumultuous rejoicing. Zenger was sustained in the right to criticise the administration. The jury went further, and proclaimed that his criticisms were true and just. The triumph, however, did not belong to him. Hamilton attained a success in his pro- fession rare in any land. A stranger in the city, he had spoken the words, had given utter- ance to the purposes, had crystallized the con- victions and aspirations of the people. They 276 NEW YORK. recognized in him the voice eloquent for the present emergency, and prophetic of that liberty which on province and continent was already beginning to dawn. With the declarations of the charter of liber- ties, with the protests against interference with the power of the assembly over the revenue, with the recent denunciations against the estab- lishment of the court of chancery, and. against the designation of judges of the supreme court as barons of the exchequer, the people of New York were ready to accept the bold eloquence of Hamilton and his appeals for the rights of mankind, in their full scope and logic. Already the seed was sown which was germinating to become Declaration of Independence and Na- tional Constitution. For the doctrine of this case went far beyond the decisions of the courts in England up to that time, and far in advance of any claim then asserted in other colonies. In Massachusetts the authorities were agreed in censuring James Franklin for articles in his " Courant," and had forbidden him to print it further, " except it be first supervised." This New York verdict cast to the winds all the tyranny of requiring license for printing, and maintained the liberty of the press up to the highest standard which even this century has proclaimed. TEE PRESS MADE FREE. 277 Viewed' in the light of that day, before the colonies had learned the use and power of news- papers, before John Wilkes had defied parlia- ment and crown in behalf of the right to deal in type with public questions, the case and its results marked a complete change in theory and practice. It was the development of a new motor in affairs. It was the creation of an implement for the people, which rulers and courts must forever regard. The Christian era doubtless would have come without John the Baptist and his preaching. So American inde- pendence would have been wrought out, with- out this triumph for the liberty of printing the truth. But as events have occurred, the trial of Zenger and his acquittal stand forth as the one incident which molded opinions, which strengthened courage, which crystallized pur- pose on this continent in the grand movement whose termination perhaps no man foresaw, whose direction few suggested above a whisper^ and yet whose logic was as direct as the laws of the universe. Why should the press be wholly free, if this continent was to bow before a king seated be- yond the ocean, and to receive its statutes from a parliament in which it could have no repre- sentatives? A generation was required for the question to stir men's minds, and to bring them 278 NEW YORK. face to face with the answer. If Zenger had been convicted, no estimate can determine the time which would have been demanded to strike the fetters from discussion, and therefore from deliberation and action for the rights of the people. This verdict in New York was an achieve- ment for the freedom of the press, and so for the liberty of man, of which the colonies soon began to reap the benefit, and for which the thought and speech of mankind all over the globe are braver and more affluent of noble life. CHAPTER XVIII. COLLISIONS AND AFFLICTIONS. 1736-1743. Rip van Dam denied the efficiency of Gov- ernor Cosby 's posthumous order for his re- moval, on the ground that it had not been confirmed by the crown. On that claim he was, as senior councilor, acting governor of the province. The next councilor in order was George Clarke, who also claimed the executive chair. They carried their contest to the eve of actual violence. An election for alderman in New York city showed a majority for Van Dam's friends. The grand jury was publicly urged to indict Clarke for high treason, and he in turn summoned the militia into the fort to maintain his title. The assembly responded to a proclamation issued by Clarke, but by re- peated adjournment postponed decision on the controversy until orders should be received from the home government. Van Dam's mag- istrates in New York resolved to assert his 280 NEW YORK. authority by Sorms on October 12, 1736. But Leisler's tragic comedy was not to be reen- acted ; for just in tlie nick of time a vessel arrived with, official despatches to Clarke, as president and commander-in-chief of the prov- ince, and soon afterwards he was appointed lieutenant governor. Arms were stayed ; the contest was shifted to the field of discussion and politics. Clarke was disposed to exercise his power shrewdly and with moderation. He refrained from sitting with the council when it met as an upper house of legislature, and thus set a precedent which his successors followed. His opening address to the assembly exhibited in- telligent consideration for the welfare of the province. In view of settlements which had ex- tended into the Mohawk country beyond Fort Hunter, he recommended that its garrison be removed to a fort to be built '' on the carrying- place," where Rome now stands, both to en- courage the " settling of the rest, which is most the greatest part of the Mohawk country," and "to fix an easier communication between all the frontier garrisons from Albany to Oswego." The assembly did not comply with his rec- ommendations, particularly to provide for a considerable debt of the province ; and May 3, 1737, he dissolved the House, which had been COLLISIONS AND AFFLICTIONS. 281 elected nine years before, and writs were issued for an election in the succeeding June. His trust in the new assembly is evidence of his courage and confidence in his own influence. He was recognized as the successor of Cosby in tendencies as well as in place, while the opponents of that governor, and especially the friends of Van Dam, were active and numer- ous. Clarke proved himself able to conduct affairs, not so as to satisfy either faction, but so as to secure support for his measures, and to prevent rival leaders from rising to power over his failures. The new assembly began well, by recording for the first time the ayes and noes on the pas- sage of bills. Its response to his address was long, bold, and critical of past rulers, and threat- ening to the governor. It called for frequent elections, a settling of the courts, and, while recognizing the royal prerogatives, claimed the right of the people to be " protected in the en- joyment of our liberties and properties." The debts of the province, the address alleged, ex- isted, although the legislators " had been lavish beyond their abilities ;" and they felt called upon to say : " We therefore beg leave to be plain with your honor, and hope you will not take it amiss when we tell you, you are not to expect that we either will raise sums unfit to be raised, 282 NEW YORK. or put what we shall raise into the power of a governor to misapply, if we can prevent it ; nor shall we make up any other deficiencies than what we conceive are fit and just to be paid, or continue what support or revenue we shall raise for any longer time than one year ; nor do we think it convenient to do even that until such laws are passed as we conceive necessary for the safety of the inhabitants of this colony, who have reposed a trust in us for that only purpose, and which we are sure you will think it rea- sonable we should act agreeable to, and by the grace of God we will endeavor not to deceive them." The sentence was sinuous, but the meaning struck home like a winged arrow. It was a declaration of independence which any governor could understand. Clarke took it well to heart. The legislation of the assembly which was dis- solved October 20, 1738, covered a large number of bills. A law was passed ordering triennial elections of assemblymen, but it was vetoed by the authorities in England. New paper money to the volume of £48,350 was created, of which, to comply with the rule established, .£8,350 was appropriated to current uses, while £40,000 was apportioned to the counties, to be loaned on mortgage, in sums not less than £25 nor more than £100, at interest of five per cent., which COLLISIONS AND AFFLICTIONS. 283 was two per cent, below the legal rate. The interest was set aside to pay the sum of £8,350, and afterwards for current uses. Perhaps as a sop, the governor's salary was raised to .£1,560, only to be reduced at the next session to £1,300. To a bill granting revenue for one year only, as was always thereafter the limit, was tacked a provision that the paper money of 1714 and 1717, and the excise for sinking fund, should be continued for some years. That was the meas- ure which led to the dissolution. This assembly, in the case of a contested elec- tion for a vacancy in the city of New York, set up two principles which have been since rejected. Adolph Phillipse had received the certificate, and protest was made in behalf of Cornelius Van Home, on the ground that Jews and non- residents had been allowed to vote. The elo- quence of William Smith for Van Home, and Murray for Phillipse, has passed into a tradition. Smith succeeded in having the votes of Jews re- jected ; but the votes of non-resident freeholders were counted, and Phillipse was confirmed in his seat, and in the next assembly was chosen to be speaker. Less serious is an incident gravely recorded in the quaint type of the journal of the assembly for 1738, for the last day but one of the session. A formal preamble recites that, " whereas on the complaint of Colonel Chambers 284 NEW YORK. that one Samuel Bevier had calumniated him by saying that he was a rogue and liar, and likewise a fool and no fit person to be an as- semblyman, and that he was always drunk, and that the other assemblymen could always make him do as they had a mind," and that Bevier could not be arrested before the dissolution ; thereupon " the House unanimously certified that the said Colonel Chambers has duly at- tended the service of this House in a sober and discreet manner, and that he (as far as is known to the other members) always acted as a free representative for the public service of this colony." Colonel Chambers had been seated after a contest as the member for Ulster county, and his name appears as that of one taking his due share in the public business. His ex- ample has not served to establish a rule for certificates of character from fellow-members to legislators accused of bad conduct, nor is it the practice to-day to spread on the records charges that a member is a rogue, a fool, and unfit for his place. Scandal arose over the immigration of a body of Scotch Highlanders under the leadership of Captain Laughlin Campbell. He sold his estate in Scotland, and brought over eighty-three fam- ilies, including four hundred and twenty-three adults besides children, and his plan was to COLLISIONS AND AFFLICTIONS. 285 maintain a settlement to defend Lake George against French incursions. In his behalf it is alleged that he acted under a promise from Gov- ernor Clarke of a grant of 30,000 acres, and impoverished himself to carry out his scheme of immigration. On the other hand the state- ment is put forth that many of his company came at their own cost, and on landing claimed that they sought relief from the vassalage they were under to lords in Scotland, and would not become vassals to Campbell in America. Some were certainly bound to serve him for the expenses of their transportation. Governor Clarke, October 13, 1738, asked the assembly to provide for the support of such families who were " poor and unable to do without some as- sistance." A motion was offered by Mr. Liv- ingston, who remembered the experience with the Palatines, to give £1 to each of seventy families, and the historian Smith avers this proposition was to offset the claims of the gov- ernor and his subordinates for extortionate fees and a share of the lands. The over-sanguine expectations of Campbell, and the pressure of the contract system, are enough to explain a large share of the complaints. The trials of a new country and the homesickness of immi- grants may serve further in the same direction. Campbell was ruined by his speculation. Many 286 NEW YORK. of the Highlanders enlisted in the war with Spain, and were sent on the expedition to Car- thagena. By this immigration the province secured a much-needed addition to its population, and these Highlanders must have sent messages home not altogether unfavorable ; for they proved the pioneers of a multitude whose com- ing in successive years was to add strength and industry and thrift and intelligence beyond the ratio of their numbers to the communities in which they set up their homes. Affairs with the Iroquois, Governor Clarke was wise enough to foresee, required once more the most serious attention. The French had been permitted in 1731 to erect Fort Fred- erick at Crown Point, on Lake Champlain, and the New York assembly had contented itself with a declaration '* that this encroachment, if not prevented, would prove of a most pernicious consequence to this and other colonies." But at that time neither the home government nor the province took any action to repel the in- vasion, except as new supplies of ammunition and cannon were secured from England. Iron- dequoit, on Lake Ontario, was marked by the French for another foothold, and Governor Clarke tried to induce the Iroquois to keep them out, and to permit a settlement there by COLLISIONS AND AFFLICTIONS. 287 New York as an advance post of the garrison at Oswego. He could not secure the assent of the red men to his project, for they would per- mit settlement there by neither side. The as- sembly on its part refused to repair the chapel at the first Mohawk castle, or to advance money for strengthening any post on the frontiers, yielding reluctantly to a demand from the red men themselves for the repair of Fort Hunter. Struggles over the revenue between governor and assembly are a constant feature in the chronicles of New York. The assembly of 1739 gained another step towards control by insisting upon making its appropriations in definite sums for specific purposes, and even for salaries for officials by name. This was a rad- ical change from the grant of money in gross to be paid on the governor's warrant, according to previous custom. Discussion between the governor and the legislators at this period was sharp, radical, and prolonged. Governor Clarke gave warning that "a jealousy had for some years obtained in England as to this province that the plantations are not without thoughts of throwing off their dependence on the crown of England," but he " hoped and be- lieved that no man in this province had any such intention." In its exhaustive address in i-eply, the assembly, insisting on popular rights, 288 NEW YORK. declared in words then construed as full of unreserved loyalty, that it "vouched that not a single person in the colony has any thoughts or desires " for separation from the crown ; for " under what government," it was asked, " can we be better protected, or our liberties and properties so well secured?" The satire in- cluded in the question was not, perhaps, meant by the authors, as it was not discerned by the readers at the time. It is possible, in the light of subsequent events, to read beneath the words a doubt whether liberty was not reaching out for new forms and a better substance. So as- severations of loyalty become sometimes chal- lenges and defiance. But the assembly of New York did not thus construe its own declarations. While the colonists were exhibiting in so many ways so much of common sense, and even of profound sagacity, a tragedy occurred which proved that superstition and frenzy found among them, as among so many other intelli- gent communities, ready victims, whom panic could drive into cruelty and blood-thirstiness. March 18, 1741, a fire occurred in the chapel and barracks at Fort George, on the Battery, in New York. It was generally believed to be accidental, but charges were set afloat that it was set by negroes. Before April 6, eight other fires startled the entire community, and COLLISIONS AND AFFLICTIONS. 289 a negro was detected escaping from near the last flames. Belief in a plot by negroes for burning the town seized upon the population generally. Experience has shown that among the ignorant and excitable a series of accidental fires may start a passion for looking upon flames, and thus for kindling them. The proof of a conspiracy was the flimsiest ; but popular sus- picion and fear took the place of evidence. The entire case rested on the testimony of Mary Burton, a " bought servant " — that is, an im- migrant bound for service for her transporta- tion — to John Hughson, shoemaker, and keeper of a tavern frequented by sailors and negroes. Mary Burton was prompted and encouraged to add to a charge against a sailor, three negroes and a fellow-maidservant, Peggy Carey, of bringing and receiving stolen goods to the tav- ern, the pretext for the judicial madness which was to stain the records of the colony. She was inspired to testify that some slaves had met and formed a conspiracy for setting fire to the town. Peggy Carey, under threats and prom- ises, poured forth numerous stories of plots, but afterwards contradicted all her testimony except such as related to thefts and corrupt living. The common council met and offered freedom to every slave with jG20 reward, and to every 290 NEW YORK. white £100, for the conviction of any incendi- ary. The grand jury was diligent in holding every person charged with petty crime as a possible conspirator. In a proclamation for a fast day, May 13, 1741, the governor joined to the war with Spain, and the cold of the preceding winter, as cause for prayer, the fact " that many houses and dwellings had been fired about our ears, without any discovery or occasion of them, which had put us into the utmost consternation." There could be no doubt about the consternation. All the blacks were put under surveillance, and thus every household which kept a slave had the terror at its own hearth. Every lawyer in the city was enlisted for the prosecution. The negroes were kept without any counsel. Informers were set at work to extort or to manufacture confessions from the prisoners. These were numerous enough. Twenty-one whites and over a hun- dred and sixty slaves were thrust into jail. The woman Burton was carried away by excite- ment, and finally inculpated persons of such character that danger from that direction checked the fury, and in time led to reaction. Religious fanaticism added to the violence and extent of the panic. One of the accused was a zealous preacher named Ury, against whom was brought the COLLISIONS AND AFFLICTIONS. 291 indictment of " officiating as a popish priest," as well as of engaging in the conspiracy, and some of tiie negro slaves arrested were discov- ered to be Catholics, who had been captured as prizes from Spanish vessels. Governor Ogle- thorpe of Georgia wrote to Governor Clarke, giving " intelligence received of a viliainous design of a very extraordinary nature." It was no less than that " the Spaniards had employed emissaries to burn all the magazines and con- siderable towns in English North America, to prevent the subsisting of the great expedition and fleet in the West Indies, and for this pur- pose many priests were employed, who pre- tended to be physicians, dancing-masters, and of such other occupations, and under that pre- tense to get admittance and confidence in families." This was regarded as confirmation, strong as holy writ, of a conspiracy, with dan- gerous leaders, who were trusted in every home, with support from a powerful government and an all-pervading church organization. As Cotton Mather seriously narrates the proofs and repression of witchcraft in Massachu- setts, so Daniel Horsmanden gathers the pro- ceedings in detail to justify the prosecutions for this alleged conspiracy in New York. He was a recognized leader in the affairs of the colony, a member of the assembly, and active in shaping 292 NEW YORK. legislation and public policy. At this time lie was recorder of New York, as well as third in rank of the judges of the supreme court, and later he rose to the position of chief justice. He wrote, therefore, with an air of authority, and his record is full and elaborate, as it is certainly pervaded by strong convictions of the guilt of the accused. While he sat during the trials as third judge, James DeLancey was chief jus- tice, and Frederick Phillipse was second judge. Judge Horsmanden recites the examinations, the confessions, the contradictions, the entire processes, which, until the common frenzy was exhausted, drove judges and jurors and legisla- tors into unreasoning panic and cruel. injustice. We are enabled to understand, but not to excuse, the phenomena. Now, it is easy to perceive that many of the confessions were mere ravings ex- torted by fear or promises, and many others fanciful exaggerations of loose talk or petty criminality. Some of the testimony seems to point to a sort of Voodooism, and other parts would be comical but for the tragic consequences. One remarkable feature is that the witnesses tell each his peculiar story, as if each were vy- ing with the other for sensation, and thus they convey the impression that invention is the in- spiration of the shocking details. An ignorant fellow named Kane, who swore that Ury tempted COLLISIONS AND AFFLICTIONS. 293 him to become a Roman Catholic, describes the ceremony of swearing the negroes to the con- spiracy. He avers : " There was a black ring made on the floor, about a foot and a half in diameter, and Hughson bid every one put off their left shoe and put their toes within the ring ; and Mrs. Hughson held a bowl of punch over their heads, as Hughson pronounced a fear- ful oath, and every negro repeated its words, and then Hughson's wife fed them with a draught of the bowl." This was calculated to disturb excitable natures, and to convince per- sons already certain that a conspiracy existed. Unfortunately for the case, however, no other witness knows anything about this ceremony, and in not one of the other confessions is there any sign of it. Common sense concludes that the scene was due wholly to Kane's imagina- tion or to the fumes of the liquors of the tav- ern. We have the advantage, which the court and the jury had not, of viewing the testimony as a whole. Thus its contradictions, the in- herent impossibility among such creatures of a conspiracy for wholesale incendiarism, and the manifest manufacture of a case out of the shreds of thieves' and carousers' gatherings, stand forth against the conclusions of the tribunals. The trials were a travesty of justice, and the com- munity after a while became ashamed of them. 294 NEW YORK. The book of Horsmanden is a defense on the part of the courts for their action, and he is so far impressed with the weakness of his case that he argues that the " history of popery " proves the probability of the alleged plot. When reason fully returned, few pretended that any conspiracy existed for burning the town, while the proof seems conclusive that such fires as were not accidental were kindled to facilitate schemes for petty thefts and sometimes burglary. The Spaniards were in no wise con- nected with the matter, and it is needless to say that no priests were engaged in any incendia- rism. Many innocent lives were sacrificed under the forms of law. The preacher Ury was hanged, protesting that he was free from guilt. The tavern-keeper Hughson and his wife and servant Peggy Carey may have deserved the gallows on general principles, for they were doubtless allies of thieves and burglars, and receivers of stolen property. No good reason exists for be- lieving that of thirteen blacks burned at the stake, eighteen hanged and seventy transported, more than a few were engaged in sporadic incendiarism, while all were punished for a conspiracy which had no existence. The tragedy of the alleged negro plot led to an increase in severity in the laws already vig- orous and cruel towards the blacks. It also COLLISIONS AND AFFLICTIONS. 295 added to the hostility to slavery as an institu- tion, and led to the substitution of free white labor for that of slaves in no small degree. The chronicles for this period are dark enough for New York. The courts of 1741 dealt with colored people with brutality not paralleled in that city, except by the mob during the draft riots of 1863. After the extremely severe winter of 1741, and the terror over the alleged negro plot, fol- lowed a malignant epidemic fever in 1742, by which out of a population of less than 10,000, 217 persons died. The disease is described as resembling the yellow fever of our Southern States. The succession of afflictions was long remembered, and determines the color of the annals of the period. Even controversies be- tween the governor and assembly gave way before such competition, and the condition of the colony and the estimate made of it by its own people and in the old country were affected by these incidents. The administration of Governor Clarke ter- minated September 2, 1743, when he was su- perseded by Admiral George Clinton, who was to challenge the colonists to the fight for self- government, for which they were well pre- pared. With Clarke they had been engaged in discussion, and perhaps if he had remained he 296 NEW YORK. might have been forced b}^ the claims urged in Britain to aggression equal to that of his suc- cessor. He had not, however, what Clinton brought, the temper of a sailor, the assumption of the son of an earl, the creed and purposes of one bred and trained and living in the circle of British nobility. So the era of Clarke was rather one of preparation for the conflict. He had much more capacity for affairs than Clinton, and was assiduous and diligent and watchful, which his successor was not. In habits, regard for popularity, in disposition to mingle with the citizens, the contrast was equally marked. Clarke's personal qualities enabled him to put off the struggle which was already threatening. In one respect Clarke and Clinton w^ere alike. They both illustrate how without gross scandal the executive office in the province could be used by a thrifty person for personal profit. Clarke came out as secretary of the province under Cosby, whose favor he won by zeal and devotion, and he became clerk of the council, and then a member. When he reached the ex- ecutive chair, he took every means to gather in fees and to increase his fortune by operations in lands. He had no broad edacation, and his influence in England came chiefly from his wife, who was a Hyde, and a distant connection of the famous family of that name. He sent home so COLLISIONS AND AFFLICTIONS. 297 poor a picture of the prospects of the colony, and especially of the emoluments of the governor, that candidates for the place were discouraged, and he managed to gather in his profits for seven prolific years. He returned to England with a fortune estimated at ^100,000, chiefly gained in the province. The sum was immense for that period ; but Clinton was to exhibit almost an equal measure of the possibilities of the ex- ecutive office in New York, for the fortune he amassed was estimated at £80,000 at least. CHAPTER XIX. OPPOSITION OEGANIZED. 1743-1753. New York was under Governor Clinton in many respects more completely an integral part of the British Empire than it had ever been before, while the centrifugal forces were active which were to lead to independence. Tlie reason for this union with the government in England is to be sought in the plans for ex- tending French power westward, involving at- tempts to secure the active cooperation of the Iroquois, and such a pressure along the north- ern and western waters of New York as taught the keen-eyed colonists to allege that the effect of success must be to " crowd them into the sea." Britain was preparing for the war with France, of which these French aggressions on this continent were among the chief causes, and the formal declaration in March, 1744, rec- ognized hostilities which had been hardly con- cealed by either side. The British government assented at last to the plan, so often urged by OPPOSITION ORGANIZED. 299 the colonists, for the capture of Louisburg and the invasion of Canada, and promised to pay the chief part of the cost. It failed signally to fulfill that promise, and within three years New- York contributed £70,000 to the war. Its northern borders bore the chief share of the French operations. Oswego was abandoned by the traders, and the settlers drew closer under the shelter of military power. Cannon and money were contributed to the expedition, which gave the colonists a decided victory over the French at Louisburg, June 17, 1745. The governor asked for close alliance with New England, and for defenses on land and water, beyond the disposition of the assembly to vote. It was a dangerous economy, as was proved by a raid by French and Indians from Crown Point upon Saratoga, November 16, 1745. The surprise was so complete that the settle- ment of twenty houses was for a time destroyed. Only one family escaped, twenty persons were scalped and killed, and a party including one of the Schuylers was led away into captivity. All the savagery of border warfare was exhibited in its bloody horror. The assembly soon learned that prudence demanded liberal expenditures and a broad policy, while it was none the more ready to exalt executive authority, and to yield to dicta- 300 NEW YORK. tion from England. Instances can be cited in which jealousy of executive suggestion was car- ried so far as to interfere with the best interests of the colony. The desire to check expendi- tures defeated some measures, but others were obnoxious because they strengthened a power which the legislators dreaded. Governor Clin- ton regarded New York chiefly as it could serve British purposes and enrich himself ; yet it must be confessed that his plans for defense and for keeping the Iroquois loyal deserved support, if lives and property were to be protected, and the rule of France was not to be welcomed. The assembly was willing to defend the province, even to help conquer Canada, but it wanted at the same time to assert and maintain con- trol over the finances and to hamper the royal governor at every point. If the governor was regarded as wasteful in his suggestions, if legislators felt that in a war between Britain and France the home treasury should meet the whole outlay, if criticisms of executive action were more liberal than gifts of means for de- fense and attack, there was much in the experi- ence and situation of the province to justify such views and feelings and criticisms. If inci- dental harm befell, this self-assertion" of the assembly and its constituents was with all its mistakes the training, costly it may be, for in- OPPOSITION ORGANIZED. 301 dependent existence. The assembly bad gained something also by the act to which the English authorities gave reluctant assent, in 1744, re- quiring elections for members at least as often as seven years. This period was then, as it still remains, the limit of the existence of British parliaments, and New York could secure no more frequent elections for legislators. Immediately after the raid upon Saratoga, the assembly declared that it would at all times concur in every reasonable measure not only for the defense of the province, but for the assistance of its neighbors, and " this was and ever had been the unanimous resolution of the House." It did provide for men and subsist- ence of a company of militia, and for a reward for scalps in retaliation " in case the enemy shall commence the cruel and inhuman practice of scalping," and a report was made for the im- pressment of slaves into the military service. Six block-houses were ordered to be built between Saratoga and Fort William, afterward Fort Stanwix, Mohawk country, and the de- fenses of New York harbor were strengthened. When the aggregate expenditures of these years are considered, no charge of parsimony can be maintained against New York. For the expe- dition against Louisburg the province had con- tributed .£3,000, and Governor Clinton, who 302 NEW YORK. had asked for more, bought provisions by pri- vate subscription, and sent artillery from the royal magazines. In 1746 a bounty of X6 was voted to all men enlisted for the movement against Canada, and this was soon increased by " 40s. and a blanket " to every recruit. For the same purpose the sum of £40,000 was ap- propriated, and the total was soon raised by separate bills to j£ 70,000 for various military operations within three years, and to this sum .£28,000 was soon added. With a population of only 61,586 the province kept 1,600 men in the field, and the impressment of mechanics for war purposes was authorized. The preparations against Canada were the occasion of serious troubles. Against the pro- tests of the Duke of Bedford, soon to be pre- mier, who feared that the colonies might by so great an expedition of their own learn their own resources, the Duke of Newcastle pledged the home government to pay the troops that might be engaged, while a British fleet was ordered to cooperate. Parliament finally ap- propriated £184,000 to settle the accounts ; but the money was not paid at the time it was needed, and Governor Clinton was in constant anxiety for current resources. He was charged with embezzling presents meant for the Iro- quois and with diverting funds voted for a OPPOSITION ORGANIZED. 303 specified purpose to other objects, while the troops clamored for their pay, and their subsist- ence was seldom furnished promptly in proper quantity. As commander-in-chief of the ex- pedition he had ordered the seizure by force of an unlimited supply of provisions, and his agents were charged with " high criuies and misdemeanors" in obeying his orders. Gov- ernor and assembly charged each other with the neglect which permitted the burning of Saratoga, and with fault in general policy. The time had not arrived for the conquest of Canada, and the preparation added no particu- lar credit to the colonies or to the home gov- ernment. The French fleet, sailing in Ameri- can waters, directed attention to defense of the coasts. The alarm was relieved by storms, which scattered the vessels. By the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, October 8, 1748, even Louis- burg was given back to the French, and the New York assembly was fully justified in its conviction that success could not come to the operations as they were conducted. The preparations for the Canada expedition had already brought the Northern colonies into close relations, and these were continued and improved after that expedition had been aban- doned. The Six Nations came also into renewed importance, and evidence was not lacking that 304 NEW YORK. French emissaries were artfully at work among them. Governor Clinton was blamed for inter- fering with the influence of the commissioners of the province, and especially for sending his chief adviser, Cadwallader Colden, to negotiate with the tribes. They were restive, and ques- tions affecting them arose frequently. In 1744, an important council was held in Albany to adjust matters of which Virginia complained. The greed of the land speculators was bearing its natural fruit. Hendrik, a Mohican chief adopted by the Mohawks, who was one of the " kings " whom Schuyler presented before Queen Anne, to appeals for his aid retorted : " You have taken the land of the Mohicans (in New England), and driven us away," and he predicted the same result with the Mohawks. When the French Indians ravaged Western Massachusetts, the appeals of New York to the Iroquois became more urgent, and the pres- ents more liberal. In a council in 1746, the tribes were divided in sentiment ; but the Mo- hawks, Onondagas, and Senecas favored alli- ance with the English, and the confederacy was arrayed on that side. In October, 1746, a skir- mishing party crossed the St. Lawrence and returned with scalps, and nine warriors went to Montreal and so deceived the French officers as to be employed to bear to Crown Point OPPOSITION ORGANIZED. 305 despatches which they handed over to the au- thorities at Albany. Governor Shirley of Massachusetts had pro- posed an expedition against Crown Point in the winter of 1747, and Governor Clinton approved the plan ; but the council learned that it would be impossible to bring the Iroquois into the movement in season, and by general consent the project was abandoned. In a letter dated May 30, 1747, Colonel Johnson asked for means to pay for twenty-nine scalps and prisoners brought in by his skirmishers that spring. The defense for such a ghastly record was that the routes into the province were infested by hostile war parties, and in the interior the ways were dangerous for the conveyance of supplies. Mur- ders were reported even as far inland as Her- kimer, then known as Burnetsfield, and near Schenectady a trading party was surprised and many killed by enemies who escaped before their pursuers. On Lake Champlain and at Sara- toga, signs were frequent that the French and their red allies were watching for opportunity for successful attack. As a part of the Fiench activity south of the St. Lawrence, a mission was established in 1749, at the mouth of the Oswegatchie, and called La Presentation, and on its site Ogdensburg has grown. There and at Fort Levi, built ten years later on Chimney 306 NEW YORK. Island, was a centre of French operations, and there finally the last resistance was offered to British arms in 1760. The struggles relative to control over raising and expending the revenue kept the treasury at a low ebb, and as a consequence means were lacking to feed and pay the troops on the fron- tier. Officers were resigning, and some of them were sued for pay by their soldiers. The men were barely restrained from open mutiny. The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle came at the right moment to enable the province to confront serious internal controversies. Governor Clin- ton lacked tact to adjust them, even if they had not been by their nature sure to culminate at last in deadly conflict. He received from White- hall instructions which he relied on such lead- ers of the colony as he for the time accepted as advisers, to carry out. His confidant, when he first entered on his administration, was Chief Justice DeLancey, a man of ability and skill in affairs, with a will of his own, and not content to echo the behests of anybody, even of a royal governor. The story is that he went into op- position on account of a personal quarrel with Governor Clinton "over his cups." He was able, in the controversies that followed, to show other cause for support of the privileges of the assembly and the peoj)le, ;uid to render good OPPOSITION ORGANIZED. 307 service to them. Before Clinton's retirement DeLancey was found again in approaching ac- cord with the governor, in order, as the gossip of the times alleged, to make sure of the post of lieutenant governor, for which a commission had been issued for him and not delivered. Clinton had the power to withhold the commission, and thus make Cadwallader Colden, who was presi- dent of the council, acting executive. Colden had in recent years proved himself an adviser even more conversant with colonial business than DeLancey, and not inferior in talent and acquirements, diligent and aggressive to the last degree. He had already been en- gaged in the affairs of New York for a genera- tion. He was a scientist and author of no mean qualities, and had studied the history of the Iroquois and the resources of the province with a scholar's thoroughness. His writings on these themes are of enduring value. A Scotchman by birth and a graduate in medicine of the Uni- versity of Edinburgh, he illustrated the qualities of his race and his education. He migrated to Philadelphia in 1716, and Governor Hunter in- vited him to become surveyor-general in 1718, He had since that time been intimate with every administration. Introduced by Governor Bur- net as a member of the council, he had often acted as its chief in fact. He gave especial at- 308 NEW YORK. tention to Indian matters, but lie was at home in all branches of colonial administration. The addresses of Governor Clinton were attributed to him ; and no important executive act for a long time was, in the opinion of the assembly, taken without his suggestion and direction. In 1749, Golden gave way as practically premier to Alexander and Smith, whose rank as lawyers and influence as leaders of opinion previous events had developed. On the popular side the pen was wielded for formal arguments and popular appeals by Judge Horsmanden, whose special pleading relative to the alleged negro conspiracy proves how intense were his zeal and devotion to the cause which he espoused. David Jones, speaker of the assem- bly, took a large share in the controversies of these times against executive dictation. More busy, and prominent in more fields than any factional leader in these times, was Golonel William Johnson, who was appointed to the chief command of the New York levies, and was already accounted as exercising a wider and more direct control over the Iroquois than any other person. He was born in county Down, Ireland, in 1715, and in 1738 was brought over to take charge of an estate belonging to his uncle in the Mohawk Valley. This uncle was Sir Peter Warren, who commanded the British OPPOSITION ORGANIZED. 309 fleet in American waters in the early years of Clinton's administration ; and, as he was a brother-in-law of Chief Justice DeLancey, he was able to push forward his energetic and sturdy nephew. Johnson made his home in the town which still bears his name, and lived with the Mohawks as one of them, and was adopted by them as a war-chief. He identified himself with the cause of the governor, and through his long career was intense in his loyalty to the ex- ecutive of the province and to the British crown. Governor Clinton soon introduced him to the council, employed him in dealings with the Iro- quois, and raised him in military affairs over the heads of all other colonial officers. In 1746 he was appointed by Governor Clinton superin- tendent of Indian affairs. While in command of the troops and holding these relations to the red men, he also prosecuted the incongruous business of a contractor of supplies for both. The controversies between the royal governor and the assembly involved no new principles, but became more grave by the persistence of both sides. Clinton was blunt and defiant in his language. He told the assembly that it *' had no authority to sit but by the king's com- mission and instructions " to him. " Every branch of this legislature may be criminal in the eye of the law ; and there is a power able 310 NEW YORK. to punish you, and that will punish you, if you provoke that power to do it by your misbe- havior ; otherwise you must think yourselves independent of the crown of Great Britain." The assembly was no less bold, and passed a remonstrance which Clinton refused to receive, and forbade Parker, the public printer, to pub- lish. The governor was plainly told that his order " was arbitrary and illegal, in open vio- lation of the privileges of the House and the liberty of the press." The remonstrance was published, and aggravated hostility to the gov- ernor. The asseaibly held fast to its control of the revenue, and after several refusals Clinton was glad to accept the appropriations with the restrictions affixed. From Whitehall, April 2, 1751, came a re- port asking for an act for a perpetual revenue " upon the plan of that which had been passed in Jamaica," and " all the claims of present factions " would be set at rest. Clinton ap- pealed to the king to " make a good example for all America, by regulating the government of New York ; " for he was convinced that " the remedy must come from a more powerful au- thority than any in America." The assembly advanced a step when it refused to grant Indian appropriations unless it was allowed to nomi- nate the commissioners, and it claimed that OPPOSITION ORGANIZED. 311 the " powers of the militia can only be put in execution by the authority of the assembly." Clinton grew weary of these " graspings after more power" by the legislature, and the home authorities attributed some of the friction to his hostile relations with that body. The peace with France was proving itself unreal. Bands of French and Indians on the frontiers and lakes were causing frequent alarms. The Iroquois were growing restive under the pressure of the greed and fraud of the land speculators. The Mohawk Hendrik, with seve- ral other chiefs, in 1753 carried their reproaches to governor and assembly in New York, and receiving little satisfaction, declared : " By and by, you will expect to see the Five Nations, which you shall not see ; for as soon as we reach home, we will send a belt of wampum to our brethren to acquaint them the covenant chain is broken between you and us." Colonel William Johnson was appointed to visit the tribes and win them back, and he succeeded in preventing an open outbreak. This was the condition of affairs when Gov- ernor Clinton was summoned to the honorable repose of governor of Greenwich Hospital, and Sir Danvers Osborne came out to succeed him, October 10, 1753. Disappointed in the colony, and despondent by reason of domestic grief, Os- 312 NEW YORK. borne was barely inducted into office when he committed suicide. James DeLancey, whose commission as lieutenant governor had been delivered by Clinton just before his retirement, entered on the executive authority October 12, 1753. The colony was showing signs of life outside its activity in politics and in the field. A bill was ordered, October 22, 1746, to raise £250 by lottery towards erecting a college, and from that humble start Columbia College, known at first as King's College, has grown. Trinity Church gave the college a part of its estate in 1752, and over an effort to place the control under Episcopal supervision a controversy arose which divided parties and arrayed partisans, so that in politics as well as in religion Presbyterian and Episcopalian served as distinctive titles. At this time the assembly contained no college graduate except DeLancey, and in public life only another person, William Smith, held a collegiate diploma. Thirteen young men who were to impress themselves on affairs, and who are named in Smith's History, had secured a liberal education. Among the devoted missionaries who came to labor among the Iroquois as teachers of the arts as well as of the Gospel, college graduates were conspicuous. This work, after the brief visit of OPPOSITION ORGANIZED. 313 Rev. Mr. Moor, lapsed for eight years, and was taken up again among the Mohawks in 1712, by Rev. Mr. Andrews, who was assisted by Rev. Thomas Barclay, the English minister at Albany. Of the services to the red men of Rev. Peter van Driersen, minister of the Dutch church at Albany, the record is brief. Rev. Henry Barclay, a graduate of Yale College, an Episcopalian clergyman, labored efficiently among the Mohawks from 1736 to 1746, and at his departure a congregation of five hundred Indians, including eighty communicants, assem- bled to bid him farewell. Two years later, from the schools at Stockbridge, Mass., under the direction of the noted Jonathan Edwards, and at Lebanon, Conn., under Dr. Wheelock, began that stream of educated missionaries who adorn the annals of the province. In 1752, Rev. Gideon Hawley made his first visit to the Iroquois, and has left interesting jour- nals of his services as evangehst among them for many years. Other zealous men engaged for brief periods in the difiScult work, until in 1764 Samuel Kirkland went forth to preach to the Senecas, and became identified especially with the Oneidas, leaving his name in the churches, affecting the current of events, and commemorated by Hamilton College, which has risen on the foundation of an academy estab- 314 NEW YORK. lished by him for Indians and their instructors. The last of the missionaries to the Mohawks was Rev. John Stuart, who served among them from 1770 to 1775 with fidelity and usefulness. The contrast between the broad plans and steady persistency of the French fathers and the fitful zeal of the Protestant missionaries is not flattering to the churches and the political authorities who claimed to sustain the latter. If the decision had been left to the religious elements opposed to each other, the Iroquois and through them New York would have been won to France and to Catholicism. CHAPTER XX. THE FRENCH WAR, 1754-1760. By the accession of James DeLancey to ex- ecutive control, tlie affairs of the province were put on a new footing, and it was able to make preparations for the imminent struggle which involved the fate of the continent. The acri- monious charges by the assembly against Clin- ton were continued after his departure, and the royal instructions did not lose anything in their imperative tone. DeLancey possessed the arts of conciliation, and avoided conflict where that was possible. He advised the Lords of Trade that the assembly would not vote support for more than one year at a time, while he urged the legislators to place the money at the discre- tion of the governor and council. His relations with both parties enabled him to dull the edge of controversy, while they subjected him to criticisms for duplicity hardly deserved. Com- parative peace in the province was compelled, and the significance of local quarrels was di- 816 NEW YORK. minished, by tlie difficulties which arose with France and culminated in a great war. The English were charged with aggressions in Nova Scotia, while complaints were urged that the French were crowding viciously on the fron- tiers, and especially along the Ohio. The com- prehensive strategy of the far-sighted French governors and their home authorities had placed a series of fortresses from Crown Point around by Fort Presentation (now Ogdensburg) to Forts Frontenac and Niagara and to Fort Du Quesne, which surrounded New York, and threatened it, in case of conflict, with invasion from all sides except the southeast, where a naval attack was conceivable, and even the In- dians looked for it. The attitude of the Iroquois was the first factor in preparations for defense. It was primarily to secure their alliance, and with that to bring all the colonies to united efforts, that a congress of deputies was summoned by Lord Holderness, the British secretary of state, to meet in Albany, June 14, 1754. Lieutenant Governor DeLancey presided, and with Joseph Murray, Colonel William Johnson, John Cham- bers, and William Smith, represented New York. The New England colonies, Pennsyl- vania and Maryland, with New York, sent del- egates, and chiefs of the Iroquois came for THE FRENCH WAR. 317 negotiations. The extent of the domain of these tribes was admitted by Pennsylvania by the payment of <£400 for lands within its bounda- ries, and their title was recognized beyond the Ohio, and their claims extended to tlie penin- sula of Michigan. Chief Hendiik rebuked the English for their weakness and neglect, and bade them, "Look at the French : they are men ; they are fortifying everywhere ; but you are all like women, bare and open, without any fortifications." By July 11, the Indians were dismissed with presents after promises of co- operation against the French. On July 4 — a day to become historic by a deed of which this was a prophecy — a plan of union of all the colonies was agreed upon. It was proposed by Benjamin Franklin, and resembled a project suggested by William Penn as early as 1697. The draft was reported by a committee of one from each colony, on which William Smith represented New York, but the form and sub- stance were the work of Franklin. DeLancey and Murray of the New York deputies opposed the plan. Beyond adoption by this congress this plan of union received no further approval. The authorities at Whitehall were alarmed by it ; not a single colony favored putting it into operation. It served a valuable purpose in pointing out the possibilities of tiie future. 318 NEW YORK. Events were already forcing a union closer than written forms could establish. Although war with France was not yet declared, hostil- ities were in progress, and New York had voted to obey the injunction from Whitehall to repel force by force in case of invasion. To encourage Pennsylvania and Virginia to check encroach- ments on their western borders, the assembly of New York appropriated X 5,000 in August, 1754. George Washington was already en- gaged in operations against Fort Du Quesne, which the French were able to retain. The French were active also on the Kennebec in Maine. Hoosick in Massachusetts was burned. War parties advanced south of Crown Point. French vessels bearing troops were assailed by a British fleet, and two were captured. General Braddock, whose defeat and death were to follow- speedily, was upon the sea with a military force from England, landing in February, 1755 ; and Baron Dieskau with 4,000 men arrived in May of the same year, to hold for France the route by Lake Champlain and Crown Point. In April, a conference of governors, called by General Braddock in Alexandria, Virginia, at which Governor DeLancey was present, agreed on four expeditions : one to reduce Nova Scotia ; one under Braddock to recover the valley of the Ohio ; a third, to be commanded by Governor THE FRENCH WAR. 319 Shirley of Massachiisetts, was to drive the French from Fort Niagara; and a fourth, under William Johnson, now major-general, was to strive to capture Crown Point. This conference also recognized the difficulty of raising money by vote of the colonial assem- blies, and expressed the unanimous opinion that " it should be proposed to her Majesty's minis- ters to find out some method of compelling them to do it, and of assessing the several govern- ments in proportion to their several abilities." DeLancey at home rather favored duties on imports, and the suggestion of stamps was rec- ommended by Golden. Since expenses were growing, and heavy charges were falling upon the home government, the question of revenue was attaining larger and more threatening pro- portions, and, as would appear, especially in New York. By the original plan. New York was to be the centre of the military movements of 1755 ; and the failure of Braddock's expedition, which oc- curred July 9, cast the burdens of the conflict still more on this province. Invasion swept over its borders and into the interior to the head of the Mohawk, and so as to cast its shadow even to Albany. The lines of assault from the side of the colonies extended to Niagara on the west, across the St. Lawrence to Fort Fron- 320 NEW YORK. tenac, and to the defenses of Lake Champlain at Crown Point and Fort Ticonderoga. New York had thus to bear much of the brunt of the war. The assembly began in 1755 by voting j£45,- 000 in paper money, and authorizing a levy of eight hundred men, and soon added <£ 8,000 for enlisting men in Connecticut for the armies under Shirley and Johnson. Another vote of £40,000, and raising the force to seventeen hundred men, exhibited the zeal and energy of the assembly. In 1759, the quota was fur- ther raised to two thousand six hundred and eighty ; a bounty of X15 was offered, with twenty shillings to the recruiting officer, and an emission of .£100,000 in paper money was ordered, to be cancelled in nine annual install- ments. These provisions do not measure the impositions on the people. When Acadia was conquered and its inhabitants scattered, com- panies of them were brought to New York, to be fed and supported ; and the practice of billet- ing troops on the citizens aggravated the cost and miseries of the war. The campaign of 1755, in which the defeat of Braddock was the chief tragedy, was disastrous in New York at every point save one. Shirley, who paraded as commander-in-chief, had showed zeal and energy in urging this movement and TEE FRENCH WAR. 321 in making preparations for it, but he marched no further than Oswego for the conquest of Niagara. Colonel Philip Schuyler led the first regiment of the expedition. Boats were built at Oswego to convey six hundred men by lake. Shirley followed by way of the Mohawk, and reached Oswego August 21. He was delayed from various causes, and in October a council of war decided that the attack on Niagara should be postponed for a year. Shirley was to have met Braddock in victory at Niagara. Both branches of the plan had been shattered. The great western scheme sank to a mere strength- ening of the defenses of Oswego. Colonel Mer- cer was left in command of a garrison of seven hundred men, with instructions to build two new forts, and General Shirley took the re- mainder of his force back to Albany. The piti- ful failure led to criminations relative to the causes of the fatal delays. In the summer of 1755, for the movement to the northward from Albany, a fort was erected on the east bank of the Hudson Kiver, on the carrying-place on the way to Lake Sacrament, and it became known as Fort Edward. Gen- eral Johnson was to have started on his expedi- tion at this time ; but trouble with General Shirley at Albany, over leadership of the Iro- quois, and a lack of boats, added to the shock 322 NEW YORK. caused by Braddock's defeat, for weeks para- lyzed the movement. August 8, General John- son was able to set out with stores and artillery, and with him were fifty Mohawks with chief " King Hendrik," and Joseph Brant, then a lad of thirteen years. At Fort Edward were gathered New England troops under General Lyman and Colonel Williams, with two hundred and fifty red men. August 26, Johnson marched with three thousand four hundred men to the lake, which he now styled Lake George, as an assertion of the title of the British king. To this point General Lyman followed with his entire force, leaving two hundred and fifty New England troops and five New York companies at Fort Edward. The French governor, De Vaudreuil, had taken his precautions early. He sent Baron Dieskau with a force of three thousand men, of whom eight hundred were French grenadiers, to Crown Point to hold the route by Lake Champlain. From Crown Point Dieskau led two hundred French regulars, seven hundred Canadians, and six hundred Indians, to the head of the lake with the purpose to capture Fort Edward, and thus to cut off Johnson's retreat, and even destroy his army. The French com- mander, as is alleged, through the treachery of Iroquois guides, failed to surprise the fort ; and THE FRENCH WAR, 323 bis Indian allies refused to make an assault against cannon, but were willing to march H gainst the encampment on the lake. September 8, Johnson, under the advice of a council of war, sent out one thousand men in three parties for the relief of Fort Edward, with Colonel Ephraim Williams and Chief Hendrik in command. The advance at a distance of two miles from camp fell into an ambuscade in a defile, and both Williams and Hendrik were killed, with manj^ others. The retreat was immediate, and was covered by a relief sent out from camp. There Johnson had his cannon in position, and had formed a rude breastwork. The French regulars began the attack, and tried centre, left, and right, but were met by men who, Dieskau said, " fought like devils." The whole French force was brought into the bat- tle, but it could gain no foothold. The colonists seeing the enemy waver, leaped over their de- fenses, and by their bold onset drove before them the French, who fled to the woods with broken ranks. Dieskau fought close to the breastwork, and received four bullets in his legs, and was again shot in the moment of per- sonal surrender. He was taken prisoner, and died in England of his wounds. Johnson was badly wounded early in the action, and the command fell upon General Lyman. The 324 NEW YORK. battle raged from half past ten in the morning until four in the afternoon. Later in the day- Captain Maginnis, with two hundred New Hampshire troops, on their way from Fort Ed- ward, came upon the remnants of the demor- alized French army, and completed the rout. The designs of De Vaudreuil and Dieskau were utterly thwarted. The French loss was four hundred, in killed and wounded ; and among the killed was St. Pierre, the victor on the Mo- nongahela. Of the army of the colonists, two hundred and sixteen were killed and ninety-six wounded, and forty of the Iroquois. The Indi- ans insisted on returning home. The French army retired at its leisure to Crown Point, and was not molested. General Johnson has been criticised for not yielding to General Lyman's appeal to pursue Dieskau's routed army, and for failing to move promptly against Crown Point. Such censure is easy after the event. The colonial troops were new, and their commanders were learning how to fight battles. The enemy included vet- erans of France, and artillery and defenses were strong at Crown Point. The battle of Lake George was a decided victory, won by a superior force, it is true, but not pressed to the conceiv- able advantages. It was the one gleam of tri- umph within the colonies in the campaign of THE FRENCH WAR. 325 1755, and checked the demoralization which the disaster to Braddock was threatening. Tlie home government rewarded Jobnson with a baronetcy, although he closed the campaign with this battle, and set about building Fort William Henry, on the site of the battle, while the French erected works at Ticonderoga. In December, Shirley, who had become com- mander-in-chief of the British forces in Amer- ica, summoned the governors to a conference in New York, and proposed a winter campaign against Ticonderoga, but the attempt was not made. Shirley was, on the contrary, held cen- surable for the lack of success in the Niagara expedition, and was removed from command. Sir Charles Hardy came out as governor of New York, September 3, 1755, bat DeLan- cey continued as lieutenant governor, dividing emoluments with his chief ; and the interrup- tion of his executive power was only nominal, until June 3, 1757, when, as Rear Admiral, Sir Charles took command of the expedition against Louisburg, and did not return to the province. Parliament decided to maintain a permanent army in America, and the commander-in-chief, the Earl of Loudon, arrived in New York July 23, 1756. War between France and England had been declared. General Abercrombie and General Webb were already in the province, 326 NEW YORK. and the British regulars under them numbered three thousand. These troops were quartered on the inhabitants, and their officers gave more attention to quarters than to military service. Lord Loudon had oyer ten thousand men sub- ject to his orders, and there was need for prompt movement. Savages were ravaging the counties of Ulster and Orange ; the French were showing dangerous activity ; and soon a new commander, the Marquis de Montcalm, assumed the aggres- sive. They held their position on Lake Cham- plain. They were threatening the supplies which were conveyed by way of the Mohawk, Oneida Lake, and the Onondaga River to Os- wego. March 27, 1756, a party of four hundred French and Indians under De Levi penetrated to Fort Bull, where Rome now stands. Three small works had been built at this point. Lieu- tenant Bull destroyed two to prevent their fall- ing into the hands of the enemy. The third De Levi captured and razed to the ground, and bore the garrison of thirty prisoners to Montreal, where he reported with the loss of three men. In May, De Villiers with eight hundred follow- ers, from a thicket near the mouth of Sandy Creek, struck out at the parties bearing supplies to Oswego. Colonel Bradstreet, a New York officer, repulsed one of such attacks made July 12. He kept in motion between Albany and THE FRENCH WAR. 327 Oswego on the line of the Mohawk and Oneida Lake, forty companies of boatmen of fifty men each. He succeeded in throwing into Oswego abundant provisions and ammunition. He fore- saw the coming invasion, and gave early warning at Albany of the gathering of an army of thirteen hundred French regulars, seventeen hundred Canadians, and many Indians, on the upper St. Lawrence. General Webb was ordered to lead his regiment for the relief of Oswego, but he dawdled on the way, and advanced no further than the head-waters of the Mohawk. He was afraid of attack even there, and felled trees for defense. He received at this point word of the disaster he was sent to prevent, and fled in haste to German Flats, where he was met by Sir Will- iam Johnson, who started from Albany, August 20, with two battalions of militia and three hun- dred red men, to aid in relieving Oswego ; but news of its fall prevented his further advance. Montcalm acted differently from the English generals. August 5, he reviewed his army at Fort Frontenac, and the same evening trans- ported it to Sackets Harbor. August 18, he captured Fort Ontario, an outpost at Oswego, and turned its guns on the main fortifications, in which Mercer, the commander, was soon killed, and a breach made in the walls. The next day, the entire force of sixteen hundred 328 NEW YORK. men, including Colonel Peter Schuyler, sur- rendered, with one hundred and twenty cannon, six war vessels, three hundred boats, stores, ammunition, and three chests of money. The prisoners were protected by Montcalm from butchery by the savages, and were taken to Mon- treal. In order to appease the Iroquois the con- querors destroyed all the works at Oswego, and abandoned the site. The consequences of the French victory were grave, and put the colonial alliance with the Six Nations in peril. The Earl of Loudon began and ended his active career in New York with this disastrous campaign. In 1757 he started on an expedition against Louisburg, and abandoned it, returning to New York to bluster and lie idle. New York and the neighboring colonies were anxious to furnish militia to act with the regulars. But the royal commanders were shamefully incompetent, and would not let the provincial leaders take the necessary measures. Disaster and even disgrace were invited on Lake George and the Mohawk, to such an extent that the enemy seemed to operate at pleasure. July 23, Lieutenant Marin, a Canadian, with two hundred men, bore away thirty-two scalps and a prisoner from under the guns of Fort Edward. Four days later Lieu- tenant Corbiere, another Canadian, with a small party destroyed twefnty boats on Lake George, THE FRENCH WAR. 329 and showed one hundred and sixty scalps as trophies. Montcalm was the inspiration to such achievements. At the close of July he was drawing his lines about Fort William Henry, and with him were eight thousand French and Canadians and two thousand Indians. He cut off communication with Fort Edward by a de- tachment of Canadians and Indians. He di- rected his main army against Fort William Henry, and a fortified camp, where afterwards stood Fort George. In the former, Lieutenant- Colonel Monro had four hundred and forty-nine men, and in the latter were seventeen hundred. Montcalm used artillery with effect, and Monro replied as he could by day, and repaired breaches by night. General Webb lay at Fort Edward with four thousand men, but repeated the neglect of which he had been guilty in the pre- ceding campaign. General Johnson brought up a considerable force, and was advancing be- yond Fort Edward, when Webb ordered him back and sent a letter to Monro advising him to surrender. Montcalm intercepted the com- munication, and forwarded it to the victim whom he was sure now he had within his toils. But Monro fought on for two days, when with can- non burst and ammunition nearly exhausted, August 9, he yielded to necessity, after a siege of eight days. Fair terms were made, but after 330 NEW YORK. the surrender drunken Indians assailed fear- stricken prisoners, and thirty were killed before Montcalm could check the barbarism, while in the siege his own army had lost only fifty-three in killed and wounded. Fort William Henry was destroyed. This disaster was the result of criminal stupidity; for within a week, Webb and Lord Howe, who had just arrived on the scene, dismissed to their homes many of the militia, and others in disgust abandoned their camps. They had been ready, and they ought to have checked the operations of Montcalm. He was left to strike where he chose. The autumn added to the disasters of the summer. November 12, a party of three hundred French and Indians, under Belletre, penetrated as far into the interior as Palatine Village, and at three o'clock in the morning fell upon the sleep- ing inhabitants. Forty were killed and one hundred and fifty taken into captivity. Three thousand cattle and as many sheep, with grain and the autumn store of provisions, were carried away. The village had received warning from the Indians, and General Johnson had appealed to General Abercrombie, now in chief com- mand, to keep a force of rangers in the field. Both counsels were unheeded, and the Mohawk Valley was left open to such devastation and to the consequent panic. THE FRENCH WAR. 331 Pitt, the British prime minister, perceived the situation in America, and said, " E very- door is open to France." New York was surely- naked on every side, and was suffering from the presence of British troops, who did not shield her from repeated and almost fatal blows. Pitt rose to the occasion, and resolved to pay the price of the defense of the colonies, and the con- quest of Canada. He accorded American offi- cers, up to the rank of colonel, equal command with those sent from Britain. He asked New England, New York, and New Jersey to furnish twenty thousand men to march against Mon- treal and Quebec. The year 1758 opened with the capture of Louisburg by Amherst and Wolfe. The largest army yet seen in America was assembled on Lake George, and began to move July 5. Seven thousand British regulars were supported by more than ten thousand provin- cials. General Abercrombie was in command, Oliver DeLancey was colonel -in -chief of tlie New York forces, and Lord Howe was the idol of the army. Lake George has witnessed no more splendid spectacle, and no waters have been the scene of a more tragic result. The troops landed in good order to storm Ticon- deroga. They became confused in the woods. Lord Howe was killed in a skirmish. Aber- crombie hesitated for the night. In the morn- 332 NEW YORK. ing of July 8 he ordered an attack by bayonet on the enemy's works. Montcalm had three thousand six hundred and fifty men, whom he sheltered with breastworks of trees, with branches outward. The British could not get through these branches, and in their confusion were shot down in multitudes. The attack was brave and persistent, for it cost nineteen hun- dred and sixty-seven in killed and wounded. It was not renewed. Abercrombie retreated and his army followed him. Colonel Bradstreet alone preserved a semblance of order among the demoralized troops. The panic swept through the province and into all the colonies. Courage was restored by another service ren- dered by Colonel Bradstreet. He had in the early spring asked permission to lead a swift at- tack against Fort Frontenac ; but Abercrombie did not see the advantage of diverting the at- tention of the French from Lake George. Af- ter the disaster there the commanding general yielded his consent, and Bradstreet hurried for- ward. August 10, he was in consultation with General Stanwix, who was building the fort which was to perpetuate the latter's name. For the projected movement eleven hundred and twelve New Yorkers, under Lieutenant-Colo- nel Charles Clinton of Ulster, and Lieutenant- Colonel Isaac Corse of Queens, with nineteen THE FRENCH WAR. 333 hundred and twenty-three other colonists, and forty-two Indians under the chief Red Head, hastened to Oswego, and thence in open boats crossed Lake Ontario. Bradstreet succeeded in landing without opposition within a mile of Fort Frontenac, August 25. The next day he turned his cannon on the works, and its artillery re- sponded. During the ensuing night entrench- ments were carried within two hundred yards of the fort, in spite of the activity of its guns. August 27, the French garrison capitulated. One hundred and fifty prisoners with abundant stores, several cannon, and all the armed vessels on the lake, were the spoils, which cost not a single life on the provincial side, and only two or three slightly wounded. The French loss of life was also small. The exploit was won by the sudden demonstration of a force large enough to be sure of success. Fort Frontenac was de- stroyed, and the strategic line which connected Fort Du Quesne with Montreal was broken. Tiie achievement shattered the plans of Mont- calm, and went far to remedy the blunders and defeat of Aberciombie. The victory at Pitts- burg followed in November, and redeemed the fame and the fortunes of the colonies. The French from Canada had, with inferior numbers, and resources crippled by dearth and the death of domestic animals, almost snatched 334 NEW YORK. victory by the audacity of genius and the splen- dor of courage. In the campaign of 1759 Sir Jeffrey Amherst was commander-in-chief of the British forces. The plans included the occupa- tion of posts at the west from Pittsburg to Lake Erie by General Stanwix ; the capture of Fort Niagara by General Prideaux, and the concen- tration of a large army under Amherst, to ad- vance into Canada by way of Lake Champlain, while a fleet was to cooperate, sailing up the St. Lawrence. The expedition for Niagara gath- ered at Oswego, and included two British regi- ments and a detachment of royal artillery. It numbered twenty-two hundred regulars and pro- vincials, and seven hundred Iroquois. Colonel Haldimand was left with a New York battalion to hold Oswego. Prideaux sailed July 1 for the west. July 5, an army of fifteen hundred French, Canadians, and Indians attacked the garrison at Oswego, but was repulsed and retired the next day. At Niagara, General Prideaux was killed by the bursting of a cohorn, July 15, and Sir William Johnson succeeded to the com- mand. He prosecuted the siege, and three days later a breach was made in the fort by the artil- lery fire. General D'Aubry attempted to raise the siege by marching from the western garri- sons with twelve hundred men and hosts of In- dian auxiliaries. Johnson met them, and in the THE FRENCH WAR. 335 battle the French lost one hundred and fifty killed and one hundred and thirteen prisoners, including General D'Aubry. Fort Niagara was surrendered to Johnson, with its garrison of six hundred and eighteen, July 25. Its fall severed the connection of the French, authorities at Montreal with the Ohio Valley and Lake Erie. General Johnson left a garrison at Niagara, and returned to Oswego, with a view of attack- ing the French posts at La Galette and Oswe- gatchie ; but General Gage, who was now in command on the northern frontier, forbade the movement. On the eastern border. General Amherst be- gan operations July 22, with an army of eleven thousand. He invested Ticonderoga, and after four days the French blew up their works and fell back to Crown Point, whence they again re- treated as Amherst advanced. He was delayed, rebuilt forts, and failed to carry out the plans of moving forward by this line against Montreal, in cooperation with General Wolfe's expedition up the St. Lawrence. A raid was made, Sep- tember 13, by Major Rogers with one hundred and forty-two men, on the Indian village of St. Francis between Montreal and Quebec, which was annihilated with all the barbarity of savage warfare. The great tragedy of the Plains of Abraham 336 NEW YORK. was enacted, Wolfe and Montcalm were killed, and Quebec fell September 17, closing tlie campaign of 1759. June, 1760, three columns moved forward to capture Montreal, one up tlio St. Lawrence under General Murray, a second under Colonel Haviland down Lake Cbamplain, and the main army from Oswego under General Amherst. July 16, Oswegatchie was occupied by the forces of the last named, and La Galette was surrendered to him, July 25. The Indian tribes on the St. Lawrence were won over, and August 30 the three columns met before Mon- treal. September 8, the French governor, De Vaudreuil, gave up all of Canada and its depen- dencies to Great Britain. The policy of Peter (Quider) Schuyler was consummated by the iron will and brilliant energy of William Pitt. The strain of this conflict on the province of New York cannot well be exaggerated. The victories of the French arms encouraged the Iroquois to neutrality and some of them to hos- tility. They always had grievances over the seizure of their lands by speculators and the breach of treaties, and all the arts and influence of Sir William Johnson were needed to man- age them, and especially to get them to aid the province when invaded. Armies moving across the whole extent of country from New York to Lake Champlain and from Albany to Niagara^ THE FRENCH WAR. 337 left their traces everywhere. The arbitrary sys- tem of quartering troops on citizens was ruin- ous as well as oppressive, especially to the two chief cities. Settlements were driven back by the ravages of the French and Indians. Manu- factures were interrupted, agriculture was checked, commerce was paralyzed. Here and there blockhouses and small forts were built, which became the nucleus of hamlets and then of towns. Thus Fort Schuyler, erected in 1759, at a ford on the Mohawk, well known to boatmen and to engineers of the army, was chosen after a while as a point of departure for the north and southwest, as it was naturally for the west, and about it gradually gathered, beginning in 1785, a hamlet which has spread out into the city of Utica. Other topics seemed petty in the presence of the great war between the two foremost nations of the world, in which New York was in so large a measure the field of battle. When the French power fell in Canada, the importance of the Six Nations as allies was greatly diminished, the ap- prehension of invasion was removed, and New York especially, and the other colonies in less degree, were relieved of external pressure, and the path was open for the freedom and indepen- dence which were to insure prosperity and greatness. CHAPTER XXL PEEPAEATION — FIEST STEP TOWAEDS UNION. 1760-1765. The fall of Montreal closed the immediate interest of New York in the war against France, although the Treaty of Paris, surrendering to Britain the French possessions in America, was not signed until February 10, 1763. It was high time for the province to devote itself to the tasks of peace. Its white population was in 1756 only 83,233, with 13,542 blacks, and yet it had kept in the field a force of 2,680 men, and when the war debt was summed up in 1762, it was found to exceed £300,000 and a tax of £40,000 a year was assessed to meet it. Under great exhaus- tion and stress the people showed commendable vitality and spirit. An election for members of assembly in 1759 developed a division which long affected the affairs of the province. To the Episcopalians, it was alleged, too much favor had been shown by the governor in organizing King's (Columbia) College, and members were FIRST STEP TOWARDS UNION, 339 chosen to the new assembly to check such ten- dencies. This opposition expressed the popular feelings, and was called the Presbyterian party, or, from its chief leaders, the Livingston party, wdiile the supporters of the administration were styled by the name of Governor DeLancey, or the Episcopal party, or the aristocrats. The lines were already drawn which deepened and broadened into the great struggle for indepen- dence, and were continued after a state consti- tution was adopted. The home government was moving rapidl^^ in the course which drove the colonies into revolt, and in New York and elsewhere men were rising to leadership to re- sist the stamp tax and to organize a union. The popular party had more than an ordinary title to a personal designation. In the assembly of 1759, consisting of twenty-seven members, no less than four Livingstons sat : Philip for New York, William for the manor, and Robert R. and Henry for Dutchess. By alliance by marriage with the Schuylers and the Jays and by its wealth the Livingston family held a pre- eminence rarely equaled in this country. In the aristocratic party Lieutenant-Governor De- Lancey was supported by his brother Oliver, by his cousins Philip Verplanck of Cortland manor, and John Baptist van Rensselaer of Rensselaer- wyck, and other relatives and personal friends 340 NEW YORK. This family element was shattered b}^ the sud- den death of Governor DeLancey, August 2, 1760, when Cadwallader Golden, then seventy- three years of age, emerged fi-om his planta- tion in Ulster County, to assume the executive power as president of the council. He souglit to win friends by courtesy and concessions, when the death of George IT. created the occa- sion for a new election, in 1761, by which the popular party gained additional strength. New York had more than once insisted on the independence of the courts against the executive power. This question now took on a new form, and led to serious consequences. The assembly sought to compel the appoint- ment of judges of the supreme court with terms running during good behavior ; but Golden vetoed the measure, and insisted that their commissions should be at the pleasure of the appointing power. The difference was rad- ical : should the judges be removable only upon impeachment or be the mere creatures of the royal authority ? The Lords of Trade declared that the former policy tended "to lessen the just dependence which the colonies ought to have upon the mother country." Except for temporary purposes, jurists could not be found in New York to accept places on the bench at the executive pleasure. To fill the vacancy FIEST STEP TOWARDS UNION. 341 caused by the death of DeLancey, a chief jus- tice was imported from Boston in the person of Benjamin Pratt, who arrived in October, 1761, with a commission " during his Majesty's pleasure." The assembly refused to pay salaries to judges serving under such commissions, and would pro- vide from year to year if the terms were during good behavior. The quit-rents were set aside for the payment of Pratt, while the other places were left vacant. In this contest William Liv- ingston, John Morin Scott, and William Smith, "• educated in Connecticut," as Golden says, at Yale College, were leaders, and " maintained the doctrine that all authority is derived from the people." The quit-rents from which Chief Justice Pratt was to be paid were the receipts of the king from the vast tracts of uncultivated lands which had been granted before 1708. In the assembly of 1761, by the efforts of Sir William Johnson, an act was passed for accurate survey of these grants and for the collection of these rents. Contests had arisen with the Indians over the excessive claims of the holders of patents, and scandals were numerous over the manner in which patents were secured by the early governors and their favorites. The claim- ants held their lands for speculation, and so 342 NEW YORK. checked the incoming of settlers of small means, who relied upon their earnings for support. The evils were brought within bounds by the official surveys which were at this time inaugurated and enforced. Major General Monckton was designated cap- tain general and general-in-chief of the province, in 1761, but he preferred miUtary service, and took command of the expedition against Mar- tinico ; Gates, Montgomery, and Lyman went with him, and among his force of 12,000 men, 1,787 were enlisted in New York. Tlie emolu- ments of the executive ofiBce were divided be- tween Monckton and Golden, while the latter exercised the authority. Monckton returned in June, 1762, and remained until June 28, 1763, but left no impress on affairs. The victories over Spain in the West Indies enabled Great Britain to extort a treaty of peace from France, November 3, 1762, and it removed from the British ministry all restraint in dealing with the colonies. Peace was gaining some triumphs amid the din of war. New York city was the chief town, but the county of that name was in 1756 the fourth in population. The chief counties were in their order by this test : Albany with 14,805 whites and 2,619 blacks, total 17,424 ; Dutchess with 13,289 whites and 859 blacks, total 14,148; FIRST STEP TOWARDS UNION. 343 Westchester, 11,919 whites and 1,338 blacks, total 13,257 ; New York with 10,768 whites and 2,272 blacks, total 13,040. By the census of 1771 New York stood at 21,863 and West- chester at 21,745, with Albany at 42,706, and Dutchess at 22,404. In 1756 the whites in the whole colony numbered 83,223, and the blacks 13,542 ; total, 96,765. In 1771 Ulster had a pop- ulation of 13,950 ; Suffolk of 13,128; Queens, 10,980 ; Orange, 10,092 ; Kings, 3,623 ; Rich- mond, 2,847 ; Cumberland and Gloucester, af- terwards set off for Verinont, had 4,659. The total of the colony in that year was 148,124 whites and 19,883 blacks, making 168,007 in all. Albany at this time, it will be understood, included all north and west of the present capi- tal to the St. Lawrence and Niagara. The slow growth of New York, as compared with the other colonies, indicates the check given to commerce by the navigation laws, the imposition of duties, the stamp act, and the con- sequent controversies. Yet New York continued to be the chief centre of imports, while it lost in exports. In 1770, of the total exports of all the colonies, amounting to =£1,014,725, New York sent out only £69,882, while of total imports of £1,925,570 New York received £475,991. The shipping of the colony increased from 1762 to 1772 by 232 vessels, reaching 709 in the 344 NEW YORK. latter year, and by 9,618 tons, mounting up to 29,132 tons ; but the men engaged in seafaring fell from 3,552 to 3,374 during the decade. NeAV York city was in politics, in culture, in social display, the capital. The governor re- sided there, and the general assembly met there unless driven out by sickness or some other cause, as it was once or twice to Greenwich or Jamaica. The British commander-in-chief and the only garrison in the colonies for some years after the close of the French war, added the peculiar influences which gather about military quarters. Newspapers had risen and fallen in the city, where at this time three — the " Post Boy," the " Mercury," and the " Journal " — were printed, while the colony had no others until the '"-Gazette" was established in Albany, in 1771. King's College fostered a literary at- mosphere, as it taught loyalty to the throne. A company of English actors visited the town in 1753, and in 1769 a company with head- quarters there set up its stage for a while in Albany, where twelve years before army officials had given theatrical performances in a barn, to the scandal of m;my of the inhabitants. A plan was proposed in 1767 for an academy to promote architecture, sculpture and painting, and the useful arts, and in the next year it gave Philip Schuyler a medal for erecting a FIRST STEP TOWARDS UNION. 345 flax-mill in Saratoga. Benjamin West came from Philadelphia to practice painting in New York, and doubtless from associations here ob- tained inspiration for one of his best known works, " The Death of Wolfe," painted in 1771. The bar of the colony was always strong, and furnished several of the leaders in the struggle for colonial rights. It gathered in the capital and on the lower Hudson in chief part ; but licenses to practice were easily obtained, so that pettifoggers also abounded. The bench was subject to political influences, and was therefore not always maintained at the highest standard, although brilliant names adorned it, even at this period and in larger measure afterwards. In 1760 rigid provisions were enacted for licensing physicians, and in 1767 a medical school was established in connection with King's college ; but the doctors took part in the work of settlement, and if some were rough and uncultured it would not be strange. Smith's and Colden's histories and the political papers of the day prove that the colony was not desti- tute of writers of a high order. The pulpit from the earliest days had included men of broad education and marked ability, and the contro- versy between the Episcopalians and other de- nominations tended to render ministers promi- nent and influential. 346 NEW YORK. While New York was the seaport and centre of commerce, Albany was the seat of the fur trade and of traffic with the Indians, and from Schenectady boats started on their slow way up the Mohawk. Attempts were made to work iron in the spurs of the Adirondacks along Lake Champlain, and at points in the High- lands of the Hudson, and some pig and bar iron was exported. In 1773 the colony built £30,- 000 worth of ships for English buyers, while ventures were made in other manufactures, to which British repression proved fatal. The fur trade prospered, and agriculture was gradually improved. The vast estates which fell to the patroons and were continued in their families, and in those of the Schuylers and Cuylers, and the manors established by the Van Rensselaers and Livingstons and Phillipses and Johnsons and Cortlandts constituted a peculiar feature in this colony. They were the centre of almost feudal power. They interfered with the settlement of small farmers, while they introduced better cattle, horses, seeds, and modes of culture than could otherwise be used. The manor-houses were the seat of courtly hospitality in summer, and the landlords commonly spent their winters in New York, where they contributed to give that city the reputation of gayety and display, and devotion to recent London fashions. FIRST STEP TOWARDS UNION. 347 Sir William Johnson was a landlord who lived with his tenants and the Indians. He had be- fore 1762 gathered a hundred families about him, in the neighborhood now known as Johns- town, and had built a villa and a lodge becom- ing his wealth. He introduced sheep and blood- horses into the valley of the Mohawk, and de- veloped intelligent agriculture. He gave land to Lutherans and Calvinists whereon to build churches, and exerted himself to promote the education of the Six Nations, assisting in the labors of Rev. Dr. Eleazer Wheelock, of the In- dian school at Lebanon, Conn., and of Samuel Kirkland, whose influence for good became so wide and enduring. Although communication depended on the natural waterways, for the roughly worked roads permitted the passage only of saddle- horses or stout two-wheeled vehicles, the settle- ments had been considerably extended. They reached the head of the Mohawk Valley, where Bradstreet had established considerable works at Rome, and they were scattered along the waterways to Oswego. They even had begin- nings westward toward Niagara. In the Seneca country and in the Susquehanna Valley a few whites found homes. In the valley of the St. Lawrence, about Oswegatchie, and along Lake Champlain and the upper Hudson, hardy im- 348 NEW YORK. migrants had followed the armies, and had re- mained after their withdrawal. Fort Presen- tation was the centre of considerable trade with the Indians. Sir William Johnson, by reason of his per- sonal standing and official relations, found no little occupation in adjusting differences be- tween the whites and the red men. Controver- sies over the claims to lands threatened more than once to lead to appeals to arms on the part of the original owners, and apprehension of outbreaks was constant. At Fort Schuyler a drunken Indian alarmed a household, and the members in a panic fled, with the cry that the savages were loose for slaughter, and the settlers were not restored to calm until a strong force of militia marched to the scene. When Pontiac stirred up war in the northwest, and the Dela- wares ravaged the frontiers, the Six Nations were at first believed ready to join in the assault on the whites, but Sir William Johnson main- tained armed watch from Crown Point to Os- wego, and fortunately the tide of conflict was turned away from New York, although the Senecas espoused the cause of the great western chief. A conference at Niagara, and the march of troops under General Bradstreet into the Seneca country, with the personal influence of Johnson, brought treaties and quiet for a time. FIRST STEP TOWARDS UNION. 349 The British ministers were busy with their schemes for getting revenue out of the colonies, and New York held no secondary position in their estimates. New York city was engaged in a commerce, not allowed by law but known to the Lords of Trade, with the French and Span- ish possessions, and it was looked upon as a proper source of revenue. This province had felt more keenly than any other the burden of providing quarters for British troops, and was most alarmed at plans for a standing army in the colonies, while the mixed population never cherished special affection for the crown of Britain. The strife over the tenure and pay of the chief justices led New York to take the first step of formal opposition. December 11, 1762, the general assembly adopted a memorial to the king for the " independency of so impor- tant a tribunal," which otherwise would be " an object beheld with terror," and asking for a royal hearing on the subject. This document was one of a series adopted by the New York legislature in this and the succeeding year, bear- ing on the relations of the province to the king- dom. It was reported and doubtless prepared by Frederick Phillipse of Westchester, and Robert R. Livingston of Dutchess, chosen jus- tice of the supreme court this year, and father of the famous chancellor of the same name. 350 NEW YORK. The memorial received no attention from the ministry ; for the plan had been adopted to use the judges as a part of the machinery for Brit- ish control in the colonies. But New York had found its voice, and kept on with its ap- peals to the authorities in Great Britain. Al- derman Philip Livingston, in behalf of the merchants of the chief city, in the preceding April had prepared a strong argument against the sugar act ; and the assembly unanimously approved its summary of the hardships under which the trade of the colony was suffering, as well as its appeal for relief. The plea was urged in behalf of every interest of the colony, and was full of statistics, and exhaustive in its treatment of the subject. The same able writer and far-seeing statesman, September 11, re- ported an address to Lieutenant Governor Col- den, protesting, with many expressions of loy- alty, against the acts of the British parliament, which " threatened to reduce the province to the deplorable state of that people who can call nothing their own," and calling on the executive in these strong words, " We hope your Honor will join in an endeavor to secure that great badge of English liberty of being taxed only with our own consent," a privilege which the sugar act invaded. The address was designed for the authorities in Whitehall, but they were not wise enough to heed it. FIRST STEP TOWARDS UNION. 351 New York, like the importunate widow, kept on with its petitions. October 18, Philip Liv- ingston reported another "representation to the king's most excellent majesty," which the assembly adopted. On the same day also addresses reported by William Bayard were adopted, to the lords temporal and spiritual, and to the house of commons. These papers were not excelled in clearness and vigor of thought or force of language by any utterances in the colonies at that time. James Otis, it is true, had raised his voice against writs of as- sistance ; but Samuel Adams' draft of instruc- tions by Boston to its representatives in the general court followed in the month after Liv- ingston's arraignment of the sugar act; and Virginia was to wait until 1765 for Patrick Henry's resolution and stirring warning to the king. The New York assembly was systematic and vigorous in its discussion of the relations of the colony to parliament, and its petitions embody a complete and effective statement of the con- victions and purposes which actuated the pa- triot leaders. Far less than justice has been done to their authors, and to the assembly of New York, for their courage and fidelity, for their eloquence, for their worthy championship of a great cause. While Massachusetts and Vir- 852 NEW YORK. ginia have coined for current use the speeches of their writers and orators, it is still necessary to dig out of the official records the text of these documents, in which New York advocated high principles in a grand way. The petition to the king, after reciting the services of the province in the late war, proceeds ; " For be- sides that involuntary taxes and impositions are absolutely and necessarily excluded from a state of liberty ; that it would be the basest vassalage to be taxed at the pleasure of a fellow subject ; that all real property is lost whenso- ever it becomes subordinate to laws in the mak- ing of which the proprietor does not participate, and that thus to treat us would be to sink us into a subjugation infinitely below the ignominious rank of the most tributary states ; besides all this, we have the welfare of the nation, that most powerful advocate with a wise king, to plead our cause before your Majesty." The damaging effects of the policy of taxation then pursued were strongly shown in relation to im- migration, industry, and trade. Then turning to the courts, the address proceeds : " Though we could, with the most becoming alacrity, sub- mit our lives and property, and that we hold dearer than both, that inestimable liberty with which our ancestors have set us free, to your Majesty's royal clemency and princely direc- FIRST STEP TOWARDS UNION. 353 tion, yet the unavoidable delegations of that royal authority which necessarily expose us to ithe rapacious designs of wicked men, leave us neither rest nor security, while a custom-house officer may wantonly seize what a judge of your Majesty's court of vice-admiralty may condemn in his discretion," and " we tender our humble petition to the throne, that this great, this grow- ing, this mighty evil may be removed from among us." To parliament arguments and appeals no less clear and forcible were directed. " We have enjoyed," declared to the lords these evangel- ists of liberty, " the uninterrupted privilege of being taxed only with our consent, given by our representatives in general assembly. This we have ever considered as the inextinguishable right of British subjects, because it is the nat- ural right of mankind, and so inseparable from the very idea of property as not to be divested even by conquest itself, without totally despoil- ing the vanquished and reducing them to a state of absolute vassalage." To the commons the case is stated fully and at length. The colony had since 1683, through its representatives chosen by the people, " enjoyed the right of taxing the subject for the support of the govern- ment." The design to induce the parliament of Great Britain " to impose taxes upon the 354 NEW YORK. subjects here by laws to be passed there," was an " innovation," of which the assembly sought to state its "foresight of the tragical conse- quences to the crown, the mother country, the colony, and to posterity." With sturdy self-confidence, the authors of the address proceed : " Had the freedom from all taxes not granted by ourselves been enjoyed as a privilege, we are confident the wisdom and justice of the British parliament would rather establish than destroy it, unless by our abuse of it, the forfeiture was justly incurred ; but his Majesty's colony of New York can not only defy the whole world to impeach their fidelity, but appeal to all the record of their past trans- actions, as well for the fullest proof of their steady affection to the mother country, as for their strenuous efforts to support the govern- ment, and advance the general interests of the whole British empire." The sacrifices during the French war were fresh enough, even in British minds, to render this reference both forcible and pathetic. Not as a favor, but as a right. New York demanded " exemption from the burthens of ungranted, involuntary taxes, as the grand principle of every free state." For " without such a right vested in the people themselves there can be no liberty, no happi- ness, no security." " And if conquered vassals FIRST STEP TOWARDS UNION. 355 upon the principle even of natural justice may claim a freedom from assessments unbounded and unassented to, without which they would sustain the loss of everything, and life itself become intolerable, with how much propriety and boldness may we proceed to inform the commons of Great Britain, who to their distin- guished honor, have in all ages asserted the liberties of mankind, that the people of this colony, inspired by the genius of their mother country, nobly disdain the thought of claiming that exemption as a privilege." The evil policy of the imposition of involun- tary taxes is urged ; and while the authority of parliament is recognized " to model the trade of the whole empire," duties as well as internal taxes enforced by its arbitrary order will prove pernicious to Great Britain as well as to the colony. The address protests that the assem- bly cannot be guilty of a " desire of indepen- dence upon the supreme power of parliament," but in behalf of its constituents " cannot avoid deprecating the loss of such rights as they have hitherto enjoyed, rights established in the first dawn of our constitution, founded upon the most substantial reasons, confirmed by invari- able usage, conducive to the best ends ; never abused to bad purposes ; and with the loss of which liberty, property and all the benefits of S56 NEW YORK. life tumble into insecurity and ruin : rights the deprivation of which will dispirit the people, abate their industry, discourage trade, intro- duce discord, poverty and slavery: or by de- populating the colonies, turn a vast, fertile, prosperous region into a dreary wilderness, im- poverish Great Britain, and shake the power and independency of the most opulent and flourishing empire in the world." With this protest against taxation were included appeals for permission to maintain paper money to meet the stress caused by the French war. So audacious were these petitions and addresses regarded that no member of parliament could be found formally to present them. They were left to have such effect as private circulation would command. The careful student of the petitions of 1763 and 1764 does not need to seek elsewhere for the clear expression of the principles which led to the Declaration of Independence. The docu- ments are not only akin in spirit, but rest on the same solid foundations. New York pleads natural justice and the rights of men against taxation by parliament and interference with the colonial courts, and asserts with bold cour- age, that without such rights there " can be no liberty, no happiness," and " life itself would be intolerable." Livingston and Bayard and FIRST STEP TOWARDS UNION. 357 Phillipse and the New York assembly were in the forefront of the struggle for the liberties y/hich king and parliament were foolishly and criminally crippling. The attempt to impress sailors for the British navy added to the popular indignation. A press-gang seized, June, 1764, four fishermen in the harbor ; but in return the captain's barge was captured, and although the men were set free, the boat was hauled on shore and burned, and the courts could not discover the captors. Mr. Bancroft testifies truly that the " spirit of resistance was nowhere so strong at this moment "as in New York. The assembly responded to the popular feeling, and took the first formal step towards colonial union against Great Britain, by a resolution, October 18, 1764, clothing a committee previously appointed with power to " correspond with the several assem- blies or committees of assemblies on this conti- nent, on the subject-matter of the act commonly called the sugar act ; of the act restraining paper bills of credit in the colonies from being a legal tender ; and of the several other acts of parlia- ment lately passed, with relation to the trade of the northern colonies ; and also on the subject of the impending dangers which threaten the colonies of being taxed by laws to be passed in Great Britain." This committee, established to 358 NEW YORK. conduct the colony's correspondence with its agent in London, and now to seek united ac- tion with the other colonies, consisted of John Cruger, Philip Livingston, Leonard Lispenard, William Bayard, and Robert R. Livingston. They were the recognized leaders in the assem- bly, and were all, except the last named, mem- bers from New York city ; Livingston sat for Dutchess county. A conference between the colonies had before occurred, in furtherance of British policy. This is the beginning of official action in behalf of American union for Amer- ican interests, and the honor of it belongs to New York. r\