the city with their marketing; and we, having explored the land in the
vicinity, left after breakfast. We went a part of the way through a
wood and fine, new made land, and so along the shore to the west end
of the island called Najack.[119] As we proceeded along the shore, we
found, among other curiosities, a highly marbled stone, very hard, in
which we saw muscovy glass[120] lying in layers between the clefts,
and how it was struck or cut out. We broke off a small piece with some
difficulty, and picked out a little glass in the splits. Continuing
onward from there, we came to the plantation of the Najack Indians,
which was planted with maize, or Turkish wheat. We soon heard a noise
of pounding, like thrashing, and went to the place whence it
proceeded, and found there an old Indian woman busily employed beating
Turkish beans out of the pods by means of a stick, which she did
with astonishing force and dexterity. Gerrit inquired of her, in the
Indian language, which he spoke perfectly well, how old she was, and
she answered eighty years; at which we were still more astonished that
so old a woman should still have so much strength and courage to work
as she did. We went from thence to her habitation, where we found the
whole troop together, consisting of seven or eight families, and
twenty or twenty-two persons, I should think. Their house was low and
long, about sixty feet long and fourteen or fifteen feet wide. The
bottom was earth, the sides and roof were made of reed and the bark of
chestnut trees; the posts, or columns, were limbs of trees stuck in
the ground, and all fastened together. The top, or ridge of the roof
was open about half a foot wide, from one end to the other, in order
to let the smoke escape, in place of a chimney. On the sides, or
walls, of the house, the roof was so low that you could hardly stand
under it. The entrances, or doors, which were at both ends, were so
small and low that they had to stoop down and squeeze themselves to
get through them. The doors were made of reed or flat bark. In the
whole building there was no lime, stone, iron or lead. They build
their fire in the middle of the floor, according to the number of
families which live in it, so that from one end to the other each of
them boils its own pot, and eats when it likes, not only the families
by themselves, but each Indian alone, according as he is hungry, at
all hours, morning, noon and night. By each fire are the cooking
utensils, consisting of a pot, a bowl, or calabash, and a spoon also
made of a calabash. These are all that relate to cooking. They lie
upon mats with their feet towards the fire, on each side of it. They
do not sit much upon any thing raised up, but, for the most part, sit
on the ground or squat on their ankles. Their other household articles
consists of a calabash of water, out of which they drink, a small
basket in which to carry and keep their maize and small beans, and a
knife. The implements are, for tillage, a small, sharp stone, and
nothing more; for hunting, a gun and pouch for powder and lead; for
fishing, a canoe without mast or sail, and without a nail in any part
of it, though it is sometimes full forty feet in length, fish hooks
and lines, and scoops to paddle with in place of oars. I do not know
whether there are not some others of a trifling nature. All who live
in one house are generally of one stock or descent, as father and
mother with their offspring. Their bread is maize, pounded in a block
by a stone, but not fine. This is mixed with water, and made into a
cake, which they bake under the hot ashes. They gave us a small piece
when we entered, and although the grains were not ripe, and it was
half baked and coarse grains, we nevertheless had to eat it, or, at
least, not throw it away before them, which they would have regarded
as a great sin, or a great affront. We chewed a little of it _with
long teeth_, and managed to hide it so they did not see it. We had
also to drink out of their calabashes the water which was their drink,
and which was very good. We saw here the Indians who came on board the
ship when we arrived. They were all very joyful at the visit of our
Gerrit, who was an old acquaintance of theirs, and had heretofore long
resided about there. We presented them with two jewsharps, which much
pleased them, and they immediately commenced to play upon them, which
they could do tolerably well. Some of their _patroons_ (chiefs), some
of whom spoke good Dutch, and are also their medicine-men and surgeons
as well as their teachers, were busy making shoes of deer leather,
which they understand how to make soft by continually working it in
their hands. They had dogs, fowls and hogs, which they learn by
degrees from the Europeans how to manage better. They had, also, peach
trees, which were well laden. Towards the last, we asked them for some
peaches, and they answered, "Go and pick them," which showed their
politeness. However, in order not to offend them, we went off and
pulled some. Although they are such a poor, miserable people, they
are, nevertheless, licentious and proud, and given to knavery and
scoffing. Seeing a very old woman among them, we inquired how old she
was, when some young fellows, laughing and jeering, answered twenty
years, while it was evident to us she was not less than an hundred. We
observed here the manner in which they travel with their children, a
woman having one which she carried on her back. The little thing clung
tight around her neck like a cat, where it was kept secure by means of
a piece of daffels, their usual garment. Its head, back and buttocks
were entirely flat. How that happened to be so we will relate
hereafter, as we now only make mention of what we saw.
[Footnote 119: Pronounced Nyack; the region around the present site of
Fort Hamilton, on the eastern side of the Narrows. It was at that time
largely surrounded by a marsh and hence is referred to in the text as
an island.]
[Footnote 120: Mica.]
These Indians live on the land of Jaques ----, brother-in-law of
Gerrit.[121] He bought the land from them in the first instance, and
then let them have a small corner, for which they pay him twenty
bushels of maize yearly, that is, ten bags. Jaques had first bought
the whole of Najack from these Indians, who were the lords thereof,
and lived upon the land, which is a large place, and afterwards bought
it _again_, in parcels. He was unwilling to drive the Indians from the
land, and has therefore left them a corner of it, keeping the best of
it himself.[122] We arrived then upon the land of this Jaques, which
is all good, and yields large crops of wheat and other grain. It is of
a blackish color, but not clayey, and almost like the garden mould I
have seen in Holland. At length we reached the house of this Jaques,
where we found Monsr. de La Grange, who had come there in search of
us, to inform us further concerning his departure for the South River,
and to take us to his house. We spoke to him in regard to this and
other matters, as was proper, and shortly afterwards he left. This
Jaques ---- is a man advanced in years. He was born in Utrecht, but of
French parents, as we could readily discover from all his actions,
looks and language. He had studied philosophy in his youth, and spoke
Latin and good French. He was a mathematician and sworn land-surveyor.
He had also formerly learned several sciences, and had some knowledge
of medicine. But the worst of it was, he was a good Cartesian,[123]
and not a good Christian, regulating himself, and all externals, by
reason and justice only; nevertheless, he regulated all things better
by these principles than most people in these parts do, who bear the
name of Christians or pious persons. His brother-in-law and ourselves
were welcomed by him and his wife. He treated us with every civility,
although two of his sons being sick, and he very much confined in
attending upon them, he was much interrupted in attending to us, since
they more than we afflicted his head and that of his wife. We went
looking around the country, and towards evening came to the village of
New Utrecht, so named by him. This village was burned down some time
ago, with every thing about it, including the house of this man, which
was almost half an hour distant from it.[124] Many persons were
impoverished by the fire. It was now almost all rebuilt, and many good
stone houses were erected, of which Jaques's was one, where we
returned by another road to spend the night. After supper, we went to
sleep in the barn, upon some straw spread with sheep-skins, in the
midst of the continual grunting of hogs, squealing of pigs, bleating
and coughing of sheep, barking of dogs, crowing of cocks, cackling of
hens, and, especially, a goodly quantity of fleas and vermin, of no
small portion of which we were participants; and all with an open barn
door, through which a fresh northwest wind was blowing. Though we
could not sleep, we could not complain, inasmuch as we had the same
quarters and kind of bed that their own son usually had, who had now
on our arrival crept in the straw behind us.
[Footnote 121: Jacques Cortelyou. He came out from Utrecht as tutor to
the children of Cornelis van Werckhoven, to whom this New Utrecht
tract was first granted by the Dutch West India Company. He became the
official surveyor of the province, made in 1660 a map of New
Netherland, and founded New Utrecht, on Long island, and a settlement
in New Jersey.]
[Footnote 122: There is probably here some confusion between the
original grant to van Werckhoven and subsequent regrants to
Cortelyou.]
[Footnote 123: Follower of Rene Descartes (1596-1650), the celebrated
French philosopher and mathematician, founder of Cartesianism and of
modern philosophy in general.]
[Footnote 124: See Governor Andros's recommendation to the constables
and overseers of Brooklyn to contribute to the relief of Cortelyou and
the other inhabitants of New Utrecht, on account of their losses by
fire, 1675, in Stiles, _History of Brooklyn_, I. 198.]
OCTOBER _1st, Sunday._ We went, this morning, on a tour of observation
of the country and of the neighbors, some of whom were better situated
than others, but all of them had more or less children sick with the
small pox, which, next to the fever and ague, is the most prevalent
disease in these parts, and of which many have died. We went into one
house where there were two children lying dead and unburied, and three
others sick, and where one had died the week before. This disease was
more fatal this year than usual. We spoke to these afflicted people
what was suitable and they could bear.
Finding myself afterwards alone upon a small eminence, I made a
sketch, as well as I could, of the land surrounding the great bay,
that is, Coney Island, the entrance from the sea, Rentselaer's Hook,
and so further to the right, towards Kil van Kol.[125]
[Footnote 125: This sketch is still preserved, accompanying the
manuscript of this journal in the possession of the Long Island
Historical Society. It bears the legend, in Dutch, "Views of the land
on the south side and southwest side of the great bay between the
Nevesincks and Long Island, six [Dutch] miles from New York.... All as
it appears from ... Jaques [_blank_]'s house at Najaq." It is
reproduced as plate II. in Mr. Murphy's edition.]
After dinner we intended to leave for a place called the bay,[126]
where Jan Theunissen, our fellow passenger, lived, who had made us
great promises of friendship; besides, my companion was desirous, as
they said there would be preaching, to hear the minister of the
island,[127] who was very zealous and a great Cocceian, and, perhaps,
a Cartesian. But Jaques persuaded us from it, because the house where
Jan Theunissen lived with his father was so full of people on Sundays,
who came from all directions to attend preaching, that you could
scarcely get in or out. As the minister was not in the village where
he dwelt, he remained over with many other persons; and he (Jaques)
said he would accompany us there the next morning. So we let it pass,
and took another walk to New Utrecht, where we drank some good beer a
year old, and coming back again to the house, indulged in peaches on
the road. I went along the shore to Coney Island, which is separated
from Long Island only by a creek, and around the point, and came
inside not far from a village called Gravesant,[128] and again home.
We discovered on the road several kinds of grapes still on the vines,
called _speck_ (pork) grapes, which are not always good, and these
were not; although they were sweet in the mouth at first, they made it
disagreeable and stinking. The small blue grapes are better, and their
vines grow in good form. Although they have several times attempted to
plant vineyards, and have not immediately succeeded, they,
nevertheless, have not abandoned the hope of doing so by and by, for
there is always some encouragement, although they have not, as yet,
discovered the cause of the failure.
[Footnote 126: Flatlands, where Elbert Elbertsen Stoothoff,
father-in-law of Jan Theunissen, and a man of prominence, lived.]
[Footnote 127: Niewenhuisen.]
[Footnote 128: Gravesend, still farther down the south shore of Long
Island.]
_2d, Monday._ Having slept the night again at Najack, we four went,
after breakfast, to the bay, where we arrived about ten o'clock. We
did not find Jan Theunissen at home, as he had driven to the city to
bring his goods; but the father and mother bade us welcome, and took
us around into their orchards to look at them. My comrade spoke to him
as opportunity offered of godly things, but he seemed to be a little
disposed to play the part of a religious and wise man, and he defended
himself and the evil as much as he could, going to work somewhat
coldly with us. We took the time, however, to go around and see every
thing thoroughly, and found the land, in general, not so good as that
at Najack. There is towards the sea a large piece of low flat land
which is overflowed at every tide, like the _schorr_ with us, miry and
muddy at the bottom, and which produces a species of hard salt grass
or reed grass. Such a place they call _valey_ and mow it for hay,
which cattle would rather eat than fresh hay or grass. It is so hard
that they cannot mow it with a common scythe, like ours, but must have
the English scythe for the purpose. Their adjoining corn lands are dry
and barren for the most part. Some of them are now entirely covered
with clover in blossom, which diffused a sweet odor in the air for a
great distance, and which we discovered in the atmosphere, before we
saw the fields. Behind the village, inland, are their meadows, but
they also were now arid. All the land from the bay to the Vlacke
Bos[129] is low and level, without the least elevation. There is also
a tract which is somewhat large, of a kind of heath, on which sheep
could graze, though we saw none upon it. This marsh, like all the
others, is well provided with good creeks which are navigable and very
serviceable for fisheries. There is here a grist-mill driven by the
water which they dam up in the creek; and it is hereabouts they go
mostly to shoot snipe and wild geese. In the middle of this meadow
there is a grove into which we went, and within which there was a good
vale cleared off and planted. On our return from this ramble we found
Jan Theunissen had come back with his company. He welcomed us, but
somewhat coldly, and so demeaned himself all the time we were there,
as to astonish my comrade at the change, but not me entirely, for I
had observed this falling off while we were yet at sea and were
approaching the land and even before that, and had remarked it to my
colleague, but he had more confidence in him. The day having been thus
passed, we remained here for the night to sleep. In the evening we
made the acquaintance of one Jan Poppe, formerly a skipper in the West
Indies, whom I had known when I lived there.[130] He did not know me
by name or by vocation, but only that I lived there, and had conversed
with him there, but not much. He was tired of the sea, and not having
accumulated much, he had come to settle down here, making his living
out of the business of a turner, by which he could live bountifully.
[Footnote 129: Flatbush.]
[Footnote 130: This may mean Surinam (Dutch Guiana). Later, in 1683, a
Labadist colony went out to Surinam, but failed; Danckaerts went out
to join them, but returned.]
_3d, Tuesday._ This whole day it did nothing except rain, with an E.
and E.N.E. wind, so that we were compelled to sit in their house, as
in a prison all the time; and it was so much the worse because the
house was constantly filled with a multitude of godless people; for
this father or father-in-law of Jan Theunissen,[131] being the
principal person in the place, was their captain, and having many
children of his own besides, there was a continual concourse at his
house. We had to remain, although it grieved us a great deal. But as
we had heard that there was an Englishman residing at Gravesend, named
Bouman, who went every year about this time with horses and sheep to
the South River, and would probably go there again in about three
weeks time, we resolved, when the rain was partly over, to go and talk
to him, which we did, arriving there towards evening. We found him at
home, and inquired of him as to the situation. He said, he intended to
leave in fourteen days or at the longest in three weeks, with horses,
and would be happy to have our company on the road. He told us several
things touching the situation of the South River, where he had a large
tract of land which he intended soon to put under cultivation. It
being evening, and nearer Jaques's house than the bay, we determined
to go there as we had previously intended. Mr. Bouman had the kindness
to conduct us a portion of the way so that we could not go astray. We
arrived at Jaques's house, where we were welcome. The land around
Gravesant is also flat, but not so flat or so barren as in the bay,
and yields good crops.
[Footnote 131: Elbert Elbertsen.]
_4th, Wednesday._ We slept for the night in our old place. In the
morning the horses were harnessed to the wagon for the purpose of
carrying us to the city, and bringing back some medicines which had
arrived for him (Jaques) from Holland in our ship. We breakfasted to
our full, and rode first to the bay, where we had left our travelling
bag. Seeing there was nothing to be accomplished with our Jan
Theunissen, all his great promises having vanished without the least
result, though they had cost us dearly enough, we let that rest quiet,
and taking our leave, rode on to the Vlacke Bos, a village situated
about an hour and a half's distance from there, upon the same plain,
which is very large. This village seems to have better farms than the
bay, and yields full as much revenue. Riding through it, we came to
the woods and the hills, which are very stony and uncomfortable to
ride over. We rode over them, and passed through the village of
Breukelen to the ferry, and leaving the wagon there, we crossed over
the river and arrived at home at noon, where we were able to rest a
little, and where our old people were glad to see us. We sent back to
Jaques half of our tincture Calaminaris, and half of our balsam
Sulpherus and some other things.[132] He had been of service to us in
several respects, as he promised to be, and that with perfect
willingness.
[Footnote 132: Tincture of calamus; sulphur balsam, a mixture of olive
oil and sublimed sulphur.]
_5th, Thursday._ We remained at home this morning, my comrade having
been a little indisposed the preceding day and night, and betook
ourselves to writing. At noon we visited Mons. de La Grange, who was
busily employed in his little shop, packing and marking a parcel of
ribbons which he was going to send to Barbados, because, as he said,
he could not dispose of them here to advantage, that is, with
sufficient profit. We let him first finish his work, and after that he
took us to his counting room, where his wife was. We did not fail to
converse kindly with him and his wife in relation to those matters in
which we believed they were sinning, notwithstanding all the little
reasons which pious people of that description are accustomed to
advance in extenuation of their sin and avarice. As there were plenty
of books around, my comrade inquired of him what book he liked or
esteemed the most. Upon this he brought forward two of the elder
Brakel, one of which was, _De Trappen des Geestelycken Levens_.[133]
He also took down another written by a Scotchman, of whom my comrade
had some knowledge, and translated by Domine Koelman. On my return
home, the son of our old people asked me if I would not go to their
usual catechizing, which they held once a week at the house of Abraham
Lanoy, schoolmaster, and brother of the clerk in the custom
house.[134] I accompanied him there and found a company of about
twenty-five persons, male and female, but mostly young people. It
looked like a school, as indeed it was, more than an assembly of
persons who were seeking after true godliness; where the schoolmaster,
who instructed them, handled the subject more like a schoolmaster in
the midst of his scholars than a person who knew and loved God, and
sought to make him known and loved. They sang some verses from the
Psalms, made a prayer, and questioned from the catechism, at the
conclusion of which they prayed and sang some verses from the Psalms
again. It was all performed without respect or reverence, very
literally, and mixed up with much obscurity and error. He played,
however, the part of a learned and pious man, _enfin le suffisant et
le petit precheur_. After their departure, I had an opportunity of
speaking to him and telling him what I thought was good for him. He
acknowledged that I convinced him of several things; and thus leaving
him I returned home.
[Footnote 133: "The Gradations of the Spiritual Life," by Theodorus a
Brakel (1608-1699), an orthodox clergyman of note in the Reformed
Church of Holland. Jacobus Koelman was originally a minister of the
same church, in Zeeland, but became a schismatic and a Labadist and
was forbidden to preach. In 1682 the people on the South River made
much effort with the Classis of Amsterdam to have him sent over to be
their minister, but in vain, and shortly after he left the Labadists,
and in 1683 published a book against them. The book here spoken of was
probably one of the works of Rev. John Brown of Wamphray in Scotland,
written during his exile in Holland, 1663-1679.]
[Footnote 134: Abraham de la Noy seems to have taught in New York from
1668 to his death in 1702, conducting at this time a private school,
but from 1686 serving as master of the Dutch parochial school.]