Captain Jacob, when we had so much expected them, and did not know the
cause of there being none. But we consoled ourselves in Him who is the
consolation of all those who know Him and trust in Him; as we praised
and thanked Him for His fatherly protection. His constant care and
guidance, through His providence, which has been so continual and so
manifest in our whole journey. He causes us to put our trust in Him,
to lose ourselves in Him, and worthily to walk in such grace that He
may be glorified in us and through us here, during our lives, in
grace, and hereafter in glory. Amen. So may it be.
It would serve very well to add now a general description of the
country through which we have travelled, and of each part in
particular; but as we intend to give ourselves expressly to this work,
we will omit it here, and proceed, meanwhile, with our journal.
_End of the Journey to the Southward._
[IN NEW YORK.]
_Continuation, of what happened in New York during the Winter._
_4th, Thursday._ It was now Christmas, according to the old style. It
had frozen very hard during the night. We went to church, in order to
hear Do. Niewenhuise preach, but more to give no offense to the
people, than either on his or our own account.
_5th, Thursday [Friday]._ We began writing.
_6th, Friday [Saturday]._ It continued to freeze hard, though during
the day the weather was more moderate. The ice was strong and mixed
with snow.
_13th, Saturday._ It felt like a change of weather. In all this time
nothing occurred worthy of note except the ships left the harbor in
front of the city, on Thursday, for Deutel Bay, a cove of Long Island
in the East River, about three miles east of the city, opposite
Hellgate, where they lie during the winter, to be out of the way of
the floating ice, which is sometimes very great.[285] On Friday, the
governor's yacht arrived from Virginia, having been twenty-two days on
the way. They had brought a _sackemaker_ from there with whom the
governor had negotiated for peace between the Indians and English in
that quarter. In all this frost and cold we have discovered little
difference from the cold in Holland, except that when the sun is high,
that is, about nine o'clock in the morning, it is a little milder
here. It thawed every day until the
_16th, Tuesday_, when all the ice and snow disappeared. De la Grange
having a new small map of a portion of the South River, I copied it.
[Footnote 285: Deutel Bay was a small bight in the East River, about
at the foot of Forty-seventh Street. The name was later corrupted into
Turtle Bay. It was not a cove of Long Island.]
_24th, Wednesday._ Fred. Flipsen[286] met me, and told me the
governor had been at his house, and spoken to him about us, and that
he desired to see us and talk with us. We, therefore, determined to
call upon him, and at the expiration of three days of rain and stormy
weather, on the
_25th [26th], Friday_, we went to Fredryck Flipsen, that he might take
us to the governor, as he had promised, and as he did do. The governor
received us kindly, and told us he had wondered at our being so long
in the country without coming to see him. We replied, that we should
undoubtedly not have failed in doing so, if he had been in the city,
for when we arrived here he was at Penequik,[287] and afterwards when
he had been only a few days at home, with much business to occupy him,
he left for Fort Albany just as we were going to the South River. We
parted politely from each other.
[Footnote 286: See p. 5, note 1, _supra_.]
[Footnote 287: Pemaquid, on the Maine coast, where Governor Andros had
caused a fort to be erected, which he visited in the autumn of 1679.]
_30th [29th], Monday._ A person who, they said, was the thief-catcher,
came to our house in the evening, and, by order of the governor,
summoned us to appear at eight o'clock the next morning at the house
of ---- Rombouts,[288] the mayor of the city, and give our names and
further information as to our doings and condition, as all strangers
now and henceforth, whether men or women, must do. We were somewhat
astonished, since they had told us, as was certainly true, that such
had never been the custom. What induced them to adopt this course, we
do not know.
[Footnote 288: Francis Rombouts was mayor of New York in 1679-1680.]
_31st [30th], Tuesday._ We went in company with the old woman where we
lodged, to Mayor Rombouts, at the appointed time. When we arrived,
there was a magistrate's officer or two in attendance, and some came
in while we were there. Addressing us, he said: "Friends, we have
summoned you here, not because we have anything to say to you, or have
any debt to claim, or because any one has sought of us to demand of
you any such thing, or to summon you." The reason, he said, was
because we had been so long in the country without having reported our
names, who we were, our profession, trade or business, condition and
purpose. We answered, we would by no means have been in default, if
there were any law or order which required us to do so, or if we had
been informed that it was customary, or had ever been done; and it
therefore surprised us that they complained and charged us with
neglect of duty, or found fault with us, or wished to convict us of a
matter where there was no law, obligation, custom, or even precedent;
that this treatment struck us as very strange, since there were
several foreigners who had come over in the ship with us, from whom
they had not required what they required of us. "You know well," he
said, "it is the custom in Europe." We replied, "it was not so in any
of the United Provinces or any other places except upon the
frontiers." "Well," he continued, "we are no frontier, but a capital,
and it must and shall be so in the future." He then inquired after our
names, trade or profession, and place of residence in Fatherland, all
of which we told him, namely, that my comrade was a theologian, and
had studied at Leyden;[289] that I was a wine-racker, and that we both
lived near Leeuwarden, in Friesland. He asked further what we came
there to do, or what was our purpose or intention. We told him it was
to look at the country. "How, look at the country?" he asked: "some
come here to look at the cities, others at the fortifications; some to
learn the mode of government and policy, others the manner of
regulating the militia; others again to learn the climate, and times,
and seasons, and you run and travel through the country without giving
us any notice why." We replied, we had come here and travelled through
the country in order to make ourselves acquainted generally with the
nature and fertility of the soil, as was convenient, or we might
perhaps go around mornings and evenings. He inquired further of us how
we wished to be regarded in the future, whether as citizens or
foreigners. We answered, as foreigners. "Well then," he proceeded,
"you are forbidden to carry on trade, particularly with the
inhabitants, that is, to sell anything to private persons, but you
may dispose of it to merchants who sell to private individuals." He
said the privilege, or burgher right cost ---- beavers,[290] each
beaver reckoned at five guilders in Holland money, or twenty-five
guilders in _zeewan_, and was prohibited to all persons who reside out
of the city; and as we resided out of the city, we must be treated
like others. We replied to this, we would cheerfully obey the law. We
were also told to travel nowhere, particularly to Albany, without
special permission from the governor, which we said we would ask from
his Excellency, and thereupon we left.
[Footnote 289: The _Album Studiosorum Academiae Lugduno-Batavae_
(Hague, 1875) contains the entry of "Petrus Sluyter Vesaliensis"
(_i.e._, of Wesel) as entering the University of Leyden in 1666 as a
student of theology, at the age of twenty-one. Also, Sluyter in 1670
told Paul Hackenberg at Herford that he had studied three years in the
Palatinate (without finding one truly pious pastor or teacher). Domine
Selyns, in a letter to Rev. Willem a Brakel, says that Sluyter gave
himself out as a physician, but unsuccessful in practice, Danckaerts
as a wine-racker, as here. Danckaerts is understood from Zeeland
sources to have been originally a cooper for the Dutch West India
Company at Middelburg.]
[Footnote 290: Six beavers, according to a municipal ordinance of
1676.]
On arriving at our house, we found there Simon of Gouanes,[291] who
had brought a boat-load of wood, and with whom my companion went to
Long Island, but I remained at home; the Lord exercising me somewhat,
I was rather quiet. We had been to the strand several days, watching
for Claes, the ferryman, or some other opportunity to cross over to
Gamoenepaen, but we found none; and as there was some difficulty
between this governor and the governor of New Jersey, we were
contented to wait and follow the providence of the Lord therein,
although our purpose in going over was not on that account.
[Footnote 291: Simon Aertsen de Hart.]
FEBRUARY _1st [January 31], Wednesday._ Gerrit, the son-in-law of our
host, having been a long time upon Long Island, came over with a cask
of tobacco, which he intended to ship in the ship _Beaver_; he
repacked it, and I helped him cooper it.[292] He said he had another
one to bring over from the island, and then he would take Simon's boat
and go with us to Ackquakenon. After he had finished packing this one,
the boat going to Gouanes after wood, I left along with him on the
_3d [2nd], Friday_, at nine o'clock in the morning. I heard that my
companion had gone from the Bay to Najack, where I proposed to follow
him, because we might not be able to obtain these people who, in order
to go to Ackqueqenon, resolve upon it half a year beforehand, for when
one can go, the other cannot, and we were not able to wait. Simon told
us now he could not accompany us. The other person was uncertain, and
Gerrit was not any more sure. I arrived at Najack in the evening, and
my comrade also arrived there from the bay, in company with
Jaques.[293] He concluded to return to the city with me in the
morning.
[Footnote 292: The _Beaver_ was the ship by which Gerrit van Duyn's
wife had just come out. For the writer as a cooper see p. 168, note.]
[Footnote 293: Jacques Cortelyou.]
_4th [3d], Saturday._ Our resolution was defeated. We started on the
road, but were compelled to return, as it had rained hard the whole
night, and continued to do so all day.
_5th [4th], Sunday._ It snowed all night and until about nine o'clock
in the morning, when it cleared up, and we set out on our journey. We
reached the ferry at one o'clock, where we waited three hours to be
taken over by the lame brother-in-law of Jan the baker, or Jan
Theunissen.[294]
[Footnote 294: Probably a mistake for Jacob Theunissen, who was a
baker at this time.]
_6th [5th], Monday evening._ M. de la Grange came to call upon us,
being somewhat under concern of mind, and giving us some hope. His
wife, being touched also, has been to see us several times; and
certainly the Lord will comfort us about His people. I will take some
other occasion to speak more particularly in relation to this matter,
if the Lord continue it. Meanwhile, I had translated the _Verheffinge
des Geestes tot God_[295] into Dutch, for Elizabeth Rodenburgh, wife
of Ephraim Hermans, in order to send her a token of gratitude for the
acts of kindness enjoyed at her house, as she had evinced a great
inclination for it, and relished it much, when sometimes we read
portions of it to her while we were there. I also began a translation
of the last exercise of the _Heylige Decades_.[296] Nothing further
occurred worthy of mention, except that the snow, frost, rain and
inclement weather prevented us from going to Ackquequenon.[297]
[Footnote 295: "The Liftings up of the Soul to God"; one of Labadie's
publications (Dutch, Amsterdam, 1667), of which, however, Danckaerts
evidently had with him only the original French, _Elevations d'Esprit
a Dieu_ (Montauban, 1651).]
[Footnote 296: _Les Saintes Decades des Quatrains de Piete
Chrestienne_ (Amsterdam, 1671), poems by Jean de Labadie.]
[Footnote 297: Passaic.]
_11th, Sunday._ We received letters from the South River, from Mr.
Ephraim Hermans, and Heer Johan Moll, which consoled us as to their
state, and gave us some hope at least of great progress, as appears by
the same. We answered them, and dispatched our letters by the same
person who brought theirs, and who was to return on the
_14th, Wednesday_, and with whom we sent the translation of the
_Verheffinge des Geestes_ with a small package of knitted
baby-clothes. The ship _Beaver_ came out of Deutel Bay, and was up for
Europe and Holland immediately. Therefore, on the
_15th, Thursday_, we began writing to our friends in the Fatherland.
The winter gradually passing away, the weather was during the last of
February, and first of March, as pleasant as it were the month of May.
I finished the translation of the _Decades_.
MARCH _2d, Saturday._ M. de la Grange has chartered a yacht to go to
the South River, with a lot of merchandise, and to take to his land
there the boor, whom he had brought for that purpose from the
Fatherland. This person came from near Sluis,[298] and had done
nothing here as yet, because De la Grange had not gone to Tinaconcq,
as he had first intended. He designed to take him now to the land he
had bought on Christina Kill, and have it put in order. He had
obtained exemption from tax on his merchandise, and was the first one
who had enjoyed this advantage, that is, from the second tax, he
having paid the first tax when the goods were unladen here. All
merchandise pays a second tax when it is sent to the South River, or
Albany. I gave him _Les Paroles de Salut_[299] for Heer Johan Moll,
who had urgently requested us to send him some religious book or
other, writing to him what was necessary on the subject.
[Footnote 298: Sluis in Staats-Vlanderen, now in Zeeland.]
[Footnote 299: What appears to be the Dutch version of this,
_Handboekje van Godsaligheid_, by Labadie, was published at Amsterdam
in 1680.]
We had waited till this time to go to Ackquekanon, either on account
of the weather, or because it was not convenient for the persons on
Long Island. We finally determined to go with Gerrit, who could speak
very good Indian, and who had sent word to us from Long Island, that
we must be at Simon's house in Gouanes for that purpose on Sunday
morning in order to go in his boat. We accordingly prepared ourselves.
_3d, Sunday._ We both went over to Long Island, at eight o'clock; and
as we were entering the ferry boat, Madame de la Grange came aboard
with her nephew, Kasparus Reinderman, who, when they had landed, took
a wagon and rode on to the bay. We went through Breukelen to Gouanes,
where we arrived about ten o'clock, and found Gerrit was not yet
there. Several families of Indians had erected their huts upon the
beach, whereby Simon's house was very accessible. This was done with
the consent of his wife, with whom he had left the profit from the
Indians. While we were engaged in obtaining some oysters, Gerrit with
Jaques and his son and daughter rode up in a wagon. Jaques had come
for the purpose of attending to a sick horse of Simon, which had a
certain disease, they call here the staggers, to which their horses
are subject, and with which the creatures whether going or standing
constantly stagger, and often fall; this increasing they fall down at
last, and so continue till they die. It is cured sometimes by cutting
the tip end of the tail, and letting the blood drip out; then opening
a vein, giving the animal a warm drink and making a puncture in the
forehead, from which a large quantity of matter runs out. The boat
being leaky, and a right calculation not having been made as to the
tide, we remained here to-day, intending to leave early in the
morning, and, therefore, made every preparation. We had expected
another person to go with us, but there were only us three.
_4th, Monday._ We left Gouanes Bay at high water, about eight o'clock,
with a southerly wind, but calm, and rowed with the current to Gheele
Hoeck,[300] where we made sail, and crossed the bay to Achter Kol,
where we knew there were some Indians lying behind Constables Hook. We
sailed there in order to request one of them, named Hans, to go with
us as a guide. Hans had long frequented among the Dutch, and spoke the
Dutch language tolerably well. He was a great _nitap_, that is, friend
of Gerrit. He refused at first to accompany us, saying he had just
come from there; and when we urged it upon him, he said, "would you
Christians do as much for us Indians? If you had just been there and
had come back tired and weary, and some Indians should come and ask
you in the midst of your children, in your own houses, while busied
with your occupation, would you be ready immediately to go back with
them?" We answered yes, upon proper terms. He said, "I do not think
so, I know well what you would do." We told him, we would fully
satisfy him. He wished to make a bargain beforehand, which we did not,
as we wanted to see whether he would earn anything. He allowed himself
to be persuaded; "but," he said, "I will lose so much time in making
_zeewant_," which is their money and consists only of little beads. "I
am very cold; you are all well clothed and do not feel the cold; I am
an old man (as he was), and have nothing but a little worn-out blanket
for my naked body." We must give him a blanket and then he would be
willing to go with us. We said we had none with us. "Well," he
replied, "I do not ask you to give it to me now, but when I come to
the city." We told him he should be satisfied, and have no cause of
complaint. After he had fitted himself out a little he went with us.
We had some of the flood tide left; but before we reached Schutters
Island the wind changed, and it was quite calm. We therefore struck
our sails and went to rowing in order to strike the current. By
scraping along we reached the Slangenbergh, on the west point of the
Northwest Kill,[301] where there is a very large piece of salt meadow,
and where the tide ran so strong against us we could not proceed any
further. We therefore lay to and went ashore, in order to walk about a
little. This was the largest, cleanest, and most level piece of salt
meadow that we had observed anywhere. After having been an hour or a
little more on shore, a light breeze sprang up out of the east, when
we took the boat again and putting off, came to Milfor,[302] an
English village, lying upon high land on the south side of the creek,
having left Santfort on the right hand, which is an English village
also, lying on the west side of Hackingsackse Kill. We then came to
high land; and the wind falling, we rowed up against the ebb tide to a
house on the northeast side belonging to one Captain Berry, where it
being evening and commencing to rain, we stopped, made the boat fast,
and took every thing out of her. We entered the house which was large
enough, but poorly furnished. We found nobody there except a negro
who could speak nothing but a little broken French. We warmed
ourselves, and ate from what we had brought with us, Hans, the Indian,
sharing with us. In the meanwhile we engaged in conversation with him,
and he told us certain things which we had never heard any Indian or
European mention, the opinion of the Indians in relation to the
Godhead, the creation, and the preservation and government of all
things.
[Footnote 300: Yellow Point.]
[Footnote 301: Passaic River.]
[Footnote 302: Milford, _i.e._, Newark, founded in 1666 by settlers
from Milford, Connecticut, and other Connecticut towns. Opposite,
between the Hackensack and Passaic rivers, lay Captain William
Sandford's plantation (granted 1668), afterward called New Barbadoes.
North of his grant lay that of Captain John Berry (1669), still higher
that of Jacques Cortelyou and his partners.]
We acknowledge, he said, a supreme first power, some cause of all
things, which is known by all the Indians of North America,
hereabouts, whether Mahatans, Sinnekes, Maquaas, Minquaas, southern or
northern Indians, not only by the name of _Sackamacher_ or _Sachamor_
(which the Dutch for the sake of convenience will pervert into
_Sackemacher_), that is to say, lord, captain, or chief, which all
persons bear who have any power or authority among them, especially
any government or rule over other persons and affairs, and that name,
it appeared to him, was used by others to express God, more than by
themselves; but the true name by which they call this Supreme Being,
the first and great beginning of all things, was Kickeron,[303] who is
the origin of all, who has not only once produced or made all things,
but produces every day. All that we see daily that is good, is from
him; and every thing he makes and does is good. He governs all things,
and nothing is done without his aid and direction. "And," he
continued, "I, who am a captain and _Sakemaker_ among the Indians, and
also a medicine-man (as was all true), and have performed many good
cures among them, experience every day that all medicines do not cure,
if it do not please him to cause them to work; that he will cure one
and not another thereby; that sickness is bad, but he sends it upon
whom he pleases, because those upon whom he visits it are bad; but we
did not have so much sickness and death before the Christians came
into the country, who have taught the people debauchery and excess;
they are therefore much more miserable than they were before. The
devil, who is wicked, instigates and urges them on, to all kinds of
evil, drunkenness and excess, to fighting and war, and to strife and
violence amongst themselves, by which many men are wounded and killed.
He thus does all kind of evil to them." I told him I had conversed
with Jasper or Tantaque, another old Indian,[304] on the subject, from
whence all things had come, and he had told me they came from a
tortoise; that this tortoise had brought forth the world, or that all
things had come from it; that from the middle of the tortoise there
had sprung upon a tree, upon whose branches men had grown. That was
true, he replied, but Kickeron made the tortoise, and the tortoise had
a power and a nature to produce all things, such as earth, trees, and
the like, which God wished through it to produce, or have produced.
[Footnote 303: Probably connected with _Kitchi_, great.]
[Footnote 304: See pp. 76-78, _supra_.]
It was now time to see if we could not take some rest in a place not
very well protected against the cold, and where there was nothing to
lie upon except the naked floor; but the negro wishing to favor my
comrade and myself, showed us a bunk in which there was nothing save a
few leaves of maize, and those thin enough. We lay down there, but
suffered greatly from the cold. We slept very little, and lay
shivering all night, and the slave sometimes shaking us and waking us
up. We were so stiff we could not move; but the night passed on as
well as it could, and we rose early. It had rained, and we started at
daylight to the boat, and rowed into the stream. Gerrit grumbled very
much. He was a coarse, ignorant man, and had not well calculated the
tide. We went ashore about eight or half-past eight to breakfast, and
had great difficulty in making a fire, for all the brush was wet
through with the rain. We were fortunate enough, however, at last, to
succeed. We took a walk for a short distance into the woods, which
were not the poorest. In the meanwhile the ebb had ended; the water
was calm, and taking a little of the flood, we rowed on until we
arrived at Ackquekenon, about one o'clock in the afternoon.
Ackquekenon is a tract of land of about twelve thousand _morgen_,
which Jaques of Najack, with seven or eight associates, had purchased
from the Indians, the deed of which we have seen, and the entire price
of which amounted to one hundred or one hundred and fifty guilders in
Holland money, at the most. It is a fine piece of land, the best tract
of woodland that we have seen except one at the south. It is not very
abundant in wood, but it has enough for building purposes and fuel. On
one side of it is the Northwest Kill, which is navigable by large
boats and yachts thus far, but not beyond. On the other side, there is
a small creek by which it is almost entirely surrounded, affording
water sufficient, both summer and winter, to drive several mills.