THE NEIGHBORS OF NEW NETHERLAND
Machiavelli observed that to the wise ruler only two courses were
open--to conciliate or to crush. The history of the Dutch in America
illustrates by application the truth of this view. The settlers at
Fort Orange conciliated the Indians and by this means not only lived in
peace with the native tribes but established a bulwark between
themselves and the French. Under Stuyvesant the settlers at Fort
Amsterdam took a determined stand against the Swedes and crushed their
power in America. Toward the English, however, the Dutch adopted a
course of feeble aggression unbacked by force. Because they met
English encroachments with that most fatal of all policies, protest
without action, the Empire of the United Netherlands in America was
blotted from the map.
The neighbors of the Dutch in America were the Indians, the French, the
Swedes, and the English. {124} The earliest, most intimate, and most
continuous relations of the Dutch settlers were with the Indians.
These people were divided into a number of independent tribes or
nations. The valley of the North River was shared by the Mohawks, who
inhabited the region along the west side of its upper waters, and the
Mohegans, or Mahicans, as the Dutch called them, who lived on either
side of the banks of its lower reaches, with various smaller tribes
scattered between. The warlike Manhattans occupied the island called
by their name, while the Mohegans raised their wigwams also on the
eastern shore of the upper river opposite the Mohawks, and ranged over
the land reaching to the Connecticut River.
The Mohawks, with the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the
Senecas, formed the famous Five Nations, generally known as the
Iroquois. Their territory was bounded on the north by Lake Ontario and
the St. Lawrence River, on the east by Lake Champlain and the North
River, on the west by Lake Erie and the Niagara River, and on the south
by the region occupied by the Lenni Lenape, or Delaware tribes. But
their power extended far beyond these limits over dependent tribes.
They were in a constant state of warfare {125} with their Algonquin
neighbors on the north and east, who had been enabled to offer a
formidable resistance by the use of firearms furnished them by the
French.
When, therefore, the white men appeared among the Mohawks, bearing
these strange weapons which had been used with such dire effect against
the Iroquois by the Algonquins, the Mohawks eagerly sought the
friendship of the newcomers, hoping to secure the same power which had
made their enemies triumphant. The Dutch were intelligent enough to
make instant use of these friendly sentiments on the part of the
natives and hastened to make a treaty with the Iroquois, the Mohegans,
and the Lenni Lenapes.
This treaty, which is said to have been signed on the banks of Norman's
Kill in the neighborhood of Albany, was concluded with all formalities.
Each tribe was represented by its chief. The calumet was smoked, the
hatchet was buried, and everlasting friendship was sworn between the
old inhabitants and the new. By this agreement the Dutch secured not
only peace with the neighboring Indians--a peace never broken in the
north, whatever broils disturbed the lower waters of the river--but at
the same time a guard between {126} them and any encroachments of the
French and Algonquins in Canada.
On the other boundaries and outskirts of their possessions, the Dutch
were less fortunate. They had always claimed all the territory from
the South or Delaware River to the Fresh or Connecticut River, but
their pretensions were early challenged by the English on the ground of
prior discovery and by the Swedes on the argument of non-occupation of
the land.
The reports of the wealth to be acquired from the fur trade had quickly
spread from Holland to Sweden, and as early as 1624, Gustavus Adolphus,
encouraged by William Usselinx, a Dutchman and promoter of the Dutch
West India Company, was planning expeditions to the New World. But the
entrance of Sweden into the Thirty Years' War in 1630 put a stop to
this plan, and the funds were applied to war purposes. Gustavus
Adolphus fell at Luetzen in 1632, leaving the kingdom to his little
daughter Christina. Her Government was conducted by Oxenstiern, a
statesman trained in the great traditions of Gustavus, who felt with
him that an American colony would be "the jewel of his kingdom." An
instrument for his purpose presented itself in Peter Minuit, who had
returned {127} to Holland in 1632, smarting under his dismissal as
Director of New Netherland. He offered his services to Sweden for the
establishment of a new colony, and they were accepted. In the opening
of 1638, he arrived in what is now Delaware Bay with two ships, the
_Griffin_ and the _Key of Kalmar_. From the Indians he bought large
tracts of land in what is now the State of Delaware, and on the site of
the present city of Wilmington he planted a fort named Christina.
When news was brought to Kieft that Minuit had sailed up the South
River and planned to raise the Swedish flag on a fort upon its shores,
the Director promptly dispatched the following letter:
I, Willem Kieft, Director-General of New Netherland, residing in the
island of Manhattan, in the Fort Amsterdam, under the government of the
High and Mighty States-General of the United Netherlands and the West
India Company, privileged by the Senate Chamber in Amsterdam, make
known to thee, Peter Minuit, who stylest thyself commander in the
service of Her Majesty, the Queen of Sweden, that the whole South River
of New Netherland, both upper and lower, has been our property for many
years, occupied with our forts, and sealed by our blood, which also was
done when thou wast in the service of New Netherland, and is therefore
well known to thee. But as thou art come between our forts to erect a
fort to our damage and injury, which we {128} will never permit, as we
also believe Her Swedish Majesty hath not empowered thee to erect
fortifications on our coasts and rivers, or to settle people on the
lands adjoining or to undertake any other thing to our prejudice; now
therefore we protest against all such encroachments and all the evil
consequences from the same, as bloodshed, sedition and whatever injury
our trading company may suffer, and declare that we shall protect our
rights in every manner that may be advisable.
This blustering protest Minuit treated with contempt and continued
building his fort. The Swedish colony soon grew so rapidly as to be a
serious menace to the Dutch in spite of their stronger fortifications.
In 1642 Johan Printz, a lieutenant-colonel of cavalry, was sent over as
Governor of New Sweden with instructions to maintain friendly relations
with the Dutch, but to yield no foot of ground. He established several
other settlements on the South or Delaware River. So tactlessly,
however, did he perform his duties, that conflicts with the Dutch grew
more and more frequent. He built two forts on opposite sides of the
river and ordered that every ship entering the waters should strike her
colors and await permission to pass. The first vessel on which the new
orders were tried carried {129} as a passenger David de Vries. The
skipper asked his advice about lowering his colors. "If it were my
ship," De Vries asserts that he answered, "I would not lower to these
intruders." But peace at any price prevailed, the skipper lowered his
colors, and the ship passed on to New Gottenburg, the capital of the
colony. Here De Vries was welcomed by Governor Printz, whom the
traveler describes as "a brave man of brave size." The evening was
spent in talk over a jug of Rhenish wine. Such friendly intercourse
and the aggressions of the English against both Dutch and Swedes led to
the temporary alliance of these latter in 1651. Indians called in
council confirmed the Dutch title to all lands except the site of the
Swedish fort planted by Minuit, and a peace which lasted for three
years was declared between the Dutch and the Swedes.
In endeavoring to understand the relations between the settlements of
the different nations in America in the seventeenth century we must
realize that the colonies were only pawns in the great game being
played in Europe between Spain and the Papacy on the one hand and the
Protestant countries, England, Sweden, and the United Netherlands on
the other. Once apprehending {130} this, we can easily understand why
the governor of each colony, though instructed to seize and hold every
foot of land which could be occupied, was advised not to antagonize the
other friendly nations and thus weaken the alliance against the common
enemy. As the power of Spain declined, however, and the estimate of
the value of the American colonies increased, the friction in the New
World became more acute and the instructions from the home governments
grew imperative.
Affairs then came to an open rupture between New Netherland and New
Sweden. In 1651 Governor Stuyvesant inaugurated a more aggressive
policy against the Swedes by building Fort Casimir near what is now New
Castle, Delaware, not far from the Swedish fort. Three years later
Fort Casimir fell into the hands of the Swedes. The Dutch Government
now commanded Stuyvesant to drive the Swedes from the river or compel
their submission. As a result the Director and his fleet sailed into
the Delaware in September, 1655, and captured one fort after another,
till Rysing, the last of the Swedish governors, was completely
defeated. Though the colonists were promised security in possession of
their lands, the power of {131} New Sweden was ended, and the
jurisdiction of the Dutch was for a time established.
New Netherland had, however, other neighbors more powerful, more
persistent, and with more at stake than the French, the Indians, and
the Swedes. These were the English colonists, pressing northward from
the Virginias and southward from New England. From the beginning of
the Dutch colonization, England had looked askance at the wedge thus
driven between her own settlements. She had stubbornly refused to
recognize the sovereignty of the States-General in the region of New
Netherland while at the same time she vainly sought a pretext for the
establishment of her own. England put forward the apocryphal claim of
discovery by Cabot; but here she was stopped by the doctrine announced
in a previous century that in order to give title to a new country,
discovery must be followed by occupation. When England maintained
that, since Hudson was an Englishman, the title to his discovery must
pass to his native land, she was reminded that Cabot was a Genoese, and
that Genoa might as well claim title to Virginia as England to New
Netherland.
The Plymouth Company particularly was concerned at the Dutch occupation
of this middle {132} region to which the charter granted by King James
gave it a claim. It formally protested in 1621 against these "Dutch
intruders." Whereupon King James I directed Sir Dudley Carleton, his
ambassador at The Hague, to protest against the Dutch settlements; but
nothing was accomplished, both parties having their hands too full with
European quarrels to carry these transatlantic matters to extremities.
The tension, however, was constantly increased on both sides by a
series of encroachments and provocations.
In April, 1633, for example, the ship _William_ arrived at Fort
Amsterdam under command of Captain Trevor, with Jacob Eelkens as
supercargo. Eelkens had been dismissed by the West India Company from
the post of Commissary at Fort Orange, and was now in the service of
some London merchants, in whose behalf he had come, as he told the
Director, to buy furs on Henry Hudson's River.
"Don't talk to me of Henry Hudson's River!" replied Van Twiller, "it is
the River Mauritius." He then called for the commission of Eelkens,
who refused to show it, saying that he was within the dominions of the
English King, and a servant of His Majesty, and asking the Dutch
Council what {133} commission they themselves had to plant in the
English dominion. Whereupon Van Twiller replied that it was not
fitting that Eelkens should proceed up the river, as the whole of that
country belonged to the Prince of Orange and not to the King of England.
After this exchange of amenities, Eelkens returned to his ship, which
remained at anchor for several days. At the end of the time, he
presented himself again at the fort to ask if the Director would
consent in a friendly way to his going up the river; otherwise, he
would proceed if it cost his life. In reply, Van Twiller ordered the
Dutch flag to be run up at the fort and three pieces of ordnance fired
in honor of the Prince of Orange. Eelkens on his part ordered the
English flag to be hoisted on the _William_ and a salute fired in honor
of King Charles. Van Twiller warned Eelkens that the course which he
was pursuing might cost him his neck; but the supercargo weighed anchor
and proceeded calmly on his way.
Van Twiller then assembled all his forces before his door, brought out
a cask of wine, filled a bumper, and cried out that those who loved the
Prince of Orange and him should follow his example and protect him from
the outrages of the Englishman; {134} Eelkens, by this time, was out of
sight sailing up the river. The people drank, but only laughed at
their governor, and De Vries told him that he had been very foolish.
"If it were my affair," he said, "I would have helped him away from the
fort with beans from the eight-pounders."
The _William_, meanwhile, journeyed up the river and Eelkens, who knew
the country well, landed with his crew about a mile below Fort Orange
and set up a tent where he displayed the wares which he hoped to
exchange with the natives for beaver-skins. Very soon reports of this
exploit reached the ears of the commissary at Fort Orange, who at once
embarked with a trumpeter on a shallop decorated with green boughs.
The Dutch landed close beside the English and set up a rival tent; but
the Indians preferred to deal with Eelkens, whom they had known years
before and who spoke their language.
In the high tide of success, however, Eelkens was rudely ordered to
depart by a Dutch officer who had come up the river in charge of three
vessels, a pinnace, a caravel, and a hoy. To enforce the commands came
soldiery from both Dutch forts, armed with muskets, half-pikes, swords,
and other weapons, and ordered Eelkens {135} to strike his flag. They
pulled down the tent, sent the goods on board ship, and sounded their
trumpets in the boat "in disgrace of the English." The Dutch boarded
the _William_, weighed her anchor, and convoyed her down the river with
their fleet, and finally dismissed her at the mouth of the river.
The troubles of the Dutch with their English neighbors, however, did
not end with these aggressions on the Hudson and similar acts on the
Delaware. In the year 1614, Adriaen Block, a great navigator whose
name deserves to rank with that of Hudson, had sailed through the East
River, and putting boldly across Long Island Sound, had discovered the
Housatonic and Connecticut rivers. He also discovered and gave his own
name to Block Island and explored Narragansett Bay, whence he took his
course to Cape Cod. These discoveries reported to the States-General
of the United Netherlands caused their High Mightinesses at once to lay
claim to the new lands; but before they could secure enough colonists
to occupy the country, restless pioneers of English stock planted towns
in the Connecticut valley, along the Sound, and on the shore of Long
Island. These were uncomfortable neighbors with aggressive {136}
manners which quite upset the placid Dutch of New Amsterdam.
Inevitable boundary disputes followed, which reached no adjustment
until, in 1650, Stuyvesant went to Hartford to engage in a conference
with commissioners of the United Colonies of New England.
The Director began as usual with bravado; but presently he consented to
leave the question of boundaries to a board of four arbitrators. This
board decided that the boundary between the Dutch and English
possessions should run on Long Island from Oyster Bay south to the
Atlantic, and that on the mainland it should run north from Greenwich
Bay, but never approach within ten miles of the Hudson River. The
Dutch in New Netherland were amazed and disgusted at the decision; but
though Stuyvesant is said to have exclaimed in dramatic fashion that he
had been betrayed, he found it hopeless to struggle against the
superior force arrayed against him.
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