WAR AND ITS DEVASTATIONS.
Approaching Hostilities.--Noble Remonstrance.--Massacre of
the Natives.--The War Storm.--Noble conduct of DeVrees.--The
Humiliation of Kieft.--Wide-Spread Desolation.--The Reign of
Terror.--State of Affairs at Fort Nassau.--The Massacre at
Stamford.--Memorial of the Select Men.--Kieft Superseded by
Peter Stuyvesant.
The year 1643 was a year of terror and of blood in nearly all of the
American colonies. New England was filled with alarm in the
apprehension of a general rising of the Indians. It was said that a
benighted traveller could not halloo in the woods without causing fear
that the savages were torturing their European captives. This
universal panic pervaded the Dutch settlements. The wildest stories
were circulated at the firesides of the lonely settlers. Anxiety and
terror pervaded all the defenceless hamlets.
DeVrees, rambling one day with his gun upon his shoulder, met an
Indian "who was very drunk." Coming up to the patroon, the Indian
patted him upon the shoulder, in token of friendship, saying,
"You are a good chief. When we come to see you, you give us
milk to drink. I have just come from Hackensack where they
sold me brandy, and then stole my beaver skin coat. I will
take a bloody revenge. I will go home for my bow and arrows,
and shoot one of those rascally Dutchmen who have stolen my
coat."
DeVrees endeavored in vain to soothe him. He had hardly reached his
home ere he heard that the savage had kept his vow. He had shot and
killed an innocent man, one Garret Van Voorst, who was thatching the
roof of a house. The chiefs of the tribe were terror-stricken, through
fear of the white man's vengeance. They did not dare to go to the fort
lest they should be arrested and held as hostages. But they hastened
to an interview with DeVrees, in whom they had confidence, and
expressed a readiness to make atonement for the crime, in accordance
with the custom of their tribe, by paying a large sum to the widow of
the murdered man.
It is worthy of notice that this custom, so universal among the
Indians, of a blood atonement of money, was also the usage of the
tribes of Greece We read in Homer's Iliad, as translated by Pope,
"If a brother bleed,
On just atonement we remit the deed;
A sire the slaughter of his sons forgives,
The price of blood discharged, the murderer lives."
At length, encouraged by DeVrees and accompanied by him, the chiefs
ventured to fort Amsterdam. They explained to Kieft the occurrence,
and proposed the expiatory offering to appease the widow's grief.
Kieft was inexorable. Nothing but the blood of the criminal would
satisfy him. In vain they represented that he was the son of a beloved
chief, and that already he had fled far away to some distant tribe.
Our sympathy for these men is strongly excited as we read their
sorrowful yet noble remonstrance: "Why," said they,
"will you sell brandy to our young men? They are not used to
it. It makes them crazy. Even your own people, who are
accustomed to strong liquors, sometimes become drunk and
fight with knives. Sell no more strong drink to the Indians,
if you will avoid such mischief."
While this question was being agitated, the Mohawks from the upper
part of the Hudson, came down in strong military bands, armed with
muskets, upon the lower river tribes, attacked them with great
ferocity, killed quite a number of their warriors, took the women and
children captive, and destroyed their villages.
The lower river tribes all trembled before the terrible Iroquois.
Large numbers of these subjugated tribes fled from the river banks,
and from the region of Westchester, to Manhattan and to Pavonia, where
Jersey City now stands. Here, stripped and panic-stricken, they
encamped, "full a thousand strong."
The humane and judicious patroon, DeVrees, in whom the Indians seem to
have reposed great confidence, had a beautiful estate several miles up
the river, at a place called Vreesendael. It was a delightful spot of
about five hundred fertile acres, through which wound a fine stream
affording handsome mill seats. The meadows yielded hay enough
spontaneously for two hundred head of cattle.
DeVrees, finding his house full of fugitive savages, on their retreat
to Pavonia, at the mouth of the river, paddled down in a canoe through
the floating ice to fort Amsterdam, to confer with Director Kieft upon
the emergency. He urged upon the Director that these poor Indians,
thus escaping from the terrible Iroquois and grateful for the
protection which the Dutch had not denied them, might easily be won to
a sincere friendship. On the other hand, some of the more fiery
spirits in the colony thought that the occasion furnished them with an
opportunity so to cripple the Indians as to render them forever after
powerless. They sent in a petition to Kieft, saying,
"We entreat that immediate hostile measures may be directed
against the savages. They have not yet delivered up the
assassins of Smits and Van Voorst, and thus these murders
remain unavenged. The national character of the Dutch must
suffer. God has now delivered our enemies into our hands.
Let us attack them. We offer our services, and urge that
united parties of soldiers and civilians assail them at
several points."
These views were in entire harmony with the wishes of the sanguinary
Kieft. He was delighted with the prospect of a war in which victory
seemed easy and certain. Disregarding the remonstrances of DeVrees,
and of the Christian minister Bogardus, he made efficient preparation
for the slaughter of the helpless savages.
He sent his secretary and a military officer across the river to
reconnoitre the position of the Indians. There were two bands of these
trembling fugitives, one at Pavonia, on the Jersey side of the river,
and one at Corlaer's Hook, on the Island of Manhattan, just above fort
Amsterdam. Secretly, at midnight of the 25th of February, 1643, the
armed bands advanced against their unsuspecting victims. They were
sleeping in fancied security when the murderous assault commenced.
"The noise of muskets," writes Brodhead, "mingled with the
shrieks of the terrified Indians. Neither age nor sex were
spared. Warrior and squaw, sachem and child, mother and
babe, were alike massacred. Daybreak scarcely ended the
furious slaughter. Mangled victims, seeking safety in the
thickets, were driven into the river. Parents, rushing to
save their children whom the soldiers had thrown into the
stream, were driven back into the waters and drowned before
the eyes of their unrelenting murderers."
"I sat up that night," writes DeVrees,
"by the kitchen fire at the Director's. About midnight,
hearing loud shrieks, I ran up to the ramparts of the fort.
Looking towards Pavonia, I saw nothing but shooting, and
heard nothing but the shrieks of Indians murdered in their
sleep."
With the dawn of the morning the victorious Dutch returned from their
scene of slaughter, bearing with them about thirty prisoners, and the
_heads_ instead of the _scalps_ of many warriors. Kieft welcomed these
blood-stained men with "shaking of hands and congratulations." The
tidings of this outrage spread far and wide among the Indian tribes in
the valley of the Hudson and on the Long Island shore.
Private enterprise, relying upon the protection of Kieft, had sent out
a foraging expedition upon Long Island. Kieft assumed that he saw
signs of hostility there. The unsuspecting savages were plundered of
two wagon loads of grain. These Indians, who had thus far been the
warmest friends of the Dutch, were now justly roused to the highest
pitch of indignation. They immediately made common cause with the
river tribes, who were almost frenzied with the desire to avenge the
midnight massacres of Pavonia and Manhattan. The storm which thus
burst upon New Netherland was sudden and awful. The savages, in their
rage, developed energy and power totally unanticipated.
Eleven tribes combined in the most furious and merciless attacks upon
the lonely farm-houses. Everywhere the war-whoop resounded, and the
plumed and painted savages emerged from swamps and thickets, and
assailed every unprotected dwelling. The farmer was shot in the field,
his dwelling burned, and his wife and children were thrown into the
flames. Many women and children, their lives being spared, were
carried into captivity worse than death. Houses, haystacks and
granaries were fired. Cattle were slain or driven off, and crops
destroyed.
Terror held high carnival. From the banks of the Raritan to the valley
of the Housatonic, over a region of hundreds of square miles, not a
plantation was safe. Men, women and children, haggard with hunger,
exposure and woe, fled from their deserted homes to fort Amsterdam.
Despairing of ever again finding peaceful residence in this new world,
with one voice they demanded a return to the fatherland. The Dutch
colonies were threatened with immediate and entire depopulation.
Kieft himself was terrified in view of the frightful storm he had
raised. He was compelled to enlist every able-bodied man as a soldier.
There was an end to all traffic, to all agriculture, to all the arts
of industry. Even the plantation of the humane DeVrees did not escape
the undiscriminating wrath of the savages. The outhouses, cattle and
crops were utterly destroyed. Quite a number of the terrified
colonists had taken refuge in the manor house which DeVrees had
prudently built very strong, and constructed with loopholes for
musketry.
The Indians were besieging the place, when one of their tribe came,
whom DeVrees had assisted to escape from the massacre at Manhattan. He
told the story of his escape and said that DeVrees was a good chief
whom they ought to respect. The Indians held a short consultation, and
then the grateful savages deputed one of their number to advance
within speaking distance of the manor house. This man, whom we call a
savage, cried out:
"We are very sorry that we have destroyed the outhouses, the
cattle and the crops. We now know that chief DeVrees is a
good chief and our friend. If we had not destroyed his
property we would not do so. We will not harm the brewery,
though we all greatly need the copper kettle to make barbs
for our arrows."
These noble red men, for we must think they exhibited a noble spirit,
then departed. DeVrees was, at the time, in the manor house. He
hastened down the river to fort Amsterdam and indignantly addressing
the governor, said: "Has it not happened just as I foretold, that you
are only helping to shed Christian blood? Who will now compensate us
for our losses?"
The wretched Kieft had not one word to reply. He however, made a weak
and unavailing attempt to appease the wrath of the Long Island
Indians. But the roaring tornado of savage vengeance could not thus be
divested of its terrors. The messengers he sent, approaching a band of
Indians, cried out to them, "We come to you as friends." They shouted
back contemptuously, "Are you our friends? You are only corn thieves."
Refusing all intercourse they disappeared in the forest.
During all these scenes the infamous and cowardly Kieft ensconced
himself securely within the walls of the fort. The bewailings of
ruined farmers, and of widows and orphan children rose all around him.
To divert public clamor, he fitted out several expeditions against the
Indians. But these expeditions all returned having accomplished
nothing.
"The proud heart of the Director," writes Brodhead,
"began to fail him at last. In one week desolation and
sorrow had taken the place of gladness and prosperity. The
colony entrusted to his charge was nearly ruined. It was
time to humble himself before the Most High, and invoke from
heaven the mercy which the Christian had refused the savage.
"A day of general fasting and prayer was proclaimed. 'We
continue to suffer much trouble and loss from the heathen,
and many of our inhabitants see their lives and property in
jeopardy, which is doubtless owing to our sins,' was Kieft's
contrite confession, as he exhorted every one penitently to
supplicate the mercy of God, 'so that his holy name may not,
through our iniquities, be blasphemed by the heathen.'"
The people still held the Director responsible for all the
consequences which had followed the massacres of Pavonia and Corlaer's
Hook. They boldly talked of arresting and deposing him, and of sending
him, as a culprit, back to Holland. The Director, panic stricken,
endeavored to shift the responsibility of the insane course which had
been pursued, upon one Adriansen, an influential burgher, who was the
leading man among the petitioners who had counselled war.
Adriansen was now a ruined man. His own plantation had been utterly
devastated. Exasperated by his losses, he had no disposition to take
upon himself the burden of that popular odium which had now become so
heavy. Losing all self-control, he seized a sword and a pistol, and
rushed into the Director's room, with the apparent intention of
assassinating him, exclaiming, "what lies are these you are reporting
of me."
He was disarmed and imprisoned. One of his servants took a gun, went
to the fort and deliberately discharged the piece at the Director, but
without hitting him. The would-be assassin was shot down by a sentinel
and his head exposed upon the scaffold. Adriansen was sent to Holland
for trial.
After terrible scenes of suffering, a temporary peace was restored
through the heroic interposition of DeVrees. He was the only man who
dared to venture among the exasperated Indians. They watched over him
kindly, and entreated him to be cautious in exposing himself, lest
harm might befall him from some wandering Indians by whom he was not
known. But the wrongs which the Indians had experienced were too deep
to be buried in oblivion. And there was nothing in the character of
Kieft to secure their confidence. After the truce of a few weeks the
war, without any imaginable cause, broke out anew.
All the settlements at Westchester and Long Island were laid waste.
Scarcely an inhabitant, save the roving Indian, was to be found in
those regions. The Dutch were driven out of the whole of New Jersey.
The settlers on Staten Island were trembling in hourly expectation of
an assault. War's devastating surges of flame and blood swept nearly
the whole island of Manhattan. Bold men ventured to remain well armed,
upon a few of the farms, or _boweries_ as they were called, in the
immediate vicinity of the fort, but they were continually menaced with
attack, night and day. A _bowery_ was a farm on which the family
resided. A plantation was one of those extended tracts of land, which
was partly cultivated but upon which no settler dwelt. There was no
protection anywhere for the trembling population, save in and directly
around fort Amsterdam. Mr. Brodhead, alluding to these scenes of
terror, writes,
"The women and children lay concealed in straw huts, while
their husbands and fathers mounted guard on the crumbling
ramparts above. For the fort itself was almost defenceless.
It resembled rather a mole-hill than a fortress against an
enemy. The cattle, which had escaped destruction, were
huddled within the walls, and were already beginning to
starve for want of forage. It was indispensable to maintain
a constant guard at all hours, for seven allied tribes, well
supplied with muskets, powder and ball, which they had
procured from private traders, boldly threatened to attack
the dilapidated citadel with all their strength, now
amounting to fifteen hundred men.
"So confident had the enemy become, that their scouting
parties constantly threatened the advanced sentinels of the
garrison. Ensign Van Dyck, while relieving guard at one of
the outposts, was wounded by a musket ball in his arm. All
the forces that the Dutch could now muster, besides the
fifty or sixty soldiers in garrison, were about two hundred
freemen. With this handful of men was New Netherland to be
defended against the implacable fury of her savage foe."
For a time the war which had desolated the region of the lower valley
of the Hudson, did not reach fort Nassau, now Albany. The tribes
resident there were at war with the lower river tribes. As these
Indians still maintained apparently friendly relations with the
whites, the patroon, Van Rensselaer, allowed his agents freely to sell
to them fire arms and powder.
This distant and feeble post at this time consisted only of a wretched
little fort built of logs, with eight or ten small cannon or swivels.
A hamlet of about thirty huts was scattered along the river. A church,
thirty-four feet long by nineteen wide, had been erected in a pine
grove within range of the guns of the fort. Nine benches accommodated
the congregation. A very faithful pastor, Domine Megapolensis,
ministered to them.
The red men were often attracted to the church to hear the preached
gospel, and wondered what it meant. Megapolensis writes:
"When we have a sermon sometimes ten or twelve of the
Indians will attend, each having in his mouth a long tobacco
pipe made by himself, and will stand awhile and look.
Afterwards they will ask me what I was doing, and what I
wanted, that I stood there alone and made so many words and
none of the rest might speak.
"I tell them that I admonish the Christians that they must
not steal or drink, or commit murder, or do anything wrong,
and that I intend, after a while, to come and preach to them
when I am acquainted with their language. They say that I do
well in teaching the christians, but immediately add, 'Why
do so many christians do these things?'"
This was several years before John Eliot commenced preaching the
gospel to the Indians near Boston. Kieft very earnestly applied to the
English colony at New Haven for assistance against the Indians. The
proposal was submitted to the General Court. After mature
deliberation, it was decided that the Articles of Confederation
between the New England colonies prohibited them from engaging
separately in war; and that moreover "they were not satisfied that the
Dutch war with the Indians was just."
The Dutch Director, thus disappointed in obtaining assistance from the
English, was roused to the energies of desperation. The spirit of the
people also rose to meet the emergency. It was determined to commence
the most vigorous offensive measures against the savages.
We have not space to enter into the details of this dreadful war. We
will record one of its sanguinary scenes, as illustrative of many
others. The Connecticut Indians, in the vicinity of Greenwich, had
joined the allied tribes, and were becoming increasingly active in
their hostility. Ensign Van Dyck was dispatched with one hundred and
fifty men in three vessels. The expedition landed at Greenwich. The
Indian warriors, over five hundred in number, were assembled in a
strongly palisaded village in the vicinity of Stamford.
It was midnight in February, 1644, when the expedition approached the
Indian village. All the day long the men had toiled through the snow.
It was a wintry night, clear and cold, with a full moon whose rays,
reflected by the dazzling surface of hill and valley, were so
brilliant that "many winter days were not brighter."
The Dutch, discharging a volley of bullets upon the doomed village,
charged, sword in hand. The savages, emboldened by their superior
numbers, made a desperate resistance. But in a conflict like this,
arrows are comparatively powerless when opposed to muskets. The
Indians, unable to reach their foes with their arrows, made several
very bold sallies, recklessly endeavoring to break the Dutch lines.
They were invariably driven back with great loss. Not one of them
could show himself outside the palisades without being shot down.
In less than an hour the dark forms of one hundred and eighty Indian
warriors lay spread out upon the blood-crimsoned snow. And now the
Dutch succeeded in applying the torch. The whole village, composed of
the most combustible materials, was instantly in flames. The Indians
lost all self-possession. They ran to and fro in a state of frenzy. As
they endeavored to escape they were, with unerring aim, shot down, or
driven back into their blazing huts. Thus over five hundred perished.
Of all who crowded the little village at nightfall but eight escaped.
Only eight of the Dutch were wounded; but not one fatally.
The conflagration of an hour laid the bark village in ashes. Nothing
remained. The victors built large fires and bivouacked upon the snow.
The next day they returned to Stamford, and two days afterward reached
fort Amsterdam.
War is generally ruin to both parties. In this case neither of the
combatants gained anything. Both parties alike reaped but a harvest of
blood and woe. Scouting parties of the savages prowled beneath the
very walls of fort Amsterdam, ready at a moment's warning, to dart
into the wilderness, where even the bravest of the Dutch could not
venture to pursue. For the protection of the few cattle which
remained, all the men turned out and built a stout fence, "from the
great bowery or farm across to Emanuel plantation," near the site of
the present Wall street.
During the whole summer of 1644, the savages were busy carrying the
desolating war into every unprotected nook and corner. The condition
of the colony became desperate, being almost entirely destitute of
food, money and clothing. The utter incompetency of Kieft was daily
more conspicuous. He did nothing. "Scarce a foot was moved on land, or
an oar laid in the water." The savages, thus left in security to fish
and gather in their crops, were ever increasingly insolent and
defiant. One of the annalists of those times writes:
"Parties of Indians roved about day and night, over
Manhattan island, killing the Dutch not a thousand paces
from fort Amsterdam. No one dared to move a foot to fetch a
stick of firewood without a strong escort."
Kieft, in his overwhelming embarrassments, had found it necessary to
convene eight select men to advise him and to aid in supporting his
authority. These select men decided to demand of the home government
the recall of Kieft, whose incapacity had thus plunged the
once-flourishing colony into utter ruin. They also urged the
introduction into New Netherland of the municipal system of the
fatherland.
In their brief but touching memorial they write,
"Our fields lie fallow and waste. Our dwellings are burned.
Not a handful can be sown this autumn on the deserted
places. The crops, which God permitted to come forth during
the summer, remain rotting in the fields. We have no means
to provide necessaries for wives or children. We sit here
amidst thousands of savages from whom we can find neither
peace nor mercy.
"There are those among us who, by the sweat and labor of
their hands, through many long years and at great expense,
have endeavored to improve their land. Others have come with
ships freighted with a large quantity of cattle. They have
cleared away the forest, enclosed their plantations, and
brought them under the plough, so as to be an ornament to
the country and a profit to the proprietors after their long
and laborious toil. The whole of these now lie in ashes
through a foolish hankering after war.
"All right-thinking men here know that these Indians have
lived as lambs among us until a few years ago, injuring no
man, offering every assistance to our nation, and when no
supplies were sent for several months, furnishing provisions
to the Company's servants until they received supplies.
These hath the Director, by several uncalled-for proceedings
from time to time, so estranged from us, and so embittered
against the Netherlands nation, that we do not believe that
anything will bring them and peace back, unless the Lord,
who bends all hearts to his will, propitiate their people.
"Little or nothing of any account has been done here for the
country. Every place is going to ruin. Neither counsel nor
advice is taken."
After giving an account of the origin and progress of the war, they
warn the home government against relying upon the statements which the
Director had sent over to them. "These statements," they said,
"contain as many lies as lines." The memorial was concluded with the
following forcible words:
"Honored Lords; this is what we have, in the sorrow of our
hearts, to complain of. We shall end here, and commit the
matter wholly to our God, praying that he will move your
lordships' minds, so that a Governor may be speedily sent to
us with a beloved peace, or that we may be permitted to
return with our wives and children, to our dear fatherland.
For it is impossible ever to settle this country until a
different system be introduced here, and a new Governor sent
out."
In response to this appeal Kieft was recalled. Just before he received
his summons peace was concluded with the Indians, on the 31st of
August, 1645. The war had raged five years. It had filled the land
with misery. All were alike weary of its carnage and woes. A new
governor was appointed, Peter Stuyvesant. The preceding account of the
origin of the Dutch colony and its progress thus far is essential to
the understanding of the long and successful administration of the new
governor, whose name is one of the most illustrious in the early
annals of New York.
It may be worthy of brief remark that a few weeks after the arrival of
Governor Stuyvesant, Kieft embarked in the ship Princess for Holland.
The vessel was wrecked on the coast of Wales Kieft and eighty-one men,
women and children sank into a watery grave. Kieft died unlamented.
His death was generally regarded as an act of retributive justice.