THE ESOPUS WAR.
Outrage at Esopus.--New Indian War.--Its
Desolations.--Sufferings of both Parties.--Wonderful
Energies of the Governor.--Difficulties of his
Situation.--The Truce.--Renewal of the War.--The
Mohawks.--The Controversy with Massachusetts.--Indian
Efforts for Peace.--The Final Settlement.--Claims of the
English upon the Delaware.--Renewed Persecution of the
Quakers.
The exploring party from Massachusetts, which had ascended the North
river, found a region around the Wappinger Kill, a few miles below the
present site of Poughkeepsie, which they pronounced to be more
beautiful than any spot which they had seen in New England. Here they
decided to establish their settlement. Stuyvesant, informed of this,
resolved to anticipate them. He wrote immediately to Holland urging
the Company to send out at once as many Polish, Lithuanian, Prussian,
Dutch and Flemish peasants as possible, "to form a colony there."
It would seem that no experience, however dreadful, could dissuade
individuals of the Dutch Colonists from supplying the natives with
brandy. At Esopus, in August, 1659, a man by the name of Thomas
Chambers employed eight Indians to assist him in husking corn. At the
end of their day's work he insanely supplied them with brandy. This
led to a midnight carouse in which the poor savages, bereft of reason,
howled and shrieked and fired their muskets, though without getting
into any quarrel among themselves.
The uproar alarmed the garrison in the blockhouse. The sergeant of the
guard was sent out, with a few soldiers, to ascertain the cause of the
disorder. He returned with the report that it was only the revelry of
a band of drunken savages.
One of the soldiers in the fort, Jansen Stot, called upon some of his
comrades to follow him. Ensign Smith, who was in command, forbade them
to go. In defiance of his orders they left the fort, and creeping
through the underbrush, wantonly took deliberate aim, discharged a
volley of bullets upon the inebriated savages, who were harming nobody
but themselves. One was killed outright. Others were severely wounded.
The soldiers, having performed this insane act, retreated, with the
utmost speed to the fort. There never has been any denial that such
were the facts in the case. They help to corroborate the remark of Mr.
Moulton that "the cruelty of the Indians towards the whites will, when
traced, be discovered, in almost every case, to have been provoked by
oppression or aggression."
Ensign Smith, finding that he could no longer control his soldiers,
indignantly resolved to return down the river to New Amsterdam. The
inhabitants of Esopus were greatly alarmed. It was well known that the
savages would not allow such an outrage to pass unavenged. The
withdrawal of the soldiers would leave them at the mercy of those so
justly exasperated. To prevent this the people hired every boat in the
neighborhood. Ensign Smith then decided to send an express by land, to
inform Governor Stuyvesant of the alarming state of affairs and to
solicit his immediate presence.
A party of soldiers was sent to escort the express a few miles down
the river banks. As these soldiers were returning, they fell into an
ambuscade of the Indians, and thirteen of them were taken prisoners.
War, horrible war, was now declared. The war-whoop resounded around
the stockade at Esopus from five hundred savage throats. Every house,
barn and corn-stack within their reach was burned. Cattle and horses
were killed. The fort was so closely invested day and night that not a
colonist could step outside of the stockade. The Indians, foiled in
all their attempts to set fire to the fortress, and burnt ten of their
prisoners at the stake. For three weeks this fierce warfare continued
without interruption.
When the tidings of this new war, caused by so dastardly an outrage,
reached Manhattan, it created a terrible panic. It could not be
doubted that all the Indians would sympathize with their outraged
brethren. The farmers, apprehending immediate attack, fled from all
directions, with their families, to the fort, abandoning their homes,
grain and cattle. Even many villages on Long Island were utterly
deserted.
The administrative energies of Governor Stuyvesant were remarkably
developed on this occasion. In the following terms, Mr. O'Callaghan,
in his admirable history of New Netherland, describes the difficulties
he encountered and his mode of surmounting them:
"Governor Stuyvesant, though laboring under severe
indisposition, visited in person all the adjoining villages,
encouraging the well-disposed, stimulating the timid and
urging the farmers everywhere to fortify and defend their
villages. He summoned next the burgomasters, schepens,[10]
and officers of the militia of New Amsterdam, and laid
before them the distressing situation of Esopus. They
proposed to enlist by beat of drum, a sufficient number of
men, and to encourage volunteers by resolving that whatever
savages might be captured should be declared 'good prizes.'
"Stuyvesant, however, was opposed to this mode of
proceeding. It would cause, in his opinion, too great a
delay, as those at Esopus were already besieged some nine or
ten days. He was left, notwithstanding, in a minority. Two
more days were thus irretrievably lost; for at the end of
that time only six or eight had enlisted, 'such a terrible
horror had overpowered the citizens.'
"Captain Newton and Lieutenant Stillwell were now dispatched
to all the English and Dutch villages, and letters were
addressed to fort Orange and Rensselaerswyck, ordering out
the Company's servants, calling for volunteers and
authorizing the raising of a troop of mounted rangers. The
half-dozen servants in fort Amsterdam, every person
belonging to the artillery, all the clerks in the public
offices, four of the Director-General's servants, three of
the hands belonging to his brewery and five or six new
comers, were put under requisition."
"Nothing could overcome the reluctance of the burghers. The
one disheartened the other; the more violent maintaining
that they were obliged to defend only their own homes, and
that no citizen could be forced to jeopardize his life in
fighting barbarous savages.
"Discouraged and almost deprived of hope by this opposition,
the Director-General again summoned the city magistrates. He
informed them that he had now some forty men, and that he
expected between twenty and thirty Englishmen from the
adjoining villages. He therefore ordered that the three
companies of the city militia be paraded next day in his
presence, armed and equipped, in order that one last effort
might be made to obtain volunteers. If he should then fail
of success, he announced his intention to make a draft.
"The companies paraded before the fort on the following
morning according to orders. Stuyvesant addressed them in
most exciting terms. He appealed to their sense both of
honor and of duty, and represented to them how ardently they
would look for aid, if they unfortunately were placed in a
situation similar to that in which their brethren of Esopus
now found themselves. He concluded his harangue by calling
upon all such as would accompany him either for pay or as
volunteers, to step forward to the rescue.
"Few came forward, only twenty-four or twenty-five persons.
This number being considered insufficient, lots were
immediately ordered to be drawn by one of the companies and
those on whom they fell were warned to be ready on the next
Sunday, on pain of paying fifty guilders. 'However,' said
the governor, 'if any person is weak-hearted or discouraged
he may procure a substitute provided he declares himself
instantaneously.'"
In this way the governor raised a force of one hundred and eighty men.
Of this number one hundred were drafted men, sixty-five volunteers,
twenty-five of whom were Englishmen, and there were also twenty
friendly Indians from Long Island.
With this force the governor embarked on Sunday evening, October 10th,
after the second sermon, for the rescue of Esopus. Upon his arrival at
that place he found that the savages, unable to penetrate the fort,
had raised the siege and retired beyond the possibility of pursuit.
They had doubtless watched the river with their scouts, who informed
them of the approach of the troops. The governor, leaving a sufficient
force to protect the village, returned with the remainder of the
expedition to Manhattan.
During the siege the loss of the Dutch was one man killed and five or
six wounded. The Indians also succeeded, by means of burning arrows,
in firing one dwelling house and several stacks of corn within the
palisades. As the troops were re-embarking the governor witnessed an
occurrence which he declares "he blushes to mention." As all the
troops could not go on board at once, a portion waited until the first
division had embarked. Some of the sentinels hearing a dog bark, fired
one or two shots. This created a terrible panic. The citizens, whose
ears had been pierced by the shrieks of their countrymen, whom the
Indians had tortured at the stake, were so terror-stricken that they
lost all self-possession. "Many of them threw themselves into the
water before they had seen an enemy."
The most friendly relations existed between the Mohawks and the
settlers in the vicinity of Albany. A very extensive trade, equally
lucrative to both parties, was there in operation. The Indians, being
treated justly, were as harmless as lambs. When they heard of the
troubles at Esopus they declared that they would take no part in the
war. They could not but feel that the Indians had been deeply
outraged. But with unexpected intelligence they decided that they
would not retaliate by wreaking vengeance upon their long-tried
friends. To confirm their friendly alliance, the authorities at fort
Orange sent an embassy of twenty-five of their principal inhabitants
to the Indian settlement at Caughnawaga. This was about forty miles
west of Albany on the north bank of the Mohawk river and near the site
of the present shire town of Montgomery county.
A large number of chiefs, from all the neighboring villages, attended.
The council fire was lighted, and the calumet of peace was smoked. One
of the Dutch delegation thus addressed the assembly!
"Brothers, sixteen years have now passed away, since
friendship and fraternity were first established between you
and the Hollanders. Since then we have been bound to each
other by an iron chain. That chain has never been broken by
us or by you. We hope that the Mohawks will remain our
brothers for all time.
"Our chiefs are very angry that the Dutch will sell brandy
to your people. They have always forbidden them to do so.
Forbid your people also. Eighteen days ago you asked us not
to sell any brandy to your people. Brothers, if your people
do not come to buy brandy of us, we shall not sell any to
them. Two days ago twenty or thirty kegs came to us, all to
be filled with brandy. Are you willing that we should take
from your people their brandy and their kegs. If so, say
this before all here present."
With this speech there was presented to the chiefs several bundles of
wampum, seventy pounds of powder, a hundred pounds of lead, fifteen
axes two beavers worth of knives. The chiefs were highly pleased with
the presents and eagerly gave their consent that the Dutch should
seize the liquor kegs of the Indians.
The authorities at fort Orange, having secured the friendship of the
Mohawks, endeavored to obtain an armistice with the Indians at Esopus,
and a release of the captives they had taken. Several Mohawk and
Mohegan chiefs, as mediators, visited Esopus, on this mission of
mercy. They were partially successful. An armistice was reluctantly
assented to, and two captives were liberated. The Indians, however,
still retained a number of children, they having killed all the
adults. Those who had agreed to the armistice were not the principal
chiefs, and the spirit of the war remained unbroken.
Under these circumstances Stuyvesant wrote to Holland for aid. In his
letter he said,
"If a farmer cannot plough, sow or reap, in a newly settled
country, without being harassed; if the citizens and
merchants cannot freely navigate the streams and rivers,
they will doubtless leave the country and seek a residence
in some place where they can find a government to protect
them.'"
The Directors wrote back urging him to employ the Mohawks and other
friendly tribes against the Esopus Indians. The governor replied,
"The Mohawks are, above all other savages, a vain-glorious,
proud and bold tribe. If their aid be demanded and obtained,
and success follow, they will only become the more inflated,
and we the more contemptible in the eyes of the other
tribes. If we did not then reward their services, in a
manner satisfactory to their greedy appetites, they would
incessantly revile us, and were this retorted, it might lead
to collision. It is therefore safer to stand on our own feet
as long as possible."
The governor had a long controversy with the Massachusetts authorities
in reference to its claim to the upper valley of the Hudson. In this
he expressed very strongly the title of Holland to the North river.
"Printed histories," he writes,
"archives, journals, and registers prove that the North
river of New Netherland was discovered in the year 1609, by
Hendrick Hudson, captain of the Half Moon, in the service
and at the expense of the Dutch East India Company. Upon the
report of the captain several merchants of Amsterdam sent
another ship, in the following year, up the said river.
These merchants obtained from the States-General a charter
to navigate the same. For their security they erected in
1614, a fort on Castle Island, near fort Orange New
Netherland, including the North river, was afterwards
offered to the West India Company, who, in the year 1624,
two years before Charles I. ascended the throne of England,
actually and effectually possessed and fortified the country
and planted colonies therein. The assertion that the Hudson
river is within the Massachusetts patent granted but
thirty-two years ago, therefore, scarcely deserves a serious
answer."
Notwithstanding the undeniable strength of his argument, Governor
Stuyvesant felt very uneasy. To his friends he said,
"The power of New England overbalances ours tenfold. To protest
against their usurpations would be folly. They would only laugh at
us."
As hostilities still continued with the Esopus Indians, Governor
Stuyvesant again visited that post, hoping to obtain an interview with
the chiefs, and to arrange a peace. Ensign Smith, with a very strong
party of forty men, had utterly routed and put to flight two bands of
Indians, one containing fifty warriors, the other one hundred. He took
twelve warriors prisoners. They were sent to fort Amsterdam. In the
mean time Stuyvesant had succeeded in renewing a treaty of alliance
with the Indian tribes on Long Island, Staten Island, and at
Hackensack, Haverstraw and Weckquaesgeek. The Long Island Indians
consented to send some of their children to fort Amsterdam to be
educated.
The Esopus Indians were now left in a very deplorable condition. Their
brethren, on the upper Hudson, had refused to co-operate with them.
Their routed bands were being driven across the mountains and many of
their warriors were captives. To use the contemptuous language of the
times, "they did nothing now but bawl for peace, peace."
There had never been a more favorable opportunity to secure a lasting
peace, and to win back the affections of the Indians. By universal
admission the colonists were outrageously in the wrong in provoking
the conflict. They had given the Indians brandy until they had become
intoxicated. And then half a dozen drunken soldiers had discharged a
volley of bullets upon them as they were revelling in noisy but
harmless orgies.
Had the governor frankly acknowledged that the colonists were in the
wrong; had he made full amends, according to the Indian custom, for
the great injury inflicted upon them, they would have been more than
satisfied. Even more friendly relations than had ever before existed
might have been established.
But instead of this the governor assumed that the Indians were
entirely in the wrong; that they had wantonly commenced a series of
murders and burnings without any provocation. The Esopus chiefs were
afraid to meet the angry governor with proposals for peace. They
therefore employed three Mohegan chiefs as their mediators. They
offered to cease all hostilities, to abandon the Esopus country
entirely, and surrender it to the Dutch if the Indian captives, whom
the Dutch held, might be restored to them. These very honorable
proposals were rejected. The Mohegan chiefs were told that the
governor could not enter into any treaty of peace with the Esopus
Indians unless their own chiefs came to fort Amsterdam to hold a
council. And immediately the Indian captives received the awful doom
of consignment to life-long slavery with the negroes, upon a tropical
island, which was but a glowing sandbank in the Caribbean sea.
"On the next day," writes Mr. O'Callaghan,
"an order was issued, banishing the Esopus savages, some
fifteen or twenty, to the insalubrious climate of Curaçoa,
to be employed there or at Buenaire with the negroes in the
Company's service. Two or three others were retained at fort
Amsterdam to be punished as it should be thought proper. By
this harsh policy Stuyvesant laid the foundations of another
Esopus war, for the Indians never forgot their banished
brethren."
It was ascertained that several miles up the Esopus creek the Indians
were planting corn. It was the 20th of May, 1660. Ensign Smith took a
party of seventy-five men and advanced upon them. The barking of dogs
announced his approach just as his band arrived within sight of the
wigwams. They all made good their retreat with the exception of one,
the oldest and best of their chiefs. His name was Preumaker. We know
not whether pride of character or infirmity prevented his escape. It
is said, however, that he received the soldiers very haughtily, aiming
his gun at them and saying, "What are you doing here, you dogs?"
The weapon was easily wrenched from his feeble hands. A consultation
was held as to what should be done with the courageous but powerless
old chief. "As it was a considerable distance to carry him," writes
Ensign Smith, "we struck him down with his own axe."
At length the sufferings of the Esopus Indians became so great from
the burning of the villages and the trampling down of their
cornfields, the loss of their armies and the terrified flight of their
starving women and children, that they were constrained to make
another effort for peace.
On the 11th of July, Governor Stuyvesant left New Amsterdam for
Esopus. Messengers were dispatched to summon the Esopus chiefs to his
presence. Appalled by the fate of their brethren, who had been sent as
slaves to the West Indies, they were afraid to come. After waiting
several days the governor sent envoys to the chiefs of other tribes,
urging them "to bring the Esopus savages to terms."
At length four Esopus chiefs appeared before the gate of the village.
Delegates from other tribes also appeared, and a grand council was
held. It is very evident from this interview, that many of the more
delicate feelings of the civilized man had full sway in the hearts of
these poor Indians. Instead of imploring peace themselves, the Esopus
Indians employed two chiefs, one of the Mohawk and the other of the
Mingua tribe, to make the proposition in their behalf.
Governor Stuyvesant assented to peace upon condition that the Mohawks
and the Minguas would stand as security for the faithful observance of
the terms exacted. The chiefs of these tribes agreeing to this, in a
formal speech admonished the Esopus chiefs to live with the Dutch as
brothers. And then, turning to the Dutch, in a speech equally
impressive, they warned them not to irritate the Indians by unjust
treatment. The Indians were compelled to yield to such terms as
Stuyvesant proposed.
All the lands of Esopus were surrendered to the Dutch. The starving
Indians were to receive eight hundred schepels of corn as ransom for
the captive christians. The Indian warriors sent as slaves to the West
Indies, were to be left to their awful fate. The mediators were held
responsible for the faithful execution of the treaty. Should the
Esopus Indians break it, the mediators were bound to assist the Dutch
in punishing them. No spirituous liquors were to be _drank_ near the
houses of the Dutch. No _armed_ Indians to approach a Dutch
plantation. Murderers were to be mutually surrendered, and damages
reciprocally paid for.
Thus were the Esopus Indians driven from their homes, deprived of
their independence and virtually ruined. Having thus triumphantly
though cruelly settled this difficulty, Stuyvesant went up to fort
Orange, where he held another grand council with the chiefs of all the
tribes in those regions.
A clergyman was sent to Esopus and a church organized of sixteen
members. In September, 1660, Domine Selyus was installed as the
clergyman of Brooklyn, where he found one elder, two deacons and
twenty-four church members. There were, at that time thirty-one
families in Brooklyn, containing a population of one hundred and
thirty-four persons. They had no church but worshipped in a barn.
Governor Stuyvesant contributed nearly eighty dollars annually to the
support of this minister, but upon condition that he should preach
every Sunday afternoon, at his farm or bouwery upon Manhattan Island.
The last of May, Charles the Second, the fugitive King of England, was
returning from his wanderings on the continent to ascend the throne of
his ancestors. He was a weak man, of imperturbable good nature. On his
way to London he stopped at the Hague, where he was magnificently
entertained. In taking leave of the States-General he was lavish of
his expressions of friendship. He declared that he should feel jealous
should the Dutch prefer the friendship of any other state to that of
Great Britain.
At that time Holland was in commercial enterprise, the most prosperous
nation upon the globe; decidedly in advance of England. The British
parliament envied Holland her commercial supremacy. "The Convention
Parliament," writes Mr. Brodhead,
"which had called home the king, took early steps to render
still more obnoxious one of England's most selfish measures.
The Navigation Act of 1651 was revised; and it was now
enacted that after the first day of December, 1660, no
merchandise should be imported into, or exported from any of
his majesty's plantations or territories in Asia, Africa or
America, except in English vessels of which the master and
three-fourths of the mariners at least are English."
Immediately after this, Lord Baltimore demanded the surrender of New
Amstel and all the lands on the west side of Delaware bay. "All the
country," it was said by his envoy,
"up to the fortieth degree, was granted to Lord Baltimore.
The grant has been confirmed by the king and sanctioned by
parliament. You are weak, we are strong, you had better
yield at once."
A very earnest and prolonged discussion ensued. The Dutch Company
said,
"We hold our rights by the States-General. We are resolved
to defend those rights. If Lord Baltimore will persevere and
resort to violent measures, we shall use all the means which
God and nature have given us to protect the inhabitants and
preserve their possessions."
This was indeed an alarming state of affairs for New Amstel. Various
disasters had befallen the colony, so that it now numbered but thirty
families. The garrison had been reduced, by desertion, to twenty-five
men; and of these but eight or ten were in the principal fort. The
English were in such strength upon the Chesapeake, that they could
easily send five hundred men to the Delaware. Very earnest diplomatic
intercourse was opened between the States-General and the British
Parliament upon these questions.
Governor Stuyvesant, whose attention had been somewhat engrossed by
the Indian difficulties, now renewed his persecution of the Quakers.
Notwithstanding the law against private conventicles, Henry Townsend
at Rustdorp, who had been already twice fined, persisted in holding
private meetings in his house. He was arrested with two others, and
carried to fort Amsterdam. Townsend and Tilton were banished from the
colony. Two magistrates were appointed as spies to inform of any
future meetings, and some soldiers were stationed in the village to
suppress them. Whatever Governor Stuyvesant undertook to do he
accomplished very thoroughly. The following paper was drawn up which
the inhabitants were required to sign:
"If any meetings or conventicles of Quakers shall be held in
this town of Rustdorp, that we know of, we will give
information to the authority set up by the governor, and we
will also give the authorities of the town such assistance
against any such persons as needs may require."
A few refused to sign this paper. They were punished by having the
soldiers quartered upon them.
Fort Orange was, at this time, the extreme frontier post, in the north
and west of New Netherland. Though the country along the Mohawk river
had been explored for a considerable distance, there were no
settlements there, though one or two huts had been reared in the
vicinity of the Cohoes Falls. This whole region had abounded with
beavers and wild deer. But the fur trade had been pushed with so much
vigor that the country was now almost entirely destitute of peltries.
The colonists wished to purchase the fertile lands in the valley of
the Mohawk, and the Indians manifested a willingness to sell them.