There is something exceedingly sublime and melancholy in the spectacle
which the present crisis of our history presents. An illustrious and
venerable little city--the metropolis of a vast extent of uninhabited
country--garrisoned by a doughty host of orators, chairmen, committee-men,
burgomasters, schepens, and old women--governed by a determined and
strong-headed warrior, and fortified by mud batteries, palisadoes, and
resolutions--blockaded by sea, beleaguered by land, and threatened with
direful desolation from without; while its very vitals are torn with
internal faction and commotion! Never did historic pen record a page of
more complicated distress, unless it be the strife that distracted the
Israelites during the siege of Jerusalem, where discordant parties were
cutting each other's throats at the moment when the victorious legions of
Titus had toppled down their bulwarks, and were carrying fire and sword
into the very _sanctum sanctorum_ of the temple!
Governor Stuyvesant having triumphantly put his grand council to the rout,
and delivered himself from a multitude of impertinent advisers, despatched
a categorical reply to the commanders of the invading squadron, wherein he
asserted the right and title of their High Mightinesses the Lords States
General to the province of New Netherlands, and trusting in the
righteousness of his cause, set the whole British nation at defiance!
My anxiety to extricate my readers and myself from these disastrous scenes
prevents me from giving the whole of this gallant letter, which concluded
in these manly and affectionate terms:----
"As touching the threats in your conclusion, we have nothing to
answer, only that we fear nothing but what God (who is as just as
merciful) shall lay upon us; all things being in His gracious
disposal, and we may as well be preserved by Him with small
forces as by a great army, which makes us to wish you all
happiness and prosperity, and recommend you to His
protection.--My lords, your thrice humble and affectionate
servant and friend,
"P. STUYVESANT."
Thus having thrown his gauntlet, the brave Peter stuck a pair of
horse-pistols in his belt, girded an immense powder-horn on his side,
thrust his sound leg into a Hessian boot, and clapping his fierce little
war-hat on the top of his head, paraded up and down in front of his house,
determined to defend his beloved city to the last.
While all these struggles and dissentions were prevailing in the unhappy
city of New Amsterdam, and while its worthy but ill-starred governor was
framing the above quoted letter, the English commanders did not remain
idle. They had agents secretly employed to foment the fears and clamors of
the populace; and moreover circulated far and wide through the adjacent
country a proclamation, repeating the terms they had already held out in
their summons to surrender, at the same time beguiling the simple
Nederlanders with the most crafty and conciliating professions. They
promised that every man who voluntarily submitted to the authority of his
British Majesty should retain peaceful possession of his house, his vrouw,
and his cabbage-garden. That he should be suffered to smoke his pipe,
speak Dutch, wear as many beeches as he pleased, and import bricks, tiles,
and stone jugs from Holland, instead of manufacturing them on the spot.
That he should on no account be compelled to learn the English language,
nor eat codfish on Saturdays, nor keep accounts in any other way than by
casting them up on his fingers, and chalking them down upon the crown of
his hat; as is observed among the Dutch yeomanry at the present day. That
every man should be allowed quietly to inherit his father's hat, coat,
shoe-buckles, pipe, and every other personal appendage; and that no man
should be obliged to conform to any improvements, inventions, or any other
modern innovations; but, on the contrary, should be permitted to build his
house, follow his trade, manage his farm, rear his hogs, and educate his
children, precisely as his ancestors had done before him from time
immemorial. Finally, that he should have all the benefits of free trade,
and should not be required to acknowledge any other saint in the calendar
than St. Nicholas, who should thenceforward, as before, be considered the
tutelar saint of the city.
These terms, as may be supposed, appeared very satisfactory to the people,
who had a great disposition to enjoy their property unmolested, and a most
singular aversion to engage in a contest, where they could gain little
more than honor and broken heads: the first of which they held in
philosophic indifference, the latter in utter detestation. By these
insidious means, therefore, did the English succeed in alienating the
confidence and affections of the populace from their gallant old governor,
whom they considered as obstinately bent upon running them into hideous
misadventures; and did not hesitate to speak their minds freely, and abuse
him most heartily, behind his back.
Like as a mighty grampus, when assailed and buffeted by roaring waves and
brawling surges, still keeps on an undeviating course, rising above the
boisterous billows, spouting and blowing as he emerges, so did the
inflexible Peter pursue, unwavering, his determined career, and rise,
contemptuous, above the clamors of the rabble.
But when the British warriors found that he set their power at defiance,
they despatched recruiting officers to Jamaica, and Jericho, and Nineveh,
and Quag, and Patchog, and all those towns on Long Island which had been
subdued of yore by Stoffel Brinkerhoff, stirring up the progeny of
Preserved Fish and Determined Cock, and those other New England squatters,
to assail the city of New Amsterdam by land, while the hostile ships
prepared for an assault by water.
The streets of New Amsterdam now presented a scene of wild dismay and
consternation. In vain did Peter Stuyvesant order the citizens to arm and
assemble on the Battery. Blank terror reigned over the community. The
whole party of Short Pipes in the course of a single night had changed
into arrant old women--a metamorphosis only to be paralleled by the
prodigies recorded by Livy as having happened at Rome at the approach of
Hannibal, when statues sweated in pure affright, goats were converted into
sheep, and cocks, turning into hens, ran cackling about the street.
Thus baffled in all attempts to put the city in a state of defence,
blockaded from without, tormented from within, and menaced with a Yankee
invasion, even the stiff-necked will of Peter Stuyvesant for once gave
way, and in spite of his mighty heart, which swelled in his throat until
it nearly choked him, he consented to a treaty of surrender.
Words cannot express the transports of the populace on receiving this
intelligence; had they obtained a conquest over their enemies, they could
not have indulged greater delight. The streets resounded with their
congratulations--they extolled their governor as the father and deliverer
of his country--they crowded to his house to testify their gratitude, and
were ten times more noisy in their plaudits than when he returned, with
victory perched upon his beaver, from the glorious capture of Fort
Christina. But the indignant Peter shut his doors and windows, and took
refuge in the innermost recesses of his mansion, that he might not hear
the ignoble rejoicings of the rabble.
Commissioners were now appointed on both sides, and a capitulation was
speedily arranged; all that was wanting to ratify it was that it should be
signed by the governor. When the commissioners waited upon him for this
purpose they were received with grim and bitter courtesy. His warlike
accoutrements were laid aside; an old Indian night-gown was wrapped about
his rugged limbs; a red nightcap overshadowed his frowning brow; an
iron-grey beard of three days' growth gave additional grimness to his
visage. Thrice did he seize a worn-out stump of a pen, and essay to sign
the loathsome paper; thrice did he clinch his teeth, and make a horrible
countenance, as though a dose of rhubarb-senna, and ipecacuanha, had been
offered to his lips. At length, dashing it from him, he seized his
brass-hilted sword, and jerking it from the scabbard, swore by St.
Nicholas to sooner die than yield to any power under heaven.
For two whole days did he persist in this magnanimous resolution, during
which his house was besieged by the rabble, and menaces and clamorous
revilings exhausted to no purpose. And now another course was adopted to
soothe, if possible, his mighty ire. A procession was formed by the
burgomasters and schepens, followed by the populace, to bear the
capitulation in state to the governor's dwelling. They found the castle
strongly barricaded, and the old hero in full regimentals, with his cocked
hat on his head, posted with a blunderbuss at the garret window.
There was something in this formidable position that struck even the
ignoble vulgar with awe and admiration. The brawling multitude could not
but reflect with self-abasement upon their own pusillanimous conduct, when
they beheld their hardy but deserted old governor, thus faithful to his
post, like a forlorn hope, and fully prepared to defend his ungrateful
city to the last. These compunctions, however, were soon overwhelmed by
the recurring tide of public apprehension. The populace arranged
themselves before the house, taking off their hats with most respectful
humility; Burgomaster Roerback, who was of that popular class of orators
described by Sallust as being "talkative rather than eloquent," stepped
forth and addressed the governor in a speech of three hours' length,
detailing, in the most pathetic terms, the calamitous situation of the
province, and urging him, in a constant repetition of the same arguments
and words, to sign the capitulation.
The mighty Peter eyed him from his garret window in grim silence. Now and
then his eye would glance over the surrounding rabble, and an indignant
grin, like that of an angry mastiff, would mark his iron visage. But
though a man of most undaunted mettle--though he had a heart as big as an
ox, and a head that would have set adamant to scorn--yet after all he was
a mere mortal. Wearied out by these repeated oppositions, and this eternal
haranguing, and perceiving that unless he complied the inhabitants would
follow their own inclination, or rather their fears, without waiting for
his consent; or, what was still worse, the Yankees would have time to pour
in their forces and claim a share in the conquest, he testily ordered them
to hand up the paper. It was accordingly hoisted to him on the end of a
pole, and having scrawled his hand at the bottom of it, he anathematised
them all for a set of cowardly, mutinous, degenerate poltroons--threw the
capitulation at their heads, slammed down the window, and was heard
stumping downstairs with vehement indignation. The rabble incontinently
took to their heels; even the burgomasters were not slow in evacuating the
premises, fearing lest the sturdy Peter might issue from his den, and
greet them with some unwelcome testimonial of his displeasure.
Within three hours after the surrender, a legion of British beef-fed
warriors poured into New Amsterdam, taking possession of the fort and
batteries. And now might be heard from all quarters the sound of hammers
made by the old Dutch burghers, in nailing up their doors and windows, to
protect their vrouws from these fierce barbarians, whom they contemplated
in silent sullenness from the garret windows as they paraded through the
streets.
Thus did Colonel Richard Nichols, the commander of the British forces,
enter into quiet possession of the conquered realm, as _locum tenens_ for
the Duke of York. The victory was attended with no other outrage than that
of changing the name of the province and its metropolis, which thenceforth
were denominated New York, and so have continued to be called unto the
present day. The inhabitants, according to treaty, were allowed to
maintain quiet possession of their property, but so inveterately did they
retain their abhorrence of the British nation that in a private meeting of
the leading citizens it was unanimously determined never to ask any of
their conquerors to dinner.
NOTE.
Modern historians assert that when the New Netherlands were thus
overrun by the British, as Spain in ancient days by the Saracens,
a resolute band refused to bend the neck to the invader. Led by
one Garret Van Horne, a valorous and gigantic Dutchman, they
crossed the bay and buried themselves among the marshes and
cabbage gardens of Communipaw, as did Pelayo and his followers
among the mountains of Asturias. Here their descendants have
remained ever since, keeping themselves apart, like seed corn, to
repeople the city with the genuine breed, whenever it shall be
effectually recovered from its intruders. It is said the genuine
descendants of the Nederlanders who inhabit New York still look
with longing eyes to the green marshes of ancient Pavonia, as did
the conquered Spaniards of yore to the stern mountains of
Asturias, considering these the regions whence deliverance is to
come.