THE INDIANS AND THE EARLY SETTLERS
The Dutch Policy toward the Indians. Puritan and Dutch Policy
Contrasted. Long Island Indians: Their Relations with the
Whites. Kieft's Attacks on Pavonia and Corlaer's Hook. Uprising
on Long Island. Overtures for Peace. Mission to Rockaway of De
Vries and Olfertsen. Restoration of Friendly Relations.
These numerous settlements had not been accomplished without the
encountering of Indian difficulties. In general the Dutch policy toward
the Indians was business-like and reasonable, contrasting favorably with
policies prevailing elsewhere among American new-comers. The Dutch were
not so social as the French, but their attitude was more fraternal than
that usually observed among the English colonists. Douglass Campbell,
who is to be regarded as a strong partisan of the Dutch as opposed to
the Puritan system, but whose exhaustive studies both of the Puritan and
of the Dutch people gave him an unusual grasp of the situation, thus
contrasts the policy of the two peoples:--
"Why the Puritans were involved in ceaseless wars can be read in every
line of their history. As they could not make of the Indian a red
Puritan, he was a spiritual outcast, whom it was their duty to
exterminate. Three years after the landing of the Mayflower Miles
Standish and seven of his companions murdered three native chiefs in
cold blood. It was this event which led the devout John Robinson to say,
'How happy a thing it would have been if you had converted some before
you killed any.' In 1637 the white settlers of Connecticut put a red
captive to death by dragging him limb from limb by ropes fastened to his
arms and legs. Bancroft tells us that the Puritans bought the Indians'
land, except that of the Pequots. Look at their laws and see. In 1633
Massachusetts passed a statute in relation to land titles. It confirmed
to the Indians the little patches around their wigwams on which they
raised their corn, but declared that the rest belonged to the whites on
the authority of the first chapter of Genesis 'and the invitation of the
Indians.' But murder and robbery of their land all pale before the
crowning infamy which drove the red man to despair. Above all things he
prized personal liberty; slavery to him was a thousand fold worse than
death. And yet to this fate the settlers consigned thousands of the
natives, sending them to the West Indies to work on the sugar
plantations. Among these victims was the little grandson of the good
king Massasoit, who had welcomed the Pilgrims and been their life-long
friend. Look at the records of Massachusetts, and there you will find
statute after statute offering bounties for Indian scalps, the prices
fixed being from twenty-five to one hundred pounds for males, from
twenty to sixty for women, and from ten to twenty for children under ten
years of age. These same statutes provided that females and children
taken prisoners should belong to the captors, 'to be sold out of the
province.' I mention these facts in no invidious spirit, but in justice
to the red man, who has been called treacherous and cruel. He resented
such conduct; and can you wonder at it? He had no redress except by
arms, and he has written the story of his vengeance all over the face of
New England. What could the Indians think of the gospel of Jesus Christ
and the white man's God? What was true of the New England colonies was
true of the southern colonies as well. The course pursued by Penn can
hardly be taken as a criterion, for he dealt with the Delaware Indians,
who had been conquered by the Iroquois, deprived of the use of arms, and
forced to accept the opprobrious epithet of 'women;' and Penn, in
purchasing their lands, only followed out the example which had been set
by the Dutch.
"Turn now to New York, and see what the Indian was under different
conditions. The upper Hudson and the valley of the Mohawk were first
settled by the Dutch. They simply treated the Indian as a man. Tolerant
in religion, they respected his rude faith; truthful among themselves,
to him they never broke their word; honest in all their dealings with
him, they kept good faith. They suffered from no thefts, because they
took nothing except by purchase. Their land titles were respected,
because for every tract they had an Indian deed. They were scourged by
no massacres, save from the enemy across the border, because they
committed no robbery or murder. This was the whole secret of their
policy. It is easy to belittle it, as historians have done, by saying
that upon no other conditions could they have lived among the natives.
Of course it was politic, but the world has discovered that honesty is
the best policy, without concluding that it is any the less a Christian
virtue. These early settlers in New York were traders, offshoots from
what was the greatest commercial nation of the world. They made no
pretense of doing missionary work. They were simply in pursuit of gain.
But they had learned that the only permanent success in life rests on
honesty and justice. This is the lesson that commerce teaches, and
because it does so it has been the civilizer of the world. After the
English conquest in 1664 the same policy was continued, thanks to the
presence of the Dutch, who still formed the majority of the population.
The Six Nations then placed their lands under protection of the crown
and were recognized as appendant to New York. The burden thus cast upon
the province was very heavy. For more than a century New York kept their
alliance by heavy subsidies and by contributions of men and money for
their defense against the French."[11]
The Indian policy of the Dutch has, indeed, been credited with a most
important influence upon American history. But sagacious as it may have
been as a broad plan of action, there was no way of obviating the
difficulties arising from local and individual blunders. Considering the
number of special provocations to revolt, it is remarkable that Indian
troubles were not more frequent and more serious, and that the storm did
not break sooner and more fiercely than it did. Prime remarks that the
conduct of the Long Island Indians toward the whites is "without a
parallel in the history of the country."
"The Indians on Long Island," says Silas Wood, "seem to have been less
troublesome to the whites than those north of the Sound.... [They]
sometimes committed depredations on the property of the whites.... It
does not appear that they ever formed any combination against the
first settlers, or materially interrupted the progress of their
improvements.... The security of the whites must be ascribed to the
means they employed to preserve peace with the Indians."
When the storm of Indian anger and revenge broke over New England in
1643, New Netherland did not escape a similar if not equally terrible
visitation. If the settlers in New Amsterdam began to experience
anxiety, something like a panic seized upon the settlers of outlying
regions. The Long Island settlers were perhaps less ill at ease than
others at an equal distance from the Fort, so friendly had been their
relations with the Indians; but individual offenses of the settlers and
individual offenses by the Indians produced a strained relation in
certain quarters, and when the excuse came the hot-heads among the Long
Island settlers made trouble.
At New Amsterdam the trouble began when the Mohawks descended upon the
river tribes in retaliation for local offenses, and the river Indians
flocked to the vicinity of the Fort for protection. At "Corlaer's
Bouwery," on Manhattan Island, a group of Long Island Indians, under the
chief, Nainde Nummerius, had encamped. An ill-advised appeal to Kieft
resulted in an impulsive decision on the part of the Governor, who, in
spite of wiser counsel, sent out two secret expeditions on the night of
February 25, 1643, one against the refugees at Pavonia, the other
against the encampment at Corlaer's Hook. The attacks were merciless.
Eighty Indians were slaughtered at Pavonia, and forty at the Hook.
This unfortunate blunder resulted in acts which still further excited
the anger of the Indians. Long Island settlers asked Kieft for
permission to attack the Marechawieck tribe; but Kieft, possibly because
he had already begun to realize the influence of the outrage he had
committed, denied permission on the ground that the Long Island red men
had given no sufficient cause for offensive action. Nevertheless, the
Governor did not deny to the Long Island settlers any retaliatory steps
that might at any time seem necessary. Shortly after this communication,
two wagon-loads of corn in charge of a party of Indians were seized, and
when the Indians resisted the act of plundering, three of them were
killed.
If the massacre on Manhattan Island had caused among the Long Island
Indians a general resentment against the white men, the murders on the
Island itself made their hostility specific and local; and it is not
surprising that many of the Long Island tribes joined hands with the
river Indians. The tragedies which followed belong to the annals of a
"year of blood."
Terror seized the Long Island settlers in common with all outlying
colonists, many of whom lost no time in seeking the shelter of the Fort.
Kieft was bewildered by the consequences of his act. Realizing that the
chief offenses had been against Long Island tribes, he sent to these a
propitiatory message, which was met by shouts of "corn thieves!" by the
Indians. Those settlers who held their posts on Long Island were forced
to adopt measures of fortifying their homes, which they did after the
methods of inclosure peculiar to the time, and to preserve the utmost
vigilance to save their lives. From a number of families women and
children were sent to the Fort, the men remaining to guard the property.
The advent of spring, bringing to the home-staying Indians of this
region, as well as to the white men, the necessity for planting corn,
suggested an effort toward permanent peace. Brodhead's narrative says:--
"Three delegates from the wigwam of Penhawity, their 'great
chief,' approached Fort Amsterdam, bearing a white flag. 'Who
will go to meet them?' demanded Kieft. None were willing but De
Vries and Jacob Olfertsen. 'Our chief has sent us,' said the
savages, 'to know why you have killed his people, who have never
laid a straw in your way, when none has done you aught but good?
Come and speak to our chief upon the sea-coast,' Setting out
with the Indian messengers, De Vries and Olfertsen, in the
evening, came to 'Rechquaaike,' or Rockaway, where they found
about three hundred savages and about thirty wigwams. The chief,
'who had but one eye,' invited them to pass the night in his
cabin, and regaled them with oysters and fish. At break of day
the envoys from Manhattan were conducted into the woods about
four hundred yards off, where they found sixteen chiefs of Long
Island waiting for their coming. Placing the two Europeans in
the centre, the chiefs seated themselves around in a ring, and
their 'best speaker' arose, holding in his hand a bundle of
small sticks. 'When you first came to our coasts,' slowly began
the orator, 'you sometimes had no food; we gave you our beans
and corn, and relieved you with our oysters and fish; and now,
for recompense, you murder our people;' and he laid down a
little stick. 'In the beginning of your voyages, you left your
people here with their goods; we traded with them while your
ships were away, and cherished them as the apple of our eye; we
gave them our daughters for companions, who have borne children,
and many Indians have sprung from the Swannekens; and now you
villainously massacre your own blood.' The chief laid down
another stick; many more remained in his hand; but De Vries,
cutting short the reproachful catalogue, invited the chiefs to
accompany him to Fort Amsterdam, where the Director 'would give
them presents to make a peace.'
"The chiefs, assenting, ended their orations, and presenting De
Vries and his colleague each with ten fathoms of wampum, the
party set out for their canoes, to shorten the return of the
Dutch envoys. While waiting for the tide to rise, an armed
Indian, who had been dispatched by a sachem twenty miles off,
came running to warn the chiefs against going to Manhattan. 'Are
you all crazy, to go to the Fort,' said he, 'where that
scoundrel lives who has so often murdered your friends?' But De
Vries assured them that 'they would find it otherwise, and come
home again with large presents.' One of the chiefs replied at
once: 'Upon your words we will go; for the Indians have never
heard lies from you, as they have other Swannekens.' Embarking
in a large canoe the Dutch envoys, accompanied by eighteen
Indian delegates, set out from Rockaway, and reached Fort
Amsterdam about three o'clock in the afternoon."
The result of this conference was the reëstablishment of peaceful
relations, the Long Island red men aiding in the making of terms with
the river Indians. When, in the following September, trouble broke out
again, Kieft sought to keep the Long Island tribes as allies, but,
before terms could be made, attacks were made at Maspeth and Gravesend,
as well as at Westchester; and the ensuing winter was full of distress,
most of the settlements becoming almost wholly deserted.
The Government, at its wits' end, appealed to New Haven, and finally to
the States-General in Holland itself. In the spring (of 1644) the Long
Island Indians were placated; but with the remainder of the hostiles
Kieft showed no ability to treat, and the wars lasted until the
following year, when the long strain upon Fort Amsterdam was agreeably
broken.