their chests emptied of beads, cloth, and trinkets, but the boats piled
high with furs of all kinds, and I heard Master Minuit say that one such
cargo was worth more than all the grain that could be raised in two
years, by all the white men on the island.
The log house was taken for a storeroom, and Hans set at work making a
list of the furs, which was anything rather than a pleasant task, for
these skins were none of the sweetest or most cleanly, and the Dutchman
both looked and smelled very disagreeably.
[Illustration]
While Hans was sweating over the furs in the log house, I stayed in the
great cabin of the _Sea Mew_, refilling the chests with goods, and
before the task was finished, Master Minuit told me that I was to have
charge of all the things brought for trade with the savages.
In other words, I was no longer to be body servant, but a real
storekeeper, which was more of a jump in the world than I had even hoped
to make for many a long year to come.
The palisade of the fort was not yet wholly done, when a dozen or more
of the men were set about building inside the fortification a log
house, where the goods were to be kept and where I was to find lodgings.
Kryn Gildersleeve, like the honest lad he was, gave me joy because of my
thus having become, as it were, a real member of the Company; but Hans
was angry, believing if any of the servants were to be promoted, it
should have been himself, and I am told that he declared I would not
long be allowed to enjoy my high station.
By the time the palisade had been built my house was finished, and all
the goods brought from the _Sea Mew_, which gave me much of work to do,
because my orders were to unpack and store the different articles where
I could bring them out at a moment's notice.
You must not understand that Master Minuit had entrusted to me the
trading. That portion of the work was for himself and the gentlemen who
had come with him; but I was in charge of the goods, as Hans was keeper
of the furs, while Kryn alone waited upon the master as body servant.
When any of the savages came in from the village close by, or from far
away, to bargain for our toys, one of the gentlemen looked after him,
and I brought this thing or carried that according to orders, for the
Indians were not allowed to come inside the log house lest they might
make mischief. After the trading was at an end, Hans would be summoned
to carry away the furs.
[Illustration]
If none of the other gentlemen were near at hand, it was my duty to
summon Master Minuit, when any of the brown men came to the fort with
such a burden that I could understand he was eager to buy of our goods.
THE VALUE OF WAMPUM
Because of thus being employed, I very soon saw that which served the
savages as money, and queer stuff it was, being neither more nor less
than bits of shell.
The brown men called the stuff wampum, and because of having such poor
tools it must be an enormous amount of work to make it. As nearly as I
could learn, there were certain big shells which washed up on the shores
here after a storm, and only some part of the inside of these, and a
portion of the mussel shells, were used.
From the big shells they made a smooth white bead, grinding the shell
down against a rock until it was perfectly smooth, and then boring a
hole through it. The beads of wampum made from the mussel shells were in
shape much like a straw, and less than half an inch in length.
These beads the Indians strung on the dried sinews of wild animals, from
a half a yard to four feet in length, when, as I have already told you,
they were used as money.
But wampum is even more than that among the savages. When these strings
are fastened to the width of five or six inches into a belt, they are
given to messengers to take to another tribe, much as kings of old used
to give their seal rings as a sort of letter of recommendation.
[Illustration: The great Wampum Belt of the Onondagas.]
The wampum belts were sent in token of peace after a war, or as a
present from one ruler to another, and, as can be seen, this wampum was
even of more value to the savages than gold is to white men.
One would think that when they got our beads in exchange for their furs,
they would have strung them with those which had been cut from shells,
and yet they did nothing of the kind, for in their eyes one of those
tiny, white balls, which had a hole through the middle, was of more
value than a cupful of Master Minuit's best.
I do not know how it was figured out; but you must know that in Holland
they have a coin called a stuyver, which is worth in English money near
to two pennies. Our people here allowed, in trading with the Indians,
that four beads of wampum were equal to one stuyver, or two pennies, and
a single strand six feet long, was equal to four guilders, or, roughly
speaking, about eight shillings.
There is no need for me to say that our people did not buy wampum of the
Indians; but in the course of the bargaining it passed back and forth,
because of being the only coins the brown men had, and therefore I
suppose it was, that Master Minuit believed it necessary to put some
fixed price upon it.
BUILDINGS OF STONE
After the fort and the storehouse had been finished, the Dutch laborers
were set about cutting out stone from the ledges of which I have spoken,
to be used in the place of bricks. From this rock Master Minuit decided
that a more secure warehouse for the company's goods should be made,
and, also, a dozen or more of the men were set about building a mill to
be worked by horse-power, so that it might be possible to grind the
grain.
[Illustration]
This horse-mill also was to be built of stone, with a large loft that
would be used as a church.
There had been no ministers brought over when we came in the _Sea Mew_;
but in place of them were two zeikentroosters, which is a Dutch word for
"Consolers of the Sick;" but what they might be called in plain English
I know not. It appeared to me that the zeikentroosters in Holland were
much the same as deacons in England, though as to this I may be wrong.
At all events, there were two of them came in our ship, and, until the
first minister arrived, they held regular meetings out of doors while
the mill was being built, and afterward in the loft.
THE GOVERNMENT
While the people were working on the mill, the fort, and the storehouse,
or at the quarry, Master Minuit, busy man though he was, found time to
set up a regular government in this town of huts which he called New
Amsterdam, himself being at the head of it with no one to say him nay,
and a Council of five chosen by the West India Company from among the
white people.
There was also a secretary for this Council, and a Dutch official, which
in Holland is called schout-fiscal, which means about all of the offices
that could be held in an ordinary village, for he was sheriff,
constable, collector of customs, tithing-man, and almost anything else
you chose to call him.
The secretary and the schout-fiscal were also appointed by the Company
in Amsterdam, and every act of the Council, as well as the rules and
regulations laid down by Master Minuit, were all to be approved by the
gentlemen in Holland before our people would be bound by them. Thus it
can be seen that while one might suppose the citizens of New Amsterdam
made their own laws, it was in fact the West India Company which had
full direction of affairs.
After a time, when I had been so far entrusted with the business of the
settlement as to understand how it was conducted, I came to realize that
all which was done by us of New Amsterdam was for the profit of the
Company, rather than for the benefit of the people, and this finally
came to be one of the causes which worked for the downfall of Dutch
power in the New World.
A PROSPEROUS TOWN
Before I had been many days in charge of the Company's goods we began to
drive a flourishing trade, for all those gentlemen who had set off with
trinkets to buy furs, urged the brown men to go down to New Amsterdam
and see what the white people were doing on the island they had bought
at so generous a price.
And you can well fancy that these Indians were not slow in accepting the
invitation. It must have been to them much like visiting a museum, or a
menagerie, to come into our town and see another race of people working
in a manner entirely different from their methods, and using tools
which afforded a great saving of labor, the like of which they had never
heard about.
[Illustration]
Before two weeks were passed, there was never a day that from three to
twenty canoes were not hauled up on the shore of the point, and these
brown people were gathered around the fort, many naked, excepting for
queer breeches and belt; others wearing a kind of cloak made of furs,
and now and then one who had a mantle of some sort of feather work, but
all burdened with bales of furs, deer meat, wild turkeys, ducks or
anything which it seemed to them likely would be bought by these Dutch
traders, who had of toys such a store.
I was kept busy from morning until night, trotting in and out of the
house with this article or that, as whosoever was conducting the
business commanded, and I dare venture to say that Hans was having a
sorry time indeed, for the weather had grown warm, and his quarters in
the log hut, with those ill-smelling pelts, must have been anything
rather than pleasant.
The first event of great importance to us of New Amsterdam, was the
loading of a ship to be sent home, and I am minded to tell you exactly
how the cargo was made up, so that you may see whether the West India
Company's servants had idled away any of their time.
There were 7,246 beaver skins, 1,781-1/2 otter skins, 675 poorer otter
skins, 48 mink skins, 33 poorer mink skins, 36 wild cat skins, and 34
rat skins. The rest of the lading was made up of oak and hickory timber,
while the whole of it was valued by Master Minuit at 45,000 guilders,
and it is for you to find out how much that would be in the money of
your own country.
[Illustration]
Before this ship sailed we had gathered our first harvest, which was
made up of wheat, rye, barley, oats, buckwheat, beans and flax, and in
such quantity that, unless there should be large additions to our
numbers, we had need to feel no anxiety regarding the winter's store of
food.
I am telling you this that you may understand how industrious our
Dutchmen were, to raise so much on land that at first sight one would
have said was in no way suited for planting.
Now it was that our people began to use stone in the building of houses,
and the first looked so comfortable that others were eager to have
dwellings like it. The consequence was, that during this first fall
after our arrival, there were no less than twelve stone dwellings in
progress, while Master Minuit already had such a home as was a credit to
any town which had been no longer begun than New Amsterdam.
QUARRELSOME SLAVES
It was during this year of our Lord, 1626, when the venture of making a
village in the New World was well-nigh shown to be a success, that the
first serious crime was committed, and one which cost, before many years
had passed, much of white blood.
Among the laborers who had been brought over in the _Sea Mew_, were nine
negro slaves, the West India Company having sent them in the belief that
because of their skins' being black they might do much toward gaining
favor with the brown men.
In Holland these fellows had shown themselves to be fairly good
servants, although not greatly given to industry; but no sooner were
they landed in the New World than they became indolent and ill-tempered,
seeming to believe that because of this country's being inhabited by
people whose skins were dark, they were entitled to a full share of
everything, with no longer the need to look upon any man as master.
[Illustration]
The result of it all was that the negroes became troublesome, ready to
quarrel with any man who crossed their path, and unwilling to do so much
of labor as would have provided them with food to eat.
They swaggered here and there around the village, taking good care,
however, not to cross Master Minuit's path, else would he have pulled
them up with a round turn. At night, when the head men of the village
were in their dwellings, these black fellows did not hesitate to quarrel
with, or even illtreat, the hard working Dutchmen who had never a harsh
word for any one.
Now I have heard it said later that Master Minuit was at fault because
of his not giving to those negroes, when they first showed signs of
being unruly, such a punishment as would never have been forgotten; but
it must be borne in mind that my master was an exceeding busy man,
having the care of everything whatsoever on his shoulders, from the
cutting of stone to the dealings with the West India Company.
Then again, there is a question in my mind as to whether he knew how
overbearing they were growing, for our people, realizing that his cares
were many, suffered much in the way of small injuries rather than
complain to him.
However this may be, I shall always hold that the behavior of these
negroes was no affair of Master Minuit. Until some of the people had
called his attention to it, matters went on as they began, with the
black men growing more and more unruly.
A BRUTAL MURDER
Finally, a certain Indian, having with him a small boy, came down to
trade twenty-two beaver skins for red cloth. Because of none of the
gentlemen traders being near at hand when he arrived, I was forced to
ask him to wait until nearly nightfall, and by the time he had finished
his bargaining, darkness was come.
Now it was usual for these brown men, who lived at a distance, to
shelter themselves for the night nearabout New Amsterdam in the
dwellings of the Manhattan Indians; therefore no one gave heed to the
fact that these two visitors went out from the fort at quite a late hour
in the evening.
Exactly what happened, no one, excepting those concerned directly in it,
could say; but certain it is that between the fort and the settlement of
the Manhattan Indians, within an hour from the time I saw them last,
this Indian and the boy were set upon by four negroes, who beat the man
so brutally while robbing him of the goods he had just purchased, that
he died before mid-night.
The boy escaped, as we learned later, so terrified that he dared not
even trust himself among the Manhattan Indians, but hid in a swamp
during a certain time, after which he rejoined his people.
The negroes were brought before the council; but only one was proven
guilty, owing to lack of evidence, and this fellow was hanged off-hand,
while the others, although declared innocent of the murder, were soundly
flogged as a warning to others of their kind.
Not until several years had passed, did the Dutchmen hear further
concerning this most brutal murder, and then it was that the boy, whose
father, or uncle, had been killed, aroused the people of his tribe to
wreak vengeance upon the white men, thus aiding and bringing about a
most terrible Indian war, although we of New Amsterdam did not suffer
through it as did others who, coming to this New World years afterward,
were wholly innocent of doing any wrong to the brown men.
However, save that the trouble which resulted in much bloodshed, began
there, the war has but little to do with New Amsterdam, and I shall say
no more regarding it at present.
THE VILLAGE CALLED PLYMOUTH
I had thought that, having been given the office of storekeeper, I was
like to remain all my days in the town, without having the privilege of
going even on a trading ship, and yet matters so came about that I
became a great traveler, so far as seeing the New World was concerned.
Shortly after we were come to New Netherland, Master Minuit heard from
the savages that at a place called Plymouth, many miles from us, a
company of Englishmen had made for themselves a village which was fair
to look upon, and growing exceeding fast.
Now you may suppose that I had not been dumb during this time, when I
was showing goods to the savages while our gentlemen made the bargains,
but so I must have been had I not learned a word now and then of their
speech, until, by using many signs in addition, I could carry on quite a
conversation with such of the brown men as would stoop to make talk to a
boy.
[Illustration]
Therefore it was I understood Indian words far better than I could speak
them, and when these stories were told concerning a company of English
people at this new village of Plymouth, my heart went out to them, for
was I not an English boy, and these my countrymen?
I had known, of course, that those of my race who once lived in Leyden,
came to this New World; but that we might be anywhere near them never
entered my head, until the savages told us of Plymouth, and then I said
to myself that there could be no greater pleasure than to see these
people who had been friendly with my father and mother.
I GO ON A VOYAGE
I also knew, because of hearing him speak of it to some of the gentlemen
traders in my presence, that Master Minuit had sent a letter to the
governor of Plymouth by one of the Indians, and a reply had come back;
but more than that I heard nothing until the Secretary told me, one
certain morning, that I was to make a sea voyage with him.
It was a direct command from Master Minuit, and I made ready without
asking to what land we should go, because it was for me to obey, not to
question; but I had a great hope that Hans Braun might not be put into
the storehouse in my place, fearing lest he would not willingly give up
the position, after learning how much more pleasing it was to handle the
toys than the ill-smelling furs.
"We are to journey as far as Plymouth, where is a village in which
English people live," the Secretary, whose name was that of a Frenchman
and bothered my tongue, said to me when I went on board the pinnace
Nassau, which had been made ready for the voyage.
One might have knocked me down with a breath, so astounded and overjoyed
was I at the possibility of seeing my father's friends, and it was a
full five minutes before I could set down an account of the goods that
were being brought on board, for Master Minuit counted on sending a
present to the governor of Plymouth, of no less value than a chest of
sugar, near to an hundred strings of wampum, and three rolls of best
cloth, each of a different color.
[Illustration]
If it had been in my power to provide the wind for the voyage, it could
not have been more favorable, and the _Nassau_ sent up a jet of spray
from her bow, as we sailed down the river on the eastern side of New
Amsterdam till we were come to what is called Long Island Sound, which
is a vast inland sea.
Then we crossed the bay which is called Narragansett, because of the
Indians of that tribe living along the shores, and afterward were come
to a trading post belonging to the people of Plymouth.
A LUKEWARM WELCOME
It was as if my heart came into my mouth when I saw these English
people, and I made no doubt they would welcome me warmly on knowing that
my father was of the same religious faith; but they gave little heed to
my words, and because of being received so coldly, I felt shame that I
had rejoiced when the Secretary told me where our voyage was to come to
an end.
However, we were not then at Plymouth, but nearly twenty miles away.
That the Englishmen might have warning of our coming, word was sent
ahead by one of the savages who had journeyed with us, that a messenger
from the West India Company wished to visit Plymouth, and would do so if
the governor of the town would send a boat to a point four or five miles
from where we then were.
All this was done as the Secretary wished, and we walked across a neck
of land, some of the people from the trading post carrying the chests of
gifts, until coming to where a boat was in waiting.
Before another night had come we were in Plymouth; but it was to me as
if I had met entire strangers, for none gave me the hearty welcome I
had been hungering for, although my story was not doubted. I suppose
there were too many like me in this wide world, and those who were
battling against the wilderness and the savages, as were these people,
could give but little heed to a lad who had no standing among men.
[Illustration]
I was lodged in the fort, where were women who did by me as best they
might; but my heart was sore because of disappointment.
TWO DAYS IN PLYMOUTH
The Secretary was received into the house of the governor, Master
Bradford, and I neither saw nor heard from him, save when he sent me
word next morning, which was the Sabbath, that he expected I would show
myself at the meeting-house.
[Illustration]
All this would I have done even though he had not been so thoughtful,
for I was burning to hear the preachers my father had known: but the
sermon was overly long; I was tired from the journey of the day before,
and, without meaning so much disrespect to the minister, I fell asleep,
nor did I awaken until one of the tithing-men struck me a sharp blow on
the head with a long pole, at the end of which was affixed a wolf's
tail.
It can well be supposed that from then on I sat bolt upright, my face
crimsoned with shame, and after such moment I had no desire to make
myself known to any who had met my father and mother, lest they reproach
me for the crime I had committed.
We stayed in Plymouth the first two days of the week, and I had good
opportunity to see the town; but did not fall in love with it. Although
the people had been living there more than seven years, save for the
manner in which the houses were built, they were not so comfortably
settled as we of New Amsterdam, who had been in America no more than
fourteen months.
I had a good look at that valiant soldier, Miles Standish, who had
fought in the Dutch army, as I well knew, and was much pleased with his
appearance, though I made no effort to have speech with him because of
what I had done in the church.
It was Wednesday morning when we set out on our return, and I must
confess that I was happy, rather than sad, at turning my back upon the
English to meet the Dutch, for while we have less of preaching in New
Amsterdam, there is more of friendliness shown to strangers, or, so it
seemed to me whose heart was sore.
Neither Hans nor Kryn had been called upon to take my place in the
storehouse, and within ten minutes after the _Nassau_ had come to
anchor off the fort, I was at work showing goods to the savages, as if I
had seen no more of this New World than those who labored with me.
By this time our church was set in order, being, as I have said, in the
loft of the horse-mill, and you may be certain I did not allow my eyes
to close in slumber when I went to hear the zeikentroosters explain the
holy words next Sabbath day. We had no such pulpit as they at Plymouth,
but our benches were fairly comfortable to sit on, and Master Minuit's
chair had in it a red cushion that made a braver show than anything I
saw among the English.
FORGING AHEAD
Now, as the days went on, our town of New Amsterdam grew amazingly fast.
It was soon learned that there was good farming land along the eastern
side above the swamps, and within two years no less than six farms,
boweries,--the Dutchmen call them,--were laid out with good promise of
bountiful crops.
The fort had been rebuilt of good stone, in the same shape as when first
made, and the storehouse for the trading goods had been finished as
Master Minuit promised. In addition to what we bartered with the
Indians, stores of all kinds that could be brought from Holland were put
on sale for the benefit of the laborers, and, because of my not being
able to do all the work, Kryn Gildersleeve was sent to me as an
apprentice.
[Illustration]
If that was not a rise in the world, then I do not know what it may be
called, and for it all I have to thank Master Minuit, who ever dealt by
the orphan lad as if he had been the son of a director in the West India
Company.
It was no longer necessary for us to heap up stones to serve as
chimneys, for the laborers were making good bricks. To get lime we
burned the shells of oysters, of which there are in this land so many
that all the world may feed upon them till the youngest man has grown
gray-headed, without lessening the supply.
Ships were coming to us from Holland nearly every month to take away the
furs that had been bought, and the timber cut from the forests. Of
building stone we had all that could be used, no matter how many other
people might make their homes in New Amsterdam.
Truly it was wonderful how soon we made of that wilderness a country
that kings might covet, which indeed they did, as I came to know before
I was at an end of my service with the West India Company.