INTRODUCTION
AN account of the great Indian war which so desolated the province of New Netherland, and of some other actions of Kieft's administration, written from his point of view or that of his supporters, must be regarded as an important piece of evidence. It is the more to be welcomed because on the whole our evidences for New Netherland history come mainly from opponents of the provincial administration and of the West India Company. The archives of the company disappeared almost completely many years ago, the bulk of them having apparently been sold as waste paper not many years before Brodhead went to Holland upon his memorable search. Of Kieft's papers, we may suppose that the greater part were lost when the Princess was shipwrecked on the Welsh coast in September, 1647, and the deposed director and all his possessions were lost.
The document which follows was found by Broadhead in the Royal Library of the Hague. It is still there and is designated No. 78 H 32. I has an outside cover forming a title-page, with ornamental lettering, but it is not the "book ornamented with water-color drawings" which Kieft is known to have sent home. A photograph of the first page, which the editor has procured, does nothing to show the authorship, for it is written in the hand of a professional scrivener. Mr. Van Laer, archivist of the State of New York, assures the editor that it is not the hand of Keift or that of Cornelis van Tienhoven, the provincial secretary.(1) But that it was either inspired by Kieft, or emanated from one of his supporters, is plain not only from its general tone but from its citations of documents. Of the documents to which its marginal notes refer, some of those that we can still trace are noted in the archives of the Netherlands as "from a copy-book of Director Kieft's." The rest, or the original copy-book, may have perished with him.
(1) Mr. J.H. Innes tells me that it resembles that of
Augustin Herrman.
The piece was first printed in 1851, in the Documentary History of the State of New York, IV. 1-17. It was printed for the second time in 1856, in Documents relating to the Colonial History of New York, I. 179-188. For the present issue this early and imperfect translation has been revised with great care by Dr. Johannes de Hullu of the National Archives of the Netherlands, who has used for this purpose the original manuscript in the Royal Library.
JOURNAL OF NEW NETHERLAND, 1647
Journal of New Netherland, 1647, described in the Years
1641, 1642, 1643, 1644, 1645 and 1646.
Brief Description of New Netherland.
NEW NETHERLAND (so called because it was first frequented and peopled by the free Netherlanders) is a province in the most northern part of America lying between New England (which bounds it on the northeast side) and Virginia lying to the southwest of it. The ocean washes its whole length along a clean sandy coast, very similar to that of Flanders or Holland, having except the rivers few bays or harbors for ships; the air is very temperate, inclining to dryness, healthy, little subject to sickness. The four seasons of the year are about as in France, or the Netherlands. The difference is, the spring is shorter because it begins later, the summer is warmer because it comes on more suddenly, the autumn is long and very pleasant, the winter cold and liable to much snow. Two winds ordinarily prevail: the N.W. in winter and the S.W. in summer; the other winds are not common; the N.W. corresponds with our N.E. because it blows across the country from the cold point as our N.E. does. The S.W. is dry and hot like our S.E. because it comes from the warm countries; the N.E. is cold and wet like our S.W. for similar reasons. The character of the country is very like that of France; the land is fairly high and level, especially broken along the coast by small rocky hills unfit for agriculture; farther in the interior are pretty high mountains (generally exhibiting great appearance of minerals) between which flow a great number of small rivers. In some places there are even some lofty ones of extraordinary height, but not many. Its fertility falls behind no province in Europe in excellence of fruits and seeds. There are three principal rivers, to wit: the Fresh, the Mauritius and the South River,(1) all three reasonably wide and deep, adapted for the navigation of large ships twenty-five leagues up and of common barks even to the falls. From the River Mauritius off to beyond the Fresh River stretches a channel that forms an island, forty leagues long, called Long Island, which is the ordinary passage from New England to Virginia, having on both sides many harbors to anchor in, so that people make no difficulty about navigating it in winter. The country is generally covered with trees, except a few valleys and some large flats of seven or eight leagues and less; the trees are as in Europe, viz. Oak, hickory, chestnut, vines. The animals are also of the same species as ours, except lions and some other strange beasts, many bears, abundance of wolves which harm nobody but the small cattle, elks and deer in abundance, foxes, beavers, otters, minks and such like. The birds which are natural to the country are turkeys like ours, swans, geese of three sorts, ducks, teals, cranes, herons, bitterns, two sorts of partridges, four sorts of heath fowls, grouse or pheasants. The river fish is like that of Europe, viz., carp, sturgeon, salmon, pike, perch, roach, eel, etc. In the salt waters are found codfish, haddock, herring and so forth, also abundance of oysters and clams.
(1) Connecticut, Hudson and Delaware.
The Indians are of ordinary stature, strong and broad shouldered; olive color, light and nimble of foot, subtle of mind, of few words which they previously well consider, hypocritical, treacherous, vindictive; brave and obstinate in self-defence, in time of need right resolute to die. They seem to despise all the torments that can be inflicted on them without once uttering a sigh—go almost naked except a lap which hangs before their private parts, and on the shoulders a deer skin or a mantle, a fathom square, of woven Turkey feathers or peltries sewed together. They now make great use of duffel cloths, blue or red, in consequence of the frequent visits of the Christians. In winter they make shoes of deer skins, manufactured after their fashion. Except their chiefs, they have generally but one wife whom they frequently change according to caprice; she must do all the work, as well corn-planting as wood-cutting and whatever else is to be done. They are divided into various nations. They differ even in language, which would be altogether too long to be narrated in this short space. They dwell together in tribes, mostly of one consanguinity, over which commands a chief who is general and is generally called Sackema, possessing not much authority and little advantage, unless in their dances and other ceremonies. They have no knowledge at all of God, no divine worship, no law, no justice; the strongest does what he pleases and the youths are master. Their weapons are the bow and arrow, in the use of which they are wonderful adepts. They live by hunting and fishing in addition to maize which the women plant.
BY WHOM AND HOW NEW NETHERLAND WAS PEOPLED.
The subjects of the Lords States General had for a considerable time frequented this country solely for the purpose of the fur trade. Then, in the year 1623, the Chartered West India Company caused four forts to be erected in that country—two on the River Mauritius and one on each of the other [rivers]; the biggest stands on the point where the Mauritius River begins, and the other one,(1) mentioned heretofore, which their Honors named New Amsterdam; and six and thirty leagues upwards another called Orange. That on the South River is called Nassauw and that on Fresh River, the Good Hope. The Company has since continually maintained garrisons there. In the beginning their Honors had sent a certain number of settlers thither, and at great expense had three sawmills erected, which never realised any profit of consequence, on account of their great heaviness, and a great deal of money was expended for the advancement of the country, but it never began to be settled until every one had liberty to trade with the Indians, inasmuch as up to this time no one calculated to remain there longer than the expiration of his bounden time, and therefore they did not apply themselves to agriculture. Yea, even the colony of Renselaerwyck was of little consequence; but as soon as it was permitted, many servants, who had some money coming to them from the Company, applied for their discharge, built houses and formed plantations, spread themselves far and wide, each seeking the best land, and to be nearest the Indians in order thus to trade with them easily, others bought barks with which to trade goods at the North and at the South, and as the Lords Directors gave free passage from Holland thither, that also caused some to come. On the other hand, the English came also from both Virginia and New England. Firstly, many servants, whose time with their masters had expired, on account of the good opportunity to plant tobacco here, afterwards families and finally entire colonies, forced to quit that place both to enjoy freedom of conscience and to escape from the insupportable government of New England and because many more commodities were easier to be obtained here than there, so that in place of seven farms and two or three plantations which were here, one saw thirty farms, as well cultivated and stocked with cattle as in Europe, and a hundred plantations which in two or three [years] would have become well arranged farms. For after the tobacco was out of the ground, corn was thrown in there without ploughing. In winter men were busy preparing new lands. Five English colonies which by contract had [settled] under us on equal terms as the others. Each of these was in appearance not less than a hundred families strong, exclusive of the colony of Rensselaers Wyck which is prospering, with that of Myndert Meyndertsz(2) and Cornelis Melyn,(3) who began first, also the village New Amsterdam around the fort, a hundred families, so that there was appearance of producing supplies in a year for fourteen thousand souls, without straining the country, and had there been no want of laborers or farm servants twice as much could have been raised, considering that fifty lasts of rye and fifty lasts of peas still remained over around the fort after a large quantity had been burnt and destroyed by the Indians, who in a short time nearly brought this country to nought and had well nigh destroyed this good hope, in manner following—
(1) East River, apparently.
(2) The colony of Hackensack, belonging to Meyndert
Meyndertsen van Keren and others.
(3) Cornelis Melyn's colony embraced all Staten Island
except De Vries's plantation.