Peter Stuyvesant, the Last Dutch Governor of New Amsterdam

by John S. C. Abbott

"I have, in the name of the States-General and the West
India Company, taken possession of the forementioned river,
and, for testimony thereof, have set up an house on the
north side of the said river. It is not the intent of the
States to take the land from the poor natives, but rather to
take it at some reasonable price, which, God be praised, we
have done hitherto. In this part of the world there are many
heathen lands which are destitute of inhabitants, so that
there need not be any question respecting a little part or
portion thereof."

At the same time the Plymouth colony made a move to obtain a foothold upon the Connecticut. To secure the color of a title, the colony purchased of a company of Indians who had been driven from their homes by the all-victorious Pequods, a tract of land just above fort Hope, embracing the territory where the town of Windsor now stands. Lieutenant Holmes was then dispatched with a chosen company, in a vessel which conveyed the frame of a small house carefully stowed away, and which could be very expeditiously put together. He was directed to push directly by fort Hope, and raise and fortify his house upon the purchased lands. Governor Bradford, of Plymouth, gives the following quaint account of this adventure:

"When they came up the river the Dutch demanded what they
intended, and whither they would go? They answered, 'up the
river to trade.' Now their order was to go and seat above
them. They bid them strike and stay or they would shoot
them, and stood by their ordnance ready fitted. They
answered, they had commission from the Governor of Plymouth
to go up the river to such a place, and if they did shoot
they must obey their order and proceed; they would not
molest them but go on. So they passed along. And though the
Dutch threatened them hard yet they shot not. Coming to
their place they clapped up their house quickly, and landed
their provisions, and left the company appointed, and sent
the bark home, and afterward palisaded their house about,
and fortified themselves better."

Van Twiller, informed of this intrusion, sent a commissioner, protesting against this conduct and ordering Holmes to depart, with all his people. Holmes replied, "I am here in the name of the king of England, and here I shall remain."

Matters soon became seriously complicated. A boat's crew was robbed and murdered by some vagabond Indians. The culprits were taken and hung.

This exasperated against the Dutch the powerful Pequods who had the supremacy over all that territory. Open war soon ensued. The Pequods sent an embassy to Boston, and entered into a treaty of alliance with the Massachusetts colony, in which they surrendered to that colony the Connecticut valley.

In the meantime, Van Twiller having received instructions from the home government, dispatched a force of seventy well armed men to drive Lieutenant Holmes and his men from their post. The English stood firmly upon their defence. The Dutch, seeing that a bloody battle must ensue, with uncertain results, withdrew without offering any violence. In many respects the Dutch colonies continued to enjoy much prosperity. Mr. Brodhead gives the following interesting account of the state of affairs at the mouth of the Hudson, in the year 1633:

"Fort Amsterdam, which had become dilapidated, was repaired,
and a guard-house and a barrack for the newly arrived
soldiers were constructed within the ramparts, at a cost of
several thousand guilders.
"Three expensive windmills were also erected. But they were
injudiciously placed so near the fort that the buildings,
within its walls, frequently intercepted and turned off the
south wind.
"Several brick and frame houses were built for the Director
and his officers. On the Company's farm, north of the fort,
a dwelling-house, brewery, boat-house and barn were erected.
Other smaller houses were built for the corporal, the smith,
the cooper. The loft, in which the people had worshipped
since 1626, was now replaced by a plain wooden building,
like a barn, situated on the East River, in what is now
Broad street, between Pearl and Bridge streets. Near this
old church a dwelling-house and stable were erected for the
use of the Domine. In the Fatherland the title of Domine was
familiarly given to clergymen. The phrase crossed the
Atlantic with Bogardus, and it has survived to the present
day among the descendants of the Dutch colonists of New
Netherland."

The little settlement at Manhattan was entitled to the feudal right of levying a tax upon all the merchandise passing up or down the river. The English were, at this time, so ignorant of this region of the North American coast that a sloop was dispatched to Delaware Bay "to see if there were any river there." As the Dutch had vacated the Delaware, the English decided to attempt to obtain a foothold on those waters. Accordingly, in the year 1635, they sent a party of fourteen or fifteen Englishmen, under George Holmes, to seize the vacant Dutch fort.

Van Twiller, informed of this fact, with much energy sent an armed vessel, by which the whole company was arrested and brought to Manhattan, whence they were sent, "pack and sack," to an English settlement on the Chesapeake.