In response to this appeal Kieft was recalled. Just before he received his summons peace was concluded with the Indians, on the 31st of August, 1645. The war had raged five years. It had filled the land with misery. All were alike weary of its carnage and woes. A new governor was appointed, Peter Stuyvesant. The preceding account of the origin of the Dutch colony and its progress thus far is essential to the understanding of the long and successful administration of the new governor, whose name is one of the most illustrious in the early annals of New York.
It may be worthy of brief remark that a few weeks after the arrival of Governor Stuyvesant, Kieft embarked in the ship Princess for Holland. The vessel was wrecked on the coast of Wales Kieft and eighty-one men, women and children sank into a watery grave. Kieft died unlamented. His death was generally regarded as an act of retributive justice.
CHAPTER VI.—GOVERNOR STUYVESANT.
New Netherland in 1646.—Early Years of Peter
Stuyvesant.—Decay of New Amsterdam.—The Germs of a
Representative Government.—Energetic Administration.—Death
of Governor Winthrop.—Claims for Long Island.—Arrogance of
the Governor.—Remonstrance of the Nine Men.—The Pastoral
Office.—Boundary lines.—Increasing Discontent.—Division
of Parties.—Dictatorial Measures.
It is estimated that the whole population of New Netherland, in the year 1646, amounted to about one thousand souls. In 1643, it numbered three thousand. Such was the ruin which the mal-administration of Kieft had brought upon the colony. The male adult population around Amsterdam was reduced to one hundred. At the same time the population of the flourishing New England colonies had increased to about sixty thousand.
On the 11th of May, 1647, Governor Stuyvesant arrived at Manhattan. He was appointed as "Redresser General," of all colonial abuses. We have but little knowledge of the early life of Peter Stuyvesant. The West India Company had a colony upon the island of Curaçoa, in the Caribbean Sea. For some time Stuyvesant had been its efficient Director. He was the son of a clergyman in Friesland, one of the northern provinces of the Netherlands.
He received a good academic education, becoming quite a proficient in the Latin language, of which accomplishment, it is said that he was afterwards somewhat vain. At school he was impetuous, turbulent and self-willed. Upon leaving the academy he entered the military service, and soon developed such energy of character, such a spirit of self-reliance and such administrative ability that he was appointed director of the colony at Curaçoa. He was recklessly courageous, and was deemed somewhat unscrupulous in his absolutism. In an attack upon the Portuguese island of Saint Martin, in the year 1644, which attack was not deemed fully justifiable, he lost a leg. The wound rendered it necessary for him to return to Holland in the autumn of 1644, for surgical aid.
Upon his health being re-established, the Directors of the West India Company, expressing much admiration for his Roman courage, appointed him Governor of their colony in New Netherland, which was then in a state of ruin. There were also under his sway the islands of Curaçoa, Buenaire and Amba. The Provincial Government presented him with a paper of instructions very carefully drawn up. The one-man power, which Kieft had exercised, was very considerably modified. Two prominent officers, the Vice-Director and the Fiscal, were associated with him in the administration of all civil and military affairs. They were enjoined to take especial care that the English should not further encroach upon the Company's territory. They were also directed to do everything in their power to pacify the Indians and to restore friendly relations with them. No fire-arms or ammunition were, under any circumstances, to be sold to the Indians.
Van Diricklagen was associated with the Governor as Vice-Director, and ensign Van Dyck, of whom the reader has before heard, was appointed Fiscal, an important office corresponding with our post of Treasurer. Quite a large number of emigrants, with abundant supplies, accompanied this party. The little fleet of four ships left the Texel on Christmas day of 1646. The expedition, running in a southerly direction, first visited the West India islands. On the voyage the imperious temper of Stuyvesant very emphatically developed itself.