Peter Stuyvesant, the Last Dutch Governor of New Amsterdam

by John S. C. Abbott

"as inquisitors, to collect evidence criminating the Dutch
and to collect no other evidence. And, with peculiar
assurance, they saw no impropriety in requiring the
authorities of New Netherland, in their own capital, to
suspend their established rules of law in favor of those of
New England."

Governor Stuyvesant repressed every expression of impatience, and urged the most friendly overtures. It may be said that it was manifestly for his interest to do so, for the Dutch colonies were quite powerless compared with the united colonies of New England. The New England agents ungraciously repelled his advances, and at length abruptly terminated the conference without giving the governor an opportunity to prove his innocence. At nine o'clock in the evening they suddenly took leave of New Amsterdam, declining the most friendly invitations to remain, and "cloaking their sudden departure under pretence of the day of election to be held this week at Boston." They left behind them the following menace:

"The Commissioners conclude their negotiation by declaring
that if you shall offer any injury to any of the English in
these parts, whether by yourselves or by the Indians, either
upon the national quarrel, or by reason of any differences
depending between the United English Colonies and
yourselves, that, as the Commissioners will do no wrong, so
they may not suffer their countrymen to be oppressed upon
any such account."

The morning after this unfriendly retirement of the agents, Governor Stuyvesant dispatched a messenger to Boston, with a letter containing a very full reply to the grievances of which the New England colonists complained. In this letter, which bears the impress of frankness and honesty, he says,

"What your worships lay unto our charge are false reports
and feigned informations. Your honored messengers might, if
they had pleased, have informed themselves of the truth of
this, and might also have obtained more friendly
satisfaction and security, concerning our real intentions,
if they had pleased to stay a day or two with us, to have
heard and considered further of these articles."

On their way home, the New England agents stopped at Flushing, Stamford and New Haven, to collect all the evidence they could against Governor Stuyvesant. The hearsay stories of the Indians they carefully picked up. Still the only point ascertained, of any moment was, that Governor Stuyvesant had told an Englishman, one Robert Coe, that if the English attacked him, he should try to get the Indians to come to his aid; and that he had said the same to William Alford.

This was all the evidence the agents could find against the governor. He had made these declarations without any purpose of concealment. He had been instructed to pursue this course by the Amsterdam Directors. The New England colonists had in their Pequod war, set the example of employing Indian allies. This repulsive feature in the British colonial administration continued until the close of the war of the Revolution.

Captain John Underbill, an Englishman, who had obtained considerable renown in the Pequod war becoming dissatisfied with some ecclesiastical censure which he had incurred, petitioned Governor Stuyvesant for permission to reside, with a few other families in New Netherland, under the protection of the Dutch, offering to take the oath of allegiance which was required of all foreigners. His request was promptly granted. It was the liberal policy of the Dutch government not to exclude foreigners from any privileges which the Hollanders themselves enjoyed. Underhill was now residing at Hempstead, Long Island. His restless spirit, ever eager for change, seized upon the present moment as a fitting opportunity to wrest from the Dutch their portion of Long Island, and pass it over to his countrymen. In violation of his oath he issued a treasonable proclamation, in which he said,

"You are called upon to abjure the iniquitous government of
Peter Stuyvesant over the inhabitants residing on Long
Island. His rule is too grievous for any brave Englishman
and good Christian to tolerate any longer. All honest hearts
that seek the glory of God and his peace and prosperity, are
exhorted to throw off this tyrannical yoke. Accept and
submit ye then to the Parliament of England; and beware of
becoming traitors to one another for the sake of your own
quiet and welfare."

This proclamation did not meet with a cordial response. Underbill fled to Rhode Island. Here he received from Boston a commission, "to take all Dutch ships and vessels as shall come into his power, and to defend himself from the Dutch and all enemies of the commonwealth of England."