On the 11th of July, Governor Stuyvesant left New Amsterdam for Esopus. Messengers were dispatched to summon the Esopus chiefs to his presence. Appalled by the fate of their brethren, who had been sent as slaves to the West Indies, they were afraid to come. After waiting several days the governor sent envoys to the chiefs of other tribes, urging them "to bring the Esopus savages to terms."
At length four Esopus chiefs appeared before the gate of the village. Delegates from other tribes also appeared, and a grand council was held. It is very evident from this interview, that many of the more delicate feelings of the civilized man had full sway in the hearts of these poor Indians. Instead of imploring peace themselves, the Esopus Indians employed two chiefs, one of the Mohawk and the other of the Mingua tribe, to make the proposition in their behalf.
Governor Stuyvesant assented to peace upon condition that the Mohawks and the Minguas would stand as security for the faithful observance of the terms exacted. The chiefs of these tribes agreeing to this, in a formal speech admonished the Esopus chiefs to live with the Dutch as brothers. And then, turning to the Dutch, in a speech equally impressive, they warned them not to irritate the Indians by unjust treatment. The Indians were compelled to yield to such terms as Stuyvesant proposed.
All the lands of Esopus were surrendered to the Dutch. The starving Indians were to receive eight hundred schepels of corn as ransom for the captive christians. The Indian warriors sent as slaves to the West Indies, were to be left to their awful fate. The mediators were held responsible for the faithful execution of the treaty. Should the Esopus Indians break it, the mediators were bound to assist the Dutch in punishing them. No spirituous liquors were to be drank near the houses of the Dutch. No armed Indians to approach a Dutch plantation. Murderers were to be mutually surrendered, and damages reciprocally paid for.
Thus were the Esopus Indians driven from their homes, deprived of their independence and virtually ruined. Having thus triumphantly though cruelly settled this difficulty, Stuyvesant went up to fort Orange, where he held another grand council with the chiefs of all the tribes in those regions.
A clergyman was sent to Esopus and a church organized of sixteen members. In September, 1660, Domine Selyus was installed as the clergyman of Brooklyn, where he found one elder, two deacons and twenty-four church members. There were, at that time thirty-one families in Brooklyn, containing a population of one hundred and thirty-four persons. They had no church but worshipped in a barn. Governor Stuyvesant contributed nearly eighty dollars annually to the support of this minister, but upon condition that he should preach every Sunday afternoon, at his farm or bouwery upon Manhattan Island.
The last of May, Charles the Second, the fugitive King of England, was returning from his wanderings on the continent to ascend the throne of his ancestors. He was a weak man, of imperturbable good nature. On his way to London he stopped at the Hague, where he was magnificently entertained. In taking leave of the States-General he was lavish of his expressions of friendship. He declared that he should feel jealous should the Dutch prefer the friendship of any other state to that of Great Britain.
At that time Holland was in commercial enterprise, the most prosperous nation upon the globe; decidedly in advance of England. The British parliament envied Holland her commercial supremacy. "The Convention Parliament," writes Mr. Brodhead,
"which had called home the king, took early steps to render
still more obnoxious one of England's most selfish measures.
The Navigation Act of 1651 was revised; and it was now
enacted that after the first day of December, 1660, no
merchandise should be imported into, or exported from any of
his majesty's plantations or territories in Asia, Africa or
America, except in English vessels of which the master and
three-fourths of the mariners at least are English."
Immediately after this, Lord Baltimore demanded the surrender of New Amstel and all the lands on the west side of Delaware bay. "All the country," it was said by his envoy,