The Approach of the Fleet.—The Governor Unjustly
Censured.—The Flag of Truce.—The Haughty Response.—The
Remonstrance.—The Defenceless City.—The Surrender.—The
Expedition to the Delaware.—Sack and Plunder.—Change of
Name.—Testimony to the Dutch Government.—Death of the
Governor.—His farm, or Bouwerie.—War Between Holland and
England.—New York Menaced by the Dutch.
The only response which Colonel Nicholls deigned to make to the remonstrance of Governor Stuyvesant, was to put his fleet in motion. A party of soldiers, infantry and cavalry, was landed on Long Island, and they advanced rapidly through the forest, to the little cluster of huts which were scattered along the silent and solitary shores of Brooklyn. These troops were generally volunteers from Connecticut and from the English settlements on Long Island.
The fleet then ascended through the Narrows, and two of the frigates disembarked a number of regular troops just below Brooklyn, to support the volunteers. Two of the frigates, one mounting thirty-six guns, and the other thirty, coming up under full sail, passed directly within range of the guns of the fort, and cast anchor between the fort and Nutten or Governor's Island.
Stuyvesant stood at one of the angles of the fortress as the frigates passed by. It was a critical moment. The fate of the city and the lives of its inhabitants trembled in the balance. The guns were loaded and shotted, and the gunners stood by with their burning matches. A word from the impetuous Stuyvesant would have opened upon the city all the horrors of a bombardment. There were but about twenty guns in the fort. There were sixty-six in the two frigates, whose portholes were opened upon the city; and there were two other frigates just at hand, prepared to bring twenty-eight guns more into the fray.
As Governor Stuyvesant stood at that point, burning with indignation, with the word to fire almost upon his lips, the two clergymen of the place, Messrs. Megapolensis and son, came up and entreated him not to be the first to shed blood in a hopeless conflict. Their persuasions induced the governor to leave the rampart, and intrusting the defence of the fort to fifty men, to take the remainder of the garrison, one hundred in number, to repel if possible, the English, should they attempt a landing. The governor still cherished a faint hope that some accommodation could yet be agreed upon.
The Directors in Holland subsequently, with great severity and, as we think, with great injustice, censured Governor Stuyvesant for his conduct on this occasion. The whole population of the little city was but fifteen hundred. Of them not more than two hundred and fifty were able to bear arms, in addition to the one hundred and fifty regular troops in garrison. And yet the Directors in Holland wrote, in the following cruel terms, to the heroic governor:
"It is an act which can never be justified, that a Director
General should stand between the gabions, while the hostile
frigates pass the fort, and the mouths of twenty pieces of
cannon, and yet give no orders to prevent it. It is
unpardonable that he should lend his ear to preachers, and
other chicken-hearted persons, demeaning himself as if he
were willing to fire, and yet to allow himself to be led in
from the bulwark between the preachers. When the frigates
had sailed past, he became so troubled that he must then
first go out to prevent their landing. The excuse, that it
was resolved not to begin hostilities, is very poor, for the
English had committed every hostile act."
The governor immediately sent to Colonel Nicholls a flag of truce conveyed by four of the most distinguished officers of State. Through them he said:
"I feel obliged to defend the city, in obedience to orders.
It is inevitable that much blood will be shed on the
occurrence of the assault. Cannot some accommodation yet be
agreed upon? Friends will be welcome if they come in a
friendly manner."
The laconic, decisive and insulting response of Colonel Nicholls was: