The title of De Laet’s next work[816] is very misleading, for one would naturally expect to find the history of the first settlement on the soil of New York in all its details;[817] but the name of New Netherland is only mentioned, as it were, by accident. Still the book has its value for the student of the philosophy of American history, for in the preface the author frankly admits that the object of the West India Company was war on Spain, and he congratulates the country upon the successes so far obtained; and he further shows how the Company, organized for warlike purposes, could not give any attention to a country which, under the circumstances, required the utmost care for its profitable development. Considering that De Laet was personally interested in New Netherland as co-patroon of Rensselaerswyck and through the marriage of his daughter to an inhabitant of the province, it is astonishing to find so little said by him of the actual occurrences there. It may be that reasons of policy and prudence restrained him from baring to the public eye many things for which the Company could be called to account. The new race, however, with which his countrymen had come in contact, had sufficiently excited his interest to induce him to study their habits and speculate upon their origin, so that when the learned Grotius published a treatise on the American Indians,[818] De Laet rushed into the field combating Grotius’s theories.
While De Laet reports the events in New Netherland up to a given date as a member of the Government saw them, we have two authors before whose eyes some of these events took place, and who in writing about them criticise them in the manner of subjects and citizens. To the first of these, David Pietersen de Vries, Artillerie-Meester van d’ Noorder Quartier, Mr. Bancroft gives the credit of being the founder of the State of Delaware.[819] How far the abortive attempt of establishing the colony of Zwanendael, mentioned in the narrative, and the voyage bringing over the colonists may be called “the cradling of a state,” I leave others to decide. De Vries published in 1655 an account of his voyages[820] made twenty years before, and tells us in his book, in the most unvarnished manner and with the bluntness of a sailor, how badly New Netherland was being governed under the administration of Minuit and Van Twiller. No doubt as to the veracity of his statements can be entertained, as in his case there could be no motive for “divagation.” He views the loss of his Delaware colony with the proverbial equanimity both of a Dutchman and of a sailor, and stands so far above the coarseness of manners and life in his time, that he considers officials addicted to drink not much better than criminals. Where he speaks of matters not seen by himself, and of the Indians and their mode of life, he follows closely the best authority to be found; namely, the work of Domine Johannis Megapolensis.
The other author, Jonker[821] Adrian van der Donck, Doctor of Laws and Advocate of the Supreme Court of Holland, has done more to give to his contemporaries a full knowledge of the country of his adoption, and to implant in the country itself better institutions, than any other man. Sent over in 1642 as Schout (sheriff) of the Patroons’ Colony of Rensselaerswyck, he in 1647 left this service in consequence of a quarrel with the vice-director, and purchased from the Indians the colony of Colen Donck, now Yonkers, for which he received a patent in 1648.[822] A controversy arose about this time between the Government and several colonists, among whom was Van der Donck, which led to a remonstrance being drawn up, to be laid before the States-General for a redress of certain grievances which they had so far failed to obtain either from the provincial governor or the West India Company.[823] It is a contemporaneous relation of events in New Netherland signed by eleven residents of New Amsterdam. Its probable author was Van der Donck; at least his original journal was the source from which this “Remonstrance” was derived. The form in which Governor Stuyvesant seized it[824] is, however, different from the one in which it was published. In the latter it is divided in three parts: 1. A description of the natives and of the physical features of the country; 2. Events connected with the earliest settlements of the country; 3. Remonstrance against the policy of the West India Company. The tone and character of such a document must be necessarily aggressive; but, even though the reply to it by the provincial secretary, Van Tienhoven,[825] denies most of its allegations, it certainly contains valuable and trustworthy information.
Van der Donck’s next work, acknowledged by him as his own,[826] is an improvement on De Laet’s similar description. The time which had elapsed since De Laet’s publication had taught different lessons, and Van der Donck’s personal experience in the country described by him could not fail to give him a better insight than even the best written reports afforded to De Laet. But, with the latter, this author falls into the error of ascribing to the Indians a statement that the Dutch were the first white people seen by them, and that they did not know there were any other people in the world. This assertion is contradicted by the Long Island Indians, who talked with a later traveller, telling him that “the first strangers seen in these parts were Spaniards or Portuguese, who did not remain long, and afterwards the Dutch came.”[827] The so-called “Pompey Stone,” in the State Geological Museum, might be taken for another contradiction of De Laet’s and Van der Donck’s statements. Still more apparently contradictory evidence might be the similarity of some so-called Indian words with words of the Latin tongues.[828] Nor is Van der Donck correct in the relation of the discovery of the country by Hudson, and the map accompanying his work has several grave errors. The description of the physical features of the country, of the animals, and of the Indians is followed by a discourse between a patriot and a New Netherlander on the conveniences of the new colony, in which the questions are asked and answered, whether it is to the advantage of Holland to have such a flourishing colony, and whether this colony will ever be able to defend itself against foreign enemies.
Another resident of New Netherland, the Reverend Johannis Megapolensis (van Mekelenburg), one of the few educated men who came to this country at that early date, has given us a book which, though not strictly referring to the history of the country, must yet be considered as one of the collateral sources, and finds its most appropriate place here, following the Descriptions. As minister of the Reformed Church at Rensselaerswyck, whither he was called by the patroon in 1642, he came soon in close contact with the Indians; and having learned the difficult Mohawk language, he became, several years earlier than the New England preacher, John Eliot, a missionary among the Indians. The result of his labors was an account of the Mohawks, their country, etc.[829] This account was closely followed by De Vries, as mentioned above, and by most of the other writers on the Indians.
A large share of the material for this work Megapolensis must have received from Father Jogues, a Jesuit missionary whom the Dominie rescued from captivity among the Mohawks. The letters of this courageous and zealous servant of the Church to his superiors teem with information concerning the Indians, whom he endeavored to Christianize,[830] and at whose hands he died.
Either the financial success of De Laet’s works, whose copyright had in the mean time expired, or else the interest in New Netherland affairs which had been newly aroused by the presentation to, and discussion before, the States-General of the Vertoogh, led to the compilation in 1651[831] of a book on New Netherland by Joost Hartgers, a bookseller of Amsterdam, which is nothing more than a clever arrangement of extracts from De Laet’s Description, second edition, the Vertoogh, and Megapolensis’ Indian treatise. Of much greater importance and value to the historical student is an anonymous publication of 1659, the title of which gives no idea of its real contents. Like most popularly written works of the day discussing topics of public interest, it is in the form of a conversation between a countryman, a citizen, and a sailor, who discuss the deplorable depression of commerce, navigation, trade, and agriculture in Holland, and speculate on the best means to improve this state of affairs.[832] The author speaks of New Netherland matters with a positiveness which puts it beyond a doubt that he had been in that country.[833] Only a few pages are given to the description of New Netherland, but the propositions advanced on colonization, self-government of colonies, free-trade, and slavery are all aimed at the West India Company and its American territories. These propositions are of such a broad and liberal character, that they would do credit to any writer of our more enlightened times. A similar feeling of hostility against the West India Company and New Netherland, both then (1659) in a condition to invite criticism, pervades the work of Otto Keye,[834] who advocates the colonization of Guiana as being more rational and profitable than that of New Netherland. Starting with the argument that a warm climate is preferable to a colder one, on account both of physical comforts and of greater commercial advantages, he gives a description of the two countries, the bias being of course in favor of Guiana.