Читать книгу History of Westchester County, New York, Volume 1 - Frederic Shonnard - Страница 9

The troubles of the Dutch with the Indians, to which frequent allusion has been made, began in 1641, as the result of a revengeful personal act, capitally illustrating the vindictiveness of the Indian character. In 1626, fifteen years before, a venerable Indian warrior, accompanied by his nephew, a lad of tender age, came to New Amsterdam with some furs, which he intended to sell at the fort. Passing by the edge of the "Collect," a natural pond in the lower part of Manhattan Island, he was stopped by three laborers belonging to the farm of Director Minuit (said to have been negroes), who, coveting the valuable property which he bore, slew him and made off with the goods, but permitted the boy to escape. The latter, after the custom of his race in circumstances of personal grievance, made a vow of vengeance, which in 1641, having arrived at manhood's estate, he executed in the most deliberate and cruel manner, he one day entered the shop of Claes Cornelisz Smits, a wheelwright living near Turtle Bay, in the vicinity of Forty-fifth street and the East River. The Dutchman, who knew him well, suspected no harm, and, after setting food before him, went to a chest to get some cloth which the young savage had said he came to purchase. The other fell upon him from behind, and struck him dead with an ax. This terrible deed aroused strong feeling throughout the settlements, and Director Kieft demanded satisfaction of the chief of the Weckquaesgecks, the tribe to which the offender belonged. An exasperating answer was returned, to the effect that the accused had but avenged a wrong, and that, in the private opinion of the chief, it would not have been excessive if twenty Christians had been killed in retaliation. The only recourse now left was to declare war against the savages, and to this end all the heads of families were summoned to meet on August 29, 1641, " for the consideration of some important and necessary matters." The assembled citizens selected a council of twelve men, who, upon advising together, recommended that further efforts be made to have the murderer delivered up to justice. All endeavors in this line proving unsuccessful, war was declared in the spring of 1642. Hendrick Van Dyck, an ensign in the company's service, was placed in command of eighty men, with instructions to proceed against the Weekquaesgecks and " execute summary vengeance upon that tribe with fire and sword." This party crossed into our county, and, under the direction of a guide supposed to be experienced and trustworthy, marched through the woods with the intent of attacking the Indian village, which then occupied the site of Dobbs Ferry. But they lost their way, and were obliged to come ingloriously back. Shortly afterward a treaty of peace was signed at Bronck's house, the Indians engaging to give up the murderer of Smith's, dead or alive. The first period of the war was thus brought to an end.

But causes of irritation still existed, which were not done away with as time passed. The assassin was not surrendered according to agreement, and the savages continued to commit outrages, which greatly incensed the not too amiable Dutch director-general. The next event of importance was an act of aggression against the Indians, quite as barbarous as any ever perpetrated by the latter, which has covered Kieft's name with infamy. Early in February, 1643, a band of Mohawks from the north made a descent upon the Mohican tribes, for the purpose of levying tribute. Many of the Weekquaesgecks and Tappaens, to escape death at the hands of the invaders, fled to the Dutch settlements; and thus large parties of Indian fugitives belonging in part to a tribe against whom Kieft cherished bitter resentment were gradually congregated within close proximity to New Amsterdam. The director, seizing the opportunity for vengeance thus presented, secretly dispatched a body of soldiers across the Hudson to Pavonia, which had been selected by most of the fleeing savages as their headquarters, and on the night between the 25th and 26th of February these natives were indiscriminately massacred. " Nearly a hundred," says Bancroft, " perished in the carnage. Daybreak did not end its horrors; men might be seen, mangled and helpless, suffering from cold and hunger; children were tossed into the stream, and as their parents plunged to their rescue the soldiers prevented their landing, that both child and parent might drown." Similar scenes were enacted at Corlaer's Hook, where forty Indians were slaughtered. In 1886 the remains of some of these victims of Kieft's inhumanity and treachery were unearthed by persons making excavations at Communipaw Avenue and Halliday Street, Jersey City. A newspaper report published at the time, after reciting the historical facts of the tragedy, gave the following particulars: "Trenches were dug (by the soldiers) and the bodies thrown into them indiscriminately. The scene of the butchery is now known as Lafayette, and after nearly two and a half centuries one of the trenches has been opened. Crowds gathered around the place yesterday while the excavating was going on, and looked at the skulls and bones. The number of the bodies can only be determined by means of the skulls, as the bones are all mixed together, and many of them crumble at the touch into fine dust."

A furious war of revenge was now proclaimed by the savages, a general alliance of the tribes being effected. Even the Long Island Indians, who had formerly dwelt on terms of amity with the settlers, rose against the common white foe. The settlement planted in the previous year at Maspeth by the Rev. Francis Doughty, father of Elias Doughty, who in 1666 became the purchaser of Van der Donck's patroonship of Yonkers, was entirely swept away; and another English settlement at Gravesend, presided over by Lady Moody (an exile from New England, like Anne Hutchinson, on account of religious belief), was three times fiercely attacked, but, being excellently stockaded, successfully resisted the desperate assailants. Historical writers upon this gloomy period vie with each other in vivid descriptions of its terrors. " The tomahawk, the firebrand, and scalping-knife," says O'Callaghan, " were clutched with all the ferocity of frenzy, and the war-whoop rang from the Raritan to the Connecticut. Every settler on whom they laid hands was murdered, women and children dragged into captivity, and, though the settlements around Fort Amsterdam extended, at this period, thirty English miles to the east and twenty-one to the north and south, the enemy burned the dwellings, desolated the farms and farmhouses, killed the cattle, destroyed the crops of grain, hay, and tobacco, laid waste the country all around, and drove the settlers, panic-stricken, into Fort Amsterdam." Roger Williams, who was in New Amsterdam during that eventful spring writes: " Mine eyes saw the flames of their towns, the frights and hurries of men, women, and children, and the present removal of all who could to Holland." Nevertheless, after a few weeks of violent aggression, the Indians were persuaded to sign another peace, negotiated mainly through the prudent efforts of the patroon David Pietersen de Vries. This treaty included the solemn declaration that " all injuries committed by the said natives against the Netherland er, or by the Netherlander against said natives, shall be forgiven and forgotten forever, reciprocally promising one the other to cause no trouble the one to the other."

There is no doubt that the Dutch, alarmed for the very existence of their New Netherland colony, this time most scrupulously observed the compact entered into; but the Indians, still restless and unsatiated, renewed hostilities with the expiration of the summer season. In September they attacked and captured two boats descending the river from Fort Orange, and, resuming their programme of promiscuous slaughter, they soon afterward murdered the New England refugees on the coast of the Sound and burnt their dwellings. It was consequently resolved by the Dutch to take up arms once more, and, if possible, administer a crushing blow to the power of their enemy, a resolve which, during the ensuing winter, they were enabled by good fortune to realize, at least to the limit of reasonable expectation.

Kieft first sent a force to scour Staten Island, which, like Van Dyck's Westchester expedition of 1642, returned without results, no foe being encountered. A detachment of one hundred and twenty men was then dispatched by water to the English settlement of Greenwich, on the Sound, it having been reported that a large body of hostile Indians was encamped in the vicinity of that place. Disappointment was also experienced there. After marching all night without finding the expected enemy, the troops came to Stamford, where they halted to wait for fresh information. From here a raid was made on a small Indian village (probably lying within Westchester borders), and some twenty braves were put to death. An aged Indian who had been taken prisoner now volunteered to lead the Dutch to one of the strongholds of the natives, consisting of three powerful castles. He kept his promise; but, although the castles were duly found, they were deserted. Two of them were burned, the third being reserved for purposes of retreat in case of emergency. Thus the second armed expedition sent into Westchester County accomplished comparatively little in the way of inflicting the long-de sired punishment upon the audacious savages. Numbers of Westchester Indians (mostly women and children) were captured and sent to Fort Amsterdam, where, as testified by Dutch official records, they were treated with malignant cruelty.

The next move was somewhat more successful. A mixed force of English and Dutch, commanded jointly by Captain John Underhill, the celebrated Indian fighter from New England, and Sergeant Peter Cock, of Fort Amsterdam, proceeded to the neighborhood of Heemstede (Hempstead), Long Island, and attacked two Indian villages. More than a hundred Indians were killed, the Dutch and English loss being only one killed and three wounded. But as the principal strength of the enemy was known to be in the regions north of the Harlem River, whence the warriors who slew the settlers and devastated the fields of Manhattan Island were constantly emerging, it was deemed indispensable to conduct decisive operations in that quarter. Captain Underhill, whose long experience and known discretion in savage warfare indicated him as the man for the occasion, was sent to Stamford, with orders to investigate and report upon the situation. Being trustworthily informed that a very numerous body of the Indians was assembled at a village at no great distance, and placing confidence in the representations of a guide who claimed to know the way to the locality, he advised prompt action. Director Kieft, adopting his recommendation, placed him in command of one hundred and thirty armed men, who were immediately transported on three yachts to Greenwich. This was in the month of February, 1644.

A raging snowstorm prevented the forward movement of the troops from Greenwich for the greater part of a day and night. But the weather being more favorable the next morning, they set out about daybreak, and, led by the guide, advanced in a general northwestwardly direction. It was a toilsome all-day march through deep snow and over mountainous hills and frequent streams, some of the latter being scarcely fordable. At eight o'clock in the evening they halted within a few miles of the village, " which had been carefully arranged for winter quarters, lay snugly ensconced in a low mountain recess, completely sheltered from the bleak northerly winds, and consisted of a large number of huts disposed in three streets, each about eighty paces long." After allowing his men two hours of rest and strengthening them with abundant refreshments, Underhill gave the word to resume the march. The enterprise, attended by extreme hardships up to this time, was now, in its final stage, favored by peculiarly satisfactory conditions. It was near midnight, the snow completely deadened the footsteps of the avenging host, and a brilliant full moon was shining — " a winter's day could not be brighter."

O'Callaghan, in his " History of New Netherland," gives the following account of the resulting conflict:

The Indians were as much on the alert as their enemy. They soon discovered the Dutch troops, who charged forthwith, surrounding the camp, sword in hand. The Indians evinced on this occasion considerable boldness, and made a rush once or twice to break the Dutch lines and open some way for escape. But in this they failed, leaving one dead and twelve prisoners in the hands of the assailants, who now kept up such a brisk fire that it was impossible for any of the besieged to escape. After a desperate conflict of an hour, one hundred and eighty Indians lay dead on the snow outside their dwellings. Not one of the survivors durst now show his face. They remained under cover, discharging their arrows from behind, to the great annoyance of the Dutch troops. Underbill, now seeing no other way to overcome the obstinate resistance of the foe, gave orders to fire their huts. The order was forthwith obeyed; the wretched inmates endeavoring in every way to escape from the horrid flames, but mostly without success. The moment they made their appearance they rushed or were driven precipitately back into their burning hovels, preferring to be consumed by fire than to fall by our weapons. In this merciless manner were butchered, as some of the Indians afterward reported, five hundred human beings. Others carry the number to seven hundred; "the Lord having collected most of our enemies there to celebrate some peculiar festival." Of the whole party, no more than eight men escaped this terrible slaughter by fire and sword. Three of these were badly wounded. Throughout the entire carnage not one of the sufferers — man, woman, or child — was heard to utter a shriek or moan.

This battle, if battle it may be called, was by far the most sanguinary ever fought on Westchester soil. At White Plains, the most considerable Westchester engagement of the Revolution, the combined losses of both sides in killed, wounded, and missing did not reach four hundred.

The site of the exterminated Indian village has been exactly located by Bolton. It was called Naniehiestawack, and was in the Town (township) of Bedford, not far from the present Bedford village. It " occupied the southern spur of Indian Hill, sometimes called the Indian Farm, and Stony Point (or Hill), stretching toward the north west. There is a most romantic approach to the site of the mountain fastness by a steep, narrow, beaten track opposite to Stamford cart-path, as it was formerly denominated, which followed the old Indian trail called the Thoroughfare." The picturesque Mianus River flows by the scene. The last ghastly memorials of the slaughter have long since passed away, but local tradition preserves the recollection of many mounds under which the bones of the slain were interred. They were probably laid there by friendly hands. Underhill, in the bitter winter season, with his small and exhausted party, and with no implements for turning the frozen sod, naturally could not tarry to give burial to five hundred corpses.

Captain John Underhill is an entirely unique figure in early American colonial history, both English and Dutch. Although his name, when mentioned apart from any specific connection, is usually associated with New England, he belongs at least equally to New Netherland and New York. Indeed, during more than two-thirds of his residence in America he lived within the confines of the present State of New York, where most of his descendants have continued. Westchester County, by his prowess rescued from the anarchy into which it had been thrown by the aboriginal barbarians and established on a secure foundation for practical development, became the home of one of his sons, Nathaniel Underhill, from whom a large and conspicuous family of the county has descended.

The captain sprang from the old Underhill stock of Huningham, in Warwickshire, England. He was born about 1600, and early imbibed an ardent love of liberty, civil and religious, by his service as a soldier under the illustrious Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange, in the Low Countries, where he had for one of his comrades-at-arms the noted Captain Miles Standish. Coming to New England with Governor Winthrop, he immediately took a prominent place in the Massachusetts colony, being appointed one of the first deputies from Boston to the General Court, and one of the earliest officers of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company. In the Pequod War (1636-37) he was selected by the governor, Sir Harry Vane (who was his personal friend), to command the colonial troops; and, proceeding to the seat of the disturbances in Connecticut, he fought (May 26, 1637) the desperate and victorious battle of Mystic Hill. In this encounter seven hundred Pequods were arrayed against him, of whom seven were taken prisoners, seven escaped, and the remainder were killed — a record almost identical, it will be noted, with that made at the battle in our Bedford township in 1644. Captain Underhill felt no compunctions of conscience for the dreadful and almost exterminating destructiveness of his victories over the Indians. In his narrative of the Mystic Hill fight, alluding to this feature of the subject, he says: " It may be demanded: Why should you be so furious? Should not Christians have more mercy and compassion? But I would refer you to David's war. When a people is grown to such a height of blood and sin against God and man, and all confederates in the action, then He hath no respect to persons, but harrows and saws them, and puts them to the sword and the most terriblest death that may be. Sometimes the Scripture declareth that women and children must perish with their parents; sometimes the case alters, but we will not dispute it now. We had sufficient light from the Word of God for our proceedings."

Espousing the religious doctrines and personal cause of Anne Hutchinson, Captain Underhill suffered persecution in common with the other Hutchinsonians, and in the fall of 1637, only a few months after his triumphant return from the wars, was disfranchised and forced to leave Massachusetts. He went to England the next year, and published a curious book, entitled " News from America; or, A New and Experimental Discoverie of New England: Containing a true relation of their warlike proceedings there, two years last past, with a figure of the Indian Fort, or Palizado. By Capt. John Under hill, a commander in the warres there." Returning to America, he settled in New Hampshire. Later, he lived in Stamford, Conn., and was a delegate from that town to the General Court at New Haven. From the time that he accepted his commission from the Dutch in their wars with the Indians until his death he lived on Long Island. He first resided at Flushing, and finally made his home at Oyster Bay, where he died July 21, 1672. In 1653 he was active in defending the English colonists of Long Island against the hostilities of the Indians, and in that year he fought his last battle with the savages, at Fort Neck. In 1665 he was a delegate from the Town of Oyster Bay to the assembly held at Hempstead under the call of the first English governor, Nicolls, by whom he was later appointed under-sheriff of the North Biding of Yorkshire, or Queens County. In 1667 he was presented by the Matinecoc Indians with one hundred and fifty acres of land, to which he gave the name of Kenilworth or Killingworth. A portion of this tract is still in the possession of his descendants.

The character and personality of Captain John Underhill have been variously estimated and pictured. No doubt most of our readers are familiar with Whittier's poem, which quite idealizes him:

Goodly and stately and grave to see,

Into the clearing's space rode he,

With the sun on the hilt of his sword in sheath,

And his silver buckles and spurs beneath,

And the settlers welcomed him, one and all,

From swift Quampeagan to Gonic Fall.

" Tarry with us," the settlers cried,

" Thou man of God, as our ruler and guide."

And Captain Underhill bowed his head,

" The will of the Lord be done! " he said.

And the morrow beheld him sitting down

In the ruler's seat in Cocheco town.

!

And he judged therein as a just man should;

His words were wise and his rule was good;

He coveted not his neighbor's land,

From the holding of bribes he shook his hand;

And through the camps of the heathen ran

A wholesome fear of this valiant man.

A man of independent and fearless convictions he unquestionably was, as also of conscientious principles. He was not, however, a typical Puritan hero; and it is not from the gentle and reverent muse of Whittier, which loves to celebrate the grave and stately (but otherwise mostly disagreeable) forefathers of New England, that a faithful idea of the Captain John Underhill of history is to be obtained. His associations during his very brief residence in Massachusetts were certainly not with the representative men of that rigorous and somber order, but with the imaginative, ardent, and sprightly natures, whose presence was felt as a grievous burden upon the theocratic state. He was grimly hated and scornfully expelled from Boston by the Puritans, whom he reciprocally despised. In his book he gives decidedly unflattering characterizations of Winthrop and others, showing this animus. Captain Underhill was really a man of high and impetuous spirits, fond of adventure, always seeking military employment, leading a changeful and roving life almost to his last days; yet possessing earnest motives and substantial traits of character, which made him a good and respected citizen, and enabled him to accumulate considerable property. But although not a Puritan, his final adoption of New Netherland as a place of residence was not from any special liking for the Dutch; in fact, he never was satisfied to live in any of the distinctive Dutch settlements, and, though much inclined to the honors and dignities of public position, never held civic office under the Dutch. During his life on Long Island he made his home among the English colonists, and preserved a firm devotion for English interests, which he manifested on several occasions long before the end of Dutch rule, by holding correspondence with the English authorities concerning the position of affairs on Long Island.

Soon after Captain Underhill's expedition to Bedford the Indian tribes again sued for peace. " Mamaranack, chief of the Indians residing on the Kicktawanc or Croton River; Mongockonone, Pappenoharrow, from the Weckquaesgecks and Nochpeems, and the Wappings from Stamford, presented themselves, in a few days, at Fort Amsterdam; and having pledged themselves that they would not henceforth commit any injury whatever on the inhabitants of New Netherland, their cattle and houses, nor show themselves, except in a canoe, before Fort Amsterdam, should the Dutch be at war with any of the Manhattan tribes, and having further promised to deliver up Pacham, the chief of the Tankitekes (who resided in the rear of Sing Sing), peace was concluded between them and the Dutch, who promised, on their part, not to molest them in any way." It appears that this peace was effected through the intervention of Underhill, was unsatisfactory to the Dutch, and proved but a makeshift; for in the fall of 1644 the " Eight Men " wrote as follows to the home office of the West India Company: " A semblance of peace was attempted to be patched up last spring with two or three tribes of savages toward the north by a stranger, whom we, for cause, shall not now name, without one of the company's servants having been present, while our principal enemies have been unmolested. This peace hath borne little fruit for the common advantage and reputation of our lords, etc., for as soon as the savages had stowed away their maize into holes, they began again to murder our people in various directions. They rove in parties continually around day and night on the island of Manhattans, slaying our folks, not a thousand paces from the fort; and 'tis now arrived at such a pass that no one dare move a foot to fetch a stick of firewood without a strong escort."

It was not until the summer of 1645 that a lasting treaty was arranged. On the 30th of August, says O'Callaghan, a number of chiefs representing the warring tribes " seated themselves, silent and grave, in front of Fort Amsterdam, before the director-general and his council and the whole commonalty; and there, having religiously smoked the great Calumet, concluded in the presence of the sun and ocean a solemn and durable peace with the Dutch, which both the contracting parties reciprocally bound themselves honorably and firmly to maintain and observe." It was stipulated that all cases of injury on either side were to be laid before the respective authorities. No armed Indian was to come within the line of settlement, and no colonist was to visit the Indian villages without a native to escort him. Hand some presents were made by Kieft to the chiefs, for the purchase of which, it is said, he was obliged to borrow money from Adrian Van der Donck, at that time sheriff of Rensselaerswyck.

The settlement of the lands beyond the Harlem was not, however, resumed at once. For some time the restoration of the burned farm houses and ruined fields of Manhattan Island claimed all the energies of the Dutch; and the memories of the dreadful experience of the colonies of Anne Hutchinson and John Throckmorton effectually deterred other New Englanders from seeking the Vredeland. In 1646, however, two enterprises of great historic interest were undertaken within the limits of our county. One of these was the settlement by Thomas Cornell on Cornell's Neck, whose details we have already narrated. The other was the creation of " Colen Donck," or Donck's colony, embracing the country from Spuyten Duyvil Creek northward along the Hudson as far as a little stream called the Amackassin, and reaching inland to the Bronx River, under a patent granted by the Dutch authorities to Adrian Van der Donck.

The exact date of Van der Donck's grant is unknown, and the record of his purchase of the territory from the Indians has not been preserved. The tract constituted a portion of the so-called Keskeskeck region, bought from the natives for the West India Company by Secretary Van Tienhoven, "in consideration of a certain lot of merchandise," under date of August 3, 1639. That Van der Donck made substantial recompense to the original owners of the soil is legally established by testimony taken in 1666 before Richard Nicolls, the first English governor of New York, in which it is stated that the Indian proprietors concerned " acknowledged to have sold and received satisfaction of Van der Donck."

Adrian Van der Donck was a gentleman by birth, being a native of Breda, Holland. He was educated at the University of Leyden, and studied and practiced law, becoming utriusque juris. In 1641 he accompanied Kiliaen Van Rensselaer to New Netherland, and was installed as schout-fiscaal, or sheriff, of the patroonship of Rensselaerswyck. In this post he continued until the death of the patroon, in 1646. Meantime he had manifested a strong inclination to establish a " colonies " of his own, at Katskill; but as such a proceeding by a sworn officer of an already existing patroonship would have been violative of the company's regulations, he was forced to abandon the project. On October 22, 1645, he married Mary, daughter of the Rev. Francis Doughty, of Long Island. Earlier in the same year he loaned money to Director Kieft, a transaction which probably helped to pave the way for the prompt bestowal upon him of landed rights upon the termination of his official connection with Rensselaerswyck.

In the Dutch grant to Van der Donck, the territory of which he was made patroon was called Nepperhaem, from the Indian name of the stream, the Nepperhan, which empties into the Hudson at Yorkers, where stood at that period, and for perhaps a quarter of a century later, the native Village of Nappeckamack (the " Rapid Water Settlement "). The whole extensive patroonship, styled at first Colen Donck, soon came to be known also as " De Jonkheer's land," or " De Jonkheer's," meaning the estate of the jonkheer, or young lord or. gentleman, as Van der Donck was called. Hence is derived the name Yonkers, applied from the earliest days of English rule to that entire district, and later conferred upon the township, the village, and the city. To the possibilities of this magnificent but as yet utterly wild property Van der Donck gave a portion of his attention during the three years following the procurement of his patent. In one of his papers he states that before 1649 he built a sawmill on the estate, be sides laying out a farm and plantation; and that, having chosen Spuyten Duyvil as his place of residence, he had begun to build there and to place the soil under cultivation. His sawmill was located at the mouth of the Nepperhan River, and from its presence that stream was called by the Dutch " De Zaag Kill," whence comes its present popular name of the Sawmill River. Van der Donck's plantation, " a flat, with some convenient meadows about it," was located about a mile above Kingsbridge, near where the Van Cortlandt mansion now stands. " On the flat just behind the present grove of locusts, north of the old mill, he built his bouwerie, or farmhouse, with his planting field on the plain, extending to the southerly end of Vault Hill." It is not probable that Van der Donck lived for any considerable time upon his lands in our county. He was a man of prominence in Fort Amsterdam, was its first lawyer, and soon became busied with its local affairs in a public-spirited manner, which led to his embroilment in contentions with the ruling authorities, and, in that connection, to his departure for Europe and protracted absence there.

In the spring of 1649 he was selected a member of the advisory council of the " Nine Men," a body chosen by the popular voice to assist in the general government. In this capacity he at once took strong ground against the tyrannical conduct of the new director, Stuyvesant, and, in behalf of the Nine, drew up a memorial, or remonstrance, reciting the abuses under which the people of New Netherland suffered. Stuyvesant at first treated this action of his councilors with arbitrary vindictiveness, and caused Van der Donck to be arrested and imprisoned. After his release, continuing his course of active protest against misgovernment and oppression, he prepared a second and more elaborate memorial, and, with two others, was dispatched to Holland by the commonalty to lay the whole subject before the States-General. In this mission he had the moral support of the vice-director under Stuyvesant, Van Dincklagen, who wrote a letter to the States-General promotive of his objects. But upon arriving in the mother country he found himself opposed by the powerful influences of the company, which not only succeeded in defeating the principal reforms that he sought to secure, but eventually directed against him the persecution of the government, and prevented him, to his great inconvenience and loss, from returning to New Netherland for fully four years. Yet Van der Donck's earnest and commendable efforts for the public weal were not wholly without result. An act was passed separating the local functions of the principal settlement on Manhattan Island from the general affairs of the province. By this measure the settlement formerly known as Fort Amsterdam became an incorporated Dutch city, with the name of New Amsterdam; and thus to the labors of Van der Donck the first municipal organization of what is now the City of New York is directly traceable. In addition, a final modification of the Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions was effected (May 24, 1650), introducing various improvements in its detailed provisions. He even procured the adoption of an order recalling Stuyvesant, which, however, in view of the critical position of political affairs (a war with England being threatened) was never executed.

While in Holland Van der Donck was not forgetful of the interests of his colony, but in good faith strove to fulfill the obligations which he had assumed in acquiring the proprietorship of so extensive a domain. On March 11, 1650, in conjunction with his two associate delegates, he entered into a contract " to charter a suitable flyboat of two hundred lasts, and therein go to sea on the 1st of June next, and convey to New Netherland the number of two hundred passengers, of whom one hundred are to be farmers and farm servants, and the remaining one hundred such as the Amsterdam Chamber is accustomed to send over, conversant with agriculture, and to furnish them with supplies for the voyage." In making this contract (which, on account of circumstances, was never carried out), Van der Donck undoubtedly had in view the locating of at least a portion of the two hundred emigrants on his own lands. Pursuant to his perfectly serious intentions respecting his estate in this county, he obtained from the States-General, on the 26th of April, 1652, the right to dispose by will, as patroon, " of the Colonic Nepperhaem, by him called Colen Donck, situate in New Netherland." From this time for more than a year he was constantly occupied in seeking to overcome the obstacles put in the way of his departure for America by his enemies of the West India Company. He evidently regarded the securing of this patent as the final step preparatory to the systematic colonization and development of Colen Donck; for immediately after its issuance he embarked his private goods, with a varied assortment of supplies for the colony, on board a vessel lying at anchor in the Texel. But upon applying to the States-General, on the 13th of May, for a formal permit to return, he was refused. On the 24th, renewing his application, he stated that " proposing to depart by your High Mightinesses' consent, with his wife, mother, sister, brother, servants, and maids," he had " in that design packed and shipped all his implements and goods"; but he understood " that the Honorable Directors [of the West India Company) at Amsterdam had forbidden all skippers to receive him, or his, even though exhibiting your High Mightinesses' express orders and consent," " by which he must, without any form of procedure or anything resembling thereto, remain separated from his wife, mother, sister, brother, servants, maids, family connections, from two good friends, from his merchandise, his own necessary goods, furniture, and from his real estate in New Netherland." These and other strenuous representations proving unavailing, he was at last compelled to dispatch his family and effects, remaining himself in Holland to await the more favor able disposition of the authorities.

Resigning himself to the situation, he now turned his attention to literary labors, which resulted in the composition of a most valuable work on the Dutch provinces in America. The book was probably first published in 1653, the copy from which the above translation is made being of a later edition. It was Van der Donck's intention to enlarge upon his facts by consulting the papers on file in the director-general's office at New Amsterdam, to which end he obtained the necessary permit from the company. But upon his return to America, which occurred in the summer of 1653, Stuyvesant, who still harbored resentment against him, denied him that privilege.

Van der Donck's book, despite its formidable title, is a volume of but modest pretensions, clearly written for the sole object of spreading information about the country. Considering the meagerness of general knowledge at that time respecting the several parts of the broad territory called New Netherland, and remembering that the writer peculiarly lacked documentary facilities in its preparation, it is a remarkably good account of the whole region. Especially in those parts of it where he is able to speak from the results of personal observation or investigation, he is highly instructive, and is thoroughly entitled to be accepted as an authority. His description of the Indians, though quite succinct, ranks with the very best of the early accounts of native North American characteristics, customs, and institutions. While he makes frequent allusion to his residence at Rensselaerswyck, there is no special mention of that part of the country where his own patroonship was located — our County of Westchester, — a circumstance which may reasonably be taken to indicate that he never had made it his habitation for any length of time.

Some of the statements which appear in Van der Donck's pages belong to the decidedly curious annals of early American conditions. For example, he relates that in the month of March, 1647, " two whales, of common size, swam up the (Hudson) river forty (Dutch) miles, from which place one of them returned and stranded about twelve miles from the sea, near which place four others also stranded the same year. The other ran farther up the river and grounded near the great Chahoes Falls, about forty-three miles from the sea. This fish was tolerably fat, for, although the citizens of Rensselaerswyck broiled out a great quantity of train oil, still the whole river (the current being rapid) was oily for three weeks, and covered with grease." His accounts of the native animals of the country, excellent for the most part, become amusing in places where he relies not upon his individual knowledge but upon vague stories told him by the Indian hunters of strange creatures in the interior. Thus, he makes New Netherland the habitat of the fabled unicorn.

" I have been frequently told by the Mohawk Indians," says he, " that far in the interior parts of the country there were animals, which were seldom seen, of the size and form of horses, with cloven hoofs, having one horn in the forehead from a foot and a half to two feet in length, and that because of their fleetness and strength they were seldom caught or ensnared. I have never seen any certain token or sign of such animals, but that such creatures exist in the country is supported by the concurrent declarations of the Indian hunters. There are Chris tians who say that they have seen the skins of this species of animal, but without the horns." He also speaks of " a bird of prey which has a head like the head of a large cat " — probably a reference to the cat-owl. His remarks about the beaver, based upon personal study and knowledge, are singularly interesting. The deer, he informs us, " are incredibly numerous in this country. Although the Indians throughout the year, and every year (but mostly in the fall), kill many thousands, and the wolves, after the fawns are cast and while they are young, also destroy many, still the land abounds with them everywhere, and their numbers appear to remain undiminished."

Being finally granted leave to go back to New Netherland, Van der Donck applied to the West India Company for permission to practice his profession of lawyer in the province. But the company, careful in conceding substantial favors to a man who had caused it so much trouble, allowed him only to give advice in the line of his profession, forbidding him to plead, on the novel ground that, " as there was no other lawyer in the colony, there would be none to oppose him." After his return to New Amsterdam he did not figure prominently in public affairs. He died in 1655, leaving, it is supposed, several children, whose names, however, as well as all facts of their subsequent lives and traces of their descendants, are unknown.

Van der Donck's Colen Donck was the only patroonship ever erected in Westchester County, and was the first of the great landed estates which, during the seventeenth century, were parceled out in this section to gentlemen of birth and means, and various enterprising and far-seeing individuals. All who had preceded him above the Harlem were ordinary settlers, who merely sought farms and home steads, without any aristocratic pretensions or aspirations. During the nine years which intervened between his death and the end of the Dutch regime, the general condition of the province was too unsatisfactory to justify any similar ambitious endeavor in the direction of extensive land ownership above the Harlem. The Indians were still restless and inclined to harass individual settlers. Indeed, in 1655, the year of Van der Donck's death, a general massacre of settlers by the Indians occurred, and the people in the outlying localities again crowded into Fort Amsterdam for protection. It was not until after the beginning of the English government that private land holdings in Westchester County at all comparable to Van der Donck's were acquired, He was the only Dutch gentleman — for Bronck be longed strictly to the burgher class — throughout the forty-one years of Dutch rule who, under the Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions, an instrument framed expressly to create a landed aristocracy in America, formally sought to establish a fief in this county. It is noticeable, however, that most of the estate which he owned passed before many years — although not until the Dutch period was ended — into the hands of one of his fellow-countrymen, Frederick Philipse, in whose family it continued for a century. Moreover, almost the entire Hudson shore of Westchester County was originally acquired and tenaciously held by Dutch, and not by English, private proprietors.

The tract of Nepperhaem, or Colen Donck, was devised by Van der Donck, in his will, to his widow. This lady subsequently married Hugh O'Neale, of Patuxent, Md., and resided with her husband in that province. Apparently, nothing whatever was done by O'Neale and his wife in the way of continuing the improvements begun by Van der Donck; and, for all that we know to the contrary, the estate remained in a wholly wild and neglected condition for some ten years. But in 1666 the O'Neales, desiring to more perfectly establish their legal title, with a view to realizing from the lands, obtained from the Indians who had originally sold the tract to Van der Donck formal acknowledgment of such sale, and also of their having received from him full satisfaction; and thereupon a new and confirmatory patent for Nepperhaem was issued by Governor Nicolls. This is dated " at Fort James, New York, on the Island of Manhattan," October 8, 1666. It describes the property in the following words: "A certain tract of land within this government, upon the main, bounded to the north wards by a rivulet called by the Indians Mackassin, so running south ward to Nepperhaem, from thence to the kill Shorakkapock [Spuyten Duyvil], and then to Paperinemen [the locality of Kingsbridge], which is the southernmost bounds; then to go across the country to the eastward by that which is commonly known by the name of Brock's, his river and land, which said tract hath heretofore been purchased of the Indian proprietors by Adriaen Van der Donck, de ceased." The English patent was bestowed upon O'Neale and his wife jointly. They at once proceeded to sell the lands in fee to different private persons. Notice of the resulting sales must be deferred to the proper chronological period in our narrative. It may be noted here, however, that the principal purchasers of Van der Donck's lands were John Archer and Frederick Philipse, who later became the lords, respectively, of the Manors of Fordham and Philipseburgh, the former lying wholly, and the latter partly, within the borders of the old patroonship.