Peter Stuyvesant, the Last Dutch Governor of New AmsterdamAbbott, John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot)
History
Peter Stuyvesant, the Last Dutch Governor of New Amsterdam
Abbott, John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot)
New York (State) -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775; Stuyvesant, Peter, 1592-1672
"that the States-General should send letters to the English
villages on Long Island, commanding them to return to their
allegiance. And that the objections of Connecticut may be
met, the original charter of the West India Company should
be solemnly confirmed by a public act of their High
Mightinesses, under their great seal, which an Englishman
commonly dotes upon like an idol."
Scarcely were these documents dispatched when new and still more
alarming outbreaks occurred. Two Englishmen, Anthony Waters of
Hempstead, and John Coe of Middlebury, with an armed force of nearly
one hundred men, visited most of what were called the English
villages, convoked the people, told them that their country belonged
to the king of England, and that they must no longer pay taxes to the
Dutch. They removed the magistrates and appointed their own partisans
in their stead. They then visited the Dutch towns and threatened them
with the severest vengeance if they did not renounce all allegiance to
the Dutch authorities, and take the oath of fealty to the king of
England.
Only four weeks after this, another party of twenty Englishmen from
Gravesend, Flushing and Jamaica, secretly entered Raritan river, in a
sloop, and sailing up the river several miles, assembled the chiefs of
some of the neighboring tribes, and endeavored to purchase of them a
large extent of territory in that region. They knew perfectly well not
only that they were within the bounds which had been the undisputed
possession of New Netherland for nearly half a century, but that the
Dutch had also purchased of the Indians all their title to these
lands.
Stuyvesant, being informed of this procedure, promptly sent Ensign
Crygier, with an armed force, in a swift sailing yacht, to find the
English and thwart their measures. At the same time he sent Hans, a
friendly Indian, in whom he could repose confidence, to warn the
sachems against selling over again, lands to which they no longer had
any title. The Dutch party reached the spot where the Englishmen and
the Indians were in council, just in time to stop the sale. The
Indians were shrewd enough to know that all they could give was a
"quit claim" title, and they were very willing to give that in view of
the rich remuneration which was offered them.
The English thus baffled, again took their sloop and sailed down the
bay, to a point between Rensselaer's Hook and Sandy Hook, where they
were about to renew their endeavors when Ensign Crygier again overtook
them. "You are traitors," he exclaimed. "You are acting against the
government to which you have taken the oath of fidelity." "This whole
country," they replied, "has been given to the English by his Majesty
the king of England."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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