Dutch New York

Front matter

BOOKS BY MISS SINGLETON

Turrets, Towers, and Temples. Great Buildings of the World Described by Great Writers.

Great Pictures. Described by Great Writers.

CHAPTER I Settlement and Early Conditions of New Netherland

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i

Early Voyagers — Block, Hudson, and Christiaensz van Cleef ; Arrival of the New Netherland ; the Sea-Mew brings Peter Minuit; Arrival of the Arms of Amsterdam ; Cornelis Hoorn and Willem Van Hulst; Minuit’s Purchase of the Island of Manhattan ; Early Conditions ; Letter of Jonas Michaelius ; Wouter Van Twiller, Willem Kieft, and Growth of Colony; Impressions of Father Jogues ; Montanus’s Description of New Amsterdam; Adriaen Van der Donck’s Description of the Scenery — Beautiful Woods and “Bush Burning”; Farms and Farmers ; City Lots and Bouweries ; Native Birds ; Cattle and Pasture Lands; Goats, Dogs, and Pigs; Ordinances Regarding Cleanliness in the Streets.

CHAPTER II Orchards and Gardens, Houses and Streets of New

Amsterdam 27

The Dutch Love of Gardens and Flowers; the Tulip Mania; Flowers in New Netherland; the Company’s Garden;

Early Gardeners; Fruit in New Netherland; Vegetables and Orchards; the Town and Fort; the Tavern and Church; the First Houses; Native Brick; Stuyvesant’s Whitehall and Bouwery; Glass and Leaden Window Frames; Contract to build an Inn ; a Typical Dwelling ; the Van Cortlandt and Philipse Houses; Surveyors of Streets and Buildings; the City Wall; the Palisades; Primitive Streets; Danger from Fire; the Burgher Watch and Rattle Watch; Lighting the Street ; Descriptions of New Amsterdam by Governor Andros, William Byrd, and Madam Knight.

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CONTENTS

Chapter III

Sumptuous Apparel of the Period; New Amsterdam Shop Goods; the Petticoat; the Rain Dress; Samars and Night-rails ; Aprons, Sleeves, Ruffs, and Stomachers ; Headdresses ; Cha 'telaitus and Gold Head Ornaments; Jewels of Steenwyck, Cristina Cappoens, Margarita Van Varick, Asser Levy, Peter Marius, and Others; the Dress of Children; Costume of Farmers’ Wives and Daughters; Coats, Waistcoats, and Breeches; the Burgomaster’s Suit; Wardrobes of Cornelis Steenwyck, Dr. Jacob de Lange, Asser Levy, and Others; Shirts and Neckwear; Stockings and Shoes ; Gloves, Hats, Wigs, and Cloaks; Swords, Belts, and Canes; a Melancholy W ardrobe.

Chapter IV

Tastes of the Prosperous New Netherlander; Ebony, Ivory, and Other Oriental Goods ; the Chimney-piece, Bed, A”as, Cabinet, and Other Furniture; the Voorhuis , or Fore Room; Homes of Dr. de Lange, Steenwyck, and Marius; Typical English Homes; Furniture of Rombouts and De Milt.

CHAPTER V Pictures, Silver, China, Glass, and Curios

Dutch Painters of Interiors; Pictures in New Amsterdam; Silver of the Period; Collections of Mrs. Van Varick, Peter Marius, and Others; Thefts of Silver; Great Use of Pewter; Porcelain and Earthenware ; Glass ; Miniature Houses and Curios.

Chapter VI

Breakfast; Going to Market; Fish in New Amsterdam; Breads, Pasties, Cakes, and Bakers; Setting the Table; Table Furniture; the Noonday Meal; Favorite Dishes; Tea,

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CONTENTS xvii

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Coffee, and Chocolate ; Winter Evenings ; Supper ; Household Pets; Foot-warmers and Church Seats; the Dutch Housewife’s Passion for Cleaning ; Love of Fine Linen.

Chapter VII

Indentured Servants ; Masters and Servants; Parental Rights; Employer’s Liability; Cruelty and Abuse; Parental Solicitude; Disposal of Children and Servants by Bequest; Troubles of the Lone Widow and of the Fatherless Children; Runaway Servants; Pauper Children from Amsterdam— not all Desirable Citizens; Negro Slaves; Humane Treatment; Manumission; the Chain Gang; Slave Trade;

Prices of Slaves.

Chapter VIII

Education in Holland; Provision made for Education by the West India Company; Adam Roelantsen, the First Schoolmaster of New Amsterdam; Deplorable Condition of Schools;

Early Schoolmasters; Grades of Schools; Lessons and Punishments; Penmanship; Importance of Languages; General Illiteracy; Provision by Parents for the Education of their Children ; Latin Schools; ^Egidius Luyck; Routine of School Life; Dancing and Dancing-schools; Libraries and Books.

CHAPTER IX Religion, Persecution, and Superstition 182

Consolers and Visitors of the Sick; Dominies Michaelius and Bogardus ; the Church in the Fort ; Feud between Kieft and Bogardus; the Company’s Rules; Dominies Megapolensis and Drisius; an Indian Convert; State of Religion in New Amsterdam and Long Island; Persecution of the Lutherans; the Troublesome Quakers; Church Service; Blom ministers to Long Island; Henricus Selyns; Rudolphus Van Varickjj Governor Andros, Governor Dongan, William Byrd, Miller and Madam Knight on the Religions in New Amsterdam ; Sabbath-breaking; Days of Fasting and Prayer ; Superstition and Witchcraft; Stuyvesant’s Relative held for a Witch.

XVUl

CONTENTS

Chapter X

Infant Betrothal; Courtship; Breaches of Promise; Story of Maria Verleth; Separation and Divorce; Ceremonies of Betrothal; Play-youths and Play-maidens; the Bride’s Basket; Publishing the Banns; Receptions and Congratulations; the Bride’s Costume; Jewels in New Amsterdam; Parents’ Gifts to Bridegrooms; the Bridal Escort; the Nuptial Banquet; the Bride’s Crown; Wedding Outfits; Weddings in New Amsterdam.

Chapter XI

Physicians and Surgeons, Births and Deaths . . .

Dignity of the Physician; the Quack Doctor; Barbersurgeons; Ships Doctors and Barbers; First Surgeons of New Netherland ; Various Activities of the Early Physicians ; Bill for Nursing; No Cure, No Pay; Doctors’ Suits; Plenty of Employment for Doctors ; the First Hospital on Manhattan Island; Native Medicinal Plants; Preparations for a New Member of the Family; the Christening; the Baby’s Costume ; the Christening Dinner ; Christening Presents ; the Consoler of the Sick; Burial Customs; Mourning and Funerals; Interments; Pomp and Splendor at Funerals; Burial of Suicides; Funerals in New Amsterdam.

Chapter XII

The Drink Evil; Importance of the Tavern in Civic Life; Dutch Taverns Beverages; Drinking Vessels, Dinners, and Drinking Customs; Feasts in the New Amsterdam City Tavern; Roistering, Revelling, and Tavern Brawls; Excise Laws and Court Cases; Sunday Liquor Laws.

Chapter XIII

Favorite Games — Kactzcn , Golf, Bowls, Skittles, Ninepins, and Disc-throwing, Clubbing the Cat; Pulling the Goose; Bird-cutting; Archery; Racing; Cards, Billiards, and Back-

CONTENTS xix

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gammon; the Indian Game of Senneca ; Saint Nicholas, the Patron Saint of New Amsterdam; Saint Nicholas Eve; Christmas, New Year’s, and Twelfth Night; Masquerade of the Three Kings; Shrove Tuesday and its Pastimes; May-day and Whitsuntide ; Saint Martin’s Day and Saint Martin’s Goose; Excursions and Picnics; the Game of Sea-carrying; Kissing ; the “ Kissing-bridge ” ; Skating and Sleighing ;

Indoor Diversions; the Sausage-making Evening; Cattle and Other Livestock ; the Kermis.

Chapter XIV

The Atlantic Passage ; Transport Expenses; Names of Ships ; Ship-building in New Amsterdam; Shipping Regulations;

Bill of Lading; Volume of Trade; Indian Trade; Wampum and Sewan ; Currency Regulations ; Treatment of Indians ;

Laws against Selling Liquor and Ammunition to the Natives ;

Private Trade ; Smuggling ; Great and Small Burghers ;

Piracy ; Opposition to its Suppression ; Bellomont’s Difficulties; Oriental Wares; a Merchant’s Office; New Netherland Industries; Trade Profits; Shops and Shop Goods; Confused Currency ; Barter ; Women Traders and Merchants ;

Jews; Intolerance; Disabilities; Establishment.

ILLUSTRATIONS

Portrait of Cornells Steen wyck. Owned by the New York

Historical Society. (In Photogravure) . . . Frontispiece

Facing page

New Amsterdam (earliest known view) 8

New Amsterdam about 1670 16

Old Hopper House, Second Avenue and 83d Street, New

York 24

Kip House, Kip’s Bay, New York 24

Old Stone House, I52d Street, Kingsbridge Road, New York 24 Gardens of the Van Cortlandt Manor House, Croton-on-

Hudson 32

Van Cortlandt Manor House (1681), Croton-on-Hudson . . 40

Wall of the Van Cortlandt Manor House, showing Loopholes 48

Entrance Door of the Van Cortlandt Manor House, Croton-

on-Hudson 54

Hall and Stairway, Van Cortlandt Manor House .... 62

Old Dutch Watches. Rijks Museum, Amsterdam .... 70

Mahogany Table brought from Holland in 1668 82

Dutch China Cabinet with Porcelain. Owned by Mr. Frans

Middelkoop, New York 90

Dutch China Cabinet and Porcelain. Owned by Mr. Frans

Middelkoop, New York 98

Miniature Silver Articles and Silver Toys. Rijks Museum,

Amsterdam 108

Dutch Silver from the Van Cortlandt Manor House . . . 112 xxii ILLUSTRATIONS

Facing page

Silver Tankard. Owned by Sara de Rapelje 1 16

A Family Meal (seventeenth century) 120

Dutch Kitchen. Jan Steen 126

Old Church Bench or Stool. Albany Institute and Historical

and Art Society J32

Napkin Press (seventeenth century). Owned by Mr. Frans

Middelkoop, New York 138

Voorhuis in the Doll’s House. Rijks Museum, Amsterdam 144 Bedroom, Doll’s House. Rijks Museum, Amsterdam . . 150

Show Room, Doll’s House. Rijks Museum, Amsterdam . 156

Kitchen, Doll’s House. Rijks Museum, Amsterdam . . . 162

Old Dutch School Scenes 166

General View of Doll’s House. Rijks Museum, Amsterdam 172 Porcelain and Earthenware. Rijks Museum, Amsterdam . 178

Drinking-Glasses. Rijks Museum, Amsterdam ... .184

Porcelain, Earthenware Ornament and Glass Tumbler in the

Van Cortlandt Manor House 190

Flowers. Jan Van Huysam 196

The Parrot Cage. Jan Steen 202

Country House. Pieter de Hooch 208

Glass Drinking Vessels. Rijks Museum, Amsterdam . . 216

A Dutch Bride in State (seventeenth century) 224

Porcelain and Earthenware. Rijks Museum, Amsterdam . 232

Dutch Clock in the Van Cortlandt Manor House .... 240

Old Chest, Linen Press, and Two Warming-Pans. Owned

by Mr. Frans Middelkoop, New York 246

Dutch Cradle and Child’s Chair. Albany Institute and Historical and Art Society 254

Silver Spoons. Rijks Museum, Amsterdam 262

Tavern Scene. Teniers „ 266

Clover Leaf Drinking Cup 272

Old Dutch Tankard 272

ILLUSTRATIONS xxiii

Facing page

A Tavern Brawl. Adriaen Brouwer 288

Pulling the Goose 296

St. Nicholas Eve. Jan Steen 300

Three Kings’ Evening (Twelfth Night) ....... 304

Sports on the Ice 308

Kermis.^ Teniers 316

Winter Scene. Ostade 330

Old Dutch House in Broad Street, New Amsterdam (1698) 344

Chapter I Settlement And Early Conditions Of New Netherland

r | ^AHE history of the early voyages and settle- 1 ments of the Dutch is told by a writer during

JL Minuit’s directorship of the new colony. He says :

This country, or the river, Montagne, called by our’s Mauritius, was first sailed to by the worthy Hendrick Christiaensen van Cleef. It so happened that he and the worthy Adriaen Block chartered a ship with the skipper, Ryser, and accomplished his voyage thither, bringing back with him two sons of the principal sachems there.

Hudson, the famous English pilot, had been there also, to reach the South Sea, but found no passage.

This aforesaid Hendrick Christiaensz, after he had dissolved partnership with Adriaen Block, made ten voyages thither, in virtue of a grant from the Lords States who gave him that privilege for the first establishment of the place. On the expiration of that privilege, this country was granted to the West India Company, to draw their profits thence.

The West India Company being chartered to navigate these Rivers did not neglect to do so, but equipped in the spring [of 1623] a vessel of 130 lasts, called the New Netherlands with thirty families, mostly Walloons, to plant a colony there. They sailed in the beginning of

March and directing their course by the Canary Islands, steered towards the Wild Coast, and gained the westwind which luckily [took] them in the beginning of May into the River called, first Rio de Montagues, now the River Mauritius, lying in 40 y2 degrees.

The ship sailed up to the Maykans, 44 miles, near which they built and completed a Fort named Orange, with 4 bastions, on an Island by them called Castle Island. They forthwith put the spade in the ground and began to plant, and before the Mackerel sailed, the grain was nearly as high as a man, so that they are bravely advanced. They also placed a Fort named Wilhelmus on Prince’s Island, heretofore called Murderer’s Island; it is open in front, and has a curtain in the rear and is garrisoned by sixteen men for the defence of the River below. On leaving there, the course lies for the west wind, and having got it, to the Bermudas and so along the channel in a short time towards Patria. The Yacht, the Mackerel , sailed out last year on the 16th June and arrived yonder on the 12th of December. . . .

The fur and other trade belongs to the West India Company, others being forbidden to trade there. Rich beavers, otters, martins and foxes are found there. This cargo consists of five hundred otter skins, and fifteen hundred beavers and a few other things, which were in four parcels of twenty-eight thousand some hundred guilders.1

On Jan. 9, 1626, Peter Minuit sailed in the Sea-Mew , Captain Adriaen Joris, and arrived at Manhattan on May 4. The next ship sent out by the West India Company was the Arms of Amsterdam, which arrived on July 27, 1626, and started on her return voyage on Sept. 23, 1626, with a valuable cargo of furs and wood under charge of Peter Barentsen, the Indian trader. She arrived in Amsterdam on November 4; and on

1 The cargo of the New N etherland was sold in Amsterdam, Dec. 20, 1624.

the following day the Secretary thus informed the States-General :

There arrived here yesterday the ship called the Arms of Amsterdam, which sailed from the river Mauritius [the Hudson], in New Netherland, on the 23d of September. Report is brought that our people there are diligent and live peaceably ; their wives have also borne them children. They have purchased the Island of Manhattes from the Indians for the sum of sixty guilders; it contains 11,000 morgens of land. They have sown all kinds of grain in the middle of May, and reaped in the middle of August. I send you some samples of the summer grains, as wheat, rye, barley, oats, buckwheat, canary seed, beans and flax.

The cargo of the ship consists of 7246 skins of beaver, 853 otter, 81 mink, 36 cat lynx, 34 small rat, together with a considerable quantity of oak timber and nutwood.

Our historian continues :

The Company there administers Justice in criminal matters as far as imposing fines (boet-straffe) , but not as far as capital punishment. Should it happen that any one deserves that, he must be sent to Holland with his sentence. Cornelis Hoorn was, in the year 1624, the first Director there; Willem Van Hulst was the second in the year 1625. He returns now. . . .

Respecting these Colonies they have already a prosperous beginning; and the hope is that they will not fall through provided they be zealously sustained, not only in that place but in the South River. For their increase and prosperous advancement, it is highly necessary that those sent out be first of all well provided with means both of support and defence, and that being Freemen, they be settled there on a free tenure ; that all they work for and gain be their’s to dispose of and to sell according to their pleasure ; that whoever is placed over them as Commander act as their Father, not as their Executioner, leading them with a gentle hand. . . .

In the year 1628, there already resided on the Island of the Manhates, two hundred and seventy souls, men, women and children, under Governor Minuit, Verhulst’s successor,* living there in peace with the Natives. But as the land, in many places being full of weeds and wild productions, could not be properly cultivated in consequence of the scantiness of the population, the said Lords Directors of the West India Company, the better to people their lands, and to bring the country to produce more abundantly, resolved to grant divers Privileges, Freedoms and Exemptions to all Patroons, Masters or Individuals who should plant any Colonies or Cattle in New Netherland.

After Minuit purchased the island of Manhattan, no time was lost in providing for the security of the settlement. The engineer, Krijn Frederijcke, staked out a fort on the southern point of the island to which the name Fort Amsterdam was given. The Company’s counting-house was a stone building with a thatched roof, but the other houses were of wood. Director Minuit and the Opper Koopman, De Rasieres, lived together; and there were about thirty houses on the east side of the river. Frances Moelmacker began to build a horse mill with a large room above to be used as a meeting-place for religious services ; for although there was as yet no regular clergyman, two Comforters of the Sick (Krcinck-besoeckers) , Sebastiaen Jansen Krol and Jan Huych, read the Bible and held meetings on Sundays. Another officer of the colony was Jan Lempo, the sellout, or sheriff.

Each colonist had his own farm on the Company’s land, and was supplied with cows; but the milk was for his own profit. These temporary homes were outside the Fort ; but as soon as that should be completed the people intended to reside within its walls, for the sake of greater security. Two years later, when the

Three Kings , Captain Jan Jacobsen, and the Anns of Amsterdam , Captain Adriaen Joris, were sent by Director Minuit to the West India Company, arriving in Amsterdam in October, 1628, with furs and timber, they brought the good news that Fort Amsterdam was completed with four bastions, and faced with stone; that the colony numbered two hundred and seventy souls, including men, women, and children; that the cattle throve well, and that everything seemed prosperous. At this period the colonists supported themselves chiefly by farming, and any deficiencies were supplied by the West India Company.

During Minuit’s administration Staten Island was also purchased.

The letter of Jonas Michaelius (1628) gives a good picture of the infant colony, and the difficulties the early settlers had to face :

As to what concerns myself and my household : I find myself by the loss of my good and helping partner very much hindered and distressed, — for my two little daughters are yet small; maidservants are not here to be had, at least none whom they advise me to take; and the Angola slaves are thievish, lazy and useless trash. The young man whom I took with me, I discharged after Whitsuntide, for the reason that I could not employ him out of doors at any working of the land, and, in doors, he was a burden to me instead of an assistance. He is now elsewhere at service with the boers.

The promise which the Lords Masters of the Company had made me to make myself a home, instead of a free table which otherwise belonged to me, is wholly of no avail. For their Honours well know that there are no houses, cows nor laborers to be obtained here for money.

The country yields many good things for the support of life, but they are all to be gathered in an uncultivated and wild state. It is necessary that there should be better regulations established, and people who have the knowledge and the implements for gathering things in their season, should collect them together, as undoubtedly will gradually be the case. In the meanwhile I wish the Lords Managers to be courteously inquired of, how I can have the opportunity to possess a portion of land, and at my own expense to support myself upon it. For as long as there is no more accommodation to be obtained here from the country people, I would be compelled to order everything from Fatherland at great expense, and with much risk and trouble, or else live here upon these poor and hard rations alone, which would badly suit me and my children. We want ten or twelve farmers with horses, cows and labourers in proportion, to furnish us with bread and fresh butter, milk and cheese.

Having been recalled, Minuit left in the Union in 1632, and was succeeded by Wouter Van Twiller, of Nieuwkerke, a clerk in the employ of the West India Company and a relative of the Patroon Van Rensselaer. He arrived at Fort Amsterdam in the Company’s ship, Dc Zoutbcrg (the Salt Mountain) , of two hundred and eighty tons, manned by fifty-two men and which carried twenty guns and one hundred and four soldiers, — ■ the first military force sent to New Netherland.

During his administration Dominie Everardus Bogardus arrived, and also the first schoolmaster, Adam Roelantsen ; a church was built on Pearl Street, and the block-house was succeeded by a fort that was finished m *635. Van Twiller also bought Pagganck, or Nut Island (now Governor’s Island), and two islands in Hell Gate.

Director Van Twiller was succeeded by Willem Kieft, who arrived on March 28, 1638, in the Herring (two hundred and eighty tons and twenty guns). The new Director’s administration was not at first prosperous, for the West India Company gave up the privileged trade with the Indians, opening this commerce to all the inhabitants of the Dutch provinces; and many colonists were thus drawn to New Netherland.

On the other hand the English came both from Virginia and N. England, on account of the good opportunity to plant tobacco here, first divers servants, whose time had expired; afterwards families, and finally, entire colonies, having been forced to quit that place, in order to enjoy freedom of conscience, and to escape from the insupportable government of N. England, and because many more commodities were to be obtained here than there, so that in place of seven bouweries and two or three plantations which were here, thirty bouweries were to be seen as well cultivated and stocked as in Europe [and] one hundred plantations which in two or three [years] would become regular bouweries, for after the tobacco was out of the ground, corn was planted there without ploughing, and the winter was employed preparing new lands. The English colonies had settled under us by patent on equal terms with the others. Each of these was in appearance not less than one hundred families strong, exclusive of the Colonie of Rensselaerswyck, which is prospering, with that of Mynders, Meyndertsz and Cornelius Melyn, who began first. Also the village of N. Amsterdam around the fort, one hundred families, so that there was appearance of producing supplies in a year for fourteen thousand souls without straitening the country, and had there not been a want of labourers or farm servants, twice as much could be raised.

During Kieft’s administration a new stone church was built within the Fort, building lots were granted, citizens were allowed a vote in public affairs, and a body of “ Eight men ” was selected to advise the governor in the Indian trouble. The Indian war made Kieft unpopular, and he was recalled. He set sail in the Princess in July, 1647. The boat suffered shipwreck, and he and the other passengers, including Dominie Bogardus, were drowned.

Father Jogues, 1643, says:

For the garrison of the said Fort, and of another which they had built still further up against the incursions of the Indians, their enemies, there were sixty soldiers. They were beginning to face the gates and bastions with stone. Within the fort there was a stone church, which was quite large, the house of the Governor, whom they call Director-General, quite neatly built of brick, the storehouses and barracks.

On this Island of Manhate and in its environs, there may well be four or five hundred men of different sects and nations : the Director General told me that there were men of eighteen kinds of languages; they are scattered here and there on the river, above and below, as the beauty and convenience of the spot invited each to settle: some mechanics, however, who ply their trade, are ranged under the fort ; all the others being exposed to the incursions of the Indians, who, in the year 1643, while I was there, had actually killed some two score Hollanders, and burnt many houses and barns full of wheat.

There is no religious exercise except the Calvinist, and orders are to admit none but Calvinists, however this is not observed ; there being in the Colony besides the Calvinists, Catholics, English Puritans, Lutherans, Anabaptists, whom they call Mnites, etc., etc.

When any one first comes to settle in the country, they lend him horses, cows, etc. ; they give him provisions, all which he returns as soon as he is at ease ; and as to the land, after ten years he pays to the West India Company the tenth of the produce which he raises. . . .

The first comers found lands quite fit for use formerly cleared by the savages who had fields there. Those who came later have cleared in the woods which are mostly oak. The soil is good. Deer hunting is abundant in the

NEW AMSTERDAM (EARLIEST KNOWN VIEW)

fall. There are some houses built of stone: lime they make of oyster shells, of which there are great heaps, made formerly by the savages, who subsist in part by that fishery. . . .

Ascending the river to the 43d degree, you meet the second Dutch settlement, which the tide reaches but does not pass.

There are two things in this settlement (which is called Renselaerswick, as if to say, settlement of Renselaers, who is a rich Amsterdam merchant) 1st, a miserable little fort called Fort Orange, built of logs, with four or five pieces of Breteuil cannon, and as many swivels. This has been reserved, and is maintained by the West India Company. This fort was formerly on an island which the river makes; it is now on the main land towards the Hiroquois, a little above the said island. Secondly, a colony sent here by this Renselaers, who is the patroon. This colony is composed of about a hundred persons who reside in some twenty-five or thirty houses built along the river, as each found convenient. In the principal house lives the patroon’s agent; the Minister has his apart, in which service is performed. There is also a kind of Baliff here, whom they call the Seneschal, who administers justice. Their houses are all merely of boards and thatched. There is as yet no mason work except in the chimneys. The forests, furnishing many large pines, they make boards by means of their mills, which they have for the purpose.

Montanus (1671) thus describes what would be the first view obtained by the settlers of their future home :

On the Manhattan's island stands New Amsterdam, five miles from the ocean: ships run up to the harbour there from the sea with one tide. The city hath an earthen fort. Within the fort, and on the outermost bastion towards the river, stand a wind mill and a very high staff, on which a flag is hoisted whenever any vessels are seen in Godyn’s bay. The church rises with a double

I0 DUTCH NEW YORK

roof between which a square tower looms aloft. On one side is the prison, on the other side of the church the Governor’s house. Without the walls are the houses mostly built by the Amsterdamers. On the river side stand the gallows and whipping-post. A handsome public tavern adorns the farthest point. Between the fort and this tavern is a row of suitable dwelling-houses : among which stand out the warehouses of the West India Company.

A view of New Amsterdam at this period faces page 1 6, and an earlier view, page 8.

The beautiful scenery and the vast natural resources of the country, as well as its attractions for the farmer, formed the theme of many an enthusiastic letter and treatise by early travelers. A charming description of the landscape, climate, physical features, productions, etc., is afforded by Adriaen Van der Donck in 1654. He says:

The whole country has a waving surface, and in some places high hills and protruding mountains, particularly those named the Highlands, which is a place of high, connected mountain land, about three miles broad, extending in curved forms throughout the country ; separated in some places and then again connected. There also is much fine level land, intersected with brooks, affording pasturage of great length and breadth, but mostly along the rivers and near the salt side. Inland, most of the country is waving, with hills which generally are not steep, but ascend gradually. We sometimes in travelling imperceptibly find ourselves on high elevated situations, from which we overlook large portions of the country. The neighbouring eminence, the surrounding valleys and the highest trees are overlooked, and again lost in the distant space. Here our attention is arrested in the beautiful landscape around us, here the painter can find rare and beautiful subjects for the employment of his brush ; and here also the huntsman is animated when he

SETTLEMENT AND EARLY CONDITIONS n views the enchanting prospects presented to the eyes ; on the hills, at the brooks and in the valleys, where the game abounds, and where the deer are feeding or gamboling or resting in the shades in full view. . . .

Near the rivers and watersides there are large extensive plains containing several hundred morgens; in one place more and in another less, which are very convenient for plantations, villages and towns. There also are brooklands and fresh and salt meadows; some so extensive that the eye cannot oversee the same. Those are good for pasturage and hay, although the same are overflowed by the spring tides, particularly near the seaboard. These meadows resemble the low and outlands of the Netherlands. Most of them could be dyked and cultivated. We also find meadow grounds far inland, which are all fresh and make good hayland. Where the meadows are boggy and wet, such failings are easily remedied by cutting and breaking the bogs in winter and letting off the water in the spring. There also would be much more meadow ground, but as the soil is natural for wood, and as the birds and the winds carry the seeds in every direction; hence, those moist, low grounds are covered with timber and underwoods which we call cripple bushes.

Montanus also writes in 1671 :

New Netherland hath, moreover, divers remarkable waterfalls tumbling down from lofty rocks, broad creeks and hills, fresh lakes and rivulets and pleasant springs and fountains, which smoke in winter, are right cold in summer, and, nevertheless, are much drank. Meanwhile the inhabitants are at no time much incommoded by floods, nor by the sea, inasmuch as at spring tide the water scarcely ever rises a foot higher; nor by freshets which cover only some low lands for a short while, and enrich them by their alluvium. The sea-coast rises hilly out of sand and clay wherefore it produces abundantly all sorts of herbs and trees.