Part 5 (2/2)

There is no need for me to say that our people did not buy wampum of the Indians; but in the course of the bargaining it pa.s.sed back and forth, because of being the only coins the brown men had, and therefore I suppose it was, that Master Minuit believed it necessary to put some fixed price upon it.

BUILDINGS OF STONE

After the fort and the storehouse had been finished, the Dutch laborers were set about cutting out stone from the ledges of which I have spoken, to be used in the place of bricks. From this rock Master Minuit decided that a more secure warehouse for the company's goods should be made, and, also, a dozen or more of the men were set about building a mill to be worked by horse-power, so that it might be possible to grind the grain.

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This horse-mill also was to be built of stone, with a large loft that would be used as a church.

There had been no ministers brought over when we came in the _Sea Mew_; but in place of them were two zeikentroosters, which is a Dutch word for ”Consolers of the Sick;” but what they might be called in plain English I know not. It appeared to me that the zeikentroosters in Holland were much the same as deacons in England, though as to this I may be wrong.

At all events, there were two of them came in our s.h.i.+p, and, until the first minister arrived, they held regular meetings out of doors while the mill was being built, and afterward in the loft.

THE GOVERNMENT

While the people were working on the mill, the fort, and the storehouse, or at the quarry, Master Minuit, busy man though he was, found time to set up a regular government in this town of huts which he called New Amsterdam, himself being at the head of it with no one to say him nay, and a Council of five chosen by the West India Company from among the white people.

There was also a secretary for this Council, and a Dutch official, which in Holland is called schout-fiscal, which means about all of the offices that could be held in an ordinary village, for he was sheriff, constable, collector of customs, t.i.thing-man, and almost anything else you chose to call him.

The secretary and the schout-fiscal were also appointed by the Company in Amsterdam, and every act of the Council, as well as the rules and regulations laid down by Master Minuit, were all to be approved by the gentlemen in Holland before our people would be bound by them. Thus it can be seen that while one might suppose the citizens of New Amsterdam made their own laws, it was in fact the West India Company which had full direction of affairs.

After a time, when I had been so far entrusted with the business of the settlement as to understand how it was conducted, I came to realize that all which was done by us of New Amsterdam was for the profit of the Company, rather than for the benefit of the people, and this finally came to be one of the causes which worked for the downfall of Dutch power in the New World.

A PROSPEROUS TOWN

Before I had been many days in charge of the Company's goods we began to drive a flouris.h.i.+ng trade, for all those gentlemen who had set off with trinkets to buy furs, urged the brown men to go down to New Amsterdam and see what the white people were doing on the island they had bought at so generous a price.

And you can well fancy that these Indians were not slow in accepting the invitation. It must have been to them much like visiting a museum, or a menagerie, to come into our town and see another race of people working in a manner entirely different from their methods, and using tools which afforded a great saving of labor, the like of which they had never heard about.

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Before two weeks were pa.s.sed, there was never a day that from three to twenty canoes were not hauled up on the sh.o.r.e of the point, and these brown people were gathered around the fort, many naked, excepting for queer breeches and belt; others wearing a kind of cloak made of furs, and now and then one who had a mantle of some sort of feather work, but all burdened with bales of furs, deer meat, wild turkeys, ducks or anything which it seemed to them likely would be bought by these Dutch traders, who had of toys such a store.

I was kept busy from morning until night, trotting in and out of the house with this article or that, as whosoever was conducting the business commanded, and I dare venture to say that Hans was having a sorry time indeed, for the weather had grown warm, and his quarters in the log hut, with those ill-smelling pelts, must have been anything rather than pleasant.

The first event of great importance to us of New Amsterdam, was the loading of a s.h.i.+p to be sent home, and I am minded to tell you exactly how the cargo was made up, so that you may see whether the West India Company's servants had idled away any of their time.

There were 7,246 beaver skins, 1,781-1/2 otter skins, 675 poorer otter skins, 48 mink skins, 33 poorer mink skins, 36 wild cat skins, and 34 rat skins. The rest of the lading was made up of oak and hickory timber, while the whole of it was valued by Master Minuit at 45,000 guilders, and it is for you to find out how much that would be in the money of your own country.

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