Part 6 (1/2)

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Before this s.h.i.+p sailed we had gathered our first harvest, which was made up of wheat, rye, barley, oats, buckwheat, beans and flax, and in such quant.i.ty that, unless there should be large additions to our numbers, we had need to feel no anxiety regarding the winter's store of food.

I am telling you this that you may understand how industrious our Dutchmen were, to raise so much on land that at first sight one would have said was in no way suited for planting.

Now it was that our people began to use stone in the building of houses, and the first looked so comfortable that others were eager to have dwellings like it. The consequence was, that during this first fall after our arrival, there were no less than twelve stone dwellings in progress, while Master Minuit already had such a home as was a credit to any town which had been no longer begun than New Amsterdam.

QUARRELSOME SLAVES

It was during this year of our Lord, 1626, when the venture of making a village in the New World was well-nigh shown to be a success, that the first serious crime was committed, and one which cost, before many years had pa.s.sed, much of white blood.

Among the laborers who had been brought over in the _Sea Mew_, were nine negro slaves, the West India Company having sent them in the belief that because of their skins' being black they might do much toward gaining favor with the brown men.

In Holland these fellows had shown themselves to be fairly good servants, although not greatly given to industry; but no sooner were they landed in the New World than they became indolent and ill-tempered, seeming to believe that because of this country's being inhabited by people whose skins were dark, they were ent.i.tled to a full share of everything, with no longer the need to look upon any man as master.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

The result of it all was that the negroes became troublesome, ready to quarrel with any man who crossed their path, and unwilling to do so much of labor as would have provided them with food to eat.

They swaggered here and there around the village, taking good care, however, not to cross Master Minuit's path, else would he have pulled them up with a round turn. At night, when the head men of the village were in their dwellings, these black fellows did not hesitate to quarrel with, or even illtreat, the hard working Dutchmen who had never a harsh word for any one.

Now I have heard it said later that Master Minuit was at fault because of his not giving to those negroes, when they first showed signs of being unruly, such a punishment as would never have been forgotten; but it must be borne in mind that my master was an exceeding busy man, having the care of everything whatsoever on his shoulders, from the cutting of stone to the dealings with the West India Company.

Then again, there is a question in my mind as to whether he knew how overbearing they were growing, for our people, realizing that his cares were many, suffered much in the way of small injuries rather than complain to him.

However this may be, I shall always hold that the behavior of these negroes was no affair of Master Minuit. Until some of the people had called his attention to it, matters went on as they began, with the black men growing more and more unruly.

A BRUTAL MURDER

Finally, a certain Indian, having with him a small boy, came down to trade twenty-two beaver skins for red cloth. Because of none of the gentlemen traders being near at hand when he arrived, I was forced to ask him to wait until nearly nightfall, and by the time he had finished his bargaining, darkness was come.

Now it was usual for these brown men, who lived at a distance, to shelter themselves for the night nearabout New Amsterdam in the dwellings of the Manhattan Indians; therefore no one gave heed to the fact that these two visitors went out from the fort at quite a late hour in the evening.

Exactly what happened, no one, excepting those concerned directly in it, could say; but certain it is that between the fort and the settlement of the Manhattan Indians, within an hour from the time I saw them last, this Indian and the boy were set upon by four negroes, who beat the man so brutally while robbing him of the goods he had just purchased, that he died before mid-night.

The boy escaped, as we learned later, so terrified that he dared not even trust himself among the Manhattan Indians, but hid in a swamp during a certain time, after which he rejoined his people.

The negroes were brought before the council; but only one was proven guilty, owing to lack of evidence, and this fellow was hanged off-hand, while the others, although declared innocent of the murder, were soundly flogged as a warning to others of their kind.

Not until several years had pa.s.sed, did the Dutchmen hear further concerning this most brutal murder, and then it was that the boy, whose father, or uncle, had been killed, aroused the people of his tribe to wreak vengeance upon the white men, thus aiding and bringing about a most terrible Indian war, although we of New Amsterdam did not suffer through it as did others who, coming to this New World years afterward, were wholly innocent of doing any wrong to the brown men.