Volume II Part 6 (2/2)
From hence they departed, and costed all along, but discerned no place likly for harbor & therfore hasted to a place that their pillote, (one M^r. Coppin who had bine in y^e c.u.n.trie before) did a.s.sure them was a good harbor, which he had been in, and they might fetch it before night; of which they were glad, for it begane to be foule weather.
After some houres sailing, it begane to snow & raine, & about y^e midle of y afternoone, y^e wind increased, & y^e sea became very rough, and they broake their rudder, & it was as much as 2. men could doe to steere her with a cupple of oares. But their pillott bad them be of good cheere, for he saw y^e harbor; but y^e storme increasing, & night drawing on, they bore what saile they could to gett in, while they could see. But herwith they broake their mast in 3 peeces, & their saill fell over herd, in a very grown sea, so as they had like to have been cast away; yet by G.o.ds mercie they recovered themselves, & having y^e floud with them, struck into y^e harbore. But when it came too, y^e pillott was deceived in y^e place, and said, y^e Lord be merciful unto them, for his eys never saw y^t place before; & he & the m^r. mate would have rune her ash.o.r.e, in a cove full of breakers, before y^e winde. But a l.u.s.ty seaman which steered, bad those which rowed, if they were men, about with her, or ells they were all cast away; the which they did with speed. So he bid them be of good cheere & row l.u.s.tly, for ther was a faire sound before them, & he doubted not but they should find one place or other wher they might ride in saftie.
And though it was very darke, and rained sore, yet in y^e end they gott under y^e lee of a smalle iland, and remained ther all y^t night saftie. But they knew not this to be an iland till morning, but were devided into their minds; some would keepe y^e boate for fear they might be amongst y^e Indians; others were so weake and could, they could not endure, but got ash.o.r.e, & with much adoe got fire, (all things being so wett,) and y^e rest were glad to come to them; for after midnight y^e wind s.h.i.+fted to the north-west, & it frose hard.
But though this had been a day & night of much trouble & danger unto them, yet G.o.d gave them a morning of comforte and refres.h.i.+ng (as usually he doth to his children), for y^e next day was a faire suns.h.i.+nig day, and they found them selvs to be on an iland secure from y^e Indeans, wher they might drie their stufe, fixe their peeces, & rest them selves, and gave G.o.d thanks for his mercies, in their manifould deliverances. And this being the last day of y^e weeke, they prepared ther to keepe y^e Sabath. On Munday they sounded y^e harbor, and founde it fitt for s.h.i.+pping; and marched into y^e land, & found diverse cornfields, & little runing brooks, a placed (as they supposed) fitt for situation; at least it was y^e best they could find, and y^e season, & their presente necessitie, made them glad to accept of it. So they returned to their s.h.i.+pp againe with this news to y^e rest of their people, which did much comforte their harts.
On y^e 15. of Desem^r. they wayed anchor to goe to y^e place they had discovered, & came within 2. leagues of it, but were faine to bear up againe; but y^e 16. day y^e winde came faire, and they arrived safe in this harbor.[3] And afterwards took better view of y^e place, and resolved wher to pitch their dwelling; and y^e 25. day begane to erecte y^e first house for comone use to receive them and their goods.
I shall a litle returne backe and begine with a combination made by them before they came ash.o.r.e, being y^e first foundation of their governmente in this place; occasioned partly by y^e discontented and mutinous speeches that some of the strangers amongst them had let fall from them in y^e s.h.i.+p--That when they came ash.o.r.e they would use their own libertie; for none had power to comand them, the patente they had being for Virginia, and not for New-england, which belonged to an other Government, with which y^e Virginia Company had nothing to doe.
And partly that shuch an acte by them done (this their condition considered) might be as firme as any patent, and in some respects more sure. The forme was as followeth:
”In y^e name of G.o.d, Amen. We whose names are underwriten, the loyall subjects of our dread soveraigne Lord, King James, by y^e Grace of G.o.d, of Great Britaine, Franc, & Ireland king, defender of y^e faith, &c., having undertaken, for y^e glorie of G.o.d, and advancemente of y^e Christian faith, and honour of our king & countrie, a voyage to plant y^e first colonie in y^e Northerne parts of Virginia, doe by these presents solemnly & mutualy in y^e presence of G.o.d, and one of another, covenant & combine our selves together into a civill body politick, for our better ordering & preservation & furtherance of y^e ends aforesaid; and by vertue hearof to enacte, const.i.tute, and frame such just & equall lawes, ordinances, acts, const.i.tutions, & offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meete & convenient for y^e generall good of y^e Colonie, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witness wherof we have hereunder subscribed our names at Cape-Codd y^e 11. of November, in y^e year of England, Franc, & Ireland y^e eighteenth, and of Scotland y^e fiftie fourth. An^o: Dom. 1620.”
[1] William Bradford had already been a leading member of a little dissenting congregation in England, when, in 1608, it fled from England to Holland, and in 1620 settled at Plymouth, Ma.s.s. A year after the arrival at Plymouth Bradford was elected Governor of the Colony, and, with the exception of two short intervals, held this office until his death nearly forty years afterward.
Bradford's ”History of Plymouth” is a cla.s.sic in New England historical literature--the foundation-stone, in fact, of the history of New England. A curious item in the survival of the ma.n.u.script is that, at the time of the evacuation of Boston by the British, during the Revolution, it disappeared mysteriously, to be discovered eighty years afterward in the palace of the Bishop of London. More than forty years after this discovery, the ma.n.u.script was restored by the diocese of London to the commonwealth of Ma.s.sachusetts, which now preserves it in the State Library in Boston.
[2] Now known as Provincetown, where a lofty monument on a hilt back of the harbor, dedicated in 1910, commemorates the landing there of the Pilgrim Fathers. While the Mayflower lay in this harbor, Paregrine White was born, the first child of English parentage born in New England.
[3] The landing at Plymouth was effected on December 21.
THE FIRST NEW YORK SETTLEMENTS
(1623-1628)
BY NICHOLAS JEAN DE Wa.s.sENAER[1]
We treated in our preceding discourse of the discovery of some rivers in Virginia; the studious reader will learn how affairs proceeded. The West India Company being chartered to navigate these rivers, did not neglect so to do, but equipped in the spring [of 1623] a vessel of 130 lasts, called the _New Netherland_ whereof Cornelis Jacobs of Hoorn was skipper, with 30 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 Montagnes, now the river Mauritius, lying in 40-1/2 degrees. He found a Frenchman lying in the mouth of the river, who would erect the arms of the King of France there; but the Hollanders would not permit him, opposing it by commission from the Lords States General and the directors of the West India Company; and in order not to be frustrated therein, with the a.s.sistance of those of the _Mackerel_ which lay above, they caused a yacht of 2 guns to be manned, and convoyed the Frenchman out of the river, who would do the same thing in the south river, but he was also prevented by the settlers there. This being done, the s.h.i.+p 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....
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 defense, and that being freemen, they be settled there on a free tenure; that all they work for and gain be theirs to dispose of and to sell it 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; for whoever rules them as a friend and a.s.sociate will be beloved by them, as he who will order them as a superior will subvert and nullify everything; yea, they will excite against him the neighbouring provinces to which they will fly. 'Tis better to rule by love and friends.h.i.+p than by force....
As the country is well adapted for agriculture and the raising of every thing that is produced here, the aforesaid Lords resolved to take advantage of the circ.u.mstances, and to provide the place with many necessaries, through the Honble. Pieter Evertsen Hulst, who undertook to s.h.i.+p thither, at his risk, whatever was requisite, to wit: one hundred and three head of cattle; stallions, mares, steers and cows, for breeding and multiplying, besides all the hogs and sheep that might be thought expedient to send thither; and to distribute these in two s.h.i.+ps of one hundred and forty lasts, in such a manner that they should be well foddered and attended to....
In company with these, goes a fast sailing vessel at the risk of the directors. In these aforesaid vessels also go six complete families with some freemen, so that forty five newcomers or inhabitants are taken out, to remain there. The natives of New Netherland are very well disposed so long as no injury is done them. But if any wrong be committed against them they think it long till they be revenged....
They are a wicked, bad people, very fierce in arms. Their dogs are small. When the Honble. Lebrecht van Twenhuyzen, once a skipper, had given them a big dog, and it was presented to them on s.h.i.+p-board, they were very much afraid of it; calling it, also a Sachem of dogs, being the biggest. The dog, tied with a rope on board, was very furious against them, they being clad like beasts with skins, for he thought they were game; but when they gave him some of their bread made of Indian corn, which grows there, he learned to distinguish them, that they were men.
The Colony was planted at this time, on the Manhates where a Fort was staked out by Master Kryn Frederyeke, an engineer. It will be of large dimensions....
The government over the people of New Netherland continued on the 15th of August of this year in the aforesaid Minuit, successor to Verhulst, who went thither from Holand on 9th January, Anno, 1626, and took up his residence in the midst of a nation called Manhates, building a fort there, to be called Amsterdam, having four points and faced outside entirely with stone, as the walls of sand fall down, and are now more compact.
The population consists of two hundred and seventy souls, including men, women, and children. They remained as yet without the Fort, in no fear, as the natives live peaceably with them. They are situate three miles from the Sea, on the river by us called Mauritius, by others, Rio de Montagne....
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