History of Westchester County, New York, Volume 1. Frederic Shonnard

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ the English, in establishing important and flourishing settlements throughout Connecticut and Rhode Island, were, technically speaking, not in advance of the Dutch. The Dutch were the undisputed first discoverers of the entire Connecticut and Rhode Island coastline, along which the intrepid navigator Block sailed in 1614. Later, Dutch voyagers returned to those shores and trafficked with the natives; and finally, in 1623, when Director May arrived in New York harbor on his mission of colonization from the West India Company, he dispatched a number of his Walloon families to the mouth of the Connecticut River. At the same place the arms of the States General of the Netherlands were formally erected in 1632, and in 1633 Director-General Van Twiller bought from the Indians a tract of land called Connittelsock, situated on the western Connecticut bank, on which tract, at a point sixty miles above the mouth of the stream, a Dutch fort and trading-house, named Good Hope, were built. Indeed, the English pioneers of 1633, proceeding down the Connecticut, found the Dutch already in possession there.

      But the Dutch occupation of the mouth and valley of the Connecticut River was never otherwise than merely nominal, a fact which, in view of the easily conceivable future importance of that quarter in connection with the maintenance of Dutch territorial claims, is certainly striking, and characteristically illustrates Dutch deliberation and inefficiency in colonizing development as contrasted with English alacrity and thoroughness. Moreover, all the connecting circumstances indicate that the establishment by the Dutch of a fort and trading-post on the Connecticut was not prompted by serious designs of consecutive settlement, but was a pure extemporization in the interest of ultimate insistence upon lawful ownership of that region. From 1623, the year in which Manhattan Island was regularly settled, until 1639, a period of sixteen years, not a single Dutch colony had been founded, and probably not a single Dutch family had taken up its abode, in all the country intervening between the Harlem and the Connecticut Rivers — a country splendidly wooded and watered, with a highly interesting coast and rich alluvial lands, and vastly important as an integral and related portion of the dominions of New Netherland. It may perhaps be replied that the whirlpool of Hell Gate presented a natural obstacle to convenient intercourse with the shores of the Sound, and consequently to advantageous settlement in the entire trans-Harlem country. But if the Manhattan Island colony had been animated by any noticeable spirit of progress, it would not have allowed sixteen years to pass without finding access to this region, either from the northern extremity of Manhattan Island or from the Long Island side. The truth is, there was no general development by the Dutch even of Manhattan Island during the period in question. Only its southern end was occupied by any regular aggregation of settlers, and this aggregation still existed mainly for the business of bartering with the Indians and sending to Holland " beaver skins, minks, and other furs," the only products which, as declared in the " Report of 1638 on the Condition of New Netherland," were afforded by the province.

      To review the comparative situation in 1640, while the English had steadily and systematically advanced as an earnest and practical colonizing people, covering the land from Plymouth Rock to the Sound with organized settlements which sought the immediate development of all its available resources, the Dutch had remained stationary, with only a single settlement worthy of consideration. It is true they had located and occupied a few trading posts in and around New York Bay, as well as in distant parts of New Netherland — in Delaware Bay, on the upper Hudson at Albany, and on the Connecticut River. But these enterprises represented in no case creditable colonizing endeavor.

      It has been seen that, in the years 1639 and 1640, Cornelius Van Tienhoven, as the representative of Director-General Kieft, purchased from the Indians, first, a large Westchester tract called Keskeskeck, and, second, lands covering generally the southeastern section of this county and extending to the Norwalk River. This was done to fore stall English claims to priority of possession, at that time conspicuously in course of preparation. But even in this matter of land purchases the Dutch were scarcely aforetime of the alert English. To the latter, also, the Indians executed a deed of sale, embracing extensive portions of Westchester County, and nearly as ancient as the first Dutch land deed. On July 1, 1640, Captain Nathaniel Turner, on behalf of the New Haven colony (Quinnipiacke), bought from Ponus, sagamore of Toquams, and Wascussue, sagamore of Shippan, lands running eight miles along the Sound and extending sixteen miles into the northwestern wilderness. This tract was comprehensively known by the name of " The Toquams." Ponus prudently reserved for himself " the liberty of his corn and pasture lands." It included, in Connecticut, the present Town of Stamford, as well as Darien and New Canaan, and parts of Bedford and Greenwich; and, in Westchester County, the Towns of Poundridge, Bedford, and North Castle, either in whole or in part. On the basis of this purchase, the settlement at Stamford, Conn., was laid out in 1641. In 1655 the bargain of 1640 was reaffirmed by a new agreement with the Indians respecting the same district. No early settlements in the Westchester sections of the tract were attempted by the English; but it is an interesting point to bear in mind that the interior sections of this county bordering on Connecticut were first bought from the Indians not under Dutch but under English auspices, and thus that the English fairly share with the Dutch the title to original sovereignty in Westchester County, so far as that title can be said to be sustained by the right of mere purchase.

      There was a second English purchase from the Indians in 1640, which constructively may have included some parts of Westchester County. Mehackem, Narawake, and Pemeate, Indians of Norwalk, agreed to convey to Daniel Patrick, of Greenwich, all their lands on the west side of " Norwake River, as far up in the country as an Indian can goe in a day, from sun risinge to sun settinge," the consideration being " ten fathoms wampum, three hatchets, three bows, six glasses, twelve tobacco pipes, three knives, tenn drills, and tenn needles."

      It was a year or two previously to 1640 that Jonas Bronck, generally regarded as the first white inhabitant of Westchester County, came across the Harlem River to take up land and build a home. He was not a native Hollander, being, it is supposed, of Swedish extraction. But he appears to have made his home in Amsterdam, where he was married to one Antonia (or Teuntje) Slagboom. While there is no evidence that he was a man of large wealth, it is abundantly manifest that he was quite comfortably circumstanced in worldly goods. Unquestionably his sole object in emigrating to New Netherland was to acquire and cultivate land, probably under the liberal general offer to persons of all nations proclaimed by the States-General in 1638. He was, therefore, one of the first of the new and more substantial class of men who began to remove hither after the substitution by the West India Company of a broad and democratic plan of colonization for the old exclusive scheme of special privileges to the patroons. Sailing from Amsterdam in a ship of the company's, with his wife and family, farmhands and their families, domestic servants, cattle, and miscellaneous goods, he landed on Manhattan Island; and, not caring to purchase one of the company farms there (the whole island having been expressly reserved to the private uses of the West India Company), proceeded to select a tract in the free lands beyond the Harlem. Here, pursuant to the custom peremptorily required by Dutch law, he first extinguished the Indian title, purchasing from the native chiefs Eanachqua and Taekamuck five hundred acres " lying between the great kill (Harlem River) and the Ahquahung " (now the Bronx River). An old " Tracing of Broncksland " is still preserved in the office of the secretary of state at Albany, upon which the house of Jonas Bronck is located. Its site as thus indicated was not far from the present depot of the Harlem River branch of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad, at Morrisania. This dwelling is described as of " stone," covered with tiles, and had connected with it a barn, tobacco-house, and two barracks. As the Dutch word for stone (steen) is always ambiguous unless accompanied by a descriptive prefix, it is uncertain what kind of building stone, whether brick or the native rock of the country, was used by Bronck. In view of the generally provident character of the man, it is a reasonable supposition that he brought a supply of brick with him from Holland; and thus that the first house erected in the county was made of that respectable material. To his estate he gave the Scriptural name of Emmaus. From the inventory of the personal property which he left at his death, it is clear that he was a gentleman of cultivation. His possessions included pictures, a silver-mounted gun, silver cups, spoons, tankards, bowls, fine bedding, satin, grosgrain suits, linen shirts, gloves, napkins, tablecloths, and as many as forty books. The books were largely godly volumes, among them being Calvin's СКАЧАТЬ