1664. CHAP. I. was about to order his gunner to fire, when the two Domines Megapolensis led him away between them, imploring him not to begin hostilities. Leaving fifty men in the fort, under the command of Fiscal de Sille, the director, at the head of one hundred of the garrison, marched into the city, in order to prevent the English from landing "here and there."* Panic in the me tropolis. 26 August. 5 Septem Remonstrance to Stuyvesant. By this time the Dutch regular soldiers themselves had become more disposed to plunder than to defend. They openly talked of " where booty is to be got, and where the young women live who wear chains of gold." Warnings had come from Long Island that the New England auxiliaries of Nicolls declared "that their business was not only with New Netherland, but with the booty and plunder, and for these they were called out and enrolled." The "cursing and talking" of these Eastern adventurers forced the citizens of New Amsterdam to look upon them as their "deadly enemies, who expected nothing else than pillage, plunder, and bloodshed." The whole population on Manhattan Island was about fifteen hundred, of whom only two hundred and fifty were able to bear arms. Opposed to these were more than a thousand effective soldiers and sailors in the English squadron, besides the re-enforcements from New England and Long Island. Moreover, it was understood that six hundred Northern savages and one hundred and fifty French rovers, with English commissions, had offered their services against the Dutch. Seeing themselves thus "encircled round about," with no means of deliverance, and considering "the notorious and palpable impossibility of being able to defend and hold the place," the city authorities, clergy, and officers of the burgher guard, at the suggestion of the elder Domine Megapolensis, adopted a remonstrance to the director and his council, imploring them to accept the conditions offered by the English commander. His threats, it stated, "would not have been at all regarded, could your honors, or we, your petitioners, expect the smallest aid or succour. But God help us! whether we turn for assistance to the north or to the south, to the east or to the west, it is all in vain." Ninetythree of the principal citizens, including all the municipal * Col. Doc., ii., 414, 422, 444, 445, 501, 502, 573, 598, 509; Val. Man., 1860, 532; Drisius to Classis of Amsterdam, 15 Sept., 1664; ante, vol. i., 740. 1664. officers, and Stuyvesant's eldest son, signed the paper. The CHAP. I. threatening answer of Nicolls to the Dutch commissioners had meanwhile been spread among the people, and many of them, with their wives and children crying and praying, besought the director to parley. To all their supplications he sturdily replied, "I had much rather be carried out dead!" But now he was obliged to yield to inevitable ne- Stuyvesant cessity, and prevent the mischiefs about to overtake, “evi- yields. dently and assuredly, the honest inhabitants."* commis The lesson in Saint Luke's Gospel taught Stuyvesant how vain it was, with ten thousand men, to resist him that came with twenty thousand. Yet there was one balm for the director's wounded spirit. Nicolls had voluntarily proposed "to redeliver the fort and city of Amsterdam, in New Netherland, in case the difference of the limits of this province be agreed upon betwixt His Majesty of England and the High and Mighty States General." A full power to agree upon articles with the English commander or his 26 August. deputies was accordingly given by the Dutch director and 5 Septem. his council to Counselor John De Decker, Commissary Dutch Nicholas Varlett, and Doctor Samuel Megapolensis, repre- sioners apsenting the provincial government, and Burgomaster Cor- pointed. nelis Steenwyck, old burgomaster Oloff Stevensen van Cortlandt, and old schepen James Cousseau, representing the city. Nicolls was now encamped at the Brooklyn fer"before the Manhatans," with the royal "beleaguering" forces. On his part, he promptly named his two colleagues, Sir Robert Carr and Colonel George Cartwright, English with John Winthrop and Samuel Willys of Connecticut, sioners and Thomas Clarke and John Pynchon of Massachusetts, as his commissioners. "The reason why those of Boston and Connecticut were joined in the treaty," Nicolls afterward explained to Arlington, "was because those two colonies should hold themselves the more engaged with us if the Dutch had been over-confident of their strength."+ ry, The next morning, which was Saturday, the plenipoten * Alb. Rec., xviii., 320, 321; Col. MSS., xv., 144; Col. Doc., ii., 248-250, 369, 423, 444, 446, 476, 503; Drisius's Letter; Val. Man., 1860, 592, 593; ante, vol. i., 741. † Col. Doc., ii., 414, 440; iii., 103; Gen. Ent., i., 30-33; Alb. Rec., xviii., 322, 323; Col. MSS., xv., 144, 145; Hazard's Ann. Penn., iv., 44; O'Call., ii., 531; Saint Luke's Gospel, xiv., 31; ante, vol. i., 741, 742. Smith, i., 27, inaccurately says that Stuyvesant agreed to surrender "on condition the English and Dutch limits in America were settled by the crown and the States General." commis named. 27 August. 6 Septem. 1664. capitula upon. CHAP. I. tiaries on both sides met by agreement at Stuyvesant's "Bouwery," or farm. Their only dispute was about the Dutch garrison, whom, as the English refused to do it, the city deputies agreed to convey back to Holland. The procArticles of lamation of the royal commissioners and the reiterated tion agreed promises of Nicolls formed the basis of the twenty-four articles of capitulation. These declared all the inhabitants of New Netherland to be "free denizens," and secured to them their property. Any persons might come from Holland "and plant in this country," while Dutch vessels might "freely come hither, and any of the Dutch may freely return home, or send any sort of merchandise home, in vessels of their own country." For the next six months, intercourse with Holland was to continue as before the coming of the English. The Dutch inhabitants were to "enjoy the liberty of their consciences in divine worship and Church discipline," as well as "their own customs concerning their inheritances." All public buildings were to continue in their existing uses, and all public records to be respected. All inferior civil officers were to remain as they were until the customary time for new elections; and the town of Manhattan might choose deputies with "free voices in all public affairs." Owners of houses in Fort Orange were to enjoy their property " as all people do where there is no fort." The articles of capitulation were to be consented to by Nicolls, and delivered to Stuyvesant, together with copies of the king's patent and the Duke of York's commission, by eight o'clock the next Monday morning, "at the old mill."* Within two hours afterward, the fort and town "called New Amsterdam, upon the isle of Manhattoes,” were to be surrendered, and the military officers and soldiers to "march out with their arms, drums beating and colors flying, and lighted matches.”+ 28 August. These very advantageous and conciliatory terms were 7 Septem. explained to the burgher authorities at the City Hall on *This "old mill," which was the nearest point on Manhattan to" the ferry" at Brooklyn, was on the shore of the East River, near what is now the foot of Roosevelt Street, but then at the outlet of a brook running out of the "Kolck," afterward vulgarly called "the Collect:" see Valentine's Manual, 1859, 551, and 1863, 621, and the maps appended; ante, vol. i., p. 167, note. We owe the recovery of these maps to the research and care of George II. Moore, the present librarian of the New York Historical Society. + Gen. Ent., i., 23-26, 33; Col. Doc., ii., 250-253, 414; Smith, i., 27-32; S. Smith, 43-46; Hazard's Reg. Penn., iv., 43; Holl. Merc., 1664, 153, 154; Alb. Rec., xviii., 325; Col. MSS., xv., 145; Chalmers's Ann., i., 574; O'Call., i., 532-535; ante, vol. i., 742, 762. 1664. the people. Sunday afternoon, "after the second sermon." It was the CHAP. I. last religious service that was expected to be celebrated under the Dutch flag in Kieft's old church in Fort Amster- Terms exdam. The next morning Stuyvesant and his council, hav- plained to ing ratified the articles of capitulation, exchanged them with Nicolls, who, on his part, delivered the stipulated doc- 29 August. uments; and thereupon New Amsterdam was surrendered, 8 Septem. and "the English, without any contest or claim being be- ratified. fore put forth by any person to it, took possession of a fort sterdam built and continually garrisoned about forty years at the ed. expense of the West India Company."* Articles New Am surrender The story of the reduction of Long Island and New Amsterdam has now been minutely told: the unexpected blockade of the port by the English; the overwhelming force of the invaders; the weakness of Fort Amsterdam and its garrison; the almost solitary heroism and loyalty of Stuyvesant; the natural resentment of the city burghers against the authorities in Holland, who had left them unprotected against surprise; their common prudence, which preferred the easy terms offered by the English commander to the consequences of an unavailing resistance and a capture by storm; their reasonable dread of being plundered by the English colonial volunteers from the east; the inevitable capitulation of the metropolis, and the consequent surrender of the whole Dutch province. There was, indeed-as Stuyvesant reluctantly confessed-"an ab- The Dutch solute impossibility of defending the fort, much less the defensecity of New Amsterdam, and still less the country."+ province less. quest a On the part of England this conquest of New Netherland was an act of peculiar national baseness. It was a scandalous outrage. It was planned in secret, and was ac- The concomplished with deliberate deceit toward a friendly gov- scandalous ernment. None but Englishmen had the impudence to do so vile a wrong. Its true motive was carefully concealed * Col. Doc., ii, 414, 415; Alb. Rec., xviii., 323, 324, 326; Col. MSS., xv., 145; Gen. Ent., i., 31, 32; ante, vol. i., 763. Smith, i., 32, errs in stating that Stuyvesant refused, for two days, to ratify the articles, because they were "very disagreeable" to him. The true reason was that a Sunday intervened, and the articles themselves provided for their due execution on Monday. † Col. Doc., ii., 366. The first dispatches which Nicolls sent home, containing an account of his transactions with the New England colonies and the surrender of New Netherland, were lost at sea in the Elias frigate, as will be stated hereafter: see Col. Doc., iii., 68, 92, 103; Pepys, ii., 185; post, p. 50, note. outrage. 1664. CHAP. I. in all the diplomatic statements which attempted to justify the deed. The navigation laws of England, which were chiefly meant to cripple the commerce of her great maritime rival, could not be enforced in America as long as that rival possessed so important a province there. The intensely selfish spirit of those laws eagerly employed the most unjustifiable means to maintain them. Because England coveted New Netherland, and not because she had any rightful claim, she treacherously seized it as a prize. The whole transaction was eminently characteristic of an insolent and overbearing nation. On no other principle than that which frequently afterward governed the predatory aggressions of England in India and elsewhere can her conquest of the Dutch province be defended. inevitable. Nevertheless, unjustifiable as was the deed, the temptation to commit it was irresistible. Its actual execution was The event probably only a question of time. The event itself could hardly have been avoided by the Dutch government, unless all their previous policy had been reversed, and the holding of New Netherland at all hazards against any enemies been made an indispensable obligation. But this could not have been expected. Neither the West India Company-now on the brink of bankruptcy-nor the States General adequately valued their American province. It was not until toward the end of their rule that the importance of New Netherland and the necessity of securing it seriously engaged the attention of the authorities in Holland. Even then their apparent indifference encouraged the mousing designs of England. Charles the Second decreed that the United Netherlands should no longer have a foothold in North America. The decree was executed; and the Dutch province became the easy prey of undeclared enemies, who sneaked, in time of peace, into her chief harbor. New York replaced New Netherland on the map of the world. Although wars in Europe followed, the result in America was the same. Holland retired from the unequal strife, leaving France and Spain to contend for a season with England for ultimate supremacy in North America. What England gained. By the conquest of New Netherland England became the mistress of all the Atlantic coast between Acadia and Florida. On the north and west her colonies were now |