In New York, the two parties, the popular and aristocratic, continued to exist, and after the governorship of Sloughter, of Ingoldsby, and of Fletcher had ended, the popular party once more gained the ascendancy under the Earl of Bellomont, who, when governor, allowed the remains of Leisler and Milborne to be taken from their burial-place under the gallows, to the cemetery of the Dutch Church (in the present Exchange Place).' This removal, in 1698, was an occasion of much solemnity, fifteen hundred persons taking part. Prominent contemporaries in other colonies regarded the execution of Leisler as eminently unjust, Increase Mather, for instance, declaring that Leisler was "barbarously murdered.”

There are two reasons why the career of Leisler stands out conspicuously in American history: first and foremost, because he was the man who called together the first congress of American colonies; secondly, because he was the first representative of the popular party against the aristocratic element, of plebeian against patrician, or of Democrat against Tory. Had Leisler's dreams been realized, had he received due support from William III, hailed as their national hero by the Dutch of New Amsterdam, then Leisler would have gone down in history as the first great representative of popular government in New York. His administration might have been signalized as a long stride advancing toward popular government in the colonies. In view of these facts, this man's personality, in spite of his crudeness and stubbornness bordering on fanaticism, is worthy of the highest respect, being conspicuous for qualities since then always highly valued in public life, and repeatedly honored by the popular vote, viz.: unquestioned honesty and integrity, unflinching firmness and

1 Kapp, p. 56.

2 Cf. Fiske, vol. ii, p. 192.

energy. Experience as a soldier and uncommon success in the administration of affairs were likewise elements contributing to the confidence the people felt in him as a public man.

Some of Leisler's descendants were also prominent in American history. Hester, one of his daughters, married the Dutchman Rynders, while her sister, Mary, widow of Milborne, became the wife of the brilliant young Huguenot, Abraham Gouverneur. Mary's son, Nicholas Gouverneur, married Hester's daughter, Gertrude Rynders, and a son of this marriage, Isaac Gouverneur, was the grandfather of Gouverneur Morris, one of the ablest members of the convention that framed the constitution of the United States. "This eminent statesman was thus lineally descended from Jacob Leisler through two of his daugh

Dwelling with the Dutch settlers of New Amsterdam, there was undoubtedly quite a sprinkling of Germans. A good example is that of Dr. Hans Kierstede, who came from Magdeburg in 1638 with Director Kieft. He was the first practicing physician and surgeon in that colony. He married Sarah Roeloffse, daughter of Roeloff and Anneke Janse, the owner of the Annetje Jans farm on Manhattan Island.2

Among the German settlers of the seventeenth century Minuit and Leisler have represented the type of the soldier and statesman, while the "Dutch" in the Jamestown colony represented the humbler class of artisans or laborers. A third class of pioneers also had German representatives,

1 Fiske, vol. ii, p. 187.

Cf. Schoonmaker, The History of Kingston, N. Y., p. 482. 1888. Also Ruth Putnam, " Annetje Jans Farm," in Historic New York, vol. i, p. 132, etc. Putnam, 1897.

namely, the explorers and discoverers. Of the latter there was John Lederer. He was sent on three different expeditions by Sir William Berkeley, governor of the colony of Virginia, to explore the land south and west of the James River during the years 1669-70. From his map as well as from his journal we gather that he passed through North Carolina and proceeded as far into South Carolina as the Santee River. There were no whites then living in South Carolina, and only two colonies existing in North Carolina, on the Albemarle Sound and Cape Fear River. Lederer wrote his journal in Latin. Sir William Talbot, governor of Maryland, who translated the journal into English, speaks highly of the author's literary attainments. He had at first been unfavorably biased by evil stories concerning Lederer, yet found him, as he says, "a modest, ingenious person and a pretty scholar," and Lederer vindicated himself "with so convincing reason and circumstance that removed all unfavorable impressions." The fact is, that Lederer had not been well received by the person that sent him, the governor of Virginia, owing to prejudices created against him by the English companions that set out with him on his journey. They forsook him and turned back. In his journal Lederer declares that he had a private commission from the governor of Virginia to proceed, though the rest of the party should abandon him, and he therefore went on with one Susquehanna Indian, reaching the Santee River at 331° north latitude. His former companions returned to Virginia, and, not expecting that Lederer would ever come back, they excused themselves by false reports concerning him.

The three journeys which Lederer made, according to his journal, were first, from the head of the York River due west to the Appalachian Mountains; secondly, from

the Falls of the James River, west and southwest into the Carolinas; thirdly, from the Falls of the Rappahannock, west to the mountains. No doubt can attach to the fact of these early western explorations, and they unquestionably had a good effect. The tide of immigration, to be sure, did not begin to flow until 1680, but the direction had been indicated.

The first German in Texas was a Würtemberger by the name of Hiens (Heinz, Hans).' He was a member of the expedition of La Salle in 1687, that vainly sought for the delta of the Mississippi, with a fatal result for the leader. After the murder of La Salle, the party under the rule of Duhaut ranged aimlessly among the Indians for a while, and fell in with some deserters of La Salle's former expedition, now living among the savages. One of these conspired with Hiens, and they avenged the murder of La Salle by killing Duhaut and Liotot. Hiens, perhaps fearing revenge, left the expedition, parting amicably.

Another explorer, the earliest of the three, was Peter Fabian, a Swiss German, member of the expedition sent out in 1663 by the English Carolina Company to explore the Carolinas. The report of the expedition was probably written by Fabian, the scientific man of the party, as the distances are recorded by the standard of the German mile. The report appeared in 1665 in London, signed by Anthony Long, William Hilton, and Peter Fabian. It was embodied in the earliest history of Carolina by John Lawson, London, 1709.3 In the latter work mention is made of another Swiss German explorer, Francis Louis Mitschel

1 Cf. Der deutsche Pionier, vol. vi, pp. 69-70. Cincinnati, 1869-87, 18 vols. The statement is there made on the authority of Louis Hennepin. * Justin Winsor, Narrative and Critical History of America, vol. iv, p. 238. Cf. Der deutsche Pionier, vol. x (1878), p. 188.

(for Michel), described as sent by his home canton, Bern, to select a suitable tract for a Swiss settlement, and as having, during several years of exploration, discovered large areas among the mountain ranges lying toward the headwaters of the large rivers and bays of Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, all uninhabited save by a few savages.1

The foregoing chapter attempted to show that, while the Germans living in an inland country were not seafarers or discoverers, their scholarly bent made them leading cosmographers during the period of American exploration. German settlers appeared even in the earliest colonies on American soil, such as Port Royal, Jamestown, and New Amsterdam. The purchaser and first governor of Manhattan Island, Peter Minuit, who was also the founder of New Sweden, and Jacob Leisler, martyr to the cause of popular government in New York, were Germans. Lederer, Hiens, and Fabian were prominent as early explorers in the southern and southwestern zone of English colonization in the seventeenth century.

1 Der deutsche Pionier, vol. x, p. 189. Quotation from Lawson (1709). For Michel see also below, Chapter vi, p. 213.