in the seventeenth century, soon provoked the envy of New Amsterdam's neighbors, and in the end made our city the emporium of the Western World. Our ancestors left children and children's children, who were well fitted to act important parts in the great work of opening the American continent to European Christian civilization. They brought with them honest maxims, industry, and the liberal ideas of their Fatherland-their school-masters, their dominies, and their BIBLES. In the course of events, however, New Netherland passed over to British rule, when new customs, new relationships, and new habits of thought, were introduced.* * It may be amusing to many of the present generation, so little accustomed to the old Dutch names, to read some titles once very familiar in New Amsterdam and New York, but now so seldom thought of or understood: De Herr-Officer; or Hoofdt-Schout, High-Sheriff. De Fiscoll-Attorney-General. Groot Bingenecht, and Klein Bingenecht, the Great and Small Citizenship, early marking the two orders of society. The Schout (Sheriff), Burgomeesters, and Schepens, then ruled the city, "as in all cities of the Fatherland." Geheim Schuyner-Recorder of Secrets. Eyck-Meester-The Weigh-Master. The word Boss, still in use, a century ago was written "Baas," and literally means master." SECOND PERIOD. 1674-1783. From the English Conquest to the Revolutionary War and the Termination of British Rule. CHAPTER I. BEFORE entering upon the history of this period, it seems desirable to take a ramble about the limits of New Amsterdam, and see for ourselves how it appeared at the time that the Dutch surrendered it to the English. In our walk we will take as our guide a map of the "Towne of Wambados, or New Amsterdam, as it was in September, 1661," a copy of which now lies before us. This is, so far as known, the only plan of the city executed in the early Dutch times, and was found a few years since in the British Museum. 1661. The town wind-mill stood on a bluff, within our present Battery, opposite Greenwich Street. On Water, between Whitehall and Moore Streets, was the "Government House," built, by Stuyvesant, of stone, and the best edifice in the town. When Governor Dongan became its owner he changed its name from the "Government House" to "Whitehall," and hence the name of the street. It was surrounded by a large inclosure, one side of which, with the garden, was washed by the river. A little dock for pleasure-boats ran into the stream at this point. Here, also, was located the Governor's house, between which and the canal in Broad street was the present Pearl Street, then the great center of trade-known as the "Waterside," and sometimes as the "Strand." Near the Governor's house was the "Way-house," or Weigh-house, at the head of the public wharf at the foot of the present Moore Street. A very short distance off, and parallel with Pearl, ran the Brugh Straat the present Bridge Street), so named from the fact of its leading to the bridge across the canal in Broad. There was a small passage-way running through this block and along the side of the "Old Church," for convenient access to a row of houses laid down on the map. These, five in number, belonged to the Company, and were built of stone. In front of them was a beautiful sloping green. The canal in Broad Street was, in truth, but a narrow stream, running toward Wall Street for a quarter of a mile. Both sides were dyked with posts, in the fashion of Fatherland, at the distance of twelve feet from the houses. On each side, as houses line a canal in Holland, stood a row of buildings in the ultraDutch style, low, high-peaked, and very neat, with their gables toward the street. Each had its stoop, a vane or weather-cock, and its dormer-window. From the roof of one, a little iron crane projected, with a small boat at its end, as a sign of this being the "Ferry-house." The landing was at the head of the canal, in Broad Street, at the point where Garden united with it. This canal or little stream originally went up to "Verlettenberg Hill" (Exchange Place), afterward corrupted into "Flottenbanck." This was the head of tide-water; and here the country people from Brooklyn, Gowanus, and Bergen brought their marketing to the center of the city. Many of the market-boats were rowed by stout women, without یا hats or bonnets, but wearing in their place close caps, There were generally two rowers to each craft. Further along the East River, or "water-side," a building of considerable pretension appeared-the Stadt Huys, or City Hall, first erected as a tavern, but afterward taken by the municipal government. In front of the Stadt Huys was placed a battery of three guns. Proceeding along the river-shore, we pass Hanover Square, where two boats are lying, and approach the "City Gate," at the foot of Wall Street, sometimes called the "Water Gate," to distinguish it from the "Land Gate" at the end of the road on the Sheera Straat (Broadway). The Water Gate seems to have been quite an imposing structure, doubtless because Pearl Street was the great thoroughfare and main entrance to the town. Most of the strangers or visitors to New Amsterdam came from Long Island. Continuing our walk toward Long Island Ferry, or "Passage Place," and passing by Maagde Paatje (Maiden Lane), we come to another public way leading to "Shoemakers' Land" and "Vandercliff's Orchard," both places of noted resort. This was the present John Street, from Pearl to Cliff. At a very early day the tanneries in Broad Street were declared a nuisance, and their owners ordered to remove beyond the city limits. This they did, and established themselves along Maiden Lane, then a marshy valley.* 66 *When the Maagde Paatje, or Maiden Lane, was continued through to the river, and widened below Pearl Street for the slip called "Countess's Slip," in compliment (for some "slip" of hers?) to the lady of the Governor, Lord Bellamont, a market was built there, known as the Vly Market, the Market in the Marsh," corrupted to the Fly Market. Hence, when in subsequent years there arose a sharp contest between a New-Yorker and a Philadelphian on the all-important question, in which of their cities was the best fare, the New-Yorker would boast of his fish, their variety, scores of kinds, their freshness, some even alive and gasping in the market. This fact was not to be denied; but to avoid the effect of a triumph, the Philadelphian would only, significantly, remind him, that however fresh his fish might be, the flesh he ate during the summer months Four of the number, shoemakers by trade, purchased a tract of land bounded by Broadway, Ann, William, and Gold Streets, and here commenced their business. This region was thenceforth known as the Shoemakers' Land, a name which it retained so late as 1696, when it was divided into town-lots. The tanners were next driven from this locality into what is even now known as the "Swamp." The Vandercliff's Orchard was bounded by the East River, Shoemakers' Land, and Maiden Lane. Its original owner was Hendrick Ryker, who sold it in 1680 to Dirck Vandercliff. During the Revolution this tract received the more pleasant-sounding name of Golden Hill, so named, it is said, from the fine wheat grown on it. Cliff Street yet preserves a part of the old title. Proceeding past Golden Hill we come to a large edifice, close to the present site of Fulton Market, and marked on the map as " Alderton's Buildings," surrounded by a fence. This is supposed to be the store-house of Isaac Allerton, who resided at New Amsterdam and carried on an extensive trade with the New-England colonies. He was one of the emigrants in the May Flower, and a notable character in our early history. His business was the importation of tobacco from Virginia, and this edifice was probably his great tobacco depot. Continuing our tour, we reach the "Passage Place," the present Peck Slip, known for a long time as the "Old Ferry." This was the earliest Brooklyn ferry; and its rates were regulated by the city authorities, in 1654, at three stivers for foot passengers, except Indians, who paid six, unless there were two or more. Here Cornelis Dirck was not quite free from taint. Since, from the swarms of the insect in the principal market, it was called emphatically the Fly Market. The poor NewYorker, ignorant of the Dutch language and of the etymologies from it, and hence knowing no better than that it was the true name of the market, left without a reply; left to experience what no one can know who has not experienced how provoking it is to be obliged in a disputation to give up the point. |