Gambar halaman
PDF
ePub

season, so as to be able to prosecute his explorations during the coming summer. He made the incautious remark in the hearing of his sailors that he might be obliged to leave some of his crew behind, in consequence of the dearth of provisions, and this led to his death. His crew mutinied, put him, his son, and seven men, who alone adhered to him out of his whole crew of twenty-three sailors, on board of a small boat and left them to the mercy of the waves and of the savage inhabitants of the country. Attempts were afterwards made to rescue him and his companions, but without avail. His memory, however, survives and will ever remain while the noble river he discovered, the beautiful city reared at the spot where he landed on the bank of that river, and the great bay into which he sailed-all shall bear his name. The English government claimed title to the American continent by virtue of its discovery by Cabot, at the close of the fifteenth century, and of the subsequent visits made by Hudson. He sailed, it is true, in a Dutch vessel and in the service of a Dutch commercial company, but he was an Englishman, they said, and so they claimed title to the new found continent through him also. They did not see the inconsistency of claiming in the one case, through the vessel, because it was English, and in the other, through an Englishman, although his vessel was Dutch. The Hollanders, in their turn, claimed the right through their servant, though an Englishman, but sailing in their ship, to that part of America where he landed.

In 1610 some Holland merchants of Amsterdam fitted out a vessel and sent it to Hudson's great river, to trade with the natives in furs, the only commodities the aborigines had to exchange with them. It is not probable that, at the outset, the Dutch intended to colonize the country, but simply to trade. The land, however, was a goodly one, and possessed all the appliances necessary for the comfort and happiness of a people; so immigrants were attracted thither and very early began to make permanent settlements. In 1614 two forts were erected, one at or near where now stands Albany, which was then called Fort Orange; and the other on Manhattan Island, which the Dutch called New Amsterdam. A trading house for the protection and convenience of European traders, was built on the southwest corner of the island, near the fort, and the whole country claimed by the Hollanders, including what is now New Jersey, was called New Netherlands. Other immigrants from the mother country flocked in and soon a small town sprang up near New Amsterdam, and settlements were made at other points on the river.

From this people came the first settlers of the northern part of New Jersey. In 1618 some Hollanders, with a few Danes and Norwegians, crossed Hudson River and made lodgment in Bergen county. The Hollanders found in the low lands lying on the Hackensack and its tributaries a country similar to that they had left behind them in Europe, and attracted by this similarity, there they reared their substantial dwellings, and there their descendants, of pure and unmixed blood, are to be found to-day, in what is now called Bergen county. If any representatives of other nationalities joined with them, they have been lost, amalgamated with this Dutch strain.

The English and Dutch almost immediately, or, at least, so soon as England waked up to the consciousness of the importance of the American continent, came to a contest about their respective claims to the country. Each claimed it by the right of discovery, and the Dutch added that of possession, but that of England was the better; though there was some merit in that set up by Holland. The first attempt made to enforce the English claim was, in a measure, accidental. A Captain Argall, of Virginia, had headed an expedition against the French in Acadia. On his return, in 1613, late in the autumn or early in the winter, he visited the Dutch settlements and Manhattan Island. He required them to acknowledge the king of Great Britain as their sovereign, to contribute towards his own expenses, and to agree to pay in the future a sort of a tax or tribute to the authorities of Virginia. They were unprepared to resist his demands and at once agreed to all he required at their hands. But the acquiescence was only for the time being, for the very next year they renounced their allegiance to the English crown and refused to make any further contributions to the treasury of Virginia. They were much encouraged in making this refusal, as Hendrick Christianse, in the following year after Argall's visit, arrived from Europe, armed with a charter granted by the States General, dated April 17, 1614, by which some merchants of Holland were granted certain rights of trading in the newly discovered lands. This brought additional immigrants from Holland to the colony, and in connection with the forts already erected on the island and at Albany, created a degree of confidence in the colonists, and they became defiant. Complaints were made at the Hague by the representatives of Charles of this invasion of English rights, but no regard seems to to have been paid to these remonstrances.

The Dutch became more and more demonstrative and claimed control over the whole country from Delaware Bay to New England.

It is quite probable that some settlements had been made in what is now, or once was known as Bergen county, prior to that already mentioned as having been made in 1618. A blockhouse was built near what is now Jersey City, which was once in Bergen county, for the protection of traders, and a small village had also been built at Bergen. This Dutch element finally spread through the whole of the county of Bergen and, in the beginning of the eighteenth century, made its way into Morris county. It has given some of the very best characteristics to the communities where it is found and has dominated those communities, so far as habits of thought, of manners and customs or religious beliefs and cermonies are concerned, from that time to the present. Its influence in those directions has never been effaced, but in all governmental affairs it has been overpowered by the stronger and more energetic Anglo-Saxon. Dutch names, Dutch peculiarities of thought, of character, of manner, prevail; even the Dutch language is still spoken by a majority of the older inhabitants of the county, and, until a recent date, the services in the churches were conducted in the pure Dutch idiom.

They and their descendants have been content to remain quietly in their comfortable homes, satisfied with the sure results of their agricul tural labors. They have not originated great schemes, nor established great enterprises; but they have made most excellent citizens, true as steel to the best interests of the Republic, and ever ready to defend its honor and its integrity with fortune and with life if necessary. They have been a staid, God-fearing people, loving peace, seeking quiet lives, not fond of the rush and bustle of the busy marts of commerce and trade. Though they have not inaugurated courts, nor published codes of law, nor formulated systems of jurisprudence; yet they have been a law abiding people. The very best blood in both New York and New Jersey is derived from this immigration from the land of William the Silent.

These colonies on Manhattan Island and on Hudson River very soon became important; the mother country assumed control over them, sent governors to rule them, and a large and flourishing trade sprang up between them and the aborigines and Europe. Charles I of England was too much engrossed with his domestic quarrels with Parliament and people to attempt the enforcement of his claims by arms, and it was several years before the English government obtained control of the country.

A feeble attempt was made in 1634 to dislodge the Dutch, but it soon

came to nought and served no particular purpose. On June 21, 1634, a charter was granted to Sir Edmund Ployden by the English government, naming him as "Earl Palatine" over the country occupied by the Hollanders and over which they claimed authority. This charter gave him the most ample powers of government. He claimed that he had "amply and copiously peopled the same with five hundred people." His claim was undoubtedly untrue. The land granted by the charter was thus described in the grant: "All that entire Island near the Continent or Terra Firma of North Virginia, called the Isle of Plowden, or Long Island and lying near or between the thirty-ninth and fortieth degrees of North latitude, together with part of the Continent or Terra Firma aforesaid, near adjoining; described to begin from the point of an angle of a certain promontory called Cape May and from thence to the westward for the space of forty leagues, running by the river Delaware and closely following the course by the north latitude into a certain rivulet there, arising from a spring of the Lord Baltimore's in the lands of Maryland and the summit aforesaid to the south, where it touches, joins and determines in all its breadth; from thence takes its course into a square leading to the north by a right line for the space of forty leagues, and from thence likewise by a square inclining towards the east in a right line, for the space of forty leagues, to the river and part of Reacher Cod and descends to a savannah touching and including the top of Sandheey, where it determines; and from thence towards the south by a square stretching to a savannah, which passes by and washes the shores of the Island of Plowden aforesaid to the point of the promontory of Cape May, above mentioned and terminates where it began."

Sir Edmund made some efforts to enforce his claim; he resided seven years in his province, assumed the right to grant parts of his Palatinate to others, and actually made such grants on paper and pretended to exercise his authority, though it was never recognized by any other of the residents than by those whom he brought over from Europe with him, and possibly a few others who hoped for the ultimate success of his enterprise. His exercise of the office of governor has left no appreciable effect and certainly was never recognized by any Hollander. An attempt was made to effect a compromise of the conflicting claims, by an offer on the part of the Dutch to sell their "claim and improvements" for £2,500. Just exactly what was included in this offer to sell is not clear. It was not accepted, and the Dutch rose in their

price until their demand reached £7,000. Finally, not desirous of making any compromise, they withdrew all offers to sell. Great efforts were made to secure immigration; pamphlets were published, presenting great inducements to actual settlers, accompanied by the most glowing descriptions of the country, its soil, its fertility, its many appliances for human happiness and the richness and variety of its fruits and other products.

Before the grant to Ployden the "privileged West India Company had been created by the States General and at once began operations in America. It did not, however, confine those operations to the settlements in and around Manhattan Island and on the Hudson River. An expedition was sent out, almost immediately after the formation of this company, in 1621, under Captain Cornelius Jacobus Mey, who coasted along the continent as far as Cape Cod. He sailed into Delaware Bay, gave his own name to that body of water, also called the cape at the extremity of New Jersey after himself, which name it still bears; the other cape of the bay he called Cornelius, after one of his christened appellations. He made some settlements in the lower part of New Jersey and protected them by erecting a fort near the spot where the city of Camden is now situated. For several years additions were made to this new settlement, but in 1632 it was abandoned and the country on the Delaware was left undisturbed, to return once more to the possession of its original inhabitants.

The Dutch, while they had possession of New Netherlands, exercised full control and absolute governmental authority over all the colonists. there resident. The governors, who resided at New Amsterdam, took the name of Directors General, were commissioned by the States General, and had full supervision over the whole country. Subordinate officers were appointed, who assumed and exercised the authority of lieutenant-governors over smaller districts, those on Delaware Bay being known as the "three lower Counties," and the whole government was carried on in the name of "Their High Mightinesses, the States-General and the privileged West India Company." Grants of land were made, sometimes in very large districts, both in New York and New Jersey. Governor Kieft, in 1633, received one for Paulus Hoeck, the Dutch name for the peninsula where Jersey City is now situated. On. May 11, 1647, Maryn Adrianse received a warrant for Weehawken; a large tract of indefinite extent was purchased by Augustine Herman, on December 6, 1651, on Raritan River, which seems to have included

« SebelumnyaLanjutkan »