Part 11

Matters were in bad shape in England for the colonists, and among disheartening things, Standish found that both Robinson and Cushman had died. Finally, late in 1626, Mr. Allerton went over and through influence brought to bear on the merchants, the latter agreed to sell out to the colonists for 1,800 pounds, in payments of 200 pounds a year, beginning with the year 1628. Here were nine years more of hard labor before they could hope to be clear of the indebtedness incurred for their passage money with living expenses added. An arrangement was at last affected by some of the leading men of the colony with a few staunch friends in London to take the trade of the colony for six years, pay off the debts and send the remainder of the Leyden church over. The six years would end in 1632, a period of twelve years from the time of landing. It was also the length of time spent by the Separatists in Holland after they left England. What a history! Almost a generation in time, and crowded full of trials, hardships, discouragements, sickness and death.

The Pilgrims doubtless were a kind, tender hearted and sympathetic people naturally, and their surroundings and experiences in life would tend to render more marked these characteristics. They as clearly were a christian people and deeply religious, and it could hardly be expected that the Reformation of the sixteenth century, setting men’s minds and thoughts religiously free, would result in aught else than great diversity of opinion, and that beliefs and doctrines would be sharply outlined and stoutly maintained; Luther died but a few years before Brewster was born, and Melanchthon, his coadjutor and ally, lived for several years after. Bradford and Robinson were born before religious feeling and ardor had become cooled. It is not, therefore, a matter of surprise, when we find Robinson taking a hand in the discussions of the day. This suited his nature; he seemed to be in his “element,” for he was yet young, only 32, when the “Separatists,” went from Scrooby into Holland.

Lest it be thought that the opinion we have expressed concerning Robinson was incorrect and unjust, the language is here given of an eminent, English writer and speaker: “It was with the Calvinists that Robinson took part, entering into the subject with all the learning of which he was master and all the ardor of a man of his temperament, and still not 40 years old. It is to be regretted that, like all the other polemics of his day, his zeal betrayed him into intemperate warmth, and the adoption of harsh, acrimonious and uncharitable expressions. It must be remembered that the most vehement, violent and vituperative language used by the most ultra bigot of our times is as mild as milk, compared with the controversial tone of the theological disputants of the seventeenth century.” Bradford also says of Robinson that “he was a man of quick and sharp wit, an acute and expert disputant, very quick and ready;” and Winslow adds: “’Tis true, I confess, he was more rigid in his course and way at first than towards his latter end,” when the “fiery vehemence of youth” had given place to the cooler judgment and conservatism of riper years. But Robinson did not come to America with the Pilgrims, nor at all, for he died at the age of 49, in 1625.

He had expected to come, but a majority of the flock at Leyden decided to remain at that place instead of emigrating, and he concluded to remain also.

Leaving Robinson out, who had been obliged in early manhood, to resort to daily labor for a living, it is very doubtful if the desire for freedom in religious worship was the main motive for their emigrating.

Bradford was thirteen years younger than Robinson, and but a mere boy when the church at Scrooby was formed, and only nineteen at the removal to Leyden. He was a noble youth (and a nobler man) and was easily influenced and led by Brewster and Robinson. The whole company went to Leyden expecting probably to spend their lives there, and engaged in various business callings and occupations. On coming of age, Bradford inherited some money. This he sank in unfortunate business operations. Brewster had been postmaster at Scrooby from 1594 to 1607, when he resigned, presumably because his sympathy with the “Separatists” was obnoxious to the government, which, in all probability, would have removed him had not he himself deprived it of that pleasure, by vacating office, following which action he immediately went to Holland.

It will be borne in mind that the Pilgrims, as a congregation or church, were not the first Separatist body or organization, for one John Smith had organized a company of these people as early as 1602, at Gainsborough, numbering some three or four hundred, and in 1604 went with them to Amsterdam. This was undoubtedly one reason for the Pilgrims going to that place under Brewster and Bradford, instead of going to any other place. It is believed that Robinson had little or no connection with our Pilgrims until after Brewster left the post-office, and they were about to leave Scrooby. On the way to Amsterdam, and later, on the way to and at Leyden, accessions were made to the company, so that before the final emigration their numbers had reached between two and three hundred. These latter additions were from the common or laboring class, who, in all probability, joined in the wake of the movement, thinking to better their worldly condition.

On this point another English writer has said: “The vicinity of Scrooby was an agricultural district, having a few villages scattered about, each with its church and perhaps an esquire’s seat, but the population was for the most part employed in husbandry, an occupation little congenial to the growth of extreme opinions in either religion or politics or of voluntary sacrifices to a severe estimate of duty, or a supposed call of conscience.” The same writer, speaking of those who were even prominently identified with the movement, says: “Neither Bradford nor Brewster, nor the divines who were concerned in the movement, were of the eminent of the earth, about whom there is curiosity widely extended through the country which gave them birth, and concerning whom nothing is thought unimportant. It may even be said that they were but inconsiderable persons at home, and their consequence has undoubtedly arisen out of the grand results which, unforeseen by themselves, have ensued on their great resolve. So that there is scarcely anything to be told of their early history besides those very small facts which make the history of men who are of but small account in the midst of a large and advanced population.” It has also been said that the Pilgrims, as we speak of them, would scarcely have been heard of had it not been first for Robinson and Brewster and Bradford, and there can be no doubt that the great majority of them came to this country that they might find homes and advance their worldly circumstances.

An American of high historical standing and learning has said: “Here lay a new world for the most part unoccupied, inviting colonization, and it was as natural for men to come and settle here as to embark in any other enterprise in life. The only wonder is that the work of colonization was not begun earlier and pursued by thousands rather than by hundreds.” This colonizing, this settling and developing a country, the desire to own the roof under which one sleeps “raise the personal importance and dignity of the subject or citizens,” and “it can never be too well understood that the generations of men sow and plant for their successors.” It seems to have been an entire and pushing necessity that these people should get away from Holland in order to secure a comfortable living and to make any provision for their posterity. Bradford says: “The country (Holland) was hard and many were discouraged. Grim and grizzled poverty was coming on them as an armed man, old age was coming upon them and no amelioration of their condition came with it.” That they should come to America, and for the reasons given, seems quite reasonable and natural when it is remembered that Captain Smith and others, returning to England, had expressed the opinion that the fisheries on the New England coast might be made profitable. And we know that this was one of the first industries engaged in by the Pilgrims. Smith states that in 1616 four ships of London and two of Plymouth and Sir Richard Hawkins were again in the fishing waters in the vicinity of Massachusetts and Maine.

Early in 1620, also, six or seven sailing vessels set out for the western country for the same purpose and visited the country about the harbor where the Pilgrims landed in December following.

That there was a Providence in their coming here is altogether probable. That the same Providence reached out and extended its ruling and benignant hand on the journey and after the arrival is certain.

“There is no doubt, a great over-ruling power in all human affairs, but our concern (the emigration) is with second causes, and it is to be believed that we often deceive ourselves when we attempt to recover general principles from which things remarkable in the acts of men have sprung.” “And if we conclude that these people had mistaken the path or duty, or had imposed upon themselves a severer burthen than God ever intended for them, there it still a heroism in their conduct which forbids us to regard them with indifference, nay rather, which will call forth the sympathy of every generous mind.”

There has been neither design nor desire, in what has been said, to reflect on the character of the Pilgrims, or to detract from the high fame and renown to which they are justly entitled. No one has more appreciation of their virtues or greater veneration for their memories than the writer. A train of thought only has been followed which led in a channel that seems to be altogether reasonable and intelligent. When a genealogist thought to please Napoleon by telling him that his descent could be traced from some ancient line of Gothic princes, he replied that he dated his patent of nobility from the battle of Monte Notte (his first victory.) The Pilgrims inherited their patent of nobility and derived their claim to immortality by the excellence of their example and the beauty and usefulness of their lives.

D. W. MANCHESTER.

WERE THE DUTCH ON MANHATTAN ISLAND IN 1598?

It will admit of but very little dispute that Verrazano in 1524, and Gomez in 1525, anticipated Henry Hudson by several decades in the discovery of New York Bay and the Hudson River. There is also a claim for previous discovery however, put forward in behalf of the Dutch. One confident historian of the Metropolis starts out bravely and unhesitatingly with the assertion that the Dutch were here as early as 1598; but he gives no authorities from whence he had gathered this startling piece of information, yet before one has read thirty pages of such a well-known work as Dr. E. B. O’Callaghan’s, “History of New Netherland,” the source of the statement is plainly indicated, and fortunately, also the opportunity for a careful weighing of the testimony supporting it.

[Illustration: MANHATTAN ISLAND IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.]

Dr. O’Callaghan refers his readers to a Dutch document in the State Archives at Albany, discovered by Mr. Brodhead at the Hague, copied by him for his collection of documents and translated and published in that invaluable store-house of historical material, the “Documents relating to the Colonial History of the State of New York,” vol. I, pp. 149, _et seq._ Here we read: “New Netherland ... was first frequented [explored] by the inhabitants of this country [Holland] in the year 1598, and especially by those of the Greenland Company, but without making any fixed settlements, only as a shelter [resort] in the winter. For which purpose they erected on the North [Hudson] and South [Delaware] Rivers there, two little forts against the incursions of the Indians. A charter was afterwards, on the 11th of October, 1614, granted by their High Mightinesses to trade exclusively to the newly discovered countries.”

Without discussing the nature or merits of this document itself just now, we will first weigh the value of its statement. The Hollanders who “frequented” Manhattan Island in 1598, were in the employ of a Dutch “Greenland Company.” Now it would seem to be of some importance for the establishment of the interesting fact under discussion, that there be brought forward some evidence of the existence of such an association as this Greenland Company. For certainly if no trace of its existence can be found, this would cast serious doubt upon the exploits of its servants in these waters.

We have to begin with announcing the lamentable fact that after a thorough search of every imaginable source of information, we have been unable to discover the existence of a Dutch Greenland Company prior to the year 1600. The works of Dutch historians, both ancient and modern, were carefully scanned, but all in vain. We began with a modern writer, N. G. Van Kampen, sometimes called by his fond and admiring countrymen, the Dutch Macaulay. He wrote an elaborate and extensive work of four or five octavo volumes on “De Nederlanders buiten Europa” (The Netherlanders outside of Europe), giving an eloquent as well as exhaustive review of those splendid achievements in various portions of the globe, which resulted in the establishment of the great Colonial Empire of the Dutch, even at this day second only to that of the English.

But there is found no mention of a Dutch Greenland Company or its doings either in these volumes or in Wagenaar, who lived in the eighteenth century and issued more than one monumental publication, or in Bor or Van Meteren of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. These older writers let no event or transaction or institution of any importance escape them. They were not afraid of multiplying their volumes and therefore not at all deterred from noting even the minutest affairs that came within their ken, as they laboriously proceeded from year to year. But they are all strangely silent about this apocryphal company whose mariners were in the habit of sheltering themselves on Manhattan Island before 1600.

But now it is only fair to indicate how the tradition may have originated that there ever was such an organization as the Greenland Company. An appreciation of any reasonable grounds for its origin, will help us understand better how the mistaken statement came to be made, and to see that it was a mistake. There did exist in Holland a “Noordsche Compagnie” or Northern Company and there exists the most abundant and indubitable evidence that the terms “Northern Company” and “Greenland Company” were used interchangeably, and were both applied to the former association. This company was at first confined to the merchants of the Province of Holland, who had received their charter from the States-General, after the approval and endorsement of such a measure by the States of Holland. In 1617, the charter was renewed, but the merchants of Zeeland wished for the same privileges and the States-General granted a charter to a Zeeland “Northern Company” in May 28, 1622. Turning to the “Groot Placcaet Book,” Vol. I, Cols. 673, 674, we discover the two names in question in curious but instructive juxtaposition. The title of the act has Noortsche Compagnie, while in the body of the act we read Groenlandtsche Compagnie. In this same year (Dec., 1622), the Zeeland and Holland Companies were combined into one general or national “Northern Company,” but the act granting a larger charter mentions only the above name both in the title and in the body of it. It is to this Company that Moulton refers in his “History of New York” (p. 362) when he makes the assertion that “the Greenland Company was created in 1622.” He places this association on an exact level with the East and West India Companies.

“Thus the Northern Seas, Asia, Africa and America, were partitioned to three armed associations, possessing powers nearly co-extensive with those of the Republic.” The company chartered in 1622, (as we have seen), can not properly be classed as equal in importance or influence or power with the two great commercial associations named in one breath with it by Mr. Moulton. And we have seen also, that it did not officially bear the name he gives it, although that name might be interchangeable with the true one in the case of subordinate companies. Yet even this is not the case with the charter creating the original company confined to Holland Province alone, where there is no mention of the name “Greenland” in either the title or the body of the document. Lastly there is this significant circumstance about that earliest charter of any “Northern Company;” it bears date January 1614, and distinctly states “that no such company had ever been chartered before.”[12] This therefore settles the question as to whether it could possibly have been men in the employ of this company, miscalled the “Greenland Company,” who habitually sought relief from the rigors of an Arctic winter on the shores of the Hudson River in the year 1598. This could hardly have been when it was not erected or chartered until January 1614.

In the second place, if frequent or habitual visits to Manhattan Island were made by the Dutch in and after the year 1598, we are at a loss to comprehend the entire lack of recollection of such visits on the part of the Indians thereabouts. It is insisted on more than once in various accounts that both the vessel and the persons of its crew, were objects of boundless wonder to the natives, as they beheld the “Half-Moon” resting upon the waters of the bay or gliding up the river. De Laet, one of the earliest to write on Hudson’s discovery, publishing his “Nieuwe Wereld,” (New World) in 1625 and basing his statements on those of Hudson’s own journal, perhaps citing his very words, speaks as follows: “So far as they could judge and find out, there had never been any ships or Christians in this region before, so that they were the first who discovered this river and sailed up so far.” Such a declaration might need to be received with some suspicion, if the author had intended to maintain a claim of the first discovery for the Dutch as against other nations. But he could have had no reason to suppress the circumstance of the visits of the Dutch themselves to our river, in 1598. If that had been patent to De Laet he would have been only too glad to mention it, as only increasing the validity of the Dutch claims to those regions by the right of first discovery. He could have had no particular object in glorifying the Englishman Hudson’s exploit at the expense of the sailors of an exclusively and undoubtedly Dutch Greenland Company. But returning to the Indians, we notice in Vander Donck’s celebrated “Vertoogh,” written at New Amsterdam and published at the Hague in 1650, another arraignment of their poor memories. “Even at the present day those natives of the country who are so old as to recollect when the Dutch ships first came here, declare that when they saw them, they did not know what to make of them. Some among them when the first one arrived, even imagined it to be a fish or some monster of the sea.” Now the Indians might indeed have forgotten a visit made so long ago as 1524 or 1525, if Verrazano and Gomez really did discover the Hudson then, making but a brief stay and a rapid examination of its banks at best, but an habitual resort to its shores, or even one winter spent on the island at its mouth, in forts built to repel their attacks, only eleven years before Hudson came among them, the Indians could not possibly, it would seem, have so utterly forgotten in 1609.

But we will now give our attention more particularly to the document which asserts that the Dutch were on Manhattan Island as early as 1598. What was the nature of it, and to what degree of credence is it entitled? Mr. Brodhead in the explanatory heading which he usually prefixes to the documents in his collection states that it is a report made in 1644 by the Chairman of a Committee or Board of Accounts, appointed by the directors of the West India Company. Several documents were placed in his (the chairman’s) hands for the purpose of enabling him to furnish to the company a succinct review of events connected with the origin of the settlement on Manhattan Island, and with its progress up to that date. The writer begins with the story of the Dutch and their forts in 1598. Immediately after this the official historian glides easily into what he evidently either considers himself, or wishes others to believe, is the next stage in the history of the Manhattan Colony; namely this: “a charter was afterwards on the 11th of October 1614, granted by their High Mightinesses.” As if nothing of importance had happened between 1598 and 1614!

The question therefore arises, if this was meant for history in 1644, why was it written so imperfectly? It could not be that the fact of Hudson’s discovery, so vitally connected with the origin of Manhattan Colony, had been completely forgotten at that time, much less that after a careful examination of all the papers available to directors of the West India Company, the chairman of their committee should not have come across the record of that discovery. How then did he happen to pass it over in utter silence in his official report? Was it purposely suppressed? If so, what could have been the motive for this singular proceeding?