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CHAPTER I.

IN THE BK(iIXNlN(! — Al!nl!l(;iXAI, KRA THE WARS E()R I'OSSESSION.

1492 -1664.

"In the beginning." ry^HE world wliicli gave birtli to tlic discovery of AiiHM'ica was lit-

r

orally an Old World. Its iiistory began with auci(nit time; its territories were bounded by the Sacred Records; its prophe+s and sages had foretold, under Divine Revelation, the coming of the Son OF Man; its kings had called their hosts to battle, traversed its plains and valleys and erected monnments oi' stone and of tiie lioncsof their victims; vice, in all the forms oi man's invention, had swept its tidal waves over its inhabitants; whatever of good had been evolved from the experiences of the human race, was written on its annals, — it was old in its civilization, in its theories, in all its history. It Avas not, therefore, a poetic fancy which gave to America the title of the New World. European civilization iiad not touched it; physically, its fields and foi'ests, its mountains and valleys, were yet

"Wrapped iu :i inaiitlc, thick and black. That o'er its miglity frame had crept Since stars and angels sanir, and eiirth Shot, from its Makir, into Itirth."

It was a world to be moulded and fashi(»n(M]; to be developed under the ins|)iration of new theories; to take its im]n'ess from men of thought and action bronglit togetiicr \>\ tlie art of printing; to be forever, — in its histoiy, in its discoveries, in its tiieories, in its poM- tics, in its inlluence upon the human race, — a New Woi'ld.

For the change that awaited it the full time had not come wlien Columbus folded the sails of his siiallops, under the welcome cry of "Laud! Land!" which was echoed from tiie decks of the Pinta, on tiie evening of Septendu'r 25th, 1492. New thoughts were yet to be developed from the experiences of the old civilization before the records of tlie new could be opened. The freedom of man had not been born among tlie nations; religious intolerance had not reached

6 GiJNJERAL HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY.

its culminating point; the Word of God had not been unshackled. White-wing"ed messengers of the coming change hovered over the coast ; the Cabots discovered Newfoundland ; Verazzano explored, wtih his boat, the "most beautiful" bay of New York; Cartier pene- trated the Saint Lawrence. But Spain obtained from tlie Pope the sweeping edict that its sovereigns, should hold, as a gift in perpetu- ity, all the heathen lands found or to be discovered to the west of a meridian one hundred leagues westward from the Azores; enterprise was arrested; the nations became discordant, and the great heart of the New World waited under the influence of these, shall it be said natural causes, till a purer faith should recognize the hand of the Mighty One among the nations, and an unerring finger trace the pro- cesses of man's elevation.

But the full time came. England denied the exclusive pretensions of Spain, in virtue of first visitiition, and of the Pope's donation, and affirmed the principle that discovery and prescription, unless accom- panied by possession, were of no avail. Speedily the bold naviga- tors of England, and France, and Holland, pressed their vessels more closely to the long stretches of sandy shore, more closely to the wood- ed hills and the open bays, more closely to the rocky blufis that for slumbering ages had known no music but the grand anthem of praise which the soa had rolled up to Him who had set its bounds. Swept onward by the spirit of discovery which had risen to the occasion demanding its office, the coast line was passed, and the bays and the rivers running to the sea yielded their secrets. The great barrier to progress was br^jken down; the New World was opened to the em- brace of people of all nations to be welded togetlier in the furnace of common interests.

Interesting as is the study of the successive approaches of discov- ery, and the influences which alternately retarded or impelled its progress, philosophy pauses in the presence of the practical; and that which enables us to say, "On //lis day, or on this spot, some great discovery was made, some signal achievement was accomplished," or some monumental record was inscribed, commands the attention. More adventurous than many of his contemporaries, Henry Hudson, sailing under the flag of Holland, anchored his vessel, the Half Moon, in the bay which now constitutes the harbor of New York. Remain- ing there a week, on the morning of the 12th of September, 1609, he commenced the exploration of the river which now bears his name, and, on the morning of the 15th, sailed into what is now known as Newburgh bay. As he passed the giant hills that sentinel the north- ern portal of the Highlands, the sun came out and kissed with its beams the magnificent primal forests and awoke to life their gorgeous

IN THE BEGINNING. 7

autumnal hues. Before liim the river mirrored the rocky heights and the waving verdure; around him "the lethargy of uncivilized nature reigned in undisturbed solitude;" the wild game sprang from their familiar retreats startled by the sound of cannon and the inspiring peal of trumpets; the circling eddies from the vessel's prow bore with them to the adjacent shores the advent of the new era, and gave to them their part in the history of the discovery of the New World.

After spending several days in the northern part of the river, he reached Newburgh bay, on his return voyage, on the afternoon of the 29 Lh of September, and again cast anchor, or as his Journal states, "turned down to the edge of the mountains, or the northermost of the mountains, and anchored; because the high lands hath many points, and a narrow channel, and hath many eddie winds. So we rode quietly all night." What a night was that ! Forcibly remarks Moulton: "If the morning scene was grand, how beautiful must have been that of the night. His was the tirst European A'essel which had been encompassed by the Highlands.

'One still And solemn desert, in primeval garb, Hung round his lonely bark.'

The departing sun rested in beauty upon the hills, and left the shad- ows of the mountains to deepen into the night, when the solemn gloom became interrupted only by the scream of the catamount, as it leaped from the forest to the jutting crag, glanced for a moment at the ship, as its port-lights glimmered on the waters, and then plunged into the thicket; or by the shrill screech (jf 'each wild throat, in this incumbrance of horrific woods.' And now the fiill-orbed moon rose from behind the mountains and opened to full view the grand ampi- Iheatre of hills. At their base lay the ship embosomed in a tremu- lous gleam of light, while the surrounding rocks glistened with the reflected moonbeams, or presented in traces of shade the cavern- gorges, whither the grim, gainit wolf hastened with stealtiiy tread, when, prowling along the bank, his glare first fell upon the alarming- wonder." Anon the forest was hushed and its tenants mute, and as the hours passed on, the mountain sides again sparkled with gems and dew-drops as the morning sun awoke the scene to life.

The spectators of that wonderful scene were not confined to civil- ized men and beasts of prey. The New World had a people, if not a civilization, — a people with laws and customs the most perfect type of democracy, into whose hands possession had been given by the Creator; a people dressed in costumes of feathers and furs, arm- ed with rude weapons, uttering a strange language, worshiping a strange God. They were not strangers to Hudson in the sense that

8

GENERAL HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY.

tlieir existence was not knowM, for their name had reached Europe throiig-li the earlier voyag-ers; nor perhaps to many of them were those wlio now visited them in their own waters entirely unknown, fur on their coast the P]uropeans had been seen; long years before, the adventurous Verazzano had surveyed a j)ortion of their domin- ions; l)ut never before^ had the then living- gi'Uc^ration stood face to face with people of the Old World. The young were filled with wonder, the old with awe. 'J'he signals of a change, they kn(»w not what, floated before them.

With this people Hiidson's experiences were varied. VVhei'ever he cast anchor they visited his ship with presents, and maniiested in many tonus their desire to render acts of kindness. More hospita- ble men and women never lived, — all that they had was at the ser- vice of tlieir visitant. Constant was their intercourse, — increasing tlieir gifts; but in many cases their kindness was mistaken, and their confidence abused. Below the Highlands, Hudson confined two of them, intending to take them to Holland; but when the opi)ortunity came they escaped, and called from the shore to their captor in scorn. At the Ivatskills he met loving- people and old men, from whom he

received ofilerings and ti> whom he gave brandy. When in Newbnrgh hay (Sept. 30), he says "the pcojde of the country c;ime aboard us, and brought some small skins with them, which we bought for knives and triMes. At tiiree o'clock they departed." On the 1st of October,

ABOniGINAL ERA.

when achured ofi' Stony Point, "the people of the mountains" visited him, " wondering- at the ship and weapons." They, too, sold skins for tritles. In the afternoon a canoe "kept hanging under the cabin windows," and its occupant was detected pilfering. He had taken a "pillow, and two shirts and two bandaliers," when tiie "mate shot him, and struck him in the breast and killed him." His companions were umch frightened, and fled away, some in their ca- noes, others jumping into the water. A boat was lowered to recover the stolen articlet?, when one who was in the water seized hold uf it, " thinking to overthrow it," but " the cook seized a sword and cut ofl' one of his hands, and he was drowned." When Hudson reached the place where he had betrayed the young men, when going up the river, lie was shot at with bows and arrows, to which he replied with six muskets " killing iwo of them." " Yet they manned olf another canoe with nine or ten men." A falcon shot was sent through it and one of its occupants killed, while the sailors with their muskets " killed three or four more." From this contlict he sailed for Europe, bearing with him not only his surveys, but an epitome of tlie future inter- course of the people of the Old World with those of the -New. The conHict of the opposing civilizations had been joined.

But the struggle was delayed. Meanwhile Dutch navigators divi- ded the river into reaches and gave names to them, as well as to the people with whom they traded, and planted their outposts of posses- sion. This crude geography and its nomenclature was gatiiered up by the Dutch historians and embodied in papers for the intbrmation of those desiring to embark in trade in the New World or to emigrate thither. In a paper written by DeLaet, who has been called the first historian of New York, it is said: " Within the first reach, on the west bank of the river, where the land is low, dwell the Tapijans. The sec- ond reach of the river extends upward to a narrow part named by our people Haverstroo," at which place the natives were called Haverstroos. They were the chieftaincy some of the members of which sought to pilfer from the cabin windows of Hudson's ship on the afternoon of October 1st,— were the " people of the mountains." From Stony Point h) the Dans-Kammer were the Waoraiiecks, " the people of the country" who sold the "small skins" to Hudson on the 30th of September, and who were subsequently known as " the Murderer's i Creek Indians." Their castle was on the north spur of Schunemunk ' mountain, and their place of worship the Dans-Kammer. Above them were the Warranawonkonga, subsequently known as " the Esopus In- dians," whose hunting grounds extended through the valley of the Wallkill. West of the Warranawonkongs, and occupying the country drained by the Delaware and its tributaries, were the Minsis or Min-

10 GENERAL HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY.

nisinks. Those who are familiur with the topography of the district will require no more precise designation of the territory occupied by these native tribes or clans than its water-sheds afford; but it may be added that the designation given is essentially contirmed by the deeds which the aboriginal lords executed for the lands which they sold; and it may also be stated in this connection, that the names by which these tribes were known were not those which they had given as belong- ing to themselves, but were those which they had given to the Dutch as the names of the streams on which they lived. The Warranawon- kotig was the Wallkill;* the Waorannck, the Murderer's Creek.

Later, the tribal and national organizations of this people appear- ed. It would be no violation of fact to say that their political con- stitution was similar to our own. They had villages or towns, counties or enlarged cantons, tribes or states, nations or united tribes. Each in its sphere was independent, yet the whole strongly and firmly bound together. The sub-tribes or villages south of Stony Point were Unulactos, or the Turkey tribe; those north, were Minais, or the Wolf tribe, with territorial jurisdiction extending through the Miunisink country of Pennsylvania and New Jersey; south of the Minsis they were Unainia, or the Turtle tribe, f The tribes named constituted the Lenui-Lenape naticm, wiiich held its council-fire at what is now Philadelphia. Prom the Unamis was selected invariably, by the ruling chiefs of the other tribes, the King or Sagamore of the nation; a King both with and without power; a sovereign whose rule was perpetuated only through the love of his people; a monarch the most polisiied, the most liberal, the poorest of his race; one who ruled by permission, who received no salary, who was not permitted to own the cabin in which he lived or the laud he cultivated, who could receive no presents that did not become the property of the nation, yet whose larder and treasure chest were never empty.

To treat the history of the Lenapes at length would require several volumes. Briefly stated, they were the head of the Algonquin nations at the time of the discovery, but by a succession of wars with the Dutch, the English, and the Iroquois, were compelled, sometime about 1670, to yield to the latter and become a "nation of women" — i. e. a nation without power to make war or peace on their own account, or to sell or convey lands. In this condition they remained until 1755, (having, in the meantime, become generally known as the Delaware^); when they threw off the yoke of subjugation, and, under alliaivees

* No documentary evidence is claimed. The statement is on the authority of exam- ples in multiplied instances. The word Esopus, by which the cUstrict was subsequently known, is a corruption of Seepu, an Algonquin generic term for river.

t Tribal organizations were known by the Totems or emblems which they painted upon their cabins, their persons, etc., as the Turkey, the Wolf, the Turtle.

THE WABS FOR POSSESSION. H

with the Shawanoes, Mingoes, etc., were enabled to place themselves at the head of the western nations, and contest every inch of soil east of the Mississippi.

But while these facts were being ascertained, — years before many of them were known, — tliere came the hurrying to and fro of armed men, and the terribly echoing battle-cry of the woodland lords, " Woach, Woach, Ha, Ha, Hack, Woach .' " with which the settlers subsequently became familiar. The Dutch began their settlement at New Amster- dam (now New York) in 1626. A few years later, settlements were commenced at Paulus' Hook (now Jersey City), then called Pavonia, and at Breucklen, now the city of Brooklyn, and a few small neigh- borhoods were scattered along the river north of Paulus' Hook. These settlements brought with them frictions of opposing customs. In 1640, it is said, the Indians began to steal and destroy the cattle of the settlers; but the Indians claimed that the cattle of their neigh- bors, permitted to roam at large, destroyed their unfenced fields of corn, and that they killed them having no other remedy. Pending these complaints came an order from Director Kieft, demanding trib- ute of corn, furs, etc., " from the Indians in the neighborhood of Fort Amsterdam." The latter remonstrated, but Kieft insisted, and sent a sloop up to the Tappans to exact compliance, but without success. About this time from a plantation on Staten Island a number of pigs were taken by a company of Dutch sailors; but the Indians were credited with the wrong, and a number of them were killed. Their tribe retaliated, burned a plantation and killed four of its occupants. Kieft wished to declare a war of extermination, but was restrained by his Council, who preferred to wait until " God and the opportuni- ty " should favor them in their wrongful slaughter.

The opportunity was not long delayed. In the winter of 1643, a company of Mahicana^ from Fort Orange, "each with a musket on his shoulder," came down to collect tribute from the Weckquaesgecks of Westchester. The latter suffered terribly. Several were killed, and many men, women and children fled to Fort Amsterdam for safe- ty. At Pavonia large numbers of them collected, and also at Cor- lear's Hook. Utterly defenceless as they were, Kieft determined to add to their misfortunes. On the night of the 25th of February, by his direction, his soldiers fell upon the homeless, trusting red men and killed eighty of them. " Neither age nor sex were spared. Warrior and squaw, sachem and child, mother and babe, were alike massacred. Daybreak scarcely ended the furious slaughter. Man-

* The documentary proof is clear that this incursion was by the Mahicmis, not the Mohmvks, as stated by some histoi-ians. The lower eastern Hudson chieftaincies (the old Manhattans, etc.) were conquered tribes and had probably neglected to pay the annual tribute due to the Mahicans.

12 GENERAL HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY.

gled victims, seeking safety in tlie thickets, were driven into the river; and parents, rushing to save their children whom the soldiers had thrown into the stream, were driven back into the waters, and drowned before the eyes of their unrelenting murderers."

But this horrible scene had scarcely faded from the air, ere the hand of revenge was made red with the blood of the Dutch. Kieft, in his exultation, sent out foraging expeditions to collect corn. One of these expeditions seized two wagon loads of maize from the Long Island Indians, who lost three of their number in endeavoring to save their property. In retaliation the Long Island tribes made conmion cause with the Weck-qtiaesgecks< and other river cantons, who had now learned that the Dutch, and not the 3Iahicans, had been the principals in the massacre at Pavonia. Eleven chieftaincies rose in open war. The farmer was killed in the field, and women and chil- dren swept off into captivity. A temporary peace .ij^ass secured in the spring, but in September came a renewal of hostilities, and the Dutch were driven from every foot-hold outside of Fort Amsterdam. The war-whoop of the Minds rang along the Highlands, and through the wilds of Long Island and New Jersey, and was taken up by the out- lying clans of Mahicana, and at a single blow, from the Highlands of Neversink to the hills and valleys of the Tappam, the whole country was once more in the possession of its aboriginal proprietors. The Dutch colonists who escaped slaughter, fled to Fort Amsterdam, and terror kept watch with them for days. Sending to New England for succor, it came in the person of Capt. Underbill, a man more savage than the savages. His coming roused the courage of the Dutch and they sallied out and turned the tide of war. Large numbers of Indians on the east side of the Hudson were killed— at Stamford, Connecticut, from five to seven hundred were slaughtered.

Again came temporary peace in the spring — the Indians desiring to plant; but war, with disaster to the Dutch, was renewed in the winter. Kieft now adopted a new course. He went to Fort Orange (now Albany) and secured the intercession of the Mohawks and Mahi- cavs, with whom the Dutch there were in alliance, and on the 30th of August, 1»645, through their influence, a treaty of peace was concluded. The chiefs of the Hackinsucks and Tajypans, delegates from the Long Island tribes, and a Mahican chief who spoke for his own people on the easterTi bank of the river, met the Dutch, and the Mohawks actcid as arbitrators. Tlie terms were arranged and peace restored.

Ten years of quiet were now enjoyed by the settlers, but during that period the Indians suffered many wrongs which they brooded over and burned to avenge. The excuse for a fresh appeal to arms occurred in the autumn of 1655. A squaw, detected in stealing

THE WARS FOR POSSESSION. 13

peaches from tlie garden of Van Dyck, at New Amsterdam, had been killed by him, and her tribe, the Weckquaesgeck.'<, determined to avenge lier death. To make their determination more eifectnal, they appealed to a war party of their friends, then on an expedition, to aid them. Learning that Director Stuyvesant, who, in the meantime liad succeeded Kieft, was absent on a visit to South River, some eight hundred armed men suddenly appeared before Fort Amsterdam in sixty-four canoes. Landing before the break of day, they scattered through the streets and, under the pretence of looking for their ene- mies, broke open several houses. The Council and the leading inhab- itants immediately assembled at tlie Fort, called the chiefs before them and exacted a promise that they would leave the towrj at sun- set, but l)efore the hour came they fouifd Van Dyck and left him dead, as they supposed. This act aroused the town, and the burger guard rallying out from the Fort attacked the Lidians as they were embark- ing in their canoes. This appeal to force was regarded by them as a declaration of war, and they resolved to strike while they had the opportunity. Passing over to the Jersey shore, they laid waste Hoboken and Pavonia, and killed or captured most of the inhabitants. In three days "one hundred of the settlers were killed, one hundred and fifty made prisoners, and three hundred more ruined in estate."

Again the settlers fled to Fort Amsterdam as to a city of refuge. Director Stuvvesant was sent for, and shortlv after arrived witli liis soldiers. Meanwhile the Lidians had retreated with their captives — a portion to New Jersey and the remainder to the Highlands. The Hactms^acks soon after oflered their prisoners for ransom, and nego-, tiations being opened peace was concluded with them.

The scene was now changed to the Esopus country, with the Warra- naioo7ikongs as principals. Hitherto difficulties had been confined to the vicinity of Fort Amsterdam, for the very obvious reason that the Dutch had not extended their settlements north of Hackinsack. Li the district between Fort Orange and Fort Amsterdam, the Lidians had been mainly visited by traders in sloops, although it is said that on Kingstt)n point a Dutch trading post was established as early as 1617. Occupation of the Esopus country by permanent settlers, however, was first begun in 1652, when Thomas Chambers and some of his neighbors removed thither from Rensselaerwyck. With these settlers the Indians soon came in collision, and during the war of 1655, th<^ former abandoned their plantations. In 1656, they returned and continued for some time unmolested, but, as in other places, they soon devoted the largest portion of their time and means to the pur- poses of trade, and, with a view to secure the largest amount of furs, imprudently made free with the sale of brandy and other liquors,

14 OENEBAL HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY.

under the iiiHueiice of which the Indians became troublesome and re- sorted to violence. " One of the settlers was killed, the house and outbuildings of another were burned, and the settlers were forced, by threats of arson and murder, to plow up the patches where the sava- ges planted their maize." Tlie settlers wrote to Stuyvesant, who re- sponded by innnediately visiting the scene of disturbance with fifty of his soldiers, and, the day following his arrival (May 31, 1657), called the people together for council. The result of this conference was the establishment of a stockade village for defensive purposes, and an interview with the Indians. The latter was h(>ld in an open field. The chiefs denied that the murder which liad been connnitted was by one of their number, but " by a Minnisink " who was then " skulking among the Haverstraws," and charged that the whole of the disturbance arose from the "drink" which had been sold them by the Dutch. They also recounted the losses which had been inflicted upon them in Director Kieft's time (1G45). Stuyvesant replied that the acts of his predecessor in the massacre of Pavonia, had been settled in the subsequent treaties, and if they had not. that he was not responsible for them; that no violence had been connnitted by the Dutch since he came to the Province; that the Indians had not consulted him in the treatment of Van Dyck, and altogether made out quiet a case against them, concluding therefrom that tlie latter should sell to him the whole of the Esopus land, " and remove furtlier into the interior." The Indians asked time to consider the matter, and on the 4tli of June returned with their answer. They would give the Director the land he asked "to grease his feet, as he had taken so long and painful a journey to visit them." * The stockade was soon completed, and the Director returned to Fort Amsterdam. The Indians, however, were far from being satisfied with the new order of things, and in ct)mmon with other tribes, were ready, on even slight provocation, to commence war. Unfortunately it Avas no slight cause which led them to take up the hatchet in 1659. Thonuis Chambers, of whom we have already spoken, in September of that year, employed several of them to liusk corn, " and at the end of their day's work gave them some brandy for which they asked." A carouse followed, in the midst of which a party of settlers issued from the village and assailed the unsuspecting red men, killed two of their numbin-, 'and wounded the third who escaped. This dast- ardly act provoked a terrible retaliation. War was again declared; "houses, barns, and harvests were burned up; cattle and horses were

* The land conveved was called AtkarK-arton, or the Great Plot. It has been assumed that an Indian village was located there from the fact that the Dutch called their settle- ment " \N'iltwyck." "or Indian village. We conclude, however, that the Indian \ illage was that kno^\'n as " Wiltmeet," about two miles west from Aikarkarton.

THE WARS FOR POSSESSION. 15

kilh^l." Four or five hundred savages invested the stockaded village, and after vainly attempting to set fire to it, avenged themselves by burning at the stake eight or ten prisoners whom they had taken. A courier was immediately sent to Fort Amsterdam for assistance, and anotlun- to Fort Orange asking the intercession of the Mohan-la^ and Mahicans. Stuyvesant hurried to the scene with about one hundred m(!n, and the Mohawla^ and MahicanH sent down five of their number to act as intercessors. The latter visited the Warranawonkovg chiefs, procure(l th(^ release of two ])risoiieis, and persuaded the sachems to a truce, — an agreement to peace they could not obtain.

The war was renewed in the spring of 1660. Ensign Smith made frequent incursions into the interior, and, on the I8th March, reduced the palisaded village of WiltmcH* and took twelve prisoners. Subse- quently the place was again visited, an encampment which had been lorined there broken up, and /'reummalcer, "the oldest and best " of the Esopus chiefs, killecl. The Indians y)etitioned for peace in June, and Stuyvesant went up to Esopus to meet them. He Arrived on the 11th of July and found delegates from the Mohaivl'i<, Wappingen^, and other tribes to assist in the negotiations; but the WarranaionnkongH were not represented. Messengers were sent to the interior to induce their attendance, and on the 15th, four sachems arrived, a grand council of all the inlial)itants was held, and terms of peace arranged. In compensation for damages, the Indians conveyed "all the lands of Esopus" to the Dutch, and th<> latter paid ransoms in corn for the captives in the hands of the Indians. But the captive Indians from Wiltmeet were not restored; l)y Stuyvesant's order they had been sent to Curacoa as slaves.

Scarcely had "the WarranmvurjJcongs agreed to this treaty before new causes of grievance were found. They held that the Dutch had com- menced their New Village on land which had not been given to them; that the New Fort, as they called the Ronduit,f boded them no good; that if their white neighbors w(;re sincere in their professions of friend- ship, they would restore to them their enslaved kindred. To quiet them, Stuyvesant promised to visit them and bring them the presents demanded by their customs, but this promise he failed to keep. He renewed this promise in June (1663); but without faith in him and, regarding the offer as only a delay for a more favorable opportunity to make war upon them, they attacked the settlement on the 1th. On the morning of that day, the settlers went forth to their fields as usual. About noon, bands of Indians entered the gates of both villa-

* Situated some distance above the second fall (or creek) flowing into Kit Davit's Kill (now called the Esopus creek), "about nine miles from the Hudson." — Brodhead.

t This Ronduit or Eedoubt was on the bluff of land called Ponckockie, and is perpet- uated in the name of Rondout.

16 GENERAL HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY.

ges, and scattered themselves among the houses, ostensibly for the purposes of trade Suddenly they attacked the New Village and de- stroyed it at a blow. "Some people on horseback escaped" and reached the Old Village, but their arrival was the signal of attack upon the latter, for scarce had the alarm been given when the Indians uttered their war-whoop and commenced the work of death. "The people were murdered in their houses with axes and tomahawks, and by firiiig on them with guns and pistols." Women and children were seized and carried off prisoners; houses were plundered, and men, rushing to the defence of their families, were shot down by foes con- cealed in their own dwellings. To aid in the work of destruction, the Indians set fire to the village on the windward side. The flames spread rapidly, but when at their height, the wind suddenly changed to the west and prevented further devastation. The panic occasioned by the sudden attack having subsided, the settlers rallied and drove the Indians out. By evening all was still again and the bereaved in- habitants kept mournful watch during the night. TM^Mity-ono lives were lost, nine were wounded, and forty-five carried off captive; the New Village was annihilated, and at tlie Old Village twelve houses were burned.*

Immediately on the receipt of tlie intelligence of this disaster, Stuyvesant dispatched Col. Martin Kregier with a company of sol- diers to assist the settlers. Kreiger arrived at the Ronduit on the 4th of -luly. In a few days five Mohatok and Mahican chiefs arrived from Fort Orange, and by their mediation some of the Dutch cap- tives were released; but the Warranawonkongs would not listen to propositions for peace unless the Dutch would pay "for the land named the Great Plot," and reward them with presents within ten days. The Dutch commander replied by sending out scouting par- ties, who succeeded in bringing in a few prisoners from whom it was learned that the Indians had retreated to their castle; and thither it was determined to follow them. The expedition reached its destina- tion on the evening of the 26th of July. The castlef was a formida- ble structure. It was "defended by three rows of palisades, and the houses in the fort encircled by thick cleft palisades with port holes in them, and covered with bark of trees;" in form it was quadrangular, but tlie angles were " constructed l)etween the first and second rows of palisades" — the third row of palisades standing "full eight feel;

* The New Village was about three miles fi-om the Old Village and the Ronduit about the same distance. Both villages are territorially included in tlao bounds of the present city of Kingston.

t The location of this fort, or palisaded village, is defined in the boundary lines of lands conveyed by the treaty of 1665: " L^-inq: and being to the west and south-west of a certain creek or river called by the name of Kahanksen, and bo up to the head thereof where the Old Fort was."

THE WARS FOR POSSESSION. 17

off from the others towards the interior," the whole being " on the brow of the hill" surrounded by table land. But the object of the expedition was not accomplished. Warned of the approach of their enemy, the Indians retreated to the Shawangunk mountains and took their captives with them. From a captured squaw it was learned that the Indians were some four miles distant, and a force was sent thither; but when they arrived at the designated place, it was found that they had again retreated. Kregier, however, destroyed the Kahanksen castle by fire, cut down the corn-fields which the In- dians had planted, and destroyed " about a hundred pits full of corn and beans," which liad been preserved from the crop of the previous year. This work accomplished, he returned to Wiltwyck.*

The settlers now engaged in harvesting their grain, and the sol- diers guarded them while at work. Offensive operations were not re- sumed until September, when a force of fifty men was sent out to reduce a new castle which the Indians were said to be erecting, situ- ated "about four hours farthor than their first fort," wliieli liad been burned. Tiie expediti(ui reached its destination on llic 5th of Sep- tember. The Indians wert; taken by surprise, but made a stout re- sistance. They were busy completing their fort, and had left their arms at their liouses " about a stone's throw from the fort." Alarmed by a squaw, who had discovered the approach of the Dutch, they rushed to secure their arms, but were only partially successful so closely were tliey pursued. Retreating across the kill, tlicy threw l)ack the T)utch fire with such spirit that it was found necessary to send a strong party to dislodge them. " In this attack the Indians lost their chief Fapequanaehan, fourteen warriors, four women and three children." On the part of the Dutch three were killed and wounded. Thirteen Indians were taken prisoners, and twenty-three Dutch captives released. The Dutch found plunder sufficient to " well fill a sloop," but were obliged to leave it. Everything was de- stroyed that could be. "The fort was a perfect square with one row of palisades set all around, being about fifteen feet above and three feet below ground," but it was not completed. Two angles of " stout palisades, all of them about as thick as a man's body, having two rows of port-holes, one above the other," were done, and, when surprised, the Indians "were busy at the other angle." The victori- ous expedition returned to the settlement laden with spoil, and the Indians fled to the mountains to brood over their defeat and loss.

On the Ist of October, another expedition was sent out on the same route and arrived at the fort last destroyed on the 2d. The In-

* By a formal charter of date May 1(5, 1661, the settlement was ordered to be called ■ Wiltwyck," or Indian Village. Tlie English changed the name to Kingston.

18 GENERAL HIS TOBY OF ORANGE COUNTY.

dians had meanwhile returned to it and thrown the bodies of their dead comrades into five pits, from wliich "the wolves had rooted up and devoured some of them. Lower down on tlie kill four other pits were found containing bodies; and further on, three Indians with a squaw and child lay unburied and almost wholly devo.ured by wolves." A terrible picture of desolation was spread out on either hand, where, but a few days before, the native lord had exulted in his strength, but wlio now, crushed and broken, had retreated southward among their kindred Minsis. The Dutch forces completed the destruction of the fort; the palisades were pulled down, the wigwams burned, and all the corn cut up and cast into the kill.

The Warranawonkongs, upon wliom this chastisement had principal- ly fallen, solicited peace in the fall, and an armistice was granted. They had suffered severely; their villages, from Wawayanda to Eso- pus were not without moui-ners; their store-houses were rifled, and their crops destroyed. Nor were their allies, the Waoranecks, more fortunate. Although their territory had not been invaded, nor their villages burned, they were not the less subdued; the embers of their forest worship, which had for ages been lighted on the Dans-Kammer, were extinguished forever. In the spring following, Sewackenamo, in conference at Fort Amsterdam, lifted up his voice in prayer to his God — Bachtamo — that ''something good" might be concluded with the Dutch, and there executed a treaty by the terms of wliich all that had passed was to be forgiven and forgotten; the lands claimed by the Dutch, and now conquered by the sword, were to remain the property of the conquerors, and the vanquished were not to approach the Dutch settlements with arms. This treaty was ratified (Maj^ 16, 1664,) amid the roar of cannon, and was celebrated by a public thanksgiving. With its conclusion was also closed the struggle of the aboriginal clans for the possession of their ancient seats on the western slope of the valley of the Hudson. Their retreating foot- steps were yet to -be marked on advancing frontiers by blazing torch and branding tomahawk; but from the blue hills of Katskill to the southern verge of the Highlands they only awaited the granting of title deeds to their successors. The fertile fields of those who, a half century before, had gazed in awe upon the sleeping navigator's ship beside the " northernmost of the mountains," were prepared for the sturdy immigrants from Europe.

LAND TITLES-FIRST SETTLEMENTS. 19

CHAPTER II.

ABORIGINAL DEEDS — -LAND PATENTS — FIRST SETTLEMENTS.

1664—1709.

THE Eng-livsh succeeded the Dutch in the g-overnment of New Neth- evland on the 6th of September, 1664. The latter had performed the task assigned to them; had introduced the religion, the jurispru- dence, the customs of the Fatherland; had prepared the way for the mingling of creeds and races, and the development of the principles of civil liberty. A stronger hand was now to take the direction; a common flag to float from the rugged cliflFs of the north to the savan- nas of the south; a fresh impulse to be given to immigration. The title of the province was changed; New Amsterdam became New York; Fort Orange was christened Albany; changes were made in the administration of the government; treaties were renewed with the Indians. When this work was accomplished. Governor Nicolls wrote: "The lands which I intend shall be first planted, are those upon the west side of Hudson's river, at or adjoining to the Sopes;" and having, in his treaty with the Warranawovkongs, secured a clear definition of the bounds of the tract which the Dutch had previously " conquered by the sword," he added: " The Governor hath purchased all the Sopes land, which is now readj^ for planters to put the plow into, it being clear ground." The declaration was not a literal fact; the tract which the Indians had been compelled to yield embraced scarce three townships; but practically there was no substantial im- pediment to the occupation of the territory designated.

While this preparation was going forward, in the Old World relig- ious intolerance was scattering its victims broadcast. France sent forth her thrifty Huguenots; Scotland, her implacable Presbyterians; the Palatinate, her impoverished husbandmen. On the banks of the Hudson fragments rent from these nationalities met, and carved out, in the forest depths, new homes. The " Christian patented lands of Haverstraw," as they are termed in tlie records, were the first to re- ceive immigrants under the new regime. Balthazer de Hart and his brother Jacob, among the earlier immigrants from Holland, had loca- ted in New Amsterdam, and there subscribed their names to the oath of allegiance to the Duke of York. The former, engaged in trade,

02

20 GENERAL HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY.

had secured a comfortable subsistence, his house being rated at two thousand florins. Prior to July 31, 1666, he had purchased from the Indians, " all that tract of land lying on the west side of Hudson's river called Haverstraw, being on the north side of the hills called Verdrietig hook, on the south side of the Highlands, on the east side of the mountains so that the same is bounded by Hudson's river and round about by the high mountains." Presuming that the tract was included in the boundaries of New Jersey, he obtained from Car- teret and the council of that province, a patent,* and transferred his interest to Nicholas Depuy and Peter Jacobs Marius. On subsequent purchase and patent he acquired (April 10, 1671,) the "parcels of land called by the Indian names of Newai<:inL, Yandakah, Caquaney and Aquaonak, bounded on the west by a creek called Mcni>iakcungue, on the east and north by Hudson's river, and on the south by the mountains," which became the property of his brother, Jacob; and also a tract "known by the name of Ahequerenoy," which, with a portion of the previous purchase, came to the possession of Hendrick Ryker, — the whole becoming the basis of the boundaries ol' all sub-