Peter of New Amsterdam Part 12

The Indians claimed that they had come only in order to find some enemies of their tribe whom they believed had fled there, and proceeded to break open a dozen or more of the houses while searching for those whom they professed to be seeking.

Now there had been left in the fort less than twenty soldiers, while the greater number of our cannon were on board the fleet for the purpose of killing the Swedes, in case they refused to give up their forts to us. Therefore it would have been folly had our people made any attempt at holding the savages in check.

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The burgomasters and other officers of the city did what they could to pacify the painted visitors, and so far succeeded, by soft words, as to persuade them to withdraw to Nutten Island.

One can well fancy in what a state of terror were those whom Director Stuyvesant had left behind in New Amsterdam, while so great an army of savages, who had just cause for anger, was so near at hand.

The women and the children fled to the fort for protection, where but little could have been given them had the brown men made an attack, and during all the hours of the day no one dared venture abroad. The shops and the dwellings alike were left unprotected, while those trembling, frightened ones who crouched within the fort, believed that death was close beside them.

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AN ATTACK BY THE INDIANS

The Indians remained quietly on Nutten Island until nightfall, when they came into New Amsterdam again, went directly to Master Van Dyck's house, and killed him.

One of his neighbors attempted to lend him aid, and was stricken down in short order,--not, however, before he had given an alarm. Such soldiers as had been left in the fort, together with the men of the city, hastened with true courage to the scene of the murder, where a small battle took place, in which three Indians were killed outright, and many wounded.

It was as if the savages needed only this to send them upon the war path again; but instead of making any attack upon New Amsterdam, where were so few to oppose them, they went to the plantations nearby, killing or capturing men, women, and children, burning dwellings and destroying crops.

Yet this was no more than we had threatened to do to the Swedes, and without such cause as the savages had.

During the three days that the Indians remained near New Amsterdam, so the messenger said, more than one hundred persons had been killed, and nearly twice as many carried to a dreadful captivity. The buildings on twenty-eight of the plantations were burned and the crops destroyed utterly.

It needed not that this man who had come to us pale with terror, and fearing lest on his return he should find those whom he loved butchered, should tell us into what condition the city was plunged because of such a state of affairs. We could see, in our minds, the people of New Amsterdam as they cowered like sheep before wolves, unable to flee.

There was no place for them to go, save into the wilderness where lurked brown men who were thirsting for revenge, and they were unable to do more than make the merest show of defence, owing to the fact that Director Stuyvesant had taken with him nearly all the able-bodied men, and a goodly portion of the weapons, to the end that he might do much the same as were the savages doing.

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HASTENING BACK TO NEW AMSTERDAM

It can well be supposed that every man of us, from the Director down to the youngest soldier, was eager to get back to New Amsterdam, for I question whether, with the single exception of myself, there was a member of the company who had not left behind him loved ones; and how could our people find any satisfaction in continuing the conquest of the Swedes, when there was every possibility that the savages were murdering and torturing white men, women, and children?

Within an hour after the messenger had arrived, two hundred of the soldiers were sent across the land to New Amsterdam, under orders to march at their swiftest possible pace until they were come to the city.

As soon after these men had set off as could be arranged for, the fleet was in motion.

Because of my having received no orders whatsoever, I remained on board the _De Waag_, and my heart was so sore that I could not talk with those around me concerning what we had heard, or what we had done.

To me both were equally horrible. It was villainous work for us to drive the poor Swedes away, and it seemed almost like a judgment of G.o.d, that the Indians should have descended upon our city at a time when we were showing ourselves to be no better than savages.

Fortunately, or so it seemed, we had a favoring wind, and within four and twenty hours from the time of making sail, were come to anchor off the fort. That those who had been sent across by land had arrived, we knew because of the numbers to be seen on duty in the bastions, and that the Indians had not made further attack upon New Amsterdam, we also understood because of the people who were gathered to give us welcome.

I went directly from the s.h.i.+p to the storehouse, where I found Kryn Gildersleeve and his fellow clerks working valiantly to pack our goods into cases, which had been brought from Holland, with the hope that these might be saved, even though the savages gained possession of the town.

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Although I held my peace, the thought was in my heart that he who could give his time to the saving of such useless trinkets as ours, when mayhap before morning not a single white man would be alive, was much the same as trifling with the Angel of Death.

However, I was soon engaged in the same task, and while thus busy, forgot everything save the fact that I was the clerk in charge of the storehouse, whose duty it was to look after whatsoever we had for barter, whether to my mind it was of value or not.

COAXING THE SAVAGES

And now I have to tell you that which bears witness to Master Petrus Stuyvesant's ability as a ruler. Although I never felt friendly disposed towards him, because of thinking myself neglected, there is enough of honesty in my heart to give praise where it is due.

When Master Kieft was governor of New Amsterdam, and through his folly had caused the Indians to seek revenge, he did no more than meet them with powder and ball, widening the breach between the brown and the white men day by day; but our Director, stern and unyielding as he had ever shown himself to be, had so much of wisdom that he knew when it was useless to beat his head against a wall of stone.

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With so many of the savages risen against us, all the white men whom we could muster would not have been sufficient to hold them in check; to wage war with them would have meant the utter wiping out of the Dutch in America.

Therefore it was that Master Stuyvesant, instead of seeking to punish those who had attacked our people, set about coaxing them into a friendly mood, and during the three or four weeks which followed our return from Trinity and Christina, there was a continual coming and going of messengers from the Director to the savage chiefs, who were to be brought, through Master Stuyvesant's plans, to a peaceable life by the means of gaudy toys.

And all this Master Stuyvesant succeeded in doing. Before the winter's snows were come, the savages were seemingly friendly with us once more, it being understood that past crimes, whether committed by white men or brown, were to be forgotten, and, so to speak, all of us who were dwelling in and around the land claimed by the West India Company, were to live on terms of friends.h.i.+p.

INTERFERENCE WITH RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

It must be remembered, that when the West India Company asked people to go out and live in the New World, every one was promised that he should wors.h.i.+p G.o.d as seemed to him best.

This was a portion of the bargain made when the people left Holland, and yet before another spring had come, Master Stuyvesant declared, by written notices and by the mouth of Stoffel Mighielsen, that no person would be allowed to praise G.o.d save he did it according to the belief and the rules of the Dutch Reformed Church.

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It was on a certain Easter Monday, when all over the city the young men and maidens were playing at egg cracking, that Master Stuyvesant's plan for punis.h.i.+ng those who did not choose to go to the same church as did he, was begun.

The Dutch had brought with them from Holland all the old games such as are played to-day; but the favorite among them was the cracking of eggs on Easter Monday, and I dare venture to say every young person in this land of America knows the game well by this time.

The shops were gay with boiled eggs of various colors, hung in the windows by many-colored ribbons, and it is not much straining at the truth to say that every person in New Amsterdam, save those who, like the soldiers, could not leave their posts of duty, was in the street, walking to and fro watching the young people as they strove to see how many eggs they could capture by cracking them, when a Quaker, and an Englishman at that, was taken into custody for preaching nearby New Amsterdam without permission of Master Stuyvesant.

Although this was directly opposite to what the West India Company had said might be done in such portion of the new land as they claimed, it would have pa.s.sed almost unheeded had the arrest been made quietly; but, so I have heard it said, and so I believe, Master Stuyvesant himself gave positive commands as to how the prisoner should be treated, and what should be done with him before he was lodged in jail.