Peter of New Amsterdam Part 5

Before the fort was finished, two of the gentlemen traders came back, their chests emptied of beads, cloth, and trinkets, but the boats piled high with furs of all kinds, and I heard Master Minuit say that one such cargo was worth more than all the grain that could be raised in two years, by all the white men on the island.

The log house was taken for a storeroom, and Hans set at work making a list of the furs, which was anything rather than a pleasant task, for these skins were none of the sweetest or most cleanly, and the Dutchman both looked and smelled very disagreeably.

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While Hans was sweating over the furs in the log house, I stayed in the great cabin of the _Sea Mew_, refilling the chests with goods, and before the task was finished, Master Minuit told me that I was to have charge of all the things brought for trade with the savages.

In other words, I was no longer to be body servant, but a real storekeeper, which was more of a jump in the world than I had even hoped to make for many a long year to come.

The palisade of the fort was not yet wholly done, when a dozen or more of the men were set about building inside the fortification a log house, where the goods were to be kept and where I was to find lodgings.

Kryn Gildersleeve, like the honest lad he was, gave me joy because of my thus having become, as it were, a real member of the Company; but Hans was angry, believing if any of the servants were to be promoted, it should have been himself, and I am told that he declared I would not long be allowed to enjoy my high station.

By the time the palisade had been built my house was finished, and all the goods brought from the _Sea Mew_, which gave me much of work to do, because my orders were to unpack and store the different articles where I could bring them out at a moment's notice.

You must not understand that Master Minuit had entrusted to me the trading. That portion of the work was for himself and the gentlemen who had come with him; but I was in charge of the goods, as Hans was keeper of the furs, while Kryn alone waited upon the master as body servant.

When any of the savages came in from the village close by, or from far away, to bargain for our toys, one of the gentlemen looked after him, and I brought this thing or carried that according to orders, for the Indians were not allowed to come inside the log house lest they might make mischief. After the trading was at an end, Hans would be summoned to carry away the furs.

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If none of the other gentlemen were near at hand, it was my duty to summon Master Minuit, when any of the brown men came to the fort with such a burden that I could understand he was eager to buy of our goods.

THE VALUE OF WAMPUM

Because of thus being employed, I very soon saw that which served the savages as money, and queer stuff it was, being neither more nor less than bits of sh.e.l.l.

The brown men called the stuff wampum, and because of having such poor tools it must be an enormous amount of work to make it. As nearly as I could learn, there were certain big sh.e.l.ls which washed up on the sh.o.r.es here after a storm, and only some part of the inside of these, and a portion of the mussel sh.e.l.ls, were used.

From the big sh.e.l.ls they made a smooth white bead, grinding the sh.e.l.l down against a rock until it was perfectly smooth, and then boring a hole through it. The beads of wampum made from the mussel sh.e.l.ls were in shape much like a straw, and less than half an inch in length.

These beads the Indians strung on the dried sinews of wild animals, from a half a yard to four feet in length, when, as I have already told you, they were used as money.

But wampum is even more than that among the savages. When these strings are fastened to the width of five or six inches into a belt, they are given to messengers to take to another tribe, much as kings of old used to give their seal rings as a sort of letter of recommendation.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The great Wampum Belt of the Onondagas.]

The wampum belts were sent in token of peace after a war, or as a present from one ruler to another, and, as can be seen, this wampum was even of more value to the savages than gold is to white men.

One would think that when they got our beads in exchange for their furs, they would have strung them with those which had been cut from sh.e.l.ls, and yet they did nothing of the kind, for in their eyes one of those tiny, white b.a.l.l.s, which had a hole through the middle, was of more value than a cupful of Master Minuit's best.

I do not know how it was figured out; but you must know that in Holland they have a coin called a stuyver, which is worth in English money near to two pennies. Our people here allowed, in trading with the Indians, that four beads of wampum were equal to one stuyver, or two pennies, and a single strand six feet long, was equal to four guilders, or, roughly speaking, about eight s.h.i.+llings.

There is no need for me to say that our people did not buy wampum of the Indians; but in the course of the bargaining it pa.s.sed back and forth, because of being the only coins the brown men had, and therefore I suppose it was, that Master Minuit believed it necessary to put some fixed price upon it.

BUILDINGS OF STONE

After the fort and the storehouse had been finished, the Dutch laborers were set about cutting out stone from the ledges of which I have spoken, to be used in the place of bricks. From this rock Master Minuit decided that a more secure warehouse for the company's goods should be made, and, also, a dozen or more of the men were set about building a mill to be worked by horse-power, so that it might be possible to grind the grain.

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This horse-mill also was to be built of stone, with a large loft that would be used as a church.

There had been no ministers brought over when we came in the _Sea Mew_; but in place of them were two zeikentroosters, which is a Dutch word for "Consolers of the Sick;" but what they might be called in plain English I know not. It appeared to me that the zeikentroosters in Holland were much the same as deacons in England, though as to this I may be wrong.

At all events, there were two of them came in our s.h.i.+p, and, until the first minister arrived, they held regular meetings out of doors while the mill was being built, and afterward in the loft.

THE GOVERNMENT

While the people were working on the mill, the fort, and the storehouse, or at the quarry, Master Minuit, busy man though he was, found time to set up a regular government in this town of huts which he called New Amsterdam, himself being at the head of it with no one to say him nay, and a Council of five chosen by the West India Company from among the white people.

There was also a secretary for this Council, and a Dutch official, which in Holland is called schout-fiscal, which means about all of the offices that could be held in an ordinary village, for he was sheriff, constable, collector of customs, t.i.thing-man, and almost anything else you chose to call him.

The secretary and the schout-fiscal were also appointed by the Company in Amsterdam, and every act of the Council, as well as the rules and regulations laid down by Master Minuit, were all to be approved by the gentlemen in Holland before our people would be bound by them. Thus it can be seen that while one might suppose the citizens of New Amsterdam made their own laws, it was in fact the West India Company which had full direction of affairs.

After a time, when I had been so far entrusted with the business of the settlement as to understand how it was conducted, I came to realize that all which was done by us of New Amsterdam was for the profit of the Company, rather than for the benefit of the people, and this finally came to be one of the causes which worked for the downfall of Dutch power in the New World.

A PROSPEROUS TOWN

Before I had been many days in charge of the Company's goods we began to drive a flouris.h.i.+ng trade, for all those gentlemen who had set off with trinkets to buy furs, urged the brown men to go down to New Amsterdam and see what the white people were doing on the island they had bought at so generous a price.

And you can well fancy that these Indians were not slow in accepting the invitation. It must have been to them much like visiting a museum, or a menagerie, to come into our town and see another race of people working in a manner entirely different from their methods, and using tools which afforded a great saving of labor, the like of which they had never heard about.

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Before two weeks were pa.s.sed, there was never a day that from three to twenty canoes were not hauled up on the sh.o.r.e of the point, and these brown people were gathered around the fort, many naked, excepting for queer breeches and belt; others wearing a kind of cloak made of furs, and now and then one who had a mantle of some sort of feather work, but all burdened with bales of furs, deer meat, wild turkeys, ducks or anything which it seemed to them likely would be bought by these Dutch traders, who had of toys such a store.

I was kept busy from morning until night, trotting in and out of the house with this article or that, as whosoever was conducting the business commanded, and I dare venture to say that Hans was having a sorry time indeed, for the weather had grown warm, and his quarters in the log hut, with those ill-smelling pelts, must have been anything rather than pleasant.

The first event of great importance to us of New Amsterdam, was the loading of a s.h.i.+p to be sent home, and I am minded to tell you exactly how the cargo was made up, so that you may see whether the West India Company's servants had idled away any of their time.

There were 7,246 beaver skins, 1,781-1/2 otter skins, 675 poorer otter skins, 48 mink skins, 33 poorer mink skins, 36 wild cat skins, and 34 rat skins. The rest of the lading was made up of oak and hickory timber, while the whole of it was valued by Master Minuit at 45,000 guilders, and it is for you to find out how much that would be in the money of your own country.