The Story of Manhattan | Page 7

Charles Hemstreet
this
story.
[Illustration: Landing of Dutch Colony on Staten Island.]
Although Governor Van Twiller did not do much for the colonists, he
was very careful to look after his own affairs. He bought from the
Indians, for some goods of small value, the little spot now called
Governor's Island; which was then known as Nut Island, because of the
many nut-trees that grew there. There is little doubt but that Governor's
Island was once a part of Long Island. It is separated from it now by a
deep arm of water called Buttermilk Channel. The channel was so
narrow and so shallow in Van Twiller's time that the cattle could wade
across it. It was given its name more than a hundred years ago, from
boats which drew very little water, and were the only craft able to get
through the channel, and which took buttermilk from Long Island to the
markets of New York.
[Illustration: Governor's Island and the Battery in 1850.]
Van Twiller bought the islands now known as Randall's and Ward's
Islands, and these, with some others, made him the richest landholder
in the colony. On his islands he raised cattle, and on his farm tobacco.

Many of the colonists did not take kindly to Governor Van Twiller's
methods, and among them was Van Dincklagen, the schout-fiscal. He
told the Governor that it was very evident that he was putting forth
every effort to enrich himself at the expense of everybody else, just as
Minuit had done. The Governor became very angry. He told the
schout-fiscal not to expect any more salary, that it would be stopped
from that minute. This did not worry the schout-fiscal much, as he had
not been paid his salary in three years! But Van Twiller did not stop
there. He sent the schout-fiscal as a prisoner to Holland, which was a
foolish thing for him to do. For the prisoner pleaded his own cause to
such good effect that before the end of the year 1637, Van Twiller was
recalled to Holland, after he had governed New Netherland for four
years, very much to his own interest, and very much against the interest
of the West India Company and everybody else.
[Illustration: Dutch Costumes.]
CHAPTER V
WILLIAM KIEFT and the WAR with the INDIANS
A dreary winter came and went, and just as the first signs of spring
showed in the fields that closed about the fort, a ship sailed up the bay,
bringing a stranger to the province.
This was William Kieft, the new Governor of New Netherland.
He was a blustering man, who became very angry when anyone
disagreed with him, and who very soon was known as "William the
Testy." He made no effort to make the Indians his friends, and the
result was that much of his rule of ten years was a term of bloody
warfare.
The affairs of the Company had been sadly neglected by Governor Van
Twiller, and Governor Kieft, in a nervous, testy, energetic fashion set
about remedying them. The fort was almost in ruins from neglect. The
church was in little better condition. The mills were so out of repair that
even if the wind could have reached them they could not have been

made to do their work properly. There were smugglers who carried
away furs without even a thought of the koopman, who was waiting to
record the duties which should have been paid on them. There were
those who defied all law and order, and sold guns and powder and
liquor to the Indians, regardless of the fact that the penalty for doing so
was death. For guns and liquor had been found to be dangerous things
to put in savage hands.
Governor Kieft rebuilt the houses, put down all smugglers, and set
matters in New Amsterdam in good working order generally. The
patroon system of peopling the colony had proven a total failure. So,
soon after Kieft came, the West India Company decided on another
plan. They furnished free passage to anyone who promised to cultivate
land in the new country. In this way there would be no patroons to act
as masters. Each man would own his land, and could come and go as he
saw fit. This brought many colonists.
[Illustration: The Bowling Green in 1840.]
At this time there were really only two well-defined roads on the Island
of Manhattan. One stretched up through the island and led to the
outlying farms and afterward became The Bowery; the second led
along the water-side, and is to-day Pearl Street. Bowling Green,
although it was not called Bowling Green then, was the open space in
front of the fort where the people gathered on holidays. In the fourth
year of Governor Kieft's rule, he conceived the idea of holding
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