[The following pages are from a microfiche at the Michigan State University Library: Selected Americana from Sabin's Dictionary of books relating to America, from its discovery to the present time.] The author is listed as Cornelis Melyn.

EXTRACTS

BREEDEN RAEDT

DE VEREENIGHDE

NEDERLANDSCHE PRIVINTIEN

B. Passing over several minor abuses, in order to come to the tyrany which ruins the whole country, you must know that Governor Kieft had for a long time secretly intended to begin w war with the savages of New Netherland, because they had refused, on reasonable grounds, to give him a certain contribution, alleging they were not obliged to give it to the director, or to the Dutch:

1. Not for the sake of the soldiers, since they did them no service, in case of war with other tribes; for than they crept, together like cats upon a piece of cloth and might be killed a thousand times over, before news could be got to the fort, which was at a great distance from them; still less that they could be delivered or seconded in time by its soldiers.

2. Further, that they had allowed us to remain peaceably in their country, that they had never demanded a recompense from us, and that, for that reason, we were under obligations to them and not they to us.

3. Item, that when our nation, having lost a ship, there had built a new one, they had supplied them with victuals and all other necessaries, and had taken care of them for two winters, till the ship was finished; consequently we were under obligations to them, not they to us.

4. For that reason they asked why they should supply us with maize for nothing, since they paid as much as we asked, for every thing they came to purchase of us.

5. If we, said they, have ceded to you the country you are living in, we yet remain masters of what we have retained for ourselves.

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Have we not supplied you Swannekens (i.e. Germans or Dutchmen) on your first arrival here and when you had no mochols (i.e. ships) with provisions for two whole winters, and had we not have died of hunger?

The delegates from all the savage tribes, such as the Baritans whose chiefs called themselves Oringkes, from Orange, the Hacquinsacks, the Wappenas, Hogelanders, Wicquasgecks, Beckewackes, Mereckewacks, Dappanders, Massapems, Zinkeeuw, and others, had go as many objections to make, as there were points to discuss. They however separated peaceably, contenting themselves with giving us no contributions nor asking for any from us. Director Kieft, seeing himself deprived of this contribution which he was very greedy of by so many reasons, and also because it would disgrace him in the eyes of his countrymen, invented by other means to satisfy his insatiable avaricious soul.

E. Well skipper how did all that end?

B. When in the year 1643, about shrovetide, the savages by some other tribes (which were too powerful for them) and obliged to retreat, they took refuge in our territory, not suspecting they had any thing to fear from us. About the same time there was a feast at the house of Jan Janssen Damen, at which the director, in a significant toast, communicated his intended attack on the savages to three inconsiderate boors, Vix. Maryn Adriaensz, Jan. Jansz and Abraham Plancy, who presented a (pretended) request composed by secretary Tienhove, to the governor, begging him to allow them to take revenge on the savages, who killed the servant of Mr. V. Nederhorst which crime had not been punished; this retribution being necessary to maintain the reputation of our nation.

K. Was that true?

B. I will tell you sir. A certain savage chief named Hacquinsacq who was considered as heedless even by the savages themselves, having been intoxicated with brandy by our man, being asked whether he was able to make a good use of his bow and arrow when in that state, in reply pointed his arrow at a certain man called Gerrit Yansz, a servant of the deceased Mr. Van Nederhorsts, whom he actually killed, asking whether he was able or not. To revenge this mans death several savages had been killed, and our people were again in peace with them; so that at the time the director ordered

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this massacre, the same tribe who had killed the deceased Mr. V. Nederhorsts servant, had been visited some weeks before by the director himself, and supplied with all necessaries; this pretent was therefore altogether a specious one.

K. Was it than in the power of one man to begin a war or massacre for that?

B. That it might appear plausible, they had such a request presented; to which, on Fed. 25, 1643 they answered that they authorised Maryn Adriaensz with his company, to make an attack on the savages, camped at Curlers plantation, and to treat them as time and circumstances required.

E. Who ever gave you such an authorisation? Who could have been the author of that authorisation?

B. Why secretary Cornelius van Tienhove, who is now returned home to make a report on New Netherland; the same who had composed the request.

C. A child might see that that was but a pretext. The secretary deserved to be torn to pieces by four horses as a traitor; and as for the three boors, accordingly to law they had forfeited their lives. In the mean time were the settlers warned to be on the alert, that they might not run any risk either by assistance or resistance?

B. Nobody at all was warned but the three before mentioned. The settlers were not so much as thought of. The secretary himself went to reconnaitre the camp of the savages the day before the attack, and if the settlers had known what was intended, supposing there had been reasons for it, not one of the savages would have escaped; but if, as was really the case, there had been no reasons, the director would never have been able to commit such a murder, if even he had such traitors as secretaries.

J. By what I understand of the affair, the secretary is the principal cause of what followed. But how did they proceed?

B. Between the 25 and 26 Febr. 1643, at midnight 80 and odd savages were murdered at Panonia, by 80 soldiers. Young children, some of them snatched from their mothers, were cut in pieces before the eyes of their parents, and the pieces were thrown into the fire or into the water; other babes were bound on planks and then cut through, stabbed and miserably massacred, so that it would break a heart of stone; some were thrown into the river and when the fathers and mothers sought to save them, the soldiers would

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not suffer them tho come ashore but caused both old and young to be drowned. Some children of from 5 to 6 years of age, as also some old inform persons, who had managed to hide themselves in the bushes and reeds, came out in the morning to beg for a piece of bread and for permission to warme themselves, but were all murdered in cold blood and thrown into the fire or the water. A few escaped to our settlers, some with the loss of a hand, others of a leg, others again holding in their bowels with their hands, and all so cut, hawn and mained,that worse could not be imagined; they were indeed in such a state that our people supposed they had been surprised by their ennemies, the tribe of the Maquaes. After this exploit the soldiers were recompensed for their services, and thanked by the director Kieft in person. In an other place, on the same night, at Curlers Hock, near Curlers plantation, about forty savages were surprised in their sleep in the same way, and massacred like the others.

D. Did ever the duke of Alba do more evil in the Netherlands?

F. Certainly you have such Dutch governors or directors who honour and respect the duke of Alba.

B. Yes sir, it is a scandal for our nation; and if silence would have remedied it I should never have mentioned it. But information has been given of it in the proper quarter, and not only it has not been remedied, but it has gone still worse as you shall hear directly.

H. But did the savages suffer this so quietly?

B. Oh no Sir. As soon as they found how the Swannekens treated them, they killed all the man they could lay hands on, but I never heard that they did any harm to the women or children. Besides this they burned and destroyed all the houses, farms, barns and everything they could come at, so that they began a declared and destructive war.

C. Quicquid delirant reges plectuntur achivi.

B. I am told for a fact that a certain skipper Isaac Abrahamsen, having saved a young boy, and hidden him under the sails in order, to give him to one Cornelius Melyn, towards morning the poor child, overcome with cold and hunger, made some noise and was heard by the soldiers, 18 German tigers, dragged from under the sails in spite of the endeavors of the skipper, who was alone against 18, cut in two and thrown overboard.

F. But what did the inhabitants say of the massacre?

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B. They were not only much displeased but took notes of all that passed from time to time, for those of the country (planters) were all ruined, and in the forts there was little provision and little strength. This they wrote and sent to government relating the causes and occasions of the war, with all the circumstances as they had occurred.

J. How did you do in the meanwhile, before an answer arrived?

B. We had but a choice of evils. The director robbed and murdered where ever he could, and in the manner already related 1600 savages were killed in the years 1643 and 1644; some of them were settled among the English, at a distance of from 10 to 20 miles from us, who were most of them surprised in their sleep, many of them never having seen a German much less ever having done them any harm.

In April of the year 1644, seven savages were arrested at Heemstede (where an English clergyman, Mr. Fordan, was governor) on a charge of killing two or three pigs, though it was afterwards discovered that some Englishmen had done it themselves. Director Kieft was informed by Mr. Fordan, that he had just arrested seven savages, who were confined in a cellar, but whom he had not dated to treat inhumanely as he could not answer for the consequences to himself, because such things are not to be winked at there, or perhaps because the English nation wish to cause a general dislike among the savages to our people. Kieft immediately sent ensign Opdyk with an Englishman, John Onderhil, and 15 or 16 soldiers, who killed three of the seven in the cellar. They ten took the other four with them in the sailing boat, two of whom were towed by a string round their necks till they were drowned while the two infortunate survivers were detained as prisoners at fort Amsterdam. When they had been kept a long time in the corps de garde, the director became tired of giving them food any longer and they were delivered to the soldiers to do as they pleased with. The poor infortunate prisoners were immediately dragged out of the guard house and soon dispatched with knives of from 18 to 20 inches long which director Kieft had made for his soldiers for such purposes, saying that the swords were too long for use in the huts of the savages, when they went to surprise them; but that these knives were much handier for bowelling them. The first of these savages having received a frightful wound, desired them to permit him to dance what is cal-

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led the Kinte Kaeye, a religious use observed among them before death; he received however so many wounds that he dropped dawn dead. The soldiers then cut strips from the other's body, beginning at the calves, up the back, over the shoulders and down to the knees. While this was going forward, director Kieft, with his councellor Jan de la Montaigne, a Frenchman, stood laughing heartily at the fun and rubbing his right arm, so much delight he took in such scenes. He then ordered him to be taken out of the fort, and the soldiers bringing him to the Beaver's path (he dancing the Kinte Kaeye all the time) threw him down, cut off his parts genetales, thrust them into his mouth while still alive, and at last, placing him on a mill-stone cut off his head.

H. What shameful barbarity!

B. What J tell you is true, for be the same token there stood at the same time 24 or 25 female savages, who had been taken prisoner at the N. W. point of the fort; and when they saw this bloody spectacle they held up their arms, struck their mouth, and, in their language exclaimed; "For Shame! For shame! Such unheard of cruelty was never know, or even thought of among us." The savages have often called out to us from a distance: what scoundrels you Swannekens are, you do not war upon us, but upon our wives and children whom you treacherously murder; whereas we do no harm either to your wives or your children, but feed and take care of them, till we send them back again to you.

K. Well skipper you know more news, if they were only good news, then all of us put together. How did they get on?

B. Director Kieft, not content with this causing the hunted savages to be surprised, engaged some English spies to accompany his soldiers as guides, into places unknow to our people, by which many poor inoffensive savages were cruelly and traiterously massacred.

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B. The states general being informed of all those evils, ordered the governors (0f the West Indian Company) to remedy them; and the latter, conscious of having trifled too long with director Kieft, with whom they were thoroughly acquainted, chose a certain Petrus Stuybesant, formerly director of Curacao, the son of a minister in Briesland, to supersede him. This same Stuybesant robbed the daughter of his boste and being discovered would have had to suffer for the crime but that he was forgiven for sake of his father.

E. How in the world did the company manage to find so many rascals? Why they must have whole magazines full of them.

B. Their High Mighitinesses now thought, that the governor would take care that there should be no more complaints of an oppressive or tyrannical direction, we are however, informed in what manner the same governors who had intrigued with Kieft, instructed the new director, to the decline and ruin of New Netherland, to maintain Kieft and vex the inhabitants under any appearance or pretent whatever. Neither could he contain himself till he had time and opportunity, but even upon his passage threatened that when he arrived in New Netherland he would teach them better to know their plans. As however he had promised their high mightinesses by oath that he would punish the faults of director Kieft according to their deserts, and properly support the inhabitants; the result however has shown quite the contrary of these fine promises, according to the instructions given him by the governors (which he has shown to several person) in which he is ordered to do as he afterwards did.

J. Is not that the same Stuyvesant who some time before attempted to take fort St. Martin for the company, and who lost his leg by in the attempt?

B. The very same; the governors looked upon that as quite a piece of Roman courage.

J. Yes, but all who attended that expedition will tell another story; how he burnt all our powder in firing salutes during the whole of the journey, so that when the time for action arrived there was none to be found; and every thing relating to that expedition was so disorderly that the like was never seen. Indeed when we broke up the siege and retired without effecting any thing, only because of his leg, which was shot off by the first cannon shot from

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Fort St. Martin we left every thing behind, and among other things 5 or 6 find field pieces. Was in that a fine Roman achievement? Who knows how much expense that expedition cost the company? Such a prudent hero deserved indeed to be advanced to director and chosen and sent to New Netherland as redresser-General of all abuses.

B. When he comes, these the governors may send him as president to Brazil, in order to spoil the little that still remains there, just as he is always used to do.

J. He is now however getting older and ought to improve his conduct, in ordre to wipe out former faults. How does he get on in New Netherland?

B. Improve do you say messmate? Like old wolves and old ships, worse from day to day.

J. Does he still hoan and rage and storm as much as he used to do, even to striking and beating?

B. In all that he is just the man he has always been; and so there is no change to be expected but for the worse.

J. What was his reception in New-Netherland?

B. There was so much shouting on all sides that they were obliged to send to an other place to buy powder for exercising and in case of need.

J. I could have guessed as much, but how did he treat the inhabitants from the very first?

B. As soon as he arrived, some of the principal inhabitants coming bareheaded to welcome their new director, he let them wait for several hours bareheaded, he himself keeping his hat on his head; as if he was the Czar of Moscovy, nobody was offered a chair, while he seated himself very very comfortably on a chair, the better to give the welcomers an audience.

J. You speak in so lively a wig of him manner of acting that I can fancy I see it all passing before my eyes: go on telling about that unliked bear.

B. In a word, when he was to take the direction from Kieft, the whole community being called together for that purpose, Kieft began by thanking them all for their fiedelity to him, which he much exaggerated in hopes that the community could unanimously have thanked him; but some of them said boldly that they would not thank him as they had no reason to do so; among those were Joachim Pietrz Kuyter and Cornelis Melyn. Stuyvesant, under the

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canopy of heaven declared loudly that every one should have justice done to him, which assurance was very agreable to the community; a few days afterwards however, being well persuaded and led away by Kieft, Stuyvesant began to assemble a court of justice, had the missive of the 8 deputed petitioners to the chamber of Amsterdam laid before it, and having chosen the side of Kieft and wishing to care that afterwards no similar charge should be brought against him, he considered these 8 chosen man as private persons, and regarded all their conduct and the whole process between Kieft and them in no other light.

In his opinion it was treason to petition against one's magistrates whether there was cause or not. What Kieft simply denied was considered as of more weight than the proofs produced by his antagoniste.

And when the arbiters produced diverse memorials points and persons to prove the truth of what was written their statement were entirely rejected or a part of what came to light was suppressed.

And what was more the other persons who had subscribed two letters were prevailed upon and obliged by high authority and severe manaces as also by fair promises, not to divulge what would be communicated to them, to revoke what had been written, or at least in order to give it another appearance to declare they had been bribed to subscribe it and had been misinformed, now knowing what they subscribed, but having only done it at the earnest entreaties of some who persisted in subscribing it and still maintained their signature.

So director Stuyvesant passed sentence against Joachim Pietersz and Cornelis Melyn, whom he charged with having accused, by libellous letters their legitimate governor and chief, director Kieft, in a clandestine and lying way; with having insured and calumniated him, the which he and his counsil desiring to present in the well ordered commonwealth of New Netherland, and executing justice in the name of their High Mightinesses the states General, His Highness the Prince of Orange, and the General chartered West Jndia Company, condamned Joachim Pietersz Kuyter to a banishment of three consecutive years and a penalty of a hundred and fifty guilders, one third for the fiscal, one third for the poor and on third for the church. Cornelis Melyn was charged in his sentence with more cri-

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mes and punished more severely, (because Kieft had formerly plattered himself that he should have a part with him in Staten Island, and finding himself deceved, he had been obliged to make other conditions with other persons; and Kieft played him this trick as afterwardrs proved) and invirtue of the preceding arguments was found guilty of Crimen Laesae Majestatis, crimen falsi, crimen of libel and defamation, and on that account was to forgeit all benefits derived from the company or which he might still claim, a penalty of 300 guilders, to be applied at above, and to be banished from New Netherland for the term of 7 years. So that those who had accused Kieft were kicked out and sent away by Stuyvesant. It is well known that when director Kieft was reminded that these suits would most probably, have taken another turn in Holland, he replied: why should we alarm each other with justice in Holland; in this case I only consider it as a scare crow. And Stuvysant replied: if I was persuaded that you would appeal from my sentences or divulge them, I would have your head cut off, or have you hanged on the highest tree in New Netherland. He also represented Kieft's affair in so favourable a light, inweighed so furiously against the constant arbiters, that the foam hung on his beard. To show still more clearly that he did not at all intend to follow the orders of their High Mightinesses or fulfil the promises he made them, or to satisfy the community, he immediately appointed Jan Jansen Damen, (one of those who had signed the request to slaughter the savages) as churchwaden.

E. A very nice churchwarden that, one with bloody hands.

B. Jt is to be feared that if the united Profvnces, their High Mightinesses and his Highness do not take measures to prevent the occurrence of such injustice, their reputation will suffer, not only among but through all christendom and it is disgraceful enough already that this has not yet been done; there-fore those who have the prosoerity of the Netherlands, of New Netherland, of its inhabitants and of its government at heart, ought to strive to redress such grievances.

J. But was that sentence executed?

B. Most assuredly; for that was now of as much consequence to the new director Stuyvesant as his own honour, reputation, even his own life. They were brought on board like criminals and torn away from their goods, their wives and their children. The Princess

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was to carry the director and those two faithful patriots from New Netherland, but coming into the wrong channel it struck upon a rock as was wrecked. And now this wicked Kieft, seeing death before his eyes, sighed deeply and turning to these two said: Friends! J have been injust towards you, can you forgive me? Towards morning the ship was broke to pieces. Melyn lost his son, the minister Bogardus; while Kieft, captain John de Vries and a great number of other persons were drowned. Much treasure was also lost, as Kieft was on his return with a fortune of four hundred thousand guilders. Joachim Pietersz Kuyter remained alone on a part of the ship on which stood a cannon, which he took for a man, but speaking to it and getting no answer he supposed him dead. He was at last thrown on land together with the cannon to the great astonishment of the English, who crowded the strand by thousands and who set up the pine or ordinance as a lasting memorial. Melyn, floating on his back, fell in with others who had remained on a part of the wreck till they were driven on a sandbank which became dry with the ebb. They ten took some planks and pieces of wood, fastened them together and having made sails of their shirts etc., they got at last to the Mainland of England. --As these persons were more concerned for their papers than for any thing else they caused them to be dragged for, and on the third day Joachim Pictersz got a smale bon of them, which are in being to this day.

C. How people are sometimes buffeted about the world! How will these persons ever get justice?

B. According to what they told me, when they arrived in Holland, the Durch directors much lamented the loss of the ship and its rich cargo, and were double vened that while so many fine men were lost, two rebellious bandits should survive to trouble the company with their complaints.

J. Was that all the comfort they got?

B. That was not all their comfort but some of the directors undertook to prevent them from getting a hearing from their High Mightinesses.

J. T'was better to send such scoundrels to the devil. Who dared to undertake that?

B. Those who had always corresponded with those wicked children of Belial, van Beeck Perquin; they got a hearing however and set their affair in such a light before their H. M. that it was

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resolved to prevent such unrightious proceedings, dispatsched letters of inhibition, ordered Stuyvesant either to appear in person or by prony in order to hear his sentence maintained confirmed or annulled; or else to await it there, and to that end their H. M. supplied the complenants with all necessary orders, safeguards, acts and instruments.