History of Montgomery & Fulton Counties byF. W. Beers & Co.

OUTLINE HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

CHAPTER I.

THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES-DISCOVERIES BY EUROPEAN EXPLORERS--THE OPENING OF COLONIZATION AND TRADE.

The American Continent, in its natural features, presents a striking and diversified display of resources and grandeurs. With the Atlantic on the east, the Pacific on the west ; its coasts indented with numerous gulfs and bays; intersected and drained by large rivers, of which the Mississippi and the Amazon exceed any other on the globe in length; and the St. Lawrence, leading into lakes, equal in extent to seas, it affords every facility for commerce; while its fertile valleys and extensive plains are admirably adapted to agricultural pursuits, and its interior is stored with minerals of inestimable value. The magnificence of mountain scenery, the dashing flood and deafening roar of Niagara, the subterranean labyrinths of Mammoth Cave, are features of nature which fill the beholder with wonder and amazement. To what people were these resources offered and these grandeurs presented in the dim ages of the past? With only the shadowy and uncertain light of tradition, little else than speculation can furnish anything like a beginning to the history of the aborigines of America. The ruins of cities and pyramids in Mexico and Central America, the numerous mounds so common in the valley of the Mississippi and scattered through the State of Ohio and Western New York, are monuments which point to a people more skilled in arts and farther advanced in civilization than the Indian found in occupancy when the first Europeans landed. Some of these mounds appear to have been erected for burial places, and others for defense. The remains of fortifications present evidence of mechanical skill, and no little display of the knowledge of engineering. Metallic implements of ingenious design and superior finish and finely wrought pottery, glazed and colored, equal to the best specimens of modern manufacture, have been found, showing a higher degree of mechanical skill than the Indian has ever been known to possess. Some of these remains have been found twenty feet or more below the surface, showing that they must have lain there many centuries. All the investigations of the antiquarian to discover by what people these mounds were erected, have ended in uncertainty. If these are the relics of a lost people, as many believe they are, it seems most probable that they were from Egypt. Their pyramids and skill in the arts, together with the fact that human bodies have been found preserved somewhat similiar to Egyptian mummies, support this theory. At an early age the Egyptians, who were noted for their skill in navigation, sailed around Africa, and made many other voyages, in some of which they may have reached America. Aristotle, Plato and other ancient writers appear to have been aware of an extensive body of land in the West, speaking of it as an island greater than Europe or Africa. It is also supposed that the Egyptians may have reached America through Asia. It is related that an Asiatic people emigrated to Egypt and conquered the Mizraimites, who were then in possession; and that they became distinguished for their arts, built cities and erected gigantic pyramids, which still remain as evidence of their skill and power. The Mizraimites, smarting under their tyranny, rose against them, and after a long struggle succeeded in driving them out of the land. They retreated to the northeast, leaving mounds and walls as far as Siberia, as traces of their passage, and, it is thought, crossed Behring's strait, and eventually settled in the Mississippi valley and Mexico. Leaving conjecture, in regard to the early inhabitants of this continent, it was found when first visited by the whites, that the Indians had long been in possession. Their personal appearance, language and customs plainly indicated a distinct race. There were many points of difference among the various tribes, but in many respects they bore a resemblance to each other. The Aztecs of Mexico were found with a large and populous city, in which were temples and palaces, and well cultivated grounds; while in the more northern regions a village of rude huts and a small field of corn were about the only marks of occupancy. The traditions of the Indians are so dim and conflicting as to shed little light on their origin. They obtained a subsistence chiefly by hunting and fishing, and were continually engaged in bloody wars with each other. They had no written language; no letters with which their words could be represented; but to some extent they communicated their thoughts to one another by hieroglyphics; certain symbols denoted certain ideas, and these were either drawn or painted on skins or birch bark, or chiseled on rocks. By comparing their languages they were grouped into great families, some of which contained many tribes. Of these families the Algonquin was the largest, occupying about half of that portion of the United States east of the Mississippi river, together with a part of Canada. The Huron-Iroquois was the next in importance, occupying the greater part of the State of New York and the Canadian peninsula, formed by lakes Ontario, Erie and Huron. They have rapidly diminished in numbers from pestilence and wars with the advancing whites, until only fragments remain, and their aversion to civilization, and strong attachment to a wild mode of life make their fate-extinction-inevitable. The pioneer still advances; railroads are connecting ocean with ocean, and the war whoop is silenced by the screech of the locomotive as it sounds the death knell of the once proud lords of a continent.The discovery of America was the most important event of modern times.

For the honor of this discovery several claims have been presented. Welsh historians have awarded it to Modoc, a prince of Wales, who went to sea in the twelfth century and discovered land far to the west, to which he made several voyages, but who with all his crew was finally lost. This claim is founded on tradition, however, and unsubstantiated. The Norwegians claim discovery and settlement on stronger evidence: Eric emigrated from Iceland to Greenland in 986, and formed a settlement. Leif, a son of Eric, embarked with a crew of men in the year 1000 on a voyage of discovery. He sailed to the southwest and discovered land, and sailing along the coast he finally entered a bay, where he remained through the winter, calling it Vineland. In 1007 Thorfinn sailed from Greenland to Vineland. An account of his voyage and history of the country is still extant. Other voyages were made, and the Antiquarian Society, after a careful examination of all the evidence, including the geography of the country described in these voyages, do not hesitate to locate this Vineland at the head of Narragansett bay in Rhode Island. These discoveries, however, were so ineffectual, that nothing was known in Europe of land beyond the ocean, until 1492, when Christopher Columbus, believing that India might be reached by sailing westward, was at his urgent solicitation despatched on a voyage of discovery by Ferdinand and Isabella, king and queen of Spain. He sailed from Palos, and after stopping at the Canaries, struck out upon the hitherto unknown ocean, discovering first one of the Bahama Islands; then proceeding towards the south he discovered Cuba and Hayti and returned to Spain, thus opening a highway over the trackless Atlantic. He made other voyages, and in 1498 discovered the continent near the mouth of the Orinoco River. The discovery of land in the west promised large profits and excited maritime enterprise throughout Europe. Henry VII, commissioned John Cabot, a Venetian, in 1497, to sail on a voyage of discovery, and take possession of new lands in the name of England. Sailing westward, in company with his son Sebastian, he discovered Newfoundland, and while off the coast of Labrador saw the mainland of North America. The next year Sebastian set sail to discover a northwest passage to China. The frozen regions at the north compelled him to change his course, and sailing towards the south, he visited various points along the coast as far as Albemarle sound, taking possession of the whole region for the Crown of England. John Verazzani, a Florentine in the service of Francis I. of France, arrived on the coast of North Carolina in 1524, and sailed south as far as Georgia. Turning north, he explored the coast to about 41° north latitude, and entered a harbor, which from his description, is believed to have been New York Bay, where he remained about fifteen days, and it is supposed that his crew were the first Europeans that landed on the soil of New York. He proceeded north as far as Labrador, giving the name of New France to the whole country, which was afterward confined to Canada. Henry Hudson, an English navigator, having failed in two expeditions to discover a passage to the East Indies, for a company of London merchants, by sailing westward, offered his services in 1609 to the Dutch East India Company of Holland, which was formed the preceding year for traffic and colonization. He left Amsterdam on the 4th of April with a small ship and a crew of about twenty English and Dutch sailors, and arrived on the American coast near Portland in Maine, whence he proceeded south along the shore to the entrance of Chesapeake Bay. From this point he returned northward, discovered and entered Delaware Bay, and on the 3d of September anchored at Sandy Hook. From here he proceeded up New York Bay, sending his boats to the Jersey shore and receiving on board the natives, who came in great numbers to traffic. On the 12th he entered the river which bears his name, and ascended it to a point a little above where the city of Hudson now stands, having been frequently visited on the way by the Indians, who came to traffic, bringing maize, tobacco and other products native to the country. To them he imparted a knowledge of the effects of rum, to the drinking of which in later years they became greatly addicted. Not considering it safe to proceed farther with his ship, he sent a boat with a part of his crew to explore the river higher up. It is supposed that they went a little above Albany. On the 23d he commenced to descend the river, and when a little below the Highlands, the Indians made several attempts to attack his crew, who, in repulsing their attacks, shot ten or twelve of their number. Descending into the bay he immediately sailed for Europe. The following year he made a voyage for the discovery of a northwest passage to India, and discovered and entered the bay which bears his name. Continuing his search too long, he was compelled to remain through the winter. In the spring, part of his crew mutinied, and put him in a boat, together with his son and seven others, and left them to perish. In 1607, Samuel Champlain, a French navigator, ascended the St. Lawrence River, exploring its tributaries; and on the 4th of July discovered the lake which bears his name. Hence the three nations, Holland, France and England, founding their titles upon discovery, claimed ownership in a region, a part of which lies within the limits of the State of New York.

The accounts given by Hudson of his discoveries stimulated the Dutch to avail themselves of the advantages that might be gained by trading with the Indians, and accordingly in the following year another vessel was sent out to engage in the fur trade on the banks of the river he had discovered. In 1612 two more vessels were fitted out by Hendrick Christiansen and Adrian Block, which were soon followed by others. The fur trade proving successful, Christiansen was appointed agent of the traffic, and Manhattan Island made the chief depot, he erected a small fort and a few rude buildings at the southern extremity of the island, calling the place New Amsterdam. The island was covered with giant forest trees and dense thickets, which served as hiding places for reptiles and wild beasts. In i6r4 the States General granted a charter to the merchants engaged in these expeditions, conferring the exclusive right of trade in this new territory between the 4oth and 45th parallels of north latitude for four years, and giving the name of New Netherlands to the whole region. The trade nourished, and had become so profitable, that at the expiration of the charter the States General refused to renew it, giving instead a special license for its temporary continuance.

In the meantime the surrounding country was being explored. Adrian Block had passed up the East River, Long Island sound and Connecticut river, and into the bays and along the islands eastward to Cape Cod. Cornelissen Jacobsen May had explored the southern coast of Long Island and southward to Delaware Bay, while Hendrick Christiansen had ascended the Hudson river to Castle Island, a few miles below Albany, where he had established a trading post and erected a small fort. This fort was so much damaged by a flood, that it was removed to the Normans-kill, a little below. Here a council was held between the chiefs and warriors of the Five Nations and the representatives of the New Netherlands, and a treaty of alliance and peace was formed.

In 1620 James I. granted to Ferdinando Gorges and his commercial associates all the land between the fortieth and forty-eighth degrees of north latitude, and extending from ocean to ocean. Captain Dermer, in the service of Gorges, appeared at Manhattan, and laid claim to all the territory occupied by the Dutch. The English ambassador at the Dutch capitol had been instructed to remonstrate against Dutch intrusion, but, it seems, without effect; for in 1621 the States General granted anew charter to the Dutch West India Company, an armed mercantile association, giving them exclusive jurisdiction over the province of New Netherlands for twenty years, with power to appoint governors, subject to the approval of the States; to colonize the territory and administer justice. The executive management was entrusted to a board of directors, distributed through five separate chambers in the cities of Holland. The charge of the province had been assigned to the Amsterdam Chamber, which sent out a vessel in 1623, under the direction of Captain May and Adrien Joriszen Tienpont, with thirty families for colonization. A portion of these settled on the Connecticut river, and others as far up the Hudson as the present city of Albany, where they built Fort Orange. A tort was also erected on the Delaware river, near Gloucester, and called Fort Nassau. Their number was shortly after augmented by other accessions, and colonization fairly commenced. In May, 1626, Peter Minuit arrived at New Netherlands as Director-General or Governor of the province. He purchased the whole of Manhattan Island of the Indians for trinkets of the value of $24. Friendly courtesies were interchanged with the Plymouth colony, and a brisk and profitable trade in furs was carried on.