64
 

THE ICONOGRAPHY OF MANHATTAN ISLAND
 

- approaching the Hudson trom the south. May put ashore a first
installment ot settlers in passing the Delaware, in which case those
mentioned by Catalina Trico would have been a second installment.
In this connection, see May?,  1624?.

If, as Catalina Trico states, Tienpont was in command at Fort
Orange, is It not likdy that he acted as May's deputy, and that
May himself, while retaining the supreme command in New
Netherland, went, shortly after his arrival, to the Ddaware, where
indeed he is referred to, in a Report Concerning the Swedish settle-
ments on the Delaware, made by Stuyvesant, on Jan. 28, i6;5
(q.v.), to the Amsterdam chamber, as "the first who coming here
[the Delaware] made his dwdling on the river," and that he after¬
ward joined the 8 men who, Catalina Trico tells us, had been left
on Manhattan Island "to take Possession," probably making it,
or possibly Noten Island, his head-quarters, as governour, until
the arrival of Ver Hulst in 1625?

Wassenaer's statement, under Nov., 1626, that "Corndis May
of Hoorn was the first Director there in the year 1624;" and that
"Willem Van Hulst was the 2"4, in the year 1625," occurs in the
midst of a consecutive narrative dealing solely with progress on
Manhattan Island, and the word "there" seems from the context
clearly to refer to Manhattan, rather than to Fort Orange, or to
New Netherland as a whole.

A cardul reconsideration ot the old and new tacts and side-
fights has led the author to the conclusion that Catalina Trico's
much maligned depositions furnish, after all, the most plausible
and likely solution ot this difficult problem, and that she arrived at
Manhattan Island on the "Nieu Nederlandt," or in another
vessel accompanying that ship, early in the summer of 1624.
It can hardly have been early in May, as Wassenaer states, as the
voyage probably consumed at least six weeks.

Her statement that a group ot colonists destined for the Dela¬
ware River "went in a vessel . . . & there settled;" the proba¬
bility that the group going to the Hartford River also went by
water, and the fact that the ship on which Catalina Trico herself
sailed went up to Albany, suggest the possibifity that three ships,
and not one, were engaged in this expedition. Were we to assume
that this was the tact, Catalina Trico's seemingly contradictory
statements regarding the number of women and families taking
part in the expedition would be easily reconciled, for they would
then indicate that she and the tour women came on one ship, and
the families on the others. In general, her statement describes
just such a series of facts as we should expect to find in connection
with the first offidal expedition ot settlers sent by the West India
Company to New Netherland, viz;—

The expedition carried carefully prepared instructions regard¬
ing the sdection of places suitable for settlements on the Hudson
River and elsewhere in New Netherland.

Immediatdy upon its arrival, steps were taken to take posses¬
sion of the mouths of the three great rivers (the Hudson, Fresh,
and South Rivers), which together controUed the entire inland
trade ot New Netherland; and for this purpose permanent settlers,
including families, were sent to the last two named points, and
settlers, doubtless induding also families, took up their abode on
Manhattan Island, or in its immediate vicinity. As we know
that the expedition included 30 families, whereas Catafina Trico
states that only "about 18" went to Albany, and 2 each to the
Fresh and South Rivers, the remaiiung 8 tamifies presumably
stayed on Manhattan Island, with the 8 men Idt there "to take
Possession," or perhaps on Noten Island, or some of them may have
settled at the Wallabout, or elsewhere in the neighbourhood.

The settlements here referred to on the Fresh and South
Rivers were, without doubt, the earliest real settlements made at
these points, although, as in the case ot Manhattan Island, the
records regarding them, most ot which date from a considerably
later period, are contusing and somewhat contradictory. In the
majority of cases giving 1623 as the date of settlement.—See
O'Callaghan, Hij(. ofN.Neth., 100; cf. Oct, 30,1655, This date we
may, however, safely assume Is erroneous, as no official Dutch
settlement could have been undertaken before the approval by the
states-general of the final steps in the organization ot the West
India Co. in June of this year, and there is, as we have seen, no
record of any expedition to New Netherland having been sent out
thereafter (except that on the "Mackerel," which, sailing on July
16, 1623, immediatdy after the final organization of the chartered
West India Co., must have had an offidal standing, and was perhaps
 

^
 

a reconnoitring expedition, or possibly an attempt on the part of the 1623-
Amsterdam chamber to obtain some advantage, by being the 1626
first in the field) until that which sailed in the following spring
(1624) In the "Nieu Nederlandt," of which expedition Catafina
Trico clearly must have been a member. It will be remembered
that she herself states that the ship on which she came belonged
"to ye West India Company, being ys first Ship y^ came here for
y" S'^ Company."

The fact that she gives the "Unity" ("Eendracht") as the
name of the ship on which she arrived, may, as we have said, indi¬
cate that this vessd accompanied the "Nieu Nederlandt," or, it
may be explained by supposing that she contused the name of
the ship with that ot another vessel which, a few years later,
became very famihar on the Hudson River, serving for many
years as the principal transport for colonists to Renssdaers-
wyck. It is even possible that the name of the "Nieu Nederlandt"
may have been changed to "Eendracht."

It is significant that, in the first ot two broadsides, issued respec¬
tively on Sept. a and 8,1643, by Kiliaen van Rensselaer, and repro¬
duced and translated in Van Rensselaer Bowier MSS., opp, pp, 682
and 697, it is stated that Kiliaen van Rensselaer's patent was grant¬
ed to him "as patroon of ihe earliest colony on the North River"
(p. 683), and that In the second he is referred to as "patroon of the
colony ot Rensselaerswyck, the first and oldest on this [North] river"
(p 697). It is also interesting to note that as, in 1624, there was
already the nudeus of a settlement at Fort Orange, and, as no men¬
tion of this was made in the "Articles," the West India Co., as
promoters ot the "Nieu Verdriet" (or "New Netherland") expedi¬
tion, probably had in mind some other locality for their first and
prindpal settiement when they instructed their colonists "to take
up their abode on the River ot the Prince Maurice, or at such other
places as shall be assigned to them by the Commander and his
Council." See March 28, 1624.

Until the Van Rappard manuscripts are made public, or other
transcripts of the original documents come to light, or new docu¬
ments ot a similar character are discovered, we can not hope to
arrive at a complete solution of this much vexed question; per¬
haps not even then.

Mr. Van Laer, after reading this brid summary ot facts and
theories in connection with the date of the first settlement of Man¬
hattan Island, suggests the addition ot the following facts;—

Wassenaer (pt. V, fol. 57), under date ot May 1623, says that
toward the end of the month there arrived in Zedand one Pieter
Schouten, first a chlrurgeon, then a physician, and finally a free
trader (freebooter?), with a valuable prize, worth 80,000 guilders,
which he captured in the Gulf ot Mexico. He is said to be well
acquainted with that coast, so that he would be very serviceable to
the West India Company,

Under date of July 1623, Wassenaer (pt. V, fol. 109) mentions
Willem Schouten, skipper ot Isaac le Maire, whose ship took fire
in the river Disire.

Under date of Sept., i624(pt,Vn, fol, 154), he mentions a brave
Zeelander, named Schout, who entered the service of the West
India Co., and who sailed with Admiral Wllckens to the Gult of
Mexico, This is apparently the Commander Schouten mentioned
under date of Sept. 24, 1624 (q.v.).

In pt. IX, fol, 6a, under date of May, 1625, Wassenaer mentions
the funeral at Amsterdam of Willem Schouts ]De Laet, Kort
Verhael, p. 10, gives his name as Pieter Schouten], who in his Kfe-
tlme had done much for the W, I. Co., as he was well acquainted
with the Gulf of Mexico and had taken good prizes there. Evi¬
dently Pieter and Willem were one and the same person.

The "Minutes ot the XIX^" under date of Sept. 21, 1624,
contain the following entry (translated): "Letter from the chamber
ot Zedand expressing surprise that they have not been informed
ot the arrival of the prize taken by the 'Eendracht,' nor of the
arrival ot the ship 'de Hoope,' although private persons, who are
not directors ot the Company, knew about it."—Records of the
old West India Co. at The Hague, No. i (lettered No, 447), part
4, item 60, The Minutes ot Sept. 24 contain the following: "There
was read a copy sent to the Assembly of a certain letter written by
Commander Schouten on the 26th ot July last from the ship 'de
Hoope,' on the coast of Florida, to the chamber of Zedand, wherdu
he gives an account of his voyage and of various attacks which
tailed, as may be seen more In detail in the said copy."—Ibid.,
item 70.