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Petrus Stuyvesant, a native of Friesland, had formerly been director of the Company’s colony at Curapoa, whence, having lost a leg in an attack on the Portuguese settlement at Saint Martin’s, he had been obliged to return to Europe for surgical aid…. [He] replaced his leg by a wooden one with silver bands, which gave rise to [the nickname “Old Silver Nails” and] the tradition that he wore a silver leg….”

Peter Stuyvesant

The portrait (owned by the New-York Historical Society) … is half-length and therefore does not record which of Pieter’s legs was the “silver leg.” [Long thought to be a Rembrandt, it is now attributed to Hendrick Couturier.] This was a mystery, even to his remote descendants, for some two centuries, until, in 1926, Victor H. Paltsits, historian and linguist, read a group of Dutch versified manuscript letters, written to Stuyvesant by his English friend Johan Farret. Therein is a playful allusion to the amputation and burial in Curacao of Pieter’s right leg.

“Old Silver Nails,” from History of the City of New York, by Mary L. Booth, 1867.

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PETER STUYVESANT Letter to the Dutch Towns on Long Island.

Honorable, Dear, Faithful:

You as well as we can sufficiently infer from the arrival of the English frigates at the Narrows, of some ships with ammunition and provisions at Hellgate, as well as from the arming of the English both on the Mainland and on Long Island and other places, that this Capital is the object aimed at, which if lost, all is lost, there being no other place capable of offering any resistance. It is, therefore, requisite and in the highest degree necessary, that it should be protected and defended with all possible might and main; for the better effecting and accomplishing of this purpose, you are hereby earnestly required and requested to act in this most critical conjuncture as faithful subjects of the High and Mighty the Lords States General and the Honorable the Directors of the Incorporated West India Company are bound and ought to do, and to reinforce us with every third man from your town.

Relying thereupon, we, after cordial salutation, &c.
Fort Amsterdam in New Netherland,
28th August, 1664.

Their answer:

Honorable, Most Wise, Right Honorable, the Director-General and Council of New Netherland:

Having received your Honors’ letter, and the same, with the request made in great friendship, being read to us by the Schout and Schepens, we unanimously answer, that it is impossible for us to comply with it, as we ourselves are living here on the Flatland without any protection and must leave wives and children seated here in fear and trembling, which our hearts would fail to do. And, moreover, the English are themselves hourly expected; ignorant of what we have to expect from them ; not sure either of life or property, we yet heartily wish it were in our power to assist your Honors.

Herewith ending, we wish your Honors the gracious protection of the Most High and a favorable peace and prosperous government unto salvation. Furthermore, commending ourselves to your Honors’ good favor, we shall be and remain,

Right Honorable,
Your subjects and servants,
The Court and Commonalty of the town of Midwout

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Asher Durand’s “Dance on the Battery in the Presence of Peter Stuyvesant.”

RESOLUTION TO EXEMPT THE JEWS FROM MILITARY SERVICE, the Burgher Council (1655)

August 28, 1655.

The Captains and officers of the trainbands of this City baring asked the Director General and Council, whether the Jewish people, who reside In this City, should also train and mount guard with the Citizens’ bands, this was taken in consideration and deliberated upon: first the disgust and unwillingness of these trainbands to be fellow-soldiers with the aforesaid nation and to be on guard with them in the same guard house and on the other side, that the said nation was not admitted or counted among the citizens, as regards trainbands or common citizens’ guards neither in the Illustrious City of Amsterdam nor (to our knowledge) in any city in Netherland; but in order that the said nation may honestly be taxed for their freedom in that respect. It is directed by the Director General and Council, to prevent further discontent, that the aforesaid nation shall, according to the usages of the renowned City of Amsterdam, remain exempt from the general training and guard duty, on condition that each male person over sixteen and under sixty years contribute for the aforesaid freedom towards the relief of the general municipal taxes sixty five stivers* every month and the military council of the citizens is hereby authorized and charged to carry this into effect until our further orders and to collect pursuant to the above the aforesaid contribution once in every month and in case of refusal to collect it by legal process. Thus done in Council at Fort Amsterdam, on the day as above. [It was signed:]

P. Stuyvesant, Nicasius de Sille, Cornelius Van Tienhoven

—Col. Docs, N.Y., xii. 96.

FROM: Ecclesiastical Records, State of New York, 1901.

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HENRICUS SELYNS, First Dominie of Breuckelen

EPITAPH ON GOVERNOR STUYVESANT. —The last volume of the Bradford Club has, among the poems of Domine Henricus Selyns, this epitaph on Stuyvesant:

Graafschrift Voor Petrus Stuyvesant, Gewesen Generael van Niew Nederlandt

Stuyft niet te seer en’t sandt, want daer legt Stuyvesant

Die eerst was ‘t opperhooft van gantsch Niew Nederlandt

En gaf met wil of geen het landt den vyandt over

So naween en berouw treft ¡emans hert syn hert

Stierf duysentmaal, en droog onlydelycke smert,

In’ t eerste al to ryck, op ‘t laaste al te pover.

Petrus Stuyvesant vault cover, St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery

Thus translated by the accomplished Mr. Murphy, to whom the old poets of the colony are indebted for the laurels now so tardily placed on their brows [Stuyvesant translates as “shifting sand”]:

Stir not the sand too much, for there lies Stuyvesant,
Who erst commander was of all New Netherland;
Freely or no, unto the foe, the land did he give over.
If grief and sorrow any hearts do smite, his heart
Did die a thousand deaths, and undergo a smart
Insuff’rable. At first, too rich; at last, too pauvre.

FROM: The Historical Magazine and Notes and Queries Concerning the Antiquities, History and Biography of America. January 1865.

Below is an account of Henry Hudson’s second voyage in search of a Northwest Passage, of 1608, written by Emanuel Van Meteren in 1611 and published in The Hague three years later. Van Meteren (1535-1612) was a Flemish historian and Consul for “the Traders of the Low Countries” in London. When Hudson returned from his second voyage on behalf of the Muscovy Company of England he related to van Meteren that there had been a mutiny in 1608, originating in quarrels between Dutch and English sailors. Van Meteren had access to Hudson’s journals, charts and logbooks for his Historien der Nederlanden, en haar naburen oorlogen tot het iaar 1612 (published in 1614). It was, during the 1609 third voyage, in the Halve Maene, that once again foiled by summer ice, Hudson detoured toward Manhattan. A fourth voyage, in 1610-11, proved disastrous. Following a mutiny, Hudson, his teenage son, and seven crew members were set adrift in an open boat and were never heard from again.

We have said in the preceding book that the Directors of the East India Company in Holland had sent, in the month of March last past, in order to seek a passage to China by Northwest or Northeast, a brave English pilot named Henry Hudson, with a Vlie-boat, and about eighteen or twenty men, part English and part Dutch, well provided. This Henry Hudson sailed from Texel on the 6th of April, 1609, and doubled the Cape of Norway on the 5th of May; he laid his course toward Nova Zembia, along the northern coast, but found the sea as full of ice there as he had found it the preceding year, so that he was compelled to abandon all hope for that year; whereupon, owing to the cold which some who had been in the East Indies could not support, the English and Dutch fell into disputes among themselves.

Last Voyage of Henry Hudson, by John Collier

Whereupon the Master, Hudson, gave them their choice between two things, the first was, to go the coast of America in the fortieth degree of latitude, mostly incited to this by letters and maps which a certain Captain Smith had sent him from Virginia, and on which he showed him a sea wherein he might circumnavigate their Southern Colony from the North, and from thence pass into a Western sea. If this had been true (which experience up to the present time has shown to the contrary), it would have been very advantageous, and a short route to sail to the Indies.

The other proposition was, to search for the passage by Davis’ Straits, to which at last they generally agreed; and on the fourteenth they set sail, and, with favorable winds, arrived the last of May at the isle of Faro, where they stopped only twenty-four hours to take in fresh water. Leaving there, they reached, on the eighteenth of July, the coast of New-France in latitude forty-four, where they were obliged to make a stay to replace their foremast which they had lost, and where they obtained and rigged one. They found this a good place for catching codfish, and also for carrying on a traffic for good skins and furs, which they could obtain for mere trifles; but the sailors behaved very badly toward the people of the country, taking things by force, which was the cause of a strife between them.

The English, thinking they would be overpowered and worsted, were afraid to enter further into the country; so they sailed from there on the twenty-sixth of July, and continued at sea until the third of August, when they approached the land in latitude forty-two. From thence they sailed again until the twelfth of August, when they again approached the land at latitude thirty-seven and three-quarters, and kept their course thence along it until they reached the latitude of forty degrees and three-quarters, where they found a good entrance between two headlands. Here they entered on the twelfth of September, and discovered as beautiful a river as could be found, very large and deep, with good anchorage on both shores. They ascended it with their large vessel as high as latitude forty-two degrees and forty minutes, and went still higher up with the ship’s boat.

At the entrance of the river they had found the natives brave and warlike; but inside, and up to the highest point of the river, they found them friendly and civil, having an abundance of skins and furs, such as martens and foxes, and many other commodities, birds, fruits and even white and blue grapes. They treated these people very civilly, and brought away a little of whatever they found among them. After they had gone about fifty leagues up the river, they returned on the fourth of October, and again put to sea. More could have been accomplished there if there had been a good feeling among the sailors, and had not the want of provisions prevented them.

Title page, Emanuel van Meteren, Historien der Nederlanden, 1614

At sea there was a consultation held at which there was a diversity of opinion. The mate, who was a Dutchman, thought that they ought to go and winter in Newfoundland, and seek for the Northwest passage through Davis’ Straits. The master, Hudson, was opposed to this; he feared his crew would mutiny, because at times they had boldly menaced him, and also because they would be entirely overcome by the cold of winter, and be, after all, obliged to return with many of the crew weak and sickly. No one, however, spoke of returning home to Holland, which gave cause of further suspicion to the master. Consequently, he proposed that they should go and winter in Ireland, to which they all agreed, and at length arrived, November 7^th, at Dartmouth in England. From this place they sent an account of their voyage to their masters in Holland, proposing to go in search of a passage to the Northwest if they were furnished with fifteen hundred guilders in money to buy provisions, in addition to their wages and what they had in the ship. He wished to have some six or seven of his crew changed, making the number up to twenty men, etc., and to sail from Dartmouth about the first of March, in order to be at the Northwest by the end of that month, and there pass the month of April and half of May in killing whales and other animals in the neighborhood of the isle of Panar; from there to go toward the Northwest….

John Heckwelder wrote this reconstruction of how things might have looked to Native Americans back in 1609. It was published in New-York Historical Society Collections, 2nd series (1841), vol. 1: 71–74. That it is in some measure fanciful is not to be doubted; but folklore competes with history in America’s earliest days. It is said in folklore circles that when a custom or practice is too old for its origins to be remembered, a story is often devised to rationalize what would otherwise be baffling.

That the Dutch did not build New Amsterdam ex nihilo, but rather grafted their culture onto the one they found, is evident from the Castello Plan of 1660. Depicted below is the print drafted in 1916 by John Wolcott Adams from the nineteenth-century watercolor copy of the lost original. Note the clearly delineated path of modern-day Broadway; it had long been a major Native American trail north from the tip of the island.

Afbeeldinge van de Stadt Amsterdam in Nieuw Neederlandt [The Castello Plan] 1660

Henry Hudson, employed by the Dutch India Company, anchored off Manhattan in 1609 and traded with local Indians. Hudson then headed up the river (later named the Hudson River) seeking Northwest Passage to Asia. Other Dutch settlers soon followed. Delawares and Mahicans, who had been living along the coast of New Jersey and up the Hudson River when the Dutch arrived, were driven westward by expanding European settlements. The Reverend John Heckwelder, a Moravian missionary in the Ohio Valley, took down this particular narrative in the 1760s “as it was related to me by aged and respected” Delawares and Mahicans. Indian stories of the first encounters between Indians and Europeans often depicted the Europeans as “the great Mannito” or Supreme Being. This account went on to describe the trading and hospitality that followed the first encounter and the Europeans’ eventual desire for land above all else.

A long time ago, when there was no such thing known to the Indians as people with a white skin (their expression), some Indians who had been out a-fishing, and where the sea widens, espied at a great distance something remarkably large swimming, or floating on the water, and such as they had never seen before. They immediately returning to the shore apprised their countrymen of what they had seen, and pressed them to go out with them and discover what it might be. These together hurried out, and saw to their great surprise the phenomenon, but could not agree what it might be; some concluding it either to be an uncommon large fish, or other animal, while others were of opinion it must be some very large house.

It was at length agreed among those who were spectators, that as this phenomenon moved towards the land, whether or not it was an animal, or anything that had life in it, it would be well to inform all the Indians on the inhabited islands of what they had seen, and put them on their guard. Accordingly, they sent runners and watermen off to carry the news to their scattered chiefs, that these might send off in every direction for the warriors to come in. These arriving in numbers, and themselves viewing the strange appearance, and that it was actually moving towards them (the entrance of the river or bay) concluded it to be a large canoe or house, in which the great Mannitto (great or Supreme Being) himself was, and that he probably was coming to visit them.

Hudson entering New York Bay, conjectural view

By this time the chiefs of the different tribes were assembled on York Island, and were counselling (or deliberating) on the manner they should receive their Mannitto on his arrival. Every step had been taken to be well provided with plenty of meat for a sacrifice; the women were required to prepare the best of victuals; idols or images were examined and put in order; and a grand dance was supposed not only to be an agreeable entertainment for the Mannitto, but might, with the addition of a sacrifice, contribute towards appeasing him, in case he was angry with them. The conjurors were also set to work, to determine what the meaning of this phenomenon was, and what the result would be. Both to these, and to the chiefs and wise men of the nation, men, women, and children were looking up for advice and protection.

Between hope and fear, and in confusion, a dance commenced. While in this situation fresh runners arrive declaring it a house of various colours, and crowded with living creatures. It now appears to be certain that it is the great Mannitto bringing them some kind of game, such as they had not before; but other runners soon after arriving, declare it a large house of various colours, full of people, yet of quite a different colour than they (the Indians) are of; that they were also dressed in a different manner from them, and that one in particular appeared altogether red, which must be the Mannitto himself. They are soon hailed from the vessel, though in a language they do not understand; yet they shout (or yell) in their way. Many are for running off to the woods, but are pressed by others to stay, in order not to give offence to their visitors, who could find them out, and might destroy them. The house (or large canoe, as some will have it) stops, and a smaller canoe comes ashore with the red man and some others in it; some stay by this canoe to guard it. The chiefs and wise men (or councillors) had composed a large circle, unto which the red-clothed man with two others approach. He salutes them with friendly countenance, and they return the salute after their manner.

Indian village of the Manhattans, prior to the occupation of the Dutch; George Heyward, Valentine’s Manual 1858

They are lost in admiration, both as to the colour of the skin (of these whites) as also to their manner of dress, yet most as to the habit of him who wore the red clothes, which shone with something they could not account for. He must be the great Mannitto (Supreme Being) they think, but why should he have a white skin? A large hockhack is brought forward by one of the (supposed) Mannitto’s servants, and from this a substance is poured out into a small cup (or glass) and handed to the Mannitto. The (expected) Mannitto drinks; has the glass filled again, and hands it to the chief next to him to drink. The chief receives the glass, but only smelleth at it, and passes it on to the next, chief, who does the same.

The glass thus passes through the circle without the contents being tasted by any one; and is upon the point of being returned again to the red-clothed man, when one of their number, a spirited man and great warrior, jumps up, harangues the assembly on the impropriety of returning the glass with the contents in it; that the same was handed them by the Mannitto in order that they should drink it, as he himself had done before them; that this would please him; but to return what he had given to them might provoke him, and be the cause of their being destroyed by him. And that, since he believed it for the good of the nation that the contents offered them should be drank, and as no one was willing to drink it he would, let the consequence be what it would; and that it was better for one man to die, than a whole nation to be destroyed. He then took the glass and bidding the assembly a farewell, drank it off.

Every eye was fixed on their resolute companion to see what an effect this would have upon him, and he soon beginning to stagger about, and at last dropping to the ground, they bemoan him. He falls into a sleep, and they view him as expiring. He awakes again, jumps up, and declares that he never felt himself before so happy as after he had drank the cup. Wishes for more. His wish is granted; and the whole assembly soon join him, and become intoxicated.

After this general intoxication had ceased (during which time the whites had confined themselves to their vessel) the man with the red clothes returned again to them, and distributed presents among them, to wit, beads, axes, hoes, stockings, &c. They say that they had become familiar to each other, and were made to understand by signs; that they now would return home, but would visit them next year again, when they would bring them more presents, and stay with them awhile; but that, as they could not live without eating, they should then want a little land of them to sow some seeds in order to raise herbs to put in their broth.

That the vessel arrived the season following, and they were much rejoiced at seeing each other; but that the whites laughed at them (the Indians,) seeing they knew not the use of the axes, hoes, &c., they had given them, they having had these hanging to their breasts as ornaments; and the stockings they had made use of as tobacco pouches. The whites now put handles (or helves) in the former, and cut trees down before their eyes, and dug the ground, and showed them the use of the stockings. Here (say they) a general laughter ensued among them (the Indians), that they had remained for so long a tribe ignorant of the use of so valuable implements; and had borne with the weight of such heavy metal hanging to their necks for such a length of time. They took every white man they saw for a Mannitto, yet inferior and attendant to the supreme Mannitto, to wit, to the one which wore the red and laced clothes.

Dutch traders at Manhattan, a conjectural scene

Familiarity daily increasing between them and the whites, the latter now proposed to stay with them, asking them only for so much land as the hide of a bullock would cover (or encompass,) which hide was brought forward and spread on the ground before them. That they readily granted this request; whereupon the whites took a knife, and beginning at one place on this hide, cut it up into a rope not thicker than the finger of a little child, so that by the time this hide was cut up there was a great heap. That this rope was drawn out to a great distance, and then brought round again, so that both ends might meet. That they carefully avoided its breaking, and that upon the whole it encompassed a large piece of ground. That they (the Indians) were surprised at the superior wit of the whites, but did not wish to contend with them about a little land, as they had enough. That they and the whites lived for a long time contentedly together, although these asked from time to time more land of them; and proceeding higher up the Mahicanittuk (Hudson river), they believed they would soon want all their country, and which at this time was already the case.