The Island at the Center of the World (43 page)

humorist Dave Barry: Dave Barry, “A Certified Wacko Rewrites History's Greatest Hits,”
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel,
26 December 1999.

their genetic makeup: Bryan Sykes,
The Seven Daughters of Eve: The Science That Reveals Our Genetic Ancestry,
279–280.

it has been estimated: J. C. H. King,
First People, First Contacts: Native Peoples of North America,
8.

such as one in South Carolina: Stuart Banner, “Manhattan for $24: American Indian Land Sales, 1607–1763.”

sold for scrap paper: Docs. Rel., 1:xxv.

“surprise, mortification”: John Romeyn Brodhead,
An Address Delivered Before the New York Historical Society.

quotations from Van Rappard documents: Van Laer,
Documents Relating,
45–59.

tabard . . . fur coat: Ibid., 180.

Schaghen letter: Translation from Van Laer, “Annals of New Netherland,” 14.

“Received a letter”: Docs. Rel., 1:38.

“Duffels, Kittles”: Cornelis Melyn, “The Melyn Papers, 1640–1699,” 124.

“deliver yearly”: Charles Gehring, trans. and ed.,
Land Papers 1630–1664,
8.

Andries Hudde sold: A. J. F. van Laer,
New York Historical Manuscripts
1:45. Hereafter cited as
NYHM.

West India Company soldier earned: The Bontemantel Papers include a record of the salaries of New Netherland officials, from the director-general on down. These documents show that a soldier was paid eight to nine guilders per month.

In 1648: Janny Venema, “The Court Case of Brant Aertsz van Slichtenhorst Against Jan van Rensselaer,” paper read during the 2000 Rensselaerswijck Seminar in Albany, New York.

“because he is well acquainted”: Van Laer,
Documents Relating,
176.

“All seafaring persons”:
NYHM
4:8.

“[E]ach and every one”: Ibid., 4.

“notwithstanding her husband's presence”: Ibid., 1:55. In vol. 4:5, of the same series, Thomas Beeche (here called Tomas Bescher) is referred to as an Englishman.

De Rasière added: Van Laer,
Documents Relating,
188, 198–99.

Tekel or Balance . . . :
G. M. Asher,
Dutch Books and Pamphlets Relating to New-Netherland,
122–123.

“a rundlet of sugar”:
Governour Bradford's Letter Book,
3:53–54, reprinted in Stokes,
Iconography,
4:70.

“a noise of trumpets”: Ibid., 3:54–55, reprinted in Stokes,
Iconography,
4:71.

“True . . . this island”: Jameson,
Narratives,
122.

CHAPTER
4

Charles I: The main sources I have used in constructing my portrait of Charles are Charles Carlton,
Charles I: The Personal Monarch;
Pauline Gregg,
King Charles I;
Lucy Aikin,
Memoirs of the Court of King Charles the First;
and J. P. Kenyon,
The Stuarts: A Study in English Kingship.

“Essex miles”: J. P. Hore,
The History of Newmarket and the Annals of the Turf,
1:155.

William Harvey: Ibid., 2:18.

in a single racing season: R. C. Lyle,
Royal Newmarket,
11.

couldn't stand French people: C. V. Wedgwood,
The Political Career of Peter Paul Rubens,
45.

emigrate to Canada: Carlton,
Charles I,
184.

“but I must tell you”: Kenyon,
The Stuarts,
98–99. Emphasis added.

“the enemy”: Docs. Rel., 1:55.

Rubens also introduced: Carlton,
Charles I,
125, 144–145.

“We cannot perceive”: Docs. Rel., 1:49.

“this intrigue was set”: Docs. Rel., 1:45.

“brought againe to the torture”: East India Company,
A True Relation Of The Uniust, Cruell, And Barbarous Proceedings against the English at Amboyna In the East-Indies . . . , E3.

“the most assured and civill”: East India Company,
A Remonstrance Of The Directors Of The Netherlands East India Company, presented to the Lords States Generall of the united Provinces, in defence of the said Companie, touching the bloudy proceedings against the English Merchants, executed at Amboyna, C2.

“Bring more candles”: John Dryden,
Amboyna: A Tragedy. As it is Acted By Their Majesties Servants.

“barber-surgeon”: Paul Zumthor,
Daily Life in Rembrandt's Holland,
155–57.

By sheer luck, the journal: My account of Van den Bogaert's journey comes from his journal and the commentary on it published in Harmen Meyndertsz van den Bogaert,
A Journey into Mohawk and Oneida Country, 1634–1635,
translated and edited by Charles T. Gehring, William A. Starna, and Gunther Michelson, and on interviews with Charles Gehring and Iroquois scholar Gunther Michelson.

“shoot!”: This is how Van den Bogaert gives it; Michelson says it actually means “shoot again.”

“As soon as they arrived”: Van den Bogaert,
A Journey into Mohawk,
10.

“This white man”: The chant, as recorded by Van den Bogaert:
“ha assironi atsimachkoo kent oyakaying wee onneyatte onaondage koyockwe hoo senoto wanyagweganne hoo schenehalaton kasten kanosoni yndicko.”
The words
kaying wee, onneyatte, onaondage, koyockwe, hoo senotowany
refer, respectively, to the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca nations. In an interview (February 7, 2002), Gunther Michelson, who translated the Mohawk for the 1988 publication of Van den Bogaert's journal, gave me his rendering of the chant.

man, woman, prostitute: Van den Bogaert,
Journey into Mohawk Country,
52–63.

an English trader sailed: This incident comes from David de Vries's journal, published in J. F. Jameson,
Narratives of New Netherland, 1609–1664,
186–234.

A letter written: Jaap Jacobs, “A Troubled Man: Director Wouter van Twiller and the Affairs of New Netherland in 1635.”

Ramparts . . . boathouse:
NYHM,
1:108–109.

Willem Blauvelt: Ibid., 2:162, 267, 323, 373.

“commit adultery”: Ibid., 4:89.

“what he was doing”: Charles Gehring, trans. and ed.
Council Minutes, 1655–1656,
68–69.

Simon Root:
NYHM,
4:360–61.

Jan Premero: Ibid., 97–100.

The Giant went free: My thanks to Firth Haring Fabend for sharing with me her notion that this case was a form of “leniency.”

“Piere Malenfant”:
NYHM,
4:269.

“dishonorably manipulated”: Ibid., 49.

“her petticoat upon her knees”: Ibid., 1:107.

Griet was on board, too: Some details on Reyniers and Van Salee come from Leo Hershkowitz, “The Troublesome Turk.”

hazardous crossing: Mariana G. Van Rensselaer,
History of the City of New York in the Seventeenth Century,
1:119.

“the shirts of some”:
NYHM,
4:46.

“I have long enough”: Ibid., 1:70.

measure the penises: Ibid., 4:46.

“a Turk, a rascal”: Ibid., 1:11.

“If you do not know”: Ibid., 67.

“as good neighbors”: Docs. Rel., 3:18.

Van Rensselaer exaggerated somewhat: A. J. F. van Laer, trans.,
Van Rensselaer Bowier Manuscripts,
307.

“two days' journey”: Ibid., 166, 181.

CHAPTER
5

its population: A. T. van Deursen,
Plain Lives in a Golden Age,
11.

Treasure of Health:
Simon Schama,
Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age,
557.

one-half of all books: Keith L. Sprunger,
Trumpets from the Tower: English Puritan Printing in the Netherlands, 1600–1640,
29.

“refuse no honest”: K. H. D. Haley,
The
Dutch in the Seventeenth Century,
167.

“each person shall”: Translated from E. H. Kossman and A. F. Mellink, eds.,
Texts Concerning the Revolt of the Netherlands,
165.

In the 1620s: On the Dutch tolerance debates, I have relied on Jonathan Israel, “The Intellectual Debate About Toleration in the Dutch Republic”; Jonathan Israel, “Toleration in Seventeenth-Century Dutch and English Thought”; and James Homer Williams, “‘Abominable Religion' and Dutch (In)tolerance: The Jews and Peter Stuyvesant.”

“Many will be”: M. E. H. N. Mout, “Limits and Debates: A Comparative View of Dutch Toleration in the Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Centuries,” 41.

the tolerance advocates: Ibid., 46.

His
Discourses:
Dava Sobel,
Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love,
302.

forty gallons of wine: Haley,
Dutch in the Seventeenth Century,
118.

“in the academic Garden”: T. H. Lunsingh Scheurleer and G. H. M. Posthumus Meyjes,
Leiden University in the Seventeenth Century,
280.

Reinier de Graaf: Ibid., 283.

“elegant law”: R. Feenstra and C. J. D. Waal,
Seventeenth-Century Leyden Law Professors and Their Influence on the Development of the Civil Law,
9–11.

“from its conformity”: Edward Dumbauld,
The Life and Legal Writings of Hugo Grotius,
62.

Cunaeus: Richard Tuck,
Philosophy and Government, 1572–1651,
166–69.

pipe tobacco: Schama,
Embarrassment of Riches,
195.

“it is not permissible”: The quote and analysis of the Dutch home come from Witold Rybczynski,
Home: A Short History of an Idea,
Chapter 3.

Descartes: On Descartes' time in and around Leiden, including his associations and battles with professors there, I am relying on Stephen Gaukroger,
Descartes: An Intellectual Biography,
321–86.

“as soon as my age”: René Descartes,
Discourse on Method,
44.

“In general, the affairs”: A. J. F. van Laer,
Van Rensselaer Bowier Manuscripts,
520.

Getting experienced workers: Janny Venema, “Beverwijck: A Dutch Village on the American Frontier, 1652–1664,” 366–67; Oliver Rink,
Holland on the Hudson,
152.

“When convenient”: Van Laer,
Van Rensselaer Bowier Manuscripts,
524.

“it is named”: Adriaen van der Donck,
A Description of the New Netherlands,
trans. Jeremias Johnson, ed. Thomas F. O'Donnell, 7.

Gillis Verbrugge: Oliver Rink, “Unraveling a Secret Colonialism, Part I,” 14.

Dirck de Wolff: Ibid., 15.

baker as ship's captain:
NYHM
3, 81.

looseness of society: On the “multitasking” of New Amsterdam residents, I am relying on Dennis Maika, “Commerce and Community: Manhattan Merchants in the Seventeenth Century,” 38–59.

Govert Loockermans: David M. Riker, “Govert Loockermans: Free Merchant of New Amsterdam.”

“tortured the chief's brother”: J. F. Jameson,
Narratives of New Netherland, 1609–1664,
208.

home of the pirate: Information on the location of Loockerman's home comes from Diane Dallal, archaeologist with New York Unearthed.

inventory of his property:
NYHM
1, 320–22.

four hundred inhabitants: French priest Isaac Jogues, visiting five years later, estimated the population at between four and five hundred; it is from him that the figure of eighteen languages comes. Jameson,
Narratives,
259.

“a mean barn”: Ibid., 212.

minister's house and stable: I. N. P. Stokes, ed.,
Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498–1909,
4:78, 79.

Juriaen and Philip Geraerdy:
NYHM
1, 336–37.

“a dwelling house”: Ibid., 338–39.

“30 tuns of fine salt”: Ibid., 347–49.

No sooner had the ship: Commentators have referred to the ship arriving on August 20, 1641. I believe they are relying on De Vries's journal, in which he gives this date (Jameson,
Narratives,
211). But the fact that the skipper of the ship was in New Amsterdam entering into contract with a merchant for the next delivery on July 30, 1641, doesn't fit with this. My guess is that De Vries got the month wrong, and that perhaps the ship arrived on July 20.

“sail with the first”:
NYHM
1:341–42.

“a silver-plated rapier”: Van Laer,
Van Rensselaer Bowier Manuscripts,
204. The description pertains to the previous, shortlived
schout;
I am assuming that Van der Donck would have received the same badges of office.

CHAPTER
6

inn of Peter de Winter: James Riker,
Revised History of Harlem,
132.

“the just half”:
NYHM
1:19.

took on a partner: Ibid., 93–94.

“fumbled at the front”: Ibid., 55.

“black wench”: Ibid., 57–58.

Willem van Ruytenburch, in
The Night Watch:
This family tie was pointed out to me by Willem Frijhoff, who detailed it in his paper “Neglected Networks: New Netherlanders and Their Old Fatherland—The Kieft Case.”

pamphlet published: “Broad Advice,” in H. C. Murphy, trans.,
Vertoogh van Nieu Nederland, [by A. van der Donck] and, Braeden raedt aende Vereenichde Nederlandsche provintien, [by I. A. G. W. C., pseud. Of C. Melyn], Two rare tracts, printed in 1649–50, Relating to the administration of affairs in New Netherland,
139.

It was unique: I am obliged to Jaap Jacobs for this insight, which is developed in his book
Een zegenrijk gewest: Nieuw-Nederland in de zeventiende eeuw.

By some estimates: Ernst van den Boogaart, “The Servant Migration to New Netherland, 1624–1664,” 55.

“I, Willem Kieft”: Docs. Rel., 12:19.

a new society: The insight into Minuit's desire to found a new society comes from Weslager,
A Man and His Ship,
chapters 4–6.

“Whereas at present”:
NYHM
4:107.

“Whereas the Company”: Ibid., 60.

“their womenfolk”: Adriaen van der Donck,
A Description of New Netherland,
trans. Goedhuys, 92.

“These savages resemble”: J. F. Jameson,
Narratives of New Netherland, 1609–1664,
213.

“Whereas the Indians”:
NYHM
4:115–16.

an Indian named Pacham: Jameson,
Narratives,
211.