The Island at the Center of the World (45 page)

Meanwhile, Nicolaes Coorn:
NYHM
4, 255 and Van Laer,
Minutes of the Court,
11.

As he ran across: Charles Gehring, “Totidem Verbis,” in
De Nieu Nederlanse Marcurius,
4, 1988.

“Your complaints are”: E. B. O'Callaghan,
The
History of New Netherland,
2:71–78.

Van der Donck in Rensselaerswyck: Van Laer,
Minutes of the Court
(July 23, 1648 entry).

CHAPTER
10

When the
Princess:
Information on the wreck of the
Princess
and survival of Melyn and Kuyter comes from Charles Gehring, “Wringing Information from a Drowned Princess”; Simon Groenveld, “New Light on a Drowned Princess—Information from London”; and the contemporaneous pamphlet “Broad Advice.”

delivered a letter: The petition is not extant, but Stuyvesant refers to it in
NYHM
4:580.

“more closely into”: Ibid., 489.

He . . . calculated: Adriaen van der Donck,
A Description of New Netherland,
trans. Diederik Willem Goedhuys, 142.

“None of these”: Ibid., 141.

“the means for”: Ibid., 140.

led English tobacco: Jan Kupp, “Dutch Notarial Acts Relating to the Tobacco Trade of Virginia, 1608–1653.”

They created a variety: Simon Schama,
The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age,
196–97.

The year before: Maika, “Commerce and Community: Manhattan Merchants in the Seventeenth Century,” 31–36; Kupp, “Dutch Notarial Acts.”

in fact it was: Oliver Rink's
Holland on the Hudson
first made this case in 1986, and since then historians have begun to revise the Anglocentric view of Manhattan as a muddle. For example, Wayne Bodle, in “Themes and Directions in Middle Colonies Historiography, 1980–1994” (July 1994), notes the new view that the Dutch colony “rather than languishing in the decade before 1664, had a long-term developmental trajectory broadly parallel to those of many contemporary English colonies” and that this was “characterized by private enterprise.”

Taken together with: Archaeological evidence for the location of the Van der Donck house comes from Nan A. Rothschild and Christopher N. Matthews, “Phase 1A–1B Archaeological Investigation of the Proposed Area for the Construction of Six Tennis Courts on the Parade Grounds of Van Cortlandt Park,” 13–14; William Tieck,
Riverdale, Kingsbridge, Spuyten Duyvil: New York City; a Historical Epitome of the Northwest Bronx,
4, 9; Christopher Ricciardi, “From Private to Public: The Changing Landscape of Van Cortlandt Park; Bronx, New York, in the Nineteenth Century,” 16; and Anne-Marie Cantwell and Diana diZerega Wall,
Unearthing Gotham,
264.

a mandamus: Docs. Rel., 1:250–52.

“To Petrus Stuyvesant”: Ibid., 351–52.

They would ask: “Remonstrance” in J. F. Jameson,
Narratives of New Netherland, 1609–1664,
349–51.

“burned with rage”: Ibid., 350.

“these persons had”: Ibid.

“grossly slandered”: The arrest of Van der Donck and subsequent council session are detailed in Van der Donck's “Remonstrance” in ibid., 350–52, and Van Laer,
NYHM
4:580–84.

gathered in the church: Docs. Rel., 1:321–22, 352–53.

Shortly before this: 4:584.

“so shaped that”: Docs. Rel.,
NYHM
1:322.

had gotten off the ship: Ibid., 3:85–86; Docs. Rel., 1:321–22.

At this moment: “Remonstrance” in Jameson,
Narratives;
Docs. Rel., 1:311;
NYHM
4:595–97.

banned from serving:
NYHM
4:587.

He delivered these: Docs. Rel., 1:355–58.

“Whereas it is”:
NYHM
4:600–01.

“Among all the enterprising”: Docs. Rel., 1:275.

he was in the midst: Charles Gehring,
Correspondence, 1647–1653,
44–53.

and with chiefs:
NYHM
4:607–
6
09.

“Whereas the said”: Ibid., 601.

But Captain Blauvelt: Ibid., 219, 603, 605; Ibid. 3:114, 121, 151.

Van der Donck handed her: Docs. Rel., 1:354–55.

CHAPTER
11

the above-described painting: My account of Adriaen Pauw riding into Münster is based on the Gerard ter Borch painting
Entry of Adriaen Pauw and Anna van Ruytenburgh into Münster,
as well as on Alison McNeil Kettering's analysis of the painting in
Gerard ter Borch and the Treaty of Münster,
and on Jonathan Israel's “Art and Diplomacy: Gerard Ter Borch and the Münster Peace Negotiations, 1646–8.” Pauw arrived in January, but the painting depicts his ceremonial arrival in verdant spring, a liberty Ter Borch took, according to Kettering, because it made for a better painting.

In the early 1640s: My account of the Peace of Westphalia and its significance relies on Heinz Schilling, “War and Peace at the Emergence of Modernity”; John Elliott, “War and Peace in Europe: 1618–1648”; Anja Stiglic, “Ceremonial and Status Hierarchy on the European Diplomatic Stage: The Diplomats' Solemn Entries into the Congressional City of Münster”; and Volker Gerhardt, “On the Historical Significance of the Peace of Westphalia: Twelve Theses”—all in Klaus Bussman and Heinz Schilling,
1648: War and Peace in Europe.

King Gustavus Adolphus: Volker Gerhardt, “On the Historical Significance of the Peace of Westphalia: Twelve Theses,” footnote 6.

the French delegation: Israel, “Art and Diplomacy,” 94.

he lived in a castle: J. G. N. Renaud,
Het Huis en de Heren van Heemstede Tijdens de Middeleeuwen;
tulips: Simon Schama,
Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age,
354.

“It appears at first”: The quote is from French priest François Fénelon, in Christopher White,
Rembrandt,
27.

“I can walk”: Stephen Gaukroger,
Descartes: An Intellectual Biography,
188.

he left for the court: Ibid., 412–13.

“to sell someone eyeglasses”: Peter van der Coelen,
Everyday Life in Holland's Golden Age: The Complete Etchings of Adriaen van Ostade,
130.

red-light districts: Schama,
Embarrassment of Riches,
472–78.

“largest village”: K. H. D. Haley,
The
Dutch in the Seventeenth Century,
64.

“Remonstrance”: Docs. Rel., 1:259.

a letter from the Board: Ibid., 1:258.

“These persons are”: Ibid., 319.

“Manhathans . . . the Capital”: Ibid., 265.

“we may pursue”: Ibid., 260–61.

“It will lose”: Ibid., 264.

“Not that there is”: Ibid., 262.

Beaver pelts . . . “fruits”: Ibid., 346: “. . . as well as some samples of the fruits and peltries produced there . . .”

“I have seen rye”: Adriaen van der Donck,
Description of New Netherland,
trans. Jeremias Johnson, ed. Thomas F. O'Donnell, 31–32.

hand-drawn map: Docs. Rel., 1:346: “. . . a perfect map of the country . . .”

This delicate: Joep de Koning, “From Van der Donck to Visscher”; Robert R. Macdonald, “The City of New Amsterdam Located on the Island of Manhattan in New Netherland.”

“for the love of”: Docs. Rel., 1:261.

“In our opinion”: Ibid., 317.

fired off a responding pamphlet: The pamphlets debating monarchy are in the Koninglijke Bibliotheek in The Hague (Knuttel catalogue numbers 6377–6383); my source on their importance is Pieter Geyl,
Orange and Stuart,
47–48.

Van den Enden: Jonathan Israel,
Radical Enlightenment: Philosophy and the Making of Modernity, 1650–1750,
168–80; Plockhoy and Van den Enden: ibid.
,
176–79; Wim Klever, “Conflicting ‘Considerations of State'. Van den Enden's Opposition Against de la Court's Aristocratic Republicanism and Its Follow-Up in Spinoza's Work”; Plockhoy: Bart Plantenga, “The Mystery of the Plockhoy Settlement in the Valley of Swans.”

Why American history has: Many historians helped me appreciate this change in the way history is done. For conversations on the topic, my thanks in particular to Joyce Goodfriend of the University of Denver and Cynthia van Zandt of the University of New Hampshire; also to Karen Ordahl Kupperman of New York University and James Homer Williams of Middle Tennessee State University for talks they gave on the subject at the 2001 Gotham History Festival at the Gotham Center in New York.

appointed a committee: Docs. Rel., 1:319–20.

“a grandeur far beyond”: Herbert H. Rowen,
Princes of Orange: The Stadtholders in the Dutch Republic,
82.

Michiel Stael: E. F. Kossmann,
De boekhandel te 's-Gravenhage tot het eind van de 18de eeuw,
365–66; Marika Keblusek,
Boeken in de hofstad: Haagse boekcultuur in de Gouden Eeuw;
Craig E. Harline,
Pamphlets, Printing, and Political Culture in the Early Dutch Republic,
126.

Where at the turn: Craig E. Harline,
Pamphlets, Printing, and Political Culture in the Early Dutch Republic,
73.

pamphlet titles: Kossmann,
De boekhandel te 's-Gravenhage;
online catalogue of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague.

West India Company share prices: Jonathan Israel,
Dutch Primacy in World Trade 1585–1740,
163.

Stael apparently introduced: Joan Vinckeboons, Gunter Schilder, and Jan van Bracht,
The Origins of New York,
18.

map of New Netherland: Benjamin Schmidt, “Mapping an Empire: Cartographic and Colonial Rivalry in Seventeenth-Century Dutch and English North America”; Joep de Koning, “From Van der Donck to Visscher”; Vinkeboons, Schilder, and Van Bracht,
Origins of New York.

The so-called Jansson-Visscher map: Robert T. Augustyn and Paul E. Cohen.
Manhattan in Maps,
32–33.

Van der Donck's family: William Hoffman, “Van der Donck-Van Bergen”; Ada Van Gastel, “Adriaen van der Donck als woordvoerder van de Nieuw-Nederlandse bevolking.”

And in what is perhaps: Docs. Rel., 1:369.

“Formerly New Netherland”: Charles Gehring,
Correspondence, 1647–1653,
83–84. Vinckeboons, et al.,
The Origins of New York,
17–18, while acknowledging that the rush of interest in the colony in February and March 1650 suggests that the
Remonstrance
was published then, conclude that it must have been published later in the year, because Stael, who gives his address on the title page as “on the Buitenhof,” didn't move there until March 10. But the sudden popular interest in the colony can only be explained by the publication of the
Remonstrance,
and there are several possible explanations for the information on the title page. For one, we know that Stael would later move to another address on the Buitenhof, so it's possible that, favoring the neighborhood, his earlier address was there as well. Another possibility is that Stael knew he would be moving to the prestigious address, and so set the type for it before he was actually living there, knowing that he would be in at about the time of publication. There is also no reason Stael would have delayed publication for several months. The letter of the West India Company directors to Stuyvesant, in which they say that “now heaven and earth” are interested in the colony, is dated February 16. Craig E. Harline,
Pamphlets, Printing, and Political Culture in the Early Dutch Republic,
92, gives one month as a typical time it took to produce a published pamphlet, which would gibe with the February date, and suggests that the
Remonstrance
hit the streets at the beginning of 1650.

He composed: Docs. Rel., 1:376–77.

addressing in particular: Jaap Jacobs, “A Hitherto Unknown Letter of Adriaen van der Donck,” 4–5.

“on the whole subject”: Docs. Rel., 1:377–81.

“Provisional Order”: Ibid., 387–91. That the order was read aloud I infer from the paragraph that seems directed to people in the room at the time, which begins: “We would, therefore, be of opinion that your High Mightinesses do, with the advice and communication of the Directors now summoned from all the Chambers of the West India Company, the major part of whom are in attendance . . .”

“Noble, Mighty Lords”: Ibid., 395.

discovered Van der Donck letter: Jacobs, “A Hitherto Unknown Letter.” I would like to thank Dr. Jacobs for discussing the letter and its significance with me, and for allowing me to reprint his translation of it.

“this State . . . alone”: Docs. Rel., 1:347.

CHAPTER
12

three hundred acres: I. N. P. Stokes, ed.,
Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498–1909,
6:142.

“seditious persons”: Charles Gehring,
Correspondence, 1647–1653,
82.

“We suppose that you”: Ibid., 88.

“We live like sheep”: Docs. Rel., 1:452.

“He proceeds”: Ibid., 453.

“Many free people”: Gehring,
Correspondence, 1647–1653,
90, 92.

fired off a letter: Ibid., 13–14.

“For what have I”: Ibid., 18–19.

the Dutch regarded: See Eaton's letter to Stuyvesant, Ibid., 21.

“Congratulate and reioyce”: Ibid., 49–50.

“doe your utmost”: Ronald Cohen, “The Hartford Treaty of 1650,” 328.

The negotiations: On the Hartford Treaty, I have relied on Jaap Jacobs, “The Hartford Treaty”; Ronald Cohen, “The Hartford Treaty of 1650: Anglo-Dutch Cooperation in the Seventeenth Century”; and Charles Gehring,
Correspondence, 1647–1653.

On June 5: Herbert H. Rowen,
John de Witt, Grand Pensionary of Holland,
28–29.

put out a pamphlet: E. F. Kossmann,
De boekhandel te 's-Gravenhage tot het eind van de 18de eeuw,
366.

“was heard stamping”: Rowen,
John de Witt, Grand Pensionary,
36.

Van Tienhoven vanished: The Van Tienhoven sex scandal is found in Docs. Rel., 1:514–17.

Pauw and Jan de Witt: Rowen,
John de Witt, Grand Pensionary,
57–60.

methodically supporting his case: Van der Donck's “memorial” to the States General and supporting documents appear in Docs. Rel., 1:438–57.

“nothing of the Director”: Ibid., 453.