Executive Government of New Netherland: Van Twiller and De Vries
De Vries then gave the governor a glowing account of the beauty of the Delaware Bay and river, only a hundred miles north from Jamestown, and a history of what the Dutch had been doing there. Harvey was astonished. He had heard that the Dutch had built a fort upon "Hudson's River, as the English call it;" but, being uncertain whether there was a Delaware Bay or river, had sent a small vessel, with several seamen, the previous autumn to search for them. These men had not returned, and the supposed they and gone to the bottom of the sea in a storm. De Vries told him that he had seen Indians with English jackets on, and had no doubt his seaman had been murdered by them.
No dispute arose about the territory. "There are lands enough,: said the knight; "we shall be fiends and good neighbors with each other. You will have no trouble from us Englishmen, if only those of New England do not approach too near you, and dwell at a distance from you." So began a pleasant intercourse between New Netherland an Virginia. Sir John's half-formed warning was prophetic, for from New England came encroachments and annoyances to the Dutch.
De Vries sailed for the Delaware with an ample supply of provisions and some goats as a present from Sir John to the governor of New Netherland He found his affairs on the Delaware far from prosperous; so he abandoned the country to the Indians and sailed into the harbor of New Amsterdam, where lay the ship which had just brought over Governor Van Twiller. It was well for the Company that a man of pluck like De Vries was at New Amsterdam at that time, for a former commissary at Fort Orange, Jacob Elkens, came a few days after De Vries's arrival, in the English ship William, with the intention of going up the Hudson to trade with the Indians. Elkens knew Van Twiller at Amsterdam, and counted on his impotence. When the governor demanded his papers, he refused, saying: "The country belongs to England, for it was discovered by an Englishman. I command an English ship and will go where I please." Van Twiller ordered the Orange flag to be run up over Fort Amsterdam, and a salute of three guns to be fired in honor of Prince Maurice. Elkens displayed the British flag on the William, and fired a salute of three guns in honor of King Charles. "I will go up the river if it costs me my life," said Elkens, and weighing anchor he boldly sailed up the Hudson.
This audacious act aroused the wrath of Van Twiller. He opened a cask of wine at the gate of the fort, assembled the people there, drank a full glass himself and called upon those who loved him and their prince to follow his example and assist in protecting him from the violence which the Englishman had committed. The people drank his wine but laughed in his face, for the William was out of sight. De Vries dined with the governor the same day, and told him plainly that he had played the fool. He advised Van Twiller to send an expedition after the intruder, which the stupid governor did, and very soon Elkens was sent to sea with an injunction not to attempt any further interference with the Dutch on the Hudson.
The province yet lacked a prime element of permanent prosperity. There were no independent farmers in New Netherland cultivating their own land. The wealthy monopolists owned the land; the tiller might own the house he lived in--no more. A great incentive to industry was wanting. Large tracts of land, accessible and fertile, were left uncultivated. There were continued disputes between the grasping patroons and the agents of the Company concerning the monopoly of the fur-trade, which each was seeking to secure. The governor had lost the respect of all parties, and was simply a clog to progress. Parson Bogardus, who came over with him from Holland, called him a "child of the devil" to his face; and he also told him, on one occasion, that if he did not behave himself he would give him such a "shake from the pulpit" the next Sabbath as would make him tremble like a bowl of jelly. Lubbertus Van Dincklagen, his sheriff, and one of the most learned men in the colony, spoke contemptuously of him to his face, when the governor, unfortunately for himself, summoned courage sufficient to resent it, and sent the offender to Holland in disgrace, without paying him three years' salary which was due him. Dincklagen was expert with his tongue and pen, and he made such representations of the character of Van Twiller in a memorial to the States-General of Holland, that he was finally recalled. It was a sad interruption of Van Twiller's sweet dream of peace. He had brought Nutten and other islands near Manhattan, with the expectation of vegetating in riches and dying there. He has left no memorial of his name upon anything. There is a simple reminder of him in the present Nutten Island, lying nearest the "Battery" in New York Bay, which is known as the Governor's Island.