The New Netherlands: The one Narrative that has never been printed before!

In discussing the New Netherland, there is an abundance of information and many narratives discussing the town.  When collecting narratives it was imperative not only to find good sources but also to find good translations as most of the narratives were written in Dutch.  After reading the Preface I decided to focus on one specific narrative due to its rarity. “The Description of the Towne of Mannadens as it was in September, 1661” has never been printed before. J. Franklin Jameson, the editor of this particular collection of narratives that range from 1609-1664 sought aid from many different scholars regarding different narratives, and one in particular regarding the narrative I chose, J. H. Innes (The author of New Amsterdam and Its People.

To first gain a better understanding of the New Netherland, I refer to Alan Taylor’s passages in the Middle Colonies section of our book.  The Netherlands gained power in Europe due to their geographic position by the Rhine River and the North Sea.  This position allowed them to control commerce and trade between European countries especially any trade between the East and West countries.  They were like the “middle persons in trade…brokers of Europe.” (Daniel Defoe, Taylor 248) After rising to power they were able to expand.  In 1609, starting with Henry Hudson the Dutch sent ships across the Atlantic annually to the Hudson River to trade furs with the Indians.  It wasn’t until five years later that they established a year round presence in the area.  They created some early towns, but none were very large, only surmounting to 50 people in most cases (half soldiers and half traders).  Later in 1625 they built New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island, this was the biggest of their towns and fortified the area at the mouth of the river.   This was in order to monopolize the area from the English and French.  Economics boomed for a long time through fur trading in the North with the powerful Iroquois nation and with farming more south.  They relied on good relation with the Iroquois because of the Indians power but in the south they attempted to get rid of the Algonquians as soon as possible because they were less powerful and considered a “nuisance.” Conversion and missionary work was NOT part of the Dutch’s plans at all; they were strictly businessmen.  Eventually the monopolization of this port and area would not work out for the Dutch as they grew bankrupt and they opened the port to others with a tax on fur trade hoping that the tax would keep them afloat.

This relates to information from the preface about how the Dutch’s goal of gaining power of trade in the New world was to weaken the Spanish and other countries around Europe as well as for personal gain.  The narrative I read was purely descriptive, in genre.  This can most easily be recognized because the narrative is based on a map that was sent back to Europe around 1661.  It also is simply all description of the land and how vast it was.  The narrative discusses the “Topography of the Town” and its “Trade and Government.”  It discusses how guns were placed at certain areas with blockades in order to protect the area from all angles.  The interesting fact surrounding this was that the area with the most guns surrounding it was a fort with the governors house, a church, and houses for soldiers and ammunition.  This made sense at first but then I remembered how Taylor had mentioned that missionary work had no place for the Dutch so I thought it interesting to protect the church. The narrative described how the authority of the Governor of New Netherlands spanned quite far… using both nautical and land measurements due to the poor translation (I assume) we learn about the how the new settlement reaches as far south as Virginia.  The Swedes had established a settlement in between the two areas but the Dutch pushed them out to establish more farmland.  The narrative also described how far inland and north the settlement reached for their trade with the Iroquois whom they never mention as “Iroquois” which I found very interesting. They simply mentioned them as Indians with no recognition of their nation. It discussed the Bridges built through the river to aid trade,  The Narrative touched on all of the products of trade and what items came from Long Island: beef, pork, wheat, butter, some tobacco, wampen and peage, sheep, flower, bisket, malt, fish, iorn, tar and the list goes on.  This was all important for keeping a steady settlement going but the fur trade is what brought in the real money.  The author mentioned that 7 to 8 ships would travel annually back and forth to Europe each sometimes carrying up to 20,000 Sterl in fur alone, which for all intensive purposes (I couldn’t find exact numbers) is a LOT of money today!

As I have touched on, this piece is descriptive and based on a map.  Thus it becomes evident that the intended audience was most likely people in power back in the Netherlands of Europe. This audience along with the fact that the Dutch were nearly purely there for economic growth (Taylor) explains why the language is mostly geographical and economical.  I also previously mentioned that there is not extensive mention of the Native Indians in the New World.  They do mention how trading occurs between the two, and that they would give the Indians goods from Holland in trade for their valuable furs.  Taylor mentions the difference in how the Dutch treated the different Indian tribes based on their power and location. The narrative portrays a good relationship with the natives and does not branch out much further than that to say anything about their relationship. This reiterated their strict economical purpose and base.

In personal regards to the narrative alone I was not immediately shocked by anything in particular. Granted, I was impressed by the size of the New Netherlands, once I saw distances such as “120 miles” and “40 leagues.”  I was not sure if these vast distances may be a falsely translated section due to how few number of people seemed to come over from Holland in the first place.  I will say the one thing that truly shocked me was when I compared the narrative to Taylor’s words and the fact that the Dutch did overlook the Natives (in the south) although they respected the natives in the north due to their power.  I also was shocked when I Taylor mentioned that there was only one record of a convert in the New Netherlands who soon relapsed and became an alcoholic to loosely translate.  I respected the Dutch’s focus on economic power and thus in my opinion they didn’t seem to distract themselves with judgment upon others. (That is the impression you get from the narrative for sure)