The Epic of New York City (14 page)

In the early months of Lovelace's regime the city suffered a severe epidemic, the first of record but by no means the last. Its victims burned with fever and swelled into grotesque shapes. The governor set aside a day of prayer and atonement for the swearing, drunkenness, and impiety that he believed responsible for this disease.

No bluenose himself, Lovelace persuaded some Dutch, English, and French families to form a little club to promote sociability. The members were fluent in all three languages. They met in one another's homes from 6 to 9
P.M.
, twice a week in winter and weekly in summer. From silver tankards they drank punch made from Madeira wine, rum, and brandy—not diluted, as in England, but straight.

Lovelace continued Nicolls' policy of religious toleration. He helped the Dutch Reformed Church get a good minister from Holland and gave this divine a generous salary, a rent-free house, and free firewood. In 1671 the Lutherans established their first church here. The same year the Quakers, who had huddled under trees during Stuyvesant's regime, held their first meeting under the roof of an inn. In 1672 these Quakers were visited by the founder of their sect, the Englishman George Fox, then making a missionary trip to America.

The first commercial exchange was started by Lovelace when he ordered merchants and “other artificers” to meet every Friday between
11
A.M.
and noon near the bridge over the canal. This was at Exchange Place and Broad Street.

Lovelace also began the first postal service in America. Because events in Europe influenced affairs in New York, the governor decided that news from abroad must be received as quickly as possible. Because Boston lies nearer to Europe than this city does, Lovelace laid out the first mail route between these two communities. For the first postman he chose a fat but hardy horseman, named John Archer. On January 22, 1673, Archer leaped onto his horse just outside Fort James at the tip of Manhattan. He rode north up Broadway to the present City Hall Park, angled northeast to the Bowery, and headed north to Harlem. The people there watched excitedly as Archer strode into a tavern for a draught of the famous Harlem beer. Then, flicking foam from his lips, Archer sprang back into the saddle and crossed the Bronx River on a bridge erected by Lovelace. Marking his trail-blazing route with slashes on tree trunks and using boats to cross other rivers and inlets, the courier wound his way through Connecticut, into Massachusetts, and on to Boston. Archer's ride was the origin of the famous Old Post Road, or Boston Post Road.

At first this service ran only once a month, and few letters were exchanged. Then, as New Yorkers became accustomed to it, they deposited ever more dispatches in a locked box in the colonial secretary's City Hall office. Whenever Archer returned from Boston, he headed for a coffeehouse. People flocked there to watch with delight as he dumped the contents of his mail pouch on a broad table.

The Dutch government had let Peter Stuyvesant leave Holland and return to New York. In February, 1672, the grizzled former governor died on his Bowery estate, now fronting the Boston Post Road. His body was interred in a vault in a chapel a few steps from his house. Almost immediately, family servants whispered that they saw his ghost prowling about the farm. Later, when streets were cut through this part of the city, neighbors vowed that a tap-tap-tapping, as if from his peg leg, emanated from his tomb.

One month after Stuyvesant's death the Third Anglo-Dutch War erupted in Europe. Like previous Continental wars, it affected New York City.

King Louis XIV of France wanted to extend his empire, destroy Dutch trade rivalry, and crush Holland for sheltering political writers who criticized him. To achieve all this, the French monarch sought
help from his cousin, Charles II of England. By promising to give Charles more French mistresses, enough money to dispense with Parliaments, and 200,000 pounds a year as long as the war lasted, Louis secretly won the English king's consent to join his attack on the Dutch and all their possessions.

In March, 1672, British ships swooped down on Dutch vessels in the Mediterranean, and French soldiers invaded the Netherlands. In partial retaliation the Dutch outfitted an expedition in Holland to recapture New Netherland. This was done secretly. Commanders of the new Dutch fleet were given a code, the figure 163 standing for New York. Finally, 19 men-of-war, carrying full crews and 1,600 soldiers, left Holland for the New World.

Only now did the British publicly declare war on the Dutch. A copy of Charles' formal declaration was sent to New York, and Governor Lovelace had it read aloud in front of the fort and City Hall. In a covering message the king warned the governor to place the city in a posture of defense. Lovelace set men to work repairing the fort. He recalled British soldiers from Albany, Kingston, and Delaware. Even so, he was able to raise only 330 fighting men.

Several ships owned by New York merchants were captured in European waters. After that, all eastbound vessels sailed in convoys for mutual protection. Navigation was restricted on the Hudson River, and New York's commerce fell off so steeply that local merchants found themselves on the verge of bankruptcy.

Time passed. No menacing Dutch fleet appeared. Lovelace relaxed and failed to complete repairs on the fort. He took a short trip to the Bronx to settle a question about the new postal route. There, from a swift-riding messenger, he received word that a Dutch armada had been sighted off Sandy Hook. The governor hurried back to the city, but unable to confirm this report, he decided it was a false alarm. And since Indians threatened British towns elsewhere in the colony, Lovelace foolishly ordered many of his soldiers back to their outposts. This left only eighty warriors in Fort James. Then the governor left town again, this time for New England to straighten out still other postal problems. He placed the city in the hands of the sheriff, Captain John Manning.

A second dispatch rider caught up with Lovelace at Hartford and reported that a Dutch fleet had anchored in the Narrows just below New York City. This time the news was true.

Since Governor Lovelace could not get back in time to take charge,
responsibility fell on Captain Manning. However, the fort wasn't finished, only a handful of soldiers was available, and the townspeople were divided among themselves. Englishmen burned with indignation at the thought that they might fall into the hands of the enemy, while Dutchmen welcomed what they regarded as a liberation force. Some local Dutchmen rowed out to the Dutch ships to reveal the fort's weaknesses; others spiked the guns set up in front of City Hall.

Under a flag of truce two Dutch admirals sent an officer to Captain Manning with the demand that he surrender. “We have come to take the place which is our own,” they said, “and our own we will have.” Manning tried to stall until Governor Lovelace could return to the city. But after an exchange of several notes the Dutch ships edged closer to Manhattan. This brought them within range of the fort. Now the admirals gave Manning only half an hour to make up his mind. There was a nervous upending of hourglasses in the fort and aboard the ships. The period of grace was extended. At last the impatient Dutch fired broadside into the fort. The defenders fired back, but to no avail. After perhaps 700 shots had been traded, several English soldiers being killed and wounded, 600 Dutch soldiers landed on the shore of the Hudson River just behind the site of the present Trinity Church and deployed south toward the fort.

New York City surrendered to the Dutch on August 9, 1673. Once again the tricolored flag of the Dutch republic waved over the fort.

In Holland, meantime, the startling successes of the French invaders led to a revolt among the Dutch people. Fortunately, they found a leader in young William, the third Prince of Orange, making him their stadholder (chief executive officer), their captain general, and their admiral for life. William's mother was the daughter of Charles I of England; thus, William was a nephew of the Duke of York, whose American colony had just been recaptured by the Dutch.

New York City was renamed New Orange in honor of William of Orange. Administration of the city and province was not returned to the heartless Dutch West India Company but was assumed by the Dutch government itself. A Dutch captain, named Anthony Colve, was made governor-general of the province, which once again became New Netherland.

When Lovelace got back to the city, he found that he not only had lost his title and power but was also in financial trouble. A speculator, Lovelace had bought much real estate in and around town without always paying cash. Now creditors fell on him, and he was arrested
for debt. At first the Dutch authorities said that he could leave within six weeks after he had paid everything he owned. When he was unable to make restitution, though, they let him sail sooner. For losing the province with its three cities and thirty villages, Lovelace was severely reprimanded by Charles II and the Duke of York, and all his large British estates were confiscated.

John Lawrence was mayor of New York when the Dutch retook the city. Thomas Willett, the first mayor, had served two divided terms, the first in 1665 and the second in 1667. The Dutch seized all of Willett's New York property, so he moved to Rhode Island, where he helped found the town of Swansey. He died in 1674, and the remains of New York's first mayor lie today in Rhode Island soil.

The government and the people of Holland were eager to end the Third Anglo-Dutch War. At the very least they hoped to stop British attacks so that they could turn their full military might against the French invaders. Weary of the carnage in their homeland, they were willing to sacrifice their overseas colony of New Netherland. In December, 1673, the Dutch government informed the English king that it wanted to negotiate peace, offering him New Netherland as bait.

The Treaty of Westminster, signed in February, 1674, ended hostilities between England and Holland. Under its terms the Dutch agreed to restore New Netherland and the city of New Orange to the English.

First word of the treaty was brought here by two men from Connecticut, and as a reward for bearing bad news, they were cast into dungeons. New York Dutchmen gathered on street corners to denounce the States General and the Prince of Orange. One angry citizen shrilled that the Dutch would oppose submission to the English “so long as they could stand with one leg and fight with one hand.”

Despite this uproar and despite his own dejection, Governor Colve received orders from the Dutch government to transfer the city to the proper English representatives. King Charles II gave the Duke of York a new patent to his former colony of New York. The duke appointed Major Edmund Andros his new governor. On November 1, Andros arrived here aboard a frigate. Governor Colve asked for a few days in which to complete plans for the transfer of power.

The last entry in the court records of New Orange, the last statement ever written by a Dutch official in this city, reads as follows:
“On the 10th November, Anno 1674, the Province of New Netherland is surrendered by Governor Colve to Governor Major Edmund Andros in behalf of His Majesty of Great Britain.”

For fifteen months the city had been called New Orange. Now, for the final time, it was given the name New York City.

Chapter 5

I
N A CEREMONY
held in front of City Hall the public executioner broke Captain John Manning's sword over his head for surrendering the city to the Dutch. Thus disgraced, the Englishman retired to his estate on what we now call Welfare Island.

The very year that the British recaptured the city, the Dutch West India Company was dissolved. Later it was revived under the same name, but it never again influenced New York.