THE ARRIVAL OF THE DUTCH

The material for the proceeding blog comes from an article written in 1765 by John Heckewelder, a Moravian minister who worked among the Delaware and Mohican tribes in the Ohio Valley. The tribes had been living in the area of Manhattan Island at the time of the Dutch arrival, but were pushed steadily westward by the continuous pressure from European colonization. Heckewelder claims to have written down verbatim the words related to him by aged and respected members of the Delaware and Mohican tribes. I have changed the tense and person, but otherwise have simply paraphrased his original piece.



THE ARRIVAL OF THE DUTCH ca. 1609


We are fishing at the mouth of the great river (the Hudson River) when we see something swimming or floating on the water—a thing we had never seen before. This was in a time before we knew of white men. . We quickly return to shore to tell our people what we have seen. Though they see the same thing, there is no agreement as to what it might be. Some think it a very large fish, others an animal and still others a great house. Word is immediately sent by way of runners and water men to all the tribes and chiefs in the area. It is decided that what they we are seeing is either a house or boat in which the great Mannitto (Supreme Being) resides, and that he has come to pay us a visit. By now all the chiefs of the different tribes are assembled on York Island (Manhattan Island) and decisions are made as to how to best greet our important guest. Meat is provided for a sacrifice, the women cook special foods, idols are made presentable and a great dance is planned. All this is done to please the great Mannitto in case he is angry with us. We are quite scared and we appeal to our conjurors and chiefs to provide us comfort and advice. Then we hear news from some runners that it is indeed a great house filled with people whose skin is different form ours and whose dress is unknown. One is dressed in red and assumed to be the Mannitto himself. We are hailed from the ship, but in a language that we do not understand. Some of us are fearful and wish to run into the woods, but others tell us to stay as not to offend our visitors and besides they may seek us out and kill us. The house stops and a smaller canoe brings the red man and some of his people with him. Some men stay behind to guard the canoe. The man in red and two others walk into a circle formed by our chiefs and greetings are exchanged. A small cup is filled with an unknown liquid that Mannitto drinks. The glass is filled again by his servants and the Mannitto hands it to one of our chiefs, but he does not drink from it nor do any of the others. Finally, one brave man among them decides that it would be very dangerous and impolite to refuse the offering. He drinks the liquid knowing that it might be his end. Quickly, we see him begin to stagger and fall. A sleep ensues, but when he wakes up, the man declares that he has never felt as happy as he did after drinking from the cup. Now everyone is drinking and wanting even more. Once this drinking frenzy is over, the white man with the red clothes who had retired to his house, returns and gives us gifts of beads, axes, hoes and stockings. Through the use of signs we understand he will return next year, but that then he may require a little land to plant a garden. This is the story my great-grandfather told me about the coming of the white man as he saw it.

The following year the white men did return. But the whites laughed at the natives as they had used the hoes and axes to ornament their breasts and the stockings to carry their tobacco. Once they were shown the proper use of these tools they also laughed at themselves for having been so ignorant. They were now told that the white man wished to stay among them and would like a bit of land. The request was for no more than the hide of a bullock would cover. This they agreed to readily. But then, the whites took a knife and cut the hide into one long, thin, continuous strip that once unraveled and joined at the ends, encompassed a large area. They knew that they had been outwitted, but as they had plenty of land they did not desire to contend with them over such a small piece of it. Of course, we know now that that was just the beginning.





Sources:

Calloway,Colin G., ed. The World Turned Upside Down: Indian Voices from Early America. Boston: Bedford Books of St. John’s Press, 1994.