Chapter X: The English in New York, 1664-1689 (3)

A few years later we have another description in the _Journal of a Voyage to New York_, 1679-80, by Jasper Dankers and Peter Sluyter, which was translated from the original Dutch manuscript by Henry C. Murphy, and, enriched by an Introduction from the same hand, appeared in 1867 as vol. i. of the _Memoirs_ of the Long Island Historical Society, and also separately. Some particulars of Danckaerts or Dankers are noted in _Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc._, 1874, p. 309. The MS., when found by Mr. Frederick Muller, of Amsterdam, from whom Mr. Murphy procured it, was accompanied by certain drawings of the town, seemingly taken on the spot. These are given in Mr. Murphy’s volume in fac-simile, with descriptions by Mr. J. Carson Brevoort, who has also re-drawn certain parts of them with better perspective, and other rectifications. The re-drawings are also engraved. The originals consist: (1) of a view of the Narrows, looking out to sea; (2) of a long panoramic view of the town as seen from the Brooklyn shore; (3) the East River shore looking south; (4) a view down the island from the northern edge of the settlement, with the Hudson River on the right, and a supposable East River on the left. The views which Mr. Brevoort has rectified are no. 4; the Stadthuys, with adjacent buildings and half-moon battery, extracted from no. 2; and three parts of no. 3, namely the Dock, the Water-gate (foot of Wall Street), and the shore north of the Water-gate. A reduction of the Brevoort Stadthuys view and the original, full size, are given herewith. This building stood on the corner of Pearl Street and Coentys slip, was erected as a city tavern in 1642, became a city hall in 1655, and was torn down in 1700. The battery when built projected into the river. There are other views of the Stadthuys given in Valentine’s _Manual_, (1655-56) p. 336, (1852) p. 378, (1853) p. 472; his _History_, p. 52; Lamb’s _New York_, i. 106; Gay’s _Popular History of the United States_, ii. 139, etc. Mr. J. W. Gerard published a monograph in 1875, _Old Stadthuys of New Amsterdam_.

In the train of Andros, and as his chaplain, a Rev. Charles Wooley came to New York in 1678, and his _Journal of Two Years_ was published in 1701. (_Historical Magazine_, i. 371.) There is a copy in Harvard College Library. It was edited in 1860, with notes by Dr. O’Callaghan, as Gowan’s _Bibliotheca Americana_, no. 2; and no. 3 of the same series, J. Miller’s _Description of the Province and City of New York_ (1695), though of a little later date, is best examined in the same connection. It is edited by John G. Shea, as Gowan printed it in 1862. Cf. also C. Lodwick’s “New York in 1692,” in 2 _N. Y. Hist. Coll._, vol. ii.