Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1860-01-19
For the Intelligencer.l
ola Records,

Among Old Records.
! When age has put its seal upon nature
records, then they become priceless; ana
he who enters upon the study of them he
| gins q new life. So at least we have felt
and judged, as, during the long evenings
| of this season OF our year, we have been
! studiously engaged in reading, and i'll tho
examination Of the colonial records OF thS
/ State of New York, which with commend
| able foresight and liborality, the Legisi"-
/ ture of that great State has published tor
/ very general distribution. We have before
us the division of those records ciasseu
'IIollGnd Documents from which wo
propose to make such extracts, accomPa-
MED by such comments as we hope ana
expect, will be interesting and instructive
to the large, and l am happy to add, the
rapidly increasing number of readers OF
that earnest, and able advocate OF "whit"
mems interests and rights, the Wheeling
! IJitel2;gencer. The Documents before US
bear date at "Amsterdam, Nov. 5. ammo.
1926" and signed P. Schagen. The re-
cord therefore carries us back little
more than two centurics--to times when
'.Your High and Mighty Lords at the
Hague" were addressed by 'Gonr High
Mightincsses' humble Servant, of Manhat-
tan" But beyond the date and the
sounding titles this document possesses 2
great historical value, since from, it we
learn what were the humble beginnings GF
n Commonwealth that hats grown within
two hundred and thirty-four years to cN-
cell in population and resources, the ma
ton in whose language it was written. +.
Schagen Informs their "HighnesseS AZ
the above date that there had arrived a.
the seaport of Holland Il ship i. l., as we
may suppose, craft rounded in, after the
fashion Of those days, ut either end and
propOrtionnlly expanded amidship, having
on the whole the appearance that We may
conjecture tub to present, when set out
with boW-sprit, two maSts, ruddcr, and
six hempen sails to propel it before tho
wind-which ship was called the "Arms
of Amsterdam" and had sailed from New
Netherland on the Odd of September, maxi
ing as is determined by easy arith-
metical calculations, the voyage in
sixty three days. The ship, so says tho
record, reports what we know is charac-
teristic of the Burghers of the old, and
| which we are glad to learn was also true
of those of the New World, ''that our pco-
pie" were "diligcnt,' that they "'live
pcnceably," and further which was
| felicitous circumstances, seeing that 1t in
creased the number of Colonists, and those
"to the manor BORN that "thcir wives
have also borne them children"
P. Schagen or Peter Schagen, as we may
safely assume from the prevalence of "Pc-
ter's' among Holluuders, which is account
ted for by their well known adherence
TO ancestral customs, and their keep
ing Peter first of names at family chris
Jennings, is one of thcm-furthcr informs
| their .smightiness" that the culonists had
purchased the Island Of Manhattan from
the Indians for the sum of sixty guldcrs,
and that the purchase contained 1000
| morrens of land" This honest act Of
theirs, afterwards initiated by Sir William
! Penn i'll his purchase of Pennsylvania,
secured to them the rights to their land and
trade against all claim of prior discovery,
or even occupancy that might be set up by
any nation or people, fostering the hordes
Of crrntic and predatory navigators, that
so thcily infested the shores of the Old
World. The record further states that the
colonists had .'sown all kinds Of grain in
the middle of May, and reapcd in the mid
die of August" of which Peter presents
this superior sample, as Of wheat, rye,
barley, oats, buckwhcat, canary seed,
beans and flax" But the specializing
Mynheers, although they had an eye TO the
'.roodly oaks" of the New World, probably
in anticipation of unlimited building of
sca-going craft bottomed and timhercd
after their own unique model, still looked
upon the giant progeny oil the crowded
groves. ''the streams not yet limited to a
channel, and the sedgy swamps that were
ovcrhung by clouds of mosquitoes of new
Netherland rs the legitimate home of the
beaver, the otter, the cat or other fur-bcur-
ing vermin, and OF the "Solvngc" to trap
them Note the laden of the ship to wit :
T,24s beaver skins, l784 otter, to be exact,
then another package of $50 otter, 80 mink,
SO catlynx-a second package of &c mink,
and 81 small rat, together with consider
able quantity of oak timber. Such, may
it please the reader, was the laden of the
) grst vessel, of which we have record, that
saicld from the mud wharvcs OF the AN
cient and renowned city of Manhattan,
formerly called New Amsterdam and vul-
carly called New York; on voyage of
traffic to the Old World
ISvESTIGTROH.
S--