Under this designation, a few gentlemen interested in the study of American History and Literature, propose occasionally to print limited editions of such manuscripts and scarce pamphlets as may be deemed of value towards illustrating these subjects. They will seek to obtain, for this purpose, unpublished journals or correspondence containing matter worthy of record, and which may not properly be included in the Historical Collections or Documentary Histories of the several states. Such unpretending contemporary chronicles often throw precious light upon the motives of action, and the imperfectly narrated events of by-gone days; perhaps briefly touched upon in dry official documents.
The Club may also issue fac-similes of curious manuscripts, or documents worthy of notice, which, like the printed issues, will bear its imprint.
| "These are the |
| Registers, the chronicles of the age |
| They were written in, and speak the truth of History |
| Better than a hundred of your printed |
| Communications." |
| --Shakerly Marmyon's Antiquary |
William Bradford, the first New York Printer, whose name they have adopted, came to this country in 1682, and established his press in the neighborhood of Philadelphia. In 1693 he removed to this city, and set up the first press "at the sign of the Bible." His first work, printed in this colony, was entitled "the Laws and Acts of the General Assembly." During a period of thirty years he was the only Printer in the Province, and in his imprints he styled himself "Printer to the King." In 1725 he printed our first newspaper, The New York Gazette. He continued the business of his profession until within a few years of his death, which occurred in 1752, at the age of 92 years. He was described in an obituary notice of the day as "a man of great sobriety and industry, a real friend to the poor and needy, and kind and affable to all."
APRIL, 1859.
The purpose of this volume is to present to its readers the earliest poems written within the bounds of the state of New York, so far as is known. These were produced while the country was under the jurisdiction of the government of the United Provinces of the Netherlands. They are all the compositions of Hollanders born, and have hitherto existed only in the Dutch, language; most of them now see the light, even in that language, for the first time; and none of them have ever before been rendered into English. Though not devoid of poetical merit, they are deemed at least of sufficient historical interest and importance to be entitled to preservation in this form; commemorating, as they do, the first essays in the art upon our own soil, and especially illustrating the nature of the country, and the character, habits and manners, both generally and particularly, of our first settlers, as well as their perils and dangers. Taken as a whole, they may be said, from the facts and events they narrate, to constitute our first epic, simple, unpretending, and perhaps wanting in high excellence, yet truthful and spirited in description. If the early ballads of a nation are, as has been well observed, invaluable for its history, how should these more authentic pieces commend themselves to our precious care?
A few years ago, while sojourning in Holland, we printed, for the gratification of a few friends, the memoir and poems of Jacob Steendam, one of the writers here referred to. The prefatory note to that publication will best serve as an introduction to further explanations.
"A miscellaneous volume of old placards and proclamations of the States General and other broadsides, put together, apparently, because they were all of the same size, was sold a few months since at the Hague at the public sale of a library. Bound up with this rubbish of two centuries ago was a sheet of verses on New Amsterdam, signed, "Jacob Steendam, noch vaster." It was a lamentation over the neglect which that new settlement had received at the hands of the powerful city of Amsterdam, whose nane it bore and from which it was planted. A perusal of it excited our suspicions that it was actually written by a colonist and had been sent hence to the parental city for publication; and upon investigation those facts were fully established. It is, as far as is yet known, the first attempt at poetry in what are now the states of New York, New Jersey and Delaware, and portions of the states of Connecticut and Pennsylvania, containing a population of European descent at the present time, of nearly twice that of the kingdom of the Netherlands; and has hitherto escaped all observation. The author, however, was not altogether unknown to fame in his native country; and his name is duly registered in the anthology of Fatherland among the four thousand poets whose works are found in print. He had published a respectable volume of odes and epithalamiums, and a small poem, called the "Praise of New Netherland," together with sundry fugitive pieces, among which was one with the quaint title of "Spurring-verses to the Friends of the Colony and Brotherhood to be established on the South River of New Netherland." But the only biographical notice of him to be found, is a short paragraph or two of fifteen lines in Van der Aa's supplement to Witsen Geysbeek's Dictionary of Dutch poets, in all respects imperfect and unsatisfactory. The poems relating to New Netherlands are all exceedingly rare; and it seemed therefore not improper to ascertain if possible some further particulars of the life of the poet, and, by a reproduction of the poems themselves, to save them from the danger of being entirely lost. This has now been done; and a translation added, which pretends to no other merit than to convey the meaning of the poet, in the same metrical forms as he himself adopted, for the satisfaction of such friends into whose hands this little publication may come, as may be unacquainted with the Dutch language.
"In endeavoring to trace the career of Steendam, it became necessary to resort to original sources for materials. The labor has not been wholly without fruit; but it has not resulted in as much as could have been desired. To the kindness of Dr. O'Callaghan of Albany, whose intimate acquaintance and long official connection with the colonial records there, entitle him to be considered the Archivist of the state of New York, we are indebted for the facts disclosed in regard to the poet's residence in the colony. J.T. Bodel Nijenhuis Esq. of Leyden brought to our notice the Spurring-verses; and his thorough knowledge of the poetry and literature of his country has also availed us in some valuable suggestions in preparing the memoir. Mr. Frederick Muller of Amsterdam, politely placed at our disposal the only portrait of Steendam, which we have seen, and has enabled us to present the semblance of the poet. There is Steendam! in his simple garb, a study of the costume of our early colonists; and in his frank and fearless countenance the type of the early settlers of New York. We were unwilling to leave any sources within our reach unexplored where any information might possibly exist for our purpose, and hence examinations have been made in the Royal Library and the National Archives at the Hague; and particularly in the latter among the records of the East India Company, for the purpose of discovering the end of the poet's wandering life. And, although little was elicited in those quarters, our thanks are nevertheless here due, for the unvarying courtesy and assistance which we received in the prosecution of our inquiries, to the gentlemen who administer the affairs of those two noble institutions, both as principals and in subordinate capacities.
"The reprints of the original poems descriptive of New Netherland are made from copies derived from different sources. The Complaint of New Amsterdam is from the copy in our possession, discovered in the manner above mentioned. The Praise of New Netherland is from a manuscript which we made ourselves several years ago, -- not dreaming then of its use in this way or of the interest which now attaches to it, -- from a printed copy belonging to James Lenox Esq. of New York, the only copy of the original edition we have been able to discover. The Spurring-Verses are from a copy in the Royal Library at the Hague, of the work of Pieter Cornelisz. Ploekhoy, mentioned in the sketch of Steendam.
"In concluding this introduction we venture to express the hope that the poems of the Rev. Henricus Selyns, the second of the New Netherland poets, may be collected and published. He succeeded Steendam by a few years, having gone to the colony in 1660, where he was installed the first settled minister of Brooklyn in September of that year. Domine Selyns was one of the most accomplished scholars of his time; and was a poet and philosopher as well as a divine. There are some memorials of him here in Holland and some fugitive pieces of his poetry. There are also some lines of his prefixed to Mather's Magnalia. But it is not generally known that there is, or was a few years ago in New York, a manuscript volune of his poems, containing some verses of local interest, and among them two nuptial odes upon the marriage of Aegidius Luyck, rector of the Latin school in New Amsterdam in 1663, with Judith van Isendoorn; and also an epitaph upon Anna Loockermans, the widow of Olof Stevensz van Cortlandt. It would be an interesting addition to the early poetry of our country, could this volume be made public; and the life of the author, who enjoyed a correspondence with Senguerdius, the learned professor of Natural Philosophy, and Willem-a-Brakel, the orthodox author of the Redelijk Godsdienst, -- the most esteemed work perhaps in the whole range of Dutch theology, would be a not less valuable contribution to the literature and scientific history of the United States.
The Hague, 27 February, 186l."
At the time this was written, we hardly expected that the hope expressed in the concluding paragraph, of the recovery of the poems of Selyns, would be soon, if ever realized. The last trace of the manuscript was in the hands of the author of Knickerbocker's New York, at the time he was engaged in writing his travestie of the history of New Netherland. In December, 1854, in a letter to James Lenox, Esq., Mr. Irving says: "There must be somewhere extant a small volume of Dutch poems in manuscript, very neatly copied out, relating to persons and events in New Amsterdam, in the early times of the settlement.