( This edition of A Description of New Netherland provide...)
This edition of A Description of New Netherland provides the first complete and accurate English-language translation of an essential first-hand account of the lives and world of Dutch colonists and northeastern Native communities in the seventeenth century. Adriaen van der Donck, a graduate of Leiden University in the 1640s, became the law enforcement officer for the Dutch patroonship of Rensselaerswijck, located along the upper Hudson River. His position enabled him to interact extensively with Dutch colonists and the local Algonquians and Iroquoians. An astute observer, detailed recorder, and accessible writer, Van der Donck was ideally situated to write about his experiences and the natural and cultural worlds around him. Van der Donck’s Beschryvinge van Nieuw-Nederlant was first published in 1655 and then expanded in 1656. An inaccurate and abbreviated English translation appeared in 1841 and was reprinted in 1968. This new volume features an accurate, polished translation by Diederik Willem Goedhuys and includes all the material from the original 1655 and 1656 editions. The result is an indispensable first-hand account with enduring value to historians, ethnohistorians, and anthropologists.
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Van Der Donck was born in the city of Breda in the province of North Brabant. His parents were Cornelis van der Donck and Agatha, daughter of Adriaen van Bergen, a member of a party of Dutch patriots which recovered the castle of Breda from the Spanish in 1590.
Van der Donck received his early education in his native city, and about 1638 entered the University of Leyden, where he studied law.
Seeking employment, Adriaen was brought to the attention of Kiliaen van Rensselaer, patroon of Rensselaerswyck in New Netherland, who was looking for a schout, or officer of justice, for his manor. Satisfied of the young man's fitness, Van Rensselaer engaged him; he was commissioned schout, May 13, 1641, and arrived at his new post in August of that year. He was given the lease of the farm called "Welys Burg" on Castle Island.
As schout, Adriaen served as sheriff or officer of justice and was in charge of the collection of debts due to the patroon from the tenants. Though aristocratic by birth and training, he showed considerable sympathy with the farmers of Rensselaerswyck, declining to press them when they had difficulty in meeting their obligations. In consequence, he was accused of laxity in caring for his employer's interests. Van Rensselaer seems also to have expected Van der Donck to exercise a guiding influence over young Arent van Curler, the patroon's grand-nephew, who was commis or business agent of the manor.
Since the two young men were almost of an age, this situation bred ill feeling which soon grew into enmity. Van Curler complained to the patroon; the patroon forbade Van der Donck to carry out a scheme for establishing a colony at Katskill; and during the confused state of affairs following the death of Van Rensselaer in 1643 or 1644, Van der Donck's service as schout came to an end. He remained upon his farm at Castle Island, however, until his buildings were destroyed by fire in 1646. Meanwhile, in the summer of 1645 he successfully negotiated a treaty between the Dutch and the Mohawk Indians, and for this service, he was given permission to establish a colony, "Colen Donck, " at Nepperhaen on the left bank of the Hudson, opposite the Palisades.
In February 1649, Van der Donck was made the secretary of the Board of Nine Men under Petrus Stuyvesant. In this capacity, he wrote the famous "Remonstrance", setting forth the people's grievances, and he was one of the three sent to The Hague to present it to the States-General. His connection with this act gained him the enmity of Stuyvesant and his secretary Van Tienhoven, who tried in various ways to embarrass him at The Hague. While detained in the Netherlands by the government he finished his legal course at Leyden, received a degree, Supremus in jure, April 10, 1653, and was admitted to practice as an advocate before the supreme court of the Netherlands.
During this time, he was engaged in writing an account of New Netherland, which was officially recommended to the States-General in May 1653, and in July he was granted a fifteen-year copyright on his work. He had been authorized to prepare a history, but Stuyvesant had refused him access to the official records. Thus his book, Beschrijvinge van Nieuvv Nederlant, is, as its title indicates, a description rather than a narrative. It was first published in 1655 at Amsterdam and reprinted in 1656.
Van der Donck returned to America later in 1653 with permission to give legal advice, but not to appear before the courts of New Netherland, since there was no lawyer in the colony able to meet him. He died before the end of 1655.
( This edition of A Description of New Netherland provide...)
( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
Quotes from others about the person
"Had he written in English rather than Dutch, his Description would certainly have won from posterity the same kind, if not the same amount, of veneration that has been bestowed on Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation. As it turned out, Van der Donck's book was written, published, widely read, put aside, and, alas, almost forgotten long before Bradford's book was published at all. " - Thomas O'Donnell.
In 1645, Van Der Donck had married Mary Doughty, daughter of Francis Doughty, an English minister of New Amsterdam. After his death, his widow married Hugh O'Neale of Maryland.
