Aernout Cornelissen Viele was born in New Amsterdam, probably the son of Cornelis Volkertszen and Maria (du Trieux) Viele. His father was an emigrant from Holland, an inn-keeper and trader, and apparently prosperous.
The boy was baptized on May 27, 1640. He was a resident of Albany as early as 1659, and the year following he joined in a petition to forbid white men trading within the Indian country.
In about 1675, Viele was a recognized interpreter between the Indians and whites, and this service he performed in 1682 at Albany at a conference between the Five Nations and commissioners from Maryland. At this period, he had acquired a command of the Iroquois dialects, with a degree of skill in the studied features of Indian oratory. Public speaking among the Indians was a formal art, which the envoys of the Canadian governors, and some at least of the French missionaries, cultivated and which their rivals for the affections of the Indians could not afford to neglect. Viele had need of every resource when as the deputy of Governor.
Thomas Dongan harangued an Onondaga audience, in opposition to Charles Le Moyne and the eloquent Jesuit, Father Lamberville, and planted the arms of the Duke of York in the Onondaga Castle. A few years later, he led a large party of men, advance agents of New York trade, into the Ottawa country north of the Great Lakes. They were captured by the vigilant French, and he was taken to Quebec, from which he returned home, escaping apparently, after an imprisonment of four months.
From 1688 to 1690, he was living for considerable periods with the Onondaga, who were in those years enjoying their ascendancy among the Iroquois. While he was on one of these missions, it would seem, the Schenectady massacre occurred. Five of his family, his eldest daughter, her two children, a daughter-in-law, and a grandson, perished. His son, Aernout, was carried away, but escaped after three years of captivity. These events gave an added motive to his efforts to protect the New York border. In 1691, he was enrolled as a fusilier. He supported Lieut. -Gov. Jacob Leisler in the civil strife that rent the colony and was appointed resident general agent by him.
Governor Fletcher kept him employed at the Onondaga outpost, from which he reported danger signals when Frontenac was stirring. Governor Bellomont continued the settled Indian policy after the peace between France and England at Ryswick; and Viele, who was then living on Long Island, was soon on guard again at Onondaga Castle. His journal, from April 14 to May 7, 1699, gives the details of his journey and transactions. A second trading adventure is recorded.
For two years, he was journeying in the country of the Shawnee to the southward of the province. In regions nearer home he acquired property. From Indians on the Hudson he received land in the region soon to be comprised by Dutchess County. Later, the Mohawk gave him title to a tract on the river near Schenectady. After 1704, his name falls out of the records, which seems a fair indication that he was dead.
In 1663, Viele had married Gerritje Gerritse Vermeulen, the step-daughter of Arent Janse Timmerman. The marriage may have produced eight children.
