Arendt Van Curler. 179 



the potent cause of their troubles. His arguments and eloquence were 

 satisfactory and successful, and the links of the covenant chain were 



Now came the time for another of the great achievements of our 

 hero's life. Largely through his acts and character, the way was 

 paved for the peaceful settlement of the Mohawk valley by the whites. 

 Food had become scarce near Fort Orange, farmers wanted homes, 

 but were not willing to settle at Rensselaerwyck under semi-feudal 

 restrictions. Having left Patria, they wished to hold their land in 

 fee simple, and when dying to bequeath the fruits of their toil to their 

 children. This, under the patroon, they could not do. Van Curler 

 sympathized with them, and himself longed to possess land not as a 

 fief, but as a holding forever. Accordingly he applied, June 18th, 

 1661, to Gov. Stuyvesant for permission to purchase " the great flat " 

 of the lower Mohawk valley from the Indians, called by them Scho- 

 nowe, including the site of one of their \ illages. Schenectady. Owing 

 to influences emanating from Rensselaerwyck, the privilege of trade 

 was not granted until 1 1 i ; -3 . and at first the little frontier settlement 

 was wholly agricultural. Van Curler for years vainly protested against 

 this churlish and illiberal spirit which savored of the dog in the man- 

 ger, and so long hindered the growth of a true commonwealth. Van 

 Curler's plea was for unshackled commerce, free trade and farmer's 

 rights, as against monopoly, semi-feudalism and whiskey. 



Here note the liberal principles on which Van Curler founded his 

 settlement; they were justice, temperance, and liberty. Wm. Penn 

 has been lauded for buying the land of the Indians. Van Curler did 

 the same. He fought the whiskey-sellers whose fiery liquid destroyed 

 the red men as did small pox, and turned reasoning men into mur- 

 derous brutes. He pleaded for the rights of trade to actual settlers on 

 wild lands as against monopoly, and for the privilege of holding land 

 in fee simple, and bequeathing it to children. Here, having taken 

 the subject of my sketch beyond the boundaries of Eenssalaerwyck, it 

 is proper for me to postpone the continuance of my story. In a fur- 

 ther and more elaborate study, I hope to present the life and works of 

 Van Curler in befitting dress. Suffice it to say that in 1664, on the 

 conquest of New Netherlands by the English, one of the first acts of 

 Colonel Nicholls was to send for Van Curler to consult as to his policy 

 ( with the Indians. Two years later, the French expedition of Courcelles 

 was saved from starvation and probable annihilation by Van Curler. 

 Hastening from Schenectady with provisions he succored his famishing 



