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65. Send us More Children[223]
BY J. ALRICHS (1658)
Honorable, Worshipful, Wise, Prudent Gentlemen:
IN regard to the salt, which your Honors suppose s is quite plenty at the Manhattans, you are mistaken. We have only a hogshead and a half, and can hardly get any there for money. Hardly a cup of salt can be had for extraordinary occasions; this causes great discontent and uproar. In well regulated places it happens that scarcity and want occur. Much more is this the case in a colony far distant and newly begun. Such a colony ought to be provided for one year with whatever is not produced there or procured easily from others.
Little or no butter is to be had here, and less cheese.[224] Whenever any one is about to go on a journey he can get hardly anything more than dry bread, or he must carry along a pot or kettles to cook some food. Therefore, as a reminder, I say once more that it would be well if some rye meal, cheese, and such things were sent in all the ships. As horses are required here for agriculture, means should be found of sending a good supply of horses.
In regard to the fort, it is in a great state of decay.[225] I have resolved on building a house of planks about fifty feet in length and twenty in breadth; also I have had one-third of the house, in which I have been lodging very uncomfortably, repaired, yet the greater part of it is still so leaky that it is only with great difficulty that anything can be kept dry. We shall be obliged to pull down and rebuild the soldiers' barracks immediately.
I had expected, at least, a supply of provisions in the ship which had just arrived. There is a set of insolent fellows on board of her who will not turn a hand to work if there be anything to do, and there never is any one to be hired here for such work. Laborers will not stir for less than a dollar a day. Carpenters, masons and other mechanics earn four guilders;[226] this amounts to much in extensive works.
There is no reason or plea for refusing to supply the settlers, who have been here some time from our common store, in exchange for their money. There is no merchant's store here, and scarcely any one who has provisions for sale, for the daily supply of the inhabitants; nay, not even bread, although there are over six hundred souls in this place. Whoever has anything will not sell it, and who so has none, cannot. Things are here in their infancy, and demand time. Many who come hither are as poor as worms and lazy withal, and will not work unless compelled by necessity.
Send in the spring, or in the ships sailing in December, a large number of strong and hard working men. Should they not be forth coming at the right time, their places can be filled with boys of fifteen, sixteen, seventeen years and over. Bear in mind that the boys be healthy and strong. Whatever is done here must be done by labor.
The children sent over from the almshouse have arrived safely, and were in such demand that all are bound out among the inhabitants; the oldest for two years, most of the others for three years, and the youngest for four years. They are to earn forty, sixty, and eighty guilders during the period,[227] and at the end of the term, will be fitted out in the same
'Tis as yet somewhat too soon to send many women or a multitude of little children; it will be more advisable and safer when crops are gathered, when abundance prevails, and everything is cheaper.
I might enlarge upon this account, but time does not permit, as the sloop by which I send it, is ready to sail.
A letter written to the Dutch Company which had charge of New Netherland, from the Manhattans, i.e. the present city of New York.
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