A 17th Century Book Reference to "Siwanois" Natives in the Region of Today's Pelham

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Research has revealed an early 17th century book that refers to "Siwanois" as natives that "dwell along the coast for eight leagues, to the neighborhood of Hellegat."  The area referenced in the book includes the region that later became today's Pelham and Pelham Bay Park.  

This fascinating reference may be added to the various editions of a number of 17th century maps that also included references to "Siwanoys" and "Siwanois" in various areas including the area north of today's Stamford, Connecticut and the area of northeast Massachusetts.  See Mon., Aug. 13, 2018:  There Seems To Be Another Early 17th Century Map that References Siwanoys.  Today's Historic Pelham Blog article describes and quotes the 17th century resource and addresses whether this reference disproves the conclusions that the local Natives who sold land to Thomas Pell were Wiechquaeskecks and that there were no Natives who should properly be known as "Siwanoys."

In 1625 a large folio volume in Dutch written by Ioannes de Laet (also, Johannes De Laet) was published by the "Printing House" of Isaack Elzevier in Leyden.  (Today's Leyden is in the Province of South Holland, Netherlands).  De Laet's work was entitled "Nieuvve Wereldt, Ofte, Beschrijvinghe van West-Indien Wt veelderhande schriften ende aen-teeckeninghen van verscheyden natien by een versamelt door Ioannes de Laet; ende met noodighe kaerten ende tafels voorsien."  Roughly translated, the book was entitled "New world, or, Description of West-India collected out of various writings and notes from various nations by Johannes de Laet, and provided with needful maps and tables."  

 

Title Page of "Nieuvve Wereldt, Ofte, Beschrijvinghe van West-Indien

Wt veelderhande schriften ende aen-teeckeninghen van verscheyden

natien by een versamelt door Ioannes de Laet" Published in 1625.

NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

Johannes De Laet, born in 1582, was a director in the Amsterdam Chamber of the Dutch West India Company from the first organization of the firm until his death on December 15, 1649.  De Laet was passionately interested in geography and "was one of the chief workers for the [Leyden Printing House] of Elzevier in the composition of their popular series of manuals sometimes called Respublicae Elzevirianae, writing some eight or nine little volumes on the geography and government of as many different countries."  See Jameson, J. Franklin, Narratives of New Netherland 1609-1664, p. 31 (NY, NY:  Charles Scribner's Sons, 1909).  Although De Laet "seems never to have visited America," id., p. 32, he had not only a geographical interest, but also a personal interest in New Netherland.  According to Jameson:

"De Laet's most direct interest in New Netherland arose some years after he had published the first edition of the New World.  In 1630, soon after the institution of the system of patroonships, he became a partner in the abortive Dutch settlements on either side of Delaware Bay, and in the more permanent patroonship of Rensselaerswyck."  Id.

De Laet's folio on the "New World" published in 1625 was divided into fifteen "books."  Book III dealt with "Virginia" and included chapters 7 through 11 that dealt with New Netherland.  Chapter 8 was entitled "Situation of the Coast of of New Netherland from Pye Bay to the Great River of Mountains."  Pye Bay was a Dutch reference to a feature near Marblehead, Massachusetts.  The "Great River of Mountains" was a Dutch reference to the Hudson River.  Within this description of the northeastern coast between today's Marblehead, Massachusetts and today's Upper New York Bay off the tip of Manhattan was a description of the coastal area between Hell Gate below today's City Island and the Four Mile and Quinipiac Rivers in Connecticut.  Within the description of that area appears the following reference, as translated and published in 1909 by J. Franklin Jameson:

"Four leagues further to the west there lies a small island, where good water is to be found; and four leagues beyond that are a number of islands, so that Captain Adriaen Block gave the name of Archipelagus to the group.  The great bay is there about four leagues wide.  There is a small stream on the main that does not extend more than half a league in from the shore, when it becomes perfectly dry.  The natives here are called Siwanois, and dwell along the coast for eight leagues, to the neighborhood of Hellegat."

Source:  Jameson, J. Franklin, Narratives of New Netherland 1609-1664, p. 44 (NY, NY:  Charles Scribner's Sons, 1909) (reference appears in Book III, Ch. on "Virginia," p. 86, in original 1625 De Laet folio).

 

Detail from Book III, p. 86 of  de Laet, Ioannes, Nieuvve Wereldt, Ofte,

Beschrijvinghe van West-Indien Wt veelderhande schriften ende

aen-teeckeninghen van verscheyden natien by een versamelt door

Ioannes de Laet; ende met noodighe kaerten ende tafels voorsien

Leyden, Netherland:  Elzevier, 1625).  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

Red Arrow Points to Reference to "Siwanois" on Original Page.

An immediate reaction to this reference may suggest to some that de Laet, who seems never to have visited New Netherland, had some knowledge from some unidentified source that the Natives in the coastal region that includes today's Pelham and Pelham Bay Park were known as "Siwanoys."  The reference does not, however, rise to the level of primary source evidence that there were Natives in the Pelham region that referenced themselves, and were referenced by others at the time, as "Siwanoys."

First, in both the 1625 edition and a 1630 edition of the same folio, de Laet included an assertion that among the Natives that inhabited an area along the "South River" (known today as the Delaware River) was a group named the "Sauwanoos."  See Jameson, J. Franklin, Narratives of New Netherland 1609-1664, p. 52 n.3 & p. 53 (NY, NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1909). This reference to "Sauwanoos" along the Delaware River joins 17th century map references to "Siwanoys" north of today's Stamford and to "Siwanois" in the northeastern part of today's Massachusetts as well as the earlier-described de Laet book reference to "Siwanois" near Hell Gate.  These four Siwanoy references tied to widely-disparate geographic locations together suggest either mistakes due to reliance on uninformed and inaccurate map references or -- more likely -- mapmakers' (and, perhaps, others') mistaken use of Native descriptive phrases intended to apply across different groups of Natives as though such descriptive phrases were the tribal names of the various groups of Natives.  (See below.)  

Second, others who have considered the matter closely likewise have rejected the notion that de Laet's work published in 1625 supports the existence of a group of Natives properly known as "Siwanoys."  For example, in his recent book on Wiechquaeskeck Natives, John Alexander Buckland argues extensively that "Siwanoy" was a descriptive term that meant the people who make wampum in this place.  He devotes a chapter in his book to the argument and begins as follows:  "Siwanoy means 'the place of sewan-making,' or 'the people who make sewan at this place.'  Sewan means 'wampum,' or 'shell beads.'  Oy, ois, or og means 'place.' There were Siwanoy all along the shore on both sides of Long Island Sound, in Delaware and in Massachusetts, north of Boston, when the Europeans arrived."  Buckland, John Alexander, The First Traders on Wall Street: The Wiechquaeskeck Indians of Southwestern Connecticut in the Seventeenth Century, p. 65 (Westminster, MD: Heritage Books, 2009).  He further notes:

"It is very probable that, about 1630, someone charting the shore asked the people there the name of their tribe, through an interpreter.  The two languages were vastly different in grammar and structure, and the question was understood as 'who are you?'  The answer was simply 'Siwanoy,' the people who make sewan. . . . Use of the name Siwanoy was not unique to the north shore of Long Island Sound in early accounts.  Johan de Laet (deLaet: 53) mentioned the Sawanoos [sic] on Long Island [sic] in 1609.  Adraien Block's 1614 map of northeastern Massachusetts has Sywanois there.  That simply means that they also made wampum on Long Island and in northeastern Massachusetts.  The name also turned up on maos of Delaware.  Various early spellings of Siwanoy included:  Sewonkeeg, Siwanoos, Siwanois, Sywanois, and Siwanog."

Source:  id., p. 66.

Third and most significantly, research has not revealed even one New Netherland or New England colonial document that uses the term "Siwanoy" or any spelling variant of it as the name of an identifiable group of Natives in the region of today's Pelham or elsewhere.

Despite the single reference in De Laet's 17th century book indicating that coastal Natives near Hell Gate were named "Siwanois," no primary evidence supports the assertion.  De Laet certainly was mistaken. 

*          *          *          *          *

"CHAPTER 8

Situation of the Coast of of New Netherland from Pye Bay to the Great River of Mountains. . . . 

"Pye Bay is perhaps that of Marblehead, Massachusetts."  [NOTE:  The "Great River of Mountains" was how the Dutch, who came from a flat sea-level nation, first described the Hudson River in the earliest years of the 17th Century.  Thus, what follows is a relevant portion of a chapter that describes the northeast coastline from today's Marblehead, Massachusetts to New York Harbor and Upper New York Bay.]

[Page 43]

Next, on the same south coast, succeeds a river named by our countrymen Fresh River, 3 which is shallow at its mouth, and lies between two courses, north by east and west by north; but according to conjecture, its general direction is from north-northwest.  In some places it is very shallow, so that at about fifteen leagues up the river there is not much more than five feet of water.  There are few inhabitants near the mouth of the river, but at the distance of fifteen leagues above they become numerous; their nation is called Sequins.  From this place the river stretches ten leagues, mostly in a northerly direction, but is very crooked; the reaches extend from northeast to southwest by south, and it is impossible to sail through them all with a head wind.  The depth of water varies from eight to twelve feet, is sometimes four and five fathoms, but mostly eight and nine feet.  The natives there plant maize, and in the year 1614 they had a village resembling a fort for protection against the attacks of their enemies.  They are called Nawaas, and their sagamore was then named Morahieck.  They term the bread made of maize in their language, leganick.  This place is situated in latitude 41° 48'.  The river is not navigable with yachts for more than two leagues farther, as it is very shallow and has a rocky bottom.  Within the land dwells another nation of savages, who are called Horikans; they descend the river in canoes made of bark  This river has always a downward current, so that no assistance is drived from it in going up, but a favorable wind is necessary.  

From Fresh River to another called the river of Royenberch, 4 it is eight leagues, west by north and east by south; this stream 

[Page 44]

stretches east-northeast, and is about a bow-shot wide, with a depth of three and a half fathoms at high water.  It rises and falls about six feet; a southeast by south moon causes high water at its mouth.  The natives who dwell here are called Quiripeys.  They take many beavers, but it is necessary for them to get into the habit of trade, otherwise they are too indolent to hunt the beaver.

Four leagues further to the west there lies a small island, where good water is to be found; and four leagues beyond that are a number of islands, so that Captain Adriaen Block gave the name of Archipelagus to the group.  The great bay is there about four leagues wide.  There is a small stream on the main that does not extend more than half a league in from the shore, when it becomes perfectly dry.  The natives here are called Siwanois, and dwell along the coast for eight leagues, to the neighborhood of Hellegat.  At the entrance of this bay, as we have already mentioned, are situated several islands, or broken land, on which a nation of savages have their abode, who are called Matouwax; they obtain a livelihood by fishing within the bay; whence the most easterly point of the land received from our people the name of Fisher's Hook and also Cape de Baye. 1  This cape and Block Island are situated about four leagues apart, in a course east by north and west by south."

[Page 43, Footnote 3 Reads:  "3 Four Mile River."]

[Page 43, Footnote 4 Reads:  "4 Quinipiac River, near New Haven."]

[Page 44, Footnote 1 Reads:  "1 Montauk Point."]

Source:  Jameson, J. Franklin, Narratives of New Netherland 1609-1664, pp. 43-44 (NY, NY:  Charles Scribner's Sons, 1909) (Includes an English translation of those portions of de Laet's "New World" relating to New Netherland as one of a series of "Original Narratives of Early American History Reproduced Under the Auspices of the American Historical Association").   

"CHAPTER 11

Further Description of the Coast to the Second Great River, and from thence to Latitude 38°, [and what the free Netherlanders have done there]. . . . 

"Ed.  1630, which, at the passage below relating to Indian tribes, reads:  'On this South River dwell divers nations of savages, namely, the Sauwanoos, Naraticons, Ermonmex, Sankicans.  TheMinquaas, Capitanasses, Gacheos, Sennecaas, Canomakers, Konekotays, Matanackouses, Armeomecks, etc., dwell further inland and upon another river. . . ."

Source:  Jameson, J. Franklin, Narratives of New Netherland 1609-1664, p. 52 n.3 (NY, NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1909) (Includes an English translation of those portions of de Laet's "New World" relating to New Netherland as one of a series of "Original Narratives of Early American History Reproduced Under the Auspices of the American Historical Association").

"CHAPTER 11

Further Description of the Coast to the Second Great River, and from thence to Latitude 38°, [and what the free Netherlanders have done there]. . . . 

"Within this bay is the other large river, called the South River, of which we have spoken in the seventh chapter; and several smaller streams. . . which I shall omit to describe as their true bearing and situation have not reached me, although some of our navigators are well acquainted with these rivers, which they discovered and have visited for several years.  Several nations of savages inhabit the banks of these rivers, namely, the Sauwanoos, Sanhicans, Minquaas, Capitanasses, Gacheos, Sennecaas, Canomakers, Naratekons, Konekotays, Matanackouses, Armeomecks, etc., nearly all of whom are of the same character and condition as those we have already described.  They plant the land and have much maize, beans, and whatever else the other natives possess."

Source:  Jameson, J. Franklin, Narratives of New Netherland 1609-1664, pp. 52-53 (NY, NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1909) (Includes an English translation of those portions of de Laet's "New World" relating to New Netherland as one of a series of "Original Narratives of Early American History Reproduced Under the Auspices of the American Historical Association").

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