German Lutherans from the lower Palatinate on the Rhine, to the later arrival of the English, Scotch, French and Irish. The Lutherans were religious exiles, whose villages had been burnt, whose homes had been destroyed and whose strong Protestant faith alone survived the wreck of their fortunes. Of this poverty - stricken company, nine with their wives and children were sent up Hudson's River to occupy the present site of Newburgh. The first intention of Queen Anne of England to send these Germans to Jamaica where white people were needed, was set aside "lest the climate be not agreeable to their constitutions, being so much hotter than that of Germany." Apropos of the intelligent consideration of these Commissioners of Emigration in 1709, one questions if the half-clad travellers who are described in an old document as "very necessitous," found the climate of Hudson's River agreeable to their constitutions in winter-time. In winter time! Sailing up the river in summer-time past Sleepy Hollow and Spuyten Duyvil, beyond the wide Tappan Zee, through the Gate of the Highlands where the waters narrow and the mountains cross, where the fairies dance on old Cro's Nest, and Storm King dons and doffs his weather cap, on into Newburgh Bay where the Beacons guard the Fishkill shores, and the Queen City of the Hudson rises in green terraces on the western bank, the tourist idly wonders if these Palatine pilgrims, worn by the ravages of persecution, had eyes to see the beauty of the land they were about to possess. It is possible, notwithstanding the ice-bound waters and snowcovered country, that their homesick hearts may have been warmed by the sight of a river not unlike their Rhine. As yet no Irving, Paulding, Cooper, Drake or Willis had cast the magic witchery of his tales over these scenes, yet a century before, the Half-Moon had passed this way and perhaps the stories Henry Hudson's crew brought back of red devils dancing in rocky chambers amused the children aboard the sloop of the German Lutheran exiles. More pertinent in historical research than such imaginings is the contrast between the temper of these voyagers and those others who sailed in the Mayflower, and before landing covenanted with one another "to submit. only to such government and governors as should be chosen by common consent." The shores of the Hudson were no less fertile than those of Massachusetts, yet the Palatines showed far less aggressiveness than the Pilgrims, and far less courage to stand alone. The story of these Lutherans here in Newburgh is a story of petitions first to one Right Honorable Lord and then to another,―petitions which, alas! were too often unheeded, although the petitioners sorely in need of help never failed to sign themselves Your Honours Most Dutyfull and most obedient Company at Quassek Creek and Tanskamir. In one letter to the Right Honourable Richard Ingoldsby Esq', Lieutenant Governor. and Commander-in-Chief over Her Majesty's Provinces in New York, Nova Caesaria and Territories depending thereon in America &c. as also to Her Majesty's Honourable Council of this Province &c. they plead that "they do not know where to address themselves to receive the remainder of their allowance of provision at 9d per day." Again, in their search to find "a Gentleman who might be willing to support said Germans with the Remainder of their allowance the entire summ of which is not exceeding 195 lbs, 3sh," they but succeed in finding a gentleman whose offer of assistance they considered only as "fine talke and discourse out of his own |
