Adriaen Van Der Donck- A Description of the New Netherlands (1649)

My account is from a Dutch settler in the New Netherlands called Adriaen Van der Donck (1649). I found my account of an early settler to the United States on the AmericanJourneys.org webpage. I began to read the account and came across a section called "Of the manners and peculiar customs of the Natives of the New Netherlands" which discusses a settlers view of the Natives. I found this part of the account particularly interesting so decided that was the section I was going to analyse.

Van der Donck begins this section by giving a physical description of the Natives. "Properly formed and well proportioned persons...men and women commonly have broad shoulders and slender waists" are a couple of examples of how he describes the Natives and this description is similar to the images we saw in Wednesday's lecture. I feel that this is quite a positive representation of the Natives as it suggests they are strong and healthy people. Another aspect of Van der Donck's physical description of the Natives that interested me was "their hair...is jet black and uncurled and nearly as coarse as a horses tail. Hair of any other colour they dislike or despise", what interested me and to an extent shocked me about this was the latter part of the quote about the Natives disliking or despising any hair colour other than black. Later on when Van der Donck is defining the skin tone of the Natives we get an idea about the weather/climate in the New Netherlands in 1649. "Their yellowness is no fault of nature, but it is caused by the heat of the scorching sun, which is hotter and more powerful in that country than in Holland" here we can see that the settlers are having to climatise in this new country. The physical description that Van der Donck gives us is overwhelmingly positive which suggests that he was either trying to entice individuals from Holland and Europe over to America or he genuinely did see the Natives in this positive and fascinating way.

He also provides us with a small snapshot of what the Dutch felt when they first met the Natives "they appear singular and strange to our nation, because their complexion, speech and dress are so different, but this, on acquaintance is disregarded". This quote implies that the Dutch were a little skeptical of the Natives when they first arrived in America as they were so different to the people and customs they were used to in Holland but felt that when they first met them they should be gracious and embracing of the Native's culture as it was the Dutch who were invading the Natives land. Van der Donck also puts a particular focus on the Native women and how the Dutch men felt about them when they first arrived in America. "Their women are well favoured and fascinating. Several of our Netherlanders were connected with them before our women come over" to me, this quote insinuates power amongst the Dutch men over the Native women.

In this section of Adriaen Van der Donck's account there was one particular part that stood out for me and this was when he describes the Natives as a whole group and why the settlers call them wilden. "Although they are composed of different tribes...all pass by the appellation of (wilden) wildmen and this name was given as far as we can learn...first, on account of their religion, which they have very little and that is very strange and secondly on account of their marriages, wherein they differ from civilised societies; and thirdly on account of their laws which are so singular as to deserve the name of wild regulations." This passage is interesting to me as there seems to be a sudden shift in his feelings towards the Natives. Early on in his account he shows them in a positive light as strong and healthy where as in this passage he seems to look at the Natives as inferior due to the difference in their culture. There were two phrases that stood out for me especially, one was was "they differ from civilised societies" which implies that the Natives are lesser than the Dutch or any European society and the other was "deserve the name of wild regulations" where the verb deserve is very strong and in a way mocking of the Natives laws. I also think it is important to note the use of the adjective wild not only in that particular quote but in that short passage in general which again denotes this idea of the Natives being uncivilised and inferior to the settlers.

Another part of Van der Donck's account I found fascinating was the description of the ritual that takes place after someone's death. "Whenever and Indian departs this life, all the residents of the place assemble at the funeral...the nearest relatives extend the limbs and close the eyes of the dead; and after the body has been watched and wept over several days and nights, they bring it down to the grave, wherein the do not lay it down but place it in a sitting posture." This is very different to the rituals that are in place in the UK which is why I find it so fascinating and this was probably the reaction of Van der Donck as, from this piece we are able to tell that it was clearly a new experience for him. An additional part of his account that clearly shocks him is the non existence of any form of currency "gold, silver or any metallic coin is unknown among them" this must have been a very different experience for the settlers coming from Europe, the idea that a society can live in harmony without any money or trade.

After looking at Van der Donck's account of how he perceives the Natives it is clear that the settlers were highly skeptical about the Native's culture and customs as they were very different to their own. Throughout the account there are many positive things said about the Natives especially regarding their physical appearance and presence which the settlers seemingly felt was well formed and healthy compared to themselves. There also negative aspects of this account whereby I feel the settlers see themselves as the superior race or nation out of the two, but overall it seems as if there is a lot of uncertainty amongst the settlers regarding the Natives as they are unknown to them. I believe that this would have been a mutual feeling amongst settlers of America coming from Europe.