204 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



collect this tribute in corn and wampum, but the Indians scorn- 

 fully refused to pay and made sarcastic speeches about the Governor. 



The following year, 1640, some of the Dutch West India Com- 

 pany's servants stole some hogs from De Vries's plantation on 

 Staten island, and Kieft, wishing for a pretext to rid himself of a few 

 of his Indian neighbors, blamed it on the Raritans and sent his 

 secretary. Van Tienhoven, in charge of twenty men to punish the 

 Indians for their alleged theft. The party went to a spot located, 

 according to De Vries, somewhere behind Staten island, probably 

 on the New Jersey shore. When the destination was reached the 

 men became insubordinate and decided, against the earnest appeal 

 of the secretary, to murder every Indian they could. At last Van 

 Tienhoven left them in despair and proceeding but a short distance 

 they came to the Indian settlement where wigwams and crops were 

 burned and a number of Indians killed, including the brother of the 

 chief, who was atrociously murdered after he had been made 

 prisoner by one Govert Lockermans (De Vries in his Journal says 

 this man was not killed but outrageously maltreated). They then 

 withdrew, leaving one of their number dead upon the field of victory. 

 As a result the plantation of David Pietersz De Vries on Staten 

 island, was promptly attacked by the angry natives, four of his 

 planters were killed and his tobacco and dwelling houses destroyed. 

 After a time this trouble blew over but more friction was at hand. 



Claes Smit, a Dutchman, was approached one day by a young 

 warrior who offered him some beaver skins to trade. Smit went to 

 comply when the Indian tomahawked him, plundered the house and 

 escaped. It was the young Weckquaesgeck, who, according to 

 Indian ideas, had avenged the murder of his uncle so long before. 

 Kieft demanded the murderer, but was refused by his tribesmen. 

 Kieft then called a general council and laid the matter before it, 

 suggesting that in case the murderer were not forthcoming, his whole 

 village might be destroyed. The council referred the matter to the 

 *' twelve select men," who wisely suggested that quiet preparations 

 for hostilities might be carried on in secret, and that in the meanwhile 

 a sloop be sent to the Weckquaesgecks to demand the murderer, 

 " once, twice, yea for a third time " in a friendly manner. 



About this time Miantonimo, the chieftain of " Sloops," or as it is 

 now called, Narragansett bay, visited the Manhattan and other local 

 Indians in order to get their alliance in a controversy pending with 

 the Mohegan. This threw the Dutch into confusion for a time, 

 as he was suspected and accused of stirring the Indians up against 

 them, but at length the scare blew over. Immediately following 



