REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR I9II 205 



this a Hackensack Indian was made intoxicated and robbed by the 

 Dutch and, in spite of the friendly efforts of De Vries, who met and 

 tried to quiet him, he was so enraged that he murdered a settler in 

 Myndert Mynderssen Van der Horst's colony near Achter Cul or 

 Newark Bay. 



This was an unfortunate happening as neither the Hackensack nor 

 Tappan had been embroiled with the Dutch before. The Indians 

 were not in sympathy with the act and at once offered the director, 

 Kieft, through De Vries, two hundred fathoms of wampum to be 

 given to the family of the victim to compensate the crime, as was 

 their custom. This Kieft refused and at length the chiefs visited 

 the fort at the intercession of DeVries, whom they trusted, and w^ho 

 became responsible for their return, and there they repeated their 

 offer. Kieft demanded the murderer and refused the wampum. 

 The Indians could not produce the culprit as he had fled to the 

 Tankitekes or Haverstraws, and moreover he was a chief's son and 

 could not be surrendered. They once more renewed their oft'er of 

 payment which was refused and they returned uneasily, while 

 Kieft bided his time which shortly arrived. 



In F'ebruary 1643 ^ band of Mahican armed with muskets came 

 from the upper Hudson below Albany and made a raid on the tribes 

 about Fort Amsterdam, driving them in terror to the Dutch for 

 protection after killing seventeen of their number and taking some 

 of their w^omen and children prisoners. The Dutch sheltered and 

 fed the fugitives and after two. weeks they returned to their homes, 

 but a second alarm drove them again tothe Fort and to \^riesendael 

 (De Vries settlement). De Vries helped them as much as he was 

 able and begged Kieft for soldiers to assist them, but these were 

 refused. The Indians then congregated at Pavonia among the 

 Hackensack " full a thousand strong,'' and others at Richtauck 

 (Corlear's hook on East river, not far from the site of Grand Street 

 ferry) where they occupied some cabins erected by the Reckawancks. 



The majority of the Dutch, under the lead of De Vries, believed 

 that this was their opportunity to treat the Indians with kindness 

 and so win them over. Kieft, however, in his usual hot-headed and 

 blood-thirsty manner, saw otherwise and decided to do a deed which 

 has rarely been equalled for cruelty and treachery. At midnight 

 Sergeant Rodolf was sent among the sleeping and unsuspecting 

 Indians at Pavonia where he murdered eighty of them in the most 

 brutal manner, and soldiers under Maryn Adriansen massacred forty 

 more at Corlear's Hook. De Vries has left us a manuscript in 

 which he describes the entire outrage, to which he was an eye wit- 

 ness, in scathing terms. 



