REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR I9II 20/ 



wives, by whom they had children. There are now several Indians, 

 who came from the blood of the Swannekins (Dutch) and that of 

 the Indians ; and these, their own blood, were now murdered in such 

 villainous manner. He laid down another stick." ^ 



De Vries invited the chiefs to the fort and eighteen of them went 

 with him in a large canoe to visit Kieft. They received presents and 

 assurances, and at length on the 25th of March peace was arranged. 

 Through the efforts of the Long Island Indians, peace was also 

 concluded on the 226. of April with the Hackensack, Tappan, Recka- 

 wawanc, Kitchawanc and Sint-sinck. The presents given to the 

 Indians were meager, however, and the Hackensack especially com- 

 plained of their insufficiency. During the summer their Sachem 

 warned De Vries that his young men were preparing for the war 

 path, but Kieft gave the chief an insolent message and refused to 

 pacify him with further gifts. 



When difficulties again began in New England, in 1643, ^^e 

 Indians took up the hatchet as had been predicted. The trouble was 

 begun by the Wappinger, who seized a boat coming from Fort 

 Orange, killing t\\ o men and capturing four hundred beaver skins. 

 Kieft called a committee of eight to consult on this and other out- 

 rages, but before a decision was reached, the Weckquaesgeck 

 destroyed Anne Hutchinson's settlement at Pelhani Bay and killed 

 that noted woman and captured her youngest daughter, a child of 

 eight years, who was given up to the Dutch at the fort four years 

 later, when she had forgotten her native tongue. 



Throgmorton's settlement at Throg's Neck was next destroyed, 

 but here the inhabitants escaped in their boats. Pavonia was burned 

 under the guns of two warships and a privateer, and outside the very 

 fort itself, Manhattan island lay in embers and ashes. " They rove 

 continually around day and night on the island of Manhattan, slay- 

 ing our folks not a thousand paces from the fort." (Col. Hist. 

 1:216, 211.) At this juncture, De Vries was obliged to return to 

 Holland, and left calling the vengeance of God upon Kieft's head 

 as the author of so much misery and bloodshed. 



Kieft now begged aid from New England, offering twenty-five 

 thousand guilders for one hundred and fifty men, and even offered 

 to mortgage New Netherlands to the English for aid ; at the same 

 time beseeching Holland for relief. 



He received, however, only a few English volunteers under the 

 command of Captain John Underbill, who was a combination of 



^ De Vries. New York Historical Society Collections, 2d series, i : 231. 



