The Dutch on the Delaware. 321 



may be the ruins were weed-grown and hidden 

 then ; if so, the greater interest to me, for, neg- 

 lected by Fox, the opportunity comes more than 

 two centuries later to revive the history of a river 

 tragedy. 



Whether his countrymen ventured back, or some 

 Indian had the courage to do so, is not on record ; 

 but one of the murdered men was buried. His 

 bones — a headless skeleton, indeed — were found 

 near by, so near that he can be said to have been 

 buried in the ruins of his house. Certainly the 

 bones had not been exposed to fire; but where 

 was the head ? We know of war-clubs and toma- 

 hawks. They are common to all the farm-lands 

 along the Delaware even yet : and was the poor 

 Dutchman's head crushed by the assassin ? Gath- 

 ering up the bones — for what purpose I do not 

 know — ^and whatsoever I could move of bricks 

 and tiles, I sat down, at last, to rest at the foot of 

 an old tree, fancying it, of course, one of the 

 Dutchman's shade-trees, and took in those fare- 

 well glances that are ever fullest of meaning. 

 The day was well spent, and that soft south wind, 

 which, according to Roger Williams, was held tq 



