THE TOWN OF BEDFORD. 9 



under the general supervision of La Montagne. The advance guard, 

 having killed an Indian spy, waited until the main body came up, when 

 the troops were formed in two divisions, and an attack was made at the 

 same time on Matsepe (Maspeth) and a smaller village near at hand. 

 In a few hours over a hundred Indians lay dead upon the field, while, 

 on the part of the Dutch and English, the loss was only one killed and 

 three wounded. 



On the return of this expedition, Captain Underhill was dispatched to 

 Stamford in quest of information relative to the Indians of that region. 

 Meeting the same guide who had led the Dutch forces astray in the 

 Greenwich expedition, he learned that nearly a thousand Indians were 

 assembled not far off, to celebrate one of their festivals. The guide, 

 anxious to redeem his reputation, offered to lead the Dutch to the 

 Indian rendezvous, in order to prove that the former mischance was 

 not his fault. Captain Underhill, in reporting these facts to Kieft, 

 advised an immediate attack. A force of one hundred and thirty men 

 was dispatched in three yachts, under the Captain's command. 



It was now mid-winter. The earth was covered with snow, and the 

 little army, after landing at Greenwich, passed a dreary night in the 

 midst of a howling storm. Early next morning the troops took up their 

 line of march in a north-westerly direction, and steadily but slowly ad- 

 vanced all day long, trudging through the deep snow, creeping over 

 stony hills laid bare by the sweeping winds, and wading over half frozen 

 streams. By eight o'clock they arrived within a league of the Indian 

 village, and halted to rest and arrange the plan of battle. The village, 

 which had been carefully arranged for winter quarters, lay snugly en- 

 sconced in a low mountain recess, completely sheltered from the bleak 

 northerly winds, and consisted of a large number of huts disposed in 

 three streets, each about eighty paces long. As the Dutch approached 

 they found the Indians prepared to receive them, whereupon Capt. 

 Underhill gave orders to charge sword in hand. His men rushed in and 

 tried to surround the huts; but the savages, who seemed this time to 

 act with some degree of military skill, deployed in small bands, and 

 fought with such vigor that in a few moments thirteen of the soldiers 

 were disabled. 



The contest, however, did not long continue. The Dutch, though 

 greatly inferior in numbers, were vastly superior in skill, weapons, disci- 

 pline, and powers of endurance, to their brave, but weak, half-starved, 

 and poorly armed adversaries. The Indians were soon pressed so hard 

 as to be obliged to make for their huts, where they still kept up the 

 fight by discharging arrows through loop holes. Nearly two hundred of 



