THE TOWN OF GREENBURGH. 263 



savages nestled, crossed the Hudson," (into Pavonia, New Jersey, whither 

 the unsuspecting Weckquaskecks and Tappaens had fled from Man- 

 hattan,) "for the purpose of destruction. The naked and unsuspecting 

 tribes could offer little resistance ; the noise of musketry mingled with 

 the yell of the victims. Nearly a hundred perished in the carnage. 

 Day-break did not end its horrors; men might be seen, mangled and 

 helpless, suffering from cold and hunger ; children were tossed into the 

 stream, and as their parents plunged to their rescue, the soldiers pre- 

 vented their landing, that both child and parent might drown."" Be- 

 side these, thirty more were murdered at Corlaers Hook, on Manhattan 

 Island, while sunk in repose. 



"This unjustifiable outrage led to consequences almost fatal to 

 the Dutch. It estranged the Long Island Indians, the warmest of their 

 friends, who now formed an alliance with the River Indians, whose hate 

 knew no bounds when they discovered that it was the Dutch, and not 

 the Mohawks, who had attacked them at Pavonia and Corlaers Hook. 

 The tomahawk, the fire-brand, and scalping knife, were clutched with all 

 the ferocity of phrensy, and the war-whoop rang from the Raritan to the 

 Connecticut, for eleven tribes of savages proclaimed open war against 

 the Dutch. Every settler on whom they laid hands was murdered — • 

 women and children dragged into captivity ; and though the settlements 

 around Fort Amsterdam extended, at this period, thirty English miles to 

 the east, and twenty-one to the north and south, the enemy burned the 

 dwellings, desolated the farms and farm-houses, killed the cattle, de- 

 stroyed the crops of grain, hay, and tobacco, laid waste the country 

 all around and drove the settlers, panic-stricken, into Fort Amsterdam. 

 'Mine eyes saw the flames of their towns,' says Roger Williams, 'the 

 frights and hurries of men, women and children, and the present re- 

 moval of all that could to Holland." b " The assassins," says Bancroft, "were 

 compelled to desire a peace, which was covenanted with the River 

 Indians the 2 2d of April, 1643." This was principally brought about 

 by the Dutch Patroon de Vries, and not by Roger Williams, as some of 

 the New England historians claim - a 



This peace proved unsatisfactory, for we find the Indians again taking, 

 up arms. 



15th Sept., 1643, it was resolved by the Dutch to renew the war, 

 either by force or stratagem, against the River Indians. d 



"A. D. 1644, some of the Stamford people having surprised an 



a Bancroft's Hist. U. S. ii. 289. 90. 



b O'Callaghan's Hist. N. N. p. 270. Rhode Island Hist. Rec. ill. 156. 



c O'Callaghan's Hist. N. N. p. 276. note. 



d O'Callaghan's Hist. p. 285. 



