six years before, at the fort on the Mistic; in the number CHAP. X. of victims alone were the murderous exploits of the New 1643. Netherland Dutch against the North River savages less shocking to humanity, than the ruthless achievements of the New England Puritans against the devoted tribe of the Pequods. Return of to Fort Am Morning at length came, and the victorious parties re- 26 Feb. turned to Fort Amsterdam with thirty prisoners and the the soldiers heads of several of their victims. The "Roman achieve- sterdam. ment" of the conquerors was acknowledged by largesses to the soldiery, who were welcomed back by Kieft personally, with "shaking of the hands and congratulations." The example of the exulting director was infectious. Even women joined in the triumph, and insulted the bloody trophies. Cupidity, too, followed the track of carnage. A small party of Dutch and English colonists went over to Pavonia to pillage the deserted encampment. In vain the soldiers left there on guard warned them to return. They persisted; and Dirck Straatmaker and his wife were killed by some outlaying Indians, whose wigwams they attempted to plunder. The English," who had one gun amongst them," narrowly escaped a similar fate.* The Long dians at The success of the expeditions against the refugee savages at Pavonia and Corlaer's Hoeck provoked emulation. Wolfertsen, and some of his neighbors at New Amersfoort, signed a petition to the director for permission to attack 27 Feb. the Marechkawiecks, who resided between them and Island InBreuckelen. But Kieft, yielding to the advice of Bogar- tacked. dus and others of his council, refused his assent. The Marechkawiecks had never done any thing unfriendly to the Dutch, and were "hard to conquer;" to attack them now would only be to add them to the number of already exasperated foes; it would lead to a destructive war, and bring ruin on the aggressors. Nevertheless, if these Indians showed signs of hostility, the director authorized every colonist to defend himself as best he might. * De Vries, 179; Breeden Raedt, 16, 17; Alb. Rec., iii., 117; Hol. Doc., ii., 375; iii., 112; O'Call., i., 269; Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv., 11. Z CHAP. X. 1643. The sav ages arous ance. Kieft's proviso was unfortunate. The red man's corn was coveted; and some movements of the Marechkawiecks were conveniently construed into those signs of hostility for which the ambiguous decree had provided. A secret foraging expedition was presently set on foot, and two wagon-loads of grain were plundered from the unsuspecting savages; who, in vainly endeavoring to protecttheir property, lost three lives in the skirmish which followed.* It only needed this scandalous outrage to fill the meased to venge- ure of Indian endurance. Up to this time, the Long Island savages had been among the warmest friends of the Dutch. Now they had been attacked and plundered by the strangers whom they had welcomed, and to whom they had done no wrong. Common cause was at once made with the North River Indians, who burned with frenzied hate and revenge, when they found that the midnight massacres at Pavonia and Manhattan were not the work of the Mohawks, but of the Dutch. From swamps and thickets the mysterious enemy made his sudden onset. The farmer was murdered in the open field; women and children, granted their lives, were swept off into a long captivity; houses and bouweries, haystacks and grain, cattle and crops, were all destroyed. From the shores of the Raritan to the valley of the Housatonic, not a single plantation was safe. Eleven tribes of Indians rose in open war; and New Netherland now read the awful lesson which Connecticut had learned six years before. Such of the colonists as escaped with their lives, fled from their desolated homes to seek refuge in Fort Amsterdam. In Despair of their despair, they threatened to return to the Fatherland, or remove to Rensselaerswyck, "which experienced no trouble." Fearing a general depopulation, Kieft was 1 March. obliged to take all the colonists into the pay of the company, to serve as soldiers for two months. At this conjuncture, Roger Williams, who, "not having liberty of taking ship" in Massachusetts, "was forced to repair unto the colo nists. * Hol. Doc., iii., 110; v., 320, 337, 338; Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv., 11. 1643. the Dutch," arrived at Manhattan, on his way to Europe. CHAP. X. "Before we weighed anchor," wrote the liberal-minded founder of Rhode Island, eleven years afterward, "mine eyes saw the flames at their towns, and the flights and hurries of men, women, and children, the present removal of all that could for Holland."* attacked. Even Vriesendael did not escape the general calamity. Vriesende.el The outhouses, and crops, and cattle on the plantation were destroyed. The terrified colonists escaped into the manor house, in which De Vries had prudently constructed loop-holes for musketry. While all were standing on their guard, the same Indian whom the patroon had humanely conducted out of Fort Amsterdam on the night of the massacre at Pavonia, coming up to the besiegers, related the occurrence, and told them that De Vries was 66 a good chief." The grateful savages at once cried out to De Vries's people that, if they had not already destroyed the cattle, they would not do so now; they would let the little brewery stand, although they "longed for the copper kettle, to make barbs for their arrows." The siege was instantly raised, and the relenting red men departed. Hastening down to Manhattan, De Vries indignantly demanded of Kieft, "Has it not happened just as I said, that you were only helping to shed Christian blood?” "Who will now compensate us for our losses?" But the humiliated director "gave no answer." He was surprised that "It is no wonder," re no Indians had come to the fort. message to Island say.. Kieft now sent a friendly message to the Long Island Fruitless Indians. But the indignant savages would not listen. the Long "Are you our friends?" cried the Indians from afar; ages. "you are only corn-thieves ;" and the messengers returned to Fort Amsterdam, to report the taunting words with which the red men had rejected the advances of the faithless chief at Manhattan.‡ * Breeden Raedt, 17, 18; Hol. Doc., ii., 375; Alb. Rec., ii., 213; Winthrop, ii., 97; R. I. H. S. Coll., iii., 155; O'Call., i., 271, 420; Bancroft, ii., 291. + De Vries, 180. ‡ Hol. Doc., iii., 111; Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv., 11. 1643. Public against the director. CHAP. X. All this time the obstinate director had remained safely within the walls of Fort Amsterdam, where flocked the victims of his rashness. It was hard to bear the wrath clamor of ruined farmers, and childless men, and widowed women. To divert the public clamor, several other expeditions were sent out against the Indians, under the command of Adriaensen. But the marauding force, which was partly composed of English colonists, returned without having accomplished any thing; while Adriaensen himself, in witnessing the destruction of his own bouwery, was made to taste the bitter fruits of that war which his own counsels had assisted to provoke. The proud heart of the director began to fail him at last. In one week, desolation and sorrow had taken the place of gladness and prosperity. The colony intrusted to his charge was nearly ruined. It was time to humble himself before the Most High, and invoke from Heaven the mercy which the Christian had re4 March. fused to the savage. A day of general fasting and prayer tion for a was proclaimed. "We continue to suffer much trouble and loss from the heathen, and many of our inhabitants see their lives and property in jeopardy, which is doubtless owing to our sins," was Kieft's contrite confession, as he exhorted every one penitently to supplicate the mercy of God, "so that his holy name may not, through our iniquities, be blasphemed by the heathen.”* Proclama day of fasting. The people propose to back to Holland. But while the people humbled themselves before their send Kieft God, they still held the director personally responsible for all the consequences of the massacres at Pavonia and Corlaer's Hook; and some of the burghers, and of the former board of Twelve Men, boldly talked of imitating the example which Virginia had set, in the case of Harvey, by deposing Kieft, and sending him back to Holland. The director, in alarm, endeavored to shift the responsibility upon Adriaensen and his coadjutors, who had so wrongfully used the name of the commonalty in the petition Kieft's mean subterfuge. * Alb. Rec., ii., 214, 215; Hol. Doc., iii., 111; O'Call., i., 271, 272. The custom of setting apart, by the secular authority, days of public humiliation and public thanksgiving, obtained in Holland, as we have seen, before the settlement of New Netherland or New England; ante, p. 41. 1643. which urged the war. "For what has occurred," pleaded Chap. X. Kieft, "you must blame the freemen." "You forbade those freemen to meet, on pain of punishment for disobedience," retorted the indignant burghers; "how came it, then?" The convicted director was silenced.* attacks the 21 March, Finding that Kieft was endeavoring to divert from himself the odium of the slaughter of the Indians and the misery of the colonists, Adriaensen, now himself an almost ruined man, had no disposition to bear all the bitterness of popular reproach. Arming himself with a hanger and Adriaensen pistol, he rushed into the director's room, demanding director. "What lies are these you are reporting of me?" The would-be assassin was promptly disarmed and imprisoned; but his servant, with another of his men, armed with guns and pistols, hastened to the fort, where one of them, firing at the director, was shot down by the sentinel, and his head set upon the gallows. The prisoner's comrades now crowded around the director's door, demanding their leader's release. Kieft refused; but agreed to submit the question to the commonalty, with liberty to the prisoner's friends to select some of their number to assist at the examination. This, however, they declined to do, and insisted that the prisoner should be discharged upon his paying a fine of five hundred guilders, and absenting himself for three months from Manhattan. The director, wishing to show some deference to the commonalty, proposed to call in some of the most respectable citizens, to sit with his council in deciding the case. But the commonalty, unwilling to countenance the abuse which the director had deceitfully neglected to amend, refused; and Kieft, 28 March finding that "no one would or dared" assist him, determined to send Adriaensen to Holland for trial.† * Alb. Rec., iii., 109; Hol. Doc., iii., 149-154. † Alb. Rec., ii., 216-219; iii., 94; Hol. Doc., iii., 112; Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv., 12; O'Call., i., 273, 274; Winthrop, ii., 97. The New England historians who allude to this case, account for Adriaensen's attack on Kieft on the ground of his jealousy of Underhill. But Underhill was not then in the service of the Dutch; nor did he enter it until the autumn of 1643. Adriaensen, returning to New Netherland, obtained a patent on the 11th of May, 1647, for " Awiehaken," on the west side of the North River, now known as Weehaken, just north of Hoboken.-Alb. Rec. G. G., 491 |