A TEMPORARY TRUCE. 121 XIII. Island was attacked, this Indian hastened to his country- CHAP. men who were besieging the people in the block-house, and told them how he and his wife had been rescued. The 1648. besiegers immediately told the people they would molest them no more; and they kept their word. A temporary truce was made at Rockaway on Long Sep. Island. The chiefs of a number of tribes agreed to meet the messengers of the Dutch, and treat of peace. De Vries, whom the Indians knew to be their friend, went with two others to the interview. When the conference was opened one of the chiefs arose, having in his hand a number of little sticks; taking one, he commenced: "When you first came to our shores you wanted food; we gave you our beans and our corn, and now you murder our people." He took another stick: "The men whom your first ships left to trade, we guarded and fed; we gave them our daughters for wives; some of those whom you murdered were of your own blood." Many sticks still remained, but the envoys did not wish to hear a further recital of wrongs. They proposed that they should both forget the past, and now make peace forever. Peace was made. It was not satisfactory to the young warriors; they thought "the bloody men," as they now called the Dutch, had not paid the full price of the lives they had taken; and war broke forth again. Now the leader of the Dutch was Captain John Underhill, who had had experience in the Pequod war in New England. For two years the Indians were hunted from swamp to swamp, through winter and summer; yet they were not subdued. They lay in ambush round the settlements, and picked off the husbandman from his labor, and carried into captivity his wife and children. There was no security from the midnight attack; scarcely any corn was planted; famine and utter ruin stared the colony in the face. Sixteen hundred of the Indians had been killed, and the number of white people was so much reduced, that, besides CHAP. traders, there were not more than one hundred persons on XIII. the Isle of Manhattan. What a ruin had been wrought 1643. by the wicked perverseness of one man! 1645. At length both parties became weary of war. The chieftains of the tribes around New Amsterdam, and, as mediators, a deputation from their ancient enemies the Mohawks, met the deputies of the Dutch beneath the open sky, on the place now known as the Battery, in New York city, and there concluded a peace. He was Thanksgivings burst forth from the people at the prospect of returning safety. There was no consolation. for Kieft; he was justly charged by them with being the cause of all their misfortunes. The company censured him, and disclaimed his barbarous conduct. without a friend in the colony. After two years, with his ill-gotten gains, he sailed for his native land. The vessel was wrecked on the coast of Wales, and, with many others, 1646. he was lost. In the midst of all these difficulties there were those who labored to instruct the poor heathen Indians of New Netherland. Several years before the missionary Eliot commenced his labors with the tribes near Boston, Megapolensis, the Dutch clergyman at Fort Orange, endeavored to teach the Mohawks the truths of the gospel. He strove to learn their language, that he might "speak and preach to them fluently," but without much success; their language was, as he expressed it, so "heavy." The grave warriors would listen respectfully when told to renounce certain sins, but they would immediately ask why white men committed the same. Efforts were made afterward to instruct in Christianity the tribes around Manhattan, but the good work was neutralized by other and evil influences. The West India Company appointed Peter Stuyvesant to succced Kieft as governor. He had been accustomed to military rule, and was exceedingly arbitrary in his gov THE SWEDES ON THE DELAWARE. 123 XIII. ernment; honest in his endeavors to fulfil his trust to the CHAP company, he also overlooked the rights of the people. He thought their duty was to pursue their business, and pay 1646. their taxes, and not trouble their brains about his manner of government. The colony was well-nigh ruined when Stuyvesant came into power; for nearly five years the dark cloud of war had been hanging over it. The Indians had been dealt with harshly and treacherously; policy as well as mercy demanded that they should be treated leniently. The company desired peace with the various tribes, for the success of trade depended upon their good-will. Although the Dutch claimed the territory from Cape Cod to the Capes of Virginia, they preferred to negotiate with New England, and desired that the wars between their mother countries in the Old World should not disturb the harmony of the New. It must be confessed that the Connecticut people annoyed Stuyvesant exceedingly. The absurd stories told by the wily Mohegan chief, Uncas, of the Dutch conspiring with the Narragansets to cut off the English, found a too ready credence; so ready as to leave the impression that such stories were rather welcome than otherwise, provided they furnished an excuse for encroaching upon the territory of the Dutch. When accused of this conspiracy, said a sachem of the Narragansets, "I am poor, but no present can make me an enemy of the English!" We have now to speak of others settling on territory claimed by the Dutch. Gustavus Adolphus, the King of Sweden, was induced to engage in sending a colony to the New World. He wished to found an asylum to which Protestants of Europe could flee. Peter Minuits, who has already been mentioned, as commercial agent at New Amsterdam, offered his services to lead the company of emigrants. The same year that Kieft came as governor to New Amsterdam, Minuits landed on the shores of the CHAP. Delaware with a company of emigrants, about fifty in numXIII. ber. They purchased from the Indians the territory on 1638. the west side of the bay and river from Cape Henlopen to the falls at Trenton. This was very nearly the soil of the present State of Delaware. Nearly all this territory had been purchased some years before by the Dutch, who looked upon the Swedes as intruders. The latter built a fort and a church on the site of Wilmington, and named the country New Sweden. The Dutch protested, but the Swedes went quietly to work, and increased from year to year by accessions from their native land. For years the disputes between the two colonies continued; at length Stuyvesant, obeying the orders of the company, determined to make the Swedes submit to Dutch rule. The former, 1655, in surrendering, were to lose none of their rights as citizens. Thus, after an existence of seventeen years, the Swedish colony passed under the sway of the Dutch. Many of them became dissatisfied with the arbitrary acts of their rulers, and from time to time emigrated to Virginia and Maryland. What is now New Jersey was also included in the territory claimed by the Dutch. They built a fort, a short distance below Camden, which they named Nassau. 1623. Michael Pauw bought of the Indians Staten Island, and all the land extending from Hoboken to the river Raritan. He named the territory Pavonia. Meanwhile the Swedes passed over to the east side of Delaware bay, and established trading-houses from Cape May to Burlington. Manhattan in the meanwhile was gaining numbers by emigration. The stern Stuyvesant was sometimes intolerant, but the company wished the people to enjoy the rights of conscience. They wished New Amsterdam to be as liberal to the exile for religion's sake as was its namesake in the Old World. Every nation in Europe had here its representatives. It was remarked "that the inhabitants were of different sects and nations, and that DISCONTENTS OF THE PEOPLE. 125 XIII. they spoke many different languages." The public docu- CHAP. ments were issued sometimes in Dutch, sometimes in English, and sometimes in French. Two centuries ago it was prophesied that here would be centred the commerce of 1658. the world. Time is realizing the prediction. To promote emigration the mechanic had his passage given him. The poor persecuted Waldenses came from their native valleys and mountains at the expense of the old city of Amsterdam. Africa, too, had her representatives. Her sons and daughters were brought as slaves at the charge of the West India Company; and the city of Amsterdam, in this case also, shared the expense and the profit. The spirit of democracy began to pervade the minds of the Dutch; the credit of this has been given to the New Englanders, who were continually enlightening them on the subject of the freedom of Englishmen. This annoyed Stuyvesant beyond endurance. He often expressed his contempt for the "wavering multitude;" he despised the people, and scoffed at the idea that they could govern themselves: it was their duty to work, and not discuss the mysteries of government. They had no voice in the choice of their rulers, and were even forbidden to hold meetings to talk of their affairs. Stuyvesant finally consented to let them hold a convention of two delegates from each settlement; but as soon as these delegates began to discuss his conduct as governor, he dissolved the convention, bluntly telling them he derived his authority from the company, and not from "a few ignorant subjects." When a citizen, in a case in which he thought himself aggrieved, threatened to appeal to the StatesGeneral of Holland, "If you do," said the angry governor, "I will make you a foot shorter than you are." When the day of trial came, Stuyvesant found that by such despotic measures he had lost the good-will of the people of every class and nation. Rumors were now rife that the English were about to |