or
numbers, made a desperate resistance. But in a conflict like this,
arrows are comparatively powerless when opposed to muskets. The
Indians, unable to reach their foes with their arrows, made several
very bold sallies, recklessly endeavoring to break the Dutch lines.
They were invariably driven back with great loss. Not one of them
could show himself outside the palisades without being shot down.

In less than an hour the dark forms of one hundred and eighty Indian
warriors lay spread out upon the blood-crimsoned snow. And now the
Dutch succeeded in applying the torch. The whole village, composed of
the most combustible materials, was instantly in flames. The Indians
lost all self-possession. They ran to and fro in a state of frenzy. As
they endeavored to escape they were, with unerring aim, shot down, or
driven back into their blazing huts. Thus over five hundred perished.
Of all who crowded the little village at nightfall but eight escaped.
Only eight of the Dutch were wounded; but not one fatally.

The conflagration of an hour laid the bark village in ashes. Nothing
remained. The victors built large fires and bivouacked upon the snow.
The next day they returned to Stamford, and two days afterward reached
fort Amsterdam.

War is generally ruin to both parties. In this case neither of the
combatants gained anything. Both parties alike reaped but a harvest of
blood and woe. Scouting parties of the savages prowled beneath the
very walls of fort Amsterdam, ready at a moment's warning, to dart
into the wilderness, where even the bravest of the Dutch could not
venture to pursue. For the protection of the few cattle which
remained, all the men turned out and built a stout fence, "from the
great bowery or farm across to Emanuel plantation," near the site of
the present Wall street.

During the whole summer of 1644, the savages were busy carrying the
desolating war into every unprotected nook and corner. The condition
of the colony became desperate, being almost entirely destitute of
food, money and clothing. The utter incompetency of Kieft was daily
more conspicuous. He did nothing. "Scarce a foot was moved on land, or
an oar laid in the water." The savages, thus left in security to fish
and gather in their crops, were ever increasingly insolent and
defiant. One of the annalists of those times writes:

"Parties of Indians roved about day and night, over
Manhattan island, killing the Dutch not a thousand pace