to protect our
villages with proper defences. Let us build block-houses
wherever they are needed and not permit any armed Indian to
enter the European settlements."

The Long Island Indians sent a delegation to New Amsterdam declaring
that for ten years, since 1645, they had been the friends of the
Dutch, and had done them no harm, "not even to the value of a dog."
They sent, as a present, a bundle of wampum in token of the friendship
of the chiefs of the Eastern tribes. But the up-river Indians
continued sullen. With their customary cunning or sagacity they
retained quite a number of captives, holding them as pledges to secure
themselves from the vengeance of the Dutch. There was no hope of
liberating them by war, since the Indians would never deliver up a
white captive in exchange for prisoners of their own tribes. And upon
the first outbreak of war the unfortunate Dutch prisoners would be
conveyed to inaccessible depths of the forests.

The Dutch settlers had scattered widely, on farms and plantations.
Thus they were peculiarly exposed to attacks from the Indians, and
could render each other but little assistance. As a remedy for this
evil, Governor Stuyvesant issued a proclamation ordering all who lived
in secluded places in the country to assemble and unite themselves in
villages before the ensuing spring, "after the fashion," as he said,
"of our New England neighbors."

In Sweden, before the tidings of the fall of fort Casimir had reached
that country, an expedition had been fitted out for the South river,
conveying one hundred and thirty emigrants. Stuyvesant, on learning of
their arrival, forbade them to land. He dispatched a vessel and a land
force, to capture the Swedish ship the Mercury, and bring it with all
the passengers to fort Amsterdam. Having disposed of her cargo, the
vessel and all the Swedish soldiers it bore, were sent back to Europe.

In obedience to orders from home, Stuyvesant erected a fort at Oyster
Bay, on the north side of Long island. In the instructions he received
he was enjoined, "to maintain, by force, if necessary, the integrity
of the Dutch province, the boundaries of which have just been formally
confirmed by the States-General."

The Directors added,

"We do not hesitate to approve of your expedition on the
South river, and its happy termination. We should not have
been displeased, however, if such a formal capitulation for
the surrender of