compact village, that they persisted in
the dangerous practice, notwithstanding all the warnings of the
governor. There were individuals also who could not be restrained from
paying brandy to the savages for their peltries The intoxicated
Indians often committed outrages. One of the settlers was killed. The
house and outbuildings of another were burned. The Dutch retaliated by
destroying the cornfields of the Indians, hoping thus to drive them to
a distance. At this time, in May, 1658, there were about seventy
colonists at Esopus. They had widely extended fields of grain. But the
Indians were becoming daily more inimical, and the alarmed colonists
wrote to Govern or Stuyvesant, saying,

"We pray you to send forty or fifty soldiers to save Esopus, which, if
well settled, might supply the whole of New Netherland with
provisions."

The governor ordered a redoubt to be built at Esopus, sent an
additional supply of ammunition, and taking fifty soldiers with him,
went up the river to ascertain, by a personal investigation, the wants
of the people. He urged them strenuously to unite in a village, which
could be easily palisaded, and which would thus afford them complete
protection. The colonists objected that it would be very difficult to
remove from their farms, while their crops were ungathered, and that
it would be impossible to select a site for the village which would
please all. The governor refused to leave the soldiers with them
unless they would immediately decide to concentrate in a village. In
that case he would remain and aid them in constructing the palisade
till it should be completed.

In the mean time messengers were sent to all the neighboring chiefs
inviting them to come to Esopus to meet "the grand sachem from
Manhattan." Sixty of these plumed warriors were soon assembled, with a
few women and children. The governor, with two followers and an
interpreter, met them beneath the widespread branches of an aged tree.
One of the chiefs opened the interview by a long speech, in which he
recounted all the injuries which he conceived that the Indians had
experienced from the foreigners. The governor listened patiently. He
then replied,

"These events occurred, as you well know, before my time. I
am not responsible for them. Has any injury been done you
since I came into the country? Your chiefs have asked us,
over and over again, to make a settlement among them. We
have not had a foot o