them. Two days ago twenty or thirty kegs came to us, all to
be filled with brandy. Are you willing that we should take
from your people their brandy and their kegs. If so, say
this before all here present."

With this speech there was presented to the chiefs several bundles of
wampum, seventy pounds of powder, a hundred pounds of lead, fifteen
axes two beavers worth of knives. The chiefs were highly pleased with
the presents and eagerly gave their consent that the Dutch should
seize the liquor kegs of the Indians.

The authorities at fort Orange, having secured the friendship of the
Mohawks, endeavored to obtain an armistice with the Indians at Esopus,
and a release of the captives they had taken. Several Mohawk and
Mohegan chiefs, as mediators, visited Esopus, on this mission of
mercy. They were partially successful. An armistice was reluctantly
assented to, and two captives were liberated. The Indians, however,
still retained a number of children, they having killed all the
adults. Those who had agreed to the armistice were not the principal
chiefs, and the spirit of the war remained unbroken.

Under these circumstances Stuyvesant wrote to Holland for aid. In his
letter he said,

"If a farmer cannot plough, sow or reap, in a newly settled
country, without being harassed; if the citizens and
merchants cannot freely navigate the streams and rivers,
they will doubtless leave the country and seek a residence
in some place where they can find a government to protect
them.'"

The Directors wrote back urging him to employ the Mohawks and other
friendly tribes against the Esopus Indians. The governor replied,

"The Mohawks are, above all other savages, a vain-glorious,
proud and bold tribe. If their aid be demanded and obtained,
and success follow, they will only become the more inflated,
and we the more contemptible in the eyes of the other
tribes. If we did not then reward their services, in a
manner satisfactory to their greedy appetites, they would
incessantly revile us, and were this retorted, it might lead
to collision. It is therefore safer to stand on our own feet
as long as possible."

The governor had a long controversy with the Massachusetts authorities
in reference to its claim to the upper valley of the Hudson. In this
he expressed very strongly the title of Holland to the North river.

"Printed histories," he w