New Netherlands, asserts it from his own observation as an
eye-witness. He was present, he says, in 1645, at a treaty
between Governor Kieft and the Mohawk Indians, in which one of
the latter, in painting himself for the ceremony, used a pigment,
the weight and shining appearance of which excited the curiosity
of the governor and Mynheer Van der Donck. They obtained a lump
and gave it to be proved by a skillful doctor of medicine,
Johannes de la Montagne, one of the councillors of the New
Netherlands. It was put into a crucible, and yielded two pieces
of gold worth about three guilders. All this, continues Adrian
Van der Donck, was kept secret. As soon as peace was made with
the Mohawks, an officer and a few men were sent to the mountain,
in the region of the Kaatskill, under the guidance of an Indian,
to search for the precious mineral. They brought back a bucketful
of ore, which, being submitted to the crucible, proved as
productive as the first. William Kieft now thought the discovery
certain. He sent a confidential person, Arent Corsen, with a
bagful of the mineral to New Haven, to take passage in an English
ship for England, thence to proceed to Holland. The vessel sailed
at Christmas, but never reached her port. All on board
perished.[A]

In the year 1647, Wilhelmus Kieft himself embarked on board the
_Princess_, taking with him specimens of the supposed mineral.
The ship was never heard of more!

Some have supposed that the mineral in question was not gold, but
pyrites; but we have the assertion of Adrian Van der Donck, an
eye-witness, and the experiment of Johannes de la Montagne, a
learned doctor of medicine, on the golden side of the question.
Cornelius Van Tienhooven, also, at that time secretary of the New
Netherlands, declared, in Holland, that he had tested several
specimens of the mineral, which proved satisfactory. It would
appear, however, that these golden treasures of the Kaatskill
always brought ill luck; as is evidenced in the fate of Arent
Corsen and Wilhelmus Kieft, and the wreck of the ships in which
they attempted to convey the treasure across the ocean. The
golden mines have never since been explored, but remain among t