The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1906-08-17
NEW YORK'S
INDIAN WAR

hCt-headed, impulsive and brutal a
man as ever held Office on this con-
tinent.
Midst his other resolutions Kieft
determined to lay tribute of furs and
wampum on the Indians for protect
ing them from their enemies"
This, of course, only served to ex-
cite the contempt and indignation of
the red men, who knew very well that
they received no protection from Fort
Amsterdam, and to Governor Kieft
they sent the following reply:
s The Sacnem must be a pretty
mean fellow. He came to live among
lis without being invited, and now he
wants us to supply him with corn for
r7thing"
While Kieft was chatting over this
fair and sensible answer to his at
tempt at laying tribute upon the red
men, a party of rascally Dutchmen
landed at Staten Island and stole
some hogs from De Vries, and, to add
to their rascality, laid the blame of
the thievery upon the Indians.
Old Kieft at once fell upon the in
nocent natives with fire and sword,
and the natives, being human, retail
lated by burning barns and killing
white men.
The bloodthirsty Governor was for
instant war, but before issuing his or
der for the bloody business, he called
a meeting of the leading citizens. The
Council met in the fort August 2S,
1641, being the first public assembly
ever convened on the Islands of Man
haitian.
The vote of the assembly was
against war, but war the stubborn old
Governor would have, and did have.
His bloody resolution was sudden
ly matured by the following incident:
A Dutch trader made an Indian drunk
and stole from him a dress of beaver
skins. When the Indian got sober
he shot a couple of white men to get
even with the pale-face who had rob-
bed him.
Kieft Immediately sent forth his
Dutchmen with orders to burn and
Stay regardless of age, sex or condi-
ton, and the orders were carried out
to the letter.
Two of the most disgraceful mas
sacres in American history followed,
one at Pavonia, the other at Corlears
Hook. Hundreds of red men with
their wives and little ones were ruth
lessly butchered, the villages burned
and the cornfields devastated.
Justly enraged at this inhuman
treatment of their brethren, the Long
Island Indians joined with the river
tribes and declared open war against
the whites.
In a little while it looked bad for
New Amsterdam. The retribution was
quick and terrible. Wherever a white
man showed himself outside of the
stockade he was shot and scalped.
Cattle were driven off. Houses were
burned. Women and children were
captured and killed Or carried into
captivity.
New Amsterdam was in despair and
aaf t1crh
would be obliged to quit the fort and
go back to the old country.
Kieft begged for peace. The In
dams scorned his stipulations and the
havoc continued.
But the white man is tough, full
of courage and abundant in resour
ces, and the red man was sure to get
the worst of it.
Awaiting themselves of the assis-
lance of some English colonists who
had settled near by them, the New
Amsterdam burghers were able to
turn the tide in their favor
Under the command of Cook and
the Englishmen and Dutch
men so completely turned the tables
that in a short time over one thous-
and Indians were slain. At Maspeth,
at Hemstead, at Strickland's Plain,
near Greenwich, the natives were
massacred in windrows, the women
and children being driven into the
nuts and burned alive.
The victory" at Strickland's Plain,
where over six hundred of the chill
lren of the forest persisted by fire and
sword, practically ended the war, and
IN beautiful April day of the year
L644 the surviving chiefs of the Long
sland and river tribes appeared at
he fort and sued for peace.
A little later all the sachems of the
hostile tribes assembled on the Bowl
ng Green and, after smoking the pipe
If peace, swore that they would never