peaceably in our country, and have never demanded of them
any recompense. When they lost a ship here, and built a new
one, we supplied them with food and all other necessaries.
We took care of them for two winters until their ship was
finished. The Dutch are under obligations to us. We have
paid full price for everything we have purchased of them.
There is, therefore, no reason why we should supply them
with corn and furs for nothing. If we have ceded to them the
country they are living in, we yet remain masters of what we
have retained for ourselves."

This unanswerable argument covered the whole ground. The most
illiterate Indian could feel the force of such logic.

Some European vagabonds, as it was afterwards clearly proved, stole
some swine from Staten Island. The blame was thrown upon the innocent
Raritan Indians, who lived twenty miles inland. The rash Director
Kieft resolved to punish them with severity which should be a warning
to all the Indians.

He sent to this innocent, unsuspecting tribe, a party of seventy well
armed men, many of them unprincipled desperadoes. They fell upon the
peaceful Indians, brutally killed several, destroyed their crops, and
perpetrated all sorts of outrages.

The Indians never forget a wrong. The spirit of revenge burned in
their bosoms. There was a thriving plantation belonging to DeVrees on
Staten Island. The Indians attacked it, killed four of the laborers,
burned the dwelling and destroyed the crops. Kieft, in his blind rage,
resolved upon the extermination of the Raritans. He offered a large