, under the guise of
friendship. Each party had its marked man. At a given signal, with the
utmost ferocity they fell upon their victims. With arrows, tomahawks
and war-clubs, the work was soon completed. Not a man escaped.

CHAPTER IV.

THE ADMINISTRATION OF VAN TWILLER.

Friendly Relations Restored.--Wouter Van Twiller New
Director.--Captain Elkins.--Remonstrance of De
Vrees.--Claims for the Connecticut.--The Plymouth
Expedition.--A Boat's Crew Murdered.--Condition of the
Colony in 1633.--Emigration to the Connecticut.--Emigrants
from Holland.--The Red Rocks.--New Haven Colony
Established.--Natural.--Indian Remonstrance Against
Taxation.--Outrage upon the Raritan Indians.--Indian
Revenge.

De Vrees very wisely decided that it would be but a barren vengeance
to endeavor to retaliate upon the roaming savages, when probably more
suffering would be inflicted upon the innocent than upon the guilty.
He therefore, to their astonishment and great joy, entered into a
formal treaty of peace and alliance with them. Any attempt to bring
the offenders to justice would of course have been unavailing, as they
could easily scatter, far and wide, through the trackless wilderness.
Arrangements were made for re-opening trade, and the Indians with
alacrity departed to hunt beaver.

A new Director was appointed at Manhattan, Wouter Van Twiller. He was
an inexperienced young man, and owed his appointment to the powerful
patronage he enjoyed from having married the niece of the patroon Van
Rensselaer. Thus a "raw Amsterdam clerk," embarked in a ship of twenty
guns, with a military force of one hundred and four soldiers, to
assume the government of New Netherland. The main object of this
mercantile governor seemed to be to secure trade with the natives and
to send home furs.

De Vrees, having concluded his peace with the Indians, sailed up the
South river, as they then called the Delaware, through the floating
ice, to a trading post, which had been established some time before at
a point about four miles below the present site of Philadelphia. He
thought he saw indications of treachery, and was constantly on his
guard. He found the post, which was called Fort Nassau, like a similar
post on the Hudson, deserted. The chiefs, however, of nine different
tribes, came on board, bringing presents of beaver skins, avowing the
most friendly feelings, and they entered into a formal