he
boat was waiting to carry him on board the ship, that the tide and wind
were fair and they only awaited his arrival to sail.

Once more he tenderly bent over the sleeping children and pressed a kiss
on the face of each. A tear fell on the chubby cheek of little Rebecca,
causing her to smile.

"Farewell, little darling!" and the father quitted his home and,
accompanied by his wife, hurried to the beach. Here was a short pause, a
last embrace, a fond adieu, and the husband left the weeping wife on the
strand, while he was rowed to the great ship which had already begun to
hoist anchor.

CHAPTER III.

THE COLONIES OF THE NEW WORLD.

We love
The king who loves the law, respects his bounds,
And reigns content within them; him we serve
Freely and with delight, who leaves us free:
But recollecting still that he is a man,
We trust him not too far.
--COWPER.

The Dutch, who still held possession of Manhattan Island and the
territory now known as New York, were not enjoying the peace and
tranquillity promised the just. Because some swine had been stolen from
the plantation of De Vries on Staten Island, the Dutch governor sent an
armed force to chastise the innocent Raritans in New Jersey, believing
that a show of power would disarm the vengeance of the savages. The
event was so grossly unjust that it not only aroused the Raritans, but
all neighboring tribes, and they prepared for war. The hitherto peaceful
Raritans killed the whites whenever they found them alone in the forest.
Fifteen years before some of Minuet's men murdered an Indian belonging
to a tribe seated beyond the Harlem River. His nephew, then a boy, who
saw the outrage and made a vow of vengeance, had now grown to be a lusty
man. He executed his vow by murdering a wheelwright while he was
examining his tool-chest for a tool, cleaving his skull with an axe.
Governor Kieft demanded the murderer; but his chief would not give him
up, saying he had sought vengeance according to the customs of his race.

The governor, who cared little for the "customs of the race," determined
to chastise that tribe as he had the Raritans, and called upon the
people to shoulder their muskets for the fray; but they, seeing the
danger to which the rashness of the governor was leading them, refused.
They had been witnesses of his rapacity and greed, and they now cha