y meal, his son ran in to tell him that he had
seen an Indian squaw enter the orchard. Van Dyck sprang from the table
vowing vengeance, and from the rack made of deer's horns he took down
his fusee and rushed into the orchard, taking care to conceal himself
until he was within easy range. The squaw saw him and, with a yell of
fear, wheeled to fly for her life; but Van Dyck was a true shot and,
bringing his gun to his shoulder, killed her as she ran.

[Illustration: THE SQUAW, WITH A YELL OF FEAR, WHEELED TO FLY FOR HER
LIFE.]

The fury of the tribe was kindled, and the long peace of ten years was
suddenly broken. One morning before daybreak almost two thousand river
Indians in sixty large war-canoes landed, distributed themselves through
the town and, under pretence of looking for northern Indians, broke into
several dwellings in search of Van Dyck. A council of the inhabitants
was immediately held at the fort, and the sachems of the invaders were
summoned before them. The Indian leaders agreed to leave the city and
pass over to Nutten (now Governor's Island), before sunset; but they
broke their promise. That afternoon Van Dyck was discovered, and they
opened fire on him. He fled down the street, but was finally shot and
killed, and the lives of others were threatened. The people flew to arms
and drove the savages to their canoes. The Indians crossed the Hudson
and ravaged New Jersey and Staten Island. Within three days a hundred
inhabitants were killed, one hundred and fifty made captives, and the
estates of three hundred utterly desolated by the dusky foe. In the
height of the excitement, Stuyvesant returned and soon brought order out
of chaos, yet distant settlements were still broken up, the inhabitants
in fear flying to Manhattan for safety. To prevent a like calamity in
the future, the governor issued a proclamation ordering all who lived in
secluded places in the country to gather themselves into villages "after
the fashion of our New Engand neighbors." After some desultory fighting
on the frontier, Dutch and Indian hostilities in a great measure ceased,
and for about ten years, beyond the threatenings of the English on the
one hand and the Indians on the other, New Netherland enjoyed a season
of peace and prosperity.

The New England colonies, with the exception of Rhode Island and a part
of the Mason and Gorges claim, had, in 1644, formed a confederacy. The
New England Confederacy--the harbinger of the United