A Century Too Soon: The Age of TyrannyMusick, John R. (John Roy)
History
A Century Too Soon: The Age of Tyranny
Musick, John R. (John Roy)
Bacon's Rebellion, 1676 -- Fiction; United States -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775 -- Fiction
Stuyvesant was enraged and perplexed by this surrender. At that time he
was expecting an attack from the English, and the doughty governor
prepared to wipe out the stain on Belgic prowess caused "by that
infamous surrender." On the first Sunday in September, 1655, with seven
vessels carrying more than six hundred soldiers, he sailed from New
Amsterdam for the Delaware. He landed his force on the beach between
Fort Cassimer and Fort Christina near Wilmington, and an ensign with a
drum was sent to the fort to demand the surrender. The warlike Schute
complied next day, and in the presence of Stuyvesant and his suite he
drank the health of the governor in a glass of Rhenish wine. So ended
the bloodless conquest.
[Illustration: Stuyvesant.]
On his return to Manhattan, Stuyvesant found the wildest confusion
reigning because of a sudden uprising of the Indians. A former civil
officer named Van Dyck had a very fine peach orchard which caused him no
little annoyance on account of the constant pilfering of the Indians.
Van Dyck, had grown exasperated and had vowed to kill the next Indian
whom he should discover stealing his fruit. One day while the stout
Dutchman was at his midday 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.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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