A homely proverb may seem inconsistent with the gravity of history, but it may nevertheless be applicable on some occasions, as in the Dutch settlements at this juncture, when misfortune seemed not only to _rain_, but to _pour_. These contentions with regard to territory were carried on during a renewed Indian war, which laid waste a village on the banks of the Esopus, many of the inhabitants being murdered or carried into captivity. The approach of winter alone put a stop to these horrors; and that which added still more to the misery of the time, was the fact that New Netherlands stood alone: none of its more powerful and fortunate neighbours came to its rescue; it had no friends but the Mohawks, who said, “The Dutch are our brethren. We keep with them but one council fire; we are united by a covenant chain.” And not only were their neighbours unwilling to help them, but there was no patriotism, no public spirit, as yet within the heart of the state itself; New Netherlands could neither help herself, nor would the council at home advance either men or money for her defence. Alarmed and perplexed in this crisis, Stuyvesant was ready to concede those privileges to the people which he had hitherto refused. In 1663, a popular assembly was convened. In the spring of the following year it met again, but by that time new troubles were at hand. Rumours of an English invasion filled the colony; and the representatives, seeing the paucity of means of defence, contemplated very coolly the necessity of submission to this new enemy. “If you cannot defend us,” said they, addressing the governor, “to whom shall we turn?” And the governor, wishing to rouse a spirit of patriotism in their souls, proposed that “every third man should enlist for the defence of their adopted country, as had once been done in the Fatherland.” But the people would not adopt his proposal. In vain was a witty libeller of the magistrates fastened to a stake with a bridle in his mouth; people _would_ talk rather than act. In the autumn of 1664, “Long Island had revolted, the settlements on the Esopus wavered, and the Connecticut men had possessed themselves by purchase from the Indians of the whole sea-coast as far as North River.” Stuyvesant wrote these alarming tidings to Holland.