Historic Events of Colonial DaysHolland, Rupert Sargent
History
Historic Events of Colonial Days
Holland, Rupert Sargent
United States -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775
Early in September word came that the Indians had built another fort, or
castle, as they called it, thirty-six miles to the southwest. Again
Captain Crygier set out with his men, and on the second day came in view
of the fort. It stood on a height, and was built of two rows of stout
palisades, fifteen feet high. Crygier divided his forces, and one-half
the men crept toward the fort. Then a squaw saw them, and by her cry
warned the Indians. Both parties of the Dutch rushed up the hill,
stormed the palisades, drove their enemies before them, and scattered
them in the fields. Behind the fort was a creek. The Indians waded and
swam it, and made a stand on the opposite bank. But the fire of the
Dutchmen was too much for them, and shortly they were flying wildly into
the wilderness.
The Indian chief, Papoquanchen, and fourteen of his warriors were killed
in the battle, twenty-two white prisoners were rescued, and fourteen
Indians were captured. The fort was plundered of provisions, and the
Dutch found eighty guns, besides, as they reported, "bearskins,
deerskins, blankets, elk hides and peltries sufficient to load a
shallop."
There was great joy at Esopus when the victorious little army returned.
Danger from that particular tribe of Indians seemed at an end, but to
make the matter certain a third expedition was sent out in the fall.
They scouted through the near-by country, but found only a few scattered
red men. Those that were left of the Esopus tribe after that last attack
on their fort had fled south and finally become part of the Minnisincks.
Again peace reigned in the Dutch settlements; the farmers went back to
their fields, and the soldiers returned to the capital at New Amsterdam.
To the north of the Dutch colony lay the English colonies of New
England, and the boundary between New Netherland and its neighbors had
never been fixed. Many Englishmen had settled along the Hudson and on
Long Island, and Governor Stuyvesant thought it was high time to reach
some agreement with the New England governors. So he went to Boston in
September, 1663; but scarcely had he left New Amsterdam when an English
agent, James Christie, arrived on Long Island, and told the people of
Gravesend, Flushing, Hempstead and Jamaica that they were no longer
under Dutch rule, but that their territory had been annexed to the
colony of Connecticut.
Now many of the settlers at Gravesend were English, and most of the
magistrates and officers. When Christie read his announcement to the
people one of the few faithful Dutch magistrates, Sheriff Stillwell,
arrested him on a charge of treason. Then the other magistrates ordered
the arrest of Stillwell in turn, and the public feeling against the
latter was so strong that he had to send word secretly to New Amsterdam,
asking for help. A sergeant and eight soldiers were sent from New
Amsterdam, and they again arrested Christie and placed him under guard
in Sheriff Stillwell's house.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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