The Chautauquan, Vol. 04, April 1884, No. 7Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle
Religion
The Chautauquan, Vol. 04, April 1884, No. 7
Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle
Chautauqua Institution -- Periodicals; Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle -- Periodicals
Some settlements were also made on Long Island. The Dutch of New
Amsterdam and the Pilgrims of New England were early friends, and helped
each other. Both enjoyed a good degree of prosperity, and the population
steadily increased.
For more than ten years the Indians, with few exceptions, received the
strangers who came among them kindly and in good faith. When injured
and wronged their resentment was kindled, and terribly did they avenge
themselves on their enemies. The first notable instance was at Lewistown,
on Delaware Bay, where Hosset, a governor of violent temper and little
sagacity, seized and put to death a chief, who in some way offended him.
The tribe was aroused, and assailed the place with such violence that
not a man was left alive. When the next ship-load of colonists arrived,
instead of a thrifty town, and friends eagerly waiting to receive them,
they found but the bones of the slain, and the ashes of the homes that
had sheltered them. Afterward there was not, for many years, the same
sense of security; and in 1640 New Netherlands became involved in a
general war with the Indians of Long Island and New Jersey, a war that,
on both sides, was far from honorable, and marked with treachery,
cruelty, and murders most revolting. If the whites were surprised and
massacred by the Indians, there were as terrible massacres of Indians by
the whites, who were, too often, the aggressors. An impartial historian
says: “Nearly all the bloodshed and sorrow of those five years of war may
be charged to Governor Kief. He was a revengeful, cruel man, whose idea
of government was to destroy whatever opposed him.” For his headstrong
course and cruelty he lost his position, and, to the great relief of the
colonists, who had suffered much on his account, sailed for England. But
the ship was wrecked on the coast of Wales, and the guilty governor found
a grave in the sea. He was succeeded by Peter Stuyvesant, a resolute
man, of more ability than most who preceded him. He, for seventeen
years, managed the affairs of the colonists successfully. He conciliated
the savages, settled the boundaries of his territory, and enforced the
surrender of New Sweden, which became a part of his dominion. There was
afterward some difficulty with the Indians, but more from a quarter
whence no danger was expected. Lord Baltimore, of Maryland, claimed,
under his charter, all the territory between the Chesapeake and Delaware
Bay. Berkley claimed New Sweden, while Connecticut and Massachusetts were
equally aggressive on the territories adjacent to their lines.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account