As the straight-limbed and erect Indians had no intoxicating liquors, pimpled noses were not to be found among them. Nor did they use profane language, so far as I have been able to learn. What a contrast between them and some of their white brethren! The late W. Clark Russell, in one of his inimitable sea stories, thus describes the English captain of a vessel: “His face was purple with grog blossoms, his legs were bent like the tines of a pitch-fork and he was charged to the throat with a fo-castle vocabulary,” which is, as you may have heard, redolent of profanity. The Indians were never very numerous in New Jersey, at least not after the advent of the white settlers. It has been estimated that in 1648 there were in the various tribes about 2,000 warriors all told, which would make a total population of about 8,000. After this time they disappeared rapidly. In 1721 they were said to be few and friendly,--the fewer the more friendly, doubtless. Kalm, a Swedish traveler, who spent some time here in 1747, observed that the disappearance of the native population was principally due to two agencies,--smallpox and brandy. It will be remembered, I believe, by everyone, that intoxicating liquors were sold to the Indians by the whites even in defiance of colonial statutes forbidding it. The practice of violating excise laws, which we have every reason to believe still goes on, appears, therefore, to be of ancient origin and to be founded upon considerable historic precedent. The cupidity of the early settlers led them to sell liquor to the Indians and countless evils ensued. One day in 1643, at Pavonia in this state, an Indian who had become intoxicated through the Dutch plying him with liquor, was asked if he could make good use of his bow and arrow. For an answer he aimed at a Dutchman thatching a house and shot him dead. An Englishman had been killed a few days before by some Indians of the Achter Col village. The whites were exasperated and demanded the surrender of the murderers, which was refused, being contrary to Indian custom. Some of the whites trespassed on the Indians’ cornfields, and when resisted shot three of the savages dead. A war seemed imminent, and in alarm many of the Indians fled for protection to the neighborhood of the Fort on Manhattan Island. The Dutch took advantage of this opportunity, and on the night of February 25, 1643, one party slaughtered their unsuspecting guests on the Island, while another party came to Pavonia and attacked the Indian village there, when the women and children were all asleep. The ferocity displayed by the whites on this occasion was never exceeded by the Indians. I will spare you any detailed account of the horrible tragedy, and will only add that as the result of the night’s butchery about eighty Indians were killed and thirty made prisoners. Eleven tribes arose to avenge this cruel slaughter, but were no match for the well-armed whites, and a thousand Indians were slain. Peace was