promised that they would keep all our land purchases [intact] ... The land deeds were thereupon brought forth (although only some of them were at hand, the rest [being] at Stockholm), but only the names signed to them were read. When the savages heard their names, they were much pleased; but when anyone was mentioned who was dead, they bent down their heads.” A defensive league was thereupon made, the Indians promising that they would regard the enemies of the Swedes as their own enemies, and that they would report any danger to the settlement, which they might by chance hear of. But, although they were well satisfied with the Swedes, “yet they remarked that they had received sickness from the ship, through which they feared that all their people would perish.” Fire had been seen around the ship at night, and the savages believed that an evil spirit had come in the vessel. “A chief sitting on a table asked for a boat for two medicine men, who should go down to take the spirit away,” but no boat seems to have been available. “We gave them, however, the best comfort we could,” says Rising, “that the Lord God [would help them], and, if they put their trust in him, the plague would not harm them.” To further satisfy the Indians “two large kettles and other vessels” full of _sappan_ or porridge of Indian maize were placed before them upon the floor, and some strong drinks, “which they love exceedingly,” were given them. During the conference they were much offended because Van Dyck contradicted them, but he appeased them by praising their qualities, and they left Printz Hall well satisfied and in the best of humor. * * * * * On the morrow, which was Sunday, a sachem of the Minquas, called Agaliquanes, “a brother of the former general,” came to Christina. Presents were given to him and he promised to keep good peace with the Swedes, for they treated the Indians well, unlike the English of Virginia, “who used to shoot them to death, wherever they found them.” When conditions had somewhat changed for the better Rising could turn his attention to expansion and necessary betterments. He had been instructed to observe “that the land should be properly portioned out to the colonists, so that each one would receive as much ground as could be given to him.” After an inspection of the country Rising decided that certain old farms should be improved and a number of new tracts be reclaimed from the forest. He also caused a map to be made of the river, “as good as was possible in a hurry, from the bay up to the falls.”