The Story of Manhattan

and the WAR wi

f spring showed in the fields that closed about the fort, a

eft, the new Govern

ery soon was known as "William the Testy." He made no effort to make the Indians his fri

e so out of repair that even if the wind could have reached them they could not have been made to do their work properly. There were smugglers who carried away furs without even a thought of the koopman, who was waiting to record the duties which should have be

proven a total failure. So, soon after Kieft came, the West India Company decided on another plan. They furnished free passage to anyone who promised to cultivate land i

ing Gree

not called Bowling Green then, was the open space in front of the fort where the people gathered on holidays. In the fourth year of Governor Kieft's rule, he conceived the idea of holding fairs in this open space, where fine cows and fat pigs could be exhibited. These fairs attract

of Coenties Slip, in Pearl Street. On the building which is there now

ch. Next day some of the subscribers were sorry they had agreed to give so much, but the Governor accepted no excuses and insisted on the money. It was collected, and the church was built. Close upon this time Kieft decided that he needed money for other work, and he told the Indians of the province that he expected something from them. Of course the Indians had no such money as we have in these days. They used instead beads, very handsome and made from clam-shells. These beads were arranged on strings. There were black ones and white ones, and the black were worth twice as much as the white. The Indians did not

rms to th

olonist. Kieft's soldiers found the tribe to which the Indian belonged, and

Staten Island. A council of twelve men was formed to decide whether there should be peace or war. This council declared that there should be no war. They then began to look into public affairs, for they thought it all wrong that Kieft should

his soldiers against these friendly Indians, and in the night killed them as they slept. The soldiers came so suddenly upon the Indians, sleeping peacefully on the Jersey shore, and slew them so quickly in the darkness, that the Indians believed they had been attacked by the unfriendly tribe. One Indian, with his squaw, made his

which the greater number of colonists condemned and the rec

away. Houses were robbed and burned. Women and children were dragged into captivity. The war raged fiercely for three years. By this time Ind

limit of the settlement of New Amsterdam. The fence in time gave place to a wall, and when in still later years the wall

his version of the war. He showed himself to be all in the right, and proved, to his own satisfaction, that the province was in a fairly good co

such weight with it, that the West India Company decided on the immediate recall of Governor Kieft,

m stem to stern with the finest of furs. The ship was w

olland on a mission relating to his church. The people of New Amsterdam mourned for their minister, but ther

the Pipe