The First Esopus War
page 5
"Finally one of the sachems stood up and said that the Dutch sold the 'boison' [brandy] to the savages, and were the cause of the Indians becoming 'cacheus' [crazy] mad or drunk, and that then they had committed the outrages; that at such times they, the chiefs, could not keep in bounds the young men who were then spoiling for a fight; that the murder had not been committed by any one of their tribe, but by a Neversink savage; that the Indian who had set fire to the houses had run away and would not be here. That they were not enemies; they did not desire or intend to fight, but had no control over the young men.
"I told them if the young men had a desire to fight to come forward now; I would match them, man for man, or twenty against thirty or even forty; that now was the proper time for it; that it was not well to plague, injure or threaten the farmers, or their women and children; that if they did not cease in future, we might try to recover damages. We could kill them, capture their wives and children, and destroy their corn and beans. I would not do it because I told them I would not harm them; but I hoped they would immediately indemnify the owner of the houses, and deliver up the murderer.
"To close the conference I stated my decision: that to prevent further harm being done to my people, or the selling of more brandy to the Indians, my people should all remove to one place and live close by each other; that they might better sell me the whole country of the Swannekers [Dutch] so that the hogs of the latter could not run into the corn-fields of the savages and be killed by them. The chiefs then asked through Stohl and Chambers that I would not begin a war with them on account of the late occurrence, as it had been done while they were drunk; they promised not to do so again.
"On Monday, June 3rd, the soldiers with all the inhabitants began work on the palisades. The spot marked out for a settlement has a circumference of about 210 rods*, well adapted by nature for defensive purposes; and when necessity requires it can be surrounded by water on three of its sides. To carry on the work with greater speed and order I directed a party of soldiers and experienced wood-cutters to go into the woods and help load the palisades into wagons; the others I divided again into parties of twenty men each, to sharpen the palisades and put them up. The inhabitants who were able were set to digging the moat, who continued to do so as long as the wind and the rain permitted.
"Towards evening of the 4th of June a party of forty or fifty savages came to where we were at work, so that I ordered six men from each squad to look after their arms. After work had been stopped they asked to speak to me. They informed me they had concluded to give me the land I had asked to buy to 'grease my feet' as I had come so long a way to see them. They promised in future to do no harm to the Dutch, but would go hand in hand and arm in arm with them.
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*Dutch rod 12 feet.Table of Contents