30 HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.

there, however, by the Dutch soldiery whom Kieft dispatched thither, they subsequently settled the town of Southampton, in the present county of Suffolk; and shortly after Southold was occupied by a company from the New Haven Colony. Both of these English colonies were allowed to pursue their way unmolested by the Dutch government at Fort Amsterdam.

While thus adding to the company’s domains, Kieft also gave to the administrative affairs of the province the attention which they had so long needed; instituted various charges in subordinate officers; vigorously enforced discipline among the company’s soldiers and workmen at Manhattan, and strictly forbade the selling of firearms to the Indians. This latter practice, indeed, was one of the growing evils which were now beginning seriously to disturb the friendly relations which had, heretofore, existed between the Dutch and their savage neighbors. Contrary to all existing orders, as well as to every dictate of prudence, a brisk traffic in guns and ammunition had sprung up between the Rensselaerwyck colonists and “free-traders,” and the Mohawks, until the latter could number some four hundred warriors thus aimed, and, of course, became more insolent and oppressive to all the other tribes. To the River Indians, who, in consequence of the strict police regulations maintained in and around Manhattan, were unable to obtain these much-coveted weapons, this seeming partiality shown to their dreaded foes by the Dutch, was a just source of annoyance and jealousy. Then, again, the colonists, in their eagerness to pursue the fur-trade, frequently neglected their farms, and their cattle straying loose often inflicted serious damage upon the unfenced cornfields of the savages, who, finding complaints disregarded, resorted to retaliatory measures, and thus hard feelings were engendered on both sides. In their dealings with the Indians, also, too many of the traders indulged in an “excessive familiarity” with them, which naturally bred in the minds of the latter a contempt for men who, despite their apparent friendliness, did not always treat them with perfect fairness. Many of the Dutch, moreover, employed some of these savages as domestic servants, and the Indians bad thus become fully informed of the numerical strength, habits, and circumstances of the colonists.