36 HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.

counsels of wisdom prevailed, these River Indians—now panting fugitives, and grateful for the shelter afforded them by the proximity of the white man’s settlements—might easily have been gained over to a lasting friendship. It was, however, the old story of the dove flying to the eagle’s nest for protection. At a supper at which Kieft was present, a petition was handed to him by two or three of the Twelve Men of the previous year, urging him to avenge the wrongs of the Dutch by an immediate attack upon these unsuspecting refugee Indians. Delighted with the prospect of, at last, accomplishing his darling wish, he gladly accepted the advice of the Twelve; ignoring the fact that they had been dissolved, and that he had pronounced their functions limited. In vain, Dominie Bogardus counselled peace and humanity; La Montagne begged him to wait for the arrival of the next ship from home before proceeding to extremities; and De Vries contended that no warlike step could be taken without the full consent of the people, and protested that the petition upon which he was acting, was not the expression of the Board of Twelve. The dogged director would yield; two expeditions were secretly sent forth, on the night of the 25th of February, 1643, against Pavonia and Corlaer's Hook; and, at midnight, these poor Indians, sleeping safe, as they thought, from attack by their mortal foes, the Mohawks, were remorselessly butchered, to the number of eighty at the former place and forty at the latter. The story of that night is one of the saddest and foulest, because the meanest, upon the pages of New Netherland's history.

The success of this discreditable exploit naturally provoked emulation, and some of the settlers residing within the limits of the present city of Brooklyn sought permission from the director to attack the Marechkawiecks, who still retained some of their planting-grounds in that neighborhood.1 Kieft, however, yielding to the counsels of Dominie Bogardus and others, refused his assent on the ground that the Marechkawiecks had always been very friendly to the Dutch, and, moreover, were “hard to conquer,” and

1 Brodhead says (i. 353): “Wolfertsen and some of his neighbors at New Amersfoort” were the actors in this outrage. The petition, however (see Appendix No. 3), is signed by five persons, three of whom, at least, were, at this time, residents of territory included within the subsequent towns of Brooklyn and. Bushwick.