The Council there administered justice in criminal matters as far as imposing fines, but not as far as capital punishment. Should it happen that any one deserves that, he must be sent to Holland with his sentence.… There is another there who fills no public office: he is busy about his own affairs. Menwork there as in Holland: one trades upwards, southwards, and northwards; another builds houses; the third farms. Each farmer has his farm and the cows on the land purchased by the Company;but the milk remains to the profit of the boor;[381] he sells to those of the people who receive their wages for work every week. The houses of the Hollanders now stand without the fort; but, when that is completed, they will all repair within, so as to garrison it, and be secure from sudden attack.
SETTLEMENT ON THE HUDSON RIVER.
Those of the South River will abandon their fort, and come hither: no more than fifteen or sixteen men will remain at Fort Orange, the most distant point atwhich the Hollanders traded: the remainder will come down to the Manhates. Right opposite is the fort of the Maykans, which they built against their enemies,the Maquaes,[382] a powerful people.
It happened this year that the Maykans, being at war with the Maquaes, requested to be assisted by the commander of Fort Orange and six others. Commander Krieckebeck went up with them a mile from the fort, and met the Maquaes, who peppered them so bravely with a discharge of arrows, that they were forced to fly, leaving many slain, among whom were the commander and three of his men. Among the latter was Tymen Bouwensz, whom they devoured,after having well cooked him.[383] The rest they burnt. The commander was buried with the other two by his side. Three escaped,—two Portuguese, and a Hollander from Hoorn. One of the Portuguese was wounded by an arrow in the back whilst swimming. The Indians carried a leg and an arm home to be divided amongst their families, as a proof that they had conquered their enemies.
Some days after, the worthy Pieter Barentsen, who usually was sent upwards and along the coast with the sloop, visited them. They wished to excuse their act, on the plea that they had never injured the whites, and asked the reason why the latter had meddled with them. Had it been otherwise, they would not have acted as they had.
BOOK XIV.
THE PILGRIMS AT PLYMOUTH.
(A.D. 1620–1621.)
These extracts are taken from that valuable collection, “Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers of the Colony of Plymouth, from 1602 to 1625; now first collected from original records and contemporaneous printed documents,” by Alexander Young, Boston, 1841.
The first extract is from Edward Winslow’s “Brief Narration,” London, 1646 (Young, p. 384). The rest are from the journal of Bradford and Winslow, commonly called “Mourt’s Relation,” London, 1622. (Young, pp. 125–136, 150–162, 167–174, 182–189.)