The cruel murder of an aged warrior of this town, Sept. A. D. 1620, plunged the Dutch colony into a long series of wdrs. It appears that " one of the neighboring tribe of Wickwasqueeck Indians had come, with his nephew and another of his nation, to the Dutch fort to sell some beaver skins. He was met, unfortunately, by three of Minuit's farm servants, who not only rifled the Indian of his property but murdered him in cold blood. The nephew of the unfortunate man, who was then a mere youth, was a witness to this outrage. He returned home brooding over the wrong, and vowed to take vengeance when he should arrive at the years of manhood ; a vow he too faithfully fulfilled years afterwards, the Dutch having neglected to expiate the crime by a suitable present of wampum, in conformity with the customs of the redmen, or to punish the murderers, as justice and good policy demanded."^

Sept. A. D. 1641, the boy had now attained the age of manliood. " His uncle's spirit was still unappeased -- his murder was unavenged. His voice was heard in the roaring of the storm -- in the rustle of the leaves -- in the sighing of the winds; and full of the conviction that that spirit could not find rest until vengeance should be had, the young Weckquaeskeeck sought for a victim to offer to the manes of the dead. Shrouding his evil purpose under the cloak of a friendly or business visit, he called a-t the house of one Claes Cornelisz Smits, the '• raadmaker,"^ an aged settler resident on the west side of the river, under pretence of making some purchases. The old man suspecting no harm, (for the Indian had been in the habit of working for his son,) set some food before him, and proceeded to get from a chest, in which it lay, the cloth which the other wished to purchase.