The inmates preferred to perish in the flames rather than to fall by their enemy's weapons. In this merciless manner five hundred human beings were butchered. Other statements carry the number to seven hundred. The militarj' power of the Indians was now broken and thereafter warlike operations ceased. On the 30th of the following August, 1645, a general treaty of peace was concluded between the Dutch and the Indians of the Lower Hudson, and signed by their respective chiefs -- Aepjen, the grand sachem of the Mohegans, representing his people. This treaty was an equitable agreement and was carefully respected. Thus was ended a war which had been carried on for over five years and in which, it was said, over sixteen hundred Indians perished. The Dutch recorded: " Our fields lie fallow and waste, our dwellings and other buildings are burnt, not a handful can be planted or sown this fall on all the abandoned j)lace8. All this through a foolish hankering after war, for it is known to all right-thinking men here that these Indians have lived as lambs among us until a few years ago, injuring no one and affording every assistance to our nation."

There are traditions of the slaughter of large numbers of Indians at other points in the county, but they are believed to be unfounded. Mount Misery, near the Sound, hiis long been said to have derived its name from the slaughter of Indians there by the

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

Huguenots of New Eochelle. There is no record of such an engagement, and the story is altogether improbable.