and punish them with

lay in their village suspecting nothing,"

and sword. Fortunately the guide missed his way, and the expedition was compelled to' return to Fort Amsterdam " in all the mortification of failure." The re fire

however, was that the Indians, on discovering the trail of Kieft's men, and detecting his intention, became alarmed

sult,

and asked that peace might be maintained. Kieft consented on condition that the murderer of Smit was delivered up, and

on this basis a treaty, as it was called, was concluded with them. But it was not fulfilled by either of the contracting parties ; the arrest of an Indian, whose action had been in strict accordance with the laws and customs of his difficult

tribe,

was a process of very

accomplishment.

Soon after this occurrence the Dutch were terribly frightened. " " of the Narragansetts^ principal sachem

Miantonomo, the

having a controversy pending with Uncas, visited the Manhat tans with an hundred men, and passed through all the Mablcan villages to secure their alliance for'the destruction of his rival.

The Dutch, however, gave to him a different mission.

From a

whispered suspicion it grew to public clamor, that the embassy had no less an object than to secure the union of all the Indians in a

"

general

war against both the English and the Dutch."

The story spread to New England, where its falsity was demon-

THE INDIAN TRIBES

strated ; x but in the meanwhile the inhabitants at

New Amster