We were greatly rejoiced at the miraculous arrival of the Blue Cock here with so many of the Company's people, and therefore hoped that the field would be taken with between three and four hundred men, (not including the sailors and settlers,) divided into three companies of one hundred and thirty men each, and by this force, the neighboring savages for 15 (al 20 miles around, would have had their crops destroyed, and themselves stripped of all their support for the winter, whereby great injury might have been inflicted on the enemy, in order with a view

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210 NEW- YORK COLONIAL MANUSCRIPTS.

to their easier reduction hereafter to terms. But nothing in the least has been done therein.

In ail that time, scarce a foot has been moved in the matter, nor an oar laid in the water. The captured Indians who might have been of considerable use to us as guides, have been given to the soldiers as presents, and allowed to go to Holland ; the others have been sent ofT to the Bermudas as a present to the English governor. The oldest and most experienced soldiers,who for several years were acquainted with all the paths here, have obtained their passport and been allowed to return home. In the meanwhile the Indians secreted without molestation their fish caught this last summer on the river, of which they had uninterrupted use at their pleasure. 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 places. The crop, which God the Lord permitted to come forth during the past summer, remains on the field, as well as the hay, standing and rotting in divers places ; whilst we poor people have not been able to obtain a single man for our defence.