One of the recipients, during the revel which followed, fired a gun. A party of white men, who were possibly not too sober themselves, construed the discharge of the firearm to mean the commencement of an attack, upon which they fired upon a party of the Indians, killing several of them. In retaliation the lately peaceable redskins took thirteen prisoners, and, soon gathering a force of five hundred warriors, surrounded the fort, so that no one durst leave it for

Rondout and Kingston 45'

three weeks. Cro|)s were burned, cattle slaughtered, and houses destroyed. Finally, a number of ca])tives were put to death by torture. This brought the Governor again to Kingston, liut the Indians disj^ersed before his arrival. A truce was secured, through the intervention of other Indians, and two prisoners were finally restored. Then, possessed by a fatuous confidence that the enemy had experienced a change of heart, the ]3eople of Wiltwyck (Kingston) "left the gates of their fort 0])en day and night." In the summer of 1663, they paid dearly for their temerity. In June of that year, having come to the fort in great numbers, under pretence of trading, the Indians made a sudden attack while most of the men were outside of the walls. Thomas Chambers, whose foolish bestowal of brandy had brought on the original trouble, aided by the militant valour of the Dutch domine, led his companions in such a desperate fight that they succeeded in driving the invaders from the fort, but not before eighteen of the whites had been killed. Forty- two prisoners were carried away by the savages, and all of the newly established farms and bouweries were destroyed. This foray led to a war which did not end till the Ulster Indians were nearly destroyed. The expedition which concluded the war was led by a man named Krygier, a burgomaster in New Amsterdam.