While thus exposed in the glare of the firelight, and no doubt thrown into confusion ])y the ruse that had du|jed them, they fell a read)' ])re}' to the arrows of the crafty Mohawks. In another narrative of this battle (one, it must be confessed, more in keeping with probabilities) , no mention is made of the strategy of the blankets and cam]3-fire. It is stated that the Mohawks, finding the Mohegans' ]:)osition on the island imjjregnable, retired to the mainland, pretending to he beaten, and that the others foolishly followed them, to their own destruction. The result of this battle was a treaty, l)y the terms of which the Mohawks were to choose a king for the Mohegans, and the}' were ])ledged to reverence him and call him by the honourable title of " Uncle." Van Rensselaer's agent coveted and laid claim to the region about Catskill, but his pretensions were set at naught by Governor Kieft, who granted the land to Cornelius Antonissen Van vSlyck of Bruckelin. This was in 1644; but, in 1649, Van Rensselaer, who paid little regard to what was done b}^ the Go\'ernor of New Amsterdam, asserted his rights by ])urchasing of the Indians their pro]:ierty in the disputed territory. In 1650, the Dutch West India Company denied the validity of the purchase made b\' Van Slechtenhorst, \"an

490 The Hudson River

Rensselaer's agent, and Stuyvesant declared the title void, ordering that the purchase money be restored, \'et making a condition that if those holding such lands would, within six weeks, petition the Director and Council, they might have their holdings confirmed. Of course, this was a crafty effort on the Governor's part to make the too independent patroon of Rensselaerswyck own the authority of the Company's Director at Manhattan. Grants free from dependence upon the Patroon were subsequently given by the powers at Amsterdam.