They procured some of this metal and Johannes de la Montague put it in a crucible. When assayed it produced gold, to the great delight of the Governor and his friends, who managed, upon the arrangement of peace, to send an exj^edition in search of the source of treasure. The result of the expedition was a bucketful of ore that yielded |)leasing results w^hen put to the crucible's test. The rest of the story may be told in Irving 's words :

William Kieft now dispatched a confidential agent, one Arent Corsen, to convey a sackful of the precious ore to Holland. Corsen embarked at New Haven in a British vessel bound to England, whence he was to cross to Rotterdam. The ship set sail about Christmas, but never reached port. All on board perished. In 1647, when the redoubtable Petrus Stuyvesant took command of the New Netherlands, William Kicft embarked on his return to Flolland, provided with further specimens of the Catskill Mountain ore, from which he doubtless indulged golden anticipations. Asimilar fate attended him with that which had befallen his agent. The ship in which he had embarked was cast away, and he and his treasure were swallowed up in the waves. Here closes the golden legend of the Catskills, but another one of a similar import succeeds. In 1679, about two years after the shipwreck of Wilhelmus Kieft, there was again a rumour of the precious metals in these mountains. Mynheer Brant Arent Van Slechtenhorst, agent of the Patroon of Rensselaerswyck, had purchased, in behalf of the Patroon, a tract of the Catskill lands, and leased it out in farms. A Dutch lass, in the household of one of the farmers, found one day a glittering substance, which,