CHAPTER III.
THE COLONIES OF THE NEW WORLD.
We love The king who loves the law, respects his bounds, And reigns content within them; him we serve Freely and with delight, who leaves us free: But recollecting still that he is a man, We trust him not too far.
-- COWPER.
The Dutch, who still held possession of Manhattan Island and the territory now known as New York, were not enjoying the peace and tranquillity promised the just.

Because some swine had been stolen from the plantation of De Vries on Staten Island, the Dutch governor sent an armed force to chastise the innocent Raritans in New Jersey, believing that a show of power would disarm the vengeance of the savages.

The event was so grossly unjust that it not only aroused the Raritans, but all neighboring tribes, and they prepared for war.

The hitherto peaceful Raritans killed the whites whenever they found them alone in the forest.
Fifteen years before some of Minuet's men murdered an Indian belonging to a tribe seated beyond the Harlem River.

His nephew, then a boy, who saw the outrage and made a vow of vengeance, had now grown to be a lusty man.