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Millstone River is not, as is usually supposed, the Raritans Kill, for that runs near this house on the right hand, due west, and a little more southerly beyond, and this one before the house, runs on the left hand, west-northwest, and a little more northerly beyond.
Crossing here, we began our journey in the Lord's name, for there are no houses from this point to Peskatteway, an English village on the Raritans. We had now gone twelve or thirteen miles from Peter Aldrix's island, and it was about two o'clock in the afternoon. We must here make some general observations in relation to the South River.
To accompany us himself to Achter Kol or the Raritans, and return, could not be accomplished in less than four days, and he would have to leave his house meantime in charge of an Indian woman from Virginia, who had left her husband, an Englishman, and with two children, one of which had the small-pox, was living with him; and she could be of no use to any one, whether Indians or other persons who might come there.
The governor, who cared little for the "customs of the race," determined to chastise that tribe as he had the Raritans, and called upon the people to shoulder their muskets for the fray; but they, seeing the danger to which the rashness of the governor was leading them, refused.
The Indians attacked it, killed four of the laborers, burned the dwelling and destroyed the crops. Kieft, in his blind rage, resolved upon the extermination of the Raritans. He offered a large bounty for the head of any member of that tribe.
He was to come for our guide the next day and carry him back. We went on through water for the most part east-northeast, until about three o'clock in the afternoon, when the rain began to hold up, and we turned into a road on the right, which runs easterly to the Raritans Kill.
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.
Evidently the time had come for Governor Kieft to assert himself. It was of small avail to invade the wilds of New Jersey, or to offer rewards for Raritans, dead or alive. The sachems were willing to express their regret, but they would not surrender the culprits, and declared that the Dutchmen's own brandy was the really guilty party.
The most prominent point is to the west. On the east side is the narrow passage which they call the channel, by which it is separated from the high point of Long Island. On the south is the great bay which is inclosed by Nayaq, Conijnen Island, Rentselaer's Hook, Nevesinck, etc. On the west is the Raritans. The eastern part is high and steep, and has few inhabitants.
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