the fleet,—and was on the eve of sailing, when the news of the peace between England and Holland was received. The English on Long Island were ready to join in the onset; the English at Manhattan were active in their efforts to aid their brethern; and the Dutch themselves were alienated by the oppression and misrule of Stuyvesant and his predecessors, and would not fight under his orders. Naturally there was a day of thanksgiving at New Amsterdam when the welcome tidings of peace came.

CHAPTER XIV.

Virginia Massacre-Delaware Colonists-Mohawks-French in Canada-Six Nations-French Embassy to New England-Treachery and Intrigue-Rivalry of Indian Sachems-Threats, Plots, and Murders-Apprehension in Border Towns-Alarm of the Colonists-War Preparations-Rebellion at Stamford—Connecticut and New Haven Refuse Assistance-Fairfield Raises Troops-Ludlow Chosen Commander-Reasons for his Action -Notice to Authorities-Their Disapproval.

THE suspicions of the English, and their belief in the Dutch and Indian conspiracy, were intensified by the memories of the massacre of the Virginia colonists by old Opecancanough and his warriors a few years before-memories kept alive by the stories of the "divers godly disposed persons" who then removed into New England and settled in the Connecticut border towns. And the Dutch had arrested and imprisoned and driven out the colonists who had attempted to settle at the Delaware, to the great chagrin and loss of the capitalists who had adventured there.

To the westward between the lakes and the

Hudson, and to the border where the dreaded Mohawks made their forays and exacted tribute from the tribes they had subdued, there was a field of conflict,- war to-day and truce to-morrow, as red men and white struggled for the mastery.

To the northward, men of another race and religion had battled for gain and conquest,devotees of mistaken modes of colonization. Champlain, Montmagny, Maisonneuve, governors, commandants, and superiors, had spent weary years of warfare with the native tribes. They were led and inspired by the courage and heroism of the Jesuits, who carried the message of the Master alike to Huron and Iroquois. Le Jeune, Brebeuf, Chabanel, Jonges, Noue, Bressani, were not dismayed by torture or starvation, by the horrors of cannibalism, or the maniac deviltries of the Ononhara or Dream Feast. Men at arms, men of affairs, men and women reared in the atmosphere of courts and bred to their luxuries, had laid down their lives to hold the vast domain of the north for the honor of France. Strange tales of the devotion and sacrifice of these Jesuit fathers, of the sufferings of gentle men and women, of stratagem, of ambuscade, of

horrid rites, of massacre, were told in the colonial homes of New England, all intensifying the unrest and alarm that waited on every rumor from the lips of voyageur, scout, trapper, or Indian runner.

The warriors of the Six Nations had driven the French into the towns and outposts, and spread desolation and terror in the valley of the St. Lawrence and along the lakes; and in such dire distress were these "pioneers of France in the new world," that they sent the accomplished Druillets and Godfroy to pray aid of the heretic New Englanders in their behalf, and that of the Christianized Indians of Acadia, against the Mohawks and warriors of the Six Nations. Their plea was adroit and ingenious; and the colonial commissioners, not to be outdone in diplomatic courtesy, assured the Frenchmen of their readiness to do all offices of righteousness, peace, and good neighborhood; but they must await a more favorable time for negotiations. It was an occasion for diplomacy, and few state papers of that day are of greater diplomatic interest than the final answer of the commissioners to the representatives from Governor D'Aillebout of Canada, who had labored for years, by correspondence

and otherwise, to bring about an alliance with New England. But Frenchman and Puritan could not make treaties in the presence of the general sentiment expressed in the Massachusetts statute: "No Jesuit or ecclesiastical person ordained by the authority of the Pope shall henceforth come within our jurisdiction."

Dutch hatred, Indian treachery, French intrigue, kindled their bale-fires around the colonial horizon, and through their darkling clouds were seen grim portents of savage warfare to appall the stoutest hearts in the hamlets and solitary homes in the wilderness; and these fears were intensified in the tribal and racial rivalries and hostilities of the natives within the borders, not so much of the tribes conquered by the Mohawks, and of whom Ludlow and his friends purchased lands at Fairfield and vicinity, as primarily in the ambition of Miantonomo and Uncas, the claims to sovereignty of Narragansett and Mohegan, the machinations of Ninigret, and the enmity of the Pequot remnant toward all their conquerors. To Miantonomo's death, in 1643, the war councils were aflame; and only the strong hand of English power held the balance of safety, amid conspiracies and alliances