The Documentary history of the state of New-York; arranged under direction of the Hon. Christopher Morgan, secretary of State. By E. B. O'Callaghan ...

106 EXTRACTS FROM A WORK
with. The pool unfortunate prisoners were immediately dragged
out of the guard house and soon dispatched with lknives of from
18 to 20 inches long, which director Kieft lhad made for his soldiers for such purposes, saying tlhat the swords were too long
for use in the huts of the savages, when they went to surprise
them; but that these knives were much handier for bowelling
them. The first of these savages having received a fiightful
wound, desired them to permit him to dance what is called the
Kinte Kaeye, a religious use'observed among them before death;
he received however so many wounds, that he dropped dovwn
dead. The soldiers then cut strips from the other's body, beginning at the calves, up the back, over the shoulders and down
to the knees. While this was going forward, director Kieft,
with his councillor Jan de la Montaigne, a Frenchman, stood
laughing heartily at the fun, and rubbing his right arm, so much
delight he took in such scenes. He then ordered him to be
taken out of the fort, and the soldiers bringing him to the Beaver's
path (he dancing the Kinte Kaeye all the time) threw him down,
cut off his partes genitales, thrust them into his mouth while still
alive, and at last, placing him on a mill stone, cut off his head.
H. What shameful barbarity!
B. What I tell you is true, for by the same token there stood
at the same time 24 r,25 female savages, who had been taken
prisoner at the N. W, point of the fort; and when they saw this
bloody spectacles they held up their arms, struck their mouth,
and in their language exclaimed:' For shame! -for shame! such
unheard of cruelty was never known, or even thought of among
us,' The savages have often called out to us from a distance:
what scoundrels you Swannekens are; you do not war upon us,
but upon our wives and children, whom you treacherously
murder; whereas we do no harm either to your wives or your
children, but feed and take care of them, till we send them back
again to you.
K. Well, skipper, you know more news, if they were only
good news, than all of us put together. How did they get on?
B. Director Kieft, not content with this causing the hunted
savages to be surprised, engaged some English spies to accompany his soldier s as ides, into places unknown to our peoples