38 DUTCH AND ENGLISH ON THE HUDSON

from the Indians. But Fiske points out that this
conception is a mistake and he goes on to state that
it was a general custom among the English and
that not a rood of ground in New England was
taken from the savages without recompense, ex-
cept when the Pequots began a war and were
exterminated. The "payment" in all cases,
however, was a mere farce and of value only in
creating good feeling between savages and settlers.
As to the ethics of the transaction, much might be
•said on both sides. The red men would be justified
in feeling that they had been kept in ignorance of
the relative importance of what they gave and
what they received, while the whites might main-
tain that they created the values which ensued
upon their purchase and that, if they had not come,
lands along the Great River would have remained
of little account. In any case the recorded trans-
action did not prove a financial triumph for the
purchaser, as the enterprise cost much in trouble
and outlay and did not meet expenses. The prop-
erty was resold to the Company seven years later
— at a price, however, of twenty-six thousand
.guilders, which represented a fair margin of profit
.over the "certain merchandise" paid to the origi-
nal owners eight years earlier.