66 DUTCH AND ENGLISH ON THE HUDSON

suggested that they all adjourn to the Fort, promis-
ing them presents from the Director.

The chiefs consented to meet the Director and
eventually were persuaded to make a treaty of
peace; but Kieft's gifts were so niggardly that the
savages went away with rancor still in their hearts,
and the war of the races continued its bloody
course. It is no wonder that when De Vries left
the Governor on this occasion, he told Kieft in
plain terms of his guilt and predicted that the
shedding of so much innocent blood would yet
be avenged upon his own head. This prophecy
proved a strangely true one. When recalled by the
States-General in 1647, Kieft set out for Holland
on the ship Princess, carrying with him the sum
of four hundred thousand guilders. The ship was
wrecked in the Bristol channel and Kieft was
drowned. .

The evil that Kieft did lived after him and the
good, if interred with his bones, would not have
occupied much space in the tomb. The only posi-
tive advance during his rule — and that was
carried through against his will — was the appoint-
ment of an advisory committee of the twelve men,
representing the householders of the colony, who
were called together in the emergency following