NEIGHBORS OF NEW NETHERLAND 125

with their Algonquin neighbors on the north and
east, who had been enabled to offer a formidable
resistance by the use of firearms furnished them
by the French.

When, therefore, the white men appeared among
the Mohawks, bearing these strange weapons
which had been used with such dire effect against
the Iroquois by the Algonquins, the Mohawks
eagerly sought the friendship of the newcomers,
hoping to secure the same power which had made
their enemies triumphant. The Dutch were in-
telligent enough to make instant use of these
friendly sentiments on the part of the natives and
hastened to make a treaty with the Iroquois, the
Mohegans, and the Lenni Lenapes.

This treaty, which is said to have been signed
on the banks of Norman's Kill in the neighborhood
of Albany, was concluded with all formalities.
Each tribe was represented by its chief. The calu-
imet was smoked, the hatchet was buried, and
everlasting friendship was sworn between the old
inhabitants and the new. By this agreement the
Dutch secured not only peace with the neighboring
Indians — a peace never broken in the north,
whatever broils disturbed the lower waters of the
river — but at the same time a guard between