188 DUTCH AND ENGLISH ON THE HUDSON

illness. The sites selected for their settlements were
not desirable. The native pine was found unsuited
to the production of tar in large quantities. They
soon discovered that they would never be able
to pay for their maintenance by such unprofitable
labor. Moreover, the provisions given them were
of inferior quality; and they were forced to furnish
men for an expedition against Canada while their
women and children were left either to starvation
or to practical servitude. In this desperate situa-
tion some of the Palatines turned from their fellow
Christians to the native savages, and their appeal
was not in vain. The Indians gave them per-
mission to settle at Schoharie, and many families
removed thither in defiance of the Governor, who
was still bent on manufacturing tar and pitch.
But the great majority remained in the Hudson
valley and eventually built homes on lands which
they purchased.

The climate of New York disagreed with Hun-
ter, and his mental depression kept pace with his
physical debility. After six years of hopeless
effort, he was obliged to admit the failure of his
plans to produce naval stores. In 1710 he re-
ported of the locality that it "had the finest air to
live upon; but not for me"; again he says that