Kieft War begins

c 1643 – c 1645

After a Swiss immigrant is killed by a Weckquaesgeek acquaintance over a personal matter in 1641 Director General Willem Kieft uses the lack of the Weckquaesgeek to produce a suspect as justification for attacks on Weckquaesgeek and Tappan refugee camps.

– On February 25, 1643, Dutch soldiers kill 129 Indians including women and children at Communipaw (Jersey CIty) during the Pavonia Massacre

– Fall that same year a force of 1,500 natives invades New Netherland, kills many, destroys villages and farms

– Englishman John Underhill, hired by Kieft, kills  500-700 Weckquaesgeek that winter, in retaliation

– Underhill  recruits militia on Long Island and kills about 1000 natives there and in Connecticut

– Heavy fighting continues for two years while many Dutch settlers return to Europe

– Both sides agree to a truce in August, 1645

– In 1647 Kieft is fired by the West India Company, recalled to explain his conduct and dies in a shipwreck on the return voyage

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kieft%27s_War

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_John_Underhill

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavonia_Massacre

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willem_Kieft