[Edward Manning Ruttenber (1872)] O thou Great Spirit above Take pity on me and preserve my life, Take pity on my children And I will make thee a sacrifice." And on my wife !. OF HUDSON'S RIVER. 33 his hand. A murderer was seldom killed after the first twenty-four hours were passed, but he was obliged to remain concealed; meantime his friends endeavored to reconcile the parties, and offered a blood atonement of wampum. If peace was agreed upon it was usually accompanied by the condition that the nearest relatives of the murderer, whether men, women or child ren, on meeting the relatives of the murdered person, must give way to them. But an offense unatoned was unforgiven, and, though years might elapse, vengeance was certain if opportunity offered. Great faults were charged against the Indians, and great faults they doubtless possessed when judged from the stand point of a different civilization. Were the line strictly drawn, however, it might be shown that, as a whole, they compared favorably with nations upon whom light had fallen for sixteen hundred years. This at least appears to their credit, that among them there were none who were cross-eyed, blind, crippled, lame, hunch-backed or limping; all were well-fash ioned, strong in constitution of body, well-proportioned and without blemish. Until touched and warped by wrong treat ment, wherever they were met, whether on the Potomac, the Delaware, the Hudson, or the Connecticut, they were liberal and generous in their intercourse with the whites.