[Edward Manning Ruttenber (1872)] cas solicited the aid of the Mohawks^ and with them continued the struggle. The transition of the province from the Dutch to the English found the contest undecided, and not only so but the Mohawks expressly asking the English to make peace " for the Indian princes with the nations down the river," 2 as they had pleaded with the governor of Canada for protection against the Mabicans. In a letter from Governor Lovelace, February 24, 1665, it is said that negotiations for peace were then pending between the Esopus Indians, the South Indians, and the Novisans, on the one part, and the Senecas and Mohawks on the other, and that the magistrates of Ulster were directed to encourage the same; and under date of August 13, 1669, the same officer writes that " Perewyn lately made sachem of Hackinsack, Tappen, and Staten Island," had visited him " to renew and acknowledge the peace between them and the Christ ians; also, between them and the Maquas and Sinnecas, the which they say they are resolved to keep inviolable." He ordered that the matter be " put on record to be a testimony against those that shall make the first breach." 3 It was about this time that tradition gives the story of a great battle between 1 O'Callaghan's New Netherlandy n, 2 Colonial History, in, 67, 417. 3 Assize Reeordsy n, 408. OF HUDSON'S RWER. 69 the contestants in the Minnisink country, and the probabilities are that the peace spoken of was its result.