the people of Wiltwyck (Kingston) "left the gates of their fort open day and night." In the summer of 1663, they paid dearly for their temerity. In June of that year, having come to the fort in great numbers, under pre- tence of trading, the Indians made a sudden attack while most of the men were outside of the walls. Thomas Chambers, whose foolish bestowal of brandy had brought on the original trouble, aided by the mili- tant valour of the Dutch domine, led his companions in such a desperate fight that they succeeded in driv- ing the invaders from the fort, but not before eighteen of the whites had been killed. Forty-two prisoners were carried away by the savages, and all of the newly established farms and bouweries were destroyed. This foray led to a war which did not end till the Ulster Indians were nearly destroyed. The expedi- tion which concluded the war was led by a man named Krygier, a burgomaster in New Amsterdam. A treaty was made by Stuyvesant with the remnant of the tribe, by the terms of which they abandoned the river Digitized by Microsoft® 452 The Hudson River settlements to the Dutch, retaining permission to trade at Rondout "provided but three canoes came at a time, preceded by a flag of truce." New Paltz was settled by the Huguenots in 1677. Some people of this faith had come to Kingston in 1660 and settled there. Among them was a man named Louis Dubois, whose wife, Catherine, had been one of those captured by the savages. Word came to Dubois by a friendly Indian that the prisoners had been taken to a certain place that he could guide the white men to. He directed them to follow Rondout Creek to the Wallkill and to leave that for a third stream, where the encampment of their enemies would be found. The statement that the Indians intended putting their prisoners to death urged the rescuers to greater haste if possible. Dubois and his companions, guided by the savage, pushed through the wilderness for a distance of twenty-six miles, and though they were burdened with the heavy arms of the period, besides knapsacks and provisions, we do not xead that they paused till they were in the neighbourhood of the encampment. While they were stealing up, niaking a reconnoissance previous to the attack, Dubois suddenly came across an Indian, who was slain by his sword before he could alarm his companions. The attack was delayed until evening, but the dogs, running at large, betrayed them. The Indians recognised them as "white man's dogs," and fled in consternation, having evidently had enough Digitized by Microsoft® Rondout and Kins^ston 453 of Wiltwyck fighting qualities. Dubois saw his wife fleeing along with the savages and lustily shouted her RIVEK. SCEN'E — CATSKILL (y. IV. Casilear^ 1859. From the Stuart CoileciioM, Lenox Library) name, whereupon she and her companions turned back and were welcomed with great joy by their rescuers. The discovery had been made none too soon. Cath- erine Dubois had already been placed on a funeral pyre of wood, preparatory to being burned, and had Digitized by Microsoft® 454 The Hudson River evidenced her Christian fortitude by singing hymns that pleased her captors so that they demanded a repetition of them. It was no new thing for them to hear a warrior sing his death-song in the face of his enemies, but for a woman to show such courage may have excited their admiration, and the strange sweet- ness of the unusual melodies she sang no doubt arrested their attention. It was the knowledge gained upon this expedition, so the story goes, that led the Huguenots to settle upon the banks of the Wallkill, for which they obtained a deed from the Indians in consideration of forty kettles, the same number of adzes and shirts, seven hundred strings of beads, four quarter-casks of wine, and other goods. This tract, twelve miles in extent, reached from the Hudson River back to the Shawangunk Moimtains. There is an interesting tradition to the effect that the hymn sang by Mrs. Dubois on the occasion just mentioned was the 137th in the Dutch collection, which is translated thus : By Babel's stream the captives sate And wept for Zion's hapless fate; Useless their harps on willows hung While foes required a sacred song. The village of New Paltz is a delightful reminiscence, a legacy of old habitations and simple customs, be- queathed by generations of God-fearing folk to our restless time as a salutary reminder of pristine peace Digitized by Microsoft® Rondout and Kingston 455 and contentment. But about the old Huguenot vil- lage, especially since the establishment of the State Normal School, there has grown a modern town, with modern houses and