The Indians of the Raritan

Résumé du livre

In this manuscript Messler relates the early history of the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam and its official relations with Indian tribes in the vicinity. Following a discussion of the origins of the Raritan Indians (a branch of the Delaware nation) and their settlements in New Jersey, Messler focuses on the continual conflicts from 1626 to 1681 between the Dutch colonists and the Indians. Throughout this period, hostilities were prevalent and Messler describes two massacres of Indian villages. Eventually the Raritan Indians sold most of their lands to the Dutch and later English settlers. To document his work, Messler incorporates numerous contemporary histories of the time into the text.