Page:The Red Man and the White Man in North America.djvu/357

Rh and receiving them as “a rightful possession from the Lord God,” there is certainly a confusion of title.

In 1610 Captain West, of the Virginia Colony, purchased of “King” Powhatan the region around the present city of Richmond — whatever that might include — for a small quantity of copper.

In 1626 Governor Minuit bought the Island of Manhattan (New York) for sixty guilders (twenty-four dollars).

In 1634 the Maryland Indians agreed that Lord Baltimore's Company, for the consideration of some cloth, tools, and trinkets, should share their town till the harvest; and then, on further like consideration, the Indians would move off, leaving the white man in possession. It is intimated, however, that the accommodating tribe were in dread of being driven from their land by a band of neighboring red men.

In 1638 the Swedes bought Christiana of the Indians for a kettle and some trifling wares.

In 1638 the island of Rhode Island was purchased of the chiefs by Roger Williams's company for “forty fathoms of white beads.” But Williams says that it was “for love and favor with the great sachem,” not for an equivalent value, that he received it.

In 1638 New Haven was sold to the whites by sachems, for “twelve coats of English cloth, twelve alchemy [metal] spoons, twelve hoes, twelve hatchets, twelve porringers, twenty-four knives, and four cases of French knives and scissors.”

In 1642 Gorton and his company bought Shawomet, of Miantonomo and others, for one hundred and forty-four fathoms of wampum.

In 1666 the site of Newark in New Jersey was paid for by fifty double hands of powder, one hundred bars of lead; of axes, coats, pistols, and hoes, twenty each; of guns, kettles, and swords, ten each; four blankets, four barrels of beer, two pairs of “breetches,” fifty knives, eight