For three days these merciless Indians had free range, with scarcely any opposition.  During this time one hundred of the Dutch were killed, one hundred and fifty were taken prisoners, and more than three hundred were deprived of house, clothes and food.  Six hundred cattle and a vast amount of grain were destroyed.  The pecuniary value of the damage inflicted amounted to over eighty thousand dollars.

Such were the consequences which resulted from the folly and crime of one man in shooting an Indian woman who was purloining peaches from his orchard.  Terror spread far and wide.  The farmers with their families, fled from all directions to fort Amsterdam for protection.  The feeble settlements on Long island were abandoned in dismay.  Prowling bands of savages wandered over the island of Manhattan, burning and destroying.  No one dared to venture to any distance from the fort.  An express was dispatched to South river to inform Governor Stuyvesant of the peril of the colony, and to implore his return.  This led to the hurried close of the transactions on the Delaware, and probably secured for the Swedes more favorable terms of capitulation than they would otherwise have obtained.

The return of Governor Stuyvesant with his military force, reassured the colonists.  In such an hour his imperious nature hesitated not a moment in assuming the dictatorship.  The one man power, so essential on the field of battle, seemed requisite in these scenes of peril.  There was no time for deliberation.  Prompt and energetic action was necessary.

The governor sent soldiers to the outer settlements; forbade any vessel to leave the harbor, forced into the ranks every man capable of bearing arms, and imposed a heavy tax to meet the expense of strengthening the fortifications.  Several persons, who were about to sail for Europe, protested against being thus detained.  Governor Stuyvesant fined them each ten dollars for disrespect to the established authorities, and contemptuously advised them to “possess their souls in patience.”

The savages found their captives an incumbrance.  Winter was approaching and provisions were scarce.  They sent one of their prisoners, an influential man, captain Pos, who had been superintendent of the colony on Staten island, to propose the ransom of those captured for a stipulated amount of powder and balls.  As captain Pos did not return as soon as was expected, another messenger was sent, and soon one of the chiefs returned to Governor Stuyvesant, fourteen Dutch men, women and children, as a present in token of his good will, and asking that a present of powder and ball might be forwarded to him.

The governor sent in return some ammunition and two Indian captives and promised to furnish more ammunition when other Christians should be brought in.