Dutch farmer Hendrick Van Dyck kills a Lenni Lenape (Delaware) woman whom he finds picking peaches on his property. The victim’s family then murders Van Dyck, and several bands of Lenni Lenape, eager for revenge, begin attacking Dutch settlements throughout New Netherlands. In New Amsterdam, the Indians kill about 50 Dutch settlers and take another one hundred prisoner. The violence will continue until the English wrest control over New Netherlands fTom the Dutch (see entry for 1664).
The Timucua rebel against the Spanish.
Weakened by a devastating smallpox epidemic (see entry for 1613), the Timucua of what is now northern Florida are subjugated by the Spanish, who compel them to labor in their missions. Just as a second wave of smallpox hits the tribe, Spanish officials trade away supplies intended for their Timucua laborers. Angry and desperate, the Timucua, led by Lucas Menendez, rise up against their oppressors. The rebels are armed with guns given to them by the Spanish to fight the English in the event of an invasion. The Timucua kill several Spaniards at the San Pedro mission, but the rebellion is quickly quashed by a Spanish retaliatory force. Menendez and 10 others are publicly hanged. The Timucua are destroyed as a tribe, as many of the rebellion’s survivors are sold into slavery by the Spanish. Others escape and join the Seminole tribe.
A Spanish priest murders a Hopi man for idolatry.
In the Hopi village of Shongopovi, Spanish priest Salvador de Guerra discovers an Indian named Juan Cuna with a kachina doll—a figurine representing a supernatural being. Guerra accuses Juan Cuna of idolatry and publicly whips him in the village plaza. The priest carries the bludgeoned Indian, by then close to death, into the church at Shongopovi, where Guerra covers him with turpentine and sets him on fire. His body in flames, Juan Cuna rushes from the church, with Guerra in pursuit. The priest mounts a horse, knocks over the Indian, and tramples his burning body until he dies. A Hopi delegation reports the grisly event to Santa Fe authorities, who recall Guerra to the Spanish colonial capital.
World History
