page 7 vessel therefore, according to Smith, seems fixed to the time of the Pequod war, or about 1640. Benedict's account says that Penelope Stout "was born at Amsterdam, about the year 1602; her father's name was VanPrincis; she and her first husband (whose name is not known) sailed for New York (then New Amsterdam) about 1620; the vessel was stranded at Sandy Hook." There is an error in these dates of about twenty years, as I shall try to prove later. The story from this source goes on to relate that all the shipwrecked people were safely landed from the stranded ship. But Penelope's husband, who had been sick for most of the voyage, was taken so ill after getting on shore that he could not travel with the rest. He was hurt in the wreck and could not march. The others were so afraid of the Indians that they would not stay with him until he recovered, but hastened away to New Amsterdam, promising to send relief to him as soon as they should arrive. The wife alone remained behind with her husband. Nathan Stout says: "The passengers from the ship were all butchered by the Indians after they had gotten ashore, all save Penelope Princes." The couple were left on the beach (Benedict says: "They tarried in the woods"), and the others "had not been long gone, before a company of Indians coming down to the water side, discovered them [Penelope and her husband]. . . . and hastening to the spot, soon killed the man, and cut and mangled the woman in such a manner that they left her for dead: (Smith), and afterwards stripped them of their clothing. The wife's page 8 "skull was fractured, and her left shoulder so hacked, that she could never use that arm like the other; she was also cut across the abdomen, so that the bowels protruded; these she kept in with her hands." After the Indians were gone, the wife revived and crawled into a hollow tree, or log, where she remained for several days (one account says she remained there for shelter seven days), subsisting on whatever she could find to eat. The Indians had left some fire on the beach, and this she kept burning for warmth. At length two Indians, an old man and a young one, came to the shore and saw her. Nathan Stout says an Indian who was passing that way with a dog discovered her. In the words of Benedict: "She saw a deer passing by with some arrows sticking in it, and soon after two Indians appeared, whom she was glad to see, in hope they would put her out of her misery." The Indians, as she afterwards learned, disputed what should be done with her. The old man wished to keep her alive; whilst the younger wanted to kill her. The former had his way, and, taking her on his back, carried her to a place near where Middletown now stands, and dressed her wounds and soon healed t! hem. After this, Benedict says, he conveyed her to New Amsterdam and made a present of her to her countrymen. Nathan Stout says he sold her to the Dutch at New Amsterdam. But another account, which is more in keeping with the character of the Indians, as we know its, says the Dutch at New Amsterdam, hearing of a white woman being among the Indians, con-