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Indian Paths in the Great Metropolis — Passage 3
[Reginald Pelham Bolton (1922)] Manhattan was accessible by water, and the lower part of the island stood at the parting of the waterways. We may assume, however, that canoes were rare possessions, objects constructed only by long-continued labor and the ex-ercise of unusual skill with the crude stone tools available. We are perhaps afforded an idea of the number of such vessels in the region of the metropolis by the story of the gathering of all the local clans in their raid on New Amsterdam in September, 1655. On that occasion it is probable that INDIAN NOTES MANHATTAN 37 every available craft was brought into service, and there were only about sixty-four in all.