Indian Paths in the Great Metropolis — Passage 15
[Reginald Pelham Bolton (1922)] THE CANARSEE 149 beach and Canarsie beach may have utilized it to avoid a tramp of four miles. The modern Canarsie, which was part of the township of Flatlands, or Nieuw Amersfoort, was an extensive station of the Canarsee (51). It is first mentioned (Jan. 21, 1647) in a grant by Governor Kieft to settlers of "a certaine tract of land situate on the south side of Long Island called Canarsie with all the meadows belonging." The name signifies "at or about the fence" — or, in other words, "the fenced-in place." The Dutch culti-vated part of the lands in this tract with the consent of the Indians prior to any purchase being made, and they doubtless fenced in the crops of both white and red cultivators. This name, therefore, seems to have been applied generally to the fenced-in area, the center of which was the pres-