of dependent communi- ties. The settlements from New Amsterdam, or Man- hattan, extended northward to Kitchawan, and those of Rensselaerwyk (or Albany) included the more southerly posts of Kingston, Esopus, and Rondout. While it is true that other posts sprang up between, Digitized by Microsoft® 12 The Hudson River yet the greater part of the river shore was for many- years practically untouched by the whites. In relation to the purchase of Manhattan there is one old document, written in 1634, that concludes with a burst that has the ring of prophecy: " Further, not only were the above named forts enlarged and re- newed, but the said company ptirchased from the In- dians, who were the indubitable owners thereof, the island of Manhattes, situated at the entrance of said river, and there laid the foundations of a city." Who- ever the forgotten framer of that paragraph, he wrote, as his contemporaries builded, better than he knew. Noting the orthography of the name Manhattes, as given above, it is interesting to find that there are forty-two spellings of the word used in old manuscripts. In that abounding wilderness which bordered what has become the main artery of the Empire State, the forests not only afforded a shelter for a large Indian population, but a hiding-place for numberless wild ani- mals, among which an old document of the year 1645 includes lions, but they are few; bears, of which there are many; elks, a great number of deer, some of which are entirely white and others wholly black, but the latter are very rare. The Indians say that the white deer have a great retinue of other deer by which they are highly esteemed, beloved, and honoured, and that it is quite contrary with those that are black. There are, be- sides, divers other wild animals in the interior, but these are un- known to Christians. Digitized by Microsoft® Introductory 13 After the account here quoted of the black and white deer, we are inclined to wonder whether it was know- ledge or invention that failed. Certainly one may be more indulgent to the flocks of flamingoes with which Campbell brightened his picture of the Wyoming valley. Allusion has been made to the primitive settlements that sprang up in the neighbourhood of the principal forts. Near the bouweries of New Amsterdam and those of Rensselaerwyk, there were others where the fields of rye, wheat, maize, and barley began to grow in the forest clearings, and these in time centred about the orchards and gardens of manor lords whose state and power were baronial. A very early and shockingly mendacious map, a very geographical nightmare, that is preserved in Holland, scatters a number of place names, without a clue to distance, along the Mauritius (now Hudson) River. Albany is discoverable under one of its several aliases, as Nassou. Kinderhook — spelled Kinderhoeck — is about where it should be, and Hinnieboeck suggests Rhine- beck. Esopus has unaccountably slipped down the river, and is surrounded by forests belonging to the Waronawanka Indians. Then we find Blinkersbergh and Vischershoeck (or letters to that effect) in the country of the Pachami. Finally the familiar bend of "Havestro" and "Tappans" is reached, after which another half a dozen miles lands the bewildered voy- ager in the Manhattes. Digitized by Microsoft® 14 The Hudson River It is not important that this erratic stream is in the main as fabulous as that which flowed through the caverns of Xanadu, or that the map-maker has Hmned another, not less marvellous (which may be the Mis- sissippi or the Yukon, for anything that we know to the contrary) , that parallels it a few miles to the west- ward. What is really important is that some one who constructed a map less than a decade after the dis- covery of the river should have known the names of Nassau, Kinderhook, Esopus, and Tappan, and should have placed them in their approximate order on the shores of a river making a line of cleavage through the wilderness. Those little settlements were the nuclei from which cultivation spread into the forest lands. Year after year the corn and the wheat followed the receding pine and chestnut; year after year the "herbes" and the simples attended the broader crops; and flowers that bloomed for the delight of the eye and the comfort of the soul lifted their faces within the walls of the home acre. Industry and thrift were the genii that achieved these things in time, but industry and thrift were not enough to keep the new plantations from being some- times reabsorbed by the surrounding wilderness. There were periods of unrest among the forest dwellers, and the pitiful stories of massacre and ruin were mul- tiplied. One Siebout Claessen, house carpenter,