fountains thereof, with high, low and middle jurisdic- tion, hunting, fishing, fowling and milling, the lands remaining allodial, but the jurisdiction as of a perpetual hereditary fief, devolvable by death as well to females as to males, and fealty and homage for which is to be rendered to the Company, on each of such occasions, with a pair of iron gauntlets, redeemable by twenty guilders within a year and six weeks, at the Assembly of the XIX., here, or before the Governor there; with this under- standing, that in case of division of said fief or jurisdiction, be it high, middle or low, the parts shall be and remain of the same nature as was originally conferred on the whole, and fealty and homage must be rendered for each part thereof by a pair of iron gauntlets, redeemable by twenty guilders, as aforesaid. There is in the provisions of this act a survival of customs fostered under a mediaeval feudatory system, — customs that seem strangely out of place in the new land. Another clause provides that: Should any Patroon, in course of time, happen to prosper in his Colonie to such a degree as to be able to found one or more towns, he shall have authority to appoint officers and magis- trates there, and make use of the title of his Colonie, according to the pleasure and the quality of the persons, all saving the Com- pany's regalia. A further explanation of the terms upon which Digitized by Microsoft® Early Settlers of the Hudson Valley 91 Patroons and their colonists lived together is furnished in a report of the Committee of the States-General: Whereas it is found that greater pains have generally been taken to promote the fur trade than the agriculture and popula- tion of the country, the supreme court there, shall, in conse- quence, above all things, provide that cattle be not exported, but be as much as possible retained and reared there : also that a good quantity of grain be kept in store to be furnished and sold at a reasonable price to newly arrived immegrants, who are to be assisted and favoured in every manner, and be located on good lands, suitable for cultivation, taking care therein that they shall dwell as close and as compact together as possible on such lands and places as shall be considered best and most suitable for homestead, bouwerie, plantation and security: the Patroons of Colonies remaining at liberty to improve their own lands as they think proper, they being also obliged to settle the colonists in the form of villages. The lower Philipse patent, in 1779, embraced a large part of Westchester County, though Philipse was not a Patroon. North of his extensive territory, more particularly defined in another chapter, lay the manor of Cortlandt, reaching as far as Anthony's Nose. On the north of Van Cortlandt Philipse again appears ; the Highland Patent, as it was called, taking in nearly all of Putnam County and reaching to Fishkill creek. Rondout came next, including the land between Fish- kill and Wappinger's creek. The Schuylers ruled where Poughkeepsie now is, and Falconer's purchase lay to the north. Above Falconer's was the Henry Beekman tract, that had Esopus as its northern bound- ary, and above that the Schuyler name again appears. Digitized by Microsoft® 92 The Hudson River The manor of Livingston, from Rhinebeck .to Catskill Station, lay next to Rensselaerwyk, that reached as far as Troy. It will be noticed that nearly all of the land chosen by the earliest colonists was upon the east bank of the river, where the alluring valleys and rolling hills afforded a chance for husbandry, while the more for- bidding cliffs and headlands of the western shore re- mained for the most part unsettled, except at a few favourable points. But above the Highlands the physical conditions of the shores commence gradually to change, and the narrowing stream affords a less formidable line of division. The Van Rensselaer pat- ent was the first to cover both sides of the Hudson. The question is often raised whether the men who colonised the Hudson shores were to any extent edu- cated or cultivated persons. Curiosity on such a point is natural, considering how many of the families now socially prominent in New York trace descent from them. Let us in the first place remember that the scholarly men and those whose lives are passed amidst luxurious surroundings seldom make colonists. To strike into the wilderness for anything more than a dash of ad- venture usually indicates that one has more to gain than to lose, and that his habit is active rather than contemplative. If noble families are represented in any colony, it is apt to be through their needy cadets, and they