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Documents Relative to the Colonial History of New York, Vol. I — Passage 221 (part 2)

E.B. O'Callaghan (ed.) (1856) 220 words View original →

[E.B. O'Callaghan (ed.) (1856)] This district is well adapted for raising and feeding all sorts of cattle, and is esteemed by many not ill adapted for fisheries; a good trade in furs could also be carried on there, and 'tis likewise accessible to all large vessels coming from sea, which are often obliged to lie to or anchor behind Sandy Hook, either in consequence of contrary winds, or for want of a pilot. The district inhabited by a nation called Raritangs, is situate on a fresh water river, that flows through the centre of the low land which the Indians cultivated. This vacant territory lies between two high mountains, far distant the one from the other. It is the handsomest and pleasantest country that man can behold, and furnished the Indians with abundance of maize, ' This tract exteuds across the couDty of Westchester, from Sing Sing to the Byram river. Bolton's History of Weslehester County, L, 2. — Ed. HOLLAND DOCUMENTS: V. 367 beans, pumpkins, and other fruits. This district was abandoned by the natives for two reasons; the first and principal is, that finding themselves unable to resist the Southern Indians, they migrated further inland; the second, because this country was flooded every spring like Renselaer's colonic, frequently spoiling and destroying their supplies of maize which were stored in holes under ground.