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Footprints of the Red Men: Indian Geographical Names — Passage 27

Edward Manning Ruttenber (1906) 205 words View original →

[Edward Manning Ruttenber (1906)] New York and Massachusetts and seems to have been one of the several small streams that flow down the bluff from the surface, apparently about two miles and a half north of Roelof Jansen's Kill, in the vicinity of the old Oak Hill station [FN-2] on the H. R. R., later known as Catskill station. While referred to in connection with the boundmark to identify its location, its precise location seems to have been lost. In early days boundmarks were frequently designated in general terms by some well known place. Hence we find Catskill spoken of and particularly "the south end of Vastrix Island," a point that every voyager on the Hudson knew to be the commencement of a certain "rak" or sailing course. [FN-3] Hence it was that Van Rensselaer's first purchase (1630) was bounded on the south by the south end of Beeren or Mahican Island, and the second purchase by the south end of Vastrix Island, which became the objective of the northwest bound of Livingston's Patent. While the name is repeatedly given as that of the stream, it was probably that of a place or point on the limestone bluff which here bounds the Hudson on the east for several miles.