of the fort at Albany in the time of Governor NicoU. A patent for this land was not obtained till 1688, when Salsbury 486 Digitized by Microsoft® The Catskill Region 487 was no longer living; but his widow held his portion of the estate, which lay on Catskill Creek. Neither of the original patentees lived upon the land thus ac- WOODLAND BROOK NEAR CATSKILL {From the painting by A. B. Durand^ in the Lenox Library. By permission) quired, but continued residents of Albany; their sons, however, moved into the Catskill wilderness. Francis Salsbury, in 1705, built upon his portion of Digitized by Microsoft® 488 The Hudson River the domain a stone house that was a sufficient protec- tion against the arms or miHtary science of the redskins and also proof against the ravages of two centuries. For many years this dweUing enjoyed the distinction of being the largest house between Newburgh and Al- bany. The Van Bergen mansion, though equally en- during, was somewhat altered architecturally a number of years ago. It was built of brick, being a unique example of the use of this material in old Catskill. Benjamin Dubois had a wooden house, probably a roomy log-cabin, near the mouth of the creek; and others of the prominent men of the settlement were similarly housed. Among the names of the older Catskill families are Van Ordens, Van Vechtens, Over- baghs, Abeels, Oothoudts, Schunemans, Wynkoops, Fieros, Webers, Plancks, Newkirks — a mingling of Dutch and German appellations still to be found in the Catskill directory. There is a tradition that, on Wanton Island, near Catskill, a fierce battle was once fought between the Mohawks and the river Indians. The former claimed the right to name a sachem for their neighbours, or, in other words, they tried to enforce the right of over- lordship, which the others resisted. After a day of hard fighting, according to Indian methods, the Mohe- gans succeeded in driving their enemies from the field. The Mohawks then retreated to another island, where they built fires and pretended to encamp. But, having spread their blankets upon poles near the fire, so that Digitized by Microsoft® The Catskill Region 489 they should resemble men seated there, they retired to the forest and waited in ambush till the Mohegans appeared to complete their victory. The latter, steal- ing up in the dead of night, tomahawk in hand, fell upon the unsuspecting blankets with great fury. While thus exposed in the glare of the firelight, and no doubt thrown into confusion by the ruse that had duped them, they fell a ready prey to the arrows of the crafty Mohawks. In another narrative of this battle (one, it must be confessed, more in keeping with probabilities) , no mention is made of the strategy of the blankets and camp-fire. It is stated that the Mohawks, finding the Mohegans' position on the island impregnable, retired to the mainland, pretending to be beaten, and that the others foolishly followed them, to their own destruc- tion. The result of this battle was a treaty, by the terms of which the Mohawks were to choose a king for the Mohegans, and they were pledged to reverence him and call him by the honourable title of " Uncle." Van Rensselaer's agent coveted andlaid claim to the region about Catskill, but his pretensions were set at naught by Governor Kieft, who granted the land to Cornelius Antonissen Van Slyck of Bruckelin. This was in 1644; but, in 1649, Van Rensselaer, who paid little regard to what was done by the Governor of New Amsterdam, asserted his rights by purchasing of the Indians their property in the disputed territory. In 1650, the Dutch West India Company denied the valid- ity of the purchase made by Van Slechtenhorst, Van Digitized by Microsoft® 490 The Hudson River Rensselaer's agent, and Stuyvesant declared the title void, ordering that the purchase money be restored, yet making a condition that if those holding such lands would, within six weeks, petition the Director and Council, they might have their holdings confirmed. Of course, this was a crafty effort on the Governor's part to make the too independent patroon of Renssel- aerswyck own the authority of the Company's Director at Manhattan. Grants free from dependence upon the Patroon were subsequently given by the powers at Amsterdam. William Leete Stone, editor at one time of the New York Commercial Advertiser, wrote regarding the settle- nient of Catskill, that 'its Dutch founders, with characteristic prudence, placed it en- tirely out, of sight from the river, probably to render themselves secure froiii bombardment by a foreign fleet and from invasion from the armies of the Yankees, which formerly much annoyed our primitive "^settlements. The Indians fi-om whom the lands of the early set- tlers were purchased,