Some of these lands must have subsequently reverted to the Indians, for in 1699 the Kitchawan tribe again released the same territory to Stephanas van Cortlandt. This individual had previously obtained a charter from the

» Salem was incorporated on the 18th of March, 1791. b See page 6.

264 HISTORY OF THE

Crown, erecting the whole of his possession into the lordship and manor of Cortla:id(,a by which means the northern part of this town, came to be included in the manor.

On the Sth of July, 1701, we find Catoonah, Indian Sagamore, confirming to the inhabitants of Stamford " all those lands which extend westward as far as the west bounds of Bedford purchase and marked trees, and by the east bounds of the same, bounded north by the south side of Bedford purchase, and by the stone hills upon a straight line eastward unto the upper end of the Long Pond., and, further, on an east line, until it meets with a line drawn north from the upper end of Five Mile River, which is the east line of our several purchases."^

From this time we hear no more of the aboriginal proprietors of Salem.

Lewisborough includes seven miles in length of the south end of a tract of land cal ed the Oblong. This territory was a strip of one mile three quarters and twenty rods wide, formed by the running of a line parallel with Hudson's River, and twenty miles distant therefrom to tlie south line of Massachusetts. The controversy between tlie two colonies of New York and Connecticut concerning it lasted nearly a century, during which time the disputed ground afforded a sort of sanctuary for the most desperate kind of outlaws and robbers. Some improvement, however, must have taken place prior to the settlement of the bomidary, since we find the people living on the Oblong, between the governments of New York and Connecticut, employing the religious services of the Rev.