D. 1699, Sachima Wicker, sachem of Kightawonck and his associates sold to Stephanus van Cortlandt, all their rights as owners and proprietors in the " land lying and being v/ithin Cortlandt's manor, beginning on the south side of Kightawonck creek, and so along the said creek to a place called Kewighecock, and from thence along a creek called Peppeneghek to the head thereof, and then due east to the limits of CoJi7wcticut, and from thence northerly along the limits of Connecticut aforesaid to the river Mattegticos ten miles, and from thence due west to the Hudson river, ifcc, &c."*

"^ See Cortlandt.

470 HISTORY OF THE

A portion of the Salem lands, if not the whole, may have originally belonged to the great sachem Catonah, whose territory extended from the Sound as far north as Dan bury in Connecticut ; his possessions on the west appear to have been bounded by the western line of Bedford.

" In the year 170S, John Belden, Samuel Keeler, Matthew Seymour, Matthias St. John, and other inhabitants of Norwalk, purchased a large tract of land lying between that town and Danbury, bounded west on the partition line between Connecticut and New York. This purchase was made of Catonah, the chief sachem, and the other Indians, who were the proprietors of that part of the country."^

Van der Donck, the historian, in his map of 1656, locates the Indian village of Pechquenakonck somewhere in this vicinity. The Indian burying ground is situated on the estate of the Hon. Isaac Purdy, in this town, a little northwest of the mansion house. In 177S upwards of forty mounds were visible. The Titiciis River still retains a portion of its ancient Indian naiiie; Midi ghti coos. ^ This beautiful stream rises from the West Mountain, in the town of Ridgefield, Connecticut, upon the estate of Thomas Smith, commonly designated as the " Indian FarmP Tradition asserts that the Mutighticoos was sometimes called Buffalo Creek.