After I attained this grant in the year 1646, I resolved to reside here, erected a saw mill and laid out a farm and plantation, and was actually resolved to continue on this spot, when I further with consent of the Director General, purchased a part of said land from the Indians the original proprietors^ who reclaimed it as belonging to them, but the suppliant observing that near the saw kill were valleys used as commons which by enclosure might be properly adapted for hay lands, so was he permitted by the Director General to purchase these valleys from the Indians, on the best possible terms. This induced the supplicant to follow his plan, having obtained as I already mentioned the consent and approbation of the Director General and Council, and included said val-

» Roll. Doc. xxxii. 130, iv.

b Holl Doc. xxxvii. 141.

* ludi^.u name fur sliell nione/.

COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER. 409

leys in his purchase, as he did not possess other low lands. This valley contained about 30 or 40 morgen,'' with another handsome vale bordering on said, on the back part of the Island of Manhattans, and stretching as far as Paprinemin called by our people, in spite of the dyvel, where the supplicant was determined to fix his residence as soon as he should have finished all his oonceins at the saw kill ; and which yet remains his firm determination as soon as he shall have returned in safety to that country, as he made every preparation to execute his purpose, by commencing to build on that spot and cultivate the soil ; so because he is delighted with that situation, as because it shall enable him to reap all the advantages of the aforesaid valleys, without which all his great expenses which he made at the saw kill, would be in vain and his prospects in future profits would be obscured, while all his toils and labors would have been rendered useless with respect at least to himself, and whereas the supplicant is informed that some greedy land speculators arrived in 1652, to obtain a grant of these lands in a clandestine manner ; so it is that the supplicant now addresses himself to your honors, with great respect that it may please them to resolve that the supplicant shall not be dispossessed of these lands and valleys, by any individual under any pretext whatsoever, by which doing &c. &c.t>