The Pacific currents frequently cast the wrecks of Japanese vessels upon our northwestern shores. The islands of the South Pacific afforded a probable way of communication, and it is believed that many have disappeared, comparatively recently, beneath the surface. On the Atlantic side the difficulties were by no means insurmountable, even if we ignore "the lost Atlantis." The tradewinds and equatorial currents carried Cabral and his Portuguese fleet, bound around the Cape of Good Hope, to the American shores, and led to the accidental discovery of Brazil. On his second voyage Columbus found, in a house on the island of Gaudaloupe, the stern-post of an European vessel. In various periods of the past the same forces may have brought men to these shores.

It is probable that America was peopled from various sources, and at widely separated periods. These must have been very remote to afford time for the production of the conditions found existing here.

The aborigines of Westchester County belonged to the great family of Indians called the Algonquin Lenape. Their connection with the Mound-Builders of the Mississippi Valley, with the Aztecs of Mexico, or with the builders of the wonderful structures found in Central America, if any ever existed, must have been extremely remote. Their traditions referred in a very vague way to long journeys from the northwest, and great suflTering from cold on their way hither, and of contests with a people who occupied the country before them. Of their own history they were lamentably ignorant. Their computation of time by moons and revolving cycles led all investigations into inextricable confusion. Any event beyond an individual's recollection floated vaguely in the boundless past. No records of any kind were made. For these reasons the Europeans were able to obtain from this people very little information of themselves or their fathers.