They manfully overcame the obstacles that beset them; from rough materials they hewed homes of comfort and contentment ; they reared their families to virtue and usefulness, and their children rose up to call them blessed.

Tho.se were rich streams that flowed into Westchester County : the Dutch, the Puritan, the Huguenot and the Quaker. Each fought its battle for civil and religious liberty. Each knew the rights of humanity, and, knowing, dared achieve them. Flowing together, they gave to Westchester mote strains of good blood than any other section can boast, and they furnished an unequaled foundation stock for peopling the county and the State.

THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF MANORS IX NEW YORK, AND IN THE COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER.

BY EDWARD FLOYD DE LAXCEY, ESQ. Copyright, 188G.

The Indian Owners of Westchester. The Europeans who, it is certain, first beheld any part of what is now the County of Westchester, were Henry Hudson, and his mixed crew of Hollanders and

Englishmen. They sailed up the great "River of the Mountains " in the yacht Half-Moon of Amsterdam, flying the orange white and blue flag of the United Provinces, on the thirteenth and fourteenth days ot September, 1609.^

They were the earliest civilized men to gaze enraptured on the beautiful land of Westchester. They saw before all others, her lofty hills, rich valleys, and deep magnificent forests, glowing in the transparent air and warm sun of Autumn beneath the bright blue sky of America.^

They sailed up the river as far as the site of Albany and then slowly returned. On the second of October, they anchored at the historic inlet of Spyt-den-Duyvel, their progress being checked by a strong flood tide. Here, they first met the tawny, well formed, brown eyed, people, clad in skins and adorned with feathers, who then ruled over Westchester ; and most unhappily as enemies.