In Westchester County the Indian title was first extinguished by purchase from the Indians pursuant to a license from the Dutch or English authorities, then Manors and (frants, by patents were obtained in the manner directed by the Dutch or English laws. And usually in the case of the Manors and larger patents, deeds of confirmation were subsequently obtained from the Indians, merely as a matter of precaution, notwithstanding the fact that the Indian title had, pursuant to the laws both of the Dutch and the English, been always extinguished by deed or deeds beforehand.

The North American Indians claimed that they sprung from the earth -- that they were Antochthoni, produced from the earth itself, and hence they boasted their title to the lands could never be questioned and was indefeasible. This belief was the underlying foundation of the many curious, grotesque, and absurd, accounts of their origin given by different tribes, and different writers at different times. This is not the place to discuss the origin of the Indians, nor any of the many theories that have been broached to account for it.

But the belief above mentioned, in some form or other, always existed among themselves. Never was it more forcibly, or more eloquently expressed than by the great Tecumseh at the Council of Vincennes held by General Harrison, afterwards the ninth President of the United States, at that place in 1811. The chief of some tribes attended, to complain of a purchase of lands which had been made from the Kickapoos. The harshness of language used by Tecumseh in the course of the conference caused it to be broken up in confusion. In the progress of the long "talks," which took place, Tecumseh, having finished one of his speeches, looked around, but seeing every one seated, while no seat was prepared for him, a momentary frown passed over his countenance.