He purchased from Ranachqua, or Ranaque, and Taekamuck, Indian chiefs, a tract of five hundred acres, " lying between the great kill" (Harlem River) and the "Ahquahung," (Bronx) part of which is now included in Jlorrisania. Here he erected a stone house covered with tiles, a barn, tobacco house and two barracks." From the old map of Bronxland on file in the office of the Secretary of State at Albany, it appears that Bronx's house was situated not far from the present depot of the Port Chester Branch Railroad, and from the inventory of Bronx's estate it is quite certain he was a gentleman

1 1 Broadhead, 167.

- De Vries' "Voyages," ir>4, Journal Van New Ni-therhind.

3 Uall Doca., iii. lOo, v. 314.

«1 Broadhead, 296.

f N. V. Col. Docs., xiii. ii.

« Riker and X. Y. Col. Dors., vol. xi. l(i-2.

of learning and refinement, for he had in his library books written in several languages, used silver on his table and had napkins and table-cloths, and as many as six linen shirts.^ The books were, many of them, religious. He undoubtedly believed that cleanliness and godliness were twin sisters.

Bronx was hardly settled in his new quarters at Emmaus, as he piously termed it, before an Indian war broke out. The young Weckquacsgeek who had witnessed the killing of his uncle by Minuit's servants had attained manhood. Claes Sinits, a harmless Dutchman, had built a small house ou the East River neiir Harlem, on the Manhattan side, now One Hundred and Twenty-third Street, near the river. He was a wheelwright by trade. The young savage came one day and offered to barter some beaver skins for duffels, and while Smits was stooping over the chest in which he kept the goods the Indian killed him with an axe, i)lundered the house and escaped with his booty into Westchester.