The Indians having no written language, all their names and other words which we now have, are based upon the reproducing of their spoken sounds in our letters. If a Dutchman, Frenchman or an Englishman, undertook to write the same word from an Indian's mouth, very different looking and sounding words would be produced. And as very many of our New York Indian terms and names represent an English spelling of a Dutch or French translation of an Indian sound, we should never be surprised at any variety of spelling.'
Though erected a town so late as 1788, Mamaroneck is one of the oldest places in the County and the State, dating back to 1661, when the then Indian owners Wappaquewam and Mahatahan sold and deeded their individual lands to John Richbell, an Englishman, on the 21st of September 1661. Long previous to this time, and in the year 1640 the entire and general Indian title, both to the land and the sovereignty, of all the territory of southeastern Westchester and Connecticut as far east as the Norwalk Islands inclusive, had been obtained for the Dutch West India Company by purchase by Governor Kieft, through Cornelius van Tienhoven, from the Siwanoy Indians.* Richbell however was the first white man to purchase the individual right of the local Indian owners to the lands at Mamaroneck.
He was an Englishman of a Hampshire family of
- Time, blasting, and a succession of dams, have obliterated the original ledge, but the, remains of the reef can still be seen.