To this spot and its immediate vicinity settlement was necessarily confined for some years; and though by degrees certain enterprising persons took up 'lands considerably farther north, steadily pushing on to the Harlem, it is most unlikely that that stream was crossed for purposes of habitation by any unremembered adventurer before the time of Bronck. exCertainly any earlier migration into a region utterly uninhabited with cept by Indians, and separated by water from all communication the established settlements, would have been an event of some importance, which hardly could have escaped mention. We may therefore with reasonable safety assume that Bronck, the first white resident in Westchester County of whom history leaves any trace, was i That is. not conveniently or for practical purposes accessible otherwise. At Kingsbridge, the place of divide between Spuyten Duyvil Creek and the Harlem River-known in the earliest times as "the fording place "-Tenturosome persons would occasionally ford the and stream. In the journals of Jasper Bankers New Peter Sluvter-a narrative of a visit to York in 1679-it is related (p. 135) that people •' can go over this creek at dead low water

upon rocks and reefs at the place called Spyt den duyvel " (the original name of Kingsbridge,,. The editor of this History has crossed there when fishing, finding the passage reasonably safe at - dead low water." At other times, when the tide was higher but not full, it was fordable although f****™***1* ment of risk being enlarged bj the rapiditj of the current.