Handsome presents were made by Kieft to the chiefs, for the purchase of which, it is said, he was obliged to borrow money from Adrian Van der Donck, at that time sheriff of Hensselaerswyck. The settlement of the lands beyond the Harlem was not, however, resumed at once. For some time the restoration of the burned farmhouses and ruined fields of Manhattan Island claimed all the energies of the Dutch; and the memories of the dreadful experience of the colonies of Anne Hutchinson and John Throckmorton effectually deterred other New Englanders from seeking the Vredeland. In 1646, however, two enterprises of great historic interest were undertaken within the limits of our county. One of these was the settlement by Thomas Cornell on Cornell's Neck, whose details we have already The other was the creation of kk Colen Donck," or Donck's narrated.

HISTORY

WESTCHESTER

COUNTY

colony, embracing the country from Spuyten Duyvil Creek northward along the Hudson as far as a little stream called the Ainackassin, and reaching inland to the Bronx River, under a patent granted by the Dutch authorities to Adrian Van der Donck. The exact date of Van der Donck's grant is unknown, and the record of his purchase of the territory from the Indians has not been preserved. The tract constituted a portion of the so-called Keskeskeck region, bought from the natives for the West India Company by Secretary Van Tienhoven, " in consideration of a certain lot of merchandise," under date of August 3, 1639. That Van der Donck made substantial recompense to the original owners of the soil is legally established by testimony taken in 1G66 before Richard Nicolls, the that it is stated in which first English' governor of New theYork, Indian proprietors concerned " acknowledged to have sold and received satisfaction of Van der Adrian Van der Donck was a genDonck." tleman by birth, being a native of Breda, Holland.