Such, too, was the dream in regard to the^lands of the

Iroquois,

until Sullivan's blazing torch lighted the hills and valleys with

the crackling flames of forty burning villages.

On the 8th of

.-ipril,

1680, the Mahicans sold their land, on

the west side of the Hudson, to

much thereof as was " called

Van Rensselaer, or at least so

Sanckhagag," a tract described as

extending from Beeren island up to Smack's island, and in The grantors were Paep-Sikenebreadth two days' journey."

On the

komtas, Manconttanshal and Sickoussen.

2yth of

same gentleman bought from Cattomack, Nawanemit, Abantzene, Sagisquwa and Kanamoack, the lands

July, following, the

to within lying south and north of Fort Orange, and extending a short distance of Monemius' castle, and from Nawanemit,

one of the last named chiefs, his grounds, " called Samesseeck," stretching on the east side of the river, from opposite Castle island to a point facing Fort Orange, and thence from Poetan-

Seven years later oek, the mill creek, north to Negagonse. he purchased an intervening district " called Papsickenekas," lying on the east bank of the river, extending from opposite Castle island south to a point opposite Smack's island, includ ing the adjacent islands, and all the lands back into the interior, belonging to the Indian grantors, and, with his previous pur chases, became the proprietor of a tract of country twenty-four miles long, and forty-eight miles broad, containing, by estima

over seven hundred Thousand acres,

tion,

now comprising the

counties of Albany, Rensselaer, and part of Columbia.