Schoolcraft has preserved a pictographic inscription on the " which, from its antiquity and character appears Esopus rocks,

denote the era of the introduction of fire-arms and gun powder among the tribes inhabiting that section of the valley of

to

He says

the Hudson." z

:

" The location of the inscription is on the western bank of the Hudson, at Esopus landing. Other indications have been of these ancient Indians the skill at of reported, sundry times,

Tracks of human feet are inscribing figures on rocks. the but these progress of building in that among objects ; little of but the existence and curiosity on that head, vicinity,

in

of a people appears to have destroyed these interesting traces of Ulster traditions The in live who now county history. only

do not refer to a period when this inscription was not there. The inscription may be supposed, if the era is properly con

The lines to have been made with metallic tools. jectured, The It in double lines. is are deeply and plainly impressed. in the -or skilled a denote man, chief, plumes from the head The gun is held at rest in the Indian medico-magical art. It is in the the left appears to support a wand. right hand ; Such an inscription, recording the in troduction of the gun, would not be made when that era had Indians never resort to historical long past and lost its interest. rampant Indian

style.

Thus the In pictography when there is nothing new to tell. dian pictography throws a little light on the most rude and un promising scene ; and if the sources of these gratifications are No attempt but small, we are indebted to them for this little. of rude nations to perpetuate an idea is ever wholly lost." Atkarkarton, the Indian name for Kingston, was not the name of an Indian village, but for a tract called by the Dutch the