We have sho\vn that the next grantee in Yonkers, under the Indians, wa? tlic renowned Dutch De Heer Adriaen van der Donck." "This illustrious personage was the son of a free citizen of Breda in Dutch Urabant, and a hneal descendant of Adriaen van Bergen, part owner of t!ic famous turf boat, in which a party of Dutch troops were clandestinely introduced, in the year 1599, into the castle commanding that city, then in the hands of the Spanish, by which stratagem that stronghold fell into the- hands of their high mightinesses the States General."^ "Van der Donck enjoys the distinction of having been the first lav.yer in the colony of New Netherlands. He received his education at the University of Leyden, in Holland, where he attained the degree oi Juris iitriusque Doctor; he subsequently obtained permission to practice as an advocate in the Supreme Court of Holland. In the autumn of 1641, he embarked on board a vessel belonging to the Patroon Killian van Rensselaer, for the New Netherlands. On his arrival he was created sheriff of Rensselaerwj'ck."'^

After remaining here for two or three years, and finding himself disappointed in his efforts to plant a colony in that neighborhood, "he obtained, in consideration of the assistance he afforded in negotiating the treaty between the Director General and the Mohawks, and in return for the advances he then made to enable the government to purchase presents for the Indians, the tract of land called '' Neppcrhaem." This valuable property, for which he received a patent from the Dutch authorities in 1646, was situated on the east side of Hudson's river, about sixteen miles above New Amsterdam. It was bounded on the north by a stream which the Indians called "■ I^iaccakassinP and ran south to Ntppcrhcwm ; thence to the SJioraJzapkock kill, and to Papirinimen creek, called by the Dutch "Spuyten Duyvel," whence it stretched eastward to the river Bronx.