This valley contained about 30 or 40 morgcn,'' with another handsome vale bordering on said, on the back part of the Island of Manhattans, and stretching as far as Paprinemin called by our people, "In Spite of the Dj-vel," where the supplicant was determined to fix his residence as soon as he should have finished all his concerns at the saw kill; and which yet remains his firm determination as soon as he shall have returned

a Hon. Doc. xxxll. 130. Iv.

h IIoU. Doc. x.vxTlL, 141.

c Inili.m name f^vr gtiell money.

a A DiUcli morgeu contilued a little over i acre.<! Enslisti ; 7 morgen containing 13 acres.

582 HISTORY OF THE COUNTV' OF WESTCHESTER.

iu safety to that country, as he made every preparation to execute his purpose, by coniuiencing to Iniild ou that spot and cultivate the soil ; so becau.se he is dehghled witli that situation, as because it shall enable him to reap all the advan tages of the aforesaid valleys, without which all his great expenses which he made at the saw kill, would be in vain and his prospects iu future profits would be obscured, while all his toils and labors would have been rendered useless with respect at least to himself, and whereas the supplicant is informed that son-.o greedy land speculators arrived in 1652, to obtain a grant of these lands iu a clandestine manner; so it is that the supplicant now addresses himself to your honors, with great lesnect that it may please them to resolve that the supplicant shall not be dispossessed of these lauds and valleys, by any iudividual under any pretext ■whatsoever, by which doing, &c. , &c." °'