In relation to the purchase of Manhattan there is one old document, written in 1634, that concludes with a burst that has the ring of prophecy: " Further, not only were the above named forts enlarged and renewed, but the said company purchased from the Indians, who were the indubitable owners thereof, the island of Manhattes, situated at the entrance of said river, and there laid the foundations of a city.'' Whoever the forgotten framer of that paragraph, he wrote, as his contemporaries builded, better than he knew. Noting the orthography of the name Manhattes, as given above, it is interesting to find that there are forty- two spellings of the word used in old manuscripts. In that abounding wilderness which bordered what has become the main artery of the Empire State, the forests not only afforded a shelter for a large Indian population, but a hiding-place for numberless wild animals, among which an old document of the year 1645 includes

lions, but they are few; bears, of which there are many; elks, a great number of deer, some of which are entirely v/hite and others wholly black, but the latter are very rare. The Indians say that the white deer have a great retinue of other deer by which they are highly esteemed, beloved, and honoured, and that it is quite contrary with those that are black. There are, besides, divers other wild animals in the interior, but these are unknown to Christians.

Introductory 13

After the account here quoted of the black and white deer, we are inchned to wonder whether it was knowledge or invention that failed. Certainly one may be more indulgent to the flocks of flamingoes with which Campbell brightened his picttn^e of the Wyoming valley. Allusion has been made to the primitive settlements that sprang up in the neighbourhood of the principal forts.