The "Little Sawyer," who established himself on the bank of a stream some ten miles above Kingston and antedated the earliest settlers whose names are recorded, has been referred to in old accounts as de Zaagertje and his mill as Zaargertje's, of which Saugerties is a simple corruption. What the object of the sawyer's coming was, for whom his logs were sawn, or where they were shipped, are questions to which no answers have been suggested. The Indians, in a transaction the record of which was officially preserved, acknowledged definitely that they had sold and conveyed to this mysterious man a tract of several thousand acres of land on the l^anks of the

4/2 The Hudson River

stream, but he was never known to have had the purchase confirmed by royal grant. In course of time this region, well watered, fertile, and abounding in game, attracted settlers. The pleasant meadows that bordered the mouth of Esopus Creek drew, first of all, Cornelius Lambertsen Brink, who built a stone house at the junction of the Plattekill and Esopus Creek, in witness whereof the house stands to this day. There are also descendants of the pioneer Brink, in the seventh and eighth generations, whose filial piety keeps his memory green. Brink had been a prisoner among the Indians after the horrible Esopus massacre in 1663 ; but, with twenty- two fellowcaptives, he managed to escape from the hands of the savages. A few other hardy Dutch frontiersmen took up land between the great Hardenbergh patent and the river. A large holding to the north of Saugerties was known as Fullerton's tract, upon which afterwards the West Camp of the Palatines was established. This at that time was included in the county of Albany, of which the southern boundary was then Esopus Creek.