Such paths, however, ran not only between the several stations of related members of a single tribe or chieftaincy, but were highways of communication between very diverse peoples. The trail up the east side of the Hudson, which is in great part followed by Broadway and the old Albany post-road, provided not only access to the friendly tribes up-river, but to the masterful Mohawk, whose representatives periodically appeared in the region of Manhattan to collect the indemnity or tribute which they had imposed

AND MONOGRAPHS

INDIAN PATHS

by force of arms on the subdued or weaker chieftaincies in its vicinity.

The early settlers in New England found "trodden paths" connecting the villages of the Pequot, and also extending far inland. These formed, in fact, their only means of travel from their seashore settlements, and served the purpose of opening up the country, not only to trade, but to inspection and invasion by the whites, a result which their native creators must at times have viewed with very mixed feelings. Leading, as they did, to the most desirable residential sites, to the best fishing-places, and the finest huntinggrounds, the trodden paths directed the invaders to the choicest parts of the land which their cupidity sought to acquire, and doubtless facilitated to a marked extent, and also advanced by a considerable period of time, the overrunning of the interior from the seaboard.

Even political and racial events were affected by the Indian paths, since it was by their means that the several European nationalities spread their ownership, and