These main arteries of traffic then combined in a single trail down the island, uniting at McGown's pass with the branch path extending from Harlem. So far these trails are recorded in history, and below that point we can be reasonably sure that the path was continued On the line of the old Boston post-road, whose tortuous course, avoiding streams and bogs, extended down the east side of the island to the settlements on and near its southern extremity,

AND MONOGRAPHS

INDIAN PATHS

the future heart of the Great Metropolis of the Western hemisphere.

James Riker thus imagines the scenery through which that ancient thoroughfare took its way:

"Quitting the drowsy little town of New Amsterdam, its thatched roofs and its fortress with low turf wall receding from view, we follow the Indian trail leading to Wickguaskeek or 'the birch bark country, ' which lies beyond the quiet waters of the Papparinamin, as that part of the Spuyten Duyvil was called, where it turns the extreme northerly end of Manhattan. Spring is in her loveliest attire. Around and along our pathway she displays in rich profusion her grandest works. Plains scarce trodden by human kind save by the red man are clothed in all the beauty of their pristine verdure, while the rock-capped hills and the resonant forest echo back and forth the sounds of wild and savage life. Plumed songsters fill the woods and enliven our journey with their music. Perchance the shrill cry of the eagle, or the plaintive note of the cuckoo, or the busy hammer of the woodpecker in turn arrests our attention."