It is noticeable that large Indian settlements existed at those points on which traffic converged. This is evident at the upper end of Manhattan and Kingsbridge, where paths from the northeast and southeast merged at the Wading place, and certainly at the head of the Long Island system of paths the native settlements m old Brooklyn indicate concentration on the head of that important network of trails.

The trade which thus passed through or across Manhattan was probably fostered,

AND MONOGRAPHS

INDIAN PATHS

as it has been in modern times, by the control of money. The native medium for the exchange of values, the coveted and laboriously produced shell bead or wampum, was largely a Long Island product. The shallow waters around the island teemed with the quahaug or hard-shell clam, from the dark portions of which the more valuable purple beads were derived, and also with the periwinkle or conch, from which the white beads were made. The accumulations of discarded shells around its shores testify to the activity of the coinage industry, and the wealth thus created flowed naturally to Manhattan, and found its way into the pouches of traders up the Hudson, to the distant homes of the Wappinger and the Mohawk, or along the Sound shore to the villages of the Siwanoy and the Pequot. In addition to their position of advantage in regard to this line of production at the great wampum-making stations of the Canarsee, that chieftaincy controlled its export by reason of its situation on the main line of travel, and by its close relationship with the Manhattan chief-