This appears to have been the only source of fresh-water supply in the entire tract, and, situated as it was with a southern exposure sheltered between rising ground east and west, the latter being covered with timber even as late as 1766, with a good beach in front, the space in the vicinity of the pond offered about as attractive conditions for village life as could be desired, and was therefore, in all probability, the site of Rechtauck. Though the existence of this station is recorded in local history, its precise

INDIAN NOTES

MANHATTAN

situation was of so little concern to early writers that they made no note of it.

The name of the village signifies "at the sandy town," or "sandy river."4 The leading feature of the village-site was evidently the sandy character of the bluffs along the shore-line of East river. It has been called Naghtongh or Nechtank by Schoolcraft and others, but these designations are probably erroneous. It has a tragic interest as the scene in 1643 of that ruthless slaughter of the unfortunate natives of Weckquaesgeek, who had sought refuge from their oppressors, the Mohawk, near the white man's settlement.

From its junction with the trail to the Rechtauck village, the line of the Bowery lane indicates the most probable course of the pathway by which the native traffic proceeded toward the upper end of Manhattan. It passed "the land called Werpoes," that level tract which later became the Out Ward of the growing city, and was in all probability a planting-ground cleared by the inhabitants of Werpoes from the