The first white settlement in Brooklyn was made upon the site of the native village known as Marechkawick (117).25 This would locate that Indian station at the old settlement which was built up on both sides of the native path, now Fulton street, in the vicinity of Lawrence and Jay streets. The name of the chieftaincy is defined by Tooker as meaning "at his fortified house," indicating some strategic and elevated position in which, for defensive purposes, the natives could gather behind a wall of palisades. A village-site alongside the path had no substantial elevation above

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INDIAN PATHS

the contiguous area, nor had it any nearby source of water. Its position, however, was on the elevated tract of Brooklyn Heights, and its importance lay in its situation at the narrowest part of the neck of upland between the marshes of Gowanus and Wallabout, through the center of which the main pathway passed. Between Gallatin place and Elm place, where the old path diverged from its course somewhat to the southwest, would appear to have been the most likely position of this station, which bore the name and was doubtless the headquarters of the chieftaincy.

On Fulton street at Hoyt street, there was established in later years the village cemetery, possibly succeeding native interments in favorable soil. The path here swerved slightly to the west toward the cemetery site.

The Dutch Church was built on the east side of the line of the trail, and then the highway was opened on its eastern side, making the church plot an "island between two parts of the road."