The Matinecock were at one time numerous, and their villages and contiguous cultivated fields were scattered all over the territory they occupied, but disease and warfare so reduced their number that their planting land became waste and their homes were abandoned. The line of Broadway was evidently a natural line of travel between their Flushing settlement and their stations on the North shore. Armbruster states that at the time of the arrival of the first white settlers an Indian trail existed where now Broadway runs.

At Little Neck (122), within the boundary of the borough, the path passed a native station and burial-ground. In this vicinity abundant shellheaps and native objects indicate its favorable advantages for native residence.

Beyond Little Neck the trail went forward to Manhasset, providing means of access from such stations as those at Dosoris, Port Washington, and others along the North shore of Long Island.

AND MONOGRAPHS

INDIAN PATHS

It seems probable that this North-shore trail would have been an extension of the Sackhickneyah, which at Corona was but about a mile away from Flushing. The two, however, were separated by the broad marshes extending on the west side of Flushing creek. Across part of this boggy tract a narrow neck of dry land extends nearly two-thirds of the distance, over which Broadway now makes its way, uniting Jackson avenue with Flushing avenue. A canoe ferry over the creek was doubtless a necessary supplement to travel by this route, an effort which would have been warranted by the distance it saved, and the avoidance of a long tramp down to Jamaica to join the Rockaway path.