It relates to a dispute between the towns of Newark and Elizabeth as to their respective boundaries, and is evidently the work of some surveyor

AND MONOGRAPHS

INDIAN PATHS

acquainted with the historical side of the subject, as it records not only the boundaries but the dates and even some of the native names of the tracts purchased from the natives dwelling in the territory between Raritan and Passaic rivers, and from Staten Island to the Cushetonk hills.

One of the most important boundary lines was the Minisink path, which traverses the region between the two rivers above mentioned, and was used as the western boundary of the earliest native conveyance, comprising that tract contiguous to Staten Island from Amboy to Elizabeth, which it states was "claimed by the Indians of Staten Island" and was sold by them in 1664.

The point of its crossing of Raritan river was about two miles west of Perth Amboy, where a fordable depth was doubtless found at a place which is marked on the old survey as Kents neck, the native name of which was Matockshegan, indicating by its use of the words matta, "bad," tuck, "a creek," and perhaps oushachen, "slippery," the awkward and difficult

INDIAN NOTES

NEW JERSEY

nature of the wading place. The path appears to have taken a fairly straight course nearly due north from this point, on a line which is not followed by any main road of later periods. Keeping to the west side of Rahway river, it reached Springfield; thence it passed through the Short hills to Northfield and Livingston, where it crossed the Passaic into Morris county. Its course may be traced beyond that point by old roadways through Sussex county to the island of Minisink in Delaware river, which is situated halfway bebetween Hainesville and Milford.34 This is stated by Whitehead to have been the only native path or trail in upper New Jersey of which there is any definite record.