Williams is Chairman of the Executive Committee and Mr. Edward Hagaman Hall is Secretary. The committee is arranging its further organization as this report is being written.

In recognition of the completion of this great work, we give a somewhat extended history of the water supply of New York City in Appendix C.

STATEN ISLAND INDIAN HISTORY

Site for a National Indian Monument

On Washington's Birthday, in 1913, ground was broken with impressive ceremonies at Fort Wadsworth, Staten Island, for a national Indian monument, under the auspices of the National Indian Monument Association of which Mr. Rodman Wanamaker is President. The first turf was turned by President Taft. Other participants in the ceremonies were Indians, gathered for the occasion by Dr. Joseph Kossuth Dixon, leader of the Rodman Wanamaker educational expeditions among the Indians. In response to the recent request of the National Indian Monument Association for some of the landmark history of Fort Wadsworth, we have prepared the following from original documents except when otherwise stated:

First Mention of Fort Wadsworth Site

The United States military reservation of Fort Wadsworth embraces an extensive tract of land on the headland which forms the western side of the Narrows. The highest point within the fort is about 140 feet above the level of the sea. This is by no means the highest point on the island, as there are elevations of 350 feet or more inland; but it owes its importance to the fact that its guns command the passage of the Narrows, and on account of its situation it has an extended prospect toward both the south and north. In the latter direction, it is possible to communicate by flag signal to Manhattan Island the arrival of a vessel in the lower harbor. For the same reason, it is a very conspicuous site for a national monument to the first owners of America.

The earliest historical mention which we have of the particular site of Fort Wadsworth connects it with the Indians. Isaak de

Rasieres, in an undated letter to Samuel Blommaert written probably in 1628, says that on July 27, 1626,- the year in which Manhattan Issland was purchased and permanently settled- he arrived at the Narrows, which he called the "Hamels Hoofden.”* At a later date the name was abbreviated to Hoofden, (the Heads.) On some Dutch maps the Heads were designated respectively as the West Hook and the East Hook.

Indian Occupancy

De Rasieres says that the Hamels-Hoofden " are tolerably high points and well wooded. The west point is an island inhabited by from 80 to 90 savages who support themselves by planting maize.”

These Indians were Raritans, whose chief seat was on the Raritan river in New Jersey, and who also had other habitations on Staten Island as existing traces indicate. The Raritans were once an important division of the New Jersey Delawares, of Algonquin stock, but subject to the Mohawks to whom they paid tribute. They were estimated at 1200 warriors in 1646, but, as the "Handbook of American Indians" published by the Bureau of Ethnology says, this was probably an exaggeration.

Shellheaps, skeletons and artifacts indicate that groups of Indians were located at several different places on Staten Island. One of their burial places was in the great sand-bank which lay before the Dongan manor-house at West Brighton and from which hundreds of skeletons have been removed from time to time. Others were at Tottenville; on the Carson farm near New Springville; and at Holland's Hook, Great Kill, and Green Ridge. Some of the bones, preserved at the American Museum of Natural History, were found penetrated by stone arrow-points, indicating the manner of death.

Sometimes ravaged by the Mohawks, and sometimes by white men, the lot of the Staten Island Indians was generally a miserable one.

The Hamels Hoofden were named after Hendrick Hamel, one of the Directors of the West India Company. (Docs. Rel. Col. Hist. of N. Y. xiii, 2.) Neighboring geographic features were named after others, as, Godyn's Punt (Sandy Hook) after Samuel Godyn (ibid. i, 545); Blommaert's Punt (Coney Island) after Samuel Blommaert (old map), etc.

Indian Name of Staten Island

The aboriginal name for their island home, expressed in English as Aquehonga and in Dutch as Eghquaons, is from the Delaware Achwowangeu, which means "high sandy banks" (Wm. Wallace Tooker.) Manacknong was the name of the fort built on Staten Island by the remnant of the Indians of Marechkawick, on Long Island, who, after being cruelly treated, sold out and moved to Staten Island. (Tooker.) The island was therefore sometimes called Aquehonga-Manacknong.

First Purchase from the Indians

Staten Island appears to have been purchased more than once from the Indians. On August 10, 1630, the natives sold it to Michael Pauw, who also secured a large tract on the west side of the Hudson river. Communipaw and Pavonia were named after him. The Indian deed of Staten Island, which was confirmed by the Director and Council of New Netherland, reads as follows:

We, Director and Council in New-Netherland, residing on the Island of Manhattan under authority of their High Mightinesses, the States-General of the United Netherlands and the Privileged West India Company, Department of Amsterdam, testify and declare herewith, that to-day, date as below, personally appeared Krahorat, Tamehap, Totemackwemama, Wieromies, Siearewach, Sackwewew, Wissipoack, Saheinsios or the young one, inhabitants, owners and inheritors of the island called by us Staten Island, on the west side of Hamels Neck, who declare, that for a certain lot of merchandise, delivered to and received by them before the passing of this act, they have sold, transferred, ceded and delivered as true and lawful freehold, as they herewith according to a bill of sale and contract, transfer, cede, convey and deliver to and for the benefit of the Honble Mr. Michael Paauw, in whose absence we receive it ex officio under the usual conditions, the aforesaid land with its forest, appendencies and dependencies, rights and jurisdiction, belonging to them individually or collectively, or which they might derive hereafter, constituting and subrogating the aforesaid Honble Mr. Paauw, in their stead and place, giving him actual and real possession thereof, as well as complete and irrevocable authority and special power, that he, the aforesaid Honble Mr. Paauw may take possession of the aforesaid land, live on it in peace, inhabit, own and use it, also do with it, trade it off or dispose of it, as his Honor, like anybody else, would do with

his own lawfully obtained lands and dominions, without that they, the conveying party, shall have or retain the least pretension, right power or authority either concerning ownership or sovereignty, but herewith they desist, abandon, withdraw and renounce, in behalf as aforesaid now and forever totally and finally, promising further not only to fulfil in perpetuum, firmly and safely, inviolably and irrevocably, this their conveyance and transfer and what may be done by its authority, but also to deliver the said land to keep it free from all claims, pretensions, suits, challenges and troubles either against the aforesaid Wissipoack, when he has reached his majority, or against other claimants, all under the obligations of the laws referring hereto, a bona fide sine fraude. In Testimony whereof we have affirmed this with our signature and affixed our seal thereunto. Done on the Island of Manahatas in Fort Amsterdam the 10th of August in the year 1630.

De Vries' Unsuccessful Attempt to Colonize

Pauw does not appear to have attempted to colonize his island, or, so far as we know, even asserted his ownership, for David Pieterz De Vries, in his "Korte Historiael ende Journaels Aenteyckeninge" or "Short Historical and Journal-Notes," says under date of August 13, 1638: "I requested Wouter van Twilliger to register Staten Island for me, as I wished to return and plant a colony upon it, which he consented to do." Whereupon De Vries went aboard his ship and started back for his fatherland. On December 27, 1638, he arrived again at Manhattan and on January 5, 1639, he says: "I sent my people to Staten Island to begin to plant a colony there." But on February 10, "I leased out the plantation of Staten Island as no people had been sent me from Holland as was promised me in the contract which I had made with Frederick de Vries, a director of the West India Co."

Mr. Ira K. Morris, in his History of Staten Island, says that De Vries built a block fort and signal station on the heights now known as Fort Wadsworth, but we do not find original documentary authority for this statement. It appears to have been true of Melyn, however, a few years later.

De Vries, having no colonists to put on Staten Island, put swine there, and so did the West India Company. They were in charge of a negro swine-herd. During the summer of 1640, the swineherd and some of the swine were killed. Gov. Kieft charged the

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crime upon the Indians, while the Indians charged it upon Dutch sailors who landed there for wood and water. Kieft sent 80 soldiers under Cornelis van Tienhoven against the Indians on the Raritan river and killed several of them, and on September 1 of the following year the Indians retaliated by killing De Vries' men on Staten Island. Thus," writes De Vries, "I lost the beginning of my colony on Staten Island through the conduct of Commander Kieft who wished to charge upon the savages what his own people had done." Some of the tribes around New Amsterdam, however, were friendly, and De Vries says that on November 2, 1641, "there came a chief of the savages of Tankitekes, named Pacham, who was great with the Governor of the fort. He came in great triumph bringing a dead hand hanging on a stick and saying that it was the hand of the chief who had killed or shot with arrows our men on Staten Island and that he had taken revenge for our sake, because he loved the Swannekens (as they call the Dutch) who were his best friends."

A New Patroon of Staten Island.

On August 20, 1641, Cornelis Melyn arrived at New Amster dam on the ship Oak Tree and claimed that the Directors of the West India Co. had given Staten Island to him and Heer Vander Horst. De Vries could not believe it, but as De Vries enjoyed intimate relations with Gov. Kieft, dining with him frequently in Fort Amsterdam, he could not refuse Kieft when the Governor, on November 2, 1641-the very day on which Pacham arrived with the dead hand,- asked him to let Melyn "go upon the point of Staten Island where the maize land lay, saying that he wished to let him plant it and that he would place soldiers there who would make a signal by displaying a flag to make known at the fort whenever ships were in the bay."

With De Vries' consent, Melyn began a settlement on Fort Wadsworth point which is indicated on an old map by the name of Oude Dorp (or Old Village) as distinguished from the Nieuwe Dorp farther south. On June 19, 1642, Melyn was recognized in letters patent as the Patroon of Staten Island and the owner of it all except a bowery reserved for De Vries.