History of Westchester County, New York, Volume 1. Frederic Shonnard

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СКАЧАТЬ of which two streams was called Shorackappock. It was opposite this castle that the fight occurred between Hudson and the Indians as he was returning down the river. They held Manhattan Island and had thereon three villages, which, however, it is claimed, were occupied only while they were on hunting and fishing excursions. In Breeden Raedt their name is given as the Reckewackes, and it is said that in the treaty of 1643 Oritany, sachem of the Hackinsacks, declared he was delegated by and for those of Tappaen, Reckgawawanc, Kicktawanc, and Sintsinc. The tract occupied by the Reckgawawanes on the mainland was called Keckesick, and is described as " lying over against the flats of the Island of Manhates." In its northern extent it included the site of the present City of Yonkers, and on the east it reached to the Bronx River. Their chiefs were Rechgawac, for whom they appear to have been called, Feequesmeck and Peckauniens. Their first sachem known to" the Dutch was Tackerew (1639). In 1682 the names of Goharis, Teattanqueer and Wearaquaeghier appear as the grantors of lands to Frederick Philipse.

       2. The Weckquaesgecks. This chieftaincy is known to have had, as early as 1644, three intrenched castles, one of which remained as late as 1663, and was then garrisoned by eighty warriors Their principal village was where Dobbs Ferry now stands. It is said that the outlines of it can still be traced by numerous shell beds. It was called Weckquaesgeck, and its location was at the mouth of Wicker's Creek (called by the Indians the Wysquaqua or Weghqueghe). Another of their villages was Alipconck, the "place of the elms", now Tarrytown. Their territory appears to have extended from Norwalk on the Sound to the Hudson, and embraced considerable portions of the towns of Mount Pleasant, Creenburgh, White Plains, and Rye, being ultimately very largely included in the Manor of Philipsborough. Their sachem in 1649 was Ponupahowhelbshelen; in 1660 Aekhough; in 1663 Souwenaro; in 1680 Weskora or Weskomen, and Goharius, his brother; in 1681 Wessickenaiaw, and Conarhanded, his brother. These chiefs are largely represented in the list of grantors of lands to the whites.

       3. The Sint-Sincs. These Indians were not very numerous. Their most important village was Ossing-Sing, the present Sing Sing. They had another village, called Kestaubuinck, between the Sing Sing Creek and the Kitchawonck or Croton River. Their lands are described in the deed of sale to Philipse, August '24, 1685, and were included in his manor

       4. The Kitchawangs or Kicktawancs. Their territory apparently extended from the Croton River north to Anthony's Nose. Ketchtawonck was their leading village, at the mouth of the Croton (Kitchtawonck) River. They occupied another, Sackhoes, on the site of Peekskill. Their castle or fort, which stood at the mouth of the Croton, is represented as one of the most formidable and ancient of Indian fortresses south of the Highlands. Its precise location was at the entrance or neck of Teller's Point (called Senasqua), and west of the cemetery of the Van Cortlandt family. The traditional sachem was Croton. There was apparently a division of chieftaincies at one time, Kitchawong figuring as sachem of the village and castle on the Croton and Sachus of the village of Sackhoes or Peekskill. The lands of the chieftaincy were principally included in the Manor of Cortlandt, and from them the towns of Cortlandt, Yorktown, Somers, North Salem, and Lewisboro have been erected.

       5. The Tankitekes. They occupied the country now comprising the towns of Poundridge, Bedford, and New Castle, in Westchester County, and those of Darien, Stamford, and New Canaan in Connecticut, all purchased by Nathaniel Turner in 1640 on behalf of the people of New Haven, and described in the deeds as tracts called Toquams and Shipham. Ponus was sachem of the former and Wasenssne of the latter. Ponus reserved portions of Toquams for the use of himself and his associates, but with this exception the entire possessions of the Tankitekes appear to have passed under a deed to the whites without metes or bounds. The chieftaincy occupies a prominent place in Dutch history through the action of Pacham, " a crafty man," who not only performed discreditable services for Director Kieft, but also was very largely instrumental in bringing on the war of 1645. O'Callaghan locates the Tankitekes on the eastern side of Tappan Bay, and Bolton in the eastern portion of Westchester County, from deeds to their lands. They had villages beside Wampus Lake in the town of North Castle, near Pleasantville, in the town of Mount Pleasant, and near the present villages of Bedford and Katonah.

       6. The Siwanoys, also known as "one of the tribes of the seacoast." This was one of the largest of the Wappinger subdivisions. They occupied the northern shore of the Sound from Norwalk twenty-four miles to the neighborhood of Hellgate. How far inland their territory extended is uncertain, but their deeds of sale covered the manor lands of Morrisania, Scarsdale, and Pelham, from which New Rochelle, Eastchester, Westchester, New Castle, Mamaroneck, and Searsdale, and portions of White Plains and West Farms have been carved. They possessed, besides, portions of the towns of Rye and Harrison, and of Stamford (Conn.), and there are grounds for supposing that the tract known as Toquams, assigned to the Tankitekes, was part of their dominions. They had a very large village on the banks of Rye Pond hi the town of Rye, and in the southern angle of that town, on the beautiful hill now known as Mount Misery, stood one of their castles. Another of their villages was on Davenport's Neck. Near the entrance to Pelham Neck was one of their burying grounds. Two large mounds are pointed out as the sepulchers of their chiefs, Ann-Hoock and Nimham. In the town of Westchester they had a castle on what is still called Castle Hill Neck, and a village near Bear Swamp, of which latter they remained in possession until 1(389. One of their Sachems whose name has been permanently preserved in Westchester County was Katonah (1680). Their chief Ann-Hoock, alias Wampage, was probably the murderer of Ann Hutchinson. One of their warriors was Mayane (1644), "a fierce Indian, who, alone, dared to attack, with bow and arrow, three Christians armed with guns, one of whom he shot dead, and whilst engaged with the other was killed by the third and his head conveyed to Fort Amsterdam. "

      In their intercourse with the whites from the beginning the Indians displayed a bold independence and perfect indifference to the evidences of superior and mysterious power and wisdom which every aspect of their strange visitors disclosed. Though greatly astonished at the advent of the " Half Moon," and perplexed by the white skin, remarkable dress, and terrible weapons of its crew, they discovered no fear, and at the first offer of physical violence or duress were prompt and intrepid in resentment. On his way up the river, at a point probably below Spuyten Duyvil, Hudson attempted to detain two of the natives, but they jumped overboard, and, swimming to shore, called back to him " in scorn." For this unfriendly demonstration he was attacked on his return trip, a month later, off Spuyten Duyvil. " Whereupon," he says in his journal. " two canoes full of men, with their bows and arrows, shot at us after our sterne, in recompense whereof we discharged six muskets, and killed two or three of them. Then above a hundred of them came to a point of land to shoot at us. There I shot a falcon at them and killed two of them; whereupon the rest lied into the woods. Yet they manned off another canoe with nine or ten men, who came to meet us. So I shot a falcon and shot it through, and killed one of them. So they went their way." Thus in utter contempt of the white man's formidable vessel and deadly gun they dared assail him at the first opportunity in revenge for his offense against their rights, returning to the attack a second and third time despite the havoc they had suffered.

      The entire conduct of the Indians in their subsequent relations with the Europeans who settled in the land and gradually absorbed it was in strict keeping with the grim and fearless attitude shown upon this first occasion. To manifestations of force they opposed all the resistance they could summon, and with the fiercest determination and most relentless severity administered such reprisals, both general and individual, as they were able to inflict. Their characteristics in these respects, and their disposition of complete unteachableness as to moderation and Christian precept, are described in quaint terms in a letter written in 1628 by Domine Jonas Michaelius, the first pastor in New Amsterdam. " As to the natives of this country," writes the good domine, " I find them entirely savage and wild, strangers to all decency; yea, uncivil and stupid as posts, proficient in all wickedness and godlessness; devilish men, who serve nobody but the devil, that is, the spirit which, in their language, they call Manetto, under which title they comprehend everything that is subtle and crafty and beyond human power. They have so much witchcraft, divination, sorcery, and wicked tricks that they cannot be held in by any locks or bounds. They are as thievish and СКАЧАТЬ