e, which gave the name of Schodack to the township, where
King Aepgin, on the 8th of April, 1680, sold to Van Rensselaer "all
that tract of country on the west side of the Hudson, extending from
Beeren Island up to Smack's Island, and in breadth two days' journey."

* * *

No spot in all the world where poetry and romance
are so closely blended with the heroic in history as
along the banks of our Hudson.

_Wallace Bruce._

* * *

THE MAHICAN TRIBE originally occupied all the east bank of the Hudson
north of Roeliffe Jansen's Kill, near Germantown, to the head waters
of the Hudson; and on the west bank, from Cohoes to Catskill. The town
of Schodack was central, and a signal displayed from the hills near
Castleton could be seen for thirty miles in every direction. After the
Mahicans left the Hudson, they went to Westenhook, or Housatonic,
to the hills south of Stockbridge; and then, on invitation of the
Oneidas, removed to Oneida County, in 1785, where they lived until
1821, when, with other Indians of New York, they purchased a tract of
land near Fox River, Minnesota.

Domestic clans or families of the Mahicans lingered around their
ancient seats for some years after the close of the Revolution, but
of them, one after another, it is written, "They disappeared in the
night." In the language of Tamerund at the death of Uncas, "The
pale-faces are masters of the earth, and the time of the red men has
not yet come again. My day has been too long. In the morning I saw the
sons of Unami happy and strong; and yet before the night has come,
have I lived to see the last warrior of the race of the Mahicans."

* * *

Autumn had given uniformity of coloring to the woods.
It varied now between copper and gold, and shone like
an infinitely rich golden embroidery on the Indian veil
of mist which rested upon the heights along the Hudson.

_Harriet Martineau._

* * *

According to Ruttenber, the names and location of the Indian tribes
were not ascertained with clearness by the early Dutch settlers, but
through documents, treaties and information, subsequently obtained,
it is now settled that the Mahicans held possession "under sub-tribal
organizations" of the east bank of the river from an undefined point
north of Albany to the sea, including Long Island; that their dominion
extended east to the Connecticut, where they joined kindred tribes;
that on the west b