uth come
most nearly together, and there, accordingly, as the name implies, was
the Indian portage.

[Illustration: PECONIC BAY, AND RESIDENCE OF CHIEF-JUSTICE DALY.]

Toward the east, across the rising and falling ground and beyond the
woods, lies the village of Southampton, where the first settlement in
the township was formed. The colonists were chiefly Englishmen, who,
having resided for a short time in Lynn, Massachusetts, turned their
eyes toward such "pastures new" as Long Island afforded. They first
tried to locate themselves in the north-western part of the island, but
having been driven out by the Dutch, their second venture led them to
North Sea, and thence through the woods to Southampton. They found the
land both good and cheap. All that the Indians asked for the district
lying between Canoe Place and the eastern limit of the township at Sag
Harbor was sixteen coats, threescore bushels of Indian corn and a
promise of protection against hostile tribes. Forty-three years
afterward the official estimate of the township amounted to about eighty
thousand dollars, so that the men of Lynn undoubtedly received good
value for their coats and corn.

Their choice of a home is sufficient to place their good judgment above
question. There are still existing in the village a few mementos of
their presence in the form of weather-stained houses, over which have
passed, leaving them untouched, all the vicissitudes of Indian times,
the Revolutionary War and modern improvement. Time, however, has left
its scars upon their fronts. The street leading down toward the shore of
the ocean is grass-grown and spacious, and probably differs very little
from what it was in the olden time. On the left side stands the
Pelletreau house, where Lord Erskine resided during the winter of 1778.
On the floor in one of the rooms are certain marks, said to have been
made by the axe of the British quartermaster. Others of the old
buildings have recently been removed, but those that are left are
sufficient to recall the time when, plundered alike by friend and foe,
and compelled to maintain its enemy, Southampton yet patriotically
contributed its quota of men to the war for independence. There is
nothing of the upstart about the place. It reposes in a quiet, dignified
present resting upon a long and honorable past, and there is in its
attitude and air something that compels one to revert to the latter. Its
population partakes of the same charact