A LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 007 754 304 1 f peRm&life* pHSJ F 127 .L8 T65 Copy 2 THE EARLY HISTORY LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES BY CHARLES HERVEY TOWNSHEND Of " Raynham," New Haven, Conn. NEW HAVEN TUTTLE, MOREHOUSE & TAYLOR, PRINTERS 1894 By tranafet OOT 20 1915 / ^ RECEIVED \ \ # JUN 6 J 1911 ^) THE EARLY HISTORY OF LON& ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. By Charles Hervey Townshend, Of " Raynham," New Haven, Conn. Columbus' successful voyages were followed by the Cabots (father and son), who sailed under the patronage of Henry YII. of England, on the I^ortlnnen's well known route to Yineland, southward from Labrador to Florida ; but we have no evidence of their making any land explorations. On their return they made a report to the king, which gave England her claim to the North American continent. Then followed France, eager to get her share of the new domain which sent out Juan Florens, or Giovanni, a French corsair, and a Florentine, under orders of Francis L, 1524, to seek a passage to Cathay. He made the coast of North Amer- ica, which obstructed his pas.'^age westward, and which he examined and charted, and named Francesca. In his report to the French king, on his return in 1525, just after the battle of Pavia, he gave an account of his discoveries, naming more than fifty harbors and headlands after places in JSTormandy, and describing the natives he saw at the entrance of New York harbor, eastern entrance of Long Island Sound and Narragan- sett Bay, having cast anchor in these places during the summer of 1524. His discovery embraced a coast line from about Dieppe in 27 degrees north latitude, shown on map made by his brother ("son frere et heritier ") to the R. de la Buelta in 43 north latitude. 2 LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. Harrisses gives us the following translation from Ramnsio, vol. iii., fos. 423-426, with a map bearing the inscription La Noovo Francia. The discourse is not dated; but Ramusio in his introduction says that it was written in the year 1539. — '■'■This Coast was discovered 15 years ago hy Giovanna da Yar- razzano who tooh possession of the same in the name of King Francis and of my Lady the Regent. That Country is called French Land hy ma.ny, even hy the l*ortugues themselves!''' "The Regent was Louise de Savoie, the mother of Francis I., and this seems to account for the inscription both on the Maggiolo and Varrazano Maps." " Luisa," named for the French king's mother, is an island oif the south coast of New England, and Adrian Block, in 1614, laid it down on his chart. It is now known as Block Island. Mercator's map of the world gives the globe a flat surface, and by his system of projection in proportional parts he locates in the right latitude and longitude C. S. St. John (Sandy Hook) which is also called, about this date, Cabo de Arenas, and Cabo da Malabrigo (Bad Shelter) for the southern part of Cape Cod, and he gives the indentation in the coast for Long Island Sound, w^iich he names Baia Hondo., which, I am inclined to think is the first European name known to navigators ; of this important arm of the sea called later by the Dutch " East River," a route through which, let me add, now more value passes in one direction than over any other water Avay on the American coast. It is my opinion, based on years of careful study of this problem, that during the fifteenth centurj' when European navigators were engaged in exploring this section of the coast of New England, there was a chain of islands along the coast, which we will now locate south of a line drawn from Ply- mouth, Massachusetts, to Sandy Hook in New Jersey. They were sandy islands, compounded from the retnnant of the Gla- cial formation on which Professor Dana of Yale has enlight- ened us ; deposits of which here and there cling to rocks for a basis. Between them numerous passages had been forced and kept open by the flowage of rivers and the movements of the tides, making this whole system of islands, Cape Cod, Nauset LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. 3 Isle, the Vineyard Islands, Block and Long Islands and others adjacent thereto, a continuous chain. Of this we have almost positive evidence by the numerous portages and water passages across Cape Cod, which Grosnold claims to have discovered in 1602, but vv^ere known before his day, and visited by the numerous iishing vessels (French and English) that frequented this coast, and later by the Dutch explorers. Block and his col- league Corstensen, who, after completing their voyages of exploration, eastward of New Amsterdam, returned in the fall of 1614, to Holland, and there reported their existence. It is a well known fact that before the settlement of Ply- mouth Colony by the Mayflower Pilgrims in 1620, the French carried on extensive fisheries about Cape Cod coast ; and jour- nals of their voyages (I have been told), are now lying unpub- lished in the documentary department of the Record Oflices, in the English Channel Islands and western seaport towns of France. Champlain, also, had a battle there with the natives. Through these island passages, constant communication was kept up between Xorth and South Virginia, as is abundantly proved by the boat voyage in 1619 of Captain Thomas Dermer (a colleague of Captain John Smith), who made a passage through Long Island Sound to Virginia, and while exploring the Cape Cod section rescued two sailors who were cast-aways or deserters from the French fishing fleet, which then annually voyaged to this vicinity. Besides this voyage we have that of Governor Eaton and party, to explore Rodenberg or Quinni- piac in the fall of 1637, which according to a well sustained tradition was taken in an open boat through a Cape Cod passage. Among the records in the Lokas Kas of the States General in the royal archives at the Hague, Holland, there is deposited a chart of Long Island Sound, and with it a report of Adrian Block, a captain in the service of the East India company of Holland, showing his explorations of this arm of the sea, by an expedition from JN^ew Amsterdam early in the spriiig of 1614. With these a memorial was presented to the States General on the 18th of August, 1616, by the directors of the New ISTether- lands, praying for a special octroy according to the ordinance of March 27, 1614, which is referred to in the memorial as show- 4 LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. ing the extent of the discoveries made by Schipper Coriielis Hendrixseii, of Munnichendaui in a small yacht of eight lasts (sixteen tons) burthen, named the"Onrust" (The Restless), which the memorialists had caused to be built in 'New Nether- lands. This ordinance of March 27tli, 1614, immediately interested numerous merchants of Holland, and four ships were at once fitted out for exploration in these parts, viz : '' The Nightin- gale," the " Little Fox," '' The Tiger " and the " Fortune." The last two were commanded by the Captains Block and Corstiaensen of Amsterdam, who on arrival at Manhattan started out exploring expeditions upon the numerous rivers and bays in this vicinity, during one of which Block's vessel was by accident burned. Being a man of nerve, who never turned aside from obstacles, and of marked ability and skill in the numerous branches of his profession, he at once commenced the construction of a yacht of the dimensions of 4:2^ feet, from stem to stern (over all), 38 feet keel, and 11|- breadth of beam, and measuring 16 tons burthen, and in this (the first vessel constructed by Europeans in these waters) he proceeded late in the summer to explore the East River (Long Island Sound) to the eastward of Manhattan ; and we are told he sailed along the East River, to which he gave the name of " The Hell Gate" after a branch of the river Scheld in East Flanders, situated between the manors of Axel and Hulst. After making the passage of Hell Gate (which was then and has been ever since the terror of mariners), he launched out on the broad waters of Long Island Sound, leaving to the south- ward Long Island, then called Metoac or Serwanhacky (the land of shells), and following the north shore eastward, he sighted a river since named Hutchinson's Riv^er, in 'West- chester. This, history tells us, was once the abode of an English family of that name whose home was destroyed by Indians in 1643, They had settled on lands bought of the Dutch at Manhattan, who obtained it from Mr. Thomas Pell of New Haven for £500. It was near the houses of the family of Mrs. Anna Hutchinson and others, members of a company who were religious exiles from the Colony of Massachusetts Ba}^, who in 1633 took refuge in Rhode Island, and for fear LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. 5 that their home might become part of the colony of Massachu- setts Bay, removed to AYestchester in 1642. The islands of Stamford and Norwalk were also sighted and carefully explored, to which he gave the name of Archipela- goes, and farther eastward, and near the center of Long Island Sound, he discovered and located two islands, about the posi- tion of the middle grounds, now off Stratford, on which a lighthouse has been lately built by the United States govern- ment (to mark this danger for navigators). These islands, since Block's time, have been gradually washed away, although they have been seen to lie bare at low tides within the remem- brance of men now living and known to the writer. He gave them the name of De Kees, and as they are repre- sented as one island instead of two on a chart made by A. Yander Donck, in 1656, their existence then was certain. It is probable Block landed on these islands and located their latitude by meridian observation, and longitude by a system of calculations used by navigators of his day, which was not always exact, but accurate enough for all practical purposes. From these islands, in full view over the coast line, were seen continuous ranges of red colored hills, whose outlines and situation seemed to point out a large river, extending far back into the interior and a tidal harbor of great magnitude, invit- ing exploration. This lie accomplished and named the river Yenden Rodenbergh, now the Housatonic, which name no doubt was suggested by the appearance of two of our most prominent bluffs. East and West Rocks. As seen studding the coast range and viewed to the northward from these islands, over tlie mouth of this river, or from a vessel's deck in the vicinity, Stratford Point from this position might then have been easily taken for the commencement of the west shore of the entrance of the harbor of tlie Red Mountains (New Haven), which it is supposed he visited, and which he certainly named and located on his chart, the first one giving any detail of this section of the coast that we have any record of. This very appropriate name, Red Mount [Red Hills (English), Rodenbergh (Dutch)], to this section of the coast was no doubt suggested by the reddish hue of our guardian cliffs, East and West Rock. These great and noble additions 6 LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. to the beauty of onr city's landscape are of basaltic formation, and stand forth in bold relief, backed then as now b}' an inland mountainous outline, whose evergreen verdure added a striking contrast to their appearance. Their rich color coming from the red washes of centuries, mixed with the salt spray from the ocean, acting on their iron sides, as it is reflected by the sun's brilliant rays, while making its daily course, glorifies the whole panoramic view stretching out until lost in the dark blue waters of the beautiful bay, which ebbs and flows at their feet. It is probable that Block sailed up this harbor, and explored its shores in his yawl, leaving the " Restless " at anchor in the quiet roadstead off the Oyster Point of our day, which was then protected seaward by a dry sandspit covered with low bushes and other vegetation, now washed away and known as " The Beach." We judge from his report that his stay in our harbor was brief, and pursuing his voyage eastward he located numerous shoals and islands, two of which can be no other than Falkner's, which he named Falcon's Eyland ; and Goose Island, which he named Jan William Eyland. The latter is now just a-wash at high water, save a few rocks which mark its site, giving positive evidence of the gradual encroachment of the sea, and timely notice that Falkner's Island, with its conspicuous lighthouse must soon follow if not protected by some method known to engineering science. AVe will here leave the sturdy mariner to review the Verache Viervier (Fresh River now Connecticut), whose direction lies northward through the lands of the Mohicans and was ascended by him to an Indian village in latitude 41 degrees 48 minutes, N. Here he found a kind of Indian fort near the site of the now city of Hartford, called Nawaas, and here soon after- wards the Dutch of New Amsterdam built their fort of Good Hope for occu^^ation and trade ^vith the Indians. Having descended the river and passing out by the Race, he discovers and locates two islands. One he names after himself Adrian Block Eysland, and the other farther east (probably Martha's Vineyard Island), for his colleague, the captain of the " Tiger," Hendrick Corstensen Eysland. He fell in with him olf Cape Cod, and after exploring the Narragansett Bay, which had been visited by the above mentioned John De Verrazzan in 1525, LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. Y Block joined his colleague and returned to Holland. There these navigators give publicity to their discoveries ; and the " Restless " was sent l)ack from Cape Cod to Manhattan, returning along the south side of Long Island, whose length was then determined. She arrived before winter closed in, at her port of departure, Manhattan, having been the first vessel known to have circumnavigated Long Island; and the next year she was employed at Delaware. Of her farther career nothing is known. The enormous amount of beaver and furs taken in this new country bordering on Long Island Sound, which Block's ex- plorations had opened up to commerce, caused large numbers of fur trading merchants of Holland, who had depended upon Russia for their skins, to fit out ships for these parts, and it is quite probable the bays and valleys of the Red Mountains were visited by two or more Dutch vessels annually ; but we have not yet found mention of another vessel passing through Long Island Sound, so quiet did the Dutch keep their dis- coveries here, until 1619, when Captain Thomas Dermer, before mentioned, an Englishman who had been many years in the employ of Sir Ferdinando Gorges ; and who had sailed from England and loaded his ship of two hundred tons with fish and furs at Monahigan (an island off the coast of Maine) after dispatching her home to England, sailed for Virginia in a pinnace with an Indian pilot, who drew with a piece of chalk on the lid of his " boat-chest " this passage through the East River (Long Island Sound) and to the westward. This appears by his (Dermer's) letter written at Captain John Martyn's plantation (Martyn's Hundreds), on the James River, Virginia, December 27th, 1619, to his worsliipful friend Mr. Samuel Purchase (the chaplain to the Arch Bishop of Canter- bury) and preacher of the word at the church (St. Martyn's), a little within Ludgate, London. But as he makes no mention of our harbor (]S'ew Haven Harbor), we only note him as the first Englishman known to have sailed through the Sound. He writes thus : " It was the 19th of May before I was fitted for my discoveries when from Monahiggan (Maine), I set sail in an open pinnace of five tons for the island I told you of. I passed along the coast, where I found some 2 8 LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. ancient plantations not long since populous, now utterly void ; in other places a remnant remains but not free from sickness. Their dis- ease was the plague,* for we might perceive the sores of some that had escaped, who described the spots of such as surely died. When I arrived at my savage'sf native country, finding all dead, I travelled a long day's journey westward, to a place called Nummastaguy,| ' where, finding inhabitants, I dispatched a messenger a daj^'s journey further west to Pocanoket,§ which bordereth on the sea, whence came to see me, two kings,! attended with a guard of fifty men, who being well satisfied with what my savage and I discoursed with them (being desirous of no velity), gave me content in whatsoever I demanded, where I found that former relations were true. Hereof I redeemed a Frenchman, and afterwards another at Massachusetts, who three years since escaped shipwreck at the northeast of Cape Cod. I must be brief (and omit many things worthy of observation)** for w^ant of leisure ; therefore hence I pass (not mentioning any place where we touched in the way) to the island which we discovered the twelfth of June. Here we had good quarter with the savages, who likewise confirmed former reports. I found seven, several places digged, sent some of the earth, with samples of other commodities elsewhere found, sounded the coast, and, the time being far spent, bore up for Manhiggan,tf arriving the three and twentieth of June, where we found our ship ready to depart. To this isle are two others near adjoining, all of which I called by the name of King James' Isles, because from thence I had the first motives to search for that (now probable passage), which may hereafter be both honorable and profitable to his majesty. When I had despatched with the ships ready to depart, I thus concluded for the accomplishing my business. In regard to the fewness of my men. not being able to leave behind me a competent number for defense and yet sufficiently furnish myself, I put most of my provisions aboard the Sampson of Captain Ward, ready bound for Virginia, from ^vhence he came, taking no more in the pinnace than I thought might serve our terms, determining with God's help to reach the coast along and at Virginia, to supply ourselves for a second discovery if the first failed. But as the best actions are commonly hardest in effecting, and are seldom without their crosses, so in this we had our share and met with many difficulties, for we had not sailed above forty leagues, if:]: but we * Yellow fever or Small Pox probably, brought by Europeans. f This was Squanto, whose home was probably Plymouth. X Middleborough, Mass., ten miles west of Plymouth. $5 Bristol, R. I. Forty miles westerly from Plymouth. II Massassoit, chief of the Wampanoags and his brother, afterwards the friends of the Mayflower Pilgrims, were probably the two kings. 1[ Bristol. ** This was a secret expedition probably in search of a mine, and he only mentions a passage without location. If He seems to have gone through a passage or portage of the cape. :j::t: Monomy Pt. LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. 9 were taken with a southerly storm which drove us to this strait; either we must weather a rocky point of land,* or run into a broad bay not less dangerous. The rocks we could not weather, though we loosed (luffed) until we received much water, but at last was forced to bear up for the bayf and run on ground a furlong off shore, where we had been beaten to pieces, had we not instantly thrown ovex'board our pro- visions to save our lives, by which means we escaped and brought off our pinnace the next high tide without hurt, having one plank broken and a small leak or two which we easily mended, and being left in this misery, having lost much bi'ead, all our beef and cider, some meal and apparel, with other provisions and necessaries, having now little left but hope to encourage us to persist, yet, after a little deliberation, we resolved to proceed, and departed with the next fair wind. We had not now that fair quarter among the savages as before, which I take was by reason of our savage (Squanto's) absence, who desired (in regard of our long journey) to stay with some of our savage friends at Sawahquatooke,:j: for now almost everywhere, where they were of any strength they sought to betray us. At Mono- mey, the southern part of Cape Cod,"' [now called Sutcliflfe Inlets] "I was unaware taken prisoner, when they sought to kill my men, whom I left to man the pinnace ; but missing of their purpose they demanded a ransom, which had, I was as far from liberty as before, yet it pleased God at last after a strange manner to deliver me with three of them into nay hands and a little after the chief sachem himself, who seeing me weigh anchor, would have leaped overboard, but intercepted, craved pardon and sent the hatchet given for ransom, excusing himself by laying the fault on his neighbors ; and to be friends, sent for a canoe's lading of corn, which received, we set him free. I am loth to omit the story wherein you will find a cause to admire the great mercy of God even in our greatest misery, in giving us both freedom and relief at one time. Departing hence, the next place we arrived at was Capaock (Martha's Vineyard), an island formerly discovered by the English, where I met with Epinow, a savage that had lived in England and speaks indifferent good English, who four years since, being carried home, was reported to have been slain with divers of his own countrymen by sailors, which was false. With him I had much conference, who gave me very good satisfaction in everything almost I could demand. Time not permit- ting me to search here, which I should have done for sundry things of special moment, the wind fair, I stood away, shaping my course as the course led me, till I came to the most westerly part, where the coast began to fall away southerly. In my way I discovered land,§ about thirty leagues in length, heretofore taken for main, where I feared I had been embayed ; but by the help of an Indian I got to sea again through many crooked and straight passages. I let pass many accidents in this journey, occasioned by treachery, wheife we were compelled * Bishop and Clark's Rocks. t Chatham, X Brewster. § Probably Long Island. 10 LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. twice to go together by the ears ; once the savages had great advantage of us in a strait, not above a bow shot, (wide)* and where a multitude of Indians let fly at us from the bank ; but it pleased God to make us victors. Near unto this we found a most dangerous cataract amongst small, rocky islands,! occasioned by two unequal tides, the one ebbing and flowing two hours befoi'e the other. Here we lost an anclior by the strength of the current, but found it deep enough. From hence we were carried in a short simce by the tide's swiftness into a great bay:J: (to us so appearing) but, indeed is broken land, which gave us light of the sea :§ here, as I said the land rendeth southerly. In this place I talked with many savages who told me of two sundry passages to the greatll sea on the west, offered me pilots, and one of them drew me a plat with chalk upon a chest, whereby I found it a great island parted by the two seas. They report the one scerce possible for sholes," (the Kill) "perilous currents; the other" (the Narrows) " no question to be made of. Having received these directions I hasten to the place " (Sandy Hook Bay) "of the greatest hope, where I proposed to make trial of God's goodness towards us, and use my best endeavors to bring the truth to light ; but we were only showed the entrance, when in seeking to pass we were forced back by contrary and overblowing winds, hardly escaping (with) our lives. But thus overcharged with weather I stood along the coast to seek harbor, to attend a favorable gale to recover the strait ; but being a harborless coast," (Jersey and Delaware Coast) "for aught we could then perceive, we found no succor till we arrived be- twixt Cape Charles and the main, on the east side of the bay Chesa- peake, where in a wild and wide road we anchored ; and the next day (the eighth of September) crossed the bay to Kecoughtan,'^ where the first news struck cold to our hearts — the general sickness was over the land. ********* I have drawn a plot of the coast which I dare not yet to part with for fear of danger ; let this therefore serve for confirmation of your hopes until I can better perform my promise and your desire."** ********* This Captain Dernier is frequently mentioned in the relation of Gorges and Smith, and his boat voyage was an important link in the chain of discovery, as it made known to the friends of the American settlements in Xew England, many parts of the American coast that escaped the notice of previous navi- gators. * East River. f Hellgate. X New York Bay. • § Looking out the Narrows. II One passage jn-obably the " Kill," north of Staten Island and Rari- tan River. ^i" Between James and York Rivers- ** See Purchas, v., 1777, 1778. LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. 11 He seems to have been employed by the Plymouth Com- pany, and is mentioned by them in a brief relation of the dis- covery of New England, 1607 to 1622, which also states his voyage to Virginia, and that on his return to ]^ew England, he met Dutch traders who had business with New Netherlands, and that he betook himself to his business of discovery, find- ing many goodly rivers and exceedingly pleasant and fruitful coast and islands from the Hudson River to Cape Cod. Der- nier seems to have been at Plymouth, so named by Captain John Smith in 1614, and called Patuxet by the Indians; and in Dermer's last letter he recommends this harbor to the Com- pany for settlement the " first plantation if they come to the number of fifty persons or upwards." Soon after the date of the last letter, Dermer visited Mar- tha's Vineyard and it is supposed he went there to examine a mine, as the glittering sands of Gay Head had led many to suppose that here was a valuable mineral deposit. Holmes' Annals says : — " It is probable that the second let- ter of Dermer was addressed to Sir Ferdinando Gorges, an active and eflticient member of the Council of Plymouth, and a special patron of the enterprise in which he was engaged." Gorges says that Dermer sent him " a journal of his proceed- ings, with the description of the coast all along as he passed." The object of his voyage may l)e understood from the fol- lowing statement. An Englishman of the name of Hunt, who commanded one of the ships with which Captain Smith came to New England in 1614, remained on the coast after Smith's departure and suc- ceeded in kidnapping a number of Indians, chiefly from Patuxet, afterwards Plymouth, whom he carried to Malaga, in Spain, and endeavored to sell for slaves. As soon, however, as the circumstances became known, sympathy was excited in behalf of the unfortunate captives, and through the benevo- lent efforts of the monks of that city, many of them were rescued from slavery, and found their way back to their native forests. Among them is said to have been a chief named Tisquantum, or as more commonly written, Squanto, who reached London, where he w^as received into the family of Mr. John Slanie of Cornhill, a merchant of the Newfoundland ReCElVED 12 LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. Company, and sent out to tliat island having learned to speak English. There he was noticed by Capt. Mason, the governor of the colony, with whom he remained until the arrival of Dermer, when he returned with him to England. The outrage of Hunt had excited a great mistrust of Euro- peans among the natives of New England, and it occurred to Dermer that the services of Squanto might be proiitably em- ployed in removing the prejudice fi-om the minds of' his coun- trymen. He %yrote to this effect to the Plymouth Company, who at once entered into his views, and the following season dispatched Capt. Rocraft to meet him in New England. But Dermer had in the meantime sailed for England, taking Squanto with him, and the company, desirous of availing them- selves of this aid in conciliating the Indians, fitted out another ship for a fishing voyage, in which they sent him and Squanto to New England with the hope of their meeting Rocraft. But on their arrival at Monhegan, not finding Rocraft, Dermer took a pinnace and left the fisherman to pursue their business, while he sought the native country of his savage companion. His subsequent adventures, until his arrival, are briefly related in his letter. The result of his mission appears to have been quite satisfactory to his employers, who in the published mani- festo gave him the credit of making peace between the savages of those parts and the English, of which, it Avas intimated, the colony of New Plymouth afterwards reaped the benefit. There seems to have been, however, another object which Dermer proposed to himself in undertaking this voyage. A few years before an Indian named Epinow, belonging to Martha's Vineyard, who had also been forcibly carried to Europe, came into the possession of Gorges, and induced him to believe that there was a valuable mine about Gay Head in his country, which he could discover, if sent home. A ship was accordingly fitted out for the voyage, and sailed with Epi- nov?^ and two other Indians in the summer of 1614. But it was a mere ruse on the ]iart of the wily savage to effect his return, and soon after his arrival in New England, he con- trived to make his escape from the ship. Notwithstanding what had occurred, Gorges seems not to have doubted the truth of the story, imagining that Epinow feared tlie consequences LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. 13 of betraying " the secrets of the conntrj ; " and when Dermer proposed to him to employ S(pianto, he consented without doubt for the purpose of again endeavoring to discover the hidden treasure. Some hints of the kind are given in his letter. The prevalence of a mortal disease among the natives of New England, by which the country within certain limits was almost entirely depopulated, is often alluded to in the accounts of that period. It is supposed to have commenced its ravages about the year 1616, and to have continued for two or three years. Dermer calls it the plague, from its desolating efEects, but writers seem not to agree as to the character of the disease. Dermer did not long survive his visit to New England, which was in January 1620, when he visited Plymouth, which was about five months before the " Mayflower " arrived. The causes which led to the navigation of Long Island Sound and the rivers and harbors emptying therein, we glean from colonial history. Gov. John Winthrop says, "A Sachem from the Connecticut named AVahginaent, April 4th, 1631, came and invited the English to plant on the river Connecticut. He promised to give the English corn and 80 beaver skins yearly." This offer the governor declined on finding that the native was at war with a more powerful chief by name Pekoath. Winthrop under date of July 12th, 1633, says, ''Mr. Edward Winslow, Gov. of Plymouth, and Mr. Bradford, came by boat into the Bay and departed July 18. They came partly to con- fer about joining in a trade to Connecticut for beaver and hemp and set up there a trading house, to prevent the Dutch who are about to build there. We thought it not a fit place to locate a settlement as there were between 3,000 and -1,000 warlike Indians in the neighborhood and the river only tit for small boats and a bar at the mouth with depth of only six feet at high water, but the Plymouth people were told they could settle there if they chose." The bark '' Blessing "" of Boston was however sent to desire the Dutch not to build, a few weeks after ; and on Oct. 4, 1633, the Dutch Governor, Van Twiller, informed them he had taken possession of the river in the name of the States 14 LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. General, and had set np a house there, having on the 8th of July, 1633, made a purchase from a Pequot chief of lands on the Connecticut river and built there Fort Good Hope, now the present site of the town of Hartford. In Oct. 1 633 the Plymouth Colony having a desire to hold the valuable river, sent Capt. Wm. Holmes and the sachem of the tribe lately dispossessed by the Pequots in a sloop laden with a house frame ready for immediate erection, to settle on the river at Windsor. He was hailed by the Dutch fort in passing and ordered " to strike or they would shoot,'' they standing by their ordnance ready fitted. Bradford, says Holmes, answered " They had a Commission from j^ Governor of Plymouth to go up y^ river to such a jjlace, and if they did shoot, they would obey order and proceed." In 1634 several of these river towns were commenced by the bay colonies, who made an effort to oust the Plymouth and Dutch settlers. This in time was accomplished, but in the meantime fearing tlie Dutch would hold the mouth of the river assisted by their allies, the Pequots, Lieut. Lyon Gardner who was employed by the Earl of Warwick and the Lords Say and Brook was sent with men to locate and build a fort at Saybrook in 1636. The Pequot war soon followed, and the extermination of that tribe by the Connecticut and Massachusetts troops, under Mason, Davenport and Turner. The latter, formerly of Lynn, Massachusetts, was among those lost in the Phantom ship in 1646. He was the Miles Standish of the Xew Haven Colony, and on his return after the Pequot conquest acquainted Gov. Eaton with the advantages of the Long Island Sound region. The Governor soon afterward, in tlie fall of 1637, explored it in person, and left a company of six in a hut to hold the promised land, during the winter. The distinguished Dutch colonist and author, Adrian Van der Donck, LL.D., enjoyed tlie distinction of having been the first lawyer at New Amsterdam, where he arrived in a barke of the Patroon Kellern Yan Rannsselar in the autumn of 1642. In his history of the New Netherland, he mentions the East liiver, what is known to the citizens of Connecticut and New York as the Sound, while the East Iliver of our day is that LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. 15 part of this arm of the sea wliich readies from Throg's Neck (Fort Schuyler) to Governor's Island off the Battery in the Bay of New York. Of the East River (Long Island Sound), he says, " The river is thus named because it extends eastward from the city of New Amsterdam. By some this river is held to be an arm of the sea, or a bay, because it is very wide in some places, and because both ends of the same are connected with and empty into the ocean. This subtility notwithstanding, we adopt the common opinion and hold it to be a river. Be it then a river or a bay, as men will please to name, it still is one of the best, most fit and most convenient places and most advantageous accommodations which a country can possess or desire for the following reasons : Long Island which is about forty? miles in length, makes this river. This river, and most of the creeks, bays and inlets joining the same, are navigable in winter and in summer without much danger. The river* also affords a safe and convenient passage at all seasons to those who desire to sail east or west : and the same is most used, because the outside passage is more dangerous. Most of the Englishf who wish to go south to Virginia, to South River| or to other southern places, pass through this river which brings no small traffic and advantage to the City of New Amsterdam. This also causes the English to frequent our harbors, to which they are invited for safety. Lastly ; this river is famous on account of its convenient bays, inlets, havens, rivers and creeks on both sides, to wit, on the side of Long Island and on the side of the fast or main land. In the Netherlands no such place is known. But let us return to the continent. i^ Here first a bay discloses itself, (which some consider a river) called Nassau|| six miles wide at its entrance, which is obstructed by islands, and about eight fathoms deep ; afterwards it becomes narrower terminating as it were in a point, with a depth of four, and five, and sometimes nine fathoms, except in the extreme recess where it is more shallow. It is surrounded by a pleasant and fertile country inhabited by sturdy barbarians, who are difficult of access, not being accustomed yet to intercourse with strangers. At the distance of twenty -one miles west of this bay, there is another bay, divided by an island"! at its entrance, so that it has two names ; for the part on the east is called Anchor, and that on the west, Sloope Bay. The sav- ages who dwell around this bay are called Wapenokes,** thougli it is said by others that the western side is inhabited by the Nalucans.ff Twenty- four miles or thereabouts beyond we enter a very large bay,tt enclosed by land for a long distance, or rather by islands intersected by channels, of which there is a great number, until we reached the mouth of the great * Long Island Sound. f Of New England. t Delaware Bay. ^ The south shore of New England. II Buzzard Bay. 1 Rhode Island. ** Wampenoags. ft Narragansetts. Xt Long Island Sound. 16 LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. river. There are also numerous small islands, to which no particular names have been given : navigators take the liberty of changing them arbitrarily. Near the entrance of this bay, the main land forms a crooked prominence in the shape of a sickle,* behind which an inlet receives a small stream, that flows from the east and has received its name fi-om our people, " Ooster Vievievtjen." Another little river discharges on the same part of the coast, which derives its name from a chief of the natives, called Siccanamos.f Here is a very convenient roadstead. Behind a small promontory there is an- other streamif that is navigable for fifteen or eighteen miles : here sal- mon are taken. The native inhabitants are called Pequatoes, who are the enemies of the Wapanokes. From thence the coast turns a little to the south, and a small river is seen which our people named Frisius§ where a trade is carried on with the Morhicans. Next comes a river called by our countrymen De Versche Riviere, or Fresh Eiver|| which is shallow and shoal at its mouth, so that it is difficult for small vessels to ascend it. Near the sea there are but few inhabitants, but within the interior of the country dwell the Sequins, •[ at the distance of forty-five miles ; the Nawes** are the next above, who cultivate the land and plant maize from which they bake cakes called by them leganicf f Wa-Ha-Ba. In the year 1614 they were defended by a kind of palisade in the fonn of a camp against their enemies in latitude 41 degi-ees 48 minutes, as I find it was observed by our people. Beyond live the Horikans. who are accustomed to descend this river in boats made of the bark of trees sewed together. Another river meets us twenty -four miles west of this to which the name of Red Hills^t has been given ; the Querepees inhabit its banks ; many beaver are taken here, since a demand for our goods has stimu- lated the naturally slothful savages. Twelve miles west an island^j^ pre- sents itself, and soon after many more ai'e seen, whence our people called this place Archipelago. |||| The bay is here twelve miles wide ; on the main reside the Suwanoes,^^! who are similar in dress and manners to the other savages. I have remarked that the large bay**" was enclosed by several islands, separated from one another only by small channels. These are inhabited by a race of savages who are devoted to fishing, and thus obtain their subsistance ; they ai'e called Matouwacks. The name of Pishers Hookf ff has thus been given to the eastern cape of this island which some con- sider the head of the bay. In the interior of this bay a branch of the great river:t:j::t or another river as others consider it, discharges, which our * Stonington, Watch Hill. f Mystic or Noack. X The Thames. t;- Niantic. II Connecticut River. ^T Middletown Indians. ** Hartford Indians. ff Corn cake. Xt New Haven. t;§ Stratford Shoals. III! Norwalk Islands. ^11 Stamford tribe of Indians. *** Gardner and Peconic Bays. f ft Montauk Point. XIX Harlem River. LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPKO ACHES. lY people call Helle-gat, or the entrance to the infernal regions. The cur- rent of the sea setting from the east to the west, meets another current of the great river near an island which our countrymen called Nutten Island* from the great abundance of nuts which it produces." A^ain we find mention of our liarbor in the journal of John de Laete, director of the Dutch West India company. He was a native of Antwerp), but had lived at Ley den and was one of the most distinguished geographers of his day. Among his publications is a history of the Dutch West India company from its beginning to the end of 1636. On his passage to New Amsterdam, through Long Island Sound, he seems to have stopped at the Fresh River, perliaps in the year 1636. He writes : "From Fresh River to another called the Rodenberg (Red Hill), it is twenty-four miles west by north and east by south. This stream stretches east-northeast, f and is about a bow-shot wide, having a depth of about three fathoms at low water. J It rises and falls about six feet ; and a southeast by south moon causes high water at its mouth. § The natives who dwell here are called Quiripeys (Quinnipiac). They take many beavers, but it is necessary for them to get in the habit of trade, otherwise they are too indolent to hunt the beaver. || Twelve miles fur- ther to the east there lies a small island,^[ where good water is to be found." The spring in Falkner's Island is now just visible, and will soon be obliterated by the encroachment of the sea. The wri- ter was informed by Captain Joel Stone in 1880, who with his father kept the Light House on Falkner's Island in ISl'l, that there was then a never failing spring of fresh water on the west side of the island, but that the gradual washing away of * Governor's. f The reach in the Quinnipiac River between Stable Point and Red Rock. X See chart of New Haven harbor in 1845. J; The bearings of the moon at high water between two or three days after the full. We now have the highest tides. Three days after full moon in July and August our farmers begin to cut salt hay, as the tides then begin to fall off and give time to secure the crop before the return- ing spring tides. II De Laete gives exports of fux's from New Netherland by the West India Company of Holland, from 1(524 to 1635, Beaver skins, 80,182 ; Otter skins, 9,347. Value 686,527 Guilders. Tl Falkner's Island, probably. 18 LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. the island made this spring brackish, it being close to high water mark. This encroachment of the sea occasioned his father to sink near the Light House a well 90 feet deep, but finding no fresh water, this scheme was abandoned, and the spring dug out, stoned up and protected bj a sea-wall, which is now in the landing place, and was examined bj a party in the Yale Launch, Captain Dodman, July 20th, 1885. De Laete adds that twelve miles beyond Red Hills there are a number of islands, to which Captain Block gave the name Archipelago. He probably meant the Stratford shoal grounds, after which come two islands, i. e. Penfield reef, then an island, and Nor- walk Island, together. He then gives a description of his passage through Hell Gate and arrival in the Great River. ^ It is interesting; to note here the first mention of the tides in New Haven Harbor, and from observations made recently, the time of the highest spring tides has changed but little since those days, as we have generally the highest tides between two and three days after the new and full moon, which would give this luminary about this bearing. Hon. J. Hammond Trumbull, LL.D., says that Quinnipiac or Quillipiac was originally the land near the head of New Haven Harbor, and the estuary of Quinuipiac and Mill River. The name quinni-pe-auke means " long water land " or country. It is the equivalent of Kennebec (anb. kooenebecki). In the Mohegan and Narragansett dialect, the first syllable was pronounced " quin ;" by the Connecticut River Indians, west of the '• long water," " quit ;" hence the variety of forms under which the name appears in early records. The Dutch called the natives of this region Quiripegs. President Stiles of Yale College heard the name from an East Haven Indian, as Quiimepyoogh. Captain Stoughton in 1637 wrote Quille])eage. Our late distinguislied fellow townsman, Eli Whitney Blake, LL.D., informed me, some time before his death, that he had been told the definition of Quinnipagee was '' the Five Waters," — viz : Quin (5), Aqua (water)— the Quin- nipiac or East River, the Mill River, the East Creek, the West Creek (runs now used by the railroads), ajid:^W^i,Riyei\ * North. /^\ \S\^ ' LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. 19 Off the West River was the roadstead, which was prabably the anchorage of the Dutch and English vessels which previous to 163T were engaged collecting furs, and on Wigwam Point on the west shore, are still extant evidences of a landing. This was also the rendezvous of the little fleet which transported the colonies while in pursuit of the Pequot Indians, who were anni- hilated in Fairfield Swamp during June of this year (1637), and it later gave shelter to the fleet of boats and pinnaces which brought Governor Eaton's settlers to Quinnipiac. There was, in those days, an Indian village here on Oyster Point, as the name and oyster shell bank abundantly prove, and here the purchase may have been made and town site located ; there being a fine spring of water here, which was used as late as thirty years ago by a gang of Menhaden fishermen, some of whom are still living in East Haven. To the eastward of this roadstead lies the remnant of the former beach. It was constructed by the action of the sea, which has also distributed its sands so that the tide ebbs and flows over it, and two hundred thousand bushels of oysters are planted here annually, for sale in the Western markets. I find from a journal under date of January 5tli and June, 1639, of the third voyage to New England of David Pieterson de Vries, Master of Artillery in the United Province of Holland, to erect a colony on Staten Island for himself and Frederick de Vries, Secretary of the City of Amsterdam, and Director of the Dutch West India Company, the following entries : " January 5th (1639) : — Send my people to Staten Island to commence the colony and buildings. June 4th. — Went northward with a yacht up the Versche River (Con- necticut river), where the West India Company possessed a small fort called huys de Hoop, and anchored about even in the eastern Haven, be- ing a large commodious haven on the North of Long Island. This haven is in the island, and is upwards of two miles wide. We found fine oysters there also. The Dutch call it Oyster Bay or Haven. We ari-ived next evening (June 5th, 1639), at Eoodenbtng, a fine haven, and found the Eng- lish were building a fine town, having already erected upwards of three himdred houses and a handsome church, * * Soon after this visit of De Vries, arrived the ship " St. John" Cap- tain Russell with the Rev. Henry Whitfield's Colonists and Mr. Geo. Fenwick's family, according to Rev. John Davenport's letter written from 20 LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. In the morning of the 7th, we came opposite the Versche Rivier. We went up the river, and on the 9th, arrived with my yacht at the fort huys de Hoop, where we found one Guisbert Van Dyck as commander, with 14 or 15 soldiers. This fort is situated near the river and a small creek, forming there a fall. The English had also begun to build there a town* against our will, and had already a fine church and more than a hundred houses erected. The commander gave me orders to protest against their proceedings. He added that some of the English settlers had prohibited them to put a plough into the ground. He said it was our land, that we had bought it of the Indians and paid for it ; but they oppose us, and had given a drubbing to the soldiers. When I came to the settlement, the English Governorf invited me to dinner. I told him during dinner that he acted very improperly in taking the lands of the company which were bought and paid for by them. He answered me that these lands were lying uncultivated : that we had been here already several years, and nothing was done to improve the ground ; that it was a sin to leave so valuable land uncultivated, such fine crops could be raised upon them ; that they had now already built three towns on this river, in which was abundance of salmon, etc. The English here live soberly. They drink only three times every meal, and those who become drunk are Avhipped on a pole, as the thieves are in Holland. June 14th. I took leave of the huys de Hoop, and arrived the next morning at the mouth of the river. We passed several places where the English were building, and arrived about evening at the Manattes, oppo- site Fort Amsterdam, when we learned the arrival of two vessels from Holland ; the one a Company's ship, den Harnink, and the other a pri- vate ship, de Brand Van Trogen, from Hoorn, laden with cattle, belong- ing to Joachim Pieterz, former commander in the East Indies for the king of Denmark." That a water passage actually existed tlirongli Cape Cod as late as 1717, deep and broad enough to allow boats and vessels of light draught and tonnage to pass, has been lately proved by the writer, by evidence obtained while searching in Lon- don the English archives. Early in the year 1887 in the British Record Oflfice, I found an old chart of the N^orth American coast, without name or date, which I have had carefully traced with India ink for publication. This tracing shows about one-eighth of the Quinnipiac, dated 28 y* 7th mo., 1639 to Lady Vere, then on a visit to her widowed daughter, the Lady Townshend at Raynham Hall, Norfolk. In this letter our harbor was named by the Captain the Fayre Haven and his was the first English ship we have any recoi'd of, as entering our port. The next was the '"Castle,"' and then perhaps Governor Eaton's Ship, the " Fellowship." * Hartford. f Haynes. LOJSTG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. 21 original projection. It covers the country from Cape Cod to the Renslow Hills. The latter are located on this chart about the position of the Highlands of Neversink in New Jersey, in latitude 40 degrees 25 minutes North, and longitude 73 degrees 56 minutes West. The original chart, I judge, was constructed by a hydrographical survey party, composed of British naval officers, between the years 1715 and 1720. The chart shows well surveyed channels south of Massachu- setts, and about the islands of Nantucket and Martha's Vine- yard, to the East River of the Dutch, or our Long Island Sound. Numerous notes in ink have been entered on unoccu- pied spaces contiguous to the objects of notice, mentioning matters of special interest about this river and the vicinity of the harbor of the Red Mountains, which I have gleaned from original, ancient documents. It tends to show that Cape Cod was formed from a long continued accretion from the sands which compose the system of coast between the Cape and Sandy Hook, and were deposited during the glacial age. Sub- sequently the drainage from the Southern New England rivers gradually separated these sands, forming arms of the sea and passages, through which the tides and currents of the ocean (spurs of the Gulf Stream and Polar currents), ebbed and flowed, imparting thereto a rotary motion, and changing a part of this East River of the Dutch to a sound, filling in some of these outlets, one of which would seem to have entered Peconic Bay, and widening the sound at its center by a continuous friction and agitation, as the washed away appearance of the bluffs on the north shore of Long Island abundantly illustrate its work. These changes prove that a stronger wind and tide power prevails from the westward, which is augmented by an increased water power from the rivers emptying into the Sound, and strengthen my belief in the theory that, notwith- standing a larger volume of water is forced into New York Bay from the Sound on ebb tide, or tide running west from Throg's Neck (according to the last gauging of the United States Coast and Geodetic survey), than comes into this tribu- tary via the Sandy Hook passage on the flood tide, the west passage (Hell Gate), has not the space to carry off all the accumulation, and that this surplus is finally forced out the 22 LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. Kace eastward on returning ebb tide. This shows the power that has washed away the islands of the Sound laid down by Block in 1614, such as the de Yeers (Stratford Shoals), Jan William Island (Goose Island), the Sunken Islands off Say- brook, the Valiant Rock and other islands in and outside of the Race, whose rock}' shores have been washed clean, besides the numerous banks about Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, all of which are no doubt the remains of former islands. These and the "tailings" eastward, which form the sandy points of land the whole length and both sides of the Sound, positively prove also a power from the heavy west gales of winter acting on the surface of the Sound, and from the rise and fall of tides, that has not as yet been accurately ascer- tained. The tides in our harbor are an important factor in the move- ments and scour of the port, and should be used for sanitary purposes. The tides are caused by the action of the sun and moon upon tlie waters of the earth. The effect of their influ- ence combines at new and full moon to produce the highest tides, called spring tides. When the moon is near the first and third quarter tlie effects are opposed, and the small or neap tides are produced. The nearer the moon is to the earth, the stronger the action. Consequently at the least distance of the moon (Perigee), the tide will be larger on that account, and consequently less at its greatest distance (Apogee). For a like reason the tide wiU be slightly increased by the sun's action, when the earth is neai-est to the sun (Perihelion), al)out the middle of January, and similarly decreased w4ien furthest from its Aphelion, about July 1st. When the moon's declination is greatest, either north or south, the tides usually have the great- est range of rise and fall ; that is, they rise higher and fall lower than at other times, and one high water of each day is higher than the other, and one low water lower than the other. The higher high water occurs sooner, and the low one later, than at other times. IS^ear the time of zero declinations in the two high tides of each day become nearly equal, and the times of their occurrence are near the average ones. While the range of rise and fall is the least that occurs, similar Init smaller effects follow the sun's declination. LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. '23 This explanation, which is an abridgment from the United States Coast and Geodetic survey tide table, shows the causes of the tides, but the movements of this vast body of sea water in Long Island Sound into New Haven harbor is affected often by winds at sea causing an irregularity in the time of high water, as the lay of the coast impedes its movements. For example, after a long north and east blow, the tides in the harbors at the west end of the Sound (Cow Bay in particular) have been known to rise twelve feet (though the mean rise is but seven feet), backed up as it were by East River flood, and its force being increased by winds of great energy, shifting southwardly soon after the commencement of the young flood at Sandy Hook. This subject is a matter of the greatest im- portance to the residents of New Haven on account of sanitary and sewerage purposes, as well as to those interested in the wharves, bridges and the navigation of the port. The effect of this vast body of uncompressible salt water,* ebbing and flowing at unequal intervals, is very great, as the known density of sea water and its scouring effects on the bottomf (the fresh water arising to the surface) have so often proved. Some observations in the Hudson and Connecticut Rivers have shown sea water near the bottom twenty miles above the entrance of these rivers, where fresh water has been taken from the surface, fit to drink. In this connection should Ite considered the power of this great body from the ocean (flood tide) from the East, to hold back the surface drainage of rivers like the Hudson and Connecticut and our own Quinnipiac, and at the same time assist it to store its powers in reservoirs nuide * It is estimated that the aggregate area of the water passage to Long Wharf is about 6.500 square feet, but by wharves, bridges and other obstructions this area lias been decreased to about 3,200 square feet at the steamboat dock, which is a great disadvantage, and should now be remedied. t The tide gauges at Tomlinson's Bridge show that the flood tide of our harbor commences to run on the bottom about forty minutes before low water, slack, on the surface, and in the interval rises five inches. Nov. 24, 1885, the tide rose six inches over the new center pier at Tom- linson's Bridge, and was the highest tide recorded, there being a differ- ence of ten feet, six inches between the lowest and highest mark on the tide gauge. The extreme high tide during freshet time at Hartford is about 21 feet. 3 24 LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. by nature for its reception, to be used on the ebb tide to scour the channel. In the ancient chart which I liave described, the south shore of Long Island and the coast surroundings, eastward from Sandy Hook to l^antucket are fairly accurately shown, and the south shoal of Xantucket eighteen miles south-southeast of this island in latitude 40 degrees 25 minutes North, and longitude 69 degrees 20 minutes West, and lying directly in the path of ocean steamei's bound to the port of 'New York, shows a depth of only four feet (now eight feet), with a bottom of white sand and shells. It is not improbable that it contains the results of surveys and observations made aboard ship by a party under the charge of Captain Cyprian Southack, a Boston pilot, who surveyed Boston Bay, al)out the year 1715, as Southack channel is one of the points laid do^vn. I note the time of full sea, the day of moon's southing, to be nine o'clock, and the variation of the compass at Nantucket Island Shoals, 8 degrees 30 minutes West (now 1890 about 12 degrees). Soundings are given at 10, 20, 25 and 40 fathoms, fine sand and shells, on a meridian six miles east of a line projected north and south from a point on a shoal of five fathoms, called the New Rose and Crown, in latitude 41.08 North and longitude 69.25 West, to a point on the Crab Bank in 35 fathoms stony bottom, latitude 41.42 and longitude 69.30 West and distant about 30 miles. The Rose and Crown shoal, then (1T17) marked dry, has at this date (1890) twelve feet of water over it ; giving positive proof that the whole system of l)anks, many of which about this passage, the entrance to Nantucket island, are marked dry, locate the bases of former islands which have been used by the elements in the construction of Cape Cod by filling the numerous passages with their debris. A passage is plainly laid down through the towns of Eastham, Chatham and Orleans on Cape Cod, which was used in early Colonial times by small vessels and boats, making voyages from the bay of Maine to Virginia, and which is shown on the early Dutch and French charts, and on the one sketched by Schipper Adrian Block, the first explorer of the East River or Long Island Sound. This may have been the passage mentioned by Captain Thomas Dermer in 1619, while making his boat voyage from Mona- LONfi ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. 25 higan to Virginia, It is interesting to note that in this very passage was lately discovered an ancient ship, which was exhnmed by the action of the sea, from a salt marsh. May 6, 1863, in the town of Orleans. Tliese voyages with the well sustained tradition handed down to us, from tlie Eaton and Davenport settlers, who came to Quinnipiac in 1637-38 in boats via a passage across Cape Cod, and the return of Rev. Ezekiel Rogers' friends from Quinnipiac to Rowly, Mass., the next year in a pinnace, which he sent to fetch them, give abundant proof of the existence of one or more such water ways, and it is corroborated by investi- gations of the late Professor Agassiz. These passages were closed up, as I have been told by Captain William Foster of Brewster, Mass., about 150 years ago, during a furious gale of wind accompanied by a tidal wave, which changed the whole east and south shore of the Cape, depositing in salt marshes and low lands, sand hills, 60 feet high, and completely washing away a sand point off Kausit, where to this day at extreme low tides the stumps of trees have been laid bare and visited by men now living. The discovery of this original chart has not only hydrograph- ical value, but has positively found for us one of the closed passages that tradition says existed in early times through Cape Cod, and sustains Gosnold's report in 1602, of its being then an island. It shows that as late as 1717 one of these passages remained open, by a marginal note, which I give verbatim : " Y'' place where I came through with a whale-boat, being ordered by y Governor to look after y" Pirate ship ' Whido,' Bellamy Com- mander, cast away, y" 36th of April, 1717, where I buried one hundred and two men drowned."* * Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts Bay, vol. 3, page 233, states that in the month of April, 1717, a pirate ship, the " Whido," of 23 guns and 130 men, Samuel Bellamy, commander, ventured upon the coast of New England, near Cape Cod, and after having taken several vessels, seven of the pirates were put on board of one of them, who soon got drunk and went to sleep. The master of the vessel which had been taken, having been left aboard with the prize crew, ran her ashore on the back of the Cape, and the seven pirates were secured. Soon after, the pirate ship in a storm was forced ashore near the table land, and 26 LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. But I will not linger on the subject of these closed up pas- sages ; as outlines are now visible of their course across the towns of Brewster, Dennis, Yarmouth and Sandwich (the latter the route of the Cape Cod canal now in course of construction). My object in referring to them has been to substantiate a theory for the construction of Cape Cod. I will now follow the navigable appproach on this chart to Long Island Sound through the waters of Kantucket and Mar- tha's Vineyard Sounds and what is called on the chart the " Sea of Rhode Island." The IS'antucket and Martha's Vineyard of our day are on this chart shown as six islands, illustrating how the wash of the past two centuries has moulded the shore. On this original chart, the numerous islands at the eastern entrance of the Sound are located, surrounded b}" rocky ledges, and at AYatch Point (Watch Hill) numerous ledges of rocks are laid down, showing the foundation of the now sickle-shape sand- pit extending therefrom into the Stonington harbor of our day. This gives evidence of its having recently been con- structed from the beach of the Rhode Island shore, eastward of Watch Hill, by a combination of forces that meet on this section of the coast. And here across the east entrance of the sound are given the names of numerous islands forming with sunken reefs a continuous chain, which must in the near future be used as a basis for sea coast defences and protection to this most important approach to the metropolis of this country, Long Island and Gardner's Sound having a strategic impor- tance unequalled on the Xorth American Continent. Of the many marginal notes on the chart I will notice but a few. The site of the Pequot Fort now in the town of Groton is called Lanithorn Hill, and New London is here mentioned as "a small river, but has a good harbor and farms, navigable for ships and small vessels. A place of great trade. They build many vessels here." the whole crew, except one Englishman and one Indian, were drowned. Six of the jirize crew who were saved as before mentioned, upon trial by a special court of admiralty, wei'e pronounced guilty, and executed, at Boston, November 15th, 1717. Levi Whitman says "At low tide the caboose of the pirate ship ' Whido' is often out of water, marking the site of the disaster." LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. 27 Pine Island off the East point, and Bartlett's Reef off the west point of the harbor are located ; tide full and change of the moon at ten o'clock ; sounding outside, 25 fathoms of Blue Owse. At Winthrop Point is a sketch of Gov. Winthrop's house and the Governor's name is noted ; there is indicated beside a church and several houses. The Connecticut Piver is mentioned as being very long, hav- ing a great many line towns and farms on the several branches of it, and as navigable for small vessels. On the chart is added " Y® seaboard town to the river is Sherbrook.* The}^ build a great many small vessels here, and much copper ore mined." The Long Island towns are also carefully located, and in Peconic Bay, about the site of the River Head is written, '' I commanded y® first ship that ever was in this place, in 1692." As several anchorages are marked in this Ijack water, and a canoe "})lace" or portage laid down between this through the South Beach to the ocean west of Shinnicook, it is quite prob- able, that at this date there existed a boat passage which was used by Colonel Meigs m the Revolutionary War when he cap- tured Sag Harbor with an expedition fitted out from New Haven, and returned with many prfsoners without losing a man. Guilford and Branford,f on the Connecticut shore, are men- tioned as having small rivers, also good farms and both having churches.:}; These towns are shown as lying north of the "• sea * Saybrook. f Maverick's description of New England about 1660 says, " Tocott (Branford) — from Guilford to Tocott, 9 miles. These two towns are under New-haven Government. New-haven— From Tocott to New-haven, it is 7 miles. This town is the metropolis of that Government, and the Government took its name from this Towne, which was the first built in those parts : many stately and costly houses were erected here, and the streets lay'd out in a Gallante form, a very stately Church, but ye Harbor proving not comodius, the land very barren, the mer- chants either dead or come away, the rest gotten to their Farmes, the Towne is not so glorious as once it was. Milford — From New-haven to Milford it is about 10 miles. This Towne is gotten into some way of Trading to Newfoundland, Barba- dos, Virginia. So also has some other towns in this Government." l And here is noted Sachem's Head, which was the scene of the tragedy where Uncas, chief of the Mohigans, captured a pursued Pequot Sachem, and, after shooting him to death with arrows, cut off his head which was set in the crotch of an oak tree and remained for years after, the tree having grown holding it thereto. Hence the name Sachem's Head. 28 LOXG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. of Connecticut " with the Hundred islands (Thimbles) and Falcons (Falkner's) Island off the coast. The Iron AVorks although in embryo have a special mention and are shown on a considerable river. These were the third considerable iron works and bloomery in America, The stone house of the Iron Master (John Cooper or Cowper), built in old* English style, is still standing in a good state of preserva- tion on the west bank of Stony River near the Stone Bridge. AYith the overflowing mill dam and red grist mill near by, embedded in green foliage during the summer, and backed by the brown faced evergreen Sal ton stall Mountains, while in the distance rises the graceful spire of East Haven stone meeting house, flanked by Ila\^lham Hills, this spot is one of the most picturesque and pretty bits of landscape in this section of the country. But we must not tarry here at this secluded spot but push on to the more pretentious harbor of the Qninnipiacs (or Isew Haven of our day). Here the chart notes the time of high water, IX* o'clock on the full and change of the moon, and opposite the harbor, which is only sketched as the entrance of a small river with rocky entrance, with soundings 10 fathoms, it says there are many good farms. It is shown on the chart as having a pretentious church and several houses. Directly across the Sound on Long Island, the village of "Wading (now Wading River), is shown, so called as it is navigable for boots (or boats), which can be towed inside by wading the river. The bottom of the Sound is Blue Owse, depth 20 to 25 fathoms, and the tide runs full sea at one o'clock. Milford, Stratford and Fairfield are all located as having good farms, while the islands off the Housatonic River, located by Block in 1614, marked Sand Bank, are now washed away save the dangerous remnant now known as Stratford Shoal, with 15 fathoms close to.f This demands more than casual mention, as they with Falkner's Island illustrate the powerful effects of the wind and tidal force on the shore of this arm of the sea, I have been told by the late Captain Moore, a noted ship-builder of Bridge- port, Conn., that he had visited early in this century at low * Qu.— Is this meant for XI ? f The new U. S. chart gives 27 fathoms. LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. 29 spring tides, these shoals for shell fish, and had observed sedge and other marine grasses growing there and had also seen walking sticks and canes cnt from a grove of scrnb cedars which stood on this island about one hundred and fifty years ago. The canes are still in the possession of some of the resi- dents of the neighborhood of Port Jefferson, Long Island. I have been told by Mr. James Park, purser of the steamer "Nonowantuk," of the Port Jefferson line, who was for ten years master of the Stratford Shoal Lightship, that in I860 Captain Ivuenis, of Port Jefferson, L. L, then 75 years of age, told him he had cut rushes for caudle wicks on Stratford Shoal Ground. There is also a tradition to the same effect in Strat- ford town that people living there owned these lands. Henry N. Beardsley informs me that his father told him he had seen Stratford Shoal bare for six rods at low water. Captain Joel Stone once said to me that the Stratford Light House keeper told him he had walked forty yards on Stratford Shoal, when laid bare at extreme low spring tide, which occurred during a continuous west gale in the month of March. The site of Penfield reef and bar (in 1720 called Lewis Island), now marked with a lighthouse,* off Black Rock and Fairfield, is shown on the old chart as a continuous rocky chain. This serves to locate the most eastern portion of the archipelago (Norwalk Island), of the first explorer. Opposite on Long Island are shown the two points, Eaton's and Lloyd's, once part of the estates of Governor Theophilus Eaton and his kinspeople the Lloyds. Here Long Island is mentioned as having " fine towns on it, and on the west end many good farms, but towards the east end is much barren land, though there are some places where there are good farms." Huntington, Oyster Bay, Whitestone and Flushing on the island shore, with Greenwich, Mamaroneck, East and West Chester on the Continent terminate at Manhattan Island the description of this arm of the sea and its shores. At this point on the chart the north wing of the flood tide flowing from the Eastward through Long Island Sound, meets the South wing of the same wave of flood or Westward tide from the ocean via Sandy Hook between Whitestone and * Penfield Reef. 30 LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. Sands Point, having between one and two hours in time differ- ence (later) from their time of perceptible inward flow at the Eace and Hook, and there is a note " about x 1-2 o'clock," accompanied with this item : " Y^ tijde jparteth at Whitestone — then runneth East and ^Yest.'''' Here at Whitestone and Throg's Neck this arm of the sea studded with rock and island, and now called East River, passes through a tortuous rocky outlet or inlet, mingling its waters with an increased momentum imparted by the heavy pressure from the high sea through its contracted shores, into the Hudson River and the outflowing tide at Sandy Hook. In order to illustrate the movement of this tidal wave from the Atlantic Ocean through Long Island Sound and show its power to scour as well as its value for sanitary purposes for the rapidly increasing Coast towns, we mention the tidal movement AYestward from an imaginary meridian in the deep sea East, off the Xewfoundland bank, with a crest proceeding Westward on a meridional line until the North wing is retarded by fric- tion with the banks of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and Massa- chusetts Coast, giving the wave line a North Easterly and South Westerly projection. As its South wing progresses west faster, having no obstruction on account of the deep sea (three miles deep) between the coast and Bermuda, it reaches sooner the abrupt line of soundings off the New Jersey and New Eng- land coasts. Consequently the young flood reaches the Jersey shore about Sandy Hook two hours earlier than at the Race, the Eastern entrance of Long Island Sound. It thus passes up the East and Hudson Rivers into the Sound, which tidal basin by the last ebb tide has been drained or lowered to the extent of several feet, when the East flood commences to flow Westward through the Race, meeting the Sandy Hook flood at Sandy Point or Throg's Neck, or East or West of these points as condition of wind and river freshets permit. The late superintendent (Prof. Hilgard) of tlie L^^nited States Coast and Geodetic Survey tells us that the condition of the tidal circulation through Long Island Sound and Hell Gate is such that, if there were a partition across it, the water would stand sometimes nearly five feet higher, and at others five feet lower, on one side than on the other, in the compounding of the two LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. 31 tides within a distance of one hundred feet. In H^ll Gate one foot difference in height is often noticed. This compound - ing process is completed by the accumulation from both floods , replenished with the drainage of the rivers, which volume of fresh water is kept back and on the surface, by the body of sea water flowing into the Sound near the bottom on account of its density. With the compounding of the two flood tides in Long Island Sound and their increased volume since Hell Gate excavation , added to the heavy freshets from the rivers and the tremen- dous pressure from strong gales which the United States Sig- nal Service shows frequent in this region, we have a reason for the gradual widening of Long Island Sound, and the disappear- ing of numerous islands and sandy points laid down on early charts of this coast. Having completed the description of this ancient chart save brief mention of some of the most Western Long Island towns laid down thereon, viz., Jericho, Jamaica, Bedford and Gravesend, also numerous small inlets for '' ye small vessels on ye north side," and a Ferry from the now site of Brooklyn to Manhattan Island, separated from "ye main by ye Spyten Divil Creek " (or Harlem Kiver), there remains only to make mention of the meeting of the tides of the East and North (or Hudson^ Rivers and their junction at Nutting (or Govern- or's) Island, connecting it to Long Island at low water with a narrow sand spit, over which within the past one hundred years cows were driven at low tide to pasture from Long Island to Governor's Island, and through which a channel has now been forced (by the encroachment of docks on East River), known as " Buttermilk Channel." Here at the meetings of these waters oft" the Battery of our day is shown the magniflcent upper and lower harbor of New York and southward Staten Island and Sandy Hook, and farther, still farther in the distance the blue waters of the broad Atlantic Ocean. ^ * A lithograph of this chart was published in 1891 by the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, in Appendix No. 20, to the Report of the Survey for 1890, together with brief notes by the author of this paper. LIBRARY OF CONGRESC 007 754 304 III L LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 007 754 304 1 { LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 007 754 304 1 $ oH83