other
was on the eminence north of Wall Street, owned by Jan Vinje, " farmer,
brewer, and miller." It is impossible to resist the wish to repeat the
genial restoration presented by Valentine: "A curious sight it must
have been to see the farmers' wagons laden with grain traversing the
shore along the East River, winding up the romantic valley now called
Maiden Lane, and depositing their loads at this edifice, then standing
in the midst of a clearing of forest trees of mature growth. The snug
little stone farm house, with its loophole windows to keep out
marauding savages, the low doorway with its bull's-eye windows in the
panels, the motley assemblage of domestic animals, and slaves of all
sorts and sizes, which then formed the great part of a domestic
establishment, the waving grain of the adjoining field, the newly
planted orchard, all formed a picture which can hardly now be
idealized in connection with that ancient and long populated part of
the city. Another was farther eastward at the ferry, another upon the
south part of the present park, then a desert spot, covered by stunted
bushes and hoop-pole saplings and offering no annoyance of forest trees
to the free course of the winds above the underwood."
There
was another windmill on the North River shore below St. Paul Church to
attract Jersey farmers, "those venturesome men who had penetrated the
wilderness and planted the fertile region of Hackgingsach, and those,
too, along the Jersey shore, in sections called by the Indians
Ahasimus, Ho-bokenhacking, and Carno cuipa."
The
east side of the city, south of Chatham Street, was depressed and
valley-like, and was originally known as the Vly or Valley, from whence
old Fly Market at Front Street and Maiden Lane originated.
The
village of Greenwich lay beyond the Lispenard meadows, and offered a
diversified surface covered with farms, woods, orchards, and nurseries.
There was Richmond, Colonel Burr's place, where Charlton Street is now,
and then covered with cedar woods. From Greenwich village the peo-
