SOME PEOMINENT NAMES 265 



only twenty years of age) were coiirageous. " From the 

 rough, forest-clad hills," writes Mr. J. H. Innes, First in 



° ' r. 1 • 1 Harlem 



^' seamed with deep ravines, a part of which now occupy 

 the north end of the Central Park, these two brothers, as 

 they explored the island of the Mannahatoes, soon after 

 their arrival, must have seen, as they looked to the north- 

 ward, towards the wide salt-water estuary which we now 

 know as Harlem Eiver, a level expanse of some seven or 

 eight hundred acres in area, broken only by one or two 

 isolated rocky eminences crowned with trees. Through 

 the midst of this ran a small fresh -water stream, and 

 there is little doubt that portions of the plain had been 

 long cleared and cultivated by the Indians." Here Di- 

 rector van Twiller granted two hundred acres of meadow 

 land to Henry, with the customary formalities of the 

 times : '^ The said de Forest and his successors shall 

 acknowledge their High Mightinesses, the Directors of the 

 West India Company, as their sovereign Lords and 

 Patroons, and at the end of ten years after the actual set- 

 tlement shall render the just tenth part of the product 

 wherewith God may bless the soil, and from this time 

 forth shall annually deliver on account of the dwelling 

 and house-lot, a pair of capons to the Director for the 

 holidays." Shortly afterwards the brothers erected the 

 first house on upper Manhattan ; a solidly built dwelling 

 forty-two feet long and eighteen feet wide, protected by a 

 heavy palisade. It is interesting to note that the site of 

 this house was not far from the present Harlem Lake in 

 Central Park. 



The rewards of his arduous labours, however, were not 

 destined for Henry de Forest. Hardly had the spring 

 plowing been completed in the year 1637 when he died of 

 some cause unknown. The Harlem estate passed into the 

 hands of his widow, only a small portion of the movable 

 property going to Isaac ; a half interest in a boat, half of 

 a bull calf and the half of two kids are mentioned as be- 

 longing to him. It became necessary for Isaac, therefore, 



