—>-- 
PROCEEDINGS 
OF 
THE NATURAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION 
_. OF STATEN 
ISLAND. 
VOL. IX, No. 7. 
The regular meeting of the Associ- 
ation was held at the residence of Mr. 
A. C. Knothe, Tompkinsville, with the 
president in the chair. 
Mr. Montague Lessler, Tompkins. 
ville and Mr. Geo. W. Tuttle, New 
Brighton, were elected to active member~ 
ship. 
Mr. A. B. Skinner exhibited a ecol- 
lection of indian relics, consisting of 
brass arrow points, fragments of a 
pewter kettle, lead bullets, gun fiint 
and pieces of clay pipes, and read the 
following paper: 
TRADE ARTICLES USED BY THE 
STATEN ISLAND INDIANS. 
Before coming in contact with the 
whites the Staten Island indians knew 
very little of metal of any sort. A few 
stray pieces of native copper, passing 
from hand to hand down the coast; or 
brought here and lost by some invader, 
may have appeared from time to time, 
but none have survived to the present 
day. 
Some years ago Mr. George Pepper, 
when excavating in Burial Ridge at 
Tottenville, discovered the skeleton of 
an infant, some of the bones of which 
were greatly discolored by salts of 
copper but otherwise no trace of 
prehistoric metal has been reported. 
Upon the advent of the white man, all 
was changed. Deer skin was laid 
May 14th, 1904. 
aside for ‘‘duffels;’’ the flint blade was 
exchanged for the steel knife; the stone 
ax for the tomahawk. The bow was 
still largely used however, for the sag- 
acious Dutch settlers of New Amster- 
dam, while they were willing enough to 
trade the rifle tothe Iroquois and other 
distant indians, did not care to make 
the savages who lived about their doors 
masters of the ‘‘mysterious iron.’’ 
The earthen pot was soon seen by the 
observant savages to be less desirable 
than the pewter or brass vessels of the 
Dutch and thus was early discarded. 
And unfortunately the cheap clay pipe 
of European manufacture soon took the 
place of the handsome clay and stone 
pipes of the aboriginees. 
Very many presents of European 
articles of all sorts were made to the 
indians, and many were received in 
exchange for parcels of land. Governor 
Lovelace gave the indians of Staten 
Island, in 1675, the following articles 
in exchange for their claims here: 
I. 400 fathoms of wampum 
II 30 match boots 
III. 8 coats of Durens, made up 
IV. 30 shirts 
V. 30 kettles 
VI. 20 gunnes 
VII. firkin of powder 
VIII. 60 barres of lead 
IX. 30 axes 
) 
