114 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



where they set up round according to the bigness of the fort, and 

 the earth is heaped on both sides. A fort has generally two gates ; 

 one for passage, and the other to obtain water. Beauchamp, p. 14 



Three paces is a very moderate hight for a picket intended to be 

 set in the ground. As for the mode, charring and rubbing could 

 be carried on rapidly, and was light work. Changes came with the 

 white man's tools and hints. The single line of thick posts, set 

 close together, grew in favor. The French showed the use of the 

 bastion; the English built forts and blockhouses for the Indians. 



Two sketches of early New York forts are given from Van der 

 Donck's map. Fig. 20 shows one of the Mahicans, which is angular 

 and with projecting lines of defense on each side. The other is a 

 circular Minisink fort, drawn in at the gateway, which was a fre- 

 quent feature. Figure 17 represents this. Both have single open 

 lines of pickets, and the houses are of the usual round-topped style. 

 The arrangement of the pickets differs from his description, and the 

 plan of the forts seems all that is intended. The pickets would not 

 hide the defenders. 



There was a change even when the Indians for a time made their 

 own forts. In the Indian war of 1643 the Wetquescheck forts are 

 described as " of plank five inches thick, nine feet high, and braced 

 round with thick plank studded with port holes." 



In the Journal of the second Esopus zvar, 1663, there are accounts 

 of two forts built by the River Indians. A squaw described one : 



The fort is defended by three rows of palisades and the houses 

 in the fort encircled by thick cleft palisades with port holes in them, 

 and covered with bark of trees ; says that the fort is quadrangular 

 but that the Angles are constructed between the first and second 

 rows of palisades and that the third row of palisades stands full 

 eight feet off from the others towards the interior, between the two 

 first rows of palisades and the houses. O'Callaghan, 4:49 



This was of a mixed character and abandoned, and another found 

 in process of construction was thus described: 



The fort was a perfect square with one row of palisades set all 

 round being about fifteen feet above, and three feet under ground. 

 They had already completed two angles of stout palisades, all of 

 them almost as thick as a man's body, having two rows of portholes, 



