HISTORY OF THE NEW YORK IROQUOIS 173 



territory, two days' journey from the r^Iohawk frontier. Between 

 these there was ahnost constant warfare. When Van Curler 

 visited the Mohawks in 1642, there was no formal treaty with 

 them, and the first one was made in 1645. This was often 

 referred to in later days. As the fort was an early trading post, 

 there may have been a council with the Mahicans, the owners 

 of the land. 



In connection with French and English claims this story had 

 importance, and evidence was framed to fit the case. Of this 

 kind was that of Catelyn Trico, a Frenchwoman who testified in 

 1688 to this effect, that she went to Albany, then called Fort 

 Orange, in 1623, and stayed there three years, living in New York 

 and on Long Island always afterward. That she was 83 years 

 old, and that during her stay at Albany " ye Mahikanders or 

 River Indians ; ye Maquase : Oneydes : Onnondagages, Cay- 

 ouges. & Sinnekes, w^'^ ye Mahawawa or Ottawawaes Indians 

 came & made Covenants of friendship w^^^ ye s^ Arien Jorise there 

 Commander," with other remarkable incidents distinctly remem- 

 bered 62 years later. At that time there was no way for the 

 Ottawas to reach x^lbany; and, when they came in the i8th cen- 

 tury, they said they had never been there before. Most of the 

 Five Nations were not recognized by the Dutch by these names 

 till 1662, nor were they in common use till the second English 

 occupation, but the venerable Mrs Trico remembered just what 

 Governor Dongan wished. 



Pyrlaeus made a note more to the point regarding the place, 

 when he wrote in 1743: 



According to my informant, Sganarady, a creditable aged 

 Indian, his grandfather had been one of the deputies sent for the 

 purpose of entering into a covenant with the whole Europeans ; 

 they met at a place called Nordman's Kill, about four miles below 

 where Albany was built, where the covenant of friendship was 

 first established, and the Mohawks were the active body in 

 efifecting this work. 



If this Indian were then 70 years old and his father 30 at his 

 birth — ^certainly a fair allowance — his grandfather might have 



