166 EARLY HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY. 



quehanncoks, and are all extreame fearful of a gun, naked and un- 

 armed against our shot, swords and pikes. I had some bickering 

 with some of them, and they are of so little esteem that I durst 

 with fifteen men sit down or trade in despite of them. I saw there 

 an infinite quantity of bustards^ swans, geese and fowl, covering 

 the shores, as within the like multitude of pigeons and store of 

 turkeys, of which I tried one to weigh forty and six pounds. There 

 is much variety and plenty of delicate fresh and se^ fish and shell- 

 fish, and whales and grampus, elks, deere that bring three young at 

 a time." 



He further says, " Twelve hundred Indians under the Raritan 

 kings, on the south side next to Hudson's River, and those come 

 down to the ocean about Little Eg Bay, and Sandy Barnegate, 

 and about the South Cape two small Kings of forty men a piece 

 called Tirans and Tiascons." 



It would seem from the above description given by Master Eve- 

 lin, that he actually visited this part. of the country at that early 

 day, and made the circuit of Cape May. 



The name of Egg Bay has been perpetuated with but little vari- 

 ation, and the many small isles that he speaks of, yet stand there 

 in testimony of his having seen them as stated, in propria persona. 



Now where it was the king of Kechemeches with his fifty men held 

 forth, it would be difficult to ascertain : it might have been at Town 

 Bank, or Fishing Creek, or further up the cove or " nook," as he 

 was pleased to call it. Master Evelin must certainly have the 

 credit of being the first white man that explored the interior, as far 

 as the seaboard, and his name should be perpetuated as the king 

 of pioneers. . . . His account of the great abundance and 

 variety of fowl and fish seems within the range of probability, and 

 the story of the turkey that weighed forty-six pounds, would have 

 less of the " couleur de rose" were it not qualified in the same para- 

 graph, with "deere that bring forth three young at a time." And 

 what a sight it must have been to see the woods and plains teeniing 



