Me7i and Things in Albany Two Centuries Ago. 31 



The oldest map of the city that has come down to us, 

 which is supposed to be about thirty years older than this, 

 extends its boundaries no farther w^est than the upper or 

 west line of Pearl street, and extended north and south 

 from Steuben to Hudson street. It exhibits these streets 

 now known as Broadway, State, and Maiden Lane. The 

 figures 1-6, refer to the gates. Brug., indicates where the 

 Rutten kil was crossed by a bridge. 



I hardly need to mention perhaps that those stockades 

 were composed of pine logs thirteen feet in length, and 

 about one foot in diameter, somewhat tapered at the end 

 set in the ground, and were dowelled together near the top, 

 leaving ten feet above the surface. The lines which they 

 formed were changed from time to time, to aiford more 

 space for the increasing population, and undecayed portions 

 of them are sometimes met with in digging for the found- 

 ations of new buildings. 



When excavations were made a few years ago for the 

 basement of the building on the south-west corner of 

 ^Torth Pearl and Canal streets, the workmen uncovered a 

 row of stumps of a stockade, which ran cornerwise across 

 the lot, and a crowd of persons unacquainted with these 

 ancient defenses was gathered there inquisitive regarding 

 the origin of the phenomenon. 



At the period represented by this diagram the north 

 gate was at the upper end of Handlaer street, forming the 

 barrier at the junction of what is now Broadway, and Steu- 

 ben street, and the south gate was at Hudson street. There 

 were no cross streets at these extremities, but what they 

 termed the rounds passage was kept open for the patrol in 

 times of threatened attack by the Indians or French. 



What is now South Pearl street was only a narrow ir- 

 regular lane leading to the Lutheran church and its burial 

 ground adjoining on the south, bounded by the open Rutten 

 kil, and all below, beyond the stockades, was called the 

 plain. A gate swung across this lane at State street, and 



