The word wich is derived from the Saxon wick, and originally had birth in the Latin vicus, which means village.  Hence, Greenwich means simply the Green Village, and was evidently a term describing one of the first small country hamlets on Manhattan.  Captain Sir.  Peter Warren, on whom be peace and benedictions, is usually given the credit of having given Greenwich its name, the historians insisting that it was the name of his own estate, and simply got stretched to take in the surrounding countryside.  This seems rather a stupid theory.  The Warrens were undoubtedly among the earliest representative residents in the little country resort, but by no stretch of imagination could any private estate, however ample or important, be called a village.  But Greenwich was the third name to be applied to this particular locality.

Once upon a time there was a little settlement of Indians—­the tribe was called the Sappocanicon or Sappokanikee.  Like other redmen they had a gift for picking out good locations for their huts or wigwams—­whatever they were in those days.  On this island of Manhattan they had appropriated the finest, richest, yet driest piece of ground to be had.  There were woods and fields; there was a marvellous trout stream (Minetta Water); there was a game preserve, second to none, presented to them by the Great Spirit (in the vicinity of Washington Square).  There was pure air from the river, and a fine loamy soil for their humble crops.  It was good medicine.

They adopted it far back in those beginnings of American history of which we know nothing.  When you go down to the waterfront to see the ships steam away, you are probably standing where the braves and squaws had their forest home overlooking the river.

But their day passed.  Peter Minuit—­who really was a worth-while man and deserved to be remembered for something besides his thrifty deal in buying Manhattan for twenty-four dollars—­cast an eye over the new territory with a view to developing certain spots for the Dutch West India Company.  He staked out the Sappokanican village tentatively, but it was not really appropriated until Wouter Van Twiller succeeded Minuit as director general and Governor of the island.

Van Twiller was not one of the Hollanders’ successes.  R.R.  Wilson says of him, “Bibulous, slow-witted and loose of life and morals, Van Twiller proved wholly unequal to the task in hand.”  Representing the West India Company, he nevertheless held nefarious commerce with the Indians—­it is even reported that he sold them guns and powder in violation of express regulations—­and certainly he was first and forever on the make.  But before he was removed from office (because of these and other indiscretions) he had founded Our Village,—­so may his soul rest in peace!

Not that he intended to do posterity a favour.  He never wanted to help anyone but himself.  But, in the first year of his disastrous governorship, he got the itch of tobacco speculation.  He knew there was money in it.