Behold the natural advantages of our State; the situation of our principal seaport; the facility that the Sound affords for an intercourse with the East, and the noble Hudson which bears upon its bosom the wealth of the remotest part of the State.

    Robert R. Livingston.

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[Illustration:  OLOFFE VAN KORTLANDT’S DREAM.]

Moreover, we should not forget that Communipaw outranks New York in antiquity, and, according to Knickerbocker, whose quiet humor is always read and re-read with pleasure, might justly be considered the Mother Colony.  For lo! the sage Oloffe Van Kortlandt dreamed a dream, and the good St. Nicholas came riding over the tops of the trees, and descended upon the island of Manhattan and sat himself down and smoked, “and the smoke ascended in the sky, and formed a cloud overhead; and Oloffe bethought him, and he hastened and climbed up to the top of one of the tallest trees, and saw that the smoke spread over a great extent of country; and, as he considered it more attentively, he fancied that the great volume assumed a variety of marvelous forms, where, in dim obscurity, he saw shadowed out palaces and domes and lofty spires, all of which lasted but a moment, and then passed away.”  So New York, like Alba Longa and Rome, and other cities of antiquity, was under the immediate care of its tutelar saint.  Its destiny was foreshadowed, for now the palaces and domes and lofty spires are real and genuine, and something more than dreams are made of.

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  Below the cliffs Manhattan’s spires
    Glint back the sunset’s latest beam;
  The bay is flecked with twinkling fires;
    Or is it but “Van Kortlandt’s dream?”

  Wallace Bruce

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=The Original Manors and Patents.=—­According to a map of the Province of New York, published in 1779, the Phillipsburg Patent embraced a large part of Westchester County.  North of this was the Manor of Cortland, reaching from Tarrytown to Anthony’s Nose.  Above this was the Phillipse Patent, reaching to the mouth of Fishkill Creek, embracing Putnam County.  Between Fishkill Creek and the Wappingers Creek was the Rombout Patent.  The Schuyler Patent embraced a few square miles in the vicinity of Poughkeepsie.  Above this was the purchase of Falconer & Company, and east of this tract what was known as the Great Nine Partners.  Above the Falconer Purchase was the Henry Beekman Patent, reaching to Esopus Island, and east of this the Little Nine Partners.  Above the Beekman Patent was the Schuyler Patent.  Then the Manor of Livingston, reaching from Rhinebeck to Catskill Station, opposite Catskill.  Above this Rensselaerwick, reaching north to a point opposite Coeymans.  The Manor of Rensselaer extended on both sides of the river to a line running nearly east and west, just above Troy.  North and west of this Manor was the County of Albany, since divided into Rensselaer, Saratoga, Washington, Schoharie, Greene and Albany.  The Rensselaer Manor was the only one that reached across the river.  The west bank of the Hudson, below the Rensselaer Manor, is simply indicated on this map of 1779 as Ulster and Orange Counties.