Not in the least distrusting each other, nor aware of the sudden rise of the value of lands, these primitive colonists got large grants from government, to encourage their efforts in the early stages of cultivation; these lands being first purchased, for some petty consideration, from the Indians, who alone knew the land-marks of that illimitable forest.
The boundaries of such large grants, when afterwards confirmed by government, were distinguished by the terms used by the Indians, who pointed them out; and very extraordinary marks they were. For instance, one that I recollect. “We exchange with our brother Cornelius Rensselear, for so many strouds, guns, &c. the lands beginning at the beaver creek, going on northward, to the great fallen plane tree, where our tribe slept last summer; then eastward, to the three great cedars on the hillock; then westward, strait to the wild duck swamp; and strait on from the swamp to the turn in the beaver creek where the old dam was.”
Such are the boundaries, seriously described in this manner, in one of the earliest patents. The only mode, then existing, of fixing these vague limits was to mark large trees which grew at the corners of the property, with the owner’s name deeply cut, along with the date of the patent, &c. after blazing, that is to say, cutting deeply into the tree, for a plain space to hold this inscription.
In this primitive manner were all the estates in the province bounded. Towards the sea this did very well, as the patents in a manner, bounded each other; and every one took care to prevent the encroachments of his neighbour. But in the interior, people took great stretches of land here and there, where there were not patented lands adjoining; there being no continuity of fertile ground, except on the banks of streams. The only security the public had against these trees being cut down, or others at a greater distance marked in their stead, was a law which made such attempts penal. This was a very nugatory threat; it being impossible to prove such an offence. Crimes of this nature, encroaching on the property of individuals, I believe, rarely happened; but to enlarge one’s boundary, by taking in a little of king George’s ground, to use a provincial phrase, was considered as no great harm; and, besides, many possessed extensive tracts of land unquestioned, merely on the strength of Indian grants, unsanctioned by government. One in particular, the proudest man I ever knew, had a law-suit with the king, for more land than would form a German principality. Now that the inundation of litigious new settlers, from Massachusetts’ bounds, had awakened the spirit of inquiry, to call it no worse, every day produced a fresh law-suit, and all of the same nature, about ascertaining boundaries. In one instance, where a gentleman was supposed to be unfairly possessed of a vast tract of fine land, a confederacy of British officers, I must confess, questioned his right; applying before hand for a grant of such lands as they could prove the possessor entitled to; and contributing among them a sum of money to carry on this great law-suit, which having been given against them in the province, they appealed to the Board of Trade and Plantations at home. Here the uncertainty of the law was very glorious indeed; and hence, from the gainful prospect opening before them, swarms of petulant, half-educated young men, started one knew not whence. And as these great law-suits were matter of general concern, no one knowing whose turn might be next, all conversation begun to be infected with litigious cant; and every thing seemed unstable and perplexed.