Indian Paths in the Great Metropolis
Even political and racial events were affected by the Indian paths, since it was by their means that the several European nationalities spread their ownership, and were enabled to exercise their influence on the natives, and it was along the Soundshore trails and by the Westchester path that the refugees from religious persecution in New England found their way to New Netherland and obtained a lodgment therein.
In a region possessing such an extent of waterfront as Long Island sound and East river, the bay and its tributary inlets, with such excellent water-highways as the Hudson, the Raritan, and the Passaic, it might seem that the easiest and most popular method of travel would have been by canoe. But while the dugout was doubtless a favored means of transit, it had its limitations, by ice and storm, and by exposure to hostile attack.