This point formed on its east side a small cove, somewhat protected from the tides that swirled around the end of the island. It lay in the angle of Pearl and Whitehall streets, the name of the former probably preserving the appearance of the shellstrewn beach along which the thoroughfare was laid out in 1633. That such a desirable landing place was utilized by INDIAN PATHS the natives cannot be doubted, affording as it did to their canoes the best possible starting point for a trip to any of the islands or fishing grounds in the waters of the inner bay.

It is reasonable to assume, therefore, that the natives reached this place by a pathway from the local village, and an examination of the one-time topography of the lower end of Manhattan leads to the conclusion that the route of such a pathway would naturally have taken the line of our present Broadway. The physical characteristics that determined this position for the path are evidenced in Map II, which is derived from the survey of Ratzer in 1766, omitting, of course, the then existing development of buildings and streets.