We have warrant for assuming it to have been occupied for a long period, as the path that led westward from it was known to the Indians as Mechawanienck, "the ancient pathway." That name is recorded in a deed of 1652 in which the path was described as the southern boundary of a great tract extending from Gowanus. INDIAN PATHS Mechawanienck later -became the "wagon path," under which name it is described in the Gravesend deed for the tract known as Makeopaca in 1682.

We now find it retaining the name of Kings highway, which was applied in 1704, and as such it can still be followed from Flatlands through Kings Oaks and South Bensonhurst nearly to New Utrecht, where, at the present time, it ends at the intersection of Twenty-first avenue and 79th street. But in prehistoric days it ran through New Utrecht on the line of the modern 83d and 84th streets as far as Fifteenth avenue, beyond which its crooked course to the Fort Hamilton Parkway is entirely lost in the modern street lines.