PATROONS AND LORDS OF THE MANOR 41

thatch, having no mason-work except in the chim-
neys. The settlers had found some ground already
cleared by the natives and had planted it with
wheat and oats in order to provide beer and horse-
fodder; but being hemmed in by somewhat barren
hills, they had been obliged to separate in order to
obtain arable land. The settlements, therefore,
spread over two or three leagues.

The fear of raids from the savages prompted the
patroon to advise that, with the exception of the
brewers and tobacco planters who were obliged to
live on their plantations, no other settlers should
establish themselves at any distance from the
church, which was the village center; for, says
the prudent Van Rensselaer, "every one residing
where he thinks fit, separated far from others,
would be unfortunately in danger of their lives
in the same manner as sorrowful experience has
taught around the Manhattans." Our sympathy
goes out to those early settlers who lived almost
as serfs under their patroon, the women forbidden
to spin or weave, the men prohibited from trading
in the furs whiclx they saw building up fortunes
around them. They sat by their lonely hearths in
a little clearing of the forest, listening to the howl
of wolves and fearing to see a savage face at the