Washington Square was then in the real wilds, an uncultivated region,
half swamp, half sand, with the Sand Hill Road,--an old Indian
trail,--running along the edge of it, and Minetta Creek taking its
sparkling course through its centre. It was many years before Minetta
was even spanned by a bridge, for no one lived anywhere near it.

Peter Stuyvesant's farm gave the Bowery its name, for you must know
that Bouwerie came from the Dutch word _Bouwerij_, which means farm,
and this country lane ran through the grounds of the Stuyvesant
homestead. A branch road from the Bouwerie Lane led across the stretch
of alternate marsh and sand to the tiny settlement of Greenwich,
running from east to west. The exact line is lost today, but we know
it followed the general limit of Washington Square North. On the east
was the Indian trail.

Sarah Comstock says:

"The Indian trail has been, throughout our country, the
beginning of the road. In his turn, the Indian often
followed the trail of the beast. Such beginnings are
indiscernible for the most part, in the dusk of history, but
we still trace many an old path that once knew the tread of
moccasined feet."

[Illustration: MAP OF OLD GREENWICH VILLAGE. A section of Bernard
Ratzer's map of New York and its suburbs, made in the Eighteenth
Century, when Greenwich was more than two miles from the city.]

Here, between the short lane that ran from the _Bouwerij_ toward the
first young sprout of Greenwich, and the primitive Sand Hill (or Sandy