may have given rise to many of the weird legends which have been handed along by the slave population of Shelter Island, where Nicolls resided a part of each year. "Sunset Rock," so named for having been the resort, formerly, of the Shelter Island ladies to watch the sun in its going down, reciting poetry and singing songs meanwhile, is pointed out as near the spot where the notorious Kidd buried his ill-gotten treasures. The story goes, that he came with twenty men to perform the work, and when it was done he cut off all their heads to prevent their telling anybody about it. The slaves and the common people on the island fully believed that every dark night or in a fog (for a century or more) twenty headless men might have been seen in blue coats, with their heads under their arms, guarding the hidden treasures. These superstitious people used to venture in that direction far enough to espy the light, and then run away in terror. Some of the more courageous tried many times, in the bright daylight, to dig for the gold, but no sooner would they get their crowbars under the rock than some unearthly noise would drive them away. William Nicolls is best remembered by his vigorous work in the New York legislature in the early part of the eighteenth century. He was a member of the assembly twenty-one years and its speaker sixteen years. He died in 1722. He bequeathed his Sachem Neck estate on Shelter Island to his son William, who was speaker of the assembly for many years, as his father had been before him.

The Sylvester homestead descended to Brinley Sylvester, the son of Nathaniel of Newport, who came to dwell in the home of his fathers. His first business was to build the new mansion as before mentioned, and improve the property generally. He was extravagant in his expenditures, and lived in a style of grandeur exceeding all his predecessors. He presided over his rich and extensive plantations with the dignity of a lord, and on every side there was costly and showy display. He was polished in his manners, scholarly in his tastes, hospitable, generous even to recklessness. On the death of Brinley Sylvester, without sons, his eldest daughter Mary, who had married Thomas Dering, a merchant of Boston, inherited the family domain, and from them it descended to their son, General Sylvester Dering. Henry Dering, brother of the general, built a commodious house on Shelter Island, overlooking the sea. The old approach to the Sylvester mansion-house was through an avenue of cherry trees about sixty feet broad. Similar avenues were planted in front of Henry Dering's house, and of that built by Ezra L'Hommedieu, prior to his purchase of the Sylvester mansion on the death of General Sylvester Dering.

Until about 1735 the Sylvesters always kept a chaplain at the island, or, as he was called by the people, a priest. During several of the early

THE SYLVESTER MANSION, SHELTER ISLAND, BUILT IN 1737.

decades there was but one family on the island, with their dependents and Indian neighbors. In 1730, seventy-eight years after its settlement by Sylvester, a quasi town organization was formed, its male inhabitants of full age at the time numbering twenty. Five of these bore the name of Havens. In 1733

they built a little Presbyterian meeting-house, the money for which was largely given by the wealthy land-holders. Brinley Sylvester contributed more than $6,000. He also gave the first minister, Rev. William Adams, a home in his house until his death in 1752, after which Mr. Adams continued for many years to reside in the family of Mrs. Dering. The pulpit, stairs, sounding board and some of the pews were brought from the Rutgers Street Church in New York, and placed in the little edifice. Whitfield preached in it in

1764, and also to

He was

a large concourse of people in the grounds of the mansion. the guest of the Derings for some days, and afterward corresponded with them. The Derings intermarried with the Nicoll family. They were

noted far and wide for their generous hospitality.

The successor of the little church was built in 1815. The timber for it was obtained in a singular manner. A terrible September gale swept over the island and prostrated an old and valuable grove of stately locust trees on General Dering's estate. These he offered as a free gift for the frame of the edifice, which was built, according to the fashion of the times, with great high-backed square pews. It was remodeled and enlarged in

1858, and a belfry was then built. The ground was originally donated by Jonathan Havens.

During the period immediately prior to the Revolution, there were not less than two hundred negro slaves on the island. They have gradually dwindled away, but many of their descendants remain, and are, as a rule, industrious and respected. The Derings fled, during the Revolutionary War, to Middletown, Connecticut, and the island was, during a long time, at the mercy of the British. Their fleets for three years wintered in Gardiner's Bay. The wood on the island was felled and carried off, as well as the cattle and

the crops. "Hay Beach Point" received its name from having been the con

venient place for loading the confiscated hay, wood, and grain upon their boats. High grounds on the northeastern side of the island are still pointed out as the camping-place of the British soldiers, and on one bluff the stones mark the spot where many were buried.

The site of one of the most important Indian villages on the island is but a few rods distant from the rear of the Sylvester mansion, and the

elevation seems to be a solid mound of oyster shells and savage paraphernalia; it may be seen just in the background of the sketch of the old stone bridge. One of the curiosities of the island is a footprint in the rock just outside the entrance gate to the grounds. The tradition is that it was made by the last chief of the Montauks, who in despair took three long steps, this one on Shelter Island, one at Orient Point, and the third at Montauk, then jumped into the ocean. The Shelter Island footprint is that of the right foot, and thus marks his starting place; it is confidently asserted by the common people that it will fit the right foot of any one from a child to a giant.

The history of the purchase of lands, the erection of hotels and villa residences, and the transformation of a portion of Shelter Island into one of the most delightful watering-places

on this continent is no part of the purpose of this paper. The villas may continue to multiply, and the triumphs of modern domestic architecture prove a never-ending surprise and delight, but the historic home. which has made all these things. possible will not be overshadowed in its delightful seclusion. It touches the past gently, and while the present estate probably does not now include more than two square miles, it still, in many of its aspects, is fully equal to the fifteen of its first proprietor. It is scarcely fifty years since the first public highway was laid out on the island; now there are beautiful drives in every direction. Greenport and the ferry are modern luxuries of far more recent date than the first roads. One of the natural curiosities of the island is a fresh-water pond covering thirty acres, and about sixty feet deep; it is lower than the level of the sea, and has no visible outlet.

An appropriate monument has recently been erected to Nathaniel Sylvester by his descendants, on the family estate, and the cemetery and grove where it stands is called Woodstock from its threads of relationship to the ancient English manor of Woodstock, where Charles II. was concealed in his flight.

The historic mansion has its haunted chamber, but just precisely