Page:History of Hudson County and of the Old Village of Bergen.djvu/30

22 a petition for farming rights was granted to several families on condition that, first, a spot must be selected which could be defended easily; second, each settler to whom land was given free must begin to build his house within six weeks after drawing his lot; third, there must be at least one soldier enlisted from each house, able to bear arms to defend the village.

In November of the same year the village of Bergen was founded "by permission of Peter Stuyvesant, Director-General, and the Council of New Netherland," and thus Bergen, (described as being "in the new maize land") besides being the earliest settlement in New Jersey also holds the honor of being the first permanent settlement in New Jersey.

The site of the original village is marked by the present Bergen Square and the four blocks surrounding it, the boundaries being Newkirk and Vroom Streets north and south, Tuers Avenue east and Van Reypen Street west. There were two cross roads, and they are still represented today by existing streets. The present Bergen Avenue was the road to the Kill von Kull and also to Bergen Woods, now known as North Hudson. Academy Street of today was then the Communipaw road. From their height the inhabitants looked over island-dotted and stream-divided meadows of tall sea-grass, swarming with wild fowl and rich with fish. Those bright, unstained expanses gave them mighty crops of salt hay for no trouble save that of harvesting it. They were crops that could not fail so long as the tides ran. Everywhere the salt tides were the Dutchman's friend. He utilized high flood to bring craft close to his farms for easy loading or unloading. He used the