HISTORY OF BROOKLYN. 227

which he had bought of the Indians for three guilders and a half of seewant, that is, fifteen stivers of Dutch money (15 cents), and which weighed thirty pounds. The meat was exceedingly tender and good, and also quite fat. It had a slight aromatic flavor. We were also served with wild turkey, which was also fat and of a good flavor, and a wild goose, but that was rather dry. Every thing we had was the natural production of the country. We saw here, lying in a heap, a whole hill of watermelons, which were as large as pumpkins, and which Simon was going to take to the city to sell. They were very good, though there is a difference between them and those of the Carribby islands; but this may be owing to its being very late in the season, and 'these were the last pulling. It was very late at night when we went to rest in a Kermis bed, as it is called, in the corner of the hearth, alongside of a good fire." Early the next morning, they relate that their host and his wife went off to the city, probably in their own boat, with their marketing.1

On another occasion they visited Jacques Cortelyou, in New Utrecht, who had just built an excellent stone house, the best dwelling in the place. “After supper,” they say, “we went to sleep in the barn upon some straw spread with sheepskins, in the midst of the continuous grunting of hogs, squealing of pigs, bleating and coughing of sheep, barking of dogs, crowing of cocks, cackling of hens, and especially a goodly quantity of fleas and vermin, of no small portion of which we were participants, and all with an open barn-door, through which a fresh north wind was blowing. Though we could not sleep, we could not complain, inasmuch as we bad the same quarters and kind of bed that their own son usually had, who now, on our arrival, crept in the straw behind us.”2

To return to the domestic architecture of the Dutch on Long Island, we may observe that most of their dwellings were of wood, some few being of brick, and here and there was to be found a substantial stone house. These were all one-story edifices, with either an “overshot,” or projecting roof, forming a piazza both on the front and rear; or the “overshot” in front, with the roof extending on the rear until within a few feet of the ground. The low-browed rooms

1 Coll L. I. Hist. Soc., 1. 122,123.

2 Ibid., 1. 178.