ettlements at strategic points near the confluence of the Mohawk. But
the fur-trader was not followed by a tide of pioneers. One of the most
important factors in restraining density of population in New York, in
retarding the settlement of its frontier, and in determining the
conditions there, was the land system of that colony.

From the time of the patroon grants along the lower Hudson, great
estates had been the common form of land tenure. Rensselaerswyck reached
at one time over seven hundred thousand acres. These great patroon
estates were confirmed by the English governors, who in their turn
followed a similar policy. By 1732 two and one-half million acres were
engrossed in manorial grants.[80:1] In 1764, Governor Colden wrote[80:2]
that three of the extravagant grants contain,

as the proprietors claim, above a million acres each, several
others above 200,000. * * * Although these grants contain a
great part of the province, they are made in trifling
acknowledgements. The far greater part of them still remain
uncultivated, without any benefit to the community, and are
likewise a discouragement to the settling and improving the
lands in the neighborhood of them, for from the uncertainty of
their boundaries, the patentees of these great tracts are
daily enlarging their pretensions, and by tedious and most
expensive law suits, distress and ruin poor families who have
taken out grants near them.

He adds that "the proprietors of the great tracts are not only freed
from the quit-rents, which the other landholders in the province pay,
but by their influence in the assembly are freed from every other public
tax on their lands."

In 1769 it was estimated that at least five-sixths of the inhabitants of
Westchester County lived within the bounds of the great manors
there.[81:1] In Albany County the Livingston manor spread over seven
modern townships, and the great Van Rensselaer manor stretched
twenty-four by twenty-eight miles along the Hudson; while still farther,
on the Mohawk, were the vast possessions of Sir William Johnson.[81:2]

It was not simply that the grants were extensive, but that the policy
of the proprietors favored the leasing rather than the sale of the
lands--frequently also of the stock, and taking payment in shares. It
followed that settlers preferred to go to frontiers where a more liberal
land policy prevailed. At one time it seemed possible