The principal cities and towns on the island are Brooklyn, Long Island City-, Garden City, Flatbush, New Lots, Flushing, Hempstead, Jamaica, Oyster Bay, North Hemp stead, Huntington, Brookhaven, Riverhead, Southampton, and Southold. Brooklyn, at the extreme western extremity of the island, is the third city of the United States in population. It is connected with different parts of New York by eight or ten ferries, and will soon be connected therewith by a magnificent wire suspension bridge, crossing at such a height that only the largest vessels will have to lower their topmost-masts in pass ing under it. Garden City was founded by the late Alexander T. Stewart, a wealthy mer chant of New York, on land formerly known as Hempstead plains, which, since the first discovery of the island had been regarded as almost worthless. Mr. Stewart purchased a tract of 12,000 acres, on a portion of which Garden City has been built, while other portions have been brought under successful cultivation. The city is as yet in an inchoate state; though it contains many fine buildings and a considerable population. One of the objects of the founder was to furnish economical and healthful homes for families of small means, whose heads might be employed in New York. An immense and costly cathedral, for the uses of the Protestant Episcopal church, is nearly com pleted.
Long island when first disoovered was the abode of 13 tribes of Indians, of which the only remnants are some 200 Shinnecooks, a mixed breed of Indians and negroes in Southampton, and a few families of Montauks. The island was included in the grant
made to the Plymouth colony by James I. in 1620. In 1625 the first settlement was made by some French Protestants under Dutch protection. In 1636 the Dutch made several settlements at the western eud, near New York, but the larger portion of the island, and especially its eastern section, was settled by colonists from Connecticut and other parts of New England. The island was called " Lange Islandt" by the Dutch; in 1693 the Encrlish changed it by law- to the " island of Nassau"—a name, however, which never came into popular use. In 1636 Jaques Bentyn and Adrianse Bennet purchased of the Indians 930 acres of land within the present boundaries of the city of Brooklyn. Mr. Bennet erected here the first house ever built upon the island, and which was burned by the Indians in 1643. Iu the troubles which preceded the revolution the people of Long Island were intensely patriotic, but the reverses of the American arms which placed the island in the power of the British during the war made it impossible for them to do much for the cause of independence. One of the earliest battles of the war was fought in Brooklyn, Aug. 26-28, 1776, when the Americans occupying the defen sive under gen. Putnaru were overcome by a greatly superior Brithh force and com pelled to retreat in boats across the East river under cover of a thick fog. The patriotic portion of the inhabitants, left thus under British control, endured many privations and not a little persecution during the whole period of the war.