Earlier and Later Outlines

The tongue of land bounded by the curve in the Passaic River was originally divided between the Puritan and the Dutch colonies. The mountain was the ridge of the tongue. The whole breadth of the middle and the southern portions was Newark, and its settlement proceeded from the "town on the Passaic." The smaller portion of the tract— the tip of the tongue— was Acquackanonck, and its settlement proceeded from the Bergen colony, through Hackensack and through the nearer Indian village of Acquackanonck (Passaic), at the head of navigation. The line between the two was the original line of the Newark colony in 1666. The eastern line at that time was defined to be the "Pesayac River," and to reach northward "to the Third River above the town," and the northern boundary "from thence upon a northwest line to the mountaine."

The mountain was the west line of the Newark colony, or the Newark town proper.

The purchase from the Indians in 1666 did not define a west line. The corrected deed of sale in 1677—78 specifies "that it is meant, agreed and intended that their bounds shall reach or goe to the top of the said Great Mountaine and that Wee, the said Indians, will marke out the same."