1792 Article on the Arrival of Europeans to NY
Henry Livingston (1748-1928) wrote a number of imaginative pieces of fiction. In one, he took the point of view of a Pine Tree telling of its growth from a cone and the changes it saw along the Hudson River as the Europeans replaced the Native Americans. His dating is completely wrong but, given the depth of his reading, it's likely those were the dates believed at the time he wrote.