Hudson's River and Its Islands.
Muhheakun'nuk, "The great waters or sea, which are constantly in motion, either ebbing or flowing," was written by Chief Hendrick Aupaumut, in his history of the Muhheakun'nuk nation, as the name of Hudson's River, in the Stockbridge dialect, and its meaning. The first word, Muhheakun, was the national name of the people occupying both banks of the river from Roelof Jansen's Kill, a few miles south of Catskill, on the east side of the river, north and east with limit not known, and the second -nuk, the equivalent of Massachusetts -tuk, Lenape -ittuk, "Tidal river, or estuary," or "Waters driven by waves or tides," with the accessory meaning of "great." Literally, in application, "The great tidal river of the Muhheakan'neuw nation." The Dutch wrote the national name Mahikan, Maikan, etc., and the English of Connecticut wrote Mohegan, which was claimed by Drs. Schoolcraft and Trumbull to be derived from Maingan (Cree MahÉggun), "Wolf"—"an enchanted wolf, or a wolf of supernatural powers." From their prevailing totem or prevailing coat-of-arms, the Wolf, the French called them Loups, "wolves," and also Manhingans, including under the names "The nine nations gathered between Manhattan and Quebec." While the name is generic its application to Hudson's River was probably confined to the vicinity of Albany, where Chief Aupaumut located their ancient capital under the name of Pem-po-tow-wut-hut Muh-hea-kan-neuw, "The fire-place of the Muh-hea-kan-nuk nation." [FN] The Dutch found them on both sides of the river north of Catskill, with extended northern and eastern alliances, and south of that point, on the east side of the river, in alliance with a tribe known as Wappans or Wappings, Wappani, or "East-side people," the two nations forming the Mahikan nation of Hudson's River as known in history. (See Wahamensing.)
[FN] Presumed to have been at what is now known as Scho-lac, which see.Father Jogues, the French-Jesuit martyr-missionary, wrote in 1646, Oi-o-guÉ as the Huron-Iroquoian name of the river, given to him at Sarachtoga, with the connection "At the river." "Ohioge, river; Ohioge-son, at the long river," wrote Bruyas. Arent van Curler wrote the same name, in 1634, Vyoge, and gave it as that of the Mohawk River, correcting the orthography, in his vocabulary, to "Oyoghi, a kill" or channel. It is an Iroquoian generic applicable to any principal stream or current river, with the ancient related meaning of "beautiful river."
It is said that the Mohawks called the river Cohohataton. I have not met that name in records. It was quoted by Dr. Schoolcraft as traditional, and of course doubtful. He wrote it Kohatatea, and in another connection wrote "-atea, a valley or landscape." It is suspected that he coined the name, as he did many others. Shate-muck is quoted as a Mohegan [FN-1] name, but on very obscure evidence, although it may have been the name of an eel fishing-place, or a great fishing-place (-amaug). Hudson called the stream "The River of the Mountains." On some ancient maps it is called "Manhattans River." The Dutch authorities christened it "Mauritus' River" in honor of their Staat-holder, Prince Maurice. The English recognized the work of the explorer by conferring the title "Hudson's River." It is a fact established that Verrazano visited New York harbor in 1524, and gave to the river the name "Riviere Grande," or Great River; that Estevan Gomez, a Spanish navigator who followed Verrazano in 1525, called it "St. Anthony's River," a name now preserved as that of one of the hills of the Highlands, and it is claimed that French traders visited the river, in 1540, and established a chÂteau on Castle [FN-2] Island, at Albany, [FN-3] and called the river "Norumbega." It may be conceded that possibly French traders did have a post on Castle Island, but "Norumbega" was obviously conferred on a wide district of country. It is an Abnaki term and belonged to the dialect spoken in Maine, where it became more or less familiar to French traders as early as 1535. That those traders did locate trading posts on the Penobscot, and that Champlain searched for their remains in 1604, are facts of record. The name means "Quiet" or "Still Water." It would probably be applicable to that section of Hudson's River known as "Stillwater," north of Albany, but the evidence is wanted that it was so applied. Had it been applied by the tribes to any place on Hudson's River, it would have remained as certainly as MenatÉ remained at New York.
[FN-1] "Mohegans is an anglicism primarily applied to the small band of Pequots under Uncas." (Trumbull.) While of the same linguistic stock, neither the name or the history of Uncas's clan should be confused with that of the Mahicani of Hudson's River.
[FN-2] Introduced by the Dutch—Kasteel. The Indians had no such word. The Delawares called a house or hut or a town that was palisaded, Moenach, and Zeisberger used the same word for "fence"—an enclosure palisaded around. Eliot wrote Wonkonous, "fort."
[FN-3] It is claimed that the walls of this fort were found by Hendrick Christiansen, in 1614; that they were measured by him and found to cover an area of 58 feet; that the fort was restored by the Dutch and occupied by them until they were driven out by a freshet, occasioned by the breaking up of the ice in the river in the spring of 1617; that the Dutch then built what was subsequently known as Fort Orange, at the mouth of the Tawalsentha, or Norman's Kill, about two miles south of the present State street, Albany, and that Castle Island took that name from the French chÂteau—all of which is possible, but for conclusive reasons why it should not be credited, the student may consult "Norumbega" in Winsor's "Narrative and Critical History of America." Wrote Dr. Trumbull: "Theuet, in La Cosmographie Universella, gives an account of his visit, in 1656, to 'one of the finest rivers in the whole world, which we call Norumbeque, and the aboriginees Agoncy,' now Penobscot Bay."
Hudson's River, 1609
Manhattan, now so written, does not appear in the Journal of Hudson's exploration of the river in 1609. On a Spanish-English map of 1610, "Made for James I," and sent to Philip III by Velasco in letter of March 22, 1611, [FN-1] Mannahatin is written as the name of the east side of the river, and Mannahata as that of the west side. From the former Manhattan, and from it also the name of the Indians "among whom" the Dutch made settlement in 1623-4, otherwise known by the general name of Wickquaskecks, as well as the name of the entire Dutch possessions. [FN-2] Presumably the entries on the Spanish-English map were copied from Hudson's chart, for which there was ample time after his return to England. Possibly they may have been copied by Hudson, who wrote that his voyage "had been suggested" by some "letters and maps" which "had been sent to him" by Capt. Smith from Virginia. Evidently the notations are English, and evidently, also, Hudson, or his mate, Juet, had a chart from his own tracing or from that of a previous explorer, which he forwarded to his employers, or of which they had a copy, when he wrote in his Journal: "On that side of the river called Mannahata," as a reference by which his employers could identify the side of the river on which the Half-Moon anchored, [FN-3] Presumably the chart was drawn by Hudson and forwarded with his report, and that to him belongs the honor of reducing to an orthographic form the first aboriginal name of record on the river which now bears his name. Five years after Hudson's advent Adriaen Block wrote Manhates as the name of what is now New York Island, and later, De Vries wrote Manates as the name of Staten Island, both forms having the same meaning, i.e., "Small island." There have been several interpretations of Mannahatin, the most analytical and most generally accepted being by the late Dr. J. H. Trumbull: "From Menatey (Del.), 'Island'—Mannahata 'The Island,' the reference being to the main land or to Long Island as the large island. Menatan (Hudson's Mannah-atin, -an or -in, the indefinite or diminutive form), 'The small island,' or the smaller of the two principal islands, the Manhates of Adriaen Block. [FN-4] ManÁhtons, 'People of the Island,' ManÁhatanesen, 'People of the small islands.'" [FN-5] The Eastern-Algonquian word for "Island" (English notation), is written Munnoh, with formative -an (Mun-nohan). It appears of record, occasionally, in the vicinity of New York, presumably introduced by interpreters or English scribes. The usual form is the Lenape MenatÉ, Chippeway Minnis, "Small island," classed also as Old Algonquian, or generic, may be met in the valley of the Hudson, but the instances are not clear. It is simply a dialectic equivalent of Del. MÉnates. (See Monach'nong.) Van Curler wrote in his Mohawk vocabulary (1635), "Kanon-newaga, Manhattan Island." The late J. W. Powell, Director of the Bureau of Ethnology, wrote me: "In the alphabet of this office the name may be transliterated KanoÑnÒ'ge. It signifies 'Place of Reeds.'" Perhaps what was known as the "Reed Valley" was referred to, near which Van Twiller had a tobacco plantation where the Indians of all nations came to trade. (See Saponickan.) The lower part of the island was probably more or less a district of reed swamps.
[FN-1] Brown's "Genesis of the United States," 327, 457, 459, ii, 80.
[FN-2] Colonial History of New York.
[FN-3] Hudson anchored in the bay near Hoboken. Near by his anchorage he noticed that "there was a cliff that looked of the color of white green." This cliff is near Elysian Fields at Hoboken. (Broadhead.) The cliff is now known as Castle Point.
[FN-4] The reference to Adriaen Block is presumably to the "Carte Figurative" of 1614-16, now regarded as from Block's chart.
[FN-5] "Composition of Indian Geographical Names," p. 22.
Pagganck, so written in Indian deed of 1637, as the name of Governor's Island—Peconuc, Denton, is an equivalent of PagÁn'nak, meaning literally "Nut Island." Also written Pachgan, as in Pachganunschi, "White walnut trees." (Zeisb.) Denton explained, "Because excellent nut trees grew there." [FN] The Dutch called it "der Nooten Eilandt," literally "The Walnut Island," from whence the modern name, "Nutten Island." The island was purchased from the Indian owners by Director Wouter van Twiller, from whose occupation, and its subsequent use as a demense of the governors of the Province, its present name.
[FN] Denton's "Description of New York," p. 29. Ward's and Blackwell's islands were sold to the Dutch by the Marechawicks, of Long Island, in 1636-7. Governor's Island was sold in the same year by the Tappans, Hackinsacks and Nyacks, the grantors signing themselves as "hereditary owners." Later deeds were signed by chiefs of the Raritans and Hackinsacks.
Minnisais is not a record name. It was conferred on Bedloe's Island by Dr. Schoolcraft from the Ojibwe or Chippeway dialect, [FN] in which it means "Small island."
[FN] The Objibwe (Objibwai) were a nation of three tribes living northwest of the great lakes, of which the Ojibwai or Chippeway represented the Eagle totem. It is claimed by some writers that their language stands at the head of the Algonquian tongues. This claim is disputed on behalf of the Cree, the Shawanoe, and the Lenape or Delaware. It is not assumed that Ojibwe (Chippeway) terms are not Algonquian, but that they do not strictly belong to the dialects of the Hudson's river families. Rev. Heckewelder saw no particular difference between the Ojibwe and the Lenape except in the French and the English forms. Ojibwe terms may always be quoted in explanations of the Lenape.
Kiosh, or "Gull Island," was conferred on Ellis Island by Dr. Schoolcraft from the Ojibwe dialect. The interpretation is correct presumably.
Tenkenas is of record as the Indian name of what is now known as Ward's Island. [FN] It appears in deed of 1636-7. It means "Small island," from Tenke (Len.), "little."
[FN] The Dutch called the island Onvruchtbaar, "Unfruitful, barren." The English adopted the signification, "Barren," which soon became corrupted to "Barrent's," to which was added "Great" to distinguish it from Randal's Island, which was called "Little Barrent's Island." Barn Island is another corruption. Both islands were "barren" no doubt.
Monatun was conferred by Dr. Schoolcraft on the whirlpool off Hallet's Cove, with the explanation, "A word conveying in its multiplied forms the various meanings of violent, forcible, dangerous, etc." Dr. Schoolcraft introduced the word as the derivative of Manhatan, which, however, is very far from being explained by it. Hell-gate, a vulgar orthography of Dutch Hellegat, has long been the popular name of the place. It was conferred by Adriaen Block, in 1614-16, to the dangerous strait known as the East River, from a strait in Zealand, which, presumably, was so called from Greek Helle, as heard in Hellespont—"Sea of Helle"—now known as the Dardanelles—which received its Greek name from Helle, daughter of Athamas, King of Thebes, who, the fable tells us, was drowned in passing over it. Probably the Dutch sailors regarded the strait as the "Gate of Hell," but that is not the meaning of the name—"a dangerous strait or passage." In some records the strait is called Hurlgate, from Dutch Warrel, "Whirl," and gat, "Hole, gap, mouth"—substantially, "a whirlpool."
Monachnong, deed to De Vries, 1636; Menates, De Vries's Journal; Ehquaons (Eghquaous, Brodhead, by mistake in the letter n), deed of 1655, and Aquehonge-Monuchnong, deed to Governor Lovelace, 1670, are forms of the names given as that of Staten Island, and are all from Lenape equivalents. Menates means "Small island" as a whole; Monach'nong means a "Place on the island," or less than the whole, as shown by the claims of the Indians in 1670, that they had not previously sold all the island. (Col. Hist. N.Y., xiii, 453.) It is the equivalent of Menach'hen, Minsi; Menach'n, Abn., "Island," and ong, locative; in Mass. Mimnoh-han-auke. (See Mannhonake.) Eghquaons and Aquehonga are equivalents, and also equivalents of Achquoanikan-ong, "Bushnet fishing-place," of which Acquenonga is an alternate in New Jersey. (Nelson's "Indians of New Jersey," 122.) In other words, the Indians conveyed places on the island, including specifically their "bushnet fishing-place," and by the later deed to Lovelace, conveyed all unsold places. The island was owned by the Raritans who resided "behind the Kol," and the adjoining Hackensacks. (Deed of 1655.) Its last Indian occupants were the Nyacks, who removed to it after selling their lands at New Utrecht. (See Paganck note.)
Minnahanock, given as the name of Blackwell's Island, was interpreted by Dr. Trumbull from Munnohan, Mass., the indefinite form of Munnoh, "Island," and auke, Mass., "Land" or place. Dr. O'Callaghan's "Island home," is not in the composition. (See Mannhonake.)
On Manhattan Island.
Kapsee, Kapsick, etc., the name of what was the extreme point of land between Hudson's River and the East River, and still known as Copsie Point, was claimed by Dr. Schoolcraft to be Algonquian, and to mean, "Safe place of landing," which it may have been. The name, however, is pretty certainly a corruption of Dutch Kaap-hoekje, "A little cape or promontory."
Saponickan and Sapohanican are the earliest forms of a name which appears later Sappokanican, Sappokanikke, Saponican, Shawbackanica, Taponkanico, etc. "A piece of land bounded on the north by the strand road, called Saponickan" (1629); "Tobacco plantation near Sapohanican" (1639); "Plantation situate against the Reed Valley beyond Sappokanican" (1640). Wouter van Twiller purchased the tract, in 1629, for the use of the Dutch government and established thereon a tobacco plantation, with buildings enclosed in palisade, which subsequently became known as the little village of Sapokanican—Sappokanican, Van der Donck—and later (1721) as Greenwich Village. It occupied very nearly the site of the present Gansevort market. The "Strand road" is now Greenwich Street. It was primarily, an Indian path along the shore of the river north, with branches to Harlem and other points, the main path continuing the trunk-path through Raritan Valley, but locally beginning at the "crossing-place," or, as the record reads, "Where the Indians cross [the Hudson] to bring their pelteries." [FN-1] "South of Van Twiller's plantation was a marsh much affected by wild-fowl, and a bright, quick brook, called by the Dutch 'Bestavar's Kil,' and by the English 'Manetta Water.'" [FN-2] (Half-Moon Series.) Saponickan was in place here when Van Twiller made his purchase (1629), as the record shows, and was adopted by him as the name of his settlement. To what feature it referred cannot be positively stated, but apparently to the Reed Valley or marsh. It has had several interpretations, but none that fare satisfactory. The syllable pon may denote a bulbous root which was found there. (See Passapenoc.) The same name is probably met in Saphorakain, or Saphonakan, given as the name of a tract described as "Marsh and canebrake," lying near or on the shore of Gowanus Bay, Brooklyn. (See Kanonnewage, in connection with Manhattan.)
[FN-1] "Through this valley pass large numbers of all sorts of tribes on their way north and east." (Van Tienhoven, 1650.) "Where the Indians cross to bring their pelteries." (De Laet, 1635.) The crossing-place is now known as Pavonia. The path crossed the Spuyten Duyvil at Harlem and extended along the coast east. To and from it ran many "paths and roads" on Manhattan, which, under the grant to Van Twiller, were to "forever remain for the use of the inhabitants." The evidence of an Indian village at or near the landing is not tangible. The only village or settlement of which there is any evidence was that which gathered around Van Twiller's plantation, which was a noted trading post for "all sorts of tribes."
[FN-2] Bestevaar (Dutch) means "Dear Father," and Manetta (Manittoo, Algonquian), means, "That which surpasses, or is more than ordinary." Water of more than ordinary excellence. (See Manette.)
Nahtonk, Recktauck, forms of the name, or of two different names, of Corlear's Hook, may signify, abstractively, "Sandy Point," as has been interpreted; but apparently, Nahtonk [FN-1] is from NÂ-i, "a point or corner," and Recktauck [FN-2] from Lekau (Requa), "Sand gravel"—a "sandy place." It was a sandy point with a beach, entered, on English maps, "Crown Point."
[FN-1] Naghtonk (Benson); Nahtonk (Schoolcraft); Rechtauck (record). It was to the huts which were located here to which a clan of Long Island Indians fled for protection, in February, 1643, and were inhumanly murdered by the Dutch. The record reads: "Where a few Rockaway Indians from Long Island, with their chief, Niande Nummerus, had built their wigwams." (Brodhead.) "And a party of freemen behind Corlear's plantation, on the Manhattans, who slew a large number and afterwards burned their huts." The name of the Chief, Niande Nummerus, is corrupted from the Latin Nicanda Numericus, the name of a Roman gens. De Vries wrote, "Hummerus, a Rockaway chief, who I knew."
[FN-2] See Rechqua-hackie. "The old Harlem creek, on Manhattan Island, was called Rechawanes, or 'Small, sandy river.'" (Gerard.)
Warpoes is given as the name of "a small hill" on the east side and "near ye fresh water" lake or pond called the Kolk (Dutch "pit-hole"), which occupied several acres in the neighborhood of Centre Street. [FN-1] The Indian name is that of the narrow pass between the hill and the pond, which it described as "small" or narrow. (See Raphoos.)
In the absence of record names, the late Dr. Schoolcraft conferred, on several points, terms from the Ojibwe or Chippeway, which may be repeated as descriptive merely. A hill at the corner of Charlton and Varick streets was called by him Ishpatinau, "A bad hill." [FN-2] A ridge or cliff north of Beekman Street, was called Ishibic, "A bad rock;" the high land on Broadway, Acitoc; a rock rising up in the Battery, Abie, and Mount Washington, Penabic, "The comb mountain." The descriptions are presumably correct, but the features no longer exist.
[FN-1] "By ye edge of ye hill by ye fresh water." (Cal. N.Y. Land Papers, 17.) The Dutch name ran into Kalch, Kolack and Collect, and in early records "Kalch-hock." from its peculiar shape, resembling a fish-hook.
[FN-2] "At ye sand Hills near the Bowery." (Cal. N.Y. Land Papers. 17.) Ishpetouga was given by the same writer to Brooklyn Heights, with the explanation "High, sandy banks," but the term does not describe the character of the elevation. (See Espating.)
Muscota is given as the name of the "plain or meadow" known later as Montagne's Flat, between 108th and 124th streets. (Col. Hist. N.Y., xiv.) It also appears as the name of a hill, and in Muskuta as that of the great flat on the north side of the Spuyten Duivel. "The first point of the main land to the east of the island Papirinimen, there where the hill Muskuta is." The hill takes the name from the meadows which it describes. "Moskehtu, a meadow." (Eliot.)
Papinemen (1646), Pahparinnamen (1693), Papirinimen (modern), are forms of the Indian name used interchangeably by the Dutch with Spuyten Duivel to designate a place where the tide-overflow of the Harlem River is turned aside by a ridge and unites with Tibbet's Brook, constituting what is known as the Spuyten Duivel Kill, correctly described by Riker in his "History of Harlem": "The narrow kill called by the Indians Pahparinamen, which, winding around the northerly end of Manhattan, connected the Spuyten Duyvil with the Great Kill or Harlem River, gave its name to the land contiguous to it on either side." The locative of the name is clearly shown in the boundaries of the Indian deed to Van der Donck, in 1646, and in the subsequent Philipse Patent of 1693, the former describing the south line of the lands conveyed as extending from the Hudson "to Papinemen, called by our people Spuyten Duivel," and the latter as extending to and including "the neck, island or hummock, Pahparinnamen," on the north side of the passage, at which point, in the early years of Dutch occupancy, a crossing place or "wading place" was found which had been utilized by the Indians for ages, and of which Jasper Bankers and Peter Sluyter wrote, in 1679-80, "They can go over this creek, at dead or low water, upon the rocks and reefs, at a place called Spuytten Duyvel." From this place the name was extended to the "island or hummock" and to what was called "the Papirinameno Patent," at the same point on the south side of the stream, to which it was claimed to belong in 1701. Mr. Riker's assignment of the name to the Spuyten Duivel passage is probably correct. The "neck, island or hummock" was a low elevation in a salt marsh or meadow. It was utilized as a landing place by the Indians whose path ran from thence across the marsh "to the main." Later, the path was converted to a causeway or road-approach to what is still known as King's Bridge. A ferry was established here in 1669 and known as "The Spuyten Duyvil passage or road to and from the island to the main." In 1692 Governor Andros gave power to the city of New York to build a bridge "over the Spiken devil ferry," and the city, with the consent of the Governor, transferred the grant to Frederick Philipse. In giving his consent the Governor made the condition that the bridge "should thenceforth be known and called King's Bridge." It was made a free bridge in 1758-9. The "island or hummock" came to be the site of the noted Macomb mansion.
The name has not been satisfactorily translated. Mr. Riker wrote, "Where the stream closes," or is broken off, recognizing the locative of the name. Ziesberger wrote, Papinamen, "Diverting," turning aside, to go different ways; accessorily, that which diverts or turns aside, and place where the action of the verb is performed. Where the Harlem is turned aside or diverted, would be a literal description.
The Spuyten Duyvel
Spuyten Duyvil, now so written, was the early Dutch nickname of the Papirinimen ford or passage, later known as King's Bridge. "By our people called," wrote Van der Donck in 1652, indicating conference by the Dutch prior to that date. It simply described the passage as evil, vicious, dangerous. Its derivatives are Spui, "sluice;" Spuit, "spout;" Spuiten, "to spout, to squirt, to discharge with force," as a waterspout, or water forced through a narrow passage. Duyvil is a colloquial expression of viciousness. The same name is met on the Mohawk in application to the passage of the stream between two islands near Schenectady. The generally quoted translation, "Spuyt den Duyvil, In spite of the Devil," quoted by Brodhead as having been written by Van der Donck, has no standing except in Irving's "Knickerbocker History of New York." Van der Donck never wrote the sentence. He knew, and Brodhead knew, that Spuyt was not Spijt, nor Spuiten stand for Spuitten. The Dutch for "In spite of the Devil," is In Spijt van Duivel. The sentence may have been quoted by Brodhead without examination. It was a popular story that Irving told about one Antony Corlear's declaration that he would swim across the ford at flood tide in a violent storm, "In spite of the devil," but obviously coined in Irving's brain. It may, however, had for its foundation the antics of a very black and muscular African who was employed to guard the passage and prevent hostile Indians as well as indiscreet Dutchmen from crossing, and who, for the better discharge of his duty, built fires at night, armed himself with sword and firebrands, vociferated loudly, and acted the character of a devil very well. At all events the African is the only historical devil that had an existence at the ford, and he finally ran away and became merged with the Indians. Spiting Devil, an English corruption, ran naturally into Spitting Devil, and some there are who think that that is a reasonably fair rendering of Dutch Spuiten. They are generally of the class that take in a cant reading with a relish.
Shorakkapoch and Shorackappock are orthographies of the name of record as that of the cove into which the Papirinemen discharges its waters at a point on the Hudson known as Tubby Hook. It is specifically located in the Philipse charter of 1693: "A creek called Papparinnemeno which divides New York Island from the main land, so along said creek as it runs to Hudson's River, which part is called by the Indians Shorackhappok," i.e. that part of the stream on Hudson's River. In the patent to Hugh O'Neil (1666): "To the Kill Shorakapoch, and then to Papirinimen," i.e., to the cove and thence east to the Spuyten Duyvil passage. "The beautiful inlet called Schorakapok." (Riker.) Dr. Trumbull wrote "Showaukuppock (Mohegan), a cove." William R. Gerard suggests "P'skurikÛppog (Lenape), 'forked, fine harbor,' so called because it was safely shut in by Tubby Hook, [FN-1] and another Hook at the north, the current taking a bend around the curved point of rock (covered at high tide) that forked or divided the harbor at the back." Dr. Brinton wrote: "W'shakuppek, 'Smooth still water;' pek, a lake, cove or any body of still water; kup, from kuppi, 'cove.'" Bolton, in his "History of Westchester County," located at the mouth of the stream, on the north side, an Indian fort or castle under the name of Nipinichen, but that name belongs on the west side of the Hudson at Konstable's Hook, [FN-2] and the narrative of the attack on Hudson's ship in 1609, noted in Juet's Journal, does not warrant the conclusion that there was an Indian fort or castle in the vicinity. A fishing village there may have been. At a later date (1675) the authorities permitted a remnant of the Weckquasgecks to occupy lands "On the north point of Manhattan Island" (Col, Hist. N.Y., xiii, 494), and the place designated may have been in previous occupation.
[FN-1] Tubby Hook, Dutch Tobbe Hoeck, from its resemblance to a washtub.
[FN-2] Called Konstabelshe's Hoek from a grant of land to one Jacobus Roy, the Konstabel or gunner at Fort Amsterdam, in 1646.
The Palisades from Yonkers
Names on the East from Manhattan North.
Keskeskick, "a piece of land, situated opposite to the flat on the island of Manhattan, called Keskeskick, stretching lengthwise along the Kil which runs behind the island of Manhattan, beginning at the head of said Kil and running to opposite of the high hill by the flat, namely by the great hill," (Deed of 1638.) Kaxkeek is the orthography of Riker (Hist. of Harlem); and Kekesick that of Brodhead (Hist. New York), in addition to which may be quoted Keesick and Keakates, given as the names of what is now known as Long Pond, which formed the southeast boundary of the tract, where was also a salt marsh or meadow. In general terms, the name means a "meadow," and may have been that of this salt marsh (a portion of the name dropped) or of the flat. The root is KÂk, "sharp;" KÂkÁkes, "sharp grass," or sedge-marsh; Sik-kÁkaskeg, "salt sedge-marsh." (Gerard.) MicÛckaskÉete, "a meadow." (Williams.) Muscota, now in use, is another word for meadow.
Mannepies is quoted by Riker (Hist. Harlem) as the name of the hilly tract or district of Keskeskick, described as lying "over against the flats of the island of Manhattan." It is now preserved as the name of Cromwell Lake and creek, and seems to have been the name of the former. The original was probably an equivalent of Menuppek, "Any enclosed body of water great or small." (Anthony.)
Neperah, Nippiroha, Niperan, Nepeehen, Napperhaera, Armepperahin, the latter of date 1642 (Col. Hist. N.Y., xiii, 9), forms of record as the name of Sawmill Creek, and also quoted as the name of the site of the present city of Yonkers, has been translated by Wm. R. Gerard, from the form of 1642: "A corruption of Ana-nepeheren, that is, 'fishing stream' or 'fishing rapids.'" Ap-pehan (Eliot), "a trap, a snare." There was an Indian village on the north side of the stream in 1642. (Col. Hist. N.Y., xiii, 9.)
Nepahkomuk, Nappikomack, etc., quoted as the name of a place on Sawmill Creek, and also as the name of an Indian village at Yonkers, may have been the name of the latter by extension. It has been translated with apparent correctness from NepÉ-komuk (Mass.), "An enclosed or occupied water-place." [FN]
[FN] This translation is from Nepe (Nepa, Nape, Nippe, etc.), meaning "water," generally, and Komuk, "place enclosed, occupied, limited," a particular body of water. "The radical of Nipe is pe or pa, which, with the demonstrative and definitive ne prefixed, formed the noun nippe, water." (Trumbull.) Nape-ake (-auke, -aki) means "Water-land," or water-place. Nape-ek, Del., Nepeauk, Mass., means "Standing water," a lake or pond or a stretch of still water in a river. Menuppek, "Lake, sea, any enclosed body of water, great or small." (Anthony.) Nebi, nabe, m'bi, be, are dialectic forms. The Delaware M'hi (Zeisb.) is occasionally met in the valley, but the Massachusetts Nepe is more frequent. Gami is another noun-generic meaning "Water" (Cree, Kume). Komuk (Mass.), Kamick (Del.), is frequently met in varying orthographies. In general terms it means "Place, limited or enclosed," a particular place as a field, garden, house, etc., as distinguished from auke, "Land, earth, unlimited, unenclosed."
Meghkeekassin, the name of a large rock in an obscure nook on the west side of the Neperah, near the Hudson, is written Macackassin in deed of 1661. It is from Mechek, Del., "great," and assin "stone." "Meechek-assin-ik, At the big rock." (Heckewelder.) The name is also of record Amack-assin, a Delaware term of the same general meaning—"Amangi, great, big (in composition Aman-gach), with the accessory notion of terrible, frightful." (Dr. Brinton.) Presumably, in application here, "a monster," i.e. a stone not of the native formation usually found in the locality. [FN]
[FN] The Indians are traditionally represented as regarding boulders of this class, as monuments of a great battle which was fought between their hero myth Micabo and Kasbun his twin brother, the former representing the East or Orient, and the latter the West, the imagery being a description of the primary contest between Light and Darkness—Light gleaming from the East and Darkness retreating to the West before it. Says the story: "The feud between the brothers was bitter and the contest long and doubtful. It began on the mountains of the East. The face of the land was seamed and torn by the wrestling of the mighty combatants, and the huge boulders that are scattered about were the weapons hurled at each other by the enraged brothers." The story is told in its several forms by Dr. Brinton in his "American Hero Myths."
Wickquaskeck is entered on Van der Donck's map as the name of an Indian village or castle the location of which is claimed by Bolton to have been at Dobb's Ferry, where the name is of record. It was, however, the name of a place from which it was extended by the early Dutch to a very considerable representative clan or family of Indians whose jurisdiction extended from the Hudson to or beyond the Armonck or Byram's River, with principal seat on the head waters of that stream, or on one of its tributaries, who constituted the tribe more especially known to the Dutch settlers as the Manhattans. Cornelius Tienhoven, Secretary of New Amsterdam, wrote, in 1654, "Wicquaeskeck on the North River, five miles above New Amsterdam, is very good and suitable land for agriculture. . . . This land lies between the Sintsinck and Armonck streams, situate between the East and North rivers." (Doc. Hist, N.Y., iv, 29.) "Five miles," Dutch, was then usually counted as twenty miles (English). Standard Dutch miles would be about eighteen. The Armonck is now called Byram River; it flows to the Sound on the boundary line between New York and Connecticut. A part of the territory of this tribe is loosely described in a deed of 1682, as extending—"from the rock Sighes, on Hudson's River, to the Neperah, and thence north until you come to the eastward of the head of the creek, called by the Indians Wiequaskeck, [FN] stretching through the woods to a kill called Seweruc," including "a piece of land about Wighqueskeck," i.e. about the head of the creek, which was certainly at the end of a swamp. The historic seat of the clan was in this vicinity. In the narrative of the war of 1643-5, it is written, "He of Witqueschreek, living N. E. of Manhattans. . . . The old Indian (a captive) promised to lead us to Wetquescheck." He did so, but the castles, three in number, strongly palisaded, were found empty. Two of them were burned. The inmates, it was learned, had gathered at a large castle or village on Patucquapaug, now known as Dumpling Pond, in Greenwich, Ct., to celebrate a festival. They were attacked there and slaughtered in great numbers. (Doc. Hist. N.Y., iv, 29.) Bolton's claim that the clan had a castle at or near Dobb's Ferry, may have been true at some date. The name appears in many orthographies; in 1621, Wyeck; in treaty of 1645, Wiquaeshex; in other connections, Witqueschreek, Weaquassick, and Van der Donck's Wickquaskeek. Bolton translated it from the form, Weicquasguck, "Place of the bark kettle," which is obviously erroneous. Dr. Trumbull wrote: "From Moh. Weegasoeguck, 'the end of the marsh or wet meadow.'" Van der Donck's Wickquaskeck has the same meaning. It is from Lenape Wicqua-askek—wicqua, "end of," askek, "swamp," marsh, etc.: -ck,-eck, formative.
[FN] The creek now bearing the name flows to the Hudson through the village of Dobb's Ferry. Its local name, "Wicker's creek," is a corruption of Wickquaskeek. It was never the name of an individual.
Pocanteco, Pecantico, Puegkandico and Perghanduck, a stream so called [FN-1] in Westchester County, was translated by Dr. O'Callaghan from Pohkunni, "Dark." "The dark river," and by Bolton from Pockawachne, "A stream between hills," which is certainly erroneous. The first word is probably Pohk or Pak, root Paken (PÁkenum, "Dark," Zeisb.; Pohken-ahtu, "In darkness," Eliot). The second may stand for antakeu, "Woods," "Forest," and the combination read "The Dark Woods." The stream rises in New Castle township and flows across the town of Mt. Pleasant to the Hudson at Tarrytown, where it is associated with Irving's story of Sleepy Hollow. The Dutch called it "Sleeper's-haven Kil," from the name which they gave to the reach on the Hudson, "Verdrietig Hoek," or "Tedious Point," because the hook or point was so long in sight of their slow-sailing vessels, and in calms their crews slept away the hours under its shadows, "Over against the Verdrietig Hoek, commonly called by the name of Sleeper's Haven," is the record. Pocanteco was a heavily wooded valley, and suggested to the early mothers stories of ghosts to keep their children from wandering in its depths. From the woods or the valley the name was extended to the stream.[FN-2] (See Alipkonck.)
[FN-1] December 1st, 1680, Frederick Phillips petitioned for liberty to purchase "a parcel of land on each side of the creek called by the Indians Pocanteco, . . . adjoining the land he hath already purchased; there to build and erect a saw-mill." (Col. Hist. N.Y., xiii, 546.)
[FN-2] "Far in the foldings of the hills winds this wizard stream—sometimes silently and darkly through solemn woodlands. . . . In the neighborhood of the aqueduct is a deep ravine which forms the dreamy region of Sleepy Hollow." (Sketch Book.)
Alipkonck is entered on Van der Donck's map of 1656, and located with the sign of an Indian village south of Sing Sing. Bolton (Hist. West. Co.) claimed it as the name of Tarrytown, and translated it, "The place of elms," which it certainly does not mean. Its derivative, however, is disguised in its orthography, and its locative is not certain. Conjecturally Alipk is from WÁlagk (surd mutes g and p exchanged), "An open place, a hollow or excavation." The locative may have been Sleepy Hollow. Tarrytown, which some writers have derived from Tarwe (Dutch), "Wheat"—Wheat town—proves to be from an early settler whose name was Terry, pronounced Tarry, as written in early records. The Dutch name for Wheat town would be Tarwe-stadt, which was never written here.
Oscawanna, an island so called, lying a short distance south of Cruger's Station on N.Y. Central R. R., Hudson River Division, is of record, in 1690, Wuscawanus. (Doc. Hist. N.Y., ii, 237.) It seems to have been from the name of a sachem, otherwise known as Weskora, Weskheun, Weskomen, in 1685. Wuski, Len., "New, young;" Wuske'Éne Williams, "A youth."
Southern Gateway of the Highlands
Shildrake, or Sheldrake, given as the name of Furnace Brook, takes that name from an extended forest known in local records as "The Furnace Woods." By exchange of l and n, it is probably from Schind, "Spruce-pine" (Zeisb.); aki, "Land" or place. Schindikeu, "Spruce forest" ("Hemlock woods," Anthony). (See Shinnec'ock.) Furnace Brook takes that name from an ancient furnace on its bank. In 1734 it was known as "The old-mill stream." Jamawissa, quoted as its Indian name, seems to be an aspirated form of Tamaquese, "Small beaver." (See Jamaica.)
Sing-Sing—Sinsing, Van der Donck; Sintsing, treaty of 1645—usually translated, "At the standing-stone," and "Stone upon stone," means "At the small stones," or "Place of small stones"—from assin "stone;" is, diminutive, and ing, locative. Ossinsing, the name of the town, has the same meaning; also, Sink-sink, L. I., ind Assinising, Chemung County. The interpretation is literally sustained in the locative on the Hudson.
Tuckahoe, town of East Chester, is from Ptuckweoo, "It is round." It was the name of a bulbous root which was used by the Indians for food and for making bread, or round loaves. (See Tuckahoe, L. I.)
Kitchiwan, modern form; Kitchawanc, treaty of 1643; Kichtawanghs, treaty of 1645; Kitchiwan, deed of 1645; Kitchawan, treaty of 1664; the name of a stream in Westchester County from which extended to an Indian clan, "Is," writes Dr. Albert S. Gatschet of the Bureau of Ethnology, "an equivalent of Wabenaki-ke'dshwan, -kidshuan, suffixed verbal stem, meaning 'Running Swiftly,' 'Rushing water,' or current, whether over rapids or not. Sas-katchÉwan, Canada, 'The roiley, rushing stream'; assisku, 'Mud, dirt.' (Cree.) The prefix ki or ke, is nothing else than an abbreviation of kitchi, 'great,' 'large,' and here 'strong.' Examples are frequent as -kitchuan, -kitchawan, Mass.; kesi-itsooann or tann, Abn., Kussi-tchuan, Mass., 'It swift flows.' The prefix is usually applied to streams which rise in the highlands and flow down rapidly descending slopes." The final k in some of the early forms, indicates pronunciation with the guttural aspirate, as met in wank and wangh in other local names. [FN] The final s is a foreign plural usually employed to express "people," or tribe. The stream is now known as the Croten from Cnoten, the name of a resident sachem, which by exchange of n and r, becomes Croten, an equivalent, wrote Dr. Schoolcraft of Noten, Chip., "The wind." "Bounded on the south by Scroton's River" (deed of 1703); "Called by the Indians Kightawank, and by the English Knotrus River." (Col. N. Y, Land Papers, 79.)
[FN] Dr. Trumbull wrote in the Natick (Mass.) dialect, "Kussitchuan, -uwan, impersonal verb, 'It flows in a rapid stream,' a current; it continues flowing; as a noun, 'a rapid stream.'" In Cree, Kussehtanne, "Flowing as a stream" In Delaware, -tanne has its equivalent in -hanne. "The impersonal verb termination -awan, -uan, etc., is sometimes written with the participial and subjunctive k" (ka or gh.) (Gerard.) The k or gh appears in some forms of Kitchawan. (See Waronawanka.)
Titicus, given as the name of a branch of the Croton flowing from Connecticut, is of record Mutighticos and Matightekonks, translated by Dr. Trumbull from Mat'uhtugh-ohke, "Place without wood," from which extended to the stream. (See Mattituck and Sackonck.)
Navish is claimed as the name of Teller's (now Croton) Point, on a reading of the Indian deed of 1683: "All that parcel, neck or point of land, with the meadow ground or valley adjoining, situate, lying and being on the east side of the river over against Verdrietig's Hooke, commonly called and known by the name of Slauper's Haven and by the Indians Navish, the meadow being called by the Indians Senasqua." Clearly, Navish refers to Verdrietig Hook, on the west side of the river, where it is of record. It is an equivalent of NewÁs (Len.), "promontory." (See Nyack-on-the-Hudson.)
Nannakans, given as the name of a clan residing on Croton River, is an equivalent of Narragans (s foreign plural), meaning "People of the point," the locative being Croton Point. (See Nyack.) This clan, crushed by the war of 1643-5, removed to the Raritan country, where, by dialectic exchange of n and r, they were known as Raritanoos, or Narritans. They were represented, in 1649, by Pennekeck, "The chief behind the Kul, having no chief of their own." (Col. Hist. N.Y., xiii.) The interpretation given to their removal, by some writers, viz., "That the Wappingers removed to New Jersey," is only correct in a limited sense. The removal was of a single clan or family. The Indians on both sides of the Hudson here were of kindred stock and were largely intermarried. (See Raritans and Pomptons.)
Senasqua, quoted as the name of Teller's Point (now Croton Point), and also as the name of Teller's Neck, is described as "A meadow," presumably on the neck or point. It is an equivalent of Del. Lenaskqual, "Original grass," (Zeisb.), i.e. grass which was supposed to have grown on the land from the beginning. (Heck.) Called "Indian grass" to distinguish it from "Whitemen's grass." [FN]
[FN] Askquall, or Askqua, is an inanimate plural in the termination -all, -al, or -a. All grass was not described by Maskik, in which the termination -ik is the animate plural.
Peppeneghek is a record form of the name quoted as that of what is now known as Cross-river.
Kewighecack, the name of a boundmark of Van Cortlandt's Manor, is written on the map of the Manor Keweghteuack as the name of a bend in the Croton west of Pine Bridge. It is from Koua, Kowa, CuwÉ, "Pine"—CuwÉ-uchac, "Pine wood, pine logs." (Zeisb.)
Kestaubniuk is entered on Van der Donck's map as the name of an Indian place or village north of Sing Sing. On Vischer's map the orthography is Kestaubocuck. Dr. Schoolcraft wrote Kestoniuck, "Great Point," and claimed that the last word had been borrowed and applied to Nyack on the opposite side of the river, but this is a mistake as Nyack is generic and of local record where it now is as early as 1660, and is there correctly applied. No one seems to know where Kestaubniuk was, but the name is obviously from Kitschi-bonok, "Great ground-nut place." Ketche-punak and Ketcha-bonac, L. I., K'schobbenak, Del.
Menagh, entered in Indian deed to Van Cortlandt, 1683, as the name of what is now known as Verplanck's Point, is probably from Menach'en (Del.), the indefinite form of MenÁtes, diminutive, meaning "Small island." The point was an island in its separation from the main land by a water course. Monack, Monach, Menach, are other orthographies of the name.
Tammoesis is of record as the name of a small stream north of Peekskill.
Appamaghpogh, now Amawalk, seems to have been extended to a tract of land without specific location. It is presumed to have been the name of a fishing place on what is now known as Mohegan Lake AppÉh-ama-paug, "Trap fishing place," or pond. Amawalk, is from Nam'e-auke, "Fishing-place," (Trumbull.) In the Massachusetts dialect -pogh stands for "pond," or water-place.
Keskistkonck, Pasquasheck, and Nochpeem are noted on Van der Donck's map in the Highlands. In Colonial History is the entry (1644), "Mongochkonnome and Papenaharrow, chiefs of Wiquseskkack and Nochpeems." On the east side of the river, apparently about opposite the Donderberg, is located, on early maps, the Pachimi, who, in turn, are associated in records with the Tankitekes. Pacham is given as the name of a noted chief of the early period. His clan was probably the Pachimi. Keskistkonck was a living name as late as 1663, but disappears after that date. "The Kiskightkoncks, who have no chief now, but are counted among the foregoing savages." (Col. Hist. N.Y., xiii, 303.)
Sachus, Sachoes and Sackoack are quoted as names of Peekskill, and Magrigaries as the name of the stream. The latter is an orthography of MacGregorie's, from Hugh MacGregorie, an owner of lands on the stream. [FN-1] Though quoted as the name of Peak's Kill, it was the name given to a small creek south of that stream, as per map of 1776. Sachus and Sachoes are equivalents, and probably refer to the mouth or outlet of the small or MacGregorie's Creek—Sakoes or Saukoes. Sackonck has substantially the same meaning—Sakunk, "At the mouth or outlet of a creek or river." There was, however, a resident sachem who was called Sachoes, probably from his place of residence, but which can be read "Black Kettle," from Suckeu, "black," and oos, "kettle." Peekskill is modern from Peak's Kill, so called from Jan Peak, [FN-2] the founder of the settlement. The Indian name of the stream is noted, in deed of 1695, "Called by the Indians Paquintuk," probably an equivalent of Pokqueantuk, "A broad, open place in a tidal river or estuary." Peekskill Bay was probably referred to. (See Sackonck.)
[FN-1] Hugh MacGregorie was son of Major Patrick MacGregorie, the first settler in the present county of Orange. He was killed in the Leisler rebellion in New York in 1691. The son, Hugh, and his mother, were granted 1500 acres of land "At a place called John Peaches creek." No fees were charged for the patent out of respect for the memory of Major MacGregorie, as he then had "lately died in His Majesty's service in defence of the Province." (Doc. Hist. N.Y., ii, 364.) MacGregories sold to Van Cortlandt in 1696.
[FN-2] Peake, an orthography of Peak, English; Dutch, Piek; pronounced Pek (e as e in wet); English, Pek or Peck.
Kittatinny, erroneously claimed to mean "Endless hills," and to describe the Highlands as a continuation of the Allegheny range, belongs to Anthony's Nose [FN-1] to which, however, it has no very early record application. It is from Kitschi, "Principal, greatest," and -atinny, "Hill, mountain," applicable to any principal mountain peak compared with others in its vicinity. [FN-2]
[FN-1] The origin of the name is uncertain. Estevan Gomez, a Spanish navigator, wrote "St. Anthony's River" as the name of the Hudson, in 1525. The current explanation, "Antonius Neus, so called from fancied resemblance to the nose of one Anthony de Hoages," is a myth. The name as the early Dutch understood it, is no doubt more correctly explained by Jasper Bankers and Peter Sluyter in their Journal of 1679-80: "A headland and high hill in the Highlands, so called because it has a sharp ridge running up and down in the form of a nose," but fails to explain St. Anthony, or Latin Antonius. The name appears also on the Mohawk river and on Lake George, presumably from resemblance to the Highland peak.
[FN-2] The Indians had no names for mountain ranges, but frequently designated certain peaks by specific names. "Among these aboriginal people," wrote Heckewelder, "every tree was not the tree, and every mountain the mountain; but, on the contrary, everything is distinguished by its specific name." Kittatinny was and is the most conspicuous or greatest hill of the particular group of hills in its proximity and was spoken of as such in designating the boundmark.
Sacrahung, or Mill River, "takes its name from Sacra, 'rain.' Its liability to freshets after heavy rains, may have given origin to the name." (O'Callaghan.) Evidently, however, the name is a corruption of Sakwihung (Zeish.), "At the mouth of the river." The record reads, "A small brook or run called Wigwam brook, but by some falsely called Sackwrahung." (Deed of 1740.)
Quinnehung, a neck of land at the mouth and west side of Bronx River, is presumed to have been the name of Hunter's Point. The adjectival Quinneh, is very plainly an equivalent of Quinnih (Eliot), "long," and -ung or -ongh may stand for place—"A long place, or neck of land." (See Aquchung.)
Sackonck and Matightekonck, record names of places petitioned for by Van Cortlandt in 1697, are located in general terms, in the petition, in the neighborhood of John Peak's Creek and Anthony's Nose. (Cal. N.Y. Land Papers, 49.) The first probably referred to the mouth of Peak's Creek (Peekskill). Sakunk (Heck.), "At the mouth or outlet of a creek or river." Saukunk (Donck) is another form. (See Titicus.)
Aquehung, Acqueahounck, etc., was translated by Dr. O'Callaghan, "The place of peace." from Aquene, Nar., "peace," and unk, locative. Dr. Trumbull wrote, "A place on this side of some other place," from the generic Acq. The description in N.Y. Land Papers reads, "Bounded on the east by the river called by the Indians Aquehung," the river taking its name from its position as a boundary "on this side" of which was the land. The contemporary name, Ran-ahqua-ung, means "A place on the other side," corresponding with the description, "On the other side of the Great Kil." Bolton assigns Acqueahounck to Hutchinson's Creek, the west boundary of the town of Pelham. The "Great Kil" is now the Bronx.
Kakeout, the name of the highest hill in Westchester County, is from Dutch Kijk-uit, "Look-out—a place of observation, as a tower, hill," etc. It appears also in Rockland and in Ulster County and on the Mohawk. (See Kakiate.)
Shappequa, a name now applied to the Shappequa Hills and to a mineral spring east of Sing-Sing, and destined to be remembered as that of the home of Horace Greeley, was primarily given to locate a tract now embraced in the towns of New Castle and Bedford, and, as in all such cases, was a specific place by which the location could be identified, but which in turn has never been identified. The name is apparently a form of Chepi written also Chappa, signifying, "Separated, apart from, a distinct place." [FN] (See Kap-hack.)
[FN] The word Chippe or Shappa, means not only separate, "The separate place," but was employed to describe a future condition—Chepeck, the dead. As an adjective, Chippe (El.) signifies separated, set apart. Chepiohkomuk, the place of separation. The same word was used for 'ghost,' 'spectre,' 'evil spirit.' (Trumbull.) The corresponding Delaware word was Tschipey. It is not presumed that the word was made use of here in any other sense than its literal application, "A separate place." Bolton assigns the name to a Laurel Swamp, but with doubtful correctness.
Aspetong, a bold eminence in Bedford, is an equivalent of Ashpohtag, Mass., "A high place," "A height." (Trumbull.) See Ishpatinau.
Quarepos, of record as the name of the district of country called by the English "White Plains," from the primary prevalence there of white balsam (Dr. O'Callaghan), seems to have been the name of the lake now known as St. Mary's. Quar is a form of Quin, Quan, etc., meaning "Long," and pos stands for pog or paug, meaning "Pond." The name is met in Quin'e-paug, "Long Pond." The pond lies along the east border of the town of White Plains.
Peningo, the point or neck of land forming the southeastern extremity of the town of Rye, [FN] was interpreted by Dr. Bolton, with doubtful correctness: "From Ponus, an Indian chief." The neck is some nine miles long by about two miles broad and seems to have been primarily a region of ridges and swamps.
[FN] Rye is from Rye, England. The derivative is Ripe (Latin), meaning, "The bank of a river." In French, "The sea-shore."
Apanammis, Cal. N. Y, Land Papers; Apauamis and Apauamin, Col. Hist. N.Y.: Apawammeis, Apawamis, Apawqunamis, Epawames, local and Conn. Records, is given as the name of Budd's Neck, between Mamaroneck River and Blind Brook, Westchester County. Dr. Trumbull passed the name without explanation. It is written as the name of a boundmark.
Mochquams and Moagunanes are record forms of the name of Blind Brook, one of the boundary streams of the tract called Penningo, which is described as lying "between Blind Brook and Byram River." (See Armonck.)
Magopson and Mangopson are orthographies of the name given as that of De Lancey's Neck, described as "The great neck." (See Waumaniuck.) The dialect spoken in eastern Westchester seems to have been Quiripi (or Quinipiac), which prevailed near the Sound from New Haven west.
Armonck, claimed as the name of Byram's River, was probably that of a fishing place. In 1649 the name of the stream is of record, "Called by the Indians Seweyruck." In the same record the land is called Haseco and a meadow Misosehasakey, interpreted by Dr. Trumbull, "Great fresh meadow," or low wet lands. Haseco has no meaning; it is now assigned to Port Chester (Saw-Pits), and Misosehasakey to Horse Neck. Armonck has lost some of its letters. What is left of it indicates Amaug, "fishing place." (Trumbull's Indian Names.)
Eauketaupucason, the name written as that of the feature in the village of Rye known by the unpleasant English title of "Hog-pen Ridge," is, writes Mr. William R. Gerard, "Probably an equivalent of Lenape Ogid-Ápuchk-essen, meaning, 'There is rock upon rock,' or one rock on another rock." Topography not ascertained.
Manussing—in will of Joseph Sherwood, Menassink—an island so called in the jurisdiction of Rye, may be an equivalent of Min-assin-ink, "At a place of small stones," Minneweis, now City Island, is in the same jurisdiction.
Mamaroneck, now so written as the name of a town in Westchester County, is of record, in 1644, Mamarrack and Mamarranack; later, Mammaranock, Mamorinack, Mammarinickes (1662), primarily as that of a "Neck or parcel of land," but claimed to be from the name of an early sachem of the Kitchtawanks whose territory was called Kitchtawanuck. [FN] Wm. R. Gerard explains: "The dissyllabic root, mamal, or mamar, means 'To stripe;' Mamar-a-nak, 'striped arms,' or eyebrows, as the name of an Indian chief who painted his arms in stripes or radiated his eyebrows," a custom noted by several early writers. There is no evidence that the Kitchtawanuck sachem had either residence or jurisdiction here, nor is his name signed to any deed in this district. The reading in one record, "Three stripes or strips of land," seems to indicate that the name was descriptive of the necks or strips of land. (See Waumaniuck.)
[FN] "Mamarranack and Waupaurin, chiefs of Kitchawanuck." (Col. Hist. N.Y., xiii, 17.) The Kitchawan is now known as Croton river. It has no connection whatever with Mamaroneck.
Waumaniuck and Maumaniuck, forms of the name of record as that of the eastern part of De Lancey's Neck, or Seaman's Point, Westchester County, as stated in the Indian deed of 1661, which conveyed to one John Richbell "three necks of land," described as "Bounded on the east by Mamaroneck River, and on the west by Gravelly or Stony Brook" (Cal. N.Y. Land Papers, 5), the latter by the Indians called Pockotesse-wacke, came to be known as Mamaraneck Neck, otherwise described as "The great neck of land at Mamaroneck."
Pockotessewacke, given as the name of what came to be known as "Gravelly or Stony Brook," and "Beaver-meadow Brook," [FN] has been translated by Wm. R. Gerard, from "Petuk-assin-icke, 'where there are numerous round stones'"; a place from which the name was extended to the stream, or the name of a place in the stream where there were numerous round stones, i.e. paving stones or "hard-heads." Esse (esseni) from assin, "stone," means "stony, flinty."
[FN] Pockotessewacke and Beaver-meadow Brook. (Cal. N.Y. Land Papers.)
Cro' Nest Mountain
Manuketesuck, quoted by Bolton (Hist. West. Co.) as the name of Long Island Sound and interpreted, "Broad flowing river," was more correctly explained by Dr. Trumbull: "Apparently a diminutive of Manunkatesuck, 'Menhaden country,' from Munongutteau, 'that which fertalizes or manures land,' the Indian name for white fish or bony fish, which were taken in great numbers by the Indians, on the shores of the Sound, for manuring their corn lands."
Moharsic is said to have been the name of what is now known as Crom-pond, in the town of Yorktown. The pond is in two parts, and the name may mean, "Where two ponds meet," or come together. Crom-pond is corrupt Dutch from Krom-poel, "Crooked pond."
Maharness, the name of a stream rising in Westchester County and flowing east to the Sound, is also written Mianus and Mahanus, in Dutch records Mayane, correctly Mayanno. It was the name of "a sachem residing on it between Greenwich and Stamford, Ct., who was killed by Capt. Patrick, in 1643, and his head cut off and sent to Fort Amsterdam." (Brodhead, i, 386.) Dr. Trumbull interpreted, "He who gathers together." Kechkawes is written as the name of the stream in 1640.
Nanichiestawack, given as the name of an Indian village on the southern spur of Indian Hill (so called) in the town of Bedford, rests on tradition.
Petuckquapaug, a pond in Greenwich, Ct., but originally under the jurisdiction of the Dutch at Fort Amsterdam, signifies "Round Pond." It is now called "Dumpling Pond." The Dutch changed the suffix to paen, "soft land," and in that form described an adjacent district of low land. (See Tappan.)
Katonah, the name of a sachem, is preserved in that of a village in the town of Bedford. The district was known as "Katonah's land." In deed of 1680, the orthography is Katoonah—oo as in food.
Succabonk, a place-name in the town of Bedford, stands for Sagabonak-ong, "Place of ground nuts," or wild potatoes. (See Sagabonock.)
Wequehackhe is written by Reichel ("Mem. Moravian Church") as the name of the Highlands, with the interpretation, "The hill country"—"People of the hill country." The name has no such meaning. Weque or Wequa, means "The end," and -hackhe (hacki) means "Land," not up-land. In other words, the boundary was the end of the Highlands.' [FN]
[FN] "Hacki, land; Len-hacki, up-land." (Zeisberger.) "When they speak of highlands they say Lennihacke, original lands; but they do not apply the same name to low lands, which, being generally formed by the overflowing or washing of streams, cannot be called original." (Heckewelder.)
Mahopack, the modern form of the name of a lake in Putnam County, is of record Makoohpeck in 1765, and Macookpack on Sauthier's map of 1774, which seem to stand for M'achkookpÉeck (Ukh-okpeck, Mah.), meaning "Snake Lake," or "Water where snakes are abundant." (See Copake.) In early years snakes were abundant in the region about the lake, and are not scarce in present times. [FN] The lake is ten miles in circumference and lies sixteen hundred feet above the level of Hudson's River. It contains two or three small islands, on the largest of which is the traditionally famous "Chieftain's Rock."
[FN] A wild, wet region among the hills, where the rattlesnake abounded. They were formerly found in all parts of the Highlands, and are still met frequently.
Canopus, claimed to have been the name of an Indian sachem and now preserved in Canopus Hollow, Putnam County, is not Indian; it is Latin from the Greek name of a town in Egypt. "Can'pus, the Egyptian god of water." (Webster.)
Wiccopee is of record as the name of the highest peak in the Fishkill Mountains on the south border of East Fishkill. It is also assigned to the pass or clove in the range through which ran the Indian path, now the present as well as the ancient highway between Fishkill Village and Peekskill, which was fortified in the war of the Revolution. An Indian village is traditionally located in the pass, of which "one Wikopy" is named as chief on the same authority. The name, however, has no reference to a pass, path, village or chief; it is a pronunciation of Wecuppe, "The place of basswoods or linden trees," from the inner bark of which (wikopi) "the Indians made ropes and mats—their tying bark par excellence." (Trumbull.) "Wikbi, bast, the inner bark of trees." (Zeisberger.) In Webster and The Century the name is applied to the Leather-wood, a willowy shrub with a tough, leathery bark.
Matteawan, now so written, has retained that orthography since its first appearance in 1685 in the Rombout Patent, which reads: "Beginning on the south side of a creek called Matteawan," the exact boundmark being the north side or foot of the hill known as Breakneck (Matomps'k). It has been interpreted in various ways, that most frequently quoted appearing in Spofford's Gazetteer: "From Matai, a magician, and Wian, a skin; freely rendered, 'Place of good furs,'" which never could have been the meaning; nor does the name refer to mountains to which it has been extended. Wm. R. Gerard writes: "MatÁwan, an impersonal Algonquian verb, meaning, 'It debouches into,' i.e. 'a creek or river into another body of water,' substantially, 'a confluence.'" This rendering is confirmed by Albert S. Gatschet, of the Bureau of Ethnology, who writes: "Mr. Gerard is certainly right when he explains the radix mat—mata—by confluence, junction, debouching, and forming verbs as well as roots and nouns." -A'wan, -wan -uan, etc., is an impersonal verb termination; it appears only in connection with impersonal verbs. (See Waronawanka.) Matteawan is met in several forms—Matawa and Mattawan, Ontario, Canada; Mattawan, Maine; Matawan, Monmouth County, N.J.; Mattawanna, Pa.; Mattawoman, Maryland.
Fishkill, the English name of the stream of which Matteawan is the estuary, is from Dutch Vischer's Kil. It was probably applied by the Dutch to the estuary from Vischer's Rak which the Dutch applied to a reach or sailing course on the Hudson at this point. De Laet wrote: "A place which our country-men call Vischer's Rack, [FN] that is Fisherman's Bend." (See Woranecks.) On the earlier maps the stream, or its estuary, is named Vresch Kil, or "Fresh-water Kil," to distinguish it from the brackish water of the Hudson. From the estuary extended to the entire stream.
[FN] Rack is obsolete; the present word is Recht. It describes an almost straight part of the river.
Woranecks, Carte Figurative 1614-16; Waoranecks, 1621-25; Warenecker, Wassenaer; Waoranekye, De Laet, 1633-40; Waoranecks, Van der Donck's map, 1656—is located on the Carte Figurative north of latitude 42-15, on the east side of the river. De Laet and Van der Donck place it between what are now known as Wappingers' Creek and Fishkill Creek. De Laet wrote: "Where projects a sandy point and the river becomes narrower, there is a place called Esopus, where the Waoranekys, another barbarous nation, have their abode." Later, Esopus became permanent on the west side of the river at Kingston. It is a Dutch corruption of Algonquian Sepus, meaning brook, creek, etc., applicable to any small stream. From De Laet's description, [FN] there is little room for doubt that the "sandy point" to which he referred is now known as Low Point, opposite the Dans Kamer, at the head of Newburgh Bay, where the river narrows, or that Esopus was applied to Casper's Creek. On Van der Donck's map the "barbarous nation" is given three castles on the south side of the stream, which became known later (1643) as the Wappingers, who certainly held jurisdiction on the east side of Newburgh Bay. The adjectival of the name is no doubt from WÁro, or Waloh, meaning "Concave, hollowing," a depression in land, low land, the latter expressed in ock (ohke), "land" or place. The same adjectival appears in Waronawanka at Kingston, and the same word in Woronake on the Sound at Milford, Ct., where the topography is similar. The foreign plural s extends the meaning to "Dwellers on," or inhabitants of. (See Wahamenesing and {Waro?}nawanka.)
[FN] . . . "And thus with various windings it reaches a place which our countrymen call Vischer's Rack, that is the Fisherman's Bend. And here the eastern bank is inhabited by the Pachimi. A little beyond where projects a sandy point and the river becomes narrower, there is a place called Esopus, where the Waoranekys, another barbarous nation, have their abode. To these succeed, after a short interval, the Waranawankconghs, on the opposite side of the river." (De Laet.)
"At the Fisher's Hook are the Pachany, Wareneckers," etc. (Wassenaer.)
Mawenawasigh, so written in the Rombout Patent of 1684, covering lands extending from Wappingers' Creek to the foot of the hills on the north side of Matteawan Creek, was the name of the north boundmark of the patent and not that of Wappingers' Creek. The Indian deed reads: "Beginning on the south side of a creek called Matteawan, from thence northwardly along Hudson's river five hundred yards beyond the Great Wappingers creek or kill, called Mawenawasigh." The stream was given the name of the boundmark and was introduced to identify the place that was five hundred yards north of it, i.e. the rocky point or promontory through which passes the tunnel of the Hudson River R. R. at New Hamburgh. The name is from Mawe, "To meet," and NewÁsek, [FN] "A point or promontory"—literally, "The promontory where another boundary is met." The assignment of the name to Wappingers' Falls is as erroneous as its assignment to the creek.
[FN] Nawaas, on the Connecticut, noted on the Carte Figurative of 1614-16, is very distinctly located at a point on the head-waters of that river.
Neversink is a corruption of Newas-ink, "At the point or promontory."
Wahamanesing is noted by Brodhead (Hist. N.Y.) as the name of Wappingers' Creek—authority not cited and place where the stream was so called not ascertained. The initial W was probably exchanged for M by mishearing, as it was in many cases of record. Mah means "To meet," Amhannes means "A small river," and the suffix -ing is locative. The composition reads: "A place where streams come together," which may have been on the Hudson at the mouth of the creek. In Philadelphia Moyamansing was the name of a marsh bounded by four small streams. (N.Y. Land Papers, 646.) Dr. Trumbull in his "Indian Names on the Connecticut," quoted Mahmansuck (Moh.), in Connecticut, with the explanation, "Where two streams come together." The name was extended to the creek as customary in such cases. The Wahamanesing flows from Stissing Pond, in northern Duchess County, and follows the center of a narrow belt of limestone its entire length of about thirty-five miles southwest to the Hudson, which it reaches in a curve and passes over a picturesque fall of seventy-five feet to an estuary. From early Dutch occupation it has been known or called Wappinck (1645), Wappinges and Wappingers' Kill or creek, taking that name presumably from the clan which was seated upon it of record as "Wappings, Wappinges, Wapans, or Highland Indians." [FN-1] On Van der Donck's map three castles or villages of the clan are located on the south side or south of the creek, indicating the inclusion in the tribal jurisdiction of the lands as far south as the Highlands. From Kregier's Journal of the "Second Esopus War" (1663), it is learned that they had a principal castle in the vicinity of Low Point and that they maintained a crossing-place to Dans Kamer Point. Their name is presumed to have been derived from generic Wapan, "East"—Wapani, "Eastern people" [FN-2]—which could have been properly applied to them as residents on the east side of the river, not "Eastern people" as that term is applied to residents of the more Eastern States, but locally so called by residents on the west side of the Hudson, or by the Delawares as the most eastern nation of their own stock. They were no doubt more or less mixed by association and marriage with their eastern as well as their western neighbors, but were primarily of Lenape or Delaware origin, and related to the Minsi, Monsey or Minisink clans on the west side of the river, though not associated with them in tribal government. [FN-3] Their tribal jurisdiction, aside from that which was immediately local, extended on the east side of the river from Roelof Jansen's Kill (south of opposite to the Catskill) to the sea. At their northern bound they met the tribe known to the Dutch as the Mahicans, a people of eastern origin and dialect, whose eastern limit included the valley of the Housatonic at least, and with them in alliance formed the "Mahican nation" of Dutch history, as stated by King Ninham of the Wappingers, in an affidavit in 1757, and who also stated that the language of the Mahicans was not the same as that of the Wappingers, although he understood the Mahicani. Reduced by early wars with the Dutch around New Amsterdam and by contact with European civilization, they melted away rapidly, many of them finding homes in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, others at Stockbridge, and a remnant living at Fishkill removing thence to Otsiningo, in 1737, as wards of the Senecas. (Col. Hist. N.Y., vii, 153, 158.)
[FN-1] "Highland Indians" was a designation employed by the Dutch as well as by the English. (Col. Hist. N.Y., viii, 440.)
[FN-2] The familiar historic name Wappingers seems to have been introduced by the Dutch from their word Wapendragers, "Armed men." The tribe is first met of record in 1643, when they attacked boats coming down from Fort Orange. (Doc. Hist. N.Y., iv, 12.) A map of 1690 gives them a large settlement on the south side of the creek. There is no Opossum in the name, as some writers read it, although some blundering clerk wrote Oping for Waping.
[FN-3] The relations between the Esopus Indians and the Wappingers were always intimate and friendly, so much so that when the Mohawks made peace with the Esopus Indians, in 1669, and refused to include the Wappingers, it was feared by the government that further trouble would ensue from the "great correspondence and affinity between them." (Col. Hist. N.Y., xiii, 427.) "Affinity," relationship by marriage, kinship generally.
Gov. Tryon, in his report in 1774, no doubt stated the facts correctly when he wrote that the "Montauks and others of Long Island, Wappingers of Duchess County, Esopus, Papagoncks, &c., of Ulster County, generally denominated River Indians, spoke a language radically the same," and were "understood by the Delawares, being originally of the same race." (Doc Hist. N.Y., i, 765.)
Poughquag, the name of a village in the town of Beekman, Duchess County, and primarily the name of what is now known as Silver Lake, in the southeast part of the town, is from Apoquague, (Mass.), meaning, "A flaggy meadow," which is presumed to have adjoined the lake. It is from Uppuqui, "Lodge covering," and -anke, "Land" or place. (Trumbull.)
Pietawickquassick, a brook so called which formed a bound-mark of a tract of land conveyed by Peter Schuyler in 1699, described as "On the east side of Hudson's River, over against Juffrou's Hook, at a place called by the Christians Jan Casper's Creek." The creek is now known as Casper's Creek. It is the first creek north of Wappingers' Kill. Schuyler called the place Rust Plaest (Dutch, Rust-plaats), meaning "Resting place, or place of peace." The Indian name has not been located. It is probably a form or equivalent of P'tukqu-suk, "A bend in a brook or outlet."
Wassaic, a village and a creek so called in the town of Amenia, Duchess County, appears in N.Y. records in 1702, Wiesasack, as the name of a tract of land "lying to the southward of Wayanaglanock, to the westward of Westenhoek creek." (Cal. N.Y. Land Papers, 58); later, "Near a place called Weshiack" (Ib. 65), "and thence northerly to a place called Wishshiag, and so on about a mile northwest of ye Allum rocks." [FN] (Ib. 75.) The name seems to have been applied to the north end of West Mountain, where is located the ravine known as the Dover Stone Church, about half a mile west of the village of Dover Plains. The ravine is 20 to 25 feet wide at the bottom, 1 to 3 feet at the top, 30 to 40 feet long, and 40 to 50 feet high, hence called a church. The Webotuck, a tributary of Ten Mile River, flows through the ravine. Dr. Trumbull ("Indian Names in Connecticut") wrote: "Wassiog, (Moh.), alternate Washiack, a west bound of the Mohegan country claimed by Uncas; 'the south end of a very high hill' very near the line between Glastonbury and Hebron," a place near Hartford, Conn., but failed to give explanation of the name.
[FN] Wallam—the initial W dropped—literally, "Paint rocks," a formation of igneous rock which, by exposure, becomes disintegrated into soft earthy masses. There are several varieties. The Indians used the disintegrated masses for paint. The name is met in some forms in all Algonquian dialects. (See Wallomschack.)
Weputing, Weepitung, Webotuck, Weepatuck (N.Y. and Conn. Rec.), given as the name of a "high mountain," in the Sackett Patent, was translated by Dr. Trumbull, from Conn. Records: "Weepatuck, 'Place of the narrow pass,' or 'strait.'" (See Wassaic.)
Querapogatt, a boundmark of the Sackett Patent, is, apparently, a compound of Quenne, "long," pog (paug), "pond," and att locaaive—"Beginning at the (a) long pond." The name is met in Quine-baug, without locative suffix, signifying "Long Pond" simply.
She'kom'eko, preserved as the name of a small stream which rises near Federal Square, Duchess County, and flows thence north to Roelof Jansen's Kill, was primarily the name of an Indian village conspicuous in the history of the labors of the Moravian missionaries. [FN-1] It was located about two miles south of Pine Plains in the valley of the stream. Dr. Trumbull translated: "She'com'eko, modern Chic'omi'co, from -she, -che (from mishe or k'che), 'great,' and comaco, 'house,' or 'enclosed place'—'the great lodge,', or 'the great village.'" [FN-2] We have the testimony of Loskiel that the occupants of the village were "Mahicander Indians."
[FN-1] The field of the labors of the Moravian missionaries extended to Wechquadnach, Pachquadnach, Potatik, Westenhoek and Wehtak, on the Housatenuc. Wechquadnach (Wechquetank, Loskiel) was at the end of what is now known as Indian Pond, lying partly in the town of North East, Duchess County, and partly in Sharon, Conn. It was the Gnadensee, or "Lake of Grace," of the missionaries. Wequadn'ach means "At the end of the mountain" between which and the lake the Indian village stood. Pachquadn'ach was on the opposite side of the pond; it means "Clear bare mountain land." Wehtak means "Wigwam place." Pishgachtigok (Pach-gat-gock, German notation), was about twenty miles south of Shekomeko, at the junction of Ten Mile River and the Housatonuc. It means, "Where the river divides," or branches. (See Schaghticoke.) Westenhoek, noted above, is explained in another connection. Housatonuc, in N.Y. Land Papers Owassitanuc, stands for A-wass-adene-uc, Abn.; in Delaware, Awossi, "Over, over there, beyond," -actenne, "hill or mountain," with locative -uk, "place," "land"; literally, "A place beyond the hill." (Trumbull.) It is not the name of either the hill or the river, to which it was extended, but a verbal direction. An Indian village called Potatik by the Moravian missionaries, was also on the Housatonuc, and is written in one form, Pateook.
[FN-2] A translation from the Delaware Scha-gach-we-u, "straight," and meek "fish"—an eel—eel place—has been widely quoted. The translation by Dr. Trumbull is no doubt correct.
The Highlands West From Little Stony Brook
Shenandoah (Shenandoah Corners, East Fishkill) is an Iroquoian name of modern introduction here. It is met in place in Saratoga County and at Wyoming, Pa. (See Shannondhoi.)
Stissing, now the name of a hill and of a lake one mile west of the village of Pine Plains, Duchess County, is probably an apheresis of Mistissing, a "Great rock," and belongs to the hill, which rises 400 or 500 feet above the valley and is crowned with a mass of naked rock, described by one writer as "resembling a huge boulder transported there."
Poughkeepsie, now so written, is of record in many forms of which Pooghkeepesingh, 1683; Pogkeepke, 1702; Pokeapsinck, 1703; Pacaksing, 1704; Poghkeepsie, 1766; Poughkeepsie, 1767, are the earlier. The locative of the name and the key to its explanation are clearly determined by the description in a gift deed to Peter Lansing and Jan Smedes, in 1683: "A waterfall near the bank of the river called Pooghkeepesingh;" [FN-1] in petition of Peter Lansing and Arnout Velie, in 1704: "Beginning at a creek called Pakaksing, by ye river side." [FN-2] There are other record applications, but are probably extensions, as Poghkeepke (1702), given as the name of a "muddy pond" in the vicinity. Schoolcraft's interpretation, "Safe harbor," from Apokeepsing, is questioned by W. R. Gerard, who, from a personal acquaintance with the locative, "A water-fall," writes: "The name refers not to the fall, but to the basin of water worn out in the rocks at the foot of the fall. Zeisberger would have written the word ApuchkÌpÌsink, that is, 'At the rock-pool (or basin) of water.' Apuchk-ÌpÌs-ink is a composition of -puchk, 'rock'; ipis, in composition, 'little water,' 'pool of water,' 'pond,' 'little lake,' etc." Pooghk is no doubt from Ápughk (apuchk), "rock." The stream has long been known as the Fall Kill. Primarily there seems to have been three falls upon it, of which Matapan will be referred to later.
[FN-1] "This fifth day of May, 1683, appeared before me . . . a Highland Indian called Massang, who declared herewith that he has given as a free gift, a bouwery (farm) to Pieter Lansingh, and a bouwery to Jan Smeedes, a young glazier, also a waterfall near the bank of the river, to build a mill thereon. The waterfall is called Pooghkeepesingh and the land Minnisingh, situated on the east side of the river." (Col. Hist. N.Y., xiii, 571.)
[FN-2] Cal. N.Y. Land Papers, 71. There are forty-nine record orthographies of the term, from which a selection could be made as a basis of interpretation. Poghkeepke, for example, might be accepted as meaning, "Muddy Pond," although there is neither a word or particle in it that would warrant the conclusion.
Wynogkee, Wynachkee, and Winnakee are record forms of the name of a district of country or place from which it was extended to the stream known as the Fall Kill "Through which a kill called Wynachkee runs, . . . including the kill to the second fall called Mattapan," is the description in a gift deed to Arnout Velie, in 1680, for three flats of land, one on the north and two on the south side of the kill. "A flat on the west side of the kil, called Wynachkee" (Col. Hist. N.Y., xiii, 545, 572), does not mean that the kill was called Wynachkee, but the flat of land, to which the name itself shows that it belonged. The derivatives are Winne, "good, fine, pleasant," and -aki (auke, ohke), "land" or place; literally, "land." [FN]
[FN] From the root Wulit, Del. From the same root Winne, Willi, Wirri, Waure, Wule, etc. The name is met in equivalent forms in several places. Wenaque and Wynackie are forms of the name of a beautiful valley in Passaic county, N.J. (Nelson.) Winakaki, "Sassifras land—rich, fat land." Winak-aki-ng, "At the Sassifras place," was the Lenape name of Eastern Pennsylvania. (See Wanaksink.) Eliot wrote in the Natick (Mass.) dialect, "Wunohke, good land." The general meaning of the root is pleasurable sensation.
Mattapan, "the second fall," so called in the deed to Arnout Velie (1680), was the name of a "carrying place," "the end of a portage, where the canoe was launched again and its bearers reembarked." (Trumbull.) A landing place. [FN] "At a place called Matapan, to the south side thereof, bounded on the west by John Casperses Creek." (Cal. Land Papers, 108.) (See Pietawick-quasick.)
[FN] Mattappan, a participle of Mattappu, "he sits down," denotes "a sitting down place," or as generally employed in local names, the end of a portage between two rivers, or from one arm of the sea to another—where the canoe was launched again and its bearers reembarked. (Trumbull.) In Lenape Aan is a radical meaning, "To move; to go." Paan, "To come; to get to"; Wiket-pann, "To get home"; Paancep, "Arrived"; Mattalan, "To come upto some body"; logically, Mattappan, "To stop," to sit down, to land, a landing place
Minnissingh is written as the name of a tract conveyed to Peter Lansing and Jan Smedes by gift deed in 1683. (See Poughkeepsie.) Minnissingh is, apparently, the same word that is met in Minnisink, Orange County. The locative of the tract has not been ascertained, but it was pretty certainly on the "back" or upper lands. There was no island there. (See Minnisink.)
Eaquorisink is of record as the name of Crom Elbow Creek, and EaquaquanessÌnck as that of lands on the Hudson, in patent to Henry Beekman, the boundary of which ran from the Hudson "east by the side of a fresh meadow called MansakÌn [FN-1] and a small run of water called MancapawÌmick." In patent to Peter Falconier the land is called EaquaquaannessÌnck, the meadow Mansakin, the small creek Nanacopaconick, and Crom Elbow (Krom Elleboog, Dutch, '"crooked elbow'") Creek. Eaquarysink is a compression of Eaquaquaannessinck. It was not the name of the creek, but located the boundmark "as far as the small creek." The composition is the equivalent of Wequa, [FN-2] "end of"; annes, "small stream," and ink, "at," "to," etc.
[FN-1] "A meadow or marsh land called Manjakan," is an equivalent record in Ulster County. (Cal. N.Y. Land Papers, 133.) "A fresh meadow," i.e. a fresh water meadow, or low lands by the side of the creek.
[FN-2] Enaughqua, L. I.; YÒ anÛck quaque, Williams; Wequa, Weque, Aqua, Ukwe, Echqu, etc., "end of." The word is met in many forms. Wehque, "as far as." (Eliot.)
Wawyachtanock, Indian deed to Robert Livingston, 1685; Wawyachtanock, Wawijachtanock, Wawigachtanock in Livingston Patent and Watwijachtonocks in association with "The Indians of the Long Reach" (Doc. Hist. N.Y., 93, 97), is given as the name of a place—"The path that leads to Wawyachtenock." In a petition for permission to purchase, in 1702 (Col. Land Papers, 58), the description reads: "A tract of land lying to the westward of Westenhoeks Creek [FN-1] and to ye eastward of Poghkeepsie, called by ye Indians Wayaughtanock." It is presumed that the locative of the name is now known as Union Corners, Duchess County, where Krom Elleboog Creek, after flowing southwesterly, turns at nearly a right angle and flows west to the Hudson, which it reaches in a narrow channel between bluffs, a little south of Krom Elbow Point, where a bend in the Hudson forms the north end of the Long Reach. The first word of the name is from Wawai, "Round about," "Winding around," "eddying," as a current in a bend of a river. The second, -tan, -ten, -ton means "current," by metonymie, "river," and ock, means "land" or place—"A bend-of-the-river place." The same name is met in Wawiachtanos, in the Ohio country, [FN-2] and the prefix in many places. (See Wawayanda.)
[FN-1] Westenhoek is Dutch. It means "West corner." It was given by the Dutch to a tract of land lying in a bend of Housatonuk river, long in dispute between New York and Massachusetts, called by the Indians W-nagh-tak-ook, for many years the name of the capital town of the Mahican nation.(Loskiel.) Rev. Dr. Edwards wrote it Wnoghquetookooke and translated it from an intimate acquaintance of the Stockbridge dialect, "A bend-of-the-river-place." Mr. Gerard writes it, Wamenketukok, "At the winding of the river." Now Stockbridge, Mass.
[FN-2] "Tjughsaghrondie, alias Wawayachtenok." (Col. Hist. N.Y., iv, 900; La Trobe's Translation of Loskiel, i, 23.) The first name, Tjughsaghrondie, is also written Taghsaglirondie, and in other forms. It is claimed to be from the Wyandot or Huron-Iroquoian dialect. In History of Detroit the Algonquin is quoted Waweatunong, interpreted "Circuitous approach," and the claim made that the reference was to the bend in the Strait at Detroit at an elevation "from which a view of the whole broad river" could be had. In Shawano, Wawia'tan describes bending or eddying water—with locative, "Where the current winds about." The name is applicable at any place where the features exist.
Metambeson, a creek so called in Duchess County, is now known as Sawkill. It is the outlet of a lake called Long Pond. The Indian name is from Matt, negative and depreciatory, "Small, unfavorable," etc., and M'beson, "Strong water," a word used in describing brandy, spirits, physic, etc. The rapidity of the water was probably referred to.
Waraughkameck—Waraukameck—a small lake in the same county, is now known as "Fever Cot or Pine Swamp." The Indian name is probably an equivalent of Len. WÁlagh-kamik, an enclosed hole or den, a hollow or excavation.
Aquassing—"At a creek called by the Indians Aquassing, and by the Christians Fish Creek"—has not been located. Aquassing was the end of the boundary line, and may be from Enaughquasink, "As far as."
Tauquashqueick, given as the name of a meadow lying between Magdalen Island [FN] and the main land, now known as "Radcliff's Vly," is probably an equivalent of Pauqua-ask-ek. "Open or clear wet meadow or vly."
[FN] Magdalen Island is between Upper and Lower Red-hook. The original Dutch, Maagdelijn, supposed to mean "A dissolute woman," here means, simply, "Maiden," i.e. shad or any fish of the herring family. (See Magaat Ramis.) The name appears on Van der Donck's map of 1656.
Sankhenak and Saukhenak are record forms of the name given as that of Roelof Jansen's Kil (Doc. Hist. N.Y., iii, 612; French's Gazetteer.) Sauk-hannek would describe the mouth or outlet of the stream, and Sank-hannek would read "Flint-stone creek." Sauk is probably correct. The purchase included land on both sides of the creek from "A small kil opposite the Katskil," on the north, called Wachhanekassik. "to a place opposite Sagertyes Kil, called Saaskahampka." The stream is now known as Livingston's Creek. [FN]
[FN] The creek was the boundmark between the Wappingers and the Mahicans. (See Wahamanessing.)
Wachanekassik, Indian deed to Livingston, 1683; Waghankasick, patent to Van Rensselaer, 1649, and other orthographies, is written as the name of a small creek which marked the place of beginning of the northwest boundmark of the Livingston Patent and the place of ending of the southwest boundmark of the prior Van Rensselaer Patent of Claverack. The latter reads; ". . . And so along the said Hudson River southward to the south side of Vastrix Island, by a creek called Waghankasick, thence easterly to Wawanaquasik," etc. The deed to Livingston conveyed lands "On both sides of Roelof Jansen's Kill, [FN-1] called by the Indians Sauk-henak," including lands "along the river's bank from said Roeloff Jansen's Kill, northwards up, to a small stream opposite Catskill named Wachanekasseck, and southwards down the river to opposite the Sagertjes Kill, called by the Indians Saaskahampka." In the Livingston Patent of 1684: "Eighteen hundred acres of woodland lying between a small creek or kill lying over against Catskill called Wachanakasseck and a place called Suaskahampka," and in patent of 1686: "On the north by a line to be drawn from a certain creek or kill over against the south side of Vastrix Island in Hudson's River, called Wachankasigh," to which Surveyor John Beatty added more precisely on his map of survey in 1715: "Beginning on the east side of Hudson's River southward from Vastrix Island, at a place where a certain run of water watereth out into Hudson's River, called in ye Indian tongue, Wachankassik." The "run of water" is not marked on Beatty's map, nor on the map of survey of the patent in 1798, but it is marked, from existence or presumed existence, on a map of the boundary line between New York and Massachusetts and seems to have been one of the several small streams that flow down the bluff from the surface, apparently about two miles and a half north of Roelof Jansen's Kill, in the vicinity of the old Oak Hill station [FN-2] on the H. R. R., later known as Catskill station. While referred to in connection with the boundmark to identify its location, its precise location seems to have been lost. In early days boundmarks were frequently designated in general terms by some well known place. Hence we find Catskill spoken of and particularly "the south end of Vastrix Island," a point that every voyager on the Hudson knew to be the commencement of a certain "rak" or sailing course. [FN-3] Hence it was that Van Rensselaer's first purchase (1630) was bounded on the south by the south end of Beeren or Mahican Island, and the second purchase by the south end of Vastrix Island, which became the objective of the northwest bound of Livingston's Patent. While the name is repeatedly given as that of the stream, it was probably that of a place or point on the limestone bluff which here bounds the Hudson on the east for several miles. Surveyor Beatty's description, "Beginning at a place where," and the omission of the stream on his map, and its omission on subsequent maps of the manor, and the specific entry in the amended patent of 1715, "Beginning at a certain place called by the Indians Wahankassek," admit of no other conclusion, and the conclusion is, apparently, sustained by the name itself, which seems to be from Moh. Wakhununuhkoosek, "A high point," as a hill, mountain, peak, bluff, etc., from Wakhu, "hill, mountain," uhk, "end, point," and oosic, "peak, pinnacle." etc. The reference may have been to a point formed by the channel of the little stream flowing down from the bluff above, or to some projection, but certainly to the bluff as the only permanent objective on the Hudson. The connection of the "small run of water" with the boundmark should entitle it to more particular description than has been given to it by local writers.
[FN-1] Named from Roeloff Jansen, Overseer of the Orphan Court under the Dutch Government. (French.)
[FN-2] Oak Hill station on the Hudson River R. R., about five miles south of the city of Hudson, was so called from a hill in the interior just north of the line of the town of Livingston, from which the land slopes west towards the Hudson and south to Roelof Jansen's Kill.
[FN-3] Vastrix is a compression of Dutch t'Vaste Rak as written on Van der Donck's map of 1656, meaning, "The fast or steady reach or sailing course," which began here. The island is the first island lying north of the mouth of the Katskill. It is now known as Roger's Island.
Nickankook, Kickua and Weckqashake are given as the names of "three flats" which, with "some small flats," were included in the first purchase by Livingston, and described as "Situate on both sides" of the kill called Saukhenak (Roelof Jansen's Kill). The Indian deed also included all land "Extending along the bank of the river northwards from Roelof Jansen's Kill to a small stream opposite Catskill named Wachanekassik." The names of the three flats are variously spelled—Nickankooke, Nickankook, etc. The first has been translated by Mr. Wm. R. Gerard from NichÁnhkÛk, "At the bend in front." Kickua, the second, is untranslatable. Wickquashaka, Wequakake, etc., is the equivalent of Wequaohke, "End land" or place. The kill flows through a valley of broad and fertile flats, but near the Hudson it breaks through the limestone bluff which forms the east line of the Hudson, and its banks are steep and rocky.
Saaskahampka, Indian deed; Suaskahampka patent of 1684—the southwest boundmark of the Livingston Patent, is described as "A dry gully at Hudson's River." It is located about opposite Sawyer's Creek, north of the present Saugerties or Esopus Creek. Sasco, or as written Saaska, means "A swamp;" Assisku (Del.), "Mud, clay"; AsuskokÁmika, "Muddy place," a gully in which no water was flowing. (Gerard.)
Mananosick—"Along the foot of a high mountain to the path that goes to Wawyactanock to a hill called by the Indians Mananosick." Also written Nanosick. Eliot wrote, in the Natick dialect, Nahoosick, "Pinnacle," or high peak. The indefinite and impersonal M' or Ma, prefixed, would add "a" or "the" high peak. The hill has not been located except in a general way as near the Massachusetts line.
Nanapenahakan and Nanipanihekan are orthographies of the name of a "creek or brook" described as "coming out of a marsh lying near unto the hills where the heaps of stones lye." The stream flows to Claverack Creek. The outlet waters of Achkookpeek Lake unite with it, from which it is now called Copake Creek. It unites with Kinderhook Creek north of the city of Hudson.
Wawanaquasik, Claverack Patent, 1649; Wawanaquassick, Livingston Patent of 1686; Wawauaquassick and Mawauapquassek, patent of 1715; Mawanaqwassik, surveyor's notation, 1715; now written Mawanaquassick—a boundmark of the Claverack Patent of 1649, and also of the Livingston Patent, is described in the Claverack Patent, "To the high woodland called Wawanaquasik," and in the Livingston Patent, "To a place called by the Indians Wawanaqussek, where the heapes of stone lye, near to the head of a creek called Nanapenahaken, which comes out of a marsh lying near unto the hills of the said heapes of stones, upon which the Indians throw another as they pass by, from an ancient custom among them." The heap of stones here was "on the south side of the path leading to Wayachtanok," and other paths diverged, showing that the place was a place of meeting. "To the high woodland," in the description of 1649, is marked on the map of survey of 1715, "Foot of the hill," apparently a particular point, the place of which was identified by the head of the creek, the marsh and the heap of stones. The name may have described this point or promontory, or it may have referred to the place of meeting near the head of the creek, or to the end of the marsh, but it is claimed that it was the name of the heap of stones, and that it is from MiÁe, or MiyÁe, "Together"—Mawena, "Meeting," "Assembly"—frequently met in local names and accepted as meaning, "Where paths or streams or boundaries come together;" and Qussuk, "stone"—"Where the stones are assembled or brought together," "A stone heap." This reading is of doubtful correctness. Dr. Trumbull wrote that Qussuk, [FN-1] meaning "stone," is "rarely, perhaps never" met as a substantival in local names, and an instance is yet to be cited where it is so used. It is a legitimate word in some connections, however, Eliot writing it as a noun in MÔhshe-qussuk, "A flinty rock," in the singular number. If used here it did not describe "a heap of stones," but a certain rock. On the map of survey of the patent, in 1798, the second station is marked "Manor Rock," and the third, "Wawanaquassick," is located 123 chains and 34 links (a fraction over one and one-half miles) north of Manor Rock, as the corner of an angle. In the survey of 1715, the first station is "the foot of the hill"—"the high woodland"—which seems to have been the Mawan-uhqu-oosik [FN-2] of the text. To avoid all question the heap of stones seems to have been included in the boundary. It now lies in an angle in the line between the townships of Claverack and Taghkanic, Columbia County, and is by far the most interesting feature of the locative—a veritable footprint of a perished race. Similar heaps were met by early European travelers in other parts of the country. Rev. Gideon Hawley, writing in 1758, described one which he met in Schohare Valley, and adds that the largest one that he ever saw was "on the mountain between Stockbridge and Great Barrington." Mass. (Doc. Hist. N.Y., iii, 1039.) The significance of the "ancient custom" of casting a stone to these heaps has not been handed down. Rev. Mr. Sergeant wrote, in 1734, that though the Indians "each threw a stone as they passed, they had entirely lost the knowledge of the reason for doing so," and an inquiry by Rev. Hawley, in 1758, was not attended by a better result. [FN-3] The heaps were usually met at resting places on the path and the custom of throwing the stone a sign-language indicating that one of the tribe had passed and which way he was going, but further than the explanation that the casting of the stone was "an ancient custom," nothing may be claimed with any authority. A very ancient custom, indeed, when its signification had been forgotten.
[FN-1] Williams wrote in the Narraganset dialect Qussuck, stone; Qussuckanash, stones; Qussuckquon, heavy. Zeisberger wrote in the Minsi-Lenape, Ksucquon, heavy; Achsun, stone; Apuchk, rock. Chippeway, Assin, stone; Aubik, rock. Old Algonquian, Assin, stone. Eliot wrote in the Natick (Mass.) dialect, Qussuk, a rock; Qussukquanash, rocks; Hussunash, stones; Hussunek, lodge or ledge of rocks, and for Hussimek Dr. Trumbull wrote Assinek as an equivalent, and Hussun or Hussunash, stones, as identical with Qussukqun, heavy. Eliot also wrote -pick or -p'sk, in compound words, meaning "Rock," or "stone," as qualified by the adjectival prefix, Onap'sk, "Standing rock."
[FN-2] Literally, "A meeting point," or sharp extremity of a hill.
[FN-3] Doc. Hist. N.Y., iii, 1039. The heap referred to by Rev. Hawley was on the path leading to Schohare. It gave name to what was long known as the "Stoneheap Patent." The heap is now in the town of Esperance and near Sloansville, Schohare County. It is four rods long, one or two wide, and ten to fifteen feet high. (French.)
Ahashewaghick and Ahashewaghkameck, the latter in corrected patent of 1715, is given as the name of the northeast boundmark of the Manor of Livingston, and described as "the northernmost end of the hills that are to the north of Tachkanick"—specifically by the surveyor, "To a heap of stones laid together on a certain hill called by the Indians Ahashawaghkik, by the north end of Taghanick hill or mountain"—has been translated from Nash-anÉ-komuk (Eliot), "A place between." Dr. Trumbull noted Ashowugh-commocke, from the derivatives quoted—NashauÉ, "between"; -komuk, "place," limited, enclosed, occupied, i.e. by "a heap of stones laid together," probably by the surveyor of the prior Van Rensselaer Patent, of which it was also a boundmark. The hill is now the northeast comer of the Massachusetts boundary line, or the north end of Taghkanick hills.
Taghkanick, the name of a town in Columbia County and primarily of a tract of land included in the Livingston Patent and located "behind Potkoke," is written Tachkanick in the Indian deed of 1685; Tachhanick in the Indian deed of 1687-8; "Land called Tachhanick which the owners reserved to plant upon when they sold him Tachhanick, with the land called Quissichkook;" Tachkanick, "having the kill on one side and the hill on the other"; Tahkanick (Surveyor's notation) 1715—is positively located by the surveyor on the east side of the kill called by the Indians Saukhenak, and by the purchasers Roelof Jansen's Kill. Of the meaning of the name Dr. E. B. O'Callaghan wrote: "TachanÛk, 'Wood place,' literally, 'the woods,' from Takone, 'forest,' and Ûk, 'place'"; which Dr. Trumbull regarded as "the least objectionable" of any of the interpretations that had fallen under his notice, and to which he added: "Literally, 'wild lands,' 'forest.'" It would seem to be more probable that Tachk, Taghk, Tachh, Tahk, etc., represents Tak (Taghk), with formative an, Taghkan, meaning "wood;" and ek, animate plural added, "Woods," "trees," "forest." Dr. O'Callaghan's Ûk (ook), "Land or place," is not in any of the orthographies. The deed-sentence, "When they sold him Tachanick," reads literally, from the name, "When they sold him the woods." The name was extended to the reserved field, to the stream and to the mountain. [FN] The latter is familiar to geologists in what is known as the Taconic rocks. Translations of the name from Del. TuphannÉ, "Cold stream," and TankkannÉ, "Little river," are without merit, although TankhannÉ would describe the branch of Roelof Jansen's Kill on which the plantation was located.
[FN] The purchasers claimed but the Indians denied having sold the mountain. It was heavily wooded no doubt. Livingston claimed it from having bought "the woods." The Moravian missionaries wrote, in 1744, W'takantschan, which Dr. Trumbull converted to Ket-takone-wadchu, "Great woody mountain."
Wichquapakat, Wichquapuchat, Wickquapubon, the latter by the surveyor, given as the name of the southeast boundmark of the Livingston Patent and therein described as "the south end of the hills," of which Ahashawagh-kameck was the north. Wichqua is surely an equivalent of Wequa (Wehqua, Eliot), "As far as; ending at; the end or extreme, point." [FN] Now the southwest corner on the Massachusetts line.
[FN] Robert Livingston, who wrote most of the Indian names in his patent, was a Scotchman. He learned to "talk Dutch" in Rotterdam, and picked up an acquaintance with the Indian tongues at Fort Orange (Albany). Some of his orthographies are singular combinations.
Mahaskakook, a boundmark in the Livingston Patent, is described, in one entry, as "A copse," i.e. "A thicket of underbrush," and in another entry, "A cripple bush," i.e. "A patch of low timber growth"—Dutch, Kreupelbosch, "Underwood." Probably the Indian name has, substantially, the same moaning. Manask (Del.), "Second crop"; -ask, "Green, raw, immature"; -ak, "wood"; -ook (Ûk), locative. The location has not been ascertained.
Nachawawakkano, given as the name of a creek described as a "creek which comes into another creek," is an equivalent of LÉchau-wakhaune (Lenape), "The fork of a river," a stream that forks another stream. Aupaumut, the Stockbridge Historian, wrote, with locative suffix, Naukhuwwhnauk, "At the fork of the streams."
Mawichnauk—"the place where the two streams meet being called Mawichnauk"—means "The fork place," or place where the Nachawawakkano and the Tawastaweka came together, or where the streams meet or flow together. In the Bayard Patent the name is written Mawighanuck and Wawieghanuck. (See Wawighanuck.)
Shaupook and Skaukook are forms of the name assigned to the eastern division of a stream, "which, a little lower down," was "called Twastawekah," known later as Claverack Creek. It may be translated from SÓhk, Mass., "outlet," and Ûk, locative, "At the outlet" or mouth of the stream.
Twastawekah and Tawastawekah, given, in the Livingston Patent, as the name of Claverack Creek, is described as a place that was below Shaukook, The root is Tawa, an "open space," and the name apparently an equivalent of Lenape Tawatawikunk, "At an open place," or an uninhabited place, a wilderness. Tauwata-wique-ak, "A place in the wilderness." (Gerard.)
Sahkaqua, "the south end of a small piece of land called Sahkaqua and Nakawaewick"; "to a run of water on ye east end of a certain flat or piece of land called in ye Indian tongue, Sahkahka; then south . . . one hundred and forty rods to . . . where two runs of water come together on the south side of the said flat; then west . . . to a rock or great stone on the south corner of another flat or piece of low land called by the Indians Nakaowasick." (Doc. Hist., iii, 697.) On the surveyor's map Nakaowasick, the place last named, is changed to Acawanuk. From the text, Sahkaqua described "Land or place at the outlet or mouth of a stream," from SÓhk, "outlet," and -ohke, "land" or place. The second name Nakawaewick (Nakaouaewik, Nakawasick, Acawasik) is probably from Nashauewasuck, "At (or on) a place between," i.e. between the streams spoken of.
Minnischtanock, in the Indian deed to Livingston, 1685, located the end of a course described as "Beginning on the northwest side of Roelof Jansen's Kill," and in the patent, "Beginning on the other side of the creek that runs along the flat or plain land over against Minnisichtanock, and from thence along a small hill to a valley," etc. The name has been interpreted "Huckleberry-hill place," from Min, "Small fruit or grain of any kind"; -achtenne, "hill"; -Ûk, locative.
Kackkawanick, written also Kachtawagick, Kachkawyick, and Kachtawayick, is described in the deed, as "A high place to the westward of a high mountain." Location has not been ascertained. From the map it seems to have been a long, narrow piece of land between the hills.
Quissichkook, Quassighkook, etc., one of the two places reserved by the Indians "to plant upon" when they sold Tachkanik, is described in the deed as a place "lying upon this (i.e. the west) side of Roelof Jansen's Kill" and "near Tachanik," the course running "thence along a small hill to a valley that leads to a small creek called by the Indians Quissichkook, and over the creek to a high place to the westward of a high mountain called by the natives Kachtawagick." In a petition by Philip Schuyler, 1686, the description reads: "Quassichkook, . . . lying on the east side of Roelof Jansen's Kill," and the place as a tract of woodland. The name was probably that of a wooded bluff on the east side of the creek. It seems to be from Kussuhkoc (Moh.), "high," and -ook, locative—"At, to or on a high place"—from which the stream and the plantation was located. (See Quassaick.)
Pattkoke, a place so called, also written Pot-koke, gave name to a large tract of land patented to Johannes Van Rensselaer in 1649. In general terms the tract was described as lying "South of Kinder-hook, [FN-1] east of Claverack, [FN-2] and west of Taghkanick" (Doc. Hist. N.Y., iii, 617), and also as "Lying to the east of Major Abraham's patent of Claverack." [FN-3] Specifically, in a caveat filed by John Van Rensselaer, in 1761, "From the mouth of Major Staats, or Kinderhook Kill, south along the river to a point opposite the south end of Vastrix Island, thence easterly twenty-four English miles," etc. (Cal. N.Y. Land Papers, 307. See also, Wachanekasaik.) It was an immense tract, covering about eight miles on the Hudson by twenty-four miles deep, and became known as "The Lower Manor of Rensselaerswyck," but locally as Claverack, from its frontage on the river-reach so called. The name was that of a particular place which was well known from which it was extended to the tract. In "History of Columbia County" this particular place is claimed to have been the site of an Indian village situate "about three (Dutch, or nine English) miles inland from Claverack." (Doc. Hist. N.Y., iv, 84.) The record does not give the name, nor does it say "village," but place. The local story is, therefore, largely conjectural. The orthographies of the name are imperfect. Presumably, they may be read from Mass. Pautuckoke, meaning "Land or country around the falls of a stream," and the reference to some one of the several falls on Claverack Creek, or on Eastern Creek, its principal tributary. Both streams were included in the patent, and both are marked by falls and rifts, but on the latter there are several "cataracts and falls of great height and surpassing beauty." "Nothing but a greater volume of water is required to distinguish them as being among the grandest in the world," adds the local historian. The special reference by the writer was to the falls at the manufacturing village known as Philmont, nine miles east of the Hudson, corresponding with the record of the "place" where the Indians assembled in 1663-4. Pautuck is met in many forms. It means, "The falls of a stream." With the suffix, -oke (Mass. -auke), "Land, ground, place, unlimited"—"the country around the falls," or the falls country. (See Potick.)
[FN-1] Kinderhook is an anglicism of Dutch Kinder-hoek, meaning, literally, "Children's point, angle or corner." It dates from the Carte Figurative of 1614-16, and hence is one of the oldest names on Hudson's River. It is supposed to have been applied from a gathering of Indian children on a point of land to gaze upon the ship of the early navigator. It could not have been a Dutch substitute for an Indian name. It is pure Dutch. It was not an inland name. The navigator of 1614-16 did not explore the country.
[FN-2] Claverack—Dutch, Claverrak—literally, "Clover reach—a sailing course or reach, so called from three bare or open fields which appear on the land, a fancied resemblance to trefoil or three-leaved clover," wrote Jasper Dankers and Peter Sluyter in their Journal in 1679-80. Presumably the places are specifically located in the patent to Jan Frans van Heusen, May, 1667, on which the city of Hudson now stands, which is described as "A tract of land which takes in three of the Clavers on the south." From the locative the reach extended some miles north and south and to lands which it bounded. It is still preserved as the name of a creek, a town and a village. Of record it dates back to De Laet's map of 1625-6, and is obviously much older. It is possible that the "three bare places" were fields of white clover, as has been claimed by one writer, but there is no record stating that fact. Dankers and Sluyter, who wrote only fifty-four years after the application of the name, no doubt gave correctly the account of its origin as it was related to them by living witnesses. If interpreted as were the names of other reaches, the reference would be to actual clover fields.
[FN-3] "Major Abraham" was Major Abraham Staats, who located on a neck of land on the north side of "Major Staats' Creek," now Stockport Creek. (See Ciskhakainck.) "West of Taghkanick," probably refers to the mountains now so known. It means, literally, however, "The woods." (See Taghkanick.) There was a heated controversy between the patroon of Rensselaerswyck and Governor Stuyvesant in regard to the purchase of the tract. It was decided in 1652 in favor of the former, who had, in the meantime, granted several small leaseholds. (See Brodhead's Hist. N.Y., i.) The first settlement by the patroon was in 1705 at Claverack village.
Ciskhekainck and Cicklekawick are forms of the name of a place granted by patent to Major Abraham Staats, March 25, 1667, and to his son in 1715, described as "Lying north of Claverack [Hudson], on the east side of the river, along the Great Kill [Kinderhook Creek], to the first fall of water; then to the fishing place, containing two hundred acres, more or less, bounded by the river on one side and by the Great Kill on the other." Major Staats had made previous settlement on the tract under lease from Van Rensselaer. His house and barn were burned by the Indians in the Esopus war of 1663. In 1715, he being then dead, his son, Abraham, petitioned for an additional tract described as "Four hundred acres adjoining the north line of the neck of land containing two hundred acres now in his possession, called Ciskhekainck, on the north side of Claverack, on ye east side of Hudson's River." (Cal. N.Y. Land Papers, 118.) The petition was granted and the two parcels consolidated. The particular fall referred to is probably that now known as Chittenden's, on Kinderhook (now Stockport) Creek, a short distance west of Stockport Station. It may be called a series of falls as the water primarily descended on shelves or steps. It was noted as remarkable by Dankens and Sluyter in 1679-80. [FN] Claverack Creek unites with Stockport Creek just west of the falls. In other connections both streams are called mill streams. In the Stephen Bayard patent of 1741, the name of the fall on Stockport Creek is noted as "A certain fall . . . called by the Indians Kasesjewack" The several names are perhaps from Cochik'uack (Moh.), "A wild, dashing" stream. Cochik'uack, by the way, is one of the most corrupted names of record.
[FN] "We came to a creek, where, near the river, lives a man whom they call the Child of Luxury (t'kinder van walde). He had a sawmill on the creek or waterfall, which is a singular one. The water falls quite steep in one body, but it comes down in steps, with a broad rest sometimes between them. These steps were sixty feet or more high, and were formed out of a single rock."
Kesieway's Kil, described in an Indian deed to Garritt van Suchtenhorst, 1667-8. "A certain piece of land at Claverack between the bouwery of Jan Roother and Major Abraham Staats, beginning at a fall at the kil called Kesieway's Kil." (Col. Hist. N.Y., xiii, 51, 57.) The tract seems to have been on Claverack Creek south of Stockport "Jan Roothers" is otherwise written, "Jan Hendricksen, alias Jan Roothaer." Roth (German) means "red," -aer is from German Haar (hair). He was known locally as "Jan, the red-head." The location of the fall has not been ascertained. Kashaway Creek is a living form of the name in the town of Greenport, Columbia County. On the opposite side of the Hudson the same name apparently, appears in Keesieway, Kesewey, etc., as that of a "chief or sachem" of the Katskill Indians. (See Keessienwey's Hoeck.)
Pomponick, Columbia County. (N.Y. Land Papers.) Pompoenik, a fort to be erected at "about the barn of Lawrence van Alen." (Doc. Hist. N.Y., ii, 90.) Pompoen is Dutch for pumpkin. The name is also written as that of an Indian owner—"the land bought by Jan Bruyn of Pompoen." (Col. Hist. N.Y., xiii, 545.) Pompoeneck is the form of the signature to deed.
Mawighanuck, Mawighunk, Waweighannuck, Wawighnuck, forms of the name preserved as that of the Bayard Patent, Columbia County, described as a place "Lying to the northwest of Kinderhook, about fifteen miles from Hudson's River, upon Kinderhook River and some branches thereof, part of which tract is known by the Indian name of Mawighanuck." The particular "part" noted has not been located, but it seems to have been where one of the branches of Kinderhook Creek united with that stream. (See Mawichnauk.)
Mogongh-kamigh, a boundmark of the Bayard Patent (Land Papers, 245), is located therein, "From a fall on said river called by the Indians Kasesjewack to a certain place called by the natives Mogongh-kamigh, then up the southeast branch," etc. The name means, probably, "Place of a great tree."
Kenaghtiquak, "a small stream" so called, was the name of a boundmark of the Peter Schuyler Patent, described, "Beginning where three oak trees are marked, lying upon a small creek, to the south of Pomponick, called by the Indians Kenaghtiquak, and running thence," etc. It probably stands for Enaughtiqua-Ûk, "The beginning place."
Machachoesk, a place so called in Columbia County, has not been located. It is described of record as a place "lying on both sides of Kinderhook Creek," and may have taken its name from an adjacent feature.
Wapemwatsjo, the name of a hill in Columbia County, is a Dutch orthography of Wapim-wadchu, "Chestnut Hill." The interpretation is correctly given in the accompanying alternate, "or Karstengeberg" (Kastanjeberg, Dutch), "Chestnut Hill."
Kaunaumeek, an Indian village sixteen miles east of Albany, in the town of Nassau, Rensselaer County, was the scene of the labors of Moravian missionaries, and especially of Missionary Brainerd. It was long known as Brainerd's Bridge, and is now called Brainerds. The name is Lenape (German notation) and the equivalent of QuannamÁug, Nar., Gunemeek, Len., "Long-fish place," a "Fishing-place for lampreys." The form, Kaunaumeek, was introduced here by the Moravian missionaries.
Scompamuck is said to have been the name of the locality now covered by the village of Ghent, Columbia County, perhaps more strictly the head of the outlet of Copake Lake where an Indian settlement is located on early maps. The suffix, -amuck, is the equivalent of -amaug, "fishing place." Ouschank-amaug, from Ousch-acheu, "smooth, slippery," hence eel or lamprey—"a fishing-place for eels."
Copake, the modern form of the name of a lake in Columbia County, is of record Achkookpeek (Doc. Hist. N.Y., iii. 628), meaning, literally, "Snake water," from Achkook, "Snake," and -pÉek, "Water place," pool or pond. Hendrick Aupaumut, the Historian of the Stockbridge-Mahicans, wrote: "Ukhkokpeck; it signifies snake-water, or water where snakes are abundant." On a map of the boundary line between Massachusetts and New York an Indian village is located at the outlet of the lake, presumably that known as Scompamuck.
Kaphack, on Westenhook River, a place described as "Beginning at an Indian burying-place hard by Kaphack," probably means "A separate place"—"land not occupied." The tract began at "an Indian burying-place," and presumably took its name therefrom. ChÉpeck, "The dead;" ChÉpeack, "Place of the dead." (See Shapequa.)
Valatie, the name of a village in Columbia County, is Dutch. It means "Vale, valley, dale, dell," and not "Little Falls," as rendered in French's Gazetteer. Waterval is Dutch for "Waterfall." Vallate, Low Latin for "valley," is the derivative of Valatie, as now written.
Schodac, now covered by the village of Castleton (Schotax, 1677; Schotack, 1768), was the place of residence of Aepjin, sachem, or "peace chief," of the Mahicans. [FN-1] It has been translated from Skootay, Old Algonquian (SqÚta, Williams), "fire," and -ack, "place," literally, "Fire Place," or place of council. It was extended to Smack's Island, opposite Albany, which was known to the early Dutch as "Schotack, or Aepjen's Island." It is probable, however, that the correct derivative is to be found in Esquatak, or Eskwatak, the record name of the ridge of land east of Castleton, near which the Mahican fort or palisaded village was located, from which Castleton takes its name. Esquatak is pretty certainly an equivalent of Ashpohtag (Mass.), meaning "A high place." Dropping the initial A, and also the letter p and the second h, leaves Schotack or Shotag; by pronunciation Schodac. Eshodac, of which Meshodack [FN-2] is another form, the name of a high peak in the town of Nassau, Rensselaer County, has become Schodac by pronunciation. It has been claimed that the landing which Hudson made and so particularly described in Juet's Journal, was at Schodac. [FN-3] The Journal relates that the "Master's mate" first "went on land with an old savage, the governor of the country, who carried him to his house and made him good cheere." The next day Hudson himself "Sailed to the shore, in one of their canoe's, with an old man who was chief of a tribe consisting of forty men and seventeen women," and it is added, "These I saw there in a house well constructed of oak bark and circular in shape, so that it had the appearance of being built with an arched roof." Presumably the house was near the shore of the river and in occupation during the fishing and planting season. The winter castle was further inland. The "arched roof" indicates that it was one of the "long" houses so frequently described, not a cone-like cabin. The "tribe" was the sachem's family.
[FN-1] Aepjin's name appears of record first in 1645 as the representative of the Westchester County clans in negotiating a treaty of peace with the Dutch. In the same capacity he was at Esopus in 1660. He could hardly have been the "old man" whom Hudson met in 1609. In one entry his name is written "Eskuvius, alias Aepjin (Little Ape)," and in another "Called by the Dutch Apeje's (Little Ape's) Island." He may have been given that name from his personal appearance, or it may have been a substitute for a name which the Dutch had heard spoken. Eliot wrote, "Appu, He sits; he rests, remains, abides; Keu Apean, Those that sittest," descriptive of the rank of a resident ruler or peace chief, one of a class of sachems whose business it was to maintain the covenants between his own and other tribes, and negotiate treaties of peace on their behalf or for other tribes when called upon. From his totemic signature he was of the Wolf tribe of the Mahicans. (See Keessienway's Hoeck.)
[FN-2] The prefixed M, sometimes followed by a short vowel or an apostrophe (M'), has no definite or determinate force. (Trumbull.)
[FN-3] The Journal locates the place at Lat. 42 deg. 18 min. This would be about five miles (statute) north of the present city of Hudson. "But," wrote Brodhead, "Latitudes were not as easily determined in those days as they are now; and a careful computation of the distances run by the Half-Moon, as recorded in Juet's day-book, shows that on the 18th of September, 1609, when the landing occurred, she must have been 'up six leagues higher' than Hudson, in the neighborhood of Schodac and Castleton."
Sickenekas, given as the name of a tract of land on the east side of the river, "opposite Fort Orange (Albany), above and below," dates from a deed to Van Rensselaer, 1637, the name of one of the grantors of which is written Paepsickenekomtas. The name is now written Papskanee and applied to an island.
Sicajoock, (Wickagjock, Wassenaer), is given as the name of a tract on the east side of the river extending from Smack's Island to Castle Island where it joined lands "called Semesseeck," Gesmessecks, etc., which extended north to Negagonse, "being about twelve miles (Dutch), large measure." The northern limit seems to have been Unuwat's Castle on the north side of a stream flowing to the Hudson north of "opposite to Rensselaer's Kil and waterfall." Sicajoock (Dutch notation), "Black, or dark colored earth," from SÛcki "Dark colored, inclining to black," and -ock, "land." The same name is written Suckiage (ohke) in application to the Hartford meadows, Conn.
Gesmesseeck, a tract of land so called, otherwise entered of record "Nawanemit's particular land called Semesseerse, lying on the east bank, opposite Castle Island, off unto Fort Orange." "Item—from Petanoc, the mill stream, away north to Negagonse." In addition Van Rensselaer then purchased lands held in common by several owners, "extending up the river, south and north" from Fort Orange, "unto a little south of Moeneminnes castle," "being about twelve miles, large measure." Moeneminne's castle was on Haver Island at Kahoes. Semesseerse is the form of the name in deed as printed in Col. Hist. N.Y., vol. i, p. 44, and Gesmesseecks p. 1, v. iv. Kesmesick is another form and perhaps also Taescameasick. (See Patuckquapaen.) The several forms of the name illustrate the effort on the part of the early Dutch, who were then limitedly acquainted with the Indian tongue, to give orthographies to the names which they heard spoken.
Passapenoc, Pahpapaenpenock and Sapanakock, forms of the name of Beeren Island, lying opposite Coeymans, is from an edible tuber which was indigenous on it. [FN] The Dutch name Beeren or Beerin, means, literally, "She bear," usually called Bear's Island. De Laet wrote "Beeren" in 1640.
[FN] "The Indians frequently designated places by the names of esculent or medicinal roots which were there produced. In the Algonquin language the generic names for tubers was pen, varying in some dialects to pin, pena, pon, or bun. This name seems originally to have belonged to the common ground nut: Apias tuberosa. Abnaki, pen, plural, penak. Other species were designated by prefixes to this generic, and, in the compositions of place names, was employed to denote locality (auk, auki, ock, etc.), or by an abundance verb (kanti-kadi). Thus p'sai-pen, 'wild onions,' with the suffix for place, ock, gave p'sai-pen-auk, or as written by the Dutch, Passapenock, the Indian name for Beeren Island." (J. H. Trumbull, Mag. of Am. Hist I, 387.)
Patuckquapaen and Tuscumcatick are noted in French's Gazetteer as names of record in what is now the town of Greenbush, Rensselaer County, without particular location. The first is in part Algonquian and in part Dutch. The original was, no doubt, Patuckquapaug, as in Greenwich, Ct., meaning "Round pond." The Dutch changed paug to paen descriptive of the land—low land—so we have, as it stands, "Round land," "elevated hassocks of earth, roots," etc. (See Patuckquapaug.) The second name is written in several forms—Taescameatuck, Taescameesick, and Gessmesseecks. Greenbush is an anglicism of Gran Bosch, Dutch, meaning, literally, "Green forest." The river bank was fringed by a long stretch of spruce-pine woods. Dutch settlement began here about 1631. In 1641 a ferry was established at the mouth of the Tamisquesuck or Beaver Creek, and has since been maintained. About the same year a small fort, known as Fort Cralo, was constructed by Van Rensselaer's superintendent.
Poesten Kill, the name of a stream and of a town in Rensselaer County, is entered in deed to Van Rensselaer in 1630, "Petanac, the mill stream"; in other records, "Petanac, the Molen Kil," and "De Laet's Marlen Kil and Waterval." Petanac, the Indian name, is an equivalent of Stockbridge Patternac, which King Ninham, in an affidavit, in 1762, declared meant "A fall of water, and nothing more." "Molen Kil" (Dutch), means "mill water." "De Laet's Marlen Kil ende Waterval," locates the name as that of a well-known waterfall on the stream of eighty feet. Weise, in his "History of Troy," wrote: "Having erected a saw-mill upon the kill for sawing posts and timber, which was known thereafter as Poesten mill, the name became extended to the stream," an explanation that seems to bear the marks of having been coined. From the character of the stream the name is probably a corruption of the Dutch Boosen, "An angry stream," because of its rapid descent. The stream reaches the Hudson on the north line of Troy. (See Gesmessecks.)
Paanpaach is quoted by Brodhead (Hist. N.Y.) as the name of the site of the city of Troy. It appears in 1659 in application to bottom lands known as "The Great Meadows," [FN-1] lying under the hills on the east side of the Hudson. At the date of settlement by Van der Huyden (1720), it is said there were stripes or patches within the limits of the present city which were known as "The corn-lands of the Indians," [FN-2] from which the interpretation in French's Gazetteer, "Fields of corn," which the name never meant in any language. The name may have had an Indian antecedent, but as it stands it is Dutch from Paan-pacht, meaning "Low, soft land," or farm of leased land. The same name appears in Paan-pack, Orange county, which see.
[FN-1] Weise's Hist. of Troy.
[FN-2] Woodward's Reminiscences of Troy.
Piskawn, of record as the name of a stream on the north line of Troy, describes a branch or division of a river. Rale wrote in Abnaki, "Peskakoon, branche," of which Piskawn is an equivalent.
Sheepshack and Pogquassick are record names in the vicinity of Lansingburgh. The first has not been located. It seems to stand for Tsheepenak, a place where the bulbous roots of the yellow lily were obtained—modern Abnaki, Sheep'nak. Pogquassick appears as the name of a "piece of woodland on the east side of the river, near an island commonly called Whale-fishing Island," correctly, Whalefish Island. [FN] This island is now overflowed by the raising of the water by the State dam at Lansingburgh. The Indian name does not belong to the woodland; it locates the tract near the island, in which connection it is probably an equivalent of Paugasuck, "A place at which a strait widens or opens out" (Trumbull), or where the narrow passage between the island and the main land begins to widen. In the same district Pogsquampacak is written as the name of a small creek flowing into Hoosick River.
[FN] "Whale-fishing Island" is a mistranslation of "Walvish Eiland" (Dutch), meaning simply "Whale Island." It is related by Van der Donck (1656) that during the great freshet of 1647, a number of whales ascended the river, one of which was stranded and killed on this island. Hence the name.
Wallumschack, so written in return of survey of patent granted to Cornelius van Ness and others, in 1738, for lands now in Washington County; Walloomscook, and other forms; now preserved in Walloomsac, as the name of a place, a district of country, and a stream flowing from a pond on the Green Mountains, in the town of Woodford, near Bennington, Vermont. [FN-1] It has not been specifically located, but apparently described a place on the adjacent hills where material was obtained for making paints with which the Indians daubed their bodies. (See Washiack.) It is from a generic root written in different dialects, Walla, Wara etc., meaning "Fine, handsome, good," etc., from which in the Delaware, Dr. Brinton derived WÁlÁm, "Painted, from the sense to be fine in appearance, to dress, which the Indians accomplished by painting their bodies," and -'ompsk (Natick), with the related meaning of standing or upright, the combination expressing "Place of the paint rocks." [FN-2] The ridges of many of the hills as well as of the mountains in the district are composed of slate, quartz, sandstone and limestone, which compose the Takonic system. By exposure the slate becomes disintegrated and forms an ochery clay of several colors, which the Indians used as paint. The washing away of the rock left the quartz exposed in the form of sharp points, which were largely used by the Indians for making axes, lance-heads, arrow points, etc. Some of the ochre beds have been extensively worked, and plumbago has also been obtained. White Creek, in the same county, takes that name from its white clay banks.
[FN-1] Vermont is from Verd Montagne (French), meaning "Green Mountains," presumably from their verdure, but actually from the appearance of the hills at a distance from the color of the rocks reflected in the atmosphere. To the Indian they were Wal'ompskeck, "fine, handsome rocks."
[FN-2] An interpretation of the name from the form Wallumscnaik, in Thompson's Hist. Vermont, states that "The termination 'chaik' signifies in the Dutch language, 'scrip.' or 'patent.'" This is erroneous. There is no such word as chaik in the Dutch language. The ch in the name here stands for k and belongs to 'ompsk.
Tomhenack, Tomhenuk, forms of the name given as that of a small stream flowing into the Hoosick from the north, [FN] takes that name, apparently, from an equivalent of Tomheganic, Mass., Tangamic, Del., a stone axe or tomahawk, referring to a place where suitable stones were obtained for making those implements. (Trumbull.) (See Wallumschack.)
[FN] "At a creek called Tomheenecks, beginning at the southerly bounds of Hoosick, and so running up southerly, on both sides of said creek, over the path which goes to Sanckhaick." (Cal. N.Y. Land Papers, 194; petition of John de Peyster, 1730.)
Tyoshoke, now the name of a church at San Coick, Rensselaer County, is probably from an equivalent of Toyusk, Nar., "a bridge," and ohke, "Place"—a place where the stream was crossed by a log forming a bridge. It was a well-known fording place for many years, and later became the site of Buskirk's Bridge.
Sanckhaick, now San Coick, a place in North Hoosick, Rensselaer County, appears of record in petition of John de Peyster in 1730, and in Indian deed to Cornelius van Ness and others, in 1732, for a certain tract of land "near a place called Sanckhaick." The place, as now known, is near the junction of White Creek and the Wallompskack, where one Van Schaick made settlement and built a mill at an early date. In 1754 his buildings were burned by Indian allies of the French. After the war of that period the mill was rebuilt and became conspicuous in the battle of Bennington, Aug. 16, 1777. It is claimed that the name is a corruption of Van Schaick. Col. Baume, commandant of the Hessians in the battle of Bennington (1777) wrote it Sancoik, which is very nearly Van Schaick.
Schaghticoke, now so written as the name of a town in the northeast corner of Rensselaer County, and in other connections, is from Pishgachtigok Mohegan, meaning "Land on the branch or division of a stream." The locative of the name was at the mouth of Hoosick River on the Hudson, in Washington County. The earliest record (1685) reads, "Land at SchautecÓgue" (-ohke). It is a generic name and appears in several forms and at several places. Pishgachtigok is a form on the west side of the Housatonic at and near the mouth of Ten-Mile River. It was the site of an Indian village and the scene of labor by the Moravian missionaries. In some cases the name is written with locative, "at," etc., in others, with substantive meaning land or place, and in others without suffix. Writes Mr. Gerard, "The name would probably be correctly written P'skaghtuk-uk," when with locative "at." [FN] Although first of record in 1685, its application was probably as early as 1675, when the Pennacooks of Connecticut, fleeing from the disastrous results of King Phillip's War in which they were allies, found refuge among their kindred Mahicans, and later were assigned lands at Schaghticoke by Governor Andros, where they were to serve as allies of the Mohawks. They seem to have spread widely over the district and to have left their footprints as far south as the Katskill. It is a tradition that conferences were held with them on a plain subsequently owned by Johannes Knickerbocker, some six miles east of the Hudson, and that a veritable treaty tree was planted there by Governor Andros in 1676-7, although "planting a tree" was a figurative expression. In later years the seat of the settlement seems to have been around Schaghticoke hill and point, where Mashakoes, their sachem, resided. (Annals of Albany, v, 149.) In the French and Indian war of 1756, the remnant of the tribe was carried away to Canada by the St. Francis Indians, an organization of kindred elements in the French service. At one time they are said to have numbered six hundred warriors. (See Shekomeko.)
[FN] The root of the name is Peske or Piske (Paske, Zeisb.), meaning, primarily, "To split," "To divide forcibly or abruptly." (Trumbull.) In Abnaki, PeskÉtekwa, a "divided tidal or broad river or estuary"—Peskahakan (Rale), "branche." In the Delaware, Zeisberger wrote Pasketiwi, "The division or branch of a stream." Pascataway, Md., is an equivalent form. Pasgatikook, Greene County, is from the Mohegan form. Paghataghan and Pachkataken, on the east branch of the Delaware, and Paghatagkam on the Otterkill, Vt., are equivalent forms of Peskahakan, Abnaki. The Hoosick is not only a principal branch, but it is divided at its mouth and at times presents the appearance of running north in the morning and south at night. (Fitch's Surv.)
Quequick and Quequicke are orthographies of the name of a certain fall on Hoosick River, in Rensselaer County. In petition of Maria van Rensselaer, in 1684, the lands applied for were described as "Lying on both sides of a certain creek called Hoosock, beginning at ye bounds of Schaakook, and so to a fall called Quequick, and thence upward to a place called Nachacqikquat." (Cal. Land Papers, 27.) The name may stand for Cochik'uack (Moh.), "Wild, dashing" waters, but I cannot make anything out of it. The first fall east of Schaakook (Schagticoke) Patent is now known as Valley Falls, in the town of Pittstown (Pittstown Station).
Pahhaoke, a local name in Hoosick Valley, is probably an equivalent of Pauqna-ohke, "Clear land," "open country." It is frequently met in Connecticut in different forms, as in Pahqui-oke, Paquiag, etc., the name of Danbury Plains. The form here is said to be from the Stockbridge dialect, but it is simply an orthography of an English scribe. It has no relation whatever to the familiar Schaghticoke or Scat'acook.
Panhoosick, so written in Indian deed to Van Rensselaer in 1652, for a tract of land lying north and east of the present city of Troy, extending north to nearly opposite Kahoes Falls and east including a considerable section of Hoosick River, appears in later records as an apheresis in Hoosick, Hoosack, and Hoosuck, in application to Hoosick River, Hoosick Mountains, Hoosick Valley, Hoosick Falls, and in "Dutch Hossuck," an early settlement described in petition of Hendrick van Ness and others, in 1704, as "land granted to them by Governor Dongan in 1688, known by the Indian name of Hoosack." (Cal. N.Y. Land Papers, 27, 74.) The head of the stream appears to have been the outlet of a lake now called Pontoosuc from the name of a certain fall on its outlet called Pontoosuck, "A corruption," wrote Dr. Trumbull, "of Powntucksuck, 'falls of a brook,' or outlet." "Powntuck, a general name for all falls," according to Indian testimony quoted by the same writer. "Pantuck, falls of a stream." (Zeisb.) Several interpretations of the name have been suggested, of which the most probably correct is from Massachusetts Pontoosuck, which would readily be converted to Hoosick or Panhoosick (Pontoosuck). It was applicable to any falls, and may have had locative at Hoosick Falls as well as on the outlet of Pontoosuck Lake. Without examination or warrant from the local dialect, Heckewelder wrote in his Lenape tradition, "The Hairless or Naked Bear": "Hoosink, which means the basin, or more properly, the kettle." The Lenape or Delaware Hoos, "certainly means, in that dialect, 'a pot or kettle.' Figuratively, it might be applied to a kettle-shaped depression in land or to a particular valley. Hoosink means 'in' or 'at' the pot or kettle. Hoosack might be read 'round valley land,' or land with steep sides." (Brinton.) Of course this does not explain the prefix Pan, nor does it prove that Hoos was in the local dialect, which, in 1652, was certainly Mahican or Mohegan. Still, it cannot be said that the tradition was not familiar to all Algonquians in their mythical lore.
Heckewelder's tradition, "The Naked or Hairless Bear," has its culmination at a place "lying east of the Hudson," where the last one of those fabulous animals was killed. "The story," writes Dr. Brinton, "was that the bear was immense in size and the most vicious of animals. Its skin was bare except a tuft of white hair on the back. It attacked and ate the natives and the only means of escape from it was to take to the waters. Its sense of smell was remarkably keen, but its sight was defective. As its heart was very small, it could not be easily killed. The surest plan was to break its back-bone; but so dangerous was it that those hunters who went in pursuit of it bade families and friends farewell, as if they never expected to return. The last one was tracked to Hoosink, and a number of hunters went there and mounted a rock with precipitous sides. They then made a noise and attracted the beast's attention, who rushed to the attack with great fury. As he could not climb the rock, he tore at it with his teeth, while the hunters above shot him with arrows and threw upon him great stones, and thus killed him." [FN]
[FN] "The Lenape and their Legends."
The Hoosick River flows from its head, near Pittsfield, Berkshire County, in Massachusetts, through the Petersburgh Mountains between precipitous hills, and carries its name its entire length. Fort Massachusetts, in the present town of Adams, Mass., was on its borders and in some records was called Fort Hoosick. It was captured by the French and their Indians in 1746. The general course of the stream is north, west, and south to the Hudson in the northwest corner of Rensselaer County, directly opposite the village of Stillwater, Saratoga County. There are no less than three falls on its eastern division, of which the most considerable are Hoosick Falls, where the stream descends, in rapids and cascades, forty feet in a distance of twelve rods. Dr. Timothy Dwight, who visited it in the early part of the 19th century, described it as "One of the most beautiful rivers in the world." "At different points," he wrote, "The mountains extend their precipitous declivities so as to form the banks of the river. Up these precipitous summits rise a most elegant succession of forest trees, chiefly maple, beech and evergreens. There are also large spots and streaks of evergreens, chiefly hemlock and spruce." Though, with a single exception, entered in English records by the name of "Hoosick or Schaahkook's Creek," it was, from the feature which especially attracted Dr. Dwight's attention, known to the Iroquois as the Ti-oneenda-howe, or "The river at the hemlocks." [FN]
[FN] See Saratoga. Ti-oneenda-howe was applied by the Mohawks to the Hoosick, and Ti-ononda-howe to the Batten Kill as positive boundmarks, the former from its hemlock-clad hills (onenda), and the latter from its conical hills (ononda). The late Horatio Hale wrote me: "Ti-ononda-howe is evidently a compound term involving the word ononda (or ononta), 'hill or mountain.' Ti-oneenda-howe, in like manner, includes the word onenda (or onenta), 'hemlock.' There may have been certain notable hills or hemlocks which as landmarks gave names to the streams or located them. The final syllables howe, are uncertain." (See Di-ononda-howe.)
Cossayuna, said to be from the Mohawk dialect and to signify "Lake of the pines," is quoted as the name of a lake in the town of Argyle, Washington County. The translation is correct, substantially, but the name is Algonquian—a corruption of Coossa, "Pine," [FN] and Gummee, "Lake," or standing water. The terms are from the Ojibway dialect, and were probably introduced by Dr. Schoolcraft.
[FN] It is of record that "the borders of Hudson's River above Albany, and the Mohawk River at Schenectady," were known, in 1710, as "the best places for pines of all sorts, both for numbers and largeness of trees." (Doc. Hist. N.Y., iii, 656.) Mass. Kowas-'ktugh, "pine tree." The name is met in many orthographies.
Anaquassacook, the name of a patent in Washington County, and also of a village and of a stream of water, was, primarily, the name of a boundmark. The locative has not been ascertained. Anakausuk-ook, "At the end of a course," or as far the brook.
Podunk, a brook so called in the town of Fort Ann, Washington County, is met in several other places. (See Potunk, L. I.) Its meaning has not been ascertained.
Quatackquaohe, entered on Pownal's map as the name of a tract of land on the south side of a stream, has explanation in the accompanying entry, "Waterquechey, or Quatackquaohe." Waterquechey (English) means "Moist boggy ground," indicating that Quatackquaohe is an equivalent of Petuckquiohke, Mass., "Round-land place," i.e. elevated hassocks of earth, roots, etc. The explanation by Gov. Pownal may supply a key to the translation of other names now interpreted indefinitely.
Di-ononda-howe, a name now assigned to the falls on the Batten Kill below Galeville, Washington County, is Iroquoian and of original application to the stream itself as written in the Schuyler Patent. It is a compound descriptive of the locality of the creek, the reference being to the conical hills on the south side of the stream near the Hudson, on one of which was erected old Fort Saratoga. The sense is, "Where a hill interposes," between the object spoken of and the speaker. The late Superintendent of the Bureau of Ethnology, Prof. J. W. Powell, wrote me: "From the best expert information in this office, it may be said that the phonetic value of the final two syllables howe is far from definite; but assuming that they are equivalent to huwi (with the European vowel values), the word-sentence Di-ononda-howe means, 'There it has interposed (a) mountain,' Written in the Bureau alphabet, the word-sentence would be spelled Ty-ononde-huwi. It is descriptive of the situation of the creek, but not of the creek itself, and is applicable to any mountain or high hill which appears between a speaker and some other object." (See Hoosick.)
Caniade-rioit is given as the name of Lake George, and "The tail of the lake" as the definition, "on account of its connection with Lake Champlain." (Spofford's Gazetteer.) Father Jogues, who gave to the lake the name "Lac de Saint Sacrament" (Lake of the Holy Sacrament), in 1645, wrote the Mohawk name, Andiato-rocte (French notation), with the definition, "There where the lake shuts itself in," the reference being to the north end of the lake at the outlet. This definition is not far from a correct reading of the suffix octe (okte, Bruyas), meaning "end," or, in this connection, "Where the lake ends." Caniade, a form of Kaniatare, is an Iroquoian generic, meaning "lake." The lake never had a specific name. Horicon, which some writers have endeavored to attach to it, does not belong to it. It is not Iroquoian, does not mean "north," nor does it mean "lake" or "silver water," [FN] The present name was conferred by Sir William Johnson, in honor of King George III, of England.
[FN] Horikans was written by De Laet, in 1624, as the name of an Indian tribe living at the head waters of the Connecticut. On an ancient map Horicans is written in Lat. 41, east of the Narragansetts on the coast of New England. In the same latitude Moricans is written west of the Connecticut, and Horikans on the upper Connecticut in latitude 42. Morhicans is the form on Carte Figurative of 1614-16, and Mahicans by the Dutch on the Hudson. The several forms indicate that the tribe was the Moricans or Mourigans of the French, the Maikans or Mahikans of the Dutch and the Mohegans of the English. It is certain that that tribe held the headwaters of the Connecticut as well as of the Hudson. The novelist, Cooper, gave life to De Laet's orthography in his "Last of the Mohegans."
Ticonderoga, familiar as the name of the historic fortress at Lake George, was written by Sir William Johnson, in 1756, Tionderogue and Ticonderoro, and in grant of lands in 1760, "near the fort at Ticonderoga." Gov. Golden wrote Ticontarogen, and an Iroquoian sachem is credited with Decariaderoga. Interpretations are almost as numerous as orthographies. The most generally quoted is from Spofford's Gazetteer: "Ticonderoga, from Tsindrosie, or Cheonderoga, signifying 'brawling water,' and the French name, Carillon, signifying 'a chime of bells,' were both suggested by the rapids upon the outlet of Lake George." The French name may have been so suggested, but neither Tsindrosie or Cheonderoga means "brawling water." The latter is probably an orthography of Teonderoga. Ticonderoga as now written, is from Te or Ti, "dual," two; Kaniatare, "lake," and -ogen, "intervallum, divisionem" (Bruyas), the combination meaning, literally, "Between two lakes." Horatio Hale wrote me of one of the forms: "Dekariaderage, in modern orthography, Tekaniataroken, from which Ticonderoga, means, simply, 'Between two lakes.' It is derived from Tioken, 'between,' and Kaniatara, 'lake.' Its composition illustrates a peculiar idiom of the Iroquoian language, Tioken when combined with a noun, is split in two, so to speak, and the noun inserted. Thus in combining Tioken with Ononte, 'mountain,' we have Ti-ononte-oken, 'Between two mountains,' which was the name of one of the Mohawk castles—sometimes written Theonondiogo. In like manner, Kaniatare, 'lake,' thus compounded, yields Te-kaniatare-oken, 'Between two lakes.' In the Huron dialect Kaniatare is contracted to Yontare or Ontare, from which, with io or iyo, 'great,' we get Ontario (pronounced Ontareeyo), 'Great lake' which, combined with Tioken, becomes Ti-onteroken, which would seem to be the original of Colden's Tieronderoga."
There is rarely an expression of humor in the use of Indian place-names, but we seem to have it in connection with Dekariaderoga, one of the forms of Ticonderoga quoted above, which is of record as having been applied to Joseph Chew, Secretary of Indian Affairs, at a conference with chiefs of the Six Nations. (Col. Hist. N.Y., viii, 501.) Said the sachem who addressed Secretary Chew, "We call you Dekariaderoga, the junction of two lakes of different qualities of water," presumably expressing thereby, in keeping with the entertainment usually served on such occasions, that the Secretary was in a condition between "water and firewater." Neither "junction" or "quality of water" are expressed in the composition, however; but perhaps are related meanings.
Caniade-riguarunte is given by Governor Pownal as the Iroquoian name of Lake Champlain, with the legend, "The Lake that is the gate of the country." (Doc. Hist. N.Y., iii, 1190.) The lake was the route taken by the Algonquians of Canada in their forays against the Mohawks. Later, it became a link in the great highway of travel and commerce between New York and Quebec, via. Hudson's River, in which connection it was literally "The gate of the country." The legend is not an interpretation of the Iroquoian name, however. In the French missionary spelling the generic word for "lake" is Kaniatare of which Caniaderi is an English notation. The suffix -guarÛnte, in connection with Caniaderi, gives to the combination the meaning, "A lake that is part of another lake." (J. B. N. Hewitt.) The suffix is readily confused with Karonta, or -garonta (Mohawk), meaning "tree," from which, probably, Fennimore Cooper's "Lake of the Woods." "Lake of the Iroquois," entered on early maps, does not mean that when Champlain visited it in 1609 it was owned by the Iroquois, but that it was the route from Quebec to the Iroquois country.
On Long Island.
Matouwackey, Sewanhackey and Paumanackey, in varying orthographies, are names of record for Long Island, derived from Meitauawack (MetaÛhock, Nar.), the name of the shell-fish from which the Indians made the shell-money in use among them, [FN-1] called by English Peag, from Wau-paaeek [FN-2] (Moh.), "white," and by the Dutch Sewan or Zeewan, [FN-3] from SewaÛn (Moh.), Sueki (Nar.), "black." This money was both white and black (so called), the latter the most rare and valuable. It was in use by the Europeans as a medium of trade with the Indians, as well as among themselves, by the Indians especially for the manufacture of their historic peace, tribute, treaty and war belts, called Paumaunak (Pau-pau-me-numwe, Mass.), "an offering." [FN-4] Meitouowack, the material, Waupoaeek and SewaÛn, the colors; Paumanack, the use, "an offering." The suffix of either term (hock, hagki, hackee) is generic for shell—correctly, "An ear-shaped shell." (Trumbull.) Substantially, by the corruption of the suffix to hacki (Del.), "land" or place, the several terms, as applied to the island, have the meaning, "The shell island," or "Place of shells." De Laet wrote, in 1624: "At the entrance of this bay are situated several islands, or broken land, on which a nation of savages have their abode, who are called Matouwacks; they obtain a livelihood by fishing within the bay, whence the most easterly point of the land received the name of Fisher's Hook and also Cape de Bay." Van der Donck entered on his map, "t' Lange Eyland, alias, Matouwacks." "Situate on the island called by the Indians Sewanhacky." (Deed of 1636.) "Called in ye Indian tongue Suanhackey." (Deed of 1639.) Than these entries there is no claim that the island ever had a specific name, and that those quoted were from shells and their uses is clear. Generically the island was probably known to the Minsi and neighboring tribes as Menatey, "The island," as stated by Dr. Trumbull; smaller islands being known as Menatan, from which Manathan and Manhatan. The occupants of the island were a distinct group of Algonquian stock, speaking on the east a dialect more or less of the Massachusetts type, and on the west that known as Monsey-Lenape, both types, however, being largely controlled by the Dutch and the English orthographies in which local notings appear. They were almost constantly at war with the Pequods and Narragansetts, but there is no evidence that they were ever conquered, and much less that they were conquered by the Iroquois, to whom they paid tribute for protection in later years, as they had to the Pequods and to the English; nor is there evidence that their intercourse with the river tribes immediately around them was other than friendly.
[FN-1] "Meteauhock, the Periwinkle of which they made their wampum." (Williams.) "Perhaps derived from Mehtauog, 'Ear-shaped,' with the generic suffix hock (hogki, hackee), 'shell.'" (Trumbull.)
[FN-2] Wompompeag is another form quoted as Mohegan, from which Wompum. "Wompom, which signifies white." (Roger Williams.)
[FN-3] Seahwhoog, "they are scattered." (Eliot.) "From this word the Dutch traders gave the name of Sewan, or Zeawand, to all shell money; just as the English called all Peag, or strung beads, by the name of the white, Wampum." (Trumbull.)
[FN-4] An interpretation of Paumanack as indicating a people especially under tribute, is erroneous. The belts which they made were in universal use among the nations as an offering, the white belts denoting good, as peace, friendship, etc., the black, the reverse. The ruling sachem, or peace-chief, was the keeper and interpreter of the belts of his nation, and his place sometimes took its name from that fact. That several of the sachems did sign their names, or that their names were signed by some one for them, "Sachem of Pammananuck," proves nothing in regard to the application of that name to the island.
Wompenanit is of record as the name of "the utmost end eastward" of the Montauk Peninsula. The description reads: "From the utmost end of the neck eastward, called Wompenanit, to our utmost bound westward, called Napeake." (Deed of July 11, 1661.) In other papers Wompenonot and Wompenomon, corrupted orthographies. The meaning is "The utmost end eastward," i.e. from the east side of Napeake to the extreme end. The derivatives are Nar. Wompan (from Wompi, white, bright), "It is full daylight, bright day," hence the Orient, the East, the place of light, and -anit, "To be more than," extending beyond the ordinary limit. The same word appears in WompanÁnd, "The Eastern God" (Williams), the deity of light. From Wompi, also Wapan in Wapanachkik, "Those of the eastern region," now written Abanaqui and Abnaki, and confined to the remnant of a tribe in Maine. (See Wahamanesing,) Dr. Trumbull wrote: "Anit, the subjunctive participle of a verb which signifies 'To be more than,' 'to surpass'"; with impersonal M prefixed, Manit, as in Manitou, a name given by the Indians, writes Lahontan, "To all that passes their understanding"; hence interpreted by Europeans, "God." It has no such meaning in Wompenanit, but defined a limit that was "more than," or the extreme limits of the island. No doubt, however, the Indians saw, as do visitors of to-day, at the utmost end of the Montauk Peninsula, in its breast of rock against which the ocean-waves dash with fearful force; its glittering sun-light and in its general features, a WompanÁnd, or Eastern God, that which was "more than ordinary, wonderful, surpassing," but those features are not referred to in Wompenanit, except, perhaps, as represented by the glittering sun-light, the material emblem of the mystery of light—"where day-light appears."
Montauk, now so written—in early orthographies Meantacut, Meantacquit, etc.—was not the name of the peninsula to which it is now applied, but was extended to it by modern Europeans from a specific place. The extreme end was called by the Indians Wompenanit, and the point, NÂÏag, "Corner, point or angle," from which Adriaen Block wrote, in 1614, Nahicans, "People around the point," a later Dutch navigator adding (War Dep. Map) the topographical description, Nartong, "A barren, ghastly tongue." The name has had several interpretations by Algonquian students, but without entire satisfaction even to themselves. Indeed, it may be said with truth, "It has been too much translated" to invite further study with the hope of a better result. The orthography usually quoted for interpretation appears first in South Hampton Records in an Indian deed of 1640, "Manatacut, his X mark," the grantor being given the name of the place which he represented, as appears from the same records (1662), "Wyandanch, Meantacut sachem," or sachem of Meantac. The Indian deed reads: "The neck of land commonly known by the name of Meantacquit, . . . Unto the east side of Napeak, next unto Meantacut high lands." In other words the high lands bounded the place called Meantacqu, the suffix -it or -ut meaning "at" that place. The precise place referred to was then and is now a marsh on which is a growth of shrub pines, and cedars. Obviously, therefore, Meantac or Meantacqu, is an equivalent of Mass. Manantac, "Spruce swamp," and of Del. MenÁntac, "Spruce, cedar or pine swamp." (Zeisb.) The Abn. word MannandakÔÔ, "cedar" (Mass. -u?tugh; Nar. Áwtuck), seems to establish conclusively that -Ántak was the general generic suffix for all kinds of coniferous trees, and with the prefix Men, Man, Me, etc., described small or dwarf coniferous trees usually found growing in swamps, and from which swamps took the name. [FN] There is nothing in the name or in its corruptions that means "point," "high lands," "place of observation," "fort," "fence," or "confluence"; it simply describes dwarf coniferous trees and the place which they marked. The swamp still exists, and the dwarf trees also at the specific east bound of the lands conveyed. (See Napeak.)
[FN] The Indians had specific names for different kinds of trees. The generic general word was Me'hittuk or M'hittugk, Del., M'tugh, Mass., which, as a suffix, was reduced to -ittuk, -utugh, -tagh, -tack, -tacque, etc., frequently ak, which is the radical. Howden writes in Cree: "Atik is the termination for the names of trees, articles made of wood," etc. Mash-antack-uk, Moh., was translated by Dr. Trumbull from Mish-untugh-et, Mass., "Place of much wood." Mannandakoo is quoted as the Abn. word for "cedar;" MishquÁwtuck, Nar., "Red cedar." MenÁntachk, "Swamp" (Len. Eng. Dic.), is explained by Rev. Anthony, "with trees meeting above." Menautac, "Spruce, cedar or pine swamp" (Zeisb.), from the kind of trees growing in the swamp, but obviously antac never described a swamp, or trees growing in swamps, without the prefix Men, Man, Me, etc. Keht-antak means a particularly large tree which probably served as a boundmark. It may be a question if the initial a in antak was not nasal, as in Abn., but there can be none in regard to the meaning of the suffix.
Napeak, East Hampton deed of 1648, generally written Napeaka, Neppeage and Napeague, and applied by Mather (Geological Survey) to a beach and a marsh, and in local records to the neck connecting Montauk Point with the main island, means "Water land," or "Land overflowed by water." The beach extends some five miles on the southeast coast of Long Island. The marsh spreads inland from the beach nearly across the neck where it meets Napeak Harbor on the north coast. It is supposed to have been, in prehistoric times, a water-course which separated the island from the point. Near the eastern limit are patches of stunted pines and cedars, and on its east side at the end of what are called the "Nominick hills," where was obviously located the boundmark of the East Hampton deed, "Stunted pines and cedars are a feature," wrote Dr. Tooker in answer to inquiry. (See Montauk.)
Quawnotiwock, is quoted in French's Gazetteer as the name of Great Pond; authority not cited. Prime (Hist. L. I.) wrote: "The Indian name of the pond is unknown." The pond is two miles long. It is situate where the Montauk Peninsula attains its greatest width, and is the largest body of fresh water on the island. It would be correctly described by Quinne or Quawnopaug, "Long pond," but certainly not by Quawnotiwock, the animate plural suffix -wock, showing that it belonged to the people—"People living on the Long River." [FN] (See Quantuck and Connecticut.)
[FN] The suffix -og, -ock, -uck, is, in the dialect here, a plural sign. Williams wrote -oock, -uock, -wock, and Zeisberger wrote -ak, -wak. Quinneh-tuk-wock, "People living on the Long River"—"a particular name amongst themselves." Kutch-innÛ-wock, "Middle-aged men;" Miss-innÛ-wock, "The many." LÉnno, "Man"; LÉnno-wak, "Men." (Zeisberger.) Kuwe, "Pine"; Cuweuch-ak, "pine wood, pine logs." Strictly, an animate plural. In the Chippeway dialect, Schoolcraft gives eight forms of the animate and eight forms of 'the inanimate plural. The Indians regarded many things as animates that Europeans do not.
Assup, given as the name of a neck of land—"A tree marked X hard by the northward side of a cove of meadow"—means "A cove." It is an equivalent of AucÛp (Williams), "A little cove or creek." "Aspatuck river" is also of record here, and probably takes that name from a hill or height in proximity. "Aspatuck hill," New Millford, Conn.
Shinnecock, now preserved as the name of an Indian village in the town of Southampton, on the east side of Shinnec'ock Bay, for many years in occupation by a remnant of the so called Shinnec'ock Indians who had taken on the habits and customs of European life, appears in its present form in Plymouth Records in 1637, in treaty association with the Massachusetts government. They claimed to be the "true owners of the eastern end of Long Island," but acknowledged the primacy of Wyandanch, sachem of the Montauks, who had been elected by other sachems as chief sachem or the "sachem of sachem" of the many clans. The name is probably from the root Shin, or Schind, "Spruce-pine" (Zeisb.); Schindikeu, "Spruce-pine forest"; Shinak-ing, "At the land of spruce-pines." (Brinton); Schindak-ock, "Land or place of spruce-pines." There was an extended spruce-pine forest on that part of the island, a considerable portion of which remains in the district south of Peconic River in the town of Southampton. The present form of the name is pronounced Shinnec'ock.
Mochgonnekonck is written, in 1643, as the name of a place unlocated except in a general way. The record reads: "Whiteneymen, sachem of Mochgonnekonck, situate on Long Island." (Col. Hist. N.Y., xiv, 60.) Whiteneymen, whose name is written Mayawetinnemin in treaty of 1645, and "Meantinnemen, alias Tapousagh, chief of Marsepinck and Rechawyck," in 1660 (Col. Hist. N.Y., xiii, 58), was son of Mechowodt, sachem of Marsepingh, and probably succeeded his father as sachem of that clan. (Col. Hist. N.Y., xiv, 540.) His last possession was Cow Neck, in the present town of North Hampton, which was given to him by his father; it may have been the Mochgonnekonk of 1643. De Vries met him in conference in 1645, and notes him as a speaker of force, and as having only one eye. Brodhead wrote of him: "Kieft, therefore, by the advice of his council determined to engage some of the friendly Indians in the interest of the Dutch, and Whiteneymen, the sachem of Mochgonnecocks, on Long Island, was dispatched, with several of his warriors, 'to beat and destroy the hostile tribes.' The sachem's diplomacy, however, was better than his violence. In a few days he returned to Fort Amsterdam bearing friendly messages from the sachems along the Sound and Near Rockaway," and a formal treaty of peace soon followed. He was elected "sachem of sachems" by the sachems of the western clans on the island, about the time the jurisdiction of the island was divided between the English at New Haven and the Dutch at Manhattan, the former taking the eastern clans under Wyandanch, and as such appears in the treaties with the Dutch in 1645, '56—His record name is variously written—Tapousagh, Tackapousha, etc. It is frequently met in Long Island Records. Mochgonneckonck the name of his sachemdom in 1643, has not been identified further than that he was the owner of Cow Neck, now called Manhasset (Manhas'et), Queens County, the largest neck or point of land on the coast.
Quaunontowunk, Quannotowonk, Konkhonganik and Konghonganoc, are forms of two distinct names applied respectively to the north and south ends of Fort Pond, as per deed for the tract known as "the Hither Woods purchase," which reads: "The name of the pond is Quaunontowunk on the north and Konkhonganik on the south." Dr. Tooker translated the former from QuaneuntÉow-unk, (Eliot), "Where the fence is," the reference being to a certain fence of lopped trees which existed on the north end of the pond, [FN-1] and the latter from Kuhkunhunganash (Eliot), "bounds," "At the boundary place." The present name of the pond is from two Indian forts, one known as the Old Fort, on the west, and one known as the New Fort, on the east, the latter remaining in 1661, the former destroyed, the deed reading, "Where the Old Fort stood." Wyandanch, [F-2] "the sachem of Manatacut,"—later called "The great sachem of Montauk"—had his residence in the Old Fort. He was the first ruler of the Montauks known to the Dutch, his name appearing in 1637. (See Montauk.)
[FN-1] The deed reads: "The north fence from the pond to the sea, shall be kept by the town; the south fence, to the sea, by the Indians." Presumably the fences were there when the land was sold.
[FN-2] Wyandach, or Wyandance, is said to have been the brother of Paggatacut, sachem of Manhas'set or Shelter Island, the chief sachem of fifteen sachemdoms. On the death of the latter, in 1651, Wyandanch became, by election, the successor of his brother and held the office until his death by poison in 1659.
Mastic, preserved as the name of a river and also as that of a village in Brookhaven, is of uncertain meaning. Wampmissic, the name of another village, is supposed to have been the name of a swamp—Mass. Wompaskit, "At or in the swamp, or marsh."
Poosepatuck, a place so called and now known as the Indian Reservation, back of Forge River at Mastick, probably means "On the other side," or "Beyond the river," from Awossi, "Over, over there, on the other side, beyond," and -tuck, "Tidal river."
Speonk, the name of a village in Southampton near East Bay, on an inlet of the ocean, to which flows through the village a small brook, has lost some of its letters. Mas-sepe-onk would describe a place on a broad tidal river or estuary. In the same vicinity Setuck is of record as the name of a place. It may also be from Mas-sepe-tuck. (See Southampton Records.) While the English settlers on eastern Long Island were careful to preserve Indian names, they were very careless in orthographies.
Poquatuck is quoted by Thompson (Hist. L. I.) as the name of Oyster Pond in the town of Southold. It is now claimed as the name of Orient, a village, peninsula or neck of land and harbor on the east side of the pond. Probably from Pohqu'unantak, "Cleared of trees," a marshy neck which had been cleared or was naturally open. The same name is met in Brookhaven.
Cataconoche, given as the name of the Great Neck bounding Smithtown on the east, has been translated by Dr. Tooker from Kehte-komuk, "Greatest field," later known as the Old Man's Field, or Old Field.
Yaphank, Yamphank, etc., a village in Brookhaven, is from Niantic dialect in which Y is used for an initial letter where other dialects employ L, N or R. Putting the lost vowel e back in the word, we have YapehÁnek, in Lenape RapehÁnek, "Where the stream ebbs and flows." The name is written Yampkanke in Indian deed. (Gerard.) The name is now applied to a small tributary of the Connecticut, but no doubt belongs to a place on the Connecticut where the current is affected by the tide. (See Connecticut.)
Monowautuck is quoted as the Indian name of Mount Sinai, a village in the town of Brookhaven, a rough and stony district on what is known as Old Man's Bay, a small estuary surrounded by a salt-marsh meadow. The name seems to be an equivalent of Nunnawanguck, "At the dry land." Old Man's Bay takes that name from the Great Neck called Cataconche, otherwise known as the Old Man's Meadow, and as the Old Field. "The two neckes or hoeces (hooks) of meadow that lieth next beyond the Old Man's Meadow"—"with all ye privileges and appurtenances whatsoever, unto the Old Field." Presumably Man's was originally Manse (English), pronounced Mans, "the dwelling of a landholder with the land attached," and called Old because it was the first land or field purchased. (See Cataconche.)
Connecticut, now so written and of record Connetquoit, etc, is not the name of the stream to which it is applied, but of the land on both sides of it. It is an equivalent of Quinnituckquet, "Long-river land," as in Connecticut. (Trumbull.) Quinnituk, "Long river"; with locative -et or -it, "Land or place on the long-river." The stream is the outlet of Ronkonkoma Lake, and flows south to Fire-place Bay, where the name is of primary record. There were two streams to which it was applied; one is a small stream in Islip, and the other, the largest stream on the island, as described above. In old deeds it is called East Connecticutt. Fire-place is now retained as the name of a village on Bellport Bay, and its ancient locative on the Connecticut is now called South Haven. [FN]
[FN] There were two places bearing the name of Fire-place, one on the north side of the island on Gardiner's Bay, and one on the south side. The latter is referred to here.
Minasseroke, quoted as the name of Little Neck, town of Brookhaven, probably means "Small-stone land" or place—Min-assin-ohke, r and n exchanged.
Patchogue, Pochough, Pachough, the name of a village in the town of Brookhaven, Suffolk County, on Patchough Bay, is probably met in Pochaug, Conn., which Dr. Trumbull read from PohshÂog, where two streams form one river, signifying, "Where they divide in two." The name was early extended to a clan known as the Pochoughs, later Patchoogues, who seem to have been a family of the Onchechaugs, a name probably the equivalent of OngkouÉ (Moh.), "beyond," with -ogue (ohke), "land beyond," i.e. beyond the bay. [FN] (See Moriches.)
[FN] Otherwise written Unquetauge—"land lying at Unquetauge, on the south side of Long Island, in the county of Suffolk." Literally, "Land beyond;" "on the further side of; in the same direction as, and further on or away than." Onckeway, a place beyond Stamford, on Connecticut river. (Col. Hist. N.Y.) "OngkouÉ, beyond Pequannuc river." (Trumbull.)
Cumsequogue is given in will of William Tangier Smith as the name of what is now known as Carman's River, flowing to Bellport Bay. It is probably a pronunciation of Accomb-suck-ohke, "Land or place at the outlet beyond." The record name of Bellport is Occombomeck, Accobamuck, etc., meaning, "Fishing-place beyond," which, as the deeds show, was a fishing-place at a freshwater pond, now dried up. The name is readily confused with Aquebogue.
Moriches, a neck of land "lying at Unquetague, on the south side of Long Island, being two necks called by ye names of Mariges and Namanock" (Cal. N.Y. Land Papers, 45), is now in the town of Brookhaven. Namanock seems, from the locative, to be a corruption of Nam'e-ohke, "Fish-place"—Namanock or Namecock. (Trumbull.) [FN] Moriches, or Mariges, is a corruption of Dutch Maritches (Morichi, Mariche), from Moriche Palmita (Latin), meaning, in popular use, any plant thought to resemble a palm. Mauritia a species of MauriticÆ, or South-American palm, so called in honor of Prince Maurice of Nassau. (See Palmagat.)
[FN] Namaus, generic, "a fish"—Namohs, Eliot; NamÉs, Abn., Namaes, Heck.; Namees, Zeisb.; with suffix -aki, -ohke, etc., "fish-land," place or country. AmÉessok, Zeisb.; Anmesooak, Abn., AumsÛog, Mass., "small fishes." As a generic suffix, -ama'ug, Mass., -ama'uk, Del., "fishing-place." "Ama'ug is only used at the end of a compound name, where it is equivalent to Nameaug, at the beginning." (Trumbull.) The final syllable, -ug, -uk, etc., is an animate plural. On Long Island, -Ama'ug is frequently met in -amuck; in other places, -amwack, -amwook, -ameock, etc.
Kitchaminchoke, given as the name of a boundmark, said to be Moriches Island, is interpreted by Dr. Tooker, "The beginning place." The description (1630) reads, "Beginning at" a place called, i.e. an object or feature which would definitely locate a boundmark—apparently an equivalent of Schiechi-kiminschi-aki, Lenape, "Place of a soft-maple tree." The territory conveyed extended to Enaughquamuck, which Dr. Tooker rendered correctly, "As far as the fishing-place."
Niamug and Niamuck are forms of the name of what is now known as Canoe Place, on the south side of Long Island, near Southampton. "Niamug, the place where the Indians haul over their canoes out of the North Bay to the South Bay." (Deed of 1640.) Dr. Trumbull translated from NÔe-amuck, "Between the fishing places." Local tradition affirms that centuries ago the Indians made a canal here for the purpose of passing their canoes from Mecox Bay to Paconic Bay. Mongotucksee, the hero of the story, was a chieftain who reigned over the Montauks in the days of their pride and power. The tradition has no other merit than the fact that Niamug was a place at which canoes were hauled across the island.
Sicktew-hacky (deed of 1638); Sicketewackey (Van der Donck, 1656): "All the lands from Rockaway eastward to Sicktew-hackey, or Fire Island Bay"; "On the south coast of Long Island, at a place called Sicktewacky, or Secontague, near Fire Island Inlet" (Brodhead); Seaquetauke, 1659; Setauck Neck, the south bound of St. George's Manor, now Manorville; of record as the name of an Indian clan and village near Fire Island Inlet, with the Marsapinks and Nyacks for neighbors; now preserved in several forms of which Setauket probably locates a place near Secontague. Sicketeuhacky, writes Mr. Gerard, "is the Lenape equivalent of Secatogue, meaning 'Burned-over land.' Whether the mainland or Fire Island was the 'Burned-over land,' history does not tell us." Lands were burned over by the Indians to destroy the bushes and coarse grasses, and probably some field of this character was referred to by the Indian grantors, from which the name was extended to the Neck and to Fire Island, although it is said that fires were kindled on the island for the guidance of fishermen.
Saghtekoos—"called by the native Indians Saghtekoos; by the Christians Appletree Neck"—the name of the Thompson estate in Islip—probably means, "Where the stream branches or divides," or "At the branch," referring to Thompson's brook. The suffix -oos evidently stands for "small." (See Sohaghticoke.) "Apple-tree Neck" is not in the composition, but may indicate that the Indian owners had planted apple trees there.
Amagansett, the Indian name of what is now East Hampton, was translated by Dr. Trumbull, "At or near the fishing place"; root Am, "to take by the mouth"; Amau, "he fishes"; Abn., Amangan, "ou pÉche lÁ," "he fishes there," (Rasles); s, diminutive or derogatory; ett, "Near or about," that is, the tract was near a small or inferior fishing-place, which is precisely what the composition describes.
Peconic, now so written and applied to Peconic Bay and Peconic River, but primarily to a place "at the head of the river," or as otherwise described, "Land from ye head of ye bay or Peaconnack, was Shinnec'ock Indians' Land" (Col. Hist. N.Y., xiv, 600), is not the equivalent of Peqan'nuc, "a name common to all cleared land," as translated by Dr. Trumbull, but the name given as that of a small creek tributary to Peconic River, in which connection it is of record Pehick-konuk, which, writes Mr. Gerard, "plainly stands for K'pe-hickonuk, or more properly Kepehikanik, 'At the barrier,' or weir. Kepehikan from Kepehike, 'he closes up,' or obstructs, i.e. 'dams.'" The bounds of the Shinnec'ock Indians extended east to this stream; or, as the record reads, "To a river where they did use to catch the fish commonly called alewives, the name of which creek was Pehickkonuk, or Peconic." (Town Records.)
Agwam, Agawam, is quoted by French as the name of Southampton, L. I. Dr. Trumbull wrote: "Acawan, Agawan or Auquan, a name given to several localities in New England Where there are low meadows—a low meadow or marsh." Presumably from Agwu, "Underneath, below." Another authority writes: "Agawam from Magawamuk, A great fishing place." (See Machawameck.)
Sunquams is given by French as the Indian name of Mellville in Southampton, L. I., with the interpretation, "Sweet Hollow." The interpretation is mere guess-work.
Massaback, a hill so called in Huntington, Suffolk County—in English "Half hill," and in survey (1703) "Half-hollow hill"—probably does not belong to the hill which the English described as "half-hollow," but to a stream in proximity to it—Massabeset, "At a (relatively) great brook." (Trumbull.)
Mattituck, the name of a village in Southold, near the west end of the town, was primarily written as that of a tract of land including the present town of Riverhead, from which it was extended to a large pond between Peconic Bay and the Sound. Presumably the same name is met in Mattatuck, Ct., written Matetacoke, 1637, Matitacoocke, 1673, which was translated by Dr. Trumbull from Eliot's Mat-uh'tugh-auke, "A place without wood," or badly wooded. (See Titicus.)
Cutchogue, Plymouth Records, 1637; "Curchaug, or Fort Neck;" Corch'aki, deed of 1648; now Cutchogue, a village in Southold, in the vicinity of which was an Indian fort, the remains of which and of an Indian burial ground are objects of interest, is probably a corruption of Maskutchoung, which see. Dr. Tooker translated from Kehti-auke, "The principal place," the appositeness of which is not strikingly apparent. The clan bearing the name was party to the treaty with the Massachusetts people in 1637, and to the sale of the East Hampton lands. Their earliest sachem was Momoweta, who acknowledged the primacy of Wyandanch.
Tuckahoe, a level tract of land near Southampton village, takes that name from one or the other of the larger "round" roots (Mass. P'tuckweoo), possibly the Golden Club, or Floating Artmi, a root described "as much of the bigness and taste of potatoes." (Trumbull.) [FN] The same name is met in Westchester County.
[FN] Dr. Brinton writes: "They also roasted and ate the acrid cormus of the Indian turnip, in Delaware taw-ho, taw-hin or tuck-ah, and collected the seeds of the Golden Club, common in the pools along the creeks and rivers. Its native name was taw-kee." ("The Lenape and their Legends.") The name of another place on Long Island, written Hogonock, is probably an equivalent of Delaware HÓbbenac (Zeisb.), "Potatoes," or "Ground-nuts"; HÓbbenis, "Turnips." (See Passapenoc.)
Sagabonock has left only the remnant of its name to Sag-pond and Sag-harbor. It is from Sagabonak, "Ground nuts, or Indian potatoes." (Trumbull.) The name is of record as that of a boundmark "two miles from the east side of a Great Pond," and is described as a "pond or swamp" to which the name of the tuber was extended from its product.
Ketchepunak, quoted as the name of Westhampton, describes "The greatest ground-nut place," or "The greatest ground-nuts." (See Kestaubniuk.)
Wequaganuck is given as the name of that part of Sag-harbor within the town of East Hampton. It is an equivalent of Wequai-adn-auke, "Place at the end of the hill," or "extending to the hill." (Trumbull.) The hill is now known as Turkey Hill, on the north side of which the settlement of Sag-harbor was commenced.
Namke, from Namaa, "fish," and ke, "place"—fish-place—was the name of a place on the creek near Riverhead. (O'Gallaghan.) More exactly, Nameauke, probably.
Hoppogues, in Smithtown, Suffolk County, is pretty certainly from Wingau-hoppague, meaning, literally, "Standing water of good and pleasant taste." The name was that of a spring and pond. In a deed of 1703, the explanation is, "Or ye pleasant springs." Supposed to have been the springs which make the headwaters of Nissequogue river at the locality now bearing the name of Hauppauge, a hamlet.
Massapeage—Massapeag, 1636; Massapeague, Rassapeage—a place-name from which extended to an Indian clan whose principal seat is said to have been on Fort Neck, in the town of Oyster Bay, was translated by Dr. Trumbull from Massa, "great"; pe, the radical of water, and auke, "land," or "Land on the great cove." Thompson (Hist. L. I.) assigns the name to "a swamp on the south side of Oyster Bay," now South Oyster Bay, and it is so applied in Indian deeds. There were two Indian forts or palisaded towns on the Neck. Of one the name is not given; it was the smallest of the two; its site is said to be now submerged by water. The second, or largest, is called in Dutch records Matsepe, "Great river." It is described as having been situated on the most southerly point of land adjoining the salt meadows. Both forts were attacked by Dutch forces under Capt. Pieter Cock and Capt. John Underhill, in the summer of 1644 (a local record says August) and totally destroyed with heavy loss to the Indians. (Doc. Hist. N.Y., iv, 15, 16.) In Prime's and other local histories the date is given as 1653, on the authority of "Hubbard's Indian Wars," and Capt. Underhill is assigned to the command in the attack on the largest fort. The official Dutch record, however, assigns that honor to Capt. Pieter Cock. The year was surely 1644, (Brodhead's Hist. N.Y., i, 91.) The prefix Mass, appears in many forms—Massa, Marsa, Marsha, Rassa, Mesa, Missi, Mas, Mes, etc., and also Mat, an equivalent of Mas.
Massepe, quoted in Dutch records as the name of the Indian fort on Fort Neck, where it seems to have been the name of Stony Brook, is also met in Jamaica Records (Col. Hist. N.Y., xiv, 505) as the name of a creek forming a mowing boundary or division line extending from a certain place "Eastward to ye great creek called Massepe." The name is fully explained by the description, "Great creek." Massepe-auke means "Great creek (or river) land," or place; Mas-sepe-ink, "At or on the great creek." The Indian residents came to be known as the Marsepincks.
Maskutchoung, a neck of land so called forming one of the boundaries of Hempstead Patent as entered in confirmatory deed of "Takapousha, sachem of Marsapeage," and "Wantagh, the Montauke sachem," July 4th, 1657: "Beginning at a marked tree standing at the east side of the Great Plain, and from thence running on a due south line, and at the South Sea by a marked tree in a neck called Maskutchoimg, and thence upon the same line to the South Sea." (Col. Hist. N.Y., xiv, 38, 416.) "By a marked tree in a neck called Maskachoung." (Thompson's Hist. L. I., 9, 15, 47.) It is probably an equivalent of Mask-ek-oug, "A grassy swamp or marsh." A local interpretation reads: "Grass-drowned brook," a small stream flowing through the long marsh-grass, to which the name was extended.
Maskahnong, so written by Dr. O'Callaghan in his translation of the treaty between the Western Long Island clans, in 1656, is noted in "North and South Hempstead Records," p. 60, "A neck of land called Maskahnong." It disappears after 1656, but probably reappears as Maskachoung in 1658, and later as Maskutchoung, which see.
Merick, the name of a village in Hempstead, Queens County, is said to have been the site of an Indian village called Merick-oke. It has been interpreted as an apheresis of a form of Namanock, written Namerick, "Fish place." (See Moriches.) Curiously enough, Merrick was a proper name for man among the ancient Britons, and the corruption would seem to have been introduced here by the early English settlers from resemblance to the Indian name in sound. The place is on the south side of the island. The Indian clan was known as the Merickokes.
Quantuck, a bay so called in Southampton, is of record, in 1659, Quaquanantuck, and applied to a meadow or neck of land. "The meadow called Quaquunantuck"—"the neck of land called Quaquanantuck"—"all the meadows lying west of the river, commonly called or known by the name of Quantuck." One of the boundmarks is described as "a stumpy marsh," indicating that it had been a marsh from which the trees had been removed. The name seems to correspond with this. It is probably from Pohqu'un-antack, "cleared or open marsh" or meadow. (See Montauk.)
Quogue, the name of a village near Quantuck Bay, and located, in Hist. Suffolk County, as "the first point east of Rockaway where access can be had to the ocean without crossing the bay," has been read as a contraction of Quaquaunantuck, but seems to be from Poque-ogue, "Clear, open space," an equivalent of Poque-auke, Mass.
Rechqua-akie, De Vries; Reckkouwhacky, deed of 1639; now applied to a neck on the south side of Long Island and preserved in Rockaway, was interpreted by the late Dr. E. B. O'Callaghan: "Reck 'sand'; qua, 'flat'; akie, 'land'—the long, narrow sand-bar now known as Rockaway Beach," but is more correctly rendered with dialectic exchange of R and L, Lekau. (Rekau), "sand or gravel," hacki, "land" or place. (Zeisb.) "Flats" is inferred. A considerable division of the Long Island Indians was located in the vicinity, or, as described by De Vries, who visited them in 1643, "near the sea-shore." He found thirty wigwams and three hundred Indians, who were known in the treaty of 1645, as Marechkawicks, and in the treaty of 1656 as Rockaways. [FN]
[FN] The names in the treaty of 1645, as written by Dr. O'Callaghan, are "Marechkawicks, Nayecks, and their neighbors"; in the treaty of 1656, "Rockaway and Canorise." The latter name appears to have been introduced after 1645 in exchange for Marechkawick. (See Canarise.) Rechqua is met on the Hudson in Reckgawaw-onck, the Haverstraw flats. It is not an apheresis of Marechkawick, nor from the same root.
Jamaica, now applied to a town, a village and a bay, was primarily given to the latter by the English colonists. "Near unto ye beaver pond called Jamaica," and "the beaver path," are of record, the latter presumably correct. The name is a pronunciation of Tomaque, or K'tamaque, Del., Amique, Moh., "beaver." "Amique, when aspirated, is written Jamaique, hence Yameco, Jamico, and modern Jamaica." (O'Callaghan.) The bay has no claim to the name as a beaver resort, but beavers were abundant in the stream flowing into it.
Kestateuw, "the westernmost," Castuteeuw, "the middlemost," and Casteteuw, "the eastermost," names of "three flats on the island Sewanhackey, between the bay of North river and the East river." The tracts came to be known as Flatlands; "the easternmost," as "the Bay," or Amesfort.
Sacut, now known as Success Pond, lying on a high ridge in Flushing, is a corruption of SakÛwit (SÁquik), "Mouth of a river" (Zeisb.), or "where the water flows out." The pond has an outlet, but it rarely overflows. It is a very deep and a very clear body of water.
Canarsie, now so written and applied to a hamlet in the town of Flatlands, Kings County, is of record Canari See, Canarisse, Canarise, Canorise (treaty of 1655), Kanarisingh (Dutch), and in other forms, as the name of a place or feature from which it was extended to an Indian sub-tribe or family occupying the southwest coast of Long Island, and to their village, primarily called Keshaechquereren (1636). On the Lower Potomac and Chesapeake Bay the name is written Canais, Conoys, Ganawese, etc. (Heck, xlii), and applied to a sub-tribe of Naniticokes residing there who were known as "The tide-water people," or "Sea-shore settlers." On Delaware Bay it is written Canaresse (1651, not 1656 as stated by Dr. Tooker), and applied to a specific place, described in exact terms: "To the mouth of the bay or river called Bomptjes Hoeck, in the Indian language Canaresse." (Col. Hist. N.Y. xii, 166.) "Bomptjes Hoeck" is Dutch and in that language describes a low island, neck or point of land covered with small trees, lying at the mouth of a bay or stream, and is met in several connections. The point or place described on the Delaware (now Bombay Hook) was the end of the island, known on old maps as "Deep Point," and the "Hook" was the bend in the currents around it forming the marshy inlet-bay on the southwest connecting with a marshy channel or stream, and the latter on the north with a small stream by which the island was constituted. Considered from the standpoint of an Algonquian generic term, the rule is undisputed that the name must have described a feature which existed in common at the time of its application, on the Delaware and on Long Island, and it only remains to determine what that feature was. Obviously the name itself solves the problem. In whatever form it is met it is the East Indian Canarese (English Can'a-resÉ) pure and simple, and obviously employed as a substitute for the Algonquian term written Ganawese, etc., of the same meaning. In the "History of New Sweden" (Proc. N.Y. Hist. Soc, 2d Ser. v. i.), the locative on the Delaware is described: "From Christina Creek to Canarose or Bambo Hook." In "Century Dictionary" Bambo is explained: "From the native East Indian name, Malay and Java bambu, Canarese banbu or bonwu." Dr. Brinton translated Ganawese from Guneu (Del.), "Long," but did not add that the suffix—wese, or as Roger Williams wrote it, quese, means "Little, small," the combination describing Bambo grasses, i.e. "long, small" grasses, which, in some cases reach the growth of trees, but on Long Island and on the Delaware only from long marsh grasses to reeds, as primarily in and around Jamaica Bay and Gowanus Bay, on Reed Island, etc. True, Ganawese would describe anything that was "long, small," but obviously here the objective product. Canarese, Canarose, Kanarische, Ganawese, represent the same sound-"in (East) Indian, Canaresse," as represented in the first Long Island form, Canari See, now Jamaica Bay.
Keschaechquereren, (1636), Keschaechquerem (1637), the name of the settlement that preceded Canarese, disappears of record with the advent of the English on Barren Island and at Gravesend soon after 1637-8. It seems to describe a "Great bush-net fishing-place," from K'sch-achquonican, "Great bush-net." (Zeisb.), the last word from Achewen, "Thicket"; from which also t' Vlact Bosch (Dutch), modern Flatbush. The Indian village was between the Stroome (tidewater) Kil and the Vresch Kil, near Jamaica.
Narrioch was given by the chief who confirmed the title to it in 1643, as the name of what is now known as Coney Island, and Mannahaning as that of Gravesend Neck. (Thompson's Hist. L. I., ii, 175.) The Dutch called the former Conynen, and the latter Conyne Hoeck—"t' Conijen Conine." Jasper Dankers wrote in 1679: "On the south (of Staten Island) is the great bay, which is enclosed by Najaq, t' Conijen Island, Neversink," etc. Conijen (modern Dutch, Konijn), signifies "Rabbit"—Cony, Coney—inferentially "Small"—literally, "Rabbit, or Coney Island," in Dutch. The Indian names have been transposed, apparently. Mannahaning means "At the island," and Narrioch is the equivalent of Nayaug, "A point or comer," as in Nyack. The latter was the Dutch "Conyne Hoeck." Judge Benson claimed Conyn as "A Dutch surname, from which came the name of Coney, or Conyn's Island," but if so, the surname was from "Rabbit" surely.
Gowanus—Gowanus, 1639; Gowanes, 1641; Gouwanes, 1672—the name of one of the boundmarks of a tract of land in Brooklyn, is probably from Koua (Kowaw, Williams; Curve, Zeisb.), "Pine"; Kowawese (Williams), "A young pine," or small pine. It was that of a place on a small stream, the description in the Indian deed of 1639, reading: "Stretching southward to a certain kil or little low bushes." The land conveyed is described as being "overflowed at every tide, and covered with salt-meadow grass." The latter gave to it its value. The claim that the name was that of an Indian owner is not well sustained. The evidence of the Dutch description of the bay as Boompje Hoek, meaning, literally, "Small tree cape, corner or angle," and the fact that small pines did abound there, seems to establish Koua as the derivative of the name.
Marechkawick, treaty of 1645—Mereckawack, Breeden Raddt, 1649; Mareckawick and Marechkawieck, Rapelie deed, 1630; Marechkourick, O'Callaghan; Marechkawick, Brodhead—forms of the name primarily given as that of Wallabout Bay, [FN] "The bought or bend of Marechkawick"—"in the bend of Marechkawick," 1630—has been translated by Dr. Tooker from Men'achk (Manachk, Zeisb.), "fence, fort," and -wik, "house" (Zeisb.), the reference being to a fenced or palisaded cabin presumably occupied by a sachem and his family of the clan known in Dutch history as the Mareckawicks. The existence of a palisaded cabin in the vicinity of "the bought or bend" is possible, but the name has the appearance of an orthography (Dutch) of Mereca, the South-American name of a teal, (Mereca Americani) the Widgeon, and -wick (Wijk, M. L. G.), "Bay, cove, inlet, retreat," etc., literally "Widgeon Bay." "Situate on the bay of Merechkawick," is entered on map of 1646 in Stiles' "History of Brooklyn." Merica was the Mayan name of the American Continent. It is spread all over South America and was applied to many objects as in the Latinized Mereca Americani. The early Dutch navigators were no doubt familiar with it in application to the Widgeon, a species of wild duck, and employed it in connection with the word -wijk. Until between 1645 and 1656, the Indians residing on the west end of Long Island were known as Marechkawicks; after 1656 they were called Canorise. (See Canar'sie.) Brooklyn is from Dutch Breukelen, the name of a village about eighteen miles from Amsterdam. It means "Broken land." (Breuk.) On Van der Donck's map the name is written correctly. A record description reads: "There is much broken land here."
[FN] Wallabout Bay takes its first name from Dutch Waal, "gulf, abyss," etc., and Bocht, "bend," It was spoken of colloquially by the early Dutch as "The bay of the foreigners," referring to the Walloons who had settled on the north side of the bay in 1625. The first white child, Sarah Rapelie, born in New Netherland, now the State of New York, was born here June 17th, 1625.
Manette, so written of record—"near Mannato hill," about thirty miles from Brooklyn and midway between the north and south sides of the island—has been interpreted from its equivalent, Manitou, "Hill of the Great Spirit," but means strictly, "That which surpasses, or is more than ordinary." (Trumbull.) It was a word in common use by the Indians in application to everything that was more than ordinary or that they could not understand. In this instance it seems to have been applied to the water of a spring or well on the rising ground which they regarded as of surpassing excellence; from the spring transferred to the hill. The tradition is that some ages ago the Indians residing in the vicinity of the hill were suffering for water. They prayed to the Great Spirit for relief, and were directed to shoot an arrow in the air and where it fell to dig and they would find water. They did so and dug the well now on the rising ground, the water of which was of surpassing excellence, or Manitou. The story was probably invented to account for the name. It is harmless fiction.
Rennaquakonck, Rinnegahonck, a landmark so called in the boundaries of a tract on Wallabout Bay, described in deed as "A certain swamp where the water runs over the stones," and, in a subsequent deed, "At the sweet marsh" (Hist. of Brooklyn), is an orthography of Winnegackonck, meaning "At the sweet place," so called from some plant which was found there, or to distinguish the marsh as fresh or sweet, not a salt marsh. The exchange of R and W may be again noted.
Comac, the name of a village in Suffolk County, is an apheresis of Winne-comac, as appears of record. The combination expresses, "Good enclosed place," from Winne, "Good, fine, sweet, beautiful, pleasant," etc., and -komuck, "Place enclosed," or having definite boundaries, limited in size.
Nyack, the name of the site of Fort Hamilton, is a generic verbal from NÂÏ, "A point or corner." (NÂÏag, Mass., NÉÏak, Len.) The orthographies vary—Naywayack, Narrack, Nanak, Narrag, Najack, Niuck, Narrioch, etc. With the suffix -ak, the name means "Land or place at the point." (See Nyack-on-the-Hudson.) Dankers and Sluyter wrote in their Journal (1679-80): "We went part of the way through the woods and fine, new-made land, and so along the shore to the west end of the island called Najack. . . . Continuing onward from there, we came to the plantation of the Najack Indians, which was planted with maize, or Turkish Wheat." The Nayacks removed to Staten Island after the sale of their lands at New Utrecht. (See Narrioch.)
Nissequague, now so written, the name of a hamlet in Smithtown, and of record as the name of a river and of a neck of land still so known, is of primary record Nisinckqueg-hackey (Dutch notation), as the name of a place to which the Matinnecock clan removed after the war of 1643. (Col. Hist. N.Y., xiv, 60.) The English scribes wrote Nesequake (1650), Nesaquake (1665), Nessequack (1686), Wissiquack (1704), (Cal. N.Y. Land Papers), and other forms. The Indian deed of 1650 (Smithtown Records) recites the sale by "Nasseoonseke, sachem of Nesequake," of a tract "Beginning at a river called and commonly known by the name of Nesaquake River, and from that river eastward to a river called Memanusack." "Nesaquauke River" is the entry in patent to Richard Smith, 1665. The stream has its source in a number of springs in the southern part of Smithtown, the flow of which forms a considerable river. (Thompson.) The theory that "The tribe and river derived their name from Nesequake, an Indian sagamore, the father of Nassaconset" (Hist. Suf. Co.), is not well sustained. The suffix -set, cannot be applied to an animate object; it is a locative meaning "Less than at." In addition to this objection, Nassaconset is otherwise written Nessaquauke-ecoompt-set, showing that the name belonged to a place that was "On the other side" of Nessaquauke. Neesaquauke stands for Neese-saqÛ-auke, from Nisse, "two," Sauk, "Outlet," and -auke, "Land" or place, and describes a place at "the second outlet," or as the text reads, "At a river called and commonly known by the name of Nesaquake River." The sagamore may have been given the name from the place, but the place could not have taken the name from the sagamore. The estuary, now known as Nissequage Harbor into which the stream flows, extends far inland and forms the west boundary of Nissequage Neck.
Marsepinck, a stream so called in Queens County, from which extended to the land which was sold, in 1639, by "Mechowout, chief sachem of Marossepinck, Sint-Sink and dependencies," and also extended to an Indian clan known as Marsepings, is no doubt an orthography of Massepe and -ing, locative. It means "At, to or on the great river." Mas is an abbreviation of Massa, Missi, etc., "great," and Sepe, means "river." It was probably used comparatively-the largest compared with some other stream. (See Massepe.)
Unsheamuck, otherwise written Unthemamuk, given as the name of Fresh Pond, on the boundary line between Huntington and Smithtown, means "Eel-fishing place." (Tooker.)
Suggamuck, the name of what is now known as Birch Creek, in Southampton, means "Bass fishing-place." (Tooker.)
Rapahamuck, a neck or point of land so called, is from AppÉ-amuck, "Trap fishing-place." (Tooker.) The name is assigned to the mouth of Birch Creek. (See Suggamuck.)
Memanusack and Memanusuk, given as the name of Stony Brook, probably has its locative "At the head of the middle branch of Stony Brook," Which formed the boundmark noted in the Indian deed. The same name is probably met in Mayomansuk, from MawÉ, meaning "To bring together," "To meet"; and -suck, "Outlet," i.e. of a pond, marsh or river. The brook was "stony" no doubt, but that description is English.
Cussqunsuck is noted as the name of Stony Brook referred to in Memanusack. The stream is probably the outlet of the waters of a swamp. In his will Richard Smith wrote: "I give to my daughter Sarah, 130 acres of land at the two swamps called Cutts-cunsuck." The first word seems to stand for KsÚcqon, "Heavy" (Zeisb.), by metonymie, "Stone," -es, "Small," and -uck, locative, "Place of small stone." KsÚcqon may be employed as an adjectival prefix. Eliot wrote, "Qussukquemin, Stone fruit," the cherry.
Mespaechtes, deed to Governor Keift, 1638, from which Mespath (Brodhead), Mespat (Riker), Mashpeth and Mashpett (Co. Hist. N.Y., xiv, 602), now Maspeth, a village in Newtown, Queens County, and met in application to Newtown Creek (Col. Hist. N.Y., xiii, 25), has been translated by Dr. Tooker, "From Mech-pe-is-it, Bad-water place," and by Wm. R. Gerard, "From Massapichtit, verbal describing scattered settlements, as though the Indians who sold the lands had said, 'We include the lands of those living here and there.'" [FN] Flint, in his "Early History of Long Island," wrote: "Mespat Kills, now Maspeth, from the Indian Matsepe, written by the Dutch, Maespaatches Kiletje"—long known as "Dutch Kills." In patent of 1642, for lands described as lying "on the east side of Mespatches Kil," the boundary is stated: "Beginning at the kil and the tree standing upon the point towards the small kil." Obviously there were two streams here, the largest called Mespatches, which seems to be, as Flint states, a Dutch rendering of Matsepe-es, from Mas (Del. Mech), a comparative term—"great," as distinguished from "small," the largest of two, and Sepees (SepoÛs, Sepuus), "a brook." Sepe, Sipo, Sipu, etc., is generally applied to a long stream. The west branch of Mespatt Kill has the record name of Quandoequareus. Flint wrote: "The Canapauke, or Dutch Kills, sluggishly winding its way through the meadows of bronzed grasses." Canapauke stands for Quana-pe-auke, "Long water-land," or "Land on the long water." The stream is a tidal current receiving several small streams. (See Massepe.) Mespatches seems to belong to the stream noted in patent of 1642.
[FN] "Missiachpitschik, those who are or live scattered." (Zeisberger's Onond. Dic.)
Sint-Sink, of record as the name of Schout's Bay, [FN] also, "Formerly called Cow Neck, and by the Indians Sint-Sink," was the name of a place now known as Manhasset. (Col. Hist. N.Y.) It means "Place of small stones," as in Sint-Sink, modern Sing-Sing, on the Hudson.
[FN] Known also as "Martin Garretson's bay." Garretson was Schout (Sheriff), hence "Schout's bay." The neck of land "called by the Indians Sint-Sink," was fenced for the pasturage of cows, and became known as "Cow Neck," hence "Cow bay" and "Cow harbor," now Manhasset bay. (See Matinnec'ock and Mochgonneck-onck.)
Manhasset, correctly Manhanset, means, "Near the Island," or something less than at the island. The locative was long known as "Head of Cow Neck."
Matinnecock is noted in a survey for Lewis Morris, in 1685: "A tract of land lying upon the north side of Long Island, within the township of Oyster Bay, in Queens County, and known by the name of Matinicock," and in another survey: "A certain small neck of land at a place called Mattinicock." Extended also to an island and to an Indian clan. Cornelius van Tienhoven wrote in 1650: "Martin Garritson's Bay, or Martinnehouck, [FN-1] is much deeper and wider than Oyster Bay; it runs westward in and divides into three rivers, two of which are navigable. The smallest stream runs up in front of the Indian village called Martinnehouck, where they have their plantations. The tribe is not strong, and consists of about thirty families. In and about this bay were formerly great numbers of Indian plantations which now lie waste. On the rivers are numerous valleys of sweet and salt meadows." The name has, with probable correctness, been interpreted from Metanak-ok (Lenape, Metanak-onk; Abn., Metanak-ook), meaning, "Along the edge of the island," or, as Van Tienhoven wrote, "About this bay." The same name appears on the Delaware as that of what is now known as Burlington Island. [FN-2] It is corrupted in New Jersey to Tinnicum, and is preserved on Long Island as the name of a village in the town of Oyster Bay.
[FN-1] A corruption from "Martin."
[FN-2] Mattinacunk, Matinneconke, Matinnekonck—"having been formerly known by the name of Kipp's Island, and by ye Indian name of Koo-menakanok-onck." (Col. Hist. N.Y.) Koo-menakanok-onck was the largest of two islands in the Delaware and was particularly identified by the Indian name, which means "Pine-tree-islands place." The name by which the Island came to be known was transferred to it apparently.
Hog's Island, so called by the early settlers, now known as Center Island, has the record description: "A piece of land on Martin Garretson's Bay, in the Indian tongue called Matinnecong, alias Hog's Neck, or Hog's Island, being an island at high tide." (Col. Hist. N.Y., xiv, 435.) "Matinneckock, a neck on the Sound east of Muchito Cove." (See Muchito.) The island is connected with the main land by a neck or beach which was overflowed at high tide.
Caumsett is recorded as the name of "The neck of land which makes the west side of Cow Harbor and the east side of Oyster Bay" (Ind. Deed of 1654), known later as Horse Neck and Loyd's Neck. Apparently a corruption of Ketumpset, "Near the great standing rock." The reference may have been to what was known as Bluff Point.
Muchito, the name of what is now Glen Cove, near Hempstead Harbor, is otherwise written Muschedo, Mosquito and Muscota. It was primarily written as the name of Muchito Neck. It means "Meadow"—Moskehtu (Eliot), "grass;" Muskuta, "A grassy plain or meadow." (See Muscota.)
Katawomoke, "or, as called by the English, Huntington," is written in the Indian deed of 1653, Ketauomoke; in deed of 1646, Ketauomocke, and assigned to a neck of land "Bounded upon the west side with a river commonly called by the Indians Nachaquetuck, and on the east by a river called Opcutkontycke," the latter now known as Northfield-Harbor Brook. The name is preserved in several orthographies. In deed to Lion Gardiner (1638), Ar-hata-amunt; in deed to Richard Smith (1664), Catawaunuck and Catawamuck, and in another entry "Cattawamnuck land," i.e. land about Catawamuck; in Huntington Records, Ketewomoke; in Cal. N.Y. Land Papers, p. 60: "To the eastward of the town of Huntington and to the westward of Nesaquack, commonly called by the Indians Katawamake and in English by the name of Crope Meadow;" in another entry, "Crab Meadow," by which last name the particular tract was known for many years. "Crope" and "Crab" are English equivalents for a species of grass called "finger-grass or wire-grass," and were obviously employed by the English to describe the kind of grass that distinguished the meadow—certainly not as an equivalent of the Indian name, which was clearly that of a place at or near the head of Huntington Harbor, from which it was extended to the lands as a general locative. The several forms of the name may probably be correctly read from Kehti, or its equivalent. Kehchi, "Chief, principal, greatest," and -amaug, "Fishing-place" (-amuck, L. I.), literally "The greatest fishing-place." The orthography of 1638 is especially corrupt, and Ketawamuck, apparently the most nearly correct, the rule holding good in this, as in other cases, that the very early forms are especially imperfect.
Nachaquatuck, the western boundary stream of Eaton's Neck, quoted as the name of Cold Spring, is translated by Dr. Tooker from Wa'nashque-tuck, "The ending creek, because it was the end or boundary of the tract." "Called by the Indians Nackaquatok, and by the English Cold Spring." (Huntington Patent, 1666.) Wanashque, "The tip or extremity of anything."
Opcutkontycke, now assigned to a brook entering Northfield Harbor, and primarily given as the name of a boundary stream (see Katawamake), seems to be a corruption of OgkomÉ (Acoom-), "On the other side," and -tuck, "A tidal stream or estuary." It was a place on the other side of the estuary.
Aupauquack, the name of a creek in West Hampton, is entered, in 1665, Aupaucock and described as a boundary stream between the Shinnecock and the Unchechauge lands, "Either nation may cutt flags for their use on either side of the river without molestation." Also given as the name of a "Lily Pond" in East Hampton. Written Appauquauk and Appoquague, and now Paucuck. The name describes a place "Where flags grow," and nothing else. [FN] (See Apoquague.)
[FN] Rev. Thomas James, in a deposition made Oct. 18, 1667, said that two old Indian women informed him they "gathered flags for mats within that tract." (East Hampton Town Records, 156.)
Wading River, now so called, was also called "The Iron or Red Creek," "Red Creek" and "Wading Place," and by the Indians Pauquacumsuck and Pequoockeon, the latter, wrote Dr. Trumbull, "Because Pequaocks, a little thick shell-fish was found there, which the Indians waded for; hence the name 'Wading River,' Quahaug is from this term, and Pequaock, Oyster Bay." "Iron or Red Creek" explains itself. Wading River is preserved in the name of a village in the town of Riverhead.
Assawanama—"a tract of land near the town of Huntington called by the natives Anendesak, in English Eaderneck's Beach, and so along the Sound four miles, or thereabouts, until [to] the fresh pond called by the natives Assaiwanama, where a creek runs into the Sound"—describes "A creek beyond," i.e. beyond Anendesak; from Assawa-amhames.
Aquebogue, Aquebauke—"on the north side of Aquebauke or Piaconnock River" (COl. Hist. N.Y., xiv, 600)—means, "Land or place on this side," i.e. on the side towards the speaker, as is obvious from the description, "On the north side," and from the deed of 1648, which reads: "The whole tract of land called Ocquebauck, together with the lands and meadows lying on the other side of the water as far as the creek," the latter called "The Iron or Red Creek," now "Wading River." The name is preserved in two villages in the town of Riverhead, on the original tract.
Wopowag, more correctly Wepowage, given as the name of Stony Brook, town of Brookhaven, describes a place "At the narrows," i.e. of a brook or cove, and usually "The crossing place." (Trumbull.)
So'was'set, correctly Cowas'sett (Moh.), the name of what is now Port Jefferson, signifies, "Near a place of small pine trees." (Trumbull.) The name was applied to what was long known as the "Drowned Meadow," but not the less a "Place of small pine trees" which was at or near the meadow.
Wickaposset, now given as the name of Fisher's Island, appears to be from Wequa, "End of," -paug (-peauke), "Waterland," and -et, locative—near the end of the water-land, marsh or pond. The island is on the north side of the Sound opposite Stonington, Ct., but is included in the jurisdiction of Southampton.
Hashamomuck, "being a neck of land." (Southold Records.) Hashamomock or Nashayousuck. (Ib.) The adjectivals Hash and Nash seem to be from NashauÉ, "Between," and -suck, "The mouth or outlet of a brook." The suffix -momuck, in the first form, may stand for -komuk, "Place"—a place between. The orthographies are very uncertain.
Minnepaug, "being a little pond with trees standing by it." (Southold Records.) The name is explained in the description, "A little pond." In Southampton Records the same pond is called Monabaugs, another orthography of Minnepaug.
Masspootupaug (1662), describes a boggy meadow or miry land. The substantival is PÓotapaug, Mass., "A bog." The adjectival may stand for Mass, "Great," or Matt, derogative.
Manowtassquott, or Manowtatassquott, is assigned to Blue Point, in Great South Bay, town of Brookhaven. The record reads: "Bounded easterly by a brook or river to the westward of a point called the Blue Point, known by the Indian name of Manowtatassquott." The name belongs to a place where Menhaden abounded—Manowka-tuck-ut—from which extended to the point.
Ochabacowesuck, given as the name of what is now called Pine Neck, stands for Acquebacowes-uck, meaning, "On this side of the small pines." Narraganset. CÓwawÉs-uck, "At the young pine place," or "Small-pine place." Koowa, Eliot; -es, diminutive; -uck, locative. The name of the tree was from its pointed leaves; Kous, a thorn or briar, or "having a sharp point." (Trumbull.) Acqueb, "This side."
Ronkonkoma, Raconkamuck, Wonkonkoamaug, Wonkongamuck, Wonkkeconiaug, Raconkcamake, "A fresh pond, about the middle of Long Island." (Smithtown Records.) "Woukkecomaug signifying crooked pond." (Indian deed of 1720.) Obviously from Wonkun, "Bent," and -komuk, "Place, limited or enclosed." Interpretation from Wonkon'ous, "Fence," and -amaug, "Fishing-place" (Tooker), has no other standing than that there was a fence of lopped trees terminating at the pond. The name, however, was in place before the fence was made. The explanation in the Indian deed of 1720 cannot be disputed. The pond divides the towns of Islip, Smithtown, Setauket, and Patchoug.
Potunk, a neck of land on Shinnecock Bay, is written Potuncke in Smithtown Records, in 1662. "A swamp at Potunk," is another entry. Dr. Trumbull quoted it as a form of Po'dunk, Conn., which is of primary record, "Called Potaecke," and given as the name of a "brook or river." In Brookfield, Mass., a brook bearing the name is said to have been so called "from a tract of meadow adjoining." In Washington County, N.Y., is recorded "Podunk Brook." (Cal. Land Papers.) The meaning of the name is uncertain, but from its wide distribution it is obviously from a generic—presumably a corruption of P'tuk-ohke, a neck or corner of land. "The neck next east of Onuck is known by the Indian name of Potunk." (Local History.)
Mannhonake, the name of Gardiner's Island—"called by the Indians Mannhonake, [FN] and by us the Isle of Wight"—means, "Island place or country," from Munnohhan, "Island," and -auke, "Land, ground, place (not limited or enclosed), country," etc. (Trumbull.) In common with other islands in Gardiner's Bay, it was recommended, in 1650, as offering rare inducements for settlement, "Since therein lie the cockles whereof wampum is made." "The greatest part of the wampum for which the furs are traded is made there." (Col. Hist. N.Y., xii, 360.) The island was claimed in the deed as the property of the Narragansetts. Dr. Dwight's interpretation of the name, "A place where a number of Indians had died," is a pure invention.
[FN] Manchonacke is the orthography in patent to Lion Gardiner, 1639. (Doc. Hist. N.Y., i, 685.) Dr. Trumbull quotes Manchonat, Narragansett.
Manah-ackaquasu-wanock, given as the name of Shelter Island, is a composition of two names, as shown by the record entry, "All that their island of Ahaquasu-wamuck, otherwise called Manhansack." Ahaquasu-wamuck is no doubt the equivalent of AÚhaquassu (Nar.), "Sheltered," and -amuck is an equivalent of amaug, "Fishing-place," literally, "Sheltered fishing-place." Menhansack is Manhansick in deed of 1652, and Munhassett and Manhasett in prior deed of 1640. (East-Hampton Records.) It is a composition from Munnohan, "Island;" es, "small," and et, "at" and describes a small island as "at" or "near" some other island. The compound Manah-ahaquasu-wanock, means, therefore, simply, "Sheltered-fishing-place island," identifying the island by the fishing-place, while Manhasett identifies it in generic terms as a small island near some other island or place. [FN] The island now bears the generic terms Manhasett. Pogatacutt, sachem of the island, is supposed to have lived on what is now known as "Sachem's Neck." (See Montauk.)
[FN] Perhaps explained by the entry, "Roberts' Island, situate near Manhansack." (Records, Town of East-Hampton.)
Manises, or Menasses, as written by Dr. Trumbull, the name of Block Island, means, literally, "Small island," just as an Englishman would describe it. The Narragansetts were its owners. Its earliest European occupant was Capt. Adriaen Block, who, having lost his vessel by burning at Manhattan, constructed here another which he called the "Onrust" or "Restless," in 1614. It was the first vessel constructed by Europeans in New York waters. In this vessel Block made extended surveys of Hudson's River, the Connecticut, the Sound, etc. Acquiring from his residence among them a knowledge of the Connecticut coast dialects, he wrote the names of tribes on the Hudson in that dialect. Reference is made to what is better known as the "Carte Figurative of 1614-16." There is no better evidence that this Figurative was from Block's chart than its presumed date and the orthographies of the names written on it.
