Note 553 — Chapter IX · (continued 2)

The name “Massachusetts,” so far as I have observed, is first mentioned by Captain Smith, in his Description of New England, 1616. He spells the word variously, but he appears to use the term “Massachuset” and “Massachewset” to denote the country, while he adds a final s when he is speaking of the inhabitants. He speaks of “Massachusets Mount” and “Massachusets River,” using the word also in its possessive form; while in another place he calls the former “the high mountain of Massachusit.” To this mountain, on his map, he gives the English name of “Chevyot Hills.” Hutchinson (i. 460) supposes the Blue Hills of Milton to be intended. He says that a small hill near Squantum, the former seat of a great Indian sachem, was called Massachusetts Hill, or Mount Massachusetts, down to his time. Cotton, in his Indian vocabulary, says the word means “a hill in the form of an arrow’s head.” See also Neal’s New England, ii. 215, 216. In the Massachusetts charter the name is spelled in three or four different ways, to make sure of a description of the territory. Cf. Letter of J. H. Trumbull, in Amer. Antiq. Soc. Proc., Oct. 21, 1867, p. 77; and Memorial History of Boston, i. 37.