← Table of contents
Proceedings of the New York Historical Association [1906]

INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. (continued 2)

Reading edition

[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, "Peskakōōn, 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 Hōōs, "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 Hōōs 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. -uᶋtugh; 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." Mannaⁿdakōō 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 Kĕpehikanik, 'At the barrier,' or weir. Kĕpehikan 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'tuckweōō), 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 Pŏque-ogue, "Clear, open space," an equivalent of Pŏque-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."

Explore with AITake your curiosity a little further.

Reading settings