\5 *^J*f'|[)T*' A <» '"o,* -"^ ° n!^ A^^"^-^ -v ^ .0 ^^ * O « ° -^ ^"•'t. JS * AT "^ otOCnF * V ^ • Oils * 4X V» ''^J^V PROCEEDINGS OF THE New York State Historical Association THE SEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING, WITH CONSTITUTION, BY-LAWS AND LIST OF MEMBERS. PUBLISHED BY THE new'york state historical association 1906 N NEWBURGH JOURNAL PRINT. DEC 20 \m NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. President, Hon. JAMES A. ROBERTS, New York. First Vice-President, Hon. GRENVILLE M. INGALSBE, Sandy Hill. Second Vice-President, Dr. SHERMAN WILLIAMS, Glens Falls. Third Vice-President, JOHN BOULTON SIMPSON, Bolton. Treasurer, JAMES A. HOLDEN, Glens Falls. Secretary, ROBERT O. BASCOM, Fort Edward. Assistant Secretary, FREDERICK B. RICHARDS. Ticonderoga. TRUSTEES. Mr. Asahel R. Wing, Fort Edward Tenn Expires 1906 Mr. Elmer J. West, Glens Falls " 1906 Rev. John H. Brandow, Schoharie " 1906 Hon. Grenvil'le M. Ingalsbe, Sandy Hill " 1906 Col. William L. Stone, Mt. Vernon " 1906 Mr. Alorris Patterson Ferris, New York " 1906 Hon. George G. Benedict, Burlington, Vt " 1906 Hon. James A. Roberts, New York " 1907 Col. John L. Cunningliam, Glens Falls " 1907 Mr. James A. Holden, Glens Falls " 1907 Mr. John Boitlton Simpson, Bdlton " 1907 Rev. Dr. C. Ellis Stevens, New York " 1907 Dr. Everett R. Sawyer, Sandy Hill " 1907 ]\Ir. Elwyn Sedye, Lake George " 1907 Mr. Frederick B. Richards, Ticonderoga " igoy Mr. Howland Pell, New York " 1907 Gen. Henry E. Tremain, New York " 1908 Mr. William Wait, Kinderhook " 1908 Dr. Sherman Williams, Glens Falls " 1908 Mr. Robert O. Bascom, Fort Edward " 1908 Mr. Francis W. Halsey, New York " 1908 Mr. Harry W. Watrous, Hague " 1908 Com. John W. Moore, Bolton Landing " 1908 Rev. Dr. Joseph E. King, Fort Edward " 1908 Hon. Hugh Hastings, Albany " 1908 PROCEEDINGS OF THE Seventh Annual Meeting of the New York State Historical Association, held August 22d, 1905, at the Court House, Lake George, N. Y. At the Seventh Annual Meeting of the New York State His- toricail Association, held at Lake George on the 22d day of August, 1905, a quorum being present, the President, James A. Roberts, called the meeting to order, whereupon it was duly moved, second- ed and carried, that the reading of the minutes be dispensed with. The report of the Treasurer, James A. Holden, was read and adopted after having been approved by the auditors, Dr. Joseph E. King and the Hon. Grenville M. Ingalsbe. It was further moved, seconded and carried, that the annual publication of the society be not sent to those members who are two or more years in arrears in their dues. Dr. Sherman Williams, chairman of the committee on historic spots, reported orally that arrangements had been made for the erection of a boulder with a bronze tablet at Half-Way Brook, and that arrangements were in progress for marking other spots in tlie vicinity of Lake George. The report was accepted and the com- mi'ttee continued, an-d the committee were requested to make a written report with a historic sketch relating to the spots marked and proposed to be marked, which report together with a cut of the tablets erected and to be erected shall be published in the pro- ceedings of the Association. Mr. Harry W. Watrous, chairman of the committee on Fort Ticonderoga, by Mr. Grenville M. Ingalsbe reported progress. 6 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Upon the suggestion of the chairman the following committee on Fort Ticonderoga was appointed for the ensuing year: Mrs. Elizabeth Watrous, Mr. John Boulton Simpson, Mr. Geo. O. Knapp. The committee on program made an oral report, which was adopted. A vote of thanks was extended to Gen. Tremain for his very liberal gift to the Association reported by the treasurer. A vote of thanks was extended to the committee on program. The following new members were elected : Alice Brooks Wyckoff, Elmira, N. Y. Hon. F. W. Hatch, N. Y. City. Hon. Albert Haight, Albany, N. Y. Hon. John Woodward, Brooklyn, N. Y. Mr. E. B. Hill, 49 Wall Street, N. Y. City. Rev. Dr. Thos. B. Sheer, N. Y. City. Mr. G. C. Lewis, Albany, N. Y. Dr. George S. Eveleth, Little Falls, N. Y. George C. Rowell, 8i Chapel Street, Albany, N. Y. Mr. James F. Smith, So. Hartford, N. Y. Mr, George Foster Peabody, Lake George, N. Y. Mr. Grenville H. Ingalsbe,' Sandy Hill, N. Y. Mr. A. N. Richards, Sandy Hill," N. Y. Mr. Irwin W. Near, Hornellsville, N. Y. Mr. Archibald Stewart, Derby, Sandy Hill, N. Y. Mr. Alvaro D. Arnold, Sandy Hill, N. Y. Mr. Richard C. Tefft, Sandy Hill, N. Y. Mr. F. D. Howland, Sandy Hill, N. Y. Mr. A. W. Abrams. Mr. D. M. Alexander, Buffalo, N. Y. Mr. Philip ]\L Hull, Clinton, N. Y. Addie E. Hatfield, 17 Lin wood Place, Utica, N. Y. George K. Hawkins, Pkttsburgli, N. Y. Dr. Claude A. Horton, Glens Falls, N. Y. ANNUAL MEETING. 7 Dr. E. T. Horton, Whitehall, N. Y. Gen. T. S. Peck, Burlington, Vt. Myron F. Westover, Schenectady, N. Y. Dr. Wm C. Sebring, Kingston, N. Y. Mr. Neil M. Ladd, 646 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, N. Y. Mr. J. Hervey Cook, Fishkill-on-the-Hudson, N. Y. Mr. H. L. Broughton, Sandy Hill, N. Y. Daniel L. Van Hee, Rochester, N. Y. Edmund Wetmore, 34 Pine Street, N. Y. City. Mrs. Lydia F. Upson, Glens Falls, N. Y. Mr. Daniel F. Imrie, Lake George, N. Y. Mr. James Green, Lake George, N. Y. Mr. Edwin J, Worden, Lake George, N, Y. Dr. Sherman Williams moved that the chair appoint a commit- tee of two to take into consideration an amendment to the consti- tution relating to the payment of dues. Carried. Whereupon the chair appointed as such committee Robert O. Bascom and James A. Holden. Hon. Grenville M. Ingalsbe offered the following resolution. Resolved, That the President be authorized to appoint a com- mittee of three to investigate and report to the next annual meeting as to the feasibility of co-operation and of the establishment of a community of action between this association and the various other historical societies in the State, which resolution was unanimously adopted. After some discussion, participated in by various members of the Association, it was regularly moved, seconded and carried, that a committee of three be appointed by the president upon member- ship, whereupon the president appointed the following committee: Dr. Ellis C. Stevens, with power to name his associates. The following trustees were unanimously elected by ballot for the term of three years : 8 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Gen. Henry E. Tremain, N. Y. City ; William Wait, Kinderhook, N. Y.; Dr. Sherman Williams, Glens Vails, N. Y. ; Robert O. Bas- com. Fort Edward, N. Y. ; Francis W. Halsey, New York ; Harry W. Watrous, Hague, N. Y. ; Rev. Dr. Joseph E. King, Fort Ed- ward, N. Y. ; Hon. Hugh Hastings, Albany, N. Y. ; Com. John W. Moore, Bolton Landing, N. Y. Rev. Mr. Hatch and Rev. Mr. Black presented for the consid- eration of the Association the subject of the erection of a museum building. After some discussion it was moved, seconded and car- ried, that the thanks of the Association be tendered to the gentlemen for bringing the matter to the attention of the Association, after which the meeting was adjourned until two o'clock in the afternoon. August 220, 1905. — Afternoon Session. Symposium — The SitUhmi Expedition. At the adjourne'd session held in the afternoon August 22d, 1905, Dr. W. C Sebring, of I^ingston, read a paper entitled, " The Character of Gen. Sullivan." A paper entitled " The Primary Cause of the Border Wars," by Francis W. Halsey, of New York, was read by the Hon. Gren- ville M. Ingalsb^ in the absence of Mr. Halsey. Dr. Sherman Williams, of Glens Falls, read a monograph en- titled, " The Organization of Sullivan's Expedition." Hon. Grenvil'le M. Ingalsibe read by title only a paper entitled, " A Bibliography of Sullivan's Expedition." A paper entitled, " An Indian Civilization and its Destruction," by Col. S. W. Moulthrop, was read by the Rev. W. H. P. Hatch in the absence of Col. Moulthrop. A paper entitled, " The Campaign," was read by William Wait, of Kinderhook, when the meeting adjourned until August 23d, at 10 o'clock A. M., at the same place. ROBERT O. BASCOM, Secretary. ANNUAL MEETING. 9 TRUSTEES' MEETING. August 23d, 1905. At a meeting- of the Trustees of the New York State Historical Association held at Lake George on the 22d day of August, 1905, a quorum being present, the following officers were elected : President, Hon. Jas. A. Roberts, Buffalo, N. Y. First Vice-President, Hon. G. M. Ingalsbe, Sandy Hill, N. Y. Second Vice-President, Dr. Sherman Williams, Glens Falls, N.Y. Third Vice-President, John Boulton Simpson, Bolton, N. Y. Treasurer, James A. Holden, Glens Falls, N. Y, Secretary, Robert O. Bascom, Fort Edward, N. Y. Asst. Secretary, Frederick B. Richards, Ticonderoga, N. Y. The printing bill of E. H. Lisk was presented to the Trustees and after discussion the same was referred to the Treasurer and Secretary with power to settle the same. The following committees were appointed : Standing Committee on Legislation : Hon. James A. Roberts, Gen. Henry E. Tremain, Dr. Sherman Williams, Morris Patterson Ferris, Hon. Hugh Hastings, On Marking Historic Spots: Dr. Sherman Williams. Frederick B. Richards, James A. Holden, Asahel R. Wing, Hon. Grenville M. Ingalsbe. On Fort Ticonderoga: Mrs. Elizabeth Watrous. Joihn Boulton Simpson, George O. Knapp. TO NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. On Program : Hon. Grenville M. Ingalsbe, Dr. Sherman Williams, Dr. C. Ellis Stevens. On Membership : Dr. C. Ellis Stevens. Bill of the Secretary for postage, express and sundries v^^as thereupon audited and ordered paid, w^hereupon the meeting ad- journed. At a meeting of the Trustees it was moved, seconded and car- ried, that E. M. Ruttenber, of Newburgh, N, Y., be made an hon- orary member of the Association. ROBERT O. BASCOM, Secretary. ASSOCIATION MEETING. August 23d, 1905. At the adjourned session held August 22d, a paper entitled, " Concerning the Mohawks," was read by W. Max Reid, of Am- sterdam, N. Y., after w'hich the Hon. Grenville M. Ingalsbe read certain hitherto unpublished letters from Gen. George Washington relating to the " Sullivan Expedition," after which a resolution was adopted requesting that Mr, Ingalsbe furnish (the same for publi- cation in the ensuing volume of the proceedings of the Association. An address entitled, " Robert R. Livingston, the Author of the Louisiana Purchase," by Hon. D. S. Alexander, of Bufifalo, N. Y., concluded the session, and after a vote of thanks to the various speakers, the meeting adjourned until two o'clock in the afternoon of the same day, at which session a paper entitled, " The Birth at Moreau of the Temperance Reformation," by Dr. Charles A. In- graham, of Cambridge, was read. ANNUAL MEETING. II The annual address, " The Democratic Ideal in History," by Hon. Milton Reed, of Fall River, Massadhusetts, concluded the literary exercises of this meeting, and after a vote of thanks to the speakers of the afternoon the meeting adjourned sine die. ROBERT O. BASCOM, Secretary. TRUSTEES' MEETING. At a meeting of the Trustees of the New York State Historical Association, held at the Hotel Ten Eyck on the 19th day of January, 1906, in the City of Albany, Present, Hon. James A. Roberts, President ; Hon. Grenville M. Ingalsbe, First Vice-President ; Dr. Sherman WilHams, Second Vice- President; Hon. Hugh Hastings, Trustee; Hon. Robert O. Bas- com. Secretary. The meeting being duly called to order by the President, the semi-annual report of Jumes A. Holden, Treasurer, was read and adopted. The report is as follows : SEMI-ANNUAL REPORT OF J, A. Holden, Treasurer New York State Historical Association, From July i, 1905, to Jan. iS, 1906. RECEIPTS. July I, 1905— Cash on hand $ 194 73 Received from dues, etc 390 10 $ 5S4 83 • DISBURSEMENTS. Aug. 5, E. H. Lisk, printing $ 200 00 5, R. O. Bascom, postage and sundries. 27 50 Sep. S, E. H. Lisk; printing 62 25 Sep. 7, R. O. Bascom, postage 23 28 " 7, Milton Reid, expenses 15 31 Nov. 8, E. H. Lisk, printing 31 75 12 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Dec. 4, R. O. Bascom, stamps lo oo " II, R. O. Bascom, " lo oo Jan. 9, Postage 5 oo 385 09 Cash on hand $ 199 74 ASSETS.' Cash on hand $199 74 Life Membership Fund 271 40 Respectfully submitted, JAMES A. HOLDEN, Treasurer. The report of the commiittee on amendments to the Constitution was read and laid upon the table. The report of Committee on Marking Historic Spo'ts was read and adopted. The report is as follows : Glens Falls, N. Y., Jan. 18, 1906. To the Trustees of the Nezv York State Historical Association, Gentlemen: — I beg to report progress in regard to the work of the committee on marking Historic Spots. A good number of persons have made corutributions ranging from five to fifty doliars each. A marker has been erected at Half- Way Brook and another planned for at Bloody Pond. The tablet at Half-Way Brook was made under the direction of W. J. Scales, who is also to prepare the design for the one at Bloody Pond. The marker at Half- Way Brook is a large boulder resting upon another large boulder nearly buried in the ground. The boulders are large and very hard, and the cost of cutting them to fit was unexpectedly great. Both boul- ders were drawn from a long distance. The cost of drawing and erecting them, and getting them ready for the tablet was about one hundred and ten dollars. This work was supervised by Mr. Henry Crandall, who had subscribed fifty dollars toward the work. When it was finished he said that if I would cancel his subscription he would meet all the expense of getting the stones in place. As this was more than twice the amount of his subscription his offer was gladly accepted. The other expenses to date have been as follows : ANNUAL MEETING. 13 For cutting a smooth face on the boulder and fitting tablet to it $ 25 25 For photographing the monument i 00 Paid Mr. Scales on account 45 00 Total $ 71 25 In the Spring it will be necessary to meet a small expense to grade the ground and seed it. We hope to have tjhe marker at Bloody Pond in place before our next annual meeting. Respectfully submitted, SHERMAN WILLIAMS, Chairman of Committee for Marking Historic Spots. The following new members were duly elected : Applegate, Rev. Dr. Octavius, Newburgh, N. Y. Atkins, Hon. T. Astley, 73 Nassau Street, N. Y. Benjamin, Rev. Dr. William H., Irvington-on-Hudson, N. Y. Bunten, Roland, Garden City, N. Y. Brooks, James B., 1013 East Adams Street, Syracuse, N. Y. Bockus, Dr. Truman J., Packer Institute, Brooklyn, N. Y. Banker, Dr. Silas J., Fort Edward, N. Y. Cooke, Rev. Jere K., Hempstead, N. Y. Coon, Hon. Stephen Mortimer, Oswego, N. Y. Clark, Rev. Joseph B., Fourth Ave. and 22d St., N. Y. City. Clark, Walter A., 755 Main Street, Geneva, N. Y. Donnell, Rev. Dr. William Nichold, 292 Henrv St., N. Y. Davis, William Gilbert, 32 Nassau Street, N. Y. Davis, Dr. Booth C, Alfred, N. Y. de Peyster, Mrs. Beekman, 2345 Broadway, N. Y. (winter), Johnstown, N. Y. (summer). Draper, Hon. A. S., Albany, N. Y. Gunnison, Hon, Royal A., Janeau, Alaska. Hopson, Rev. Dr. George B., Annandale, N. Y. Horton, Mrs. John Miller, 736 Main St., Bufifalo, N. V. Ingalsbe, Franc Groesbeck, Sandy Hill, N. Y. Jessup, Rev, Chas, A., Greenport, N. Y. 14 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Jessup, Morris K., 195 Madison Avenue, N. Y, Joline, Dr. Adrien H., 54 Wall Street, N. Y. Jackson, Rev. Dr. T. G., 6851 Paul's Place, Brooklyn, N. Y. Kirby, Dr. R. M., Potsdam, N. Y. Krotel, Rev. Dr., 65 Convent Avenue, N. Y. Leavey, Russell H., 147 W. 21st Street, N. Y. Leflferts, Marshall C, 30 Washing:ton Place. N. Y. Lewis, George C., Albany, N. Y. Mace, Dr. William H., Syracuse, N. Y. Martin, John, Plattsburgh, N. Y. Morton, Hon. Levi Parsons, 681 Fifth Avenue, N. Y. Mills, D. O., 634 Fifth Avenue, N. Y. Munger, Rev. Dr. R. D., 105 Delaware Street, Syracuse, N. Y. Morgan, Rev. Dr. D. Parker, 3 East 45th Street, N. Y. Nottingham, William, 701 Walnut Avenue, Syracuse, N. Y. Nelson, Ven, George F., 29 Lafayette Place, N. Y. Olmsted, Rt. Rev. Chas. Tyler, 159 Park Avenue, Utica, N. Y. O'Brien, M. J., 195 Broadway, N. Y. Paige, Edward Winslow, 44 Cedar Street, New York. Pierce, Rev. Dr. Walter Franklin, 16 S. Elliott Place, Brooklyn, Rogers, Howard J., Albany, N. Y. Rhoades, W. C. P., 400 Putnam Avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y. Sill, Dr. Frederick S., 169 Mohawk Street, Cohoes, N. Y. Schell, F. Robert, 280 Broadway, N. Y. Smith, William Alex., 412 Madison Avenue, N. Y. Samson, William H., 420 Oxford Street, Rochester, N. Y. Sillo, Dr. Chas. Morton, Geneva, N. Y. Seabury, Rev. Dr. Wilham Jones, 8 Chelsea Square, N. Y. Stackpole, George F., Riverhead, N. Y. Sims, Charles N., Liberty, Indiana. Steele, Mrs. Esther B., 532 W. Clinton Street, Elmira, N. Y. Stilwell, Giles H., 1906 West Genesee St., Syracuse, N. Y. Sheddon, Hon. Lucian L., Plattsburgh, N. Y. Silver, Dr. John Archer, Geneva, N. Y. Spencer, Dr. Charles W., Princeton, N. J. Vanderveer, Dr. A., 28 Eagle Street, Albany, N. Y. Waller, Rev. Henry D., Flushing, N. Y. \ Watson, Col. Jas. f ., Clinton, M. Y. "*" ANNUAL MEETING. 1 5 Welch, Miss J. M., 'j(i Johnston Park, Buffalo, N. Y. Willey, Rev. John H., 466 East i8th Street, N. Y. Willis, James D., 40 East 39th Street, N. Y. The thanks of the Trustees were extended to Dr. Stevens for "his services as chairman of the Committee on Membership. The Secretary and Mr. William Wait, of Kinderhook, were by motion duly carried appointed a committee on the publication of the Pro- ceedings of the Association. The edition was fixed at 750 copies and the Secretary instructed not to send proceedings to persons who were more than four years in arrears, after which the meeting ;adjourned, ROBERT O. BASCOM, Secretary. CHARACTER OF GEN. SULLIVAN. By Dr. W. C. Seeking. How the mists do gather. With the exception of Greene and Benedict Arnold, George Washington trusted SulUvan b&yond any other general of the Continental army. Sullivan acquitted himself well on diverse battlefields and, though defeated, the real worth of the man shows in this, that defeat added as much prestige to his reputation as his victories. His greatness like that of Washington throve on defeat, for it can be fairly said that Washington never won a battle. And yet if you ask even those who have given time to our history as to General Sullivan, they will convey to you but the most vague impression of some minor general who sometime in the revolution made a foray on some Indians somewhere in this State. The last scene of a drama is best remembered. The picture as the curtain falls is stamped most clearly on the memory. Sullivan v/as not to be an actor in the war's closing scenes, and the valor that gleams the name of Marion, the splendor of Greene's military intelligence, and the glory that is linked with the name of Wash- ington at YorktO'wn were not his. Neither had he the methodical madness of Wayne, the pusillanimity of the self-seeking Gates, the recklessness of Putnam, nor the aestheistic fatalism of Ethan Allan ; none of these things had Sullivan to carve his picture on men's memory. It may not be out of place here to give a short chronology of this man's life. He was born in Summerworth, N. H., in 1740. His parents were well-to-do emigrants from Ireland. He studied law and was a member of the first Congress, 1774. Was made Brigadier Gen- eral 1775. In 1776 he superseded Arnold in Canada. Then he succeeded General Greene and was taken prisoner. He was ex- CHARACTER OF GEN. SULLIVAN. 17 changed in November. In 1777 he took part in the battle of Brandy wine, Germantown, and 1778 he commanded in Rhode Island. In 1779 he led the expedition against the Indians. He then resigned from the army and took up again the practice of law. He was a member of the State constiitutional convention, then he was elected a member of Congress, and in '86, '87, '89 was pres- ident of his State. Later, in 1789, he was appointed District Judge, and died in 1795 at the age of 54 years. His personal characteristics are said to be that he was a dig- nified, genial and amiable man. He displayed a fine courtesy to those about him, both to his soldiers and compatriot generals. I quote the following paragraph from A. Tififany Norton, who I believe to be the one who has written the best account of the Indian campaign, and it is a wonder to me that one who shows so broad a grasp of history and its essential principles and the elements that make for historical research, has never written more than he has. Norton, in his general description of Sullivan, says : " His eyes were keen and dark, his hair curly black, his form erect, his movements full of energy and grace." His height was five feet nine inches, and a slight corpulency when in his prime gave but an added grace. General Sullivan was a man of undoubted courage, warmth of temperament and independent spirit equalled only by his patriotic devotion to his country's cause and his zeal in all pub- lic affairs." Doubtless he was too impatient and outspoken and may have been deserving of some measure of blame, stil'l his faults should not have detracted from that meed of praise to which he was justly entitled. Neither should the jealousies of his brothers in arms, which prompted them to ridicule his achievements, question his reports and detract from his hard-earned laurels, have weight with the historian. Yet such has been, in great degree, the case, and the name of Sullivan occupies a lesser space in the history of the Revolutionary struggle, than those of many others whose achieve- ments fell far s'hort of his in magnitude and importance. Sullivan has been made the victim of the intrigues and petty jealousies of his times, and while for this his own indiscretions may justly be blamed, the duty is none the less incumbent on the present genera- tion to render due homage to one who is a brave soldier and a de- 1 8 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. voted, disinterested, self-sacrificing patriot. As Amory has justlj said : " A friend of Washington, Greene, Lafayette, and all the noiilest statesmen and generals of the war, whose esteem for him was universally known, to whom his own attachment never waiv- ered, he will be valued for his high integrity and steadfast faith, his loyal and generous character, his enterprise and vigor in com- mand, his readiness to assume responsibility, his courage and cool- ness in emergencies, his foresight for providing for all possible con- tingencies of campaign or battle-field, and his calmness when the results became adverse." Could the character of Sullivan be fairly said to be that of a great man? Does he measure up to "bigness?" Remember a little man seldom does big things. Briefly, what did he do in this Indian campaign? At the beginning of the Revolution there was a democracy of six confederate states within the present boundaries of our own municipality. So strong had this democracy grov/n that it dominated the inhabitants of a territory of more than a mil- lion square miles. Their battle-cry was heard from the Kennebec to Lake Superior, and under the very fortifications of Quebec they annihilated the Huron. Their orators were fit to rank with any that we have to-day. Their legends are the legends of a people whose souls were filled with poetry. Their military tactics were those of a people trained for war — successful war. Man to man, they were what no other barbarians have been, a match for the white man. They held the gateway to the West and their position made them mnpires be- tween the mighty nations of the Old World who were struggling for the possession of the New. Civilized in a sense they were, but they were barbarians too, and savages to their very heart of hearts. Rapacious, treacherous, cruel beyond belief, they were dreaded alike by friend and foe. Their home was a terra incognita. No colonist had trodden it. From no peak had trapper looked across the profile of their land. Their numbers were unknown and could only be guessed at by their achievements — and these were terrible. How silly of Gordon to criticise Sullivan for over-manning his expedition. Darkest Africa is better known to-day than was then the land of the Iroquois. They were re-enforced by British regu- lars, by fanatical tories ; thev were led bv white men, and one of CHARACTER OF GEN. SULLIVAN. 1 9 their leaders was a thorough Indian and thoroughly educated in the white man's lore. Among this people and into this terra i'dcognita came Sullivan and smote them hip and thigh. He conquered them to the utter- most. He broke down the gateway to the mighty West. With a miserable commissariat, he invaded an unknown country and for- ever destroyed a democracy that had ruled for five hundred years. The Indians conquered by Wayne were but a frazzle of the Six Nations united with Indians farther West. Little men do little things, big men do big things, and great men do great things. Before Sullivan vanished " that savage senate at the Lake, " By the salt marshes, yonder in the north, " Dull-visaged butchers, coarsely blanketed " Squatted in a ring by their dark Council House " And with strange mumery O'f pipes and belts " Decreeing, coldly, death — forever death." The strongest are the gentlest. It is related that having found an Indian woman too old and feeble to retreat with her people, that Sullivan left her with a plentiful supply of provisions, though, as one of the party writes, " we only had half a ration every other day ourselves." It is not my province to put forth a brief for General Sullivan, yet that one incident cast a side-light on his character that impress- ed me more as to the true lovely heartiness of the man than any- thing I have found. Constancy to a friend is an attribute to those who approach greatness. After the Indian war Sullivan was re- viled unmercifully for the devastation wrought by him in the Indian country. Out of his love for General Washington he suffered in silence, while he had in his possession General Washington's writ- ten instructions to do exactly as he had done. Perchance for a good man some would even dare to die. But what of a man whose friendship holds so strong that he may see that which is dearer to him than life — ^his character — filched from him, and lest he should harm a friend, allow his enemies to do with that character as they wished. Probably no historian ever lived who could write more wrong history than Benjamin Lossing, who accuses Sullivan of careless- 20 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. ness and want of vigilance as a commanding officer and mentions Bedford and Brand^-wine. Nothing could be farther from the truth. At Bedford he withdrew his forces because the French Navy would not support him, and it was out of the question to re- main in the position he had taken up. We have John Fiske's word for it that Brandy wine was a drawn battle. Of energy he had a plenty. It is on record that after he and General Clinton united (and Clinton was no sluggard) his Division time and again outmarched that of Clinton. At one time he broke road across nine miles of swamp while Clinton following him had to camp in the middle of the morass. 'So difficult was the morass that the Indian spies who had been watching his advance never dreamed that he would attempt the passage of the swamp, and withdrew to their camps. So confident were the Tories and In- dians, that when he emerged from the swamp their campfires were still burning. Right here is a place to say a word about General Sullivan's veracity. After his return from conquering the Six Nations he reported that he had destroyed forty villages, and his detractors could not find but eighteen. It at last developed that when his subordinates had reported destroying a group of buildings he most naturally supposed that it was an Indian village, and so put it down in his report. It has been said of him that he resigned from the army out of spite. Well, if he did, he was perhaps blamable. But we should remember that he was dealing with a Continental Congress of the latter years of the war, and if you search history for a thousand years you will not be able to find an aggregation of political castros equal to this same Continental Congress. The men who had made the primal congresses great had set themselves to serve the nation in other ways, and Congress had fallen to those who had some money without brains or brains without principle, or lacking both, were like our modern ones in that they loved " graft " and knew how to get it, Sullivan was not a liar, and he himself says that his health was failing. If we care to plow through the many diaries kept by of- ficers under him we can well believe that he told the truth, for with the spoiling of the provisions sent to the expedition most of the CHARACTER OF GEN. SULLIVAN. 21 soldiers did suffer from chronic intestinal troubles, and it would be strange if the commander who takes the same fare as his sub- ordinates should not suffer in the same manner. And to back up this we must remember that even after he re- tired he never lost the confidence or the love of the greatest of them all, General Washington, Much has been written of General Sul- livan's fallibilities, and fallibilities the greatest have. We should remember that Sullivan was a Ke'lt. And through the centuries the Kelts have given us the lordhest orators and gold- en artists, hvk for tenacity of purpose no one has celebrated them. General Sullivan when he was taken prisoner and fell under the influence of the British military power, and contrasting them with the meagerness that he had been accustomed to, for once his heart failed him and his soul sank within him, and it is no sorrow to his name to say that for the moment he thought the liberty of mankind in the Western continent was doomed. He came from the British to us seeking peace, but after he was exchanged and in his old environment his true native Keltic courage returned and his after life was the life of an ardent pa- triot. I do not think we give enough credit to the perceptions of the ignorant. Suppose to ten thousand ignorant people this entirely hypo- thetical question should be stated: Around the globe is a people who for three hundred years had been fighting a tyranical power and well nigh achieved success. Would it be right for a republic to step in and take them away from the power they were in rebel- lion against, and then tlhis republic by force of arms prevent them from becoming an independent republic? State to ten thousand ignorant people this question, and they will shout with one voice " that it is not right." State this question to ten thousand college professors, and they will back and fill, debate and re-debate, and finally be fogged by their very knowledge and at last come to no conclusion ait all. It has never been sufficiently made clear that the classes fought the Revolutionary war,' The educated, the elegant, the conserv- ative, the well-to-do, in short the " better elements," were practically all with the British. While the broken, the ignorant, the d'iscour- 22 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. aged, " the rabble," were the ones that won our liberty. Every single Tory that was expatriated could read and write, while I be- lieve if the muster rolls of my own county, inhabited at that time by the educated Dutch, not one-third of those who enlisted could sign their names. So coldly did the wealthy Dutchman look upon the war that it was a common trick for him to send a slave to serve in the ranks instead of himself. Sullivan by birth and position belonged among the former class, and yet in spite of position, broke with his own class and gladly took up the sword with the ignorant because he saw clearly that all social progress must from very necessity spring from the dis- content of the Hoi Polloi. He was a true patriot for he lost his all by giving his attention to public rather than private affairs, and though respected by all and honored by his State, his last years were the years of gloom and the gathering clouds, for his life was beset by heartless creditors. The last scene is the saddest of all, for at his funeral his creditors tried to seize his body and would have done so, except that an old army general drew his pistols and drove off the bailiffs of the law. So was buried one of America's greatest patriots, a constant friend, a brave and good soldier, and a man who, take him all in all, it is not an exaggeration to call " Great." THE PRIMARY CAUSES OF THE BORDER WARS By Francis W. Halsey. General Sullivan's expedition of 1779 was an immediate out- come of the massacres of Wyoming and Cherry Valley in the sum- mer and autumn of 1778 — not to mention those minor incidents of the Border Wars, which, beginning in the summer of 1777, had converted the valley of the upper Susquehanna into a land of deso- lation. It was a most drastic punishment that Sullivan inflicted, and such it was intended by Congress that his work should be. " The immediate objects," said Washington, in his letter of instruc- tion to Sullivan, " are the total destruction and devastation of the Indian settlements." He added that the Indian country was " not to be merely overrun, but destroyed." If we have regard for pro- portions, greater losses were inflicted upon the Indians by Sullivan than were ever inflicted upon the settlements of New York by the Indians. The expedition, however, failed completely in achieving its main purpose, which was to suppress the Indian raids. Sullivan and his army had scarcely left the Western country, when the In- dian attacks were renewed and for three years were continued with a savage energy before unknown. The Indians' thirst for revenge having been thoroughly aroused, nothing could afterwards restrain their hands. Aside from the burning of German Flats and the battle of Oriskany (the latter not properly an incident of the Border Wars, since it was an integral part of the Burgoyne campaign), the injury done by the Indians to the Mohawk Valley was done subse- quent to the Sullivan expedition. In their entirety, the Border Wars constitute a phase of the Rev- olution of which far too little has been remembered. We may seek 24 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. in vain for a territory elsewhere in the United States where so much des'truction was done to non-comhatants. In Tryon county alone, 12,000 farms went out of cultivation ; fully two-thirds of the population either died or fled, While of the one-third who remained 300 were widows and 2,000 orphans. And yet, as I have said, the losses of the Iroquois were greater still. But it is with the causes which led to this savage work that I am here to deal. For quite 100 years, Joseph Brant and the Tories of the Mohawk Valley, with Col. Guy and Sir John Johnson, and John and Walter Butler, at their head, were generally accepted as the original and inspiring forces in all the barbarities committed. The greater oiifenders, however, were men of much higher station and more aimple powers — men who had never seen the valleys of the Susquehanna and the Mohawk, but who lived in London, and as members of the King's Cabinet were in direct charge of the war in America. One of them was the Earl of Dartmouth, the other Lord George Germaine ; but it is to Germaine that we must ascribe the chief odium. The administration of the Province of New York, when the Revolution began, was completely in the hands of Loyalists. New York was still a Crown colony, officials holding their appointments directly from London. Outside the official class, however, there were patriots in plenty ; none of the colonies possessed more ; but as New York City was conupletely dominated by Tory influences, so was the M^ohawk Valley dominated by the Johnsons and their army of followers, in whom loyalty to England was a deep-seated senti- ment and a fixed principle of conduct. Sir William Johnson had died just as the Revolution was about to begin. H'is successors became not only as great Loyalists as ever he had been, but, being men of smaller minds and fewer talents. They added to the senti- m^ent of loyalty an expression of it w^hich took the form of satanic bitterness and brute savagery. It was these men who, with their followers, became the hated Tories of the frontier of New York — men of whom in some instances, Joseph Brant said, they had been more savage than the savages themselves. The attitude of the Indians can be best understood if we re- member that they had been practically in alliance with the English of New York for a hundred years. When war began between the THE PRIMARY CAUSES OF THE BORDER WARS. 25 mother country and the colonies, or between what the Indians called *' two brother nations," they were lost in amazement and tried in vain to understand it. Their own history for three hundred years had been one of peace between brother nations. " No taxation without representation " was a principle beyond their comprehen- sion. The men who defied Britisih soldiers in the streets of New York and Boston seemed to them exactly like the French of Canada who in the older wars had stormed Englisih forts on the Northern Frontier, since they were engaged in war with the King of Eng- land, and the King was the Indians' powerful friend. When the Border Wars reached their height, the frontier of New York should have been in a state of tranquility. With Bur- goyne's surrender, the center of conflict was to pass away from New York and New England, and was soon to be transferred to "Virginia, Georgia, and South Carolina. Why then, these Border Wars in New York? In one short sentence, the w^hole truth may l)e disclosed. The ministry of George III, after long and laborious €fiForts, now at last had won the Indians of New York into active sympathy with their cause. For three years they had tried in vain to gain their support, and again and again had held counsels with them, but the net results had been an essentially neutral stand by the Indians. But let us recapitulate. Soon after the battle of Lexington, Col. Guy Johnson, the official successor of Sir William, convened at his home near Amsterdam, a conference with the Indians, mostly Mo- Tiawks, and later, after the result at Bunker Hill had alarmed him anew, fled to Oswego and thence to Canada. Nearly all the Mo- hawk Indians went with him, as well as a domestic force of about 500 white men, mainly Scotdh Highlanders, over whom he had placed in command. Col. John Butler. In July Col. Johnson reached Montreal, vv*here he had an interview with Sir Frederick Halde- mand, who said to the Indians : " Now is the time for you to help the King. The war has be- gun. Assist him now, and you will find it to your advantage. Whatever you lose during the war, the King will make up to you when peace returns." Later in the same month, the Earl of Dartmouth, then a mem- ber of the British Cabinet, wrote from London to Col. Johnson, that 26 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. it was the King's pleasure " That you lose no time in taking such steps as may induce the Indians to take up the hatchet against his Majesty's rebellious subjects in America." This letter was accom- panied by a large assortment of presents for the Indians, and Col. Johnson was urged not to fail to use " the utmost diligence and activity " in accomplishing the purpose. Col. Johnson was joined in Canada in the spring of the following year by his brother-in-law, Sir John Johnson, the son and heir of Sir William. Sir John had organized a force known as the Royal Greens, composed of loyalists from the New York frontier, and mainly former tenants and de- pendents of his father's estate. The Moihawks, who alone of all the Six Nations had gone to Canada, were slow to yield to the importunities of the English, in so far as taking an active part in the war was concerned. A topic of far deeper interest to them was their title to certain lands in the Mohawk and upper Susquehanna Valleys, concerning which they had failed to secure adjustments for many years. In November, 1775, Joseph Brant with other Indian chiefs, sailed for England with a view to accomplishing a settlement of this dispute. An in- terview took place with the Colonial Secretary, who subsequently was in direct charge of the war in America, Lord George Ger- maine. Brant made two speeches before Germaine, outlining the grievances of his people, and it is clear from one of them that Ger- maine then secured the adhesion of Brant to the English cause by promising to redress the Indian grievances after the war, and to keep for the Indians the favor and protection of the King. Thence- forth the responsibility for Indian activity in the Revolution rests mainly on Germaine. It was to him that Lord Chatham referred in a memorable speech on the American War : " But, my lord, who is the man, that, in addition to the disgrace and mischiefs of the war, has dared to authorize and associate to our arms the tomahawk and scalping knife of the savage? To call into civilized alliance the wild and inhuman inhabitants of the woods ? To delegate to the merciless Indian the defense of disputed right, and to wage the horrors of his barbarous war against our brethren? My lords, t^ese enormities cry aloud for redress and punishment." THE PRIMARY CAUSES OF THE BORDER WARS. 27 When the Burgoyne campaign began, Brant had arrived home. New efforts were now actively put forth to enb'st the Indians in British service. A considerable company of them started south wifh Burgoyne, but they subsequently deserted him before a battle had been foug'ht, or even the American army was discovered. With St. Leger a much larger force started for a descent upon the Mo- hawk Valley. These were in direct charge of Joseph Brant, and comprised the greater part of the efficient Mohawk force. At Os- wego a counsel had been held a few weeks before, in order to enlist in British service the other " nations " of the Iroquois, who were assured that the King was a man of great power and that they should never want for food and clothing if they adhered to him. Rum, it was said, would be " as plentiful as water in Lake On- tario." Presents were made, and a bounty offered on every white man's scalp that they might take. The Senecas notably, and to some extent Che Onondagas and Cayugas, thus became fired with ambition to see something of the war. By the time St. Leger arrived at Oswego, about 700 warriors had been secured. Some of them still remained lukewarm as to fighting, but they were at last drawn into the campaign under an assurance that they need not fight themselves, but might sit by during the battle smoking their pipes, while they saw the redcoats '■' whip the rebels." The result was, that when a battle was im- minent at Oriskany, the Indian's love of war was uppermost, and they became the most active participants in the conflict. They also became proportionately the heaviest losers and returned to their homes, not only with doleful shrieks and yells over their losses, but with a determined purpose to revenge themselves on tthe defense- less frontier. At what frightful cost to the Mohawk Valley they secured that revenge, the story of the ensuing four years bears ample witness. But, as I have said, the Indians lost more. When the war was over, they 'had practically lost everything. Their homes were de- stroyed and their altars obliterated. England virtually abandoned them to the men whom they had fought as rebels, but who were now victorious patriots, the masters of imperial possessions. Noth- ing whatever was exacted for them in the treaty of peace. Not even their names were mentioned. Suoh, at the close of the war, 28 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. was their pitiful state. Everything in the world that they had, had been given io a cause, not their own — the cause of an ally across the great waters, with whom they were keeping an ancient cove- nant chain. When at last their wide domain, among whose streams and forests for ages their race had found a home, passed forever from .their control, they might have said, with a pride more just than that of Francis L, after the battle of Pavia, " All is lost save honor." THE ORGANIZATION OF SULLIVAN'S EXPEDITION. By Dr. Sherman Williams. History has not done justice to the subject in telling tlie story of Sullivan's expedition. There are few if any equally important events in our history of which the great majority of our people know so little. It was the most important military event of 1779, fully one-third of the Continental army being engaged in it. The campaign was carried on under great difificulties, was brilliantly successful, and executed with but small loss of life. It is possible that the movement would have received more attention from the historians had the loss of life been much greater, even if the results had been of less importance. The chief result was the practical destruction of the Iroquois Confederacy. Wbile the Six Nations were very active on the frontier the following year, the Confederacy as an organization had received its death blow. The massacres at Wyoming, along the New York frontier, especially in the Mohawk, Sdhoharie and Susquehanna valleys, had so aroused the people th'at the Continental Congress felt called up- on to take action and on the 27th of February, 1779, passed a reso- dution directing Washington to take effective measures to protect the frontier. It was decided to send a strong expedition against the Iroquois settlements, and utterly destroy their towns and crops, more espe- cially in the territory of the Senecas and Cayugas. It was no small task to equip a large force and traverse an almost unknown, and altogether unmapped, wilderness whidh was wholly without roads, in the face of an active and vigilant as well as relentless foe. The command of the expedition was tendered to General Gates because of his rank. In reply to the tender of the command Gen- 30 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. era] Gates wrote to Washington as follows : " Last night I had the honor of your Excellency's letter. The man who undertakes the Indian service should enjoy health and strength, requisites 1 do not possess. It therefore grieves me that your Excellency should offer me the only command to which I am entirely unequal. In obedience to your command I have forwarded your letter to General Sullivan." Washington had evidently anticipated that Gates would not ac- cept the command as he had enclosed in his letter to him a com- munication that was to be forwarded to Sullivan in case Gates declined the service. It was this letter to which Gates referred in his reply to Was'hington. No doubt it was fortunate for the coun- try that the command of the expedition devolved upon some other person than Gates Washington felt somewhat hurt at the tone of the letter he re- ceived from Gates, and in a communication to the President of Congress he said, " My letter to him on the occasion I believe you will think was conceived in very candid and polite terms, and merit- ed a different answer from the one given to it." In his instructions to Sullivan Washington wrote as follows : " Sir : — The expedition you are appointed to command is to be directed against the hostile tribes of the Six Nations of Indians, with their associates and adherents. The immediate object is their total destruction and devastation, and the capture of as many per- sons of every age and sex as possible. It will be essential to ruin their crops now in the ground and prevent their planting more." At this time it was supposed that the expedition would reach the Indian country in the early summer, but it was not until August that the work of destruction began. Writing again of the expe- dition Washington said the purpose was " to cut off their settle- ments, destroy their crops, and inflict upon them every other mis- chief which time and circumstances would permit." The purpose of the expedition was primarily to destroy the crops and villages of the Indians, after which Sullivan was to move forward and capture Niagara, if such action should prove to be practicable. The expedition was to be made up of three divisions. The first was directly under the command of Sullivan ; and the forces of THE ORGANIZATION OF SULLIVAN's EXPEDITION. 3 1 which it was composed assembled at Easton, Pa., from whidh point they marched to Wyoming on the Susquehanna, and from there to Tioga Point. Here they waited for the second division under the command of General Clinton, who had sent an expedition into the Onondaga country, after which he was to assemble his forces at Canajoharie and march across the country to the head of Otsego Lake and then come down the Susquehanna River to join Sullivan at Tioga. The third division was under the command of Colonel Daniel Brodhead, who started from Pittsburgh, Pa. He never directly co-operated with Sullivan, but no doubt aided him by his movement. He left Pittsburgh on the nth of August with a force of six hundred and fifty men. He followed the Allegany river and passed up into the seneca country, where he destroyed more than one hundred and fifty houses and about five hundred acres of corn. His presence in the southern portion of the Seneca country kept some of the Senecas from joining in the movement to oppose Sul- livan and so lessened the Indian force at the battle of Newtown and possibly somewhat affected the expedition. The original in- tention was to have Brodhead join SulMvan at Genesee and aid in the movement against Niagara, but as for some reason no move- ment was made against Niagara there was no occasion for him to do more than he did, and no further attention need be given his movement as a part of the Sullivan expedition. Brodhead marched three hundred and eighty miles, destroyed houses, cornfields, and gardens, and did his part in destroying the Indian civilization. Aside from the force of Brodhead, Sullivan's expedition was made up of four brigades. The first consisted of the First New Jersey regiment under the command of Colonel Matthias Ogden ; the Second New Jersey commanded by Colonel Israel Shreve ; the Third New Jersey under Colonel EHas Dayton, and Spencer's New Jersey regiment commanded by Colonel Oliver Spencer. The bri- gade was under the command of Brigadier-General William Max- well. Brigadier-General Enoch Poor commanded the second brigade, which was made up of the First New Hampshire regiment under Colonel Joseph Cilley ; the Second New Hampshire commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel George Reid ; the Third New Hampshire commanded by Lieutenant^Colonel Henry Dearborn ; the Sixth 32 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Massachusetts under the command of Major Daniel Whiting. The Sixth Massachusetts was at the outset a part of the fourth brigade,, and the Second New York was a part of the second brigade, but the two regiments exchanged brigades in August, and from that time till the close of the expeditions were in the brigades as given in this sketch. The third brigade was commanded by Brigadier-General Ed- ward Hand and was composed of the Fourth Pennsylvania regi- ment under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel William Butler; the Eleventh Pennsylvania under Lieutenant-'Colonel Hubley ; the German Battalion under Major Daniel Burchardt; an artillery regi- ment under Colonel Thomas Proctor ; Morgan's riflemen under Major James Parr; an independent rifle company under Captain Anthony Selin ; the Wyoming militia under Captain Jdhn FrankHn ; and an independent Wyoming company under Captain Simon Spald- ing. The fourth brigade, commander by Brigadier-General James Clinton, was made up of the Second New York regiment under Col- onel Philip Van Cortlandt ; the Third New York under Colonel Peter Gansevoort; the Fourth New York under Colonel Frederic Weis- senfels ; the Fifth New York under Colonel Lewis Dubois ; and the New York artillery detachment under Captain Isaac Wool. It would be exceedingly interesting to trace the movement of each of the regiments engaged in the expedition from their place of starting to the various rallying places, but in many instances the writer has been unable to ascertain the facts after consulting all the works relating to Sullivan's expedition to be found in the State library, and other libraries, and after writing to the secretary of some of the state historical societies. Therefore the assembling of the forces constituting Sullivan's expedition will have to be treated in rather a general way. The New Hampshire regiments apparently wintered at Soldier's Fortune, about six miles above Peekskill, as diaries of various New Hamps'hire officers eng^aged in the expedition mention marching from that point and I find no reference to any place occupied earlier. From Soldier's Fortune the New Hampshire troops, certainly the Second and Third regiments, and presumably the whole force, marched to Fishkill, a distance of seventeen miles. At this point THE ORGANIZATION OF SULLIVAN S EXPEDITION. 33 they crossed the Hudson river to Newburgh. From that place they marched to the New Jersey Hne passing through Orange county. They took a route leading through New Windsor, Bethle- hem, Bloomgrove Church, Chester, Warwick, and Hardiston. The distance was thirty-eight miles. From Hardiston the force marched to Easton on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware river. It passed through Sussex State House, Moravian Mills, Cara's Tav- ern, all these places being in the state of New Jersey. The dis- tance from Hardiston to Easton was fifty-eight miles. On the first of May, 1779, the Second and Four'th New York regiments left their camp near the Hudson and marched to War- warsing in the southwestern part of Uls'ter county, thence to Ellen- ville, a few miles south of Warwarsing, then to Mamacotting (now Wurtsboro) in Su'llivan county. The next day was spent in rest at Bashesland (now West Brookville) near the Sullivan and Orange county line ; from this point they marched to Port Jervis. On the 9th of May they crossed the Delaware at Decker's Ferry, and from there marched to Easton. The New Jersey brigade had spent the previous winter at Eliza- bethtown, New Jersey, from which point they marched to Easton, passing through Bound Brook. The forces which gathered at Easton marched from there to Wyoming on the Susquehanna, a distance of six't3''-five mile's. Near- ly forty days were required to cover that distance. The way lay through thick woods and almost impassable swamps. The route took them through Hillier's Tavern, Brinker's Mills, Wind Gap, Learn's Tavern, Dogon Point, and the Great Swamp. They reach- ed Wyoming on the 24th of June. General Sullivan was much blamed but most unjustly so for his tardy movement. Pennsylvania had been relied upon to fur- nish not only a considerable body of troops but mosit of the sup- plies, but that commonwealth did not give the expedition a hearty support. The Quakers were most decidedly opposed to inflicting any punishment whatever upon the Indians. Other Pennsylvanians were offended because a New Englander had been chosen for the command instead of a Pennsylvanian. Troops were slow in coming forward. Supplies were furnished tardily and reluctantly. They were insufficient in quantity and poor in quality. The commis- 34 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. saries were careless and inefficient. The contractors were unscru- pulous and dishonest. The authorities complained saying that Sul- livan's demands were excessive and unreasonable and they threat- ened to prefer charges against him. However, all the testimony goes to show that the commissary department was in charge of men who were either utterly incompetent or grossly negligent of their duty. On the 23rd of June Sullivan wrote Washington say- ing, " more than one-third of my soldiers have not a sh'irt to their backs." On the 30th of July Colonel Hubbard wrote to President Reed saying, " My regiment I fear will be almost totally naked before we can possibly return. I have scarcely a coat or a blanket for every seventh man." On the 31st of July Sullivan's army left Wyoming for Tioga Point. A fleet of more than two hundred boats and a train of nearly fifteen hundred pack horses were required to transfer the army and its equipment. Tioga Poinit at the junction of the Tioga and the Susquehanna rivers was reached on the nth of August. The army had been eleven days in making sixty-five miles. The route from W^yoming led through Lackawanna (now Coxton) in Luzerne county ; Quialutimuck, near Ransom Station, Luzerne county; Hunkhannock ; Vanderlip's Farm (now Black Walnut) Wyoming county; Wyalusing, Standing Stone, Bradford county; Sheshhequin, Bradford county. While waiting for Clinton Sullivan built a fort which was named in his honor, between the Tioga and Susquehanna rivers about a mile and a quarter above their junction at a point where the two streams were within a few hundred yards of each other. The center of the present village of Athens, Pa., is almost exactly at this point. Early in the spring CHniton with the First and Third New York regiments passed up the Mohawk to Canajoharie. From this point an expedition was sent out against the Onondagas. About fifty houses were burned and nearly thirty Indians were killed and a somewhat larger number taken prisoners. After this expedition Clinton passed from Canajoharie to the head of Otsego Lake. This was a laborious enterprise as, for a portion of the distance, roads had to be cut through an unbroken forest and there was not a good road any part of the distance. THE ORGANIZATION OF SULLIVAN S EXPEDITION. 35 More than two hundred heavy batteaux had to be drawn across fiom Canajoharie, a distance of twenty miles, by oxen. Otsego Lake, the source of the Susquehanna, is about twelve hundred feet above tide water, nine miles long with an average width of a mile. The outlet is narrow with high banks. Here Clinton built a dam and raised the water of the lake several feet, sufficient to furnish water to float his boats when the time came for a forward movement. On the 9th of August Clinton's forces embarked and the dam was cut. The opening of the dam made very high water, flooding the flats down the river and frightening the Indians, who thought the Greait Spirit was angry with them to cause the river to be flooded in August without a rain. During his passage down the Susquehanna, Clinton destroyed Albout, a Scotch Tory settlement on the east side of the Susque- hanna, about five miles above the present village of Unadilla ; Coni- hunto, an Indian town about fourteen miles below Unadilla, on the west side of the river ; Unadilla, at the junction of the Unadilla with the Susquehanna ; Onoquaga, an Indian town situated on both sides of the river about twenty miles below Unadilla ; ShaWhiangto, a Tuscarora village near the present village of Windsor, in Broome county ; Ingaren, a Tuscarora hamlet where is now the village of Great Bend ; Otsiningo, sometimes called Zeringe, near the site of the present village of Chenango, on the Chenango river, four miles north of Binghamton ; Cboconut, on the south side of the Susque- hanna at the site of the present village of Vestal, in the town of Vestal, Broome County; Ovvegy or Owagea, on the Owego Creek about a mile above its mouth ; and Mauckatawaugum, near Barton. On the 28th of August Clinton met a force sent out by Sullivan at a place that has since been called Union because of this meeting. It is about ten miles from Binghamton. The two forces having joined, all was in readiness for a forward movement. The expedition which at this time had its real begin- ning, all the previous movements having been in the nature of or- ganization and preparation, was a remarkable one in that it was to pass over hundreds of miles of territory of which no reliable map had ever been made, through forests where no roads had ever been cut, across swamps that were almost impassable to a single in- 36 KEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. dividual, with no opportunity to communicate with the rest of the world from the time they set out on their forward movement till their return, no chance to secure additional supplies, no hope of re- inforcements in case of disaster, no suitable provision for the care of the sick and wounded, no chance of great glory in case of suc- cess, no hope of being excused in case of failure. It was a brave, daring, almost reckless movement. It was successful beyond all expectation, yet its story is almost unknown. Note. — The New Hampshire troops marched from Soldier's Fortune, six miles above Peekskill, to Fishkill, crossed the Hudson to Newburgh, then across Orange County, N, Y., and northern New Jersey, to Easton on the Delaware, Some New York troops who wintered at VVarwarsing in Ulster County, N. Y., passed to Easton also, going through Chester, in Orange County, and down the Delaware River The New Jersey troops who had wintered at Elizabethtown, marched to Easton From this point the united forces marched to Wyoming, on the Susquehanna River. Here they were joined by some of the Pennsylvania troops and the whole force passed up the river to Tioga Point, where they awaited the arrival of Clinton, who had gone up the Mohawk and after de- stroying some of the Onondaga towns crossed from Canajoharie to the head of Otsego Lake and down the Susquehanna to join Sul- livan. The united forces then marched into the Indian country, going to the foot of Seneca Lake, down its east shore, thence to the foot of Canandaigua Lake, then to the foot of Honeoye Lake and across the country to head of Conesus Lake, and from there to Lit- tle Beard's Town on the Genesee. From this point the army re- traced its steps. From the foot of Seneca Lake a detachment was sent up the west shore a few miles to the Indian town of Kershong. Another detachment under Colonel Dearborn went up the west side of Cayuga Lake and joined the main body at Catherine's Town, at the head of Seneca Lake. A third detachment under Colonel William Butler went up the east side of Cayuga Lake and joined the main army at Kanawaholla, not far from the present city of Corning. All these movements are indicated on the accompanying map. ROUTE OF SULLIVAN'S FORCES. A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SULLIVAN'S INDIAN EXPEDITION. By Grenville M. Ingalsbe, A. M., LL. B. (Introductory Note: It is with many misgivings that this paper is submitted to the Association. When its preparation was assign- ed, I assumed that previous compilations had been made, and that my labors would be confined simply to their continuation. Upon investigation, however, I found that while Justin Winsor in his Hand Book of the Revolution, and in his invaluable Narrative and Critical History, and others in various works, had enumerated many titles which, though largely incomplete, would aid in the work, no definitive Bibliography of Sullivan's Expedition had ever been pub- lished. Unfortunately, when these pages shall have been printed, this condition will still exist. I have not been able to command from the duties of an exacting profession, the time required for the preparation of a Bibliography at all satisfactory, even to myself. Moreover, the attention I have been able to bestow upon it has been that of an amateur, which in these days of highly developed scholastic specialization, is very inadequate in results. It is pre- sented, however, with some confidence that it contains material which will aid some historicail specialist of the future in the prep- aration of a complete Bibliography of Sullivan's Expedition. I have made no attempt to include manuscripts, leaving that for a supplementary monograj^h, or to some more competent stu- dent. The location, however, of all known manuscripts relating to the Expedition is given in the various volumes to which refer- ence is made. Neither have I included references to the general or school histories of the United States. Sullivan's Expedition is mentioned in them as an incident of more or less significance in 36 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. the struggle for independence. In none of them is it given the attention to which its importance entitles it. Indeed, it is a ne- glected chapter of ovir revolutionary history. The Public Library of Boston possesses only fourteen titles referring directly to this great march into the Indian country, and that is a larger number than is reported either in the New York Public Library or in the State Library at Albany. I desire to tender my thanks to Horace G. Wadlin, Librarian of the Boston Library, to Victor H. Paltsits, Assistant Librarian of the New York Public Library, and to Mary Childs Nerney and others of the History Division of the State Library, for many cour- tesies which they have extended to me.) Adams, Warren D. : Sullivan's Expedition and the Cayugas. Cayuga County Historical Society Collections. No. 7. 23pp. 8 vo. Auburn. 1889. Adler, Simon L. : Sullivan's Campaign in Western New York, 1779. Read before the Rochester Historical Society, January 14th, 1898. 8 pp. 8 vo. New York. i'898. Allen, Paul : A History of the American Revolution. 2 vols. Vol. 2. pp. 276 et seq. 8 vo. Baltimore. 1822. Amory, Thomas Coffin : Life of James Sullivan with selections from his writings. 2 vols, pp. 426 and 419. Portrait. Phillips, Sampson & Co., Boston. 1859. The Military Services and Public Life of Major General John Sullivan of the American Revolutionary Army. 324 pp. Portr. 8 vo. Wiggin & Lunt, Boston. J. Munsell, Albanv. 1868. A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SULLIVAN 's EXPEDITION. 39 The Military Services of John SulHvan in the American Revolution, vindicated from recent historical criticism. Read at a meeting of the Massachusetts Historical Society, December, 1866. With additions and documents. 64 pp. 8 vo. John Wilson & Son, Cambridge. 1868. Centennial Memoir of Major General John Sullivan, 1740- 1795- Presented at Independence Hall, Philadelphia, July 2d, 1876. 17 pp. 8 vo. Philadelphia. 1879. Same. The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. Vol. 2. pp. 196-210. General John Sullivan. A vindication of his Character as a Soldier and a Patriot. 56 pp. 8 vo. Morri- sania, N. Y. 1867. Memory of General John Sullivan vindicated. Proceedings, Massachusetts Historical Society. Series I. Vol. 9. pp. 379-436. Sullivan's Expedition against the Six Nations, 1779. Magazine American History. Vol. 4. pp. 420-427. A Vindication of the Character of General Sullivan as a .Soldier and a Patriot. Historical Magazine. Vol. 10. Supplement VI. pp. 161 Same. Morrisania, N. Y. 1866. General Sullivan's Expedition in 1779. Proceedings, Massachusetts Historical Society. Vol. 20. pp. 88-94. 40 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Anonymous : An Historical Journal of the American War. Collections, Massachusetts Historical Society. First Series. Vol. 2. pp. 175-178. Master Sullivan of Berwick, his Ancestors and Descen- dants. New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Vol. I 19. pp. 289-306. The Old Sullivan Road. Pennsylvania Magazine. Vol. 11. p. 123. The Old Caneadea Council House and its Last Council Fire. Publications, Buffalo Historical Society. Vol. 6. pp. 97- 123. 8 vo. Buffalo, New York. Extracts from letters to a gentleman in Boston, dated at General Sullivan's Headquarters. The Remembrancer or Impartial Repository of Public Events for the year 1780. Vol. 9. pp. 23-24. J. Almon, London. 1780. The Story of Fantine Kill. Olde Ulster, '''ol. 2. pp. 106-107. Baker, William S. : Itinery of General Washington, with notes. Pennsylvania Magazine. Vol. 15. pp. 49-50. Bard, Thomas R. : Note to Lieutenant Parker's Journal. Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. Vol. 27. p. 404. Barton, William (Lieutenant in General Maxwell's New Jersey Brigade) : Journal. New York Centennial Volume, pp. 3-14. A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SULLIVAN S EXPEDITION, 41 Same. New Jersey Historical Society Proceedings. Vol. 2. pp. 22-43. Beatty, Erkuries (Lieutenant Fourth Pennsylvania Regiment). Journal of an Expedition to the Indian Towns, June li, 1779. New York Centennial Volume, pp. 18-37. Same. Cayuga County Historical Society Collections. No. I. p. 61-68. Sr.mc. Pennsylvania Archives. Second Series. Vol. 15. Portr. pp. 219-253. Blake, Thomas (Lieutenant First New Hampshire Regiment) : Journal. New York Centennial Volume, pp. 38-41. Same. History of the First New Hampshire Regiment in the War of the Revolution by Frederick Kidder. Joel Munsell. Albany. 1868. Bleeker, Captain Leonard : The Order Book of Captain Leonard Bleeker in the Early Part of the Expedition against the Indian Settlements of Western New York in the Campaign of 1779. p. 138. 4 to. Joseph Sabin. New York. 1865. Board of War: Letter to President Reed. September 9th. (Report as to progress.) Pennsylvania Archives. First Series. Vol. 7. p. 709. 42 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Brod'head, Daniel (Colonel Commanding Western Expedition) : Letter to Major General Sullivan, August 6th, 1779. New York Centennial Volume, p. 307. Report of the Expedition. Pennsylvania Packet or the General Advertiser. Phila- delphia, October 19, 1779. Same. Magazine of American Histor}^, Vol. 3. pp. 671-673. Same. New York Centennial Volume, pp. 307-309. Brooks, Erastus : Address. American History and American Indian Wars. New York Centennial Volume, pp. 410-423. Bruce, Dwight H. : Onondaga Centennial. 2 Vols. Vol. I. p. 142. 4 to. Boston, 1896. Bryant, William Clement: Captain Brant and the Old King. The Tragedy of Wyom- ing- Publications, Buffalo Historical Society. Vol. 4. pp. 15-34. 8 vo. Buffalo, New York. Burrowes, John (Major Fifth New Jersey Regiment) : Journal. New York Centennial Volume, pp. 43-51. Campbell, Douglass : Address. The Iroquois or Six Nations and New York's Indian Policy. New York Centennial Volume, pp. 457-470. A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SULLIVAN S EXPEDITION. 43 Campbell, William W. : Annals of Tryon County or the Border Warfare of New York during the Revolution, pp. 269. p. 121 et seq. 12 mo. J. & J. Harper, New York. 183 1. The Border Warfare of New York during the Revolution, or The Annals of Tryon County. Republication of above, pp. 396. p. 149 et seq. Baker & Scribner, New York. 1849. Lecture on the Life and Military Services of General James Clinton, Read before the New York Historical Society, February, 1839. Campfield, Jabez (Surgeon Fifth New Jersey Regiment) : Diary of Dr. Jabez Campfield, Surgeon in Spencer's Regi- ment while attached to Sullivan's Expedition against the Indians. New York Centennial Volume, pp. 52-61. Same. New Jersey Historical Society Proceedings. Second Series. Vol. HL pp. 115-136, Same. Wyoming County (Penn.) Democrat. December 31st, 1873 to January 28th, 1874. (Five issues.) Chapman, Isaac A. : Wyoming Valley. A Sketch of its Early Annals. Pittston Gazette Centennial Handbook. 1878. p. 25. Chase, Franklin H. : Onondaga's Soldiers of the Revolution. 8 vo. p. 48. Syracuse. 1895. Childs, A. L. : Poem, John Sullivan's March. New York Centennial Volume, pp. 549-552. 44 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Clark, John S. : Sketc^h of Lieutenant Colonel Henry Dearborn, Command- ing Third New Hampshire Regiment, and Notes up- on his Journal, New York Centennial Volume, pp. 62-78. Notes and Maps accompanying the Journal of Lieutenant John L. Hardenhurgh. New York Centennial Volume, pp. 1 16-136. Notes upon the Journal of Thomas Grant. New York Centennial Volume, pp. 142-144. Same. Publications, Cayuga County Historical Society. No. I. Auburn. 1879. pp. 71-72. Note upon the Journal of Lieutenant Charles Nukerck. New York Centennial Volume, pp. 213-214. Notes upon the Journal of Sergeant Major George Grant. New York Centennial Volume, p. 113. Clinton, George: Papers. Sparks. MSS. No. XH. Harvard College Collections. Congress, Journals of American, from 1774-1788. 4 vols. 8 vo. Vol. HL pp. 212, 241, 242, 346, 347, 351, 375, 389, 390, 406. Washington, Way & Gideon, 1823. Cook, Frederick (Secretary of State) : New York Centennial Volume. Conover, George S. (Compiler) : Journals of the Military Expedition of Major General John Sullivan against the Six Nations of Indians in 1779, with records of Centennial Celebrations, pre- A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SULLIVAN's EXPEDITION. 45 pared pursuant to Chapter 361, Laws of the State of New York, 1885. pp. 581. 8 vo. Maps. Portraits. Auburn, New York. 1887. (Herein designated as New York Centennial Volume.) Early History of Geneva. 60 pp. p. 17 et seq. 12 mo. Geneva, New York. 1879. Craft, David : List of Journals, Narratives, &c., of the Western Expe- dition, 1779. Magazine of American History. Vol, H. pp. 673-675. Sullivan's Centennial Historical Addresses at Elmira, Waterloo and Geneseo. Centennial Proceedings, Waterloo Library and Historical Society, Waterloo, 1879. Journals of the Sullivan Expedition, 1779. Pennsylvania Magazine, p. 348. Biographical Sketch of Major General John Sullivan. New York Centennial Volume, pp. 333-334. Address. A full and complete History of the Expedition against the Iroquois or Six Nations of New York in 1779, commanded by Major General John Sullivan, with Appendix, giving Loss of Men, Towns Destroyed, Washington's Instructions, and Biographical Sketches. New York Centennial Volume, pp. 336-386. Same. The Sullivan Campaign of 1779. Seneca County Sullivan's Centennial, p. 90. Biographical Sketch, Major Nicholas Fish. New York Centennial Volume, p. 383. 46 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Biographical Sketch, Colonel Lewis Dubois. New York Centennial Volume, p. 384. Biographical Sketch, Lieutenant Colonel Frederick Weis- senfels. New York Centennial Volume, p. 384. Biographical Sketch, Rev. Samuel Kirkland, New York Centennial Volume, p. 385. Biographical Sketch, Rev. John Gano. New York Centennial Volume, p. 385. Biographical Sketch, Colonel John Harper. New York Centennial Volume, p. 386. Biographical Sketch, Brigadier General James Clinton. New York Centennial Volume, p. 387. Biographical Sketch, Colonel Peter Gansevoort. New York Centennial Volume, pp. 479-480. Biographical Sketch, Colonel Philip Van Cortlandt. New York Centennial Volume, pp. 537-538. Craig, Neville B. : The Olden Time, Vol. 2. pp. 308-317. Pittsburgh. 1848. Same. Vol, I, p, 308 et seq. 8 vo. Robert Clark & Co., Cin- cinnati. 1876. Dana, E. L. : Address. New York Centennial Volume, pp. 445-449. Davis, Andrew McFarland: Sullivan's Expedition against the Indians of New York, 1779. A letter to Justin Winsor. With the Journal of William McKendry, 45 pp. 8 vo, John Wilson & Son, Cambridge, 1886. A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SULLIVAN S EXPEDITION. 47 Same. Proceedings, Massachusetts Historical Society. Second Series. Vol. 2. pp. 436-478. Boston. 1886. List of Diaries relating- to General Sullivan's Campaign. Proceedings, Massachusetts Historical Society. Second Series. Vol. 2. p. 436-438. Davis, Nathan (Private First New Hampshire Regiment) : History of the Expedition against the Five Nations com- manded by General Sullivan in 1779. Historical ]\Iagazine. Second Series. Vol, 3. pp. 198- 205. Dawson, Henry B. ; Battles of the United States. 2 \^ols. Vol. I. p. 533. 4 to. New York. 1858. Dearborn, Henry (Lieutenant Colonel Commanding Third New Hampshire Regiment) : Journal. New York Centennial Volume, pp. 63-79. Same. Cayuga County Historical Collections. No. i. 1879. Same. Publications, Buffalo Historical Society. Vol. 7. p. 96. 8 vo. Buffalo, New York. Depe}'?ter, T. ^^''atts : Sullivan Centennial. New York Mail, August 26th, 1879. Celebrating the Anniversary of the Battle of Newtown. New York I\Iail, August 29th, 1879. The Sullivan Campaign. New York Mail, September 15th, 1879. 48 MEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Doty, Lockwood L. : History of Livingston County. Illustrated, p. 685. pp. 113 and 151 et seq. Edward E. Doty, Geneseo. Dwight, Timothy, S. T. D., LL. D. : Travels in New England and New York. 4 vols. Vol. 4. p. 211. New Haven. 1822. Edson, Obed: Brodhead's Expedition against the Indians of the Upper Allegheny. (Contains reference to Sullivan's Expe- dition.) Magazine American History. Vol. III. pp. 647-670. Elmer, Dr. Ebenezer (Surgeon Second New Jersey Regiment) : Memoirs of an Expedition undertaken against the Sav- ages to the westward commenced by the Hon. Major General John Sullivan, began at Easton on the Dela- ware (by Lieutenant Ebenezer Elmer). New York Centennial Volume, pp. 80-85. Same. New Jersey Historical Society Proceedings. Vol. 2. pp. 43-50. Elwood, Mary Cheney: An Episode of the Sullivan Campaign and its Sequel. (The Post-Express Printing Co.) 39 pp. 8 vo. Plates. Maps. Rochester, New York. 1904. Farmer & Moore's Collections, Historical and Miscellaneous and Monthly Literary Journal. Vol. 2. p. 308. Fellows, Moses (Orderly Sergeant Captain Gray's Company Third New Hampshire Regiment) : Journal. New York Centennial Volume, pp. 86-91. A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SULLIVAn's EXPEDITION. 49 Fogg, Jeremiah (Paymaster and Captain (on roster) Second New Hampshire Regiment) : Journal of Major Jeremiah Fogg of Col. Poor's Regiment, New Hampshire, during the Expedition of General Sullivan in 1779 against the Western Indians. New York Centennial Volume, pp. 92-101. Same. News Letter Press, 1879. P- 26. Exeter, New Hamp- shire. Gano, John (Brigade Chaplain General Clinton's Brigade) : A Chaplain of the Revolution. Historical Magazine. First Series. Vol. 5. pp. 330-335 Gansevoort, Peter (Colonel Third New York Regiment) : Letter to General Sullivan. New York Centennial Volume, pp. 372-373. Gookin, Daniel (Ensign Second New Hampshire Regiment) : Journal of March from North Hampton, N. Hampshire, in the year 1779. New York Centennial Volume, pp. 102-106. Same. New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Vol. XVL pp. 27-34. Gould, Jay : Delaware County and the Border Wars of New York. pp. 426. p. 90 et seq. 12 mo. Roxbury. 1856. Gordon, William, D. D. : The History of the Rise, Progress and Establishment of the Independence of the United States. 4 Vols. Vol. 3. pp. 307-313. 8 vo. London, 1788. Goodwin, H. C. : Pioneer History of Cortland County, p. 456. p. 56 et seq. 12 mo. A. B. Burdick, New York. 1859. 50 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Grant, George (Sergeant Major Third New Jersey Regiment) : A journey of the Marches, &c., completed by the Third Jersey Regiment and the rest of the Troops under the command of Major Sullivan in the Western Ex- pedition, New York Centennial Volume, pp. 107-114. Same. Hazard's Register of Pennsylvania. Vol. 14. pp. 'j2'-j^. Same. Cayuga County Historical Collections. No. i. 1879. Same. Wyoming Republican. July 16, 1834. Wilkes-Barre. 1868. Giant, Thomas (Surveyor) : Journal. General Sullivan's Expedition to the Genesee Country — A Journal of Janaral Sullivan's Army after they left Wyoming. New York Centennial Volume, pp. 137-144. Same. Historical Magazine. First Series. Vol 6. pp. 233-273 Same. Cavuga Count}'- Historical Collections. No. i. Auburn. ■ 1879. Statement of Distances. Historical Magazine. Vol. 6. pp. 233-273. Gray, Captain William: Letter of Captain William Gray of the Fourth Pennsyl- vania Regiment, with a map of the Sullivan Expedi- tion (against The Six Nations). Pennsylvania Ardhives. Second Series. Vol. 15. pp. 286-290. A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SULLIVAN's EXPEDITION. 51 Greene, General Nathaniel: Letter to Colonel Jeremiah Wadsworth. Pennsylvania Magazine. Vol. 22. p. 211. Greenough, Charles P. : Roster of Officers in Sullivan's Expedition, 1779. New York Centennial Volume, pp. 315-329. Gridley, A. D. : History of the Town of Kirkland, New York. New York. 1874. Griffis, William Elliot, L. H. D. : Address. The History and Mythology of Sullivan's Expedition. Proceedings Wyoming Commemorative Association, pp. 9-38. Wilkes-Barre. 1903. New Hampshire's Part in Sullivan's Expedition of 1779. New England Magazine. Vol. 23. pp. 355-373. The Pathfinders of the Revolution. A Story of the Great March into the Wilderness and Lake Region of New York in 1779. Illustrated, pp. 316. 12 mo. W. A. Wilde Co., Boston. Sullivan's Great March into the Indian Country. The Magazine of History. Vol. II. pp. 295-311, 365- 378. Vol. III. pp. i-io. Griffith, J. H.: William Maxwell of New Jersey, Brigadier General in t*he Revolution. New Jersey Historical Society Proceedings. Vol. 23. pp. 111-126. Halsey, Francis W. : Pennsylvania and New York in the Border Wars of the Revolution, 52 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Proceedings, Wyoming Commemorative Association for the year 1898. Wilkes-Barre. 1898. The Old New York Frontier. Illustrated, pp. 432. p. 220 et seq. 8 vo. Chas. Scrib- ner's Sons, New York, 1901. Hamilton, John C. : History of the Republic of the United States of America. 2 Vols. Vol. I. pp. 543-544. 8 vo. D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1857. Hammond, Isaac W. : Rolls of the Soldiers of the Revolutionary War from New Hampshire. New Hampshire State Papers. Vol. 15, (War Rolls, Vol. 2.) Concord, N. H., 1886. Hand, General Edward : Letter to Reed. September 25th, 1779. (Reports return of Sullivan's command.) Pennsylvania Archives. First Series. V^ol. 7. p. 715. Hardenburgh, John L. (Lieutenant Second New York Regiment) : Journal. New York Centennial Volume, pp. 1 16-136. Same, with introductory notes and maps by John S. Clark and Biographical Sketch by Charles Hawley. Cayuga County Historical Society Collections. No. i. 8 vo. Auburn, New York, 1879. Harding, Garrick M. : The Sullivan Road. Historical Record. Vol. 9. p. loi. Hawley, Charles : Address, Sullivan's Campaign. New York Centennial Volume, pp. 571-578. A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SULLIVAN S EXPEDITION. 53 Biographical Sketch of Lieutenant John L. Hardenburgh. Cayuga County Historical Society Collections. No. i. 8 vo. Auburn, New York, 1879. Hazard, Eben : Letter to Jeremy Belknap. Proceedings, Massachusetts Historical Society. Fifth Series. Vol. 2. pp. 23-36. Holmes, Abiel D. D. : Annals of America. 2 Vols. Vol. 2. p. 301 et seq. Cambridge, Mass. 1829. Hoops, Adam (Major. Third Aide-de-Camp to General Sullivan) : Letter to John Greig. New York Centennial Volume, pp. 310-31 1. Hubbard, John N. : Sketches of Border Adventures in the Life and Times of Major Moses Van Campen. Bath, New York, 1842. Hubley, Colonel Adam (Lieutenant Colonel commanding Eleventh Pennsylvania Regiment) : Journal. New York Centennial Volume, pp. 145-167. Same. Pennsylvania Archives. Second Series. VjI. XL (Vol. 2 of the Revolution.) pp. ii-44- Same. Miner's History of Wyoming. Appendix, pp. 82-104. Philadelphia. 1845. Letter to President Reed. Pennsylvania Archives. Second Series. Vol. VH. p. 553 Same. Pennsvlvania Archives. Second Series. Vol. 3. p. 319- 54 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Same. Miner's History of Wyoming. Appendix, p. 97. Same. Wyoming, July 14th, 1779. As to Expedition. Pennsylvania Archives. First Series. Vol. 7. p. 553. Same. October ist, 1779. (Report of Expedition for August 30th.) Pennsylvania Archives. First Series. Vol. 7. p. 721. Same. Easton, October i8th, 1779. (Announcing arrival and complaining as to want of teams) Pennsylvania Archives. First Series. Vol. 7. p. 755. Hubley, John: Letter to Reed. August 24th, 1779. (Report as to Expedition.) Pennsylvania Archives. First Series. Vol. 7. p. 667. Hunter, Colonel Samuel : Letter to Reed. August 4th, 1779. (Reports Sullivan started for Wyoming.) Pennsylvania Archives. First Series. Vol. 7. p. 620. Hurd, D. Hamilton: History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler Counties. pp. 687. p. 13 et seq. 4 to. Philadelphia. 1879. Jenkins, John (Lieutenant. Guide) : Journal of Lieutenant John Jenkins connected with the Compaign of General Sullivan against the Six Na- tions, 1779. New York Centennial Volume, pp. 169-177. A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SULLIVAn's EXPEDITION. 55 Jenkins, Steuben: Address. New York Centennial Volume, pp. 451-457. Jones, Thomas : History of New York during the Revolutionary War. 2 Vols. Vol. 2. pp. 332 and 613. 8 vo. New York. 1879. Johnson, Crisfield : Centennial History of Erie County, New York, pp. 512. p. 62 et seq. 8 vo. Buffalo, 1876. Keiffer, Rev. Henry M. : The Old Sullivan Road. Proceedings, Wyoming Commemorative Association for the year 1897. Wilkes-Barre. 1898. Kidder, Frederick: History of the First New Hampshire Regiment in the War of the Revolution. Joel Munsell, Albany. 1868. Kirkland, Rev. Samuel (Chaplain Sullivan's Expedition) : Life of Rev. Samuel Kirkland, by S. K. Lothrop. Sparks Library of American Biography. Vol. XV. p. 246 et seq. Livermore, Daniel (Captain Third New Hampshire Regiment) : A Journal of the March of General Poor's Brigade from Soldier's Fortune on the Western Expedition, May T7th, 1779. New York Centennial Volume, pp. 178-191. Same. Collections, New Hampshire Historical Society. Vol. 6. pp. 308-335. S6 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Lossing', B. J. : Field Book of the American Revolution. Vol. I. p. 271. 8 vo. Harper & Bros., New York. Lothrop, S. K. : Life of Rev. Samuel Kirkland. Sparks Library of American Biography. Vol. 15. p. 246 et seq. Mackin, Thomas (Captain Second Regiment New York Artillery) : Journal of March from Fort Schuyler — Expedition against the Onondagas, 1779. New York Centennial V^olume. pp. 192-194. Distance of places from Eastown to Chenesee Castle, taken in 1779. New York Centennial Volume, p. 194. Maclay, William: Letter to Reed. July 26th, 1779. (Prospects of Northern Expedition.) Pennsylvania Archives. First Series. Vol. 7. p. 586. Letter to Council. July 30th, 1779. (As to fall of Ft. Freeland.) Pennsylvania Archives. First Series. Vol. 7. p. 597. Marshall, John: Life of Washington. Vol, 4. p. 105 et seq. 8 vo. Philadelphia. 1805. Marsfhall, Orasamus H. : The Niagara Frontier. Publications, Buffalo Historical Society. Vol. 2. pp. 395-425. 8 vo. Buffalo, New York, A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SULLIVAN S EXPEDITION. 57 Historical Writings relating to the Early History of the West. 500 p. pp. 455-457. 8 vo. Joel Munsell's Sons, Albany, 1887. Maxwell, Thompson : The Narrative of Major Thompson Maxwell. Historical Collections of Essex Institute. Vol. 7. No. 3. Miner, Charles : History of Wyoming. Illustrated, pp. 450. Appendix p. 104. Appendix p. 82 et seq. p. 97 et seq. J, Crissy, Philadelphia. Moore, Frank: Correspondence of Henry Laurens. 2 Vols. 4 to. Vol. I. pp. 132-141. Vol. 2. p. 216. New York. 1861. Diary of the American Revolution. 2 Vols. 8 vo. Vol, 2. p. 216 et seq. Charles Scribners, New York. i860. Moore, Jacob B. : A List of Manuscript Surveys by Robert Erskine, Geog- rapher to the American Army, and Simeon DeWitt, in the Library of the New York Historical Society. New York Centennial V^olume. pp. 291-292. Morgan, Lewis H. : League of the Ho-de-no-sau-nee or Iroquois. 8 vo. Rochester. 185 1. Mcintosh, W. H. : History of Ontario County. 276 pp. p. 9 et seq. Folio. Philadelphia. McKendry, William (Lieutenant and Quartermaster Sixth Massa- chusetts Regiment) : Journal. New York Centennial Volume, pp. 198-212. 58 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Same. Edited by Andrew McFarland Davis. 45 pp. 8 vo. J. Wilson & Son, Cambridge. 1886. ^ Same. Proceedings, Massachusetts Historical Society. Series 2. Vol. 2. pp. 442-478. Boston. 1886. Same. Historical Record. Vol. i. pp. 37-56. McMaster, Guy H. : Poem. The Commanders: Sullivan Thay-en-da-ne-gea. New York Centennial Volume, pp. 402-409. McNeill, Samuel : Journal of Samuel McNeill, B. Q. M. "His Orderly Book," 1779. Pennsylvania Archives. Second Series. Vol. 15. pp. 753-759- Harrisburg. 1893. Nead, Benjamin M. : A Sketch of General Thomas Proctor. Pennsylvania Magazine. Vol. 4. p. 454. Nesmith, George W. : Services of General Sullivan. Granite Monthly. Vol. i. pp. 325-330. New Hampshire, State of Rolls of the Soldiers of the Revolutionary War from New Hampshire. Compiled by Isaac W. Hammond. New Hampshire State Papers. Vol. 15. (War Rolls Vol. 2.) Concord, N. H. 1886. New Jersey, State of Official Register of the Officers and Men of New Jersey in the Revolutionary War. pp. 49-57. 8 vo. Tren- ton. 1872. A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SULLIVAn's EXPEDITION. 59 New York, State of New York Centennial Volume. New York in the Revolution as Colony and State. Rec- ords discovered, arranged and classified in 1895, 1896, 1897 and 1898, by James A. Roberts, Comptroller. Second Edition. 4 to. pp. 534. pp. 29-59. PP- 63- 65. Portraits. Albany. 1898. Norris, James (Captain Third New Hampshire Regiment) : A Journal of the West Expedition commanded by the Hon.ble Major General Sullivan, begun at Easton, June 18, 1879. New York Centennial Volume, pp. 223-239. Same. Publications, Buffalo Historical Society. Vol. i. pp. 217- 252. 8 vo. Buffalo, New York. 1879. Same. Jones' History of New York. Vol. 2. p. 613. Sam 2. Hill's New Hampshire Patriot. September i6th, 1843. Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Norton, A. Tiffany: History of Sullivan's Campaign against the Iroquois. Being a full account of that epoch of the Revolution. 200 pp. Portraits. Map. 8 vo. A. T. Norton. Lima, New York. 1879. Nourse, Joseph : Letter to General Lee. Collections, New York Historical Society. Vol. 6. pp. 383-385. Nukerck, Charles (Captain Second New York Regiment) : Journal. New York Centennial Volume, pp. 214-222. 6o NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. O'Reilly, Henry: Notices of Sullivan's Campaign, or the Revolutionary Warfare in Western New York ; embodied in the Ad- dresses and Documents connected with the funeral honors rendered to those who fell with the gallant Boyd in the Genesee Valley, including- the remarks of Gov. Seward at Mt. Hope. Rochester. 1842. Sullivan's Expedition against the Six Nations as far as the Genesee in 1779. Sketches of Rochester, p. 393 et seq. 8 vo. Rochester, New York. Parker, General Ely S. (Do-ne-ho-geh-weh) : Autobiography. Publications, Buffalo Historical Society. Vol. 8. p. 527. 8 vo. Buft'alo, New York. Parker, Jennie Marsh : A Story Historical, pp. 412. p. 20. p. 235. 8 vo. Rochester. 1884. Parker, Robert (Lieutenant) : Journal. Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. Vol. 27, pp. 404-420. Vol. 28. pp. 12-25. Peabody, Oliver W. B. : John Sullivan. Sparks Library of American Biography. Series 2. Vol. 3 Peck, George, LL. D. : Wyoming, its History, Stirring Incidents and Romantic Adventures. Illustrated, p. 432. 12 mo. Harper Brothers, New York. 1858. Peck, William F. : Semi-Centennial History of the City of Rochester. pp. 736. p. 70 et seq. and p. 134. 4 to. Syracuse. 1884. A BIP.LIOGRAPPIY OF SULLIVAN 's EXPEDITION. 6 1 Landmarks of Monroe County, pp. 339. p. 29 et seq. 4 to. Boston, Mass. 1895. Pettitt, Charles O. M. G. : Letter to Reed. May 2ist, 1779. (As to impressing, &c.) Pennsylvania Archives. First Series. Vol. 7. p. 433. Pickering, Timothy (for Board of War) : Letter to Joseph Reed. May 19th, 1779. (As to stores.) Pennsylvania Archives. First Series. Vol. 7. p. 418. Porter, William A. : A Sketch of the Life of General Andrew Porter. Pennsylvania Magazine. Vol. 4. p. 264. Reed, Joseph (President State of Pennsylvania) : Letter to Sullivan. May 2 1 St, 1779. (Ans. Sullivan of nth.) Pennsylvania Archives. First Series, Vol. 7. pp. 427- 430. Same. June 3d, 1779. (As to Pennsylvania Troops guarding stores to Wyoming. Ans. May 26th and 31st, 1779.) Pennsylvania Archives. First Series. Vol. 7. pp. 457-8. Letter to Colonel Sam. Hunter. (As to guarding stores by Ranging Cos.) Pennsylvania Archives. First Series. Vol. 7. p. 455. Letter to Board of War. May 20th, 1779. 62 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION". (As to Sullivan's misapprehension as to what Pennsyl- vania would do.) Pennsylvania Archives. First Series. Vol. 7, p. 424. Same. August 1 2th, 1779. (Progress of Expedition.) Pennsylvania Archives. First Series. Vol, 7, p. 640. Letter to Washington. July nth, 1779. Pennsylvania Archives. First Series. Vol. 7. p. 555. Same. September 7th, 1779. (As to furnishing Sullivan with supplies.) Pennsylvania Archives. First Series. Vol. 7. p. 684. Letter to Council. November 13th, 1779. Pennsylvania Archives. Fourth Series. Vol. 3. pp. 739- 740. Rider, Sidney S. : Notes to the Journal of Rev. William Rogers, D. D., Rhode Island Tracts. No. 7. Same. Manufacturers and Farmers Journal of Providence, R. 1. 1823. Same. American Universal Magazine. Vol. i. pp. 390-399. Vol. 2. pp. 86-91. Roberts, Ellis H. : Address. Sullivan's Expedition and its Fruits. New York Centennial Volume, pp. 425-438, A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SULLIVAn's EXPEDITION. (>:S Roberts, James A. (Comptroller State of New York) : New York in the Revolution as Colony and State. Rec- ords discovered, arranged and classified in 1895, 1896, 1897 and 1898. Second Edition. 4 to. p. 534. pp. 29-59. pp. 63-65. Portraits. Albany. 1898. Roberts, Thomas (Sergeant Capt. John Burrowes' Company Fifth New Jersey Regiment.) A Journal of the March from Eleazabeth Town to the Back Woods. New York Centennial Volume, pp. 240-245. Rochester : A Story His-torical, Jennie Marsh Parker, pp. 412. p. 20. p. 235. 8 vo. Rochester. 1884. Rogers, Rev. William, D. D. (Brigade Chaplain Pennsylvania Line) : Journal. New York Centennial Volume, pp. 246-265. Same. Rhode Island Tracts. No. 7. With an introduction and Notes by Sidney S. Rider, Same. Manufacturers and Farmers Journal of Providence, 1823. Same. American Universal Magazine. Vol. i. pp. 390-399. Vol. 2. pp. 86-91, 200-206. Same. Pennsylvania Archives. Second Series. Vol. 15. Portr. pp. 255-288. Harrisburg. 1893. Rogers, William (Sergeant Second New York Regiment) : Journal. New York Centennial Volume, p. 266. 64 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, Ryerson, Egertoii, D. D., LL. D. : Loyalists of America. 2 Vols. Vol. 2. p. io8. 8 vo. Toronto and Montreal, i88o. SaliTJon, John : Journal. A Narrative of the Life of Mary Jemison, otherwise called the White Woman, by James E. Seaver. Third Edition. Batavia, New York. 1844. Sanborn, Frank B. : General John Sullivan and the Rebellion in New Hamp- shire New England Magazine. Vol. 23. p. 323. (Contains an interesting study of General Sullivan's Char- acter.) Schreve, John (Lieutenant Second New Jersey Regiment) : Journal. Magazine of American History. Vol. 3. pp. 571-572. Seaver, James E. : Deh-he-wa-mis or A Narrative of the Life of Mary Jemi- son, otlierwise called the White Woman. Third Edition. 16 mo. Batavia, New York. 1844. Journal of John Salmon. In above. General Sullivan's Expedition to Western New York. In above. Appendix p. 182 et seq. Removal of the remains of Boyd. In above. Appendix p. 192 et seq. Sherman, William T. : Addresses. New York Centennial Volume, pp. 439-442. A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SULLIVAN's EXPEDITION. 65 Shute, Samuel M. (Lieutenant Second New Jersey Regiment) : Journal and Notes made contemporaneously. New York Centennial Volume, pp. 267-274. Simms, Jeptha R. : History of Schoharie County and Border Wars of New York. pp. 672. 8 vo. Illustrated, p. 291 et seq. Munsell & Tanner, Albany. 1845. Frontiersmen of New York (Revision of the History of Schoharie County and Border Wars of New York). 2 Vols. Vol. 2. pp. 239-276. 8 vo. Albany. 1882. Stone, William L. : Life of Joseph Brant (Tha-gen-dan-e-g-ea), including the Border Wars of the American Revolution. Illustrated. 2 Vols. 8 vo. Albany. 1838. 1864. (Dif- ferent editions.) The Poetry and History of Wyoming. Illustrated, pp. 324. 8 vo. Wiley & Putnam, New York and London. 1841. Same. pp. 406. p. 277 et seq. 12 mo. J. Munsell, Albany, 1864. Border Wars of the American Revolution. 2 Vols. V^l. I, p. I et seq. 16 mo. Harper Brothers, New York. 1846. Stryker, William S. : Official Register of the Officers and Men of New Jersey in the Revolutionary War. C vo. pp. 49-57- Trenton. 1872. Sullivan, John (Major General) : Report of the Battle of Newtown. The Military Services and Public Life of Major General John Sullivan, by Thomas C. Amory. p. 121. 66 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Same. New York Centennial Volume, pp. 473-476. The Chronicle of his Expedition against the Iroquois in 1779 — The devastation of the Genesee Country. Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser, October 19th, 1779. Baltimore, Maryland. Same. The Military Services and Puiblic Life of Major General John Sullivan, by Thomas C. Amory. p. 130. Same. New York Centennial Volume, pp. 296-305. Same. The Remembrancer or Impartial Repository of Public Events for the year 1780. Vol. 9. p. 158. Letter to John Langdon and some comments by George W. Nesmith. Granite Monthly. Vol. 3. pp. 153- 161. Letter to Reed. Easton, May nth, 1779. (Requesting order empovv^ering Quartermasters to Impress Waggons, Horses, &c.) Pennsylvania Archives. First Series. Vol. 7. p. 388. Same. Easton, Pa., May 26th, 1779. (Ans. rec'd of 21st inst.) Pennsylvania Archives. First Series. Vol. 7. p. 439. Same. Easton, Pa., May 31st, 1779. Pennsylvania Archives. First Series. Vol. 7. p. 450. Same. Easton, June 7th, 1779. .: (Lamenting obstructions in Quartermaster's Department.) Pennsylvania Archives. First Series. Vol. 7. p. 473. A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SULLIVAN's EXPEDITION. 67 Same. Wyoming, July 2ist, 1779. (Complaining that Pennsylvania Rangers and Riflemen had not joined.) Pennsylvania Archives. First Series. Vol. 7. p. 568. Letter to Colonel John Cook. Headquarters, July 30th, 1779. (Answering requisition.) Pennsylvania Archives. First Series. Vol. 7. p. 593. Letter to Colonel Sam. Hunter. Wyoming, July 30th, 1779. (Acknowledging news of loss of Ft. Freeland.) Pennsylvania Archives. First Series. Vol. 7. p. 594. Letter to Reed. Easton. October i8th, 1779. (Requisition for 100 Waggons.) Pennsylvania Archives. First Series. Vol. 7. p. 756. Same. Easton, October 23d, 1779. (Acknowledging action of Executive Council and declining as too late.) Pennsylvania Archives. First Series. Vol. 7. p. 768. Letter to the Warriors of the Oneida Nation, &c. The Remembrancer or Impartial Repository of Public Events for the year 1780. Vol. 9. pp. 25-28. J. AI- mon, London. 1780. Address to Troops. Same. pp. 24-25. Leiter to the Congress containing his acct. of his Expe- dition against the Indians. Same. pp. 158-166. Address to the Inhabitants of Northhampton County. Same. p. 166. 68 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Address to the Officers of the Artillery. Same. pp. 166-167. Address to the Corps of Light Infantry. Same. p. 167. Thacher, Dr. : Military Journal. Biographical Sketch of Major General Sullivan, Farmer and Moore's Collection Historical and Miscellan- eous and Monthly Literary Journal. Vol. 2. p. 201. Tre?.t, Samuel : Oration at interment of Lieutenant Boyd of General Sul- livan's Army, History of Buffalo and the Senecas, by Ketcham. Vol. 2. pp. 318-340. Trist, Elizabeth : Letters to General Lee. Collections, New York Historical Society. Vol. 6. pp. 381-382. Turner, O. : Pioneer History of the Holland Purchase of Western New York. pp. 666. p. 2'j'j et seq. 8 vo. Jewett,. Thomas & Co., Buffalo. 1849. History of the Pioneer Settlement of Phelps and Gorhams Purchase and Morris Reserve, pp. 588. p. 80 et seq. William Ailing, Rochester. 1852. Van Campen, Moses : Memorial to Congress. Pritt's Mirror of Olden Time Border Life. pp. 697. pp. 481-491. Abington, Va. Narrative. Same. A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SULLIVAN's EXPEDITION. 69 Van Cortlandt, Philip (Colonel commanding Second New York Regiment) : Autobiography, with Notes by Pierre C. Van Wyck. Magazine of American History. Vol. 2. p. 278 et seq. Same. Elmira Daily Advertiser, February 17th, 1879. Van Hovenburgh, Rudolphus (Lieutenant Fourth New York Regi- ment) : Journal. New York Centennial Volume, pp. 275-284. Table of Distances. New York Centennial Volume, p. 284. Van Wyck, Pierre C. : Notes to Autobiography, Philip Van Cortlandt. Magazine of American History. Vol. 2. p. 278. Washington, General George : Instructions to General Sullivan. Historical Magazine. Second Series. Vol. 2. pp. 139- 141. Letter to John Jay, President of Congress. Magazine of American History. Vol. 3. p. 142. Letter to War Council. July 5th, 1779. (As to Sullivan's disappointment as to Pennsylvania's assistance.) Pennsylvania Archives. First Series. Vol. 7. p. 535. Webb, Nathaniel (Sergeant Major Second New York Regiment) : Journal. New York Centennial Volume, pp. 285-287. Same. Elmira Republican, September nth and 12th, 1855. El- mira, New York. 70 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Welles, S. R. (M. D.) : Paper read before the Waterloo Library and Historical Society, November 27th, 1877. New York Centennial Volume, pp. 527-535. White, Pliny T. : Note to History of the Expedition against the Five Na- tions commanded by General Sullivan in 1779. Historical Magazine, Second Series. Vol. 3. p. 198. Wilkinson, J. B. : Annals of Binghamton and of the Country connected with it from the early settlement, p. 256. 12 mo. Binghamton, New York. 1840. Willers, Diedrich, Jr. : The Centennial Celebration of General SulHvan's Cam- paign against the Iroquois in 1779. Held at Water- loo, September 3d, 1879. pp. 356. 8 vo. Plates, Portraits. Waterloo, New York. 1880. Willett, William M. : A Narrative of the Military Actions of Colonel Marinus Willett. 8 vo. New York. 183 1. Williams, Rev. Dwight : Poem, Sullivan's Centennial. New York Centennial Volume, pp. 506-510. Winsor, Justin : Narrative and Critical History of America. 8 Vols. Houghton, Mifflin &'Co., Boston. 1889. Vol. VI. pp. 637, 642, 653, 667, 669, 671 and 681. Vol. VIII. pp. 439. Handbook of the American Revolution, pp. 206-208. 12 mo. Boston. 1880. AN INDIAN CIVILIZATION AND ITS DESTRUCTION. By Colonel S. P. Moulthrop. No nearer approach to what may be called civihzation, if the term may be appHed to a people who left no record, other than the legendary lore transmitted from father to son, may be found than the Troquoian Confederacy, whose form of government was main- tained for a greater length of time than that of any republic which 'had previously or has since existed. Their location, according to their claim, was upon the highest part of the Continent, from whence flowed the Mohawk, Hudson, Genesee, Delaware, Susquehanna, Ohio and the St. Lawrence riv- ers, going in all directions to the sea. The intersection of lakes and streams, separated only by sihort portages, the continuous val- leys being divided by no mountain barriers, ofifered unequalled facilities for intercommunication. Their custom of settling on both sides of a river or encircling a lake made the tribal boundaries well defined. One of the most interesting features of aboriginal geography was the location of their principal trails. If we travel either of the great railways extending through our State, we are upon one of the leading trails that Lewis H. Morgan stated were used in 1732. They followed the lines of the least resistance. The central trail, extending from east to west, intersedted by cross trails w'hic'h passed along the shores of lakes or banks of the rivers, commenced at the point where Albany now is, touched the Mohawk at Schenectady, following the river to the carrying place at Rome, from thence west, crossing the Onondaga Valley, along the foot of Cayuga and Seneca Lakes, terminating at Buffalo Creek, the present site of the city of Buffalo. 72 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. This trail was later the route taken by early settlers, because it connected the principal villages and established a line of travel into Canada on the west and over the Hudson on the east. Upon the banks of the Susquehanna and its tributaries, which have their source near the Mohawk, and the banks of the Chemung, which has its source near the Genesee river, were other trails, all of which converged at the junction of these two rivers, forming the southern route, into Pennsylvania and Virginia. On these foot- paths the Iroquois conducted war parties and became well versed in the topography of the country. Lakes, hills and streams had significant names, many of w^hich the Anglicized orthography and pronunciation have robbed of their euphony and force of accent. Mary Jemison says that " No people can live more happily than the Indians in times of peace." Their life was one round of simple sport and pleasure, in keeping with their free life ; their simple wants were supplied with but little exertion. Following the chase gave them amusement and served to keep them in good physical condition, as well as to rettain their skill with weapons that were their dependence in time of war. The growing youth were taught Indian warfare, becoming ex- perts with the tomahawk and scalping knife. At such times tihe squaws were employed with their simple domestic duties, or indus- triously tilling the soil. Apple and peach trees were planted and cultivated about the villages. To the Jesuit Fathers they were indebted for instruction in the art of cultivating fruit trees, as well as many of the vegetables which they raised in abund'ance ; also producing a fine quality of tobacco whence their original name, IREOKWA. The reports of Sullivan's officers speak of cornfields exceeding in quality and quantity anything they had been accustomed to in their eastern homes. They wrote of ears of corn measuring twenty- two inches in length, and grass as high as the backs of the horses on which they rode. Not only in war and diplomacy did the Iroquois show superior- ity, but in their cultivation of crops and housebuilding some were so good as to be called by General Sullivan elegant Indian homes. The weight of evidence goes to show that many of them were AN INDIAN CIVILIZATION AND ITS DESTRUCTION. 73 framed, and of such a creditable order of architecture as to surprise those who accompanied SuMivan's expedition. Some of the officers writing home said that the houses were large and beautifully paint- ed. Many of those who have considered the Indian as a forest roamer will be incredulous of the above statement, and yet there is no people who in their primitive state more religiously respected, or distinctly defined the family ties and relationship. There is a bright and pleasing side to Indian character. The ordinary picture of the Indian represents him with war club and tomahawk. They do not deserve the appellation of sav- ages any more than kindred terms might be applied to their white successors. " Bury me with my fathers " was the last plea of the red man. Not until they had listened to the teaching of the whites did they view death with terror, or life as anything but a blessing. In ancient times they had a beautiful custom of freeing a cap- tured bird over the grave on the evening of burial, to bear away the spirit to the happy home beyond the setting sun. The following motto shows that hospitality was the prevailing characteristic : " If a stranger wanders about your abode, welcome him to your home, be hospitable toward him, speak to him with kind words, and forget not to always mention the Great Spirit." From a speculative point of view the institutions of the Iro- quois assume an interesting aspect. Would they natura/lly have emancipated the people from their strange infaltuation for a hunter life? It can not be denied that there are some grounds for belief that their institutions would have eventually improved into an ad- vanced form of civilization. The Iroquois manifested sufficient intelligence to promise a high degree of improvement had it been directed into right pursuits, although centuries of time might have been required to effect the change. But these institutions have a present value irrespective of what they might have become. Let us render ^-ardy justice by preserv- ing, as far as possible"", their names, deeds and customs, and their institutions. "We should not tread ignorantly upon those extinguished coun- cil fires, whose Hght in the days of original occupation was visible 74 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. over half this Continent. They had planned a mighty nation and without doubt had the coming of the Europeans been delayed but a century, the League would have included all the tribes between the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico. The first stage in the development of this confederacy was the union of several tribes into one nation. They mingled by inter- marriage. The Chief ceased to be alone in his power and the gov- ernment became a Pure Democracy. Several nations, thus being formed into a confederacy or league, more perfect, systematic and liberal fhan those of antiquity, there was in it more of fixedness, more of dependence upon the people, and more of vigor and strength. Their original congress was composed of fifty sachems and it generally met at the Onondaga Council House. The business of the congress was conducted in a grave and dignified manner, the reason and judgment of the Chiefs being appealed to, rather than their passions. It was considered a breach of decorum for a sachem to reply to a speech on the day of its delivery, and no ques- tion could be decided without unanimous concurrence. T'he sach- ems served without badge o'f office, their sole reward being the veneration of their people in whose interest they were meeting. Public opinion exercised a powerful influence among the Iro- quois, the ablest among them having a dread of an adverse criticism from the common people. Subordinate to the Congress of Sac'hems were the noted chiefs, such as Red Jacket, Big Kettle, Corn Planter and others who in- fluenced the councils with their oratory. Women were recognized by them as having rights in the gov- ernment of the nation, being represented in council by chiefs, known as their champions. Thus they became factors in war or peace, and were granted special rights in the concurrence or interference in the sale of lands, claiming that the land belonged equally to the tillers of the soil, and its defenders. The equality of rig^hts granted women was one of the principal factors of strength in their con- federacy, or union. Their orators studied euphony in the arrangement of their words. Their graceful attitudes and gestures made their discourse deeply impressive. A straight, commanding figure, with blanket thrown over the shoulder, the naked arm raised in gesture, would, AN INDIAN CIVILIZATION AND ITS DESTRUCTION. 75 to use the words of an early historian, " give no faint picture of Rome in her early days." A difference existed between the Irocjuois and other tribes with respect to oratory. No others have left records of models of elo- quence except in single instances on rare occasions. Red Jacket, Logan and Corn Planter were orators, who have by their eloquence perpetuated their names on the pages of history. In the happy constitution of the ruling body and the effective security of the people from misgovernment, the confederacy stands unrivalled. The prevailing spirit was freedom. They were secured all the liberty necessary for the united state and fully appreciated its value. The red man was always free from political bondage. He was convinced that man was born free ; that no person had any right to deprive him of that liberty. Undoubtedly the reason for this was the absence from the Indian mind of a desire for gain — that great passion of the white man — " His blessing and his curse in its use and abuse." The hunter wants of the Indian, absence of property in a com- parative sense, and the infrequency of crime, dispensed with a vast amount of legislation and machinery incident to the protection of civilized society. The system upon which the League was founded, as before stated, was a singularly well chosen one, and is highly illustrative of the intellectual character of this people. " It was wisely con- ceived by the untaught statesman of the forest, who had no prece- dents to consult, no written lore of ages to refer to, no failures or triumphs of systems of human governments to use as models or comparisons, nothing to prompt them but necessity and emergency." President Dwight said, " Had they enjoyed the advantages pos- sessed by the Greeks and Romans, there is no reason to believe they would have been at all inferior to these celebrated nations." Their minds appear to have been equal to any effort within the reacli of man. Their conquests, if we consider their numbers and circum- stances, were little inferior to Rome itself. In their harmony, the unity of their operations, the energy of their character, tlie vast- ness, vigor and success of t'heir enterprises, and the strength and 76 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. sublimity of their eloquence, they may be fairly compared to the Greeks. Both the Greeks and Romans, before they began to rise into distinction, had already reached the state of society in which they were able to improve. The Iroquois had not. The Greeks and Romans had ample means for improvement. The Iroquois had none. The destruction of the confederacy was necessary to the well being of the colonists. During the Revolutionary war, harassed as they were by roving bands instigated by the tribes to massacre and burn, the Colonial government authorized the Commander-in- Chief to administer punishment for the horrible atrocities commit- ted at Wyoming and Cherry Valley. To obtain a complete, de- tailed account of the manner in which it was done, one has but to read the record of Sullivan's Expedition in 1779, compiled by the Hon. George S. Conover for the Secretary of State, 1886. This remarkable undertaking by General Sullivan has been aptly compared to some of the most famous expeditions in the world's history. The boldness of its conception, the bravery of the officers and men, were equaled on but few occasions during the great Rev- olutionary struggle. The writings and researches of historians of the present day attach greater importance to this expedition than formerly. Tlie collection of materials during the last centennial celebrations has resulted in shedding much light upon the pages of Our Country's history, that was formerly but little known. In this respect General John S. Clark, Rev. David Craft, Lock- wood L. Doty, Hon. George S. Conover and others have performed a great service that should receive recognition. The colonists were particularly concerned regarding the attitude of the Iroquois, who were considered more dangerous than three times the number of civilized foes. The strong influence exerted by fhe Johnsons with their allies, the Mohawks, was dreaded. Sub- sequently these fears were proved well grounded. When the General Council was held by the Iroquois to consider the question of joining the British in the war against the colonies, a division occurred — the Oneidas opposing the alliance, while the Mohawks were anxious for an alliance with the British. AN INDIAN CIVILIZATION AND ITS DESTRUCTION. 77 As unanimity could not be secured, each tribe was by law of the League free to engage in the war or remain at peace with the Americans. The sequel shows that the British agents, with pres- ents of gunpowder and lead, also promises of a bounty to be paid for scalps taken from the colonists, were successful with ail but the Oneidas, w'ho remained true to their first declaration. To friendship alone could the colonists appeal. They were not able to assure the Indians that the rum of the Americans was as plenty as the water of the lake, as the British had done. The majority of the Indians concluded that the colonists were too poor or too mean to make them any gifts. Had the influences been less powerful the Indians might still have remained the friend of the settlers as he had been during long years of peace. The indignation of Pitt in denunciation of the wrong done by the employment of Indians has made his name immortal. How dif- ferent t>he policy of the American ! The offers of the Oneidas were courteously yet firmly refused. They only shared in the struggle as guides or scouts. Wyoming in July — Cherry Valley in November, were only on a larger scale the repetition of recurring events along the entire frontier. The blood-curdling yell, accompanied by the tomahawk and scalping knife, were a constant menace to the settler. The demand for decided measures was imperative. The Wyoming mas- sacre sent a thrill of horror tihrough the country, and renewed the demand for retaliatory measures. General Washington was directed to take such measures as he deemed advisable, for the protection of the frontiers. Realizing the country's condition and the great need of economy in public expenditures, Washington's policy for 1779 was to remain on the defensive, except as might be found necessary to hold the Indians in check. England's affairs in Europe at this time were such tbat she would not be apt to push her operations in America. Washington himself was an experienced Indian fighter — ^knew how they could be punished — early favored an expedition into the heart of the In- dian country — having but little faith in the plan of establishing forts. He wished to carry the war to their own homes, destroy 7 8 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. villages and crops and compel them to accept peace or depend on the British for sustenance. The country to be traversed on such an expedition was but little known, so Washington during the winter and spring devoted a great deal of time to obtaining information needed and planning for the campaign, which was subsequently shown to be the most important event of that year, and furnished a lasting lesson to the hostile tribes of the North. After the declination of the command by General Gates, Wash- ington tendered the command, which was promptly accepted by General Sullivan, whose patriotism and bravery were well known. Preparations were immediately commenced for the great under- taking. Hamilton under Washington's direction, drew up a letter of instructions, which was signed by Washington. The first para- graph is interesting: "May 31, 1779. Sir: — The expedition you are appointed to •command is to be directed against the hostile tribes of the Six Na- tions of Indians with their associates and adherents. The imme- diate object is their total destruction and devastation and the cap- ture of as many persons of every age and sex as possible. It will be essential to ruin their crops, now on the ground, and prevent their planting more." Then followed instructions more in detail, showing that Wash- ington had acquired an almost accurate knowledge of the country not only, but the people as well. His instructions were carried out almost to the letter as far as the army proceeded. Sullivan 'concluded when he had driven them from the valley of the Genesee that his mission was fulfilled. Sensitiveness that is unreasoning may have been shocked at Washington's policy, carried out by Sullivan, The destruction of forty villages, some of them extensive, as reported by Sullivan, sixty thousand bushels of corn, three thousand bushels of beans — in one orchard fifteen hundred peach trees — seemed harsh treat- ment, but when we consider that a major portion of this would have furnished the Tories witih sustenance, another view must be taken. Humanity, however, dictated the firing of cannon every morn- ing, giving the Indians an opportunity to retreat, which was in AN INDIAN CIVILIZATION AND ITS DESTRUCTION. 79 Strong contrast with tlie savage, cruel manner of Brant and Butler in their attacks upon peaceful settlers. When the Senecas returned after peace was declared, their re- spect for Ha-na-de-ga-na-ars (destroyer of villages), as Washing- ton was called by them, was greatly strengthened. When Horatio Jones, Major Van Campen and others moved into their territory, they were kindly treated, and gave kind treat- ment in return. The record of the Iroquois has been one of unbroken peace and friendship since then, for their last treaty made with General Wash- ington has been kept inviolate. SULLIVAN'S CAMPAIGN. By William Wait. In the campaign of 1779 it was evident that the British intend- ed to confine their operations to pillaging expeditions on the fron- tiers in the north, and an effort to cripple the Union in the south. In July of the previous year, Butler and Brant with a force of 1600 Indians and Tories had entered the Wyoming Valley and spread death and destruction in their path, and in November raid- ed the inhabitants of Cherry Valley. Two years before, St. Leger had made his unsuccessful attempt on Fort Stanwix and the Mohawk Valley, while Burgoyne was attempting to force his way through our northern frontier. Nor were these raids upon the valleys of the Mohawk and the Wyoming, and the inhabitants of Cherry Valley, the only calam- ities visited upon the frontiers. By reason of the location and small size of the border settlements and the great distance between detached dwellings, the inhabitants, from the very beginning of the Revolutionary struggle, were subject to constant attack by small bands of Indians, and Tories disguised as such, who mur- dered those who fell into their hands and burned and piillaged their dwellings until none but the most intrepid dared remain in their homes. The supplicating tears of women and children, and the wail of helpless babes, were unheeded. The tomahawk and war-club fell without pity upon the defenceless heads of all alike, and the scalps of women and children and the silvered locks of the aged mingled with those of manhood to adorn the belt of the sav- age, and be bartered for British gold. Here and there a heap of ashes and a few putrefying bodies remained to show the location of some unfortunate settler's cabin or frontier hamlet. Desolation was spread from one end of the border to the other, and the wail of despair was not to be resisted by the Congress. That body had SULLIVAN S CAMPAIGN. 8 1 received a constant stream of appeals for aid from the sufferers at the front since the very beg-inning of the war. A large part of the documentary remains of that period consist of such letters to Washington, Governor CHnton, and others in authority. On the first of April, 1779, Congress, in response to a letter of March 13th, from the Legislature of New York, passed a resolu- tion authorizing an expedition against these marauders. The cam- paign was planned by the Commander-in-chief. Its execution was first offered to General Gates because of his seniority, but the offer was made in such a way that it could not be accepted, and Gates was obliged to decline in favor of Major-General John Sullivan, whom Washington intended from the first should be its comman- der. General Washington's orders to Sullivan for the conduct of the campaign were very explicit, and were in part as follows : '■ The immediate objects are the total destruction and devasta- tion of their settlements, and the capture of as many prisoners of every age and sex as possible. It will be essential to ruin their crops now in the ground and prevent their planting more * * * parties should be detached to lay waste all the settlements around, with instructions to do it in the most eft'ectual manner, that the country may not be merely overrun, but destroyed. Make rather than receive attacks, attend with as much impetuosity, shouting, and noise, as possible ; and make the troops act in as loose and dis- persed a way as is consistent with a proper degree of government, concert, and mutual support. It should be previously impressed upon the minds of the men, whenever they have an opportunity, to rush on with the war-whoop and fixed bayonet. Nothing will dis- concert and terrify the Indians more than this." The forces were gathered in three divisions ; the principal and central one, rendezvouing at Wyoming, was composed of the three brigades of Maxwell, Poor, and Hand, and proceeded up the valley of the Susquehanna to Tioga, where it was joined by the right di- vision under Gen. James Clinton, whose force, consisting of 1,600 men, was gathered at Canajoharie, and proceeded down the head- waters of the Susquehanna. The left division, consisting of 600 men, under Col. Daniel Brodihead. marched up Che Allegheny from Pittsburgh, leaving that place the nth of August, burned ii 82 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. towns, containing about 165 houses, which were for the most part constructed of logs and framed timber ; destroyed more than 500 acres of cultivated land then in full crop, and took loot estimated as worth $30,000. This division returned to Pittsburgh the 14th of September, having been too late to join the main body, and never having come under the direct command of Gen. Sullivan. The main division began to assemble at Wyoming early in April, but it was not until the last day of July, in the afternoon, that they finally began their advance. The artillery, ammunition and pro- visions were loaded on 214 boats (this is the number stated by Col. Proctor, who was in charge of the fleet; most accounts say 120), while 1,200 pack horses carried the baggage and camp utensils, and 700 beef cattle were driven along for food. Gordon, and some other British writers, have claimed that Sullivan demanded much more than he should in the way of supplies. Some of Sullivan's enemies at home made the same charge ; but it is a notorious fact that the commander had great difficulty in procuring the amount that he had and that it fell far short of what prudence required. As it was, some of the pork was packed in barrels made of green staves, and spoiled. Much of the time the army subsisted on short rations, eked out by green corn and other supplies taken from the fields of the Indians which they were destroying. Tioga was the Iroquois name for the point of land lying be- tween the Chemung River and the north branch of the Susque- hanna. Every name that an Indian gave to a place or a person was descriptive, and had a meaning. Most of these as we find them written are corruptions of the names as they sounded when spoken by an Indian, and therefore we find the same word in dif- ferent documents spelled in as many ways as it could be spelled by illiterate English, Dutch and French settlers, with a few extra letters thrown in. Tioga is said to mean anything between any other two things, a gate, the forks of a river, etc. (from Teyaogen, or Teiohogen). Van Curler in his Journal of 1634 speaks of the Mohawk's name of their great river as Vyoge. Father Jogues gave Oiogue as the Mohawk name for the Hudson, in 1646, Ohio is another corrupted form of the same word, and all seem to be cor- rupted from the same Iroquois word, meaning a large stream. Many other Indian place-names occur in the various journals of the Sullivan's campaign. 83 officers engaged in this expedition, and it would be interesting to take them up and consider their meaning if it were possible. But in the above case it seems fair to suppose that Indians coming down the trail from the Chemung Valley should speak of this spot as Vyoge, or Oiogue, the great or principal river, as distinguished from the smaller branch above. However that may be, the time between the 31st of July and the nth of August was consumed by the main body of the army in reaching this spot, selected as the meeting place of the divisions. On their march for this place after leaving Wyoming, the first night they encamped at a place called by the Delaware Indians, Lechan-Hanncck, or Lackawanna, also said to mean the forks of a stream, and by the Iroquois called Hazirok, with something of the same meaning. The following night they encamped at a place the Indians called Quailutimack, meaning, " We came upon them unawares." On the 4th, it is related, they crossed a small creek, called where it joins the Susquehanna, Massasppi (missisipu), great river, this being a Delaware word meaning about the same as the Iroquois Oiogue. On the 5th the detachment lost three of its men, one soldier dying of the so called " falling sickness," one of Proctor's artillery- men being drowned, and Sergt. Martin Johnson dying from heat. Dr. Elmer informs us in his journal that Johnson was^ a hard drink- er and " his vitals were decayed by spirituous liquors." On the Sth, Col. Proctor destroyed the first of the Indian settlements, a place called Newtychanning, consisting of about twenty houses. The army arrived at Tioga on the 13th. Here they remained until the 25th, awaiting the arrival of General Clinton's detach- ment. In the meantime Fort Sullivan was erected, and a detach- ment sent up the Chemung River to destroy an Indian town of the sam.e name, consisting of about fifty houses, with more than 100 acres of cultivated fields of grain and other Indian produce. Some of the troops under General Hand, as they pursued the Indians who were fleeing from the village, fell into an ambush, whereby six were killed and nine wounded, with slight loss to the enemy. While destroying the crops, one other man was killed and three more wounded by some of the enemy who were concealed across the river. The houses here destroyed were built of split and hewed 84 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. limber, covered with bark, and in the center of the town were two large buildings, presumably council houses. None of the buildings had chimneys or floors. While herding the stock in the camp at Tioga, the Indians succeeded in killing and scalping several of the pack-horse men and wounding some others. Meantime a detachment under Generals Hand and Poor were sent up the Susquehanna to meet General Clinton. Gen. Sullivan had written Clinton from Wyoming on July 30th, " I wish you to set out on the 9th of next month (marching moder- ately), as some allowance is to be made for bad weather, which will probably detain us some time. On my arrival at Tioga, I will immediately detach a considerable body of light troops to favor and secure your march." Previous to this date Clinton had gathered his forces at Cana- joharie and transported them to the shore of Otsego Lake, the level of which he had raised about two feet by erecting a dam, for the purpose of causing a flood which would float his expedition in boats over the shallows of the Susquehanna head-waters. Breaking the dam, he left Otsego Lake, according to Sullivan's instructions, on the 9th of August, and proceeding down the river with little difficulty, destroyed such Indian dwellings and crops as came in his path. Lieut. -Colonel Pawling, with a detachment, was marching from Kingston z'ia Shandakin. under orders to join CHnton on August i6th, at Annaquaga, which, before it was destroyed by Col. William Butler, in the fall of 1778, was quite a large Jndian settlement, oc- cupying an island and both sides of the river, where the little vil- lage of Onaquaga now stands. Clinton arrived at this place on the 15th, and remained there until the 17th, awaiting the arrival of Pawling. In the center of the island he found the cellars and wells of about sixty houses, also fine orchards. Most of these buildings had been log houses, with stone chimneys and glass win- dows. Pawling did not arrive, but returned to Kingston on September 1st and reported his inability to join Clinton, owing to the swollen streams and bad roads. Proceeding on their way, the Right Di- vision passed several Tuscarora villages, which they destroyed, with the crops. Arriving at the mouth of the Chenango Creek, Sullivan's campaign. 85 a small detacliment was sent four miles up that stream to destroy the village of Chenango, consisting of about twenty houses. On the 19th they joined the detachment of General Poor, burn- ing the villages of Chukkanut and Owagea, and three days later arrived at the encampment of the main division at Tioga. On the 23d of August, by the accidental disharge of a musket. Captain Kimball was killed and a Lieutenant wounded. Leaving a garrison to defend Fort Sullivan, at Tioga, the whole army proceeded, on the 26th, taking the route up the Tioga branch of the Susquehanna. About sixteen miles up this stream was a village called Newtown, which they reached on the 29th. Here the light troops, which were marching ahead, discovered a breast- works, artfully masked by green bushes, extending for about half a mile, in an advantageous place, protected by a high mountain on one side, the river on the other, and a large creek in front, behind which the enemy were entrenched. Here occurred the most im- portant fight of the campaign. The design of the enemy appears to have been primarily, an ambuscade. His force of British reg- ulars, consisting of two battalions of Royal Greens and Tories, was led by Col. John Butler, with Captains Walter Butler and Mac- donald as subordinates. The Indian forces were commanded by the great Mohawk chief, Joseph Brant. All the cunning of the Indians, combined with the trained tactics of the British regulars, were here exerted to check the advance of Sullivan's invading" army. Had the Americans not discovered the trap in time to avoid it, the story of this campaign would have ended here in a tale of butchery hardly equalled in the annals of v/ar. But three com- panies of Morgan's riflemen, the pride of Washington, were in ad- vance ; veterans of a hundred battles, and in no way inferior to the enemy in Indian craft ; and the ingenious device for drawing our forces into an ambush was thwarted. For hours the battle waged fiercely. By skillfully maneuvering his troops Sullivan had nearly succeeded in surrounding the enemy, when, admirably com- manded, and wisely discreet, the signal for retreat was sounded just in time to escape. The entire loss to the Americans was three killed and thirty-nine wounded. Twelve Indians were found dead on the field, but the number of their wounded is unknown. The events of the succeeding days during which the expedition 86 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. was prosecuting its errand of destruction, were a constant repeti- tion of each other. The army was almost constantly on the move, searching out and destroying such settlements as could be found. The Indians skulked away like a pack of wolves at the approach of the hunter, turning now and then to snap at their pursuers, and then vanishing. Where once had stood their pleasant villages sur- rounded by fruitful fields, was only left heaps of smouldering ashes and masses of trampled grain and prostrate fruit trees. They needed no spies to keep them informed of the progress of the in- vaders. A trail of smoke by day and a ruddy glow on the sky at night told it too plainly. The scourge had fallen. Not only were the frontiers cleared but the doom of the Iroquoian Confederacy was sealed, and its dominion over the vast territory which it had so long ruled was destroyed forever. From the mountains of northern Pennsylvania, through the beautiful valley of the Susque- hanna and the lake region of central New York to the fruitful val- ley of the Genesee, no Indian settlement of importance was left. Said Sullivan in his official report : *' The number of towns de- stroyed by this army amounted to 40, beside scattering houses. The quantity of corn destroyed, at a moderate computation, must amount to 160,000 bushels, with a vast quantity of vegetables of every kind. Every creek and river has been traced, and the whole country explored in search of Indian settlements, and I am well persuaded that, except one town situated near the Alleghany, about 50 miles from Genesee, there is not a single town left in the coun- try of the Five Nations. " It is with pleasure I inform Congress that this army has not suffered the loss of forty men, in action or otherwise, since my taking the command, though perhaps few troops have experienced a more fatiguing campaign. I flatter myself that the orders with which I was entrusted are fully executed, as we have not left a single settlement or field of corn in the country of the Five Nations, nor is there even the appearance of an Indian on this side of Niag- ara. CONTINUATION OF NATHANIEL WEBB'S JOURNAL As Published in the Elmira Republican of Sept. 11th and 12th, 1855. Note — In the volume containing the " Journals of the Mili- tary Expedition of Major General John Sullivan against the Six Nations of Indians in 1/79," prepared by Frederick Cook, Secre- tary of State, and published by the State in 1887, o'^ P^ge 285 et seq, is published part of the Journal of Nathaniel Webb, and a note says that a portion of the Journal cannot be found. In a scrap-book originally kept by Thos. Maxwell, Esq., which was recently bought in an old book shop in New York, I find the missing Journal, and give herewith the portion supposed to be lost. WILLIAM WAIT. Note — In Col. Gansevoort's Journal of the same expedition, the entry is as follows : "31st. — Decamped at 8 o'clock, — marched over mountainous ground until we arrived at the forks of Newtown — there entered on a low bottom, (Tuttle's flats), crossed the Kayuga branch, (New- town creek), and encamped on a pine plain. Much good land about Newtown. 'Here we left the Tioga branch to our left." September i. — The army moved at 8 A. M. Several defiles and a large swamp occasioned C-'.r Brigade to encamp about three miles in the rear of the army. The army encamped that night at Cath- arine's town. The enemy had all fled from this town the night be- fore and left an old squaw. 2. — Our brigade joined the army at Catharine's town. Lay the remaining part of the day for refreshment, &c. 3. — We destroyed some five fields of corn and decamped at 8 A. M. Marched this day about 11 miles. Encamped that night near the banks of the Seneca Lake. Marched this day through a remarkable country for timber. 4. — Decamped at 9 A. M. Burnt a small town on this day's march. Encamped at 7 P. M. The country still remains well tim- bered. 06 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 5. — Decamped at 10 A. M. Marched this day about six miles. Encamped that night at Conoyah, a beautiful town situated be- tween the Seneca and Kengah lakes — distance between those lakes 8 miles. (Gansevoort writes it Kaodaiah.) 6 — Lay in encampment. This town is beautifully situated in several respects — a fine level country — some fine fields of corn, a fine apple orchard, about twenty houses — situaited about twenty miles from Seneca lake. One white man deserted from the enemy that had been taken prisoner last summer from Wyoming. Several horses were captured at this town. Decamped at 4 P. M., moved about 4 miles. Encamped in a beautiful piece of woods near the Lake. Col. Gansevoort, of our Brigade, was sent to des-troy Ken- gah town joining Kengah lake, where they burnt several houses, got about twenty horses, &c. 7. — Decamped. Marched to Kanadesago, a town situated about three miles from the west end of the lake, the capital of the Sen- ecas. (This was what is called the old Castle near Geneva.) Cross- ing the Seneca creek (or outlet) and several large defiles occa- sioned our not arriving in town till some time in the evening. This town consists of about 60 houses. Several large fields of corn. We found a white male child the enemy had left behind. 8. — The army was employed in destroying corn, beans, fruit trees, &c. A detachmient sent to destroy a town about 12 miles from this town. (This was Cashong, Kashonguash, on the west • side of the Seneca.) 9.— All the sick and lame sent to Tioga. At 11 A. M. we marched, following the road that leads to Niagara. Marched about 13 miles. Encamped near a brook that night. 10. — Decamped at 6 A. M. Marched this day about 13 miles — part of the day through a swampy country, abounding chiefly in beech and maple, some remarkably large white ash trees — latter part of the day through a grassy country. Passed the end of Con- nandockque lake. Encamped near some fine fields of corn. This town contains about 20 houses. SULLIVAN S CAMPAIGN. 89 II. — Decamped at 4 A. M., after destroying the town and veg- etables, &c. Marched this day to Hannayouya (Honeoye). This town is situated at the end of a small Lake of the same name — con- tains about 15 houses — a large flat of excellent land. 12. — The provisions and superfluous baggage of the army were left at this town, with a guard of about 200 men and two field pieces. The army decamped at 11 A. M. and marched towards the Genesee Hats. Marched about 10 miles and encamped in the woods — passed this day a small lake called Konyoughojoh. 13. — Decamped at 6 A. M. Marched about two miles and halt- ed at Adjustah. This town contains about 26 houses. While we halted at this town, Lieut. Boyd, with 20 men of the Rifle Corps, was sent to the next town to reconnoitre the enemy. On his return about 700 of the enemy ambushed him, killed and took 18 of the party. After the corn, &c., was destroyed and the town set in flames, we moved ofif to the next town. Our brigade marched some miles around to gain the rear of the enemy, but as usual they had fled before us. This town contains about 18 houses, situated at the southern end of the Genesee flats, on the banks of a small river that leads into the Genesee river. 14. — 9 A. M. the army decamped, passed the river, entered the Genesee flats. This flat is judged to contain near 6,000 acres. We passed the Genesee river. This river runs with a strong current out of a hilly country. Three miles below where we forded, is navigable to lake Ontario. We burnt a small town on the bank of the river and marched that night to Genesee castle. There the body of Lieut. Boyd and one man was found murdered in a barbarous manner, too horrid to mention. This town is the metropolis of that nation ; contains about 140 houses. Some fine buildings in it ; sit- uated about 40 miles from Niagara, on the south side of the Gene- see river. The soil is exceedingly rich for 10 or 12 miles along the river. In and about this town, it was judged there were 800 acres of corn, beans, and vegetables of every kind. 15. — The whole army was employed in destroying the corn, &c. Now the general having completed and fulfilled his orders, after destroying the corn and setting the town in flames, the army passed 90 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. the river and encamped upon the flats. One woman and one child made their escape from the savages and came to us that evening. i6. — Lay by to destroy corn along the flats. Decamped at lo A. M. Encamped at Aojuhtah. 17. — Decamped at gun firing. Encamped at Honeoye. 18. — Decamped at 10 A. M. that day to Canandaigua. En- camped on the east side of the Lake. 19. — Marched to Connadasago. 20. — A party of 900 men was detached under command of Col. Butler, to destroy the Kengah tribe, and a party of 100 men under command of Col. Gansevoort to destroy part of the Mohawk tribe. Decamped at 3 P. M. and encamped on the east side of Seneca Lake. 21. — A party of 100 men was detached under Col. Dearborn to destroy the towns on the west side of Kenkah lake. Decamped at 8 A. M., passed Candiah about three miles and encamped at 4 P. M. 22. — Decamped at 7 A. M. Encamped that night within seven miles of Catharine town. 24. — (23d. ?) Decamped at 7 A. M., passed Catharine town and encamped near the Big Swamp that night. 24. — Decamped at 5 A. M., passed the swamp and halted some time for refreshment. Encamped that night at Fort Reed, where we met provisions and stores for the reception of the Army. Upon our arrival at this place, (now Elmira), 13 cannon were discharged from the fort and was returned from one of our pieces 15 times. The latter was discharged in the space of one minute and a half. Dried provisions, &c. (Colonel Gansevoort's Journal notes the proceedings of this day as follows : " Passed the swamp so much dreaded from its " badness, without any difficulty and arrived at the forks of New- " town, where Capt. Reed with a detachment of 200 men had thrown " up a breastwork to guard some stores and cattle brought forward " from Tioga for the army in case of necessity. Saluted by 15 SULLIVAN S CAMPAIGN. 9 1 " rounds of cannon from the breast-work, which number we re- " turned from our artillery.'^) Fort Reed was on the west side of the Newtown creek and on the north bank of the Tioga, where the creek falls into the river. It was a breast-work and was surrounded by palisades including some three or four acres. The western line of palisades can be traced on the west side of the junction canal and on the east side of Water St., a little ^outh of the Fair grounds. The Journal con- tinues. 25. — All the loaded muskets in the army were discharged at 5 A. M. The army was drawn up in one line and fired three rounds per man. After the discharge of 13 cannon, for our new ally the King of Spain, several oxen were killed for the ofificers and men. (Col. Gansevoort's Journal thus describes this affair: "25. — " This morning the small arms of the whole army were discharged " at 5 o'clock. The whole were drawn up in one line, with a field " piece on the right of each brigade, to fire a feti de joie — ist. thir- " teen rounds of cannon ; 2d, a running fire of musketry, from right " to left — repeated twice. Fifty oxen were killed on this joyous " occasion, one delivered to each Brigade and one to the Artillery " and staff. This was done in consequence of Spain having de- " clared war against Britain.") 26. — At 12 A. M., the party under command of Col. Dearborn came in after destroying a fine country on the west side of the Kengah Lake. They brought in two squaws with them. 2y. — 400 men under the command of Col. Courtland, was em- ployed in destroying corn up the river. 30 boats arrived from Tioga. 28. — ^All the sick were sent to Tioga. The party under the command of Col. Butler, returned from destroying the Kengah tribe. They found a most beautiful country abounding in vast quantities of corn and vegetables of all kinds ; the same party under command of Col. Courtland, was employed up the river; also, 500 men were employed down the river, towards Tioga, destroying corn and vesretables on the flats. 92 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 29. — Decamped 6 A. M. Encamped that night 3 miles below Chemung and within 3 miles of Tioga. 30. — Decamped at 6 A, M., arrived at Fort Sullivan at i P. M. Upon our arrival the garrison discharged 13 cannon and we re- turned the same. Pitched tents on the ground we occupied before. October 3. — A party of 500 m'en turned out to load the boats and demolish Fort Sullivan. The army drew 6 days' flour to carry them to Wyoming. 4. — Decamped at 6 A. M. Passed the river and encamped that night within 5 miles of Standing Stone, near the river. 5. — ^All the cattle, stores and horses were sent down to Wyom- ing. The whole went on board the boats. The fleet got under way at 6 A. M. 6. — The fleet got under way at 9 A. M. Arrived at evening at Shawney Flats. 7. — The whole fleet got under way at 9 A. M., and arrived at Wyoming at 2 P. M. When it hove in sight 13 cannon were fired by the garrison and returned by the fleet. The army encamped near the garrison. 8. — Two hundred men were detached to repair the road from this post to Easton and to remain there until the army arrives. 10. — Gen. Sullivan set out for Easton, leaving the command to Gen. Clinton. Decamped at ii A. M. Encamped that night at Bullock's tavern. II. — The rear of the army came up to camp at 9 A. M. March- ed this day and encamped between the Shades of Death and the Big Swamp. 12. — Decamped at 7 A. M. Encamped that night at the White Oak Run. 13. — Decamped at 8 o'clock in the morning. The army moved that dav to Brink's Mills. SULLIVAN S CAMPAIGN. 93 14- — Decamped at lO A. M. Passed the Wind Gap and en- camped that night within 12 miles of Easton. 15. — Decamped at 6 o'clock in the morning and arrived at Easton at 2 P. M. Encamped in the Forks of the Delaware on the bank of the Lehigh. 17. — Our Brigade mustered. The Rev. Parson Evans delivered a discourse to the army in the German church. In the same volume is given a table of distances as traveled by the army from Easton to Genesee Castle, as surveyed by Mr. Lodge, Surveyor to the Western army : From Easton to Wyoming 65 miles Lackawanna 75 " Quelutinack 82 Tunkhannock Creek 93 " Mesupin 102 " " Vanderlip's Farm 107 " Wyalusing 115 *' Wysaching Creek 129M) " Tioga 145 " Chemung 157 " " Forks at Newtown 165 " " French Catharines, or Evoquagah. . . . 183^/^- " " Condiah, or Appleton 211 " " Outlet of Seneca Lake 222^ " Canadesaco, or Seneca Lake 226 " " Canandaigua 241^'^' " " Honeoye 255 " Adjustah 267^/i- " " Gasagularah 274^5 " " Genesee Castle 280 " CONCERNING THE MOHAWKS. By W. Max Reid. I am somewhat at a loss to select a name for the subject of this paper. I dare not dignify it by the title of a history of the Mo- hawks, because a true history of that notable people never has been or never can be written. It is true that " Colden's Five Nations," " Morgan's League of the Iroquois," and Schoolcraft's notes are looked upon as authority on this subject, but Morgan's work is in a great measure legendary and altogether unsatisfying, and the same may be said of Colden and Schoolcraft, although the little that Colden has to say about the Mohawks is accepted as authority as far as it goes. As to the origin of the Mohawks, it will always remain a mys- tery. Conjecture may or may not approach the truth, but from the fact that they had no written language, no records on stone or parch- ment from which we can obtain knowledge of their origin or early history, it is evident that our only sources of information are the vague traditions that have been transmitted orally from parent to child or from Sachem to Sachem. How unreliable and unsatisfactory these oral traditions are, may be noted in what is called the " Iroquoian Cosmology," or the " Cre- ation," as translated by J. N. B, Hewitt, of the Bureau of Ethnology. Mr. Hewitt gives three versions of the " Creation," the Onondaga, Mohawk and the Seneca. They are practically alike, differing only in minor statements. The Onondaga is the longest and the Seneca the shortest version. I will give you, however, a condensed render- ing of the Mohawk tradition. It says : " In the sky above were man-beings, both male and female, who dwelt in villages, and in one of the lodges was a man and woman, who were down-fended, that is, they were secluded, and their lodge was surrounded by the down of the cat-tail, whidi was a sign that CONCERNING THE MOHAWKS. 95 no one should approach them, nor were they allowed to leave this precinct. The man became ill and stated that he would not get well until a dogwood tree standing in his dooryard had been uprooted. So when his people had uprooted the tree he said to his wife, ' Do thou spread for me something there beside the place where stood the tree.' Thereupon she spread something for him there and he then lay down on what she had spread for him, and he said to his wife : * Here sit thou, beside my body.' Now at that time she did sit beside him as he lay there. Then he said to her : ' Do thou hang thy legs down into the abyss.' For where they had uprooted the tree there came to be a deep hole, which went through the sky, and the earth was upturned about it. " And while he lay there he recovered from his illness and turn- ing on his side he looked into the hole. After a while he said to his wife : * Do thou look thither into the hole to see what things are occurring there in yonder place.' And as she bent her body to look into the hole he took her by the nape of the neck and pushed her and she fell into the hole and kept falling into the darkness thereof. After a while she passed through and as she looked about her, as she slowly fell, she saw that all about her was blue in color and soon discovered that what she observed was a vast expanse of water, on which floated all kinds of water fowls in great numbers. " Thereupon, Loon, looking into the water and seeing her re- flection, shouted, ' A man-being, a female is coming up from the depths of the waters.' The Bittern, answering, said, ' She is not indeed coming up out of the depths of the water, she is falling from above.' Thereupon they held a council to decide what they should do to provide for her welfare. " They finally invited Great Turtle to come. Loon, thereupon, said to him, ' Thou should float thy body above the place where thou art in the depths of the water.' And then as Great Turtle arose to the surface, a large body of ducks of various kinds arose from the face of the water, elevated themselves in a very compact body, and went up to meet her. And on their backs did she alight, and they slowly descended, bearing her body on their backs, and on the back of Great Turtle they placed her. " Then Loon said, ' Come, you deep divers, dive and bring up earth.' Many dived into the water, and Beaver was a long time gone. When his back appeared he was dead, and when they ex- 96 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, arnined his paws, they found no earth. Then Otter said, * It is my turn.' Whereupon he dived, and after a longer time he also came up dead. Neither did he bring up any earth. It was then that Muskrat said, ' I also will make the desperate attempt.' It was a still longer time that he was under water, but after a while he also floated to the surface, dead. In his paws was mud and his mouth was full of mud. And they took this mud and coated the edge of Great Turtle's shell all around, and other muskrats dived and floated dead, but brought up mud, which was placed on Great Turtle's back. And the female man-being sat on the back of Great Turtle and slept. And v/hen she awoke the earth had increased in size, and she slept again, and when she awoke, willows were growing along the edge of the water. And then, also, when she again awoke, the carcass of a deer recently killed, lay there, and a fire was burning, and a sharp stone. And she dressed, cooked, and ate her till. And after a tvhile a rivulet appeared and rapidly the earth increased to great size, and grass and herbs sprung from the earth and grew to ma- turity. " And after a while the female man-being gave birth to a girl child, who grew rapidly to maturity, and not long after gave birth to two male man-beings, but the daughter died in giving birth to the twins. And the grandmother cut off the head of her dead daughter and hung her body in a high place and it became the sun, and the head she placed in another place and it became the moon. " And when she examined one of the infants she found his flesh was nothing but flint and there was a sharp comb of flint over the top of his bead, but the flesh of the other was in every respect like a man-being. " It seems that these two were antagonistic from their birth, the grandmother clinging to the flint child and driving the other into the wilderness ; and in his wanderings he came to the shore of a lake and saw a lodge standing there. Looking in the doorway he saw a man sitting there, who said to him, ' Enter thou here. This man was Great Turtle, who gave him a bow and arrow, and also gave him two ears of corn, one in the milky state, which he told him to roast and eat as food, and the other, which was mature, he should use for seed corn. " He also endowed him with preternatural powers. And when CONCERNING THE MOHAWKS. 97 he was about to depart, he said to the young man, ' I am Great Turtle, I am thy parent.' " SapHng, which was the name of the young man-being, created animals out of earth, and birds by casting handfuls of earth_into the air. He also formed the body of a man and the body of a woman, and gave them life and placed them together. Returning shortly after he found them sleeping. Again and again he returned and still they slept. ' Thereupon he took a rib from each and sub- stituted the one for the other and replaced each one in the other's body. It was not long before the woman awoke and sat up. At once she toudhed the breast of the man lying at her side, just where Sapling had placed her rib, and, of course, that tickled him. There- upon he awoke. Awoke to life and understanding.' " As in the Biblical story of Cain and Abel, the two brothers fought and in the end one was slain. But is was the unrighteous one, the one with the flint body, who lost his life. Nearly tihree hundred years ago, the Jesuits recorded traditions of the Algonquins and Huron-Iroquois of Canada, which were prac- tically the same in their main features as the above. (See Jesuit Rel. vol. lo, pages 127-129.) The Montagnais and Adirondacks of Canada, and in fact all the Algonquin nations, seem to have some tradition of the deluge, which in some way is mixed with the Huron-Iroquois tradition of the creation. In fact, it deals with a re-creation of the earth. They say that one Messou restored the world when it was lost in the waters. Their story of the deluge is practically as follows : This ]\Iessou went a hunting with lynxes, instead of dogs, and was warned that it would be dangerous for his 1\tix€s in a certain lake near the place where he was. One day as he was hunting an elk his lynxes gave it chase even into the lake ; and when tJhey reach- ed the middle of it, they were submerged in an instant. When Mes- sou arrived there and sought his lynxes, who were indeed his brothers, a bird told him that it had seen them in the bottom of the lake, and that certain animals or monsters held them there. He at once leaped into the water to rescue them, but immediately the lake overflowed, and increased so prodigiously that it inundated and drowned the whole earth. Astonished, he gave up all thought of his lynxes and turned his attention to creating the world anew. First he sent a raven to find a small piece of earth with which to 98 NEW VORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. build a new world. The raven returned unsuccessful. He made an otter dive down, but he could not reach the bottom. At last a musk- rat descended and brought back some earth. With this bit of earth Messou restored every thing to its former condition. But it is among the Iroquois that Great Turtle plays the prin- cipal part in the creation. In fact it is said that he upholds the earth to this day. In one of the cases of the " Richmond collection " in the museum of the Montgomery County Historical Society, is an old rattle which can be traced back more than a hundred years. We have looked upon it as an interesting relic of the Senecas, a rude musical instrument. It is made from a turtle shell and skin, and in the enclosed space has been placed pebbles for rattles. But this instrument is interesting beyond all that. Father Le- June, in his Relation of 1639, makes the following statement in describing a dance at a feast given for a sick woman : " At the head of tihe procession marched two masters of ceremonies, singing and holding the tortoise, on which they did not cease to play. This tortoise is not a real tortoise, but only the shell and skin, so arranged as to make a sort of drum or rattle. Having thrown certain peb- bles into it they make from it an instrument like that the children in France used to play with. There is a mysterious something, I know not what, in this semblance of a tortoise, to Which these people at- tribute their origin. We shall know in time what there is to it." It is said that in no Amerind (the word Amerind is a new word coined by the Bureau of Ethnology to take the place of the three words " North American Indian." You will notice that it is com- posed or formed from the first four letters of American and the first three letters of Indian) language, could the Jesuit Priests find a word to express the idea of God or His attributes. Although the most charitable of people and showing the utmost affection for their children, the Jesuits were unable, in the Amerind language, to impress upon them or to communicate to them, the idea of an all-loving and charitable Supreme Being. They had their Manitou, but they feared them and gave them the character of the devil, one who should be propitiated by presents, by penances, or by scourges and feasts. In the Amerind's mind, each animal had a king, as the Great Turtle, the Great Bear, etc. The fathers said to them if the animals have eech a Supreme Being, why should not man have a great chief CONCERNING THE MOHAWKS. 99 of men, who lives in the sky ; a Great Spirit. This idea they ac- cepted, and althougih they did not or could not give him tlie at- tributes of the Christian's God, the Great Spirit became *' a distinct existence, a pervading power in the universe, and a dispencer of jus- tice." This idea the Jesuits had to accept, although in exceptional cases, they seemed to impress their idea of God upon some of their converts while they had them at the missions, but they were sure to become apostates when they returned to their people in the wilder- ness. So you will see that " The Great Spirit " of the Indians is a modern idea received from the whites and not, as some think, a Supreme Being evolved ages ago from the Amerind mind. Parkman says : " The primative Indian believed in the immor- tality of the soul, and that skilful hunters, brave warriors, and men •of influence went, after death, to the happy hunting-grounds, while the slothful, the cowardly, the woak were doomed to eat serpents and ashes in dreary and misty regions, but there was no belief that the good were to be rewarded for moral good, or the evil punished for a moral evil." So you vv'ill see that the writing of a history of the Mohawks would be an arduous task, a history filled with mystery and super- stition together with kindly deeds and warJike acts, a history of a people endowed with minds that were able to conceive a union •of tribes, states or nations, call them what you may, and to per- petuate that union for centuries, the success of which suggested to our forefathers the union of states, the government under which we now live. " HOLLANDER." ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON, The Author of the Louisiana Purchase. Hon. D. S. Alexander. After signing the treaty ceding Louisiana to the United States, Robert R. Livingston declared it the noblest work of his life. If one may not assent to this enthusiastic statement of the speaket, who had been a member of the committee to draft the immortal Declaration of Independence, it is easy to admit tJhat his work stands next in historical importance to the treaty of 1783, which recognized American independence. It added half an empire to our domain, and, a century later, gave Edward Everett Hale op- portunity to speak of Livingston as " the wisest American of his time," since " Franklin had died in 1780." When Livingston signed the Louisiana treaty he was fifty-six years of age, tall and handsome, with an abundance of hair already turning gray, which fell in ringlets over a square, high forehead, lending a certain dignity that made him appear as great off the bench as he did when gowned and throned as Chancellor. In the estimation of his contemporaries he was one of the most gifted men of 'his time, and the judgment of a later age has not reversed their decision. He added learning to great natural abi'lity, and brilliancy to profound thought, and although so deaf as to make communication with him difficult, he came very near concealing the defect by his remarkable eloquence and conversational gifts. Ben- jamin Franklin called him " the Cicero of America." His love for the beautiful attracted Edmund Burke. It is doubtful if he had a superior in the State in the knowledge of history and the dassics, and in the study of science Samuel L. Mitchell alone stood above him. He lacked the creative genius of Hamilton, the prescient gifts of Jay, and the skill of Aaron Burr to marshal men for selfish purposes; but he was rt home in debate with the ablest men of ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON. lOI his time, a master of sarcasm, of trenchant wit, and of fehcitous rhetoric. It is likely that he lacked Kent's application. But of ninety-three bills passed by the legislature from 1778 to 1801, a period that spans his life as Chancellor, and which were afterward vetoed by the Council of Revision, Livingston wrote opinions in twenty-three, several of them elaborate, and all revealing capacity for legislation. In these vetoes he stood with Hamilton in resist- ing forfeitures and confiscations ; he held with Richard Morris that loyal citizens could not be deprived of lands, though bought of an a/lien enemy ; he agreed with Jay in upholding common law rig^hts and limiting the death penalty ; and he had the support of George Clinton and John Sloss Hobart in disapproving a measure for the gradual abolition of slavery, because the legislature thought it politically expedient to deprive colored men of the right to vote who had before enjoyed such a privilege. In the field of politics, Livingston's search for ofhce did not result in a happy career. So long as he stood for a broader and stronger national life his intellectual rays flashed far beyond the horizon of most of his contemporaries, but the joy of public life was clouded when he entered the domain of partisan politics. His mortification that someone other than himself was appointed Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, made Hamilton's funding system, especially the proposed assumption of State debts, sufficient excuse for becoming an anti-federalist, and had he pos- sessed those qualities of leadership that bind party and friends by ties of unflinching service, he might have reaped the re^vard that his ambition so ardently craved ; but his peculiar temper unfitted him for such a career. Jealous, fretful, sensitive, and suspicious, he was as restless as his eloquence was dazzling, and when, at last, he became the anti-federalist candidate for governor in 1798, in opposition to John Jay, the campaign ended in deep humiliation. His candidacy was clearly a dash for the Presidency. He reason- ed, as every ambitious New York statesman has reasoned from that day to this, that if he could carry the State in an ofif year, he would be needed, as the candidate of his whole party, in a Presi- dential year. This reasoning reduces the governorship to a sort of springboard from which to vault into the White House, and although only one man in a century has performed the feat, it has always figured as a popular and potent factor in the settlement of I02 MEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, political nominations. George Clinton t'houglit the Presidency would come to him, and Hamilton inspired Jay with a similar no- tion ; but Livingston, sanguine of better treatment, was willing, for the sake of undertaking it, voluntarily to withdraw from the professional path along which he had moved to great distinction. The personal qualities which seemed to unfit Livingston for political leadership in New York did not strengthen his usefulness in France. It was the breadth of view wihic'h distinguished him in the formation of the Union that brought him success as a diplo- mat. With the map of America spread out before him he handled the Louisiana problem as patriotically as he had argued for a stronger national life, and when, at last, he signed the treaty, he had forever enlarged the geography of his country. As the American minister to the court of Napoleon, Livingston reached France in November, 1801. President Jefferson had al- ready heard a rumor of the retrocession of Louisiana by Spain to France, and had given it little heed. He had cheerfully acquiesced in Spain's occupation of New Orleans, and after its retrocession to France he talked pleasantly of securing West Florida through French influence. " Such proof on the part of France of good will toward the United States," he wrote Livingston, in Septem- ber, 1801, '* would contribute to reconcile the latter to France's possession of New Orleans." But when, a year later, a French army, commanded by Leclerc, Napoleon's brother-in-law, had dev- astated St. Domingo and aroused the hostility of American mer- chants and shipmasters by his arbitrary treatment, JefiPerson sensed the danger of having Napoleon for a next-door neiglibor on the Mississippi. In a moment his tone changed from one of peace to a threat of war. " The cession of Louisanan to France," he de- clared, in a letter to Livingston, April 16, 1802, " works most sorely on the United States. There is on the globe one single spot, the possessor of which is our natural and habitual enemy. It is New Orleans. France, placing herself- in that door, assumes to us the attitude of defiance. The day that France takes possession of New Orleans fixes the sentence which is to restrain her forever within her low-water mark. It seals the union of two nations, who in conjunction can maintain exclusive possession of the ocean. From that moment we must marry ourselves to the British fleet and nation." i ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON. 103 In his anxiety the President also instructed Madison, his Secre- tary of State, to write Pinckney, the American minister at Madrid, to guarantee to Spain, if it had not already parted with its title, peaceable possession of Louisiana beyond the Mississippi, on con- dition of its ceding to the United States the territory, including New Orleans, on the east side. As the year wore on, however, and Leclerc's death followed his report of his losses, Jefferson be- came much easier, advising Livingston that French possession of Louisiana v/ould not be " important enough to risk a breach of the peace." But before the ink had time to dry, almost simultan- eously with the death of Leclerc, came the news, through Governor Claiborne of the Territory of Mississippi, that the Spanish In- tendent had forbidden Americans the right to deposit their mer- chandise at New Orleans. This was a stunning blow to the Presi- dent. The treaty of 1795 stipulated that the King of Spain would " permit the citizens of the United States, for the space of three years from this time, to deposit their merchandise and effects in the Port of New Orleans, and to export them from thence, with- out paying any other duty than a fair price for the hire of the stores, and his majesty promises either to continue this permission if he find during that time it is not prejudicial to the interests of Spain, or, if he should not agree to continue it thus, he will assign to them on another part of the banks of the Mississippi an equivalent es- tablishment." That the three years' limitation had expired during President Adams' administration without the right being extended or its equivalent established, did not help Jefferson out of his diffi- culty, since the Kentucky and Tennessee settlers were already cleaning their flintlocks on the theory that it was easier to drive out a few Spaniards than to dislodge a French army after it had fortified. This was good reasoning if Louisiana was to be taken by force. But Jefferson, even when writing threatening letters, had no thought of war. " Peace is our passion," he wrote Sir John Sinclair, and in the presence of threatening hostilities he did noth- ing to prepare for war. His message to Congress, which opened a few days after the reception of Claiborne's dispatch, made no mention of the New Orleans trouble. He talked about everything else, but of what everybody else was talking about the President said nothing. The western settlers, vitally interested in a depot of deposit at New Orleans, resented such apparent apathy, and by I04 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. resolutions and legislative action encouraged the federalists to talk so loudly for war that the President, alarmed at the condition of the public mind, sent James Monroe's name to the Senate as min- ister extraordinary to France and Spain. On January 13, 1803, the day of Monroe's confirmation, Jefferson hastened to write him, explaining what he had done and why he had acted. " The agi- tation of the public mind on occasion of the late suspension of our right of deposit at New Orleans,'' said he, " is extreme. In the western country it is natural and grounded on honest motives ; in the seaports it proceeds from a desire for war, which increases the mercantile lottery ; among federalists generally, and especially those of Congress, the object is to force us into war if possible, in order to derange our finances ; or, if this cannot be done, to attach the western country to them as to their best friends, and thus get again into power. Remonstrances, memorials, etc., are now circu- lating through the whole of the western country, and signed by the body of the people. The measures we have been pursuing, being invisible, do not satisfy their minds. Something sensible, there- ■ fore, is necessary." This " sensiWe something " was Monroe's appointment, which " has already silenced the federalists," continued the President. " Congress will no longer be agitated by them ; and the country will become calm as fast as the information extends over it." The better to support Monroe, Madison explained to Pichon, the French minister in Washington, the necessity for the undivided possession of New Orleans, claiming that it had no sort of interest for France, while the United States had no interest in extending its population to the right bank, since such emigration would tend to weaken the state and to slacken the concentration of its forces. " In spite of affinities in manners and languages," said the Secre- tary of State, " no cdony beyond the river could exist under the same government, but would infallibly give birth to a separate state, having in its bosom germs of collision with the east, the easier to develop in proportion to the very affinities between the two empires." This explained the true attitude of Jefferson and Madison. They did not seek territory west of the Mississippi. Their thought centered in the purchase of New Orleans ; it was the " one spot on the globe, the possessor of which is our natural and habitual en- ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON, 1 05 emy ;" France's possession of it " must marry us to the British fleet and nation ;" upon it " every eye in the United States is now fixed ;" to gain it Pinckney v^^as charged " to guarantee to Spain the peaceable possession of the territory beyond the Mississippi;" in Madison's opinion " the boundary Hne between the United States and Louisiana should be the Mississippi ;" according to his theory '' no colony beyond the Mississippi could exist under the same government with that on the east side ;" nor did the United States have any interest in building up a colony beyond the Mississippi. In other words, Jefferson saw only New Orleans ; he wanted only New Orleans and peace ; and to get the one and keep the other, Monroe was sent to Paris to secure " our rights and interests in the river Mississippi and in the territories eastward thereof." In the meantime Livingston had taken a different view. It is not clear that he appreciated the future value of the great north- west more than did Jefferson or Madison, but in his argument for the purchase of New Orleans he had included in his request nine- tenths of the territory now known as the Louisiana Purchase. Singularly enough Livingston's letter happened to be addressed to Talleyrand, Napoleon's Minister of Foreign Affairs, on the very day Monroe's name went to the L'nited States Senate for con- firmation, and although the latter's instructions limited negotiations to the east bank of the Mississippi, Livingston's argument included the west bank. " Presuming," he writes Talleyrand, " that the Floridas are in the hands of France, I shall predicate what I have to offer upon that presumption. France can have but three objects in the possession of Louisiana and Florida : The first is the com- mand of the Gulf; second, the supply of her islands; third, an outlet for the people, if her European population should be too great for her territory." " Having treated this subject more at large in a paper which you have had the goodness to read," Livingston continued, " I will not dwell upon it here ; but propose what it appears to be the true policy of France to adopt, as aft'ecting all her objects, and at the same time conciliating the affections of the United States, giving a permanency to her establishments, which she can in no other way liope for. First, let France cede to the United States so much of Louisiana as lays above the mouth of the river Arkansas. By this a barrier will be placed between the colony of France and Canada, I06 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, from which she may, otherwise, be attacked with the greatest facility, and driven out before she can derive any aid from Europe. Let her possess Florida as far as the river Perdito, with all the ports on the gulf, and cede West Florida, New Orleans, and the territory on the west bank of the Mississippi to the United States. This cession will only be valuable to the latter from its giving them the mouths of the river Mobile and other small rivers which penetrate their territory, and in calming their apprehensions re- lative to the Mississippi. It may be supposed that New Orleans is a place of some moment ; it will be so to the United States, but not to France. The right of depot which the United States claims and will never relinquish, must be the source of continued disputes and animosities between the two nations, and ultimately lead the United States to aid any foreign power in the expulsion of France from that colony. Independent of this, as the present commercial capital of New Orleans is mostly American, it will be instantly removed to Natchez, to which the United States can give such ad- vantages as to render New Orleans of little importance. Upon any other plan. Sir, it needs but little foresight to predict that the whole of this establishment must pass into the hands of Great Britain, which has, at the same time, the command of the sea, and a martial colony containing every means of attack. While the fleets block up the seaports, she can, without the smallest difficulty, attack New Orleans from Canada with 15,000 or 20,000 men and a host of savages. France, by grasping at a desert and an insignificant town, and thereby throwing the weight of the United States into the scale of Britain, will render her mistress of the new world. By the possession of Louisiana and Trinidad the colonies of Spain will lie at her mercy. By expelling France from Florida and possess- ing the ports on the Gulf, she will command the Islands. The East and West Indies will pour their commodities into her ports ; and the precious metals of Mexico, combined with the treasures of Hindostan, enable her to purchase nations whose aid she may require in confirming her power. Though it would comport with the true policy and magnanimity of France gratuitously to offer these terms to the United States, yet they are not unwilling to purchase them at a price suited to their value and to their own circumstances, in the hope that France will at the same time satisfy ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON. 107 their distressed citizens the debts which they have a right by so many titles to demand." These arguments do not read Hke the letters of Jefferson or the instructions of Madison. There is no suggestion that the United States is without interest in the right bank of the Mississippi for fear of a divided government, or because germs of collision will develop in spite of affinities in manners and language. New Or- leans is minimized, the great west is magnified. A glance at the map shows that he offered to purchase half an empire, leaving to France only a small corner in the southwest bordering on Texas. His argument fixed its limitation. " First, let France cede to the United States so much of Louisiana as lay above the mouth of the river Arkansas, West Florida, NewOrleans, and the territory on the west bank of the Mississippi." Talleyrand thought the rest would be of little value. " I will give you a certificate," he said, in the course of the discussion, *' that you are the most importunate ne- gotiator I have yet met with." For this and his aid to Robert Fulton, Edward Everett Hale called Livingston " the wisest Amer- ican of his time." Napoleon received Livingston's argument three days after he heard of Leclerc's death. To a soldier who had entered Italy over the Alps, the suggestion of an attack from Canada would strongly appeal ; with Nelson on the ocean, he could understand the help- lessness of a French army in New Orleans ; and after the failure of Leclerc in St. Domingo, the presence of yellow fever and other obstacles to success in Louisiana would not seem improbable. Such a discussion at such a time, therefore, was certain to have the most profound influence, and from January 10 to April 10, 1803, Liv- ingston kept his reasons constantly before the First Consul and his ministers as the only policy to conserve the true interest of France, to impair the strength of England, and to win the affection of the United States. " I have never yet had any specific instructions from you how to act or what to offer," he wrote Madison on February 18, 1803, eighteen days before Monroe left the United States ; " but I have put into Napoleon's hands some notes containing plain truths mixed with that species of personal attention which I know to be most pleasing. The only basis on which I think it possible to do anything here is to connect our claims with offers to purchase the Io8 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Floridas. Upon this subject my notes turn. I have first en- deavored to show how Httle advantage France is Hkely to make from these colonies ; the temptation they offer to Britain to attack them by sea and from Canada; the effect a conquest of them by Britain would have on the islands ; and the monopoly which that conquest would give to a rival power to the trade of the West as well as of the East Indies. I have dwelt upon the importance of a friendly intercourse between them and us, both as it respects their commerce and the security of their islands; and I have proposed to them the relinquishment of New Orleans and West Florida as far as the River Perdito, together with all the territory lying to the north of the Arkansas, under an idea that it was necessary to in- terpose us between them and Canada, as the only means of pre- venting an attack from that quarter. For this I proposed an in- definite sum, not wishing to mention any till I should receive your instructions. These propositions with certain accompaniments were well received, and were some days under the First Consul's consideration. I am now lying on my oars in hopes of something explicit from you. I consider the object of immense importance; and this perhaps the favorable moment to press it." While Livingston's letter was being read in Washington, con- veying to Jefferson the first suggestion of a purchase other than that of New Or'leans, the First Consul was making up his mind to accede to Livingston's request. When the decision did come, it came with Napoleonic suddenness. For three months he had con- sidered it ; but not until Sunday, April lO, did he make known his intention ; then, in a moment, without warning, he let his desire be known to Talleyrand and Marbois. " I can scarcely say that I cede it," said Napoleon, " for it is not yet in our possession. If, how- ever, I leave the least time to our enemies, I shall only transmit an empty title." Marbois agreed, Talleyrand dissented, and the trio parted ; but at daybreak, on Monday, Napoleon sent for Mar- bois, declaring that " irresolution and deliberation are no longer in season ; I renounce Louisiana. It is not only New Orleans that I cede ; it is the whole colony, without reserve. I know the price of what I abandon. I renounce it with the greatest regret ; to attempt obstinately to retain it would be folly. I direct you to regulate the affairs. Have an interview this very day with Mr. Livingston." Whatever occurred after this belongs simply to the making of ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON, 109 a bargain. The mind of Napoleon had acted. It is not easy, per- haps, to differentiate the influences that led to such action, but it is not difficult to measure them. In writing the Minister of Marine, Talleyrand explained that " the empire of circumstances, foresight of the future, and the intention to compensate by an advantageous arrangement for the inevitable loss of a country which was going to be put at the mercy of another nation — all these motives have determined the Government to pass to the United States the right it had acquired from Spain over the sovereignty and property of Louisiana." In brief, Napoleon's sale of Louisiana, as explained by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, disposed of a country which he would inevitably lose whenever war occurred with England. This was the argument Livingston had been urging for three months, with evident effect. Had he been less earnest or dramatic. Napoleon's purpose might not then have exploded into an order to sell. The American Minister knew he was dealing with a man guided by such an implacable hatred of England, that when he was not fighting her openly, he was plotting against her secretly ; that his one purpose, his one hope, his great ambition, was her con- quest. In his argument, therefore, Livingston dangled before him a picture to feed his hatred — a picture of Trinidad and Louisiana forming a base from which England might drive Spain from Flor- ida, command the islands of the Gulf, and receive into its ports the riches of the West Indies and the treasures of M'exico. Thus, Liv- ingston's presence becomes a great factor in the sale. It took six months to communicate with the United States, but only six days to do business with the man who was pressing the sale upon him. If more time had elapsed, the sudden decision might have been changed with equal suddenness, for Napoleon, aside from his in- constancy, had cause to shrink from his intended action. It meant the violation of a sacred pledge to Spain, the death of Talleyrand's pet colonial policy, the certain disgust, sooner or later, of the French people, and a hot quarrel with Lucien and Joseph Bonaparte, his brothers. In the negotiations that followed Livingston ventured to offer twenty million francs, and Marbois finally suggested sixty millions, with payment of the American claim to the amount of tnventy mil- lions more. Thus ended the historic midnight conference during which the bargain was practically made, " It is so very important," XIO NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. wrote Livingston, " that you should be apprised that a negotiation is actually opened, even before Mr. Monroe is presented, in order to calm the tumult which the news of war will renew, that I have lost no time in communicating it. We shall do all we can to cheap- en the purchase, but my present sentiment is that we shall buy." Considering the extent of the purchase and the danger of de- lay, Livingston would have been justified in closing the bargain then and there. Had he known the action of Lucien Bonaparte, who had secured the recession from Spain, and of Joseph's insin- cerity, upon whom he even depended to help along the negotiation, he might well have taken counsel of his fears ; but the great real estate dealer enjoyed driving a good bargain, and so he argued and held aloof, professing that the United States " had no disposition to extend across the river ;" that they " would be perfectly satisfied with New Orleans and the Floridas ;" that they '" could not give any great sum for the purchase ;" that " it was vain tO' ask anything so greatly beyond our means ;" that " true policy would dictate to the First Consul not to press such a demand," since " he must know the payment of such a sum would render the present government unpopular." He minimized the importance of the deal, describing West Florida as " barren sands and sunken marshes," and New Orleans as " a small town built of wood, of about seven thousand souls," a territory " only valuable to the United States because it contained the mouths of some of their rivers," going so far as to venture a prophecy that " an emigrant would not cross the Missis- sippi in a hundred years ;" yet, throughout weeks of dickering, he never surrendered his purpose to buy whether the price be cheap- ened or not. His anxiety was greatly increased by the disclosure of Monroe's commission, since it contained power only to treat for lands on the east side of the Mississippi. " It may, if things should take a turn favorable to France," he wrote Madison, April 17, " defeat all we may do, even at the moment of signing You will recollect that I have been long preparing this government to yield us the country above the Arkansas, and I am therefore surprised that our commission should have entirely lost sight of the object." Livingston's fears proved groundless, and the dickering went on until April 29, when Marbois' original figures were accepted — sixty million francs to France, and twenty million francs to Amer- ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON. Ill ican claimants ; in all, fifteen million dollars. Three days later, on May 2, 1803, the treaty was signed. It is not surprising that Livingston felt proud and liappy. Other treaties of consequence had been negotiated by Americans — the treaty of alliance with France, the treaty of peace with England, and Jay's treaty of 1795 ; but none was more important than Liv- ingston's. Besides, it was unparalleled in the field of diplomacy, since Louisiana cost, comparatively, almost nothing. Perhaps Livingston's pride was only equalled by Jefferson's surprise. A mother is usually prepared for the coming of the baby that is to enlarge and illuminate her home. Its clothes are ready, the nursery is furnished, and everything is waiting its advent ; but President Jefferson was unprepared for the Louisiana Pur- chase. It was so entirely unsought on his part that he had given the subject no consideration until half an empire came tumbling upon him like a great meteor out of the midnight sky. At first, he thought he would cede a part of it to the Indians in exchange for their holdings on the east side of the Miseissippi, and " shut up all the rest from settlement for a long time to come." "I have indulged myself in these details," he writes James Dickinson, August 9, 1803, " because the subject being new it is advantageous to inter- change ideas on it and to get our notions all corrected before we are obliged to act upon them." Then he raised the question of a constitutional amendment. " I suppose Congress must appeal to the nation for an additional article to the constitution approving and confirming an act which the nation had not previously author- ized," he wrote Senator Breckenridge of Kentucky. " The consti- tution has made no provision for our holding foreign territory, still less for incorporating foreign nations into our Union. The Execu- tive in seizing the fugitive occurrence which so much advances the good of their country have done an act beyond the constitution." When such views reached France, Livingston hurried off several letters to Jefferson, assuring him " that were the business to do over again it would never be done. They think we have obtained an immense advantage over them. Though the appearance of war had some influence, it had much less than is ascribed to it. I know from a faithful source that the Spanish government has made the most serious remonstrances against the cession of Louisiana, and that it is now well understood that, if any additional clause of 112 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. ratification should be introduced by the United States, this govern- ment would profit of the circumstance to annul the whole work." Jefiferson did not need a further hint. " I wrote you on the 1 2th inst. on the subject of Louisiana and the constitutional pro- vision which might be necessary for it," he says to Senator Breck- enridge. " A letter just received yesterday shows that nothing must be said on that subject which may give a pretext for retreat- ing, but that we should do sub silentio w'hat shall be found neces- sary. Be so good, therefore, as to consider that part of my letter confidential. It strengthens the reason for desiring the presence of every friend of the treaty on the first day of the session. Per- haps you can impress this necessity on the Senators from the west- em States by private letter." President Jefferson was a strict constructionist. He did not believe the constitution gave Congress power to acquire additional territory ; he dreaded the concentration of power in tlie executive, and perhaps his teachings did more than all other men to inspire the popular mind with that dread ; but when he discovered that the time required to secure a constitutional amendment, exciting, as it would, a long debate in Congress, might defeat the Louisiana Pur- chase by arousing French feeling against its sale, he did not hesi- tate to bury his constitutional convictions, and to force through Congress the necessary ratification. Nor did he ever attempt any defense of his inconsistency save that the welfare of the nation demanded such action. Thomas Jefferson was not afraid of being inconsistent. To a great soul this is not weakness. There are ages that are creative. At such times two classes of men are prominent and needed — ^one shackled to traditions, the other guided by visions. Thomas Jefferson belonged to the latter. In 1776 the American people not only broke the bonds binding them to old Eng- land, but forged other bonds which would bind them to a new political, social and industrial order, and of those who hammered these new ties into harmony with the longing and aspirations of men, Thomas Jefferson stands among the foremost Fathers. He got his light from within. He believed in the people, in the gov- ernment which they had accepted, and with Gladstonian enthusiasm he sought to lead the one and mould the other along lines of stabil- ity ; but when theory and idealism ran counter to practice and ex- perience, he did not hesitate to adopt the practical and let theory ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON. II3 wait. This is the secret of his action in 1803. To cling to an abstract principle would lose an appreciable blessing to his country, and so he let go the abstract principle. This is the inconsistency of a great statesman, the contradictoriness of genius. But commendable as was the part of Thomas Jefferson in that great transaction, it must not conceal the truth of history. He was not even the promotor, much less the author of the Purchase. His mind was intent upon a present need, a single spot, instant relief, made necessary by the fierce demand of a frontier people claiming a depot of deposit. It was Robert R. Livingston who had the vision. The distinguished Chancellor, however, did not prove as care- ful and painstaking a lawyer as he was bold and successful as a diplomatist, for in drawing the claims convention, he neglected to include all claims, estimated their total much too low, omitted a rule of apportionment, and, most grievous of all, left the final decision as to what claims should be selected for payment to the French government. This was the rock that wrecked him. The legitimate claims of American citizens amounted to many millions, but Livingston fixed the limit at three and three-quarters millions, and compelled claimants to secure settlement through the corrupt Talleyrand and his rascally agents, who took one-half for their services. Livingston thought he had drafted the convention " with particular attention," and Monroe, who thoug'ht differently, tried his hand with no better success ; then Marbois turned it to the ad- vantage of the Frenchmen. The Americans needed a careful law- yer. The scandal growing out of this convention deepened and can- kered until Livingston quarreled with the American Claims Com- missioners, excited remonstrances from the British government, and nagged the United States consul at Paris into charging him not only with blind and insatiable vanity, with hints of corrupt and criminal motives, but with ^' imbecility of mind." " I considered the claims convention as a trifle compared with the other great object," he explained to Madison, " and as it had already delayed us many days, I was ready to take it under any form." He was clearly right in the comparative importance of the treaty and the convention, but after Marbois had reserved to 114 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. the French government the right of final decision in each case, Liv- ingston was inexcusable in omitting a rule of apportionment, since it excluded all claimants except the favored Few Whom the corrupt Frenchman selected because of their willingness to divide. But the poisoned arrow that entered deepest into Livingston's soul was the robbery of his laurels. His successful negotiation of the treaty, putting him into the class from which Presidents were then drawn, won him the dislike of JefTerson, the distrust of Madison, and the jealousy of Monroe, who, considering him a rival, carefully concealed whatever would reflect credit upon him. His dispatches to Madison became a sealed book in the Department of State ; his letters to Jefferson were not suffered to shadow the President's halo ; his work, practically completed before Monroe's arrival in Paris, did not reach the eye or the ear of the American people. The great achievement filled the air, rejoicing the country as no other event since the treaty of peace with England, but little praise came to Livingston. The public gave Monroe credit for the treaty, and Livingston discredit for the claims convention. When, finally, Monroe admitted that his part in the negotiation amounted to nothing, he also encouraged tihe belief that Livingston did as little. It is impossible to say, of course, just what influenced Na- poleon to give Marbois the order of April ii. It was not war, for war did not come until a year later ; it was not money, for the Prince of Peace would have given more ; it was not anger at Spain, for no real cause then existed ; it was not fear of England, for Bona- parte did not fear an enemy he expected to crush ; it was not St, Domingo, for Leclerc's failure already belonged to the past, with Corsica and Egypt. Perhaps Napoleon himself could not have given the real reason. But. however this may be, the fact is deeply imbedded in history that Livingston was the first American to sug- gest the acquisition of that then vast and dimly outlined country which has been known for over a hundred years as the Louisiana Purchase — stretching west and northwest of the Mississippi, above the winding Arkansas, beyond the waters of the Missouri, across plains and flower-covered prairies to the far-away Rockies, where the Yellowstone leaps from its hiding, and snow-clad summits pierce a summer's skv. ..•^^. "^ THE FOUNDERS OF TEMPERANCE. (From an Old Print.) THE BIRTH AT MOREAU OF THE TEMPERANCE REFORMATION. By Dr. Charles A. Ingraham. History concerns itself chiefly with the fiats of kings, the coun- cils of cabinets, the enactments of legislatures, the processes and results of diplomacy and the issues of war. Upon the pages of the world's annals appears the magnificent pageantry of the past, as with silken banners and silver trumpets dominion proudly passes in perpetual review. Thus, as the historian animates his chapters with those dramatic, intellectual and heroic elements wTiic'h abound in the court, the statehouse and upon the field of battle, the high spirit of chivalry is encouraged and an intelligent patriotism is promoted. But how fares it with that company of men and women who, frequently in obscure places and by unpretentious methods, have in the realms of discovery, invention and ethics, also advanced the prosperity and happiness of society? It must be admitted that they are too often neglected and that the fruitful lessons which their lives have to communicate remain too generally unappropri- ated. This paper, diverging somewhat from the beaten highway of history, has for its purpose, to rescue from threatened oblivion the memory of a noble man and the record of his monumental work. A few months since, while attending a convention held in one of the churches of Easton, the discussion having turned to the subject of temperance, I remarked that it might be proper to state that we were congregated not far from the place where the world's first temperance society had its birth. I was afterward surprised and gratified to learn that in that very neighborhood Dr. Clark, its founder, had dwelt when a young man engaged in the study of medicine. Not being of a superstitious turn, I have dismissed from my mind the notion that his shade was at my elbow prompting me to introduce him to the audience. My interest having been revived, Il6 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. I consulted the leading reference books with the result of discov- ering that, while they all were in substantial agreement as to Dr. Clark having established the initial temperance association at Mo- reau in 1808, there were no biographical accounts of him, nor de- tails concerning the history of the organization. This, for so great an event and institution, struck me as being a very remarkable omis- sion. My curiosity to learn more was now stronger than ever, and the centennial anniversary of the formation of the association being near, I resolved to unearth, if possible, the full history of the so- ciety and the life of its founder. Being utterly in the dark as to any authority upon the subject, I made known my desire for in- formation through the medium of newspapers circulating in the historic townships, and with gratifying results. My principal materials have been these : " The History of the Temperance Reformation," 1853, by Rev. Lebbeus Armstrong, a member of the society and intimately associated with Dr. Clark in the establishment of the same ; " A History of Temperance in Sara- toga County," 1855, by Judge William Hay ; and an obituary by the late Dr. A. W. Holden, of Glens Falls, which appeared in the Mes- senger of that place in 1866. The last is an admirable elucidation of the life and character, to the closmg day, of the great champion of temperance. The two physicians had been fellow townsmen, and evidently friends, if we may judge by the sympathetically appre- ciative manner with which Dr. Holden writes. Of the 408 pages of Armstrong's and of the 153 pages of Hay's book, but compar- atively few are devoted to Dr. Clark and his work. The authors boast of him and his achievement, but, living yet in the dim light of his day, they were evidently unable to perceive fully the grandeur of the moral movement which he had inaugurated. Hence, their works are taken up mainly with discussions of the Maine liquor law, which then agitated much of the country. Armstrong's and Hay's books have become very rare, but copies of both may be found in the New York State library. Among every people, in every age, intemperance has been rec- ognized as an evil, and from ancient times a variety of means have been adopted to prevent or diminish its desolating influences. Royal decrees have gone forth commanding the rooting up of vineyards, and parliaments have legislated against it. The code of Draco even BIRTH AT MOREAU OF THE TEMPERANCE REFORMATION. Il7 went SO far as to visit the penalty of death upon the drunkard. The milder methods of moral suasion have, since the earliest recorded days, been with loving constancy declaimed in the ears of the peo- ple, 'but so imperative is the demand for strong drink that the cup continues in spite of all hindrances to hold dominion over multi- tudes of men. But beyond all other peoples of the world in love of intoxicating beverages stand the Teutonic races, among whom it is said distilled liquors were first substituted for fermented drinks. The classic pages of Tacitus tell us of the unbridled license which the northern tribes of Europe gave to their appetites and of the scenes of drunken riot which characterized their social events. The chase, the battle aind the feast were their delights, and when done with life, their ambition was to reside in the immortal hall of Valhalla. There, each day having fought before the palace, and with efvery trace of their wounds duly obliterated, they hoped to sit down daily to re- gale themselves with mead and meat. The convivial propensities of the Teuton have been inherited by the Anglo-Saxon race, and it cannot be denied that the English speaking people are among the heaviest drinking populations of the earth. Yet, the Germanic family of nations has done more for the advancement of civiliza- tion than perhaps any other race in history. It has emancipated and exalted woman, and hallowed the home, and fostered patriotism and religion. It has produced the greatest scholars, the most bril- liant scientists and the profoundest philosophers. But among na- tions as among individuals, it is against the intellectually highly organized that the genius of alcohol particularly directs its malev- olent arts. The latter half of the i8th century saw England almost over- whelmed with drunkenness and its associated vices. In a sermon entitled, " On Dissipation," by John Wesley, published in 1788, he opens his discourse with this statement: " Almost in every part of our nation, more especially in the large and populous towns, we hear a general complaint among sensible persons of the still increasing dissipation. It is observed to diffuse itself more and more in the court, the city and the country." During the close of the same period this country was given over body and soul to the alluring power of inebriation. Intemperance Il8 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. was the rule rather than the exception, as it has bcome in our day. Occasions of birth, marriage and death were ahke considered ap- propriate to the free indulgence in liquor, and all classes participated in the drinking, even clergymen joining in the convivialities with little or no forfeiture of dignity. Social distempers, like those of the body, are accompanied by the agency of restoration. The sick man, debilitated and suffering from the violence of his symptoms, seeks bis bed and calls his phy- sician, thus placing himself in the most favorable attitude for re- covery. Were it not for the realization of his distress, he might, in default of rest and medicine, hurry himself into the grave. So, within some of the more morally sensitive souls of the country, commenced to be experienced an unhappy sense of our degradation and depth of misery. Cries of warning and expostulation began to be heard in the land. One of these rose higher than the others, even echoing down through the years to our own time. It was that of Dr. Benjamin Rush, of Philadelphia. Standing in relation to Dr. Clark as of a voice crying in the wilderness, his work in the field of temperance merits more than a casual remark. It consists of but a small, thirty-two page pamphlet, but condensed in its limited proportions is a world of moral dynamite. It bears the title : " An Inquiry Into the Effects of Ardent Spirits Upon the Human Body and Mind, With an Account of the Means of Preventing and of the Remedies for Curing Them," and was published in 1785. So great had been the salutary influence of this little treatise, that the centennial anniversary of its issue was duly celebrated at Philadelphia. It is not a profound essay ; indeed, the wayfaring man, though a fool, may easily grasp its lucid ideas. Neither is it calculated to be very offensive to any class of readers, for it takes issue only with distilled liquors, recommending fer- mented beverages as substitutes. Moreover, the confirmed toper can read the pamphlet, not only without umbrage, but with interest ; for there is an intensity, a directness ol statement in its style which hold the reader, even to this day, with fhe simple art of its literary merit. Besides, there appears running through its pages a quaint humor, which no doubt had much to do with gaining its popularity throughout the length and breadth of the land. A unique and ingenious feature of the essay is the author's BIRTH AT MOREAU OF THE TEMPERANCE REFORMATION. Il9 '■ Moral and Physical Thermometer," which forms its frontispiece. On the ascending scale, " Strong Beer "' is placed in the lowest and '' Water " at the highest degree, with remarks indicating improving mental and physical conditions in the rising course. On the de- scending scale, " Punch " occupies the highest while ** Rum day and night " is found at the lowest place, accompanied between points by a fearfully intensifying array of vices, diseases and penalties. In this connection might be quoted the author's interpretation of a familiar myth : " The fable of Prometheus, on whose liver a vulture was said to prey constantly, as a punishment for his stealing fire from heaven, was intended to illustrate the painful effects of ardent spirits upon that organ of the body." Here is a curious anticipation of the modern gold cure, as it took form in the fertile intellect of Dr. Rush : " The association of the idea of ardent spirits, with a painful or disagreeable impression upon some part of the body, has some- times cured the love of strong drink. * * * This appeal to that operation of the human mind, which obliges it to associate ideas, accidentally or otherwise combined, for the cure of vice, is very ancient. It was resorted to by Moses when he compelled the Children of Israel to drink the solution of the golden calf (which they had iddized) in water. This solution if made, as it most probably was, by means of what is called hepar sulphuris, was ex- tremely bitter, and nauseous, and could never be recollected after- wards, without bringing into equal detestation, the sin which sub- jected them to the necessity of drinking it." In this pamphlet was sounded the first effective call for a com- bined movement against the evil of intemperance — a. trumpet call which reverberated' in the soul of Dr. Clark until, nobly responding, he stood forth alone before the world, having inscribed, upon his banner the word, Organization. For Dr. Rush had said : " Let good men of every class unite and besiege the general and state governments, with petitions to limit the number of tav- erns, to impose heavy duties upon ardent spirits, to inflict a mark of disgrace, or a temporary abridgement of some civil right upon every man convicted of drunkenness. * * * To aid the opera- tion of these laws, would it not be extremely useful for the rulers I20 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. of the different denominations of Christian churches to unite and render the sale and consumption of ardent spirits a subject of ec- clesiastical jurisdiction?" Such are a few of the characteristic portions of Dr. Rush's fa- mous essay, a work which revived, not only the moral sense of this country, but also of Eng-land, where it was republished in the fol- lowing year. But the giant of intemperance exhibited no signs of weakness, though he had been undoubtedly pierced in a vital part. The weapon of Dr. Rush had been slim, but keen — a highly tem- pered rapier, more effective than in after years was the broad sword of Lyman Beecher's " Sermons on Temperance." With an amiable exterior, the skillful reforming fencer had managed to keep his antagonist off his guard while he transfixed and permanently crip- pled him. But another mode of attack was necessary in order to bring him under control. To indulge yet further in figurative speech : Dr. Rush had manufactured the ammunition but who was to fire the gun? It is always a pleasure to visit the homes of eminent persons who long since have died. To look upon the scenes that they once beheld ; to walk in the paths that they once trod, is like coming into familiar intercourse with the intimate friend of the honored dead, and we go from the places hallowed by such associations with a sense of having gained almost a personal acquaintance with the great who there have had a habitation. The native town of Dr. Billy James Clark was beautiful old Northampton, in Massachusetts. Primitively Nonotuck of the Indians, it was venerable even on his birthday, January 4, 1778, and then, as now, it was foremost in culture and intelligence. Here, Jonathan Edwards had lived and labored, leaving upon the town an ineradicable impress of his saintly character and heavenly doctrines. Here, David Brainerd^ the zeal- ous missionary to the Indians, broken in health, had died under the roof of Edwards, who had extended to him the loving hand of hos- pitality. It was eminently fitting that a life destined to exercise so profoundly beneficial an influence in promoting the higher estate of the race should have its beginning in a town so distinguished for its enlightenment and piety. Ithamar Clark, when his little son Billy was about six years old, left Northampton and took up his residence in Williamstown, BIRTH AT MOREAU OF THE TEMPERANCE REFORMATION. 121 Massachusetts, where also was the home of Mrs. Clark's father. Por a period of four years the boy attended the school which after- wards developed into Williams College, at the end of which time the family changed its home to Pownal, Vermont. Of the details of the domestic life of the Clarks, we have no record. Nothing is known of the wife of Ithamar Clark, except that her maiden name was Sarah Simonds, and that she was a daughter of Benjamin Simonds, who had been a colonel in the Continental army, serving in the campaign against Burgoyne. It is probable that the moral and religious leanings of Dr. Clark were inherited from or instilled by his mother. His father seems not to have been much interested in the ideas that his son did so much to advance. Previous to his settling at Pownal, he had followed agriculture and shoemaking, but now, in the capacity of tavernkeeper, he began selling liquor. In Dr. Holden's article it is stated that the tavern was located upon a farm that Mr. Clark had purchased, one and a half miles from Pownal on the Bennington road. Young Billy Clark, standing behind his father's bar and dealing out intoxicating drinks, was in a position to observe thoroughly the pernicious effects of dallying with alcohol. His daily occupa- tion was an open book, as thrilling as lurid chapters of fiction, and the letters of it remained upon his soul in characters of unquench- able fire. Abraham Lincoln, when a young man, having gone down the Mississippi as a flat-boatman, visited the slave market of New Orleans. He was deeply affected by the harrowing scenes he there beheld, and he registered a vow that should ever the opportunity present itself, he would strike with all his power the institution that encouraged such iniquities. Thus was planted the germ that budded, blossomed and bore fruit in the Proclamation of Emanci- pation. No doubt it was the memory of his father's bar-room, with the evils radiating from it, that urged forward Dr. Clark to the culmination of his great destiny. Some writers give the name of Dr. Clark as William J. or W. J. Clark, but he himself signed it, B. J. Clark, while the best au- thorities refer to him as Dr. Billy J. Clark. It is probable that Dr. Clark, becoming widely known by the more famiUar title, found it convenient to substitute the same for William. When about fifteen years of age, his father having died, young 122 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Clark returned to Northampton to attend school there for a term of one year. This experience was probably of great benefit to the youth, not only in improving his education, but by introducing him to one of the most refined and intelligent communities in New Eng- land. The inspiration of the life of Edwards was dominant in the society of the old town, and his books were still treasured and read. It is interesting to reflect that the living spirit of the great divine may have been a quickening influence in the heart of this thoughtful youth ; that the story of the heroic life of Brainerd may have ap- pealed to his rehgious and enterprising nature ; that the memory of one or both of these devoted men may have contributed to the molding of his mind into the worthy fashion in which it subsequent- ly displayed itself to the world. Be this as it may, not long after his return to the farm, he abandoned the bar and began the study of medicine under Dr. Caleb Gibbs, of Pownal. Still making his home at the farm, he pursued his studies for the space of two years, re- munerating his preceptor by assuming the care of his horses. We find him at the end of that period, in 1797, entering as a student the office of Dr. Lemuel Wicker, of Easton, Washington County, N. Y., with whom he remained until March 21, 1799, w!hen he began the practice of medicine in the town of Moreau. He opened his office not far from what afterwards became known as Clark's Cor- ners. This historic neighborhood is situated about three miles in a westerly direction from Fort Edward, and five miles south of Glens Falls. Here, having married Joanna Payn, of Fort Miller, and purchased a farm, he made his permanent residence. The rise of Dr. Clark had been phenomenal ; from a bartender to the dignity of a profession, and all in the space of four or five years! Dr. Clark was but twenty-one when he came to Moreau. Having pre- viously satisfied the preliminary requirements, he was advanced to the full privileges of a physician in a license granted by the judge of the court of common pleas for Washington County, in the month of June following his settlement in Saratoga County. From his home in Moreau, Dr. Clark for thirty-four years went up and down the long stretches of his rides, ministering faithfully to the sick. The region was in a primitive condition, with poor roads, and was but thinly inhabited. Exhausting to body and mind, as must necessarily have been his labors, he yet had a disposition BIRTH AT MOREAU OF THE TEMPERANCE REFORMATION. 1 23 to employ himself in the sphere of agriculture and to inform him- self upon the political issues of the day. In 1820 he represented his county as Member of Assembly. Through his daily visits to the sick, Dr. Clark was afforded exceptional advantages for observ- ing and studying the eflfects upon the people of the prevailing in- temperance, which had taken a particularly strong grasp upon the population among which he had come to dwell. Armstrong seems to attribute the heavy drinking in Moreau to the leading industry, stating that " all the towns and counties in the vicinity of the ever-rolling Hudson were teeming with lumber." Whatever may have been the predisposing cause of the general and excessive use of intoxicants in England, it is not difficult to point out the conditions which contributed to the growth of tihe same practice in this countr}'. The lives of the people were laborious, monotonous, and unmitigated by those social relaxations which in modern times so greatly lighten the burdens and alleviate the sor- rows of life. Books and periodicals were not plentiful, and the character of the prevailing literature was not such as to invite the attention of the average reader. Transportation being by horse- power along the country roads, public houses, each with its bar, were encountered at every turn, while the little stores to be found at the cross-roads, also dispensed liquor to all comers. Add to this the fact that the materials from which intoxicating beverages are manufactured were abundantly grown within our borders, and near to our shores, and it will be appreciated how naturally the people fell into intemperate habits. For a period of nine years, while Dr. Clark, in all extremities of weather, rode on horseback to the bedsides of his widely sep- arated patients, the burden of the drink-evil weighed heavily upon his mind. . He was a man of energy ; one who was not easily thwarted in the carrying out of his plans. But here was a task that seemed too hard for him. What could one man accomplish in the presence of such indifference and overwhelming opposition? The mode of action that Dr. Clark finally adopted was that of organization — a working together of the friends of temperance for a common purpose. This now seems like a very natural solution of the problem of finding his best means of procedure ; but Dr. Clark was the first man to announce and to give the idea practical 124 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. demonstration, though it is not probable that he possessed any clear- ly defined conception of the lines along which it was to operate, nor of the vast proportions which the movement was destined to attain. Like a prophet under the guiding influence of inspiration, scarcely knowing what he did, he was yet availing himself of a fundamental principle of all nature. For, investigate wherever one may, from the vilest atom of earth to the court of high heaven, organization is the law of every upward step. The ancients, dimly apprehending this sublime truth, conceived of the universe, as a gigantic animal, a cosmic leviathan, w^hole, complete and harmonious in all its parts, while philosophy has ever striven, though in vain, to demonstrate by processes of reason what the higher authority of intuition has proclaimed in all generations. Dr. Rush, by reason of a liberal education, supplemented by medical study in the capitals of Europe, and on account of his high social, professional and Hterary standing, greatly outshone his co- worker, the struggling country doctor on the frontier of Northern New York. But these two greatest factors in the advent of the temperance reformation, and who, it should be said, were acquaint- ances through the medium of correspondence, each performed his peculiar part, and who can determine which is entitled to the greater honor. Dr. Rush manufactured the ammunition, but Dr. Clark fired the gun, his match being organization. The idea of forming a temperance society had perhaps been suggested to Dr. Clark by his connection with the Saratoga County Medical Society, the first institution of its kind in this state, and of which he was the founder. He had attempted early in April, 1808, to interest prominent men, whom he had met at Ballston Springs at a session of court, in his projected temperance enterprise. His plan may have been to estaiblish a central society at the county seat and to encourage the organization of branches in the surrounding towns ; but, to use Dr. Clark's own words, " they with one accord began to make excuses and brand our scheme as Utopian and vision- ary." Previous to this, however, he had taken the initiative in the work among his neighbors, for he says : " I returned to Moreau like a bow well bent that had not lost its elasticity, and resumed the labor there." The determination he exhibited was remarkable, and one cannot dwell upon the difficulties with which he contended BIRTH AT MOREAU OF THE TEMPERANCE REFORMATION. 1 25 and meditate upon the unselfish, devoted and humanitarian spirit by which he was actuated without expressing admiration. The first successful step in the sublime drama of the temperance reformation took place in the same month of April, referred to a moment ago, when Dr. Clark made his memorable visit to his min- ister. I quote from Armstrong : " After having projected a plan of a temperance organization, the doctor determined on a visit to his minister, the author of these memoirs, who was then the pastor of the flouri.-' ing Congregational church in the town of Moreau. The visit was made on a dark even- ing, no moon and cloudy. After riding on horseback about three miles, through deep mud of clay road, in the breaking-up of winter, the doctor knocked at his minister's door, and on entrance, before taking seat in the house, he earnestly uttered the following words : ' Mr. Armstrong, I have come to see you on important business.' Then, lifting up both hands, he continued : ' We shall all become a community of drunkards in this town un'less something is done to arrest the progress of intemperance.' " The poet has sung in soul-stirring numbers of the midnight ride of Paul Revere. There are, indeed, certain resemblances be- tween it and Dr. Clark's historic adventure. It was night ; there was national peril ; heroes were in the saddle, and the voices of their fervent appeals were destined to reverberate down the aisles of time — ■' words that shall echo forevermore." Due notice having been given to the people of the toW\ns of Moreau and Northumberland, a meeting for the purpose .of forming a temperance society was held at the pubHc house of Captain Peter L. Mawney, at Clark's Corners, on April 13, 1808. Resolutions were adopted, the chief of which was that " in the opinion of this meeting it is proper, practicable and necessary to form a temperance society in this place; and that the great and leading object of this society is wholly to abstain from ardent spirits." A committee, of which Dr. Clark was chairman, was appointed to prepare the By- laws for the organization, and twenty-three persons enrolled them- selves as members. The following is the Hst of the signers : Isaac B. Pav-n, Ichabod Hawley, David Parsons, James Mott, Alvaro Hawley, Thomas Cot- ton, David Tillotson, Billy J. Qark, Charles Kellogg, jr., Elnathan 126 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Spencer, Asaph Putnam, Hawley St. John, Nicholas W. Angle, Dan Kellogg, Ephraim Ross, John M. Berry, John T. Sealy, Cyrus Wood, James Rogers, Tlenry Martin, Sidney Berry, Joseph Sill, Solomon St. John. The meeting having adjourned one week, to April 20, at the Mawney house, a long and comprehensive system of By-laws was then adopted. Article I stated that " This society shall be known by the appellation of Union Temperance Society of Moreau and Northumberland." Like Dr. Rush's essay, the Constitution of the society took grounds only against spirituous liquors, making ex- ceptions regarding the use of them in circumstances of religious ordinances, sickness and public dinners. It was not until 1843 that the society " after a long season of declension," on a motion put by Dr. Clark, adopted a resolution of total abstinence. Col. Sidney Berry, ex-judge of Saratoga county, was chosen president and Dr. Clark secretary of the new society. As there exists an apparent contradiction as to the particular roof under which this historic meeting was held, one account stating that it occurred at the Mawney house and another at the neighboring school house, it is proper to say here that this discrepancy is removed by the statement made in Judge Hay's book, page 22, that the session opened in the Mawney house, but that " the society completed its organization " in the school house. In the association, as a coherent institution, coming into existence within the walls of suOh a build- ing, may be found a prophecy of what the temperance movement in the future was to lay particular stress upon — that is, upon tem- perance teaching in the public schools. Indeed, it should be said that the Moreau society itself was an educative organization as well as a moral one, having a circulating library and maintaining a lyceum. But, although it had at its head intelHgent, hig^-minded and enterprising men, its career was hard and discouraging to its mem- bers. " That little, feeble band of temperance brethren," says Arm- strong, '■ holding their quarterly and annual meetings in a country district school house from April, 1808, onward for several years, without the presence of a single female at their temperance meet- ings ; who were made the song of the drunkard ; who were ridiculed BIRTH AT MOREAU OF THE TEMPERANCE REFORMATION. ^2^ by the scoffs of the intemperate world ; und'isciplined in arms of even moral suasive tactics for warfare, and unable of themselves to encounter the Prince of Hell, with his legions of instrumental- ities * * * were, nevertheless, the seed of the great temper- ance reformation." That Armstrong deplored the narrow ideas which prevailed to the discouraging of women from fraternizing with the society, is more explicitly shown in tjhe words which express his gratification in the great numbers of women who, by their presence and co- operation, subsequently aided so much in the promotion of tfhe work. Dr. Clark also protested against the exclusion of women from mem- bership in the temperance societies. These statements are intro- duced that it may be known that the two leading men in the Moreau society would have hailed with delight the advent of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. That great institution, not reckoning many others devoted to the same cause, is of itself alone a glorious monument to the pioneers of Moreau who, in a tempest of scorn and ridicule, laid its foundations. Wisely the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, as the name implies, built up its sublime edifice of the same material — the granite of organization. From towns, through counties, states, nations and the civilized world, it carries on systematically its vast and beneficent enterprises. Words cannot express, nor the mind conceive, the power of the prodigious en- ginery which, distributed in a diversity of directions, is being ex- erted daily, hourly and momentarily by this great association of consecrated women. And here let me say that not only did the temperance reformation come into existence within the borders of our commonwealth, but tjhat the late Frances Elizabeth Willard, the great light in the organization of which I have been speaking, was a daughter of the state of New York. Dr. Clark continued in the practice of medicine for a quarter of a century after the formation of the Moreau temperance society, making his residence on the farm of his original purchase. Of this long period of professional labor there remains no memorial, though in common with the routine duties of medical men, it un- doubtedly abounded in elements which, interesting of themselves, would be all the more so as belonging to the life of one so distin- guished in the annals of reform. Beginning to experience the phy- 128 CONCERNING THE MOHAWKS. sical effects of his protracted devotion to his profession, and hav- ing accumulated considerable property, Dr. Clark in 1833 purchased real estate in Glens Falls and emibarked there in the retail drug business. This successful enterprise engaged his attention until 1849, when he retired from trade. Two years later, longing for the quiet life on the farm, he returned to reside at the old home at Clark's Corners. He was now at the age of seventy-three, but enjoyed, with the exception of a gradual failing of the sense of sight, an almost unimpaired mental and physical vitality. But the gloom before his eyes grew remorselessly thicker and thicker until every familiar scene and tihe faces of family and friends faded from his view. In the custody of this great affliction, the spirit of Dn Clark was not crushed, but rather purified and exalted, so that he who in earlier years had been conspicuous as the heroic leader, was now none the less remarkable for his Christian humiTity, hope and love. A few years longer he tarried upon the eartfh, in order that there might be registered upon the hearts of men the beauty and nobility of the character that was his. And then, at Glens Falls, in the home of his son, James C. Clark, the spirit of the great reformer went to its long home. His death occurred on Wednesday morning, September 20, 1866. Dr. Hoi den says : " The intelligence of his departure was swiftly borne through the place ; his name was on every lip as all, with hushed reverence, bore testimony to his virtues, and to the usefulness of a life lumin- ous with the light of a Christ-born principle." Notwithstanding his portrait, in its severe lines, gives evidence of his decisivie mind and undeviating purpose, he yet possessed elements of character that endeared him to all. While in terms of affectionate banter, alluding to his spirit of determination and his practice of proposing to formulate the mind of public meetings in resolutions, he was sometimes spoken of as " Resolution Billy,"^ the people knew that beneath the crust of self-reliant earnestness dwelt the loving humanitarian and the undying fires of a moral' volcano. Unlike the experience of the most of those wlho entertain pro- nounced ideas and proclaim them in the face of established custom, Dr. Clark seems to have retained his popularity. Evidently he was a very tactful man. In 1809, the year following the forma- BIRTH AT MOREAU OF THE TEMPERANCE REFORMATION. 1 29 tion of the temperance society, he was made supervisor of the town of Moreau, and although his activity, constant, wide and diversified, was being powerfully directed against the intemperate habits of the people, he seems to have maintained their confidence and friendship. He was again chosen supervisor in 1821. We may derive a hint of his high standing in the public estimation from the fact that he was chosen in 1848 for the New York Elec- toral college, whose choice was Taylor and Filmore. The funeral address of Rev. A. J. Fennel, of the Glens Falls Presbyterian Church, has been preserved and appears as a supple- ment to Dr. Plolden's obituary article. Rev. Mr. Fennel having been Dr. Clark's pastor, his discourse is of great biographical value. His opening remarks were particularly well chosen and impressive. He said : " I feel, my friends, that Providence calls us to perform no mean office to-day. We are to convey to their final resting place the mortal remains of one who has been a power in the world for great good to the children of men — whose name will enter into history as that of a benefactor of the community ; and whose in- fluence, as an element in the temperance reformation, will run on into future generations. It cannot do us any hurt, it ought to do us good, to pause a few moments in this habitation now made sacred as the spot whence the earnest spirit of so devoted and use- ful a man took its departure to the heavenly rest, and reflect on his life of activity and toil, and observe how Providence used him for our good and the good of our children." With appropriate public demonstrations, the remains of Dr. Clark were borne to the burying ground of the Union Meeting House, in Moreau, and placed to rest beside the grave of his wife. There, two miles froin the historic spot where he unfurled the ban- ner of a world-wide moral movement, his aslies mingled with the soil that his devotion has made of honorable distinction. Thus, have I attempted to disentangle, gather up and lead in continuous discourse the scattered threads which I have found in my study of this neglected subject. If I have rendered more co- herent and tangible the life and achievement of a universally in- fluential philanthropist, I shall 'be pleased ; but I hope, besides that good result, the consideration of the memoirs of a man who had 13° NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, a great mission in the world and who ably and conscientiously dis- charged it, will serve to impress upon us a sense of the power of elevated ideas when duly championed by even one consecrated soul. Acknozi'ledgement. In expressing my appreciation of the assistance which has been rendered me in the collection of materials for the preparation of this paper, I would particularly mention Mr. James A. Holden, of Glens Falls, who has furnished me, from the library of his father, the late Dr. A. W. Holden, with most valuable matter, some of w^hich could have been obtained from no other source. I also duly acknowledge my indebtedness to Hon. Grenville M. Ingalsbe, of Sandy Hill, wiho interested himself in my search for data, and feel myself under obligations to the SchuylennUe Standard and to the Glen Falls Times for gratuitously publishing my request for information. Communications. From the letters relating to the subject in hand which I have received, I glean the following. I might say that the discrepancy which appears in the descriptions of Dr. Clark's person may be accounted for by the different ages and conditions of healtih in which he is best remembered by the several observers : From Dr. Albert Mott, Cohoes : " The location of the Union Meeting House was -d Reynold's Corners, about four or five hun- dred feet from the corner, directly east. The burying ground was north and across the road from the meeting house." From Rev. Dr. Jos. E. King, Fort Edward: "In 1858 tlie old church (Union Meeting House) was filled, to enjoy tihe com- memorative exercises of the 50th year since the origin of the tem- perance cause, and I heard Hon, Judge McKean, of Saratoga, ad- dress the congregation. There was singing, prayer, a poem by Lura Boies, &c." Statement of Judge Lyman H, Northrup, of Sandy Hill, v^Hho remembers Dr. Clark : " He always carried upon his countenance a mild, genial, pleasant expression ; dressed v^^ith neatness, and appeared to be a good sort of a fellow, and exhibited not; at all that asperity which we associate in our minds with the active reformer." BIRTH AT MOREAU OF THE TEMPERANCE REFORMATION. I31 From William Gary, of Gansevoort, who was intimate with Dr. Clark : " He had rather small, black eyes, which would be gen- erally considered rather piercing. His hair was black and very profuse ; eye-brows very shaggy. His height I should put at 5 ft. 10 in., and weight about 170 lbs." From B. F. Lapham, of Glens Falls : " I was well acquainted with Dr. B. J. Glark. He lived on the same street we did for many years, and when he died 1 helped prepare his body for burial. He was rather eccentric in many tJhings and very resolute. There never was a meeting held but he wou'ld suggest some resolution, so they nicknamed him ' Resolution Billy.' Dr. Clark's name will be famous through all time as the originator of the first temperance organization that ever existed. He was an ardent and efficient laborer all his life." From Miss Anna Mott, of Glens Falls. Miss Mott is a daugh- ter of James Mott, who was a co-laborer in the temperance cause with Dr. Clark, and his neighbor at Clark's Corners : " As I re- member Dr. B. J. Clark, he was a cultured, refined man, with fine sensibility. He ihad a kind word and look for every one that was worthy of it. He was of medium height and size. His hair and eyes were black; his fordhead high and broad. His mouth and chin bespoke firmness. His complexion was dar'k. As I saw Dr. Clark, he was a very kind, gentlemanly old man, and appreciated every kindness he received." From x\ustin L. Reynolds, of South Glens Falls. Mr. Rey- nolds knew Dr. Clark for many years, and assisted him in the temperance work : " Dr. Clark's name was Billy, instead of William. He was stocky in form, and weighed about 175 lbs. His height was about 5 ft. 6 in. ; complexion fair ; dark hair and eyes, and very heavy eyebrows. He was pecuniarily successful as a physician and as a business man. Was the owner of several farms and was interested in a paper mill, situated on w'hat is known as Snoot Kill Creek. Later, he moved to Glens Falls and was proprietor of a drug store for a number of years in that village. Then he returned to Clark's Corners wit^h his daughter, Mrs. Alfred C. Farlin (widow), as housekeeper, and remained at his 132 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. homestead for several years. He lost his eyesight and was en- tirely blind. Then he returned to Glens Falls, and died in 1866. He left one son and three daughters, all of wboin are now dead." A Visit to Clark's Corners. In order that I might obtain a better understanding of the topography of the neighborhood, I visited Clark's Corners on a day in August, 1905. Driving west from Fort Edward, at a dis- tance of three miles I came to Reynolds' (four) Corners. I was very courteously received by Mr. Austin L. Reynolds, who gave me full information as to all the historic spots connected with the Moreau society. Mr. Reynolds is at an advanced age, more than eighty, but he promptly and clearly communicated to me the facts herewith set forth. The roads at Reynolds' Corners run toward the cardinal points, and the burying ground of the Union Meeting House is at a short distance east of the corners, as already has been stated by Dr. Mott. The remains of Dr. Clark were removed from this, the place of their first burial, and were re-interred at Glens Falls. The site of the Union Meeting House is unoccupied, the present chapel stand- ing on other ground, some distance to the west. The Union Meeting House was Dr. Clark's place of worship, and his pastor. Rev. Lebbeus Armstrong, resided at the parsonage, one-half mile south of the church and on the west side of the hig^hway. The cottage which stands on the site of Armstrong's home is now the residence of Mr. Halsey Chambers. It was here tJhat Dr. Clark came in the night upon his historic errand. Clark's (four) Corners are directly south of Reynolds' Corners and two miles distant. The north and south road is crossed at right angles by the other. Both of these locatities are open coun- try, that of Clark's Corners having the appearance of fertility and thrift ; pleasant homes and commodious buildings being numerous. Clark's Corners may be conveniently reached from the village of Gansevoort, on the Delaware and Hudson Railroad, two miles south. The site of the Mawney house is at Clark's Corners. It stood on the northwest corner. Another building has since been erected upon this ground. Dr. Clark's home stood across the road, on BIRTH AT MOREAU OF THE TEMPERANCE REFORMATION. 133 the southwest corner. The house has disappeared, but the cellar walls stand almost intact. About forty rods south of the corners and on the east side of the road is the site of the school-house in which the Moreau society held its meetings. A dwelling house, the home of Mr. George Haviland, now occupies that plot of ground. The sites of the Union Meeting House, parsonage, Mawney house. Dr. Clark's house, and the school house, should be ap- propriately marked. THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL. By Hon. Milton Reed. The shrewd saying of the Swedish lOhiancellor Oxenstiern, 'An nescis, mi iili, quantilla prndentia regitur orhis? " — "Dost thou not know, my son, with how little wisdom the world is gov- erned ? " Oias been substantially true in every epoch in the world's history. Everything human must needs be imperfect, and in noth- ing is imperfection more plainly exhibited than in the successive sdhemes of government which men have attempted. Some have been broad-based and have lasted for what we, in our ordinary reckoning, call a long period of time. But most of them have been built on the sand ; a few storms, shocks, convulsions, and they have fallen. Men have generally made but sorry work in trying to govern each other. The individual may govern himself after a fashion ; but to govern wisely another man, or, still harder, great masses of men, even where there has been community of public interests, of language, religion and custom — aye, there has been the rub! Human history has often been called a great tragedy; but no tragic element is more ghastly or more overwhelming than the catastrophes in which most governments have collapsed. Am- bitious attempts at world-power, the most splendid combinations to group nations into a civic unity, have tottered to their fall, as surely as the little systems which have had their day and ceased to be, — shifting, fleeting, impotent. It is not diflicult to see why this has been so. Social life is only one plhase of the great organic life of the species; one scene of the human drama of which the earth has been " the wide and universal theatre." Change, transition, development, birth, growth, death, are universal elements in the cosmic order. Of the slow but inevitable changes in the physical history of the earth, Tenny- son savs : THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL. 135 " There rolls the deep, where stood the tree ; O earth, what changes hast thou seen ; There where the long street roars, has been The stillness of the central sea. " The hills are shadows, and they flow From form to form ; and nothing stands ; They melt like mists, the solid lands ; Like clouds they shape themselves and go." If this mutation be true of organic changes in the physical earth, working through immeasurable aeons, it is even as dramat- ically true of organized social life. We are learning to take a new view of history. It is no longer regarded as a collection of isolated facts. Veracious history is a record of the orderly progression of events, developed by evolu- tionary processes. There is in it no break, no hiatus, excepting such temporary interruptions as come from what Emerson calls " the famous might that lurks in reaction recoil." Thus we learn the rationale of the events transcribed to the historical page. Un- til science lifted the curtain on " the eternal landscape of the past," man knew little of himself or of his kind. It is only with the en- larged vision that has come to us from the researdhes of the eth- inologist, biologist, anthropologist, sociologist, that we have begun to learn what a creature man really is ; to study his inner nature ; to get at the deeper meanings of the history of the race. Once the study of history was thought to be hardly more than learning a catalogue of royal dynasties ; lihe names of famous gen- erals and statesmen ; of battles lost and won ; of court intrigues ; of the vicissitudes of kingdoms ; of the prowess of pioneers and adventurers ; of " hair-breadth 'scapes i' the imminent deadly breach ;" of the pride, pomp and circumstance of glorious war ! Such incidents have not lost, and never can lose, their interest. They are an integral part of the human document and must always be studied. When draped with myth and legend they minister to " the vision and faculty divine " of the poet ; they visualize the pos- sibilities of human courage ; stimulate the affections ; answer to the eternal cravings of the imagination. But they are only the phenomena of the real history of the race. Life is broader, larger, deeper, richer, fuller, than a mere transcript of happenings — ex- 136 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. ternals, results — important as they are. We must get at the causes, motives, inter-relations, the hidden causes from which events flow, before we can unravel the web in which they are woven, and thus interpret them. The core of history is the element which the Greeks called to- anthropeion; called by a modern poet " the bases of life ;" called by us average folk. Human Nature. It is as constant a quality as anything can be in our moving life. We may not be able to agree with Middleton, who says in his life of Cicero, " Human nature has ever been the same in all ages and nations ;" but it is probably true that nothing has changed less in primal qualities than the bases of life. Empires have perished, civilizations vanished, gov- ernments have rotted, languages, territorial lines, seeming sit-fast institutions, have passed into nothingness ; but the human element has stood the sihock of ages. " The one remains ; the many change and pass," said Shelley. Man-character, man-life, is the one ele- ment, the colors of which seem fast. It is, like all other things, subject to evolutionary changes; it may be differentiated into a thousand forms ; but the bases of life have never shifted. Human history is a great tragedy indeed. But, like all trage- dies, it has its spiritualizing, sanctifying, ennobling side. When the drama of the ages is unrolled we see much to make us weep ; but we also see immeasurably more to make us glory that we are a part of the race. While its history reeks with blood, carnage, oppression, injustice, cruelty, in which sad facts the pessimist hears '• the eternal note of sadness," and unwisely rushes into a denial of the moral order — it has its sun-bright triumphs of rectitude, and the illuminating picture of the steady and glorious advance of mankind from brutishness into an orderly, moralized life. Readers of Matthew Arnold — an author whose intellectual vi- sion was great, and whose style is one of the hterary ornaments of the last century — will recall how he was taken with what he called " Mr. Darwin's famous proposition " that " our ancestor was a hairy quadruped, furnisihed with a tail and pointed ears, probably arboreal in his habits." Mr. Arnold, the apostle of culture, played again and again around this sonorous phrase. Far be it from me to enter upon any discussion of the Darwinian hypothesis of the genesis of the human race. On this large theme the last word has THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL. 137 not been said. Knowledge must grow from more to more before we can posit anything definite on a subject veiled at present in inscrutable mystery. But, in its essence, the evolutionary theory has soaked into our modern thought. The literature and the pro- gressive teaching of our latter day are drenched with it. It cer- tainly can be said of it, that it explains many things which have heretofore seemed inexplicable, and marks a great advance in pop- ular intelligence. But the most ambitious generalization is only a temporary expedient. Fact will merge in fact ; law will melt into a larger law ; one deep of knowledge will call unto another deep ; much that the proudest scientist of our day calls knowledge will vanish away ; many theories now popular will be dissected and pruned and will be found to be " such stuff as dreams arc made on," before the most enlightened humanity of a future age catches any one phase of nature in its snare and compresses it into rigid laws. Nevertheless, the ancestor of man was brutish, and his descend- ants are where they are. Whether or not primeval man was the rather unpicturesque creature described by Mr. Arnold, he was the norm from which has come " t?he heir of all the ages." From the cave-dweller, the aboriginal savage, have been evolved Homer, Plato, Aristotle, Shakspeare, Spinoza, Milton, Dante, New- ton, Gladstone, Pascal, La Place, Lincoln, Emerson, Ohanning, Martineau, Thomas a Kempis, Phillips Brooks, Darwin and Her- bert Spencer. How magnificent the ascent! How glorious the progression ! Man, once the companion of the Dragons of the prime That tare each other in their slime, has flowered into an intellectual, reasoning, moral being — " how infinite in faculty ; in form and moving how express and admirable ; in action how like an angel ; in apprehension how like a god." All this progress, however, has cost its price. Step by step has the race advanced from primeval animalism to its present status. It has walked with bleeding feet. The Divine economy works in many ways. One of its ways is to educate, stimulate and spirit- ualize through antagonism and pain. All faculties, functions and potencies must be worked in order that they may grow. Atrophy, 138 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. decay, death, are the resultant of non-use. The sullen earth was to be fertilized by man's sweat and blood before it would yield any increase beyond its spontaneous productions. Conflict with the elements, conquest over the lower organisms ; ages of toilsome ef- fort, were to come before man was able " to dress the earth and keep it." Out of the iron necessities of his being came initial prog- ress ; and progress once begun has never ceased. The great factor in progress was co-operation. One man alone can do little. The moment human necessities were recognized, the law of association applied. Man needed man. The family group, the clan, the tribe, the town, the city, t!he state, the nation, have been stages in the process of closer and closer co-operation. Confederation, association, combination, require adjustment, compromise, regulation. Hence the genn of government. To live together each man must give way in something to the other. Man is gregarious ; he is naturally social ; instinctively he availed himself of the companionship of other men. The social status, the foedera generis humani, were slowly evolved from the increasing demands of man upon man ; they were not the result of bargaining. What a magnificent drama ; the world the theatre ; all mankind, emerging from primitive ignorance, the actors. How many or how long the acts were, we know not ; but through " that duration which maketh pyramids pillars of snow, and all that's past a mo- ment," the wonderful scenes moved on. Out of the strong came forth sweetness. From brute selfishness, from animal passion, came love. Slowly the central idea was reached, and, in the sub- lime language of the Scripture, man became a living soul ! and his body became the temple of the Holy Spirit; his consciousness a part of the infinite consciousness ; his personality a world-copy of a divine universe. Reason, conscious, love, were his dower. The curtain has not yet fallen, and will never fall, upon the last act. We live in a world which is always in process. Nature's genesis is unceasing. " Without haste, witfhout rest," her creative and re-creative processes are always operating. When one undertakes to talk about government he is drawn in- stinctively to some historic models. As thinking persons realized in every age the insufficiency of contemporaneous governments, there has scarcely been a time when the academic reformer was THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL. 139 wanting. Certain ages may have lacked poets — ours is said to be unpoetic and prosaic, and to await its poet-prophet — ^but the aca- demic ideaHst who could say, Go to, let us build a government, has been generally at hand. The dreams of t'he illuminated ones who have sought, by rule and theory, to make the crooked straight, to convert mankind into angels by legal enactment, are among the most pleasing, if abortive, works of genius. Some of the noblest spirits of the race have made this illusory effort, Plato, that splendid genius, in whose brain was wrapped the subtle essence which gave to Hellenic art and literature their in- comparable dharm, found a congenial theme in painting his ideal Republic. It was a beautiful attempt to develop a state based upon Socratic thought. He had sat at the feet of the great master of dialectic, and, with the hot enthusiasm of a reformer, painted a picture of the idealized man, living in a community where the su- premacy of the intellect was to be recognized as authoritative, where the individual and family were to be absorbed in the state, and where a lofty communism was to be establis'hed, and in which Virtue, Truth, Beauty and Goodness were to be sovereign entities. But the Platonic Communism was one where equality and humanity were left out. Plato could not escape the Time-Spirit. The Pla- tonic Republic was his Athens idealized. " The very age and body of the time " gave to the philosopher's dream its form and pressure. The actual Hellenic Republics were not based upon the rights of man ; a few ruled over a nation of protelariats and slaves. When ttiey came into rough contact with the vigorous Roman civilization, they were shattered like iridescent bubbles. Even so wise-browed a philosopher as Plato failed to recognize sufficiently the human element. His imaginary republic was air-drawn, fantastic ; a phil- osophic dream, with little grasp on life's realities. It was not broad-based. It did not recognize sufficiently the law of growth. It had no place in our work-a-day world. It interests us now chieflx from the superb literary skill with which it was constructed ; a prodigy of intellect and art. But it was not the Democratic Ideal. Aristotle — that other imperial Greek genius, whom Dante called " the master of those that know ;" who had less imaginative mys- ticism than Plato, but a stronger hold on realities ; whose fertile genius touched almost every subject that came within ancient 140 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. thought — tried his hand also in political science. As a forerunner of modern science, as a profound thinker, he has been a tremendous factor in t^he intellectual life of the world. But the Time-Spirit held him in its grasp even more firmly than it did Plato. His theory of the state avoided, indeed, the absurdity of communism, but recognized slavery and the subjection of women. Like many of the modern Socialists, he denounced the taking of interest for the use of money. Such political theories must needs be ineffective. They ignore the equitable basis of society and indicate a s'hort- sightedness that is amazing, in any era when thrift, industry and property rights are elements in the life of a state — as they were then and are now. Among the school-men of the middle ages, Aristotle was regnant. His hand has not yet been lifted from our university life. Vast literatures had their birth in his philosophic system. His political theories have become only academic. The world had no use for them. He was far from the Democratic Ideal. No one will deny that Plato and Aristotle are among those Dead but sceptered sovereigns who still rule Our spirits from their urns. Their sovereignty does not come, however, from their contri- butions to political science I wish we might dwell longer on these dreams of philosophers. They offer a field for delightful study. We linger lovingly with them. How tenderly we read of the pious dream of St. Augustine for the Civitas Dei, the City of God ; of a new civic order rising on the crumbling ruins of the Roman Empire. The advent of Chris- tianity had brought into the world the auroral flush of a new moral order, a quickened sense of social duty ; a warmth of human brother- hood ; a heightened conscience. The church was rising like a splendid mausoleum over the sepulchre pf its founder. The world thrilled with an emotion never felt before. What more natural than that a new social order should arise, into which should be gathered all classes of men, glorified, purified, ready for the Advent of the conquering Galilean, which was then almost universally an- ticipated. But alas, the Augustine City of God has never come. It will never come, as a political organization. Its home is in the human heart. It is not Lo here or Lo there ; and cometh not with observation. The City of God, the City of Light, will come when THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL. 141 ethical conscience is so quickened that law become love, and love, law. We might go on and say more of the exalted dreamers who from age to age have attempted the impossible task of idealizing the State by geometric rules or fantastic theories. Perhaps the two most notable — at least until the recent expansion of Socialistic propaganda — were the "Utopia" of Sir Thomas More and the "New Atlantis " of Lord Bacon. We must dismiss them by naming them. They lacked the Democratic Ideal, Yet, among the many gems which Lord Bacon has given to our language, the short terse phrases, which make him one of the most quotable of authors, is one memorable line in his " New Atlantis." He said of the Father of Solomon's house, " He had an aspect as though he pitied men." Benignant and blessed thought. One, however, of the world's intellectual sovereigns, who lived in the uplands of the imagination, who traversed the gamut of human experience, and of whom we may say, if of any man, " He saw life steadily and saw it whole ;" in dealing with the relation of man to the civic order, never indulged in illusion — William Shakspeare. It has often been said to his reproach that his dramas are not instinct with the spirit of liberty ; that he believed in the right of the strongest to rule ; that he deified strength and power ; that he showed contempt for the mob and " rabblement." We can- not go into a discussion of this interesting matter. We must re- member, however — a fact that is often overlooked — that Shak- speare was not only most extraordinary as a poet, but that he was one of the profoundest moralists that the world has known. His genius was supremely sane, calm, judicial, healthy. He painted men and women as they are. His nobly poised intellect and acute vision saw the realities of life. He knew the exalted possibilities of spiritual excellence to which humanity can rise, and the abysmal depths into which it can sink. He recognized the fact that society is swayed by selfish interests ofteuer than by a devotion to high ideals. He read history with a microscopic eye. Dowden, one of his most acute interpreters, says, " Shakspeare studied and repre- sented in his art the world which lay before him. If he prophesied the future it was not in the ordinary manner of prophets, but only by completely embodying the present, in which the future was con- 142 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. cerned." In his day the mot) had not learned self-control, moral dignity, a discrimination between the transient and permanent in politics. Has it learned this lesson yet? His immortal works ex- hibit no world-weariness, no hlase pessimism. He saw the eternal relations of cause and effect. He admired the intellectual powers and tremendous personalities of great historical characters like Julius Caesar, Coriolanus and Richard HI, but he also saw their limitations, moral delinquencies and weaknesses which led inev- itably to the snares into which they fell. He had a profound sym- pathy with human life ; he was a lover of rectitude, nobility of character, self-sacrifice, manliness, womanliness. Above all, he 'taught the everlasting and all embracing equity with which the universe throbs. In the end, no cheat, no lie, no injustice prospers. The sinner is a self-punisher. At last, by action of the inexorable, inescapable moral order, " the wheel is come full circle ;" evil is strangled. To such an equitable intellect, the idea of a Platonic Republic or Bacon's "New Atlantis" would be as impossible as impracticable. He knew too well the plasticity of human adjustments, the shifting, fleeting, rising and sinking of the social order, the possibilities of disturbance and recoil that ever lie at the core of a placid and smug order of things, to attempt any speculative panacea for the evils of s-ociety. He laid open the tap-root of a41 institutions and happen- ings — the human heart. All this is a digression, but a strange fascination invests the name of Shakspeare. Thackeray said of the insanity of Dean Swift, " So great a man he seems to me, that thinking of him is like thinking of an empire falling." So when we talk of Shak- speare, it almost seems that we are talking of collective humanity. He was no economic idealist; he built no systems of philosophy of law. He understood humanity. In spite of all criticisms, his view of life followed more closely than the pretentious systems of closet philosophers, the gleam of the Democratic Ideal — progression and growth. We may consider government, or rather the social organism, as a working basis on which men manage to live together, receiving from and giving to each other protection for life and property. There is a noble phrase of Edmund Burke — he was a master of THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL. I43 noble phrases — " moulding together the great mysterious incorpora- tion of the human race.'* In order -to have any basis on which human beings- could live together, there must have been a moulding together of immense diversities. Human nature and human society are tremendously complex. No two persons are just alike; and each personality is a bundle of contradictory qualities. Govern- ment rests upon two forces, sovereignty and obedience. Some^body must command ; somebody must obey. Each of these forces is powerfully operative in most men. The love of authority, domin- ion, power, the will to make another to do our bidding, is deeply planted in the human nature. Nothing is more intoxicating, more enjoyable, than power. On the other hand, the principle of sub- mission, compliance, dbedience, is a stronger force than most of us imagine. We need not analyze the genesis of the force that has kept men under government. There are almost as many theories as there are inquirers. It has been said to be compulsion, physical force by one school of writers ; by another school, agreement, a contractual relation. For many generations a popular theory was that author- ity is given to rulers by God, or the eternal reason ; this theory cost King Charles I his head. Another school contends that it rests up- on some psychological principle inherent in human character. There may be a vast practical difference in results, if some of these theories are puslied to the limit ; but that there must be sovereignty in the state, however derived, and obedience to such sovereignty by the citizen, is plain, if anarchy is to be escaped. If we may use the phrase which Herbert Spencer coined and popularized, men naturally follow " the line of the least resistance ;" and to obey, except where obedience is counter to self-interest, or where, in the more highly specialized civilizations, it would violate rights, honor, duty, is generally the easy course. The Castle of Indolence seldom has any vacant rooms. The exceptionally strong will, the " monarch mind," is rare. The principle of obedience to authority is strongly developed in the race, especially among na- tions where the supreme power is supposed to rest upon some re- ligious sanction, as was the case with European governments until recent tears, and as is the case with most Oriental nations to-day. We live in an age of intense specialization. A few generations 144 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. ago we heard of men of universal knowledge. Not so now. The volume of knowledge has become so vast that no man, even the wisest, can do more than to touch its skirts. In no department of study is the trend of specialization more active than in the inter- pretation of history. In the hunt after the subtle causes that have lurked in the bosom of society and have flamed into consuming fire, from time to time, the patient historian, the student of soci- ology, has grouped tendencies, impulses, transitional waves of pop- ular feeling, into generalizations. Especially is this statement true of German scholars, with whom specialization has often been re- duced to infinitesmal analysis. Thus one school of writers dwells upon the economic interpretation of history. In their view, most popular upheavals have been synchronous with the poverty of the masses. It is when the people have been ground into hunger by excessive taxation and public extravagance that they have risen, like the blind giant pulling down the temple of Gaza, and swept away dynasties and royal pageantry. Such, it is said, was the mainspring of the French Revolution — one of the most dramatic events in history. Undoubtedly the economic problem has always been, and always will be, a powerful agent in the genesis of history. Others give us the religious interpretation of history. They tell us of those epochs when great masses of men, impelled by a wave of religious enthusiasm, moved to fiery zeal, their imaginations touched, their moral sense deeply stirred, have become knights of the faith, missionaries armed with fire and sword ; the scourges of God. Such causes impelled the Saracenic invasion of Africa and Europe, and the Crusades. Other historians have studied the great migratory movements that have swept vast bodies of men away from their native environ- ments, and precipitated new elements into history. Such were the migrations of the tribes of Northern Europe, and of the Asiatic hordes, which were a powerful element in the overturn of the Roman Empire. In late years there has been an increasing interest in the biog- raphies of the great men who have moved the world. No view of history is more interesting than this study of personalities. It has sometimes been pushed to an absurd extent, in the attempt to re- verse historical verdicts, to rehabilitate tarnished reputations, and THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL. 145 in the exaggeration of hero-worship. The relation of great men to their times has been a fascinating theme for the historian to dwell upon in every age. All these, and many more inquiries, are worthy of the most painstaking study. We cannot know too much about them. They are all a part of " the moulding together the great mysterious in- corporation of the human race." But the moral lesson of history is larger than any exceptional episodes. Whatever way governments began, they have been, they are, and they will be, until human nature and human needs undergo a tremendous transformation. As has been said, stable governments have been rare. Some of the forces of modem civilization may make the crystallization of society into localized governments pos- sibly more un'-tcble than ever. In favor of the permanence of any existing order however, there has always been one conserving fac- tor — habit. Prof. J. M. Baldwin in his instructive work, " Mutual Development,'' calls authority " that most tremendous thing in our moral environment," and obedience " that most magnificent thing in our moral equipment." Psychologists also tell us that habit, one of the phenomena of consolidation, indicates downward growtfi. With the race, as with the individual, habit, or what Bagehot calls " the solid cake of custom," has been one of the impediments to progress. Yet, governments have progressed from generation to generation. There has always been enough of the vis viva to leaven social heredity. Little by little, that part of the race, whose prog- ress has not been arrested, has outgrown the superstition of a di- vinity that "doth hedge a king." More and more the functions once held by kingcraft have been grasped by the people ; the race steadily moving toward the ideal self-government. Every agency that made for enlightenment and uplift led to this goal. The great social heritage of the past has been the evolution of law and order. There has been through the ages a sweep of collective forces that has taught men self-control, and has constantly raised the ethical stand- ard. A dawnosa hereditas of ferocity, selfishness, and brutality, has been a part of the heritage ; but there has been enough of salt in the general character to rescue liberty and justice even in the most reactionary times. The Democratic Ideal is based upon the three great principles 146 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. of liberty, equality of rigfhts and opportunities, and justice. In spite of indolence, apathy, inveterate conservatism, superstition, ignorance, out of these principles has flashed the day-star which the path of civilization has followed. Liberty is no longer a vagrant. " The love of liberty is simply the instinct in man for expansion," says Matthew Arnold. That instinct is always operative. Yet liberty is not an entity ; it is only a state. Unregulated, dis- charged from the ethical obligations which we owe to each other, liberty is lost in anarchy, which is only consummate egoism. " The most aggravated forms of tyranny and slavery arise out of the most extreme form of liberty," says Plato. " If you enthrone it (liberty) alone as means and end, it will lead society first to anarchy, afterward to the despotism which you fear," says Mazzini, one of the shining liberators of the last cen- tury. " If every man has all the liberty he wants, no man has any lib- erty," says Goethe. In other words, the rights of man must be articulat^^d with the duties of man. Freedom cannot exist without order. They are concentric. Without the recognition of the sanctity of obligation to others, the age-long aspiration of the race for liberty is an im- potent endeavor. It would have plunged eyeless through the cycles in which it has worked its way into civilization, had it not been that reciprocity, mutual ihelp, is a basis of its being. Mankind can never be absolved from this eternal law. We are now told that a reaction has set in against democracy ; that the results of the democratic ideal, so far as attained, are a failure ; that the tyranny of the mob has succeeded to that of the single despot ; that in the most liberal governments of the world, even in the United States and England, where the problem of self- government has been most thoroughly worked out, the people are forgetting their high ideals and are using their collective power for base and ignoble purposes ; that the moral tone of the government is lowered ; that an insane greed for wealth has infected the nations : that there is a blunting of moral responsibility and a cheapening of national aims. THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL. 147 This great indictment comes from intense lovers of liberty and the truest friends of democracy. Herbert Spencer put himself on record, in his last years, as fearing that the insolent imperialism of the times and the power of reactionary forces would lead to the re-barbarization of society. John Stuart Mill said, " The natural tendency of representative government, as of modern civilization generally, is towards col- lective mediocrity." John Morley tells us that " outside natural science and the ma- terial arts, the lamp burns low ;" he complains that nations are listening to " the siren song of ambition ;" that while there is an .immense increase in material prosperity, there is an immense de- cline of sincerity of spiritual interest. He also speaks of " the high and dry optimism which presents the existing order of things as the noblest possible, and the undisturbed sway of the majority as the way of salvation." If you care to read the summing up of the tremendous indict- ment against modern democracy, you will find it in Hobhouse's striking work, " Democracy and Reaction." This thoughtful au- thor claims that the new imperialism, which has become an obses- sion among the great powers of the world within a few years, " stands not for widened and ennobled sense of national responsi- bility, but for a hard assertion of racial supremacy and national force ;" and pleads for " the unfolding of an order of ideas by which life is stimulated and guided," and for " a reasoned conception of social justice." Unfortunately there is too much truth in all these utterances. These are not " wild and whirling words." We need not to be told of the evils of our times. We hardly dare turn the searchlight upon our own civilization, for we know how much of shame it re- veals. We need no candid, sympathetic, and enlightened critic like James Br>Te, to tell us where our republic is weak, in spite of our Titanic power, immense prosperity, roaring trade, restless energy, chartered freedom. We know that, in many respects, " the times are out of joint." The sordid and incapable governments of many of our large cities ; the venality among those to whom great public trusts have been committed ; the recrudescence of race prejudice ; the colossal fortunes heaped up by shrewd manipulations of laws. 148 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. which have been twisted from their original intent, and by un-eth- ical methods ; mob-violence, lynch law, the ever-widening hostility between the employers of labor and the wage-earner ; so much of what Jeremy Taylor called " prosperous iniquity ;" the blare of jingoism, the coarser and grosser forms which athletics have as- sumed, even among young men who are students at our universi- ties — in the sublime words of Milton, " beholding the bright coun- tenance of truth in the quiet and still air of delightful studies ;" the hatred felt by the poor towards the rich, and the disdain felt by the rich for the poor ; all these and many other evils, indeed, exist. Yes, the times are out of joint. But they have always been out of joint. These evils are not the result of popular government ; they are incident to our transitional civilization. They have always existed, probably in a grosser form than to-day. Would a return to mon- archical government better things? Possibly we have anticipated too much of organized democracy. It is still aiming for its ideal. As we have said of liberty, democ- racy is not a finality ; it is only a status by which public opinion for the time being can be most effectively expressed in government. The reaction, if there be one, is moral and spirttual, rather than political. The American people have been densely absorbed in the material development of our wonderful country. The task has been a huge one. So far as it has been completed, it has been mag- nificently done. If we have seemed to worship the Golden Calf, we may find in due time how unsatisfying wealth-gathering is. If at present the consumer seems to be throttled by the trust-magnate, on one hand, and the labor-trust on the other, each monopoly work- ing to the common purpose of keeping up prices to be paid by the consumer, the remedy is in his own hands. It is not in riot, revolu- tion, anarchy, by frenzied declamations against those who are doing only what nine-tenths of the human kind would do for themselves, if opportunity were afforded ; but by using the power which free government gives to the people, and correcting the evils by what Gladstone called " the resources of civilization." Out of the roar and brawl of the times will come a sharp examination into the sys- tem of laws which permit the accumulation of stupendous fortunes by the " cornering " of a commodity which human necessities re- THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL. 1 49 quire ; by shrewd manipulations of tariff, patent, corporation and transportation laws, and by other anti-social agencies. The people, the consumers, create all the legislatures, appoint all the judges, execute all the laws. The fortunes of the rich exist because the people so alk>w. " A breath can make them, and a breath has made." All the creature-comforts, all culture-conquests have been evolved by the people. It is not by a reversion to Asiatic paternal- ism, or by the assumption of all industrial agenices by the State, which is the present aim of Socialism, or by a retreat into aborig- inal lawlessness and intense selfishness — which Anarchism would result in — that social relief will come. The American people will work these problems out and will work them out right. " Tlie glory of the sum of things " does not come with a flash. There are always remedial agencies actively at work. They have saved civilization again and again, when the economic order seemed about to break down, when effete govern- ments have fallen in cataclysms which have almost wrecked the social fabric ; when mankind seemed to be wandering in a wilder- ness of ignorance, doubt and despair. Human nature is a tough, elastic, expansive article. If common sense is a product of the ages, so is what is termed " the corporate morality " of the race. Everything makes for what Burke said he loved, " a manly, moral, regulated liberty." It is hard for us to learn the imperative lesson that everything, except moral and spiritual elements, is only transitional. We are too much inclined to think that any existing status has come to stay. Not so. While evils do not cure themselves, evil is only the negative of the good. The human agent, with his enormous plas- ticity, constantly widening intelligence and marvelous capacity for growth, is always the instrument, guided by the unseen powers, that make for rectitude, to strike at wrong. There is always more good than evil ; otherwise rociety could not hold together. If prog- ress has been slow, it is because it ought to be slow. In our economic order, the trust, the trade-unions — often in our day instruments of danger — are factors that in the end will tend to good. They are a part of the great synthetic movement which is unifying the race. They will lead to a greater coherency in our industrial life. They are educational in their tendency. ISO NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Great fortunes, dizzying wealth, have their evil side ; they are mon- strous creations which have been created by a union of constructive talent with the mechanical inventions of the age. By-and-by, their possessors may see that they are but ashes ; intolerable burdens ; gilded rubbish. But in our present stage, there is need of wealthy men. They ihave important uses. Business has heretofore been too largely directed to the acquisition of wealth. This grossness will be succeeded by an era of equitable distribution. We must remember that the very idea of property implies more or less of selfishness. An ideally altruistic man could not acquire property beyond his immediate needs. What view of it may be taken in remote future ages we know not. At present, however, it is absolutely necessary. To protect life and liberty, government must protect property. Undoubtedly the possession of enormous wealth, thereby generating sharp distinctions between classes, is inimical to the Democratic Ideal. Democracy pre-supposes a tol- erable measure of equality in possessions, and an absence of class privilege. The people must perhaps re-cast much of their legis- lation, to make sure that their public franchises and natural monop- olies are not exploited by the few at the expense of the many. In a country where the press is allowed unlimited freedom, and where every man has a share in the government, where laws are flexible and easily modified, there should be little difficulty in curbing the pretensions of insolent wealth and protecting the people from law- lessness. Possibly in the Socialistic movement, which is now academic, crude and unscientific, and which, in its present stage, ofifers as a healing balm for industrial evils only the paralysis of state des- potism, there may be a curative germ. Certainly, at its base, is the principle of human brotherhood, co-operation and a lofty altru- ism. It is now in antagonism with the Democratic Ideal ; ultimate- ly it may be resolved into an auxiliary in purging society from some of the evils with which it is infected. If w€ live in an era of greed and graft, we also live in an era of enormous goodness, unparalleled philanthropy, increasing intelli- gence and advancing ethical standards. Can there be any doubt which forces will win? The Democratic Ideal, towards which all nations are drifting THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL. 151 by the inexorable sweep of ethical forces, still shines before the American people. Whatever is rotten, vulgar, base, corrupt, in our body politic will be eliminated by the same law of progress, moral, physical, social, spiritual, which has brought the race to its present transitional status. Lincoln's ideal of a government of the people, for the people, by the people, will not perish from the earth. Up from the scum and reek of corruption — unless the -ancient power of conscience and intellect are dead ; and they are not dead, but live in deathless vigor — will spring a new growth of justice, lib- erty, love. But the nation must not lose it vision ; that incommunicable quality that leads to the light. " Where there is no vision, the people perish." The past is behind us, with all its solemn monitions. The fu- ture beckons us to the shining uplands of limitless progress. The ascent is not ea5.y, but it must and will be made. LETTERS FROM GEORGE WASHINGTON. Head Quarters, West Point, July 29th, 1779. Dr. Sir, I have been duly favored with your letter of the loth, the con- tents of whidi are of so ferious a nature, with respect to the Quar- ter Masters and Commifsary's department, that I though it my duty to communicate them to General Greene and Col. Wadsworth. ....If there has been neglect in either department, the delin- quents must be responsible to the public and these Gentlemen ought to be acquainted with what has been alledged I casinot but repeat my intreaties, that you will hasten your operation with all pofsible dispatch ; and that you will disencumber yourself of every article of baggage and ftores which is not necef- sary to the expedition. Not only its fuccefs but its execution at all depends on this. 'Tis a kind of fervice in which both officers and men must expect to dispense with conveniences and endure hardfhips. . . . They must not and I trust will not expect to carry the fame appatus which is customary in other operations. I am persuaded that if you do not lighten yourfelf to the greatest pofsi- ble degree, you will not only iminently hazard a defeat, but you will never be able to penetrate any distance into the Indian Coun- try. .. . The greater part of your provisions will be consumed in preparation, and the remainder in the first ftages of a tedious and laborious march. General Clinton in a letter to the Governor of the 6th instant mentioned his arrival at the south end of Otfego Lake where he was waiting your orders Inclosed I transmit you extracts of two letters of the 7th and 27th instant from Major-General Schuyler with interesting intelli- gence. I am with great regard Dr. Sir Yr. Most Obet. fervant Go. Washington LETTERS FROM GEORGE WASHINGTON. 1 53 This will be accompanied by Commissions for the four New York Regiments and the 4'th Pennsylvania .... in three packages Col. Broadhead has informed me that he h. s a prospect of un- dertaking an expedition against the Mingoes with the aid of fome of the friendly Indians ; I have encouraged him by all means to do it, if practicable ; fhould it take place, it will be an useful diver- sion in your favor as he will approach pretty near to your left flank...... Head Quarters West Point August 1st, 1779. Dr. Sir, Brandt at the head of a party of whites & Indians said to have amounted to eighty or ninety men has lately made an incursion in- to the Minisinks and cut off a party of fifty or sixty of our militia. It is reported that Brandt himself was either killed or wounded in the action. ... By a fellow belonging to this party, who has fallen into our hands, as he pretends voluntarily (but is suspected to have mistaken his way) I am informed that the party came from Chemung in quest of provisions of which the lavages are in great want. He fays their deficiency in this respect is so great that they are obliged to keep themselves in a desperate ftate ; and when they collect will not be able to remain long together. He gives the fol- lowing account of their ftrength, movements & designs.... That the whole force they will be able to afsem'ble will not exceed fifteen hundred fighting men whites and Indians, which they themselves conceive will be eqjal to double the number of our men in the woods. . . . That Butler with a party of botih sorts was at Conofa- dago in number 3 or 400. . . . That at Chemung and the adjacent towns were two or three hundred warriors .... That Chemung was appointed as the place of rendezvous where or in the neighbor- hood the Indians intended to giv^e you battle, after which if they were unfuccefsful they intended to retire towards Niagara haraf- sing your march as much as possible with small parties and by 154 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. ambuscades That fome of the towns had fent off their old men & women, others more confident and discrediting that there was an army coming against them, had ftill kept them at home .... That no reinforcement had yet come from Canada ; but that Brandt who was lately arrived from thence afsured the Indians there was one coming after him.... The principal ftrength of the Indians is in the Genefee towns .... ' You will give as much credit to this account as you think proper and in proportion to its conformity to your other intelligence. The informant is a deserter from Cortlandts Regiment who fays he was carried off by force to the Indians and took the present opportunity of leaving them.... He appears not to be destitute of fhrewd- ness and as his apprehensions were pretty strong I am inclined to think as far as his knowledge extended he was sincere. . . . In my last I forgot to inform you that on the 15th instant at night Brigadier Gen. Wayne with the Light Infantry took ftony point by assault. The whole garrison consisting of about 600 men with Col. Johnson commanding officer, fifteen pieces of cannon of different fizes & quantity of ftores fell into our hands. Our lofs in killed & wounded was lefs than an hundred, of which not above thirty will be finally lost to the fervice. . . General Wayne received a wound in the head . . . This affair does great honor to our troops who entered the works at the pont of the bayonet, fcarcely firing a gun. The post you may recollect was extremely formidable by nature and ftrongly fortified .... The enemy, it is faid, fupposed it capable of defying our whole force. The opposite point had it not been for fome unavoidable accidents would probably also fallen into our hands.... The enemy from these had time to come to its relief and have fince repofsed ftony point, which we evacuated and destroyed. I am with great regard Dr. Sr. (Duplicate) Yr. Obet. servt G Washington ps. Inclosed is a duplicate of mine of the 29th with its in- closures lest there fhould be a miscarriage. LETTERS FROM GEORGE WASHINGTON. 1 55 Head Quarters West Point 3d Sept. 1779. Dear Sir I was made very happy to find, by yours of the 20th ulto that your junction with General Clinton would take place on the next day, and that no opposition had been given him on the pafsage down the River. Colonel Pauling, not having been able to reach Anagarga at the appointed time, and upon his arrival there, finding that General Clinton had pafsed by, has returned to the Settlements with the men under his command — who were about 200. But as your junction has been effected with fcarce any lofs, I hope this fmall demonstration of force will not be felt in your operations. I yesterday rec a letter of the 31st July from Colo. Broadhead at Fort Pitt, from which the inclosed is an extract. By this you will perceive, that he intended to begin his march towards the Seneca Country on the 7th or 8th of last month, and will also fee his reasons for fetting out fo early. On the receipt of your letter of the 13th ulto. I immediately de- sired the Commissary General to form a magazine for your future supply at fome fafe and convenient place in your Rear, and on re- ceiving that of the 20th I repeated the order, and directed him to make Wyoming the place of deposit. By the inclosed extracts from Colo. Wadsworth and Mr. Blaine you will find that matters are in forwardness for that purpose. I have the pleasure to inform you that Spain has at length taken a decisive part. In the inclosed paper, you will find his Manifesto delivered to the Court of Great Britain on the i6th June last, with the message of the King to Parliament thereupon. It is to be hoped this formidable junction of the House of Bour- bon will not fail of establishing the Independence of America in a short time .... I am Dear Sir Your most obt. Sert. Go. Washington LETTER OF PH. SCHUYLER. Albany, April 29th, 1779. Dear Sir: — Your Excellancy's Favor of the 24th Instant, I had the Honor to receive on the 27th. Yesterday I had a conference with General Clinton and General Ten Broeck on the subject matter of your letter. The latter has promised to make use of every exertion to raise the quota his Bri- gade is to furnish. He will advise you of the difficulties he has to encounter and I really fear if he should be able to procure the whole number at least (which I have not much reason to believe he will) so much time will elapse that the troops now to the North- ward, will be drawn away before any part are sent to take the posts they now occupy, except Captain Stockwell's Company. General Clinton proposes to send such men of the corps now in this Quarter, as may be unfit for the active service intended to be prosecut&d, to the Block House he has built at Sacandaga, and if there should be more such men than what are necessary for that post, he will order them to the Northward. If General Washington prosecutes the operations he at present meditates against the savages, the Western Frontiers will be in per- fect security. I conceive it will therefore only be necessary to employ what Force you may have for the Defense of the Northern Frontiers of this County and that of Tryon. Part of Warner's Regiment is now at Rutland. About one hundred men will be sufficient at Skenesborough ; twenty-five men at Fort Edward and the Remainder I should advise to be stationed at the Junction of the North Branch of Hudson's River with the Western one or a little to the Westward of it, where the Road cut by the Tories in 1776 from Crown point comes to the River. Those would at once cover the North Western parts of this County and the Northern parts of Tryon. I shall direct Capt. Stockwell to march to Skenesborough, hav- LETTER FROM PH. SCHUYLER. 157 ing a small Detachment at Fort Edward. Copy of his orders I shall transmit your Excellancy by a future Conveyance. Last night I received a Resolution of Congress accepting of my Resignation. I feel myself happy in the prospect of that Ease and Satisfaction which my Retirement will afford me. Impressed how- ever with a lively sense of the Duty I owe my Country, I must en- treat you never to hesitate honoring me with your Commands on any occasion in which as a private Citizen I may be serviceable. As General Clinton will transmit you the Account of our sweep against the Onondagas, it supercedes the Necessity of my doing it. I have the Honor to be Dear Sir with great respect and esteem, Your Excellancy's most obedient humble servant, Ph. Schuyler. (To Geo. Clinton.) LETTER OF GOUV. MORRIS. Phila. 26th Jany., 1778. Sir, Permit me to recommend to your Excellency's favorable atten- tion and thro you in such manner as you may think most proper to the Legislature an application of the Bearer of this letter. From the conversation I have had with him on the subject his design appears to me well calculated for the purpose of serving in some Degree our Western Frontier and consequently enriching the in- termediate country. It hath also the immediate effect of procuring a number of good industrious subjects. Perhaps I should not go too far in saying that every man so acquired would be worth two. To state or enlarge on his plan would be absurd as he will person- ally have the honor of conferring with you. I have only to say that the honorable stars he gained at Bemis' Heights will be a bet- ter recommendation than I can give. As a Representative of the State of New York I think I do my Duty in forwarding the Views of one who is so much its Friend. I have the Honor to be most respectfully Your Excellency's most obedient and humble servant, GOUV. MORRIS. LETTER OF ROBT. MORRIS. Office of Finance, 5 June 1783. Sir Congress having directed a very considerable part of the Army to be sent home on Furlough, I am pressed exceedingly to make a payment of three months wages, and I am very desirous to ac- complish it, but the want of money compells me to an Anticipation on the Taxes by making this payment in notes ; to render this mode tolerably just or useful, the notes must be punctually discharged when they fall due, and my dependence must be on the money to be received of the several States, on the Requisitions for the last and present year. I hope the urgency of the case will produce the desired exertions and finally enable me to preserve the credit and honor of the Federal Government. I have the honor to Remain Your Excellency's Most obedient & Very humble Servt. His Excellency Robt. Morris. The Governor of New York. LETTER OF JOHN JAY. Paris loth May 1783, Dear Sir I think it probable that every dutch Gentleman who goes to Philadelphia, will also visit New York, which was first settled by his own nation. Mr. Boers, who has been deputed by Holland to transact cer- tain affairs here, recommends Mr, de Hogendorp to me in the wannest Terms. This gentleman is a Lieutenant in the dutch guards, & of a respectable family. He expects to go to America with Mr. Van Berkel. The confidence I have in the Recommenda- tion of Mr. Boers and my Desire of rendering our Country agree- able to Mr. Hogendorp, leads me to take the Liberty of introducing him to your Excellency and to request that in case he should visit New York, he may be favored with your friendly attentions. I have the Honor to be with great esteem and Regard, Your Excellency's most ob't & most hiDle Servant, John Jay. His Excellency Geo. Clinton, Esq. Governor of New York. LETTER OF JAMES DUANE. Manor Livingston, 28th June 1778. Sir I returned from Albany the middle of this month and intended in the course of the present week to pay a visit to your Excellency principally to give you a more minute detail than can well be done by letter, of the state of our western frontier and the temper of the six nations. My intentions are frustrated by a summons to attend the Commission of Indian Affairs at Albany on an agreeable oc- casion. I firmly believe that if we do not take vigorous and de- cisive measures with the six nations they will in the course of this summer drive in a great part of the inhabitants and do us injuries which it will take years to retrive. I have strongly inculcated this idea upon Congress in every letter since I became thoroughly ac- quainted with Indian Affairs, and they have now come to suitable resolutions on the subject. God grant' that they may be shown proper exertions and crowned with success. The dispatches which accompany this render it needless to be particular. Mrs. Duane joins me in respectful Compliments to Mrs. Clin- ton. She continues very feeble, tho I flatter myself the malady has not yet reached her vitals and that by exercise and the course of medicine she is now in, her health may yet be re-established. I am with highest respect Sir, Your Excellency's most obed. and very humble servant, JAMES DUANE. His Excellency Governor Clinton. LETTER OF ISRAEL PUTNAM. Hartford, April 8th, 1778. Dear Sir, I herewith send you Mr. Treland and Lieut. Griffith, both in- habitants of your State, the latter is an officer in the new Levies, was taken some time in August last, and since then has been ex- ceeding busy, in poisoning the minds of the inhabitants where he has been stationed. The character of the former, I dare say your Excellancy is sufficiently acquainted with. I have Lieut. Griffith in consequence of a Resolution of Congress, making the Inhabitants of the States subject to tryal by the Civil Law and for his bad be- havior since he has been Indulged with a Parole. I arrived here yesterday and to-morrow proceed as to Gov. Trumball. I am. Dear Sir, Your most Obed. Serv't, Israel Putnam. His Excellency, Gov. Clinton. P. S. The three pieces of heavy cannon which I mentioned to your Excellency has arrived here, one of them went on three or four Days since, the crthers will go in about two days. Clinton Papers Furnished by Geo. Clinton Andrews, Esq. of Tarrytown, N. Y. LETTER OF GEORGE CLINTON. Fort Montgomery, 2d May 1777. Sir, I wrote to Convention this morning inclosing the Proceedings of a General Court Martial held at this place for the Tryal of sun- dry prisoners for Treason against the States. Since which so many others have been sent to this Post charged with the same of- fense that the Guard House can't contain them. I have therefore thought it advisable to send those already tried to be confined in Livingston Goal, together with Cadwallader Coldon Esquire, wflio stands charged with the like offense as will appear by the Examina- tion of Jacob Davis taken before the Chairman of the Committee of Shawangonk and now transmitted to you by Lieutenant Rose, who has the care of the Prisoners. One of the Prisoners tells that Doctor Ansson and one Low was left behind their party in the Clove near Pysoryck at a little house there on Account of Low's being lame and the Doctor to take care of him. They ought in my opinion to be hunted up immediately. The Prisoners except Mr. Coldon, who are not yet tried, I mean to keep confined at this Place for Tryal. Mr. Coldon I have thought best to send forward as it might not be prudent to keep him confined at this Post for many Reasons. I am your Most Obed. Serv't, GEO. CLINTON. To the President of the Convention of the State of New York. LETTER OF JAMES CLINTON. Albany, May 28th, 1779. Sir, I have received yours of the 23rd Inst, General Tenbroeck hath ascertained the Quota which each Regiment is to furnish for the Continental and State Regiments, and Issued Orders for them to join in one week after the Orders were issued. I believe the General has endeavored to take every necessary step to supply the Deficiencies which yet remain, Tho from the unavoidable delays of the officers of his Brigade he hath met with much trouble, as I have seen I believe, every letter he has received on the subject. I have ordered Capt, McKean to command all the drafts of Tryon County, as I knew it was agreeable to all the Inhabitants of that part of the Country, tho I did not know at the time I ap- pointed him for this service that you intended him to Command those drafts out of General Tenbroecks Brigade. I conceived Lieut. Smith was to be his Lieutenant. I have disposed of them in the following manner, to wit — Capt. McKean and Lieut. Smith with all the drafts from Colonels Clock, Bellinger and Gambles Regiments at Fort Dayton and a small Port, eight miles higher up the River. Lieut. Vrooman with those from Colonel Vesichus' Regiment at the Block House at Sacandaga, where there are a Captain and and sixty men of Colonel Dubois' Regiment. Those Drafts serve as Pilots. The drafts from Colonel Vrooman's Regiment at Schohary with an officer from the same Regiment, I have ordered to a Block House and Picqueted Fort, which I ordered to be built last Winter at Cobus Kill. Those under Capt. Stockwell and a certain Lieut. Putnam, ap- pointed by Colonel McCrea, are ordered to take Post at Skeenes- borough and Fort Edwards. I should be glad to see Major Van Burnschooten with the drafts LETTER OF JAMES CLINTON. 165 you mention at this place. They might be disposed of to great ad- vantage at Schoharie, where they will be much wanted when the Continental troops are ordered to March. Inclosed I send you a Copy of a Letter from Colonel Van Schaick which contains all the news in this quarter. I am your very humble servant, James Clinton. Gov. Clinton. THE WILL OF CHARLES CLINTON. IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN. I, CHARLES CLIN- TON, of Little Brittain, in the County of Ulster and Province of New York in America, being of sound mind and memory, blessed be God, do this twenty-sixth day of March, in the year of Our Lord One thousand seven hundred and Seventy one, make and publish this my last Will and Testament in manner following (viz) First I give and bequeath to my Eldest son Charles, my Negro Boys Robin and Dublin, and I give and bequeath to him the sum of two hundred and Thirty seven pounds. Current money of New York, to be paid to him out of the money I have out at Interest, and I hereby authorize, impower and appoint my Executors here- inafter named to divide a lott of land of mine, Containing five hun- dred acres, lying on the West side of the Wallkill (being part of a tract of land granted by letters Patent to Frederick Morris and Samuel Heath) into two or three Lotts, as it may suit best for Sale, and to sell the same and give a good Sufficient deed for it, and I give and bequeath to my son Charles, four hundred and thirty-three pounds New York Currency of the money arising by the sale of the said land and I give and bequeath to my Son George the sum of two hundred pounds, and to my son James the sum of Seventy pounds of the Price of the said lands and if it shall or can be sold for any more, it is my Will my son George shall have the over surplus it brings. Also I give and Devise to my son James, his heirs and assigns forever, my farm whereon I now dwell in Little Brittain in Ulster County, Containing two hundred and fifteen acres, being part of a tract of two thousand acres Granted by letters patent to Andrew Johnson, lying in the Southwesterly Corner thereof. To have and to hold the said farm with all and singular the Rights, members and appurtenances thereof to my said Son James, his heirs and assigns forever, which farm I valued only at Seven hundred pounds, to him, and I give to my said Son, my Ne- gro boys David and Isaac. And I give and bequeath to my Son George the sum of five hundred and Seventy pounds of the money I have at Interest and whatever money there shall be due to me at the WILL OF CHARLES CLINTON. 167 time of my decease, either Interest or principle, more than the Leg- acies above mentioned and what will pay the quit Rent due for my Lands and my Just debts, I order it to be Equally Divided between my said three sons and I give my Son George, my Negro boys Wil- liam and Samuel, my Negro Wench Lettice, I Intended to give to my Daughter Catherine but she being then very Sickly and having no Children, she Desired if she died before me, I should Leave her free which I promised to do and a promise made at the Request of so dutiful & affectionate a Child, who is now dead and Cannot Release me from it, I think my Self sacredly obliged to perform. Therefore it is my Will She shall be free and I hereby manumit her & make her free from Slavery but so as to Exclude and utterly to Debar all and every person and persons whatsoever from making any Covenant Bargain or agreement with her to enslave or bind her for life or for any Number of years or to use any other way or means to prevent or Defraud her of her time, liberty or wages that she may honestly earn for her maintainance and support. And I give and bequeath to my said three sons, Charles, James and George, all my Stock of Cows, Sheep, Oxen and horses, my negro Peter and my Wench Pegg or Margaret, and all my Crop of Grain on my farm and all my Books and household furniture, except the furniture hereafter mentioned, which I give to my Wife for her Room, and I leave my farming utensils on my farm for my son James, to whom I have Given my farm and it is my Will that my Said three Sons, Charles, James and George, their Executors & administrators, Shall out of my Estate hereby Given to them at their Equal Expense Decently Cloath, keep, maintain and find fit attendance for my Wife Elizabeth, according to her Rank and Sta- tion in life, and I leave her a good bed Curtains, bed-cloaths. Sheets, Pillows and one of my small looking glasses, teatable and Some Chairs for her Room, as she is now about Seventy four years of age and is or Soon will be uncapable to take Care of her Self, therefore It is my Earnest Request that her sons may behave as they have always done in a kind and dutiful and aflfectionate man- ner to her While She lives. I give to my Grandson Charles Clin- ton Junior, my plate handled sword and I give my Grandson Alex- ander Clinton my fusee or small gun I carried when I was in the army, and I give to mv Grandaughter Catherine Clinton, (my Son l68 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. George's daughter) my Largest looking glass. I give to my son James all my mathematical Instruments. I give to my son James, my Clock and I give to my son George, my wa-tch, and I give to my Son Charles, my Long Gun and my Desk as I have Given to each of my sons James and George one hundred pounds by this will more than I have to my Son Charles * * * * it is not done out of Partiality but for the following Reasons — When his Brother Alexander died he was Seized in fee of a Good Improved farm, Containing two hundred Acres ; as he died Intestate, having no issue. It fell to my Son Charles, he being his Eldest Brother and my Son Charles' Education being more Expensive to me I thought it but Justice to Make that Small amendment To their portions, which is far from making them Exjual to their Brother Charles. It is my Will I be buryed in the Graveyard in my own farm, beside my Daughter Catherine and it is my Will the said Graveyard be made four Rods Square and An open free Road to it at all times, when it Shall be necessary and I nominate and ap- point my said three sons Charles, James and George, Executors of this my last will, to see the same Executed accordingly and I order that my said Executors- procure a suitable stone to lay over my Grave, whereon I would have the time of my death, my age and Coat of Arms cut. I hope they will Indulge in this Last piece of vanity. Signed, Sealed, Published and Declared in the presence of us, by the said Charles Clinton, the tes- tator and for his last will, who were present at the Signing and Sealing there of. (The words " George the sum of CHAS. CLINTON (L. S.) two hundred pounds and to my son " being first Interlined, the words " Devise to my Son James his heirs " being wrote on an erasure and a small erasure made between the words " Charles " and "It".) SAM'L SANDS. JEREMIAH WHITE. ARTHUR SMITH. MEMORIAL MARKER AT HALF-WAY BROOK, QUEENSBURY, N. Y. THE HALF-WAY BROOK IN HISTORY. By James Austin Holden^ A. B. In choosing as its first subject for a memorial marker " The Half-Way Brook," the New York State Historical Association has made a dignified and wise selection, for it may be truly said that no stream in the Adirondack Wilderness is more noted in his- tory and the Annals of the Border, than this, whose appellation " Half-Way " comes from the fact that it was nearly equidistant from Fort Edward on the south and Fort William Henry on the north. Rising in the branch of the Palmertown range known as the Luzerne Mountains, west of Glens Falls, running a crooked but generally easterly and northerly course, now expanding into small lakes or basins, now receiving the waters of numerous small tributaries, ponds and rivulets, it divides the town of Queensbury into two parts, passes the Kingsbury line, turns in a northerly di- rection, and empties into Wood Creek at a point about three-quar- ters of a mile south from Battle Hill, at Fort Ann, in Washington County. In the days before American history began, the region traversed by this stream was a favorite hunting ground for the Red Man, and this water course, even to-day famous for its speckled trout, was one of his chosen pleasuring places. For more than two hundred years the great deep-worn war- paths or traveling trails of the Indian Nations ran to and from its banks. And whether the fleet, moccasined warriors went west- ward over the Sacandaga trail to the big bend of the Hudson and so on to the Iroquois strongholds, or whether they came to the " Great Carrying Place," at what is now Fort Edward, through Lake Champlain and Wood Creek, or chose the trip through Lake St. Sacrament past the site of the future Glens Falls, down to Albany, or the west, all must cross this stream, which thus became as familiar to the Adirondack and Iroquois Confederacies, as the 170 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. alphabet to us of to-day. This knowledge so gained was made ample use of in later times in many a bloody ambush, surprise or savage foray. After the defeat of Dieskau in 1755, and the build- ing of Fort William Henry at Lake George and Fort Edward at the "Great Carrying Place/' the "Half-Way Brook" became a point of strategic importance, and as a halting place and rendez- vous for the passing troops, and the convoys of supplies between the two forts, it was noted throughout the northern colonies, as long as the French and Indian war lasted. It was variously denominated by the military authorities dur- ing that time. On an old manuscript map without date in the New York State Library, it is noted as " Sdhoone Creek," while the Earl of Louden's map in 1757 has it marked as " Fork's Creek." ' Rogers, the famous scout and ranger, called it " Bloody Brook." In Col. James Montresor's Journals, in 1757, it is styled " Half- Way Run." On the Robert Harpur map, in the Secretary of State's office at Albany, it is called " Scoune Creek,"^ while Knox's Military Journal designated it as " Seven Mile Creek," because it was seven miles from the head of the lake. In Wilson's Orderly Book of Am'herst's Expedition, in 1759, it is laid down as " Shone Creek." " On a " powder 'horn map " made by one John Taylor of " Swago " in 1765, there is a block house clearly defined at " Helf Br " between Forts Edward and George.' On later maps such as the Sauthier map, published about 1778, and reproduced in the Seventh Volume of the Governor Clinton Papers,* it bears the ^ The name of " Fork Creek " was probably derived from the name given it by Major General Fitz John Winthrop, w^ho headed an unsuccessful ex- pedition against the Canadians and their Indian allies in the summer of 1690. On August 6th, he states that " he encamped at a branch of Wood Creek, called the fork." This is the place wrhere the "Half- Way" enters Wood Creek near Fort Ann. Here, while his command was in camp, smallpox broke out, and a Lieut. Hubbell died from this disease and was buried at that spot. Our Secretary, R. O. Bascom, in his " Fort Edward Book," p. 15, states " this was the first recorded burial in the country." I Possibly a corruption of " Skene," from the founder of Skenesborough. ^ The New York World of February 2d, 1896, had a sketch of this powder horn, which, at that time, was in the museum of Major Frank A. Betts, Washington, D. C. This rudely engraved map shows the various forts and settlements along the Mohawk and Hudson valleys, and depicts the trails to Lakes George and Champlain on the one side and to Lake Ontario on the other. * Letter Hon. Hugh Hastings, State Historian. . THE HALF-WAY BROOK IN HISTORY. 171 popular name of " Half-Way Brook," bestowed upon it we know not by whom nor when, but which appearing in contemporary di- aries, documents, letters and official despatches of " The Seven Years War," has ever since clung to it, and will while its waters run to the sea.' It will be remembered that in the Campaign of 1755, Sir Wil- liam Johnson had constructed a corduroy road from Fort Edward to Lake George, following substantially the present highway be- tween the two points. Cut through the dark and gloomy virgin forest, with its overhang of interlaced pine and evergreen boughs, lits thickets of dense underbrush, the road led through swamps, over rivulets, over sandy knolls, and primal rocky hills to the head of the lake. On every side was leafy covert or rugged eminence, suitable for ambuscade or hiding-place of savage foe, or hardly less savage Canadian or French regular. Every rod of ground on this road is stained with the blood of the English, the Colonists, ■and their Indian allies, or that of their fierce, implacable enemies. Hardly a mile but what has its story of massacre, surprise, mur- der, deeds of daring and heroism, or of duty performed under liorrible and heartrending circumstances. In order to protect the road, as well as aflFord a resting place for soldiers and teamsters, and to supply a needed depot for military stores and provisions, the late Dr. A. W. Holden* in his History of Queensbury, says : *' At an early period in the French War, a block house and stockaded enclosure, in which were also several store houses, had been erected at the Half-Way Brook. The date of its construction would seem to have been in 1755' ^^^ ^^ ^^^^ year the French scouts and runners, reported to their chief that the English had erected posts every two leagues from the head of Lake George to Albany. It was situated on the north side of the brook, and to the west of the plank road leading to the head of Lake George. The old military road led across the brook about four rods above the present crossing. A part of the old abut- 'C. Johnson's History of Washington County (pub. Phila., 1878) states that the " Half-Way Brook " was also known as " Clear River " — p. 301. The U. S. Geological Survey, in its map of this section of New York State, .published about 1895, has labeled the brook as " Half-Way Creek," which, while it may be technically correct, will never be recognized in local usage •or by faithful historians. 'The Historian of the Town of Queensbury, N. Y. 172 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. mente, timbers and causeway were visible up to the late seventies. It was capable of accommodating upwards of eight hundred men, and was protected by redoubts, rifle pits, earthworks, and a pali- sade of hewn timbers." The walls of the fort were pierced for cannon as well as for rifles, or muskets. In passing it may be said that from time to time, this, like all similar frontier forts of the time, was enlarged, strengthened, abandoned, destroyed, rebuilt, as the exigencies of military service made it necessary, but the site remained the same. This was near the rear, and to the westward of the brick residence now occupied by William H. Parker. Continuing Dr. Holden says : " During the summer of 1756, a force of six hundred Cana- dians and Indians attacked a baggage and provision train at the Half- Way Brook, while on its way from Fort Edward to the gar- rison at Fort William Henry. " The oxen were slaughtered, the convoy mostly killed and scalped, and the wagons plundered of their goods and stores. Heavily laden with booty, the marauding party commenced its retreat towards South Bay on Lake Champlain. lEmbarking in batteaux they were proceeding leisurely down the lake when they were overtaken by a party of one hundred rangers under the com- mand of Captains Putnam and Rogers. These latter had with them two small pieces of artillery, and two blunderbusses, and at the narrows, aibout eight miles north of Whitehall, they crossed over from Lake George, and succeeded in sinking several of the enemy's boats, and killing several of the oarsmen. A heavy south wind favored the escape of the remainder." ' During this summer several bloody affrays took place between Fort Edward and Lake George, and the French accounts are full of successful raids and surprises. In 1757 Col. James Montresor* was sent to America as head of the Engineer corps of His Majesty's forces. He drew the plans for and constructed several fortifications in New York Prov- ince. In his journal under date of Monday, July 25th, he says : " Set out from Ft. Edward at 6 o'clock in the morning and ar- rived in the afternoon. Stop't at the Half Way Run, agreed on ' Wm. Cutter's Life of Israel Putnam, p. 60 ; Dr. Asa Fitch in Trans N. Y. S. Agri. Soc'y, 1848, pp. 916-917; Spark's Am. Biog., Vol. 8, p. 119. THE HALF-WAY BROOK IN HISTORY. 1 73 a post there on the south side of the Run on the east of the Road about 50 Yards." Under date of Friday, July 29th, he writes: *' Set out for Fort Wm. Henry at 12 o'clock with Gen'l Webb &c, arrived at the Half-Way at 3, met the carpenter going up that I had sent for, to carry on the work there." It does not appear, however, that anything was done with this fortification on account of Montcalm's victory a few weeks later. The Campaign of 1757 teemed with scenes of bloodshed along the frontier, and the history of the Fort Edward and Lake George trail abounds with sad tales of atrocity and savagery, culminating in the successful attack of Montcalm on Fort William Henry, and followed by the terrible massacre which, whether rightfully or wrongfully, tarnished forever the reputation of that noted and able commander. Of the few who escaped it is on record that Col. (afterwards General) Jacob Bayley of New Hampshire, ran the gauntlet and escaped by fleeing bare-footed for seven miles through the woods to the " Half- Way BrocJc." " Six days afterwards," Dr. Holden says, " Captain de Poul- haries of the Royal Rousillon regiment, with an escort of two hun- dred and fifty soldiers, accompanied the survivors of the massacre, upwards of four hundred, with the one piece of cannon, a six pounder, granted by the ninth article of capitulation, as a token of the Marquis de Montcalm's esteem for Lieutenant Colonel Monro and his garrison, on account of their honorable defense, to the post at the Half-Way Brook, where they m-et a like detach- ment from the garrison at Fort Edward, sent by General Webb to receive them." From records kept by officers and other documents, we learn that the " Half-Way " ' was usually designated through this war as the meeting place for wliite flag parties and exchange of pris- oners. After the fall of Fort William Henry, the northern outposts of the British were abandoned, and the frontier left open to the ravages and raids of the savages and the Canadians. ' March loth, 1758, Major Robert Rogers, the Ranger, with ' Col. Montresor, who served in America ftom 1757 until 1760, makes several allusions to the "Half-Way" in his Journals covering that period. • This is the generally accepted local usage of the name. 174 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. about one hundred and eighty rangers, officers and privates, camped at the " Half-Way," the first considerable body of men to occupy it in the campaign of that year. From here he proceeded down Lake George, meeting with disaster and defeat at the hands of seven hundred of the enemy, three days afterward. June 8th, 1758, Lord Howe, the pride and idol of the army and his nation, a nobleman by birth and nature, took command of the forces, which for weeks 'had been gathering at Ford Edward. On June 20th we find him at the " Half- Way Brook " with three thousand men. It is supposed that this body of soldiers camped on what is still known as the " Garrison Grounds," situated on the south bank of the " Half- Way Brook," and about midway between the old Champlin place and DeLong's brickyard. A branch road led from the " Garrison Grounds " to the block house (back of the Parker residence) and crossed the brook a little way below the present highway bridge. This was the spot selected for a " post " by Col. Montresor the year before, and partially laid out at that time. Here for two days Lord Howe remained, until he received reports from Major Rogers and his scouts of the disposi- tion of the enemy's forces. We can imagine him as usual engaged in the rough frontier sports of wrestling, jumping, shoo«ting at a mark, and the like ; instructing the regulars in ranger and New World tactics, and proving himself in every way the leading spirit and good genius of the camp. Here no doubt he met Stark, Put- nam and other Colonials who later were to be leaders in the war for liberty. On the 22nd this part of the army moved to the lake, and was shortly joined by General Abercrombie and the rest of the troops, making a grand army of fifteen thousand, which was soon to go to disaster and defeat before the rude earth breastworks and felled trees at Ticonderoga. Abercrombie's defeat occurred July 8th, 1758, and he quickly returned to the head of the lake and strongly entrenched his forces for the balance of the season. A number of diaries and journals of the New Englanders" in the Campaign have been preserved and published, and from these, although brief and illiterate in form, we gain an excellent idea of the events of that period. The Colonial soldiery, looked down upon by the British officers, were forced to perform the drudgery and manual labor necessary in building and fortifying the camp. THE HALF-WAY BROOK IN HISTORY. 1 75 constructing its ditches and breastworks, and throwing up its de- fenses. Incidentally it may be said, it was the contemptuous treat- ment accorded the New England troops in this and succeeding campaigns, which made the people of that section so ready to throw off the British yoke later on. When not doing this work they were compelled to act as wagoners, drivers, carpenters, road mak- ers, and the like. These various diaries speak in many places of work of this menial character (for which these men had not en- listed, and apparently did not care for), at and about " Half- Way Brook." General Putnam in his Journal says, " During our stay at the lake, after our return from Ticonderoga, we were employed in almost everything." The Journal of an unknown Provincial Officer (see note), says, under date of July 15th, " Nothing worth notice this day but working and duty came on harder by orders from head-quarters." Both these journals mention a " Sunday off " from work as a great treat and a rarity. From the 25th of May until the 22nd of October, when the fortifications were dismantled and abandoned by General Aber- crombie at the head of the lake, Lieut. Thompson, according to his diary, was on constant duty, either at the " Half- Way Brook " with a picquet guard, or at the lake. The daily life and work of the soldiers is given in his diary in detail. It also gives the names of a number of people who died from disease and were buried at the " Half -Way Brook." He describes the leturn of the EngHsh and Colonials from Ticonderoga, and under date of July 8th, be- ing at the head of the lake that day, there is the following entry in his book : " Saturday, Post came from the Narrows ; and they brought Lord How to ye Font, who was slain at their landing; and in ye afternoon there came in 100 and odd men, French prisoners into the Fort." These were Langy's men captured at the fatal Trout Brook skirmish. This testimony by an eye witness would go far to disprove the "Among these may be mentioned the Journals of Rufus Putnam, cousin of Israel Putnam, and afterwards a Revolutionary General; the " Diary of Lieut. Samuel Thompson, of Woburn, Mass." (for which I am indebted to Dr. Sherman Williams, of Glens Falls) ; the Journal of an Unknown Pro- vincial Officer in Col. Preble's Regiment of Massachusetts; "The Memoirs of John Stark," and " Rogers* Journals." 176 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. theory of recent times, that Lord Howe's remains had been discov- ered at Trout Brook ; and it tends to confirm the statements of old- er historians, that his remains were probably taken to Albany for burial. On July 20th occurred one of the many skirmishes for which the " Half-Way Brook " is noted. One of the several scouting parties sent out by Montcalm to attack and harass the soldiers and convoys on the " Lidius " (Fort Edward) road and to take scalps and provisions, made one of their usual hawk-like descents, falling upon Col. Nichol's regiment, then quartered at the " Half-Way Brook " block house. Pouchet says, the detachment, five hundred in number, was made up of Canadians and Indians, commanded by M. de Courte-Manche, and that it succeeded in taking twenty-four scalps and making ten prisoners. Only the Indians' impatience prevented a complete massacre of the troops in the block house. Regarding this affray I quote the following in full from the Thomp- son Diary, as it gives the names of the officers and men killed in this skirmish. " 20 — Thursday, in the morning, 10 men in a scout waylaid by the Indians and shot at and larmed the Fort, and a number of our men went out to assist them, and the enemy followed our men down to our Fort, and in their retreat, Capt. Jones and Lieut. Godfrey were killed, and Capt. Lawrence and Capt. Dakin, and Lieut. Cur- tis and Ensn Davis, and two or three non-commissioned officers and privates, to the number of fourteen men, who were brought into the Fort, all scalped but Ensn Davis, who was killed within 20 or 30 rods from the Fort ; and there was one grave dug, and all of them were buried together, the officers by themselves at one end, and the rest at the other end of the grave ; and Mr. Morrill made a prayer at the grave, and it was a solemn funeral ; and Nath Eaton died in the Fort and was buried ; and we kept a very strong guard that night of 100 men. Haggit (and) William Coggin wounded. A List of Men's Names that were killed in this fight: Capt. Ebenezer Jones of Washington (of diarist's company). Capt. (Samuell) Dakin of Sudbury. Lieut. Samuel Curtice of Ditto (Curtis). Private (William) Grout of do. Lieut. Simon Godfrey of Billerica (of diarists Company). THE HALF-WAY BROOK IN HISTORY. 177 Capt. (Thomas) Lawrence of Groton. Corp. Gould of Groton Gore. Private Abel Satle (Sawtell) of Groton. Private Eleazer Eames of Groton. Do Stephen Foster Do. Serg. Oliver Wright, Westford. Private Simon Wheeler Do. Ensn. Davis of Metheun. Sergt. Russell of Concord. Private Abraham Harden (Harnden?) of Pembroke. Private Payson, of Rowley. Private (Jonathan) Patterson, of Sudbury. We have also an account that there are seven of our men car- ried into Ticonderoga, which make up the number of those that were missing." " 21 — Friday, in ye afternoon, a party of about 150 went out to find more men that were missing, and we found 4 men who were scalped, and we buried them, and so returned ; and at prayer this evening we were laromed by a false outcry. Nicholas Brown died and was hurried ; and Moses Haggit died." This account thus corroborates in detail the French official dis- patches and Pouchet's description of the attack. Under date of Friday, July 28th, Lieut. Thompson, who that day had been down towards the Narrows, " to peal bark for to make camp," returned to Lake George and says : " In the evening there came news that the Indians had killed a number of teams and their guard below ye Halfway Brook, and there was a scout fitting to go after them." As this massacre to which the Thompson Diary so briefly re- fers, is probably the most important event which took place at the " Half-Way Brook," we quote fully from Holden's History of Queensbury, concerning it : " On Thursday the twenty-seventh of July, a detachment of four hundred men, consisting of Canadians and Indians, under the command of M. St. de Luc la Corne, a French-'Colonial officer, attacked an English force of one hundred and fifty men consisting of teamsters and an escort of soldiers, while on their way from the station at the Half-Way Brook, to the Camp at the head of the lake. The account here given is as nearly as can be remembered in the language of a Mr. Jones of Connecticut, who was a member of Putnam's company which arrived on the ground soon after the affray took place. In the year 1822 he related the circumstances lyS NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. as here recorded, to the late Herman Peck of Glens Falls, while on a visit to Connecticut. It is from Mr. Peck that I obtained the narrative, which corresponds so completely with the French ver- sion of the affair that there can be no question whatever as to its general accuracy and reliability. " A baggage train of sixty carts, loaded with flour, pork, wine, rum, etc., each cart drawn by two to three yoke of oxen, accom- panied by an unusually large escort of troops, was despatched from Fort Edward to the head of Lake George to supply the troops of General Abercrombie, who lay encamped at that point. This party halted for the night at the stockade post at the Half-Way Brook. As they resumed their march in the morning, and before the escort had fairly cleared the picketed enclosure, they were sud- denly attacked by a large party of French and Indians which laid concealed in the thick bushes and reeds that bordered the stream, and lined the road on both sides, along the low lands between the block house and the Blind rock. " The night previously to this ambuscade and slaughter, Put- nam's Company of rangers having been to the lake to secure sup- plies, encamped at the flats near the southern spur of the French mountain. In the early morning they were aroused from their slumbers by the sound of heavy firing in a southerly direction, and rolling up their blankets they sprang to their arms and hastened rapidly forward to the scene of action, a distance of about four miles. They arrived only in time to find the slaughtered car- casses of some two hundred and fifty oxen, the mangled remains of the soldiers, women and teamsters, and the broken fragments of the two wheeled carts, which constituted in that primitive age the sole mode of inland transportation. " The provisions and stores had been plundered and destroyed. Among the supplies was a large number of boxes of chocolate whidi had been broken open and their contents strewed upon the ground, which dissolving in the fervid heat of the summer sun, mingled with the pools and rivulets of blood forming a sickening and revolting spectacle. The convoy had been ambushed and at- tacked immediately after leaving the protection of the stockade post, and the massacre took place upon the flats, between the Half- THE HALF-WAY BROOK IN HISTORY. 179 Way Brook, and the Blind rock, or what is more commonly known at the present day as the Miller place. " Putnam with his command, took the trail of the marauders, which soon became strewed with fragments of plunder dropped by the rapidly retreating- savages, who succeeded in making their es- cape, with but little loss of life. The Provincials unable to catch up with the savages, returned immediately to the scene of the butchery, where they found a company from Fort Edward en- gaged in preparing a trench for the interment of the dead. " Over one hundred of the soldiers composing the escort were slain, many of whom were recognized as officers, from their uni- forms, consisting in part of red velvet breeches. The corpses of twelve females were mingled with the dead bodies of the soldiery. All the teamsters were supposed to have been killed. While the work of burial was going forward the rangers occupied themselves in searching the trails leading through the dense underbrush and tangled briars which covered the swampy plains. Several of the dead were by this means added to the already large number of the slain. On the side of one of these trails, the narrator of these events found the corpse of a woman which had been exposed to the most barbarous indignities and mutilations, and fastened in an upright position to a sapling which had been bent over for the purpose. All of the bodies had been scalped, and most of them mangled in a horrible manner. " One of the oxen had no other injury, than to have one of its horns cut off. This they were obliged to kill. Another ox had been regularly scalped. This animal was afterwards driven to the lake, where it immediately became an object of sympathy and at- tention of the whole army. By careful attendance and nursing, the wound healed in the course of the season. In the fall the animal was driven down to the farm of Col. Schuyler, near Albany, and the following year was shipped to England as a curioeity. Far and wide it was known as ' the scalped ox.' The bodies of the dead were buried in a trench near the scene of the massacre, a few rods east of the picketed enclosure. " The French version of the affair, states the oxen were killed, the carts burned, the property pillaged by the Indians, the barrels of liquor destroyed, one hundred and ten scalps secured, and eighty- l8o NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. four prisoners taken ; of these twelve were women and girls. The escort which was defeated consisted of forty men commanded by a lieutenant who was taken. The remainder of the men who were killed or taken prisoners consisted of wagoners, sutlers, traders, women and children." The loss of this convoy was keenly felt by the English. Gen- eral Abercrombie lost some baggage and effects, and, according to the French reports, his music as well. He, as soon as possible, sent Rogers and his body of Rangers across country to try and intercept the marauders before they reached Lake Champlain, Rogers was too late to accomplish his purpose, and on his way back he fell into an ambush near Fort Ann, about a mile from ** Clear River" (or the Half-Way), on August 8th, and was badly -defeated by M. Marin and his force of three hundred Regulars, Canadians and Indians. In this fight, Israel Putnam was taken prisoner, but was later released from captivity through the inter- cession of Col. Schuyler." This massacre was the cause of a permanent guard of about eight hundred men being stationed at the " Half- Way Brook," which is referred to in the Thompson Diary under date of August 1st, he being one of the eighty out of Col. Nichol's regiment who were ordered on duty at that spot. And from that time until the close of the campaign late in the fall, the road between Lake George and the " Half- Way Brook," and Fort Edward and the same point, was constantly patrolled by detachments from the two forts, prac- tically putting an end to further assaults and surprises. The diaries of those days show that, as yet, the temperance idea half a century or so afterward to arise in this locality, had no place among the hard drinking, hard swearing, and hard fighting men of that period, as these extracts from the Thompson Journal prove : "August 28, Monday : Certified that Cape Breton was taken, and 63 cannon shot at Fort Edward and small arms. In joy we made " For other and corroboratory original accounts of the attacks of July 20th and 27th see French despatches in Col. Doc. N. Y., Vol. X, pp. 750, 816, 817,849,850, and English reports in Watson's Essex, pp. 96, 97; Pouchot's Memoirs, Vol. i, p. 123; Rogers' Journals, p. 117; Putnam's Journals, pp. 72- yz; Sewall's Woburn, Mass., pp. 550, 551, 552, 553; Dawson's Hist. Mag, Aug., 1871, pp. 117, 118; Cutter's Putnam, pp. 96, 97; Stark's Memoirs, pp. 26, 436. These accounts differ some in details but are alike in essentials. THE HALF-WAY BROOK IN HISTORY. l8l a great fire, and every soldier had a jill of Rum at the Half Way Brook ; and it was a very rainy night. " August 29, Tuesday : 140 of us went and made a breastwork ; and we had a jill of rum; and we had a remarkable drink of flip this evening ; a very cold night. "Sept. 5, Tuesday: I on guard; and we earned half a jill of rum by making great many bonfires." This diary tells of one more attack, which seems to have escaped the notice of other historians, and is therefore inserted at this point. Under date of Sept. 9th, it says : " Saturday : the picquet guard went to meet the teams ; a Sar- geant and four men went forward to tell Half W^-"' Brook guard that the picquet was coming ; and the Indians shot the Sergeant and scalped him before one man got to him ; and then the Indians ran away." "" With the close of the Abercrombie Campaign, and the abandon- ment of headquarters at Lake George, Fort Edward became once more the northern outpost of Colonial civilization." In 1759, Sir Geoffrey Amherst was made Commander-in-Chief of the English forces in America. He was a brave, able, but per- haps over-conservative general, since after his easy victory over Montcalm's forces, he occupied himself more in fort building than in active operations of warfare, and in following up advantages gained. During this campaign the " Half-Way Brook " post was first occupied in March, 1759, by Rogers, the Ranger (with his scouting party of three hundred and fifty-eight men, including of- ficers), who was starting out to go down Lake George on the ice on one of his usual disastrous spying expeditions. In the month of May, troops and new levies were beginning to assemble at Al- bany, under General Amherst's supervision. While they were ^" In passing we may say that Lieut. Thompson returned home safely, served at Concord and Lexington, and, his biographer says, finally " became one of the most useful men in the Town of Woburn." To him is attributed the discovery of the " Baldwin Apple," and a monument commemorating this gift to mankind, has been erected to his memory, making applicable in pecu- liar fashion Milton's lines, " Peace hath her victories no less renowned than war." " General Abercrombie, according to documents in William L. Stone's possession, also spelled his name " Abercromby." Montresor spells it with a " y," but leading American historians use the termination " ie." 1 82 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. being drilled, detachments of the regular forces were being sent forward to Fort Edward. Meanwhile, Colonel James Montresor, Engineer-in-Chief, had been charged with the duty of drawing up plans for fortifications at Lake George, and along the line of march. Accordingly Major West, of his Majesty's troops, with laborers and mechanics, was sent forward to construct an intermediate post between Fort Edward and the lake. A site was chosen near the iormer " Garrison Grounds," on the south bank of the " Half Way," and a few rods east of the old military road. A stockaded fortress was erected, surrounded on three of its sides by a ditch and coun- terscarp ; while the rear was protected by an imipassable swamp (now covered by the Brick Kiln Pond), which at that period ex- isted at that point. This fortification was given the name of Fort Amherst, in honor of the then Commander. Major West was placed in charge of the small garrison, and the post was equipped with artillery and the necessary supplies and ammunition. A number of huts, barracks and log structures were also built here at this time (whose sites were easily traceable in the early thirties), some of which were in existence at the beginning of the Revolutionary War, and were used by the pioneers of Queens- bury, as well as the American forces later on. Local tradition also has it that the block house on the opposite side of the brook, was then rebuilt, enlarged and strengthened. On some old maps Fort Amherst is laid down as on the site of the old block house, but this is incorrect. Tn passing the writer wishes to state that the committee in charge of the erection of the memorial tablets, have chosen to give the block house, back of the Parker residence, the name of " The Seven Mile Post," applied to it in Knox's Military Journal under date of June 28, 1759, and to the fort on the " brickyard road," now called Glenwood Avenue, the name of " Fort Amherst." The re- mains of the ditches on this road were in evidence up to the early seventies, but in building up and remaking the highway at that point, they were covered over and no vestiges of them now remain. General Rufus Putnam, ^at that time orderly sergeant, during the month of June, 1759, describes in his Journal the forwarding of the troops and supplies from Albany, as far as Fort Edward, where he encamped until the i8th, when the regiment with which THE HALF-WAY BROOK IN HISTORY. 183 he was connected, was marched to the " Half- Way Brook," where they were occupied in making roads and keeping the highway se- cure for the passage of troops and supphes. Under the dates of July 1st and 4th he writes the following, which is an epitome of the events going on at that time : " From the time that we came to this place till now, nothing re- markable ; but bateaux, cannon and all kinds of stores carrying up, forces marching daily to the Lake and duty exceeding hard." " The Artillery was carried from Fort Edward to Lake George and was guarded by Col. Willard's Regiment of the Massachu- setts. There was carried up 1062 barrels of powder. Col. Mont- gomery's Regiment marched up as a guard for the Artillery." Towards the close of June the army, amounting to six thou- sand men, came up to the " Half-Way," and headed by Rogers' Rangers, marched northward, " formed in two columns," to the head of Lake George, where they pitched their camp, near the ground occupied by Abercrombie the year before. The captures of Forts Ticonderoga and Crown Point, late in July, and the sub- sequent surrender of Quebec, brought in a great degree, a peace, quiet and safety to the northern frontier to which it had long been a stranger." Some time between 1759 and 1762, at the period following the conquest of Canada, General Amherst granted a permit to ona Geoffrey " Cooper," or Cowper, as his name is spelled in Colonel Montresor's Journal, to whom he was a sort of messenger or ser- vant, to occupy the small post at " Half-Way Brook," between Fort Edward and Lake George, for the preservation of the bar- racks, etc., that had been erected there, and for the convenience of travelers. General Amherst, according to his despatches, deemed it unnecessary after the reduction of Canada, to leave a garrison at that post. This Cowper was probably the first white inhabitant of the town of Queensbury. According to tradition, he was originally a seafaring man. He resided here several years, and, in the town records, his name appears as having been elected to the office of Assessor at the first town meeting held 1766. " According to the Montresor Journals, the " Half- Way Post was occu- pied by small detachments of guards as late as November, 1759, when the various northern outposts were abandoned as usual, and troops withdrawn for the winter." 184 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Hardly had the sounds of warfare died away, than the pioneer's ax and saw were heard resounding among the yellow pines in this vicinity, as clearings were made and homesteads started. In September, 1759, James DeLancey, Governor of the Colony of New York, issued a proclamation calling attention to the avail- ability for settlers of " three Several Spotts of cleared Ground, two of them capable of containing half a dozen Families each and the other not less than twelve." These clearings were located on the s-ite of the picket forts at Green's Bridge, where the Imperial Wall Paper Mill now stands, at the " Half-Way Brook," which was the largest one, and near the Half- Way House, French Moun- tain (site of old Fort Williams). In response to this invitation to settle in the northern wilder- ness, on May 20, 1762, the Patent of Queensbury was granted to Daniel Prindle and others, consisting of a township of twenty- three thousand acres of land lying on the Hudson River and tak- ing in the three clearings heretofore mentioned. Part of this property was acquired by certain Quakers or Friends, living at the Oblong, in Dutchess County, New York. On August 28, 1762, Abraham Wing, the founder of the town of Queensbury, accompanied by a surveyor, Zaccheus Towner, made his first visit to the place which was thereafter to become the scene of his life work. He stopped at the " Half- Way Brook " post with Jeffrey Cowper. At this time " The Town Plot," in the center of which the memorial marker now stands, was sur- veyed and laid out. This consisted of a plot of forty-four ten acre lots, six lots deep from north to south, and eight lots deep from east to west, forming an oblong square, intersected by cen- tral highways and necessary roads. The center lots being re- served for public buildings. Here, the village was to have been located, but it had been ordained otherwise. The settlement was made at " The Falls," and nothing but the name in legal papers now survives to show that this was once intended to be the center of local population. In 1763 the first attempt was made towards the permanent set- tlement of the Town of Queensbury; later on the first religious structure in the town, the original Friends' church, was erected of logs on the lot standing on the southwesterly side of the " Half- THE HALF-WAY BROOK IN HISTORY. 1 85 Way Brook," on the Bay road, and here, also, was located the first burial place in Queensbury. iHere the founders and earliest set- tlers of the town were laid to rest, their place of sepulture being to-day unmarked and unknown. During the Revolution the name of the " Half- Way Brook " appears in the lime-light of history but a few times, although the buildings still standing there were doubtless used by the troops passing to and fro between Lake George and Fort Edward, till the time of the Burgo>Tie Campaign. There, too, was located a ford for watering horses and cattle, which was in use up to the present century. According to William L. Stone, the well-known historical writer and authority. General Burgoyne detached Baron Riedesel with three battalions to '* John's Farm between Forts George and Edward," in order to keep open the roadway between the two places, and also to look after and progress the provisions, stores and supplies from Lake George to Fort Edward, preparatory to Burgoyne's advance south. In Baron Riedesel's Memoirs, he states that " in that place he was completely cut off from the army, so he entrenched himself in a strongly fortified camp so that he might be able to defend himself to the last man." The place of his encampment has been quite definitely fixed by Dr. Holden, Mr. Stone and the late Judge William Hay, one of the best of authorities on local matters, as having been on the site of the old " Half- Way " block house, heretofore spoken of, on the north of the brook and the fortified camp at the " Garrison Grounds " on the opposite or south side of the stream. Here they remained until the nth of September, when the camp was broken up and the march southward begun. After the seizure of Fort Edward by General Stark and his command, a fortified camp commanding the Lake George road was constructed by the Americans in the vicinity of Glens Falls, cutting off the possibility of a retreat by Burgoyne to the north- ward. William L. Stone, in his " Burgoyne's Campaign," says : " This was located on the site of Fort Amherst." The Marquis de Chastelleux in his travels also speaks of this camp as follows: " On leaving the valley and pursuing the road to Lake George is a tolerable military position which was occupied in the war before 1 86 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. last. It is a sort of an entrenched camp, adapted to abatis, guard- ing the passage from the woods and commanding the valleys." ^ Assuming that this was the spot in question, the " Half- Way Brook " post was a factor in bringing on the surrender at Saratoga, for Burgoyne's Council of War, held Oct. 13, 1777, on being in- formed " that the enemy was entrenched at the fords of Fort Ed- ward and likewise occupied the strong position on the Pine Plains between Fort George and Fort Edward," decided a retreat was im- possible and an honorable capitulation should be considered. According to Art. IX of the Saratoga " Convention," " All Ca- nadians and persons connected with the Canadian Establishment," "Independent Companies" (which included the Tories) and mis- cellaneous followers of the army were to be conducted by the short- est route to the first British post on Lake George, under the same conditions of surrender as the regular troops. Pursuant to this agreement, soon after the capitulation on the morning of October 17th, the defeated Royalists, under escort of a guard of American soldiers, were marched to the " Half-Way Brook " on their way to Canada, and from there allowed to pursue their journey to their homes unmolested.'^ During 1780, the old military road was infested with roving bands of Tories and Indians. The last massacre of which history has record occurred in June or July of this year, when a man by the name of Koon, from Kingsbury, and three laborers, on their way to Fort George, were found dead and scalped on the highway near the " Half-Way Brook." '' In the fall of 1780, Major Christopher Carleton of the 29fch Regiment, with about twelve hundred men, regulars, Tories and Indians, made his historic raid through Kingsbury and Queens- bury, capturing Fort Ann on the loth of October, and Fort George on the following day. At this time, all the buildings and struc- tures in Kingsbury and Queensbury, in the path of the raid, were destroyed by fire by the enemy, causing 1780 to go down in local annals as " the year of the great burning." In order to speedily reach Fort George, Major Carleton led " Stone's Burgoyne, pp. 92, 343, 344. ^^ Public Papers Gov. George Clinton, Vol. IX, pp. 421, 422. '' Holden's Queensbury, p. 477. THE HALF-WAY BROOK IN HISTORY. 1 87 his forces from Kingsbury Street directly across country, through the then existing road'* entering the Lake George highway near the " Half- Way Brook " post. Thus intimately connecting this spot once more with the stirring events of that time. Holden's History of Queensbury states that lohabod Merritt, son-in-law of Abraham Wing, the founder, and father of Joseph, the first white child born in' this town, erected the first frame house in Queensbury, on one of the sections of the Town Plot, near the *' Half- Way Brook," which was burned at this time. Connected in a way with tihe history of the " Half-Way Brook," is the battle which took place at Fort Ann July 8, 1777, between the Americans under Colonel Long and the 9th British Regiment of Burgoyne's army. The scene of this affair is located only three-quarters of a mile from the point where the " Half-Way Brook " enters Wood Creek at Fort Ann village, and the semi-suc- cessful fight put up by Long's forces, was one of the first serious interferences which Burgoyne received in his plan of campaign.^® After this period the name of the " Half-Way Brook " prac- tically disappears from the domain of national history and enters the field occupied by the local historian." In August, 1783, while " See Gov. Tryon's Map Vol. , Doc. Hist. N. Y., also Holden's Hist. Queensbury, page 479. " One of the Trustees of this Association, E. J. West, informs me that in 1858 William Welles erected a marble monument on the south end of Battle Hill to commemorate this battle. This was destroyed by an act of vandalism about 1870. Lately the Fort Ann "Grange" has set on foot a project to erect another monument in place of the former marker. It would seem to be proper and fitting for this Association to encourage and forward this movement in every possible way. ■° Topographically, the " Half-Way Brook " in any State but New York, with its abundant streams and superior water power, would be entitled to and receive the name of river. Owing to its size and the large territory which it traverses, it was in the early days of the country, of great service comm_ercially in building up this section of the State. Among the more im- portant of the older enterprises on its banks was Forbes and Johnson's Forge in 181 1, for making plough-shares, situated on the Forge Pond, an expansion of the "Half-Way." one and a half miles west of Glens Falls; Jeremiah Briggs' Grist and Saw Mills, at what is now the Brickyard, frequented from far and near, in the early part of the century; Champlin's Tannery near the south bank on the Lake George road, and various saw mills, a woolen mill, and other manufacturies which were scattered all along the course of the brook and its tributaries, viz., Rocky Brook, the Meadow Run, what was then called "the Outlet" to the "Big Pond" (now Glen Lake), etc. It was of even greater commercial importance in the towns of Kingsbury and Fort Ann, Washington Countv, than in Warren County. Here, sixty years ago, were located at Patten's Mills, grist and saw mills ; at Tripoli, grist and saw 1 88 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. on a journey of inspection of the northern battlefields and fortifica- tions at Saratoga, Fort Edward, Lake George, Ticonderoga and Crown Point,^^ General Washington, accompanied by Governor Clin- ton, General Alexander Hamilton, Colonels Humphreys and Fish, halted for rest and refreshment at the " Butler Brook," one of the branches of the " Half- Way," near the entrance to Crandall Park, and were waited on by one Briggs at w'ork in a neighboring field, who brought a cup and pail and supplied water from the brook to satisfy their thirst. Two other future Presidents of our country, Jefferson and Madison, likewise passed through the town in 1791 to visit the many scenes of historic interest at the north. And so we leave this famous brook, connected with which are the names of many of those brave men who afterward became cele- brated in national fields of glory ; and bid adieu to the places made noted by the exploits of the two Putnams, Stark, Schuyler, Warner, Stevens, Waterbury, and a host of lesser military Colonial officers, whose experience, beginning on the shores of this inland stream, was to serve their country in good stead in the days which were to save our land from British thralldom. To-day, no longer red- dened by the life-blood of English and Colonial of French and mills, a carding machine and trip hammer for making anchors and sleigh shoes ; and at Kanes Falls, near Fort Ann, with a descent of seventy-five feet, saw and grist mills, a machine shop and carding machine. On the Podunk branch of the " Half-Way " was located Anchorville, where there was a saw mill, plaster mill, clover seed mill, some carding machines, a large tannery, three forges and anchor shops. In later times there was situated at Kanes Falls a silex mill, also a woolen mill. The abundant water power at this place has in these latter days, been made use of by the Kanes Falls Pulp Company, for the manufacture of that commodity. At the present time the principal business enterprises on the " Half-Way " in Warren County, are extensive brickyards, about a mile from the site of the old fort, three saw mills and two cider mills. In Washington County at Patten's Mills, there is a grist mill, and at Griswold's Mills, a saw mill and a grist mill. On the " branch " at West Fort Ann, is located a planer and cider mills. Owing to its width and the overflow of its banks in spring and fall, it is necessary that the brook be spanned by substantial bridges. In both Warren and Washington Counties strong iron structures have replaced the old-fashioned wooden bridges, which were so common in road-making but a few years ago. In Washington County, there is a bridge about seventy feet long near Kanes Falls, and at Fort Ann one in the neighborhood of fifty feet long. (Acknowledgments are due to Geo. M. Mead, Glens Falls, for information contained in this note. See Trans. N. Y. S. Agri. Socy. 1849, p. 942, for further facts.) ^'W. L. Stone's Reminiscences of Saratoga, p. 14; Irving's Washington, Holly Ed., pp. 17, 18. THE HALF-WAY BROOK IN HISTORY. 1 89 Indian, the " Half-Way " runs a clear and peaceful stream through copse and thicket, field and meadow, swamp and swale ; turning, as it goes, the wheels of industrial progress in many a village and hamlet, and doing its appointed work in the upbuilding of our national prosperity. At last, merged in the yellow waters of Wood Creek, it flows into the green depths of Lake Champlain, and then into the broad reaches of the St. Lawrence ; but before losing its identity in the surging waters of the North Atlantic, it laves the frowning cliffs of Quebec, thus forming a shimmering and living band, which unites for all time the valley of the Holy Lake and the Plains of Abraham ; those two eventful spots where the French dominion received its first check and final overthrow, thus placing, in the end, the North American Continent forever under the pro- gressive control of the Anglo-Saxon race. REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON MARKING HISTORICAL SPOTS. To the Members of the New York State Historical Association : At a meeting of the Committee on Marking Historical Spots, held September 9th, 1904, Dr. Williams was made Chairman and Mr. Holden Secretary of the Committee. After discussion of the matter, it was voted to mark during 1905, or as soon as possible thereafter, the following spots of the greatest historical interest, viz., " Half- Way Brook, including Fort Amherst," '' Bloody Pond," " the Burgoyne Headquarters at Sandy Hill," and the " Old Fort at Fort Edward." Judge Ingalsbe was made a committee on the old " Burgoyne House," Mr. Wing a committee on old " Fort Edward," and the matter of providing suitable inscriptions for " Half-W^ay Brook " and " Bloody Pond " was left to Dr. Williams and Mr. Holden with power. A site for the marker at Half-Way Brook having been decided on at the intersection of Glen Street and Glenwood Avenue, on the road to Lake George, a glacial bowlder as a base for the tablet was placed in position there through the kindness and generosity of Henry Crandall, Glens Falls. A legal title to the spot was ob- tained, and the tablet ordered from W. J. Scales, Glens Falls. In October, 1905, the tablet was erected. It consists of a dull, nat- ural finish plate of bronze, and bears the following inscription: HALF-WAY BROOK. So called b ecause midway between Forts Edward and William Henry. From 1755 to 1780 it was the scene of many bloody skirmishes, surprises and ambushes. Here the French and Indians inflicted two horrible massacres upon the English and Colonials. One in the summer of 1756 and the other in July, 1758. FORT AMHERST. A noted military post, was midway between this marker and the brickyard. Its site was known locally as ' The Garrison Grounds." The location was used as a fortified camp in 1757-58. The fort was erected in 1759. It was occupied by the forces of Baron Riedesel in the Burgoyne Campaign of 1777. It was burned in 1780 in the Carleton Raid at the time of the "Northern Invasion." REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON MARKING HISTORICAL SPOTS. I9I THE SEVEN MILE POST. Was a block house with a stockaded enclosure which occu- pied the rise of ground north of the brook and west of the road, near the residence of W. H. Parker, from 1755 to Revolutionary times. During that period it was one of the most important halting places in north America. — Erected 1905 By — NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. In this connection it is only proper to add to this report that a tablet for Bloody Pond is under way and will be erected during the coming year. The expense of providing for these tablets was taken care of by the following subscriptions : The Contributors to the Fund for Marking Historic Spots, Henry Crandall, F. B. Richards, William McEchron, B. B. Fowler, Jonathan Coolidge, M. Ames, R. A. Little, W. M. Haskell, J. L. Cunningham, S. B. Goodman, E. W. West, A. W. Sherman, Wm. H. Robbins, George F. Bayle, Sherman Williams, S. T. Birdsall, Samuel Pruyn, W. K. Bixby. J. A. Holden, At the annual meeting of this Association, held in August, 1905, J. A. Holden was selected to prepare a historical sketch concerning Half-Way Brook, which is herewith appended. For the Committee, SHERMAN WILLIAMS, Chairman. J. A. HOLDEN, Secretary. PUBLICATIONS RECEIVEX). Tourists' Handbook. Rept. of Trustees, Pa. Soldiers' & Sailors' Home. Rept. of the Gettysburg National Park Gommission. Regulations for the Government of the Gettysburg National Park. Officers of the State Society of Cincinnati of Georgia, 1790. Celebration Address of the 25'th Anniversary of the Loyal Legion. Military Order of the Loyal Legion. Experience Table of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Odd Fellowship, an Oration, 40th Anniversary of L O. of O. F. 40th Anniversary of Opening of Present Union League House. Report of Valley Forge Park Commission. Commandery of the State of Penn. Rutherford Birchard Hayes. Gregg's Cavalry Fight at Gettysburg. The Story of '65. Brown University Catalogue, 1904 and 1905. The Century Association Report, 1901. Bulletin of Brown University, 1904 and 1905. The Connecticut Magazine — No. 2. Annual Report of the Connecticut Historical Society, 1905. Proceedings of the New Hampshire Historical Society, Part 3, Vol. 4. A History of Battery A, of St. Louis — Missouri Historical Society. Personal Recollections of Gen. Grant — Missouri Historical Society. The Public Archives of New Jersey, January 31st, 1905. Annual Report of Vineland Historical Society. The New Haven Historical Society, Nov. 1904. Chicago Historical Society, 1904 and 1905. 99th Anniversary Celebration, New England Society, 1904. The West Virginia Historical Magazine, Vol. 5, No. 2. Transactions of Huguenot Society of South Carolina, No. 12. Third Series, Vol. VH, No. i, Annals of Iowa. Third Series, Vol. VII, No. 2, Annals of Iowa. PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED. 1 93 The Essex Institute Historical Collection, 1905. (Two Numbers.) Ohio Archaeolog-ical & Historical Quarterly, Vol. XIV, Jan. 1905, No. I. Ohio Archaeological & Historical Quarterly, Vol. XIV, Apr. 1905, No. 2. The Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. 3, July, 1905, No. 2. Public Papers of George Clinton, ist Governor of New York, Vols. 7 and 8. Massachusetts Soldiers & Sailors of Revolutionary War, Vols, i & 2. 1st, 3d, 7th, 8th, 9th, loth, nth, 12th, 13th, 14th Biennial Reports of Kansas State Historical Society. Membership List Chicago Historical So., 1905 & 1906. Proceedings of Vermont Historical So., 1903 & 1904. Essex Institute Historical Collections, October, 1905. Want List 1905, Library of Congress. History 20th Kansas Regiment. Directory Kansas Historical Exhibit. Kansas Souvenir. Annals of Iowa. Pennsylvania Society Year Book, 1905. 99th Anniversary New England Society. Report of the Librarian of Congress, 1905. INSIGNIA OF THE NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. The Insignia of the Association consists of a badge, the pendant of which is circular in form, one and three-sixteenths inches in diameter. Obverse : In the centre is represented the discovery of the Hud- son River ; the " Half-Moon " is surrounded by Indian Canoes, and in the distance is shown the Palisades. At the top is the coat- of-arms of New Amsterdam and a tomahawk, arrow and Dutch sword. At the bottom is shown the seal of New York State. Up- on a ribbon, surrounding the centre medallion, is the legend : New York State Historical Association, and the dates 1609 and 1899; the form.er being the date of the discovery of New York, and the latter the date of the founding of the Historical Association. Reverse : The Seal of the Association. The badges are made of 14k gold, sterling silver and bronze, and will be sold to members of the Association at the following prices : 14k Gold, complete with bar and ribbon $11.00 Sterling Silver, complete with bar and ribbon 5.00 Bronze, complete with bar and ribbon 4.00 Applications for badges should be made to the Secretary of the Association, Robert O. Bascom, Fort Edward, N. Y., who will issue permit, authorizing the member to make the purchase from the official Jewelers, J. E. Caldwell & Co., 902 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia. ARTICLES OF INCORPORATION. We, Daniel C. Farr, James A. Holden, and Elmer J. West, of Glens Falls; Grenville M. Ingalsbe, of Sandy Hill, and Morris P. Ferris, of Dobbs Ferry, all in the State of New York, and all of us citizens of the United States, have associated ourselves together in a membership corporation, and do hereby make this our certificate under the laws of the State of New York. The name of such corporation is the " New York State Historical Asso- ciation." The principal objects for which said corporation is formed are: First. To promote and encourage original historical research. Second. To disseminate a greater knowledge of the early history of the State, by means of lectures, and the publication and distribution of literature on historical subjects. Third. To gather books, manuscripts, pictures, and relics relating to the early history of the State, and to establish a museum at Caldwell, Lake George, for their preservation. Fourth. To suitably mark places of historic interest. Fifth. To acquire by purchase, gift, devise, or otherwise, the title to, or custody and control of, historic spots and places. The territory in which the operations of this corporation are to be prin- cipally conducted is Warren, Washington, Essex, Clinton, Saratoga, and Hamilton counties, in the State of oNew York. The principal office of said corporation is to be located at Caldwell, on Lake George, county of Warren, in the State of New York. The number of directors of said corporation, to be known as the Board of Trustees, is twenty-five. The names and residences of the directors of said corporation, to hold office until the first annual meeting, and who shall be known as the Board C'f Trustees, are : James A. Roberts, Buffalo. Timothy L. Woodrufif, Brooklyn. Daniel C. Farr, Glens Falls, Everett R. Sawyer, Sandy Hill. James A. Holden, Glens Falls. Robert O. Bascom, Fort Edward. Morris Patterson Ferris, Dobbs Ferry. Elwyn Seelye, Lake George. Grenville M. Ingalsbe, Sandy Hill. 7 96 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Frederick B. Richards, Anson Judd Upson, Asahel R. Wing, William O. Stearns, Robert C. Alexander, Elmer J. West, Hugh Hastings, Pliny T. Sexton, William S. Ostrander, Sherman Williams, William L. Stone, Henry E. Tremain, William H. Tippetts, John Boulton Simpson, Harry W. \vatrous, Abraham B. Valentine, Ticonderoga. Glens Falls. Fort Edward. Glens Falls. New York. Glens Falls. Albany. Palmyra, bchuylerville. Glens Falls. Mt. Vernon. New York. Lake George. Bolton. Hague. New York. The first meeting of the corporation, for the purpose of organization, will be held on the 21st day of March, 1899. The time for holding the annual meeting of the said corporation will be the last Tuesday in July of each year. In Witness Whereof, We have hereunto severally subscribed our names and affixed our seals this 21st day of March, in the year one thousand eight hundred and ninety-nine. DANIEL C. FARR. (l. s.) JAMES A. HOLDEN, (l. s.) ELMER J. WE^r, (l. s.) GRENVILLE M. INGALSBE, (l. s.) MORRIS P. FERRIS. (l. s.) State of New York. County of Warren. On this 2ist day of March, in the year one thousand eight hundred and ninety-nine, before me personally appeared Daniel C. Farr, James A. Holden, Elmer J. West, Grenville M. Ingalsbe, and Morris Patterson Ferris, to me known to be the individuals described in and who executed the foregoing articles of incorporation, and they duly severally acknowledged to me that they executed the same. E. T. JOHNSON, [seal.] Notary Public. i CHARTER OF NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Whereas, A petition for incorporation by the University has been duly received, containing satisfactory statements made under oath as to the ob- jects and plans of the proposed corporation, and as to the provision made for needed buildings, furniture, equipment, and for maintenance. Therefore, Being satisfied that all requirements prescribed by law or University ordinance for such an association have been fully met, and that public interests justify such action, the Regents by virtue of the authority conferred on them by law, hereby incorporate James A. Roberts, Daniel C. Farr, James A. Holden, Morris Patterson Ferris, Grenville M. Ingalsbe, Anson Judd Upson, Robert C. Alexander, Hugh Hastings, William S. Ostrander, William L. Stone, William H. Tippetts, Harry W. Watrous, William O. Stearns. Timothy L. Woodruff, Everett R. Sawyer, Robert O. Bascom. Elwyn Seelye, Frederick B. Richards, Asahel R. Wing, Elmer J. West, Pliny T. Sexton, Sherman Williams, Henry E. Tremain, John Boul- ton Simpson, Abraham B. Valentine, and their successors in office under the corporate name of NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Th's corporation shall be located at Caldwell, Warren county, New York. Its first trustees shall be the twenty-five above-named incorporators. Its object shall be to promote historical research, to disseminate knowl- edge of the history of the State by lectures and publications, to establish a library and museum at Caldwell, to mark places of historic interest, and to acquire custody or control of historic places. In Witness Whereof, The Regents grant this charter, No. 1,245, under seal of the University, at the Capitol at Albany, April 24, [seal.] 1899. ANSON JUDD UPSON, Chancellor. Melvil Dewey, Secretary. CONSTITUTION. ARTICLE I. Name. This Society shall be known as " New York State Historical Asso- ciation." ARTICLE IL Objects. Its objects shall be: First. To promote and encourage original historical research. Second. To disseminte a greater knowledge of the early history of the State, by means of lectures and the publication and distribution of literature on historical subjects. Third. To gather books, manuscripts, pictures, and relics relating to the early history of the State, and to establish a museum at Caldwell, Lake George, for their preservation. Fourth. To suitably mark places of historic interest. Fifth. To acquire by purchase, gift, devise, or otherwise, the title to, or custody and control of, historic spots and places. ARTICLE III. Members. Section i. Members shall be of three classes — Active, Corresponding, and Honorary. Active members only shall have a voice in the manage- ment of the Society. Section 2. All persons interested in American history shall be eligible for Active membership. Section 3. Persons residing outside the State of New York, interested in historical investigation, may be made Corresponding members. Section 4. Persons who have attained distinguished eminence as his- torians may be made Honorary members. ARTICLE IV. Management. Section i. The property of the Association shall be vested in, and the affairs of the Association conducted by, a Board of Trustees to be elected CONSTITUTION. 1 99 by the Association. Vacancies in the Board of Trustees shall be filled by the remaining members of the Board, the appointee to hold office until the next annual meeting of the Association. Section 2. i he Board of Trustees shall have power to suspend or expel members of the Association for cause, and to restore them to membership after a suspension or expulsion. No member shall be suspended or ex- pelled without first having been given ample opportunity to be heard in his or her own defense. Section 3. The first Board of Trustees shall consist of those designated in the Articles of Incorporation, who shall meet as soon as may be after the adoption of this Constitution and divide themselves into three classes of, as nearly as may be, eight members each, such classes to serve respect- ively, one until the first annual meeting, another until the second annual meeting, and the third until the third annual meeting of the Association. At each annual meeting the Association shall elect eight or nine members (as the case may be) to serve as Trustees for the ensuing three years, to fill the places of the class whose term then expires. Section 4. The Board of Trustees shall have no power to bind the Association to any expenditure of money beyond the actual resources of the Association except by the consent of the Board of Trustees, expressed in writing and signed by every member thereof. ARTICLE V. Officers. Section i. The officers of the Association shall be a President, three Vice-Presidents, a Treasurer, a Secretary, and an Assistant Secretary, all of whom shall be elected by the Board of Trustees from its own number, at its first meeting after the annual meeting of the Association, and shall hold office for one year, or until their successors are chosen. Temporary officers shall be chosen by the Incorporators to act until an election as afore- said, by the Board of Trustees. Section 2. The Board of Trustees may appoint such other officers, com- mittees, or agents, and delegate to them such powers as it sees fit, for the prosecution of its work. Section 3. Vacancies in any office or committee may be filled by the Board of Trustees. ARTICLE VL Fees and Dues. Section i. Each person on being elected to Active Membership shall pay into the Treasury of the Association the sum of two dollars, and there- after on the first day of January in each year a like sum, for his or her annual dues. 200 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Section 2. Any member of the Association may commute his or her annual dues by the payment of twenty-five dollars at one time, and thereby become a life member exempt from further payments. Section 3. Any member may secure membership which shall descend to a member of his or her family qualified under the Constitution and By-Laws of the Association for membership therein, in perpetuity, bj' the payment at one time of two hundred and fifty dollars. The person to hold the mem- bership may be designated in writing by the creator of such membership, or by the subsequent holder thereof subject to the approval of the Board of Trustees. Section 4. All receipts from life and perpetual memberships shall be set aside and invested as a special fund, the income only to be used for current expenses. Section 5. Honorary and Corresponding Members and persons who hold perpetual memberships shall be exempt from the payment of dues. Section 6. The Board of Trustees shall have power to excuse the non- payment of dues, and to suspend or expel members for non-payment when their dues remain unpaid for more than six months. ARTICLE VIL Meetings. Section i. The annual meeting of the Association shall be held on the last Tuesday of July in each year. Notice thereof shall be sent to each member at least ten days prior thereto. Section 2. Special meetings of the Association may be called at any time by the Board of Trustees, and must be called upon the written request of ten members. The notice of such meeting shall specify the object there- of, and no business shall be transacted thereat excepting that designated in the notice. Section 3. Ten members shall constitute a quorum at any meeting of the Association. Section 4. The Board of Trustees shall arrange for the holding of a series of meetings at Lake George during the summer months, for the read- ings of original papers on history and kindred subjects, and for social inter- course between the members and their guests. ARTICLE Vin. Seal. The seal of the Association shall be a group of statuary representing the Mohawk Chief, King Hendrick, in the act of proving to Gen. William Johnson the unwisdom of dividing his forces on the eve of the battle of CONSTITUTION. 20I Lake George. Around this a circular band bearing the legend, New York State Historical Association, 1899. ARTICLE IX. Amendments. Amendments to the Constitution may be made at any annual meeting, or at a special meeting called for that purpose. Notice of a proposed amend- ment with a copy thereof must have been mailed to each member at least thirty days before the day upon which action is taken thereon. The adoption of an amendment shall require the favorable vote of two- thirds of those present at a duly-constituted meeting of the Association. BY-LAWS. ARTICLE I. Members. Candidates for membership in the Association shall be proposed by one member and seconded by another, and shall be elected by the Board of Trus- tees. Three adverse votes shall defeat an election. ARTICLE IL Board of Trustees. Section i. The Board of Trustees may make such rules for its own government as it may deem wise, and which shall not be inconsistent with the Constitution and By-Laws of the Association. Five members of the Board shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business. Section 2. The Board of Trustees shall elect one of their own number to preside at the meetings of the Board in the absence of the President. Section 3. The Board of Trustees shall at each annual meeting of the Association render a full report of its proceedings during the year last past. Section 4. The Board of Trustees shall hold at least four meetings in each year. At each of such meetings it shall consider and act upon the names of candidates proposed for membership. Section 5. The Board of Managers shall each year appoint committees to take charge of the annual gathering of the Association at Lake George. ARTICLE III. President. The President shall preside at all meetings of the Association and of the Board of Trustees, and perform such other duties as may be delegated to him by the Association or the Board of Trustees. He shall be ex-officio a member of all committees. ARTICLE IV. Vice-Presidents. The Vice-Presidents shall be denominated First, Second, and Third Vice-Presidents. In the absence of the President his duties shall devolve upon the senior Vice-President present. BY-LAWS. 203 ARTICLE V. Treasurer. Section i. The Treasurer shall have charge of all the funds of the Association. He shall keep accurate books of account, which shall at all times be open to the inspection of the Board of Trustees. He shall present a full and comprehensive statement of the Association's financial condition, its receipts and expenditures, at each annual meeting, and shall present a brief statement to the Board of Trustees at each meeting. He shall pay out money only on the approval of the majority of the Executive Commit- tee, or on the resolution of the Board of Trustees. Section 2. Before assuming the duties of his office, the Treasurer-elect shall with a surety to be approved by the Board execute to the Association his bond m the sum of one thousand dollars, conditioned for the faithful performance of his duties as Treasurer. Section 3. The President shall, thirty days prior to the annual meeting of the Association, appoint two members of the Association who shall ex- amine the books and vouchers of the Treasurer and audit his accounts, and present their report to the Association at its annual meeting. ARTICLE VL Secretary. The Secretary shall preserve accurate minutes of the transactions of the Association and of the Board of Trustees, and shall conduct the correspon- dence of the Association. He shall notify the members of meetings, and perform such other duties as he may be directed to perform by the Asso- ciation or by the Board of Trustees. He may delegate any portion of his duties to the Assistant Secretary. ARTICLE VIL Executive Committee. The officers of the Association shall constitute an Executive Committee. Such Committee shall direct the business of the Association between meet- ings of the Board of Trustees, but shall have no power to establish or declare a policy for the Association, or to bind it in any way except in rela- tion to routine work. The Committee shall have no power to direct a greater expenditure than fifty dollars without the authority of the Board of Trustees. ARTICLE VIII. Procedure. Section i. The following, except when otherwise ordered by the Asso- ciation, shall be the order of business at the annual meetings of the Association : 204 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Call to order. Reading of minutes of previous annual, and of any special meeting, and acting thereon. Reports of Officers and Board of Trustees. Reports of Standing Committees. Reports of Special Committees. Unfinished business. Election. New business. Adjournment. Section 2. The procedure at all meetings of the Association and of the BoaJ-d of Trustees, where not provided for in this Constitution and By- Laws, shall be governed by Roberts' Rules of Order. Section 3. The previous question shall not be put to vote at any meet- ing unless seconded by at least three members. Section 4. All elections shall be by ballot, except where only one can- didate is nominated for an oflfice. Section 5. All notices shall be sent personally or by mail to the address designated in writing by the member to the Secretary. ARTICLE IX. Nominating Committee. A committee of three shall be chosen by the Association at its annual meeting, to nominate Trustees to be voted for at the next annual meeting. Such Committee shall file its report with the Secretary of this Association at least thirty days prior to the next annual meeting. The Secretary shall mail a copy of such report to every member of the Association with the notice of the annual meeting at which the report is to be acted upon. The , action of such Committee shall, however, in no wise interfere with the power of the Association to make its own nominations, but all such independent nominations shall be sent to the Secretary at least twenty days prior to the annual meeting. A copy thereof shall be sent to each member by the Secre- tary with the notice of meeting, and shall be headed " Independent Nomina- tions." If the Nominating Committee fails for any reason to make its report so that it may be sent out with the notice of the annual meeting, the Society may make its own nominations at such annual meeting. ARTICLE X. Amendments. These By-Laws may be amended at any duly-constituted meeting of the Association by a two-thirds vote of the members present. Notice of the proposed amendment with a copy thereof must have been mailed to each member at least twenty days before the day upon which action thereon is taken. MEMBERS NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. HONORARY MEMBERS. *Dr. Edward Eggleston, E. M. Ruttenber, Joshua's Rock, N. Y. Newburg-h, N. Y. CORRESPONDING MEMBER. Berthold Fernow, Trenton, N. J. LIFE MEMBERS. W. K. Bixby, Mrs. Marcellus Hartley, Mrs. Oliver Livingston Jones, Mrs. Horace See, Gen. Henry E. Tremain, Dr. W. .Seward Webb, *Samuel P. Avery, F. D. Howland, Frank S. Witherbee, Cortland de Peyster Field, *Deceased. Bolton, N. Y. 232 Madison Ave., N. Y. City. 116 W. 72d St., N. Y. City. 50 W. 9th St., N. Y. City. 105 E. i8th St., N. Y. City. 51 E. 44th St., N. Y. City. 4 E. 38th St., N. Y. City. Sandy Hill, N. Y. Port Henry, N. Y. Peekskill, N. Y. MEMBERS. Abbott, Rev. Dr. Lyman Abrams, A. W. Alexander, Hon. D. S. Allen, Hiram Ames, Edgar M. Applegate, Rev. Dr. Octavius Arnold, Hon, Alvaro D. Arthur, Miss L. Louise Atkins, Hon. T. Astley, " The Outlook," 287 Fourth Ave., New York. Illion. Buffalo. Sandy Hill. Fort Edward. Newburgh. Sandy Hill. Woodside. 73 Nassau St., N. Y. 2o6 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Backus, Dr. Truman J. Baker, Frederick I. Ballard, W. J. Banker, Dr. Silas J. Bascom, Robert O. Bassinger, George Jrl. Batcheller, George Clinton, Benedict, George Grenville Benjamin, Rev. Dr. Wm. H. Bishop, Charles F. Blake, Rev. Chas. W. Bloodgood, Clarence E, Brackett, Hon. Edgar Truman Brandow, Rev. John H. Brown, Ernest C. Brook, James B. Broughton, H. L. BuUard, Dr. T. E. Bunten, Roland Burdge, Franklin Burnham, George, Bushnell, Nathan Piatt Cady, S. Rider Carter, Robert C. Chenev, Dr. Francis L. Clark,' Walter A. Clark, Rev. Joseph B. Clowe, Chas. Waldron Cole, N'orman Conway, John B. Cook, Dr. Joseph Tottenham Cook, Joseph Mrs. Cook, J. Hervey Cooke, Rev. Jere K. Cooley, Dr. James S. Coolidge, Thomas S. Coon, Hon. Stephen Mortimer Cornell, S. Douglas Cunningham, Col. J. L. Columbia University Library, Davis, William Gilbert Davis, Dr. Booth C. Day, Benjamin Packer Institute, Brooklyn, Fort Ann. Jamaica. Fort Edward. Fort Edward. Glens Falls. 237 W. 72d St., N. Y. Burlington, Vt. Irvington-on-Hudson. 67 Wall St., N. Y. Lake George. Catskill. Saratoga Springs. Schoharie. 280 Broadway, N. Y. 1013 East Adams St., Syracuse. Sandy Hill. Schuylerville, Garden City. 325 W. 57th St.N. Y. 3401 Powelton Ave., Philadelphia, Pa. Peekskill. Hudson. Glens Falls. Cortland. 755 Main St., Geneva. 4th Ave. and 22nd St., N. Y. 280 Broadway, N. Y. Glens Falls. Argyle. 636 Delaware Ave., Buffalo. Ticonderoga. Fishkill-on-Hudson. HeniDstead. Glen Cove. Glens Falls. Oswego. Cobourg, Ont. Glens Falls. 1 1 6th St., New York. 32 Nassau St., N. Y. Alfred. Hasfue. MEMBERS. 207 Dehotig, C. J. Demuth, William Denham, Edward Denton, Mrs. Elizabeth B. de Peyster, Mrs. Beekman Derby, Hon. John H. Derby, Archibald Stewart Digney, John M. Doane, Rt. Rev. C. W. Doolittle, C. M. Draper, Hon. A. S. Dunnell, Rev. Dr. Wm. Nichols Durkee, James H. Dwyer, Major John Elting, Philip Eveleth, Dr. George S. Fairley, William F-^rree, Barr Ferris, Morris Patterson Fowler, Albert N. C. Gillespie, Nelson Gilman, Hon. Theodore P. Green, James Griffith, Prof. E. W. Gunnison, Hon. Royal A. Hatch, Hon. Edward W. Haight, Hon. Albert Hall, Fred J. Halsey, Frances W. Hasting"s, Hon. Hug-h Hatch, Rev. W. H. P. Hatfield, Addie E. Hawkins, George H. Hayden, Henry W. Hewitt, Fred W. Higg-ins, Hon. Frank W. Hill, E. B. Holden, Mrs. J. A. Holden, James A. Hopson, Rev. Dr. George B. Glens Falls. 507 Broadway, N. Y. New Bedford, Mass. Sandy Hill. 2345 Broadway, N. Y. (winter), Johnstown (summer). Sandv Hill. Sandy Hill. White Plains. Albany. Schuylerville. Albany. 292 Henrv St., N. Y. Sandy Hi'll. Sandy Hill. 278 Wall St., Kingston. Little Falls. 195 Kingston Ave., Brooklyn. 7 Warren Street, N. Y. 676 West End Ave., N. Y. Glens Falls. Hoosick Falls. 425 West End Ave., N. Y. Lake George. Glens Falls. Juneau, Alaska. Appellate Division, New York. Albany (Court of Appeals). Tarrytown. 146 W. 119th St., N. Y. Albany. South Hartford. 17 Lin wood Place, Utica. Plattsburgh. 120 Broadway, N. Y Granville. Olean. 49 Wall St., N. Y. Glens Falls. Glens Falls. Annandale. 208 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Horton, Mrs. John Miller Horton, Dr. Everest T. Horton, Dr. Claude A. Howard, Hon. Harry A. Hull, Frank S. Hull, Philip M. Heilner, Samuel Imrie, Daniel F. Ingalsbe, Miss Myra L. Ingalsbe, Grenville H. Ingalsbe, Franc Groesbeck Ingalsbe, Hon. Grenville M. Ingalls, George A. Ingraham, Dr. Charles A. James, D. Willis Jackson, Rev. Dr. T. G. Jessup, Morris K. Jessup, Rev. Charles A. Joline, Dr. Adrien H. Jordan, Warren S. Kellogg, Rev. Dr. Charles D. Kellogg, J. Augustus King, Rev. Dr. Joseph E. King, Charles T. Kirb- Dr. R. M. Knapp, George P. Kniel, T. R. Krotel, Rev. Dr. G. F. Ladd, Neil M. Lansing. Mrs. Abraham Lange, Gustave Lapham, Byron Law, Robert R. Leary, Russell W. Lefferts, Marshall C. Lewis, George C. Little, Dr. George W. Little, Russell A. Lyttle, Dr. E. W. Mace, Dr. William H. Mann, William D. 736 Main St., Buffalo. Whitehall. Glens Falls. Glens Falls. • Newburgh. Clinton. Broad and Chestnut St., Phila, Pa. Lake George. Hartford. Sandy Hill. Sandv Hill. Sand^ Hill. Sandy Hill. Cambridge. 40 East 39th St., N. Y. 68 St. Paul's Place, Brooklyn. 195 Madison Ave., N. Y. Greenport. 54 Wall St., N. Y. 984 Main St., Peekskill. Sandy Hill. Glens Falls. Fort Edward. Glens Falls. Potsdam. Lake George. Saratoga Springs. 65 Convent Ave., N. Y. 646 Fulton St., Brooklyn. 115 Washmgton Ave., Albany. 257 Broadway, N. Y. Glens Falls. Cambridge. 147 W. 91st St., N. Y. 30 Washington Place, N. Y. Albany. Glens Falls. Glens Falls. Albany. 127 College Place, Syracuse. Hague. MEMBERS. 209 Marsh, Wallace T. Martin, John Martine, Dr. G. R. Matthews, George E. McAneny, George McCarthy, James McLean,' Mrs. Donald Meredith, ]\Irs. Louise Harden- bnrgh Messer, L. Franklin Michael, Edward Mills, D. O. Mills, Col. Stephen C. (U. S. A.) Moore, Commoclore John W. Morgan, Rev. Dr. D. Parker Morton, Hon. Levi Parsons Mott, Dr. O. H. Munger, Rev. Dr. R. D. Glens Falls. Plattsburgh. Glens Falls. Buffalo. 19 E. 47th St., N. Y. Sandv Hill. 186 Lenox Ave., N. Y. San Luis Obispo, Cal. 403 Main St., Buffalo. 741 Delaware Ave., Buffalo. 634 Fifth Ave., N. Y. Governor's Island, N. Y. Harbor. Bolton Landing. 3 E. 45th St., N. Y. 681 Fifth Ave., N. Y. Fort Edward. 105 Delaware St., Syracuse. Near, Irwin W. Nelson, V'enerable Dr. Geo. F. Newcomb, Alvah S. Nottino-ham. William Hornellsville. 29 Lafayette Place, N. Y. 33 Washington Ave., Albany, 701 Walnut St., Syracuse. O'Brien, M. J. 19.S Broadway, N. Y. Olmstead, Rt. Rev. Chas. Tyler 159 Park Ave., Utica. Paige, Edward Winslow Parry, Mrs. J. E. Payne, Silas H. Peabody, George Foster Peck, Gen. T. S. Peck, Reuben N. Pell, Howland Prince, Rev .Dr. W^alter Franklin Potter, Delcour S. Pryer, Charles Ransom, Frank H. Ransom, Hon. Rastus S. Ravmond, Rev. Dr. A. V. V. Reid, W. Max Reid, Hon. Whitelaw Rhoades, W. C. P. Richards, Frederick B. 44 Cedar St., N, Y. Glens Falls. Silver Bay. 54 William St., New York. Burlington, Vt. Glens Falls. 7 Pine St., N. Y. 16 S. Elliott Place, Brooklyn. Glens Falls. New Rochelle. 137 Main St., Buffalo. 128 Broadway, N. Y. Schenectady. Amsterdam. New York. 400 Putnam Ave., Brooklyn. Ticonderoga. NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Richardson, Rev. George L. Richards, A. N. Roberts, Joseph Banks Roberts, Mrs. James A. Roberts, Hon. James A. Rogers, Howard J. Rowell, George C. Sivmson, Wilham H. Sanford, Clarence T. Sawyer, W. L. Sawyer, Dr. Edward R. Schuyler, Miss Fanny Glens Falls. Sandy Hill. 141 Broadway, N. Y. 256 Broadway, N. Y. 256 Broadway, N. Y. Education Dept., Albany. 81 Ohapel St., Albany. 420 Oxford St., Rochester, Lake George. Sandy Hill. Sandy Hill. New Rochelle. Schuyler, Rev. Dr.Livingston Rowei7 Lexington Ave., N. Y. Schell, F. Robert Seabury, Rev. Dr. Wm. Jones Sebring-, William C. Seelye, Elwyn Sexton, Mrs. Pliny T. Sexton, Hon. Pliny T. Sidway, Mrs. Frank St. John Sills, Dr. Qiarles Morton Sill, Dr. Frederick S. Silver, Dr. John Archer Simpson, John Boulton Sims, Charles N. Shedden, Hon. Lucian L. Shephard, Dr. Edward M. Sheer, Rev. Thomas R. Smith, Wm. Alex. Smith, T. Guilford Smith, James F. Spencer, Dr. Chas. W. Stackpole, George F. State Normal and Training School Stearns, Rev. W. O. Steele, Mrs. Esther B. Stevens, Rev. Dr. C. Ellis, Stevens, Benjamin F. Stieglitz, Edward Stilwell, Giles H. Stillman, Dr. William Olin Stone, Col. William L. Tefft, Richard C. Temple, Truman R. 280 Broadway, N. Y. 8 Chelsea Sq., N. Y. Kingston, N. Y. Lake George. Palmyra. Palmyra. 37 Oakland Place, Buffalo. Geneva. 169 M'ohawk St., Cohoes. Geneva. 1170 Broadway, N. Y. Liberty, Indiana. Plattsburg'h. Lake George. New York City. 412 Madison Ave., N. Y. Buffalo. South Hartford. Princeton, N. J. Riverhead. Plattsburgh. Glens Falls. 352 W. Clinton St., Elmira. Ill Montague St., Brooklyn. Bbston, Mass. Bolton. 1906 W. Genesee St., Syracuse. 287 State St., Albany. Mt. Vernon. Sandy Hill. Granville. MEMBERS. 2H Upson, Mrs. Lydia F. Glens Falls. Vanderveer, Dr. A. 28 Eagle St., Albany. Van Hee, Daniel L. Rochester. Vann, Hon. Irving G. Syracuse. Van Wornier, Rodney Argyle. Vynne, Mrs. Emma M. Hague. Wait, William Kinderhook. Wakeman, Abram 136 Front St., N. Y. Wallander, A. W. Mt. Vernon. Waller, Rev. Henry D. Flushing. Warren, E. Burgess Lake George. Watrous, Harry W. Hague. Watrous, Mrs.' Harry W. Hague and 352 Lexington Ave- nue, N. Y. Watson, Col. James T. Clinton. Webster, Dr. W. B. Schuylerville. Welch, Miss J. M. 76 Johnson Park, Buffalo. West, Chandler A. Lake George, West, Elmer J. Glens Falls. Westover, Myron N. Schenectady. Wetmore, Edmond 34 Pine St., N. Y. Wicker, Miss Julia Frances Ticonderoga. Willey, Rev. John H. 466 East i8th St., Brooklyn. Williams, Dr. Sherman Glens Falls. Williams, Charles H. 6qo Delaware Ave., Buffalo. Willis, James D. 40 East 39th St., N. Y. Wilson, Henry Applegate 574 Madison St., Brooklyn. Wing, Asahel'R. Fort Edward. Wright, Miss Abbie A. Sandy Hill. Woodruff, Hon. Timothy L. 8th Ave. and i8th St., Brooklyn. Woodard, Hon. John Appellate Division, Brooklyn. Worden, Edwin J. Lake George. Wyckoff, Alice Brooks Elmira. The Secretary will thank members for corrections to this list. 55. S3' i J' '<}• ^ 3 /? FOOTPRINTS OF THE RED MEN. Indian Geographical Names IN THE VALLEY OF HUDSON'S RIVER. THE VALLEY OF THE MOHAWK, AND ON THE DELAWARE: THEIR LOCATION AND THE PROBABLE MEANING OF SOME OF THEM. E. M. RUTTENBER, Author of " History of the Indian Tribes of Hudson's River." " Indian place-names are not proper names, that is unmeaning words, but significant appellatives each conveying a description of the locality to which it belongs."— Trz^w^z^//. PUBLISHED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE 1Rew IPcrl? State Ibietoiical Hssociation. Copyrighted by the NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 1906. Primary Explanations. The locatives of the Indian geographical names which have been handed down as the names of boundmarks or of places or tribes, are properly a subject of study on the part of all who would be familiar with the aboriginal geography of a district or a state. In many cases these names were quite as designative of geographical cen- ters as are the names of the towns, villages and cities which have been substituted for them. In some cases they have been wisely retained, while the specific places to which they belonged have been lost. In this work special effort has been made, first, to ascertain the places to which the names belonged as given in ofiicial records, to ascertain the physical features of those places, and carry back the thought to the poetic period of our territorial history, " when the original drapery in which nature was enveloped under the dominion of the laws of vegetation, spread out in one vast, continuous interm- inable forest," broken here and there by the opened patches of corn- lands and the wigwams and villages of the redmen ; secondly, to ascertain the meanings of the aboriginal names, recognizing fully that, as Dr. Trumbull wrote, " They were not proper names or mere unmeaning marks, but significant appellatives conveying a descrip- tion of the locatives to which they were given." Coming down to us in the crude orthographies of traders and unlettered men, they are not readily recognized in the orthographies of the educated mis- sionaries, and especially are they disguised by the varying powers of the German, the French, and the English alphabets in which they were written by educated as well as by uneducated scribes, and by traders who were certainly not very familiar with the science of representing spoken sounds by letters. In one instance the same name appears in forty-nine forms by different writers. Many names, however, 'have been recognized under missionary standards and their meanings satisfactorily ascertained, aided by the features of the localities to which they were applied ; the latter, indeed, con- 4 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. tributing very largely to their interpretation. Probably the reader will find geographical descriptions that do not apply to the places where the name is now met. The early settlers made many transfers as well as extensions of names from a specific place to a large district of country. It must be remembered that original ap- plications were specific to the places which they described even though they were generic and applicable to any place where the same features were referred to. The locatives in Indian deeds and in original patents are the only guide to places of original applica- tion, coupled with descriptive features where they are know;i. No vocabularies of the dialects spoken in the lower valley of the Hudson having been preserved, the vocabularies of the Upper- Unami and the Minsi-Lenape, or Delaware tongues on the south and west, and the Natick, or Massachusetts, on the north and east, have been consulted for explanations by comparative inductive methods, and also orthographies in other places, the interpretations of which have been establisihed by competent linguists. In all cases where the meaning of terms has been particularly questioned, the best expert authority has been consulted. While positive accuracy is not asserted in any case, it is believed t?hat in most cases the inter- pretations which have been given may be accepted as substantially correct. There is no poetry in them — no " glittering waterfalls, ' no " beautiful rivers," no '' smile of the Great Spirit," no " Holy place of sacred feasts and dances," but plain terms thit have their equivalents in our own language for a small hill, a hig'li hili, a moun- tain, a brook, a creek, a kill, a river, a pond, a lake, a swamp, a large stone, a place of small stones, a split rock, a meadow, or whatever the objective feature may have been as recognized by the Indian. Many of them were particular names in the form of verbals indi- cating a place wiiere the action of the verb was performed ; occasion- ally the name of a sachem is given as that of his place of residence or the stream on whidh he resided, but all are from generic roots. To the Algonquian dialects spoken in the valle}" of Hudson's River at the time of the discovery, was added later the Mohawk- Iroquorian, to some extent, more particularly on the north, where it appears about 1621-6, as indicated in the blanket deed given by the Five Nations to King George in 1726. Territorially, in the primary era of European invasion, the Eastern Algonquian pre- PRIMARY EXPLANATIONS. 5 vailed, in varying idioms, on both sides of the river, from a northern point to the Katskills, and from thence south to the Highlands a type of the Unami-Minsi-Lenape or Delaware. That spoken around New York on both sides of the river, was classed by the early Dutch writers as Manhattan, as distinguished from dialects in the High- lands and from fhe Savano or dialects of the East New England coast. North of the Highlands on both sides of the river, they classed the dialect as Wapping, and from the Katskills north as Mahican or IMohegan, preserved in part in what is known as the Stockbridge. Presumably the dialects were more or less mixed and formed as a whole what may be termed " The Hudson's River Dia- lect," radically Lenape or Delaware, as noted by Governor Tryon in 1774. In local names we seem to meet the Upper-Unami and the Minsi of New Jersey, and the Mohegan and the Natick of the north and east, the Oniripi of tlie Sound, and the dialect of the Connecticut \'alley. In the belt of country south of the Katskills they were soft and vocalic, the lingual mute t frequently appearing and r taking the place of the Eastern / and n. In the Minsi (Del.) Zeisberger wrote / invariably, as distinguished from r, which ap- pears in the earliest local names in the valley of the Hudson. Other dialectic peculiarities seem to appear in the exchange of the sonant g for the hard sound of the surd mute k, and of p for g, s for g, and / for d, st for gk, etc. Initials are badly mixed, presumably due in part at least, to the habit of Indian speakers in throwing the sound of the word forward to the penult ; in some cases to the lack of an " Indian ear " on the part of the hearer. In structure all Algonquian dialects are Polysynthetic, i. e., words composed wholly or in part ofother words or generic roots. Pro- nunciations and inflections dififer as do the words in meaning in many cases. In all dialects the most simple combinations appear in geographical names, whidh the late Dr. J. H. Trumbull resolved into three classes, viz. : " I. Those formed by the union of two elements, which we will call adjectwal and substantival, or ground- word, with or without a locative suffix, or post-position word mean- ing 'at,' "'in,' 'on,' 'near,' etc. [I use the terms 'adjectival' and ' iuibstantival,' because no true adjectives or substantives enter into the composition of Algonquian names. The adjectival may be an adverb or a preposition ; the substantival elem'ent is often a verbal, O INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. which serves in composition as a generic name, but whidi cannot be used as an independent word — the synthesis always retains the verbal form.] II. Those which have a single element, the substan- tival, or ground-word, with locative suffix. III. Those formed from verbs as participials or verbal nouns, denoting a place where the action of the verb is performed. Most of these latter, however," he adds, " may be shoAvn by strict analysis to belong to one of the two preceding classes, which compri.se at least nine-tenths of all Algonquian local names which have been preserved." For example, in Class 1, Wapan-aki is a combination of Wapan, " the Orient," " the East," and oiki, " Land, place or country," unlimited; with locative suffix {-ng, Del., -it, Mass.), "In the East Land or Coun- try." Kit-ann-ing, Del., is a composition from Kitschi, '" Chief, principal, greatest," hanne, '' river," and ing locative, and reads, " A place at or on the largest river." The suffix -aki, -acki, -hacki, Del., meaning " Land, place, or country, unlimited," in Eastern orthog- raphies -oJike, -anke -ague, -ke, -ki, etc., is changed to -kamik, or -kamike, Del., -kamnk or -komuk, Mass., in describing " Land or place limited," or enclosed, a particular place, as a field, garden, and also used for house, thicket, etc. The Eastern post-position locatives are -it, -et, -at, -iit; the Delaware, -ng, -nk, with connecting vowel -ing -ink, -ong, -onk, -ung, -unk, etc. The meaning of this class of suffixes is the same ; they locate a place or object that is at, in, or on some other place or object, the name of Which is prefixed, as in Delaware Hitgunk, " On or to a tree ;" Utenink, " In the town ;" Wachtschunk, " On the mountain." In some cases the loca- tive takes the verbal form indicating place or country. Williams wrote " Sachimauonck, a Kingdom or Monarchy." Dr. School- craft wrote: "From Ojihwai (Chippeway) is formed Ojih-wain- ong, ' Place of the Chippeways ; Monominikaun-ing' ' In the place of wild rice.' " Dr. Brinton wrote " Walum-ink, ' The place of paint.' " The letter s, preceding the locative, changes the meaning of the latter to near, or something less than at or on. The suffixes -is, -it, -OS, -es mean " Small," as in Menates or Menatit, " Small island." The locative affix cannot be applied to an animal in the sense of at, in, on, to. There are many formative inflections and suffixes indicating the plural, etc. Mohawk or Iroquoian names, while polysynthetic, differ from PRIMARY EXPLANATIONS. 7 Alg'onquian in construction. " The adjective," wrote Horatio Hale, " when employed in an isolated form, follows the substantive, as Kanoiisa, ' house ;' Kanonsa-kowa, ' large house ;' but in general the substantive and adjective coalesce." In some cases the adjective is split in two, and the substantive inserted, as in Tiogen, a composition of Te, " two," and ogen, " to separate," which is split and the word ononte, " mountain," or hill, inserted, forming Te-ononte-ogen, " Be- tween two mountains." " The local relations of nouns are expressed by affixed particles, such as ke, ne, kon, akon, akta. Thus from Ononta, mountain, we have Onontdkc, at (or to) the mountain; from Akchrat dish, Akehrdtne, in or on the dish," etc. From the variety of its forms and combinations it is a more difficult language than the Algonquian. No European has fully mastered it. No attempt has been made to correct record orthographies fur- ther than to give their probable missionary equivalents where they can be recognized. In many cases crude orthographies have con- verted them into unknown tongues. Imperfect as many of them are and without standing in aboriginal glossaries, they have become place names that may not be disturbed. No two of the early scribes expressed the sound of the same name in precisely the same letters, and even the missionaries who gave attention to the study of tbe aboriginal tongues, did not always write twice alike. Original sounds cannot now be restored. The diacritical marks employed by Williams and Eliot in the English alphabet, and by Zeisberger and Heckewelder in the German alphabet, are helpful in pronun- ciations, but as a rule the corrupt local record orthographies are a law unto themselves. In quoting diacritical marks the forms of the learned linguists who gave their idea of how the word was pro- nounced, have been followed. It is not, however, in the power of diacritical marks or of any European alphabet to express correctly the sound of an Algonquian or of an Iroquoian word as it was orig- inally spoken, or write it in European characters. Practically, every essential element in pronunciation is secured by separating lihe forms into words or parts of words, or particles, of which it is composed, (where the original elements of the composition cannot be detected) by syllabalizing on the vowel sounds. An anglicized vocalism of any name may be readily established and an original name formed in American nomenclature, as many names in current use amply il- 8 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. lustrates. Few would suspect uliat Ochsechraga (Mohawk) was the original of Saratoga, or that P'tuk-sepo (Lenape) was the original of Tuxedo. A considerable number of record names have been included that are not living. They serve to illustrate the dialect spoken in the valley as handed down by European scribes of different languages, as well as the local geography of the Indians. The earlier forms are mainly Dutch notations. A few Dutch names that are regard- ed by some as Indian, have been noticed, and also some Indian names on the Delaware River which, from the associations of that river with the history of the State, as in part one of its boundary streams, as well as the intimate associations of the names with the history of the valley of Hudson's River, become of especial interest, In the arrangement of names geographical association has been adopted in preference to the alphabetical, the latter being supplied by index. This arrangement seems to bring together dialectic groups more satisfactorily. That there were many variations in the dialects spoken in the valle}- of Hudson's River no one will deny, but it may be asserted with confidence that the difference between the German and the English alphabets in renderings is more marked than differences in dialects. In so far as the names have been brought together they form the only key to the dialects which were spoken in the valley. Their grammatical treatment is the work of skilled philologists. Credit has been given for interpretations where the authors were known, and especially to the late eminent Algonquian authority, J. Hammond Trumbull. Special acknowledgment of valuable as- sistance is made to the late Dr. D. G. Brinton, of Philadelphia ; to the late Horatio Hale, M. A., of Clinton, Ontario, Canada ; to the late Prof. J. W. Powell, of the Bureau of Ethnology, Washington, D. C, and his successor, William H. Holmes, and their co-laborers, Dr. Albert S. Gatschet and J. B. N. Hewitt, and to Mr. William R. Gerard, of New York. The compilation of names and the ascertaining of their locatives and probable meanings has interested me. Where those names have been preserved in place they are certain descriptive landmarks above all others. The results of my amateur labors may be useful to others in the same field of inquiry as well as to professional PRIMARY EXPLANATIONS. 9 linguists. Primarily the work was not undertaken with a view to publication. Gentlemen of the New York Historical Association, with a view to preserve what has been done, and which may never be again undertaken, have asked the manuscript for publication, and it has been given to them for that purpose. E. M. RUTTENBER. Newburgh, January, 1906. INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. Hudson's River and Its Islands. Muhheakun'nuk, " The great waters or sea, which are constant- ly in motion, either ebbing or flowing," was written by Chief Hen- drick Aupaumut, in his history of the Muhheakun'nuk nation, as the name of Hudson's River, in the Stockbridge diailect, and its meaning. The first word, Muhheakun, was the national name of the people occupying both banks of the river from Roelof Jansen's Kill, a few miles south of Catskill, on the east side of the river, north and east with limit not known, and the second -mik, the equivalent of Massachusetts -ink, Lenape -ittuk, " Tidal river, or estuary," or " Waters driven by waves or tides," with the accessory meaning of " great." Literally, in application, " The great tidal river of the Muhheakan'neuw nation." The Dutch wrote the national name Mahikan, Maikan, etc., and the English of Connecticut wrote Mo- hegan, which was claimed by Drs. Schoolcraft and Trumbull to be derived from Maingan (Cree Maheggun), " Wolf " — " an enchanted wolf, or a wolf of supernatural powers." From their prevailing totem or prevailing coat-of-arms, the Wolf, the French called them Loups, " wolves," and also Manhingans, including under the names " The nine nations gathered between Manhattan and Quebec." WTiile the name is generic its application to Hudson's River was probably confined to the vicinity of Albany, where Chief Aupaumut located their ancient capital under the name of Pem-po-tow-wut-hut Muh-hea-kan-neiiw, " The fire-place of the Muh-hea-kan-nuk na- tion." ^ The Dutch found them on both sides of the river north of Catskill, with extended northern and eastern alliances, and south of that point, on the east side of the river, in alliance with a tribe known as Wappans or Wappings, Wappani, or " East-side people," the two nations forming the Mahikan nation of Hudson's River as known in history. (See Wahamensing.) ^ Presumed to have been at what is now known as Schodac, which see 12 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. Father Jogues, the French-Jesuit martyr-missionary, wrote in 1646, Oi-o-gne as the Huron-Iroquoian name of the river, given to him at Sarachtoga, with the connection " At the river." " Ohioge, river ; Ohioge-son, at the long river," wrote Bruyas. Arent van Curler wrote the same name, in 1634, Vyoge, and gave it as that of the Mohawk River, correcting the orthography, in his vocabulary, to " Oyoghi, a kill " or channel. It is an Iroquoian generic applica- ble to any principal stream or current river, with the ancient related meaning of " beautiful river." It is said that the M'Ohawks called the river Cohohataton. I have not met that name in records. It was quoted by Dr. School- craft as traditional, and of course doubtful. He wrote it Kohatatea, and in another connection wrote " -atea, a valley or landscape," It is suspected that he coined the name, as he did many others. Shate- muck is quoted as a Mohegan^ name, but on very obscure evidence, although it may have been the name of an eel fishing-place, or a great fis'hing-place {-amaug). Hudson called the stream "The River of the Mountains." On some ancient maps it is called " Man- hattans River." The Dutch authorities christened it " Mauritus' River " in honor of their Staat-holder, Prince Maurice. The Eng- lis'h recognized the work of the explorer by conferring the title '* Hudson's River." It is a fact established that Verrazano visited New York harbor in 1524, and gave to the river the name " Riviere Grande," or Great River ; that Estevan Gomez, a Spanish navigator who followed Verrazano in 1525, called it " St. Anthony's River," a name now preserved as that of one of the hills of the Highlands, and it is claimed tihat French traders visited the river, in 1540, and established a chateau on Castle- Island, at Albany," and called the ^ " Mohegavis is an anglicism primarily applied to the small band of Pe- quots under Uncas.'"' (Trumbull.) While of the same linguistic stock, neither the name or the history of Uncas's clan should be confused with that of the Mahicani of Hudson's River. ^ Introduced by the Dutch — Kasteel. The Indians had no such word. The Delawares called a house or hut or a town that was palisaded, Moenach, and Zeisberger used the same word for " fence " — an inclosure palisaded around. Eliot wrote Wonkonous, " fort." ^ It is claimed that the walls of this fort were found by Hendrick Chris- tiansen, in 1614; that they were measured by him and found to cover an area of 58 feet ; that the fort was restored by the Dutch and occupied by them until they were driven out by a freshet, occasioned by the breaking up of the ice in the river in the spring of 1617; that the Dutch then built what was HUDSON'S RIVER, 1609. (From Hudson's Chart.) / HUDSON S RIVER AND ITS ISLANDS. 13 river " Norumbega." It may be conceded that possibly French traders did have a post on Castle Island, but " Norumbega " was obviously conferred on a wide district of country. It is an Abnaki term and belonged to the dialect spoken in Maine, where it became more or less familiar to French traders as early as 1535. That those traders did locate trading posts on the Penobscot, and that Champlain searched for their remains in 1604, ^^e facts of record. The name means " Quiet " or " Still Water." It would probably be applicable to that section of Hudson's River known as " Still- water," north of Albany, but the evidence is wanted that it was so applied. Had it been applied by the tribes to any place on Hudson's River, it would have remained as certainly as Menate remained at New York. Manhattan, now so written, does not appear in the Journal of Hudson's exploration of the river in 1609. On a Spanish-English map of 1610, " Made for James I," and sent to Philip III by Velasco in letter of March 22, 1611,^ Mannahafin is written as the name of the east side of the river, and Mannahata as that of the west side. From the former Manhattan, and from it also the name of the In- dians " among whom " the Dutch made settlement in 1623-4, other- Avise known by the general name of Wickqnaskecks, as well as the name of the entire Dutch possessions.* Presumably the entries on the Spanish-English map were copied from Hudson's chart, for which there was ample time after his return to England. Possibly they may have been copied by Hudson, who wrote that his voyage "' had been suggested " by some " letters and maps " which " had been sent to him " by Capt. Smith from Virginia. Evidently the no- tations are English, and evidently, also, Hudson, or his mate, Juet, subsequently known as Fort Orange, at the mouth of the Tawalsentha, or Norman's Kill, about two miles south of the present State street, Albany, and that Castle Island took that name from the French chateau — all of which is possible, but for conclusive reasons why it should not be credited, the student may consult "Norumbega" in Winsor's "Narrative and Critical History of America." Wrote Dr. Trumbull : " Theuet, in La Cosmographte Universella, gives an account of his visit, in 1656, to ' one of the finest rivers in the whole world, which we call Norumbeque, and the aboriginees Agoncy,' now Penobscot Bay." * Brown's " Genesis of the United States," 327, 457, 459, ii, 80. ' Colonial History of New York. 14 .NDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. had a chart from his own tracing or from that of a previous ex- plorer, which he forwarded to his employers, or of which they had a copy, when he wrote in his Journal : " On that side of the river called MannaJiata," as a reference by which his employers could identify the side of the river on which the Half-Moon anchored,^ Presumably the chart was drawn by Hudson and forwarded with his report, and that to him belongs the honor of reducing to an orthographic form the first aboriginal name of record on the river which now bears his name. Five years after Hudson's advent Adriaen Block wrote Manhates as the name of what is now New York Island, and later, De Vries wrote Manates as the name of Staten Island, both forms having the same meaning, i e., " Small island." There have been several interpretations of Mannahatin, the most analytical and most generally accepted being by the late Dr. J. H. Trumbull: "From Menatey (Del.), 'Island' — Mannah- ata * The Island,' the reference being to the main land or to Long Island as the large island. Menatan (Hudson's Mannah-atin, -an or -in^ the indefinite or diminutive form), 'The small island,' or the smaller of the two principal islands, the Manhates of Adriaen Block.* Mandhtans. ' People of the Island,' Mandhatanesen, ' People of the small islands.' " ^ The Eastern-Algonquian word for " Island " (English notation), is written Munnoh, with formative -an (Mun- nohan). It appears of record, occasionally, in the viciniity of New York, presumably introduced by interpreters or English scribes. The usual form is the Lenape Menate. Chippeway Minnis, " Small island," classed also as Old Algonquian, or generic, may be met in the valley of the Hudson, but the instances are not clear. It is simply a dialectic equivalent of Del. Menates. (See Monadi'nong.) Van Curler wrote in his Mohawk vocabulary (1635), " Kanon- newaga, Manhattan Island." The late J. W. Powell, Director of the Bureau of Ethnology, wrote me : " In the alphabet of this of- ^ Hudson anchored in the bay near Hoboken. Near by his anchorage he noticed that " there was a cliff that looked of the color of white green." This cliff is near Elysian Fields at Hoboken. (Broadhead.) The cliff is now known as Castle Point. ' The reference to Adriaen Block is presumably to the "Carte Figurative" of 1614-16, now regarded as from Block's chart. • " Composition of Indian Geographical Names," p. 22. HUDSON S RIVER AND ITS ISLANDS. 1 5 fice the name may be transliterated Kanonnb' ge. It signifies ' Place of Reeds,' " Perhaps what was known as the " Reed Valley " was referred to, near which Van Twiiller had a tobacco plantation where the Indians of all nations came to trade. (See Saponickan.) The lower part of the island was probably more or less a district of reed swamps. Pagganck, so written in Indian deed of 1637, as the name of Governor's Island — Peconuc, Denton/ is an equivalent of Pagdn'nak, meaning literally " Nut Island." Also written Pachgan, as in Pach- ganunschi, "White walnut trees." (Zeisb.) Denton explained, " Because excellent nut trees grew there." ^ The Dutch called it " der Nooten Eilandt," literally " The Walnut Island," from whence the modern name, " Nutten Island." The island was purchased from the Indian owners by Director Wouter van Twiller, from whose occupation, and its subsequent use as a demense of the governors of the Province, its present name. Minnisais is not a record name. It was conferred on Bedloe's Island by Dr. Schoolcraft from the Ojibwe or Chippeway dialect,* in which it means " Small island." Kiosh, or *•' Gull Island," was conferred on Ellis Island by Dr. Schoolcraft from the Ojibwe dialect. The interpretation is correct presumably. Tenkenas is of record as the Indian name of what is now ^ Denton's " Description of New York," p. 29. Ward's and Blackwell's islands were sold to the Dutch by the Marechawicks, of Long Island, in 1636-7. Governor's Island was sold in the same year by the Tappans, Hack- insacks and Nyacks, the grantors signing themselves as " hereditary owners." Later deeds were signed by chiefs of the Raritans and Hackinsacks. ^The Objibwe (Objibwai) were a nation of three tribes living northwest of the great lakes, of which the Ojibwai or Chippeway represented the Eagle totem. It is claimed by some writers that their language stands at the head of the Algonquian tongues. This claim is disputed on behalf of the Cree, the Shawanoe, and the Lenape or Delaware. It is not assumed that Ojibwe (Chippeway) terms are not Algonquian, but that they do not strictly belong to the dialects of the Hudson's river families. Rev. Hecke- welder saw no particular difference between the Ojibwe and the Lenape except in the French and the English forms. Ojibwe terms may always be quoted in explanations of the Lenape. l6 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. known as Ward's Island/ It appears in deed of 1636-7. It means "Small island," from Tenke (Len.), "little." Monatun was conferred by Dr. Schoolcraft on the whirlpool off Hallet's Cove, with the explanation, " A word conveying in its multiplied forms the various meanings of violent, forcible, danger- ous, etc." Dr. Schoolcraft introduced the word as the derivative of Manhatan, Which, however, is very far from being explained by it. Hell-gate, a. vulgar orthography of Dutch Hellegat, has long been the popular name of the place. It was conferred by Adriaen Block, in 1614-16, to the dangerous strait known as the East River, from a strait in Zealand, which, presumably, was so called from Greek Helle, as heard in Hellespont — " Sea of Helle " — now known as the Dardanelles — which received its Greek name from Helle, daugliter of Athamas, King of Thebes, who, the fable tells us, was drovred in passing oyer it. Probably the Dutch sailors regarded the strnit as the " Gate of Hell," but that is not the meaning of the name — " a dangerous strait or passage." In some records the strait is called Hurlgate, from Dutdi Warrcl, " Whirl," and gat, " Hole, gap, mouth " — substantially, '' a whirlpool." Monachnong, deed to De Vries, 1636; Mediates, De Vries's Journal; Ehquaons (Eghquaous, Brodhead, by mistake in the letter n), deed of 1655, and Aquehonge-Monachnong, deed to Governor Lovelace, 1670, are forms of the names given as that of Staten Island, and are all from Lenape equivalents. Meimtes means " Small island " as a whole ; Monach'nong means a " Place on the island," or less than the whole, as shown by the claims of the In- dians in 1670, that they had not previously sold all the island. (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 453.) It is the equivalent of Menach'hen, Minsi ; Menach'n, Abn., " Island," and ong, locative ; in Mass. Munnoh-han- auke. (See Mannhonake.) Eghquaons and Aquehonga are equiv- alents, and also equivalents of Achquoanikan-ong, " Bushnet fishing- place," of which Acquenonga is an alternate in New Jersey. (Nel- son's " Indians of New Jersey," 122.) In other words, the Indians ^ The Dutch called the island Onvruchtbaar, " Unfruitful, barren." The English adopted the signification, " Barren," which soon became corrupted to " Barrent's," to which was added " Great " to distinguish it from Randal's Island, which was called " Little Barrent's Island." Barn Island is another corruption. Both islands were " barren " no doubt. HUDSON S RIVER AND ITS ISLANDS. 1 7 conveyed places on the island, including specifically their " bushnet fishing--place," and by the later deed to Lovelace, conveyed all un- sold places. The island was owned by the Raritans who resided " behind the Kol," and the adjoining Hackensacks. (Deed of 1655.) Its last Indian occupants were the Nyacks, who removed to it after selling their lands at New Utrecht. (See Paganck note.) Minnahanock, given as the name of Blackwell's Island, was in- terpreted by Dr. Trumbull from Munnohan,, Mass., the indefinite form of Munnoh, " Island," and auke, Mass., " Land " or place. Dr. O'Callaghan's "Island home," is not in the composition. (See Mannhonake.) On Manhattan Island. Kapsee, Kapsick, etc., the name of what was the extreme point of land between Hudson's River and the East River, and still known as Copsie Point, was claimed by Dr. Schoolcraft to be Algonquian, and to mean, " Safe place of landing," which it may have been. The name, however, is pretty certainly a corruption of Dutch Kaap- hoekje, " A little cape or promontory." Saponickan and Sapohanican are the earliest forms of a name which appears later Sappokanican, Sappokanikke, Saponican, Shaw- backanica, Taponkanico, etc. " A piece of land bounded on the north by the strand road, called Saponickan " ( 1629) ; " Tobacco plantation near Sapohanican" (1639) ; "Plantation situate against the Reed Valley beyond Sappokanican" (1640). Wouter van Twiller purchased the tract, in 1629, for the use of the Dutch gov- ernment and established thereon a tobacco plantation, with build- ings enclosed in palisade, which subsequently became known as " the little village of Sapokanican — Sappokanican, Van der Donck — and later (1721) as Greenwich Village. It occupied very nearly the site of the present Gansevort market. The " Strand road " is now Greenwich Street. It was primarily, an Indian path along the shore of the river north, with branches to Harlem and other points, the main path continuing the trunk-path through Raritan Valley, but locally beginning at the " crossing-place," or, as the i8 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. record reads, " Where the Indians cross [the Hudson] to bring t!heir pelteries." ' " South of Van Twiller's plantation was a marsh much affected by wild-fowl, and a bright, quick brook, called by the Dutch ' Bestavar's Kil,' and by the English ' Manetta Water.' " ' (Half-Moon Series.) Saponickan was in place here when Van Twiller made his purchase (1629), as the record shows, and was adopted by him as the name of his settlement. To what feature it referred cannot be positively stated, but apparently to the Reed Valley or marsh. It has had several interpretations, but none that are satisfactory. The syllable pon may denote a bulbous root which was found there. (See Passapenoc.) The same name is probably met in Saphorakan, or Saphonakan, given as the name of a tract described as " Marsh and canebrake," lying near or on the shore of Gowanus Bay, Brooklyn. (See Kanonne'wage, in connection with Manhattan.) Nahtonk, Recktauck, forms of the name, or of two different names, of Corlear's Hook, may signify, abstractively, " Sandy Point," as has been interpreted; but apparently, Nahtonk^ is from Nd-i, "a. point or corner," and Rechtauck from Lekau (Requa), * " Through this valley pass large numbers of all sorts of tribes on their waj'^ north and east." (Van Tienhoven, 1650.) "Where the Indians cross to bring their pelteries.'" (De Laet, 1635.) The crossing-place is now known .as Pavonia. The path crossed the Spuyten Duyvil at Harlem and extended along the coast east. To and from it ran many " paths and roads " on Man- hattan, which, under the grant to Van Twiller, were to " forever remain for the use of the inhabitants." The evidence of an Indian village at or near the landing is not tangible. The only village or settlement of which there is any evidence was that which gathered around Van Twiller's plantation, which was a noted trading post for " all sorts of tribes." ^ Bestevaar (Dutch) means "Dear Father," and Manetta (Manittoo, Al- gonquian), means, " That which surpasses, or is more than ordinary." Water •of more than ordinary excellence. (See Manette.) ' Naghtonk (Benson); Nahtonk (Schoolcraft); Rechtauck (record). It Avas to the' huts which were located here to which a clan of Long Island In- dians fled for protection, in February, 1643, and were inhumanly murdered by the Dutch. The record reads : " Where a few Rockaway Indians from Long Island, with their chief, Niande Nummerus, had built their wigwams." (Brodhead.) "And a party of freemen behind Corlear's plantation, on the Manhattans, who slew a large number and afterwards burned their huts.'' The name of the Chief, Niande Nummcms, is corrupted from the Latin Ni- canda Numcicus. the name of a Roman gens- De Vries wrote, " Hummerus, a Rockaway chief, who I knew." * See Rechqua-hackie. " The old Harlem creek, on Manhattan Island, was called Rechawanes, or ' Small, sandy river.' " (Gerard.) ON MANHATTAN ISLAND. 1 9 '■ Sand gravel '" — a " sandy place." It was a sandy point with a beach, entered, on English maps, " Crown Point." Warpoes is given as the name of " a small hill " on the east side and " near ye fresh water " lake or pond called the Kolk (Dutch "p'it-hole "), which occupied several acres in the neighborhood of Centre Street.' The Indian name is that of the narrow pass be- tween the Jiill and the pond, which it described as " small " or nar- row. (See Raphoos.) In the absence of record names, the late Dr. Schoolcraft con- ferred, on several points, terms from the Ojibwe or Chippeway, which may be repeated as descriptive merely. A hill at the corner of Charlton and Varick streets was called by him Ishpatinau, '"A bad hill." ^ A ridge or cliff north of Beekman Street, was called Ishibic, " A bad rock ;" the high land on Broadway, Acitoc ; a rock rising up in the Battery, Abie, and Mount Washington, Penabic, " The comb mountain." The descriptions are presumably correct, but the fea- tures no longer exist. Muscota is given as the name of the " plain or meadow " known later as Montague's Flat, between io8th and 124th streets. (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiv.) It also appears as the name of a hill, and in Muskuta as that of the great fiat on the north side of the Spuyten Duivel. " The first point of the main land to the east of the island Papirinimen, there where the hill Muskuta is." The hill takes the name from the meadows which it describes. " Moskehtu, a meadow." (Eliot.) Papinemen (1646), Pahparinnamen (1693), Papirinimen (modern), are forms of the Indian name used interchangeably by the Dutch with Spuyten Duivel to designate a place where the tide- overflow of the Harlem River is turned aside by a ridge and unites with Tibbet's Brook, constituting what is known as the Spuyten Duivel Kill, correctly described by Riker in his " History of Har- lem " : " The narrow kill called by the Indians Pahparinamen, ' ■' By ye edge of ye hill by ye fresh water." (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 17.) The Dutch name ran mto' Kalch, Kolack and Collect, and in early rec- ords " Kalch-hock." from its peculiar shape, resembling a fish-hook. '"At ye sand Hills near the Bowery." (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 17.) Ishpctong'a was given by the same writer to Brooklyn Heights, with the ex- planation '•' High, sandy banks." but the term does not describe ^he character of the elevation. (See Espating.) 20 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. which, winding around the northerly end of JManhattan, connected the Spuyten Duyvil with the Great Kill or Harlem River, gave its name to the land contiguous to it on either side." The locative of the name is clearly shown in the boundaries of the Indian deed to Van der Donck, in 1646, and in the subsequent Philipse Patent of 1693, the former describing the south line of the lands conveyed as extending from the Hudson " to Papinemen, called by our people Spuyten Duivel," and the latter as extending to and including " the neck, island or hummock, Pahparinnamen," on the north side of the passage, at which point, in the early years of Dutch occupancy^ a crossing place or '' wading place " was found which had been utilized by the Indians for ages, and of which Jasper Bankers and Peter Sluyter wrote, in 1679-80, " They can go over this creek, at dead or low water, upon the rocks a"id reefs, at a place called Spuyt ten Duyvel." From this place the name was extended to the " island or hummock " and to what was called " the Papirinameno Patent," at the same point on the south side of the stream, to which it was claimed to belong in 1701. Mr. Riker's assignment of the name to the Spuyten Duivel passage is probably correct. The " neck, island or hummock " was a low elevation in a salt marsh or meadow. It was utilized as a landing place by the Indians whose path ran from thence across the marsh " to the main." Later, the path was converted to a causeway or road-approach to what is still known as King's Bridge, A ferry was established here in 1669 and known as " The Spuyten Duyvil passage or road to and from the island to the main." In 1692 Governor Andros gave power to the city of New York to build a bridge " over the Spiken devil ferry," and the cit}^, with the consent of the Governor, transferred the grant to Frederick Philipse. In giving his consent the Gover- nor made the condition that the bridge " should thenceforth be known and called King's Bridge," It was made a free bridge in 1758-9. The " island or hummock " came to be the site of the noted Macomb mansion. The name has not been satisfactorily translated. Mr. Riker wrote, "Where the stream closes," or is broken ofif, recognizing the locative of the name. Ziesberger wrote, Papinanien, " Di- verting," turning aside, to go different ways ; accessorily, that which diverts or turns aside, and place where the action of the verb is ON MANHATTAN ISLAND. 2 1 performed. Where the Harlem is turned aside or diverted, would be a literal description. Spuyten Duyvil, now so written, was the early Dutch nickname of the Papirinimen ford or passage, later known as King's Bridge. "' By our people called," wrote Van der Donck in 1652, indicating conference by the Dutch prior to that date. It simply described the passage as evil, vicious, dangerous. Its derivatives are Spui, *' sluice ;" Spidt, " spout ;" Spiiiten, " to spout, to squirt, to dis- charge with force," as a waterspout, or water forced through a nar- row passage. Duyvil is a colloquial expression of viciousness. The same name is met on the Mohawk in application to the passage of the stream between two islands near Schenectady. The gen- erally quoted translation, ''Spiiyt den Duyvil, In spite of the Devil," quoted by Brodhead as having been written by Van der Donck, has no standing except in Irving's " Knickerbocker History of New York." Van der Donck never wrote the sentence. He knew, and Brodhead knew, that Spnyt was not Spijt, nor Spuiten stand for Spnitten. The Dutch for "In spite of the Devil," is In Spijt van Duivel. The sentence may have been quoted by Brodhead without examination. It was a popular story that Irving told about one Antony Corlear's declaration that he would swim across the ford at flood tide in a violent storm, " In spite of the devil," but obvious- ly coined in Irving's brain. It may, however, 'had for its founda- tion the antics of a very black and muscular African who was em- ployed to guard the passage and prevent hostile Indians as well as indiscrete Dutchmen from crossing, and wh'o, for the better dis- charge of his duty, 'built fires at night, armed himself with sword and firebrands, vociforated loudly, and acted the character of a devil very well. At all events the African is the only historical devil that had an existence at the ford, and he finally ran away and became merged with the Indians. Spiting Devil, an English corruption, ran naturally into Spitting Devil, and some there are who think that that is a reasonably fair rendering of Dutch Spuiten. They are generally of the class that take in a cant reading with a relish. Shorakkapoch and Shorackappock are orthographies of the name of record as that of the cove into which the Papirinemen dis- charges its waters at a point on the Hudson known as Tubby Hook. It is specifically located in the Philipse charter of 1693 : " A creek 22 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. called Papparinnemeno which divides New York Island from the main land, so along said creek as it runs to Hudson's River, which part is called by the Indians Shorackhappok," /. e. that part of the stream on Hudson's River. In the patent to Hugh O'Neil (1666) : " To the Kill Shorakapoch, and then to Papirinimen," /. e., to the cove and thence east to the Spuyten Duyvil passage. " The beau- tiful inlet called Schorakapok." (Riker.) Dr. Trumbull wrote " Showaukuppock (Mohegan), a cove." William R. Gerard sug- gests " P'skurikuppog (Lenape), 'forked, fine harbor,' so called be- cause it was safely shut in by Tubby Hook,^ and another Hook at the north, the current taking a bend around the curved point of rock (covered at high tide) that forked or divided the harbor at the back." Dr. Brinton wrote : " W'shakuppek, ' Smooth still water ;' pek, a lake, cove or any body of still water ; kup, from kiippi, ' cove.' " Bolton, in his " History of Westchester County," located at the mouth of the stream, on the north side, an Indian fort or castle under the name of Nipinichen, but that name belongs on the west side of the Hudson at Konstable's Hook,- and the narrative of the attack on Hudson's ship in 1609, noted in Juet's Journal, does not warrant the conclusion that there was an Indian fort or castle in the vicinity. A fishing village there may have been. At a later date (1675) the authorities permitted a remnant of the Weckquas- gecks to occupy lands " On the north point of Manhattan Island " (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 494), and the place designated may have been in previous occupation. Names on the East from Manhattan North. Keskeskick, " a pi -ce of land, situated opposite to the flat on the island of Manhattan, called Keskeskick, stretching lengthwise along the Kil which runs behind the island of Manhattan, begin- ning at the head of said Kil and running to opposite of the high hill by the flat, namely by the great hill." (Deed of 1638.) Kax- ' Tubby Hook, Dutch Tobbe Hoeck, from its resemblance to a washtub. ^ Called Konstabelshe's Hoek from a grant of land to one Jacobtis Roy. the Konstabel or gunner at Fort Amsterdam, in 1646. Courtesy of the Four Track News. THE PALISADES FROM YONKERS. NAMES ON THE EAST FROM MANHATTAN NORTH. 23 keek is the orthography of Riker (Hist, of Harlem) ; and Kekesick that of Brodhead (Hist. New York), in addition to which may be quoted Keesick and Keakates, given as the names of what is now known as Long Pond, which formed the southeast boundary of the tract, where was also a salt marsh or meadow. In general terms, the name means a " meadow," and may have been that of this salt marsh (a portion of the name dropped) or of the flat. The root is Kak, " sharp ;"Kdkdkes, " sharp grass," or sedge-marsh ; Sik- kdkaskeg, "salt sedge-marsh." (Gerard.) Miciickaskeete, "a meadow." (Williams.) Muscota, now in use, is another word for meadow. Mannepies is quoted by Riker (Hist. Harlem) as the name of the hilly tract or district of Keskeskick, described as lying " over against the flats of the island of Manhattan." It is now preserved as the name of Cromwell Lake and creek, and seems to have been the name of the former. The original was probably an equivalent of Menuppek, " Any enclosed body of water great or small." (An- thony.) • ' \ \ \'\i Neperah, Nippiroha, Niperan, Nepeehen, Napperhaem, Ar= mepperahin, the latter of date 1642 (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 9), forms of record as the name of Sawmill Creek, and also quoted as the name of the site of the present city of Yonkers, has been trans- lated by Wm. R. Gerard, from the form of 1642 : " A corruption of Ana-nepeheren, that is, ' fishing stream,' or ' fishing rapids.' " Ap- pehan (Eliot), "a. trap, a snare." There was an Indian village on the north side of the stream in 1642. (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 9.) Nepahkomuk, Nappikomack, etc., quoted as the name of a place on Sawmill Creek, and also as the name of an Indian village at Yon- kers, may have been the name of the latter by extension. It has been translated with apparent correctness from Nepe-komuk (Mass.), " An enclosed or occu],ied water-place.' " ^ ^This translations is from Nepe (Ncpa, Nape, Nippe, etc.), meaning "water," generallj^, and Komuk, "place enclosed, occupied, limited," a par- ticular body of water. " The radical of Nipe is pe or pa, which, with the demonstrative and definitive ne prefixed, formed the noun nippe, water." (Trumbull.) Nape-ake i-aukc, -aki) means "Water-land," or water-place. Nape-ek, Del., Nepeauk, Mass., means " Standing water," a lake or pond or a stretch of still water in a river. Menuppek, " Lake, sea, any enclosed body -of water, great or small." (Anthony.) Nebi, nabe, m'bi, be, are dialectic 24 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. Meghkeekassin, the name of a large rock in an obscure nook on the west side of the Neperah, near the Hudson, is written Macackas- sin in deed of 1661. It is from Mechek, Del., " great," and assin' "stone." " Meechek-assin-ik, At the big rock." (Heckewelder.) The name is also of record Amack-assin, a Delaware term of the same general meaning — " Amangi, great, big (in composition Aman- gach), with the accessory notion of terrible, frightful." (Dr. Brin- ton.) Presumably, in application here, " a monster," i. e. a stone not of the native formation usually found in the locality.^ Wickquaskeck is entered on Van der Donck's map as the name of an Indian village or castle the location of which is claimed by Bolton to have been at Dobb's Ferry, where the name is of record. It was, however, the name of a place from which it was extended by the early Dutch to a very considerable representative clan or family of Indians whose jurisdiction extended from the Hudson to or beyond the Armonck or Byram's River, with principal seat on the head waters of that stream, or on one of its tributaries, who constituted the tribe more especially known to the Dutch settlers as the Manhattans. Cornelius Tienhoven, Secretary of New Am- sterdam, wrote, in 1654, " Wicqnaeskeck on the North River, five miles above New Amsterdam, is very good and suitable land for agriculture. * * This land lies between the Sintsinck and Ar- monck streams, situate between the East and North rivers." (Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv, 29.) "Five miles," Dutch, was then usually counted forms. The Delaware M'hi (Zeisb.) is occasionally met in the valley, but the Massachusetts Nepe is more frequent. Garni is another noun-generic meaning "Water" (Cree, Kume). Komuk (Mass.), Kamick (Del.), is fre- quently met in varying orthographies. In general terms it means " Place," limited or enclosed," a particular place as a field, garden, house, etc., as dis- tinguished from auke, "Land, earth, unlimited, unenclosed." ° The Indians are traditionally represented as regarding boulders of this class, as monuments of a great battle which was fought between their hero- myth Micabo and Kasbun his twin brother, the former representing the East or Orient, and the latter the West, the imagery being a description of the primary contest between Light and Darkness — Light teaming from the East and Darkness retreating to the West before it- Says the story : " The feud between the brothers was bitter and the contest long and doubtful. It began on the mountains of the East. The face of the land was seamed and torn by the wrestling of the mighty combatants, and the huge boulders that are scattered about were the weapons hurled at each other by the enraged brothers." The story is told in its several forms by Dr. Brinton in his " American Hero Myths." NAMES ON THE EAST FROM MANHATTAN NORTH, 25 as twenty miles (Eng"lish). Standard Dutch miles would be about eighteen. The Armonck is now called Byram River ; it flows to the Sound on the boundary line between New York and Connecticut, A part of the territory of this tribe is loosely described in a deed of 1682, as extending " from the rock Sighes, on Hudson's River, to the Neperah, and thence north until you come to the eastward of the head of the creek, called by the Indians Wiequaskeck,^ stretch- ing through the woods to a kill called Seweruc," including " a piece of land about \A'ighqueskeck," i. e. about the 'head of the creek, which was certainly at the end of a swamp. The historic seat of the clan was in this vicinity. In the narrative of tbe war of 1643-5, it is written, " He of Witquesch'-eek, living N. E, of Manhattans." * * " The old Indian (a captive) promised to lead us to Wet- quescheck." He did so, but the castles, three in number, strongly palisaded, were found empty. Two of them were burned. The in- mates, it was learned, had gathered at a large castle or village on Patucquapaug, now known as Dumpling Pond, in Greenwich, Ct., to celebrate a festival. They were attacked there and slaughtered in great numbers. (Doc. Hist. N. Y.. iv, 29.) Bolton's claim that the clan had a castle at or near Dobb's Ferry, may have been true at some date. The name appears in many orthographies ; in 1621, Wyeck; in treaty of 1645, Wiquaeshex; in other connections, Wit- queschreek, IVcaquassick, and Van der Dotnck's Wickqua^keek. Bolton translated it from the form, Weicqiiasguck, " Place of the bark kettle," which is obviously erroneous. Dr. Trumbull wrote: " From Moh. Weegasoegiick, ' the end of the mars'h or wet mea- dow.' " Van der Donck's Wickquaskeck has the same meaning. It is from Lenape Wicqua-askek — ivicqua. "end of," askek, '' swamp," marsh, etc. : -ek, -eck, formative. Pocanteco, Pecantico, Puegkandico and Perghanduck, a stream so called- in Westchester County, was translated by Dr. C- Callaghan from Pohkiiniii, "Dark." "The dark river," and by Bolton ' The creek now bearing the name flows to the Hudson through the village of Dobb's Ferry. Its local name, " Wicker's creek," is a corruption of Wick- quaskeck. It was never the name of an individual. * December ist, 1680, Frederick Phillips petitioned for liberty to purchase " a parcel of land on each side of the creek called by the Indians Pocanteco, * * adjoining the land he hath already purchased; there to build and erect a saw-mill." (Col. Hist. N. Y.. xiii. 546.) 26 IXDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. from Pockawachne, " A stream between hills," which is certainly erroneous. The first word is probably Pohk or Pdk, root Paken (Pdkenum, "Dark," Zeisb. ; Pohken-ahtii, "In darkness," Eliot). The second may stand for antakeu, " Woods," " Forest," and the combination read " The Dark Woods." The stream rises in New Castle township and flows across the town of Alt. Pleasant to the Hudson at Tarrytown, where it is associated with Irving's story of Sleepy Hollow. The Dutch called it " Sleeper's-haven Kil," from the name which they gave to the reach on the Hudson, " Verdrietig" Hoek," or " Tedious Point," because the hook or point was so long in sight of their slow-sailing vessels, and in calms their crews slept away the hours under its shadows. " Over against the Verdrietig Hoek, commonly called by the name of Sleeper's Haven," is the record. Pocanteco was a heavily wooded valley, and suggested to the early mothers stories of ghosts to keep their children from wan- dering in its depths. From the woods or the valley the name was extended to the stream.^ (See Alipkonck.) Alipkonck is entered on Van der Donck's map of 1656, and located with the sign of an Indian village south of Sing Sing. Bol- ton (Hist. West. Co.) claimed it as the name of Tarrytown, and translated it, " The place of elms," which it certainly does not mean. Its derivative, however, is disguised in its orthography, and its locative is not certain. Conjecturally, Alipk is from Wdlagk (surd mutes g and p exchanged), "An open place, a hollow or excava- tion." The locative may have been Sleepy Hollow. Tarrytown, which some writers have derived from Tarwe (Dutch), "Wheat" — ^Wheat town — proves to be from an early settler whose name was Terry, pronounced Tarry, as written in early records. The Dutch name for Wheait town would be Tarwe-stadt, which was never writ- ten here. Oscawanna, an island so called, lying a short distance south of Cruger's Station on N. Y. Central R. R., Hudson River Division, is of record, in 1690, Wuscawamts. (Doc. Hist. N. Y., ii, 237.) It seems to have been from the name of a sachem, otherwise known * " Far in the foldings of the hills winds this wizard stream — sometimes silently and darkly through solemn woodlands. * * In the neighborhood of the acqueduct is a deep ravine which forms the dreamy region of Sleepy Hollow." (Sketch Book.) NAMES ON THE EAST FROM MANHATTAN NORTH. 27 as Weskora, Weskheun, Weskomen, in 1685. IVaski, Len., " New, young- ;" Wuske'ene Williams, " A youth." Shildrake, or Sheldrake, given as the name of Furnace Brook, takes that name from an extended forest known in local records as " The Furnace Woods." By exchange of / and n, it is probably from Schind, "Spruce-pine" (Zeisb.) ; aki, "Land" or place. Schindikeu, "Spruce forest ("Hemlock woods," Anthony). (See Shinnec'ock.) Furnace Brook takes that name from an ancient furnace on its bank. In 1734 it was known as " The old-mill stream." Jamawissa, quoted as its Indian name, seems to be an aspirated form of Tamaquese, "Small beaver." (See Jamaica.) Sing=Sing — Sinsing, Van der Donck ; Sintsing, treaty of 1645 — usually translated, " At the standing stone," and " Stone upon stone," means " At the small stones," or " Place of small stones " — from assin " stone ;" is, diminutive, and ing, locative. Ossin'sing, the name of the town, has the same meaning ; also, Sink-sink, L. I., and Assinising, Chemung County. The interpretation is literally sustained in the locative on the Hudson. Tuckahoe, town of East Chester, is from Ptiickzceod, " It is round." It was the name of a bulbous root which was used by the Indians for food anc for making bread, or round loaves. (See Tuckahoe, L. I.) Kitchiwan, modern form ; Kitchawanc, treaty of 1643 ; Kich- tazvanghs, treaty of 1645 ; Kitchkvan, deed of 1645 ; Kitchawan, treaty of 1664 ; the name of a stream in Westchester County from which extended to an Indian clan, " Is," writes Dr. Albert S. GaJts- chet of the Bureau of Ethnology, " an equivalent of Wabenaki -ke'dshwan, -kidshuan, suffixed verbal stem, meaning ' Running swiftly,' ' Rushing water,' or current, whether over rapids or not. Sas-kafchczvan, Canada, ' The roiley, rushing stream; assisku, 'Mud, dirt.' (Cree.) The prefix ki or ke, is nothing else than an abbre- viation of kitchi, ' great,' ' large,' and here ' strong.' Examples are frequent as -kitchuan, -kitchawan, Mass. ; kesi-tsooa"n or ta"n, Abn., Kussi-tchuan, Mass., ' It swift flows.' The prefix is usually applied to streams which rise in the highlands and flow down rapidly de- scending slopes." The final k in some of the early forms, indicates pronunciation with the gutural aspirate, as met in zvank and 28 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. wangh in other local names/ The final ^ is a foreign plural usually employed to express " people," or tribe. The stream is now known as the Croten from Cnoten, the name of a resident sachem, which by exchange of n and r, becomes Croten, an equivalent, wrote Dr. Schoolcraft of Noten, Chip., " The wind." " Bounded on the south by Scroton's River " (deed of 1703) ; "' Called by the Indians Kig-htawank, and by the English Knotrus River." (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 79.) Titicus, given as the name of a branch of the Croton flowing from Connecticut, is of record Mutighticos and Matightekonks, translated by Dr. Trumbull from Mat'uhtugh-ohke, " Place without wood," from which extended to the stream. (See Mattituck and Sackonck.) Navish is claimed as the name of Teller's (now Croton) Point, on a reading of the Indian deed of 1683 : " All that parcel, neck or point of land, with the meadow ground or valley adjoining, situ- ate, lying and being on the east side of the river over against Ver- drietig's Hooke, commonly called and known by tlie name ,of Slauper's Haven and by the Indians Navish, the meadow being called by the Indians Senasqua." Clearly, Navish refers to Ver- drietig Hook, on the west side of the river, where it is of record. It is an equivalent of Nczvds (Len.), "promontory." (See Nyack- on-the-Hudson. ) Nannakans, given as the name of a clan residing on Croton River, is an equivalent of Narragans {s foreign plural), meaning " People of the point," the locative being Croton Point. ( See Nyack.) This clan, crushed by the war of 1643-5, removed to the Raritan countr}'-, where, by dialectic exchange of n and r, they were krov/n as Raritanoos, or Narritans. They were represented, in 1649, ^y Pprmekeck, " The chief behind tl:e Kul, having no chief of their ovm." (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii.) The interpretation given to their removal, by some writers, viz., " That the Wappingers ^ Dr. Trumbull wrote in the Natick (Mass.) dialect, " Knssitchuan, -uwan, impersonal verb, 'It flows in a rapid stream,' a current; it continues flowing; as a noun, 'a rapid stream.'" In Cree, Kussehtanne, "Flowing as a stream " In Delaware, -tanne has its equivalent in -hanne. " The impersonal verb termination -awan, -uan, etc., is sometimes written with the participial and subjunctive k (ka or gh.) (Gerard.) The k or gh appears in some forms of Kitchawan. (See Waronawanka.) NAMES ON THE EAST FROM MANHATTAN NORTH. 29 removed to New Jersey," is only correct in a limited sense. The removal was of a single clan or family. The Indians on both sides of the Hudson here were of kindred stock and were largely inter- married. (See Raritans and Pomptons.) Senasqua, quoted as the name of Teller's Point (now Croton Point), ami also as the name of Teller's Neck, is described as "A meadow," presumably on the neck or point. It is an equivalent of Del. Lenaskqual, "Original grass," (Zeisb.), i. e. grass which was supposed to have grown on the land from the beginning. (Heck.) Called "Imlian grass" to distinguish it from "Whitemen's grass." ^ Peppeneghek is a record form of the name quoted as that of what is no\i' known as Cross-river. Kewighecack, the name of a boundniark of Van Cortlandt's Manor, is written on the map of the Manor Keweghteuack as the name of a bend in the Croton west of Pine Bridge. It is from Koua, Ko7va, Cnzve, "Pine" — Cinve-uchac, "Pine wood, pine logs." (Zeisb.) Kestaubniuk is entered on Van der Donck's map as the name of an Indian place or village north of Sing Sing. On Vischer's map the orthography is Kestaiibo click. Dr. Schoolcraft wrote Kes- toniuck, "Great Point," and claimed that the last word had been borrowed and applied to Nyack on the opposite side of the river, but this is a mistake as Nyack is generic and of local record where it now is as early as 1660, and is there correctly applied. No one seems to know where Kestaubniuk was, but the name is obviously from Kitschi-bonak, "Great ground-nut place." Ketche-piinak and Ketcha-honac, L. I., K'schobhoiak, Del. Menagh, entered in Indian deed to Van Cortlandt, 1683, as the name of what is now known as Verplanck's Point, is probably from Menach'en (Del.), the indefinite form of Mendtes, diminutive, mean- mg "Small island." The point was an island in its separation from the main land by a water course. Monack, Monadh, Menach, are other orthographies of the name. Tammoesis is of record as the name of a small stream north of Peekskill. ^ Askquall, or Askqua, is an inanimate plural in the termination -all, -al, or -a. All grass was not described by Maskik, in which the termination -ik is the animate plural. 3° INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. Appamaghpogh, now Amawalk, seems to have been extended to a tract of land without specific location. It is presumed to have been the name of a fishing- place on what is now known as Mohegan Lake Appch-ama~paug, "Trap fishing place," or pond. Amawalk, is from Nam'e-auke, "Fishing-place." (Trumbull.) In the Mas- sachusetts dialect -pogh stands for "pond," or water-place. Keskistkonck, Pasquasheck, and Nochpeem are noted on Van der Donck's map in the Highlands. In Colonial History is the entry (1644), "Mongochkonnome and Papenaharrow, chiefs of Wiqusesk- kack and Nochpeems." On the east side of the river, apparently about opposite the Donderberg, is located, on early maps, the Fachimi, who, in turn, are associated in records with the Tankitekes. I'acham is given as the name of a noted chief of the early period. His clan was probably the Pachimi. Keskistkonck was a living' name as late as 1663, but disappears after that date. "The Kis- kigfhtkoncks, who have no chief now, but are counted among the foregoing savages." (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 303.) Sachus, Sachoes and Sackonck are quoted as names of Peeks- kill, and Magrigaries as the name of the stream. The latter is an orthography of MacGregorie's, from Hugh MacGregorie, an owner of lands on the stream.^ Though quoted as the name of Peak's Kill, it was the name given to a small creek south of that stream, as per map of 1776, Sachus and Sachoes are equivalents, and probably refer to the mouth or outlet of the small or MacGregorie's Creek — Sakoes or Saukoes. Sackonck has substantially the same meaning — Sakimk, "At the mouth or outlet of a creek or river." There was, however, a resident sachem who was called Sachoes, probably from his place of residence, but which can be read "Black Kettle," from Siickeii, "black," and oos, "kettle." Peekskill is modern from Peak's Kill, so called from Jan Peak,* the founder ^ Hugh MacGregorie was son of Major Patrick MacGregorie, the first settler in the present county of Orange. He was killed in the Leisler rebel- lion in New York in i6gi. The son, Hugh, and his mother, were granted 1500 acres of land " At a place called John Peaches creek." No fees were charged for the patent out of respect for the memory of Major MacGregorie, as he then had " lately died in His Majesty's service in defence of the Prov- ince."' (Doc. Hist. N. Y-, ii, 364.) MacGregories sold to Van Cortlandt in 1696. ' Peake, an orthography of Peak, English; Dutch, Piek; pronounced Pek (e as e in wet) ; English, Pek or Peck. NAMES ON THE EAST FROM MANHATTAN NORTH. 3 1 of the settlement. The Indiaoj name of the stream is noted, in deed of 1695, "Called by the Indians Faquintuk," probably an equivalent of Pokqueuntitk, "A broad, open place in a tidal river or estuary." Peekskill Bay was probably referred to. (See Sackonck.) Kittatinny, erroneously claimed to mean " Endless hills," and to describe the Highlands as a continuation of the Alleghany range, belongs to Anthony's Nose/ to which, however, it has no very early record application. It is from Kitschi, "Principal, greatest," and -atinny, "Hiil, mountain," applicable to any principal mountain peak compared with others in its vicinity.* Sacrahung, or Mill River, "takes its name from Sacra, 'rain.' Its liability to freshets after heavy rains, may have given origin to the name." (O'Callaghan.) Evidently, however, the name is a corruption of Sakzi'ihnng (Zeisb.), "At the mouth of the river." The record reads, "A small brook or run called Wigwam brook, but by some falsely called Sackwrahung." (Deed of 1740.) Quinnehiing, a neck of land at the mouth and west side of Bronx River, is presumed to have been the name of Hunter's Point. The adjectival Quinneh, is very plainly an equivalent of Quinnih (Eliot), "long," and -ung or -ongh may stand for place — "A long place, or neck of land." (See Aqu^hung.) Sackonck and Matightekonck, record names of places petitioned for by Van Cortlandt in 1697, are located in general terms, in the petition, in the neighborhood of John Peak's Creek and Anthony's Nose. (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 49.) The first probably referred ^ The origin of the name is uncertain. Estevan Gomez, a Spanish navi- gator, wrote "St. Anthony's River" as the name of the Hudson, in 1525. The current explanation, "Antonius Neus, so called from fancied resemblance to the nose of one Anthony de Hoages," is a myth. The name as the early Dutch understood it, is no doubt more correctly explained by Jasper Bankers and Peter Sluyter in their Journal of 1679-80: "A headland and high hill in the Highlands, so called because it has a sharp ridge running up and down in the form of a nose," but fails to explain St. Anthony, or Latin Antonius, The name appears also on the Mohawk river and on Lake George, presum- ably from resemblance to the Highland peak. ' The Indians had no names for mountain ranges, but frequently desig- nated certain peaks by specific names. " Among these aboriginal people," wrote Heckewelder, "every tree was not the tree, and every mountain the mountain ; but, on the contrary, everything is distinguished by its specific name." Kitatinny was and is the most conspicuous or greatest hill of the particular group of hills in its proximity and was spoken of as such in desig- nating the boundmark. 32 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. to the mouth of Peak's Creek (Peekskill). Sakunk (Heck.), "At the mouth or outlet of a creek or river." Saukunk (onck) is an- other form. (See Titicus.) Aquehung, Acqueahounck, etc., was translated by Dr. O'Cal- laghan, "The place of peace/' from Aqitenc, Nar., "peace," and unk, locative. Dr. Trumbull wrote, "A place on this side of some other place," from the generic Acq. The descr'iption in N. Y. Land Papers reads, "Bounded on tlie east by the river called by the In- dians Aquehung," the river taking its name from its position as a boundary "on this side" of which was the land. The contemporary name, Ran-ahqua-ung, means "A place on the other side," corre- sponding with the description, "On the other side of the Great Kil." Bolton assigns Acqueahounck to Hutchinson's Creek, the west boundary of the town of Pelham. The " Great Kil " is now the Bronx, Kakeout, the name of the highest hill in Westchester County, is from Dutch Kijk-uit, " Look-out — a place of observation, as a tower, hill," etc. It appears also in Rockland and in Ulster Coun- ty and on the Mohawk. (See Kakiate.) Shappequa, a name now applied to the Shappequa Hills an-d to a mineral spring east of Sing-Sing, and destined to be remem- bered as that of the home of Horace Greeley, was primarily given to locate a tract now embraced in the towns of New Castle and Bed- ford, and, as in all such cases, was a specific place by which the lo- cation could be identified, but wbich in turn has never been identi- fied. The name is apparently a form of Chepi written also Chappa, signifying, "Separated, apart from, a distinct place." ^ (See Kap- ha ck.) Aspetong, a bold eminence in Bedford, is an equivalent of Ash- pohtag, Mass., "A high place," "A height." (Trumbull.) See Ishpatinau. ^The word Chippe or Shappa, means not only separate, "The separate place," but was employed to describe a future condition — Chepeck, the dead. As an adjective, Chippe (El.) signilies separated, set apart. Chepiohkomuk, the place of separation. The same word was used for ' ghost,' ' spectre,' 'evil spirit' (Trumbull.) The corresponding Delaware word was Tschipey. It is not presumed that the word was made use of here in any other sense than its literal application, "A separate place." Bolton assigns the name to a Laurel Swamp, but with doubtful correctness. NAMES ON THE EAST FROM MANHATTAN NORTH, 33 Quarepos, of record as the name of the district of country called by the English "White Plains," from the primary prevalence there of white balsam (Dr. O'Callaghan), seems to have been the name of the lake now known as St. Mary's. Quar is a form of Quin, Qiian, etc., meaning "Long," and pos stands for pog or patt,g, mean- ing "Pond." The name is mf the water was probably referred to. Waraughkaraeck — Waraukameck — a small lalce in the same county, is now known as "Fever Cot or Pine Swamp." The In- dian namie is probably an equivalent of Len. Wdlagh-kamik, an en- closed hole or den, a hollow or excavaition. Aquassing — "At a creek called by the Indians Aquassing, and by the Christians Fish Creek" — has not been located. Aquassing was the end of the boundary line, and may be from Enaughqnasink, "As far as." Tauquashqueick, given as the name of a meadow lying between Magdalen Island- and the main land, now known as "Radcliflf's ^ "Tjughsaghrondie, alias Wawayachtenok." (Col. Hist. N. Y., iv, 900; La Trobe's Translation of Loskiel, i, 23.) The first name, Tjughsaghrondie, is also written Taghsaghrondie, and in other forms. It is claimed to be from the Wyandot or Huron-Iroquoian dialect. In History of Detroit the Algonquin is quoted Waweatunong, interpreted " Circuitous approach," and the claim made that the reference was to the bend in the Strait at Detroit at an elevation " from which a view of the whole broad river " could be had. In Shawano, Wawia'tan describes bending or eddying water — with locative, "Where the current winds about." The name is applicable at any place where the features exist. ' Magdalen Island is between Upper and Lower Red-hook. The original Dutch, Maagdelijn, supposed to mean "A dissolute woman," here means, simply, "Maiden," i. e. shad or any fish of the herring family. (See Magaat Ramis.) The name appears on Van der Donck's map of 1656. NAME3 ON THE EAST FROM MANHATTAN NORTH. 47 Vly," is probably an equivalent of Pauqna-ask-ek, "Open or clear wet meadaw or vly." Sankhenak and Saukhenak are record forms of the name given as that of Roelof Jansen's Kil (Doc. Hist. N. Y., iii, 612; French's Gazetteer.) Sauk-hannck would describe the mouth or outlet of the stream, and Sank-hannek would read "Flint-stone creek." Sauk is probably correct. The purchase included land on both sides of the creek from "A small kil opposite the Katskil," on the north, called IVacIihanekassik, "to a place opposite Sagertyes Kil, called Saaskahampka." The stream is now known as Livingston's Creek.^ Wachanekassik, Indian deed to Livingston, 1683 ; Waghank- asick, patent to Van Rensselaer, 1649, ^^'^^ other orthographies, is written as the name of a small creek which marked the place of be- ginning of the northwest boundmark of the Livingston Patent and the place of ending of the southwest boundmark Oif the prior Van Rensselaer Patent of Ciaverack. The latter reads : " * * And so along the said Hudson River southward to the south side of Vas- trix Island, by a creek called Waghankasick, tlience easterly to Wawanaquasik," etc. The deed to Livingston conveyed lands "On both sides of Roelo'f Jansen's Kill,- called by the Indians Sauk- henak," including lands "along the river's bank from said Roeloff Jansen's Kill, northwards up, to a small stream opposite Catskill named Wachanekasseck, and southwards down the river to opposite the Sagertjes Kill, called by the Indians Saaskahampka." In the Livingston Patent of 1684: "Eighteen hundred acres of woodland lying between a small creek or kill lying over against Catskill called Wachanakasseck and a place called Suaskahampka," and in patent of 1686: "On the north by a line to be drawn from a certain creek or kill over against the south side of Vastrix Island in Hudson's River, called Wachankasigh," to which Surveyor John Beatty add- ed more precisely on his map of survey in 1715 : "Beginning on the east side of Hudson's River southward from Vastrix Island, at a place where a certain run of water watereth out into Hudson's River, called in }-e Indian tongue, VVachankassik." The "run of ^The creek was the boundmark between the Wappingers and the Ma- hicans. (See Wahamanessing.) ' Named from Roeliff Jansen, Overseer of the Orphan Court under the Dutch Government. (French.) 48 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. water" is not marked on Beatty's map, nor on the map of survey of the patetiit in 179S, but it is marked, from existence or presumed existence, on a mrtp of tlie boundary line between New York and Massachusetts and seems to have been one of the several small streams that flow down the bluff from the surface, apparently about two miles and a half north of Roelof Jansen's Kill, in the vicinity of the old Oak Hill station' on the H. R. R., later known as Catskill station. While referred to in connection with the boundmark to identify its location, its precise location seems to have been lost. In early days boundmarks were frequently designated in general terms by some well known place. Hence we find Catskill spoken of and particularly "the south end of Vastrix Island," a point that every voyager on the Hudson knew to be the commencement of a certain "rak" or sailing course.- Hence it was that Van Rens- selaer's first purchase (1630) was botuidecl on the south by the south end of Beercn or Mahican Island, and the second purchase by the south end of Vastrix Island, which became the objective of the north- west bound of Living'ston's Patent. While the name is repeatedly given as that of the stream, it was probably that of a place or point on the limestone bluff which here bounds the Hudson on the east for several miles. Surve^yor Beatty's description, "Beginning at a place where," and the omission of the stream on his map, and its omission on subsequent maps of the manor, and the specific entry in the amended patent of 1715, "Beginning at a certain place called by the Indians Wahankassek," admit of no other conclusion, and the conclusion is, apparently, sustained by the name itself, which seems to be from Moh. Wakhunuhkoosek, "A high point," as a hill, mountain, peak, bluff, etc., from IVakJm, "hill, mountain," nhk, "end, point," and oosic, "peak, pinnacle," etc. The reference may have been to a point formed by the channel of the little stream flowing down from the bluff above, or to some projection, but cer- * Oak Hill station on the Hudson River R. R., about five miles south of the city of Hudson, was so called from a hill in the interior just north of the line of the town of Livingston, from which the land slopes west towards the Hudson and south to Roelof Jansen's Kill. * Vastrix is a compression of Dutch t'l'aste Rak as written on Van der Donck's map of 1656, meaning, "The fast or steady reach or sailing course," which began here. The island is the first island lying north of the mouth of the Katskill. It is now known as Roger's Island. NAMES ON THE EAST FROM MANHATTAN NORTH. 49 tainly to the blnft" as the only permanenit objective on the Hudson. The conntction of the "small run of water" with the boundmark should entitle it to more particular description than has been given to it by local writers. Nickankook, Kickua and Weckqashake are given as the names of "three flats" whic'h, with "some small flats," were included in the first purchase by Livingston, and described as "Situate on both sides" of the kill called Saukhenak (Roelof Jansen's Kill). The Indian deed also included all land "Extending along the bank of the river northwards from Roelof Jansen's Kill to a small stream opposite Catskill named Wachanekassik." The names of the three flats are variously spelled — ^Nickankooke, Nickankook, etc. The first has been transla'ted by Mr. Wm. R. Gerard from Nichdnhkuk, '"At the bend in front." Kickua, the second, is untranslatable. Wickquaskaka, Wequakake, etc., is the equivalent of Wequaohke, ■"End land" or place. The kill flows through a valley of broad and fertile flats, but near the Hudson it breaks through the lime- stone blufif which forms the east line of the Hudson, and its banks are steep and rocky. Saaskahampka, Indian deed ; Suaskahainpka patent of 1684 — the southv^rest boundmark of the Livingston Patent, is described as ^'A dry guily at Hudson's River." It is located about opposite Sawyer's Creek, north of the present Saugerties or Esopus Creek. Sasco, or as written Saaska, means "A swamp;" Assisku (Del,), "Mud, clay" ; Asuskdkamika, "Muddy place," a gully in w*hich no water was flowing. (Gerard.) Mananosick — " Along the foot of a high mountain to the path that goes to Wawyactanock to a hill called by the Indians Manan- osick." Also written Nanosick. Eliot wrote, in the Natick dialect, Nahoosick, "Pinnacle," or high peak. The indefinite and imper- sonal M' or Ma, prefixed, would add "a" or "the" high peak. The hill has not been located except in a general way as near the Massa- chusetts line. Nanapenahakan and Nanipanihekan are orthographies of the name of a "creek or brook" described as "coming out of a marsh lying near unto the hills where the heaps of stones lye." The stream flows to Claverack Creek. The outlet waters of Achkook- 5° INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. peek Lake unite with it, from which it is now called Copake Creek. It unites with Kinderhook Creek north of the city of Hudson. Wawanaquasik, Claverack Patent, 1649; Wawanaquassick, Liv- ingston Patent of 1686 ; Wawanaquassick and Mawanapquasseky patent of 1715; Mawanagzvassik, surveyor's notation, 1715; now written Mawanaquassick — a boundmark of the Claverack Patent of 1649, and also of the Livingston Patent, is described in the Claver- ack Patent, "To the high woodland called Wawanaquasik," and in the Livingston Patent, "To a place called by the Indians Wa- wanaqussek, where the heapes of stone lye, near to the head of a creek called Nanapenahaken, which comes out of a marsh lying near unto the hills of the said heapes of stones, upon which the Indians throw another as they pass by, from an ancient custom among them." The heap of stones here was "on the south side of the path leading to Wayachtanok," and other paths diverged, showing that the place was a place of meeting. "To the high woodland," in the description of 1649, is marked on the map of survey of 1715, "Foot of the hill," apparently a particular point, the place of which was identified by the head of the creek, the marsh and the heap of stones. The name may have described this poinlt or promontory, or it may have referred to the place of meet- ing near the head of the creek, or to the end of the marsih, but it is claimed that it was the name of the heap of stones, and thait it is from Mide, or Miyde, "Together" — Mawena, "Meeting," "As- sembly" — frequently met in local names and accepted as meaning, " Where paths or streams or boundaries come together ;" and Qus- suk^ "stone" — "Where the stones are assembled or brought to- gether," "A stone heap." This reading is of doubtful correctness. Dr. Trumbull wrote that Qnssiik,^ meaning "stone," is "rarely, perhaps never" met as a substantival in local names, and an in- stance is yet to be cited where it is so used. It is a legitimate word in some connections, however, Eliot writing it as a noun in Mohshe-qussuk, "A flinty rock," in the singular number. If used here it did not describe "a heap of stones," but a certain rock. On ' Williams wrote in the Narraganset dialect Qussuck, stone ; Qussuck- anash, stones ; Qusstickquon, heavy. Zeisberger wrote in the Minsi-Lenape, Ksiicquon, heavy; Achsnn, 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; NAMES ON THE EAST FROM MANHATTAN NORTH. 51 the map of survey of the patent, in 1798, the second station is marked "Manor Rock," and the third, "Wawanaquassick," is lo- cated 123 chains and 34 hnks (a fraction over one and one-half miles) north of Manor Rock, as the corner of an angle. In the survey of 171 5, the first station is "the foot of the hill" — "the high woodland" — which seems to have been the Mawan-uhqu- oosik^ of the text. To avoid all question the heap of stones seems to have been included in the boundary. It now lies in an angle in the line between the townships of Claverack and Taghkanic, Columbia County, and is by far the most interesting feature of the locative — a veritable footprint of a perished race. Similar heaps were met by early European travelers in other parts of the country. Rev. Gideon Hawley, writing in 1758, described one which he met in Schohare Valley, and adds that the largest one that he ever saw was "on the mountain between Stockbridge and Great Barrington.'^ Mass. (Doc. Hist. N. Y., iii, 1039.) The significance of the "an- cient custom" of casting a stone to these heaps has not been handed down. Rev. Mr. Sergeant wrote, in 1734, that though the Indians "each threw a stone" as they passed, they had entirely lost the knowledge of the reason for doing so," and an inquiry by Rev. Hawley, in 1758, was not attended by a better result.^ The heaps were usually met at resting places on the path and the custom of throwing the stone a sign-language indicating that one of the tribe had passed and which way he was going, but further than the ex- planation that the casting of the stone was "an ancient custom," nothing may be claimed with any authority. A very ancient cus- tom, indeed, when its signification had been forgotten. Ahashewaghick and Ahashewaghkameck, the latter in correct- ed patent of 1715, is given as the name of the northeast bound- Hussunek, lodge or ledge of rocks, and for Hussunek Dr. Trumbull wrote Assinek as an equivalent, and Hussun or Hussunash, stones, as identical with Qiissukqun, heavy. Eliot also wrote -pick or -p'sk, in compound words, meaning "Rock," or "stone," as qualified by the adjectival prefix, Omp'sk, " Standing rock." ' Literally, "A meeting point," or sharp extremity of a hill. ' 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.) 52 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. mark of the Manor of Livingston, and described as "the northern- most end of the hills that are to the north of Tac'hkanick " — specifi- cally by the surveyor, "To a heap of stones laid together on a certain hill called by the Indians Ahas'hawagfhkik, by the north end of Taghanick hill or mountain " — ^has been ti^nslated from Nash- aue-komuk (Eliot), "A place between." Dr. Trumbull noted Ashounigh-commocke, from the derivatives quoted — Nashaue, " be- tween" ; -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 noftheast corner of the Massachusetts boundary line, or the north end of Taghkanick hills. Taghkanick, the name of a town in Columbia County and pri- marily of a tract of land included in the Livingston Patent and located "behind Potkoke," is written Tachkanick in the Indian deed of 1685 ; Tachkanick 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 ;" Tach- kanick, "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 Sauk- henak, and by the purchasers Roelof Jansen's Kill. Of the meaning of the name Dr. E. B. O'Callaghan wrote : "Tachaniik, 'Wood place,' literally, 'the woods,' from Takone, 'forest,' and uk, ^pl'ace' " ; 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, meianing "wood ;" and ek, animate plural added, "Woods," "trees," "for- -est." Dr. O'Cariaghan's ilk (00k), "Land or place," is not in any of the orthographies. The deed-sentence, "When they sold him 'Tachianick," 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.' The latter is familiar to geologists * The purchasers claimed but the Indians denied having sold the moun- tain. It was heavily wooded no doubt. Livingston claimed it from having bought "the woods.'" The Moravian missionaries wrote, in 1744, JV'takan- tschan, which Dr. Trumbull converted to Ket-takone-wadchu, "Great woody mountain." NAMES ON THE EAST FROM MANHATTAN NORTH. 53 in what is known as the Taconic rocks. Translations of the name from Del. Tuphannc, "Cold stream," and Tankkanne, "Little river," are without merit, althoug'h Tankhanne would describe the branch of Roelof Jansen's Kill on which the plantation was located. 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 h:lls," of which Ahashawagh-kameck was the north. Wichqua is surely an equivalent of Wequa {IVehqua, Eliot), "As far as; ending at ; the end or extreme, point." ' Now the southwest cor- ner on the Massachusetts line. Mahaskakook, a boundmark in the Livingston Patent, is de- scribed, in one entry, as "A copse," /. e. "A thicket of under- brush," and in another entry, "A cripple bush," i. e. "A patch of low timber growth " — Ehitch, Kreupelbosch, " Underwood." Probably the Indian name has, substantially, the same meaning. Manask (Del.), "Second crop"; -ask, "Green, raw, immature"; ~ak, "wood"; -ook (ilk), locative. The location has not been ascer- tained. Nachawawakkano, given as the name of a creek described as a "creek which comes into another creek," is an equivalent of Lechau- ivakhanne (Lenape), "The fork of a river," a stream that forks another stream. Aupaumut, the Stockbridge Historian, wrote, with locative suffix, N aukhmvzvhnauk , "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 wr'itten Mawighanuck and Wawieghanuck. (See Wawigh- anuck.) Shaupook and Skaukook are forms of the name assigned to the eastern division of a stream, "w*hich, a little lower down," was "called Twastawekah." known later as Claverack Creek. It may be translated from Sohk, Mass., "outlet," and uk, locative, "At the outle't" or mouth of the sream. * 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. 54 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. 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 Sahk- aqua 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 run-s of water come to'gether 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 Nakaowas- ick." (Doc. Hist., iii, 697.) On the surveyor's may Nakaowasick, the place last named, is changed to Acawanuk. From the text, Sahkaqua described "Land or place at the outlet or mouth O'f a stream," from Sohk, "outlet," and -ohke, "land" or place. The second name Nakawaewick ( Nakaouaewik, Nakawasick, Acawasik) is probably from Nashauewasiick, "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" ; -uk, loca- tive. 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 re- served 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 run- ning "thence along a small hill to a valley that leads to a small NAMES ON THE EAST FROM MANHATTAN NORTH. 55 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 de- scription reads : "Ouassichkook, * * 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 Kussuhkoe (Moh.), "high," and -00k, locative — "At, to or on a high place" — from which the stream and fhe plantation was located. (See Ouassaick.) 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,^ east of Claverack,- and west of Taghkanick" (Doc. Hist. N. Y., iii, 617), and also as "Lying to the east of Major Abraham's' patent of Claverack." ^ Specifically, in a caveat filed by John Van ^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 sup- posed 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. ^ 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 Dan- kers 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 bound- ed. 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. Dan- kers 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. * " 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 moun- tains now so known. It means, literally, however, "The woods." (See Tagh- kanick.) There was a heated controversy between the patroon of Rensse- laerswyck 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. 56 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. Rensselaer, in 1761, "From the mouth of Major Staats, or Kinder- hiQok Kill, south along the river to a point opposite the south end of Vastrix Island, thence easterly twenity-four English miles," etc. (Cai. N. Y. Land Papers, 307. See also, Wachanekassiik. ) It was an immense tract, covering aibout eigtit miles on the Hudson by twenty-four miles deep, and became known as "The Lower Manor of Rensselaerswyck," but locally as Claverack, from its front- age 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 Englisih) miles inland from Clavefack." (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. Pre- sumably, 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 sev- eral "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" wliere 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.) 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 171 5, described as "Lying north of Claverack [Hudson], on the east side of the river, along the Great Kill [Kin- derhook 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 oth-er." Major Staats had made previous settlement on the tract under lease from Van Rens- NAMES ON THE EAST FROM MANHATTAN NORTH. 57 selaer. His hoiise and barn were burned by the Indians in the Esopus war of 1663. In 1715, he being then dead, his son, Abra- ham, petitioned for an additional tract described as "Four hundred acres adjoining the north line of the nedc 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 rem'arkable by Bankers and Slu^-ter in 1679- 80.^ Claverack Creek unites with Stockport Creek just Vv^est 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 Stock- port Creek is noted as "A certain fall * * called by the Indians Kascsjexvack." The several names are perhaps from Cochik'nack (Moh.), "A wild, dashing" stream. Cochik'nack, by the way, is one of the most corrupted names of record. Kesieway's Kil, described in an Indian deed to Garritt van Slichterihorst, 1667-8, "A certain piece of land at Claverack be- tween 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 ascer- tained. Kashazvay Creek is a living form of the name in the town of Greenport, Columbia County. On the opposite side o-f the Hud- son the same name apparently, appears in Keesieway, Kesewey, etc., as that oi a "chief or sachem" of the Katskill Indians. (See Keessienwey's Hoeck.) 1 « " We came to a creek, where, near the river, Hves a man whom they call the Child of Luxury (f kinder van walde). He had a sawmill on the creek or waterfall, which is a singular one. The water falls quite steep m 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." i8 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. Pomponick, Columbia County. (N. Y. Land Papers.) Pom- poenik, a fort to be erected at "about the barn of Lawrence van Alen." (Doc. Hist. N. Y., ii, 90.) Pompoen is Dutch for pump- kin. 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, Waweighanuck, Wawighnuck, forms of the name preserved as that of the Bayard Patent, Colum- bia County, described as a place "Lying to the northwest of Kin- derhook, about fifteen miles from Hudson's River, upon Kinder- hook River and some branches thereof, part of which tract is known by the Indian name of Mawig'hanuck." 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-kamigli, 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 oif the Peter Schuyler Patent, described, "Beginning where three oak trees are marked, lying upon a small creek, to lihe south of Pomponick, called by the Indians Kenaghtiquak, and run- ning thence," etc. It probably standi for Enaughtiqna-iik, " The beginning place." Machachoesk, a place so called in Columbia County, has not heen 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 Wapiin-zvadchu, "Chestnut Hill." The in- terpretation 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 Brain- erd. It was long known as Brainerd's Bridge, and is now called NAMES ON THE EAST FROM MANHATTAN NORTH. 59 Brainerds. The name is Lenape (German notation) and the equiva- lent of Onannammig, Nan, Gunemeek, Len., ''Long-fish place," a "Fis'hing-place for lampreys." The form, Kaunaumeek, was in- troduced 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 set- tlement is located on early maps. The suffix, -amuck, is the equiv- alent of -amaug, "fishing place." Ouschank-amaug, from Ousch- acheu, "smooth, slippery," hence eel or lampery — "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 -peek, "Water place," pool or pond. Hendrick Aupaumut, the Historian of the Stockbridge-Mahicans, wrote: "Ukhkokpeck; it signifies snake-w^ater, or water where snakes are abundant." On a map of the boundary line between Massachusetts and New Yorlc an Indian village is located at the outlet of the lake, presumably that known as Scompamuck. Kaphack, on Westenhook River, a place described as " Begin- ning at an Indian burying-place hard by Kaphack," probaibly means "A separate place" — "land not occupied." The tract began at "an Indian burying-place," and presumably took its name there- from. Che peck, "The dead;" Chepeack, "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 ren- dered 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, sach- em, or "peace chief," of the Mahicans.^ It has been translated ^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 writ- ten "Eskuvius, alias Aepjin (Little Ape)," and in another "Called by the 6o INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. from Skootay, Old Algonquian {Sqiita, Williams), "fire," and -ack, "place," literally, "Fire Place," or place of council. It was extended to Smack's Island, opposite Albany, whioh was known to the early Dutch as "Schotack, or Aepjen's Island." It is prob- able, however, that the correct derivative is to be found in Esquatak, or Eskwatak, the record name of the ridge of land east of Castle- ton, 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 hig'h place." Dropping the initial A, and also the letter p and the second h, leaves ScJhotack or Shotag; by pronunciation Schodac. Eshodac, of which Meshodack* 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 Hud- sion made and so particularly described in Juet's Journal, was at Schodac'^ 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 oheere." The next day Hudson himself "Sailed to the shore, in one of their canoes, 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 l^uilt with an arched roof." Presumably the house was near the shore of the river and in occu- pation during the fishing and planting season. The winter castle 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 vi^hich the Dutch had heard spoken. Eliot wrote, "Appit. He sits ; he rests, remains, abides; Ken 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 nego- tiate 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.) ^ The prefixed M, sometimes followed by a short vowel or an apostrophe (M'), has no definite or determinate force. (Trumbull.) ^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 i8th of September, 1609, when the landing occurred, she must have been ' up six leagues higher ' than Hudson, in the neighborhood of Schodac and Castleton." NAMES ON THE EAST FROM MANHATTAN NORTH. 6 1 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. Sickenekas, given as the name of a tract of land on the east side of the river, "opposite Fort Orange (Albany), above and be- low," 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," Ges- messecks, etc., which extended north to Negagonse, " being about twelve mile's (Dutch), large measure." The northern limit seems to have been Unuwat's Castle on the north side of a stream flow- ing to the Hudson north of "opposite to Rensselaer's Kil and water- fall." Sicajoock (Dutch notation), "Black, or dark colored earth," from Sucki "Dark colored, inclining to black," and -ock, "land." The same name is written Suckiage {alike) in application to the Hartford meadows, Conn. Gesraesseeck, 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 Gesmes- seecks p. i, 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 orthog- raphies to the names which they heard spoken. Passapenoc, Pahpapaenpenock and Sapanakock, forms of the name of Beeren Island, lying opposite Coeymans, is from an 62 ' INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. edible tuber which was indigenous on it/ The Dutch name Beeren or Beerin, means, Hterally, "She bear," usually called Bear's Island. De Laet wrote "Beeren" in 1640. Patuckquapaen and Tuscumcatick are noted in French's Gazet- teer 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 Green 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 Tamisque stick or Beaver Creek, and has since been main- tained. 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 " His- tory of Troy," wrote : "Having erected a saw-mill upon the kill for sawing posts and timber, wihich was known thereafter as Poesten ^ "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 hun. 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-p en-auk, or as written by the Dutch, Passapenock, the Indian name for Beeren Island." (J. H. Trumbull, Mag. of Am. Hist. I, 387.) NAMES ON THE EAST FROM MANHATTAN NORTH. 6^ 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 '"^^ application to bottom lands known as "The Great Meadows," ^ 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," * 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. Piskawn, of record as the name of a stream on the north line of Troy, describes a branch or division of a river. Rale wrote in Abnaki, "Peskakoon, branche," of which Piskaivn 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 yel- low 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.^ This island is now overflowed by the raising of the water by the State dam at Lansingt)urgh. The In- dian name does not belong to the woodland; it locates the tract near the island, in which connection it is probably an equivalent 1 Weise's Hist, of Troy. * Woodward's Reminiscences of Troy. ' "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. 64 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. of Paugasuck, "A place at which a strait widens or opens out" (Truntbull), or where the narrow passage between the island and the main land begins to widen. In the same district Pogsquam- pacak is written as the name of a small creek flowing into Hoosick River. Wallumschack, so written in return of survey of patent grant- ed to Cornelius van Ness and others, in 1738, for lands now in Washington County ; Walloomscook, and other forms ; now pre- served 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.^ It has not been specifically located, but apparently described a place on the adja- cent 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 Dela- ware, Dr. Brinton derived VVdldm, "Painted, from the sense to be fine in appearance, to dress, w'hich the Indians accomplished by painting their bodies," and -ompsk (Natick), with the related mean- ing of standing or upright, the combination expressing " Place of the paint rocks." ^ The ridges of many of the hills as well as of the mountains in the district are composed of slate, quartz, sand- stone and limestone, which compose the Takonic system. By ex- posure 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 O'f 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. ^Vermont is from Verd Montague (French), meaning "Green Moun- tains," presumably from their verdure, but actually from the appearance of the hills at a distance from the color of the rocks reflected in the atmos- phere. To the Indian they were Wal'ompskeck, " fine, handsome rocks." ^ An interpretation of the name from the form Wallumschaik, in Thomp- son's Hist. Vermont, states that "The termination 'chaik' signifies ir i:he Dutch language, 'scrip.' or 'patent.' " This is erroneous. There ia no such word as chaik in the Dutch language. The ch in the name here stands for k and belongs to 'ompsk. NAMES ON THE EAST FROM MANHATTAN NORTH. 65 Tomhenack, Tomhenuk, forms of the name given as that of a small stream flowing into the Hoosick from the north," takes that name, apparently, from an equivalent of Tomheganic, Mass., Tan- ganiic, Del, a stone axe or tomahawk, referring to a place where suitable stones were obtained for making those implements. (Trum- bull.) (See Wallumschack.) Tyoshoke, now the name of a church at San Coick, Rensselaer County, is probably from an equivalent of Toyusk, Nar., "a bridge," and ohkc, "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, Rens- selaer 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 In- dian 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 Schautecoguc" (-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 mission- ^ "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.) 66 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. aries. 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." ^ Although first of record in 1685, its application was probably as early as 1675, when the Pennacooks of Connecticut, fleeing from the disasterous 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 Andms, 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 Knicker- bocker, some six miles east of the Hudson, and that a veritable treaty tree was planted there by Governor Andros in 1676-7, al- though "planting a tree" was a figurative expression. In later years the seat of the settlement seems to have been around Schagh- ticoke 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.) 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 de- scribed as "Lying on both sides of a certain creek called Hoosock, beginning at ye bounds of Schaakook, and so to a fall called Que- quick, and thence upward to a place called Nachacqikquat." (Cal. Land Papers, 27.) The name may stand for Cochik'uack (Moh.), *The root of the name is Peske or Piske (Paske, Zeisb.), meaning, pri- marily, "To split," "To divide forcibly or abruptly." (Trumbull.) In Abnaki, Pesketekwa, a "divided tidal or broad river or estuary" — Peska- hakan (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. Paghata- ghan and Pachkataken, on the east branch of the Delaware, and Paghatagkan 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.) NAMES ON THE EAST FROM MANHATTAN NORTH. 67 "WiM, 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 equiv- alent of Panqna-ohke, "Clear land," "open country." It is fre- quently 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 Sdhaghticoke 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 in- cluding 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 de- scribed 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, 2y, 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 Pown- tucksuck, '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 inter- pretations 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 exam- ination 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 Hods, "certainly means, in that dialect, 'a pot or ket- tle.' Figuratively, it might be applied to a kettle-shaped depres- sion in land or to a particular valley. Hoosink means 'in' or 'at' the pot or kettle. Hoosack might be read ' round valley land,' or 68 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. land with steep sides." (Brinton.) Of course this does not ex- plain the prefix Pari, nor does it prove that Hods was in the local dialect, which, in 1652, was certainly Maihican or Mohegan. Still, it cannot be said that the tradition was not familiar to all Algon- quians 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 Hoos- ink, 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." ' The Hoosick River flows from its head, near Pittsfield, Berk- shire County, in Massachusetts, through the Petersburgh Mountains between precipitous 'hills, and carries its name its entire length. Fort Massachusetts, in the present towm 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 " The Lenape and their Legends." NAMES ON THE EAST FROM MANHATTAN NORTH. 69 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 t!hese precipitous summits rise a most elegant succession of forest trees, chiefly maple, beech and evergreens. There are also large spots and streaks of ever- greens, chiefly hemlock and spruce." Though, with a single ex- ception, entered in English records by the name of "Hoosick or Schaahkook's Creek," it was, from the feature which especially at- tracted Dr. Dwight's attention, known to the Iroquois as the Ti- oneenda-howe, or " The river at the hemlocks." ^ 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, Wasliington County. The translation is correct, sub- stantially, but the name is Algonquian — a corruption of Coassa, "Pine," ^ and Gnmmee. "Lake," or standing water. The terms are from the Ojibway dialect, and were probaibly introduced by Dr. Schoolcraft. 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. Anakaiisitk-ook, "At the end of a course," or as far the brook. Podunk, a brook so called in the town of Fort Ann, Washing- ton County, is met in several other places. (See Potunk, L. L) 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." Water- * See Saratoga. Ti-oneenda-howe was applied by the Mohawks to the Hoosick, and Ti-ononda-hotve 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-hozve is evi- dently 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 hozve, are uncertain." (See Di-ononda-howe.) ' 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. Kozvas-'htngh, "pine tree." The name is met in many orthographies. 7° INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. quechey (English) means "M'oist boggy ground," indicating that Quatackqiiaohe is an equivalent of Petuckquiohke, Mass., "Round- land place," /. e. elevated hassocks of earth, roots, etc. The ex- planation 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 Bat- ten 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 Forf 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 pho- netic value of the final two syllable's 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 de- scriptive of the situation of the creek, but not of the creek itself, and is applicable to any mountain or high hill which appears be- tween 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 wlith 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, Avrote the Mohawk name, Andiato- rocte (French notation), with the definition, "There wlhere 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 connec- tion, "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 NAMES ON THE EAST FROM MANHATTAN NORTH. 7 1 "north," nor does it mean "lake" or "silver water." ^ The pres- ent name was conferred by Sir William Johnson, in honor of King George III, of England. Ticonderoga, familiar as the name of the historic fortress at Lake George, was written by Sir William Johnson, in 1756, Tion- derogue 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 Tsindro- sie, or Cheonderoga, signifying 'brawling water,' and the Frendh n'ame, 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, divis- ionem" (Bruyas), the combination meaning, literally, "Between two lakes." Horatio Hale wrote me of one of the forms : "Dekaria- derage, in modern orthography, Tekaniataroken, from which Ticon- deroga, means, simply, 'Between two lakes.' It is derived from Tioken, 'between,' and Kaniatara, 'lake.' Its composition illus- trates 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 Theonon- diogo. 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 ^ 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 Moungans 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." 72 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. or iyo, 'great,' we get Ontario (pronounced Ontareeyo), 'Great lake/ whic'h, 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 qual- ities of water," presumably expressing thereby, in keeping with the entertainment usually served on such occasions, that the Secre- tary 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 Iro- quoian 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 Quebeck, via. Hudson's River, in which connection it was literally "The gate of the country." The legend is not an interpretation of the Iro- quoian name, however. In the French missionary spelling the generic word for "lake" is Kaniatare of which Caniaderi is an English notation. The suffix -guarunte, in connection with Cani- aderi, 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 Quebeck to the Iroquoi country. 0:r LONG ISLAND. 73 On Long Island. Matouwackey, Sewanhackey and Paumanackey, in varying orthographies, are names of record for Long Island, derived from Meitauazvack {Metaiihock, Nar.), the name of the shell-fish from which the Indians made the shell-money in use among them,' called by English Peag, from Wau-paaeek,-' (Moh.), "white," and by the Dti'tch Sczifan or Zeczvan,^ from Seivaiin (Moh.), Siicki (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 Panmanack {Pau-pau-me- numwe, Mass.), "an offering."* Meitouawack, the material, Wau- paaeek and Sewaun, the colors; Paiunanack, 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 ^ " Meteauhock, the Periwinkle of which they made their wampum." (Williams.) "Perhaps derived from Mehtauog, 'Ear-shaped,' with the gen- eric suffix hock (hogki, hackee), 'shell.'" (Trumbull.) ^ Wompompeag is another form quoted as Mohegan, from which Wompiim. " Wompom, which signifies white." (Roger Williams.) ^ Seahu'hoog, 'they are scattered.' (Eliot.) From this word the Dutch traders gave the name of Sczvan, or Zeawand, to all shell money; just as the English called all Peag, or strung beads, by the name of the white, Wam- pum." (Trumbull.) *An interpretation of Paiunanack 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 some- times 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. 74 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. 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, "f' Lange Eyiand, alias, Matouwacks." "Situate on the island called by the Indians Sewanhacky." (Deed of 1636.) "Call- ed 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. Gen- erically 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 Mmmthan and Man- hatan. The occupants of the island were a distinct group of Al- gonquian 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 Iroquoi, 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. Wompenanit is of record as the name of " the utmost end east- ward" 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 orthog- raphies. The meaning is "The utmost end eastward," i. e. from the east side of Napeake to the extreme end. The derivatives are Nar. Worn pan (from Wompi, white, bright), "It is full day- light, 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 Wompandnd, "The Eastern God" (Wil- liams), the deity of light. From Wompi, also Wapan in Wapan- achkik, "Those of the eastern region," now written Abannqui and 'Abnaki, and confined to the remnant of a tribe in Maine. (See ON LONG ISLAND. 75 .Wahamianesing.) 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 understand- ing"; 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 Pen- insula, in its breast of rock against which the ocean-waves dash with fearful force; its glittering sun-light and in its general fea- tures, a Wompandnd, or Eastern God, that which was " more than ordinary, wonderful, surpassing," but those features are not re- ferred to in Wompendnit, 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 Worn- penanit, and the point, Naiag, " 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 topo- graphical 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 be- ing 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," * * " Un- to 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 Mean- 76 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. tacqu, is an equivalent of Mass. Manantac, "Spruce swamp," and of Del. Mendntac, "Spruce, cedar or pine swamp." (Zeis'b.) The Abn. word Manna'^dakoo, "cedar" (Mass. -u^tugh; Nar. dwtuck), seems to establish conclusively that -dntak 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.^ 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.) Napeak, East Hampton deed of 1648, generally written Napeaka Neppeage and Napeagne, and applied by Mather (Geological Sur- vey) to a beach and a marsh, and in local records to the neck con- necting 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 prehis- toric 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 " Nom- inick 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.) ^ The Indians had specific names for different kinds of trees. The generic general word was Me'hittuk or M'hittiigk, Del., M'tugh, Mass., which, as a suffix, was reduced to -ittiik, -iitugh, -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." Manna"dakdd is quoted as the Abn. word for "cedar;" Mishqti- dwtuck, Nar., "Red cedar." Menantachk. "Swamp" (Len. Eng. Die), is explained by Rev. Anthony, " with trees meeting above." Menantac, '"'Spruce, cedar or pine swamp" (Zeisb.), from the kind of trees growing in the swamp, but obviously antac never descrijjed 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 re- gard to the meaning of the suffix. ON LONG ISLAND. 77 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^ Qiiazvnotiwock, the animate plural suffix -wock, shmving that it belonged to the people — " People living- on the Long River." ^ (See Quantuck and Connecticut.) 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 Aucup (Williams), "A little cove or creek." "x4spatuck 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 Shin- nec'ock Indians who had taken on the habits and customs of Euro- pean 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 Mon- tauks, who had been elected by other sachems as chief sachem or the "sac^hem 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 con- siderable portion of which remains in the district south of Peconic The suffix -og, -ock, -uck, is, in the dialect here, a plural sign. Williams wrote -oock, -uock, -wock, and Zeisberger wrote -ak, -ivak. Quinnch-tuk- wock, " People living on the Long River " — " a particular name amongst themselves." Kutch-innii-zvock, "Middle-aged men;" Miss-innu-tvock, "The many." Lenno, "Man"; Lemw-zvak, "Men." (Zeisberger.) Kiiive, "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 ani- mates that Europeans do not. 78 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. 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 : "Whiteney- men, sachem of Mochgonnekonck, situate on Long Island." (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiv, 60.) Whiteneymen, whose name is written May- awetinnemin in treaty of 1645, ^.nd "Meantinnemen, alias Tapou- sagh, 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. Brjdhead wrote of him : "Kieft, there- fore, by the advice of his council determined to engage some of the friendly Indians in the interest of the Dutdh, 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 arid the Dutch at Manhattan, the former taking the eastern clans under Wyandanch, and as such appears in the treaties with the Dutch in 1645, '5^- His record name is vari- ously written — Tapousagh, Tackapousha, etc. It is frequently met in Long Island Records. Mochgonneck-onck the name of his sa- chemdom in 1643, has not been identified further than that be 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 Kongh" onganoc, 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 nortih and Konkhonganik on ON LONG ISLAND. 79 the south." Dr. Tooker translated the former from Quaneunteow- unk, (EHot), "Where the fence is," the reference being to a cer- tain fence of lopped trees which existed on the north end of the pond/ and the latter from Kithkunhungaiiash (EHot), "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." Wyandanoh,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.) 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 ^ 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. * Wyandach, or Wyandance, is said to have been the brother of Paggata- cut, sachem of Manhas'set or Shelter Island, the chief sachem of fifteen sachemdoms. On the death of the latter, in 165 1, Wyandanch became, by election, the successor of his brother and held the oflfice until his death by poison in 1659. 8o ' INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. 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-komnk, "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 Yapehdnck, in Lenape Rapehdnek, "Where the stream ebbs and flows." The name is written Yampkanke in In- dian deed. (Gerard.) The name is now applied to a small trib- utary of the Connecticut, but no doubt belongs to a place on the •Connecticut where the current is affected by the tide. (See Con- necticut.) 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 Nunnawauguck, "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 Qiiirmittickqtiet, "Long- river land," as in Connecticut. (Trumbull.) Quinnituk, "Long river" ; Avith locative -ct 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 IsHp, and the other, the largest stream on the island, as described above. In old deeds it is called East Conneoticutt. Fire-place is now re- ON LONG ISLAND. 8 1 tained as the name of a village on Bellport Bay, and its ancient loca- tive on the Connecticut is now called South Haven/ Minasseroke, quoted as the name of Little Neck, town of Brook- haven, probably means "Smali-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 Pohshdog, 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 Ongkoue (Moh.), "beyond," with -ogne (ohke), "land beyond," i. e. beyond the bay." (See Moriches.) Cumsequcgue is given in will of William Tangier Smith as the name of w^hat is now known as Carman's River, flowing to Bell- port 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 be- yond," w'hich, as the deeds show, was a fis'hing-place at a fresh- water 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 cor- ruption of Nam'e-ohke, "Fish-place" — Namanock or Namecock. (Trumbull.) 3 Moriches, or Manges, is a corruption of Dutch * 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. * Otherwise written Unquetauge—"\a.nd 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.) " Ongkoue, beyond Pequannuc river." (Trumbull.) ^Namaus, generic, "a fish" — Namohs, Eliot; Names, Abn., Namaes, Heck.; Namees, Zeisb. ; with suffix -aki, -ohke, etc., "fish-land," place or country. Anieessak, Zeisb.; Anmesooak, Abn., Aumsuog, Mass., "small fishes." As a generic suffix, -ama'ug, Mass., -ama'uk, Del., "fishing-place." 82 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. Maritches (Morichi, Maridhe), from Moriche Palmita (Latin), meaning, in popular use, any plant thoug'ht to resemble a palm. Mauritia a species of Mauriticse, or South- American palm, so called in honor of Prince Maurice of Nassau. (See Palmagat) 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 ex- tended to Etmughquamuck, 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 w'here the Indians haul over their canoes out of the North Bay to the South Bay." (Deed of 1640.) Dr. Trumbull translated from Nde-amuck, "Between the fishing places." Local tradition affirms that centuries ago the In- dians 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 Mar- sapinks and Nyacks for neighbors ; now preserved in several forms of which Setauket probably locates a place near Secontague. Sick- eteuhacky, writes Mr. Gerard, " is the Lenape equivalent of Secor " Atna'ug is only used at the end of a compound name, where it is equiva- lent 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. ON LONG ISLAND. 83 togue, 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 Schaghticoke.) "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., Ama'^ga'^, "ou peche Id." "'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 compo- sition describes. , Peconic, now so written and applied to Pecoriic 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 Shinnecock Indians' Land" (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiv, 600), is not the equivalent of Peqan'nuc, "a name common to all cleared land," as translated by Dr. Trumbull, but the name given as that of a small creek tributary to Peconic River, in which connection it is of record Pehick-konuk, which, writes Mr. Gerard, "plainly stands for K'pe- hickonuk, or more properly Kepehikanik, 'At the barrier,' or weir. Kepehikan from Kepehike, 'he closes up,' or obstructs, i. e. 'dams.' " The bounds of the Shinnec'ock Indians extended east to this stream ; or, as the record reads, "To a river where they did use to catch the fish commonly called alewives, the name of which creek was Pehick- konuk, or Peconic." (Town Records.) Agwam, Agawam, is quoted by French as the name of South- ampton, L. 1. Dr. Trumbull wrote : "Acawan, Agawan or Auqu- an, a name given to several localities in New England Where there §4 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. are low meadows — a low meadow or marsh." Presumably from Agwu, "Underneath, below." Another authority writes : "Aga- zvam from Magawamuk, "A great fishing place." (See Mach- awameck.) Sunquams is given by French as the Indian name of Mellville in SoutK^mpton, 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 includ- ing 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 wood- ed. (See Titicus.) Cutchogue, Plymouth Records, 1637 ; " Curchaug, or Fort !Neck;" Corch'aki, deed of 1648; now Cutchogue, a village in South- old, 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 Kchti-avke, "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'tuckzveoo), possibly the Golden Club, or Floating Arum, a root described "as much of the bigness and taste of potatoes." (Trum- bull.) * The same name is met in Westchester County. ^ 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. ON LONG ISLAND. 85 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-anke, "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-hafbor was commenced. Namke, from Nauiaa, "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 tast€." 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 head- waters 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 prin- cipal 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 atike, "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 Its native name was iaw-kee." ("The Lenape and their Legends.") The name of another place on Long Island, written Hogonock, is probably an equivalent of Delaware Hobbenac (Zeisb.), "Potatoes," or "Ground-nuts"; Hobbenis, "Turnips." (See Passapenoc.) B6 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. 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 sec- ond, 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 resi- dents 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 run- ning on a due south line, and at the South Sea by a marked tree in a neck called Maskutchoung, 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-ong, "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. ON LONG ISLAND. 87 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 prob- ably 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, *Tish place." (See Moriches.) Curiously enough, Merrick was a proper name for man among the ancient Brittons, 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, Quaqnanantuck, and applied to a meadow or neck of land. "The meadow called Ouaquunantuck" — "the neck of land called Qua- quanantuck" — "all the meadows lying west of the river, commonly called or known by the name of Quantuck." One of the bound- marks 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'im-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 oonitraction of Quaquaunantuck, but seems to be from Poque-ogne, "Clear, open space," an equivalent of Poque-auke, Mass. Rechqua=akie, De Vries ; Reckkouwhacky, deed of 1639; now applied to a neck on the south side of Long Island and preserved in Rockaway, was interpreted by the late Dr. E. B. O'Callaghan: "Reck 'sand'; qua, 'flat'; akie, 'land'— the long, narrow sand-bar now known as Rockaway Beach," but is more correctly rendered with dialectic exchange of R and L, Lekau. (Rekau), "sand or gravel," hacki, " land " or place. (Zeisb.) " Flats " is inferred. •38 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. A considerable division of the Long Island Indians was located in the vicinity, or, as described by De Vries, who visitefd 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/ Jamaica, now applied to a town, a village and a bay, was pri- marily given to the latter by the English colonists. "Near unto ye beaver pond called Jamaica," and "the beaver path," are of rec- ord, 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'Cailaghan.) 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 Casteteinv, "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 eastern- most," as "the Bay," or Amesfort. Sacut, now known as Success Pond, lying on a high ridge in Flushing, is a corruption of Sakiiwit (Sdquik), "Mouth O'f a river" (Zeisb.), or "where the water flows out." The pond has an out- let, 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, Cana- rise, 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 ^The names in the treaty of 1645, as written by Dr. O'Cailaghan, are " Marechkawicks, Nayecks, and their neighbors" ; in the treaty of 1656, " Rockaway and Canorise." The latter name appears to have been intro- duced 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. ON LONG ISLAND. 89 written Canais, Conoys, Ganazvese, etc. (Heck, xlii), and applied to a sub-tribe of Nanticokes residing there who were known as "The tide-water people," or "Sea-s'hore settlers." On DelaJware 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. Con- sidered 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-rese) pure and simple, and obviously employed as a substi- tute for the Algonquian term written Ganazvese, 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 Bamho Hook." In "Century Dic- tionary" Bambo is explained: "From the native East Indian name, Malay and Java bambu, Canarese banbu or honzvu." Dr. Brinton translated Ganazvese from Guneu (Del.), "Long," but did not add that the suffix — zvese, 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 Gouwanus Bay, on Reed Island, etc. True, Ganawese would de- scribe anything that was " long, small," but obviously here the ob- jective product. Canarese, Canarose, Kanarische, Ganawese, repre- ■9© INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. sent 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 Man- nahaning as that of Gravesend Neck. (Thompson's Hist. L. I., ii, 175- ) The Dutch called the former Conynen, and the latter Conyne Hoeck — "f Conijen Conine." Jasper Dankers wrote in 1679: "On the south (of Staten Island) is the great bay, which is endO'Sed by Najaq, t' Conijen Island, Neversink," etc. Conijen (modern Dutch, Konijn), signifies "Rabbit" — Cony, Coney — in- ferentially "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 corner," as in Nyack. The latter was the Dutch "Conyne Hoeck." Judge Benson claimed Conyn as "A Dutch sur- name, from which came the name of Coney, or Conyn's Island," but if so, the surname was from "Rabbit" surely. Gowanus — Gowanus, 1639; Gozvanes, 1641 ; Gonwanes, 1672 — the name of one of the boundmarks of a tract of land in Brooklyn, is probably from Koua (Koivaw, Williams; Cuwe, Zeisb.), "Pine"; Kowazvese (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 "over- flowed 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 ON LONG ISLAND. 9 1 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 164$— Mereckawack, Breeden RaSdt, 1649 ; Mareckawick and Marechkawieck , Rapelie deed, 1630 ; Marechkourick, O'Callaghan ; Marechkawick, Brodhead — forms of the name primarily given as that of Wallabout Bay,^ "The bought or bend of Marechkawick" — "in the bend of Maredhkawick," 1630 — ^has been translated by Dr. Tooker from Men'achk {Mcenachk, 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 appear- ance of an orthography (Dutdh) 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 "Widg- eon 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 ^"^cl 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 Breiikelen, the name of a village about eighteen miles from Am- sterdam. It means "Broken land." (Breuk.) On Van der Donck's map the name is written correctly. A record description i"«ads: "There is much broken land here." Manette, so written of record — "near Mannato hill," about thirty miles from Brooklyn and midway between the north and south sides of tfhe island — has been interpreted from its equivalent, * Wallabout Bay takes its first name from Dutch Waal, "gulf, abyss,"' etc., and Bocht, "bend." It was spoken of colloquially by the early Dutch as " The bay of the foreigners," referring to the Walloons who had settled on the north side of the bay in 1625. The first white child, Sarah Rapelie, born in New Netherland, now the State of New York, was born here June 17th, 1625. 92 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. Manitou, "Hill of the Great Spirit," but means strictly, "That which surpasses;, or is more than ordinary." (Trumbull.) It was a word in common use by the Indians in rpplication to everything that was more than ordinary or tfhat they could not understand. In this instance it seems to have been applied to the water of a spring or well on the rising ground whicli they regarded as of sur- passing excellence ; from the spring transferred to the hill. The tradition is that some ages ago the Indians residing in the vicinity of the 'hill were suffering for water. They prayed to the Great Spirit for relief, and were directed to shoot an arrow in the air and where it fell to dig and they would find water. They did so and dug the well now on the rising ground, the wfater of which was of surpassing excellence, or Manitou. The story was probably invented to account for the name. It is harmless fiction. Rennaqiiakonck, Rinnegahonck, a landmark so called in the boundaries of a tract on Wallabout Bay, described in deed as "A certain swamp where the water runs over the stones," and, in a subsequent deed, "At the sweet marsh" (Hist, of Brooklyn), is an orthography of Winne gackonck , meaning "At the sweet place,"^ so called fnom some plant wWich was found there, or to distinguish the marsh as fresh or sweet, not a salt marsh. The exchange of R and W md,y be again noted. Comae, the name of a village in Suffolk County, is an apheresis of Winne-comac, as appears oi record. The combination expresses, "Good enclosed place," from Winne, "Good, fine, sweet, beautiful, pleasant," etc., and -komuck, "Place enclosed," or having definite boundaries, limited in size. Nyack, the name of the site of Fort Hamilton, is a generic verbal from Nai, "A point or corner." (Naiag, Mass., Neiak, Len.) The orthographies vary — Naywayack, Narrack, Nanak, Narrag, Najack, Niuck, Narrioch, etc. Witli the suffix -ak, the name means "Land or place at the point." (See Nyack-on-the-Hudson.) Dankers and Sluyter wrote in their Journal (1679-80) : "We went part of the way through the wOods and fine, new-made land, and so along the shore to the west end of the island called Najack. * * Con- tinuing onward from there, we came to the plantation of the Najack Indians, w'hidh was planted with maize, or Turkish' Wheat." The ON LONG ISLAND. 93 Nayacks removed to Staten Island after the sale of their lands at New Utrecht. (See Narrioch.) Nissequague, now so written, the name of a hamlet in Smith- town, and of record as flhe name of a river and of a neck of land stili so known, is of primary record N isinckque g-hackey (Dutch no- tation), as the name of a place to which the Matinnecock clan re- moved after the war of 1643. (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiv, 60.) The Eng-lish scribes wrote Nesequake (1650), Nesaquake (1665), Nes- sequack (1686), Wissiquack (1704), (Cal, N. Y. Land Papers), and other forniis. The Indian deed of 1650 (Smithtown Records) recites the sale by "N'asseoonseke, sachem of Nesequake," of a tract "Beginning at a river called and commonly known by the nam'e of Nesaquake River, and from that river eastward to a river called Memanusack." "Nesaquauke River" is tihe entry in patent to Richard Smith, 1665. The stream' has its source in a number of springs in the southern part of Smithtown, the flow of whicli forms a considerable river. (Thompson.) The theory that "The tribe and river derived their name from Nesequake, an Indian sagamore, the father of Nassaconset (Hist. Suf. Co.), is not well sustained. The suffix -set, cannot be applied to an animate object; it is a loca- tive meaning "Les's tihan at." In addition to this objection, Nas- saconset is olilierwise written Nessaquauke-iacoompt-set, showing that the name belonged to a place tlhat was "On the other side" of Nessaquauke." Neesaquauke stands for Neese-saqu-auke, from Nisse, "two," Sauk, "Outlet," and -aukc, "Land" or place, and de- scribes a place at "the second outlet," or as the text reads, "At a river called and commonly known by the name of Nesaquake River." The sagamore may have been given the name from, the place, but the place could not have taken the name from the sagamore. The estuary, now known as Nissequage Harbor into which the stream flows, extends far inland and forms the west boundary of Nisse- quage Neck. Marsepinck, a stream so called in Queens County, from whidh extended to the land which was sold, in 1639, by "Mechowout, chief sachem of Marossepinck, Sint-Sink and dependencies," and also extended to an Indian clan known as Marsepings, is no doubt an orthography of Massepe and -ing, locative. It means "At, to or on 94 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. Hhe great river." Mas is an abbreviation of Massa, Missi, etc.^ "great," and Sepe, means "river." It was probably used compara- tively — the largest compared with some other stream. (See Mass- epe.) Unsheamuck, otherwise written Unthemamuk, given as the name of Fresh Pond, on tihe boundary line between Huntington and Smithtown, means "Eel-fislhing place." (Tooker.) Suggamuck, the name of what is now known as Birch Creek, in Southampton, means "Bass fishing-place." (Tooker.) Rapahamuck, a neck or point of land so called, is from Appe- aniiick, "Trap fishing-place." (Tooker.) The name is assigned to itlie mouth of Birdh Creek. (See Suggamuck.) Memanusack and Memanusuk, given as the name of Stony Brook, probably has its locative "At the head of the middle branch of Stony Brook," wfhich formed the boundmark noted in the Indian deed. The same name is probably met in Mayomansuk, from Mawe, meaning "To bring together," "To meet" ; and -suck, "Outlet," i. e. of a pond, marsh or river. The brook was "stony" no doubt, but that description is English. Cussqunsuck is noted as the name of Stony Brook referred to in Memanusack. The stream is probably the outlet of the waters of a swamp. In his will Richard Smith wrote : "I give to my daugthter Sarah, 130 acres of land at the tivo swamps called Cutts- cunsiick." The first word seems to stand for Ksucqon, "Heavy" (Zeisb.), by metonymie, "Stone," -es, "Small," and -uck, locative, "Place of small stone." Ksucqon may be employed as an adjectival prefix. Eliot wrote, "Qussukquemin, Stone fruit," the cherry. Mespaechtes, deed to Governor Keift, 1638, from which Mes- path (Brodhead), Mespat (Riker), Mashpeth and Mashpett (CoL Hi'st. N. Y., xiv, 602), now Maspeth, a village in Newtown, Queens County, and met in application to Newtown Creek (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 25), has been translated by Dr. Tooker, "From Mech-pe-is-it, Bad-water place," and by Wm. R. Gerard, "From Massapichtit, a verbal describing scattered settlements, as though the Indians who sold the lands had said, 'We include the lands of those living here ON LONG ISLAND. 95 and there.' "^ Flint, in his "Early History of Long Island," wrote: "Mespat Kills, now Maspe'th, from the Indian Matsepe, written by the Dutch, Maespaatches Kiletje" — long known as "Dutcli Kills." In patent of 1642, for lands described as lying "on the east side of MespatChes Kil," the boundary is stated : "Beginning at the kil and the tree standing upon the point towards the small kil." Obviously there were two streams here, the largest called Mespatdlies, which seems to be, as Flint states, a Dutch rendering of Matsepe-es, ivova Mas (Del. Mech), a comparative term — "great," as distinguished from "small," tbe largest of two, and Sepees {Sepous, Sepuus), "a brook." Sepe, Sipo, Sipii, etc., is generally applied to a long stream. The west branch of Mespatt Kill has the record name of Quandoequareits. Flint wrote: "The Canapauke, or Dutch Kills, sluggislhly winding its way through the meadows of bronzed grasses." Canapauke stands for Qnana-pe-anke, "Long water- land," or "Land on the long water." The stream is a tidal current receiving several small streams. (See Massepe.) Mespatches seems to belong to the stream noted in patent of 1642. Sint=Sink, of record as the name of Schout's Bay, "also, "Form- erly called Cow Neck, and by the Indians Sint-Sink," was the name of a place now known as Man'hasset. (Col. Hist. N. Y.) It means "Place of small stones," as in Sint-Sink, modern Sing-Sing, on the Hudson. Manhasset, correctly Manhanset, means, "Near the Island," or something less than at the island. The locative was long known as "Head of Cow Neck." Matinnecock is noted in a survey for Lewis Morris, in 1685 : "A tract of land lying upon the north side of Long Island, within the townstiip of Oyster Bay, in Queens County, and known by the name of Matinicock," and in another survey : "A certain small neck of land at a place called Mattinicock." Extended also to an island and to an Indian clan. Cornelius van Tienhoven wrote in 1650: ^ " Missiachpitschik, those who are or live scattered." (Zeisberger's Onond. Die.) ^. Known also as " Martin Garretson's bay." Garretson was Schout (Sheriff), hence "Schout's bay." The neck of land "called by the Indians Sint-Sink," was fenced for the pasturage of cows, and became known as " Cow Neck," hence " Cow bay " and " Cow harbor," now Manhasset bay. (See Matinnec'ock and Mochgonneck-onck.) 96 IND[AN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. "Martin Garritson's Bay, or Martinnehouck/ is mudli deeper and wider than Oyster Bay ; it runs westward in and divides into three rivers, two of which are navigable. The smallest stream runs up in front of the Indian village called Martinnehouck, where they have their plantations. The tribe is not strong, and consists of about thirty famihes. In and about this bay were formerly great numbers of Indian plantations which now lie waste. On the rivers are numerous valleys of sweet and salt meadows." The name has, with probable correctness, been interpreted from Metanak-ok (Lenape, Metanak-onk; Abn., Metanak-ook), meaning, "Along the edge of the island," or, as Van Tienhoven wrote, "About this bay." The same name appears on the Delaware as that of what is now known as Burlington Island.^ It is corrupted in New Jersey to Tinnicum, and is preserved on Long Island as the name of a village in the town of Oyster Bay. Hog's Island, so called by the early settlers, now known as Center Island, has the record description: "A piece of land on Martin Garretson's Bay, in the Indian tongue called Matinnecong, alias Hog's Neck, or Hog''s Island, being an island at high tide," (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiv, 435.) "Matinneckock, a neck on the Sound east of Mudhito Cove." (See Muchito.) The island is connected with the main land by a neck or beach which was overflowed at high tide. Caumsett is recorded as the name of "The neck of land Which makes the west side of Cow Harbor and the east side of Oyster Bay" (Ind. Deed of 1654), known later as Horse Neck and Loyd's Neck. Apparently a corruption of Ketumpset, "Near the great standing rock." The reference may have been to whac was known as Bluff Point. Muchito, the name of vVhat is now Glen Cove, near Hempstead Harbor, is otherwise written Muschedo, Mosquito and Muscota. * A corruption from " Martin." 2 Mattinacunk, Matinneconke, Matinnekonck — " having been formerly known by the name of Kipp's Island, and by ye Indian name of Koomenak- anok-onck." (Col. Hist. N. Y.) Koo-menakanok-onck was the largest of two islands in the Delaware and was particularly identified by the Indian name, which means " Pine-tree-Islands place." The name by which the Island came to be known was transferred to it apparently. ON LONG ISLAND. 97 It was primarily written as the name of Muchito Neck. It means "Meadow" — Moskehtu (Eliot), "grass;" Mnskuta, "A grassy plain or meadow." (See Muscota.) Katawomoke, "or, as called by the Englisli, Huntington," is written in the Indian deed of 1653, Ketanomake; in deed of 1646, Ketanomocke, and assigned to a neck of land "Bounded upon the west side with a river comtt-noirly called by the Indians Nachaque- tuck, and on the east by a river called Opcutkontycke," the latter now known as Northfield-Harbor Brook. The name is preserved in several orthographies. In deed to Lion Gardiner (1638), Ar- hata-amunt; in deed to Richard Smith (1664), Catazvaunuck and Cafazi'ainuck, and in another entry "Cattawamnuck land," i. e. land about Catawamuck; in Huntington Records, Ketezvomoke ; in Cal. N. Y.- Land Papers, p. 60 : "To the eastward of the town of Hunt- ington and to the westward of Nesaquack, comtmonly called by the Indians Katazvaniake and in English by the name of Crope Mea- dow ;" in another entry, "Crab Meadow," by which last name the particular tract was known for many years. "Crope" and "Crab" are English equivalents for a species of grass called "finger-grass or wire-grass," and were obviously employed by the English to describe the kind of grass that distinguished the meadow — ^cer- tainly not as an equivalent of the Indian name, which was clearly that of a place at or near the head of Huntington Harbor, from which it was extended to the lands as a general locative. The several forms of the name may probably be correctly read from Kehti, or its equivalent, Kehchi, "Chief, principal, greatest," and -amaug, "Fishing-place" {-anmck, L. I.), literally "The greatest fishing-place." The orthography of 1638 is espeicially corrupt, and Ketazvamnck, apparently the most nearly correct, the rule holding good in this, as in othc" cases, that the very early forms are especial- ly imperfect. Nachaquatuck, the western boundary stream of Eaton's Neck^ quoted as the name of Cold Spring, is translated by Dr. Tooker from Wa'nashqne-tuck, "The ending creek, because it was the end or boundary of the tract." "Called by the Indians Nackaquatok, and by the English Cold Spring." (Huntington Patent, 1666.) Wanashque, "The tip or extremity of anything." 9^ INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. Opcutkontycke, now assigned to a brook entering Northfield Harbor, and primarily given as tihe name of a boundary stream _(see Katawamake), seems to be a corruption of Ogkome (Acoom-), "On the other side," and -tuck, "A tidal stream or estuary." It was a place on the other side of the estuary. Aupauquack, the nanie of a creek in West Hampton, is entered, in 1665, Anpaucock and described as a boundary stream between the Shinnecock and the Uncheichauge lands, "Either nation may cutt flags for their use on either side of the river w'ithout molesta- tion." Also given as the name of a "Lily Pond" in East Hampton. Written Appauquauk and Appoquague, and now Paucuck. The name describes a place "Wihere flags grow," and nothing else.^ (See Apoquague.) Wading River, now so called, was also called "The Iron or Red Creek," "Red Creek" and "Wading Place," and by the Indians Pauquacumsuck and Pequaockeon, the latter, wrote Dr. Trumbull, "Because Pequaocks. a little thick shell-fish was found there, w'hich the Indians waded for; hence the name 'Wading River.' Quahaug is from this term, and Pequaock, Oyster Bay." "Iron or Red Creek" explains itself. Wading River is preserved in the name of a village in tihe town of Riverhead. Assawanama — "a tract of land near the town of Huntington called by the natives Anendesak, in English Eaderneck's Beach, and so along the Sound four miles, or thereabouts, until [to] the fresh pond called by the natives Assatvanama, where a creek runs into the Sound" — describes "A creek beyond," /. e. beyond Anendesak; from Assawa-amhames. Aquefeogue, Aquebauke — "on the nonh side of Aquebauke or Piaconnock River" (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiv, 600) — means, "Land or place on this side," i. e. on the side towards the speaker, as is obvious from flie description, "On the north side," and from the deed of 1648, which reads : "The whole tract of land called Ocqueb- auck, together with the lands and meadows lying on the other side of the water as far as the creek," the latter called "The Iron or * Rev. Thomas James, in a deposition made Oct. 18, 1667, said that two old Indian women mformed him they " gathered flags for mats within that tract." (East Hampton Town Records, 156.) ON LONG ISLAND. 99 Red Creek," now "Wading River." The name is preserved in two villages in the town of Riverhead, on the orig'inal tract. Wopowag, more correctly IVepozvage, given as Hhe name of. Stony Brook, town of Brookhaven, describes a place "At the nar- rows," i. e. of a brook or cove, and usually "The crossing place," (Trumbull.) So'was'set, correctly Cozvas'sctt (Moh.), the name of what is now Port Jefferson, signifies, "Neiar a place of small pine trees." (Trumbull.) The name was applied to wihat was long known as the "Drowned Meadow," but not the less a "Place of small pine trees" which was at or near the mea'dow. Wickaposset, now given as the name of Fisher's Island, ap- pears to be from Wequa, "End of," -pang (-peauke), "Water4and," and -et, locative — near the end of the water-land, marsh or pond. The island is on the north side of the Sound opposite Stonington, Ot., but is included in the jurisdiction of Southampton. Hashamomuck, "being a neck of land." (Southold Records.) Hasihamomock or Nashayousuck. (lb.) The adjectivals Hash and Nash seem to be from Nashanc. "Between," and -suck, "The mouth or outlet of a brook." The suffix -nioniuck, in the first form, may stand for -komiik, "Place" — ^^a place between. The orthogra- phies are very uncertain. Minnepaug, "'being a little pond w*ith trees standing by it." (Southold Records.) The name is explained in the description, "A little pond." In Southampton Records 'the same pond is called Monabaugs, another orthography of Minnepaug. Masspootupaug (1662), describes a boggy meadow or miry land. The substantival is Pootapaug, Mass., "A bog." The adjec- tival may stand for Mass, "Great," or Matt, derogative. Manowtassquott, or Manowtatassquott, is assigned to Blue Point, in Great South Bay, town of Brookhaven. The record reads r "Bounded easterly by a brook or river to tJhe westward of a point called the Blue Point, known by the Indian name of Manow- tatassquott." The name belongs to a place where Menhaden abounded — Manowka-tuck-ut — from w'hich extended to the point. lOO INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. Ochabacowesuck, g-iven as the name of what is now called Pine Neck, stands for Acqnehacoives-uck, meaning, "On this side of the small pines." Narraganset. Cozvawes-uck, "At the young pine place," or "Smiall-pine place." Koowa, Elidt; -es, diminutive; -lick, locative. Tlie name of the tree was from its pointed leaves ; Koiis, a thorn or briar, or "having a siharp point." (Trumbull.) Acqneh, "This side." Ronkonkoma, Raconkamuck, IVonkonkoainaug, Wonkongam- uck, Wonkkecomaug, Raconkcamake, ""A fresh pond, about the middle of Long Island." (Smith'town Records.) "Wonkkecomaug signifying crooked pond." (Indian deed of 1720.) Obviously from Wonkun, "Bent," and -komuk, "Place, limited or enclosed." Interpretation from Wonkon'ous, "Fence," and -amaug, "Fishing- place" (Tooker), has no other standing than that there was a fence of lopped trees terminating at the pond. The namie, however, was in place before the fence was made. The explanat^ion in the Indian deed of 1720 cannot be disputed. The pond divides the towns of Islip, Smithtown, Se'tauket, and Patchoug. Potunk, a neck of land on S'hinnecock Bay, is written Potuncke in Smithtown Records, in 1662. "A swamp at Potunk," is another entry. Dr. Trumbull quoted it as a form of Po'dunk, Conn., which is of primary record, "Called Potaecke'' and given as the name of a "brook or river." In Brookfield, Mass., a brook bearing the name is said to have been so called "from a tract of meadow ad- joining." In Washington County, N. Y., is recorded "Podunk Brook." (Cal. Land Papers.) The meaning of the name is un- certain, but from its wide distribution it is obviously from a generic — presumably a corruption of P'tuk-ohke, a neck or corner of land. "The neck next east of Onuck is known by the Indian name of Potunk." (Local History.) Mannhonake, the name of Gardiner's Island- — "called by the Indians Mannhonake,^ and by us the Isle of Wight" — means, "Is- land place or country," from Munnohhan, "Island," and -auke, "Land, ground, place (not limited or enclosed), country," etc. (Trumbull.) In common with other islands in Gardiner's Bay, ^ Manchonackc is the orthography in patent to Lion Gardiner, 1639. (Doc. Hist. N. Y., i, 685.) Dr. Trumbull quotes Manchonat, Narragansett. ON LONG ISLAND. lOI it was recommended, in 1650, as offering rare inducements for sieftlement, "Since therein lie the cockles whereof wampum is made." "The greatest part of the wampum for which the furs are traded is made there.'' (Col. Hist. N, Y., xii, 360.) The island v/as claimed in the deed as the property of the Narragansetts. Dr. Dwight's interpretation of the name, "A place where a number of Indians had died," is a pure invention. Manah=ackaquasu=U'anock, given as the name of Shelter Island, is a composition of two names, as shown by the record en- try, "All that their island of Ahaquasu-wamuck, otherwise called Manhansack." Ahaqua.zu-zvamtick is no doubt the equivalent of Auhaqnassii. (Nar.), "Sheltered," and -amuck is an equivalent of -amaiig, "Fis'hing-place,'" literally, "Sheltered fishing-place." Men- hansack is Manhansick in deed of 1652, and Munhassett and Man- hasett in prior deed of 1640. (East-Hampton Records.) It is a composition from Mannohan, "Island ;" es, "small," and et, "at" and describes a small island as "at" or "near" some other island. The compound Manah-ahaquasu-zvanock, means, therefore, simply, "S'heltered-fishing-place island," identifying the island by the fish- ing-place, while Manhasett identifies it in generic tenns as a small island near some other island or place.^ The island now bears the generic terms Manhasett. Pogatacutt, sachem of the island, is sup- posed to have lived on what is now known as "Sachem's Neck." (See Montauk.) Manises, or Menasscs, as written by Dr. Trumbull, the name of Block Island, means, literally, "Small island," just as an English- man would describe it. The Narragansetts were its owners. Its earliest European occupant was Capt. Adriaen Block, who, having lost his vessel by burning at Manhattan, constructed here another which he called the "Onrust" or "Restless," in 1614. It was the first vessel constructed by Europeans in New York waters. In this vessel Block made extended surveys of Hudson's River, the Connecticut, the Sound, etc. Acquiring from his residence among them a knowledge of the Connecticut coast dialects, he wrote the names of tribes on the Hudson in that dialect. Reference is made ' Perhaps explained by the entry, " Roberts' Island, situate near IManhan- sack. (Records, Town of East-Hampton.) I02 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. to what is better known as the "Carte Figurative of 1614-16." There is no better evidence that this Figurative was from Block's diart than its presumed date and the orthographies of the names written on it. Hudson's River on the West. Neversink, now so written as the name of the hills on the south side of the lower or Raritan Bay, is written Neuversin by Van der Donck, Neyswesinck by Van Tienhoven, Neivasons by Ogilby, 1671, and more generally in early records Naver, Neuver, Newe, and Naoshink. The original was no doubt the Lenape Ncwas-ink, "At the point, corner, or promontory." The root Ne (Enghsh Nai), means, "To come to a point," "To form a point," or, as rendered by Dr. Trumbull, "A corner, angle or point," Naiag. Dr. School- craft's translation, "Between waters," and Dr. O'Ca'llaghan's "A stream between hills," are incorrect, as can be abundantly proved. (See Nyack.) Perth Amboy, at the mouth of Raritan River, is in part, from James, Earl of Perth, Lord High Chancellor of Scotland, Who founded a se'ttlement there, and part from Amboy (English Amho), meaning any rising or stage, a hill or any elevation. A writer in 1684 notes : "Where the town of Perth is now building is on a shelf of land rising twenty, thirty and forty feet." Smith (Hist, of New Jersey) wrote: "Ainbo, in Indian, 'A point;'" but there is no such word as Ambo, meaning "A point," in any Indian dia- lect. Heckewelder's interpretation : "Ompogc, from which Amboy is derived, and also Emboli, means 'A bottle,' or a place resembling a bottle," is equally erroneous, althoug'h Emboli may easily have been an Indian pronunciation of Amboy. The Indian deed of 165 1 reads, "From the Raritan Point, called Ornpoge," which may be read from Ompae, Alg. generic, "Standing or upright," of which Amboy, English, is a fair interpretation. Raritangs (Van Tienhoven), Rariton (Van der Donck), Rare- tans, Raritanoos, Nanakans, etc., a stream flowing to tide-water west of Staten Island, extended to the Indian sub-tribal organization HUDSON S RIVER ON THE WEST. 103 which occupied the Raritan Valley, is from the radical Nai, "K point," as in Naragan, Naraticon, Narrangansett, Nanakan, Nah- ican, etc., fairly traced by Dr. Trumbull in an analysis of Narra- gansett, and apparently conclusively estabhshed in Nanakan and Narratechoen on the Hudson, the Verdrietig Hoek, or "Tedious Point," of Dutch notation, w^hdre, after several forms it culminates in Navish. Lindstrom's Naratic-on, on the lower Delaware, was probably Cape May, and an equivalent substantially of the Neiw England Nayantukq-ut, "A point on a tidal river," and Raritan was the point of the peninsulla which the clan occupied terminating on Raritan Bay, where, probably, the name was first met by Dutch navigators. The dialectic exchange of N and R, and of the surd ttnutes k and t are clear in comparing Nanakan on the Hudson, Naratic-on on the Delaware, and Raritan on the Raritan. Van der Donck's map locates the clan bearing the name in four villages at and above the junction of a branch of the stream at New Bruns- wick, N. ]., where there is a certain point as well as on Raritan Bay. The clan was conspicuous in the early days of Dutch New Netherland. Van Tienhoven wrote that it had been compelled to remove further inland on account of freshets, but mainly from its inability to resist the raids of the southern Indians ; that the lands whic'h they left unoccupied was between "two high mountains far distant from one to the other ;" that it was "the handsomest and pleasantest country that man can beihold." The great southern trunk-line Indian path led throug'h this valley, and was then, as it is now, the great route of travel between the northern arid the southern coast. (See Nanakan, Nyack-on-the-Hudson, and Orange.) Orange, a familiar name in eastern New Jersey and supposed to refer to the two mountains that bound the Raritan Valley, may have been from the name of a sachem or place or both. In Breeden Raedt it is written : "The delegates from all the savage tribes, such as the Raritans, w'hose chiefs called themselves Oringkes from Orange." Oringkes seems to be a form of Ozuinickes, from Owini, N. J. {Inini, Chip., Lenni, Del), meaning "Original, pure," etc., and -ke, "country" — literally, "First or original people of the coun- try," an interpretation which agrees with the claim of the Indians generally when speaking of themselves.^ Orange is Oranje, Dutch, ^ Dr. D. G. Brinton wrote me "I believe you are right in identifying 'Oringkes with Ozvine — possibly with locative k." I04 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. pure and simple, but evidently introduced to represent the sound of an Indian word. Whait that word was may, probably, be traced from the name given as that of the sachem, Auronge (Treaty of 1645), which seems to be an apheresis of Wscha-jd-won-ge, "On the 'hill side," or "On the side of a hill." (Zeisb.) Awonge, Aur- onge, Oranje, Orange, is an intelligible progression, and, in con- nection with "from Orange," indicates the location of a village or the side of a hill, which the chiefs represented. Succasunna, Alorris County, N. J., is probably from Sukeu,, "Black," and -achsiin, "Stone," with substantive verbal affix -ni. It seems to describe a place where there were black stones, but whether ■there are black stones there or not has not been ascertained. Aquackanonck, Aquenonga, Aquainnuck, etc., is probably from Achquani'kan-ong, "Bushnet fishing place." Zeisberger wrote "Achquanican, a fi&h dam." The locative was a point of land form- ed by a bend in Pasaeck River on the east side, now included in the City of Paterson. Jasper Bankers and Peter Sluyter wrote, in 1679-80 : "Acquakenon : on one side is the kil, on the other is a small stream by which it (the point) is almost surrounded." The Dutch wrote here, Slooterdam, i. e. a dam with a gate or sluiceway in it, probably constructed of stone, the sluiceway being left open to enable shad to run up the stream, and closed by bushes to pre- vent their return to the sea. (Nelson.) Watchung (Wacht-unk, Del.) is from Wachtschu (Zeisb.), "Hill or mountain," and -unk, locative, "at" or "on." Wachtshunk, On the mountain" (Zeisb.) ; otherwise written Wakhunk. The original application was to a hill some twelve miles west of the Hudson. The first deed (1667) placed the boundmark of the tract "At the foot of the great mountain," and the second deed (1677) extended the limit "To the top of the mountain called Watchung.'^ Achkinckeshacky; Hackinkeshacky, 1645 5 Hackinghsackin, Hackinkesack (1660); Hackensack (1685); Ackinsack, Hockquin- dachque; Hackquinsack, are early record forms of the name of primary application to the stream now known as the Hackensack, from which it was extended to the adjacent district, to an Indian settlement, and to an In'dian sachem, or, as Van Tienhoven wrote, "A certain savage chief, named Hackquinsacq." (Breeden Raedt.) HUDSON S RIVER ON THE WEST. I05 The most satisfactory interpretation of the name is that suggested .'by tihe late Dr. Trumbull: "From Huckquan, Mass., Hocquaan, Len., 'Hook/ and sank, 'mouth of a river' — ^literally, 'Hook-shaped mouth,' descriptive of the course of the stream around Bergen Poinit, by the Kil van Kull,^ to New York Bay." Campanus wrote Hockitng, "Hook," and Zeisberger, Hocquaan} The German Hackcn, now Hackensack, means "Hook," as in German Riissel Hacken, "Pot-hook," a hook incurved at both ends, as the letter S; in Lenape Hocqnoan (Zeisb.). Probably simply a substitution. Commoenapa, written in several forms, was the name of the most southern of the six early Dutch settlements on the west side of Hudson's River, known in their order as Commoenapa, Ares- Sieck, Bergen, Ahasimus, Hoboken-Hackingh, and Awiehacken. Commoenapa is now preserved as the name of the upland between Communipaw Avenue and Walnut Street, Jersey City, but was primarily applied to the arm of the main land beginning at Kon- stabel's Hoek, and later to the site of the ancient Dutch village of Gamoenapa, as written by De Vries in 1640, and by the local scribes, Gamoenapaen..^ (Col. Hist. N. Y. xiii, 36, 37.) Dunlap (Hist. N. ^ Before entering New York Harbor, Hudson anchored his ship below the Narrows and sent out an exploring party in a boat, who entered the Nar- rows and ascended as far as Bergen Point, where they encountered a second channel which the}^ explored as far as Newark Bay. The place where the second channel was met they called " The Kils," or channels, and so it has remained — incorrectly " Kills." The Narrows they called Col, a pass or defile, or mountain-pass, hence Kil van Col, channel of the Narrow Pass, and hence Achter Col, a place behind the narrow channel. "Those [In- dians] of Hackingsack, otherwise called Achter Col." (Journal of New Neth., T641-47, Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv, 9.) * * "Whether the Indians would sell us the hook of land behind the Kil van Col." (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 280.) Achter Col became a general name for all that section of New Jersey. Kill and Kull are corruptions of Col. Arthur Kull is now applied to New- ark Bay. ^Heckewelder wrote " Okliiicguan, Woakhucquoan, or short Hucqiian for the modern Occoquan, the name of a river in Virginia, and remarked, 'All these names signify a hook.'" (Trumbull.) Rev. Thomas Campanus (Holm), who was chaplain to the Swedish settlements on the Delaware, 1642-9, and who collected a vocabulary, wrote Hockung (ucng), "Hook." This sound of the word may have led the Dutch to adopt Hackingh as an orthography — modern Haking, " Hooking," incurved as a hook. ^ Jasper Dankers and Peter Sluyter wrote in their Journal : "Gamaenapaen is an arm of the main land on the west side of the North River, beginning at Constable's Hook, directly opposite to Staten Island, from which it is separated by the Kil van Kol. It is almost an hour broad, but has large salt meadows or marshes on the Kil van Kol. It is everywhere accessible by water from the city." Io6 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. Y., i, 50) claimed the name as Dutch from Gemeente, "Commons^ public property," and Faen, "Soft land," or in combination, 'Tillable land and marsh belonging to the community," a relation which the lands certainly sustained. (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 234.) The lands were purchased by Michael Pauw in 1630, and sold by him to the Dutch government in 1638. Although clearly a Dutch name it has ■been claimed as Indian, from Lenape Gamenowinink (Zeisb.), "England, on the other side of the sea." Gamoenapaug, one of the forms of the name, is quoted as the basis of this claim; also, Acom- unipag, ''On the other side of the bay." The Dutch did substitute paen for pang in some cases, but it is very doubtful if they did here. Ahasimus — Achassemus in deed to Michae'l Pauw, 1630 — now preserv'ed in Harsimus, was a place lying west of the "Little Island, Ares'sick ;" later described as "The corn-land of the Indians," indi- cating that the name was from Lenape Chasqummes (Zeisb.), "Small corn." Ashki'muis, "Sea maize." ^ (See Arisheck.) Bergen, the name of the third settlement, is met in Scandana- vian and in German dialects. "Bergen, the Flemish for Mons (Latin), 'a hill,' a town of Belgium." (Lippincott.) "Bergen, op. Zoom, 18 miles north of Antwerp, 'a hill at (or near) the bank,' or border." The original settlement was on what is now known as Jersey City Heights. Arisheck — "The Little Island Aressick" (See Ahasimus), call- ed by the Dutch Aresseck Houck, Hoeren Houck, and Paulus Houck — now the eastern point of Jersey City — was purchased from the Indians by Michael Pauw, Nov. 22, 1630, with "the land called Ahasimus," and, with the "Island Hobokan-Hackingh," purchased by him in July of the same year, was included in his plantation under the general name of Pavonia, a Latinized form of his own name, from Pavo, "Peacock" (Dutch Pauw), which is retained in the name of the Erie R. R. Ferry. Primarily, Arisseck was a low neck of land divided by a marsh, the eastern end forming what was ^ "The aforesaid land Ahasimus and Aressick, by us called the Whore's Corner, extending along the river Maurites and the Island Manhates on the east side, and the Island Hobokan-Hackingh on the north side, surrounded by swamps, which are sufficiently distinct for boundaries." (Pauw Deed, Nov. 22, 1630; Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 3.) Mr. Winfield located Ahasimus "At that portion of Jersey City which lies east of Union Hill, excepting Paulus* Hoeck (Areisheck), * * generally from Warren to near Grove Street." HUDSON S RIVER ON THE WEST. 107 called an island. The West India Company -had a trading post there conducted by one Michael Paulis, from whom it was called Paulus' Hook, which it retains. Pauw also esta;blished a trading post there which, as it lay directly in the line of the great Indian trunk-path (see Saponickan), so seriously interfered with the trade of the Dutch post that the Company purchased the land from him in 1638, and in the same year sold the island to one Abraham Planck. In the deed to Planck the description reads : "A certain parcel of land called Pauwels Hoek, situated westward of the Isiland Manhates and eastward of Ahasimus, extending from the North River into the valley which runs around it there." (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 3.) The Indian name, Arisheck or Aresseck, is so badly corrupted that the original cannot be satisfactorily detected, but, by exchanging n for r, and adding the initial K, we would have Kanis- keck, "A long grassy marsh or meadow." Hoboken, now so written — Hobo can-Hacking, July, 1630; Hobokan-Hacking, Nov. 1630; Hobokina, 1635; Hobocken, 1643; Hoboken, 1647 > Hobuck and Harboken, 1655-6 — ^appears of record first in the Indian deed to Michael Pauw, July 12, 1630, negotiated by the Director-general and Council of New Netherland, and there- in by them stated, "By us called Hobocan-Hacking." Primarily it was applied to the low promontory^ below Castle Point, ^ bounded, recites the deed, on the south by the "land Ahasimus and Aressick." On ancient charts Aressick and Hoboken-Hacking are represented as two long necks of land or points separated by a cove on the river front now filled in, both points being called hooks. In records it was called an island, and later as "A neck of land almost an island, called Hobuk," * * * "extending on the south side to Ahasimus ; eastward to the river Mauritus, and on the west side surrounded by a valley or morass through which the boundary can be seen with sufficient clearness." (Win- field's Hist. Hudson Co. ; Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 2, 3, 4.) In "Free- * An ancient view of the shore-line represents it as a considerable eleva- tion — a hill. ' Castle Point is just below Wehawken Cove in which Hudson is sup- posed to have anchored his ship in 1609. In Juet's Journal this land is de- scribed as "beautiful" and the cliff as of "the color of white green, as though it was either a copper or silver mine." It has long been a noted resort for mineralogists. Io8 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. doms and Exemptionis," 1635 '• "But every one is notified that the Company reserves unto itself the Island Manhates ; Fott Orange, wi'th the lands and islands appertaining thereto; Staten Island; the land of Achassemes, Arassick and Hohokina," The West India Company purchased the latter lands from Michael Pauw in 1638-9, and leased and sold in three parcels as stated in the Pauw deeds. The first settlement of the parcel called by the Dutch Hobo- can-Hacking is located by Whitehead (Hist. East N. J.) immedi- ately north of Hobokan Kill and called Hohuk. Smith, in his "History of New Jersey," wrote Hohiick, and stated that it was a plantation "owned by a Dutch merchant who in the Indian wars, had his wife, children and servants murdered by the Indians." In a narrative of events occurring in 1655, it is written: "Presently we saw the house on Harboken in flames. This done the whole Pavonia was immediately in flames." ^ (Col. Hist. N. Y., xii, 98.) The deed statement, "By us named," is explicit, and obviously impilies that the terms in the name were Dutch and not Indian, and Dutch they surely were. Dr. A. S. Gatschet, of the Bureau of Ethnology, wrote me : "Hoboken, called after a village on the river Scheldt, a few miles below Antwerp," and after a high elevation on its north side. Ho — , hoh — , is the radical of 'high' in all Ger- man dialects, and Buck is 'elevation' in most of them. Bucket (Germ.), Bochel (Dutch), means 'hump,' 'hump-back.' Hump (Low Gennan) is 'heap,' 'hill.' Ho-hok-an locates a place that is distinguished by a hill, or by a hill in some way associated with it." Presumably from the ancient village of Hoboken came to Man- hattan, about 1655, one Harmon van Hoboccon, a schoolmaster, who evidently was given his family name from the village from whence he came. He certainly did not give his family name to Hoboken twenty years prior to his landing at Manhattan. ^ Teunissed van Putten was the first white resident of Hoboken. He leased the land for twelve years from Jan. i, 1647. The West India Com- pany was to erect a small house for him. Presumably this house is referred to in the narrative. It was north of Hoboken Kill. ' Now a commercial village of Belgium. The prevailing dialect spoken there was Flemish, usually classed as Low German. The Low German dia- lects of three centuries ago are imperfectly represented in modern orthogra- phies. In and around Manhattan eighteen different European dialects were spoken, as noted of record — Dutch, Flemish, German, Scandanavian, Walloon, etc. HUDSON S RIVER ON THE WEST. 1 09 Hacking and Hakcn are unquestionably Dutch from the radical Hank, "hook." The first is a participle, meaning' Hooking, ''in- curved as a hook,'' by metonymie, "a hook." It was used in that sense by the early Dutch as a substitute for Lenape Hocquan, "hook," in Hackingsack, and Zeisberger used it in "Rcssel Hacken, pot-hook." No doubt Stuyvesant used it in the same sense in writing Hobokan-Hacking, describing thereby both a hill and a 'hook, corresponding with the topography, to distinguish it from its twin-hook Arisheck. Had there been an Indian name given him for it, he would have written it as surely as he wrote Arisheck. When he wrote, "By us called," he meant just What he said and Avhat he understood the terms to mean. To assume that he wrote the terms as a substitute for Lenape Hopodkan-Jiacki-ng, "At (or on) the smoking-pipe land," or place where materials were ob- tained for making smoking-pipes, has no warrant in the record narrative. Hacking was dropped from the- name in 1635. Wehawken and Weehawken, as now written, is written Azvie- haken in deed by Director Stuyvesant, 1658-9. Other orthogra- phies are Wiehacken, Whehockan, Weehacken, Wehauk, obvious corruptions of the original, but all retaining a resemblance in sound. The name is preserved as that of a village, a ferry, and a railroad station about three miles north of Jersey City, and is historicalh' noted for its association with the ancient custom oi dueling, the particular resort for that purpose being a rough shelf of the cliff about two and one-half miles north of Hoboken and about opposite 28th Street, Manhattan. The locative of the name is described in a grant by Director Stuyvesant, in 1647, to one Maryn Adrijensen, of "A piece of land called Awiehaken, situate on the west side of the North River, bounded on the south by Hoboken Kil, and run- ning thence noffh to the next kil, and towards the woods with the same breadth, altogether fifty morgens of land." ^ (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 22.) The "next kil" is presumed to have been that flowing to the Hudson in a wild ravine just south of the dueling ground, now called the Awiehackan. A later description (1710) reads: "Between the s'outhernmost cliffs of Tappaen and Ahasimus, at a place called Wiehake." (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 98.) The pe- ' A Dutch "morgen" was about two English acres. no INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. tition was b}^ Samuel Bayard, wh'o then owned the land on bc^th sides of Wiehacken Creek, for a ferry charter covering the passage "Between the southernmost cHffs of Tappaen arid New York Island, at a place called Wiehake," the landing-place of which was estab- lisihed at or near the mouth of A wiehacken Creek just beilow what is now known as King's Point. Of the location generally Wirifield (Hist. Hudson Co., N. J.) wrote: "Before the iconoclastic hand of enterprise had touched it the whole region about was charming beyond description. Just south of the dueling ground was the wild ravine adown which leaped and laughed the Awiehacken. Imme- diatelly above the dueling ground was King's Point looking boldly down upon the Hudson. From this height still opens as fair, as varied, as beautiful a scene as one could wish to see. The rocks rise almost perpindicularly to one hundred and fifty feet above the river. Under these heights, about twenty feet above the water, on a shelf about six feet wide and eleven paces long, reached by an almost inaccessible flight of steps, was the dueling ground." South of King's Point were the famed Elysian Fields, at the southern extremity of which, under Castle Point, was Sibyl's Cave, a rocky cavern containing a fine spring of water. The place to which 'the name was applied in the deed of 1658 seems to have been an open tract between the streams named, pre- sumably a field lying along the Hudson, from the description, "run- ning back towards the woods," suggesting that it was from the Lenape radical Tauiva, as vv^ritten by Zeisberger in Taiiwi-echen, "Open ;" as a noun, "Open or unobstructed space, clear land, with- out trees." Dropping the initial we have Atizvi, Awie, of the early orthograph}' ; dropping A we have Wie and Wee, and from -echen we have -dkan, -haken, -hawking, etc. As the name stands now it has no meaning in itself, although a Hollander might read Wie as Wei, "A meadow," and Hacken as "Hooking," incurved as a hook, which would fairly describe Weehawking Cove as it was. Submitted to him in one of its modern forms, the late Dr. Trum- bull wrote that Wehawing "Seemed" to him as "most probably from Wehoak, Mohegan, and -ing, Lenape, locative, 'At the end (of the Palisades)' " and in his interpretation violated his own rules of interpretation which require that translation of Indian names must be sought in the dialect spoken in the district where the name HUDSON S RIVER ON THE WpST. Ill appears. The word for "End," in the dialect spoken here, was Wiqui. Zeisberger wrote Wiquicchung, "End, point," which cer- tainly does not appear in any form of the naime. The Dr.'s trans- lation is simply worthless, as are several others that have been sug- gested. It is surprising that the Dr. should quote a Mohegan adjectival and attach to it a Lenape locative suffix. Espating (Hespating, Staten Island deed) is claimed to have been the Indian name of what is now known as Union Hill, in Jersey City, where, it is presumed, there was an Indian village. The name is from the root Ashp (Usp, Mass.; Esp, Lenape; Ishp, Chip.), "High," and -ink, locative, "At or on a high place." From the same root Ishpat-ink, Hespating. (O'Callaghan.) See Ashp- etong. Siskakes, now Secaucus, is written as the name of a tract on Haickensack meadows, from which it was extended to Snake Hill. It is from Sikkakaskeg, meaning "Salt sedge marsh." (Gerard.) The Dutch found snakes on Snake Hill and called it Slangberg, literally, "Snake Hill." Passaic is a modern orthography of Pasaeck (Unami-Lenape), German notation, signifying "Vale or valley." Zeisberger wrote Pachsajcck in the Minsi dialect. The valley gave name to the stream. In Rockland County it has been corrupted to Paskack, Pasqueck, etc. Paquapick is entered on Pownal's map as the name of Passaic Falls. It is from Poqui, "Divided, broken," and -dpuchk, "Rock." Jasper Dankers and Peter Sluyter, who visited the falls in 1679-80, wrote in their Journal that the falls were "formed by a rock stretch- ing obliquely across the river, the top dry, with a dhasm in the center about ten feet w^de into w'hich the water rushed and fell about eighty feet." It is this rock and chasm to which the name refers — "Divided rock," or an open place in a rock. Pequannock, now so written, is the name of a stream flowing across the Highlands from Hamburgh, N. J. to Pomfpton. written Pachquak'onck by Van der Donck (1656) ; Paquan-nock or Pasq- ueck, in 1694; Paqunneck, Indian deed of 1709, and in other forms, was the name of a certain field, from which it was extended to the 112 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES, stream. Dr. Trumbull recognized it as the equivalent of Mass. Paquan'noc, Pequan'nuc, Pohqii'un-auke, etc., "A name common to all cleared land, i. e. land from which the trees and busihes had been removed to fit it for cultivation." Zeisberger wrote Pachqu (Paghqtt), as in Pachqii-echen, "Meadow;" Pachquak'onck, "At (or on) the open land." Peram=sepus, Paramp=seapus, record forms of the name of Saddle River,^ Bergen County, N. ]., and adopted in Paramus as the name of an early Dutch village, of which one reads in Revolu- tionary history as the headquarters of General George Clinton's Brigade, appears in deed for a tract of land the survey of which reads : "Beginning at a spring called Assinmayk-apahaka, being the northeasternmost head-spring of a river called by the Indians Peram-sepus, and by the Christians Saddle River." Nelson (Hist. Ind. of New Jersey) quoted from a deed of 1671 : "Warepeake, a run of water so called by the Indians, but the right name is Rerakanes, by the English called Saddle River. Peram-sepus also appears as Wieramius, suggesting that Pera, Para, Wara, and Wiera were written as equivalent sounds, from the root Wil {Willi, Winne, Wirri, Waiire), meaning, "Good, fine, pleasant," etc. The suffix varies, Sepus meaning "Brook"; Peake (-Z*^^^), "Water-place," and Anes, "Small stieam," or, substantially, Sepus, which, by the prefix Ware, was pronounced "A fine stream," or place of water. Monsey, a village in Rockland County, takes that name from an Indian resident who was known by his tribal name, Monsey — "the Monseys, Minsis, or Minisinks." Mahway, Mawayway, Mawawier, etc., a stream and place now Mahway, N. J., was primarily applied to a place described : "An Indian field called Maywayway, just over the north side of a small red hill called Mainatanung." The stream, on an old survey, is marked as flowing soath to the Ramapo from a point west of Cheesek-ook Mountain, The name is probably from Mawhvi (Zeisb.), "Assembly," where streams or paths, or boundaries, meet or come together. (See Mahequa.) * Called "Saddle River," probably, from Richard Saddler, a purchaser of lands from the Indians in 1674. (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 478.) HUDSON S RIVER ON THE WEST. II3 Mainaitanung, Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, and Mainafing in N. J. Records, given as the name of "A small red hill" (see Mahway), does not describe a "Red hill," but a place "at" a small hill — Min- attinney-iink. The suffixed locative, -nnk, seems to have been gen- erally used in connection with the names of hills. Pompton — Ponton, East N. J. Records, 1695 ; Pompeton, Pump- ton, Ponipeton, N. Y. Records — now preserved in Pompton as the name of a village at the junction of the Pequannock, the Wynokie, and the Ramapo, and continued as the name of the united stream south of Pompton Village to its junction with the Passaic, and also as the name of a town in Passaic County, N. J., as well as in Pomp- ton Falls, Pompton Plains, etc., and historically as the name of an Indian clan, appears primarily as the name of the Ramapo River as now known. It is not met in early New York Records, but in English Records, in 1694, a tract of land is described as being "On a river called Paquannock, or Pasqueck, near the falls of Pampe- ton," and in 1695, in application to lands described as lying "On Pompton Creek, about twenty miles above ye mouth of said creek where it falls into Paquanneck River," the particular place referred to being known as Ramopuch, and now as Ramapo. (See Ramapo.) Rev. Heckewelder located the name at the mouth of the Pompton (as now known) where it falls into the Passaic, and interpreted it from Pihm (root Pime), "Crooked mouth," an interpretation now rejected by Algonquian students from the fact that the mouth of the stream is nOt crooked. A reasonable suggestion is that the original was Poniofcii, a representative town, or a combination of towns,^ which would readily be converted to Pompton. In 1710, "Memerescum, 'sole sachem of all the nations (towns or families) of Indians on Remopuck River, and on the east and west branches thereof, on Saddle River, Pasqueck River, Narranshunk River and Tappan,' gave title to all the lands in upper or northwestern Bergen and Passaic counties." (Nelson, "Indians of New Jersey," iii), indicating a combination of clans. Fifty years later the tribal title is entered in the treaty of Easton (1758) as the "Wappings, Opings or Pomptons," - as claimants of an interest in lands in northern New 'Pomoteneyu, "There are towns." (Zeisb.) Pompotowwiit-Muhheakan- neau, was the "name of the capital town of the Mahicans. ' So recognized in the treaty of Easton. 114 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. Jersey/ subordinatively to the "Minsis, Monseys or Minisinks," with whom the treaty was made. The clan was then living at Otsiningo as ward's of the Senecas, and seems to have been com- posed of representatives of several historic northern New Jersey families. It has been inferred that their designation as "Wap- pings" classed them as immigrants from the clans on the east side of the Hudson. Obviously, however, the term described them as of the most eastern family of the Minsis or Minisinks, which they were. Ramapo, now so written and applied to a village and a town in Rockland Count}', and also to a valley, a stream of water and ad- jacent hills, is written Ramepog in N. Y. Records, 1695 ; Ramepogh, 1711, and Ramapog in 1775. In New Jersey Records the orthog- raphies are Ramopock, Romopock and Remopuck, and on Smith's map Ramopough. The earliest description of the locative of the name appears in N. Y. Records, 1695 : "A certain tract of land in Orange Comity called Ramepogh, being upon Pompton Creek, about twenty miles above ye mouth of said creek where it falls into Pe- quanneck River, being a piece of low land lying at ye forks on ye west side of ye creek, and going down the said creek for ye space of six or seven miles to a small run running into said creek out of a small lake, several pieces of land lying on both sides of said creek, computed in all about ninety or one hundred acres, with upland ad- Joining thereto to ye quantity of twelve hundred acres." In other words : "A piece of low land lying at the forks of said river, about twenty miles above the mouth of the stream where it falls into the Pequannock, with upland adjoining." The Pompton, so called then, is now the Ramapo, and the place desciibed in the deed has been known as Remapuck, Romapuck, Ramopuck, Ramapock, Pemer- puck, and Ramapo, since the era of first settlement. The somewhat poetic interpretation of the name, "Many ponds," is without war- rant, nor does the name belong to a "Round pond," or to the stream, now the Ramapo except by extension to it. Apparently, by dia- ^ The territory in which the Pomptons claimed an interest included north- ern New Jersey as bounded on the north by a line drawn from Cochecton, Sullivan County, to the mouth of Tappan Creek on the Hudson, thence south to Sandy Hook, thence west to the Delaware, and thence north to Cochecton, lat. 41 deg. 40 min., as appears by treaty deed in Smith's Hist, of New Jersey. HUDSON S RIVER ON THE WEST. II5 lectic exchange of initials L and R, Rente, Raum, or Ronio becomes Lamo from Lainozvo (Zeisb.), "Downward, slanting, oblique," and -pogJi, -puck, etc., is a compression of -apughk {-piichk, German no- tation), meaning "Rock." Lanwiv-dpuchk, by contraction and pro- nunciation, Ramdpuck, meaning "Slanting rock," an equivalent of Pimdpuchk, met in the district in Pemerpock, in 1674, denoting "Place or country of the slanting rock." ^ Ramapo River is sup- ' posed to have its head in Round Pond, in the northwest part of the town of Monroe, Orange County. It also received the overflow of eight other ponds. Ramapo Pass, beginning about a mile below Pierson's, is fourteen miles long. (See Pompton.) Wynokie, now so written as the name of a stream flowing to the Pequannock at Pompton, takes that name from a beautiful valley through which it passes, about thirteen miles northwest of Pater- son. The stream is the outlet of Greenwood Lake and is entered on old maps as the Ringwood. The name is in several orthogra- phies — Wanaque, Wynogkee, Wynachkee, etc. It is from the root Win, "Good, fine, pleasant," and -aki, land or place. (See Wynog- kee.) Pamerpock, 1674, now preserved in Pamrepo as the narnie of a village in the northwest part of the city of Bayonne, N. J., is proba- bly another form of Peme-apnchk, "Slanting rock." ^ (See Ram- apo.) The n'ame seems to have been widely distributed. The name seems to have been widely distributed. Hohokus, the name of a village and of a railroad station, is prob- ably from Mehokhokus (Zeisb.), "Red cedar." It was, presumably, primarily at least, a place where red cedar abounded. The Indian name of the stream here is written Raighkazvack, an orthography of ^ Dr. John C. Smock, late State Geologist of New Jersey, wrote me of the location of the name at Suffern : "There is the name of the stream and the name of the settlement (in Rockland Comity, near the New Jersey line), and the land is low-lying, and along the creek, and above a forks, /. e. above the forks at Suffern. On the 1774 map in my possession, Romapock is certainly the present Ramapo. The term 'Slanting rock' is eminently ap- plicable to that vicinity." The Ramapock Patent of 1704 covered 42,500 acres, and, with the name, followed the mountains as its western boundary. ^ Peine is Pemi in the Massachusetts dialect. "It may generally be trans- lated by 'sloping' or 'aslant.' In Abnaki Pemadene (Pemi-adene) denotes a sloping mountain side," wrote Dr. Trumbull. The affix, -dpuchk, changes the meaning to sloping rock, or "slanting rock," as Zeisberger wrote. Il6 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. Lcchaiii^kiak, "Fork" (Zeisb.), which, by the way, is also the name of a place. Tuxedo, now a familiar name, is a corruption of P'tuck-sepo, meaning, "A crooked river or creek." Its equivalent is P'tuck- hanne (Len. Eng. Die), "A bend in the river" — ''Winding in the creek or river" — "A bend in a river." The earliest form of the original appears in 1754 — 'TuxcitO', 1768; Tuxetough, Tugseto, Duckcedar, Ducksider, etc., are later. Zeisberger wrote Pdiik, from which probably Duckcedar. The name seems to have been that of a bend in the river at some point in the vicinity of Tuxedo Pond to which it was extended from a certain bend or bends in the stream. A modern interpretation from F'tiiksit, "Round foot," is of no merit except in its first word. It was the metaphorical name, among the Delawares, of the v^^olf. It would be a misnomer ap- plied to either a river or a pond. Sepo is generic for a long river. (See Esopus.) Mombasha, Mombashes, etc., the name of a small lake in South- field, Orange County, is presumed to be a corruption of M'biisses (Zeisb.), "Small lake or pond," "Small water-place." The apos- trophe indicates a sound produced with the lips closed, readily pro- nouncing (Mom). Charles Clinton, in his survey of the Cheesec- ook Patent in 1735, wrote Mount-Basha. Mombasa is an Arabic name for a coral island on the east coast of Africa. It may have been introduced here as the sound of the Indian name. Wesegrorap, Wesegroraep, Wassagroras, given as the name of "A barren plain," in the Kakiate Patent, is probably from Wis- ac'hgan, "Bitter," sad, distressing, pitiable. Ziesberger wrote, "Wisachgak, Black oak," the bark of which is bitter and astringent. A black oak tree on "the west-southwxst side" of the plain may have given name to the plain. Narranshaw, NanaschuKck, etc., a place so called in the Kakiate Patent boundary, is probably a corruption of Van der Donck's Narratschocn, "A promontory" or high point. (See Nyack-on-the- Hudson.) Kakiate, the name of patented lands in Rockland County, is from Dutch Kijknit, meaning "Look out," or "Place of observation, as a. HUDSON S RIVER ON THE WEST. XlJ tower, hill," etc. The highest hill in Westchester County bears the same name in Kakeont, and Kaykuit is the name of a hill in King- ston, Ulster County. The tract to which the name was extended in Rockland County is described, "Commonly called by the Indians Kackyachtcvi'eke, on a neck of land which runs under a great hill, bounded on the north by a creek called Sheamaweck or Peasqua." Hackyackawack is ano'ther orthogra^. -iy. The name seems to be from Schach-achgeu-ackey, meaning ' v3;;raight land," "Straight along," (Zeisb.) ; /. c. direct, as "A neck of land" — "A pass between mountains," or, as the description reads, "A neck of land which runs under a great hill." Compare Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 48, 183, etc. Torne, the name of a high hill which forms a conspicuous ob- ject in the Ramapo Valley, is from Dutch Torenherg, "A tower or turret, a high pointed hill, a pinnacle." (Prov. Eng.) The hill is claimed to have been the nortliwest boundmark of the Haverstraw Patent. In recent times it has been applied to two elevations, the Little Torne, west of the Hudson, and the Great Torne, near the Hudson, south of Haverstraw. (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 46.) Cheesek=ook, Cheesek=okes, Cheesec=oks, Cheesquahi, are forms of the name given as that of a tract of "Upland and meadow," so described in Indian deed, 1702, and included in the Cheesek-ook Patent, covering parts of the present counties of Rockland and Orange. It is novv^ preserved as the name of a hill, to which it was assigned at an early date, and is also quoted as the name of ad- jacent lands in New Jersey. The suffix -00k, -oke, -aki, etc., shows that it was the name of land or place (N. J., -alike; Len. -aki). It is probably met in Chcshck-ohke, Ct., translated by Dr. Trumbidl from Kussukoe, Moh., "High," and -ohke, "Land or place" — literal- ly, high land or upland. The final .? in some forms, is an English plural; it does not belong to the root. (See Coxackie.) In pro- nunciation the accent should not be thrown on the letter k ; that let- ter belongs to the first v/ord. There is no Kook about it. Tappans, Carte Figurative of date (presumed) 1614-16, is en- tered thereon as the name of an Indian village in Lat. 41° 15', claim- ed, traditionally, to have been at or near the site of the later Dutch Il8 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. village known as Tappan, in Rockland County. In the triangula- tion of the locative on the ancient map is inscribed, "En effen veldt" (a flat field), the general character of which probably gave name to the Indian village. Primarily, it was a district of low, soft land, abounding in marshes and long grasses, with little variation from level, extending along the Hudson from Tappan to Bergen Point, a distance of twenty-seven miles. Wassenaer wrote, in 1621-25, Tapanis; DeLaet wrote, in 1624, Tappaans; in Breeden Raedt, Tap- panders; Tappaen, De Vries, 1639; Tappaen, Van der Horst deed, 165 1 ; Tappacns, official Dutch; "Savages of Tappaen"; Tappaans, Van der Donck, are the early orthographies of the name and es- tablish it as having been written by the Dutch with the long sound of a in the last word — paan (-paen) — which may be read pan, as a pan of any kind, natural or artificial — a stratum of earth lying be- low the soil — the pan of a tap into which water flows — a mortar pit.^ The compound word Tap-pan is not found in modern Dutch dic- tionaries, but it evidently existed in some of the German dialects, as it is certainly met in Tappan-ooli (uli) on the west coast of Summa- tra, in application, to a low district lying between the mountains and the sea, opposite a fine bay, in Dutch possession as early as 1618, and also in Tappan-huacanga, a Dutch possession in Brazil of con- temporary date. It is difficult to believe that Tappan was trans- ferred to those distant parts from an Indian name on Hudson's River ; on the contrary its presence in those parts forces the con- clusion that it was conferred by the Dutch from their own, or from some dialect with which they were familiar, precisely as it was on Hudson's River and was descriptive of a district of country the features of which supply the meaning. DeLaet wrote in his "New World" (Leyden Edition, 1625-6) of the general locative of the name on the Hudson : "Within the first reach, on the west side of the river, where the land is low, dwells a nation of savages named Tappaans," presumably so named by the Dutch from the place where they had jurisdiction, i. e. the low lands. Specifically, De Vries wrote in 1639, Tappaen as the name of a place where he found and purchased, "A beautiful valley of clay land, some three or four feet ^ Paen, old French, meaning Pagan, a heathen or resident of a heath, from Pagus, Latin, a heath, a district of waste land. HUDSON S RIVER ON THE WEST. HQ above the water, lying under the mountains, along the river," pre- sumed to have been in the meadows south of Piermont, into which flows from the mountains Tappan Creek, now called Spar Kill,^ as well as the overflow of Tappan Zee, of which he wrote without other name than "bay" : "There flows here a strong flood and ebb, but the ebb is not more than four feet on account of the great quan- tity of water that flows from above, overflowing the low lands in the spring," converting them into veritable soft lands. Gamoena- paen, now a district in Jersey City, was interpreted by the late Judge Benson, "Tillable land and marsh." Dr. Trumbull wrote : "Petuck- quapaugh, Dumpling Pond (round pond) gave name to part of the township of Greenwich, Ct. The Dutch called this tract Petiick- quapaen." The tract is now known as Strickland Plain,^ and is de- scribed as "Plain and water-land" — "A valley but Httle above tide- water ; on the southwest an extended marsh now reclaimed in part." Tbe same general features were met in Petuckquapaen, riow Grcci:- ba^h, opposite Albany, N. Y. Dr. Trumbull also wrote, "The Dutch met on Long Island the word Seaump as the name of coin bcnled to a prtp. The root is Saupde (Eliot), 'soft,' i. e. 'made soft by- water,' as Saupde manoosh, 'mortar,' literally 'softened clay.' Hence the Dutch word Sappaen — adopted by Webster Se-pawn." Other examples could be quoted but are not necessary to establish the meaning of Dutch Tappaan, or Tappaen. An interpretation by Rev. Heckewelder, quoted by Yates & Moulton, and adopted by Brod- head presumably without examination: "From Thuhanne (Del.), cold stream," is worthless. No Delaware Indian would have given '■ Tappan Creek is now known as the Spar Kill, and ancient Tappan Land- ing as Tappan Slote. Slote is from Dutch Sloot. "Dutch, trench, moat." "Sloops could enter the mouth of the creek, if lightl}^ laden, at high tide, through what, from its resemblance to a ditch, was called the Slote." (Hist. Rockl. Co.) The man or men who changed the name of the creek to Spar Kill cannot be credited with a very large volume of appreciation for the his- toric. The cove and mouth of the creek was no doubt the landing-place from which the Indian village was approached, and the latter was accepted for many years as the boundmark on the Hudson of the jurisdiction of New Jersey. ' Strickland Plain was the site of the terrible massacre of Indians by Eng- lish and Dutch troops under Capt. Underbill, in March, 1645. (Broadhead, Hist. N. Y., i, 390.) About eight hundred Indians were killed by fire and sword, and a considerable number of prisoners taken and sold into slavery. The Indian fort here was in a retreat of difficult access. I20 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. it as the name of Tappan Creek, and no Hollander would have con- verted it into Tappaan or Tappaen. The Palisade Range, which enters the State from New Jersey^ and borders the Hudson on the west, terminates abruptly at Pier- mont. Classed by geologists as Trap Rock, or rock of volcanic origin, adds interest to their general appearance as calumnar masses. The aboriginal owners were not versed in geologic terms. To them the Palisades were simply -ompsk, "Standing or upright rock." Mattasink, Mattaconga and Mattaconck, forms of names given to certain boundmarks "of the land or island called Mattasink, or Welch's Island," Rockland County, describe two different features. Mattaconck was "a swampy or hassocky meadow," lying on the west side of Quaspeck Pond, from whence the line ran north, 72° east, "to the south side of the rock on the top of the hill," called Mat- tasinck. In the surveyor's notes the rock is described as "a certain rock in the form of a sugar loaf." The name is probably an equiv- alent of Mat-assin-ink, "At (or to) a bad rock," or a rock of un- usual form. Mattac-onck seems to be an orthography of Maskek- onck, "At a swamp or hassocky meadow." Surd mutes and Un- guals are so frequently exchanged in this district that locatives must be relied upon to identify names. Mattac has no meaning in itself. The sound is that of Maskek. Nyack, Rockland County, does not take that name from Kestauh- nink, a place-name on the east side of the Hudson, as stated by Schoolcraft, nor was the name imported from Long Island, as stated by a local historian ; on the contrary, it is a generic Algonquian term applicable to any point. It was met in place here at the earli- est period of settlement in application to the south end of Verdrietig Hoek Mountain, as noted in "The Cove or Nyack Patent," near or on which the present village of Nyack has its habitations. It means "Land or place at the angle, point or corner," from Neiak (Del.), "Where there is a point." (See Nyack, L. I.) The root appears in many forms in record orthographies, due largely to the efforts of European scribes to express the sound in either the German or the English alphabet. Adriaen Block wrote, in 1614-16, Nahicans as the name of the people on Montauk Point ; Eliot wrote Naiyag {-ag formative) ; Roger Williams wrote Nanhigan and Narragan; HUDSON S RIVER OX THE WEST, 121 Van der Donck wrote Narratschoan on the Verdrietig Hoek Moun- tain on the Hudson; Narraticon appears on the lower Delaware, and Narraoch and Njack (Nyack) are met on Long Island. The root is the same in all cases, Van der Donck's Narratschoan on the Hudson, and Narraticon on the Delaware, meaning "The point of a mountain which has the character of a promontory," kindred to Neivds (Del.), "A promontory," or a high point.^ The Indian name of Verdrietig Hoek, or Tedious Point, is of record Newas-ink in the DeHart Patent, and in several other forms of record — -Navish, Navoash-ink, Naurasonk, Navisonk, Newasons, etc., and Neiak takes the forms of Narratsch, Narrich, Narrock, Nyack, etc. Ver- drietig Hoek, the northeastern promontory of Hook Mountain, is a rocky precipitous bluff forming the angle of the range. It rises six hundred and sixty-eight feet above the level of the Hudson into which it projects like a buttress. Its Dutch-English name "Tedious Point," has been spoken of in connection with Pocantico, W'hich see. Essawatene — "North by the top of a certain hill called Essa- watene," so described in deed to Hermanus Dow, in 1677 — means "A hill beyond," or on the other side of the speaker. It is from Azi'ossi (Len.). "Beyond," and -achtenne, "Hill," or mountain. Oosadenighc (Abn.), "Above, beyond, the mountain," or "Over the mountain." We have the same derivative in Housaten-uk, now Housatonic. Quaspeck, Quaspeek, Quaspeach, "Ouaspeach or Pond Pa- tent" — "A tract of land called in the Indian language Ouaspeach, being bounded by the brook Kill-the-Beast, running out of a great pond." (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 53, 56, 70, 82.) The land in- cluded in the patent was described as "A hassocky meadow on the west side of the lake." (See Mattasink.) The full meaning of ^ Dr. Trumbull wrote: "Nai, 'Having corners'; Nd'iyag, 'A corner or angle' ; 'Naig-an-eag, 'The people about the point.' " William R. Gerard wrote: "The Algonquian root A'^^ (written by the English Ndi) means 'To come to a point,' or 'To form a point' From this came Ojibwe Naia'shi, 'Point of land in a body of water.' The Lenape Newds, with the locative affix, makes Nezvas-ing, 'At the promontory.' The Lenape had another word for 'Point of land.' This was Neiak (corrupted to Nyack). It is the par- ticipial form of Ncian, 'It is a point' The participle means, 'Where there is a point,' or literally, 'There being a point' " 122 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. the name is uncertain. The substantival -peck, or -peach, means "Lake, pond or body of still water." ^ As the word stands its ad- jectival does not mean anything. The local interpretation "Black," is entirely without merit. The pond is now known as Rockland Lake. It lies west of the Verdrietig Hoek range, which intervenes between it and the Hudson. It is sheltered on its northeast shore by the range. The ridge intervening between it and the Hudson rises 640 feet. It is a beautiful lake of clear water reposing on a sandy bottom, 160 feet above the level of the Hudson. Men{sak=cungue, so written in Indian deed to De Hart in 1666, and also in deed from De Hart to Johannes Minnie in 1695, is writ- ten Amisconge on Pownal's map, as the name of a stream in the town of Haverstraw. As De Hart was the first purchaser of lands at Haverstraw, the name could not have been from that of a later own- er, as locally supposed. Pownal's orthography suggests that the original was Ommissak-kontu, Mass., "Where Alewives or small fishes are abundant." The locative was at the mouth of the stream at Grassy Point.- Minnie's Falls, a creek so known, no doubt, took that name from Johannes Minnie. On some maps it is called Florus' Falls, from Florus Crom, an early settler. An unlocated place on the stream was called " The Devil's Horse Race." Mahequa and Mawewier are forms of the name of a small stream which constitutes one of the boundaries of what is known as Welch's Island. They are from the root Mawe, "Meeting," Mawewi, "Assembly" (Zeisb.), i. e. "Brought together," as "Where paths or streams or boundaries come together." The reference may have' been to the place where the stream unites with Demarest's Kill, as shown on a map of survey in "History of Rockland County." Welch's Island was so called from its enclosure by streams and a marsh. (See Mattaconga and Mahway.) ■ — I ^ The equivalent Mass. word is paug, "Where water is," or "Place of water." (Trumbull.) Quassa-paug or Quas-paug. is the largest lake in Woodbury, Ct. Dr. Trumbull failed to detect the derivative of Quas, but suggested, Kiche, "Great." Probably a satisfactory interpretation will be found in Kiissilk, "High." (See Quassaick.) ^ Kontii, an abundance verb, is sometimes written contce, easily corrupted to cungue. Dutch Conge means "Discharge," the tail-race of a mill, or a strong, swift current. Minnie's Conge, the tail-race of Minnie's mill. HUDSON S RIVER ON THE WEST. 1 23 Skoonnenoghky is written as the name of a hill which formed the southwest boundmark of a district of country purchased from the Indians by Governor Dongan in 1685, and patented to Capt. John Evans by him in 1694, described in the Indian deed as begin- ning on the Hudson, "At about the place called the Dancing Cham- ber, thence south to the north side of the land called Haverstraw, thence northwest along the hill called Skoonnenoghky" to the bound of a previous purchase made by Dongan "Called Meretange pond." (See Pitkiskaker.) The hill was specifically located in a survey of part of the line of the Evans Patent, by Cadwallader Colden, in 1722, noted as "Beginning at Stony Point and running over a high hill, part of which makes the Stony Point, and is called Kunnoghky or Kunnoghkin." (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 162.) The south side of Stony Point was then accepted as the "North side of the land called Haverstraw." The hills in immediate proximity, at varying points of compass, are the Bochberg (Dutch, Bochelberg, "Hump- back hill"), and the Donderberg, neither of which, however, have connection with Stony Point, leaving the conclusion certain that from the fact that the line had its beginning at the extreme south- eastern limit of the Point on the Hudson, the hill referred to in the survey must have been that on which the Stony Point fort of the Revolution was erected, "Part of which hill" certainly "makes the Stony Point." Colden's form of the name, "Kunnoghky or Kun- noghkin," is obviously an equivalent of Dongan's Schoonnenoghky. Both forms are from the generic root Gun, Lenape (Qiin, Mass.), meaning "Long" — Gitnaqnot, Lenape, "Long, tall, high, extending upwards"; Qunnuhqui (Mass.), "Tall, high, extending upwards"; Qunnuhqid-ohke or Kunn'oghky, "Land extending upwards," high land, gradual ascent. The name being generic was easily shifted about and so it was that in adjusting the northwest line of the Evans Patent it came to have permanent abode as that of the hill now known as Schunnemunk in the town of Cornwall, Orange County, to the advantage of the proprietors of the Minisink Patent.^ Refer- ence to the old patent line will be met in other connections. ^The patent to Capt. John Evans was granted by Gov. Dongan in 1694, and vacated by act of the Colonial Assembly in 1798, approved by the Queen in 1708. It included Gov. Dongan's two purchases of 1784-85. It was not surveyed; its southeast, or properly its northwest line was never satisfactorily 124 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. Reckgawank, of record in 1645 3-s the name of Haverstraw, ap- pears in several later forms. Dr. O'Callaghan (Hist. New Neth.) noted: "Sessegehout, chief of Rewechnong of Haverstraw." In Col. Hist. N. Y., "Keseshout/ chief of Rewechnough, or Haver- straw," "Curruppin, brother, and representative of the chief of Rumachnanck, alias Haverstraw." In the treaty of 1645 • "Sese- kemick and Willem, chiefs of Tappans and Reckgawank," which Brodhead found converted to "Kumachenack, or Haverstraw."^ The original is no doubt from Rckau, "Sand, gravel," with verb substantive zvi, and locative -ng, or -ink ; written by Zeisberger, Lekauzvi. The same word appears in Rechqua-akie, now Rockaway, L. I. The general meaning, with the locative -nk or -ink, is "At the sandy place," and the reference to the sandy flats, at Haverstraw, where Sesegehout presumably resided. There is no reason for placing this clan on Long Island. Nawasink, Yan Dakah, Caquaney and Aquamack, are entered in the Indian deed to DeHart as names for lands purchased by him at Haverstraw in 1666. The deed reads : "A piece of land and meadow lying upon Hudson's River in several parcels, called by the Indians Nawasink, Yan Dakah, Caquaney, and Aquamack, wi'thin determined, but was supposed to run from Stony Point to a certain pond called Maretanze in the present town of Greenville, Orange Count}-. Follow- ing the vacation of the patent in 1708, several small patents were granted which were described in general terms as a part of the lands which it covered. In order to locate them the Surveyor-General of the Province in 1722, pro- pounded an inquiry as to the bounds of the original grant; hence the survey by Cadwallader Golden. The line then established was called "The New Northwest Line." It was substantially the old line from Stony Point to Maretanze Pond (now Binnenwater), in Greenville, and cut off a portion of the territory which was supposed to have been included in the Wawayanda Patent. Another line was projected in 1765-6, by the proprietors of the Mini- sink Patent, running further northeast and the boimdmark shifted to a pond north of Sam's Point, the name going with it. The transaction formed the well-known Minisink Angle, and netted the Minisink proprietors 56,000 acres of unoccupied lands. (Doc. Hist. N. Y., iii, 986.) Gompare Gal. N. Y. Land Papers, 164, 16B, 171, 172, and Map of Patents in Hist. Orange Go., quarto edition. ^Scseliout seems to have been written to convey an idea of the rank of the sachem from the Dutch word Sellout, '"Sheriff." K'schi-sakima, ''Ghief, principal," or "greatest sachem." In Duchess Gounty the latter is written t'see-saghamaugh. ■ Haverstraw is from Dutch Haz'crsiroo, " Oat straw," presumably so nam- ■ed from the wild oats which grew abundantly on the flats. HUDSON S RIVER ON THE WEST. 125 the limits of Averstraw, bounded on tiie east and north by Hudson's River, on the west by a creek called Menisakcungue, and on the south by the mountain." The mountain on the south could have been no other than Verdrietig Hoek, and the limit on the north the mouth of the creek in the cove formed by Grassy Point, which was long known as "The further neck." Further than is revealed by the names the places cannot be certainly identified. Taken in the order in the deed, Nazvasink located a place that was "At (or on) a point or promontory." It is a pure Lenape name. Yan Dakah is probably from Fw Undach, "On this side," i. e. on the side towards the speaker. Caqiianey is so badly corrupted that its derivative is not recognizable. Aquamack seems to be the same word that we have in Accomack, Va.. meaning, "On the other side," or "Other side lands." In deed to Florus Crom is mentioned "Another parcel of upland and meadow known by the name of Ahequerenoy, lying north of the brook called Florus Falls and extending to Stony Point," the south line of which was the north line of the Haver- straw lands as later understood. The tract was known for years as "The end place." Sankapogh, Indian deed to Van Cortlandt, 1683 — Sinkapogh, Songepogh, Tongapogh — is given as the name of a small stream flowing to the Hudson south of the stream called Assinapink, local- ly now known as Swamp Kill and Snake-hole Creek. The stream is the outlet of a pool or spring which forms a marsh at or near the foot of precipitous rocks. Probably an equivalent of Natick Sonkippog, "Cool water." Poplopen's Creek, now so written, the name of the stream flowing to the Hudson between the sites of the Revolutionary forts Clinton and Montgomery, south of West Point, and also the name of one of the ponds of which the stream is the outlet, seems to be from English Pop-looping (Dutch Loopen), and to describe the stream as flowing out quickly — Pop, "To issue forth with a quick, sudden movement" ; Looping, "To run," to flow, to stream. The flow of the stream was controlled by the rise and fall of the waters in the ponds on the hills, seven in number. The outlet of Poplopen Pond is now dammed back to retain a head of water for milling 126 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. purposes. It is a curious name. The possessive 's does not belong to the original — Pop-looping Creek. Assinapink, the name of a small stream of water flowing to the Hudson from a lake bearing the same name — colloquially Sinsapink — known in Revolutionary history as Bloody Pond — is of record, "A small rivulet of water called Assin-tiapa-ink" (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 99), from Assin, "stone"; Napa, "lake, pond," or place of water, and -ink, locative, literally, "Place of water at or on the stone." The current interpretation, "Water from the solid rock," is not specially inappropriate, as the lake is at the foot of the rocks of Bare Mountain. At a certain place in the course of the stream a legal description reads : "A whitewood tree standing near the southerly side of a ridge of rocks, lying on the south side of a brook there called by the Indians Sickbosten Kill, and by the Christians Stony Brook." ^ The Indians never called the stream Sickbosten, unless they learned that word from the Dutch, for corrupted Dutch it is. The derivative is Boos, "Wicked, evil, angry" ; Zich Boos Maken, "To grow angry," referring particularly to the character of the stream in freshets. Prince's Falls, so called in description of survey of patent to Samuel Staats, 1712: "Beginning at ye mouth of a small rivulet called by the Indians Assin-napa-ink, then up the river (Hudson) as it runs, two hundred chains, which is about four chains north of Prince's Falls, including a small rocky isle and a small piece of boggy meadow called John Cantton Huck ; also a small slip of land on each side of a fall of water just below ye meadow at ye said John Cantonhuck." (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 99.) Long known as Buttermilk Falls and more recently as Highland Falls. In early days the falls were one of the most noted features on the lower Hudson. They were formed by the discharge over a precipice of the outlet waters of Bog-meadow Brook. They were called Prince's Falls in honor of Prince Maurice of Holland. The name was ex- tended to the creek in the Staats survey — Prince's Kill. Manahawaghin is of record as the name of what is now^ known as lona Island, in connection with "A certain tract of land on the ^Adv. in Newburgh Mirror, June 18, 1798. Hudson's river on the west. 127 west side of Hudson's River, beginning on the south side of a creek called Assinapink, together with a certain island and parcel of mea- dow called Manahawaghin, and by the Christians Salisbury Island." The island lies about one mile south of directly opposite Anthony's Nose, and is divided from the main land by a narrow channel or marshy water-course. The tract of land lies immediately north of the Donderberg; it was the site of the settlement known as Doodk- town in Revolutionary history. The name is probably from Manna- hatin, the indefinite or diminutive form of Mannahata, "The Island" — ^literally, "Small island." The last word of the record form is badly mangled. (See Manhattan.) Manahan, meaning "Island" — indefinite -an — is a record name of what is now known as Constitution Island, the latter title from Fort Constitution which was erected thereon during the war of the Revo- lution. The early Dutch navigators called it Martelaer's Rack Eiland, from ]\Iartelaer, "Martyr," and Rack, a reach or sailing course — "the Martyr's Reach" — from the baffling winds and cur- rents encountered in passing West Point. The efifort of Judge Benson to convert "Martelaer's" to "Murderer's," and "Rack" to "Rock" — "the Murderer's Rock" — was unfortunate. Pollepel Eiland, a small rocky island in the Hudson at the northern entrance to the Highlands, was given that name by an early Dutch navigator. It means, literally, "Pot-ladle Island," so called, presumably, from its fancied resemblance to a Dutch pot- ladle. Jasper Dankers and Peter Sluyter v/rote the name in their Journal in 1679-80, indicating that the island was then well known by that title. On Van der Donck's map of 1656 the island is named Kaes Eiland, Dutch Kaas (cheese) Eiland. Dankers and Sluyter also wrote, "Bofer-berg (Butter-hill), because it is like the rolls of butter which the farmers of Holland take to market." Read in con- nection the names are Butter Hill and Cheese Island. The same writers wrote, "Hays-berg (Hay-hill), because it is like a hay-stack in Holland," arid "Donder-berg (Thunder-hill), so called from the echoes of thunder peals which culminated there." The latter re- tains its ancient Dutch title. It is eminently the Echo Hill of the Highlands. The oldest record name of any of the hills is Klinker- bcrg, which is written on the Carte Figurative of 1614-16 directly 128 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. opposite a small island and apparently referred to Butter Hill. It means literally, "Stone Mountain." The passage between Butter Hill and Break Neck, on the east side of the river, was called "Wey- gat, or Wind-gate, because the wind often blowed through it with great force," wrote Dr. Dwight. The surviving name, however^ is IVarragat, from Dutch Warrelgat, "Wind-gate." It was at the northern entrance to this troublesome passage that Hudson anchored the Half-Moon, September 29th, i6og. Brodhead suggested (Note K, Vol. i) that Pollepel Island was that known in early Dutch history as Prince's Island, or Murderer's Creek Island, and that thereon was erected Fort Wilhelmus, referred to by Wassenaer in 1626. (Doc. Hist. N. Y., iii, 35.) The evidence is quite clear, however, that the island to which Wassenaer referred was in the vicinity of Schodac, where there was also a Murderer's Creek. Hudson, on his exploration of the river which now bears his name, sailed into the bay immediately north of Butter Hill, now known as Newburgh Bay, on the morning of the 15th of Septem- ber, 1709. After spending several days in the northern part of the river, he reached Newburgh Bay on his return voyage in the after- noon of September 29th, and cast anchor, or as stated in Juet's Journal, "Turned down to the edge of the mountains, or the north- ernmost of the mountains, and anchored, because the high lands hath many points, and a narrow channel, and hath many eddie winds. So we rode quietly all night." The hill or mountain long known as Breakneck, on the east side of the river, may be claimed as the northernmost, which would place his anchorage about midway be- tween Newburgh and Pollepel Island. Quassaick, now so written, is of record, Qiiasek, 1709; "Near to a place called Quasaik" 1709-10; Quasseck, 1713; "Quassaick Creek upon Hudson's River," 17 14. It was employed to locate the place of settlement of the Palatine immigrants in 1709 — "The Parish of Quassaick," later, "The Parish of Newburgh." It is now pre- served as the name of the creek which bounds (in part) the city of Newburgh on the south. "Near to a place called Quasek," indi- cates that the place of settlement was located by the name of some other place which was near to it and generally known by the name. The late Dr. E. B, O'Callaghan read it, in 1856: "From Qiissuk, 'Stone,' and -ick, 'Place where,' literally, 'A place of stone,' " the HUDSON S RIVER ON THE WEST. 129 presumed reference being to the district through which the stream flows, which is remarkable for its deposit of glacial bowlders. The correctness of this interpretation has been questioned on very tenable groun/ds. Qusuk is not in the plural number and -uk does not stand for -ick. Eliot wrote : "Qtissuk, a rock," and "Qussitkquan- ash, rocks." Qussuk, as a substantive simply, would be accepted as the name of a place called "A rock," by metonymie, "A s'tone." N'o other meaning can be drawn from it. It does not belong to the dialect of the district, the local terms being -dpuch, "Rock," and -assin, or -achsiln, '"Stone." Dr. O'Callaghan's interpretation may safely be rejected. William R. Gerard writes : "The worst cor- rupted name that I know of is Weqnaskeg or Wequaskeek, meaning, 'At the end of the marsh.' It appears in innumerable forms — Weaxashuk, Wickerschriek, Weaquassic, etc. I think that Quas- saick, changed from Quasek (1709), is one of these corruptions. The original word probably referred to some place at the end of a swamp. The word would easily become Quasekek, Quasek, and Quassaick. The formative -ek, in words meaning swamp, marsh, etc., was often dropped by both Dutch and English scribes." This conjecture would seem to locate the name as that of the end of Big Swamp, nearly five miles distant from the place of settlement. My conjecture is that the name is from Moh. Kussiihkoe, meaning "High;" with substantive Kussuhkohke, "High lands," the place of settlement being described as "Near the Highlands," which became the official designation of "The Precinct of the Highlands." Kus- suhk is pretty certainly met in Cheesek-ook, the name of patented land's in the Highlands, described as "Uplands and meadows ;" also in Qtiasigh-ook, Columbia County, which is described as "A high place on a high hill." The Palatine settlers at Quasek, wrote, in 1714, that their place was "all uplands," a description which will not be disputed at the present day. (See Cheesekook, Quissichkook, etc.) Much=Hattoos, a hill so called in petition of William Chambers and William Sutherland, in 1709, for a tract of land in what is now the town of New Windsor, and in patent to them in 171 2, a bound- mark described as "West by the hill called Much-Hattoes," is ap- parently from Match, "Evil, bad ;" -adchu, "Hill" or mountain, and -es, "Small"— "A small hill bad," or a small hill that for somo 130 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. reason was not regarded with favor.^ The eastern face of the hilt is a rugged wall of gneiss ; the western face slopes gradually to a swamp not far from its base and to a small lake, the latter now utilized for supplying the city of Newburgh with water, with a primary outlet through a passage under a spur of the hill, which the Indians may have regarded as a mysterious or bad place. In local nomenclature the hill has long been known as Snake Hill, from the traditionary abundance of rattle-snakes on it, though few have been seen there in later years. Cronomer's Hill and Cronomer's Valley, about three miles west of the city of Newburgh, take their names from a traditionary In- dian called Cronomer, the location of whose wigwam is said to be still known as "The hut lot." The name is probably a corruption of the original, which may have been Dutch Jeronimo. Murderer's Creek, so called in English records for many years, and by the Dutch "den Moordenaars' Kil," is entered on map of 1666, "R. Tans Kamer," or River of the Dance Chamber, and the point immediately south of its mouth, "de Bedrieghlyke Hoek" (Dutch, Bedrieglijk), meaning "a deceitful, fraudulent hook," or corner, cape, or angle. Presumably the Dutch navigator was de- ceived by the pleasant appearance of the bay, sailed inlto it and found bis vessel in the mouth of the Warrelgat. Tradition affirms in explanation of the Dutch Moordenaars that an early company of traders entered their vessel in the mouth of the stream ; that they were enticed on shore at' Sloop Hill and there murdered. Paulding, in his beautiful story, "Naoman," related the massacre of a pioneer family at the same place. The event, however, which probably gave the name to the stream occurred in August, 1643, when boats passing down the river from Fort Orange, laden with ' I think your reading of Muchattoos as an orthography of original Mat- chatchu's, is very plausible. I think Massachusetts is the same word, plus a locative suffix and English sign of the plural. It v/as formerly spelled in many ways: Mattachusetts. Massutchet, Matetusses. etc. Dr. Trumbull read it as standing for Mass-adchu-sct, "At the big hills" ; but I learn from history that Massachusetts was originally the name of a hillock situated in the midst of a salt marsh. It was a locality selected by the sachem of his tribe as one of his places of residence. He stood in fear of his enemies, the Penobscotts, and this hillock, from its situation was a 'bad,' or difficult place to reach. So Massachsat for Matsadchuset or Mat-adchu-set plainly means. 'On the bad hillock.'" fWm. R. Gerard.) HUDSON S RIVER ON THE WEST. 131 furs, were attacked by the Indians "above the Highlands" and "nine Christians, including two women were murdered, and one woman and two children carried away prisoners," (Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv, 12), the narrative locating the occurence by the name "den Moordenaars' Kil," i. e. the kill from which the attacking party is- sued forth or on which the murderers resided. The firsit appear- ance of the name in English records is in a deed to Governor Don- gan, in 1685, in which the lands purchased by him included "the lands of the Murderers' Creek Indians," the stream being then well known by the name. The present name, Moodna, was converted to that form, by N. P. Willis from the Dutch "Moordenaar," by dropping letters, an inexcusable emasculation from a historic stand- point, but made poetical by his interpretation, "Meeting of the waters." Schunnemunk, now so written, the name of a detached hill in the town of Cornwall, Orange County, appears of record in that connection, first, in the Wilson and Aske Patent of 1709, in which the tract granted is described as lying "Between the hills at Scoo- nemoke." Skoonnemoghky, Skonanaky, Schunnemock, Sohonmack Clove, Schunnemock Hill, are other forms. In 1750 Schunnamunk appears, and in 1774, on Sauthier's map (1776) Schunnamank is applied to the range of hills which have been described as "The High Hills to the west of the Highlands." In a legal brief in the controversy to determine finally the northwest line of the Evans Patent, the name is written Skonanake, and the claim made that it was the hill named Skoonnemoghky in the deed from the Indians to Governor Dongan, in 1685, and therein given as the sfoutheast boundmark of the lands of "The Murderer's Creek Indians," and, later, the hill along which the northwest line of the Evans Patent ran, which it certainly was not, although the name is probably from the same generic. (See Schoonnenoghky.) The hill forms the west shoulder of Woodbury Valley. It is a somewhat remarkable elevation in geological formation and bears on its summit many glacial scratches. On its north spur stood the castle of Maringo- man, one of the grantors of the deed to Governor Dongan, and iVho later removed to the north side of the Otter Kill Where his 132 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. wigwam became a boundmark in two patents.^ The traditionary word "castle," in early days of Indian history, was employed as the equivalent of town, whether palisaded or not. In this case we may read the name, "Maringoman's Town," which m'ay or may not have been palisaded. It seems to have been the seat of the "Murderer's Creek Indians." The burial ground of the clan is marked on a map of the Wilson and Aske Patent, and has been located by Surveyor Fred J. McKnight (1898) on the north side of the Cornwall and Monroe line and very near the present road past the Houghton farm, near which the castle stood. The later "cabin" of the early sachem is plainly located. Winegtekonck, 1709 — Wenighkonck, 1726; Wienackonck, 1739 — is quoted as the name of what is now known as Woodcock Moun- tain, in the town of Blooming-Grove. It is not so connected, how- ever, in the record of 1709, which reads: "A certain tract of land by the Indians called Wineghtek-onck and parts adjacent, lying on both sides of Murderers' Kill" (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 91), in which connection it seems to be another form of Mahican Wanim- ketnkok, "At the winding of the river" — "A bend-of-the-river- place." Presumably the reference is to a place where the stream bends in the vicinity of the hill. The name appears in an abstract of an Indian deed to Sir Henry Ashurst, in 1709, for a tract of land of about sixteen square miles. The purchase was not patented, the place being included in the Governor Dongan purchase of 1685, and in the Evans Patent. Sugar Loaf, the name of a conical hill in the town of Chester, ^Van Dam Patent (1709) and Mompesson Patent (1709-12). The late Hon. George W. Tuthill wrote me in 1858: "On the northwestern bank of Murderers' Creek, about half a mile below Washingtonville, stands the dwell- ing-house of Henry Page (a colored man), said to be the site of Maringo- man's wigman, referred to in the Van Dam Patent of 1709. The southwest- erly corner of that patent is in a southwesterly direction from said Page's house." In the controversy in regard to the northwest line of the Evans Patent, one of the counsel said: "It is also remarkable that the Murderers' Creek extends to the hill Skonanaky, and that the Indian, Maringoman, who sold the lands, did live on the south side of Murderers' Creek, opposite the house where John McLean now (1756) dwells, near the said hill, and also lived on the north bank of Murderers' Creek, where Colonel Mathews lives. The Urst station of his boundaries is a stone set in the ground at Maringoman's cas- HUDSON S RIVER ON THE WEST. 133 Orange County, is not an Indian name of course, but it enters into an enumeration of Indian places, as in its vicinity were found by Charles Clinton, in his survey of the Cheesec-ock Patent in 1738, the unmistakable evidences of the site of an Indian village, then probably not long abandoned, and Mr. Eager (Hist. Orange Co.) quoted evidences showing that on a farm then (1846) owned by Jonathan Archer, was an Indian burying ground, the marks of which were still distinct prior to the Revolution. Runbolt's Run, a spring and creek in the town of Goshen, are said to have taken that name from Rombout, one of the Indian grantors of the Wawayanda tract. It is probable, however, that the name is a corruption of Dutch Rondbocht, meaning, "A tortuous pool, puddle, marsh," at or near which the chief may have resided. RomboHt (Dutch) means "Bull-fly." It could hardly have been the name of a run of water. Mistucky, the name of a small stream in the town of Warwick, has lost some of its letters. Mishqudwtucke (Nar.), would read, "Place of red cedars." Pochuck, given as the name of "A wild, rugged and romantic region" in Sussex County, N. J., to a creek near Goshen, and, mod- ernly, to a place in Newburgh lying under the shadow of Mudh- hattoes Hill, is no doubt from Piitscheck (Len.), "A corner or re- cess," a retired or "out-of-the-way place." EHot wrote Poochag, in the Natick dialect, and Zeisberger, in the Minsi-Lenape, Puts- cheek, which is certainly heard in Pochuck. Chouckhass, one of the Indian grantors of the Wawayanda tract, left his name to what is now called Chouck's Hill, in the town of Warwick. The land on which he lived and in which he was buried came into possession of Daniel Burt, an early settler, who gave decent sepulture to the bones of the chief.^ '■ The traditional places of residence of several of the sachems who signed the Wawayanda deed is stated by a writer in "Magazine of American His- tory," and may be repeated on that authority, viz: "Oshaquememus, chief of a village, near the point where the Beaver-dam Brook empties into Mur- derers' Creek near Campbell Hall; Moshopuck, on the flats now known as Haverstraw; Ariwimack, chief, on the Wallkill, extending from Goshen to Shawongunk; Guliapaw, chief of a clan residing near Long Pond (Green- wood Lake), within fifty rods of the north end of the pond; Rapingonick 134 IxNTDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. Jogee Hill, in the town of Minisink, takes its name from and' preserves the place of residence of Keghekapowell, aHas Jokhem (Dutch Jockem for Joachim), one of the grantors of lands to Gov- ernor Dongan in 1684. The first word of his Indian name, Keghe, stands for Kechc, "Chief, principal, greatest," and defined his rank as principal sachem. The canton which he ruled was of consider- able number. He remained in occupation of the hill long after his associates had departed. Wawayanda, 1702 — Wawayanda or Woeranin, 1702; Wazvay- unda, 1722-23 ; JVizvanda, Wozvando, Index Col. Hist. N. Y. — the first form, one of the most familiar names in Orange County, is pre- served as that of a town, a stream of water, and of a large district of country known as the Wawayanda Patent, in which latter con- nection it appears of record, first, in 1702, in a petition of Dr. Samuel Staats, of A.lbany, and others, for license to purchase "A tract of land called Wawayanda, in the county of Ulster, containing by estimation about five thousand acres, more or less, lying about thirty miles backward in the woods from Hudson's River." (Land Papers, 56.) In February of the same year the parties filed a sec- ond petition for license to ''purchase five thousand acres adjoining thereto, as the petitioners had learned that their first purchase, 'called Wawayanda' was 'altogether a swamp and not worth any- thing.' " In November of the same year, having made the addi- tional purchase, the parties asked for a patent for ten thousand acres "Lying at Wawayanda or Woerawin." Meanwhile Dr. John Bridges and Company, of New York, purchased under license and later received patent for "certain tracts and parcels of vacant lands in the county of Orange, called Wawayanda, and some other small tracts and parcels of lands," and succeeded in including in their patent the lands which had previously been purchased by Dr. Staats. Specifically the tract called Wawayanda or Woerawin was never located, nor were the several "certain tracts of land called Waway- anda" purchased by Dr. Bridges. The former learned in a short died about 1730 at the Delaware Water-Gap."' The names given by the writer do not include all the signers of the deed. One of the unnamed grantors wa.s Claus, so called from Klaas (Dutch), "A tall ninnj'"' ; an impertinent, silly fellow; a ninny-jack. The name may have accurately described the person- ality of the Indian. HUDSON S RIVER ON THE WEST. 135 time, however, that his purchase was not "altogether a swamp," al- though it may have included or adjoined one, and the latter found that his purchase included a number of pieces of very fine lands and a number of swamps, and especially the district known as the Drowned Lands, covering some 50,000 acres, in which were several elevations called islands, now mainly obliterated by drainage and traversed by turnpikes and railroads. Several water-courses were there also, notably the stream now known as the Wallkill, and that known as the Wawayanda or Warwick Creek, a stream remarkable for its tortuous course. What and where was Wawayanda? The early settlers on the patent seem to have been able to answer. Mr. Samuel Vantz, who then had been on the patent for fifty-five years, gave testimony in 1785, that Wawayanda was "Within a musket-shot of where DeKay lived." The reference was to the homestead house of Col. Thomas DeKay, who was then dead since 1758. The foundation of the house remains and its site is well known. In adjusting the boun- dary line between New York and New Jersey it was cut oft" from Orange County and is now in Vernon, New Jersey, where it is still known as the "Wawayanda Homestead." Within a musket-shot of the site of the ancient dwelling flows Wawayanda Creek, and with the exception of the meadows through which it flows in a remarkably sinuous course, is the only object in proximity to the place where DeKay lived, except the meadow and the valley in wlhich it flows. The locative of the name at that point seems to be establis'hed with reasonable certainty as well as the object to which it was applied — the creek. The meaning of the name remains to be considered. Its first two syllables are surely from the root Wai or JVae ; iterative and fre- quentive Wawai, or Waway, meaning "Winding around many times." It is a generic combination met in several forms — Waivaii, Lenape ; Wohzmyeu, Moh.^ ; Wazvai, Shawano ; Wazvy, IVawi, Waivei, etc., on the North-central-Hudson, as in Wazveiante-pek- 00k. Greene County, and Wazvayachteii-ock, Dutchess County. Dr. Albert S. Gats'chet, of the Bureau of Ethnology, wrote me : "JVa- ^"IVolnvayeii (Mob.), where the brock 'winds about.' turning to the west and then to the east." (Trumbull.) PVoweaushin, "It winds about." (El'ot.) Wfliveeyonchuan, "Tt flows circuitonsly, winds about." (lb.) 136 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. zuayanda, as a name formed by syllabic reduplication, presupposes a simple form, Wayanda, 'Winding around.' The reduplication is Wawai, or Waway-anda, 'many' or 'several' windings, as a complex of river bends." As the name stands it is a participial or verbal noun. Waway, "Winding around many times"; -anda, "action, motion" (radical -an, "to move, to go"), and, inferentially, the place where the action of the verb is performed, as in Guttanda, "Taste it," the action of the throat in tasting being referred to, and in Popachdndamen, "To beat; to strike." As the verb termination of Waway, "Round about many times," it is entirely proper. The uni- formity of the orthography leaves little room for presuming that any other word was used by the grantors, or that any letters were lost or dropped by the scribe in recording. It stands simply as the name of an object without telling what that object was, but what was it that could have had action, motion — ^^that had many windings — except Wa wayanda Creek? Mr. Ralph Wisner, of Florida, Orange County, recently repro- duced in the Warwick Advertiser, an affidavit made by Adam Wis- ner, May 19th, 1785, at a hearing in Chester, in the contention to determine the boundary line of the Cheesec-ock Patent, in which he stated that he was 86 years old on the 15th of April past; that he had lived on the Wawayanda Patent since 1715; that he "learned the Indian language" when he was a young man ; that the Indians "had told him that Wawayanda signified 'the egg-shape,' or shape of an ^ggy Adam Wisner was an interpreter of the local Indian dialect; he is met as such in records. His interpretations, as were those of other interpreters, were mainly based on signs, motions, objects. Wazvay, "Winding about many times," would describe the lines of an eg'g, but it is doubtful if the suffix, -anda, had the meaning of "shape." The familiar reading of Wawayanda, "Away-over-yonder," is a word-play, like Irving's "Manhattan, Man-with-a-hat-on." Dr. Schoolcraft's interpretation, "Our homes or places of dwelling," quoted in "History of Orange County," is pronounced by competent authority to be "Dialectically and grammatically untenable." It has poetic merit, but nothing more. Schoolcraft borrowed it from Gallatin. HUDSON S RIVER ON THE WEST. 137 Woerawin, given by Dr. Staats as the name of his second pur- chase, is also a verbal noun. By dialectic exchange of / for r and giving to the Dutch a: its English equivalent il as in bull, it is proba- bly from the root Wul, "Good, fine, handsome," etc., w^ith the verbal termination -ivi (Chippeway -ivin) , indicating "objective existence," hence "place," a most appropriate description for many places in the Wawayanda or Warwick Valley. Monhagen, the name of a stream in the town of Wallkill, is, if Indian as claimed, an equivalent of Monheagan, from Maingan, "A wolf," the totem of the Mohegans of Connecticut. The name, how- ever, has the sound of Monagan — correctly, Monaghan, the name of a county in Ireland, and quite an extensive family name in Orange County. Long=house, Wawayanda, and Pochuck are local names for what may be regarded as one and the same stream. It rises in the Drowned Lands, in New Jersey, where it is known as Long-house Creek ; flows north until it receives the outlet of Wickham's Pond, in Warwick, Orange County, and from thence the united streams form the Wawayanda or Warwick Creek, which flows southwest- erly for some miles into New Jersey and falls into Pochuck Creek, which approaches from the northwest, and from thence the flow is northwest into Orange County again to a junction with the Wall- kill, which, rising in Pine Swamp, Sparta, N. J., flows north and forms the main drainage channel of the Drowned Lands. In ad- dition to its general course Wawayanda Creek is especially sinuous in the New Milford and Sandfordville districts of Warwick, the bends multiplying at short distances, and also in the vicinity of the DeKay homestead in Vernon. In Warwick the stream has been known as "Wandering River" for many years. The patented lands are on this stream. Its name. Long-house Creek, was, no doubt, from one of the peculiar dwellings constructed by the Indians known as a Long Hoiise,^ which probably stood on or near the stream, and ^The Indian Long House was from fifty to six hundred and fifty feet in length by twenty feet in width, the length depending upon the number of persons or families to be accommodated, each family having its own fire. They were formed by saplings set in the ground, the tops bent together and the whole covered with bark. The Five Nations compared their confeder- acy to a long house reaching, figuratively, from Hudson's River to Lake Erie. «38 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. was occupied by the clan Who sold the lands. Pochuck is from a generic meaning "A recess or corner." It is met in several places. (See Wawayanda and Poohuck.) Gentge=kamike, "A field appropriated for holding- dance's," may reasonably have been the Indian name of the plateau adjoining the rocky point, at the head of Newburgh Bay, whidh, from very early times, has been known as The Dans Kamer (Dance Cham- ber), a designation Wihich appears of record first in a Journal by David Pietersen de Vries of a trip made by him in his sloop from Fort Amsterdam to Fort Orange, in 1639, who wrote, under date of April 15: "At nig*ht came by the Dans Kamer, where there was a party of Indians, who were very riotous, seeking only mischief ; so we were on our guard." Obviously the place was then as well known as a landmark as was Esopus (Kingston), and may safely be claimed as having received its Dutch name from the earliest Dutc'h navigators, from whom it has been handed down not only as "The Dans Kamer," but as "f Duivel's Dans Kamer," the latter presumably designative of the fearful orgies which were held there familiarly known as "Devil worship." During t'lie Esopus War of 1663, Lieut. Couwenhoven, who was lying with his sloop oppo- site the Dans Kamer, wrote, under date of August 14th, that "the Indians thereabout on the river side" made "a great uproar every nig'ht, firing guns and Kintecaying, so that the woods rang again." There can be no doubt from the records that the plateau was an established place for holding the many dances of the Indians. The word Kinte is a form of Gentge (Zeisb.), meaning "dance." Its root is Kanti, a verbal, meaning "To sing." Gcntgeen, "To dance" (Zeisb.), Gent' Keh'n (Heck.), comes down in the local Dutch rec- ords Kinticka, Kinte-Kaye, Kintecaw, Kintekaying (dancing), and has found a resting place in the English word Canticoy, "A social dance." Dancing was eminently a feature among the Indians. They had their war dances, their festival dances, their social dances, etc. As a rule, their social dances were pleasant affairs. Rev. Heckewelder wrote that he would prefer being present at a social Kintecoy for a full hour, ithan a few minutes only at such dances as he had witnessed in country taverns among white people. "Feast days," wrote Van der Donck in 1656, "are concluded by old and middle aged men with smoking; by the young with a Kimecaw, HUDSON S RIVER ON' THE WEST. 139 singing and dancing." Every Indian captive doomed to death, asked and was granted the privilege of singing and dancing his Kintekaye, or death song. War dances were riotous ; the scenes of actual battle were enacted. The religious dances and rites were so wonderful 'that even the missionaries shrank from them, and the English government forbade their being held within one hundreid miles of European settlements. The holding of a war dance was equivalent to opening a recruiting station, men only attending and if participating in the dance expressed thereby their readiness to enter upon the war. It was probably one of these Kantecoys that Couwenhoven witnessed in 1663. There were two dancing fields here— so specified In deed — 'the "Large Dans Kamer" and the "Little Dans Kamer," the latter a limited plateau on the point and the former the large plateau now occupied in part by the site of the Armstrong House. The Little Dans Kamer is now practically destroyed by the cut on the West- shore Railroad. Sufiicient of the Large Dans Kamer remains to evidence its natural adaptation for the purposes to which the In- dians assigned it. Paths lead to the place from all directions. Negotiations for the exchange of prisoners held by the E^opus In- dians were conducted there, and there the Esopus Indians had ■direct connection with the castle of the Wappingers on the east side of the Hudson. There are few places on the Hudson more directly associated with Indian customs and history than the Dans Kamer. Arackook, Kachawaweek, and Oghgotacton are record but unl'ocated names of places on the east side of the Wallkill, by some presumed to have been in the vicinity of WaMen, Orange County, from the description : "Beginning at a fall called iVrackook and running thenoe northwesterly on the east side of Paltz Creek until it comes to Kachawaweek." The petitioner for the tract was Robert Sanders, a noted interpreter, who renewed his petition in 1702, calling the tract Oghgotacton, and presented a claim to title from a chief called Corporwin, as the representative of his brother Pung- nanis, "Who had been ten years gone to the Ottovvaw^as." He again gave the description, "Beginning at the fall called Arackook," but there is no trace of the location of the patent in the vicinity of Walden. I40 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. Hashdisch was quoted by the late John W. Hasbrouck, of Kingston, as the name of what has long been known as "The High Falls of the Wallkill" at Walden. Authority not stated, but pre- sumably met by Mr. Hasbrouck in local records. It may be from Ashp, Hesp, etc., "High," and -ish, derogative. The falls descend in cascades and rapids about eighty feet at an angle of forty-five degrees. Though their primary appearance has been marred by dams and mills, they are still impressive in freshet seasons. Twischsawkin is quoted as the name of the Wallkill at some place in New Jersey. On Sauthier's map it stands where two small ponds are represented and seems to have reference to the outlet. Twisch may be an equivalent of Tisch, "Strong," and ' Sawkin may be an equivalent of Heckewelder's Saucon, "Outlet," or mouth of a river, pond, etc. Wallkill, the name of the stream as now written, is an anghcism of Dutch Waal, "Haven, gulf, depth," etc., and Kil, "Channel" or water-course. It is the name of an arm of the Rhine in the Netherlands, and was transferred here by the Huguenots w'ho located in New Paltz. (See Wawayanda.) Shawangunk, the name of a town, a stream of water, and a range of hills in Ulster County, was that of a specific place from which it was extended. It is of record in many orthographies, the first in 1684, of a place called Chanzvanghungh ;^ in deed from the Indians to Governor Dongan, in the same year, Chawangon,^ and Chauzvangtmg in 1686,^ later forms running to variants of Shawangunk. The locative is made specific in a grant to Thomas Lloyd in 1687;* in a grant to Severeign Tenhout in 1702,^ and in ^ "Land lying about six or seven miles beyond ye Town where ye Wall- oons dwell, upon ye same creek; ye name of ye place is Chauwanghungh and Nescotack, two small parcels of land lying together." (N. Y. Land Papers, 29, 30.) * "Comprehending all those lands, meadows and woods called Nescotack, Chawangon, Memorasink, Kakogh, Getawanuck and Ghittatawah." (Deed to Gov. Dongan.) '"Beginning on the east side of the river (now Wallkill), and at the south end of a small island in the river, at the mouth of the river Chauwangung, in the County of Ulster, laid out for James Graham and John Delaval." (N. Y. Land Papers, 38.) * "Description of a survey of 410 acres of land, called by the Indian name Chauwangung, laid out for Thomas Lloyd." (N. Y. Land Papers, 44.) " N. Y. Land Papers, 60. HUDSON S RIVER ON THE WEST. 141 a description in 1709, "Adjoining Shawang-ung, Nescotack and the Palze." ^ In several other patent descriptions the locative is further identified by ''near to" or "adjoining," and finally (1723) by "near the village of Showangunck," at which time the "village" consisted of the dwellings of Thomas Lloyd, on the north side of Shawan- gunk Kill ; Severeign Tenhout on the south side, and Jacobus Bruyn, Benjamin Smedes, and others, with a mill, at and around what was known later as the village of Tuthiltown. In 1744, Jacobus Bruyn was the owner of the Lloyd tract.^ The distribution of the name over the district as a general locative is distinctly traceable from this center. It was never the name of the mountain, nor of the stream, and it should be distinctly understood that it does not ap- pear in Kregier's Journal of the Second Esopus War, nor in any record prior to 1684, and could not have been that of any place other than that distinctly named in Governor Dongan's deed and in Lloyd's Patent. Topographically, the tract was at and on the side of a hill run- ning north from the flats on the stream to a point of which Nesco- tack was the summit, the Lloyd grant lying in part on the hill-side and in part on the low lands on the stream. The mountain is eight miles distant. Without knowledge of the precise location of the name several interpretations of it have been made, generally from Shawan, "South" — South Mountain, South Water, South Place.^ The latter is possible, i. e. a place lying south of Nescotack, as in the sentence: "Schawangung, Nescotack, and the Paltz." From the topography of the locative, however, Mr. William R. Gerard suggests that the derivatives are Scha (or Shazv), "Side," -ong, ^ lb. 169. Other early forms are Shawongunk (1685), Shawongonck 1709), Shawongunge (1712). ^ From Jacobus Bruyn came the ancient hamlet still known as Bruyns- wick. He erected a stone mansion on the tract, in the front wall of which was cut on a marble tablet, "Jacobus Bruyn,_ 1724." The house was destroyed by fire in 1870 (about), and a frame dwelling erected on its old foundation. It is about half-way between Bruynswick and Tuthilltown; owned later by John V. McKinstry. The location is certain from the will of Jacobus Bruyn in 1744. ^ The most worthless interpretation is that in Spofford's Gazeteer and copied by Mather in his Geological Survey: "Shawen, in the Mohegan lan- guage, means 'White,' also 'Salt,' and Gunk, 'A large pile of rocks,' hence 'White Rocks' or mountain." The trouble with it is that there is no such word as Shawen, meaning "White" in any Algonquian dialect, and no such word as Gunk, meaning "Rocks." 142 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. "hill," and -link, locative, the combination reading, "At (or on) the hill-side."^ This reading is literally sustained by the locative. The name is of especial interest from its association with the Dutch and Indian War of 1663, althoug'h not mentioned in Kregier's narrative of the destruction of the Indian palisaded village called "New Fort,"' and later Shawongunk Fort. The narrative is very complete in colonial records.^ The village or fort was not as large as that called Kahanksan, which had previously been destroyed. It was composed of ten huts, probably capable of accommodating •two or three hundred people. The palisade around them formed "a. perfect square," on the brow of a tract of table-land on tlie bank of S'hawongunk Kill. Since first settlement the location has bee;i known as "New Fort." It is on the east siide of the stream about three miles west of the village of Wallkill." In the treaty of 1664 the site and the fields around it were conceded, with other lands, to the Dutch, by the Indians, as having been "conquered by the sword," but were subsequently included (1684) in the purchase by Governor Dongan. Later were included in the patent to Capt. John Evans, and was later covered by one of the smaller patents into which the Evans Patent was divided. When the Dutch troops left it it was a terrible picture of desolation. The huts bad been burned, the bodies of the Indians who had been killed and thrown into the corn-pits had been unearthed by wolves and their skeletons left to bleach on the plain, with here and there the half eaten body of a child. For years it was a fable told to children that the place was haunted by the ghosts of the slain, and even now the timid feel a peculiar sensation, when visiting the site, whenever a strange cry breaks on the ear, and the assurance that it is real comes with gratefulness in the shouts of the harvesters in the nearby fields. It is a place full of history, full of poetry, full of the footprints of ' The monosyllable Shaiv or Schaiv. radical Scha, means "Side, edge, border, shore," etc. Schaiiivimuppequc, "On the shore of the lake." Enda- tacht-schazvungc, '"At the narrows where the hill comes close to the river." (Heck.) Schajazvonge, "Hill-side" (Zeisb.), from which Schaivong-unk, "On the hill-side," or at the side of the hill, the precise bound of the name cannot be stated. 'Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv, 71, 72, ct. scq. Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 272, 326. * Authorities quoted and paper by Rev. Charles Scott, D. D., in "Pro- ceedings Ulster Co. Hist. Soc." HUDSON S RIVER ON THE WEST. 1 43 the aboriginal lords. "Further clown the creek," says the narra- tive, "several large wigwams stood, Which we also burned, and divers maize fields which we also destroyed." On the sites of some of these wigwams fine specimens of Indian pottery and stone vessels and implements have been found, as well as many arrow- points of flint. Meraorasink, Kahogh, Gatawanuk, and Ghittatawagh, names handed down in the Indian deed to Governor Dongan in 1684, have no other record, nor were they ever specifically located. The lands conveyed to him extended from the Shawangunk range to the Hud- son, bounded on the north by the line of the Paltz Patent, and south by a line drawn from about the Dans Kamer. Ghittatazvagh is probably from KitcJii, "Great, strong," etc., and Taivatazvik, "Wil- derness" — the great wilderness, or uninhabited district. Gata- wanuk seems to be from Kitchi, "Strong," -aivan, impersonal verb termination, and -uk, locative, and to describe a place on a strong current or flowing stream. The same name seems to appear in Kitchawan, now Croton River. It may have located lands on the Wallkill. Nescotack, a certain place so called in the Dongan deed of 1684, is referred to in connection with Shawongunk. It was granted by patent to Jacob Rutsen and described as "A tract of land by the In- dians called Nescotack and by the Christians Guilford." (N. Y. Land Papers, 29, 30.) Guilford was known for many years as Guilford Church, immediately west of Shawongunk. The actual location of the name, however, is claimed for a hamlet now called Libertyville, further north, which was long known as Nescotack. The district is an extended ridge which rises gradually from the Shawongunk River-bottoms on the east and falls off on the west more abruptly. The name, probably, describes this ridge as "High lands," an equivalent of Esquatak and Eskzvatack on the Uppef Hudson ; Ashpotag. Mass., and Westchester Co. Esp, Hesp, Ishp, Hesko, Nesco, etc., are record orthographies. (See Schodac and Shawongunk.) Wisbauwemis, a place-name in Shawongunk, was translated by Rev. Dr. Scott, "The place of beeches," from Schautvemi, "Beech v;ood" ; but seems to be an equivalent of Moh. Wesanzvcmisk, a 144 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. species of oak with yellow bark used for dyeing. Wisaminschi, "Yellow- wood tree." (Zeisb.) Wickquatennhonck, a place so called in patent to Jacobus Bruyn and Benj. Smedes, 1709, is described as "Land lying near a small hill called, in ye Indian tongue, Wickqutenhonck," in another paper Wickquatennhonjck, "Land lying near the end of the hill." The name means, "At the end of the hill," from IVequa, "End of" ; -atenne (-achtenne, Zeisb.), "hill," and -tink, "at." The location was near the end of what is still known as the Hoogte-berg (Hooge-berg, Dutch), a range of 'hills, where the proprietors located dwellings which remained many years. Wanaksink, a region of meadow and maize land in the Shawon- gunk district, was translated by Dr. Scott from Winachk, "Sassi- fras" (Zeisb.) ; but Wanachk may and probably does stand for Woimchk, "The tip or extremity of anything," and -sing mean "Near," or less than. A piece of land that was near the end of a certain place or piece of land. It is not the word that is met in Wynogkee. Maschabeneer, Masseks, Maskack, Massekex, a certain tract or tracts of land in the present town of Shawongunk, appear in a description of survey, Dec. 10, 1701, of seven hundred and ten acres "at a place called Maschabeneer Shawengonck, laid out for Mathias Mott, accompanied by an affidavit by Jacob Rutsen concerning the purchase of the same from the Indians. At a previous date (Sept. 22) Mott asked for a patent for four hundred acres "at a place called Shawungunk," which was "given him when a child by the Indians." Whether the two tracts were the same or not does not appear; but in 1702, June 10, Severeyn Tenlhout remonstrated against granting to Mott the land which he had petitioned for, and accompanied his remonstrance by an extract from the minutes of the Court at Kingston, in 1693, granting the land to himself. He asked for a patent and gave the name of the tract "Called by the Indians Masseecks, near S'hawengonck," i. e. near the certain tract called Shawongunk which bad been granted to Thomas Lloyd. He received a patent. In 1709, Mott petitioned "in relation to a cer- tain tract of land upon Showangonck River" which had been grant- ed to Tenhout, asking that the "same be so divided" that he (Mott) HUDSON S RIVER ON THE WEST. 1 45 should "have a proportion of the good land upon the said river" — obviously a section of low land or meadow, described by the name of a place thereon called Maskeek (Zeisb.), meaning "Swamp, bog" ; Maskeht (Eliot), "Grass." The radical is ask, "green," raw, im- mature." The sufhx -cghs represents an intensive form of the gut- tural formative, which the German missionaries softened to -ech and -ek, and the English to -sh, and is frequently met in X. Hecke- welder wrote that the original sound was that of the Greek X, hence Maskex and x in Coxsackie. Maschaheneer, the name given by Mott, is not satisfactorily translatable. Pitkiskaker and Aioskawasting appear in deed from the Esopus Indians to Governor Dongan, in 1684, as the names of divisions of what are now known as the Shawongunk Mountains south of Mohunk or Paltz Point. The deed description reads : "Extending from the Paltz," i. e. from the southeast boundmark of the Paltz Patent on the Hudson, now known as Blue Point (see Magaat- Raim'is), south "along the river to the lands of the Indians at Mur- derers' Kill, thence west to 'the foot of the high hills called Pit- kiskaker and Aioskawasting, thence southwesterly all along the said hills and the river called Peakadasink to a water-pond lying upon said hills called Meretange." ^ Apparently the general boundaries were the line of the Paltz Patent on the north, the Hudson on the east, a line from "about the Dancing Chamber" on the Hudson to Sam's Point on the Shawongunk range on the southwest, and on the west by that range and the river Peakadasank. The Peaka- ^ Meretange, Maretange, or Maratanza, is from Old English Mere, "A pond or pool," and Tanse, "Sharp" or offensive to the taste. The name was transferred to this pond from the pond first bearing it in the town of Green- ville, Orange County, in changing the northwest line of the Evans Patent. (See Peakadasank.) The pond is about a mile in circumference and is lined with cranberry bushes and other shrubbery, but the water is clear and sweet. It lies about three-quarters of a mile west of Sam's Point. Long Pond, lying about four miles north of Maratanza, is now called Awosting Lake. It is about two miles long by possibly one-quarter of a mile wide and lies in a clove or cleft of the hills. Its outlet was called by the Dutch Verkerde Kil, now changed to Awosting. About one mile further north lies "The Great Salt Pond," so called in records of the town of Shawongunk. It is now called Lake Minnewaska, a name introduced from the Chippeway dialect, said to mean "Colored water," which has been changed to "Frozen water." The lake is particularly described as being "Set into the hills like a bowl." It has an altitude of 1,600 feet and a depth of seventy to ninety feet of water of crystal clearness through which the pebbly bottom can be seen. The fourth pond is that known as Lake Mohonk. 146 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. dasank is now known as Sbawangunk Kill. The pond "called Meretange," is claimed by some aut'horities, as that now known as Binnen-water in the town of Mount Hope, Orange County. On Sauthier's map it is located on the southern division of the range noted as "Alaskayering Mts.," and represented as the head of Sha- wongunk Kill. The same distinction is cl'aimed for Meretange or Peakadasank Swamp in the town O'f Greenville, Orange County. A third Maratanza Pond is located a short distance west of Sam's Point. The name of the hill has been changed from Aioskawasting to Azvosting as the name of a lake and a waterfall about four miles north of Sam's Point, and translated from Awoss (Lenape), "Be- yond," "On the other side," and claimed to have been originally ap- plied to a crossing-place in the depression north of Sam's Point,, neither of which interpretations is tenable. The prefix, Aioska, cannot be dropped and the name have a meaning, and the adjectival, Awoss, cannot be used as a substantive and followed by the locative -iiig, "at, on," etc. Awoss means "Beyond," surely, but must be followed by a substantive telling what it is that is "beyond." The particular features of the Sdiawongunk range covered by the bound- ary line of the deed are "The Tfaps," a cleft which divides the range a short distance south of Mohunk, and Sam's Point,^ about nine miles south of Mohunk. The latter stands out very conspicu- ously, its general surface covered by perpendicular rocks from, one hundred to two hundred and fifty feet high, the point itself crowned by a wall of rock which rises 2200 feet above the valley below. Peakadasank, so written in Indian deed to Governor Dongan in 1684 — Pachanasinck in patent to Jacob Bruyn, 1719; Peckanas- iitck, Pachanassmck, etc. — is given as the name of a stream bound- ing a tract of land, the Dongan deed description reading : "Thence southwesterly all a'long said hills and the river Peakadasank to a ^ Sam's Point is in the town of Wawarsing, about seven miles south of the village of Ellenville and about nine miles south of Mohunk or Paltz Point. It is the highest point on the Shawongunk range in New York State. Its name is from Samuel Gonsaulus, who owned the tract. Gertruyd's Nose, the name of another point, was so called from the fancied resemblance of its shadow to the nose of Mrs. Gertrude, wife of Jacobus Bruyn, who owned the tract. The pass, cleft or clove known as "The Traps," was so called from the supposed character of the rock which it divides. The rock, however, is not Trappean. The pass is 650 feet wide and runs through the entire range. Its sides present the appearance of the hill having slipped apart. HUDSON S RIVER ON THE WEST. 1 47 water-pond lying on said hills called Meretange." The name is preserved in two streams known as the Big and the Little Pachanas- ink, in Orange County, and in Ulster County as the "Pachanasink District," covering the south part of the town of Shawongunk. The Big Pachanasink is now known as Shawongunk Kill. In 1719, Nov. 26, a certain tract of land "called Pachanasink" was granted to Jacobus Bruyn and described in survey as "on the north side of Shawongunck Creek, beginning where the Verkerde KilF flows in- to said river,'' indicating locative of the name a't the Verkerde Branch. In a brief submitted in the boundary contention, it is said that the line of the Dongan purchase ran "along the foot of the hills from a place called Pachanasink, where the Indians who sold the land had a large village and place," and from thence "to the head of the saiid river, and no where else the said river is called by that name." The evidence is cumulative that the name was that of the dominant feature of the district, from which it was trans- ferred to the stream. It is a district strewn wtith masses of con- glomerate rocks thrown ofif from the hills and precipitous clififs. The two forms of the name, Peakadasank (1684) and Pachanass- ink (1717), were no doubt employed as equivalents. They dififer in meaning, however. Wm. R. Gerard writes : "Peakadasank, or Pakadassin, means, 'It is laid out through the efifects of a blow,' or some other action. The participial form is Pakadasing, mean- ing, 'Where it is laid out,' or 'Where it lies fallen.' The refer- ence in this case would seem to be to the stone which had fallen off or been thrown down from the hills." Pachariasink means, "At the split rocks" ; Pachassin, "Split stone." In either form the name is from the split rocks. ^ The Verkerde Kill falls over a precipice of about seventy feet. The ex- posed surface of the precipice is marked by strata in the conglomerate as primarily laid down. The entire district is a region of split rocks. Verkerde Kill takes that name from Dutch Verkeerd. meaning "Wrong, bad, angry, turbulent," etc. It is the outlet of Meretange Pond near Sam's Point. It flows from the pond to the falls and from the falls at nearly a right angle over a series of cascades aggregating in all a fall of two hundred and forty feet. The falls are in the town of Gardiner, Ulster County. (See Aioskaw- asting.) The lands granted to Bruyn included the tract "Known by the Indian name of Pacanasink," now in the town of Shawongunk, and also a tract "Known by the Indian name of Shensechonck," now in the town of Craw- ford, Orange County. The latter seems to have been a parcel of level up- land. It was about one mile to the southward of the stream. I4<5 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. Alaskayering, entered on Sauthier's map of 1774, as the name of the south part of the S'hawongunk range, was conferred by the English, possibly as a substitute for Aioskawasting. The first word is heard in Alaska, which is said, on competent authority, to mean, "The high bald rocks"; with locative -ing, "At (or on) the high bald rocks." This interpretation is a literal description of the hill, and Aioskawasting may have the same meaning, although those who wrote the former may not have had a thought about the latter.^ (See Pitkiskaker.) Aclisinink, quoted by the late Rev. Charles Scott, D. D., from local records probabh', as the name of Shawongunk Kill, is an apheresis apparently of Pach-achsnn-ink, "Ki (or on) a place of split stones." Many of the split rocks thrown off frcwn the moun- tain lie in the bed of the stream, in places utilized for crossing. "There are rocks in it, so that it is easy to get across." (Col. Hist. N. Y., viii, 272.) Achsiin, as a substantive, cannot be used as an independent word with a locative. An adjectival prefix is neces- sary. (See Pakadasink.) Palmagat, the name of the bend in the mountain north of Sam's Point, regarded by some as Indian, is a Dutch term descriptive of the growth there of palm or holly {Ilex opaca), possibly of s'hrub oaks the leaf of which resembles the iiolly. Gat is Dutch for open- ing, gap, etc. Moggonck, Maggonck, Moggonick, Moggoneck, Mohonk, etc., are forms of the name given as that of the "high hill" which forms the southwest boundmark of the Paltz Patent, so known, now gen- erally called locally, Paltz Point, and widely known as Mohunk. The hill is a point of rock formation on the Shawongunk range. It rises .about 1,000 feet above the plain below and is crowned by an apex • which rises as a battlement about 400 feet above the brow of the hill, now called Sky Top. Moggonck and Maggonck are interchange- able orthographies. The former appears in the Indian deed from Matseyay, and other owners, to Louis DuBois, and others. May 26, 1677, and is carried forward in the patent issued to them in Septem- ^ High Point, the highest elevation in the southern division of the range, is in New Jerse3^ It is said to be higher than Sam's Point, and to bear the same general description. HUDSON S RIVER ON THE WEST. 149 ber of the same year. Moggoncck appears in Mr. Berthold Fer- now's translation of the Indian deed in Colonial History of N. Y., xiii, 506. Moggonick was written by Surveyor Aug. Graham on his map of survey in 1709, and Mo hunk is a modern pronunciation. The boundary description of the tract, as translated by the late Dr. E. B. O'Callag-han, from the Dutch deed (N. Y. Land Papers, 15), reads: "Beginning at the high hill called Moggonck, then south- east to Juffrouw's Hook in the Long Reach, on the Great River (called in Indian Magaat Ramis), thence north to the island called Raphoos, lying in the Kromme Elbow at the commencement of the Long Reach, thence west to the high hill to a place [called] Wara- chaes and Tawarataque, along the high hill to Moggonck." The translation in Colonial History is substantially the same except in the forms of the names. "Beginning from the high hill, at a place called Moggonck," is a translation of the deed by Rev. Ame Vane- me, in "History of New Paltz." It seems to be based on a recogni- tion of the locative of the name as established by Surveyor Graham in 1709, rather than on the original manuscript. In the patent the reading is: "Beginning at the high mountain called Moggonck," and the southwest line is described as extending from Tawarataque "To Moggonck, formerly so called," indicating that the patentees had not located the name as they would like to have it located ; cer- tainly, that they had discovered that a line drawn from the apex of the hill on a southeast course to Juffrouw's Hook, would divide a certain fine piece of land, which they called the Groot Stuk (great piece), lying between the hill and the Wallkill and fertilized by that stream, which they wished to have included in the grant as a whole. So it came about that they hurried to Governor Andros and secured an amended wording in the patent of the deed description, and Sur- veyor-General Graham, when he came upon the scene in 1709, to run the patent lines, found the locatives "fixed," and wrote in his descrip- tion, "Beginning at a certain point on the hill called Moggonick, * * thence south, thirty-six degrees easterly, to a certain small creek called Moggonck, at the south end of the great piece of land, and from thence south, fifty-five degrees easterly, to the south side of Ufifroe's Hook." Thereafter "The south end of the great piece," and the "certain small creek," became the "First station," as it was called. Graham marked the place by a stone which was found stand- 15° INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. ing by Cadwallader Golden in a survey by him in 1729, and noted as at "The west end of a small gully which falls into Paltz River, * * from the said stone down the said gully two chains and forty-six hnks to the Paltz River." The "west end" of the gully was the east end of the "Certain small creek" noted in Graham's survey. The precise point is over three miles from the hill. In the course of the years by the action of frost or flood, the stone was carried away. In 1892, from actual survey by Abram LeFever, Surveyor, assisted by Gapt. W. H. D. Blake, to whom I am indebted for the facts stated, it was replaced by another bearing the original inscrip- tion. By deepening the gully the swamp of which the stream is the drainage channel, has been mainly reclaimed, but the stream and the gully remain, as does also the Groot Stuk. This record narrative is more fully explained by the following certificate which is on file in the ofifice of the Glerk of Ulster Gounty : "These are to certify, that the inhabitants of the town of New Paltz, being desirous that the first station of their patent, named Moggonck, might be kept in remembrance, did desire us, Joseph Horsbrouck, John Hardenburgh, and Roelofif Elting, Esqs., Justices of the Peace, to accompany them, and there being Ancrop, the In- dian, then brought us to the High Mountain, which he named Mag- geanapogh, at or near the foot of which hill is a small run of water and a swamp, which he called Maggonck, and the said Ancrop af- firmed it to be the right Indian names of the said places, as witness our hands the nineteenth day of December, 1722." Ancrop, or Ankerop as otherwise written, was a sachem of the Esopus Indians in 1677, and was still serving in that office in 1722. He was obviously an old man at the latter date. He had, however^ no jurisdiction over or part in the sale of the lands to the New Paltz Company in 1677. His testimony, given forty-five years after the sale by the Indians, was simply confirmatory in general terms of a location which had been made in 1677, and the interpretation of what he said was obviously given by the Justices in terms to corre- spond with what his employers wished him to say. In the days of the locations of boundmarks of patents, his testimony would have been regarded with suspicion. Locations of boundmarks were then frequently changed by patentees who desired to increase their hold- ings, by "Taking some Indians in a public manner to show such- HUDSON S RIVER ON THE WEST. 151 places as they might name to them," wrote Sir WilHam Johnson, for many years Superintendent of Indian Affairs, adding that it was "Well known" that an Indian " Would shew any place by any name you please to give him, for a small blanket or a bottle of rum." Pre- sumably Ankerop received either "A small blanket or a bottle of rum" for his services, but it is not to be inferred that the location of the boundniarks in 1677 was tainted by the "sharp practice" which prevailed later. It is reasonable to presume, however, that the name would never have been removed from the foot of the hill had not the Groot Stuk been situated as it was with reference to a southeast line drawn from its apex to Juffrouw's Hook. Algonquian students who have been consulted, regard the name as it stands as without meaning ; that some part of the original was lost by mishearing or dropped in pronunciation ; that in the dialect which is supposed to have been spoken here the suffix -onck is class- ed as a locative and the adjectival Mogg is not complete. Several restorations of presumed lost letters have been suggested to give the name a meaning, none of which, however, are satisfactory. Ap- parently the most satisfactory reading is from Magonck, or Magiink (Mohegan), "A great tree," explained by Dr. Trumbull: "From Mogki, 'Great,' and -unk, 'A tree while standing.' " It is met as the name of a boundmark on the Connecticut, and on the east side of the Hudson, within forty miles of the locative here, Moghongh- kamig'li, "Place of a great tree," is met as the name of a boundmark. Mogkunk is also in the Natick dialect, and there is no good reason for saying that it was not in the local dialect here. There may have been a certain great tree at the foot of the hill, from which the name was extended to the hill, and there may have been one on the Wall- kill, which Ankerop said "Was the right Indian name of the place." It will be remembered that the deed boundmark was "The foot of the hill." It is safe to say that the name never could have described "A small run of water and a swamp," nor did it mean "Sky-Top." The former features were introduced by the Justices to identify the place where the boundary-stone was located and have no other value ; the latter is a fanciful creation, "Not consistent with fact or reason," but very good as an advertisement. Maggeanapogh, the name which Ankerop gave as that of the 152 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. hill called Moggonck, bears every evidence of correctness. It is reasonably pure Lenape or Delaware, to which stock Ankerop prob- ably belonged. The first word, Maggean, is an orthography of Machen {Meechin, Zeisb. ; Mashkan, Chippeway), meaning "Great," big, large, strong, hard, occupying chief position, etc., and the sec- ond, -apogh, written in other local names -apiigh, -apick, etc., is from -dpughk {-dpuchk, Zeisb.), meaning "Rock," the combination reading, literally, "A great rock." In the related Chippeway dialect the formative word for rock is -hik, and the radical is -ic or -ick, of which Dr. Schoolcraft wrote, "Rock, or solid formation of rock." No particular part of the hill was referred to, the text reading, "There being Ankerop, the Indian, then brought us to the High Mountain which he named Maggeanapogh." The time has passed when the name could have been made permanent. For all coming time the hill will bear the familiar name of Mohonk, the Moggonck of 1677, the Paltz Point and the High Point of local history, from the foot of which the place of beginning of the boundary Hne was never removed, although the course from it was changed. Magaat=Raniis, the record name of the southeast boundmark of the Paltz Patent, is located in the boundary description at "Jufifrou's Hook, in the Long Reach, on the Great River (called in Indian Magaat-Ramis)." (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 15.) Jufifrouw's Hook is now known as Blue Point. It is about two miles north of Milton-on-the-Hudson, and takes its modern name from the color of the rock which projects from a blue-stone promontory and runs for some distance under the water of the river, deflecting the current to the northwest. The primal appearance of the promontory has been changed by the cut for the West Shore Railroad, but the sub- merged point remains. The Dutch name, Juifromv's Hook, wns obviously employed by the purchasers to locate the boundmark by terms which were then generally understood. Juffrouw, the first word, means "Maiden," one of the meanings of which is "Haai-rog" ; "I'og" means "skate," or Angel-fish, of special application to a species of shark, but in English shad, or any fish of the herring family, especially the female. Hook means "Corner, cape, angle, incurved as a hook" ; hence "Maiden Hook," an angle or corner noted as a resort for shad, alewives, etc. ; by meton}-mie, "A noted or well- HUDSON S RIVER ON THE WEST. 153 known fishing-place." The first word of the Indian name, Magaat, stands for Maghaak (Moh.), Machak (Zeisb., the hard surd mutes k and t exchanged), meaning "Great," large, extended, occupying chief position. The second word, Raniis is obscure. It has the ap- pearance of a mishearing of the native word. What that word was, however, may be inferred from the description, "Juffrou's Hook, in the Long Reach, on the Great River (called in Indian Magaat-Ramis)," or as written in the patent, "To a certain Point or Hooke called the Jeuffrou's Hooke, lying in the Long Reach, named by the Indians Magaat-Ramis." That the name was that of the river at that place — the Long Reach — is made clear by the sentence which follows : "Thence north along the river to the island called Rappoos, at the commencement of the Long Reach," in which con- nection Ramis would stand for Kamis or Gamis, from Garni, an Algonquian noun-generic meaning "Water," frequently met in vary- ing forms in Abnaki and Chippeway — less frequently in the Dela- ware. In Cree the orthography is Kume. The final .y is the equiva- lent of k, locative, as in Abnaki Ganii-k, a particular place of water. "On the Great Water," is probably the meaning of Ramis. In Chippeway Keeche-gummee, "The greatest water," was the name of Lake Superior. As the name of the "Great Water," Magaat- Ramis is worthy of preservation. Rappoos, which formed the northeast boundmark of the Paltz Patent, is specifically located in the Indian deed "Thence north [from Juffrou's Hook] along the river to the island called Rappoos, lying in the Kromme Elbow, at the commencement of the Long Reach." The island is now known as Little Esopus Island, taking that name from Little Esopus Creek, which flows to the Hudson at that point. It lies near the main land on the east side of the river, and divides the current in two channels, the most narrow of which is on the east. Kromme Elleboog (Crooked elbow), is the abrupt bend in the river at the island, and the Long Reach extends from the island south to Pollepel's Island. The name is of record Rappoos, Raphoes, Raphes and Whaphoos, an equivalent, apparently, of Wabnsc and IVarposc, the latter met on Manhattan Island. It is not the name of the island, but of the small channel on the east side of it from which it was extended to the island. It means, "The 154 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. narrows," in a general sense, and specifically, "The small passage," or strait. The root is Wab, or Wap, meaning, "A light or open place between two shores." (Brinton.) Tawarataque, now written and pronounced Tower-a-tauch, the name of the northwestern boundmark of the Paltz Patent, is de- scribed in the Indian deed already quoted : "Thence [from Rappoos] west to the high hills to a place called Warachoes and Tawarataque," which may refer to one and the same place, or two different places. Surveyor Graham held that two different places were referred to and marked the first on the east side of the Wallkill at a place not now known, from whence by a sharp angle he located the second "On the point of a small ridge of hills," where he marked a flat rock, which, by the way, is not referred to in the name. The pre- cise place was at the south end of a clove between the hills, access to which is by a small opening in the hills at a place now known as Mud Hook. Probably Warachoes referred to this opening. By dialectic exchange of / and r the word is Walachoes — Walak, "Hole," "A hollow or excavation" ; -oes, "Small," as a small or limited hol- low or open place. "Through this opening," referring to the open- ing in the side of the hill at Mud Hook, "A road now runs leading to the clove between the ridges of the mountain," wrote Mr. Ralph LeFever, editor of the "New Paltz Independent," from personal knowledge. Tazvarataque was the name of this clove. It embodies the root Walak prefixed by the radical Tau or Taw, meaning "Open," as an open space, a hollow, a clove, an open field, etc., suffixed by the verb termination -ague, meaning "Place," or -dke as Zeisberger wrote in Wochitdke, "Upon the house." The reading in Tawarat- aque is, "Where there is an open space" ; i. c, the clove.^ The late Hon. Edward Elting, of New Paltz, wrote me : "The flat rock which Surveyor Graham marked as the bound, lies on the east side of the depression of the Shawongunk Mountain Range leading northwest- erly from ]\lohunk, at the south end of the clove known as Mud Hook, near the boundary line between New Paltz and Rosendale, say ' The adjectival formative -alagat, or -aragat, enters into the composition of several words denoting "Hole," or "Open space," as Taw-dlachg-at, "Open space," Sag-alachg-at, "So deep the hole." The verb substantive suffix -ague, or -akc (qii the sound of k), meaning "Place,'' is entirely proper as a sub- stitute for the verbal termination -at. HUDSON'S RIVER FROM BUTTER HILL TO MAGDALEN ISLAND. (From Map of 16*56 i Hudson's river on the west. 155 about half a mile west of the Wallkill Valley R. R. station at Rosen- dale. I think, but am not certain, that the rock can be seen as you pass on the railroad. It is of the character known as Esopus Mill- stone, a white or gray conglomerate. I cannot say that it bears the Surveyor's inscription." It is not often that four boundmarks are met that stand out with the distinctness of those of the Paltz Patent, or that are clothed with deeper interest as geological features, or that preserve more dis- tinctly the geographical landmarks of the aboriginal people. Ossangwak is written on Pownars map as the name of what is known as the Great Binnen water (Dutch, "Inland water") in the town of Lloyd. The ortihography disguises the original, which may have been a pronunciation of Achsiin (Minsi), "Stone," as in Otstomvakin, read by Reichel, "A high rock," or rocky hill. Per- haps the name referred to the rocky bluff which bounds the Hudson there, immediately west of which die lake is situated. Esopus — so written on Carte Figurative of 1614-16, and also by De Laet in 1624-5 ; Sopiis, contemporaneously ; Sypoiis, Rev. Meg- apolensis, 1657, is from Sepnus (Natick), "A brook"; in Delaware, ■Sipoes (Zeisberger). It is from Sepu, "River," and -es, "small." On the Carte Figurative it is written on the east side of the river .near a stream north of Wappingers' Creek, as it may have been legitimately, but in 1623 it came to be located permanently at what is now Rondout Creek, from which it was extended to several stream?,^ to the Dutch settlement now Kingston, to the resident Indians, and to a large district of country. The chirographer of 1614-16 seems to have added the initial E from the uncertain sound of the initial S, and later scribes further corrupted it to the Greek and Latin 7E. (See Waronawanka.) Waronawanka, Carte Figuarative 1614-16 — Warrazvannan- ■koncks, Wassenaer, 1621-5 ; Warranawankongs, De Laet, 1621-5, and Waranaivankcongys, 1633 ; IVaranazvankongs, Van der Donck, 1656; Waerinncivongh, local, 1677 — is located on the Carte Fig- ^ The streams entering the Hudson in proximitj' came to be known as the Kleine Esopus, south of Rondout; the Groot Esopus, now the Rondout, and the Esopus, now the Saugerties. In the valley west of old Kingston was a T)rook, called in records the "Mill Stream." 156 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. urative on the west side of the Hudson a few miles north of latitude 42. On Van der Donck's map it is placed on the west side between Pollepel's Island and the Dans Kamer. De Laet wrote in his "New World" (Leyden edition) : "This reach [Visther's, covering New- burgfh Bay] extends to another narrow pass, where, on the west side of the river, there is a point of land juts out covered with sand, opposite a bend in the river on which another nation of savages called the Waoranecks, have their abode at a place called Esopus. A little beyond, on the west side of the river, where there is a creek, and the river becomes more shallow, the Waranaivankongs reside. Here are several small islands." In his French and Latin edition, 1633-40, the reading is: "A little beyond where projects a sandy point and the river becomes narrower, there is a place called Esopus, v/here the Waoranekys have their abode. To them succeed, after a short interval, the Waranawancougys, on the opposite side of the river." Read together there would seem to be no doubt that the 14' aoranecks were seated on or around the cove or bay at Low Point and the estuary of Wappingers' Creek, and that the Waratmwan- kongs were seated at and around the cove or bay at Kingston Point, "Where a creek comes in and the river becomes more shallow." Of the meaning of the name Dr. A. S. Gatschet, of the Bureau of Ethnology, wrote me : "If the Warana-wan-ka lived on a bay or cove of Hudson's River, their name is certainly from Walina, which means ' hollowing, concave site,' and 'cove, bay,' in several eastern languages. A good parallel are the Wawenocks of S. W. Maine, now living at St. Francis, who call themselves Walinaki, or those living on a cove — 'cove dwellers' — in referring to their old home on the Atlantic coast near Portland. In the Micmac (N. S.) dialect Walini is ' bay, cove,' and even the large Bay of Fundy is called so. The meaning of k or ka is not clear, but ong, in the later forms, is the locative 'at, on, upon.' " It is safe to say that at either the Dans Kamer, Low Point, or Kingston Point, the clan would have been seated on a bay, cove, recess or indentation shaped like a bay, and it is also safe to say that Warona and Walina may be read as equivalents, the former in the local dialect, and the latter in the Eastern, and that its general meaning is "Concave, hollowing site.'' Zeisberger wrote / instead of r in the Minsi-Lenape, hence Woalac, "A hollow or excavation" ; HUDSON S RIVER ON THE WEST. 157 Waloh, "A cove"; Walpecat, "Very deep water." The dialectic r prevails pretty generally on the Hudson and on the Upper Dela- ware. On the latter, near Port Jervis, is met of record Warin- sags-kameck, which is surely the equivalent of Walina-ask-kameck, "A hollowing or concave site, a meadow or field." It was written by Arent Schuyler, the noted interpreter, as the name of a field which he described as "A meadow or vly." Vly is a contraction of Dutch Vallei, meaning "A hollow or depression in which water stands in the rainy season and is dry at other times," hence "hol- lowing." Ask (generic), meaning "Green, raw," is the radical of words meaning "meadow," "marsh," etc., and -kameck stands for an enclosed field, or place having definite boundaries as a hollow. Azvan (-awan, -zvan, -nan, etc.), as Dr. Gatschet probably read the orthography, is an impersonal verb termination met on the Hudson in Matteawan, Kitchiwan, etc. Mr. Gerard writes that k was sometimes followed by the participial and subjunctive k. It may have been so written here, but it seems to be a form of the guttural aspirate gli, for which it is exchanged in many cases, here and in Kitchiwangh. In Connecticut on the Sound apparently the same name is met in Waranaivankek, indicating that whoever wrote it on the Figurative of 1614-16 was familiar with the dialect of the coast Indians. As it stands the name is one of the oldest and most sonorous in the valley of Hudson's River. Ponkhockis is the familiar form of the name of the point, cove or landing-place on the south side of Kingston Point. It is from Dutch Punthoekjc, meaning, "Point of a small hook, or angle." The local interpretation, "Canoe harbor," is not in the name, ex- cept inferentially from the fact that the cove was a favorite landing place for canoes.^ After the erection of a stockaded redoubt there, the Dutch called the place Rondhout, meaning, "Standing timber," and the English followed with Redoubt, and extended the name to the creek, as of record in 1670. The present form is substantial- * In early times there were two principal landing places : One at Punt- hoekjc and one north of the present steamboat landing, or Columbus Point as it is called. The Point is a low formation on the Hudson and was pri- marily divided from the main land by a marsh. It was literally "a concave, hollowing site." The marsh was later crossed by a corduroyed turnpike connecting with the old Strand Road, now Union Avenue. A ferry was es- tablished here in 1752 and is still operated under its original charter. The Point is now traversed by rail and trolley roads. 158 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. iy a restoration of the early Dutch Rondhout. The stockade was erected by Director Stuyvesant, at the suggestion of the Amsterdam Ohamber of the West India Company, about 1660. There were Dutch traders here certainly as early as 1622, and presumably as early as 1614, but no permanent settlement appears of record prior to 1652-3, nor is there evidence that there was a Rondhout here prior to 1657-8. Compare Stuyvesant's letter of September, 1657, and Kreg'ier's Journal of the "Second Esopus War" (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 'j'}^, 314, also page 189), showing that the Rondhout was not completed until the fall and winter of 1660. De Vries wrote in 1639-40, referring to Kingston Point probably : "Some Indians live here and have some corn-lands, but -the lands are poor and stony." When Stuyvesant visited the place, in 1658, he an- chored his barge "opposite to the two little houses of the savages standing near the bank of the kil." (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 82.) In the vicinity the war of 1658 had its initiative in an unwise at- tack by some settlers on a party of Indians who had been made crazy drunk on brandy furnished them by Captain Thomas Cham- bers. Two houses were burned belonging to settlers, and hos- tilities continued for eight or nine days. "At the tennis-court near the Strand," a company of eleven Dutch soldiers "allowed them- selves to be taken prisoners," by the Indians, in 1659. It does not seem probable that the Dutch had a Tennis Court here at that early date, but the record so reads.- The hook or cove, was the most desirable place for landing on the south side of the Point. It has since been the commercial centre of the town and city. Punthoekje is certainly not without interesting history. Atkarkarton, claimed by some local authorities as the Indian name of Kingston, comes down to us from Rev. Megapolensis, who wrote, in 1657: "About eighteen miles [Dutch] up the North River lies a place called by the Dutch Esopus or Sypous, by the Indians ' Perhaps an Indian Football Court, resembling a Tennis Court. A writer in 1609 says of the Virginia natives : "They use, beside, football play, which •women and boys do much play at. They have their goals as ours, only they never fight and pull each other down." There was a famous Tennis Court (Dutch Kaatsbaan) in the town of Saugerties, which seems to have been there long before the Dutch settlement. The Tennis Court referred to in the text is said to have been near the site of the present City Hall in. Kingston, but would that place be strictly "near the Strand"? "Strand" means "shore, beach." It was probably on the beach. HUDSON S RIVER ON THE WEST, 1 59 Atkarkarton. It is an exceedingly beautiful land." (Doc. Hist. N. Y., iii, 103.) The Reverend writer obviously quoted the name as of general application, although it would seem to have been that of a particular place. As stated in another connection, Esopus, Sypous, and Sopus were at first (1623) applied to a trading-post on the Hudson, from which it was extended inland as a general name and later became specific as that of the first palisaded Dutch village named Wildwijk, which was founded a year after Megapo- lensis wrote. At the date of his writing the territory called Sopus included the river front, the plateau on which Kingston stands, and the flats on the Esopus immediately west, particularly the flat known as the Groot Plat, and later (1662) as the Nieuw Dorp or New Village,^ as distinguished from Sopus or Wildwijk, or the Old Vil- lage, the specific site of which could not have been referred to. Of the site of the Old Village, Director Stuyvesant wrote in 1658: "The spot marked out for the settlement has a circuni:ference of about two hundred and ten rods^ and is well adapted for defensive purposes. When necessity requires it, it can be surrounded by water on three sides, and it may be enlarged according to the con- venience and requirements of the present and of future inhabitants." The palisaded enclosure was enlarged by Stuyvesant, in 1661, to over three times its original size. The precise spot was on the northwest corner of the plateau. It was separated from the low lands of the Esopus Valley by a ridge of moderate height extending on the north, east, and west, and had on the south "a. swampish morass" which was required to be drained, in 1669, for the health of the town "and the improvement of so much ground." The Groot Plat in the Esopus Valley was a garden spot ready for the ploug^h and was regarded as of size sufficient for "fifty bouweries" ^ The land or place on the Esopus flat on which the New Village was founded, is now known as Old Hurley Village. It is repeatedly and specifi- cally designated as "The Groot Plat" — "The large tract of land called the New Village"— "The burnt village called the Groot Plat." (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 275, et. seq.) Hurley was given to it by Governor Lovelace in 1669, from his family, who were Barons Hurley of Ireland. *A Dutch rod is twelve feet, which would give this circumference at less than an English half mile. Schoonmaker writes in "History of Kingston": "The average length of the stockade was about thirteen hundred feet, and the •width about twelve hundred feet." Substantially, it enclosed a square of about one-quarter of a mile. i6o INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. (farms). PVom the description quoted, and present conditions, it may be said with certainty that the site of the Old Village of Wild- wijk was a knoll in an area of prairie and marsh. Neither of the village sites seem to have been occupied by the Indians except by temporary huts and corn-lands. The Wildwijk site was given to Director Stuyvesant by the Indians, in 1658, "to grease his feet with" after his "long journey" from Manhattan. Of the Groot Plat one-half was given by the Indians to Jacob Jansen Stoll in compensation for damages. A commission appointed at that time to examine the tract, and to ascertain what part of it the Indians wished to retain, reported that the Indians had "some plantations" there, "but of little value" ; that it was "only a question of one or two pieces of cloth, then they would remove and surrender the whole piece." (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 86, 89.) Instead of paying the Indians for the lands, however, the settlers commenced occu- pation, with the result that the Indians burned the New Village, June 7, 1663, attacked the Old Village, killed eighteen persons and carried away thirty captives, women and children. The war of 1663 followed, the results of which are accessible in several publi- cations, but especially in Colonial History of New York, Vol. xiii. It is sufficient to say here that the Indians lost the lands in con- troversy and a much larger territory. Interpretation of the name can only be made conjecturally. William R. Gerard wrote me: "I think Atkarkarton simply disguises Atuk-ak-aten, meaning 'Deerhill,' from Atiik, 'Deer' ; ak, plural, and aten, 'hill.' The r's in the name do not mean anything ; they simply indicate that the a's which pre- cede them were nasal." The Delaware word for "deer" is Achtuch. Dr. Schoolcraft wrote the tradition that the first deers were the hunters of men. Wildwijk, Dutch — Wiltwyck, modern — the name given by Gov- ernor Stuyvesant, in 1650, to the palisaded village which later be- came Kingston, and then and later called Sopus, is a composition of Dutch Wild, meaning "Wild, savage," and Wijk, "Retreat, refuge, quarter" ; constructively, "A village, fort or refuge from the sav- ages." The claim that the place was so called by Stuyvesant as an acknowledgment of the fact that the land was a gift from the In- dians, is a figment. The English came in i>ossession, in 1664, and. Hudson's river on the west, i6i in 1669/ changed the early name to Kingston. The Dutch recov- ered possession in 1673, and changed the name to Swanendale, and the English restored Kingston in 1674. (See Atkarkarton.) Nanoseck, Manoseck, forms of the name of a small island in Rondout Creek, so "called by the Indians" says the record, may be from Natick Nohousik, "Pointed or tapering." The Dutch called it "Little Cupper's Island." Cupper, "One who applies a cupping glass." Another island in the same stream, was "called by the In- dians Assinke," that is "Stony land" or place. (See Mattassink.) Another island was called by the Dutch Slypsten Eiland, that is, "Whetstone Island" ; probably from the quality of the stone found on it. It lies in the Hudson next to Magdalen Island. Wildmeet, an Indian "house" so called by the Dutch, means, in the Dutch language, "A place of meeting of savages." It was not a palisaded village. It was burned by the Dutch forces in the war of 1660, at which time, the narrative states, some sixty Indians had assembled at or were living in it. Its location, by the late John W. Hasbrouck, at the junction of the Vernoy and Rondout kills, is of doubtful correctness, as is also his statement that it was "The council-house of all the Esopus Indians." Its location was about two (Dutch) miles from Wikhvyck, or about six or seven English miles. Judge Sohoonmaker wrote : "Supposed to have been located in Marbletown." Preumaker's Land, a tract described as "Lying upon Esopus Kil, within the bounds of Hurley," granted to Venike Rosen, April i, 1686, was the place of residence of Preumaker, "The oldest and best" of the Esopus sachems, whose life was tragically ended by Dutch soldiers in the war of 1660. The location of his "house" is described as having been "At the second fall of Kit Davits Kil." ^ * "On this day (vizt 2Sth) the towne formerly called Sopez was named Kingston." Date Sept. 25th. 1669. (Col. Hist N. Y., xiii. 4.1=;.) ^ "Kit Davits' Kil" or the Rondout was so called from Christopher Davids, an Englishman, who was first at Fort Orange, and was an interpreter. He obtained, in 1656, a patent for about sixty-five acres, described as "Situate about a league (about three miles) inlnnd from the North River in the Esopus. on the west side of the Great Kil. opposite to the land of Thomas Chambers, running west and northeast halfway to a small pond on the border of a valley which divides this parcel and the land of John de Hulter, de- ceased." Ensign Smith wrote: "I came with my men to the second valley on Kit Davietsen's River. * * Further up in said valley I crossed the ■stream and found their house." (Col. Hist N. Y.. xiii.) Supposed to have been at LeFever's Falls in Rosendale. (Schoonmaker.) 1^2 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. A creek now bears the name of the sachem, who was a hero if he was a savage. TTudyachkamik, so written in treaty-deed of 1677 ^s the name of a place on the Hudson at the mouth of Esopus (now Saugerties) Creek, is written Tintiagquanneck in deed of 1767 (Cal. Land Papers, 454), and by the late John W. Hasbrouck, Tendeyachameck. The deed orthography of 1677 is certainly wrong as there is no sound of F in Algonquian. (See Kerhonksen.) Kerhonkson, now so written as the name of a stream of water and of a village in the town of Wawarsing, Ulster County, is of record in several forms — Kahanksen, Kahanghsen, Kahanksnix, Kahanckasink, etc. It takes interest from its connection with the 'history and location of what is known, in records of the Esopus Indian War of 1663, as the Old Fort as distinguished from the New Fort. In the treaty of peace with the Dutch in 1664, the fort is -Saugerties is probably a corruption of Dutch Zager's Kiltje, meaning in English, "Sawyer's little Kill." The original appears first of record in Kregier's Journal of the Second Esopus War (1663), "They were at Zager's Kiletje"; "To Sager's little Kill"; "To the Sager's Killetje." Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 342, 344.) The first corruption of record also belongs to that period. It was by a Mohawk sachem who visited Esopus and at a conference con- verted Zager's Kiltje to Sagertjen. Some of the local Dutch followed with "de Zaagertje's." Other corruptions were numerous until the English brought in Saugerties. The original Zager, however, seems to have held legal place for many years. In 1683, in a survey of the Meals Patent, cov- ering lands now included in Saugerties, it is written : "Being part of the land called Sagers," and in another, ''Between Cattskill and Sager's Kill." It is also of record that a man known by the surname of Zager located on the stream prior to 1663, obtained a cession of the lands on the kill from Kaelcop, an Esopus sachem, and later disappeared without perfecting his title by patent. Zagrr is now converted to Soger, and in English to Sawyer. The claim that Zager had a sawmill at the mouth of the stream seems to rest entirely upon his presumed occupation from the meaning of his name. A sawmill here, in 1663, would seem to have been a useless venture. In 1750, ninety years later, one Burregan had a mill at the mouth of the kill. "Burre- gan" stands for Burhans. ^ "To Freudeyachkamik on the Groote River." (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 505.) It was probably the peninsular now known as Flatbush, Glasco, etc., at the mouth of the creek. The orthographies of the name are uncertain. An island south of the mouth of the creek was called Qnsieries. Three or four miles north is Wanton Island, the site of a traditionary battle between the Mohawks and the Katskill Indians. It is now the northeast boundmark of Ulster County. Neither of these islands could have been the boundmark of the lands granted by the Indians. Wanton seems to be from Wanquon {Wankon, Del.), "Heel" — resembling a human heel in shape — pertuberant. The letter t in the name is simply an exchange of the surd mutes k and t. Modern changes have destroyed the original appearance of the island. Hudson's river on the west. 163 spoken of without name in connection with a district of country admitted by the Indians to have been "conquered by the sword," including the "two captured forts." In the subsequent treaty (1665) with Governor Nicolls the ceded district is described as "A certain parcel of land lying and being to the west or southwest of a certain creek or river called by the name of Kaihanksen, and so up to the head thereof where the Old Fort was ; and so with a direct line from thence through the woods and crosse the meadows to the Great Hill lying to the west or southwest, which Great Hill is to be the true v^'est or southwest bounds, and the said creek called Kalhanksen the north or northeast bounds of the said lands." In a treaty deed with Governor Andros twelve years later (April 27, 1677), the boundary lines "as they zvere to he thereafter," are described : "Beginning at the Rondouyt Kill, thence to a kill called Kahanksnix, thence north along the hills to a kill called Maggowasinghingh, thence to the Second Fall, easterly to Freudyachkamick on the Groot River, south to Rondouyt Kill." In other words the district conceded to have been "conquered by the sword" lay between the Esopus and the Rondout on the Hudson, and extended west to the stream called Kahanksen, thence north to a stream called Maggowasinghingh, thence north, etc. The only stream that has been certainly identi- fied as the Maggowasinghingh is the Rondout, where it flows from the west to its junction with the Sandberg Kill, east of Honk Falls, and this identification certainly places Kahanksen south of that stream. And in this connection it may be stated that the conquered lands did not extend west of the Rondout. The Beekman and the Beake patents were held primarily by Indian deeds. After the con- quest the Indians did n'ot sell lands east of the boundary line, but did sell lands zvest of that line. The deed from Beekman to Lowe distinctly states that the lands conveyed were "within the bounds belonging to the Indians." As the lands on the west of the kill were not conquered and ceded to the Dutch, the Old Fort could not have been on that side of the stream. In reaching conclusions respect must be had to Indian laws, treaties, and boundary descrip- tions. In the records of the town of Rochester, of which town Wawarsing was a part, is the entry, under date of July 22, 1709, "Marynus van Aken desired the conveyance of about one hundred acres of land lying over against the land of Colonel Jacob Rutsen 164 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. called Kahankasinck, known as Masseecs," that is the land asked for by Van Aken took the name of Masseecs from a swamp which the name means. Colonel Rutsen's land has not been located ; he held several tracts at different times, and one especially on the west line of Marbletown known as Rosindale. Whatever its location it shows that its name of Kahankasinck was extended to it or from it from some g-eneral feature. Obviously from the ancient treaty and deed boundaries the site of the Old Fort has not been ascertained, nor has the Great Hill been located. 'Presumably both must be looked for on Shawongunk Mountain. The fort, as described by Kregier ni his "Jc>ur"^l of the Second Esopus War," was a palisaded village and the largest settlement of the Esopus Indians. He made no reference to a stream or to a ravine, but did note that he was obliged to pass over swamps, fre- quent kills, and "divers mountains" that were so steep that it was necessary to "haul the wagons and cannon up and down with ropes." His course was "mostly southwest" from Wildwijk, and the fort "about ten miles (Dutch), or from thirty to thirty-five miles Eng- lish. It was not so far southwest from Wildwijk (Kingston) as the New Fort by "about four hours," a time measure equal to nine or ten English miles. The Indians did not defend the fort ; they abandoned it "two days before" the Dutch troops arrived. No par- ticular description of it has been handed down. Under date of July 31, 1663, Kregier wrote: "In the morning at dawn of day set fire to the fort and all the houses, and while they were in full blaze marched out in good order." And so disappeared forever the his- toric Indian settlement, not even the name by which it was known certainly translatable in the absence of knowledge of the topography of its precise location.^ Magowasinghinck, so written in its earliest form in treaty deed of 1677 (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii) as the name of an Indian family, and also as the name of a certain kill, or river — "Land lying on both sides of Rondout Kill, or river, and known by the name of Moggewarsinck," in survey for Henry Beekman, 1685 — "Land on ^The name has the appearance of derivation from Gahan (Del.), "Shal- low, low water"; spoken with the guttural aspirate -gks (Gahaks), and indefinite formative -an. As a generic it would be applicable to the head- waters of any small .stream, or place of low water, and may be met in several places. Hudson's river on the west. 165 this side of Rondout Kill named Ragoivasinck, from the limits of P'rederick Hussay. to a kill that runs in the Ronduyt Kill, or where a large rock lies in the kill," grant to George Davis, 1677. The Beekman grant was on both sides of Rondout Creek west ^md im- mediately above Honk Falls, where a large rock lying in the kill was the boundmark to which the name referred and from which it was extended to the stream and place. The George Davis grant has not been located, and may never have been taken up. Beekman sold to Peter Lowe in 1708, and the survey of the latter, in 1722, described his boundary as running west from "the great fall called Heneck." In Mr. Lindsay's History of Ulster County it is said that the grant was half a mile wide on the southeast side of the stream and a mile wide on the northwest side. Hon. Th. E. Bene- dict writes me : "The Rondout is eminently a river of rocks. It rises on the east side of Peekamoose, Table, and Lone mountains, and west side of Hanover Mountain of the Catskills, and flows through chasms of giant rocks. All the way down there are notable rocks reared in midstream. The rock above Honk Falls is hogback shape, a hundred or more feet long. It lies entirely in the stream and divides it into two swift channels which join together just above the falls. Here, amid the roar, the swirl and dash of waters break- ing through rocky barriers, with the rapids at the falls, the Great Rock was an object to be remembered as a boundmark." Without knowledge of the locative of the name or of the facts of record concerning it, the late Dr. D. G. Brinton, replying to in- quiry, wrote me : "I take Magozv or Moggew-assing-ink to be from Macheu (Del.), 'It is great, large'; achsiln, 'stone', and ink locative ; literally 'at the place of the large stone'." The name does not describe the place where the rock lies. The Davis grant in terms other than the Indian name located one as lying "in the kill," and the other is described in the survey of the patent to Beekman : "Land situate, lying and being upon both sides of Rondout Kill or river, and known by the name of Moggewarsinck, beginning at a great rock stone in the middle of the river and opposite to a marked tree on the south side of the river, between two great rock stones, which is the bounds betwixt it and the purchase of Mr. William Fisher," etz. ; both records confirm Dr. Brinton's interpre- tation. As a generic the name may, like Kahanksan, be found in 1 66 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. several places, but the particularly certain place in the Beekman grant was at the falls called Honneck, now Honk. Wawarasinke, so written by the surveyor as the name of a tract of land granted to Anna Beake and her children in 1685, ^^s been retained as the name of a village situate in part on that tract, about four miles north of Ellenville. The precise location of the southern boundmark of the patent was on the west bank of the Rondout, south of the mouth of Wawarsing Creek, or Vernooy Kill as now called, which flows to the Rondout in a deep roclom the flat the name was extended to a hill and to a creek in the town of Athens. Hubbard, in 'his "History of Indian Wars," assigns the same name to a place on the east side of Hudson's River. (See Pachquyak and Schaghticoke.) Ganasnix and Ganasenix, given as the name of a creek consti- tuting the southern boundary of the Lockerman Patent (1686), seems to be an orthography of Kaniskek, which see. Waweiantepakook, Waweantepakoak, Wawantepekoak, are forms of a name given as tliat of "a hig'h round hill" near Catskill. The description reads: "A place on the northeast side of a brook called Kiskatam.enakook, on the west side of a hill called Wawean- tepakoak." (Land Papers, 242.) The location has not been ascer- tained. Antpech (Antpek, Zeisb.), means "Head." In Mass. (Eliot), Piihkuk — Mitppukiik, "A head." Wawei is a reduplicative of Wai or Way; it means, "Many windings around," or deviations 'Dutch Inbocht, "In the bend," "bay," etc. "Great" was added as an identification of the particular bend spoken off. 174 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. from a direct line. The name is sufficiently explained by the de- scription, "On the west side of a hill," or a hill-side, but descriptive of a hill resembling a head — "high, erect" — with the accessory meaning of superiority. "Indian Head" is now applied to one of the peaks of the Catskills. The parts of the body were sometimes applied by the Indians to inanimate objects just as we apply them in English — head of a cove, leg of a table, etc. (See Wawayanda.) Kiskatom, a village and a stream of water so called in Greene County, appears in two forms in original records, Kiskatammeeche and Kiskatamenakoak. The abbreviated form, Kiskatom, appears in 1708, more particularly describing "A certain tract by a place called Kiskatammeeche, beginning at a turn of Catrick's Kill ten chains below where Kiskatammeeche Kill watereth into Catrick's Kill," and "Under the great mountain called Kiskatameck." Dr. Trumbull wrote : "Kiskato-minak-auke, 'Place of thin-shelled nuts,' or shag-bark hickory nuts." He explained : "Shag-bark hickory nuts," 'nuts to be cracked by the teeth,' are the 'Kiskatominies' and 'Kisky Thomas nuts' of the descendants of the Dutch colonists of New Jersey and New York." (Comp. Ind. Geographical Names.) Kaniskek, or Caniskek, of record as the name of Athens, is described in orignal deeds : "A certain tract of land on the west side of North River opposite Claverack, called Caniskek, which stretdhes along the river from the lands of Peter Bronck down to the valley lying near the point of the main land behind the Barren Island, called Mackawameck," now known as Black Rock, at the south part of Athens. The description covers the long marshy flat in front of Athens, or between Athens and Hudson. The name seems to be from Quana {Quinnih, Eliot), "Long"; -ask, the radical of all names meaning grass, marsh, meadow, etc., and -ek, forma- tive — literally, "Long marsh or meadow." The early settlement at Athens was called Loonenburgh, from one Jan van Loon, who lo- cated there in 1706. Esperanza succeeded this name and was fol- lowed by Athens. The particular place of first settlement is de- scribed as running "from the corner called Mackawameck west into the woodland to the Kattskill road or path, which land is called Loonenburgh." Athens is from the capital of the ancient Greek State of Attica. HUDSON S RIVER ON THE WEST. 175- Keessienwey's Hoeck, a place so called/ has not been located. It is presumed to have been in the vicinity of Kaniskek and to have taken its name from the noted "chief or sachem" of the Katskill Indians called Keessienwey, Keesiewey, Kesewig, Keeseway, etc. On the east side of the river, south of Stockport, Kesieway's Kil is of record. Mr. Bernard Fernow, in his translation of the Dutch text wrote, "Keessiemveyshoeck (Mallows Meadow Hook)^," but no meadow of that character is of local record. Kessiewey was a peace chief, or resident ruler, whose office it was to negotiate treaties of peace for his own people, or for other clans when requested, and in this capacity, with associates, announced himself at Fort Orange, in 1660, as coming, "in the name of the Esopus sachems, to ask for peace" with them.^ He was engaged in similar work in nego- tiating the Esopus treaty of 1664 ; signed the deed for Kaniskek in 1665, and disappears of record after that date. In "History of Greene County," he is confused with Aepjen, a peace chief of the Ma'hicans, and in some records is classed as a Mahican, which he no doubt was tribally, but not the. less "a Katskil Indian." Beyond his footprints of record, nothing is known of the noted diplomat. His name is probably from Keeche, "Chief, principal, greatest." Keecheivae, "He is chief." (See Schodac.) Machawameck, the south boundmark of Kaniskek, was not the name of Barrent's Island, as stated in French's Gazetteer. It was the name of a noted fishing place, now known as Black Rock, in the south part of Athens. The prefix Macha, is the equivalent of Massa (Natick Mogge), meaning "Great," and -ameck is an equiv- alent of -ameek {-amuk, Del), "Fishing-place." As the root, -am, means "To take by the mouth," the place would seem to have been noted for fish of the smaller sort. The Dutch called the place 1 " * * ■\^g have, therefore, gathered information from the Mahican- ders, who thought we knew of it, that more than fifteen days ago some Esopus [Indians] had been at Keessienwey's Hoeck who wanted to come up [to Fort Orange], but had been prevented until this time, and in order to get at the truth of the matter, we have concluded to send for two or three sachems of the Katskil Indians^ especially Macsachneminanau and Safpagood, also Keesienwey, to come hither." (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 309.) ' "May 24, 1660. To-day appeared [at Fort Orange] three Mahican chiefs, namely, Eskuvius, alias Aepjen (Little Ape), Aupaumut, and Keess- ienway, alias Tennis, who answered that they came in the name of the Esopus sachems to ask for peace." 176 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES, Vlugt Hoek, "Flying corner," it is so entered in deed. Qr. "Fly- ing," fishing with a hook in the form of a fly. Koghkehaeje, Kachhachinge, Coghsacky, now Coxsackie, a very early place name w'here it is still retained, was translated by Dr. Schoolcraft from Kuxakee (Ohip.), "The place of the cut banks," and by Dr. O'Callaghan, "A corruption of Algonquin Kaakaki, from Kaak, 'goose,' and -aki, 'place.' " In his translation of the Journal of Jasper Dankers and Peter Sluyter, in which the name is written Koch-ackie ( German notation ; Dutch, Kok, "cook"), the late Hon. Henry C. Murphy wrote: "The true orthog- raphy is probably Koek's-rackie (the Cook's Little Reach), to dis- tinguish it from the Koek's Reach below the Highlands, near New York." Unfortunately there is no evidence tliat there was a reach called the Cook's north of the Highlands, while it is certain that the name is Algonquian. Dankers and Sluyter gave no description of the place in 1679-80, but their notice of it indicates that it was familiar at that date. In 17 18 it was given as the name of a bound- mark of a tract described as "'having on the east the land called Vlackte and Coxsackie." (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 124.) Vlackte (Vlakte) is Dutch for "Plain or flat," and no doubt described the Great Nutten Hoek Flat w'hich lies fronting Coxsackie Landing, and Coxackie described the clay bluff which skirts the river rising about one hundred feet. The bluff and flat bounded the tract on the east. From the locative the name may be translated from Mass. Koghksuhk-ohke, meaning "High land." The guttural ghks had the sound of Greek x, hence Kox or Cox. Stighcook, a tract of land so called, now in Greene County, granted to Casparus Brunk and others in 1743, is located in patent as lying "to the westward of Koghsacky." In Indian deed to Ed- ward Collins, in 1734, the description reads, "Westerly by the high woods known and called by the Indian name Sticktakook." Ap- parently from Mass. Mishimtugkook, "At a place of much wood." The district seems to have been famed for nut trees. It is noted on Van der Donck's map "Noten Hocck," from which it was ex- tended to Great Nutten Hook Island and Little Nutten Hook Island, on which there were nut trees. (See Wieskottine, Kiskatom, etc.) Siesk'^assin, a boundmark of the Coeymans Patent, is described HUDSON S RIVER ON THE WEST. 1 77 as a point on the west side of the Hudson, "opposite the middle of the island called Sapanakock and by the Dutch called Barrent's Island." The suffix -assin, probably stands for Assin, "Stone," but the prefix is unintelligible. Sapanak-ock means, "Place of wild potatoes," or bulbous roots. (See Passapenoc.)' Barrent's is from Barrent Coeymans, the founder of the village of Coeymans. The earlier Dutch name was Beerin Island, or "She-bear's Island," usually read Bear's Island. Achquetuck is given as the name of the flat at Coeyman's Hol- low. The suffix -tuck probably stands for "A tidal river or estu- ary," and Achque means "On this side," or before. The reference seems to have been to land before or on this side of the estuary, or the side toward the speaker. Oniskethau, quoted as the name of Coeymans' Creek, is said to have been the name of a Sunk-squa, or sachem's wife. Authority not given. The stream descends in two falls at Coeymans' Village, covering seventy-five feet. The same name is met in Onisquathaw, now Niskata, of record as the name of a place in the town of New Scotland, Albany County. Hahnakrois, or Haanakrois, the name of a small stream some- times called Coeymans' Creek, which enters the Hudson in the northeast corner of Greene County, is Dutch corrupted. The orig- inal was Haan-Kraait, meaning "Cock-crowing" Kill, perhaps from the sound of the waterfall. Sankagag, otherwise written Sanckhagag, is given, in deed to Van Rensselaer, 1630, as the name of a tract of land described as "Situated on the west side of the North River, stretching in length from a little above Beeren Island along the river upward to Smack's Island, and in width two days' journey inland." Beeren Island is about twelve miles south of Albany, and Smack's Island is near or at that city. The western limit of the tract included the Helder- berg^ hills. Nepestekoak, a tract of land described, "Beginning at the north- "■Helder (Dutch) means "Clear, bright, light, clearly, brightly." and Berg means "hill" or mountain. It was probably employed to express the appear- ance of the hills in the landscape. Some of the peaks of the range afiford fine view of the valley of Hudson's River. 178 INDI-'7 GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. ernmost fall of water in a certain brook, called by the Indians Nepes- tekoak" ; in another paper, Nepeesteegtock. The name was that of the place. It is now assigned to a pond in the town of Cairo, Greene County. (See Neweskeke.) Neweskeke, ="keek, about ten miles south of Albany, is de- scribed as "The corner of a neck of land having a fresh water river running to the east of it." In another paper the neck is located "near a pool of water called Nepeesteek," and "a brook called Napee- steegtock." The name of the brook and that of the pool is from Nepe, "Water," the first describing "Water at rest," a pool or lake, and the second a place adjoining extending to the stream. Newesk- eke means "Promontory, point or corner," ^ Pachonahellick and Pachonakellick are record forms of the name of Long or Mahikander's Island, otherwise known historically as Castle Island. It is the first island south of Albany, and lies on the west side of the river, near the main land opposite the mouth of Norman's Kill. On .ome maps it is called Patroon's Island and Martin Garretson's Island. The first Dutch traders were permitted to occupy it, and they are said to have erected on it, in 1614, a fort or "castle," wihich they called Fort Nassau. In the spring of 1617 this fort was almost wholly destroyed by freshet. The traders then erected a fort on the west bank of the river, on the north side of Norman's Kill, which they called Fort Orange. This fort was suc- ceeded, in 1623, by one on or near the present steamboat landing in Albany, to which the name was transferred and which was known as Fort Orange until the English obtained possession (1664), when the name was changed to Fort Albany, from which the present name of the capital of the State.- In addition feo the early history of the island the claim is made by Weise, in his "History of Albany," that it was occupied by French traders in 1540; that they erected a fort ^ This name appears to be a contraction of Ncivas-askeg, "Marshy prom- ontory,' or a promontory or point near a marsh." (Gerard.) * Fort Albany was succeeded by a quadrangular fort called Fort Frederick, built by the English (1742-3) on what is now State Street, between St. Peter's Church and Geological Hall. It was demolished soon after the Revolution. Wassenaer wrote, under date of 1625 : "Right opposite [Fort Orange] is the fort of the Maykans which they built against their enemies the Maquas" [Mohawks]. "Right opposite" means "directly opposite," i. e. directly op- posite the present steamboat landing at Albany, presumably on the bluff at Greenbush, HUDSON S RIVER ON THE WEST. 1 79 or castle thereon, which they were forced to leave by a freshet in the spring of 1542, and that they called the river, and also their trading post, "Norumbega." These facts are also stated in another connection. There is some evidence that French traders visited the river, and that they constructed a fort on Castle Island, but none that they called the river "Norumbega." (See Muhheak- unuk.) 'By the construction of an enibankni'ent and the filling of the passage between the island and the main land, the island has nearly disappeared.^ Norman's Kill, so well known locally, took that name from one Albert Andriessen, Brat de Noordman (the Northman), who leased the privilege and erected a mill for grinding corn, sometime about 1638. On Van Rensselaer's map of 1630 it is entered "Godyn's Kil and Water Val," a mill stream, not a cataract. Brat de Noord- man's mill was in the town of Bethlehem, adjoining the city of Albany. The stream rises in Schenectady County and flows south- east about twenty-eight miles to the Hudson. The Mohawks called it Tawalsontha. In a petition for a grant of land near Schenectady, in 1713, is the entry, "By ye Indian name Tawalsontha, otherwise ye Norman's Kill" — "A creek called D'Wasontha" (1726) — from the generic Toozuawsuntha (Gallatin), meaning, "The falls of a stream"; Twascnta (Bruyas), "Sault d'eau," applied by the French to rapids in a stream — a leaping, jumping, tumbling waterfall. Aside from the names of the stream it has especial historic in- terest in connection with early Dutch settlement and the location of Fort Orange where Indians of all nations and tongues assembled for intercourse with the government. (See Pachonahellick.) Dr. Schoolcraft wrote, without any authority that I have been able to find, Tawasentha as the name of the mound on which Fort Orange was erected, with the meaning, "Place of the many dead," adding that the Mohawks had a village near and buried their dead on this hill ; a pure fiction certainly in connection with the period to which he referred. The Mohawks never had a village here, nor owned a foot of land east of the Helderberg range. The Mahicans were 'The name seems to have been that of the mouth of Norman's Kill im- mediately west of the island, and to be from Sacona-hillak, "An out-pour of water," the mouth of the stream serving to locate the island. "Patroon's Island" and "Patroon's Creek" were local Dutch names. (See Norman's Kill.) l8o INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. the owners and occupants, but neither Mahicans or Mohawks would have permitted the Dutch to build a fort on (their burial ground. Heckewelder wrote, in his "Indian Nations," "Gaaschtinick, since called by the name of Norman's Kill," and recited a Delaware tra- dition, with the coloring of truth, that that nation consented there, under advisement of the Dutch, to take the rank of women, i. e. a nation without authority to make war or sell lands. The tradi- tion is worthless. The Dutch did make "covenants of friendship" 'here with several tribes as early as 1625 (Doc. Hist. N. Y. iii, 51), ■ but none of the character stated. All the tribes were treated as equals in trade and friendship. Whatever of special favor there was was with the Mahicans among whom they located. The first treaty, "offensive aid defensive," which was made was by the Eng- lish with the Five Nations in 1664-5. The Mahicans had then sold their lands and retired to the Housatenuk, and the Mohawks and their alliant nations had become the dominant power at Albany. Nachtenak is quoted as the Mahican name of Waterford, or rather as the name of the point of land now occupied by that city, lying between the Mohawk and the Hudson. Probably the same as the following: Mathahenaak, "being a part of a parcel of land called the fore- land of the Half-Moon, and by the Indians Mathahenaack, being on the north of the fourth branch or fork of the Mohawk." Matha is an orthography of Macha (Stockbridge, Nankhn; Del. Lechau), with locative- uk, "At the fork" — now or otherwise known as Half- Moon Point, Waterford. Quahemiscos is a record form of the name of what is now known as Long Island, near Waterford. Monemius Island, otherwise Cohoes Island and Haver Island, just below Cohoes Falls, the site of Monemius's Castle, or residence of Monemius or Moenemines, a sachem of the Mahicans in 1630, so entered on Van Rensselaer's map. Haver is Dutch, "Oat straw." (See Haverstraw.) Saratoga, now so written, was, primarily, the name of a specific place extended to a district of country lying on both sides of the Hudson, described, in a deed from the Indian owners to Cornells Hudson's river on the west. i8i van Dyk, Peter Schuyler, and others, July 26, 1683, as "A tract of land called Saraclitogoe" (by the Dutch), "or by the Maquas Ochseratongiie or Ochsechrage, and by the Machicanders Amis- sohaendiek, situated to the north of Albany, beginning at the utmost limits of the land bought from the Indians by Goose Gerritse and Philip Pieterse Schuyler deceased, there being" {i. e. the bound- mark) "a kil called Tioneendehouwe, and reaching northward on both sides of the river to the end of the lands of Sarachtoge, bor- dering on a kil, on the east side of the river, called Dioncsndogeha and having the same length on the west side to opposite the kil (Tioneendehouwe), and reaching westward through the woods as far as the Indian proprietors will show, and the same distance through the woods on the east side." The boundary streams of this tract are now known as the Hoosick (Tioneendehowe), and the Batten Kill (Dionondehowe), as written on the map of the patent. The boundaries included, specifically, the section of the Hudson known as "The Still Water,"^ noted from the earliest Dutch occupation as the Great Fishing Place and Beaver Country, two elements the most dear to the Indian heart and the most contrib- utive to his support, inciting wars for possession. Specifically, too, the locative of the name, from the language of the deed and contemporary evidence, would seem to have been on the east side of the river — "the end of the lands of Sarachtoge, bordering on a kil on the east side of the river, called," etc., a place which Gov- ernor Dongan selected, in 1685, on which to settle the Mohawk Catholic converts, who had been induced to remove to Canada, as a condition of their return, and which he described as a tract of land "called Serachtogue, lying upon Hudson's River, about forty miles above Albany," and for the protection of which Fort Saratoga was erected in 1709 ; noted by Governor Cornbury in 1703, as "A place called Saractoga, which is the northernmost settlement we have" ; topographically described, in later years, as "a broad in- terval on the east side of the river, south of Batten Kill," and as including the mouth of the kill and lake Cossayuna. (Col. Hist. N. Y. ; Fitch's Survey; Kalm's Travels.) On the destruction of ' "At a place called the Still Water, so named for that the water passeth so slowly as not to be discovered, yet at a little distance both above and be- low is disturbed and rageth as in a sea, occasioned by great rocks and great falls therein." (Col. Hist. N. Y., x, 194.) l82 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. the fort, in the war of 1746, the settlement was removed to the opposite side of the river and the name went with it, but to which it had no legitimate title. (See Kayauderossa.) Apparently the Mahican name, Amissohacndiek, is the oldest. It carries with it a history in connection with the wars between the Mohawks and the Mahicans. At the sale of the lands, the Mahicans who were present renounced claim to compensation "be- cause in olden time the lands belonged to them, before the Maquas took it from them." ^(Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 537.) It is this section of Hudson's River that the only claim was ever made and conceded of Mohawk possession by conquest. The Mohawk name, Ochseratongue or Ochsechrage, became, in the course of its transmission, Osarague and Saratoga, and in the latter form, without reference to its antecedents, was translated by the late Henry R. Schoolcraft "From Assarat, 'Sparkling water,' and Oga, 'place,' 'the place of the sparkling water,' " the reference being to the mineral springs, one of which, "High Rock," was, traditionally, known to the Indians, who, it is said, conveyed Sir William Johnson thither, in 1767, to test the medicinal virtues of the water ; but, while the tradition may recite a fact the translation is worthless. With a view to obtain a satisfactory explanation of the record names, the writer submitted them to the late eminent Iroquoian philologist, Horatio Hale, M. A., of Clinton, Ontario, Canada, and to the eminent Algonquian linguist, the late Dr. D. G. Brinton, of Philadelphia. In reply, Mr. Hale wrote: * * "Your letter has proved very acceptable, as the facts you present have thrown light on an interesting question which has heretofore perplexed me. I have vainly sought to discover the origin and meaning of the name Saratoga. My late distinguished friend, L. H. Morgan, was, it seems, equally unsuccessful. In the appendix of local names added to his admirable 'League of the Iroquois,' Saratoga is given in the Indian form as Sharlatoga, with the addition, 'signification lost.' There can be no doubt that the word, as we have it, and indeed as Morgan heard it, is, as you suggest, much abbreviated and corrupted. One ^ The war in which the Mahicans lost and the Mohawks gained possession of the lands here occurred in 1627, as stated in Dutch records (Doc. Hist. N. Y., iii, 48), sustained by the deed to King George in 1701. (Doc. Hist. N. Y., i, 773.) There was no conquest on the Hudson south of Cohoes Falls. Hudson's river on the west. 183 of the ancient forms, however, which you give from the old Dutch authorities, seems to put us at once on the right track. This form is Ochsechrage. The 'digraph' ch in this word evidently represents the hard guttural aspirate, common to both the Dutch and the Ger- man languages. This aspirate is of frequent occurrence in the Iro- quois dialects, but it is not a radical element. As I have elsewhere said, it appears and disappears as capriciously as the common h in the speech of the south of England. In etymologies it may always be disregarded. Omitting it, we have the well-known word Oserage — in modern Iroquois orthography Oserake, meaning 'At the beaver- dam.' It is derived from osera, 'beaver-dam,' with the locative particle ge or ke affixed. "In Iroquois r and / are interchangeable, and s frequently sounds like sh. Thus we can understand how in Cartier's orthography Oserake (pronounced with an aspirate) becaJme Hochelaga, the well-known aboriginal name of what is now Montreal. That this name meant simply 'At the beaver-dam' is not questioned. It is rather curious, though not surprising, that two such noted Indian names as Saratoga and Hochelaga s'hould have the same origin. In Ochseratongue the name is lengthened by an addition which is so evidently corrupted that I hesitate to explain it. I may say, how- ever, that I suspect it to be a 'verbalized' form. It may possibly be derived from the verb atona, 'to become' (in its perfect tense atonk), added to osera, in which case the word would mean, 'where a beaver-dam has been forming,' or, as we should express it in English, 'where the beavers have been making a dam.' "With regard to the Mahican name Amissohaendiek or Amisso- haendick (whichever it is) I cannot say much, my knowledge of the Algonquin dialects not being sufficient to warrant me in ven- turing on etymologies. I remark, however, that 'beaver' in Ma- hican, as in several other Algonquin dialects, is Amisk or some variant of that word. This would apparently account for the first two syllables of the name. In Iroquois the word for 'beaver-dam' 'has no connection with the word 'beaver,' but it may be otherwise in Mahican." * * * Dr. Brinton wrote : * * "I have iittle doubt but that the Mahican term is^ prac- tically a translation of the Iroquois name. It certainly begins with 184 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES, the element Amik, Amisk or Amisque, 'Beaver/ and terminates with the locative ck or k. The intermediate portion I am not clear about. There is probably considerable garbling of the middle sylla- bles, and this obscures their forms. In a general way, however, it means 'Place where beavers live,' or 'are found.' " Father Le June wrote Amisc-ou, "Beaver," an equivalent of Amis-so in the text. Dr. Trumbull wrote : "Amisk, a generic name for beaver-kind, has been retained in the principal Algonquian dia- lects." The district was a part of Ochsaraga, "The beaver-hunting country of the Confederate Indians," conquered by them about 1624. The evolution from Ochs era-tongue (deed of 1683) appears in Serachtogue (Dongan, 1685} ; Serasteau (contemporary French) ; Saractoga (Cornbury, 1703) ; Saratoga (modern). Tbe Ossarague, noted by Father Jogues, in 1646, as a famous fishing-place, is now assigned to Schuylerville. Aside from its linguistic associations, the Batten Kill is an in- teresting stream. It has two falls, one of which, near the Hudson^ is seventy-five feet and preserves in its modern name, Dionoendoghe,. its Mohawk name, Ti-oneenda-houwe, for the meaning of which see Hoosick. Sacondaga, quoted as the name of the west branch of the Hud- son, is not the name of the stream but of its mouth or outlet at Warrensburgh, Warren County. It is from Mohawk generic Swe'- ken, the equivalent of Lenape Sac on (Zeisb.), meaning "Outlet,'^ or "Mouth of a river," "Pouring out," and -daga, a softened form of -take, "At the," the composition meaning, literally, "At the out- let" or mouth of a river. (Hale.) Ti-osar-onda, met in connec- tion with the stream, means "Brandh" or "Tributory stream." (Hewitt.) The reference may have been to the stream as a branch of the Hudson, or to some other stream. The stream comes down from small lakes and streams in Lewis and Hamilton counties, and is the principal northwestern affluent of the Hudson. Scharon, Scarron, Schroon, orthographies of the name now conferred on a lake and its outlet, and on a mountain range and a town in Essex County, is said to have been originally given to the lake by French officers in honor of the widow Scarron, the cele- brated Madam Maintenon of the reign of Louis XVI. (Watson.) Hudson's river on the west. 185 The present form, Schroon, is quite modern. On Sauthier's map the orthography is Scaron. The lake is about ten miles long and forms a reservoir of waters flowing from a number of lakes and springs in the Adirondacks. Its outlet unites with the Hudson on the east side at Warrensburgh, Warren County, and has been known for many years as the East Branch of Hudson's River. The Mo- liawk-Iroquoian name of the stream at one place is of record At-a- te'ton, from Ganawate^ton (Bruyas), meaning "Rapid river," "Swift current." (J. B. N. Hewitt.) A little valley at the junc- tion of the stream with the Hudson at Warrensburgh, dignified by the name of "Indian Pass," bears the record name of Teohoken, from Iroquois generic De-ya-oken, meaning "Where it forks," or "Where the stream forks or enters the Hudson." (J. B. N. Hewitt.) The little valley is described as "a picture of beauty and repose in strong contrast with the rugged hills around." (Lossing.) Oi»o=gue, the name given by the Mohawks to Father Jogues in 1646, at Lake George, to what we now fondly call Hudson's River, is fully explained in another connection. The stream has its sources among the highest peaks of the Adirondacks, the most quoted springlet being that in what is known as "Adirondack or Indian Pass," a deep and rugged gorge between the steep slopes of Mt, Mclntyre and the cliffs of Wallface Mountain, in Essex County. The level of this gorge is 2,937 feet above tide.^ The highest lakelet-head sources, however, are noted in Verplanck Colvin's sur- vey of the Adirondack region as Lake Moss and Lake Tear-of-the- clouds on Mount Marcy,^ the former having an elevation of 4,312 feet above sea-level and the latter 4,326 feet, "the loftiest water- mirror of the stars" in the State. The little streams descending from these lakes, gathering strength from other small lakes and springlets, flow rapidly into Warren County, where they receive the Sacondaga and Schroon. Between Warrensburgh and Glen's 'This famous Pass is partly in the town of Newcomb and partly in the town of North Elba, Essex County. Wall-face, on the west side, is a per- pendicular precipice 800 to 1,000 feet high, and Mt. Mclntyre rises over 3 000 feet. The gorge is seldom traversed, even adventurous tourists are repelled by its ruggedness. 'By Colvin's survev 'Mount Marcy has an elevation of 5.344.41 1 feet "above mean-tide level' in the Hudson." It is the highest mountain in the State. Put four Butter Hills on the top of each other and the elevation would be only a few hundred feet higher. l86 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. Falls the stream sweeps, in tortuous course with a wealth- of rapids, eastward among- the lofty hills of the Luzerne^ range of mountains, and at Glen's Falls descends about sixty feet, passing over a precipice, in cataract, in flood seasons, about nine hundred feet long, and then separates into three channels by rocks piled in confusion. In times of low water there is, on the south side of the gorge, a perpendicular descent of about forty feet. Below, the channels unite and in one deep stream flow on gently between the grained cHfTs of fine black marble, which rises in some places from thirty to seventy feet. At the foot of the fall the current is divided by a small island which is said to bear on its flat rock surface a petri- faction having the appearance of a big snake, which may have been regarded by the Mohawks with awe as the personification of the spirit of evil, according to the Huron legend, "Onniare jotohatienn notkon, The demon takes the figure of a snake." (Bruyas.) Un- der the rock is a cave over which the serpent lies as a keeper, ex- tending from one channel to the other and which, as well as the snake, comes down to us embalmed in Cooper's "Last of the Mo- hegans," though some visitors with clear heads have failed to dis- cover the snake. In times of flood the cave is filled with water and all the dividing rocks below the fall are covered, presenting one vast foaming sheet, At Sandy Hill the river-channel curves to the south and pur- sues a broken course to what are known as Baker's Falls, where the descent is between seventy and eighty feet — primarily nearly as picturesque as at Glen's Falls, untouched by Cooper's pen. The bend to the south at Sandy Hill is substantially the head of the val- ley of Hudson's River. Throughout the mountainous region above that point several Indian names are quoted by writers in obscure orthographies and very doubtful interpretations, the most tangible, aside from those which have been noticed, being that whidh is said to have been the name of Glen's Falls, but was actually the name of the very large district known as Kay-au-do-ros-sa. In Mohawk, Sandy Hill would probably be called Gea-di-go, "Beautiful plain," but it has no Indian name of record. The village stands upon a ^ French, "Spanish Trefoil." "Having a three-lobed extremity or ex- tremities, as a cross." Botanically, plants having three leaves, as -white clover, etc. Topographically, a mountain having three points or extremities. GLENS FALLS: ABOVE LEATH ERSTOCKING COVE. Hudson's river on the west. 187 hig"h sandy plain. It has its traditionary Indian story, of course ; in this section of country it is easy to coin traditions of tjhe wars of the Mo'hawks, the Hurons, and the Algonquians ; they interest but do not 'harm any one. Kay-au=do=ros=sa (modern), Kancader-osseras, Kanicader- oseras (primary), the name given as that of a s'treani of water, of a district of country, and of a range of mountains, was originally the name of the stream now known as Fis'h Greek,^ the outlet of Saratoga Lake, and signifies, literally, "Where the lake mouths itself out." Horatio Hale wrote me : "Lake, in Iroquois, is, in fh^ French missionary spelling, Kaniatare, the word being sounded as in Italian. Mouth is Osa, whence (writes the Rev. J. A. Cuoq in 'his Lexique de la langue Iroquois), Qsara, mouth of a river, 'bouche d'un fleure, embouchure d'une riviere.' This word combined would give either Kanicatarosa or Kaniatarossa, with the meaning of 'Lake mouth,' applicable to the mouth of a lake, or rather, accord- ing to the verbalizing habit of the language, 'the place where the lake disembog-ues,' literally, 'mouths itself out.' " To wliich J. B. N. Hewitt added the explanation, "Or flood-lands of the lake — ^the overflow of the lake;" Adirondacks, or Ratirontaks, a name now improperly applied to the mountainous district of northern New York, is said to have been primarily bestowed by the Iroquois on a tribe occupying the left bank of the St. Lawrence above the present site of Quebec, who were called by the French Algonquins specifically, as representatives of a title w*hich had come to be of general application to a group of tribes speaking radically the same language.^ The term is under- ^ "About Kayaderossres Creek and the lakes in that quarter." "The chief tract of hunting land we have left, called Kayaderossres, with a great quan- tity of land about it." (Doc. Hist. N. Y., ii, no.) The stream drains an ex- tensive district of country, flows into and becomes the outlet of Saratoga Lake, and is now known as Fish Creek and Fish Kill, a very cheap substitute for the expressive Mohawk term. 'The specific tribe called Algonquins by the French, were seated, in I7>S, near A^ontreal, and described as a remnant of "A nation the most warlike, the most polished, and the most attached to the French." Their armorial ■bearing, or totem, was an evergreen oak. (Doc. Hist. N. Y., i, 16.) Tt is claimed that they were principally Ottawas, residing on the Ottawa River. (Schoolcraft.) The primary location of the language is only measurably in- volved in the first application of the name, the honor being claimed for the Chippewa, the Cree, and the Lenni-Lenape. The Eastern Algonquins sub- stituted for the Iroquois Adirondacks, Mihtiikmechaick (Williams) with the same meaning. 1 88 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. Stood to mean, "They eat trees," i. e. people w^ho eat the bark of cer- tain trees for food, presumably from the climatic difficulty in raising corn in the latitude in which they lived.^ Horatio Hale analyzed the name : "From Adi, 'they' ; aronda, 'tree,' and ikeks, 'eat.' " The name was not that of the district,nor is it cony ertMew'ith Algonquin. The later is a French rendering of Algoumquin, from A'goumak, "On the other side of the river," i. e. opposite their neighbors lower down. (Trumbull.) Schoolcraft gave substantially the same inter- pretation from the Chippewa, "Odis-qiia-guma, 'People at the end of the waters,' " making its application specific to the Chippewas as the original Algonquins, instead of the Ottawas. The accepted inter- pretation, "Country of mountains and forests," is correct only in that that it is descriptive of the country. The record names of the district are Cough-sagh-raga and Carmgariarchio, the former en- tered on Pownal's map with the addition "Or the beaver-'hunting ■country of the Confederate Indians," and the latter entered in the deed from the Five Nations to the King in 1701. (Col. Hist. N. Y., iv, 909.) Cough-sagh-raga is now written Koghsarage (Elliot) and Kohscrake (modern), and signifies "Winter" or "Winter land"; but the older name, Cana-gariarc-hio, means, "The beaver-hunting country." ^ It is not expected that this explanation will affect the ^ The bark of the chestnut, the walnut, and of other trees was dried, ma- cerated, and rolled in the fat of bears or other animals, and probably formed a palatable and a healthful diet. Presumably the eating of the bark of trees was not confined to a particular tribe. ■ "Coughsaghrage, or the Beaver-Hunting Country of the Confederate In- dians. The Confederates, called by the French Iroquois, surrendered this country to the English at Albany, on the 19th day of July, 1701 ; and their action was confirmed the 14th of September, 1724. It belongs to New York, and is full of Swamps, Lakes, Rivers, Drowned Lands ; a Long Chain of Snowy Mountains which are seen. Lake Champlain runs thro' the whole tract, North and South. This country is not only uninhabited, but even un- known except towards the South where several grants have been made since the Peace." So wrote Governor Pownal on his map of 1775. There is no question that Coughsaghraga means "Winter." It may also mean "At the Beaver- dam," or "In 'the country of Beaver-dams." Kohseraka may be a form of Hochelaga or Ochseraga. Osera means "Beaver-dam" as well as "Winter," wrote Horatio Hale. (See Saratoga.) In explanation of Canagariachio Mr. Hale wrote : "Kanagariarchio is a slightly corrupted form of the Iro- quois word Kanna' kari-kario , which means simply 'Beaver.' It is a descrip- tive term compounded of Kannagare, 'Stick' or club, Kakarien, 'To bite,' and Kario, 'Wild animal.' It is not the most common Iroquois word for Beaver, which, in the Mohawk dialect is Tsionnito, or Djonnito. That the word should be understood to mean 'The Beaver-Hunting Country,' is in accord- ance with Indian usage." Hudson's river on the west. 189 continuance, by conference, of Adirondacks as the name of the dis- trict ; but it may lead to the replanting of the much more expressive Iroquoian title, Kohsarake, on some hill-top in the ancient wilder- ness. On the Mohawk. Mohawk, the river so called — 'properly "the Mohawk's River," or river of the Mohawks — rises near the centre of the State and reaches the Hudson at Cohoes Falls. Its name preserves that by which the most eastern nation of the Iroquoian confederacy, the Six Nations, is generally known in history — the Maquaas of the early Dutch. The nation, however, did not give that name to the stream except in the sense of occupation as the seat of their posses- sions ; to them it was the 0-hyo'^hi-yo'ge, "Large, chief or principal river" (Hewitt) ; written by Van Curler in 1635, Vyoge and Oyoghi, and by Bruyas "Ohioge, a la riviere," now written Ohio as the name of one of the rivers of the west, nor did they apply the word Mohawk to themselves ; that title was conferred upon tihem by their Algonquian enemies, as explained by Roger Williams, who wrote in 1646, "Mo'hozvaug-suck, or Mauquazuog, from Moho, 'to eat,' the cannibals or men-eaters," the reference being to the custom of the nation in eating the bodies of enemies who might fall into its hands, a custom of which the Huron nations, of which it was a branch, seem to have been especially guilty. To themselves they gave the much more pleasant name Canniengas, from Kannia, "Flint," wliich they adopted as their national emblem and delineated it in their official signatures, signifying, in that connection, "People of the Flint." When and why they adopted this national emblem is a matter of conjecture. Presumably it was generations prior to the incoming of Europeans and from the discovery of the fire-pro- ducing qualities of the flint, which was certainly known to them and to other Indian nations^ in pre-historic times. When the flint ^ Arent Van Curler, in 1635, in his "Journal of a Visit to the Seneca Coun- tr3^" wrote : "I was shown a parcel of flint-stones with which they make a fire when in the forest. These stones would do very well for flint-lock guns." ^9° INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. and steel were introduced to them they added the latter to their emhlem, generally delineated it on all papers of national im- portance, and called it Kannien, "batte-feu," as written by Bruyas, a verbal form of Kannia, "a flint," or fire-stone, the verb describing a new method of "striking fire out of a flint," or a new instrument for striking fire, and a new emblem of their own superiority spring- ing from their ancient emblem. The Delawares called them Sank- hikani,- or "The fire-sitriking people," from Del. Sank or San, "stone" (from Assin), and -hikan, "an implement," obviously a flint-stone implement for striking fire, or, as interpreted by Hecke- welder, "A fire-lock," and by Zeisberger, "A fire-steel." The French called them Agnie and Agnicrs, presumably de- rived from Canicnga (Huron, Yanyenge). The Dutch called them Mahakuas, by contraction Maqnaas, from Old Algonquian Magk- wah (Stockbridge, Mquoh), Bear, "He devours, he eats." As a nation they were Bears, tearing, devouring, eating, enemies who fell into their hands. Bruyas wrote in the Huron dialect, "Okwari, ourse (that is Bear) ; Ganniagwari, grand ourse" (grand, glorious, superb, Bear), and in another connection, "It is the name of the Agniers," the characteristic t>^e of the nation. They were divided In three ruling totemic tribes, the Tortoise (Anozvara), the Bear {Ochqiiari), and the Wolf (Okzvaho), and several sub-tribes, as the Beaver, the Elk, the Serpent, the Porcupine, and the Fox, as shown by deeds of record, of w^hich the most frequently met is that •of the Beaver. On Van der Donck's map of 1656, the names of four tribal castles are entered : Carenay, Ganagero, Schanntisse, and /' Jonnontego. In the recently recovered Journal of a trip to the Roger Williams wrote of the Narraganset Indians in 1643: "I have seen a native go into the woods with his hatchet, carrying a basket of corn with him, and stones to strike a tire." Father Le June wrote, in 1634: "They strike together two metalic stones, just as we do with a piece of flint and iron or steel. * * That is how they light their fire."" The "Metalic stones" spoken o'f are presumed, by some writers, to have been iron pyrites, as they may have been m some cases, but the national emblem was the flint. ' "Sanklticani, the Mohawk's, from Sankhican, a gun-lock." ( Heckeweld- er.) The name appears first on the Carte Figurative of 1614-16, in applica- tion to the Indians of northern New Jersey (Delawares), who were, by some writers, called "The Fire-workers." They seem to have manufactured stone implements by the application of fire. Presumably they were "Fire-strikers" as well as the Mohawks. Certainly they were not Mohawks. Were the Mo- hawks the discoverers of the fire-striking properties of the flint? ON THE MOHAWK. 191 Mohawk country, hy Arent van Curler, in the winter of 1634-5, the names are Onekagoncka, Ganagere, Sohanidisse, and Tenotoge or Tenotogehoogc. In 1643, Father Isaac Jogues, in French notation, wrote the name of the first, Osseruehon, and that of the last, Te- ononte-ogen. Rev.Megapolensis, the Dutch minister at Fort Orange, wrote, in 1644. t?he name of the first Assarue, the second Banigiro, and the last Thcnondiago. On a map republished in the Third Annual Report of the State Historian, copied from a map published in Holland in 1666, the first is called Cancray (Van der Donck's Carenay), and the second, Canagera} The several names refer in all cases to the same castles tribally, in some cases, apparently, by the name of a specific topographical feature near which the castles were located, and in some cases, apparently, by the name of the tribe. Cramoisy, in his Relation of 1645-6, referring to the visit of Father Jogues to the Moihawks, wrote : "They arrived at their first small village, called Oneugionre, formerly Osserrion." (Rela- tions, 29: 51), showing very clearly that those two names referred to one and the same castle. What Oneugioure stands for certainly, cannot be stated, though it seems tO' read easily from Ohnaivay (Cuoq), "Current, swift river," indicating that it may have re- ferred to the long rapids.- Chief W. H. Holmes, of the Bureau of Ethnology, wrote me: "According to our best expert authority, an Iroquoian; Onekagoncka signifies 'At the junction of the waters,' and Ossenieilon, Osserrion, Assarue, etc., signifies 'At the beaver- dam.' " Accepting these interpretations, the particular place where the two names seem to come together is at the mouth of Aurie's ^ State Historian Hastings writes me : "The map of which you inquire, appeared originally in a pamphlet published at Middleburgh, Holland, at the Hague, 1666. It was first reproduced by the late Hon. Henry C. Murphy in his translation of the 'Vertoogh van Nieu Nederland,' etc. His reproduc- tion gives Canagerc, as the name of the second castle, and Caneray as the name of the first, precisely as they appear in order in our reproduction in our Third Report." ^ Oncongoure is a form of the name in Colonial History. In the standard translation' of Jesuit Relations it is Oneugioure. Oncon is a clerical error. The letters u and ou represent a sound produced by the Indian in the throat without motion of the lips. Bruyas wrote it 8; it is now read w — Onew. Adding an a, we have very nearly M. Cuoq's Ohnawah, "current," "swift river"; with suffix goiva, "great," the reference being to the great rapids near which the castle was located. The omission of the locative participal shows that it was not "at" or "on" the great rapids. 192 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. Creek "where it falls into Mohawk's river." (See Oghracke.) As generic terms, howe'ver, they would be applicable at any place where the features were met and would only become specific here from other locative testimony, which we seem to have. The first castle or town was that of the Tortoise tribe ; the sec- ond, that of fhe Bear tribe; the third, that of the Beaver (probably), and the fourth, that of the Wolf tribe. On Van der Donck's map there are four, and Greenhalgh, in 1677, noted four. In a Schenec- tady paper of the same year the names of two sachems are sub- scribed who acted "for themselves" and as "the representatives of yie four Mohock's castles." The French invaded the valley in 1666, and burned all the castles of the early period, and the tribes retreat- ed to the north side of river and established themselves, the first at Caughnawaga ; the second about one and one-half miles west of the first ; the third, west of the second, and the fourth beyond the tliird, in their ancient order as Greenhalgh found them in 1677. The French destroyed them again in 1693,^ and the tribes returned to and rebuilt on the south side of the river in proximity to their an- cient seats. After the changes which had swept over the nation, three castles are noted in later records — the "Upper" at Canajohare, the "Lower" at the mouth of Schohare Creek, and the "Third" on the Schohare some sixteen miles inland. While the early castles were known to the Dutch traders prior to 1635, and their locations marked, approximately, on their rude charts which formed the basis of Van der Donck's and other early maps, it was not until the recovery and publication in 1895, of Van Curler's Journal- that much was known concerning them prior to 1642-44, when the Jesuit missionaries and the Dutch minister at ^ "Their three castles destroyed and themselves dispersed." (Col. Hist. N. Y., iv, 20, 22.) The castles referred to Caughnawaga, Canagora, and Tiononteogen. A castle on the south side of the Mohawk, said to have been about two miles inland, escaped. Presumably it was the village of the Beaver family, but we have nothing further concerning it. The attack was made on the night of Feb. 16, 1693. The warriors of the first two castles were absent, and the few old men and the women made little resistance. At the third, the warriors fought bravely but unsuccessfully. The three castles were burned ; that at Caughnawaga was given to the flames on the morning of February 20, 1693. " Journal of Arent van Curler, of a visit to the Seneca country, 1634-5 O. S., translated by General James Grant Wilson, printed in "The Independ- ent," N. Y., Oct. 5, 1895. Republished by National Historical Society. ON THE MOHAWK. 1 93 F^ort Orange, Rev. Megapolensis, went into the field. Van Cur- ler's Journal, supplemented by the Relations of the Jesuit Fathers and Rev. Megapolensis's notes, enables us now to almost look in upon the early homes of the ''barbarians," as they were called. The Mohawks were the most important factor in the ''Five [Six] Nations Confederacy," particularly from the standpoint of their proximity to and relations with the Dutch and the English governments, primarily in trade and later as alliants offensive and defensive under treaty of 1664 and more definitely under treaty of 1683. (Doc. Hist. N. Y., i, 576.) Their written history is graven in no uncertain colors on the valley W'hich still bears their name, as well as on northeastern New York, marred though it may be by claims to pre-historical supremacy which cannot be maintained. When Van Curler visited them the nation was at peace, and the occupants of the towns and villages engaged in t'he duties of home life. He wrote that "Most of the people were out 'hunting for deer and bear" ; that "the houses were full of corn and beans" ; that he "saw maize— yes, in some of the houses more than three hundred bushels." He added that he was hospitably entertained, was fed on "pumpkins cooked and baked, roasted turkeys, venison and bear's meat," and altogether seems to have fared sumptuously. Rev. Megapolensis wrote of them, that though they were cruel to their enemies, they were very friendly to the Dutch. "We go with them into the woods ; we meet with each other, sometimes at an hour's walk from any house, and think no more of it than if we met with Christians." The dark side of their character may be seen in a single quotation from Father Jogues's narrative, as related by Father Lalemant : "Happily for the Father the very time wben he was entering the gates, a messenger arrived who broug-ht news that a warrior and his comrades were returning victorious, bringing twenty Abanaqois prisoners. Bdhold them all joyful ; they leave the poor Father; they burn, they flay, they roast, they eat those poor victims with public rejoicings." Gentle and affable in peace, with many evidences of a rude civilization, they were indeed "De- mons in war." Faithful in their labors among them were the Jesuit Fathers. They were men who were ready to suffer torture and death in the propagation of their faith, as se^^eral of them did. The conflict of 194 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. those heroes of the Cross in the valley of the Mohawk, inaugurated by the capture and martyrdom of Father Jogues and his companion, Rene Goupil, in 1646, did not deter them ; the wars of the nation with the French aided them. So successful were they that many of the nation were drawn oft" to Canada and became zealous parti- zans of the French and a scourge to English settlements, especially emphasized in the massacre at Schenectady in February, 1689-90. Those who remained true to the English became no longer "bar- barians" in the full sense of that word, but "Praying Maquas." The subsequent story of the nation may be gleaned from the pages of history. At the close of the Revolution the integrity of the Six Nations had been eft'ectually broken, and the castles of the Mohawks swept from the valley proper. The history, of the latter nation especially, needs to be studied, not in the wild glamour of fiction, but in the realm of fact, as that of an original people, native to the soil of the New World, clasping hands with the era of the origin of man ; a people who, when they were first met, had borrowed nothing, absolutely nothing, from the civilizations or the languages of the Old World — tlie Ongu'e-hozve, the "real men" of the Mo- hawk A^alley. The locations of the castles or principal towns of the nation, as noted in Van Curler's Journal, has given rise to considerable dis- cussion, particularly in regard to the location of the first of the series and its identity under the different names by which it was called. Van Curler was not an "ignorant Hollander wandering around in the woods," as one writer states ; on the contrary, he was an educated man and one of the best equipped men then in the coun- try for the trip he had undertaken, and instead of "wandering around in the woods," he was conducted by Mohawk guides. He wrote that he left Fort Orange in company with Jeronimus la Crock, William Thomasson, and five Mohawks as guides and bear- ers, "between nine and ten o'clock in the morning," December 12, 1634, and after walking "mostly northwest about eight miles" (Dutch), stopped "at half-past twelve in the evening'' (p. m.) "at a little hunters' cabin near the stream that runs into their land, of the name of Vyoge." His hours' travel and his miles' travel to this point were either loosely stated in his manuscript or were mis- ON THE MOHAWK. 195 read by the translator.^ A Dutch mile is one and one-quarter hours' walk and the equivalent of three and one-half English miles and a fraction over. Van Curler no doubt estimated his miles by this standard and not as correct measurements of rough Indian paths. He certainly did not walk eight Dutch miles in three hours. Twen- ty-four English miles would have taken him to a point northwest of the later Schenectady stockade, which, in 1690, was counted as twenty-four English miles from Fort Orange by the road as then traveled. The "little hunters' cabin" at which he stopped and which he located "near the Vyoge," he explained in his notes of his second day's travel, as "one hour's walk" from the place where he crossed the stream, which would have taken him to a crossing-glace west of Schenectady, noted in a French Itinerary of 1757 as about one and one-quarter leagues west of the then fort at that settlement, and, presumably, by the canal survey of 1792, as at the first rift west of the beginning of deep water one and one-half miles (English) east of the rift referred to, from which point the survey gave the dis- tance "to the deep water at or above the mouth of Schohare creek" as twenty-five miles. In going to, or from, the crossing-place he "passed Mohawk villages" where "the ice drifted fast," and gave his later travel as "mostly along the kill that ran swiftly," indi- cating very clearly that he passed along the rapids. Why he cross- ed the Mohawk when there was a path on the south side, is ex- plained by Pearson's statement (Hist. Schenectady) that the path on the north side "was the best and most frequently traveled path to the Mdhawk castles," and held that reputation for many years. It was a trunk line from the Hudson with many connecting paths. In considering his miles' travel the survey of 1792 may be safely referred to.- His miles' travel, which he wrote as "eleven" (Dutch) 'he wrote on his return as "ten," which, counted as standard Dutcli, would have been about thirty-five English miles; if counted by ^ General Wilson wrote me that the Journal was translated for him by a Hollander, now (1905) dead, and that the manuscript had passed out of his hands. The question of hours and miles is not important here. On his re- turn travel he gave the distance from the little hunters' cabin (which in the meantime had been burned), as "A long walk," which will not be disputed. It may be added that it is not justifiable to count his two days' travel as one, and count the two as thirty-two English miles from Fort Orange. The two days' travel are very distinct in the Journal. 'Doc. Hist. N. Y., iii, 1087. 196 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. General John S. Clark's average of shrinkage, about thirty, which would have taken him from the hunters" cabin to a point two or three miles west of the mouth of Schohare Creek. Referring particularly to his Journal : On the morning of the 13th, at three o'clock, he left the "little hunters' cabin" where he passed the night, spent one hour in walking to the crossing-place, crossed "in the dark," resumed his march on the north side "mostly along the aforesaid kill that ran swiftly," and after marching ten miles arrived, "at one o'clock in the evening" (p. m.) "at a little house half a mile" (Dutch) "from their First Castle." When he stopped he was so exhausted by the roug'h road that he could scarce- ly move his feet, and hence remained at the "little house" until the next morning, when he recrossed the Mohawk to the south side "on the ice which had frozen over the kill during the night," and "after going half-a-mile" (Dutch), or say one and one-half Eng- lish, arrived "at their First Castle," which he found "built on a high mountain." It contained "thirty-six houses in rows like streets." The houses were "one hundred, ninety or eighty paces long," and were no doubt palisaded as he called the castle a "fort." The name of the castle, he wrote later, was Onekagoncka. The crossing was the only one which he miade to the south side of the Mohawk in going west. JVherc, aside from a fair computation of his miles' travel, did he cross? Certainly he did not cross on the ice which had frozen over the rapids east of the mouth of Schohare Creek, for they were never known to freeze over in one night, if at all. Certainly 'he did not cross east of the rapids, for they ex- tended three and one-half miles east of the mouth of the creek. Obviously, if he crossed Schohare Creek on the ice and "did not know it," as one writer suggests, he n.ust have crossed it in going to the castle, which would surely locate the castle zvest of the stream. There is not the slightest notice of the stream in his Jour- nal, nor is there any place for it in the harmony of his narrative. The tenable conclusion, from the comparison of his miles and from the natural facts, is that be crossed "on the ice" which had frozen over the deep water "at or above the mouth of Schohare Creek" ; that his march took him to the vicinity of Aurie's Creek, or sub- stantially to the castle which Father Jogues called Osseruefion, the site of which is now marked by the Society of Jesus with the Shrine, ON THE MOHAV.K, 197 ■^'Our Lady of Martyrs," whether that castle was east or west of Aurie's Creek, evidences of Indian occupation having been found on a ihill on the west side of the creek as well as on a hill on the east side.^ These evidences, however, prove very little in determining the location of a particular castle three hundred years ago; they only become important when sustained by distances from given points or by natural features of record. The locative conclusion stated above is more positively empha- sized by counting Va.n Curler's miles' travel and his landmarks in going west from Onekagoncka, and by the natural features which he noted in his Journal. Leaving Onekagoncka, he wrote that he walked "half a mile" (Dutch) "on the ice" which had frozen over the kill, or say one and one-half English miles, and in that distance passed "a village of six houses of the name of Canozvarode." It was near the river obviously. Walking on the ice "another half mile" (Dutch), he passed "a village of twelve houses named Senat- sycrossy." After walking "another mile or mile and a half" on the ice, he passed "great stretches of flat lands" and came to a castle which he first called Medatshet, and later Canagere, v/hich he de- nominated "The Second Castle." His distances traveling west "on the ice" vv.er-e evidently more correctly computed than they were on his march on the rough path "along the kill that 'ran swiftly." His miles from Onekagoncka to Canagere are given as two and a half (Dutc'h) or about nine miles English. The actual distance is supposed to have been about eight. He found the castle "built on a hill without any palisades or any defence." He located it east of Canajohare Creek, a stream which has never lost its identity. When Van Curler visited the castle it contained "sixteen houses, fifty, sixty, seventy or eighty paces long." Detained in this castle by a heavy fall of rain which broke up the streams — the "January thaw" of 1635 in the Mohawk Valley — Van Curler resumed his iournev on the 20th, and "after marching ^ Father Jogues noted in his narrative a "torrent" which passed "At the foot of their village" — a brook or creek which was swollen by rains into a torrent, and from which, on the later recedence of the water, he recovered the remains of the body of his companion, Rene Goupil, who had been mur- dered and his body thrown into it, probably with the expectation that it would Tie carried down into the Mohawk, "At the foot of their village," or at the foot of the hill on which the village stood. 19^ INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. a mile" (Dutch), came to Oanajohare Creek which he was obliged to ford. After crossing and walking "half a mile" (Dutch), he came to what he called the "Third Castle of the name af Sohani- disse," later written by him Rohanadissc, and by Van der Donck Schanatisse, suggesting the name of the hill on w'hich it stood, which Van Curler described a.s "very high." It contained "thirty- two houses like the others" ; was not palisaded. The very high hill, and the flat lands which he referred to, remain. On the 2 1st, before reaching the second stream which he noted later as having crossed, he wrote that "half a mile" west of Canajo- hare Creek he came to a village of "nine houses of the name of Osqiiage," which gave name to the stream now known as the Otsquage, which he also called Okquage and Okzvahohage, "Wolves" — a village of the Wolf tribe. On the 23d he forded the Otsquage, and after going "half a mile" (Dutch) west of that stream, came "to a village named Cmvaoge:' It had fourteen houses and stood "on a very high hill." On his return trip he wrote the name Nazvaoga; on old maps it is Canawadage, and has since 1635 been known as the Nozvadage or Fort Plain Creek. He did not cross this stream, but after stopping at the village for a short time moved on "by land," presumably inland either north or south, and "going another mile" came to the "Fourth Castle," w'hich he called Tenotoge and Tenotohage, and Father Jogues called Te- ononte-ogen, and also "the furthest castle." It was no doubt the principal castle of the Wolf tribe, strongly palisaded to defend the western approach to the seat of the nation, as was Onekagoncka to guard the east. It was, he wrote, composed of fifty^five houses like the others. It stood in a valley evidently, probably on the bank of the creek, as he wrote that the stream (Otsquaga) which 'he had crossed in the morning "ran past" the castle ; that he saw on the opposite (east) "bank" of the stream "a good many houses filled with com and beans," and also extensive flat lands. Further than this topographical description the location of the castle cannot be determined.^ Van Curler's miles to the castle from Onekagonka, ^ In the town of Minden, four miles south of Fort Plain, on a tonp^ue of land formed by the Otsquaga Creek and one of its tributaries, are the re- mains of an ancient fortification, showing a curved line two hundred and forty feet in length, inclosing an area of about^ seven acres. The remains are, of course, claimed as belonging to the age of the mound-builders, but with equal probability are the remains of the ancient fort which Van Curler visited. ON THE MOHAWK. 1 99 as nearly as can be counted from his Journal, were about six Dutch or about twenty-one English, or as General Clark counted Dutch miles, about eighteen English. As Van Curler traveled "on the ice" for the most considerable part of the way from Onekagoncka, and followed necessarily the bend in the river and diverged at times from the shore line, exact computation of his miles cannot be made. General Clark located the castle at Spraker's Basin, thirteen miles by rail west of Aurie's Creek. Van Curler located it oil the zvest side of Qtsqiiagc Creek. On Simeon DeWitt's map of survey of patents in 1790 (Doc. Hist. N. Y., i, 420), the direct line from the west side of the mouth of Otsquage Creek to the west side of the mouth of Aurie's Creek is fifteen and three-tenths miles ; following the bend in the Mohaw'k, as Van Curler did, it is seventeen and one-half miles. Granting that the lithographic reprodudtion of the map may vary from the original, it nevertheless shows conclusively that Onekagoncka must have been located at or near Aurie's Creek. The suggestion that it was located on a hill on the east side of Schohare Creek is untenable, as is also the suggestion that it was at Klein, eight miles east of Schohare Creek, There may have been villages at a later date at the places suggested, but never one of the ancient castles. Counted from the east or from the west there is no location that meets Van Curler's miles, or Father Jogues's "leagues," so certainly as does Aurie's Creek. (See Oghracke.) In addition to the locations of the ancient castles. Van Curler's notes supply interesting evidence of the strength of the Mohawks when the Dutch first met them, which was then at its highest known point in number and in the number of their settlements, namely: Two hundred and twenty-five "long houses" in castles and villages, without including villages on the lower Mohawk "where the ice drifted fast," which he passed without particular note, and those in villages or settlements which he did not see. Two hundred and twenty-five hous-es were capable of holding and no doubt did hold a very large number of people, packed as they were packed. Father Pierron reported, in 1669, after the French invasion of 1666, that he visited every week "six large villages, covering seven and one- half leagues distance," around Caughnawaga w'here he was sta- tioned. In almost constant wars with the French, and with the Hurons and other Indian tribes as allies of the French, their num- 200 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. ber had dwindled to an estimate of eighty warriors in 1735. The story of their greatness and of their decay is of the deepest interest. No student of American history can dispense with its perusal and be well-informed in the events of the pioneer era. Kahoos, Kahoes, Cohoes, Co'os, forms of the familiar name of the falls of the Mohawk River at the junction of that stream with Hudson's River, has had several interpretations based on the pre- sumption that it is from the Mohawk-Iroquoian dialect, but none that have been satisfactory to students of that dialect, nor any that have not been purely conjectural. One writer has read it: "From Kaho, a boat or ship," commemorative of Hudson's advent at Half- Moon Point in 1609. Beauchamp repeated from Morgan: "A ship- wrecked canoe," and, in another connection : "From Kaho, a torrent." Another writer has read it: "Cahoes, 'the parting of the waters,' the reference being to the separation of the stream into three chan- nels at its junction with the Hudson." The late Horatio Hale wrote me : "Morgan gives, as the Iroquois form of the name, Gd-ho-oose (in which a represents the Italian a as in father), with the significa- tion of 'ship-wrecked canoe.' This, I presume, is correct, though I cannot analize the word to my satisfaction." The obvious reason for this uncertainty is that the name is not Mohawk-Iroquoian, but an early Dutch orthography of the Algonquian generic Koozva, "Pine" ; Koaaes, "Small pine," or "Small pine trees" ; written with locative it, "Place of small pine trees" ; now applied to a small island. On the Connecticut River this generic is met in Co'os and Co'hos. The "Upper Co-hos Interval" on that stream (Sauthier's map)^ was a tract of low small pine trees, between the hills and the river, cor- responding with the topography at the falls on the Hudson. The Dutch termination -hoos, meaning in that language, "Water-spout," may have given rise to the interpretation "The Great Falls," but if so the reading was simply descriptive. The presumption that the name was Mohawk-Iroquoian was no doubt from the general im- pression that the falls were primarily in a Mohav/k district, but the fact is precisely the reverse. The Hudson, on both sides, was held "by Algonquian-Mahicans when the Dutch located at Albany, and for some years later, and the Dutch no doubt received the name ^ "L. Intervale-Cowass or Kohas (Coas) meadows." (Pownal's Map.) ON THE MOHAWK. 201 from them, as they did others. What few Mohawk names are met in this district are of later introduction. It may be noted that there is no element in the name in any dialect which refers to falls,^ When the falls were first known they were regarded as the most wonderful in the world, and even as late as 1680 they were so called by visitors. In early days the stream poured a flood nine-hundred feet wide and eight feet deep over a rocky declivity of seventy-eight feet, of which forty feet was perpendicular, in addition to which are the rapids above and below. The roar of the falling waters, and in the breaking up and precipitation of ice, was very distinctly heard at Fort Orange, nine miles distant, and the hills on which Albany now stands trembled under the impact. Primarily the falls were much higher than they are now, the stream 'having cut its way through one hundred feet of rock which rises on either side in mas- sive wall. Below the falls the water separates in four branches or "Sprouts," the northerly and the southerly one reaching the Hudson five miles apart, at Waterford and West Troy respectively. Wathoiack, of record as the name of "The Great Rift above Kahoes Falls" (Cal. Land Papers, 134, etc.) is also written Watho- jax, D'JVathoiack, and DcWathojaaks, means, substantially, what it describes, a rift or rapid. The cis-locative De locates a place "On this side of the rapid," or the side toward the speaker. The flow of water is between walls of rock over a rocky bed, and the rapids extend for a distance of thirty-five or forty feet. (See Kahoes.) Niskayune, now so written as the name of a town and of a vil- lage in Schenectady County, is from Kanistagionne, primarily locat- ed on the north side of the Mohawk, Canastagiozvane (1667) being the oldest form of record. The locative description reads : "Ly- ing at a place called Neastegaione, * * known by the name of Kanistegaione." West of Schenectady the Mohawk is a succession of rapids. At or below Schenectady it makes a bend to the north- east in the form of a crescent, around which the water flows in a sluggish current. At the north point of the crescent was, and prob- ^ The name having been submitted to the Bureau of Ethnology for inter- pretation, the late Prof. J. W. Powell, Chief, wrote me, as the oponion of himself and his colaborers : "The name is unquestionably from the Algon- quian Koowa." 202 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. ably is a place called by the Dutch the x\al-plaat (Eel-place), mark- ed on maps by a small stream from the north which still bears the name, and which formed the eastern boundmark of the Schenectady Patent. In Barber's collection it is stated that there was an Indian village here called Canastagaones, or "People of the Eel -place." Naturally there would be fishing villages in the vicinity. The loca- tion of the Aal-plaat is particularly identified in the Mohawk deed for five small islands lying at Kanastagiowne, in 1667, and by the abstract of title filed by one Evart van Ness in 171 5. (Cal. Land Papers.) The name is from Keantsica, "Fish," of the larger kind, and -gioimi, "Long" — tsi, "Very long" — constructively, "The Long- fish place," the Aal-plaat, or Eel-place, of the Dutch. The sug- gestion by Pearson (Hist. Schenectady) that the name "was prop- erly that of the flat on the north side of the river," is untenable from the name itself. The reading by the late Dr. E. B. O'Callag- han: "From Oneasti, 'Maize,' and Couanc, 'Great' — 'Great maize field' " — is also erroneous. The generic name for the field or flat was Shenondohaii'ah, compressed by the Dutch to Skonozva. In the vicinity of the Aal-plaat was the ancient crossing-place of the path from Fort Orange to the Mohawk castles, in early days regarded as the "Best" as it was the "Most traveled." The path continued north from the crossing as well as west to the castles. Schenectady, now so written, is claimed by some authorities to be an anglicism of a Mohawk-Iroquoian verbal primarily applied by them to Fort Orange (Albany), with the interpretations, "The place we arrive at by passing through the pine trees" (Bleecker) ; "Beyond the opening" (L. H. Morgan) ; "Beyond (or on the other side) of the door" (O'Callaghan), and by Horatio Hale: "The name means simply, 'beyond the pines,' from oneghta (or skaneghet), 'pine,' and adi or ati, a prepositional sufiix (if such an expression may be allowed), meaning 'beyond,' or 'on the other side of.' The sufiix is derived from skati, side. It was equally applicable to Al- bany or Schenectady, both being reached from the Mohawk castles by passing through openings in the pine forest." Mr. Hale's inter- pretation, from the standpoint of a Mohawk term, is exhaustive and no doubt correct, and the correctness of the preceding inter- pretations may be admitted from the combinations which may have ON THE MOHAWK. 203 been employed to determine the object of which askati was "one sid(i," as in "Skanndtati, de un coste du village," or the end of, as in "Skannhahati, a I'autre bout de la cabane" (Bruyas). The word does not appear to mean "beyond," but one side or one end of any- thing. Aside from a critical rendering, it would seem to be evident that all the interpretations are in error, not in the translation of the name as a Mohawk word-sentence, but in the assumption that Sche- nectady was primarily a Mohawk phrase, instead of a confusion of the Mohawk Skannatati with the original Dutch Schaenhecstede, the primary application of which is amply sustained by official record, while the Mohawk term is without standing in that connec- tion, or later except as a corrupt Mohawk-Dutch^ substitution. The facts of primary application may be briefly stated. The deed from the Mohawk owners of the Schenectady flats, in 1661, reads: "A certain parcel of land called in Dutch the Groote Vlachte, lying he- hind Fort Orange, betiveen the same and the Mohawk country called in Indian Skonowe." Skonowe is the equivalent of the Dutch "great flat," and notiliing more. Its Mohawk equivalent is written on the section Shenondohazvah, which the Dutch reduced to Skon- owe. (See Shannondhoi.) Van der Donck wrote on his map (1656), in pure Dutch, Schoon Vlaack Land, or "Fine flat land." It was not continued in application to the Dutch settlement, the proprietors of which immediately ( 1661 ) gave to it the Dutch name Schaenechstede, "as the town came to be called." (Munsell's An- nals of Albany, ii, 49, 52; Brod'head's Hist. N. Y., i, 691.) Under that name the tract was surveyed (1664), and it has remained ap- parent in the sjiithesis of the many corrupt forms in which it is of record. Schaenechstede is a clear orthographic pronunciation of the Dutch Schoonehetstede, signifying, literally, "The beautiful town." The syllable het is properly hek, "fence, rail, gate," etc., and in this connection indicates an enclosed or palisaded town. In 1680, Schaenschentendcel appears — a pronunciation of Schoonehet- ' A considerable number of the earlj^ settlers had Indian wives. (Dominie Megapolensis wrote : "The Dutch are continually running after the Mohawk women.") The children, growing up with Indian relatives, among the tribes and with men speaking so great a variety of tongues, built up a patois of their own, the "Mohawk-Dutch,"' many words in it defying the diction- aries of the schools. Many words are untranslatable save by the context. (Hist. Schenectady Patent, 388.) 2 04 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. tendal, "Beautiful valley," or the equivalent of the German Schoone- seckthal, "Beautiful corner or turn of a valley." The German Labadists, Jasper Bankers and Peter Sluyter, made no mistake in their recognition of the name when they wrote Schoon-echten-deel in their Journal in 1679-80, describing the town as a square set off by palisades.^ Unfortunately for the Dutch name it was conferred and came into use during the period of the transition of the prov- ince from the Dutch to the English, with the probability of its con- version to Mohawk-Dutch, as already noted. Certain it is that the name is not met in any form until after its introduction by the Dutch, and is not of record in any connection except at Scfhenectady^ the statement by Brodhead, on the authority of Schoolcraft, that it was applied in one form, by the Mohawks, to a place some two miles above Albany, as "the end of a portage path of the Mohawks coming from the west," being without anterior or subsequent rec- ord, though possibly traditional, and it may be added that it was never the name of Albany, nor is there record that there ever was a Mohawk village "on the site of the present city of Albany," nor anywhere near it. The Mohawks did go there to trade and on business with the government and occupied temporary encamp- ments probably. The occupants primarily were Mahicans. The evolution of the name from the original Dutch to its present form may be readily traced in the channels through which it has passed. Even though clouded by traditional and theoretical rendering, the tiuth of history will ever rest in Schoonehetstede (Schaenechstede) and in the interpretation which it was designed to express by the in- telligent men who conferred it. It is not expected that the correction will be adopted, now that the term has passed to the domain of a "proper name." With the aroma of assumed Mohawk origin and the negative "beyond" clinging to it, it will remain at least as a harmless fiction, although the honor due to a Dutch ancestry would seem to warrant a different result. By ancient measurements Schenectady is "about nine miles (English) above the falls called Cahoes" (1792). Shannondhoi and Shenondohawah are record forms of the name of a section of Saratoga County now embraced in Clifton * Memoirs Long Island Hist. Soc, i, 315. ON THE MOHAWK. 205 Park, Ha]f-^loon, etc. It is a sandy plain running west from the clay bluffs on the Hudson to the foot of the mountain, and extends across the Mohawk into Schenectady County. The name is generic Iroquoi, signifying "Great plain," and as such was their name for Wyoming. Pa., where it is written Schahandoanah (Col. Hist. N. Y., vi, 48), and Skchandowana (Reichel). Scanandanani, Schenon- dehowe, Skenandoah, and Shanandoah, are among other forms met in application. Skonovve is followed on Van der Donck's map of 1656, by the Dutch legend Schoon Vlaack Land, literally, "Fine, flat land," and for all these years the name has been accepted as meaning, "Great meadow," or "Great plain." The late Horatio Hale wrote : "The name is readily accounted for by the word Kahenta (or Kahenda), meaning 'plain' — frequently abridged to Kenta (or Kenda) — wibh the nominal prefix S and the augment- ative suffix ozva (or owana).'' "The great flat or plain in Penn- sylvania was called, in the Minsi dialect, 'M'chewomink, at (or on) the great plain.' From this word we have the modern name Wyoming. The Irocjuois word for this flat was Skahentowane, 'Great meadow (or plain),' a term which was applied also to exten- sive meadows in other localities and became corrupted to Shenan- doah." (Gerard.) Quaquarionu, of record, Calendar Land Papers, p. 6: "Bounds of a tract of land above Schenectady purchased of the Mohawk Indians, extending from Schenectady three miles westward, along both sides of the river, ending at Quaquarionu, zvhere the last Mo- hawk castle stands." The deed of same date (1672) reads: "The lands lying near the town of Schenhectady within three Dutch miles in compass on both sides of the river westward, which ends at Kina- quariones, where the last battle was between the Mohawks and the North Indians." (Col. Hist, N. Y., xiii, 465.) Canaqtiarioeny is the orthography in another deed. In Pearson's History of Schenec- tady: "Lands lying near the town of Schonnhectade within three Dutch miles [about twelve English miles] on both sides of the river westward, which ends at Hinquariones [Towareoune], where the last battle was between the Mohoax and North Indians." The last battle in that section of country explains the text. Father Pierron, in 1669, located the battle "In a place that was precipitous, '-^ * about eight leagues [French] east of Gandauague" (Caughnawaga), 2o6 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. or about sixteen miles English, and modern authorities have added, "A steep rocky hill on the north side of the Mohawk, just west of Hoffman's Ferry, now called Towareoune Hill, east of Chuckta- nimda Creek, a stream which is supposed to have taken its name from the overhanging rocks of the hill/ Dr. Beauchamp, on the authority of Albert Cusick, an educated Tuscarorian, translated : "Kinaquarioiine, 'She arrow-maker,' the name of a person who re- sided there." Rev. Isaac Bearfoot, an educated Onondagian, es- pecially instructed in the Mohawk dialect, and an educator on the Canada Reservation, supplied to W. Max Reid of Amsterdam, N. Y., the reading: "Ki-na-qjia-ri-one, 'He killed the Bear,' or, the place where the Bears die, or any place of death. It seems to have been used to denote the place of the last great battle with the Ma- hicans." The battle referred to occurred on the i8th of August, 1669. An account of it is given in Jesuit Relations, liii, 137, by Father Pierron, the Jesuit missionary, who was then stationed at Caug'hnavv'aga. The war which was then raging was continued until 1673, when the Governor of New York succeeded in nego- tiating peace and by treaty "linked together" the opposing nations as allies of the English government, a relation which they subse- quently sustained until the war of the Revolution, when the Ma- Ihicans united with the revolutionists. Onekee=dsi=enos is of record in a deed of land purchased by one Abraham Cuyler of Albany, in 1714, "from the native owners of the land at Schohere, on the west side of Schohare creek, be- ginning on the north by a stone mountain called by the Indians Onekeedsienos." (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, no.) The name is probably an equivalent of Bruyas' Onneja-tsi-entos, a composition from Onne'ja, "Stone" ; tsi or dsi, augmentative, "Very hard," such as stones used for making hatchets, axes, etc., and entos, plural inflection — "very hard stones," or "where there are hard stones." The location has been claimed for Flint Hill at Klein, Montgomery County, which, it is said, the name correctly describes. Positive identification, however, can only be made from the lines of the sur- vey of Cuyler's purchase. It has also been claimed that the Mo- ^ In a deed of 1685 is the entry : "Opposite a place called Jucktununda, that is ye stone houses, being a hollow rock on ye river bank where ye In- dians generally lie under when they travel." ON THE MOHAWK. 207 hawk castle called Onekagoncka by Van Curler In 1635, '^^'^ ^^e Osseriienon of 1642, was located at Klein, about eight miles east of Schohare Creek. This claim is based on what is certainly an erroneous computation of Van Curler's miles' travel, but particu- larly on the location on Van der Donck's map of Carcnay directly north of a small lake now in the town of Duane, Schenectady County. Van der Donck's map locations are merely approxima- tive, however, and of no other value than as showing that the places existed. On an .ancient map reprinted by the War Department at Washington, the lake and the castle are both located east of Schen- ectady. The old maps are from traders' descriptions in general terms. Onuntadass, Onuntasasha, etc., "six miles west from Schoharie between the mountains of Schoharie and the hill called by the In- dians Onuntadass" (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers), describes a hill or mountain — Ononte — with adjective termination cs or ese, meaning "long" or "high." Jonondese, "It is a high hill." The hill has not been located. The name could be applied to any long or high hill. Schoharie, now so written as the name of a creek and of a county and town, would properly be written without the i. The stream came into notice particularly after 1693-4, when the Tortoise tribe retreated from Caughnawaga and located their principal town on the west side of the stream a short distance south of its junction with the Mohawk, taking with them their ancient title of "The First Mohawk Castle," and where its location became known by the name of Ti-onondar-aga andTi-onoiita-ogen; but later from the location on the creek about sixteen miles above its mouth of what was known in modern times as "The Third Mohawk Castle," more frequently called "The Schohare Castle," a mixed aggregation of Mohawks and Tuscaroras who had been converted by the Jesuit missionaries and persuaded to remove to Canada, but subsequently induced to return. "A few emigrants at Schohare," wrote Sir William John- son in 1763. In the same district was also gathered a settlement of Mahicans and other Algonquian emigrants. From the elements which were gathered in both settlements came what were, long known as the Schohare Indians. The early record name of the creek, To-ivas-sho'hare, was rendered for me by Mr. J. B. N. Hewitt, of 2o8 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. the Bureau of Ethnology, T-yo'^-sko^'-hd-re, "An obstruction by drift wood." ^ In Colonial History, "Skohere, the Bear," means that the chief so called was of the Bear tribe. He was otherwise known by the title, "He is the great wood-drift." Ti-onondar=aga and Tiononta-ogen are forms of the name by which the "First Mohawk Castle" was located after the Tortoise tribe was driven by the French from Caughnawaga in 1693. The castle was located on the zi'est side and near the mouth of Scho- hare Creek, as shown by a rough map in Doc. Hist. N. Y., iii, 902, and also by a French Itinerary in 1757, in the same work, Vol. i,. 526.- For the protection of the settlement, the government erected, in 1 7 10, what was known as Fort Hunter, by w'hich name the place is still known. The settlement was ruled over for a number of years by "Little Abraham," brother of the Great King Hendrick of the "Upper Mohawk Castle," at Canajohare. Its occupants were especially classed as "Praying Maquas," and had a chapel and a bell and a priest of the Church of England. In the war of the Revolution they professed to be neutral but came to be regarded by the settlers as being composed of spies and informers. So it came about that General Clinton sent out, in 1779, a detachment, captured all the inmates, and seized their stock and property.^ There were only four houses — very good frame buildings — ^then standing, and on the soHcitation of settlers, who had been made houseless in the Brant and Johnson raids, they were given to them. It was the last Mohawk castle to disappear from the valley proper, ' "Schoharie, according to Brant, is an Indian word signifying drift or flood-wood, the creek of that name running at the foot of a steep precipice for many miles, from which it collected great quantities of wood." (Spof- ford's Gazetteer.) 'The settlement included "Some thirty cabins of Mohawk Indians" in 1757, as stated in the French Itinerary referred to. Rev. Gideon Hawley described it, in 1753, as on the southwest side of the creek "Not far from the place where it discharges its waters into Mohawk River." The place is still known as "Fort Hunter," although the fort and the Indian settlement dis- appeared years ago. ^ A detachment of one hundred men, sent out for that purpose, surprised the castle on the 29th of October, 1779, making prisoners of "Every Indian inmate." The houseless settlers took possession of the four houses and of all the stock, grain and furniture of the tribe. The tribe made claim for restitution on the ground of neutrality, which the settlers denied. They had come to hate the verv name of Mohawk. ON THE MOHAWK. 209 Ti-onondar-dga and Te-ononte-ogen are related tenns but are not precisely of the same meaning. The first has the locative par- ticle ke, or acu, as Zeisberg-er wrote it, and the second, oge^t, means "A space between," or "between two mountains," an mtervale, or valley, a very proper name for Schohare Valley. It is a generic composition and was also employed in connection with the '"Upper (Third) Mohawk Castle" (i635-'66). Kadarode, of record in 1693 as the name of a tract of land "Ly- ing upon Trinderogues (Schohare) creek, on both sides, made over to John Petersen Mabie by Roode, the Indian, in his life time,^ principal sachem, by and with the consent of the rest of the Praying Indian Castle in the Mohawk country" (Land Papers, 61), is fur- ther referred to in grant of permission to Mabie, in 1715, to pur- chase additional land "known as Kadarode," on the east side of the creek, and also lands "adjoining" his lands on the zvest side of the stream. (lb. 118.) By the DeWitt map of survey of 1790, Ma- tie's entire purchase extended east from the mouth of Aurie's Creek to a point on the east side of Schohare Creek, a distance of about four miles, the territory covering the presumed site of the early Mohawk castle called by different writers from names which they had heard spoken, Onekagoncka, Caneray, Osseruenon, and Oneugioure, now the site of the Shrine, "Our Lady of Martyrs." The Mohawk River, west of the long rapids, above and including the mouth of Schohare Creek, flows "in a broad, dark stream, with no apparent current," giving it the appearance of a lake — "a long stretch of still water in a river." The section was much favored by the Tortoise tribe, whose castle in 1635 and again in 1693-4 was seated upon it. The record name. Kadarode, has obviously lost some letters. Its locative suggests its derivation from Kanitare, "'Lake," and -oktc, "End, side, edge," etc. Van Curler wrote here, ■in 1635, Canozvarode, the name of a village which he passed while walking on the ice which had frozen over the Mohawk ; it was evi- dently on the side of the stream. Carenay or Kaneray, Van der Donck's name of the castle, may easily have been from Kanitare. » Roode was living in 1683. An additional name was given to him in a Schenectady patent of that vear. indicating that the name by \yhich he was generally known was from his place of residence. He could easily have been a sachem in 1635. 2IO INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. The letters d and t are equivalent sounds in the Mohawk tongue. The aspirate k was frequently dropped by European scribes ; it does not represent a radical element. The several record names which are met here is a point of interest to students. Oghrackee, Orachkee, Oghrackie, orthographies of the record name of what is now known as Auric's Creek, appear in connec- tion with land patented to John. Scott, 1722, In the survey of the patent by Cadwallade'r Colden, in the same year, the description reads : "On the south side of MohaAvk's river, about two miles above Fort Hunter, * * beginning at a certain brook called by the Indians Oghrackie, otherwise known as Arie's creek, where it falls into Maquas river." (N. Y. Land Papers, 164.) In other words the name was that of a place at the mouth of the brook. Near the brook at Auriesville, which takes its name from that of the stream, has been located the S'hrine, "Our Lady of Martyrs,'* marking the presumed rite of the Mohawk castle called by Father Jogues Osseruenon, in which he suffered martyrdom in 1646.^ The Indian name, Oghrackie, has no meaning as it stands ; some part of it was probably lost by mis-hearing. "The digraph gh is not a radical element in Mohawk speech ; it is frequently dropped,, as in Orachkee, one of the forms of the name here. Omitting it from Colden's Oghrackie, and inserting the particle se or sa, yields Osarake, "At the beaver dam," from Osara, "Beaver dam," and locative participle ke, "At." (Hale.) This interpretation is con- firmed, substantially, by the Bureau of Ethnology in an interpre- tation of Osseruenon which Father Jogues gave as that of the cas- tle. W. H. Holmes, Chief of the Bureau, wrote me, under date of March 8, 1906, as has been above stated, "The term Osseruenon (or Ossernenon, Asserua, Osserion, Osserrinon) appears to be from the Mohawk dialect of the Iroquoian stock of languages. It signi- fies, if its English dress gives any approximation to the sound of the original expression, 'At the beaver dam.' " This expert testi- mony has its value in the force which it gives to the conclusion that ^ The site of the Shrine was approved by the Society of Jesus mainly on examinations and measurements made by General John S. Clark, the locally eminent antiquarian of Auburn, N. Y., who gave the most conscientious at- tention to the work of investigation. The data supplied by Van Curler's Journal, which he did not have before him, may suggest corrections in some of his locations. ON THE MOHAWK. 211 the castle in which Father Jogues suffered was at or near Aurie's 'Creek. The relation between Megapolensis's Assarue and Jogues's Osseru is readily seen by changing the initial A in the former to 0. Aurie's, the present name of the stream, otherwise written Arie's, is Dutch for Adrian or Adrianus (Latin) "Of or pertaining to the sea." lit is suggestive of the name Adriochten, written by Van Curler as that of the ruling sachem of the castle which he visited and called Onekagoncka in 1635. -The only tangible fact, however, is that the stream took its present name from Aurie, a ruling sachem Who resided on or near it. In this connection the several names by w'hich the castle was called, viz : Onekagoncka, Carenay or Caneray, Osserucfion, Assa- rue, and Onengionre, may be again referred to. As already stated, the "best expert authority" of the Bureau of Ethnology reads Oneka- goncka as signifying, "At the junction of the waters," and Osser- uehon, in any of its forms, as signifying "At the beaver-dam." Pos- sibly the names might be read differently by a less expert author- ity, but Gncka certainly means "Water," and Ossera means "Beaver- dam." Add the reading by the late Horatio Hale of Oghracke, "At the beaver-dam," and the locative chain is complete at the mouth of Aurie's Creek (Oghracke). Trihally, the names referred to one and the same castle, as has been noted, and the evidence seems to be clear that the location was the same. There is no evidence whatever that any other than one and the same place was occupied by the "first castle" between the years 1635 and 1667. It is not strictly correct to say that "castles were frequently removed." Villages that were not palisaded may have been frequently changed to new sites, but the evidence is that palisaded towns remained in one place for a number of years unless the tribe occupying was driven out by an enemy or by continued unhealth fulness, as the known history of all the old castles shows ; nor were they ever re- moved to any considerable distance from their original sites. Van Curler's description of the castle has been quoted. He did not say that it was palisaded, but he did call it a "fort," which means the same thing. Rev. Megapolensis wrote, in 1644: "These [the Tortoise tribe] have built a fort of palisades and call their castle Assarue." It was not an old castle when Van Curler visited it in 1635, or when Father Jogues was a prisoner in it in 1642, but 212 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. in its then short existence it had had an incident in the Wars be- tween the Mohawks and the Mahicans of which there is no mention in our written histories. On his return trip Van Curler wrote that after leaving Onekagoncka and walking about "two miles," or about six English miles, his guide pointed to a high hill on which the immediately preceding castle of the tribe had stood and from which it had been driven by the Mahicans "nine years" previously, i. e. in 1627, when the war was raging between the Mohawks and the Mahicans of which Wassenaer wrote. It was obviously about that time that the tribe, retreating from its enemies, rallied west of Schdiare Creek and founded the castle of which we are speaking, and there it remained until it was driven out by the French under De Tracey in 1666, when its occupants gathered together at Caugh- nawaga on the north side of the Mohawk, where they remained until 1693 when their castle was again destroyed by the French, and the tribe found a resting place on the west side of the mouth of Schohare Creek. The remarkable episode in the early history of the castle, the torture and murder of Father Jogues in 1646, is available in many publications. The location in Brodhead's and other histories of the castle in which he suffered as at Caughnawaga, is now known to be erroneous. Caughnawaga was not occupied by the tribal castle until over twenty years later. Senatsycrossy, written by Van Curler, in 1635, as the name of a Mohawk Village west of Canoivarode, seems to have been in the vicinity of Fultonville, where tradition has always located one, but where General John S. Clark asserts that there never was one. It may not have remained at the place named for a number of years. Villages that were not palisaded were sometimes removed in a single night. Van Curler described it as a village of twelve houses. It was, presumably, the seat di a sub-tribe or gens of the Tortoise tribe. Its precise location is not important. A gens or sub-tribe was a family of the original stock more or less numerous from natural increase and intermarriages, and always springing from a single pair — -the old, old story of Adam and Eve, the founders of the Hebrews. The sachem or first man of these gens was never a ruler of the tribe proper. They did sign deeds for possessions which were admitted to be their own, but never a treaty on the part of the nation. ON THE MOHAWK. 213 Caughnawaga, probably the best known of the Mohawk castles of what may be called the middle era (1667-93), ^"^1 the imme- diate successor of Onekagoncka of 1635, was located on the north side of the Mohawk, on the edge of a hill, near the river, half a mile west of the mouth of Cayuadutta Creek, in the present village of Fonda, The hill on which it was built is now known as Kane- agah, writes Mr. W. Max Read of Amsterdam. Its name appears first in French notation, in Jesuit Relations (1667), Gandaouagiie} Contemporaneous Dutch scribes wrote it Kaghnuzvaga and Caugh- nazvaga, and Greenhalgh, an English trader, Who visited the castle in 1677, wrote it Cahaniaga, and described it as "about a bow- shot from the river, doubly stockaded around, with four ports, and twenty-four houses." The most salient points in its history are in connection with its wars with the French and with the laibors of the Jesuit missionaries, who, after the murder of Father Jogues and the destruction of the castle in which he suffered and the peace of 1667, were very successful, so much so that in 1671 the occupants of the castle erected in its public square a Cross, and a year later a very large number of the tribe under the lead of the famous war- rior Krin, removed to Canada and became allies of the French. The members of the tribe who remained occupied the castle until the winter of 1693, when it was captured and burned by the French, and the tribe returned to the south side of the river and located on the fiats on the west side of Schohare Creek, where they were especially known as "The Praying Maquaas," and where they re- mained until 1779, when they were dispersed by the Revolutionary forces under General Clinton. Catighnazvaga is accepted as mean- ing "At the rapids," more correctly "At the rapid current." It is from the Huron radical Gannazva (Bruyas), for which M. Cuoq wrote in his Lexicon Ohnazvagh, "Swift current," or very nearly the Dutch Kaghnazva; with locative particle -ge or -ga, "At the rapids." It is a generic term and is met of record in several places. As has been noted elsewhere, the rapids of the Mohawk extend at intervals fifteen in number from Schenectady to Little Falls, the 'The letters ou, in Gatidaouaga and in other names, represents a sound produced by the Mohawks in the throat without motion of the lips. Bruyas wrote it 8. It is now generally written w — Gandawaga. .214 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. longest being east of the mouth of Schohare Creek. The rapid or rift at Caughnawaga extends about half a mile. Cayudutta, modem orthography; Caniadutta and Caniahdutta, 1752. "Beginning at a great rock, lying on the west side of a creek, called by the Indians Caniadutta." (Cal, Land Papers, 270.) The name was that of the rock, from which it was extended to the stream. It was probably a rock of the calciferous sandstone type containing garnets, quartz and flint, which are met in the vicinity. "The name is from Onenhia, or Onenya, 'stone,' and Kaniote, 'to be elevated,' or standing" (Hale).^ Dr. Beauchamp translated the name, "Stone standing out of the water." The meaning, however, seems to be simply, "Standing stone," or an elevated rock. Its lo- cation is stated in the patent description as "lying on the west side of the creek." The place is claimed for Fulton County. (See Caughnawaga.) Canagere, written by Van Curler, in 1635, as the name of the "Second Castle" or tribal town, was written Gandagiro by Father jogues, in 1643 J Banigiro by Rev. Megapolensis ; Gandagora in Jesuit Relations in 1669, and Canagora by Green'halgh in. 1677, The several orthographies are claimed to stand for Canajohare, from the fact that the castle was "built on a high hill" east of Cana- johare Creek. It was, however, the castle of the Bear tribe, the Ganniagzvari, or Grand Bear of the nation, and carried its name with it to the north side of the Mohawk in 1667. Ganniagwari and Canajohare are easily confused. The creek called Canajohare gave a general locative name to a considerable district of country around it. It took the name from a pot-hole in a mass of limestone in its bed at the falls on the stream about one mile from its mouth. Bruyas wrote " Ganna-tsi-ohare , laver de chaudiere" (to wash the cauldron or large kettle). Rev. Samuel Kirkland, the noted missionary to the Oneidas, wrote the same word "Kanaohare, or Great Boiling Pot, as it is called by the Six Nations." (Dr. D wight.) The let- ter j stands for tsi, augmentative, and the radical ohare means "To wash." (Bruyas.) The hole was obviously worn by a round stone or by pebbles, w'hich, moved by the action of the current, literally ^ The same word is now written as the name of the Oneida nation. Van Curler's trip, in 1635, extended to the castle of the Oneidas, which he called Enneyuttehage, "The standing-stone town." (Hale.) ON THE MOHAWK. 215 washed the kettle. Van Curler described the castle as containing "sixteen houses, fifty, sixty, seventy, or eighty paces long, and one of five paces containg a bear," which he presumed was "to be fat- tened." No matter what may be said in regard to precise location, this castle was cast of Canajohare Creek. Sohanidisse, a castle so called by Van Curler, and denominated by him as the "Third Castle," is marked on Van der Donck's map Schanatisse. It is described by Van Curler as "on a very high hill," west of Canajohare Creek, was composed of thirty-two long houses, and was not enclosed by palisades. "Near this castle was plenty of flat land and the woods were full of oak trees." The "very high hill" west of Canajohare Creek and the flat lands remain to verify its position. It is supposed to have been the castle of the Beaver tribe — a sub-gens. Osquage, Ohquage, Otsquage, etc., was written by Van Curler as the name of a village of nine 'houses situated east of what has been known since 1635 as Osquage or Otsquage Creek. The chief of the village was called "Ognoho, that is Wolf." Megapolensis wrote the same term Okzuaho; Van Curler later wrote it Ohquage, ■and in vocabulary "Okivahohage, wolves," accessorily, "Place of wolves." From the form Osquage we no doubt have Otsquage or Okquage. Cawaoge, a village so called by Van Curler, was described by 'him as on a "very high hill" west of Osquage. On his return trip he wrote the name Nazvaoga; on old maps it is Canazvadoga, of which Cazvaoge is a compression, apparently from Gannazcake. For centuries the name has been preserved in Nozvadaga as that of Fort Plain Creek, Tenotoge and Tenotehage, Van Curler; t' Jonontego, Van der Donck; Te-onont-ogen, Jogues ; Thenondigo, Megapolensis — called by Van Curler the "Fourth Castle" and known later as the castle of the Wolf tribe, and as the "Upper Mohawk Castle," was de- scribed by Van Curler as composed of fifty-five houses "surrounded by three rows of palisades." It stood in a valley evidently, as Van Curler wrote that the stream called the Osquaga "ran past this castle." On the opposite (east) side of the stream he saw "a ^l6 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. good many houses filled with corn and beans," and extensive flat lands. It was undoubtedly strongly palisaded to defend the western door of the nation as was Onekagoncka on the east. Te-onont-ogen, which is probably the most corredt form of the name, means "Be- tween two mountains," an intervale or space between, from Te, "two" ; -onontc, "mountain," and -ogcn, "between." The same name is me't later at the mouth of Schohare Creek. General John S. Clark located this castle at Spraker's Basin, thirteen miles (rail- road) zvest of Auriesville and three miles east of Nowedaga Creek. The correctness of this location must be determined by the topo- graphical features stated by Van Curler and not otherwise. Gen- eral Clark did an excellent work in searching for the sites of an- cient castles from remaining evidences of Indian occupation, but the remaining evidence of names and topographical features w'here they are met of record must govern. In this case the creek that "ran past the door of this castle," is an indisputable mark. The French destroyed the castle in October, 1666. In the account of the occurrence (Doc. Hist. N. Y., ii, 70) it is described as being surrounded by "A triple palisade, twenty feet in height and flanked by four bastions." The tribe did not defend their possession, only a few old persons remaining who were too feeble to follow the retreat of the warriors and kindred. The tribe rebuilt the castle on the north side of the Mohawk under the name of Onondagowa, "A Great Hill." The French destroyed it again in 1693, and the tribe returned to the south side of the river and located on the flat at the mouth of the Nowadaga or Fort Plain Creek, wliere the government built, in 1710, Fort Hendrick for its protection, and where it became known as the Upper or Canajohare Castle. Aschalege, Oschalage, Otsgarege, etc., are record forms of the name given as that of the stream now known as Cobel's Kill, a branch of Schohare Creek in Schohare County. Morgan trans- lated it from Askwa or Oskwa, a scaflfolding or platform of any kind, and ge, locative, the comibination yielding "At or on a bridge." Bruyas wrote Otserage, "A causeway," a way or road raised above the natural level of the ground, serving as a passage over wet or marshy grounds. Otsgarage is now applied to a noted cavern near the stream in the town of Cobel's Kill. OS THE MOHAWK. 217 Oneyagine, "called by the Indians Oneyaginc, and by the Chris- tians Stone Kill/' is the record name of a creek in Schohare County. J. B. N. Hewitt read it from Onchya (Onne'ja, Bruyas), "stone"'; Oneyagine, "At the broken stone," from which transferred to the stream. Kanendenra, "a hill called by the Indians Kanendenra, other- wise by the Christians Anthony's Nose" — "to a point on Mohawk River near a hill called by the Indians Kanandenra, and by the Christians Anthony's Nose" — "to a certain hill called Anthony's Nose, whose point comes into the said river" — "Kanendahhere, a hill on the south side of the Mohawk, by the Christians lately called Anthony's Nose" — now known as "The Noses" and applied to a range of hills that rises abruptly from the banks of the Mohawk just below Spraker's. The name is an abstract noun, possessing a spe- cialized sense. The nose is the terminal peak of the Au Sable range. The rock formation is gneiss, covered by heavy masses of calciferous limestone containing garnets. "Anthony's Nose," probably so call- ed from resemblance to Anthony's Nose on the Hudson. Etagragon, now so written, the name of a boundmark on the Mohawk, is of record "Estaragoha, a certain rock." The locative is on the south side of the river about twenty-four miles above Schenectady. (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 121.) The name is an equivalent of Astenra-kowa, "A large rock." ]\Iodern Otsteara- koziv, Elliot. Astenrogen, of record as the name of "the first carrying place," now Little Falls, is from Ostcnra, "rock," and ogen, "divisionem" (Bruyas), literally, "Divided or separated rock." The east end of the gorge was the eastern boundmark of what is known as the "German Flats," which was purchased and settled by a part of the Palatine immigrants who had been located on the Livingston Patent in 1710. The patent to the Germans here was granted in 1723. The description in it reads : "Beginning at the first carrying place, being the easternmost bounds, called by the natives Astenrogen-, run- ning along on both sides of said river westerly unto Ganendagaren, or the upper end [/. e. of the flats, a fine alluvial plain on both sides of the river] ,^ being about twenty- four miles." (Cal. N. Y. Land ^ Ganendagraen is probably from Gahenta (Gahenda), "Prairie." ^l8 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. Papers, 182.) The passage between the rocks, now Little Falls, covered a distance of "about three-quarters of a mile" and the rapids "the height of thirty-nine feet," according to the survey of 1792. The Mohawk here breaks through the Alleghany ridge which pri- marily divided the waters of the Ontario Basin from the Hudson. The overflow from the basin 'here formed a waterfall that probably rivalled Niagara and gradually wore away the rock. The channel of the stream was very deep and on the subsidence of the ice sheet, which spread over the northern part of the continent, became filled v.ith drift. The opening in the ridge and the formation of the val- ley of the Mohawk as now known are studies in the work of creation. The settlements known as the German Flats were on both sides of the river. The one that was on the north side was burned by the French in the war of 1756-7. It was then composed of sixty houses. The one on the south side was known as Fort Kouari and later as Fort Herkimer. The district shared largely in the historic events in the Mohawk Valley during the Revolution. There are very few districts of country in the nation in which so many subjects for consideration are centered. On the Delaw^are. Keht-hanne, Hecke welder — Kit tan, Zeisberger — "The principal or greatest stream," i. e. of the country through which it passes, was the generic name of the Delaware River, and Lenapeivihittuck, "The river or stream of the Lenape." its specific name, more especially referring to the stream where its waters are affected by tidal cur- rents. In the Minisink country it was known as Minisinks River, or "River of the Minisinks." At the Lehigh junction the main stream was called the East Branch and the Lehigh the West Branch (Sauthier's map), but above that point the main stream was known as the West Branch to its head in Utsyantha^ Lake, on the north- ' Also written Oteseontio and claimed as the name of a spring. The lake is a small body of water lying 1,800 feet above tide level, in the town of Jef- ferson. Schohare County. It is usually quoted as the head of the West Branch of Delaware River. ON THE DELAWARE. 219 east line of Delaware County, N. Y., where it was known as the Mohawk's Branch. It forms the southwestern boundary of the State from nearly its head to Port Jervis, Orange County, Wliere it enters or becomes the western boundary of New Jersey. At Han- cock, Delaware County, it receives the waters of what was called by the Indians the Paghkataghan, and by the English the East Branch. The West Branch was here known to the Indians as the Namaes-sipu and its equivalent Lamas-scpos, or "Fish River," by Europeans, Fish-Kill, "Because," says an affidavit of 1785, "There was great numbers of Maskunamack (that is Bass) and Guwam (that is Shad)^ went up that branch at Shokan, and but few or none went up the East [Paghkataghan] Branch." ^ In the course of time the East or Paghkataghan'^ Branch became known as the Papagonck from a place so called. The lower part of the stream was called by the Dutch the "Zuiden River," or South River. In early days the main or West Branch was navigable by flat-boats from Cochecton Falls to Philadelphia and Wilmington. Smith, in his "History of New Jersey," wrote: "From Cochecton to Tren- ton are fourteen considerable rifts, yet ail passable in the long flat boats used in the navigation of these parts, some carrying 500 or 600 bushels of wheat." Meggeckcsson (Col. Hist. N. Y., xii, 225) was the name of what are now known as Trenton Falls, or rapids. It means, briefly, "Strong water." Heckewelder's Maskek-it-ong and his interpretation of it, "Strong falls at," are wrong, the name which he quoted being that of a swamp in the vicinity of the falls, as noted in Col. Hist. N. Y., and as shown by the name itself. The Delaware was the seat of the Lenni-Lenape (a as a in father, e as a in mate — Lenahpa), or "Original people," or people born of the earth on which they lived, who were recognized, at the time of ' "Guwam; modifications, Choam, Schazvan. The stem appears to be Shawano, '.South,' 'Coming from the south,' or from salt water." (Brinton.) ^A.ffidavit of Johannes Decker, Hist. Or. Co. (quarto) p. 699: "Called by the Indians Lamas-Sepos, or Fish Kill, because they caught the shad there." (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 698, et. seq.) ' Paghkataghan means 'The division or branch of a stream"— "Where the stream divides or separates." The Moravian missionaries wrote the name Pacligahgoch, from which, by corruption, Papagonck. The Papagoncks seem to have been, primarily, Esopus Indians, and to have retreated to that point after yielding up their Esopus lands. (See Schaghticoke.) 220 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. the discovery, as the head or "Grandfather" of the Algonquian. nations. From their principal seat on the tide-waters of the Dela- ware, and their jurisdiction on that stream, they became known and are generally met in history as the Delawares. In tribal and sub- tribal organizations they extended over Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey, and New York as far north as the Katskills, speaking dialects radically the same as that of the parent stock.^ They were composed of three primary totemic tribes, the Minsi or Wolf, the Unulachtigo or Turkey, and the Unami or Turtle, of whom the Turtle held the primacy. They were a milder and less barbaric people than the Iroquoian tribes, with whom they had little affinity and with whom they were almost con- stantly in conflict until they were broken up by the incoming tide of Europeans, the earliest and the succeeding waves of which fell upon their shores, and the later alliance of the English with their ancient enemies, the confederated Six Nations of New York, who, from their geographical position and greater strength from their remote- ness from the demoralization of early European contact, offered the most substantial advantages for repelling the advances of the French in Canada. Ultimately conquered by the Six Nations, and made "Women," in their figurative language, i. e. a people without power to make war or enter into treaties except with the consent of their rulers, they nevertheless maintained their integrity and won the title of "Men" as the outcome of the war of 1754-6. Their history has been fully — perhaps too favorably — written by Heckewelder and others. The geographical names which they gave to the hills and streams of their native land are their most remindful memorial. While western New York was Iroquoian, southern New York was Lenni-Lenape or Algonquian. Minisink, now so written and preserved as the name of a town in Orange County, appears primarily, in 1656, on Van der Donck's map, "Minnessinck ofte t' Landt van Bacham," which may be read, ^Two slightly different dialects prevailed among the Delawares, the one spoken by the Unami and the Unulachtigo, the other the Minsi. The dialect which the missionaries learned, and in which they composed their works, has that of the Lehigh Valley. We may fairly consider it to have been the up- per or inland Unami. It stood between the Unulachto and Southern Unami and the true Minsi. (Dr. Brinton.) The dialects spoken in the valley of Hudson's River have been referred to in another connection. ON THE DELAWARE. 22 1 constructively, "Indians inhabiting the back or upper lands," or the highlands/ Hecke welder wrote : "The Minsi, which we have cor- rupted to Moyisey, extended their settlements from the Minisink, a place named after them, where they had their council seat and fire," and Reichel added, "The Minisinks, i. e. the habitation of the Mon- seys or Minsis." The application was both general and specific to the district of country occupied by the Minsi tribe and to the place where its council fire was held. The former embraced the moun- tainous country of the Delaware River above the Forks or junction of the Lehigh Branch ; the latter was on Minnisink Plains in New Jersey, about eight miles south of Port Jervis, Orange County. It was obviously known to the Dutch long before Van der Donck wrote the name. It was visited, in 1694, by Arent Schuyler, a credited interpreter, who wrote, in his Journal, Minissink and Menissink as the name of the tribal seat. Although it is claimed that there was another council-seat on the East Branch of the Dela- ware, that on ?>Iinisink Plains was no doubt the principal seat of the tribe, as records show that it was there that all official intercourse with the tribe was conducted for many years. Schuyler met sachems and members of the tribe there and the place was later made a point for missionary labor. Their village was palisaded. On one of the early maps it is represented as a circular enclosure. In August, 1663, they asked the Dutch authorities at New Amsterdam, through Oratoiny, sachem of the Hackinsacks, "For a small piece of ordnance to use in their fort against the Sinnakas and protect their corn." (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii. 290.) In the blanket deed which the tribe gave in 1758, to their territory in New Jersey they were styled "Minsis, Monseys, or Minnisinks." Minsis and Mon- seys are convertible terms of which the late Dr. D. G. Brinton wrote : "From investigation among living Delawares, Minsi. properly Minsiii, formerly Min-assin-itt, means 'People of the stony coun- ^ "Minnessinck ofte t' Landt Van Bacham." apparently received some of its letters from the engraver of the map. Ofte — Dutch and Old Saxon, av — English of — was probably used in the sense of identity or equivalency. Bach- am — Dutch, bak: Old High-German. Bahhoham — describes "An extended up- per part, as of a mountain or ridge." In application to a tribe, "Ridge-land- ers,'' "Highlanders," or "Mountaineers." On the Hudson the tribe was gen- erally known as Highlanders. The double n and the double J-. in many of the forms, show that e was pronounced short, or i. 222 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. try,' or brieiiy, 'Mountaineers.' It is the synthesis of Minthiu, 'To be scattered,' and Achsin, 'Stone.' according to the best native au- thority." Apparently from Min-assin we have Van der Donck's Minn-cssin; with locative -k, -ck, -g, -gh, Minn-essin-ks, "People of the stony country," back-landers or highlanders. Interpretations of less merit have been made. One that is widely quoted is from Old Algonquian and Chippeway Minnis, '"Island," and -ink, locative; but there is no evidence that Minnis was in the dialect spoken here ; on the contrary the record name of Great Minnisink Island, which is supposed to have been referred to, was Menag'nock, by the Ger- man notation Menach'hen-ak. Aside from this Minnissingh is of record at Poughkeepsie, in 1683, where no island is known to have existed, and in Westchester County the same term is met in Men- assink (Min-assin-ink) , "At a place of small stones." The deed description at Poughkeepsie located the tract conveyed "On the bank of the river," i. e. on the back or ridge lands. (See Minnis- ingh.) The final .s which appears in many of the forms of the name, and especially in Minsis, is a foreign plural. Menagnock, the record name of what has long been known as "The Great Mennirsincks Island" — "The Great Island of the Mennisinks" — is probably an equivalent of Menach'henak (Minsi) meaning "Islands." The island, so called, is a flat cut up by water courses, forming several small islands. Namenock, an island so called by Rev. Casparus Freymout in 1737, is probably an equivalent of Naman-ock and Namec-ock, L. I., which was translated by Dr. Trumbull from Mass. Namau-ohke, "Fishing place," or "Fish country" — Namauk, Del., "Fishing place." Perhaps it was the site of a weir or dam for impounding fish. Such dams or fishing places became boundmarks in some cases. The name was corrupted to Nomin-ack, as the name of a church and of a fort three or four miles below what is now Montague, N. J. On Long Island the name is corrupted to Noinin-ick. (See Mor- iches.) Magatsoot — A tract of land "Called and known by the name of Magockomack and Magatsoot" — so entered in petition of Philip French for Minisink Patent in 1703, is noted in petition of Ebenezer Wilson (same patent), in 1702, "Beginning on the northwest side ON THE DELAWARE. 223 of the mouth of Weachackamack Creek where it enters Minisink River." The creek was then given the name of the field called Maghaghkamieck ; it is now called Neversink. Magatsoot was the name of the mouth of the stream, "Where it enters Minisink River," or the Delaware. It is an equivalent of Machaak-sok,^ meaning, "The great outlet," or mouth of a river. Although specific in ap- plication to the mouth of the river, it is more strictly the name of the stream than that which it now bears. (See M^gaat^Ramis.) Maghagh=kaniieck, so written in patent to Arent Schuyler in 1694, and described therein as "A certain tract of land at a place called Maghaghkamieck," which "Place" was granted, in 1697, to Swartwout, Coddebeck, and others, has been handed down in many orthographies. The precise location of the "Place" was never as- certained by survey, but by occupation it consisted of some portion of a very fine section of bottom-land extending along the north- east side of Neversink River from near or in the vicinity of the junction of that stream and the Delaware at Carpenter's Point to the junction of Basha's Kill- and the Neversink, in the present county of Sullivan, a distance of about eleven miles. In general terms its boundaries are described in the patent as extending from "The western bounds of the lands called Nepeneck to a small run of water called by the Indian name Assawaghkemek, and so along the same and the lands of Mansjoor, the Indian." It matters not that in later years it was reported by a commission that the patent "Contained no particular boundaries, but appeared rather to be a description of a certain tract of country in which 1,200 acres were to be taken up," the name nevertheless was that of a certain field or place so distinct in character as to become a general locative of the whole, as in the Schuyler grant of 1694. It may reasonably be pre- sumed that the district to which it was extended began at Carpen- ter's Point (Nepeneck) and ended on the north side of Basha's Kill. (See Assawaghkemek.) The same name is met in New Jersey on the Peaquaneck River, where it is of record in 1649, "Mechgacham- ik, or Indian field" (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 25) ; noted as an In- ^Machaak, Moh., Mechek, Len. ; "Great, large"; soot, sok, sohk, sauk, "Pouring out," hence mouth or outlet of a river. ^Basha's Kill, so called from a place called Basha's land, which see. 2 24 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. dian settlement in the Journal of Arent Schuyler, in 1694, giving an account of his visit to the Minissinck country, in February of that year, in which the orthography is Maghagh-kamieck , indicat- ing very clearly that the original was Maghk-aghk-kamighk, a com- bination of Maghaghk, "Pumpkin," and -kamik, "Field," or place limited, where those vegetables were cultivated, and a place that was widely known evidently.^ The German missionaries wrote Machg- ack, "Pumpkin," and Captain John Smith, in his Virginia notes of 1620, wrote the same sound in Mahcaivq. No mention is made of an Indian village here. If there was one it certainly was not visited by Arent Schuyler in 1694, as is shown by the general direction of his route, as well as by maps of Indian paths. To have visited Maghaghkaniik in Orange County would have taken him many miles out of his way. Maghaghkamik Fork and Maghaghkamik Church lost those names many years ago, but the ancient name is still in use in some connections in Port Jervis, and most wretched- ly spelled. Nepeneck, a boundmark so called in the Swartwout-Coddebeck Patent of 1697 — Napenock, Napenack, Napenough, later forms — given as the name of the western or southwestern bound of the Maghaghkamick tract, is described : "Beginning at the western bounds of the lands called Nepeneck." The place is presumed to have been at or near Carpenter's Point, on the Delaware, which at times is overflowed by water. It disappears here after 1697, but reappears in a similar situation some twenty miles north at the junction of the Sandberg and Rondout kills. It is probably a gen- eric as in Ncpeak, L. I., meaning, "Water land," or land overflowed "by water. "Nepenit Tn a place of water.' " (Trumbull.) Car- penter's Point or ancient Nepeneck, is the site of the famous Tri- States Rock, the boundmark of three states. Assawaghkemek, the name entered as that of the northeast boundmark of the Swartwout-'Coddebeck Patent, and described there- ^ Kamik, Del., Komuk, Mass., in varying orthographies, means "Place" in the sense of a limited enclosed, or occupied space ; "Generally," wrote Dr. Trumbull, "An enclosure, natural or artificial, such as a house or other build- ing, a village, or planted field, a thicket or place surrounded by trees"; brief- ly, a place having definite boundaries. Maghkaghk is an intense expression of quality — perfection. ON THE DELAWARE. 225 in, "To a small run of water called Assawaghkemek * * and so along the same and the lands of Mansjoor, the Indian," is known by settlement, to have been at and belozv the junction of Basha's Kill and the Neversink, from which the inference seems to be well sustained that "the lands of Mansjoor, the Indian" were the lands or valley of Basha's Kill, which the name describes as an enclosed or occupied place "beyond," or "on the other side" of the small run of water. The prefix Assaiv, otherwise written Accazv, Agaw, etc., means "Beyond," "On the other side." The termination agh, or aug, indicates that the name is formed as a verb. Kemek (Kamik) means an enclosed, or occupied place, as already stated. The trans- lation in "History of Orange County," from Waseleu, "Light, bright, foaming," is erroneous, as is also the application of the namw to Fall Brook, near the modern village of Huguenot. In no case was the name that of a stream, except by extension to it. Peenpack, (Paan, Paen, Pien, Penn) is given, traditionally, as the name of a "Small knoll or rise of ground, some fifty or sixty rods long, ten wide, and about twenty feet high above the level of" Neversink River, "on and around which the settlers of the Magh- aghkamik Patent first located their cabins." It has been preserved for many generations as the name of what is known as the Peen- pach Valley, the long narrow flats on the Neversink. Apparently it is corrupt Dutch from Paan-pacht, "Low, soft land," or leased land. The same name is met in Paan-paach, Troy, N. Y., and in Penpack, Somerset County, N. J. The places bearing it were primary Dutch settlements on low lands. (See Paanpaach.) Doubt- fully a substitution for Algonquian from a root meaning, "To fall from a height" (Abn., Pa"na; Len. Pange), as in Abn. Pana'^k'i, "Fall of land," the downward slope of a mountain, suggested by the slope of the Shawongunk Mountain range, which here runs southwest to northeast and falls ofif on the west until it meets the narrow flats spoken of. The same feature is met at Troy. Tehannek, traditionally the name of a small stream on the east side of the Peenpack Knoll, probably means "Cold stream," from Ta or Te, "cold," and -hannek, "stream." It is a mountain brook. Sokapach, traditionally the name of a spring in Deerpark, means, "A spring." It is an equivalent of Sokapeek, "A spring or pool." 2 26 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. Neversink, the name quoted as that of the stream flowing to the Delaware at Carpenter's Point, is not a river name. It is a cor- ruption of Lenape Netvds, "A promontory," and -ink, locative, mean- ing "At the promontory," The particular promontory referred to seems to have been what is now known as Neversink Point, in Sullivan County, which rises 3,300 feet. The name is generic and is met in several places, notably in Neversink, N. J. (See Magh- aghkameck.) Seneyaughquan, given as the name of an Indian bridge which crossed the Neversink, may have its equivalent in "Tayachquano, bridge — a dry passage over a stream." (Heckewelder.) The bridge was a log and the location said to have been above the junc- tion of the stream with the Mamacottin. ^aukhekemeck, otherwise Maghawcem, so entered in the Schuy- ler Patent, 1697, apparently refer to one and the same place. The locative has not been ascertained. The patent covered lands now in New Jersey. The tract is described in the patent : "Situated upon a river called Mennissincks, before a certain island called Menagnock, which is adjacent to or near a tract of land called by the natives Maghaghkamek." (See Menagnock.) Warensagskemeck, a tract also conveyed to Arent Schuyler in 1697, described as "A parcel of meadow or vly, adjacent to or near a tract called Maghaghkamek," is probably, by exchange of ;' and / and transpositions, Walenaskameck; Walen, "hollowing, concave"; Walak, hole ; Walcck, a hollow or excavation ; -ask, "Grass" ; -kavieck, an enclosed or limited field ; substantially, "a meadow or vly," ^ as described in the deed. Schakaeckemick, given as the name of a parcel of land on the Delaware described as "lying in an elbow," seems to be an equiva- lent of Schaghach, meaning "Straight," level, flat, and -kamick, a limited field. The tract was given to one William Tietsort, a black- smith, who had escaped from the massacre at Schenectady (Feb. 1689-90), and was induced by the gift to settle among the Minisinks to repair their fire-arms. He was the first European settler on the ^ Vly is a Dutch contraction of Vallei, with the accepted signification, "A swamp or morass ; a depression with water in it in rainy seasons, but dry at other times." A low meadow. Walini, (Eastern), hollowing, concave site. ON IHE DELAWARE. 227 Delaware witfhin the limits of the old county of Orange. He sold the land to one John Decker, and removed to Duchess County. No abstract of title from Decker has been made, and. probably cannot be. Decker's name, however, appears in records as one of the first settlers, in company with William Cole and Solomon Davis, in what was long known as "The Lower Neighborhood" ; in New Jersey annals, "Cole's Fort." The precise location is uncertain. In His- tory of Orange Co. (Ed. 1881, p. 701), it is said: "It is believed that further investigation will show that Tietsort's land was the later Benj. van Vleet place, near Port Jervis." In Eager's "His- tory of Orange County" (p. 396), Stephen St. John is given as the later owner of the original farm of John Decker. Decker's house was certainly in the "Lower Neighborhood." It was palisaded and called a fort. Wihlahoosa, given, locally, as the name of a cavern in the rocks on the side of the mountain, about three miles from Port Jervis, on the east side of Neversink River, is probably from IVihl (Zeisb.), ^'Head," and -hods, "Pot or kettle." The reference may have been to its shape, or its position. In the vicinity of the cavern was an Indian burial ground covering six acres. Skeletons have been un- earthed there and found invariably in a sitting posture. In one grave was found a sheet-iron tobacco-box containing a handker- chief covered with hieroglyphics probably reciting the owner's jachievements. Tomafewks, arrow-heads and other implements have also been found in graves. The place was long known as "Penhausen's Land," from one of the grantors of the deed. The cavern may have had some connection with the burial ground. Walpack, N. J., is probably a corruption of Walpeck, from Walak {JVoalac, Zeisb.), "A hollow or excavation," and -peek, ^'Lake," or body of still water. The idea expressed is probably "Deep water." It was the name of a lake. Mamakating, now so written and preserved in the name of a town in Sullivan County, is written on Sautbier's map Mamecatink as the name of a settlement and Mamacotton as the name of a stream. Other forms are Mamacoting and Mamacocking. The stream bearing the name is now called Basha's Kill, the waters of which find their way to the Delaware, and Mamakating is assigned 228 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. to a hollow. The settlement was primarily a trading" post which gathered in the neighborhood of the Groot Yaugh Hiiys (Dutch, "Great Hunting House"), a large cabin constructed by the Indians for their accommodation when on hunting expeditions,^ and sub- sequently maintained by Europeans for the accommodation of hun- ters and travelers passing over what was known as the "Mamacottin path," a trunk line road connecting the Hudson and Delaware rivers, more modernly known as the "Old Mine Road," which was opened as a highway in 1756. The Hunting House is located on Sauthier's map immediately south of the Sandberg, in the town of Mamak- ating, and more recently, by local authority, at or near what is known as the "Manarse Smith Spring," otherwise as tHe "Great Yaugh Huys Fontaine," or Great Hunting House Spring.^ The meaning of the name is largely involved in the orthography of the sufifix. If the word was -oten it would refer to the trading post or town, as in "Otcnink, in the town" (Heckewelder), and, with the pre'fix Mamak (Mamach, German notation), root Mach, "evil, bad,, naughty" {Mamak, iterative), would describe something that was very bad in the town ; but, if the word was -atin, "Hill or mountain," the name would refer to a place that was at or on a very bad hill. Presumably the hill was the objective feature, the settlement being at or near the Sandberg. There is nothing in the name meaning plain or valley, nor anything "wonderful" about it. Among other features on the ancient path was the wigwam of Tautapan, "a medi- cine man," so entered in a patent to Jacob Rutzen in 1713. Taut- apau (Taupowaw, Powaw), "A priest or medicine man," literally, "A wise speaker." Kau=na=oiig=ga, "Two wings," is said to have been the name of White Lake, Sullivan County, the form of the lake being that of a pair of wings expanded, according to the late Alfred B. Street, the poet-historian, who embalmed the lake in verse years before it be- came noted as a fashionable resort. (See Kong-hong- amok.) ^ Indian Hunting-houses were met in all parts of the country. They were generally temporary huts, but in some cases became permanent. (See Co- checton. ) * Fontaine is French — "A spring of water issuing from the earth." The stream flowing from the spring is met in local history as Fantine Kill. ON THE DELAWARE. 229 "Where the twin branches of the Delaware GHde into one, and in their language call'd Chihocken, or "the meeting of the floods" ;^ the "Willemoc," - and "The Falls of the Mongaup," are also among Street's poetical productions, Shawanoesberg was conferred on a hill in the present town of Mamakating, commemorative of a village of the S'hawanoes who settled here in 1694 on invitation of the Minisinks. (Council Min- utes, Sept. 14, 1692.) Their council-house is said to have been on the summit of the hill. Basha's Land and Basha's Kill, familiar local terms in Sullivan Count}', are claimed to have been so called from a squaw-sachem known as Elizabeth who lived near Westbrookville. "Basha's Land" was one of the boundmarks of the Minisink Patent and Basha's Kill the northeast bound of the Maghaghkemik Patent. Derivation of the name from Elizabeth is not well-sustained.^ The original was probably an equivalent of Bashaba, an Eastern-Algonquian term for "Sagamore of Sagamores," or ruling sachem or king of a nation. It is met of record Bashaba, Betsebe, Bessabe, Bashebe, etc. Hub- bard wrote : "They called the chief rulers, who commanded the ^"Formerly Shohakin or Chehocton." (French's Gaz.) In N. Y. Land Papers, Schohakana is the orthography. Street's translation is a poetical fancy. The name probably refers to a place at the mouth of the northwest or Mohawk Branch of the Delaware, and the northeast or Paghkataghan Branch, at Hancock, Del. Co. ' V/illemoc probably stands for W ilainaiik , "Good fishing-place." There were two streams in the town, one known as the Beaver Kill and the other as the Willnvemack. In Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 699, occurs the entry: "The Beaver Kill or Whitenaughwemack." The date is 1785. The orthography bears evidence of many years' corruption. It may have been shortened tO' Willewemock and Willemoc, and stand for IVilamochk, "Good, rich, beaver." It was, presumably, a superior resort for beavers. ' Basha's Kill was applied to Mamcotten Kill north of the village of Wurtzboro, south of which it retained the name of Mamacotten, as written on Sauthier's map. Quinlan, in his "History of Sullivan County," wrote: "The head- waters of Mamakating River subsequently became known as Elizabeth's Kill, in compliment to Elizabeth Gonsaulus. We could imagine that she was the original Basha, Betje, or Betsey, who owned the land south of the Yaugh House Spring, and gave to the Mamakating stream its present name; but unfortunately she was not born soon enough. Twenty-five years before her family came to Mamakating, 'Basha's land' was mentioned in. official documents.'' It appears in the Minisink Patent in 1704. 230 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. rest, Bashabeas. Bashaba is a title." "Chiefs bearing this title, and exercising the prerogatives of their rank, are frequently spw^ken of by the early voyagers." ^ (Hist. Mag., Second Series, 3, 49.) The lands spoken of were the recognized territorial possession of the chief ruler of the nation or tribe. The "squaw-sachem" ^ may 'have held the title by succession or as the wife of the Bas'haba. Mongaup, given as the name of a stream which constitutes in part the western boundary of Orange County, is entered on Sau- thier's map, "Manga wping or Mangaup." Quinlan (Hist. Sulli- van County) claimed for it also Mingapochka and Mingwing, in- dicating that the stream carried the names of two distinct places. Mongaup is a compression of Dutch Mondgauwpink, meanino^, sub- stantially, "At the mouth of a small, rapid river," for which a local writer has substituted "Dancing feather," which is not in the com- position in any language. Mingapochka (Alg.), appears to be from Mih'n {Mih'nall plural; Zeisb.), "Huckleberry," and -pohoka, "Cleft, clove or valley" — literally, "Huckleberry Valley." Street, writing half a century ago, described the northern approach of the stream as a valley wreathed (poetically) in whortle berries — "In large tempting clusters of light misty blue." The stream rises in the center of Sullivan County and flows to the Delaware. The falls are said to be from sixty to eighty feet in four cascades. (Hist. Sul. Co.) Another writer says: "Three miles above Forestburgh village, the stream falls into a chasm sev- enty feet deep, and the banks above the falls are over one hundred feet high." Meenahga, a modern place-name, is a somewhat remarkable orthography of Mih'n-acki (aghki), "Huckleberry land" or place. Callicoon, the name of a town in Sullivan County, and of a stream, is an anglicism of Kalkcen (Dutch), "Turkey" — "Wilde Kal- kcen, "Wild turkey" — in application, "Place of turkeys." The ' A. S. Gatschet, of the Bureau of Ethnology, wrote me : "The Bashas, Bashebas and Betsebas of old explorers of the coast of Maine, I explain by pe'sks, 'one,' and a'pi, 'man,' or person — 'First man in the land.' " ' Squaw, "Woman," means, literally, "Female animal." Saunk-squd stands for "Sochem's squaw." "The squa-sachem, for so they call the Sachem's wife." (Winslow.) ON THE DELAWARE, 23 1 184 Sacrahung 31 Sa€ut 88 Sagabon-ock 85 Sag- Harbor 85 Saghtekoos 83 Sahkaqua 54 Sam's Point 146 Sanckhaick 65 Sankagag 177 Sankapogh 125 Saponickan 17 Saratoga 180 Saaskahampka 49 Saugerties 162 Saukhenak 47 Schagbticoke ; 65 Schakaec-kemrck 226 Scharon (Schroon) 184 Schenectady 202 Scho'dac 59 Schoharie 207 Schunnemunk 131 Scompamuck 59 Senasqua 29 Senatsycrossy 212 Seneyaughquan 2126 Shannondhoi 204 Shandaken 169 Shappequa 32 Shaupook 53 Shawainoesberg 229 S'hawangunk 140 She'kom'eko 42 Shenandoah 43 Sheepshack 63 Shildrake 27 Shinnec'ock 77 Shokan 165 Shorakkapoch 21 Sickajoock .,.,_. 61 Sickenekas 61 Sicktew-'hacky , 82 Siesk-assin 176 Sing-Sing 27 Siskakes m INDEX. 24* Sint-Sink 95 Skoonnenoghky 123 Skepy Hollow 26 Sohanidisse 215 Sokapach 225 So'was'set 99 Speonk 79 Spuyten Duyvil 21 Stigh'cook 176 Stissing 43 Stoney Point 123 Succabonk 3" Succasunna 104 Sugar-Loaf ^32 Suggamuck 94 Sunquams o4 Taghkanick 52 Tammcesis 29 Tauquashqueick 46 Tappans ^^7 Tawalsentha 13. ^79 Tawarataque I54 Tehannek 225 Tenotoge (Tenotebage) 215 Tenkenas 15 Tete-achkie ^7^ Ticonderoga 7^ Ti-oneenda-hoAye 69 Tionondar-aga 208 Titicus 28 Tomhenack 65 Torne ^ ^7 Tri-States Rock 224 Tuckahoe 27, 84 Tuxedo 1 16 Twastawekah 54 Twischsawkin 140 Tyoshoke 65 Unsheamuck 94 Valatie 59 Van Curler's Journal I93, I94 Vastrix Island 4^ Verkerde Kill I47 Wachanekassick 47 Waichachkeekok 172 Wading River 98 Wahanianesing 39 Wallabout Bay 91 Wallam 41 Wallumsch-ack 64 Walpack 228 Wanaksink 144 Wapemwatsjo 5^ Wappingers' Creek 39 Waragh-kameck 4^ Waranawonkongs 155 Waranecks v • 3^ Waronawanka 155 Warpoes 19 Wassahawassing 167 Wassaic 41 Watchunk 104 Wathoiack . 201 Waumaniuck 34 Wawanaquasik 50 Wawarasinke 166 Wawayanda I34 Waweiantepakook I73 Wawyach.tanock 45 Wechquadnach 42 Wehawken 109 Wehtak 42 Weputing 42 Weque-hackhe 36 Wesegrorap 116 Whalefish Island 63 Wiocopee 36 Wickaposset 99 Wichquapakat 52 Wichquaskeck 24 Wickqu-atenn-honck I44 Wieskottine 17° Wildmeet 161 Wihlahoosa 227 Wildwijk (Wiltwyck) 160 Winegtekonck ^3^ Wishauwemis I43 Woerawin ^37 Wompenanit 74 Wopowag 99 Wyandanch (Sachem) 79 Wynokie 1 15 Wynogkee 4^ Yaphank 80 Yonkers 23 ERRATA. Through an oversight in revising manuscript written several years ago, Narratschoan (page 121) was assigned to the Verdrietig Hoek Mountain. It should have been assigned to Butter Hill, and Klinkersberg should have been assigned to the Donderberg. Klink- ers is from Dutch Klinken, "To sound, to resound." It describes, with the suffic -berg, a hard stone mountain or hill that resounds or echoes — Echo Hill. Narratschoan, the name of Butter Hill, is from Nat, "It is angular, it corners" — "having corners or angles." (Trum- bull.) The letters -atscho stand for -achtschu, Zeisb., -adchu, Natick, "Hill or mountain," and -an is the formative. The combination may- be read, "A hill that forms an angle or corner." To recover the In- dian name of Butter Hill compensates in some degree for oversight referred to. Brodhead (Hist. N. Y., i, 757, note), it will be seen by those who will examine, made the same mistake in locating Klinkersberg that is referred to above. The "Vischer's Rack" or "Fisherman's Bend" was clearly the bend around West Point. The Donderberg, or Klinkersberg is the elevation immediately north of Stony Point. . '*' ^^ ^3^f^* -ay % y^ .0 % ■ .^^ ^°-*^. ° " " « ^^ -4. c> ' *^-\«*'« "°^-- *^,.«* /Jfe'; %„./ .'isSi^'. ■^-^,>* Z^-- ^*- vp<; '^oK '^o^ ^Mjk^ "^.^ ^j V.Q^ 'oK • <^