Part 19

Koghkehaeje, Kachhachinge, Coghsacky, now Coxsackie, a very early place name where it is still retained, was translated by Dr. Schoolcraft from _Kuxakee_ (Chip.), "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 orthography is probably _Koek's-rackie_ (the Cook's Little Reach), to distinguish it from the Koek's Reach below the Highlands, near New York." Unfortunately there is no evidence that 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 1718 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 which 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 Edward Collins, in 1734, the description reads, "Westerly by the high woods known and called by the Indian name Sticktakook." Apparently from Mass. _Mishuntugkook,_ "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 Hoeck," from which it was extended 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 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 Hollow. The suffix _-tuck_ probably stands for "A tidal river or estuary," 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 sometimes called Coeymans' Creek, which enters the Hudson in the northeast corner of Greene County, is Dutch corrupted. The original 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 Helderberg [FN] hills.

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[FN] _Helder_ (Dutch) means "Clear, bright, light, clearly, brightly," and Berg means "hill" or mountain. It was probably employed to express the appearance of the hills in the landscape. Some of the peaks of the range afford fine view of the valley of Hudson's River.

Nepestekoak, a tract of land described, "Beginning at the northernmost fall of water in a certain brook, called by the Indians Nepestekoak"; 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 described 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 Napeesteegtock." The name of the brook and that of the pool is from _Nepé_, "Water," the first describing "Water at rest," a pool or lake, and the second a place adjoining extending to the stream. _Neweskeke_ means "Promontory, point or corner," [FN]

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[FN] This name appears to be a contraction of _Newas-askeg,_ "Marshy promontory,' or a promontory or point near a marsh." (Gerard.)

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 some 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," which 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 succeeded, 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. [FN-1] In addition to 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 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 embankment and the filling of the passage between the island and the main land, the island has nearly disappeared. [FN-2]

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[FN-1] 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 opposite the present steamboat landing at Albany, presumably on the bluff at Greenbush.

[FN-2] The name seems to have been that of the mouth of Norman's Kill immediately 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.)

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 Noordman's mill was in the town of Bethlehem, adjoining the city of Albany. The stream rises in Schenectady County and flows southeast 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 _Toowawsuntha_ (Gallatin), meaning, "The falls of a stream"; _Twasenta_ (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 interest 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 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 tradition, 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 tradition 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 and defensive," which was made was by the English 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 foreland 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, _Naukhu_; Del. _Lechau_), with locative _ûk,_ "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 Cornelis van Dyk, Peter Schuyler, and others, July 26, 1683, as "A tract of land called _Sarachtogoe_" (by the Dutch), "or by the Maquas _Ochseratongue_ or _Ochsechrage,_ and by the Machicanders _Amissohaendiek,_ 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,_ bordering on a kil, on the east side of the river, called _Dionandogeha_ 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," [FN-1] 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 contributive 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 Governor 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 interval 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 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, _Amissohaendiek,_ 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 "because in olden time the lands belonged to them, before the Maquas took it from them." [FN-2] (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 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 German languages. This aspirate is of frequent occurrence in the Iroquois 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 _l_ are interchangeable, and _s_ frequently sounds like _sh._ Thus we can understand how in Cartier's orthography _Oserake_ (pronounced with an aspirate) became _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_ should 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, however, 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 _Amissohaendick_ (whichever it is) I cannot say much, my knowledge of the Algonquin dialects not being sufficient to warrant me in venturing on etymologies. I remark, however, that 'beaver' in Mahican, 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 little doubt but that the Mahican term is practically a translation of the Iroquois name. It certainly begins with 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 syllables, 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 dialects." The district was a part of Ochsaraga, "The beaver-hunting country of the Confederate Indians," conquered by them about 1624. The evolution from _Ochsera-tongue_ (deed of 1683) appears in Serachtogue (Dongan, 1685); Serasteau (contemporary French); Saractoga (Cornbury, 1703); Saratoga (modern). The _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 interesting stream. It has two falls, one of which, near the Hudson, is seventy-five feet and preserves in its modern name, _Dionandoghe,_ its Mohawk name, Ti-oneenda-houwe, for the meaning of which see Hoosick.

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[FN-1] "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 below is disturbed and rageth as in a sea, occasioned by great rocks and great falls therein." (Col. Hist. N. Y., x, 194.)

[FN-2] 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.

Sacondaga, quoted as the name of the west branch of the Hudson, 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 _Sacon_ (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 outlet" or mouth of a river. (Hale.) _Ti-osar-onda,_ met in connection with the stream, means "Branch" 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 celebrated Madam Maintenon of the reign of Louis XVI. (Watson.) 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 Mohawk-Iroquoian name of the stream at one place is of record _At-a-te'ton,_ from _Ganawate^cton_ (Bruyas), meaning "Rapid river," "Swift current." (J. B. N. Hewitt.) A little valley at the junction 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.)