Part 20
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. [FN-1] The highest lakelet-head sources, however, are noted in Verplanck Colvin's survey of the Adirondack region as Lake Moss and Lake Tear-of-the-clouds on Mount Marcy, [FN-2] 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 Falls the stream sweeps, in tortuous course with a wealth of rapids, eastward among the lofty hills of the Luzerne [FN-3] 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 cliffs 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 petrifaction 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 tiotkon,_ The demon takes the figure of a snake." (Bruyas.) Under the rock is a cave over which the serpent lies as a keeper, extending from one channel to the other and which, as well as the snake, comes down to us embalmed in Cooper's "Last of the Mohegans," though some visitors with clear heads have failed to discover 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 pursues 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 valley 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 which 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 high sandy plain. It has its traditionary Indian story, of course; in this section of country it is easy to coin traditions of the wars of the Mohawks, the Hurons, and the Algonquians; they interest but do not harm any one.
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[FN-1] 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 perpendicular 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.
[FN-2] By Colvin's survey Mount Marcy has an elevation of 5,344.411 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.
[FN-3] French, "Spanish Trefoil." "Having a three-lobed extremity or extremities, as a cross." Botanically, plants having three leaves, as white clover, etc. Topographically, a mountain having three points or extremities.
Kay-au-do-ros-sa (modern), _Kancader-osseras, Kanicader-oseras_ (primary), the name given as that of a stream of water, of a district of country, and of a range of mountains, was originally the name of the stream now known as Fish Creek, [FN] the outlet of Saratoga Lake, and signifies, literally, "Where the lake mouths itself out." Horatio Hale wrote me: "Lake, in Iroquois, is, in the 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), _Osara,_ mouth of a river, 'boudhe d'un fleure, embouchure d'une riviere.' This word combined would give either _Kauicatarosa_ or _Kaniatarossa,_ with the meaning of 'Lake mouth,' applicable to the mouth of a lake, or rather, according to the verbalizing habit of the language, 'the place where the lake disembogues,' literally, 'mouths itself out.'" To which J. B. N. Hewitt added the explanation, "Or flood-lands of the lake--the overflow of the lake."
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[FN] "About Kayaderossres Creek and the lakes in that quarter." "The chief tract of hunting land we have left, called Kayaderossres, with a great quantity of land about it." (Doc. Hist. N. Y., ii, 110.) The stream drains an extensive 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.
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 which had come to be of general application to a group of tribes speaking radically the same language. [FN-1] The term is understood to mean, "They eat trees," _i. e._ people Who eat the bark of certain trees for food, presumably from the climatic difficulty in raising corn in the latitude in which they lived. [FN-2] Horatio Hale analyzed the name: "From _Adi,_ 'they'; _aronda,_ 'tree,' and _ikeks,_ 'eat.'" The name was not that of the district, nor is it convertible with _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 interpretation from the Chippewa, "_Odis-qua-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 interpretation, "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 _Canagariarchio_, the former entered 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 _Kohserake_ (modern), and signifies "Winter" or "Winter land"; but the older name, _Cana-gariarc-hio,_ means, "The beaver-hunting country." [FN-3] It is not expected that this explanation will affect the continuance, by conference, of _Adirondacks_ as the name of the district; but it may lead to the replanting of the much more expressive Iroquoian title, _Kohsarake,_ on some hill-top in the ancient wilderness.
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[FN] The specific tribe called Algonquins by the French, were seated, in 1738, near Montreal, 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.) It is claimed that they were principally Ottawas, residing on the Ottawa River. (Schoolcraft.) The primary location of the language is only measurably involved in the first application of the name, the honor being claimed for the Chippewa, the Cree, and the Lenni-Lenape. The Eastern Algonquins substituted for the Iroquois Adirondacks, _Mihtukméchaick_ (Williams) with the same meaning.
[FN-2] The bark of the chestnut, the walnut, and of other trees was dried, macerated, 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.
[FN-3] "_Coughsaghrage,_ or the Beaver-Hunting Country of the Confederate Indians. 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 unknown 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 Iroquois word _Kanna'kari-kario,_ which means simply 'Beaver.' It is a descriptive 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 _Tsionuito,_ or _Djonuito._ That the word should be understood to mean 'The Beaver-Hunting Country,' is in accordance with Indian usage."
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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 possessions; to them it was the _O-hyoⁿhi-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 them by their Algonquian enemies, as explained by Roger Williams, who wrote in 1646, "_Mohowaug-suck,_ or _Mauquawog,_ 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," Which 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-producing qualities of the flint, which was certainly known to them and to other Indian nations [FN-1] in pre-historic times. When the flint and steel were introduced to them they added the latter to their emblem, generally delineated it on all papers of national importance, 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 springing from their ancient emblem. The Delawares called them _Sank-hikani,_ [FN-2] or "The fire-striking 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 Heckewelder, "A fire-lock," and by Zeisberger, "A fire-steel."
The French called them _Agnié_ and _Agniérs,_ presumably derived from _Canienga_ (Huron, _Yanyenge_). The Dutch called them _Mahakuas_, by contraction _Maquaas,_ from Old Algonquian _Magkwah_ (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 type of the nation. They were divided in three ruling totemic tribes, the Tortoise (_Anowara_), the Bear (_Ochquari_), and the Wolf (_Okwaho_), and several sub-tribes, as the Beaver, the Elk, the Serpent, the Porcupine, and the Fox, as shown by deeds of record, of which 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, Schanatisse,_ and _t' Jonnontego._ In the recently recovered Journal of a trip to the Mohawk country, by Arent van Curler, in the winter of 1634-5, the names are _Ouekagoncka, Ganagere, Sohanidisse,_ and _Tenotoge_ or _Tenotogehooge._ 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, the name of the first _Assarue,_ the second _Banigiro,_ and the last _Thenondiago._ 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 _Caneray_ (Van der Donck's _Carenay_), and the second, _Canagera._ [FN-3] 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 Mohawks, wrote: "They arrived at their first small village, called _Oneugiouré,_ formerly _Osserrion._" (Relations, 29: 51), showing very clearly that those two names referred to one and the same castle. What _Oneugiouré_ stands for certainly, cannot be stated, though it seems to read easily from _Ohnaway_ (Cuoq), "Current, swift river," indicating that it may have referred to the long rapids. [FN-4] 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 _Osserueñon, 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 Creek "where it falls into Mohawk's river." (See Oghracke.) As generic terms, however, 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 second, that of the 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 Schenectady paper of the same year the names of two sachems are subscribed who acted "for themselves" and as "the representatives of ye four Mohock's castles." The French invaded the valley in 1666, and burned all the castles of the early period, and the tribes retreated 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 third, in their ancient order as Greenhalgh found them in 1677. The French destroyed them again in 1693, [FN-5] and the tribes returned to and rebuilt on the south side of the river in proximity to their ancient 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 [FN-6]that much was known concerning them prior to 1642-44, when the Jesuit missionaries and the Dutch minister at Fort Orange, Rev. Megapolensis, went into the field. Van Curler'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 which 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 the 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 when he was entering the gates, a messenger arrived who brought news that a warrior and his comrades were returning victorious, bringing twenty Abanaqois prisoners. Behold 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 "Demons 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 several of them did. The conflict of 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 off to Canada and became zealous partisans 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 "barbarians" 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 effectually 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--the _Ougwe-howe,_ the "real men" of the Mohawk Valley.