Part 26

Yaphank, Yamphank, etc., a village in Brookhaven, is from Niantic dialect in which _Y_ is used for an initial letter where other dialects employ _L, N_ or _R._ Putting the lost vowel _e_ back in the word, we have _Yapehánek,_ in Lenape _Rapehánek,_ "Where the stream ebbs and flows." The name is written Yampkanke in Indian deed. (Gerard.) The name is now applied to a small tributary of the Connecticut, but no doubt belongs to a place on the Connecticut where the current is affected by the tide. (See Connecticut.)

Monowautuck is quoted as the Indian name of Mount Sinai, a village in the town of Brookhaven, a rough and stony district on what is known as Old Man's Bay, a small estuary surrounded by a salt-marsh meadow. The name seems to be an equivalent of _Nunnawanguck,_ "At the dry land." Old Man's Bay takes that name from the Great Neck called Cataconche, otherwise known as the Old Man's Meadow, and as the Old Field. "The two neckes or hoeces (hooks) of meadow that lieth next beyond the Old Man's Meadow"--"with all ye privileges and appurtenances whatsoever, unto the Old Field." Presumably _Man's_ was originally _Manse_ (English), pronounced _Mans,_ "the dwelling of a landholder with the land attached," and called _Old_ because it was the first land or field purchased. (See Cataconche.)

Connecticut, now so written and of record _Connetquoit,_ etc, is not the name of the stream to which it is applied, but of the land on both sides of it. It is an equivalent of _Quinnituckquet,_ "Long-river land," as in Connecticut. (Trumbull.) _Quinnituk,_ "Long river"; with locative _-et_ or _-it,_ "Land or place on the long-river." The stream is the outlet of Ronkonkoma Lake, and flows south to Fire-place Bay, where the name is of primary record. There were two streams to which it was applied; one is a small stream in Islip, and the other, the largest stream on the island, as described above. In old deeds it is called East Connecticutt. Fire-place is now retained as the name of a village on Bellport Bay, and its ancient locative on the Connecticut is now called South Haven. [FN]

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[FN] There were two places bearing the name of Fire-place, one on the north side of the island on Gardiner's Bay, and one on the south side. The latter is referred to here.

Minasseroke, quoted as the name of Little Neck, town of Brookhaven, probably means "Small-stone land" or place--_Min-assin-ohke, r_ and _n_ exchanged.

Patchogue, Pochough, Pachough, the name of a village in the town of Brookhaven, Suffolk County, on Patchough Bay, is probably met in Pochaug, Conn., which Dr. Trumbull read from _Pohshâog,_ where two streams form one river, signifying, "Where they divide in two." The name was early extended to a clan known as the Pochoughs, later Patchoogues, who seem to have been a family of the Onchechaugs, a name probably the equivalent of _Ongkoué_ (Moh.), "beyond," with _-ogue_ (ohke), "land beyond," _i. e._ beyond the bay. [FN] (See Moriches.)

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[FN] Otherwise written _Unquetauge_--"land lying at Unquetauge, on the south side of Long Island, in the county of Suffolk." Literally, "Land beyond;" "on the further side of; in the same direction as, and further on or away than." _Onckeway,_ a place beyond Stamford, on Connecticut river. (Col. Hist. N. Y.) "_Ongkoué,_ beyond Pequannuc river." (Trumbull.)

Cumsequogue is given in will of William Tangier Smith as the name of what is now known as Carman's River, flowing to Bellport Bay. It is probably a pronunciation of _Accomb-suck-ohke,_ "Land or place at the outlet beyond." The record name of Bellport is Occombomeck, Accobamuck, etc., meaning, "Fishing-place beyond," which, as the deeds show, was a fishing-place at a freshwater pond, now dried up. The name is readily confused with Aquebogue.

Moriches, a neck of land "lying at Unquetague, on the south side of Long Island, being two necks called by ye names of _Mariges_ and _Namanock_" (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 45), is now in the town of Brookhaven. Namanock seems, from the locative, to be a corruption of _Nam'e-ohke,_ "Fish-place"--Namanock or Namecock. (Trumbull.) [FN] _Moriches,_ or _Mariges,_ is a corruption of Dutch _Maritches_ (Morichi, Mariche), from _Moriche Palmita_ (Latin), meaning, in popular use, any plant thought to resemble a palm. _Mauritia_ a species of Mauriticæ, or South-American palm, so called in honor of Prince Maurice of Nassau. (See Palmagat.)

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[FN] _Namaus,_ generic, "a fish"--_Namohs,_ Eliot; _Namés,_ Abn., _Namaes,_ Heck.; _Namees,_ Zeisb.; with suffix _-aki, -ohke,_ etc., "fish-land," place or country. _Améessok,_ Zeisb.; _Anmesooak,_ Abn., _Aumsûog,_ Mass., "small fishes." As a generic suffix, _-ama'ug,_ Mass., _-ama'uk,_ Del., "fishing-place." "_Ama'ug_ is only used at the end of a compound name, where it is equivalent to _Nameaug,_ at the beginning." (Trumbull.) The final syllable, _-ug, -uk,_ etc., is an animate plural. On Long Island, _-Ama'ug_ is frequently met in _-amuck;_ in other places, _-amwack, -amwook, -ameock,_ etc.

Kitchaminchoke, given as the name of a boundmark, said to be Moriches Island, is interpreted by Dr. Tooker, "The beginning place." The description (1630) reads, "Beginning at" a place called, _i. e._ an object or feature which would definitely locate a boundmark--apparently an equivalent of _Schiechi-kiminschi-aki,_ Lenape, "Place of a soft-maple tree." The territory conveyed extended to _Enaughquamuck,_ which Dr. Tooker rendered correctly, "As far as the fishing-place."

Niamug and Niamuck are forms of the name of what is now known as Canoe Place, on the south side of Long Island, near Southampton. "_Niamug,_ the place where the Indians haul over their canoes out of the North Bay to the South Bay." (Deed of 1640.) Dr. Trumbull translated from _Nôe-amuck,_ "Between the fishing places." Local tradition affirms that centuries ago the Indians made a canal here for the purpose of passing their canoes from Mecox Bay to Paconic Bay. Mongotucksee, the hero of the story, was a chieftain who reigned over the Montauks in the days of their pride and power. The tradition has no other merit than the fact that Niamug was a place at which canoes were hauled across the island.

Sicktew-hacky (deed of 1638); _Sicketewackey_ (Van der Donck, 1656): "All the lands from Rockaway eastward to Sicktew-hackey, or Fire Island Bay"; "On the south coast of Long Island, at a place called Sicktewacky, or Secontague, near Fire Island Inlet" (Brodhead); Seaquetauke, 1659; Setauck Neck, the south bound of St. George's Manor, now Manorville; of record as the name of an Indian clan and village near Fire Island Inlet, with the Marsapinks and Nyacks for neighbors; now preserved in several forms of which Setauket probably locates a place near Secontague. _Sicketeuhacky,_ writes Mr. Gerard, "is the Lenape equivalent of _Secatogue,_ meaning 'Burned-over land.' Whether the mainland or Fire Island was the 'Burned-over land,' history does not tell us." Lands were burned over by the Indians to destroy the bushes and coarse grasses, and probably some field of this character was referred to by the Indian grantors, from which the name was extended to the Neck and to Fire Island, although it is said that fires were kindled on the island for the guidance of fishermen.

Saghtekoos--"called by the native Indians Saghtekoos; by the Christians Appletree Neck"--the name of the Thompson estate in Islip--probably means, "Where the stream branches or divides," or "At the branch," referring to Thompson's brook. The suffix _-oos_ evidently stands for "small." (See Sohaghticoke.) "Apple-tree Neck" is not in the composition, but may indicate that the Indian owners had planted apple trees there.

Amagansett, the Indian name of what is now East Hampton, was translated by Dr. Trumbull, "At or near the fishing place"; root _Am,_ "to take by the mouth"; _Amau,_ "he fishes"; Abn., _Amaⁿgaⁿ,_ "_ou péche lá,_" "he fishes there," (Rasles); _s,_ diminutive or derogatory; _ett,_ "Near or about," that is, the tract was near a small or inferior fishing-place, which is precisely what the composition describes.

Peconic, now so written and applied to Peconic Bay and Peconic River, but primarily to a place "at the head of the river," or as otherwise described, "Land from ye head of ye bay or Peaconnack, was Shinnec'ock Indians' Land" (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiv, 600), is not the equivalent of _Peqan'nuc,_ "a name common to all cleared land," as translated by Dr. Trumbull, but the name given as that of a small creek tributary to Peconic River, in which connection it is of record _Pehick-konuk,_ which, writes Mr. Gerard, "plainly stands for _K'pe-hickonuk,_ or more properly _Kĕpehikanik,_ 'At the barrier,' or weir. _Kĕpehikan_ from _Kepehike,_ 'he closes up,' or obstructs, _i. e._ 'dams.'" The bounds of the Shinnec'ock Indians extended east to this stream; or, as the record reads, "To a river where they did use to catch the fish commonly called alewives, the name of which creek was Pehickkonuk, or Peconic." (Town Records.)

Agwam, Agawam, is quoted by French as the name of Southampton, L. I. Dr. Trumbull wrote: "Acawan, Agawan or Auquan, a name given to several localities in New England Where there are low meadows--a low meadow or marsh." Presumably from _Agwu,_ "Underneath, below." Another authority writes: "_Agawam_ from _Magawamuk,_ A great fishing place." (See Machawameck.)

Sunquams is given by French as the Indian name of Mellville in Southampton, L. I., with the interpretation, "Sweet Hollow." The interpretation is mere guess-work.

Massaback, a hill so called in Huntington, Suffolk County--in English "Half hill," and in survey (1703) "Half-hollow hill"--probably does not belong to the hill which the English described as "half-hollow," but to a stream in proximity to it--_Massabeset,_ "At a (relatively) great brook." (Trumbull.)

Mattituck, the name of a village in Southold, near the west end of the town, was primarily written as that of a tract of land including the present town of Riverhead, from which it was extended to a large pond between Peconic Bay and the Sound. Presumably the same name is met in Mattatuck, Ct., written Matetacoke, 1637, Matitacoocke, 1673, which was translated by Dr. Trumbull from Eliot's _Mat-uh'tugh-auke,_ "A place without wood," or badly wooded. (See Titicus.)

Cutchogue, Plymouth Records, 1637; "_Curchaug,_ or Fort Neck;" _Corch'aki,_ deed of 1648; now Cutchogue, a village in Southold, in the vicinity of which was an Indian fort, the remains of which and of an Indian burial ground are objects of interest, is probably a corruption of _Maskutchoung,_ which see. Dr. Tooker translated from _Kehti-auke,_ "The principal place," the appositeness of which is not strikingly apparent. The clan bearing the name was party to the treaty with the Massachusetts people in 1637, and to the sale of the East Hampton lands. Their earliest sachem was Momoweta, who acknowledged the primacy of Wyandanch.

Tuckahoe, a level tract of land near Southampton village, takes that name from one or the other of the larger "round" roots (Mass. _P'tuckweōō_), possibly the Golden Club, or Floating Artmi, a root described "as much of the bigness and taste of potatoes." (Trumbull.) [FN] The same name is met in Westchester County.

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[FN] Dr. Brinton writes: "They also roasted and ate the acrid cormus of the Indian turnip, in Delaware _taw-ho, taw-hin_ or _tuck-ah,_ and collected the seeds of the Golden Club, common in the pools along the creeks and rivers. Its native name was _taw-kee._" ("The Lenape and their Legends.") The name of another place on Long Island, written _Hogonock,_ is probably an equivalent of Delaware _Hóbbenac_ (Zeisb.), "Potatoes," or "Ground-nuts"; _Hóbbenis,_ "Turnips." (See Passapenoc.)

Sagabonock has left only the remnant of its name to Sag-pond and Sag-harbor. It is from _Sagabonak,_ "Ground nuts, or Indian potatoes." (Trumbull.) The name is of record as that of a boundmark "two miles from the east side of a Great Pond," and is described as a "pond or swamp" to which the name of the tuber was extended from its product.

Ketchepunak, quoted as the name of Westhampton, describes "The greatest ground-nut place," or "The greatest ground-nuts." (See Kestaubniuk.)

Wequaganuck is given as the name of that part of Sag-harbor within the town of East Hampton. It is an equivalent of _Wequai-adn-auke,_ "Place at the end of the hill," or "extending to the hill." (Trumbull.) The hill is now known as Turkey Hill, on the north side of which the settlement of Sag-harbor was commenced.

Namke, from _Namaa,_ "fish," and _ke,_ "place"--fish-place--was the name of a place on the creek near Riverhead. (O'Gallaghan.) More exactly, _Nameauke,_ probably.

Hoppogues, in Smithtown, Suffolk County, is pretty certainly from _Wingau-hoppague,_ meaning, literally, "Standing water of good and pleasant taste." The name was that of a spring and pond. In a deed of 1703, the explanation is, "Or ye pleasant springs." Supposed to have been the springs which make the headwaters of Nissequogue river at the locality now bearing the name of Hauppauge, a hamlet.

Massapeage--_Massapeag,_ 1636; _Massapeague, Rassapeage_--a place-name from which extended to an Indian clan whose principal seat is said to have been on Fort Neck, in the town of Oyster Bay, was translated by Dr. Trumbull from _Massa,_ "great"; _pe,_ the radical of water, and _auke,_ "land," or "Land on the great cove." Thompson (Hist. L. I.) assigns the name to "a swamp on the south side of Oyster Bay," now South Oyster Bay, and it is so applied in Indian deeds. There were two Indian forts or palisaded towns on the Neck. Of one the name is not given; it was the smallest of the two; its site is said to be now submerged by water. The second, or largest, is called in Dutch records _Matsepe,_ "Great river." It is described as having been situated on the most southerly point of land adjoining the salt meadows. Both forts were attacked by Dutch forces under Capt. Pieter Cock and Capt. John Underhill, in the summer of 1644 (a local record says August) and totally destroyed with heavy loss to the Indians. (Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv, 15, 16.) In Prime's and other local histories the date is given as 1653, on the authority of "Hubbard's Indian Wars," and Capt. Underhill is assigned to the command in the attack on the largest fort. The official Dutch record, however, assigns that honor to Capt. Pieter Cock. The year was surely 1644, (Brodhead's Hist. N. Y., i, 91.) The prefix _Mass,_ appears in many forms--Massa, Marsa, Marsha, Rassa, Mesa, Missi, Mas, Mes, etc., and also _Mat,_ an equivalent of _Mas._

Massepe, quoted in Dutch records as the name of the Indian fort on Fort Neck, where it seems to have been the name of Stony Brook, is also met in Jamaica Records (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiv, 505) as the name of a creek forming a mowing boundary or division line extending from a certain place "Eastward to ye great creek called Massepe." The name is fully explained by the description, "Great creek." _Massepe-auke_ means "Great creek (or river) land," or place; _Mas-sepe-ink,_ "At or on the great creek." The Indian residents came to be known as the Marsepincks.

Maskutchoung, a neck of land so called forming one of the boundaries of Hempstead Patent as entered in confirmatory deed of "Takapousha, sachem of Marsapeage," and "Wantagh, the Montauke sachem," July 4th, 1657: "Beginning at a marked tree standing at the east side of the Great Plain, and from thence running on a due south line, and at the South Sea by a marked tree in a neck called Maskutchoimg, and thence upon the same line to the South Sea." (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiv, 38, 416.) "By a marked tree in a neck called Maskachoung." (Thompson's Hist. L. I., 9, 15, 47.) It is probably an equivalent of _Mask-ek-oug,_ "A grassy swamp or marsh." A local interpretation reads: "Grass-drowned brook," a small stream flowing through the long marsh-grass, to which the name was extended.

Maskahnong, so written by Dr. O'Callaghan in his translation of the treaty between the Western Long Island clans, in 1656, is noted in "North and South Hempstead Records," p. 60, "A neck of land called Maskahnong." It disappears after 1656, but probably reappears as Maskachoung in 1658, and later as Maskutchoung, which see.

Merick, the name of a village in Hempstead, Queens County, is said to have been the site of an Indian village called _Merick-oke._ It has been interpreted as an apheresis of a form of _Namanock,_ written _Namerick,_ "Fish place." (See Moriches.) Curiously enough, Merrick was a proper name for man among the ancient Britons, and the corruption would seem to have been introduced here by the early English settlers from resemblance to the Indian name in sound. The place is on the south side of the island. The Indian clan was known as the Merickokes.

Quantuck, a bay so called in Southampton, is of record, in 1659, _Quaquanantuck,_ and applied to a meadow or neck of land. "The meadow called Quaquunantuck"--"the neck of land called Quaquanantuck"--"all the meadows lying west of the river, commonly called or known by the name of Quantuck." One of the boundmarks is described as "a stumpy marsh," indicating that it had been a marsh from which the trees had been removed. The name seems to correspond with this. It is probably from _Pohqu'un-antack,_ "cleared or open marsh" or meadow. (See Montauk.)

Quogue, the name of a village near Quantuck Bay, and located, in Hist. Suffolk County, as "the first point east of Rockaway where access can be had to the ocean without crossing the bay," has been read as a contraction of Quaquaunantuck, but seems to be from _Pŏque-ogue,_ "Clear, open space," an equivalent of _Pŏque-auke,_ Mass.

Rechqua-akie, De Vries; _Reckkouwhacky,_ deed of 1639; now applied to a neck on the south side of Long Island and preserved in Rockaway, was interpreted by the late Dr. E. B. O'Callaghan: "_Reck_ 'sand'; _qua,_ 'flat'; _akie,_ 'land'--the long, narrow sand-bar now known as Rockaway Beach," but is more correctly rendered with dialectic exchange of R and L, _Lekau._ (Rekau), "sand or gravel," _hacki,_ "land" or place. (Zeisb.) "Flats" is inferred. A considerable division of the Long Island Indians was located in the vicinity, or, as described by De Vries, who visited them in 1643, "near the sea-shore." He found thirty wigwams and three hundred Indians, who were known in the treaty of 1645, as Marechkawicks, and in the treaty of 1656 as Rockaways. [FN]

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[FN] The names in the treaty of 1645, as written by Dr. O'Callaghan, are "Marechkawicks, Nayecks, and their neighbors"; in the treaty of 1656, "Rockaway and Canorise." The latter name appears to have been introduced after 1645 in exchange for Marechkawick. (See Canarise.) _Rechqua_ is met on the Hudson in Reckgawaw-onck, the Haverstraw flats. It is not an apheresis of Marechkawick, nor from the same root.

Jamaica, now applied to a town, a village and a bay, was primarily given to the latter by the English colonists. "Near unto ye beaver pond called Jamaica," and "the beaver path," are of record, the latter presumably correct. The name is a pronunciation of _Tomaque,_ or _K'tamaque,_ Del., _Amique,_ Moh., "beaver." "_Amique,_ when aspirated, is written _Jamaique,_ hence Yameco, Jamico, and modern Jamaica." (O'Callaghan.) The bay has no claim to the name as a beaver resort, but beavers were abundant in the stream flowing into it.

Kestateuw, "the westernmost," _Castuteeuw,_ "the middlemost," and _Casteteuw,_ "the eastermost," names of "three flats on the island Sewanhackey, between the bay of North river and the East river." The tracts came to be known as Flatlands; "the easternmost," as "the Bay," or Amesfort.

Sacut, now known as Success Pond, lying on a high ridge in Flushing, is a corruption of _Sakûwit_ (_Sáquik_), "Mouth of a river" (Zeisb.), or "where the water flows out." The pond has an outlet, but it rarely overflows. It is a very deep and a very clear body of water.

Canarsie, now so written and applied to a hamlet in the town of Flatlands, Kings County, is of record _Canari See, Canarisse, Canarise, Canorise_ (treaty of 1655), _Kanarisingh_ (Dutch), and in other forms, as the name of a place or feature from which it was extended to an Indian sub-tribe or family occupying the southwest coast of Long Island, and to their village, primarily called _Keshaechquereren_ (1636). On the Lower Potomac and Chesapeake Bay the name is written _Canais, Conoys, Ganawese,_ etc. (Heck, xlii), and applied to a sub-tribe of Naniticokes residing there who were known as "The tide-water people," or "Sea-shore settlers." On Delaware Bay it is written _Canaresse_ (1651, not 1656 as stated by Dr. Tooker), and applied to a specific place, described in exact terms: "To the mouth of the bay or river called Bomptjes Hoeck, in the Indian language _Canaresse._" (Col. Hist. N. Y. xii, 166.) "Bomptjes Hoeck" is Dutch and in that language describes a low island, neck or point of land covered with small trees, lying at the mouth of a bay or stream, and is met in several connections. The point or place described on the Delaware (now Bombay Hook) was the end of the island, known on old maps as "Deep Point," and the "Hook" was the bend in the currents around it forming the marshy inlet-bay on the southwest connecting with a marshy channel or stream, and the latter on the north with a small stream by which the island was constituted. Considered from the standpoint of an Algonquian generic term, the rule is undisputed that the name must have described a feature which existed in common at the time of its application, on the Delaware and on Long Island, and it only remains to determine what that feature was. Obviously the name itself solves the problem. In whatever form it is met it is the East Indian _Canarese_ (English _Can'a-resé_) pure and simple, and obviously employed as a substitute for the Algonquian term written _Ganawese,_ etc., of the same meaning. In the "History of New Sweden" (Proc. N. Y. Hist. Soc, 2d Ser. v. i.), the locative on the Delaware is described: "From Christina Creek to _Canarose_ or _Bambo_ Hook." In "Century Dictionary" _Bambo_ is explained: "From the native East Indian name, Malay and Java _bambu_, Canarese _banbu_ or _bonwu._" Dr. Brinton translated _Ganawese_ from _Guneu_ (Del.), "Long," but did not add that the suffix--_wese,_ or as Roger Williams wrote it, _quese,_ means "Little, small," the combination describing Bambo grasses, _i. e._ "long, small" grasses, which, in some cases reach the growth of trees, but on Long Island and on the Delaware only from long marsh grasses to reeds, as primarily in and around Jamaica Bay and Gowanus Bay, on Reed Island, etc. True, Ganawese would describe anything that was "long, small," but obviously here the objective product. Canarese, Canarose, Kanarische, Ganawese, represent the same sound-"in (East) Indian, Canaresse," as represented in the first Long Island form, Canari See, now Jamaica Bay.

Keschaechquereren, (1636), _Keschaechquerem_ (1637), the name of the settlement that preceded Canarese, disappears of record with the advent of the English on Barren Island and at Gravesend soon after 1637-8. It seems to describe a "Great bush-net fishing-place," from K'sch-achquonican, "Great bush-net." (Zeisb.), the last word from _Achewen,_ "Thicket"; from which also _t' Vlact Bosch_ (Dutch), modern Flatbush. The Indian village was between the Stroome (tidewater) Kil and the Vresch Kil, near Jamaica.