Part 28

Mannhonake, the name of Gardiner's Island--"called by the Indians Mannhonake, [FN] and by us the Isle of Wight"--means, "Island 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, it was recommended, in 1650, as offering rare inducements for settlement, "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 was 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.

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[FN] _Manchonacke_ is the orthography in patent to Lion Gardiner, 1639. (Doc. Hist. N. Y., i, 685.) Dr. Trumbull quotes _Manchonat,_ Narragansett.

Manah-ackaquasu-wanock, given as the name of Shelter Island, is a composition of two names, as shown by the record entry, "All that their island of _Ahaquasu-wamuck,_ otherwise called _Manhansack._" _Ahaquasu-wamuck_ is no doubt the equivalent of _Aúhaquassu_ (Nar.), "Sheltered," and _-amuck_ is an equivalent of _amaug,_ "Fishing-place," literally, "Sheltered fishing-place." _Menhansack_ is _Manhansick_ in deed of 1652, and _Munhassett_ and _Manhasett_ in prior deed of 1640. (East-Hampton Records.) It is a composition from _Munnohan,_ "Island;" _es,_ "small," and _et,_ "at" and describes a small island as "at" or "near" some other island. The compound _Manah-ahaquasu-wanock,_ means, therefore, simply, "Sheltered-fishing-place island," identifying the island by the fishing-place, while _Manhasett_ identifies it in generic terms as a small island near some other island or place. [FN] The island now bears the generic terms _Manhasett._ Pogatacutt, sachem of the island, is supposed to have lived on what is now known as "Sachem's Neck." (See Montauk.)

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[FN] Perhaps explained by the entry, "Roberts' Island, situate near Manhansack." (Records, Town of East-Hampton.)

Manises, or _Menasses,_ as written by Dr. Trumbull, the name of Block Island, means, literally, "Small island," just as an Englishman 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 to what is better known as the "Carte Figurative of 1614-16." There is no better evidence that this Figurative was from Block's chart than its presumed date and the orthographies of the names written on it.

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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, _Newasons_ by Ogilby, 1671, and more generally in early records Naver, Neuver, Newe, and Naoshink. The original was no doubt the Lenape Newas-ink, "At the point, comer, or promontory." The root _Ne_ (English _Nâï_), means, "To come to a point," "To form a point," or, as rendered by Dr. Trumbull, "A corner, angle or point," _Nâïag._ Dr. Schoolcraft's translation, "Between waters," and Dr. O'Callaghan'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 settlement there, and part from _Amboy_ (English _Ambo_), 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: "_Ambo_, in Indian, 'A point;'" but there is no such word as _Ambo,_ meaning "A point," in any Indian dialect. Heckewelder's interpretation: "_Ompoge,_ from which _Amboy_ is derived, and also _Emboli,_ means 'A bottle,' or a place resembling a bottle," is equally erroneous, although _Emboli_ may easily have been an Indian pronunciation of Amboy. The Indian deed of 1651 reads, "From the Raritan Point, called _Ompoge,_" which may be read from _Ompaé,_ Alg. generic, "Standing or upright," of which _Amboy,_ English, is a fair interpretation.

Raritangs (Van Tienhoven), _Rariton_ (Van der Donck), _Raretans, Raritanoos, Nanakans,_ etc., a stream flowing to tide-water west of Staten Island, extended to the Indian sub-tribal organization which occupied the Raritan Valley, is from the radical _Nâï,_ "A point," as in Naragan, Naraticon, Narrangansett, Nanakan, Nahican, etc., fairly traced by Dr. Trumbull in an analysis of Narragansett, and apparently conclusively established in Nanakan and Narratschoen on the Hudson, the Verdrietig Hoek, or "Tedious Point," of Dutch notation, where, 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 New England _Nayantukq-ut,_ "A point on a tidal river," and Raritan was the point of the peninsula 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 mutes _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 Brunswick, N. J., 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 which 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 behold." The great southern trunk-line Indian path led through this valley, and was then, as it is now, the great route of travel between the northern and 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, whose chiefs called themselves Oringkes from Orange." _Oringkes_ seems to be a form of _Owinickes,_ from _Owini,_ N. J. (_Inini,_ Chip., _Lenni,_ Del.), meaning "Original, pure," etc., and _-ke,_ "country"--literally, "First or original people of the country," an interpretation which agrees with the claim of the Indians generally when speaking of themselves. [FN] _Orange_ is _Oranje,_ Dutch, pure and simple, but evidently introduced to represent the sound of an Indian word. What 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 _W'scha-já-won-ge,_ "On the hill side," or "On the side of a hill." (Zeisb.) Awonge, Auronge, Oranje, Orange, is an intelligible progression, and, in connection with "from Orange," indicates the location of a village or the side of a hill, which the chiefs represented.

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[FN] Dr. D. G. Brinton wrote me "I believe you are right in identifying _Oringkes_ with _Owine_--possibly with locative _k._"

Succasunna, Morris County, N. J., is probably from _Sûkeu,_ "Black," and _-achsün,_ "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 _Achquam'kan-ong,_ "Bushnet fishing place." Zeisberger wrote "_Achquanican,_ a fish dam." The locative was a point of land formed 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 prevent their return to the sea. (Nelson.)

Watchung (Wacht-unk, Del.) is from _Wachtschu_ (Zeisb.), "Hill or mountain," and _-unk,_ locative, "at" or "on." _Wachtsûnk,_ "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; _Hackinghsackin, Hackinkesack_ (1660); _Hackensack_ (1685); _Ackinsack, Hockquindachque; 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 Indian sachem, or, as Van Tienhoven wrote, "A certain savage chief, named Haickquinsacq." (Breeden Raedt.) The most satisfactory interpretation of the name is that suggested by the late Dr. Trumbull: "From _Huckquan,_ Mass., _Hócquaan,_ Len., 'Hook,' and _sauk,_ 'mouth of a river'--literally, 'Hook-shaped mouth,' descriptive of the course of the stream around Bergen Point, by the Kil van Kull, [FN-1] to New York Bay." Campanus wrote _Hócküng,_ "Hook," and Zeisberger, _Hócquaan._ [FN-2] The German _Hacken,_ now Hackensack, means "Hook," as in German _Russel Hacken,_ "Pot-hook," a hook incurved at both ends, as the letter S; in Lenape _Hócquoan_ (Zeisb.). Probably simply a substitution.

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[FN-1] Before entering New York Harbor, Hudson anchored his ship below the Narrows and sent out an exploring party in a boat, who entered the Narrows and ascended as far as Bergen Point, where they encountered a second channel which they 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 [Indians] of Hackingsack, otherwise called Achter Col." (Journal of New Neth., 1641-47, 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. _Kul_ and _Kull_ are corruptions of _Col._ _Arthur Kull_ is now applied to Newark Bay.

[FN-2] Heckewelder wrote "_Okhúcquan, Woâkhucquoan,_ or short _Húcquan_ 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 _Hócküng_ (_ueug_), "Hook." This sound of the word may have led the Dutch to adopt _Hackingh_ as an orthography--modern _Haking,_ "Hooking," incurved as a hook.

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, Aresseck, 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 Konstabel's Hoek, and later to the site of the ancient Dutch village of Gamœnapa, as written by De Vries in 1640, and by the local scribes, Gamœnapaen. [FN] (Col. Hist. N. Y. xiii, 36, 37.) Dunlap (Hist. N. Y., i, 50) claimed the name as Dutch from _Gemeente,_ "Commons, public property," and Paen, "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." _Gamœnapaug,_ one of the forms of the name, is quoted as the basis of this claim; also, _Acomunipag,_ "On the other side of the bay." The Dutch did substitute _paen_ for _paug_ in some cases, but it is very doubtful if they did here.

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[FN] 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."

Ahasimus--_Achassemus_ in deed to Michael Pauw, 1630--now preserved in Harsimus, was a place lying west of the "Little Island, Aressick;" later described as "The corn-land of the Indians," indicating that the name was from Lenape _Chasqummes_ (Zeisb.), "Small corn." _Ashki'muis,_ "Sea maize." [FN] (See Arisheck.)

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[FN] "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."

Bergen, the name of the third settlement, is met in Scandinavian 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), called 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 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 established 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 Island 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 _Kaniskeck,_ "A long grassy marsh or meadow."

Hoboken, now so written--_Hobocan-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 therein by them stated, "By us called Hobocan-Hacking." Primarily it was applied to the low promontory [FN-1] below Castle Point, [FN-2] 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." (Winfield's Hist. Hudson Co.; Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 2, 3, 4.) In "Freedoms and Exemptions," 1635; "But every one is notified that the Company reserves, unto itself the Island Manhates; Fort Orange, with the lands and islands appertaining thereto; Staten Island; the land of Achassemes, Arassick and Hobokina." 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 Hobocan-Hacking is located by Whitehead (Hist. East N. J.) immediately north of Hobokan Kill and called _Hobuk._ Smith, in his "History of New Jersey," wrote _Hobuck,_ 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." [FN-3] (Col. Hist. N. Y., xii, 98.) The deed statement, "By us named," is explicit, and obviously implies 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, [FN-4] and after a high elevation on its north side. _Ho-,_ _hoh-,_ is the radical of 'high' in all German dialects, and _Buck_ is 'elevation' in most of them. _Buckel_ (Germ.), _Bochel_ (Dutch), means 'hump,' 'hump-back.' _Hump_ (Low German) is 'heap,' 'hill.' _Ho-bok-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 Manhattan, about 1655, one Harmon van Hobocoon, 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.

_Hacking_ and _Haken_ are unquestionably Dutch from the radical _Haak,_ "hook." The first is a participle, meaning _Hooking,_ "incurved as a hook," by metonymie, "a hook." It was used in that sense by the early Dutch as a substitute for Lenape _Hócquan,_ "hook," in Hackingsack, and Zeisberger used it in "_Ressel 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 what he understood the terms to mean. To assume that he wrote the terms as a substitute for Lenape _Hopoakan-hacki-ug,_ "At (or on) the smoking-pipe land." or place where materials were obtained for making smoking-pipes, has no warrant in the record narrative. _Hacking_ was dropped from the name in 1635.

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[FN-1] An ancient view of the shore-line represents it as a considerable elevation--a hill.

[FN-2] Castle Point is just below Wehawken Cove in which Hudson is supposed to have anchored his ship in 1609. In Juet's Journal this land is described 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.

[FN-3] Teunissed van Putten was the first white resident of Hoboken. He leased the land for twelve years from Jan. 1, 1641. The West India Company was to erect a small house for him. Presumably this house is referred to in the narrative. It was north of Hoboken Kill.

[FN-4] Now a commercial village of Belgium. The prevailing dialect spoken there was Flemish, usually classed as Low German. The Low German dialects of three centuries ago are imperfectly represented in modern orthographies. In and around Manhattan eighteen different European dialects were spoken, as noted of record--Dutch, Flemish, German, Scandinavian, Walloon, etc.

Wehawken and Weehawken, as now written, is written _Awiehaken_ in deed by Director Stuyvesant, 1658-9. Other orthographies 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 historically noted for its association with the ancient custom of 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 Adriaensen, of "A piece of land called Awiehaken, situate on the west side of the North River, bounded on the south by Hoboken Kil, and running thence north to the next kil, and towards the woods with the same breadth, altogether fifty morgens of land." [FN] (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 southernmost cliffs of Tappaen and Ahasimus, at a place called Wiehake." (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 98.) The petition was by Samuel Bayard, who then owned the land on both sides of Wiehacken Creek, for a ferry charter covering the passage "Between the southernmost cliffs of Tappaen and New York Island, at a place called Wiehake," the landing-place of which was established at or near the mouth of Awiehacken Creek just below what is now known as King's Point. Of the location generally Winfield (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 down which leaped and laughed the Awiehacken. Immediately 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 perpendicularly 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.