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 deceived by the pleasant appearance of the bay, sailed into it and found his 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 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 occurrence by the name "den Moordenaars' Kil," _i. e._ the kill from which the attacking party issued forth or on which the murderers resided. The first appearance of the name in English records is in a deed to Governor Dongan, 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 standpoint, but made poetical by his interpretation, "Meeting of the waters."