Footprints of the Red Men: Indian geographical names in the valley of Hudson's river, the valley of the Mohawk, and on the Delaware: their location and the probable meaning of some of them.Ruttenber, Edward Manning
History
Footprints of the Red Men: Indian geographical names in the valley of Hudson's river, the valley of the Mohawk, and on the Delaware: their location and the probable meaning of some of them.
Ruttenber, Edward Manning
Indians of North America -- New York (State); Names, Geographical -- New York (State); Names, Indian -- North America
The locative conclusion stated above is more positively emphasized by
counting Van Curler's miles' travel and his landmarks in going west from
_Onekagoncka,_ and by the natural features which he noted in his Journal.
Leaving _Onekagoncka,_ he wrote that he walked "half a mile" (Dutch) "on
the ice" which had frozen over the kill, or say one and one-half English
miles, and in that distance passed "a village of six houses of the name
of _Canowarode._" It was near the river obviously. Walking on the ice
"another half mile" (Dutch), he passed "a village of twelve houses named
_Senatsycrossy._" After walking "another mile or mile and a half" on the
ice, he passed "great stretches of flat lands" and came to a castle which
he first called _Medatshet,_ and later _Canagere,_ which he denominated
"The Second Castle." His distances traveling west "on the ice" were
evidently more correctly computed than they were on his march on the
rough path "along the kill that ran swiftly." His miles from _Onekagoncka_
to _Canagere_ are given as two and a half (Dutch) or about nine miles
English. The actual distance is supposed to have been about eight. He
found the castle "built on a hill without any palisades or any defence."
He located it east of Canajohare Creek, a stream which has never lost its
identity. When Van Curler visited the castle it contained "sixteen
houses, fifty, sixty, seventy or eighty paces long."
Detained in this castle by a heavy fall of rain which broke up the
streams--the "January thaw" of 1635 in the Mohawk Valley--Van Curler
resumed his journey on the 20th, and "after marching a mile" (Dutch),
came to Canajohare Creek which he was obliged to ford. After crossing
and walking "half a mile" (Dutch), he came to what he called the "Third
Castle of the name of _Sohanidisse,_" later written by him _Rohanadisse,_
and by Van der Donck _Schanatisse,_ suggesting the name of the hill on
which it stood, which Van Curler described as "very high." It contained
"thirty-two houses like the others"; was not palisaded. The very high
hill, and the flat lands which he referred to, remain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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