Schenectady, now so written, is claimed by some authorities to be an Anglicism of a Mohawk-Iroquoian verbal primarily applied by them to Fort Orange (Albany), with the interpretations, "The place we arrive at by passing through the pine trees" (Bleecker); "Beyond the opening" (L. H. Morgan); "Beyond (or on the other side) of the door" (O'Callaghan), and by Horatio Hale: "The name means simply, 'beyond the pines.' from _oneghta_ (or _skaneghet_), 'pine,' and _adi_ or _ati,_ a prepositional suffix (if such an expression may be allowed), meaning 'beyond,' or 'on the other side of.' The suffix is derived from _skati,_ side. It was equally applicable to Albany or Schenectady, both being reached from the Mohawk castles by passing through openings in the pine forest." Mr. Hale's interpretation, from the standpoint of a Mohawk term, is exhaustive and no doubt correct, and the correctness of the preceding interpretations may be admitted from the combinations which may have been employed to determine the object of which _askati_ was "one side," as in "_Skannátati,_ de un coste du village," or the end of, as in "_Skannhahati,_ a l'autre bout de la cabane" (Bruyas). The word does not appear to mean "beyond," but one side or one end of anything. Aside from a critical rendering, it would seem to be evident that all the interpretations are in error, not in the translation of the name as a Mohawk word-sentence, but in the assumption that Schenectady was primarily a Mohawk phrase, instead of a confusion of the Mohawk _Skannatati_ with the original Dutch _Schaenhecstede,_ the primary application of which is amply sustained by official record, while the Mohawk term is without standing in that connection, or later except as a corrupt Mohawk-Dutch [FN-1] substitution. The facts of primary application may be briefly stated. The deed from the Mohawk owners of the Schenectady flats, in 1661, reads: "A certain parcel of land called in Dutch the Groote Vlachte, lying behind Fort Orange, between the same and the Mohawk country called in Indian _Skonowe._" _Skonowe_ is the equivalent of the Dutch "great flat," and nothing more. Its Mohawk equivalent is written on the section _Shenondohawah,_ which the Dutch reduced to _Skonowe._ (See Shannondhoi.) Van der Donck wrote on his map (1656), in pure Dutch, _Schoon Vlaack Land,_ or "Fine flat land." It was not continued in application to the Dutch settlement, the proprietors of which immediately (1661) gave to it the Dutch name _Schaenechstede,_ "as the town came to be called." (Munsell's Annals of Albany, ii, 49, 52; Brodhead's Hist. N. Y., i, 691.) Under that name the tract was surveyed (1664), and it has remained apparent in the synthesis of the many corrupt forms in which it is of record. _Schaenechstede_ is a clear orthographic pronunciation of the Dutch _Schoonehetstede,_ signifying, literally, "The beautiful town." The syllable _het_ is properly _hek,_ "fence, rail, gate," etc.,