John Eliot's First Indian Teacher and Interpreter Cockenoe-de-Long Island and The Story of His Career from the Early RecordsTooker, William Wallace
History
John Eliot's First Indian Teacher and Interpreter Cockenoe-de-Long Island and The Story of His Career from the Early Records
Tooker, William Wallace
Cockenoe-de-Long Island, active 1649-1687; Eliot, John, 1604-1690; Indians of North America -- New York (State) -- Long Island
While we may infer from the foregoing documents that his services must
have been necessarily in constant demand by the colonists in their
interviews with the natives, during the four years following the
making of these deeds, we do not find him again on record until
February 25, 1652[21] (O. S., February 15, 1651), when he is
identically employed as at East Hampton, by the proprietors of
Norwalk, Conn., probably on the recommendation of the authorities at
New Haven; and his name appears among the grantors, in two places on
the Indian deed for the Norwalk plantation as "_Cockenoe-de-Long
Island_." But, as he did not sign the conveyance, it shows that he had
no vested rights therein, but simply acted for the whites and Indians
as their interpreter. From the possible fact that he perhaps erected
his wigwam there during this winter and spring of 1651-52, thus giving
it a distinctive appellation, an island in the Long Island sound off
Westport, Conn., near the mouth of the Saugatuck river, bears his name
in the possessive as "_Cockenoe's_ Island" to this day, as will be
noted by consulting a Coast Survey chart. That the name was bestowed
in his time is proven by the record "that it was agreed (in 1672) that
the said Island called Cockenoe is to lie common for the use of the
town as all the other Islands are."[22] This island is one of the
largest and most easterly of the group known as the "Norwalk Islands,"
or as they were designated by the early Dutch navigators, the
Archipelago.[23] The fact that his name is displayed on this deed for
Norwalk, and as the name for this island, has been a puzzle to many
historians; but that it does so appear is easily accounted for, when
we know what his abilities were, and why he was there.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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