The Mohawk River rises in Lewis County (northwestern N.Y.), flows south to Rome, then east to the Hudson River which it enters at Cohoes. It is 160 miles long. There are rapids and falls at Little Falls and Oriskany which have been utilized to develop electric power. The Mohawk valley is noted for its beauty and the fertility of its soil. The name Mohawk is probably derived from an Indian word meaning "man-eaters"; but the Mohawks' own name for their tribe was Kaniengehaga, "people of the flint." They lived in the region bounded on the north by the Lake of Corlear, on the east by the Falls of Cohoes, on the south by the sources of the Susquehanna, and on the west by the country of the Oneidas. The dividing line between the Mohawk and Oneida tribes passed through the present town of Utica. The Mohawks had the reputation of being the bravest of the Iroquois; they furnished the war chief for the Six Nations and exercised the right to collect tribute in the form of wampum from the Long Island tribes and to extend their conquests along the sea coast. The tribes, along both banks of the Hudson River, it is said, shrank before their war cry. In the War of Independence they fought with the English, and finally took refuge in Canada, where most of them have remained. The first settlement at Schenectady was made in 1642 by Arendt Van Corlear and a band of immigrants who had become dissatisfied with conditions on the Manor of Rennselaerwyck where Corlear was manager of the estates of his cousin, Killiaen van Rennselaer. Van Corlear had emigrated to America about 1630 and while manager of Rennselaerwyck he earned the confidence of the Indians, among whom "Corlear" became a generic term for the English governors and especially the governors of N.Y. The name Kora, derived from the same source, is said to be used even today by surviving Iroquois in Canada to designate the English king. To each of the 15 original proprietors, except Van Corlear who was to receive a double portion, was assigned a village lot of 200 sq. ft., a tract of bottom land for farming purposes, a strip of woodland, and common pasture rights. Many of the early settlers were well-to-do and brought their slaves with them, and for many years the settlement, originally known as Dorp, was reputed the richest in the colony. Schenectady was spelled in a great variety of ways in the early records. Its Indian equivalent signified "Back Door" of the Long House--the territory occupied by the Six Nations.