[FN] Denton's "Description of New York," p. 29. Ward's and Blackwell's islands were sold to the Dutch by the Marechawicks, of Long Island, in 1636-7. Governor's Island was sold in the same year by the Tappans, Hackinsacks and Nyacks, the grantors signing themselves as "hereditary owners." Later deeds were signed by chiefs of the Raritans and Hackinsacks.
[Minnisais] is not a record name. It was conferred on Bedloe's Island by Dr. Schoolcraft from the Ojibwe or Chippeway dialect, [FN] in which it means "Small island."
[FN] The Objibwe (Objibwai) were a nation of three tribes living northwest of the great lakes, of which the Ojibwai or Chippeway represented the Eagle totem. It is claimed by some writers that their language stands at the head of the Algonquian tongues. This claim is disputed on behalf of the Cree, the Shawanoe, and the Lenape or Delaware. It is not assumed that Ojibwe (Chippeway) terms are not Algonquian, but that they do not strictly belong to the dialects of the Hudson's river families. Rev. Heckewelder saw no particular difference between the Ojibwe and the Lenape except in the French and the English forms. Ojibwe terms may always be quoted in explanations of the Lenape.
[Kiosh,] or "Gull Island," was conferred on Ellis Island by Dr. Schoolcraft from the Ojibwe dialect. The interpretation is correct presumably.
[Tenkenas] is of record as the Indian name of what is now known as Ward's Island. [FN] It appears in deed of 1636-7. It means "Small island," from Tenke (Len.), "little."
[FN] The Dutch called the island Onvruchtbaar, "Unfruitful, barren." The English adopted the signification, "Barren," which soon became corrupted to "Barrent's," to which was added "Great" to distinguish it from Randal's Island, which was called "Little Barrent's Island." Barn Island is another corruption. Both islands were "barren" no doubt.
[Monatun] was conferred by Dr. Schoolcraft on the whirlpool off Hallet's Cove, with the explanation, "A word conveying in its multiplied forms the various meanings of violent, forcible, dangerous, etc." Dr. Schoolcraft introduced the word as the derivative of Manhatan, which, however, is very far from being explained by it. Hell-gate, a vulgar orthography of Dutch Hellegat, has long been the popular name of the place. It was conferred by Adriaen Block, in 1614-16, to the dangerous strait known as the East River, from a strait in Zealand, which, presumably, was so called from Greek Helle, as heard in Hellespont—"Sea of Helle"—now known as the Dardanelles—which received its Greek name from Helle, daughter of Athamas, King of Thebes, who, the fable tells us, was drowned in passing over it. Probably the Dutch sailors regarded the strait as the "Gate of Hell," but that is not the meaning of the name—"a dangerous strait or passage." In some records the strait is called Hurlgate, from Dutch Warrel, "Whirl," and gat, "Hole, gap, mouth"—substantially, "a whirlpool."
[Monachnong,] deed to De Vries, 1636; Menates, De Vries's Journal; Ehquaons (Eghquaous, Brodhead, by mistake in the letter n), deed of 1655, and Aquehonge-Monuchnong, deed to Governor Lovelace, 1670, are forms of the names given as that of Staten Island, and are all from Lenape equivalents. Menates means "Small island" as a whole; Monach'nong means a "Place on the island," or less than the whole, as shown by the claims of the Indians in 1670, that they had not previously sold all the island. (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 453.) It is the equivalent of Menach'hen, Minsi; Menach'n, Abn., "Island," and ong, locative; in Mass. Mimnoh-han-auke. (See Mannhonake.) Eghquaons and Aquehonga are equivalents, and also equivalents of Achquoanikan-ong, "Bushnet fishing-place," of which Acquenonga is an alternate in New Jersey. (Nelson's "Indians of New Jersey," 122.) In other words, the Indians conveyed places on the island, including specifically their "bushnet fishing-place," and by the later deed to Lovelace, conveyed all unsold places. The island was owned by the Raritans who resided "behind the Kol," and the adjoining Hackensacks. (Deed of 1655.) Its last Indian occupants were the Nyacks, who removed to it after selling their lands at New Utrecht. (See Paganck note.)