[Menagnock,] the record name of what has long been known as "The Great Mennissincks Island"—"The Great Island of the Mennisinks"—is probably an equivalent of Menach'henak (Minsi) meaning "Islands." The island, so called, is a flat cut up by water courses, forming several small islands.
[Namenock,] an island so called by Rev. Casparus Freymout in 1737, is probably an equivalent of Naman-ock and Namee-ock, L. I., which was translated by Dr. Trumbull from Mass. Namau-ohke, "Fishing place," or "Fish country"—Namauk, Del, "Fishing place." Perhaps it was the site of a weir or dam for impounding fish. Such dams or fishing places became boundmarks in some cases. The name was corrupted to Nomin-ack, as the name of a church and of a fort three or four miles below what is now Montague, N. J. On Long Island the name is corrupted to Nomin-ick. (See Moriches.)
[Magatsoot]—A tract of land "Called and known by the name of Magockomack and Magatsoot"—so entered in petition of Philip French for Minisink Patent in 1703, is noted in petition of Ebenezer Wilson (same patent), in 1702, "Beginning on the northwest side of the mouth of Weachackamack Creek where it enters Minisink River." The creek was then given the name of the field called Maghaghkamieck; it is now called Neversink. Magatsoot was the name of the mouth of the stream, "Where it enters Minisink River," or the Delaware. It is an equivalent of Machaak-sók, [FN] meaning, "The great outlet," or mouth of a river. Although specific in application to the mouth of the river, it is more strictly the name of the stream than that which it now bears. (See Magaat-Ramis.)
[FN] Machaak, Moh., Mechek, Len.; "Great, large"; soot, sók, sóhk, sauk, "Pouring out," hence mouth or outlet of a river.
[Maghagh-kamieck,] so written in patent to Arent Schuyler in 1694, and described therein as "A certain tract of land at a place called Maghaghkamieck," which "Place" was granted, in 1697, to Swartwout, Coddebeck, and others, has been handed down in many orthographies. The precise location of the "Place" was never ascertained by survey, but by occupation it consisted of some portion of a very fine section of bottom-land extending along the northeast side of Neversink River from near or in the vicinity of the junction of that stream and the Delaware at Carpenter's Point to the junction of Basha's Kill [FN-1] and the Neversink, in the present county of Sullivan, a distance of about eleven miles. In general terms its boundaries are described in the patent as extending from "The western bounds of the lands called Nepeneck to a small run of water called by the Indian name Assawaghkemek, and so along the same and the lands of Mansjoor, the Indian." It matters not that in later years it was reported by a commission that the patent "Contained no particular boundaries, but appeared rather to be a description of a certain tract of country in which 1,200 acres were to be taken up," the name nevertheless was that of a certain field or place so distinct in character as to become a general locative of the whole, as in the Schuyler grant of 1694. It may reasonably be presumed that the district to which it was extended began at Carpenter's Point (Nepeneck) and ended on the north side of Basha's Kill. (See Assawaghkemek.) The same name is met in New Jersey on the Peaquaneck River, where it is of record in 1649, "Mechgacham-ik, or Indian field" (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 25); noted as an Indian settlement in the Journal of Arent Schuyler, in 1694, giving an account of his visit to the Minissinck country, in February of that year, in which the orthography is Maghagh-kamieck, indicating very clearly that the original was Maghk-aghk-kamighk, a combination of Maghaghk, "Pumpkin," and -kamik, "Field," or place limited, where those vegetables were cultivated, and a place that was widely known evidently. [FN-2] The German missionaries wrote Machg-ack, "Pumpkin," and Captain John Smith, in his Virginia notes of 1620, wrote the same sound in Mahcawq. No mention is made of an Indian village here. If there was one it certainly was not visited by Arent Schuyler in 1694, as is shown by the general direction of his route, as well as by maps of Indian paths. To have visited Maghaghkamik in Orange County would have taken him many miles out of his way. Maghaghkamik Fork and Maghaghkamik Church lost those names many years ago, but the ancient name is still in use in some connections in Port Jervis, and most wretchedly spelled.
[FN-1] Basha's Kill, so called from a place called Basha's land, which see.
[FN-2] Kamik, Del., Komuk, Mass., in varying orthographies, means "Place" in the sense of a limited enclosed, or occupied space; "Generally," wrote Dr. Trumbull, "An enclosure, natural or artificial, such as a house or other building, a village, or planted field, a thicket or place surrounded by trees"; briefly, a place having definite boundaries. Maghkaghk is an intense expression of quality—perfection.
[Nepeneck,] a boundmark so called in the Swartwout-Coddebeck Patent of 1697—Napenock, Napenack, Napenough, later forms—given as the name of the western or southwestern bound of the Maghaghkamick tract, is described: "Beginning at the western bounds of the lands called Nepeneck." The place is presumed to have been at or near Carpenter's Point, on the Delaware, which at times is overflowed by water. It disappears here after 1697, but reappears in a similar situation some twenty miles north at the junction of the Sandberg and Rondout kills. It is probably a generic as in Nepeak, L. I., meaning, "Water land," or land overflowed by water. "Nepenit 'In a place of water.'" (Trumbull.) Carpenter's Point or ancient Nepeneck, is the site of the famous Tri-States Rock, the boundmark of three states.