[Nahtonk, Recktauck,] forms of the name, or of two different names, of Corlear's Hook, may signify, abstractively, "Sandy Point," as has been interpreted; but apparently, Nahtonk [FN-1] is from Nâ-i, "a point or corner," and Recktauck [FN-2] from Lekau (Requa), "Sand gravel"—a "sandy place." It was a sandy point with a beach, entered, on English maps, "Crown Point."
[FN-1] Naghtonk (Benson); Nahtonk (Schoolcraft); Rechtauck (record). It was to the huts which were located here to which a clan of Long Island Indians fled for protection, in February, 1643, and were inhumanly murdered by the Dutch. The record reads: "Where a few Rockaway Indians from Long Island, with their chief, Niande Nummerus, had built their wigwams." (Brodhead.) "And a party of freemen behind Corlear's plantation, on the Manhattans, who slew a large number and afterwards burned their huts." The name of the Chief, Niande Nummerus, is corrupted from the Latin Nicanda Numericus, the name of a Roman gens. De Vries wrote, "Hummerus, a Rockaway chief, who I knew."
[FN-2] See Rechqua-hackie. "The old Harlem creek, on Manhattan Island, was called Rechawanes, or 'Small, sandy river.'" (Gerard.)
[Warpoes] is given as the name of "a small hill" on the east side and "near ye fresh water" lake or pond called the Kolk (Dutch "pit-hole"), which occupied several acres in the neighborhood of Centre Street. [FN-1] The Indian name is that of the narrow pass between the hill and the pond, which it described as "small" or narrow. (See Raphoos.)
In the absence of record names, the late Dr. Schoolcraft conferred, on several points, terms from the Ojibwe or Chippeway, which may be repeated as descriptive merely. A hill at the corner of Charlton and Varick streets was called by him Ishpatinau, "A bad hill." [FN-2] A ridge or cliff north of Beekman Street, was called Ishibic, "A bad rock;" the high land on Broadway, Acitoc; a rock rising up in the Battery, Abie, and Mount Washington, Penabic, "The comb mountain." The descriptions are presumably correct, but the features no longer exist.
[FN-1] "By ye edge of ye hill by ye fresh water." (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 17.) The Dutch name ran into Kalch, Kolack and Collect, and in early records "Kalch-hock." from its peculiar shape, resembling a fish-hook.
[FN-2] "At ye sand Hills near the Bowery." (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers. 17.) Ishpetouga was given by the same writer to Brooklyn Heights, with the explanation "High, sandy banks," but the term does not describe the character of the elevation. (See Espating.)
[Muscota] is given as the name of the "plain or meadow" known later as Montagne's Flat, between 108th and 124th streets. (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiv.) It also appears as the name of a hill, and in Muskuta as that of the great flat on the north side of the Spuyten Duivel. "The first point of the main land to the east of the island Papirinimen, there where the hill Muskuta is." The hill takes the name from the meadows which it describes. "Moskehtu, a meadow." (Eliot.)