[Cheesek-ook,] Cheesek-okes, Cheesec-oks, Cheesquaki, are forms of the name given as that of a tract of "Upland and meadow," so described in Indian deed, 1702, and included in the Cheesek-ook Patent, covering parts of the present counties of Rockland and Orange. It is now preserved as the name of a hill, to which it was assigned at an early date, and is also quoted as the name of adjacent lands in New Jersey. The suffix -ook, -oke, -aki, etc., shows that it was the name of land or place (N. J., -ahke; Len. -aki). It is probably met in Cheshek-ohke, Ct., translated by Dr. Trumbull from Kussukoe, Moh., "High," and -ohke, "Land or place"—literally, high land or upland. The final s in some forms, is an English plural: it does not belong to the root. (See Coxackie.) In pronunciation the accent should not be thrown on the letter k; that letter belongs to the first word. There is no Kook about it.
[Tappans,] Carte Figurative of date (presumed) 1614-16, is entered thereon as the name of an Indian village in Lat. 41° 15', claimed, traditionally, to have been at or near the site of the later Dutch village known as Tappan, in Rockland County. In the triangulation of the locative on the ancient map is inscribed, "En effen veldt" (a flat field), the general character of which probably gave name to the Indian village. Primarily, it was a district of low, soft land, abounding in marshes and long grasses, with little variation from level, extending along the Hudson from Tappan to Bergen Point, a distance of twenty-seven miles. Wassenaer wrote, in 1621-25, Tapants; DeLaet wrote, in 1624, Tappaans; in Breeden Raedt, Tappanders; Tappaen, De Vries, 1639; Tappaen, Van der Horst deed, 1651: Tappaens, official Dutch; "Savages of Tappaen"; Tappaans, Van der Donck, are the early orthographies of the name and establish it as having been written by the Dutch with the long sound of a in the last word—paan (-paen)—which may be read pan, as a pan of any kind, natural or artificial—a stratum of earth lying below the soil—the pan of a tap into which water flows—a mortar pit. [FN-1] The compound word Tap-pan is not found in modern Dutch dictionaries, but it evidently existed in some of the German dialects, as it is certainly met in Tappan-ooli (uli) on the west coast of Summatra, in application, to a low district lying between the mountains and the sea, opposite a fine bay, in Dutch possession as early as 1618, and also in Tappan-huacanga, a Dutch possession in Brazil of contemporary date. It is difficult to believe that Tappan was transferred to those distant parts from an Indian name on Hudson's River; on the contrary its presence in those parts forces the conclusion that it was conferred by the Dutch from their own, or from some dialect with which they were familiar, precisely as it was on Hudson's River and was descriptive of a district of country the features of which supply the meaning. DeLaet wrote in his "New World" (Leyden Edition, 1625-6) of the general locative of the name on the Hudson: "Within the first reach, on the west side of the river, where the land is low, dwells a nation of savages named Tappaans," presumably so named by the Dutch from the place where they had jurisdiction, i. e. the low lands. Specifically, De Vries wrote in 1639, Tappaen as the name of a place where he found and purchased, "A beautiful valley of clay land, some three or four feet above the water, lying under the mountains, along the river," presumed to have been in the meadows south of Piermont, into which flows from the mountains Tappan Creek, now called Spar Kill, [FN-2] as well as the overflow of Tappan Zee, of which he wrote without other name than "bay": "There flows here a strong flood and ebb, but the ebb is not more than four feet on account of the great quantity of water that flows from above, overflowing the low lands in the spring," converting them into veritable soft lands. Gamænapaen, now a district in Jersey City, was interpreted by the late Judge Benson, "Tillable land and marsh." Dr. Trumbull wrote: "Petuckquapaugh, Dumpling Pond (round pond) gave name to part of the township of Greenwich, Ct. The Dutch called this tract Petuck-quapaen." The tract is now known as Strickland Plain, [FN-3] and is described as "Plain and water-land"—"A valley but little above tidewater; on the southwest an extended marsh now reclaimed in part." The same general features were met in Petuckquapaen, now Greenbath, opposite Albany, N. Y. Dr. Trumbull also wrote, "The Dutch met on Long Island the word Seaump as the name of corn boiled to a pap. The root is Saupáe (Eliot), 'soft,' i. e. 'made soft by water,' as Saupáe manoosh, 'mortar,' literally 'softened clay.' Hence the Dutch word Sappaen—adopted by Webster Se-pawn." Other examples could be quoted but are not necessary to establish the meaning of Dutch Tappaan, or Tappaen. An interpretation by Rev. Heckewelder, quoted by Yates & Moulton, and adopted by Brodhead presumably without examination: "From Thuhaune (Del.), cold stream," is worthless. No Delaware Indian would have given it as the name of Tappan Creek, and no Hollander would have converted it into Tappaan or Tappaen.
The Palisade Range, which enters the State from New Jersey, and borders the Hudson on the west, terminates abruptly at Piermont. Classed by geologists as Trap Rock, or rock of volcanic origin, adds interest to their general appearance as calumnar masses. The aboriginal owners were not versed in geologic terms. To them the Palisades were simply -ompsk, "Standing or upright rock."
[FN-1] Paen, old French, meaning Pagan, a heathen or resident of a heath, from Pagus, Latin, a heath, a district of waste land.
[FN-2] Tappan Creek is now known as the Spar Kill, and ancient Tappan Landing as Tappan Slote. Slote is from Dutch Sloot. "Dutch, trench, moat." "Sloops could enter the mouth of the creek, if lightly laden, at high tide, through what, from its resemblance to a ditch, was called the Slote." (Hist. Rockl. Co.) The man or men who changed the name of the creek to Spar Kill cannot be credited with a very large volume of appreciation for the historic. The cove and mouth of the creek was no doubt the landing-place from which the Indian village was approached, and the latter was accepted for many years as the boundmark on the Hudson of the jurisdiction of New Jersey.
[FN-3] Strickland Plain was the site of the terrible massacre of Indians by English and Dutch troops under Capt. Underhill, in March, 1645. (Broadhead, Hist. N. Y., i, 390.) About eight hundred Indians were killed by fire and sword, and a considerable number of prisoners taken and sold into slavery. The Indian fort here was in a retreat of difficult access.
[Mattasink,] Mattaconga and Mattaconck, forms of names given to certain boundmarks "of the land or island called Mattasink, or Welch's Island," Rockland County, describe two different features. Mattaconck was "a swampy or hassocky meadow," lying on the west side of Quaspeck Pond, from whence the line ran north, 72 degrees east, "to the south side of the rock on the top of the hill," called Mattasinck. In the surveyor's notes the rock is described as "a certain rock in the form of a sugar loaf." The name is probably an equivalent of Mat-assin-ink, "At (or to) a bad rock," or a rock of unusual form. Mattac-onck seems to be an orthography of Maskék-onck, "At a swamp or hassocky meadow." Surd mutes and linguals are so frequently exchanged in this district that locatives must be relied upon to identify names. Mattac has no meaning in itself. The sound is that of Maskék.
[Nyack,] Rockland County, does not take that name from Kestaub-niuk, a place-name on the east side of the Hudson, as stated by Schoolcraft, nor was the name imported from Long Island, as stated by a local historian; on the contrary, it is a generic Algonquian term applicable to any point. It was met in place here at the earliest period of settlement in application to the south end of Verdrietig Hoek Mountain, as noted in "The Cove or Nyack Patent," near or on which the present village of Nyack has its habitations. It means "Land or place at the angle, point or corner," from Néïak (Del.), "Where there is a point." (See Nyack, L. I.) The root appears in many forms in record orthographies, due largely to the efforts of European scribes to express the sound in either the German or the English alphabet. Adriaen Block wrote, in 1614-16, Nahicans as the name of the people on Montauk Point; Eliot wrote Naiyag (-ag formative); Roger Williams wrote Nanhigan and Narragan; Van der Donck wrote Narratschoan on the Verdrietig Hoek Mountain on the Hudson; Naraticon appears on the lower Delaware, and Narraoch and Njack (Nyack) are met on Long Island. The root is the same in all cases, Van der Donck's Narratschoan on the Hudson, and Narraticon on the Delaware, meaning "The point of a mountain which has the character of a promontory," kindred to Néwas (Del.), "A promontory," or a high point. [FN] The Indian name of Verdrietig Hoek, or Tedious Point, is of record Newas-ink in the De Hart Patent, and in several other forms of record—Navish, Navoash-ink, Naurasonk, Navisonk, Newasons, etc., and Neiak takes the forms of Narratsch, Narrich, Narrock, Nyack, etc. Verdrietig Hoek, the northeastern promontory of Hook Mountain, is a rocky precipitous bluff forming the angle of the range. It rises six hundred and sixty-eight feet above the level of the Hudson into which it projects like a buttress. Its Dutch-English name "Tedious Point," has been spoken of in connection with Pocantico, which see.