[FN-6] Journal of Arent van Curler, of a visit to the Seneca country, 1634-5 O. S., translated by General James Grant Wilson, printed in "The Independent," N. Y., Oct. 5, 1895. Republished by National Historical Society.
[FN-7] General Wilson wrote me that the Journal was translated for him by a Hollander, now (1905) dead, and that the manuscript had passed out of his hands. The question of hours and miles is not important here. On his return travel he gave the distance from the little hunters' cabin (which in the meantime had been burned), as "A long walk," which will not be disputed. It may be added that it is not justifiable to count his two days' travel as one, and count the two as thirty-two English miles from Fort Orange. The two days' travel are very distinct in the Journal.
[FN-8] Doc. Hist. N. Y., iii, 1087.
[FN-9] Father Jogues noted in his narrative a "torrent" which passed "At the foot of their village"—a brook or creek which was swollen by rains into a torrent, and from which, on the later recedence of the water, he recovered the remains of the body of his companion, Rene Goupil, who had been murdered and his body thrown into it, probably with the expectation that it would be carried down into the Mohawk, "At the foot of their village," or at the foot of the hill on which the village stood.
[FN-10] In the town of Minden, four miles south of Fort Plain, on a tongue of land formed by the Otsquaga Creek and one of its tributaries, are the remains of an ancient fortification, showing a curved line two hundred and forty feet in length, inclosing an area of about seven acres. The remains are, of course, claimed as belonging to the age of the mound-builders, but with equal probability are the remains of the ancient fort which Van Curler visited.
[Kahoos,] Kahoes, Cohoes, Co'os, forms of the familiar name of the falls of the Mohawk River at the junction of that stream with Hudson's River, has had several interpretations based on the presumption that it is from the Mohawk-Iroquoian dialect, but none that have been satisfactory to students of that dialect, nor any that have not been purely conjectural. One writer has read it: "From Kaho, a boat or ship," commemorative of Hudson's advent at Half-Moon Point in 1609. Beauchamp repeated from Morgan: "A shipwrecked canoe," and, in another connection: "From Kaho, a torrent." Another writer has read it: "Cahoes, 'the parting of the waters,' the reference being to the separation of the stream into three channels at its junction with the Hudson." The late Horatio Hale wrote me: "Morgan gives, as the Iroquois form of the name, Gä-hŏ-oose (in which ä represents the Italian a as in father), with the signification of 'ship-wrecked canoe.' This, I presume, is correct, though I cannot analize the word to my satisfaction." The obvious reason for this uncertainty is that the name is not Mohawk-Iroquoian, but an early Dutch orthography of the Algonquian generic Koowa, "Pine"; Koaaés, "Small pine," or "Small pine trees"; written with locative it, "Place of small pine trees"; now applied to a small island. On the Connecticut River this generic is met in Co'os and Co'hos. The "Upper Co-hos Interval" on that stream (Sauthier's map) [FN-1] was a tract of low small pine trees, between the hills and the river, corresponding with the topography at the falls on the Hudson. The Dutch termination -hoos, meaning in that language, "Water-spout," may have given rise to the interpretation "The Great Falls," but if so the reading was simply descriptive. The presumption that the name was Mohawk-Iroquoian was no doubt from the general impression that the falls were primarily in a Mohawk district, but the fact is precisely the reverse. The Hudson, on both sides, was held by Algonquian-Mahicans when the Dutch located at Albany, and for some years later, and the Dutch no doubt received the name from them, as they did others. What few Mohawk names are met in this district are of later introduction. It may be noted that there is no element in the name in any dialect which refers to falls. [FN-2] When the falls were first known they were regarded as the most wonderful in the world, and even as late as 1680 they were so called by visitors. In early days the stream poured a flood nine-hundred feet wide and eight feet deep over a rocky declivity of seventy-eight feet, of which forty feet was perpendicular, in addition to which are the rapids above and below. The roar of the falling waters, and in the breaking up and precipitation of ice, was very distinctly heard at Fort Orange, nine miles distant, and the hills on which Albany now stands trembled under the impact. Primarily the falls were much higher than they are now, the stream having cut its way through one hundred feet of rock which rises on either side in massive wall. Below the falls the water separates in four branches or "Sprouts," the northerly and the southerly one reaching the Hudson five miles apart, at Waterford and West Troy respectively.
[FN-1] "L. Intervale-Cowass or Kohas (Coas) meadows." (Pownal's Map.)