[Kau-na-ong-ga,] "Two wings," is said to have been the name of White Lake, Sullivan County, the form of the lake being that of a pair of wings expanded, according to the late Alfred B. Street, the poet-historian, who embalmed the lake in verse years before it became noted as a fashionable resort. (See Kong-hong-amok.)
"Where the twin branches of the Delaware Glide into one, and in their language call'd Chihocken, or 'the meeting of the floods';" [FN-1]
The "Willemoc," [FN-2] and "The Falls of the Mongaup," are also among Street's poetical productions.
[FN-1] "Formerly Shohakin or Chehocton." (French's Gaz.) In N. Y. Land Papers, Schohakana is the orthography. Street's translation is a poetical fancy. The name probably refers to a place at the mouth of the northwest or Mohawk Branch of the Delaware, and the northeast or Paghkataghan Branch, at Hancock, Del. Co.
[FN-2] Willemoc probably stands for Wilamauk, "Good fishing-place." There were two streams in the town, one known as the Beaver Kill and the other as the Williwemack. In Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 699, occurs the entry: "The Beaver Kill or Whitenaughwemack." The date is 1785. The orthography bears evidence of many years' corruption. It may have been shortened to Willewemock and Willemoc, and stand for Wilamochk, "Good, rich, beaver." It was, presumably, a superior resort for beavers.
[Shawanoesberg] was conferred on a hill in the present town of Mamakating, commemorative of a village of the Shawanoes who settled here in 1694 on invitation of the Minisinks. (Council Minutes, Sept. 14, 1692.) Their council-house is said to have been on the summit of the hill.
[Basha's Land] and Basha's Kill, familiar local terms in Sullivan County, are claimed to have been so called from a squaw-sachem known as Elizabeth who lived near Westbrookville. "Basha's Land" was one of the boundmarks of the Minisink Patent and Basha's Kill the northeast bound of the Maghaghkemik Patent. Derivation of the name from Elizabeth is not well-sustained. [FN-1] The original was probably an equivalent of Bashaba, an Eastern-Algonquian term for "Sagamore of Sagamores," or ruling sachem or king of a nation. It is met of record Bashaba, Betsebe, Bessabe, Bashebe, etc. Hubbard wrote: "They called the chief rulers, who commanded the rest, Bashabeas. Bashaba is a title." "Chiefs bearing this title, and exercising the prerogatives of their rank, are frequently spoken of by the early voyagers." [FN-2] (Hist. Mag., Second Series, 3, 49.) The lands spoken of were the recognized territorial possession of the chief ruler of the nation or tribe. The "squaw-sachem" [FN-3] may have held the title by succession or as the wife of the Bashaba.
[FN-1] Basha's Kill was applied to Mamcotten Kill north of the village of Wurtsboro, south of which it retained the name of Mamacotten, as written on Sauthier's map. Quinlan, in his "History of Sullivan County," wrote: "The head-waters of Mamakating River subsequently became known as Elizabeth's Kill, in compliment to Elizabeth Gonsaulus. We could imagine that she was the original Basha, Betje, or Betsey, who owned the land south of the Yaugh House Spring, and gave to the Mamakating stream its present name; but unfortunately she was not born soon enough. Twenty-five years before her family came to Mamakating, 'Basha's land' was mentioned in official documents." It appears in the Minisink Patent in 1704.