[FN-2] A. S. Gatschet, of the Bureau of Ethnology, wrote me: "The Bashas, Bashebas and Betsebas of old explorers of the coast of Maine, I explain by pe'sks, 'one,' and a'pi, 'man,' or person—'First man in the land.'"
[FN-3] Squaw, "Woman," means, literally, "Female animal." Saunk-squa stands for "Sochem's squaw." "The squa-sachem, for so they call the Sachem's wife." (Winslow.)
[Mongaup,] given as the name of a stream which constitutes in part the western boundary of Orange County, is entered on Sauthier's map, "Mangawping or Mangaup." Quinlan (Hist. Sullivan County) claimed for it also Mingapochka and Mingwing, indicating that the stream carried the names of two distinct places. Mongaup is a compression of Dutch Mondgauwpink, meaning, substantially, "At the mouth of a small, rapid river," for which a local writer has substituted "Dancing feather," which is not in the composition in any language. Mingapochka (Alg.), appears to be from Mih'n (Mih'nall plural; Zeisb.), "Huckleberry," and -pohoka, "Cleft, clove or valley"—literally, "Huckleberry Valley." Street, writing half a century ago, described the northern approach of the stream as a valley wreathed (poetically) in whortle berries—
"In large tempting clusters of light misty blue."
The stream rises in the center of Sullivan County and flows to the Delaware. The falls are said to be from sixty to eighty feet in four cascades. (Hist. Sul. Co.) Another writer says: "Three miles above Forestburgh village, the stream falls into a chasm seventy feet deep, and the banks above the falls are over one hundred feet high."
[Meenahga,] a modern place-name, is a somewhat remarkable orthography of Mih'n-acki (aghki), "Huckleberry land" or place.
[Callicoon,] the name of a town in Sullivan County, and of a stream, is an Anglicism of Kalkan (Dutch), "Turkey"—Wilde Kalkan, "Wild turkey"—in application, "Place of turkeys." The district bearing the name is locally described as extending from Callicoon Creek to the mouth of Ten Mile River, on the Delaware. Wild turkeys were abundant in the vicinage of the stream no doubt, from which perhaps the name, but as there is record evidence that a clan of the Turkey tribe of Delawares located in the vicinity, it is quite probable that the name is from them. The stream is a dashing mountain brook, embalmed poetically by the pen of Street. (See Cochecton.)
[Keshethton,] written by Colonel Hathorn in 1779, as the name of an Indian path, is no doubt an orthography of Casheghton. In early years a trunk-line path ran up the Delaware to Cochecton Falls, where, with other paths, it connected with the main path leading to Wyoming Valley, [FN] the importance of the latter path suggesting, in 1756, the erection of a fort and the establishment of a base of supplies at Cochecton from which to attack the Indians under Tedyuscung and Shingask in what was then known as "The Great Swamp," from which those noted warriors and their followers made their forays. (Doc. Hist. N. Y., ii. 715; Ib. Map, i, 586.) Colonel Hathorn passed over part of this path in 1779, in pursuit of Brant, and was disastrously defeated in what is called "The Battle of Minnisink."
[FN] "The first well-beaten path that connected the Delaware and Susquehanna Rivers, and subsequently the first rude wagon road leading from Cochecton through Little Meadows, in Salem township, and across Moosic Mountains." (Hist. Penn.) It was with a view to connect the commerce from this section with the Hudson that the Newburgh and Cochecton Turnpike was constructed in the early years of 1800.