Further

rian subjects as the RECORD presents. criticism of the article is solicited. The first of the subjoined papers is from JOHN G. SHEA, LL.D. of New York whose opinion is authority upon such points. The second is from the careful student of our history, CHARLES W. TUTTLE, counsellor at law, of Boston, whose

researches upon the topic about which he has written, enables him to speak with confidence. Editor of AMERICAN HISTORICAL RECORD. Dear Sir:

Allow me to suggest a few doubts: CAROLINA cannot be called after Fort Carolina built near Port Royal, because that French fort was called Charlesfort. Sheas' Charlevoix i. p. 137. The French colonists subsequently built Caroline on the St. John, in what is still Florida. 26. p. 152. Charlevoix even notes the error of ascribing the name of Carolina to Charles IX of France, and assigns it properly to Charles II of England, under whom it was colonized. 26. p. 153. FLORIDA.—The feast is called Pascua

Florida.

KENTUCKY, will, I think, by Algonqiun scholars be interpreted like Connecticutthe long river. I do not think any word signifying head or source enters into it.

OHIO is not a Shawnee word or a word in any Algonquin dialect. It is pure Iroquois, like Ontario and means in Iroquois Beautiful river. See Cuoq, Iroquois & Algonquin tract.

MICHIGAN, is Michi great and gami lake in Algonquin, and is given in an early French Illinois dictionary. As earliest given it is Michigami.

ILLINOIS is not a compound of Indian and French; but a Canadian French attempt to express the word Illiniwek, which in Algonquin is a verbal form. "We are men." The wek gradually got written ois, We say pronounced way or nearly so. and the Indians Illeen-week. Illy-noy but the French said: Illeen-way

WISCONSIN arises from a misprint, all the early French documents have Ouisconsing or Misconsing and this seems to come from Miscosi, it is red. Wishcons, may mean a small beaver lodge.

interpretation.

MISSISSIPPI is not Choctaw or Natchez at all. The name first reached the French missionaries and voyageurs through the northern Algonquin tribes, and is clearly intelligible in their languages. Missi or Michi means great; sipi river: so that it simply means great river. The Ottawa was called Kichisipi, a great river and Col. Pichlynn a very intelligent Shawnee when asked by the late Buckingham Smith the meaning of Chesapeake, at once said Kichi-sipik. Place of the great water.

ARKANSAS, is written in early French documents Alkansas so that the French word are certainly did not enter it, and such compounds are not in the style of the French. Alkusas or Arkansas was the name given by the Algonquins tribe to the nation calling themselves Quappas.

i

IOWA is written at first Aiouès and was applied to a tribe of Indians, and would seem to be simply Ajawa-across, beyond, as if to say the tribe beyond the river.

TEXAS, was a name applied to a confederacy and is said by Morfi in his Manuscript History of Texas to mean Friends.

New York, May, 1872.

Editor of the AMERICAN HISTORICAL RECORD.

Dear Sir:

I beg to call attention to two historical errors long current in our history, one relating to Maine and the other to New Hampshire, repeated in your account of the " 'Origin of the States and their Names.'

Two theories of the origin of the name of the State of Maine has long been

publicly known. The one accepted by you must be rejected in view of historical facts brought to light not long ago. name of this State was first authoritatively and deliberately applied more accurately to that part of it west of the Kennebec River in the charter granted by the great Council of Plymouth, to Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Captain John Mason, dated August 10, 1622. Therein it is called the "Province of Maine." This was nearly two years before the Princess Henrietta Maria of France was thought of for a wife to Prince Charles of England. At the time this name appeared in the charter a marriage treaty was pending between Prince Charles and the Infanta Maria, daughter of Philip III, of Spain. A marriage of these royal parties was not effected till early in the year 1624. It was clear from this, and other circumstances that could be mentioned, that the naming of Maine had nothing to do with Henrietta Maria of France, as alleged. I may add in this correction, that I expect to show in my life of Captain Mason, that the Infanta of Spain was designedly complimented in the naming of a district in New England, granted by the great Council; a curious fact overlooked by historians.

It seems to me reasonably certain that the State of Maine owes its name to no European State, province, or personage, but to its own singular geographical features. Years before the name appeared in this charter, the territory was commonly designated by English mariners and writers, "The Maine," variously spelt, to distinguish it from its insular parts lying about the coast. A useful and expressive word, constantly applied to it, in a maritime sense, was adopted for the English name of the territory by those authorized to give it a name. This origin of the name, proposed long ago, seems to be the true

one.

No part of the original territory of New Hampshire, nor any part of its present territory ever bore the name LACONIA. The territory of New Hampshire, first granted under this name, was part of the original "Province of Maine," which

C. W. T. Grosvenor Library, Buffalo, May 20, 1872. Editor of AMERICAN HISTORICAL RECORD. Dear Sir:

I suppose that your idea of placing on record the names of the states, and where derived is for the purpose of perpetuating them as simply for a historical reason. But no matter what is the design it is a laudable one and for one I wish you had taken in a greater field, and also give whenever it can be done, the meaning of the Aboriginal appelatives of rivers, lakes and mountains. But errors are so abundant, the question is, are we not perpetuating falsehood rather than the truth? I observe in the state nomenclature, that some errors occur; and I have noticed these same errors or similar ones to have occurred in works of history and travels. Will you allow me to make corrections where I know there is an error. I have for the last five and thirty years been pretty well acquainted with the mixed languages of the North West spoken by the Ojibwees, Ottawas, Pottawatamies and kindred tribes; branches of the great Algonquin nation and must say I do know that the word Michigan is "Michi Gumee" Great Water. The prefix Michi, is applied to animate and inanimate objects alike. There are

slight variations in its pronunciation and spelling, but they all designate something large, expanded, quantities of, &c. There the word Michigan can be applied to the State having so many lakelets and being nearly surrounded by water; it can be styled the place of Great Waters. The name is applied irrespective to the land as to the Lake. Now as regards Mississippi Missi or Michi meaning great, and must not be confounded with a similar word of the Dacota tongue having a very different meaning. The same meaning is applied to that as to Michigan, but the latter half of the words are different. "Seepe" or "Neebe" is applied indiscriminately to a lake, or river by some of the western bands of Algonquins, while with other "Gumee" is used, but the ending shows the true meaning the "ee" implying water. It is all very romantic to say that the meaning in Indian is the "Father of Waters" "Long River," &c. For aught I know tinow the Choctaw word, may

mean Long river but Mississippi is not Choctaw or any part and parcel of the Mobilian tongue but good Algonquin. It is high time to purge our history of these fanciful meanings and cease to term Niagara "Thunder of Waters" because the old humbug H. R. S. once endeavored to palm that meaning off on the community, as to him the "Neck" was not romantic enough. Missouri-Minnay Sotor both show the Dacota earmarks, and in both is applicable to turbid or muddy water.

It is difficult to say why Rhode Island was so termed as the record of its nomination is very brief. On the 13th of the first month, 1644, the General Court of Election's passed the following: "It is ordered by this Court, that the Island commonly called Aquethneck, shall be from henceforth called the Isle of Rhodes, or Rhode Island." This is all the record; neither in the history of the times or in private journals do we find any notice of the change or why.

The first English emigrants to New Jersey soon discovered the necessity of having a faithful translation of the language used by the Aborigines.

This grew out of their social and business intercourse, coupled with the determination to deal fairly with this people-thus avoid dissatisfaction and perhaps bloodshed. The proper authorities of the Salem Colony with John Fenwick as Governor have left on record, in one of the books of those early periods, a translation of Indian terms into the English and which was, no doubt, considered the standard in all things pertaining thereto.

Several of the manuscript books of the proceedings of the Courts of that Colony are on file in the office of the Secretary of State at Trenton New Jersey, and often examined with much interest by Antiquarians.

The following is a copy of the translation above mentioned as made in 1684.