Schoolcraft's suggestion, " the place of the bark-kettle," and as repeated in various histories, is absolutely worthless.' The name is simply a descriptive appellation of the locality where the Indians lived at the date of settlement. Delaware, Wiquie-askeek, Massachusetts, Wehque-askeet, bog." Chippewa, U'aiekwa-ashkiki, "end of the marsh ofor the foregoing. A variant Weqh</itfghe. -- Yar., Wyoquaqua. Wenntehees.-- A locality in Cortlandt. Probably a personal name from the final s, although early forms, if found, might indicate with a locative an original Winne-pe-es-et, " at the goodtasted water-place," i.e., " a spring." Wishqua. -- " The end." "Yellow-place." Wissayek. -- Dover. Waccabuck.-- A lake or pond in Lewisboro.

Wequa-baug, " end or head of the pond."

CHAPTER DISCOVERY

PRELIMINARY

VIEW

alluring hypothesis of the discovery and settlement of portions of this continent by the Northmen far back in the Middle Ages, formerly received with quite general consideration, finds few supporters at this day among the loading authorities on the early history of America. That the Norse colonized Greenland at a very early period is unhesitatingly admitted, abundant proofs of their occupancy of that country being afforded by authenticruins, especially of churches and baptistries, and collateral testimony to the fact being furnished by old ecclesiastical annals, which seem to indicate that as early as the eleventh century Greenland belonged to the jurisdiction of the Catholic bishops of Iceland. It is also conceded to be not impossible that accidental Norse descents from Greenland upon the continent were made in the centuries that followed. But this is merely an amiable concession to academic conjecture. It is insisted that no reliable Norse remains have ever been found south of Davis Straits: and one by one the various relics thought to be of Norse origin that have been brought forward, including certain supposed Runic inscriptions, have been pronounced incapable of acceptation as such.