Manette, so written of record -- "near Mannato hill," about thirty miles from Brooklyn and midway between the north and south sides of the island -- has been interpreted from its equivalent, 'Wallabout Bay takes its first name from Dutch Waal, "gulf, abyss/' etc., and Bochf, "bend," It was spoken of colloquially by the early Dutch as "The bay of the foreigners,"' referring to the Walloons who had settled on the north side of the bay in 1625. The first white child, Sarah Rapelie, born in New Netherland, now the State of New York, was born here June 17th, 1625.

92 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES.

Maniton, "Hill of the Great Spirit," but means strictly, "That which surpasses,, or is more than ordinary." (Trumbull.) It was a word in common use by the Indians in rpplication to everything that was more than ordinary or t<hat they could not understand. In this instance it seems to 'have been applied to the water of a spring or well on the rising ground whidi they regarded as of surpassing excellence ; from the spring transferred to the hill. The tradition is that some ages ago the Indians residing in the vicinity of the hill were sufifering for water. They prayed to the Great Spirit for relief, and were directed to shoot an arrow in the air and where it fell to dig and they would find water. They did so and dug the well now on the rising ground, the water of which was of surpassing excellence, or Manitou. The story was probably invented to account for the name. It is harmless fiction. Rennaquakonck, Rinnegahonck, a landmark so called in the boundaries of a tract on Wallabout Bay, described in deed as "A certain swamp where the water runs over tlie stones," and, in a subsequent deed, "At the sweet marsh" (Hist, of Brooklyn), is an ortihography of Winnegackonck, meaning "At the sweet place," so called from some plant which was found there, or to distinguish the marsh as fresh or sweet, not a salt marsh.