It does not seem probable that the Dutch had a Tennis Court here at that early date, but the record so reads.- The hook or cove, was the most desirable place for landing on the south side of the Point. It has since been the commercial centre of the town and city. Punthoekje is certainly not without interesting history. Atkarkarton, claimed by some local authorities as the Indian name of Kingston, comes down to us from Rev. Megapolensis, who wrote, in 1657 : "About eighteen miles [Dutch] up the North River lies a place called by the Dutch Esopus or Sypous, by the Indians

' Perhaps an Indian Football Court, resembling a Tennis Court. A writer in 1609 says of the Virginia natives: "They use, beside, football play, which women and boys do much play at. They have their goals as ours, only they never fight and pull each other down." There was a famous Tennis Court (Dutch Kaatsbaan) in the town of Saugertics. which seems to have been there long before the Dutch settlement. The Tennis Court referred to in the text is said to have been near the site of the present City Hall in Kingston, but would that place be strictly "near the Strand"? "Strand"^ means "shore, beach." It was probably on the beach.

HUDSON S RIVER ON THE WEST, 159

Atkarkarton. It is an exceedingly beautiful land." (Doc, Hist. N. Y., iii, 103.) The Reverend writer obviously quoted the name as of general appHcation, although it would seem to have been that of a particular place. As stated in another connection, Esopus, Sypous, and Sopus were at first (1623) applied to a trading-post on the Hudson, from which it was extended inland as a general name and later became specific as that of the first palisaded Dutch village named Wildwijk, which was founded a year after Megapolensis wrote.