Van Curler's notes supply interesting evidence of the strength of the Mohawks when the Dutch first met them, w'hich was then at its highest known point in number and in the number of their settlements, namely: Two hundred and twenty-five "long houses" in castles and villages, without including villages on the lower Mohawk "where the ice drifted fast," which he passed without particular note, and those in villages or settlements w'hich he did not see. Two hundred and twenty-five houses were capable of holding and no doubt did hold a very large number of people, packed as they were packed. Father Pierron reported, in 1669, after the French invasion of 1666, that he visited every week "six large villages, covering seven and onehalf leagues distance," around Caughnawaga where he was stationed. In almost constant wars with the French, and with the Hurons and other Indian tribes as allies of the French, their num-

^OO INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES.

ber had dwindled to an estimate of eighty warriors in 1735. The story of their greatness and of their decay is of the deepest interest. No student of American history can dispense with its perusal and be well-informed in the events of the pioneer era.

Kahoos, Kahoes, Cohoes, Co'os, forms of the familiar name of the falls of the Mohawk River at the junction of that stream with Hudson's River, has had several interpretations based on the presumption that it is from the Mohawk-Iroquoian dialect, but none that have been satisfactory to students of that dialect, nor any that have not been purely conjectural. One writer has read it: "From Kaho, a boat or ship," commemorative of Hudson's advent at Half- Moon Point in 1609. Beauchamp repeated from Morgan: "A shipwrecked canoe," and, in another connection : "From Kaho, a torrent." Another writer has read it: "Cahoes, 'the parting of the waters,' the reference being to the separation of the stream into three channels at its junction with the Hudson." The late Horatio Hale wrote me : "Morgan gives, as the Iroquois form of the name, Ga-ho-oose (in which a represents the Italian a as in father), with the signification of 'ship-wrecked canoe.' This, I presume, is correct, though I cannot analize the word to my satisfaction." The obvious reason for this uncertainty is that the name is not Mohawk-Iroquoian, but an early Dutch orthography of the Algonquian generic Koowa, "Pine" ; Koaaes, "Small pine," or "Small pine trees" ; written with locative it, "Place of small pine trees" ; now applied to a small island.