Aside from a critical rendering, it would seem to be evident that all the interpretations are in error, not in the translation of the name as a Mohawk word-sentence, but in the assumption that Schenectady was primarily a Mohawk phrase, instead of a confusion of the Mohawk Skannatati with the original Dutch Schaenhecstede, the primary application of which is amply sustained by official record, while the Mohawk term is without standing in that connection, or later except as a corrupt Mohawk-Dutch^ substitution. The facts of primary application may be briefly stated. The deed from the Mohawk owners of the Schenectady flats, in 1661, reads: "A certain parcel of land called in Dutch the Groote Vlachte, lying hehind Fort Orange, betzveen the same and the Mohawk country called in Indian Skonowe." Skonowe is the equivalent of the Dutch "great flat," and nothing more. Its Mohaw'k equivalent is written on the section Shenondohawah , which the Dutch reduced to Skonowe. (See Shannondhoi.) Van der Donck wrote on his map (1656), in pure Dutch, Schoon Vlaack Land, or "Fine flat land." It was not continued in application to the Dutch settlement, the proprietors of which immediately (1661) gave to it the Dutch name Schaenechstede, "as the town came to be called." (Munsell's Annals of Albany, ii, 49, 52; Brodhead's Hist. N. Y., i, 691.) Under that name the tract was surveyed (1664), and it has remained apparent in the sviithesis of the many corrupt forms in which it is of record. Schaenechstede is a clear orthographic pronunciation of the Dutch Schoonehetstede, signifying, literally, "The beautiful town." The syllable het is properly hek, "fence, rail, gate," etc., and in this connection indicates an enclosed or palisaded town. In 1680, Schaenschentendeel appears -- a pronunciation of Schoonehet-