The sweeping verdure of a nearly unbroken forest on the one bank, and precipitous, wild, pine-clad rocks on the other, bordered a land of mysterious possibilities and unguessed extent. Early writers have noticed particularly the prevalent abundance of the wild grapes that in their season filled the air with spicv perfume. Yet the forests were not uninhabited, for from every covert, every little cove or bay along the shores, the canoes of the Indians put out to intercept or at least to approach the "yacht" of the voyager. The names of tribes and sub-tribes have in large part been prei r

Introductory 9

served in local names, some of which are in familiar use until this day. The Indian name for the Palisades is said to have been Weh-awk-en; awk, the middle s^dlable, meaning "rocks that resemble trees." If this is the correct etymology and apidication of the name, we may wonder how it happened to slip its moorings and drop down with the tide to the present Weehawken, where it has remained since the Dutch first gained possession of the banks of the lower Hudson. An etymology, like a horse, may be a vain thing for safety and carries our faith on many a break-neck journey into the land of speculation. There is, however, for those who have sufficient patience and enthusiasm, a delightful study in those old Indian names that cover the Hudson and its tributarv waters with |)oly syllabic strangeness. The Rev. Charles E. AUison says of the Algonquin tongue, in which these names had their birth, that it "was agglutinative. The wild men of the rapid water settlement strung words together in an extended compound. " In their language the region now known as Westchester County became Laaphawachking, which meant the place w^here beads are strung.