Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/37

 1868.] The Penn Treaty-Ground and a Monument to William Penn. 17 tablets. Trees might be planted on the borders of the pier ; and should be, of course, throughout the square, among which elm of the species of the treaty tree should be foremost. Every thing- connected with this memorial pleasure- ground should be of the most elegant description. Pennsylvania cannot be too profuse in honor of her Founder. With organization and concert of action a very trifling sum from each inhabitant of the City and the State would provide ample means for this imperative demand of public gratitude and esteem for the wisdom and the virtue of our founder, WILLIAM PENN. The reader will please bear in mind that the accompanying maps — prepared with great care from data, furnished b}* Jonathan Eggleton, Esq., Draughtsman in the Registry Bureau of the Citjr Sur- veyor's Office — present the old measur- ably natural shore lines, and not the artificial additions made to reach the Port Wardens' line, which is from 300 to 500 feet further out in the river, there being now about as much made ground beyond the shore line of the special treaty plot, as the width of the tract depicted in the larger scaled map, or nearly 400 feet. THE PLACE. Shackamaxon, the place of the eels, which may have been corrupted, both by territorial and euphonic proximity, from Sakimaxing, the place of the chiefs* — a tract, or tracts, now known as the Sixteenth, Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and •the place of the eels,' from Schacharuek, the Indian name of that kind of fish." Ancient records, not seen by- Mr. Heckewelder, give it Saclzamexing, or Sachemexing . This makes an important difference. Sakima (our Sachem) means, in the Delaware language, a king, or chief ; ing, the Indian termination, indicating locality, or the place where. Thus, Sackamexing may naturally be explained as "theplace" where the chiefs meet or resort. The"a;" is for euphony ; euphonic consonants being very common in the Indian tongues. — Du Ponceau. Singular that the Indians should be in this particular as fastidious as the modern French. Watson, in his Annals, remarks that Edward Duffield told his son he had heard Shackamaxon meant the field, of Mood, from a great Indian battle once part of the Nineteenth wards, Kensing- ton, Philadelphia, — is world-renowned for the Great Treaty with the Indian nations made, in 16S2, by William Penn. As just noted, philologists differ, not about the etymology, but the name of this celebrated locality. Here is a curious point. The Hon. Henry D. Gilpin, in 1851, replying to Granville John Penn, Esq., who had the moment before presented the Historical Society of Pennsylvania with the veritable belt of wampum, passed from the savages to Penn, in ratification of the Treaty, ut- tered a pertinent sentiment, here very slightly amplified: "A treaty not au- thenticated by" [any known] "contem- poraiy written record * * * still rests, after more than one hundred and seventy years, on an unbroken and unvarying tradition," [among both the red men and the white,] " but the incidents in relation to it, which have, from time to time, been successively developed," [always] "verify and never contradict it." So the theory of the writer, with respect to these two names. Both are, with extreme probability, correct. Shackamaxon was, incontestibly, the name of a considerable district, much larger than that represented by Saki- maxing. Judge Richard Peters tells us, that the Delaware in this general neigh- borhood washed a sandy beach. The writer knows, and it is within the mem- ory of many citizens of Philadelphia, that a fine beach of sand and pebblesf stretched along the present Richmond front, and far above towards Point- no-Point. This will not apply to " the place of the eels." But Cohocksink creek ran, as it now runs, from its source, about a mile due east of South Laurel Hill, in a general southeasterly direction, to where it meets the tide, say near Second and Laurel streets. Below this, fought there; and further that the Delaware Missionary Lukeubach said it was a Delaware word, allowing for a little variation in spelling, signifying, a child not able to take care of itself. But both of these etymologies are more than doubtful. — Ed. t A great resort of boyhood in quest of jack-stones.
 * Mr. Heckewelder says: "Shackamaxon signifies