Page:The National Geographic Magazine Vol 16 1905.djvu/132

Rh terms found in New Jersey and in Virginia, for example, tell a similar bit of history:

New Jersey Virginia Musconetcong Chickahominy Hopatcong Mallapony Pohatcong Potomac Watchung Rappahannock Minnisink Shenandoah Navesink Appomattox

When we pass into South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, we find an entirely different set of sounds predominating in the geographical words:

Allapoha Chattahoochie Altamaha Auchee Hachee Tallapoosa Caloosahatchee Oostanaula Chilloccohatchee Soquee Choctawhatchee Oconee Contoohatchee Ohoopee Fahkahnatchee Ochmulgee Ulcofauhachee Kissimmee Withlochoochee

While 17 streams in Florida have names ending in ee, only 3 in the nearby State of Mississippi have such names, suggesting that tribal boundaries were, on the whole, rather definite, and that tribal dialects dominated over well-de- fined areas. These geographical words show how widely the Indian dialects dif- fered in their prevailing sounds. The ear of the Iroquois evidently delighted in vowel sounds, and most of the Iroquois geographical names terminate in avowel, usually a or o. The tribes of New Eng- land show no such preference. In fact, their long words, loaded with conso- nants, seem like a train of half articu- late grunts. The tribes of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia had more musical ears and dialects. Most of the words which they have bequeathed us are pleasant to the ear and flow smoothly from the tongue. But when one exam- ines the words by which the red men of the South Atlantic States called their lakes and rivers, he is led at once to sus- pect that a crew of shipwrecked Chinese must some time have been stranded on these shores and have tacked to the orig- inal names a liberal sprinkling of char- acteristic Chinese ee's. With the excep- tion of the Great Lakes region, the Atlantic coastal states are the only ones which are fully strewn with Indian names. Other regions have them, but not in abundance.

There are other linguistic trails over our land besides those left by the red men. Up the Hudson and Mohawk goes the trail of the Dutchman, his footsteps marked by Fishkill, Catskill, Peekskill, and Shawangunk Kill ; by Rhinebeck and Rhinecliff ; by Stuyvesant, Rens- selaer, and Amsterdam.

In northern New York and Vermont is the trail of the Frenchman who dotted his path with Richelieu, Ausable, St Albans, Vergennes, and other terms of Gallic sound. The so-called Pennsylvania Dutchman has spread himself thoroughly over the land of Pennsylvania, and still reminds us of his nationality by the several hundred burghs which he founded. The Swede has left a memorial of himself along the Delaware in Swedesburg,Swedeland, Swedes' Ford, and Swede Furnace.

The trail of the explorer-priest extends from the mouth of the St Law- rence to the mouth of the Mississippi and along the larger branches of both rivers. His mind was bent upon missionary enterprises and his calendar was filled with saints' days. Those who came after him — to hunt, to trap, to trade, or to settle — were like him — Frenchmen and Catholics — admirers of the saints, whose names they gave to the rivers which they discovered, the trading posts, and the forts which they established or the settlements which they made. Such are St Lawrence, St John, St Peter, St Hyacinthe, St Catherine, St Thomas, St Mary, St Paul, St Anthony, St Joseph, St Charles, St Louis, St Francis, and St Martin, all and many more scattered along the path of the French explorers from Newfound-