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A History of the County of Westchester, Vol. I — Passage 11

Robert Bolton, Jr. (1848) 246 words View original →

[Robert Bolton, Jr. (1848)] warns in 1640, were Ponus, sagamore of Toquams, and Wascus-sue. sagamore of Shippan. Cornelius van Tienhoven, (an early Dutch authority.) in de-scribing the bounds of the Indian territory of Wechquaesqueck, says, "tiiis land is situate between two rivulets called Sint Sinck and Armonck, lying between the East and North rivers."* The term Armonck (here alluded to,) is supposed to have been the original Indian appellation for the Byrani river, whose springs arise from the Comonck hills in this town, sometimes called Coha-mong ridge;^ the last syllable onck or ong^ when taken in connec-tion with the rest of the word, denotes "the place or locality where shells are manufactured into wampum." From this we infer that the seawan (the specie currency of the natives,) was once manufactured in large quantities upon the banks of the Byram or Armonck. It may not be amiss to inform our readers that " Seawant or Seawan was one of the names for Indian money, called also Wampum, Wampum peague, and Peague, which consisted of herds formed of the shells of the Gluahaug,^ or wilk, a shell fish which was formerly very abundant on our coasts, but lately of more rare occurrence. It was of two colors, the black being held of twice the value of the white; indeed the last was formed of an-other shell fish, called Meteauhock, or Periwinkle, also named Suckautock. The current value was six beads of the white or three of the black for an English penny.