[Edward Manning Ruttenber (1906)] The name, however, has no reference to a pass, path, village or chief; it is a pronunciation of _Wecuppe,_ "The place of basswoods or linden trees," from the inner bark of which (_wikopi_) "the Indians made ropes and mats--their tying bark par excellence." (Trumbull.) "_Wikbi_, bast, the inner bark of trees." (Zeisberger.) In Webster and The Century the name is applied to the Leather-wood, a willowy shrub with a tough, leathery bark. Matteawan, now so written, has retained that orthography since its first appearance in 1685 in the Rombout Patent, which reads: "Beginning on the south side of a creek called Matteawan," the exact boundmark being the north side or foot of the hill known as Breakneck (_Matomps'k_). It has been interpreted in various ways, that most frequently quoted appearing in Spofford's Gazetteer: "From _Matai,_ a magician, and _Wian,_ a skin; freely rendered, 'Place of good furs,'" which never could have been the meaning; nor does the name refer to mountains to which it has been extended. Wm. R. Gerard writes: "_Matáwan,_ an impersonal Algonquian verb, meaning, 'It debouches into,' _i. e._ 'a creek or river into another body of water,' substantially, 'a confluence.'" This rendering is confirmed by Albert S. Gatschet, of the Bureau of Ethnology, who writes: "Mr.