the authorities at Albany endeavored to check the alarm and to discourage removal, for with the occasional visits of small bodies of Indians from the North, to the vicinity, with the killing of settlers, the future of the town was unpropitious. But after a time the villagers began slowly to return, safe-guarded by a force of Mohawks who were making their home at the place, and reaping the wheat which had been sown the previous fall. Five years after the calamity twenty-six houses had been erected and the continuance of the existence of the town was assured.

Despite the dangers of frontier life, settlements along the Mohawk westward began slowly to develop, the friendly attitude of the Five Nations affording considerable assurance of safety from the French and Indians, while the northern wilderness, from the dread entertained of these ferocious people, remained practically uninhabited until the English became masters of Canada in 1760. Schenectady gradually obtained importance as a navigation terminal and shipping point, for trade and travel in those early days, owing to the primitive roads, followed almost entirely the water routes. After the year 1727, when free trade was granted in the Province, the place, which had so long been under the prohibitive rule of Albany, sprang to renown as a great shipping and trading town. In the early days transportation on the river had been by canoes alone, but as the demands became greater, larger boats, called batteaux, were added, and these proving of not sufficient capacity, the "Durham," as it was called was introduced. This was a flat-bottomed vessel carrying from fifteen to twenty tons, equipped with sails and propelled also with oars and poles. For a distance of twenty-one miles west of Schenectady, or to Fort Hunter, the Mohawk has many rifts and shallows, and the current being swift, difficulty was experienced, particularly during low water, in navigating the large boats. This difficulty was in part overcome by the removal of stones from the channel and disposing them in a V shaped manner, pointing down-stream, so that a sufficient depth might thus be obtained. As the volume of trade increased to large proportions, a company was formed which devoted itself to improving navigation by means of dams, and of canals around the more difficult places.

The east bank of the Binne Kill, just west of what is now Washington Avenue, became a busy place of wharves, storehouses and shipping companies, with the Binne Kill crowded with Durhams and

smaller craft, while the streets adjoining were filled with trucks setting out for or coming in from Albany. Boat building had grown to a great industry along the Mohawk, with Schenectady the chief center of this occupation, in which were engaged here numerous concerns; the Van Slycks, Vrooman & Van Epps and others. Among the freighting companies were Yates & Mynderse, Jacob S. Glen & Co. and other firms. Finley & Elias and John Duncan & Co., both wholesale merchants, had branch houses in Montreal, Detroit and London. It is difficult to realize the vast volume of trade which Schenectady handled in those years and the extent of its influence upon the development of the country. Through its gates passed the traffic, freight and passenger, to and from the rapidly growing West, for it lay upon the only direct water route then, as now, to the western parts of the country, and it later became the most available line by canal and rail.

But all this prosperity, developed slowly through many years and from the smallest beginnings, was blasted by the great fire of 1819 which swept away the entire business and forwarding portion of the town, ceasing not until more than a hundred buildings had been consumed. The wharves, storehouses and freight establishments which lined the Binne Kill were destroyed, and the resulting desolation rendered reminiscent of the burning of the same portion of the town in 1690. But Schenectady from other causes had come again to a time of folding of hands and of silence, for the hand of destiny had drawn the line of limitation for a season to Schenectady's business and manufacturing enterprises; the Erie Canal was being excavated to be opened six years later, while the advent of 1831, when a railway between the town and Albany began to be operated, was not far away. Under these conditions the buildings along the Binne Kill were never restored, the place subsided into a quiet, inland city and that portion which had been a noisy place of traffic, became a community of fine old mansions and sedate, conservative families. Greater things, Greater things, however, were in store for Schenectady; the very advantages of transportation, trade and shipping which had appealed to Van Curler and Glen, were to make it the path of the Erie Canal and of the great four-track railway which passes through the city, and to attract to it the great manufacturing plants which have given it a name throughout the world.

Its WGY broadcasting station is flashing its fame to unnum

bered thousands, and strange to say, the Binne Kill is again the scene of activity after its long term of hibernation, for the wharves of the terminal of the Barge Canal are now upon its bank, and instead of the little Durhams lading and unlading there, huge barges with their enormous cargoes of 2,500 tons tie up to the docks of that ancient place of traffic. Great manufacturing industries have from time to time adopted Schenectady as their home; in 1851 John Ellis was the leading spirit in the beginning here of the manufacture of locomotives, which in later years developed into the American Locomotive Company employing more than 3,000 men, and now, as throughout the many years of its existence, a leading source of Schenectady's prosperity and wealth. Then the Westinghouse Company moved their plant to the city and developed their great agricultural machinery industry, and in 1886 the General Electric Company, which has proved the most colossal asset of the city's material resources, began its great career, which has been alluded to.

Of Schenectady's interesting educational and church history, particularly of Union University and the First Dutch Reformed church, which latter organization has existed practically since the first settlement of the town, nothing at this time can be said; nor is there room to even mention many other phases of this old town's annals which render it of rare value to the student of American history. But above and beyond all other interest which Schenectady possesses is the spirit of civil and religious liberty which the place has stood for and fostered since the first settlement of it was made. Not only those two most conspicuous heroes of the early days, Arendt Van Curler and Alexander Lindsay Glen, but all the number of the original proprietors were men of strong convictions concerning the rights of man. They knew that the place they had chosen wherein they might lived unvexed, so far as possible, by the venal and oppressive rule of the two rival powers at Albany, was a dangerous situation. Immediately about them were the Mohawks, friendly as the friendship of savages may be counted, but fickle and treacherous, with their goodwill principally due to the facility with which they could obtain rum and firearms from the Dutch. To the North was ever the threatening cloud of the French and their allied Indians, small parties of which, like famished wolves, were frequently prowling along the Mohawk. But the settlers counted the cost, assumed the risk, that they might at least have the semblance

of a republic in their little exposed frontier village. Their primary object was not trade or agriculture, but freedom.

Here might well have been erected the Capitol of the State of New York, as was proposed during the Revolution by prominent citizens of the Commonwealth. Under date of October 7, 1779, John Jay wrote Governor George Clinton as follows:

"There is another matter which I think deserves attention; it is the seat of Government. On this subject I have bestowed much thought. The Result is, perfect and Full Conviction that Schenectady is the only proper place in the State, and the sooner the Idea is adopted and carried into Execution the better."

Just what arguments in favor of the plan were advanced are not available, though no doubt the place being the gateway of the East to the West, rendering it at that time easily accessible to citizens of all parts of the State, was prominent as an inducement to establish the State government here on the high grounds south of the Mohawk. But while Schenectady lost the Capital, it has a distinction greater than magnificent architecture or high statesmanship can endow,-a history born of liberty, chastened by tragedy, exalted by religion, cultivated by education and enriched by industry.

REFERENCES: A History of the Schenectady Patent (Pearson), Albany, 1883; The Early History of Schenectady (Saunders), Albany, 1879; Schenectady, Ancient and Modern (Monroe), Schenectady, 1914; The Old Mohawk-Turnpike Book (Greene), Fort Plain, New York, 1924; Documentary History of New York (O'Callaghan, Vol. I), Albany, 1849; Documents Relating to the Colonial History of the State of New York (O'Callaghan, Vol. IX, p. 466), Albany, 1855; History of the United States (Bryant and Gay, Vol. III, p. 18), New York, 1879; History of the Province of New York (Smith), Philadelphia, 1792; Stories From Early New York History (Williams), New York, 1910; The Empire State (Lossing), Hartford, 1888.

Pacific Coast Place Names in the

State of Washington

By FRANCIS E. SMITH, TACOMA, WASHINGTON

LACE names belong, in a great measure, to the language of the past. All over the United States a very large proportion of the place names are derived from the aboriginal language of the Indians, English, Colonists, Spanish and French explorers. Many of the Pacific Coast place names in the State of Washington are derived from the aboriginal language of the Indians, and from the language of American and British explorers. With the American explorers the most popular names for geographical features were the names of Revolutionary heroes, such as Washington, Hancock, Montgomery and others. With the British explorers the most popular names for similar purpose were those of their king and men who served in the British navy during the American War for Independence. With Spanish explorers these names were chosen from their saints.

Bellingham Bay-Vancouver distinguished the bay on whose shores the city of Bellinghan stands, as Bellingham's Bay, without any explanation as to the man for whom he named the body of water. The Spaniards discovered the bay in 1791. Vancouver named other geographical features with names of minor import

ance.

Cape Disappointment-August 17, 1775, Spanish navigators discovered indications of a river on the south side of Cape Disappointment; they named the cape, San Roque. If they had followed up the indications of a river they would have discovered the Columbia River, the Great River of the West. John Meares followed the Spanish navigator, July 6, 1788, and examined the bay on the south side of Cape San Roque for the river mentioned by the Spanish navigator; not finding it he wrote in his journal that no such river existed. He named the point of land, Cape Disappointment,