[ganong] INDIAN PLACE-NOMENCLATURE 97 



confirmation in the history of the word, and indeed is offered by l'Abbé Laverdière 

 merely as a suggestion. Such suggestions, however, are dangerous, since they are 

 sure to be adopted by later authors as certainties, as has happened in this case, 

 for Shea, in his edition of Charlevoix's History (I, 253), gives this derivation without 

 any qualification, as if established. Father Charlevoix, by the way, is here made 

 to commit the extraordinar}' error of deriving this word from Peskadamiouk-kanti, 

 (Shea's Charlevoix, 1, 275), whereas the latter word is really one of the original 

 forms of Passamaquoddy, as we shall later note. Another explanation by J. Ham- 

 mond Trumbull, viz.: that it means THE ENTRANCE OF THE RIVER, is given 

 by Wheeler in his History of Castine, 1875, 14, apparently as obtained directly from 

 Mr. Trumbull ; and this seems to involve an echo of the true meaning. 



Summary. — The Name PENTAGOET_is a survival, slightly familiarized, of 

 the Penobscot Indian PEHEM-TE-GOO-AT, composed of the roots PEHEM- 

 TEGOOA-K, signifying literally BROADER-RIVER-PLACE, OR THE BROADER 

 PART OF THE RIVER, in description of the greatly increasing size of the Penobscot 

 River in its lower or tidal part where it merges towards Penobscot Bay. 



The significance of linking together the French Pentagoet and the English 

 Penobscot in the present paper is found partly, of course, in their geographical 

 relations, but partly in the fact that they are nearly enough alike in form to suggest 

 that they may have an identical origin, their divergence being due to familiarization 

 in two different languages. This view seems implied in Slafter's brief note on the 

 name in the Prince Society's edition of Champlain's Voyages, II, 40^ and in Shea's 

 translation of Charlevoix's History, I, 275, and I have myself definitely expressed 

 this opinion in the Champlain Society's edition of Denys' Description and Natural 

 History of Acadia, 97. But in this we were all wrong, as the evidence proves. 



History of the word Penobscot. — The very earliest use of this name that I 

 have been able to find occurs in the Relation of a Voyage to Sagadahoc, by Enghsh- 

 men, in 1607-8 (the well-known Popham Narrative), where it occurs at PENOB- 

 SKOT and PENOBSKOTT (Burrage's edition of Early English and French Voyages, 

 New York, 1906, 405, 413, 414). In this narrative there is not the least trace of 

 any French influence, while on the other hand the expedition had close and friendly 

 relations with the Indians of the Kennebec and neighborhood; and, moreover, 

 they sent an expedition to trade with the Indians of the Penobscot though they did 

 not find the settlement. It seems therefore quite clear that the English obtained 

 the name PENOBSKOT direct from the Indians, and that the word had no connection 

 in its origin with the French PENTAGOET. The word next appears, several 

 times, as PENNOBSCOT and also PENOBSCOT, the present spelling, under the 

 date 1614 in John Smith's GeneroU Histoire, and he applies it both to the Bay and 

 the River, even apparently extending it also to an Indian village at Castine. There- 

 after it is found in all English records right down to the present, of course with 

 many minor variants of spelling. 



Turning, now, to the origin of the word, we find, as the importance of the place 

 would lead us to expect, a considerable literature of its interpretation. First we 

 consider the testimony as to the original location of the name Penobscot. As to 

 this. Springer, in his book above cited (page 186), gives us a positive statement to 

 this effect, "Although Penobscot is now the name of the entire river, it was originally 

 the name of only a section of the main channel, from the head of tide-water to a short 

 distance above Oldtown." Thus the word applied to a part of the river only, and 

 a part above Pentagoet. Greenleaf is more specific, for he both gives the aboriginal 

 form of the name, viz., PE-NOOM'-SKE-OOK (which, in view of the easy inter- 



