GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES ON THE COAST OF MAINE. 
BRUNSWICK, MAINE, July, 1869. 
Str: In compliance with the proposals addressed to me June 30, 1868, [ have the honor to 
present to you the following attempt at an examination of the geographical nomenclature of the 
coast of Maine, for the purpose of furnishing a list of the names of Indian origin, with their proper 
orthography, so far as it now can be ascertained, and their interpretation ; and also names. given by 
early settlers, or others coming from European shores ; and when practicable the dates when these 
latter began to be used as terms of specific designation; and to add such historical notes as may 
be desirable for the further elucidation of the points thus brought into view. 
In regard to the names derived from the language of the aborigines of this territory, difficulty 
arises from yarious causes. 
The first is found in the changes produced by dialectie departures from the one original lan- 
euage. This language has been properly named the Abndki, derived from the primitive words, 
wanban, white, and akki, also written auke, land or place, forming the compound word Waibanahkki.' 
As the light of the morning, before the rising of the sun, was an object of great interest to the 
wild men of the woods, in the pursuit of their game or their foes, they applied the term vwaiiban, in 
one of its definitions, to denote “the clear morning light;” and then to designate the part of the 
heavens where it first appeared. Thus, the compound word was used to signify the “ east-land,” 
and, as a consequence, if was also applied to distinguish the language. By usage and the tendency 
of that usage to diminish the number of syHables, especially by foreigners, the name has been 
shortened to Abnaki,? though the forms Abenaki and Abenaqui are sometimes used, with an equal 
respect for the origin of the name, which was not only adopted by the Indians of Maine, but was 
also applied to them by their fellow-natives living at the west of their territory.® 
The name Algonquin has also been adopted to denote this language, which was not only the 
outlet of thought for the several tribes of the region now known as Maine, but seryed a similar 
purpose for all the tribes of New England, the new “ Dominion of Canada,” and the chief-parts 
of the present States lying north of North Carolina and Kentucky, and those in the Northwest 
beyond the Mississippi. Indeed, it may be said to have spread over all the North from the Gulf of 
St. Lawrence to the prairies of the West, with its northern limit bordered by the Esquimaux; ex- 
cepting from its range the entirely distinct language of the Hodénosaunee, ‘The People of the 
Long House,” known in our history as the Six Nations of the Iroquois! in New York, and the tribes 
residing on the borders of Lakes Erie, Huron, and St. Clair. This name Algonquin or Algonkin is 
taken from a small tribe in Canada,? and in this wide sense is of only a recent application.® It is 
convenient, as not being limited by a narrow geographical restriction like Abnaki; and may well 
be allowed to keep the place which Indian scholars seem willing to permit it to have. 
‘In pronouncing this word the Indians add the sound of m after the first ii, which RAle introduces in the word 
araiimkik, “sous la terre ;” and give a peculiar rush of guttural breath, not to be represented by letters. 
*Rale’s Dictionary of the Norridgewock dialect, Pickering’s Preface, in Memoirs of the American Academy, Vol. I, 
new series, p. 372. 
‘ Heckewelder, Hist. Acct. of Indian Nations, pp. 25, 107, 109, 111, who wrote MWapanachki. 
‘ Morgan’s “ League of the Iroquois,” 1851. 
* Lescarbot speaks of the Etechemins, the Algoumequins, and the Montagnés as together sending a thousand men 
against the Troquois, With an allowable liberty he writes the name differently from the now more common form. 
Hist, Nouv. France, Liv. 111, ch. 10. Mass. H. Coll., 2d ser., X, 131. 
° La Hontan, however, in 1715 gave more than thirty tribes as using this dialect. But his testimony is somewhat 
marred by including the Esquimanx in the number. Tome II, pp, 36-38, 
