PREFACE. V 



where the water never freezes, and swans abound at 

 all seasons. If the half-hidden stream that I enter is 

 choked with wild weeds, and I ani stopped by the ab- 

 sence of a defined channel, I recall what our author 

 says of Trakonick, "It is difficult to navigate through 

 this part." 



Now, as a matter of fact, there are not so many 

 creeks, on the Jersey side, emptying into the Delaware 

 between the falls and the capes, as Lindstrora mentions 

 or Campanius describes in detail, and we can only con- 

 clude that two or more names refer, in some cases, to 

 the same stream, or the creek and the land it drained 

 were known by different names. In either case, we 

 have left us no alternative but to guess which is which, 

 and, so doing, I conclude that the little stream near by, 

 which I have at times called Popihacka and Meneieck, 

 as fancy suggested, may, after all, be that which our 

 author mentions in so striking a manner when he says, 

 " At Poaetquissings Creek ... is everything that man 

 can desire." 



The tangible little stream to which I refer, whatever 

 name it possessed in Indian times, is the second below 

 the rapids of the river, or where the Assunpink emp- 

 ties into the Delaware, and is very near, if not quite, with- 

 in the region mentioned by Campanius when he says, 

 " From Trakonick, and farther up on the east side of 

 the river, the soil is fine, and bears black maize of the 

 color of tar ; the Indians have planted it there for many 



