iv PREFACE. 



me tliat " the word has suffered considerable mutila- 

 tion. It has certainly lost its first syllable, which is a 

 common occurrence with Anglicized native words. I 

 take it to be a synthesis of ach-poan^ corn-bread, and 

 ach-gussen^ to roast or cook, with the locative termina- 

 tion nk. Hence the full form would be achpoachgus- 

 sink, and would mean ' the place of corn-bread baking.' " 



Says good Thomas Campanius, of Stockholm, " Poaet- 

 qnissings Creek is by nature provided with everything 

 that man can desire;" but where is Poaetquissings 

 Creek ? 



The map of the Delaware River made by Peter Lind- 

 strom in 1054, and described by Campanius in his quaint 

 little "History of New Sweden," has been a source of 

 amusement to me ever since I dared venture alone in a 

 boat. I have been trying, whenever opportunity offered, 

 to determine to what points he referred in his brief de- 

 scriptions, and have never felt discouraged, even though 

 the more accurate Acrelins, writing some years later, 

 remarks, " Aquikonasra, Warentapeeka, Trakonick, Po- 

 actquessing, Meneieck, etc., etc., are forgotten places." 



Wandering on the river from point to point, I find, 

 even now, many curious features, as I explore the little 

 inflowing creeks, or pause at the mouth of some pre- 

 tentious stream, as it empties into the river, and say, 

 " Perhaps this is Aquikonasra ;" or, chancing in winter 

 upon some open water, ask, " Can this be Warenta- 

 peeka?" Campanius says of the latter, it is a spot 



