504 A NOTE ON THE ETYMON OF ONTARIO. 



"Abridged Narrative of the Jesuit Missions in New France," pub- 

 lished in Montreal in 1852,) our Lake figures as Lacus Ontarins seu 

 S. Ludovici. But then, in a " Chorographia Regionum Huronum " 

 on a larger scale, given in the corner of the same map, the name 

 appears as Lacus — not Ontavius — but Ouentaronius — a circumstance 

 to which in a few moments I shall draw your especial attention, 

 inasmuch as, I think, we have here a clue to a more legitimate mode 

 of accounting for the word Ontario than any of those that have 

 already been described. 



Our Lakes generally, have received appellations from tribes in- 

 habiting their borders. 



Erie is an aboriginal name curtailed and disguised. The French 

 maps give it as Erie, with an accent, (said to be softened from Erige 

 or Erike,) and they interpret it to mean Lac du Chat, " Cat Lake," 

 from a tribe which speedily disappeared, at least, under that designa- 

 tion, whose totem probably was the lynx or wild cat, or who may thus 

 have been nicknamed by their enemies. In du Creux's map it is 

 ' Lacus Erius seu Felis. So in Hennepin's map it is Lac Erie ou du 

 Chat, This appears to have been the Huron name ; whilst among 

 the Iroquois it was known as the Lake of the Tejocharontiong , (Hen- 

 nepin) or Techaronhion, (de Courcelles.) In Champlain's map Lake 

 Erie does not appear : a rather broad stream connecting Lakes Huron 

 and Ontario occupies its place. In Lewis Morgan's Aboriginal Map 

 (1851) the Lake is marked Doshoweh Tecarneodi, evidently a local 

 appellation from Doshoweh the name of the entrance to Buffalo 

 Creek, where the city of Buffalo now stands. This Doshoweh is 

 stated by Morgan to mean " Splitting the Fork," although earlier 

 writers, giving the word Deoseoioa, (Seneca) or Tehoseroro, (^Mohawk) 

 educe from it the more elegant signification of " Place of the Linden 

 or Basswood tree." 



Lake Michigan retains an aboriginal name, having the vague sig- 

 nification of " Great Lake." Hennepin, howevei-, informs us that it 

 possessed also the more distinctive appellation of " Lac des Illinois," 

 derived from the neighboring native tribes. And "Illinois," he 

 assures us, signifies — like the ancient German Teutones, — "people," 

 braves, perhaps, or heroes ; so that du Creux, in his Latin map, instead 

 of naming this lake Magnus Lacus Algo7iquinorum as he does, might 

 have termed it Magnus Lacus Firorum. (Algonquinorum seems to be 



