DID THE ROMANS COLONIZE AMERICA ? 373 



Saxapahaw is one of the roughest and rockiest rivers in N. C, — the , ledges of 

 granite over which the waters break aiding in developing the immense power of 

 the river. The Saxatchawan (with its Celtic Acha) is the rockiest and most pow- 

 erful river in the British American possessions. The only river in the Gulf States 

 having a native Indian name that contains the term ska is so proverbially rough 

 that in common English parlance it is known as "the Flint" (of Alabama). The 

 aboriginal name, is Thro-na-dee-ska. Two ancient river terms are revealed in 

 this word, in addition to the unknown prefix and the Sanscrit suffix. 



The Sanscrit suffix is in many native Indian names; but it is rendered in 

 various (modern) orthographies. '-Ska," "sea," " scaw," "sco," "scow," and 

 "scot" are all versions of the one true word — the latter (scot) supposed to be an 

 original French rendering, the final t silent. The term ska is often in old nomen- 

 clatures, especially in the rough and frozen regions of Europe and Asia. In 

 addition to the American words already mentioned, we see it in Nebraska, 

 Alaska, Yamaska, Athabaska, Caniapascaw, Androscoggin, and in numerous 

 others. (The latter name is correctly written Ame-ri-sca-gan.) The Caniapas- 

 caw is variously written. It is sometimes given as Caniapuscow. It is well 

 known, however, that all the existent orthographies for our Indian names are 

 chiefly conjectural and fanciful. The various writings are but the efforts of scribes 

 to give transcripts of the syllabic sounds contained in the words. There are no 

 •cofnmon and universal methods of expressing in written characters all syllabic 

 sounds — especially the sounds of a foreign tongue. This fact has given rise to 

 difficulties long recognized and wide-spread in literature, and especially geograph- 

 ical literature; and also in the nmenoclatures of the human families. It is well 

 known that the transcripts we have for nearly all the words in Oriental languages 

 do not correctly represent the names as they exist in the native speech. Exam- 

 ination of our "authorities" on the Indian language shows the uncertainties that 

 exist in the minds of our learned men in regard to aboriginal American names. 

 We often find several transcripts of one word recorded in order that the reader 

 may recognize the difficulties encountered in arriving at the true othography. 

 The etymology of the Indian language is yet to be reduced to a science; its pres- 

 ent orthography is but a field of conjecture, as we have seen. 



To illustrate this fate we cite a name which has been written in one of the 

 previous paragraphs as the Winne-pisc-aqua. Our authorities say that Winni- 

 piseogee, Winnepisockee^ and Winnepesocket are all recognized methods of writing 

 the word. The latter with its final /, betrays the hand of a French writer. We 

 desire to notice in a future article the terms in this name more fully, giving our 

 reasons for writing the word differently from modern geographers. For the pres- 

 ent, we wish to discuss further the diverse methods of expressing in English the 

 syllabic sounds in the Indian. 



There is a corruption of Acha (aka, with the hard sound) often found in the 

 river nomenclatures of the world with an expression, rendered, in English /r.3«««- 

 xiation, as eka or ekuh. It is variously written by geographers as "eco," "ico," 

 ■*'ika," "eque," "ega," "ucuh," "ucah," "aga," etc. In the Russian language 



