178 The Story of The Bronx 



Spuyten Duyvil Creek appears on ancient maps and docu- 

 ments as "Spouting Devil," "Spiking Devil," "Spikendevil," 

 "Spitting Devil," and several other variants, as well as under 

 its Indian name of Muscoota. The origin of the name is 

 problematical. One reason given for it is that near the eastern 

 entrance of the creek, the inflowing tides from the Hudson and 

 Harlem rivers met and caused such a commotion in the water 

 as to make it difficult and dangerous to pass; the waves, or 

 tide rips, throwing the water into the air, or spouting. The 

 second part of the name expresses plainly, but profanely, the 

 feelings of those attempting to use the passage. Another the- 

 ory given by Riker is that the Indians gave it the name of 

 " Spouting Devil" in memory of the attack made upon them by 

 the Half- Moon on her return down the river, when she spouted 

 fire at them from her falcons. This would suppose on the part 

 of the Indians a knowledge of English which they could not 

 have had until nearly sixty years after the event. Still another 

 theory ascribes the name to the spouting spring at the foot of 

 Cock Hill, Manhattan; and Riker quotes from an old record 

 of 1672, which calls it expressly, Spuyten Duyvil, alias the 

 Fresh Spring. He also states that, in consequence, this 

 section was known for many years as the Spring. John Adams, 

 in his diary, calls it the Uncas River, possibly meaning Yonkers 

 River, one of the names by which Tippett's Brook was some- 

 times known. 



The most popular origin of the name is that given by 

 Washington Irving, whose descriptions have such verisimili- 

 tude that they have almost passed into authentic history. 

 In describing the capture of New Amsterdam by the English, 

 in 1664, Diedrich Knickerbocker says that when the British 

 appeared off the city in September, 1664, Stuyvesant sent 

 his trumpeter, Anthony Van Corlaer, to arouse the surround- 



