ance had been nearly exhausted; and the vestry volunteered to continue the collection of rents, from those who occupied the property of absentees, although, at the same time, it expressed a hope that Sir Henry would "be pleased to give directions that the poor might be relieved and kept from perishing by some other means."

poor of the city; and several plans were proposed to Sir Henry Clinton, the commander-in-chief, for raising a fund for the purposes of that body-among them a project was submitted for levying a tax, such as had been usually paid for poor-rates, while the Colonial authorities had remained in power. Sir Henry considered the subject well, but steadily refused to approve The general appears to have responded any plan which would have imposed taxa- to the appeal of the vestry, which the "reption on the citizens; and, after having resentation" referred to had conveyed to placed the out-door poor, the almshouse, him; and the authority to continue the colthe city pumps, and the cleaning of the lection of rents, from those who occupied streets in its custody, and added the mayor the property of absentees, was extended,* of the city, and the overseer of the poor, to while other means of supporting the objects its membership, he made an order, giving of the vestry were, subsequently, from time authority to the vestry to demand and col- to time, placed under its control. The lect rents, for the half-year which would keepers of taverns and public-houses were terminate on the first day of May, 1778, first subjected to the payment of licenses; from all persons who had entered and occu- and those in default were ordered to be pied the property of those friends of the fined or imprisoned-the proceeds from popular cause who had left the city, and which were ordered to be paid to the treas remained outside the lines, for the liquida-urer of the vestry. Bakers were subjected tion of its expenses.

to the orders of the police authorities, in the weight and price of their loaves; and fines were imposed on delinquents, the proceeds of which were also appropriated to the uses of the vestry. The farmers on Long Island and Staten Island were ordered to reserve sufficient grain for the support of their own families and for the sowing of their own lands; the remainder of their crops was to be thrashed, brought to market, and sold at fixed prices, which were regu

The fund arising from the rents referred to, amounted to £2244 28. 10d.; from which, to the ninth of July, 1778-when the vestry published a synopsis of its accounts, there had been paid for cleaning the streets and slips, £900; for provisions, wood, &c., for the almshouse, £200; for repairing the city pumps, £94 68. 6d.; and for the relief of the out-door poor, £119 0s. 6d. ; and in a "representation" which was presented to Sir Henry, on that day," The mayor, ves-lated, from time to time, by the military autry, and overseer of the poor" had "the satisfaction to be able to lay before his Excellency proofs that many hundreds of lives had been saved by the judicious benevolent regulation before referred to, which was attended with this singular circumstance, that the good it had done to many had been accompanied with no hardship, force, or penalty on any-it could be no injury to a man possessed of a house, without any claim or title, to be told that, if he did not pay, for the relief of the poor, the rent which, at another time, he would have paid the owner, he must quit the house."

It was 66 represented" also, on the occasion referred to, that the poor had increased in numbers, and the funds for their mainten

thorities. Those who might "demand, offer, or receive" any greater price than that which had been thus fixed by the military commandant of the city, being also subjected to heavy penalties, one half of which was ordered to be paid into the treasury of the vestry.§ Fines were also inflicted for neg

* Order of General Jones, December 7, 1778; Noti

ces of the Treasurer of the Vestry to Tenants.
Orders of the commandant of the city, December
1, 1778; January 1, and July 5, and December 29,
1780.

July 7, 1779; February 8, March 15, and November 20,
Assize of bread, by orders dated January 22, and
1780; January 11, and March 22, 1782, &c. See, also,
the regulated price of ship bread, by orders dated Feb-
ruary 10, and July 7, 1779, &c.

§ Proclamation of Sir Henry Clinton, Dec. 20, 1777; and of Major-general Jones, Jan. 22, 1779; order of the

*

except the members of volunteer military companies, the firemen of the city, and members of the Society of Friends, to enroll themselves in the militia, and otherwise to comply with the regulations which had been ordered for its government; and the practice of "engrossing and forestalling any kind of victuals and provisions in this town," or the violation of other of the "MARKET REGULATIONS" which have been ordered by the commandant of the city,† also subjected the delinquents to heavy penalties, moieties of which were, from time to time, added to the funds of the city, under the control of the vestry.

lect of duty by the city watchmen for neglect, by owners of "all boats and small craft bringing provisions, fuel, forage, or fish to this city," to obtain passes for their vessels from the office of police, and for any other violation of the "regulations" ordered for their government; for violations of the order concerning the storage of pitch, tar, turpentine, rosin, spirits of turpentine or shingles within the limits of the city; for disregarding the orders establishing “REGULATIONS FOR THE SECURITY OF THE SHIPS AND VESSELS LYING AT THE DIFFER ENT WHARVES ON THE EAST AND NORTH RIVERS" for a refusal, by a public city cartman, "to take up the first load that was offered to him on the stand," when disengaged; or for "presuming to drive any iron-bound cart, truck, or other carriage, within this city, for the carrying of any goods, wares, merchandise, firewood, or other things whatsoever, for hire or wages; and the proceeds of these penalties were ordered to be paid to the treasurer of the vestry, for the purposes of its organization. Any neglect, by the inhabitants, of the regulations for cleaning the streets of the city,** or its wharves,ft &c., and the expo- WOOD'S "NEW ENGLAND PROSPECT."sure of goods for sale at auction, on the In the year 1764, there was reprinted in custom-house bridge, without having first Boston, "by Thomas and John Fleet, in obtained a permit from the police authori- Cornhill; and Green & Russell, in Queenties; the imposition on purchasers of fire- street," an edition of Wood's "New Engwood, of exorbitant prices therefor; $$ or land Prospect." The edition is called the the exposure, for sale, of cord-wood which third. The work was edited, but we find was less than four feet in length; the no clue to the name of the editor. Perneglect or refusal, by any of the male in-haps some of your antiquarian readers will habitants more than seventeen years of age, police magistrates, April 12, 1779; order of Brigadiergeneral Birch, Sept. 30, 1780.

*Order of the commandant of the city, May 21, + Proclamation of Major-general Patterson, July 22,

1779.

1779.

The very important body, to which I have referred-"the vestry" of the city"had a treasurer and secretary, the former to receive and pay moneys on their account, and the latter to keep minutes of their proceedings. . . . Their treasurer was accountable for the payment and receipt of all moneys on their account, not only to the vestry, but when required, furnished the commander-in-chief and commandant with his accounts." "

inform us. The editor, whoever he was, tells us that he met with the work, by mere accident, "at a bookseller's shop in London ;" that "he [the author] was so much esteemed as to have passed a second edition," &c. The editor appears to have been a person of learning, and though his notes do not run much in the historical or antiquarian line, they are yet judicious, and to this day of considerable value. He tells us nothing about William Wood, the author, nor has anybody else since told us much,

*Order of General Robertson, Sept. 9, 1780. Order of Gen. Birch, May 28, 1781. "Case of Butler," Tomlinson Papers, Mercantile Library Association.

QUERIES.

B.

or something strong? Whence do we de rive the name of our river and city?

CHICAGO.

66

R.

[The name of the "Garden City" is not, as has been represented by various writers, derived from the Indian word "Checaque," meaning leeks or wild onions, which formerly grew profusely in this vicinity; nor is it derived from "Checague," the Indian name for skunk or polecat, but from " Checaqua," a name borne by a long line of chiefs of the Tamaroas, the principal tribe of the Illinois Indians, and signifying strong, mighty, powerful; appellations which the wonderful growth of Chicago in wealth, population, and commercial importance richly entitles her to.]

We fear not. No authorities are cited, and all that we know militate against it. In Chippewa, the skunk is jikag, as spelt by Baraga, in his dictionary, where he expressly says that the name of Chicago is derived from it. Garlic is Jigagawani. In a splendid old manuscript, belonging to a gentleman in Brooklyn, N. Y., and containing a very full Illinois dictionary, skunk, is tchicacso; garlic, Sanississia; though chicacso, is given as an improper word for it.

If we might conjecture, the name Chicago might come from Chigaakwa, or Jigaakwa, the woods are thin; but as Indian tradition, the source of Baraga's information, gives the derivation from chica80, which means primarily skunk, and secondarily garlic, it would seem to be most likely. The assertion that it is derived from the chief, Chicago, needs proof. Marquette, La Salle, and his companions, mention the river Chicago under the names, Checagou, Chicagou; but during all that time there is no allusion to any chief of the Tamaroas by name Chi

EUNOMUS. The question, perhaps, does not fall precisely within the Scope of Our American "N. & Q." But, if it can be crowded into some corner, I would like to ask, Who was the author of "Eunomus; or, Dialogues concerning the Law and Con-cago, and the Tamaroas dwelt at a distance stitution of England?"

J.

THE MEANING OF CHICAGO.-The following query and its reply appeared in the National Banner, Chicago.. Can the position of its editor be sustained?

What is the signification of the name Chicago? Is it true that it means" skunk,"

from Chicago. At a subsequent date, and after the commencement of the 18th century, Chicago (not Checaqua), an Illinois chief, went to France, and the name then first appears as the name of a chief.

The next assertion, that in Illinois Chicago means strong, mighty, powerful, is unsupported by the Illinois dictionary, which gives; powerful, metchikirso; I am strong, nichin chirase; I am great, mechasi.

It seems, therefore, necessary to prove: fixes the date of the invention about 1713, 1st, that there were chiefs of the name Chi- which agrees with Hutchinson's statement cago, prior to 1673; 2d, that the Tamaroas in his "History of Massachusetts." The resided at Chicago; 3d, that it means earliest use of the name that he finds, is 1716, strong, great, powerful. when a new "scooner" belonging to Gloucester, is mentioned on the records as being cast away at the Isle of Sables.

It should not be omitted that Le Clercq mentions the Chicago as the Divine river. Whether this epithet was intended as an interpretation of the name, does not appear.

REPLIES.

J. G. S.

SCHOONERS (vol. vi., pp. 195, 227).-Precisely the same statement as to the origin of schooners and the naming of them, as is contained in Babson's "History of Gloucester," to which you have been referred, was made to me by the late Col. Timothy Pickering, of Salem; whose authority, if it stood alone, would be perfectly satisfactory.

S. S.

ANOTHER REPLY.-Dr. Moses Prince, brother of Rev. Thomas Prince, the annalist of New England, writing in Gloucester, Mass., Sept. 25, 1721, says: "Went to see Capt. Robinson's lady, &c. This gentleman was first contriver of schooners, and built the first of the sort about eight years since; and the use now made of them, being so much known, has convinced the world of their conveniency beyond other vessels, and shows how mankind is obliged to this gentleman for this knowledge."

The schooner was selected as the device for one denomination of the Massachusetts' stamps, under the act of 1755-the cod, the "staple of Massachusetts," and the pinetree, being devices for others.-See "N. E. Hist. and Gen. Reg.," vol. xiv., p. 267.

J. D.

THE HEAVIEST BATTALIONS (vol. v., p. 350; vol. vi., p. 164).--At page 196, June No., 1862, you allude to the proverbial expression, "God favors the heaviest battalions," and attribute it to Voltaire. It was neither his nor French, but was attributed by Harte in his "Life of Gustavus Adolphus," published in 1759, or rather his "Essay on the Military State of Europe" at the period of the second decade-say 1532-of the Thirty Years' War, to Wallenstein. The whole sentence is so militarily instructive, we quote at length:

"It was a saying of Gustavus (Adolphus the Great), that he never desired to place himself at the head of more than forty thousand men; paying no regard to a military maxim equally profane and foolish, namely, that the Supreme Being always favors the greater squadrons; that a larger number of troops was only matter of parade The above extract is from Babson's "His- and incumbrance, inasmuch as no general tory of Gloucester," p. 252, where a very could compel him in the aforementioned full account of the origin of the schooner is circumstances to accept a battle except he given. Mr. Babson, in March, 1859, read chose it, while in the interim he could dissome extracts from his history, then in press, pose of superfluous forces to better advanincluding the portion relating to the schoon-tage elsewhere. Concurrently with what er, before the N. E. Hist.-Gen. Society. is here asserted, it was the opinion both of (See Hist. Mag., vol. iv., p. 108.) The Duke d'Alva and Turenne that no army name is said to have originated in this way, As the first vessel of this kind built was going off the stocks, a bystander cried out, "Oh, how she scoons!" Capt. Andrew Robinson, the inventor, replied, "A scooner let her be." It is probably from scon, a Scotch word, signifying to skip like a stone on the surface of the water. Mr. Babson

ought to consist of more than fifty thousand men; and the former used always to say, that veteran troops were the bone and muscle of the military body, and that newraised recruits only filled up the interstices with shape and plumpness."

ANCHOR.