"Hunc over de" clubs, NY 1736?

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>What can this learned list tell me about the "hunc over de" club of
>New York in the 1730s, and especially about the name?

I don't know nothing about the club, but I can make a guess about the name.

"Hunc Over De" = Spanish "junco verde" (= "green
reed/rush"), rewritten as bogus [I think] Latin,
with "j" replaced by "h" which expresses the
Spanish pronunciation ("j" = /h/ or close enough).

"Junco verde" is apparently from Columbus's log:
the green rush/reed was apparently one of the
first things observed to indicate that the
expedition was nearing the land of the New World.

 From a Web site ... http://www.mgar.net/docs/colon2.htm ...

<<Fragmento del diario de navegación de Cristóbal
Colón Jueves 11 de octubre de 1492: / Navegó al
Ouestesudeste. Tuvieron mucha mar, y más que en
todo el viaje habían tenido. Vieron pardelas y un
junco verde junto a la nao. Vieron los de la
carabela Pinta una caña y un palo y tomaron otro
palillo labrado, a lo que parecía, con hierro, y
un pedazo de caña y otra hierba que nace en
tierra, y una tablilla. Los de la carabela Niña
también vieron otras señales de tierra y un
palillo cargado de escaramojos. Con estas señales
respiraron y alegráronse todos. Anduvieron en
este día, hasta puesto el sol, veintisiete leguas.>>

There are on-line English versions, I think.

The "junco verde"/"green rush"/"green reed" is
mentioned in histories and even poems. E.g.: from Google Books:

Juan Bautista Muñoz, _Historia del nuevo-mundo_
(1793), p. 80: <<En la tarde del 11 se animaron y
alegraron todos al ver un junco verde, un pez de
los que se crian entre rocas, una tablilla , una
caña, un baston con ciertas labores prolijas, ....>>

Alfred Coester, _The Literary History of Spanish
America_ (1916),  p. 435: <<_El Junco verde_
[poem by J. J. Pérez (1845-1900)] relates the
impression which was produced on Columbus and his
crew by the sight of a green reed, the first sign of land.>>

I suppose the meaning of the club name might have
been "Attainment of the New World" or something like that.

Alternatively perhaps there was a game named
after Columbus's reed, with the club named after the game.

I don't know whether there is some other meaning
(a double-entendre) in the club name.

Pretty obscure: I suppose it was meant to be so.

Or am I out in left field again?

-- Doug Wilson


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